Sick

Transfer Day at the Mission Home

New Apartment and Companion

This week we moved into a new apartment and we were given a car! On Tuesday May 20th Elder Ah Mu and I drove to the mission home in Oakland for transfer day. There I met my new companion, Elder Rowley! He is from Virgina and he has been serving for 7 months now. 

We are supposed to be a bike/car area but we don't have a bike rack yet and so we have been driving a lot. Driving is fun and also faster than bike. Because of that we have had the opportunity to visit a lot of potential investigators and former investigators who once investigated the church. It is fun, and I hope that we can get back on bike soon! Our new apartment is at the top of a hill and so it is super nice to see all the scenery around! This transfer we are going to get a lot of work done!

I woke up, the latest time on my mission so far, this week at about 8:00AM one morning. I was feeling sick :-(  I had a cold or something that I am nearly over with so I am happy about that. Even though I was feeling sick we still went out there because we could :-) 

After Killing a Kitchen

We shared a video about the Plan of Salvation with the Higbees on their smart TV this past week. I love being able to use videos on the mission, it helps a lot and brings peace. It is also nice to teach members as they always teach you something that will help us be more powerful teachers of the restored gospel.

We are starting to do more service so this week we had fun tearing down a kitchen at the Fossins home :-) Man! it was a lot of fun! We took everything out of the kitchen since they are remodeling it. We have a few planned service projects set up where we can give service each week. We plan on helping the Library by walking around as security and we also will be helping out at a senior health care home each week. I think that will be great! 

We went to visit a Less Active on Sunday and I took a picture of this car number plate, and then we found out that it was his lol!

That is it for this week! I want to say thank you to everyone who supports me while being out here. Do what is right!

I love being a missionary, I feel an excitement as a missionary and I love sharing the restored gospel with all who will hear! 

Love, Elder Kloosterboer

A New Apartment

We got our transfer calls on Saturday evening, May 17th!  (Every 6 weeks, which is a transfer, we get a call telling us if we are getting moved around in the mission or if any changes will be made.) So what is happening to me? I will write it down in a minute! 

 On Thursday we did some service as a district at a woman's house! She is originally from Italy and she still has an accent! (A district is made up of a few companionships of missionaries.) We did some yard work and we pruned a lot of trees! I loved it and it was a perfect temperature. I am glad I didn't get sunburnt!

All my cds for on my mission

On our way home on our bikes on Friday, hehe, Elder Ah Mu ran into a bush because he was going too fast! I made sure he was okay and he was... I couldn't stop laughing for ages! hahaha.

 However, his bike is now out of order since his back wheel is bent so much that the brake stops it from moving much. He won't need his bike anytime soon though as he is being transferred to the Oakland 10th Ward, Cambodian Speaking.

So what is happening to me? I am staying in San Ramon! However, since changes are being made to the districts and areas round about we are moving out of our apartments into an other one. We will also have a car now along with our bikes! 

Packed up and ready to move

I am the designated driver and I am also the senior companion. (The senior companion takes lead, which I have had good practice with hehe). I am also getting a new companion, his name is Elder Rowley! All of these changes are taking place this Tuesday, May 20th. 

Elder Close the Door

Some of our investigators came to church this week! I always look forward to church as that is where I can feel the presence of the Holy Ghost. This feeling brings such great peace and comfort. I wish everyone would come and feel the same way, and that is part of the reason why I am out here, to share this Gospel with as many people as will listen.

I love you all! I hope you have a great week! 

- Elder Daniel Kloosterboer

A Trip to the Temple

These two pics are from service a little while ago.

Temple Trip

This has been a great one and a half weeks! Our P-day was moved to today (Wednesday) because we had the chance to go to the temple. So much has happened and I have so little time to write about it.

Bowling

Last week on Monday we had a district activity, so we went bowling. It was a lot of fun but I am pretty sure that the ball I was using was working against me :-) 

My companion also decided that he wanted to have a mirror at his desk so we found one; unfortunately we had to move the mini white board which you can see at the back of the room hanging up haha.

We are getting fed super well, this picture was our dessert after a huge dinner. It is a rice crispy treat with a bunch of chocolate in the middle! I ate 90% of it, no wonder I feel fat! I am pretty sure I will lose it again with all this heat! It has been so hot that my hands, which are in the sun a lot, were sun burnt this past week!

On Saturday we had a zone training about obedience. I liked it because it gave me more determination to be exactly obedient. I also learned a few new things which I didn't know before.

MOTHERS DAY! We went to the Krugers home so I could Skype my family who just went to The Netherlands for a holiday! It was fun because I was able to see my Opa en Oma (My grandparents) and I was also able to see my Aunty. It was a lot of fun and I am so jealous of all the Dutch food I was missing out on! We later went to the Wolf family where my companion got to Skype home.

Sunday night we started an exchange. It was a good exchange and when we got back to meet our companions they were both full. A lot of my candy was gone and the apartment was a mess! Lol, Elder Fonua threw up at our investigators home where they ate dinner that night! It was nice to clean up the apartment because it feels like you have accomplished something and it is also more inviting.

On Tuesday we had a big district meeting with all the missionaries in the stake. We talked about no tracting and what we are going to do instead. We are going to do a program called JustServe. This is a program for us to find planned service opportunities throughout each week! I am pretty excited, but this is the only stake in this mission for right now that is going to do it.

