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!