We Got Snow!

Fam!

 It was so great talking to you this week. :)

We had an interesting end to the week. We collected all of the clothes and on Thursday we passed them out. It was really great! we found a couple of people that we will be trying to teach this week which will be super awesome! We were giving out clothes and this lady says Jesus Christ in French. So I usually have french pamphlets with me but I grabbed it and gave it to her and it turned out to be spanish! hahaha I felt so stupid! But another Elder had a french book of Mormon and we were able to give it to her and a sister could speak a little french so we got her number and we are going to have Mupepe help us with this one :)

 Then Elder Lyman found a cool Suriname man that owns a diamond store so maybe we will get the hook ups? :) haha 

I also got to give a talk on Sunday. I talked about the Holy Ghost and how it speaks to us in many ways and how we can recognize it. I told the story of when I crashed on my bike but I had gotten a prompting to wear a helmet. I didn't realize it was a prompting until like a year or two ago. What was cool was that it was moms voice that told me to wear a helmet like she always did. Just like Enos how he remembered the words of his father. The spirit used moms words to save my life. I remember that the helmet was cracked because I hit my head so hard. Truly an amazing reminder to listen to the spirit. there were also less actives members there so hopefully my talk helped them. :) The following speaker was Bro De wilde. He is in the high counsel. He gave dad a shout out! haha He was on his mission and was praying that BYU would win. hahaha It was so funny! He gave a great talk though.

I also got our car stuck. That was terrible. We had to tow it out. But its good now. Still annoying.. haha But what can you do? :)

I love you all! I miss you. I cant wait to work hard for these next 7 months and then see all of you! I love my mission. Its been the hardest thing I have ever had to do and its tested me in a lot of ways. But it has shaped me into becoming the man God wants me to be. I'm not there yet. But I'm working on it. I know that He is with me every step of the way. :) I love you!!

Love Elder Bosco

Christmas Concert

Fam!

I can't wait to see you on Thursday! I have a lot to tell you! I have a really funny story to tell you on Thursday that you will love! Collin will probably laugh the hardest. Or maybe mom and Karissa because this could have happened to them! haha Who knows! 

We got to work with a lot of the sisters this week. I am super impressed! They are all really young missionaries but they know why they are here and what they are doing. It just goes to show if you have the right desires and truly want to serve the Lord he will bless you even if you don't speak the language perfectly! 

We also had a Christmas concert this week. It was really great! I love music! Its incredible. What a great day. 

Most of my week is the story I want to tell you on Thursday so this is a really short email. haha Did you get my package? I hope so. 

I love you all!! 

Love Elder Bosco

[We received this from a family from Dallin's previous area]

Dear Bosco Family,

Hi! How are you? We hope you are all doing fine.

Yesterday we saw Elder Bosco in Antwerp for the Stake Christmas Devotional, it was good to see him!

(we send you a picture)

He participated in the program with a choir of about 50 elders and sister missionaries, great!

We hope you will have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year!

Lieve groetjes from Vlissingen,

the Van Eijzeren's.

Planning and Studying Week

Fam

What a week.

 We did a lot of planning and studying for our zone training on Tuesday. Elder Lyman is also a genius so he has to program something for the mission and its not easy to program but he finally finished! haha Wednesday we sat in the train station all day sending off missionaries and receiving them. That was a crazy day! haha We didn't really get any sleep. We had to pick up people really late and really early to get them in the places they needed to be by a certain time and it was nuts. 

Some highlights from the week. We went and taught Loretta yesterday. We brought a man named John who just moved here from Ghana. He was perfect for her! She lives pretty far from the church but she loves it. Next Sunday we are going to travel with her and her 4 children to church. I love her so much! She is incredible! 

We also got to teach Belinda and Linda. They won't come to church though! Its so frustrating. But we are doing all we can do! What I love about our purpose as missionaries is its our commitment to find teach and baptize. If we are committed than God will help us fulfill our purpose but we must do it with Him. I have realized that too often I rely on my own strength. When I do that nothing goes right. 

On Tuesday I am talking about having faith not fear. I am so pumped. I have learned so much on this subject that has changed my life.

I read a talk called some lessons on faith and fear by Gregory Clark in speeches.byu.edu.[click on this link to read the speech].

Incredible talk. I encourage all of you to read it. The talk says it all :) 

Choose Faith over fear. I know it will bless your life! Its blessed mine! :) 

I love you! 

Love Elder Bosco

This week my picture is of my planner for the transfer :)

Cooking Skills and Car troubles

Fam!

