Hello family!
I hope all of you are doing wonderfully this week. We've had awarm spell in Holland (tracting without gloves! It's amazing!) and some funChristmas happenings. Yesterday in church Zr. Matos and I got to sing alovely Christmas song with Sister Pond (an American woman around mom anddad's age whose husband is working here) on the piano - I discovered the keyto not being nervous is not knowing the words well enough to be able to lookup more than once or twice! ;) But it was really fun to perform again.Lenneke and Joop came to church again, so that's 3 for 3 for both of them.They're both doing so well. Joop is sincerely praying about baptism but alsofeels like he needs to learn more and more about the church before he canget his answer - what a beautifully rational and faith-filled answer! Wetaught him the Plan of Salvation this week, which he found to be verybeautiful, especially that we lived in the Pre-Existance with HeavenlyFather as his Spirit Children before we came to this earth. On Friday hecame to dinner at the Verhoeven's (the Relief Society president and herhusband) and he's getting to know more and more members. He also said he'scoming to the ward Christmas Eve party... I love this man. Lenneke is alsodoing pretty great. Last Monday evening we began teaching her the principleof Faith in Jesus Christ, and brought the Finding Faith in Christ dvd forher... only to see Testaments lying on her kitchen table from Luit de Jonge.Testaments is pretty much the same movie but with more of a Nephites inAmerica storyline (and the flashbacks to Christ in Jerusalem are pretty muchthe FFIC dvd) so that was funny. Teaching her is so interesting - throughLuit she has so much experience with the church, but has almost no religiousbackground, so it's pretty interesting teaching to her needs. She is alsowonderfully sincere and has begun praying daily. I really like her a lot andam excited to see her continuing to learn more.
Tuesday night we headed to Goude to help out with something calledGoude by Candle Light (google or wikipedia Goude bij Karslicht). In anattempt to reach out to more people, the church gave out free hot chocolateand goodies and looooots of Joy to the World DVDs. It ended up mostly beinga lot of college / high school age girls rather smitten by the prospect ofAmerican Elders singing Christmas Carols, but it was a pretty fun andsuccessful time. =) We definitely got to talk to people from all over theworld, which was fun. That night we slept in Goude and the next morningheaded to Zoetermeer for a special Zone Conference on the Atonement. We wereblessed to be able to go the temple that morning, which was, well,wonderful. =) I'd really missed the temple, and hadn't been for about 3months, which is the longest it's been since I went through before going tothe MTC. It really is the House of the Lord and a wonderfully peacefulplace. The best Christmas present I could get as a missionary. The zoneconference itself taught me a lot about the details and implications of theAtonement of Christ, and I was able to see things in a new light. I'm reallythankful for the Plan of Salvation, that death is not the end and our ownmistakes and painful experiences need not be permanent.
Thursday we found a really great Nigerian woman named Patience.After establishing we weren't Jehovah's Witnesses (Dutch people absolutelyabhor JW's which kinda makes me sad and also results in a vitual identitycrisis for Mormon Missionaries - "Nee, wij zijn NIET Jehovah's Getuigenis!";) )she let us in. It was weird teaching in English again, and she had lotsof friends over so there was a lot of noise in the background, but as Zr.Matos started telling about the First Vision, all the side conversations inthe other rooms suddenly quieted down, and Patience could really listen. Ilove crazy small miracles like that.
Saturday during finding an American lawyer in her early 30's / late20's let us in because she "always loves a good conversation aboutreligion." She's a mother of an 18 month old boy and her husband and her areboth working her. Her bookshelves were like a dream from a past life [ohwait - that was my past life! =) ] with Claude Levi-Strauss and KahlilGibran, and she herself was pretty much exactly who I'd be if I'd grown upwithout the gospel. "I was raised Catholic and always had a strongrelationship with God but was turned off from Catholicism by all themysogyny of the Bible." She was incredibly openminded and kind, and we had agood talk over camomille tea about the Restoration, modern day prophets,gender roles in the church, and missionary work in Holland. I like to thinkwe did some good, though there's a certain kind of liberality that, in theend, is just as closed as any good Southern Baptist or devout Hindu. I trulythink sometimes the Lord sends people like me and Zr. Matos to this missionso we could see exactly who we'd be without the gospel.
