Is it? or is it not?!

     So I've been cooking for Institute twice a week.....on Wednesday in Utrecht and on Friday in Den Bosch.   As you who know me can imagine, after a few weeks I was out of menu ideas!  Stomppot is a traditional Dutch dish that I thought I could do without too much stress.  It is basically mashed up potatoes with other vegetables mixed in, served with meat. I had talked to Sister Hill about it and she had told me about several kinds of stomppot, all of which sounded yummy.
       When I mentioned at institute I was going to cook it a discussion ensued about what kind and the consensus was that the only kind worth making was Hutspot.  So I carefully searched the internet for recipes, chose one and prepared it, complete with rook worst, which all the recipes said you served with it.
I thought it looked wonderful!  We took it to institute in Utrecht on Wednesday.  I took off the lid of the crock pot with a flourish.  Noel (the only Dutch kid there) took one look and said "that isn't stomppot!"  "What do you mean?" I asked.  He said, "you don't mash the potatoes with milk and butter, the carrots are too big, and my  mom serves it with the meat mixed in, never with rookworst."

 Noel gave me step by step instructions which I followed exactly when I made it a day later for institute in Den Bosch.  I meticulously chopped carrots into tiny pieces, slow cooked the meat for 3 hours until it shredded.  I didn't add any milk and just smashed up the potatoes so they were chunky and stirred in the carrots, onions and meat.

We took it to institute in Den Bosch.  I took off the crock pot lid with a flourish.  The Dutch kids took one look and Timo said, "that isn't stomppot!"  "What?" I cried.  "I made it exactly like I was told!"  Timo said, "my mom mashes it with milk and butter and we always have it with rook worst, never with the meat mixed in."  "Ahhh" I said with a some dismay, "that's how I made it Wednesday!"

We concluded that a true stomppot was whatever their mothers did!  They were all thrilled I had tried to make a Dutch dish and assured me that even tho it wasn't like their mother's stomppot, it was tasty and they ate it all up!

Gone....but not forgotten :)

The hardest thing about leaving for 18 months on a mission is leaving the family!  It's so nice to have Facetime, Skype and other technologies to help stay in touch.  But nothing is quite like seeing them in person!

Dona and kids arrived Oct. 14....Dean was so happy to see us and Ruby kept shouting "Grandpa"!

Ruby is Grandpa's buddy :) 

Ice Cream tastes great even on a cold day!

 Our friend's back yard...

 We have been sight-seeing...to the Apenhul Monkey park, Giethoorn, Amsterdam and our favorite, Kinderdijk.  We have loved having them here!  Ruby wasn't talking much when we left but is jabbering non stop now.  Dean is more grown up...and they both love riding bikes on our errands!  It's been so great to have them share our mission experience in a small way.







Two of my favorite things to do with the kids....make cookies for institute and read books!

How we love General Conference!

   We look forward to General Conference every 6 months with great anticipation.  It is always a time of spiritual comfort and encouragement.  For years we listened as the individual conducting the sessions thanked the radio and TV stations for their help broadcasting it around the world.

 Then we went to the Philippines and Hong Kong and discovered it wasn't really broadcast around the world.  The best we could do then was get up in the middle of the night and try to stream it live on the internet.  It was at best spotty and intermittent.

While we were in Hong Kong the Church began installing satellite dishes at the Stake Centers in Asia.  We could then gather with the saints to hear a few of the sessions re-broadcast.

This last weekend we were able to see 5 of the six sessions of General Conference at the Rotterdam, Netherlands Stake Center.  It went something like this:)

Sat. Oct. 1, 2016, 2-4 PM  We watched a re-broadcast of the General Women's Meeting:

We watched it in English with the Dutch using headphones.  After the session the Stake Relief Society had "High Tea" for the sisters.  It was lovely and could have been in the Peninsula Hotel in Kow Loon!  I especially loved the large circles of chairs they arranged
around the hall.  I got to know a few more sisters in the Stake.  As usual, Joe helped clean up and put the chairs and tables away!  (as missonaries, where I go he goes and vice versa!)

