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An Appeal, An Answer and an Ab-Wheel

In December of 2020, as part of the "Light the World" challenge, Mom/Margie shared a couple stories about prayer from her youth (Mom's Memories). Not long after, Derek shared a story as well. Here it is. 

God Has a Sense of Humor (Ab-Wheel Story)

Shared by Derek Westra via email, December 2020

When I had only been on my mission to Brazil a couple of months – I had this strong desire for a piece of exercise equipment that I had used every day before my mission – it was called an ab-wheel. I’m not sure why I wanted it so bad, but I have always hated sit-ups and they just weren’t doing it for me out there and I felt like I was losing my six-pack. :) My companion was a Brazilian named Elder Mariano, and while I still didn’t know the language very well yet, I told him about the ab-wheel and asked if I could find one in Brazil somewhere. He had never heard of one but said I should mention it to some of the members to see if they had. I did this at several houses, but no one had ever heard of one. Since I was new to Portuguese, I remember struggling to explain what this was. “E uma roda. Como… uma roda plastica, pequena que voce usa para fazer exercicios. Assim – eu vou te mostrar.”

I’d say: “It’s like a plastic wheel with handles that you use on the floor to do exercises, like this!” Then I’d try to demonstrate – which must have look ridiculous. One of the members was taking a trip to Sao Paulo to go to Wal-Mart and I asked them to look for one and buy it for me and I’d pay them back, but they couldn’t find one. I became sort of obsessed with finding one and since missionary work can be somewhat monotonous and unimaginative, I started working my new-found obsession into our door approaches. “Hey there – I was hoping you could help me with something: I’m an American and I’m looking for this exercise thing (I’d describe it) have you heard of this?” The answer was always no, but Brazilians love helping and to ask for a favor (a glass of water or help with an address) was always a better, more effective approach then just telling them we wanted to share a message.

My companion started to really tire of my obsession with finding an ab-wheel. I could tell it was starting to bother him, but I didn’t know a ton of Portuguese yet and I had gotten pretty practiced at my approach so I kept using it. Finally, one morning during our companionship prayer before leaving the apartment, Elder Marino was saying the prayer and said (with a lot of pent-up frustration): “Heavenly Father, please help us today to find Elder Westra’s stupid ab-wheel so he can stop talking about it.” I opened my eyes to scowl at him, but this was as earnest and sincere as I’d ever seen him. I got the hint that he had had enough and decided to drop it.

We went out knocking doors as usual and I avoided the “ab-wheel” approach since I knew my Senior Companion was at his wit’s end. But one street in, we came to a house where this really strong guy was exercising out front with his shirt off (doing pull-ups). I looked at my companion and he said “Okay – ask about the thing.” I went up to the guy and said, “Excuse me, but you look really strong and like you exercise a lot.” He was flattered and entertained by where this was going. I said, “I’m an American, and there is this one piece of exercise equipment that I can’t find anywhere in this country, it’s called an “Ab-wheel.”’ His eyes lit up and he got really excited. “They don’t make it here.” He said. But he had a huge smile, like he knew something I didn’t. “But I do!” He told us to come in his house and he had three of these home-made ab-wheels that he had made out of wood and broom handles. “I’ve seen these on TV, but they are only in the United States – I wanted to try one so I made a prototype out of wood. It’s not perfect, I’m still working on the design, but this ought to take care of you.” He handed me one of his three wood prototypes and said “It’s yours.” I looked at Elder Mariano and he was speechless. We had somehow found “Elder Westra’s stupid ab-wheel” on the day that he earnestly prayed and asked that we would. I’m convinced that in that huge country, we were led to that house, where someone was making these out of wood and was willing to just give one away.

Now, wouldn’t it be cool if I had some awesome conclusion about how we went on to teach that man, and how he became a great Church leader? Well, that didn’t happen. :) He had no interest in the Church or our message, and I never saw him again, but I used his homemade, wooden ab-wheel every day until it broke a month before I came home from Brazil.

I’m convinced that Heavenly Father knows us personally and cares about the details of our lives – even the insignificant things that matter more to us than they should.

2020 ... Do We Really Want a Recap?

