Week 62 August 29th, 2016

I cannot believe it is going to be September..

It was a good week for Elder Ash catchum and I. Things are looking

good in the town of New Monster! We've done quite a bit of finding and

have actually got a few numbers. So we're hoping to schedule some good

appointments for the week tonight.

Funny story on Tuesday we were finding and I said "okay Elder Ashby

your up!" So the next man that walks by he stops and says perfectly 

" Entschuldigung ganz kurz! Wir sind Missionare von der Kirche

Jesu Christi...." Alright now usually by this point they run away, but

this man stayed and was listening and Elder Ashby had no idea what to

say next so I was going to come in but then directly after he says

"können wir haben Ihre Telefon Nummer?" And I lost it. He said "excuse

me we are missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ can we have

your phone number?" The man laughed as well and it was all good. I was

laughing the rest of the day because I couldn't help it but Elder

Ashby was a champ about it. I love training.

Skipping to Thursday we had a GNARLY service project at the stake

presidents house. He's wiping out his kitchen and another room. So

Elder Ashby and I were assigned a couple of big power tools and we

were destroying the place. I've never used a tool like that before, so

it was fun for about the first 5 minutes, then it got old real quick. Arms

we're ready to fall off when we were done. We headed up to Kiel

afterwards to print out some flyers and posters for our street display

that we would have on Saturday. We got back that night in time for

ward council. Our ward mission leader, Elder Ashby and I were way excited to show

everyone the cool posters and 500 flyers we made to hand out. As we

were explaining them, one of the members just looked totally

disappointed.. He slowly took off his glasses, was rubbing his eyes,

sighing, etc. etc. and he was like "you guys should have have spoken

to me better about this, I can't do Tuesday's." Bruder Zickler our

ward mission leader - greatest guy ever - was super nice about it and

said we could change everything, reprint the 500 flyers and the 2 posters,

and see if the German teacher could do a different day for him.

Meanwhile in my head I'm about to explode because that took so long to

set up, find a date, find a teacher, and print the flyers. But he said no no, it will be ok. We

had a good laugh about it afterwards and Bruder Zickler said one of my

favorite Bruder Zickler quotes in English in his super low German accent voice
"ahhh man, what is going ‘UP' here!"

Anyway, Friday we were out street contacting. We walked past a man in

a wheel chair and he said "MOIN!" Which is good day in German. Now

normally, actually never, does anyone say hello to us on the street. We

said hello walked a little ways past him and thought, what the heck

are we doing?!  We went back and talked to him and got his number!

Super cool guy and I can't wait to teach him.

Saturday! Our street display was way cool! First one we have done here

in Neumünster. Had a lot of good conversations, gave out a few Books

of Mormon, and got a couple addresses. Also handed out a ton of those

flyers for Enlglish and German language classes! I'm excited to see

what kind of turn out we can get from that.

Elder Ashby and I are having a lot of fun and we are working hard. He

is good at ping pong too! I still haven't lost in 2016 though;) we've

played about 25 games or so. He took me to over time once and that was

way too close for comfort.

I was reading in Mormon the other day and it was so good. It talked

about how God is a God of miracles, and if we have faith we can

literally do anything through him. Anything is possible. But

sometimes, as I have learned and seen, having faith is the hard part.

However, if we stay diligent in prayer and in scriptures I know we

can build a foundation on that rock so that no matter what, our faith

is unshakable. And we can press forward and accomplish those miracles

that we want and that God can help provide.

I love you all! Keep on keepin' on!

Elder Miller

Week 61 August 22, 2016

What's good fam!

Man it was a crazy week. Crazy crazy but fun. And hey I was baptized 3

years ago! Almost half the time I have been a member of the church I

have been on a mission hahhah.

I took off to Freiberg first thing Tuesday morning. It was about a 6

hour train ride to Dresden. It was the first time being completely by

myself in 14 months it was awesome. I went through Berlin and passed

through Spandau's Banhof. Literally felt like I was home, it was

weird. Anyways, I met up with a couple elders in Dresden who would also

be training. We had some time before our next train left so we

explored for a while. Dresden is incredible. Like President Uchtdorf

has said it’s hard to believe that city was bombed to pieces at one

point.

