January 14th, Wednesday - 16 MONTHS -
E. Schaffer and I went to Santpoort and held two CM Mev. Zijestra (in bed)(Book of Mormon) - Men. De Leeuw (very good meeting - celestial marriage - very good questions) We came home, met Elders V. Kampen and Brewster, and all ate together (lekker soep and rijst). Then Elder V. Kampen and I took the fietzen and went across the “pont” to Velsen-Noord, CM with a young man there. Talked about Book of Mormon (useless). Then we continued on to Heemskerk where we held a good (utrecht) CM (Book of Mormon Lesson on flannel-board) with Mev. Verstraeten and daughter. Then E.V. Kampen and I raced home to try to make the 5:30 train but missed it by about 15 minutes. E. Schaffer and I held two good CM that evening - both Book of Mormon - one from a G.B.
January 15th, Thursday
We fietzden to Santpoort (CM with Men. V.O. Wel. word of wisdom, “The Mormon Story”) Then we rode through Santpoort zuid almost to Bloemendaal for a CM with an old couple - Book of Mormon terug - 1:00. We fietzden home the scenic route (old castle). In the afternoon we held two good CM - Mev. Bos (Book Of Mormon, Godhead, DOOP, etc), Mev. Bes (salvation army- DOOP, Lesson 3) - 5:30. I returned home (it had snowed good that day-dry snow for once - and the kids got us to pull them on their sleds with our bikes - hard work). Then we held two CM that evening - one fairly good one (Stevens-Indonesian) Book of Mormon Lesson.
January 16th, Friday
We had two CM in the morning (niets); three that afternoon (one good - Apostousche). That evening we had one ADP fall through - held one lousy CM next door (call-back), and then Fietzden out to Santpoort for a meeting with V.D. Hoeven (the boy who was enthused last week, believed everything). He had lost a lot of his testimony since then; he had read an anti-mormon book, and had wondered about lots of things. He lived in a mansion, and his father didn't want anything to do with us. But let us in for a CM - (filthy rich)
January 17th, Saturday
We tracted in the morning, 2 CM (1st visits - niets weer). We ate pannekoeken for the middag-maal, and went to Santpoort for an appointment (Fell Through). WE watched the Jongens and Meisjes ice skating in the fields and then Liesje and I walked through Velserbeek. E. Schaffer and I went to a chow that evening. (“wichita”)
January 18th, Sunday
E. Winkel and Cheney came in the morning (vergissing) - and we all rode to the church in Haarlem in Men. Speks auto. (10:30-12:00) We returned and had a heerlijk maaltijd here at home; and then we went to an appointment, which fell through. We tracted and held one CM - fairly good. Then we attended a service in the old Hervormd Church - 1300 A.D. - in Velsen-Oecumenische Dienst- Dominee De Roest. We visited for a while, went to bed early.
January 19th, Monday
We tracted and held two CM, one good, family Tanis (3k). Then we held 4 CM that afternoon (niets biszonders) We had hutspot that evening and later held two CM - Men. Koppen, BOFM lesson, and family Hordijk (Wereld-dienst) BOFM lesson - good Cm. Very small sect - don't eat meat, seasoning cooked vegetables, etc. - odd looking couple - 11:30
January 20th, Tuesday
E. Schaffer was sick in the morning so I did a lot of studying. We held 3 Cm (2 in Buurt-fair), one good one with Mev. Bes - BOFM lesson (salvation army daughter). We had a good dinner and held one CM that evening, Koremans. We finished up the lesson plan with lessons 2 and 3, but they still don’t believe in anything. She still baked leager tarts though - 10:30
January 21st, Wednesday
We stayed in again in the morning (sickness and hurricane). Then in the afternoon we fietzden out to Benerwijk-fair, CM. Then we further to Heemskerk (with the wind - uiteindilijk) We held a good CM with Mev. Groot-verstralien, Lesson 5 on the flannel board, very good acceptance. We returned home, stopped for a short CM in Beverwijk - fietzden home against the lousy wind - kracht 8 - That evening we talked with family Bosman, BOFM lesson 5; and Den-ouoen-v.ry-inleiding to Lesson 6 - Interested discussion - Very strong wind all day - a little mot-regen - terrible.
January 22nd, Thursday
Donderag - The wind was still blowing like mad, and we fietzed to Santpoort against the wind. There we had a good CM with Men. V.D. Wel, who was thinking seriously about baptism (We gave him a call to repentance lesson. Woord Van Wijsheid - tiende, etc.). We tracted further without luck. In the afternoon we held 2 fair CM - Lange-nievwestraat - one standing in the kitchen (lekker vleks reuk) Then we hels a stand up, one hour talk with a Niguwe-Apostol-Ische - 6:00. That evening our two appointments had fallen through (via telephone), so we tracted - Scheldestraat. We held two CM, one lousy, one very good, family Heiligers. (3k lesson) - 10:30 (model cars)
January 23rd, Friday
We held one CM that morning, 3 in the afternoon, one of them a 5th lesson with Gerritsens (fair). The other two were not too good. That evening we met with family Kroonenberg (since our last meeting that had had an addition to the family - a baby boy). We gave them an introduction to lesson 6 - good CM. (They are very nice people - very friendly.
January 24th, Saturday
Zaterdag - We tracted and held two CM that morning (one girl - radio operator - BOFM) , one staunch catholic (BOFM) - niets. That evening, or afternoon we went to Beverwijk to shop around for new suits. (Chris-Duins); recommended by our hospita. E. Schaffer bought a nice scotch plaid suit - (F. 189.00 - discount to F. 155.00); and I got a nice suit (F.109.00 - discount to F85.00) . We got them altered and bought some other things. I bought a shirt for F.9.50. We fietzden home, ate dinner and relaxed at home - to bed early - (studied for church the next day)
January 25th, Sunday
WE studied, waited for the Elders from Amsterdam; 10:00, and then fietzden to the Culterele Gebouw. Elder V. Dam and Wight came, and we had to fiets then achterop (bag and all), against the wind. Three people showed up; 2 koremans and Men. V.D. Wel. Elders Wight and V.D. Dam spoke (10:30-11:30). They had to return to Amsterdam, and E. Schaffer and I went home to a lekker meal (biefstuk-aardappelen-doop-
January 26th, Monday
My companion and I were both a little sick in the morning so we stayed until 10:30 and then had a CM with family Tanis - BOFM lesson. In the afternoon we held one CM; with Men. Schouten - Lesson 6 ½ - very interested. That evening we held 2 CM; one with a Men. De Vries, very nice man; the other with family Jonker - both young and very intelligent (BOFM lesson) 10:30. Weather turning cold and foggy.
January 27th, Tuesday
Elders V. Kamden and Brewster came in the morning and I went with E.V. Kamden to Santpoort for a talk with Men. V.D. Wel. He had been to church the Sunday before, was trying to live by word of wisdom, etc. and still wanted to be baptized. We held one more CM with a very indifferent man and fietzden home for lunch. They had to leave that afternoon, so E. Schaffer and I tracted and held 4 CM. One with Mev. V. Essen (nice old lady - Godhead lesson), then we held another on the Kanaaldijk, and two more close by - one no good, the other fair. That evening we only held one CM (Family Hordijk-Wereld Dienst - BOFM Terus). (Cat smell, no meats, etc.) - 11:30
January 28th, Wednesday
We went to Santpoort and had one good CM with Mev. De Leevw - review of Lesson 5. That afternoon we fietzden out to Heemskerk for a CM with Mev. Groot (still in bed). “Mormon Story”, introduction to lesson six. We had another CM in Beverwijk on the way home. That evening my companion was sick and we didn’t go out to our appointments. I visited with Mev. V.D. Heijden for a while, studied, took a shower, and went to bed early - Just getting over my cold. Still lousy, misty weather.
January 29th, Thursday
We fietzden to Santpoort in the morning, late, and held one CM with a crazy old lady (dumb as I’ve seen - I tried to give her a Godhead lesson but it was useless). That afternoon we held 3 CM (Roozekruisers - Mev. Mayor - Gysewveld Plansen 65 - didn’t believe in doop opstanding, etc.) Then we talked with a Catholic (nix), and then with two crazy guys - interesting! That evening it was so foggy and misty that we couldn’t see 6 feet in front of us (literally). Cars and bicycles were afraid to travel any more and were stopped along the road.
We sliced our way through and held one CM with family Koremans, “The Mormon Story”. Then we cut another swath through the fog clear to Santpoort to talk with Johannes V.D. Hoenen (filthy rich young man) He had been to church in Haarbin - We talked about the Book of Mormon - Spardling manuscript - and Godhead - till 11:30. We cut our way through the fog and returned safely home - The whole day you could hear the fog horns out on the canal - a whole canal full of boats - and not knowing where they were going - really noisy.
January 30th, Friday
My companion was sick in the morning so we stayed in and visited with the Hospita (she was also sick). In the afternoon we went out for a while (2 short CM) but returned early. It had been foggy all day, and really started to get bad that night. After supper Men. Spek and I left in the auto to attend a baptismal in Amsterdam.
We left at 7:00 but had to travel carefully because we couldn’t see 5 feet in front of us. The fog was really terrible and the glare of the headlights against it made the lights almost worthless. We rode slowly and almost went off the road a few times but got to Amsterdam at 8:00. There were four people baptized, 2 ladies and 2 children (V. Rijswijk (daughter) - Le Frandt (son) - Men. V.D. Wel was there and 4 student friends of his. He liked the meeting - 9:00. Mev. Spek and I rode back in the car; this time through Haarlem - safer; lights on the road. Visited - went to bed.
January 31st, Saturday
I left alone on the train and went to Amsterdam for a class at 10:00 - 12:00. We had a written text via E. Brewster. Then we all walked downtown to the “Five Flies” restaurant where we had a room reserved. We all ordered pizza pies, which were huge and also delicious - reduced price by Br. Meyer - F 2.00 or about 60 cents. We also took a tour through the wine cellar and restaurant, and then walked back to the Weteringschem. We studied for a while, I caught a tram and train for home and arrived at about 6:00. We talked and studied - went to bed early.
February 1st, Sunday
We visited E.V. Kampen and Brewster from Amsterdam and they arrived about 9:45 - We all left in the car with Men. Spek for the Culturek Gebouw for our church service - 10:30. Only one other investigator showed up - Men. V.D. Hoene from Santpoort. The meeting went all right - E.V. Kampen on the organ (stolen from “J. W. s”) We stayed in the rest of the day - we ate a herlyke meal together (lambs vlees - amdappelen-spinach bla pear) Then we studied, talked, wrote letters, etc. The weather had turned clear and cold, but the sun shone all day -
February 2nd, Monday
We held one CM S’moyers, and two in the afternoon (one fairly good). That evening we shared a BOFM film to Mev. Hertig (dumb-no good) - and gave a BOFM lesson to family Heiligers, a very nice family. Speak good English - interested.
February 3rd, Tuesday
We held a CM with Men. V.A. Wel in the morning (gave him a D&C). He had some good questions; had been to church the week before, and still was thinking seriously about being baptized. We visited Mej. Gerritsen, then returned home for lunch (our ears and cheeks were about frozen off). We held a good CM that afternoon with Mev. Bes, talked over BOFM (goed gelezen). We tracted further without any luck. That evening we fietzed over the “Pont” to beverwijk for two CM (one BOFM- niets - one other weer niets). Very cold weather - clear skies - no rain.
February 4th, Wednesday
We fietzed to Santpoort for a CM with Mev. De Leevw (the lion). We held a very good CM there with her - purpose of church, etc. Then that afternoon we talked to Mev. V.A. Heyden during lunch, and she said that she was serious about being batized - Men. Spek was also thinking seriously about baptism - had given up alcohol. He had been reading the BOFM very well. Then we went out and held two CM. One with Mev. V. Essen, nice old lady - lesson 5. Then we saw the “oranje” going out. Big ship in the Dutch passenger fleet. We rushed home, I got my camera, and took some pictures of it. It was the biggest ship we had seen in the canal and one of the biggest that come to Amsterdam. We also saw a ship being pulled in that was just about sinking. We went across the ferry to Heemskerk to an appointment there, all the way fietzing against a heavy wind - cold too. We held a CM there with Mev. De Groot (out of bed from her wlier). We talked a lot about catholics and hoe groot een ver-foeilyk de Katholicke kerk was. Her mother and father were still there but were planning on returning to Utrecht that week. Her mother, Mev. Verstraeten is planning on being baptized in Utrecht. We returned home, with the wind. That evening we held three CM - good BOM lesson, V. Breda - talks with Men. Koppen and family Kraan - BOM. 11:30
February 5th, Thursday
We held two CM in the morning - crazy Mev. Blok + railroad station. That afternoon we spoke to Mev. Bos over doop, erfzonde, etc. Interesting Cm. We held one more CM - niets. That evening we held a CM with Men. Mosk and family from Beverwijk. They were “Hersteld Apostolische” and we gave them a BOFM lesson. Their teachings are very similar to ours - including baptism for the dead. Then we talked with fmaily Tams - they had visited from Schoonzoon so we didn’t have a chance to give a lesson. The weather turned misty and foggy and cold - the temperature was only -5 C but it was so wet and misty that the cold went right through the layers of coats and sweaters - 11:00
February 6th, Friday
We held one useless CM ‘Smorgens, two fair CM that afternoon ~ one Gereformeeid lady, one with two Men (students) very interesting (BOFM lesson 5 - alles). That evening we talked to family Steervensz over the BOFM and we went to family Kroonenberg but they had visitors so we weren’t able to talk too much about the gospel. We talked about war, Russia, eels, fish, etc. - Returned home very late - lock was broke - had to wake familie up to get in the house. In by 11:30.
February 7th, Saturday
We tracted in the morning and held one fair CM. We studied, wrote letters, visited, and then in the evening went to the show - Hercules - in italian. We couldn’t understand it but the script was written in Dutch - the show was very lousy though - vroeg noor bed.
February 8th, Sunday
We took a train to Haarlem and attended Priesthood meeting and Sunday School (9:00-12:00). We went to Zr. Koths - 4 of us (Manwaring, Beckstead, Schaffer and I). We ate a Heerlyke meal and visited and then went achterop the fietz to the church. Elders Dam and Eastman spoke. We talked to the Elders foven the church - sang - and then returned home, 8:00. The family had just returned from the church in Amsterdam. We visited inv and returned early.
February 9th, Monday
We held 3 CM that morning - one good one, and then after dinner (HUTSPOT), had a CM with Men. Schouten - 6th lesson (very good). Then we held a CM with an English lady (Mrs. Moss) BOFM lesson. She had a cute little dog (yorkshire terrier). Very nice lady. That evening we held one CM with family Koremans -they want to believe but can’t?
February 10th, Tuesday
Elders Brewster and V. Kampen came to visit us and Elder Brewster had no luck tracting in the morning. We did visit a member, zr. Boes. We all ate Stampot and then E.V. Kempen and I held 2 CM; one good one with Men. Bes (family - daughter!) I gave them a 6th lesson; very good acceptance. That evening we went to Santpoort and held one CM - fair. Other call backs fell through, we got some “patut’frites” and went home early
February 11th, Wednesday
We held a class with each other in the morning and held a lousy CM. That afternoon we held a good CM with Mev. E. Essen - BOFM lesson (she brought a copy f. 4.65). We held another fair CM on the Kanaaldyk and then fietzden to Beverwijk where we visited some members. We visited Zr. Massee (niets); and then her mother, Zr. V. Zeben. We ate there - fish, potatoes, carrots, etc. (fair - to my companion, not so good). That evening our appointment fell through and we tracted without luck - returned early - visited and went to bed early.
February 12th, Thursday
We went to Santpoot for a meeting with Men. V.D. Wel - We had a good CM. Listened to South Pacific records, and were invited to stay there for dinner. We ate Bami - and then went to Ljmuiden and held two CM (hele maal niets) that evening we met with Men. Barbiers, he gave us our BOFM back. Then our other appointment fell through (Men. Kroonenberg was sick) We went to a call back with “J.W.” and had a long talk about just about everything - opstanding. Weather report! “Lousy” - mist and fog and cold for the past two weeks - frost half an inch thick on the trees, pretty but cold. (ijssel) - no name for it in English. They don’t have that sort of stuff in America.
February 13th, Friday
We held 2 CM that morning - fair - and 2 that afternoon - one was with a Mee Geregormeerd lady and the other was with a lady from the Pinkster Gemeente - HET VOLLE EVANGELIE - “are you a child of GOd” - we talked for a while and exchange brochures. That evening we tracted and held one fairly good CM (Valmes - BOFM) Then our appointment fell through so we tracted some more and held another CM. (Catholic family - niets) All cottage meeting ⅚ in the Noostraat - 11:45 visthe.
February 14th, Saturday 17 MONTHS
We tracted in the morning and held a good CM with a “J.W” Lesson 2 - not too smart. We held another CM and then attempted to return home but I had a flat tire on my fiets. I kept it at a repair shop and walked home. We ate a likker maaltijd, studied together, and left for Amsterdam. Men. Spek took us in his auto. I went shopping for a present for Diane - chain from Men. Schipper-Kalverstraat. I went to the church on the tram and westudied, put up decorations and talked (and ate sandwiches). The Goud and Groen Bal was scheduled there that evening and lasted from 8:00-11:00. We poor missionaries just sat and watched - a combo payed - and Elder Schaffer sang. We caught the train for Alkmaan and got some proselyting hours in (crazy man on train - English people walking home). We arrived home about 1:45 and had to ring and wake Men. Spek up as the lock was still broken, bed by 2:00.
February 15th, Sunday
We arose late and caught the 9:30 train for Haarlem, getting there for the closing song in priesthood meeting. We attended Sunday School - no investigators present (40 people); and then we returned home by bus and train. We had a heerlyke meal here at home and then went to an appointment; 3:00. It fell through but we tracted and held one CM (catholics). We returned home, studied and left with the family in the auto for Haarlem. We attended sacrament meeting there (5:00-6:00). Men. V. D. Wel was there also. Elders Brewster and Bradford spoke and the meeting was very good (41 people). The Spek family enjoyed the meeting very much. We returned, ate a bread meal, and talked and proselyted with the family. - 10:30
February 16th, Monday
We held 2 lousy CM in the morning and 2 more in the afternoon before going to Santpoort for a good CM with Mev. Heyetek (BOFM). We held another CM on the Rykaueg in Santpoort (J.S), and that evening, after dinner, we held three CM. Two of them Gier and Wils were return appointments for BOFM questions and we got two BOFM returned. Then we held a CM with family Heiligers (BOFM talk). I had my second flat tire in two days. - 12:00 in bed.
February 17th, Tuesday
Elders V. Kampen & Brewster came to work with us and E. Brewster and I held two CM; one fair, the other a strong Gereformeerd family; really koppig. We all ate a heerlyk meal; talked with Mev. V. D. Heide about the gospel and then E. V. Kampen and I held two CM. One next door, Apostolische Genntschap - the people were so far gone that they didn’t believe in God or Christ anymore. Then we held a very good meeting with Mev. Bos and family. She had attended the church in Haarlem and enjoyed it very much. We showed them the book, “the mormon story” That evening Elder Schaffer and I held a good meeting with family V. Kroonenberg one the Stolstraat brother and sister of the other investigators. We gave them a 2nd lesson. Then we held a CM with an English man and wife here in Holland on business; family Moss. My companion gave them a BOFM lesson in English and we loaned them a book.
February 18th, Wednesday
We held one CM and then fietzed out to Santpoort to meet with Mev. De Leeuw. We talked about the BOFM. Then we ate and afterwords held a CM with Men. Schouten - questions - mennonites in England, etc. We held another CM and then in the evening two appointments fell through so we returned home early and held a discussion with Men. Spek and Men and Mev. V. Beyk. Men. V. Beyk is an atheist and we had an interesting discussion. Men. Spek really stood up for us. - 11:15
February 19th, Thursday
We held three very poor CM that morning and we spoke with a “JW”; family De Losff in the afternoon. We talked about Jehovah, the resurrection of Christ, ziel, etc. In the evening both of our appointments fell through again (sickness). So we returned early, talked with Tiny and her husband who were baby tending - 10:00 - studied, wrote in journal, hit the sack.
February 20th, Friday
We held two poor CM in the morning; 2 fair and one poor one that afternoon. That evening we talked with a Men. Schoonkind here in the Velsen (“chemic”), and then held a CM with a very nice man; Men. V. D. Schoor (geugd-leider) (BOFM lesson) He had many good questions, mostly questions from boys and girls who had asked about us.
February 21st, Saturday
Wy hadden 2 CM s’morgens (niets aan), en dan studeerden wy en begochten de familie Spek. Wy waren can planom naar Haarlem te gaan winkelen maar het was eon zeer slechte day. Wat het weer hetreft, zo wy bleven thuis-lekker douch - vroeg naar bed.
February 22nd, Sunday
Wij hielden een duart hier in Het Cutturek contrams vm 10:30. Elders Winkel and Cheney kwamen om te helpen en te spreken. Zr Kolk en wuiend (lies V.D. Ryk) kwarmen ook en Men. Spek en men. V.D. Wel waren ook aanwlzig. Men. Spek bracht ons daar in de auto - en bracht ons, na de dienst, ook naar huis. De dienst ging tamelyk goed. Dan wy kwarmen alle-maal naar hurs-had visite - en dan aten een lekkere malltizd. Wy hadden een CM met lies (lesson 5), en dan Elders Winkel and Cheney haalden een train naan Den Helder. Wy gingen toen in te auto naar de dienst in Haarlem waar Elder V. Kampen gaf zyn afschiedo toespraak en Elder Manwaring ook Sprak. Men. V. D. Wel was weer aanwezig. Du avord Elder Scheffer en ik gingen naar een CM met familie V. Kroonenburg, lesson 3 - een heel goed familie - goed vergadering - 11:00.
February 23rd, Monday
Wy hadden twee Cm die morgen (niet te goed), en vier die middag - alle maal eerst begoeken langs de lange - nieuwestraat (161-85-49-37) (niets aan). Dan hadden wy weer twee huis begschen aan de lange niewostraat (138-172) - een een vrouw - de andere, een Jehovah Getuigen (Men. and Mev. V. Wyk). Wej pratten over alles (Joseph Smith, opstanding (lah 24:36-43), Jehovah, etc). He was a very nice man and we had a very nice discussion together. Good weather - finally (mist let up for awhile) - 12:00 home - naan bed.
February 24th, Tuesday
Elders V. Kampen and Brewster arrived about 9:30, and Men. V.D. Wel arrived about 10:00. E. V. Kampen and I held a good Cm with him here, and then we held another CM two doors up the street with a nice lady. That middag we tracted E. Schaffer and I, and then held a good CM with Mev. Bes and family (standard works review). In the eve we held one CM here in Velsen and the other fell through. We tracted without luck and came home early - visited, and went to bed.
