SUNDAY
Doug was asked a couple days ago to speak in church today. He gave a great talk about our Heavenly Father's love for us and how we can show our love for Him. It was all in Dutch and the comments we heard afterward confirmed that the translation and the pronunciation was excellent. 😄
This afternoon we visited the Koppe family. Their second daughter, Romy, was born a few weeks ago and we wanted to take a little gift and get to know them better. Eldon was born and raised near Rotterdam and has lived here except for the two years he spent on a mission in Germany. Allie is American and moved here after she and Eldon were married six years ago. Their 4 year old daughter, Mina, is bilingual, learning in school and from her dad to speak Dutch.
MONDAY
This afternoon, the APs asked Doug to help them with their presentation for Zone Conferences this week. The training will be on Finding Direction.They photographed him in various steps of finding directions on his phone and driving to that destination. (So I got a photo of Elder Adams getting the photos for the training 😁)TUESDAY
It's Zone Conference so that means Tuesday Norma and I go shopping at Sligro in the morning and Doug and Gerrit help with the chopping and preparing the food for the next two days. Over the two days we serve lunch to about 150 hungry missionaries and guests. It's a LOT of food!
WEDNESDAY
The Antwerpen and Rotterdam Zones meet in Antwerpen, about a 90 minute drive for us. Another wonderful time together with this half of the mission. Good instruction and counsel along with fun and good food make for a great day!
Six weeks ago at ZC, the missionaries were given juggling balls as part of the instruction from President Watson. With practice, many have made great improvements in their juggling skills. This little demonstration was fun to watch. We can make small incremental improvements by practicing each day, whether it is juggling or scripture study, meaningful pryer, street contacting, etc.
One of my favorite thoughts of the day was from Elder Vilai Mahe. President Watson was teaching about the Parable of the Sower and the different kinds of soil the seeds land in. Elder Mahe made the observation that the Sower actually sewed seeds EVERYWHERE. As missionaries, we should do likewise and tell everyone about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We never know when the seed will take root and grow.
The final part of the day is the testimonies of the Departing missionaries. It is a wonderful time to hear of their growth over the past 18-24 months.
Ross Jones Sophia Packard
THURSDAY
A repeat of the day before but with the Amsterdam and Apeldoorn Zones and held in Utrecht.
Six more Departing Elders and Sisters gave us their final testimony.
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| Kamryn Doyle |
Thomas Boland
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| (Zuster) Westerlaken |
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| Hannah Hammer |
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| Johan van der Put |
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Mason Zarges
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FRIDAY
This afternoon we had a delightful visit with my cousin and his wife, Brad and Maureen Swenson. It has been so many years since I have seen them. I had forgotten, but we actually lived next door to each other in Spanish Fork for a few months in 1976-1977. They have been on a safari to Tanzania and had a two-day stop in Amsterdam so they connected with us! It was so good to catch up! Doug, Marcia, Maureen and Brad Swenson
Another Mission Devotional via Zoom tonight. The guest was Tyler Griffen from Scripture Central Podcast. He started with asking how many ears do you have? The obvious answer - 2. But he went on to show how we actually have one more-- h[ear]t. We also need to listen with our heart. This dovetailed perfectly with the training we received at ZC this week.
He also taught from Ether 2:19. The Brother of Jared has three problems he is presenting to the Lord: 1) we have no light, 2) how do I steer?, 3) how do we breathe? To the question of how to breathe, the Lord gives step-by-step instructions. Verse 20 states "...thou shalt make a hole in the top, and also in the bottom; and when thou shalt suffer for air thou shalt unstop the hole and receive air. And if it be so that the water come in upon thee, behold, ye shall stop the hole, that ye may not perish in the flood."
The answer to the question of how to steer was was essentially 'Don't worry about it, I'll take care of it'
In response to the question of no light, the Lord says in verse 23, "...What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels?..." In other words, what do you want to do?
Then Bro. Griffin taught that the answers to these three problems are actually the answers that we almost always receive from the Lord when we have questions, problems, concerns or worries. He will either have us 'study it out in our minds' and come up with a solution, just take care of the problem for us or give us instruction as to how to take care of the problem. I thought this was very insightful!
We were reminded that when a child learns to walk, he stumbles and falls many times. Parents pick him up, comfort him---and put him back down to try again. Similarly, Heavenly Father does the same for us when we fall (make mistakes). We always get another chance. He never gives up on us!
SATURDAY
We spent the afternoon and evening with our good friends Henk and Alja Schuur and Gerrit and Norma VandeWal. Henk is a retired geologist and volunteers a couple days a week at a Geologisch museumholland near their home. He usually bikes the 45 minutes to get there. We had a great time having him give us the tour and were especially delighted to see the young children that came to him with their questions. There are other people working there, but Henk is the expert and they like to defer to him. This ancient fossil (the one in the middle 😂) is fascinating.
Henk, Gerrit, Norma, Marcia, Doug
After the museum we drove back to Henk and Alja's home for dinner and visiting. We love these dear friends!
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