Family - this IS supposed to be a complete recap! If you have additional memories/thoughts for your family, or for Utah/US/World that you'd like to add, just email me and I'll update!

2020 ... a year that will be remembered, but one that many might like to forget. There was the Westra Christmas Newsletter and the Annual Slideshow for 2020 which gives a pretty good look at what everyone was up to. The annual Father's Day party still happened ... but Covid canceled a family reunion and the Christmas Eve party. 

There were three weddings ...

One pre-pandemic, one RIGHT before things shut down, and one right in the middle of it all.

Several of the younger generation became homeowners... and this year there has been planning for a new home for Shane&Alicia with a G-suite (section for Margie/Lamar). There was also new baby news!

There were the annual ouchies!

Cal broke his foot ... the FOURTH time. Scott had to have surgery on his spine. Derek decided to try a trip to the ER. Kim had surgery on her ear and Conner ended the year as Cal had begun, except he managed a bigger break that required surgery.  Covid was an issue for a few of the families (Camden was the first, then some of Scott's and all the Jensens) but happily no extreme cases.

Ah Covid ... that will likely get its own blog post, with thoughts and memories (and memes!) from the year. There was also the EARTHQUAKE in March, with aftershocks afterward. There were worrisome wildfires here in Utah, and worse ones in nearby states, causing smoky skies ... and spooky red skies. There was a night of wild winds that left some Utah residents without power for weeks. The airport was redone, Derek's old boss bought the Utah Jazz, a mysterious "monolith" appeared in the Utah desert and Jupiter and Saturn aligned to create the "Christmas Star"...

The year started with fires across Australia. Kolby Bryant and others died in a helicopter crash. The  Black Lives Matter movement made a mark, and there were protests and riots, in Utah and across the US. There was a plethora of politics and a presidential election. Whew!

Back to the Westra Clan...

Trying to add a little extra to what was in the Christmas Newsletter blurb.

Most snapshots are also in the slideshow.

Scott and Amy ... fun to have Mckenna and Spencer back in Utah. Some boating and razor riding, and S&A cheering on the cheerleaders. Amy and Taylee took a trip to Disney World. Kemery and Mitch got a house, a dog and now a new baby on the way!

Yea, a new and complete family photo for the Chris and Kim crew! A marriage, and a missionary home (temporarily). Lots of hiking, doting on a granddaughter and photo fun. Chris is good at keeping in touch with weekly email updates. 

Wendy sends email updates fairly often and keeps a family blog with all their activities as well as an annual Christmas post to recap their year (see it here). A wedding, a missionary home, college graduation and so much more!

The Blackham's also had a wedding, and once they moved Callahan out, there was a bunch of renovation (new carpet and paint). Gray got a new truck, and some new gadgets for his kitchen/cooking. Jen sent out monthly email updates (and adds them to the family blog as well). 

Shane and Alicia have celebrated being back in Utah/snow with several ski trips. There was a new family car (Kia Telluride), a driver's license for Adria, as well as teaching her to drive a stick in Grandpa's little blue truck. Dancing and biking and home improvement projects ... as well as exciting home plans for the future!

Derek and Danielle always have oodles of adventures going on! So many fun photos to feature. Many home improvement projects, music and art enterprises and their summer went to the birds (with them documenting both a robin's nest and a hummingbird's nest). If you follow Derek on Facebook/Instagram you'll be pretty connected with all that's going on. 

Great-Grandpa Herbert was an OddFellow ...

 

What is the IOOF (Independent Order of Odd Fellows)? 

From their webpage, the Odd Fellows are an organization that promotes personal and social development. For members, the fellowship emphasizes a "leaving of the old life and the start of a better one and of helping those in need."  As indicated in the image above, the Odd Fellows were established in the United States in 1819, but they were documented as far back as 1730 in England. The IOOF is still around today! The command of the IOOF is to "vist the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead and educated the orphan." Members are dedicated to the following purposes:

• To improve and elevate the character of mankind by promoting the principles of friendship, love, truth, faith, hope, charity and universal justice.
• To help make the world a better place to live in, by aiding each other, the community, the less fortunate, the youth, the elderly, and the environment in every way possible.
• To promote goodwill and harmony amongst peoples and nations through the principle of universal fraternity, holding the belief that all men and women regardless of race, nationality, religion, social status, gender, rank and station are brothers and sisters.

