Post-Christmas

Hallo Lievers. :)

Long time, no talk. Haha it was SO good to talk to everyone on Christmas. Really, it was the best present ever (though I did love everything you sent). I was so happy that we were able to talk with everyone. I wish that we would've had more time so that I could hear more about how you all are doing.

I was thinking about my birthday and really, the only thing that I can think of that I would want would be a nice letter from each of you. I know that I don't always have time to write back personally but I want to get better at that and I would really like to hear how everyone is doing and to hear your testimonies and stuff. You all are a big strength to me and I love you a lot!

Julia, Happy almost birthday! I sent a card to you today but I had to send it to the Kentucky address because I couldn't find yours. Please give Rhett a kiss and hug for me and tell him to feel better! Lots of people here are sick too, it's just not a good time of the year.

As far as housing goes, I would love to live in Condo Row but I'm not sure who with. If you could get a hold of my friends -- I have no idea who is still going to be at BYU -- and ask them? I have also been talking with some girls here and need to kind of see how that is going to work. Sorry, I promise I'll get more info and get back to you next week.

Also, for my birthday, Zuster Fritz did this, but if you could put a notice on my Facebook that people could write something on my wall or send a message or something then you all can send it on to me. That would be nice.

And then the coat. So I've been looking and looking and just can't find anything warm enough here. I'm sure they have stuff but time on P-day just goes by so fast. So I actually think it might be a good idea for you to buy one and send it. I'm sorry, I know that's probably annoying! Because the mission dress code has changed I was actually thinking it would be nice to get a coat with color. People always think we're nuns because we wear so much black -- haha. I thought a nice lighter/sky blue color could be nice or a purple coat. Or a gray one if they don't have any nice colored ones. And then just nice looking. Professional, well fit. I would guess to get a size 8. Ok so done with all that stuff. Thank you for taking care of things all the time!

Yesterday was Tweede Kerstdag and it was a lot of fun. We went to church, and Vili, one of the investigators I told you about was able to come. No crazy disruptions this time too which was good. After church we went to the Bishop’s house for lunch. I love Bishop De Jonge! It was great to go and get to know his family a little better. They have 3 adorable children and Zuster Kremer and I really encouraged their daughters to go on missions. Too bad they are 5 and 8 years old -- haha. But hey it's never too early to start preparing. We played the Dutch version of Gestures which was a lot of fun and we all got to light candles and bear our testimonies of the Saviour. After that we went to Lucky's house and had dinner... mental note-never make more than one eating appointment on holidays... so so much food. Overall it was a wonderful Christmas.

We met some of the most amazing people the past few days and I'm excited to begin a new year. Because Amsterdam is so insane President has asked us to be in our apartments by 4:00 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. I hear from other missionaries that it gets pretty crazy around here. I'm sure there will be good stories to follow.

I feel like I actually don't have a lot to write about considering we just spoke. But know that I love you all. I appreciate so much everything that you all do for me. The letters, the emails, the prayers, they all make such a difference. I feel like such a blessed missionary to have such a wonderful family behind me. Please send my love to everyone! Oh and I got the Christmas card from the ward. Let them know that I love them and still pray for the Beaumont Ward. So many people there have touched my life in so many ways, I owe a lot to them. Also tell the extended family I love them and have been thinking of them this Christmas season.

Happy New Year everyone! Crazy, but the next email will be sent in 2011! What a blessed year it has been. :) Tot volgenda jaar!

Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein

Pre-Christmas

Dear Family!

Merry almost Christmas! It's crazy to think that by the time I write my next email we will have already spoken.

So it's been quite the week. Actually, being honest, kind of a hard one. We got dropped by our 2 investigators progressing to baptism. And that was hard. This past week was transfers, I'm staying in Amsterdam with Zuster Kremer which is such a blessing. Zuster Fritz went home which was weird, and also Zuster Pierson had to go home this past week. That was the hardest thing. She's been suffering some pretty serious health issues for awhile now and they sent her home to get them fixed. Please pray for her, I know this is almost killing her more than the health issues. Also please pray for Zuster Fritz. Her bag was stolen at the Brussels train station and it was the bag that had her wallet, passport, camera, and every single mission and study journal she had ever written. Oh it just breaks my heart to write that. I know that happened to you Mom. Maybe you can call her? If you look her up on Facebook it's Jillian Fritz. I know she would love to hear from you. So yes, that's kind of the difficult things of this past week. But the wonderful thing is, looking back it has been more of a week of joy than anything. I have seen so many miracles and really felt a confirmation of the Lord's love for me and his approval of my mission and the work I am doing.

Zuster Kremer is also struggling with her health, but even that is bringing blessings. On Wednesday we were out and we stopped in a pharmacy because she had to buy medicine. I was just looking around while she was buying stuff and all of a sudden one of the workers stopped me. She asked about my name tag and said she had seen other people with it before but had never talked with them. I was able to talk with her for about 15 minutes about the Church and being a missionary -- it was great! I gave her a card our mission uses on prophets and she was really interested. She wouldn't give me her number and didn't want to make an appointment because she said she was so busy, but I really felt the Spirit when I talked to her. So we left. The next day we were getting ready to go to an appointment but our investigator called off just before. So we were getting ready to go off somewhere else but before we left we got a phone call... and it was the woman from the pharmacy! She said she had been really thinking about what I said and wanted to learn more. She asked if we could come over right then, and as it turns out we happened to be in the area where she lived already. And because our other appointment had cancelled we could. Haha geen toeval! We went over and had a beautiful first lesson with her. Her name is Afsaneh. She's from Iran but has lived here since she was 17. She doesn't believe in God yet, but is very open to learning. She is praying about the Book of Mormon and invited us back. It was such a miracle. She's totally going to get baptized. :)

Funny moments of the week have all come because of the horrible snow. Tjonge jonge we have soo much snow! They actually cancelled church yesterday because it is too dangerous to go out. Many lessons have been learned. One -- no matter what you might think, don't try and go out with your bike, you'll either fall, which I did MANY times, or you'll just end up having to push it. We've basically been walking everywhere. It's great fun. Zuster Kremer and I have also been working on the "what to do if one of us falls in a canal plan." Haha which is quite funny (and won't actually happen; don't worry).

I'm excited to talk to you all. I love you so very much. I am so grateful for this time of year to reflect on the life and birth of the Saviour. I am so so grateful for Jesus Christ. I know He lives! I love the message of the restoration. I love studying the scriptures and coming to know my Saviour more. I love being a missionary this time of year. Wat ben ik blij! Ik hou van jullie.

Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein

Christmas Is Coming!

Hello Family!

So good news just so you all stop worrying -- my intestine is fine. I've been taking the medicine and the pain is going down. I know that you all have been praying for me too and I believe that helps better than the medicine. So thanks. Poor Zuster Kremer was sick this week though! Dang it, Satan. It's ok though she's feeling better, I'm feeling better, and we are ready to get back to full speed. The weather has even warmed up a little bit. Though actually, just looking out the window again, I see it's snowing. Oh well, at least it's pretty. ...

William, congrats on Pageant and Youth Salute! I thought about you this morning and got a really good feeling. You're awesome. Good luck to all the BYU students with finals. Haha I remember that last year. Mom, I'm glad you have another year of Seminary behind. You're a great teacher. Daddy, thank you for your sweet testimony. Oh and tell Uncle Bruce I love him!

I bought cute Christmas cards today that I'll be sending, but I don't think that people will get them before the holiday. The mail people here are actually on strike right now. Oh, but I did get the Christmas package! Thank you so much! I have bought things for you all, but I want so badly to give them to you in person, so I think you might just have to wait a while -- haha.

So the miracles and great moments of this week. AHH LAME!!! -- guess what just happened?? THE INTERNET CRASHED AND I LOST MY EMAIL. :( And now I don't have time to write. Oh goodness, I'm sorry.

Ok so miracles. I know Neal Oddens who served his mission with Julia. It was so funny. He lives in Den Haag but his family lives here in Amsterdam and he was there at dinner last night. He told me there was a Sister Holbein in his mission, and I said that's funny because you served in the same one as my sister. And then we both just looked at each other and said ...hey...cool! So yeah, he's awesome and that was really funny.

Unique's baptism on Saturday was incredible. Oh my goodness I am so happy for her. I got a lot of great pictures I'll send them home with my Christmas card.

Yesterday we went singing at old peoples’ homes with the ward and really touched a lot of people. Tuesday we had the zone Christmas concert. I played my flute and sang. It was a special night. And... yeah, I wish I had more time now, but we have to get to the church. I love you all though!

Enjoy the Christmas season. Be the angels the world needs right now. Spread the joy. Nooit opgeven jonges. Houd van jullie.

Liefs-
Zuster Holbein

Juich, wereld, Juich

Goededag lievers. :)

Thank you for your wonderful emails this week! I love your spirit and beautiful testimonies. It means a lot to me to know that I have your love and support. I'm excited to talk to you all too! Unfortunately I can only make one phone call on Christmas but I would LOVE to be able to talk to everyone so I think a 3-way call would be wonderful if that's possible. I am excited to hear your voices. Oh and I can only talk for 30 minutes as far as I know. I'm not sure on times or the number yet but I will get that to you next week.

