Hello family!
I hope all of you are doing wonderfully this week. We've had awarm spell in Holland (tracting without gloves! It's amazing!) and some funChristmas happenings. Yesterday in church Zr. Matos and I got to sing alovely Christmas song with Sister Pond (an American woman around mom anddad's age whose husband is working here) on the piano - I discovered the keyto not being nervous is not knowing the words well enough to be able to lookup more than once or twice! ;) But it was really fun to perform again.Lenneke and Joop came to church again, so that's 3 for 3 for both of them.They're both doing so well. Joop is sincerely praying about baptism but alsofeels like he needs to learn more and more about the church before he canget his answer - what a beautifully rational and faith-filled answer! Wetaught him the Plan of Salvation this week, which he found to be verybeautiful, especially that we lived in the Pre-Existance with HeavenlyFather as his Spirit Children before we came to this earth. On Friday hecame to dinner at the Verhoeven's (the Relief Society president and herhusband) and he's getting to know more and more members. He also said he'scoming to the ward Christmas Eve party... I love this man. Lenneke is alsodoing pretty great. Last Monday evening we began teaching her the principleof Faith in Jesus Christ, and brought the Finding Faith in Christ dvd forher... only to see Testaments lying on her kitchen table from Luit de Jonge.Testaments is pretty much the same movie but with more of a Nephites inAmerica storyline (and the flashbacks to Christ in Jerusalem are pretty muchthe FFIC dvd) so that was funny. Teaching her is so interesting - throughLuit she has so much experience with the church, but has almost no religiousbackground, so it's pretty interesting teaching to her needs. She is alsowonderfully sincere and has begun praying daily. I really like her a lot andam excited to see her continuing to learn more.
Tuesday night we headed to Goude to help out with something calledGoude by Candle Light (google or wikipedia Goude bij Karslicht). In anattempt to reach out to more people, the church gave out free hot chocolateand goodies and looooots of Joy to the World DVDs. It ended up mostly beinga lot of college / high school age girls rather smitten by the prospect ofAmerican Elders singing Christmas Carols, but it was a pretty fun andsuccessful time. =) We definitely got to talk to people from all over theworld, which was fun. That night we slept in Goude and the next morningheaded to Zoetermeer for a special Zone Conference on the Atonement. We wereblessed to be able to go the temple that morning, which was, well,wonderful. =) I'd really missed the temple, and hadn't been for about 3months, which is the longest it's been since I went through before going tothe MTC. It really is the House of the Lord and a wonderfully peacefulplace. The best Christmas present I could get as a missionary. The zoneconference itself taught me a lot about the details and implications of theAtonement of Christ, and I was able to see things in a new light. I'm reallythankful for the Plan of Salvation, that death is not the end and our ownmistakes and painful experiences need not be permanent.
Thursday we found a really great Nigerian woman named Patience.After establishing we weren't Jehovah's Witnesses (Dutch people absolutelyabhor JW's which kinda makes me sad and also results in a vitual identitycrisis for Mormon Missionaries - "Nee, wij zijn NIET Jehovah's Getuigenis!";) )she let us in. It was weird teaching in English again, and she had lotsof friends over so there was a lot of noise in the background, but as Zr.Matos started telling about the First Vision, all the side conversations inthe other rooms suddenly quieted down, and Patience could really listen. Ilove crazy small miracles like that.
Saturday during finding an American lawyer in her early 30's / late20's let us in because she "always loves a good conversation aboutreligion." She's a mother of an 18 month old boy and her husband and her areboth working her. Her bookshelves were like a dream from a past life [ohwait - that was my past life! =) ] with Claude Levi-Strauss and KahlilGibran, and she herself was pretty much exactly who I'd be if I'd grown upwithout the gospel. "I was raised Catholic and always had a strongrelationship with God but was turned off from Catholicism by all themysogyny of the Bible." She was incredibly openminded and kind, and we had agood talk over camomille tea about the Restoration, modern day prophets,gender roles in the church, and missionary work in Holland. I like to thinkwe did some good, though there's a certain kind of liberality that, in theend, is just as closed as any good Southern Baptist or devout Hindu. I trulythink sometimes the Lord sends people like me and Zr. Matos to this missionso we could see exactly who we'd be without the gospel.
Saturday was Ingemar's baptism, and everything just went, well,smoothly! It was a great service, and I got to sing Jesus Redder Van MijnZiel (I don't remember the name in English) with my comp and one of theElders. Later Andre told us in all seriousness we should make CDs and sellthem to make money for the church. Hilarious! Anyway, Ingemar was confirmedyesterday, and probably the best part of my day yesterday was seeing himwalking down the street after church between Wesly and Sharlon, two otherrecent bachelor converts in their 30s. I love fellowshipping.
Andre is doing great, and we're heading to his house on Christmas daywith Monik. That man is such a dad. He is seriously concerned about Americaand all the people being laid off (are things really that bad?) but otherthan his empathy for poverty in my homeland is doing just great. Yesterdaywe rode with him to the van den Herik's and had dinner there together. Ilove amazing families here in Holland.
So things keep keeping on. I'm blessed to be here. People are takingcare of us for the holidays, and it's a good time of year to be wearing thisname tag. I love you all.
Liefs,
Zr. Christa Baxter
Monday, December 22, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Feliz Navidad!
Hoi familie!
So having a half Puerto Rican college makes for some awesome carolling on the bike. We've actually been learning some of the Dutch hymns in the hymn book too, tho, so I promise I'm getting some Hollande Kulture in with all my tracting and teaching. =) Things are going pretty much amazing in Rotterdam. Monday we were finally able to have another appointment withShehere, the Surinamse mom who felt like God had sent us to her door when weknocked and began talking with her. She's doing fabulously - we watched theRestoration DVD with her, and she feels Joseph Smith's story is true, andlikes what she's read in the BoM, AND was willing to meet with us for 3xthis coming week. Now we just need to get some member present action and herto church this Sunday. Blessings!
Ingemar is also right on track for his baptism this Saturday. Ourward mission leader pretty much laid down the law about quitting smoking,which I was afraid was too strong (as is usual for me, ever the whimpysensitive American), but it seemed to go over okay, because the followingThursday he said he'd quit! So please keep him in your prayers that he willcontinue to be strengthened to avoid the nicotine before his baptism. It'sso amazing seeing the change that comes into people as they live the gospel.This quiet Antilleans man, who normally hardly ever talks, was answeringpractically every question in Sunday School yesterday. It was hilarious andawesome. His light is on, and it is glorious to behold.
Joop, the Dutch pilot who discovered Christ through Baptists inFlorida, is also doing incredible. He came to church again and was able tostay for all three hours. Then he stayed another 30 minutes, lingering totalk with members while I was practicing with the ward choir for Christmasand Zr. Matos was arranging appointments and such. It's so awesome having aninvestigator that's so socially proactive, and he's really enjoyed gettingto know more members. This Friday he's coming to dinner at the reliefsociety president's house with us for another lesson. As for teaching him,on Wednesday we visited him with Zr. Verhoeven (said ZHV president) todiscover he'd read through 2 Nephi 10 in a week. Wahoo! We read 3 Nephi 11with him and talked about the necessity of priesthood authority for baptism,and then bore testimony of how that priesthood was restored through JosephSmith, and then he pretty much connected the dots himself and realized weteach people to be baptized into the restored gospel. "Dat is mooielijk."["That's difficult."] But Zr. Matos kindly and firmly held her ground, andwe both urged him to pray about it, and the Spirit was there - so by the endof the lesson he was making jokes about being baptised the next week. In allseriousness, it's wonderful teaching someone who has such a conceptual graspof what we teach, despite our flawed Dutch, and the members just love him.He also is very impressed with the organization of the church and howeveryone has callings to serve each other - he said, "Ik wil iets betekenenvoor deze kerk," which means "I want to mean something for this church." Ilove this man!
Lenneke is also doing great. She came to church again, is willing tomeet with us more frequently, and at our last lesson we talked a lot aboutprayer and really discerning answers from God for yourself. She said theclosing prayer, and it was just, well, beautiful. I love hearing people prayfor the first time out loud.
Ewa ("Iva"), our Polish artist investigator, is off to Poland tovisit her mom for the holidays, but she agreed to let us pass herinformation through so Polish missionaries can look her up and teach her inher own language. That'll be pretty helpful. Her English is excellent, buther religious background is a mix between traditional Catholocism andliberal intellectualism / bhuddism, so it's just super hard to stay focusedon one topic long enough to answer her questions. But it's coming.
AND Sherryl is back from Suriname!!!! She was the super prepared lawstudent in her 20s we found 2 months ago or so. We stopped by and she'd justgotten back! So soon she'll be ready to meet with us again. I love thatwoman so much.
In other news, we headed to Amsterdam on Friday for what the zoneleaders called... the Zuster Stampede! (subtitle: A Stand For Virtue)Basically it was a big exchange in Amsterdam for the day. I worked with Zr.Higham, who's a couple transfers older than me, and our one appointment(she's working in Amsterdam) fell through so we tracted all day, but it wasstill pretty great. We had a great training on committments and takingcontrol of situations and helping people keep their commitments. I realizethis must all sound incredibly mundane to those of you who have servedmissions, much less those of you who aren't even Mormon and still areawesome enough to read this, but suffice it to say it was a really greatmeeting and practice, and I felt like I learned a lot more about how toeffectively help people change themselves for the better. There was also adistrict leader training going on at the same time, so I got to see an olddistrict leader that night when we ate dinner at the church. It was just sopositive to be with all the zusters in the mission (we number a meager 15)and see all that positivity. It's also quiet odd to realize I'm no longer ayoung missionary, though I certainly still feel that way often. I met Zr.Erickson, the friend of Mike Sheflo (hoi! She's as cool as you said!) andotherwise just had a marvelous time. I seriously love being with othermissionaries so much.
Sunday was also a great day. We got to see the First PresidencyChristmas Devotional (with headphones so we had the untranslated Englishversion). It was the closest I've come to feeling homesick since my birthday(which was pretty minimal at that). President Eyring's story about thatChristmas Pageant they did as a family, involving the Samual the Lamanitecharacter and the tin foil stones, totally reminded me of Baxter Christmasescapades. Like last year playing King Surf when Jack reemerged from the kitchen with his own self-fashioned crown. Not to be outdone, I believe Momcame out later with a bigger and better crown, decked out in tin foil. Then Katie faithfully documented it all and probably blogged about it. Tjungejunge, ik houd van jullie! You people are hilarious and I'm excited to hear from almost all of you at Christmas.
I also chopped off all my hair today, at the behest of my companionZr. Matos (she's a fabulous companion and a kindred spirit in many ways, butI'm certainly not as brave as she is when it comes to dramatic hairdecisions, so this probably wouldn't have happened without her) so now I'vegot chin length curly hair in humid Europe. It came out looking pretty 80'sfabulous, thanks to the ridiculously European hair cutter, but has sincesettled to a pretty normal volume. I think I like it. We'll see! Thank youfor you attention for the meager vanity left to me as a zuster zendelinge.
So despite being sick a couple weeks ago, the work has not suffered(Heavenly Father is awesome!) and I absolutely love what we're doing here.Or rather, what the Lord is doing as we mostly just try to keep up. Thankyou all for your prayers and concern and letters. I think I have one of themost prolific families of any missionary, and I thank you all for that. Have a wonderful week, sing some Christmas songs for me, and know that I loveyou.
Liefs,
Zr. Christa Baxter
So having a half Puerto Rican college makes for some awesome carolling on the bike. We've actually been learning some of the Dutch hymns in the hymn book too, tho, so I promise I'm getting some Hollande Kulture in with all my tracting and teaching. =) Things are going pretty much amazing in Rotterdam. Monday we were finally able to have another appointment withShehere, the Surinamse mom who felt like God had sent us to her door when weknocked and began talking with her. She's doing fabulously - we watched theRestoration DVD with her, and she feels Joseph Smith's story is true, andlikes what she's read in the BoM, AND was willing to meet with us for 3xthis coming week. Now we just need to get some member present action and herto church this Sunday. Blessings!
Ingemar is also right on track for his baptism this Saturday. Ourward mission leader pretty much laid down the law about quitting smoking,which I was afraid was too strong (as is usual for me, ever the whimpysensitive American), but it seemed to go over okay, because the followingThursday he said he'd quit! So please keep him in your prayers that he willcontinue to be strengthened to avoid the nicotine before his baptism. It'sso amazing seeing the change that comes into people as they live the gospel.This quiet Antilleans man, who normally hardly ever talks, was answeringpractically every question in Sunday School yesterday. It was hilarious andawesome. His light is on, and it is glorious to behold.
Joop, the Dutch pilot who discovered Christ through Baptists inFlorida, is also doing incredible. He came to church again and was able tostay for all three hours. Then he stayed another 30 minutes, lingering totalk with members while I was practicing with the ward choir for Christmasand Zr. Matos was arranging appointments and such. It's so awesome having aninvestigator that's so socially proactive, and he's really enjoyed gettingto know more members. This Friday he's coming to dinner at the reliefsociety president's house with us for another lesson. As for teaching him,on Wednesday we visited him with Zr. Verhoeven (said ZHV president) todiscover he'd read through 2 Nephi 10 in a week. Wahoo! We read 3 Nephi 11with him and talked about the necessity of priesthood authority for baptism,and then bore testimony of how that priesthood was restored through JosephSmith, and then he pretty much connected the dots himself and realized weteach people to be baptized into the restored gospel. "Dat is mooielijk."["That's difficult."] But Zr. Matos kindly and firmly held her ground, andwe both urged him to pray about it, and the Spirit was there - so by the endof the lesson he was making jokes about being baptised the next week. In allseriousness, it's wonderful teaching someone who has such a conceptual graspof what we teach, despite our flawed Dutch, and the members just love him.He also is very impressed with the organization of the church and howeveryone has callings to serve each other - he said, "Ik wil iets betekenenvoor deze kerk," which means "I want to mean something for this church." Ilove this man!
Lenneke is also doing great. She came to church again, is willing tomeet with us more frequently, and at our last lesson we talked a lot aboutprayer and really discerning answers from God for yourself. She said theclosing prayer, and it was just, well, beautiful. I love hearing people prayfor the first time out loud.
Ewa ("Iva"), our Polish artist investigator, is off to Poland tovisit her mom for the holidays, but she agreed to let us pass herinformation through so Polish missionaries can look her up and teach her inher own language. That'll be pretty helpful. Her English is excellent, buther religious background is a mix between traditional Catholocism andliberal intellectualism / bhuddism, so it's just super hard to stay focusedon one topic long enough to answer her questions. But it's coming.
AND Sherryl is back from Suriname!!!! She was the super prepared lawstudent in her 20s we found 2 months ago or so. We stopped by and she'd justgotten back! So soon she'll be ready to meet with us again. I love thatwoman so much.
In other news, we headed to Amsterdam on Friday for what the zoneleaders called... the Zuster Stampede! (subtitle: A Stand For Virtue)Basically it was a big exchange in Amsterdam for the day. I worked with Zr.Higham, who's a couple transfers older than me, and our one appointment(she's working in Amsterdam) fell through so we tracted all day, but it wasstill pretty great. We had a great training on committments and takingcontrol of situations and helping people keep their commitments. I realizethis must all sound incredibly mundane to those of you who have servedmissions, much less those of you who aren't even Mormon and still areawesome enough to read this, but suffice it to say it was a really greatmeeting and practice, and I felt like I learned a lot more about how toeffectively help people change themselves for the better. There was also adistrict leader training going on at the same time, so I got to see an olddistrict leader that night when we ate dinner at the church. It was just sopositive to be with all the zusters in the mission (we number a meager 15)and see all that positivity. It's also quiet odd to realize I'm no longer ayoung missionary, though I certainly still feel that way often. I met Zr.Erickson, the friend of Mike Sheflo (hoi! She's as cool as you said!) andotherwise just had a marvelous time. I seriously love being with othermissionaries so much.
Sunday was also a great day. We got to see the First PresidencyChristmas Devotional (with headphones so we had the untranslated Englishversion). It was the closest I've come to feeling homesick since my birthday(which was pretty minimal at that). President Eyring's story about thatChristmas Pageant they did as a family, involving the Samual the Lamanitecharacter and the tin foil stones, totally reminded me of Baxter Christmasescapades. Like last year playing King Surf when Jack reemerged from the kitchen with his own self-fashioned crown. Not to be outdone, I believe Momcame out later with a bigger and better crown, decked out in tin foil. Then Katie faithfully documented it all and probably blogged about it. Tjungejunge, ik houd van jullie! You people are hilarious and I'm excited to hear from almost all of you at Christmas.
