Mechelen, Fireside and Senior Outing

On Monday, February 15, we had our entire district here (six elders and two sisters plus us).  We also had two sisters from Antwerpen who asked to join.  At the last minute, they were joined by two additional sisters and two elders.  Finally, we were joined by the two zone leaders.   Some of the missionaries used our iPads and MacBooks to email home.  We all had a delicious lunch of mussels and minestrone soup (and fresh baked rolls).  We all walked into the center of Mechelen to climb the St. Rombolt church tower.

Elders Drenth, Young, Morrow and van den Dungen Bille

Elders Bishesar and Mackay in the middle.  In the Turnhout
Branch they are known as Big Mac and Sprinkles.

Sisters Hansen and Lindsey surrounded by a gaggle of Elders

Lunch is almost over.  Not a lot left.

This tower is amazing with three carillon, each with 42 bells.  The bass carillon system has bells that weigh up to 17,000 pounds each.  Mechelen is home to the world's best carillon school and makes the best bells in the world.  The tower is 536 steps and two staircases.  There are six rooms you can rest in as you ascend (or descend).  From the top, you can see both Brussels and Antwerpen (if the weather is clear like it was on that day).  The did not finish the top of the tower, but instead, put a lovely skywalk there.  This is a glassed-in walkway that makes viewing safe and spectacular.

Before the ascent 

On top.

Now 536 steps down.

According to the history of Mechelen, in the evening of the night of 27-28 January 1687 an unusual event occurred.  There was a full moon and a low cloud cover.  A prominent citizen stepped out of a pub next to the tower and raised the alarm of a fire in the tower.  This roused the neighborhood and soon the whole city responded to the hue and cry of fire in the tower.  The city manager and mayor rushed to the scene and organized a bucket brigade to use the water from the nearby Dijle river to put out the fire.  Soon the buckets were being passed in a chain up the steep stairs from the tower.  Before they reached th top, however, they discovered that they had been fooled by the red glow of the moon shining through the low cloud layers.  Since the cloud cover was low enough to reach the clock room, they had also thought that smoke was coming from the tower.

The mayor said that this embarrassing incident should be kept secret, but with the natural sense of humor of Belgians, it soon spread throughout the country.  To this day, the people of Mechelen are known as the maneblussers (or moon extinguishers).  There is even a beautiful carved and painted wayfinder in the center of town that commemorates the event.  Our favorite chocolate shop, Sjolaa makes Mechelese Mantjes (or Mechelen Moons) as a specialty.

We are grateful to live in a beautiful town with a great sense of humor.  It is also fun to share this beautiful city with the Elders and Sisters who serve in the area.

Another fun tradition of Mechelen is Opsinjoorke.  This was a carved wooden doll representing a short fat man who drank too much.  On festive occasions, he was tossed into the air and caught with a linen cloth.  On July 4, 1775, when he was being tossed into the air, he was caught by a gentleman from Antwerp (Antwerpen in Flemish),  He claimed that he was trying to keep the doll from falling on its head, but the people in town thought that he was trying to steal it and he was beaten on the spot.  Since the people in Mechelen derided people from Antwerpen as being under too much Spanish influence they called them Senors.  From that time on the doll has had its present name.  The original is in the city museum, but there is a bronze casting by the city hall and a huge, climb-on version next to the cathedral.  This is also a favorite with the Elders and Sisters.

On Tuesday, we were blessed to visit Sister Annie D'Houwer along with Elders Drenth and van den Dungen-Bille.  Sister D'Houwer has been a member for 35 year and lives very close to the Lord.  When she prays, you feel that the windows and doors of heaven are open.  She is also a wonderful cook and neither of these two elders had the experience of visiting with her before since she lives in Grimbergen, a suburb of Brussels (our ward boundaries go south of Brussels).  She served amazing soup, followed by chicken and rice, witlof (Belgian endive), pork loin and potatoes, baked apples and topped off with ice cream and homemade chocolate sauce.  The elders never had it so good and they were amazed by what she served.  I told them it would probably be the best meal they ever eat on their missions (of course they are not married to Sister Caldwell like I am).

We had a lovely visit after the meal and Sister D'Houwer shared that on February 2, everyone in Belgium eats pannekoeken.  No one is so poor that they can't afford pannekoeken and Sister D'Houwer shared this little Flemish verse with us.