We spent the night in Chemnitz and finished the journey to Freiberg

Wednesday morning. Usually the new missionaries stay at the hostel on

temple grounds but because of the Freiberg Temple open door it's

booked and they had to stay at a hotel near by. So we got to the hotel,

had some breakfast and then we walked to the temple and got the tour!

It was gorgeous. I was kinda bummed we didn't get to stay longer.

We went through and then pretty much had to walk back to the hotel right

away. The trainers had some meetings and a couple hours later the

trainees came in and we were all in one room! Each trainer got up and

introduced themselves and their area. Finally they announced who would

be paired with who and where they were serving!

My new companion is Elder Ashby from Pleasant Grove, Utah! He is fresh

out of high school! He is a way sick kid. We're super similar. We're

gonna work hard and have some fun this transfer. I'm really looking

forward to it.

We headed back that same day but had to overnight in Hannover because it

takes forever to get from the bottom of the mission to the top.. Soo Thursday

around noon we finally were home sweet home. He unpacked and we met

with our ward mission leader.

Friday was our first real day! Lots and lots of fun dooring and street

contacting:) We got up to what would be Elder Ashby's very first door

and I said "your up!" He knocked and the man answered and Elder Ashby

barely got 2 words out before the man said "Du kannst gleich

verpissen!" Yeah really mean. I don't think I have to translate that

for you guys hahaha. Could not have been a better first door. I was

dying.

Saturday we went up to Kiel for a street display. That's a long story

that I'm not even going to get into.

So far I love training. Makes me better. We're busy a lot too because

we have some extra stuff we have to do for these next 12 weeks so the

time is going to go by fast. Feels good to have a companion that I can

talk and relate to as well. Definitely makes the mission a lot more

enjoyable.

I hope everyone's doing well! All my college people enjoy their last

week of summer:)

Elder Miller

The Freiberg Temple is renovated and open for public tours through Sat. Aug. 27th

       

                                         

Week 60 August 15th, 2016

Hi:)

I cannot believe another transfer has come and gone. They are

absolutely flying right about now. Before I tell you about transfer

calls I will ramble on about my week, no skipping ;)

Soo Tuesday we had as a mission what was called a "Harvest Day". We

were told if we dedicated that day to finding we would find new

investigators and see success. So that is exactly what Elder Morrison

and I did. Other then a quick hour and a half eating appointment we

were on the street and door to door the entire day. We weren't seeing

too much though. At the end with about 5 or 6 houses left it started

to rain pretty hard, so we just said let's call it a day. But thennn

actually we were like No, absolutely Not - we've gone this hard for this

long we might as well finish knowing we knocked every house we could

and after a few more we get to the final door. The actual last door we

could possibly knock, the guy lets us in and we make out an

appointment for the next day!! Unbelievable. Never give up folks:)

We met with him Wednesday and taught him the plan of Salvation. He's

German and from what I can tell, likes his cigarettes like every other

German.. He's got about 4 silver teeth, 3 dogs, and a heart of gold!

Super nice guy. He has vacation next week and he's leaving town, so we

gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he would have lots of time to

read through on his train rides. But we have an appointment for next

Tuesday to meet again.

Thursday we had district meeting in Kiel which was awesome. And at

this point 2 days before transfer calls, the mission becomes like

high school. Rumors bounce around like a beach ball at a Nickleback

concert as to where people are being transferred, who's doing what,

etc. etc. I don't like it because it all sparks my nerves.

So Saturday FINALLY rolls around.. And at about 1900 I get a call from

Elder Day. He says "Elder Miller, are you ready for your transfer call?"

