We Are Both Staying

Transfer calls happened this week and we are both going to stay. Elder Nelson and I are both excited to stay here because we know we can do so much in Hayward! Man this has been a busy week! In fact one of the days we were running 45 minutes behind on everything, but it was really cool because even though we were late for everything, it all worked out and we both felt really good about the day! 

We did a few hours of service this week which was great! We cleaned some of the kitchen for one of the people we are teaching which was fun, because at the end it looked like a new place! My companion is losing his 11 years of piano playing, so we have decided to make sure that we go to the old peoples home to play piano for them which they enjoy a lot! haha, it is a lot of fun just even talking with the people who live there and they have a lot of stories to tell. 

With Elder Walk

Who is that standing next to me in the picture with all the white shirts? That is Elder Walk, we had exchanges that day which was fun! We even found a new investigator who used to investigate the church a long time ago! 

Other missionaries with Larry

Three investigators came to Stake Conference on Sunday! (Stake Conference is a meeting where all the stake's members are invited to) I sat next to Abraham who we started teaching not too long ago, his sister is actually already a member! Then my companion sat next to Arthur who is an evangelical christian. Then Larry was there too! 

On Top of the Temple with Larry

We went to the Visitor Center with Larry and his brother-in-law who is a member. It was super good and we watched the Restoration through Joseph Smith's mother's eyes. We also went on top of the temple where we were able to see the Bay area! 

Larry is going to be baptized this Saturday with his son! Along with two other people that the sisters have been teaching! :-) 

We have a solid week coming up that we are both really exited for :-) 

After Larry's Baptismal Interview

I would just like to share a few stories from the stake conference that we went to. Oh and all the missionaries in our Zone sang "Called to Serve" in the Saturday evening session! One of the people who talked was a single man who is divorced. He has 7 children! He talked about the temple and being sealed to your family for all eternity. It was painful for him, but as he prayed in his one bedroom apartment he saw a vision that all of his children were dressed in white. I know that God loves us and that he does want us to be with our families forever. Another story was from a women whose sister had a deaf child. They went to the temple to see it be dedicated. Right behind them a women was following them. This women was able to sign fluently for her son to know what was said. Afterwards she thanked this women. The women said that she had a dream that she was needed at the temple and she gave her address to the mother. She lived all the way in Canada, but the mother was never able to get any reply to the letters sent to this woman. 

Unlimited Sushi with Elder Taylor

The last experience I would like to share is an experience from a returned missionary. He said that he started a new mission because of the age change and the many more missionaries coming in i.e. a new mission was started up and this elder was then one of the new missionaries in the new mission. In one of his first areas where he served he met a family who had been less active for a long time. He was able to teach them. They started coming back to church. But one of the daughters had brain cancer. They asked for a blessing and so he gave her a blessing. In the blessing he was prompted (inspired by the Holy Ghost) to say that she would be healed, he was then even more prompted to say by the time he finished his mission if they stayed in the gospel. However, 4 weeks after he was transferred and they went less active again. In his last area (different place than his first) he met them again! They had moved! The family again started to come to church, read the Scriptures as a family each day and praying again. But the daughter was not healed from the brain cancer. On the last Sunday of his mission he went to that family. The daughter told him that she went in to get her results that Thursday and that there was nothing! Apart from a few scar tissue. The power is real. 

I know that God knows us each all individually and that he wants to bless us. 

I love you all, and hope that you will have a great week!

Love, Elder Kloosterboer

A Good Week

This has been a good week with new experiences. I bought a bike from Elder Ah Mu this week which I am happy about because now I have two bikes, one for the flats and one for the hills! 

We had a zone training on Tuesday which was training us about following up. If you don't follow up then you can't follow your map to the treasure. We had a follow up training meeting (This is for companionship who are training a new missionary). It was good and lasted about 4 hours! All the trainers were gathered together into one group while the other missionaries did the same in another room. We talked about how we could best help our companions learn and grow as missionaries. To be honest it was pretty funny to hear some of the things. It was nice to be able to get some new ideas! 

