Week 23 November 30th, 2015

Hi friends and fam!

I hope everyone had a wunderbares thanksgiving! It isn't a holiday

here but Christmas is underway and in full force! This week was such a

good one. Actually the best on my mission so far to be honest. I gave

my first blessing!!!

Monday: pday went to a sick German museum then a weinachtsmarkt.

Germans do Christmas very well!⛄️

On Wednesday we had zone conference in Berlin. It was the "ho ho zone

conference" get it? Cause it was Christmas themed.. And Santa.. And ho ho

zo... Conference.. Hahhh. ANYWAYS, way good and way fun. We got all of

the new Christmas pass-along cards and saw the new Christmas video the

church is putting out this year.

THURSDAY was so busy Elder Glissmeyer and I did not have time to eat.

It was my favorite day. I'm going to try and explain what happened as

best as I can! So every week we meet the Mantilla Family with the

Spanish sisters - kind of. We usually mainly teach the daughter but the

mom usually listens and chimes in too. This time we went and only the

mom was there. She let us in and before we knew it she was crying and

crying and opening up to us BIG TIME. In a way she never has even come

close to before. She said she feels like she has a cold heart because

she believes in God she just doesn't feel close to him. She said when

she was younger she had the same excitement and fire about her because

she could feel the spirit. But she can't anymore on her own. And that

makes her so sad and makes her feel like she isn't loved. She

absolutely loves meeting with us because when we are over, she says she

can feel a little bit of that spirit coming back to her. All of us

bore our testimony to her that she IS loved. The Spanish sisters then

wanted to read James 5:14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the

elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with

oil in the name of the Lord. I then had the opportunity to give her a

blessing. She said when Elder Glissmeyer and I put our hands on her

head she felt something go throughout her entire body. PRIESTHOOD

POWER LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. In all seriousness, she is one of the

nicest people I've ever met. We've been praying so hard that something

will happen spiritually to her to give her that spirit back and then

she's gonna get dunked!!!

Fast forward to Saturday and we had something called a Musikalischer

Abend. We were at the church in Tiergarten all day practicing. When we

finished we had a couple hours before the show, so we went down to

Potsdamer platz and Christmas Caroled and gave out gummy bears and the

new Christmas cards. It was so cold but so fun. The show itself was a

movie type thing and every so often there would be a musical number

and they were all amazing by members, missionaries and youth! It was a

great turn out and a lot of people came.

I just found out the Spanish sisters are pushing President for me to

be put in the Spanish program here. They are my favorite. They say I

have a good accent and whenever I say Spanish phrases in lessons with

them they freak out. It's way funny! Of course I can't start until I'm

fluent in German so they asked me to study Deutsch extra hard this

next transfer to fluency so I can get started on my Espanõl asap.

Spanish is cake compared to German so hopefully I can pick it up

pretty quick. Crazy stuff.

Bete zu ihm! Sprich denn er hört dich! :)

Oh yeah ps I guess they found two Isis members in Berlin so Germany

has declared legit war on Syria soo.... Hopefully I don't like, die. Jk

on the real tho....
Love y'all
Elder Noah Miller 

Week 22 November 23, 201

Sorry not a lot of time today so this is gonna be short!

It's officially a winter wonderland here in Deutschland! Snowed all

last night and now this morning. It's fun to look at but not fun to be

in:) Christmas stuff is officially underway and things are decorated.

I will send pictures next week of it because today is the day that the

Weihnachtsmarkts start! Yeeee.

Work is good here! This upcoming week is gonna be a busy one for us

with a lot of stuff going on and we're way excited. I hope everyone

has the best Thanksgiving this week! So much to be grateful for.

I'm grateful for my family, my Mom, Dad, Nick, Sky, all my Cousins, 

Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents, Holly, Alexis,

Kell, Austin, their families, Kev, Jake, Blake, Grant, Tanner

Erickson, Ryan Edwards, Cameron Christensen, John Nelson, Brody Zaugg,

Hayden Nieslon, Rigden, Rhett, Will, Kade, Preston, Taylor and Austin

Edwards, Jay, Lukas, Boeskis, Davis, Morgan Peterson, Kait, Brittany

Brown, Jake Toolson, Sarah Foulger Toolson, Karlee Winters, Sun Valley

2k15 squad, byuh men's soccer, surfing, Fifa, Call of Duty days,

California, Arizona, my house, the holidays, Arsenal 96 Premier, Superstition

Tigers, Highland Hawks, good music, Germany, my companions, my

district, my zone, my mission, the gospel!!! And other things that I

can't think of right now.

I LOVE YOU ALL.

Elder Miller

Week 21 November 16th, 2015

Alright what a week!!!

I'm sorry i´m going to pretty much skip everything and get right down to the juicy stuff.

