8-15 January 2011

Here's our view from our balcony - this time in January. So you see, the grass is green here, not brown, and even though most of the trees don't have leaves - it's still pretty. It's been in the 50's recently so we can't complain, although it still rains a lot.

These are the van Komens, a new senior couple who arrived a month ago. They met us in Rotterdam at the Opal dealer to trade in their old car and drive home a brand new one. Since vehicles are one of Loel's responsibilities, we get to go to the dealer to take delivery of each new car. I had a nice visit with her as the men did the car stuff. They're from Utah, but he was born here so speaks fluent Dutch and she's been here at least 12 to 15 times so is pretty familiar with things here. They are serving up north in Groningen, working with a young adult outreach center there.

This picture is blurry, but it's of one of our assistants, Elder Brockbank, from our stake at home, who was conducting our zone conference this week. We only have them once every three months now where half the mission comes together one day and the other half the next.
It was a wonderful meeting, filled with inspired talks by Pres and Sis Brubaker, and practical advice and role-playing for the elders and sisters. Of course, I always bring the mail, packages, and supplies, which makes everyone happy. Two of our zone leaders made a delicious lunch of chili, bread, salad, juice, and vla, a Dutch pudding they love over here.
The day went by so fast as we visited with old friends and got ready to say good-bye to some of them. Elder Conder gave his closing testimony which was so sweet and heartfelt. He spoke of how he had been replaced by Elder Keith as the financial secretary in the office, and how he will be replaced by another missionary when he goes home; he talked about how we're all replaceable, but we can always keep doing missionary work wherever we are. I will really miss him when he goes.
Loel took a few more trips up to Breda to finish closing out the old apartment, which is now done! He was so happy to have it finished. Sis Brubaker spoke of all his hard work in her talk in zone conference and how in 20 years, so much stuff had accumulated in that apartment that he had to make numerous trips up there to take things to the dump, etc. and that it took him over a week just to work on that one apartment. Both she and the Pres talked about making January a de-clutter month; get rid of things that aren't being used or were left behind, and call the Tibbitts who will come by with the van and pick them up!
We hope to be moving to the Netherlands in the spring so are in the process of looking for a new apartment in the Leiden area. Seems apartments are not easy to find there, but we'll keep looking, checking the internet, calling agents, and having our friends help us look. We look forward to serving part of our mission in Belgium and part in the Netherlands. People say the Netherlands is very different from Belgium so it will be fun to experience both countries.