I also chopped off all my hair today, at the behest of my companionZr. Matos (she's a fabulous companion and a kindred spirit in many ways, butI'm certainly not as brave as she is when it comes to dramatic hairdecisions, so this probably wouldn't have happened without her) so now I'vegot chin length curly hair in humid Europe. It came out looking pretty 80'sfabulous, thanks to the ridiculously European hair cutter, but has sincesettled to a pretty normal volume. I think I like it. We'll see! Thank youfor you attention for the meager vanity left to me as a zuster zendelinge.
So despite being sick a couple weeks ago, the work has not suffered(Heavenly Father is awesome!) and I absolutely love what we're doing here.Or rather, what the Lord is doing as we mostly just try to keep up. Thankyou all for your prayers and concern and letters. I think I have one of themost prolific families of any missionary, and I thank you all for that. Have a wonderful week, sing some Christmas songs for me, and know that I loveyou.
Liefs,
Zr. Christa Baxter
Monday, December 1, 2008
achoo! Ik heb net geniedz!
Hooi familie and vrienden! So things are going great in Rotterdam other thanthe fact that I'm sick and managed to infect my new comp as well. Whoops! Somuch for the perks of companionship unity. ;) But it's just a cold, so otherthan power naps during language study time and not going out running in themorning in the cold, it hasn't held back the work any. Well, that and that Itold an investigator the wrong hour for Sacrament Meeting, so she only cameto the last 30 minutes. Yammer. That spacey head feeling is totally a drag.But luckily I found some sudafed this morning, so things should get better.
So yes, I'm now serving with the fabulosu Zr. Matos. She's the sisterwho was friends with my roommate Amalia (from my junior semester). Duringtransfers I also found out that Stacey Owens, a girl from my freshman wardin French 201 class, also is now serving here in this mission! So betweenher, Zr. Matos, the friend of Mike Sheflo, and Zr. Bennet (still don't knowwhen she's coming), I feel like the Kevin Bacon of the Nederland missionuniverse. It's fun having so many random connections. Zr. Owens was quitethe surprise, but it was really cool seeing a familiar face. Plus her frenchwill totally help her out in Gouda. Zr. Matos is pretty the bee's knees. Shemajored in anthropology at BYU and is a kindred spirit in a lot of ways -it's fun working with someone with a similar sense of humor and who isn'tthrown off by words like post-modernism and hegemony. Hopefully the Lordwill help us not feed off each other's slightly snobbish tendencies in booksand vocabulary. ;) Overall, it's really easier to feel like I'm working asan equal, so that's fun. I'll miss Zr. Knoelk and her strengths as acompanion, but change is essential to growth, so it's all good. Transfersthemselves were a little crazy, involving a sleepover in Den Haag with 5sisters in one apartment, but it was really fun seeing my trainer, Zr.Barkume again. Departing missionaries always fill me with a greaterdetermination to carpe diem it up and make every minute count.
Andre continues to do well. He is currently obsessed with True tothe Faith (a church dictionary of sorts specifically for new members andyoung adults). We decided when he texted us with a question over the ChurchDisciplinary Council that perhaps he's a little too excited about all thatinfortmation... but he's doing just fine overall. Found out he's alreadyread the Book of Mormon all the way through. He's just happy - and if you'dseen him 4 months ago, you'd understand what a miracle that is. I love thatman.
Ingemar is also doing pretty good. He still needs to quite withsmoking. Sharlon invited him to a young single adult FHE last night - wewere supposed to have an appointment with him after church, but we wantedhim to have the fellowship so we rode the metro out to the member's houseand retaught the WoW as their spiritual thought. Let me tell you, it wasweird being at a YSA activity again. Defintiely a reality check for thereadjustment that will come when I go home - "What? You want to engage inconversation about something other than the worth of souls and eternalprinciples of happiness? How passe!" Nah, it'll be good when the time comes,but it was fun seeing how happy I really am just being here. It's funny hownormal it is to be on a bike in a huge winter overcoat, gloves, boots, andscarves. I love Holland, and I love being a missionary. Monik is continuing to do well. Her house smells so much better nowthat she's done with smoking. It's fabulous.
So Thursday we had a Thanksgiving meal in Swijndrecht at therestaurant of the Dutch man who got baptized the same day as Monik. It was asuper fun gathering of missionaries with slightly Dutch-ified Thanksgivingfood. I love hanging out with missionaries. Our whole district had quite theshakeup in transfers, but it'll be fun getting to know all the new elders,especially our new district leader who likes throwing in Japanese duringdistrict meeting. Oh, languages.
Later on Thursday we got invited to eat second Thanksgiving withYeaji, a South Korean BYU grad who served in the New York South mission andis now here studying violin. She invited her dancer housemate to the dinner,so it was fun doing member missionary work and assuring him yes, Mormonsreally are happy living celibate alcohol and drug free lives. Afterwards weheaded to Salar, a Kurdish man who was actually a referral from Greece thatwe met by chance (i.e. God) on the metro coming home from Zone Conferenceback in September. He'd been out of the country for a long time, so this wasour first real appointment with him. He's amazing. Mostly we had todetermine if he was permanently in Holland or not (because if he wasn't andhad Muslim background, we can't teach him if there's a chance he'll getsent back to Iraq). He has political asylum here, so he's safe to teach. Healso has a lot of bad feeling against Iraqi Muslims (as a Kurd, I don't knowwhat his history is - I know his wife was killed in some sort of conflictthere). He's just a very, very good man, and although Kurdish is differentfrom Arabic, he kept his Arabic copy of the Book of Mormon to give to afriend, and this week we're coming back with an English copy he can read. Ilove love love meeting people from all over the world here. Everybody has astory.
Our other crazy awesome miracle of the week is a Dutch woman in herlate 20s by the name of Lenneke. Her coworker, the stake president's youngerbrother Luit, has basically been a rock star member missionary. I don't knowwhat sparked her interest, but he's very informally answered a lot of herquestions and brought her to various church activities. He gave her ournumber, and she called asking if we could meet with her. We verycoincidentally (i.e. Heavenly Father has a plan!) had a gap around 5 o clockthe next day, so we were quite happy to come. It was the most brilliant,clear 1st I've ever taught, thanks to how much Luit had already done. She'sread THE ENTIRE Book of Mormon! And seen the Restoration DVD! She basicallyhas no religious background other than what she picked up in school, and isjust wanting to learn more about God in her life. It was incredible teachingher. She was busy that Sunday but said she'd come this (she's already been,and to other YSA Activities). She's just amazing; I'm excited to teach herthe Plan of Salvation this week.
Oh! And I got the forwarded e-mail from Ron Hyte, the returnedmissionary who'd served here in the late 50s. It was delightful to hear fromhim - please tell him the e-mail address for the Mission Office is2015900@ldschurch.org (that's the mission's unit number) and he can e-mailthe office with the information of his friend he'd like to have contact withthe missionaries. I was very flattered to hear his comments and I'm glad myblog could help him make contact with the missionaries.
I also need current addresses of Ryan Nelson and Ashley Woodward, ifeither of them still read this blog. Thanks!
What else can I say? This work is amazing. It literally ishappening at a faster rate this year than it has before. The Lord isblessing Holland. I am so grateful for prayer, temples, scriptures, andmodern day revelation. Have a wonderful week, all.
Liefs,
Zr. Christa Baxter
So yes, I'm now serving with the fabulosu Zr. Matos. She's the sisterwho was friends with my roommate Amalia (from my junior semester). Duringtransfers I also found out that Stacey Owens, a girl from my freshman wardin French 201 class, also is now serving here in this mission! So betweenher, Zr. Matos, the friend of Mike Sheflo, and Zr. Bennet (still don't knowwhen she's coming), I feel like the Kevin Bacon of the Nederland missionuniverse. It's fun having so many random connections. Zr. Owens was quitethe surprise, but it was really cool seeing a familiar face. Plus her frenchwill totally help her out in Gouda. Zr. Matos is pretty the bee's knees. Shemajored in anthropology at BYU and is a kindred spirit in a lot of ways -it's fun working with someone with a similar sense of humor and who isn'tthrown off by words like post-modernism and hegemony. Hopefully the Lordwill help us not feed off each other's slightly snobbish tendencies in booksand vocabulary. ;) Overall, it's really easier to feel like I'm working asan equal, so that's fun. I'll miss Zr. Knoelk and her strengths as acompanion, but change is essential to growth, so it's all good. Transfersthemselves were a little crazy, involving a sleepover in Den Haag with 5sisters in one apartment, but it was really fun seeing my trainer, Zr.Barkume again. Departing missionaries always fill me with a greaterdetermination to carpe diem it up and make every minute count.
Andre continues to do well. He is currently obsessed with True tothe Faith (a church dictionary of sorts specifically for new members andyoung adults). We decided when he texted us with a question over the ChurchDisciplinary Council that perhaps he's a little too excited about all thatinfortmation... but he's doing just fine overall. Found out he's alreadyread the Book of Mormon all the way through. He's just happy - and if you'dseen him 4 months ago, you'd understand what a miracle that is. I love thatman.
Ingemar is also doing pretty good. He still needs to quite withsmoking. Sharlon invited him to a young single adult FHE last night - wewere supposed to have an appointment with him after church, but we wantedhim to have the fellowship so we rode the metro out to the member's houseand retaught the WoW as their spiritual thought. Let me tell you, it wasweird being at a YSA activity again. Defintiely a reality check for thereadjustment that will come when I go home - "What? You want to engage inconversation about something other than the worth of souls and eternalprinciples of happiness? How passe!" Nah, it'll be good when the time comes,but it was fun seeing how happy I really am just being here. It's funny hownormal it is to be on a bike in a huge winter overcoat, gloves, boots, andscarves. I love Holland, and I love being a missionary. Monik is continuing to do well. Her house smells so much better nowthat she's done with smoking. It's fabulous.
So Thursday we had a Thanksgiving meal in Swijndrecht at therestaurant of the Dutch man who got baptized the same day as Monik. It was asuper fun gathering of missionaries with slightly Dutch-ified Thanksgivingfood. I love hanging out with missionaries. Our whole district had quite theshakeup in transfers, but it'll be fun getting to know all the new elders,especially our new district leader who likes throwing in Japanese duringdistrict meeting. Oh, languages.
Later on Thursday we got invited to eat second Thanksgiving withYeaji, a South Korean BYU grad who served in the New York South mission andis now here studying violin. She invited her dancer housemate to the dinner,so it was fun doing member missionary work and assuring him yes, Mormonsreally are happy living celibate alcohol and drug free lives. Afterwards weheaded to Salar, a Kurdish man who was actually a referral from Greece thatwe met by chance (i.e. God) on the metro coming home from Zone Conferenceback in September. He'd been out of the country for a long time, so this wasour first real appointment with him. He's amazing. Mostly we had todetermine if he was permanently in Holland or not (because if he wasn't andhad Muslim background, we can't teach him if there's a chance he'll getsent back to Iraq). He has political asylum here, so he's safe to teach. Healso has a lot of bad feeling against Iraqi Muslims (as a Kurd, I don't knowwhat his history is - I know his wife was killed in some sort of conflictthere). He's just a very, very good man, and although Kurdish is differentfrom Arabic, he kept his Arabic copy of the Book of Mormon to give to afriend, and this week we're coming back with an English copy he can read. Ilove love love meeting people from all over the world here. Everybody has astory.
Our other crazy awesome miracle of the week is a Dutch woman in herlate 20s by the name of Lenneke. Her coworker, the stake president's youngerbrother Luit, has basically been a rock star member missionary. I don't knowwhat sparked her interest, but he's very informally answered a lot of herquestions and brought her to various church activities. He gave her ournumber, and she called asking if we could meet with her. We verycoincidentally (i.e. Heavenly Father has a plan!) had a gap around 5 o clockthe next day, so we were quite happy to come. It was the most brilliant,clear 1st I've ever taught, thanks to how much Luit had already done. She'sread THE ENTIRE Book of Mormon! And seen the Restoration DVD! She basicallyhas no religious background other than what she picked up in school, and isjust wanting to learn more about God in her life. It was incredible teachingher. She was busy that Sunday but said she'd come this (she's already been,and to other YSA Activities). She's just amazing; I'm excited to teach herthe Plan of Salvation this week.
Oh! And I got the forwarded e-mail from Ron Hyte, the returnedmissionary who'd served here in the late 50s. It was delightful to hear fromhim - please tell him the e-mail address for the Mission Office is2015900@ldschurch.org (that's the mission's unit number) and he can e-mailthe office with the information of his friend he'd like to have contact withthe missionaries. I was very flattered to hear his comments and I'm glad myblog could help him make contact with the missionaries.
I also need current addresses of Ryan Nelson and Ashley Woodward, ifeither of them still read this blog. Thanks!
What else can I say? This work is amazing. It literally ishappening at a faster rate this year than it has before. The Lord isblessing Holland. I am so grateful for prayer, temples, scriptures, andmodern day revelation. Have a wonderful week, all.
Liefs,
Zr. Christa Baxter
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Sinterklas is hier!
Hallo familie and vrienden!!!
So it was a crazy blessed week. On Saturday Monik got baptized, alongwith another Dutch man who the senior missionaries have been teaching. Ididn't mention her last week because, well, I thought she hadn't been quitwith smoking long enough for her to make her date. Turns out I'm a slightlyovercautious missionary - after some awesome district prayers, she finallythrew all her cigarettes away and was ready. It was a beautiful, beautifulbaptism - she called us later that day just to tell us how great and lovelya day it had been. I love love love seeing members take in people. So good.Don't ever forget that the people the missionaries bring to church are nottheir investigators - they're the ward's investigators.
So Zr. Knoelk flies home on Thursday morning, and Zr. Matos (a friendof my roommate Amalia from my junior semester) is coming on down to R'Dam!It'll be tons of fun. We have pretty different personalities but verysimilar viewpoints on social issues and such (let's just say I don't thinkwe'll be afraid to contact Muslim men, because let's be honest, you neverknow who's open to learning more) - so I think it'll be super awesomeworking with each other. As for Zr. Knoelk, she's done a fabulous job ofnot getting trunky - possibly because the entire ward did so for her. Let'sjust say I'm glad I'm not prone to homesickness - and also that itdefinitely pays to be comps with a well-beloved missionary who's served in award for 10 months, because then every gift she gets you get one of too. ;)So it wasn't too bad to stay focused and such until I got some letters atinterviews on Thursday and found out the first of my freshman guy friends isgetting hitched [congrats Greg and Lindsay!] - I wasn't surprised, just alittle weirded out at how quickly that went down. It's always weirdrealizing time doesn't stand still on the other side of the world, but it'sawesome. It's cool hearing how much everyone's lives are changing and insuch positive ways. It's a little weird not being in Provo with everybody,but I love what I do here.
So before interviews with our mish president Thursday, we had areally cool training from the zone leaders. Elder Carey showed a short videohe made of a Nigerian convert in another area telling his life story and howhe got to the Netherlands. The man went to school in Nigeria - in order tosupport himself, he had to steal oil from the pipe lines. After graduationit was next to impossible to get a job in Lagos without connections, so hepayed 1,200 euros to get smuggled to Europe in a container (a big metalshipping box about the size of a classroom) with about 15 other people. Thetrip was about 12 days. There was no ventilation, and he brought onlydigestives (sweet crackers) with him. 6 or 7 people died in route. He gotlet out in Spain, lived off of thrown away McDonalds food with the othersurvivors for a while, and finally made his way to Nederland, where he nowhas financial help from another wealthier African man. It was an incrediblestory that reminds me a lot of Monik and her coming to Holland as a refugeefrom the Rwandan genocide. And hearing this man talk about the church -"They are my life. They are my family. They have never left me. I feel likeI have parents in Nederland." Something inside my broke and something insideme was healed. I didn't cry until Elder Carey did as he said, "I have neverfelt so great joy as I did when I heard DJ [his americanized name since wecan't pronounce his Nigerian name] tell this story." The ward fell in lovewith this man. He blessed the sacrament in Dutch for the first time a fewweeks ago. Sometimes you forget how every single person you meet has astory.
Things are going well with Ingemar, who should get baptized inDecember and is working on quitting smoking. He cried during the PrimaryPresentation on Sunday. He's a really good man. I absolutely love watchingnew converts take care of eachother. Irene is a crazy intelligent Dutchsingle mom who used to do drugs and who is now absolutely illuminated by thegospel. She's become such good friends with Helen, who's from Suriname andnever married or had children. They both want to invite Andre along with usover for Christmas dinner. It's just so positive watching people's heartsbecome knit together in love through the Spirit, a la Mosiah 18 (I think).
