good day to you all! hello! check it out. here we are once again. tis a lovely snowy ridiculously cold day from amsterdam. the first snow i've seen here. very little, but it is sticking around because the sun will most likely not melt it for some time. but lets quickly get down to the nitty gritty. i love you all. whoever is reading this at this moment, i love you. absolutely. you are fantastic. thank you for being here. thank you for being you. people are the greatest thing in this world. i am so grateful for so many wonderful people in my life.

alrighty. guess what - we are going to try something new this week. i am going to write small paragraphs of AWESOME happenings. haps if you will. hence the glorious name of this bloggings. ready, set, gaan.

MONDAY. last week. after i had emailed you and our pday was over...we took the metro to amstelveen. a lovely little part of amsterdam with the cutest houses and whatnot. the last time we ventured in that area, everyone was gone. so we came back in the evening this time. we were looking up some website referrals. there was one referral from the mormon battalion shindig in california, we went to them first. they were surprised and happy to see us, and immediately let us in and sat us down, gave us water and happily chatted away with us. so happy to see us. they said they frequently saw missionaries around town and didnt think we would be stopping by. they had requested a dvd and a bijbel - they didnt really know what it was when they signed up. they thought it was funny that we brought it by. they were super kind but didnt really want to hear our message, but said we were welcome back any time...then the husband wanted to show us something and he opened up this huge case full of small treasures - and he had a big collection of crosses...and gave us each one and also a saint medallion. haha..it was so crazy and so cool. they said we could stop by anytime if we are in the area. we have plans to bring them cookies on valentines. je weet nooit!

we met a man named "john benjamin" i may have told you about him - not sure. he is from pakistan, super super cool, we met him op straat and he told us he just decided that this year he was going to completely change his life and become a better person, make good choices. he stopped smoking and drinking and started taking 10000 steps a day. we invited him to church the next day and he came! it was awesome. he seemed super excited and happy. we had a lesson with him on wednesday with a sister in our ward named Lucky (you will be hearing a lot about her because she is amazingggggg - also she is from thailand) we talked about temples because during priesthood that sunday they spoke of temples and he was really interested in that. we were explaining to him that they were very sacred and you had to be prepared to enter them and that preparation started with baptism...all seemed to be understood and going well - but then he kept saying - that God doesnt make up rules, people make up rules and he should be able to go to the temple. it was quickly turning into a debate - he didnt want to listen to what we had to say - so we ended it and said we would see him at church and meet with him next week - oh we had such hope! it was an interesting lesson though because we were ALL speaking our second languages. john benjamin speaks urdu, lucky speaks thai and we speak english...and we were all conversing in nederlands. it was so crazy. because it was not the languages that got in the way. well, we will still keep in touch and invite him to church. i shall keep you updated.

okay these paragraphs are not small. sorry. ahhhhh!!! there is just so much to talk about. so far i have told you two lovely stories of people NOT wanting to hear this glorious message! how about something joyful?

we are teaching this lovely lovely lady named Roos. she is amazing. absolutely. she lives in the pastorie off of a catholic church. she is very very very very interested and she loves the church. she has been coming every sunday and we've had many good lessons with her. this week she invited us over for dinner and we shared the gospel lesson with the drawing activity, which she adored because she is a painter. she was absolutely thrilled to be able to draw a picture of how she sees the gospel in her own life. it was awesome to see someone so thrilled about it. :) we are very hopeful for her. she is amazing!

last night we had a dinner appointment with a sweet lady from thailand named Noi. we went with Lucky so she could translate. they both speak dutch but with gospel vocab and whatnot it was best in thai. she was soooo sweet. i just love her. she is dating a man from our ward actually so we are quite hopeful. we spoke about love and read together in 1john 4:7-11 one of my absolute faves. lucky read it in thai and we read along in nederlands. it was beautiful. i am so glad that the spirit speaks to everyone in the same language. sometimes i feel so fully lost and just...in a bubble and i cant quite understand anything...but when the spirit is there, i understand. and that is a miracle to me. i love it.

OHH SNAPPPP! also: on sunday, guess who came up to me at church...yes, zuster van OsdeMan!!! i have no idea how to spell her name!!! but that looks accurate. SWEEEEEET! i was so surprised and excited! it was so nice to see a familiar face! i just love her. she brought be a bag of homemade cookies, too. what a lovely lovely person. i am SO glad to be here in this fantastic country with so many beautiful people. it just made my day. we are all going to get together one of these days. i am quite excited.

well - conveniently enough i left my list of "awesome things to tell errybody" at home so... that is all i can remember for now.

this week has been absolutely fantastic - i am so grateful to be here. hallelujah for life. sounds like life is going splendidly back home. i am so glad to hear that everyone is doing well. i love you ALL. seriously. echt waar! thank you all for being so fabulous. i am sending more photos. well - i am trying to. i might just buy some cd's and put all the photos on them and send them in a package. yes yes. good plan. okay. fare thee well! have a most lovely day! doei!

without wax ,

zuster katelyn marie stout