Snow in KY, eh? It's been snowing all week here. Yesterday it rained though and now everything is iced over. GEVARLIJK. And as a bit of sad-ish news, I've been really sick all week. So Mom, I know the feeling. I woke up Tuesday night at 3 in the morning with terrible pain in my stomach and lower back; I couldn't walk. That pain stayed through the whole week. Thank goodness I am surrounded by so many amazing people; I had a lot of help. Because I'm stubborn I wouldn't go to the doctor... yeah, I know, stupid me. But I tried a lot of other things first. Zuster Pancratz the senior sister here thought that it was some kind of kidney infection. I had a fever the first few days. It was so so so so frustrating. I do not like being sick as a missionary. I don't like to stop and I can't just lay around; that drives me crazy. It was not a fun time. But we did our best to keep the work going. I went out as much as I could and a lot of members helped by going out with Zuster Kremer. We were still able to keep teaching and we got 5 new amazing investigators. And, yes, I went to the doctor this morning because people started threatening to kidnap me if I didn't go. Long story short, the doctor said I have a very swollen intestine and he gave me some pills. So no worries! It's going to all be better by tomorrow I know it.

But besides that it's been a great week. I can't believe I left this out of my email last week, but I got to go to the temple again this past Saturday. Luckiest missionary in the world, I know. Marijke Zen is a wonderful older woman here in the ward; she was baptized and taught by Zuster Fritz a year ago, and she went through the temple! I got to go as well as Zuster Fritz because I have been helping her prepare and she asked me to come. Oh it was glorious. Almost the whole Amsterdam ward came. And, get this, best thing ever -- we show up to the temple late, we had to drive through a big snow storm, and when we walk in a group was coming out of the baptismal font, and guess who it was... all of the young adults from ANTWERPEN. And guess who was there? Heidi and Andy! Ahhh two of my favorite converts ever. It warmed my heart more than I can describe to see them both in the temple. I really had this duh moment of yeah, the temple is really the goal we work for. It's not just baptism; we're going for higher covenants here. It was such a beautiful day. After the session Marijke was able to be sealed to her husband. I had never seen a sealing before but I have to say it was the best part of the day. It made me cry to see Marijke there so so happy. When it was over she jumped up and said "Ik heb mijn man weer terug!" (I have my man back again!) Oh it was WONDERFUL. I was glad I was able to feel well enough to go. Miracle of the week.

And the random funny moment of the week. Yesterday in church in the investigators class the lesson was on the law of chastity. Haha my favorite. And of course this happens to be the day that we had this younger 24 year old guy who we met on the metro show up to church. So we're sitting here in the lesson and our ward mission leader Br Zonneveld was supposed to give the lesson. He gets up and says, “Alright so this is the lesson, law of chastity..." and all these random things. And then he turns to me and says, "Well, Zuster Holbein I think you could explain it better, what do you say?" And I got to explain it all... thanks Br Zonneveld. It was fine, it just made me laugh more than anything.

Oh other miracle, remember Unique? She's getting baptized on Saturday and I get to go! I am SO happy for her! I'll try and send pictures.

Well I love you all. Stay warm! I'll email you next week about the phone call. You're wonderful! I appreciate so much all you do. Tomorrow is the mission Christmas concert in Leiden. I'm playing my flute. Pray it goes well and that I feel better!

Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein

Oh the weather outside is frightful

Helloo everyone!

Welcome to winter in the Netherlands! We had a first snowfall on Thanksgiving, and as I speak it is pouring buckets. Biking in the snow is well... interesting. Definitely going to take some practice and a lot of slowing down. The cold weather itself also makes things fun. I will have to send pictures home of Zuster Kremer and me when we go out. The other day I wore 3 skirts, 4 shirts and a sweater, 2 scarves, 2 hats, boots, gloves, just about everything I could find. I'm sure I look hilarious. But hey, it's worth it to stay warm. I'm also fighting a cold at the moment but I have medicine-ish stuff and I took a nap today so it should go away soon.

Thank you for your wonderful emails! I'm glad that you were all able to come together for Thanksgiving. What a wonderful holiday. We had hands down the best Thanksgiving ever. (Haha, Zuster Kremer makes fun of me because I say “the best” or “the coolest thing ever” all the time. Oh well, it's still true.) We spent most of the day finding, and met some of the most amazing people. I only met one American, but I did get to say Happy Thanksgiving to him. That evening we went to Claire’s, an American's house and had a wonderful feast with her. It was Zuster Kremer's first Thanksgiving, haha.

I actually don't have much time to write because the snow kind of messed up our plans, but I will share a cool miracle. Saturday night we went to a member's home for dinner and we had a lesson with them on being led by the Spirit. We talked about how as missionaries we do consecrated hours of finding every day, and that we pray the night before and then look at the map to be led by the Spirit to know where to go. So we had them kneel down in prayer with us and then look at our map, and we all picked out a street together. We told them that we were going to do it from 4:00 to 5:00 on Sunday, yesterday, and that they could pray at 4:00, and then we could call them at 5:00 to tell them what happened. So they picked this little street kind of in the middle of nowhere and we went. The hour started and was ok, nothing really big happened. But we were not discouraged! About 10 minutes before the end of the hour we knocked on a door. A man answered and after we introduced ourselves and asked him about his belief in God he said, “No, no, I don’t believe,” and went to shut the door." But suddenly I felt something so strong to stop him so I just blurted out, “No, please, we have a very special message. Is it ok if we just come in for a minute?” He looked at me and then said, “Well... ok, yes”! So we went inside and met his wife and ended up teaching them a whole lesson about the Book of Mormon and gave them a copy. They were both really touched, and after the prayer they asked us to come back! Their names are Fam Graas and they are incredible. I'm so happy to go back. And it’s all because of the faith of some members combined with ours. It was a miracle.

Thank you so much for your letters and love. I miss you this holiday season, but I am so excited to be here and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. What a perfect time of year to do it!

Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Family,

Happy almost Thanksgiving! It's funny because here everything for Christmas and Sint Niklaas is under way because yeah, obviously they don't have Thanksgiving here. And my companion isn't American either haha so I actually almost forgot it was this week. I am happy everyone can be together! Please send everyone my love. Eat lots of yummy pie for me. We'll be going to an American's house on Thursday for dinner but I won't be having any pie. :)

I decided that for this week's email, especially since I don't have a lot of time I just want to send a list of things that I am grateful for so that you can add my thoughts to the family list. Also, being honest, it's been kind of a stressful morning, so I think this will be good for me. So here we go. Things I am grateful for on my mission.

First and foremost I am grateful for my Saviour Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the opportunity I have to represent and serve Him here in Belgium and the Netherlands. I am grateful for His atoning sacrifice and that through Him I can overcome all my weaknesses. I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows me personally and who tailors trials to fit me and is always there to help me along the way. I am grateful for my mission in general. Haha an all-encompassing statement. I'm grateful to be in this part of the world. I'm grateful for the Dutch language. Haha it's weird, but I love it.

I'm grateful for my personal testimony because without it I wouldn't be able to do the work I'm doing. I am grateful for the Book of Mormon -- the keystone of our religion. I am grateful for moments when I can hand the Book of Mormon to someone and watch them hold it for the first time, to watch them read in it for the first time, and then slowly but surely to watch them gain a testimony of it. I'm grateful for opportunities to bear my testimony.

I'm grateful for the hymns of the Church and the spirit they bring. I'm grateful for people who will let us pray with them on the street during a contact or people who will let us sing.

I'm grateful for my journal that I have faithfully kept, never missed a day, since I was set apart. I'm grateful for all the pictures I've taken and the memories behind them. I'm grateful for inspiring quotes from general conference that teach gospel principles clearly. I'm grateful for the first prayer I say when I wake up and the last prayer I say before I go to bed. I'm SO grateful for long prayers and times when I can just talk with my Heavenly Father. I'm grateful for the Holy Ghost. The way that it speaks to me and the way that it touches the people much more than I ever could. I'm grateful for the love of God -- the warm, fuzzy kind that makes everything else going on around me ok. I'm grateful for repentance and the miracle of forgiveness. I'm grateful for lessons guided by the Spirit and those moments when I say something that I know wasn't me.

I'm grateful for my family. I'm grateful for every email, every card it the mail, and every prayer.

I'm grateful for the priesthood and for priesthood blessings. I'm grateful for Joseph Smith and the restored knowledge we have about the plan of salvation and the purpose of our lives.

I'm grateful for open and honest communication. I'm grateful for warm blankets and my bed at the end of a long day. I'm grateful for tea -- honey lemon and minty morocco being my favorites.

I'm grateful for an hour everyday to spend in the scriptures during personal study and the awesome opportunity to study not just for myself but for other people. I'm grateful for the everyday tender mercies and the little miracles and funny moments. I'm grateful for other missionaries’ examples of faith. I'm grateful for all my wonderful companions and the things they have taught me. I'm grateful for EFY music and time at the end of the day to maybe have a random EFY music dance party haha.

I'm grateful for charity, the pure love of Christ. I'm grateful for Bible gems -- those precious little scriptures in the Bible that I had never found before my mission. I'm grateful for my eternal worth as a daughter of God.

I'm grateful for weather -- all kinds, sunny and rain. I'm grateful for my health. I'm grateful for my agency and that I can chose to be happy. I'm grateful for goals and that with the Lord's help I can set and achieve them. I'm grateful for investigators who make progress because they chose to, and because they have received a testimony. I'm grateful for the early saints of the Church who suffered so much. I'm grateful for the principle of obedience.

I'm grateful for oatmeal and bananas. I'm grateful for green apples with peanut butter.

I'm grateful for Preach My Gospel. I'm grateful for exercise and being able to run in the mornings. I'm grateful for black pens, because blue are yucky. I am grateful for my flute. I'm grateful for my planner and being organized. I'm grateful for cell phones; they make things so much easier.

I'm grateful for member referrals, members who come on joint teach or finding, or who have us over for dinner. I'm grateful for people I can laugh with. I'm grateful for days when nothing falls through and for good back up plans when it all does. I'm grateful for district meetings and zone conferences. I'm grateful for a weekly email from President that always says exactly what I need to hear. I'm grateful for long bike rides home at the end of the day when I can pray. I'm grateful for baptismal services and strong new converts. I'm grateful for the sacrament, it's always the same no matter where you go.

