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