Brussels - Chocolate, Waffles and Training

Travel is easy and hard

Thinking we could beat the early morning London traffic, we left Solihull at 6:00 a.m. for the 100 miles journey to the Hyde Park Chapel on the M40 motorway. Three hours later and considerably more impatient we arrived with just an hour to spare to get to St Pancras International Rail Statrion to take the Eurostar to Brussels.

Hailing a taxi rather than taking the Picaddilly line on the tube we arrived in time for the customs and immigration inspections to board the high-speed train through the Chunnel to Brussels. It took us about double the time to get to London than it did to travel to our destination in Belgium.

Brussels is the hub of Europe as it hosts the European Union  with its 27000 EU employees representing most of the nations of Europe. Currently the UK is struggling with its membership in the EU and it could present the Conservative government with an enormous challenge as the UKIP party has gained a strong foothold in EU and local elections by promoting nationalism versus the Eurocentric vision of a federated Europe. It is also home to a Church Public Affairs Office and a downtown chapel housing two units of the the stake.

The Grand Place in the centre of Brussels is spectacular with the city hall surrounded by restaurants and shops filled with lace, chocolates and beautiful artwork.

Belgium waffles are out-of-this-world delicious as evidenced by Joyce relishing this strawberry, hot chocolate, chantilly cream... oh, and waffle dessert of Kings!

Take a look at this 'tiny' Belgium Waffle. Needless-to-say, we shared and even then felt a twinge of guilt. Joyce felt the guilt more acutely than did the Chocoholic Dan!

Elder Jones between bites of waffle in the Grand Place.

Chocolate shop after chocolate shop... has Dan questioning if he'd been translated directly to heaven!

Joyce in front of the City Hall in the Grand Place admiring all the the flowers... Her version of heaven is a lot less sweet than Dan's. She prefers the beautiful display of flowers as well as the magnificent lace and embroidery art shops that proliferate around the centre of Brussels.

Ah, success as evidenced by the newly acquired contents in the plastic bag. Lace and embroidered pillow cases were the buys of the day.

Flowers adorn the street lamps, window sills and front steps on almost every building in Brussels.

The Oxford English Dictionary identified the word for 2014 as "selfie." Here is our selfie from the Grand Place in Brussels... Cute girl and a guy who is carrying his own bags (under his eyes).

Brugge takes us back to Medieval times

Brugge is a World Heritage site that has lovely cobble-stoned streets, charming window pots of flowers and bicycles parked outside the doors.

Joyce in a courtyard of an medieval hospital across from the Picasso Museum with the Church of our Lady in the background. The Church houses the only sculpture by Michaelangelo outside Italy.

Magnificent lace reflects the artisans of Belgium.

Charming squares inviting people to relax, eat and mingle dot the entire city.

Bruges (French spelling) was a seaport centre in the early to mid-1000s that has diminished in importance due to the sea access being filled with silt. It remains a wonderful example of what life must have been like in 1300 A.D. or 1400 A.D.

Charming building along the canals.

Parks filled with statues and beauty.

All of this natural beauty is due to a moderate climate, valued historic preservation and lots of the above... We darted in and out of the rain for the entire day. But it began to pour as we were leaving on the train back to Brussels.

Videography Training in Brussels

The Church is making real strides in upgrading the information available to members and the public in general through mormonnewsroom. We were trained along with National Directors of Public Affairs for several countries on the art of taking videos, editing them (with music / sound / graphics) and uploading them to the local newsroom websites. This will facilitate more effective communication as it allows people to view a topic or event in a video rather than just text.

Dinis Adriano (Assistant Director of European Public Affairs), David Templeton and Fernanda (National Director of Public Affairs for Cape Verde) find great satisfaction in demonstrating new skills on and off camera.

Peter Middleton (professional videographer and producer), Marianne van Wermeskerken (National Director of Public Affairs for The Netherlands) and her husband, Dr. Nico van Wermeskerken, consult with Peter about their video production --- blessings associated with the principle of tithing.

