It's A Birthday! Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Mom! Thanks for shining the light!

Happy Birthday Mom!! Just so you know, I have a letter for you getting sent out today, but it won't get to you for a week or two. Sorry about that. I ran out of postage to send it sooner. Either way, I hope it's a great day for you!!! Thanks for being born so I could later come and learn from your bright and shining example. I seriously think you're the best mom ever and feel totally right in my assessment seeing as I've met a lot of different mothers since being on my mission and although a lot of them are good at what they do, none even come close to comparing to you're amazingness.

I celebrated my half-birthday this last week, turns out it's not a common thing to do. To celebrate we made it a goal to give away every Dutch copy of the Book of Mormon we had. We didn't meet our goal, but we did give away more in one day than I have some transfers and we got to bear testimony a lot and set up some appointments :) Cool. I think I'll celebrate your birthday in a similiar manner :) We actually did have a baptism planned for your birthday, but the guy's arm got messed up so we haven't been able to have an appointment in a few weeks.

This last week for us has been pretty great here in Dordrecht. We had a continuation of snow, but fortunately over the weekend the temperature went up so now it's all sunshine and puddles, yes!! In addition to a progress in weather, the progression of our missionary work is going well too.We have a really great pool of investigators we're currently working with and trying to prepare a few of them for baptism. One couple we're teaching that I'm really loving right now is this young couple who are really active at their protestant church. They invited us to a service yesterday and since it didn't conflict with our service times we went. Wow, if I didn't have a testimony our church was true before going to their service, I definitely have a testimony now. It's not that their preacher said anything false, it's just that their missing a lot of truth. That and the service was gloomy. There was a huge contrast in the spirit compared to what we felt that morning in sacrament meeting, sunday school, and relief society. The one was a spirit of fear, the other of love. Seeing as the Prince of Peace Himself has said the first great commandment is to love God, I think a pretty good indication of which church is His is the one I feel love and peace in. During the church service I really wanted to stand up and share the truth with the people in attendance, but instead I respectfully and silently listened. Poor people though! They are trying to do what is right, their just missing the mark...I did get a chance to talk with the preacher afterwards though...Haha his sermon was focused a lot on watching our tongues but after hearing why we were living here in the Netherlands (because we're missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) he asked if the latter-day saints were the same as the mormons. When I smilingly responded in the affirmative, he became very brusque and rude especially towards the Book of Mormon...so much for watching our tongues. I just smiled and bore testimony in response and we parted as he said, "Well, we'll see who's right," why yes we will ;) Despite his negative reaction to our faith, I do respect him a lot though, like I said, he's doing the best with the light he's got to lead his people...unfortunately without the authority of the priesthood it really isn't much light. It's like trying to lead people through the mists of darkness with a single candle stick when they could have sunlight. Bah. Maybe they like the coziness of a candle? Either way, we have an appointment tonight with the protestant couple and are excited to talk with them about priesthood and have them come to one of our church services.

Mom and Dad, thanks for raising me in the fullness of the light of the gospel. I prefer sunlight to candlelight any day. At an appointment this week with an investigator she described happiness as a feeling in her heart like a light shining it's way out. I agree with her description of happiness.

I really love the Book of Mormon and the message of the Restoration and the light they shine into my life. It's rejuvenating and refreshing like a day of sunlight and warmth that melts away the cold dreariness of winter. I'm really grateful for it and love that I get to testify of it. Every time I do I feel like a ray of that sunlight energizes and penetrates my soul. And hopefully those who hear my testimony feel a bit of that warmth as well.

Some funny highlights from this week are:

-I ate the weirdest meat ooit! It was in this red sauce and I thought it was meatball to I piled it on my food. Upon inspection once it was on my plate I realized it was not meatballs, but this yellow, bumpy thing with white meat...Zuster Raun tried asking towards the end of our meal what it was, but they'd only say meat...we have a suspicion it was tongue, or slug...it really wasn't bad tasting, but the texture, oh! That and the fact that the rest of the evening the taste of this unknown thing kept coming back up....good times. Haha we went straight from that dinner appointment to the other church service and I think the smell of our dinner lingered on us because throughout the service our friend kept offering us mints...maybe it was to keep us awake? :)

-Also, we saw a UFO the other night. I tried filming it, but my camera battery was dead...dang aliens!

