dearest family and friends:
this is my favorite quote for this week-
"the standard of truth has been erected! no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. persecutions may rage - mobs may combine, armies my assemble and calumny may defame, but the truth of God shall go forth BOLDLY, NOBLY and INDEPENDENT til it has penitrated every continent, visted every clime, swept every country and sounded in every ear - til the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say 'the work is done'!" - joseph smith
hopefully that is accurately quoted because i just typed it from memory - so you may want to look it up. but its a classic because its TRUE. oh wow. i have said that to myself so many times this week. but we have God on our side! this week has been crazzzzssssy! it has been unusually warm for Nederland but aside from that - we have felt just a whole lot of opposition. probably because the work is exploding here in haarlem. that is my guess. we have found 6 new GOLDEN investigators this week. snapp!!!! this is just another testimony to me that there are people who are ready and open to hear the good news. i am so grateful to be a part of this work!
so - for our mutual ease and convenience, i will now use the small and simple paragraphs to explain the haps of this week:
monday- crazy pday. we biked around haarlem centrum and explored the many cool thrift stores and shops. i found a whinnie the pooh kids book in dutch. it is adorable. also - we found a huge bag of apples for one euro! amazing! i also cleaned off our balcony so we can do planning outside.
tuesday- district meeting. it was a riot. we were uplifted and inspired. which was good because when we went home to haarlem all of our appointments fell through and we spent our evening finding and looking people up. still good times. also: i installed a new shower head in our bathroom and fixed the leak on our washer. woo hoo!
wednesday- we decided to have a dance party for exercise so i put on the jazziest hymns we could find and we had a dance party. it was much needed! its been too long! we also had a really great lesson with fabien about families. on the bike ride home z.larsen and i spoke about our families and how GRATEFUL we are to have such wonderful families...they are everything to us!
thursday- a golden day. had a lesson with our new investigator named Wensley - he is from suriname and has only been here a few years so he still has a cool surinamse accent. it is great. we will see how it goes with him! i have hope! and later that evening we had a dinner appointment with a sister in our ward and we got the best surprise! she invited her friend hannah over who is interested in the church and we are now teaching her. this woman is amazing - she is so ready! it was another testimony to me of how involved Heavenly Father is with EACH of his children. and if they are listening and ready - he leads them to find truth! hallelujah. also - for our classy night we wrote poetry and drank pero. :)
friday:weekly planning...but it was still a good day! we made great goals and really are trying to focus more on the spirit in helping us maintain our goals with obedience. its going well. also - in the middle of planning we had an appointment with a new investigator named fianny! she is from the dominican republic. super cool. has a family. had a great lesson about the book of mormon. later that evening on the way home from our last appointment...i got a flat tire. unbelievable! blessedly we were close to home. we took the bike up to the appartment and i fixed it. it took about an hour and a half because i had never done it before, but blessedly the week earlier a brother in our ward explained it to me during dinner - and that night i had made a goal to learn how to patch a tire! little did i know...so - i did it. it was a miracle! and it stayed the whole night!...
saturday: and the whole morning! we biked to a referral and had a strange and uncomfortable run in with some missionaries from another church... it was not ideal and we left as soon as possible. we biked to the hema to buy a pump for my bike in case i had another flat - and low and behold as we walked out of the store - bam! flat tire. turns out the outside tire is kaput. at this moment i thought - well, we need to make something happen. lets call some members to visit. we called a lady in our ward who is extremely sick. i had never met her but we felt like we should go visit her. and i am so so very glad we did. this is turning into a big paragraph! oh well! i must quickly tell of a small miracle that led to us getting to her. we were on the bus but i wanted to bring her flowers - yet the bus driver man said it would arrive exactly when we need to be at our appointment so we had no time to buy flowers...this would not do! i thought - i cant show up without flowers! it just wont work. so when we pulled up at the station halte - i realized they wait a few minutes longer when they stop at a station...so we jumped off the bus - ran to the closest flower stand and i said "i am in a huge hurry i need that bunch of bright gerber daisies!" we got the flowers and booked it to the bus and caught it just before it was driving away! hallelujah! it was a miracle. i was so grateful! so - we arrive at our appointment on time and with flowers - and let me tell you - this was one of the most wonderful and fantastic experiences of my entire mission thus far. this woman is amazing. the minute we walked into her house i felt such a sense of peace and also a sacredness..this woman has a terrible cancer that has spread rappidly and has made it hard for her to recall things and speak what she wants to say - we sat there with this woman for a few minutes - and though i had never met her before - i felt an instant love for her - the spirit was unbelievably strong. i felt angels surrounding her and her home - i was so grateful that i had the opportunity to meet her and feel of her spirit and tell her how LOVED she is. i am sure she knows it. this to me was such a testimony of Gods love for his children. it is extremely strong and it fills all our emptiness if we let it. as we left her home i had no words. i felt so peacful, joyous and grateful for the goodness of our God. i could not hold back tears. this day was absolutely not what we expected. but i am grateful that we were guided and led to do what Heavenly Father wanted - even if it took a flat tire - i would take it any day.
