The Treasure of Family

It has been a busy two weeks at work. We had been given tele-training a few months ago on installing the new firewalls that will replace all the existing firewalls throughout the Church meetinghouses in Europe. Last week we had the opportunity for some on-site training at a local meetinghouse. We have been getting responses back from all over Europe from a request we sent out a month ago. The information we are receiving will help us as we evaluate the conditions of internet speed for all meetinghouses. We have been assisting in helping some of the senior missionaries that have had trouble logging on to Outlook after a major Windows update caused problems. In a simultaneous change with email in Salt Lake, we struggled to get our own shared email address restored. Sister van Hoff worked hard on our presentation we hope will soon be given to the Area Presidency for a new development that will help technology specialists all over Europe. All this and much more kept us extremely busy.

Marksburg Castle

In the midst of all of this, two of my sons came to Europe for a visit. They arrived in Amsterdam and a few days later we met them at the train station in Frankfurt late Thursday evening. We took some day trips on Friday and Saturday and then to the airport on Sunday to send them off for Italy.

On Friday we took them to the Marksburg Castle in Baubach, Germany. The tour in English was pretty interesting. It is the only castle along that section of the Rhein that has never been damaged by approaching armies or from bombing during the World Wars.

One interesting story was about the bathroom just off of the dining hall. The door to the bathroom was not far from the dining hall table.  Guests would leave the door open and walk back to the toilet seat, about 10-15 feet.  The door would remain open, so that they would not miss out on the table conversation. I guess back then they understood the importance of talking around the dinner table. Something today's world is drifting away from. (Note from Sister van Hoff: I think they left the door open to make sure no one would talk about them while they were gone!)

The dining table.  The infamous door behind Brian.

Looking into the toilet room from the dining table.

We walked the side streets of that small town and even found a non-touristy authentic German restaurant. Sister van Hoff impressed us all by her near fluent German. Had it not been for her, we might not have been able to order anything.

Town of Baubach

German Restaurant, Bauernschanke Restaurant

Restaurant built in 1597

Saturday we dropped the boys off at Grand Prix race track in Nürburg, Germany. It was an all day race around a track that goes out into the country side and back into a huge stadium. They loved it and had a great time.

Sister van Hoff and I weren't interested in going, so we visited a castle ruin in a nearby town and then the castle in Nürburg, that is now under restoration. The view from the main tower (see picture below) was impressive. Follow this link - https://youtu.be/W4AZ-EF4VDM - to view the video I took going up.

Castle ruins.  Most of the other walls are no longer standing.

Lunch inside the castle ruins.

Nürburg Castle (we climbed the main tower)

Diane standing on the upper main section of the castle

The boys left for Italy and France the next day. We took them to the airport via the local Frankfurt train system.

Waiting for the train to take us to the airport.

This past Friday we traveled to Amsterdam to pick up Brian and Chad and spent the day with them before they went back to the States on Saturday.

We took them to Madurodam in The Hague. It is made up of detailed miniature replicas of famous buildings and sites in Netherlands.  I thought they would enjoy it as I did when I first saw it many years ago. I didn't realize how much it had turned into a kid's interactive site. Still I was able to show them some of the places I had personally seen many years ago.

This is a replica of St. Johns Cathedral in s'Hertogenbosch which I visited while on my junior mission in 1978.

Then we went to a semi-active windmill, Molen de Adriaan in Haarlem, Netherlands. That was quite interesting. One of the things the mill ground in it's day was chocolate for the Droste chocolate company - maker of the chocolate apples which come apart into slices -- one of Sister van Hoff's favorite chocolate memories from childhood.

All in all, it was wonderful having my sons there even if it was just for a short visit and meant a lot to me to see them again. It was like having a part of home in a foreign place. 

The Hague Temple

I suspect that the feelings I had will be very similar to when we re-unite in the next life. I believe we will recognize the value of family in a much stronger sense than we now do.

I've often said that I treasure my testimony of  the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I now declare that I treasure my family just as much.

Speaking of family, after we dropped off the boys at the airport we went to The Hague Netherlands Temple. I took a family name of a man who was born and died in Netherlands, Martinus Roozenboom.  I was able to do the endowment completely in Dutch.  I understood over 95% of what was said. After the session, it occurred to me that Martinus may have appreciated having his work done in his native earthly language.