Temple Conference and Keukenhof!

April 13, 2015

Hello everyone!

I'm sooo excited for Cierra! That’s so awesome! I really want to visit Italy. Haha tell her to send some pics from Italy to me! This week was really good. We had a potluck dinner at church after sacrament meeting and then we visited an elderly member after. We went to the temple and it was a really great experience. Keukenhof is beautiful and the pictures don't show how beautiful it is. We got our transfer calls and I'm staying in Kortrijk! I love it here and I know the Lord called me here. We talked about in district meeting how we are called to certain areas in the mission because the Lord has a work for us to do in our specific areas. Our district leaders invited us to pray this week and ask God why we are serving in the areas we are in and try to focus on finding the reason we are here. As I go out and serve everyday, I find my answer. Faith takes action and the Lord will help and strengthen us as we do His will. This week was pretty busy with travel for temple conference. We took a train to Antwerpen on Tuesday and then bought tickets to Rotterdam Central. From Rotterdam, we were able to use our NS business cards and took a train to Den Haag where the ZL's picked us up and we stayed at their apartment for the night. We traveled with the elders from Bruges and Gent. The next day, we woke up and took a tram to the temple in Zoetermeer. It was a really great session. We all went to the church building in Zoetermeer and President and Zuster Robinson bought us pizza and then we took a bus to Keukenhof, which was amazing. I might stay in Kortrijk another transfer after this because Elder Price is dying (going home) after this transfer and a new elder will come in. Love you guys, have a great week!

Love, Elder DeWitt 

Happy Easter!

April 7, 2015

Hi everyone!

Thank you so much for that inspiring poem and for the e-mail! I really enjoyed the poem and something our mission president told us is that when we have faith in Christ, it leads to action. The man who moved the mountain did not waste time and was not slothful; he knew what he had to do and went to work knowing that the Lord would strengthen him.

I had such a good week and General Conference was so good and powerful. I know the prophet and the apostles are called of God and are inspired. We spent Easter at Luc and Vivian Leman’s house and watched the Priesthood session in the morning there with his son Angelo and Angelo's sons, Aaron and Absalom. They're all such good people. When we got to their house, Vivian had the entire place decked out with Easter decorations and chocolate everywhere. After the session, more of the Leman's came over and we all had a big Easter lunch with them. Luc had on a big bike race called the Tour de Flanderen. It's a really big cultural thing here and he used to be a professional cyclist, so everyone was really into it. We played soccer outside and the weather was beautiful. It was so much fun and it was like I was at a family Easter gathering back home. We left to go to Eric’s house to watch the Saturday evening session. He is a single guy in his 60's who is awesome. We biked there which took a little bit longer than expected because a bridge was out. We found another route and arrived just in time. He loves when we come over and it’s always so fun to go over and spend time with him.

Elder Price and I are traveling to Nederland today to sleep over at the Den Haag elders' apartment so we can be at the temple on time tomorrow. It's going to be a busy day of traveling but I can't wait to go to the temple and see the gardens at Keukenhof. I'll take a bunch of pictures and send them next week. Transfer calls are coming this Sunday and I might be getting transferred. I would really like to stay here in Kortrijk my whole mission but I'll go where ever I'm called. Love you guys so much and I keep all of you in my prayers. It's so great that you guys have the missionaries over for dinner. Tell them I say, “Hi” and thank them for serving. I love you all and have a great week! Our investigators are doing well but they haven't come to church yet. A lot of people have work on Sunday here and it's hard for them to get to church. We keep praying for them and we taught the plan of salvation to Styn this week. The Spirit was so strong and we asked him a lot of questions which is one of the best ways that I've found of teaching. Love you guys, have a great week.

Love, Elder DeWitt :)  

Happiness in Helping

March 30, 2015

Hey Everyone!

I'm praying for every one in the family and let them all know that I'm thinking about them. I'm really happy that you got to go see The Hobbit at Edmond Town Hall and go to Pepe's after! Those were always really fun nights. It's great that Dad and Caleb got to go give Grandma the sacrament and that Dad gave her a blessing. Do you know Grandma's E-mail? You sent it to me once but it was really long and funny looking. It's good to hear that KC is doing well. Elder Price and I are going to a castle in Gent today and I'll take pictures :)

This week was quite rustig (quiet). Elder Price was sick in bed all week and I wasn't feeling too good either. We are feeling better now and should be getting back to our normal schedule this week. We got to help out a member in the ward this week with yard work and he was really happy. He's an older guy who's awesome and we had a great time helping him move tree stumps and planting new trees. One of the things I've learned is that when I’m helping other is when I feel my best. It brings true happiness and I really recognize that and try to look for opportunities to help people. We also had zone training in Antwerpen this week and it was really good. President and Sister Robinson will be leaving in  two transfers and these will be the last few zone activities we will have with them. They're such good people and I know they're inspired to help the people and their missionaries here in Belgium and the Netherlands. At the end of zone conference a few missionaries were called to go up and bare their testimonies about how the Spirit plays a roll in their mission and in their life. I was called and it was a good experience. I talked about how the Spirit guides and directs us in all that we do even when we're not entirely sure what we should do. As we go forward in faith, God will be at our side and the Spirit will teach and inspire those we talk to. I shared 2 Nephi 32:2-3 about how through the Holy Ghost, we can speak with the tongue of angels and speak about Christ.

Temple Conference is next week and we get to go to Keukenhof after! I can't wait. I love going to the temple and going to Keukenhof is going to be so beautiful! I'll take tons of pictures. Love you guys so much! I hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder DeWitt

Peace in Living the Gospel

Mar 23, 2015

Hey everyone!