February 25th, Wednesday
We held a good CM here with Mev. V. Essen in the morning (her son was here and we talked about the first principles). After dinner we went to the port-office and tracted off the house of Domince Brink in Velsen. We held a CM but couldn’t tell him too much. Then we went to Beverwijk to check on members and tracted there. We had another discussion with a “J.W” (hartstikke gek). That evening we held a good meeting with family V. Breda (lesson 5). Our other appointment fell through again and we returned home early and held a CM with the familie Spek about tithing - 11:30 - very good.
February 26th, Thursday
It was a beautiful morning and we tracted a few houses in the dunes - we got in one really ritzy place and held a CM. We rode through the dunes on our fietzen and then took the scenic route to Santpoort for a CM with Mev. De Leeuw (Godhead lesson, BOFM, etc) - very good. We held three poor CM that middag; and that evening, two fairly good ones. We met with men. Wolsak (Noorts) and family Mook - Hersteld Apostolische.
February 27th, Friday
We held a CM with a vrigzimig herromid and another with a gereformeerd familie. In the middag we held a CM with family De Gier (BOFM), and then we held 2 CM, first lessons, on the Vechstraat. In the evening we met with a Men. Veenema, a very strange man, BOFM. and then we held a good CM with family V. Kroonenberg. We gave them a BOFM lesson and loaned then a BOFM, a very promising family. The weather is beginning to show signs of spring - lekkere zonneschijn.
February 28th, Saturday
We held three CM in the morning. One of them promising - a very poor family (Kortenaeutrast). We returned home to a lekker dinner of soup and rice and studied. Then we went with the familie for a ride and a walk on the beach at “Parnassia”. We saw Santpoort, had patat frites, broodjes, limonade, and returned for supper. We had a CM that evening with the family - coming along very good. Men. Spek is clear through the BOFM (week 59 proselyting hours - 40 cottage meeting).
March 1st, Zondag
We caught the train to Haarlem and attended Sunday School and a fast and testimony meeting - very nice. Then we went to zr. Kolks - the 4 of us missionaries, and I, ate a lekker meal - hash browns, peas, beef stuk, appel tart. We also visited with Lies who was also there. We returned per fiets to the church in almost deathly traffic - we were almost run over 3 or 4 times. Then we attended the night meeting ponder de ludwig van de Z.H.V. (Zusters Hulp Verenginj) Relief society. The familie Spek was present and also Mev. Bes and Sow. The meeting was fair except for the “zendende mocden” who almost screamed everyones ears out (4 songs no less). We returned with the family in the car and after a bread meal (gezellig) we walked to a CM with familie Janis - 5th lesson. A very nice family and very good members of their church - Hervomid. Coming along good.
March 2nd, Maandag
We tracted and held one fair CM, ate, and held a good CM in the afternoon with Men. Schouten (D&C) - he was getting a testimony of Joseph Smith and the BOFM. In the evening we held two CM, one fair 2nd lesson and one Hezoek aan de familie Koremans - “waste of time?”.
March 3rd, Tuesday
Elders Springer and V. Kampen came to work with us and Elder Springer and I held 2 lousy CM that morning. We all ate a heerlyk maaltija, and then E.V. Kampen and I held a good Cm with Mev. Bes and family (baptism for the dead, revelation, etc). That evening Elder Schaffer and I held 2 CM - niets aan, and then returned for a CM with Mev. V A. Heyden; coming along very good.
March 4th, Wednesday
We fietsden to Santpoort in the morning and held 2 CM - one good one with Mev. De Leeuw (lesson on revelation). We gave Mev. V. Essen a restoration lesson in the afternoon; coming along very good - has the BOFM, almost through with it. We held another CM; and then got into a discussion with some men from the Elon-Kapel - and evangelistic here in Gniuden - 6:30 - We ate a quick supper and held two CM that evening - Men. Koppen (X lesson, fair?) - Men. Kraan and wife - dropped them - got BOFM back.
March 5th, Thursday
WE tracted the whole morning with no luck and finally held a CM (poor). We held a CM with Mev. Bes - talk about erfzonde, kinderdopp, etc. Then we held a very good CM with a very poor family - family De Vries - lesson 2. We checked in with the “politie”, and held another CM (niets). That evening we had no appointments so we went tracting and held one good CM with a nice indonesian family.
March 6th, Friday
We held one worthless CM in the morning, and two more in the afternoon. Then we finally held a good CM - with family Ruiter - investigators of the Apostolische Genootschap. In the evening we visited with a member in our tracting area - Brother Barends (radio and tv Zaak). He quoted almost the whole bible to us, but wasn’t willing to come to our church service. He was attending the Herronud church. Then we had a nice talk with Mev. V. D. Schoor, a promising investigator - very influential.
March 7th, Saturday
We went to Amsterdam, per train, and attended the testimony meeting there (10:00-12:00). Then we had yoghurt and cake and held a short class together. Then Elder Schaffer and I went downtown to a show. We went to “the perfect Furlough” with Tony Curtis and Vanet Leigh. Then we took a walk in Amsterdam and then a train back to the church. We attended a Gezellige avond - dinner (sort of), shows,etc. And left early for home. We visited a transfer to the Hague to do art work for three weeks and he was disappointed that he had to leave this family.
March 8th, Sunday
E. Manwaring and Beckstead came here to Ijmuiden, per bus, and we met them at Het Cultureel Centrum, where we were to hold a meeting. It was a lousy, rainy day - and although we had expected 10 investigators, only 3 showed up. (Men Spek - Liesje, and Men. V.O. Wel). We still had a good sacrament meeting; and then returned home (auto), and had a delicious meal (ham, potatoes, applesauce, etc.). E. Schaffer and I went to 2 CM - one (Wiegman) Christelun Gereformeerd, very staunch. He wasn’t eens with BOFM (we dropped him).
Then we held a CM with a Catholic family - lesson 2. We fietzed home quickly just in time to catch Men. Spek and Liesje and ride with them to Amsterdam for E.V. Kampens Afscheids to espraak. Mev. V.D. Heide couldn’t go because Lex was sick (Lymph gland infection). The meeting was very nice. We rode home just in time to leave for another appointment - family V. Kroonenburg - Lesson 5 (very good). They are really a swell family. We visited investigators - 11:15 - went to bed (4CM).
March 9th, Monday
We held 3 CM in the morning and one was fair (2 poor). We tracted and then went to the dentist that afternoon while my companion packed. I had been having toothaches for a while and I had 3 cavities filled. The dentist only took about 5 minutes for the whole job and didn’t charge me anything, I returned home, studied, ate, and then went out to a CM; V.D. Gaag, BOFM, and next door, Struillart (zeeand - couldn't understand her - wacky dame)
March 10th, Tuesday
Elder Schaffer and I held two CM in the morning, Kiennonite Doops Gezind; and three old ladies (vrijinnig), friends of family in Qgden. We ate Bruine-bonen-soep and Rijst and then tracted. Checked Elder Schaffer out with the police and held a CM with Mev. Bes. She was sick in bed and we held a meeting with her anyway - about L&V, Revelation, etc. She was really getting a testimony of Joseph Smith. Then that night one appointment fewll through and we held a good CM with family Drogt, an Indonesian family, (lesson 5 and 4 - BOFM) - 10:00 met with family - 10:45 - E. Schaffer had picked up another flea - his eighth in 6 months - I haven’t found any on me yet.
March 11, Wednesday
My new companion, Elder Gordon Springer was scheduled to arrive in the morning and our D.P (Elder Ray Springer - a cousin of E. Gordon SPringer) came to work with us. We went out and met the 10:30 train and E. Springer was surprised to see his cousin. We all came home, had a lekker Kopke Warme Chocolade, and then D.P and I tracted for a while, while E. Schaffer showed E. Springer the house, unpacked, etc. We had a nice meal together and then E. SChaffer and I went tracting, one CM, and I returned early because he had to bid a fond farewell to the family and leae for Den Haag. Liesje and I saw him off and he got a big farewell kiss from Liesje.
That evening E. Springer and I tracted and held 1 CM. A Catholic man who had been in Salt Lake and showed us some slide of his trip (nietz). E. Springer had arrived one day before by airplane, and couldn’t speak or understand any dutch. He was tall, 6’3”, quiet, and very nice looking - looking for an enjoyable 3 weeks of working with him.
March 12th, Thursday
WE tracted and held 4 CM (fair). Then after dinner we held one poor CM; and that evening we held two more CM, one with Men. Rijken (lang-tij Niet Gezien). And then with “Koremans” - a talk about BOFM - more excuses. My companion was coming along good with his dutch.
March 13th, Friday
WE held three CM - one fair - one poor (crazy catholic, Mev. Blok), one good, Mev. Wessel. Another catholic, but hates the teachings of the catholics. We held one fair CM that afternoon (J.S - 4), and that evening one more (BOFM - 1st visit). Then we went to visit family Tanis, but their daughter was sick, thus no lesson.
March 14th, Saturday - 18 MONTHS - 1 YEAR LEFT
Boy, only a year left - the time is going by so fast that I can’t keep up with it. We tracted in the morning and held 2 CM - one good one. We ate and then left on the fietzen to view the locks - we saw the big lock working (5 ships in it at one time). Then we fietzed to the beach and walked out to the pier and then we walked clear to the end of the pier. It was a mile long. Jutting out into the North Sea, guarding the harbor and entrance to the locks. It was nice weather and there were many people there - fishermen too (not catching anything). On the ocean side of the power were huge concrete blocks (wave breakers). In a storm these blocks are sometimes tossed over the pier by the waves. We took a few photos, and returned home, ate, studied, and held a class (lesson of E.V. Slooten) with Men. Spek - good meeting.
March 15th, Sunday
We went with Men. Spek and Liesje in the car to Sunday-School in Haarlem (54 people present). They liked it very much - especially Liesje who gave the closing prayer in her Sunday-School class. E. Springer and I went to Zr. Kolk’s house (per auto Spek) and had a lekker meal of Nassi-goreng, sla, peren, appeltart, heerlijk!!! Then we caught a bus back and a train home. We visited with the family (Lex had been operated on - his arm had been swollen - lymph infection) and then we went to a good CM with family V. Kroonenburg, it was a very good meeting, nice humble people.
March 16, Monday
We held two fair CM (ger - Smorgens), and two S’middags (one poor - drunk). That evening we met with Men. Koppen (lesson 5 - fairly good) and then our other Lexster Kroonenburg had made another appointment. We visited family, took a shower (cold) and finally went to bed - 12:30
March 17th, Tuesday
We tracted the whole morning and only had one fair CM. (The weather had turned terribly, cold - east wind) That afternoon we held a CM with Mev. V.D. Zee, Geref (niet veel); and then we met with Mev. Bes who was still sick in bed. (Vructen van het evangelie) she was coming along very good. Her daughter played and sang with the guitar, very good. That evening we fietzed to Santpoort and called on call-backs. We held two CMs; one with a remonstranse leader, the other with a strong Geref couple. - 11:00
March 18th, Wednesday
We fietzed to Santport again and tracted and then held a good CM with Mev. De Leevw. That afternoon we held two CM (one fair). That evening we met with Mev. De Rochemond, who had investigated the church in Den Haag - very good prospect. Our other appointment fell through so we called on call-backs; went home - 9:30 - proselyted.
March 19th, Thursday
Men. V.D. Wel came here to meet with us in the morning, and we held a good CM. He was having trouble with the word of wisdom, etc. Undecided on the next baptismal. Then we held another CM; this one with a Jehovahs Witness (De Loopf) BOFM (questionable). We held three CM that afternoon - one discussion with Mev. Bos (staunch Gereformeerd) about Erpzonde, kiner-doop, etc. One with an “Elon” Kadel lady (niets-te oud), and one with a lady from the Church of England (very interested). That evening we talked with family Mook (Hersteld Apostolische), and held an interesting discussion, and then talked with a Catholic lady (niets). Seven CM with seven different churches - not including Hervord. (largest church in Holland).
March 20th, Vrijdag
We talked with a Doops-Gelind lady (lesson - niets); a Men. Visser, philosopher about religion; and Mev. Broer (Joseph Smith Story). After a good meal we held a very good CM with Mev. Wessel (Catholic Bible Scholar) - BOFM lesson and discussion. That evening we fietzed out in the Mot-Regen to a Ger. CM. - Talk about Erfzonde-Kinder-Doop, etc. And then we met with family Drogt - a nice indonesian family. (lesson good - son interested) - 11:00 - lousy weather.
March 21st, Saturday FIRST DAY OF SPRING
Still lousy weather. We fietzed over the ferry and tracted in Velsen-Noord - one fair CM. Then we went to Beverwijk and went shopping for my companion (Chris Duin). He bought a raincoat (72.50) and a suit (115.00), and I bought me a tie (4.95). We fietzed home, studied, visited, watched it rain, and after dinner; went to an appointment with family V. Kroonenburg (6th lesson - very good) interested but little active response.
April 10th, Friday
We held class in the morning, E. Kooyman and I held two CM - one good one with a lady Dentist. After dinner E. Springer and I held two CM. One good one in a very poor neighborhood, and one good one to a nice mother and daughter. In by 10:00, studied.
April 11, Saturday
We all played baseball in the morning. The Elders all met here at the church at 8:30 (E. Pinney and Thompson with their bicycle built for two). E. Allen and I fietzed over to the Laan Van Poot, picked up supplies, and we went with E. V. Boerum in the black Volckswagon to the playing field. The other Elders fietzed. We were planning on playing softball but the team we were to play only played hardball (honkball). So we played that with them; we played 4 innings and we finally won - 10-4 (they got the first 4 runs). E. V. Mondfrands was our pitcher - struck out the last three innings. We returned home, ate lunch at the church, and E. Hartman and I went out tracting that afternoon. We held one fair CM with a Catholic family, and then went shopping at the Bijenkorf. That evening after dinner and dishes; E. Kooyman, Springer and I set out to see a show. We lost E. Springer on the way and E. Kooyman and I finally saw “bridge over the river Kwai”, a really good show. When we got out it was raining cats and dogs, and we had a nice, long, wet ride home. We got soaked and got in by 11:30.
April 12, Sunday
We went to Priesthood, Sunday School (9:00-12:00) and then we all ate here (soup - 4 days old - heerlijk), and then E. Springer and I went tracting and held one CM with a lousy Spiritist - naar de hel toe-snel - We returned and attended church (5:00-6:30 - nievwe gemeente befinur). Then E. Gary Tesch and I went out to appointments - his companion E. V. Mondfrands was sick so we went to two of his investigators. First we went to a family Meiling and I gave them a 6th lesson - good. Then we fietzed clear to another part of town for a call back of mine - it fell through, so we fietzed back to where we were before and called on the other investigators of E. V. Mondfronds; they were having a birthday party (9 people - 3 dollies) - 11:45.
April 13th, Monday
We had a class in the morning (4 hours), and E. Hartman and I held one fair CM that afternoon. After dinner, E. Tesch and I went to two nice CM (one young man - one nice old couple - family Deen - lesson 4). Good reception.
April 14th, Tuesday - 19 MONTHS
We held a class E. Hartman and I tracted and held one good CM - doops-geund (2 young men). We went out together in the evening and visited a member (Christine) and her younger sister who was investigating the gospel. We held a very good CM there - gave them the new approach lesson. Then we held another CM with a very nice man (BOFM lesson was very good).
April 15th, Wednesday
We held class E. Kooyman and I went out to two CM, fair; and that evening we went out again. First, next door to an investigator - talk about tape recorders - and then to two CM. The first was a very good one - Men. Hartung, Indonesian lady - BOFM Lesson. Then we called on a C.B. and got in - a baptist family - niets Bijzonders - 10:30.
April 16th, Thursday
We held class and E. Kooyman and I tracted and held 4 CM (2 good ones (1 BOFM)). E. Springer and I went out after supper (lousy soup). We held 3 CM (two of them good ones - one Mev. Verstezegh (BOFM lesson)). Todd Ouderlingen from the Gereformeered de church came in the middle of the meeting - very interesting discussion. Then we held a BOFM lesson with family Bulterman - interested in the Book. 11:45.
April 18th, Saturday
We held class in the morning and we had a jim-dandy test (200 points possible). It covered Hugo’s lessons, vocabulary, cottage meeting and food prayers, Joseph Smith story, Godhead, texts, door approaching, etc. E. Springer got highest with 183 points - down to 145-122-88. E. Hartman won the booby prize and got to scrub our big plastic table cloth. They also received their assignments - E. Springer to Rotterdam (E. Bradford); E. Kooyman back to Amsterdam, E. Tesch to Reman in Den Haag (mission office), and E. Hartman to go to Haarlem (E. Manwaring). We ate a quick meal and went to district class (1:00-3:30). We studied the new approach lesson and the Godhead lesson and texts. Then there was a Baptism (three people - Allen, Bradford, Poelman). We then had a choir practice, a play practice, ate a good meal, and E. Hartman and I tracted (1.5 hours) zonder geluk. I took a shower - cut out slides - went to bed.
April 19th, Sunday
We attended priesthood, Sunday School meetings (Men. Kuiper was there). Then 5 of us fietzed downtown to eat Indonesian - nassi $2.75 + $0.40 Ijs. We returned home, studied - I took a few pictures, and attended sacrament meeting (5:00-6:00). E. Springer and I went tracting - one CM (2 men - one Catholic - one protestant) Real fun app. lesson). We returned home 9:45, helped the Elders eat ice cream (11 liters bought in one day) We wrestled - I wrote letters - journal - 11:45.
April 20th, Monday
We held our last class in the morning; broken up by going with E. De Hart to make an appointment - and by a visit from President Sperry. E. Tesch and I went out after lunch and held two good CM (family Hartung - very good - Men. Boom). We were late preparing dinner that night and late getting out again; and E. Springer and I went to two nice CM (family Deen, lesson 5, good - a young man, Men. Flinterman, BOFM lesson - he was very interested). - 11:15
April 21st, Dinsang
All the Elders in the school were to transfer that day - and I went to the dentist in the morning (Mev. Sieswerda - good investigator), E. Duisenhirt arrived before lunch from Amsterdam where he had been for three weeks. After lunch he and I went down to the station to pick up his bike, and then we went over to E. Thompsons and Pinneys and I worked with E. Thompson (E. Pinney was sick). We held two CM (one good), and visited with some old investigators of E. Devries and I (family Kuipers - doing fine). That evening E. Ochsenhirt and I tracted and held one CM (fair).
April 22nd, Wednesday
The new Elders arrived the night before - 3 of them; E. Greeff from SLC (Granite), he was born in Holland so he won’t take the class; E. Nordhoff from SLC, E. Durrant from Idaho. We held a short class and went shopping for fietzen, etc. E. Nordhoff and Durrant bought gazelles ($164), I went with E. Hart to take over some of the investigators, and we met with three of them; very nice people (Mev. Bierbrauer - family V.D. Voet). After dinner I went out with E. Gary Tesch and about four appointments fell through. We tracted and finally held one CM with a nice young man (BOFM lesson).
April 23rd, Thursday
We held class for four hours; E. De Hart and I went to see more investigators; we held two CM and visited Mev. Kortlang. That evening E. Nordhoff and I held two good CM (family Versteegh, lesson 4 review, fair). Then we visited family Bulterman and gave them a good 5th lesson, fairly good acceptance - wife was good - 11:30. Weather for the past couple of weeks: very nice, a few rain storms - wind - but very warm.
April 24th, Vrijdag
We held a play practice (8:00-10:30), and I went to the dentist (Mev. Sieswerda), we tracted for a while, and that afternoon we tracted a whole afternoon before finally getting in at 5:00 (nice looking girl - lesson 5 good acceptance). That evening we went out to Loosduinen for one nice CM (first meeting). Then we went to a family Kuiper (BOFM lesson - discussion - mother, father, 2 students).
April 25th, Saturday
We woke up about 5:00, ate a quick breakfast, and packed our lunches. Then we all (7 of us) fietzed down to the station and met the other Elders in the District - 7:00. There were 15 of us who fietzed from there to the “Bloeman Corso”. It took us about 1.5 hours to get there and we saw a lot of other Elders along the way. We first went to the “Keukenhof”, or kitchen gardens.
We stayed there about 3 hours and it was really beautiful. The day was a little hazy but the sun shone well so we got some good pictures. We saw quite a few other missionaries there and there were thousands of visitors. At 12:00 we left to see the Bloeman Corso (flower parade) and most of the streets were already blocked off. We finally fietzed around and got a fairly good place to see the floats and get some good pictures of the girls and the floats and the pretty flowers. It was really packed with people, and when the parade ended we took off again on the fietzen.
We fietzed over to “Noordwijk Aan Zee” where we stopped and ate our lunches - 2:00. It was on the sea, we took a few more photos. The fifteen of us were still all together but when we left E. Sorenson had a flat-tire and E. Pinney and Thompson and their tandem bike also had trouble. NIne of us took off through the dunes towards home. We rode against the wind, up and down the dunes, got lost a few times; but finally came out at Den Haag - really tired. E. Tesch, Ochsenhirt and I arrived first. Later the others staggered in. We showered, got cleaned up, and began early practice for the play that night. The program began at 8:00 with our play: four Soldiers - E. De Haan (Bar-room), E. Sorenson (cowboy), E. Poelman (actor), and E. V. Katwijk (afraid of doctors). I played the announcer in the two scenes. There was another program given by the family Slieger - investigators of E. V. Mondfrands - very good. We cleaned up the place afterwards, turned all the chairs around in preparation for conference, and went to bed.
April 26th, Sunday
We got up and got ready for a testimony meeting at 7:00. President and Zr. Sperry, President and Zr. Schipper (1st couns to America), and 24 missionaries were present, and the spirit there was wonderful. It lasted till 10:00, and then the District Conference began; the first meeting, from 10:00-12:00, was very nice; and in between meetings we ate soup and broodjes for lunch. The 2nd meeting was also very good and there was a good attendance - about 160. I had to speak in the 2nd meeting. Right after the meeting E. Ochsenhirt and I went out to two CM; family Pasanae - review approach lesson, fair; and family Hartung - lesson 5, very good acceptance (nice Indonesian family). - 11:15
April 27th, Monday
We held a class in the morning - 4 hours. Then E. Greeff and I went out and held two CM - Mev. Bierbrauer, rev app lesson - nice old lady. Men. Boom; interested man, BOFM lesson. That evening we went out again and held two CM - one fair - one good - both C.B., first visits. - 9:30.
April 28th, Tuesday
We held class, E. Ochsenhirt and I went out all day and held 4 CM - one very interested lady - one Christian German man - nothing but arguments .That evening we held two good CM - Men. Bamberg (Gym Teacher), review of lesson 4 - and family De Haart Swaan, app. lesson (very well accepted but the woman) - 11:00 - Beautiful, warm day - windy, of course.
April 29th, Wednesday
We held class, E. Durrant and I went out that day and held 5 CM - three that afternoon, one with a very nice lady - one with a Catholic family (niets) - one crazy philosopher-inventor (BOFM, fair). That evening we held two nice CM. The first was with a very intelligent man, Men. De Baat (of literature), BOFM review. Then we went with family Bulterman and gave them a good Godhead lesson - 11:30.
