Teamwork with the Leuven Elders and a Visit from Peter Hedderich

This week, our district class was moved from Tuesday to Wednesday and from Leuven to Turnhout so that the missionaries could be interviewed by President Bunnell.  Without traffic, Turnhout is an hour drive.  You have to drive through Antwerpen to reach it and the traffic in Antwerpen is usually quite heavy.  We started for Turnhout an hour and a half early and discovered that the two northern freeway entrances in Mechelen were closed because of a major road construction project.  After wandering around Mechelen for 30 minutes in rush hour traffic, we decided to head to the southern freeway entrance.  This turned out to be a great decision because we got right on the freeway.  Traffic in Antwerpen was surprisingly good and we ended up only being 10 minutes late for the district class.

We enjoyed our meeting with the district since we had many new missionaries since the last transfer.  We also enjoyed visiting with President and Sister Bunnell and Sister C prepared a lovely taco salad for lunch.  It was well received by the missionaries and President and Sister Bunnell.

Sisters Voss and Goodman with bicycles decorated with flowers, of course.

The Turnhout district (minus Elder C, the photographer).  Great missionaries all.

This week, we really enjoyed the team effort with the Leuven Elders.  We had about 100 less active or inactive members on the membership rolls in the Leuven area.  It seemed quite overwhelming to visit this large list of members.  Thanks to Google Maps, we were able to organize the list for efficient visits.

Because parking in the inner city is expensive and difficult to find (about $2.50 per hour), the Elders concentrated on the members inside or near the ring road and we took the outlying addresses.  Between us, we were able to visit about 40 addresses this week.  The majority have long since moved and it is impossible to find out where they went.  The Elders did pick up one new investigator through this process.  They are extremely efficient at using this activity to do more contacting and usually knock about ten doors in the area they visit.

Wednesday evening, we drove to the Brussels South - Charleroi airport to pick up our nephew, Peter Hedderich who has been on a two-month jaunt across Asia and Europe before he begins medical school in the fall.  The main Brussels airport is ten minutes from our home with great bus and train connections.  The Charleroi airport is favored by the discount carriers and looks and feels more like an airport in the third world.  It is difficult to get to.  Mass transit is pricey with complicated connections and service that stops early in the evening, so our only option was to drive down there to collect him.  It is about a 75 minute drive each way and he arrived at about 11:00 PM.  We were certainly glad to see him.

Peter Hedderich in front of the Brussels City Hall

Sampling the Brussels waffles

Enjoying the traditional mussels and frites lunch

One of the great restaurant streets

Peter by the Manneken Pis statue

Peter in the famous and gorgeous Antwerpen train station.

Peter demonstrating the famous "hand werpen" or hand throwing technique of Brabo.  One legend has it that
the giant Antigoon would extract a toll for crossing the river Schelde (or Scheldt) and that he would cut off
the hands of those who would not pay and toss them into the river.

The young hero Brabo cut off the giant Antigoon's hand and threw it into the river.  It may not be true
but it makes a nice story and the statue in front of the city hall is certainly unique.  Handwerpen (or
hand throwing) became the basis for the name of the city Antwerpen (or Antwerp in English).

Sister C in front of her favorite Onze Lieve Vrouw cathedral in Antwerpen

On Thursday, we decided to go to Brussels and Antwerpen with the train.  In Brussels, we went to the Grote Markt (Grand Place), Manneken Pis, ate a waffle, had a delicious and inexpensive lunch.  We spent a lovely morning and early afternoon in Brussels and then took the train to Antwerpen.  Antwerpen is the largest city in Belgium and bustling with energy and commerce.  It still has a lovely historic section and is a fun place to visit.  We were able to spend about an hour in the Rubens Huis (Where Rubens lived and worked for most of his career).  It certainly shatters the image that artists must be starving.  Rubens was a highly successful painter and diplomat and was knighted by two kings during his lifetime.

