Belgians do not celebrate Thanksgiving, but our Bishop invited us and the elders to his home for a Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday, November 29. He is a creative cook and managed to prepare turkey breasts in his crockpot (slow cooker over here). We all decided that it was such as success that we should repeat the experiment for the ward party to be held on December 20. We agreed to pick up the turkey breasts at Makro, along with vegetables and other side dishes. Bishop Dixon is a tireless worker who is so dedicated to serving the members of the Leuven ward and we appreciate the opportunity of working and serving with him.
Sister Caldwell received a notice from the Vlaamse Gemeenschap (Flemish Community) that she was due for a mammogram. She called the phone number and was surprised to talk directly with the doctor. He does everything including reception work, medical records and performing and interpreting the mammogram and ultrasound. We had to pay the bill and have it submitted to the Church insurance program. Sister Caldwell decided that this will be her last one since we are nearing the time in life when they no longer recommend them.
We also received an invitation from the government of the Netherlands for colon cancer screening. Since we both completed this (and colonoscopies) prior to our mission, we declined the invitation. It does show how committed the European government are to early detection of health issues.
On Wednesday, Dec. 9th, Elder Caldwell drove to Schiphol airport to pick up my brother and his wife, Dave and Linda Allphin. They had flown from Utah to attend a wedding in Norway and stopped to see us on their return flight. Sanna Brandenberg took the train down from Delft to spend Wednesday night with us since she knew Dave and Linda well from her time in Bergen, Norway. What a delightful treat it was to have them with us. We immediately put them to work to help us cook for and serve 75 missionaries the following day at Zone training in Antwerpen. They are experts at this, having served as young adult leaders in Norway for 18 months. We tried an experiment with prepared frozen potatoes, which we will not repeat, but still served a lovely meal and had rave reviews.
We had been able to keep some time free to do some traveling with Dave and Linda, so we spent the night in Amsterdam, enjoyed the seasonal light display from a canal boat, and the following day toured the Rijksmuseum, the Anne Frank House, and had a great Indonesian lunch. We finished the day with Dutch pannekoek and poffertjes - lekker (delicious).
We took the train to Brussels on Saturday morning for a bit of sightseeing before Linda and I (and my friend, Linda) went to the Sjolaa chocolate shop to attend a workshop back in Mechelen. We made some fun chocolate figures and learned all about the process of making chocolate.
While the "girls" were at the workshop, Dave and Elder Caldwell walked into the center of Mechelen and enjoyed the beauty and the sights there. As we approached St. Rumbold's cathedral, we noticed a large police presence and discovered that the King and Queen of Belgium were there for the installation of the new archbishop of Belgium (Mechelen is the center of the Catholic Church in Belgium). As we were walking home along the shopping street, we were also treated to a jazz performance by a mobile group. They were very good and it certainly added to the seasonal festivities.
Monday we took the train to Brugge (Bruge in English) and enjoyed the sights there and the decorations of Christmas. Our favorite canal boat does not run in winter, but Dave and Linda enjoyed climbing the tower and we all enjoyed waffles and some hot chocolate. They were able to fly out of Brussels (15 minutes from our house by train) the following morning while we headed to District class with a dish they helped us prepare: Baked Chicken, potatoes, carrots, onions. It was great to have some new food ideas and help preparing them!
Transfers were this week and we were sad to see our district leader leave as well as several other elders and sisters. It seems like we just get to know them and they are gone! We love these young missionaries and enjoy rubbing shoulders with them in doing this wonderful work.
Our missionary work continues with a less active family. We love these sweet people. We were able to help the grandparents get some needed winter clothing for the grandchildren for Sinterklaas day, and some food for the daughter who needed groceries for her four young children. We also helped a family with their move for several days. It was a reminder for us to not hang onto things you don’t need. I think we will be cleaning out our garage when we go home.
We have had a Slovakian family visit our services for the past few weeks. The young daughter is the only one who speaks Dutch, so she translates for the other family members (8). We went with the Bishop to meet them this week and discovered that they were actually Evangelical members, even though we thought they had been baptized into the LDS church. The young missionaries are teaching them and helping get them to the right agencies to help them find jobs and get legal status.
On December 16, we celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by going to the first showing of Star Wars at 10:00 AM. This was two days before it was released in the US. The theater was not crowded (it was for the later showings in the day). We had lots of regular missionary commitments for the rest of the day, so this was a nice, short break.
