For a holiday service project we decided to make fleece blankets to give to children in a rehab center. Ramon and Elder Guanuna make cuts along the edge of the fleece to tie knots.
Elder Mueller and Sjaak get into the project also.
Jan chose a tables where girls were working for obvious reasons.
That blanket certainly looks colorful. The Batman theme will delight some sick little boy.
Kim finds working with an injured right hand somewhat of a handicap, but she doesn't use it as an excuse. Laura and Sjaak are engaged to be married in December. They've chosen the London temple, where she served her mission, to be sealed.
We have a new member! Godfred was baptized on November 20th in Amsterdam. Sister Jeffs and Sister Larson taught him the lessons and challenged him to be baptized. Their smiling faces reflect the joy of seeing one of their investigators accept the gospel.
Elder Beckstrand and I welcome Godfred into the Young Adult program. He is 23 years old - one of our "Jonge Volwassen".
Monday rolls quickly around again and the blanket project continues. Lindsay (left) and Vanessa (center) have joined us this week from Almere.
Jan and David (brothers in real life, not just the gospel) show Elder Beckstrand how to tie the knots.
Roland is stitching some fun cartoon characters onto this plain brown blanket. Elder Mueller is having trouble threading his needle. Can I give you a hand, Elder?
Elder Guanuna and Isabelle work on a blanket together.
Ramon is determined to finish the blanket he started last week. I'm impressed at how well the boys have taken to this project. They're working just as hard as the girls.
Kim and Lindsay take a moment for a photo-op. Kim (left) is an amazing FHE chairperson. She works so hard to be sure the young people enjoy the FHE activities.
The following day we served Thanksgiving dinner to the elders and sisters (sisters? I can't see any..) at district meeting. They were so excited to have turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade rolls, sweet potatoes, salad, and pumpkin or apple pie for dessert. What a feast! We had 17 at our table.
Then the next night we did it all again! Sister Panktratz was an angel and came from Rijnsburg to help us. Elder Beckstrand is cutting up the turkey while Sister Pankratz gets the mix master ready to mash the potatoes.
The food is laid out on the table and LOTS of hungry Dutch young adults enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving feast. We had the best attendance of the year - a total of 41!
It was fun to see the young people enjoying each others' association as they ate their meal. The cultural hall at the Amsterdam church was full to overflowing.
Jan is back for seconds. I was curious how these Dutch kids would like stuffing since sage isn't a familiar flavor to them. It had mixed reviews, but most of them tried it. Also true of the sweet potato casserole and the pumkin pies. Maybe we could make Americans out of them if we had enough time.
Those plates look pretty full. These young people can put away a LOT of food!
This is our Ghanaian investigator with Sister Larson. At first she called me "Mom", now she's changed my title to "Auntie".
These young men express their appreciation of the food. Thanks guys!
Kim looks about ready to head back for more.
Elder and Sister Pankratz finally get a chance to sit down and eat. This is the 'old folks' table. Of course Mathea isn't old, but she came to sit with her father so he wouldn't be among strangers. She graciously consented to teach the institute lesson tonight for Brother Noot.
It has been a crazy couple of weeks, but everything went so well that it leaves me with a very satisfied, grateful feeling for the opportunity to serve these amazing young people.
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