Visits from Maravic Ward and Friends and Julie Oliphant; Mission Temple Conference

We are about two weeks behind in updating our blog.  Missionary life can get very busy at times and we are now in that phase.  We are certainly feeling the blessings of being involved in the work of the Lord.

On Sunday, September 27 the Pfaff family came to church with their three grandchildren.  This is a great family with 11 children and about 35 grandchildren.  They have many commitments with their family, so it has been hard for them to attend.  The ward members were thrilled to see them and the grandchildren were welcomed in primary.  They have a great spirit and we certainly need them in the Leuven ward.  There are a number of members who have been returning over the last several weeks and we enjoy their fellowship and developing testimonies of the Gospel.

On Tuesday, September 29, we had the blessing of visiting with Brother and Sister De Smet.  This lovely couple are now confined in a rest home and end up in the hospital often.  As their health has failed, they have remained full of faith and the spirit is very strong with both of them.  They are much loved by the members of the Lord and it was a great blessing to visit with them.  Sister Caldwell also brought her guitar and we sang a couple of hymns for them.  It was a touching moment and experience.

On Saturday, October 3 we had the Sisters from Turnhout and the Elders from Leuven with us to watch the opening session of General Conference.  Due to the time zone difference, the Saturday morning session began at 6:00 PM.  We enjoyed the session and the company of these great missionaries we are blessed to serve with.  Since the afternoon session began at 10:00 PM the missionaries had to return to their apartments, but we texted them with the names of the three new members of the Quorum of the Twelve.

Sisters Young and Bradley.  Elders Silva and Drenth watching general conference.

On Sunday, October 4, we received a visit from Sister Maravic Ward who is a member in our Washington Fields 11th Ward.  She had two lovely friends with her.  They had been travelling together throughout Europe for the last three weeks and agreed to spend three days with us.  We took them into the center of Mechelen and they visited the St. Rombolts Church.  They watched the Sunday morning session of General Conference (at 6:00 PM on Sunday evening).

Patricia, Sister Maravic Ward and Andrea in St. Rombolts

On Monday morning, we took our journey to Brugge on the train.  Brugge is a beautiful, friendly city and they seemed to enjoy walking around and the rondvaart (boat ride).  The tower was closed, so they were not able to climb the 360+ steps.  On the return, we discovered that there was a pending strike in Brussels that was impacting rail traffic throughout the country and resulted in the train that we had planned on taking to be cancelled.  We rerouted through the Brussels North station and caught the train going north to Mechelen.  It took about 1/2 hour longer than usual.  We get very accustomed to the regular, efficient train service in Belgium.

Waiting for the rondvaart (boat ride) in Brugge

We returned in time to eat dinner with the missionaries from Leuven.  The Filipina ladies prepared a lovely meal and we all watched the movie "Freetown" which Sister Ward had generously brought with her.  Our new missionaries, Elders Drenth and Drinkwater made a very good impression on the two ladies who are not members of the Church.  Once again, we feel so blessed to share in the spirit of these young servants of the Lord.

The three chefs:  Maravic Ward and her friends Andrea and Patricia

Elders Drinkwater and Drenth looking happy about Sister Ward's wonderful dinner.

The two younger Elders and the Elder Elder about to dig in.

On Tuesday, we took our visitors to Brussels and enjoyed the sights and delights of this city.  Great food seems to always be high on the list and the ladies enjoyed eating lunch.  We took them with us to Macro for our shopping trip and picked up a couple of kilos of mussels since they are nearing the end of the season.  Sister Caldwell also received a nice haircut, manicure and massage from one of the ladies (Andrea).

At the Manneke Pis statue

Andrea bargaining in Brussels

Another Makro pilgrimage

On Wednesday, October 7, we bid adieu to our three visitors.  We really enjoyed the visit of these lovely ladies and we felt that we were saying goodbye to our daughters.  That evening, we had a dinner appointment with the Veschuure family.  We really love and admire this family.  Unfortunately, their lease expired and they will soon be moving from the ward.  We will certainly miss them.  Their three young children are so talented and are such wonderful girls.

On Thursday, we drove to Turnhout for our district class.  It moved from Leuven to Turnhout and from Tuesday to Thursday so that the missionaries could be interviewed by President and Sister Bunnell.  We always enjoy these district classes and it is even more special when we have the assistants to the President with us as well and President and Sister Bunnell.  Elder Hosea has really developed as a district leader and we enjoy serving under his leadership.

Thursday afternoon, Julie Hess Oliphant arrived to spend a few days with us.  She has a son on a mission in the Berlin Germany mission and wanted to see how missionaries in Europe serve and also get an idea of what it is like to be senior missionaries.  She wanted to be with us in our regular missionary service.  She enthusiastically did everything that we did and made quite an impression in the mission.  We had an appointment scheduled for Thursday evening and she began the journey with us.  Just before we arrived, we received a text message that the appointment was cancelled.  This meant about a 90 minute round trip in vain.

