St. Rumbold's again, Nederlandse Tattoo, Sisters Conference

Monday morning, September 21, we had a visit from Sisters Voss and Young and Elders Silva and Walker for a Preparation day activity.  Since the last activity we did in Mechelen, all of the Elders and Sisters in the district had been transferred.  Sister C prepared a lovely pancake breakfast and the missionaries spent their allotted hour doing their email.  We pressed two computers and two iPads into service to support them.

We decided to climb the St. Rumbold tower again since the missionaries had never done it before.  Despite our previous determination not to do it again, we embarked on the journey of 538 steps (in each direction).  St. Rumbolds is also interesting because there are three large carillon systems installed in the tower.  There is the older carillon with 49 bells, the bass carillon and the new carillon, also with 49 bells.  Mechelen is home to the world's best carillon school and there are two carillon concerts per week during the summer.  There is no clock-face, but a clock chimes every 7 1/2 minutes, so you are guaranteed to hear the chimes several times during the ascent and descent.  Another lovely feature is a glass enclosed "skywalk" on top of the tower where you can see the skylines of both Brussels and Antwerpen.

An interesting story about the tower occurred in 1687, when a citizen on his way home from a pub noticed that the belfry was on fire.  He roused the town and they organized a bucket brigade, only to discover that the "fire" was the moon shining through the stained glass windows.  The mayor and townspeople tried in vain to suppress the story and even today, they are called Maaneblussers (moon extinguishers).  You can even buy chocolates at Sjolaa (our favorite chocolatier) celebrating this now famous event.

Before the ascent

In the crane chamber (only 160 steps up.

Sister Young and Elder Walker next to the old carillon

Sister Young photobombing Elders Walker and Silva

In the clockwork room by the old carillon

Sister Young enjoying the climb

By the bass carillon room.  The new carillon is built on top of this room.

Elders Silva and Walker with their exotic fruit from Makro.  We took
Elder Walker there to buy a winter coat.

On Tuesday, we attended the Zone training meeting in Antwerpen and Sister C prepared dinner for about 34.  The huge pot of strogonoff disappeared quickly and was appreciated by all.  The Zone training meetings are always well run and a great success.  This one was run by the two zone leaders and the three district leaders ran breakout sessions.

Antwerpen Zone missionaries ready to depart

Elder Thornock and Elder Bernier (our zone leader)

Elders Bernier and Hirsch, our great zone leader

Sisters Caldwell and Johanson showing off their long fingers.  Sister Johanson
is also from Washington county and is a great ragtime piano player

On Wednesday morning, we started out for Leuven to help a member move, but received a call when we reached Brussels that she was sick.  We tried, in vain to make apartment inspection appointments with the Ghent district and braved the rush hour traffic a second time to return home.  That evening, we drove to Aarschot to visit a less active family.  They are wonderful people and we were able to visit them with their long-term home teacher, Brother Mesotten who is much beloved by everyone he meets.  He was the first member in Leuven and is truly a saint.  This lovely family has a testimony of the gospel, but have many trials supporting their 11 grown children and 34 grandchildren.

Thursday, September 24, was a marathon day.  We drove to Maastricht and Heerlen early in the morning to do apartment inspections.  This required us to brave Brussels traffic yet again.  We tried, in vain to find lunch at an Indonesian restaurant and settled instead for a smoked sausage at the Hema (a variety store with famous sausage).  We returned to the Tienen area and visited the last two addresses that the Elders had not been able to visit (of less active members) and then visited another family in the area who have not been able to attend recently.  Sister C then taught a piano lesson to the son of the Bishop and we met at the Church at 8:00 PM for a bishopric meeting.  We ran the Elders home at about 9:45 PM and returned to our apartment at about 11:00 PM.  Long days for old folks.

On Friday, we drove to Harderwijk to see Henk and Jackie Rensen.  This great couple joined the Church through a visit to the Playmill Theater in West Yellowstone, Montana and the influence of the Merrill family.

