New Years Eve

This is Carolyn's vriendin (girlfriend) that lives in our flat. She was a little cool towards us until Sister Everton asked her for help with her plants. She has become a wonderful friend. She gave us potted bulbs for Christmas. We gave her a Santa Clause. On New Year’s Eve morning, she brought a shopping bag with all sorts of cookies, snacks, chocolate milk and cider drink. The missionaries have to be in their apartments by 4 pm on New Year's Eve due to the craziness. We got permission for the Sisters to come for dinner with us. After dinner we visited our vriendin to thank her for the gifts.

After the we drove the Sisters home, Desi and I worked on a puzzle and listened to the explosions out side. The explosions (huge cherry bombs and M-80s) had been going on all week but now it sounded like a war zone.

This video gives you an idea what happened at midnight. The fireworks in the video are maybe a 1/4 mile. These are all fireworks purchased and lighted by individuals.

This is the view our our back balcony. We watched the show from our flat (we are on the top floor) for about 1.5 hours. It went on for another 2 hours at least. It was amazing.

Gouda

Gouda is famous for the cheese which shares its name. This is the cheese shop where we purchased Christmas gifts for family and friends.

Gouda is a charming city. This is the town square. The tree is decorated with orange cheese balls. Cheese is sold in round wheels. The smaller balls were available when I served my mission but don't seem to be produced anymore.

Between Holidays

Desi got some great experience working with the sisters. Here she is at the Amsterdam apartment with Sisters Jeffs and Larsen.

Desi also worked with Sisters Kremer and Welch in Antwerpen. Inbetween apointments, we too them to the pizza restaraunt in Antwerpen.

After dinner we walked by the Church.

This is the square where the restaraunt is located.

On the other side of the church is this square with a statue. 

Wiki: According to folklore, and as celebrated by the statue in front of the town hall, the city got its name from a legend involving a mythical giant called Antigoon who lived near the river Scheldt. He exacted a toll from those crossing the river, and for those who refused, he severed one of their hands and threw it into the river Scheldt. Eventually, the giant was slain by a young hero named Brabo, who cut off the giant's own hand and flung it into the river. Hence the name Antwerpen, from Dutch hand werpen— werpen means to throw.



Desi also worked in Breda with Sisters Hill and Herring. She rode 'achter op' or on the back of sisters Herrings bike to travel to a members house to borrow a bike for her. 'Achter op' has caused some injuries to Elders but everyone does it here.



2nd day of Christmas

The Dutch celebrate two days of Christmas. On the 2nd day we took the sisters to hear Pastor Koopman's final sermon in his church in a small village called Waalre. It was his birthday also. The congregation of mainly older people in the cold huge church sang 'lang zal je leven' (Dutch Happy Birthday song translates to Long Shall You Live) to him. We filled one row with the Dordrecht sisters and Eindehoven elders.

We then headed to St Niklaas in Belgium to make a delivery to the Elders. Here are the sisters standing by a statue of St Niklaas.

We had been on the road all day and were hungry. We hoped to find a Turkish Pizza shop open but nothing was open. We found this Friets (french fry) stand next to a temporary ice skating rink in the towns square. We all had friets and I bought a sack of smoutebollen which translated is lard balls. The Belgians are funny. The Dutch call them oliebollen or oil balls. These were hot and fresh, very tasty and different from Dutch oliebollen of which there are several variations. Desi tried to taste all the variations on her visit. Elders Wilcken and Wait joined us.

We ended the day by driving through our old city to see the lights. These sail boats had lights and a small Christmas tree on top.

Christmas Day

 

We went to Kinderdijk on Christmas day just before sunset. On the way we met this couple with their horses. The small one is a shetland which are popular here.  They told us the big horse is from Austria. It is smaller than most of the horses we have seen.




It was a cold day but Kinderdijk is always worth a visit.



As we left the sun was setting.

Desi and Carolyn walking into the sunset.

Desi at the bridge

The van Vermeskerkens (it took me a few months to get thier name right) have the elders from the zone come on Christmas day for dinner.

