Een beetje vreemd...

From e-mail dated 4 May, 2009.

Well, I'm glad to hear that things are going well at home. I got mom and Renee's letters. Thanks! I'll hopefully get a letter off to Renee today-- but we are running around taking pictures today... because next P-day will be spent making a legality trip to Hoofddorp.
... I'm glad to hear that BYU Rugby is keeping up it's stride. I'm not going to lie--I miss Rugby a lot! As for the package-- since it hasn't been sent yet, you may not want to send it until after you receive my email next week--there's a chance that I may get transferred since transfers are next week, and I'll know that by the time I email you.
The weather here is actually really nice--it has only REALLY rained once in my whole transfer--the other times there has been a bit of a drizzle, but nothing too grand. I actually haven't worn my rain coat at all--just used an umbrella. I'm sure that will change, but for now there just hasn't been a whole lot of rain to worry about. The weather is fabulous--a little chilly--but wonderful!
So, this week has been a little weird, as the title of my email says in Dutch (I now have problems spelling the word weird because its spelling is opposite from Dutch pronunciation rules). All of the members keep talking about the flu--apparently there were a couple of cases in Rotterdam, but I don't know much other than that-- then everyone that we meet talks about the ongeluk op koninginen dag (the accident that you mentioned in your email). We rode our bikes to a member's house in Hoofddorp (the ride there was BEAUTIFUL!) for dinner and when we got there she had the news on and she basically watched it the whole time while we ate dinner. Everyone is pretty flabbergasted about it all. And now a few more people each day are shutting their doors on us talking about the awful things happening in the world.
This week was also a little weird because I'm been hit on by 3 men this week-- one was from Turkey and in his 50s and we'd been teaching him for a couple of weeks (we are no longer teaching him-- after he realized I wasn't interested he also lost interest in the church), another was from Russia and we met him on the train--he started talking about how he was looking for a nice girl to marry and my companion said that she was sure that he'd find a nice Russian girl someday and he looked straight at me and started talking about how she doesn't have to be Russian, then the last was just a couple of days ago and he started asking me if I was married or had a boyfriend and then asked if he could come visit me in America when I went home-- oh boy! Where did all of this come from?! Nothing like this ever happened at home and I'm not exactly the most gorgeous girl in the world. It must be the spirit and then they just don't know what to do with it, so they think it is me or something-- I'm not sure-- but it's really frustrating.
Other than that, things this week have been good. Our investigator, Azelea, from Ethiopia, finally made it to church yesterday! It was fabulous! She is making so much progress right now. The other day she called the Book of Mormon fact! We are so excited to see her really feeling the spirit and coming to know for herself that the things she is learning are true. The way Heavenly Father works is AMAZING!!!
We've also seen some amazing progress with Milene. She is fabulous! Heavenly Father works with her so much and she is super sensitive to the spirit. Sometimes I forget that things happen with investigators outside of our appointments with them-- but with her, she has a lot of friends who are members, so she talks with them and asks questions, and then you can tell she thinks about everything a lot--she had told us a couple of weeks ago that she didn't think she could commit to coming to church every week, but then this week she told us that she's realized that there's a huge difference when she comes to church, so she's going to try to come as often as possible!
Okay, well, I have to get going-- but I came across a great scripture this week that I'd like to share with you. It is in Jeremiah 17:7-8 about hope. I love the analogy of how hope in the Lord can help you through all of the difficult times.

I love you all! I'll talk to you Sunday.
Zuster Chantelle Fowler