Be Grateful for your Trials.

The week came and went without any call from President Robinson about my companions' replacements, so I think they will still be here for another three weeks at least, without trainees. And then either on transfer day itself or three weeks after, they will get one or two trainees. Although, one theory is that they will get trainees for just two weeks, so next week still may be a possibility.

On Monday, President Robinson was back in the office, but Sister Robinson was not. We discussed the plans for the upcoming temple conference and what we as office elders would need to do (mainly just make sure that the pizzas were ordered on time and the right quantity). Elder Loorbach did not come today, because he had the flu. In the evening, we ate at the Markham's, but without the Howells, since they are on holiday. Instead, the Rotterdam sisters were there. It was very fun.

The next day, we had to go pick up bed frames in Ijmuiden. While we were trying to find the workshop, we saw a cruiseferry coming upto the dock. Apparently it came from North Shields, near Newcastle. After that, we drove to Amsterdam for district meeting, only arriving a few minutes late. Focusing mainly on personal and other prayer, we did not roleplay at all, but instead did a personal "test" to see for ourselves how we prayed (it's the evaluation on prayer in PMG). We ate cream of tomato soup and bread for lunch and then dropped off the bed frames at the Amsterdam apartment. When we got back to the office, a package from my parents filled with waffles and Easter chocolate. In the evening, we ate dinner at the Schaumann's and then went with them to a piano recital. It was really fun to spend time with them. 

Wednesday was a normal day in the office (though I did get a package from the Antwerpen ward full of goodies. It was awesome :) (thanks!)), more or less, as was Thursday, except for the dinner appointment with the Roberts, which was also really fun. Wassenaar is just generally an awesome branch, haha. 

On Friday, we left the office around 9, to take elder Besendorfer to get a Belgian driver's license, in Brussels. After that was done (me having made use of my French, again), we went to elder and sister Newberry's apartment to pick up a wallet that one of our elders lost on the train. We spoke about our respective missions, and it would seem that this one is a lot easier to run, mainly because of the much smaller size of the area. There are 12 zones in the Paris France mission and 260 missionaries :o In the evening, we ate at the Nieuwvelds, eating american pancakes, fruit, egg and bacon. It was goood. We saw/heard fireworks later in the evening when we were back at the apartment.

Chocolate bunnies!

The packages are piling up. The top two are pretty much still full

Ben Shaws Cloudy Lemonade and Dandelion & Burdock next to Root Beer!

The Lord is My Shepherd

This Sunday, we sat with a friend of the Howells and Markhams, during the third hour, and answered his questions and explained about the organisational structure of the church and about the prophet and the origin of the Book of Mormon. It was not standard PMG lesson, but we covered a bunch of ground and he expressed interest in having the Book of Mormon and coming back to church and even potentially following the lessons. It was great: we now have a potential investigator. For us, any kind of investigator is good news, haha.

It was weird not having President Robinson in the office (he was absent because some of his family is visiting the Netherlands) on Monday. We did not have the usual correlation meeting, which was also weird. We did have a yummy soup, courtesy of Sister Winmill, so that was something normal. I received replies to the two e-mails I sent on Saturday to missionaries: from Elder Dooreman and from Sister Croese. It is always interesting to hear from other missions around the world. In the evening, the four of us (Elder Loorbach was here again) went to the Howells and ate mac & cheese with them and the Markhams and then spoke about eternal marriage and about families. It went really well and it seems that we all agree that marriage is a good idea ;) haha

District meeting was fun on Tuesday; I really felt the spirit during the roleplay part, when I was "teaching" elder Cooper about our Heavenly Father. It was awesome. We also learnt/talked about obedience and about using the Holy Ghost to help people put off the natural man and come closer to Christ. After the meeting, we ate pancakes and hashbrowns (awesome!). When we got back to the office, we checked the mail and found a big envelope for me from Judith, containing a lengthy letter and stamps! :D (She is so awesome)

Wednesday and Thursday were not so busy, except for trying to figure out the best way to get to Brussels by train, on Friday and also how to order the tickets for everyone. I can't wait to take the train again after so long. Just too bad the Thalys is so expensive...

