THIS IS HALLOWEEN.....

GOEDEMORGEN!!!

Sorry to throw everyone off by actually emailing early today...but we are going to Amsterdam today. It is my first time ever...(Can you believe that??) and I only have like 2 and a half weeks left...so I figured I should probably at least go see it, because a ton of people are going to be asking me if I went there when I get back...and because of course who doesnt want to go to Amsterdam????

Well this week was great. Super crazy busy, but great.

There are not enough hours in a day, and yet, I am always sooooo ready for the day to be over, so I can go to bed...but at the same time it is terrible because every day that goes by means I am closer to going home...(cry face/happy face).

As you can see my emotions have been up and down alllllllllllllllllllllll week! It is a love/hate relationship. Yesterday I broke down just while looking at our eating calendar and realizing that I wont be here for some appointments. Ridiculous I know....but it is sooooo sad that the work just keeps going and I cant even be here to be a part of it. Of course it is a good thing that it keeps going, but not being able to be here and be a missionary is no fun.

Well you know what I mean...haha of course being home will be fun as well.

You just cant have the best of both worlds I guess...

Anyways enough of me whining!

We met with Rut this week who is from Curacao and he is wonderful. He told me he wants to get me something before I go, but I just said the only gift I wanted was a curacaon meal...so he said he would do his best...we will see:)

We had two exchanges this week...because sis. Lindsey came up for MLC, and her companion needed someone to work with. Which was cool for sis. Vandenberghe because she was comps with her in the MTC....it was a blast and we did service at Wouters, and went and picked up sprouts in the tractor with him...(dont worry you will see the pics)

We also had exchanges with Den Haag and I worked with sis. Mercer...who was Sis. Conrads comp in the MTC. It was a good time. She is super funny!

Halloween party this week and we helped Peter with his scootmobile for the trunk or treat, and dressed up as old people:) It was really last second but it was a good time, plus lots of non members showed up, sooooo it was AWESOME!!

wat nog meer...

We also had an incredible dinner appt. on Saturday, because it was actually the parents of a recent convert who is now at BYU. They are wonderful and really opened up to us about their fears for their son going on a mission and not being able to see him. It was soooo wonderful being able to testify to them that the Lord would help them and comfort them and him during his service and that they would be extremely blessed for his service. They were great. We even roasted marshmallows on an actual campfire thing:)

Other than that literally just running around. I literally am the worst at planning tram times and everything, so we literally are always running around...catching trams and buses...but it is great. haha

Ik hou van jullie!!

I am actually excited to see you all dont worry!

Wees veilig,

fijne week verder,

VEEL LIEFS,

Zuster Stewart-Chester

HALLOWEEN

sis. Walquist on our way back in the carriage with sproutjes

stole from Ton de Groot on Facebook:) 

Add caption

this is our investigator...we had a game night!

 

Peter doesnt like thumbs up so we put our thumbs down...

the cute parents of the converts 

 

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GOEDEMORGEN!!

well that title is due to me running out of ideas for titles.

So another crazy busy week has gone by, and I am pretty exhausted, but we are seeing a lot of miracles. 7 non members showed up at church yesterday.  So that was pretty incredible.

I swear that this place is just blessed because the temple is here. HOLY GROUND!

But really...

Monday we had an incredible lesson with the lady that we met on the tram...she is the sweetest lady I have ever met. So sweet and sincere and I can tell that she has had a lot of difficulties in her life. I am so excited to just help her by sharing the gospel with her!

We went to the farm this week and named cows after us that didnt have names...and the personalities fit pretty well!! haha I will send you pictures of our cows. 

Also we carved pumpkins with Peter, a couple of his friends and their kids and it was a lot of fun!! Although the pumpkins are different here and we had to buy pretty small ones. 

But other than that it was a pretty basic week of running from appointment to appointment....sorry this letter is pretty lame...so I wanted to talk to you about what I have been studying for the past few days.

Our mission President has challenged us to read through the Book of Mormon by the end of this year and highlight everything that references Jesus Christ, and also to write all of the describing words of Christ, and all of the names He is given. I meant to tell you guys last week, and challenge you all to do it with me....but I totally spaced it sorry.

