May 23-28, 2010

This is a picture of Kurt (tall one on left), a young man that got baptized on Sunday in Antwerpen after church. He is with several young adult friends. The AP's taught him. There is a strong group of young adults in this area and they have been wonderful at fellowshipping these new members. Another young adult was baptized last week. After the baptisms we always have a celebration with refreshments and clapping.



This is Patrick, a very nice member of the Antwerpen ward who proudly brought pictures of all the missionaries in the mission back in 1992 and 1993. One of them was our son-in-law, Scott Slater, who served in this mission back then. It was really cute to see the pictures. Patrick was baptized in 1992 and says he remembers Scott at that time.




Loel and I spent about 6 hours last Saturday shopping. We used our trusty GPS which sometimes said we were there at a store and there was no store to be found. We're looking for a crockpot as it will greatly help as we cook our lunches each Monday for 10 or 11 of us in the office. So we we haven't found one but hope to get one on base. In our meanderings, we discovered this little Farmer's market - they're so picturesque, always selling flowers, seafood, nuts, Belgian waffles, breads, vegetables, and a variety of other things. It was kind of funny - we wanted some trail mix and so Loel said "un kilo". The lady looked incredulous and like she didn't understand, so we kept saying, "oui, un kilo." So she loaded us up - we didn't realize one kilo would be so much! I told him we now have trail mix for our whole mission! We also found a nice mall, and a bookstore that actually sold some English books and had a very nice English speaking employee who helped us quite a bit. Finally, some customer service in Belgium! You don't see it much in French speaking countries.

This is a view from our office conference room where we have our lunches. I love the way the old buildings look. The view is pretty incredible from any window in our office. We're on the 8th and top floor.

This is our Monday lunch group except this Monday we had an extra English man there from the Church to talk to the President about moving our offices to the Netherlands, which we hope to be able to do soon. Our Mon lunches usually include the AP's, office elders, us, the Pankratz, Pres and his wife, and anyone else who happens to be there. The elders were in heaven as we made sloppy jo's, Sunday salad, peanut butter rice krispie bars, and chips.

This week was transfer week, so Tues morning we're up early, taking the van to the airport to meet our new missionaries. These are the 7 new ones that came in. They were tired, but so enthusiastic and excited to finally be "in the land", as they say. The President invited us to spend the entire day with them to experience the first day of a new missionary's life in our mission. It was a very good, but very long day! I got to visit with the three sisters at the airport for a while. After the airport, we loaded up the van with the suitcases and took them to the office. Here they fill out forms I give them about themselves, they get their financial talk and card, and a talk on legality in Belgium and what it takes to live here. They all get personal interviews with the president while all this is going on.

Then we load them up and take them to the mission home for lunch - Sis Brubaker always makes great food - we had crepes for dessert - so good! Then they all go upstairs and take a nap for a couple of hours. Then we're back to go to the dedication site - a gorgeous, huge park area where Pres Holland dedicated the land for missionary work in 1997.

We park the cars and walk, with the Pres and his wife, and the assistants, for quite a ways into the park. We pass this little "hunting lodge" of King Leopold. Kind of a cute little cabin, huh? It was gorgeous.

This is the dedication site. Here the Pres and the assistants talk about the missionary work in this country and how the land has been dedicated and how it is moving forward. It was really quite a spiritual time for all of us. I love listening to the missionaries speak of their love for this country and their testimonies. It kind of felt like the sacred grove with the sun shining through the trees.

After this we walked back to the cars, but have to wait for the assistants, as they're talking to an individual they just met from Italy who wanted them to take a picture. They ended up talking for about 15 mins. The Pres talked with the new missionaries and gave them a kind of lesson on contacting people and how it's done. When the assistants joined us, he had them talk about their experience and how it went. It was a great example of how it's done, right in front of our eyes.

Next we're off to the Grand Place, the most famous tourist site in Brussels and the center of town. It's beautiful with lots of old buildings, cathedrals, etc. Here they tell the new missionaries that they're going to pair up (usually one new one with a seasoned one) and do some contacting. Most people there are tourists and usually speak English. Loel and I were even doing it, too, which was a little nerve wracking for us, but we actually did talk to a few people. Some of the missionaries had some really great experiences with giving away cards and getting email addresses and phone numbers. The new missionaries seem to feel pretty pumped up and excited about it all.

Then it's off to eat dinner at this same Greek restaurant that they've been bringing missionaries to for years. After that, they get their first Belgium waffle, hot off the waffle iron, right there on the street. They loved it. Finally it's back to the mission home where the Pres gives a really nice talk and then they open their call letters and find out what cities they're going to be serving in and with which companions. It's really fun because all the new missionaries, having been in the MTC for the past 2 months, have gotten to know their teachers really well, who were usually former missionaries here so the elders here all know their teachers, etc. I loved how positive the assistants and the Pres and his wife are as they would open their calls - they would rave about the cities they were going to, the baptisms they've had there, how great their companions are, etc. It's really fun to see.

