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.

Zone Conference



For Zone Conference the President and Sister Brubaker provided cheese fondue. There were eight table, each with a fondue pot. Sarah would have loved it. I liked it too - it had white wine (sans alcohol).



This is Sister Anderson and Sister Pankratz. Sister Pankratz just returned with her husband for a second tour of duty. They served a two year mission and then returned after about five months to serve as the office couple for 18 months. Sister Pankratz has 11 children. She has her cook book memorized.

Sister Everton made her popular strawberry salad.

The Elders brought ties to exchange. The sisters brought scarves.



Now why would these Elders want their picture taken with Sister Kremer?