Mom/Margie's grandfather (Grandpa Norman's dad), Herbert Lavar Norman, was an Odd Fellow. In his history, he makes several mentions of his involvement and the impact they had on his life. Here are a couple excerpts: 

On April 18, 1918, I joined the Odd Fellow's Lodge in Brigham City. That fall, along in November (1918) I took the flu. There was a terrible amount of flu then. There were many, many people dying with it. They took me home from work. The doctor got there and told the fellow who took me home to get me to bed and take care of me. They fixed me up and asked me if we had any liquor in the house. Mother (Louella) said she didn't know what it was, but I had just purchased a case of something for Fred Rassmussen. He got me part of that, and he rubbed me with it. He then made a "hot toddy" for me. The Odd Fellow's Grand Noble got a nurse who stayed for three hours. Then he got another one, and she stayed for a couple of hours. That is the way it was for two or three days. At least they had someone there to take care of me night and day. When I got so I could go out, I went to pay the nurses because I felt they were the first ones who should be paid. I asked each nurse how much we owed them, and each one replied , "Nothing". The Odd Fellow's Lodge had taken care of all the expenses including the coal we had to buy from the lumber yard. I always maintained if it hadn't been for the Lodge, I wouldn't be here today. I paid them back. I couldn't do it all at once, but I did it as fast as I could. I figured if they could do that much good for me, they could do that much good for someone else. (See Quarantine for the full flu story). 

One day the Eagles Lodge had their Convention in Lovelock, and they went in the hole with their finances. They didn't make enough money to clear themselves out of it so they had to put on a home dramatic play. "Too Many Parents" was the name of it. One of the fellows they had in the play couldn't do his part so they came and asked me if I would take the part of the aristocratic old southern gentleman.  I did just to help them out. We practiced and practiced on it and finally we put it on. No one could tell it was me. But Mirriam was just a little girl, and she was pretty smart. When I came on the stage for my part she said "There's my Daddy." 

Herbert served as Grand Master of the Odd Fellows Lodge. On October 31, 1931 Herb had a meeting with the Odd Fellows in Salt Lake City ... he arrived home late the next day to baby Bonnie Lou just having been born. When he finished up his term as Grand Master, he was elected to be the representative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge in Springfield, Illinois in 1933. The next year he was elected to the Sovereign Grand Lodge in Toronto, Canada. Herb and Louelle went to Arizona for a job at the end of 1952... 

When I came home one night from work, I told Mother there was a party down to the Oddfellows' and Rebekahs' Lodge Hall. We decided we would go to it. When we got there it was open, and we went up to the door. I told the people in there who we were and showed them our card and reciepts. They invited us in. A little while later the superintendent for the government on the canal project came in. He looked at me and asked why I hadn't told him I was a member of the Lodge. When the Lodge opened, he had Mother and I go to the middle of the floor and he introduced us as a Past Grand Master and Past President of Utah. We were certainly honored. From that day on, anything I wanted to do on the job, all I had to do was suggest it.

In the history given at his funeral in 1986 his daughter Mirriam wrote " Dad joined the Independent Order of Odd Fellows while they were living in Brigham City, Utah. He remained very active in the organization until it became difficult to drive because of the deterioration of his eyes. He served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Utah. He was Representative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge for 2 years and served as Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Utah for 6 or more years. He was given the Meritorious Service Award for his years of service.

A Odd Fellow Meritorious Service Jewel may be awarded to an Odd Fellow for meritorious service performed on behalf of Odd Fellowship beyond the usual and customary duties of membership.

mer·i·to·ri·ous  /ˌmerəˈtôrēəs/   

adjective

deserving reward or praise.

"a medal for meritorious conduct"

Looking through old documents (Dec 2020) 

Chris found the letter from the lodge requesting the medal ...

The Odd Fellows were "fellows" ... it was for the men, but there was a women's branch, the Rebekahs. Louella was part of this group. In the fall of 1952, Louella was elected to go to Dallas, Texas as a representative for the Rebekah Lodge IOOF and she was quite active in the group over the years as well.

