Big Transfer Day, Bicycle Helmets and the First Rest Home Gig

We returned Saturday afternoon, August 15 from the Jovo camp.  We had a young lady with us, Marie Reis who we dropped off in Sint-Niklass.  She is originally from Africa and served a mission in Portugal.  She moved to Belgium a few months ago to attend school and is living with her two brothers.  She is an impressive young lady and we enjoyed getting to know her better.

Maria is the first on the left.  We really enjoyed visiting with her.

Unfortunately, there was an accident on the road to Antwerpen that had the road shut down.  Our GPS rerouted us, but we missed a turn going through Antwerpen and had to spend half an hour getting back on the right track.  This meant we didn't arrive back in Mechelen until about 5:00 PM.  We faced several loads of laundry as we did the sheets, pillowcases and towels we used at camp in addition to a six days worth of laundry for each of us.  I also had to hurriedly pull the conducting template together for Sacrament Meeting and Priesthood the following day and Sister C had to brush up on her primary music.  Despite needing to catch up on a lot of missed sleep the previous week, we ended up working late.

Sunday night the transfer calls came and we learned that Sister Goodman, Elder Roberts and Elder Clukey were being transferred.  We already knew that Elder Johnson, our wonderful district leader was going home.  All four have served in the district since we got here, so it is particularly hard to see them go.  The mission is receiving 28 new missionaries this week, so we knew big changes were coming.  Next month, 30 new missionaries are scheduled to arrive.  That doesn't give the newly arriving missionaries much time to settle in and learn how to lead.

Monday, we enjoyed the last visit from Elders Clukey and Walker before the transfers.  They brought eggs and we supplied the fixins for omelettes, hash browns and toast.  They use our computers for their weekly email time since we can provide two with a higher speed connection than the Church.  It has been so great working with these elders in the same ward.  Together, we have been able to accomplish a lot in cleaning up the ward member list.  They are hard workers and great teachers.  We are grateful that Elder Walker will be staying for at least this next transfer.  He certainly hit the ground running here.  Somehow, we will have to figure out how to get chocolate chip cookies to Elder Clukey in his new assignment in Enschede.

Elder Walker and Elder Clukey digging into the omelettes. 

Time to hit email.

Tuesday we had our last district class for this transfer.  This one was particularly poignant because half of the missionaries in the district were being transferred.  We had decided to take our last picture together as a district wearing our bicycle helmets to show our obedience to President Bunnell.

The Turnhout District demonstrating the latest fashion in the Belgium/Netherlands Mission

We have a hard time playing it straight.

Sister C prepared a delicious lunch of stuffed peppers, salad and rolls.

Our new district leader: Elder Hosea

Putting our best foot forward 

We can play it straight. 

Just not for long.

On Wednesday we went to the city hall to pick up our Belgian ID cards and to apply for Belgian driving licenses.  That went without a hitch and we got the usual friendly service we get in Mechelen.
After that appointment, we also had an appointment for a hearing about a problem with our garbage.  We made a trip to the courthouse when we first got here to pick up garbage bags.  You buy relatively inexpensive blue bags to recycle cans and plastic bottles, pink bags for mixed plastic and very expensive white bags for household garbage.  We also picked up the schedule for garbage collection.  Unfortunately, no one was able to tell us where to put the garbage for collection so we put it where the other residents were putting it.  We put a cardboard box out for recycling that had our name and address on it and receive a registered letter informing us that it had been placed in the wrong place and that we had to contact an administrative officer to see if a fine would be levied.

We met with a very efficient and friendly administrative adjudicator who told us about the nature of the hearing and the process for appeal.  He then asked us to tell him the facts from our perspective and he did a great job of summarizing the issues.  He then informed us that there would be no fine imposed and that we would receive an official notice to that effect in a few days.  All of this happened in Flemish (Nederlands).  We were happy that we spoke enough to be able to lay out the issues and understand what he was telling us.  All-in-all it was a good experience, but we still don't know exactly where to put our garbage.  We hope we have it in the right place now and it did get picked up on Monday morning.


Thursday:  Our first gig at the rest home.  About six weeks ago, Sister Fuenzelida called her sister who works at the Egmont Rust Huis (Rest Home) and suggested that they might be open for a musical program.  We visited there the following week and met some wonderful workers who told us that they could probably use us in August.  They called a couple of weeks ago to confirm the dates and times and Sister C has been practicing her guitar and singing ever since.  She also conscripted me into singing along on a couple of songs.  We performed a 30 minute program on two different floors of the Rest Home.  The residents there are well cared for by a loving staff and volunteers.  There are over 300 residents there.  We also need to find older popular Flemish songs to sing so that they can sing along.

Sister C waiting to go "on stage" at the Egmont Rest Home

Sister C singing an American folk song to the 5th floor residents.

Friday:  Dinner with the Fuenzelidas.  We spent a lovely evening with the Fuenzelida family here in Mechelen.  They had prepared a wonderful dinner.  We asked Sister Fuenzelida to tell us some popular song or two that we could learn.  She treated us to a famous Belgian song and a couple of gedichtjes (poems or sayings).  Sister Fuenzelida allowed to to video them.  She joked that people in the US would all be singing this song in a few years.  The song is titled, Ik spring uit en vliegmachine (I jump out of a flying machine).

Saturday morning:  Mechelen has a lovely open air market on most Saturday mornings.  It is a short bicycle ride from our apartment (or about a 10 minute walk).  Sister C has been on the lookout for fresh corn, since we ride  through fields of corn during the day.  The fields are mostly corn for animal feed, but Brother van Es told us that eating corn was also available.  As we parked our bicycles next to the city hall, the first booth we encountered was setting up the corn display.  We found three different booths selling it and the third had the freshest corn (also the cheapest).

Fresh corn for eating was available, much to Sister C's delight.

Six ears for three Euros.  Unfortunately, the corn was picked two or three days ago.

One of the fish vendors at the market.

Costco doesn't serve rotisserie chicken here, but the vendors do.

Fresh flowers are everywhere and inexpensive.

We had to take this picture to show that we aren't the only senior couple in Mechelen wearing helmets.

Sunday: Sunday was the first time that I operated as the sole member of the Bishopric since Bisho Dixon and Brother Pushnoy were both out of town on vacation.  I asked Brother van Es, the ward clerk to sit next to me on the stand since neither member of the high priest group leadership was there and the Elders Quorum President was also on vacation.  We had three Aaronic Priesthood holder speakers first.  The two deacons had well-prepared talks and used scriptures very effectively.  The priest spoke from his journal of the Young Man/Young Women Camp two weeks ago.  These three young men will be great missionaries.  Brother Mesotten, the first member of the Leuven Ward was the final speaker.  He has held many prominent positions in the Church over the years and is a wonderful servant of the Lord and great speaker.

As we were delivering Brother van Es to his house, we passed a garden with tomatoes and Sister C remarked how much she liked tomatoes fresh from the garden.  When we arrive at the home of Brother van Es, he went into his back yard and returned with two gorgeous tomatoes.  They also tasted wonderful.

Brother van Es with the best tomatoes in Belgium.

A very happy Sister C.

We certainly feel blessed to serve in this little Leuven Ward and to live in the beautiful and friendly city of Mechelen.