I'm so blessed to be a missionary. I love this life and I love my Saviour.

Please know how grateful I am for all of you this time of year. I love you!

Met Liefde,
Zuster Holbein

With Love

Hello family dear :)

Thank you so much for your wonderful emails! And for the Thanksgiving card. That really touched me when I got it and as always it came on a day when I needed it. I really do love getting those cards in the mail. Letters mean a lot and you all are wonderful!

It's been a really blessed week. I love Amsterdam more and more every week that I am here. I think that having someone new to the mission field as my companion has especially helped me to see just how much I love it here. Every bit is great – the investigators, the members, the people, even the challenges because they usually make for a funny story after.

Zuster Kremer is an absolute doll, I love working with her. She is such a hard working missionary already and she's a lot of fun to be with. Training is well, good. I don't think I really do anything different than what I did before. People seem to learn best by example and love more than when someone says, "Do this or do that." Besides Zuster Kremer already is fantastic. We have seen so much success since she came, it's like the work is on a jump start again. We've been doing so much finding, which I LOVE. I don't know why, because I know a lot of missionaries who don't like it, but I love love love finding. It's like the life-blood that keeps me going. I love talking too and so I think that helps – haha.

We've met some interesting people this week, and we've had the chance to use Zuster Kremer's French a lot. We had a random man come up to us in a park and ask if we speak French. Totally random, but thank goodness we did and we ended up getting his number and everything. We also got proposed to, again – you'd be amazed how often that happens – and a lot of other crazy things.

As a side note, the weather this week has been horrible! Big storms have been coming through and everyone has been amazed that we even went out in that weather. Haha, best moment of the week – it was super windy on Friday and we were biking to go do an hour of finding and a gust of wind came that was so strong it blew me off my bike! Literally! We could not stop laughing, it was so funny. Thursday was particularly crazy. It was rainy and hailing and we were trying to bike from an appointment with Melinda to the church, which takes like 45 minutes when it's not raining. And then all of a sudden Zuster Kremer's fiets breaks and it starts pouring and all this crazy stuff and we were totally not in the best part of town. So we locked the bikes up and went into a gas station where we had to call the senior couple to come and pick us up because we were literally in the middle of nowhere. It was insane. But everything worked out.

So the miracle of the week came in working with one of our investigators who is really struggling with drug addiction. My time here in Amsterdam is teaching me so so much about working with people in situations like this. Addiction to anything really is a real thing, and it's sad because when someone is addicted to something they do give up their agency. But people can overcome these things, and the Church has an excellent program for addiction recovery. We are using this program with one of our investigators and they have really been making progress. But then this past week during studies I was studying for them and I came across an activity in Preach My Gospel that talked about trying to give up something that was just a part of our lives, something that is so normal we don't even think about it. That's how hard it is for someone who has an addiction. So I thought about that. And Zuster Kremer and I talked about it. And we decided that to help support this investigator we are going to give up sugar, which considering Christmas season is coming up that is going to be interesting. We're still working on the details, but we really want to try and understand better what these people feel.

I guess another thing that I'm really coming to learn is that the Church is like a big hospital. The Church isn't for the spiritually healthy fine people. For one thing, none of us are like that. We all have problems and weaknesses and that's why we come to the Church; that's why we come unto Christ, so that through the atonement we can be healed. That's what repentance is. It's a healing. And it's beautiful. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to repent. I love helping others come to realize the joy that it brings. I love that famous painting of Christ visiting the sick and poor people, the one where he is reaching down looking to the one homeless man under a tent or something. I was looking at it the other day and one of the members was with me and she pointed at it and said, "This is Christ's church." It's true. I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to be a member and to share the gospel with people. I love the line in Hark the Herald Angels Sing that says that Christ is "Risen with healing in his wings." My favorite way to picture the Savior is with his arms wide open. I've been looking for that in my scripture study lately, scriptures that talk about Christ's arms and the way he is always reaching out to us. I know that Christ lives. I know that He loves me. I know that everyone here on this earth is a child of God. That's such a precious truth. Thank you so much for your testimonies, they strengthen mine. You all are wonderful!

Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein

Sisters in Brussels for Conference

November 8, 2010

Dear Family,

Oh my goodness what a busy week! I wish I had more time last Monday to write because now it feels like I have so much to say and not enough time to say it all! So first things first, we found out about transfers last night and... I'm staying! Haha no surprise since Zuster Driggs is leaving, but what the surprise is that I'm training! Haha weird, when did I become old enough to do that? I will be training Zuster Kremer (her picture is on the blog already). She came a week early and spent the week in Antwerpen while President decided who her trainer would be. She is from Hungary and absolutely amazing! I met her at the sisters’ conference, and even though I didn't get to talk to her a lot I can tell she will be a lot of fun to work with. So yeah, that's crazy and exciting and a little intimidating and all that but I'm really excited!

Miracles of the week. So members keep telling me that there is a street here in Amsterdam called Holbeinstraat, and we'd been meaning to look it up but never had time. The other night though we were praying and it just felt right to go there and do some finding. So we went and had an awesome consecrated hour of finding! It was hilarious because when I would introduce myself to people or they would look at my name tag they would say "You know this is HOLBEINstraat, right?" And I would laugh and say something like "What... really?" Haha it was great. We actually found a bunch of awesome new investigators so that was cool. We also set another baptismal date this week! We got a referral from someone who had looked at the Dutch church website and ordered a copy of the Book of Mormon. Her name is Melinda and we went over to deliver the book, had a great lesson with her and set a date for the 18th of December. She's lived all over the world and actually knows a lot of members of the Church in Germany and she would always talk with them about the Church but no one ever gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon! And then a couple of months ago she saw “Legacy” on TV ... random, I know ... and was really touched. So she decided to investigate a bit on her own, and then she asked for missionaries to come. She already knew so much when we came and is totally on board to prepare for baptism. When we challenged her to the 18th she said, "Oh well that would be a wonderful Christmas present for me." Haha ELECT. She's great, I'm so excited to teach her.

Everything with Daphne and William our 2 investigators with dates is going well; people are just getting really busy around here and are hard to meet with. That can be hard. But we're not worried and everything is going to work out.

A funny moment was this week in a lesson with a new investigator named Glen. One of the older woman from the ward came with us, and we had a really good first lesson. At the end of the lesson I was going into challenging him to baptism and I started to say something along the lines of how we would be having a baptism on the 11th of December and before I could finish my sentence, you know, “would you prepare yourself to be baptized on this date” or something, the older sister says, "...and we'd like to invite you to come and watch." Bahh haha I don't think I've ever wanted to hit an old woman before that moment! Haha ok so that's harsh; I wasn't upset, I just thought it was hilarious. I was like oh...haha...ummm, yeah that too... but the date is for YOU. Anyway, we had to go and it didn't end up working out. I'm taking that as a sign though that we just needed to wait. We have another appointment on Wednesday though and I am totally going to try again!

Saturday we got to go to the temple again. That was of course amazing. It was great for Zuster Driggs to be able to see Sekou Kieta a man she baptized a year ago and it was beautiful. The session was in French because that's his moeder taal, so we all had headphones and got to listen in English. I love the peace of the temple. It was a great end to the week and preparation to finding out that I was training.

Yesterday was stake conference and William was able to come which was great. The ward rented a bus and we all traveled together. It was about a hour trip and it was a lot of fun. Wijk Amsterdam is so great!

The longer I've been in the Netherlands the more random things I keep learning about “The Best Two Years,” and the more people I keep meeting who are in it. It's funny, no one is going to want to watch it with me when I come home because I'll keep saying, "know him, know her, been there..." But the funniest one was this week. The Reijnders are one of those big families here in the Netherlands, kind of like the Hattons in Kentucky, and they are all over the movie. We were having lunch yesterday after Stake Conference with one of the sons, Jos, and his wife and somehow got talking about it. I asked him if he was in it and he said "Yeah, I'm the jerk missionary who stole the girlfriend." Haha, apparently they had him come and do this photo shoot and then gave him 20 euro and told him that it might be in the film. And then the movie came out, and before he had seen it someone called him and was like "Hey, so you got the part of the bad guy!" Haha which is so funny because he is one of the most soft spoken people ever. Anyway, so when you watch the movie and it shows the picture with Elder Rodgers and Elder Christiansen (I think is his name) you can know that is Jos Reijnders and he does have a beautiful wife and he is nice and they feed us dinner all the time.

Well that's it for this week. Ik hou van jullie! Happy birthday again Dad! Thank you for the cards, the emails, the prayers, the love, and your testimonies.

Liefs,
Zuster Holbein

November 1, 2010

Dear Family,

Sorry this email is so late. I am writing you from the mission home in Brussels right now. We are having a 2 day sisters conference here. It's been the best day ever. We had a super fun time today just having P-day together. This mission has hands-down the best sisters. Last night we spent the night in Antwerpen and it was so good to be back. I got to see a lot of people and it was a tender mercy I needed. I wish I had more time but all the sisters are waiting to email so I don't have time. But quickly -- the temple was amazing! We did the session in Dutch and it was beautiful. I have a very strong testimony that when we go to the temple with a question the Lord will answer it. Zuster Driggs and I actually get to go again this week with an investigator of hers that got baptized last year. It's going to be a great week!

And happy birthday Daddy! I am so happy that you got my cards.

Anyway, that's about all I have time for. I feel your prayers and I really appreciate your love. Everything here is going really well. Pray for opportunities to share the gospel! I promise next week's email will be better. We find out about transfers next week -- crazy to think the transfer is already almost over! So yes, everything is great and I love you all and I pray for you all the time. Blij maar geweldig. :)

Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein

In Amsterdam With Sister Driggs

October 25, 2010

Dear Family!

