We had such a cool week! We finally got to met with some cool contacts and
make investigators out of them. One, M. Bastiaan, is an old, old Dutch man
who is okay with us teaching him more about Christ. His house is covered
with trophies and pictures of his agricultural achievements. Hilarious. He's
a cool man.
On Wednesday we met with Jeroen, an amazing Dutch guy in his 30's who
lived in the states for a year as a teen and whom my bold companion Zr.
Erickson boldly approached on a bridge while he was drinking a beer and
admiring the sunset. He really admires that we just live our faith and live
to share it. He's always been believing; he remembers as a child biking past
churches and just always having his head in the clouds, feeling that there
was a God. Amazing. He'd done his research - he knew about temple baptism,
that we've no set clergy, a little bit about Joseph Smith, and a few other
random things. He's never found a church he's settled into but he's been to
maaaaaany in his life. We shared the Joseph Smith story and gave him a Book
of Mormon. He's super Dutch so we won't see him till he's had time to read
and ponder (2 weeks.... sigh) but he's such an amazing person. I'm excited
to teach him more.
We also got to meet with Nanda, one of the coolest people of my whole
mission. She's a 54 year old Brazilian married to a Dutch man. She plays
harp, reads voraciously (she'd read through Alma 50 since January when the
elders gave her a copy), and designs and makes kimonos. She just loves what
we do as missionaries and is super super super social and chatty - makes
teaching a little tricky, but she's such a beautiful soul. She was raised in
a Protestant faith in Brazil. God is truly everything for her, and she's
open to the Book fo Mormon, so we'll see what happens!
At interviews with President Brubaker, we had a marvelous time. I
stinking love the Brubakers. We talked a lot as a Zone about where are
desires are in missionary work. I was translating most of the time for
Susannah, an amazing Dutch girl who actually will be serving in this, her
home mission, come September. Her english is okay but not so great,
especially for Church stuff, so I probably missed some stuff in translating
but it was so fun to just be with missionaries. We also brought out Ghana
dresses and changed into them for a couple minutes right before we all left
to show some elders. Sister Brubaker found them hilarious. I think President
Brubaker would have, had the weight of his calling not constrained him to
ask Sister Erickson where she found that and had she actually paid for it?
Apparently the Virgin Mary print was found less than edifying. ;) "I think
we might need to have another interview," he joked. Good times.
Church was so good. Zr Erickson and I both gave talks, and Sairah (a
less active) came for the second time in a row, and so did Roda, a recent
convert who's been struggling lately. It's SO rewarding to see people you're
working with actually coming. Wahoo!
Things are good overall. We had the most amazing street contact with an
agnostic Dutch young mom who said of course we could come over and talk to
her more about God's plan so she can decide if she wants to believe in that
or not. I love missionary work. So much!
And I love you all. Thanks for your support and love. I'm not sure
how much longer this blog thing will last. Soon enough you will all be able
to see me or call anyway. But I thank you for your support and prayers. I
love this gospel with all my heart. Oh! one more thing!!! Irene from
Rotterdam is going to the temple on October 3 to recieve her endowment and I
get to go with her!!!!!!!!!! I am SO excited! It'll be my last time in the
temple in Nederland. What a blessing. I love you all!

Liefs,

Zuster Christa Lou Baxter

Zwolle continues to be a great place. We had some major successes
meeting inactive women this week. It's a good time for Zwolle to have
sisters. [now don't interpret this wrong - I do not think Elders or Sisters
are better than the other - there are just definitely some shy women in the
church who are more open to sisters. And anders om (the other way around) as
well - some women love elders and couldn't care less for sisters!] So
that's been cool.
On Thursday we had the first full mission conference (with the French
and Dutch side) I've ever experienced. Elder Nelson came. So we got to hear
from him, his wife, the Europe West Area President (Elder Kopischke), and a
Dutch couple whose calling I forget but who are great. It was fun seeing
Soeur Thrasher, the French sister I flew with, as well as old district
members and friends from the Dutch side. It was really fun seeing Zuster
Fowler and Zuster Robbins. The Spirit there was incredible and just helped
me a lot to remember why I'm here and what the possibilities are. I really
like missionary work. It's going to be fun to go tracting with sister
missionaries stateside without a tag... =)
Meske still wants to be baptised. We don't know how that's gonna go down
with the wheel chair situation - it makes it hard for him to come to church.
But a member tapes sacrament meeting and brings it to him. We'll see what
our leaders advise! but it's always cool to teach people who have sincere
desires to change.
We also met the coolest recent converts ever, Familie Knarren. They got
baptised in England while he was there for chiropractice school. They have
the most beautiful 9 month old boy named Hyrum. And.... next Saturday
they're having dinner with us and a friend with whom Zr K wants to share the
gospel. amazing! I love Zwolle.
On the train to Elder Nelson's conference in Rotterdam, I met the coolest
Vietnamese girl who studies in France and and was here in vacation. She was
pleased to practice English and had actually met Elders in France before -
she said she liked going to Christian churches, altho she was buddhist, and
would love to practice her English with american elders. I love the gospel
and I love talking to people on trains. Also, apparently if I ever go to
vietnam, I have an instant travel guide. =) You show people love and it
comes back.
We also had a cool lesson with Roda, a recent convert, and her sister
was over... so hopefully we can start teaching her sister too.
I really can't explain what's happening at this point in my mission. I
absolutely love what I'm doing but I know it's totally boring to you people
at home. Suffice it to say I am thankful for the things I know, and sharing
that joy with others is pretty much what I want to do for the rest of my
life. I love you all. Thank you all for your letters and support. I was so
excited to get the last letter from Abram Skidmore from Korea that I'll get
- another friend home from the mission. And Briana, I got your letter and
head band and I LOVE IT and am currently wearing it and it's awesome. I also
heard Jul Lamb had a baby girl!!! And I don't know if she ever got my letter
back in December / January when she first learned she was pregnant, so if
someone could find her address for me, that'd rock. Thank you all for your
love and support.

Veel liefs,

Zuster Christa Baxter

Happy Sunday

Hallo! So now I'm no longer hailing from Haarlem... as of Wednesday, Zwolle,
a tiny town north of Apeldoorn (which is north of Den Haag.... or the
Hague.... the basically in north Holland), is my new area. It's just a
smidgeon smaller than Haarlem. I was pretty heartbroken to leave Haarlem,
but it would've been pushing it to stay till the end (that'd be 9 months
straight). Saying goodbye to Azelea and Ade and Catherine was hard, but they
are so excited to see Elder Nelson this Thursday speak in Rotterdam, and
seeing how Ade especially has come to love the Book of Mormon and Joseph
Smith was a wonderful note to leave on. She knows where the LDS church is in
her town in Ethiopia and said she's definitely going to look it up when she
goes home at the beginning of September. !!! I love those people SO MUCH.
It was also kind of a bummer leavign Emerlien and Tom, two of the
coolest member referrals ever. They'd read Alma 40-42 and had questions
about what happens to people who die without accepting Christ. Since they've
been to the Den Haag temple open house and LOVED it, we very tentatively got
into Plan of Salvation and Temple Work stuff. It was SO COOL! As they read
about the celestial kindgom and related it to the celestial room, it was
amazing to see how much of an impact the Spirit of the temple had had on
them. Tom especially said he felt like he was home, and felt such a peace
there, so much like how he imagined heaven would be like, so much like the
presence of God was there. Well.... =) They'll get there. They only meet
with us once every 2 weeks, but it'll come! When I told them that was the
last time I'd see them, they were very kindly disappointed - Tom asked if he
could give me a hug goodbye. If I weren't a zuster missionary! =) They are
two of the kindest, nicest, best people I've ever met on my mission.
Zwolle is pretty cool. I'm now serving with Zr Erickson, one of my
favorite people ever! She's on her 7th transfer and trained twice in a row
like me so I thought we'd never be comps. But we are and it's great! We've
also got Zr Hamblin with us, a wonderful person from Roosevelt Utah on her
2nd transfer. Last transfer Zr Erickson trained Zr Hamblin and whitewashed
this area, so it's been pretty crazy starting over in a lot of ways. But the
members are incredible. Ironically enough there are several families in the
branch with an infertility history and adopted or foster children - I do not
find that coincidental and am so excited to get to know these people better
and learn more about their stories. I can't really explain it but I already
feel like I've been here a long time - I know the branch presidents brothers
from other areas I've worked and other friends of other members. Even in the
city there've been small moments of deja vu. I don't know what's in store
but I'm excited.
We've taught some cool people this week, including Meske, a perpetual
investigator of more than 3 years. We watched the Restoration DVD and out of
the blue he said he's taken James advice to heart, and keeps on coming abck
to this church as he studies it out, and wants to get baptised. That's a
little tricky since he's in a wheelchair, and the church building isn't
realy designed for handicaps, and so he doesn't come to church very often.
So we'll see what happens!
I love you all. Thanks for your support and letters. If you want my
mailing address, e-mail my gmail and my mom will get it to you. Have a great
week!

