Thursday 30 July 2015

A New Experience

Party!
On Sunday night we got a phone call from the assistants to the president of the mission. They told us that an elder is arriving in the mission on Wednesday who knows Cambodian!   So then my name was mentioned... 


I will be leaving and going to Clayton Valley 3rd Ward on Wednesday and I will be in a Trio (Meaning two other missionaries) with Elder Weaver and Elder Marriott - who had served in this branch a little while ago. That means that I will miss Lyana's baptisms on August 9th :-(. It also sucks as I will miss a really cool activity that the branch has on August 8th. 
Party
Elder Eh and Service
Service
This last week we also set up some service projects which I will miss too - just sorting food for a food bank. This last week we got a referral from some elders who ran into a lady. Her name is Vanda, and is Cambodian. We were told it was a service project so we picked up our member, Peng, and went over there not really knowing what to expect. She flagged us down when we arrived and then asked us to teach her how to speak and write in English... man... I have no idea! 
Party
So we just talked and then we were kicked out of the library as we were too loud! hehehe. Went to McDonalds where she shared a few more experiences of her life and about her coming to the USA. She is Buddhist but has had a few dreams about Jesus Christ. I will share one of her dreams. 

Me with Lyana
In one of here dreams she saw a sheep with a broken leg, and then the sheep went to Jesus and he looked at it. That was one of her dreams. With what we know from the scriptures we know that we are the sheep and the Jesus Christ is our Shepherd - those that follow Him will hear His voice. 
At the Temple
















We know that through Jesus Christ we can be healed from physical and spiritual hurt. To me this dream represents her coming and follow Him. But because it takes us about an hour to pick up a member and drive over there we will let some other mission take over after a few more visits. 
Food at the End
With Sierra
We had a lot of great food as usual here :-) In one of the pictures - which I took at the end - we just put meat or vegetables in this hot soup thing and let it sit there for a few minutes - then you stick the food in some sauce and it tastes amazing! 
With Chantha, Lyana and Sierra


















We also had a lot more food on Saturday as we celebrated Pioneer Day! Which is when members of the Church (Mormons) traveled over America to get to to the Rocky Mountains and also some who stayed in California. We ate a ton of food! and had fun getting to know more members. Later we went to a birthday party and ate even more food! It was amazing! 


On Sunday after church we taught Thia - one of our investigators - he is progressing more and I love how he is trying to change his life! We are helping him a lot and he wants to become a member soon! We showed a few Mormon Messages and also a video about someone from Oakland. It shows how we can change no matter what circumstances we have been brought up in. We also taught Pream and his family on Sunday and set up an appointment to watch "Meet the Mormons" next Sunday.


That was a little of our week!  And I would love to close with sharing my testimony with you. Because I know this is the way top eternal happiness and there is none other save it be through Jesus Christ. I know this Church is designed to bring us the most happiness and I know that we can be healed through Jesus Christ. His invitation is simply to follow Him. 

love

Elder Kloosterboer














Tuesday 21 July 2015

It's a Date

Hello everyone! 
Saying bye to Elder Irvine

Tardis on the Roof!


Dr Who house






This week was good. Elder Dey joined us for a day and a half because he is training a brand new missionary who came in on Wednesday. We finished making our new directory of members in our branch and it is sweet! This new system allows us to simply write notes under each person and is the most up-to-date we have. It is done on a number basis which corresponds to our map that we made. We also use another directory which has members listed alphabetically.  

Directory sample
Lyana, our investigator, has a baptismal date set for August 9th! We taught her a few times this week and Peng, a member who is returning to church after 10 years of not attending came with us to those lessons. He was happy that we got let in as sometimes people don't always let us in. (Very usual for missionary work.)

Not much else to say, other than I have a testimony of this church and I know it is true. 

Love, Elder Kloosterboer

Wednesday 15 July 2015

Tons of Service

Helping put up a roof
Hello, 

Going to be short. This week we did a lot of service! On exchanges I went to Concord with Elder Baird which was a great day! We spent like 5 hours doing service. First we went to the Salvation Army and organized some food! They were super happy that we helped and talked about us to the next missionaries who came the whole time those missionaries were there haha. After that we went to help a member put up this roof thingy! We used the pool noodles instead of pipe tube since it is cheaper and is more UV protected! 
Ice Cream Between Two Cookies
This is the roof








Helping with Moving
With Elder Baird, Helping at
the Salvation Army

With Elder Irvine



Elder Eh Helping with Service

Helping With Some Gardening






We did more service also, we dug a little and added a plant, next to which we embedded these red slabs of brick. It was a good learning experience! 

The Plant Put In

We are still teaching Lyana and she has a baptismal date for August 9th! She came to a fireside called Why I Believe! It was super good and the spirit was strong. One recent convert stuck out to me. She had wanted to join the church for several years as she had a lot of Mormon friends and wanted to be exactly like them! One night she couldn't sleep and at like 2 in the morning she decided to drive all the way to the temple (an hour drive) and she just parked her car opposite the temple (as it was closed) and she asked if this was the church she should join. She started to cry with emotions strong and she knew this was the way she needed to go. Most of the speakers were about 20 years old, apart from one 55 year old lady. She told us that it is never too late to learn and to change your life! I agree! 

More Ice Cream!
Crash site of a truck carrying rubble
Well I also believe. I have a strong belief - meaning faith - in Jesus Christ who has suffered our punishment for us - not consequences but punishments. I know that this gospel is designed to bring us closer to Christ and that through following his exact example that we can be saved and live with those we love forever. I say this in the Name of Jesus Christ amen. 

Love - Elder Kloosterboer 

 
A Helper!
The Sister Missionaries' Crashed car

Tuesday 7 July 2015

Audio Blog link

Elder Kloosterboer was pushed for time this week so he has done an audio blog. He tried to upload the pics but didn't have time to get it to work so they will come next week. Hopefully it will work otherwise I will hear it from someone!

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=A57DD1DA701C491B!1280&authkey=!AB-VRZZToMpRHEA&ithint=file%2cWAV




Helping for Girl's Camp (listen to blog)