WEEK 80 JANUARY 3, 2017

WHATS GOOD 2017!! I hope everyone had a great New Year!

I thought I would die before this year got here but look at me ehh ;)  I am exhausted. One of my New Years goals is to get more exhausted though, if thats possible. Gotta absolutely milk everything I can out of the short time I have left in the mish. 

On New Year's Eve we were by family Bode. It was a lot of fun. We just hung out and played games until we had to bounce. At midnight unfortunately, it wasn't as cool as Berlin last year. It's a little different. Instead of fireworks shooting in the sky (they still had some of that though) they just use legit bombs from Poland. So the sky doesn't light up, but it is LOUD. Till about 4am. Now Germany doesn't top America in many things, but in New Years they most definitely do.

Because of the holidays it hasn't been the busiest week for us! Lots of people out of town and/or busy which is understandable. We did have an eating appointment with a less active though! I think it went well. But other than that, Elder Fritz and I had lots of cleaning to do anyway. It was unreal - I go into the kitchen this week and I see, I kid you not, seven different drinking glasses. SEVEN! All Elder Fritz. Not the first time he has done this. So I took the liberty of hiding the majority of the glasses. I have a water bottle so I don't use cups. So I have left him with 2 cups, plenty! and if he wants a 3rd cup he's gonna have to wash one of his 2:) Kinda funny cause it reminded me of all my water bottles I would leave strewn around the house at home all the time and it would drive mom crazy

We head to Dresden tomorrow for interviews with President. I'm excited, I'm going to have a good interview. Hopefully the work picks up this week now that the holidays are over! Sorry for the short email but I'm out of time. 

Love you guys have a good week!

Elder Miller

WEEK 79 DECEMBER 27th, 2016

It was so good to see the fam on Sunday!! You all look so good. I hope everyone had the merriest Christmas! It was a great way to end the last one for me out in the field. Now I can listen to I'll be home for Christmas next year hehahaheheh

On Monday we got to go to Dresden for pday and overnight there because of ztm. Best Weihnachtsmarkt ever. It was so dang cool! I got some rad German Christmas items. 

Tuesday early morning we took off to catch the early temple session. I haven't been in the temple for like 18 months so I felt like I was going through for the first time again. It was fun to see it all in German. Afterwards was ztm and President showed up and gave a really good first lesson. The theme was fear not. He had to leave right after though and from there unfortunately everything just kinda went down hill. It's all good though. We went to the city center afterwards as a zone and "Christmas Caroled” except it was so cold anytime you would try to open your mouth and sing it would just freeze your throat and you would start coughing hahah. 

The rest of the week was quiet until Christmas Eve. In Germany the families open all their presents on Christmas Eve. So all the families, even the ones who don't normally go to church, go to church for an hour. While the family is at church, that's when Santa comes. 

Lots of member appointments kinda came up at of nowhere just before Christmas so that was nice. Lots of member time, lots of games. President even let us watch Disney movies for the 3 days of Christmas. Fritzy and I watched Inside Out, How to Train your Dragon, Monsters Inc, and I watched tangled by myself;) so good. Felt so so good to watch a movie again - wow. Hopefully that's not all I do when I get home cause it was honestly incredible. 

Hard to believe we're coming up on 2017. I can't wait. It's going to be a great year - I know it. 

I am outta time! But I love you guys like always and I'll write sometime next year:) Happy New year!!

WEEK 78 DECEMBER 19TH, 2016

Heyyy

It was an interesting week.. it does not feel like Christmas in the slightest. I cannot believe I get to see your faces on Sunday! I cannot wait. I have tried to have a positive attitude since I have been here in Forst. I have always tried to have a positive attitude in everything I have done my entire life. But I've discovered recently for myself, sometimes it's okay to be real about things, even if it's not so good. So I'm gonna be real, and I don't know, maybe just try and laugh it off. Forst is honestly terrible. It is bad. Not the ward, the ward is fine. But everything outside of that. Sooo words of encouragement especially now around Christmas would be super appreciated:)

Fast forward to dope Thursday and my bike was stolen. We had been doing some contacting and then we decided to take a break at the church and do a short language study. 45 minutes later we came back outside and I thought, welllll I ain't no mathematician buttt I think we got one less bike here then we had when we walked in! Yes my bike was locked and no I don't know how the person took it. We went to the police station after with a member to file a report. They asked for a picture and the one I sent was the only one I had so I gave it to them hahah. Luckily Bruder Bentke made, I kid you not, the best schnitzel I have ever had since coming here. So at least the night ended good:) 

Friday we went to institute cause one of our investigators wanted to come. Actually I don't even know if I'm allowed to call him that because I have actually never taught him.. but we ended up watching the CHEESIEST short religious film. You could not add more cheese. I really enjoyed it though actually if I'm honest. 