Dan, Serge Vandendriessche (National Director of Public Affairs for Belgium and US Embassy PR Officer) and David Templeton (Videographer and IT specialist for Ireland) enjoy their new-found friendship  at the seminar.

A coincidental meeting at the train station finds Elder Peres and Elder Martinez, missionaries serving in Flemish speaking Belgium within the Paris France mission. Guess what language they are teaching? Spanish in Brussels where they are just returning from their weekly football (soccer) morning enjoyed with nearly 75 members and others interested in learning more about the gospel. Who would have thought Spanish and Portuguese speaking wards / branches throughout almost every major country in Europe?

A Time for Reflection - Ashton's 50th Anniversary

Dan and Brian Ashworth (a great leader in the Manchester area during Dan's first mission) greet each other. President Ashworth was a Bishop who taught Elder Jones a great lesson on fearless faith nearly 45 years ago.  It was thrilling to speak with him again and relate the experience we shared together in Ashton so many years ago.

Dan looks happy to see his longtime hero... Brian Ashworth.

The Ashton Ward building was built 50 years ago and has been community and church focal point for all these years. The celebration bought hundreds back to cheerily gather to reflect on the history of the church in Ashton. Two missionaries from my day as a young missionary, Elder Kent Winder and Elder Craig Jessop, have made significant impacts on the Church worldwide as well as those made in the Ashton Oldham area of Manchester all those years ago.

Martin Cook, former Bishop and Stake President in Ashton, now is the National Director of Public Affairs for Great Britain.

Elder Jolley is a nephew of our good friends and fellow missionaries, Dean and Celia Jolley.

Where there were just four missionaries some forty years ago, today there are ten serving in the same geographic area including these great looking elders from four continents.

The two-day celebration was highlighted with a combined sacrament with nearly 500 people from the two Ashton Wards and the Oldham Ward.

Joyce turns 39...(again)

 Joyce with her birthday cake from The Cake Artists in Solihull.

 A rousing round of the English version of Happy Birthday to You. 

 Joyce serving everyone her birthday luncheon... from the left, Rob (Systems Programmer), Craig (IT), Pauline (Church Magazines), Alan (Accounting), Sister Russell. John (Systems Programmer), Anna (the heart of the office and Missionary Applications), Jan (Real Estate) and John (Facilities Management).

Outside our office in Solihull...

Birthday flowers from Sisters Banner and Russell on our dining room table along with all the photos of family at home.

My, how time flies... the weeks are now booked until the holidays!

We looked at our calendars and discovered that nearly every night along with each weekend is now booked in our diaries (English word for calendars) until after the 17th of December. We are scheduled for London this weekend, Liverpool and Chorley the next week on the 6th through 9th of November.  On Saturday, the 15th, we are taking the Primary children on an activity to the Think Tank in Birmingham. Stakes leaders from the Manchester and York areas are next for training during the month of November. We also look forward to assisting with Thanksgiving dinner for approximately 30 senior missionaries, the Family Values Award presentation at The House of Commons on the 10th of December, and a host of other office related projects.

Our days became even more filled today when we received a text on Sunday asking us to meet at the Sheldon chapel before sacrament meeting. Joyce said she had an impression about why the need for the meeting, but Dan was completely in the dark. The Birmingham Stake Presidency called Dan to be the Second Counselor in the bishopric of the Sheldon Ward. It's quite unusual to have a missionary serve in a leadership role in an established ward in England (although Joyce has been serving for the past two months in the Primary presidency). With the lack of priesthood leadership in our small Sheldon Ward, Bishop Stilger felt inspired to make the recommendation with the blessings of President Griffiths (Stake President) and President Rasmussen (Mission President). Interestingly enough we now have an Italian first counselor, American second counselor, a British ward clerk and a German Bishop in an inner city British ward. Don't you love the marvelous mix of multiple nationalities in just one small inner-city ward in Birmingham? Truly this is a global Church.