Of course I say yes and he goes on to say.. "Elder Miller! Your 

comp is Still…….. in America! You will be training." So yep I will be

training and Elder Morrison will be leaving. I'm super pumped! I am

training at the best time because all the new missionaries are picked

up at the airport and taken to Freiburg to the temple to start their

mission. So I found out I get to go through and see the all new

renovated Freiburg temple while I pick up my new comp! Lucky lucky

lucky me. I don't know anything about my companion yet. I don't even

know his name. We find out when we get to Freiburg and all meet

together and we do this meeting thing and it gets announced. It's

cool. Hopefully he's not a punk! But yep it's true - I'm officially

gonna be a Dad!

That also means my week is going to be crazy. I won't be in Neumünster

most of the time. We are going to take off to Kiel tonight and

overnight with the elders there. I have to leave first thing tomorrow

morning. Transfers for the normal missionaries aren't until Wednesday

and elder Morrison can't be alone so he is going to stay with the Kiel

elders until then. I'm clear up north in the mission and Freiburg is

completely at the opposite south end. 8 or so hour train ride. I have

to be there 10am on Wednesday morning so I will travel more than half

way to Dresden stay the night there tomorrow, and take another train

Wednesday morning to be there on time.

I'm pumped - it's going to be a good week. Summer is going to end soon

too which means the work should pick up as well!

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Week 59 Aug 9th, 2016

Hellooo August!

And summer is quickly on its way to coming to end! Can't say I'm too

sad about it😉

We have been busy working and finding but it has been really tough...

We had a couple of appointments but other than that it was a quiet week. 

Oh yeah, other then the fact that last week they shut down the mission in 

Turkey because it has gotten too dangerous so all the missionaries 

came to Berlin.

We had 2 moves this week. One was pretty bad. There were

maggots and such spread throughout the kitchen, things 1 year expired

in the fridge, and the strong smell of cats in the living room. Luckily

the ward does only a little bit at a time so we didn't have to be

there too long. I felt really bad, it was one of the worst I've seen, so sad...

The other was much better other than moving huge and heavy appliances

up multiple flights of narrow stairs!

Sorry, not a lot to report....I know that right now I am going

through some challenges that will inevitably  make me stronger and

wiser! So grateful for this mission and all that it is teaching me! 

Welllll there ya have it! I love you guys a lot.

Haut Rein!

Elder Miller

Week 57 July 25th, 2016

Hi!

Sorry not a whole heck of a lot of time today because I lost track of

time, but the week was good! We were able to have a couple good

lessons this week. Starting slow but on the upward rise so I can't

complain.

We had zone training meeting on Wednesday and I taught how the Book of

Mormon answers questions of the soul. If you wanna know just read it -

I'm not teaching it again ;) President was there and it was good to see

him. He surprised us -  nobody knew that he was coming!

We had a service project this weekend pulling a ton of weeds/flowers

out of a field because the horses don't like them I guess... We rewarded

ourselves with a short trip to a pretty lake nearby. Reminded me of

good old Minnesota.

The work is hard right now but I'm just trying to go all in. These

next 9 months are going to fly. I still have a lot of work to do. I'm

so grateful that I decided to come out here. God and his son Jesus

Christ are so real, and because of my mission, I believe I have been

able to feel both of them in such a way that I wouldn't have been able

to had I not chosen to serve a mission.

I love you guys! Have the best week!

Dear Brother and Sister Miller,

Today I had the chance to see your son teach a group of missionaries in the old chapel of Kiel.

You can be proud of him! He did so well.

He shared with us what the restored gospel of Jesus Christ means to him. And he explained how curious he was in his own conversion process in the God-given option for families to be together forever.

With love,

President Fingerle

Week 56 July 18, 2016

Hey!

It was a quiet week this week, but we did a lot of planning for next

week:  less actives to go by, how we are going to find better and

more fun activities and how we can get people just more involved.

I was with Elder Chadwick in Flensburg on Monday. I never get sick of

that place it is so pretty. We had a lot of fun. I don't think I have

laughed so hard on the mission before. He asked me if I could cut hair

and I was like, "well I can Turk.." Turk is the style here where they

shave the sides a little and keep it long on the top. He said he needed a

little off the top and that he trusted me that I would cut with

scissors good. About 30 minutes later he got up, looked in the mirror

and we both immediately started dying. It wasn't THAT bad. You get

what you pay for, which, in this case I got nothing so.. And that was my very

first time cutting with scissors. Give it a week or 2 it will look

awesome! We had a lesson the next day with a recent convert Martin.