Along slightly more trivial lines, it snowed this week!!!! It wasabsolutely nuts. So we got to go tracting in snow, which was magical, andluckily some memebers gave us a ride home Sunday from church so we didn'thave to bike through it. We also got to see Sinterklas come ashore in hisboat with his Swarte Piets on Saturday. No, it's not Santa Claus, but aBishop from Turkey, according to legend. His Swarte Piets ("Black Petes")either give kids treats or throw them in a sack and take them to Spain aspunishment for being bad. Apparently they're black because they go down thechimney. All I know is that growing in the Bible Belt South where we went toplantations for fieldtrips makes me a little wary of boats with lots ofblack guys and a white guy in charge of them all - but whatev's. It's acultural holiday, so it's all good, right? ;)
We continue to be crazy blessed here in Rotterdam. I love thisward so much, and this transfer will bring me to 6 months here, so we'll seewhat happens next... I love you all!!! Have a great week!!!
Liefs,
zr. Baxter
So it was a crazy blessed week. On Saturday Monik got baptized, alongwith another Dutch man who the senior missionaries have been teaching. Ididn't mention her last week because, well, I thought she hadn't been quitwith smoking long enough for her to make her date. Turns out I'm a slightlyovercautious missionary - after some awesome district prayers, she finallythrew all her cigarettes away and was ready. It was a beautiful, beautifulbaptism - she called us later that day just to tell us how great and lovelya day it had been. I love love love seeing members take in people. So good.Don't ever forget that the people the missionaries bring to church are nottheir investigators - they're the ward's investigators.
So Zr. Knoelk flies home on Thursday morning, and Zr. Matos (a friendof my roommate Amalia from my junior semester) is coming on down to R'Dam!It'll be tons of fun. We have pretty different personalities but verysimilar viewpoints on social issues and such (let's just say I don't thinkwe'll be afraid to contact Muslim men, because let's be honest, you neverknow who's open to learning more) - so I think it'll be super awesomeworking with each other. As for Zr. Knoelk, she's done a fabulous job ofnot getting trunky - possibly because the entire ward did so for her. Let'sjust say I'm glad I'm not prone to homesickness - and also that itdefinitely pays to be comps with a well-beloved missionary who's served in award for 10 months, because then every gift she gets you get one of too. ;)So it wasn't too bad to stay focused and such until I got some letters atinterviews on Thursday and found out the first of my freshman guy friends isgetting hitched [congrats Greg and Lindsay!] - I wasn't surprised, just alittle weirded out at how quickly that went down. It's always weirdrealizing time doesn't stand still on the other side of the world, but it'sawesome. It's cool hearing how much everyone's lives are changing and insuch positive ways. It's a little weird not being in Provo with everybody,but I love what I do here.
So before interviews with our mish president Thursday, we had areally cool training from the zone leaders. Elder Carey showed a short videohe made of a Nigerian convert in another area telling his life story and howhe got to the Netherlands. The man went to school in Nigeria - in order tosupport himself, he had to steal oil from the pipe lines. After graduationit was next to impossible to get a job in Lagos without connections, so hepayed 1,200 euros to get smuggled to Europe in a container (a big metalshipping box about the size of a classroom) with about 15 other people. Thetrip was about 12 days. There was no ventilation, and he brought onlydigestives (sweet crackers) with him. 6 or 7 people died in route. He gotlet out in Spain, lived off of thrown away McDonalds food with the othersurvivors for a while, and finally made his way to Nederland, where he nowhas financial help from another wealthier African man. It was an incrediblestory that reminds me a lot of Monik and her coming to Holland as a refugeefrom the Rwandan genocide. And hearing this man talk about the church -"They are my life. They are my family. They have never left me. I feel likeI have parents in Nederland." Something inside my broke and something insideme was healed. I didn't cry until Elder Carey did as he said, "I have neverfelt so great joy as I did when I heard DJ [his americanized name since wecan't pronounce his Nigerian name] tell this story." The ward fell in lovewith this man. He blessed the sacrament in Dutch for the first time a fewweeks ago. Sometimes you forget how every single person you meet has astory.
Things are going well with Ingemar, who should get baptized inDecember and is working on quitting smoking. He cried during the PrimaryPresentation on Sunday. He's a really good man. I absolutely love watchingnew converts take care of eachother. Irene is a crazy intelligent Dutchsingle mom who used to do drugs and who is now absolutely illuminated by thegospel. She's become such good friends with Helen, who's from Suriname andnever married or had children. They both want to invite Andre along with usover for Christmas dinner. It's just so positive watching people's heartsbecome knit together in love through the Spirit, a la Mosiah 18 (I think).
Along slightly more trivial lines, it snowed this week!!!! It wasabsolutely nuts. So we got to go tracting in snow, which was magical, andluckily some memebers gave us a ride home Sunday from church so we didn'thave to bike through it. We also got to see Sinterklas come ashore in hisboat with his Swarte Piets on Saturday. No, it's not Santa Claus, but aBishop from Turkey, according to legend. His Swarte Piets ("Black Petes")either give kids treats or throw them in a sack and take them to Spain aspunishment for being bad. Apparently they're black because they go down thechimney. All I know is that growing in the Bible Belt South where we went toplantations for fieldtrips makes me a little wary of boats with lots ofblack guys and a white guy in charge of them all - but whatev's. It's acultural holiday, so it's all good, right? ;)
We continue to be crazy blessed here in Rotterdam. I love thisward so much, and this transfer will bring me to 6 months here, so we'll seewhat happens next... I love you all!!! Have a great week!!!
Liefs,
zr. Baxter
Monday, November 17, 2008
November is passing on by...
Hello family and friends!
Oh goodness, another week gone by in what feels like a day. So we'reheard hints about and pieces of news about it at meetings, and we were askedto pray for the decision as the amendment was passing as a mission abouttwo weeks ago, but last Tuesday we finally heard more details about thebacklash from Amendment 8 (I think that was it?) for heterosexual marriagein California. Crazy. I want you all to know I love and support you as youhandle this. Here in Holland no one's said anything - everyone's too stokedabout Obama as president to pay much more attention I guess. ;) But I'mincredibly saddened to hear about the protests and the vandalism going down- especially because it's terribly hypocritical to do destructive things inthe name of equality, and I know people with homosexual tendencies that Ithink would also be saddened by that kind of poor logic and poor reaction.In any case, I'm thankful for prophets and apostles in this church, and I amSO thankful for the church members in California.
Things are going well here. We had exchanges this week, so Zr. Matos(my old roommate Amalia's friend) came up to R'Dam. We totally suspectshe''ll get transferred here and we'll train together, so it was coolworking with her. I suspect if that happened she'd definitely help my chillout as a missionary - we have a lot of the same interests and views but verydifferent personalities so that'd be pretty awesome. It was also a goodwarning sign of how used I am to Zr. Knoelk. Everything is the Lord's handstho, so it's all good.
As far as investigators, we had an awesoem return appointment withShehera, the single mom (I swear there are no husbands in Nederland - atleast that want to hear the gospel from American girls) from Suriname. Thistime her mom sat in on the lesson, so we did a review of the Restoration,and it was amazing. !!!! Shehera totally explained to her mom as Meggie (themom) said, "Well, you say this is true, but so do so many other churchs onthe street." As we talked about prayer and why it's so important to ask Godabout this, Shehera jumped right in with how you have the follow thefeelings of your hear. Then she told us that before we first met her, she'sbeen crying and praying to God to help her life, because things were prettydifficult. And when we came to her door, she had such a calm feeling insidethat she knew we were a good thing. It is so humbling to play roles inpeople's answered prayers. They still haven't made it to church yet, but Ifeel wonderful about these incredibly prepared, searching women.
Ingemar has been taught everything but still needs time to quitedrinking and smoking, which makes sense. Wednesday we taught him the Law ofChastity with two recent converts who'd had really cool experiences learningto live that law, so it was pretty much the chastity dream team. BUt the bigsuprise was when Ingemar began to ask why Christ had to suffer what he did,and began to cry. I swear most people would assume this man is a thug ifthey saw him on the street. You NEVER know who is prepared.
Andre is doing AWESOME and hasn't touched a cigarette since he got hispriesthood blessing a week ago. I LOVE this gospel, and I love seeing howthe light and joy of it has come into this man's countenance. It's soamazing.
After maybe 2 or 3 notes, several voice mail messages, and countlesstimes stopping by her door, Sherryl's roommate used her phone the text us tosay that Sherryl is in Suriname with her dad - so she's alive! And she gaveus her e-mail address, so Zr. Knoelk can totally e-mail her when she goeshome. Which is good, because that woman was so prepared it was nuts. She'sprobably met missionaries in Suriname and has a baptisimal date there,knowing her.
Saturday night we had a return appointment with a woman from the Congo- she wanted us to come back when her boyfriend was there because he speaksbetter Dutch. So we stopped by to find not only the boyfriend but alsoLiliana's sister and the family pastor. So that was fun! We were as clear aswe could be, steered clear of Bible Bashing, and left pretty gracefully. Itwas sad because they were entirely not open, but they'll have a real chancein the future, and it really increased my thankfulness for the Restoration.There's nothing like hearing people go off about the mystery of the trinityto make me incredibly thankful for the First Vision. So that was cool.
So I'm happy. I'll try to develop pictures and mail them homesometime. You people are amazing. I love you!!!!! This gospel is soincredibly and has the power to change lives and do more good than anythingelse. Never forget prayer.
Liefs,
Zr. Baxter
Oh goodness, another week gone by in what feels like a day. So we'reheard hints about and pieces of news about it at meetings, and we were askedto pray for the decision as the amendment was passing as a mission abouttwo weeks ago, but last Tuesday we finally heard more details about thebacklash from Amendment 8 (I think that was it?) for heterosexual marriagein California. Crazy. I want you all to know I love and support you as youhandle this. Here in Holland no one's said anything - everyone's too stokedabout Obama as president to pay much more attention I guess. ;) But I'mincredibly saddened to hear about the protests and the vandalism going down- especially because it's terribly hypocritical to do destructive things inthe name of equality, and I know people with homosexual tendencies that Ithink would also be saddened by that kind of poor logic and poor reaction.In any case, I'm thankful for prophets and apostles in this church, and I amSO thankful for the church members in California.
Things are going well here. We had exchanges this week, so Zr. Matos(my old roommate Amalia's friend) came up to R'Dam. We totally suspectshe''ll get transferred here and we'll train together, so it was coolworking with her. I suspect if that happened she'd definitely help my chillout as a missionary - we have a lot of the same interests and views but verydifferent personalities so that'd be pretty awesome. It was also a goodwarning sign of how used I am to Zr. Knoelk. Everything is the Lord's handstho, so it's all good.
As far as investigators, we had an awesoem return appointment withShehera, the single mom (I swear there are no husbands in Nederland - atleast that want to hear the gospel from American girls) from Suriname. Thistime her mom sat in on the lesson, so we did a review of the Restoration,and it was amazing. !!!! Shehera totally explained to her mom as Meggie (themom) said, "Well, you say this is true, but so do so many other churchs onthe street." As we talked about prayer and why it's so important to ask Godabout this, Shehera jumped right in with how you have the follow thefeelings of your hear. Then she told us that before we first met her, she'sbeen crying and praying to God to help her life, because things were prettydifficult. And when we came to her door, she had such a calm feeling insidethat she knew we were a good thing. It is so humbling to play roles inpeople's answered prayers. They still haven't made it to church yet, but Ifeel wonderful about these incredibly prepared, searching women.
Ingemar has been taught everything but still needs time to quitedrinking and smoking, which makes sense. Wednesday we taught him the Law ofChastity with two recent converts who'd had really cool experiences learningto live that law, so it was pretty much the chastity dream team. BUt the bigsuprise was when Ingemar began to ask why Christ had to suffer what he did,and began to cry. I swear most people would assume this man is a thug ifthey saw him on the street. You NEVER know who is prepared.
Andre is doing AWESOME and hasn't touched a cigarette since he got hispriesthood blessing a week ago. I LOVE this gospel, and I love seeing howthe light and joy of it has come into this man's countenance. It's soamazing.
After maybe 2 or 3 notes, several voice mail messages, and countlesstimes stopping by her door, Sherryl's roommate used her phone the text us tosay that Sherryl is in Suriname with her dad - so she's alive! And she gaveus her e-mail address, so Zr. Knoelk can totally e-mail her when she goeshome. Which is good, because that woman was so prepared it was nuts. She'sprobably met missionaries in Suriname and has a baptisimal date there,knowing her.
Saturday night we had a return appointment with a woman from the Congo- she wanted us to come back when her boyfriend was there because he speaksbetter Dutch. So we stopped by to find not only the boyfriend but alsoLiliana's sister and the family pastor. So that was fun! We were as clear aswe could be, steered clear of Bible Bashing, and left pretty gracefully. Itwas sad because they were entirely not open, but they'll have a real chancein the future, and it really increased my thankfulness for the Restoration.There's nothing like hearing people go off about the mystery of the trinityto make me incredibly thankful for the First Vision. So that was cool.
So I'm happy. I'll try to develop pictures and mail them homesometime. You people are amazing. I love you!!!!! This gospel is soincredibly and has the power to change lives and do more good than anythingelse. Never forget prayer.
Liefs,
Zr. Baxter
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Ik houd van zendingswerk!
Hallo familie and vrienden! Een andere geweldig week in Rotterdom! We hadzone conference Wednesday, which is always pretty much spectacular. Ourmission president is amazing, and we talked a lot about how to truly be goodlisteners as missionaries and uncover challenges and concerns of the peoplewe teach. After a lot of discussion the zone leaders showed us some funequations - [love] x [purity] = teaching with the Spirit. [listening] /[questions] = the key to uncovering concerns. Also fun was the chance tomeet Zr. Rose Wielan, an old roommate of Jennie Newton who just got to themission this transfer. She seems to be doing great and it was funninggetting to know her better - especially since we've crossed paths beforethrough Jennie's bridal shower and such.
Things are going well with our investigators. We had a fabulouslesson with Sofi, our Ethiopian single mom, about the Restoration. I thinkit may have finally clicked to her (there's quite the language barrier andshe's quite shy in front of new people, which was the case since we broughtour fabulous RS president along as joint teach). She wants to come to churchagain - it's just a mess with mass transit and her 3 daughters. Buthopefully this Sunday we can get a ride for her from a member, especiallysince Zr. Knoelk is speaking (and pretty much using that as motivation toget anyone and everyone to come to church. I love my comp. "Use everyhonorable means!" - PMG).
Andre, the depressive divorced Surinaamer, is making INCREDIBLEprogress. For those whop have been keeping him in your prayers, THANK YOU!Sunday he received a priesthood blessing after church. We weren't therebecause we had to go to a YSA Missionary Sacrament Meeting in Gouda (more onthat later) but our RS president called and told us it was quite emotional.Later that night we taught him about temple work (which he pretty much hadalready taught himself through flipping through the Gids [kind of like theBible dictionary; can be found in the back of foreign language BoM's] in theback of the BoM and paying close attention at church). It was awesome. Henow has a goal to go to the temple in Salt Lake City when he comes nextOctober for General Conference (so maybe it would be okay if dad retires andmoves to Utah before I come home from my mission). This man's countenancehas completely changed in the past two months. He is sincerely becominghappier through the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is so incredible to see.This morning he sent us a text message saying he has no idea how ithappened, but he woke up this morning with just this glorious feeling ["zoheerlijk een gevoel"] that he couldn't put into words of plain happiness,and he wanted to thank us and Heavenly Father. Priesthood blessings areamazing.
