What
a week.......Next week should be a bit slower, but we will see. This
week we said 'goodbye' to Elder and Zuster Van Komen, and today we meet
Elder and Zuster Spek, who will be serving in Groningen. The Spek's are
the last of the new Senior Couples that we know of, that will be coming
here to the Belgium/Netherlands Mission. While we were at the Mission
Home, President Robinson told us that he had requested 80 additional
Missionaries for this Mission, hopefully to come in the next 9 months.
We have heard that the number of young men and women sending in Mission
papers has more than doubled........so 80 should not be much of a
problem. There are SO many little Dutch Villages that have never had
Missionaries......there is still so much Missionary work here in Holland
to be done. Elder and Sister Anjewierdan, dare you to pronounce that
name correctly, just heard that their grand daughter has been called to
serve in this mission. They are so excited. There are no Zuster
Missionaries in the Apeldoorn Zone, where they serve, But they will see
her at Zone Conference and at the Temple. Neat!
Dad
and I are taking a "Dutch class", taught by a member of the Amsterdam
Ward. I was not able to go last week, which was the first class, but we
hope to attend each Tuesday
for the 1 1/2 hour instruction. Dad was asked to give the prayer at the
dinner for the Van Komens. He gave a beautiful prayer IN DUTCH!!!! He
is getting more comfortable with this language, and I am so proud of
him. I hope to say a few more words before coming home, but to pronounce
the words is VERY difficult. When I was at the store the other day,
where the pretty Hindu lady works. I told her I was trying to learn some
Dutch words so I could talk to her.....her reply: "Why? I love to talk
in English to you."
The
Mormon Church has really been in the spotlight here in this Country,
because of Mitt Romney running for President. One of the JoVo's had
posted a TV show segment, where two LDS couples were being interviewed.
They told about their conversion to the church and how that had changed
their lives. The TV 'show' took a tour of an LDS Church, showing the
class rooms, chapel, and Baptismal Font. Best publicity the church could
ever get. I think we told you last week, that one of the Elders was
asked if he worked for Mitt Romney. The person asking, noticing the name
of the church on his Missionary Badge. That is ONE good thing that came
from this election.......
Stake Conference is being held the 24th and 25th of this month. Saturday
the meetings will be held at the Amsterdam Chapel. Because the Brethren
have to travel so far, and can't go home between meetings, the Stake
furnishes sandwiches for them. Guess who has been asked to make 100
sandwiches =) Because we live so close to the Chapel, we are asked to
open the building, unlock the parking lot gate, check on things at the
church, quite often. Another 'take for granted.' The Sunday
Session of Stake Conference is being held in a large rented building in
Noordwijkerhout...where ever that is. Because so few members have cars,
the Amsterdam Ward has rented a bus that will seat 55, to take members
to the Sunday
meeting. It costs 5 euro per person, or 10 euro per family. And we
drive our cars 1 block to attend Conference. It will be interesting to
see how Conference is translated into several different languages. We
are getting more and more Spanish speaking families here in the
Amsterdam Ward. I will take notes.
We
are still trying to find Turkeys for our JoVo thanksgiving dinner. The
markets here have them for Christmas NOT November. The word is out about
the dinner, and we have been told that JoVo's from other Stakes are
asking if they can attend the dinner. We have had to be quite firm in
saying NO, as we could easily feed "the 5 thousand' that night. We hope
our church has enough chairs, tables, and dishes to feed the JoVo's from
our Stake. I sent out invitations to the Stake Presidency and their
wives, the Institute Teachers, and the High Councilmen over the Centers.
Everyone seems really excited about this event.......we told the JoVo's
last week at Institute that if we could not purchase Turkeys, we would
give each one of them a slingshot, and they could start shooting Pigeons
and Seagulls for the dinner. Wish someone could overnight 'Fed Ex'
several Turkeys =) 7 to 10 euro per Kilo......that is $3.50 to $5.00 per
lb =(
Dad
went on splits with the Elders this week. With the Stake wanting the
members to be more involved in teaching, we are not asked to go as often
as we used to. We love going with the Elders and Sisters, and miss the
Missionary teaching=( We have been given a list of 'inactivies' in the
Amsterdam ward, and will go and see if we can look up several of them.
This will not be an easy task...but that is what Missionaries do. The
Bishop made a comment,"let me know if and how many doors were slammed in
your face"........encouragement???????
Friday
evening the Amsterdam Ward held an Italian Night dinner. Fresh dough
for 'make your own pizza', spaghetti, salads, ingredients so we could
MAKE our own pasta, what an event. The cultural hall was so crowded we
could hardy move about. Mary Kate, our JoVo Opera singer, even sang a
few Italian songs. The Dutch Saints love a good party. Last night, Saturday,
we went to Den Haag, where the Stake Building is, to a High Priest
Social. The dinner was Indonesian, and was so spicy it made our eyes
water. We laughed at the meal begin served to "old" High Priests, saying
we would all go home with indigestion =) After the dinner, the film 17
Miracles was shown. Many of the people were in tears watching the movie,
and made comment they knew that the Pioneers had struggles and
hardships, but this film made them really realize how much they did
struggle. The film was in English, and for a change, the Dutch people
had to have translation!!!!=)
Today
in Sacrament meeting it was a 'celebration' of 150 years since the
first Baptism in the Netherlands. The Bishop gave some History of the
church in Holland which was so interesting. The Amsterdam church
Building was built in 1960, and took 3 years to complete. There are 16
different Nationalities that attend church in Amsterdam! A Sister bore
her Testimony in Spanish, being translated into Dutch, then English.
Then another Sister bore her Testimony in some African Language, that no
one could translate. It was so funny cause this sister was almost
dancing as she bore her Testimony.......the choir sang "Love One
another" in 3 languages, one verse, a couple of the choir members did
'Dutch Sign Language'. Next week the Primary will present the program.
The
Elders have been teaching a young man, 21 years old, from Brazil. Jose
Wilson Santos Marinho Almeida Junior. He has been attending FHE and
Institute for a couple of months. Today he was baptized. He speaks
Dutch, English, Spanish, and Portuguese. His mother came from Brazil to
see Junior, that is so much easier than that long name, be baptized. She
speaks only Portuguese, so everything had to be translated for her.
After the Baptism we had an 'eten', and when we gave Junior a hug, he
was just beaming and said, "I and SO happy." He is already talking about
serving a Mission. THIS is the joy of Missionary work.
Well,
you are probably getting really tired of reading about all of our
happenings. This is part of our journal, so you just have to endure. We
have heard, and thanks to Cameron and Darren, have seen pictures of all
your snow.......we hope Utah gets LOTS of snow this winter to make up
for the lack of it last year. Feast or Famine. Cameron told us about the
tree next door, in the Morgans back yard, being split by the snow. Good
for us....less leaves to rake next fall.
We love you all. Please keep the Missionaries in your prayers, as we know you already do. It was one year ago on the 15th of November that we received our Mission call.....look what has happened in that year. 8 months from now
we will be home. We can't believe how quickly the time is going. We
give thanks each day for the opportunity of being able to serve this
Mission. So little for all the Savior has done for us!
HUGS FROM HOLLAND
Opa and Oma
Vader and Moeder
Elder and Zuster deLeeuw
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