May 2011

This is our rolling office with Sister Reber, Hill, and Roberts. Sister Roberts (closest) is going to Greece for her mission. She went throught the temple for the first time the night before and returned the next day for her second visit. The picture is taken in the basement parking of the temple in  Zoetermeer.



This is our good friend Peter. He had a birthday this month so Sister Everton baked him a cake.



We enjoyed a visit from Joe and Maria.



We drove with Joe and Maria from Amsterdam to the temple in Zoetermeer. Then we drove to Kinderdijk during rush hour. To avoid the bridge in the next picture, we followed the TomTom directions cross country to another what I thought was a bridge over the river. We turned the corner and there was no bridge, just the ferry. It was very fast loading. We were moving before you knew it. Sitting in the car going across the river at an angle made you a bit sea sick. It dropped us off right at Kinderdijk.






I think this is the highest and busiest bridge in the Netherlands. There are six lanes of traffic on both sides. Kind of like the 405 in LA. One day I saw some lights flashing which I concluded meant the bridge was going up. Traffic quickly stopped which caused Sister Everton's bow-tie salad to fly off the back seat and land upside down on the floor. The boat must have been dang big but we did not see it. This bridge is high! We were stopped for about 15 minutes which caused the traffic to back up for miles.

 


This Elder Everton using an OSHA approved ladder while drilling holes for a curtain rods. Elder Andrews and Elder Calkin is are assisting. These elders are on the second floor and there is a street light at eye level outside of thier window.




We went to the Openlucht (Open Air) museum near Arnhem with our district. The museum preserves old structures and depicts the way of life in the past. This is Sister Everton's favorite home from a fishing village.



There was a barracks at the museum that housed Indonesians. We went there early in our tour. There was an employee cooking Indonesian food. It smelled very good. Sister Everton went back around lunch time to see if we could get some food. She said she would feed all the missionaries. It was a slow day which was to our benefit. She was curious about the church so the missionaries told her about the Book of Mormon and Plan of Salvation. She said she believed in reincarnation but was interested so they gave her a Book of Mormon.

There was a black smith shop. This man had been a black smith for 30 years. He was shoeing horses which was hard work and poor pay. He is happy to work at the Museum.



Elder Bastians who is standing nex to me is very fortunate. He is Belgian serving in the Netherlands. Before his mission he visited Utah with 3 other young men that were going on missions. They wanted to visit with a General Autority and ended up visiting with President Monson for 30 minutes at the Church Office Building. He asked the Black Smith if he could buy a leave that he had made from iron. He showed us how he made it by making another one. He then gave it to Elder Bastians. He was so happy.



One of our neighbor couples participate in a group that dresses in original old costumes. They invited us to one of their programs where they show the costumes and do original dances. This was probably the most elaborate dress.

This was my favorite men's costume.




This is our neighbor selling wooden shoes as part of the act.

 

The costume show was in a nice barn out in the coutry. I had head that day that there might be ash in the air due to a volcano eruption in Iceland. The sunset was beautiful with curled wispy clouds I had never seen before. The sky was indeed a different color so maybe there was ash at high altitudes.