Who knew that weeding would be soooo much fun.

MTC to MLC...because practically my whole district are now zone leaders.  

I dont know if I sent the other picture...but it is our album cover;)

but Elder Ocampo wasnt there so we had to improvise and have Elder Richards join, because he was also in our MTC group.

Goedemorgen!

Add caption

Well this week was an interesting on. A hard one....but a good one.

We taught our investigator Michel a lot...the one in a wheelchair, and even had Romy (a new member who is our age) come a long. It was the best lesson yet and the spirit was soooooo strong. We finally committed him to come to church and to a barbecue after to celebrate 4th of July....

The next day on my way home from Belgium I receive a call from his mother. She told me that she does not want us to meet with him ever again. Although it is kind of ridiculous that he is 39 and she is not allowing us, when he has full control over his own choices. We dont know the extent of his conditions and we want to respect her, and she told us that he feels the same way. So it was a stab in the heart kind of...Just because he had also become a good friend and I had done sooo much to try and help him. 

But hey I got to go to Belgium so that was nice. (trying to find positives;))

us drenched after getting dropped...sis parker

Then the next day on exchanges it poured sooooooo much. We got drenched within 5 minutes and we went to an appointment with my shoes just squeaking and farting....and he sat us down and told us that he does not want to meet with us anymore...(now the knife was being twisted)....not going to lie, I saw it coming, he wasnt as positive after all. 

And for the rest of the week, literally all of our appointments cancelled. No joke. It was kind of long...but to look at the positives again, I was able to go to Belgium and MLC and see me friends.

Other than that we are just working hard, and we were able to do service for an old less active lady this week. We weeded. It was wonderful!! It is funny how before the mission, anything to do with the garden is a chore, and if you come on the mission it is a treat. It is sooooo nice just to be able to relax and stare at weeds and pull weeds and sit in the sun. It was a nice project after a long week and she was sooo grateful and proud of her garden when we left.

I wish dutch people would let us help them more. I had to practically beg her to let us help her do her garden. Anyways...

That is just about it. We celebrated Bo's birthday...4th of July with familie de Jonge yesterday with a big American Barbeque it was wonderful!!

Birthdays: sorry i am the worst!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TEDDY AND BO AND SHARI AND DAD ALEX (I missed you a while back) 

I LOVE AND MISS YOU...I am working on letters...,but you know me...I am terrible at writing, and I am sorry...I will try to do better.

I MISS YOU ALL!! I know it was a rough week, but I still do love it here. I am looking forward to a miracle filled week full of finding and knocking:) haha.

IK HOU VAN JULLIE!!

wees veilig!!

VEEL LIEFS!

Zuster Stewart-Chester

Elder Muller, Elder Groesbeck and Elder Hosea.

hesther

Add caption

I made a cake.

sis. de jonge made a pie...

we couldnt leave out canada of course

making smores

smores..simon de jonge

Anna...she is always sooo serious and cute. It is sooo hard not being able to hold her.

Broeder de jonge.

and of course sis. Duncan took the picture...so I found this later 

 Elder Da Silva also joined in.

  Elder Wilson   and  Estelle

rhemert

I believe in Miracles....where you from?

Zuster Conrad...in Gouda

Goedemorgen!!

Well I hope you arent getting sick of my short miracle emails, because I might not be sending much different for the rest of my mission. sorry....

Miracles this week:

We knocked a lot, and received a lot of referrals langs de deuren....it could have been because I had asked to sing for them and then they point me to someone musical, but it was still pretty cool. We started out with two referrals this week, and ended with 2 and 7 contacted...not many interested but it was still pretty cool.

Also this week I got my first member referral!! haha woohooo it does actually happen here;) We were just asking them to pray for a street for us to knock and she said...this is the street this is the name and this is the house. Right then and there. Pretty cool!! 

Also from one of our referrals from last week (also from going langs de deuren(knocking)) it was just from this Muslim guy who had said that this lady had been through a rough time and needed our message. So we came back and guess what. She was interested!! Took a Book of Mormon and scheduled an appointment with us...(in a month, but all well).

sorry that I dont do very much follow up on some of these referrals...if you are ever really just curious about what actually happens with them just ask. Usually if I stop talking about them that means they arent investigating...but not always!!

