Week 36 February 29th, 2016

Well another transfer has come passed! And just like that, Elder Bodtcher is gone:(

After 8 and a half months in Bremerhaven his time here is up. I am so dang sad and a little shocked. I have big, big shoes to fill because the people here loved him. I love that kid and will miss him so much. My new comp is Elder Rogers. I don't know a whole lot about him, but I heard I'm just gonna have to "break him in". He's been out about a year and that's all I know. 

Anyway, onto the dang crazy week. On Monday Elder Bodtcher and I bowled. I was a little rusty the first round and lost, but won the next four ;) I BOWLED A TURKEY. I have pics to prove it to those that doubt me (Nick). 

Okay maybe the end of the week was crazy because Tuesday and Wednesday was full of finding...

Thursday we made an appointment with a member's cousin, who is not a member. They live way far out in a dorf. And when you make an appointment with someone who lives in a dorf that's pretty much the day because busses only come through like every 6 hours... So we made it almost all the way there but we got off to transfer to another bus that we needed in another dorf, only to find the bus was not going to come. We were ticked. So in the mean time we saw some horses in the distance and while waiting for the bus to take us back to Bremerhaven, Elder Bodtcher says " Elder Miller feed the horses!" Of course I'm like, yeah okay sick, so I grab some grass but apparently the fence that I tried to stick my hand through was electric and the freakin thing shocked me outta my shoes!! Elder Bodtcher got a kick out of that one. 

Friday we had our last district meeting. Way sad. After we all went to a place called Pannokoekship to celebrate. It's basically a pirate ship restaurant with way good over priced crepes. Nothing much later that day. We went by to visit a less active named Daniel. Hasn't been to church in a super long time and we got him to come on Sunday - way sick!

Saturday. The dreaded call. After that call we just felt sick to our stomaches... We were in Bremen for a street display and honestly I was just too dang sad to even talk to anyone. But of course we did and then headed to the Daniels after to drive 2 hours to Osnabrück for a cool musical which of course took away some of the sadness. They took us to Pizza Hut for dinner after :) 

Sunday of course goodbyes... But we had the coolest experience. WE GOT A BAPTISMAL DATE SET FOR OMA. Well it's actually been set for a while now but I was a little skeptical about it going through that's why I haven't said anything. On Sunday she was going to get up and speak in front of everyone inviting them to the baptism but she got scared and wrote something down on a piece of paper and gave it to the bishop to read out loud for her. She said " I'd like to invite you all to my baptism on the 20th of March. I'm being baptized because I know the Book of Mormon is true." Elder Bodtcher and I just looked at each other and all we could do was smile. She's SO STRONG AND SHES GETTIN DUNKED!! Freakin love Oma Taunts. She's so German and so funny and so awesome. 

I feel like a lot more fun things happened this week that I am forgetting. It was a sad week, but a good one. Elder Bodtcher has been here in Bremerhaven for 9 months, so it's his time. He gets to go to the best city in our mission, Tiergarten. So I'm excited for him. Mega grateful for that kid. That's all I have for this week! Sorry if it was kinda long.

Love you guys! 

Elder Miller 

Week 35 February 22, 2016

Sooooo another week. Alrighty. Emailing is getting kinda hard hahaha.

It was a good week. Actually, it was an awesome week - the sun shined 2

days in a row!! It's so sad how white I am. Looking at the picture

book mom got me for my birthday is kind of depressing sometimes cause

I see how was tan and in shape I was... now I'm just a tubby ghost..

ew. And I went to the eye doctor and they said I need glasses...

Anywayyyyyssss highlights!

Monday was way good, I had an awesome birthday! First Elder Bodtcher

and I went shopping and he bought me a new shirt! What a guy! We ate

at Oma's for lunch afterwards and she made really really good

currywurst. For Family Home Evening we of course went to the Daniels

and had some classic abendbrot and before I knew it I was surrounded

by about 4 different cakes. A piece of every different kind was on my

plate before I could say Danke! Every time we drive somewhere with the

Daniels they have Jess Glynn playing in the car so I pretty much have

all the lyrics to all of her songs down. I guess they noticed that and

they bought me her album for my birthday! Hahaha I love them!

Wednesday good old district meeting! We had a late Valentine's Day

party afterwards and made cookies. When we got back to Bremerhaven we

were invited to one of our contact's who is a part of a religion called

Baha'i. She's way nice and she had like a seminar presentation at her

office for people to come and learn about what it's all about. She was

so grateful that we came even though we are here preaching about a

different religion. It was a cool experience!

