Zone Conferences - Belgium/Netherlands Mission

 

With COVID-19 slowing down enough to allow travel across borders, we were invited to help

train missionaries in the Belgium/Netherlands Mission. The mission president asked me to help the 

missionaries learn skills about having effective companionships and the safe use of technology in today's world. The mission home is in Gouda, Netherlands so we stayed at a hotel there.

Most of the Netherlands seems to be built upon soil with very high water tables and sometimes

old foundations shift or wood pilons rot.  Case in point, see the church steeple in the picture above.

Gouda City Hall

Gouda has been a center of cheese production and distribution in this part of the Netherlands 

for hundreds of years. We learned the way most pronounce it (Gooda), is really Gowda. Some say Howda. 

This building was the center of that business and the carved stone shows 

rounds of cheese being weighed by merchants before sale.

Zone Conferences are groups of missionaries in geographic regions that come together every couple of months for instruction on how to become more effective disciples and missionaries for the Savior.

This mission held three different zone conferences over three days in different locations in the Netherlands.  Day one was in the town of Breda.

The last time I had trained missionaries at a zone conference was in 1975 in Liverpool, England.

I was a zone leader for the last eight months of my mission and provided training at zone conferences  often. It was exhilarating to be with missionaries directly instead of over the phone. 

President and Sister Buysse on the far left are the mission leaders for this mission. 

They are from Belgium themselves and are wonderful people. Both were raised as strict 

Catholics and they joined the church when they were newly married.

Day two took us North to the beautiful town of Apeldoorn. We loved the energy of these missionaries who have sacrificed so much to serve their missions. Their humble testimonies were amazing.

Day three took us south again to the town of Zoetermeer near the Haag and the temple. There was sister missionary who I had worked with (in Italy) who came over to say hello. She was from Holland and just completed her mission. She had heard that we were at the zone conference and came by to say hello. 

It was very good to see her again.

It was amazing to have my beautiful companion with me during these zone conferences and be doing them together.  She was such a support to me 46 years ago when I served in England and is doing so much now to not only fulfill her assignment in Europe, but also assist me.

Mission leaders are called to serve for three years and President and Sister Buysse will 

finish their mission in July of 2021, also.

Canals are everywhere in the Netherlands and we enjoyed one of last evenings walking around and marveled at the STOCKS still in place where people were punished for crimes.

Fortunately, eating this amazing Dutch apple pie wasn't a crime at our dinner in the market square of Gouda. Yumm.