It has been such a wonderful week. I love working here in Amsterdam and I love working with Zuster Driggs. She is absolutely hilarious; I am really going to miss her when she goes home. She asked for your phone number though because she wants to call you when she gets back. Haha, so you can expect that. She is great! I've started running again in the mornings, but there were some problems for a while, and Zuster Driggs is such a sport. She doesn't like to run so she just sits in the cold and watches me run up and down the street. The mornings have gotten really cold here, we really have to buddle up to go outside. Actually, it's basically just always cold here now. Mom, I am so grateful for the rain coat we bought. And I'm glad we bought the bigger size because I can wear my winter coat and then put the rain coat over it. It's helped a lot! I rains every day here. The heater in the church broke too and so the building is freezing! The Snugglie has made its way to Europe and the members are starting to wear their Snugglies to church. It's hilarious. Happy almost birthday Daddy! I am sending a surprise in the mail.

This week was great and this coming week is going to be even better! I can't believe I forgot to tell you last week but...WE GET TO GO TO THE TEMPLE TOMORROW!! I hope you can read the enthusiasm in my voice. I am above and beyond excited to finally get to go back to the temple. People asks us all the time if we are homesick and I always say, no offense to you all, but that I'm temple homesick. We really were spoiled in the MTC to be able to go every week. That's a goal I want to have when I go back to BYU. I've been preparing the last few weeks to come up with questions or just things that have been on my mind. I cannot wait till tomorrow. Haha, it's like Christmas.

So our miracle of the week is a woman name Unique. She is from Suriname, which means she has the most beautiful Dutch ever (besides Vlaams) and we met her through a member here named Jennifer Linkers. We went over to Jennifer's on Thursday to have dinner and Unique was there. She was very, very curious about what we do as missionaries and we ended up teaching her a very full, beautiful first lesson. She loved it! She was a little "skeptical" but believed that she could ask God for an answer. We got her info, but as it turns out she lives in Almere which is just north of here. But we have elders in Almere and it turns out they had knocked on her door before but she hadn't been interested. We told her we could give her info to the elders, but she said that she was going to be in Amsterdam through the weekend and she wanted to know if we could teach her more. Haha, umm... yes, that was possible. We went over every day after that and taught her the plan of salvation, gospel of Jesus Christ, word of wisdom, and law of chastity. She has some problems with the commandments now but she was so touched and knows that what we've told her is true and she needs to change her life around. She read tons from the Book of Mormon in between our visits and she really got it. It was wonderful! During our last appointment yesterday she cried and said she really felt God's love and she wanted to progress to baptism. Oh my goodness I love her! I am so excited for her to continue to be taught by the elders. And she said she comes down to Amsterdam every once in a while so we will see her again. Talk about prepared people. And talk about amazing members. Seriously THIS IS THE WAY TO DO IT -- Jennifer is great. :)

Funny story of the week also comes from Jennifer's. She is also from Suriname and people from Suriname make VERY spicy food. The elders came for dinner as well on Thursday and Elder Wood dared me to eat this small, yellow pepper with him. Everyone was like no, no don't do it, you'll regret it. But... we did it anyway. Oh. My. Gosh. It was so hot! My mouth caught fire haha and I couldn't breathe. Definitely not the smartest thing I've ever done. So Elder Wood and I are sitting there crying and Jennifer starts going off about how we were her guests and so if we were suffering she needed to suffer too. So she pops one in her mouth too! Haha, so we are all sitting there crying and everyone else is laughing and oh man, you just had to see it. Well, you live and learn. And now I have a funny story.

Last night we had a wonderful appointment with the Relief Society President Zuster Van Leeuwen and her husband. They are incredible! Their son is actually on a mission HERE now and he was in my zone in Antwerpen which is cool. They are both awesome members and we talked a lot about working with the ward to get the work done. We gave them a lesson on what my other insight last week was. So people always think, "Oh wow, missionaries are so smart in the gospel. They know so much and when they come home they are just so great. They know everything." And Zuster Driggs and I were talking about that the other day and we were trying to figure out why people think that. People always think that we know everything about the gospel. But the thing is... we don't. And the knowledge that we do have just comes because we study the basics. Every day. Haha for 2 years/year and a half really all we study every day are the first 3 lessons in PMG. Like I study the plan of salvation a lot. I like to study faith. Or just read from the Book of Mormon. It's the basics that make up the gospel. And that's available to everyone, missionary or not. There is no big secret. That's what I love about the gospel. It's simple.

I love you all! Keep praying. Study Preach My Gospel. Really that will help so much!

Met leifde,
Zuster Holbein

October 18, 2010

Dear Family,

2 Timothy 2:3 has become one of my favorite scriptures. I love thinking of missionary work as a battle, because that's very frequently what it feels like it is. This week was great but it also had its share of harder times. My goodness, do people need the gospel. Sometimes the world is just a little too messed up, haha especially here in Amsterdam... no, it's a great city, and there are problems all over the world. But really, PEOPLE NEED THE GOSPEL. So thank you all for your examples and the ways that you do missionary work. William, way to go inviting so many friends to church! Don't worry if they say no or back out, you're getting a taste of real missionary work. And in the end it always works out. God has a plan for every one of his children. I frequently say to myself "Ik doe mijn best, en God doet de rest" We just do the best we can.

So today has been a great P-day! We and the elders went to the Anne Frank house this morning. Wow. I learned a lot and actually really felt the Spirit when reading parts of her journals. It was also very sad, for obvious reasons, but it gave me good insight on a lot of things. I learned a lot I didn't know. Like the fact that their hiding place was in Amsterdam. Or that her dad survived. Or that she wrote her journals in Dutch! That was the most surprising. They had the originals on display under glass, and we all looked at them and could actually read them! That was insane but really cool. So yes that's been today.

Other exciting news -- We set another baptismal date! His name is Lewis van de something (bahh I'm so bad with names) and he is awesome. We met him my first day here on a tram and his date is for the 21st of November. Both he and Daphne the other woman we are helping to prepare for baptism are strong people and they both are really enthusiastic about the gospel. Pray that they will be able to make it to church on Sundays. That seems to always be the problem. Oh and this past Saturday there was the baptism of a wonderful woman named Priscilla. She was one of the elders’ investigators but we also worked with her a little. The doop dienst was so wonderful. When she got baptized and came back up her grandson yelled "Nog een keer!" (One more time!) Haha it was so cute. We also did an awesome musical number with the elders. We sang "Come Follow Me" to the tune of "I Like To Look For Rainbows" It was beautiful. My mission has made me love singing. And I don't think I'm that bad actually. Haha though it's probably just a gift of the Spirit. I bet I'll come back and not be able to. We shall see.

So we've had a lot of finding time this week and I came to two cool realizations. Story of my mission -- I feel like my mission is opening up my mind to what the gospel actually is. What is means to be a Latter-day Saint. You know? It's like I got it before, but not really. Or just not all of it. Here I have had so many "Ah-ha!" light bulb moments. I love it.

This week while finding we met some of the most amazing people. One woman we met started crying as soon as we said we were from the Church of Jesus Christ. She totally opened up about how unhappy she was and how she doesn't know where to turn. We had a powerful lesson with her on the street about the atonement and we read with her from the Book of Mormon and prayed. Another woman we met doing doors said she didn't believe it God at all, but she let us pray with her, and when we finished the prayer and looked at her she was crying. Another young man let us sing "Count your Blessings" for him and happily took a copy of the Book of Mormon. Another man asked me specifically what the center of our gospel was and I got to boldly and plainly testify that Jesus Christ and his atonement are the center, and because he loves us he still guides us today through a prophet.

Another time a man was talking about the Holy Ghost, and a scripture came into my head that I had read earlier, but I couldn't remember where it was. I prayed though and just opened the Book of Mormon, and there it was. I shared it with the man and he was openly touched. So many little miracles. That's how God works. I believe 100% in a God of miracles.

There have been so many wonderful people that we've met and shared the gospel with -- but the thing is, none of them would give us their information. They all said they would call us. From the beginning of my mission until just this past week that has really bothered me. I've thought, "Oh come on! You felt the Spirit; I know you did. Why don't you want to learn more?" But just this past week it hit me. Sometimes it takes people many times to actually accept the gospel; and you know what? I believe that. A lot of the people who have recently been baptized here in Amsterdam are those who were FORMER investigators or had come in contact with the Church before. It just wasn't their time then. And I thought Dad about how you always say that every card, every smile, every song, every prayer, every Book of Mormon given away has a purpose. It helps someone. Maybe they don't become an active investigator right then and there, BUT they do get one more contact closer. One contact closer to accepting it. So maybe I have to talk to 100 people, and go along the doors, and feel the Spirit with people, and then they say no. It's okay. Because it's all just laying the foundation. I'm happy to help do that.

Haha, time's up. I'll have to share my other insight next week.

I love you all! I'm happy and loving it, and really couldn't ask for more. Blij maar geweldig.

Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein

4 Weeks Condensed

At the beginning of my mission I used to always try and say the longest prayer with all the big Dutch words I knew just because I couldn't always say lot else and I wanted to make sure I got something in. Haha, does that make sense? But learning at conference helped me to realize the importance of teaching to people's understanding. Prayer is so important for these people. No one will learn anything unless the Spirit teaches them, and the biggest way he does that is through prayer.

