Leeuwarden Branch...Home away from Home!

Leeuwarden Branch Presidency
Rik Brandenburg - President Dan Brandenburg - Elder Brent Romig

Leeuwarden is a beautiful city 60 kilometers to the west of Groningen in Friesland.  We both serve in the Leeuwarden Branch.  Elder Romig serves in the Branch Presidency and Zuster Romig serves in the Primary Presidency.  It has been challenging with the language barrier but we continue to work at learning the Dutch language.  We have both said from the beginning of our mission that the Dutch people deserve to hear the gospel in their own language.

We travel to Leeuwarden at least weekly and other times more often.  We normally have around 40 people in attendance at our Sacrament meeting, and our goal is to double that amount through convert baptisms and activation.  Elder Romig conducted his first Sacrament meeting a few weeks ago on the same day that Zuster Romig conducted in Primary.

Primary and Priesthood are our first meetings followed by Sunday School with or Sacrament meeting being last.  On the third Sunday of the Month everyone brings a food or snack item to share with others.  It gives us a good chance to visit with friends.  We have many members who must travel a great distance, and they leave for homes with a little nourishment.

We are experiencing a lot of first right now.  Sunday the 15th of December was our first time to speak in our Sacrament meeting.  Can you say humbling experience?!  We were both told by the members and missionaries in attendance how well we had done, but weak knees and sweaty palms didn't feel very confident!  We are both so used to just speaking from the heart and sharing our feelings without notes.  We both had written our talks first in English and then translated them into Dutch....no easy thing to do.  We both asked some Dutch people that we know to help with the translation.  Zuster Romig asked her study buddy from the MTC and one of the Missionaries (who is Dutch) to help her and Elder Romig asked one of the JoVo's (Young Single Adults) from Groningen to help him.

We love serving in the Leeuwarden Branch and being with the members.  We have two full time Zuster missionaries (Zusters Rigdon & Western) in Leeuwarden and two full time Elders (Elders Peterson & Besendorfer) in Heerenveen (about 25 kilometers from Leeuwarden).  Their attendance at church meetings in Leeuwarden are a great support to the Branch.

Leeuwarden & Heerenveen Elders & Zusters
assigned to the Leeuwarden Branch when we first arrived.
Elder Romig, Elder Sanderson (District Leader) & Elder Peterson
Sister Romig, Sister Western & Sister Rosenlof.

Groningen District: Elders Peterson, Besendorfer, Romig, Sanderson, England, Bonney and Nelson
Zusters Rosenlof, Western, Romig, Heilner and Larson

This was our district when we first arrived here.  We have had a transfer and leadership change since then.Our District Leader is Elder Nelson (Elder Sanderson went to Rotterdam), Elder England went to Vlisingen, Zuster Heilner transferred to Maastricht and Zuster Rosenlof went to Almere.  We now have Zusters Johnson and Rigdon.  The district was cut by one elder companionship.

We have fallen in love with Friesland!  The countryside is like the countryside Elder Romig remembered from his first mission to Netherlands.  It is vast fields of green with canals separating farms.  There are sheep, cattle and horses grazing everywhere.  We see molens and modern windmills everywhere.  The homes are beautiful and well-kept.  The schilderachtige dorpjes (quaint villages) are beautiful!  Swans are seen EVERYWHERE in Friesland!  We have been told that they are protected here.  It is quite common to see them in the green fields. We have also been told that many of the Dutch Masters loved the sky over Friesland and would come here to paint their skies.

Notice how the swans with their necks touching almost form a heart.

The green countryside goes on and on and on!  Mooie!

The homes and many buildings including barns & sheds have the symbol of the swan on them like the picture above showing the swan on both the home and the barn. Below is a close-up.

Friesland swans...originally made of wood, now some are made of plastic 
because wood is so expensive.

On the way to church we spotted a flock of swans off in the distance 
and took a picture...even in the rain.

And even more on the way
 home from church.

 

Another closer view with a molen in the background.

Notice the tile as well as thatched roof on this home.  There is so much humidity that moss grows on roofs,trees, fences and just about everything!

In the countryside, farmhouses often have the barn attached to the home.  The home has the tile roof, while the barnroof is thatched.  Friesland is known for these two types of horses...the big, beautiful black ones and the Fries poniesshown here.  The ponies are full-grown but about the 
size of a small Shetland Pony.

 It was a delight to see this molen in the background in the small dorpje of Sumar.