Henk and Jacqui Rensen

In the domed market in Rotterdam with Sister and Elder Robison

After visiting with the Rensens, we drove to the Mission Office to meet the Robisons and journey to Rotterdam to attend the Nederlandse Tattoo (Taptoe).  This is a show involving a large number of military bands from all over the world.  The show did not end until after 11:00 PM and we had to rush to the subway station and then the train station to catch the train back to Leiden.  We caught the next to last train back and arrived at the mission office close to 1:00 AM.  We were graciously hosted by the Robisons that evening so that we could go to the Mission Home the following morning for a sisters conference.

Waiting for the show to start.  Great seats.

Dancing bagpiper from Canada

We always knew that sousaphones were at the center of things.
This was the band of the Polish Border Guards

We were also treated to performances of the police, the fire department
and the customs agents, complete with emergency vehicles.

The USMC band from Quantico, Virginia

The massed bands at the end of the show.

A soprano soloist singing with the bands.

On Saturday, we attended a Sisters' Conference held at the home of the mission president.  There were about 36 sisters plus four senior Elders charged with preparing lunch and President and Sister Bunnell.  The sisters were thrilled to see each other and politely removed their shoes.

They heard from President and Sister Bunnell, worked on service projects together, sang and ate.  Elder Romig organized the lunch and we served chicken salad sandwiches, fruit salad, chips with brownies and ice cream for dessert.

We returned home late Saturday night, exhausted, but uplifted by the spirit and dedication of these great Sisters who have chosen to serve the Lord.

A Visit from Karyn Young, Getting Very Busy

Our weeks seem to get busier and busier.  We also seem to be driving the wheels off of the little mission car we have been entrusted with.  It is one of the challenges of serving in a ward that is a 45 minute drive away and in the southernmost part of the mission.

Last weekend we had a delightful visit from Karyn Young and her parents.  Karyn was a colleague at both Novell and IBM and Sister Caldwell particularly enjoyed her friendship when we lived in Connecticut.  We met them in Brussels for a late lunch/early dinner after Church meetings on Sunday.  We had never met her parents before, but we really enjoyed their company.  Brussels has many great places to eat and there is an area with very affordable restaurants with good quality food.

By the famous Brussels landmark, Manneken Pis

 We find it more convenient to take the train to Brussels because driving is difficult in the center of town and parking is very expensive.  As seniors, we can go anywhere in Belgium for 6 Euros round trip.  On Monday morning, we accompanied the Youngs to Brugge.  They followed our suggestion and took the train from Brussels Zuid (midi) where their hotel was located and we arrived at the Brugge train station within minutes of each other.  We took a bus into the Markt at the center of Brugge and began our explorations from there.  Karyn's mother is a real horse expert and insisted that we take a 30 minute carriage ride through town.  It was a lot of fun and with five people was about the same price as the boat ride.

On the Grote Markt in Burgge

Karyn and her Dad on the Carriage Ride

A great place to eat in Brugge

The tower we were crazy enough to climb

In the old original square of Brugge

Karyn and her dad

After the carriage ride, we walked a few blocks to a lovely restaurant that was highly rated on Trip Advisor.  The only negative comments dealt with difficulties with seating and reservations.  Since we didn't have the opportunity to make a reservation, we decided to arrive fairly early and we were delighted to be immediately seated.  The prices were quite reasonable and the food was wonderful.  The service was friendly and unobtrusive.  I think the fact that we spoke Flemish also helped since almost everyone else seemed to tourists.  We will certainly eat there again when we visit Brugge.

After a lovely lunch, we all had the courage to climb the tower in the center of town.  It is not quite as tall as the tower in Mechelen.  It had only one staircase and a small carillon system.  The tower in Mechelen has three carillons, each of which is much larger than the one in Brugge.  Of course, Mechelen is home to the world's best carillon school.  It was quite windy and stormy so we had to wait about 30 minutes until they deemed it safe to climb the tower.

Brugge from the top of the tower

Another view

Karyn enjoying the view

Yes, it was very windy up there

We returned to the train station at about 5:00 PM and caught the train back to our beloved Mechelen.  While we enjoy the trips to Brugge, we enjoy our friendly and historic city of Mechelen even more.  We feel so blessed to live and work in this beautiful city.

