"We love thy house, oh Lord"...Belgium/Netherlands Mission Temple Days!

We have just experienced two of the sweetest days!  Twice a year, the entire Belgium/Netherlands Mission gathers to the Den Hague Netherlands Temple for special missionary sessions.  Because our mission size has grown from 60 missionaries last year to 160 missionaries this year, it requires four sessions to accommodate all the young elders and zusters, with the Senior Couples participating in each session. 

Yes...the sessions are all done in Dutch (with no interpreters or headsets).  We had an incredible surprise when Elder Romig was called into the Temple President's office and set apart as a temple worker.  Another opportunity for service.  As we looked at the young missionaries from the front of the room, it was like being with the armies of Helaman!  There was a great feeling of strength and power being with these young Elders and Zusters whom we love, on each of these two days.

After the Missionary Sessions at the temple, we had the opportunity to go to the church in Leiden (also where the Mission Office and the Mission Home are)  to have lunch and then be instructed by our Mission President & Zuster Robinson and Assistants.

We left this wonderful experience with missionaries to drive 2 1/2 to 3 hours back to Drachten where we met with our Branch President, Pres. Brandenburg, for a Branch Presidency Meeting (Elder Romig is a counselor) and Primary Presidency Meeting with Zuster Brandenburg (Zuster Romig is her counselor), have dinner with them, and then drive the Zusters to Leeuwarden and then return to our home in Groningen and much needed sleep!



What a beautiful place to be!

 

Following Wednesday Temple Sessions...

Missionaries finding old friends and companions...

Elder Winmill trying to get our attention for the large group
picture...   :)

This is Elder Burton (who we would gladly accept as another son!)
Elder Burton was Assistant to the President until the last transfer, when he
asked to go back into the field for the end of his mission. He lived in the
Amsterdam Elders Apartment (in Diemen) until his transfer to Vlissingen.

Elder Armstrong is from Cedar City and his family lives in Teresa's & Chase's ward.

This picture represents one half of the missionaries (Wednesday's group). 
We didn't get a picture of Tuesday's group and we are taking the pictures.

The BOXES (65 of them!) being made ready for a hungry missionary meal!  After a spiritual feast at the temple,
this was the meal at the Leiden church building each day for lunch following our time at the temple.

Eet smakelijk!  (Enjoy your meal!)

Deventer...in search of ancestors, but found a gorgeous windmill!

Windmill along the Ijssel River outside Deventer.

We spent one Saturday afternoon hoping and looking for Denkers family names in cemeteries in and around Deventer.  We made a wrong turn and drove right up to this incredibly beautiful windmill.



We were captivated by it!


The windmill is still functioning as a sawmill.  They allowed us to go inside the mill, see how the logs were positioned for cutting, see the blades and the finished cuts in the logs.  We were able to go upstairs where the wooden gears attached to the paddles were exposed and at work.  There were diagrams of logs showing the best cuts to utilize every bit of the wood.

Built in 1863.

Elder Romig is using far more "modern" Dutch than he did on his first mission!  Each place we go offers opportunity to visit with the Dutch people and everywhere we go, our missionary tags are noticed and asked about.  Zuster Romig often hears people say to Elder Romig, "You speak very good Dutch!"

This is a very, very large windmill used as a lumber mill.  We were delighted to see the interior and how the
sawmill worked, gears, blades and all.

Deventer in the distance viewed from on the windmill walk way.

The sides of this windmill are covered with tiny twigs.

Looking down from this height was
 absolutely eerie!

View from the upstairs of the sawmill inside the windmill.

It starts with this large log...

Five blades shown cutting the log.

These slices of log were cut using power from the windmill.

We entered the outdoor market, held on Saturdays and Wednesdays, at the old museum where
beautiful flowers & plants are displayed for sale. Then on to the rest of the market...

...cheese...

...produce, fruits & vegetables...

...and fresh fish!

The Deventer open market was fun to walk through and enjoy watching people.