Mission Memories ~ Amsterdam Inspired

In March of 2018,  Shane went to Amsterdam on a business trip and asked Dad/Lamar if he had any addresses or memories from his mission time there. Here's Dad's answer ...

Hello Shane,

We got your letter from Amsterdam. You asked about the addresses of where I lived, and where our church in Amsterdam was located. I had to look up in my old Missionary Journal for some details. 

My mission actually started 20 Aug 1957, and we spent 8 days in the old mission home in Salt Lake City. My companion was Elder Ron Whiting, from Basalt, Idaho, also assigned to go to the Netherlands. We studied some Dutch language and missionary lessons.

Then we traveled via train to Chicago and New York and boarded the SS Maasdam for the trip to The Netherlands, 5-14 September. Newly arriving missionaries in The Netherlands usually went straight to The Hague (Den Haag), where the mission home was located, and where the missionary school was located, where we could get additional language and culture training. However, since we had only the two of us new missionaries, and they were expecting three more missionaries in three weeks, they decided to send us out with a missionary companion to bone us up on that kind of stuff. 

I was sent to Amsterdam, where my companion was Elder Robert J. DeBry, now the famous ambulance chaser. Elder DeBry was the District President in Amsterdam, and spoke very good Dutch. He was a good teacher. We lived above the church, which was then at Weteringschans 101. It was just one of the many buildings along the street. The church was on the main level, and there were four of us missionaries living on the upper floors. 

The church was near some famous buildings in Amsterdam. One of them was Het Rijks Museum, which had lots of art work by Rembrandt, especially his famous Night Watch. The other building was Het Concert Gebouw, translated to The Concert Building. That is still in operation today. I hear on the BBC about concerts coming from Het Concert Gebouw. We had a missionary choir, and sang in lots of places around the mission, and one of the places we sang was Het Concert Gebouw. I still have the programs for this concert in my missionary journal. (See London Temple Dedication for another choir experience). 

After that assignment in Amsterdam, I went to the missionary school in Den Haag to learn more Dutch. That was at the church there, Loosduinsekade 11. That was a regular church building, and is likely still there. 

After that, I had assignments in Arnhem, by the German border, and then back to Den Haag, and then to the town of Ijmuiden, which was in the Amsterdam district. It was a town of over 100,000 but hadn’t had missionaries in over 30 years. We organized our own meetings in Ijmuiden, above a bar. We had other meetings in the nearby city of Haarlem. 

Then I returned to Den Haag, now as the missionary teacher. After that I served in Zwolle, and then Rotterdam North. 

I never did get to serve in the northern provinces of The Netherlands, Friesland and Groningen. My grandfather (Ate Westra) was born in Friesland and my grandmother (Geeske Egberts de Haan) was born in Groningen. They married in Groningen in 1902 and came to Utah in 1907. My father (Joseph Ate Westra) was born in SLC in 1911. 

After my mission ended, in May 1960, I spent about three weeks in Friesland, doing some genealogical research. Then we traveled through Europe and took a ship home, the SS United States, four days. Two of the five missionaries traveling together had purchased Volkswagons, so we traveled in those, through Europe, and put them on the ship, and drove them to Utah. 

In 1960, near the end of my mission, they were preparing to make the first Stake in The Netherlands. It was actually the first non-English speaking stake in the world. I don’t know for sure if there are now more than one Stake in The Netherlands. You can use your Dutch and ask when you go to church there. There is now one temple in The Netherlands. One of the missionaries serving with me, Elder Springer, went back to the Netherlands to help build the Temple. He is a builder and used to live in our ward in Timmerman’s house. He recently died.

You mentioned you stayed away from the shady areas of Amsterdam. We would sometimes go down to the Red Light District and call the young women working there to repentance. One of my companions actually did talk to one of the girls. Many of them were just teenagers. They would sit in a showroom behind a big window, in their pretty formal dresses. Back then, you could tell the location of the Red Light District, by the big Catholic Church, with a huge red cross on top. I think maybe the popes have since then stopped that display of obvious connection between the Catholic Church and the Red Light District. 