Since we are still missionaries, we tried to combine work with some tourist hosting.  On Friday, we arranged to inspect the missionary apartments in the Ghent district.  We visited the District Leader apartment and the Sister's' apartment in Ghent and then drove to Brugge and inspected the apartment there.  These take some time, because the elders, in particular, usually do not know the basics of housekeeping and need some assistance and instruction.  We keep reminding ourselves that most of these missionaries have never lived away from home before.

We ran into a Filipino sister and her husband on the Grote Markt in Brugge

Sister C and Peter in front of the City Hall

Peter attacking authentic Belgian frites

By the canals of Brugge

Riding on the canal boats.  Keep your head down - low bridges

Despite the beautiful, historic building McDonald's cannot compete with Belgian frites

Peter in front of the Bell tower

Peter by the canals

More Brugge canals

Traditional Belgian tatting

After completing our apartment inspections for the day, we drove into the center of Brugge and parked in an underground parking garage.  We had never been to Brugge before so this was a treat.  We walked to the Grote Markt when the city hall and bell tower are located.  The bell tower is the tallest brick tower in Belgium and was used as a lookout post as well as housing a clock and carillon.  These were prestigious undertakings in the middle ages.  As we entered the Grote Markt, we were greeting by a Filipino sister and her husband.  She is a member of the Church and they were visiting from Hong Kong where they now live.  We managed to snap a picture.  A few minutes later in one of the churches we were greeted with "Happy Pioneer Day" by a sister from Los Angeles.  It is nice to have name tags that make us so identifiable.  Sister C gave both of these sisters a big hug.

In Brugge, we introduced Peter to real Belgian frites.  These were a bit pricy, but very authentic and delicious.  The frites stand on the Grote Markt has been around for a long time and they did things exactly according to the historical formula.  Belgians invented the French fries and they are called French because of the cut of the potato, not because the French invented them.

On Saturday, we needed to visit Elder and Sister Johnson in Rotterdam.  They are returning home this Thursday and the mission is closing the apartment.  The mission home wanted us to go by and pick up things that might be useful in our apartment.  On the way there, we made a quick stop at Kinderdijk where there is a large collection of polder mills.  There were a large group of people there from a Viking river cruise, including a large LDS family.  We recognized their BYU sweatshirt and they recognized our name tags and gave Sister C a big hug.  They had been hoping to see missionaries in the Netherlands.

We enjoyed a nice visit with the Johnsons and Sister C collected a few useful items.  It is sad to say goodbye to these wonderful couples.  They are leaving on the same flight as the Romigs.  After the visit to the Romigs, we headed north to the Zaanse Schans.  This is an area of the Netherlands that used to be the industrial section powered by wind.  They had an industrial revolution more than 100 years before the rest of the world due to harnessing wind power.  Unfortunately, the wind was overpowering.  This was the worst summer storm on record in the Netherlands.  There were many wrecks on the freeways and limbs down everywhere.  We later learned that a tree had fallen on a car in Amsterdam and killed a person.  A tree also fell on a car in Rotterdam.  We spent a couple of hours visiting various shops, but never made it to the windmills.  Peter had no coat and got thoroughly soaked.

The weather wasn't too bad in the early morning at Kinderdijk

Peter enjoying the sights and 17th century technology

Just proving that we were all together

Enjoying Dutch apple koek

Arriving at the wooden shoe shop

Gale force winds get you wet in a hurry.

I'll bet you didn't know that they made violins from wooden shoes - neither did we.

The wooden shoe demo area at the Zaanse Schaans

Peter watching from the wings

A very wet, but friendly Peter in front of the windmills

The reward for having endured the gales

The rotating pannekoek machine

My reward!

We consoled ourselves by visiting the pannekoek restaurant.  It was a bit expensive, but the pannekoeken were wonderful.  We had an uneventful, if somewhat stressful return journey due to wind buffeting on our way home.  As we crossed the border from the Netherlands into Belgium, sunlight broke out.

