Aug 28-Sep 3

 SUNDAY

Another Sunday with several visitors at church. Mariet Zions grew up in Heerlen, lived in Utrecht for four years while going to college in the early 1970's and has lived in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv since then. She is a delightful person who was here to visit extended family. Mike, from South Jordan, UT is here for work. Johan and Corrine from Sacramento are here one more week before they return home. Sam's friend ______is still here from Brazil. They will do a little traveling this week and she will return home Sep 10 but promised to return soon.

It was a quiet afternoon as we rested and caught up from our late night last night helping at the JoVo dance. A good time to rest, reflect on the week and do some study.

MONDAY

As a follow up to the story from Saturday about the Hengelo apartment break-in...

Elders Snow and Fowler are the Content Team for Social Media and had planned to go to the JoVo Conference to make some videos. But with the fatal car accident that happened earlier in the week they decided not to go. They would have been staying at the Hengelo apartment, maybe even sleeping in the living room where the burglar came in. I just felt so grateful they were not there. When I heard the story, I just needed to go give them both a hug. 

Elders Atticus Snow and Ethan Fowler

I'm not sure who took this picture but it made the Harvest Report this week!

TUESDAY

We have internet again! After about 2 weeks without Internet service at home, we were able to get back online. Our modem went out, we contacted the provider who sent us a new modem. As a side note, I did need to ask Google what was the difference between a modem and a router 😂😩. But it still didn't work. We tried to find help on YouTube and it looked like we had done everything necessary. But still no Internet. Finally, today I called the provider and explained the situation. They needed a number on the bottom of the modem in order to activate it. That's it! Since I was at the office, I walked home, called back and gave them the number. Within 20 minutes we had service. 😁

Tonight we went to the VandeWal's for dinner and to celebrate Jasper De Haas' birthday. He is 15 years old and we have gotten to know him and his parents. They are members of the Utrecht Ward. We went with them to the Veluwe National Park a few weeks back and rode through the park on our bikes. Jasper and Annelies came to the Office a couple weeks ago to play PingPong. We really love this family and are grateful to know them and to be able to help Jasper celebrate his birthday.

WEDNESDAY

Last night, as we were arriving at the VandeWal's, Doug got a call from the Breda Elders that they had lost their car keys while visiting the War Memorial in Ieper, Belgium. It is about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Gouda. So when we got home, he made a plan of how to pick up the car and get a new key made. 

So this morning, we did a few things at the office and then headed to Ieper. Elders van der Put and Hanks had come home last night with the APs and spent the night at their apartment in Zoetemeer so we first picked them up and took them to Breda. Then Doug and I drove on to Ieper, used the valet key and brought the car back. We stopped again in Breda to leave the other car with them while we take their car back to the office to await a new key from the dealership. Does this sound complicated? Yes, it is!! But it all worked out and the new key should be available next week. And we got to visit with Elders Hanks and van der Put for an hour. We are so impressed with these good young men. 

Doug, Elders Cooper Christensen, Isaac Auger, Johan van der Put, Tyler Hanks, Marcia

THURSDAY

Our regular Thursday dinner with the Office Elders plus Elder Kempenaers. Elder Kempenaers is one of the Assistants to the President but he also has a new assignment. He will be working with the Area Presidency and other mission leaders in Europe to help with reaching and retaining the youth and Young Adults. This will continue after his mission release in November. We love having the missionaries in our home and are grateful for our association with them.

FRIDAY

Doug has had a painful tooth for about a week now. Monday I was able to set him up with a local dentist and today he went to the appointment. He was so impressed with the Dentist and her knowledge. Turns out he had broken a piece of a tooth. The dentist removed the piece and after a few weeks to let the gum heal, will put in something permanent. The experience was efficient, professional and inexpensive! 

SATURDAY

The VandeWal's invited us to go with them to Rotterdam to put the finishing touches on the apartment for the new Senior couple scheduled to come Oct 4. But they heard last night from President Watson that due to some health issues, the Ward's will not be coming after all. But we went to the apartment anyway to see all they had done since we first helped them move things in a few months ago. It looks really nice! And the view from the 9th floor apartment is beautiful. You can actually see Den Haag and Delft in the distance.

Since we were already in Rotterdam, we decided to see a little of the city. So we drove to the centrum and walked to the Cube Houses. I have been so curious about these interesting homes since the first time I saw them months ago. Most of them are used for homes, but one is a 'museum' so we paid our 2 euro each and took a tour. Very interesting but I wouldn't want to live there.

We wandered around the area a bit and stopped at a Peanut Butter shop. There were all kinds of different flavored PB. The sampler was Apple Pie PB. Honestly, I could not taste anything except peanut butter.

As in most centrums we have visited, there were musicians. Today there was a very unusual One-Man Band. (Sadly, no picture) He was blowing on a long (maybe 6 foot) horn, he had a plastic bucket, two old pots and a rusty cowbell for a 'drum set'. And he was pretty good!

We stopped for some lunch and then visited the Laurenskerk. This church was originally built between 1449 -1525. It was bombed in 1940 during WWII but not completely destroyed. The windows are now a lighter glass than the original stained glass so the interior of the church is quite light.