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

Hallo there family!  It's the beginning of transfer three!  Well the good news is I brought my planner this week.  The bad new is that it's my new one and that last week is in my old one.  I am almost out of time anyway so this will probably be pretty short.  I'll just mention the big things that stand out in my mind.  Well Zuster Rigdon left for Antwerpen on Wednesday and I picked up my two new companions Zuster Schwab and Zuster Meier.  I really love my new copmanions they are great!  But being in a three some is definitely hard and a new experience that I'm not used to.  I miss Zuster Rigdon a lot.  I'm hoping that as time goes on that transfers will become easier.  Well I love staying in Zoetermeer but it's hard.  The ward is basically 3 huge families and then a few families that aren't related.  The ward just isn't really unifed or excited about missionary work.  It's so frustrating because I want so much to help and change things but nothing we've tried seems to work.  But nonetheless I love them all and maybe with two new missionaries we can come up with some new ideas.  We have one new investigator this week.  Her name is Ineke.  She is 25 and really interested in reading the BvM.  We had a really good first lesson with her but unfortunately we can't meet with her again until like August 14th.  Vacation here is a HUGE deal and everyone goes for like a whole month.  It's so irritating.  It makes it really hard to teach people or do anything in the ward because half of them are gone.  We still haven't had our lesson with Lila yet.  But we did have a DTR kind of thing yesterday.  She said she is still interested in learning about the gospel but I don't know if she really gets what it will mean to embrace it, but she knows it's true.  It's pretty hot and humid here which isn't fun but it's been a little cooler the last couple of days.  Other than that I can't really think of anything.  Well I'm sorry this was so short.  I'll make sure to actually bring the right planner next week so I remember what happened.  Ok well I love you all!

 

Liefde,

Zuster Mizell