View from the Oakland Temple over Oakland

We share the work in this ward with two sisters so we had a baptism this week! The  woman who was baptized had been investigating the church for about five years already! The sisters asked me if I could sing with them while my companion played the piano, Luckily two other elders showed up. haha I am glad it is over. ;-). Baptism isn't complete without confirmation though and so on Sunday we were asked to be part of that, which was a good experience. Being part of the Priesthood is amazing and it is one solid anchor for me in the Gospel. I know the Priesthood is real through observing the miracles that come from righteous use and being able to experience it for myself, I know it is real. 

My Haircut

We have been able to teach Larry who is going to be baptized in a few weeks! He is doing great and we are also going to start to teach his son who will be baptized on the same day! A member was able to refer us to one of his friends who is now starting to investigate the church. His name is Abe. He came to church and also a fireside in the evening. 

Last night we were able to go go to Why I Believe, which is a fireside where recent converts share their conversion stories. It was my first time going and it was amazing! I would like to end with a few of the stories from these brothers and sisters. One girl who went up was about 20. She said that if someone would have asked her if she would be a Mormon she would have laughed at you. Her life was rough. Her dad used to beg her to come to church and used to offer something like a pizza for going. So she would go but never pay attention. Her dad asked her where she saw her self in 10 years. She answered that she saw herself either in jail or dead.  Because both her parents worked, it was easy for her to get away with drinking. She started drinking at age 12 and started to be addicted. She started to smoke things and she also joined a gang!

A cool Primary card

What hurt her though, was that her younger twin brothers were following in her footsteps and started doing the same things. Their dad went to jail but kept urging her to go to church. He told her that he was going on a 40 day fast. He fasted and fasted. On day 40... she ran into the missionaries... She started to investigate and her life started to change. Everything about her has changed. From darkness into light. Her two twin brothers also started to investigate and they were baptized a month later than her. This is the gospel, it changes people. It is a way of life. It will bring happiness into your life. Just as another speaker said, that he felt so much happier ever since he was baptized. I know that is true. Another person shared his story, he said that he could feel something different with the Mormons, something warm. Why are Mormons so happy? 

Eating and discussing the work after church

I know this gospel is true and that the gospel of Jesus Christ does bring happiness and light into the world. I would like to leave these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

Love, Elder Kloosterboer. 

Adjusting

Repairing the bike

This has been a decent week here in Hayward CA. We are starting to get to know the area and getting to know more members of the ward. (Not old peoples home, but a unit of the church.) We had exchanges this week too!

We were able to get a bike this past week for me, but the back wheel was broken and it had a ton of rust on it. Unfortunately it took way longer than intended to fix the bike because non of the patches would work on the inner tube! Finally in the end we bought some lubricant so that I could get the rust off and try to get the back wheel off (because it was stuck on there!). Luckily after sometime it came off and we were able to get a new inner tube fitted :-). BUT after spending all that time trying to fix it one of the zone leaders used  it because we had an exchange on Friday to Saturday. He nearly died because the brakes slipped and went underneath the wheel while going down a steep hill! So anyway, the bike is unsafe to use here because of the many hills. Luckily Elder Ah Mu who was one of my companions is selling his bike... which also has a broken back wheel... 

Building on fire

I went over to the Zone leaders Area in Union City with Elder Craft! We had a great day and we taught 4 lessons that day! It was fun! We also saw a store with black smoke coming out of it! I learned that your attitude has a HUGE effect on you. If you have a great attitude in the morning then you are setting an expectation for yourself that you will have a great day! It works pretty well. 

With Elder Craft on Exchanges

My companion, Elder Nelson, also showed me that one needs to live in the present to be able to work to their fullest. I am adjusting but it has taken me 5 weeks to adjust here. But I love these experiences because they are difficult at first, but they help you grow and now when I get transferred in the future I will be able to adjust better I feel. 

Elder Nelson is a very good at the Piano, but missionaries are very busy so there is not much time to practice or play. So we have decided to come up with a loop hole. hehe. We decided to head over to a senior center where they let people play for the people who live there! Of course that wasn't our only reason, we also met a women last week who lives there and so she invited us to come. We had a great time talking with the people there and they enjoyed the music my companion played. It seemed like he was surrounded by all the people asking him a hundred questions lol!

With Elder Craft on Exchanges

We also did some other service this week where I planted some plants and my companion mowed the grass. I love service and it is just the best thing ever! 

