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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Junk Refund Show, hosted by Alan J. Cook, founder of 1-800-Junk-Refund.

Have you ever paid those expensive junk removal companies to take away some of your stuff, only to say to yourself as the truck drives off down the street, “Some of that stuff wasn’t junk”? Did they try to sell it for you and give you some money back? No.

Well, now there is a company that can do just that. Listen to our weekly Junk Refund Show on BBS Radio TV to learn how one lady spent $375 on junk removal and got $3,200 back.

1-800-Junk-Refund represents the next generation of junk removal. Learn how to not only save money on junk removal, but how to get some money coming back. Plus, purchase one of our radio vouchers during the show to save even more on your junk removal.

Let’s get the junk out of your home and out of your life. Now, with your host, Alan J. Cook.

Speaker 2: Hello, everybody, and welcome to my favorite time of the week, Thursdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, when I get to do the Junk Refund Show.

I’m coming to you live from Nicholson Lane in Rockville, Maryland, in the truck, as I’m about to pull into a Wendy’s and park here to do the show. I was hoping I could get here earlier so I could actually grab some lunch before the show started, but I wasn’t quite that fortunate. That’s okay. I’ll hang out here, we’ll do the show from Wendy’s, and I’ll get some lunch right afterwards. Unless they kick me out of the parking lot, I’m in good shape.

Welcome to the Junk Refund Show. I’m Alan Cook. I’m the founder of 1-800-Junk-Refund, which is a hauling and junk removal business headquartered in the Washington, D.C. area. We do junk removal of all types, we pick up scrap metal for free, and we move people. You can probably tell I’m backing up into a spot here where, God willing, they’ll let me stay for a couple of minutes to do this show. I think we’ll be good.

Anyway, welcome. It’s been a fun week. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to do the show last week. I was in Europe celebrating my birthday, and I think I was actually on a train at the time. I was traveling between cities and couldn’t do a show from where I was. I couldn’t think of where I could go other than between cars to do a show for an hour, and they might not have liked me hanging out between cars or at the end of one of the cars.

But I’m very excited to be here. We talk on this show about how to get the junk out of your home, your garage, and your office, but also out of your life. One of the best ways to do that, which I did this last week, is to celebrate your birthday.

I’m very big on celebrating your birthday. There are a lot of people in the world who say to themselves, “Oh, crap, it’s my birthday. I’m another year older,” and they kind of shy away from it. I was in our church one time, and a young couple was there. The young lady was walking down the hallway, and she said, “Oh my gosh, I just turned 23. I’m so old.” I thought about that as a guy in my mid-60s at that point and thought, “No, you’re just a spring chicken. You’re just starting to bloom. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you.”

Well, I just celebrated my 68th birthday. In keeping with what I did last year for my 67th birthday, when I went to Rome, I decided to go back to Europe this year as well. I’ve mentioned on this show that one of the ways I try to get some of the day-in and day-out junk out of my life is to build the spiritual part of my life.

In our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that means you go to a temple because we have many of these around the world. I think about 13 or so of them are in Europe and Scandinavia. I have a little spiritual hobby of going out and visiting these. We have about 100 of them in the United States, and I’ve been to all of those. We have nine of them in Canada, and I’ve been to eight out of nine of those. I’m starting to go to some in Central America. Most recently, I went to San Salvador. I’ve been to about half of them in Europe.

Because I had so much fun at the Rome temple, and by the way, if you want to see a fabulous building, just look up The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and put in “Rome Temple,” and you’ll see why I flew there to take this in. It’s a fascinating building.

I did that last year, and I thought, “I’m always going to remember my 67th birthday.” When I turned 60, I went to Mérida, Mexico, to visit our temple down there. I have a passion for going to these buildings and participating in the sacraments, or the ordinances, that go on inside, because it lifts me up on a spiritual level. That helps keep you upbeat, calm, nonjudgmental, and accepting of other people. It’s a spiritual thing, and I’m very big on that.

