Cambodian New Year!

Elder Yu and I with a Banana Tree

Hey everyone! 

Cambodian New Year, The ANKOR WAT

I know the church is true! That is why I am serving my two-year mission. I know that God loves us no matter what we have decided and that He is always near us even when we think He is far away. I know that through prayer we can feel closer to Him and I invite you to try it out. 

One of our new investigators this week went to West Oakland for something and on the way back to go to school she took a few wrong turns and ended up in San Francisco! In her panic she decided to pray, and because of that prayer somehow she found her way back. That was only one day after our lesson with her - and how we can all pray. 

Life this past week was fun as we saw miracles and went to a Cambodian New Year. It is a few weeks early as next month a lot of people are way too busy - so we held it this past week. In this area we have been mostly visiting people who the missionaries taught anywhere from 5-10 years ago. A lot of the people aren't there when we try to visit them, but miracles happen as we tract and talk to everyone who is in our path. 

Oakland in the foreground, San Fran over the Bay. Where
the crains are is where we took the photos of the flag.

One of the miracles was a man who had formerly investigated the church a while ago. We were going to walk past his house for some reason, but then decided to knock. His name is William and he is from China. We were able to bear our testimony that God really does exist. We invited him to learn more but he was hesitant, so he made a deal with us that if we teach him English he will learn about the gospel. So the Chinese elders are now teaching him. We also received a referral this week of a Cambodian man who lives in San Francisco, but he wont be back for another week. So we are looking forward to going there since we don't go there often. It is super cool because this is the first referral in a lot of months! 

We had Zone conference this past week which was 8 hours long. It was fun and we got a lot of ideas how we can work more with the members. We were also blessed with a new investigator! Remember the person who we called last week who we invited to learn more about the gospel - well someone else, Savanna, was there who knew elder Yu and we were able to set up a discussion with her and one of our recent converts who is very close friends with her! So we are happy to be able to teach someone new! Bunthia, another investigator has been coming to church and it is really cool to be able to see all the changes he is making. I gave a talk on Sunday which was fun. I started it off with only one Cambodian word, as I only know greetings and a few other words. It was good to see the members with a nod of acceptance when I started with hello in Cambodian. 

What is Cambodian new year? It's exactly the same thing as the English new years. There were over 500 people who attended and it was a ton of fun! There were Cambodian dances and a lot of food! We were able to give out programs and have a little stand with a few things about the church on it. 

Today we went to the Oakland docks where we took a few pictures of us and the Cambodian flag.

Here are also photos of our apartment.

Have a good week.

Love Elder Kloosterboer

A Different Experience.

Hello everyone, 

At Hometown Buffet

This has been a good and long week. Elder Yu is my new companion! He is originally from South Korea but then later lives in Utah. He was called as Cambodian speaking. My new companion, Elder Yu, and I are working in the Oakland 10th branch Cambodian speaking. I have been asked by the mission president just to learn a few greetings. It has been fun and stressful learning a new language - even though English is my second language. So far I can say, Hello. How are you? I am fine. Companion. and thank you. For some reason it has been difficult for me to learn these. But I plan to continue to work on it. 

On Monday evening (my last night in Hayward) our ward mission leader invited us to go to HomeTown Buffet with him and a few other members! It was a lot of fun! But it was sad that I won't be working with them anymore. I miss a lot of people haha. 

With Mark Burt, Elder Gubler & Elder Otuafi

On Tuesday we had transfer day and we got to work pretty soon. The first thing I did was unpack. After that we went through the area book! Our new apartment is pretty small - but it is great for missionaries. (Every apartment I have lived in on my mission has been pretty big.) 

So this week we have been visiting some former investigators from a old mission leader's binder. Some of the records go back over 10 years! So about 5 years ago some missionaries were walking in Oakland past a house where the people started swearing at the missionaries. So the good missionaries stopped and talked to them. They taught the people and then later they stopped investigating. 5 years later we come along and decide we want to visit the person. But, we didn't have the right address and so we decide to call to invite her to listen to our message again. Well she answers and she couldn't remember  the missionaries. We invited her to learn more about the restored gospel. But then she was like, "You want to come to my house and teach me?!" We answered, "yes" to which she said, Yea! So we will be teaching her soon hopefully! 

The members of the branch are very nice! We are mostly in Oakland but we do cover a lot more area. Well I am enjoying everything. I am learning a lot. 

We are teaching a few people. Right now we have a few investigators and I really enjoy teaching them. I love being able to feel the spirit - especially when we teach lessons. I know that it is the spirit who teaches us all things and that is what I love!

