Drinking Oxygen

This has been a good week.

It is great that we are able to work out in the mornings because I feel a lot fitter and more healthier now. Because I have lived in Colorado and Utah for about 4 years my lungs have adjusted to get as much oxygen out of the air as possible. What a great asset! As a missionary it feels like you are exercising all the time! (apart from when you are in a car area) and it has been great! After we cycle up a hill, it just takes me a few minutes to be able to breathe normal again, while it should normally take longer. It feels like I am drinking Oxygen! I really hope this will be the case throughout the next 2 years!

Monday we were able to have lunch with members, the Forsyth family, and another family was there and their names are the Sylvesters. We were able to share a message for the Family Home Evening night and it was a lot of fun!  We have been trying to talk to EVERYONE we see, and because of that we have been able to talk to 118 people this week! We call this an Open Your Mouth. We have also been teaching the members how to OYM. We also plan on role playing with them.

 

We had an exchange this week. We thought that I was going to go to the Zone leaders area but when they got here we figured out that I was leading my own area! Lol! So I unpacked and Elder Brown packed in a few minutes. (The zone leaders are the leaders over the district leaders and they have other responsibilities)  This was my second time leading the area and it was a lot of fun. I am able to learn and remember more about the area when I lead so it is good practice. The zone leader who I was on exchanges with is called Elder Hill. He is from Utah and he is super tall! (As you can see in the picture.)

The members here are super nice and feed us well! We eat so much food! I learn so much from exchanges and it is really a neat experience to be with another Elder for a day to learn how to be a better missionary.

We have also been teaching a young man whose name is Holland! We were able to have a member come with us to teach him one of the discussions this week. It was a really good lesson. I enjoy teaching lessons because there is just such power that comes when you teach them what they need to hear.

Because my companion, Elder Brown, is a district leader I get to attend all the meetings he needs to go to. So on Saturday we had a zone leadership council where I was able to learn a lot of things. They taught us about OYMs and that when we speak, angels will bear us up. To show us, they got two elders to do a trust fall. The first time the elder standing on a chair wasn't supposed to fall back, but when we got 6 elders to catch him, he was able to more fully trust in falling back. And that is what it is like when we Open our Mouth, that angels will bear us up, so we can trust God and open our mouths, even when we are scared.

A few weeks ago or so I stopped writing in how many days I had been out in my journal. I leave a one inch space at the beginning of each day so that I can write in the days later. I stopped at day 70. It was pretty hard for me to stop writing in the days because I like to keep track. However, since then all the days are blending in together and time is going by faster now. I also think it is going faster because I am more adjusted to missionary life. Some days do feel like weeks though! Everything is going well. I am changing a lot and it feels great! I am starting to feel a love for the people here... well ever since I got here, but even more so now and that is amazing. Being a representative of Jesus Christ is a massive blessing.

I know that this Church has the fullness of the Gospel and that it has been restored again to the earth. I know the things that I teach to people are the truth and I know it by the power of the Holy Ghost.

I love you all,

Elder Kloosterboer!

Zone Conference

Good morning everyone!

Last Monday we played Ultimate frisbee with the zone and it was a lot of fun! It was nice because I was able to get into some normal clothes! After the activity I took a picture in the car since everyone already left. It is getting hotter here and feels like summer but I really hope to go to San Francisco in the summer as it is nice and cool there.

We had a zone conference on Wednesday. It started at 9:00 and went all the way to about 4:00. We had a lot of training about how to use the Area book better and how to work with members better. You can see me carrying the Area book in my hands in one of the pictures. This book contains most the records of the people whom we have taught and so forth. It was a long day with a lot of information to take in. We have been able to use this training and have found it very useful. Elder Brown says that he likes this way a lot better. (We were basically told to follow Preach My Gospel, and not to use our own systems) So I am looking forward to this week because we have planned to visit a lot of people.

After the zone conference we started exchanges at about 8:30. I stayed in our area and elder Fonua came. An exchange lasts 24 hours so that we can learn as much as possible from each other. In the morning we went to a private gym, Elder Fonua is pretty strong and so it motivated me to do even more... I felt sore the whole day! We went tracting for a bit and we were able to find some people who we plan to teach soon. We had a good day together and I found it a lot of fun! We were going to teach some members a lesson but because of time we decided to share a spiritual thought and it went really good.

On Friday we taught a lesson to a young man called Holland. We met him on the Iron Horse Trail. He was walking with his girlfriend and they had music playing. At first I didn't think either of us were going to talk to them, but we decided to talk to them anyway. We talked for 15 minutes and finally we taught him the first lesson about the Restoration of the Gospel. He even brought a friend! It was a good lesson and they both asked super good questions. On Sunday we were able to find out if any of the young men knew him and they do! Super exciting!

We also gave out some water on Saturday and we over achieved our daily goal to talk to 20 people! We ran out of water and had a few good conversations. It is good to be able to do some service. We plan on doing it more often.

We have a FHE tonight (Monday) and we are teaching another lesson too. So 2 lessons to members tonight, It should be fun because we also started making a skeleton lesson plan.

Well that is this week in a blog. Taking pictures is difficult since I am only supposed to take them at certain times.

It is super great to be a missionary! Though it is tough at times! I am glad that I have had the experiences in life that i have had as it really helps me teach in lessons to be able to bear testimony of the truths that we teach.

Here is also a photo of me at zone conference with Elder Fa'alavelave who was in the MTC with me too :)

I love you all!

