29 January-4 February 2011

Last P-day we went with the Assistants to the town of Maastricht, which is in Limberg province of the Netherlands. Elder Brockbank served in that area for quite some time and so he was our tour guide. We first took two mattresses to the Heerlen elders apartment. We parked at the train station and walked into town. This is the Maas River with a view of the big boats and skyline. It's an old Roman city. Very fascinating.

We found a flea market! It was fun wandering through it.

These are the two assistants, Elder Matthews and Brockbank. This was a cool old church that has been turned into a big huge bookstore.

This is the big centrum or city center with the big empty square in the middle and the cool old buildings on all four sides.

One of the cool churches in the centrum. It was a beautiful, clear, blue sky day, but cold.

The trees in the winter are so funny looking with little knobs on the ends. Here is Loel with the elders in front of an old museum.

I loved the colors here - notice the red stone tower on the right, the yellowish church building in the middle, the green grass and bushes in the center and the blue sky above! It was so beautiful and picturesque. We wish we could have climbed the tower but it was closed.

Looking up from the bottom of the red tower. Isn't the blue sky gorgeous with the red stone next to it? This is a natural red stone.

The top of the red tower - it was very ornate. If you look closey you can see the clock on the tower.

Here we are in front of the Maastricht train station as we walked back to the car with our bakery items ready to taste. This town is famous for its pies, but unfortunately, we didn't buy the right kind! We bought some others that were good but not as tasty as the creamy ones we found later.
Before we ate our pastires though, we got some tradition Limberger sandwiches which were really good.

The office surprised me with little heart shaped cakes that Sis Brubaker made for me since my birthday was this week. I was completely surprised!

These are my best friends. They made me a beautiful birthday card which they all signed with very sweet notes. (Well, Loel's a friend too, but he was taking the picture.)

We had four new missionaries arrive this week! Two from Brazil (they had been delayed 3 months because of visa problems). The American sister and other elder were both from Arizona. Here we are at the airport picking them up and all their luggage, with the assistants and the Brubakers.

Then the next day we had 6 elders come into the office before going home the next day. Here we are at dinner together at the mission home and then had our wonderful testimony meeting with them. I was able to visit with each one about their school plans, etc, during the day and had some great visits.
We also were busy this day making a video clip with the assistants at the President's request. We were showing how the missionaries use the baptismal calendar as they teach people. I got to be the investigator. I think we taped our little clip about 5 or 6 times! I lost count, but they were happy with the end result.

Here is a final picture of 3 of the elders we drove to the airport as they are leaving with their luggage to check in. It was my birthday and I told them it wasn't a very nice birthday present to have to say good-bye to three friends.

As soon as we left the airport, we were on our way to the Netherlands to finalize our new apartment! This is the picture of the outside that we posted a couple weeks ago when we first looked at it with the Pankratz. Ours is the one on the top floor on the right side. The building has just 4 apartments in it - the bottom floor is a dentist's office.

This is the old church that is right across the street from us. The carillon bells play pretty songs on the hour. The apartment owner told us they played the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" just before we arrived. We are actually on the village square so when festivities happen, they will happen right in front of our apartment.

We can walk across this little bridge and canal to get to the shopping area of the village, which is all a walking shopping mall. Our favorite Netherlands grocery store, Albert Heijn, is there, which made us happy, plus several delicious looking bakeries, a few little clothing stores, several deli's, etc.

We met the owners while there and they gave me a bouquet of flowers!

The apartment is in Rijnsburg, near Leiden. We will actually not move in until the office and mission home are finished - sometime in March or April, we hope? We have a new senior couple arriving in mid-February who will live there until the office moves. We love this apartment as it's on the 2nd floor on the corner, with big windows on 3 sides, so it's very light. It came fully furnished, which makes things very easy for us. This is a picture of the living room, looking out on to the street. Rijnsburg is considered a "village" and it's very Dutch looking with cobblestone streets, canals, bridges, etc.

This is the kitchen, and as is very typical in Dutch apartments, it is open to the dining and living room area - all one big room. This kitchen has a dishwasher!!! No garbage disposal and a very small freezer, but you can't have everything.

The kitchen is on the left; this is the dining area and I'm standing in front of a small second bedroom. Both the bedrooms have doors going out onto the balcony in the back of the apartment.

This is the master bedroom - we actually slept here the first night and the bed was really comfortable. We have a nice balcony outside our bedroom. The best thing about this room is a very large built in closet!!! Wall to wall on one side! That may not sound like much in the States, but it's unheard of in Europe!

We love the bathroom! it's at least 3 or 4 times the size of the bathroom we have now and it has a bathtub AND a separate shower, sink and toilet with plenty of room to walk around in! All nice white tile. We thought the apartment looked really clean, but the Dutch are fastidiously clean and they were not happy with it so will be hiring professional cleaners to come and clean it, plus do the windows, etc. We said, okay, that's fine with us!
One of the really nice things about the apartment, also, is that it has two bathrooms! Well, one is just a half bath with toilet and sink, but that is amazing, too, for Europe.
It's owned by a very nice brother and sister as it used to be their parent's apartment. They came and met us and showed us everything we needed to know; they were so kind and helpful. We can walk about 2 blocks to the shopping area, which is very convenient and cute.
After spending the night, we drove to Rotterdam and picked up another new car for this new senior couple and then I followed Loel home in the other car. (This is a big deal. This is the first time Paula's driven in the Netherlands.) So it's been a very busy, but productive week.

