Where Faith Comes In...

Elder T. has accepted his fate now. It’s over for him. He's taking it like a man though.
My new companion will be elder P., very Dutch name, but definitely from the states. He's been zone leader in Eindhoven for a little while now, so it should be fun.

Btw, as of now, the Netherlands had the most Olympic medals. Just thought I'd throw that out there. When it comes to skating, noone is better than nederlanders :)

We had a pretty good week.

There is NOTHING that will keep someone in this church, permanently, other than the Holy Ghost. Everything else fades with time. Or can be challenged. But the feeling that you feel from the spirit can't be denied. Why? Because He brings back what we used to know, before the veil. He gives us little glimpses of that life before. And back then, we knew Christ, and we loved Him, and the plan.

That we cannot deny because it was who we were. Our test here is to come to that same conclusion. Without ever being able to confirm things for 100 percent. That's where faith comes in...

I love you all. This work is a great thing. It changes you every step of the way. Piece by piece...

Elder Chantry  

One Week...

This week had a few things of note.

We went to a fireside, where the priesthood leaders for the stake and Pres. and Sis. Robinson came and also another stake pres. from 'Den haag, came and taught about the media strategies that the church wants to use here in Nederland. We're helping people make mormon.org profiles and to comment, like and share church websites etc online. That's something that people here haven't really done, and that if they do do it then it brings referrals to us like crazy. They did it in one branch and they get 40 some referrals a month from it.

Idk if they have something similar back home, but it really will work. So you all should do it! Most of you probably have, but it's a really easy way to share what you believe, by making a profile and sharing quotes, videos, and pics from the church online. .. So whenever you go on to do whatever, try to do something to help get the name of the church out there... IT's a real way we can take the name of Christ upon ourselves...
 
We have a busy last week of this transfer planned. Transfer calls is this weekend, zone conference on Wednesday, and exchanges, and many other things. Elder T. is finishing strong. He said to Elder W. (who is in his 4th transfer) 'Lets put it this way, I have less days then you have months" :) heheh nice

I'm gonna go. I love you all! Figures you get snow there. We've had warm weather. I rarely even need a coat :) (wel een trouw, maar verder niet zo veel)

Elder Chantry!
(met veel liefde natuurlijk)

Windmill Week

So the week was well. No complaints.

We found cool men while knocking doors. Gonna go back to em.

We are working still with less actives and have found several more investigators as well.

We got to smash out some walls at a member house, and work there on things for the afternoon. Felt good to work. I know, weird I said that. True though. Elder K. came for the day cause Elder T. had to go for legality stuff that day, and so did K.'s companion. So that was unexpected. He's doing good. Funny to reminisce with him...

Elder T. will go home at the same time as transfers. That is the 19th of February. He stays at the mission home a day then leaves the next.
  
I'm gonna send some pics. . . We went to Kinderdijk, which is an area, east side of Rotterdam with tons of windmills. Went there with part of the zone and took great pics. Ate apel flops daarna. Really nasty weather that day but that made it kinda fun..


Great day :D

Elder Chantry

The DC4-Reaper Has Landed!

Well,
The training went well. I enjoyed it. I think they got the message too. Elder T. and I made space helmets. Out of tinfoil and coat hangers. I was pleased :)..... as far as decorations that was all, but we did make videos that were played throughout the training. The idea with that was to keep it interesting. The main part was the workshops. My companion our sister training leader and I each did a section. We split the zone into 3 groups and had them move every thirty minutes. It was cool cause we based it off of one of president’s trainings from a while back that we felt they needed. There were six points to it so we each did 2. I talked about setting spiritual goals and staying on purpose to find teach and baptize. . Cool thing was we never told them that's what we were doing. We just taught the points and at the end we gave them time to write down their ideas and plans at the end....
Anyways, it went well. The zone really liked it, and from what I’ve heard I think it taught the desired message.....

As zone leaders we for sure still have time to teach people and go finding and everything. There's just more time than usual spent on random stuff. For example, after the training on Wednesday, we cleaned up, and then we had to drive to the mission office in Leiden to get a key for some elders who had locked themselves out of their place. Then we came back and taught a lesson to a less active mom who wants to start coming back. Then we drove to the elder’s city and gave them the key.. . just random......

For example, we went on two exchanges this week, and while I was gone Elder T. got let in to a potential investigator’s house. They taught her the first lesson and set a baptism date with her for March and set weekly appointments. Really cool! We’ve been really trying to pick the work up in this area. And it's coming around. Another mother and her two daughters we're teaching are also reading in the Book of Mormon, and are making progress again. :) So it's working.

Love you guys!
ELder Chantry

Zone Space Training

Dinges...and Zone Training

This Wednesday is our training for the zone. President will be there with his wife to watch. A little pressure. But not much.
I hope it goes well. Were' trying to combine a well tailored training for what they need, with fun and exciting. Hence our theme is space travel. And we're going to go on a space odyssey in the middle of our training. Complete with homemade videos, the meeting should be wonderful :)....

Here's something we've been doing this week. I wrote this to president, but I thought I’d include it here....

 We've been applying the idea of Elder P. and I. to set spiritual goals for the day's work. We've been doing it our selves, and having our district leaders assign different goal ideas for companionships and then following up at the end of the day to see if they were successful. We've seen miracles from it all ready. More than that though, I've seen that it helps give a solid focus through out the day and gives finding and other activities more of a purpose. Time goes quick as opposed to trying to kill time.
  
Rotterdam is a big city. There’s two wards in it. One for north, and ours in south. The church came originally in 1800's but many people moved to Utah. It built back up through the 1900's, but it kinda shrunk again in the 80's 90's etc. We’re building it again. :)

It's fairly different then België. Although not too much so. Hard to explain. (btw, the tunnel type building from the picture, I think that will just be appartment complex. they go all out sometimes)
  
I think I go now. Tot volgende week. Trouwens, ik bid voor jullie. I love you all

Elder Chantry

A Photographic Post

All the information included as captions come from Elder Chantry's email. Enjoy!

Same view as below but on New Year's Eve with the fireworks.

View of the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam North. 

Feeding the birds. If no other animal they have birds in the Netherlands!

Give it up for another Elder Chantry pose in North Rotterdam.

Example of some great graffiti they have like art there.
 

Panorama photo of a church in Dordrecht.

These figures represent people walking at sea level as opposed to the level of Rotterdam. 

Elder Chantry on a bridge.

North Rotterdam. People live in the buildings on the right.

Typical "Dutch" or Rotterdam picture with boats, bikes and canal.

Replica of Noah's Ark.
Do you see the giraffes?

Short and Sweet

Anyways....
New years was crazy again. SOO many fire works. And when 12am oclock strikes it just explodes. I'm so proud of everyone here. They welcome the new year with style and pride :)

What else?
Transfer news. I’m staying, and with Elder T. So he shall finish with me, poor man.
But it’ll be great. We have a zone training this month, where we give the teaching. So I’m looking forward to that.. In the Rotterdam district every single companionship is staying the same. Weird huh? And the other district in our zone is getting a few transfers. On Wednesday we have to go to the train station and help all the different missionaries getting transferred get on the right trains with temporary companions etc ... just organizing stuff...

Went on two exchanges this week. Really cool. Got to teach a lesson on a big cargo boat. Proud of that. (I use teach liberally. it was in Spanish. I was with an elder who speaks Spanish, I said like 5 things. but it helped a little I think :)
  
Elder Chantry

Happy new year!!!!