Liefs,

Zuster Christa Baxter

So on Tuesday we had a crazy cool day. We met Jean Luc, a 19 year old kid from Rwanda (well, born in Ukraine, and Rwandan parents, and grew up in Holland, and speaks Dutch, French, and English.... typical crazy Dutch uber multinational!) who's converted to Islam but seemed more than satisfied with our answers to the questions he likes to stumps Christians with. He mentioned how he loves the palindromes in the Koran and that triggered my English major reflexes so I gave him Alma 36 to read in the Book of Mormon (wahoo for chiasmus! and middle eastern cultural literary styles!) and he's open to talk more. So tonight he and a friend are coming to the church to learn more about the crazy Mormons. Good times.
We also had a great lesson with Emerlien and Tom, the referrals from our bishop. We brought along Zr Reijnders, a convert of more than 40 years who's just amazing. So that helped a lot. They're open, just very busy. =) Due to my lovely and talented and creative companion's visual aids (life is like a maze, and prophets have a walkie talkie to God so they know the route back to him, and there's a gate in the middle requiring a key of authority... and she'd never seen the crazy cheesy 80s seminary video that is eerily akin to her sketch. I love having different comps with cool strengths!), they seemed to really understand more of what the Restoration is all about. It's coming.
We also stopped by a former investigator of a year ago that our bishop felt like we should look up. She welcomed us in - she's an older Dutch woman named Inneke. She has lost several family members and her partner in the last few years, and as we were discussing why she believes in God ( "And not just 'something' like everybody says!" she retorted.... =) ) she mentioned those coincidences that can't just be coincidental - like Zr Peets and Zr Force stopping by one day and helping her weed her garden. I love hearing people's reactions and impressions of former missionaries in the area. Inneke was really curious about the Book of Mormon when we shared Alma 7, and asked if she could borrow a copy, and could we explain more of what exactly it is we believe? Next Week? Yes maam! So we'll see her on Tuesday.
On Wednesday we had interviews with our new mission president. He is a wonderful, wonderful man, and his wife is just amazing. So it was great getting to know them both better and talking about the work.
Azelea and Ade are doing pretty good. Ade's now gotten hooked on the Book of Mormon as well - "Ether 12 was great! Exactly what we needed about faith, and examples of faith. Do you have another chapter we could read together?" So our visits are pretty much the Book of Mormon book club. Sweet! Azelea still can't come to church because of work. But Elder Nelson is coming to Utrecht in August and they are very curious and want to come to that! So things are good.
We had a CRAZY miracle this week. Tuesday we got a call from an unknown number that left no message, so I called back only to have a very awkward conversation with a very unenthusiastic young man speaking english who wanted to know more about what we share about Christ. When I asked when we'd talked to him and tried to explain I couldn't remember him by just his name b/c we talk to so many people, he seemed slightly weirded out, but then he still wanted to just make an appointment and be done with it. A few minutes later he texted to say, "Sorry I sounded so weird on the phone. My neighbors can hear me and I can hear them so I don't feel very comfortable talking. But I've just been sad and empty feeling lately and want to have more of Jesus Christ in my life so I can finalyl get some peace of mind. Can we just meet at your church where I'd feel more comfortable?" So we met him on Thursday night, waiting inf ront of the church building with Tirza, our joint teach, having no idea who would show up... And then we see Daniel, a guy from Sweden in his 20s we'd met more almost 3 weeks ago. We knocked on his door and had not the most spectacular contact ever and just gave him a card with our number... and that's how he called us. I was so surprised that it was him. You really never know. He's a crazy story - half Jordanian, half Italian, raised in Sweden (speaks Swedish and a little Arabic and really good English, but no Dutch) - raised Muslim but later converted to Christianity as a yougn adult because of the peace and happiness he saw in so many Christians - moved to Holland for work but will probably be moving back to Stockholm soon. He just wants to know more about Jesus Christ and have peace in his life again. He's super shy - didn't want to come to church, almost didn't come to out appointment - but he recognizes the Spirit, and is willing to meet with us. Honestly if he moved back to Sweden it'd be better for him because then he could get to know church members and missionaries who speak the same language he does - but I'm not complaining. You never ever ever know who's needing the gospel. "It's really weird - I mean, people have knocked on my door before. But lately I'd just been thinking about finding a church, and getting more involved, and then you come on my door... I mean, do you believe in coincidences?" No. =)
On Friday my comp had to go to Brussels for legality, but there were other sisters who also had to go, so I ended up working with their comps in Den Haag. So I got to work with my lovely Zr. Fowler again and with Zr Bennet, who I knew at BYU and have always wanted to work with. We find otu about transfers next Mondat and apparently everyone thinks I'm going to Den Haag. I'm not too worried about it - I'd be happy staying and happy going, and I know whatever the Lord decides will be best. But it'd be cool to work in a city one more time. And it would be amazing to work with Zr. Bennet! We had a great day and lots of cool appointments.
At interviews President Brubaker asked me if Haarlem would be a good city for a mini-missionary.... so as of Sunday, we are now working with the lovely Zr Poulaert, a 16 year old from Spijkinesse (a southern suburb of Rotterdam). She's hilarious, VERY spunky, and not at all afraid to share her testimony. The past 24 hours have been very, very fun. And she's amazing for our Dutch. She'll be with us for 2 weeks!
Magalie did decide to go on vacation for two months, so we'll miss her, but hopefully be able to help her more when she comes home... And soon a few other people will be coming back from vacation that we can teach more. So the work goes on! I love you all and miss you but I'm happy here and I love Haarlem. Have a great week!

Veel leifs,

Zr Christa Baxter

Another busy fun week! We had exchanges this week in Amsterdam - all the sisters from the mission went there for the day, and we blitzed the city (the district leaders and their comps from the Den Haag zone also came - it was a fun day). It was a pretty short exchange - mostly just an afternoon together, due to travelling time for the companionships that live far away - but still really awesome. I got to work with Zr Hamblin, who's from Utah and has been here only one transfer. She's an incredibly positive person and going finding in the centrum of Amsterdam was definitely a change for her - she's been in a tiny town in north Holland so far. =) I absolutely love contacting on busy city streets. We had a super awesome conversation with a Surinamer young mom about the plan of salvation and stuff, and found a new investigator for the A'Dam sisters when we stopped a Dutch lady named Truce on the street and talked more about God's plan for us. Then we met an Armanian Orthodox guy in his 20's who was not up for a return appointment but definitely curious about the Book of Mormon and gladly took one.
> The best part was that the A'Dam sisters sent me to go teach Didi, the Bulgarian woman sister Fowler and I found here in Haarlem who's temporarily living in A'Dam. It was so great to see her again!!! We had a wonderful lesson on the Plan of Salvation - she had a lot of questions about the fall, so we worked that out via 2 Nephi 2. That is one of my favorite chapters ever. It was so so so cool to see Did again. I hope I stay in Haarlem so I can continue teaching her when she moves back in a month or so.
> We found some new investigators in the form of gracious older Dutch women who probably just find us cute American girls who like talking about God - but it's always fun to share what you can with who you can. We also were ending a consecrated hour of finding when a mailman on his bike stopped (he'd ridden by as we were praying) and said he had something for us. He pulled out his wallet and gave us both a printed piece of paper with a scripture from Lucas on it about accepting Christ into your heart and being saved. We traded numbers and I am so excited to see him when we can make more contact and set up an appointment. His name was Sebastian. I love being in the right place at the right time - God is good.
> We had such a cool miracle at church this week. We were initially pretty bummed because Magalie wasn't feeling well and didn't come, and Ade and Catherine (Azelea's mother and daughter) didn't make it either, and Engelien is now in Amsterdam on the weekends. Then 5 minutes into Relief Society, Sjaak tapped on the door to say there was someone there for the missionaries. We went to the foyer to see a young women I'd never met. Turns out it was [well, I'll call her] Sarah, who's been inactive and who is an old acquaintance of Fabio, the Columbian dad we started teaching. I'd given a note to Sarah's father to give her, saying we'd begun teaching Fabio and would she ever like to come along on joint teach? She misinterpreted it to mean that Fabio would be at church, so she came to see him... unfortunately he's now in Columbia on vacation until August. I explained the mix up and invited her to come to Relief Society anyway - she tentatively accepted it. When she walked in that door, the sisters of the ward were so excited to see her again! As I was conducting the closing hymn ("Love at Home") she started tearing up a little bit. After the closing prayer she was literally thronged by older women who were SO excited to see her in church again. She came to Sunday School with the young single adults, and I wanted to get her number after sacrament meeting, but 30 minutes after church was over people were still talking with her enthusiastically. It was amazing to see her so well received and with so much love. Wijk Haarlem has a lot of love and I adore working with these people. So it's fun to see how the Lord could use my bad Dutch to help someone come back to church. She was so friendly and I'm excited to get to know her better.
> My lovely companion Zr Robbins pretty rocked the ward's socks off by playing an incredible rendition of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief on her violin in Sacrament Meeting. She hadn't realized that last Sunday in correlation she'd agreed to play until I asked her on Tuesday what she was going to perform. Oh, language barriers! =) But she was more than equal to the task and made lots of old Dutch people cry. Good times. I love training!
> And things are going pretty great with Magalie. We taught her at Stella's, the Nigerian member, and later this week with Frank and Linda at his house - they're two young single adults in the ward who just got engaged. Magalie wants to get baptized and we set a date, but! She might go on vacation for TWO MONTHS in New York! Ah! Ridiculous! So.... maybe she'll get baptized on September 12th, and maybe not until October or November. But she's so open to the spirit and really has had her prayers answered about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon; it's clear Heavenly Father has a plan for her.
> Things are going well overall. We're halfway through the transfer. I still love Haarlem. And I love all of you. Thanks for your prayers and good thoughts - they mean the world.
>
> Veel Liefs,
>
> Zr. Baxter

