Well family, MERRY ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!!  So I guess there were a couple of big things this week that I will update on.  The first is that on Friday the 20th of December I hit my 9 month mark!  I can't blelieve it!  So apparently some sisters take "pregnant" photos when they hit their 9 month mark, so I did haha.  The Christmas ward brunch went well.  I decorated the best I could with the resources they gave me.  I tried to do like a winter wonderland type of theme.  I think it turned out pretty good =)  I'll send pictures.  Then yesterday we had the big concert for the whole stake.  It was beautiful and turned out really well I think.  Also I got to see some people from Zoetermeer which was AMAZING!  Especially seeing Zuster Van der Scheer.  She and I just about cried when we saw each other and then had to say goodbye.  I can't believe that tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  The Christmas season as a missionary is definitely weird haha.  It doesn't even feel like Christmas.  BUT I'm super excited to see you guys on skype!  I'm super nervous I don't know what to say haha, but I'm sure I'll figure it out by Wednesday.  Well I should go, but until then I love you!  Tot straks!!!!

 

Liefs,

Cassie

Well my dear family, I guess it´s that time of the week again when you probably want to hear about how my week went.  Well it went fine.  It was mostly a lot of finding, so there isn´t TOO much to talk about.  There are a couple of highlights that I will mention though.  So on Thursday we has a zone conference with President Teixeira the area 70 over the Europe area.  It was pretty cool and I learned a lot.  We have found some hopefully good potentials.  Then on Friday we went to the Christmas candle festival in Gouda.  We sang in the streets and talked to people and handed out cards.  Then we got to watch the ceremony.  It was beautiful.  They turned out all the lights in the city and put candles in all the windows of the houses around the square.  Then there was lots of beautiful singing, they read the birth of the Savior out of the bible, and then they lit the big beautiful Christmas tree.  It was a pretty magical Christmas celebration.  Other than that the only thing of significance was that there was a baptism in our ward on saturday, for a little girl.  It was beautiful and they asked me to lead the music.  We also met a good potential investigator there.  I´m grateful for the Christmas season and the opportunity that we have to celebrate the birth of our Savior.  What a glorious time of the year!  I love you all and hope that you have a great week!

Love,

Zuster Mizell

Well folks it`s the most wonderful time of the year!!!  That`s right....Sinter Klaas!!  haha SO anyway here in the Netherlands they celebrate this funny wonderful holiday called Sinter Klaas on December 5th so that was kind of the highlight of this week.  Also we did a LOT of finding and we found this really sweet man named John.  He had a really bad experience in the past with the Protestant church and now his whole family won´t talk to him because he doesn´t go anymore.  We taught him the first lesson last night and it was AMAZING!!  He excepted it so well!  And my favorite part was when we had just finished talking about the Book of Mormon and Zuster Djoukeng asked how he felt and he thought about it for a second and then his eyes lit up and he said warm and peaceful.  And you could just see he realized that he was feeling the Spirit for one of the first times!  Oh my goodness, I LOVE this gospel and the light it brings to people.  Also Ricky an inactive took us out to Bella Beer for dinner on Friday and it was soooo lekker!  Bella Beer is the coolest restaurant.  Well I think that´s about it for this week!  I love you all and can´t wait to talk to you in a couple weeks =)

Veel Liefs,

Zuster Mizell

Well my lovely family, it's been a weird but pretty good week.  Pretty much the entire week was focused on the Thanksgiving activity which was a big hit.  I'll talk more about it later.

 

Maandag- Well after emailing we went to dinner with Familie BijKerk and they were just sooo great!  I love them.

 

Dinsdag- My last day with Zuster Woodbury.  We had a good district meeting and then we went to this huge Markt in the middle of central Rotterdam in search for some of the things we needed for decorations.  We ended up finding everything we needed which was a miracle.  Then that night we had dinner with Familie Rojas, a family that just moved from Spain.  It was a really nice last night together.  The kids only really speak spanish so they would talk to us and and we would have no idea what was going on haha.  The parents speak pretty good english though.  So anyway I said my first prayer in spanish!  The 6 year old whispered the words in my ear and then I said them.  It was super great =).  Then we went home and Zuster Woodbury packed up while I worked on stuff for the activity.  We pulled our mattresses downstairs and slept together under the Christmas tree.

 

Woensdag- I took my best friend to the Rotterdam train station and had to say goodbye.  It was really hard, but she's super happy in Lelystad so that's good.  Then I went shopping with Zuster Koppe for all the food for the activity.  After that I picked up my new companion Zuster Djoukeng and we spend some time working on the activity, and then we did some door contacting, and then we had dinner with Familie Van Rangelrooy which was delightful as usual.

 

Donderdag- We went and bought Crisco by the Molen to make bij crust and then we went to Zuster Van Driel Kluit and had lunch and picked up a food processor.  Then we spent the REST of the day cutting and cooking.  Then in the evening we went to the church and decorated the place and got it all ready.

 

Vrijdag- We spent the morning finishing up cooking two pumpkin pies and then went to the church by one and started cooking.  From one until six we were cooking mass amounts of mashed potatoes, green beans, turkey filets, and gravy.  It was crazy.  At 6 people started showing up but the turkeys weren't there until almost 7 so we didn't start eating until then.  Everyone loved the food and it tasted just like (well almost just like) a real American thanksgiving dinner.  After everyone had eaten dinner the Young men and Young women had made a "mormon message" on thankfullness and so we all watched that.  Then the High Priests presented a short history on how the thanksgiving tradition actually started here in the Netherlands.  Then we had dessert and sparkling apple cider.  Then I shared a short scripture on living in thanksgiving daily.  I thanked everyone for all they had done, and then Zuster Koppe stood up and said thank you Zuster Mizell.  Then everyone started clapping and cheering and whisteling, and standing up for what seemed like forever.  I felt really loved and appreciated it was amazing.  Then we all cleaned up and we didn't get home until 10:30.

 

Zaterdag- The alarm didn't go off so we didn't get up until 8:30.  It was quite the blessing.  I needed the extra sleep.  Then we did weekly planning and then went and visited Zuster Stafford.  We looked up some people and then contacted a few people.  We met two women one who speaks Portugese and another who speaks Spanish.  Good thing our ward has a portugese/spanish group! 

 

Zondag- Church was wonderful.  I'm just in love with the ward and feel so much love and support from them.  Then we stayed at the church until it was time for choir practice.  We sang for 2 hours then headed home for dinner and then went out for a little bit and contacted. 

 

Well that was my week.  I love and miss you all.  Have a wonderful week yourselves. 

