No, I don't believe in God... but don't you dare touch my Tweede Pinkster!

From e-mail dated 2 June, 2009

So, the email comes a day late this week because yesterday was Tweede Pinkster--basically the day after Pentacost. Which meant that everything was closed. It amazes me that so many people in Holland don't believe in God but Christian holidays get at least two days vacation and they are pretty insistant on telling you that it's a holiday so they don't want to talk to you. It's pretty crazy for a missionary. Plus, my bike got a flat on Saturday night, so that meant that we had to do everything bikeless until this afternoon when we could finally get it fixed (ouch, a lekker band [flat tire] cost a lot to fix-- guess I'll be buying less souvenirs than I thought due to an outrageous bike price and then spending money to try to fix it)--it's been an interesting last few days.
Thanks for the package. It was great. However, is there a way to send things cheaper?! That was SO expensive! If packages really cost that much to send, then don't worry about sending anything. It's not worth that. I actually had to sign for this package, so they wouldn't leave it with a neighbor. The post man left a note in the mailbox saying that I'd have to come to the post office to pick it up. We were trying to figure out when that could happen (since everything was going to be closed on P-day) and then we ran into the post man! I saw a package on his dolly and basically accosted him saying, "Pardon, maar is dat pakket voor mij?" (Excuse me, is that package for me?) He looked at my name badge and said, "Ik denk het wel" (I think so). Heavenly Father even lets little miracles happen so you can get your packages--gotta love how he works. I love the peanut butter. And the nylons are great--funny story though-- some of them aren't nylons :) But that's okay, they are things that I love to use back home, so I'll just save them until I get home (or until winter here-- it's just too warm and humid right now to wear anything you don't have to)...
You mentioned the sunset here--it really is pretty crazy to go to sleep and have it still pretty light outside and wake up to a really bright morning. The Winter is going to be an interesting time.
So, what has happened this week?
Tuesday was a pretty rainy day. I used my raincoat for the first time. I looked like Cookie Monster. It was pretty great. Zuster Baxter and I walked around the whole day singing "C is for cookie." Ah, good times.
We've seen some amazing finding miracles this week. Saturday we were supposed to go to Den Haag for a baptism, but Milene got sick and couldn't go, so we ended up staying in Haarlem and doing some finding. On the way back to the apartment, my bike got a flat tire-- so we decided that we'd just have to do the finding in the neighborhood. There's a great little park nearby our apartment, so we started walking in that direction. We saw a young woman standing by her bike next to an apartment building, and both of us started walking that way (as we talked later, both of us had the impression that we needed to talk to her). As we talked to her, she asked us question after question--she'd been trying to find answers to tons of questions about God and the bible and life after death. She is fascinated by the Book of Mormon and is super excited to meet with us again this week. I'm excited to see how knowledge of the restored gospel can change her life.
Then Sunday we were going langs de deuren and met a 19 year old boy who got super excited about the Book of Mormon. Sadly, he leaves this week for a year long world tour--but he told us that he was going to put the Book of Mormon in his luggage and read it on the go. Then he gave us his grandma's address and told us that we absolutely have to go visit her because she would love to hear about what we had to share.
Then today, on the way to District Meeting in Alkmaar, we talked with a man from Aruba who looked at our name badges and said, "In English, is the name of your church 'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints?'" He had seen missionaries in Aruba, but had never talked to them--but he was impressed with what he had seen in the missionaries there. He was also headed out of the city, but told us he'd call when he gets back (the rough thing about finding in the summer-- everyone is going on vacation).
Well, things with our investigators are going well. Since I spent so much time writing about finding, I don't have any time left to update you on our investigators-- but not a whole lot is different from last week. I'll update you next week.
Know that I love you all.
Gotta run!

Veel liefs,
Zuster Chantelle Fowler