WHEW!

November was a crazy busy month!  (I had forgotten it was exactly the same last year : )  We had Zone Conferences, YSA Fall Camp, missionary apartment checks, Joe’s birthday,  zone p-day turkey bowl, a missionary blitz in Amersfoort, dinner/institute classes, Christmas decorating, dinner with friends, made matching district t-shirts, celebrated Thanksgiving, took a trip to the Amersfoort zoo,  and attended the usual weekly missionary district meetings.

 Joe’s birthday was special…Elder Lewis made him a cake that was so delicious!

We were invited to dinner in Den Bosch at Hiromi’s home.  There was a wonderful, peaceful feeling in her home that was much needed in the midst of so much busyness.  (Her husband plays cello and was at orchestra practice).

Collin and Ellen Stomps also invited us to dinner. They live in Tiel and their son Jeremy, a returned missionary, was one of our institute students last year.  He is in Germany this year at university. We miss his energetic contributions! 

Zone Conference in November is the yearly temple trip.  Antwerp and Eindhoven zone meets Tuesday, Apeldoorn and Amsterdam zone on Wednesday and Den Haag and Rotterdam zone on Thursday.   The missionaries attend the temple in the morning then have lunch and conference meetings at the Zoetermeer chapel.  They love getting to the temple!

 Our responsibility this time was to be at the temple early Tues. and Wednesday to hand out temple clothes to missionaries, then go to the church to set up lunch.  They order pizza for this lunch so we just set tables, make green salad, serve and clean up.  Tuesday we went to Leiden after lunch to get our car serviced, then back to Zoetermeer for dinner with all the senior couples.  Because we needed to be to the temple early and the traffic is so unpredictable, the mission had us stay in a hotel.  It was so nice not to have to drive back and forth every day!  On Thursday it was our zone’s day.  We handed out clothes then attended an endowment session.  Another couple handled the lunch so it was like we were guests!

The meetings were wonderful.  It was fun to be there all three days because we saw all the missionaries in the mission!  We know so many of them now and don’t often see them once they get transferred out of our zone.

  

In the midst of all this, Sister Lechtenberg and Sister Hardy offered to help put up our Christmas decorations and I didn’t refuse the help! 

 

We finally met Sister Daryl Hoole’s sister-in-law, Marijke Hoole and two of her daughters.  We had a lovely Sunday afternoon visiting her in Zwolle, hearing wonderful stories of faith, conversion, and Dutch life. 

We saw our first “gas station laundromat”.  We pulled into this gas station and there were 2 large washers, one dryer and a dog washing station!  There aren’t any one stop shopping stores here like Target or Walmart  but this??  We laughed all the way home :) 

  I spent a long morning making 5 dozen cinnamon rolls.  They provided brunch for district meeting and dessert for all three nights of institute.  I think they are everyone’s favorite dessert.  They request them oftener than I have time to make them : ) 

District meeting:  Chocomel, cinnamon rolls and fruit…lekker!

l to r; E. Lewis, S. Williams, E. Thomas, E. Derochie, S. Gillespie, E. Diaz. 

Our district consists of 4 elders and 2 sisters in the Utrecht area and a pair of sisters in Amersfoort.  On p-day we often see the missionaries in the Utrecht area.  We have been feeling like the Amersfoort sisters were left out so we decided so spend a p-day with them.  We decided to go to the zoo!  It was perfect weather, there were no crowds and the animals were all outside and active.  Can you see that little baby elephant?  He was so adorable 😉!

Sisters Williams and Gillespie.

We have been running on high speed for a month and hope things slow down just a little! 

Thanksgiving....there and here :)

There… Thanksgiving came to Utah before it got to us.  Emily, Russ, Andrew, Dona and families gathered at our house.  I woke up every hour or so all night to check Instagram and see what they were doing!! 

I can’t express the feelings I had as I saw them all together (minus Heather, working in Washington D.C.).  My heart was bursting with joy that their love for each other bonds them together even in our absence. 

 

The food looked delicious, and everyone looked like they enjoyed it!

There were lots of activities…

It looked like fun for everyone at the trampoline park!

Elle, Ruby, Ainsley, Dean

                            Ainsley, Caleb, Emily, Ruby.

 

The big girls, Elle, Gia and Livy, gave so much time and love to the little ones.  The littles adore them and the grown-ups got lots of time to visit.  These girls are the best!  I love them!

The weather was a balmy 68 degrees, so they could all play outside.  That is a great climbing tree!  And those indestructible dress-ups!

Ice skating looked like a blast!  

It wouldn’t be a holiday without Mom.  Grandma Cusick is the lynch pin, the glue, the source of love that holds us all together.  And she’s everyone’s favorite! 

These kids…..talk about “joy in your posterity”!  We are so blessed to call them ours.  They are competent, capable, and extremely caring adults.  Our hearts are full to overflowing with love and thanksgiving for them and their families. 

Here- Thanksgiving came to our missionary district Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2017.  We had district meeting at our home that morning and for lunch we had Thanksgiving dinner (Thanksgiving lunch?!). 

Wait!  Was it Christmas or Thanksgiving??! 

Everyone pitched in and helped with lunch.  Joe and Sister Hardy and Sister Lechtenberg prepared the apples for pie.  (they had never seen an apple peeler-corer-slicer : ) They also brought the yams and green bean casserole. 

