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