Saturday the ward had a little Christmas gathering. Santa Clause was suppose to come and he had presents for all the little kids who came. But when he walked in 50% of the kids started bawling, it was so funny... Santa would call all the kids' names and those who weren't scared, would come up and do a little performance whether it was sing a little song, read a poem, etc. etc. and then they would get their present. At the end Santa called Elder Fritz and I up to the stage and we had to sing 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' in front of everyone. I was surprised and lucky I remembered all the words..

We get to go to Dresden tomorrow for Pday and then overnight there because we have zone training meeting on Tuesday! And even better, we get to go to the Temple as a zone before hand and do a session! That's pretty much unheard of because Pres does NOT like when missionaries gather. So it's a nice treat! I love being around other missionaries! That means it's a realllyyy good start to Christmas week and I hope it stays good. I will make it stay good. 

I hope everyone has the best week and Christmas! It's really easy to get over stressed and overworked this time of year but just take a step back and enjoy everything. Enjoy the lights, enjoy the music, enjoy being with the family. That's what Christmas is all about, Love.. God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son so that we could have eternal life. There is no greater gift. I'm so grateful for that. I'm so grateful for my family, my friends, and the life I have been blessed with. I love you guys. 

Frohe Weihnachten

Elder Miller

Week 77 December 12, 2016

Dear family and friends,

Another transfer finished! 3 LEFT - WHAT? Slowly starting to freak out. Elder Fritz and I will be staying another one together here in Forst. I'm excited. We're starting to get rolling. 

Tuesday we took some pday time out because Monday we painted the entire day. We pretty much just slept and sat around cause we were so tired and there is 0 to do in Forst anyways. But that night we had a lesson with Mike. I don't know if I explained already who Mike is? But he has had a really rough past and has completely turned his life around. He has come to church the entire past year and has stayed out of trouble. I asked him why has he not been baptized yet or why does he not have a date and he said because the previous Elders told him he wasn't allowed. Elder Fritz and I said umm actually no…. that is not their decision and I texted President and he called me 10 minutes later and wanted to talk to Mike! They talked for a while and President said he wanted to come meet Mike and interview him. Fritz and I were pretty pumped afterwards.

We had a ping pong tournament this week as well. I have not lost a match in 2016;) I was pretty nervous going in because I did NOT want my streak broken and this old fart named Wolfgang is pretty dang good, bringing his own german hand carved paddle while I have this terrible walmart wood. I won my first 4 matches and I was with Wolfgang in the championship. Took care of him no prob tho, just like I have taken care of Rhett Rasmussen, Rigden Brinkerhoff, Tanner Erickson, Nick of course, and anyone else who thought they could contest ;) hahahah

Thursday I was not feeling good. We went to service anyways like we do every Thursday at a place called the Water Mill. I love to serve and help people, but when we go there I don't even know who we're serving or why. Not that there has to be a specific reason but this guy just tells us what to do and then leaves and that's that. They usually have us stack wood or something. Not to mention it's like 30 degrees outside. But one of the guys there kept giving us a hard time because we don't drink coffee. He kept telling us it was healthy because it prevents him from getting headaches, while he was drinking his cup and smoking a cigarette. I don't know what the guy was doing working at the water mill… he should be a nutritionist!! But after an hour and a half I had about enough of that so I was like alright Elder Fritz let's go. Then he threw another fit about how we weren't there long enough blah blah blah. So if it's up to me, Elder Fritz and I will not be going back to that. 

The rest of the week was spent going by some members and preparing for President to come. We also went Christmas caroling with the young men which was a good and funny time. 

Sunday rolled around, President came and then after sacrament meeting we drove to Cottbus to see Mike in the hospital! On the way there he says" You guys are literally in the boonies!" Haha were like thanks Prez - we know! Mike had an operation on his ear for something so that's why he was there. To make a long story short Mike is not quite ready for baptism yet. We made a plan together to prepare him so that when the time comes he can be baptized and he will be ready. Mike is fully willing to do what it takes to get to the next step and that is something really cool to see. 

I gotta bounce but I love you all and hope you have a good week! 