But it is never tooo late right. It would mean that you would have to read like 7 pages a day, but honestly I AM LOVING IT!!! I just always want to keep reading and i cant help but get ahead. I am seriously learning soooo much from it and I am enjoying it. The Book of Mormon is seriously soooo powerful. I want you all to know that i know that the Book of Mormon is true. I think I have always known, but being on a mission I really have received a witness that it is true. 

I was pretty exhausted this week, and overwhelmed at all of the things I have to do, and that are expected of me, and also training and wanting to do better for sis. Vandenberghe, but also doing a lot of this all on my own...and then cleaning and burning my hand because I was frustrated and the water was super hot(dont worry it is fine) and also going home soon and realizing that I need to use time wisely and not wanting to leave here at all!!! But I really just received soooo much strength as soon as I sat down and read the Book of Mormon. IT IS SOOOO POWERFUL!

So I challenge you all to set a goal...if not by the end of this year, but to set a goal to read it by a certain point and to highlight and write the names of Christ and the describing words in the back. You will come closer to Christ, and you will want to become more like Him and it will help you to become more like Him. I love Him and know that He lives!! Find out for yourselves!

Ik hou van jullie, en mis jullie heel veel!

Wees veilig!

Fijne week, en tot volgende maandag,

VEEL LIEFS,

Zuster Stewart-Chester

Pday Picture from Dave Mutinga (He's the best sending this mum pictures of her daughter:)  

stewchie

wouter...I know it looks like blood but it is actually medicine for the utters.

flirt to convert

preaching the gospel to cows...flirt to convert

Cows named after us..../our nicknames...

Vergie...for Zr. Vandenberghe.....

...Stewchie/Stucci(like gucci) for me.....

...Japsters for Elder Leishman....

Shoveling poop....

...and Steeler (steal in dutch) for Elder Steele.

wouter..I know it looks like blood but it is actually medicine for the utters.

 pumpkins with Peter...I did his for him. haha he didn't want to get dirty.

choir on sunday a member took this and sis. Vandenberghe played the violin

"IK KEN EEN WOORD EEN HEEL MOOI WOORD HET KOMT VAN GOD HET KOMT VAN GOD IK HOU VAN JOU HEEL VEEL VAN JOU!!!!!!!!!"

GOEDEMIDDAG!!!!!!

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO......I have no time today, but that is okay because nothing too exciting happened this week, besides obviously meeting with great people and finding some awesome people on transportation this week.

Literally I have never been sooooo busy on my mission as this week has been. Literally there are so many things that we need to do, and not even enough time to do them. Dad you can probably hear the stress coming off of this email, but it is okay. You will be happy to know, that I have learned on my mission about handling stress...better. Not perfect yet, so dont get your hopes up too much for next month.

OFFICIALLY ONE MONTH TILL I GO HOME?!?!?! 

I am dying. Literally as a missionary and inside. It doesnt really help that everyone here will not stop talking about it. My greeny brings it up more than I do. haha But it will be good. Mondays always help seeing your faces (through pictures) and hearing you sing(through recordings) so it makes me realize that it will be pretty good to see you again. 

We talked to this guy from Curacao this week on transportation and he had a white streak in his hair, he was pretty cool, but kept telling me about how he was going to curacao soon and that I could come with him, and when I told him I couldnt because I was going home soon he said that he would just come home with me...so I might be bringing home a big curacaoan guy mom...(TOTALLY KIDDING AHHHHH!!!) haha. He wanted a Book of Mormon though and the address of the church!

and THEN!!!

We sat next to this guy on the bus...well he sat on the other side, but I knew I had to say something and I started talking to him and he was super cool. I told him that we were from Utah and he brought up the mormons...(also the verkiezingen....(I cant even think of the word in English right now sorry) which was interesting) but he even asked about the Book of Mormon so we were able to give him one!! Pretty cool. He was super nice!

Other than that...

OH YA!!! me and my companion found out that we have lice.

so theres that. Pretty crappy to have it now, brought me back to the good ole days of mom combing through my hair to kill all of those little bugs. We are pretty sure that all of the other sisters have them too...and for sure sis. de souza and sis. maughan. haha. But dont worry we are becoming bug free soon! 

haha I LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU....

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

sorry no pics....I am slacking and my camera sort of broke...