Saturday was Ingemar's baptism, and everything just went, well,smoothly! It was a great service, and I got to sing Jesus Redder Van MijnZiel (I don't remember the name in English) with my comp and one of theElders. Later Andre told us in all seriousness we should make CDs and sellthem to make money for the church. Hilarious! Anyway, Ingemar was confirmedyesterday, and probably the best part of my day yesterday was seeing himwalking down the street after church between Wesly and Sharlon, two otherrecent bachelor converts in their 30s. I love fellowshipping.
Andre is doing great, and we're heading to his house on Christmas daywith Monik. That man is such a dad. He is seriously concerned about Americaand all the people being laid off (are things really that bad?) but otherthan his empathy for poverty in my homeland is doing just great. Yesterdaywe rode with him to the van den Herik's and had dinner there together. Ilove amazing families here in Holland.
So things keep keeping on. I'm blessed to be here. People are takingcare of us for the holidays, and it's a good time of year to be wearing thisname tag. I love you all.
Liefs,
Zr. Christa Baxter
Monday, December 22, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Feliz Navidad!
Hoi familie!
So having a half Puerto Rican college makes for some awesome carolling on the bike. We've actually been learning some of the Dutch hymns in the hymn book too, tho, so I promise I'm getting some Hollande Kulture in with all my tracting and teaching. =) Things are going pretty much amazing in Rotterdam. Monday we were finally able to have another appointment withShehere, the Surinamse mom who felt like God had sent us to her door when weknocked and began talking with her. She's doing fabulously - we watched theRestoration DVD with her, and she feels Joseph Smith's story is true, andlikes what she's read in the BoM, AND was willing to meet with us for 3xthis coming week. Now we just need to get some member present action and herto church this Sunday. Blessings!
Ingemar is also right on track for his baptism this Saturday. Ourward mission leader pretty much laid down the law about quitting smoking,which I was afraid was too strong (as is usual for me, ever the whimpysensitive American), but it seemed to go over okay, because the followingThursday he said he'd quit! So please keep him in your prayers that he willcontinue to be strengthened to avoid the nicotine before his baptism. It'sso amazing seeing the change that comes into people as they live the gospel.This quiet Antilleans man, who normally hardly ever talks, was answeringpractically every question in Sunday School yesterday. It was hilarious andawesome. His light is on, and it is glorious to behold.
Joop, the Dutch pilot who discovered Christ through Baptists inFlorida, is also doing incredible. He came to church again and was able tostay for all three hours. Then he stayed another 30 minutes, lingering totalk with members while I was practicing with the ward choir for Christmasand Zr. Matos was arranging appointments and such. It's so awesome having aninvestigator that's so socially proactive, and he's really enjoyed gettingto know more members. This Friday he's coming to dinner at the reliefsociety president's house with us for another lesson. As for teaching him,on Wednesday we visited him with Zr. Verhoeven (said ZHV president) todiscover he'd read through 2 Nephi 10 in a week. Wahoo! We read 3 Nephi 11with him and talked about the necessity of priesthood authority for baptism,and then bore testimony of how that priesthood was restored through JosephSmith, and then he pretty much connected the dots himself and realized weteach people to be baptized into the restored gospel. "Dat is mooielijk."["That's difficult."] But Zr. Matos kindly and firmly held her ground, andwe both urged him to pray about it, and the Spirit was there - so by the endof the lesson he was making jokes about being baptised the next week. In allseriousness, it's wonderful teaching someone who has such a conceptual graspof what we teach, despite our flawed Dutch, and the members just love him.He also is very impressed with the organization of the church and howeveryone has callings to serve each other - he said, "Ik wil iets betekenenvoor deze kerk," which means "I want to mean something for this church." Ilove this man!
Lenneke is also doing great. She came to church again, is willing tomeet with us more frequently, and at our last lesson we talked a lot aboutprayer and really discerning answers from God for yourself. She said theclosing prayer, and it was just, well, beautiful. I love hearing people prayfor the first time out loud.
Ewa ("Iva"), our Polish artist investigator, is off to Poland tovisit her mom for the holidays, but she agreed to let us pass herinformation through so Polish missionaries can look her up and teach her inher own language. That'll be pretty helpful. Her English is excellent, buther religious background is a mix between traditional Catholocism andliberal intellectualism / bhuddism, so it's just super hard to stay focusedon one topic long enough to answer her questions. But it's coming.