Fast forward to Friday I was at the eye doctor for what seemed like

forever. Eye tests and what not. They said I need glasses and that it

could definitely be a reason for my headaches. So I'm hoping so! After

we went straight to some glasses shops and picked out the dopest pair

of Ray Bans I could find. They are brown on top with gold rims. Sexy.

You will see them in a couple weeks when they get here.

The past few weeks I feel like I've really come to recognize and be

grateful for the spirit. A couple weeks ago on pday elder Bodtcher and

I went into this beautiful great big Protestant church. It had

incredible craftsmenship with carvings and paintings in great detail.

Everything. It was really amazing and they are everywhere here in

Germany. But as I was walking around admiring, I noticed something.

There was no spirit. There was no warm feeling, no feeling of peace or

"feel right". It was definitely cool, but it just felt like a museum

more than a holy place. It did not come close to bringing the feeling

I had in the temple or even in our Sunday meeting houses. I'm grateful

for the spirit and the power it has to bring us knowledge. Although I

was in a different church that day, my testimony for this church grew

big time.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Miller

Week 34 February 15, 2016

I used to wonder when missionaries came home, why they did so with a lot less hair than when they first went out. Now, it all makes sense...

Alrighty.... Monday night we started off with a good old sleepover with the ZL's at our place. I left the next morning with Elder Peterson to Oldenburg for exchange. It's crazy how similar our missions have been. He's had it pretty rough too so it was good to talk with him and relate. It takes while to get there so we didn't have much time but we went to a school and played indoor soccer with a bunch of pretty solid older guys. It was way fun but I am SO out of shape. I was suckin wind hard after the first 5 minute round. I'm still sore 5 days later...

Wednesday we had zone conference in Hannover. It was good but allll stress! I swear Präsident and Sister Fingerle made me take part in everything! I had to share my thoughts at the beginning about something, then I had to share my conversion story in the middle and at the end, they made me share my testimony! I get so nervous in front of people as it is, let alone having to speak to them in German! On the real - it's okay, I was happy to do it!

Fast forward to Friday,  we had dinner at one of our investigators, Angela. She is the sweetest lady! Her whole family was there and her husband is nice. They are from Spain and made some wayyy good food. Their kids though, need to get their face out of the phone screen, meine gute!!!

Saturday we had Grunkohl essen with the ward!! If you don't know what it is, your just going to have to look it up because I have 0 idea on how to explain it.. That was stressful coordinating rides with times and places and people who could and couldn't and could later and getting them in contact with who and where and when... If you get what I'm saying here. Stress is what I'm hinting at. 

Later that night we had an appointment with Alex and his grandma. Alex is the one kind of going through a hard time right now. It was a really really intense couple hours with some more tears and loud noises. At one point Alex just wanted to leave and Elder Bodtcher and I said absolutely not. STRESSFUL. We made him go give his grandma a hug and tell her that he loved her. After that things got so much better. Alex likes to wear all black gothic stuff and I think that really is a reason he is in a dark place right now. Dark clothes, music, friends - everything. He calls me a "hipster" and he hates my style of clothes. But this week I begged him to just try, just for one week, to wear normal clothes and listen to normal uplifting music and to meet with us EVERYDAY and to study the scriptures, and just see how he feels. He agreed! We saw him today for my birthday and I could already see a HUGE difference not only in him but his grandma and everyone around him as well!

Quasch!! Wie kann mein zeit schon fertig!?! 

Thank you guys all so much for the birthday wishes! I didn't have time to respond to all of them but I promise I will write back next week! Bring on year 20!! 

PS Enjoy some high quality pics from Elder Bodtcher and I's Valentines Day photo shoot!

Elder Noah

Week "A Lot"

Hi franz,

It was a weird week this week. Went by so fast, but at the same time so

dang slow. I've been a little cranky because I can't remember the last

time I've seen sunlight. Dark and rainy my entire time here so far.

Elder Miller needs his vitamin D.

So Tuesday not much. We had an appointment with Alex and his grandma.

They called us and asked us if they could meet and things didn't sound

too good on the phone. We got there and it was pretty rough. Alex is

really struggling with some personal things right now and his grandma

is always worried about him. He doesn't have a phone so there is never

constant communication either, which makes things hard too. By the time

we left things were better. Alex has so much potential to do great

things and Elder Bodtcher and I are really trying to work hard with

him to make him realize that and to do some things to get him on the

right path.