So we finally got home around 10:15 pm, exhausted but happy. The next day was another early day for us - I was at the office at 6:45 am Loel and Elder Pankratz had to take all the new missionaries to the train station where they were meeting their new companions who had ridden in, plus they had to pick up the 7 departing missionaries from the train station, who were leaving the next day to go home. It was quite a fiasco, as it was pouring rain, and Loel said it was the worst traffic he's ever been in his entire life - Elder Pankratz said it's the worst he's ever seen. The new missionaries were deathly quiet in the back seat as they would often come within 2 inches of other cars - and Loel was driving the president's car!!! Lots of the trains were late, some missionaries missed their trains, so the departing missionaries trickled in all day until 3:00 pm.

The President interviews each departing missionary. I ask any of them if they want to talk about school, financial aid, majors, applying, etc. and they all jumped at the chance to have an individual conversation with me in my office. So I felt like I was back at UVU helping students - two of the the elders were even going to UVU so I was really able to help them - got on the website, printing stuff out, etc. They were all so appreciative and thanked me a lot. Then they leave to go back to the mission home for dinner, testimony meeting, spend their last night there, and then it's off to the airport in the morning.

So the third and final day of transfers is Thursday and this day I opted to stay home until around 9:00 am and Loel was off early again to take the luggage to the airport and say good-bye to the missionaries. He said he got kind of emotional saying good-bye. We haven't known them very long, but they're a great group. Sis Brubaker said it was very hard for her to say good-bye - these missionaries have been with them for a full year and they got very attached.

Today Loel went to the base to get a haircut and ended up talking to the lady who did his hair about the church and got a referral, which I promptly send off to the Paris France mission, since Brussels isn't part of our mission, but it's in the France mission. It was pretty cool as she was asking Loel what he does here, etc. Turns out she's read part of the Book of Mormon but had questions. Loel explained a lot and got both her cell phone and home phone and she agreed to see the missionaries! He came back very excited!

Random Thoughts and Experiences

This is long and there are no pictures. Paula does the pictures. These are just random experiences we've had since we arrived in Brussels. If you pass over this, my feelings won't be hurt.

This morning we got up and drove to a pretty and big park about ½ mile from
here. We walked, came back and showered, studied and went to the office. Our
trainers were out of town, so we just explored and tried to do our best. This
was the first day on our own driving and we love GPS. I’ve done this before
in other cities without GPS and GPS makes all the difference in the world.
Like the internet, how did we ever get along without it. I realize though,
that I’m a very visual person. Just driving with the GPS talking to me gets
me to my destination, but I need to see on a map and visualize where we go to
be able to remember directions

After we got home, we walked down to the corner for dinner. We thought it was
a small restaurant. Actually it is kind of a coin operated deli. You choose
your food, they check you out and then you put your money in a machine and it
prints a ticket for the value of your purchase. You then give the ticket to
the cashier. It was comical to watch Paula and me try to figure out how to go
about this process. We managed and brought home a pasta dish with cole slaw
and dessert. Then we walked across the street to a bakery and asked the young
lady if she spoke English. She was very nice, but said no. But she did try
to communicate with us.


We love the GPS. I’ve traveled in Europe (Italy and Germany) before GPS and
this is so much easier. You’re bound to make a wrong turn and before it
meant stopping and trying to figure out how to find where you are and how to
get back to where you wanted to be. We also installed a capability that
alerts us when there is a “safety camera “and tells us what our speed is.
It worked for us several times today. Unfortunately it doesn’t see red
lights and I ran 2 because I haven’t learned where to look for the lights.
I’ve heard they take pictures of every intersection. I guess we’ll find
out if I get a couple of tickets.

I filled the car with gas today. 10 gallons. $85.00

We feel some frustration as all the people in the area where we live speak
French (though they are quick to speak English if necessary) and we are
working everyday with Dutch correspondence. It’s challenging, but we can do
this. I hope the rest of the two years can be as good as the first week.
Everyone tells us it gets better.

The hard thing is living in a French city during the week and
thinking about how to say things in French, then working all day in an office
where everything is in Dutch, then going to church on Sunday and thinking
about how to say things in Dutch.

While we were sitting there this weird guy came up and recognized us as
“Mormons” and accosted us verbally for some time. We didn’t know what
to do so we sat there and tried to be polite. I think he used all the English
words he knew including some that aren’t printable and then he got tired and
went away. A couple that was sitting on the bench next to us said, “He’s
not all there.” We agreed and then he started to talk to us about where he
came from in the Netherlands. He told us he and his wife had visited the
western US (he call it “the tour”) and had visited Bryce, Zion’s, Grand
Canyon, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Brekenridge. He marveled at how big the
US is and how much space was on the slopes at Brekenridge. He told us about
his daughter who is in medical school and how she will be going to
Pennsylvania for training and then to Australia for a 6 month vacation. By
this time it was time to leave and I was so sad that we didn’t have a Pass
Along Card to give them. If the old guy hadn’t “accosted” us, we never
would have had the conversation and they would have never told us about their
family. I must never be without Pass Along Cards again.

