Praise the bridge that carried you over.

On Wednesday we had a terrific zone conference in Rotterdam, with Elder Moreira of the 3rd Quorum of the Seventy as guest speaker. During the first half, President and Sister Robinson and the assistants spoke to the missionaries about obedience and various other things to help work better with the wards and branches. After lunch, four elders did a wonderful musical number, with one playing the piano and the other three sang. It must be one of the best musical numbers I have ever heard during a zone conference/training. After the departing testimonies by a bunch of missionaries that go home in December, Elder Moreira and his wife spoke to us. They were great talks and it was really uplifting and inspiring. Additonally, Elder Moreira was very funny and made jokes the way through. A great speaker.

The next day, we drove to Zoetermeer to drop off the orders for the other three zones. We ate some food and listened to the musical number that was done again, at Elder Moreira's request, while we were there. The rest of the week was good, without too many surprises. We did get a lot of packages the whole week. Probably between 5 and 15 from Tuesday to Friday. They were mostly Christmas packages for missionaries. When there are 150 missionaries in the mission, there are going to be a lot of Christmas packages.

For the 4th week in a row, we will be playing Munchkin with the assistants. Though probably less long than last time, since they have to go somewhere in the afternoon. But it will be fun. 

"When prosperous the fool trembles for the evil that is to come; in adversity the philosopher smiles for the good that he has had." - Ambrose Bierce

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-02-36-president-monson-on-gratitude?category=prophets-and-apostles/gospel-topics&lang=eng&cid=HPTU112514512

Coming and Going

Two new senior couples arrived in the mission on Tuesday, along with an Peruvian elder. Also, two sister missionaries left that morning. One of the senior couples had previously lived here when his father was mission president, he then later served his own mission here and then as mission president himself. It's quite an interesting story. We now have quite a few senior couples in the mission, and the numbers will presumably stay the same until next summer. 

There was another Brussels trip on Thursday and we took down 8 people for various legal things. It was very fun, and we saw the beginnings of the Christmas market and tree in the centre of the city. For the rest, the trip went smoothly and there were no riots, haha.

Our best investigator, from Burundi, will be baptised next saturday, so that will be awesome. He is soooo funny, and just cracks jokes so much. This is his third time being taught by the missionaries and I really hope for his sake that this time is the right time. He would really benefit from church. (Though to be fair, so would most people, haha).

Last night, we played Munchkin with the APs again, and today, we are going to Amsterdam for the turkey bowl (an annual event in the mission where the zones all assemble, one or two together, and play American Football). 

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.

Hark all ye Nations

We had a really great experience on Sunday, when we went to look up a potential investigator that two other elders had found. At first, she was unwilling to let us in, talking about the risks of letting three strangers into your house. So we said we would meet at church some other time, and then we returned to our car. As we were in the process of pulling out, we saw someone walking along the street and one of my companions joked that it was probably the potential. It was. She told us that she had felt like she needed to talk to us, so she left her house to go find us. We re-parked the car and walked with her to a bench and talked a bit. Shortly thereafter, she invited us in to her house and we taught her about the restoration of the church. She asked a lot of really good questions.

The rest of the week was pretty good, but we had fewer opportunities to teach than normal. But we did teach our baptismal date. The Christmas packages for the missionaries are slowly piling up in the office. We already have a dozen and three tables are almost covered. I cannot imagine how many there will be for 150 missionaries.

On Thursday, we took the train to Brussels again. This time, there was no protest/riot, so it was a lot calmer in Brussels. We took the missionaries to see the centre of the city and get some food before we had to go take care of legal stuff. It was a very fun trip, though we missed our train and had to wait around in Antwerpen Centraal for a bit, but I did not mind, haha.


“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” - Shakespeare

For Unto us a Child is Born

(I know it is a bit early for Christmas references, but we are already listening to Christmas music, so it's ok, haha)

Transfers were last week, and 17 missionaries arrived, which is the most I have ever brought into the land. Naturally, we were at a hotel, though the Golden Tulip, this time. It was very fun to talk to them and see how enthusiastic they all were. They are definitely fine additions to this mission and good replacements for those that departed. They were all prepared to contact people on their very first day (and in a jet-lagged state). I am also quite impressed with their Dutch.

That whole week was very busy, and rather stressful too. But we survived and now my new companions and I are the three office elders and my old companions have moved on to other places. On p-day, we went to Naturalis (again) and had a good time there.

This week, we recovered from last week and caught up on various tasks. There were not so many big changes in leadership and such, and just a few white-washes. The biggest task (especially before transfers) was opening up the city of Lokeren. Two sisters were assigned there and will attend the Sint-Niklaas ward. 

On Thursday, we went to Brussels by train with all the new(-ish) missionaries assigned in Flanders and the Eindhoven zone. We only realised what was planned for that day by various unions when we were approaching Antwerpen and elder Lyman called to tell us that something was up. It turns out that there was a major protest (between 100 and 150 000 people) in Brussels. In Brussel-Centraal, there was a lot of people and firecrackers going off all over. But that was not even the worst of it: apparently, cars were burning near the south station and there were clashes with the police. We were safe though and I had a really fun time.

Today, for p-day, I hope to play some boardgames with my companions and the assistants.