Castles, Mud Masks, and Finding People

Fam!

The castle last week was really cool! I'm going to send you some pics. And the pics will be not of the castle but of me with missionaries haha :) So the pictures will be with Sister Heilner and her comp Sister Mashburn. (Sister Heilner and I are really good friends and she is a bomb missionary!) Then some of Elder Van de Merwe and I. 

 

We have a pretty good week! Here is the highlight:

 

 

We went to go look up this guy named Akinyemi. (yeah pretty cool name) So we got buzzed up on the apartment. And this lady (Linda) starts talking to us with the door closed and we can tell she is a little scared! So we explain to her who we are and what we do. and the door opens and we start talking to her and she wanted to come to church so we wrote down the address to the church and gave her our number. And on Sunday we get a call and it was Linda! She was a little late to sacrament but she came with her and her husband! She started taking notes when she started listening. She loved church. She was writing down all of the assignments and taking notes and saying see you next week to all of the members! It was fantastic!

 

We went on a lot of exchanges this week but my favorite was with my future college roommate! Elder Van de Merwe. We had such a good time. We did mud masks and taught lessons and found people! It was one of the best exchanges I have been on on my mission! I will be sending some pictures. 

 

Antwerpen is doing really well. Its about to explode we have found a lot of positive people now we just have to start teaching them and help them come to church! 

 

Most exciting story of my mission so far. I was with Elder Lindstrom. We were in the same MTC district so we knew each other. We had a really good day. But it was about 5 o clock and its really dark... its terrible. And we are riding our bikes. And we go down this street that is blocked off to cars but bikes can still go on it. And in the distance I see a guy and the closer we get I can see that he is holding a gun... and for some reason we kept riding... haha As a missionary you have no fear whatsoever. And the guy walks over to us and stops us. And we stop! He had a huge gun too. But then he asked us if we saw some military people and we said no. And I said should we go back and he told us to keep going. I was pretty scared but it was really funny after. He didn't even have military clothes on. He had a Chicago Bulls Beanie! haha It was pretty cool!

My week was just awesome! I hope you all have a great week!! I love you!

Love Elder Bosco

 

 

Crazy week- this week we gave out an Arabic Book of Mormon

Fam!

What a week! I missed out on some amazing things because of Exchanges but this week was incredible. We ended up with 10 new investigators! I cant even believe it! haha. 

 

On Monday we taught a family from Egypt. They were really open and excited to receive a Book of Mormon in Arabic. Our other appointment fell through so we will have to go back this week and give it to them and talk to them more!

 

On Wednesday I got to go to Amsterdam with Elder Alston (one of my mission heroes.) on exchanges and it was his birthday! We had an awesome day! We ate a ton of food! It was really nice being with him. I will send you a picture of us. :)

 

Also on Wednesday here in Antwerpen there were miracles! We found a girl on the street so they looked her up and she has a twin! and they were super positive! And they got 3 other ones too it was so cool. Sorry I am running out of time! haha

 

It was also Mupepes birthday on Wednesday! He loved the temple by the way! But I gave him a BYU shirt and he loved it so much. He was so grateful!

 

Just know that it was a crazy week! And that I love you all a lot. I need to get off though haha! Sorry! I know I am terrible at emailing and my writing in my journal has been bad cause I'm never home! But I love it here so much! It is incredible to be a missionary! I love it!

I love you! 

Love 

Elder Bosco

Elder Bosco and Elder Alston in Amsterdam

My heart is full

Fam,

My heart is full. This week has been awesome! My heart is full because of Mupepe. He received the Priesthood yesterday. :) and tomorrow he is going to the Temple! I can't explain how happy I am! He has made everything worth it. I love him so much.

