More July

This is our Den Bosch district. Elders Andrews, Calkins, Brownell, Bastiaens and Everton. Sisters Jeffs, Reber and Everton. 



So everyone rides bikes. The bikes have seats for and aft for kids. This is Maare and her mother. She is about 6 months. I think we have seen younger kids up front. The kids and parents don't wear helmets

Here is a set of twins riding aft. Thier brother riding his own bike. I am impressed with the families in the Netherlands. They seem to be larger and more focused on the children than in the USA. We gave the mother a pass-along card but she was a bit unsure of our intent.





Sister Everton has planted flowers which we have on our balcony and at our front door. The get plenty of rain. We have had only one hot day this summer. Most of the time it has been raining and temperatures in the 60-70s. We live on the top floor of a 6 story flat.

 

This is the back side of a long boat that goes up and down the rivers. There is a cabin for the captain and his family to live in. They have their laundry drying today. The boat was moored near the Dordrecht city center.

This couple live in our flat. They participate in a group that dress in authentic costums and dance. We went to one of thier productions a few months ago.

This is our neighbor Dikie. Sister Everton is showing the layers of dresses she has on. The dresses were layered to keep the women warm in the winter.

This is Quinton. He was baptised by his father Jackson.



 

We had Soule and Peter over for dinner with Sister Jeffs and Reber. We learned that Soule is a voetbal (soccer) fan.

This is Sharon with Elder Osmond and Michelson. The Elders cooked lunch for her. She is daring. It turns out that she was an investigator that I taught in 1974. It was an amazing afternoon to catch up on things and reminisce.





This a well know violist playing at the baptism for a Sister in Gouda. Her husband is also internatioinally know. They have an academy in the Netherlands. She was playing a Bach Air from Orchestral Suite No. 3 with Sister Perry accompanying at the piano.

This is Moises. He speaks Portugese and Dutch. It was his birthday so we dropped by with the Sisters. He comes to church during sunday school every week.



We were running through the sacred grove after a lighting storm. At one point, we saw piecies of wood all over the ground. Then we noticed that this tree had been hit by lighting. It hit the tree about 30 feet up and traveled down the trunk to the ground.

  

Brugge, Belgium



We took the Sisters to Brugge Belgium for a p-day. Brugge means bridge. The old inner city is surrounded by a moat with a number of bridges. There are a number of points on the moat where you can take a river boat tour of the city.





Our tour guide and boat drive told us about the sights in French, Flams, German and English.




We were taking pictures of the sisters at this balcony when young lady offered to take one of us all. She was from Greece and had taken the lessons from the missionaries. She did not join the church but had a soft place in her heart for the missionaries.

 

Brugge has many old beautiful buidlings. It was hard to get good photo but a few of the close-up shots worked out like these flowers on a balcony.



We had to get a Belgium waffle. The look on my face indicates I just realized the belgium waffles that Seth or Matt makes are much better.

 



Memorial Day

On Memorial Day we drove to a cemetery and war memorial owned by the United States that is located near Maastricht in the South part of Holland. It was raining and cold so Sister Everton wore her wool tights. By the time we got there which was a 2 hour drive it was sunny and warm.

This is the inscription on the memorial. There are flags for each state on each side of the reflecting pond.



Our mission president placed a wreath for our church as part of the ceremony. At the end of the ceremony four fighter jets flew over in the missing man formation.



The memorial is surrounded by graves of the fallen.

June 2011



Yes, this is a deep fryer. Appearently there was one in every missionary apartment years ago. We discovered this in Zoetermeer. It was hidden on the top of a cabinet. It was still full of oil. It was coated with a quarter inch thick layer of sticky oil. You might also notice I am wearing levis. I wear them when I work on apartments and bikes which is about 4 times a week. We were told you might need levis for a work project once and a while. We have learned to expect the unexpected on our mission.



This is Peter. He wanted to cook dinner for us. We went to buy the food with him.

Peter is cooking in our kitchen. The stove is next to the kitchen door so you get an idea how small it is. The fridge is on the left side of the photo between the window and Sister Everton. The dinner was a vegetable tomato topping on pasta. Very tasty.

Singing In the Rain! Sisters Perry, Jeffs, Reber and Holbein after Zone Training.



This is Anne with her daughter Abigail on skates and Rachel, who is celestial, on the front of the bike. The are returning from church which is a 3 mile ride. Abigail just joined Young Women. She is the only young woman in thier branch. She gave a wonderful talk in church on fathers day. They do not own a car which is freqently the case in the Netherlands.



This is Sister Evertons favorite spot in Leiden. We took another picture of this spot in March -- there was no one to be seen.

This is the Pilgram museum in Leiden. One of the Pilgram families lived in this home before leaving Delft Harbor in Rotterdam on the Mayflower. It is now filled with artifacts from the period. The man standing in the jacket is giving a tour. I think he came from saturday night live - he was so dry it was funny. Behind Elder Salden who is sitting is the master bedroom. It is about 6 ft by 6 ft by 4 ft wide. They were smaller then and slept sitting up.

This is the WC the pilgrams used. Sister Everton says it is nicer than what most Elders have in thier apartments.

This is Jackson, Morgan (his son) and Anada who is from Brazil. They were baptized in Leiden by Elders Bensen, McCarlie and Mueller.

Jackson and his son Morgan. His other son Quinton did not come because he was mad that he could not be baptized. His English was not as good so they wanted to work with him longer. The good thing for him is his father will baptize him July 17. We participated in two joint-teach sessions with them. The Elders walked past them on the street and were inspired to go back and talk to them. Jackson, when asked about the role of the Holy Ghost during one of our sessions said it was just like the computer Elder Everton used to find the path to the church from our home - it guides us. Jackson was surprised to see us at the baptism and was so happy. The Elders surprised us and asked us to talk about baptism as part of thier baptismal service.

In the Netherlands when someone grandutes from middle or high school, they put a flag and thier back pack out on a pole.

This is Sister Reber and Jeffs.

This is one of my favorite photos.
Sister Everton was able to capture the moment.

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.