Can you believe how quickly
the weeks are flying by! Seems just like yesterday I was sitting here
sending you all an email and here we are again. This had been such an
interesting week and we are excited to share some experiences with you
Today we put 195 kilometers on the car doing
Missionary work. This morning we drove about 1/2 hour East (who knows
what direction we were going...it is East to me;) with 3 of our JoVo's
to visit the Almere Ward. We have 5 wards that belong to the Amsterdam
Centrum and we are going to visit them all in the next month and
personally invite the YSA's to attend FHE and Institute. There were 7
YSA in the class today and 2 YSA we have not seen at the Centrum said
they would come this week. The Bishop is so supportive of the JoVo
Centrum but knows how hard it is for these kids to get to Amsterdam. He
told us today he was going to call a couple to be in charge of the
Almere YSA to help transport them to our Centrum. All of the cars here
in Holland are very small and can only hold 2 or 3 at the most in the
back seat, so transportation is a big problem. 3 of the JoVo's from our
council that were with us today had to take a train to Almere. Kim,
our FHE coordinator took a Bus from Haarlem to the Central Station in
Amsterdam, then a tram to the church to meet us. My "we take so much
for granted" statement for the week. We will visit Harrlem next week
then Alkmarr the next. Den Helder is SO far away we would not expect
any of those kids to come. We are just expressing our love and telling
them what we do and want them to come and feel the spirit. I, Zuster
deLeeuw come up with a really neat thing. Drum roll. "When you see the
word CENTRM....what is missing? "U". Cute huh! Anyway, after we spent 3
hours at Almere we hurried home, picked up the Zusters and a darling
young lady who is investigating the church and headed West???? to Den
Haag, which is about an hour away for a baptism. The young lady who is
the investigator has never seen a baptism...so at 4:00 there was a baptism in Den Haag the Zusters wanted her to see. We walked in at 3:50 and found out the Bishop had changed the time to 3:00
so we missed the baptism. The Zuster Missionaries were about in tears.
We were able to visit with Ward Members, the Elders serving in Den Haag,
the Ward Mission Leader, the Bishop.....and they were all so sweet and
apologized about the lack of communication. We hope for a Baptism the 18th of March
in the Amsterdam Ward....5 minutes away and Jeana can hopefully witness
a Baptism and set her own date to enter the waters. She is 23 years
old and just radiates with sweetness. She is so shy and Elder deLeeuw
is always teasing her about her cold hands but warm heart. She loves
that! We will keep you posted. This is what Missionary work is all
about. Not the number of miles on the car, but the joy of being with
the JoVo's and those who are seeking for Eternal Happiness.
Last week I told you in about meeting with the Ward
Council and how we marvel at how they keep track of all the members of
the ward. The Bishop told Elder deLeeuw that there are 156,000 people
living in the Amsterdam Ward boundaries. And we complain about doing
our RS and Home Teaching in walking distance. There is a change here in
the Netherlands for young men going on Missions. The Government pays
for schooling for 4 years...but IF you drop out for any reason during
those 4 years you are on your own...so, young men, at the age of 18 are
going on Missions so when they come back they can go to school and have
their schooling paid for, no interruptions. It will be interesting to
see what happens...18 seems very young.
Kim, our FHE coordinator lives in Haarlem which is
about 1/2 hour from here. Haarlem is where the "Best Two Years" was
filmed. We have heard that many of the LDS people are in the film,
including several of our YSA's. We are eager to see the movie again as
we will recognize the Train Station and some of the actors. I took a
picture of the garbage can where the Book Of Mormon had been thrown.
Cool Huh. Kim invited Elder deLeeuw and I to spend a few hours with her
in Haarlem, and we love to spend time with 'our' YSA's, especially when
they make an invite. Haarlem is where the Correy Ten Boom Huis
is.....have you read 'The Hiding Place'? Talk about a tour. Very few,
if anything has been changed and the actual 'hiding place' as amazing.
6 people would hide in this tiny space, 3 sitting down, 2 standing up.
