Second week

As was mentioned in last week's post, I've been travelling a lot and this week was no exception: Zoetermeer on Sunday, Amsterdam on Tuesday, Brussels on Wednesday and Friday and Den Haag tonight.

After church in the Wassenaar branch on Sunday, we went on splits with the Zoetermeer elders. I went with elder Cockbain and elder Christensen to a "Church for Bikers" in Katwijk, located in the old military chapel of the Valkenburg air force base. Meanwhile, elder Lind and elder Losee went to a lunch appointment. The church lived up to its name: leather jackets and beards seemed to be the unofficial the dress code. At first sight, the motorbike parked in the middle of the church and the high tables with drinks and biscuits made it seem more like a reception or other purely social gathering. But one of the members shared a message from the old testament that would not have been out of place in an LDS lesson (Although the use of motorcyle handlebars with a chain wrapped around it might have been a bit too much for some). The people were very friendly and some even showed interest in visiting our church on sunday.

On Monday the assistants to the president and President Robinson himself came in and we had a meeting on the situation and the assistants processed the numbers from the missionaries. Sister Winmill made a yummy taco salad for lunch. I helped elder Cockbain with financial matters (mainly reimbursing the missionaries and paying bills) while President Robinson met with the assistants and then with elder Lind and elder Cockbain. That evening we went to eat with the Markham and Howell families (not sure whose house it was). 

Tuesday we had district meeting in Amsterdam. I last saw elder Kemp not long after he arrived in the field and now he's our district leader. It was a very entertaining and interesting meeting about joint teach and taking members to appointments with investigators. After pizza for lunch, we returned to the office to get some more work done. And that evening we ate at the Carruths.

Another trip to Belgium on Wednesday, to pick up a document for a New Zealander who will come to this mission. After some more office work, getting people paid, making sure apartments are in order, answering e-mails... we went to the church building in Leiden to talk to the young men about missionary work for an hour. We roleplayed a conversation with a non-member friend in pairs and discussed how we could give someone a Book of Mormon.

The next Belgium trip was Friday, but this time, we took the mission van and 6 other missionaries (4 elders and 2 sister missionaries). But the trip was for naught, since the guy with whom we had the appointment was not there (he is apparently on holiday). But we did have a good time and we picked up three driver's licenses. On the way back, we dropped the missionaries off in Den Haag and went to the Nieuwevelds' house for dinner and to share a message.