 

Love,

Zuster Mizell

  3 Attached Images

Well it was transfer week.  I am staying and Zuster Woodbury is leaving.  We're pretty devastated because we wanted so much to spend Christmas together, but it's the Lord's will, not ours.  I am happy to be able to stay with this ward though.  My new companion will be Zuster Djouken (I know I'm spelling that wrong).  She was in my MTC group.  She's great I just definitely didn't ever see us being companions but again the Lord knows best.  I'm pretty sure the week was great but I don't have much time to talk about it.  The Elders came and gave Saba a blessing which was amazing.  We had a really amazing lesson with Lutgarda.  We also had a really great lesson with Zuster Stafford.  Oh and a great lesson with Laurien.  Also we had lots of gezellig eten afspraken with members.  It was a good last week together.  We bought a Christmas tree today and decorated it.  Only a month until Christmas.  I can't wait to skype you guys.  Well that's about it.  I love you.

 

Love,

Zuster Mizell

Well hey there my loverly family!  Oh how I love and miss you!!!!  Things were definitely better this week.  I've been doing a few things to try and keep a positive attitude and see more of the blessings that surround me.  I think it has definitely helped me to feel better this week.  I thought I might write this email first since I never seem to get to it haha.  Ok so first there are a couple of things from past weeks that I have forgotten to tell you all.  First is that I ghost rode my first bike!!!  So what that means is I ride my bike while pulling an empty bike along side me.  It's very Dutch haha.  I feel more and more like a Dutch woman every day.  Ok now on to the week.

 

Maandag- Well I got a lot of good sleep and then we finally went and visited our inactive member Zuster Carty who is in the hospital.  We shared a spiritual thought with her in front of her other friends that were there and they were Jehova's Witnesses so that was cool.  Also the Gouda zusters came and spent the night and Zuster Juchau talked to us which helped out a lot.

 

Dinsdag- We had a good district meeting and then we did exchanges.  Zuster Otteson came here and we made an appt. with Gregory.  The weather was beautiful this day.  We met some really cool people knocking on doors.  Christiana a woman from Poland and Paula a woman from Spain.  They are both catholic but I bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon and both said they are willing to recieve a book =).  Then we went and had dinner with Zuster Van Driel Kluit and the Aalse sisters and Tahira.  It was SUPER Gezellig!  It was really a great night!

 

Woensdag- So today was pretty chill.  We exchanged back.  I talked to Elder Peery and then we went and talked to Zuster Wilkens for a little while.  She is currently inactive because of an injury she had.  She is a really sweet lady.  Then we went and tried to do some look ups in Rotterdam and then we had a great dinner with Familie Van Rangelrooy!

 

Donderdag- So we went to Tahira's for her themed lunch with all of the missionaries in our ward and it was French themed!  YUMM!!!  It was so much fun.  Tahira is a really really amazing member who is SOOO bezig with missionary work even though she goes to school full time and works!  She's so great!  I love her.  Then we went and had dinner with familie Van den Herik, another amazing family.  We had lekker stompot and worst.  Echt Nederlandse eten =) 

 

Vrijdag- We started this new thing we want to do with the whole ward.  We do visitng teaching splits where we split with a visiting teaching pair and then visit all of their visiting teachees.  Hopefully this will help the members to become more involved in doing their visiting teaching, but it is A LOT of work to put together.  I did get to work with Christy though who is a YA who is preparing to go on a mission.  We went to our appt. with Gregory but he wasn't there.  Then we went and visited Zuster Stafford the amazing inactive whome we love!  We just need to get her to church.  Then we were going to drop off a book of mormon to Paula the woman we met from Spain with a member who just moved into the ward who is also from Spain.  Her name is Renata.  But she wasn't home jammer.  But we got to know Renata really well and she is such a great woman!  Then we had Ricky (another inactive) take us out to dinner for Chinese.  It was SOOOO lekker haha.  Then we went to ym and yw to practice the song we will be singing with them next sunday.

 

Zaterdag- So today was the start of Sinter Klaus.  So here the kids don't really believe in Santa Clause or Kerstman but they believe in Sinter Klaus.  He's a Saint that comes from Spain in a boat to the Netherlands every year on the 16th I think and then the Dutch kids all put out their shoes in the hopes that he will come and bring them something.  He comes every so often until the 5th of December when he brings all of his presents to all the kids.  He also has a little helper called Swarte Pete (black Pete) and a white horse.  We put out our shoes and I've bought some little treats and made a few small things for Zuster Woodbury for Sinter Klaus.  Anyway so we saw some swarte petes running around this day and they had some big parade or something but we missed it because we did more visiting teaching splits.  We also did weekly planning this day and then went to Zuster Carty again and helped her with her family history.

 

Zondag- I gave a talk in the church so that was ok.  Haha.  It was on Zion.  Today was a miracle day!  We finally got in contact with everyone we've been wanting to!  So we went by this inactive woman Zuster Benschop and she was finally home!  Then we went and had dinner with Aad and Elsje.  We decided to sing to them and it really brought the spirit =).  Then we went to Saba's and got ahold of her!  She wants a Priesthood blessing so we're taking the Elders tomorrow.  Then we went to Jirhee's and she was there!  She didn't seem to intersted but we made an appt. and then before we left her roommate was like can you tell me more about that book?  Bam new investigator!  Laureen.  Then we went to Gregory's and he was there.  We made an appt. with him and I think he'll keep it this time.  Then we went to Benne's and had a really great door appt. with him.  So that was all amazing! 

 

Maandag- Today I took a 6 hour nap haha then we went grocery shopping and then we went and toured a windmill!  There is a member in the ward who owns a windmill and she gave us a free tour.  It was so much fun I'll send pictures! 

 

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week!

 

Love,

Zuster Mizell

Well familie, I´m afraid I don´t have too much to report for this week.  It´s cold, very cold here.  And it rains, like a lot haha.  The week went ok.  We aren´t really having any success which is pretty discouraging, but I am trying to keep my hopes up and remember that it´s the agency of others which I can´t control.  We are working quite a bit on making the Thanksgiving activity a great experience.  I think it´s really going to turn out great!  I just hope that I don´t get transferred two days before it happens.  Also we are really bezig with the young women.  Yesterday we did splits with them and they seemed to have a good experience.  If we are doing anything in this ward I think it might be with the young women.  Also the work is going good with in active members.  We are finding a lot and working with a lot.  I have really learned just HOW important visiting and home teaching are.  This ward struggles with it here and because of that they have so many in actives.  Speaking of which we are trying something new where we go on visiting teaching splits but it´s pretty hard to do since we have to coordinate so many schedules but it will all work out I´m sure.  We found a couple potentials this week, it just seems like the day after we meet a good potential, they aren´t interested the next day.  Even if they were SUPER positive when we met them.  It´s amazing how much opposition people receive.  We continue to try and work with Ralf, Lutgarda, and Xionely to not much avail.  I just wish we new more how to help them.  Well i think that´s about it for this week.  Oh Wait!  We did receive a referral from a member.  Her name is Trude and she is going through a rough time so we went by and brought her some chocolates yesterday.  She dind´t have time to meet with us but she gave us big kisses on the cheek (a very nederlander thing to do) and then gave us her phone number so we could call and set up an appt. with her.  So that was great!  =)  Well I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Zuster Mizell

