Week 102: Rubrics Cube

Elder Crockett and me

Monday, October 23, 2017

Last week I didn’t know how to solve a Rubrics cube, but now I do! Elder Young taught me how. I have a video of me doing it. I can do it faster now, though. I’ll send a link to it.
https://drive.google.com/a/myldsmail.net/file/d/0B9iCptpzBAAPWF9fUHgzcndwSGM/view?usp=drivesdk

It is interesting that they changed the General Conference schedule, but I think it is better. Also, they are having an open house for a 6 story church building in Chicago. Unfortunately I won’t be able to go. Here is the link to the event on Facebook though! 
https://www.facebook.com/events/133884303919893

We finished setting up all the smartphones for the Mission this week. Elder Crockett really got into it haha. He put a lot of screen protectors on the smartphones haha.

The Assistants had to go down to Peoria on Sunday, so we went to the two appointments they had after church. It was pretty cool. He first one we were just going to help a potential investigator set up an account on familysearch, but she got discouraged and her friend had a lot of questions for us. Part way through the conversation, she got
the motivation to set it up and we helped her with that. It was a great conversation and I got a HUGE Deja Vu moment. I’m pretty sure I had that moment in a dream before.. It was really weird! Anyway, they want to see how the church works, so they will come to church soon.

The next appointment later on was interesting. They thought we weren’t on for the day, but we had a good conversation about the scriptures. It was funny because I had met the dad a year ago while I was serving
in the YSA ward. His foster son became a member in August.

It has been getting colder and colder! It’s horrible! Haha.

Ethan and Dominique from my last area are actually on date for December 10! Whoo! They are so adorable!

I just heard that one of the members in my last area was in a car accident and died! It was such shocking news!

I am so glad for the knowledge of the gospel! I know that God loves us and that death is part of the plan. Through the Atonement of Christ, all things will be set right. I know that my Redeemer lives to comfort us and help us. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love,

Elder Kloosterboer

Cool sky

Elder Crockett and a member, Faith, practicing for singing a song

Me haha

Phones!

Rubrics cube

SLC shot glass lol! 

The phones we set up

They are sleeping during studies! Eeeee! LOL

Us and Elder Atkinson with the phones 

Us and Elder Glines with the phones

Very spicy chicken wings from the assistants; it was good though. 

Week 101: It’s the Final Transfer! De duh duh .. duh..... de duh duh uh duh..

Our Carshare

Monday, October 23, 2017

Dominique and Ethan from my last area!

It was an interesting week. I personally found out for sure that we were getting smartphones in the mission Wednesday afternoon when I saw the package in the Mission office. So that was cool. We helped set them up and put the screen protectors on the phones. Friday was a stressful but fun day. The night before, the Assistants called us saying they had just received a call from the President that we would be handing out the phones the next morning (Friday) to the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders. So, we coordinated a ride to the Mission office and we got more phones that we set up as much as we could. As Elder Crockett was putting screen protectors on, I was making an excel spreadsheet for the numbers to port over.

We ended up going to the Stake Center a few miles away so we could do our training, but then we called the T-Mobile guy in Utah about the situation of the SIM cards and he said they were ready to go. So, we got to drive one of the Zone Leaders’ cars, a Subaru, and that was nice. I’ve been used to a Rogue and a RAV4 and you can see so much more in a Subaru.

Anyway, we went to the T Mobile store and got the SIMs, went back and listened in MLC for about 20 minutes, did our training, and finished setting up the phones. Very stressful haha, but we got all the phones to the Leaders and then ate our lunch at 4:30 or so.

Also, today, Elder Crockett bought his own phone and put it into compliance. And, the phones activated today with Colorado numbers! 😂😂  They will be swiping to the correct numbers soon, though.

We did do proselyting this week, though. We went biking in the rain. We have no investigators right now, but we do have a potential, so we will find some people to teach this week.

There are a ton of people in this ward. I went from 40 people at church to 240 people at church! I’m not going to know all these people before I leave...

We went Disc Golfing today! It was slightly drizzling, but it was fun!

On Sunday, we were at an intersection and just left when the the rain just all of a sudden came. It was crazy... here we were on a peaceful cloudy day and the rain crashed down!

Also, I went pretty close to Chicago out of the Mission because our driver for the transfer van accidentally put the wrong address (city) in his gps. I was like, “I have never seen the city so big before...”

Love,

Elder Kloosterboer

Me and the McLaurins

A big German pancake!

A new smartphone

The smartphone compared to our dumb phone

Chicago Skyline!

Where we were on the map.

Harlem train station!

The trash hill of Chicago in Pontiac area.

The wrong Ridgeland Ave in another city!

Us after Disc Golfing.

Week 100: Bringing Back Tech Elders?!?

  
I got this pass along before my mission by SLC Temple Square Missionaries and we are now just getting them spread around our mission. The app has improved, though.   http://smartyt.ag/cf1ffb Now you can listen to it!

With Gary, our recent convert!

What! I got transferred! Was not expecting a call..

Monday, October 16, 2017

I’m getting transferred to Woodridge. They attend the same church building as the Naperville YSA, so I will see if I will come in contact with people I knew over a year ago in that ward.

