Anything But Groaning in Groningen

First off, my sincere apologies for last week and the mad rush it was to email home with a 3 minute time bomb flashing at your face at an Internet cafe where you have no more change to add time and spell check wants to change everything you want to say in Turkish. Golly I hope the email was comprehendible.

 

Last Monday we decided then and there that the week would be a great week and that nothing out there would stop us from having a great week. Such a mentality has power to give you according to your desires. This week was a testimony to that.

We were able to recontact investigators that had dropped us and taught a few lessons, and the biggest one of them being JONES. Hallelujah. He had been traveling the last few weeks but we found him home and he expressed his desire to still be baptized so we took our ward mission leader Bro. Scherf on joint teach and taught about faith and repentance from the 3rd lesson. Bro Scherf testified of his experience of repentance before baptism and I know that the Spirit touched Jones and that it will help him continue progressing.

Delft and Den Haag

Wednesday heaven showered us with rays of Sunshine. President invited us over for lunch so we ate with him and zuster Robinson and said our goodbyes because they leave on the 1st. Really hard and strange but it is exciting for them to go back after 3 years of sheer dedicated service. I love them so much. We were contacting around the beautiful centrum then got a text from our investigator 10 minutes before our member lesson saying she was sorry for the notice but her boyfriend didn’t like that we were teaching her and threw her Book of Mormon away. We want to go over there and pep talk her into being a strong and independent woman but the setting is not too appropriate for that haha after all her name is Destiny, and she was just on the right path to finding hers...

So our joint teach came away and was awesome enough to do some look ups with us of people we had contacted the day before. Heavenly Father knew of the effort we had taken and 2 of those potentials let us in on the spot and we taught the Restoration with Ilyza with us on joint teach! So awesome to see such miracles when you do all you can to move the work forth. Awesome day.

This week we were in Groningen. (good luck finding that one on the map it is basically Germany) and it was a grand time. We actually got to meet with a woman named Nina and her husband and 2 little girls, of which are a referral from a Zuster in Dordrecht that I received after our Rotterdam performance back in April. It was sooo cool to go teach them and help her husband who has been trying to find faith for his wife who is so spiritually sensitive and loves the zuster missionaries there. It was amazing.

Ahhh we met with such cool members in Groningen. I love that ward simply because it is functional haha so sad but the members JUST GET IT. Nothing is better than when members just get it and nothing comes before living and moving the Gospel forward. Priceless.

We head to Leeuwarden this week now. Where they speak Fries. Not a dialect, not an accent. Another language. Hooray.

But the DRIVE up to Groningen is magnificent. Ah it is so beautiful. Last night coming home the sun peeked through the crazy Holland clouds and kissed the richly green landscape with the windmills and canals and it was simply out of this world.

WE are going to play beach volleyball right now and it is raining and windy. There is no such thing as summer in Holland. Seriously. You all say it is like 100 back in the states and you are boasting. That’s really cold of you. Shoutout to my sweats and sweaters because it is freezing here.

The strength of the members here is unbelievable. Once again. This continent is under the refiner's fire in regards to religion and standards yet the members in Belgium and the Netherlands all take the heat and are shaped into some of the most incredible people I have ever had the pleasure to meet.

I hope you had a good week. Shoutout to all the Father's back home for Father's day! Love you Dad thank you for all you do and the prayers and love you send. It is felt and seen in everyday miracles.

Also I got a flashlight as a father's day gift in Leeuwarden Sunday. Haha not a father but it lit up my world.

Love

Elder Trevan Scott Reese

Oh yes, we went to Germany this week as well at the border. Add that to the list.

June 15, 2015

 

Time flies when you are having fun.

Aka this week we have basically no time to email because we were renovating the Den Haag elders apartment so i will write a nice real big email next week.

SORRY

We did have a super coo lesson this week though and we taught in the temple with Kim and Huub. I will tell more next week.

I love you all

Elder Trevan Scott Reese

sorry again :(

 

Faith is Like Wi-Fi (part 2)

June 8, 2015

This week title is recycled due to my own ignorance and not even explaining it after titling it for last week's email.

I apologize.

When we were in Turnhout Branch 2 weeks ago in Belgium (#blessedland) the branch president’s wife gave a talk on faith to follow. She told us how faith can be compared to Wi-Fi, you can't ever see it but it connects you to everything you need. I thought it was pretty cool. But hopefully you don't lose signal.

....

Sorry that last week was such a bummer email. My condolences and apologies but these last 2 weeks have been frazzly.

Our work in Delft has slowed down a little bit but that isn't even a bad thing. We have been able to go and find a lot and have taught a couple new people and set up return appointments so #newinvestigators added to the stack. Our soul harvest is looking lively.

This week we have been busy at a member’s home recording an album of 6 songs for our project so unfortunately that ate up way too much time in the week but I got all my parts done so Elder Shaw and I can go out and do something while the others do theirs.