Friday morning we had a spontaneous mission wide conference call. The news? Elder M. Russell Ballard of the 12 Apostles was coming to talk to us! In 2 days!! hahaha oh man. So this means the entire mission of Berlin 220 missionaries would be coming to the city together. It was so fun. Saw all my old pals from the MTC, my old district from Neubrandenburg, Elder Hein!! It was great.

Elder Ballard was amazing. He told us a lot from his talk last year in GC. About how now we need the greatest group of missionaries the world has ever seen. We need to be the greatest teachers and that Berlin Germany is a REAL mission. Not that the other missions aren't real but ya know;) And also how it's a little different and a bit harder with all the distractions we have these days that they didn't typically have back then. TV, phones, etc. We need to be FOCUSED. He's such a funny guy, i'm so grateful I had the privilege to hear his wise words.

But that's not it:) After hearing him talk I was informed he would be coming to do service with my district and I in Spandau!! And he did. He shook hands and talked with many refugees. It was seriously just crazy to have an apostle arms length distance away from me for 4 hours. I soaked it all in. On the other hand it's really sad to see all the refugees driven from their homes with nothing. These little kids were so stoked when we gave them something just as little as a plastic hair comb. It was so fun to watch them all laugh and smile. We made bags for all the families filled with toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap and other things. 

annddd that's all I can remember from the week. It flew. In a week I will be 5 months deep in the mish.. What? 

Love you guys:)

Elder Miller

                                               

Week 20 November 9th, 2015

What's good family!

No surprise, just another great week in Spandau! Can't explain how much

I love Berlin.

This week went by super fast so it's a little bit of a blur as I try

to remember what happened. Tuesday had a meeting with a guy named

Paul from Nigeria, super super Into the bible. Ended up being him

talking and teaching us more than us talking and teaching him, haha but

that's okay. After we went to Sabina's, a members house and made

cookies, which was way fun. She's has a bunch of snakes and I held one

for like 10 seconds until it lunged at me then I was done-skis!

Wednesdsday,  had district meeting and we went and visited  Bruder

Keuser. Super cool member. He's an old guy and he told us lots of

stories about when he was younger and life during the division when

the wall was up. At 20:00 (8:00pm) I left for an exchange with Elder Kreutz, our

zone leader to Tiergarten. Tiergarten is the most desired area to serve in the

mission. Literally the heart of Berlin. Their apartment is amazing.

Spoiled. Elder Kreutz is awesome! I was honestly a little surprised we

got along so well. Thursday we had family genealogy class with our

favorite Spandau Sisters and it was a blast. Elder Gallacher came and

the old office crew too. It was a party - we played jeopardy and then

worked on our trees on the computer.

Friday went on a mini exchange with Elder Sterri for a few hours and

did some finding in his area around a university. Talked to some

really, really cool people and exchanged a couple numbers so hopefully we

can set up some meetings:) Saturday we did the usual service, then went

to sport with a bunch of missionaries and their investigators which

was way fun. We played basketball and soccer.

Did some reading in Ether 12 this week and came across something that

I really liked

27: And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I

give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is

sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they

humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make

weak things become strong unto them.

Everyone has weaknesses. And just like it says, God gives us them so

that we may be humble. I know that if we recognize those weaknesses

inside us and do all we can to work at them, God will help us through

them. Those weaknesses will eventually become great strengths. For me,

my mission has opened me up, dissected me, and exposed every great

strength, weakness and insecurity. Some things that I didn't even know

about in myself. It's been hard but I'm grateful. Because of this, it

gives me a chance to work at it these things! Recognize your

weaknesses, work at them and have faith that they can become strengths

because they really can!

 I love you all! Keep on keepin on!

Liebe groß,

Elder Miller

Week 19 November 2nd, 2015

What's up family! 

I hope everyone had a faaantastic safe halloween. Such a solid week this week. Elder Glissmeyer and I are honestly killing it over here in Spandau! I love him he's hilarious. We get along really well. OH second thing I forgot last week! SHOUT OUT TO JAKE AND SARAH TOOLSON! I'm ticked you didn't wait for me but ya know it's all gucci. I WANNA BE SKYPED IN AT THE RECEPTION. I love you guys. 

Alright here we go! Monday: Elder Glissmeyer came and picked me up at the office. Well kind of. We just spent P-day there and helped out the sisters that are watching over the office while the usual staff is in Freiburg accommodating the new missionaries. Got back to Spandau later unpacked and all that jazz. I went from literally the biggest apartment in the mission, to the smallest. But I love it, it's cozy ova here.

Tuesday: We went through the area book! Called a bunch of people that past missionaries somehow lost contact with and got lucky saw some miracles and made appointments!! So pumped!! After that we helped the famous Elder Gallacher get from Hannover to Potsdam in Berlin. Dude had like 3 bags and a guitar, no idea how he would have done it without us. But yeah it was great we shared some funny stories and we just had a blast. We're stoked to be in the same zone together.