---

I am so happy and excited and nervous and just 54,321 different emotions as I write today. Mostly just happy and excited because we found out about transfers last night and... I'm going to AMSTERDAM!! :) Honestly this was not at all where I thought I would go, but I kind of secretly prayed I would, and I guess Heavenly Father felt it was a righteous desire. Zuster Driggs will be my new companion. This is her last transfer so once again I will be having to learn a city in 6 weeks to take over. I'm beyond excited though. It'll be super hard leaving Antwerpen, haha and just Belgium in general. How crazy is it that in this mission you can get transferred to a different country? I feel like it's the right thing and I'm excited for the adventures that await me. I've learned so much these past 6 months in Antwerpen and it will always have a special place in my heart. There are so many people here I love, but I know that they will always be a part of my life. I love D&C 130:2. And I will miss working with Zuster Fritz. She really has become one of my best friends and she's helped me through so much. Haha, thank goodness we both go to BYU.

We've had so many amazing appointments here with members and investigators. The Church is strong here in Belgium; it has a really bright future. There are so many people here I wish you all could meet! Seriously Family Schiltz, Zuster Van Wauwe, Broer Nuyens, Grace and Joseph, Katie, Heidi and Marie, Joseph Mendy, Andy Thomas, all the investigators -- just everyone. Anyone up for a trip to Belgium after the mission? These people have been my life and I love them more than I ever knew was possible. My mission has taught me so much about love and the capacity to help people. I'm so excited to see who is waiting for me in Amsterdam. I can't wait to find them. We also had zone conference this week in Utrecht and Elder Wells, Verwey and myself did an awesome musical number. They both play the recorder and so with my flute we played "Alles wat Adam heeft" (Praise to the Lord). It was so pretty! Thank you for sending my flute, I love having it.

---

Here I am in Amsterdam and I love it! It's completely different from Belgium, but I already feel at home. Major differences: 1) It's clean. No offense to Belgium, but it's not the cleanest country. Everything is very new here; it reminds me a lot of America. 2) The language! Haha this is not Flemish that's for sure. It's so much easier to understand -- I should've started my mission here. It's pretty though. And 3) The people are so much nicer! Ok, that sounds horrible to say, but in Belgium, you just don't naturally talk to people on the street; they think it's weird. But here, it's so natural to talk to people. Everyone says hi on the street or at a stoplight on a bike and it's so nice! It makes contacting a lot easier. There are 6 missionaries in the city, well 8 actually. Us, 2 sets of elders, and the Pancratzs a senior couple. There is a lot of work to do! We are finding, finding, finding. We're doing a lot with the members. The ward here is legit -- they know how to get things done. I have already met so many members; they feed us all the time, and I love them already. They are very willing to help with missionary work.

---

You receive this email today from a very happy Zuster Holbein. Why am I so happy? Haha, I don't really know. Maybe because it's been a great week and it's a beautiful sunny fall day today. Maybe just because I'm a missionary and that is always reason to be happy. Whatever it is I woke up really happy this morning. Just thankful for all the tender mercies of the week and the love that I've felt from my Heavenly Father.

Amsterdam is one multicultural city. In one consecrated hour we met people from Russia, Portugal, Brazil, Australia, Germany, France, and Bulgaria. Crazy! I am working on learning the name of the Church in lots of other languages. I've got French and Spanish the best. I can say, “We are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” And Zuster Driggs knows Russian which is cool and helpful.

Know that I am really happy and I feel your love and prayers. We are so blessed to be members of this church; honestly, I don't think I have ever realized it so much in my life. The Book of Mormon clearly is the word of God. It changes lives; it brings light. I love it.

Keep on keeping on.

Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein

Another Week

Dear Family,

... It's been an incredible week. I love it here in Antwerpen. And I love working with Zuster Fritz, we have so much fun together. President Brubaker always says if you're not having fun, you're not doing it right. I agree with that! Brugge was amazing last week. It really is like a fairytale town. Julia, Mom, and Brittney -- I got you each something made with lace, and I got to watch the ladies making the lace. Super cool and way pretty. The best part was meeting Zuster Van Wauwe's friend Dirk. It turns out he did speak Dutch and we had an awesome day talking with him. He accepted a Book of Mormon and told Zuster Van Wauwe that he was very impressed with us -- that would be the Spirit. We're seeing him again in 2 weeks when we go to Brussels for a P-day and we're going to get him together with the elders.

So we set 2 more baptismal dates this week! We now have 7 people who we are helping prepare, and oh boy are we busy! It's so crazy but so wonderful. Florence and Samuel are the story of this week. We met them in the train station about 2 weeks ago and gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon. When we went to teach them they had already read through 1 Nephi 5 and they loved it. They had so many questions about authority and baptism. Yes, they brought it up! It was so great! They committed to October 17th and we are so excited to get them ready. The ward has been so great with coming on joint teaching appointments too, so they will feel right at home. Everyone else is progressing really well. I love these people so much. Haha I frequently feel like a proud parent or something.

Anyway, we had a awesome lesson with Juliette and Hendrik on the Gospel of Jesus Christ on Wednesday. Br Nuyens came along, and it was more like a big discussion which I love, that's how lessons should be. And I had this really cool realization during the lesson. Right before we went to teach them all this frustrating stuff kept happening; people just fell through and it was blah. Really, I felt gross inside. But then as soon as we started the lesson, I felt this warmth inside, and I got really happy. So it sounds really stupid and really simple, but I realized in this “oh duh” moment, that I love talking about the gospel. It brings me so much joy. Nothing else can replace it. People would think that coming to Europe, you know, if you are having a bad day you should go sight seeing or shopping or do something cool -- but no. That's not it. It's just being with people, helping them, and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ that brings happiness. I'm so blessed to be able to do it all the time! It's a happiness I've never felt before.

So here’s the crazy moment of the week. This part you HAVE TO MAKE SURE MY ROOMMATES SEE. :) So last night we went to a young adult fireside to talk about missionary work. We walked in and were talking to some people when all of a sudden we heard a group of boys talking in English. We turned around and asked them why they were speaking in English and they said because this guy doesn’t understand Dutch. And I looked at the guy they were talking about and it was this guy named Fernando who my friend Nikki dated Freshman year! SO CRAZY. He recognized me and we were both very… “Oh my goodness, what are you doing here?” Haha it turns out his parents are Belgian so he is here for a few months. Weird. But cool to see him. The world really is so small sometimes.

Elder Ballard comes this Wednesday! I am so excited and also SO nervous about playing my flute. Elder Relitz and I are playing “Beautiful Saviour.” Pray that it goes ok! I will definitely tell you all about it next week. Also, next Sunday is a special stake conference and Bishop Burton is coming. That will also be great!

Dad you asked about the Dutch -- haha it's funny, I guess I haven't really thought about it in a while. There are still moments when I get frustrated like when really old people speak Antwerps, a dialect that NO ONE understands. But I've noticed if I don't get frustrated and just pray and do my best, the language comes. I love it. I think Vlaams is beautiful and I'll be sad to leave it when I go to the Netherlands. I will forever have my Belgian accent though and say all the little French words they use. Haha for example here they say "Wat 'blieft?" when they don't understand, and in the Netherlands they say "Wat zegt u?' So I'll probably sound Belgian for the rest of my life. Oh well. ☺

Thanks for all the support, love, prayers, letters, cards, emails and everything. This gospel is true. The world needs it. We are all children of God and it's our duty to share the knowledge we have with others. Everyone on the earth chose the gospel of Jesus Christ once, we just have to help them choose it again! Ik zie jullie graag.

Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein

Fall

Helloooo everyone. I never know how to start my emails. I feel like I always start with the same things every week. Haha I suppose because they are true. I do love you all so much and I am so grateful for your support, letters, emails, prayers, and all that. Zuster Fritz and I carry pictures of our families around and we show them to people all the time during contacting. Mom and Dad, I also tell people all the time about how you joined the Church and your reasons and everything. Belgium is a very Catholic country and so people find it interesting to hear stories like yours Mom. So thanks for the awesome pioneers you were/are. So baby Rhett is the cutest baby ever! I love the pictures. I pray for him all the time. Did my card come? That's so crazy Daniel Hall is home! I remember when he left. Tell him I said hola.

So I don't have a ton of time to write because today we are leaving Antwerpen to do an exciting P-Day in Brugge. We're going with Zuster Van Wauwe, a member in the ward who's picture is all over the mission blog. She is like our Belgian mother, I love her! I'm excited to go, I'll make sure to buy some pretty lace to bring home. Zuster Van Wauwe's non-member friend is also coming which is super awesome! I'm pretty sure he speaks French, but we brought a French Book of Mormon and she can translate for us. I'll take lots of pictures and send some home next week.

It's been an amazing week! The weather here has turned cooold (apparently not even close to how cold it will get though) and it's been raining a lot. Almost everyday actually. I prefer the cold weather though so I don't mind. I'm all about scarves. :) Zuster Fritz was actually sick 2 days this week and we had to stay inside. She got food poisoning from eating African Fufu at a member’s house. I guess sometimes we need to be careful. She's much better now though and we were still able to get a lot down this week.

So miracle of this week -- we set two more baptismal dates! Wahoo! An old Belgian couple named Juliette and Hendrik. They are a member referral from Br Schiltz. Really, member missionary is the way to do it!!! They're in their 70s but so oprecht and they love the gospel already. They live in a really prominent Jewish neighborhood so we never would've met them if it hadn't have been for Br Schiltz as that isn't an area we would go contacting in. Juliette loves reading everything we give her and is amazed she doesn't have to pay us -- haha. Hendrik is hilarious and goes on the LDS website all the time to look up more information. They really do their homework! The only English Hendrik knows is "How are you?" which he says every time he sees us. The funny thing is I don't think he knows what it means because when we say "We are fine, how are you?" He just laughs awkwardly and goes off in Dutch about something else. I love these people! Really, I didn't know it was possible to care for people so much. This is what makes it all worth it. Their date is for October 10th and I am so happy for them.

