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