Back in February, I found a cheap airfare to London out of JFK, and cheap was about $160 one way. I made that airfare, then kept chipping away at the trip. I finally bought a flight home from Frankfurt on Singapore Airlines, which is a fantastic airline to fly on. We’ll talk more about them later. Then I bought the Eurail pass, which was the last thing I bought. I kind of put the trip together in pieces.

One of the things that happens when you decide to celebrate your own life, your own birthday, or give yourself a vacation is that there are always things that can come up that would cause you to say, “Maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe I’m going to be too busy. Maybe I should stay here.” Sometimes, at least I have to fight through the temptation to keep things normal because I feel a responsibility to be here for work or clients. But then I step back and say, “Wait a minute. Fifty-one weeks out of the year, I do that. For one week out of the year, I’m going to celebrate me.”

That’s exactly what I did. In what amounted to five days, I flew across the Atlantic Ocean, went to London, went to Preston, England, went to The Hague in the Netherlands, went to Frankfurt, Germany, and then flew home from Frankfurt back to New York. I took a bus back from New Jersey Penn Station, got back to D.C., turned around, and hopped on the Metro. I left Tuesday at noon and was home Sunday at about 8 o’clock. I crossed the Atlantic twice. I went to three countries and four temples, and I did it in five days. That’s a birthday you’re never going to forget.

If you want a fun, happy, adventurous life, decide what you have a passion for and start doing it. The adventures you have along the way will be marvelous.

The other reason you need to celebrate your own birthday is that unless you’re in a family unit where they’re going to make a big deal out of your birthday, sometimes you get to the point where nobody is going to make a big deal about it. You might get a phone call or a card, but nobody is going to throw a big bash for you. I’m a big believer in rewarding yourself and making your own life special as a result of your own effort.

Look at December 25th. That’s Christmas. It’s a celebration of whose birthday? Jesus’ birthday. So I’m saying to myself, “Hey, my birthday is May 7th. I might as well celebrate that as well.” I had a blast, and I’m going to talk about some of it today because it was such a fun week. I came back from a week like that, walked into my bedroom, lay down in my bed, and said, “I can’t believe I just did that,” because I had so much fun celebrating my life.

Some people have a tough go in life. Some people have it pretty easy. Everybody has challenges of some kind. You have the right to be happy, and many times you need to take the initiative to throw your own party. That’s a really good thing to do.

So number one on the show today: celebrate your own birthday. I just did it, and I had a blast. I can’t tell you what I did when I turned 63 or 64, but I can tell you what I did when I turned 60, 67, and 68. I’m going to make this an annual event because it’s a great thing to do.

Second point about life in general and how to get the junk out of your life: recognize that it’s a very small world these days. It’s a seven-hour flight from New York City to London. The flight coming back from Frankfurt was almost eight hours. We flew up over Ireland and across the Atlantic, then over Greenland, south of Iceland, down over Boston, and into New York. We were at 38,000 feet going 600 miles an hour. Isn’t that amazing?

The planes document all the statistics for you if you want to watch your own flight. You sit next to a window, and just a foot or two away from your head, outside the body of the plane, it’s minus 70 degrees and you’re going 600 miles an hour. Yet you’re sitting there reclining in your seat, drinking a Diet Coke, eating a sandwich, and watching a movie. It’s amazing that technology lets you get around this planet so quickly, conveniently, and easily. It really shrinks the world.

Another thing I’ve told people is that people are very big about living close to family. Everybody wants to live close to family, and I kind of think that if you’re in the continental United States, I don’t think it really matters where you live anymore. If you know what the family events are, you can be there. It’s about five hours from Boston to San Diego. You just have to plan a little in advance. You don’t have to live in the same time zone or the same ZIP code. You can still be part of these events.

I have eight siblings who live in Utah. My mother passed away in December at the age of 94. I called her every week for about 20 years. I’m an adventurous guy, so she would always ask me about my latest adventures, and I always had a story to give her. Even though I lived across the country from her, I feel like I had as many good, fun experiences with her as I possibly could have had. When she passed away, I had no regrets. I was proud of the time I spent, proud of the job I did as a son, and proud of doing what I could to make her life as good as possible. I honestly said to myself, “You could not have done a better job as a son.” That’s a really good feeling.

