Farmer Protest, Driving Licenses and the Temple

This is a week of driving licenses.  On Monday, 7 September, we arranged to go to Brussels with the Butlers to pick up Elder Butler's Utah Driving License.  Since they are leaving next Monday to return home, this would be the last meeting of the southern senior missionaries.  We arrived at the driving license office in good time and had the Utah license returned to Elder Butler in less than five minutes.  We then planned on eating lunch together at one of the many lovely restaurants in downtown Brussels.

It seems that the European farmers had other ideas in mind as they closed off the center of Brussels with a protest that turned somewhat violent.  The joys of living near the European capital!  The agricultural ministers were in town for a meeting about farm subsidies and the farmers were upset about falling agricultural prices.  After trying unsuccessfully to reach the center of Brussels through a couple of different routes, we stopped at a small Italian restaurant for lunch.  Unfortunately, the prices were very high and the quality certainly not competitive with the lovely restaurants near the center.

On Tuesday, while attending our district class, we received a telephone call that our driving licenses for Belgium were ready to be picked up at the offices in Mechelen.  This was about one-sixth of the time it takes for the folks who drop theirs off in Brussels, so once again we feel blessed to live in the lovely city of Mechelen.

We ended up spending the entire day in Leuven and mostly camping out at the Church building since Sister C taught two piano lessons and I had a bishopric meeting that evening.  We ate dinner with the Bishop and his family before going back to the Church for the bishopric meeting.  Sister C made an extra lasagna since she was already making one for the district class.  The Bishop cooked this one perfectly.

After picking up our driving licenses at the city hall in Mechelen, we found this amazing
restaurant in a small courtyard off of the main shopping street leading to our house.  It was
a great way to celebrate getting our Belgian driving licenses.

This week, we also inspected apartments in the Eindhoven zone.  We were able to organize things to visit five apartments in one day.  That meant leaving our apartment early in the morning, driving through Antwerpen rush hour traffic to get to Rosendaal for our first inspection.  We then sped off to Breda, Tilburg and finally Eindhoven to inspect the last apartment.

In Eindhoven, we were able to meet up with Elder and Sister Butler for lunch at a pancake restaurant (second choice after a Chinese restaurant that was not open for lunch).  The Butlers are returning home on Tuesday, September 15, so we were anxious to have one more activity with them.  They have been the nearest couple to us and we have shared zone conference cooking duties, a family home evening and Jovo camp together, so we will really miss them.

Sister Butler and Sister Caldwell by a famous water mill that appears in several
paintings of Van Gogh

A little closer shot.

It is easy to see why Van Gogh painted it.

On Saturday, President van der Put organized a temple trip followed by a potluck dinner at the mission home with President and Sister Bunnell.  This was our first trip to the temple since arriving in the mission and it was a thrill to be back there.  We attended about 2 1/2 years ago when we were on vacation in the Netherlands and heard the session for the first time in Dutch.  This session was in French because the Brussels stake was visiting, but we listened to Dutch on the headphones.  Next month, we will return for two days with the younger missionaries, so it was a good preparation for us.

We enjoyed the evening with the Bunnell's and got to hear a farewell talk by Elder and Sister Butler.  We really enjoy the company of these amazing senior couples we are privileged to serve with.  Most will be leaving in a few months, so we enjoy every opportunity to get together and learn from their experience.  We are looking forward to the Hills joining us in a few weeks.

The Robisons and the Kleyns

The Romigs

Sister C with the Butlers

Sisters van der Put and Robison

President van der Put

Just to prove we were there.

Presidents van der Put and Bunnell

Sisters Bunnell, van der Put and Robison

President Bunnell holding the umbrella as we said goodnight

As we returned home, late at night, we discovered one freeway closed with a very long, slow detour.  Then the second freeway had all of the lanes except for one closed and the single lane was stop and go for about 40 minutes.  That put us back in Mechelen about midnight and we had to get up early to drive to Leuven for Church the next morning.  We have learned to be very patient in the endless European traffic jams.