Sunday morning, we picked up Brother Van Es and drove to the ward meetings in Leuven.  It takes about an hour with the detour on the freeway.  We enjoyed a great sacrament meeting talk by Elder Clukey and then a talk by Brother Van Kerckhoven from the high council.  Sister C was sustained as the Primary Chorister.  She is thrilled with this calling and is now madly learning the primary songs in Dutch.

Our Second Zone Conference and Meeting the New Mission President

Zone conferences are definitely a highlight for missionaries of all ages.  There are six zones in our mission, and the last two zone conferences have combined two zones.  We are in the Antwerpen Zone and the Eindhoven Zone travelled to the ward building in Antwerpen to join us for the last two conferences.  At the last zone conference, we had been in Belgium for two days, so the Butlers (the couple working with the Young Single Adults or Jovoos in Eindhoven) prepared sloppy joes for the roughly 70 in attendance.  This time, it was our turn.

Sister C decided to prepare chicken salad sandwiches on croissants as the main course.  We supplemented this with potato chips, vegetables, chocolate chip cookies and drinks.  We had anticipated this assignment coming, so we had been stockpiling chicken breasts, potato chips and drinks for a couple of weeks.  Fortunately, our apartment has a larger refrigerator in addition to the normal small one installed in the kitchen.  The final preparation required a full day of work on Wednesday to prepare everything.  We started off with a 10:00 AM visit to the Makro store in Machalen (a suburb of Brussels near the airport) where we purchased fresh croissants, veggies, and a 5.5 lb bag of chocolate chips.  This was also the day that we attacked the fresh Zeeuwse mussels for lunch that we talked about in the previous blog.

Since we have a tiny oven, Sister C had to keep it busy most of the day cooking the chicken and then baking cookies.  She has now perfected the cookie recipe using a combination of other recipes and they were the best ever.  They certainly disappeared rapidly at the zone conference - all 8 1/2 dozen.  The chicken salad disappeared at a fast rate as well.  It was a warm day, so we ate lunch on the lawn at the side of the church building.  The weather was perfect for an outside lunch.

President and Sister Bunnell arrived early for the zone conference and warmly greeted the missionaries as they arrived.  I think they had the hearts of the missionaries before the conference started.  Sister Bunnell introduced their family and bore her testimony with a little Dutch.  President Bunnell then spoke and indicated that he didn't foresee any major changes and had Sister Bunnell introduce the mission theme, which is "Hearts to God, Hands to Serve, Love the One".  She is a quilter and had a nice design to tie it all together.  They supported the theme with scriptures and quotes from the Apostles and Prophets.

The Assistants then conducted some training on contacting throughout the day.  The morning finished up with Brother and Sister Jansen from Turnhout talking about Belgium customs and culture.  Sister Jansen is from the Netherlands, so they provided a perfect perspective to talk about the differences.  After lunch, we broke into four 15 minute mini-classes conducted by the zone leaders on learning the language more effectively.  The zone leaders did a great job.

The concluding session was opened by Sister Bunnell talking about obedience.  Then President Bunnell took the stand and asked the missionaries to turn to page 47 of the missionary handbook.  Loud groans could be heard throughout the chapel as he introduced this subject since the missionaries had some inkling of where he was heading.  He had an Elder read the third paragraph which starts, "Always wear a helmet".  This has long been a sore subject in the Belgium-Netherlands mission since there are more bicycles than people in some cities and both countries are well set up for bicycling with dedicated bicycling paths protected from car traffic.  Generally the only people wearing helmets are those on racers.

President Bunnell pointed out that he had been given specific instructions that he was to tell the missionaries to purchase and use helmets.  He then proceeded to show a number of bicycle helmets and had the missionaries say if they were appropriate or inappropriate for missionary wear.  This turned into a humorous event that took most of the sting out of the announcement.  President and Sister Bunnell then modeled their new helmets, purchased the day before.  The missionaries have a couple of months to comply because many will have to write home for the money to purchase them.  The afternoon was capped off perfectly when a brand new missionary was called upon to say the closing prayer.  He had the courage to say it in Dutch and in the conclusion of his prayer asked, "That we will accept the guidance of President Bunnell and not cry too much about the helmets."  His Dutch was not perfect, but it had the missionaries snickering as the prayer was concluded and set the perfect tone for obedience.

