Feb 6-12

 SUNDAY

Elder Glauser was asked to give the opening prayer in Sacrament Meeting today. He is finding more and more opportunities to use his Dutch.

MONDAY

We continue to learn more of our duties as the Finance and Vehicle Coordinators. One thing I learned today is that there are forms and reports that must be made but that the supporting documents, such as Excel spreadsheets are just to be helpful to the person in the position at the time. So I don't really need to know what every spreadsheet is or represents. If it will be useful to me, I'll use it, if not, I can ignore it.  That was a liberating idea. 😀

TUESDAY

Our anniversary!! I'm so grateful Doug and I met and married. He is so good to me and I love sharing my life with him. He loves the Stewart kids as he does his own. He brought home flowers on Saturday so we 'could enjoy them a little longer' and when we got to the office this morning, another bouquet was waiting for me on my desk.

WEDNESDAY

Some thoughts:

Last week’s Come Follow Me was about Noah. One thing that struck me was how he ‘pitched the ark within and without’ meaning he covered all the cracks and seams to protect his family from the flood waters. This morning I was reading in Alma 49 and noticed all the preparations Moroni made knowing the Lamanites would eventually attack. They built ‘high banks’ and dug deep ditches to keep the enemy from being able to come in. 

So it is with our homes and families and our own personal lives and hearts. We know the enemy is real and trying to destroy us. There is no doubt that satan is relentless in his attempt to thwart the plan of God and will try anything to destroy us and our happiness. So we take lessons from Noah and Moroni and protect our homes and children, our hearts and minds for the attacks that come from without. And ‘pitch’ from within by following the prophet, studying regularly the scriptures, daily prayer and frequent temple attendance. In our busy busy schedules may we find time to continually prepare for the attacks that are happening all around us. Find one thing to make a 1% improvement. I promise even a small effort each day will bring divine help.

We went to a nice restaurant tonight to celebrate our anniversary. It is near the Old Town Hall in Gouda, just a few minutes walk from our apartment. We had a delicious dinner in a magical setting. We chose to sit outside in the tented area with heaters and little fireplaces all around. The 700 year old Town Hall is just across the street and the trees were strung with little lights. What a fun place to continue our celebration. 

THURSDAY                      Another beautiful sunset as we arrived home.

FRIDAY

The miracle really started to happen on Thursday. Late in the afternoon I got a phone call from Elders Boyer and Rich. They needed extra money in order to go on exchanges on Saturday. They didn't have enough money on their MSF cards to get the round-trip train tickets they would need. I asked them to contact President Watson to get his approval as I couldn't add money to their account without that.  About 7:30pm I got a text from them that President Watson had approved the extra funds. I confirmed that with President and told him I would take care of it in the morning.

Then the thought came to me, wait, the countdown for the changes to the card drop had to be made by midnight in order for the funds to be added in time for the exchanges on Saturday. I decided to see if I could do it from home and sure enough I could. Typically, as soon as I add the payment, I click for the President to electronically approve the transaction so I did, but then the place to click to print a paper copy for his signature disappeared because I was not near the office printer. 

When I got to the office today, I was trying to figure out how to cut and paste and make a record of the payments that the President could sign. My eye was taken to the far right of the screen where there was a little printer icon. I clicked on that and immediately had the form I actually needed! These are little things, I know, but it is just another testament to me that the Lord is in the details of our lives and His work. 

We were able to go to the Den Haag Temple today for an endowment session. We drove with Gerrit and Norma VandeWal our good friends here in the mission. I love being in the temple and feeling peace there. It is a beautiful temple. The floorplan is very similar to the Redlands Temple but it is smaller. The stained glass in the windows look like water, very appropriate for The Netherlands! And of course, tulips are in the beautiful bouquet in the Celestial Room.

As we got in the car ready to go get some lunch, we saw Elders Austin and Snow talking to a man just down the path from us. It was so delightful to see our Elders at work! We talked with them for a minute and then invited them to go to lunch with us at a little cafe walking distance from where we were. It was so good to get to know them a little better and enjoy lunch with them.

We then went to the Den Haag Chapel to see the bicycles that are being stored in the basement there. Elder Glauser is making an inventory of all the bikes in the mission. We used flashlights to check the numbers and look for wear and rust. As we were leaving, we found the master switch for the lights! So we examined a little more and then drove the 20 minutes back to the office. 

SATURDAY

The VandeWal's are not going to church tomorrow because Gerrit has some problems with his foot and needs to rest it. So they will watch via Zoom. But that means we need the car to get ourselves to church since they usually pick us up.  We discovered they live only 1.8 miles from us, so we called to see if we could walk over and get the car for Sunday. It was a beautiful sunny day and we walked a route we haven't been on before. It took us past the bike shop we went to last week so we stopped in and bought Doug a helmet so he can start riding his bike again. There were canals on both sides of the bike and foot path and single-family houses as well. One house had a rowboat tied to the dock in the canal. Several homes had a porch/deck overhanging the canal. It was a beautiful setting.