Our Leuven ward has not had a special Christmas program for many years as the tradition is to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional on the Sunday before Christmas. The ward music chairman and I decided that we wanted a program and we began the end of October to put one together. Then the Christmas party was scheduled the night before and she wanted to come up with a program for that too! Through this period (November/December) she and her husband and three daughters were moving to a new house in another city (this is the one we helped move), but she still worked tirelessly to teach her darling daughters a song and help with several other numbers. The program we decided on was approved and we began the work of putting together musical numbers (we have no ward choir), getting the script translated into Dutch, and assigning readers. It was such a joy to see the musical numbers coming together and discover new talent among members and non members. I would send a script to a ward member late at night and have it returned translated the following morning! We have grown so close to these wonderful people!
The Verschuure family also introduced us to a sweet water spring in their neighborhood. It was very popular and we had to wait some time to fill our bottles. The Verschuures also gave us some glass bottles so that the taste of the water would be preserved. We have to admit that it is amazingly good.
On Saturday, we arrived at the church at 1:00 pm and began helping prepare the meal of roast turkey breast, mashed potatoes, salad, vegetables, and stook brood (a large bread stick). By 6:00, everything was ready and a member brought the delicious pumpkin soup with balletjes (small meat balls). We served close to 90 members and investigators. The desserts were brought by individual members. The program consisted of a couple of solos, a duet (the music chairman and I), the primary children, and congregational singing. A Ukranian family who were visiting family members volunteered to sing a traditional Ukrainian song. It was lovely. We had many comments about how good the food was as well.
Sunday the program went very well. The musical numbers were the best part, but the people who read the script also did well. If I were to do it again, I would edit the speaking parts as the program took an hour. After church, we did our dash to Gouda, Netherlands to attend the Young singles fireside and sacrament meeting. It is always great to be around these lovely young people.
On Monday, December 21, Sister Caldwell found an announcement about a special choir concert at the large Catholic cathedral in town (St. Rombold's). The 20 member choir of Royal Holloway London is from one of the best music schools in the UK. The performance in the acoustics of the cathedral was breathtaking. All of the members were solo quality, but they blended so well. We may have missed the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert this year, but this was certainly sublime.
As we prepare to celebrate yet another Christmas away from our children and grandchildren, we wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We hope everyone stays safe in the winter weather of the Western US. We are still enjoying weather in the 50s and occasionally dipping into the 40s. So far only two freezing days.
Here is a final picture of the beautiful city hall of Mechelen decorated for Christmas. We are grateful to be in this country where we are free to exercise our religion. We feel blessed to love and serve the people of Belgium and the Netherlands.
Sister Caldwell received a notice from the Vlaamse Gemeenschap (Flemish Community) that she was due for a mammogram. She called the phone number and was surprised to talk directly with the doctor. He does everything including reception work, medical records and performing and interpreting the mammogram and ultrasound. We had to pay the bill and have it submitted to the Church insurance program. Sister Caldwell decided that this will be her last one since we are nearing the time in life when they no longer recommend them.
We also received an invitation from the government of the Netherlands for colon cancer screening. Since we both completed this (and colonoscopies) prior to our mission, we declined the invitation. It does show how committed the European government are to early detection of health issues.
On Wednesday, Dec. 9th, Elder Caldwell drove to Schiphol airport to pick up my brother and his wife, Dave and Linda Allphin. They had flown from Utah to attend a wedding in Norway and stopped to see us on their return flight. Sanna Brandenberg took the train down from Delft to spend Wednesday night with us since she knew Dave and Linda well from her time in Bergen, Norway. What a delightful treat it was to have them with us. We immediately put them to work to help us cook for and serve 75 missionaries the following day at Zone training in Antwerpen. They are experts at this, having served as young adult leaders in Norway for 18 months. We tried an experiment with prepared frozen potatoes, which we will not repeat, but still served a lovely meal and had rave reviews.
We had been able to keep some time free to do some traveling with Dave and Linda, so we spent the night in Amsterdam, enjoyed the seasonal light display from a canal boat, and the following day toured the Rijksmuseum, the Anne Frank House, and had a great Indonesian lunch. We finished the day with Dutch pannekoek and poffertjes - lekker (delicious).
We took the train to Brussels on Saturday morning for a bit of sightseeing before Linda and I (and my friend, Linda) went to the Sjolaa chocolate shop to attend a workshop back in Mechelen. We made some fun chocolate figures and learned all about the process of making chocolate.
