27 November-4 December 2010

It's Christmas market time in Belgium! This is one we found last Saturday right here in Brussels at Saint Catherine's church, close to the Grand Place. It had 240 booths selling everything you can imagine. We wandered around, buying olliebollens filled with apples, some Moroccan cookies, a white sausage sandwich, etc.

Loel fell in love with this cool merry-go-round - they call them "roundabouts" here. It had an airplane on it, a dinosaur, a car, with lots of other cool things. When's the last time you saw a merry-go-round with an airplane like this?

Here's the ice-skating rink they had set up. I liked this picture with the ferris wheel in the background. We bought nativities from Poland and from Yugoslavia, which we promptly came home and set up on our mantle.

This was the first snow storm we received this week - this is the view from our balcony. You've seen this picture in the spring, the fall and now with snow.

That night we drove to Gent in the big van, picked up the elders there, then this is the Nda family who was getting baptized, and drove them about 40 mins to St. Niklaas to be baptized. They are a wonderful family, referred by a new member in Gent. They have already referred another family of four that the elders are currently teaching, too. Their two little girls are darling. They are from Ghana.

I just had to take this picture of our friends in the Anwerpen ward, Joseph, Grace, and baby Benjamin with his cute outfit on at church. We had about 7 investigators at church on Sunday.

These are the McLeans, a wonderful member couple from Breda, a town in the Netherlands about an hour and a half from Brussels. They met us up there to meet with a real estate property management agent to see some new apartments we're trying to find for the elders there. They were so kind, taking us around, showing us what they had found, telling us how they could get people in the ward to do a lot of the work that has to be done any time you rent a new apartment, etc. We LOVED the apartment and hope to have a contract signed soon. They took us shopping afterwards, showing us lots of the Netherlands Christmas favorites to buy, then took us so their gorgeous apartment and fixed us lunch. We loved spending time with them - they served a temple mission in Frankfurt, a prosyliting mission in Austria, and then 3 years as a counselor in the temple presidency here in the Holland temple. They are so service oriented - doing so much to help our missionaries. It meant the world to Loel and I to have a Dutch couple help us like this.

President Brubaker asked me (Loel) to train the Zone Leaders on the calling of a bishop. I loved the opportunity. These young men are so willing and anxious to learn. Afterward, President Brubaker gave them assignments as members of a Ward Council and had them conduct a Ward Council. It was a great opportunity for them to see how hard it is to keep everyone on task and to help them develop some empathy for the Bishop or Branch President and all the responsibility they have.

This a very pretty window at the Mission Home, with snow covered pines outside.

This coming week we'll have four Zone Conferences for all the missionaries in the mission. Here, Paula and the Office Elders are wrapping some little gifts that will be given to each missionary.

This weekend, President and Sister Brubaker invited us to get away and visit some of the Belgian Christmas Markets away from Brussels. We started in this little town on the German border that was delightful. The three official languages in Belgium are French, Dutch and German. Here Paula and Sister Brubaker are walking in town.

We stopped in a bakery that was to die for. This is a heavily carved display case for candy. We shared a fantastic apple strudel, and a chocolate mousse cake.

The Christmas tree in the town center. We found a store selling beautiful hand carved nativities and purchased one. This little town and Christmas market were truly magical.

Remnants of an old castle on the hill above the town.

An old church in the middle of town.

The river through the middle of town with the castle in the background.

Paula eating her first chestnuts "roasted on an open fire". Jack Frost was nipping at our noses, too.

We drove to a little town called Durbuy (dir-bwee), which calls itself the littlest town in Belgium. It's a quaint little town built of gray granite from the area and we stayed in an old hotel. This is a view from our room onto the street below. The stands for the Christmas market are already set up. We visited them all later in the morning. Note the brick and beam construction of the old building next door. We had a wonderful meal at a restaurant the Brubakers enjoy before going upstairs to our little rooms.

In the morning, we walked to breakfast past this castle. The castle is privately owned and so it's not available to visit. It was really cold. Freezing feet and hands, even with warm socks and gloves. Paula and I both bought hats the night before, because we didn't have them with us. I bought a scarf and became converted. Now I see why all the missionaries wear scarves. Sister Brubaker picked out this hat for me and then liked it so much, she bought one for herself.

Paula and Sister Brubaker stood for a lo-o-o-o-ng time squeezing oranges for fresh orange juice for us at our breakfast at a nearby hotel.

This is a meat stall in the Christmas market. The hams hanging are Ardennes hams and are a different color and texture than the ham in America. They are ready to eat as they are, and they are sliced in very thin slices, kind of like the Italian Parma ham.

This man had these two huge cookers of mushrooms and also cookers of a pasta with a tomato sauce and another with kind of a carbonara sauce. The other thing we see often at these markets are big cookers with something that looks like scalloped potatoes.

These are a cookie topped with kind of a marshmallow and cream mixture and covered with a pretty thick shell of chocolate, or some other flavor. The candy to the right are marshmallows covered in chocolate (Belgian, of course).

Around the town, they had several of these old bikes, parked and decorated with pine boughs.Paula, Sister and President Brubaker with the Christmas market behind them.

Paula, me and the Christmas market. See the steam coming off Paula's cup of hot chocolate.

Another one of the little bikes decorated with pine boughs.

This young man had a booth and was selling a large variety of wooden things he had made himself. We purchased two of his nativities and the Brubakers purchased several also. What a nice young man.

At another stall a man had a large number of creches he had designed and built himself. They were very unique and really well made. Both the Brubakers and we bought one. It's nice to be able to purchase directly from the artisans that make these items.

This is Durbuy from an overlook above the town.

After Durbuy, we drove to the city of Dinant. This bakery has been in operation since the 1850's. Dinant is the birthplace of Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxaphone.

Above the city is a large Citadel. We took a tram to the top and walked around the displays. It was really cold and the wind was really blowing. There are old cannons at many of the openings around the outside wall. They had a really impressive display inside the Citadel with mannequins representing the kitchen and the bakery area. Displays of old uniforms, armor and weapons. Then there was an area that replicated World War I trenches. A really impressive display. (Sis Brubaker and I sat inside a warm gift shop and drank hot chocolate.)

The view of Dinant from the Citadel is really impressive. The city is on both sides of the River Muese. The original bridge was built in the 1100's and then destroyed during World War I. It was later rebuilt. The city was originally given a charter to produce brassware.
From here we drove back to Brussels. As we said good-bye to the Brubakers, we thanked them for a truly magical time. It was so wonderful to have them plan this little getaway, make the reservations, show us their favorite places, speak French so that we could understand what people were saying to us, and just enjoy their friendship and experiencing this amazing country at Christmas time.

This week we "decorated" our apartment. We found a little fiber optic tree in our basement storage room. Carin brought us a little "Potato People" nativity and we have purchased some more at the Christmas markets this week. Our little apartment has a nice Christmas feeling as we enter this wonderful time of year. Loel bought a little DVD player so now I can watch my Christmas movies!! That made me very happy.