Ik hou van jullie,

wees veilig,

VEEL LIEFS,

Zuster Stewart-Chester 

p.s. the song in the title is from our very own Gunter here. he is hilarious and we always sing it around him!

"HAWAAI CAN'T HAVE HER!!"

Goedemiddag allemaal,

What. A. Week.

Remember how I told you all that I was probably going to get a lot more sleep without 4 sisters in one apartment this week....welll I was sooooo wrong. But mainly because I stayed up cleaning and making planners because our apartment was not very nice. But also because this week we got Sis. Brandenburg:)

This week....well transfer day was kinda crazy... Just with sending off sis. De souza and sis. Maughan. We were up late trying to help them, and also cleaning and then it still was a mess and we had to rearrange a lot of things. But it all worked out nicely.

We went to a baby shower in the Wassenaar ward for Relief Society, and that was really interesting....it did not really make me baby trunky (because all the woman were talking about how hard the process is of having a baby, and all of the craziness with work schedules, and doctors) haha so dont worry about me mom, it will be a while.

We had a super funny experience this week as well on our way home from a dinner appointment after looking someone up (she wasnt home/didnt answer) going back to do some 12 week with sis. Vandenberghe...well on the way back I stopped on the bike and talked to this man, that told me that he didnt have a way to find peace in life...and yet he was satisfied....haha he didnt want to talk to me...then I saw the next lady and she was wobbling back and forth, so I knew that she was most likely drunk. I stopped and talked to her asking her if she needed any help.

and...that is when things started getting interesting. She was not very happy with me at first, and just kept yelling REALLY loudly at me saying to keep on biking and to mind my own business, but she kept talking to me and saying that her ex had cheated on her with another woman and had left her with their one child...so she was going to go buy her beer and go stay the night at her mothers house..."DUS FIETS MAAR DOOR ALSJEBLIEFT!!" (so Keep on biking please!) I knew I couldnt leave without testifying to her of God's love for her, and that we could find peace through Him. So I did, and she began saying that she knew that God loved her no matter what she did, and didnt need any church to help her or anyone....and to just keep on biking. but yet she kept talking to me! She just kept saying over and over again that she was going to go get her beer and stay at her mothers house, and that if she was me should watch out. She told me that I better watch out because the world was going to eat me up, and that my two companions needed to take care of me. and Yet then she said she thought I was a "SCHAT" (treasure)  and wanted to give me a kiss on the cheek. so she did, and before this she had been jabbing my chest and pushing me a little...(dont worry mom I felt safe, and knew that she couldnt really hurt me) Luckily I was wearing a helmet though...which I think is the reason she began to do this: but she began to hit me on the top of my head a good 3 or 4 times pretty hard...BUT President was led by the Lord and we now wear helmets. haha. But I think it was a good way for her to get out her anger a littler bit, without even hurting anyone. haha but she said to me..."You know what you are a Lieferd....(sweetie) because you saw me and you knew there was something wrong and you tried to come and swoop me up and help me in any way that you could. I think you are just a Schat." She gave me a big hug and another big kiss on the cheek. and she said again to me "You better watch out because the world will just eat you up, and dont be a whore or dont go around having fun."...then turning to sis. Brandenburg: "you need to take care of her....YOU ARE NOW THE BOSS!!," turning to me..."you have to listen to her now, because she is the boss!" then gave us all fist bumps (which I am surprised she was even able to do she was sooo drunk) and said again to not go mess around and to watch out, wished us a good night and off we went.

It was actually pretty cool, sis. Vandenberghe snuck a card in her hand through that, and she put it in her pocket so who knows...but I think we helped her a little hopefully...even if it was just so that she could get her anger out on my helmet.

Sis. Brandenburg is incredible. I really have loved working with her this week, and my dutch has improved enormously!!!!! She was a lot of fun, and sadly this morning we had to send her off with President, because she received her visa. It was one of those times that you want to be happy for her, but are just sad that she wont be able to stay here. We have had a lot of fun, just in these past few days with her.  So we took a hilarious picture and sent it to the office saying that they were not allowed to take her away from us.

