THE HAGUE NETHERLANDS TEMPLE

What an adventure!! I’ll summarize it here using bullet points:

1. I arrived around midnight after traveling from Preston back to London, going under the English Channel, going through Brussels and Antwerp, and finally arriving into Rotterdam.
2. The twin tunnels that span the English Channel are 30 miles long.
3. from the top of the tunnel up to sea level is 100 meters.
4. We passed Wembley soccer stadium on the way. ⚽️
5. I went straight to the temple after taking a couple of local trams. It was about a half mile walk. They don’t do patron housing, and I had not stopped to look at any hotels.
6. The temple is not built next to a stake center or church of any type. Nuts!
7. From around 12:30 AM until about 7:30 AM I just bundled up and slept on either the sidewalk or a park bench that was close by. I positioned myself on the sidewalk in between the small hedges on the temple property and the front bumper of a car that was parked in a parking space. That little narrow gap is dark, and I wanted to be hidden from sight if at all possible.
8. Thank God, it didn’t rain!
9. One temple Worker showed up at 6 AM and pulled down into the underground parking.
10. Around 7 AM a man in his 30s came out from his home and started to walk his dog. We talked for a few minutes and he ended up making me some hot chocolate, which was really nice!
11. I finally decided to just go try the front door of the temple given that there was one guy inside. My appointment was for the 9:30 endowment session so I thought no one was going to get in until around 9 o’clock. I was wrong. My man Jonah opened the door right up and let me inside. That’s when the magic started!
12. He offered me some tea! That was a first! Especially in the temple! It was red bear tea, which is an herbal tea. He made it, and I drank it!
13. Then the first counselor in the temple presidency showed up. He made me breakfast! Authentic Dutch cheese on wheat bread with the tea. It was delightful! They offered to let me take a shower too if I’d like. He then told me about a spare couch that is upstairs around the corner from the waiting room and said I could go up there and take a nap before the session. What a fabulous guy!
14. The session was in Dutch, which was fun to hear!
15. Afterwards, a sister missionary from Saratoga Springs took my photo.
16. A couple of big beautiful swans were building a nest across the street. The canals that run through the city are fabulous. So is the shopping market across the street from the temple! There’s even a windmill, not far away!
17. You have to be kind of crazy to sit outside in the cold for seven hours waiting to get inside the temple, but sometimes that’s what I do. I thanked the temple workers profusely and took off for Frankfurt!

Even the guy who assisted me during the temple session was named Joe Smith!