Oma's Pages #33

Taking a brief break from my story.... to say..... Today forgot to show up. It is a non-day.
This is what it normally looks like out of our windows in our apartment.

And this is what it looked like when we got up this morning and stayed looking like this most of the day.

Basically "Today" just forgot to show up.

Oma's Pages #32

Oma’s Pages #32

The difference between our table presentation from last year at this time to this year.

Last year 2011

Last year 2011

This year 2012

And the difference between the weather we had at this time last year versus this year.

This year's January weather 2012

The road we had to walk home on after we searched for half an hour to park our car almost every night was frozen solid. It was so frozen that you could see the glossy ice all the way through to the road underneath it. 

Last year's road we had to walk home on 2011

Solid ice roads 2011

The Young Single Adults (JoVo’s, pronounced Yo-Vo like yoyo only with a “v”) JoVo’s liked to stay around and visit after their meetings. After they would leave then we had to do our missionary reports and e-mail communication in the Church because we did not have internet capability in the apartment we lived in. 

Where we did our work using the Church's internet access 2011

In Groningen Church 2011

When we finally did get home it was usually around midnight. We had to park our car close to half a mile away and walk home in a freezing wind on solid ice roads and pathways. 

Road we had to walk to get home 2011

As you can see, we started out with a trial of endurance. Satan was trying to make everything as difficult as possible. I think he was hoping we would just give up and go home. 

Oma's Pages #31

Oma’s Pages #31

At the First District Meeting after the Christmas when we arrived here in Groningen, we watched the Elders preparing their meal. 

They were making “toasties” which is toasted cheese sandwiches. When we saw all that bread slathered with butter, and nothing of any nutritional value, Opa and I realized that we needed to prepare their District Meeting food. If I was their mother I would want to know that my Elder son was getting one good meal during the week. Some of the Elders we work with live in an area where the members invite them over for dinner and some of them do not. It is not like in Utah where the Priesthood and Relief Society send around a list in each Ward to make sure that the Elders have a family to prepare their dinner three times in the week. Here instead of a whole Stake to take care of the Elders, the Elders each have only one Ward or Branch. We suggested adding a green salad to the meal and so Elder Fritzler brought a bag of lettuce. However, All the Elders also brought their leftover Christmas candies and cookies to share with each other, another lack of nutrition double whammy.

About halfway through the meeting one of the Elders demanded that we stop the meeting and take away all of the junk because the rattling of the packages was annoying him and he felt it was detrimental to the spirit being present. Another Elder said, "It's all right, we don't need to stop the meeting, we will just stop eating the stuff. For the rest of the meeting I watched a brand new Elder who did not understand much of what was going on (because he was brand new). This new Elder entertained himself by slowly sneaking something off of the table without any notice from the annoyed Elder or even the other Elders. Having a lot of experience as a Mom, I think I was the only one who knew what he was doing.  It was one of the funniest things to watch. The sneaky Elder has since become a dynamic powerhouse of a leader among the missionaries here. He was in our District for a whole year. We even worked with this Elder in the MTC. I have wondered what kind of a heavenly connection we have had with Elder Ellis to have played such a long and important role in his life?

I believe all things happen for a reason. I believe that everything in our lives is important. 

Gordon B. Hinckley said, "The course of our lives is seldom determined by great life altering decisions. Our direction is often set by the small day to day choices that chart the track on which we run.

For example: this young Elder who did not know what was going on that day and was sneaking the candy and cookies told me later that he was really trying to hear what the Elders were saying since it was a day they were only supposed to speak Dutch. Later the Mission President told this Elder he should get out of bed every day at 6am. There is no way the Mission President could be inside this missionaries apartment every day at 6am to see if he did that or not. However, the Missionary, himself, knew what he was doing. He chose to follow the guidance and do it. That small decision made all the difference in his success. When he got up that early he had time to study the Gospel, his language, and still have time to exercise before he went out to Missionary work. He was diligent and disciplined. And so God has been able to bless him with things that some of the other missionaries do not have because they are not doing those things. "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say. When ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." D&C 82:10

Oma's Pages #30

Oma’s Pages #30

Right outside of our small apartment was a plant that had dried seed pods that looked just exactly like small pumpkins. I stopped to look at them every single day. I loved them. It was amazing to me that God gives us small things that make us happy even when we are cold and discouraged.

Oma's Pages #29

Oma’s Pages #29

We were invited to celebrate the coming in of the New Year at the home of one of our investigator JoVo’s (Young Adults). Her name is Melissa. She lives right downtown in Groningen. She and her brother, Bruneau, hosted the evening. There was a mix of JoVo’s and young people I did not know. 

We had oliebollen and apelflappe. These are kind of like donuts with currents or pieces of apple. Notice on the picture what they used for napkins on the table. We have been in many houses where they used toilet paper for napkins. That is very different from home.

Melissa’s best friend is Joanne (which here is pronounced Yo-Awe-Na). Joanne is a recent convert. She is a really faithful member even though her family does not understand her commitment to the Church. Joanne’s work is taking care of young babies in a childcare facility. You have to have a degree from a school to do this job in the Netherlands. 