We had zone Conference this week and it was really good!! I had to give a small presentation on being more creative and making new finding ideas. It went well I think. haha but zone Conference was good, learned a lot, and received more things that I need to work on. (it never ends in this work...it is wonderful!! :))

I am sooooo exhausted!!! Yesterday I could not stop laughing at everything Elder Wilson and Elder Ord said...I think I was ready for my pday haha, but today I get to go play basketball!! I am excited, and this week, because sis. Conrad has to do Legal work...I get to go to Brussells!! YIPPEEEE!! haha

I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!! 

The time goes by soooo fast and I can already tell that this week is going to be a fast one!

Ik hou van jullie!!

Wees veilig!

VEEL LIEFS,

Zuster Stewart-Chester

Bikes.....

Zuster Conrad Isnt she cute:)? haha she will hate me for this

Gouda

Zuster Conrad and I:) 

"Remember, every time you look up at the moon, I, too, will be looking at the moon, not the same moon of course. That is impossible."

GOEDEMORGEN!!

hajkhdflkjashf 

This is how fast I wish I could type, but then it always just turns out like that...emailing is such a pain sometimes haha....and I am not that good at managing my time...so I just never have time!!

Anyways. This week was really good.

Actually it was really good!!! Nothing too crazy, but just saw some small miracles throughout the week, and especially yesterday.

I sang in church yesterday, and there were two people who had come to listen to a family member speak in sacrament meeting....(non members) turns out he is a musician and they were really touched by my song. It was super cool, and they were way too nice, and kept bringing it up...A LOT. 

Then at church, Broeder Van Hensen Van Uningen gave me a referral to look up...it was just a less active that had popped up to him, so we decided to do it just after church. So we did and it was super good. She was extremely surprised, and not necessarily happy that we came, but she was nice, and let us in. She isnt very willing to come back, but it was still cool, because we had a great small lesson with her. She had had a bad experience with the church as a member, and it made me very angry that that was even the case. We all need to do better at not judging members around them, and just loving each other....anyways. I just sang her I heard Him come...and you could tell that she felt the spirit. It is great, because in the song it says to never let His light go, and to hold on to Christ. I think it hit her. We separated a little awkwardly, but I just hope that spirit testified of the love that Jesus has for her...I know it did, because I felt it as I sung. I just hope she realized it.

After our dinner appointment with the amazing familie Markus, we had had a lesson planned with this super flaky young guy who had already cancelled a couple lessons, so we were not expecting it to go through, but when I called him he was still good for it, so the Elders came and we had an AMAZING lesson with him. The team unity was incredible, and we were able to always bring back what he was saying and going off topic to the message of the restoration...(Elder Wilson helped me out with that one) and we were all able to bear powerful testimony to him. He took it super well, and is super willing and open so it was great.

Also that lady from England that we had found before doing service last week, we went to her house as well, and expected her to have been busy, but she was ready for us when we got there. She said she had been soooo excited all week, about getting the Book of Mormon. It was incredible. I have never seen anyone as excited about the Book of Mormon as she was. She was literally giddy about it. haha so I am excited to see how she feels about it later.

Also I went on enxchanges to Tilburg we both did and just worked there, because they are really struggling with the work there, and because I had to teach a district meeting with the zone leaders in that zone, because Tilburg is not technically in our zone. (sorry for the run-on sentence) we just knocked a lot of doors, but it was great, because me and sis. Musgrave just tried singing to people, and actually had some success...not too many people actually interested, but were able to hopefully bring the spirit.

and...I ate dinner at President Boom's brothers house who is the area 70 here in Nederland sooo that was pretty cool.

It has literally pooooouuuuuuurrrreeeed almost the whole week this week. haha but somehow we have stayed pretty dry. 

We also had another super awesome lesson with this guy from Africa and I learned some Tigrinia (I think that is how you spell it)..

I love and miss you all, but I love it here...sorry. haha

Ik hou van jullie!!

Wees veilig en gezond!

Fijne week verder!

VEEL LIEFS,

Zuster Stewart-Chester

Zuster Musgrave....pooring rain completely drenched.

Zuster Conrad made scones...

This picture is going up on a wall somewhere:)

When someone graduates from highschool they put a flag with their backpack hanging on it outside their home.

Hello, it's us....

A member took us out to eat this week....it was really yummy!!!  


Goedemorgen allemaal!

Well this week was a good week...

"REALLY good" (nacho)

"It started out like any other"

anyways...I dont know why I am randomly quoting things right now...sorry.

