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

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

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