Crazy busy blessed week! Since the wondermous Zr Robbins came, we've been so
crazy blessed with new investigators who actually hold their appointments
and are progressing. Fabio is a young father from Columbia who used to be
friends with a member here and is totally open to learn more about what we
believe in - he's now on vacation, but in the closing prayer of our lesson
with him he called us Hermana Baxter and Hermana Robbins - it made me think
of Alisa being on a mission in Bolivia! I love my family!
We stopped by Reina and she was home! She's the mom of an old
investigator who we miraculously met on the bus Zr Robbins first day. Our
appointment with here earlier had fallen thru, but she warmly invited us is
and we had a wonderful lesson about the plan of salvation - she has lots of
questions about what will happen after death so we're going to see her again
tomorrow. What a blessing! She's so open and warm and great - she grew up in
an Atheist family but learned to pray through her childhood best friend's
family and just always felt there was a God. What a wonderful woman.
Mevr. van Kampen is this crazy Dutch lady in her 60s who was totally
open and ready for the Restoration. There are members in her area who are
completely willing to let us teach her in their home if we can arrange it.
Haarlem is such a blessed place.
Patricia is hilarious - 26 year old avowed atheist who does, after all,
believe in something after death since she believes in Spirits... she
laughed through out like our entire lesson - I love watching how people
handle the Spirit, especially when they're not used to it. Her house is
covered in Disney memorabilia and she's not willing to pray but is willing
to hear more about the plan of salvation. We'll see!
Emerlien and Tom, referrals from Bisschop who went on vacation FOREVER
are back and we finally had another appointment with them! They are so
curious about what we believe in - they took notes of the Word of Wisdom and
Tom is just great - he's all "I can't just believe there's another prophet
today - that's a big deal!" So we explained the Book of Mormon's role
(they'd already read some - halleluja for genuinely interested people!) and
committed them to reading the REsotration pamphlet so we can talk about it
next time. Miracle. We already have members to come to their appointment
next week.
As far as old friends we're teaching, Magalie (21 from the Congo) met
with us again at Stella's (from Nigeria - they love each other) and said she
got a wonderful feeling of warmth and safety when she prayed to know if
Joseph Smith is a prophet. Engelien is still working on quitting smoking but
the former temple president and matron here in Haarlem are starting an LDS
Family Services addiction recovery group and Engelien was able to go - I
love love love Haalrem. They are a small group but they take care of each
other and our investigators.
This week was also CRAZY busy with trips. On Tuesday we went to
Amsterdam with a short conference to meet President and Sister Brubaker, our
new mish pres and his wife. They are both incredible. Of course. =) It was
fun seeing everybody in the zone and E. De Mass ( my MTC teaching comp who's
now AP) and Zr Fowler and Miller and etc.
On Thursday we had to go to Den Haag and stay the night with the
sisters there so we could catch a 6:23 AM train to Brussels the next day to
attend a Leadership Council. It used to be a zone leader council, but my
trainer (the wondermous Nikki Barkume), who'd been teaching PRes Brubaker
Dutch in the MTC, had suggested that he get the sisters more involved in
that sort of thing... so since I'm the oldest on the Dutch side, I got to go
to the mission home with one of the sisters in Brussels while her comp and
Zr Robbins did finding and service for the some members. It was an
incredible day and we learned a lot about being sweetly bold in our teaching
and leadership. They also were determined to kill us with calories - French
pastries, American Hamburgers, Belgian waffles, quiche.... I was very full
that day. Going to Brussels always reminds me how much Holland has become
home. As we were reading 3 Nephi 11 with Pres Brubaker I felt like I was at
FHE at home - I was full, sitting on a very comfortable couch, there was a
father figure reading out of the scriptures, and part of me really just
wanted to take a nap.... ;)

I am happy here in Haarlem. I love Zr Robbins - she's a kindred spirit and
super positive and dedicated. We have a lot of fun! I love the memebrs and
the people we're teaching. Azelea got busy this last week but we've got
appointments with her and her mom and hopefully we can get her mom and
daughter to church even if she has work. I also found out at the Leadership
Council that the elders in Gouda / Cappelle are teaching Anton (my favorite
jealous atheist and someone I know I was supposed to meet on my mission)
again and that Alma, a wonderful Dutch woman we taught there, has a
baptisimal date again! Miracles! I love hearing that old contacts are doing
well.

I love you all and am so thankful for all you do! HEavenly Father really
does take cares of us. Whereever you are, whatever you're doing, live it and
love it in the moment you have.

Veel liefs,

Zr. Baxter

P.S. If anyone from the Lake Charles ward still reads this, know that I love
you all and am sad I won't be coming home to the ward that shaped me and
taught me so much. You are all a wonderful group of people and I truly felt
a sense of Zion there.

hello hello!

Hallo iedereen! So this week was pretty crazy but great. Monday was spent
packing up Zr Fowler's stuff and visiting members and saying goodbye (for
her side of things). She is an amaaaaaaaaazing missionary and made such an
impact on people here - it was cool being able to visit people with her and
seeing that. It also made me super grateful to be able to stay in Haarlem.
It's a blessed place.
On Tuesday after district meeting we stayed in Alkmaar and chalked out
the plan of salvation with the elders. I seemed to get sucked into weird
drawn out conversation with old Dutch men, but managed to get a couple phone
numbers from younger people walking by that I talked with, and it helped the
elders get a lot of appointments, so that was pretty cool. I was so stinking
proud of Zr Fowler just talking with people on her own - her Dutch is
amazing. I miss serving with her, but she's in the right spot.
That afternoon back in Haarlem, we were tracting and had kind of a
weird experience - the street we'd prayed about turned out to be a shopping
area, and not a particularly busy one at that - pretty much no one to talk
to. We ended up going to a street nearby to try and contact someone who'd
left a somewhat-indecipherable message on our phone who said he lived
nearby, but he also was impossible to find. We ended up knocking doors on
that street. Zr Fowler at one point said [in Dutch], "Heavenly Father, I
just want to find one more person on my last day in Haarlem..." While we
were waitng to see if someone would come to the door, the Spirit said, "Just
go on to the next one." We walked back out to the street to see an African
man walking towards us. We stopped him, and when he realized who we are, he
said, "I have your black book." We whipped out the Book of Mormon, and he
confirmed it was the same one. "I got it from two friends of mine from your
organization - I don't have time today but I have many questions I want to
ask you about it." Turns out he lives in Amsterdam, right in the same part
of the city where the sisters there live. He also is usually only in Haarlem
on Mondays and Wednesdays for work, but coincidentally got called in that
day (a Tuesday), so it was totally chance (or not, as the case usually is
when you have a nametag and a mid-calf length skirt) that we met him when we
did. It was such a cool miracle and a neat confirmation that Zr Fowler is
going where she needs to. So now that she's in A'Dam she'll be able to look
him up. Sweet!
Later we visited Didi, the woman who'd met with Elders in Bulgaria when
she was a teen. She was thrilled (!!) at the idea of meeting with Zr Fowler
and Zr Miller in A'Dam when she moves there for 6 weeks. We have another
appointment with her this week, and then she'll move there next week. As we
answered her questions about the Book of Mormon, we had her read the last
two paragraphs of the intro. "That makes sense," she said.'"I'm going to do
that." "
"You mean read and pray about it?" I asked her.
"Yes!" she said. Unfortunately she still didn't make it to church on Sunday,
but I'm so excited to meet with her again tonight. The Lord has a plan for
her.

So I got Zr Robbins, my lovely new companion, in Den Haag on Wednesday.
She's a violen performance major from BYU (who got to bring her instrument
with her - sweet muffins!) and pretty much amazing. I'm much more chill this
time around with training - partly because I feel like I actually have an
idea of what's going on, and partly because she's super funny, down to
earth, and pretty comfortable. Despite the normal barriers of only 2 months
of MTC Dutch, she's not at all afraid to open her mouth and talk to people,
which is awesome. We have a pretty fun time together, and life is good.

On wednesday as we were taking the bus back to the station to buy her a bike
(after we dropped off luggage at our flat) we started talking to a woman and
had a super cool conversation. She was totally open to having us come over
and talk more about God's plan - when she gave us her address I told her we
were teaching someone else in her neighborhood. When she got our card and
saw Mormon on it, she said she thinks her daughter, who lives during the
week in A'Dam and on the weekends with her in Haarlem, is also meeting with
us. Turns out she's totally the mom of Sherida, a girl we've taught about
twice. Miracle!!! So we're going to visit Reina, the mom, tomorrow. So
positive.
We've had a few other really cool finding experiences. Azelea is
getting closer to being completely done with smoking. Our other
investigators are really struggling with the commandments, tho. Please keep
them in your prayers.
I got asked on Thursday to give a talk on Sunday. I can't tell you how
cool it is to be able to give a talk in Dutch without having to read it off
the paper word for word. I loooooove being able to really talk to people -
it'll never be perfect, but it's enough. The gift of tongues is totally real
and amazing. I really love Haarlem... the ward is just amazing.
And I love you people! Have a great week and know that the Lord really
is there to help.


Veel liefs,

Zr Christa Baxter

Hallo! What a crazy blessed week! To start off, we had our last Zone Conference on Tuesday with President and Zuster Woodland. I will really, really miss them a lot. There were also a junkload of departing missionaries who I've been with most of my mission - Zr Kabenda, Zr Higham (never comps but we've had almost all our comps in common), my first district leader, other leaders... it makes me feel really old. It was a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful day. We learned a lot about how we can better use the Book of Mormon. Since then we've seen so much more success in finding with the Book of Mormon, including meeting the most theologically open man ever, whose cousin converted and immigrated to Utah back in the 50s or 60s. Interesting. =) Not open for an appointment but was excited to read the Book of Mormon and wants us to stop by another time for another chat.
> Azelea is moving this week to her new house and hopefully her mom will arrive from Ethiopia to help watch Catherine once school is out for the summer. I'm really, really hoping we can start teaching Azelea's mom too, and that once things calm down we can get her coming to church more regularly. Engelien (pronounced angle-een) is still struggling with the Word of Wisdom and quitting smoking - your prayers would be appreciated. Milene just got back from her vacation and we have dinner with her Wednesday, so that'll be great to get back into teaching her and letting her choose a new baptisimal date. Thank you for your prayers for these wonderful people.
> We had a fun conversation with Emmy - she's not super super willing to go to another church but wants to come by sometime. It's really hard to teach older Dutch woman - it's a very strange social dynamic, what with trying not to just get relegated to those cute American girls with bad Dutch who like to talk about God. ;)
> One awesome miracle this week was having an appointment with Didi. She's the woman from Bulgaria we met op straat about a month ago who'd met with Elders in Bulgaria when she was a teenager and got teary as she mentioned they were her "biggest friends." (I really, really, really will miss the awkward eloquence of english as a second language. We encounter it so much here!) We'd run into her last Saturday at the station and were suprised to find she wasn't in Amsterdam as she told us she'd be, and were so so happy to go meet her. We mostly got to know her background - she came her to work with the flowers and married a Portuguese man. She'd met with the Elders because they lived in her same building, and she and her brother had gone to church there. I'm still not sure why it didn't go further - as she said she remembered something about a certain Joseph Smith, we pulled out a Bulgarian Book of Mormon and asked if she recognized it. The look of shock and joy on her face was incredible. She even suggested to her Father-in-law that they all come to church. They didn't (yet) but it'll come. She's going to A'dam next or week or the week after for a month and a half, but it'll come with her... what a miracle.
> We continue to be crazy busy in Haarlem. We are super blessed here. Li, our chinese investigator, is beginning to seriously pray on her own, and about baptism as well. She also goes on vacation to China for more than a month this week, but when she comes back I'll be excited to see her again. I just really love these people.
> The biggest surprise of this week is transfers.... I'm staying in Haarlem, and Zr Fowler is going to Amsterdam with myold comp Zr Miller! I'm honestly very torn about this, because I stinkin' love Zr. Fowler and we've been blessed to see so many miracles and people literally popping out of nowhere to teach. But I'm excited for her to be able to learn from a new city and new companion. I'm also training again, which was a bit of a surprise (at least on my part), so I don't know who my new comp will be. But Haarlem could always use the greenie miracles, so I'm excited. =)
> I love you all. I love this work, and I love my Heavenly Father and Savior. There's no end to miracles, and no end to His help. Have a wonderful week.
>
> Veel liefs,
>
> Zr Christa Baxter
>

wat een druk druk leven!

