1-7 January 2011

Here we are at a frites place with the zone leaders in Sint Niklaas; Elder van Doesburg is from Amsterdam and Elder Sanford is from Pennsylvania. They are great missionaries. It was New Year's Day and we decided to do an apartment inspection that evening and take them a new chair as their old one was ripping their pants every time they got up from it! I actually really liked their apartment as it was newly remodeled above a garage. We then took them to dinner - not too fancy, but we had a great time with them.

We had to get a picture with Loel in it - Elder van Doesburg was taking it, trying to get us all in, but he got cut out in the process. It's so nice to visit with the elders, hear about their investigators, feel of their spirits and their excitement, and enjoy their company. (We don't know who the guy in the background is.)

We've been closing down an apartment in Breda this week and moving the elders to a new one - Loel has made several trips up there and I've gone with him some of the time. It's a lot of work to close out an apartment that has had missionaries in it for 20 years - we could not believe how much junk was accumulated - on one day, Loel made 3 trips with the big van packed full of junk to the dump - tons of old, broken furniture, mildewed mattresses, etc. I helped the elders pack up their kitchen to move and we threw away more than half of the food and kitchen utensils they had as they weren't worth keeping.
The crazy thing about closing apartments here is that you have to strip them down to nothing when you move out - take off all window coverings, floor coverings, light fixtures, etc. It's not done yet.
On the bright side, their new apartment is beautiful, big, light, spacious, in a wonderful neighborhood 1 block from the church - couldn't be more perfect. I wish I had their new apartment! Thanks to the Mac Cleans, a wonderful couple in their ward who have worked tirelessly to get everything ready for them to move in - arranging for people to put in new floors, light fixtures, window coverings, donated furniture, etc., their new place is ready.

One day we drove to Leiden, 2 hrs north in the Netherlands, and brought lunch for the Zone Leaders Council. Loel had to give one of his presentations on driving safety and I brought supplies and mail. We drove around a little afterward trying to get a feel for the area as this is eventually where the mission home and office will be moved to. We need to start looking for an apartment there but it's kind of a daunting task. It was pouring rain both times as we drove up and back - not my favorite road conditions, but we made it.

So kind of a quiet week. Our Stake President warned that the first few months of the year are kind of the doldrums. The weather this time of year is gray and rainy. We had an exciting end of the year and we're trying hard to maintain that same excitement among the members and missionaries so that the work will continue forward with the same enthusiasm and we will see the same excitement among our investigators as they contemplate baptism.