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