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.