The Netherlands.

My dear friend Leticia was one of the first new members we taught when my companion and I arrived on the Madeira Island. Since then, she has remained a very close friend. We even backpacked Europe together. She now lives in the Netherlands with her husband and her beautiful baby girl Estelle Ann (get it, Emily ANN?) ;)

Nelson is also a dear friend from the island. As a missionary we worked very closely with him and his family. He was an incredible member missionary. He has also visited my family in Utah. He now works for VW in Germany and lives a few hours away from Leticia.

This trip had a few purposes. The first was to "matar saudades". It is just so good to see friends you have wanted to see in such a long time. The second purpose was to go to the temple. Nelson's mother passed away last year. I loved her so much as a missionary and now I was honored to go to the temple for her. It was an incredibly spiritual and special experience.

 After the temple we visited Kinderdijk. It has the typical windmills and pretty scenery. It also had some fun shoes to try on! :) We were laughing so hard here because we would talk in a made up language all day. It sounded crazy and had absolutely no meaning...and so many tourist were probably trying so hard to figure out where we were from.

The next day we went to Keukenhof Tulip Gardens. They are so many beautiful flowers and photo ops, you end up going a little too crazy with the pictures and posing even though you know it's ridiculous. Because, hey, it's Keukenhof.

This was a prop (hat, painting, paintbrushes, paint-mixer-board-thing included) and it was hilarious to see the people stopping to see what I was painting as if that painting was a masterpiece. haha

We also went to Amsterdam. We took a canal cruise, visited the Anne Frank house, had some delicious traditional food and had the first class tour treatment from Leticia's native husband, Askold. I was so deeply moved by the feeling and history in the Anne Frank house.

                          

They are my favorite people in the Netherlands!