The End is Near :)

 

With one month to go, our schedule filled up with work and good byes.  Our friends, the Fairbanks, came from Cambridge, England to visit.  We enjoyed a couple days of sightseeing with their family. We toured Zaanse Schans, visiting the klompen factory, the windmill sawmill, the cheese factory and the chocolate store.  We went to the Speelklok Museum in Utrecht and enjoyed some down time at home.   It was so fun to see how their kids had grown and how Steve’s PhD program was going.  

We spent New Year’s Eve with the other Senior couples at President and Sister Bunnell’s ringing in the New Year.  There is always oh so much delicious food and of course, the best company!  The Bunnells and the Jansens.

 We said our last good-byes to the Young Adults at institute.  First our Utrecht group and then Lelystad and Den Bosch. 

 

Franca, Sander, Julia, Chiara, Abbie, Noel, Kevin

We had one more P-day with our district.  We climbed the Dom Tower in Utrecht again, (all 465 steps!)

 

 

and had lunch at our favorite fish-n-chips place.

We attended church in Den Bosch our last Sunday and enjoyed Ward Conference, the potluck afterwards and said good bye.  

Sister Van Impelen, the Van Dams, Femke Hoornweg, and Hans Noot. 

 There is always lots of yummy food! 

January 21^st was a busy day.  We drove to Rotterdam North ward for Aaron Koppe’s missionary farewell, then home to get the food we had prepared for the Jovo Dienst in Gouda. The Apeldoorn stake asked if we would provide the dinner.  Only about 35 people attended so it wasn’t huge.    We hadn’t had this regional gathering of young adults for a few months and we were excited to see all of them.  We have gotten to know young adults from all of the Netherlands and north Belgium.  Several of them are leaving on missions in the next month.  It was so good to be able to see them one last time! 

We had our last district meeting in our home.  These 6 missionaries served together for 2 transfers (12 weeks) so we got to know and love them so much! 

Elder Nielsen, Thomas, Diaz, and Clemente, Sisters Gillespie and Bitton. 

Our dear friends, the Oostveens invited us to dinner one last time.  Franca cooked a delicious Dutch dinner.  We will miss them so much!  

We had one more Senior couple activity.  The Jansens, ourselves, the Van der Puts and the Goebels will all be finishing their missions in the next 6 weeks.  We love these dedicated senior missionaries!  

We met in Leiden for lunch, a visit to the Rijks Museum to see the Nineveh exhibit and dinner. 

                              

Our dear, dear friends, Rolf and Thea Van der Put. They worked harder than anyone we have ever known! 

Our last big assignment was providing lunch for Zone conference, Jan 30^th,  the day before we left….53 missionaries in two zones. 

  

This is part of what you have to bring when you provide lunch!  It’s a car full! 

  These missionaries are the very best and so appreciative of anything we do.  We did Café Rio sweet pulled pork tacos and they loved it!  I had finally found popcorn and corn syrup so I could make gooey carmel popcorn.  It was a big hit!  The Van der Puts and the Atkins helped us.  You just can’t do it alone! 

Sister Bunnell always does birthdays.  This time is was mostly the senior couples!  (and Elder Lewis 😊)

Love these missionaries!!  It was the perfect way to end our mission…..working hard and being fed spiritually.