-At a Zone Training this week, one of the elders mentioned deciding where the best place in the Restoration lesson is to say, "you'd have to be crazy not to believe this!" Turns out one of our investigators is legit crazy and he still finds the message and the Book of Mormon true, so I'm not sure what it says about those who don't believe it...

-The neighbor kids like throwing sniper snowballs at our windows haha we tried hiding in the backyard to throw snowballs back over the fence, but I think our giggles gave our position away.

-The preacher at the other church walked up a curved staircase to a raised pulpit to give his sermon. My first thought upon seeing it? Read Alma 31

I'm having a good time and living it up here. I love being a missionary :)

Once again, Happy Birthday Mom!!

Love, Zuster Becky Hinchcliff

PS Just so you know, my release date is up in the air, haha it's either July 3 or 10th. I have to decide with two other sisters which day is better. They've know since last Monday, I just got the email today, or got to read it today. I think they sent it last Monday after I did my email. So right now we're waiting to hear what the other girls' parent say before we decide. I wanted to let you  guys know and ask you what you thought/if you're plans are to come out and get me to see how it factors is for you all. Let me know :) Haha the joys of changing dates. 

Jan. 20th

This last week here has been pretty fun. We've had a TON of snow which makes biking fun/interesting/occasionally miserable, but people are generally more willing to let us into their homes because of the weather so that's a plus :) Well...most of the time. Haha we had a run in with a very interesting woman this week who let us in, got us some warm drinks and cookies, and then proceeded to try to convert us to her religion by singing us songs in a warbling old lady voice. We weren't converted. She gifted us bibles before we left and when we explained we had some she told us these were the right ones...hahaha they include some psalms set to music in the back. She did accept a Book of Mormon from us so that was good, but when we tried to explain about prophets she didn't really want to listen. Before we left she prayed for our souls :) It's a nice thought.

She isn't the first person to pray for our souls or try to convert us this week though. We had an appointment with a very nice young couple who after we had a lesson about the Plan of Salvation explained their very dreary and debilitating view of life. They didn't convert us either. We do have a return appointment with them though so maybe we'll get them :) They read a TON from the Book of Mormon each week so that's positive.

Other great things that happened this week are that Saturday our friend Marco was baptized! He's the guy who just got married a few weeks ago so he could get baptized on date. Then Sunday not only was he confirmed, but he also was ordained a priest! He and his sweet wife have plans to go to the temple in a year. We have two other friends we're working closely with right now to be baptized next month, and then there are about 5 or so others we're teaching who are still making the decision. Exciting! I feel really blessed that the Lord is so willing to let me be a part of His work. Sometimes I feel like despite my efforts to help Him out, He still ends up doing most of the work, that's definitely the case with Marco, but like I said, I am grateful He lets me be a part of it. I'm trying really hard to work on developing the attributes of Christ so I can better represent Him, but it's not the easiest process. This last week my companion and I were reading in 1 Nephi 17 and as we read I realized my attitude towards work was starting to veer more towards that and Laman and Lemuel, YIKES!! After that study I was definitely humbled and changed my disposition. Well, I'm working on it anyways.

Because of our current weather/last nights snow storm, we had to do our email in a new place today, and the computer is trying to shut me out, so I will talk to you all next week! I love you and hope you are all happy and well!

Love, Zuster Becky Hinchcliff

Belgium Netherlands Mission: Interviews and District Training for Den Haag and ...

Belgium Netherlands Mission: Interviews and District Training for Den Haag and ...:

Jan. 13, 2013

lds.org

YOU

 As far as missionary work goes this week, it was a week full of some incredible ups, but also pretty low downs. But at our district meetings/interviews this week, President Robinson said that he doesn't remember any of the low points from his mission, only the high points and that it is only in reading through his mission journal that he recollects any of the low points, so that's encouraging. That said, I'd like to share some really great experiences Zuster Raun and I enjoyed this last week:

Tuesday. The whole day was magical! After our morning studies we biked to this adorable little village to look up a potential investigator. On the way we saw an old molen (windmill) in the tuin (yard) of the cutest cottage ever. I am a huge fan of knocking on the doors of cute homes so we parked our bikes and ended up getting permission to explore the windmill and then hearing the history of the windmill. In turn we shared our knowledge of beautiful buildings (temples) and had a lovely conversation with this elderly Dutch woman about church. She wasn't interested in making an appointment to learn more, but she was a sweetheart which is a lot more enjoyable of a rejection. Later in the day we went to follow-up with a few other potential investigators and ending up being invited into two homes, teaching an entire Restoration lesson to one of the families, and setting-up a return appointment! It was awesome. 