I’m glad you know what unsafe areas to stay away from----visitors often don’t know that. Wendy didn’t know on her mission, and was in a bad part and the buses had quit for the night. A policeman stopped and told them they needed to get out of that dangerous area. They called their zone leaders to come get them. When Janika went to Atlanta this past summer to be an EFY counselor, she met some people that had known Wendy on her mission!

The churches in the northern part of Holland were mostly Dutch Reformed, John Calvin, and the churches in the southern provinces of Holland were mostly Catholic. 

Let me know more of how your church meetings went,

Dad

From Shane: Thanks for the info, Dad, that is really cool to hear!  Weteringschans 101 is very close by where I'm staying, so I'll pass by there to see what is is now. I went to the Van Gogh museum today, it is right in between the Rijks museum and the Concert building, and I walked around part of the Rijks museum afterwards -- its a really cool building. I might go into that museum tomorrow.  I looked it up, and the Den Haag Ward is still at that same address. There are currently 3 stakes in the Netherlands; Apeldoorn, Rotterdam, and The Hague (which includes Amsterdam).  Very cool to hear about your experiences, and to be where you were 59.5 years ago!

From Mom/Margie: Dad said Amsterdam is probably 4 or more times larger than Salt Lake City, which makes it even more amazing that Shane is staying close enough to walk to where Dad lived 60 years ago, out of the entire huge city.

Check out another one of Shane's trips to Holland a little later in 2018 where he visited the city of Groningen where Dad/Lamar's grandfather lived/married/worked and returned to for a mission after immigrating to the United States. Historic Homes in Holland ~ Shane's Trip.  Shane was able to locate a number of residences and church buildings from our family history!

Historic Homes in Holland ~ Shane's Trip

 

Shane and Jan Weening - December 2018

From Shane: I just barely got back from visiting Groningen (Northern Holland, where most of the de Haan lines are from). Jan Weening, a Family History Consultant in Groningen has written a book about the early church there, and knows a lot about Ate Obes Westra (my great-grandfather). I took the 3-hour train ride to Groningen, rented a bike, and Jan took me all around to see where Ate Obes lived, worked, and served as a missionary. It was so cool to see!

Here are the pictures he took on his trip ...

The photo on the left and upper right are two locations Ate Westra lived while serving as a missionary in the Netherlands (1919-1922). The bottom right is where church services were held during those years ...

... more locations where church services were held in Groningen are pictured below, 

although these were after Ate's time. 

The one on the left was where Jan Weening was baptized.

If you read Ate's History, you know that he met his wife Geeske in Groningen and they ran a laundry before they immigrated to America. Below, the top-right photo shows this laundry and their residence from 1902-1907. The building on the left is where Ate lived 1899-1900, and the bottom right is another possible residence. 

Check out A History of Homes for where Ate lived in Utah after they came to the United States.

Mom/Margie wrote to Shane: Dad just showed me your letter just now, with all the pictures!  That's amazing that you took the 3 hour train ride to Groningen, rented a bike, and went all those places where your great-grandfather lived!  So nice of Jan to take you all those places and that he knew a lot about Ate Westra! So wonderful that you took advantage of that great opportunity!  Thanks for all the photos!

... and to the other siblings: We had a nice video chat with Shane last night from his hotel in Boston. He mentioned the time with the FH consultant Jan in the Netherlands was delightful, after several train changes and bus ride---and the people in the smaller towns didn't speak English nearly as much as in Amsterdam, so it was a little harder to know what trains to take, etc. Shane would like to do something for Jan for taking so much time with him (though Jan seemed to enjoy it just as much as Shane).

One final photo from Shane's Netherland's trip ...

Shane eating raw herring ... mandatory Dutch street experience. Ewwwww.

Windmills, Polders & Dutch History

 

As part of Mom's photo project, Chris has been going through old slides and getting them scanned in. There are a bunch from Dad's mission years. As Chris found these photos of windmills, he asked Dad/Lamar about them. Here's Dad's answer ...

Yes, families did live in the windmills. I looked at some of my photos, from the years 1957-1960 in our Dropbox, and there are some with me at the door of a windmill. Very often, the families living in the windmill, might have a surname, Mollenaar, translated to Miller. 