Shopping is a real challenge for us. We went to this huge store, similar to a
Walmart, and there were people everywhere. Parking is underground and it’s
like a catacomb. It’s dark, people drive crazy, the parking places are
super small and there’s no room between rows. We went inside and people are
going everywhere. We don’t read or speak French or Dutch and all the help
speaks French as the primary language. We don’t know what the labels say,
so we have to guess based on where we find something in the store. We can
read the price. We just have to convert it to dollars at the current rate.
1.3 times the euro amount is a good ballpark number. It took us about 1 ½
hours to find and purchase $50 worth of groceries. I could spend that in 5
minutes at the meat counter in the U.S. Something that’s different when
purchasing bread is that the bread is all in big loaves just sitting in a bin
– no bag and unsliced. You pick the loaf you want and put it in waxed bag.
If you want it sliced, you put it in a slicer and then you bag it with an
interesting little adapter that lets you stack the sliced bread on a little
tray and then slip the bag over it. Purchasing produce, you pick your
produce, take it to a scale, weigh it, but you have to press the image that
corresponds to the produce you are purchasing (buying an orange, you press the
orange), the machine prints the price on a label and you attach it to the bag.
Then we get to checkout. We just stand and watch them ring it up, read the
amount, swipe our credit card, sign the statement and leave. We respond with
bon jour, because we understand that. There are no bags to bag your groceries
with, you bring your own or put the groceries back in the cart, ala Costco.
It’s back to the car, unload the groceries and return your cart to get your
1 Euro refund of the coin you inserted to get the cart in the first place.
It’s a unique system. You insert a coin and it unlocks a chain that chains
all the carts together in a row. When you return it, you plug the chain back
into this little receptacle and then you can remove your coin. No chain
inserted, no coin returned. No coin inserted, no cart for shopping.

I didn’t realize they celebrate Mother’s Day outside the U.S. They do.
The former RS Pres. spoke and the Bishop spoke. Again everything’s in
Dutch, so we have an interpreter. They were good talks. The primary children
(all seven) sang a song to the Mothers – it was like being at home. At the
end of the meeting they passed out a long-stemmed white rose. The actual
Antwerpen Mother’s Day is 15 Aug, but they celebrate today’s Mother’s
Day along with the rest of the country.

There is a sister in the ward that’s been a member for 30 years. Her husband has attended church regularly and he announced to the missionaries Sunday that he wants to be baptized. His wife is thrilled. I’ve heard a couple of quotes. He’s
about “80 years-old”. I haven’t met him so I don’t know. I heard someone asked him why he was getting baptized and he said, “I’m going to die pretty soon and I have to before that, don’t I?” The missionaries he told shared the experience with us this morning. They said they were at his home and he said, “I want to get baptized, but there are conditions. Let me finish this TV show first and then we’ll talk about it.” The show ended and he said, “There are three conditions. 1. They can’t ask me to pray in church. 2. They can’t get mad at me for not coming to Church every week
because my health won’t always permit it. 3. They have to get baptismal clothes big enough to fit me.” I guess he’s a pretty big guy. So that’s eight baptismal commitments for our district. Three of the baptisms are this weekend.

There’s an interesting thing about the heat, hot water and gas in this
apartment. There’s a meter on the stove, the hot water in the kitchen and
the bathroom and a meter on every steam heater in the kitchen, living room,
bed room and bath. We came home the other night and there was this paper on
the table (in French) with all these numbers. What it was, was separate readings for
all these heating devices. A new experience.

Then we went to the Mission Home for dinner with President and
Sister Brubaker and the other Senior Missionaries that are going to Brugge
tomorrow. It was a very relaxed evening with a soup as the main course and
just an opportunity to listen to experiences of the other missionaries. At
one point it became “driving war stories” as driving in Belgium and the
Netherlands is a unique experience, especially using GPS. It’s truly a
“love/hate” relationship as the GPS is not infallible and we all have been
dumped somewhere that’s not even close to our destination. But it would be
a hundred times harder without it

The Procession of the Holy Blood is a large religious procession, dating back
to the Middle Ages, which takes place each Ascension Day in Bruges, Belgium.
The centerpiece is the Blood of Christ, a coagulated relic said to become
fluid again each year on this day. Sixty to one hundred thousand spectators
watch the procession, a parade of historical scenes and biblical stories.
Choirs, dance groups (e.g. dance theatre Aglaja), animals (ranging from geese
to camels), horse-drawn floats and small plays with many actors pass by within
a couple of hours. More than 3,000 people participate in the spectacle, which
is also called "Brugges' Schoonste Dag" (The Most Beautiful Day in Bruges).
The event retains its spiritual aspect, as many bishops, priests and nuns from
all over the world come to celebrate. When the Holy Blood passes by, the crowd
becomes still and silent in reverence.

The biblical scenes were fun to watch and see how they portrayed Adam and Eve,
the Fall, Cain and Abel, etc. They take it all the way to the crucifixion.
Then they portray the middle ages and The Holy Blood arrives in Brugge. The
parade is about 1 ½ hours and my explanation doesn’t do it justice.