We also had a really cool miracle Thursday night. We got a referralfrom the Gouda sisters for a man who'd gotten a Questions of the Soul BoMcard [see Preach My Gospel and the Book of Mormon chapter - it's thosequestions but printed out on a card] from a friend who didn't really want it- Jan Willem found the questions incredibly pertinent and called the Sistersasking where he could get a book of mormon. He's in our area, so we wereable to swing by and give him one. He's a Dutch man in his early 30s or late20s. That morning during studies, we'd both glanced through the questionsand both separately felt prompted to study #9, "Does God hear and answer myprayers?" with a reference to Enos 1. So as we walked through the book withhim, we explained it was scripture - he in turn shared that he'd grown upwith a basic Christian belief, but several years ago had become entirelyexhausted and run down with work, so much so that he had a mental breakdown.Since then he's really been looking (sorry this is vague - I still have ahard time understanding Dutch Dutch people perfectly) and seeking to know ifthere's a God. We showed him the question and read a few verses out of Enos,which he found interesting. The conversation continued, but I felt like weweren't done, so I pointed verses 6 to 8 to him, as Enos hears the voice ofGod telling him his sins are forgiven, and it has happened through his faithin Christ. "Thy faith hath made thee whole." Jan Willem pretty much flippedout at that point - he found the whole spiritual healing thing far tooapplicable to be coincidence. "How did you know to share this with me? Youdidn't know my history and medical problems until tonight?" So we talkedabout the Holy Ghost. He asked if we attended theology school before cominghere, and we explained more of what we do. He said he's not ready to come tochurch yet but he is so excited to read the Book of Mormon, and was sotouched he exchanged e-mails with Zr. Knoelk and gave her a cool trinketfrom Paris (Dutch people are incredibly gift happy - it's awesome!). It wasjust a beautiful moment. And he's fine with us keeping in contact with himas he reads more, so we'll see what happens in the future.
Sunday was an incredible day. There was a special YSAmissionary-focused Sacrament Meeting in Gouda. We went to do a musicalnumber. The first hour was testimony meeting, the second workshops, andduring the last 40 minutes or so President Woodland spoke. The workshopsfilled me with, well, a deeeeep sense of irony. It was pretty hilarious as amissionary to listen to Dutch stake presidents give essentially the samepro-marriage talks and advice I've heard in stakes at home and BYU - but thetalks were really incredible. I love these people so much. Of course it'sall far more applicable for my comp who's going home in 2 weeks, but it waspretty interesting and spiritually uplifting. There's something aboutteaching the importance of eternal families to people that just takes thefun out of mocking the pro-marraige fests that are YSA activities. Thesepeople are so good. I love the Dutch young single adults. The third hour when President Woodland spoke was just incredible. Thereis so much responsibility on this age group as they become leaders. WhenPresident speaks, it just evokes a sense of urgency coupled with eternity,as Zr. Knoelk puts it. And as I sat there, watching him bless these yougnsingle adults with the strength to meet the last days with joy, hope, and adesire to move forward, I was just filled with gratitude. It was incredible.
And so it goes. Rotterdam continues to be beautiful - it seemslike the leaves began changing in September and they're sitll changing -there's nothing like tracting down a street filled with falling maple leavesand watching Dutch grandmas and little children meticulously select theprettiest fall foliage to bring home. Or biking past olibolen stands andsmelling deepfried batter with powdered sugar (they're just like beignets(benyays?) but smaller). Saturday we got to stop by Eunice, a 27 year oldrecent convert from the other ward. Her father passed away quiteunexpectedly almost a year ago, and she's having a rough time coming up onthe anniversary of it. We got to just listen to her talk and talk, and askquestions to keep her going until she felt like she'd talked enough. Andthis is what Zion is, and this is what life is - just serving other peopleout of your sheer love for their goodness and brightness. Lending a handwhen it's needed, and more often simply listening. I never realized how muchlistening I would do as a missionary.
So! I love you all. Keep on keeping on, and do your fabulous thing,whatever it be. This gospel is true. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ havethe power to change lives and heal souls, and I'm lucky enough to see itaction. Remember prayer.
Love, Zr. Baxter
Things are going well with our investigators. We had a fabulouslesson with Sofi, our Ethiopian single mom, about the Restoration. I thinkit may have finally clicked to her (there's quite the language barrier andshe's quite shy in front of new people, which was the case since we broughtour fabulous RS president along as joint teach). She wants to come to churchagain - it's just a mess with mass transit and her 3 daughters. Buthopefully this Sunday we can get a ride for her from a member, especiallysince Zr. Knoelk is speaking (and pretty much using that as motivation toget anyone and everyone to come to church. I love my comp. "Use everyhonorable means!" - PMG).
Andre, the depressive divorced Surinaamer, is making INCREDIBLEprogress. For those whop have been keeping him in your prayers, THANK YOU!Sunday he received a priesthood blessing after church. We weren't therebecause we had to go to a YSA Missionary Sacrament Meeting in Gouda (more onthat later) but our RS president called and told us it was quite emotional.Later that night we taught him about temple work (which he pretty much hadalready taught himself through flipping through the Gids [kind of like theBible dictionary; can be found in the back of foreign language BoM's] in theback of the BoM and paying close attention at church). It was awesome. Henow has a goal to go to the temple in Salt Lake City when he comes nextOctober for General Conference (so maybe it would be okay if dad retires andmoves to Utah before I come home from my mission). This man's countenancehas completely changed in the past two months. He is sincerely becominghappier through the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is so incredible to see.This morning he sent us a text message saying he has no idea how ithappened, but he woke up this morning with just this glorious feeling ["zoheerlijk een gevoel"] that he couldn't put into words of plain happiness,and he wanted to thank us and Heavenly Father. Priesthood blessings areamazing.
We also had a really cool miracle Thursday night. We got a referralfrom the Gouda sisters for a man who'd gotten a Questions of the Soul BoMcard [see Preach My Gospel and the Book of Mormon chapter - it's thosequestions but printed out on a card] from a friend who didn't really want it- Jan Willem found the questions incredibly pertinent and called the Sistersasking where he could get a book of mormon. He's in our area, so we wereable to swing by and give him one. He's a Dutch man in his early 30s or late20s. That morning during studies, we'd both glanced through the questionsand both separately felt prompted to study #9, "Does God hear and answer myprayers?" with a reference to Enos 1. So as we walked through the book withhim, we explained it was scripture - he in turn shared that he'd grown upwith a basic Christian belief, but several years ago had become entirelyexhausted and run down with work, so much so that he had a mental breakdown.Since then he's really been looking (sorry this is vague - I still have ahard time understanding Dutch Dutch people perfectly) and seeking to know ifthere's a God. We showed him the question and read a few verses out of Enos,which he found interesting. The conversation continued, but I felt like weweren't done, so I pointed verses 6 to 8 to him, as Enos hears the voice ofGod telling him his sins are forgiven, and it has happened through his faithin Christ. "Thy faith hath made thee whole." Jan Willem pretty much flippedout at that point - he found the whole spiritual healing thing far tooapplicable to be coincidence. "How did you know to share this with me? Youdidn't know my history and medical problems until tonight?" So we talkedabout the Holy Ghost. He asked if we attended theology school before cominghere, and we explained more of what we do. He said he's not ready to come tochurch yet but he is so excited to read the Book of Mormon, and was sotouched he exchanged e-mails with Zr. Knoelk and gave her a cool trinketfrom Paris (Dutch people are incredibly gift happy - it's awesome!). It wasjust a beautiful moment. And he's fine with us keeping in contact with himas he reads more, so we'll see what happens in the future.
Sunday was an incredible day. There was a special YSAmissionary-focused Sacrament Meeting in Gouda. We went to do a musicalnumber. The first hour was testimony meeting, the second workshops, andduring the last 40 minutes or so President Woodland spoke. The workshopsfilled me with, well, a deeeeep sense of irony. It was pretty hilarious as amissionary to listen to Dutch stake presidents give essentially the samepro-marriage talks and advice I've heard in stakes at home and BYU - but thetalks were really incredible. I love these people so much. Of course it'sall far more applicable for my comp who's going home in 2 weeks, but it waspretty interesting and spiritually uplifting. There's something aboutteaching the importance of eternal families to people that just takes thefun out of mocking the pro-marraige fests that are YSA activities. Thesepeople are so good. I love the Dutch young single adults. The third hour when President Woodland spoke was just incredible. Thereis so much responsibility on this age group as they become leaders. WhenPresident speaks, it just evokes a sense of urgency coupled with eternity,as Zr. Knoelk puts it. And as I sat there, watching him bless these yougnsingle adults with the strength to meet the last days with joy, hope, and adesire to move forward, I was just filled with gratitude. It was incredible.
And so it goes. Rotterdam continues to be beautiful - it seemslike the leaves began changing in September and they're sitll changing -there's nothing like tracting down a street filled with falling maple leavesand watching Dutch grandmas and little children meticulously select theprettiest fall foliage to bring home. Or biking past olibolen stands andsmelling deepfried batter with powdered sugar (they're just like beignets(benyays?) but smaller). Saturday we got to stop by Eunice, a 27 year oldrecent convert from the other ward. Her father passed away quiteunexpectedly almost a year ago, and she's having a rough time coming up onthe anniversary of it. We got to just listen to her talk and talk, and askquestions to keep her going until she felt like she'd talked enough. Andthis is what Zion is, and this is what life is - just serving other peopleout of your sheer love for their goodness and brightness. Lending a handwhen it's needed, and more often simply listening. I never realized how muchlistening I would do as a missionary.
So! I love you all. Keep on keeping on, and do your fabulous thing,whatever it be. This gospel is true. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ havethe power to change lives and heal souls, and I'm lucky enough to see itaction. Remember prayer.
Love, Zr. Baxter
Monday, November 3, 2008
mission dreams coming true...
Hallo familie! And vrienden!
This week has been so many awesome mission dreams coming true. Lastweek we got tracted into by JW's (who were absolutely wonderfully sweet andas of yet I seriously don't understand why so many RMs are so antagonistictowards them - although it does get tiring to be called a JW multiple timesa day) and that was pretty awesome. This week I got to place an Arabic BoMinto the hands of an Iraqi who formerly fought with and translated for theAmerican forces in Iraq until he got injured, and is now living in Rotterdamwith his 3 sons. He's basically an elapsed Muslim who sees good in allreligions, but was definitely willing to read the BoM. So good! And he toldus he'd come to church before we even invited him. So that was pretty muchamazing. Pray with Riam!
And later that night my second mission dream came true - I got to eatAfrican food with my fingers! Wahoo! We headed over to Danny, a recentconvert from Cote D'Ivoire, who speaks French and a little Dutch. He made usthe most amazing couscous with fish and spicy vegetable sauce. Um, I lovebeing a missionary. =)
I also got to go frolick in a Dutch knitting store this week. We'dbeen talking for weeks of teaching Monik how to knit so she'd have somethingto keep her hands busy besides smoking, and last week Irene (a recentconvert) pointed out a knitting store to us. So we picked up some gorgeousyarn and needles and got Monik started on a scarf - she's a natural at it,but said it gave her a headache after too long. But it was really fun! Inever thought I would use that random talent as a missionary.
We also got to see Halloween celebrated in the Netherlands. There area few American women (or Dutch women who've lived in the US) getting theirneighborhoods involved in trick or treating, but the funniest thing is thatwe saw parades and people out trick or treating on Saturday night...November 1st... so I guess they Dutchified it and made it a two day event,just like their Christmas and Easter!
As far as actual missionary work goes, things are FABULOUS here!We're so busy... we don't really have much time to stop and eat... Let'sjust say my mission is totally not like The Best Two Years. At all. Andre isdoing fabulous, and Saturday we showed him the Restoration DVD with twowomen from the church there. After the DVD they began getting to know himbetter, and it ended up being more like a group therapy session thananything, with Andre spilling his life story, Zr. de Grote her conversionstory, and the two 22 year old American girls looking on in bemusement. Itwas so so so good for this lonely man to be able to express (to people withmore life experience than us) how it feels to be abandoned by his family (hewas orphaned at 14 with 8 younger siblings and no social welfare system inSuriname, then his wife left him 12 years ago) and then discover a newfamily at church. That was an awesome awesome miracle. It's also amazingseeing how these new converts are taking care of each other. Sunday afterchurch, Sharlon came up to me saying Irene told him about Andre's situation,and saying he (Sharlon) would be sure to get to know him more at church andmade sure he got more attention. I love these people.!!!
We had a fabulous first lesson withShehera, a Surinaams mom with two kids. She's been searching for the rightchurch for a long time and just loved the Joseph Smith story. She got sickand couldn't make it to church, but totally accepted a soft baptisimalcommitment. I'm so excited to go back and teach her.
Alisa asked about the Kastijn's (sounds like cost-stines) - we keep onhaving scheduling problems but we're due to finally go back and teach themWednesday night, so that will be fabulous. I have a really, really goodfeeling about that family. Sherryl is still MIA after her dad in Suriname getting sick - pleasecontinue to pray for her. She is the most ridiculously prepared woman I'veever met. Knowing her, she's probably met the missionaries in Suriname andhas a baptisimal date there.
In other awesome miracles, we got Sofi and her three (veryhyperactive) girls to church!!! Sofi is our Ethopian investigator with a bitof a language barrier problem. She told us months ago that she could nevermake it to church with all her girls, so this was quite a miracle - and nowI see why. Between the three of us vs. her three girls, navigating one busand one metro line, it was still absolute madness getting them there - butthey LOVED it. Sofi said if she had a car she'd come every Sunday. Wahoo!Even cooler, in Sacrament Meeting, her 4 year old Heeuwan saw a painting ofthe First Vision in the chapel and asked me if it was Joseph Smith. So good!Even if things don't work out with their mom because of the languagebarrier, I know these girls will meet sister missionaries again.
I just absolutely love being a missionary in Europe. It'sgetting cold, but that just means awesome delicious Christmas food, sowhatev's. =) Saturday we went with Irene to a gorgeous private maintainedpark in East Rotterdam. We biked through gorgeous older houses (most of theolder beautiful architecture in R'Dam was bombed out during the war, so thiswas quite the treat) and got to wander around a beautiful Dutch Park in thefall, talking about the gospel. I love what I do.
It's still hilarious and wonderful being Zr. Knoelk's companion.She's so delightfully out of the political scene because she's been here thelast 16 months - as she was asking me about the presidential election (whichI really don't know that much about) on our bike ride home, the quote of theevening was - "Oh, Obama's black?" I love my comp. Her family is alsorabidly repuclican and I was amused to see in the e-mail from her mom thesentiment that if the democrats win, our nation is going in Satan'sdirection, and the government truly will hang by a thread. That should makeAlisa happy! ;) But Zr. Knoelk's pretty happily ambivalent about it all -who cares about politics when you get to share the gospel with the coolestcountry ever?
Life is good, I love you all, and I'm so happy to be here. Some ofyou (namely Mom and Erica and Alisa) have questioned if I really am as happyas I sound - the answer is, on preparation days, absolutely! The rest of theweek - pretty much! There are indeed hard days, but they're much fewer andfar between than I thought they'd be. The gospel is true, so not much elsereally matters. Have a fabulous week, and know that Heavenly Father reallydoes hear and answer prayers!
Liefs,
Zr. Baxter
This week has been so many awesome mission dreams coming true. Lastweek we got tracted into by JW's (who were absolutely wonderfully sweet andas of yet I seriously don't understand why so many RMs are so antagonistictowards them - although it does get tiring to be called a JW multiple timesa day) and that was pretty awesome. This week I got to place an Arabic BoMinto the hands of an Iraqi who formerly fought with and translated for theAmerican forces in Iraq until he got injured, and is now living in Rotterdamwith his 3 sons. He's basically an elapsed Muslim who sees good in allreligions, but was definitely willing to read the BoM. So good! And he toldus he'd come to church before we even invited him. So that was pretty muchamazing. Pray with Riam!
And later that night my second mission dream came true - I got to eatAfrican food with my fingers! Wahoo! We headed over to Danny, a recentconvert from Cote D'Ivoire, who speaks French and a little Dutch. He made usthe most amazing couscous with fish and spicy vegetable sauce. Um, I lovebeing a missionary. =)
I also got to go frolick in a Dutch knitting store this week. We'dbeen talking for weeks of teaching Monik how to knit so she'd have somethingto keep her hands busy besides smoking, and last week Irene (a recentconvert) pointed out a knitting store to us. So we picked up some gorgeousyarn and needles and got Monik started on a scarf - she's a natural at it,but said it gave her a headache after too long. But it was really fun! Inever thought I would use that random talent as a missionary.
We also got to see Halloween celebrated in the Netherlands. There area few American women (or Dutch women who've lived in the US) getting theirneighborhoods involved in trick or treating, but the funniest thing is thatwe saw parades and people out trick or treating on Saturday night...November 1st... so I guess they Dutchified it and made it a two day event,just like their Christmas and Easter!