Wednesday: ahhhh sweet sweet Wednesday. We went to an appointment with the spanish sisters. I was told that they were pretty stingy about the prophets today thing, so the whole morning during personal and comp study I went hard at that topic. We got there and of course, she asked me what I thought about that, I pulled out my study journal and just read some scriptures and stated the reasons I believed what I believed. This entire time the Spanish sisters are translating, some high school Spanish started to come back to me and I could pick out some words. Anyways this is really cool, for the first time, they finally accepted it could definitely be a thing. The sisters were so excited after and they said that was so crazy good, and that does not happen! Felt so good after the lesson!

Thursday: Started off really well! Found 2 people on the street and made appointments! Helped a guy name Florian with some family search stuff. We had an appointment with Reinhard but Elder Glissmeyer and I looked for his house for an hour and a half and we could not find it so we had to call and reschedule because it got too late. 

Friday: Had some really good appointments:) Our last one of the day was with a man named Harper. He is unable to walk and is in a wheelchair because he was in a roller coaster accident. His faith is unreal strong. He has had so much bad to happen him but such a good attitude. We showed him the mountains to climb Mormon message and bore our testimonies and he just cried and thanked us for coming over. 

HALLOWEEN: SO FUN. Service project then Halloween! Usually missionaries have to be in at 18 but we didn't cause the Dessin's had us over and we partied till late danced, and played games then they drove us home. See fun pics n flix below:) 

Sunday: I love love love my new ward. Church and then at night we went to visit Vanessa, Virgina, and Oma!! Two daughters 17 and like 14 who are members, then Oma (the grandma) who is not a member.... yet. Seriously best family ever. Shared a spiritual thought that was SO GOOD from sister Seare she made them all cry. Then we danced Hahah gosh I love it. I think I've danced more on my mission than I have in my life. 

Sorry this is so long. This week was just the best and I wanted to share a lot. I'm so excited to be here in Spandau:)

Bis Später,

Elder Miller 

https://youtu.be/N785iwdZ6e8

Week 18 October 24th, 2015

Holy cow... I don't even know where to start. It's definitely been the craziest most emotional week of my mission. Sandra here in Dahlem, taught by the sisters, has been GETAUFT! (baptized). She is so great! The first one I've seen since coming here. Brought me right back to mine two years ago and it felt sooooo good. I needed this. After, I wrote down on a piece of paper some thoughts I had and I was going to give it to her. I expected to only write a couple short sentences but the next thing I knew I had a full page of tiny font Elder Miller testimony. After I finished I kind of sat there, and for the first time it hit me. This work, is the most important work in the world. I love that I get to be a part of it!

In other news: transfers! Sad sad sad sad transfers. My beloved Elder Schaal the AP is no more:( He's going to finish off his last transfer as a normal missionary in Hamburg. Our 5 man apartment hasn't been the same since he told us that news. But he picked it and it's where he wants to be so we're happy for him. Elder Schaal was the ultimate best AP and he has left a legacy!! Lots of other changes so we spent a lot of time together this week. I love all these guys so much. Im gonna miss the office so I'm glad I won't be headed too far. I'm headed thirty minutes west to Spandau with the Elder Glissmeyer. Total stud. He is from Sandy and went to Alta High (shout out to Matt Lant, Ryan Short, Sydney Fitzpatrick and whoever else went there. He said he loves you guys:))I can already tell it's going to be so fun. The sisters a great too and I guess we do everything together. Seriously pumped. 

Go out of your way and do something nice for someone else this week:)

I love you all! Have the best week!

Elder Miller

Week 17 October 19, 2015

Hi friends:)

Not much time today, Elder and Sister Curtis (office couple) are taking the us and the AP's to the festival of lights in the city tonight and we have to leave soon! I'm so pumped! It's suppose to be really cool.

For those who don't know, I'm working in the office now until further notice and it's been great! I honestly love it. I get all the inside scoop on everything too so thats a fun bonus:) We are usually in here doing office work until about 1800 (6:00pm) then we can go out and do the normal missionary work for a couple of hours.

Now that I am in the office that means Elder Hein and I had to part ways:( Super hard to say goodbye to him. I love that kid and he has taught me so much. I have a phone now though, so I still get included in the ZL calls everynight as if I were still in Schwerin and I get to talk to him. It was really hard to say goodbye to the members of Schwerin too. They really took me under their wing the past 2 and a half months and made me like family.

2 weeks before I left, Elder Hein and I were able to get a girl named Tina, a friend of a member's a Baptismal date for the 6th of November. She's the best and is so so ready. She has not missed a Sunday in a month! She's the perfect golden investigator. Everything we tell her, she just smiles and nods and does. 