On Friday, we took the train to Brussels, leaving here at 8:20. We picked up 3 missionaries on the way, at Rotterdam-Centraal, Roosendaal and Antwerpen Centraal (elders Moomey, Bourne and Robinson). It was weird to see elder Bourne again, seeing as he used to live in Antwerpen a few years ago, but he's cool. We met elder and sister Romig in Brussels and had them activate their residency permits and then we exchanged driver's licenses. After that, we went back to the centre to look for food. I bought a postcard in a book shop, with the three other elders, while my companions went to buy a waffle. On the way back to the train station, we saw a guy with dreadlocks getting chased down the street by two policemen, the first of whom was brandishing a night-stick. They were going fast: I guess the first guy really did not want to get arrested. A police car followed in hot pursuit, with its sirens blaring. We could still hear sirens as we walked into the station. That was pretty weird.

This morning, we played football in Wassenaar, and that was fun.

No comment, haha

What happens every Brussels trip? People fall asleep (or pretend to at least)

More sleeping

Elders Robinson and Moomey

My companions are craaaazy :p

Snowmen in the sky

Very busy week last week. We received five new missionaries and said goodbye to another five. Quite a mix in the arrivals: 1 Brazilian, two Canadians, a Surinamese and an American sister missionary.

On Monday, I outlined to our Mission President and the rest of the office staff, the schedule for the week and distributed the papers required. The night before, we had heard what the transfers would be. Most of the zone leaders were changing and we were getting a new assistant to the president: elder Eastmond. I'll definitely miss elder Lewis, he's so awesome. But he's needed elsewhere and will be district leader in Den Bosch (replacing the sister missionaries) and training the Brazilian. He will go home in two months (so he has a transfer and a half left). In other news, elders Hunt and Rozendaal (currently assigned to Nijmegen) arrived in the office to get some matters sorted out for elder Rozendaal (and they stayed until Thursday). On Monday evening we went to the Howells and then from there we went to the Nieuwvelds to teach Gabby for the last time.

Tuesday, we got everything ready for the greenies to arrive in the office. Elders Cockbain and Hunt drove to the airport to pick up the baggage and arrived almost an hour after the plane was supposed to land and told us that we had to go pick up the greenies and president and sister Robinson and the assistants by car, since the trains were not running. So we piled into the van and the car, and drove off to the airport. By the time we got back to the office, it was more than two hours after the landing time of the greenies and we were considerably behind schedule. We had to go almost directly to the pancake restaurant. This time I got the apfelstrudel pancake, but I was disappointed by it. When we got back to the office, elders Lind and Cockbain gave their financial and legal presentations and had the greenies fill in the various forms that we need for legalisation and the like.

The next day, we got everything ready for the trainings and waited for the greenies. Even before the greenies arrived, one of the trainers arrived and most of them arrived much too early for their training (at 10). Eventually everything was done, we ate pizza and the greenies got shipped out to their cities with their trainers. By this time, most of the departing missionaries had arrived for their final interviews. Elder Bean (who will be training in Antwerpen) also brought me a package from home, with some chocolate, waffles and all the fixings for a potted plant.

Thursday and Friday calmed down quite a bit, with elders Cockbain and Winmill going to Amsterdam to work on the apartment there on Thursday and shelving being installed in the office's conference room on Friday. We went on exchanges with elder Enslow on Friday to the Nieuwvelds for dinner and for elder Enslow to conduct the baptismal interview with our one investigator, Gabby (as he is our district leader). Elder Cockbain went with his companion to Zaandam.

On the weekend, we watched conference at the office, via the projector in the aptly named conference room. We watched four of the five sessions (and will watch the fifth on Tuesday). Around 3 on Sunday, we drove to Zoetermeer for Gabby's baptism. There was a large turnout and it was really a wonderful experience. She'll be a great example for her family when she goes back home.

Gabby with her aunt, uncle and cousins