We've also met with a lot of interesting people this week. Zuster Fritz and I frequently joke that we teach the CRAZY children of God. We met with a man this week who we gave a Book of Mormon to and though he loves the Book of Mormon and reads from it, he claimed that he is on a special mission from Christ to destroy the world and that he is out to punish God. And he claims to be the original Joseph... yeah, I don't know. He said he wants to come to church, which he is of course welcome to do, but I don't think we'll be meeting with him again. Haha those are the times you just have to put them back in God's hands.

Time's up! I love you all with all my heart. Oh, other quick exciting news -- Elder Ballard comes next week! And it's almost September! Crazy awesome. The work is going on!

Met Liefde,
Zuster Holbein

Joseph's Baptism

Wat ben ik blij

It was so great to get letters from you all this week! Thank you so much for your support and love and prayers. I'm so happy to hear that all with Rhett is going well. He is absolutely adorable! I sent him a card this past week, so hopefully it will be coming soon. I also bought him a my first words book in Dutch and I can't decide if I want to send it home or just bring it with me when I come back. I can't wait to see pictures from the blessing. You should send pictures of the nursery and stuff too. Julia I am sure you are an amazing mother! And Jake that you are a great father of course. It's crazy that when I get back there will be a baby! Haha weird.

This week has been amazing! We've seen so many people make so much progress and it's wonderful. It's hard to believe that Joseph was only baptized a week ago. He came on joint teach with us this week! Now that was awesome! And also slightly hilarious because he was using all the same questions and scriptures that WE used on HIM. Like, "So according to this scripture, why is baptism important?" It was so great to see; Zuster Fritz and I couldn't stop smiling. He also had us and a member Zuster Van Wauwe over for a Gambian dinner. A lot of times eating African food means fish, but thank goodness this time it was just beef. Haha though I am building up tolerance for it! It was a lot of fun and we also got to see our old investigator who he lives with. Turns out he is Muslim, but is still so friendly and open to hear things. He told us that he's never seen Joseph happier. We taught Joseph about the temple and he is going next month to do baptisms for the dead. Yeah!

All the rest of our investigators are doing great. We've had some really sad disappointments with a few people dropping us, but I really do know that they are in the Lord's hands and their time will come even if it's not now. And we definitely keep on praying for them. We have found so many new wonderful people! Last night we had a wonderful second appointment with twins Sarah and Stella and committed them to being baptized October 9th. They are super positive and are very excited about the Book of Mormon and seeing how it works with the Bible. Lilian is also doing really well. Her date is for the 19th of September and she has made so much progress with things like the Word of Wisdom. She now calls us and asks for more reading from the Book of Mormon -- who does that? She is golden!

One of our tender mercies/miracles for the week came in the mail this past Tuesday. We went to the church for district meeting and Brother Nuyens told us that a letter had come to the church for Zuster Fritz and me. That was a total surprise and we had no idea who would have sent us a note to the church. We asked him who it was from and he said that he didn't know, just someone from the Netherlands. He gave us the letter and it turns out to be from a man named Nico who we met in a consecrated hour a few weeks ago. We met him on a bench when he had just sat down and prayed that God would lead him to truth. We taught him a whole lesson on the plan of salvation, and prayed with him. It was a beautiful lesson. Anyway, he sent us a postcard. I wish I had it with me, but on the back at the end of the letter he wrote "It made my day to talk with you about the love of God and to pray. I read the beautiful book you gave me. It was nothing new or strange but like something I've always known in my heart. I am so grateful that God sent two wonderful young women to our little countries by the sea to spread his word. Thank you." It seriously made me cry. He gave us his correct info; we had the wrong number before, and we gave it to the elders in Amsterdam where he lives and they are going to start teaching him! What a blessing. Every little moment really does count. Every person you talk to, you really never know the effect you have. That's only one of the million reasons why I love this work.

Well that's about all I have time for. Ik hou van jullie. The Church has been restored. We have a prophet on the earth today. Christ lives. Wat ben ik blij!

Met Liefde,
Zuster Holbein

Joseph Mendy

The Smiling Coast of Africa

Tjonge Jonge. What an amazing week. Really, no email I could ever write could describe the wonderful, blessed week this has been. We truly have been blessed by the Lord is so many ways. I can't remember a time thus far on my mission that I have been so happy or felt so much love from those I serve and those I serve with.

Thank you so much for your prayers. I feel them. I received a blessing this week and was told that the prayers of those at home would be a great benefit to me. I believe that.

I am so happy to hear that all is going well with baby Rhett! He is so cute. I talk about him all the time, it's a great way to start a contact with people.

So there is so much to tell you all. First of all, we found out about transfers last night and... Zuster Fritz and I are both staying right here in Antwerpen! Yeah! I am so so so so happy to be staying. I wasn't worried to leave, but things are getting on a roll here and there are so many people I want to stay and help. So yes, another 6 weeks here in this blessed city. I have a feeling the best is yet to come. :)

Other random news, we found out at zone conference that the dress code for sisters has been changed. All over the world now we are no longer required to wear tights, and the skirts just have to cover the knee. And they want us to wear more color and pattern. Haha wahoo! :)

Monday night was spent in Amsterdam and was an answer to prayers. Zuster Cranford, who was actually in my younger group in the MTC, and I got to go out and do finding together. It was awesome! It was my first experience being the senior companion which was crazy but so fun. It helped me feel a lot more confidence in my Dutch and my abilities as a missionary. We had a blast talking to all kinds of amazing people and I rode my first bike since I've been on my mission. Crazy but true. We just walk everywhere here. I have come to realize that contacting people is the best medicine ever. If I'm ever feeling sad or thinking too much about myself, all I have to do is go contact someone and immediately I feel better.

Tuesday we had mission-wide sister exchanges. Zuster Sharp, Zuster Fritz’s MTC companion, came down to Antwerpen with me for two days and we saw so many miracles. Zuster Brubaker actually came with us on Tuesday and we found a new investigator, taught several powerful lessons, and got soaking wet while running to catch a tram in the rain. Haha Zuster Brubaker certainly got a real missionary experience! Wednesday night we traveled back up to Den Haag and stayed the night in the apartment there with 5 other sisters which was a lot of fun. And then Thursday was zone conference in Leiden. President Brubaker actually wasn't able to be there, which was crazy, because he hurt his toe and was in the hospital! No worries, he's fine now. The assistants did a wonderful job teaching us. The theme was “What is the doctrine of Christ?” We're studying 3 Nephi 11 and 27 and it's been really cool. Oh, and my flute came that day, and I played it at the last minute for a musical number at zone conference. It felt so good to play again, but I definitely need to practice before Elder Ballard comes. Elder Reltiz who plays piano, Elder Wood who plays violin, and myself are playing a really pretty arrangement of Beautiful Savior.

Friday night we had a movie night at the church and watched The Testaments. It was seriously so powerful and we had a lot of investigators come. It was the perfect pump up for Saturday morning and the baptism of Joseph Mendy!!! Oh my goodness words can not do justice to the beauty of that day. Everything was perfect. Joseph was so prepared and so happy. He was glowing. We had a wonderful turnout from the ward, and a bunch of the African sisters brought food to eat. Joseph is truly a different person now. We didn't take anything from his faith, but we really did just add so much. We got him a quad as a surprise for his baptism and he loves it. He brought it to church on Sunday and was already marking it up. I am so happy for him and am excited to help him progress and make his way to the temple. On Sunday after receiving the Holy Ghost he was telling everyone that this was the happiest day of his life. I think I've told you before, but he comes from Gambia, or as he likes to call it "the smiling coast of Africa." Gambia is actually 95 percent Muslim, so it is a miracle that he has such faith in Jesus Christ. Seeing his progression in this gospel has been a miracle. You'll have to look on the blog for his full story. Zuster Fritz and I are sending it in today.

I love you all so much. Thank you for everything you do for me. I know this gospel is true. It's everything, people HAVE to have it. I'm grateful for my chance to serve the Lord. It's the best thing ever. Echt waar. :)

Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein

Yea for Baby Rhett!!!

Hoi family! Greetings from Amsterdam!

We are doing exchanges tomorrow and so Zuster Fritz and I came up early to spend the night with the sisters here. So we ended up getting on the local train by mistake and are now super late so we don't really have time to email. Oh and in the Netherlands they have American keyboards which now seem totally foreign to me, I'm having a really hard time typing! Haha.

Thank you so much for the beautiful pictures of baby Rhett! They made me cry, though really everything has been making me cry lately, it's been a very emotional week. I am so happy for you Jake and Julia. What a wonderful blessing to our family. I have a card I want to send but I don't have your address, so if you could send it that would be great!

So a quick run down -- this week has been inspiring! So many blessings and tender mercies. Joseph is 100 klaar for his doop and the ward is already really taking him in. He'll be baptized this Saturday at 11. Oh man it's going to be so good!

We have also found a lot of beautiful new investigators and they are making a lot of progress. Ethel and her son Steven who we have been teaching English to came to our football match with the other missionaries and played along. We also had an awesome FHE with them and they are reading from the BOM and praying together daily. The gospel really helps families so much, it’s awesome.

I'm sorry but that's all the time I have for now! There will be lots more to tell next week this week is going to be crazy awesome including exchanges, zone conference, testament movie night at church, and Joseph’s baptism.

I love you all and will be praying extra hard for Julia and Jake and baby Rhett.

Met veel liefde,
Zuster Holbein

Happiness

Dearest family,

No baby yet? Crazy stuff, I've been praying for baby Rhett and Julia and Jake and all of you all week. I really have felt a special spirit this week and we've been seeing miracles like crazy. I think Rhett's been helping us out! I'm so excited for you Julia! I bought a baby book for Rhett this week and I'm either going to send it to you or just give it to you when I come back cause I'm poor haha. I did write him a card today though so that should be coming soon. Oh, except for the fact that I don't have your new address. Haha so if you could send that that would be great! Congrats on your Eagle Scout project William it sounds like it went great -- way to be a good example! Thank you Mom and Dad for your words of wisdom, they mean a lot.

