Our last December in the Netherlands

The Church introduced a new holiday campaign - Light the World - with 25 days of activities to follow the example of the savior.  The first day (December 1) was service.  The missionaries in our district signed up to help the De Jonge family.  The couple are in their mid to late seventies and cannot care for their large yard without help.  Brother De Jonge was the elders quorum president when I was here years ago and both have held many leadership positions in the Church.  They have also raised a large, successful family of 10 kids.

We started off by raking the leaves and putting up the lawn furniture and trampolines (this is a grandkid paradise).  Sister De Jonge and Bonnie prepared lunch.  Finally, Elder Meister and Sister Maughan demonstrated how to split logs.  Elder Meister, our Canadian Paul Bunyan set the pace.  He had to split logs every day for his family's B&B on Prince Edward Island.

After Lunch, Ties De Jonge (a son who had been providing supervision), demonstrated how they did "high dives" when he was on his mission some years ago.  You have to pour a container of vla (a thin, custard-like pudding), into your mouth while holding your arms stretched out above your head.  He led off with a demonstration and then invited the missionaries to take their turns.   As you can see, it was not an entirely successful experiment (judged by the criteria of getting vla into missionary mouths(.

After the festivities, we headed to the woods to cut trees and collect firewood for the De Jonge family.  The son buys a permit for a segment of the woods and the community marks the trees that need to be removed.  The trees are then cut into small logs and hauled out to an access road.  These were oak trees so they were very heavy.  The missionaries worked hard and proved that they were up to challenge.  Despite the cool weather, everyone seemed to enjoy this outing in the woods.

Elders Van Den Dungen-Bille and Waters showing their he-manliness

Elder Williams in action with Sister Van Den Brughe supervising

Elder Meister (Paul Bunyan)

Thies De Jonge going after one of his marked trees

Timber!

Brother and Sister De Jonge

The technique could use a little improvement

Another way to transport a heavy oak log

Elders Waters and Van Den Dunge-Bille are unstoppable

On Friday, December 2, we left for the Fall Young Single Adult Camp.  This was presided over by Leonie Stein, from the Leeuwarden Branch and a recently returned missionary from Scotland and Ireland.  This was our last single adult camp since the next one will be held in mid-summer.  It is always a delight to see the young single adults from throughout the mission and to work with the other mission couples.

We took the two Mo sisters and Marleen Velthuis with us from Groningen, but couldn't leave until the Mo sisters finished their afternoon class.  We packed a lunch for dinner since we wouldn't have time to eat on our way to the camp.  The other couples got to the hotel early and ate dinner together.

The camp was held at a small facility on a farm.  There were two bunk rooms, a large meeting (which was very cozy for the numbers we had) and a commercial kitchen (also small and cramped).  The event was extremely well organized and the young folks got along very well together.  There was a great mix of spiritual and fun.

Friday evening started with a fireside run by President and Sister Scheltinga and was followed by a dance where the kids dressed up like animals.  Some wore PJs with animal themes.  It was a lot of fun and very creative.  These two activities set the tone for the entire camp.

Buddy Gout getting the treatment

Elder Goebel and Elder and Sister Reeves.  The Reeves set quite the pace on the dance floor

The finished product.  Buddy is a great sport.

The next morning, after breakfast, the young folks divided into three teams and took a journey through the nearby forest.  Senior couples were assigned as "beschermengels" (guardian angels) to give them a fun activity to do then then clues to continue their journey.

Bonnie in her "angel" bathrobe.  At least we stood out in the woods.

Leonie Stein checking up on the Senior Couples before the groups arrived.

The first group.

Reading instructions

Success!

The second group

Another successful group

The last group

Oviedo Dungen (r) and a visitor from Scotland

The last group

Back at the camp.  Despite being tired and cold, most adjourned into playing soccer for another hour.

Lunch was served picnic style in the small multi-purpose room.  Leonie's sister Mariam did an amazing job of decorating and arranging things.

Mariam Stein photographing her masterpiece.

The picnic

Dinner was followed with a visit from Sinterklaas.   In the Netherlands he comes on the evening of December 4 since his birthday is on December 5.  He comes on a steamboat from Spain and rides a white horse through the streets.  He paid an early visit to the camp on Saturday night.

Yenny and Fiyen Mo enjoying the camp

The kitchen crew

Traditional Dutch winter meal - stampot

Preparing for a visit from the saint

Someone was knocking at the door

Paul Brandenburg getting the treatment

Buddy Gout waiting his turn

Marleen Velthuis was next

Jason almost fit

Laying out the terms and conditions for the distribution of the presents

Threading macaroni onto spaghetti

Sunday morning, President van Beek presented a workshop followed by sacrament meeting.

Saying goodbye is always hard.  Buddy and Beryl have been working with the Jovos for ten years.
They are amazing!