But it really was a good week. It was just a great example, of if you just go out and work when you are supposed to be working then God blesses you.

This week we handed out 7 copies of the Book of Mormon, which is pretty cool...(the only reason why I kept track was because we were doing a competition in the zone)...but I should keep track more often. 

I contacted this super cool lady on the bus this week. She was from Aruba, but super nice. She had told me how she had been strong in her church in Aruba, but coming here it was a different feeling at the church, and didnt like that people just went to church because they were supposed to, and thought that church could also just be at home...we had some good discussions, but she got off too quick and I only had the chance to give her a card...she quickly said in general where she lives...(in a very broad description in broken dutch) sooooo we are going to gooo check it out and try knocking it until we find her haha. 

But it was cool, because she had told me that she had missed her bus, and we had actually missed ours as well (which would have taken us in a completely different direction to get home) soooo it was meant to be. "toeval bestaat niet"

Also this week was the first week that a dutch person has ever let us do service for them. They are always so funny and like to do things themselves...but we were knocking doors, and they were doing there garden so I asked if we could help, and they said yes...(very skeptical...but they said yes:)) so that was huge, and then we were able to talk about why we were there and where we were fun, pretty cool....who knows if she is actually going to ever become an investigator...but she was very nice, and now has a good positive outlook on the church, so maybe in the future.

We also found a super cool lady from England right before doing service, and she is super interested!! We stood and talked to her for a while, about life, and England, and she wants a Book of Mormon and we scheduled an appt with her for next week wooohooo!!

Also had an interesting lesson with a Rastafarian guy who got SUPER upset that we wouldnt just come into his house (because we didnt have a joint teach or a third woman)

and for literally 45 min...he just kept bringing it up, and I had to explain it soooo many times ahah. He is funny.

Then last night was the best of them alll!!

Rewind to a couple weeks ago when we had a district blitz in Gouda...well Elder Thornock and Elder Ord had contacted a lady from Poland who wanted a Book of Mormon...

Elder Thornock had said it was at the end of the blitz, and that he almost didnt contact her and she was accross the street on the other side, but he chose to do it anyways...and I am sooo glad that he did. Well looking through the area book recently we had found her husband in there as a potential as well. So we would have eventually gotten to her, but Elder Thornock helped it to be sooner. 

Last night our appointment got cancelled so we decided to stop by. 

(if any of you have not seen the remake of hello by adele the missionary version you need to look it up because this is exactly how it happened and how we felt). 

They totally let us in and it was white in there house and she gave us delicious cake, and we talked about the Book of Mormon!! IT WAS SOOO AMAZING!! They were sooooo nice, and kept complementing me about how strong my spirit wasand they could tell I had a lot of faith...I just bore testimony that God had helped me throughout my whole mission and that sometimes it is hard, but it has been sooooo worth it, and I never want to leave. She was from Poland and her husband is from Peru. They are the coolest. He has a mullet of dreadlocks haha. But they are really positive...and we gave them the Book of Mormon in their languages and sadly they are going on vacation until August, but they will be baptized one day;) haha

It was super cool...walked home in the rain, and didnt even care.

I LOVE THIS WORK!!

Following the spirit in the lesson is such a rush!!!! I never want to leave this place! haha lets just move here and I will still be a missionary.

 I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!

IK HOU VAN JULLIE!!

wees veilig!

VEEL LIEFS,

Zuster Stewart-Chester

Nog een keer...

#floatingtate 

Goedemorgen iedereen!!

I am writing early because we are all going to kinderdijk today and there are a lot of things that we have to do, because transfer day is this week.

Saturday we received our transfer calls and I will be staying in Gouda!! I am actually super happy, I really was stressed that I was going to leave. Sadly I will not be keeping my baby, sis. De Souza....she is headed to Zoetermeer! Poor girl kicked out of her baby city...I know how it feels...(SIS ROBBINS!!!) but she is excited and I am excited for her. New change is good. 

As for me I will be getting ANOTHER groentje! Pretty crazy, I am very excited! I should know what I am doing by now right? I hope so. 

I HIT MY YEAR MARK THIS WEEK!! WHAT????? soooooo insane time is going by way too fast. It feels like sis. Harris just hit her year mark, and she is already dead next week. haha (figuratively) 

...wat nog meer...

