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

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