April 30th, Thursday
KONINGINNE DAG (Queens Birthday) We held class that morning, and prepared dinner that afternoon. Zr. V. D. Merwe and us four, in the class, were the only ones here and we really fixed a heerlijke maaltijd. We had soup, bread, yogurt, hamburgers with cheese, and dessert of candy bars and cookies. Zr. V.D. Merwe did the dishes and E. Nordhoff and I went out tracting (2:00-9:30). We tracted right through without stopping to eat. We held 5 CM; one very good one with a nice young man; two fair that evening with a very nice family V. Hemert (BOFM lesson, very good reception). Then we tracted and held a CM with a Jewish lady- BOFM (niets) - (9:30) Then we fietzed clear over to the Maley-ueld where there was a fireworks exhibition celebrating the Queens birthday. The fireworks were really pretty, and the ground displays were just beautiful. It lasted till 10:30, and then we fietzed home - stopped for icecream along the way. The day was cold, windy, and rainy all day, but a little nicer in the evening.
Mei 1sst, Vrijdag
We held class in the morning, and E. Nordhof got his transfer letter to Hilversum. E. Greeff had gotten a transfer to Arnhem-Dordrecht before. After dinner, E. Durrant and I tracted and then went to Mev. Tandarts Sieswara. She had a couple of visitors - one crazy man from “De Nievwe Kerk Van Swedenborg”, another Me. Westra, a relative a long ways back. They left and we gave Mev. Sieswerda a good 5th lesson. That evening we went out again and held three CM; one on a C.B. - an Indonesian family Stucky, 4 ladies (2 young - 2 old, one nice), they were Catholic. Then we fietzed out to Loosduinen an held a fair CM (BOFM); then we returned and held a CM with Men. V. D. Jagt - lesson 5 - ook fair - 11:15
May 2nd, Saturday
We held class for three hours in the morning, and in the afternoon, after a good warm meal, E. Ochsenhirt and I called on one app. which fell through, and then we tracted and held one CM, lesson, fair. It was fast day so we didn’t eat - I did my washing and then E. Nordhoff and I went to visit some friends of his. We had a good CM with them, family De Graaf. Then we fietzed out to another CM of De Haart, family Naafs, a nice Indonesian couple. We gave them a BOFM; they were interested - 10:15.
Mei 3rd, Sunday
I took E. De Harts fiets down to the station, and we held a short class in the morning. We attended priesthood meeting, and Sunday School and fast meeting (9:00-12:45). We went to an Indonesian restaurant to eat, and bought 3 liters of ice cream to feast on. We took it home and ate it the 4 of us, and then attended church. E. Durrant and I went to two good CM that evening - one first lesson, GB. One, Mev. Kortlang, of De Harts - BOFM lesson. - 11:00. Interesting - We almost drowned going there and just about didn’t survive coming back, it was really pouring down. E. Ochsenhirt was locked out and had to crawl in a bathroom window in the rain.
Mei 4th, Maandag
Hollands. Wij hadden maar een huis-vergadering - Mev. Bierbrauer (alreeds gedoopt-niet meer). Die avond wij hadden 2 CM (tamelijk good). Wij werkten de hele dag door maar hadden weinig succes. Laatste afspraak ging niet door.
Mei 5th, Dinsdag
Wij hadden klas E. Norhoff ging weg naar hilversum, en die dag wij hadden 4 CM; “inv” (CM S’middags - good gekke vrouw). Savonds. (goud 73 - V.D. Toorn, of De Harts, erg goed - pasaniae (inv); - Flinterman, BOFM vragen, erg beinteresseerd) - 11:00
Mei 6th, Woensdag
Wij hadden klas; E. Durrant en ik hadden drie CM - Wolterman, BOFM lesson. 2 tracting - een goed, dame wie had de Elders all had BOFM onimoet. Die avond ging E. Ochsenhirt en ik vit en wij hadden 4 CM. (een Katholiek - een geinterressgerde dame, goed - Men. Prick, BOFM terug, een C.B. - niet veel).
Mei 7th, Donderlag
HEMELVAARTSDAG - Wij vergaderden hier om 9 uur S’morgens en fietzden tot een sport-veld oni paseball te spelen. Wij speelden tegen de K.L.M. ploeg, en won 20-2. E. V. Mondfrans- pitcher; E. Durrant - catcher. E. Durrant, Ochsenhirt and ik fietzed over al ovi gingen uit (i inv, 1 CM) E. Hemert, druk beug - Swaan, man (vader, Vrouw Ziek). BOFM lesson, goed. 9:30, vroes thuis. Heerlijke dag de hele dag, sonneschijn, warm - onezettend lekker.
Mei 8th, Vrijdag
Wij hadden klas - Mev. Berbeek - netjes dame, goed CM S’middags - Andere afspraken gingen niet door. Die avond “inv” - smit (oudg man-ziek - BOFM tgrug). Familie Hartung, Man Laat-gepraat-kinderen. Pan gingen wij naar de familie Kuiper - bum film. Er waren 10 kiensen aanwezig - 6 families - 5 gelovem. Heel goede vergadering - veel vragen - intelligente mensen alle maal - 11:00.
Mei 9th, Zaterdag
E. Durrant en ik gingen s’morgens buiten en hadden een goede CM, met een Katholieke vrouw. Dan gingen wij naar de stad toe om iets te kopen. Wij kwamen terug, aten een vlug lunch, en hadden kodk oepening vooreen uurtje, en dan wij hadden een disctrictse klas (2:00-4:30). Wij spraken over lesson 4,5,6. Ik gave lesson 6 in de klas. Dan wij aten een lekkere maaitijd (aardappels-carbonade-
Mei 10th, Zondag
Ik studeerde s’morgens, en dan ging ik ook naar de diensten (pr. - s.s.). Wij aten een goede maaltijd, en dan E. Durrant en ik gingen naar de familie Tovw op bezoek. Vogels, hamster, grote hond alle maal Bijgekomen. Wij kwamen terug en ik studeerde verder aan mijn toespraak. Ik moest spreken om 5 uur, en later E. Durrant and ik gingen naar een CM, familie De Graaf (E. Nordhoff), BOFM lesson - ze hadden interesse erin. Onze andere afspraak ging niet door - 9:30 naar huis. Douch, rapporten invullen, in dag-boer schrijven, naar bed gaan - 11:45.
Mei 11th, Monday
E. Durrant and I held class together for one hour - E. Ochsenhirt packed up and left for Rotterdam that day. We tracted in the morning with no success at all. We held two CM in the afternoon - one first meeting with Br. Meeuws and his son (long beard), who had been in Persia for a long time. He hadn’t ever spoken to the missionaries; but his father, who had been a member for 5 years, had sent him literature and books.
His father was formerly leader of the “Hersteld Apostolische Kerk” The son believed and wanted to be baptized. Then we met with family Boom, lesson 5 - good acceptance. (Coin Collector). After dinner we held two CM - one no good - the other family Bulterman - lesson 6 - wife good, reading BOFM) till 11:45. E. Mckell and Warner were here from Belgium to help with programs for the conference.
May 12th, Tuesday
We held a class in the morning (one hour); and packed a lunch to take with us that day. We held two CM in E. De Harts area (both fair). We held two more CM after lunch (one good one with two young men from the Katholiek Apostolische Kerk - very interested and very receptive. That evening we held two nice CM; the last one with a very nice family, V. Dollie Hengel - 9:30 (shower-naar bed)
May 13th, Wednesday
WE tracted morning and afternoon and ate our lunch in our tracting area again. We held six CM; 5 no good, one fair. That evening we held three CM (2 fair, one good), family Hartung, Indonesian, a 6th lesson. They were very interested in the lesson and had read some of the BOFM - 11:15.
May 14th, Thursday
WE held 5 CM (3 CB - fair), and came home for supper. In the evening we held two very good CM. One was with Men. V. D. Toorn, very interested man. The other was with the family V. Hemert, lesson 5. Very good acceptance, asking serious questions about baptism; planning on immigrating to America (5 cute children).
May 15th, Friday
We held one CM (Catholic - mannot), switched areas, ate lunch, and held 5 more CM in the afternoon, but they all fell through , and we got our 5 CM all by tracting. That evening we met with family Burlage, and held two CM (one with family Stucky, app. Lesson again - the other with a young man here at the church, Men. V. Lelyveld, lesson 5 (he was interested). We ate our evening meal after the CM 10:00, because we didn’t have time to eat it before (warmed up spaghetti - roast - yogurt, Heerlijk)
May 16th, Saturday
We got up early, packed a lunch and rushed down to the station to catch the 8:52 train for Rotterdam. On the way my companion ran into the back of someone else, bent his rim, broke 6 or 7 spokes out. We left on my bike and still caught our train - just barely. We arrived in Rotterdam, and E. Andrus and I walked downtown to the American Ambassador to get our passports renewed. The office was closed, so we walked on to the church in Rotterdam Noord, and practiced with the missionary choir (10:00-12:30) “you’ll never walk alone” some of us Elders ate lunch and walked downtown to see a little of Rotterdam, the most modern city in Holland - completely bombed out during the war. We saw the big buildings in the city, the harbor (statendam), etc. We returned to the church and ate broodjes and lemonade, and then walked over to the “Emporium” where the dance festival was to be held. They showed a very nice roadshow, and there-after the dance-festival. It was very nice and very colorful. They had a regular dance after that and we watched it until 10:30, when we took a train back to Den Haag. We rode double to E. Durrants fiets, and then he rode on the back of my bike and dragged his bike all the way home (sore arm). We got to bed about 1:00.
May 17th, Zondag PINKSTER
We got up early, washed dishes, prepared breakfast, and left on the train for Rotterdam. We arrived one hour late for the 8:00 choir practice. We practiced, chatted with missionaries, members and investigators, (the family Spek was there along with Mev, Bes’ daughter). The first meeting was very good (10:00-12:00) E. Poelman and E. Olsen spoke and our choir sang “you’ll never walk alone”. We ate a little lunch, chatted some more and waited for the second meeting (3:30-5:30) President and Zr. Sperry spoke and the Bijenkorf meises choir sang. It was also a very nice meeting. Five of us missionaries left after that and walked downtown to eat. We ate Bami ($2.00). We caught a tram back to the church and arrived a little late for the “Praise the Lord” festival “Looft Den Heer” in het hollands. The festival turned out to be very good, E. Schaffers huge wall mural was shown and he sang two numbers also. The choir was also very good. After the festival we caught a train home again. In bed by 11:45.
May 18th, Monday TWEEDE PINKSTERDAG
We arose, 6:00 (E. Poelman and Olsen late for the testimony meeting in Rotterdam. We ate, packed a lunch, and caught the 7:06 train for Rotterdam. We went to the church and then walked and rode fietzen out to the tennis courts. I was scheduled to play E. Schaffer at 8:15 and I beat him 6-1. Then I played E. Buckway and he beat me 6-3. I played around a little more, kept score, etc. E. Warner ended up to be the champ. We played till about 1:30, and then we walked over to the football field, had something to drink, and watched the missionaries play the dutchmen in voetball (soccer). The dutchmen won 6-3 after a real good fight by the missionaries (E. Ochsenhirt - 2 goals). After the game we walked back to the church and then we left on the train for Den Haag. We came home, cleaned up and showered and went out to an appointment; Men. Flinterman. We had a discussion (BOFM - race problems, etc.)The whole conference was slightly threatened by rain, but no rain came, thank goodness. The sun shone brightly most of the time, and I wound up with a nice sunburn along with my sore aching muscles.
May 19th, Tuesday
E. Durrant and I tracted and held two CM (S’morgens, niet te veel); three CM ‘smiddags (one OCD Indonesian lady - one Dollie and friend, review Okkernootstr - Men. Boom, review). After dinner we held 3 CM (Mev. Kortlang, BOFM Gegeven, nice visite); family Snoek, crazy lady - BOFM tervg; and then we met with family Bulterman, review lesson 6, BOFM. Discussion - 11:45. She had read the BOFM but the hadn’t done much thinking about it.
May 20th, Wednesday
We held a language class (1 hour), and then the D.P, E. Coomans, came to work with me. E. Durrant and E. De Haan also worked together. We tracted without luck and then went to BR. Meeuws to interview his son for baptism. He seemed anxious to be baptized, didn’t know too much about it though. E. Durrant and I tracted and held 5 CM that afternoon (3 poor - 1 fair - 1 good, Mev. Nike - BOFM lesson). We held 3 CM that evening; Men. Bamberg, BOFM discussion - vergadering can isralz. He had searched for a lot of other material about us. Then we fietzed over to the other area and held a CM with family Bakker, BOFM lesson. Our other appointment fell through so we called on a CM and had a CM with family Fils (niets - crazy lady - Heiden Man) turning colder - more wind - 9 CM
May 21st, Thursday
We held class, and then went out to tract the whole day (9:30-5:30). We held 5 CM (3 fair - 1st visits); one lady from Thedsofie, books about Christ in far eastl one J.W. (very interesting discussion). We ate a late meal, and that evening held 3 CM. One with a Catholic - fair. Then we met with the family V. Hemert “The Mormon Story” - They were very interested, we knelt in prayer to end the meeting; then we fietzed to out other area for a CM with a man from the Katholieke Apostolische Kerk, Men. Koerts. He was very interested and we gave him a BOFM lesson. He seemed very, very intelligent, and said he was looking for a church.
May 22nd, Friday
We held two CM that morning (niets). We had 3 more in the afternoon (2 fair) + one talk on the doors (Ger) That evening we held 3 CM; one with family Stucky (BOFM) - family Minken (BOFM; and our 9:00 appointment fell through so we called on call backs and held another CM (Mev. Pasane - lesson 5, niet veel). Moe 10:30
May 23rd, Saturday
We had a class and tracted (2.5 hours - 1 CM) Then we set out with our cameras for the beach at Scheveningen. The wind was really blowing and it was a little too chilly, so the beach wasn’t very crowded. We shopped around a little on the way home (Bijenkorf), and we returned just in time for some macaroni-salad (2:00). I changed clothes for the baptismal service at 3:30. The meeting was very nice and three people were baptized; 2 from leiden and I baptized a son of Br. Meeuws (22 years - long beard - Tee-shirt - just back from the oil mines in Iraq). We had something to eat and held one CM that evening (Men. Kokee - Loosduinen, BOFM lesson - fair). Our other appointment fell through - we called on call-backs that fell through so we went home early - studied - naar bed.
May 24th, Sunday
We attended Priesthood meeting and Sunday School Meetings, that afternoon fietzed out to our old tracting area- we held one CM with family Landtrok - review. Then we returned for Sacrament meeting that evening. We held two CM (family De Graaf - lesson 5 - fair) and family Hartung - 2nd half of 6th lesson - 11:15. Good acceptance - very nice family. Made a dinner appointment for next week.
May 25th, Monday
E. Durrant and I tracted and held 6 CM that day (nothing real good). That evening we went out to Coosduinen (V.D. Kruk, lesson 5 - simpel). Then we called on call-backs and got in family Harmsen - BOFM lesson - interested; offered to buy book - to 10:30. E. Durrant had received a transfer letter - to Amsterdam next Wednesday (Companion, E. Kruyer).
May 26th, Tuesday
We held two CM in Morgenstond; came back to church (rain-wind). We fietzed out to Br. Meeuws after lunch and gave him and his son a 6th lesson. We returned about 3:15, because E. V. Boerum was taking the new missionary to Rotterdam to check and I had to renew my passport. I met E. Oe Leeuw, just arrived from the states (Provo). His brother was also there and we rode in the Volkswagon and fixed up the passports ($5.00 renewal). We came back, ate supper and E. Durrant and I went to three CM that evening (2 fair - one with Mev. Kortlang and friend - BOFM discussion) - 10:45.
May 27th, Wednesday
E. Durrant packed up and E. De Leeuw had come in that night. We held a class and E. De Leeuw and I tracted (one CM), changed money Hoofdkantoor; bought a fiets (gaxelle $164). He said the door approach a few times. That afternoon we held two fair CM. and that evening three (We sold two BOFM). Our last CM was very good, Mev. Koerts and brother. He was very interested and had read a little of the BOFM (lesson 5 - talk about wars, dienstweigering) - 10:30. When we got home we washed the supper dishes, E. De Leeuw unpacked and at 12:05 I opened my Birthday present which I received in the mail. I received nice cards and presents from mom and dad, Diane and Stevie, Grandma, Sharon, Kent and Randy. I got 3 no-iron shirts, 2 pairs of socks, dish-towels, pressing cloth, toothpaste, cookies and candy-kisses; two nice ties, magic marker, etc. After snooping we finally went to bed about 12:45.
May 28th, Thursday
My birthday (22 years old!!) The Elders sang happy birthday to me at the breakfast table. I worked with E. V. Mondfrands in the morning to get introduced to some of his investigators. He was transferred to the Leersumstr as O.O.V overziener; E. Poelman became assistant to President Sperry; and I was transferred back to school teacher to live in the Uddelstr - Zr. V. Oudheusden. We held two poor CM and Vis. Z. nice investigators. E. De Leeuw and I held four CM the rest of the day. One good BOFM lesson - young man; then we went to an appointment, 5:30, at family Hartung. Mev. Hartung, a friend and 4 children were there (Unda-Jo- Boebie-Marianne). We ate a real lekker chinese dinner (Chop Suey, rice, egg, etc. - pudding and pisangoreng, fried bananas as dessert — Heerlijk!!) We held a review CM, visited, watched the cute kids. They sang Happy Birthday to me in English, and they gave me a foto-boek and a hartelijk gefelici-teerd card. We had three appointments that evening but two of them fell through (one BOFM lesson) to 9:45 - call backs - no luck. We came home, studied, went to bed. - 12:00.
May 29th, Friday
E. De Leeuw and I held 1 CM in the morning (J.W. - schmand -BOFM lesson). We ate lunch in our area and held two CM in the afternoon one, niets; the other family Boom - lesson (good). We also looked at his coin-collection, real nice. Discouraging day, couldn’t find anyone else home that evening we had one appointment fall through; we called on C.B. and managed two CM; one funny looking man; one family of 6; all staunch Catholics. We had some good arguments but had to hurry back to the church for an appointment; which fell through - through early - 9:30. I studied, showered, packed, went to bed.
May 30th, Saturday
I packed a little, we tracted and held two CM (niets Bijzonders). We fietzed downtown, checked in with the police, and shopped at Bijenkorf (Birthday present - dad). We raced home through the 1:00 traffic, ate lunch, and I finished packing. We moved our luggage over on the back of our fietzen (three moves - fiets tas full) mostly my stuff). WE finally got everything moved over about 5:30. We went shopping down at the market; pens, old coins. We went out for a short while that evening; returned home, unpacked everything, straightened tracts, went to bed about 12:00. Nice cost. Huis Zr. V. Oudheusden and 2 sons Jack and Frank (14 and 10). She has been a member for about 3.5 years.
May 31st, Sunday
We ate breakfast, attended Priesthood and Sunday School meeting (9:00-12:00). We came home, studied, had a good warm meal, and fietzed out towards Delft. We tracted for an hour without luck and continued on to Delft. I had to speak there along with Br. Panman from Den Haag. We got there early- and the meeting went good, and we fietzed back to Den Haag along the way. We stopped to call on some Investigators (family Nol), we got home; 7:00, and ate, and then we went out again and held one CM (sold another BOFM - Mev. Versteegh). We returned, 9:15, wrote in journal, wrote letters, etc.
June 1st, Monday
E. De Leeuw and I went over to the church and showered, and held two CM in the morning - one from E. V. Mondfrands, Mev. V. Aggelen (review-fair). The next one was very good - nice lady, Mev. Fockens, and DTR - appointment lesson (very interested). That afternoon after a bread meal here at the cost-huis, we held 3 CM (2 good and one Jonge man, Pinkster and Geref? Appointment lesson - the last one with Mev. Nike, reincarnation, lesson 6). We had a good meal at home, and held 2 Cm. (one gereformeered family niets - young man (flinterman) niet veel aan. Our last appointment fell through again. - home early - weather report - very good, no dutch weather at all - “mooi strand weer”.
June 2nd, Tuesday
We held 3 Cm in the morning, and in the afternoon visited the member we had baptized. He was in the hospital for Vericose veins. We went shopping and held two more CM (niets). That evening we held two nice CM; family Fockens (BOFM discussion - nice family, 2 girls, 1 boy - all older, intelligent, etc). Then we held another long CM. with family Bulterman (review - lesson 1-5-6 - good). 11:45.
June 3rd, Wednesday
We held nine CM during the day (we took our lunch with us.). We held 2 CM; one crazy lady, sister - God in Hoek V. Holland? After lunch we had 4 CM (2 poor - 1 fair - 1 good). Fair - Mev. Bruigom, BOFM lesson (verde oosten??). Good - family De Vries (around the corner of cost-huis). We gave them a restoration lesson (very attentive - good acceptance). We had 3 CM that evening family Stucky dropped them; family Bamberg, good - gave him “wonderbaar werk and wonder” to study. Very intelligent man - theology student but also very humble.
June 4th, Thursday
Day, 8 CM - 3 morning (niets - 1 old investigator, Men. Pas); 2 middag, Gereformeered JOngen - fair, family Boom - Celestial marriage questions (good). That evening we held 3 good CM. Family Bock from E. V. Mondfrands - lesson 3, very good - Catholic family, very attentive. Family Hartung - celestial marriage, lesson 6 - fairly good, not much spirit. Then we fietzed out to family V. Hemert - lesson 3, restoration - wonderful people - we knelt and prayed to end the meeting; they were still afraid to pray. “Misschien De Volgendg Keer.” - beautiful weather, warm, summer!!
June 5th, Friday
We worked with the district president and his companion today. E. Coomans and I tracted all morning and had no luck at all. Elder De Haan and I did a little better that afternoon; having 3 CM (all fair). That evening E. De leeuw and I held two CM (one poor - one good); the good one with the Koerts brothers, lesson 3 - very good reaction and acceptance - 2 young men (home early).
June 6th, Zaterdag
We held a one hour class in the morning, as usual, and tracted for 3 lousy CM (total of 40 for the week). Then returned, ate a good meal (salad - soup - yogurt), and went over to the church to shower and attend the 2:00 testimony meeting. The meeting was very good, and afterwards we held a missionary ping-pong and shuffleboard tournament . E. V. Mondfrands one both tournaments and I came in 2nd in both of them (I won a candy bar). We played a bit more, ate yogurt and strawberries, and I took another shower. We went home and wrote letters, wrote in journals, did genealogy work (niet veel), ate “ijs” - 1 liter between the 5 of us. Hit the sack - 12:00.
June 7th, Sunday
We made a goal at the beginning of the week to get 50 cottage meetings and 70 proselyting hours. Sunday morning we went to meetings (Priesthood, Sunday School, and Fast and Testimony - 9:00-12:30). Then we came home to eat dinner and we went out at 2:45 to an appointment which fell through. We went out to visit some relatives of mine and held 2 CM with them. The first was a nice old lady, wife of Ate Westra (1-8-1-4). She was strong Gereformeered and it was useless to try and preach her the gospel. Then we talked to Jan Westra (1-8-1-2-1), and his wife. They were a very nice couple, young, but not too receptive for the gospel. That evening we held a good CM with a Catholic family (Gootjes - fairly good acceptance - lesson 3). We were through early, no 9:00 appointment.
