July 3-9, 2010

On our P-day we visited an African Congo museum outside of Brussels with the Assistants and office elders. It's housed in King Leopold's old hunting lodge - a very huge, amazing structure with huge beautiful grounds outside. This is a 70 foot dug out canoe, made from one log, that we saw along with many other artifacts, musical instruments, weapons, etc. from the Congo.

Outside the museum are all these elephants made from wood. It kind of makes it look like you're in Africa with elephants walking all around outside.

This is Sister Kay Hanson, a very dear friend of my parents. She was the RS pres when my father passed away and spoke at his funeral. She is now serving a mission in Frankfurt, Germany and travels all around Europe, training the senior couples who run the young adult outreach centers that are so successful here in Europe. She was here in our mission doing some training so we arranged to meet her and her companion at the Brussels airport for dinner one night. We had a delightful time together.

This is a picture of the three sister missionaries who were in Antwerpen together, myself, and the redhead is Katie (kind of cut off), a Canadian, working on her Ph.D in Philosophy - she invited all the missionaries in our Antwerpen ward over for a 4th of July barbecue after church, plus it was her birthday, too!

We were pretty proud of the spread we all brought! The elders even made jello salad and another fruit salad for the occasion - we were impressed! The sisters made a birthday cake for Katie. She lives in a cute little apartment with an amazing view of the old part of Antwerpen. It's on the 5th floor and has no elevator! Great exercise for us all.

Elder Relitz offered to be the cook out on the balcony - that was nice of him as it was a pretty hot day. Katie even bought this cute little grill for the occasion. Notice the tile roofs behind him.

Here's our whole group that day - we sang The Star Spangled Banner, waved our flags, you can see we tried to wear red white and blue, and generally had a great time together. Our church was even let out early as the Tour de France was coming through town and they were closing all the roads and the trains, etc.

Now how many people can say they saw the Tour de France ride by!!! On Monday, Pres Brubaker said, "Let's go do some street contacting out on Montgomery Circle - the Tour de France is riding by!" We raced outside, walked about 4 blocks, and here they came! It was pretty darn impressive and very fast - over in 32 seconds!!!

I tried really hard to find Lance, but no luck - too fast and there were tons of riders - maybe 100??? It was really a thrill to see them.

Following along behind the riders were tons of these cars with lots of bikes on top of them for spare parts, etc. It's out of the picture, but at this point the race was about 15 minutes old and this car had just changed a flat tire for a racer here in front of us. The cobblestone streets in Belgium did a number on the bike tires.

This is Pres and Sis Brubaker with some of the elders, walking back to the office after the tour rode by. I liked the Brussels buildings in the background. The Pres and the elders all had a great time visiting with all their former French missionary friends who used to be in this mission but are now in the Paris France mission. They were there, too, to see the tour and it was a happy reunion for all of them.

Loel liked this picture of all the bikes lined up for rent at the train station here in Brussels. Each transfer week, Loel spends quite a bit of time, driving missionaries to and from the train station - he used to get lost, but he's gotten a lot better at it now!
(Loel) Like Paula said, the train station has been my nemasis. It went better this transfer. you can find these bikes all over Belgium. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I suspect you pay a fee and drop the bike at a place like this near your destination.

This was the dinner we attended at the mission home for the 5 departing missionaries who went home this week. Here they all are with the two assistants, us and the Brubakers (I'm taking the picture). This is always a very busy, but rewarding day. As the missionaries come into the office from their various areas, Loel brings them to the office from the train station with their luggage in the mission van. They all have their interviews with the President, while I collect their email addresses, home addresses, and their most memorable mission experience that they've written up. Later I type these up for the Brubakers to have and also put them in a book. I also offer to visit with any who may have a need for some schooling or career counseling. They all took me up on it, so one by one, we met in my office and talked about their plans for the future, schooling, scholarships, transfer credits, majors, classes, etc. It is such a wonderful experience to have a little time to visit with each one individually, to feel of their goodness, and learn a little more about them. I call it "career counseling with the spirit," as I feel prompted many times in the things I say.

I was invited to attend a kind of wrap-up meeting that Assistants do with the departing missionaries where they ask questions like what is the most important thing that you've learned and how can we better improve the mission to achieve more baptisms and thing of this nature. I was so impressed with their insightful comments and great suggestions. Something that really stood out to me was how they kept saying, over and over again, "The Lord is in the details of our lives." Little things they were prompted to do or not to do ended up making the difference in big ways. I, too, have felt this very strongly here on our mission. My prayers have been answered so fast, I almost feel like I need to be careful for what I ask as He answers and blesses me immediately! I've realized that I can ask Him any little thing and I can receive an answer and feel so carefully watched over.

Here are the 5 departing missionaries - Zuster Fowler, Zuster Stapleton, Elder Black, Elder Stringham, and Elder Lystrup. Here they are, holding their certificates and an old antique key the Brubakers give to each one to help them remember that "love is the key." We had a very spiritual testimony meeting with them as we listened to the things they have learned, their love for the people and their mission, their wisdom and goodness. Pres Brubaker asked Loel and I to share our testimonies, also, which was a real priviledge. I had a hard time speaking as I told them that after only a couple of months, I feel so proud of them, like I'm their parent, and how much I've loved our interactions with them. Loel gave them some good advice on serving in the church after their missions and how they would be the leaders in their wards and stakes. It was truly one of the choicest experiences I've ever had to be there.