Oh yes I forgot. We had 2 performances this last week, the surprise one in Zoetermeer.. And the one Saturday in ANTWERPEN. The one in Zoetermeer was also recorded and I have a DVD so I can send it home for you all to watch :) but it is in Dutch hahahaha sorry but that's the language of the land here. The language of the spirit is universal though

The concert in Antwerpen was just as you would expect being in Antwerpen. Out of this world. It was like 900 degrees in that tiny chapel but 200 something people still came from all over Vlaanderen and people really enjoyed it and enough tears were shed to resolve the California drought.

Hence it went well.

One particular story was of a member in the Turnhout Branch who has been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer at the age of 40 or so. She has 2 children who are teenagers and her husband, all strong members and all amazing people. We stopped by for our appt. about the project and as I said the opening prayer I was prompted to pray specifically for her children and their spiritual well-being. As it closed Zr Van De Waard was already crying and the spirit was so strong. That day was this last Friday which was about 30 degrees or like 90 in Fahrenheit with humidity that would drown even a fish. As evening came and we met with the family and a massive summer thunderstorm came in and pounded Belgium, but as we began to sing Where Can I Turn for Peace the storm calmed and they could hear us. We then sang another number for her that is on the album about crossing the divide in life and she was touched so much. I can’t describe the experience let alone across email. As we left and drove away the storm picked back up and rattled the town but for those 15 minutes where we sang and testified, I have no doubt the Lord calmed the elements to allow for this woman to be healed through His Atonement and love.

Yesterday we got to go to church in Den Haag aka HOME for the 5th time ever in my 4 transfers here... Kim and her daughter Angel came (she is the member trying to stop smoking and her husband wants to be baptized) and they had a great time. Angel is 3 and can be a devil with her behavior haha but it went well, she loved nursery and the members in Den Haag were so solid in helping out, as Always in this wonderful place. The testimony meeting was fantastic and they have to tell members to try and cycle through the members because everyone wants to bear testimony every month and there is never enough time haha

I hope you all had a wonderful memorial day last weekend and that you took the time to reflect on the ones who gave their all so we may have what we do. NEVER forget that. Take pride and passion in your homeland. Especially with the women’s world cup that is here now ;)

I had some hilarious moments this week too namely because we travelled and toured Gent and Brugge last week (we get to go all over Europe it is so cool) and Miranda Sings was in Antwerpen THE DAY WE WERE THERE. So I talked like her for a day and introduced her to a member that we party with in our concert, Marcia, and killed myself laughing.

I have come to appreciate so many things that I have taken for granted before. I have 3 pins on my bag given to me by 3 different people who mean a lot to me. A BYU pin from Elder Bosco to never forget where my sights are set. A Dutch/USA pin from my mom to never forget where I come from. And a Delft blue pin given to me by Elder Pouwer who just finished his mission and left the music group to never forget exactly where I am.

Beauty lies within the simplest of things.

Make it a killer week. It depends on you.

Elder Trevan Scott Reese

Faith is Like Wi-Fi

June 2, 2015

Sorry I gotta be short again but this week was a roller coaster.

We drove all over the entire country of Belgium this week haha and I fall more in love with it every day. SO green and SO pristine. At one point we were about 3 minutes from the border of France and the Northern hills where all the famous wineries are. SOO COOL.

Last night we had a surprise performance of our project.

...yeah...

But it went awesome and we got word this project has gone GLOBAL.

WHAT.

We are world famous hahaha

President Robinson has received calls and letters from mission presidents around the world about how they can do this project and stimulate referrals and such. There were several baptisms these past weeks of people who began or further took their investigation after our fireside.

We visited an old Belgian cemetery this week from the world wars which was awesome!

Love

Elder Reese

May 26, 2015

This week was amazing and I will try to sum it up in a few words.

Belgium. Is. Golden.

That's it. As if you didn't already know.

We worked in Sint-Niklaas this last week as were able to see a baptism of the elders there and a confirmation in Gent from the Elders there as well. Such a cool Sunday.

 

This last week I made friends with 5 year old Robert in Sint Niklaas and gave him my nametag last week in church. His mom said he wore it to school to tell everyone he was going to be an elder and baptized in 3 years. He wears it all around the house and wore it to church to find me again and say he was going to be an elder hahaha

He is the cutest little boy.

Things in Delft are being left to no comment because Jones is having difficulty going to church and a couple investigators asked for a little bit of time to read in the Book of Mormon before we meet so we are praying they do and we get to see them again soon.

We met with students from BYU this last week which was cool to eat with them Wednesday night in Delft and I met 13 students and 2 professors from the University of Kansas and helped reroute them to Amsterdam when the Delft train station was emergency evacuated (again).

This week Elder Pouwer is going home from our project but he is here with his parents for a while so that will be cool to see them all. I will be driving all over Belgium and Holland this next 2 weeks so that should make things interesting on the European roads.

Sorry for the boring email but we have been slammed for time and had interviews on P day so everything has been crunched.

Elder Trevan Scott Reese

Back in the baby city of ANTWERPEN

Me and Robert haha

There Is No Place Like Home - May 18, 2014

They say life is like a box of chocolates.

I don't know who 'they' are but that phrase really doesn't make sense to me.