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

Elder Kloosterboer

Last Week Here in Hayward! - Picture blog!!

Mission Home

Good afternoon! ​

Directory update

Free Ice Cream

This blog is like a picture blog :-) Enjoy! A month ago or so we printed out a new directory and we just finished updating it! It has a lot of information on that will help missionaries in the future. It has been a fun week in Hayward!

Elder Otuafi

Well onto some news! I am getting transferred! 

Nosa and me

My history is this: 7 months in San Ramon, 7 months in Hayward. I already miss many members of the ward and have grown to love them very much.  We will see how long I will be in my third area. I am going to be learning a few words in Cambodian! I will be in the Oakland 10th ward which is Cambodian speaking! It covers the whole mission and the apartment is in the heart of the ghetto of Oakland! This will be a great experience! Well I met my new companion a few days ago and I saw the name tag.... Oh dear - It looks difficult to read haha. I am looking forward to it though! 

We have gone to this all you can eat place like 4 times within the last week! And this time I was given some ice cream! Now that is customer service! 

Brother Evans

We did some service this week for one of our members. We replanted a few plants and it was nice. Andrew, one of our members, also helped with this project and it took us two days! It was fun and I am glad that we were able to help. Service is just the best thing around! I invite you to try it! 

This morning we went on a hike with our district. We went with one our our members brother Shumate. It took a few hours for us to complete and it was a lot of fun!We were hungry so we found a few plants we could eat :-) He also has a lot of animals on his property so we fed a few of them! 

Some members of the ward

I am enjoying serving my mission. I am so going to try my best to learn Cambodian but I know I can learn what I am needed to learn with His help. I am learning so much on my mission and wouldn't trade it for anything! I know that God is a loving God. I know that there is a plan for us to return to Him again and I  know that it is through the atonement that we can be made clean to make it possible for us to return! 

I love you all and want to thank you all for your support. I really appreciate it. :-)

Love, Elder Kloosterboer

At Fowlers

With Sister Fowler

Ducks

The Monte family - Elder's Quorum President

Goat

Going on a hike

With Brother Shumate and Dog

My First Ever Crash!

Lots of fruits!

Hey everyone :-)

This has been an interesting week! Last week Saturday I started to be sick and then on Sunday was better. Then on Monday I stared to have the flu! Some members gave us all of these fruits! For the first time in my life I am eating something really healthy for breakfast! haha. The picture with me on the ground was when I was on a phone call on Monday evening just about to start an exchange.

Elder Han and I were in my area and it was fun. I had a light headache the whole day and had difficulty sleeping. I only missed about 15 minutes of personal study! We worked the whole day knocking on doors and we even said a prayer with a woman who opened her door at just the right time - just as we were walking away - we were able to hear her open the door. 

On the phone on the ground when feeling sick

That day our mission president decided to come to the district meeting which I am in charge of! haha. It was not a lot of fun being sick and still leading the meeting. But all of us enjoyed it. Then we went to dinner and we stayed in the rest of the evening. 

Cyrena on the left and Tammy on the right

Something really cool happened this week! Not only was it my first car accident ever - it was Tammy's first car accident too! Tammy is a student who goes to East Bay college and she helps us out with a lot of things! An elderly man crashed into her! She said that when she met him she was prompted to invite us to meet him! We went to visit him a bit later and he wasn't home. The funny thing is that he lives in the same apartment complex as the family who told us that we couldn't meet with them anymore. At this time we were on exchanges with the zone leaders and as we were getting back to the car Elder Gillie said that he had an impression to go back inside the complex and talk to the family who dropped us. We went back and this family was so happy to see us! And we were so glad to see them again! We just talked a bit, but it was good. 

We are excited for this week as we are going to be teaching a few new people! One of the men that we teach is Don! At the end of each lesson he is super happy and he even says that each time we come we lift his spirits. And yes, that is what the gospel does to us, it helps us find peace in life. We also taught Cyrena this week who is a recent convert. Normally her room mate who brought her into the Church, Monique, would usually be there - but she was in San Francisco when I took this picture. 

So that is a little bit of this week! There is so much that happens in a week that there is not time for it all. But I hope you are all doing well! I am enjoying my mission and it is hard, but it is so worth it! 

Elder Otuafi with his new eye

This is the best thing that I have ever done in my life! It has been super great to see all the miracles that happen each day! I know that this is His church and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know that God still talks to us today and we are blessed to have a living prophet on this earth with the proper priesthood keys to direct this church and to bless us. I know that the power of the priesthood is real. I use it and I see its power. I know that we are Gods children and that he loves us so much! In the Name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

Love, Elder Kloosterboer