okay - family email:

greetings! welcome to another addition of 'the great haps of 2012: a'dam edition'

oh what a whirlwhind of a week it has been. life never fails to surprise. so, with this new cold weather, and the frozen canals, all of the dutch are our skating like its no bodies bidness! i wonder what skating would look like if it were somebodies business. well. i will now share with you a tale of the best part of my week. enter woensdag avond and what do you know but all of our appointments fall through in a matter of moments. so, i suggest that we go find marta. she is a (mostly) deaf sister from spain (but speaks dutch) in our ward, recently baptized, alas, she is without a phone so its hard to get a hold of her. i felt like we should try her mothers house first. so we do. no answer. WE KNOW they are there because we see the light on and martas bike. we ring and ring and no one will answer. she is in an apartment building...so i get an idea. i press every bell in the building. haha. two people answered at the same time, so we said we were missionaries and simotaneously they say no thanks and hang up...then someone buzzes us in! hoera! we walk in and there is a lady and we talk to her...no interest...we walk up one flight and see a gentleman and he asks if we called him, so we share a message with him and he is actually interested! we are visiting him next week. amazing. then we finally get to martas mothers door...and we ring the bell...nothing. and so i knock really hard. then they finally opened the door. success! and this is where the fun truly began. (btw when i rang all the bells in the building my companion was a bit peeved but in the end she saw the magic in the madness) so, we are invited in. martas mother does not speak dutch. well, a few words. but she speaks spanish. and she is also deaf. they have to be looking at you to hear. so we sit down and martas mom starts making us tea and puts the kettle on to boil. we start having the MOST DELIGHTFUL conversation ever. martas mom is speaking to us in spanish and marta is trying to translate but she has to be looking at her mom so we are getting half a translation and then picking up spanish words we know and are mostly understanding...so her mom says that we have the gift of tongues and then martas mother just starts talking up a storm and goes and goes and we are sitting there trying to understand what is going on...then marta will chime in every now and then...sometimes they will both start talking because they cant tell the other is talking so the talking is getting louder and they are both talking to us, one in spanish one it dutch and the kettle starts to whilstle...and they dont react...and it gets louder and louder and louder...nothing...zuster jeffs and i are DYING because it is so loud and they cant even tell. it felt like absolute CHAOS and i just start laughing and zr. j is laughing and then finally marta says that her hearing aid is buzzing and we tell her its the kettle...so hilarious. oh i wish this night had been filmed! it was awesome. we continue on our crazy conversation that lasted a good hour...we talked of many things. but there were moments when martas mom started talking about the missionaries and martas experience and the change she has seen take place and it was so sweet. oh it was lovely. martas mom reads the book of mormon, she is not a member but she loves the church. she doesnt want to come because she is deaf and doesnt speak dutch, but we are going to find a way. oh i wish i could tell the events of this night in a better way. it was so great. and i never thought it would be such a relief to hear dutch! it was so hard to fully grasp onto the conversation. my head hurt afterward. but it was a delight. wow. sorry that i have spent so much time on this one story. it was just so awesome to me. this week has been lovely. very busy. its transfer week now - i am staying in a'dam with zr. j for one more transfer then she is probably leaving and i will stay. most likely. wellll yeah, the work is moving forward. its beautiful to see when people actually want to hear what you have to say! i just love this country. there are so many wonderful people and so many great things to see. people are everything. without eachother it would be sad and boring. i am so grateful to be surrounded by so many lovely people in my life. so so glad. so grateful. ah, well, i have to go now. my time is up. and yes. that is all for now. just know how much i love you all and that love is the key. conveniently that is my missions theme. i love love so naturally i love that theme. holler. i love you all!!!! thank you for being who you are. life is good. have the greatest week! i shall gather my thoughts better next week. well, ive been saying that for three months! haha. it will happen one day! LOVESSSSSS. doei!