AND Sherryl is back from Suriname!!!! She was the super prepared lawstudent in her 20s we found 2 months ago or so. We stopped by and she'd justgotten back! So soon she'll be ready to meet with us again. I love thatwoman so much.
In other news, we headed to Amsterdam on Friday for what the zoneleaders called... the Zuster Stampede! (subtitle: A Stand For Virtue)Basically it was a big exchange in Amsterdam for the day. I worked with Zr.Higham, who's a couple transfers older than me, and our one appointment(she's working in Amsterdam) fell through so we tracted all day, but it wasstill pretty great. We had a great training on committments and takingcontrol of situations and helping people keep their commitments. I realizethis must all sound incredibly mundane to those of you who have servedmissions, much less those of you who aren't even Mormon and still areawesome enough to read this, but suffice it to say it was a really greatmeeting and practice, and I felt like I learned a lot more about how toeffectively help people change themselves for the better. There was also adistrict leader training going on at the same time, so I got to see an olddistrict leader that night when we ate dinner at the church. It was just sopositive to be with all the zusters in the mission (we number a meager 15)and see all that positivity. It's also quiet odd to realize I'm no longer ayoung missionary, though I certainly still feel that way often. I met Zr.Erickson, the friend of Mike Sheflo (hoi! She's as cool as you said!) andotherwise just had a marvelous time. I seriously love being with othermissionaries so much.
Sunday was also a great day. We got to see the First PresidencyChristmas Devotional (with headphones so we had the untranslated Englishversion). It was the closest I've come to feeling homesick since my birthday(which was pretty minimal at that). President Eyring's story about thatChristmas Pageant they did as a family, involving the Samual the Lamanitecharacter and the tin foil stones, totally reminded me of Baxter Christmasescapades. Like last year playing King Surf when Jack reemerged from the kitchen with his own self-fashioned crown. Not to be outdone, I believe Momcame out later with a bigger and better crown, decked out in tin foil. Then Katie faithfully documented it all and probably blogged about it. Tjungejunge, ik houd van jullie! You people are hilarious and I'm excited to hear from almost all of you at Christmas.
I also chopped off all my hair today, at the behest of my companionZr. Matos (she's a fabulous companion and a kindred spirit in many ways, butI'm certainly not as brave as she is when it comes to dramatic hairdecisions, so this probably wouldn't have happened without her) so now I'vegot chin length curly hair in humid Europe. It came out looking pretty 80'sfabulous, thanks to the ridiculously European hair cutter, but has sincesettled to a pretty normal volume. I think I like it. We'll see! Thank youfor you attention for the meager vanity left to me as a zuster zendelinge.
So despite being sick a couple weeks ago, the work has not suffered(Heavenly Father is awesome!) and I absolutely love what we're doing here.Or rather, what the Lord is doing as we mostly just try to keep up. Thankyou all for your prayers and concern and letters. I think I have one of themost prolific families of any missionary, and I thank you all for that. Have a wonderful week, sing some Christmas songs for me, and know that I loveyou.
Liefs,
Zr. Christa Baxter
So having a half Puerto Rican college makes for some awesome carolling on the bike. We've actually been learning some of the Dutch hymns in the hymn book too, tho, so I promise I'm getting some Hollande Kulture in with all my tracting and teaching. =) Things are going pretty much amazing in Rotterdam. Monday we were finally able to have another appointment withShehere, the Surinamse mom who felt like God had sent us to her door when weknocked and began talking with her. She's doing fabulously - we watched theRestoration DVD with her, and she feels Joseph Smith's story is true, andlikes what she's read in the BoM, AND was willing to meet with us for 3xthis coming week. Now we just need to get some member present action and herto church this Sunday. Blessings!
Ingemar is also right on track for his baptism this Saturday. Ourward mission leader pretty much laid down the law about quitting smoking,which I was afraid was too strong (as is usual for me, ever the whimpysensitive American), but it seemed to go over okay, because the followingThursday he said he'd quit! So please keep him in your prayers that he willcontinue to be strengthened to avoid the nicotine before his baptism. It'sso amazing seeing the change that comes into people as they live the gospel.This quiet Antilleans man, who normally hardly ever talks, was answeringpractically every question in Sunday School yesterday. It was hilarious andawesome. His light is on, and it is glorious to behold.
