April 22, 2013 - Almere, Nederland

Guys, I'm really tired... I don't know why but I just barely got super sleepy... all my energy to type this letter just left me... so I think I'm going to skip it today...

Just Kidding! But seriously I'm really tired! This week has been so strange and weird, First was tuesday we went to the temple and Keukenhof that was super awesome! The temple is gorgeous and the spirit was super strong! I loved it, and I can't wait to go again in 6 months! Keukenhof was cool, I think mom and Dad would really like it, lots of photo opportunities, I'll see if it lets me attach some photos. All that took up the whole day so we just went home after that. The next day we went on exchanges and guess who I worked with for the day! Elder Pitts. It was both cool and sucky, it reminded me of how hard it is to work with him, but we also improved our relationship a little, one day is a lot easier than nine weeks. After that it was a pretty normal week, weekly planning, lots of hard work, we got a new investigator, he's a really cool guy named Jeroen and he's really excited to read from the book of mormon. Then I gave a lesson on sunday again!! they keep voluntering me for it! Its really stressful! So this week has been pretty weird, but on a high note, I started the Book of Mormon again and I'm loving it so much that I'm in Jakob already! This is the first time I'm just reading it like a normal book, along with my other studies, and its awesome!! I love it!

So how are all of you doing? You guys are making sure Mom doesn't ride in the car at all right? Especially with Erik or Emily... Well Erik I trust but not Em... Sorry. What is your guys' favorite talk from conference? Anyone get any really cool thoughts? Does anyone comment on my Missionary moment things? Guys talk you me!!

So I've talked about it a little before but this is what I gave my lesson on so its kind of already in my head. Today I want to talk about gifts of the Spirit but not as much on the 'What' But more the 'Why'. I've talked to you guys about that everyone has gifts of the spirit and that we need to develope them, but why? Why are we given gifts? We are given them so that we can share them with others, so that we can bless our lives and the lives of those around us. I will use Emily as an Example because I kinda bagged on her a few minutes ago, Emily can play music very well, it is a gift of the spirit, she now use that gift to bring joy into her live and to bring beauty and peace into the lives of others. In turn we all have gifts that we can use to bring joy to others, Erik is creative and artistic, and his drawings make me laugh everytime I look at them, Kristi is loving and has a desire to help others, and she shows it as she helps us in our times of trials. Mom and Dad are just awesome, I am eternaly greatful for their powerful testimonies and their love and sacrifice to raise us kids. Sadly I don't have time for all of you but you all have gifts and you all can use those gifts to bless others. Use your gifts, don't put your candle under the bushel, put it on the candle stick!

I love you all! Thank you so much for your support and love. The Lord loves our family. Grandpa got it right when he told me I was in one of the greatest families on earth! Stay strong! The gospel is true! Ik weet dat het evangelie van Jezus Christus waar is!

Love,

Elder Suckow

PS I don't mean to bug you guys... But I would really like some pictures and Andy's address... you don't need to send them in the mail, you can Email them to me, that's fine. andyway if you could do that that would be awesome, I've been trying to get some of the older missionaries to write Allie but they won't do it till i get a picture!

April 15, 2013 - Almere, Nederland

Hey Everyone!!

Hoe is het met alles? Alles gaat goed? Goed zo! (no translation)

So what's new everyone? Anyone doing anything fun? Anything exciting happening? I hope so because its spring time!! Well its raining right now, but besides that its beautiful weather!

Hows school going? Who's got the best grades right now? From what is seems Erik is doing better than Emily still. (Not to laugh at Emily at all) But the girls kinda have a reputation of having better grades than us guys so if he is winning then he is doing awesome! And if Em is winning then Erik you need to kick it up a notch.

So this week has been crazy and weird, I loved conferece but when we have weeks that have weird days then it just kinda makes the mood weird, normal missionary work feels strange and it takes more effort to get back into the groove. We had to drop our baptisimal dates, only the dates because Mikko is going to Finland for two months!! so we're going to have to figure something out but they're still awesome! We had to give them another Book of Mormon because it was too hard for them to share the one they had, they both wanted to read but only one can read at a time. Hehe, crazy huh? We don't really have any other investigators right now but that will change soon.

So I have an assignment that's due today so I will do that now.

This conference was, for me, one of the best we have ever had, so many inspired talks to apply! But my favorite is the talk given by Craig A. Cardon, "The Savior Wants to Forgive". I have a very strong testimony of the healing power of the Atonement, but this talk opened my eyes and my heart even more! We all fail, we all fall down, but sometimes it is a dificult thing to ask for forgiveness. But the Savior wants to forgive us! He knows we will fall down, He wants to help us back up. He has shown us both His power to forgive and also His desire for us to come to him. Let us go to him, Brothers and Sisters, I love my Savior, and love that I can share what he has done with others!

