Omas Pages #16, October 15, 2011

Oma’s Pages #16

To add to the problems we had with the apartment, it was for sale. The owners of the apartment had decorated it so it would show well to people who might want to buy it.

We were not allowed to change any of the pictures on the walls, or move any of the decorations. This made us feel like we were living in a hotel or somebody else’s house. It was very difficult to feel like we were where we were supposed to be.

The sales people would bring customers by without telling us. This made it so that we had to take our computers with us everywhere we went. And we could never leave laundry hanging out or any kind of mess. It was very difficult because we had so many things to do and places to go that keeping everything like a “show house” took every spare minute we had.

Another problem was that the floor was very dark so it showed every piece of lint, or dust, or dirt. I had to sweep and wash the floor sometimes twice a day.

The Senior couple the Anderson’s did bring us a bed and took the bunk beds away. This helped us a lot. But it made our very tiny bedroom even smaller because the bed took up so much room.

In order to get dressed at the same time, Opa would have to take something out of the closet and then step two steps to one side. Then I would take something out of the closet and steps two steps to the other side. It was like getting ready to go anyplace was a very strange way of dancing.

Oma's Pages #15, October 12, 2011

Oma’s Pages #15

And then there was the shower.... Oh my!

The shower room was attached to the back of this small apartment and had been added on at some later point so it had walls on three sides with no insulation to keep the room warm. The only source of heat for the room was a towel rack that heated up.

The washing machine was also in this room. And there was a drying rack. There was no dryer and sometimes it was so cold in the apartment that it took two days for the clothes to fully dry.

The shower was so cold that when you stood in it you could feel the cold travel from the bottoms of your feet up through your entire body.

When your shower was over you and you dried yourself off, you could see the steam rise from your body and you could see your breath.

Part of the problem was that we arrived in the coldest part of the winter. In Utah we have a very dry atmosphere so the cold is a dry cold or the heat is a dry heat. Here in Holland there is a lot of moisture in the air so the cold and hot have a lot of moisture in them. The moisture makes it colder or hotter depending on the temperature. So since it was very cold when we arrived, the air made it even colder. 

Opa and I were not used to this kind of cold so sometimes we had to climb into our beds and wrap up in our duvets (like comforters) in order to get warm.

Also our thermostat for the whole apartment only worked part of the time. It had some kind of timer that was not working right so at random times it would shut off the heat.

It was very nice when we had to cook things because the added heat from the stove helped to warm up the apartment.

One picture shows me sitting next to the radiator (the way the apartment is heated is with a metal coiled radiator against the walls) reading my scriptures early in the morning. It was the only place I could find any warmth.

Oma's Pages #14, October 9, 2011

Oma’s Pages #14

This apartment was the tiniest apartment I have seen for a long long time. The kitchen was so small that only one person could work in there at a time. The picture of it makes it look bigger than it was. It was so small that if you opened the refrigerator your back would sometimes touch the sink behind you.

If we baked something I had to set whatever I baked in the middle of the living room floor to cool because there was no place to set it in the kitchen.

We did not have a kitchen table. If we had a kitchen table we would have no place to put it because the apartment was so small.

Another Senior Couple, the Andersons, brought us an old folding wooden tv table to use as our kitchen table.

Oma's Pages #13

Oma’s Pages #13

At last we arrived at our apartment. We were very surprised. We had been told we would have a place to live with at least two bedrooms so that we could have people stay at our place.

Not only did we not have two bedrooms, we had to sleep in bunk beds. Opa was a true gentleman. He chose to climb up on the top bunk. The bottom bunk only had a child’s size mattress on it, so if I rolled over in the night, I fell off of the mattress onto the wood part of the bed.

Oma's Pages #12

Oma’s Pages #12

I began to ask the people around here what the meaning of the sculptures was. Nobody seemed to know what I was talking about so I quit asking.

After we had been here for a long time we were on our way home from the temple and one of our Dutch JoVo (the Dutch word for Young Adult) friends in the car told me that the sculpture with the boat sailing on the smoke of the house was how high the level of the water from the sea is compared to the houses in that area.

So the next sculpture shows the boat crashed into the top of the house. I guess that one means that the level of the sea is now closer to the house size there.

Oma's Pages #11, September 9, 2011 Happy Birthday, Richelle!!!

Oma’s Pages #11

Usually when the missionaries arrive here in Holland on their mission they fly into Brussels Belgium. Because we had to change things around to come earlier than we planned, we are the only missionaries at that time to fly directly into Holland. (Since we arrived things have changed so now all the missionaries fly into Schipol by Amsterdam)

So when we arrived our friends, Vincent and Anneke Feit picked us up at the airport. They brought us a car to drive. It was very different from the cars we drive in Utah. It runs on LP gas. I don’t think we even have LP gas in Utah. But almost every gas station here has a pump to put in LP gas. The gas pump hose snaps and locks onto the car. Opa lost all the gas caps to cover the place where you put in the LP gas. Opa was quick to learn how to drive it. The drive to our apartment in Groningen was very long. I think it seemed longer because we were so tired from not being able to go to bed for two days.

I saw these two sculptures when we were driving the road to Groningen. In Holland there are a lot of sculptures. It is one of the things I like about this country. These two sculptures were about 10 or 15 miles apart from each other and yet they looked to me very much like they were related to each other, but I had no idea what they stood for, or if they were just strange sculptures. 

What do you think they represent? Do you think they mean something?

Oma's Pages #10, September 3, 2011

Look closely at this picture. It shows the plane driving across the road

Oma’s Pages #10

We were supposed to have training at the MTC until Thursday night. On Monday some of the plans got changed because the flight schedules of most of the missionaries in our group were changed. Their flights were moved to Thursday and Friday. The leaders hurried and gave us all our information on Tuesday and Wednesday morning and let us go home.

Opa and I were so happy about this because we had so much to do before we left. Mary came over to the house and did my hair. As a matter of fact there were a lot of you who came over that night. Everybody had last minute things they needed to talk to us about. 

I never went to bed. When Matthew came to pick us up to take us to the airport. I was not even packed yet. I told Elizabeth that I was sorry but she would have to put all the stuff away that was left out from us packing. It is very difficult to pack when the whole family is there.

At last we were on our plane and flying to the Netherlands. All of the miracles came to pass just like Opa believed they would. All of Opa’s prayers were answered. All of my prayers were answered too. I felt like I was in a dream. Maybe it was because I was so tired.... I think I did dream most of the way flying over the ocean. 

At last we landed in the Netherlands. The airplane landed on a runway that drives on an overpass right over the freeway.