Joop, the Dutch pilot who discovered Christ through Baptists inFlorida, is also doing incredible. He came to church again and was able tostay for all three hours. Then he stayed another 30 minutes, lingering totalk with members while I was practicing with the ward choir for Christmasand Zr. Matos was arranging appointments and such. It's so awesome having aninvestigator that's so socially proactive, and he's really enjoyed gettingto know more members. This Friday he's coming to dinner at the reliefsociety president's house with us for another lesson. As for teaching him,on Wednesday we visited him with Zr. Verhoeven (said ZHV president) todiscover he'd read through 2 Nephi 10 in a week. Wahoo! We read 3 Nephi 11with him and talked about the necessity of priesthood authority for baptism,and then bore testimony of how that priesthood was restored through JosephSmith, and then he pretty much connected the dots himself and realized weteach people to be baptized into the restored gospel. "Dat is mooielijk."["That's difficult."] But Zr. Matos kindly and firmly held her ground, andwe both urged him to pray about it, and the Spirit was there - so by the endof the lesson he was making jokes about being baptised the next week. In allseriousness, it's wonderful teaching someone who has such a conceptual graspof what we teach, despite our flawed Dutch, and the members just love him.He also is very impressed with the organization of the church and howeveryone has callings to serve each other - he said, "Ik wil iets betekenenvoor deze kerk," which means "I want to mean something for this church." Ilove this man!
Lenneke is also doing great. She came to church again, is willing tomeet with us more frequently, and at our last lesson we talked a lot aboutprayer and really discerning answers from God for yourself. She said theclosing prayer, and it was just, well, beautiful. I love hearing people prayfor the first time out loud.
Ewa ("Iva"), our Polish artist investigator, is off to Poland tovisit her mom for the holidays, but she agreed to let us pass herinformation through so Polish missionaries can look her up and teach her inher own language. That'll be pretty helpful. Her English is excellent, buther religious background is a mix between traditional Catholocism andliberal intellectualism / bhuddism, so it's just super hard to stay focusedon one topic long enough to answer her questions. But it's coming.
AND Sherryl is back from Suriname!!!! She was the super prepared lawstudent in her 20s we found 2 months ago or so. We stopped by and she'd justgotten back! So soon she'll be ready to meet with us again. I love thatwoman so much.
In other news, we headed to Amsterdam on Friday for what the zoneleaders called... the Zuster Stampede! (subtitle: A Stand For Virtue)Basically it was a big exchange in Amsterdam for the day. I worked with Zr.Higham, who's a couple transfers older than me, and our one appointment(she's working in Amsterdam) fell through so we tracted all day, but it wasstill pretty great. We had a great training on committments and takingcontrol of situations and helping people keep their commitments. I realizethis must all sound incredibly mundane to those of you who have servedmissions, much less those of you who aren't even Mormon and still areawesome enough to read this, but suffice it to say it was a really greatmeeting and practice, and I felt like I learned a lot more about how toeffectively help people change themselves for the better. There was also adistrict leader training going on at the same time, so I got to see an olddistrict leader that night when we ate dinner at the church. It was just sopositive to be with all the zusters in the mission (we number a meager 15)and see all that positivity. It's also quiet odd to realize I'm no longer ayoung missionary, though I certainly still feel that way often. I met Zr.Erickson, the friend of Mike Sheflo (hoi! She's as cool as you said!) andotherwise just had a marvelous time. I seriously love being with othermissionaries so much.
Sunday was also a great day. We got to see the First PresidencyChristmas Devotional (with headphones so we had the untranslated Englishversion). It was the closest I've come to feeling homesick since my birthday(which was pretty minimal at that). President Eyring's story about thatChristmas Pageant they did as a family, involving the Samual the Lamanitecharacter and the tin foil stones, totally reminded me of Baxter Christmasescapades. Like last year playing King Surf when Jack reemerged from the kitchen with his own self-fashioned crown. Not to be outdone, I believe Momcame out later with a bigger and better crown, decked out in tin foil. Then Katie faithfully documented it all and probably blogged about it. Tjungejunge, ik houd van jullie! You people are hilarious and I'm excited to hear from almost all of you at Christmas.
I also chopped off all my hair today, at the behest of my companionZr. Matos (she's a fabulous companion and a kindred spirit in many ways, butI'm certainly not as brave as she is when it comes to dramatic hairdecisions, so this probably wouldn't have happened without her) so now I'vegot chin length curly hair in humid Europe. It came out looking pretty 80'sfabulous, thanks to the ridiculously European hair cutter, but has sincesettled to a pretty normal volume. I think I like it. We'll see! Thank youfor you attention for the meager vanity left to me as a zuster zendelinge.