As far as actual missionary work goes, things are FABULOUS here!We're so busy... we don't really have much time to stop and eat... Let'sjust say my mission is totally not like The Best Two Years. At all. Andre isdoing fabulous, and Saturday we showed him the Restoration DVD with twowomen from the church there. After the DVD they began getting to know himbetter, and it ended up being more like a group therapy session thananything, with Andre spilling his life story, Zr. de Grote her conversionstory, and the two 22 year old American girls looking on in bemusement. Itwas so so so good for this lonely man to be able to express (to people withmore life experience than us) how it feels to be abandoned by his family (hewas orphaned at 14 with 8 younger siblings and no social welfare system inSuriname, then his wife left him 12 years ago) and then discover a newfamily at church. That was an awesome awesome miracle. It's also amazingseeing how these new converts are taking care of each other. Sunday afterchurch, Sharlon came up to me saying Irene told him about Andre's situation,and saying he (Sharlon) would be sure to get to know him more at church andmade sure he got more attention. I love these people.!!!
We had a fabulous first lesson withShehera, a Surinaams mom with two kids. She's been searching for the rightchurch for a long time and just loved the Joseph Smith story. She got sickand couldn't make it to church, but totally accepted a soft baptisimalcommitment. I'm so excited to go back and teach her.
Alisa asked about the Kastijn's (sounds like cost-stines) - we keep onhaving scheduling problems but we're due to finally go back and teach themWednesday night, so that will be fabulous. I have a really, really goodfeeling about that family. Sherryl is still MIA after her dad in Suriname getting sick - pleasecontinue to pray for her. She is the most ridiculously prepared woman I'veever met. Knowing her, she's probably met the missionaries in Suriname andhas a baptisimal date there.
In other awesome miracles, we got Sofi and her three (veryhyperactive) girls to church!!! Sofi is our Ethopian investigator with a bitof a language barrier problem. She told us months ago that she could nevermake it to church with all her girls, so this was quite a miracle - and nowI see why. Between the three of us vs. her three girls, navigating one busand one metro line, it was still absolute madness getting them there - butthey LOVED it. Sofi said if she had a car she'd come every Sunday. Wahoo!Even cooler, in Sacrament Meeting, her 4 year old Heeuwan saw a painting ofthe First Vision in the chapel and asked me if it was Joseph Smith. So good!Even if things don't work out with their mom because of the languagebarrier, I know these girls will meet sister missionaries again.
I just absolutely love being a missionary in Europe. It'sgetting cold, but that just means awesome delicious Christmas food, sowhatev's. =) Saturday we went with Irene to a gorgeous private maintainedpark in East Rotterdam. We biked through gorgeous older houses (most of theolder beautiful architecture in R'Dam was bombed out during the war, so thiswas quite the treat) and got to wander around a beautiful Dutch Park in thefall, talking about the gospel. I love what I do.
It's still hilarious and wonderful being Zr. Knoelk's companion.She's so delightfully out of the political scene because she's been here thelast 16 months - as she was asking me about the presidential election (whichI really don't know that much about) on our bike ride home, the quote of theevening was - "Oh, Obama's black?" I love my comp. Her family is alsorabidly repuclican and I was amused to see in the e-mail from her mom thesentiment that if the democrats win, our nation is going in Satan'sdirection, and the government truly will hang by a thread. That should makeAlisa happy! ;) But Zr. Knoelk's pretty happily ambivalent about it all -who cares about politics when you get to share the gospel with the coolestcountry ever?
Life is good, I love you all, and I'm so happy to be here. Some ofyou (namely Mom and Erica and Alisa) have questioned if I really am as happyas I sound - the answer is, on preparation days, absolutely! The rest of theweek - pretty much! There are indeed hard days, but they're much fewer andfar between than I thought they'd be. The gospel is true, so not much elsereally matters. Have a fabulous week, and know that Heavenly Father reallydoes hear and answer prayers!
Liefs,
Zr. Baxter
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
howdy
Hallo familie!
So to be perfectly honest, this week was a little rough. We had areturn appointment with Shannon, the 30 something animal rights activist whofeels the Spirit like nobody's business. She had a friend from Germany over,and it really turned from a lesson into philosophizing, a la "yeah I feelthat way too, but I don't call it God." It was quite the bummer for us,though they certainly loved it and were sad to see us go. We will keep onworking with Shannon though and try to help her get a better concept of whoChrist is.
Tuesday was pretty amazing. We had a really cool chat with an Iraqi whospeaks great English (from fighting alongside the American soldiers in Iraqbefore he got injured) and we go back to teach him this week. That same daywe got let in by a fabulous Polish woman and got to teach her the Plan ofSalvation - the light in this young mother's eyes was just incredible. Shetold us some really cool experiences / dreams she's had since her fatherpassed away a few months ago. When we get a Polish Book of Mormon in, we'recalling her back up to bring it by. We also THE MOST INSPIRED WARD COUNCILEVER! Basically our Bishop is amazing and is so so so supportive ofmissionary work in his ward. So that's awesome.
As the Lord usually goes, he sent some awesome blessings to make upfor our disappointing lesson with Shannon. On Friday we got to visit HelenNooitmeer (my Surinaamse Mom) who's still recovering from knee surgery. Aswe were teaching her again about the Restoration she stopped and said, "Doyou know what I find so great? Zr. Baxter is so straightforward and strongnow when she teaches!" Meaning as opposed to how shy I was with my Dutchwhen I first came to Rotterdam. She was just incredibly appreciative of whatwe do as missionaries (esp when she learned we don't go out with boys whenshe joked how we could marry Hollandse jongen - "It really is a sacrificeyou make!" That was pretty funny. =) ) and it was like a celestial pat onthe back. Afterwards we taught Moniek about the Holy Ghost. As we talkedabout the Holy Ghost lets you feel God's love, she shared with us anincredibly beautiful experience. Her parents were both killed in Rwanda inthe war / genocide there. She came to Holland as a refugee when she was 18years old. She said when she was in the refugee camp she couldn't stopcrying - for two days and two nights straight she simply couldn't stop.Finally a Bosnian man in his 30s approached her and asked if she had anyfamily. She told him no, that she was all alone. "He told me to stop crying,and that I wasn't alone, because God was with me. He told me I should behappy I am alive, and that I am never alone."
So I think about people like her, and how the world would see her -an unemployed Rwandan refugee with basic Dutch and English down. And Icontrast her with some of the less open people we meet, like the Johnny Depplook-a-like university student we talked to the other day who was full ofquestions about God and organized religion but utterly unopen to the Spirit,promoting skepticism above faith. As we said goodbye, realizing the contactwasn't going anywhere, my companion told him it was good to keep asking somany questions, and he said, "I wish you would do the same." And this youngguy would look so successful and bright and full of potential next toMoniek. Yet she's the one who's sees the hand of God in her life, and allthe joy that brings. It's such a poignant and strange contrast of people andsituations and lives, here in Rotterdam.
Things are still going well with Andre, our Surinaams investigatorin his 50s who is absolutely set on getting baptised in February and thenattending General Conference the following October. This man is the mostcelestial person I've ever known - and possibly has one of the mostdifficult lives I've ever seen. In any case, please keep him in your prayers- he's coming up on the time of year when his wife left him and that's a bitdifficult for him. He's just so... good! The man bought us beautiful scarvesto thank us for teaching him. Nothing in my life is so humbling likemissionary work.
We still haven't heard from Sherryl, our 26 year old Surinaamerstudying to be a judge. She's so golden - please pray we'll meet up with heragain. She said last week her dad in Surinaam went to the hospital, so wethink she flew there and that's why we can't get in touch with him.
And in the vein of God letting Zr. Baxter know she can just chillaxabout the work because it's all in his hands, we have another baptisimaldate! His name is Ingemar, and he's an Antilleans man in his 40s. We'vetaught him twice and he's been to church only twice - we gave him a softbaptisimal commitment last lesson to let him know that's what we do -prepare people to come unto Christ through baptism. And then yesterday afterSunday School he came up and told us he'd thought about it and wants to bebaptised - so when and where can he do that? AMAZING! So I love this work.
In less related missionary news, so much funny stuff has happenedlately. I encountered my first Dutch Vote For Obama signs ("Obama Bidden!")- two on one street! That made me think of Alisa. Also, I ran into a booktitle at the local post office that I'm pretty sure is the Dutch translationof "Eat Love Pray" or whatever that book is that Katie liked so much (Jacktoo maybe? ;) ). OH! And Wednesday we drove over with the Relief Societypresident, Zr. VerHoeven, to surprise the bishop's wife on her birthday. Thebishop and his wife have a little girl who's exactly Lauren's age andabsolutely just as adorable, nuts, and funny. (Well, almost as cool asLauren - but of course not quite!) Kaylie (their daughter) and her friendsdecided to do a lip sync for all of us to.... Les Miserables! Except inDutch. So they sang Master of the House for us, in costume, and let me tellyou, that song sounds even more diabolical with all the gargly dutch g'sthrown in. Hilarious! So that reminded me of Katie, and Jack jamming out tothat song in the car, and basically the rest of my family... good times. Sonow I know I can use Dutch translations of musicals to keep up my Dutch whenI get back to America.
Zr. Knoelk is in her last transfer and loving life. I'm certainlyglad I'm blessed to not be trunky or homesick - it's pretty funny watchingher weigh her bags to make sure she can fit in all the souvenirs she wantsto bring home. I really have loved serving with her and will be sad to seeher go at the end of this transfer.
Oh, and Saturday afternoon we had the coolest tracting experienceever! We knocked on the door of the glasshouse addition to a normal row ofhouses, and a fabulous red headed older Dutch woman answered. She wasn'tinterested, but we asked about the dozens (literally) of paintings piled upin her house, and she very cordially welcomed us in. She's a Dutch grammarand lit teacher but began painting ten years ago as a hobby - her website iswww.vrolijkeschilderijen.com . Zr Knoelk and I are both obsessed with colorso it was amazing. She let us in on the express agreement that we not talkabout God. =) But we ended up having a very nice chat with her about ourlifestyles, how we like Holland, all that jazz. She said we're welcome tocome back anytime we like. It was like a high five from God telling us tojust enjoy this time of service in our life and all the cool people we getto meet.
So overall things are grand. It's getting a little colder, but nowthat armed with my first European scarf I'll be fine. ;) I love you all somuch. Have a glorious week and never take the Spirit for granted! Liefs, Zr. Baxter
So to be perfectly honest, this week was a little rough. We had areturn appointment with Shannon, the 30 something animal rights activist whofeels the Spirit like nobody's business. She had a friend from Germany over,and it really turned from a lesson into philosophizing, a la "yeah I feelthat way too, but I don't call it God." It was quite the bummer for us,though they certainly loved it and were sad to see us go. We will keep onworking with Shannon though and try to help her get a better concept of whoChrist is.
Tuesday was pretty amazing. We had a really cool chat with an Iraqi whospeaks great English (from fighting alongside the American soldiers in Iraqbefore he got injured) and we go back to teach him this week. That same daywe got let in by a fabulous Polish woman and got to teach her the Plan ofSalvation - the light in this young mother's eyes was just incredible. Shetold us some really cool experiences / dreams she's had since her fatherpassed away a few months ago. When we get a Polish Book of Mormon in, we'recalling her back up to bring it by. We also THE MOST INSPIRED WARD COUNCILEVER! Basically our Bishop is amazing and is so so so supportive ofmissionary work in his ward. So that's awesome.
As the Lord usually goes, he sent some awesome blessings to make upfor our disappointing lesson with Shannon. On Friday we got to visit HelenNooitmeer (my Surinaamse Mom) who's still recovering from knee surgery. Aswe were teaching her again about the Restoration she stopped and said, "Doyou know what I find so great? Zr. Baxter is so straightforward and strongnow when she teaches!" Meaning as opposed to how shy I was with my Dutchwhen I first came to Rotterdam. She was just incredibly appreciative of whatwe do as missionaries (esp when she learned we don't go out with boys whenshe joked how we could marry Hollandse jongen - "It really is a sacrificeyou make!" That was pretty funny. =) ) and it was like a celestial pat onthe back. Afterwards we taught Moniek about the Holy Ghost. As we talkedabout the Holy Ghost lets you feel God's love, she shared with us anincredibly beautiful experience. Her parents were both killed in Rwanda inthe war / genocide there. She came to Holland as a refugee when she was 18years old. She said when she was in the refugee camp she couldn't stopcrying - for two days and two nights straight she simply couldn't stop.Finally a Bosnian man in his 30s approached her and asked if she had anyfamily. She told him no, that she was all alone. "He told me to stop crying,and that I wasn't alone, because God was with me. He told me I should behappy I am alive, and that I am never alone."
So I think about people like her, and how the world would see her -an unemployed Rwandan refugee with basic Dutch and English down. And Icontrast her with some of the less open people we meet, like the Johnny Depplook-a-like university student we talked to the other day who was full ofquestions about God and organized religion but utterly unopen to the Spirit,promoting skepticism above faith. As we said goodbye, realizing the contactwasn't going anywhere, my companion told him it was good to keep asking somany questions, and he said, "I wish you would do the same." And this youngguy would look so successful and bright and full of potential next toMoniek. Yet she's the one who's sees the hand of God in her life, and allthe joy that brings. It's such a poignant and strange contrast of people andsituations and lives, here in Rotterdam.
Things are still going well with Andre, our Surinaams investigatorin his 50s who is absolutely set on getting baptised in February and thenattending General Conference the following October. This man is the mostcelestial person I've ever known - and possibly has one of the mostdifficult lives I've ever seen. In any case, please keep him in your prayers- he's coming up on the time of year when his wife left him and that's a bitdifficult for him. He's just so... good! The man bought us beautiful scarvesto thank us for teaching him. Nothing in my life is so humbling likemissionary work.
We still haven't heard from Sherryl, our 26 year old Surinaamerstudying to be a judge. She's so golden - please pray we'll meet up with heragain. She said last week her dad in Surinaam went to the hospital, so wethink she flew there and that's why we can't get in touch with him.
And in the vein of God letting Zr. Baxter know she can just chillaxabout the work because it's all in his hands, we have another baptisimaldate! His name is Ingemar, and he's an Antilleans man in his 40s. We'vetaught him twice and he's been to church only twice - we gave him a softbaptisimal commitment last lesson to let him know that's what we do -prepare people to come unto Christ through baptism. And then yesterday afterSunday School he came up and told us he'd thought about it and wants to bebaptised - so when and where can he do that? AMAZING! So I love this work.
In less related missionary news, so much funny stuff has happenedlately. I encountered my first Dutch Vote For Obama signs ("Obama Bidden!")- two on one street! That made me think of Alisa. Also, I ran into a booktitle at the local post office that I'm pretty sure is the Dutch translationof "Eat Love Pray" or whatever that book is that Katie liked so much (Jacktoo maybe? ;) ). OH! And Wednesday we drove over with the Relief Societypresident, Zr. VerHoeven, to surprise the bishop's wife on her birthday. Thebishop and his wife have a little girl who's exactly Lauren's age andabsolutely just as adorable, nuts, and funny. (Well, almost as cool asLauren - but of course not quite!) Kaylie (their daughter) and her friendsdecided to do a lip sync for all of us to.... Les Miserables! Except inDutch. So they sang Master of the House for us, in costume, and let me tellyou, that song sounds even more diabolical with all the gargly dutch g'sthrown in. Hilarious! So that reminded me of Katie, and Jack jamming out tothat song in the car, and basically the rest of my family... good times. Sonow I know I can use Dutch translations of musicals to keep up my Dutch whenI get back to America.
Zr. Knoelk is in her last transfer and loving life. I'm certainlyglad I'm blessed to not be trunky or homesick - it's pretty funny watchingher weigh her bags to make sure she can fit in all the souvenirs she wantsto bring home. I really have loved serving with her and will be sad to seeher go at the end of this transfer.
Oh, and Saturday afternoon we had the coolest tracting experienceever! We knocked on the door of the glasshouse addition to a normal row ofhouses, and a fabulous red headed older Dutch woman answered. She wasn'tinterested, but we asked about the dozens (literally) of paintings piled upin her house, and she very cordially welcomed us in. She's a Dutch grammarand lit teacher but began painting ten years ago as a hobby - her website iswww.vrolijkeschilderijen.com . Zr Knoelk and I are both obsessed with colorso it was amazing. She let us in on the express agreement that we not talkabout God. =) But we ended up having a very nice chat with her about ourlifestyles, how we like Holland, all that jazz. She said we're welcome tocome back anytime we like. It was like a high five from God telling us tojust enjoy this time of service in our life and all the cool people we getto meet.