June 8th, Monday
We held 9 CM during the day, 11.5 hours of proselyting. Since we forgot to fast the day before, fast sunday, we fasted morning and noon and worked straight through (9:30-6:00) - 7 CM - One good one in the morning with Men. Struijk; 2 fair; 2 poor. We held another 2 CM later, both poor; and then had a CM with a young man. Men. Guthman (schriftgeleerd) Then we had a BOFM lesson with family Tack (catholic - 2 tjollies). That evening after dinner we talked with the Touw family, 2 brothers, Ton and Led weren’t members - I had baptized one brother, Rien, about a year ago. We gave them a good review, they have been coming to church. Then we fietzed in the rain clear up to the home of Jan Westra - son of Ate who had died (beukstr, 52) whom we had spoken with Sunday - his Mother anyway. He was even less receptive to the gospel than his Mother. We also made an appointment by telephone to talk to his brother. Our 9:00 appointment fell through so we had to go home early (we had become drenched many times during the day- Motregen - so we pressed our pants that night).
June 9th, Tuesday
We held 9 CM that day. We only took 30 minutes for our lunch. We held only one CM that morning (family Hoffman - sold BOFM). That afternoon we held 5 CM (one poor- 4 fair), and that evening 3; V. Bree, nice lady who had come to church the week before - cute daughter; one heruouderling; family Fockens - lesson 5, good acceptance - a very nice and very intelligent family (good prospect). Gelukkig - no rain, just wind.
June 10th, Wednesday
We only held 7 CM, Mev. Bodaan, lesson 3 - S’morgens and one fair CM. After eating lunch in our tracting area, we held 3 CM; Mev. Bruigom (Cosmos - crazy lady), 2 fair-poor (sold one BOFM). Then we fietzed to the home of Zr. Walli-nitang; where we were invited out to eat. She really fed us some lekker Indonesian food (we ate Bami-goreng, rice, fruit, etc, etc.). It was really filling and we had troubles fietzing to the appointment that evening. We only had one appointment but it fell through. We tracted and held 2 CM (one fair - one poor)
June 11th, Thursday
We held 7 CM, and during the day - all fair to poor (lady from S.L.C, Dollie on lumeerdervodet, lady with “J.W” dtr). That evening two appointments fell through, one went through (Hervormo Couple - argument (niets). Lots of traveling from Morgenstond to Appelstr and back - we were through early and bought an “ijsje” on the way home - 9:45.
June 12th, Vrijdag
We took our lunches with us and worked with the District President. E. Coomans and I held 2 CM (poor and fair). E. De Haan and I did terrible with only one CM (niets). That evening E. De. Leeuw and I held two very good CM. The first with family Bock, 5 people, BOFM lesson. Doing well - no reading though - no church attendance.
June 13th, Saturday
We proselyted from 9:30-4:30 and held one CM with a Jehovah Witness, Mev. Schmand (Gedropped - BOFM terug). Then we tracted and held 2 meetings - Schriptgeleerd lady, Jehovahs Witness?, and Man. (ook schriftgeleerd), no church - nothing. We then went downtown to buy a bubel and woordenboek for Mijn Collega. We returned to eat and to shower at the church. Then we went to an appointment, family Fockens, BOFM film, ruines - 6 kiensen aanwezig (very good meeting - good discussion - good spirit. - 11:30. End of the week - goal of CM niet bereikt (42 CM). 72.5 proselyting hours, new record for both.
June 14th, Zondag - 21 MONTHS -
We attended Priesthood and Sunday School meetings (9:00-12:00). We returned for dinner and studied, and then we fietzed out to the beach to take a few pictures. We returned to the church at 5:00 for Sacrament meeting - 6:30, and then we went to 2 CM - family De Graaf (gereformeered) (sold BOFM, dropped); V. Bree (Mev. and Men.) Mev. in bed - BOFM lesson - good acceptance - very nice family - 11:00.
June 15th, Monday
We went tracting and took our lunch with us again. We held 2 CM, a nice old lady; a son of a Dominee (6-bum disc). Then we ate lunch in a drizzling rain and held two CM that afternoon; Guthman - discussion (niets), Boom - review, good. That evening we held 2 CM, Florentinas - an old Indonesian lady, review of lesson 2, Koerts - son wasn’t on time, so we talked to the father (doops-gezind bum disc). Then we rode out to Morgenstond but the appointment fell through (Kortlang) - returned early - 9:45.
June 16th, Tuesday
We held 7 CM during the day, 2 in the morning (family Hoffman - lesson 5, fairly good and an old lady, negro?). In the afternoon we held 2 CM (niets veel aan), and that night we held 3; the first with the Touw brothers, lesson 5, good spirit, good acceptance. Then we fietzed clear back to the Tomatenstr for a CM, BOFM lesson with a Catholic man, Lugte. After that we held a meeting with family Bulterman - lesson on openbaring - 11:15.
June 17th, Wednesday
We held 7 CM during the day. In the morning we fietzed over to the church to hold class with the 2 new Elders who had just arrived the day before (E. Hixson from Bountiful, and E. Smith from S.L.C - his brother had married Joann). They couldn’t stay too long at class because they had to go with E. Poelman to Rotterdam to check in. E. De Leeuw and I went out proselyting (2 CM that morning - Mev. Bruigom (had read BOFM - knew everything); Gereformeered Meisje (also knew everything), niets. We held 3 CM that evening 2 niets; the other Men. Bamberg, fairly good discussion about lesson 5 and lesson 3, etc (importance of true teachings).
June 18th, Thursday
We held a class in the church, 2 hours, and then we went shopping for fietzen, towels, shoe polish, paper, ink, etc., etc. (Bijenkorp). E. Hixson and I tracted and held one CM, Mev. Struijk - lesson good. We tracted some more without luck and visited an old member, Zr. Jongejan - 73 years old, just baptized 3 months ago. Then we had a dinner appointment by a member, Christine Bals; 2 sisters and mother who were not members (lekkere maaltijd - vlees, aardbiein, enz). That evening we held 3 CM; one with a nice young man, lesson 4; one with Jan Westra, who we had contacted through his mother - telephone (V. Baerlestr 75). He was very friendly and had already heard a lot about the church. We had an interesting discussion; he was Gereformeered and not too receptive for the gospel. Then we fietzed clear out to Morgenstond for a real good CM with family V. Hemert - lesson 6 (first half), very good reaction. We knelt in prayer and the lady offered a very humble prayer - 11:15.
June 19th, Friday
We held a class for 2 hours and then went over to the office to get money changed and to buy books, etc. Then we picked up the bicycles (2 new gazelles, fiets-tassen). E. Smith and I returned to the cost-huis where we ate and then went tracting. We held 3 CM that afternoon; old man Men. Span - zoon Mormon geworddi - S.L.C, BOFM lesson, good; 3 Gereformeered Jongens, very intelligent - Godhead lesson, good meeting. Our other appointment fell through. That evening we held 2 very good CM; family Bock - BOFM film (stamps, stones), very interested - serious questions. Family Hartung, where we also showed the BOFM film - response good (toch niets gelezen) - 11:15. (7.5 hours).
June 20th, Saturday
We held a class from 8:00-12:00 - shuffleboard break. After lunch we went shopping downtown (presents, bubels, dictionaries, Enz) at market. E. De Leeuw and I ate at our cost-huis and then went to the church for a shower. We worked up a sweat playing a game of soccer (he won 10-9), and then we took a shower and went to an appointment (2 fell through so we called on a CB which went through; a real nice man, Men. V. Lighten (optomotrist) - appr. Lesson, good reception. 9:30. We bought a liter of ijs on the way home and ate it at about 11:00. It was beautiful weather the whole week, dry spell in Holland!! End of month - proselyting 202 hours, 168 CM (new records for me).
June 21st, Sunday
We attended Priesthood, and Sunday School; and Mev. Bodaan was present as investigator. We ate in the cost-house, studied, and E. De Leeuw and I went to visit the Westra sisters in the Reinkenstraat. One sister had died about two weeks before, and we visited with the other two and with another one, plus husband, who were visiting. We attended Sacrament Meeting, and then we held a very nice CM with family V. Bree. We gave them the 5th lesson - very good acceptance (vrouw toch in bed).
June 22nd, Monday
We held a class from 8:30-12:00 and then E. De Leeuw and I held 6 CM during the day (three that afternoon - poor - good, Mev. Bodaan, lesson 4, very nice old lady - good, nice family, appr lesson, 4 people). After dinner we had one nice meeting with Mev. Florentinas - lesson 3 review (3-1 lesson for son). Then we went to two crazy ladies, nothing but arguments. Our last appointment was with family Koerts, and we held a very nice CM with them - lesson 6, very interesting discussion. - 11:00.
June 23rd, Tuesday
We held a class that morning, and E. Smith and I held 4 cottage meetings during the day. First we visited family Meeuws, and then we spoke with 2 Indonesian boys (3-1). Then we spoke with Men. Boom, showed him “The Mormon Story”. We returned to eat and then we fietzed out to the Touw brothers, a good lesson on revelation. Then we held a cottage meeting with an old ouderling - Book of Mormon, niets. Then the cottage meeting with the Bultermans fell through; 9:45. We returned home early, 10:00. Weather - drought conditions in many parts of Holland - warm and humid, little rain for the past 6 weeks.
June 24th, Wednesday
We held class for 4 hours and E. Hixson and I went over to the cost-huis to eat lunch. We tracted that afternoon and held two cottage meeting - one niets - one good. That evening we held 3 cottage meeting; crazy gereformeered man (3-1), niets maar argumenten - family Bulterman, we showed them “The Mormon Story” - Men. Bamberg, a good lesson on Revelation, he gave a nice prayer to end the meeting - 11:00.
June 25th, Thursday
We held class and E. De Leeuw and I held one cottage meeting, niets, heiden. We tracted without luck and then visited Zr. Jongejans. We gave her a review lesson and got filled up on cookies, candies, cherries and lemonade. Then we had a dinner appointment with Zr. Walli-nitang; and we ate Bami- goreno, rijst, uis, en aardbeien. E. Giles and Thompson were also there. Then we held a very good cottage meeting with family Bock, lesson 5. They accepted it very well and he prayed to end the meeting. Then we showed a Book of Mormon film to the family Meeuws, Mev and sons Freddie and Johnnie weren’t members.
June 26th, Friday
We held class and E. Hixson and I held one cottage meeting with Mev. Span - niets. (Theosofie-osboan). We held another cottage meeting - fair; and then we returned to the church. E. Smith and I ate in the cost-huis and then we waited for president Sperry to pick us up to take us to the baptismal in Amsterdam. He picked us up at 7:00 and we arrived just in time for the baptism at 8:00. I met many old acquaintances, companions, etc.; and then the doop-dienst began. There were three to be baptized from Velsen; Zr. V. D. Heijden, Liesje and Zr. Bes. E. Schaffer sang a beautiful song and he baptized all three of them. One more from Haarlem was baptized also. The new members were confirmed right after and I confirmed Liesje. President Sperry also spoke, and the spirit was really nice that was present. Men. Spek and Lex were also present, along with the family of Zr. Bes. We rode home - 11:00 thuis. The weather changed suddenly to torrents of rain in the morning and afternoon - we really got drowned traveling to church, tracting area, etc.
June 27th, Saturday - We held a language class in the morning; 8:00-12:00, and ate lunch. Then we held a district class from 2:00-3:30 and a baptismal at 3:30. Three people from Delft were baptized. That evening we went to a show; “the naked and the dead”, a war picture (laat thuis).
June 28th, Sunday
I rode down to the train station to meet E. De Haan and I caught a train for leiden. We caught the train at 9:30 and arrived in time for the 10:30 meeting - After a long walk clear across Leiden from the train station. We spoke in the sacrament meeting - 9 people present - there and caught a train for home. We studied in the afternoon and went to the Sacrament meeting in Den Haag, 5:00 (speakers; Brother Frolich, Brother from Delft, Brother Jongkees from Leiden) , a very good meeting. The family Bock (3 of them) were out to the meeting. That evening we held a nice meeting with family V. Bree; inleiding to lesson 6 (very nice people).
June 29th, Monday
We held a class in the morning. I worked with E. Smith the rest of the day and we held 2 good cottage meetings that afternoon and 2 more that evening (afternoon were Mev. Boom - 3-1 - good reception; Mev. Bodaan, lesson 5 - good acceptance; she gave us some lekkere koekjes dok) (Evening - we met with family Mienken, lesson 3-1-4 reviews - and family Fockens; lesson on revelation - good meeting. They are very nice people - interested in the gospel.
June 30th, Tuesday
Last day of old school - we held a class and a test in the morning - We measured the new missionaries for coffins and President Sperry talked to them. They all got their assignments - E. De Leeuw to stay in the Uddelstraat (E. V. Dam coming from Amsterdam to be his companion). E. Smith to Rotterdam, E. Hixson to Amersvoort. I also had to move from my lekker cost-huis in the Uddelstraat back to the church (again!!). Packing, moving, cooking, dishwashing - verschrikrelijk. I got a haircut, and an eye test, and the new missionaries left in the afternoon for their assignments. We all grabbed a suitcase and headed down to the train station, we fietzed like mad and sent E. Smith and his bicycle from one station (H.S); and we sent E. Hixson and his bike from the other station (S.S.). Real fun - we almost lost E. Hixson on the way. E. De. Leeuw and I tracted the rest of the afternoon, and held one cottage meeting. I ate my last meal at our cost-huis (moedertje V. Ovdheusoen), and E. De. Leeuw and I proselyted that evening also. We held two cottage meetings, Touw brothers (review); family V. Haastert, disc. Lesson 5 and 6. I came back to the church and the 6 new missionaries were there. We talked; I took a shower and went to bed. 11:30.
July 1st, Wednesday
We held a class after breakfast (7:00). The 6 missionaries were; E. Petersen from Magna, E. Dalebout from California, E. Coppin from Brigham City, E. Warnock from Farmington, E. Wilko from S.L.C., and E. V. D. Laan from S.L.C. (he knew Dutch so he went right out on his first assignment). The class was short becasue they had to check in in Rotterdam. We all went shopping that afternoon for bicycles, towels, soap, etc, etc. They had a great time riding their new bicycles in the 5:00 traffic of the Hague. That evening we all proselyted - I took E. Coppin; the other 4 went with Elders in the district. We held one very good cottage meeting with family Bock - good lesson on openbaring - very good acceptance. Our 9:00 appointment fell through and we called on Mev. Pasanae - crazy lady - radioactive - dropped her.
July 2nd, Thursday
We had a class and picked up the rest of the fietzen. We had cooking details for the week so we prepared lunch (E. Olsen and V. Mondfrands had gone to Friesland for 3 days). I worked with E. Dalebout that afternoon and evening. We visited Zr. Jongejan, visited an investigator, Bulterman, and returned to cook dinner (spaghetti - lekker). We held three cottage meetings that evening; Mev. Hyllkama, Book of Mormon lesson, good; one old man and daughter, lousy; Mev. V. Lighten, clear out in Morgenstond, lesson 5 Book of Mormon disc - very good prospect.
July 3rd, Friday
We held a class and E. Wilko and I went tracting after lunch. We held one cottage meeting with 2 young men, fair, tracted some more, and fietzed clear down to the S.S. station to see about his trunk. It wasn’t there. We fietzed back and fixed the meal, and E. Petersen and I held two good cottage meetings that evening; family Hartung, good lesson on openbaring, she gave a nice prayer to end the meeting (things are looking up). Then we fietzed out to the family V. Hemert for a nice cottage meeting (2nd half of 6th lesson) good reception and acceptance).
July 4th, Saturday HOLIDAY
We woke up early that morning and met here at the church as a district. We fietzed out to the hook of Holland, about 10 miles. We started about 7:00 and when we got there we fietzed out on the beach, threw the football around and waited for the Elders of the Rotterdam district. They finally arrived and we began the football game (Den Haag Vs. Rotterdam). After a good rough game we finally came out ahead, 6-0. E. De Leeuw was the hero. Then a few of the missionaries decided to ride along the beach on their bikes. They also had a game of “Chicken”; they rode their bikes straight into the north sea and had a competition to see who could ride the furthest. E. Olsen won the contest but they all got drowned. I also ended up in the sea; it took four of them to drag me in. Then we started on the long, wet fietz home. We got home about 12:30, showered, cleaned up, and studied for a while. Then we all got together and fietzed down to the American Embassy. We saw the new building, saw Ambassador Young, and looked around until 6:00. Then we bought some ice cream, fietzed home, and had a big feast. I went over to Zr. V. Oudheusdens and pressed my pants and picked up my wash. Then I wrote letters, went to bed. 12:00.
July 5th, Sunday
We attended Priesthood, Sunday School and Fast meetings. We had one investigator out to meetings, two investigators gave their testimonies. It was very inspirational. Then E. Brinkman and I held a meeting with a man here in the church. E. Wilko and I called on the call-backs for one hour - no-one home. We attended a night meeting and finally ate something after fasting. Then E. Coppin and I went out and finally held one cottage meeting, family Naafs (lesson 5 - not much reception).
July 6th, Monday
We held a class from 8:00-12:00. After church E. Warnock and I tracted and held 2 cottage meetings. One was with Mev. Verbeek; lesson 4, good, nice lady. Then we met with Mev. Bodaan - lesson on opstanding (review, lesson 5), very nice old lady. Our other appointment fell through. After dinner and washing dishes (our crew was on dish washing detail), Elder Petersen and I went to 3 cottage meetings. The first with family Mienken, Catholic, strong 5th lesson? (fair). We went to a crazy cottage meeting with 2 crazy ladies and a man (fair!).
July 7th, Tuesday
We held class for 4 hours (I got the high score in the shuffleboard break - 107). E. Coppin and I called our CB and held 3 cottage meetings; Mev. V. Schouwen, lesson 5, niets; 2 more, one poor, one fair. E. Warnock and I held two cottage meetings that evening; one with the Touw brothers, only one of them (ton - baptism?). The other was a very nice family, Verbrugge, first visit, good prospect. Our last appointment fell through - home 9:45, shower, V. Dam and Coppin played ukulele, singing, bed - 11:45.
July 8th, Wednesday
We held class and E. Petersen and I tracted the whole afternoon with one lousy cottage meeting - Mev. Nike - niets (Book of Mormon terug). E. Dalebout and I held two cottage meetings that evening; a very good cottage meeting with family BOck. We showed them the “Mormon Story” and he bought a copy of the D&C. Very good meeting. Then we talked with Men. Bamberg - lesson 6, 1st half - he found it very interesting and the lesson went over very well. - 11:00.
July 9th, Thursday
We held a class and E. Dalebout and I held 2 cottage meetings; and visited two investigators (one crazy Jehovah's Witness on the door) - cottage meeting - one fair, the other poor. E. Warnock and I held 2 nice cottage meetings; first visits, the first with family Spoelstra, very nice looking for a church. The second with family Linschoten, who didn’t believe in a church - very nice families, might be good prospects. Our 9:00 appointment fell through. It started raining about 5:00 and rained steadily until 7:00. It was coming down in the sheets after a long dry spell. We got pretty wet too.
July 10th, Friday
We held class, and E. Coppin and I held 2 cottage meetings; one fairly good, one poor (real heathens). Then after “Een Verschrikkelijke Maaltijd”, E. Wilko and I went out to appointments, all of which fell through (two real good investigators ook). We fietzed out to Loosduinen and to Morgenstond and finally got in one cottage meeting with family Bakker - fair (wife good).
July 11th, Saturday
We held a class in the morning, and after lunch we all went downtown to shop for suits, Bijbels, dictionaries ,etc. They all bought suits for $45.00 (sale). We couldn’t get E. Petersens trunk yet. We came home, ate dinner, played shuffleboard, wrote in journals, and went to bed.
July 12th, Sunday
We attended Priesthood meetings and Sunday School (one investigator from family Bock). We studied that afternoon and attended sacrament meeting that evening. Then E. Petersen and I called on appointments in Morgenstond which fell through. We tracted and held one cottage meeting (fair). Then we held a CM with family Hartung - call to repentance lesson - was a fair reaction.
July 13th, Monday
We held a class in the morning for 4 hours, fixed lunch (our crew was on the cooking detail again), and E. Wilko and I held two good CM - Mev. Verbeek, lesson 5 - good, she prayed - and Mev. Bodaan, lesson on revelation, she prayed also. After dinner E. Dalebout and I held 3 Cm; 2 old ladies, niets; V.D. Helm and Mother, BOFM terug, dok niets; family V. Ostrom, first visit (3-1 lesson), good people, interested and intelligent - investigating.
July 14th, Tuesday
We had class and E. Wacnock and I held two CM (one poor - one fair). E. Wilko and I met with the Touw brothers; lesson 6, simple - fair. Then we held a meeting with the family Verbrugge - lesson 4 - very nice family - interested (2 older boys) left BOFM.
July 15th, Wednesday
We held a class and had Lekker? Chocolate yogurt for lunch. E. Dalebout and I held three CM that afternoon; 2 poor, one fair. E. Petersen and I held three CM that evening; first with Men. Lugte, a Catholic man willing to investigate BOFM. Then we met with Men. Bamberg - 2nd half of lesson 6 (very good meeting - good acceptance). Then we talked to family Bulterman, going on vacation - gave them a marv. Work and wonder to read - late (E. Petersen - watch). - 11:15 - weather report - about as warm as it could possibly be - hot and sticky and humid.
July 16th, Thursday
We held a class and Elder Coppin got a phone call transferring him to Amsterdam. I worked with him the whole day, getting no CM. that afternoon and three that night. The first one was with the family Bock (1st half of lesson 6 complete acceptance but with excuses for not living it). We then met with family Spoelstra, lesson 5 discussion (fair). Then we fietzed out to Morgenstond and got to our last appointment at 10:30. We talked to Men. V. Ligten that evening and gave him a 3rd lesson - 11:30 (rose-hair oil lemonade - E. Coppin description - spilled out on my lesson).
July 17th, Friday
I took E. Coppin down to the station and got him sent off and then returned to have class for 3 hours. E. Wilko and I tracted that afternoon and finally held two fair CM. E. Warnock and I held two CM that evening with family V. Linschoten, lesson 5, good (strange people); family V. Hemert - lesson on openbaring, call to rep. - still no active investigation, wife prayed and we all prayed on our knees.
July 18th, Saturday
We held class (exame) for 3 hours. Then we studied, cooked, and attended the baptismal at 3:30 in the afternoon; 7 people were baptized, 4 of family Slieger (V. Mondfrands and Tesch) one E. Poelman (bals), one E. Andrus. One E. V. Boerum - 5:00. Then we played all sorts of games, badminton, soccer, ping pong, shuffleboard, etc. We also bought 4 liters of ijs and had a feast. I worked on my talk and we finally got to bed about 12:15 (erg moe).