I am staying in Antwerpen! This is my 4th transfer! By the end of it I will have been here for 6 months. How crazy is that??? I love it here though so its not to hard!

We had a solid week this week. I go to go on Exchanges with Elder Woltjen this week. And we had a great time together. We had a dinner appointment with Familie Van Gijsel. I love that family! Sister Van Gijsel is the sister of Sister Korstanje in Vlissingen and both have 3 boys. Every time I am with them I think of Wes and Coll. And I love it. It reminds me how much I love you guys and how much I miss my bros. Wes and Coll are my number 1 homies! :) (Shout out for having some solid games this week. I just bought you a gift and I will try to send it this week so you get it soon. I hope it fits!)

We also ate at a recently newly married couples house with Tom. At the end of the appointment Tom prayed. And wow... I was amazed. I was there at the first lesson of Tom and the progress he has made until now is incredible. His prayer was amazing. It was a really cool Experience. 

Today we are going to Brugge. Ive been there a couple times but not really in the centrum. So it will be really cool. 

Funny story of the week. So we are driving home from Genk which is about an hour and a half ish. haha. And about halfway home I hear this funny noise and then I feel something funny and I realize we have a flat tire going 100 kilometers per hour. So I quickly change lanes and pull off. Luckily we pulled off fast enough. It could have been really dangerous. So the emergency lane is literally two meters long. Really?? And there are semis going 100 kph flying past us. So we carefully get the jack and try to fix the wheel. Every time that we got it on the jack a semi would come by and basically blow the car off of the crappy jack! So we decide to call opel assistance. And We took an hour nap while we waited for the guy. And he came and literally fixed the tire in 2 minutes hahaha. Then we were just thrown off. Nothing crazy happened but its just one of those mission memories that I will never forget :)

Yesterday I put my cooking skills to use and made some fried noodles and Sushi. :) Lets just say my future wife is lucky! :) haha 

During my studies I have really tried to focus on how people show love to God and to other people. Of course I know love is important and we need to love everyone but how can we show them that we love them? It has been really good for me. I still am working on it but it has helped to see the different ways that I can show people I love them. I want them to feel Gods love for them when they are around me. I want them to know that God loves them. Its not easy! Definitely easier said than done. But I do know that love is the essence of the Gospel. With love we can do what God wants us to do. 

I Love you all!!

Love Elder Bosco

Sacrament Meeting in 3 languages

Fam!

We had an incredible week! 

First off we had our Turkey Bowl. It was so much fun playing football. Our zone is the most athletic zone in the mission so it was actually fun to play! haha :) 

Then we had two incredible days with Elder Moriera. (He is in the quorum of the 70) He gave a zone conference and then he was at our mission leader council. He is amazing. It was such a cool experience because after the conference I knew I needed to change some things and be better but not once did he get mad or try to make us change. He did it exactly how the Savior would and that is what makes a great leader. It was just incredible. 

So our week was kinda shot because we were with him but we still got a lot done. We have a new investigator named Prince and he is on date for the 27th of Dec. He is super awesome. He asks great questions and truly wants to know.

Miracle of the week. Our ward mission leader has been giving us less actives to look up and to teach the Restoration to. So last Sunday we got one and they live in Kalmthout. The next day we got a head quarters referral and she lives in Kalmthout. The name was Rikki, so we weren't sure if it was a Belgian or what but yesterday we went. And we rang the doorbell and no one answered but we could see a light on. So we tried again. Nothing. Then right before we left a car pulls into the drive way. And we ask for Rikki assuming its a guy but it turn out that its a 17 year old girl. And in my mind I say oh boy here is another referral that did it on accident and we told her we were from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and she goes oh yeah the Mormon church. Then she tells us she went on the website but that she is busy studying for her exams in the coming weeks and to come back in two weeks. Super cool. Then we did some contacting in the area and found some more people. 

We had a great week. This week is going to be even better. We are ready to get things rolling. 

Oh highlight of my week.. Mupepe blessed the sacrament today!!!! It was incredible. He did it in French! haha And I'm pretty sure I'm one of the only people to experience sacrament meeting in 3 languages. I had the french translator next to me and the English translator behind me and the service was in Dutch obviously. How cool is that?? :) It was really interesting. 

I love you all so much! Good luck this week Collin!! Go kill it bud!

Love Elder Bosco

 

Don Bosco is everywhere! I'm also famous!

 

[I guess we need to get going on our family history to see how we are related to all of these Boscos all over the world!]

 Dallin didn't send a caption with this one. But Volker, a visitor from the Netherlands, said that this is the dam in Amsterdam. I guess he had this picture from his visit last week to Amsterdam.