Jan 30 - Feb 5, 2022
SUNDAY
We went to in-person church today for the first time n The Netherlands. The meeting was in Dutch, so I needed Doug to interpret most of it. I'm grateful for the time I spent last year learning a little of the language. I can understand way more than I can speak, but even then I need to listen very carefully and hope the people speak slowly!
Our friends the VandeWal's, the other Senior Couple in the mission, picked us up. We don't have a need for a car much, so we will just use an office car on those occasions. The VandeWal's are delightful people. The are managing the Housing for the mission and have been so busy in the few weeks they have been here getting apartments ready to be opened as we get more and more missionaries and the mission rebuilds. We went to their house for lunch after church and had a great time visiting with them, getting to know them and feeling of their love of the Savior and the Gospel.
On the way home from church, E. VandeWal passed off Doug on his driving so now according to the mission, Doug can drive. This will be helpful even though we don't need a car often.
Sunday evenings we can usually talk to a few of the kids. The time difference makes it a little tricky with church schedules and sleeping times. But it is so good to talk to everyone and stay connected a bit.
MONDAY-WEDNESDAY
Elder and Sister Jensen are back from their Covid quarantine! They spent the morning with us and continued to train us in the Finance and Vehicle roles. Some of this is trying to figure out the Church system and part is figuring out what the person before us did and if we need it or not. For me, it seems the hardest part is looking at all the spreadsheets involved. When I realized that those are not all mandatory but was actually someone's personal workflow preference, I relaxed a bit. And I had Elder Jensen give me a little help with how to work with Excel. Not much, but better than nothing! 😀
Elder Glauser is learning everyday 2 or 3 more things that he is 'in charge of'! He learned there are LOTS of bicycles in the mission, none have been maintained for about a year, many are in storage and they are all under his umbrella as Vehicle Coordinator. The fuel cards seem to not always match up to the assigned car or the assigned missionary. We will have 26 missionaries that will have their 6 month grace period of driving expire in March, but because they will be going home soon, they did not go through the lengthy process of getting approval to drive here. It makes planning transfers very interesting for President Watson.
Monday evening we drove with the VandeWal's to the Makro store about 30 minutes away. Similar to Costco, but much for variety of food. We won't need to go often, but it's good to know we can get bigger sizes of products and cuts of meat that is much more economical than the one or two serving size we get our the market near home.
WEDNESDAY
We had Elders Ludlow and Blodgett over for dinner and invited the VandeWal's as well. We had a good time visiting with all of them. Even though we are at the office together, we are all busy so this was a good time to relax and get to know one another. Our plan to have the office Elders to dinner once a week has been nice. We can tell they appreciate the food. They are good young men.
We are anxious to hear from Mike and Joanna about the birth of their baby. We are so grateful for each of our grandchildren and are so excited to have another sweet baby join our family.
THURSDAY
We woke up to the best news! Baby Girl Stewart arrived 2-2-22 (love that fun birthdate😀) weighing 7 pounds 11 ounces and is 19 inches long. Mama and baby healthy and strong.
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