 Doesn’t that look delicious?  I asked the “meat man” at Makro (who always helps us) for a turkey and surprise! he had one fresh turkey left!  It was about 7 pounds but that meant it fit in my wonky microwave/oven.  That wouldn’t begin to feed 8 missionaries, 2 guests and ourselves so I cooked 2 turkey breasts in my crockpot. Sisters Williams and Gillespie brought the mashed potatoes, Elder Thomas and Derochie brought the green salad and Elder Lewis and Diaz brought a coconut cream pie.  I made dinner rolls, apple pie and pumpkin pie since what is Thanksgiving dinner without them?! 

After 12 weeks these 8 missionaries are near and dear to our hearts.  We were also blessed to have our friends Jason Kabal and Kelsey Boyce join us.  S. Williams, Kelsey, Jason, Joe, E. Diaz, Thomas, Lewis, Derochie, S. Lechtenberg, Hardy and Gillespie. 

 These are the cream of the crop!  They fill some of the empty spaces in our hearts as we serve far away from our family.  S. Hardy, Lechtenberg, Williams, Gillespie, E. Thomas, Derochie, Dias, Lewis.  This Thanksgiving we feel so much love from both sides of the Atlantic : ) We are blessed!  

YSA Fall Camp

The Fall YSA camp was held the middle of November. The theme was “Ask in Faith”.  It began on Friday night and ended Sunday afternoon.  The camp was located a few kilometers from Zutphan.  Most of the YSA’s were from the Netherlands.  There were a few from Belgium, Sweden and Germany. 

 As usual, the YSA’s in charge did a wonderful job of planning the camp.  There were great classes and activities, President and Sister Bunnell gave a devotional Sunday morning and it ended with a sweet testimony meeting. 

The countryside was beautiful and the trees were covered in fall orange and yellow. 

 We stayed in this hotel, located down a single lane road (it looked more like a bike path!) deep in the forest.  It is a miracle we found it on a dark and rainy night! 

This class was taught by Jurgen Hoole,  the Branch President of the Lelystad Branch and Sister Daryle Hoole's nephew.

The food was super delicious! Brother and Sister Van DerVlis were the cooks.   It was so nice not to have to do food : ).......

 .......and the YSA’s all pitched in to do dishes (Roselyn, ? , Alma and  Cherida).

The kids really love just hanging out.  (Felecia, Remco, Thomas and Victoria). 

(Victoria, Camille, Marije, Roselyn, Julia and Thomas). 

It isn’t camp without a dance on Friday night, complete with decorations : ) 

 The Saturday afternoon activity was a scavenger hunt.  Each team went to nearby Zutphan with an apple and an egg.  They “traded up” and the team with the biggest and best trade items won.  It was hilarious and what they got was amazing! 

(Julia, Michael, Veerle-the Van Der Put’s granddaughter, and Sjoerd).  

                         

The end of camp….what happy, competent, strong young adults.  Their road isn’t easy but they make the sacrifices to participate in the gospel.  It has been a blessing to serve them.

(and that includes squashing their luggage into our tiny car-oh how I’d love to  have our Expedition!-so we can drop them off at the train station!)

(Cherida & Amy)

Apartment Checks

Every 3-4 months we are assigned missionary apartments to check for cleanliness and repair.  This time we had missionary apartments in Enschede, Hengelo, Lelystad, Utrecht, Nieuwegein and two in Almere.  We drove 300 miles, took 12 missionaries to lunch, fixed bikes and burned out light bulbs, hauled out only 1 carload of junk, and found 7 super clean apartments!  (Elder Etchells and Elder Whitlock at the Burger King in Lelystad.  Sister Bratt and Sister Erekson in Almere).

We love visiting these apartments!  We get to 

know the missionaries better, are able to serve them, and of course there is always loot to be found!

 This time a cozy red sweater left by a sister going home, a darling Christmas tree advent calendar no one wanted, and a pair of binoculars!  I had been wanting some binoculars to take to the famed Concertgebouw in Amsterdam when we go to see Handel’s Messiah later this month.  And there they were, sitting on a shelf in a missionary apartment and no one claimed them or wanted them….thus they were mine!  Hurray for apartment checks!

Signs of the Times

As we leave our neighborhood, there are two, beautiful, tree-lined streets that we frequently drive or bike along.  It was October this year before we began seeing the leaves turn yellow and orange.   We came home one day to see that our backyard “trees on a frame” had been pruned back to bare limbs in preparation for winter.

 On Nov. 1 I turned the calendar page and taped last month’s picture up with the other 14 pictures.

 

And lastly, we received a travel request form for our trip home when our mission is over.

 I realized that this was the second Fall we had witnessed in the Netherlands.  My thoughts jumped straight from there to “we’ve already been here over a year!”  and that we have only three of our 18 months left to serve.   Our travel request form asked for the date we will be leaving.  February 1, 2018 we wrote.  Our time here is quickly coming to an end.

As with all wonderful experiences, we approach the end of it with feelings of sadness for leaving and excitement to be home.  (this is what makes them wonderful, right?!)

We will miss these very impressive young missionaries with whom we serve.

 

We will miss the amazing young single adults we have the privilege to serve.

We will miss the Oostveen’s, our dear friends who have cared for us, served us, loved us and made us a part of their family. 

But we look forward with great excitement to being home with these people (plus Calvin, not yet arrived in this picture :) ! 

Our family is nearest and dearest to us.  Their encouragement and support has made it possible for us to fulfil our life dream of serving a senior couple mission.  Mom has been there with all her enthusiasm and support, cheering us on and being with our kids and grandchildren in our absence.  It will be so great to put our arms around all of them!

We will continue to serve these last three months with all our hearts, might, mind and strength, and at the same time try to contain our excitement to see our family!