You see people at funerals with their heads down in their hands saying, “Now I can’t get to know Aunt Mildred anymore,” because it’s her funeral. You want to live life so there are no regrets. You do that by making your own life an adventure and doing the things that make you happy. That’s a pretty simple approach. Everybody can tell you what that is except you, and it doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks. It’s your life.

If I get a thrill by flying to Europe and visiting temples, and you get a thrill by sitting down and playing Uno with somebody in your family room, those are equal. If it makes you happy, that’s what you want to do. You don’t have to travel anywhere. Make sure you take time in your life to do the things that make you happy, give you energy, and pump you up.

Third point: be grateful for technology. I do this radio show using an iPhone. I also do another podcast for members of our church to try to help them spread the gospel and be better member missionaries. That can be awkward for people in our church, even though we are encouraged to do it by our church leaders. I’m trying to fill that gap and help people be more successful at it instead of getting frustrated with it.

I’ve done this for a few years just using an iPhone. Sometimes I’ll use a second phone if I have a guest and need one phone for recording and the other for the conversation. What’s interesting is that this podcast, now maybe in its fifth year, has been listened to in many countries and cities. The last time I looked, which was six months ago or longer, it had been listened to in 54 countries and about 520 cities. The number one location in the world that downloads episodes of this podcast is Frankfurt am Main train station in Germany. Somebody over there, or maybe a group of people, downloads the podcast and listens to it on their ride in and out of work.

Frankfurt was the last city I visited on this trip. I had never been to Frankfurt before, and of course I arrived at the train station. I looked up the stats, and the podcast had now been listened to in 74 countries and 685 cities. Still, the number one place that downloads the podcast is Frankfurt, Germany train station. So I thought, “I need to do an episode of the podcast from this train station,” which I did. It was a blast.

When you’re in Frankfurt, you need to get a frankfurter. I got this big, long hot dog with grilled onions and some other stuff on it, and it was fabulous. The train station is an amazing place. I did an episode of my podcast from there using my phone, sent it out, uploaded it, and it was done. I had somebody take a picture of me standing in front of a train in the Frankfurt train station. That is an extremely memorable episode of my podcast. The podcast is called How Great Shall Be My Joy, and the latest episode is from Frankfurt, Germany.

We’re going to take a break here for a minute. You’re listening to the Junk Refund Show. We’ll come back and actually talk a little bit about junk removal and some things going on there. I do this show with a passion for my life and what I’m doing, and I tend to talk about the things that are most exciting to me. We’ll be back in a minute. We’re on the BBS Radio Network, and I’m your host, Alan Cook, coming to you from the Wendy’s parking lot on Nicholson Lane in North Bethesda, Maryland.

Speaker 1: Have you ever hired one of those expensive junk removal companies, then wondered what they did with the stuff, especially the good stuff? At 1-800-Junk-Refund, we junk the junk, recycle stuff like metal and wire, donate items and get you receipts, and put up for sale the good stuff. If it sells, you get some money back.

Cynthia paid $375 for junk removal and got $3,200 back. Would you like to know how she did it? Tune in to the Junk Refund Show with your host, Alan J. Cook, every Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern Time to get the junk not only out of your home, but also out of your life.

Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to the Junk Refund Show. This is Alan Cook, your host, talking to you from North Bethesda, Maryland, where we’re headquartered. The company is 1-800-Junk-Refund.

If you are in the D.C. metropolitan area, we have a deal for you because I just celebrated my 68th birthday. Throughout this month, we’re celebrating my birthday by doing a special deal where you get a pickup truck of junk removal, normally $229, for $68. I do this every year. The price goes up $1 every year, and I sell 68 of them. We’ve probably sold 35 or 40 in the last few days. It’s a great deal. It’s technically the best deal of the year.

Throughout the year on BBS Radio Network, if you call in during the show at 888-627-6008 and leave your name and number with our producer Don, he’ll let me know afterwards. We’ll send you a link that allows you to buy the same pickup truck of junk removal, normally $229, for $79. That price does not go up year to year.