Crazy busy week! We had interviews on Tuesday in Den Haag - the last
time I'll be able to have a one on one talk with President Woodland. I love
our mission president. I've learned a lot from him. At our training we
learned a lot more about working with the Ward with joint teaches... wow,
that must sound so boring to you people. Anyway, it was great fun, and I got
a letter from Lenneke, a Dutch girl in her 20s who got baptised in Rotterdam
after I transferred to Gouda. She is doing INCREDIBLE - she's the YSA rep
for the ward, has been to the temple several times, and just loves the
gospel so much. She has amazing people there too to fellowship her. I hear
she's coming to the next zone conference this week, so that'll be so good to
see her. It really is the most rewarding thing in the world when someone you
taught the gospel can see all the beautiful changes in her life because of
it. I love it so much.
We had some cool miracles in finding. We went back to Emmy, the super
chatty amazingly cool older Dutch lady who let us in last week. She has a
granddaughter with major emotional / behavioral problems whom she often
helps take of. Emmy's husband passed away a few years ago, but this
granddaughter still feels like she receives messages from her granddad.
Anyway, Emmy said her granddaughter was doing MUCH better this week, and
said her granddad had told her she needed to be making better choices and
living a better life. I didn't quite follow Emmy's Dutch perfectly, but she
really attributed it in a way to our visit, or at least didn't see it as
coincidental - "I didn't tell her that two girls from a church had been by,
but you know..." And we managed to teach her about the Restoration and she
is genuinely interested in letting us come back and teach her more. So good!
So this week we'll go back again.
The elders in our district came up to Haarlem last Saturday to do
some creative finding... we chalked out the Plan of Salvation and had a
super fun time talking with people about it. But the coolest miracle
happened just before that - while waiting at the station, we saw Didi again!
She's the woman from Bulgaria who'd met with elders (and teared up when she
told us they were here best friends) years ago. We thought she'd been in
Amsterdam all this time, but she's actually leaving int wo weeks - and let
us make an appointment to meet with her this week before she goes! Wahoo!
I'm so excited to get to know her better.
Engelien just learned about chastity and is still working on quitting
smoking - but the Relief Society has just taken her in so well. During our
lesson on forgiveness Engelien got a little emotional - she's had some hard
problems with her parents' divorce and other family issues - and it was
amazing to just see Dutch women wrap their arms around her and kiss her on
the cheek. Gosh I love this ward so much! And Azelea came to church for the
second time!!!! Oh I adore her. She is my Ethiopian sister. I'm totally
taking a picture ofher Book fo Mormon - she has scriptures marked up and
down that whole thing.
Wehad exchanges this week and I got to go to Amsterdam! I tried
meeting up with Amy Robinson but it just didn't work out schedule wise, and
that was a shame - but it was super fun working with Zr. Stapleton, a new
sister from St. Martins. It was also super fun tracting briefly in the
Bijmer (in south east A'Dam). I really miss tracting in the ghetto
sometimes. It's so crazy random - you never know who you'll see. But it was
really fun to come back to Haarlem. This place has become home. And the way
president talked about how it ought to've become home for me, I'm pretty
sure I'll just be staying here until the end of my mission... which is fine
by me!
I really love you all and am so grateful for you. I know this
gospel is real, and I know it changes lives. Thank you for your letters and
prayers.

Love,

Zr. baxter

Hallo iedereen! So this week brought some great progress with people we're
teaching. We taught Azelea about Tithing, and it seemed pretty reasonable to
her. Although that may be because she doesn't have a baptisimal date yet. ;)
But on Saturday we taught her with Sjaak, a convert of 18 months or so who
just got his mission call to South Africa. We had Sjaak teach the majority
of the first lesson again to her, under the pretext that he needs the
practice teaching, and Azelea acted like she was a completely new
investigator. So we had to hide her beautifully tabbed and marked copy of
the Book of Mormon she's been highlighting like nobody's business the past 6
months. =) It was amazing. It felt we were in the MTC again teaching a
member who was giving answers too good to be true. Finally Zuster Fowler
said, "Okay Azelea, all pretending aside, you talk like you've been a member
for years. Do you really know that Joseph Smith was a prophet? And that the
Book of Mormon was true?" And Azelea thought about it all and said, "Well,
yeah! I do know it's true!" She loves the Book of Mormon but she'd never
expressed that kind of surety about Joseph Smith. So then Zr Fowler invited
her to be baptised with Mosiah 18:8-10 - Azelea responded, "Wow, you haven't
shown me this scripture before." And then said she wants to be baptised, but
things are just too hectic and crazy in her life right now. I stinking love
this woman so much! Her biggest obstacle is coming to church, but things are
getting more flexible at her workplace, so she's trying to come again in a
couple weeks. Please please please pray for her to be able to come to church
regularly and get baptised. She's such a wonderful person and has such a
beautiful growing testimony.
Milene is doing well, but got sick so she couldn't come to church or
the baptisimal service in Den Haag we wanted to bring her too. Bummer! We're
hoping to introduce her to more of the older members who joined the church
when they were young adults around her age - most of the Young Single Adults
in the ward have grown up in the church, and the standards can seem to be a
pretty big change at times. We're hoping to help her see she really can do
this. =)
And Engelien is great. The ward takes so much care of her! But she's
just learning about the Word of Wisdom, and she smokes a lot and drinks
occasionally. So there's that - we just go forward in faith and dilligence
and do our thing. It'll come good.
Um, I don't know what else to say. I really just adore Haarlem. The
ward is amazing and we're teaching a lot of truly amazing, dedicated,
serious people. And just Sunday, Heather (a Canadian au pair) brought her
Dutch boyfriend to church again - he wants to take the missionary lessons
again and see if he really can believe in God and accept this church.
Reminds me of some high school experiences, but maybe she'll succeed where I
failed. ;) I really just love being a missionary right now.
And on Friday we took another trip to the mission home in Belgium for
legality - and I found out I get the stay a 12th transfer!!!!! Meaning I
will be released on October 28th. Wahoo!!! I was pretty surprised, but I
really love being a missionary, and the language is no longer so great a
problem, so I'm happy to stay even longer and experience one more European
Fall. I love you all and I love this work. I know Heavenly Father is taking
care of us all, in His time and His way. I know he answers prayers.

Veel Liefs,


Zr Baxter

Another good week in Haarlem. Engelien is doing fabulously. On Monday
we taught here more of the Plan of Salvation - apparently she'd had time to
really disgest what we'd taught her earlier, and she was literally shocked
and elated at the concept of a Pre-Existance and the Spirit World. "NOOIT
wist ik!" ["I never knew that!!!"] I seriously was wondering where the
camera crew from preach my gospel was hiding - it was so good it felt like a
set up. =) She loves reading in the Book of Mormon, and on Thursday we
brought Zr Kroese (another Surinamer) and watched Finding Faith in Christ,
which she loved. Unfortunately she didn't make it to church, but she's been
a little sick lately, and we're going to see her tonight, so things should
work out.
Milene's also doing great. She was out of town, but this Saturday we're
taking her to a baptismal service in Den Haag and she'll be at church the
next Sunday. Please pray that she'll have the news to talk to her very
religious mother about her upcoming baptism and that it'll go well. =) I've
never taught someone so ridiculously solid.
We also had a fun return appointment to Jessica, a Nigerian single mom
of two who is beginning to grasp what this crazy Book of Mormon is and what
the heck Joseph Smith is all about. =) I love watching people open up
through the Spirit.
We had a really fun contact on Tuesday night. We made the
seemingly-mistake of tracting through a wealthy neighborhood during dinner
time, but one woman said to come back another time during the afternoon. We
took her up on her word, came back a couple days later, and had the most
marvelous conversation about religions and God and the Resotration. Like
many educated Dutch people, she's got a pretty pan-religious approach (which
I'd probably be if I'd grown up here) but really was interested to read The
Proclamation on the Family. Towards the end of her conversation, she said
she'd have invited us in but her husband was sick - turned out he'd had a
heart attack while they were in vacation in the States 6 months ago. After
we prayed with her and asked Heavenly Father to bless her husband and family
in light of his health problems, she hugged both of us. Oh, fruits of the
Spirit. She'd love to talk again but not make a fast appointment... it'll
come. =)
We had a hard time finding new investigators this week but were blessed
to look up 3 old ones who are willing to meet with us again. So it goes!
Also something funny... my bike totally broke down while biking to our
finding spot. My bold companion Zr Fowler would not be deterred, so when the
first Dutch woman opened the door, looked at our nametags, and told us she
wasn't interested before we could even open our months, Zr Fowler jumped in
and said, "Actually, we're having some bike problems... do you have a
screwdriver we could borrow?" The good woman brought us a tool kit, rag, and
a cushion to kneel on while we put the chain back on my bike. It was pretty
funny. (Hopefully my bike will last till the end of my mission!) It totally
reminded me of the Catholic priest in Argentina that yelled at Dad and his
comp, only to very graciously let them borrow the ladder they'd come to ask
for. People are good. =)
So the work goes on. I love you all.

