We are being transfered to Leeuwarden

Well the word is final. The mission President wants us to move up to Leeuwarden in the very northern part of the Netherlands next week. (about a three hour drive from here) He had us go up there last weekend to check on a few things and now we will be living there. Ben will be teaching Institute which is just where he needs to be. We will also be traveling a lot and visiting different branches and wards. We will be part of the Leeuwarden branch as well at the Groningen ward. There will be a lot of traveling involved to some far out places visiting in-actives as well as helping out in the branch and ward. Right now we usually put just a little less than 2000 kilometers on the car each month but the couple we are replacing usually travel about 4000 kilometers. Thank heaven for our GPS, and gas prices have come down to about $7.50 a gallon which was about $9.00 a gallon when we got here a year ago. There are no Elders serving in Leeuwarden so we will be the only missionaries there.

Things here in Antwerpen have really changed. The Elders were pulled out of the area last week and the ward was happy to still have us. We just told them of our leaving and that did not go over well at all. We have created a bond with the ward and it will be hard to leave, but this is all part of serving a mission. I keep remembering the song we sang at the sacrament meeting just before we left the states. "I'll go where you want me to go dear Lord" O.K. so here we go. There are some really nice things about this move however, our new apartment is on the 7th floor and it has an elevator. Hurray!!!!! This climbing the stairs bit has really gotten old.
Also we will be back in our homeland, something we had hoped for all along.

The picture was taken from the balcony of our new apartment. It has a marvelous view and so peaceful just watching the boats traveling along the canal. A little bit of heaven on earth if you ask me. We have already made friends with neighbors on both sides and it will be a great adventure. It will be like a shot in the arm and we are both very excited about it all. I know we thought we would serve here in Belgie for the whole time but this will be a good move.