This is an outdoor market close to the Brubakers that is open 3 times a week - Here is Loel checking out the nuts at a Moroccan stand. It was raining, but that doesn't stop anyone from setting up their stands and lots of people still shop. The food in these markets is very fresh and competitive in price with the regular markets. Plus it's an experience to be out an about with lots of people. Paula found a new black sweater for her birthday at one stand.

There are so many different kinds of olives for sale at these markets and some yummy flat bread. These olives are re-e-e-eally good.

Last Sunday, the four African men in this picture, who were recently baptized, all received the Aaronic Priesthood. Loel ordained one, each of the Assistants ordained one, and a French speaking member ordained the last one, who speaks French. Andy stood in the circle and it was a powerful experience to be in the room at that time. It's been really special to develop a relationship with the African members. They are so humble and pure. They have a great faith and come to accept the Savior as their redeemer very easily.

We finally found the William Tyndale monument in Vilvoorde, which is only about 20 minutes from where we live. He's the man who translated the Bible from Hebrew into English for the common people to read and he was killed for it. This year is the 400th anniversary of the publishing of the King James Version of the Bible. Even though Tyndale was executed, his translation became the foundation for the later translation of the King James Version. The majority of both the Old and New Testaments came from Tyndale's translation from Hebrew.

One day we drove two elders to Den Bosch, a town a couple of hours away in the Netherlands, to get some legality things done. It was a neat town with the coolest, modernistic looking buildings - looked like something out of the Jetsons.

There were tons of these futuristic looking apartment buildings with this huge reflecting pond (which was frozen at this time). This is very close to a university campus.

Check this building out. It was a very bright sunshiny day, no clouds at all, but very cold. This building fascinated me

A cool monument with a gold dragon on top in the center of a big roundabout in town.

Loel loved this little folding bike. (Loel) I loved this bike. It has disk brakes and it has a belt drive instead of a chain. The belt is notched similar to some motorcycles and the design is cool. It folds up so you can carry it into an office or apartment and it doesn't take up a ton of room. This one is a little different since it doesn't fold in half like others we've seen.

And even got the owner to pose for him. (Loel) He offered to let me ride it, but I told him I was sure I'd fall off. He asked if I wanted him to fold it up for me. It seems kind of like a circus clown bike and you see these men riding them around town. It looks like a man riding a child's bike. In the Netherlands, no one wears a helmet. In Belgium, you're supposed to wear a helmet and a man riding one of these little bikes with a helmet is comical.

Den Bosch is famous for its bosebollins - so we had to stop there and try one. This is the bakery that is most famous for making the best ones. All the other pastries sure looked good, too.

More pastry delights.

Elder Matthews and Paula posing with the bosebollins. We bought one for each of us and one for a couple missionaries at home, plus the President.

Here are Elders Marshall and Matthews biting into these kind of like eclair things, full of a whipped cream type filling, yet covered in a thick layer of delicious chocolate.

I'm trying to show what the inside of these pastries look like - they were very rich and yummy!
(She looks pretty happy, too. I think she liked it.)

16-21 January 2011

Loel and I decided to go shopping the European way. Here he is with our little rolling bag - we walked about 10 mins to the grocery store, didn't have to worry about parking hassles or traffic, loaded up our groceries and rolled them home with us - even got a little exercise in the process.

This is a wonderful member in St. Niklaas who is always there at all the baptisms since he's the one who fills the font. He is so sweet, always welcomes us in his broken English. He told me last week that he does this for his best friend - then he pointed upward, meaning Heavenly Father. We were there last Saturday as we drove the mission van to Gent to pick up the elders and this wonderful family of 4, then drove them to St. Niklaas to get baptized, had a great service there with wonderful talks, then drove them back home and then we drove back to Brussels. This family who got baptized was a mother and her 3 teenage children. She was a referral from the last family of 4 we took to get baptized last November.

We had a little extra time on Sunday before we attended a missionary fireside in Amsterdam, so we walked through this darling little town of Monnickendam. Loel liked this little car that can even drive in the bicycle lanes, it is so small. You can see by the sign on the back that it's limited to 40 kilometers per hour (about 25 miles per hour).

As we wandered through the streets of Monnickendam, the little townhouses were so cute, I had Loel take a picture of this one where I'd like to live. The streets are so narrow and picturesque. Notice the street and sidewalk. Everything is a colored and patterned brick. Different patterns and colors for the places cars can drive, where people walk and where bikes travel.

Couldn't resist taking a picture of this little boutique with Carin's name on it! Carin will have to come back so we can take a picture of her in front of the store.

A view of the street we walked down.

A cool bell tower with carillon bells that started chiming right when we walked by. Very pretty.