Joanne just received her mission call. She is going to serve in the England, Manchester Mission. She leaves March 1. We are so excited for her. Her boyfriend, Albert Job, also from our JoVo’s is currently serving a mission in Suriname. We are having great success with our Young Adult program because we have so many kids going on missions and getting married. That is what is supposed to happen with this program, however, it also means that we have to keep finding new kids to come and that part is difficult. We just get a really good group going and then their testimony grows and they leave to greater service. Our success is also our frustration... ha ha ha ha.

Randy was another young man we met that night. About halfway through the night he confessed to us that he was a member of the church but he had married out of the church, had two very young sons, and then his wife did not want to be married anymore. He was so depressed and discouraged. We invited him to come back. He said he had made too many mistakes to come back. We told him to come to JoVo’s. He did. 

We became really good friends with him. He and Opa seemed to be kindred spirits. Opa gave him a Priesthood blessing, that coupled with the changes he was making totally changed his perspective. He not only became active, he was made a counselor in the Branch Presidency in Assen and then he married another one of our JoVo’s named Wobina in the temple. 

When at last midnight came it sounded like the world was coming to an end. I have never seen such an explosive night. 

In the apartment they burned sparklers. I was afraid they would catch the place on fire but it was all okay.

What goes on in the city is another story. They burn old christmas trees in the streets and anything else they can find to burn. There is a lot of destruction that happens that night. I did not like it at all. I was just glad to get home safely. It appeared that many young people go crazy that night. It is not good. Here are some of the pictures I took the next morning leftover from some of the fires. I am so glad this is not what happens at home.

Oma's Pages #28

Oma’s Pages #28

Christmas Day....

I have never celebrated a Christmas Day without family. This was my first. We slept in until about 10:00am. We both needed to do that and so that was probably our best present. I had shipped a lot of boxes to myself which we were using as our Christmas tree. We decided to open them as our Christmas presents since many of them were sent two months ago and I could not remember what was in them anymore. It was all the stuff that I knew I wanted from home and either could not buy or did not want to buy over here.

I gave Opa a soft white blanket from IKEA. It was the only surprise I could muster since we spend every minute of every day together. I bought it one day when we were at IKEA and he went to do something and I said I would wait for him at the check out stand.

Mary Kay sent me pictures of my family. So that was my surprise.

I had my all time favorite Dutch dessert “Apple Bol” I think I could live on Apple Bol and never get tired of it. It is an apple baked inside of a crust. That’s it. Every bakery puts something different in the middle of the apple where the seeds were. I have never tasted an apple bol that I did not like. 

We went for a short walk around our neighborhood and took some pictures because it was Christmas. There is a large courtyard where the apartment is. In this courtyard are some play equipment for children and in the middle of it was droopy sad looking Christmas tree. Somebody had tied it up with wires and heavy string just to keep it from falling over.

Later in the day we went to Brother and Sister Kees (pronounced Case) and Ina (prounounced Eena) De Jonge’s house. Bro and Sister De Jonge are the matriarch and the patriarch of the De Jonge dynasty here in Holland. It isn’t really a dynasty, but it is a family with 10 children who are all adults who are active and holding leadership positions in the Church all over the country. They are an incredible family. We worked with Thies de Jonge in both the JoVo’s and in the 150 year anniversary arrangements and he is putting up the money to print the 150 year anniversary book. Sister de Jonge had us stop and see the skater's on the Paterwoldsemeer hoping to get ready for the elfstaden.

Bro and Sister de Jonge made dinner for the JoVo’s who did not have anyplace to go and also for the missionaries. We were there for several hours.

We came home and called all of the family and talked until about 2:00am. It was a great Christmas.We were exhausted when we got home... we were still suffering from jet lag and trying to figure out what we were supposed to be doing here.

Oma's Pages #27

Oma’s Pages #27

Well, I think this story has come up to Christmas Eve of last year. We were invited to go to the home (which is actually an apartment in a high rise building... but here they call wherever you live a house or a home. This was confusing to me when I first started coming to the Netherlands back in the late 1970’s and early 80’s but now I am used to it.) of Puck Boorsma.

Puck is a tiny widow with a big heart. She has one adopted son who has never married and who visits her for Christmas and I think she sees him a couple of times a year but that is all. She also has an older daughter who lives in the United States and she hardly ever sees her. Puck is always smiling. She is very much alone and is starting to have the kinds of problems that older people have and yet she is always smiling.

Her Christmas tradition is to invite the Missionaries over to her house for Christmas Eve each year. She also invited her friends, Hans and Doris. They don’t have any children. They have two dogs that are their children. These dogs act just like children. In one of the pictures Doris is giving them their Christmas gift and they acted just like a couple of kids who were so excited to open their gift. And they opened it by themselves. They are Tibetan Terriers.

It was an interesting dinner. When we arrived we had a small bowl of soup. Later she called us back to the table and she placed this work of art salad that I have posted a picture of. We all took a small helping of the salad. That was our dinner.

We opened the gifts and then we came back to the table and had a dessert. The Elders had to go home at 9:00 so we all excused ourselves and we took them home. 

Then we went home and prepared their Christmas stockings for them. That was a fun thing to do.

We went home again and used up some of our Vodafone prepaid minutes so we could Skype with the family for Christmas. It was long after midnight when we finally dropped into bed. I was so glad I could sleep in for Christmas... since we hardly ever got to do that.

Do you remember talking to us last Christmas Eve Day?