While we were with Sister D'Houwer, we received a telephone call informing us that the zone conference had to be moved from Antwerpen to Eindhoven.  This means that we had to arrange with Brother and Sister Canoodt from the Antwerpen Ward who are helping us to move the food preparation.  This is quite an adventure because the Eindhoven building is not as well equipped for food service and preparation.  Sister Caldwell planned to serve apple crisp.  This meant peeling, coring and slicing 90 apples.  Fortunately, we purchased a lovely, simple German machine (hand cranked) to speed up the process.  It also meant she had to bake the crisps in our tiny oven, one-at-a-time.

Notice the tie tucked out the way.

Brother and Sister Canoodt rolled with the punches and quickly figured out how to stage the meal by doing part of it in Antwerpen and the rest in Eindhoven.  They both took time off of work to perform this generous act of service.  They also organized things so that the meal was served in record time.

The combined Antwerp and Eindhoven Zones

At the end of zone conference we met briefly with President Bunnell and he informed us that we were being transferred to Groningen.  This is a great blessing for us both.  Sister Caldwell ended her first mission in Groningen and I started mine there.  I had the privilege of chipping down the piles (with hammer and chisel) that had been driven for the foundation of the chapel there on my first Saturday on my first mission.

We both love the city of Groningen.  It has two large universities and more than a quarter of the population is made up of students.  On the other hand, it is hard to leave our beloved Mechelen and the members in the Leuven Ward and Antwerpen Stake.

On Wednesday (February 17) morning, we received a surprise call from Earl Gibbs telling us that he was in Brussels.  We arranged to meet him after the Zone Conference and he treated us to a lovely dinner in the vicinity of the Grote Markt.  We also arranged to meet him on Saturday when he returned for a quick trip to Brugge.  It was wonderful to spend time with this great friend.

The dapper, if slightly cold looking Earl Gibbs.  Come back when it's warm!

On Sunday, February 21, we drove to Gouda for the Area Young Single Adult fireside and sacrament meeting.  I had to do the presentation at the fireside on the topic of love.  Sister Caldwell volunteered me for this assignment a couple of weeks ago and suggested that I try to track down the recording of Luacine Clark Fox about how she came to write, "Love One Another."  I was blessed to get in contact with Orval and Reuben Fox who generously shared this sacred record of their mother.

I was also fortunate to find a couple of cute cartoons made by students at arts universities (one in San Francisco and one in Paris).  I also found a great video on the Dutch Potato project made by the Church History Department a couple of years ago.  Right after WWII, the Dutch saints obtained land and seed potatoes and had a bounteous harvest.  The mission president suggested donating the entire harvest to the German saints who had suffered through the worst winter on record and the aftermath of the war.  The Dutch saints rose to the challenge and the following year also donated herring.  It is an amazing story and I felt grateful to have found the wonderful video.  You can find it here.

Dutch Potato Project

On Tuesday, February 23, our district again went to the Booghuys rest home in Leuven to sing for the residents there.  The workers there are so professional and caring, it is very impressive.  We try to do this once in a transfer (every six weeks).

On Friday, February 26, we had a senior activity.  We all met in Rotterdam and took a harbor boat tour.  We were surprised at the dramatic change in the harbor since our last visit.  They opened up a larger deepwater port nearby, so the old Rotterdam harbor is nowhere near as busy as it was before.  It was a lovely cruise and we enjoyed being together as senior couples.

After the harbor cruise we visited a windmill in the Rotterdam area by members of the Church.  President Bunnell had known the parents of the current operators when they lived in Schiedam 45 years ago.  This is a working mill and they do not do tours.  It was interesting to be able to climb all the way to the very top of the mill and see details of construction that you do not normally see.

President and Sister Bunnell

Elder and Sister Robison 

Elder and Sister Hill

President and Sister van der Put, the Hills and the Robison

The not so young anymore lovers

Elder and Sister Janssen 

Three cold sisters:  Caldwell, Janssen and van der Put

Sister Robison looks a bit cold as well 

Even the sturdy President van der Put looks a bit chilly 

At the entrance to the Mill 

Getting an explanation of milling 

The whole gang

Just so you can see we were not a random group of people.

Despite the pictures of fun, missionary work keeps going on.  We continue to work with and nurture less active members and investigators.  We have regular jobs in the ward.  Sister Caldwell teaches piano lessons every week.  We support the Young Single Adults in the ward and in the stake.  We also do a lot to encourage and support the younger missionaries.  They seem to like having substitute grandparents around and we certainly love them.  We are inspired by their commitment and their work.