We have a couple of special deals going on right now only in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, but they’re great deals for people who live in this area. There’s a birthday voucher on our website that you can find. The website is 1-800-JunkRefund.com. We’re having fun with it, and it’s working well.

Here’s another thing I mentioned to a lady from Upland, California, who called me a couple of days ago. She has a garage full of stuff and needs to get it cleaned out. She called and said, “What kind of deals do you do? I like that you’re kind of a one-stop shop where you’ll do the donations, put stuff up for sale, recycle stuff, and junk the junk.”

I said, “Yep, you got it. That’s the idea.”

We’re doing a Celebrate America 250th anniversary deal between now and July 4th where you get half a truckload. This is not a pickup truck. This is a stake-body truck, like the truck you’d rent from Home Depot or U-Haul, a 12-foot-long box truck. A full truck is normally $695. Half a truck is $395. In honor of the 250th birthday, we’re making vouchers available for a half truck for $250. That’s a $145 savings.

If you’re interested in that, and this one could go across the country as long as you buy two or three of them, we can justify coming to help you out. You’re welcome to contact us at JunkRefund@gmail.com or call the show at 888-627-6008 and leave your name and number with Don. We can send you a link for that one. That one is good around the country.

The lady from Upland, California, asked about the size of the trucks and the cost. I said, “You ought to buy a couple of these things. Instead of paying for a full truck at $695, you buy two half trucks at $250 apiece. You end up paying $500 and save about $200.” Great deal. I like great deals. That’s another one out there right now.

Someone asked, “Do you guys come in and get the stuff?” Yes. “Do I have to put it all in one area?” No. You just have to point to it or tell us where it is. “Is there anything you don’t take?” We don’t take paint and gasoline. In the Washington area, we have a recycling place that will let us take metal paint cans and recycle them. As a general rule, landfills won’t let us, as a commercial company, take paint or gasoline. But they generally will let local residents show ID and take in a certain amount for drop-off. At least that’s how they do it in Montgomery County, Maryland.

The trucks we use are 12-foot box trucks. They are 12 feet by 8 feet by 5 feet, which is 480 cubic feet. We also use pickup trucks that are 6 feet by 5 feet by 4 feet, which is 120 cubic feet. That’s exactly one-fourth of a big truck. When we clean out homes, we’ll rent 16-foot trucks so we can get more on the truck and make fewer trips, which saves money.

We’re going to start a job in a week where we’ll clean out a couple of truckloads from the single-family home of a hoarder who has a lot of stuff. I haven’t been there to see it yet, but we’ve been invited and contracted to start that job next weekend.

I also got a call from a really nice older lady in Minnesota whose husband passed away a while ago. She now has all of his welding equipment that he had compiled over 40 years, plus a boat in the garage, other tools, and stuff in the house. Now the necessity of cleaning all of it out has been dumped in her lap. I gave her some information, and hopefully we’ll head to Minnesota pretty soon to help her out.

The point is, we go around the country doing jobs for people. We can’t come to your area if you just have a refrigerator to get rid of, because that’s too small of a job. But we have 63 affiliates around the country, and we can have one of them in your local area come and haul the stuff away. These affiliates do not get involved in reselling stuff. If you have an estate or you’re moving out of your home and it’s a bigger job, we’ll come ourselves from Washington and handle it, including the selling. We don’t charge you for travel because we travel really cheaply around the country.

As I told some people last night, when I think about this last week of my life and what I was able to do, this is the best time in the history of the world to be alive. I can’t imagine a better time to be alive than now. If you find yourself stressing out about political stuff or what’s going on in the country, what’s happening with Iran, the president’s visit to China, or whatever it might be, sure, there’s always something going on that won’t sit right with somebody. That’s the way it is. We have a lot of diversity in the country and people see things differently. But through it all, you still have the best opportunities in the world in this country to make your life whatever you want to make it. I think that’s amazing and something we should never forget.

One of the concerns I had before this trip was renewing my driver’s license. You rarely see anybody on Facebook or social media make a post about how great their visit to the Motor Vehicle Administration was. What you usually see is, “I waited for two hours,” “I had to come back three times,” or “It cost more than I thought.”

