dearest family -

what a week. wow. whaaaaaaaaaaaaat a week. last week i wasn't able to write too much because my time was mysteriously cut in half. and so - i wasnt able to tell you for the GREAT adventure we had on the new farm of Roos! for our pday last monday we took a train and a bus to a small little dorpje called Monnikendam. ADORABLE. wow. talk about picturesque. the lady who owns the farm had a car and came to pick us up. she is a sweet older lady who just has the farm as a hobby but hires people to work on it and live there. so she drove us back..and used a 45min detour to show us the little town. it was so much fun. when we arrived at the farm it had naturally begun to rain...so we started the day by drinking tea. haha. after that we got to work.  we weeded the berry bushes, cleaned out a huge and cluttered barn, picked cherries (totally thought of you, dad - it was fantastic!) cleaned up the garden and had a lovely lunch from things grown on the farm. oh it was lovely. i could easily live on a farm. good times.

so - that is how the week started. beautifully. the next day we had a zone conference in leiden then came home and made BORSCH without a recipe. oops! it still worked out though. Fabien loved it. we had a great lesson. things are going really well with her! she invited us over next week to make us "real" ukranian food. haha. i am excited to learn the ways.

wednesday was a hard day. good gravy. after coming back from a lesson - i realized that i didnt have my bike keys. with horror i walked back to where we had left our bikes - to find that my bike was no longer there. i had FOOLISHLYYYYY been distracted and forgot to lock my achterslot and left the keys in the bike. while it is only a worldy thing - a bike - to me it was absolutely heartbreaking because that was how we did missionary work. that is how we got everywhere. oh i was distraught. as we walked through the streets looking for it (ridiculous) i remembered that i had written in my journal that morning "i need to TRUST in the Lord. that is my focus today. to be happy, to be kind and trust! " those are the exact words i had written a few hours earlier. they came to my mind at that moment of distress. what are the odds i would have such an opportunity to trust in the Lord so soon! while i was fully stressed about what would happen - i felt somehow that it would work out. i just knew that it would. i hoped i would find my bike. (btw- i DID find my fietstas...the bag for the back of my bike - with everything still in it! awesome! they had dropped in the middle of the road) we achter-op'd back home and continued on with our day.

the next day was also ridiculous - zr.hinchcliffs tire was flat and we couldnt achter op - so we took a bus and walked a lot...blessedly we werent that late and somehow we were able to successfully use public transit (something kind of annoying and difficult here in haarlem) for the rest of our appointments.

friday was better. that morning i decided not to let myself freak out too much - i studied and tried my best to stay positive and try and figure out a solution. we fixed zr.hinchcliffs bike and achter op'd to our evening appointment - we had very strong winds against us and as we biked i prayed and hoped that somehow we would be able to borrow a bike SOMETHING so we wouldnt have to do this anymore. and what do you know. guess what. another miracle. quite a wonder. our dear sweet bisschop gave me a bike. he GAVE me a bike. i couldn't believe it. not only was it a bike. but it was a NICE bike. i was in shock. i couldnt believe it.  it was WAYYY better than my original bike. i was so amazingly grateful. on the way home i was just overjoyed. i felt such love from my Heavenly Father. He had ONCE AGAINNNN come through for me. even when it was my own foolishness that had gotten me there. what a miracle! ahhhhhhhh! amazing.

the next day we had an appointment with medina in Hillegom. an hour away. it was raining but we put on our rain coats and went out anyway. i was so grateful and happy to have my bike that i didnt even mind. an hour and a half later - absolutely DRENCHED - we arrived! it felt like we were literally biking through a swimming pool. so much rain. oh wow. it was fantastic.

the rest of the week seemed to be just magical. i was so happy. i was so grateful. i have learned so many things this week. including the dutch phrase "eigen schuld, dikke buld" which means...own shame/fault...big bump on the head...totally doesnt work in english! other than that - i also learned that Heavenly Father is extremely merciful. i knew that - but i have now once again experienced it for myself. also - i have been studying a lot about the Holy Ghost and how vital it is to stay worthy of His guidance. i read a sweeeeeet quote the other day by eliza r. snow on the matter

  "the Holy Ghost statisfies and fills up every longing to the human heart, and fills up every vacuum. when i am filled with that spirit my soul is satisfied and i can say in good earnest, that the trifling things of the day do not seem to stand in my way at all. but just let me lose my hold of that spirit and power of the gospel, and partake of the spirit of the world, in the slightest degree, and trouble comes; there is something wrong. i am tired, and what will comfort me? you cannot impart comfort to me that will satisfy the immortal mind, but that which comes from the fountain above. and is it not our privilege to so live that we can have this constantly flowing into our souls?"

brilliant. she said it so well. Heavenly Father is SO mindful of each of us. but we have to HELP him fulfill his promises. we need to be involved in the work. i am SO grateful for you all. i love and miss you all dearly. thank you for your prayers. i love you all! :)

hugs - zuster katelyn marie stout