Misc

More pictures in Rotterdam, Holland. This waterway was not frozen, but the canals were all frozen and there were kids skating on them just like we read about when we were studying in school and just like you see in movies like Hans Christian Andersen and Hans Brinker. It was so fun to see the kids having a ball.

Misc.

Flags along the waterway in Rotterdam Holland.
Some bldgs in Rotterdam.

Two pictures of the open air market in Mouscron. The market is open every Tues. morning come rain or shine. This particular day was very rainy so you can see the awnings over the food counters. The one with the blue awning is meat and fish, the yellow is fruits and veggies. We like to get up early and come here to shop before we go to our district mtg in Lille. We like the fresh fruit and veggies. We also like to buy a little chicken that is already roasted. It is so delicious. They sell 2 for 3,50 euro.(a great price). The workers call out to try to entice you to buy at their booth. They always call me Madame or Cherie. They call DH Monsieur. It's fun when one of them will speak a little English to us. They always think it's so hot in California all year long. You can buy some of the fruit and veggies at a good price, but meat and fish is very expensive. Food here, in general, is very expensive, at least twice what you would pay in the U.S. Meat is even more than that. Also, everything is sold by the kilo even if it is already packaged. We have to be very careful with our shopping.

The semi's attach to some of the food counters, which just fold up and move on to the next town or village. These were just a couple of the ones parked in the parking lot.

Misc.

Look at this fancy door to a home right next to the mission office in Brussels. I thought it was so pretty. Next is the front of a bldg. where they have church in Gouda, Holland.

The all glass bldg. is the Church Mission Office in Brussels, Belgium. The office is on the top floor. The garage is in the basement and is soooo narrow. You have to be a really good driver to park in that garage. Two cars cannot drive at the same time and pass each other. One car has to back up and wait.

I thought it would be fun to post my shopping from last week. This was food for the week minus the meat and fish, but we still have a lot of it left.

Natalia Zaneth

This is my new, little grand daughter. Isn't she just beautiful? She looks a lot like her Mommy. I am so excited. My arms are aching to hold her, but I will have to wait a long time for that. It was a pretty tense day waiting for her to be born and not being right there. I am so thankful that all went well in the end and I pray that she will grow up to be a strong latter-day saint, an upright citizen, that she will live the laws of God and of the land, be a frequent temple goer, and that some day she will be a wife and a Mommy to her own sweet children.

I already love this sweet, baby and am blessed to be her Grandma.

Look at that darling little mouth and all that hair. I know she is sooo soft and smells sooo good. There is something so awesome about newborn babies. I think it's because they just came from Heavenly Father and are so pure and innocent.

IT'S A GIRL

HURRAY! Natalia is here. It is 12:30a.m. Belgium time and I just found out that Emily had her little baby. She was born c-section at 2:26pm California time. She weighs 6pounds15ounces and is 19inches long. That's all I know. I am so grateful that everything went well and that both Mommy and baby are doing well. I wish I was there, but am so grateful that Anna and Sarah and Sybil were there for her. Andres went into the delivery room with her. Tx Mommy just called me and said that the Dr. said that she was only up to a 3 not a 4 in all those hours and never progressed further. I am really so happy that everything went well. My baby just had a baby. What an amazing thing. I will get to see her in an hour over skype. Thanks Anna.
I am excited to be a grandma again. Now I have 12 grandchildren and one great grandbaby on the way. I am a blessed woman.

Emily's in labor

Well, Emily has been in labor since last night. I got a call at 6:30a.m. from my friend's husband that her water had broken and she was admitted to the hospital. Here it is 9:45 in the evening and she has only progressed to a 4. I know first babies take a long time, but the baby is stressed whenever there is a contraction and now they are just waiting for the Dr. to see if she needs to have a c-section. I am quite worried of course. I wish if she has to have a c-section that they would just do it and have the baby. Emily also has to stay on her left side because if she goes on her back or on her right side, the baby goes into stress. They don't know if the baby is pressing on the cord or something like that. If you happen to read my blog, please have a prayer for Emily that she and the baby will be fine. Thanks.

