geliefde familie en vrienden:

greetings and salutations once again! another week has passed in this dear country. and much has happened.

tuesday the 14th of februari is commonly known as "valentines day" alas, this week we mostly replaced valentines day with arizona's birthday and celebrated that instead. my companion, zuster jeffs is from arizona and is quite proud of her state. so, we made horchata during our lunch time on monday and tuesday and created what we thought was tasty horchata that was "good enough for jazz" if you will. we brought it to our dinner appointment and it was a smashing success. so lovely. also - turns out later this week we were invited to a birthday party of one of the sisters in our ward who is from mexico and she also made horchata and it was way better - so we drank a lot of horchata this week. who knew that it would be this way in the netherlands. good times

well. now that i have written a paragraph about horchata, i will move on to other topics. life is good here in amsterdam. always something crazy going on. ALWAYS. it is never normal. not even a little bit. this week we did something particularly exciting, the end halte on the tram 9 is called "diemen sniep" what a great name. its fun to say. so i suggested we go there for a consecrated hour. we found it to be a delightful neighborhood full of families and great promises. we now call it "snieping" when we go tract that area. its a good time. well - that might not sound too exciting but let me just tell you, its pretty cool.

oh this week has been a whirlwind indeed. there is always something happening. church is a riot to be sure. there is never a dull moment in the a'dam ward. not at all. it is a lovely blend of cultures and languages all united under one lovely gospel. i love that the gospel fits perfectly to every person, even though we are all so different in many ways, we all need the same salvation. i love how beautiful and simple the plan that our Heavenly Father made for us really is. i ADORE my personal study time in the morning, it is such a great blessing and help to me throughout the day - i must must must be confident and strong in my testimony and faith and really always know for myself because day after day we have doors closed in our faces and people saying they have no interest or need in anything we have to say and it can be hard. alas, i do know that this gospel of Jesus Christ brings me more joy than anything else in the world and that there REALLLLY are people out there who need it and want to hear our message. we must find them!

after daily planning the other night, we watched a quick LDS film called "together forever". it is a bit cheesy, being made in the 80s and whatnot, but really, it was so beautiful to me, i loved it and highly recommend it to all people who read this. anyway, to my point...at the end of the film it said, "if you would like to know more about the plan of salvation and how we can be together forever please talk to a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." oh i loved that. it didnt say "please contact the missionaries." it said TALK TO A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH. holler. its great because, yeah, we should be able to share and explain why and how and what we do. its so beautiful to me. also, i had a realization this week. i am a full time visiting teacher. absolutely. its a great realization because that means missionary work is not some separate thing i will leave behind in 14 months. yes yes yes. well - lets see - my time is up again. blastttttt.

well. i love you all so much. oh what a great world we do live in. i am so grateful for life. hallelujah.

okayokok. ik moet weg!

lovesssssssssssssssssssssss.

- zuster katelyn marie stout.