Meet Chris

I'd like to introduce you to a very special lady and one of the most faithful readers of this blog. Her name is Chris and she is from Haarlem, the Netherlands. I'm sure she will be surprised to find an entry about her on this blog, but probably less thrilled about this picture (Sorry Chris! It is the only one I had!). But she recently had a birthday I need to acknowledge which is also the same birthday as my first born son.

VAN HARTE GEFELICITEERD MET JE VERJAARDAG!!

IK HOOP DAT JIJ EEN MOOI EN GEZELLIG DAG HEBT GEHAD EN NOG VELE JAREN!

I met Chris 14 years ago while I was a missionary going door to door looking for people that would listen to our message of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We knocked on her door and amazingly she did not slam the door in our faces when she heard the words 'Jesus Christ' or 'Book of Mormon'. She was so nice and listened intently (but now I realize the attentativeness was probably attributed to her trying to understand our crazy Dutch) as I tried to explain that the Book of Mormon was another testament of Jesus Christ and that she could know that book was true for herself through the power of the Holy Ghost. Except that is not what she heard. She heard that she could learn that is was true through the virgin of the Holy Ghost. You see, the word for 'power' in Dutch is 'macht' and the word for 'virgin' is 'maagd' and are pronounced, at least to my ears, practically the same. You can imagine her confusion and once we realized what had happened she was laughing harder than I had ever seen anyone laugh.

Well, that was the beginning of a great friendship.