Ex Unitate Vires

18-07-2015

I cannot believe how fast the days and weeks are going. But I still have some months left, so it won't go too fast. 

This week, we had our first zone conference under the direction of President Bunnell, on Wednesday (together with the Den Haag zone, and followed by the other zones on Thursday and Friday. He and his wife began with a introduction of them and their family. We then heard about their mission vision and what they see in the mission's future, or at least a small portion of that. We then heard from the APs and a member from Zoetermeer (about Dutch etiquette and such). After lunch, we split into four groups and went to workshops led by the four zone leaders, mainly about learning the language. Something I cannot really relate to, but it is important for most of the other missionaries, I guess. 

We had a great dinner appointment with the bishop on Wednesday (they called us on the day itself). It has been a while since I was last there (first time for my current companions). We talked about Nephi and his desire to obey (cf. 1 Ne 3:7) and played Jenga Blast, since the bishop's 3 year old son said it should be family home evening as soon as we brought up sharing a message. It was fun.

The rest of the week, we knocked doors a lot more than usual and tried to get in contact with people who had previously shown interest, so not much success, but we did get some good work done during the week. And I found another fellow gamer, and he is interested in the Book of Mormon, so that's cool too, haha.

On Saturday, I had a good time at football, better than last week: it really is not as fun when only us and one other member shows up to football (Admittedly, it would be worse for him if we did not show up either). After our usual p-day morning routine, which has almost exactly the same pattern each week, we e-mailed at the office. I then wrote and read for the rest of the day, until dinner. It was good to just stay at the office to relax for a change. We are at the office everyday, but for work and not fun stuff. In the evening, we visited our good Cambodian friend (an inactive member who lives north of Leiden). He is a great guy. The best thing is that he wants to go to church and the only thing holding him back is his health and a lack of funds. Fortunately, there are great members in the Wassenaar ward who will hopefully be able to give him a ride to church.

There is an Indonesian member in the ward who feeds every so often and she always feeds us a lot of food. We ate with her on Sunday and she served us bami, mac & cheese, a chicken omelette and some other side dishes. Just the mac & cheese alone would have been enough to feed us and her and her daughter and grandson (who were visiting), but fortunately she did not make us finish it all, hahaha.

"There are some oddities in the perspective with which we see the world." - Douglas Adams

Tuk-tuk

11-07-2015

Transfer week! (again)

This transfer was my third (after September and May) at the Sheraton right by Schiphol Airport. It was also the biggest in total number of missionaries arriving and departing: 44. (Though total arriving was higher in December, when we had 20 instead of 17 new missionaries). So, needless to say, it was a busy week. This was exacerbated by having a brand new mission president. Thankfully, between the office elders, the APs and myself, we were able to keep things running properly and show President Bunnell what needed to happen. 

On Monday, we discussed transfers with President Bunnell and sorted all that out. It was his first time in the office for all the Monday stuff, but everything went well. We had a weird sort of staff meeting during lunch, but everything was discussed that was necessary.

The next morning we were at the Sheraton bright and early, only to find out that the greenies would be 2 hours late. So we returned to the office for a few hours and then were back at the Sheraton to meet them when they arrived. We then got on with all the necessary stuff and sorted everything out that they would need for financial and legal stuff. Meanwhile, President Bunnell interviewed all of them, which was no small task. After the usual IND trip, they napped and President and the APs discussed their first cities. After dinner, they were told where they will be starting their missions.

Wednesday, the new missionaries were trained by the assistants and President on various missionary techniques and the mission vision. Meanwhile, their trainers and the departing missionaries began drifting in. By the time lunch arrived, there were about 70 missionaries in the conference area of the hotel, standing around eating lunch. They did not have much time to eat, before we got them on the train to Leiden to sign in. There was some craziness there, as there always is at some point during each transfer week. But finally, they were all sent off to their new cities and we returned to the hotel to help out with the departing missionaries and their bag weighing and plate wrapping. After dinner, while my companions went off to go pick up some luggage, I waited at the hotel for the Zoetermeer sisters to drop off a sister from Gent who is going to the MTC.

Bright and early in the morning of Thursday, we were up to see off the departing missionaries and help out with the luggage. Everything went smoothly as regards getting them off this time. Almost at our usual time, we arrived at the office and got back to normal work (sort of). In the afternoon, one of my old companions dropped by with his parents, and that was fun.

The rest of the week was same old same old recovery from transfer week. Hahahaha. On Saturday, we went to the beach in Katwijk, and stumbled upon a big search and rescue demonstration day. First, we saw a simulated car crash response, with police, fire department and ambulance. I loved it. On the beach there was some rescue boat stuff, too.

"No one is born hating another person" - Nelson Mandela

The Changing of the Guard

04-07-2015

Well, this week was anything but boring. 

On Monday, before our last day in the office with President and Sister Robinson, we met them at the city hall in Leidschendam to sign them out. After, we returned to the office to clean up a bit for the Bunnells. We finalised plans for the switch of presidents and reviewed a few things for transfers. Instead of Sister Robison making us lunch, we ate at Oudt Leyden for one last time all together. It has been a good 17 months.

The next day, we waited around until President and Sister Bunnell were picked up at the airport and driven to the office. We met them there and introduced ourselves and straightaway (I at least) started setting up their mobile devices. They did not stay long before they all went to the mission home to look around there. Just before we went out that evening, the Robinsons  dropped by the office to say goodbye to us and the Robisons. Sister Robinson shed a tear as she bade us farewell. They will be missed.

The following morning, the Robinsons flew home and we signed the Bunnells into Leidschendam and took them to Rijswijk for that legality stuff. It is weird to think that President Bunnell is now the mission president. What a change it is. After dropping them back off at their home (since they were going to Breda and then Amsterdam later), we just got back to work. I spent most of the day preparing the office computers for the replacement the next day; mainly backing stuff up and making sure that the computers were accessible/removable.

Thursday was the day. Two workers from the Area Office in Frankfurt came to replace 5 of the office computers with fresh ones (and smaller too). It took them most of the day to get everything set up, especially with the printer and NAS box. But when they were done, everything was in much better shape. It's just a pity that they had to take all the old computers with them. I will have to share with the Assistants on Monday, but I think having a good computer the rest of the week will make up for that. We'll manage somehow, haha.

No Belgium trip on Friday, which was probably good, since that allowed us to get our systems back up and running as they were before. We did, however, bring the sandwiches to mission leader council and help set up the printer. 

Today, we played football, and there were 8 of us, which was a better turnout than it has been in a while. I enjoyed it more than last time, as well. This afternoon, we are going to go spend time with our ward mission leader and he's going to teach us how to clean herring. Sounds exciting, haha.

It's time to say goodbye, but I think goodbyes are sad and I'd much rather say hello. Hello to a new adventure. - Ernie Harwell