Goodbye South Holland

Dearest of families,

Wow! Sounds like quite the week of excitement. I will send some photos today, I promise. How bout some photos of the family? I haven't calculated like you Dad, but I don't think I've seen much photo evidence either in quite some time now...

Oh, and I tried herring the other day- pure grossness.
Stroopwafels, patat, and pastries- pure delight. I'll bring some home :)

Well, as the subject line gives away, I received a call last night from the mission president himself (usually it’s the zone leaders, or at most the assistants) to tell me that the Lord has a new adventure for me this transfer. I will be opening a sister's apartment in a city called Groningen. If you grab a map of the Netherlands and look at the very top, you'll see it. It’s one of the larger cities in the northern part of Holland. There have been Elders there forever, and there is a good sized ward, but apparently the work has started booming, and the Lord wants sisters to take over half of the area. I am so excited! There haven't been sisters that far north in a long, long, long time. Usually sisters stay in the "hub" of south Holland, so I never expected to be able to serve that far north. My host mom, Sister Roberts, said that it is a very traditional area of the Netherlands, but they have an accent that’s really hard to understand. It'll take me back to my greenie days for a while with the language, but I am so excited for this adventure. Zr. Driggs was really sad that we were being separated, but she will do a great job taking over the work here. It is interesting how the Lord helps us grow. We just got to a point in the work here where it was going really, really well and staying pretty consistent. We have baptisms set up for the 25th and also October 16th and have 6 really awesome investigators who are consistently in church and making awesome progress. I was just feeling totally comfortable like I knew what I was doing handling the work and training all at once, when the Lord decided to send me somewhere else and have a whole new set of experiences. I have decided that the Lord has decided that complete immersion is the best method for me to learn- if he throws me in the deep end, I learn that treading water isn't really as hard as I thought. I know the Lord will support me if I trust in Him and allow him to guide me through this new experience. It’s going to be awesome.

My new companion will be Sister Ekstrom- she is an amazing sister from Alaska. It is her 4th transfer, so I'll be a senior comp, but she is such a hard worker and doing really well with the language. It'll be so much fun to work with her! I am so excited for the next transfer and all that it will bring.

I love you all so much. Thank you for the letters and prayers. I miss you all! Take care of yourselves, and don't forget to write and send pictures!!!!!

Ik hou van jullie,
Liefs,
Zuster Cherie Gulliver