So despite being sick a couple weeks ago, the work has not suffered(Heavenly Father is awesome!) and I absolutely love what we're doing here.Or rather, what the Lord is doing as we mostly just try to keep up. Thankyou all for your prayers and concern and letters. I think I have one of themost prolific families of any missionary, and I thank you all for that. Have a wonderful week, sing some Christmas songs for me, and know that I loveyou.
Liefs,
Zr. Christa Baxter
Monday, December 1, 2008
achoo! Ik heb net geniedz!
Hooi familie and vrienden! So things are going great in Rotterdam other thanthe fact that I'm sick and managed to infect my new comp as well. Whoops! Somuch for the perks of companionship unity. ;) But it's just a cold, so otherthan power naps during language study time and not going out running in themorning in the cold, it hasn't held back the work any. Well, that and that Itold an investigator the wrong hour for Sacrament Meeting, so she only cameto the last 30 minutes. Yammer. That spacey head feeling is totally a drag.But luckily I found some sudafed this morning, so things should get better.
So yes, I'm now serving with the fabulosu Zr. Matos. She's the sisterwho was friends with my roommate Amalia (from my junior semester). Duringtransfers I also found out that Stacey Owens, a girl from my freshman wardin French 201 class, also is now serving here in this mission! So betweenher, Zr. Matos, the friend of Mike Sheflo, and Zr. Bennet (still don't knowwhen she's coming), I feel like the Kevin Bacon of the Nederland missionuniverse. It's fun having so many random connections. Zr. Owens was quitethe surprise, but it was really cool seeing a familiar face. Plus her frenchwill totally help her out in Gouda. Zr. Matos is pretty the bee's knees. Shemajored in anthropology at BYU and is a kindred spirit in a lot of ways -it's fun working with someone with a similar sense of humor and who isn'tthrown off by words like post-modernism and hegemony. Hopefully the Lordwill help us not feed off each other's slightly snobbish tendencies in booksand vocabulary. ;) Overall, it's really easier to feel like I'm working asan equal, so that's fun. I'll miss Zr. Knoelk and her strengths as acompanion, but change is essential to growth, so it's all good. Transfersthemselves were a little crazy, involving a sleepover in Den Haag with 5sisters in one apartment, but it was really fun seeing my trainer, Zr.Barkume again. Departing missionaries always fill me with a greaterdetermination to carpe diem it up and make every minute count.
Andre continues to do well. He is currently obsessed with True tothe Faith (a church dictionary of sorts specifically for new members andyoung adults). We decided when he texted us with a question over the ChurchDisciplinary Council that perhaps he's a little too excited about all thatinfortmation... but he's doing just fine overall. Found out he's alreadyread the Book of Mormon all the way through. He's just happy - and if you'dseen him 4 months ago, you'd understand what a miracle that is. I love thatman.
Ingemar is also doing pretty good. He still needs to quite withsmoking. Sharlon invited him to a young single adult FHE last night - wewere supposed to have an appointment with him after church, but we wantedhim to have the fellowship so we rode the metro out to the member's houseand retaught the WoW as their spiritual thought. Let me tell you, it wasweird being at a YSA activity again. Defintiely a reality check for thereadjustment that will come when I go home - "What? You want to engage inconversation about something other than the worth of souls and eternalprinciples of happiness? How passe!" Nah, it'll be good when the time comes,but it was fun seeing how happy I really am just being here. It's funny hownormal it is to be on a bike in a huge winter overcoat, gloves, boots, andscarves. I love Holland, and I love being a missionary. Monik is continuing to do well. Her house smells so much better nowthat she's done with smoking. It's fabulous.
So Thursday we had a Thanksgiving meal in Swijndrecht at therestaurant of the Dutch man who got baptized the same day as Monik. It was asuper fun gathering of missionaries with slightly Dutch-ified Thanksgivingfood. I love hanging out with missionaries. Our whole district had quite theshakeup in transfers, but it'll be fun getting to know all the new elders,especially our new district leader who likes throwing in Japanese duringdistrict meeting. Oh, languages.
