Interviews Begin in Amsterdam

Oh, how we love the opportunity to go throughout the mission every three months and have some one on one time with all of our missionaries! We started in Amsterdam with the Amsterdam district. President Brubaker asked every missionary to come prepared to teach him the 1st lesson in 3-5 minutes. He wants them to become dramatically better teachers! This way he can see how they are coming along, and where they need to make improvement. I also got to talk to them about not such weightier matters......healthy eating, exercise, budgeting, and just got to know each one of them a little better!

The Deleeuw's were up the next day so excited to meet their district! We were amazed that the were there! Jet lag did not slow them down at all!

Amsterdam District

l-r Elder and Zuster DeLeeuw, Elder Larsen, Elder Guanuna, Elder Mickelsen, Elder Crittendon, Zuster Jeffs, Zuster Stout

In the afternoon we met with the Almere District.

l-r Elder and Zuster Salden, Elder Merrill, Elder Schouw, Elder Fullmer, Elder Seaman, Elder Taylor, Elder Ellis, Elder Davis, and Elder Li

On Thursday we met with the Den Haag District. We met at the mission office in Leiden. During our interviews Elder Benson was in charge of district meeting.

l-r Zuster Ence, Zuster Perry, Elder Burgess, Elder Calkins, Elder Jones, Elder Benson, Elder Frahm, Zuster Tanner, Zuster Herring, and Elder Mortensen

On Friday we got a really early start to miss the worst of the traffic, and spent the day with the Eindhoven District.

l-r Elder van Overbeek, Elder Andrews, Zuster Palenikova, Broeder Harry, Zuster Hill, Elder Cundick, and Elder Hyer

Saturday morning, our GPS just couldn't figure out where we were!

It thought it knew the "Best" way to go! Unfortunately for the elders in Gent, Belgium, they were not in Best! Eventually President Brubaker put his mapping skills to the test, and beat the GPS! We finally showed up a little late to the Gent Church!

We had very patient missionaries waiting for us!

Gent District

l-r Elder Hawkley, Elder Wilcken, Elder Maughan, Elder Shoemaker, Elder Stoddard, and Elder Brown

President Brubaker took a few minutes before interviews and District meeting to talk to the missionaries about learning how to become master teachers by studying the Joseph Smith history. We learn from the visitation of Moroni to Joseph Smith that:

1. He called him by name

2. He taught from the scriptures

3. Ponder what he had learned

4. Repetition-Moroni visited Joseph Smith three times and repeated the same instructions four times.

We had a very productive and great week with half of our mission. More interviews next week!