November is passing on by...

Hello family and friends!

Oh goodness, another week gone by in what feels like a day. So we'reheard hints about and pieces of news about it at meetings, and we were askedto pray for the decision as the amendment was passing as a mission abouttwo weeks ago, but last Tuesday we finally heard more details about thebacklash from Amendment 8 (I think that was it?) for heterosexual marriagein California. Crazy. I want you all to know I love and support you as youhandle this. Here in Holland no one's said anything - everyone's too stokedabout Obama as president to pay much more attention I guess. ;) But I'mincredibly saddened to hear about the protests and the vandalism going down- especially because it's terribly hypocritical to do destructive things inthe name of equality, and I know people with homosexual tendencies that Ithink would also be saddened by that kind of poor logic and poor reaction.In any case, I'm thankful for prophets and apostles in this church, and I amSO thankful for the church members in California.

Things are going well here. We had exchanges this week, so Zr. Matos(my old roommate Amalia's friend) came up to R'Dam. We totally suspectshe''ll get transferred here and we'll train together, so it was coolworking with her. I suspect if that happened she'd definitely help my chillout as a missionary - we have a lot of the same interests and views but verydifferent personalities so that'd be pretty awesome. It was also a goodwarning sign of how used I am to Zr. Knoelk. Everything is the Lord's handstho, so it's all good.

As far as investigators, we had an awesoem return appointment withShehera, the single mom (I swear there are no husbands in Nederland - atleast that want to hear the gospel from American girls) from Suriname. Thistime her mom sat in on the lesson, so we did a review of the Restoration,and it was amazing. !!!! Shehera totally explained to her mom as Meggie (themom) said, "Well, you say this is true, but so do so many other churchs onthe street." As we talked about prayer and why it's so important to ask Godabout this, Shehera jumped right in with how you have the follow thefeelings of your hear. Then she told us that before we first met her, she'sbeen crying and praying to God to help her life, because things were prettydifficult. And when we came to her door, she had such a calm feeling insidethat she knew we were a good thing. It is so humbling to play roles inpeople's answered prayers. They still haven't made it to church yet, but Ifeel wonderful about these incredibly prepared, searching women.

Ingemar has been taught everything but still needs time to quitedrinking and smoking, which makes sense. Wednesday we taught him the Law ofChastity with two recent converts who'd had really cool experiences learningto live that law, so it was pretty much the chastity dream team. BUt the bigsuprise was when Ingemar began to ask why Christ had to suffer what he did,and began to cry. I swear most people would assume this man is a thug ifthey saw him on the street. You NEVER know who is prepared.

Andre is doing AWESOME and hasn't touched a cigarette since he got hispriesthood blessing a week ago. I LOVE this gospel, and I love seeing howthe light and joy of it has come into this man's countenance. It's soamazing.

After maybe 2 or 3 notes, several voice mail messages, and countlesstimes stopping by her door, Sherryl's roommate used her phone the text us tosay that Sherryl is in Suriname with her dad - so she's alive! And she gaveus her e-mail address, so Zr. Knoelk can totally e-mail her when she goeshome. Which is good, because that woman was so prepared it was nuts. She'sprobably met missionaries in Suriname and has a baptisimal date there,knowing her.

Saturday night we had a return appointment with a woman from the Congo- she wanted us to come back when her boyfriend was there because he speaksbetter Dutch. So we stopped by to find not only the boyfriend but alsoLiliana's sister and the family pastor. So that was fun! We were as clear aswe could be, steered clear of Bible Bashing, and left pretty gracefully. Itwas sad because they were entirely not open, but they'll have a real chancein the future, and it really increased my thankfulness for the Restoration.There's nothing like hearing people go off about the mystery of the trinityto make me incredibly thankful for the First Vision. So that was cool.

So I'm happy. I'll try to develop pictures and mail them homesometime. You people are amazing. I love you!!!!! This gospel is soincredibly and has the power to change lives and do more good than anythingelse. Never forget prayer.

Liefs,
Zr. Baxter