This week flew by! We were on exchanges everyday. It was crazy! On Saturday we went and worked with the sisters in Sint Niklaas. Sisters Heilner and Mashburn. (From Texas and Pleasant Grove) Super awesome sisters. We taught Their baptismal date and he is so solid! At the beginning of the lesson he said I prayed about the Book of Mormon and now I know its true! It was so incredible. We taught the Plan of Salvation and at the end he said everything is really clear and it makes sense! So cool. We also taught a lady that only spoke french :) How? Don't ask. It just happened. :) Then we were knocking doors and we got let in and taught a little about the Book of Mormon. Super cool. :)

We taught Belinda this week. We didn't have a lot of time. So we taught the Word of Wisdom and it was incredible. We were telling her what it was and We would say we don't drink coffee and she said that's gross and tea I don't like that. Everything we said she didn't even like it! It was such a miracle. I told her she was basically a member and she was so happy! She wasn't able to come to church but she is really excited to come to church and get baptized! It was so incredible!

I love this work. Its so incredible. I love the Mormon message about the mom. You will never know the good you do. How true is that. Its always nice to know the good you do but sometimes we will never know. But we need to always know that if we are doing our best that we can be instruments in Gods hand in helping his children come to Him!

PS I'm already playing Christmas music! Its incredible :)

Love you all!!

Love Elder Bosco

New investigators and early Christmas presents

P-Days before it gets too cold...

Hey Fam!

We had a fantastic week. First we contacted a guy named Alberto. We thought he was Muslim so we were just going to give him a card and keep going but he is Christian. So we made an appointment with him. So we go over the next day and we ring the doorbell and no joke 7 kids run to the door and we ask for Alberto and the girl ask who are you and we told her that we were here to share a message about Jesus Christ and she said oh I love Jesus come in. So we begin teaching Alberto then his sister joins then he tells us his parents are Muslim but want to be Christian and then his aunt or something says she wants all of her kids to be baptized! It was so cool! So we set a date with him for Dec 7. He was suppose to come to church but he didn't show up so we are going by today to see what happened and if everything is ok. 

Then we taught Grace and set a date with her too! She was also suppose to come to church but her son had Diarrhea. hahaha not funny but it was hilarious when i called her in the morning and she told me that. I guess that's a pretty good excuse!

 Yesterday I right after church a member came up to me that I didn't know. And she starts talking to me about dad. So I said yeah that's my dad! haha She thought I was a grandson or something! Apparently you're really old dad! haha She went to BYU in '79 and was there when you were QB also. She was pretty excited. So was her husband. He was a teacher there for a long time and they speak perfect English. That was really cool.

It was really weird being with the Nelsons Thursday night. I felt like I was at home. Crazy... It was really nice but just weird!!! haha Tell them thank you again for bringing my Christmas presents. The only complaint is that the school fuel tasted like the deodorant! hahaha it was nasty! :) But I still ate it! haha  * [see pictures and explanations below]

I have been studying a lot about love lately. And I have come to realize on my mission how important it is to have love. If you have love you will always do the right thing! Love is the key! If I love God I will always keep his commandments. If I love my companion we will be unified and little things wont bug me. If I love my investigators i wont be upset if they miss church but I will want to help them come next week. I wont be sad for myself but I will be sad for them. Love helps us turn outwards when the natural man would turn inwards. We don't think about ourselves when we love. I watched on the lords errand this week. It is a film about President Monson. He is a man of love. If we all loved like President Monson this world would be incredible! I love you all so much!!! 

Love Elder Bosco  

* [Sharon and Howie Nelson - our across the street neighbors and good friends- went to the Netherlands to pick up Kim at the conclusion of her mission- they got to visit with Dallin and take him his Christmas presents- yep- he asked for stick deodorant- and that's what he got!  Thanks Nelsons for the pictures and the exchange!]

Tom, an investigator who will be visiting Utah and getting baptized here!

Elder Bosco and Zuster Nelson until they meet again at home next summer!

A hug from Howie

Just a handshake for Sharon...

Howie, Kim, and Sharon Nelson at the hotel by the Mission Home

Elder Torniainen, a Finnish Elder serving in the Belgium/Netherlands Mission. His mother (then Sisar Repo) served in the Helsinki Finland mission in '86 when I (then Sisar Holt) did. What a small world!