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.

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!

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.   

Dutch Christmas Song: SinterKlaas Kapoentje

When we were kids Dad often had little songs and sayings that he would share with us. One of these was a little Dutch Christmas Song called "SinterKlaas Kapoentje." I asked Dad to share the lyrics of this song (with the correct spelling) and he sent me this information:

Here is the little song they sing in Holland on Zinterklaas Dag, which is on the 5th of December.  

This is how it is spelled in Dutch (Nederlands).

SinterKlaas Kapoentje

Gooij wat in mijn schoentje

Gooij wat in mijn larsje

Dank ja SinterKlarsje 

Here is how we might pronounce it in some kind of phonetic way. 

SinterKlaas Kapoontcha

Go-ee vat in mine schoontcha

Go-ee vat in mine larssha

Dank ya SinterKlarsha

Here is a translation in English.  

SinterKlaas You little elf

Throw something in my little shoe                  

Throw something in my little boot

Thank you little SinterKlaas

Gooij = throw

Wat = something

Schoentje = little shoe

Larsje = little boot

Rick recently did a podcast of both Mom and Dad and Dad actually sang THIS SONG in his podcast! Dad starts to explain the background of this song around (9 minutes and 40 seconds into the podcast and then sings it! ) I think most of the Westra kids have this song memorized!  

My Dad has some wooden shoes from his mission that we would often use for Show and Tell at school. Jeni is wearing them in this picture at our Girl Scout Cultural Night:

 I think this picture was taken on Dad's mission. It shows the Dutch people wearing wooden shoes.  

Perhaps we were celebrating Netherland traditions with my primary class in 1975 when we placed all of our shoes outside the classroom and then later found them filled with treats!

1975: Wendy's Primary Class in the Cottonwood 11th Ward (Teacher DeLora Gould)

(Back Row) 

Tally Lloyd, Robbie Lindsey, KirkWahlen, Tanji Anderson, Julie Monson, Michael Richards 

(Front Row)

 Joey Orvin, Wendy Westra, Anna Marie Tims, Wendy Woodbury

Lamar's Missionary Memories ~ London Temple Dedication

50 Years Ago ...

This picture was taken, 7 Sep 1958, in England. It was the dedication of the London Temple. For many of the missions in Europe, the missionaries were all invited to the dedication. We had a missionary choir, and our choir was invited to sing at one of the dedication ceremonies. President David O. McKay was there, and Elder Gordon B. Hinckley. I somehow made contact with some of my friends serving at the time in Europe. These two friends are: Jim Peterson, serving in Norway, and Tim Maxwell, on the right, serving in England. Here is some of the entry for that date from my missionary journal:

We had to be up at 7:00 for breakfast at the hotel. The Elders Choir had practice, 9:00-10:30. We all left on the buses, 11:00, for the temple. I met E. Jim Peterson, E. Knaphus at the hotel. We arrived at the temple about 12:30 and walked around and took pictures. I met Jim again, Tim Maxwell, Norm Egan, and others I knew from home. We went in the temple front door at 2:30 for the 2nd dedicatory session. It was a beautiful meeting and Apostle Brown, Apostle Moyle, and Pres. McKay spoke. Our choir wasn't able to sing. Pres. Jos. Fielding Smith led the Hosannah Shout. ..... The choir all left on one bus to travel to London to sing in the So. London Branch. We arrived about 7:15, fifteen minutes late, and marched in from the back door to sing two numbers, "O My Father" and "Come, Come, Ye Saints" which turned out "flat". Then we left, Hugh B. Brown shaking our hands.

Lamar's Missionary Memories ~ First Baptism

50 years ago ...

As Chris took slides and had them scanned to digital files, he's been attempting to label and place the pictures in the correct chronological placement in Dropbox and including the information for photos uploaded to Family Search. As part of the process, he would forward a photo to Dad and ask for his memories. For missionary photos, Dad would often turn to his mission journal. Here's his response ...