So the apartment is really quiet now....and I think this week I will actually get some sleep:) haha

We also went to the temple this weekend with sis. Brandenburg before she left, and that was really cool. Church was great. We had a ton of investigators/random people just show up at church!! I am super excited for this transfer, we have a lot of work to do!

I love and miss you all, but I love it here. These crazy experiences that I have already had and will continue to have, just dont really happen after a mission, and I will be sad, to leave this beautiful country...I am trying to warm myself up to going home, but I am really excited to see you all again. I hope you realize how blessed we all really are. Notice the miracles. Keep the Commandments, Follow the Prophet,....dont go astray:)

IK HOU VAN JULLIE!!

wees veilig,

prettige week nog,

..and last day before transfers.

Because HAWAAI CANT HAVE HER.

tacos...thanks to the Brinley's:)

bowling on monday...

VEEL LIEFS,

Zuster Stewart-Chester

Indhira is gedoopt!!

It was way too late:) 

Goedemiddag Dames en Heren!!

Hello everyone. This week was rather extraordinary and I am excited to be able to tell you about it.

We saw a lot of miracles this week, and for the first time in a long time we taught a first lesson!:)

This week INDHIRA GOT BAPTIZED!!!! It was a beautiful service and most of it was in Spanish so that was great! It is surprising how much I can actually understand!

We even sang in Spanish...dont worry mom...we got it on video!

We fasted on Wednesday and then the blessings were poured down on top of us...literally. 

It poured this weekend.

But we were blessed as well, and the rain was really refreshing actually. After the drought the rain finally came...and we saw success. The Assistants were kind enough to knock in Wassenaar last week for us, and gave us a referral to go look up, and he is super awesome! He is from Curacao, and really interested. It was great speaking dutch and teaching a lesson again. THEN...we went to a kids house who we had given a Book of Mormon too, and couldnt go in, but asked him if he had read and what he thought. He said he likes it, and had flown to London and read it on his flight. WHAT?!?! Pretty cool!

AND THEN! We ran into this guy who had let us in a while back ANDREAS and he is awesome and funny and we talked with him in the rain for like 30 min! haha it was a great day...ended by eating delicious soup at the Kauffmans and correlating. It was a great day. 

Friday was also good...but haha no time to explain and nothing tooo interesting to put down...ask me when I get back.

Saturday was also GREAT!!

BECAUSE OF THE BAPTISM OF COURSE....

THEN on Sunday we have amazing members and we got to see a little bit of conference, and I AM SO HAPPY THAT THEY INVITED US....because...

On our tram ride to Leidschendam I sat down and there was an older couple on the other side, and I was bracing myself not wanting to talk to them but knew I needed to, and then this lady came towards me and smiled so I smiled back and said hello, and she sat next to us. I started talking to her and turns out she "knew who we were" / she had met missionaries in Bulgaria and didnt know they had a church here. We were rushing and I told her we had to get off...so she started quickly telling us her number. CRAZY!!!

So that was cool, and we celebrated sis. De souza's birthday so it was pretty much a party this week.

OF MISSIONARY WORK OF COURSE.

Anyways. I LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU....missions go by sooo fast.

OH YA, and there are transfers this week.

I will be dying in Zoetermeer with sis. Vandenberghe, and I am very excited. We are just getting used to it here, and really starting to work with the ward....hard part is though, is that we will be now taking on the Zoetermeer ward as well. Which is great because that means I will be speaking dutch a lot more for my last transfer on my mission..(WHAT MY LAST TRANSFER...I know I cant get over it....I AM NOT READY) The other sisters will be leaving...sis. De Souza to Belgium and Sis. Maughan to Groningen. So that is exciting for them....and we will be adding on one sister to our companionship. Sis. Brandenberg from Leeuwarden!! She is a visa waiter, and so I will be able to speak some dutch this transfer because I am going to force her to help me all the time. Also Fries because she is from Frieslaan!

Anyways we are very excited...it will be sad to see the other sisters go, because we have all grown  a lot together...but our apartment will be a lot cleaner haha and I might get more sleep.

Ik hou van jullie!

wees veilig, en heb een goede week,

VEEL LIEFS,

Zuster Stewart-Chester

Peter

Indhira 

woke up sister de souza at midnight and decorated the place and shot her with confetti cannons.

IIsa

Gunter