November4,2013

Ok well again I'm pretty much out of time so here is a quick overview of the week.

maandag-nothing really actually haha

dinsdag-good district meeting.  I went to Gouda on exchanges and worked with Zuster Otteson.  It was pretty good, though I'm not a super huge fan of exchanges.

woensdag- we had a good day.  We visited Aad and Elsje the inactive.  They are so old and so funny haha.  I just adore them.  Then we did some good contacting time and found a possibly good potential.  Then we had dinner with Familie Van Rangelrooy and that was geweldig!  Then we had a lesson with Jirhee.  She's very interesting.  We think she may have a slight learning disability but she's such a sweet heart! 

donderdag-  HALLOWEEN!!!  we went trick or treating AKA door contacting almost all day.  I bought a delicious stroop waffel.  I had the most delicious pumpkin soup ever.  We talked to some really nice people and wished everyone a happy halloween which worked wonders haha.  We met with Lutgarda and it went well.  Then we had dinner with Familie Wiggers, they are so great!  Then we went trick or treating inside our own house at all the doors all dressed up.  It was great haha.

vrijdag- weekly planning.  Zuster Carty is in the hospital again so we went to go visit her.  We had a lesson with Lutgarda and Xionely which went great.  We had dinner with Familie Bij Kerk and then went to Young Womens to practice singing with them. 

zaterdag- it was cold and rainy all day long. we contacted a lot but had ollie bollen for the first time which was pretty good.  Then we went and had a lesson with Zuster Stafford and talked about covenants and it was great!

zondag- no one came to church =(  we did look ups and contacting but we met this really great inactive whose name I forget.  Also the young women WANT to come with us to do missionary work!  That's a miracle. 

Ok well I love you all!  I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Zuster Mizell

October21,2013 and October28,2013

October 28

Well this week was a rough one.  I honestly don´t have much positive to share and I´m also out of time.  This I will say.  I went to the temple and it was beautiful.  I also saw Zuster Rigdon which was great.  I have the best companion in the world Zuster Woodbury and she´s gotten me through this rough week.  I love my family and I´m so glad we can really be together forever.  I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true.  Not everyone accepts it, but it´s true.  We have a loving Heavenly Father and Mother.  We have a Savior who died for us so that we can have the chance to return and live with Him and our families forever.  The gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored on the earth in it´s fulness.  This church has the same Priesthood authority, the power of God to act in God´s name for the benefit of souls.  We have a Prophet who leads and guides us just as prophets have led and guided people from the beginning of the world.  The Book of Mormon is truly the word of God.  If anyone reads it sincerely and then asks God in the name of the Savior if it´s ture, they will come to know through the power of the Holy Ghost that it is true.  The temple is the house of God, and therin lies the power to be sealed to our families for eternity.  There is a plan for us.  We have no need to fear, for the Lord is on our side.  I love you all and pray for you daily.  Have a blessed week.

With all my love,

Zuster Mizell

October 21

SOOOO horrah horrah!  It's the beginning of a new transfer!!!  And I am still in Rotterdam and just LOVING life!  Also I'm with the incredible amazing fantastic Zuster Woodbury =)  Soooo because of the fact that it's a new transfer I left my old planner at home which means I don't know how much I'll be able to remember about the week but here it goes.  Sorry if it's jumbled. 

 

So I do remember having a REALLY amazing ward counsel!  We introduced the idea for the Thanksgiving activity and everyone just jumped right on it!  They were SOOOOO excited and it was amazing!!!  It's seriously going to be legit.  The week was good.  We have a new investigator Jirhee and she's super sweet.  We also have a new investigator Mary who is also really sweet.  We are struggling a little bit with Xionely and her parents.  They were supposed to come to church this week but they didn't.  We decided to give them a week and then try to work with them again.  Also Paul and Nadira dropped us.  We  had a really amazing lesson with them and it was even a member present lesson!  They pulled out a ton of concerns trying to stump us but we had the spirit and it went amazing.  But they still dropped us.  They just aren't ready yet.   So Zuster Juchau is here!  WHOO I love that woman!  I have only ever been 4 weeks on my mission when she wasn't in my district.  So it is really beautiful here.  The weather has warmed up a bit and the trees are just beautiful!  But somedays it still is really cold.  Also guess what!?!?!  I"M GOING TO THE TEMPLE ON WEDNESDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  AHHHHHHH!!!!  I am beyond excited!  Also this week is looking like it's going to be pretty good. =)  Boy do I just love missionary work!  I realized I am officially just in love with the ward here.  I saw Tosca Van Eeden yesterday from Zoetermeer ward in my ward and it was SOO good to see her!  She said Zoetermeer misses me and boy do I miss them, but I realized also that the intense love I have for Zoetermeer and the ward there I now have for Rotterdam and this ward.  It really is amazing!  Well I think that's about it!  Until next week!!!  I LOVE YOU ALLL!!!

 

Veel liefs,

Zuster Mizell

Hello my dear family!  Well first of all there were some questions I asked last week that were never answered so I'm going to ask them again: Brevin you look GREAT in your power ranger costume! How do you think I look in my Pope costume? haha. Brenton I´m really glad you are doing so well and that you are so involved with the YA activities how is that going?  Ok so will someone please tell me how the high school building is going? Also Dad what is Granny´s new address so I can send her a letter. Also Brenton sorry I never got your email. When is Zuster Marble due? 

 

Ok well again I don't have much time.  I always seem to run out of time haha.  So I will try to quickly relate the hot topics from this week.

 

Maandag- The zoo was a BLAST!!!!  It was actually a REALLY good zoo and Zuster Woodbury and I enjoyed ourselves very much. 

 

Dinsdag- We did some look ups and then had an appt. with Xionely!  She is such a doll!  Oh my goodness.  We made a baptismal calender with her and taught her the resotration lesson.  She believes it all and keeps all of her commitments.  Also we had dinner this nigth with Zuster Werner.  She is a really sweet sister that comes from Germany and lives alone.  She was kind of hard to understand haha.  I thought I would understand Dutch better by now but I guess not haha.  Oh also I met the ward mission leader and he's great!  The leaders in this ward are really fantastic!

 

Woensdag- We did some more look ups but didn't really find anyone  Also Zuster Woodbury got hit by a car while biking but it was a really minor accident and she just hurt her wrist a little bit.  Then we went to an appointment with this previous inv. Ivan.  We couldn't find a third woman though so we couldn't go in.  It was heart wrenching!  He had cleaned and put on a suit and had bought us chocolates and we couldn't even go in.  Sometimes mission rules are hard to love.  We contacted this really positive woman on the street but when I reached into my bag to get a book of mormon i stabbed myself really bad with my pencil and I was trying to cover it up the whole time while still contacting her haha.  Then we had dinner with Bishop's family and it was great!  We presented something the stake president has asked us to do with all the families and that's make a family mission plan.  Also I gave the idea to do a thanksgiving dinner activity for the ward and he loved the idea!  He told us how much we are doing to help the ward and that we were an answer to his prayers and it made me feel really good. =)

 

Donderdag- We had District Meeting and also interviews with President.  That went good.  Then we did some more look ups and then traveled an hour to our dinner appt.  They had forgotten us so we ended up just going home and eating dinner ourselves.

