Aug 27-Sep 2, 2023
SUNDAY
I taught the RS lesson today using the recent General Conference address of President Nelson, Peacemakers Needed (April 2023). Some of the things we discussed were:
What do you think President Nelson means when he says?…”I also vowed that day never to throw anything in anger—whether it be scalpels or words.”
What are some ways we can treat others with compassion, especially when we don’t agree with them?
If “Charity defines a peacemaker” as President Nelson teaches, what is charity and how do we develop it?
President Nelson taught “If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy”10 that we can say about another person—whether to his face or behind her back—that should be our standard of communication.” How can we be charitable in our thoughts as well as our spoken words?
What are some of the invitations from President Nelson?
What are some of his promises?
Elder Jones is being transferred to Haarlem. We have loved getting to know him as he served in the Utrecht Ward. He will definitely be missed. But we will see him on Saturday because he will be baptizing Leone, a woman he and Elder Leman have been teaching. 😁
Steve and Bonnie Johnson arrived today from the MTC. We had a lunch prepared at the office and visited with them for a bit before taking them to their apartment. It is so hard to stay awake after being up for so long, but finally we dropped them off and will see them again tomorrow.
MONDAY
After District Council, we walked over to the Johnson's and brought them back to the office. We had a short Office meeting to go over the plans for transfers this week. As always, there are a lot of considerations mostly dealing with transportation.
We had a couple hours to begin training the Johnson's. They are going to do a great job and be a wonderful asset to the mission.
TUESDAY
Elders Aiden Henrie, Coulson Rich, Logan Brown, Landon Thomas and Hayden Peterson were in the office for the first day of Departure interviews. They each spend about 40 minutes with President Watson and a few minutes with us. Since there is more tome allotted than we actually need, we take a few extra minutes and talk with each missionary about their future plans and some reflection on the things they have learned the past two years. It has been great to watch these young men grow and deepen their testimonies of the Savior.
More training for the Johnson's this afternoon. Doug and Steve took bikes to the bike shop for repairs and tune ups, got keys made and went to Van Loon car service. These are all places Doug has used often and has developed a great relationship with the people there. It was good to introduce Steve to all of them. Bonnie learned more about the finances and the systems we use here.
WEDNESDAY
We spent the day training the Johnson's.
About 20:00 we got a call from Elder Doxford, one of the APs. The Elders from Heerlan would soon be at the office dropping off luggage and needed to get in. Since we are only a 10-minute walk, we went back over to the office. The lights were on, the door was unlocked and the Elders were inside! They arrived just as the VandeWal's were coming back from Brussels so they were able to get in without our help. But it was good to see Elders Bybee, Cottam and Henriksen and to catch up with the VandeWal's. They left Monday to go to Brussels to pick up Bruce and Jean Bingham who will be serving in our mission working with the diplomats in Brussels.
THURSDAY
Sometimes there are unwritten duties as a Senior missionary. These come up several times a week. So just to document...
...this morning I'm hemming pants for Elder Thomas. 😁
Another day of Departure interviews. Interestingly, several of our current and former Office Elders were here today so we got a picture with them.
After a nice lunch of Sister Watson's famous tomato soup and fresh bread, we did a little training with the Johnson's before going to the Departure Meeting at the Mission Home.
Then we all went out to Pannenkoekenborderij for the Departees last dinner.
We said our goodbyes to these wonderful young men. We hope to stay in touch and meet up occasionally. Many of them will be at BYU or other Utah schools and we plan to gather occasionally when we are there.
We had one more event to attend this evening. We stopped at the De Haas home and celebrated Jasper's 16th birthday.
FRIDAY
11 new missionaries arrived today! 10 Elders and one Sister. Madison Clark is the sister of Savannah Clark who served here about 18 months ago. It is delightful to welcome her to the BNZ!
There is always such excitement as the new missionaries arrive, meet their companions and prepare to go to their new areas.
As everyone was getting ready to go, I asked Sister Wilcox how they were traveling and where were they going. Lelystad. Using public transportation. hummm, We had been dealing with transportation issues to and from Lelystad all week and knew that the trains were stopped for repair on the rails. The girls would have to take several crowded buses with the luggage and it would take over two hours to go what would take 30 minutes by car. Elder Glauser talked to the Assistants and determined to let them take the APs car for the day. The APs have an office van and can use it until tomorrow. Then Doug will go to Lelystad, deliver a bike and bring back the APs car. The Sisters were so relieved and grateful!
On the way back from Amsterdam to Gouda, we decided to stop at Sligro ( a Costco type store) where we buy lots of food for events such as Zone Conference. Many of the employees know us by now and we have a good relationship with them. Nicky works in Produce and has been very friendly. We have talked for months about exchanging emails so we can stay in touch. So now the miracle...We saw Nicky as we were shopping in another part of the store, she quickly came over and gave me a hug. We exchanged emails and then she said she was leaving tomorrow for Italy and will be gone for two weeks. I would have not seen her next week when we go in to buy missionary food. She and her husband have plans to come to San Diego some time in the future so we plan to get together at that time.
As soon as we got back to the office, Doug received a message from his friend Linhart at Van Loon Car Service. He asked him to stop by because he had a gift for him and was leaving on vacation. So Doug took the gift he had prepared, a Book of Mormon and the Pursuit of Purpose booklet, and went to Van Loon. Linhart gave him a gift box (that looks like the Gouda Stadhuis) that has cheese, cheese dip and some stoopwafels. They also exchanged emails with the hope to stay in touch. These are just two of the people we will be sad to leave.
Elder Ranse Cottam's family came to pick him up from his mission and stopped by today. It was delightful to meet them!
By now it was getting late and we had a Zoom meeting with the Senior Couples at 7:00pm so we just got on the meeting at the office. It was good to see everyone (technology is great!) Elder and Sister White gave us a report on the JoVo Camp they participated in last week. They were in charge of food. 5 days, 3 meals/day for 100 people! Thankfully, they had a lot of support from some of the local members.
We were just finishing dinner (still at the office) when the Heerlen Elders called to report they had been in a car accident. Just minor scrapes on the car, no injures, but a lot of paperwork to take care of.
Within a few minutes of that call, the Apeldoorn Sisters called to see if we could figure out how to pay for a locksmith that had come to open the door when they accidentally locked themselves out. He would not invoice us and wanted them to use a system that requires a Dutch bank account. We have used the Ideal pay system several times to help out but since we are going home, we have let our balance get really low in anticipation of closing the account. So we could not help them. The payment was nearly 300 euro for a 5 minute service. He also would not take a bank transfer that I could have easily done. So the girls decided to go to an ATM, pull out money from their MSF and Personal funds and pay that way. So the problem was solved.
Then the Lelystad girls called to say one of their bikes had loose spokes (which Doug already knew about) and the chain came off the other one while they were riding home. So since Doug is going tomorrow anyway to exchange the one bike and get the APs car, he can now take two bikes to exchange.
(I record these three events just to document how many times the things we do are unanticipated and so varied...and frequent😂).
SATURDAY
Doug had office work and I spent the morning getting groceries and ordering food for Orientation next week.
This afternoon Leone Moortjes was baptized in the Utrecht Ward. She saw an ad on FaceBook about the Church and contacted the missionaries. She has been at church every week since she started a few months ago. She has a solid testimony and a deep desire to embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
After the baptism, Doug and Steve Johnson went on to Lelystad to deliver the two bikes. They will also bring back the APs car.
Another busy week in the books!
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