I have a family here on earth...just the other side of it ;)

Hello familie! So with our Pday last week on Friday, there's not quite asmuch news, but I'll keep you posted with some fun miracles. On Friday we gotto go to the Temple, and that was really great. After we made it home, wewent straight to an appointment with a woman named Irene. She doesn't have abaptisimal date yet because she's working on smoking, but she's stoppeddrinking, decided to live the law of chastity before she even learned aboutit from the missionaries, comes to church regularly, and wants to paytithing before she's even a member. She's just amazing. This was the firsttime I met her at her home (with three it's so easy to go on splits that Inever ended up teaching her) and I was comforted to see that I'll really getalong with her after Zr. Knoelk gets transferred (Which is extremely likelyin acouple weeks) - a concern since they get along so well. This woman hadJames Joyce's Ulysses on her bookshelf - English is my first language and Istill haven't read that all the way through! - as well as plenty of FrankHebert and other fun stuff. I realize I tend to rank my bonding experienceswith people in this country based solely on their bookshelves, and all I cansay is that yes, I am unabashedly an English major on hiatus who stilldrools over novels and book titles. =) It was a good lesson with her, andafterwards when an appointment fell through, we biked over to Sofi, theEthiopian woman who will be baptised in September. She's on vacation, and weleft a cute note with some photos we'd taken of us and her adorable girls.She called the night she got home and very enthusiastically thanked us, sowe were all very glad we could show our love for her. Afterwards Zr. Knoelkfelt prompted to do some finding on a particular stairwell, and the firstbell we rang let us up. We were able to talk to a beautiful family with a 12day old baby boy - and the best part is that they know Sofi (they're alsofrom Ethopia, though their Dutch is a bit better)! I love how the Lord helpsus find people. Another cool miracles happened Monday. We took the train out to anarea Zr. Knoelk had felt good about for some time. We were in a set of flatswhen we noticed how wretched their garbage area was - bags torn open,garbage spread everywhere. We decided to clean it up, and asked a manpassing on the street if he had a garbage sack we could use. His name isMoulet and he's from the Congo, so between my French and his Dutch it workedout. He was really impressed with us and asked if we'd like to come up andwash our hands. We ended up being able to teach him and his friend (alsofrom the Congo) a 1st lesson, with the help of the Restoration DVD inFrench. =) We're heading back tonight, and I'm really excited to bust out alittle more French. Hopefully next time we can get a French speaking jointteach to come. I love the diversity of people in this country. As far as other news, I got to give a talk on Sunday. With the help ofZr. Kabenda, my Surinamse collega, it went really well. One older sistersaid she could understand everything I said, which is apparently notsomething to be taken for granted from missionaries - that or it was thebest compliment she could come up with. ;) But it was fun. The highcouncillor after me went off on some tanget about Barack Obama as he talkedabout how our church is a multi-cultural church... that talk was impossibleto understand. I am so excited for the day when I can understand theologyprofessors who are members of the church. I will never take communicationfor granted again! After church we had a lovely dinner with the Relief Society presidentand her husband. I just love these people. They met in Australia (so hespoke Australien accented English with us the whole time - hilarious inNederland!), their son is the bishop, and they're just strong good peoplewho understand the importance of things like visiting teaching. Good times. Well, I love you all. The work goes forward, my Dutch gets betterall the time, and it's not too cold yet. =) Have a wonderful week, andremember who you are. Love, Zr. Baxter

enn andere mooi week in rotterdam!

Hello beste familie! Sorry for the delay in writing - our zone conference got switched toour normal pday and our distrikt leader forgot to tell us, so we're takingour pday today. Life is absolutely wonderful here in Rotterdam - I'mcurrently in a beautiful library in downtown with a view of a cathedral outone window and crazy European architecture out the other. Plus today we'regoing to the Den Haag (eigenlijke Zuteermeer, but who's counting?) temple,so that will be wonderful!