July 19th, Sunday
We attended Priesthood and Sunday School Meeting (investigators Bock and Bamberg - surprise!!). Then 7 of us went downtown to eat an Indonesian meal, the three new Elders didn’t appreciate the warm food. It was really warm. I studied my talk the rest of the afternoon and I had to speak at the 5:00 meeting, along with the two “Jansens” (gave des Heiligen geestes) 6:30. Then E. Wilko and I went out to call on investigators but none of them were home - vacation woes!! Terrible! Writing in journal - 11:50 - to bed (weer moe!)
July 20th, Monday
We held class and after lunch E. Petersen and I tracted and held 3 CM; 2 fair; one poor. That evening E. Dalebout and I held 2 CM; one with the family Fockens, good lesson on Revelation, coming along good but no active investigation. Then we held a CM with family Bakker - man niets, wife real good - BOFM terug, jammer! Still beautiful weather, no clouds in sight-slight wind.
July 21st, Tuesday
We held a class and E. Warnock and I held 3 Cm that afternoon; the first with Mev. Boom - very good prospect, lesson 3. Then E. Warnock tried his first Godhead lesson (Mev. Taal-Perenstr) - fair! Then we called back on Men. Struijk who had been in the hospital. He had read over half of “A Maev-Eldus Work and a Wonder”, also a very good reaction. After dinner we went out to E. Giles cost-huis (genestetlaan 204) En. E. Thompson and I called on the Touw brothers; rev 1-6 - I turned them over to E. Thompson and Giles. We held one more CM - dirty area, review of (3-1), so dark inside that we couldn’t see - 9:45 afgelopen
July 22nd, Wednesday
We held class; and E. Wilko and I tracted the whole day and finally got in about 5:00 - english lady, couldn’t speak dutch. E. Wilko took over and gave a Godhead lesson and Joseph Smith story (Catholic lady - good reaction). We received transfer letters that day; I got transferred to Zwolle with E. Dalebout as a companion. E. Warnock was to go to Harlingen, E. Petersen to Rotterdam; and E. Wilko to Nijmegen (the transfer to take place saturday). After a dinner of rubbery pancakes we washed dishes and E. Warnock and I held one CM - niet veel. The others fell through - home 9:30.
July 23rd, Thursday
We held a class and E. Petersen and I tracted. We held one CM, Christian Science - lesson 3 - fair. We fietzed downtown to check out with Politie (closed); we called on Br. Meeuws and family; and after dinner we went to appointments; E. V. Mondfrands and I. We called family Bock - good finish up on 6th lesson - discussion of obedience to commandments. Family Bock - testimony, but not too willing to bring it into practice - Mev. Leunissen has a testimony and said she would be baptized. We called on Men. Bamberg, good discussion, 6th lesson, 5th ook. Then at 10:30 we called on our last appointment, Men. V. Lighten - BOFM lesson - real good acceptance - he gave a good prayer - 11:30.
July 24th, Friday
We held a class and E. V. Mondfrands and I held one Cm (niet veel). E. V. Dam and I called on an appointment in the afternoon. We held two real good Cm one with Men. Stuijk, and one with a Mev. Boom. Both were really nice people, 5th lesson for both of them - good acceptance. We went out together in the evening also and held 2 more Cm - the first one, Mev. Hylkama-vrijzinnnig cuthers - no belief in resurrection - niets. Then we held a nice meeting with family Hartung, review. Family V. Hemert had bezoek that evening. So our long fiets tocht was voor niets geweest. Home early - 10:00. It was the cast day for the new missionaries before going to their various work places and we bought ijs and bananas with the money we got from fines; dinner table, dutch, guys, auctioning off letters. We got 6 liters of ijs, 7 bananas, 2 jars of jam, nuts, chocolate, cookies, and lemonade. There were nine of us missionaries and the goodies cost us over $20. We stayed up till 12:00 - talking, playing silly games, etc.
July 25th, Saturday
We held a very wonderful testimony meeting in the morning (7:00-10:00). There were 19 elders and President Sperry present. After the meeting E. Petersen and Wilko got ready and we all raced down to the station to send them off. E. Petersen caught the 11:05 to Rotterdam, two trains too late; E. Wilko caught the 11:11 from the other station to Nijmegen. Then we rode home, saw the “Market”, and studied, played shuffleboard, washed clothes - then I went over to moedertjes and pressed my pants, packed a little, and got tracting reports up to date, bed. 12:30. We also played miniature golf that day, E. Dalebout, Warnock and I. I won with a grand score of 58.
July 26th, Sunday
We attended Priesthood meeting and Sunday School for the last time in Den Haag. E. De Leeuw and I went out to visit investigators (Mev. V. Bree). We attended sacrament meeting (Mev. Leunissen and Men. Bamberg were both present) E. De. Leeuw and I went to a CM that evening; an English family, Pearson. We gave them a BOFM lesson - good interest (bought two copies of the BOFM), but believed in reincarnation - (3 hour meeting good discussion, good questions).
July 27th, Monday - ZWOLLE
We got up early and packed our bags. We decided to go to Arnhem because the DP there couldn’t find us a cost-huis in Zwolle. We got checked out with the police, paid all our bills, and finally left the Leersumstraat about 3:15. We hauled out bags over to the bus stop and caught a bus to the train station. First we took a train up to Tjmuiden to send my trunk off for Zwolle. We met with the Spek family there, and left about 6:30 for Amsterdam. We had to change trains in Amsterdam so we ate there; broodjes, lemonade, etc. We caught another train for Utrecht, changed trains there, caught another for Arnhem, and caught still another train to the Velperpoort station. After 6 different trains and about 6 hours of travel, we arrived in Arnhem about 9:30. We lugged all our baggage down to the Priesthood Hendrickster 36 and talked with freek. We made our beds from the ground up - mattresses, blankets; showered, and went to bed (12:15).
July 28th, Tuesday
We got up about 6:30 and Elder Stom cooked us a nice breakfast. We caught the 8:00 train for Zwolle and arrived there about 9:30. We got our fietzen at the station and set out to visit a few members and to find us a good cost-huis. We visited a good member, sister V/A Brink. She would have put us up but she didn’t have enough beds. Then we fietzed out to visit Zr. Pot, and her five little boys (Hans, Bouwke, Jan, Hermann, and Henkie).
She couldn’t help us either but then we went to a family V/A Veen who used to house the missionaries, and they would take us also but the price was a little steep. We said we’d look around and went to the V.V.V. They gave us a few names and addresses and the first one we looked up was very nice - a room on the third floor, nice people, etc. We said we would take it and they said that we could move in the next afternoon. We caught a train back to Arnhem, and arrived there about 8:00. We studied, and hit the sack - 11:45.
July 29th, Wednesday
We decided to walk the morning in Arnhem, and Elder Horne, The DP and I tracted and held one CM (wife of ouderling - Hervorman). Then we visited with the family Peters - not active because of troubles in Gemeente. We came home, had a bread meal, and caught a train for Zwolle. We arrived about 4:30, unpacked, ate a good warm meal, and went out, proselyting (old investigators, members, etc). Home early, unpacking.
July 30th, Thursday
We tracted all that day and held 7 Cm; one in the morning; there that afternoon (fair), there that evening (niets byzonders). The people seemed a little unfriendly, uninterested and afraid of Jehovah Witnesses. Our rooms were very nice, two rooms (adjoining), we ate downstairs with other cost-gangers, shower downstairs - very nice place - good cooking. Nice people; lady, husband, 2 daughters and a son.
July 31st, Friday
We got up early, held a one hour study class together in the morning, ate a good breakfast, and checked in with police and housing. We tracted and held one CM; fairly good - lady with six cute little kids (all boys in lederhosen). That middag we tracted and held one CM - niets. In the evening we also held two CM - one fair, one poor (vroeg thuis) - Our schedule: hour study class, 3.5 hours tracting, noon meal warm, 3.5-4 hours tracting, bread meal s’avonds, 3-3.5 hours in the evening.
August 1st, Saturday
We held a class and had one fair CM in the morning, another poor. We went shopping, in the quaint old city that afternoon. The main city is built on an island with four bridges connecting it to other parts of the city - We live on the island right by one of the bridges. There are about 6 great big churches on the island, and some real old fashioned castles - We shopped for film, paper, and other necessary items. It was fast sunday the next day so we skipped the night meal. We tracted that evening and held one CM - niets aan.
August 2nd, Sunday
We held class in the morning, attended the meeting of the Hermomd church “Giste Kerk” in the middle of the city. It was a huge kerk, Catholic style, Rywiel stalling inside (10:00-11:15). We came home, studied and ate, and proselyted with the family V. Zon. We went out to an appointment which fell through, and then we tracted a little. We stopped by to attend a Catholic mass for half an hour on the way home. They really put on a show for us - chants, rituals and it only cost us a dufbeltze. That evening after a good warm meal, we tracted and held one CM (niets). Home about 9:30 - study.
August 3rd, Monday
We tracted in the morning and held 4 CM, niets bijzonders. We held two more in the afternoon (both fairly good). That evening after supper we gave Hannie V. Zon, the daughter of our hospita (21 years), an approach lesson. She seemed to be very interested. We held two more Cm that evening; one poor (very), and one good, man of Zr. Pot. He seemed very receptive, and she learned a lot also, app. Lesson - 10:00 thuis.
August 4th, Tuesday
We waited until 9:30 when Elder Horne and his companion, Elder Kay, arrived from Arnhem to work with us. They had the rest of my suitcases with them and we hauled them all the way home. Elder Horne and I tracted and held two cottage meetings; one Gereformeered - very strong, approach. Lesson by Elder Horne; the other meeting was a sweet old lady (approach. lesson). After a warm meal, Elder Kay and I worked together and got in one meeting - BOFM lesson to doubting thomas. We met at the train station at 4:30, and E. Dalebout and I went to another meeting; a discussion with the family V.D. Zwaag - nothing but arguments by a lady, three sons, father - 9:00. We hurried home to eat and went right out again - one fair cottage meeting - old lady. Weather report in a word - “Lousy”. Nothing but rain ever since we arrived - “drwysnat”.
August 5th, Wednesday
We tracted in the morning with no luck at all. In the n.m. we held three cottage meetings; one fair - lesson 3 - Mev. Meisner (salvation army); another fair - an old lady, 2 dollies (doops-gegind and Catholic); and then we met a Jehovah Getuigen lady and before long there were 7 of them in there. We finished the appointment lesson and discussed many other things (war, souls, spirits) - 7:00. We ate a quick supper and held two cottage meetings that evening - one real intelligent Catholic man - Men. Hakkenes - appointment lesson; and a Man. V. Nee who was earlier in Ogden - short meeting - returned home - 10:15.
August 6th, Thursday
We held three cottage meetings in the morning; one with Hammie here at the house, she was going to Switzerland for 2 months and wanted to hear a little more before she left. She was reading good in Marvelous Works and Wonders. The other meetings were poor and fair. That afternoon we held 2 cottage meetings; one with a Jewish lady - BOFM lesson; another with a Gereforemeered lady - fair lesson. That evening we had 2 appointments fall through, so we tracted and held two cottage meetings. One fairly good meeting - appointment lesson to mother, 2 daughters, the other poor - we passed out tracts and went home - 10:00.
August 7th, Friday
We tracted and held 3 cottage meetings - all Catholic - terrible. We held 2 more that afternoon - one poor, one good, nice young man from Utrecht, here at work (saan). That evening we held one crazy meeting with a man and his wife, he was a big boxer - niets; and then we went to Men. Klinkenberg and his wife’s house. He had talked to missionaries before in Amsterdam and was quite interested (lesson 3 and 1 - very good acception) - 10:30.
August 8th, Saturday
We held 3 cottage meetings that morning; only one call-back. That day we studied, went shopping, took pictures of the city - they were beginning a big celebration with a parade around the city - miss overijssel - fietzers, 100 young boys who were going to have a fiets contact the next week - 6 days fietzing to different cities everyday. That night we stayed at home, studied, and went to bed.
August 9th, Sunday
It was raining cats and dogs that morning and we stayed in and studied. In the afternoon we tracted and held 2 cottage meetings (one fair). We came home and had a nice meal with the family. Then I talked with a man who also lived here in the same house, Men. V. Hemert, and old man from Indonesia, really “of de hoogte met de bijbel”. - 11:00.
August 10th, Monday
We held 3 cottage meetings in the morning and one investigator (misschieri?). We held 2 more in the afternoon, one student from Groninger, one with Men. V. Renswoude (fair only). That evening we talked to one crazy family and then went to family Pot (lesson 2 - very simple). He was coming along very well and she was learning more than him, although she was already a member.
August 11th, Tuesday
We held 5 cottage meetings during the day (one fair - 4 very poor). That evening we held 2 nice cottage meetings; the first with family Teunis (lesson 3 and 1) , a nice couple, interested. The last meeting was with another couple, very intelligent - also 3-1 lesson (family Brekler). Out until 11:00.
August 12th, Wednesday
We tracted all morning without success. In the afternoon we held three cottage meetings; one with Mev. Meisner, simple 5th lesson - fair; one poor; one nice cottage meeting with a girl living in Amersvoort (no call-back). That evening we also held three cottage meetings - one nice meeting with family V. Brugge (lessons 3 and 1), one meeting in the dark with 2 really old people, and one meeting with a policeman, Man. V. Knen (all tracting). We passed out brochures after that - 10:30.
August 13th, Thursday
We held one fair cottage meeting with a Jehovah's Witness investigator. Then we held 3 cottage meetings - 2 fair (first visits) - one poor. That evening we also held 3 cottage meetings - dropped all three - 2nd visits. First family Karel, mother and two daughters - didn’t want to hear anymore. Then we talked to a house full of trouble makers - V.D. Hoeven; and then we had a long discussion (lesson 5) about Catholic doctrines. It was with a Men. Hakkenos, a really staunch Catholic man - really intelligent, he had studied in the ministry (useless) - 11:45.
August 14th, Friday
I got up at 5:30 and pressed my best suit, got ready and walked down to the train station. We caught the 7:01 for Arnhem and arrived in Arnhem at 8:30, just in time for the 8:30 meeting with apostle Le Grand Richards. We held a testimony meeting with the 14 Elders of the district, President and Zr. Sperry; apostle and sister Richards. The meeting was truly wonderful and President Richards gave a wonderful talk. The meeting went until 12:30, and then we ate Kaas, tisma-fish, and broodjes, melk, and E. Soper gave President Richards and his wife the new appointment lesson. We all had an interview with the Apostle and then we studied, talked, and waited for the 7:00 Priesthood meeting. After that meeting there was a general meeting at 8:00 for everyone. President Richards gave a marvelous talk on celestial marriage. His Dutch was very good also. There were many people present, over 100, and the building was really crowded. President Richards spoke until 9:45 and shook hands with everybody at the door and autographed his books. Then we missionaries were going to have a feast that night - bami and nassi - but it went sour. We had to be satisfied with french fries and bread - 10 of us slept up in the attic on the floor, mattresses, etc. I brought my sleeping bag - we finally hit the hay about 12:30.
August 15th, Saturday
We got up late, ate a good breakfast, and then we all got together and caught the bus for Apeldoorn. We got there at the bus station and caught another bus for “Berg en Bos”, a big park in Apeldoorn. First we played a game of miniature golf, 18 holes and I won with a score of 57. We then went into the park and saw the scenery, beautiful groves of trees, lakes, waterfalls, and thousands of big carp. We returned to Arnhem on the bus, ate a good spaghetti dinner, and I studied. We slept there again that night.
August 16th, Sunday
We attended Priesthood meetings and Sunday School in Arnhem (9:00-12:00) . I met more old acquaintances in Arnhem. My companion and I went out to eat at an Indonesian restaurant. We walked back to the local swimming pool where a baptismal was being held at 2:00. There were 3 people being baptized from Enschede (Soper and Whiting). We walked back to the church, studied, and caught the 4:30 train for Nijmegen. We were to speak in the Nijmegen branch, 5:30. E. Thurgood and Wilko were also there and 12 members. After the meeting we walked down to the station, caught a bus for Arnhem, went to the church for our bags, caught a train for Zwolle, and arrived there about 10:30. We ate a bread meal - went to bed - 11:30.
August 17th, Monday
We held 8 cottage meetings during the day (two fair - morning); 2 fair, 1 poor in the afternoon. One lousy idiot that believed nothing - one with family Pot, good BOFM lesson and discussion. He had read quite a bit about us - good meeting - 11:30 (good prospect).
August 18th, Tuesday
We held one cottage meeting that morning, young kids, Uos - student at Delft; we held 4 in the afternoon (3 fair, 1 poor). That evening we tracted and held 2 cottage meetings (fair-poor). Our 9:00 appointment fell through, sickness, so we had to return home early - 9:30. I wrote in my journal, took a shower, etc. - (beautiful weather).
August 19th, Wednesday
We held 7 cottage meetings during the day, 2 in the morning, 3 in the afternoon, 2 at night - only two of them were any good at all - Mev. Meisner. We talked to an old Catholic theologian from England as well!
August 20th, Thursday
We held 8 cottage meetings - 1 morning, 3 afternoon, 4 in the evening (3 call backs). Two of them were Jehovah's Witnesses, the last one (9:30-11:45), discussion of destruction of Jerusalem, war, etc, etc. - 12 proselyting hours.
August 21st, Friday
We had absolutely no luck in the morning - we shopped at the market, took some pictures of ladies from Staphorst, a town close by Zwolle where the people dress up in the same kinds of clothes (tin cans on their heads), they come to Zwolle every Friday for market - they hate to have their pictures taken. We held 4 cottage meetings that afternoon - one in an old farmhouse, really out in the sticks. We held 3 more cottage meetings that evening (one poor - one fair - one good). It rained cats and dogs for about 10 minutes while we were in a meeting. It had been hot and humid all day long, no clouds in sight, but that evening we really got a thunder and lightning show and a downpour, 3 inches deep on the streets in 10 minutes.
August 22nd, Saturday
We held two cottage meetings that morning, another Jehovah's Witness. We went shopping, studied, ate, showered, and went to a show, one of two showhouses here in Zwolle. We saw an English film “The Captains Table” - very funny.
August 23rd, Sunday
We held a study class together and were planning to attend one of the local churches at 10:00; but the family Bes drove up from Ijmuiden. They were vacationing nearby in Ommen, and drove over. We decided to go with them to Ommen, ½ hour drive. They were staying in a nice little cabin and we ate dinner there with them. Impje, their 17 year old daughter, and Jan had been baptized about three weeks ago. Impje played her guitar for us and sang. They drove us home and we tracted for about 2 hours - one nice cottage meeting with 2 young boys, one a son of a Dominee. Then we returned home to eat and we went out that evening to visit family Pot plus 5 Jongens. They had company so we couldn’t get a lesson in - home early.
August 24th, Monday
We held 8 cottage meetings during the day (3; 2 fair - S’morgens) - one Jehovahs Witness, argument and two other cottage meetings - S’middags - 2 cottage meetings - Savonds, the first one good, family Borst - the second fair, lesson 4, policeman - painter - 9:45. (visit with family).
August 25th, Tuesday
We held 6 cottage meetings during the day, two in the morning, one fair - only one that afternoon, student - and three that evening, Men. V. Agteren (lessons 3 and 1), good acceptance, late some friends of his came and he gave the same lesson to them, acceptance not so good. Then our 9:00 appointment fell through and we called on a call-back - fair. cottage meetings Wolbering.
August 26th, Wednesday
Elder Horne, The D.P., and his comp. Elder Kay arrived about 8:30 and we worked with them. Elder Horne and I held two cottage meetings that morning; Mev. Busbroek and friend (niets); then we held a nice cottage meeting with a Dominee from the Doops; Gezind (Mennonite church) (lessons 3 and 1). We also visited Zr. V.D. Brink. We ate lunch and Elder Kay and I held two cottage meetings; one nice meeting with Mev. Meisner (Doop, Gezag-questions), one meeting with a nice lady - funny ideas. Elder Dalebout and I held two cottage meetings that evening. - Men. V. Brugge, lesson 4, fair - call-back with a blind man and wife; ND return appointment but a nice meeting - our 9:00 appointment fell through again - home early - 9:30.
August 27th, Thursday
We held 8 cottage meetings; 2 morning, 3 middag, 3 avond. Both morning meetings were very good, one Mev. V. Sloten who had spoken to Elders before and who had attended meetings. The other meeting was with Mev. Mulder (Jehovahs Witness investigator). Our first meeting in the afternoon was with a Diaken from this Hervormde church (3-1 fair); 2nd meeting poor - 3rd meeting fair - family moving to Den Haag (V. Dijk). We talked gospel at the dinner table with the family and went out to meetings. First, a nice Gereformeered lady, music teacher (3-1) - good prospect, then an old farmhouse appointment fell through so we called on a call-back - Mev. Doctor and friend, Dominee from Zeeland. Acceptance was fair, nice meeting. They had many questions so we were late for our 9:00 appointment - Men. Den Haan, student, good 3-1 lesson - very nice man - good day - 8 cottage meetings, 11.5 proselyting hours.
August 28th, Friday
We held 8 cottage meetings - morning - 1 (nice lady - Catholic), very intelligent, but still hanging on to R.K. faith. That afternoon we held 4 CM, 3 fairly good, one poor (good - Mev. De Koning, Vrijevangelie; Mev. Knol - lesson 2; family Teunls, Book of Mormon, Geloof, etc.). That evening we held two poor cottage meetings, and then went to visit the family Pot. We gave them a review and a Book of Mormon lesson (very nice family, coming along good) - 10:30.
August 29th, Saturday
We tracted in the morning - one lousy Jehovah's Witness - niets. We went to check on a building to meet in Bloemendaalstr 11. Then we talked to a Men. Next door, an old investigator (English Teacher - 70 years old). Then we tracted a little in the afternoon, took pictures of “een mooi bos: ducks, geese, swans - little girl feeding them). We fietzed out to the little town of Hattem where they were having a big health celebration. (big parade, hundreds of kids in shorts. After we finally made it through the crowd and found a good tracting area we worked for about 1.5 hours, getting in 5 houses (4 lousy cottage meetings - Joseph Smith stories - one shaky call-back). We fietzed back to Zwolle against the wind, ate and talked with the family; then we came down and gave the family V. Zon a good lesson - 9:00-11:30. Very nice family - good prospects. Mev. is not by a church, Men. and children are all Catholic. We took a shower, and hit the sack, 12:30. Weather report: turning colder (Brrr!) Raining cats and dogs that night.
August 30th, Sunday
We studied that morning and attended a meeting of the “vrijevangelisone gemente” - 10:00-11:30. They had a regular Dominee, had collecte, much like Hervormd. After a bread meal in the afternoon, we tracted and held 3 cottage meetings, one good (leger des heils). We returned home for a good meal, talked with the family, and gave Hannie a cottage meeting that evening, lesson 4 - fair, hard for her to understand - we studied, went to bed.
August 31st, Monday
We held 6 cottage meetings during the day - 2 morning; 3 afternoon (4 fair). That evening an appointment with a Dominee (gereformeered), fell through, along with our 2 other appointments. We called on one contact, very good reception - good prospect - family Oiepenheim, very humble family in poor neighborhood by train station - also a “Flower” - little girl.