The reason for the title is because I will be a tech Elder with Elder Crockett. We will be training on new things coming up concerning technology. So that will be interesting. Also, we will be rooming with 2 other elders, Elder Young and Elder Calder.

Elder Roundy is becoming co senior companions with Elder Norton! So he is basically skipping his last 6 weeks of training, but then not, too. Lol...

This week Howie called me about something with the branch. So that was fun!

Oh and do you see my week number...? I am on triple digits!

We got Ethan and Dominique to come to church this week. They have wanted to come and we finally decided to let them. They are younger kids and their mom is still ill, so they came by themselves. A member drove them. They had a great time. They are so cute, though!

Oh, and I had been behind on my journal writing for some time and I finally caught up all the way! So that is a relief!

Love,

Elder Kloosterboer

With Aaliyah and DJ

With Aaliyah

Our Zone-District picture (Elders Jewell, Lloyd, Roundy, Wilson, and Whipple; Sisters Wilson, Wynn, Beckstrom, and Reynolds; Elders Nelson, Lewis, Hefner, Buckway, and Kloosterboer) (Sister Pace and Sister Allison got emergency transferred out and Elders Jewell and Lloyd replaced them.)

With our cool server!

Two cool horses

Week 99: We finally got a Branch Mission Leader!

President Griffin, Elder Roundy, and me at our house.

Monday, October 9, 2017

I was reading in Exodus this morning and in Exodus 16:7 it says “and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord.” The Israelites were murmuring against Moses and Aaron because they were hungry and thought that staying in Egypt would have been better where they had some food at least. Now, Moses and Aaron say that they were actually murmuring against the Lord because Moses and Aaron were just doing what he was asking and they were His servants.

So, remember that whenever we murmur against our church leaders, whoever they are, we are murmuring against the lord. That doesn’t mean we can’t give kind suggestions and have our voice be heard and be helpful, though, as they are imperfect people, as we all are.

We got the new Area Book Planner app this week and it is interesting. Overall, it is better because of the planning. Its scheduling and calendar can use an update, though.

We taught Stacey this week and she has a lot of faith in God, so it was fun to talk to her. She is very interested in the restored gospel and really likes the Book of Mormon so far.

Gary and Clarence were confirmed this week, so that was great!

Haha, we went to Gospel Doctrine this week and the teacher moved the class to the back so that we would be closer to each other.

Our previous Branch President is now the Branch Mission Leader haha.

We are also helping a few people with family history and that has been fun!

I’m starting My Plan tomorrow. That is the Planning thing for missionaries about to go home.

Love,

Elder Kloosterboer

Elder Roundy in front of our house

Me in front of our house

Beautiful sunset

I was getting Wi-FI  from that Taco Bell from where I am in this
picture! Crazy long range!

Spider

Spider

Dead animal in front of our parked car that we were cleaning to get
rid of the bugs

Week 98: “I Go Home Next Month”

Getting ready for bed on an air mattress on the floor

Monday, October 2, 2017

I forgot to mention that a County here, Stark County, with Toulon in it, used to be super anti Mormon. 30 or so years ago it was illegal for a church member to stay over night there...

It was a good week. A lot of meetings.. we had New Missionary Training on Tuesday and we went to Bolingbrook the night before to sleep over there so we wouldn’t have to wake up too early They got a new apartment so that is nice for them. I went in the old apartment last year...

The mission is going more hardcore on online proselyting. Some new resources came out including something called “How do I fulfill my purpose” that is actually replacing chapter 8 in Preach My Gospel including the Weekly Planning. So that is fun. We tried it a bit this week.

We were motivated to give 4 copies of the Book of Mormon on Wednesday as that was a goal that we could shoot for and we gave out 5 after District Meeting. We only had 3 at 8pm but we saw a potential and went there and found some cool people there.

Also, we taught a person named Faith about faith. So that was fun.

General Conference was good! It was interesting when the last Speaker, Elder Anderson, included things from each session and talked about how Elder Hales died 3 hours before. So I guess they will be calling a new
apostle soon. I wonder who it will be.

Oh yeah, we were finally able to meet with Jon Jon, one of our investigators. He actually brought a friend with him, so that was awesome. Haha, it was a bit stressful just before that going through literally every active male member in Kewanee and some less actives to see if they could pick him up. The last person could.

The friend, Shareef, wants to be baptized after we talked about what it is. That’s cool.

I know that the gospel is true and that Jesus really loves us. In the name of Christ, amen.

Love,

Elder Kloosterboer

I sprayed the wasp in the sink (then cleaned it very well)

Lots of blood on our car!

Matthew and Ben Diamond at General Conference! What! Haha

Tamales! They were good!

Watching General Conference with Brother Dedecker and Sister Cordrey.

My area compared to the Salt Lake Valley (same scale) (Blue = Less Active, Black = Active, Light Gray = Former, Dark Gray = Potential, Yellow = New Investigator, Red = Other Investigator, Green = Progressing Investigator)

New Area Book! It will be better and worse for different things! (No
more less active marking...)

Mobile Device Standards - looks like part of a missionary handbook.

How Do I Fulfill My Purpose? Is replacing How Do I Use Time Wisely
(Chapter 8 in PMG)