 

Zaterdag- We had weekly planning for forever.  We had some appointments but they all fell through EXCEPT Paul and Nadira.  We went over and taught them the first lesson and then set up a return appt. YAY!!  Two new investigators.  Also we met this really positive woman who we set up an appt. with on the street.  Actually we have just been setting up lots of appointments this week which is great!  I hope we get some new investigators out of it.  Also we went to the adult session of stake conference.  Oh also it rained and was freezing cold ALL DAY LONG!

 

Zondag- We had stake conference, but the speakers in the back weren't working so no one could really hear.  Xionely didn't come because she was sick.  Then we had dinner with Familie Pattiasima.  They are gevelidg.  Well that's about all.  I love you guys!  Have a great week!

 

Veel liefs,

Zuster Mizell

Haha sorry about the funny title but we found this hilarious pope costume in our storage unit and I decided it was soo great that I put it on sometimes just for fun.  ANYWAY.  Hello my wonderful family!  It's so good to "talk" to you again after a long but good week.  I think I'll just dive right in.  P.S.  We are doing pretty much the same thing every single day which is contacting so don't be alarmed if I don't have too much to tell.

 

Dinsdag- We had our first dinner apt. with a member.  It was with Zuster Hoogendoorn and she is such a sweet heart!  She also has a really cool three legged cat haha.  We saw downtown Rotterdam when walking to her apartment and it was BEAUTIFUL!  If you type Rotterdam into google I'm pretty sure one of the first pictures you'll see is of a white bridge with cables.  Ya I saw that in real life.  Haha. 

 

Woensdag- We went to Krimpen aan den Ijssel and had a good time door contacting.  Also our Sister Training leader left us the BEST voicemail EVER.  Oh my goodness it was sooo good.  I recorded it so that I'd never forget it.  Also we just enjoyed missionary work this day and were pretty happy.  Also we discovered tortillas with speculos pasta which is probably one of the best things in the world.  Seriously.

 

Donderdag- We had zone conference for most of the day which was so good.  I got to see some good missionary friends, and we talked a lot about the total mind shift.  The mission is going to get more intense because the apostles want us out and working because the work is truly hastening.  It's amazing and I just felt so inspired!  Also that night we had dinner by familie van den Herik.  They are sooo great!  They are just this really amazing family with 2 boys and a daughter.  I already love them.

 

Vrijdag- Well you see to be honest, Zuster Woodbury and I had some hard times this week.  We had some problems that needed to be worked out because we just weren't being as kind as we should have been to each other.  So on this day Zuster O, our sister training leader came over and helped us talk some things out.  The good news is that everything is wonderful and all worked out and that now we are the best of friends =).  We stayed in all day this day and then finished weekly planning.

 

Zaterdag- Wow this was a really great day of miracles!  We got out earlier than usual after cutting studies a little short and were seriously blessed for it.  We found an inactive as we knocked doors and also some good potentials.  Also people just seemed to be really super nice to us!  Also we stopped along the street and just helped this woman trying to sweep up some leaves.  It was really nice to just serve someone spotaneously!  We also took a picture on a random couch out in someone's yard haha.

 

Zondag- A great day!  So basically the ward is falling all over us because they are sooo excited to have sisters.  They seem to think that we are going to work some kind of miracle the elders can't.  It kind of hurts the elders feelings, but what is REALLY good is that we just have joint teaches falling at our feet and a ward that is REALLY ready to do missionary work.  That's definitely a change from my last ward.  It seemed to take them qutie a while to warm up to missionary work.  I just hope they don't have too high expectations of us and then we let them down.  It was a little harder for door contacting this day but I did wear my pope costume when we got home so that was great =)

 

Vandag- We took freaky nap which Zuster Juchau came up with.  It's when you get up at 6:30 brush your teeth, say your prayers, and then go take a nap haha.  I love it!  Also we went to Kinderdijk with the Elders.  It was BEAUTIFUL!!!!  We biked there and just had a gezellig tijd.  So Kinderdijk is the place with all the windmills and it's probably like the Dutchiest thing in this country haha.  It really was beautiful.

 

Well I think that's about it for this week.  We have a ZHV activity on Friday and we are supposed to present about America.  We have no idea what to say haha.  Then Zaterday at 2 we will have High Tea and then watch the ZHV broadcast.  Then we will watch the zaterday morning broadcast at 6 p.m.  Then Sunday at 2 we will watch the Saturday afternoon session and then Sunday at 6 we will watch the Sunday morning session.  I don't know when we will watch the other one.  Well I am SUPER excited about it and can't wait.  Well I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!!!

 

Veel liefs,

Zuster Mizell

 

Hello my dear family!  Wow I thought I would have more time to email and talk about the week than I do.  Whoops I'll try to get in all the important things. 

Well I am officially in my new area!  I can't believe it.  I still miss Zoetermeer and the people there A LOT but I am so glad for the chance I have to serve with these people here.  So my area is a little strange.  I live in Capelle aan den Ijssel in an area called Schollevar but Schollevar is part of the Gouda ward so we can't proselyte in it.  We have the rest of Capelle though south of the interstate and then some of Rotterdam east of the interstate.  Also we have the city of Krimpen aan den Ijssel.  It is SUPER stressful opening a city.  I never thought it would be this stressful but when you don't know ANYTHING it's crazy.  I just came from where I knew how to get around everywhere and I know everything to not knowing anything at all.  I think that's the most stressful thing for me.  Also we were barely able to get any work done this week because it was just crazy!  Tuesday we moved in but the apartment was basically in shambles so we spent basically the whole day working on it.  Then Wednesday I went to Belgium and it was good but it took up the whole day.  I'm offically a resident of Belgium WHOO!  Also I got some Belgium waffels which are delicious!  Then Thursday we had kind of a weird day and didn't get to do much work.  Friday we had to go on exchanges in Den Haag but guess who I saw!?!  Zuster Rigdon!!!!!  It was soooooo good to see here!  I LOVE that woman.  I worked with Zuster Johnson in Den Haag but she got really sick so we didn't get to do much.  Then Saturday was hard.  We had to walk Zuster Woodbury's bike to a bike shop like an hour away.  Then we tried to get some stuff done like weekly planning and everything.  Sunday was good.  We went to church for the first time and the ward is great!  I can't wait to get to know them and work with them.  So get this about 3/4 of the ward is inactive!  Isn't that crazy!  I can't believe it.  So the stake plan is to work with inactives and try to get them back to church.  The goal for the ward is to have 50 more people coming to church by the end of the year I think.  Today was crazy too.  My companion is wonderful!  Her name is Zuster Woodbury and we get along really well.  =)  She is so sweet and full of energy!  We are actually quite a bit like eachother which will be really good in some ways but we'll have to learn lots of patience too haha.  We finally did some good missionary work last night but got lost for a while.  So that was hard.  Well I think that's about all that I have.  I love you all!  Have a wonderful week!