Later on Thursday we got invited to eat second Thanksgiving withYeaji, a South Korean BYU grad who served in the New York South mission andis now here studying violin. She invited her dancer housemate to the dinner,so it was fun doing member missionary work and assuring him yes, Mormonsreally are happy living celibate alcohol and drug free lives. Afterwards weheaded to Salar, a Kurdish man who was actually a referral from Greece thatwe met by chance (i.e. God) on the metro coming home from Zone Conferenceback in September. He'd been out of the country for a long time, so this wasour first real appointment with him. He's amazing. Mostly we had todetermine if he was permanently in Holland or not (because if he wasn't andhad Muslim background, we can't teach him if there's a chance he'll getsent back to Iraq). He has political asylum here, so he's safe to teach. Healso has a lot of bad feeling against Iraqi Muslims (as a Kurd, I don't knowwhat his history is - I know his wife was killed in some sort of conflictthere). He's just a very, very good man, and although Kurdish is differentfrom Arabic, he kept his Arabic copy of the Book of Mormon to give to afriend, and this week we're coming back with an English copy he can read. Ilove love love meeting people from all over the world here. Everybody has astory.
Our other crazy awesome miracle of the week is a Dutch woman in herlate 20s by the name of Lenneke. Her coworker, the stake president's youngerbrother Luit, has basically been a rock star member missionary. I don't knowwhat sparked her interest, but he's very informally answered a lot of herquestions and brought her to various church activities. He gave her ournumber, and she called asking if we could meet with her. We verycoincidentally (i.e. Heavenly Father has a plan!) had a gap around 5 o clockthe next day, so we were quite happy to come. It was the most brilliant,clear 1st I've ever taught, thanks to how much Luit had already done. She'sread THE ENTIRE Book of Mormon! And seen the Restoration DVD! She basicallyhas no religious background other than what she picked up in school, and isjust wanting to learn more about God in her life. It was incredible teachingher. She was busy that Sunday but said she'd come this (she's already been,and to other YSA Activities). She's just amazing; I'm excited to teach herthe Plan of Salvation this week.
Oh! And I got the forwarded e-mail from Ron Hyte, the returnedmissionary who'd served here in the late 50s. It was delightful to hear fromhim - please tell him the e-mail address for the Mission Office is2015900@ldschurch.org (that's the mission's unit number) and he can e-mailthe office with the information of his friend he'd like to have contact withthe missionaries. I was very flattered to hear his comments and I'm glad myblog could help him make contact with the missionaries.
I also need current addresses of Ryan Nelson and Ashley Woodward, ifeither of them still read this blog. Thanks!
What else can I say? This work is amazing. It literally ishappening at a faster rate this year than it has before. The Lord isblessing Holland. I am so grateful for prayer, temples, scriptures, andmodern day revelation. Have a wonderful week, all.
Liefs,
Zr. Christa Baxter
So yes, I'm now serving with the fabulosu Zr. Matos. She's the sisterwho was friends with my roommate Amalia (from my junior semester). Duringtransfers I also found out that Stacey Owens, a girl from my freshman wardin French 201 class, also is now serving here in this mission! So betweenher, Zr. Matos, the friend of Mike Sheflo, and Zr. Bennet (still don't knowwhen she's coming), I feel like the Kevin Bacon of the Nederland missionuniverse. It's fun having so many random connections. Zr. Owens was quitethe surprise, but it was really cool seeing a familiar face. Plus her frenchwill totally help her out in Gouda. Zr. Matos is pretty the bee's knees. Shemajored in anthropology at BYU and is a kindred spirit in a lot of ways -it's fun working with someone with a similar sense of humor and who isn'tthrown off by words like post-modernism and hegemony. Hopefully the Lordwill help us not feed off each other's slightly snobbish tendencies in booksand vocabulary. ;) Overall, it's really easier to feel like I'm working asan equal, so that's fun. I'll miss Zr. Knoelk and her strengths as acompanion, but change is essential to growth, so it's all good. Transfersthemselves were a little crazy, involving a sleepover in Den Haag with 5sisters in one apartment, but it was really fun seeing my trainer, Zr.Barkume again. Departing missionaries always fill me with a greaterdetermination to carpe diem it up and make every minute count.
