dearest family! greetings. i shall now write many small paragraphs to effeciently explain this last week.

 

on monday after i emailed - it was still raining. a lot. a whole lot. zuster hinchcliff felt inspired to stop at this cute english import store and buy TIM TAMS. when we were checking out the lady also gave us free freshly home made scones and a bunch of english drinks for free. it was so sweet of her. so we went home and had tim tam slams whilst writing letters and keeping it real. later that evening one of the senior couples came over to fix something in our apartment and ended up starying and telling us stories for an hour or so. it was FABULOUS. oh i couldve listened to their stories all day.  it was a lovely pday indeed.

 

tuesday we had a crazy little experience. we had biked to halfweg for an appointment and it fell through. blast it all! so we went to the grocery store to buy some water and gather our wits before making the long bike ride back. as we sat on a bench enjoying our overpriced water - a guy kept watching us. totallllll creeper. he drove past us and then came back around with his car. it was weird. so i said we should get out of there...and we went to get on our bikes and he drives past and slows down and throws something out his window...but he misses and it lands in his car! it was HILARIOUS. he was apparently trying to be all cool and get our attention but it failed totally and i thought it was great. then we sped out of town and lost him in the small dutch streets. gooood gravy!

 

this week we have been studying/celebrating christmas! we sing christmas songs all the time and are just in such a christmasy mood. its great. we are going to have a mini christmas for zuster hinchcliffs birthday on tuesday. its great. we wanted to do this because we love how we feel at christmas and we want to feel that all year. so we are starting now! merry christmas!

 

thursday was our ukranian day. in the morning we went to a sister in our ward for a member lesson. she taught us WAY more than we taught her. she was baptized in december. she is from ukraine and is a physicist. she is so amazing! then later that night we had a lesson with fabien. she made us REAL borsh and pelmeni(sp?). it was fabulous. then we watched the restoration dvd in russian. fabien is struggling feeling like she recieves answers to her prayers. we explained that sometimes we dont always recieve answers the way we WANT or expect but they do come. we just need to figure out how. as we taught her that i started to think about some answers i am looking for and how i also need to be looking for them in a different way. and i pondered it for the next day or so and realized i actually had a lot of answers that i didnt even see before. it was a great day. both lessons i felt so edified and that i learned even more than i shared. which is exactly how it should be!

 

things are going well with medina. hopefully everything will go well and she will become baptized next saturday! we are praying that it all works out. she is amazing! the ward is so good to her. they help her with her son, they give her rides to church. its LOVELY to see how the ward just surrounds her and supports her. its great.

 

on sunday i spoke in church. the entire week i had studied and prepared. i wasnt sure exactly what to say! this was my first full length talk in dutch during a sacrament meeting. my topic was "coming closer to Christ" which is quite a broad topic. i really enjoyed studying for it and learned so much. especially about prayer. i had a talk written out because it was in dutch and i wasnt sure if i could just teach with the spirit fully without notes! turns out that when i got up there, i was comforted and given the words to say - even in dutch. it was such a testimony to me that as we study Christ - as we DESIRE to come closer to him - he helps us and we do come closer. i felt like i really came to understand in a very literal way how to come closer to Christ.

 

well dearest family and friends. as this email comes to a close i would like to tell you all that i love you. oh man i am learning some things. a lot of things. right now i am trying to focus on the now. enjoy EVERY moment. not just looking ahead to better/different times. life will always be life and i want to learn how to really live. i am grateful for this short time on earth to learn. i shall improve the shining moments. hallelujah! i LOVE that we have so much help around us too. we are mightly blessed. THANK YOU ALL for your prayers and love. you are all fantastic. tot de volgende week! liefs.

 

- zuster katelyn marie stout