September 1st, Tuesday
We held 8 cottage meetings during the day. Three in the morning (one fair) and one investigator, old goat - no prayer. That afternoon we held 3, one fair - 2 poor out in a little community, Spoolde. “Vit aan het platteland” there were nothing but old fashioned farmhouses there (combination house and barn) the people had their own dialect so it was very difficult to understand them (ddestere dingey in de biebel). That evening we fietzed back to the Veerallee for two cottage meetings - family from Vrije Evangelische Gemeente (fair - nice family, flower). We then held a meeting with family Borst, Book of Mormon lesson, good. We raced clear out to our other appointment for our 9:00 appointment but it fell through. We called on call-backs till 9:30 - no luck.
September 2nd, Wednesday
We held 9 cottage meetings that day, 2 in the morning (poor); 5 that afternoon - one with Deacon, Men. Dijkslag, Book of Mormon; and the rest in another little dorp outside of Zwolle, Berkum (4 cottage meetings; one real old lady - one very good, Mev. Goudkamp - one Jehovah’s Witness, real dumb old lady - one koster ok Herv - church - fair. We fietzed back to Zwolle and held 2 cottage meetings - fair and a Jehovah’s Witness, Meskin. He was very intelligent - discussion on healing, authority. We then went to our 9:00 appointment in another area and it fell through also - 3 in 3 days - home early again.
September 3rd, Thursday
We held a class and started fietzing out to the little farm town of Hattem. We took our lunch with us and stayed the whole day (9:45-5:45) - 6 cottage meetings and 1 investigator, one fair, the rest all very poor. The people there are very dumb and very uninterested in the gospel. We had a good warm meal and held 3 cottage meetings that evening; Mev. Hoving (Gereformeered), Book of Mormon lesson, fair - family Wolberink, fair - and our 9:00 appointment finally went through, Men. Den Haan - lesson 4, Geloof - he had no belief in Christ - 11:00 (fair. ook).
September 4th, Friday
We traveled out to Spoolde again and held 2 cottage meetings - old farmhouses along an old dirt road. We tracted off about 5 square miles of area; cottage meeting was no good - one old lady I couldn’t understand, one old man with a smelly dog next to a smellier pigpen. We held two nice cottage meetings that afternoon - Mev. Knol - lesson 3, fairly good - Mev. Koops, nice prospect, nice lady, flower with Klompen. Our first appointment went through; family V. Skoten might be a good contact; but the other 2 appointments fell through - we called on call-backs till 9:30 - no luck - home early again. We took a shower, climbed in bed; 11:30.
September 5th, Saturday
We tracted that morning with the one poor cottage meeting - we ate and went down the station to catch the train for Zutphen. We arrived there and ate the cost-huis of Elder Beckstead and Elder V. Katwijk in time for the district class at 2:00. We held a class (12 of us - minus the Elders in Nijmegen). We talked, studied, and gave lessons till 5:00. Then we boarded the train again for home. It was fast-day so we skipped eating and that evening we went to the traveling circus Krone (swerelds grootste circus). (8:00-11:00) It cost us $5.25 a piece and it was a good circus - many horses, elephants, tigers, trapeze artists, jugglers, pretty girls, etc. (320 wagons, 450 animals, 500 people). We walked home, just across the moat-bridge.
September 6th, Sunday
We went to the meeting of the Vrije Evanelisatie (10:00-11:30) - Hallelujah, amen. They had a good crowd and the speaker gave a rip-roaring speech (traveling preachers). We studied, wrote in my journal, and ate a good meal. We tracted in the afternoon and held 2 cottage meetings with the family Eikelboom on the other side of the station (bridge) (lessons 3 and 1 - good family - salvation-army).
September 7th, Monday
Elder Horne and Eastman came to work with us and Elder Eastman and I held 3 cottage meetings that morning, 2 fair. Elder Horne and I held 3 cottage meetings (fair to poor), and then they had to leave. Elder Dalebout and I tracted further and held one cottage meeting, Vrije Evangelizatie, till 6:30. We held two cottage meetings that evening, one with the Schrevder family in the Veerallee Beurt fair. We the fietzed along the highway to meet with family Schroder in the new apartment buildings. It was a meeting with the daughter of the cost-vrouw, Ria, and her husband. We held a very nice meeting, 3-1 lesson. They were both very receptive. They lived in a very nice, modern home - married just 2 months.
September 8th, Tuesday
We went down to the station to pick up my companion's trunk. We tracted on the other side of the station and held 2 cottage meetings, one nice meeting. That afternoon we held 4 cottage meetings - one standing in hall, Joseph Smith; 3 in Ittersum, another little town close by Zwolle (the first was in an old farmhouse - lesson 3-1, fair - good lady; Men. Doctor and friend - good discussion over Book of Mormon, lesson 3-1 and 5, etc). (9 cottage meetings in 12 hours).
September 9th, Wednesday
We held 9 cottage meetings again during the day. Three in the Morgen in Spoolde - out in the sticks - all three lessons (first a lady in an old farmhouse - fair - 2nd, another old lady farmhouse - family Vlievjans, Osborn enthusiast - 3rd, family Marsman, family and Dollie, they knew Elders before - nice people). That afternoon we held one cottage meeting with Mev. Meisner - lesson 3-1-6, good reception but interest was questionable. We fietzed out to Berkum for another cottage meeting, doops gezind lady - fair. We held 4 cottage meetings that evening - one with Hannie questions and discussion - one with family Pot, Godhead lesson, good acceptance and participation.Then we talked with Men. Stegeman on the Wipstrik, niets. We then met with Men. Klinkenberg, lesson 3. He has interest and is willing to read - attends vrije evangelisatie (late thuis weer).
September 10th, Thursday
We packed our lunches again and headed for Hattem. We held 10 cottage meetings and one investigator during the day (9:30-6:15). We ate our lunch in “net bos” and worked right through (3 cottage meetings S’morgens - 2 fair - 7 cottage meetings s’middags - new reward. They were mostly in old-fashioned farmhouses, a lot of ger. 31, hole maal niets (3 or 4 fair - one old lady - flies, kids - one nice old couple, etc). That evening we held 3 cottage meetings, another gereformeerd man; family Teunis - not so good, dropped; and our last meeting fell through so we called on a call-back and held a very good cottage meeting, nice young couple - 3-1 lesson, good reception - new record for cottage meetings for the day - 13 cottage meetings, 11.5 hours.
September 11th, Friday
We went shopping at the market, took pictures of the old ladies from Staphorst (tin-cans on their heads), went to the “veemarket”), cattle market, and saw them selling and trading cows and pigs, etc. It was very interesting to see the old boeren in their colored klompen and black suits slapping hands and bargaining. We tracted further and only held one poor cottage meeting. That afternoon we held 3 cottage meetings, all with Gereformeerd people - one ger. 31, worthless - all 3-1. That evening we held one cottage meeting with a nice Herv. lady, fair, and our 2 appointments fell through. We called on many call-backs and finally got in - girl theological student and mother (fair acceptance by the girl).
September 12th, Saturday
We tracted and held 3 cottage meetings in the morning (2 fair). We got a haircut, went shopping,and listened to a Catholic “plein preek” - “ruimtevrees”; we tracted and held on cottage meeting, fair, and that evening after supper, we held one more meeting with Hannie - lesson 5, good. We ended the week with 69 proselyting hours and a record of 54 cottage meetings for the week.
September 13th, Sunday
We attended a meeting of the “pinkster gemeente” in the morning (10:00-11:30). They really get full of the spirit - amen, loof den heer, hallelujah, etc. That afternoon we tracted and held one cottage meeting - stubborn man. We had a good meal and went out to an appointment, but it fell through. We called on another - fell through. We listened to the baptist singers for awhile one the sassenpoort plein, “naar bed” - study - 12:00
September 14th, Monday TWO YEARS
We held only 6 cottage meetings that day; one in the morning - good; 3 that afternoon, 2 fair (Book of Mormon - Mev. Ravenshorst, 3-1). One was with Men. Weggink, vrijk evangelisatie - good discussion. Our appointment fell through that evening and we called on call-backs, two cottage meetings - one fair, big fat lady - 3-1 lesson. Weather report - getting chilly - lovely summer, best in over 100 years - only a few days of rain.
September 15th, Tuesday
We tracted and held two cottage meetings - Mev. Mulder, lesson 5, fair; old man, niets. That morning the 2nd counselor of the mission, Elder Ray Springer and his companion came to work with us. They missed that morning, had four cottage meetings themselves, and that afternoon after dinner we worked with them - I with Elder Springer and Elder Dalebout with Elder Dallas Buckway. We held 4 cottage meetings - 2 poor, one good, Mev. Ester, one fair. They ate with us that evening and had to go further to Groningen after dinner. Elder Dalebout and I tracted that evening, our appointment had fallen through - one good cottage meeting, Mev. Strijker. Then we held another good meeting with family V. Agteren - lesson 4 discussion, geloof - etc. (promising).
September 16th, Wednesday
We held 10 cottage meetings during the day; 3 in the morning (one - dumbest lady i’ve ever met; the other two in Ittersum, one fair, one poor). We visited Zr. V. D. Brink whose son had just been hurt in an automobile accident, and went out to Ittersum for 5 cottage meetings that afternoon; 3 of them were fair - one young married couple. That evening we held a cottage meeting with family V. Sloten, the man didn’t want to talk to us anymore (wife was really nice). Then we fietzed up to visit the family Pot, good 5th lesson - good response,coming along very well.
September 17th, Thursday
We fietzed out to Hattem again and held 11 cottage meetings while there; 3 that morning, one fair prospect. We ate our lunch in “Het Bos”, and held 8 cottage meetings that afternoon, a new record for one afternoon. Out of the 8 meetings we got 4 call-backs; two of them good; one Jehovah’s Witness, geweest, the other, a nice Catholic lady. That evening we arrived late for supper, held 2 cottage meetings that night; one with family Reitsma (also Jehovah’s Witness geweest - old investigators). Discussion on war, niets - the last meeting was with Men. Den Haan, no more interest, Book of Mormon terug. (Tied cottage meeting record of last Thursday = 13)
September 18th, Friday
We held 10 meetings that day; 2 in the morning, one fair; 6 in the afternoon; one nice meeting, Men. Vaatstra - all others were poor except one nice Catholic lady out in the sticks. That evening we held 2 nice meetings; family Diepenheim, Godhead, left “Marvelous Works and Wonders”, very good prospect. Then we fietzed across the tracks to meet with family Eikelboom, lesson 4, left Book of Mormon - good meeting, also good prospect - 11:00.
September 19th, Saturday
We held three cottage meetings in the morning; one nice old lady, lesson 3-1 (Mev. Boeve); one Jehovahs Witness, Mev. Barnevelo 3-1 (strong); one old lady, niets. We tracted in the afternoon and held 4 cottage meetings (one good, 2 fair, one poor). That evening after dinner we played ping-pong (Hannie and Grietje); I wrote in my journal - we took a shower. Record for week in cottage meetings, 55 proselyting hours = 63.
September 20th, Sunday
We ate breakfast and attended the meeting of the Gereformeered “31” church. Just across the street from our cost-huis (9:30-11:00). Church full, places reserved. We studied, ate, studied some more, etc. We had a good meal and went out that night to a meeting with Mev. Veen, “Vrije Zendings Gemeente” - just about like our church. (television - visite - no cottage meetings)
September 21st, Monday
“New record for month, 270.5 proselyting hours, 203 cottage meetings.” We filled in monthly reports in class,and that morning we held 2 nice cottage meetings; one real good, Men. Luyten, a nice old man from Indonesia - very good prospect (3-1 lesson); the other meeting; another Indonesian lady. We then fietzed out to Westenholte and tracted for one investigator; 4 cottage meetings (3 fair). That evening we only held one meeting with family Schroder, a good Book of Mormon lesson. Had a very good response.
September 22nd, Tuesday
Elders Horne and Kay came to work with us, and showed up at 8:00. Elder Horne and I held two cottage meetings (niets); Elder Kay and I held 2; one good one ?? Indonesian lady. That evening Elder Dalebout and I held 3 cottage meetings; niets; fair, Book of Mormon lesson - family Veldkamp; the last one a Book Of Mormon lesson to the cost Vrouw, good, discussion afterwards - “Kor”, Men. Pontvuijst, Men. V. Zon, etc. All people living here - good discussion - lasted till 11:30 - 12 hours proselyting.
September 23rd, Wednesday
We held 4 cottage meetings that morning; Men. Luyten, Godhead lesson - good. Mev. Ravenshorst, lesson 5, fair response; 2 fast cottage meetings out beyond the Wipstrikerallee,niets. That afternoon we held 2 cottage meetings; one with Mev. Meisner, lesson 4 - good response; the other with Men. Knol - fair; Book of Mormon loaned out. That evening we held 3 cottage meetings; the first in Ittersum, Men. V. Olst - Book of Mormon lesson, fair; the next with family V. Agteren and visit, short meeting; the last meeting was with family Sondrop, 3-1 lesson - nice family, strong Hervormd - fair response.
September 24th, Thursday
We went out to Hattem again and held 11 cottage meetings; 6 in the morning, all old farmhouses, 3 fair call-backs. We ate lunch in the same “bos” and after a couple of appointments fell through, we fietzed to the rich side of Hattem, in “Het Bos” - 2 cottage meetings with rich people. We then tried to find the golf course in Hattem, and after fietzing clear around it, we finally located it and inquired about the price. We fietzed back to Zwolle over a new and unexplored route (shortcut?) [over a dirt road to the Ijssel river, ferry boat across the river - old broker down barge, dirt road to Schelle]. That evening we held three cottage meetings; Mev. Hoving, fairly good - discussion lesson 4 and 5; family Pot, lesson one Openbaring; family Reitsma lesson on baptism and original sin - left the “Marvelous Work and Wonder”.
September 25th, Friday
We started out in the morning to fiets to Meppel, 26 km to the north. We tracted along the way and held two cottage meetings, just outside of Zwolle, Staphorst - regular house. Staphorst was a little farm town where the people all dress up in the same clothes, Klompen, etc. It was forbidden to take pictures of the residents without their permission, and not even the little kids would give permission (not even for money). We fietzed through the town and tracted a few houses and headed up to Meppel, 7 Km further. We ate our lunch along the way. We went out to Meppel and tried to contact some members there who were on our records. Two had no time, and two more had joined the Hervormd church (hele maal niets). We tracted there, one lousy cottage meeting; and we tracted in Staphorst again, one cottage meeting in the house of an old lady, all dressed up. The inside of her house was also beautiful. She had everything spic and span, and old-fashioned stove (wood burning), an old mahogany dish chest, bright red chairs, etc. On the outside, the houses were painted brightly colored with green doors and shutters. We fietzed the rest of the way home, and we were really tired when we finally arrived, 6:30. We ate and held one cottage meeting that night with family Borst, lesson 5 discussion (good). Our 9:00 appointment fell through so we went home early - “dood moe”.
September 26th, Saturday
We got ready and caught the 8:15 train for Arnhem. We arrived in plenty of time for the 10:00 testimony meeting there (10:00-12:00, very nice meeting) - 12 Elders were present. We sat around and talked and then we all sat down to an Indonesian “Rijst Tafel”, a gigantic concoction of about 14 different kinds of Indonesian food. We then changed clothes and 4 of us ventured out to play tennis. We talked English and talked our way into a private club. We played a good game of doubles and Elder Putnam and I won 6-2. Then Elder James vs Katwijk and I played and I won 6-2. I beat Elder Stam 6-3 and darkness settled in. We bought ijs, studied, talked, wrote talks, and I rolled my sleeping bag out and sacked out about 11:45 - “weer moe”.
September 27th, Sunday
We got up at 7:00, studied, stole sandwiches, and attended the Priesthood meeting and Sunday School in Arnhem (9:00-12:00). We studied, ate the rest of the rijst tafel, and waited for the 5:00 meeting. There were only 9 present in the meeting, including us missionaries. I didn’t even give the talk I was planning on giving. We packed up, bought ijs, and left on the 8:03 train, meeting Elders V. Katwijk on the train. They got off in Zutphen, and Elder Dalebout and I arrived in Zwolle at 9:30. We ate a good bread meal and wrote in our journals - 12:00.
September 28th, Monday
We looked for another possible meeting place in the future because we were informed that we could have the “SChipper Jeugd Centrum” just on time for our meeting 4 okt. We looked around and couldn't find anything, and had a good cottage meeting with Men. Luyten, lesson 5, very good acceptance, nice Indonesian man rather old. We held 3 cottage meetings that afternoon in Ittersum (2 fair). That evening we tracted for 2 cottage meetings (one fair); and we held a good cottage meeting with family Eikelboom - 5th lesson, also good acceptance.
September 29th, Tuesday
We held one cottage meeting in the morning, looked for a building; and we held 2 more cottage meetings that afternoon (lousy - fair). That evening we held a nice meeting with family Pot; we showed them “The Mormon Story”. Then we fietzed across town for a cottage meeting with family Diepenheim - lesson 5 - good acceptance - biet veel tijo gehad.
September 30th, Wednesday
We held 3 cottage meetings in Ittersum (fair) in the morning. We looked again for a meeting place, with little luck; held a cottage meeting (poor); and that evening we held one cottage meeting (niets). Our 2 appointments fell through that evening, so we returned early.
October 1st, Thursday
We finally made temporary arrangements for a meeting place, “zaal donker”. We held 3 cottage meetings that morning also - that afternoon we fietzed out to Voorst and Spoolde. We held 5 cottage meetings (4 poor- 1 fair, “Jehovah’s Witness daughter - good). Our two appointments fell through again so we tracted and held 2 more cottage meetings (fair and niets). Home early again.
October 2nd, Friday
We met with a Dominee from the Gereformeerde church (Zuiderkerk). Then we fietzed out to Men. Luyten’s for a cottage meeting; Book of Mormon lesson - very good acceptance. We also met with a little Indonesian lady, Mev. V.D. Horst (fair). That afternoon we held a meeting with “sleeping sal”, Mev. Knol - lesson 4, fair acceptance. We fietzed out to Berkum; one cottage meeting with a nice lady (aan t eten koken). That evening we held two meetings; one with Mev. Hoving - lesson 5 - good, she was still a strong Gereformeerde - doubting though. We held our last meeting with family V. Agteren - “geen gelook - Book of Mormon Terug” - jammer.
October 3rd, Saturday
We fietzed out to Hattem in the morning and held 2 cottage meetings in the morning; old farm couple (misschien?); old man - Boeman (niets). We ate our lunch there in Hattem and tracted, 2 more cottage meetings; one nice family - no call-back, one Hervormd Jeugd leider, Men. Seegers - fair. The houses we were tracting were really in a ritzy section of Hattem, in the Bossen (a few castles, mansions, etc.) We couldn’t get past the 3rd assistant Butler on most houses. We then fietzed over to the “Hattemsche Golf Club” for a game of golf, 9 hole course. We played 9 holes, and E. Dalebout beat me 55-60. We played for a few extra holes, 2 pars (in dutch - bogeys). The greens were very good. 4:30-7:20. We fietzed home across the Ijssel per “kleine veer”, through Schelde. We studied and wrote talks, etc.
October 4th, Sunday
We stayed in and studied in the morning, and I wrote my talk. It was Fast Sunday so we didn’t waste any time eating. I studied, wrote in my journal, and then we worried about the meeting here in Zwolle; our first to be held - 5:00. We went there early, paid $7.50, and waited for the people. Brother Ten Hove arrived from Apeldoorn to speak, Men. Luten, Mev. Meisner, family Eikelboom (four of them), Kodyman Jogen, Hannie, Zr. Pot and 3 Jongens and mother, and 2 boys from Brother Ten Hove all came to listen. Including us there were 18 people present. I spoke with Brother Ten Hove. We were only missing a few things, an organist, and song books; otherwise, the meeting went well. We got an ijs after the meeting, ate dinner and went to an appointment with the family Pot. I didn’t have a voice left so the lesson was short, Zr. Pots' parents (de Ruiter) were there also - singing from Johannes De Heer (8:00-9:30). I had a bad cold, vrdes naar bed.
October 5th, Monday
We got out late - Laryngitis, bad cold (2.5 hours, no cottage meetings). We tracted in Ittersum for 4 cottage meetings (2 were fair); Mev. Walging; vrije Evangelizatie. We held one cottage meeting that evening and I almost lost my voice (Men. Dillenburger - Book of Mormon lesson), so we cancelled our 9:00 appointment (a Jehovah’s Witness in Spoolde and 3 dollie daughters). Vroes naar bed - onder de vicks.
October 6th, Tuesday
Slept in; then had two cottage meetings that morning (crazy American lady). That afternoon we held 2 more cottage meetings - niets and good; German lady, Mev. Andriesson (3-1 lesson). We held 3 cottage meetings that evening, one with family Eikenaar (3-1 lesson - good); family Veldkamp, temporary drop; and family Eikelboom - talk over Erkzonde - coming?
October 7th, Wednesday
We had no luck that morning; 2 cottage meetings. That afternoon we gave Meisner lesson 5 (flannel); and Men. Dijkslag - lesson 5 dicussion (Erfzondz). That evening we held one worthless cottage meeting and then showed a film here at the cost-huis - Book of Mormon film, with a discussion after (11 aanwezig). Fairly good response - Weather!!! Turning colder but this has been the “driest” best summer in Holland for over 200 years - Discussion taught 11:30.
October 8th, Thursday
We fietzed out to Hattem by way of the “old man ferry” (kleine veer). Morning time we had one cottage meeting; by afternoon we had 4 more cottage meetings - all niets. That evening - terug via brug - we held 3 cottage meetings; Hannie, lesson 5 - good (fl). Then we talked to a Christian Gereformeerde man, niets; and Men. Sondoopr (Herv.) - lesson 5 (fl) - Erfzonde, kinderdoop discussion ook niets. (dropped).
October 9th, Friday
We checked on buildings and held two cottage meetings that morning; Mev. Twinkel (3-1, fair); and Mev. V.D. Horst (Indonesian lady) and her friend, Godhead lesson, fairly good. That afternoon we continued looking for a suitable meeting place - no luck. We held one cottage meeting with Mev. Knol (sleepy) - lesson 5 (fl) - fairly good acceptance of the lesson. That evening we had a meeting scheduled with a Hervormd youth club (J.B.). We visited Zr. V.D. Brink first and then went to the meeting. There were 15 boys and girls present; ages 19-22. We gave them a (3-1) lesson, a Book of Mormon film, had a hot chocolate break, and then showed “The Ruins” film from South America. The meeting went really well and they had some good questions after the films - 10:30.
October 10th, Saturday
We rose early, ate breakfast, and walked down to the train station to catch the 8:15 for Arnhem. We arrived early for the 10:00 testimony meeting. It was a very nice meeting with the President and Zr. Sperry and 14 Elders present. Then we were all interviewed by the President. We had yogurt and rolls for lunch and walked around Arnhem, and Sonsbeek; we studied conference talks and Elder Eastman and I went to an appointment with another youth group, this time the Humanisten. There were 15 boys and girls present (16-18). We had some lemonade and then began the meeting with an introduction of ourselves. We had a Book of Mormon talk, and watched the same two films from the night before. It went very smoothly and there were many good questions afterward - 10:45 (we couldn’t find the place at first). We went home, had some french fries, yogurt, and bread; and then went to bed (sleeping bag on old hard curtains - 11:45).
