Doug and Marcia Glauser, Senior Mission 2021-2023

SUNDAY Marieke Muurling gave a great talk today in church. The topic was Keeping the Commandments. She likened the commandments of God to parenting. We give our kids instructions to teach them and bring them home safely to us. Watch for cars, brush your teeth before going to bed, and any number of things. In the same way, Heavenly Father gives us commandments that will teach us to be like Him and keep us safe so that we can return home to Him.   A new Senior Couple, Jeff and Cathy Wagner, arrived yesterday to the mission. We invited them and the VandeWal's over for dinner. It was good to get to know them a little. They are from Gilbert, AZ but lived many years in Eldorado Hills, CA. They will be working in the Office taking over for Sisters Flake and Conlee.  MONDAY First thing this morning we drove the VandeWal's to the airport. They are returning home for a week to attend the funeral of Norma's dad. He was 97 when he passed away last week.  On the way bac...

  SUNDAY We heard today our dear friend Daphne Bijkerk is having some health challenges and is in the hospital. We are saddened by this news and hope she will soon be well enough to come home. She is a young mother of 4 children, very musically talented, translates songs and hymns to Dutch, teaches dance to kids with disabilities and is just a wonderful person.  We were just finishing an early dinner when the phone rang. It was the VandeWal's asking if we could go to the office, get the extra key to their house and bring it to them They had walked out to get in the car, realized after the door was shut they didn't have the house key or the car key! Norma's sister and brother in law and two nephews and their wives are all visiting and they were headed to Haarlem. And it was pouring rain! We jumped up, went to the office and drove to their place. But it still took about 20 minutes. By the time we got there, the rain had almost quit (for a moment). We did have to tease ...

  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...