One
month from today we will be on a plane coming home. We are starting our
goodbyes, and wow......this is harder than ever imagined. Yesterday we
spent a few hours in Enter, a small Dorp (village), and as we were
driving through the Beautiful Country side, we were almost in tears
knowing this would be the last time in that part of the Netherlands.
Many things we won't miss here, but SO many more things that WILL be
missed. Green has to be the favorite color, and if you had allergies to
grass, you would die here. As we have been traveling this past couple of
weeks, I have tried to take some pictures from the car, getting
memories of 18 months on film.
The
weather is getting better. Last Monday was absolutely beautiful. Folks
riding their bikes without coats and scarves. Blue sky, and very warm
temps. We thought summer (spring) had finally arrived. Tuesday, the wind was blowing, a few clouds, and cooler.....then Wednesday......downpour
all day. Several of the JoVo's came into Institute just soaking wet.
How DO YOU ride a bike, holding an umbrella, trying to stay dry? Emese,
our JoVo from Hungry, was so wet she looked like she had just walked out
of a shower fully dressed. During Institute, it was raining so hard,
the lesson was stopped just for us to listen to the rain beating on the
windows. Poor kids......just as they were getting dry, out into the
weather once again. Yesterday as we were walking through Enter, it was
very cloudy, cool, windy, a few sprinkles. This morning we woke up to
sun and beautiful blue skies. It has stayed beautiful all day, BUT, tomorrow rain again in the forcast ;(
We
went to Lelystad this week to deliver the things needed to open that
apartment. This week we will go to Belgium and take the furnishings for
Gent, then Almere Buiten.....then we are finished!!! Elder and Sister
Seiter will then take over this assignment of apartment finding and
furnishing. We want to spend the last couple of weeks we have here,
visiting and 'hanging out' with our JoVo's. Tuesday
the 11th, we will meet with Brother and Sister Kleijweg, the couple who
will be serving in Amsterdam, and give them some orientation. We need
to clean this apartment well, take the deep freeze to Den Haag. Zone
Conference is the 20th where we will give our 'dying' Testimonies. This
month will fly by, so we are taking advantage of every waking minute :)
We
attended church in the Alkmaar Branch today. We bore our Testimonies
and expressed our love for their YSA's and the opportunity and blessing
it has been, serving here in the Belgium/Netherlands Mission. We ARE
saying goodbye for the last time to many of these good saints. After
Sacrament meeting, we were invited to the home of one of the JoVo's from
Alkmaar, for lunch. We were expecting bread, ham, and cheese....so what
a treat to be served Indonesian food. LEKKER!!! After that, we finally
met with Iona......we have been spelling it Yona, Pimentel. She is the
daughter of the family dad Baptized on Christmas day, while he was
serving his Mission here 50 years ago. When we came, one of the things
dad Really wanted to do was to find Iona, and see what had happened to
that family. Wow, 3 hours later we hugged and said goodbye. What a life
she has had, and not a good one. Her dad became the Branch President in
Brussels, and was loved by all those whom he served. Iona married a
returned Missionary while attending BYU, but that was not a good
marriage. She has two children, both living here in the Netherlands. She
has left the church, her children have not been baptized, what
sadness!. Next week we will be visiting Den Helder, the Branch which is
the most North in the Netherlands you can go. We have to drive past
Alkmaar to get there.....so dad invited Iona to go with us. (Still a
Missionary in her life.) She said she would like that, so we will keep
in touch with her this week and hopefully she WILL go with us. When we
left she turned around several times to wave to us. She just needs a
good friend, and we hope we will be that friend(s). We exchanged email
addresses, and she wants to keep in touch through Skype. Dad is so happy
to have finally found her. A day he will remember for sure.
We
love the Elders and Sisters just dropping by to 'share miracles.' The
Sisters came by the other night and told us what they had done that
afternoon. They were biking by a Bookstore, where there was a bookshelf
out front of the store that had a sign: "Free books, take one, or put
one on the shelf." They looked to see if there were any Books of
Mormon....they had just given their last one away so did not have one
for the shelf. So, they took the pass-a-long cards they had with them,
and put one in each of the books. Not leaving just ONE Book of Mormon,
but a pass a long in ALL the books:) Last night all 4 of the Elders that
live across the street, came in for a visit. They too shared their
miracles. Another joy of Missionary work. The list goes on and on.
Another 'take for granted' message from the Mission Field. Daniel, the young man that was baptized two weeks ago, told us Wednesday,
that his mother had told him how stupid he was for being Baptized. NO
support at all. Daniel, we were told, has had no friends, has never
known his dad, raised by his mother.....he told us he was SO happy with
his decision to be Baptized, and he KNEW it was the right thing. You
should see him with the other YSA's. He comes in with a smile, and
leaves with a bigger smile. He does have friends now, and they love him.
Junior, the YSA from Brazil, that was kicked out of his house by his
stepfather, just days after his Baptism, has been in Portugal attending
school, thinking that things were getting better between he, his mother
and stepfather. Junior is planning on serving a Mission, leaving in
January. His stepfather told him that other day,that if he served a
Mission he would not be allowed to 'live under his roof again.' Are we
blessed or what! Please keep these YSA's in your prayers. They for sure
are the 'strong generation' spoken of in Job.
Corey, we will be thinking about you on Wednesday.
Go and serve with honor, as we know you will. Soon as we get home, we
will continue to write 'OUR' Missionary each week. We know how Elders
and Sisters look forward to receiving letters from home......and 'goodie
boxes.'
We love you all. Thank you for you prayers in OUR behalf. We have felt them.
Opa and Oma
Vader and Moeder
Elder and Zuster deLeeuw
No comments:
Post a Comment