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.