i am learning every day more and more to trust in my Heavenly Father. it is a long process but i am in need of it. i know that we have the opportunity to understand and learn so much - and do so much in this earthly life. it is a glorious thing!
sunday- crazy day. suuuuper warm day. chalyene and eric were confirmed members of the church! HALLELUJAH! it felt so good - such peace! the deleeuws came up from amsterdam and we had a lunch and lesson with dear fabien. and - she brought me a surprise! KVAS! oh i was so excited!!!!!! a whole bottle. she had to go to rotterdam to find it! hallelujah. (for those of you who dont know what that is...its a russian/ukranian drink made out of rye - and its delicious) we had a wonderful lesson with her about the plan of salvation and we were able to answer a lot of her questions. then we all got in the car and left to gouda. we got special permission to take fabien to the YSA meeting there. i dont have much time left so i will spare the details but it was a great/crazy experience - and it was also one of the longest and hottest meetings i have ever attended in my entire life. wow. and on top of all that they asked me to translate a talk from english into dutch. what!??! why!??! im not even dutch! so i stood up in front of a huge room of dutch YSA's and translated this talk into dutch. intense and unexpected! its good to strectch i guess.
on the way home we were stuck in traffic for three hours. awesome. haha. fabien taught me russian on the way home. it was great.
to sum it all up - Heavenly Father loves his children. He is CONSTANTLY trying to help us understand that. He has given us a plethora of resources and means of help. HE WANTS US TO BE HAPPPPPY!!!!! that is what i have learned again this week. and one of the biggest means of help we have are the commandments. golden. i am so grateful for my Heavenly Father and the gospel of his son, Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice. it IS love. plain and simple.
i love you all and i am grateful for you all.
til we meet again!
- zr. katelyn marie stout
this is my favorite quote for this week-
"the standard of truth has been erected! no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. persecutions may rage - mobs may combine, armies my assemble and calumny may defame, but the truth of God shall go forth BOLDLY, NOBLY and INDEPENDENT til it has penitrated every continent, visted every clime, swept every country and sounded in every ear - til the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say 'the work is done'!" - joseph smith
hopefully that is accurately quoted because i just typed it from memory - so you may want to look it up. but its a classic because its TRUE. oh wow. i have said that to myself so many times this week. but we have God on our side! this week has been crazzzzssssy! it has been unusually warm for Nederland but aside from that - we have felt just a whole lot of opposition. probably because the work is exploding here in haarlem. that is my guess. we have found 6 new GOLDEN investigators this week. snapp!!!! this is just another testimony to me that there are people who are ready and open to hear the good news. i am so grateful to be a part of this work!
so - for our mutual ease and convenience, i will now use the small and simple paragraphs to explain the haps of this week:
monday- crazy pday. we biked around haarlem centrum and explored the many cool thrift stores and shops. i found a whinnie the pooh kids book in dutch. it is adorable. also - we found a huge bag of apples for one euro! amazing! i also cleaned off our balcony so we can do planning outside.
tuesday- district meeting. it was a riot. we were uplifted and inspired. which was good because when we went home to haarlem all of our appointments fell through and we spent our evening finding and looking people up. still good times. also: i installed a new shower head in our bathroom and fixed the leak on our washer. woo hoo!
wednesday- we decided to have a dance party for exercise so i put on the jazziest hymns we could find and we had a dance party. it was much needed! its been too long! we also had a really great lesson with fabien about families. on the bike ride home z.larsen and i spoke about our families and how GRATEFUL we are to have such wonderful families...they are everything to us!