After the meeting, I pointed out to President Bunnell that Sister C and I had purchased bicycle helmets before our new bicycles arrived and that I insisted that we wear them (over the objections of Sister C at the time).  He was quite pleased and I was glad that we had taken this small step.  They cost us about $32 each.  Needless to say, after this meeting, the mission belonged to President and Sister Bunnell.

As we were leaving, President Boom of the Antwerpen stake showed up for a meeting with President Bunnell and we were able to snap a picture or two.  We have really enjoyed getting to know President Boom and hope we can do a good job of helping him to build the stake here.

President Bunnell and President Boom

On Friday, July 17 we took another bicycle ride along the canal for our morning exercise.  We also drove to Leuven to look for inactive families.  As usual, we found that the people had not lived there for many years and there was no other information.  One of the addresses was a business office building and another was an abandoned building.  The Elders in Leuven have been overwhelmed with the long list of inactive members and are relieved to have some help.  We have been able to look up four to six in a session because we have a car.  Our problem is that parking in the downtown area is quite difficult, so the Elders will take those addresses and we will focus on the outlying ones.  We have now learned to use Google Maps to plan our visits more effectively.

On Friday evening we visited a member of the ward from Nepal.  He is a very spiritual man and we enjoyed his hospitality and visiting with him.  The Elders invited us to go along.  We were very happy to meet him.  His family is back in Nepal at the moment, but will probably return to Belgium soon.  On Saturday, we attended the baptism of a young lady from the Genk branch.  Her grandfather flew in from Lima, Peru to do the ordinance.  It was a lovely service and we enjoyed visiting with the grandparents.  Saturday afternoon, we attended a ward activity planned by Sister Early Kim (from Taiwan).  She taught paper folding and cutting and then prepared a delicious chinese meal.  We also looked up a few more inactive members in Leuven.

Brother and Sister Alvarez flew from Lima, Peru so he could baptize his granddaughter.
Their daughter is an engineer, married to a Belgian and they live in Genk.

Elders Clukey and Walker showing their potato peeling skills

Sister Early Kim (from Taiwan) supervising the Elders blowing up balloons

The Verschuure girls excited to start folding paper

A delicious Chinese meal prepared by Sister Kim

Sister C with one of her five piano students

Brother Verschuure leaving for home

Brother and Sister Verschuure - wonderful parents!

On Sunday, we picked up Brother Van Es for church and drove to Leuven.  Because they are working on repaving part of the freeway, we had a fairly long detour getting to another freeway entrance.  Brother Van Es is the only member from the former Mechelen branch who has been faithfully attending the Leuven ward.  He is the ward clerk and we have enjoyed getting to know him.  I had to speak in sacrament meeting.  There were two other speakers and neither took much time, so I had more time than I wanted.  I felt impressed to use a conference talk from President Boyd K. Packer several years ago, called "The Golden Years".  I did not have a copy in Dutch, so I had to do a lot of translating.  I believe the message was well received and the Bishop was happy with the topic.  President Packer talked about the difference between being active in the church versus active in the gospel.  As my grandparents aged, they remained active in the gospel, even when they could no longer serve in callings.

We are certainly grateful to be serving in Belgium and working with such wonderful young missionaries.  We love our little town of Mechelen and enjoy living here.  We are hopeful about finishing the final steps of our residence in the next couple of weeks.