It's soooooo cold and other things.

This is what we woke up to on Jan. 2, 2009. It had snowed overnight. It snowed again on the 4th and again today. The temps are about -6C although tonight it will be much colder. The picture to the L is out our back window. I love the way the trees look all covered in snow. Next is the construction site across the street.

Our street sure looks cold. The cars are all iced over every morning. We have to scrape the windows to even see where we are going. I know all of you Utah family and friends are used to it, but it's all new to us. We are not used to such cold weather.

We had an awesome zone conference last Thursday. Zone conf. is when all the missionaries from a zone meet together with the Mission Pres and have a day of instruction, of encouragement, of spiritual strengthening, and of doctrinal education. After a lunch of these yummy sandwitches(below), chips fruits and dessert, we spent the afternoon listening to our President Woodland as he instructed us about the atonement. He reminded us how sacred partaking of the sacrament is. Those who bless and pass the sacrament in effect pass the power of the atonement to the congregation, as the purpose of the sacrament is to renew our covenants which make the atonement effective in our lives. He described how olive oil is produced. Gethsemane means the oil press. Under intense pressure from the vat, the olives release the oil which is red in color as it comes out, symbolically pointing to the red blood of Christ whose capillaries and skin had to be broken for the blood to fall on the ground. At the last day when we stand in front of Him for judgement, He will ask us what did you do with my agony to help the people around you? Therefore the necessity for us to give our heart, might, mind, and strength to bring souls to Him.

This is how my lettuce came from the open market, only it is about 1/10th the size it was to start out with. It was so funny to see the roots still in their soil. I watered the lettuce when it started getting a little wilty and it just perked right up. This is how fresh it was after 2 whole weeks. I love it.


We have some very nice neighbors to whom we gave a missionary discussion. The husband said he really wasn't too interested because he doesn't think that God has done anything for him and he doesn't like that there are so many wars, unrest etc. His wife was a bit more receptive. We hope that eventually he will realize that God has and does things for him each day, such as lending him breath from day to day, that he may live and move and do according to his will and supporting him from moment to moment, etc. Anyway David and Stephanie and their daughter Manon are good people and we enjoy talking to them. We went back on New Year's Day and brought them some grape juice and a box of chocolates. We had a nice visit with them.

Several days later, on Sunday we were sitting in our apt., in the afternoon, after church, and I was a little sad being away from everyone. I said to DH, "...wouldn't it be nice if someone invited us over sometimes." Not 10 minutes later there was a knock on the door and it was Manon inviting us over to have some Galette au Roi (The King's Cake) with them. When we said when? she said, "Maintenant" (Now). Well we were so happy to go. We had a nice visit with them. We went and ate the special cake, which they serve for the day of the Magi (they said they didn't really know what it was, but I looked it up and it's a celebration of when the Magi brought gifts to the Christ child.) Inside the cake is a huge horse bean and the person who gets it is the royalty for the day. On top of the cake is a gold, paper crown. David got the bean, wore the crown for a minute or so and quickly passed it to his daughter. We hope that eventually this fine family will be receptive to our message.

Our calling is going to be a bit of a challenge. First of all the name is going to be Center for Young Adults. We are now working on getting official approval to open up the center in Lille. We are working with a couple who are monitoring and participating in the EU (European Union) and they are working directly under the leadership of the presidency of the european area. We are also working on getting funding, furnishings, computers, games, equipment, planning activites, getting staffing and so forth. We are projecting that it will take about 6 months for the full implementation of the program. In fact, we are going to Holland this saturday to get training. Even though this will be a challenge, it will happen and will be successful because it is the will of the Lord and what the Lord wants will be. He will compensate for our deficiencies as long as we do all we are able to do.