Elder Romig with Zr. Oppermann

We have fallen in love with this dear lady, Zr. Oppermann.
She takes the taxi to church, and it has been our blessing and opportunity to take her home from church each Sunday.  It is our privilege on the Sundays when she is not able to come to church because of poor health to bring the Sacrament to her at her home.

Zuster Oppermann is one of our Home Teaching/Visiting Teaching Zusters. We have loved getting to know her!  Her husband passed away this year and her family lives in the
United States and Canada.

Zr Romig with Zr Oppermann

Her husband had served several times as the bishop of the Amsterdam Ward where they raised their family.  They served a mission to Siberia and we love hearing the stories of that special time in her life.  She once told us that her husband said she is a "glass half full" person.  Her positive and happy personality is so easy to love!

Not far from Leeuwarden is the site of the first baptisms in Netherlands.  

We posted a picture of this in an earlier post.

It is amazing to see the growth of the church here, and it is exciting 

to imagine the fulfillment of the prophesy given that there would one 

day be 40 stakes here.  We currently have 4 stakes and our short-term 

goal is to build a 5th stake. We have much work to do!

Hallo Mooi Groningen! (Hello Beautiful Groningen!)

Our home for the next two years.
This picture was taken from the other side of the port.
The missionaries call it the NL building because of it's shape.

We have wanted to use our blog as a journal to help us remember days and events from our mission.  We thought it might be fun to take pictures of a typical walk to Albert Heijn, the grocery store we often shop at here in Groningen.

We are noticed everywhere we go because of our name tags.  Elder Romig, who usually keeps to himself, has become VERY outgoing in public!  The people of Netherlands love to hear us use Dutch!  Even if we are unsure of a word, they smile and try to help us.  We have said all along that the people of this country need to hear the gospel in their own language, so we are working very hard to become coversationally fluent.

This is the little bridge that we cross as we leave our home (you can see it behind the bridge.)

These views are from on the bridge.

View from behind a corner tavern and   restaurant.  One Friday evening we were walking past on our way to the store.  There was a major dart competition taking place with probably ten dart boards in use.  It was like the Dutch version of a major bowling tournament in America.  We commented that we hoped they weren't too tipsy as they took aim with the darts! 

Where we cross the street.

Notice the foot path, the fietsen padden (bike path) and street for vehicles where the garbage truck is.

Albert Heijn, where we buy groceries, send mail, drop off dry cleaning, use the ATM, etc. 

 And then we head back with our bags heavy with products.  We bought our own reusable bags and take them to the store every time we go.  No bags are free.  We carry bags in the back of the car in case we need to stop when we're driving.

View from the corner as we head back across the little bridge by our home.

View of the arch of our building from underneath.

Groningen is known for how windy the city is.  Maybe these pictures say it all...

No wind will blow this building away!

View from our bedroom window.

Close up of the city of Groningen from our apartment.

Without question, the most notable description of our apartment is "a beautiful view".  

The sunsets and sunrises are spectacular!

A common sight out our living room windows...
(There is a new picture above the couch that you'll see coming up.)

We probably see at least twenty barges like this everyday.  We often have three or four
tethered to posts in the port below our apartment building each night.

These are the house boats we see across the port from our home.

"House boat" moving day...

Our kitchen from the living room.

The living room from the kitchen. Notice the picture hanging above the couch...

This picture and the skates represent a very special experience we had when we first arrived in Groningen. We wanted a picture of molens (windmills) in our living room.  We ordered the picture, it was delivered and we were thrilled with the look.  But...it looked like it needed skates hanging on the wall by the picture. We
were driving down a very narrow road next to a canal that came to a dead end.  At the end of the road, Zuster Romig noticed a sign by a shop that said "Schaatsen". We went inside and found a fantastic sport shop specializing in boating and skating.  Elder Romig asked if they had any old skates for sale.  The young man helping us said, "Just a minute," and went into the back room.  He returned a minute later with a perfect pair of skates.  We asked, "How much?" and he said, "Nothing!" (the owner of the skates had not come to pick them up for three years). He then asked, "Can you use another pair?" and went back to the back room, returning with a second pair!  These are the two pair.

During this time, our conversation included introducing ourselves, our name tags, telling about JoVo's (Young Single Adults) and the church.  It was a wonderful discussion talking about being Christians, how he and his girlfriend attend an Evangelical church, etc.

After our conversation ended, we went home, hung the skates by the picture and took a photo of it.  We then wrote our testimony inside a Dutch Book of Mormon and returned to the shop with the book, our contact information and a copy of the photo for him to see.  We had placed our first Book of Mormon in Groningen!

