AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

sorry this is how I feel so that is why it is my title.

HALLO IDEREEN!!

I literally have no time today, because we switched to do half of our pday on Friday and then someone needed our help so we did some weeds today in our skirts, and got to the church and the computers still arent working, and in about 10 minutes we are supposed to meet up with Guido. MISSIONARY LIFE. haha

....oh ps. Guido is still awesome:)

It has been a GREAT week...so I am sorry I have no time. We have seen some really great miracles...just one:

We had planned the night before to have 3 other given lessons, and we only had one actually planned, but a lot of free time afterwards.

On our way home from the first, I had the feeling to look up this lady that I had contacted with zuster Karlson forever ago, and she let us in and we taught her, and she is sooooo positive. 2 lessons!

Then later that day we were knocking doors, and this cool old guy talked to us, who basically is going straight to heaven;) and told us he believes in the story of Joseph Smith and has read the Book of Mormon but wants nothing to do with us. We talked to him for an hour though, and at the end I asked him if we could pray with him. He said yes...and that makes 3 lessons!!

Not that the number matters of course, but it might be the first time on my mission that I have ever achieved a goal, that we set, without any real plans. It was super cool, and it was because we really prayed to be able to achieve it!

Oh and this week I went to Catholic Mass....super pretty. It was a really great experience for me, but it made me grateful for our church. I LOVE THIS GOSPEL!!!!

Also we got let in knocking doors this week by a Jehovah's Getuiger...and it was weird...but she was nice, and we taught her about Joseph Smith...she wasnt interested though....and basically chastised us for celebrating Christmas and Birthday;s because they arent celebrated at all in the Bible...WIERD. But super cool experience...made me think a lot.

All of these experiences though, just made me sooooo extremely grateful for this gospel! I love being a missionary. It is SOOOO HARD!! BUT soooooo GOOD!!!

Anyways...I have more, but ahhhh no time. I am sorry. Maybe I will actually have time next week.

Oh I hit my half way mark this week what????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! soooo weird! and transfer calls are this weekend.

I have no time to send pictures....but I will send some next week.

I love you all and miss you!!

IK HOU VAN JULLIE

WEES VEILIG!

veel liefs,

Zuster Stewart-Chester

Blog stalking...found these:)  love mum:)

No subject....

HALLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AHHHHH I have no time, and I kind of debated just not writing this week, because I have nothing really good to say, but I knew you would be sad mother.

This week, we had Zone Conference and so I got to see sister Harris again. It was great!! We wrote a song for conference because Sis. Bunnell asked us to give a presentation on how to keep the kitchen clean while cooking....and to use examples...so we decided to make it fun, and we wrote the lyrics to I see Fire by Ed Sheren. It was a hit.

We also had Ring Conferentie...Stake conference...and it was really good. It is cool in a completely different language...and one of the Stake leaders is from Belgium so I got to hear Vlaamse again!! IT was so nice!

We did a lot of service this week actually. We oiled the benches in our church building because it is almost done being renovated! Cleaned out zr. Onninks car for her because she had knee surgery, and helped Sandra clean out an apartment.

This week we had some bad news. Our only progressing investigator with a Baptismal date dropped us...well technically we dropped him, because he wasnt willing to change. It was Piet. He just couldnt stop smoking...and didnt want to. He was funny and said that the only reason he was sad that we werent going to meet anymore was because he wouldnt be able to hear me play the guitar or sing anymore....haha He is funny, it was sad.

A lot of our other investigators have just dropped off the face of the planet. We cant get ahold of any of them....(I am pretty sure one of them died because he was super sick...hope not)...so we are doing A LOT of finding. Which is important, but we arent seeing much success....But this week we are going to see some miracles.

I miss you all! I hope you are all safe and sound...I am sorry that my letters are just getting shorter and shorter, this week was just kind of weird.

IK HOU VAN JULLIE!!

wees veilig!

VEEL LIEFS,

Zuster Stewart-Chester

"I just like it because I want to cuddle a lion.."

GOEDEMIDDAG!!!