Zr. Baxter

gefeliciteerd! (or, as translated, congratulations!)

So another pretty great week! We were the only sisters who didn't get
transferred, so it was weird to have a normal week (without a zone
conference or interviews or exchanges). But good things happened. Marc
actually came to a Young Single Adult activity, and that was great. He knows
what he needs to do to really know if he knows that the church is true and
if Christ is his Savior - he's just not really at a convenient time in life
to get down on his knees and pray and come to church. But hey! He came to a
JoVo activity! So baby steps. =) We set a baptisimal date with Engelien for
June 20th. She is so amazing. She brings the Book of Mormon with her to work
to read on her lunch breaks and has been talking to her friends and family
about the church. If we don't contact referrals from her by the end of this
week, we are horrible missionaries. ;) She came to church for the second
time in a row, and the sisters did such a wonderful job of walking her to
Relief Society and fellowshipping her. Haarlem is a great place to be.
Milene also came to church again, and this week we had dinner with her
at Frank's house (her friend that introduced her to the church) and Linda,
another member our age. We talked about the apostasy and restoration and
following the prophet. Milene is hilarious - she follows up with us on her
commitments ("I prayed about the Word of Wisdom like you asked me but still
have no answer...") and at the end of our lesson talked about Nephi and
Laman and Lemuel, and commented that we all need to be a Nephi, but often
it's easier to be a Laman or Lemuel. She sounds like she's been a member for
years! She is just so great. I absolutely love her. Please keep her in your
prayers that she'll get a testimony of the Word of Wisdom.
In other cool news of Wijk Haarlem, Sjaak (a recent convert of about 15
months) just got his mission call to South Africa Johannesburg, English
speaking. He leaves in September and is so excited! Zr Fowler correctly
guessed where he's going, so he gave her a pretty funny reward for guessing
right. A little background is needed to get this one. So Zr Fowler is indeed
a lovely, wonderful, praiseworthy, and fabulous missionary who exemplifies
the 13th Article Faith in more ways than one. Unfortunately she tends to get
hit on by older foreign men, who more often than not are Muslim. Sjaak knows
this and finds it pretty funny, so as her reward he gave her some cookies he
made and... a printout of the Ensign article "A Mormon Perspective on
Mohammed" and a postcard of Egypt with some scribbled lines from the Koran.
Funny one! But the joke was kind of on him since his handwriting is so bad
that we literally thought it was Arabic for the first couple of minutes.
Anyway, I absolutely love to Young Single Adult group here and they're
pretty much amazing!
On Wednesday Aunt Roberta and Uncle Larry came to Haarlem and I had my
mission president's permission to go to lunch with them. It was pretty weird
to be sitting out on a terrace cafe by the Oude Bavo Kerk (the big cathedral
here) and being a tourist instead of contacting them - but also pretty fun!
=) They treated me and Zr. Fowler to a delicious lunch (thank you!) and we
had a great time talking about missionary work here and in New Zealand
(where they served a mission a few years ago) and some of the
church-sponsored well-digging projects they'd been on in Africa and other
places. Mostly it was pretty surreal seeing the family resemblence between
Roberta and Mom (in a good way! I promise I'm not homesick =) ), even in
their mannerisms and the way they laugh - but it was fun seeing family
again. Also, I've come to the conclusion that my ability to make small talk
in English has totally disappeared, and if I'm not teaching and testifying,
I don't even know what to talk about. Should make dating in 6 months pretty
interesting! ;)
There's really not much else... I mean, there's plenty of things I
find great andfascinating, but probably not so much for you people. =) We
did find some pretty cool people finding this past week that I'm excited to
meet with again this week. My favorites were Bianca, a young woman who said
on the door that she'd gone through too much to believe in God. When we
asked her what she'd experienced, she told us she can't believe in God when
so many of her family members have passed away in the past few years. If God
is so loving and good to others, why not to her? We shared a scripture and
prayed with her (and, to be perfectly honest, teared up a little with her),
and when we asked if we could come back and teach her more about God's plan,
her answer was en emphatic yes. Please pray that our appointment tom will go
through. I love seeing peopel changed by the Spirit.
The other miracle as Didi. It was raining pretty hard but we stopped as
she walked by, only to find out she moved her from Bulgaria 8 years ago, and
as she recognized our name tags, that she'd met with Elders in her homeland
when she was younger. She was SO excited to realize we were from the same
church and teared up a little as she told us that those elders were her best
friends. She'll be in A''Dam for the next 6 weeks but said when she's back
she'd like to meet with us again. The woman bore her testimony to us about
how much she loves God and is searching for him. What a beautiful
experience.
Well, I love you all. The work is going forward. Thank you for your
prayers and support.


Veel liefs,

Zr. Baxter

Hello everybody! Well, it's been a super great week, but a little
non-eventful - at least as far as interesting letter writing goes. Azelea
prayed about Joseph Smith and baptism but doesn't feel like she got an
answer, tho she's still working on quitting smoking, and reads the Book of
Mormon everyday. It will come! Patience! Milene still doesn't dig the Word
of Wisdom but is totally down for tithing (I'm always surprised at what
people do and don't find difficult). We brought Zr. Kroese, another
Surinamer, to Engelien's house on Wednesday night, and they LOVED each
other. And talked a ridiculous amount. I love fellowshippers. They are so
amazing. Zr. Kroese totally understands her better than we do too, and used
to be of the same Christian religion Engelien was, so that's pretty much
amazing. Engelien came to church on Sunday and loved it - she was even there
before we were. Hopefully this week we can set a baptisimal date with her
and help her begin quitting smoking. Good times, good miracles.
We all got to go to the temple on Wednesday. My last time in Holland,
at least as missionary. It was wonderful, and I will miss it very much. I
love my fellow missionaries. I also got a junkload of mail at Zone
Conference - thank you all! I especially loved the letters and photos from
Briana and Zack, Peter, and Nate. My FHEbros are still the best! I am
working on writing you all back soon!
And as far as transfer news goes, both Zr Fowler and I are staying,
and I'm pretty excited about that. I still don't know if I've got 3
transfers left or 4. I'm happy either way. I'd still like to serve in Den
Haag (the Hague) before I go home, but Haarlem's great and I pretty much
adore the people we're teaching right now. Milene heard one of us might
transfer and did not like that idea! It's always flattering and rewarding to
see how much your friends like you - especially when they get along with the
ward so well that that's not a concern! ;) And Zr Fowler and I are really
getting into a good groove of working together, so I'm excited to see the
miracles of this transfer.
Haarlem had a big outdoor music fest last weekend for their
independence day (or something to celebrate their freedom after WWII) and it
was funny biking past live music and mobs of Dutch hipsters, realizing how
much I have in common with them and also how little. I am so glad I came on
a mission, and I don't even miss live music much anymore. =) I love this
gospel and I love love love these people. And I love you all. I know
Heavenly Father plays an active role in all his children's lives - to a much
greater extent than we often realize. He'll never force us to make the right
choices, but He'll never stop giving us the chance to do so. The Book of
Mormon is the word of God, and it can change lives. Have a blessed week and
know that I'm happy and loving life, and that I love you all.


Zr Baxter

So we saw some amazing things with investigators this week. First off,
Azelea's husband Yannis is back from Greece and actually sat in on a lesson
with us! He said he'd read the Restoration pamphlet too. Definitely progress
since the last time I saw him 2 months ago, when he said he was a Christian
but definitely didn't espouse radical religions. ;) We watched the
Testaments with the whole family (Azelea, Yannis, and their 6 year old
daughter Catherine (aka Belina) ) on Thursday, and Azelea loved it. Even
referred to the Book of Mormon as fact. Always a beautiful thing. =) And
then she and Catherine came to church on Sunday! They've only lived here 7
months so she doesn't speak much Dutch, but between translation on my part
and English Sunday school, I think she really enjoyed it. People were pretty
welcoming, especially Bishop and Stella, the Nigerian woman we bring on JT.
I love Haarlem. And I love Azelea and Catherine.
Things are also good with Milene. We saw her on Friday and had an
amazing 3rd lesson with her on the steps of the gospel (Faith in Christ,
repentence, baptism, enduring to the end). She is reading a chapter out of
the Book of Mormon every day, and if she misses a day, she tries to read two
the next. As we explained the Holy Ghost to her, she said she's feeling that
more in her daily life, especially after coming to church. Even her friends
are noticing it - a friend of hers who's technically atheist had been asking
her questions about God, and Milene told her she's welcome to meet with us,
the missionaries, if she likeds. The woman is like getting referrals for us!
Oh, so good! Her big question - so what commandments am I agreeing to keep
when I get baptised? Good one! =) So we talked a little about the Word of
Wisdom. She got sick Sunday morning and didn't make it to church, but now is
leaning more towards coming every week. On Sunday we taught her the Word of
Wisdom. She doesn't like the idea of giving up the occasional glass of wine
or fruit teas - she was raised on the idea of everything within reason, and
this commandment is rather surprising, after all - but I'm pretty sure as we
keep on helping herunderstand the Restoration it will fall into place. She
seriously is like the Preach My Gospel test case scenario. I love her so
much. It's amazing to see people gesture to the Book of Mormon and comment
about "our church."
We also got to finally visit Engelien, the Surinamer woman who
approached the elders in A'Dam because of their name tags and wanted to
learn more about their church. She's willing to meet with us for 3 times a
week for 30 minutes, and said she'd come to church this Sunday. There are
two crazy strong Surinamer sisters in the ward around her age, so it really
has amazing fellowshipping potential. And we visited Laticia, a former
investigator who's about 20 and from St. Martins. Teaching her totally
brings me back to the Bible Belt and Louisiana. She's pretty sure she'll
never believe in Joseph Smith, but loves that we're trying to bring people
in Holland to Jesus Christ. What with all the rampant agnosticism and
atheism and all. ;)
We tried to have a DTR with Marc... when we asked him if he actually
does want to know if Jesus Christ is his Savior, he said, "Well, yes,
otherwise I wouldn't be meeting with you!" It's kind of ashame because he
and Esther broke up, and she was actually keeping more committments them him
at this point - on Monday she'd read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet and Alma
42 and really found the pre-mortal existance pretty interesting - apparently
nobody else teaches that. I'm hoping we can still teach her when she moves
out... we'll see!
Things are still going great with Zr. Fowler - so good that I'm pretty
sure one of us will be transferred next Wednesday. ;) We'll see. I still
don't know if I'm staying 11 transfers or 12. I'll be happy either way. This
Wednesday we get to go to the temple in Zoetermeer for the last time on my
mission. I'm incredibly excited.
I really do love you all. Thank you for your prayers and support. Some
days are hard, some are amazing - but usually one great appointment can make
a whole day just incredible. =) Have a fabulous week and remember that
Heavenly Father really is there, and truly does listen.

