More February

This is at the baptism of John. Elders Neilson and van Rij from Turnhout were present. 2/11

This church is in Middleburg. We were in the Zeeland province with time between apointments. Middleburg was Paul Nordin's first city. It was a special feeling to walk the streets of old Middleburg and think about Paul. 2/16

Friday the 24th we visited Hilverson, Amersfoort, Zwolle, Goude, Den Haag and Rotterdam picking up stuff and making deliveries.

This is what the car looked like when we got it fully loaded.  They should never give Seniors cars.

This is our favorite way to go grocery shopping. It was a beautiful day when we left so we asked a man to take a picture of us as we rode by a pond by the shopping center. 2/25

We were in the shopping mall in Sterrenberg and saw this Chess Master. It would take him a few seconds to make a move and then he would move to the next player. 2/25



This is Hans and Matilda at their baptism with Bishop and Sister Roberts on the right. They are wonderful members from Ghana. 



Here are the sisters with Barbara and Stacy. Stacy is Matilda's daughter and Barbara is Stacy's friend.  But Barbara lives with Stacy and they are just like sisters.

The bishop from Gouda is also from Ghana. His children are here with Stacy and Barbara. The tallest young man is Emanuel. He is planning on a mission but has a few years before he can go. They are a wonderful family. 2/25

Stacey and Barbara came to YSA in Utrecht. They frosted and decorated the banana cake Sister Everton baked. Those are strawberries on top.  They hurried and finished eating so they could wash the dishes. They are gracious and kind and very polite. They have been well taught by their mothers.  Stacy is 17 and Barbara is 18.

YSA Valentines Dance in Rotterdam

Joachim (on the left) is the Stake YSA leader and is part of our Utrecht YSA group. He helped the disk jocky pick music.

Amy who is the cup cake expert and friend of Sister Everton and Season was helping serve food.




This is Mithell and his brother Jason (or maybe Jason's twin Brandon) with Quincy. 

 

The gym was decorated very nicely for the event. Everthing was organized and decorations put in place by the YSA committee.

Gent

We visited the old part of Gent with the Antwerpen Zone missionaires. We visited a castle which has been rebuilt.  Here we are standing under an original arch at the entrance to the castle.

I wish I had a picture of these Elders when they stood in the center of the square in old Gent and sang Happy Birthday to Sister Everton. Sister Everton had been inside McDonalds checking on missionaries with minor health problems. When she came out, they started singing to her. It was beautiful and she loved it. The missionaries have a great love for her.  We had taken them oreo cookies, fla and milk.  The milk in Belgium is warm in cartons and has been radiated.  Apparently is tastes awful.

This is Sister Palenikova in one of the castle rooms.

This is exiting the gate of the castle into old Gent.

Happy Birthday

Sister Eveton got a surprise Birthday gift from Sisters Rich and Larsen.  We put them in the church tea pot.

 

After church we got this picture of Soule and Peter with the sisters. Peter wore a NY Yankee baseball hat this morning. We have a hard time getting Soule to look at the camera.



Sister Everton got a scarf in the mail from three of her grand daughters.

Eleanor

Olive

and little Lucy

Winter Wonderland



We woke up Saturday morning to a winter wonderland.

 

The first thing we noticed was everyone was out pulling their kids on little sleds.



There were snowmen

This little girl is getting ice skates put on her boots. The Dutch love to skate and start skating at a young age.

My theory is the ducks paddle continuously to keep this hole in the ice open.

I saw this happen in the middle of lake on my first mission.

Here is a bigger sled. I don't know where they store them. The houses are small. They will only be used for a few days this year.



They use snow shovels to clear the snow from the ice. It seemed like everyone was out on the ice. The Grote Kerk is in the background.

 

We drove to Terneuzen in Zeeland (Sea Land) to visit a Sister from Suriname. Zeeland province is the most vulnerable for flooding. 5000 people were killed in 1954. The Dutch have designed a system to protect against storms that would have a probability of occurring once in 10,000 years. They went to great lengths to make sure flooding would never take so many precious lives again. To get to Terneuzen , we drove under the water for 6.6 Kilometers in a tunnel. Sister Everton took this picture while standing on a dyke of a father below pulling his child next to the water.



This was the sunrise Sunday morning. The temperature stayed around 20 degrees F for two weeks.

President Brubaker's 60th Birthday Party



We planned a birthday party for President Brubaker. It was to start at 3 pm. There was a big snow storm. We got to Deventer before it hit. The other couples were an hour late arriving. President Brubaker was 3 hours late so we had time to try and fix the patch cords for the speakers. Elder Salden loves to fix things.



President Brubaker was called by the stake president to attend a meeting regarding the status of the Deventer YSA center. When the Brubakers were running late, the Bush's told them no problem the Stake President is late too.

We had Asian Salmon, Thai Pineapple Rice, Steamed Jasmine rice, Chicken Sate with Indonesian peanut sauce and f fresh mangos on sicky rice.

President Burbakers had a cake with candels showing the numbers 6 and 0.

We prepared a slide show of all the senior couples and the Brubakers.

  

After the birthday party we hurried to Utrecht. Evelyn is our YSA leader in Utrecht. She has a mission call to the Ukraine. She was told the prior week she could not go to the MTC for 6 months because her VISA was delayed. She then got a call that she needed to leave Saturday so they had a special farewell for her on Friday. We missed her talk but were able to deliver a batch of Sister Everton's famous Oreo cookies and say farewell. She will be a wonderful missionary.