I hope everyone is just doing great...but really, because this week, one of the members asked me how it was with my family and friends in America, and told me that God told her to ask me, and that I needed to make sure everyone was okay on Monday....

Kind of creepy and threw me off a little...but no bad news yet so I am hoping I am good.
I tell ya....you meet some pretty interesting people on a mission.

Anyways...this week

WAS GREAT!!

I did kind of hit a brick wall though when it got to Friday and my brain was just dead. I could not think or find my way around Groningen at all. I was exhausted...but its okay, because it all worked out.

This week we met up with Guido twice!! We just keep bringing him to members houses and eating food, and it is a great time. He is really searching, and he talked with Koen forever and said he was super impressed with him. He told us that he really just wants to know what we believe, and finds our....normen...my mind is blanking so mom can you look that up for me what the translation in english is ( It has to do with rules and who we are as people and what we do...maybe morals?)

really beautiful. He thinks it is so interesting that we dont drink alcohol or coffee or smoke. He struggles a little bit maybe wanting to change but he does think it is beautiful haha.

Our investigator Piet Geluk...(his music name is Pete Luck...translation in English) is still super positive...we taught him about the word of wisdom and he took it well...but this week we went over it again...and he is really struggling wanting to stop..."It is just toooo LEKKER!" (tasty) He wants to be baptized, but he just loves the pipe too much. So we are still going to work with him, and he said he would pray for the desire to stop. I kind of got it drilled into his head though, with an analogy that the spirit told me. He Always refers things to music or other things...and something he was saying just went so well with how God felt about him...and I told him and he couldnt respond..He will get it I know he will.

We had dinner with a member (Joyce) last night and it was like I was hanging out with you mom. She is the same age, and even looks and acts like you. It was soooo nice. You would be best friends I know it mom.

We went on exchanges to Leeuwarden this week and it was soooo nice. It helped gain my faith in knocking again..after last week...because we found 7 potentials in one day just knocking!!! CRAZY...maybe Groningen is just struggling haha because it was easy. Nah but it really was a good experience for me and much needed!!

I LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU!!!

I have no big stories to tell you...but I guess that is a good thing...because they usually involve me doing something stupid and losing something etc.

HAVE THE BEST WEEK EVER....even better than last week:)

Ik hou van jullie!!

VEEL LIEFS,

achterrooping with sis. Kimmons

This is Joyce...and she looks different in person...haha she kept talking during the timer...kind of made me think of nannie!
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Add caption

Leeuwarden

Zuster Stewart-Chester

HALLELUJAH!

Goedemiddag iedereen!!

How is everyone?? I hope you are all doing fantastic...I miss you all.

Quick shout our to Birthdays this week!!:

DALLIN, SAM, and NICK...all on the same day.

Also Clint on the 14th!  haha I hope you guys have the best day ever, and eat a lot of birthday cake for me. I hope everything is going well with you all.

Now...this week.

Honestly nothing too crazy this week happened.

I think I had the hardest day of my mission this week though...and I am only saying that to you all because I was able to overcome it and it turned out to be a great day (in the end;)) I learned sooo much and I was able to realize how much farther I can go than I think I can.

It was just this past Friday... and ALL of our plans fell through...but the thing with missionary work, is you cant just not do anything...if you arent busy you have to make yourself busy. Soooooo We knocked doors.

Just to make sure it wasnt an extremely long day, we decided to do a power hour before lunch so we could have a little break in between. Well within the first two doors, we talked to a lady for 10 minutes, and all she had to say was that what we were doing was absolutely pointless. She kept going on and on about how knocking doors doesnt do anything, and she was trying to come up with ideas even for us of other things to do..(all of which are like once a month ideas...and we have to do missionary work somehow).

She was still nice though...and we kept going. Literally every person slammed the door to us, and one guy asked us what in the heck we were doing here all the way from America..of course we told him, and he made the comment of. "nee, wij vinden het prettig binnen onze eigen kerk, en andere mensen vinden het ook zo, want we hoefen niet om andere mensen te dwingen om naar de kerk te komen."  .....basically: No we find it lovely in our own church, and other people think that as well, because we dont need to push people into coming to it.......

