dearest family - greetings! its snowing. the first snowfall of the season. how exciting. its beautiful really - and it immediately melts as it hits the wet streets so that is nice for biking. best of both worlds really. oh what a week, whaaaaaaaat a week. i am so tired but happy. i also have not much time because i spent most of it uploading pictures! woohoo!

quickly:


monday was great we cleaned a lot and had a chill day. we also may or may not have eaten at mcdonalds. we wanted a little bit of america. shockingly - i didnt even regret it.

tuesday was a great day because we had a good lesson with a part member family. the father is struggling to understand and gain a testimony of the book of mormon. he wants to have another book that is easier to understand and work his way up to the BOM. we have hope.

wednesday was a party - literally. we went to the mission home and helped prepare things for christmas zone conference. we baked hundreds of cookies and prepared bags for all the missionaries to receive said cookies in. i helped decorate the bags. i had fun putting funny things on them with stamps. i would pretty much just stamp words that had something to do with christmas...here are some examples

"seasoned greeting"
"red."
"nat king cole" - under this one i wrote...if you dont understand why this is applicable to christmas, go ask sister stout or anyone over the age of 60.
"it should be in april"
"germany: its where christmas tree's come from"

thursday was a riot - we ate raw meat at a sisters house. well...it was called carpaccio...i think...pretty much thin sliced raw meat on a salad....i ate it. the whole time trying to convince myself that it was just roast beef....and what is even better...the next day i read this in the bible...

 " and into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you.." - luke 10:8

hilarious.

friday was good because we had a lesson with fabien where we cleared up a lot of misconceptions and where she perhaps saw a glimmer of truth. lets hope!!!!

saturday was filled with basically two things. banana bread and a baptism. we spent the morning baking banana bread for her baptism. and then we went to her baptism. SO MANY PEOPLE SHOWED UP. tons of her friends and family - so many members. also - z.rigdon and i sang a duet of "the lord is my shepherd"...i sang the alto part...can you believe it? i can't even read notes! it was a miracle.

sunday, hanneke became officially a member and received the holy ghost! YESSSSS!!!!! church was great as usual. i learned a lot. we also helped serve the soup after sacrament  - it was fun.


so - what i learned this week!?!?!?! its actually too much to type in a small email because i am literally running out of time. literally? what does that mean? i am metaphorically running out of time. here we go. just wasted two minutes on that sentence. I LEARNED THAT I LOVE THE BIBLE. i already knew that but i didnt really know. i have seriously been seriouslyyyy reading it and i love it so much. here is why: Christ always teaches us the higher law. He tells us over and over again that we should WALK the walk. He tells us to make things happen. He heals the blind - but is really trying to reach those who are spiritually blind - he speaks in parables because it -  "conveys to the hearer religious truth exactly in proportion to his faith and intelligence; to the dull and uninspired it is a mere story, 'seeing they see not' while to the instructed and spiritual it reveals the mysteries or secrets of the kingdom of Heaven. thus it is that the parable exhibits the condition of all true knowledge, only he who seeks finds." BD pg174... oh i love it! its true. i am excited to read the first edition in Heaven....but i also know that we learn the most in the application. Christ wants us to read and learn....but more than that...he wants us to make it happen with our actions. i am so grateful to constantly have another chance to try again - he understands our weaknesses - he totally gets it. and he continually shows us...WITH LOVE...how to do it right. i love it. i am so grateful!

okay. i seriously must leave you. i love you all. did you know that?!?!!?!?
thank you for your love and prayers dearest family of mine. you are the BESTTTTTTTTT.


- z. katelyn marie stout