Wednesday went on exchange with the Leer Elders. I was with Elder

Christoffersen, shy but nice kid. He's been out for about 2 months. It

was a bit of a stressful day because I haven't been in this area for

long and Elder Christoffersen can't speak German yet so I had to do

everything myself, which was fine, just exhausting because Elder

Bodtcher and I usually split 50/50. Did lots and lots of doors and

finding:)

We had our district meeting on Thursday in Bremen and that was good as

always. After, we had our weekly annual seminary class with the

Daniels. They always call on Elder Bodtcher and I to read some parts

out of the Old Testament. I can normally read well but when I have to

do it in front of people I get nervous and just end up reading at the

same pace as a 3rd grader. Plus, the Old Testament in German has

ridiculous hard words.

Friday I don't even know... Pretty sure all of our appointments fell

out except an elderly lady we visited who is in an assisted living home.

She didn't really have a choice to cancel us cause we didn't tell her

we were coming hahah.

Saturday we had some good less active appointments and an appointment

with a lady named Angela. She is way sick! She just got back from

vacation in Spain and got us this bread that tasted heavenly.

Sunday was weird. There was only like 20 people at church and 2 were

missionaries and 3 were investigators. So there was like 15. Our ward

had a temple drive to Holland to go to the temple there since both in

Germany are under construction right now so maybe that's why... Our

eating appointment was with The Lou family because it was the CHINESE

NEW YEAR!! The Lou's come straight outta China so all the food was

authentic and amazing. I think it was the first time I sat down to a

meal without freaking potatoes. Not that I don't like potatoes but

every meal...

Well your boys got 7 days left of his teenage years. That's kinda sad.

But it should be a fun week this week so I'm excited.

Love you all!

Tchüß,

Elder Miller

Week 32 February 1st, 2016

Another week and month has come and gone. I still love Döner, I still hate running for trains and buses, I still am sick, I still have not lost at ping pong;) and I still love being a missionary. Now it's time for February!! One of my favorites! Crazy I'm going to be 20 this month... I don't know what to think about that.

Tuesday was kinda rough. We had 3 appointments made and 2 fell out. And the one we had was ridiculous. We went to his place and he started questioning everything about our religion because he found some church history "facts" online from a bunch of "credible" sources on google. So frustrating. We couldn't answer any of his questions because they had false details. And when we tried to tell him that what he was reading online was contrary to what we actually believe he wouldn't listen and just said "no you guys believe this,  it says so there!" The guy became a Mormon church history expert overnight! I know I should have asked him how he did it, but we just told him to read the Book of Mormon and left. Maybe I will ask on Yahoo answers when I get home...He really is a great guy and he just wants to choose the right. But he expects to find answers through other people and it just doesn't work that way. 

Anyways, nothing really on Wednesday. We had our first district meeting and it was good.

Thursday night there was a geniology class being held in Oldenburg about 2 hours away by train. The Daniels wanted to come so we rode up there with them and Brother Daniel made it in about 45 minutes, compliments to the autobahn and his fast car;) The best part was the girls put in Jess Gwynn and we had a dance party in the backseat. Sweet sweet music to my ears!! The class was good. After we just spent the night in Oldenburg with the ZL's which was way fun, and left back home the next morning. Right when we got home we changed into normal clothes and left again and helped a less-active move. That pretty much took all day and wore us out. 

Saturday some finding in the windy rain and as you can imagine we had lots of success with that like we usually do! That's a joke. On the real, I never thought I would say this, but I have grown to kind of like finding...

Last but not least, church on Sunday of course good as always! We had a big ward lunch afterwards and it was way good:) 

Elder Bodtcher and I are doing good out here in Bremerhaven. I am blessed to have such a great companion that can make me laugh like he does! We have this ongoing thing right now where we keep scaring each other. Last night he was making dinner and he came into the living room and I popped right out and scared him so bad he dropped all his dinner on the floor. I was in tears for about the next hour!

I feel like there is a lot of stuff I am forgetting to mention. By the time Email time gets here I swear my mind always goes blank. 

I have been reading in Alma this week and I think one of the coolest things I have known, but read again, is the fact that Heavenly Father knows our hearts perfectly. It's not about what is on the outside, it's about what is on the inside. People can think what they want and say what they will, but none of it matters because they don't know. But Heavanly Father does!! And when you are striving to be the best you can be he always has your back:)

I love you all!

Elder Miller