6/25/12

Dear Family,

Oh my goodness, what a week! It feels very strange being in a new city after staying in one place for so long. I'm already loving Rotterdam. It's pretty modern looking due to all the bombings during World War 2 and it is a very big city. One of the benefits of being in a big city is having sooooo many people to talk too! Coming in right off the bat we set 3 baptismal dates and had 5 people at church. Things are looking really good here in Rotterdam. We'll be having a baptism this week for Mervin Manuela from Curicao and back in Apeldoorn, Jack Olina and Leo will be baptized! I'm super excited for them. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to be there with them during the lessons. My last day in Apeldoorn was bittersweet but a couple of super cool things happened. Saskia, one of our investigators came tracting door to door with us to see what it was like. We had a blast! I'm really going to miss her.  Wednesday was a really busy day coming in to Rotterdam but everything went smooth for the most part. Rotterdam is packed with foreigners, sometimes I forget that I am in the Netherlands. Luckily, that means also that there are Chinese people here. I did a full contact in Chinese the other day and a decent conversation with the woman, haha. I was so happy! There are also a lot of Spanish and Portuguese speakers here. There are a set of Elders here called Portuguese speaking for the Portuguese branch. It's amazing how diverse the Netherlands really is.  The ward is really great! It was wonderful meeting them yesterday. The investigators here are wonderful and are well on their way towards baptism. So much is happening in the mission right now.    My companion is super cool! We have this big problem though. We cannot stop laughing. Our first day together, it took us 10 minutes to finish praying because we were laughing so hard for no reason. When he gets going, he can't stop. And I have the same problem too. Two missionary with a hardcore case of the giggles... Not good :( But at the same time, I think I'm developing a six pack from it. My stomach has never felt so sore from anything but it's literally just from the laughing. He is from the Salzburg area and unfortunately doesn't know anyone from Graz but there is a member here who knows the Suppans, haha. Small world eh? A pigeon walked into our apartment yesterday, it was fun trying to catch that thing but Elder Ellis finally grabbed it. I spoke with Elder Li a few days ago and he told me that this guy we found on the street a week ago will be baptized in three weeks. The first prayer he ever said and he just started to cry and committed himself to be baptized as soon as possible. I was so happy to hear about that. It was really neat how we met him. Happy birthday Mom, William, Grandpa Bob, Becky, Amanda and President Monn! I think I got everyone... Please call Amanda for me and wish her Happy birthday! Hope you all have a wonderful week and God Bless.

Love,

Elder Schulte