dearest crew:

what a great week this has been. life is beautiful. the weather has been so lovely! and along with the lovely weather, we have the miracle of TWO of our investigators with baptismal dates! life is good. oh what a wonderful feeling it is to hear someone you are teaching tell you that they want to get baptized! what joy fills my soul. ahhhhhhhhh! :) i shall now break down my week in small paragraphs. here we go:

monday: a swell pday indeed. we had a lovely tea and toast adventure with the zusters in the den haag zone. twas jovial and gezellig.

tuesday: had an appointment with our dear Roos, by a super cute tea shop. as we drank lavender tea and discussed the gospel...Roos was telling us her worries and all that is involved with her becoming baptized then we read together in one of my favorite chapters, mormon 9. we talked about miracles and that they have not ceased!!! it was a beautiful appointment because the spirit was present. we set her baptism date for april 22! so exciting!

wednesday: turns out, i had to go to belgium for the day. i went with my mtc district in a huge van to Brussels. what a joyous day that was. we had a great time catching up. wat gezellig.

thursday: we usually have a fast appointment with a member in our ward, but she texted us and said we would be meeting her by a friends that night....so we biked to this unknown address and it turns out to be her sweet friend Antoinette! we had met antoinette a few times before and i always told her how awesome i thought her dutch was and that i wanted her to teach me so it was great to be at her house.. i went into the kitchen and offered to help - she was helping me with my dutch as we made dinner - then she said she needed to have a cigarette - so as she is smoking she is telling me she needs to quit, and i said that i would help her..i would give up something too and set up a plan for her to quit...i said i would give up speaking english as she gave up cigarettes and that every time she needed to smoke, she could call me and we would speak dutch...then she told me she wants to GET BAPTIZEDDDDD! oh i freaked out(internally). i was sooo happy! that night we set up a teaching calendar and set a date! she will also get baptized on the 22nd of april. oh snappppp. how joyous!!!!!!!!!

friday: we had a dinner appointment by a members house and as we waited for the other person coming, she showed us her pictures of her Waadlopen adventures. during the spring when the tide is low you can walk across the north sea to the little islands in the netherlands. you have to wear all-stars because they dont come off your feet in the mud. its three or so hours and then you take a ferry back. how GREAT! i want to do it so badly! brilliant!

saturday: we spent our lunch hour making 7 litres of HORCHATA. we are experts now. i have a real recipe from a mexican lady in my ward. it was amazing. we took it to our dinner appointment with roos that night. after dinner and lesson...we went into the catholic church she lives in and sang joseph smiths first prayer in a catholic church. AWESOMEEEEE. it was such a great night. oh man.

blast it all i am almost out of time. yesterday was great and so was today. we found a sweet second hand shop here in diemen. oh man. so great. i bought a mug with queen beatrix on it. i will go home and have a cup of tea now. i love you all so much. life is great and the church is true. i guess the greatest thing i've learned this week is that genuine kindness and love for people is the greatest attribute we can have. people deserve love and kindness. its too rare these days. EVERYTHING about the gospel is centered around loving others and being kind. it is the entire baptismal covenant. it is what we promise. i love that. i am so grateful to be here and learn so many things every day. i love you all SO much. keep it realllllll! lovesss - zuster katelyn marie stout