Our last week started with a bad cold/flu bug that laid me out on Sunday. That meant Bonnie had to drive to Leeuwarden and Gouda with FiYen and Yenny Mok and also had to bid our adieu to the Leeuwarden Branch.
On Monday, we began sorting and discarding things in earnest. I also washed the car for the last time and we mailed our last box off to the US. In the evening we held our last Family Home Evening. FiYen and Yenny made delicious dumplings for dinner and then we watched, The Best Two Years. Most had not seen it before and since it was filmed in the Netherlands, it was fun to watch together. Often the mission president shows it to departing missionaries if the group is small enough to stay at their home.
On Tuesday, we attended the last district class of our mission. Bonnie fed the missionaries shepherd's pie for lunch and also made German chocolate cupcakes for dessert to honor my birthday on Thursday. The missionaries also prepared for the last program at the rest home. They did the best they have ever done and we have gotten close to many of residents and staff members there.
Wednesday we got serious about packing and discarding and I took a bunch of old clothes to the fabric recycling bin. In the afternoon, the three Groningen sister missionaries came over to help declutter. They also used our computer to teach an investigator over Skype who has returned temporarily to China. He is making good progress. They found him by carrying violin cases at the train station. He asked if they played and told them that he had been taking lessons for six months. They invited him to Church to hear them play the next day and he attended. He is a gentle, intelligent person.
Unfortunately, Bonnie seems to have shared the sickness that I had earlier in the week. She has kept herself going pretty well on Wednesday.
Thursday April 27 was my 69th birthday. I also share it with the King of the Netherlands, William Alexander. The whole country goes crazy celebrating wearing orange (for the House of Orange). The missionaries work in the free market area and last year gave out hundreds of copies of the Book of Mormon. The weather last year was dreadful and folks still came out by the thousands. This year, no one got to the free market area in time to get a good position and after a couple of fruitless hours in a remote location, we folded our tents and went home. Bonnie wasn't feeling good in the first place. They missionaries kept trying to contact people.
In the evening, the Young Adults hosted a "surprise" going away and birthday party. Jennifer
Wening, Fi Yen and Yenny did an amazing job of decorating the church building. Sister Koens did her usual spectacular job of cooking. After dinner, they had planned a very fun and creative activity. We were divided into four teams and had to roll a huge soft die and play a board game by walking on numbered places on the floor. Each team had to do the activity associated with that number. Some were required to make up a song or poem about us or to guess our ages. Folks had a wonderful time and most stayed to clean things up tidy afterwards. These are amazing young people and we will miss them terribly.
On Saturday, there was a baptismal service in the Groningen Ward. It was certainly a nice way to end our mission. After the service, we double dated with the De Jonges at IKEA for our last dinner in Groningen. We always have such a wonderful time when we get to hang out with them.
Sunday morning, we headed off to sacrament meeting. We sang a last song with the eight missionaries in the Groningen Ward (plus us). It was very hard to say goodbye to so many wonderful friends.
After sacrament meeting, we headed back to our apartment to load our luggage and do a final clean up before driving down to Leiden and the mission office. We also invited Jonathan over for a final lunch to help clean up the leftovers.
We arrived at the mission office shortly after 4:00 PM, went through the car with President Van der Put and checked out with the office elders. We had a lovely visit with President Bunnell and then President Van der Put took us to his home for dinner. We also have really enjoyed working with the Van der Puts. We returned to the hotel at about 11:00 PM.
On Monday morning, we arose at 5:30 AM and got ready to meet President Bunnell for our ride to the airport at 6:30. Fortunately, traffic was not too bad. Check in went quickly and smoothly. Since I have more than a million miles on Delta, they didn't charge us for our two extra bags. President Bunnell was pleasantly surprised. He told us that we were the most organized of any missionaries going home. I guess all of the traveling we have done over the years trained us well.
I had paid to upgrade us to Economy Plus so that Bonnie would have the extra six inches of knee room. It made the flight very pleasant and Bonnie enjoyed the extra space. Delta did the best job I have ever seen them do on an international flight. It compared favorably with Singapore and Qatar Airlines. The only hitch was the malfunction of the gate when we got to Salt Lake. That kept us on the plane for an extra half-hour and made our connection a bit tight. The Salt Lake folks did a great job of expediting things and we caught out flight to St. George right on schedule.