Love you all,

Zr. Christa Baxter

Another great week! Azelea was super helped by the priesthood blessing she
got last week. She said that night was the first night in weeks she could go
to sleep calmly (she'd been struggling with stress-related sleeplessness in
light of all the problems with her husband looking for a job in Greece,
etc.). She now also really understands priesthood authority better. And! She
asked off work for this coming Sunday and is so excited to come! She said,
"No matter what I am coming to church!" That was a beautiful moment. I love
this woman so, so much. She's also really bonded with Stelle, a Nigerian
convert we've brought on joint teach a couple of times, and it's amazing. We
taught Azelea the Word of Wisdom this week, and she committed very readily
to quitting smoking and giving up coffee and tea. It's been a bit of a long
road with her, but she really is developing such a firm testimony. It's
beautiful to see.
Milene was sick and out of town and we never met with her this week,
which is not good. Please pray that she won't get too busy to really
progress.
We set a baptisimal date with Magalie, the 20 year old from the Congo
that the Elders found, but she's also super busy and still hasn't come to
church. Please pray for her.
In another crazy miracle resulting from the district leader council
they had here a couple weeks ago, one of the district leaders who'd been
here found an investigator for us in Amsterdam, where he serves. He and his
comp had been talking on the tram to another man who wasn't so interested.
As their conversation was dying down, another woman approached them and
asked if they were from a church. They proceded to have an awesome
conversation abotu prophets, baptism, the gospel, and set a baptisimal date
with her. In the tram. And she just happens to live right nearby the church
in Haarlem, which Elder Nelson knew the address of because he'd been here
for district leader council. What a crazy blessing. So far we've only talked
to her on the phone, but she is a super sweet Surinamer and we'll see her
later this week. What a blessing!
Otherwise things are going well. We had an amazing PDay in Keukenhof
(the famous tulip gardens - go google image search it because it's amazing)
and it was wonderful seeing older companions and district leaders and the
like. And Lisette, the 22 year old we taught in Gouda (who got baptised
right after I transferred away) came too!!! That was an awesome surprise.
She's been to the temple and said it was wonderful, and she goes to the YSA
Outreach Center in R'Dam (where she goes to school) twice a week. I love her
so much. That was a tender mercy.
I also attempted to eat herring at Keaukenhof. That was definitely
documented and definitely disgusting. The taste wasn't so bad, and chewing
wasn't so bad, but one bite was all I could manage to swallow. Nothing like
raw fish to make you feel culturally acclimated!
Things are going well. I'm happy. It really is weird to me that I
could be coming home in September. I still don't know if I'll be home in
September or the end of October, but I should be finding out soon. The
members continue to be amazed at Zr Fowler's Dutch, and working with her is
just wonderful. The Lord seriously sent me a greenie that doesn't really
need to be trained - probably because I am, after all, one of the most
non-confrontational people ever! =) I love you all very much, and I love
this work. Just trust in the Lord, do your best, and He takes care of the
rest.



Love,


Zr. Baxter

Hoi everybody! We had such a cool week! It started off with Mehmet, a
slightly argumentative Turkish man, calling us for an appointment when we
forgot to call him. That doesn't happen so often! We arranged to give him a
tour of the church on Saturday with one of the members, a delightfully
graceful dame named Zr Jonkman. He found the Joseph Smith story pretty
incredible and asked for a Book of Mormon before we even offered. My
inspired companion Zr Fowler thought it'd be cool to bring copies of it in
several languages, so he walked away with a Dutch copy, a Turkish copy, and
a return appointment for next week. So good!
Azelea is doing well gospel wise but got sick and couldn't come to
church. Again! But we brought Stella, a Nigerian convert, on joint teach,
and Stella pretty much invited her to church continuously during the entire
lesson. It was pretty hilarious and awesome. Azelea said she really really
wants to and is so frustrated that things keep on stopping her. When we
committed her to baptism she said, "Let me come to church first!" It's
totally coming with her. I love the light of the gospel entering people's
lives. On Sunday we were able to have Sjaak (convert of 18 months currently
waiting on his mission call) and Jan (26 year old who served in Suriname)
come and give her a priesthood blessing. It was a really beautiful
experience and she was very grateful. Please keep Azelea in your prayers,
that things will work out with her husband's job search and that she will be
able to come to church.
Milene is reading in the Book of Mormon from the beginning (always a
wonderful sign) and came to church again, but from here on out wants to come
only every other week. She's also super busy and can only meet with us once
or twice a week. So please just pray for her that things will work out for
her June 6th baptism.
We got to meet with Magalia, a girl in her 20s from the Congo whom the
elders found when they blitzed Haarlem after District Leader Council. She
was super positive, and through a series of complicated (and very fortunate)
events I happened to grab a French Book of Mormon instead of a Dutch copy
for her. We'd only talked to her on the phone in English, but since she's
from Congo, French is her native language, so it was pretty fortuitous (aka
inspired) that we had it for her. She didn't make it to church on Sunday but
she's pretty positive and I'm super excited to get to know her better.
Marc was on vacation so we visited Esther, his girlfriend, and
brought Zr Scholten. The whole appointment was such a cool miracle. We
talked more about the Plan of Salvation and the pre-existance and the role
of Christ. Zr. Scholten totally pulled a DTR (as my good former District
Leader Elder Thio pointed out, missionary parallels dating on so many levels
- I'm not even being facetious) and asked Esther if she wanted to really
believe in Christ. Esther talked about praying and compared herself to the
man in the Bible who brings his son to Christ to be healed and says, "Lord,
help thou my unbelief." The Spirit was incredible. Zr. Scholten told Esther
she thought that Esther really did want to believe it, and Esther admitted
it would be pretty amazing if we did have a Savior. So we committed her to
pray about it and read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet. I love members. They
make everything better. You don't even know how happy the missionaies in
your ward would be if you called them up right now and asked them who you
can come visit with them.
Finding miracle - we were walking through a park and began chatting with
two older ladies. They turned out to be sisters, and we had a super small
talk conversation with them about being missionaries and faith in Holland
and how they grew up Catholic. Realizing it wasn't going to get there in any
natural, subtle way, I asked them if we could share something spiritual
before we went on our way and we shared the Joseph Smith story. One sister
asked what we believed about life after death, and as I pulled out the Book
of Mormon, Els (the less open of the two) said,"Oh, you're Mormon? That's so
strange - when we were little girls, I remember two mormon missionaries
visiting. Last night I was thinking about that for the first time in years,
and now here you are." They agreed to let us come visit them next week and
talk to them more about the Plan of Salvation. Miracle!!!
And so it goes. It was kind of a weird week - we had interviews on
Wednesday, which was wonderful. And then all of Friday was wiped out by a
legality trip to Belgium. It was super great seeing Elders Berry and DeMass,
but super weird being in Belgium - Holland has just become home, and I
missed it, even being gone just a day. I absolutely love Haarlem and I love
being a missionary - I wondered if the day would ever come when I could say
that with all honesty, but there's really nothing else I'd rather be doing
right now. I love you all, and I love this gospel. God truly is our HEavenly
Father, and I know he's mindful of us.