On Friday, we drove back to Brugge and Ghent to inspect missionary apartments.  Julie enjoyed doing this and gifted the missionaries with genuine Kraft mac and cheese.  She also took pictures and texted them to their parents.  As a missionary mom, she knew what mothers wanted to know about their sons and daughters.  We spent about three hours touring Brugge again and then drove back to Mechelen.

Julie Oliphant in front of the Burg Square in Brugge

Julie by the Church of Christ's Blood on the Burg Square in Brugge

Julie by a picturesque canal in Brugge

On Saturday, October 10, the ladies took a bike ride to Sjolaa, our local chocolatier and came back with some wonderful delights.  In the afternoon, I drove to Antwerpen to participate in the Antwerpen Stake family history day.  The event was more successful than any of us imagined and we all enjoyed working to support the members with this important activity.  Sister Caldwell and Julie remained home because Sister Caldwell wasn't feeling too well.

Last minute instructions for the Family History Workshop in Antwerp

Serious work on Family History

The workshop was a great success

People were scattered throughout the building to find space for their computers

On Sunday, we drove to pick up Brother Van Es.  He is scheduled for knee surgery on Tuesday, so he will not be travelling with us for about a month while he recuperates.  We have really grown to love and admire him in the four months we have been serving here.  We enjoyed the fast and testimony meeting in the Leuven ward.  We also hurried home to prepare to drive back to Antwerpen for the Jovo (Young Single Adult) activity.  This event had even more in attendance than last month.  It is wonderful see the momentum building in this critically important activity.  We also enjoy feeling the strength and testimonies of these wonderful young people.

On Monday, October 12, we decided to take Julie to Kinderdijk and Delft and then stay at a hotel in Zoetermeer where the temple is located.  Kinderdijk is always beautiful and this day, it was brisk and windy.  Sister Caldwell elected to get a cup of warm Chocomel and then rest in the car since she still wasn't feeling well.  Julie and I visited the two windmills that are open to visitors and we enjoyed talking about the history of the Netherlands.  After Kinderdijk, we drove to the beautiful city of Delft.  Sister Caldwell finally located water chestnuts at an Asian food store we walked past on our way to the town square.

Julie at Kinderdijk

Inside the older mill.  Folks used to sleep sitting up in these alcoves.  They
thought it was unhealthy to sleep lying down.

Inside the newer mill.  This one had a fifties look to the decor.

By the Niewekerk (New Church) in Delft

Sister Caldwell by a historic drug store

The ladies visited one of the many porcelain shops, a cheese shop and we wandered around the beautiful canals of Delft.  We then drove to Zoetermeer and ate a rijstafel (rice table) at a lovely Indonesian restaurant.  Sister Caldwell had been looking for an Indonesian dinner since we arrived and this was our first chance to eat one.  The restaurant was next to a grocery store so after dinner, we visited the grocery store to buy food for breakfast and a few treats for Julie to take home.

Tuesday morning we arrived at 8:00 AM at the Den Haag Temple in Zoetermeer to assist with the two temple sessions for the missionaries from about half of the mission.  These sessions are conducted in the Dutch language (Nederlands), but they provided headsets and an English translation for Julie Oliphant.  These sessions seem to be even more meaningful in Dutch and we were blessed in on September 8, 2002 to attend the dedication with Bob and Lynda Reiley.  We were also blessed to see Dolf and Bep Mensink in the Den Haag chapel where we attended the dedicatory service.  We couldn't help but think of them as we attend the temple in the Netherlands.

The Office Elders and Sister v/d Put getting Pizza and Salad ready

Elder Kleyn keeping the line moving

Our beloved Elder Clukey looking like a District Leader 

Elder Neptune and Sister Robison

Almost saying goodbye to Julie.  She had a positive impact on the mission.

Honoring the September and October Birthdays

Elder Thornock with Elder and Sister Hill from the same home ward.  Send more!!

In the afternoon, we participated in the zone training portion of the conference in the Den Haag chapel.  They served pizza and salad for lunch, sang happy birthday (Dutch mission style) to the September and October birthdays including Sister Caldwell.  We left early (around 4:00 PM) to take Jule to the Den Haag HS station so that she could catch a train back to Mechelen and her plane from Brussels on Wednesday morning.  She is a very seasoned traveller and made the journey without difficulty.  It was a great blessing for us to have her with us for a few days.

On Wednesday, October 14, we returned to the temple to support the missionaries from the other half of the mission.  In the afternoon we stayed through the entire training including getting our flu shots.  Sister Caldwell had a nice hour-long conversation with the man administering the shots as she checked missionaries off of the list as they received the shots.  We returned home late that evening bringing Elders Drinkwater and Drenth with us so that they could catch a 26 minute train back to Leuven.