Echt een wonder

From e-mail dated 6 July, 2009

Goedemiddag!

It sounds like this week will be full of adventures for ya'll at home. Havasupai--man, I wish I could come! Next year you'll have to plan a trip for when I come home. I've actually been thinking about that a little bit, just because everyone who is going home always talks about the ups and downs of having their parents come pick them up. To be honest, I think I would prefer just coming home to Utah and then going to Florida or something with the family so that we can all spend time together and won't have to worry about me being a tourist with a name tag. I don't know. I've still got a year before that would all happen anyway--but just something to think about while you all are making whatever plans you make for the next year.

We had some pretty great experiences this week. Thursday we went to do some finding in a neighborhood not too far away from our apartment. The second door we knocked on was a family from Yugoslavia. They don't speak a lot of Dutch, but they kept saying, "Jezus Christus! Ja, wij houden van Jezus Christus!"(Jesus Christ, yeah, we love Jesus Christ.) We tried to see if one of the DVDs we had happened to be in any Yugoslavian languages, but sadly it was not. However, the mother said that she speaks better German than Dutch and that she really wanted to see the movie. So, we went inside with their entire family and put in The Restoration DVD. However, they didn't have a remote so that we could change the language. But, that didn't matter because when it started playing all that could be heard was the background music with no words. So we just ended up making commentary throughout the whole movie about what was going on. At the end of the movie we told them we would love to talk with them more and they got really excited and asked when we could come back. We are meeting with them again tomorrow--and, get this, there is a member of the Haarlem ward who actually lives in Amsterdam that is from Yugoslavia--so he and his wife are going to come on joint teach with us. What a blessing!

That same day we also found two other families. So we just went from teaching a bunch of single people to teaching 3 families as well. Super.

Saturday we had our third lesson with a man from Africa named Frank. We had asked him to read 3 Nephi 11 the last time we met with him, so when we walked in on Saturday the first thing out of his mouth was, "I understand from this that I need to be baptized... but what if I've already been baptized?" So we talked to him about the importance of authority and at the end of the lesson he accepted to be baptized on August 15. Well... he came to church for the first time yesterday and absolutely loved it! Partway through the meeting he turned to Zr. Miller and asked if he could get up and bear his testimony. He went up and told an absolutely amazing story--one that neither Zr. Miller or I knew... ----A year ago Frank saw 2 Elders walking on the other side of the street. He felt like he needed to talk with them, so he crossed the street and stopped them so that they could talk. He wanted to meet with them again, but he accidentally gave them the wrong telephone number. Ever since then he has been on the lookout for missionaries from the church because he felt like there was something God wanted him to learn from them. He has been having a really rough time lately, and 3 weeks ago he prayed for some guidance in his life--that day Zr. Miller and Zr. Stapleton rang his doorbell. He talked about how he knows that God has a plan for him and how he is really looking forward to being baptized and becoming a member of the church. It was an amazing experience to hear him tell that to the whole ward. This work is really the Lord's work--He has his hand in every piece of it. It is great!

Today a bunch of Elders came to Amsterdam to spend P-day with us all. We are going to a museum--it should be a good time. I'll try to get some pictures off to you sometime soon... we'll see what I can do.

We'll also be meeting the new mission president tomorrow. Should be a good time. Anyway, I'm going to see if I can add some pictures to this email (we are at a library with hookups today, so I'll hurry and use my last couple of minutes to do that.--One of the pictures is of me and Zr. Scholten; one of me and Azelea and her daughter Belina; and one of me by the church in Haarlem--Ah, the Best Two Years)

I love you and pray for you!

Veel liefs,

Zuster Chantelle Fowler