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