Wednesday. We got to see other missionaries, hear miracle stories and learn from their examples, have interviews with President and Zuster Robinson, and do service. 

Thursday. One of our friends got his baptismal interview and is now ready to get baptized on Saturday! Yeah!!

Friday. Our housemates showered up with their love in the form of American pancakes with maple syrup (my first since being here!), freshly squeezed orange juice, smoothies, and droop! Greatness. Also, we called a man whose phone number we found in our area book and left a message. He ended up sending us like 10 text messages worth of questions and telling us about his desire to follow Christ and change his life so it's in accordance with the teachings of Christ! We set up an appointment :)

Saturday. Everything went pretty much according to our scheduling which is rare and we had some great appointments with some of our favorite friends :)

Sunday. Got to go to church and take the sacrament. That's always one of the biggest highlights of my week. I'm so grateful for that weekly reminder and renewal of my covenants. After church we had a really fantastic appointment with a young adult who wanted to learn more about Jesus and is now busy with the Book of Mormon until our next appointment on Thursday. Also, we were able to commit one of our dear friends to pray about how Heavenly Father feels about her being baptized. I'm really excited for her answer :)

Monday (aka today). I get to email you all!!

The whole week long. I've been reading a lot and studying in/about the Book of Mormon, and can I just say I love that book?! From reading the Book of Mormon this past week I have come to a better understanding of the Lord's love for me. I know the Book of Mormon was written for our day today and I have been able to learn from the message it contains really personally applicable lessons that have helped me through the week. I am so greatful that Heavenly Father has made it available to me and I treasure the opportunity to share it with His children every single day.

Like I said, I've had some pretty incredible ups. I'm excited to see what sort of wonders the Lord has planned for us this week :)

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week where you too can find evidence of the Lord's love.

Groetjes, Zuster Becky Hinchcliff




Progress

Dear Family,

Happy New Year!! Haha I suppose it is exciting to "begin" things anew, but I don't know...something about time stipulating when I set new goals and decide to make improvements in my life is not something I am a huge fan of. Why not decide in the moment I see need for an improvement to do something about it? I love what

Elder Richard G. Scott said a few years ago at conference, "We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day."

So, basically, I just think it's silliness to make goals for the new year by virtue of it being a new year.

Also, "time only is measured unto man," (Alma 40:8) anyways, so why follow the stipulation of men? Yech. That all being said, I do have new goals for myself :) Haha but not because of the new year time stipulation itself, just because I've been doing a lot of reflecting on where I am now versus where I was a year ago/where I was when I was the one being training and not doing the training. Upon reflection I saw LOTS of room for improvement which at first was really rather discouraging, because I really am trying, hard! 

I was especially feeling overwhelmed yesterday at church after Relief Society. Our Relief Society president handed everyone a piece of paper to write down what they accomplished last year. Her intentions were that we reflect on what we've done and redouble our efforts to keep going and live life without regrets based off of Elder Utchdorf's recent conference talk, "Of Regrets and Resolutions." However, in that moment I could only think of all the things that I hadn't accomplished and wanted to change, but there were so many! I tried really hard to be positive, but it was weighing me down. 

As we biked home from church I put on a happy face and pretended like nothing was bothering me, I smiled and greeted people on my path, but I still felt immensely discouraged. The people I spoke with, however, never caught on to how miserable I was feeling. In response to my seemingly happy face and exuberant greetings, they smiled and waved back. How interesting! They couldn't even tell I was sad! Then I got to thinking about if any of them were feeling discouraged or sad but pretending everything with them was ok too. I decided that just in case that was in fact true, I better do more than smile and say hello, I better get off my bike and talk with them, bring some cheer to their lives. Plus, I have learned that the best counter to discouragement is diligence, so it would bring me up too. Well, in principle anyways. Turns out the guy I jumped off my bike to talk with was very much not interested in what I had to say, so much so that he began shouting and rudely gesturing towards me. Well, that was the tipping point. After he stormed away, I remounted my bike, and with tears in my eyes continued on home. Luckily, I have an amazing companion who was able to talk things out with me and help me summon the courage to keep going.