On Tuesday, we drove back to Leuven for our district class.  We were joined by the assistants to the president, Elders Ames and Neptune.  We always enjoy associating with these great missionaries.  We did miss Sisters Young and Voss since Sister Voss is the Sister Training Leader and they have been gone from the last two district classes.  Elder Hosea is really coming into his own as a district leader.  It is fun to see the love and fellowship we share as we unite in the service of the Lord and our fellow men.  Sister C always prepares a wonderful lunch and the missionaries really enjoy it.

Wednesday, 14 September, we drove back Leuven to meet with members who are in the process of coming back into activity.  It is wonderful to see the spark of the gospel returning to their lives.  A few key decisions make such a difference in people's lives and these days we teach that the most important influence of the Holy Ghost is to help us make good decisions.

On Thursday, with the exception of the Sisters, the entire district met at the Leuven Ward building to do a service project to clean up the landscaping.  The Bishop said it had been about four years since it had been done.  The Bishop rented a gasoline powered hedge trimmer and went after the trees and bushes.  We cleaned up the trimmings, cut huge weeds out of the shrubs, trimmed up the growth in the parking lot, reworked flower beds and planted bulbs, and cleaned up the sidewalks.  When we finished, the place looked much better and we all enjoyed working together.  Of course, in true Belgian style it rained the entire day.  The Bishop provided a nice pizza lunch, which was well received.  We also rehearsed a musical number to play at the funeral of a long-time member (sister) who had passed away in the Turnhout Branch.

Elders Thornock, Drinkwater and Groenveld

Sister C and Elder Walker planting bulbs

Elder Silva demonstrating what the stylish European missionary wears to service projects.

Elder Drinkwater attacking the reluctant weeds.  They didn't stand a chance.

Elder Hosea going after the weeds in the sidewalk

The compost heap was getting pretty tall.

But no match for Elders Thornock, Drinkwater and McConkie

Elder McConkie rescuing the parking lot from weeds and moss.

Bishop Dixon working miracles with the rented hedge trimmer.

Pizza courtesy of Bishop Dixon

The last load of compost for the day.

Thursday evening, we drove to Antwerpen to attend the stake high priest quorum meeting.  To our delight, we saw Wilfried DeCoo.  President DeCoo was a 24 year-old branch president when we served in Antwerpen 46 years ago.  He is retired from both the University of Antwerpen and BYU.  It was such a thrill to see him again.  He is the first member from our era that we have seen since returning to the mission.

President DeCoo has always been one of our heros

On Friday, we drove to the crematorium in Turnhout for the funeral service for Sister Diels-Geets, a long-time member of the Church.  Because of her life of kindness and service, the expected crowd was much too big to meet in the small Turnhout chapel.  The missionaries had been requested to sing a hymn at the service and we had prepared the day before.  We had the Elders from Genk, Geel and Leuven there.  The sisters based in Turnhout were travelling that day.  It was a lovely service and we did fairly well on the hymn.

Our double mixed(up) quartet plus one

On Saturday we drove back to Leuven for a baptismal service of Sister Hafida Berhmoun and her daughter Zohra Caria from the Genk Branch.  Genk is in the northeast corner of Belgium, near the Dutch and German border.  They came to Leuven for the baptismal service since there is no font in the Genk building.  There were only a few people there, so it had a sacred, intimate feel to the service.  I was asked to give a talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  We enjoyed associating with the saints and missionaries from Genk.

Elders Groenvelt, Drinkwater and Thornock with the new members

On Sunday we attended our Church meetings and then left immediately to drive to Gouda for the Young Single Adult fireside, sacrament meeting and area meeting.  We had a relatively new member with us and then stopped back in Mechelen to pick up Sister Sanna Brandenberg.  It was fun to have these two great sisters with us for the drive to and from Gouda.  The fireside was on missionary work and President and Sister Bunnell introduced the topic.  After the fireside, we were treated to a dinner by the members of the Den Haag (The Hague) Jovo (Young Single Adult) center.  After the dinner, the Jovos held a sacrament meeting and the senior couples met with Buddy and Beryl Gout, the area Jovo advisors.  We got to know them well at the Jovo camp this summer and it was great to be with them again.