This week has been too good to be true. Honestly, so many times this week I have just had to stop and ask myself, “Is this kind of happiness really possible? Like, can things really go so well?” The Lord is blessing us. Every day I become more aware of how aware HE is of US. It's incredible -- absolutely blows my mind.

I'm a little tired today to be honest, but my spirits are high. A lot of the missionaries have been sick here lately, it's weird. The weather has been rainy and cold the past week and I think that has something to do with it. I was feeling fluish for a while but luckily it's mostly all gone now. And the work goes on. :)

This week has been a blast. We've been running around like crazy trying to teach everyone and help those with baptismal dates make progress. Satan is really working on these people. Opposition really does come when we try and do what's right. Luckily these are some of the most amazing, faithful people I've met. I have full confidence they'll all endure and pull through. I know they would appreciate your prayers.

So let's see, some highlights. On Wednesday we went with the elders to a recent convert's house for dinner. His name is Rene and he is amazing! He reminds me of Cogsworth from Beauty and the Beast actually. He made us his "world famous spaghetti" and even invited a non-member friend. It was a lot of fun and his friend was really interested! The funniest part of the evening was the end though. We decided to all sing for them before we went, but one of the poor elders, who's name I will not mention haha, who was there on exchanges couldn't really sing too well. Haha so when we started singing Rene just made this crazy face, and so Zuster Fritz and I busted up laughing. That always seems to happen to us. We managed to stop but it was really funny.

So our miracle of the week is Joseph Mendy. I know I've mentioned him before but he is 27, from Gambia, and will be baptized August 14th. He is absolutely amazing! Really, his faith in God and in his Savior is beautiful. We had a power-packed week teaching him obedience, the Word of Wisdom, the 10 commandments, and the law of chastity, all of which he already keeps and feels very passionately about. When we taught him the law of chastity he said he was so upset with the way the world has been living and wants to go on national TV to stop pornography. Can we say “next general authority” anyone? I think so.

The real miracle came on Sunday. It was fast and testimony meeting so before church we explained to him how everything was going to work. During the meeting I sat next to him and then Zuster Fritz sat with Grace, a convert of about a year, right behind us. Grace really wanted to bear her testimony but she'd never done it before and was super nervous so she asked Zuster Fritz to go up with her. So they started walking up and then all of a sudden Joseph turned to me and said, "So are we going next?" Haha I was so surprised! I asked him if he wanted to go up and he said yes he had something to say. So we went up and he bore the most powerful testimony! Ahhh it was amazing. He talked about how happy he was to have found this church and how he loved how much more it teaches him about the word of God and Jesus Christ. He talked about the importance of all working together as saints of God to build up the church. It was wonderful! Zuster Fritz started crying and I could not stop smiling. It was a moment of happiness I will never forget.

THIS is what t is all about. We teach these people and then to be able to hear them get up and testify that they have a testimony is just wonderful. I feel so honored to be able to be a part of this great work. Tonight we are going to a member's home with Joseph to teach about following the prophet and we're going to watch Special Witnesses of Christ. I'm so excited! Zuster Fritz and I even made fried rice for the occasion which was quite the adventure, including Zuster Fritz catching the oven mitt on fire, me grabbing the pan with my hand (bad idea), and spilling rice all over the floor. Oh how I love my life.

Met liefde,

Zuster Holbein

July 26

Dear family, :)

That was so cool last week that we were almost on email at the same time! I was so surprised when I saw that. Weird.

I'm glad to hear that everything is going so well. Thank you for the story about the man who got baptized yesterday - that's so cool! I agree 100% that service is a great way to introduce people to the gospel. Bijvoorbeeld, we are currently teaching a lady who investigated the church a while ago but couldn't commit to be baptized. We found her number in the area book though and felt inspired to call her. It turned out that she had moved and actually now lives on our street! So we went to look her up and she wasn't too interested but she is trying to learn English. She speaks Spanish and Dutch and so we've been teaching her English, and as we've been serving her she has been opening up more and letting us teach her. It's a slow process but we are so seeing the benefits. So keep up the good work!

So when is the baby due??? The last I had heard was the 27th... tomorrow! Wow. Talk about craziness. I am so excited! I was thinking about baby Rhett today. His last few days with Heavenly Father. I wonder what that is like. I was thinking about how here in the mission right before missionaries go home they have an zegt maar exit interview with the President. I wonder if it's like that before we are born. Do we have an exit interview with Heavenly Father? What would he tell us? Of course we wouldn’t remember, but I think sometimes maybe what is in our patriarchal blessing is some of what he might have said. Just something I've been thinking about. Julia and Jake I'm praying for you and Rhett all the time. I'm so happy for you!

This is week has been a week full of miracles and blessings. We have been able to see so much success as we are learning more and more to be led by the Spirit. We are teaching all of our people with baptismal dates about twice a week which keeps us really busy. I'm exhausted! But this is the best kind of exhausted ever.

Tuesday night we had a really special lesson with Moni. We taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and really focused on how through baptism we can be cleansed from our sins. She loved it. Her eyes started glowing. At the end of the lesson we asked her how she felt and she said, "I feel safe. I finally feel safe." Oh I wish I could describe how beautiful that was. It almost made me cry.

Saturday we had an amazing lesson with Joseph. He's been struggling a bit with reading from the Book of Mormon every day and so this lesson was a miracle. He came and said he'd been reading it like crazy -- couldn't put it down -- and that he knows now that it really is the word of God because it's brought him closer to Jesus Christ. Yeah!!! He came to church yesterday and just could not stop smiling and talking to everyone. He is awesome!

Speaking of yesterday, I don't remember if I told you, but I gave a talk in church. And it went really well! I was so nervous, my goodness. I spoke on sacrifice. I told everyone how you dad always tell me "sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven." I felt the Spirit when I wrote it and the Lord blessed me a lot. I felt so peaceful after. We (Elders Wells and Reltiz, and Zuster Fritz and I) also sang in church yesterday. We sang “Blij Bij Mij Heer” (Abide With Me) and it was beautiful. I love how quickly music brings the spirit. Then last night we traveled to Gent with one of our investigators and attended a musical fireside put on by the ward there. It was powerful! Overall it was a special Sunday.

So funny story of the week... On Tuesday during district meeting my shoe broke! The strap just popped off! Haha I didn't even do anything to it. The bad thing was I couldn't walk in it. So Brother Nuyens, our ward mission leader and the ultimate handy man, was there and I asked him if he could fix it. He said he would run it home really quick and fix it and bring it back. I told him we had an appointment at 1:00 though and he said he'd be back quickly. So we finished our district meeting, but he never came back! And we really needed to get to this appointment. After trying several silly things, like trying on Elder Wells’ shoes (not a good idea), I decided to just go with one shoe. Haha yeah. So I traveled all the way from church 40 minutes to our next appointment with Lillian in one shoe. It may have looked ridiculous but it started a conversation on the bus with a lady and we gave her a Family Proclamation, and we had a wonderful apt with Lillian who thought it was great that I wanted to bond with the earth. It turns out that Brother Nuyens came back just after we left and was amazed that we had left. He took the shoe to 3 different shoe makers till someone could fix it. Haha I love him. It was all together quite hilarious.

I love you all! I can't wait to hear about the baby!! Your prayers are appreciated. Oh and no Dad, I don't print out the emails, too expensive. The Church is true. This is the best thing ever. What more can I say?

Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein

Tender Mercies

Family, family, family. Oh goodness, what to even say? I love you all! I love this gospel! I love my mission.

This has been a very overwhelming week, but in the best kind of way.I feel overwhelmed with the blessings the Lord has been giving to us here in Antwerpen. I feel so close to my Savior and I love it. I know He lives. I know that God is my Heavenly Father and that Jesus Christ is my Savior. Without them I honestly can't do anything, but with them, oh man it's cool. :) I know that Joseph Smith did restore this gospel again in its fullness. How grateful I am for the priesthood! I love the quote you sent Dad.

Thank you all for your letters, emails, and support! I am always so happy to hear how well things are going at home. William, I am so happy you loved EFY. They are doing it here in Belgium in a few weeks and all the youth are so excited. Thank you for your sweet testimony. You are going to be an amazing missionary!

This week was great! The tall ship races last week were incredible! Oh my goodness the ships were so big. I took tons of pictures and I'm going to send them all home soon. I wish it wasn't so expensive to print pictures. Oh well. Anyway, we got to go with the elders in our district as well as the Tibbitts and President and Zuster Brubaker so it was a party! We got to go on one of the ships and people kept thinking that President and Elder Tippets were the captains because they look so official -- haha.

It was weird having P-day on Saturday but worth it. Monday we had interviews in Brussels. I love Brussels, it's a beautiful city. I think it's so crazy though because no one there speaks Dutch. It's only about 45 minutes away, but everyone speaks French. So many languages in such a small country! French sounds hard to me; it makes me grateful I speak Dutch. I can say the name of the Church in French but that's about it. Interviews went so well. I love President Brubaker! He is so inspired and I love getting his advice. We talked a lot about service and ways that we can show our love to the people we work with through service. I'm working on it a lot.