I found other photos in my missionary journal, with the same sister. On page 142-376. That means journal page number 142, and day 376 of my mission. The date was 30 Aug 1958. This was the first baptism I had on my mission. I had labored in The Hague, 26 May to August 11, when I was transferred to Ijmuiden. I was in the missionary choir, and we practiced in The Hague many Saturdays. I returned to The Hague for a missionary choir practice, and while there, we did the baptism. Here is the excerpt from my journal for that day: 

Saturday, We got up early and caught a train for Den Haag (The Hague) – arrived ½ hour late. We practiced (9:30-12:00), ate lunch together (hot dogs, lemonade) and practiced 1:30. Elder de Vries informed me that I was to baptize someone that afternoon and to be ready. The baptismal service was at 3:30, and four people were to be baptized. (Sister Touw; her son, Rien; a daughter of an American couple, a son of a member in Den Haag, Indonesian). I baptized Rien and Elder de Vries baptized Zr Touw, in very little, very warm, water. After we had changed clothes, we confirmed the new members. I confirmed Zr Touw, and E. de Vries confirmed Rien. The meeting was very nice and inspirational – 5 other investigators were present. Four of us Elders practiced a bit (quartet), E. Smith, E. Allen and I talked, rolled out our sleeping bags, and sacked out for the nite. 

The photo in my journal was that of Sister Touw and her three sons. 

She sent it to me, with a nice note on the back, all written in Dutch, of course.

Lamar's Mission Memories ~ Dutch Canals

Chris asked Dad about this picture ...

The photo of the big ship reminds me of times when we would be biking from one city to another, and we could see a huge ship up ahead, looking like it was moving through a Dutch meadow. The Dutch have built huge canals, from the North Sea, to the interior port of Amsterdam.

There are complicated locks that lower the ships, about 3 or four times, down to the level of Amsterdam, which is quite a bit below sea level. When we ride our bikes, and come to where the canal is located, the bike path, and the road, go way down and under the canal, and back up on the other side.

The Dutch have done the same thing with the Harbor at Rotterdam. There is a road and bike path that goes way, way down, and under the harbor, and back up on the other side. I always worried that a really big ship would slice into the tunnel when I was biking down there.

Dad (Joseph LaMar Westra)

Farewell ~To Florida

 

So long Scotty! He's Mr. Missionary now, off to Florida to serve an LDS mission. Here in mid-May, he had his official farewell at the church. This was back in the day when the meeting was all about the missionary, with everyone in the family having a part on the program. According to the program, there was also an open house the next day at the Westra home.

Not a lot of pre-mission photos ... in fact, this was the only one found.

... a bit blurry, and only recently scanned in (in 2020). 

The first of the Westra kids to go on a mission ... but not the last.

Mission Memories - Dutch Costumes & the City of Urk

I was working in the town of Zwolle, with my companion, Elder Dalebout, and we rode our bikes to the city of Kampen, and from there, we took a bus to the little town of Urk. Here is the excerpt from my journal: 

Okt 15, 1959: We headed for Kampen on the fietzen (bicycles), tracting along the way. We took a bus from Kampen to the city of Urk. It used to be an island (in the middle of the Ijsselmeer, big inland lake in the Netherlands) 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. (That is where they used a lot of the windmills, to pump the water out of one side of the Dijk, and move it to the other side). Holland's land area is growing polder by polder.  The polders are 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 a funny looking Dutch costume, and my companion and I dressed up in them and had our pictures taken. (Urk must have been a tourist town, with the picture taking). In other towns in the vicinity, the people wear the funny clothes all the time as a religious expression of their faith. In those towns, they don't cater to tourists, and if people try to take their pictures, they will hide their faces. They may even take you into custody and destroy your camera. But back to Urk, 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, lady all dressed up - 14 children, man and five sons, fishing. We caught the bus back to Kampen, tracted in Kampen, and and headed back home, against the wind, 14 km. It's possible we were the first missionaries to visit Kampen or Urk, probably forever.

 

Lamar's Mission Memories ~ Scheveningen (Nude Beach)

Scheveningen is a beach on the North Sea, close to Den Haag. 

The beach part must be to the right or left of this pier.

Part of the beach there is a nude beach, so that part was off-limits to us missionaries. The Germans would use that beach, since they have no beach of their own in that area. The Germans know that many of the Dutch people still have bad feelings about the war, World War II, and the Nazis, so the Germans try to speak Dutch so they would be more accepted.  However, the Dutch people know all about this, and this beach, Scheveningen, is a word that the Germans cannot pronounce. It is a very gutteral word that the Dutch love, pronounced something like Sggaveningen, with the gg sound coming from down deep in your throat, but the Germans pronounce it like Sheveningen.

The Dutch then know that these tourists are really German.

Dad/Lamar served his mission 1957-1960