One day some of Hitlers men got 'wind' that the Ten Booms were hiding
these German people and stayed in the house for 3 days....all while
these people were hiding in this tiny space. No food or water and just a
small can for a toilet. Hard to imagine. Read the book if you have
not....Correy was taken to a concentration camp where she taught many
from the Bible. She was released from the camp, on accident, one week
before the whole camp was put in the gas chamber. She knew God had
preserved her for some reason and spent the rest of her life going
around the world preaching about Gods Love. The tour was in English, of
course for us, but we found it very interesting, Kim told us, that the
tour guide asked several times about our badges and what church we were
from. If we tour again we will take a Book of Mormon and leave it on
the table:)
My new word for the week is Korting....means
discount!!! Dayna Lee asked if dad was helping me cook. Dad can peel
and cut a cucumber like a pro.....dice onions, wash dishes and he
carries more pans in and out of the house than you ever will. We wonder
what the neighbors think as we carry all the pans of food out 3 times a
week. He also is the 'handy man' for the Elders and Zusters. He is
fixing bicycles, gates, lights, trimming vines from their back yards.
He is one 'handy man' to have around. He is complaining about his
'white hands'.
Yesterday, Saturday,
one of the Senior Couples called and wanted to know if we could 'do
something' with them. Their daughter was getting Married in the Provo
Temple and Sister Anderson was just in tears. Their daughter is 43,
never been married, and wanted to wait until the Anderson's returned
home in August. As good parents they told her NOT to wait for them but
to get on with her life as a wife with her Eternal Companion. It just
broke our hearts as they were watching their watches and counting down
as to when the marriage would take place. There were just 3 of the
Senior Couples that could travel that day, so we were off to have a day
to make the Anderson's try and forget home. We went to Volendam which
is a tourist Dutch town right on the sea side. Very quaint and cute.
While we were there Elder Anderson and Van Komen found raw
Herring......I took a picture of dad and you decide for yourself if he
ate the Herring or not. No Cameron, Oma will NOT be eating raw Herring.
I was gagging just watching them...it was worse than chocolate. We got
a laugh. We then went to my favorite little town yet....Edam. The E is
pronounced as A....talk about quaint. I took pictures of that as well
and you will see why it is as favorite. SO much beauty in this part of
the world it is hard to describe. The fields keep getting greener and
there are little lambs running all around. We found one field that had 8
windmills. Can't get enough windmills. This week has been VERY dark
and dreary.....lots of low clouds and rain. Everyone is looking forward
to warm, long daylight hours. With daylight savings it is light at
11;00 pm we are told. YEA! (Notice dad's new hat. He looks like a
Dutchman for sure:)
Well, we start another week tomorrow. Last week we cooked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then went to Amersfoort Thursday and Friday
to help put the finishing touches on the apartment for the Elders. The
funny story of the week. Two times a month the Amsterdam ward cooks a
meal for anyone who wants to attend...these people love to get together
but live so far away from the church only see each other on Sunday...so
they have a meal prepared by one of the ward members who signs up to do
so.....guess what meal they want. American, and who is from
America!!!!!!! And the beat goes on. NO, I will not cook for the
Cascade 6th Ward when we return:) We love whatever we are doing knowing
that things need to be done and we are here to do them. Another
funny....I baked a white cake...no cake mixes. The flour here has very
little gluten so bake goods do not rise well. I was making a jello poke
cake, so after the cake had baked 40 minutes I poked a hole in it to
pour the jello in and the cake was just runny in the middle. So back in
the oven....after about an hour the cake was finally done. Oh my, talk
about heavy. I poured 2 packages of jello on it so it looked pretty.
As one of the Elders was carrying the cake into the church, noticing
how heavy it was, made the comment: "Zuster deLeeuw, are we going to get
lead poisoning"? The cake was consumed and no one died.
We express our love once again to all of you. We
LOVE being Missionaries in the service of our Savior. We are so enjoying
reading the Book of Mormon again, with a different purpose as directed
by our Mission President. We are thankful for a living Prophet and are
eager to hear him speak to us in the next few weeks at Conference.
Love, Opa and Oma aka: Elder and Zuster deLeeuw
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