We discovered that cemeteries in Deventer are usually associated with religious groups.  This particular cemetery was closed to burials in 1918.  We were not able to find the caretaker, so we wandered through the cemetery, uncovering each headstone and reading the names and dates.  It felt like looking for a needle in a haystack.  However, the feeling of looking for a family name and hoping that the next stone might be an ancestor was exhilarating!



Notice how the pathway is overgrown and the row markers are on each side of the path.



We found this beautiful old cemetery, very overgrown, about the size of two football fields.

We found Geertruida Denker...but not OUR Geertruida Denkers and the dates were wrong.

Meetings are special? YES THEY ARE!!!

President & Zuster Alden C. Robinson with Elder & Zuster Romig
at our 1st Zone Conference in Leiden.

Missionary lives include some pretty special meetings!  We want to share why some of ours have been so wonderful for us.  The things we've learned, the places we visit, but especially the people we are with!

Zone Conference
Pres. & Zr. Robinson had just returned from a Western European Mission President's Conference in Paris.  We were deeply inspired with the messages they shared from the conference.  We also heard a message from Pres. Oddens of the Den Hague Stake.  The Assistants to the Mission President (Elder Burton and Elder Taylor who reside in our district...in fact they are our neighbors) each took a portion of the afternoon to teach and motivate the missionaries. 

The missionaries who will be finishing their mission have an opportunity to share their testimonies.  Elder Moscon, who is the only missionary leaving, shared a special testimony.

The Senior Missionary Couples prepared a luncheon for all, and Zr. Romig contributed two peach cobblers that were thoroughly enjoyed.

Elder Romig had one of the sweetest experiences he could ever hope for....

Elders Romig and Sumter

On his mission as a young man, Elder Romig had become acquainted with a very special family in Hengelo, the second area he served in.  The family name is de Ceuninck van Capelle, and the mother is named Gronovius.  We have learned that Zr. Gronovius passed away in 1974. This family had nine children and all who were old enough were baptized by Elder Gary Romig, Brent's brother.  The youngest girl, Cherie, was very helpful to Brent as he read children's stories to her in his beginner's Dutch.

Elder and Zuster Romig with Elder Sumter

                                                     


We have an elder serving in the Belgium/Netherlands Mission whose "adopted" father is Rudy de Ceuninck van Capelle, one of those children who were baptized.  Elder Sumter, pictured here with Brent, is best friends with Rudy's son, and was introduced to the church by the de Ceuninck van Capelle family.  What an incredible chance to meet someone richly blessed by people from your past. Elder Sumter had heard stories about Elder Brent Romig coming to the de Ceuninck van Capelle's home and the children surprising him and climbing all over him, a memory that is a favorite of Brent's.

And if this isn't sweet enough, Paul de Ceuninck van Capelle the second to the youngest chilld just older than Cherie is the bishop of the Hengelo Ward!

Front: Elders King & Taylor

Middle: Elders Yocom & Mower, Zusters Larsen, Anderson & Romig

Back: Elders Christensen, Pimentel, Loorbach, Burton, Bean, Suckow & Romig

District Meetings

 Each week we have a meeting with our District.  These meetings are held at the Amsterdam Kerk, and they last for about two hours and then we eat lunch together. It is at these meetings that we have grown to absolutely LOVE the Elders and Zusters in our district!  We are so impressed with the maturity and gospel understanding of these young missionaries!  We are sad to leave the Amsterdam District, but look forward with excitement toward the Groningen District.

Elder Mower with Elder and Zuster Romig

Elder Mower is our District Leader.  He leads each of our District Meetings with great skill, enthusiasm and spirituality.  A highlight for us was a "Group Circle" question, answer and discussion session.  Anyone could ask a question and anyone in the group could answer or discuss.

Elder King cooking our lunch after District Meeting. 

                                                       

Zuster Anderson making yummy cinnamon rolls

        

       Zuster Larsen, Elders Bean & Suckow helping

      while "patiently" waiting for the cinnamon rolls.

Amsterdam Church Services

This is the Amsterdam Kerk where all our Sunday Meetings and District Meetings take place as well as our JoVo Family Home Evenings and Institute Classes.