So overall things are grand. It's getting a little colder, but nowthat armed with my first European scarf I'll be fine. ;) I love you all somuch. Have a glorious week and never take the Spirit for granted! Liefs, Zr. Baxter
Monday, October 13, 2008
soccer and basketball and holland, oh my!
It hasn't been a very eventful week, at least not in terms of things you people would find interesting, but it's been justgrand in terms of missionary work. So we thought Andre would drop us when a joint teach rather stronglyinvited him to be baptised sooner than he was planning on - we had told thejoint teach that was our plan for the lesson, but he sprung it ratherforcefully on him and rather stole our thunder. Thanks to the inestimableZr. Hoppen (how I adore that woman) at another joint teach, we understoodthat part of why Andre wants to put off his baptism for another 6 months isso he can fully let go of the faith he was raised with - which, in EllenHoppen's words, is to his credit. We also learned that he was orphaned bythe age of 14 with several younger siblings and used to have to work from 7am to 11pm to make ends meet because there wasn't really a welfare system inSurinaam. The more I teach this man the more I'm convinced he's the mostcelestial person I know. So things are still going well there.
We had another fabulous lesson with Sherryl, the young lawstudent who's met missionaries twice before and is pretty sure God keepssending around these people with the black name tags for a reason. She's abrilliant, absolutely lovely person - unfortunately she's also out of townat her mother's with the flu right now, but this week we should get back intouch with her and continue the progressing awesomeness there. And we taughtTamie, the single mom from Sierra Leone, a second lesson. She's coming tochurch on Sunday to see if it's a place she feels at home and where she'dlike to get baptised. So good. Her two year old daughter is super cute, andher Dutch is awesome - but I'm not gonna lie, African French is completelyawesome. I love it.
Aaaaand the recent convert action is nothing short of glorious.Irene's read the whole Book of Mormon and is past Doctrine and Covenantssection 27 by now. Sharlon got the Melchizedek Priesthood and was sustainedin Stake Conference this weekend, and of the 10 recent converts of the pastyear, 9 are still active. Wahoo!
Things just continue to be good here. Fall in Rotterdam is gorgeous -sometimes it's like biking through leaf-carpeted hallways of oranges andyellows. They totally lied when they said it rains in Holland all the time -sometimes tracting outside is just a pure aesthetic treat. Especially whenyou meet cool open Muslim college students who totally want to practicetheir English with you and talk to you about religious norms and standards.I love cities.
In other fun happenings, we dropped by the Aunt of our oldSurinaam companion (Zr. Kabenda, who's now in Amsterdam) to drop off acondolence card for the passing of her brother. She welcomed us in to singand pray for her, and then told us about the little funeral service theyheld for her brother here in Holland since there wasn't room in any flightsto Surinaam to be there in person. She said they (her family) came togetherto pray and read a scripture, but no one had brought a bible... so they usedthe Book of Mormon we left with them! Awesome!!! So that was pretty cool. =)
We also had stake conference this weekend, and it was fun seeing othermissionaries and getting so much practice listened to Dutch. I really dolove these ward members and stake members so, so much. The theme was ALma6:6 which is pretty instructive for all church members. After conferenceNicky, a young wife from Utah who's here with her husband teaching at theAmerican school, came on Joint Teach to an Antilleans man named Ingemar. He basically wants know how to be happy in life and has been looking forspiritual answers, so we taught him the Plan of Salvation and are bringinghim to church next week. When Nicky bore her testimony it was just...awesome. After the appointment she thanked us and said she really feltblessed to be outside of Utah in a place where she could actively be part ofmissionary work. I love love love what we do. And Sunday we had dinner withCharla and Peter, another young couple who I pretty much just want to be.Charla studied film at BYU, got her masters in it in Scotland, and thentaught for a couple years at a fine arts college in Atlanta where herhusband was working. Now they're here with their 6 month old son while he'sstudying business. They're super fun and excited about learning Dutch andall that jazz - just good people and kindred spirits.
We also had transfers!!!!! And nothing's changing. =) I will accompany Zr. Knoelk for her last. transfer. Which means I'll be here for atleast another 3 months since I'll probably take over the city when sheleaves. So that's exciting since I really love these people and my comp.And! I hit my 6 month mark! So I'm 1/3 done with this crazy adventure calleda mission. Absolutely nuts. Like most things in life, the times flies and isso slow at the same time. But it's marvelous! And today we played bball andsoccer with the elders (my team won both times! Not that I'm competetive atall...), which was pretty muc
h hilarious. Missionaries are the funnest /dorkiest people ever. I really do love being here. Sorry this isn't the most exciting letter of all time, but I'm happyhere and I love what I'm doing. I love you people at home so much. Thanksfor your letters and support. Never take the Book of Mormon or a modern dayprophet for granted. And always, always remember that Jesus Christ knowsyou. I really don't know how to emphasize that enough - but when all elsefails and you don't know how to change yourself or take that step tobecoming better, you can turn things over to Him, and then miracles happen.I've seen it time after time here. Have a wonderful week everyone! Liefs, Zuster Baxter
We had another fabulous lesson with Sherryl, the young lawstudent who's met missionaries twice before and is pretty sure God keepssending around these people with the black name tags for a reason. She's abrilliant, absolutely lovely person - unfortunately she's also out of townat her mother's with the flu right now, but this week we should get back intouch with her and continue the progressing awesomeness there. And we taughtTamie, the single mom from Sierra Leone, a second lesson. She's coming tochurch on Sunday to see if it's a place she feels at home and where she'dlike to get baptised. So good. Her two year old daughter is super cute, andher Dutch is awesome - but I'm not gonna lie, African French is completelyawesome. I love it.
Aaaaand the recent convert action is nothing short of glorious.Irene's read the whole Book of Mormon and is past Doctrine and Covenantssection 27 by now. Sharlon got the Melchizedek Priesthood and was sustainedin Stake Conference this weekend, and of the 10 recent converts of the pastyear, 9 are still active. Wahoo!
Things just continue to be good here. Fall in Rotterdam is gorgeous -sometimes it's like biking through leaf-carpeted hallways of oranges andyellows. They totally lied when they said it rains in Holland all the time -sometimes tracting outside is just a pure aesthetic treat. Especially whenyou meet cool open Muslim college students who totally want to practicetheir English with you and talk to you about religious norms and standards.I love cities.
In other fun happenings, we dropped by the Aunt of our oldSurinaam companion (Zr. Kabenda, who's now in Amsterdam) to drop off acondolence card for the passing of her brother. She welcomed us in to singand pray for her, and then told us about the little funeral service theyheld for her brother here in Holland since there wasn't room in any flightsto Surinaam to be there in person. She said they (her family) came togetherto pray and read a scripture, but no one had brought a bible... so they usedthe Book of Mormon we left with them! Awesome!!! So that was pretty cool. =)
We also had stake conference this weekend, and it was fun seeing othermissionaries and getting so much practice listened to Dutch. I really dolove these ward members and stake members so, so much. The theme was ALma6:6 which is pretty instructive for all church members. After conferenceNicky, a young wife from Utah who's here with her husband teaching at theAmerican school, came on Joint Teach to an Antilleans man named Ingemar. He basically wants know how to be happy in life and has been looking forspiritual answers, so we taught him the Plan of Salvation and are bringinghim to church next week. When Nicky bore her testimony it was just...awesome. After the appointment she thanked us and said she really feltblessed to be outside of Utah in a place where she could actively be part ofmissionary work. I love love love what we do. And Sunday we had dinner withCharla and Peter, another young couple who I pretty much just want to be.Charla studied film at BYU, got her masters in it in Scotland, and thentaught for a couple years at a fine arts college in Atlanta where herhusband was working. Now they're here with their 6 month old son while he'sstudying business. They're super fun and excited about learning Dutch andall that jazz - just good people and kindred spirits.
We also had transfers!!!!! And nothing's changing. =) I will accompany Zr. Knoelk for her last. transfer. Which means I'll be here for atleast another 3 months since I'll probably take over the city when sheleaves. So that's exciting since I really love these people and my comp.And! I hit my 6 month mark! So I'm 1/3 done with this crazy adventure calleda mission. Absolutely nuts. Like most things in life, the times flies and isso slow at the same time. But it's marvelous! And today we played bball andsoccer with the elders (my team won both times! Not that I'm competetive atall...), which was pretty muc
h hilarious. Missionaries are the funnest /dorkiest people ever. I really do love being here. Sorry this isn't the most exciting letter of all time, but I'm happyhere and I love what I'm doing. I love you people at home so much. Thanksfor your letters and support. Never take the Book of Mormon or a modern dayprophet for granted. And always, always remember that Jesus Christ knowsyou. I really don't know how to emphasize that enough - but when all elsefails and you don't know how to change yourself or take that step tobecoming better, you can turn things over to Him, and then miracles happen.I've seen it time after time here. Have a wonderful week everyone! Liefs, Zuster Baxter
Monday, October 6, 2008
2 Nephi 9:21
Hallo familie and vrienden!
So we had exchanges this week, and this time I got to stay in Rotterdam andact like I knew what was going on. I only briefly got lost in the metro, soall in all things went well. ;) Zr Kriser from Gouda came, and she wasdefinitely a kindred spirit - it was really fun working with her. Tuesday wehad some awesome conversations during finding - one woman told us shecertainly wasn't religious, but her 12 year old daughter piped up that shewas, because she went to Christian school! It was hilarious. Because of thislittle girl's interest, her mom asked us all sorts of questions about thechurch and Utah and America and the language, and we were able to have areally cool conversation with them about prayer. Zr. Kriser testified thatprayer really can be personal and not just something memorized, and thenwhen we asked to pray with them, the mom still demurred but the 12 year old,Gija, out of sheer curiosity insisted that she let us. Hilarious! So we did,and it was awesome. Such a good interchange. And then later that night atdinner with a wonderful family named the Van Den Heriks, we found out thatthis girl goes to school with Noel Van Den Herik, a deacon here in the ward.So good! I love miracles.
One wonderful thing was week was that Helen and Irene, both veryrecent converts, got to go to the temple with the ward. They had a wonderfulexperience and really bonded together themselves, which is great to see. OnSaturday we visited Helen and got to answer more of her questions and showher the temple slideshow on the internet - she hadn't realized just howworldwide the church really is. It was a great moment. That woman is so inlove with the temple and the peace and Spirit she felt there - it waswonderful. She really is like a second mother to me.
On Wednesday, still with Zr. Kriser, we discovered we both lovesinging parts so we set on for finding with a hymn book in toe and got tosing some beautiful hymns for people who otherwise wouldn't have reallylistened to us. We were in the area of a member we visited in a referral whowanted a Book of Mormon, and it happened to be a very wealthy part ofRotterdam. So I considered being a little worried about our ability to findpeople who'd talk to us - but I just thought, well, why not? And it was aridiculously blessed time of finding. We had some incredible conversationsand prayers with people, including an amazing woman in her 70s named Rijntjewho let us in in the strict warning that she was not going to be convincedinto anything, but did we want a cup of tea? So we settled for Germanapplejuice. I'm not sure I've ever been inside such a large house. She was aridiculously dignified and classy dame, playing Chopin in the background andworking on an archive for her local church. We sang for her and left aFamily: The Proclamation to the World pamphlet behind. She and her husbandhad been to temple square decades ago and still had a Book of Mormon thathe'd found "very interesting." She wasn't open, but hopefully we brought theSpirit to her. When I see her in the celestial kingdom she'll totally getmore than a wink - she'll get an awesome hug. Her son in Chile called whilewe were there and it was hilarious hearing here in the other room say -"Yes, I have two Mormon missionary girls over... [laughter] Yes. I justfound them so cute / lovely!" I love the fruits of the Spirit.
And then we contacted our referral - a Dutch 16 year old girl whovisited the St. George Temple visitors center over the summer and wanted aBook of Mormon. At first just her 14 year old sister Henrietta was home, butthen Elisabeth came home while we were talking to her, and while we wereteaching Elisabeth her mom came home and said she wanted an English copy ofthe Book of Mormon as well. Elisabeth herself is very Dutch, but when weexplained we wanted her to learn these things for herself and find out forherself if they were true, she found that pretty cool. They are such a neatfamily. Her mom really felt a lot of love at the St. George visitor's centerand found that really appealing. I'm excited to visit them again in thecoming weeks and teach them more. So please pray for the Kastijn family!
On Thursday we had two very interesting experiences during finding.One was with Umut, a Turkish guy in his 20s who started off the conversationby saying he completely rejected religion and ended it by saying he wouldpray to God and ask if He really exists and loves him. I love love lovetestifying to people and letting the Spirit touch them. He said he'd call usand didnt' give us his info, but we asked his name, and he said, "Umut. Itmeans hope in Turkish." We've been studying hope in Ch. 6 of Preach mygospel as a district this week, and so we said, "We've been talking a lotabout hope lately." "Well, maybe that's a sign," he said. "I think so," Isaid. I just really like talking with people.
The second wonderful person we met was a woman in her late 20snamed Shannon. We try to be dilligent and talk to everyone passing by whenwe're at bellups, but when she passed us the first thing that came out of mymouth was, "Pardon - u heeft mooi schoenen!" (You have awesome shoes!) Andsomehow from them my comp helped turn it to a gospel discussion. =) But thiswoman is incredible - a vegetarian animal rights activist with no majorbelief in God but with a strong determination to do good in the world. So weshared 2 Nephi 9:21 about how Christ has felt the pain of all livingcreatures - and then she confided that she'd lost her family when she was ateenager, and maybe that was why she felt so strongly about helping animals- to prevent them from suffering innocently the way she had sufferedinnocently. I love this woman. After we prayed with her she had tears in hereyes. We are sooooo excited to meet with her again.
And there's just not time to express how many wonderful people arehere. Sherryl is ridiculously prepared and even tho she's studying law andworking she's willing to meet with us 3x a week for 30 minutes and saidshe'll be baptised if she comes to know these things are true. Conferencewas amazing - I absolutely adore these Dutch Saints. Um, I love you all.Write me! Love, Zr. Christa Baxter
So we had exchanges this week, and this time I got to stay in Rotterdam andact like I knew what was going on. I only briefly got lost in the metro, soall in all things went well. ;) Zr Kriser from Gouda came, and she wasdefinitely a kindred spirit - it was really fun working with her. Tuesday wehad some awesome conversations during finding - one woman told us shecertainly wasn't religious, but her 12 year old daughter piped up that shewas, because she went to Christian school! It was hilarious. Because of thislittle girl's interest, her mom asked us all sorts of questions about thechurch and Utah and America and the language, and we were able to have areally cool conversation with them about prayer. Zr. Kriser testified thatprayer really can be personal and not just something memorized, and thenwhen we asked to pray with them, the mom still demurred but the 12 year old,Gija, out of sheer curiosity insisted that she let us. Hilarious! So we did,and it was awesome. Such a good interchange. And then later that night atdinner with a wonderful family named the Van Den Heriks, we found out thatthis girl goes to school with Noel Van Den Herik, a deacon here in the ward.So good! I love miracles.
One wonderful thing was week was that Helen and Irene, both veryrecent converts, got to go to the temple with the ward. They had a wonderfulexperience and really bonded together themselves, which is great to see. OnSaturday we visited Helen and got to answer more of her questions and showher the temple slideshow on the internet - she hadn't realized just howworldwide the church really is. It was a great moment. That woman is so inlove with the temple and the peace and Spirit she felt there - it waswonderful. She really is like a second mother to me.
On Wednesday, still with Zr. Kriser, we discovered we both lovesinging parts so we set on for finding with a hymn book in toe and got tosing some beautiful hymns for people who otherwise wouldn't have reallylistened to us. We were in the area of a member we visited in a referral whowanted a Book of Mormon, and it happened to be a very wealthy part ofRotterdam. So I considered being a little worried about our ability to findpeople who'd talk to us - but I just thought, well, why not? And it was aridiculously blessed time of finding. We had some incredible conversationsand prayers with people, including an amazing woman in her 70s named Rijntjewho let us in in the strict warning that she was not going to be convincedinto anything, but did we want a cup of tea? So we settled for Germanapplejuice. I'm not sure I've ever been inside such a large house. She was aridiculously dignified and classy dame, playing Chopin in the background andworking on an archive for her local church. We sang for her and left aFamily: The Proclamation to the World pamphlet behind. She and her husbandhad been to temple square decades ago and still had a Book of Mormon thathe'd found "very interesting." She wasn't open, but hopefully we brought theSpirit to her. When I see her in the celestial kingdom she'll totally getmore than a wink - she'll get an awesome hug. Her son in Chile called whilewe were there and it was hilarious hearing here in the other room say -"Yes, I have two Mormon missionary girls over... [laughter] Yes. I justfound them so cute / lovely!" I love the fruits of the Spirit.