Really funny and cool guy. He just got his patriarchal blessing and so

we talked a little about those. We were suppose to have another one

after but it fell out.

Fast forward to district meeting and that was good. We went to

Vapiano for lunch afterwards and outside we thought there was a huge

line.. But it wasn't for the restaurant, it was apparently some good

spot for Pokemon Go??? I don't know….

We had an appointment with family Mattiesen Thursday and that's always

a good time. I absolutely get destroyed every time I go over there

because they know I'm a Justin Bieber fan. They hate Justin Bieber and

they bring it up almost every time -  it's really funny.

Other than that we were pretty much on the street. Gave out a Book of

Mormon and lots of cards and had some good discussions with people but

no one really solid. Next week will hopefully be better in terms of

luck with finding somebody. We're going to switch it up and do some

things differently and see how it goes.

Yesterday we grilled at Bruder Zickler and his wife's house. It was so

fun. They are a young couple and he is our ward mission leader. I

think Bruder Zickler is my favorite guy in the ward. His wife is an

American from North Carolina who speaks good German but he had to

learn English if he wanted to marry her. And he did and his English is

awesome but he has a heavy accent and sometimes mixes his words and it

is so funny with the type of personality he has. Sister Zickler has

migraines too and gave me some peppermint essential oil for them. Says

it really helps so I'm excited to try it out.

I love you guys so much! Thanks for the love and the emails and all of the support!

Week 55 July 11, 2016

Hiiii wonderful family

I hope everyone had a good week! It's been aight up here in Northern

Deutschland.

So not much got done Monday and Tuesday besides Elder Spangenberg

packing and saying goodbye to people. Poor kid, he really did not

want to leave. Went from one of the best wards in the mission, to a 12

man branch on the border of Poland.. .Quite the change..

Wednesday we headed to Hamburg, pretty much the main hub where all the

missionaries go through if your leaving or coming to the North. Saw so

many old homies that I hadn't seen for a while it was so cool. Waited

for a while till my new comp arrived and then we headed back to

Neumünster and he unpacked.

Well here's a little bit about my new comp Elder Morrison.. He

definitely brings a new vibe to the apartment in many ways (; He

is from Grand pass Oregon and is in his 3rd transfer. He is huge into

anime and video games. He has a sketch book full of his drawings and

they are cool! He actually carries it everywhere, even when we go

finding.. He talks with a southern German accent which drives me

absolutely nuts. He was trained up here in the north so that

doesn't even make sense, but whateves…. I better get used to it. I try

to carry on the conversations as far as I can but anime/Pokemon isn't

exactly my area of expertise.... Can only go so far until I'm just

nodding my head acting like I know what he's saying. All in all the

only thing that matters is he has a good heart and he is willing and

ready to work hard. So I'm excited.

On Thursday we rode to Elmshorn and met up with Bridge and Glissmeyer

to help new sisters there move into their apartment. We were suppose

to head up to Kiel to do a Street Display afterwards but all the

trains fell out and were delayed a few hours so we didn't end up

making it.

Friday we walked about 10 miles between finding, appointments, and

going by contacts. Here's the thing, Elder Morrison had a car in his

last area, so they walked nowhere. At the end of the day he looks at

me and says "I am so sore that's why I'm walking weird.” Poor kid!

Saturday we were in the church and the doorbell rings. There was a man

and a lady standing out there and the man said he was an inactive

member but he saw the church and wanted to stop by and say hello. We

talked for a while and the lady was his wife and she is not a member.