The next week, we held a zone conference (including half of the mission or three zones) in Den Haag (The Hague) with Elder Paul Johnson of the area presidency.  These conferences are a special treat for missionaries because they get to see so many friends from across the mission.  Sister Hill was in charge of the food and opted to serve sloppy joes with potato salad, chips, veggies, etc.  Bonnie worked hard on the meal and the missionaries were happy and well fed.

Sisters Caldwell, Hill and Reeves putting out the food

Half of the mision

The beautifully remodeled Den Haag chapel

Elder Johnson 

Elder Johnson with Sister Caldwell.  He was a great district leader here in Groningen
and now serves in Hilversum

On Tuesday, December 13, I left home very early to pick up a dear sister from the Leeuwarden branch who had to come to Groningen for an operation.  After I got back, we held district class at the Groningen building.  Bonnie was ill, as were the elders in Leeuwarden.  After district class we went to a rest home to sing Christmas carols.  The missionaries always win praise for their friendliness and they loved spending time with the senior citizens.  I am always relieved when they let us out and don't mistake us for escaping residents.  Actually, these facilities are wonderful and the residents seem to enjoy it there.  We were certainly missing Bonnie and the Leeuwarden elders.  We also learned that we needed to spend more time teaching the missionaries the Dutch Christmas carols.

That evening, I had to return to Groningen to work on branch finances.  All-in-all, it made for a very long day and I was certainly tired when I finally got home.  Some days I wonder why I am working so hard when I am supposed to be retired.

This week, I also had my six month dental check-up.  First you go in for a 15 minute check up with a dentist and then you return for the dental hygienist at a later date.  We find the service here to be very comparable to the US, but the cost is about half of what we would pay in the US.  I had a filling done earlier in the year and was very happy with the work and the cost.

On Thursday, December 15, we attended institute again.  Hans Noot taught the lesson, and as always, it was deep and thought-provoking.  The young people here are certainly blessed.  Of course, they also teach themselves most lessons and also do a great job.

On Friday, December 16, we left early in the morning to go to the food bank in Zwolle.  The Church made a substantial donation to the food bank and the mission allowed our zone (by districts) to work various shifts at the food bank.  Our district was selected to work the first day when the donations come in and need to be sorted.  We started at 9:00 AM and were supposed to work until 7:00 PM.  The missionaries really enjoyed this assignment and we enjoyed working with them.

At about 4:30 PM we took a break and one of the directors informed Bonnie and me that we were being "retired".  I guess we both looked a little worn and it was, after all, our 45th wedding anniversary.  They told us to go eat a nice dinner somewhere.  We were both too tired for that and ended up eating at a McDonalds drive through.  We promised ourselves that we would get a good dinner another time.

The next day the missionaries met at our apartment for "singing practice".  Of course, this meant that Bonnie also served them lunch.  In the evening, the Young Men and Young Women from the Groningen Ward served a delicious dinner for the older members of the ward.  They also included the younger missionaries.  It was very well done.

Bart and Emmie Koens

Beryl and Buddy Gout

President Dallinga

Bishop Bletterman

We may be old, but we are tech savy

The kitchen clean-up crew

Old friends - the Caldwells and the DeJonges

On Sunday, we drove back to Leeuwarden for church services.  On Monday, the 19th we joined with the district in singing for the Red Cross in Groningen.  They gather about 20 older folks together.  They were happy to sing along with us and we enjoyed visiting with them again.  This is the second time we have done a program for them.

On Wednesday, December 21 we drove to the mission office to collect packages to deliver to the seven missionary apartments we are assigned to inspect every three months.  We had a nice meeting at the mission office, ate Dutch pancakes together and then left to make the "santa" runs.

On Sunday, Christmas day, we headed to Leeuwarden to attend Church services.  Bonnie had worked hard to get many members of the branch involved in a special program for sacrament meeting.  The program went fairly well, despite the shortage of musically talented members.  It was a dramatic difference from the many talented members we had in the Leuven, Belgium ward last year.  The primary was poorly attended due to sickness and other issues, so the missionaries sang with the one primary boy in attendance.  The highlight was the song by the Stein sisters and the missionaries.

We also had two missionaries over in the evening so that they could use Skype to call home.  For us, a special treat was being able to talk to both of our children and grandchildren.  It makes us realize how many holidays we have missed with our family.

On Tuesday, December 27, we had the last district class of this transfer.  The missionaries always like to take a serious picture and a funny one.  Elder Waters got transferred after many months here in Leeuwarden.  Elder van den Dunge-Bille got transferred after only six weeks here.  We joked that he just had to come so that he could spend two Christmases with us.  Sister Maughan also got transferred.

On New Year's eve, all of the couples in the mission with the exception of the Hills came to Groningen.  Beryl and Buddy Gout hosted a dinner at their home (and breakfast the next morning) and all came to our apartment to watch the fireworks.  We are so grateful to have so many wonderful couples serving in the mission.

Thus ended 2016.  It also reminds us that we have only four months remaining in our mission.  While we look forward to spending more time with family, it will be hard to leave this country and the people whom we know and love so well.