When the Dutch reclaim land, the reclaimed land is called a polder. When I was in the Netherlands on my mission, 1957-1960, there were only 11 provinces. In 1986, after the Dutch reclaimed more sections of land, and called them Polders, they combined three of the new Polders, and created a new Province, called Flevoland. Some of the land area in Flevoland used to be Islands in the inland sea, but now they are no longer islands. See the blog post about the visit to the town of Urk. Two of the three new polders are actually not connected by land to the mainland. There is a narrow strip of water, of the Ijsselmeer between the polder and the mainland. The two polders are connected to each other, and are reported to be by far the largest created island in the world, with an area of 970 square kilometers. The next largest created island in the world, is by contrast, only 10.7 square kilometers. The two polders are connected to the mainland, and to each other, with bridges. 

The history of the polders goes way back, and requires some study of Dutch history and geography. Some Polders were built way back in the 12th century, and it is reported that there are 3000 polders in the Netherlands. The three newer polders that make up Flevoland, were created 1940-1980. Back before the year 1932, Netherlands had a large inland sea, called the Zuider Zee, translated, South Sea. It was open on the North end to the North Sea and was all saltwater. At the southern end of the Zuider Zee lies the city of Amsterdam, which has an elevation of about 6.6 feet below sea level, and is full of canals, with waters from the Zuider Zee. The Dutch had built up dikes all along the North Sea, and also on the shores of the Zuider Zee, to protect the land from flooding. However some flooding did happen from time to time, especially in the Zuider Zee. A flood in 1916, gave the Dutch the impetus to close the Zuiderzee connection to the North Sea. The work was started in 1920 with the building of a dike that closed off the shallow bay in northeast Netherlands.

In 1932, the dike was completed between the provinces of North Holland, and Friesland. The new dike was named the Afsluitdijk – "Closing dam". It is said to be an engineering wonder. It was 20 miles long, and built to a height of 23.8 feet above sea level, with a width on the top of 300 feet. A highway was built on the top of the dike. When I was in the Netherlands, in 1960, I visited Friesland, and we drove on the Afsluitdijk. I believe I have seen a photo of me on the dike. We’ll have to look for that. I checked my mission journal. I was in Friesland off and on between 15-24 March 1960, and visited the small town where my grandfather was born, Achlum, which was very near to the Friesland end of the afsluitdijk, but I couldn’t find any entry in my mission journal about a visit to the dijk. 

After the dike was completed, the Zuider Zee now became the IJsselmeer also known as Lake IJssel in English. It has a maximum depth of 23 ft, but is mostly 7 feet deep. When the Afsluitdijk was completed, the surface elevation of the Ijsselmeer would have been sea level. But there are pumps that can pump water out and into the North Sea. So the surface elevation of the Ijsselmeer fluctuates between 7-15 inches below sea level. The river Ijssel comes into the lake, and the pumping of water from the new polders adds more water to the Ijsselmeer, and if the level rises to near sea level, or even above, the pumps can pump more water out and into the North Sea. For the little towns around the banks of the Ijsselmeer, and for the islands in the Ijsselmeer, many of the men were fishermen, fishing in the Zuider Zee and the North Sea. These could still get to the North Sea via locks and channels through either end of the Afsluitdijk. 

In the olden days, windmills were used in other parts of the Netherlands to pump water from polders and into drainage canals. Many of these older windmills were built 1738-1740. The windmills from the photos in my photo collection (shown above) were probably from Kinderdijk, in another part of the Netherlands, and not from the new polders in the Ijsselmeer. I will have to find an entry in my mission journal that tells of our visit to Kinderdijk, so I can properly date those photos. Many of the old windmills still work today, but are not generally used for daily water pumping. The new polders used diesel or other powered pumps to do their pumping. 

Since the depth of the Ijsselmeer is between 7 and 23 feet, the polders, after being drained, are up to 23 feet below sea level. The lowest populated place in the Netherlands, is in another area of the Netherlands, and it is about 23 feet below sea level. The new polder that is connected to the mainland, has two different dikes built out from the mainland, to the Island, Urk. The first dike was from Friesland to Urk, and completed in 1939, making Urk no longer an Island. The two new polders that are not connected to the mainland, had to have dikes on all sides, with pumps always ready to pump out more water in the event of heavy rains and flooding in the polders.