Oh last week for pday we went to Utrecht...Such a beautiful city, and we climbed the Dom Toren!! (dom tower) 

We had a pretty crazy week....we did service for a guy that let us in on sis. de souza's first day knocking doors....he had prepared a list of things for us to do. The two things we ended up doing: holding a shelf for him to nail into the wall...and opening sealed envelopes with quotes inside, and keeping ones we liked. haha pretty therapeutic evening. He talked for a VERY long time. not willing to read the Book of Mormon sadly, but an interesting guy.

We had a lesson with a guy who just wanted to bible bash the whole time. He was not really open at all! So it was pretty pointless...we just bore testimony as much as we could and shared scriptures, but he wasn't really having it. It made me super frustrated, because he wasn't very nice, and quite prideful. I stood up for what I believed of course, and all I can say is that I did my best to follow the spirit, and try to help him. He was not open for it.

Other than that...nothing too crazy...just typical missionary work...the best kind of work.

I miss you all!!! I hope you are all safe and sound. 

Everyone should read the talk: what lack I yet?.....super good one. I have been asking myself that question a lot on my mission. I am starting to realize, that I have been very humbled on my mission, but it has been soooo great. I am soooo grateful for all of the humbling experiences!

IK HOU VAN JULLIE!!

wees veilig!

VEEL LIEFS,

Zuster Stewart-Chester

THIS GUY IS A RASTAFARIAN:)

He screams SISTERS every time we see him,
because we stopped and talked to him one day
 on our bikes.

Celebrating mine and Elder Thornocks year mark.

Eld. Van Den Dungen Bille put his picture on a
planner he made for me so I decided to put him on his own.  (THIS ELDER TAUGHT MY DAUGHTER TO SAY FETCH:(  )  

tower in Utrecht.. 

I am going to miss sis. De souza!!

MY GREENIE....MY HEART:)  XO

Our guide. (AT THE UTRECHT TOWER)..Elder Thornock asked where he could go to school in order to become a ringer of the bells!

sis de souza said after seeing this pic...look they have their own statue of liberty here.

AT HOGWARTS

THE TOWER:)

Giant wheel of cheese...
Elder fairbanks and I used it for zone training!

ya...I am running out of things to say...

GOEDEMORGEN!!

Hello everyone....well this week was crazy. 

I literally am sooooo exhausted, but it is all for a good cause right? so I cant complain.

This week we had zone training, so we had to train the missionaries in our zone. We did three groups (the zone leaders and I) and then each of us worked with a district leader to present our topics. Elder Fairbanks and I trained on Taal Studie (language study) and it was a big hit I think. Although I did spend some long nights on the phone planning and trying to figure out what we were supposed to do. It all came together really nicely. We even wrote a lovely remix to Hallelujah in dutch. We will be recording it later but...I am sorry I cant send videos anyways. You will all have to ask me about it when I get back.

But it was a good zone training, and it was weird to have to be involved for the first time...I got too used to just sitting and learning.

Anyways other than that we just had a lot going on. We traveled a lot, even if it was for no reason, because our appointment kept cancelling.

But it really feels like this week was two weeks combined together.

I love the members here in Gouda. They are amazing!! They spoil us, and this week Broeder Hoornweg (our ward mission leader) complained about how little we get for money each month (it really isnt bad dont worry) and said that he would grill us up some steak's next time:) 

We actually had some nice luck with some good lessons this week...but sadly they were all pretty set in their ways and found it interesting, but didnt want to go any further. We are just working on still finding those people that are interested!

This week we also had exchanges twice. First I worked with sis. Ibrahim from Suriname. She speaks a little Arabic so she came with me to a lesson with this Arabic guy and it was super cool. 

Then I got to work with sis. Harris's greeny sis. Black from Northern Ireland...She is super awesome, and we are so similar its crazy. I had a good time.

It is fun being able to go on exchanges with all of the sisters, they are all sooo different, but all sooo willing to work hard!

Other than that I have like no news sorry...it has been pretty crazy....and yet not at all, and my brain isnt functioning right now sorry.

I love you all, I love this work!! It is soooo much fun...you just have to deal with the hard stressful stuff as well, and then the shower of blessings comes!! Sometimes now when I look back, I would do it all over again, just so I can keep these memories. Missions are great!

IK HOU VAN JULLIE!!

Fijne Week, en wees veilig!

VEEL LIEFS,

Zuster Stewart-Chester

"HOE GAAT HET?!"

Goedemorgen!!

I hope eveything is going well!!

I am sorry I am the worst with emails and everything. These past few weeks have just been insane...but soooooo great. 