Andre continues to do well. He is currently obsessed with True tothe Faith (a church dictionary of sorts specifically for new members andyoung adults). We decided when he texted us with a question over the ChurchDisciplinary Council that perhaps he's a little too excited about all thatinfortmation... but he's doing just fine overall. Found out he's alreadyread the Book of Mormon all the way through. He's just happy - and if you'dseen him 4 months ago, you'd understand what a miracle that is. I love thatman.
Ingemar is also doing pretty good. He still needs to quite withsmoking. Sharlon invited him to a young single adult FHE last night - wewere supposed to have an appointment with him after church, but we wantedhim to have the fellowship so we rode the metro out to the member's houseand retaught the WoW as their spiritual thought. Let me tell you, it wasweird being at a YSA activity again. Defintiely a reality check for thereadjustment that will come when I go home - "What? You want to engage inconversation about something other than the worth of souls and eternalprinciples of happiness? How passe!" Nah, it'll be good when the time comes,but it was fun seeing how happy I really am just being here. It's funny hownormal it is to be on a bike in a huge winter overcoat, gloves, boots, andscarves. I love Holland, and I love being a missionary. Monik is continuing to do well. Her house smells so much better nowthat she's done with smoking. It's fabulous.
So Thursday we had a Thanksgiving meal in Swijndrecht at therestaurant of the Dutch man who got baptized the same day as Monik. It was asuper fun gathering of missionaries with slightly Dutch-ified Thanksgivingfood. I love hanging out with missionaries. Our whole district had quite theshakeup in transfers, but it'll be fun getting to know all the new elders,especially our new district leader who likes throwing in Japanese duringdistrict meeting. Oh, languages.
Later on Thursday we got invited to eat second Thanksgiving withYeaji, a South Korean BYU grad who served in the New York South mission andis now here studying violin. She invited her dancer housemate to the dinner,so it was fun doing member missionary work and assuring him yes, Mormonsreally are happy living celibate alcohol and drug free lives. Afterwards weheaded to Salar, a Kurdish man who was actually a referral from Greece thatwe met by chance (i.e. God) on the metro coming home from Zone Conferenceback in September. He'd been out of the country for a long time, so this wasour first real appointment with him. He's amazing. Mostly we had todetermine if he was permanently in Holland or not (because if he wasn't andhad Muslim background, we can't teach him if there's a chance he'll getsent back to Iraq). He has political asylum here, so he's safe to teach. Healso has a lot of bad feeling against Iraqi Muslims (as a Kurd, I don't knowwhat his history is - I know his wife was killed in some sort of conflictthere). He's just a very, very good man, and although Kurdish is differentfrom Arabic, he kept his Arabic copy of the Book of Mormon to give to afriend, and this week we're coming back with an English copy he can read. Ilove love love meeting people from all over the world here. Everybody has astory.
Our other crazy awesome miracle of the week is a Dutch woman in herlate 20s by the name of Lenneke. Her coworker, the stake president's youngerbrother Luit, has basically been a rock star member missionary. I don't knowwhat sparked her interest, but he's very informally answered a lot of herquestions and brought her to various church activities. He gave her ournumber, and she called asking if we could meet with her. We verycoincidentally (i.e. Heavenly Father has a plan!) had a gap around 5 o clockthe next day, so we were quite happy to come. It was the most brilliant,clear 1st I've ever taught, thanks to how much Luit had already done. She'sread THE ENTIRE Book of Mormon! And seen the Restoration DVD! She basicallyhas no religious background other than what she picked up in school, and isjust wanting to learn more about God in her life. It was incredible teachingher. She was busy that Sunday but said she'd come this (she's already been,and to other YSA Activities). She's just amazing; I'm excited to teach herthe Plan of Salvation this week.
Oh! And I got the forwarded e-mail from Ron Hyte, the returnedmissionary who'd served here in the late 50s. It was delightful to hear fromhim - please tell him the e-mail address for the Mission Office is2015900@ldschurch.org (that's the mission's unit number) and he can e-mailthe office with the information of his friend he'd like to have contact withthe missionaries. I was very flattered to hear his comments and I'm glad myblog could help him make contact with the missionaries.
I also need current addresses of Ryan Nelson and Ashley Woodward, ifeither of them still read this blog. Thanks!
What else can I say? This work is amazing. It literally ishappening at a faster rate this year than it has before. The Lord isblessing Holland. I am so grateful for prayer, temples, scriptures, andmodern day revelation. Have a wonderful week, all.
Liefs,
Zr. Christa Baxter
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