It was rough. I went home to lunch and prayed and cried and slept for an hour. haha

I really did not want to go back out...BUT I DID!!! and it was fine...obviously it still wasnt that great...but I definitely received help from God. He gave me the strength to keep going.

Then just when I think that day could never get better (because of how hard it was and I still had to keep working)...I find I am totally wrong.

We went to the Saores for dinner. (a lovely couple from Cape Verde...(Idont know how to spell it...africa)) and they just had a party at their house...It was ssooooooooo refreshing. So different than what I am used to...with the dutch people, but it was a taste of home. There was music, and laughing and eating yummy kachupa (also dont know how to spell it) which takes apparently five hours to make and it was delicious!! I brought my guitar and we just sang. There were some non members there too of course and we talked to this lady forever about the church. She was just eating it up. It was so nice!!

So that is where my title comes from: I played hallelujah and a bunch of drunk african guys (who spoke portuguese) sang a long at the chorus. Also one of them when we were leaving said.."wait you cant leave we were just going to dance..."and he proceeds to grab sis. Duncan and start dancing with her. She went bright red and I laughed soooo hard. It is just funny because you especially have to know her and how she is.

It was a wonderful night...and the Lord for sure gave me a tender mercy.

(I am sorry mom I couldnt get any pictures because my camera wasnt working with the new sd card...but of course I figured it out after we left...I was soooo sad...but hopefully we will just be able to do it again)

Soooo...If you ever feel like you cant get through the day like I did....IT IS NOT TRUE!!! GET ON YOUR KNEES AND PRAY. God knows us, He loves us and wants us to communicate with Him...He will give us the strength to carry on. I know that! I experienced that!!

I love you all...I am sorry I have no time to send pictures this week. I will send some next week!

Fijne Week!

IK HOU VAN JULLIE!

Liefs,

Zuster Stewart-Chester

last weeks pictures...guido......;)

I AM NOT THE YOUNGEST SISTER ANYMORE!!

HALLOOOOO!!!

I literally have about 5 min....I am sorry.

The Romigs are now gone, and we dont have any senior couples yet, and we dont have a church with computers...so we had to do this quick at the library, and of course the computer floor is being remodeled so we had to wait for about an hour to get a computer, and ahhhhhhh.....

Anyways...not going to lie, it is sad not to have the Romigs here. I MISS YOU BOTH!!! This city is a completely different city now. The Romigs are gone and Sis Harris is gone. It felt like I was back in the MTC all over again, and I had had to say goodbye to family. I miss them, a lot. Sis. Harris is one of my best friends and It was hard to send her away. to your question mom, no she is not training...she is just the sister training leader. So she does exchanges with the sisters in her zone. Still super important!!

Sis. Duncan is great...She is from Springville Utah, and she is so BOLD!!! She really has no fear in talking with people. We are working well together, but sadly for some reason we are seeing a little bit less success, and we have had to knock quite a few doors recently. Still seeing tender mercies from the Lord though.

This week we hung out with GUIDO!! The guy we met on the train and he is soooo cool!! We went to the Romigs, and he made dinner, and we just talked and had a good time. It is crazy how everything fell into place and one day we didnt even know him and the next we were eating dinner with him and the Romigs...(and now they are gone:'() anyways it was good, and we taught him a little bit, and we are going to keep in touch.

Piet is one of our progressing investigators who has a baptismal date and he is still super positive...but he smokes a pipe...and we are teaching him the word of wisdom this week, so we are praying that his heart will be soft and open to change.

Other than that it has been pretty usual...sorry nothing too good this week, I will try to do better next week!!

I love and miss you all so much!!

Ik hou van jullie!

VEEL LIEFS,

Zuster Stewart-Chester

p.s. my title...so I am officially not the youngest sister in the mission now!!! This past wednesday we recieved two new sisters....pretty crazy that I am almost to my half way mark and I was still the youngest sister...but not any more.. :) Have an amazing week!!!



Chopping wood for service at the de Jonges.