I sat down and Brother Staepels (HP Group Leader) came and sat next to me. He
said something about Dutch and then said, “You can take heart because Dutch
is an easy language to learn. Even little children can speak Dutch”. Of
course he was teasing me, but I have to admit I feel discouraged as I sit in
meetings not understanding the speakers. They are kind enough to provide
earphones and a translator, but it’s not the same as just listening and
understanding. The other thing I’m finding, as Scott pointed out, is that
the Flemish language, while similar to Dutch, is different enough that
missionaries arriving in Belgium have a really hard time understanding the language. Some of the “hard and fast” rules for Dutch, don’t apply to Flemish. So, when we move to the Netherlands, we will have a significant adjustment to make. We live with French all week, on the street, at the garage and in the super market. And then it’s Flemish on the weekend, except when we go to the Netherlands for something. Again, we are fortunate most the Dutch speakers do speak English and are happy to do so.

I had an interesting experience today. It’s actually an extension of an
experience that started last Friday. We have a car that is licensed in
France. Cars that are four years old have to undergo a technical inspection
to be legal. Kind of like our annual vehicle inspection. Periodically the
police will set up a road block to check vehicle's paperwork to ensure it’s
current. The difference here is, they don’t give you a ticket. They have
you get out of the vehicle, unload your belongings and tow the vehicle away.
So we were concerned with this vehicle, because it was like a year overdue.

Because the vehicle is French, we couldn’t find anyone in Brussels that
would do the inspection. We contacted the Phair’s (who left Saturday to go
home) and asked if they could contact the mechanic that had done some work on
their car to see if he could get the inspection done. He said he would.
Well, the mechanic speaks only French. The Phair’s speak excellent French.
So the Phair’s went with us to the garage and translated. We thought we
would get the car back on Friday, so we would have the Phair’s to translate
when we picked the car up.

Well, Thursday was Ascention Day and the Belgians take two days for every
holiday (so I’ve been told). So nobody worked Friday. The garage owner
forgot this when we made the appointment, so he told us (through the
Phair’s) when we took the car in that we couldn’t get until Monday.
Monday the Phair’s would be gone.

So, Monday we went back to get the car. The work was done, the papers were in
order, but we could not communicate with the mechanic. It was kind of
comical. He didn’t understand us, we didn’t understand him, but with a
lot of pointing, smiling and handshaking we picked up the car, it’s legal
and he’ll send us the bill. It’s that way a lot. In Flemish speaking
Belgium, they speak more English and it makes it easier.

I drove to the train station with Elder Pankratz to pick up Paula and the two
Sisters from Antwerpen. IT’S HUGE. So we get to the train station and
Paula calls and says, where should we meet you? I’ve never been there
before, Elder Pankratz hasn’t been inside before and the Sisters haven’t
been there before. We go to an underground parking garage and I decide to go
up stairs and try to find them. I had the parking ticket in my hand because I
was going to pay for the parking. I rode the elevator up and stepped out into
the street and didn’t have a clue where I was. I tried to go back in and I
couldn’t get back in. So, I have the parking ticket (which maxes out the
cost if Elder Pankratz has to exit without the ticket), I’m outside this
huge building, Paula and I are talking to each other and have no idea where
each other is, so I start walking. I walk around the building and find an
entrance I can go into and walk in. I’m in this fine dining restaurant with
people sitting at tables (it’s lunch time) and I just walk through the
middle and out the other side. I’m wondering if I’m at the right
building, because across the street is another huge building that looks more
terminal-like. I keep walking around this other building and I’m
approaching an entrance and I’m sure I’ve found the entrance to the train
station. I’m talking to Paula and she says, "We don’t know where we are,
but I’m walking outside." Just then I see her and say, “Look to your
left.” And I’m about 15 feet from her. We gather up the other Sister
missionaries and now we have to find Elder Pankratz. We walked back across
the plaza toward the other building looking for a way back into the parking
garage. We found an entrance, but it wouldn’t let us in unless I put the
parking ticket into a slot and I was afraid I’d lose it. So we waited for
someone to exit and slipped in before the door closed. We went down to the
parking level I came from and it didn’t look anything like where I started.
I called Elder Pankratz and told him what it looked like and he thought he was
at the other end (over a ¼ mile away). He pulled out and I could see him.
He drove to us, we got into the car and drove back to the office . How did
Paula and I just run into each other? How did Elder Pankratz know to pull out
and drive toward where we were? There are no coincidences.

We went to the second address and we found the store we wanted. It’s a
really big book store in downtown Brussels, that has a large selection of
English language books. We looked it up on line and nearly every comment on
the store said the service was really, really bad. Too many people, too few
sales help and very abrupt and rude. With our limited French we were very
apprehensive. We went into the store and with my limited French said, “Bon
Jour. Le livre anglaise?” This nice lady told me in very accented English
that the English books were on the other side of the store (this is a BIG
store). We went to the other side and didn’t find it and asked another
person and he nicely told us in English, with a very, very strong accent, that
it was down some steps by the cash register. We found the stairs, went down
into to the catacombs (I mean, this is Europe) and found the English books. I
asked the man, again in my limited French, “Parlevouz, Anglaise?” and he
responded in perfect British English, “Yes.” He then proceeded to help us
find the books we were looking for and suggested several others of the same
type. We took them upstairs, checked out and left the store. As we walked
down the street I said to Paula that maybe we should write a rebuttal to the
negative comments on line. We had a very positive experience.