I asked if we could exchange numbers and get/stay in contact and he

said of course. So we're about to reactivate this guy and then tauf (baptize)

his wife:)

This week honestly felt like an eternity. It's going to be a long and

tough transfer. We haven't really got anyone to teach consistently and

we have been unable to find anyone on the street in a while. I take

that as mostly my fault and wonder what I can do better. Constantly

it's "oh I could have talked to that one more person" or "I could have

knocked on that one more door." I have "if I had done that maybe we 

could be teaching?"going on in my head. I read a talk this week that 

really hit me. I think we as people in life in general and sometimes as

missionaries in this case, feel so inadequate. We forget it's not at all about

how much we earn and physically have to show for what we have done, 

but rather just how much we plain and simply give. Are we ready to give 

everything to God and follow his commandments? Are we ready to give two

years of our lives to give others life and bring them closer to Him and his 

son? And are we ready to completely forget ourselves and simply give to

those in need? Sometimes the answer is no. Most of the time it's not 

intentional, but we come up short of these goals. 

And that's okay because that is the entire point of the atonement. 

We are not perfect. It talked about the final judgment and

how many of us picture it now as us standing before God and Jesus

Christ with clipboards in their hands saying "shoot you missed

it by two points." And we are begging for them to re-look their

clipboard over. But that's not how it is at all. Jesus will be begging

us to come live with him, and either we will grab his hand and use his

atonement, become perfect, and feel worthy to live in his presence or

we won't. It's completely up to us. God wants all of his children

back, regardless of what has happened in their lives. All that he asks

is that we give our best, and he will take care of the rest. That is

it. Our best. We should never feel inadequacy towards him. Never. He's

always listening. And he's always there to help us through whatever it

is that we are going through and whatever it is that we have done.

I love you guys

Week 54 July 4th, 2016

Ayyyyy Happy 4th 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Well transfer calls came...

I honestly could sit here and tell you how surprised I am every

time I receive transfer calls, but I'm so used to being surprised,

that I don't even get surprised anymore..

Anyways, after a quick 5 week transfer it has been determined that I'll

be staying in Neumünster and Spangybear will be shipped away.. That is

tough for 3 reasons: A: We got along good.  2: I have to take over this 

area already an it's huge. There are still members and investigators

I haven't even gotten the chance to meet yet.

and D: (haha) My new comp, Elder Morrison, is in his 3rd transfer

which means I'm going to have to do absolutely everything. 

That's totally fine. I don't mind at all, it just means I have to 

really put my game face on. I don't know much about Elder

Morrison.. I talked to him a once or twice because he was in my last

zone. I know he really likes anime... Should be an interesting

transfer. I'm excited.

Anyways it's been an aight past couple of weeks with the work. I went

on exchange with my boy and fellow Arizonian Elder Chadwick and we had

some good convos and found a couple people and made some appointments

that will be happening later this week. Shortly after we had exchanges

again with the Kiel Elders and did a street display. The most

successful of my mission.. It only ran for about an hour and a half

before we had to call it quits because of rain but it was so sick. I

handed out at least 6 books of mo mo's and made an appointment for the

Kiel Elders. We are going to be doing another one in Neumünster in a

couple weeks.

Last Sunday we had an eating appointment with a no longer Mormon

family and their active parents. We were warned before hand about

them.. I didn't know what to expect so I was a little nervous going in

that they were going to hit me with some argumentative 

questions or something. But they didn't and it was all good. They were

actually really nice.  A little different, but hilarious. The wife kept

saying that she wanted to adopt me... That went on for about a half

hour and I just kinda sat there and smiled awkwardly.. Other than that

we talked about normal things, laughed and had a good time.

I got to give my first blessing in German and it was a way cool

experience. A member asked me spur of the moment and I was caught off

guard. I actually prefer it that way because then you don't really have the

time to get an idea for what you want to say, so it forces you to let

the words come to you all through the spirit which is how it is

supposed to be. It's really a special experience and privilege to give

a priesthood blessing, especially in another language.

We went to the beach today for district pday and it was pretty fun.

Other than that nothin much. Motivation emails would be much

appreciated right about now.

I'm exhausted.

Love you🇺🇸️🇩🇪

Week 52! June 20th, 2016

LAHBRAN JAMES.

