God is in Charge

Well everyone,
But hey, I wanna tell a few things that have happened here.
Did I mention that Ivo proposed to Rowena a little while ago? They´re gonna be married in the temple in a year :)
Also, we´re getting a mini missionary for 1 week (last name is Akash). He´s a member from a nearby ward (a convert of a few years). He´s planning on serving a mission in January, but he wants to do this mini mission to see kinda what it´s like. 
    He´s gonna be companion to Elder Sosa, although we´ll work with him too. He´ll be here til Sunday. :) Something different. Should be cool. Gonna be insanely cramped now in the apartment heheh awesome.....

This week we had a meeting with ]Judith. We went with a sister from the ward, which turned out to be exactly what was needed....
When we started talking she told us what she had just found out. That she has cancer, in stage 3 (out of 5)... ... She is taking it very well. She wants to fight it, and she’s waiting now to find out more info from the doctor. ...
     We talked to her about her testimony, and she told us all about how she came to know things in the gospel were true, how she had felt the spirit throughout the time she had been investigating. The Sprit there was strong as we asked her about what she wanted to do with that knowledge. She told us that she wants to be baptized, but that she just needs some more time, to prepare....
       
         I am so often baffled at how the Lord chooses to prepare his children. Judith is one of the most spiritual persons i know. She is kind and honest, and she wants to improve her life, and do God´s will. I wonder why God challenges her with something so great. But what I do know, and what i testified to her, was that even though often we don´t know where the ship is heading, we can be comforted when we realize that He is at the wheel, and he is steering us to the place we most need to be.
                                                   The same is true for all of us. God knows where He´s taking us. This is His plan. He knows us and what course we need to take to be prepared to meet Him again. All of you, I hope that when things your going through are hurting you, that you can pray to Him. He may not always give you all the answers, but he will comfort you and give you peace you need to go on. I testify of that.
I love you all. Hope you know that my mission is amazing. I love it.
I wish you guys a great week,
Elder Chantry

Short but Sweet

So a few cool things about those we’re teaching.

Rowena who was baptized is doing great. Ivo proposed to her the other day and they're gonna be married legally on December 31st :) (Here temple marriage isn't 'legal' so you have to do it by the city too).. Then in a year from now they'll marry in the temple.

She actually had us meet with a friend of hers who had a few questions about the church. We met with the friend (whose name happens to be Anna Marie) and her boyfriend and they both said they would read the book of Mormon and they want to meet again this week to talk about the plan of salvation :)...

Needless to say we are overjoyed. Another member of the church had us meet with a friend of his named Peter and he is gonna meet with us again too. He has interest and we'll see where it goes :)

So cool to have more people to teach. But more cool that they know members and that gives us a better face then just boring old missionaries coming every week. It works a heck better.

Judith is doing super great. She came to church yesterday. Arjan and Dominique are the same... but we meet again Friday, so we'll see....

I gotta run. We’re gonna play soccer with the other Elder's. But of course it's raining. Like it's been doing almost every other day for the past few weeks. And apparently will be doing for awhile still...heheh joy..

met grote liefde,
Elder Chantry

Why We Are on Earth

Weekly message (mostly consisiting of pics and smiley faces)

District at the Beach

 Happy :) that´s one of the most important things in the world. Literally. We´re on earth for two reasons. 

1: To prove that we will follow God

2: To have joy. "Adam fell that men might be and..." Clara, em, you know right? ;

Anyways. I’m glad. I’m gonna send some pics. cool ones. (hopefully) I hope your mother’s day was awesome mothers. 

love you guys

take care

tot later!

Working With 3

So guess what?
Actually I don´t know
but what I do know is that Rowena was baptized by her bf, Ivo, yesterday. And the kingdom has grown here in Breda :).
It was a really good service =) and here mom came and one of her friends as well... her mom wasn´t sure if she wanted to meet with us, but she gave us a definite maybe heh. We have faith when she sees what it´s doing for her daughter she´ll want to :)...
            And Judith came to the baptism as well. She really liked it (she´s one of our investigators in case you forgot) (or incase I didn´t tell you)
We´ve been having fun with three people here :) . It´s actually gone way smoother than I thought it would. The only real awkward thing was last night when we were going back from some members house and elder Wayman´s chain broke clean off, falling on the ground like an unloved greasy snake heheh. We laughed the whole way back to the member’s house where we stowed the bikes and caught a bus back to the appartment. 
Unfortunately when they sent us a third guy they didn´t send another shower with him. Or an extra fridge. Or another computer to do email´s on so that one of us doesn´t have to wait ; heheh or another bed. Although we did some scrounging from members and got another bed frame. Elder Sosa just had to give up the second mattress he was sleeping on. heh boohoo for him ; 
We taught a couple pretty good lessons together already. We´re working on teaching better together, and trying to get to know each other more. It´s for sure different. But I like it. 
This Tuesday we were by the beach (sort of more of a bay) for dm. and we took some cool pics :).....and this Saturday there was like this Bevrijdings dag dinges. (Note: that means Liberation Day thingy) Like memorial day for the Dutch. Really kinda cool different organizations from the city layed flowers to remember the dead. And some of the youth layed some for our Church :)

I´m gonna go quick today. We got a third guy chillin waitin here heheh..

