Doug and Marcia Glauser, Senior Mission 2021-2023

  SUNDAY Today in church one of the speakers was Ilona Kleijweg. She spoke about times in her life when she has felt gratitude and invited us to do the same. She paused for about one minute to give us time to think. There are many others but four things immediately came to mind:     1. The birth of each of my children     2. 14 Jan 2023 all my kids were in the temple together with me     3. 31 Oct 2019 lunch at Olive Garden with my friend Doug Glauser that began this beautiful chapter of my life     4. When I was sick as a child, my dad gave me a blessing. I immediately felt better. It is the only time I can remember receiving a blessing from my dad. Four of our missionaries are going home early for various health reasons.  It has been  a testimony to me that the most important thing to President Watson and the other Church leaders is that the individual missionary is cared for in the best possible way. If that means goin...

  SUNDAY After church today we were invited to Alja and Henk's for Eerste Pasen Dag (First Easter Day). Several holidays here are celebrated twice, Second Easter is on the Monday after Easter, Second Christmas is Dec 26, etc. The Elders serving in Utrecht along with two of the JoVo's (YSA) joined us for a lovely dinner and visiting.  Doug, Sjoerd De Graf, Sam Lund, Ammon Leman, Eldon McClure, Marcia MONDAY The sunrise on my early morning walk  Today is proof-positive that everything important can get done. After just doing the essentials the last two weeks, there was some catching up to do. And we moved our weekly dinner to Monday this week. I needed to be home by 14:00 to get dinner ready for 10 people but was concerned there wouldn't be enough time at the office. As I finished paying the invoices and taking care of the medical issues, I looked at the clock to see it was just past 13:00. I was surprised and grateful! Having the missionaries in our home every week is such...

  SUNDAY We watched more of General Conference today and had lunch at the office with Jeremy, Natalie and family along with some of the missionaries.  Tyler, Elizabeth and family were supposed to arrive yesterday, but because of a delay in Denver, they missed their connection in Munich. We were so happy to see them today! We took a walk around Gouda to show them a little bit of this city we love. MONDAY We spent the day at the office (usually Mondays are the busiest of the week) but were able to meet up with the Monson's for dinner and then introduced them to our new favorite game, Keer op Keer 2.  Doug, Tyler, Conrad, Elizabeth, Grace, Millie, Marcia TUESDAY We met the Monson's in Amsterdam, had a picnic lunch just outside the Van Gogh Museum and then took a Hop On Hop Off Boat Tour. It was a fun way to see sites in Amsterdam. on the Canal Boat Marcia, Elizabeth, Millie, Con (in background) Grace, Tyler, Doug Elizabeth: Tuesday we went to the VanGogh museum then met...

SUNDAY It is good to have Natalie, Jeremy and their kids here in The Netherlands! Even though they are a little jet-lagged they came to church at the Utrecht Ward and got a little taste of what it is like here. Not surprisingly, the Church is the same everywhere! The hymns sound familiar, the covenants we make are the same, the people are devoted and kind. After dinner, we bundled up and walked around Gouda. The Stadhuis, Sint JansKerk, a windmill and (the kids' favorite) a playground.   We love living in this charming little city! MONDAY We were able to get all the essential things done at the office this morning and then join the family at Kinderdijk. We rented bikes and rode along the canals, stopping to explore the windmills. TUESDAY This afternoon we were able to finish up at the office, pick up a broken bike in Rotterdam and  and meet the family in Delft.  The little boys didn't really care for the Royal Delft museum so we took them to the car where they could play ...