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

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!

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!

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

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 BookshelflÁmours, 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

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

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