Here a little, there a little

12-09-2015

Another tiring week. But also good. I got my 5th and last set of companions. That made it really sink in that I only have 5 months left. But they will be a great five months. My birthday, Sinterklaas, Christmas and New Year's Eve are in there. We already have been invited over, pretty much, for Christmas at a member's house, so I cannot complain :)

On Monday, we discussed the massive Brussels trip later in the week, the arrival of the new office elders and the upcoming transfer. In the evening we had the usual dinner appointment and correlation. Though we did not have to skip out early like last time.

District meeting was somewhat peculiar. It was good and interesting, and somewhat rowdy at times, but without getting out of hand. Right as we got back to the office, one of my companions began making dinner, since he was making lasagna and it would need to cook for three hours in a slow cooker. When it was done and when we were done with our office work, we headed over to the bishop's house to bring them dinner. It was a really fun dinner, though everyone looked quite tired (which is to be expected so soon after the bishop's wife just had a premature baby). They're a great family.

The next day, my companions drove down to Den Haag and Zoetermeer to empty the senior couple's apartment and then returned around lunchtime, at which point we met a recent convert at the station and walked with her back to the office, to help her with her genealogy. It turned out to be quite easy actually, since a cousin of her's had already done a fair bit of research. In the evening we had a really fun time with the YSA game night. It was my companions and I and 5 YSA-aged people. We played Dixit and had fun.

Late on Thursday, after a normal office day (though with a bit of moving to the new apartment), one of my new companions arrived (he just left Spijkenisse). Shortly thereafter, two of us drove up to Zwolle to pick up the other new office elder and some greenies for tomorrow's Brussels trip. It was pretty crazy, especially since that night was my first in the new place.

In the morning, the new and the old legal secretary took the train with almost all of the 22 new missionaries and went down to Belgium. For the rest a calm day for us still in the office.

For p-day, we played football and will go to look at some museums or monuments (since it is open monument day).

"I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that’s where they begin. Their great skill is their capacity to escalate.” - The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

The Mind's Eye

05-09-2015

To my surprise, my old seminary teacher (who is currently serving at the London temple) dropped by the office today to meet with President, concerning the possibility of her serving in the mission office once she is done in London. It was good to see her again after so long (she left some time before I did). She reminded me of the old days back when I was in Seminary still (about five years ago). Good times, good times. In the evening, we had to drive to Rotterdam to bring keys to some elders and only returned home late.

On Tuesday, we had our first district meeting in our new district, Haarlem. How strange it was to be there and not in Amsterdam for district meeting, where I have gone almost every week for 18 months. But apart from that, it is not so bad: we drive about as far as to Amsterdam and have about as many (or few) people as previously in the Amsterdam district. Upon returning to the office, I looked over the hotel contract for next transfer and reviewed the times and such. Later in the afternoon, Yentl dropped by with some knakworst and bread to make us dinner. It was a lot of fun. It is always nice when dinner appointments come to us. 

The next day, we had exchanges with the zone leaders in Den Haag. Thankfully, I got to stay in Leiden. Before their arrival, I did some administrative work and also programming. When the zone leaders arrived, we went to the new apartment we are moving to much closer to the office and dropped off a dresser and a pull-out bed. We then ate dinner and shortly thereafter, went to ward council (for the first time since the beginning of summer). 

After re-exchanging, we got back to our usual office day. Nothing particularly special at all this week and the same this day. Though I did update the list of inactive members and send it to our ward mission leader. In the evening we had a fun dinner appointment and thereafter drove to Noordwijk to meet with our Cambodian friend. He is awesome and it is always fun to visit him. There is a bit of a language barrier, but he really wants to learn more. He wants to know what he can do with the priesthood and what things he needs to do. It's great.

No Belgium trip this Friday. But we did clean the church in the late afternoon, because we are good missionaries, *ahem*.

"When I was five, I am told, and asked what my favorite things in the world were, I answered, “smoked salmon and Bach.” (Now, sixty years later, my answer would be the same.)" - Oliver Sacks (1933 - 2015)

How About That

29-08-2015

The highlight of this week was the zone conference held on Wednesday and Thursday (three zones each day), led by Elder Dyches of the Second Quorum of the Seventy (and counsellor in the area presidency). It was quite a different zone conference from the time Elder Ballard was here or when Elder Moreira visited. Though from the sound of it, it was similar to when Elder Texeira came to the mission just before I arrived. As some might say, Elder Dyches "threw down". He spoke about things that a lot of the missionaries are not doing as well as they could. And he even looked at the daily planners of some and spoke about what could be better in each one. But it was of course a very uplifting conference and he gave a lot of great advice. 

On Monday, we discussed the plan for the week, mainly concerning Elder Dyches' visit and everything that needed to be done to make that go smoothly. I was not as busy as usual with President's assignments, haha. That evening was the first time for the new Leiden elders at our weekly dinner appointment. Right before, we sent them to the less-active grandson's house to play a prank on the greenie and then we picked them up. Apparently the prank was successful.

The next day, we drove to Rotterdam to help clean out the Rotterdam senior couple apartment, since we will close it soon. A good ten people were there to help with the cleaning. Mostly, we packed the furniture and kitchen stuff into four different vans and transported it to other apartments and to the old Zoetermeer church for storage. It was a long day. We were unable to return and change before our dinner appointment that evening, so we went to it in our work clothes. It was pretty weird, to be honest, not wearing proselyting clothes at the temple president's house, haha. But they were fine with it. Afterwards, we made a last trip to Zoetermeer with the rest of the furniture.

Wednesday. My companions drove the supplies (and two elders that slept over) to zone conference and we worked in the office most of the day. 

Thursday. We went to zone conference early in the morning and arrived well on time. Long gone are the days of arriving an hour late to zone conference in Apeldoorn, haha. The conference started with a talk by President and Sister Bunnell, followed by President Scheltinga. All three very good talks. After a short break, we heard from Elder Dyches. He spoke about the questionnaire we filled in a few weeks ago concerning Preach My Gospel and other missionary stuff and concerns that were mentioned there. He also spoke about the things he had learned on his mission in Germany and during his time as mission president in Oregon. The third main topic was working well with members and local leadership, something President Scheltinga also touched on. All in all, a great conference.

In the morning, I stayed in the office with one companion, while the other drove to Brussels with a group of missionaries for legality. Maybe one of these days I will go again, but I will have to see. Maybe when my new companions are here.

For p-day, we played football and it was fun; we also cleaned our house for most of the rest of the day. In the mid afternoon, we went to some weird restaurant and I ate a philly cheese steak. It was not terrible, but the service was slow and it was on the expensive side. After showering, we went out to work, happy with how our house had turned out, in spite of the age and wear and tear through 23 years of missionaries.

"Before we can build a stable civilization worthy of humanity as a whole, it is necessary that each historical civilization should become conscious of its limitations and it's unworthiness to become the ideal civilization of the world." -  Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan