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?



Delft Harbor

This is Old Delft Harbor in Rotterdam. Most of Rotterdam was bombed by the Germans but this area escaped the destruction. The Pilgrams who were living in Leiden for a few years departed from this harbor on a ship called the Speedwell. They sailed to England to join with Pilgrams on the Mayflower.

This picture shows Rotterdam after the bombing. The story goes that after the bombing of Rotterdam, the Germans told the Nederlanders to surrender or all cities would be bombed.  Nederland surrendered.

Thanksgiving



Thanksgiving was celebrated over several days. On Thanksgiving Day the YSA had a traditional American Thanksgiving meal including turkey and dressing. We cooked sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top. About 60 people had dinner that night.

 There are not many trees with fall colors. The leaves on most trees turn brown and drop off in a few days. The trees in front of our flat were colorful.

We had dinner at the Misson Home Saturday after Thanksgiving.

President and Sister Burbaker cooked the turkey. It was huge, 30 lbs I think.

Here are the Senior Couples in front of the fire place.



Cylcocross Track



There is an American that lives about a half hour from us that has a son that is a hot shot Cyclocross racer. He trains at a track in Dordrect. We got a call from the member on Thanksgiving Day that he had a deep fried turkey for us. We met him at this track to pick it up.



You will notice the lights on the adjacent hill.

So this is the ski hill next to the track. The snow is a plastic surface kind of like AstroTurf. They are spraying water on it. The top of the hill is what you see.

the Grote Kerk in Delft

We met the Roberts and Sister missionaires at the Grote Kerk in Delft.

Sister Roberts, Sister Moses, Sister Hill and Sister Everton

Under this cover is the royal tomb where all the royalty are stored.

This is the coffin for William of Orange. He liberated Lieden from the Spanish to end the 80 year war. His dog is at his feet. We had heard his dog died soon after he did and was also buried in the church.

President and Sister Willems

I forgot to include this picture of President and Sister Willems. They live in Ieper. She cooked a wonderful dinner for us on Memorial Day. The black and white picture on the wall behind them is a family photo when Sister Willems was a child. There were 14 children in her family. She has a twin sister. The picture was taken when the oldest child was married. Her father died two days later.

Sinterklaus

Sinterklaus arrives in Holland on November 12th on a steam powered boat. He says until December 6th. On the night of December 5th he visits each home leaving chocolate letters, cookies and candy. Sinterklaus is Saint Nicolas who lived around 300 AD. He was the Archbishop of Myra located on an island in present day Turkey. His parents were wealthy and died when he was a young man. He gave his fortune to the poor and entered the priesthood. Legend has him putting bags of gold in the shoes of poor maidens needing a dowry and saving sailors on the ocean. In this picture Sinterklaus is on his horse coming down a narrow street in Dordrecht with the Grote Kerk in the back ground.

Sinterklaus waves to all the children on the street and in the windows.

Sinterklaus rides a white horse named Amerigo which means grey or white horse. In Belgium the horse is named "Slecht Weer Vandaag" which means "bad weather today". the Belgiums are funny. Sinterklaus is surrounded by Zwarte Piets (Black Petes). These are servants that travel with Sinterklaus. They have a large bag like a gunny sack filled with pepernoten (pepper nuts) which are small round cookies with the taste of the cookies on delta airlines. They give the cookies to the children. When empty, the bag is big enough to put naughty children in to take back to Spain where Sinterklaus lives.  In 1973-4 most of the kids were afraid of Zwarte Piet because he was such a tease.

Most of the children dress up like Zwarte Peit and some like Sinterklaus.