 

The dinner was a cook-your-own affair. The condiments were on the table. Everyone had a small fry pan. The portable stoves are on the table. I am not sure what got into me. There must have been some cooking wine somewhere. 

When we got home from dinner there were presents for Desi to open.

Caroling the day before Christmas

The YSA planned a caroling activity for the day before Christmas in the downtown shopping district of Utrecht. The missionaries talked to people who stopped to listen. It was very interesting how many stopped to listen, take pictures or videos on thier iPhones. Caroling in public is very un-Dutch.



These are the valiant warriors saved for the last day. It is a great privilege to work with them. Geerte with the red cap is  doing her medical residency. She was in the movie 'Best Two Years'.  Joachim is the Stake YSA leader, served a mission in Greece and is going to school. Sister Roberts found and taught his parents while I was on my mission. His parents were just released from the Temple presidency.  Derick, on the left, went on his mission to the Netherlands and is in the Elders quorum presidency. He is a student. Utrecht is a big University town. His two sisters with red hair are on the front row. Emma on the front row was recruited from another ward because she has a good voice. She would often pop out of the choir to give a pass along card to passerby. Desi did well singing the carols in Dutch.



After caroling we walk to this old church tower.

This is the base of the tower.

 

When I was on my mission, the sister in the middle got approval for each group of missionaries to come to Utecht for a dinner of poffertjes which are small 2 inch diameter pancakes. This is everyone from our group except for Sister Bartel who had left and Elder Ward who had to go home early because of knee problems. The picture is in front of the restaurant which is located at river level which is about 20 feet below the street level. The restaurant is close to the tower. It is remarkable that the President would allow this. Some Elders came from Belgium which would be several hours of travel. My companion and I drove our orange bug and parked it right next to the tower for free. The population of the Netherlands was then about 1/5 of what it is today. Downtown Utrecht had very little commercial development.

Friday Before Christmas

Desi liked this car. It was made when I was on my mission. It has an infinitely variable rubber-band transmission. Peter says it is the only car that will go as fast in reverse as in forward.

We got Desi a strop waffle at the Markt. The guy behind made it for her by slicing the waffle in half and spreading a hot caramel topping in between. You can smell the sweet waffles as you walk by. They taste as sweet as they smell.

We had the sisters and Peter over for dinner. Wim and Dikkie who live in our flat agreed earlier in the day to come up to show the sisters their antique costumes. It takes Dikkie an hour to dress. There are five layers of dresses. They are very nice people.

The sisters brought desert. Peter is showing them how to prick the bottom of the cup so the pudding and topping fall out.

More December

This is Maria. She was taught the gospel by Elder Osmond. Elder de Cruz stands next to Elder Osmond. He is from Brazil and is the closest thing I have found to a Stake President in a 20 year old. Maria has had incredible challenges in her life but remains happy and positive. She loves to go on joint teach lessons and bears a very strong testimony. This picture was taken after a musical Christmas fireside in Rotterdam.

This is Quincy on the left. He is 17. He was baptized by Mitchell who is a YSA in Utrecht. Quincy wears a "New Missionary" badge to church. He plays basketball on a city team and wants to play on an NBA team. We hope to see one of his games soon. Mitchell's twin brothers have been inactive but are coming back thanks to Quincy. They are the reason he learned about the church.  Quincy has just been called to be our new YSA leader.

We have been working on a new apartment located in South Rotterdam. It needed paint, drapes and laminate flooring. The apartment is on the 7th floor of a flat and has a private balcony with a beautiful view of the neighborhood Mosque. Sister Everton loved to stand out on the balcony and capatured the moment with the birds flying by and the sun on the red brick houses.

We ventured into Belgium with Sisters Rich and Moses. On the way home we stopped for excellent pizza at an Italian restaurant in Antwerpen. It was a rainy night so after eating, we splashed through the narrow cobblestone street that opened up to a huge church and beautiful square.

We were riding our bikes in the old city of Dordrecht when the sun came out on the grote kerk.