A New Tyre (Tire for the people in the US....)

This is my blog. Don't look at the spelling ;-) (although it should be ok as my mum has checked through it...)

 

This has been a good week. A week ago, some members took us to Costco so that we could buy cheaper food. At the check out they also bought us this huge pizza and like a dozen croissants! They were super good and I ate every single one of them, since my companion didn't like them. We also had the opportunity to teach a small FHE lesson to the Blotters. We ate so much ice cream and oreo cake at the end! I want to see how much weight I have gained! Though I am pretty sure it is all burned off through biking.

 

On Wednesday we started our very first scripture study class! It was fun and we were able to teach a lesson since only 2 people showed up and they were investigators :-) This week, mutual is on at the same time though so hopefully parents will stay and join us.

 

On Saturday (mum wonders if that should be Sunday...) we were asked to substitute for primary in sharing time! We were asked to teach the primary (ages 3-11) about repentance. We taught them the ABCD's. A:Acknowelge, B:be Sorry, C: Confess, and D:don't do it again. It was interesting as this was my first time in primary in a lot of years! I forgot that not many children pay attention. It was funny though because I asked the older children what they thought missionaries did and they started telling us that we ride bikes and come to their house for dinner to eat tacos! haha. :-)

 

As you can see on the pictures, my hands got a bit dirty. This week after we got home I told my companion, Elder Brown, that I was excited to put on my new tyre and that I wanted to do it on P-day. He suggested that I could put it on then since we were waiting for dinner to be delivered. So I went to work. Everything was going well until I noticed that the inner tube was way too thick! After a few hours, we tried to put the other tyre back on only to see that somehow it was now leaking! Man! So we went to the store and bought a few new inner tubes and were then able to successfully change my back tyre. It was well worth it as I could feel a massive increase in speed!

 

We are still trying to talk to 20 people a day and I find it fun. We are having way longer conversations with people and are starting to see some of the same people. On Saturday we were heading home after walking on the Iron Horse Trail for 2 hours when we saw a man and so we walked and talked with him for about 30 minutes! After we got back I saw that my face was a bit red and so I do have a tiny sun burn now! We were able to talk to 20 people that day and I felt great that we were able to reach our goal. We talked to a total of 61 people this week! 

 

Being a missionary is interesting! You feel like you accomplish so much in a day! I am not sure if I mentioned this before but our ward mission leader came up with a plan to get more refferals. This plan is for us to get addresses for every neighbour of a member's home. After we get addresses, the ward mission leader then reverse looks them up and gives us the names of the people who live there. After we have done that, we have gone to the member's home and asked them what we should know about their neighbours since we will visit them. So the last couple of weeks we have been doing that and yesterday as we were contacting one of these fake referrals we nearly got someone to accept us to come back! When he accepted our invitation to learn more I felt super excited! But then he said no :-( Well we bore testimony and then left.

 

I am excited for this week as we have a whole day zone conference on Wednesday where three zones meet.

 

Everything is going well and I am learning a lot of new things. This gospel is true.

 

Love, Elder Kloosterboer

Service is the Best!

Good morning!

 

We have had a good week. We have wanted to start a scripture study class for the last few weeks but we kept on forgetting to announce it. So on Friday we thought we would ask to put an announcement in the sacrament meeting program. It was really good, because the bishop announced it during sacrament meeting and it was also announced during priesthood and now the whole ward knows about it. The class will simply be once a week where we read and discuss scriptures. It is one way we are trying to find new investigators.

 

This week we have been trying to teach more and more members the lessons so that we can get practice and so that members are able to trust us more. It has been fun and I have learnt a lot from them. We even extend invitations to the members.  It is fun and rewarding.

 

Service is the best! A few non-members just moved into a nearby ward and we helped them move a bunch of oak furniture upstairs, it was hard work but super fun! I have been able to see the results of working out each morning and what a blessing it is to be able to do that.  In the picture you can see my companion, Elder Brown, and myself. The other two elders are new to the area and are working super hard! I know one of them has been out a year.

 

A member also offered to buy us some lights for our bikes as my lights just died! How cool is that! They aren't even part of our ward but had seen us riding our bikes in the dark and could hardly see us so they told the sister missionaries to text us that they would buy us some lights!

 

We were able to talk to 26 people this week. It was on the Iron Horse Trail that we saw a young man called Christian! We started talking to him and I brought up the social aspect of the church. Out of the blue, 3 different people running the opposite way said, "Hello Elders!" What a miracle! I think it made a big impact on him!

 

We also had another few miracles happen this week. A referral called us this week and said he was free all day, and that he wanted us to come by to teach him! We went. His name is Jay and I forgot the name of his girlfriend. They are living in a hotel right now and it's a very long interesting story. He has been investigating the church for 10 years now and he wants to be baptized! The reason why Jay started to investigate the church is because of his best friend who lives in Colorado. They have both had rough lives and Jay has been able to see the impact the church has had on his best friend. We were able to get to know them more and have decided to try to visit them each day :-) They both have very cool stories and they know that they are here for something.

 

I also thought I would organize my desk and it feels so much better to have a clean organized desk. I also made a scripture study binder and I have also organized that with tabs and three different indexes at the back. One of the indexes is about topics. Another index is for important scripture references and another tab is where pages go according to what it is about. Like tab #3 is all about chapter 3 in Preach My Gospel. I love being organized!

 

I know God loves us all, no matter what we have done! I know this church is true!