Dinner at the Mission Leader's Home

We have needed a few days to cool off and catch the spirit again. We experience a very emotional and upsetting evening Friday. It is very frustrating to hear people having a conversation and no one is listening or even trying to understand the other persons point of view let alone letting him finish a sentence. Ben was doing the translating and I was trying to catch my breath the whole time.
Satan really works hard here in Antwerpen to stop the work and contention seems to be his favorite tool even within the church. It is very simple to invite the spirit to leave, it really only takes a few minutes and then the adversary happily jumps right in and stays.

Yesterday we both had to teach. Ben in Priesthood and I in Relief Society. The lesson title was: Living with Others in Peace and Harmony. I was really worried about how this lesson would be received after Friday night but I was pleasantly surprised. The spirit in Relief Society was very strong and everyone seemed to catch the vision of working together side by side. Are these sisters suffering from split personalities and only letting the good one come out on Sundays? Ben only got a little bit of grumbling but he was able to handle it beautifully. One of the questions posed to him by a so called active returned missionary members would really surprise you. He asked: "What if your conscience tells you to do something different than what the Prophet tells you, what should you do?" (Duh!!!!! maybe their inspiration comes from the wrong source, we know where the Prophet's inspiration comes from).

After church we headed to our ward mission leader's home for our weekly meeting with him. This sweet man is so dedicated and works his fingers to the bone keeping up the building and doing odd jobs in the ward (without pay that is) He does not speak a word of English and that has been difficult for him especially when some of the baptisms are handled in English. The people who come into this country illegally won't learn Dutch even when they have been here for 10 or 20 years. Dutch classes are offered in the stake every week but does not do a bit of good if they don't come or if they do come and do not speak another word of Dutch until class the following week. They would be so much better off learning the language. When we first came into the U.S. we were dumped right into school and no one translated for us. That was the best way for us to learn the language. My parents also insisted that we as children spoke only English at home.

You can see by the picture that it is pretty hard to stick to a diet when desserts are served. Refusing any food would be a big insult. It was a great meal. Typical European potatoes and spinach mashed together and smothered with "sauce" (gravy) Served with "Knak Worst" (Dutch sausage). Also with us there for dinner was a young man who just moved here from Amsterdam and only recently joined the church.