I hadn’t renewed my driver’s license in about 10 years, so I thought this was probably going to take a while. I went on the website and called the MVA. They told me I needed a copy of my birth certificate. I was born in Utah, and I live in Maryland, so I couldn’t just go grab one. I called them the night before my appointment, not exactly great planning on my part. They also said I needed a Social Security card. I didn’t have that either.

Then they said I could bring statements, like a bank statement and a credit card statement, because my address had changed. I made the appointment and went in the next morning, willing to bet that this wasn’t going to work and that it was going to take forever.

I felt like I needed that driver’s license renewed and ready for the TSA terminals at the airport when I took this trip. It turns out I don’t think I had to use that license once, because it was all about my passport. But I went in for my appointment at 8:30 at the MVA, and literally in 12 minutes, I was done. The next day, or within about 48 hours, my brand-new driver’s license showed up at my home. I paid an extra $18 to expedite it.

They never asked for my birth certificate. They never asked for my Social Security card. I showed them a bank statement and a credit card statement to verify where I was living, and that was no big deal. Their main concern was having me read the letters for the vision test and respond to the blinking lights in my peripheral vision. I passed it, paid the fee, and was done.

Hats off to the MVA in Gaithersburg, Maryland, because those folks were so good. It was so quick. I set up the appointment online, walked in, no standing in lines, no waiting, and they called my number. That was one of the most amazing things that’s happened in 10 years. Sometimes life throws you a positive curveball, and you hit it out of the park.

A shout-out to the company I use for podcasting, Buzzsprout.com. You can go today, sign up, and start your own podcast with just a phone. I told you earlier about mine and how many countries and cities it has been listened to in. It’s amazing the impact you can have. I wanted to put into this outline for the radio show the power of a podcast and podcasting. People can listen to them just about anywhere. If you have a passion for something, go for it, share your passion, try to make a difference, see where there’s a need, and try to fill it.

I also have to talk about the Eurail pass. I was familiar with these when I was 21 and went around the world in 80 days with a couple of buddies. When we went to Europe, we bought Eurail passes and went all over Europe on the trains. Back in those days, if you traveled coach, you sat in a car with three seats opposite three seats, and the seats folded down so they met in the middle and you could sleep there at night.

For this trip, I bought a four-day Eurail pass for $303. That allows me to travel pretty much anywhere in Europe and Scandinavia on the train systems for four days. You use the Eurail pass app, choose your travel day, search where you’re trying to go, and it gives you the train schedule. You pull up the barcode on your phone, and that allows you to get on and off the trains.

I found out that the one-way fare from London to Preston was $200. I went from London to Preston, back to London, across the English Channel, up to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and from Rotterdam to Frankfurt. I only used three days, so I still have a day left that I can travel on the trains in Europe as long as I do it by June 5th. If I can find a cheap way to get back over there, I might go use day four. Hats off to the Eurail pass. It is a great way to get around Europe. It was also good for some ferries and boats, not just trains. It was a great time saver and money saver.

We’re going to take another break for about a minute. I’ll be back and tell you some stories about people I met on this trip who were unbelievably nice. You’re listening to the Junk Refund Show. I’m your host, Alan Cook, talking to you from the Wendy’s parking lot on Nicholson Lane in North Bethesda, Maryland.

Speaker 1: Have you ever hired one of those expensive junk removal companies, then wondered what they did with the stuff, especially the good stuff? At 1-800-Junk-Refund, we junk the junk, recycle stuff like metal and wire, donate items and get you receipts, and put up for sale the good stuff. If it sells, you get some money back.

Cynthia paid $375 for junk removal and got $3,200 back. Would you like to know how she did it? Tune in to the Junk Refund Show with your host, Alan J. Cook, every Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern Time to get the junk not only out of your home, but also out of your life.

Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to the Junk Refund Show, where we talk about all things junk removal and how to get the junk out of your home and also out of your life.

This show is talking more about how to get it out of your life because I had such a blast last week traveling in Europe and visiting three different countries. The trains in Europe are fabulous.