Feeling at home and André Rieu

We are slowly getting settled in Belgium (and the Netherlands).  There are a number of issues of dealing with daily life as a couple.  These include:

• Garbage.  In Mechelen, you have to purchase garbage bags from the city (or we can also buy these special bags at Carrefour - a French supermarket chain.)  They cost Euro 1.25 each for a small kitchen garbage bag or Euro 2.50 for a standard kitchen sized bag.  They also have special bags (at a much lower price) for aluminum and plastic bottles, mixed plastics.  They don't charge for cardboard and paper material.  It took us a couple of weeks to figure out the system.  The city hall had all of the information we needed, but we spent about $60 on garbage bags to get started.  A big problem is styrofoam (piepschaum).  We have to take it to a container park.  They charge 10 euros per trip unless we have our residence card.  We are accumulating a nice stack in the corner of our study until we get our residency cards.
• Finances.  Many places don't take US credit cards and US banks charge a 1% foreign transaction charge on every item.  We also can't pay our internet bill online without a local bank account.  To pay the bill, we had to go to the post office and pay cash, plus a transaction charge.  We are also worried that the Euro will increase against the dollar with the pending settlement of the Greek financial crisis.  Right now, the strength of the dollar has pushed gas prices up about 10% since we got here.
• Mosquitoes.  Our apartment does not have screens.  Because of the hot weather we have to open the window, but the mosquitoes have been difficult to live with.  We have tried several approaches to trying to eliminate them, but nothing seems to work well.  They are smaller and harder to see than the mosquitoes that we see in Utah and Idaho.  We have purchased a zapper that has helped.  They plan to install screens, but we suspect we won't see them until next year since the apartment association has to install them to ensure that they all look the same on the building.  Meanwhile we zap and scratch.  Bonnie didn't mind them when they were feasting on me, but they turned to her one night and she got quite a few bites.  I have zapped about four while typing this paragraph.  As I finish the first page, the zap count is now up to nine.  The final zap count for the evening was 46 and we still got a couple of bites.  Pesky little things.
• Road construction near our apartment.  We live one block from the train station and they appear to be expanding the tracks near the station.  Because of this, they have closed the traffic circle by the station.  This makes us do about a two mile detour when we need to go north (our apartment is just south of the center of town).  When we go to Church or Brussels, this is not a problem.  When we go to Antwerpen (Antwerp) or the north part of town, the detour gets us.  It also is through small streets with traffic.  There is also a pile driver working nearby during the week.  We hope things open up again by the fall.  We do live in a great location otherwise.
• HP Printer failure.  We bought a brand new HP Officejet Pro printer when we arrived.  It functioned flawlessly for about three weeks and then totally failed.  The message said to take it in to HP for service.  There is no HP service in Belgium, so we took it back to the store we bought it at.  They registered it for service and about a week later, we got a brand new printer.  I have never had a high-end HP printer fail like this before.  It is obvious, that my former employer is now cutting too many corners for the sake of profit and cost.  The previous generation of printers was much higher quality and more durable.  It's pretty sad.
• Car fan failure.  Right now, the fan in our car only operates on the fastest speed.  We are glad it works that well, because it has been hot and it does have air conditioning.  It was nice when we could adjust things for comfort.  We have the oldest car in the mission because they plan on trading it in for a new one in a couple of months.  Meanwhile, it is hard to find an Opel dealer to get the thing fixed.  GM has been losing money on Opel for years and you almost don't see the things on the European roads anymore.  The mission is now buying Toyotas.
• Finding the specialized shops.  In Belgium (and the Netherlands), the super stores do not carry everything, so you have to find specialized shops.  Today we looked for a sewing shop and found one.  It was quite pricy.  A few minutes later we were walking along the open air market that they hold on Saturday mornings and found similar products for about one-third the price.  I think we will hit the Saturday market more often.  They also had the carillon playing during the market.  It was hard to find a bicycle parking place, however.  We also found the local bakery about five blocks away.  This was recommended by our landlord and we see why.  Fortunately, bicycles make everything easily reachable.
• Mechelen is definitely a bicycling town.  It is mostly flat and the city has done a great job of putting in bicycle lanes and facilities.  When President Robinson asked us where we wanted to be, we just told him that we wanted a place we could bicycle.  This town has probably the best bicycling facilities in Belgium and certainly rivals the best cities in the Netherlands.  We are feeling very blessed by this answer to prayer.
• Day of the Flemish Community.  July 11 is the day in 1302 that the King of France sent 2,500 knights and squires supported by 6,000 infantry to put down the rebellion of Brugge (Bruge).  They were defeated by 8,000 infantry from the city in Kortrijk.  For some reason, the French in Belgium do not celebrate this holiday so it is only in Flanders.  We were greeted with a spectacular fireworks display by the city hall (which we could see from our apartment window).
• Cooking for zone conference.  Last month, we had a joint zone conference (combining two zones) for the last conference for our departing mission president (President and Sister Robinson).  This next week, we will have a similar conference with our new mission president (President and Sister Bunnell).  The senior couples generally prepare a lunch for the zone conference.  Since we had just arrived, the Butlers prepared sloppy joes for the 75 or so in attendance at the one in June.  We just brought water and helped with the on-site preparation.  This month it is our turn.  Since the weather is forecast to be hot, Sister C is planning on serving chicken salad sandwiches on croissants.  Needless to say, the croissants in Belgium are amazing and this menu went over well when it was served at our district class a few weeks ago.