We all just didn't want to see the evening come to an end. The elders offered to sing a hymn together, so they sang "Nearer My God to Thee," in Dutch, of course, harmonizing perfectly with each other - we have some very musically talented missionaries. Sister Fowler played a beautiful number on the piano for us earlier. Afterwards we went inside the mission home and had a kneeling prayer with Pres Brubaker praying for his departing missionaries. We didn't get home until 11:00 pm; very tired, but very happy.
We were up bright and early the next morning to the mission home to drive the van with all the luggage to the airport. Two elders were meeting their parents there who had come out to pick them up - the other three flew off. I always wish I could hug these elders, but I can't, so we give great handshakes. But I can hug the sisters and that's wonderful. The elders and Loel and the Pres all give each other big hugs.

After leaving the airport, Loel and I drove the van up to Rotterdam where it was needed and then did an apartment inspection up in the Netherlands. It always feels different to go from Belgium to the Netherlands.

Moving on to more worldly things . . . we got to attend a huge tennis match, the most attended match in history even, here in Brussels, at this huge stadium. (The goal was to break the Guiness record and I think they did - of course the announcing was all in French, so I couldn't understand much of what they were saying. It was originally called "The Best of Belgium" with Kim Clijsters playing Justine Henin (they are both famous tennis players and are both from Belgium.) So of course, we had to go! Unfortunately Justine Henin pulled out because of an injury, but Serena Williams stepped in for her, which was very nice. So they then called it the Best of Belgium vs. the Best in the World! It was fun to watch big time players. Clijsters won, much to the delight of all the Belgium fans.

I think there were close to 40,000 people there. It's still a little stressful to go to unknown places in a country where you don't speak the language. We had to kind of guess at where to park and ended up walking quite a ways to get to the stadium. Then we had to figure out how to get in, which gate, where our seats were, etc, all the time hoping people would be nice and speak English! They were.

Sister Brubaker is an amazing cook and an extremely creative person who makes the most gorgeous displays that look too good to eat. This is at a leadership conference we had this week at the mission home - she always makes lunch for all the zone leaders, assistants, and one sister companionship gets to come. This time it was the Antwerpen sisters, the ones I get to see a lot since they're the only sisters serving in Belgium (the rest are in the Netherlands) and we're in the same ward. I brought a potato salad to this lunch. I also brought tons of boxes of supplies for the zone leaders that I have been collecting during the month. They are always so grateful to receive them, plus I bring their mail, which they love.

About once a month we go about an hour away to Chievres, a military base, and do major shopping for the next month. Here is a picture of how much stuff we bought! A nice bag boy helps us get it in our car.

I was supposed to go on a missionary visit to an investigator's family with the sisters one night this week. Loel was driving back from Rotterdam with the van, so we had arranged for him to do a joint teach with the assistants in Antwerpen on his way home. This meant that I had to drive, by myself, to Antwerpen, which I was pretty nervous about, but I did have my GPS. I left the office with plenty of time to spare and got stuck in a huge traffic jam right outside of Brussels. Three hours later and only inching along, I had to cancel with the sisters and try to get off the parking lot of a freeway to get home. I finally did. It was very boring yet I did learn that with my GPS, I'll be fine driving. That is, of course, if I ever get out of traffic jams to drive. I'll let Loel talk about his experience with the elders - it was much better than my evening.

(Loel) I only got stuck in a traffic jam for 1 hour, so I felt really sorry or Paula. I was in the same traffic jam, about 4 hours earlier as I left Brussels for Rotterdam. I had planned on meeting the Assistants to the President (APs) in Antwerpen. They scheduled an appointment with a young man who is a friend of an African member. They work together and the member had introduced this young man to the missionaries at a pickup soccer game. The member left Nigeria and settled in Antwerpen. He's married and has a little boy and he has the most amazing testimony of the Book of Mormon and the Church. He's a joy to have at a meeting with an investigator, because he freely testifies about any aspect of the gospel. And it's great to teach in a members home. That is absolutely the best situation.

As we arrived at the member's home, the first miracle was finding a parking place right in front of the apartment. If you've traveled in Europe, you know what I'm talking about. Parking is really scarce. The investigator is a young Belgian and that's somewhat uncommon. He became interested through the member and is searching for religion. He's studied other religions, including Islam and he seems truly interested in the church. The Elders had given him a reading assignment in the Book of Mormon and he read that plus the Joseph Smith story at the front of the book. He was excited about the story and very interested in an angel visiting Joseph Smith to tell him about the gold plates. He seems to accept Joseph Smith with no reservations. He was very attentive and seems to be genuinely interested in the gospel. He speaks good English and that made easy for me to be a part of this teaching experience. Elders get to know each other well and they know when their companion will speak. It's kind of an intuitive thing. Not being with them regularly, I was taken off guard when they would ask me a question or ask me to share something. This was a great experience for me and it's wonderful to feel the strength of our missionaries as they teach with the Spirit. The Elders are meeting with this young man three times a week and it appears to be going well. They called me after their meeting with him on Thursday and told me how well the last lesson went and that he said he felt the Spirit strongly in the meeting on Tuesday. Our mission has 50 baptismal commitments right now. That's with 37 sets of missionaries.

Back to Paula - We had a really fun experience today as Bev Christiansen, from our home ward, came through Brussels on a layover from Germany and we went to the airport to visit with her for about an hour. It was so fun to see a friend from home and to be able to share part of our mission with her. She was so interested and sweet - even wanted to take some notes so she wouldn't forget anything! It really made us happy to visit with her.