Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The Beauties of Spring in Europe

Our assignments and responsibilities sometimes require us to travel over 100 miles. Such was the case this past weekend. On Friday we needed to go north to visit a new missionary couple, the Saldens, near Hilversum. They had just arrived in our mission on Tuesday. We had lunch with them while we got acuainted. They come from California. Elder Salden is a native Dutchman from the Limburg area. We are happy to have them here with us. After visiting with them we stopped at the Muiderslot castle. It was first built in about 1290 and was rebuilt in its present form in 1370. It is one of the best preserved medieval castles in the Netherlands. It is located on the banks of the river Vecht and the former Zuiderzee. We didn't have time to tour the castle, but it will be an intriguing future treat.

The next day we drove to the US run military airbase in southern Belgium called Chievre. It is near Mons and the French border. We drove past hundreds of newly plowed fields and and others with crops emerging from the rich dark soil. We were a bit disappointed that the weather was foggy for part of the day, but cleared up later. It was nice to see the leaves on the trees again and things coming to life.

On Sunday we only had to drive 25 miles to Gouda for a Young Adult church service and Advisory Council meeting. We had a good meeting and made plans for the upcoming month. Monday was our preparation day, so we helped transport the missionary district to Keukenhof. It was even better than before. Many more flowers were in bloom. We had a marvelous time. One of the Elders lost his backpack, but a good Dutchman found it and was taking it to the security when we called the cell phone that was in the pack. No one answered, but shortly thereafter there was a return call. The man asked if we knew someone who was missing a pack? We were delighted to acknowledge that it belonged to one of our party. We soon had the pack back, including the wallet (with cash) inside, back in our possession. We all rejoiced.

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