Night view of the Living Room from the hallway.

Our Bedroom with a beautiful view of the port.

We found these pictures at the thrift store close to our home. 
We will bring them home with us...love the little Dutch boy & girl!

Tot Ziens Amsterdam!

Elders Taylor, Bean, Burton and Mower with Elder and Zuster Romig on our final P-day in Amsterdam.

    The final P-day in our Amsterdam apartment included a wonderful time with some very special young men!  The Elder's apartment across the parking lot from us housed Elders Burton and Taylor, the A.P.'s of our mission, and Elders Mower and Burton, D.L. and companion.  They brought all the ingredients to our home and cooked a delicious Nasi Goreng meal (Elder Mower's specialty) and we provided a delicious store bought Dutch pastry filled with whipped cream.  The following Wednesday would be transfer day for the mission.  Elder Mower was transferred to open the city of Sliedrecht and Elder Burton requested to finish his mission back in the field and was sent to Vlissingen.  We have been truly blessed to have these four elders enrich our lives and set such a great example to follow!  We anxiously await news of each one of them and hope to hear how they are doing in new areas with new companions.

We were delighted to discover that Emie and Mike Bishop (Emie is Suzanne's sister) were able to visit with us in Amsterdam for two days before heading on a cruise which included Germany where Mike served his mission.  We picked them up from Schiphol Airport early in the morning and brought them back to our apartment for a short nap.  We then took the tram to Amsterdam Centrum, then walked to the Anne Frank Home and Museum.  The tram ride itself was fun and full of sights, and the Anne Frank Home represents a part of history that should never be forgotten.

The four of us at a Pannen Koeken House before visiting  the Anne Frank Museum.

Rijks Museum
Amsterdam, Netherlands

We picked Emie and Mike up early in the morning for a day of sight seeing after a quick trip to Leiden to the Mission Office.  We delivered our old Amsterdam phone and picked up the Groningen phone and keys left for us by the Speks as they left the mission for Utah. We visited the Rijks Museum after about an hour waiting under umbrellas in the rain and a meal in a nearby restaurant.



Rembrandt's "Night Watch" is beautiful and one of the main attractions of the museum.

This original by Vermeer is beautiful!
His use of light is incredible!

It is almost impossible to explain
the beauty of the light and
detail in this painting of a little girl.

After visiting the Rijks Museum, we took Emie and Mike to the beautiful dorp (village) of

Zaanse Schans.  We had visited it earlier to see if it was worth taking them there. 

It was worth every minute and more!

This wall of schoenen (wooden shoes) is a small representation of the schoenen of every style and size.  There is also a section about schoenen throughout history and fun ways they are painted.  We saw an especially fun pair painted just for a dentist...we'd love to see it in our dentist/son-in-law's office.  We were also able to see a demonstration on the way the schoenen are made.  There are schoenen for Sundays, schoenen for work and schoenen for everyday.  Even a pair of schoenen for a wedding.  Traditionally, each region has it's own design.







Small canals (we'd call them ditches) are usually used throughout the Netherlands
 to divide properties.



Pastures for grazing sheep, cows and horses surround
each part of the dorp (village).

There are about ten working molens (what we call windmills
in the USA is a molen) in Zaanse Schans
 area. They all surround an inland water way used for shipping
and industry since the 1700's.

Zaanse Schans is similar to a Dutch version of Williamsburg, VA.  Families live in many of these beautiful homes
and work in the molens, museums and shops throughout the dorp (village)

Outside the lumberyard are piles of wood milled at the Saw Molen. 
Emie and Mile took better pictures of this wonderful Molen.

The Saw Molen  (Lumber Windmill) may have been the highlight of the day for us.  The molen was built using the detailed "blueprints" from a designer of molens.  He had recorded dimensions as well as kinds of wood  needed for different parts of the molen.  We watched a very interesting video of the present-day building of this molen using all the old methods and materials.  Absolutely fascinating!  It wasn't a particularly windy day, so the saws were not as fast as they could have been...

Leaving the dorp (village) if Zaanse Schans

 We finished the evening at an authentic Indonesian Restaurant in Amsterdam, where we (especially Brent) thoroughly enjoyed Nasi Goreng.  We decided it was a good thing we hadn't discovered this delicious food sooner...it would have been a nightly dinner destination!

Then it was home to the apartment, pack, clean, sleep (quickly) then wake up and head north to
                            Groningen!