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