Friends and Family

Sunday, April 25, 2015

Missionaries measure their life while on their mission much as we do our own lives.  Let me explain.  They are "born" in whatever town they first serve in.  Their "parents" are the missionaries who train them.  if they have more than one trainer the second one is their "step parent".  Their brothers and sisters are the missionaries with whom they serve.  They "die" in  whatever city they last serve in.  

Therfore, within this context we have a missionary who is dying this week.  Elder Jordan Brown will be completing his mission on Wednesday.  He and his companion, Elder Christiansen, were the first younger missionaries to be in Charleville-Mézières for over 8 years.  He was a great missionary.  He worked hard.  Lived what he taught and was very obedient.  We will miss him.  After church we are celebrating his "life".  

At our last district meeting on Tuesday we took a dying picture and "family" pictures.  What a great group of missionaries.  There is a lot of love in our group, just like a family.

The day after our district meeting we headed to Brussels to pick up Lynn's mother, Ann, from the airport.  We visited Kate on the way since she lives in Belgium and gave her the Home Teaching message for April.  As always we enjoyed visiting her.

Back on the road we stopped briefly at the above statue.  Just like Elder Brown met his last challenge in Charleville.  Napoleon Bonaparte met his in Waterloo, just south of Brussels.  This monument was erected in commemoration of his defeat by the Duke of Wellington.  We did not visit the site but we did stop for a picture.

When we got to Brussels we stayed with our friend, Elder Glen Steenblik.  His wife was in the States for their son's graduation from a PhD program.  She returned the following day and we had time to meet with her.  Elder Steenblik had to teach an institute class that evening.  As Ed had never been to an institute class before we were happy to attend.  We were also happy to help out with the food.  Elder and Sister Steenblik  always provide a meal for the students.  Because his wife was away we had a simple fair - sandwiches, veggies, fruit, muffins and chips.  It was a great night and we really enjoyed the class.

Of course, since we were in Brussels we did take a couple of hours to see some of the sights while Glen was finishing his lesson preparations.  We walked to a park where there was an archway commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of independence from the Netherlands.  

We also took the time to visit this car museum which was right beside the independence arch.  There were cars of all kinds in it.  We saw cars and motorcycles from the very earliest days of motor transportation to today's cars.  It was awesome.

So cool!  The stage is the large door to the trailer and it all closes up in the end and Voila!  A travelling Band!

The next morning we went with Glen to the Brussels airport and picked up Lynn's mom and Jayne.  Coincidentally, they both landed within about 30 minutes of each other.  What a busy airport.  Ann had a great flight, enjoying every minute of it.  She said they fed her constantly and she couldn't get over how big the plane was.  We headed back to the Steenbliks where they shared a light lunch with us.  

We  headed back home and got back into the groove of missionary life.  We had the missionaries over for supper.  We went over their week - some successes and some not so successful things.  That's the life of a missionary.  This week our District Leader focused on how to measure Success.  He did a great job.  

Ed made some appointments for Home Teaching visits.  

Mom and Ed with Paulette Dampt.  We helped a little with their garden at their home in La Chesne.

We had set up a visit with Frère et Soeur Dampt.  We did our Home Teaching and were able to help in the garden for a short time.  We were also able to give Soeur Dampt a blessing to help with her health.  We had a quick lunch of quiche, sausage and veggies and headed back to Charleville for an appointment with an investigator. 

Lynn and I joined the missionaries for a missionary lesson.  As usual it was a great experience.  The lady we were teaching loves the church and the Book of Mormon.  She came to church today and Lynn picked her up. She seemed to really enjoy it. 

Ed was able to do some more service when Laurent called.  He could not get to meeting because his car had broken down.  Ed drove out to the hospital where Laurent works to help him.  Unfortunately, he had left his lights on.  They drove to his father's place, retrieved some jumper cables and Laurent was back on the road after a long day in the operating road.

Keith and Louise Woodrow with us at Place Ducale

On Saturday we were blessed by a visit from our good friends Keith and Louise Woodrow from Lethbridge.  Keith had been invited to play at an international blues festival in Norway.  He and Louise took the opportunity to visit their daughter Karen and family in the Netherlands.  Karen is teaching at a NATO school there.  We are only 2 hours from there and so they came down to spend the day with us.  We went around town and stopped at a little café-terrasse for a drink.  They stayed overnight with us.  We had a wonderful visit with Keith and Louise.  

Today we all went to church.  We had a great time and had a snack afterward to say goodbye to Elder Brown.  We will truly miss him.

Ann was engulfed in French during church but enjoyed the experience.  We are taking the train to Paris for a Zone Conference at 4:00 p.m.

Au revoir for this week!

Lyndi-lou and Eddie, too.