I'm happy it's starting to warm up in the northeast! You guys should start looking for a house down south and move there this year! That would be sweet. Happy birthday Dad! How old are you? Almost 50? haha grapje (joking). I hope you have a great year and I'm so happy you're my dad and for all the great times we've had. Love you Dad. I remember going to the movies and then going to Pepe's after! How was the third Hobbit? Kaylee is coming home so soon! That's crazy. Does it seem like she's been out for a long time? It's going to be so cool for you guys to see Kaylee come home! And Cierra is going to Italy in a few weeks! She's going to love it. Make sure she speaks a lot of Italian and tell her to say, “Hi” to missionaries if she sees them there. I met some missionaries in the MTC who were going to Italy. She's going to want to bring enough clothes because she's probably not going to wash any there. The hotels aren't like American hotels. They are not as modern. I guess it depends on where you go. She'll probably want an adapter and she'll be good. Does she have a passport? Make sure she has it with her all the time and if police stop her tell her to play the American card and to make sure she gets her passport back after they scan it. She's going to love it. Italy is beautiful and let her know that she doesn't have to take too many pictures but to enjoy it while she's there. I'm really excited for her. I want to visit after my mission.

Elder Price and I had a really good week and we found a lot of new people. We taught a good amount of lessons this week and I asked someone if they would be baptized after they found out if these things were true or not and they said, “Yes!” It was such a cool experience. I know the peace that comes from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I love sharing it with others. We have district meeting once a week on Tuesdays and have weekly planning usually on Fridays. We were too busy this week for weekly planning so we'll probably do it today. Weekly planning takes about three hours for us. I love you guys so much and I hope you have a good week! Make sure you guys are good missionaries too. Try to find people for the missionaries to teach and ask if they need joint teaches. Missionaries love that. I'm really excited for Cierra. She's going to have such a good time in Italy.

Love Elder DeWitt

Easter Referrals

March 17, 2015

Hey Everyone!

Just got back from district meeting in Gent and the weather is so nice today! The sun is out and district meeting was great. We talked about recognizing the Spirit and how it is so important in the work we do. Kortrijk is a pretty big city and our area also covers a big area. Our area covers West Flanderen all the way to Popperinge. We don't go to the western half a lot because it takes so much travel time on the train but we have been getting out there lately for Easter referrals from Facebook. You guys should definitely move to South Carolina or Georgia. That would be sick! Do you know when Erik leaves for his mission? I e-mailed Dalton from university and Eric. Dalton is in Sao Paolo Brazil and Eric is in Mexico. They're both doing really well and it's really good to hear from them. Elder Price and I have been talking to a lot of people this week on the street and knocking a lot of doors. It's hard to get in and teach a lesson but we're trying to find people. We have faith :) The Easter referrals are nice because some of them are interested in Christ and God. For the Easter referral campaign on Facebook, people order the Finding Faith in Christ DVD and then we go deliver it to them and talk about Jesus Christ with them and testify of Him. Then we make a return appointment (hopefully) so we can teach them about the restoration and so forth. This week has been great and we have been working with a lot of the members lately. The Kortrijk Branch is full of really good people. Our ward mission leader is the a really cool guy who used to be a professional cyclist and he won a really big race years ago and raced in the Tour de Flanderen ook (also) competed in the Tour de France. Love you guys! Beste wensen (Best wishes).

Love,

Elder DeWitt  

p.s. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Learning from King Benjamin

March 9, 2015

Hey Everyone!!!

I'm so happy that Ci got into BYUI!!! That's so awesome!!! I love you guys so much and thanks for the e-mail! Will I be home for spring track? I finish July 20th next year. Sounds like there's a lot of snow on the East Coast :) Cierra got to go on her final ski trip! Did you guys go? Thanks for the bit from Kaylee. She's a great missionary and she gets it. She really understands the work and loves the people. Haha we make jokes all the time how sister missionaries are way better than elders. They're awesome and they bring something that elders don't have. They're awesome. The patats are delicious and that’s a really big dish here. Friets are sometimes just eaten as a dish here and that could be an entire meal. It's kind of funny how people make fun of Americans and cheeseburgers when all they eat here are just a bunch of fries. People also get offended if you call them French fries because they take pride in their friets.

This week has been full of a lot of exciting things. I said good bye to Elder Lindstrom, and exchanges were on Wednesday. We exchanged in Antwerpen Central which is a beautiful place. You guys should look it up on the internet. We did a lot of contacting this week and it almost got to 60°! The weather is starting to get warmer and it's so nice. I think I want to live in a tropical place in a few years on the ocean. We have 6 new potential investigators, and we have afspraken (appointments) with them next week. We've been giving a lot of Book van Mormons away and we're seeing so many of the blessings that the Lord promises to us while we are on a mission. Elder Price is a great missionary and is a really hard worker. He only has one more transfer after this one and his Dutch is great. It's still pretty difficult to completely understand people when they are talking but I can say pretty much all of the things I want to say. Something I've learned this past transfer is to have faith and trust in the lord. If we do this, everything will go well and He will turn us into something we could never become on our own. He wants us to have happiness and joy in this life and He will help us. I love you guys so much and I hope you have a great week!!! Love you all and I'll keep doing my best to serve the Lord. I really like Mosiah 2 when King Benjamin speaks to his people. You should read it for family home evening! It's brought me a lot of comfort on my mission and has helped me to turn outward instead of inward. I love you all so much and I hope you have great week!