thursday- a golden day. had a lesson with our new investigator named Wensley - he is from suriname and has only been here a few years so he still has a cool surinamse accent. it is great. we will see how it goes with him! i have hope! and later that evening we had a dinner appointment with a sister in our ward and we got the best surprise! she invited her friend hannah over who is interested in the church and we are now teaching her. this woman is amazing - she is so ready! it was another testimony to me of how involved Heavenly Father is with EACH of his children. and if they are listening and ready - he leads them to find truth! hallelujah. also - for our classy night we wrote poetry and drank pero. :)
friday:weekly planning...but it was still a good day! we made great goals and really are trying to focus more on the spirit in helping us maintain our goals with obedience. its going well. also - in the middle of planning we had an appointment with a new investigator named fianny! she is from the dominican republic. super cool. has a family. had a great lesson about the book of mormon. later that evening on the way home from our last appointment...i got a flat tire. unbelievable! blessedly we were close to home. we took the bike up to the appartment and i fixed it. it took about an hour and a half because i had never done it before, but blessedly the week earlier a brother in our ward explained it to me during dinner - and that night i had made a goal to learn how to patch a tire! little did i know...so - i did it. it was a miracle! and it stayed the whole night!...
saturday: and the whole morning! we biked to a referral and had a strange and uncomfortable run in with some missionaries from another church... it was not ideal and we left as soon as possible. we biked to the hema to buy a pump for my bike in case i had another flat - and low and behold as we walked out of the store - bam! flat tire. turns out the outside tire is kaput. at this moment i thought - well, we need to make something happen. lets call some members to visit. we called a lady in our ward who is extremely sick. i had never met her but we felt like we should go visit her. and i am so so very glad we did. this is turning into a big paragraph! oh well! i must quickly tell of a small miracle that led to us getting to her. we were on the bus but i wanted to bring her flowers - yet the bus driver man said it would arrive exactly when we need to be at our appointment so we had no time to buy flowers...this would not do! i thought - i cant show up without flowers! it just wont work. so when we pulled up at the station halte - i realized they wait a few minutes longer when they stop at a station...so we jumped off the bus - ran to the closest flower stand and i said "i am in a huge hurry i need that bunch of bright gerber daisies!" we got the flowers and booked it to the bus and caught it just before it was driving away! hallelujah! it was a miracle. i was so grateful! so - we arrive at our appointment on time and with flowers - and let me tell you - this was one of the most wonderful and fantastic experiences of my entire mission thus far. this woman is amazing. the minute we walked into her house i felt such a sense of peace and also a sacredness..this woman has a terrible cancer that has spread rappidly and has made it hard for her to recall things and speak what she wants to say - we sat there with this woman for a few minutes - and though i had never met her before - i felt an instant love for her - the spirit was unbelievably strong. i felt angels surrounding her and her home - i was so grateful that i had the opportunity to meet her and feel of her spirit and tell her how LOVED she is. i am sure she knows it. this to me was such a testimony of Gods love for his children. it is extremely strong and it fills all our emptiness if we let it. as we left her home i had no words. i felt so peacful, joyous and grateful for the goodness of our God. i could not hold back tears. this day was absolutely not what we expected. but i am grateful that we were guided and led to do what Heavenly Father wanted - even if it took a flat tire - i would take it any day.
i am learning every day more and more to trust in my Heavenly Father. it is a long process but i am in need of it. i know that we have the opportunity to understand and learn so much - and do so much in this earthly life. it is a glorious thing!
sunday- crazy day. suuuuper warm day. chalyene and eric were confirmed members of the church! HALLELUJAH! it felt so good - such peace! the deleeuws came up from amsterdam and we had a lunch and lesson with dear fabien. and - she brought me a surprise! KVAS! oh i was so excited!!!!!! a whole bottle. she had to go to rotterdam to find it! hallelujah. (for those of you who dont know what that is...its a russian/ukranian drink made out of rye - and its delicious) we had a wonderful lesson with her about the plan of salvation and we were able to answer a lot of her questions. then we all got in the car and left to gouda. we got special permission to take fabien to the YSA meeting there. i dont have much time left so i will spare the details but it was a great/crazy experience - and it was also one of the longest and hottest meetings i have ever attended in my entire life. wow. and on top of all that they asked me to translate a talk from english into dutch. what!??! why!??! im not even dutch! so i stood up in front of a huge room of dutch YSA's and translated this talk into dutch. intense and unexpected! its good to strectch i guess.
on the way home we were stuck in traffic for three hours. awesome. haha. fabien taught me russian on the way home. it was great.
to sum it all up - Heavenly Father loves his children. He is CONSTANTLY trying to help us understand that. He has given us a plethora of resources and means of help. HE WANTS US TO BE HAPPPPPY!!!!! that is what i have learned again this week. and one of the biggest means of help we have are the commandments. golden. i am so grateful for my Heavenly Father and the gospel of his son, Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice. it IS love. plain and simple.
i love you all and i am grateful for you all.
til we meet again!
- zr. katelyn marie stout
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