Groeten van Gouda!!

Dear Family!

Thank you for your prayers and love and support and just being so wonderful. I hope I let you all know enough just how much I love you. The longer I am here the more I realize how blessed I am.

Soo... I'm in Gouda! And I love it! Seriously, I was really worried about the transition, and while it is SO SO different here, I love it already. I have met some amazing people, and we've already seen so many blessings. There is a lot of work to be done here but Zuster Perry and I are up for the challenge. And no, she is not related to the PERRY Perry, but she does have an uncle named Tom. Zuster Perry is an absolute doll, just like I thought. She's 23, from Utah, but has lived in Southern California for the past few years. She's got so much love for the work and the people here and she speaks great Dutch! We've already had a lot of fun together.

So Gouda... it's tiny! Like really, really. It takes us about 10 minutes to fiets from appointment to appointment and we live in an apartment right across the street from the church. It probably takes us a total of 30 seconds, not kidding, to get there. We are blessed. We have a big area, and our ward boundaries are actually the largest of any ward in Western Europe. We do most of our finding here in Gouda because that's where the church building is, but we travel down to Rotterdam and the surrounding areas a lot to visit members, less actives, things like that.

The ward is amazing here! It's still a pretty international ward and there are several Belgian families here. It makes me so happy to hear Vlaams again! Last night we went to a music fireside and a big group from Antwerpen came up and it was great to talk to them all. It was weird though, I had to switch my brain to be able to understand them -- I had forgotten how different Vlaams and Nederlands were! Anyways, the ward. We have the best bishop! I haven't even been here that long but he's already been on joint-teach with us several times and had us over for dinner. Apparently we eat with him and his family every Tuesday -- that's incredible! I've loved all the bishops that I have had, but this is unheard of here. I am so so so grateful. There are so many loving members here. Everyone seems to have the attitude of "we want to be your family while you're here!" Love it.

Yesterday was such a great day at church. Zuster Perry and I were asked to teach Sharing Time and it was so much fun. We helped them memorize the 6th Article of Faith, and then we talked about the apostasy and restoration by doing a cool activity. They loved it, and one of the little boys got up during sacrament meeting and bore his testimony about how grateful he was to have sister missionaries to help him learn.

It's cool being the only missionaries in the ward too. I've always served in a city with elders and senior couples and all that. I thought I would miss it, and I do a bit, but it's cool to just be here by ourselves. Us and Gouda. And the Spirit and all that of course. :)

Zuster Perry plays piano, and so yesterday we did this beautiful arrangement of "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go" in sacrament meeting and it went really well. The ward is small but very sweet. Investigator-wise things are going well but we do have a lot of work to do. Most of our investigators are referrals/part member family members. Almost all of our finding is done going along the doors because there isn't really a lot of opstraat stuff. Which has been good for me cause I've spent most of my mission just on the streets talking with people.

And another big difference -- EVERYONE HERE BELIEVES. I was so used to A'dam where NO ONE believes and people curse God. I tell people here I served in A'dam and they say, “Oh yeah, the Sodom and Gomorrah of Nederland.” It's true -- haha. Anyway, almost everyone here goes to church. Everything is closed on Sunday. It's totally the tiny, little Dutch town where people sit outside telling kids the stories from the Bible. On the one hand it's awesome, and on the other it presents some problems. I've never met so many people who are so concerned for my soul. Haha -- we've met a couple of very intense people who swear we have been deceived and told us to go fast and pray about the salvation of our souls. We told them we do and we will. It's funny. There are so many open people though. It's time to be bold! Everyone already goes to a church so we frequently ask people why they think there are so many churches and then go straight to the restoration; it's great!!

I really am loving it here so far and I feel confident that we are going to see miracles. We fasted yesterday as a companionship for them. Once again, it's time to call down the angels!

I love you all. Thanks for everything.

Met liefde,
Zuster Holbein

P.S. "Survivor" by Destiny's Child is playing in the cafe. I thought that was funny and applicable.