Veel liefs,

Zuster Mizell

Hallo mijn geliefde familie!  Well, you guessed it!  Today is my last day in Zoetermeer!  Man am I excited to go to Capelle aan de Ijssel!  Oh I have to tell you something.  So President and Zuster Robinson called me today and told me how proud they were of me and how they had full confidence in me doing really really well in my new city.  That made me feel really great =)  I have been working SO hard and now I finally have the chance to start over with a clean slate and continue progressing.  So I will move to my new city tomorrow morning at like 9 with my new companion Zuster Woodbury.  She's such a sweetie and I'm really excited to work with her.  I'll be sure to tell you all about her and my new city next week once I know more haha.  Oh also here is my new address.  Jachthoorn 27, 2907 SE Capelle aan de Ijssel, Netherlands.

 

So saying goodbye to Zoetermeer is one of the hardest things ever!  The only thing that's keeping me from bursting into tears is the excitement I have of going to my new city.  So this last week I've spend making and writing personal letters to everyone in the ward and to some of my previous and new investigators.  It was a lot of work, but I loved having the chance to say thanks to everyone.  Yesterday at church was pretty hard too.  It is SO hard to say goodbye to some of these people whom I love SO  SO SO much!  But one of the really amazing things, is how loved I have felt.  I have felt so much love and appreciation from this ward it's amazing.  I got a letter from Alexandra and Rens telling me that I changed their lives.  Yesterday Zuster Tettero called me a bridge builder which is why they are sending me to Capelle.  I feel so loved and I just have this enormous love for these people as well!  Also the missionary work is just starting to bloom here in Zoetermeer.  After a hard week last week, we have three golden investigators with quite a few other potentials.  The ward is doing the 40 day fast and we are starting to see miracles!  Oh it is soo hard to leave this city as I'm beginning to see it bloom, but I know I'm needed elsewhere.

 

So as for my week I'll just do it short since I'm running out of time.

 

Maandag- We went to FHE with Alexandra and her friend and it was great!  They loved it and we taught her friend a lesson and got another lesson for the Den Haag Zusters.  Also Alexandra was so cute, when she found out I was leaving she said she wanted to call the church and tell them I had to stay haha.

 

Dinsdag- Great District Meeting.  It rained like CRAZY!  We had some good lessons with Wanda and Daniel.  Also it was crazy, the Den Haag Zusters left the keys on the inside of the door to their apartment and locked themselves out, so they ended up having to come and stay at our apartment.  We pulled all of our mattresses off the beds and put them together on the floor and slept all together.  It was like a slumber party haha. 

 

Woensdag- We did some contacting and then Zuster Juchau came to work with me for the last part of the day.  We had a lesson with Zuster Uljee, and then dinner with familie Gfeller Sr.  They are all so wonderful!  Then we looked up a previous investigator and met her dad who was with her from Peru who only speaks spanish.  We asked him if he wanted a book of mormon and he said yes!  So they are going to take him a book this week.  Then Zuster Juchau and I were supposed to meet our companions at a tram halte but we didn't have a phone so we waited for an hour before we finally got home haha.  It was super funny.

 

Donderdag- We had a lesson with an inactive Zuster Abaleta and then we went to Pijnacker where we met up with Zuster Snacker and then we came back and had dinner with Familie Vis senior.  Then we went to Rens and watched Mormon Messages and just had a wonderful time with them.  Veronica made us mormon pina coladas haha and it was just wonderful!  I LOVE THEM!!! 

 

Vrijdag- Zuster Juchau got really sick so I went to Den Haag to spend the day inside with her.  I did get to go to a dinner with a member from Den Haag wijk though so that was fun.

 

Zaterdag-  We finished up weekly planning then went over to Suzan to teach an English lesson.  She was sad I was leaving and said she wanted us to come Sunday too but I told her only if she came to church which she did! haha.  Hmm I don't remember what else happened this day haha.

 

Zondag- Church was great but hard to say goodbye to everyone.  We had 2 investigators at church yay!  Then we stopped by Elfride and I said goodbye.  Then we went to familie Tettero for dinner.  Man I love them!  It was so much fun and I shared the red marble story with them that Grandma gave me.  I also shared it with Rens and Veronica and Alexandra.  Then we had an appointment with our new investigator Sharon and set a baptismal date with her for October 22.  It wa a good day.

 

Well that's all the time I have.  I love you all and will talk to you next week!  You are in my thoughts and prayers!!!!!! 

 

Veel liefs,

Zuster Mizell

Well family, I've basically spent most of my time writing you all individual emails so I'm afraid this will be really short.  Also I gave my planner to Zuster Meier and she didn't bring it so I am having trouble even remembering what happened this week haha.  I will just try to do a couple of highlights.

 

 We've pretty much either been dropped, had to drop, or can't get ahold of our investigators.  We went to a recently baptized member who just moved into our ward and basically he was extremely rude with his talking about women.  He stuggles with the law of chastity hard core and the three of us felt just voilated.  Then he kicked us out of his house.  So that was awful.  But we met this really wonderful girl who wants to be baptized so that is AMAZING!  And also Alexandra is coming to FHE in Den Haag tonight and bringing a friend.  Oh also I got my hair trimmed today and I have ridden my bike in the freezing pouring rain.  Not the funnest thing in the world.  Haha.  Sometimes being a missionary is crazy.  Well other than that I really can't think of what else happened.  Ummm Rens got a calling as the assistant ward mission leader!  The ward is doing really great and I am going to miss them like crazy!  Well this is my last week in Zoetermeer!  I love you all and miss you like crazy!  Have a great week!

 

Veel Liefs,

Zuster Mizell

HAHA.  Sorry for the strange email title!  I'll explain in a second but let me just say hello my dear family!  How I love you and have missed you!  Sorry I didn't email yesterday.  We went to Amersfoort and then got back too late to email so that's what happened.  So to answer your question; YES I am being transfered!  I am going to move to Capella aan de Ijssel it's a little city on the borders of a big city Rotterdam.  I will be a part of the Rotterdam Noord ward and be working there and in the city I live.  They have never had sister missionaries there so I will be opening it!  AHHH!!!  It's a little scary.  It means LOT'S of contacting.  Also I will be working with Zuster Woodbury who is a greenie, so I will be finishing up her training.  BUT, and here's the catch, the apartment I will be moving into, isn't ready yet so I won't be moving in until the 17th of September.  So I am staying here in Zoetermeer for like 3 weeks!  So I hope no one is confused.  So I don't have a ton of time, so I will just go into the big parts of this week. 

 

Maandag- Zuster Schwab was sick so we basically spent the entire day inside.

