This past weekend was a "senior retreat" - we have about 4 a year where all the senior couples go somewhere fun for the weekend. I was asked to plan it so I took Elder Salden's advice and we spent the weekend in a little town in southeast Holland called Thorn, the white city. This is a picture of two of the senior couples (there are 5 plus Pres and Sis Brubaker) as we arrived at the cute bed and breakfast place I arranged. They had a beautiful garden with different terraces where we visited as we waited for everyone to arrive.
This is another view of the garden behind our B & B.
These are what the streets look like in Thorn - little, narrow cobblestone streets with all white buildings.
We all met at the church in the center of town to start our "walking tour" of the city. Unfortunately, our tour guide had so much to share about the church that we hardly had time for any walking around town at all. The church was really pretty.
A little cemetary beside the church - it gives a little view of the surround buildings nearby.
More of the streets of Thorn - many buildings were built in the late 1600 to early 1700's after the French invasion. The building on the right has three cannon balls built into the front of the brickwork to signify the end of war. The French imposed a tax on the buildings in the town based on the number of doors and windows. The Abbey was torn down by the French and so the town's people took the rubble from the church and filled in the doors and windows. Then they painted all the buildings white to hide the modifications. The buildings have been white ever since.
This is the pannekoekken house where we had dinner. Pannekoekkens are big pancakes, almost like crepes with all kinds of things on them - you choose. Some have meat, cheese, onions, etc, and others are dessert ones with berries, white cream, syrup, etc. They are a traditional Holland favorite.
One of the reasons we chose this area to go to was the Passion Play that is only put on every 5 years and so we attended that. This is a picture of about 1/3 of the outdoor stage - it was pretty incredible - the costumes, staging, acting, music, etc. The only downside was that it was all in Dutch!! I had Elder Salden sit in between Sister Brubaker and I so he could tell us what was going on, but the lady in front of us shushed him as soon as he started talking, so I didn't get too much from him. Of course, I know the basic story.
This was the middle of the stage where Christ is being tried.
This is the last supper. The writer took a lot of literary license and had the production begin with Lazarus being raised from the dead, and then he kind of became the narrator of the rest of the production. They had him portrayed as a very tormented individual who couldn't decide if he was still dead or really alive - kept talking about how he knew he "stinketh." I did catch that word, even in Dutch!
Loel and I stayed at a nearby B&B with just this one bedroom. The others stayed at the bigger one that had more rooms. When we went to check into ours, there was a note on the door saying just get the key next door. So we did, walked into this little house and left our suitcases in the living room as we didn't even know which room would be ours. After the play when we returned, still no one was there, so we just slept in this room, the nearest one, which was the right room, thank goodness! The Dutch are very clean, very efficient, and so you don't see a lot of extra stuff in the room. It was very nice and clean.
From left to right, Elder Langeveld, Pres Brubaker, Loel, and Elder Pankratz. This was in front of the B&B the rest of them stayed at.
We all enjoyed a hearty Dutch breakfast - this picture doesn't do it justice! Lots of different kinds of bread and rolls, fresh fruit, yogurt, musli and jam to mix together, orange juice, meat and cheese for the bread, and of course, two kinds of chocolate sprinkles to put on the bread! The Dutch love their chocolate sprinkles!
The dining room was incredible in it's Dutch blue and white plates and decor. We couldn't stop taking pictures of it, it was so beautifully decorated. the owner educated us to "Blue and White". We thought it was specifically a Delft, Holland thing. But he explained that he has dishes from Delft, Mastricht and Poland, just to name a few. His wife said he is the interior decorator and she does the garden.
These are the 5 senior couples, minus the Brubakers who had to leave early as they were speaking somewhere far away. The rest of us headed to Heerlen, a town about 40 minutes away for church - it has a lot of military people in it so it's an English speaking ward! I loved it; I could understand everything!! It was fun visiting with our two elders there; Elder Brockbank from our home stake, and Elder Knutson. They're doing a great job there.
Loel took this picture from our apartment balcony in Brussels of a pretty sunrise. Notice the church tower in the background - this is a very pretty stone church we can walk to in our neighborhood.
This if the chapel in the town of Leiden, in northern Holland. It is the town that we may be moving the mission home to, if everything works out. So this could be our chapel in a few months! We went here for a zone conf this week and really fell in love with the town - canals running throughout it, just a quaint, smaller town feel to it. It's a university town with the oldest university in Holland there.
We always arrive early with boxes and boxes of missionary supplies that I've been collecting and ordering throughout the past month. I set them all up by zones and by companionships so everyone can easily see which things are theirs to take back to their cities. This time we were asked to make dessert for 60 people so we did - as usual, everything got eaten!
Sister Holbein and I in our matching blouses! I bought one and she loved it so much that I picked up one for her, but this time it was on clearance so it was very cheap! She wanted us to wear them at zone conf together, so we did.
Pres and Sis Brubaker couldn't attend this zone conf as he ended up at the hospital with an infection in his toe! (The assistants ran the whole day by themselves and did an amazing job, finding out one hour before that they needed to do so.) So Sis Brubaker asked if I would conduct the 'birthday celebration' they do each zone conf for those who have had a birthday. The older gentlemen helps the missionaries all the time and always comes to zone conf. First they sing a rousing Dutch birthday song with lots of clapping and stamping, then we go into the chapel and we ask anyone who wants to say something nice or that they appreciate about that person. It's always really sweet with great comments and lots of love. Then we let them pick out a treat from the basket that Sis Brubaker asked if I could shop for since she ran out of time. So here we are, doing our birthday celebration.
After birthdays things become much more serious as the departing missionaries bear their final testimonies. This has always been my favorite part of zone conference. It's incredible to feel of these young missionaries strength and spirit as their mission has come to an end. A very bitter sweet time, full of lots of emotion.
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