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.