Another
week has flown by. We LOVE Sundays for several reasons, but one of the
reasons we love them is so we can share our week with you. We love
attending in the Amsterdam Ward because everyone is so excited to see
each other once again. We met with the Ward Council this past week and
the challenges the Ward Leadership is faced with is amazing. The Ward
Boundaries cover such a large area we wonder how the Visiting and Home
teaching get done. It takes the Bishop 20 minutes to get to the Chapel
and he lives close. We are spoiled because we live just 5 minutes
away...once again 'spoiled Americans'.
I want to start off this email with a few traditions
we have learned in the Dutch culture. When you go out to eat the
tradition is to spend the WHOLE evening at the Restaurant. I guess the
night Opa and I dined at the Chinese Restaurant we must have offended
them because we ate and left. After the meal is eaten, you sit around
and drink tea or coffee and visit for several hours. When someone has a
baby, the family celebrates with friends by having beschuit's with
butter and Muisjes, sprinkles' on the beschuit's. If it's a girl the
sprinkles are pink and white, if a boy the sprinkles are blue and white.
Beats blue and pink bubblegum cigars:) Everyone drinks tea. The LDS
people drink Herbal tea. When we went into Ward Council it took me a
minute when I saw tea cups on the table with tea bags and hot water.
They also eat ginger cookies...they love anything with ginger. When we
go to the grocery store there are tables where people sit around just
visiting and drinking tea and eating cake or cookies. The picture frames
are all in metric sizes...no 8x10, 5x7. I had a picture of Christ I
wanted to frame and hang on the wall...but no picture frame to fit:) We
find it cute to watch the teenagers, and others, not driving and texting
but riding their bikes and texting.
There are no fences, very few, because there are so many small
canals and ditches the animals stay within the water bound fields. Sure
makes for beautiful scenery without old broken down fences that we see
in Utah.
Now on to the week. Last Sunday we went to Gouda for a JoVo dienst. This is a 3 hour meeting for the YSA that is held the 3rd Sunday
of each month. First is a fireside with a 'special speaker', then of
course dinner.....these kids LOVE to eat, then a Sacrament Meeting. One
of the Speakers at Sacrament meeting was a young black man who when we
walked into the meeting noticed a badge on his suit that said "Future
Missionary." When he spoke we were surprised to learn that he was only
171/2 years old. His conversion story had me in tears. He was living
with his girlfriend, smoke, drank, drugs...171/2!!!!! One day he was at
his friends house when the Missionaries were there. He heard the
message and saw a picture of the Temple one of the Missionaries had. He
touched the picture of the Temple and made the comment he wanted to go
there someday...not knowing anything about the Gospel. He told his
friend he wanted to know more. When he started taking the Missionary
lessons he knew he had to live the Word of Wisdom and told us how
miserable and sick he was for days trying to stop the smoking, drugs and
alcohol. His girlfriend tempted him in every way she could to keep him
from joining the church. His friends all laughed and ridiculed him
for his decision. His family disowned him....171/2......but he WAS
baptized. He just glowed as he bore his Testimony. He can hardly wait
until he can go on a Mission and go to the Temple. WOW.....so many
stories like that. I am in tears half the time. DON'T ever take what
you have for granted...I say that every week. We ARE SO blessed.
Monday
at FHE we had 15 in attendance...it was our best group ever. We are
trying to make the Amsterdam Centrum bright and Cheery so the kids will
want to come. I am taking fresh flowers to put on the table and have
cookies and juice for them to nibble on. We are trying to get a
keyboard so we can sing Hymns before our Meetings. Institute classes
have been Studies of the Old Testament, but we asked if we could teach
Eternal Marriage...because that is what we are trying to do...get these
YSA's to the Temple. The first class was Wednesday and the kids seemed to really enjoy the new Topic of discussion. We really laughed because one of the JoVo's came up to me on Wednesday
and said:"Zuster deLeeuw, if you were 20 years younger and I was 20
years older I would want to marry you for your cooking." Eat your heart
out Martha Stewart:)
Tuesday
was Zone Training and I was informed just a few days prior that I was
to cook for this meeting....40!!! One being the Mission President and
his wife. After my blood pressure dropped and I started breathing again
I made a menu, said a prayer and did my best. We had Salsa chicken
Lasagna, green salad and Texas Sheet cake. I will send a picture of all
the pans lined up. It must have been OK cause there were no leftovers.
This happens every 6 weeks. Oh my. CES does mean 'cooking every
second'. Our Mission President has asked us to start reading the Book
of Mormon tomorrow
using a 'color code' for different things in the book. Red for the
words of Christ, Blue for words of his Apostles, Yellow for topics we
could use in a talk ,ie, faith, repentance...and so on. We received an
email a few days ago telling us who our new Mission President will
be...he comes in July. President Robinson from Fillmore. Change is hard
as we love those who we are serving with. Several of the Senior
Couples will be leaving as well, and that is REALLY scary because that
will make Elder deLeeuw and I the 'seasoned' ones. We have lots to
learn:)
Well, I go back to loving Sundays. The sisters in
the ward want me to sing the Hymns in Dutch....I can't say the words but
am getting so I can read better. One of the Zusters told me today she
would give me language lessons. One of the JoVo's even said that the
Dutch language was hard to learn, so I don't feel to bad. Elder deLeeuw
is trying to speak Dutch, but when people know you speak English they
want to speak English and show how you good they can speak. He is
trying. When we walk into church everyone is shaking hands, giving the
traditional 3 kisses on the cheek. Sometimes the meetings start late
because everyone is visiting. The books that Melissa sent are always in
use. There are 2 little girls that wait by the door for me so they can
get the books first. I will take a picture of them in the next few
weeks. We LOVE these people! Tonight the man that lives next door came
into our apartment and visited for a minute. We were so happy and told
him to come back again and he said he would. The lady on the left of us
knows NO English so we just smile and wave at her. Elder deLeeuw takes
her garbage can across the street each week and brings it back and she
appreciates that. Just being a good neighbor is doing Missionary work.
One more funny thing and I will call it a night.
Last week when we were traveling to Gouda we went the 'back way'
following the GPS. We were following a canal the whole way along a very
narrow road. All of a sudden 3 very large geese walked in front of the
car and Elder deLeeuw did not see them. He swerved to miss them, which
he did, but we were all laughing making comment that we almost had
Christmas Goose dinner early. Not cows or sheep on the road....geese:)
We LOVE serving the Lord. We LOVE the experiences
we are having. We LOVE the Dutch people. Thank you for your prayers.
We wish you could all come for a visit and experience the beauty and
spirit we are.
Love, Opa and Oma
Elder and Zuster deLeeuw
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