Just another good week up here in the North! Kind of. We had 6

appointments with investigators this week, all of which fell out:))))

Typisch Deutschland but it's all good. Elder Spangenberg and I are

still having fun regardless! The European Meisterschaft is going on

right now and it's pretty big. I forget what the tournament is called

in English but it's the one in France. Are people watching that in

America? It's everywhere you go. They have a big tv in the mall that

streams the games live so Elder S. and I try to find an excuse to go

in there just about as much as possible to catch little glimpses;)

Tuesday we had had Zone Training Meeting and we had interviews with

Pres. I got to see my old pal Gliss which was fantassticc. I called on

him during our lesson to read a couple verses in D&C and he read the

wrong ones😂 Zone had a good laugh at that. For our interviews

President had us fill out obedience papers.. There was a list of rules

and we had to mark that we followed them, or that we didn't. I was

pretty solid. But one of my "no's" was "effectively planning every

day”.  When I come home at 9pm I'm exhausted. I have 0 motivation to plan

so I need to work on that. And Pres pretty much talked to me about

that for 30 minutes.. Kinda bummed afterwards that that was the main

focus of our interview but what can you do.

Wednesday after our fallen out appointment we went to the Mattiesens

and had an awesome lunch like normal. Sister Mattiesen was walking

through the hall and noticed a couple bugs and she started freaking

out. MAGGOTS. They were falling from a light in the roof!! All the men

in the house stood a fair distance away while sister Mattiesen got a

ladder and tried to solve the problem hahah it was hilarious. On our

way home we stopped at this farm place where 

we had seen a bunch of cows at the fence on our way to the 

appointment. I wanted to see if I

could get them to come back so I just started yelling at the cows

about 200 yards away. The next thing I know they are hauling across

the field running towards me! I got pics to prove it - it was awesome!

Thursday we did a bit of finding. Elder Spangenberg told me to get

some inspiration and pick which neighborhood we should door. So I did

my best to get some inspiration and picked! We left at 6:00 when the

best time to door here is and started going at it! To make a long

story short I'm making Elder Spangenberg get the inspiration next

time. But it's not all bad, earlier that day we were walking down the

road and a lady stops her car and yells "Hey Elders come here!" So we

ran over, she hands us 20 euro and says go get a nice dinner tonight!"

What?! Turns out she is a member from Pennsylvania here visiting her

sister. So after that, honestly, nothing could ruin our day. We went on

a nice Indian food date later that night:)

Feeerrrriidayyy we had an eating appointment with Familie Krienke.

They live clear way out in the middle of Texas and the bus only gets

you half way there. Then it's about a 5km walk:))) I actually really

enjoyed it, it was gorgeous. Then yep, you guessed it, with about a

mile left I felt a nice cool little rain drop on the tip of my nose. I

looked back, saw the dark clouds, heard the thunder and just

immediately started laughing because I knew we were about to get

wrecked. Not a thing we could to about it in the middle of the country

so we showed up about a half hour later to the appointment looking

like we were fresh out of the shower:) Sister Krienke was devastated

and got us all dry clothes hahah but I kid you not, the

food that she made us was the best food that I have had

since I have been on my mission so far so it was

way worth it.

Saturday a couple more appointments fell out so we went by some

members. Did a little finding. Nothing too crazy.

It's crazy that so many of my homies are just about done with the

mish. I'm so proud!  It's way weird. That just means time is ticking

and ticking quick! I'll see y'all shortly in a quick 10:)

Dad happy Fathers Day and Birthday, I hope you had the best week. You

deserve it! Thank you for all you have done for me and continue to do

for me. You are the best example of service and hard work. Anyone who

knows you a little bit can attest to that. I'll be lucky if I can

become half the Dad that you are! I love you!

I hope everyone is having an awesome last summer without me! It seems

like the weddings have slowed down just a tad within the last month!

Either that, or nobody's shooting your boy deets anymore.. Hopefully

the first one.. Good, just wait till I get home:)

Love you🇧🇪❤️🇺🇸

Bis spääätterrr

Noah

Pics

1)me having good time before rain

2)Me still having good time in rain

3)Cows

4)Zone