Zes maanden--gek!

From e-mail dated 27 July, 2009

It sounds like Scout Camp was a good time. I'm glad to hear you didn't get too wet while you had to live in your own shelter.
I did get the package--thanks so much. It was nice to be able to play some music again. I will be playing one of the pieces at Frank's baptism-- he was supposed to get baptized this upcoming Saturday-- but he didn't come to church yesterday-- so we are going to reset his baptismal date--hopefully he will be able to get baptized in a couple of weeks. We are pretty saddened that he didn't make it to church yesterday--especially because he loves the gospel so much and he always talks about how he knows this is what he wants. But, it will come--he will be able to get baptized--I just always have to remember that it is on the Lord's timing, not on mine...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Chris and Mom!
GEFELICITEERD!!!!
I don't know if Chris got my card yet-- but I will send one to mom today. Also--I know that this week is Chris' turn for a letter-- but since I sent him a card last week, I'm not going to worry about it too much because we are going to Volendam today with the Elders and a couple of people from the ward, so I won't have a lot of letter writing time.
So, what has happened this week?Well, it's been kind of crazy-- we were supposed to have interviews with President Brubaker on Thursday, but we got a call Wednesday night to tell us that our interviews were moved to Saturday-- so we moved all of our Saturday plans to Thursday at the last minute-- then Thursday they called us and told us that President Brubaker couldn't come Saturday-- so then we had no plans for Saturday-- so we did finding-- and then on Saturday we were called and told that we would be interviewed on Sunday after church-- so we had to move all of our Sunday plans around--basically it's been a crazy week of moving things around at the last minute, but all worked out.
Interviews with President were great. The training we had was just what I needed and my conversation with President gave me a lot of help that I really appreciate. I really want to share one of my insights from the training with you: We were talking about charity--which is SO important as a missionary (and as a person in general :) )--and we were talking about how it is the pure love of Christ. Now, most of the time I think of it as me needing to work on developing the love that Christ has for everyone, but yesterday it struck me a little differently. Charity=the pure love of Christ=the pure love that I have for my Savior Jesus Christ. I realized that as I work on developing more and more love for my Savior, I'll be able to do everything I need to and share His love with people because I love HIM so much. Just another spin on charity and how we can develop more charity. I'll be working on continually increasing my love for the Savior--I know that will help me in everything I do.
So, funny story. We exercise every morning--so sometimes we go jogging/walking along a canal in the neighborhood where there are lots of ducks and geese. Well, this week as we were going through this area, the ducks and geese started hissing at Zr. Miller and then they started chasing her. It was hilarious! They don't seem to have any problem with me--they only go after her. It is a pretty funny sight.
Zr. Miller's birthday was also this week, so we had a lot of birthday cake and a lot of singing. One of the members who comes on joint teach with us a lot (who totally reminds me of Toni Broadhead--seriously! They look sort of alike [besides the fact that Lucky is from Thailand], they act a lot alike, and they are both just wonderful!) had us over for dinner last night. Lucky is a new member who got baptized in February. She is a rock star. Anyway, she also gave me gifts since she was giving Zr. Miller gifts. It was really nice of her.
Friday Zr. Miller had to go to Belgium for a legality trip, so I spent the day working in Den Haag with Zr. Bennett and Zr. Baxter (their companions were also going to Belgium). It was so much fun to get to work with Zr. Baxter again! I miss working with her a lot. She is so wonderful.
Anyway, I've gotta jet. Sorry that my emails are always so random and out of order-- but I love you all!
Zuster Fowler