Vele liefs,

Zr. Baxter

So this really was a pretty spectacular week, I must say. First of all we
finally got Zr Fowler a proper bike, so that's made everything loads easier
(and more comfortable for her! I don't think she was anticipating sitting on
the back of her trainer's bike as part of her greenie experience... =) ). Zr
Fowler herself is doing fabulous - I absolutely love being a trainer. Her
Dutch is so good that I've warned her not to get prideful over how surprised
all the members are at how much she can say and understand. ;) Not that she
ever would be.
As far as people we're teaching goes, Marc is on vacation this week
but his girlfriend Esther agreed to meet with us even tho he's gone, and
that is such an awesome miracle! At first she was totally not even
interested, so it's so great. Zr Scholten came on JT this week, and really
helped them both to understand what the Atonement is all about. We realized
they really don't have a testimony of Christ, so of course the Restoration
is a moot point. Afterwards I profusely thanked Zr Scholten for her help and
ability to understand them (not just their Dutch ;) but what their concerns
are) and she was so pleased she hugged both of us and told Zr Fowler that
she'll be such a "liefe moeder"someday - or a really sweet, loving mom. And
then she told me I was more of the business woman type. IT was pretty
stinking hilarious - especially because a huge miracle of my mission is that
now I actually want to have a family - and don't just assume it'll happen
someday. =) Zr Scholten is pretty fabulous - she served a mission in Chile,
her parents got baptised in Israel through a BYU group while she was op
zending, and she's just... great!
Tuesday we ate dinner with Stella, a fabulous convert from Nigeria. She
made us grease meal, which is a little like foo foo (which is like mash
potatoes but MUCH fluffier and more rubbery in texture - you eat it with
your fingers and dip it in sauce). Watching two American missionaries raised
on cooking from their Utah Mormon mothers attempt to eat super spicy spinash
foo foo sauce was pretty hilarious. Zr. Fowler almost choked a couple of
times. It was soooo good but so hot. Stella herself is pretty amazing, and
it was way good to get to know her better, especially since her English is
better than Dutch and she enjoyed the fellowship.
Friday was such a day of tender mercies. The Zone Leaders felt like they
should hold District Leader Council here in Haarlem, so that meant we had 12
missionaries out finding in our city that afternoon. We got some phone
numbers of interested people, and E. DeMass (of my MTC experience teaching
companion fame) found an old investigator I'd never met who we thought was
in China till May! She was totally enthusiastic and remembered the sisters,
so we visited her Sunday, taught her a first, and will visit her again
Sunday. What a great miracle.
Part of the council was also getting trainer / trainee training (say
that three times fast) for me and Zr Fowler and the other greenie in our
zone. It was a great experience, and I'm pretty sure I have the most
dedicated, prepared, awesome new missionary ever. It was also super great
seeing my old district leader from R'Dam who's know in Den Haag and E.
DeMass and a few others. I never imagined the brotherhood / sisterhood I'd
feel with my fellow missionaries. There's really nothing like it. After
finding that afternoon, we met up with everybody else in Haarlem station to
exchange information. As we approached the group, they were chatting up some
tourist looking people who just happened to be... the parents of Zr Kriser,
my old comp in Gouda who just finished her mission. Her brother was serving
in Ukraine and finished the same time, so her parents came to pick both of
them up and they just happened to be in Haarlem station on their way to
Keukenhof when all these missionaries showed up. I really cannot express my
joy at seeing Zr. Kriser again, especially since we were at different zone
conferences this transfer so I'd had no proper goodbye. It was one of the
most beautiful tender mercies of my mission to see her in Holland again
before she flies home. I only cried a little. =) Missionary companions are
such a blessing. What a wonderful person.
That night we had dinner with the former temple president and his
family and his wife had a short Seder Dinner (pass over dinner? I can't
spell in English anymore much less Hebrew) for us and it was pretty amazing.
Yay for matzah and bitter herbs. It really was a lovely experience.
Saturday we helped the Scholten's in their garden and it was good to
get out and do service. The rest of the day was kinda rough finding wise,
and one of our appointments consisted of an old lady very enthousiastically
telling us that Joseph Smith just can't be true because it's not in the
Bible! That shouldn't be that discouraging as a missionary, but, well, it
kind of was. That night one of the Assistants called (my old zone leader,
actually) and asked us how our day way, because he'd had the feeling he
should. As we recounted the miracles we'd seen that week, it was such a
reminder to me 1) of the awesome things happening in Haarlem and 2) that the
Lord really is ridiculously mindful of us. Even when we've justhad one bad
day.
And Azelea now feels like the Book of Mormon is true... such a miracle.
Milene is doing fabulously and watching her understanding being enlightened
as we taughther the Plan of Salvation this week was just incredible. I love
her so much. Okay. I think that's everything important from this week. =)
Our miracle from last week, Margreet (who felt like she'd receive a message
and cried as we told her about eternal families) texted us to cancel our
appointment and say she wasn't interested anymore. That was pretty lame,
especially because she'd had such a spiritual experience when we met her.
Please keep her in your prayers.
I love you all, and I love this work. Spring has sprung in Haarlem,
and it's a beautiful time to be here. Heavenly Father truly is mindful of us
- that I know. So go and do something to make someone else happy, because
serving His children is the best thank you we can give back.

Veel liefs,

Zr. Christa Baxter !

Beste Familie and Vrienden,

What a crazy blessed week! So on Wednesday morning I headed to Den
Haag to meet my greenie, who happens to be none other than Chantelle Fowler!
I'm pretty sure we met at least once as freshman, and have just about a
billion friends from BYU in common, so it's super funny. She is just
fabulous. Her Dutch is incredible, and her drive and determination are
practically celestial. =) It is such a delight being able to work with her,
and we've definitely seen miracles in the past few days. On our first day we
were talking to a woman on the bus and her grandson. She asked us if we were
actual sisters, and then told us we really just radiated care and positivity
for those around us. I love the fruits of the spirit! It turns out her
husband didn't want us to come by when we called her later to see if we
could make an appointment, but just that interaction alone was pretty
incredible. I love people.
On Saturday we felt particularly led to a certain street by Azelea
(whom we taught later) and in 90 minutes taught 3 lessons, got let in for
two of them, and found a wonderful new investigator named Margret. We began
talking about eternal families on the door and she invited us in. Her
bookshevles were covered by everything from Salman Rushdie to Khalil Kibran,
so of course I want to be this woman's best friend. We taught her a first
lesson, and as we talked about how it really is God's plan that families can
be together forever and not just through this life, she began to cry. She
told us she'd had a feeling a few days ago (here i couldn't quite follow her
Dutch but this is what I got) that she'd get a message soon. She asked me to
repeat what I'd said about eternal families so she could write it down, and
began to talk about her divorce 4 years ago and how she still wants to patch
things up with her ex-husband. We were so crazy led to her. She found Joseph
SMith's experience pretty incredible and valid, but wasn't so sure about
that continuing through to today and a living prophet. She herself is way
into a sort of Cherokee mysticism (gosh I love Holland the crazy panopoly of
philosophies and faith here) but was open to us coming back and teaching her
more about the Plan of Salvation. Please please pray for her, that the
Spirit will open up her heart even more.
We also set a baptisimal date with Milene!!! That was such a
miracle! We were teaching kind of a follow-up first at her friend Frank's
house. We'd talked a lot about authority and she understood it conceptually
but I wasn't sure what her thoughts were or if she understood the
implications. I asked what questions she had, and she said, "No, I get it, I
think. But it's strange - I find this really moving. I don't know why but I
have goose bumps right now! That's funny, because my mom always says that's
how you can tell if God is with you." The woman felt the Spirit testifying
of priesthood authority. Gosh I love the Holy Ghost! And when we committed
her to baptism, she was so delighted - "Really, I can do that now?" So we
explained not exactly, there's a lot to teach her, but that's what we're
here for. =) So we've got set appointments with her until her date for June
6th. She could be ready before then, but we'll see. What a stinking miracle.
She's so perfect for this ward too, since there's a great YSA group here.
Conference was pretty great as well. Unfortunately Jay cancelled on
us and we can only go to the Saturday mornign sessions (with the time delay
that's Saturday night for us here in Holland) with an investigator, so we
only got to go to the Sunday sessions (technically Saturday afternoon and
Sunday mornign sessions - nobody catches the Sundya afternoon broadcast at
the church buildings here). Conference felt pretty short because of that,
but it was definitely wonderful. I really loved President Monson and Elder
Holland's talks, and Milene also got a lot out of it.
So things are going pretty fabulously. It's a little hectic being a
trainer, but I absolutely love it. Zr. Fowler is possible even more overly
apologetic and non-confrontational than I am, so it's definitely a very nice
transfer - but there's nothing wrong with that! =) I'm excited to continue
working with her. I love you people. And I really love this gospel. It was
made even more clear to me in conference how much we just need to trust in
our Heavenly Father, for our own sakes and for those around us. He really
teaches us as we are wiling to learn.

Liefs,

Zr Baxter

Happy General Conference

Hoi familie and vrienden!

So another lovely normal week. We did a FHE for the yougn
single adults and an investigator on Monday that went over super well, and
that was pretty awesome. We also finally got Milene (the friend of Frank,
one of the YSAs) to church on Sunday, at least Sacrament Meeting. Wahoo! We
have another appointment with her on Friday, so that will be grand.
On Saturday we had an English lesson with Jay, a Turkish-Nederlands
Muslim man in his 20s. I'm pretty sure he wanted to learn English from us
because he had a crush on my comp, but we gave him some Restoration
pamphlets in Dutch and English to help him learn religion vocab last time,
and this time he had loooots of questions about the Book of Mormon and
modern day prophets. We also had Sjaak, a recent convert waiting on his
mission call, there. Watching Sjaak teach Jay in English was pretty awesome
and rather amusing. It is slightly vindicating to see people also struggling
in a second language, (their English is actually really really good) but
mostly it was just cool seeing Sjaak teach in English. Jay wants to come to
General Conference to hear what it is these modern day prophets and apostles
have to say anyway, so that will be pretty awesome.
We also had exchanges this week, and the lovely Zr Erickson (friend of
none other than Mike Sheflo!) came up from Den Haag. It was super super fun
working with her, and we had a great day of some op straat finding by the
huge church in Haarlem's centrum (I really am coming to love jsut talking to
people on the street - I'm pretty thankful I live in a culture where we can
do finding in ways other than tracting) and had some awesome conversations
with people about God and faith and the Restoration. Plus the weather was
gorgeous,'so that's always a plus. Later we had a hilarious dinner
appointment with one of the young single adults of the ward, and we were
also able to have a wonderful lesson with Azelea. Azelea conceptually
understands the Restoration and how the Book of Mormon ties into Joseph
Smith, but while she finds it very interesting and inspiring, doesn't yet
know if it is true. The fact that the financial crisis has really made
things difficult for her family (her husband is currently back in Greece
looking for a new job) doesn't help. But she's just amazing - she'll get
there eventually. We just need to get her to church!
Marc and Esther are still intellectually interested but not super
excited about coming to church, Kate's English is bad enough that there's no
way we could feasibly set up an appointment with her (much less teach her -
tho we did drop off a POlish BoM with her roommate), and Maria is super busy
with work right now - but overall things are good here in Haarlem.
I also found out last night that I'll be training Zr. Chantelle Fowler,
who happens to be the former roommate of the girlfriend of one of my
freshman FHE bros at BYU. (That's right - I am the Kevin Bacon of the Dutch
Zuster Missionary Universe. Average Baxter Number [degrees of separation] in
this mission is 2. Guess God wanted to make up for me being a solo sister in
the MTC. ;) ) I'm actually pretty excited! The panic hasn't set in yet. I'll
try not to pull what mom's trainer did and start bawling my first night with
her. =) So for those of you who've served missions, any advice on training
would totally be appreciated.
I really love this gospel and I really love you all. There's really no
better feeling than following a prompting of the Holy Ghost and seeing that
you were led to do or share something at the right time. Or talking to
incredibly kind agnostic Dutch fathers about God and testifying of His love.
The spirit is wonderful. Have a great week and know that I love you.