I am really loving it here in Gouda. The ward takes such good care of us. I already love them all sooo much. 

GOUDA!!

We are seeing sooooooooooo many miracles and finding people like crazy lately. It just shows that when you go out to work, and show Heavenly Father that you are willing to put in the effort, he will put people in your path. and more than twice or three times, it has been the last door we knock or the last person we contact. (typical)

so just a few small miracles this week:

(well there is no such thing as small I guess but..)

This week we did a blitz after District Meeting in Gouda, which means that everyone just did some work for us in Gouda. I mapped out everywhere where I felt they needed to knock gave them all maps and off they went. Last second things went crazy and sis. De Souza went to Brussels to play piano for President Uchtdorf with the Gruppeman's (famous violinists, and he is our Bishop) and because I had scheduled exchanges I let sis. Ibrahim go with her, and Sis. Cathers (from Northern Ireland) and I got some work done in Gouda then went off to Utrecht. It was crazy but we scheduled two appointments with people in Gouda and one of them is already a new investigator. It was great. Then we even found some super awesome potentials in Utrecht that night as well!

(also the Dordrecht Elders were with President Bunnell on the blitz and totally found an investigator for us, and taught him a lesson!)

Then we went out to Woerden this week to visit a less active who is wonderful, and really struggling. After our appointment we had a lot of time, and I forgot to bring the map, so we just knocked in the area. Literally the last door we were about to knock the guy was washing his car outside. He came up to us and asked if we were there to talk to him. We told him that we were missionaries, here to share a message about Christ and he was super interested. A young guy and he is very curious. A strong Christian, and he commented on my guitar because he plays too. He reminds me a little of Guido...(just that he is curious) but he wants to meet with us, and he asked us to come back and to schedule an appointment. So we will be meeting with him this week, with my guitar, and we are going to jam to some awesome Christian songs! haha He even said he would bring his girlfriend! Woohoo!

Last but not least last night, we went out to work early taking only a small dinner, because we wanted to make sure that we got our hours for the week/work hard....and so we decided to go knock a street that was referred to us by a family in the ward. The Elders had asked them to pray about a street for us to knock and had thought of that one. So we went, and there were only like 6 doors on that street. so we started knocking this big flat right next to it which was a different street but looked like it could have been the same. One of the 3rd bells we ring this awesome guy named Michael comes out. He has really been through a lot of things, and had a lot of operations, and we talked to him about Jesus Christ and how he was never alone, and gave him a Book of Mormon. He was a riot. We just chatted with him for the rest of the night and laughed a lot!! He is hilarious, and when I said I could bring my guitar next time, he said: "wait you guys are going to come back" I made sure that was what he wanted and he did!! It was such a cool thing. 

The Lord puts people who are prepared in your path!! We literally didnt have to do anything. I think the more I am out on my mission. I realize how much I actually do...which is not much at all!! All I have to do is go out to work follow the spirit, and BAM! haha (more or less) haha

Also for my title...this is actually from last week, but it was soooo funny that I had to share it!! Sis. De Souza is wonderful and like I said soooo bold. We walked onto the train last week and she saw a cute guy and he smiled at us...she just lit up haha. We sat accross on the other side of the train but next to him, and she knew that we needed to talk to him. I kind of raised my eyebrows at her and said "Doe maar!" (do it) daring her, and she asked when we had to get off which was the next one...as soon as he looked up from his computer for a second she yelled "HOE GAAT HET?!" (how are you?) haha he was surprised but played it off and was very nice. We talked to him for a little but had to get off and we gave him a card. It was just a funny thing. She has guts!! I LOVE IT!!

Other than that.....

Well just everything is great. I love it here, and we are having a lot of fun! I am sooo tired today, but that is such a good thing! We are going to Rotterdam today to play basketball which is sooooo fun!! I love beating the Elders;) just kidding they are all really good, but it is super fun, and a good stress reliever for me! 

I hope you all have a great week! I MISS YOU AND LOVE YOU!!

Ik hou van jullie!

Wees veilig!

VEEL LIEFS,

Zuster Stewart-Chester

Gouda!

after playing basketball last week we threw rice crackers to the geese and swans.

This is who we met last night...and sis. De Souza taught him hand hugging cuz we cant hug...haha he loved it!

zr. De Souza found this in our closet in the middle of the night and she was cold! haha

Us Wearing our helmets.....