While the "girls" were at the workshop, Dave and Elder Caldwell walked into the center of Mechelen and enjoyed the beauty and the sights there. As we approached St. Rumbold's cathedral, we noticed a large police presence and discovered that the King and Queen of Belgium were there for the installation of the new archbishop of Belgium (Mechelen is the center of the Catholic Church in Belgium). As we were walking home along the shopping street, we were also treated to a jazz performance by a mobile group. They were very good and it certainly added to the seasonal festivities.
Monday we took the train to Brugge (Bruge in English) and enjoyed the sights there and the decorations of Christmas. Our favorite canal boat does not run in winter, but Dave and Linda enjoyed climbing the tower and we all enjoyed waffles and some hot chocolate. They were able to fly out of Brussels (15 minutes from our house by train) the following morning while we headed to District class with a dish they helped us prepare: Baked Chicken, potatoes, carrots, onions. It was great to have some new food ideas and help preparing them!
Transfers were this week and we were sad to see our district leader leave as well as several other elders and sisters. It seems like we just get to know them and they are gone! We love these young missionaries and enjoy rubbing shoulders with them in doing this wonderful work.
Our missionary work continues with a less active family. We love these sweet people. We were able to help the grandparents get some needed winter clothing for the grandchildren for Sinterklaas day, and some food for the daughter who needed groceries for her four young children. We also helped a family with their move for several days. It was a reminder for us to not hang onto things you don’t need. I think we will be cleaning out our garage when we go home.
We have had a Slovakian family visit our services for the past few weeks. The young daughter is the only one who speaks Dutch, so she translates for the other family members (8). We went with the Bishop to meet them this week and discovered that they were actually Evangelical members, even though we thought they had been baptized into the LDS church. The young missionaries are teaching them and helping get them to the right agencies to help them find jobs and get legal status.
On December 16, we celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by going to the first showing of Star Wars at 10:00 AM. This was two days before it was released in the US. The theater was not crowded (it was for the later showings in the day). We had lots of regular missionary commitments for the rest of the day, so this was a nice, short break.
Our Leuven ward has not had a special Christmas program for many years as the tradition is to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional on the Sunday before Christmas. The ward music chairman and I decided that we wanted a program and we began the end of October to put one together. Then the Christmas party was scheduled the night before and she wanted to come up with a program for that too! Through this period (November/December) she and her husband and three daughters were moving to a new house in another city (this is the one we helped move), but she still worked tirelessly to teach her darling daughters a song and help with several other numbers. The program we decided on was approved and we began the work of putting together musical numbers (we have no ward choir), getting the script translated into Dutch, and assigning readers. It was such a joy to see the musical numbers coming together and discover new talent among members and non members. I would send a script to a ward member late at night and have it returned translated the following morning! We have grown so close to these wonderful people!
The Verschuure family also introduced us to a sweet water spring in their neighborhood. It was very popular and we had to wait some time to fill our bottles. The Verschuures also gave us some glass bottles so that the taste of the water would be preserved. We have to admit that it is amazingly good.
On Saturday, we arrived at the church at 1:00 pm and began helping prepare the meal of roast turkey breast, mashed potatoes, salad, vegetables, and stook brood (a large bread stick). By 6:00, everything was ready and a member brought the delicious pumpkin soup with balletjes (small meat balls). We served close to 90 members and investigators. The desserts were brought by individual members. The program consisted of a couple of solos, a duet (the music chairman and I), the primary children, and congregational singing. A Ukranian family who were visiting family members volunteered to sing a traditional Ukrainian song. It was lovely. We had many comments about how good the food was as well.
Sunday the program went very well. The musical numbers were the best part, but the people who read the script also did well. If I were to do it again, I would edit the speaking parts as the program took an hour. After church, we did our dash to Gouda, Netherlands to attend the Young singles fireside and sacrament meeting. It is always great to be around these lovely young people.
On Monday, December 21, Sister Caldwell found an announcement about a special choir concert at the large Catholic cathedral in town (St. Rombold's). The 20 member choir of Royal Holloway London is from one of the best music schools in the UK. The performance in the acoustics of the cathedral was breathtaking. All of the members were solo quality, but they blended so well. We may have missed the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert this year, but this was certainly sublime.
As we prepare to celebrate yet another Christmas away from our children and grandchildren, we wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We hope everyone stays safe in the winter weather of the Western US. We are still enjoying weather in the 50s and occasionally dipping into the 40s. So far only two freezing days.
Here is a final picture of the beautiful city hall of Mechelen decorated for Christmas. We are grateful to be in this country where we are free to exercise our religion. We feel blessed to love and serve the people of Belgium and the Netherlands.