We also taught a few lessons. Larry is one of our investigators, he is going to be baptized on the 20th of September so we are all very excited for him to make a promise with God. I know that God loves us all, I can feel it whenever I talk to anyone, even when I have talked to them for 4 seconds! 

We found out something really cool - the father of my companion, Elder Nelson, served his mission in the Philippines at the same time as my dad!!!! They weren't companions but they knew each other and my dad has photos of him!  Amazing!!

My dad, Elder Kloosterboer with the short sleeves and
thin tie, Elder Nelson right behind him.

I love being on my mission and it is hard. I am trying to consecrate my self more because last month that is what this whole mission was focused on. I am changing and I am learning so much. I am so glad that I am able to be part of this work at this time. Our mission president shared this with us today out of 3 Nephi chapter 5 verse 13 in the Book Of Mormon. "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, [a] Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." I know this to be true. 

I love you all!

- Elder Kloosterboer 

Being A Missionary

Good morning,

Waiting For The Car

I love writing these blogs! I love sharing my experiences with you all. Thank you for reading these blogs as it does take effort to write them. :-) This has been a great week and my testimony has been built even more as I have been able to serve as a full time missionary.

We were able go home teaching (responsibility of some members to watch over other members) to women this week. I thought that I would like to share a few things that we shared in that lesson. We simply talked about family history. My companion Elder Nelson had a chart and so we used that. It was amazing to feel an excitement in the room for family history! I shared a story, in this story a woman was doing her family history, but she kept on hitting dead ends and got stuck. One of her friends asked her if she had taken the names she had found to the temple, she said that she wanted to wait until she finished finding everyone first before that. Her friend suggested that she should take the names to the temple and so she did. When she finished she tried to continue trying to work on those names where she had gotten stuck before, but this time all the road blocks were gone. It shows us the importance of taking our ancestors to the temple so that they can accept the Gospel too. Our family members are so important and they protect us, and will help us especially as we try to search for those people in our family history.

Planning On His Own

We met with the Bishop on Tuesday. He shared with us an activity that we helped with on Sunday. It is called sensing the Savior. We were blind folded as we listened to music about Jesus and then for some of the songs an object was placed in our hands. It was amazing that we were able to see better without seeing.

We also met with a member (whose daughter saw that vision from last week). He asked us to meet with him and then he told us that he wants to come back into the church with full force. I feel that it is amazing that people do change and that even though we all face trials and difficulties, that Christ will always help us, as he knows exactly what we are going through because he has been there before.

Sky At Night

I love teaching lessons as a missionary because I love feeling dependent on the spirit to tell us what to say. It is the best feeling ever! We taught a lesson to Larry yesterday and we are meeting with him three times a week. He has a baptismal date for September 20th!

Not all this week was fantastic, but it was great! On Friday we went to the BART station (Public Transportation). We wanted to use the Book of Mormon more when we talk to people, so we did. We were able to talk to a lot of people and we also taught 2 lessons on the street! We then drove home (Since we are sharing a car) and I started to get sick. My companion had to do some planning on his own as I tried to make myself something to help me. I had a fever on Saturday and we stayed in all day. Even though we stayed in all day I felt that it has been a good day :-) There has to be opposition in all things and so it has helped me be more happy that I have good heath. I know there has to be opposition because without it we wouldn't know happiness.

Playing Monopoly When I Was Sick

I would also like share an experience my companion and I had last night (Sunday.) Things were unusual when we got home and we felt that Satan was trying to thwart things. One of the things that happened was that we tried making a smoothie and even though we have made many of them the machine was acting up! We even spilled a lot of it onto the counter top, but we were able to laugh it off! As we started our opening prayer for our planning for the next day, we knew that we needed to give a priesthood blessing to one of our investigators. We then knew why things had happened to try to make us frustrated to not feel the Spirit. I know that this gospel is true because otherwise there wouldn't be any such opposition.

I would like to bear my testimony that I know that this gospel is true and that God loves each and every one of us. I know that He loves us, because otherwise we wouldn't have faced opposition last night to know to help one of our investigators. I know this Gospel is true, I invite all who read this to find out for themselves if this is really true or not. Because it is either true or it is not. 

Love Elder Kloosterboer