We got our bikes fixed last night also at the Sheffields! Two of his sons came to help out!

Today, we went to the temple!It was super good! But it leaves only a few hours of P-day left... luckily I did my laundry yesterday (Mostly because I would have ran out of clothes hehe)

Also a side note. If I haven't replied to your email or letter let me know.

I know the temple is a great place, and I feel the spirit there. That is what makes it so great, is being able to feel that peace.

Hope you all will have a great week!

Love, Elder Kloosterboer

No Tracting in this Stake!

The Oakland Temple

This week has been good. We had stake conference this week, which I will talk about in just a minute. (Depending on how fast you read haha.) 

We talked to over 98 people this week which has been our highest this transfer. (Transfer is a time of 6 weeks.) 

A Nice Shady Place

We love doing service! We helped a woman move from one apartment to her new apartment, which was like 2 streets away! It was a lot of fun especially as some other elders also helped and a recent convert came along too!  We also helped a member build a playground! It has so many pieces that we need to put together that this will take a lot of hours to put together. I loved it though because I like building and creating things. It was a warm morning and so we found some shade - as shown in the picture! 

That morning we also showed up to a BBQ that the Hinganos put together for a fund raiser for a rugby tournament. When we showed up the Relief Society president was there and she brought us all lunch! She also sent out an email to the ward to let them know we didn't have many people signed up on our dinner calendar. After that email was sent out our calendar is looking good! 

Exchanges

My Broken Chair 

We had exchanges this week. Our district leader, Elder Fonua, came to this area. We talked to a lot of people that day and we both had fun! We will be going on another one this coming week. 

We had stake conference on Saturday evening in the building next to the temple which is also right by the mission home. 

Stake Conference

In this conference it was announced that the missionaries in the stake will no longer be tracting! (Tracting is going door to door finding those who are ready to learn about God's plan for us and who desire help.) We have averaged about 5-20 minutes of tracting a week since I have been on my mission. The members are now, like always, responsible for filling our schedules. Members can do this by using social media! Our ward mission leader has asked us to go to members and show them how to do this. I think I will like this :-) 

Stake Conference next to the Oakland Temple.

We are continuing to build strong relationships with the members by sharing scriptures, getting to know them, by doing service, by teaching them lessons and so forth. These activities help us and I love it when we are able to teach members the lessons as it is so simple. All of what we teach should be simple, because the gospel is simple. 

I know this gospel is true. I love it! That is why I am here, to be able to share the Gospel which brings so much joy and happiness and peace in this world. 

Love, Elder Kloosterboer.

 

A Lot of Music For a Missionary

Zone Activity

This week has been good. I have been on a hunt for music that a missionary can listen to. I have been succesful in this hunt for music and I now have over 35 CDs' of music that I am allowed to listen to. (As a missionary we only listen to music that is in harmony with out calling.) We did some other fun things during this week too.

 

On Monday we had a zone activity! There was volleyball, basketball, and boardgames set up. It was fun and one of the elders got s ball stuck on some lights. We finally got it down at the end. hehe.

 

 We went to the Teerlinks this week and had an object lesson with them. We had Easter eggs with different objects inside each one to represent something about the atonement. It was a lot of fun! It is fun to teach members because then you get to learn a lot and improve your teaching at the same time as the member learning something.

Snake on Derby Hill

Brother Teerlink showed us a hill on the map called, Derby. He suggested to us that we should go up it as it is the steepest hill in San Ramon! So we headed out and decided to talk to every person that we saw. We had to walk a lot up the hill and finally got the the top. I looked down the road and thought I was going to die! So we went down! 

On the way down I had to keep putting the brakes on every few seconds. Even though I has holding my brakes down almost all the way down, when I let go for a few seconds the bike would quickly pick up speed again! In less than about 10 seconds we were going over 20 miles an hour! Becuase of how steep the hill was, it was a short ride down. At the bottom of the hill we were able to stop and I felt the back brake and the metal rim, they were pretty hot! After that we went to visit the Hingano's where we had a good spiritual thought.

 

We made our own pizzas this week with the Remingtons. We had a missionary discussion with them and thankfully we have a general lesson plan. (A general lesson plan had questions, sciptures, doctrine on it and so on, so one can easily pick what is best for the investigators. Though we normally pick things from the general lesson plan in the morning - but we did not do that in the morning) I enjoyed it and still learned a lot.  

Service with the members

 

We also did some service this week. The Danville elders were with us for each service project that we helped with this weekend. On Friday we helped someone move out of their house. It was fun and I was happy when we got there because they had packed a lot of things in boxes already which made it a lot easier to help. Afterwards they gave us two trash bags full of food! (People must think we are too skinny!) Then on Saturday was Mormon Helping Hands day here and we joined together with another church to do some service for the seniors in the community here. We went to the Jones and we dug and axed out a few bushes. After the bushes were out we planted some flowers for her. It was fun and then we went over to help the other elders with thier project. We pulled out a lot of weeds! I love service so I had fun, because service is fun and it makes you feel way good.

 

I am enjoying being a missionary and I am learning a lot. My companion is super funny and that makes a huge difference haha. I know this church is true and I know that Heavenly Father knows us all, because we are his children.

 

I hope that everyone will have a great week!

Love, Elder kloosterboer