Windmills, Windmills Everywhere

We went looking for Elder Beckstrand's 1962 apartment in Schiedam and saw the windmill that ranks in the Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest windmill in the world.  This windmill actually was rebuilt around 1980 because the original was badly damaged in a fire.   It was beautiful - and HUGE.

Sadly, the apartment building where Elder Beckstand lived was no longer there.  He remembered the address exactly, but the building was no longer at that address.  It made him quite sad to see that it was gone.

This is the area in Schiedam where he originally lived.  A large canal runs through the middle of the neighborhood.

Our next stop was at Kinderdijk, which is an area that has a total of 19 windmills (pinpointed on the above map).  They were not as tall, but they were plentiful!  Windmills in every direction you looked.

Although it was a cold winter day, the sky was a beautiful bright blue and really set off the windmills as they posed for their picture to be taken.

The purpose of the large number in a concentrated area was for drainage of water from the surrounding agricultural area.  The windmills pumped the water from the fields and poured it out into the canals.  This allowed the farmers to use the land for their crops.  It was an impressive sight!

Five more in this direction.

Some cute Chinese girls on Christmas break from college volunteered to take this picture of us beside the windmills. 

Another nice, fat one.

The area around the base of this windmill was beautifully landscaped and had several cute out-buildings.  There was definitely someone living there.

Yes, we're happy to be here.  And in case you think there isn't really any missionary work going on, keep reading.

In the evening we went to Rotterdam to witness the baptism of two young men.  This boy (second from the left) is Young Adult Age (ah-hah!) and will be joining our center here in Rotterdam.  He is originally from Portugal and doesn't speak English or Dutch.  This will present somewhat of a communication challenge.

The fellow on the far right was the other convert who was baptized.  He is older, so we won't be working directly with him.  The two missionaries in the center taught them.  Elder Owens (second from the left) is our Zone Leader, and a great young man from Burley Idaho.  He and Elder Robinson are assigned to the Rotterdam Center for Young Adults so we interact with them on a regular basis.  They are great missionaries.  And the work goes on.....