October 11, Sunday - DISTRICT CONFERENCE IN ARNHEM
We got up at 6:45, got ready, studied some talks and attended the Priesthood meeting at 9:00 then the conference at 10:00 (10 speakers) - 12:00. We ate soup, rolls, cake and lemonade; all prepared by the Z.H.V., and studied some more. At the 3:30 meeting I had to speak, along with 6 others - 5:30. There was a film afterwards about reverence in church. Six of us Elders caught the 7:03 train heading north, 2 in Zutphen, 2 in Enschede, and 2 in Zwolle. We ate a bread meal and soup here at the pension; I wrote my letters and in my journal - bed 11:30.
October 12th, Monday
We tracted in Ittersum the whole day; 5 cottage meetings; one good, 2 fair. That evening two of our appointments fell through and so we instead had a nice meeting with the Pots - lesson 5 (fl). Home early - weather still dry but getting colder.
October 13th, Tuesday
We fietzed out to Westenholte - Spoolde (one cottage meeting - niets) and over the dike to Hattem. We held 4 cottage meetings in (2 fair) and ate lunch there. We came home via “kleine veer”, Schelle ewz. That evening we held 3 cottage meetings; one fair, one niets (Ittersum), and then we held a nice meeting with the family Eikelboom (Godhead lesson) - home late.
October 14th, Wednesday - 25 MONTHS
We held two good cottage meetings that morning - Men. Luyten - lesson on Openbaring. Mev. V.D. Horst - lesson 2, good. That afternoon we held 4 cottage meetings (niets) (old man - 95 years - Mev. V. Renswoude, visite. Dumb lady, Gereformeerde; smart Catholic student). That evening we had two cottage meetings; one useless Gereformeerde man; the other a group of Jehovah’ Witnesses, dollies as daughters.
October 15th, Thursday
We headed for Kampen on the fietzen, tracting along the way. We took a bus from Kampen to the city of Urk. It used to be an island but two dikes made a peninsula out of it. They build up the dijks and pump the water out of it and call it a Polder. The Polders is an excellent farming country, very fertile and completely flat. We went to Urk to have some pictures taken of us in Dutch costumes. All the people of Urk wore funny looking Dutch costumes, and my companion and I dressed up in them and had our pictures taken. We walked around the quaint little fishing city and saw the people in their costumes. The streets were only about 10 feet wide and they went every which way. No cars were allowed in the city. We tracted one street and got in one house; appointment lesson - fair. (lady - all dressed up - 14 children); man and 5 sons fishing). We caught the bus back to Kampen; tracted in Kampen; one lousy cottage meetings; and headed home against the wind. (14 kilometers). That evening we held one good cottage meeting; appointment lesson to a young couple (Hervormde). Then we returned home to show slides here at the cost-house. - 11:00.
October 16th, Friday
We tracted in the morning; 2 cottage meetings; one poor; one fair, Mev. Andriesson (disc). We tracted that afternoon without luck till 3:30 and then caught the 3:57 train for Amsterdam. We arrived at 5:18 and shopped at Schippers in the Kalver straat (Comp-earrings). Then we went to the church where a baptismal was being held Men. Spek and Lex were going to be baptized from Ijmuiden. There were 10 baptized, 4 Alkmaar, Zijmuiden; 2 Amersvoort; 2 Amsterdam. I confirmed Men. Spek and Lex. Everyone was there from Ijmuiden; family Bes, r. Boes, etc. We rushed to catch a tram for the station but had missed the last train for Zwolle. We went back to the church via the red light district (busy as usual). Elder Leydsman and Kruyer put us up for the night in the church.
October 17th, Saturday
We ate a light breakfast and headed for the train station; we caught the 8:08 train (stop-trein). And finally arrived in Zwolle at 10:00. We met the Elders there at the Zwolle station for our scheduled district golf outing. We changed clothes and eight of us boarded a bus for Hattem. We arrived at the Hattemse golf club and after a little difficulty in getting the clubs we split up into 2 foursomes (Elder Dalebout - Kay - H.U Katwjk - and I teed off first). After 18 hole I came out the winner in our foursome with a 103. Elder Horne got a 101 for low score. (Par- 73). We caught a bus back to Zwolle; my companion and I had a good bread meal and rust, and I wrote my talk and then went to bed. (early-moe).
October 18th, Sunday
We went to the meeting of the “Vrije Katholieke Kerk” in the morning. They had the same ceremonies as the Katholieke kerk, incense, long robes, etc; but they stand apart from the pope. There were only 4 other people there including the priest. We ate a good, warm meal and studied. We went to the station to pick up Freek Kramer and then we went to “Zaal Donker” where our meeting was to be held; above a garage in an old bar-dance hall. There were only 8 people present this time (2 members - 3 investigators). We wrote letters and wrote in our journals that night. It finally rained a little after 2 months of dry weather.
October 19th, Monday
We tracted in the morning in Ittersum and held 2 fair cottage meetings (Christian science - hervormde). That afternoon we tracted down by the station, and after 2 lousy cottage meetings the steady drizzle became a steady downpour. We really got soaked from head to toe, especially when fietzing home. It cleared up that night and we held three fair cottage meetings; Men. Schreuder, teacher - lesson 5, sold Book of Mormon; Men. Apotheker, Book of Mormon Terug; Men. Lephiem, an old learned doctor - niets - lesson 4. We returned home early; 9:45.
October 20th, Tuesday
We held 6 cottage meetings during the day - morning two; one fair - afternoon two, Mev. Meisner, lesson 6, good; family Weijl, mother and daughter appointment lesson, fair. That evening we had one cottage meeting in Ittersum - niets. And then a nice cottage meeting with family Diepenheim, lesson 3 - MONTH: 227 ; COTTAGE MEETINGS: 149.
October 21st, Wednesday - PUSH MONTH
We held two nice cottage meetings in the morning; Men. Luyten we showed him, “The Mormon Story” - good. Family Linden-hovius, appointment lesson - nice family. That afternoon we tracted apartment buildings (assendorp) in the drizzle. We held 5 cottage meetings (3 gereformeerde - 2 Hervormde) We got two call-backs out of them - fair. That evening we tracted in the apartments; one fair cottage meeting. Then we held a very nice cottage meeting with family Pot, Woord van Wysheid lesson - good.
October 22nd, Thursday
We fietzed out to Hattem and held 6 cottage meetings during the day - 2 fair. That evening we only held one cottage meeting - a nice one with 2 young men and a girl - lammers - Book of Mormon discussion -9:45. Home early.
October 23rd, Friday
We held 10 cottage meetings that day; 3 in the morning (2 fair). That afternoon we went out to Berkum to tract and we held 5 cottage meetings there; one nice cottage meeting with Mev. Olthof - lesson 5 - good plus 2 other fair cottage meetings (one politic kaptemi). That evening we held 2 nice meetings, Mev. Hoving, good 6th lesson; Men. Klinkenberg (finally) - good 5th lesson - acceptance good, wife niets - late 11:30 (12 hours proselyting).
October 24th, Saturday
We tracted in the morning with no luck at all. That afternoon we went shopping and tracting - finally at 4:00 we got in - very nice cottage meetings with a young Japanese man - appointment lesson was good. Then we held one more cottage meeting - fair. We went to the 7:00 show; “Al Capone” - then I wrote my talk that night - 12:00.
October 25th, Sunday
I wrote in Journal, studied, and after breakfast my companion and I went to the 10:00 meeting of the Baptiste Gemente - 11:00. We ate lunch, studied, and caught the 3:20 bus for the 4:30 sacrament meeting in Apeldoorn. We spoke there and caught the bus back home. We ate and then went to a cottage meeting at family Eikelbooms, we had a good review (very friendly people).
October 26th, Monday
We held 6 cottage meetings during the day - one fair cottage meeting in the morning (7th Day Adventist). That afternoon we held two fair cottage meetings (both teachers - Book of Mormon discussion). That evening we talked to a fanatci family (top-pinkster), and then fietzed clear out to the Veerallce in the rain for a meeting with family Voorhoeve (man sick, talked to wife and mother) - fair lesson 4. (mot - regen).
October 27th, Tuesday
We talked to two strong Protestants in the morning - Gereformeerde - niet veel. In the afternoon we held one nice meeting (man in bed). Other fair, and that evening one cottage meeting (niets aan). Then we went to meet with family Diepenheim, and they had family troubles. The wife had run away and had taken all possessions and three little girls with her. She wanted to come back again but the man couldn’t help her (lawyer?), so we hauled the little girls three blocks back to their house and then the beds, mattresses, clothes, pots and pans, etc. Everything was back in order by 11:00. Nice weather - gelukkig.
October 28th, Wednesday
We held three cottage meetings that morning, Men. Luyten - lesson 3 and an intro into lesson 6 - good. Mev. V.D. Horst - lesson 3; Gereformeerde lady in Ittersum, rushed lesson. We held three more cottage meetings that afternoon - Men. Dijkslag, Book of Mormon discussion war; Mev. Meisner, “The Mormon Story”, fair and one dark J.S. on the Molenweg. That evening we fietzed out to the far end of Ittersum for two cottage meetings (fair- Uitenbrock - hervormede - Book of Mormon lesson - discussion - good - to talk to Dominee). Family Nijhuis, discussion on everything - wouldn’t pray - Book Of Mormon terug - clear night - getting much colder.
October 29th, Thursday
We held 3 cottage meetings in the morning (poor - good - poor). Then we fietzed in Hurricane winds out to Berkum and had 5 cottage meetings during the afternoon and one flat tire (one fair - 4 no call-backs). That evening we only held one cottage meeting, the family Lindenhovius. Good Book of Mormon lesson. Our last appointment fell through - light rain - much wind.
October 30th, Friday
Elder Horne and Kay were late, 9:30, and we worked with them during the day. Elder Horne and I held one nice cottage meeting with a young Japanese man - Catholic - lesson was fair. Then we went to see Zr. V.A. Brink and wouldn’t give them any money (got thrown out). That afternoon Elder Kay and I held two cottage meetings, one we fietzed clear out to Berbum in a lousy rain - nice meeting - Book of Mormon lesson to Mev. Ten Brinke. Then we fietzed to the apartment buildings and tracted for one fair cottage meeting (Hervormerde - 7th Day Adventist). We met back at the station at 5:00 and then Elder Dalebout and I tracted and held one cottage meeting (Gereformeerde Onderling - Men. Bos - lesson was fair). We really got drowned the whole day - it was a steady downpour the entire time. We held two cottage meetings that evening; one was ???, and one nice meeting with the family Pot - intro to lesson 6 - very good.
October 31st, Saturday - HALLOWEEN - not celebrated here
We went shopping (sale on clothes, etc) then tracted for one fair cottage meeting, and that afternoon we tracted for two more cottage meetings. One with a Gereformeerde 7th Day Adventist) - good. The other meeting was with a Catholic family in a rut. We talked to our hospita that evening for another cottage meeting (lesson 5 was good) nice discussion (can’t figure her out) - 11:00.
November 1st, Sunday
We went to the meeting of the Salvation Army here in Zwolle (10:00-11:30), with singing and clapping and a band. We ate lunch and studied and prepared for the meeting at 5:00 in Suisse hall. We went down to the station to meet Zr. Westerhoff from Arnhem who was to speak. We prepared the sacrament, changed the room around, etc., and waited till 5:00. 11 Investigators turned up and two members plus the 3 of us made 16. The meeting went very smoothly and we held the sacrament for the first time. After the meeting we ate, and went to a cottage meeting with family Eikelboom - lesson 6, very good (he was also at the meeting).
November 2nd, Monday
We held 6 cottage meetings during the day; one Catholic, niets; one young girl ??. In the afternoon we held 3 worthless cottage meetings in Ittersum. That night we held one fair cottage meeting (leluiste 103) and our 9:00 appointment fell through - home early.
November 3rd, Tuesday
We held 11 cottage meetings during the day; 3 in the morning, 6 that afternoon, and 2 that evening. The morning cottage meetings were all fairly good - lesson 5 (Fl) to Mev. Ryksen (Gereformeerde). The cottage meeting in Westerholte in the middag were all worthless, old farmers, old “for the birds”, Gereformeerde couple. The two cottage meetings in the evening were fair, Men. Daling. Book of lesson, sold the book, Doops Gezind family with daughter (3-1 lesson), and our 9:00 appointment fell through with Diepenhein (more family trouble, wife ran away again) Marv wie terug.
November 4th, Wednesday
Wy hadden 8 cottage meetings gedurende de dag, drie s’morgens - Men. Luyten, lesson 6.5, goed - twice in Ittersum, ien niets, een ging. Die middag fietsden ug naar Berkum on hielden twee cottage meetings - niets. It began to rain when we had walked about a mile tracting down the Bergkloosterwg. We walked back to our fietzen in the steady drizzle en werden klats not. We fietzden naar de flats dicht by en hielden dear een cottage meetings (2nd mensen 3-1). Die avond hielden wy twoo cottage meetings; een Jehovah Getiugen (3-1 lesson) - family Ottink, strong Jehovahs’ Witness. Dan hielden wy een goed cottage meeting with family Algere, gereformeerde Hervormde. Netys mensen (3-1 lesson - goed).
November 5th, Thursday
We were planning on going to Hattem that day and tracted along the Schellatalle, 2 lousy cottage meetings. We found out that the old ferry airon the gisel river was closed for the winter so we decided to tract the little town by the ferry ofz - oldenal, 10 houses - nothing. We tracted along the road further by all the old farmers with no luck. We arrived back in Ittersum where we held one more useless cottage meeting often 4 hours tracting without any luck. It started to rain again and we fietzed to Zwolle through the rain and decided to tract the flats on the Mimosartast, but it stopped raining when we go there. We called on call-backs in the arca and held one cottage meeting, niets. Then we held another meeting in the dark - old man - Joseph Smith. That evening we visited with family Reitsma, my companion learned how to knit. We held a meeting with family Pot; 6 ⅔ lesson - good but short. Our 9:00 appointment fell through once more - home early again.
November 6th, Vrijdag
Wy haaden twee cottage meeting die ochtand, niets aan. We fietzden weer naan Berkum langs de oude boerderyen. Uiterindelyk hielden wy een afternoon - Hermormde boer - niets. Dan wy hadden ein cottage meeting een dame van de Vrye Katholieke kerk, Mev. Molengroot, in et bos (3-1 lesson) - discussie. Die avond hadden wy weer twee cottage meetings; een in Berkum (goed 3-1 lesson) Gereformeerde-dame; de andere met Mev. Hoving an vriends (alleber gereformeerde) - discussie over alles (3-1-4-5-6) goed discussie maar geen meer call-back - jammer - 11:30.
November 7th, Zaturdag
Wy hadden vier an in de Morgan (kerk vin England - Catholic - Apostolische Genotochap- Hervormde) twee call-backs. Na middag eten, ercoten soep, gingen wy naar de markt boodschappen ( allega-des, sokken, eng.) Dan hielden wy nog een cottage meeting - oude mensen. Wy usetten die maaltyd en van (8:00-9:30) hadden wy een goed cottage meetings by de familie Lindenhovius - lesson 1 and 5 - goed vergadering, goede mensen. Wy studoseden, schreven brieven enz.
November 8th, Sunday
We studied and wrote our talks, and talked with the family after a good warm meal - after fasting. Then we caught the 3:16 train for Nymegen and arrived there ½ hour early for the 5:30 meeting. There were 11 present counting us. We barely missed one train home and waited an hour for the next one. We arrived home at 9:30 and went straight from the station to a cottage meeting and bread meal at family Eikelbooms lekker voedsel; good 6th lesson in the cottage meeting - 11:45.
November 9th, Monday
We held one poor cottage meeting in the morning, and four that afternoon; all four poor (crazy mixed up man - Catholic man - old people - Gereformeerde lady). That evening we held 3 cottage meetings. One a nice Catholic family in the grasp of the “Grote en Vervoeilyke kerk”. THen we talked to Men. Sleenbergen, gereformeerde - review, niets (swimming). Then we called back on some Jehovah’s Witnesses, family Muller, and had a fair cottage meeting with them - 11:15.
November 10th, Tuesday
We held 4 cottage meetings in Westerholte in the morning (2 fair, one poor, one good - nice lady, Mev. Fredericks, 3-1 lesson). That afternoon we held 3 cottage meetings - Mev. Oostdyk, fair - lesson 3 and 2 poor meetings. After dinner we held one cottage meeting with a crazy Christian Gereformeerde family and Matiuerlyke geboune idiote (niets). Then we held a fair cottage meeting, Elim, discussion (3-1-4) - fair - and then we held a cottage meeting with the family Ottask, Jehovah’s Witness - discussion of everything - as usual with Jehovah’s Witnesses - 11:40.
November 11st, Wednesday
We held a very good cottage meeting with Men. Luyten, 6th lesson - good questions; he gave a very nice prayer, as usual. Then we met with Mev. V.A. Horst - nice (3 and 3-1 lessons) review; good, also a nice prayer (nice little Indonesian lady). That afternoon we held 3 cottage meetings; one Evangelistice; fair - one old man, niets - one nice lady with gigantic dog (3-1 lesson - fair). That evening our 9:00 appointment fell through by post but we tracted and held a nice cottage meeting with family Ledimer (3-1 and 4th lesson), intelligent man. Our last cottage meeting was with family Stryken - Gereformeerde (son in army - discussion getting nowhere). - till 9:45 - vroeg thuis - niet veeluren.
November 12th, Thursday
We only held one cottage meeting that morning, Mev. Rijksen (almost met haar dominee). Lesson 4 (maerschyn lyk uts). We fietzed naan Westinholte and held 6 cottage meetings and 1 investigator (three in the afternoon with fair to poor call-backs). That evening we fietzed out in the drizzling rain again and after one fall through held another cottage meeting with the fantastic family top (niets). Then we went to visit the family Pot, but Men. Pot was a little sick. We talked to Zr. Pot and Hans - 10:45 (robbed of another cottage meeting).
November 13th, Friday
Friday 13th came on a Friday this week - We held 11 cottage meetings during the whole day; three in the morning, 2 poor, one nice lady, Mev. Veldhugen from Christian Science - In the afternoon we held 6 cottage meetings; three fair - middling lane hottering, one good - family Zos - nice talkative family - two daughters; 2 poor meetings that evening; both scheduled, both fell through (Men. Klinkenberg for the “zoveelste keer”). We held two nice cottage meetings; one very good one with the Klum Halseboz, good 3-1 lesson. The other with Men. Ter Brugge, young married man (3-1) - 9:15. “Vroeg thuis weer”. Wrote in my journal.
November 14th, Saturday - 26 MONTHS -
We tracted in the morning and held one cottage meeting, niets. We ate a hasty lunch and caught the train for Arnhem. We got proselyting on the train with one old codger and then we held a class in Arnhem (2:00-4:30), text gig and discussion debate. We went shopping afterwards (bought a cock gun) and then we all went to eat at an Indonesian restaurant. After that we attended the “Gezellige avond” dance in the church in Arnhem (space decorations - nice programs - nice crowd, fight, etc) - 10:03 - home 11:30.
November 15th, Sunday
We attended the meeting of the “Apostolisch Genootschap” - “God Apostle - nice choir-noisy” A fiery speaker - large crowd, irreverent. We tracted after lunch and held two lousy cottage meetings (one Atheist). Then we went to Zaal Suisse to prepare for our 5:00 meeting. Br. Le Fevre came to speak from Ede. There were 13 present counting us - 3 members - 7 investigators. We ate a good meal with the family and then went to a cottage meeting with family Eikelboom - showed them the “Mormon Story” - 11:45 - what a riot.
November 16th, Monday
We held 11 cottage meetings during the day - 6 that morning; one good; 2 call-backs - the others all very poor. We held 3 more cottage meetings that afternoon; one fair meeting with a family Drost, another discussion with Mev. Ryksen and husband (Hervormeerde), trying to fight off gospel truths but can’t. That evening we held 2 nice cottage meetings - the first with a family Mulden - good appointment lesson - the last meeting was with family Marcelis - a Jehovah's Witness - nice people but really turned around in their ideas - 11:30 - 13 hours.
November 17th, Tuesday
We held two cottage meetings in the morning, one with a good, intelligent Men. On Schoilets24. - That afternoon we held 5 cottage meetings; Veerallee-Dierenarts; Westenholte - 4 cottage meetings (niet veel) Russian lady - Gereformeerde ladies, etc. That evening we held one cottage meeting with a Mev. (dead?), and another with a Hervormede 7th Day Adventist man and woman. Our last appointment fell through so we had to return home, 9:30. We talked downstairs to the family till 11:00 - Mev. V. Zong Pont Wijst -
November 18th, Wednesday
We held 10 cottage meetings during the day. In the morning we met with Men. Luyten, good cottage meeting on lesson 6, vergadering, krijg, doop voor doden, etc. We held one poor cottage meeting that morning. In the afternoon we held 4 cottage meetings, 2 fair, one at 5:45 - dark house on schosletr. In the evening we went to Berkim and held 3 cottage meetings; one with Mev. Ten Brinke - lessons 5 and 3; another with family Otthof - rev (3-1), nice people. The last cottage meeting was with family Vis in Berkhim, a “Jehovah’s Witness” family (3-1-5-viel-apostles,etc) - one dollie and friend also came and joined in on the discussion - 11:15.
November 19th, Thursday
We fietzden naar Hattem die ochtend, en hadden geen success s’morgens. Uiteindelijk om 12:15 we gingen buinen by een “Jehovah’s Witness” (nog een). Debaat over alles wen. We hadden geen lunch meegenomen maar we werkten door en hielden nog 6 cottage meetings (lelijke vrouw - 2 dikke vrouwen (praten Zwolse)) - een geode cottage meeting met een vrouw, Mev. Drekner - oude mensen - en de laatste avond na warm eten hielden we nog drie cottage meetings. Een ongeïnteresseerde man - familie Pot, lesson 6 ⅔, goed - familie Heemstra - goede lesson 5 - geen verdere afspreken - 11:30.
November 20th, Friday
Elders Horne and Kay arrived about 8:30 and we gave Elder Kay a birthday cake (a pack of chocolate chip cookies with a huge candle on it); and sang happy birthday to him. Elder Horne and I tracted that morning in the slum area (Klesne Gackt). We held 4 cottage meetings; 3 fair. They had to leave at noon so Elder Dalebout and I worked together that afternoon and 4 cottage meetings - one pinkster on Billtonstr (45 minutes) - my companion was having fits - he was planning on breaking the mission cottage meeting record of 215 for the month - and he needed 10 for friday.