Every time we go to Leiden, which is the location of the Mission Office, we pass over a bridge and Carolyn says this is her favorite canal (one of them). On this day the sun was out and we had to stop and capture  the moment.

Christmas Cookies

Carolyn and Desi made Christmas cookies for our neighbors. Annie supplied the cookie cutters and Sarah the sprinkles..

Here is the finished product.

Here are our treats. BTW, the couch was likely the same couch I sat on in the mission home in 1974 just before leaving for home. We learned the old mission home furniture was moved to our apartment when the mission home moved to Brussels.

This is Dickie. She is a wonderful person. She still fits in her wedding dress. She volunteers at a second hand store at a nursing home. We asked her to let us know if they got any Delft Blue pottery. One day she was so excited and told Carolyn she had something for us. The only thing Carolyn understood was six. We visited them a few days later. She brought out six Delft blue tiles. She also got down a Delft Blue plate that she had been keeping for us. Carolyn was so surprized and grateful. Dickie does not say much. She just blushed with a huge smile on her face.  Love speaks its own language that everyone understands.

We did not get a picture of a lady in our apartment that we gave one of the Santa's to. She lives alone. She is very short and must be in her late 70's. We see her walking and riding her bike to do her shopping. She always waves and says hello.   Her husband died years ago. She was so touched and grateful for our little gift.  She shared her love of Christ and faith in Him and that was her gift to us.



We delivered cookies to a neighbor who investigated the church a few years ago but were not baptized. They have 3 beautiful daughters. Their youngest daughter is second from the right in the pink dress. She had her two friends came over to get the recipe for the sugar cookies. Actually they wanted to come and visit with Desi and practice their English. They taught Desi some Nederlands. They stayed for more than two hours.



Anne Frank House

Desi arrived today. We picked her up at the airport and then drove to Amsterdam. We visited the Rijksmuseum, van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank home. Desi has many more pictures on her blog http://deseverton.blogspot.com/.



This is the Anne Frank Home.



These are homes down the street from the Anne Frank home. We especially liked the skinny red home.

This is a picture I took in late 1972. The Anne Frank home is just right of the red Bug, has red doors and has a sliver car in front. The home to the right has been converted into a modern visitor center. The portion where the Franks hid is unchanged at the request of Anne's father who was the only one that survived. The skinny red building is to the right of the building that became the visitor center.



These are home across the street from the Anne Frank Home. If you look closely you will notice the homes are at an angle to the street. The central part of Amsterdam is surrounded by canals. There are floating homes on the canals now.  Amsterdam was not bombed so these buildings are all pre-WWII.



Dickens Festival

The Dicken's Festival is held each year for one weekend in December. Old Wal Street and adjacent streets are decorated and staffed with 300 plus actors. This is one of the book stores.

One of the younger members of the cast.

There was a group of live statues depicting the birth of the Savior. They moved to different positions as the story was told by a narrator accompanied by a violinist.

We tried to get a good picture with the cast. Some statues broke out of pose to greet people.

Inside the church was a choir singing Christams Carols.

I am not sure which Dickens character this is. He was giving the women a hard time.

This is one of the ghosts of Christmas.



These children were irrisitable. I had to get a picture.



She is selling Mistletoe. We see it growing in the tops of trees. The berries are white and are used in Europe to treat circulatory and respiration problems.  

This is the quilt shop. Sarah would love it.



She is doing laundry. The whole time we were there she had kids washing clothes by hand. The water must have been very cold. The air temperature was -2 Celsius when we arrived.





Bikers



Scrooge is giving Elder Anderson a hard time.

Scrooge was our favorite. He was speaking in Nederlands but when he heard us speaking English he switched to a perfect English accent. Elder Bush asked him if he knew George W. He said "thank goodness he is not born yet".
As we left we wished him and merry Christmas and he smiled and said "Bah humbug".

This is where the Festival begins. Elder Bush is next to me. He would give Neal and Ed Boyle hard time on the tennis court. We arrived early so there was no wait to enter. When we left in the afternoon there was a several hour wait. There was no entry fee - the city does the festival with voluteers.