SInce then I have done some scripture and conference talk study and patriarchal blessing reading to figure out what it is I can do to feel good about what I have done and not focus on what I haven't, but still learn from it all so I can do better. I think I may be overcomplicating things, but it is a very difficult and precarious balance to find. Good thing I have a whole lifetime to figure it out, but I don't want to procrastinate it, I want to make the changes necessary now, when I recognize them. The problem is there are so many changes to make! Bah! What frustrating! 

Luckily I am surrounded by good examples. 

This last week we had sister exchanges and I got to go to Gouda for a day and serve with Sister Gallegos. She is awesome! From her I learned how to more effectively contact people on the street by sharing a sincere and humble testimony. Each time she talked with people, whether they were interested or not, they listened to her because they could see and feel how important it was to her. What an amazing opportunity for the Spirit to enter their hearts! 

My companion, Zuster Raun, is also really awesome. From her this week I have learned the importance of listening to the promptings of the Spirit, applying charity, and allowing yourself to shine through. She told me that being a missionary was like being in a large orchestra or band. If you aren't a trumpet, don't try to play the part of the trumpet, be the tube, flute, violin, piano, or whatever it is you are. I really liked that. A lot. Also, it's exactly what I needed to hear to shake off some of my discouragement. 

Mom, I think what you told me about your decision to live a healthier lifestyle/take care of yourself and what you've done to make it happen is so cool! You're right, we do do a lot of things in our lives out of habit so that it becomes rote, even if it is a good thing. Without conscientiousness, there is no way for us to improve ourselves, to progess.

I am super grateful for the help our Savior provides us in our efforts to improve. As seen in my experience from yesterday, it is discouraging to try to do it on our own. But, by applying the saving grace of Christ's Atonement in our lives, we can, "become the person we were designed to become," and through continual reliance on Him I know that "Heavenly Father will reveal to us things we never knew about ourselves. He will illuminate the path ahead and open our eyes to our unknown and perhaps unimagined talents," (President Utchdorf, "Of Regrets and Resolutions" October 2012 General Conference). 

So, with that said, I am going to go out and tell some more of His kids about their divine worth and potential. And no worries, I have been reminded of my own:)

I love you all and truly wish you an amazingly happy new year. Mary, email me. I NEED to know what you want. Also, clean your room. Nicky too. KJ, don't get too crazy with the dating, but please, keep me informed :) I am really relieved/happy to hear you all indeed received the Christmas package I sent :) Haha but I must say I'm disappointed in your reactions to the "licorice" that stuff is delish! It's good to hear that the rest of your holiday was nice though. I am glad to hear that Daddy got to visit Grandad for a bit. If Grandad does end up moving to Ogden that'll be nice for when I get back to BYU, I think it's just a few hours drive. Please let Grandma know that I got her package! Haha I read the whole book in one sitting and it was the most enchanting/engaging/charming history ever! I I could picture it all as she described it and wanted to be there with her. Now, I'm hungry for the rest of her life's story, so tell her I'm staying tuned in for part two! Also, I think it was hililarious how in her fifteen year old autobiography she mentioned the name of her prom date and not the name of her boyfriend (who I am assuming was Grandpa). Haha little did she know at the time the nameless car man would be her hubby :) Cute. I am still waiting for the rest of my Christmas mail, but I have been told it is here in the Netherlands, I just haven't been given any of it yet. Hopefully this Wednesday I'll receive it all...fingers crossed anyways. 

OK, I really am going now. Love you!!