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I love you all! I love this gospel and our Savior! And I know He loves us!

Love,

Elder Suckow

April 8, 2013 - Almere, Nederland

Hello everyone!

How was conference? I thought it was one of the best ones we have ever had! I loved it! It will be dificult to decide which one was my favorite, I haven't even heard all of them. Because of the time difference we watch the Saturday Morning session at 6:00 on saturday and the priesthood session at 11 on sunday, saturday afternoon at 2 on sunday and then sunday morning at 6 on sunday, and that ends at 8 so we don't have time to sit and watch the last one so I didn't get to see sunday afternoon but I'm going to download it and listen to it for studies this week!

So easter was awesome, its not a super crazy holiday but a little bit, we all went to Amsterdam to play American football and we got a lot of weird looks but it was awesome!

Other than all that, this week has been pretty basic. We've done a lot of good hard work, I've been super tired but thats nothing new. Our investigators have been doing good, its been hard to keep contact with them and we don't know how much they are really progressing but we are going to work hard to keep things moving this week.

Things are finally starting to warm up here, its been cold and windy but its starting to act more like spring, thank goodness because now that canference is done we are able to stop wearing our suite coats but if its cold then that doesn't work. Also we get to go to keukenhof (the super big garden that they go to in best two years) but if its cold then the flowers wont be up! However that will also be our temple day and I've been longing to go to the temple for the longest time, i can't wait!! So that day will be awesome no matter the weather.

So I have to do an assignment for church next week so I'm not going to leave a big spiritual thought this week, just my testimony that I know this church is true with all my heart, it is led by men that have been called of God, I loved being able to sit and just learn from their words and to know that they were meant for me individually as well as everyone else that lets their heart and mind open up the the influence of the spirit! God knows what we need to hear and in turn reveals to the people speaking the words that they need to say in order to bless his children. This gospel brings peace and joy in ways that we cannot understand in this life. We can feel a portion of it and with that potion we can work our way to receiving a fullness of joy! I love this gospel so much and I am so greatful for the chance to be out here and share it with God's children!

I love you all, I love my Savior and your Savior, and I know he loves us in return. We are never beyond his reach if we just stick out our hand, he will make the difference.

Love, Elder Suckow

March 30, 2013 - Almere, Nederland

Hey everyone!

I guess no one got the memo that I was emailing early this week, because I didn't either! Easter is kinda strange in the Netherlands, just like Christmas there are two days, erste pas dag and twede pas dag (first passover day and second passover day). They have parties on Sunday and also Monday so everything is closed! Crazy huh? So this morning we discovered that we needed a day to Email and that next week we have no time so it either happened today or next friday and so we decided to do it today! Surprise! Actually it bumbs me out a bit because I was excited to read some Easter Emails, but you know... whatever.

So how is everyone doing? I hope easter goes good and that the kids aren't having too much fun on their brake, we wouldn't want that. Thank you guys so much for the package! I loved it! I took me a little while to understand the book, I still don't really get the volcanoe, the surfing and why the guy is sleeping in like every picture. But the last part I figured out... I think. I love Brenna's drawings! and Erik's book made me laugh super hard! Awesome buddy! And of course, the candy... you guys are trying to make me fat aren't you? Well its working, I woke up this morning and got on the scale and it said LO, all I could figure is that stands for LOoser, so even the scale is calling me fat! Gosh!

So there aren't really any questions for me to answer this week so I'll try and answer them without even knowing them! The waether has been rough here, we had a week of wind that, even though it was 5 degrees outside, it made a windchill of -10 or lower, it has been pretty cold. That should start to clear up, its getting a little better. Micco and Staphanie are doing great! They have only had the Book of Mormon for less than two weeks and they are almost done with 2nd Nephi! Crazy huh? They're a little superstishious (don't know how to spell that, say it how I spelled it and you will know what I'm talking about) So they have a Christ alter and stuff like that but the book of Mormon now is sitting on they're alter with the Bible! Kinda weird but awesome too!!