If you look carefully, you can see the bells - but it was also neat to see the little angel in blue, come out and move around with some other figures below her as the bells would ring. I loved the open, kind of Russian-style "dome" at the top.

Notice the date on this building - 1614. So the name of the cafe is "Cafe 1614". The Pilgrims hadn't even landed in America when this building was built. This style building would be "Oude Dutch" (Old Dutch).

I love all the canals and bridges in these little towns.

We met up with the Brubakers and had dinner at their favorite pannekoeken house in Broek en Waterland - this is a picture of them showing off their banana split dessert pannekoeken.
Afterwards we attended a fireside where one of our missionaries spoke - his actually lives in Amsterdam and the President had him come back to his home ward to help the members get excited about missionary work. Another missionary from the Netherlands who had just gone home in December, came back and spoke, too. They both gave wonderful talks. It was so sweet to see the elder who had gone home again - he's now the ward mission leader in his home ward, which is just north of Amsterdam. He had a real longing in his eyes as he visited with his missionary friends who are still serving - said he'd come back and serve again in a minute if he could. These two elders from the Netherlands, serving in their home country, really have made and are making a contribution to the work here.

I've been spending a lot of time this week looking online and calling agents for an apartment we can move to in Leiden, as the mission office will be moving there this spring. This is the last one we saw as we went up for the day on Thursday with the Pankratz to look at some. We loved this one and hope to finalize it. It is the upper right corner, on the 2nd floor, in a darling little town called Rijnsburg, close to Leiden where the office will be. We'll put more pictures on later and give more details once it's for sure we can get it.
The day before this we spent the day loading up two vans with lots of furniture, etc, that we took up to our two storage units in the Netherlands. The Andersons helped us and we got it all unloaded and finally arrived at the Pankratz that night at 10 pm to spend the night, tired, but glad it was done. They are so hospitable, letting us sleep in their comfortable guest room, making us homemade waffles with chocolate pudding sauce for breakfast, and then spending the day with us looking a 5 apartments. They were so helpful as they've done this lots of times.

We drove by this Japanese Tower on our way home from an appointment tonight and stopped to take pictures - it's a pretty impressive sight at night, all lit up in red. We showed pictures of this tower in the fall with the fall colors. It's just an imposing site as you drive down the road. All of a sudden it's there - and then you're past it and it's gone.

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.

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.

27-31 December 2010

This week began with sightseeing with Danielle in the Netherlands. Here is an open market we went to in Amsterdam (I asked the tram lady and she told us where to get off). I love the open markets here - we bought cute scarfs and shawls, and lots of different food things. I almost bought some boots but couldn't really tell if they would be comfortable since my toes were a little cold to be able to feel.

We bought our lunch here - lots of seafood fried and hot. We had cod and shrimp. Yummy.

Just another one of the many booths with things for sale - this was a fish market.

The canals of Amsterdam were a little frozen! Loel and Danielle went to the Anne Frank house and I opted to go shopping. There are lots of cool stores here. I bought a few things in the H & M store right on Dam Square - they said it was the signature H & M store of the world, I guess! We also went to a Fatboy bag outlet and bought some cool bags that are all the rage here.
After taking the tram back to the church where our car was parked, we headed out to Broek in Waterland, a darling little town where we had dinner at the Brubaker's favorite pannekoeken house, The White Swan, - Dutch pancakes. Very yummy. It was fun to see the lake we had so admired in the summer now turned into an ice-skating rink in the winter. Very Hollandy.

We stayed up near Amsterdam in an empty apartment the mission has and then went to Delft the next day. This is a picture of the top of the new church (built in the 1500's) there in the center of town. We love the feel of Delft - little cobblestone streets, canals, bridges, etc. We wandered around doing some shopping and sightseeing. As we were in the square they started a bell concert. You can see some of the bells in the bell tower.

Every visitor has to see Kinderdijk, the place with 19 windmills. We've now been here in the summer, late fall, and winter.

Cool windmills in the snow.

The canals were totally frozen over. We saw people walking on them. It doesn't get super cold here (only about 25-30 degrees farenheit), but it stays at these temperatures and the days are short, so every thing freezes over. Because of the pictures of Holland and ice skaters, I assumed they got lots of snow. But actually they get very little snow. It just gets to freezing and stays there.

We said good-bye to Danielle on Wednesday morning. She made it home fine but her baggage got left here at the Brussels airport for some unknown reason! We think it was on an airplane this morning. We hope she gets it soon.

This is the dessert we bought at a French bakery for our New Year's Eve dinner. The Brubakers had us over - we brought this and some appetizers; they made pasta and salad. We enjoyed our evening in their beautiful home. Fireworks started going off as we got home around 11:30 pm. They were really loud at midnight. All of our missionaries were instructed to stay in their apartments from 4:00 pm on as the fireworks, especially in the Netherlands, can get quite rowdy and dangerous.

We hope your New Year's celebration was fun. We pray that your New Year will be filled with prosperity, joy and happiness. We look forward to continued association with fantastic missionaries, wonderful investigators and great, supportive members.