 

Dinsdag- District meeting was great.  I made the special spaghetti casserole and everyone loved it.  I went on exchanges in Den Haag and it was a super fun day!  We ate dinner at a really cool members' house, we had a great first lesson with their new investigator Sven, and we talked to a young adult Sheila who really needed to talk which was good.  I worked with Zuster Johnson and she's such a sweetie!  It was a great day!

 

Wednesday- We were supposed to have a lot of appts. but most of them fell through.  We did have an appt. with Alexandra though so that was really good =).  Also we ate dinner with family Van der Put.  They are sooo great and I loved being with them.

 

Donderdag- I really can't seem to remember much from this day.  Oh ya.  I felt sick this day so we stayed inside most of the day.  Then we went to dinner at Zuster De Jong's and then we had a lesson with Zuster Uljee.  She is such a sweet lady, and I love spending time with her.

 

Vrijdag- I was still feeling pretty sick so we didn't do much.  Zuster Schwab patched up Zuster Meier's bike which was pretty awesome.  Then we had dinner with the lovely as always Zuster Van der Scheer and then we had a meeting with Bishop which went well.

 

Zaterdag- We had a ward picnic and it was lot's of fun!  Not everyone came but we played frisbee, vollyball, talked, ate panakoeken (that's not how you spell it I'm pretty sure), there was a bounce house.  I realize now I didn't take any pictures so that's a jummer.  Alexandra came though and she seemed to have a great time!  Also some members brought non member friends which was the bedoeling.  Then we had a late lunch with Elfrida who seems pretty resolved to come to church every week.  I hope she sticks to it.  Then we went and made dinner for Vicky in Leidschendam.  She is SUCH a sweety!  I just LOVE her!  We retaught her the first lesson.  She has such a humble and pure testimony, it's beautiful.

 

Zondag- We met this new member who was just baptized in Almere who just moved here.  His name is Cees and he's pretty crazy haha.  We met with him before church and we will be meeting with him probably every week.  Everyone was back from vakantie in church so it was wonderful to see everyone!  I bore my testimony since I had the feeling it would be the last chance I had.  Then we did weekly planning and then we went to familie Rahman van Eeden for dinner.  They were in America practically this entire last  transfer so it was soooo good to see them again.  He was the member that was struggling a little bit and Zuster Rigdon and I started reteaching him the lessons.  He told me this really cool story I want to share.So when he was in the US he visited his missionary that baptized him and he was talking to him and asked B. Rahman how he was doing.  He told him everything and about how we (the missionaries) had helped him.  Then his missionary told him that he didn't know why but that about a month or so ago he had the feeling he needed to pray for B. Rahman that the missionaries would reteach him the lessons.  We were the answer to his prayer.  B. Rahman started crying when he was telling me this story.  It's really special.  Then we went home to finish weekly planning and that's when I got my transfer call.  WOW!  I was so surprised but not at the same time.

 

Maandag- So yesterday we went to Amersfoort with Zuster Van der Scheer for P-Day.  It was so fun!  I took lots of pictures and learned lots of history about the city.  We went on a boat ride and ate in this darling little café.  It's times like these that I remember that I'M IN EUROPE!!  Sometimes I'm so busy with missionary work I forget haha.  Oh also in this city is the middle point of the Netherlands so I got to stand there which was super cool =) 

 

Vandag- Today District meeting was super great.  I shared the spiritual thought on love and charity and everyone really seemed to enjoy it.  I really love teaching.  I get just more and more excited every time I teach to become a school teacher one day.  Also I met my new companion Zuster Woodbury.  She is staying with the Den Haag Zusters since our apartement won't be done for a while.

 

So this week has been a little harder emotionally but it's still been good.  I still wake up happy to be a missionary which is the best =).  We aren't able to get ahold of most of our investigators so we might be back to square one with that, but we have made some REAL progress with the ward.  OH so I suggested that this ward do the 40 day fast like you told me about Dad, and they took my advice and decided to do it this month!  It's going to be great!  The missionary work will just explode, I know it.  Well I think that's just about all.  I am super happy that I will get to serve in a new place but also super happy that I have just a little bit more time here in Zoetermeer.  I will sure miss Zoetermeer but I don't have to leave it yet =)  Well I love you family!  I hope you have a really wonderful week and know that you are always in my prayers!

 

Liefde,

Zuster Mizell

Once upon a time, there was a missionary named Zuster Mizell, and she LOVED being a missionary!  She sure did miss her family though........Hey family!  I miss you and love you!  How is everything!?  I'm sure it's super crazy with school, dance, work, etc.  I had a pretty great week so I'll just get to it =)

 

Maandag- Well we had dinner that night with Familie Vis.  It was super fun and funny haha.  They are a great member family.  Then we had "FHE" with the old Zuster Martina like we do every monday.  She is such a sweety haha.

 

Dinsdag-  We were supposed to have an appointment with Ines but she had to reschedule. But she has been reading in the BvM and she LOVES IT!  She was telling us all about it over the phone.  Oh my goodness so I have to tell you this complicated story.  Ok so there is this inactive woman named Vicky.  At the beginning of the transfer she called and asked what time church was because she and her ex husband wanted to come back to church.  So they came that sunday and then we tried to call her and schedule an appt. with her.  So we scheduled an appt. with Vicky and then she never gave us her address so we couldn't go.  Then the next sunday we talked to Vicky at church and made an appt.  Then on our way to that appt. we were late so we called Vicky to say we were running a little late and she said that she was at work and wouldn't be back until 4.  Then later we got a call from Vicky saying she was waiting for us and we never came by!  OH MY GOODNESS we were soooooo confused!  SO it turns out we were in contact with two different Vickys!  One was the inactive that came back to church and the other one is a previous investigator.  Oh also to throw something else into the mix, Vicky's ex husband Kleibel is Ines's (our investigator) son.  WOW!  Small world haha.  Anyway moving on with Tuesday.  We visited Zuster Wala the oldest member in our ward.  She was so cute and she totally can't hear us haha. She wanted to know our names but she couldn't read our tags so she came out with this reading lamp and was holding it up to read our name tags it was pretty funny haha.  Then we had dinner with Familie De Jong.  They are such a great family!  Then we visited an older lady in our ward Zuster Muntinga.  We thought she was really grumpy but she turned out to be pretty nice!  Just goes to show you can't judge someone until you get to know them.

 

Woensdag- We had zone training this day and it was FANTASTIC!  I learned SOOO much!  It lasted almost all day then we went to our appt. with investigator Vicky.  It went super well and she said she wants to start meeting again so that's great!  Then we had dinner with Family Gfeller Sr.  It was super good and we talked to them about making a profile on Mormon.org.  They got super excited!  I was also thinking that you guys should make a profile on Mormon.org.  It might be kind of cool to show some of my investigators or the members as an example.  Then we were supposed to have an appt. with this woman we met on the street Dunaida, but she wasn't home.