So Elder Mower is the District Leader, if I hadn't told you, and he asked me to give a bit of a talk in district meeting next tuesday on Virtue. So today I studied virtue and that's what I'm going to talk about today. What is virtue? We all know the verse in D&C 121 about leting virtue garnish our thoughts, but what is it? and how do we garnish our thoughts with it? Well it is they way we think, the way we allow our mind to oparate. I Preach My Gospel it says that a good way to juudge a man's virtue is what they do when they are alone and don't think that anyone is watching. What would we do? If we were placed in a room full of money and were told not to take any of it, however no one would watch us and no one would check us when we leave, what would we do? Would we justify taking just a little? Or would the virtue in our minds overpower that thought entirely and we would walk out empty? However our virtue is rarely tested out in the open. Maybe for some people when something is cool on the shelf of a store and they think no one is watching, but for most of us, that isn't a problem, our problem is in our own minds, only two people know our thoughts, us and God. And there are many times when we forget that God knows what we think, at those times is our virtue tested, do we allow an unrighteous thought to enter or do we instantly push it away? keeping our thoughts pure is very hard sometimes and no one is perfect at it but our mind can only allow one thing in at a time, if something good is there then evil can't enter but if we let our minds wander and stray just a bit from that good then temptation will try and force its way in. That is why we need to let virtue garnish our thoughts. Think of good things, a hymn or a scripture, so when the bad comes, there is no more room for it.

I love you all, I am so greatfull that I can be out here to learn and to grow. This is an exciting time, the world is changing and we are helping prepare the way for the second coming of our Savior! Lets do our part and be the leaders that we are meant to be! Lets keep our thoughts clean and pure! I love this gospel so much, the peace and joy that comes from it is more than I can ever ask for. Thank you for your love and suport and for being such an awesome family!

Love,

Elder Suckow

March 25, 2013 - Almere, Nederland

Hoe gaat het met alles? Ja, alles goed?

 

I'm not going to translate that, its simple enough for you guys to do.

 

So this is going to be the best transfer ever!! I can't wait! 1st off its just going to be awesome! 2nd General conference is this transfer! 3rd we get to have our temple visit!! Its been 5 months since I've been to the temple and I miss it so much!! But I finally get to go to the Den Haag temple and I am super excited! Then at the end of the trensfer is Koningene Dag (Queen's Day) its the birthday of the Queen and is just a huge party! I'm interested to see what will happen.

 

So this past week has been awesome! Elder Mower and I have been talking to people like crazy, even more people than last week, I still don't think we've reached 50 but we're working on it. I have been more bold as a missionary in the past week then I think in my whole life! I talked with a ton of people and even chaised a few people down to talk to them, it was very exciting and it has given me the enthusiasm that I've been waiting for my whole mission. Sadly I was waiting for a companion to give me enthusiasm. Now I discovered that all I needed to do was be enthusiastic myself and just make the choice to work and not wait for the enthusiasm to come. Its an amazing feeling and I am very excited to find more people this week! We want to get a group of young adults in our ward (right now we dont have any) so we've been specifically contacting young adults and it has been a fun experience. Turns out, contacting a young attractive girl can be kind of... well... scary. But we're getting over that and we're getting better. We are going to baptize this transfer! We don't know who, but it will happen!

 

Micco and Stephanie are still awesome, our meeting with them was cancelled but we set up another and they have been reading from the Book of Mormon. We are also teaching a young guy named Ben, he is really cool, he said he will get baptized but he doesn't want to maker a date right now. And there are a lot of other people we have found that we will be teaching this week!

 

So spiritual thought time! This week I have been studying about the Holy Ghost! He's a really cool guy, He's like the best missionary, probably because he is the only true missionary, the rest of us are just tools, instruments being used to bring his influence to others. But if we are going to help the Holy Ghost bring about the works of God and Jesus Chirst then we have to be ready, so the Holy Ghost gives us gifts. Specific and Personal talents and abilities that he is able to use to move the will of God along. So what are these gifts? Spiritual gifts are something we have all heard about and we might have even recognised a few of them in ourselves. But do we understand them? I don't, for the longest time I thought spiritual gifts are great gifts or talents that everyone is just naturaly given when they are born or are given in an instant when the person is in need of a gift, some of them are: a natural musician, a natural speaker, a naturaly smart person The gift of tongues or prophesy. All of these are gifts of the spirit that some people are just blessed with from birth or are just given. But what about us normal people who's spiritual gifts aren't quite so apparent, does it mean we don't have them? No, even though spiritual gifts can be instantly given or just come naturaly, I have seen that many come slow, through time and struggle. We are all weak and all have faults, it is our job to find the spiritual gift that will correct that fault. In place of lazyness develop a desire and love for hard work. The list goes on and on, there are thousands of spiritual gifts and some are difficult to simply achieve, but if we work hard, pray and have the faith, then we can turn our weaknesses into strengths and God will be able to let his spirit work through us!

 

I love you all and I love that I have this chance to see how blessed we really are. The Lord loves us and is expecting great things from us, it will be hard, but will always be worth it! In de naam van Jezus Christus, Amen.

 

Love,

Elder Kevin Suckow

 

PS Reminder: Andy's address, pictures of the family (esp. the girls), and any other tid-bits you can dig up!