MARTINI TOWER!!!

Elder Fredrico

I have become a Blijfer...

Goedemiddag iedereen!!

This is the monument in Leeuwarden I didnt actually take this but I thought it was super cool

I hope everyone is doing well, and staying safe.

Everything is going really well here, and we are seeing some awesome small miracles every day.

My title: wellllll.....in dutch blijfer basically just means a stayer...haha poorly translated but....We recieved transfer calls this week, and I am staying in Groningen. That means that I will be in Groningen for at least 6 months. That is a third of my mission...wierd!!! TIME FLIES!!!

I really cant complain though, because Groningen is a blessed place and we are really doing well here. We are pretty busy all the time...not to mention this place is beautiful!!

Poor sister Harris is leaving. I am super sad about it actually. We just click soooo well together. It was soooo easy to be her companion and we had so much fun. I really know we are going to be friends forever. She is headed to Doordrecht and going to be sister training leader so she is going to kill it!! She is moving on to her 6th city which is insane for sisters while I am still on my second haha.

Anyways I will be getting sister Duncan...who I am pretty sure is the closest in mission age to me so we are pretty young. Apparently she is a beast though...I am actually super scared that she is going to whip me into shape haha. Nah but me and sister Harris have already just been killing it here...but we still like to take our breaks sometimes, and I have heard she is Always going. President challenged me to make her exhausted and I told him I would do my best. I am hoping that she isnt used to biking as much, because we bike everywhere here in Groningen. Hopefully that will get her;) ha but I am super pumped. She just seems super chill and awesome, so I have a feeling we are going to get a long super well.

This week we had an awesome miracle and I really was just amazed with how it all just fell into place. GOD IS THE MASTER PLANNER!!! We went on exchanges to Apeldoorn this week, and they have made a new rule, that you both just go to the sister training leader's city to work. So we were headed over...and we were already running late...literally 10 seconds from our house I watch sis. Harris wipeout on the ice, and as I go to help her, I also wipeout we laughed...but then we took it slow and walked on icy parts. We then had to take sister Harris's bike into the shop because we were going to take atvantage of our full day away from using our bikes...which never happens. Then walked the rest of the way to the station...for some reason we just didnt feel rushed...which might have been a little bad...but dont worry it works out. I was just taking my time...looking at stickers on the lamp posts. Then we got to the station and we had missed our train....but we looked and there was one leaving right then so we sort of ran...but the train wouldnt open up the doors...(God wouldnt open up the doors) and we waited for the next train. We got on and unloaded all of our crap onto the seats next to us...

(Random thought........

Elder Ord Always said that we look like hobbits going on an adventure...So I have decided that me and sister Harris are Pippen and Merry....because we Always look like bundled up in a ton of scarfs and hats and with our bags and my huge guitar...haha

and done with the random thought.)

soooo people started to load on the train and it was becoming pretty packed so I moved my stuff so somebody could sit there and a guy sat down next to me. He began to read and then sleep and also listen to music, which are Always really hard things when trying to contact someone. Well sister Harris is a boss, and before we got off she goes..."wat was je aan het lezen?" haha and he didnt hear her so she had to repeat it to get his attention. Anyways long story short he starts talking to us and he said he was super curious and wanted to talk to us...he almost went to Apeldoorn with us but we ended up going to Starbucks and he bought us Hot cocoa ahahaha. It was super cool, he took a Book of Mormon and we are actually meeting up with him tonight.

Anyways it just really blew my mind...how everything played out because everything that happened that day happened for a reason. God must have pushed us gently off our bikes that morning...and made it so that we didnt feel rushed and everything. It was incredible. God knows us all individually and knew that I would have my stuff on the seat, and He knew that I liked looking at stickers haha. random and silly but hey.

GOD IS THE MASTER PLANNER!! On a mission we have to plan a lot...but something we Always do before is pray. Because HE is the master planner and knows exactly what we need to do. So if you need direction..then pray to the master...

I love you alll and miss you..but I love being a missionary..time is passing too quick...you dont realize until it is gone. Sis. Robbins is going home this week...wierd!!!!!