 

Donderdag- We had a really good lesson with Ines this day.  We taught the first half of the plan of slavation and it went really well!  She is soo golden, we just have to get her to church.  Then we had an appt. with this guy named Ardjeon we met on the street.  He is this young adult guy and our lesson with him was super awkward.  He doesn't have much to say and seems like he lives a pretty rough life, but every time we ask him if he wants to learn more he says yes. The only thing we really got out of him was that he wants a new chapter in his life.  So he is a new investigator yay!  Then we went over to Zuster Wolff's home with a member and cleaned.  She's the one that Zuster Rigdon and I went over to last transfer and her house was a disaster.  It was still awful and we spent two hours there.  I threw away SO much stuff, I hope she doesn't get upset.  Then we had dinner with the old Familie Panhuyzen.  They are SO hilarious haha.  We taught them about Mormon.org too and asked them to create profiles.  They were pretty excited about it =).  Then we went to Familie De Jong's house and practiced for our musical number that we were going to sing on Sunday. 

 

 Vrijdag- Then we went and visited member Vicky in Leidschendam and she is soo sweet!  Her eyes just light up whenever she talks about the gospel.  It's amazing to see how much she loves it and realizes it blesses her life!  Then we had our bible study with Alexandra.  It went super well!  seh wants to meet again.  We aren't really able to teach the gospel and help her progress towards baptism, but we still teach her the gospel and are able to testify.  I have faith that she will come around one day =)  Then we had dinner as always with Zuster Van Der Scheer.  It was wonderful as always!  Then we went to Elfrida's and stopped by her son's birthday party.  I just love that woman!

 

Zaterdag- We had a lesson with a previous investigator, Johanna.  It went pretty well but she still really isn't ready to hear the gospel and prepare for baptism.  We did encourage her to read in the BvM though and she seemed pretty willing to do that.  Then we went to our appt. with Dunaida, but she said she wasn't home then when we called when she heard who it was she hung up on us.  I know not everyone wants to hear the gospel, but I wish they would just tell us rather than being rude.  We ended up just leaving a BvM in her mailbox.  Then we did weekly planning with the Zone Leaders.  It was pretty weird.  Then we went to Elfrida's again and it was kind of awkward with the Elders there.  Then we tried to weekly plan again.  Then we went to dinner with Zuster Martina and it was super lekker but she like just dissapeared for a while and we didn't have much to say so it was pretty awkward.  Then we went home and just worked on area book and watched the testaments becasue we were all feeling pretty cruddy.

 

Zondag-  We sang in church.  We sang joseph smith's first prayer to the tune of come thou fount and it was pretty good.  Also we invited almost everyone to come to church, they all said yes, then cancelled last minute on us.  Satan has a really good way of keeping people from church.  But church was good.  I got a blessing because I have been having these really bad dreams lately that have been freaking me out.  But we finished weekly planning, had dinner with Familie Lake and then celebrated Zuster Meier's birthday.  It was a bad day at first but then turned out to be great. 

 

I love you all so much!  Have a wonderful week!

 

Liefde,

Zuster Cassie Mizell

 Well family I was writing this beautiful long email of all the intimate details of my week and it all got erased.  I'm soooo frustrated because now I don't have very much time left so I will have to keep it shorter sorry!  So let me just start by telling you all that I love you and miss you.  I'm sorry this is going to be so short.  SO the reason this week was crazy with exchanges is because one of the Zusters in Den Haag Zuster Juchau had a bike accidnet monday evening and tore all the ligaments in her right foot.  So because we were in a three some they took one of us to Den Haag almost every day this week. 

 

Maandag- We had dinner with Zuster Dezaire this cute old lady in the ward and then we did FHE with another older woman Zuster Martina.

 

Dinsdag- We had a great district meeting as always and then Zuster Meier stayed in Den Haag and just Zuster Schwab and I came back.  We went to the girl we invited to church last week Ghyslayne and gave her a Bvm and made an appt. with her.  Then we visited an inactive family, Familie Van Geel.  They finally opened up to us at the end and said they didn't really have a testimony of the bvm but they wanted one.  But first they want all of their doubts about the church resloved.  I wish we could help them see that gaining a testimony of the bvm is so much more important than figuring out all the little things, becuase with a testimony of the bvm and the restoration those doubts with go away.  Anyway, then we had dinner with familie Brouwer she is the ZHF (RS) president.  Then we went and visited the oldest member in our ward Zuster Wala.  She is 96 and never comes to church because she can't hear at all, but her daughter called us and asked us to go over to her every week so that she can hear the gospel.  She's a super sweet old woman.  Then I don't know if I told you but we started this heart attack thing in the ward for more unity but we decided to do all the inactive members so we heart attacked Zuster Uljee.

 

Woensdag- It started out as kind of a hard day.  Ghyslayne called and told us she didn't want to keep the appt. because her aunt found a church in Den Haag so they decided to go there.  Also our new investigator Ines called and tried to cancel our appt. because her priest said she can't go to two churches and she still wants to go to hers but thankfully I was able to talk to her and keep our appt.  We didn't really have a lesson with her because she just really opened up to us and told us all about her hard life, so we just listened and loved her, and then helped her in her garden and she said she wanted to keep meeting with us.  Then we had a meeting with Bishop and it was really good because he has opened up sooo much to us since I first got here.  We has a much better relationship and it's so good.  Then we had dinner with familie Robert Panhuyzen and it was great.  He is super funny haha.  Then we watched "The Mountain of the Lord" movie with Rens and Veroncia and then talked forever about the temple.  It was amazing!  I can't wait until they get to go to the temple!

 

Donderdag- We started off the day by walking through the centrum and talking to 25 people with 2 good potentials.  Then we exchanged and Zuster Schwab went to Den Haag and Zuster Meier came back to Zoetermeer.  Then we went to Pijnacker and met with an inactive member Zuster Martina and it was really good.  We gave her another Bvm because she had lost hers and she likes us and wants us to come back.  Then we took a dinner we made to Zuster Uljee.  Oh also I forgot to say.  Zuster Uljee LOVED the heart attack we did!  She thought it was from us, which is was, so she called and said she was smilling and laughing all morning because of it.  We said it wasn't from us because we wanted her to feel like the ward had reached out to her but it made her sooo happy.  SO anyway we took her dinner and spent WAY too long there but I loved it.  I love her!

 

Vrijdag- The three of us finally came all back together and it was great.  We had weekly planning which took forever like always.  But we also had a really good lesson with Ines.  We were able to teach her the restoration and watch the restoration movie in spanish.  Oh so her native language is spanish so she speaks nederspans haha.  Sometimes she is hard to understand.  But anyway we asked her if she knew these things were true would she become baptized and she said yes!  Then we knelt down and prayed right there and the spirit was so strong it was amazing.  Then we had dinner with Zuster Van Der Scheer and it was lovely as always.  Then we went to Elfrida's and taught her girls about baptism and it was really fun.