Visiting Maastricht and the André Rieu concert.  Months ago, we booked tickets with Elder and Zuster (Brent and Suzanne) Romig to attend the André Rieu concert in Maastricht.  They also suggested staying overnight at a lovely hotel in Margraten where the American World War II military cemetery is located. André Rieu is 65 years old this year and is originally from Maastricht, so this promised to be a special opportunity.  He was a favorite of Dolf and Bep Mensink who both passed away this year, so we also attended in their honor.

Believe it or not, Maastricht is within the boundaries of the stake we serve in and almost within our district boundaries.  For us, it was about an hour and 45 minute drive.  Maastricht was the first city settled in the Netherlands and the first to be liberated during World War II.  Sister C served there during her first mission and I was a zone leader over that area (not when she served there).  We arrived in the afternoon and took a drive through the countryside and stopped to take photos of a lovely windmill.  We also ate a lovely dinner at the hotel.  It was wonderful food, that was served perfectly.  We will certainly eat there again.  After dinner, we took a walk through the countryside.

On our late afternoon drive through the countryside near Margraten

Elder en Zuster Romig - Great friends and amazing missionaries

In the courtyard of the beautiful Hotel Groot Welsden near Margraten

Zuster C enjoying the amazing salad at the Hotel Groot Welsden

After dinner stroll

The next morning (Thursday) we ate breakfast at the hotel and then drove to the American Military Cemetery at Margraten.  This was used by the US military during World War II and built on land donated by the Dutch government in perpetuity.  There are 8,301 American soldiers (and airmen) buried here.  1,722 are unknown (or known only to God as the markers say).  It is an impactful to experience to visit this place hallowed by the sacrifice of those who made the ultimate offering to resist tyranny.  There were gorgeous sycamore trees throughout the property.  They reminded me of the three sycamore trees in our side yard when we live in Tooele.  Interestingly enough, Elder and Sister Robison (the office couple) drove to Margraten the same day and signed the guest register right after us.

Walking through the markers at Margraten looking for graves of those from Utah and Idaho

 After Margraten, we drove into Maastricht and found a parking garage on the edge of the old city.  It was fun to walk through the old city.  Sister C, found a street that one of her investigators lived on, but now converted to a busy shopping street.  We found a lovely place to have lunch right on the Vrijthof where the André Rieu concerts are held.  We wandered through the shopping area and the sisters found things to buy.  We held court in the cafe of the H&M department store through the late afternoon before dining at the cafeteria there and going to the concert venue.  To say that André Rieu is a favorite son of the city is a vast understatement.  They love him because while he is an international celebrity, he is just an ordinary person in Maastricht.  Of course he lives in a castle.  In 1999, he was the top drawing male touring artist (according to Billboard Magazine).