Parking was a new adventure. You pull up to a kiosk like you would normally
get a parking ticket from and push the button. A yellow plastic disc the size
of a nickel comes out. My first thought is, OK, what do I do with this? We
park the car and as we’re walking in, a lady comes out, stops at a kiosk,
inserts her disc and it tell her how much she owes for parking. We were
walking past and I assumed that a ticket was printed that she would put in
another kiosk when she exited the parking. Apparently the disc is coded when
you come in with a time that the payment kiosk can read and charge the
appropriate amount.

We do our shopping, get some lunch and now for the moment of truth. I
approach the payment kiosk and insert my yellow disc. The machine says I owe
2 euros. I insert the euros and wait for the ticket to come out. The disc
comes back out. Now what? Did it work correctly? Am I going to get to the
exit gate and be stopped because I didn’t get a ticket? Is everyone behind
me going to be honking their horns to get me to move out of the way? I was in
underground parking in Antwerpen and luckily I had been clued in by Elder
Pankratz that it’s easier to pay in advance. When we were leaving
Antwerpen, there was a lady jumping out of her car at the exit gate to run to
a payment kiosk to get her ticket validated so she could leave. I could see
something like that in my future.

We drove to the exit gate, I inserted my yellow disc in the kiosk and the gate
opened. It was almost anti-climactic.

May 16 - 21, 2010

This is a picture of me, Sister Holbien and Sister Gulliver having our companion study hour in their apartment in Antwerpen. I spent 24 hours with these sisters on an exchange, and had a wonderful day, experiencing first hand what life was like as a young missionary in our mission. Sister Holbien, on my left, is a greenie of 6 weeks and Sister Gulliver is going home next week. Both are dedicated, excellent missionaries.



Of course, they had to take me to get a Belgian waffle at their favorite place, which is at the train station. It was warm, kind of sweet and crispy, smothered in warm chocolate and topped with whip cream. You can hardly imagine how good it was!!! I told them that I wanted to experience very traditional Belgian cuisine, and this was it. Unfortunately it didn't sit well with Sis Holbien's stomach as we had had fries or "friets" the night before.



Here is a picture of us eating dinner at the friets shop outside on the big central square. I asked what was truly Belgian that we should have for dinner and they said, "fries!" So we did - with mayonnaise, ketsup, and fresh chopped onions on top. But we didn't only eat on our exchange, we did some serious missionary work. I was so impressed with how we would pray, plan, then proceed with our plan, with goals set, etc. We took lots of trains and trams all around town, walked a ton (I got blisters), ran for trains, checked out referrals, street contacted, etc.



This is a fairly new member family we went to visit from Africa. Grace has the cutest baby; this is her mom next to her. We gave them on member lesson on the importance of the Sabbath and taking the Sacrament. On our long walk to check out a Temple Square referral (he wasn't home), we stopped a man walking down the street and actually had a great discussion with him. Course it was all in Dutch so I didn't understand much, but the sisters were very excited as they gave him a Book of Mormon, got his phone number, etc. We even had a prayer with him, the 4 of us, right on the street.



this is the incredible train station in Antwerpen. It used to be a king's palace or something, and they couldn't afford to keep it, so it was bought by the city. It is rumored to be the most beautiful train station around. I wouldn't doubt it.








This is the inside of the train station. Notice the posters of the girls in scantily clad swimming suits. These posters are everywhere, but this is mild compared to some of the others we see all the time.









Here's Loel in his office in the mission office. It's a very nice office building; we're on the 8th floor. Both Loel and I don't have windows in our offices, but right outside our offices are the big lobby and reception area and it is lined with huge picture windows that overlook the city - very picturesque.






This is my office. I have a very large storage room attached to it with all the missionary supplies. There are hundreds of Books of Mormon in languages that I never heard of - today missionaries came and took 5 Books of Mormon in Lingala. I also have tons of pamphlets and other books in numerous other languages.






These are the office elders. Elder Owens is sitting down. He's the secretary who handles all of the legality issues. Elder Bell is standing up and is over all the finances. They both are from Idaho and have been a huge help to us as we are learning our jobs.








This is a picture of our little stairwell in our apartment, looking down the spiral stairs. Makes you kind of dizzy to walk down them.









Just a pretty house we walk by each day on the way to the park that we walk in.











Lots of baby ducks we pass on our morning walk - there was a huge pile of them climbing all over each other here. The next two pictures are more of the park.

We call this huge church and school "Hogwart" as that is what Sis Pankratz named it. We pass by it on our way to the office each morning. It is huge and very beautiful. It's real name is St. Michael's.

Here is the Antwerpen district that we're in. This is at one of our district meetings we have about every other Tuesday and sometimes more often. Our district is pretty amazing with the assistants, office elders, the sisters, and two senior couples! We always have lunch first, here in the kitchen, and then have about an hour lesson where we role play different aspects of missionary work. The senior couples always get to be the investigators or the members; the missionaries get to be the missionaries. I think our district is leading the mission in baptisms. We attended two baptisms this past week where one young man was baptized, then two women. we have another scheduled for this Sunday.