We finally held one more that afternoon (his 8th for the day) - 5:45 (during the mealtime of one poor family). We needed two more that night to break the record but we tracted and couldn’t get any at all. We had an 8:00 appointment with a group of Hervormde people (a young married group). That was one last cottage meeting - Book of Mormon film and discussion (good), so Elder Dalebout didn’t break the record; just tied it. 2 needed 13 houses that day also to break the 300 hour proselyting mark. 2 had to talk with the family downstairs to do it - till 11:30. New records for me - 300 proselyting hours - 212 cottage meetings
November 21st, Saturday
Ending final push week - we tracted in the morning and held one cottage meeting (schrijft-geleend). We ate and then went shopping for Christmas presents (Mom, peter - dad, fishing - Sharon and Kent, litter holder - randy, mittens - Steore; letter, gluten - diane - ???). We also waited and watched for Zinter-Klaaz who was scheduled to arrie in Zwolle that afternoon. He finally came about 5:30, riding a cohite?? House; zwarte pretira throwing candy at all the kids. We held one nice cottage meeting that evening after dinner. Family Hulsebos - lesson 1 - Hervormde family - home early - study - taat naar bed. Weeky record: 78.5 proselyting hours - 54 cottage meetings.
November 22nd, Sunday
We attended the meeting of the Doops Gezinde kerk in the morning - woman dominee, paid seat, etc. We studied after lunch and wrote letters, etc. That evening we went out for a cottage meeting with family Eikelboom, openbaring, first principles etc - 11:45 - coming along fairly well.
November 23, Monday
We held one fair cottage meeting in the morning. We got a haircut, wrapped and mailed Christmas packages in the afternoon, and held one poor cottage meeting. That evening we held two cottage meetings - family Droit reverend of appointment lesson - fair. Then we held a cottage meeting with 3 Catholic dollies (6 beautiful lege - quote from Elder Dalebout) - nice cottage meeting, no call-backs - strong Catholic.
November 24th, Tuesday
We held 2 more cottage meetings in the afternoon - poor. I got a transfer letter in the mail that evening - going to Amsterdam - zuid als diviseon supervisor - really a surprise. We held 2 fairly good cottage meetings that evening - Scsoloh.24 - Men. Kroon - Book of Mormon lesson - family Haanv, review of app - Godhead - good questions, nice family - that evening I started packing my trunk and suitcase - 1.5 days notice on my transfer - up till 1:00 filling our investigator files.
November 25th, Wednesday
I pressed my pants, packed some more, checked out with the police, and went to the Sassenpoort (Archives). That afternoon we went around visiting members and investigators, Pot kids playing football, Mev. Meisner, Zr. Pot and other kids (fighting with Hermantje and Jan). I packed some more and we went out to appointments in the evening - through the Uinterklasn crowds. Two cottage meetings - 2 trouble makers, Hervormde and Gereformeerde, fighting, one Jehovah’s Witness, maralis - questions about John the Baptist, the Resurrection, etc. After that we called on the family Eikelboom at 10:00, and almost got them out of bed. We had a nice talk, and three packed and filled out reports again - 12:00.
November 26th, Thursday - THANKSGIVING -
We got everything ready and hauled all the trunks down to the station, shipped my feits off, and caught the 9:00 train. I had 4 pieces of luggage, my companion one. We transferred in Amersfoort, Utrecht, and family out to Den Haag at 11:00. We took a train to the church. We held a meeting at 12:00, business meeting. After talking with all the missionaries afterward we all sat down to eat at 2:00. We really feasted on Turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, corn, peas, cranberry, salad, and pumpkin pie. Really heerlijk eten. After that we had a good program, V. Bowman - han, V. Dam - quieter, Schefor - singing - V. Mondfrans, narrator - Tom Dooley, Elder Loppin - really funny. Elder Lindberg - Elder Soper and Uack, paatomine, Zr. Sperry - presentation of gift, silver plate. We went to the home of Zr. Walangitang (walked) - the Hendrick Van Deventerstraat 82. Zr. Walli warmed them but her son welcomed us. We went to a show - but her son welcomed us. We went to a show - “The News Story” with Audrey Hepborn, and returned to Zr. Wahls about 11:30. Her son fixed us some good Indonesian noodles. We talked until 12:30, and then hit the sack. - slept like a log. Den Haag - a lot warmer than Zwolle - more rain (mot-regen) and wind.
November 27th, Friday - ROTTERDAM -
We went to a proselyting meeting at 8:30- 11:00 - Elder Springer, Brewster, Buckway, V.D. Heide, etc. (learned a lot). After that we all gathered around for pictures - 116 missionaries - quite a job. We had a luncheon after that - hot dogs, yogurt, milk, cookies. At 1:00 we began the missionary testimony meeting - 5:30 (over 50 testimonies given). It was a really inspirational meeting - spiritual feast. We talked together, got organized and left in groups. My new companion, Elder De. Hart, and I took a bus and a train to Rotterdam. Elder Warner, Whiting, went with us and we stayed that night in the church at Rotterdam North. (Elder Childs). Elder De Hart and 2 fietzed over to Rotterdam-Zuid to see the church. We fietzed through the tunnel under the harbor, really something, and made acquaintances with the B.P. - Br. Paay and his wife. We came back to Rotterdam North and talked, wrote in my journal, and went to bed. - 11:15.
November 28th, Saturday
We looked around for a cost-huis in the morning - We fietzed through the tunnel to the church in Rotterdam-South, fietzed out to one address, and then went clear back into the city - Central Station; MAI, VVV, to ask for addresses for a cost-huis. MAI, 4 addresses; VVV, businesses, nothing; cute meigi attending. We checked the addresses out; one was too small, one was too filthy, one cost too much - We finally had to decide on one in the Randweg 60. It was a little too small and too expensive for us but it was the best we could find. $135.00 a month without laundry. We ate all our meals in the church in Rotterdam-North - We cooked the afternoon meal - heerlijk. We played table tennis and shuffleboard after dinner. Elder Warner and I played some good ping pong together. Elder Whiting and I played shuffleboard - naar bed.
November 29th, Sunday
We attended Priesthood and Sunday School meetings in Rotterdam-North. We aten een maaltijd - onder de aardappelen - en went over to the South. We talked to the Elders there and went tracting; one cottage meeting - old lady, niets. We attended a sacrament meeting in Rotterdam-South, good meeting. After the meeting my companion and I were given our assignment to fiets up in the North and anoint someone there, Br. V.D. Steen, a real old man who had a stroke. We came home, and the church was locked up - Elder Warner and I went over to Elder De Vries' cost-huis to talk to him (questions). We came home and had some Ijs - bed 12:15.
November 30th, Monday
We checked in with the Police, housing, checked out with MAI, VVV, in the morning. We hauled our trunks from the church in the North over the bridge to the church in the South (each two bags). We ate there at South with Elders Allen and Boede, yogurt, head, etc. We tracted a little and then went to rent a bak-fiets to carry our bag and my companions two foot lickens over to our cost-huis. My companion maneuvered the bak-fiets and I guided him with my trusty map to the church in the South - empty, and to our cost-huis, Randweg, fall of Jimk, (trunks). We got everything moved and packed three stories up - very small room, hardly any cupboard space. Then we went out tracting and held one fair cottage meeting - lesson 4 - home, 10:30.
December 1st, Tuesday
We tracted in our old traction area, 1 cottage meeting, 2 investigators. That afternoon we held 3 nice cottage meetings - 1 investigator - cottage meeting with Mev. V.D. Hoeven; 2 in a new area, Hervormde Pinkster - one investigator, Pinkster, lousy food in the cost-huis - fair - too crowded, already decided to move out in a month.
December 2nd, Wednesday
We tracted in the morning and held two cottage meetings (niets veel aan). That afternoon we held three more and then that evening 2 more. None of them were very good. All uninterested people - socialists. I’ve seen more people who don’t believe in anything here in Rotterdam them anywhere else - well to do, etc.
December 3rd, Thursday
We tracted in the morning and held two meetings - One with a Jehovah’s Witness and investigator; good meeting with Mev. Driesprong - investigating the Jehovah’s Witnesses but willing to listen to us. They wanted us to talk with some other Jehovah’s Witnesses in the neighborhood so we went there for another meeting. There were about 6 of them - really a battle; appointment lesson - first miracle - Godhead, etc. That afternoon we held three meetings - 2 “Slijfkop” Gereformeerde (old lady - young man). One nice young couple - Hervormede - appointment lesson. We tracted for a while that evening and finally got in contact with another uninterested man - Men. V. Vleit (new us with cards - Book of Mormon). Home early, 9:30 - in bed, 11:15.
December 4th, Friday
Wy werkten die ochtend, 2 cottage meetings - the first one was a “Bybel Uni” lady - good strong appointment lesson, shaky call-back (we began the day right on schedule as all other days - between 6:00-6:30 out of bed, class for one hour, independent study, breakfast, etc - out at 9:00). In de middag belden Wyby en Dominee aan en wij gaven hen de nieuwe lesson - kaarten (Book of Mormon) - Hij kon er niets tegenin brengen. We hadden nog niet veel aan een cottage meeting. Na die vergadering in de grote flats in IJsselmonde (het regende de hele dag) ging vroeg naar huis tegen de wind weer de regen over de brug - Na het eten gingen wij naar de kerk in Rotterdam-Noord voor de doopdienst om 8:00. Toen we begonnen regende het niet - maar toen begon het vreselijk te regenen en we waren hartstikke mat toen we uiteindelijk in de hoek in Noord kwamen - over de brug. De doopdienst was-wel mooi - 8 personen gedoopt (1 door President Sperry). Na de bevestigingsdienst pratten wy met elkhaar, en Elder De Hart en ik gingen uiteindelijk naar huis - de brug was op en er ging een grote “bargi” door - (autobrug - trier bray), - gelukkig geen regen - thuis - fietz achter - naar boven - appel - bed. 11:45.
December 5th, Saturday - ZINTER KLAAS DAG -
We worked in the morning and held one worthless cottage meeting. We also talked to Elders Soper and Wallwork and looked for a place to play basketball. We wrote out Christmas cards in the afternoon and studied. I went out to take a few pictures of the harbor and of the Maas Tunnel under the harbor. We studied that evening and wrote more letters.
December 6th, Sunday
We attended Priesthood and Sunday School, and vast-meetings (9:00-11:00); the testimony meeting was very nice - many testimonies given. We ate a good meal after fasting and held 2 cottage meetings in the afternoon, one good one with a young Hervormed man. We studied and wrote letters in the evening.
December 7th, Monday
We held four cottage meetings during the day. Two in the morning - one fair, a lady in bed - appointment lesson. Two in the afternoon - neither very good. That evening we tracted without luck and finally held one meeting with family Dreisprong (plus friends), they were all Jehovah’s Witnesses. We talked about the spirit world, Christ, the resurrection, etc. - 12:00. Nothing but arguments - sm regen bruten (vreselyk).
December 8th, Tuesday
We fietzed out to Ijsselmonde again and held 3 meetings - niets; nice Gereformeerde lady in a house boat, appointment lesson; and an old lady and “Gramps”. That afternoon we tracted and called on call-backs - Pinkster - all fell through. We had no success in the afternoon and only one investigator in the evening (Heathen family) - home 9:30.
December 9th, Wednesday
We held 5 cottage meetings during the day - one nice lady in the morning - appointment lesson. Two cottage meetings in Appelmonde in the afternoon - old lady - niets. A young man called back as well. That evening we held 2 more cottage meetings - one fair with an intelligent man; Mev. V. Gent. (appointment lesson plus lesson 4 cards). Last call-back fell through - home early again.
December 10th, Thursday
We worked in the morning and held 3 cottage meetings; the first one with a very nice lady of the Pinkster Gemeente - Mev. Duwens (very strong appointment lesson - authority). Then we talked to the lady who was sick in bed (another Mev. Duwens) - Godhead lesson - fair. We worked on the other side of the dike in the old area and held one cottage meeting with a nice Hervormeerde lady - 6 kids. It was real cold; some of the ditches were frozen over.
There was also a cold wind blowing, which didn’t help any. After a cold fiets ride over the bridge and dinner (4 slices of bread, thinly spread); we went out again; but my companion got a headache (blind-staggers), and we had to return home. He went to bed and I studied “Reorganizites”. We are dinner and went out from 7:30-10:00 to one appointment - good cottage meeting with family Briek, daughter Mariona goes to O.O.V - nice family - appointment lesson - gezellig.
December 11th, Friday
We held 2 cottage meetings in the morning, both fair. That afternoon we fietsen to Ijsselmonde for 5 cottage meetings - 4 call-backs; 1 fairly good. We tracted without luck and finally called on an appointment - good for 3 hours. Cottage meetings with family Polet - Pinkster - talk on approach lesson - authority, ect. - nice family - turning colder everyday - feeling in canals, etc. (Starting to wear boots with 2 pairs of socks)
December 12th, Saturday
We went to the church in Zuid and then went to the post-office to cash our checks. Then we tracted for 2 hours without any luck. That afternoon, after lunch, we worked for 2 more hours with one cottage meeting. We studied in the evening; toe-spraken, etc.
December 13th, Sunday
We attended the Priesthood meeting and Sunday School in R-Zuid (nice meetings). We studied, ate a good dinner, studied some more and then caught the 4:08 train for Dordrecht where we were to speak that evening. We arrived there at 4:25 and spoke in the 5:00 meeting (30 people present). - 6:15. We returned to Rotterdam, ate a bread meal, studied, wrote letters, wrote in my journal and then hit the sack. - 11:20.
December 14th, Monday - 27 MONTHS -
We held 4 cottage meetings during the day - 1 fair, 3 poor. That evening two appointments fell through and we tracted and held one cottage meeting which was fairly good - V. Duel - Book of Mormon lesson in Somerland.
December 15th, Tuesday
We fietzed over to Rotterdam-North in the morning and held a class with Elders Peterson and Childs - Elder peterson and I worked together in the morning and held one cottage meeting - 2 talkative Catholic ladies - niets veel. E. Childs and I worked in the afternoon and held 3 cottage meetings; 2 of them 4 high-up narrow staircases - an old Gereformeerde couple and a crazy talkative old lady (couldn’t shut her up). Then we held a good cottage meeting with an old lady and a cute young maid - appointment lessons and good discussions - 6:00. My companion had a flat tire and after it was fixed we fietzed home over the bridge, there was a lot of traffic. Our next appointment fell through again (by maiL), and we tracted - 2 cottage meetings in Zomerland, one fair, the other a Stijk koop Gereformeerde couple with strong opinions - 11:30 arguing.
December 16th, Wednesday
We held 2 cottage meetings that morning in IJsselmonde - niets veel. That afternoon we tracted without getting in once, and in the evening our call-back fell through again (getting habitual). We tracted and held 2 cottage meetings - one with Mev. Droog, planning on being “ouderling” in Hervormde church - good appointment lesson - fair reception. Then we had a cottage meeting with a Men. De Vries - "spade regen" gem. ??? - talk, got nowhere with him - nice weather, warmer.
December 17th, Thursday
We ate early and caught the 7:43 train for Dordrecht. We got to the Elders’ house 20 minutes later. They were eating - Elder Workman and I tracted and held one long cottage meeting - Book of Mormon lesson special - uninterested people. Elder Tesch and I worked together that afternoon and held one fairly good meeting - a lady with an appointment lesson. After that we waited for the other two Elders in the crazy wind (bought olie-bollen) and returned home late for supper. We tracted that evening without success and dropped in on Zr. V. Bremen, 9:30 (limonade and a talk - 11:30).
December 18th, Friday
We held two cottage meetings that morning - niets - we held one really good meeting in the afternoon with Mev. V.D. Hoeve; Book of Mormon lesson - promising investigators. We held 2 more cottage meetings - one was 4 stories high in an attic, niets; one with “Ongelovige” man - fair cottage meeting. That evening we drew a blank, no success - my companion got another headache - returned home early and studied.
December 19th, Saturday
We held one cottage meeting in the morning - Gereformeerde lady, stupid - we rushed over to the North after dinner to attend a district class. All the Elders were present from the 2 divisions and we held a really good class. I took charge of the senior companions and Elder Brewster took the juniors. We tracted that evening and held a fair cottage meeting with a young couple from the “reorganized” church - got a call-back - raining much of the day.
December 20th, Sunday
We attended Priesthood, Sunday School and studied before lunch. We tracted and held 2 cottage meetings close to our cost-house, groene-hilledijk - pouring rain - we fietzed to the church - 15 minutes late for the meeting; and after that we went to Zomerland for an appointment with family De Waal, a member - appointment lesson; they know very little about the gospel (fair meeting) - home 10:00 - study Reorganites.
December 21st, Monday
We tracted in sport-dorp in the morning (two cottage meetings - one fair, one poor). That afternoon we took care of some post office duties, and then had another nice cottage meeting with Mev. V.D. Hoeven - Book of Mormon explanation. We held two other cottage meetings that afternoon - one fair. That evening we had two appointments fall through so we tracted and got into a 7th day Adventist discussion about everything, authority, 7th day, etc. - 10:30 - 2 nice daughters, 6 people.
December 22nd, Tuesday
We went over to the cost house of Elder Allen and Beede in the morning. We held a short class and Elder Allen and I held 2 cottage meetings - fair, and looked for a cost-huis. After lunch Elder Beede and I held one cottage meeting - talkative people - waste of time. Our three appointments fell through and we called on a call-back in the rain and had a fair cottage meeting with a nice family - Catholic - Book of Mormon and appointment lesson - 10:30 - call-backs.
December 23rd, Wednesday
We fietzed over to the kost-huis of Elder Soper and Wallwork (Mev. Renemans). We had no time for a class but went out to their area in Zuidwijk, a new area of flats. Elder Soper and I worked together in the morning and held 4 cottage meetings. One Luthers, fair - one Catholic; Gereformeerde and now Hervormde. We gave a good appointment lesson - she’ll investigate - might turn out to be something. After lunch Elder Wallwork and I tracted and held one fair cottage meeting - Catholic lady, nice (nice flats). That evening two appointments fell through (again) and we tracted without luck (home early) - rain every day for the past two weeks almost.
December 24th, Thursday
We tracted morning and afternoon without a sign of success. Everybody was busy getting ready for the Christmas holidays - no time! - We got a haircut and studied that night - Christmas Eve - Then we went to the Catholic mass at 11:30-1:30. Much pomp and splendor (not too crowded). In bed by 2:00.
December 25th, Friday - CHRISTMAS DAY -
We got up after 8:00 and opened our Christmas packages we received earlier in the week. I got a white shirt, 2 pairs of socks, 2 ties, 3 handkerchiefs, candy, nuts, toothbrush and toothpaste, soap, deodorant, etc. We ate breakfast alone, the cost-vrouw had gone away for three days. We studied, wrote in journals, etc, ate lunch, and studied some more. We attended a Sunday Christmas meeting in the church - singing Christmas carols, cake and punch - good crowd present - about 80 people (moore kerst boom). We returned in a steady mot-rain and stopped on the way home to buy loempia's (supper) and ice-cream. We studied some more that evening (Re-organites - my talk for the baptismal), we ate some of our Christmas goodies, and went to bed about 11:30.
December 26th, Saturday - TWEEDE KERSTDAG -
We studied most of the day - too busy to work - We went out to take a few pictures of the harbor in the afternoon, and in the evening we went to have some Indonesian food, and attended a show - English - “Carry on Nurse” - very funny - 9:30 - home by 10:00, studied then went to bed.
December 27th, Sunday
We missed the Priesthood meeting, and attended Sunday School. After lunch we fietzed over to North to attend the Baptismal where people were being baptized. I was the speaker at the baptismal. We fixed up the proselyting map and fietzed through the tunnel to the church in South for sacrament meeting. After the meeting we went to an “ijs” shop for dinner - “Banaan Royale and en Gevulde kock”. We walked home in a downpour and studied that evening. It had rained almost the whole day and we really got soaked going from North to South.
December 28th, Monday
We held a grand total of 6 cottage meetings during the day; 2 in the morning (one old stage koop Gereformeerde couple); and one cottage meeting in the afternoon - the old lady with a dangerous husband (short Joseph Smith story). That evening in Zomerland we held 3 cottage meetings (family Klasse plus dollie minus good approach), uninterested Hervormde man (ik ben Hervormde, ik blijk Hervormde), and the last one on a call-back - 2 ladies, nice cottage meeting (appointment lesson). We had even more rain that evening - drijfnat-ook veel wind.
December 29th, Tuesday
We worked in sport-dorp in the morning, 2 appointment lessons fell through - we held one worthless cottage meeting - old family with many troubles. Then we fietzed to North for a bad-day working with Elders Child and Peterson. I worked with Elder Peterson without success and then we changed companions. Elder Childs and I held one fair cottage meeting - Godhead discussion. It was his last day on his mission and he was really feeling funny - he didn’t know what to think. We fietzed home again in the rain (again-still), and after dinner we went out to Zomerland for another fall-through and finally held one cottage meeting - family Polet, Pinkster Gemeente. Good discussion - Plan of Salvation.
December 30th, Wednesday
We tracted in the morning and afternoon and held 3 cottage meetings - one fat old lady, fair - one stupid Jehovah’s Witness - and one nice lady - man ouderling (not so nice). That evening all call-backs fell through and we tracted on the strevelsweg until 9:30 (bought an ijs, croquette). Went home, studied, and hit the sack.
December 31, Thursday - 1959 LAST DAY OF THE YEAR -
We tracted morning and afternoon with no success at all, not even a smile. It was the last day of the year and everyone was “aan het olie-bollen bakken.” “Ik ben bezig in de keuken.” Everybody bakes olie bollen on this year to eat in the evening. They spend the whole day cooking the crazy things, and then spend the whole New Year's Eve eating them (they are little balls of dough filled with raisins, and they are deep-fried in grease and smothered in powdered-sugar. They also bake apple-dingetjes in fat).
Anyway the people were all too busy doing this to speak with us at all. We cashed a few checks in the morning and my companion also had a picture taken of himself (for his girl). We only tracted for 2 hours in the afternoon and then went over to Elder Sopers who had been sick all week. We checked on green cards and visited for a while. Elders Allen, Beede and Alston also came over. We left to change clothes at our cost-huis, and then fietzed over to the church in the North, I didn’t have any lights on my bike.
All the missionaries in the district (20 out of 22 - 2 were sick) came together for the evening. We met at the church at 6:00 and then went to the show together. “Anatomy of a Murder” with James Stewart. After the show we returned to the church and played games and waited for the expected Indonesian dinner, which was supposed to be brought to the church. We waited but it didn’t come - something got fouled up in the order or something and Elder Brewster spent the whole evening worrying about it.
About 10 of us played a round of table ping-pong, and then played shuffle-board. At 12:00 we all went outside and watched them burn a pile of Christmas trees and we all had a great time shooting off firecrackers and our cork guns (knal-kurken) There was a lot of noise from the harbor with all the horns of the ships sounding off. The dinner still hadn’t arrived; as we waited some more we played more table ping pong. (Elder Van Olden and I defeated all comers). Finally, about 1:00 we gave up all hope on food and at the loempias that had arrived (2 warmed over loempias per stack).
We also had a program - Elder Clark, “Red Riding Hood”, etc. after the program and the dishes we finally went home (Elder Peterson - photos game) - 2:45. We stopped for a croquette on the way home and we ate some of my mixed nuts - in bed by 3:30 (Happy New Year!).
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