We were surprised to find happiness being sold in Maastricht for up to 50% off

Two old men goofing off while their wives were shopping

Proof that the entire town of Maastricht is crazy about André Rieu.
This was a store display in a major department store.  You got a 25% discount on
CDs and DVDs if you showed your concert ticket.

Elder en Zuster Romig enjoying the marching band while waiting for the concert to begin

 We got to the Vrijthof at 8:00 PM and were each handed a 0.500 liter bottle of genuine André Rieu water.  We all kept it as a souvenir, of course.  At about 8:20 PM a marching band started marching and playing around the Vrijthof and entered the venue a couple of times.  It certainly added a festive air to the waiting time.  The restaurants on the side of the Vrijthof offered a dining and concert package (arranged through the André Rieu travel service of course).  The diners had their own large screen TVs to watch the action on.  André and the orchestra paraded past the diners and onto the stage promptly at 9:00 PM and the fun began.  The program was well done and filled with lots of variety.  He is certainly a great entertainer and his first clarinetist is a world class clown.

Elder en Zuster Romig with their program and water.

We got some too.  This is at about 8:15 PM.

The concerts have been sold out for months.  You can see how far back we were since we booked about three months ago.

The fun is in full swing

On Saturday, we went to the main square in Mechelen to find some sewing supplies for Zuster C.  We had forgotten that Mechelen has an open air market on Saturday mornings.  It was a great market, especially with the famous Mechelen carillon chiming in the background.  Most folks came by bicycle and it was hard to find a place to park.  The people in the low countries certainly have bicycling figured out.

The Mechelen Saturday market and specialized bicycles for everyone

We had to take this picture to prove that we are still missionaries.  Zuster C looks pretty intent in this picture.  She is actually trying to hear if anyone is talking to her through the tiny speaker and this was on a very busy, noisy street.  We are continuing to try to track down inactive members.  Our ward boundaries are extremely spread out and actually go south of Brussels.

Zuster C listening carefully for an answer

Monday is our preparation day, and on a whim, we decided to take the train to Brussels (still within our ward boundaries).  It cost about 10 Euros for both of us on our senior citizen fares and in less than half an hour, we were in the heart of Brussels.  We had to stop for lunch at our favorite restaurant 't Kelderke (the little cellar) right on the Grote Markt (or Grand Place for the French speakers).  We wandered down the street toward the famous (or infamous) Manneken Pis statue/fountain and ran into two French speaking Elders patronizing a Brussels waffle shop.  The whole outing took less than three hours, but was a lot of fun and brought back lots of memories.

On the Grote Markt in Brussels

Our favorite restaurant - Traditional Flemish food done well

French and Dutch speaking missionaries are still happy to see each other

Elder C by the Manneken Pis statue

Since tomorrow (Thursday, July 16) is another joint zone conference in Antwerpen with our new mission president, President Bunnell, we are cooking lunch for about 60.  The salvation for senior couples is a store called Makro.  It has been described as Costco on steroids and was founded in the late 1960s.  There is one in the north part of Brussels about 15 minutes from our apartment.  We drove there this morning to pick up the last minute fixins for the lunch tomorrow.  The restaurant had a special on Zeeuwse mussels.  I have been hankering after these beauties for the last couple of weeks since they are now at the peak.  The Makro restaurant had 1.1 kilos worth for 14.95 Euros including frites and a drink.  They have been about 25 Euros elsewhere, so we had to try them.  They were even better than I remembered, and Zuster C even ate a few.  She even removed one from the shell herself.  As they say here, "lekker" (or delicious).  They are steamed with celery, onions and herbs.

About ready to tie into the 1.1 kilos of mussels

Off to a good start, eating them in the traditional way where you use one of the shells to remove the mussels from the shell

Not a single one left.  Lekker!