Ik hou van jullie!!

Wees veilig!

VEEL LIEFS,

Zuster Stewart-Chester

I shoved more whip cream on his face you can see me coming up in the first and getting him...so then he got me. haha just a typical fhe night here.

  

I can ride my bike with no handlebars...no handlebars!!

we went to the klompen factory today!

HALLO!!!

Goedemiddag!

Hopelijk alles is goed met jullie.

This week was one for the books.  

I had just an incredible experience...one night we were biking back home after something, I forget even what we were coming from, and we were just contacting on the way home. Sis. Harris is awesome, and just starting contacting people, and for some reason I was really struggling finding the courage to do it. I asked her how she does it. I said: "How do you do it, I literally have to force myself to do it every time." She told me that she had learned that she didn't ever want to have any regrets, and she said "Even if no one is nice or no one is interested and I get home that night, I can say that I put in the work and that I still tried."

It got me thinking of course...and we didn't see anyone for a little bit, and I was really hoping that I would be able to see someone so I could know I had tried my best that day. well we turned into a super dark almost farm area, and there was this lady walking. She kind of startled me because I was really searching for someone, and she came out of no where. I slammed on my breaks and started talking to her. 

We got all of her information and she said she wanted a Book of Mormon and that she was searching for another church. She said ya..."toevalig ja ik ben aan het zoeken, maar ja toeval bestaat niet!!!" what?!?! that is what we say to people!!!!

So in english she said....coincidentally I am searching, but ya, coincidence doesnt exist. Super cool. We will see how it goes.

Also the same night, we were biking home, and there is quite a few different ways to go to get to our house, because we live far away from everything...we came to a spot where we always pass by and go straight, and without even thinking about it, in my mind I said lets go this way..(meaning turning right) so I said to sis. Harris "lets go this way." we did, and I told myself if I see anyone I have to contact them, because we were actually 30 seconds from our house...well this girl was walking and I stopped her. I asked her if she was religious, and she said she wasn't really. I asked her if she believed in God and she said I dont know...so I said. Would you like to know if God exists? she hesitated but then said. "Ja wel" meaning YES. I told her well we as missionaries help people to come to know that God exists and that he loves each of us, would you be interested in meeting with us, and we can help you discover that for yourself. Super cool, we got her info, and she said we could stop by....who knows she was a little hesitant in giving us her information...but it was super cool, to have been led by the spirit. It is such a thrill.

This week also there was a CODE RED!!! It snowed on onday...and then the next day the streets were covered in ice. School was cancelled for everyone...the busses weren't running and neither were some of the trains. Kids were literally ice skating on the streets...I have some fantastic videos...sorry you will have to wait. 

But because it was sooo dangerous and we had district meeting so the Leeuwarden sisters were here in Groningen President told us to go straight home and stay inside...so we had a SLEEPOVER, and it was a blast!! 

The next day we went back to work, and tried to bike, but sis. Harris slipped and hurt herself real bad so we took the bus for the rest of the time. 

Crazy miracle though...the time she slipped we were on our way to our appointment and we got him on baptismal date!! Super awesome...tender mercy from the Lord. Dont worry she is fine...just a bruised knee.

It was a good week...except for the fact that we had two people message us this weekend and tell us they do not want to meet with us anymore, and one of those was preparing for baptism...so that was a little rough...but other than that it was a nice week.

Yesterday 2 of our investigators came to church...and 25 students from a christian club came to see what it was about. We gave away 25 copies of the Book of Mormon.

The title...I am a pro bicycler now obviously;) haha but really biking a lot every day, makes you pretty good, and I can go up and down bumps and turns without holding the handle bars...pretty cool eh? haha 

sorry for the crazy long email..it was a good week!!

Ik hou van jullie!!

Fijne week nog!

Straight ice streets.....

Yummy hot cocoa for our sleepover and lots of candy whoops.

we made yummy food with the ranch grandma sent me...THANK YOU!! also I straightened my hair..and it was weird!!

Zuster Stewart-Chester