Ich liebe und vermisse euch alle! Schöne Woche! 

Elder Miller

Week 15 October5, 2015

What's gucci everybody!

   Well I hate to say it but not much new this week. I'm continuing to see doctors back and forth to Berlin which is 6 hours round trip there and back so that's a bit of a bummer. We're going again tomorrow but we're gonna stay the entire week this time as we have meetings to attend. Gettin real sick of trains. 

   On a good note... General conference was so GOOD. I'm going to be completely honest I've watched about 5 general conferences now since I've been baptized, but this is the first time where I listened to every single talk word for word as best as I could. I feel like I got SO much more out of it then previous conferences. I challenge everyone when watching conference, close your laptops, leave your phones down, and really listen to what our leaders have to say! It's for our benefit and it's such a blessing to be able to receive counsel from such quorums that are called of God!! I promise if you do this you will get so much more out of conference and receive more blessings as you follow and ACT on the words. 

  We didn't get to watch all of Sunday conference because of the time schedule which is kind of a bummer... This conference was good but I felt like it talked about women a lot... And marriage... And yeah... Of coarse this isn't a bad thing and maybe it's just me but it just seemed weird to think that I could be married one day not all that far from now. It really made me wonder and think about what I want in a wife.  I have to put in hard work and be on my spiritual game! Then we can put our spiritual games together and be the strongest most devoted members in the church we can possibly be. Also talked about moms! Mom I love you! I'm grateful for you and how you put up with all my crap. Seriously your the best and I mean it. 

   A talk I really liked was by Richard J. Maynes. Talking about Christ centered lives and comparing it to a wheel in clay class. If the clay is not centered perfectly on the wheel, then slowly the project starts to become dismantled getting worse and worse. I bear witness to this because I was in clay class and did not once make a good flipping bowl on that stupid wheel. If you don't recenter it, it's not going to get any better. If it is centered it can only get better with time and your happiness will be through the roof!! Christ centered life is the best kind of life. And the only kind of life that leads to an eternal one. 

   I needed this conference. I'm still sick as a dog and it's been hard but I am trying to do every single thing I do with a smile on my face. I know that we can't always control everything that that is thrown at us in life, but something we can control 24/7 is our attitude. And that aspect is huge. I'm so grateful to know I have a team of doctors and people to get me through this. I'm grateful to know I have a loving Heavenly Father that has a plan for me. I don't know what the future holds entirely but I do know that no matter what I will strive everyday for the rest of my life to live a Christ centered life. 

   I love you all. Don't stress and worry about things and people that don't matter. That's what I learned to do this week. The only person we have to please is God. And we do that with our obedience, love and kindness. Everything else will fall into place. 

Always,

Elder Noah Miller 

On a less spiritual note... Saw a trailer for Star Wars... Pumped. 

Week 14 September 28th, 2015

Hello my family and friends! 

   Oh what a week it has been. I came to Berlin on Tuesday expecting to only stay a day or two but I am still here hahaha. And it looks like I'll be here a little while longer but I'm not complaining because Berlin is incredible! We're trying to figure out what is wrong with me!! I've stayed at the mission home all week. My president and his family has seriously become a second family to me here. They have been with me every step of the way. It has not been easy being sick so it's a good thing I'm tough;) 

   This morning I went with doctor Ryser to another doctor and I got more blood drawn. Flashback to the MTC! They couldn't hit a vein in one of my arms so they had to do it again.... And I was as good as gone after that. Out COLD. I passed out. Don't remember much but I woke up with a pillow and blanket and my feet were up on a chair. I thought I was in a spa. I had a couple nurses with me. One was rubbing my head and another was rubbing my arm - they were so nice. After laying down for a while, I got back up and now I'm hanging out at the mission home. Anni and I are about to play some go-fish so I gotta go! 

   I love you all. I really really do. Thank you to everyone, especially those for the loving messages that they have sent to me - you know who you are:) I'm in a good place right now with the best people. So do not worry about me:) 

James 1:3-4 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

We can't get mad if things don't work out the way want them to right away. We have to trust that everything will work out the way it should in the end, and that's exactly what will happen. I know it may be so hard to wait, but patience is the best trait - it really is! I get so pumped when I think of Heavenly Father's plan for me and you should too!! I could just smash my keyboa

ksjwowdndnsnwwjejch isowkdncnj imdjdksendbc ahhhh!!!! God is good! 

TRYNNA GIVE EM HEAVEN OUTCHEAR,

Elder Noah William Miller

WEEK 13 SEPTEMBER 21, 2015

Friends and family,

This week has been really really hard, but I know it's not all for nothing. I know Heavenly Father has a plan. Thank you for all the prayers for my family and I, I can feel them and it means more to me than you know. I hope everyone has the best week this week. 

I love you all so much. 

Elder Miller