 

Zaterdag- We had Zuster Johnson, Zuster Juchau's companion come here so we had four zuster missionaries!  We made her a rainbow chip cake that said "welcome to Zoetermeer!"and she loved it haha.  Then we went and did a bunch of potential look ups but only saw one of them.  Then we had Doners for dinner by the lake, then we went to the Albert Heine to buy chocolate and guess who we saw!?  Alexandra!  The miracle girl who choose the catholic church.  She was soooo happy to see us and said she missed us!  We set up an appt. to do bible study with her and she says she still reads in the bvm sometimes.  =)  I just love her.  Then we just went over to Rens's house to say hi and we ended up all four of us sharing a spiritual thought and it was just so amazing.  Every time I see that man I just feel so happy with how far he has come it truly is a miracle.

 

Zondag- Ines didn't come to church but Vicky's aunt did so that was really good.  Also we had a good companionship inventory which is always needed.  Then we had dinner with familie Tettero whom I love to death.  Oh and we met this guy Ardjeon on the street who we made an appointment with so that was good.

 

Vandag- Today we were supposed to go to Amersfoort with Zuster Van der Scheer but it was raining pretty hard so we didn't.  But we did go glow golfing!  They have it here too and it was WAY fun!  I think I lost haha but that's ok. 

 

I love you all so so so very much and miss you!  Enjoy life, know that I pray for you always, and remember to be missionaries! 

Liefde,

Zuster Cassie Mizell

 

HALLO MIJN GELIEFDE FAMILIE!!!  Ik hou van jullie zooo veel!  Deze week wij hebben veele wonderen gezien in Zoetermeer!  Ik ben enthousiast om jullie te vertellen dar over!  Translation: Hello my dear familie!  I love you sooo much!  This week we have seen a lot miracles in Zoetermeer!  I'm excited to tell you all about them!

Mandag- So besides what you already heard about monday from last week, we had dinner with Zuster Vis which was fun!  Then we went to do this look up from a past investigator and it ended up not being his house but his mom's house.  We went in and she had just been crying because of something so we were able to share the gospel message with her and offer to bring her a book of Mormon.  She was really open and sweet =)  Also the craziest part is that the sunday before this guy had come to church who is an inactive member and not on our records so we had no idea how to contact him.  Well this was his mom!  So we were able to get his info, have her become a new investigator, and get a referral for Rotterdam with her other son.  THEN the elders in Amersfoort call and give us ANOTHER referral for us!  Man it was a great day!

Dinsdag- Then Tuesday we had a great Distric Meeting as always.  Then we went to the temple with an African family from the Den Haag ward.  Zuster Meier knew them from when she served there and they had never been to the temple before with there kids so they asked us to show them the way.  So we went with them and just took pictures outside and had a gezelijk tijd!  It was WAY too long but it was still super fun.  Also we got ice cream afterwards which was delicious.  Then we had dinner with Zuster De Jong and then we visited familie Gfeller, well one of them anyway haha, and then we had a lesson with Elfrida.  She is doing SUPER good!  We shared the talk "the hope of God's light" by President Uchtdorf and she loved it!

Woensdag- Woah was this a crazy day!  We went to Belgium!  Brussels was BEAUTIFUL!!!  We rode the train for two hours but I got to see my whole first district from the MTC!!!!  AHHH!!!  Oh I just loved being able to catch up with everyone and have so much fun!  We spent most of the time in the legality place but we had a tiny bit of time afterwards to get some food.  So we ran through the cobble stone streets of Belgium to get Belgium waffels and OH MY GOODNESS are they AMAZING!!  Those Belgium waffles I made at my party do not even compare!  AHH I just want more!  Also I saw some of beautiful historic Belgium and also Maneke Piss, the famous statue.  It's teeny tiny haha.  Oh also I had Belgium frites which were also super good!  Basically we spent the entire day in Belgium so that's all haha.

Donderdag- This was honestly a pretty normal day.  We had some appointments fall through.  One with our new investigator Ines but we were able to give her a book of Mormon.  Also our lesson with familie Van Geel a less active familie fell through.  We did have a lesson with Zuster Uljee though another inactive member and I just love her!  She is such a sweetie!  Also we had a lesson with Wanda.  She loves the Bible but has a hard time reading in the Book of Mormon.  We just testified that it can give her even more light and she said she would keep trying.  It's amazing though because when we had our first lesson with her, she didn't believe in any kind of God and had no religious background and it's amazing to see the light in her and the change she's gone through in just the last couple of months!  I love wathcing people recieve more light in their lives.  It's my favorite thing in the whole wide world.  =)

Vrijdag- We had weekly planning which is always good but seems to go longer than we want haha.  We tlaked to some good people and we had our weekly dinner with Zuster Van der Scheer which is always wonderful!!  Hmmm....I guess that's all I really remember from this day haha.

Zaterdag- Ok so this was a good day!  So we had this idea to try service contacting, so we would just go out in our work clothes and try to contact and offer service.  It didn't really work haha, but we did accidentaly tell one woman we can babysit which we really can't haha.  Then we went and worked in familie Gfeller's garden which was actually super fun!  I was thinking I want to help you with the garden when I get back Dad =)  So then we had this miracle happen.  Rens called us and said he had just called bishop and bishop said that WE were in charge of getting his baptismal clothing for the next day.  Well we were all new with this baptismal thing so we had NO IDEA that was our job!  So we quick called the temple and asked if we could borrow a jumpsuit.  They said yes but they were leaving right now so could we come pick it up?  We had to say no because we were late for our dinner appt.  Then they said they would just take it to their dauhter Catherine Dezaire who turned out to be where we were going for dinner!  Isn't that amazing!?!  It was seriously a miracle.  So we made our spagetti cassarol and my pound cake and they loved it!  We were trying to serve their family because they just had a little girl and they are pretty busy.  Then we had a lesson with Rens and Veronica and it was wonderful!

Zondag- This morning was the best start to a morning I've EVER had.  We had Rens's baptism and it was beautiful!!  I loved every second of it.  It was amazing to see him walk into the water and make that covenant with God.  The whole ward was practically there to support him.  Then we went to church and I saw this girl just sitting on a bench in the Centrum.  I felt like we should talk to her so we went up and talked to her a little bit and invited her to church and she came!  Then we set an appt. to bring her a book of Mormon and she said her whole family is searching for a church!  =)  Then we had like a ton of inactives come to church randomly, and Rens got the gift of the Holy Ghost which was amazing.  Then we went to Pijnacker and visited a few families and then we biked past this girl and I got this feeling that we should go back and talk to her so we did and we gave her a book of Mormon and set up an appt. with her!  It was amazing!  Yesterday was seriously one of the best days ever!

Vandag- We went to Gouda today and got real Gouda cheese and ate it with a baguette and I felt soooo European haha.  Also I got my very first fresh stroop waffle and it was SOO good!  It has been a good P-day so far.

Well that's all I've got for this week!  Continue to be missionaries and I love you all!

Liefde,

Zuster Mizell