The Sacrament Meetings and Relief Society Meetings utilize this translation booth inside the chapel.  We have visitors from all over the world.  Dutch is spoken with translation done into English & Spanish. 

A taste of heaven in a whirlwind weekend...

 This weekend started with us taking a two and a half hour drive to the beautiful city of Groningen in the northern part of Holland.  It is located about 1/2 hour from Germany to the east and 1/2 hour south of the North Sea.  It is a university town and a northern port.

We met the Speks, the Senior Couple who will complete their mission in about two weeks.  They graciously showed us their home, knowing it would become ours when they leave.  They then took us to several places in Groningen, including the kerk  and the JoVo's Center. A highlight was driving to the monument at the spot where the first baptisms in Holland took place (Pictured above and below).

That evening we ate dinner with the Speks at the home of Bro. & Zr. Gout, the JoVo Directors for Germany and Holland.  After dinner we had some much needed JoVo training and Brent & Zanne spent the night with the Gouts.

We awoke to eat a typical bread, cheese and eggs breakfast with the Gouts, then followed them to church at the Leeuwarden Branch, about 60 kilometers from Groningen.  The Gouts were wonderfully warm and hospitable!  We can see that they will become dear friends and a great support to us during our time in Groningen and Leeuwarden!

Groningen has a fully functioning ward.  Pres. Robinson has asked us to attend in Leeuwarden and offer our support and service to build the branch there.

During the Sacrament portion of the meeting, the spirit was incredibly strong and sacred.  Following the Sacrament, the Branch President asked us each to introduce ourselves.  Brent bore a beautiful testimony and shared a bit of his ancestry roots in Dutch.  Suzanne introduced herself and bore her first simple testimony in a meeting in Dutch.  We felt, without question, that this was exactly where the Lord wishes for us to serve His children.

We left Leeuwarden and started the drive back to Amsterdam via the dijk.  We are very excited to return to Groningen and Leeuwarden and begin our service in this special part of Holland!

        This beautiful marker commemorates the first baptisms in the Netherlands on October 1, 1861.  It is located just outside Leeuwarden, and the baptisms took place in the turn of the canal.

                                                                                

Since the day we learned of our calling to Holland have waited for an opportunity to meet Zuster Rosenlof from Ridgecrest, CA. Our nephew, Matt Bishop works in the bishopric with Zr. Rosenlof's father.  Matt also
served here when he was a young man.

Zusters Rosenlof & Western serve in the Leeuwarden Branch where we will be serving.
                                                            

This picture of the countryside is not an uncommon sight...notice the old and the modern windmills. 
The Dutch have truly learned the value of harnessing this part of nature.  Holland is very
open and flat, and the wind often blows anywhere there isn't something to block it.

The beginning of the dijk on the east side.

Land is precious in the Netherlands, and the Dutch people reclaim much of their land from the sea.  There are cities in Holland that didn't exist when Brent was here as a young Elder, because the land was under water.

Here the dijk, holding the sea back, is even used for grazing sheep.

Courage is shown in THIS use of the wind!

From the top of the dijk you can see lake on the left and sea on the right. 
 Incredible Dutch ingenuity!

Sun on the North Sea at Den Helder

Brent has wonderful memories of serving in Den Helder with Elder Don Smart (who later became our head usher at our wedding reception.)  After crossing the dijk, we realized we were only a few miles from Den Helder, so we turned right and followed small country roads to the end of the land and found this beautiful, windy part of Brent's and Holland's history.

Brent had remembered that Den Helder had a beautiful lighthouse...we wandered
 in the car and on foot until we found it.  It was worth the effort!

Brent & Zanne with the lighthouse (and wind)

Battle fought between Dutch and English in 1799

We plan to return to Den Helder and visit the museum
at this old fort.  It looks like it stepped right out of a
historic novel with walls and a mote and all. A beautiful, picturesque place to sight see on a Sunday evening.

Brent at the old fort in Den Helder