Elder Chantry

The Netherlands

So, owing to the many questions and repeated inquiries posed by many various parties concerning the nature and specific happenings of this fine mission, I have taken it upon my humble (and exceptionally capable) self to condescend to your level and indulge your eager minds with the glorious details of this magnificent portion of the Lord's vineyard:

(Well, enough of that;)

I’m gonna start with what the Netherlands is like. First off, "Holland" is a province within the Netherlands (although the whole country is sometimes called Holland just cause people decided they would say that). The Province is (if you wanna pull out the map on google at this point) is kinda the arm part of the Netherlands, that sticks out (but if you google it i think you can get a better map)
Even though the country is super small there's a lot of people here and the language accent varies quite greatly. In many areas there are even other dialects that we as missionaries can't even understand (but we don't have to speak it cause like all those people speak Dutch as well) ...........

The church is actually pretty small here. There are three stakes in Nederland (Den Haag, Appeldoorn, Rotterdam) and one that is the south part of Nederland and the north part of Belgium combined (Antwerpen) That's where I am now, in that stake. 

The ward I’m in now is actually one of the biggest. There were about 100 people there Sunday. There are lots of branches in this country 15-40 people in a branch is pretty normal. But things have been growing lately....

Here in Breda we had been taking the bus a lot to work, but we fixed Elder Sosa's bike so now we've been biking. It's pretty big city, but manageable. I can't say I know it really super well. But I know the bus routes and we have maps on the phone and I could get around when I need to. (hopefully)

Recent news. We just got today. Elder Sosa and I are staying here for another transfer (YEah!!) But, we're getting another elder. Elder Wayman. We're gonna be in a 3some now. (heheh)...so we'll have to see how things go. gonna make things kinda crowded, but I bet some good stuff comes out of it. We’ll see............

               Elder Sosa and I have been doing great together. Rowena is getting baptized this coming Sunday (:D) and the ward is happy to have her. Thank you all for your prayers for her, and for the others we're teaching. We'll still going with them (last Monday our investigator named Judith decided to stop smoking :) so were gonna follow up with that and see how it goes:)
We also found a Chinese student this last Saturday so we're trying to teach him as well......things are good here :)

ok. Ik moet toch wel weg. maar, ik wens jullie een vijne week and sucess met alle de noodzakelijke dingen (maar meer de leuke lekker dingen ;) 

Love
Elder Chantry

Land of the Tulips

Vandaag zal ik iets slimmer doen. Ik ga de brief eerst schrijven en daarna ga ik lekker emails lezen. time efficient denk ik.....:)

Well, 

The weather here is getting warmer (gellukig). You asked in a letter mom about the difference in weather here and Almere. It´s a little less windy here (volgens mij) not as close to open water. ....

We don´t have to wear our suit coats now :) so I went a couple times in just a long sleeve white shirt. I stand out soo bad heheh Like a bumblebee in your sock ......

We got to go to the temple Wednesday. really cool. And they did it in Dutch. It actually wasn´t that tough. I did about as good as I do in English heheh :) which, you know, is a definite average......
              Pretty temple, and you know what else was pretty? Keukenhof. We went to this like big garden area and they had like TONS of flowers really intense and pretty like. ANd other cool landscaping and verschillende dingen..... I got some cool pictures and i got to see ELders King, Muse, ANd sister Juchau from the mtc. And also Elder Pimentel :). 

Rowena is still on track to be baptized. She never like has any problems. She´s completely ready. It´s really a blessing to be able to help teach her.............You guys wanna hear somthin? Well you get to. Rowena´s boyfriend was introduced to the missionaries by a friend he had online who was a member....he was baptized and then now recently he invited his girlfriend to be taught. and she´s gonna be baptized. THen, she told us that her mom was coming to her baptism and she´s already given her mom different books from the church.... And with the Lord´s help we´ll be able to teach her as well. ....
         My point? All of this came about because one member introduced her friend to the church. Just a friendly invitation, that came about naturally cause the church was a part of her life.
                             Ideally missionary work for us would be just teaching. We only tract when we don´t have someone to teach. If the members are always open to invite. If they live in such a way that the gospel is part of their life, so that it doesn´t have to be awkwardly brought up out of no where. Then the work really will progress. And the missionaries will be able to teach these people soo much better because they will have more experience teaching. 

Maybe I’m lecturing a little (just a little;). This gospel is destined to fill the earth. I feel so much better when I know that I’m able to be a part of spreading it. 

I´m gonna send some pics. I can´t believe that next Monday we hear about transfers. Insanely fast. April´s already over half dead. man...
Love you guys. Thanks for all your letters and love.... 

love you guys,
Elder Chantry
(de gene die helemaal blij is)
(en de beste familie heeft)

Keukenhof

Stuff I Do

I’m sending this letter before i read anything, and it's just gonna be about stuff that t I did. 

cool things first:

This week we get to go to the temple! We have temple conference two times a year. They’re always around gen conf. After the temple we get to go to Keukenhof which is a city that has a lot of the flowers that you guys always hear about. Hopefully it doesn’t rain and there’s lot s of flowers this early in the season. Wednesday is when we go. 

Another cool thing. Rowena (the one who's gonna be baptized) bore her testimony in church yesterday (fast Sunday for us). And she’s completely prepared. She never has a problem. Like, we taught the Word of wisdom and she was totally willing to live it. She had recently already given up smoking and drinking and she said she would give up coffee too. We hardly had to do anything. 
We also began teaching the nonmember wife of a less active man who wants to be back in the church. And we had Amazing lessons with this lady Judith and this guy Wilko. Both of em have been investigators for awhile but they're really making progress lately. The Bishop and his counselors went on splits with us last week and we both had awesome lessons. The work here is going great :D   (if i do say so my cute little self)

I love you guys a ton, and i hope it warms up for you all.it was cold and cloudy this last week then Yesterday it was 20 celsius. (like 60 farenheit)          -- :)----       the weather here changes so ridiculously fast heheheh

Fun stuff. 
Take care guys tot volgende week!