That brings me to a story that happened in the Netherlands while I was traveling from Rotterdam toward Frankfurt. One of the things that happens in a train system is that sometimes trains cancel. Then you have to come up with Plan B and go to the app to see when the next train is.

One of those trains canceled in the Netherlands last Friday. The real problem I had was that my iPhone needed to be charged, and on the train I had just been on, they didn’t have power outlets. Now my train was canceled, and I had to get my phone powered up to find out when the next train was. That was critical.

I got off the train. There was a nice business district right there, and I was looking for a Starbucks where I could charge my phone. There was no Starbucks, but there was a Chinese deli on the corner of a little strip mall. I walked in and asked if they had any power outlets where I could charge my phone. They said no. They only had a couple of tables in the deli.

But there was a 23-year-old kid named Andre sitting in the corner. He had his phone out, heard me, and said, “Hey, sir, I might be able to help you.” I told him I was trying to charge my phone. He pulled a power pack out of his backpack and said, “Here, you can use this.” He plugged it into my phone, and it started charging. He solved my problem right off the bat.

I thought, “Well, I’m going to be here for a few minutes. I might as well get some egg rolls to support this business.” I bought eight mini egg rolls for about five euros, sat down, and Andre and I started talking while my phone was charging. He was 23 years old, spoke five languages including Dutch and English, and lived in that city but was getting ready to move.

I was concerned about taking up too much of his time. I had about 45 minutes before the next train came. He pulled out his phone and verified when my next train was coming and what track it was on. He said I had plenty of time to put some juice into my phone. I was blown away by how nice this guy was to a total stranger. I usually try to be the guy who is nice to total strangers, and now the episode had flipped. I was the guy being treated really well, which was different for me.

Then he said, “By the way, there’s a technology store right around the corner. We could go in there, and you could buy your own power pack.” I thought, “Now you’re talking. That solves an even bigger problem for me.”

After about 20 minutes of charging my phone, he said, “Follow me.” We went around the corner into the store. He took me right to the power pack area and started price shopping for me. There was one for 45 euros and another that said 19 euros. He checked the capacity and said the 20-euro one looked like a good one. We went to the counter, and it rang up at 40 euros. Andre spoke up and said, “Wait a minute. It said it was 20 euros.” He and the store employee went back to check the pricing. Then he came back with another one and said, “Let’s do this one. It’s 26 euros, but it has good capacity and is probably your best deal.” I said, “Fabulous, ring me up.”

Then it was time to get on the train. As we walked to the train, Andre asked me out of the blue, “Do you believe in God?” I said, “Yeah, I do.” He said, “I’m not sure if I do. I’m kind of an agnostic.” I thought, “Well, I can probably tell you some things.” But in the meantime, he wanted to get me to platform one to make sure I got on the right train.

One thing I learned from Andre is that when train number one comes in and starts dropping off and loading passengers, sometimes train number two comes in right behind it and loads from that second position. If you don’t get on then, it won’t pull up and stop again. It will go straight through the station and move on. That was the case with my train, and Andre knew it. He told me I should get on then to be safe.

All of this happened because Andre was attentive to someone else’s needs. If you want to bring some joy into your life, do what Andre did. Stop thinking only about yourself. Look for opportunities to help somebody else. Be observant. There is a good chance that there will be a need right under your nose.

When I got to Frankfurt and did the podcast from the train station, I talked about three people I had met on the trip who were extremely nice and helped me. My 23-year-old buddy Andre in the Netherlands was one of those guys.

The other guy I want to talk about was in The Hague in the Netherlands. He works as a counselor to the president of The Hague Netherlands Temple. This was the third temple I visited on the trip. Sometimes when you show up at these temples, they are built next to one of our big meeting houses. If you get there late at night, sometimes the meeting house is open, and they’ll let you go in and take a nap in one of the classrooms until the temple opens in the morning.

Some of these temples have housing for people who travel to visit them. They put you up for the night for about $8, and you basically get a college dorm room on site with clean sheets, clean towels, and your own bathroom. I used three of those at three of the temples I visited. The one in The Hague does not have anything like that. It’s just the temple, and it’s not next to a church.