As a side note, Loel and I traveled out of our mission to Mons, Belgium, to a military base and got our "yellow cards", which is no small feat! i felt like an illegal alien getting my green card! We had a really nice senior couple (the Browns) who work in the archives for their mission there in Mons, take us with them to help us. They were so nice - it took about 4 1/2 hrs to get the ID's, show us around, and then take us to the commissary to shop, which was about 20 minutes further through a couple little towns. I felt like a kid in a candy shop when we got to the commissary - American food, labels I could actually read, a check out procedure I could understand, etc. We bought a ton of groceries since we are going to be cooking lunch each Monday for the office staff, and the Pres and his wife, of 8 - 10 people. It was lots of fun making numerous trips up the 6 floors to our apartment, carrying all of our bags. We were in our tiny elevator, thank goodness; we didn't to walk up the stairs. This yellow card not only allows us shopping privileges, but we can use the clinic, get prescriptions, get our teeth cleaned, and some PO privileges. We thanked the Browns profusely for helping us and they said it was nice to have a diversion, as they spend every day entering marriage and death records in on the computer in this government archive building.

9-15 May 2010

Paula in front of the Amsterdam Chapel where we attended a Zone Conference. Tues we drove to Amsterdam to join those two northern zones for part of their zone conf. I forgot my nametag and so wore Loel's for the day, so I was Elder Tibbitts all day. Some people noticed but many didn't as I think everyone is just so used to seeing "Elder" on nametags. The Pres had asked us to attend so we could meet all the missionaries and so he could introduce us. We then attended our own zone conf in Antwerpen the next day and got introduced to the rest of the mission. Both days were very inspiring as the Assistants taught classes, and they had a local stake president come and talk and answer questions about member missionary work. It was pretty amazing – his English was perfect. He then opened it up for questions and it was a great session on answering some of the missionary’s concerns. At the end he quoted a scripture in Luke about holding on to the plough and not looking back, keeping your furrows straight. He said your missions are like the straight line you plow the first time you plough. Then the rest of your life, if this first line is straight, you can line up all the other events to this mission line and stay strong and true. He said these 2 years go by so fast; it’s almost like 2 days. He pleaded with the missionaries to make the most of their missions, to not squander their time as it would be gone very soon.

Both days when the Pres introduced us, he gave us glowing recommendations. He said that Loel could run this mission just as well as he could with all of his church background, being a bishop lots of times, etc, but for some reason, the Lord wanted us in our particular callings at this time. He always talks about Loel being a pilot and how much he, himself, always wanted to be a pilot. Then he introduces me and talks about my church experience and my advising and career counseling experience and how the missionaries going home should utilize me, etc. He gives us such glowing recommendations; makes us hope we can live up to his praises and expectations!

After he introduces us, he has us talk a little and bear our testimonies. I give the blended family background, how long we’ve been married, how we always wanted to serve a mission ever since we got married, share that I had served a mission in NC when younger, share a little about how I would be happy to help any missionaries with school questions, bear my testimony and sit down. Loel usually takes longer but does a great job as he tells of how this is his first mission and how happy he is to be here. He talked about how yes, he’s had some great career experiences and yes, he’s been a pilot, etc., but that the most important times of his life have been when he’s in service to others. He gives great testimonies and talks!

The part I like almost the very best about zone conferences is the testimony meeting at the end. Only the departing missionaries bear their testimonies and they are so inspirational and sincere. Almost all of them talk about how hard it was at the beginning, but then about how hard it is to leave and all they’ve learned. One elder said, “these past two years haven’t been the best two years of my life. They’ve been the best two years for the rest of my life.” He talked about how his mission will serve as a foundation for the rest of his life and that the best two years are still ahead.

Antwerpen Chapel where we attend church and Zone Conference. This is Paula, her friend Julie and the Assistants.

Mondays in the mission office are always very busy. We get all the orders for supplies from the zone leaders and have to fill them. There are usually more referrals to get out, orders to make, etc. Pres and Sis Brubaker are usually always in the office on Mondays (sometimes that’s the only day they’re in) and the Assistants are in the office only on Mondays, too. Also, one of the senior missionaries or the Brubakers bring lunch for everyone in the office on Mondays. We volunteered so brought some pasta, salad, French bread (REAL French bread which Sis Pankratz and I ran and bought right before lunch – SOOO good!), and I made a lemon jello fun cake which was a real hit. Well, it was all a real hit as everyone loved it and again, we could not believe how much the elders can eat!! Pres and Sus Brubaker had to leave in the middle of lunch to run to the airport to pick up a new missionary who had been delayed in the MTC 4 weeks for surgery and then got delayed 4 hours at another airport for the volcano. It was so fun to greet this new elder – we felt like the old timers and we’ve only been here 2 weeks! So it was a long day but a good one.




This is me sitting in the back of our apartment building - it's a really pretty, manicured garden area.









This is our neighborhood bakery, or boulangerie. It has really yummy pastries, but we're not sure what they all are since the lady who works on Sat can't speak any English, so we just have to point and hold up our fingers for how many we want.





We took a walk Sat morning around our neighborhood in an area we had never gone to before. This is a picture of how the streets come together and then head out in about 6 different directions. You often will see some apartments, then lots of little stores, then maybe some more apartments, then maybe a nice neighborhood of really nice houses - all kind of mixed together.