6-8 PM we gathered in the chapel to watch the Saturday morning session of Conference, live.  

Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016.  11AM -1PM, We watched a re-broadcast of the General Priesthood session.

2-4 PM we watched a re-broadcast of the Saturday afternoon session.





We had lunch with the missionaries in our zone :)

Then gathered in the chapel from 6-8 PM to watch the Sunday morning session, broadcast live.

The weekend involved 4 hours of driving, 6 hours at the church on Saturday and 9 hours at the church on Sunday and packing food for 3 meals.  

It was so worth the effort!  We have been humbled, encouraged, lifted and our testimonies of the restored Gospel and the Book of Mormon strengthened.  We learned how to be better missionaries, parents and grandparents.  We are more grateful than ever for our family and their love and support....and we look forward to General Conference again in 6 months :) .

Play day!

Periodically the mission arranges for all the senior couples to get together.  We have a big group! There are 6 couples from the USA, the Misson president & his wife, the Bunnells, and 2 local couples, the Van Der Puts and the Jansens.

 The Van Der Puts, from Zoetermeer, arrange the activity.  Elder Zoetermeer is serving as the counselor in the mission presidency. Sister Van Der Put serves in the mission office with him. They are amazing and with all they have to do for the mission they also take great care of the couples!

The activity was in Leiden.  We had a training meeting about how to inspect the young missionaries apartments for cleanliness once a quarter.....ugh!  I can hardly keep my own abode clean!

Then it was off for a canal tour around Leiden.  It is a very beautiful city....so old we from America can hardly comprehend it!  And the weather was spectacular.  The  Dutch can't believe it is still warm and beautiful :).

After the tour we walked to the oldest home in Leiden, supposedly where the pilgrims lived.  In my ignorance I didn't realize the Mayflower pilgrims left England and went to Leiden, Holland first...living there about 10 years before sailing off in the Mayflower for the New World!  It turned out that they didn't actually live in this house but it was interesting nonetheless!

 We had ice cream on the way to dinner (you know, have dessert first!), then on to a delicious dinner.  The steak was primo!  The day was so great.  I am appreciating where we live more and more.  Zeist is right in the middle of the Netherlands so even though we do a lot of driving, we don't have the 2 1/2 hour drive the Olivers and Caldwells do when they come to the mission office or the temple.  It is interesting to learn how the other couples are doing things.  Even though we all have the same calling, how and what we do is different.  The Caldwells serve in a branch of the church as the Primary president and branch counselor in addition to their YSA assignment.  The Hills and Caldwells apartments are the YSA center in their area so they have many meetings right in their homes.  The Olivers, in Belgium cover a HUGE area.  The Reeves work in the office so their schedule is pretty much M-F, 9-5. )more on our schedule later :)

We learn from them all, love them and appreicate their friendship.  It's a privilege to be working with these wonderful senior saints!

Do we blend in?

   

u
           Last week we made another trip to Rijswijk to pick up our Netherlands residency cards.  We all feel so official! No more carrying around our passports.

The bike shop in Utrecht

Then Saturday we became real Netherlanders.....we got bikes!

If you are first to the intersection you
get to hold onto the post while you
wait for the light!

We rode the 11 kilometers home from Utrecht to Zeist.  We used Google maps on Joe's phone to plot the route.  We stopped a few times to check our map, stopped for a 15 min. lunch picnic, stopped at the grocery store just before we got home for milk and all that only took an hour!  We love the flat terrain!  We got some strange looks but not because I was biking in a dress and heels (everyone here does that!), but because we were wearing helmets!  Strict mission rule.  The Dutch rarely wear them.

The country between Zeist and
Utrecht.  

Arriving at our back door.

Later in the day we rode the mile into downtown Zeist.  It was so relaxing to pedal there where the bikes have priority on the narrow, busy streets.  So much easier than driving the car and finding a parking place :)    We are so happy!  

Whew! yes, we came here to work...

A week and a half ago we began what was the busiest week since Aug. 1. We....