At the airport, we were greeted by our great friends Warren and Marilyn Hickman. They kept an eye on our home for us as well. We were surprised by how much weight they had both lost. As we drove into our neighborhood, a circle of international flags greeted us at the traffic circle. That is a tradition when missionaries come home. We were delighted to quickly find the Dutch flag.
We discovered that re-entry into normal life is a bit more complicated than we had thought. The first order of business was to get new cell phones. We made a quick trip to Costco to see what we could find. We ended up with new iPhone 7, but the service was not correctly activated and that meant no internet and two more trips to Costco and one to the T-Mobile store before the issues were resolved. We were feeling a little disoriented as we left Costco since no one was speaking Dutch. Out of the blue, we heard, "Goedemiddag". It turned out to be our beloved Elder Bringhurst. It was wonderful to see him on our first day back.
After struggling for a day trying to get mobile hotspots to work with our computers, we decided that we needed a fast internet connection. We also discovered that the registration on Bonnie's car expired last August. Fortunately our relatives in Idaho were able to help us get that corrected.
Bonnie called Doug and Elaine Alder, the former president of Dixie. That resulted in an invitation to sit on the podium for graduation on Friday.
Another challenge of returning is getting the software updated on our left-behind computers. Our Apple Macs updated fairly easily once we turned off the two-factor identification that was not supported in the older operating systems. Our PC, on the other hand, is still not updated despite a week of trying numerous solutions. We have kept a PC as a backup and to run certain specialized software, but I am afraid these troubles will be the swan song for our life in the Microsoft universe.
We capped off our return with a RM party cooked up by Elder Wade Bringhurst. He showed his usual leadership skills by inviting Elder Parr and a number of other RMs from other missions. He also invited an investigator and the full-time missionaries. Bonnie served Dutch pannekoeken and we played sjoelbak (a traditional Dutch shuffleboard game). It was a lot of fun and certainly eased our entry back into regular living.
For those interested in hearing our missionary report, we will speak in the Washington Fields 11th Ward at 11:00 on Sunday, May 21. The address is 1867 Washington Fields Road
WASHINGTON, Utah 84780. It is the southernmost of the two buildings that are adjacent to each other.
On Monday, we began sorting and discarding things in earnest. I also washed the car for the last time and we mailed our last box off to the US. In the evening we held our last Family Home Evening. FiYen and Yenny made delicious dumplings for dinner and then we watched, The Best Two Years. Most had not seen it before and since it was filmed in the Netherlands, it was fun to watch together. Often the mission president shows it to departing missionaries if the group is small enough to stay at their home.
On Tuesday, we attended the last district class of our mission. Bonnie fed the missionaries shepherd's pie for lunch and also made German chocolate cupcakes for dessert to honor my birthday on Thursday. The missionaries also prepared for the last program at the rest home. They did the best they have ever done and we have gotten close to many of residents and staff members there.
Wednesday we got serious about packing and discarding and I took a bunch of old clothes to the fabric recycling bin. In the afternoon, the three Groningen sister missionaries came over to help declutter. They also used our computer to teach an investigator over Skype who has returned temporarily to China. He is making good progress. They found him by carrying violin cases at the train station. He asked if they played and told them that he had been taking lessons for six months. They invited him to Church to hear them play the next day and he attended. He is a gentle, intelligent person.
Unfortunately, Bonnie seems to have shared the sickness that I had earlier in the week. She has kept herself going pretty well on Wednesday.
Thursday April 27 was my 69th birthday. I also share it with the King of the Netherlands, William Alexander. The whole country goes crazy celebrating wearing orange (for the House of Orange). The missionaries work in the free market area and last year gave out hundreds of copies of the Book of Mormon. The weather last year was dreadful and folks still came out by the thousands. This year, no one got to the free market area in time to get a good position and after a couple of fruitless hours in a remote location, we folded our tents and went home. Bonnie wasn't feeling good in the first place. They missionaries kept trying to contact people.