Love, Zuster Becky Hinchcliff




Happy New Year

Happy New Year! 12/31/1012 Dear Family Wow so I feel like there are a bajillion and one things to write about today, so I'll just get started :) First off, KJ, HAPPY 16th BIRTHDAY!!!! You should seriously stop growing up now. Or, at least wait a bit for me, please? But I guess if you got to do it I’ll support  you. Hey so I heard about the church’s new program for Sunday School/YW/YM and I think it’s an awesome way to prepare you all for teaching on your missions which I suppose is a pretty good way to grow up. Second off, Heather Bosen soon to be Breeze, if you read this blog thing, CONGRATULATIONS! I just got your announcement this week :) Third off, it was so awesome talking to you all (family) on Christmas! Actually, to be perfectly honest, it was completely normal. Weird. But awesome :) It was so fun to see you all at once. That was the first time since Mary’s graduation I think. I’m super really grateful we are an eternal family so that we can enjoy being together for forever. Also Fam, did you ever get the package I sent? It’s full of really awesome things I really really was hoping you’d all get to enjoy it together. Otherwise, you’ll have to work out how to share it... So this last week I was flipping through my journal from the MTC to see what life a year-ago was for me and I found notes from that one day I told you all about where I spontaneously burst into tears in line and was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad morning. Well it was super cool to read the notes I took in sacrament meeting that day because just like they brought peace and comfort to my soul that terrible, horrible, no good, very bad morning, I was able to again find peace and comfort. As I reviewed my notes I felt God’s love and know He is involved with the details of my life and that He not only loves me, but likes me and has great plans for me. Which actually brings me to some other notes I found from my MTC study journal. So I just said how I know Heavenly Father has some great plans for me. When I was in the MTC we taught a man named Stynus who was an architect. To help him better understand the Plan of Salvation and it’s significance we related it to the blue-prints for a building and shared with him 1 Corinthians 3:9 which says,            “For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.” What kind of building, you might ask, is answered a few verses later,            “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” Which leads to another quote I found in my study journal:             “Imagine  yourself a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace....” –C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity Sweet right?! But it’s completely up to us to let God in to make the changes that build us up according to the great master plans/blue-prints He has for us. As I reflected on these things I thought to myself, how do I rise higher and become more? Well, I found a quote from Elder Eyring and what he has to say about that:             “All of us can remember times in our lives when we felt a pull to be better than we were, to rise higher. The feeling may have come at about the same time we had the thought ‘There must be something better in life than this.’ Sadly, there are also times when we felt like giving up. And then the thought was something like this, ‘Maybe this feeling of being miserable is what life is really like. Maybe I need to learn to live with it. It looks as if that’s how everyone else feels.’... “But everyone who I have come to know well, even the most discouraged and the most miserable, will tell you that some time in their lives, maybe just once that they can remember, they felt that upward pull, that thought that there was something better and higher. “Heavenly Father does more than allow you to feel that upward pull. He has provided a way ot rise higher—almost beyond our limits of imagination—not by our own powers alone, which would not be nearly enough, but through the power of the Atonement of his Son, Jesus Christ. “Our Heavenly Father not only provided a Savior and a gospel of Jesus Christ, which teaches us the purpose of life and gives us commandments, but he also provided covenants we could make with him. And with those covenants he provided ordinances where he could signify what He promised or covenanted to do and we could signify what we promised or covenenated to do.” I know that this gospel and the ordinances and corresponding covenants available in it help us to really become all the Father has planned. That’s why I came on a mission, to share with people that they too can find peace and happiness in knowing they are children of God with a purpose in being here and find self-worth, confidence, and love that lasts forever. Luckily, I have been able to share that with several people this past year, one of which is a very special girl here in Dordrecht who has been preparing for the first covenant and ordinance of the gospel, baptism, for about a year now. Her family members have all found the peace and happiness they’d been searching for within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and now Barbara is beginning to find that for herself too. This last week as we met together, Zuster Raun and I got to be present when she realized for herself that she has a testimony and is  prepared to be baptized. Now we are working with her to choose a date for her baptism. I know as she accepts and applies the first ordinances and covenant of the gospel (Articles of Faith 3 and 4), she will, with the Holy Ghost as her constant companion, be able to feel even more peace, happiness, direction, self-worth, confidence, love, and purpose in her life than ever before. This is something available to all of us and lately this past week as I’ve thought over and studied these things while reading though my journals and reflecting on this last year, several people keep coming to my mind that for whatever reason I would like to share this testimony with: Jack Adams, Zach Sullivan, Sam Jordan, Mary Lewis, Aimee Rider, Abigail Ancherico, Ryan Lynch, Emily Honeycutt, and a girl I worked with at New Deli named Lissa. Since I’m not home to do this, if you all could if you see them that’d be great. I don’t know if any of them actually read this blog or know of it’s existence, but I hope they know I care about them and think of them often, as strange and random as that may seem, and I wish them the best. If there’s anyway I can get contact with them or write them I’d enjoy that. Addresses? Yesterday in sacrament meeting this girl gave a great talk about the Atonement and New Years where she shared an analogy that like looking in a rearview mirror we can look behind us and learn but still more forward safely without focusing on what’s behind us. Instead we should focus on what is available to us ahead. I thought that was pretty cool and it seemed to fit well with my review of my journals and this week. So that’s my advice to you all, look on this last year to learn from it, but keep focused on this year ahead and all that’s available :) Well anyway, these are some of my musings this past week. I love you and am so grateful for the ordinances and covenants that help us live up to our potential as an eternal family. It’s a blessing I wish for everyone. It was so cool to talk with you all via Skype on Christmas Day, I’m grateful for the time I have now to learn how to consecrate myself to the Lord so I can be worthy of you all in the eternities. Hopefully het lukt:) Love you all, Zuster Becky Hinchcliff

