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