First off I must thank you all for your wonderful letters. At zoneconference I recieved all my mail from Antwerpen and some other stuff sentto the mission home, plus a package from Erica (skittles have never tastedso good! You're amazing!) and my Dutch verb book from mom (hardstikkebedankt!!!). Melanie Newton officially gets an A plus for dilligent letterwriting! =) Plus yesterday I got an amazing set of photos from a certainBriana Wright, so once more my amount of mail is the butt of all my compsjokes. That and the protecting angels surrounding my bike. Thank you all forwriting such wonderful letters. I literally haven't had time to read all ofthem. You're just amazing.

So there are miracles happening in Rotterdam, and I'm so excited toshare them with you! After e-mailing you last Wednesday, I finished out mytransfer in Leiden. It was an absolutely beautiful little doorpje (littlevillage) and it was just so cool to be biking around seeing grassy hills andold buildings and even the university's observatory (planeterium?). I alsogot absolutely drenched for the first time on a bike, so I feel like a realDutch missionary now. Luckily we dried out by the end of the day. =)

On Zaturdag we set a baptisimal date with Sofi, a beautiful 25 yearold single mom from Ethiopia with the most gorgeous three little girls.Finding scriptures in her Almharak (sp? Whatever language is spoken inEthiopia) is a bit of a challenge but she's a wonderfully sincere person,and when she gets back from vacation we'll be seeing her often to get herprepared. I'm also going to learn Almharak numerals so we can actually findthe right scriptures quickly. I love how diverse Holland is!

So it's miracle time! Maandag after a couple hour of finding we werewalking back to our bikes when a young woman in her 20's greeted us bysaying "Hallo Zusters!" When we talked to her we find out a year ago she'dbeen taking the dicussions from Zrs. Smith and Chan (not sure on that lastone) and was totally open to having us over again - and said her mom wouldlove to have sister missionaries visit. I love (love love) how the Lord putspeople in our path (or us in theirs).

Dinsdag we had just an incredible day of finding - I think 3 newinvestigators and tons of potentials. But the best part was getting let up(we do bellups a loooot) by a young man in his 20s who just welcomed us intothe door with "Oh, the missionaries!" Turns out he was baptised 10 years agoas a child in Cabe Verde (the Portuguese speaking part of Africa) and neverconnected with the Church in Rotterdam because when he moved here, he wasthe only member in his family and didn't speak great Dutch yet. Now he'sfluent in Dutch, was very happy to get a Dutch Book of Mormon, and will becoming to church on Sunday. So good!

Wednesday we had Zone Conferentie, which is always amazing. It wasespecially good to see the zone leaders from Antwerpen and catch up on ourinvestigators there. There's nothing like having some Elder you don't knowintroduce himself with - "Hey Zuster Baxter, Lola says hi!" So Sammi andLola are still visiting with the missionaries, and they say she loves theBook of Mormon now. That was so so great to hear.

Zone Conference itself was quite creative - President put on a mockbaptisimal service to show us how it should be done, with all the tinydetails in place. We have a baptism coming up on August 31st with Helen, awonderful Surinaamse woman in her 50s, so it was really helpful to see anideal service and get our heads going on how we can better plan. There arejust so many miracles happening in this mission, and we're finding so manypeople to teach - I'm working my best now on just being a good teacher inDutch. There's so much to learn but I am so grateful to be here.