These next pictures are of a day we spent in Brugge with President and Sister Brubaker, the Senior Missionaries and the Office Elders. These pictures are just previews. If you want to see the whole day and the Procession of the Holy Blood go to this link. http://picasaweb.google.com/loelbt/Brugge13May2010#

Thursday we got to go on an outing to Brugge, Belgium, about 1 hr and 15 mins from here. It’s an amazing old medieval town and this particular day is an annual pageant, processional thing where they do a whole reenactment of the Bible as they are walking through town in like a parade. They have live animals, amazing costumes, music, etc. There were 4 senior couples, the Pres and his wife, and the 4 office elders. The town was beautiful, scenery is so picturesque, it’s very hard to describe how incredible the day was. The Pres reserved a table in a very nice restaurant upstairs so we had a great lunch and then watched the whole processional from our restaurant window. It’s called the The Holy Blood of Christ – the story is that there’s a cloth that they wiped the blood of Christ on after his crucifixion, and that a crusader brought this to the basilica in Brugge so now it’s in a special vial. Everything was very ornate – of course the churches are, etc.
We wandered around town for a while, looked in lace shops and chocolate shops, went on a canal boat ride, which is absolutely breathtaking – kind of reminded me of Venice. It was a wonderful day.




This is one of the many picturesque canals in Brugge. Brugge has 10 miles of canals. Originally canals were the main means of travel through the city.










This is the entry to the courtyard where the Basilica of the Holy Blood is.









This is the interior of the Basilica of the Holy Blood.
















This is the Bell Tower on the square. There are 300 plus steps up to a vantage point that you can look out over the tops of the city. We didn't climb the stairs. Maybe next time.













Joseph, Mary and the Christ child with the shepherds and their flocks following.








Dietrich bringing back the Holy Blood of Christ to Brugge.

Our Teeny Apartment

When we first started communicating with Brother and Sister Pankratz, we were told that the apartment is approximately 1000 square feet. As we live here, we seriously doubt that it's that big. I've taken some pictures to show how small it is.

This is the hall from the living room to the bedroom and bathrooms (plural). As I'm a little wider than Paula, I will have a perpetual bruise on my right arm from banging into the door knob.












This is the little WC (Water Closet). It's small enough I can sit on the toilet and rest my head on the basin. Paula calls it our doll sink.

















This is our "big" bathroom. I'm standing at the door and it's about four feet to the tub. The washer (Yes, that's the washer. The dryer's in the kitchen.) in front of me is right next to the tub.












We do have a nice area for the computer. and the living room/dining room is large. There's room to lay out a mattress (and we have an extra one under our bed).

Life in the Mission Office

We're constantly learning and being challenged. I ask Sis Pankratz tons of questions and try to write everything down so I'll remember. Whenever I see a procedure that seems like it could be done better, Sister Pankratz agrees and we change things. We've been cleaning out files, our store room of supplies upstairs, and some down in the 'cave', and our basement 6 floors below, where we had a very big room for storage. We've been relabeling things, going through computer files and deleting some, etc. I feel kind of frantic in wanting to learn and do all I can while Sis Pankratz is still here. We don't know how long they'll be here before finding an apt. near Amsterdam.

We've attending some really neat meetings. Tues we drove up to up to Antwerpen with the Pankratz for our first district meeting - 2 senior couples (us and Pankratz) the assistants, the two office elders, and the two sister missionaries. We are so impressed with the missionaries here - they are great leaders, dedicated, enthusiastic, and have a great spirit about them. We had lunch first that the sisters had stopped at a store and bought as they're just on the train system, no car, so had to bring their bags of food they had just got from the store with them. The meeting was all about finding people to teach and we role played where the senior couples were the people on the street and the elders and sisters were trying to talk to us. Really fun to do.

We also attended a leadership meeting at the mission home for all the ZL's and the AP's in the mission. Again, we were very impressed with their spirit and dedication. The Pres wanted us to come so we could introduce ourselves and also he had asked that I meet with a sister missionary from St. Kitts who will be returning home soon, to talk to her about her schooling plans, maybe using the perpetual education fund, etc. She and I had a nice visit for an hour after lunch. this lunch was cooked by the office's Philipino helper, and it was incredible!!! Chicken curry, sweet and sour chicken, veges, rice, etc.

Whenever the missionaries find out that I've done academic advising and career counseling, they all want to talk to me, which is nice. I hope I can be a help to them. Loel talks me up so much that I feel like I'm supposed to be a miracle worker! Loel is so sweet that way. He's going to be so great at his job - the elders and sisters already respect him; he just has a very efficient, let's get it done attitude, but is also so kind and loving with the missionaries. He has to make all of them get vehicle inspections, etc. but they all listen and are working on it.

We and the Pankratz had loaded up both our cars with boxes of supplies we've been collecting for the missionaries, so we were able to give them to the ZL's while at this meeting for them to take back to their areas. I found myself feeling very protective of all those supplies we had carefully packaged up, etc, making sure they got to the right places! I also hand carried my little bags of mail for each zone that had come in as I felt that it was very important that each letter went to the right place. I know what it's like to be on a mission and how important it is to receive letters, and I also know how as a mother of a missionary, how important it is to know that my son/daughter is getting the mail we send.