And then we contacted our referral - a Dutch 16 year old girl whovisited the St. George Temple visitors center over the summer and wanted aBook of Mormon. At first just her 14 year old sister Henrietta was home, butthen Elisabeth came home while we were talking to her, and while we wereteaching Elisabeth her mom came home and said she wanted an English copy ofthe Book of Mormon as well. Elisabeth herself is very Dutch, but when weexplained we wanted her to learn these things for herself and find out forherself if they were true, she found that pretty cool. They are such a neatfamily. Her mom really felt a lot of love at the St. George visitor's centerand found that really appealing. I'm excited to visit them again in thecoming weeks and teach them more. So please pray for the Kastijn family!
On Thursday we had two very interesting experiences during finding.One was with Umut, a Turkish guy in his 20s who started off the conversationby saying he completely rejected religion and ended it by saying he wouldpray to God and ask if He really exists and loves him. I love love lovetestifying to people and letting the Spirit touch them. He said he'd call usand didnt' give us his info, but we asked his name, and he said, "Umut. Itmeans hope in Turkish." We've been studying hope in Ch. 6 of Preach mygospel as a district this week, and so we said, "We've been talking a lotabout hope lately." "Well, maybe that's a sign," he said. "I think so," Isaid. I just really like talking with people.
The second wonderful person we met was a woman in her late 20snamed Shannon. We try to be dilligent and talk to everyone passing by whenwe're at bellups, but when she passed us the first thing that came out of mymouth was, "Pardon - u heeft mooi schoenen!" (You have awesome shoes!) Andsomehow from them my comp helped turn it to a gospel discussion. =) But thiswoman is incredible - a vegetarian animal rights activist with no majorbelief in God but with a strong determination to do good in the world. So weshared 2 Nephi 9:21 about how Christ has felt the pain of all livingcreatures - and then she confided that she'd lost her family when she was ateenager, and maybe that was why she felt so strongly about helping animals- to prevent them from suffering innocently the way she had sufferedinnocently. I love this woman. After we prayed with her she had tears in hereyes. We are sooooo excited to meet with her again.
And there's just not time to express how many wonderful people arehere. Sherryl is ridiculously prepared and even tho she's studying law andworking she's willing to meet with us 3x a week for 30 minutes and saidshe'll be baptised if she comes to know these things are true. Conferencewas amazing - I absolutely adore these Dutch Saints. Um, I love you all.Write me! Love, Zr. Christa Baxter
Monday, September 29, 2008
glorious september days
So in this week's edition of the fabulous goings on in Rotterdam, we havethe Death of Zuster Baxter's Snobbery, An Exciting New Fiets, A DisgustingAmount of Lekker Amerikanse Brownies, and A Baptism! We'll start with themost glorious of those three happenings first, Irene's baptism. It waspretty much wonderful. She is very very much prepared (this woman inhalesthe scriptures and I can't wait to get home and mail her some Hugh Nibleyand such), and a recent convert, Sharlon, got to baptise her. It was a trulyblessed event. Zuster Knoelk and I sang the General Young Woman's theme songfrom one of these past few years, Daughter of a King, at Irene's request,and that went over pretty well. I like watching the Spirit make people weep.It's pretty fun. =) So Irene got confirmed Sunday, and she's very very happyto have made these decisions. There were many recent converts (and soon tobe converts) at her baptism, and it was just beautiful to see. In less eternal matters, my bike utterly and completely broke thisweek. So I bought a new one. All I can say is that is is FABULOUS to ridearound Rotterdam without drawing attention from passers-by wondering why onearth your bike is making that atrocious klunking noise. It's also nice notto be lamely slower than your comp on the fiets. Good times. But the sameday my bike died we set a baptisimal date with Monik, so you know. That waspretty amazing. Monik is the 33 year old from Rwanda we've been teaching. Her bigstruggle will be overcoming smoking. Both her parents were killed in theward in Rwanda, and she immigrated 15 years ago here to Nederland, so Idon't know if she came right before or right after all that madness wentdown. Her Dutch and English are okay. She's come to church the past month.And she's incredible. It is quite humbling to meet people who've gonethrough such difficult trials and who, by all my old shallow standards, arenot very noteworthy in the world's eyes - and yet who know their HeavenlyFather and depend on Him from day to day in a way I had never fathomed orcomprehended before my mission. So I hope I never forget hearing Monik sayover breakfast on Saturday, "You have to just keep on running and keep ongoing until you find God." Another incredible person is Andre. He was broken after his wifeleft him, and the Book of Mormon healed him. He wants to get baptised inMarch or February, but as of this week he's learned all the big commitments,and this blessed, incredible man's reply has simply been, "I will certainlydo that. Don't worry." He has stopped smoking before but he'll need to soagain, naturally, so please keep him in your prayers. I really just can'texplain how humbling it is to see someone learn about tithing, or the wordof wisdom, or the law of chastity, and simply accept it wholeheartedly. Noreservations. What a beautiful person. I wish you could all meet him. We also pulled Operation Brownie on our ward this Sunday and gavebrownies to everyone. It was pretty fun for Zuster Knoelk to announce inWard Correlation that we needed the first five minutes of every class andauxiliary, and then explain why - so we could bombard them with love,American-style. So that was pretty positive. The new Relief Society president liked the song we sang at Irene'sbaptism so much she asked us to sing it the next day in ZHF (Dutchabbreviation for RS). This time the American 2nd counselor in the ZHRPresidency pretty much sight read the sheet music. It was a little rusty,but the Spirit and grace of God covered us, and we made even more womenweep. You should look up the words - Daughter of a King by Jenny Philips. Iguess we all just need a reminder sometimes of where we come from, and whoare Father is. Saturday night after the baptism we had dinner with Eunice, a recentconvert who's actually in the other ward but comes in Joint Teach with usall the time. She's a Surinaamer who speaks perfect Dutch and English, whoteaches English to middle schoolers ( I think that age group) and who's flatwas so ridiculously cute Katie would have been drooling. It really was justa tender mercy to eat incredible Surinaamse food with two fabulous women andjust talk about life, missionaries, and the Gospel. Just so good. And the moment you've all been waiting for, the finishing touchto the Death of My Snobbery. As my family knows, I've often been a bit of anelitist as far as aesthetic things go, and coming on a mission, I wasreluctant about Sister Missionary cliches. Well, I've officially spent apday making brownies for the ward, and I now sing Jenny Phillips songs inchurch functions. But the final kiss of death came Thursday, as we wereleaving love notes in the mailboxes of members who needed a little TLC. Yousee, an American couple with an adorable 6 month old baby moved in a fewdays ago, and so I had an idea of photocopying my MTC Dutch phrasebook forthem - just the page with phrases for praying in Dutch so they couldcontribute more in the ward. And then we bought them Snickers so they'd havesomething to remind them of home. We wrapped the snickers in the photocopiedsheets with a nice handscrawled note of welcome, and then sealed it tubestyle with a sticker of a Simon Dewey painting. So I know give peoplelanguage help and chocolate sealed with stickers of the Savior. And it wasSO MUCH FUN! So I'm pretty sure I can't even reputably mock country musicwhen I get home. There's probably someone just too fabulous who adores it. In all seriousness, I really like what I'm doing, and I really lovewhere I'm at. Today we had a zone PDay in Den Haag and I got to bowl with acouple dozen missionaries, and then play a little beach volleyball, and Ireally don't think life gets any more positive than this. Thank you all foryour prayers and letters. You're amazing. This gospel is amazing. God is ourFather, and if we keep on running and keep on searching, we will find Him -and probably recognize that He knew right where we were all along. Love, Zr. Baxter
Monday, September 22, 2008
Addresses Needed!
Christa needs addresses for:
1)Meredith Ford
2) Jul Lamb
3) Briana Wright
4) Katie Richards
5)Ashley Woodward
You can just e-mail your address to christa.baxter@gmail.com and then we'll forward it on to her. Thanks!
1)Meredith Ford
2) Jul Lamb
3) Briana Wright
4) Katie Richards
5)Ashley Woodward
You can just e-mail your address to christa.baxter@gmail.com and then we'll forward it on to her. Thanks!
September is certainly a chilly month in Holland. Our morning runs sometimestake us by a sign that displays the time and temperature - at 6:20 it's afrosty 8 degrees celsius. The trees are just beginning to change color andit's a beautiful time to be here. Plus we had a whole week without rain -glorious! ;) I never real saw myself on a bike in rainy Nederland as Iworked on my mission papers, but it's all part of the glorious experiencethat is this mission. So the work is going fabulously here. Irene's getting baptised onSaturday! Yesterday she had her interview with our district leader, andafterward he said, "Wow, that woman is amazing!" My response was, "I KNOW!Isn't she incredible? She's read James Joyce's Ulysses in English! As hersecond language!" Elder Berry (of my MTC district, now comps with ourdistrict leader) feigned interested out of sheer politeness and said, "Wow,I didn't even know who James Julysses is." I am such an English major onhiatus. =) But Irene is doing wonderfully. She's really bonding withdifferent ward members and is so ready and prepared to take this next step.Andre, our divorced older Surinaamer, is also doing incredible. I reallydon't know if they come more Golden than him. We taught him three times thisweek and laid down the law about the Word of Wisdom. He is more than willingto stop everything - when we said we'd understand if he needed time to quitwith smoking, he said, "Sisters, I didn't ask the house rules [of thechurch] for nothing." What a wonderful person. And Monik, our Rwandaninvestigator, has been to church three times in a row now and is getting toknow the Young Single Adult group. She's even inviting a friend of hers todinner at her house with us tonight so maybe we can help her too (apparentlyshe has a drinking problem, and Monik felt like we as missionaries couldhelp her get a better perspective on God and life). The language barrier isstill a problem (how I wish we could track down a Book of Mormon inRwandes!) but we're working through it. Something I really love as a missionary is getting to be part ofmiracles besides missionary work. On Tuesday we began talking to a woman ina little neighborhood park - she's from Brasil but married a Nederlander andjust now has a host of problems with a pending divorce, house ownershipissues, a teenage son battling depression, and she just began unloading onus. I had no idea what we could really do to help her, when two woman from acommunity organization called Huis Op Straat (House on the Street,literally) walked by and recognized us as Mormon missionaries. After a fewminutes of each of us discussing what we do to help the community, mycompanion said, "Well maybe you can help this woman!" And they began hearingout the Brasilian woman's issues and telling her who she needed to talk towith the local gov to get things sorted out. I really don't think these twowoman would have noticed our Brasilian friend quietly sitting on her benchif we (with our conspicuous nametags) hadn't been there. God is awesome. Then there's the Curacaoan woman we met who wasn't interested but veryfriendly. My companion yelled up to her window, "Well, can we just come inand sing for you?" "I don't have anything I can give you," she replied."That's okay! We just want to sing for you!" So we did. And it turns outshe's met with missionaries before, and we had a wonderful chat about Godand spirituality and helping our fellow man. And when we left she loaded usdown with fruit and a beautiful canvas bag she'd sewn that she told us wecould use for our grocery shopping. There is a such a sense of hospitalityhere in Europe that just leaves me in awe. She also recommended a friendwho's in a nursing home (I think) and needs a friendly visit and someuplifting words. I love being able to just... help people. It's awesome. Friday we had a lovely dinner with Zr. Hoppen and Danny, aconvert who got baptised a year ago and originally comes from Cote d'Ivoire(who speaks mostly French). We taught him about the temple and are workingon getting him along with all the other recent converts to to temple to dobaptism in a few weeks. So good. At the end, Zr. Hoppen pulled out a slideshow (I think www.mormonchurchtemples.com/slideshow ?) that showed picturesof every temple in the world and when they were finished, in chronologicalorder. It was astounding. I love this work. Just... miracles. Tracting into Sherryl, a young law student who metmissionaries in another city months ago but lost contact with them as shegot sick (the chicken pox! As a 20 something year old!) and moved toRotterdam for school and was all too happy to finally get her hands on theBook of Mormon and get a return appointment. Those missionaries probablythought she was lost - but then the Lord sent us to go find her. I love howpeople are prepared. Or pulling up to a stop light by the church (en routehome from an appointment) at the exact moment as a young single adultlooking for the church so she can go to institute, and being able to showher the way. Visiting one of the old grandmothers from the word and hearingher wonderful stories. Zr. Dettingmeier is like my Sister Papadimitriou(please tell her hello and that I loved her letter!) in Holland. For mybirthday she gave me a beautiful small ceramic windmill and chocolate barsthe next day at church. I swear she can quote any scripture you can thinkof. There are just so many incredible people here. And in my ongoing list of Muslims With Whom I Will Party In TheCelestial Kingdom, the other day we met a family who invited us in. We arevery careful not to proseletyze intentionally to Muslims for politicalreasons (and they're pretty much never interested anyway) but they are SONICE! This family just invited us in, gave us milk and cookies, and we had agezellig little chat about Ramadam. I love this culture so much. So the work is going forth, the Dutch is getting better, and I'm reallyhappy to be here. I pretty much never want to leave Rotterdam. I love youall so much. There are miracles everywhere - just don't be afraid torecognize them for what they are. I love agency - no matter what yoursituation, you can always choose to see the beautiful side of things andstep forward and go and do what you need to to bring other people joy. Ilove this gospel, and I love life. Have a wonderful week everyone!
