May 21-27, 2023
SUNDAY
We drove home from church today with Alja as she had a meeting at the Mission Office and had never been there before. Since the parking is very limited there, we dropped her off and then parked her car at our house. She called when she was finished so we could take her car back and she could get home. We were thinking about all the good people we have met here...some, like Alja, have become eternal friends. Others are acquaintances, but all have enriched our lives.
MONDAY
A regular day at the office....
TUESDAY
Today the mission received another Senior Couple. Dave and Shauna White will be working with the Young Sngle Adults (JoVos). We are so happy to have them here! We took them to the Gouda centrum so they would not be tempted to take a nap. After lunch, the VandeWal's took them to their apartment in Rotterdam.
At Zone Conferences I like to take pictures of the missionaries who are asked to speak, train, sing or participate in other ways and send the picture along with a little note to the parents. This time there were about 30 emails sent. We get replies from most parents. They love seeing their missionary in action! As a sample is the following:
The reply from Elder Cervantes' mom:
Thank you for sharing this with me. I have been blessed in so many ways since he left on his mission. I pray for him and his return that he will continue to stay strong in the gospel. He has always been a big example in my life. Because of him I went to the temple and I did it on his birthday. Thank you so much for the continuing love you have given him while service his mission. I know that he will hold you and your husband in his heart and memories for eternity. ❤️
WEDNESDAY
We have the opportunity to participate in District Council most weeks. We love being a part of this and seeing the depth of our missionaries. Today, Elder Adams gave the spiritual thought. He referenced the hymn 'How Great Thou Art'
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration
And then proclaim, my God, how great Thou art
He then quoted Bruce R McConkie (GC, April 1985) and said 'this is my testimony as well':
But I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God’s Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way."
THURSDAY
We delivered a car to Dave and Shauna White in Rotterdam. Since they will be working with the JoVos (YSA), they will be driving all over the mission. We took them on a test drive, Dave drove while Doug coached. Dave said he was nervous, but will be fine as he gets used to driving here.
It's always good to have some missionaries in our home for dinner. Tonight we talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and each one shared something about the atonement that was meaningful to them. Grace, forgiveness, healed from infirmities and affliction and testimonies of the reality of the cleansing power of the atonement of Christ were all mentioned. How we love these Elders and Sisters and their strong convictions and dedication to Jesus Christ!
Friday we spent the day in Ypers, Belgium with all the Senior Couples in the mission along with Dagmar and Mylissa Buysse, the couple over the Service Missionaries. It is the site of many fierce battles during WWI. Being in the trenches, crawling through tunnels, seeing the massive craters formed by the explosion of mines, visiting the site of The Christmas Truce and visiting one of 200 cemeteries in the area (this one had 12,000 gravesites and another 34,000 names inscribed on the surrounding walls) made for a very interesting and sobering day.
Hill 60 and the Caterpillar were created by explosives that had been planted underground. It took 18 months to dig the tunnels and set the explosives. The size of the crater is hard to imagine, but the picture has two of our men on the far side for reference.
On Christmas Eve 1914, in the dank, muddy trenches on the Western Front of the first world war, a remarkable thing happened.
It came to be called the Christmas Truce. And it remains one of the most storied and strangest moments of the Great War—or of any war in history.
Singing Breaks Out in the Trenches on Christmas Eve
At about 10 p.m., Bairnsfather noticed a noise. “I listened,” he recalled. “Away across the field, among the dark shadows beyond, I could hear the murmur of voices.” He turned to a fellow soldier in his trench and said, “Do you hear the Boches [Germans] kicking up that racket over there?”
“Yes,” came the reply. “They’ve been at it some time!”
The Germans were singing carols, as it was Christmas Eve. In the darkness, some of the British soldiers began to sing back. “Suddenly,” Bairnsfather recalled, “we heard a confused shouting from the other side. We all stopped to listen. The shout came again.” The voice was from an enemy soldier, speaking in English with a strong German accent. He was saying, “Come over here.”
One of the British sergeants answered: “You come half-way. I come half-way.”
British and German Soldiers Meet in the 'No Man's Land'
What happened next would, in the years to come, stun the world and make history. Enemy soldiers began to climb nervously out of their trenches, and to meet in the barbed-wire-filled “No Man’s Land” that separated the armies. Normally, the British and Germans communicated across No Man’s Land with streaking bullets, with only occasional gentlemanly allowances to collect the dead unmolested. But now, there were handshakes and words of kindness. The soldiers traded songs, tobacco and wine, joining in a spontaneous holiday party in the cold night.
Soldiers Play a Game of Soccer
One British fighter named Ernie Williams later described in an interview his recollection of some makeshift soccer play on what turned out to be an icy pitch: "The ball appeared from somewhere, I don't know where... They made up some goals and one fellow went in goal and then it was just a general kick-about. I should think there were about a couple of hundred taking part.”
German Lieutenant Kurt Zehmisch of the 134 Saxons Infantry, a schoolteacher who spoke both English and German, also described a pick-up soccer game in his diary, which was discovered in an attic near Leipzig in 1999, written in an archaic German form of shorthand. “Eventually the English brought a soccer ball from their trenches, and pretty soon a lively game ensued,” he wrote. “How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English officers felt the same way about it. Thus Christmas, the celebration of Love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time.”
History Channel, BY: A.J. BAIME & VOLKER JANSSEN
The poppy is a symbol of Remembrance and hope, including hope for a positive future and peaceful world.They are a show of support for the Armed Forces community, those currently serving, ex-serving personnel and their families; and a symbol of Remembrance for all those who have fallen in conflict. We saw these wreaths of paper poppies all over. The poppies grow everywhere, even in the most unlikely places.
SATURDAY
Today we explored the beautiful city of Brugge (Bruges). A walking tour in the morning, a delicious lunch, a canal tour, a tour of a chocolate factory and finally a Belgium waffle!
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