Christmas Eve morning

 12/24/2012

Sorry you didn't get any calls or emails to confirm skyping plans for tomorrow. Turns out our bishop went to the hospital this week so stuff here was kinda'  crazy/emotional (I live with the bishop's daughter) and he was the one I was going to have call you all because he was going to set-up the skype stuff or so I thought but turns out Zuster Raun and I are now going to the mission home with a couple elders for Christmas Day. I'm pretty sure I'll still be able to skype at 9am though, so no worries. But if I'm not precise on time don't stress. Hopefully President or Sister Robinson will  be able to get it all set-up though. I think they will be pleased to. PS our bishop is out of the hospital and doing fine :)

I'm bummed you all don't have my package yet! It's really cool and I really want you all to get it together! I'm going to be praying it shows up today at Melissa and Kevin's place. I have received Melissa and Kevin's package but not the other two yet. I got Melissa's at our Zone Conference last week but am not opening it til tonight. We're celebrating Christmas tonight with our housemates with a gift exchange and dinner...Zuster Raun and I don't actually have gifts for everyone though so that's a bummer. But we have been doing their chores for them and other things so hopefully they aren't too bummed without anything to actually unwrap from us. As far as the packages from the family and Grandma and Grandpa go hopefully they've now arrived in the country and I can pick them up at the mission home...hopefully. I'll let you know tomorrow when I see (!) you :)

I'm super excited to skype you all tomorrow!! Well, mostly...I keep having all these dreams with you all making surprise appearances which is cool, but also really confusing/emotional/causes me anxiety because even though I'm dreaming I know I'm not supposed to be seeing you while on my mission and I'm far from ready to come home so...yeah. Christmas has made me very sentimental/stressed/emotional. And then adding training to that and I'm basically a mess. Well, not really I seem really put together to everyone else, but inside I'm pretty much a wreck and am afraid I'm going to explode like every other second. It hasn't happened yet though so hopefully the world will remain safe. I think I wouldn't be so stressed if I could go for a run, but turns out my companion isn't a morning person and isn't willing to get up to exercise and especially not if it involves going outside or running. This causes me more stress. So then when we are outside I try to relieve my stress via biking, but we have the whole sight and sound rule and my companion is not yet used to biking and goes REALLY slow. So yeah, I'm basically a walking tight rope right now. Basically, I'm just giving you a heads up if I am really emotional tomorrow. I'll try to figure out a way to relieve it before then though.

Oh man, I still can't believe tomorrow is Christmas. I've been out for a year. Weird. Totally worth it though, despite the emotion and stress. This last weekend we got to participate in a baptism in Utrecht for a guy who lives in our boundaries but goes to school and works in Utrecht so the elders there have been teaching him. It was a really simple and small service, but beautiful nonetheless. The spirit was so sweet and pure. I'm so grateful I can feel it :) Here in Dordrecht selfs Zr. Raun and I have four super solid investigators, three with baptismal dates and the fourth will hopefully have one before the week is out. Actually, we're hoping to have a baptism here this weekend as well, but the girl still hasn't decided haha. We're just going to apply our faith though and get her in the water :) Missionary work is tons of fun and I'm learning a lot from Zuster Raun of how to be a better missionary. She's so amazing, even if I do expereince some stress ;) So we heard yesterday and again today from some senior couples in our zone that by April we will have 30 new sisters here! AHHHHHH, so exciting!! :) Missionary work is just going to keep on booming! I'm so excited to be a part of it.

Love you all, see you tomorrow!!

Love, Zuster Becky Hinchcliff