Monday, September 15, 2008
Another great week in Rotterdam! The weather'sgetting awfully brisk now - it's a lekker 13 degrees celsius and yesterdaywas definitely the coldest birthday of my life, but it's kind of fun tobreak out the sweaters. I feel very much the European sister missionarywardrobe wise. Being a missionary in the Netherlands is such a crazy experience,especially as far as finding goes. Just this last week we met a wonderfulwoman named Tamia from Sierra Leone, recently divorced and living with her 2year old daughter, who welcomed us in at the mere mention of Jesus Christand missionary work. We're excited to return again and continue teachingher. Then there's Jacou, a young white South African who let us come up anddoesn't really care much about religion specifically, but is doing aninternship here in the Netherlands and is pretty rusty with his Dutch andprobably quite excited to make new friends. So we'll get some joint teachaction going on and introduce him to the gospel. Some people here are justso incredibly KIND. Like the Muslim man who talked Sufism with us for a fewminutes (oh how I miss Wikipedia!) and then returned unexpectedly 5 minuteslater from his flat with a book of poems by Rumi, his gift to us.Incredible! Or the Surinaams couple who welcomed us in and fed us dates andshrimp while we shared the Book of Mormon with them. The longer I'm here themore convinced I am that people are inherently good. As far as fun things go, we had dinner with the Neto's, a youngcouple with a 4 year old daughter a newborn son. He's from Portugual andserved in Spain, she's from Spain and served a mission in Portugual, andwith us they spoke English. When he heard I played the guitar he was superexcited, so after dinner we jammed out to... Come Come Ye Saints. And Iimprovised a little Come Thou Fount. It was pretty funny, and good to see Ihaven't lost all my skills. The work is going beautifully. Irene is still preparing for her baptismon the 27th and very excited. Her curiosity and excitement when we taughtthe Restoration of the Priesthood was just hilarious to see - we weren'teven out the door before she was on lds.org looking stuff up. I adore thatwoman. Andre, the Surinaams man who has been intirely changed by the Book ofMormon, is doing really well too. We retaught him the restoration of thechurch through Joseph Smith, and it all made sense to him. And then hestarted telling us how he wanted to learn the "huis regels" (house rules) ofthe church he's coming to now. So he agreed to meeting with us 3 times aweek for 30 minutes (a new emphasis in missionary work across the world) andis so excited to continue making change in prep for baptism. Monik, tehRwandan 33 year old, came to church again. I learned her mom was killed inthe war years ago. I remember watching Hotel Rwanda as a teenager - I neverthought I'd be teaching the gospel in Holland to someone directly affectedby the war depicted in that film. And then yesterday was my birthday! Someone leaked the news to theRelief Society, who announced it. And then the entire room of womanserenaded me with the very long, very robust Dutch birthday song. Hilarious!Everyone should turn 22 in the Netherlands. On a Sunday, no less. Church wasgreat, and after another hour of finding we went to Helen's house (therecent convert from Surinaam) for a lekker birthday dinner. She made mesauto soup (which is a lot like gumbo, actually) and deep fried bakedbananas, my companion made dirt cake (oreos and vla), and we all had anentirely enjoyable evening. It really was almost the best birthday of mylife (only almost because I wasn't with family, but Helen did a fabulous jobof seeing I had a day full of love). I am so crazy thankful to be here, andthis ward is fabulous. So have a wonderful week everyone. Love, Zr. Baxter
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
we're home
Hello familie and vrienden! Zijn jullie klar for wonderen? [are you readyfor miracles?] I realize the longer I'm here as a missionary, the more thisbecomes the Weekly Conversion Process Log Of Rotterdam, but here's a coolcultural thing almost everyone should find interesting. On last Tuesdaynight, we got to go have Ward Council at the top of an observation tower inRotterdam called the Euromaas. It was an absolutely impeccable view!Unfortunately it just dumped rain on us the whole bike ride over (Zr.Hoppen's lovely British-accented comment was, "Oh, so you've decided tobecome mermaids, have you?") and was pretty stormy at the top, but still, itwas incredible to see the fantabulous view of the bridges we bike overregularly. We ended with hot chocolate in the very nice restaurant in thetower, but had to go home to be back on time before the ward really got tothe council part of the activity - nonetheless it was a really cool evening. The work is going really wonderfully here. Helen got confirmedon Sunday, and she's been sharing the gospel with her friends right andleft. Irene will be baptised on the 27th and we've been teaching both ofthem about temples in anticipation of having them accompany the ward youthon their monthly trip on Octover 2nd. Irene is just a kindred spirit. Shehas one son who's not very religious, and that really pains her as she'smaking this amazing transition in her life. She pulled out a quotation fromKahlil Gibran's The Prophet about how our children our not really our own("You may house their bodies but not their souls..."a really incrediblepassages that I believe President Kimball quoted in an Ensign article.lds.org it.). I pretty much fell in love with that book before my mission,and that sealed the deal - this woman and I will be penpals for the rest ofmy life. Anyway, she's just alight with the joy of the gospel, despite herconcerns over her son. She's such a walking miracle. In the Continuing Chronicles of Zuster Baxter's BookshelflĂmours, we had dinner at Familie Van Drilklouts with Irene the other day,and I encountered a 1864 edition of Milton's Complete Poetical Works. Turnsout Zr. Van Drilklout hails from Hurl, worked in Bedford as a librarian, andmet her Dutch husband (they're the ones who run the windmill) by the LondonTemple. So we gushed about Nibley and Elisabeth Gaskell and London theatreand alles, and it was pretty much the best thing ever. Another really miracle has been the old investigator who poppedout of nowhere named Andre. He's a divorced Surinaamer who was just crushedand destroyed when his wife left him a few years ago. He loved the Book ofMormon but found church difficult because everyone seemed so much happierthan him. This was all months ago. Then out of nowhere he texted us to sayhe was coming to church and has been doing so faithfully for the past threeweeks. We taught him last week, and he wanted to get baptised in a fewmonths. He says he reads the Book of Mormon every day for strength, andreads 2 Nephi 4 when he needs an even bigger boost (which I would highlyrecommend to all of you reading). It is just so neat to see how the Book ofMormon can help people find joy. This book really does bring people to God. Another cool incident was finding the other day. We met a Dutch manin his 60s who said something very typical of Nederlanders ''Ik geloof inmezelf"(I believe in myself - as opposed to believing in God). Then he saidsomething along the lines of - "But as I've grown older, my own strength isgetting smaller / weaker / less." He said he was busy but we could come backlater, so we told him about the Book of Mormon and how it brings spiritualstrength. ''Oh, I checked a book out from the library a few weeks ago and Istill haven't read it through." So we told him even small portions every daywould help. "So you're telling me if I just read small stukjes from thisbook every day and pray about it, I'll become spirituallystronger.""...Yes!" Do you know how cool it was to hear a Dutch personreally get what we were trying to say? So cool! So we're teaching him onMonday. And yesterday was pretty much the best day of my life. We hadzone conference with Elder Peia, our area 70 I believe. The theme ofmissionary work through love just ran through the whole day. I can't expresshow strong the Spirit was or how wonderful it was so I won't try, but I willtell you the unbelievable miracles that happened right after. So we wereriding the metro back to our bikes at Centrale Station, and I really wantedto be able to talk to someone and just share this gospel through love. Sothis Kurdish man sits down next to me and starts talking about his life (inEnglish, which helped). We chatted about his sister in Germany's healthproblems and I asked if I could pray for her. As we're getting of the metro,my comp introduced herself, and he said his name was Salar. Which justhappens to be the name of a referral from headquarters that we'd been tryingto contact but had no phone number for. So the Lord basically sent that manto us. We got his number and will make an appointment with him. Sometimesit's just unbelievable how much this is not in our hands. Oh, and the ward is continuing to love Linda, the American fromArizona who flagged us down from the bikes so she could find out wherechurch is. She was asked to introduce herself in Relief Society on Sunday,and I learned that when she was 13 her mom left the church, and she stayedon for a while but kind of drifted in and out of us. And then a month agowhen she saw us on the bikes, she basically began following us just to findout where church is because she wanted to come back. It was really cool tolearn more of her story, and even cooler to see how much this ward iswelcoming her. Alisa asked in a letter how things are with the elders, because Ihadn't mentioned anything about them, and was that possible a bad sign? Sodespite my fears after hundreds of BYU RMs describing sisters as either "Thebest of worst missionaries" and seeing sometimes less than stellar elder /sister relations stateside, I am happy to say the Elders in my mission arenothing short of phenomenal. Some of them really have become brothers.There's really an amazing unity here between elders and sisters, and Icontinue to be so happy and grateful and amazed at how dedicated andobedient people are. Which isn't to say we aren't 19 - 23 year olds. Liketoday on the bus to the temple when conversation amongs the elders turned tobacterial and fungal infection horror stories. Oh, good times. But yeah,it's good. I love this mission, and I love the missionaries I serve with.Zr. Knoelk is just amazing, and I'm so grateful for how well we get along.As she put it yesterday, when we go finding and tracting with love in ourhearts, it's pretty much like trick or treating with the Spirit. I love you all so much. OH! I need current addresses for MeredithFord, Briana Wright, and Jul Lamb, so if they could e-mail their addressesto my old e-mail (christa.baxter@gmail.com) my mom can check it, forwardthat info on to me, and I can letters to those lovely ladies. The gospel of Jesus Christ changes hearts and therefore changeslives. Thank you all for your support and prayers. And go read Alma 5because it's amazing. Fijnadag ferder! Love, Zuster Baxter
Friday, September 5, 2008
hmmm, hurricanes...
So another absolutely wonderful week in Rotterdam! We started off with a really fun preparation day last week - we toured a windmill! A family in our ward runs a local windmill (all of them are owned by the government but it's a profession to run them), so I got to take some really fun pictures of me climbing the arm of the windmill. It was an absolutely gorgeous bike ride out through woody areas with dikes and lakes, and the windmill itself was like an old attic crossed with a mill - I would have loved to curl up with my journal in all those old wooden corners and small windows outlooking the water. It was pretty much the classic Dutch Missionary Moment. But even better was what we did right after... we travelled out with Irene, a woman who's been investigating for quite a few months and has made some really tremendous changes in her life. After the windmill we biked to a small little bench by the lake and had a ceremony where she destroyed her last cigarettes - she's done with smoking! She read a poem she'd written (most of which I could understand, about how it had begun as her best friend when she was a teen but now was her worst enemy), a beautiful scripture from Mosiah where Alma describes his conversion (I have been snatched from the gall of bitterness, or thereabouts), and even sealed the deal with a prayer. It was an unforgettable moment to see how indescribably HAPPY this woman was to be done with her addiction! Such a cool miracle! And then after preparation day was over we had a dinner appointment with Charlone, the Curacao-ian recent convert, who was oh so proud to feed us some delicious Curacao-ian ( I have no idea how to spell this) food. It was indeed lekker and enn gezellig avond. Thursday was planning (a three hour event) and then all our appointments fell through, so we did a good three hours of finding, which was really fun. We practiced Come Thou Fount for Helen's doop dienst the whole time, and though no one let us in we had some really marvelous conversations and made some good contacts. I just love how sometimes all we need to do is leave a good impression with people - there was this woman Yolanda who was just so warm and open about her newfound love of the Bible. She didn't really have a desire to have us over, but said, "I've never met Mormons before!" And congratulated us on doing this for 18 months. We laughed and talked about life and God and ended the chat with hugs all around. Unforgettable. I love being a sister missionary! We also met the funniest Muslims ever. This man reminded me of Bro. Zachary - he looked at us with a twinkle in his eye and said with a laugh, "You just need to accept Mohammed already!" We laughed and they invited us in for something to drink and chat some more, but our finding was done. I just can't get over how nice people can be. Friday we visited the Levenrocks, the recently baptised family. Marlene, the mom, just had her baby boy - Marly-Andro! He was about 36 hours old when we visited. I haven't seen a baby that young since Lauren or Ryan were born. It really was just something holy. I felt like I'd just been to the temple. Life is beautiful. We did some more finding and then visited Helen, who had some friends trying to anti her right before her baptism. Her mind was pretty much made up at that point ("I'm 57 years old! I can decide to be baptised if I want!" I love this woman =) ) but it was good to give a little support and love with the word of God to boot. And that night was the ward BBQ, which was just wonderful. At the end people were even pulling out board games - a true Mormon event. ;) I really just cannot express how much I love this ward. On good days we have maybe 60 people - it's small, but so amazing. Irene came and had a marvelous time, and we also met up with Zr. Verboeket, a member from Eindhoven who did a two week mini-mission with Zrs. Knoelk and Kabenda about two months ago, who was coming up to work with us the next day and spend the night with Irene that night. So ready for a miracle? We got a call at 10:20 from Irene, who asked to speak to Zr. Knoelk, who then screamed and put her on speaker phone - "Ik will me laten doopen!" [I want to be baptised!] The eruption of 20-something girls screaming for sheer joy was probably quite annoying to our neighbors, but it was pretty much the best moment of my mission. This woman has investigated for a long time and her conversion is just beautiful to see. Turns out Zr. Verboeket was able to answer a few more of her questions that night about tithing and other things, and then the saintly dame challenged Irene to baptism herself. I love member missionary work! So Irene will be baptised on September 20th. SO good. I love that woman. She's already agreed to make a list of good Dutch lit for me to check out when I'm home too. Saturday was a good productive day of finding and member visits. We got to see the Netto's, a couple in their early 30s / late 20s with another brand new baby. One is from Portugal and one from Spain and both have served missions. Bro. Netto invited us over for dinner and said we should play guitar together. So we'll have to see if I can figure out a hymn or two for guitar in the meantime. ;) And Sunday was just beautiful. First off, Linda came to church with her girls! She's the woman from Arizona who saw us and waved us down on the bikes a few weeks ago. She was sick on Sunday and had something else come up the next, but after a few phone calls from us and other ward members she made it, and the ward did a fabulous job of meeting and welcoming her. She'll be here for the next several years with her husband's work, and there are anough English speakers (plus translation) that I think she'll do just fine. It did my heart good to see and talk with her. We also had ward conference, and it continues to be wonderful being able to understand enough Dutch to feel spiritually fed from church. In Sacrament meeting Bishop spoke, and then Lizzie, an young woman in her early 20s, gave a talk. She's an au pair from Peru, so she spoke in English (a second language for her) while another young woman from Aruba translated into Dutch. I love this ward so much. Her talk was just incredible - so simple and so strong. I will never look at people learning English as a second language the same way again. Her talk was an amazing reminder that you don't need perfect language skills to really teach people with the Spirit. And then after church was Helen's baptism. This incredible liefe dame was just on fire with the Spirit. Seeing her come out of the waters of baptism with a resounding "AMEN!" was probably one of the top ten moments of my life. So positive. The ward here has done a wonderful job of welcoming and fellowshipping her, and I'm confident that she will continue to grow in the light of the gospel. It is just incredible seeing her joy. On a less altruistic note, the echt paar (senior couple) missionaries came and delivered some letters, including a post card from Thailand (!) and a huge letter from Zack B. You people are so cool. Thank you all for your continuing correspondance. It means so much. And transfers are now here! It's kind of unbelievable that it was 6 whole weeks ago that I got here to Rotterdam - it feels so much shorter. My experience with a trio was an absolute party and we loved it, but now Zr. Kabenda is off to Amsterdam and Zr. Knoelk and I will hold down the fort. We'll really miss having her as an excuse to get Surinamse food from people all the time. She is such a stellar missionary with a bold testimony and drive. I really am just honored to serve with the people I do. I love you all. Have a marvelous week! Liefde, Zr. Baxter
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
bienvenue! ...make that, hardstikke welkom!
Liefe Familie and Frienden, So I heard all through the MTC that I'd use my French in the field,but never really had a great chance until this week. Last Wednesday we wentback to teach M. Moulet, the French-speaking African man we met the Mondaybefore. His friend who speaks better Dutch was not there, so we were a bitapprehensive about how much we could really communicate. But we stuck to thescriptures, explained our purpose as missionaries (to teach by the Spiritand lead people to baptism), and then read the introduction to the Book ofMormon in French with him. When I began learning Dutch in the MTC, onlyFrench would come out - since I entered the field, it was entirely theopposite! But the Lord really, really blessed us and brought back my French.At one point he stopped and asked my companions how much they understood andtold them I spoke really great French. I love what the Spirit can do - sincemy French certainly wasn't that great. ;) The Spirit during his lesson wasso strong, and he gladly read a chapter out of it later that week. Wetravelled with him to church on Sunday, but unfortunately the only Frenchspeaker there, another African man named Danny, also doesn't speak muchDutch, so he couldn't translate for him as much as we'd like. But Danny willcome help us translate when we teach M. Moulet again, so that should bereally helpful. I don't really know what will go down here - it's so hardbridging not only my own language gaps but attempting to help others' - butif nothing else this man will come to appreciate the Book of Mormon. TheSpirit was so strong during that lesson, and I know I was blessed throughthe gift of tongues to be able to communicate with him. We'll see what thefuture brings! The work continues to go on. Helen Nooitmeer, a wonderful Surinaamssingle woman in her 40s, will be baptised on Sunday. She is so excited - shetalks about her friends have noticed the difference in her, how she's aliving testimony, how excited she is for this new start. On Monday we got toteach her about temple work, and it was awesome. Unfortunately the other mangetting baptised that day (Jurgen) had a fight with his uncle, with whom helives, and is now moving back to Suriname... 4 days before his scheduledbaptism. Crazy. So we're doing all we can to help him look up the churchthere. Now he gets to be somebody else's miracle story. =) And Sofi, thebeautiful Ethiopian mom of three, finally came to understand what we meantby baptism (oh language barriers) and isn't really game yet. Her life ispretty hard as a single mom of three girls 5 and under, and even the idea ofcoming to church is insurmountable to her. On Monday though, we had a wonderful dinner appointment and lessonwith a part-member inactive family from Cabe Verde (Portuguese speakingislands off the coast of Africa). Paulo, the husband, was baptised when hewas 18 in Cabe Verde but has been inactive for a while. My comps tractedinto him a while ago, and his wife, who's Catholic, is open to learning moreand really wants her family to be united in their faith. Basically they'rejust the coolest family ever. Edna is a ridiculously open and warm woman wholoves Jesus Christ; she was really open to the first lesson, and is excitedto come to church on Sunday with her family. They have a 9 year old girl andthe cutest (and most hyper) 3 year old boy I've ever met. It was really coolto see Paulo pulling out his baptismal photos, sharing his feelings aboutlearning about the Restoration, and helping his wife understand thingsduring the lesson. Good things are happening in Rotterdam. And so it goes! I'm continuing to learn and grow a lot (do youpeople realise how amazing the Book of Mormon and the Bible are? Becausereally, they're just incredible) and enjoying being able to communicate moreand more with people all the time. Even in French. ;) Yesterday evening wetaught a lesson with Danny, the recent convert who helped translate a bitfor M. Moulet, and French was very handy. So another point for growing up inLouisiana. =) Occasionally we get just gorgeous days, but they are growingshorter and it feels like fall already. There continue to be little miraclesall over the place - there are so many people here open to learning moreabout the gospel. And there are just amazing people, period. Like the Muslimwoman who very kindly explained her different faith, told us to wait for 5minutes, and then brought us each a slice of fresh Turkish pizza. Who arethese amazing people? =) I think it's fair to say I've never done anythingso difficult or humbling in my life. I've also never seen so many miracles.I love you all - have een geweldig week! =) Love, Zr. Baxter
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