Veel liefs,

zr. Baxter!

happy new week

Beste Familie and Vrienden,

What an amazing week. I really can't express what a blessing it
is to enjoy going out and working. Monday night we visited an older couple
named Emmeline and Thom, who are a referral from our Bishop (wahoo!).
They're mostly just curious about what Mormons believe, but we got to watch
the Finding Happiness DVD with them and answer some of their questions about
Joseph SMith and the Book fo Mormon. They're off to vacation to St. Martin
(where Emmeline is from) for the next 3 weeks or so but said to call them to
set up another appointment when they get back. I just love testifying to
people in their homes. Especially when they're referrals. =)
Another cool referral experience this week happened when I called up a
POlish man we'd contacted in the centrum a few days ago. He said he was
going to move back to Poland on Friday due to work problems, but his
roommate Kate had tons of questions about our church and wanted to come on
Sunday. We made an appointment, and unfortunately she got called into work
on Saturday when we went by, so it didn't go through, but it was just so
cool to have someone that interested in the church merely from a friend who
talked to sister missionaries and a passalong card. Hopefully we can get
another appointment set up with her this week.
On Thursday we had zone conference in Amsterdam, and President Robert
C. Oaks visited. It was a wonderful experience, and to boost our faith that
people really are being prepared (even in scary dark cold Europe ;) ) he
asked us to share miracles stories of finding. It was such a wonderful
reminder of the things I've been blessed to see as a missionary. The
miracles never stop. I know that now. It made me miss Rotterdam a lot (I was
there 6 months, after all) and it was a good reminder of all the
investigators and converts there I need to write).
SO that night we went to Maria, our Irish investigator who's such a
fabulous person but veeeeeeery hesitant to accept commitments and has yet to
come to church. She made us dinner and then totally shocked us by saying
she'd quite smoking as of Monday. When we asked her why now, she referred
back to the lesson we'd had on the Word of Wisdom and how our bodies are
temples - "It's like the other sister said - that beautiful white building
is like your body, so you have to keep in clean."Except in an Irish accent
and probably less seminary-video-esque. Man I love miracles. I really wanted
to ask her if she knew how many people I'd fought to help quit smoking as a
missionary, but anywho, it was just such a good moment. It'll come with
Maria.
The other totally amazing lesson this week was with Milene. She's in
her early 20's and was raised CHristian but kind of feels like she's drifted
away from her faith. She wanted to get more involved with Chrisianity and
God again, so she called up her only really strongly religious friend -
which happened to be Frank, a young single adult in our ward. So he brought
her to Stake Conference a week ago, and on Friday we had dinner at his
house. We had a fabulous talk with her about what it means to be a
Christian, what the Book of Mormon is, who Joseph Smith was, how we can
truly follow Christ in our daily life, etc. She asked us is we could meet on
a weekly basis to help her learn more about the church. I'm not even kidding
about that. Man I love the gospel. She's coming to church this Sunday.
Referrals are so ridiculously amazing.
Other than that, things are going well. We've been so blessed with our
finding lately, to really talk to people who are open and listeneing and
interested. We found new investigators for the first time in a couple of
weeks. The sun is shining, the tulips are coming out, and it's warming up.
All in all, I feel pretty positive about being a missionary in Holland right
now.
I really love you all, and I love this gospel. Have a great week.

Liefs,

zr. Baxter

unadulterated... loving!

(This letter is a few weeks old - I just now found it in my email inbox!)

Hello family and friends!

So I'm now officially settled in Haarlem. Apparently everysister missionary ever stays here at least 4 transfers (6 months), so it'svery likely this may be the last city of my mission, since I only have 5(maaaaaaaaybe 6) transfers left. Nuts, eh? Anyway, my companions are great(third trio of my mission!). Zr. Miller has been here three transfers andactually lived in holland from 12 to 16, so her Dutch is practically fluent(as opposed to the Nederengels the rest of us speak) and her accent, whilestill not quite native, is pretty stinking awesome. The ward loves her, andshe's a pretty awesome take charge kind of person, so being the oldestmissionary certainly is not a burden here. Zr. Warren began with twotransfers in Amsterdam, so we're working on her Dutch (most of herinvestigators there spoke English). She's a ridiculous ball of positivityand energy. It literally feels like I'm tracting with Glinda from Wicked.And there is really very, very little exageration there. Anyway, it's alwaysa party working with three, and we're having fun. Haarlem itself reminds me a LOT of London, and the fact that one ofour investigators is an Irish ex-pat doesn't hurt. It's a smaller city (tholoads bigger than Gouda, which is really fun; I'd missed small, dirty citystreets and bell ups) with some absolutely gorgeous fin de sieclearchitecture. There's a basilica here built in 1898 or so (I think - webiked by pretty fast) that just makes my heart wanna pop with how gorgeousit is. Unfortunately the Cory Tenboom house is not open on Monday, ourpreparation day, but someday when I come back to Holland I'll make it there.Anyway, it's just all very Dutch - lots of canals and waterways, gorgeousold buildings, and lots of white people (unlike Rotterdam - I still missthose Surinamers and Cab Verdians). So I'm pretty much doing the missionarywork I imagined I'd be doing when I opened my call - tracting in the rain inreally pretty buildings.

The ward here is pretty small and pretty old on average. By American standards it's definitely a branch. There are, however, a lot of youngsingle adults, mostly the children of the former temple president and hiswife. The current temple president also lives in this ward, and our chapelis a real chapel, which is pretty nice. And boy do they take care of us.Despite the size, our amazing Bishop's wife (I now have not only a Surinamemom in Helen Nooitmeere from R'Dam but also a grandmother in Zr. Jansen) hasus scheduled for eating appointments pretty much every night, which is crazynice. I've never heard of a city in this mission that does that.

And we have some pretty cool investigators. Maria is Irish and doesn'treally get the Book of Mormon but is awesome and loved by the members.She'll get there. Azalea is this wonderfully brilliant and bright and lovingmom from Ethiopia who married a Greek man she met at university there. Shespeaks Amharik, Greek, and English, and is now tackling Dutch as her 4thlanguage. The love in her home (she has a small daughter of 6) isastounding. Mark and his girlfriend Esther are young Dutch students who arepretty much awesome. Overall, it's a good place to be. Last week we met thisincredibly cool couple, Natalie and Patrick, op straat (on the street).Natalie (Peruvian) was here as an au pair and met Patrick (Dutch) in alibrary a while ago. They were pretty willing to talk more about the Book ofMormon, and we found out her grandpa was a Mormon. Wahoo! Josella is thisbeautiful woman here studying in Haarlem from French speaking Africa we metThursday night - she was so excited to meet other believers. So next weekwe're bringing by the Book of Mormon in French. Her Bible was on her bedopen to Isaiah. People are just so amazing.

So things are good. It was really, really weird to spend only onetransfer in Gouda. Weirder still to think I might end my mission here. But so is life.

God really does answer prayers. I love seeing that here. If you'resincere, if you really want to know, and are willing to act, He will guideyou in your life. And being led by the Holy Ghost is one of the mostbeautiful feelings ever. I love you all. Thanks for your support andprayers. - Zr. Baxter

Are the tulips in bloom yet?

Beste familie en vrienden,

Mom asked about flowers, and there are definitely somegorgeous blooms out in Haarlem, but I don't think they're tulips yet. =)It's nice being in a city that is small enough that there are parks and evensome lawns for a few houses - and that spring isn't lost in the urban cementjungle of bigger cities. Though of course I still miss Rotterdam. =)

We had interviews this week, and it was a pretty revelatoryexperience. I really love my mission president. I also got to see two of thethree elders from my MTC district, including Elder De Mass, who I taughtwith in the MTC for a month (a hilarious time of growth for both of us) andhadn't seen for 7 months or so. We had an incredible talk about miracles andfaith, and going out with the expection of seeing miracles without trying todictate when or how or where. And just accepting the Lord's will. It wasjust a wonderful experience. I love sharing the gospel with my friends. Ialso got a tape from Briana Wright (!) and a few letters from friends in thefield, so that was pretty grand.

We had a great lesson with Azelea, the Ethiopian woman married to theGreek man who speaks perfect English, about the Atonement. Her daughter gotsick this week so she still hasn't made it to church, but it will come. I'verealized there's really no point in fretting about the work. We just do ourbest, he? And then the Lord helps us out. It's really pretty great when youthink about it.

In church I gave a talk (with 36 hours notice - I am so thankful thatmy Dutch is okay enough that that was do-able!) and my companions sang, sothat was cool. Haarlem is a good place. I really love you all. I guess I could babblemore about all the cool spiritual stuff I'm learning, but I'd rather justrefer you to the conference ensign instead. ;) I know this gospel is true. Iknow obedience is a source of strength. I really learned that in interviewsas president talked about the numbers of our mission quite literallyreflecting the obedience of the missionaries. We're really crazy blessed tolive in a time where the gospel is on the earth. And if you're doubtingthat, or want to understand it better, just ask, and the Heavenly Fatherwill help you.

One cool miracle before I go - one of my companions was having a hardtime with an investigator (an 18 year old) in her last area who was wantingto call her, even tho we're not allowed to really keep contact via phonewith people outside our areas. She finally worked up to telling Aisha sheneeded to work with the sisters in A'Dam, despite their intensely strongfriendship. The A'dam sisters called us 3 days later saying Aisha had cometo church again (this girl has been investigating but not ready to progressin varying phases for 2 years now), agreed to meet with the sisters 3 timesa week for 30 minutes, and has a baptisimal date for the end of April. Ifwe're obedient, the Lord helps us out. I love you all.

- Zr. Baxter