After Zone Conference we had a little bit of time for finding beforea dinner appointment with a ward member. Zr. Knoelk felt like we needed tokeep our eyes open for people on the street on the bike ride over. It was myday with the map, and I'd accidently passed the street we needed to turn onwhen an SUV with a mom and two cute girls pulled up alongside me, with thegirls saying, "Excuse me!" I pulled over to hear an American woman say, "Doyou speak English?" I thought she might need directions, but her nextquestion was, "You're the missionaries, right? Do you know where the churchis?" Turns out she's a member from Arizona who's lived here for two monthsbut hadn't found the church yet. Her husband is Jewish and they've lived allaround the world, but now they're here in Rotterdam for the next few years.I'm so glad she saw us - who else would be riding bikes in mid-calf lengthskirts? ;) [of course, sometimes our wardrobe is a drawback - yesterday aDutch man answered the door with "Jullie siet er eng uit!" which means "Youall look scary!" He thought we looked uper orthodox and apparently werecrazy zealots completely unopen to respecting other faiths. Oh well.] Wewere delighted to give her the church address and time, and luckily there'sa young American couple in our ward (and pretty much everyone speaks atleast some English). So Heavenly Father totally used my inability tonavigate to help bring someone to church. Weaknesses to strengths, right? ;)I love missionary work! The dinner appointment itself was just one of those evenings thatmakes so happy to be alive. Zr. Hoopen is an amazing woman in her 70s whosefamily moved to England to escape the Nazi invasion of Holland in 1940, whenshe was 7. She speaks brilliant, beautifully accented British English, andher bookshelves were just incredible - British classics, antique Dutchbibles - I was just in heaven. And her! This probably won't make much sensebut I felt like after the evening was done that I'd just spent time withMadeleine L'Engle - someone with so much experience, so much perspective onlife and alles. Talking with her about missionary work in the ward and inher family was just incredible. "After all, charity is our greatestbenchmark of success." "There is absolutely no room for snobbery in thislife." Just a few of the very true things she said. Plus every street in herneighborhood was named for a composer - do you know how fun it is tonavigate through Brahmsstraat and Mozartlaan and other such names? I was sosent to the right mission. ;)

So yes. I really really love being in Rotterdam. I have a lot tolearn as a missionary, but I'm so thankful to be here. Dutch is going betterall the time - I've even gotten a couple compliments from othermissionaries, but all I have to do is see the patient smile of investigatorswhen I teach in lessons to remember how far I have to go. Realisticexpectations help! So I'll try to get real letters written on the bus todayto Den Haag. This work is amazing. If you ask Heavenly Father to help you domissionary work, I know he'll send you opportunities. I love you all morethan you know, and I'm so thankful for your prayers and letters!

Love, Zr. Baxter

hello from Leiden!

So as for my week! I am officially loving being in a trio. Zr. Knoelk is one
of those ridiculously sunshiny people constantly seeing the beautiful around
her. She's the perfected the art of taking photos of the beautiful Dutch
sunsets while riding her bike - I aspire to her coordination, but so far I
have come to terms with the fact that God loves me because I haven't died on
my bike yet. Riding a bike in a busy city in a midcalf length skirt is quite
the adventure! Zr. Kabenda is such a cool companion as well. She hails from
Suriname, so she is so great for really learning the language, and she has a
really great perspective on things - she's also the only one of us that can
lay the guilt trips down on our flakier investigators. I love team work. =)
Finding with them is so fun, and I'm really happy here in this city. We're
working with a lot of great people and keeping really busy. Missionary work
is just... fun!
So last Pday after e-mailing, Zuster Bakker from the ward made us
dinner and took us sightseeing to thank us for letting her daughter come on
a two week mini-mission. I was only here for Jessica's last few days as a
minimissionary, but it was pretty fun. They took us to the only mountain in
Nederland, which happens to be junk from WWII with grass and gravel paved up
over it. Gotta love Europe! I found it oddly like home, since the only hill
in Southwest Louisiana is the landfill in Westlake (Sulphur?). But it was
really cool to see the city from that viewpoint.
Wednesday we had zone leader training and interviews with our mission
president. President also worked with us in the evening, coming to a couple
appointments and going finding with us. All in all it was really neat to be
able to work with him. He reminds me a lot of Dad. We were also able to find
a neat little family to come back and teach while with him. He's a great
example of faith, and this was really a unique opportunity to have him along
with us.
The Dutch is getting better and better. Through some kind comments
of others I've realized I really am doing just fine and need to stop
worrying so much about it - just dilligently keep on learning and do my
best. Thursday while we were in the stadthuis (town hall) sorting out my
comps' legality business, I was able to strike up a conversation with a man
and we'll go and teach him in a couple weeks. I can't understand everything
people are saying, but I get the gist of most of it, and can be understood.
In Church on Sunday I followed almost all of Relief Society and it was so
wonderful to just feel spiritually filled from Dutch lessons. The gift of
tongues is so real.