Music in the bushes = Artistic Flare, hmm.  Spiders!?

HELLO YE

Another week come and gone. This Irish flare is brought to ye in honor of my favorite member of whom I visited last night in the beloved city of Antwerpen. Yes, I saw the Schiltz' again.

This last week we performed our fireside 3 full times for the zone conferences in Antwerpen, Rotterdam, and Zoetermeer. It was pretty stressful having to play the piano for an hour and half straight and perfectly 3 days in a row but I was definitely aided though it this last week.

Delft - I think

Zone Conference

We had an incredible zone conference (x3) in which we learned that coming this summer our mission will be receiving iPads! The buzz is up around the mission about it and I am excited with all the training we received but I will be honest, it doesn't faze me that much that we are getting them. It will make emailing and maps much nicer but I am afraid that it will become a master and not a servant. Hopefully not though and it is definitely inspired so things will all work well.

Dress up on P-day

We were able to give Jones a blessing this last week because he was sick but his baptism is being postponed for a while because his church attendance is lacking. IT is pretty frustrating because we aren't at church either because of the project and so it is so difficult to get everything managed through phones and members and then we aren't even there to support it. We are praying hard to know what to do for him and so we should see some progress as we are led.

We met with Pepijn again (I think I told you about him) and he really enjoyed the plan of salvation! We will teach him again this week and he is really solid in learning and is genuinely curious. Also we met with the De Bruijns again and will set up their program tomorrow to help them stop smoking.

More of Delft - I think

I really can't describe my experiences back in Antwerpen this week. I love that city with all of my heart and it doesn't seem to want to give me my heart back. I loved being able to talk with the members more freely in Dutch now and to see them all again. They are all excited about the project too which is cool to see that support from those that I love. We also taught an investigator from the zusters and she is a self-referral with 2 kids and a husband who all listened to our message. We watched the Because of Him video and sang for her and she was in tears as we shared the Spirit with her. She is sooo cool and the part I found cool was that she lives on a street that Elder Shelton and I have knocked before. She was one of those homes where either no one was home or at the time or the interest wasn't there. But Heavenly Father prepares people in His own due time and now she is a solid progressor that is willing to get to our fireside even if it has to be in a wheelchair (she has a hip problem).

It is very refreshing to be back in Delft. It has been a week since we have been home and a week too long haha

I hope you all have a killer week

Elder Trevan Scott Reese

O Het Is Wonderbaar, Wonderbaar Voor Mij

O Het Is Wonderbaar, Wonderbaar Voor Mij

Scathing Holland: Week 15

Holland Orange

What a week we had this week. Sooo full of miracles and amazing experiences. Tuesday we were on exchanges with the zone leaders and we both blitzed Delft which was awesome because it doubled our force there so we could get twice as much done. We visited Bart with a member and were able to teach him about the plan of salvation through the Book of Mormon to solidify his testimony of its truth. We had a great lesson and he pointed out how he really enjoyed the personal experiences and attachments we had to what we were teaching and the feelings it brought to him. We had Theo, the member, invite him to come to church and he came yesterday! Of course we weren't there....because we are inactive in Den Haag but our ward mission leader Bro. Scherf took great care of him and Theo was there too.

Lunch at Ikea

Also Vilma, the Colombian inactive that we played therapist with last week, has come to back to church twice now and both times with a friend who isn't a member! She is doing great and asks the teacher what she can read to prepare for the lesson next week. She told us that she wants us to teach her two friends from Spain and Ecuador who both have a little interest. Suuuuper cool.

Wednesday consisted of:

-contacting on the street and finding a former investigator from the Den Haag Zusters who lost her when she moved and then talking for an hour on the street and getting her new info.

-rain and wind

-knocking on doors and finding a Dutch man studying to be a boat navigator who let us in and we taught the restoration and committed him to baptism when he comes to know the truth

-sunshine

-visiting Vilma and hearing about her church experiences and friends

-rain and wind

-eating dinner with an inactive member whose husband wants to quit smoking and be baptized

-sunshine

-teaching jones about the temple with the 2nd counselor in the bishopric who is the coolest guy ever

-wind (but no rain!)

#streetlyfe

We also had our 4th performance for our project this week and we were in Haarlem with a record breaking 221 people in attendance (WHAT) #newrecord

Also Haarlem is where the Best 2 years was filmed so shout out to that movie set life as a European missionary. Train station is gorgeous too.

Knocking on doors

But I must say one of if not the best part of the week was yesterday morning, attending church in Antwerpen for the project and seeing everyone from my first area again! It was such an awesome welcome and everyone thought I was back to stay haha but it’s just for the project. IT was soooo amazing and one of the most emotional experiences I have had here. It was also a lot of fun to talk to everyone in Dutch hahaha because I could say nothing as a greenie. We will visit the members this week and I can’t wait.

We have to perform 3 times this week for zone conferences which will be......exhausting.

Things are not only rollin' here but they are T-R-U-C-K, they keep on truckin' all the way.

Shout out to American football with that one.

Have a great week!

Love

Elder Trevan Scott Reese