The President asked us to meet with him for 30 mins last Thurs and it went to 2 hours as we had so much to talk about. He said he had awakened at 5:30 am that morning and had written down lots of things he felt we should be doing. He's a very inspired man. We felt so much more direction after visiting with him. He feels like we have strengths he wants to capitalize on and wants us to work more with stake leaders, clerks, executive secretaries, high council people over missionary work, etc, with more member relations to get more referrals, as right now, only 10% of the missionary's time is spent on member referrals, but 70% of the baptisms come from them.

He's very anxious for me to get the new Referral Management System up and running, which will send text messages to the missionaries as soon as referrals come in. I learned about it in the MTC but haven't been able to connect with the trainer in the MTC to work through some programming errors and walk me through the system. I can't even talk to them until 3:00 pm as that's 7:00 am in Utah when they come to work.

Pres Brubaker only wants us to manage the 6 or 7 apartments here in Belgium; there's another senior couple in the Netherlands who will take care of the rest. That was a huge relief to us. And he said he doesn't want us doing lots of the work - wants to involve the elders with it or hire it out. There were tons more things he wants us to do. I felt kind of overwhelmed when we left, but also felt really good to finally have more direction. When we asked if we should be involved with the Young Adult Outreach Center that is just starting in Antwerpen, the Pres said, "You are to work in the office. This is your assignment and there's plenty for you to do." And there really is.

I was greatly relieved when the Pres told us that our speaking only English would be fine and really gave us the impression that we didn't have to learn a lot of Dutch. He told us that the assignments he has given us can all be done in English as most people in the Netherlands do speak English. I felt like shouting hallejuhah as I was having a hard time imagining how we would have the time to become fluent in Dutch.

I attended a RS activity in Antwerpen, getting a ride part way with a previous RS president. It was a wellness night and they had someone doing pedicures, manicures, massages, etc. The sister missionaries were there and Katie, the nice Canadian girl, and so I was able to visit with some of them. I don't know how much time I'll have to go to many of these things as it's 45 mins away and I would be too afraid to drive myself at this point. I talked to several members there and got better acquainted, plus talked to several investigators, too. I didn't get home until 11:00 pm so was pretty tired! The first picture shows a very friendly member who I talked to quite a bit, plus the Nigerian member on the end - very friendly people! the 2nd picture shows Katie, the Canadian, then middle is a young girl on a mini mission with the sisters, and the last one is one of the sister missionaries.

I've actually gotten brave enough to drive two mornings to the park where we walk and back home. I've got to try to drive more, but am still pretty scared. This park is really beautiful, only 5 mins away, and we love walking there about every other morning. It has a little lake with swans on it, beautiful trees, flowers, green grass, etc. Plus, it has clay tennis courts!!

Keukenhof

Here we are in front of the Den Haag temple in the Netherlands. We took a trip to Amsterdam, which is about 2 1/2 hrs from Brussels with the Pankratz. They needed to look at an apartment for themselves as they're going to be moving up in this area. We had a wonderful day, first driving through the Netherlands for our first time, seeing some windmills, beautiful scenery, little villages with the church spires poking up, but then you'd see, close by, modern, funky architecture buildings mixed together. We stopped for lunch and I found you have to pay (sometimes) to use the restroom! I also found a bakery and bought three different pastries to try later, which we did.
After checking out a couple apartments for them, we headed to Keukenhoff, a very famous 80 acre park of tulips and other flowers. It was pretty incredible - I think the most beautiful garden I have ever seen. We commented on how we felt like we were in the Garden of Eden! We walked around for about 3 hours, sometimes with our umbrellas as it would rain. We dressed warmly and were really comfortable. Rain doesn't stop anyone here. This park is only open for 2 months of the year, so we were so happy that the Pankratz took us here. We kept commenting on how we hope family and friends, when they visit, can see this beautiful park. It also felt so great to have the Pankratz do the driving and just be able to sit back and relax and enjoy everything. I've found that when Loel and I are driving, we are so intent on figuring out where we're going, watching and listening to the GPS, trying to figure out street signs, lights, read street names in a foreign language, etc, that we can't talk or visit at all, or we'll miss our next turnoff!!

I'm not very good at this blogging stuff as I can't make the text fit around the pictures!!! Sorry about that! The last two pictures show the Pankratz - they are the sweetest couple who are training us. Sis Pankratz and I have become great friends - we laugh a lot, she's a great listener, very interested in everything I say, is full of faith. She prays about everything, like even how to make good cookies, and has a recipe she calls "Chocolate Chip cookies from Heaven" that I found on the computer. She said the Lord told her what ingredients to put in. She prays about how to get better from an illness, reads about it online, and then usually does some kind of natural cure that works for her! Currently, she's had a bad cough and read about making a ground up onion mixture so she takes that now and it has really helped! She laughs about her bad breath because of it, but she eats lots of lozenges, etc, that covers it up. She is always complimenting me on how well I'm learning, and is so humble, if I make any suggestions, she says, "Well, that's a great idea, let's do it!" Elder Pankratz is great, too, is so helpful to both of us. He's always making sure we are well taken care of - some of my lights went out in my office, so he went down to the "cave" 16 floors down from our office and got me a lamp and fixed it so it would work so I would have better light until the maintenance people fix my light next week.