Spoke in the Utrecht Ward on Sunday the 11th, drove to the Den Bosch ward (40 min. away) for a returned missionary potluck lunch ( I took apple crisp)  and homecoming.    

Monday we drove to Rotterdam (50 min.) for Zone p-day.  We played and afterward Joe & I gave a spiritual message on fasting. (the zone had a fast day on Tues. :)

Tues. we prepped food to feed 56 at
Zone Conference and desert for Wed. Institute.
Soft shell tacos, fruit salad, guacamole, chips, cookies and ice cream.  Elder and Zuster Reeves helped with the salad and desert, thank heavens!
Brownies for institute.

                                                 
         Wed. we left at 7:30 AM for Rotterdam and Zone Conference. We fed the missionaries, gave a presentation on goal setting and helped Zuster Bunnell with a short presentation on exercise.  We headed home at 4:30 PM.


We unloaded, regrouped, picked up our brownies and drove to Utrecht (20 min.) for our first institute class.  We organized the small group of 3, taught a short lesson and had treats!

 

Friday we left very early, drove to Leiden to pick up the Reeves, then south to Brussels to start the process for our
Belgium residency cards.  The office elders took us to the best places in Brussels for frites and waffles!  Soooo delicious!  Almost worth the 12 hour day:)





Saturday I attended the Utrecht Ward Annual Relief
Society activity. It began with a 2 hour tour of a nearby castle (in Dutch), then back to the church for a pizza dinner, followed by a travelogue by a sister who had been to Utah recently (also in Dutch), then a 2 hour movie about a woman who had lived in the castle (also in Dutch!) By then the activity was going on 5 1/2 hours...I begged off and got Joe to come pick me up!

Sunday we drove to Gouda (40 min.) for the monthly Young Single Adult church service. The YSA's in all 4 stakes in the Netherlands come.  Some have a 2 or more hour train ride.  Few of them have cars. They have a 1 hour fireside, followed by dinner, followed by Sacrament Meeting.  Our responsibility that day was the 1 hour fireside.  We were asked to introduce ourselves and speak about 2 Nephi 31:20 "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ....".  We were very nervous!  There were about 70 in attendance.  It turned out satisfactorily :)   We had a meeting during the dinner hour of all the senior couples serving with the YSA's.

By the time we arrived home  Sunday night we felt about as "pressed forward" as we could get!  In the last week we had been in the car 19 hours, done food for 3 events and given some sort of talk or thought 6 times.  YES!  We came here to work!!!

I know why we're here

This week the subject at Zone Conference was The Restoration.  We were taught about the historical events leading up to the Restoration.  We heard testimonies and were invited by Sister Bunnell to submit our own testimonies of the Restoration for compilation.  She was really inviting the young Elders and Sisters but I felt impressed to record mine.  Here it is........

Thirty plus years ago we lived in Boise, Idaho.  Our Primary had about 100 children and I was the Primary Chorister.   Due to the size of our Primary we met in the chapel for Sharing Time.  That year for the Sacrament Meeting program the children were supposed to learn “Oh, How Lovely Was the Morning” (At that time, that was the title of the hymn).   Primaries were just starting to learn hymns and it was difficult for them and for me.  Members of the ward who wandered back and forth across the back of the chapel while we were practicing often commented on my efforts to teach the children, not always in a positive way! 

               

                But obedience brings blessings!  That September, as those 100 children stood in Sacrament Meeting and sang “when within the shady woodland Joseph sought the God of love” the Spirit filled the chapel and Holy Ghost testified in a powerful and unforgettable way of the truth of the First Vision.

  To this day when I sing that hymn my heart overflows with that same spirit and testimony.  I love all the words to this hymn and the testimony they bear.  It is my hope that when those 100 children hear this hymn today, they too remember that sweet, sacred moment when they sang and the Holy Ghost testified.

I am so grateful for the privilege of living in the latter days when the fullness of the Gospel has been restored and for the yearning of a young boy to know the truth; for Joseph Smith’s sacrifice to this great cause from the moment he knelt to pray in the Sacred Grove.  I know his testimony is true, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  

And that's why we are here, in the  Belgium/Netherlands Mission :)