That’s fine unless you show up at midnight and the temple won’t open until about 8 a.m. Then you’ve got a problem. I’m one of these guys who says, “I’m by myself. I don’t want to spend a couple hundred euros to get a hotel room when I’ll only be in the room for maybe five hours. Is there a park bench I can lie down on?”

These temples are multimillion-dollar facilities. They have security and cameras. The one thing I don’t want to do is look like I’m hanging around where I shouldn’t be. At midnight, because of the way the train system worked, I showed up at this place and ended up sleeping on a park bench across the parking lot from the temple for a few hours. It was not cold, only about 50 degrees, so that was tolerable.

I even slept on the sidewalk between the hedges on the outside fence of the temple lot and the front bumper of a car parked in the lot. There was about a two-foot gap between the bumper and the hedges. It was dark because I was in the shadows. When you’re doing what I was doing, you want to slip into the shadows and disappear for a few hours until about 7 a.m.

Eventually, I went over to the park bench around 6 in the morning and stretched out. A young guy in his 30s who lives across the canal from the parking lot came out and started walking his dog. He saw me sitting there and came over. He asked, “Are you okay? Is everything all right?”

I said, “Yeah, I’m waiting for this temple to open at about 7:30 or 8 o’clock. I’ve been here since midnight. I just didn’t want to get a hotel, so I’m hanging out here until they open.”

He asked, “Can I get you some coffee?” I said, “No, I don’t drink coffee.” He asked, “Can I get you some tea?” I said, “No, I don’t drink tea either.” I asked, “Do you have any hot chocolate?” He said, “Not really, but let me see what I can whip up for you.”

He went into his house and about five minutes later came out with a piping hot cup of homemade hot chocolate. He said, “I even put maple syrup in it.” It felt good to hold a warm cup and drink hot chocolate. He said he had to go to work and told me to put the cup back on his doorstep when I was done. When I finished, I put a $5 bill under the lid and set the cup back on his front porch.

At about 7:15, I went around to the front door of the temple and rang the doorbell. A man who had arrived earlier answered. I told him my situation, and he said, “Oh, heaven’s sakes. Come on in.” He took me down into the basement and told me one of the counselors in the temple presidency would come in soon. He said to let him know what I was doing and that he had let me in.

The temple counselor came in and basically gave me the same kind of kindness Andre had shown. He asked if I wanted tea. He said they had red berry tea. I said yes. He brought me a hot cup of tea. Then he asked if I wanted breakfast. I said yes. He pulled out a loaf of bread, put a couple of slices on a plate, buttered them, and asked if I wanted real Dutch cheese. I said yes. He sliced cheese and fixed me breakfast right in front of me.

Then he told me that after I finished, I still had about an hour and a half before my appointment upstairs in the temple. He said there was a waiting room upstairs and, inside the closet of that waiting room, there was a couch where I could take a nap for an hour. That was first-class service all the way.

I talked about Andre and this man in The Hague in the podcast I recorded from the Frankfurt train station. The pure kindness they showed me was incredible. Those are the kind of people you always remember. If you are one of those kinds of people, you are going to be blessed in your life. God is going to help take some of the junk out of your life because you’re taking the time to take care of somebody else, which God really loves.

If you want to hear more about my trip, go to the podcast How Great Shall Be My Joy and download the most recent episode from Frankfurt. I share more stories and more details there.

Those are some thoughts about what my week has been like. It was one of the best weeks of my life, and I crammed it into about five days. Celebrate your birthday, treat other people with kindness, and you’re going to have a wonderful life. You’ll be able to handle the hiccups that come along the way, because you’ll be floating along on a high level, excited about your own life.

That’s it for today for the Junk Refund Show. Thanks to BBS Radio for their support, and to Don Newsom, a great producer. We’ll talk to you next week, Thursday at 3 o’clock on the BBS Radio Network, live at bbsradio.com. I’m your host, Alan Cook. Have a great week. And if you’re bored and you don’t know what to do, go to Europe for five days. That’ll work for you.

Thanks, everybody. See you next week.

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