In the evening, the Young Adults hosted a "surprise" going away and birthday party. Jennifer
Wening, Fi Yen and Yenny did an amazing job of decorating the church building. Sister Koens did her usual spectacular job of cooking. After dinner, they had planned a very fun and creative activity. We were divided into four teams and had to roll a huge soft die and play a board game by walking on numbered places on the floor. Each team had to do the activity associated with that number. Some were required to make up a song or poem about us or to guess our ages. Folks had a wonderful time and most stayed to clean things up tidy afterwards. These are amazing young people and we will miss them terribly.
On Saturday, there was a baptismal service in the Groningen Ward. It was certainly a nice way to end our mission. After the service, we double dated with the De Jonges at IKEA for our last dinner in Groningen. We always have such a wonderful time when we get to hang out with them.
Sunday morning, we headed off to sacrament meeting. We sang a last song with the eight missionaries in the Groningen Ward (plus us). It was very hard to say goodbye to so many wonderful friends.
After sacrament meeting, we headed back to our apartment to load our luggage and do a final clean up before driving down to Leiden and the mission office. We also invited Jonathan over for a final lunch to help clean up the leftovers.
We arrived at the mission office shortly after 4:00 PM, went through the car with President Van der Put and checked out with the office elders. We had a lovely visit with President Bunnell and then President Van der Put took us to his home for dinner. We also have really enjoyed working with the Van der Puts. We returned to the hotel at about 11:00 PM.
On Monday morning, we arose at 5:30 AM and got ready to meet President Bunnell for our ride to the airport at 6:30. Fortunately, traffic was not too bad. Check in went quickly and smoothly. Since I have more than a million miles on Delta, they didn't charge us for our two extra bags. President Bunnell was pleasantly surprised. He told us that we were the most organized of any missionaries going home. I guess all of the traveling we have done over the years trained us well.
I had paid to upgrade us to Economy Plus so that Bonnie would have the extra six inches of knee room. It made the flight very pleasant and Bonnie enjoyed the extra space. Delta did the best job I have ever seen them do on an international flight. It compared favorably with Singapore and Qatar Airlines. The only hitch was the malfunction of the gate when we got to Salt Lake. That kept us on the plane for an extra half-hour and made our connection a bit tight. The Salt Lake folks did a great job of expediting things and we caught out flight to St. George right on schedule.
At the airport, we were greeted by our great friends Warren and Marilyn Hickman. They kept an eye on our home for us as well. We were surprised by how much weight they had both lost. As we drove into our neighborhood, a circle of international flags greeted us at the traffic circle. That is a tradition when missionaries come home. We were delighted to quickly find the Dutch flag.
We discovered that re-entry into normal life is a bit more complicated than we had thought. The first order of business was to get new cell phones. We made a quick trip to Costco to see what we could find. We ended up with new iPhone 7, but the service was not correctly activated and that meant no internet and two more trips to Costco and one to the T-Mobile store before the issues were resolved. We were feeling a little disoriented as we left Costco since no one was speaking Dutch. Out of the blue, we heard, "Goedemiddag". It turned out to be our beloved Elder Bringhurst. It was wonderful to see him on our first day back.
After struggling for a day trying to get mobile hotspots to work with our computers, we decided that we needed a fast internet connection. We also discovered that the registration on Bonnie's car expired last August. Fortunately our relatives in Idaho were able to help us get that corrected.
Bonnie called Doug and Elaine Alder, the former president of Dixie. That resulted in an invitation to sit on the podium for graduation on Friday.
 |
| Two old "has been" presidents |
 |
| Glen Blakely carrying the ceremonial mace as the University Marshall |
We capped off our return with a RM party cooked up by Elder Wade Bringhurst. He showed his usual leadership skills by inviting Elder Parr and a number of other RMs from other missions. He also invited an investigator and the full-time missionaries. Bonnie served Dutch pannekoeken and we played sjoelbak (a traditional Dutch shuffleboard game). It was a lot of fun and certainly eased our entry back into regular living.
For those interested in hearing our missionary report, we will speak in the Washington Fields 11th Ward at 11:00 on Sunday, May 21. The address is 1867 Washington Fields Road
WASHINGTON, Utah 84780. It is the southernmost of the two buildings that are adjacent to each other.