So miracle of all miracles -- we now have 5 wonderful, amazing people who all are going to be getting baptized in October! Five! I can't even believe it sometimes. It's not even the number that matters. They are all just such wonderful individuals and I LOVE LOVE LOVE watching them learn these things, apply them in their lives, and change. I'm watching these people become happier. I love teaching! They get this light in their eyes. They've known all this before. They chose this plan before. How wonderful to help them choose it again. We have Lillian, Joseph, Adella, and now Moni and Mercy. Moni is 34 and a member referral from Grace and Joseph Tunde. She was actually the one who made us that fish! Haha so see, you eat fish -- people get baptized. And for your information, since that appointment I have eaten shrimp and a whole lot of other crazy fish things. But yes, Moni is a doll and SO prepared. We gave her a talk in the conference report to read and she ended up reading the WHOLE THING. We came back to our next appointment and she was quoting stuff from it to us. Yeah! Then we have Mercy. She is 22 and from Ghana. She's very quiet but so sincere in wanting to follow Christ. She came to church yesterday and loved it. She said she felt the Spirit in her heart. She's great. So things are crazy busy here! But the best kind of busy EVER.

We had zone conference on Thursday and honestly it was one of the best ones yet. I have never felt so much peace or love in my heart for the gospel and for the people I serve. This gospel amazes me. I LOVE IT. Oh and other amazing news -- Elder M. Russell Ballard is coming to speak to us in September! I am beyond excited. And... President may want me to play my flute when he comes, so if you could send it that would be great. I think it's in Utah.

Yesterday Zuster Fritz and I taught Relief Society. We gave a lesson on the organization of the priesthood and it was a lot of fun. We got everyone up and moving and a lot of the women said it was a really helpful lesson. I love this ward.

Our funny story of the week was contacting into a man who has written 9 books on the 2012 world ending theory. He was very convinced that everyone in Belgium and the Netherlands is going to die. We told him we were from Utah, and he told us if we got into the mountains we might be safe. But if we didn't want to do that he also said that he and I could get married and he could be Adam and I his Eve. We tried sharing the Book of Mormon with him but he didn't want to talk about that sooo... we left a pass along card. Oh the craziness.

Please tell Sisters Bell and Quick thank you. Can you send me Lisa Bell’s address? Tell everyone I love them. The Church is true, wonderful, amazing and saving. It is everything.

Met Liefde,
Zuster Holbein
(July 19, 2010)

Happy late Father's day Daddy!! I sent a card for you and pictures
home last week, so hopefully you will get them within the next few
days. Thank you so so so so much for the wonderful example and the
wonderful father you are to me. I learn so much from you and I tell
people about you all the time. I wish they would let us talk on the
phone on Father's day too. Haha I think it's because they think
Fathers don't need all the verbal reassurance of love as much as the
mom's do. But do know that I love you so much and am sending you a
big hug and kiss.

Oh and please do not worry about what Zuster Tibbitts said in her
email. What I assume she was talking about was an inactive family we
teach who does live in a not as nice part of town. Don't worry
though; they live right on the outside of it right by the tram halte
so we don't ever go anywhere dangerous. And we only go in the day.
Haha trust me, we're smart girls. I do appreciate your concern
though. We talked to President yesterday, isn't he wonderful, and
everything is all good. I'm glad you were able to talk to him.

So this has been an incredible week! We have had so many powerful,
Spirit packed lessons I am actually pretty tired today! It's funny
how spiritual experiences can do that to you.

We had our first lesson with Sebastian, the man who stopped us on the
street, and his family and oh my goodness was it powerful. The Spirit
does amazing things! Haha I take no credit. We watched the
Restoration DVD with them and they loved it. The wife kept saying
everything was prachtig, beautiful, and Sebastian couldn't take his
eyes off it. They also have 4 daughters who really liked it, and they
had so many questions. Everything is very new for them, but slowly
they are beginning to see the truth. Oh and we definitely had a big
miracle at the beginning of the lesson. The Restoration DVD we have
is in 12-plus different languages and in order to get it to play with
Dutch subtitles you have to have a remote to choose it. Otherwise it
starts playing in Chinese I think. Anyways, for some reason they
couldn't find the remote, and so we weren't going to be able to watch
it. But then, it just started playing, and all of a sudden Dutch
subtitles popped up. Haha it was such a tender mercy and miracle from
the Lord! Trust me, I know from experience if you do not have the
remote that does not happen. Oh the miracles. :)

We also had another great appt with Enok and Marie Christine and their
family. Marie Therese actually came to teach with us which was
awesome! They are committed to being baptized but because of some
circumstances can't set a firm date yet. Everything will work out
though, and they are growing beautifully in their testimonies.

Oh other awesome news -- I can't believe I forgot-we have another
baptismal date! Her name is Adella and she is wonderful! She will be
baptized August 24th. She just had a baby and it's been wonderful to
see how the plan of salvation is opening up her eyes to the eternal
perspective of her’s and her family's life. William too is also still
getting baptized, but his date was pushed back and after praying we
decided to give him to the elders. He really doesn't live in the best
part of town and we felt the elders would be wonderful for him.

We've done a lot of great work with the members this week. Thursday
Zuster Fritz and I made dinner for Marie Therese and Rene, another
recent convert. It was a really random dinner, fried rice, and then
what I told them was homemade Kentucky fried chicken but they thought
it was so good. We made no-bake cookies for dessert haha and they
thought they were so gross! Haha not it a mean way, but it just goes
to show the difference in taste here. Haha it was great to see their
reactions.

We also ate with Br and Zuster Schiltz and older couple in our ward.
She's from Ireland and he's from here, and they are hilarious! I
don't think I've ever laughed so much. And they gave us a referral
which was awesome!

Last night we went and ate with Brother Nuyens, our ward mission
leader, and that was quite the interesting experience. Haha I love Br
Nuyens, he is amazing but he speaks Antwerps, which is a dialect of
Vlaams, and thus very difficult to understand. It was just funny,
even Zuster Fritz has a hard time understanding him sometimes. He
taught us a lot though about the culture. They thought it was
hilarious when we started speaking English really fast and they
couldn't understand us.

Overall, another wonderful week full of miracles, hilarious moments,
and tender mercies from the Lord. I love you all! Please keep doing
missionary work. Help the ward missionaries; be good examples. You
are wonderful!

Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein

Weird Eating Appointments

Dearest family,

I loved your emails this week! Really, they were so inspiring for me
to get. Thank you John, Britt, and William for your wonderful emails.
I always tell people I have the best family ever and it really is
true. I wish I had time to email you all back separately, but I
don't. I did buy a bunch of cool postcards though and I am planning
on writing you all today. But again, thank you, thank you, thank you
for your support! It means a lot to me. By the way, I know Father's
Day is coming up, and this is completely horrible but I don't remember
what day it is! Haha please forgive me if I missed it Daddy and know
that I love you and am sending you a card this week. Thank you for
being a great example for me.

So once again we had another wonderful week of miracles and blessings
from the Lord. Where to begin? This keyboard is really weird today
and isn't letting me type very quickly so if I don't have time to get
everything out right please let me know. I'll start with our funny
crazy story of the week. Wednesday night we went to Grace and
Joseph's house, two of our favorite members in the ward, to give them
a lesson. We made them cookies because they really are so awesome and
have done so much lately to help us. We told them we had a surprise
for them, and they told us that they also had a surprise for us. So
we went to their apartment and it turned out their surprise for us was
a referral, a woman named Moni who wanted to take the lessons. It was
so awesome, haha as a missionary that is the best surprise ever! And
then, Moni told us that she had a surprise for us... she had made us
dinner. Haha oh my goodness. I am attaching a picture below of what
we had to eat, and I will have you know I ATE THE WHOLE THING. Zuster
Fritz has a picture of the bones. Talk about the ultimate stomach
experience. Haha you all should be very very proud of me. I was
praying the whole time that I would be able to do it, and as always,
and thank goodness, that prayer was answered. Haha oh the crazy
things we do for investigators. Moni is wonderful though; we had
another lesson with her last night and she is coming to church on
Sunday.

Thursday night we got to travel up to Amsterdam and spend the night
with the sisters there. We had zone conference on Friday in Apeldoorn
which with the train is like 5 hours from here so we had to stop over
for the night. It was a lot of fun to see the sisters there and to
see Amsterdam. It was only my 2nd time in the Netherlands oddly
enough. We also had quite the experience when we first arrived. To
make a very long story short… I ended up getting stuck on the other
side of the closed doors of a tram and got separated from everyone for
about 10 minutes! They had my bags and my wallet and everything haha
so I was kind of nervous for a few minutes, but it ended up working
out fine. Friday zone conference was wonderful! I love getting
together with all of the other missionaries; they are such a strength
to me. And I love love LOVE Pres and Zuster Brubaker. I love how
positive they are. They are really big on encouraging us to always
have a positive attitude no matter what is happening because that is
what brings miracles and the Lord's help. Oh boy do I have a
testimony of that! It was great, and a very inspiring conference.

Ok now I have a miracle that I am slightly hesitant to share because I
don't want anyone (MOM!) freaking out. So I have been running while I
have been here and last week my knee really started hurting. To make
a long story short, I ended up being on crutches most of last week.
Now do not freak out, it was not that bad, and with the crutches we
weren't stuck inside, we still got to go out and do work. I was
frustrated though because the crutches hurt. And really, who wants to
be on crutches?

So at zone conference I got a blessing from Elder Wood our zone
leader. In his blessing he said that if I had the faith I would be
quickly healed. That was on Friday and I am happy to report that
today I am crutch-free and my knee doesn't hurt! Talk about a miracle!
The Lord blesses me more than I deserve and the power of the
Priesthood is so real. I love it!

Well that's about all the time I have. Sorry this email is so short!
I will make a note not to use this computer next week. You all are
wonderful. I feel the strength from your prayers and love. The
Church is so true. God is a God of miracles. Angels are sent to help
us everyday. We are all so blessed and it's our duty to share why
with the world!

Met Liefde,
Zuster Holbein