Love,

Elder Miller

WEEK 76 DECEMBER 4TH, 2016

Howdy folks

To be honest this week was just eh....its ok, it happens. We didn't really get a pday because we helped Monday morning with building a stage for the primary program. They had a play they would be performing throughout the week in the church. It was hilarious. Every time at the end, all of them would come back on stage, which was about 8 of them, and they would sing a song. Out of the 5 times I saw the play, including the last performance, they forgot the words halfway through, and all just started mumbling and laughing. Never got old. Cracked up every time. Hahah but Monday night when it was time to write emails the wifi decided to stop working:) Still doesn't work:) Elder Fritz and I just feel kinda awkward about going to a members house and emailing for 2 hours.. maybe we are just overthinking it? But yeah, pretty much got nothing done on Monday that needed to get done. 

Tuesday we ate at Familie Bode. It was good. Sister Bode made enchiladas and then the three sons were there and we all just chatted. One of them leaves for his mission to England on the 13th. After, we got a call from an exterminator. Prior to me coming here the apartment had maggots:) he wanted to come spray our apartment with poison one more time to be safe. So we pretty much had to trash the rest of the day and prepare everything and move furniture and things so he could spray. Luckily we still had time to meet with Mike that night. We are hoping we can make a baptismal date out with him very very soon. We just have to wait and work out some information to see if he is ready and able to be baptized. 

Wednesday was the best day of my life. We were locked out of our apartment in a blizzard:) 

Woke up on Thursday and wondered why I was sick:)

Ferrriday. Ate with familie Gäbler and had enchiladas again hahah. We headed over to Landry's afterward (The dude who just really wants to know if Jesus was black or white) and had a lesson. I learn something new every time I go over there. This time he told us that Satan does good things..? He was like "yeah Satan can heal the sick! That's good! all they gotta do is give him their soul!" He was 100% serious. I wish everyone could sit in with us on a lesson with Landry. The stuff he comes up with kills me. We decided we are just going to start completely over with him from the top. 

Saturday we got another call and were told we are getting a dryer on Monday!!!! We were goin insane! But then they said they wanted to repaint our entire apartment and they need our help and it's going to take about 7-8 hours:))) So we simmered down. That also meant everything we just put back after the exterminator came we had to rearrange all again for painting. Yap so we painted today and had pretty much a VERY deep clean. It was funny the lady that cleaned our kitchen reminded me of mom. She kept telling us "Elders come here I just wanna show you something real quick!" And she would show us, and 5 minutes later she would call us back. Did that like 5 times hahah. But our apartment is so nice now. We got a bunch of new accessories outside of a dryer too, like a trash can and towel hooks:) 

And there ya have it. Elder Miller's week in a nutshell. Oh also, I bought a box to send you guys your Christmas presents. Stuff didn't fit inside though. So I bought a bigger one that I thought would for sure fit this time. Still didn't. Only have myself to blame for that one. 

I have been having the gnarliest dreams lately. Too much Gummi bears before bed so ima take it down a notch. Sometimes I feel like I haven't slept in days.

Love you all!

Elder Miller 

WEEK 75 NOVEMBER 30TH, 2016

Friends and Fam!

Sorry this is late.. the Church wifi has been out so we have been mooching off the wifi in the grocery store. It's slow so we only have time to load the emails we get, then we bounce out of there or else the workers get suspicious. I am writing this email in my notes so I will just send it whenever the next time I get wifi is and then I will write some emails on the computer when the wifi at the church feels like coming back up. Hopefully Thursday night.. But yeah I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving! I sure did 2 days later on Saturday when we celebrated it, so all is good. But on the real Thanksgiving I had some terrible off brand of cheerios and then a not good at all Maggi pack.. Do we have Maggi packs in America?

Anyways Friday we had our hoho ZoKo yayyyy! Got to see some familiar faces. Got a couple good friends going home this transfer. It's so sad, but I'm not far behind them ayyyy:) We saw the new Christmas video, it's so so good. SO much better than last years video with the creepy background music was... Overall it was a good zone conference. President even held almost the entire thing in English for us as a Christmas present :,) Afterwards of course we had to stop at a Christmas Market... Berlin is so unreal during Christmas time. Everything is covered in lights. I might have already said that 1000 times but I can't get over it. I only have one more Zone Conference... crazy stuff. 

Saturday was the Thanksgiving ahhhhhhhh:)) A half American family cooked so tears of joy were shed from Elder Fritz and I. A turkey, stuffing, MASHED potatoes, it ALMOST felt like I was in the states for a couple hours. It was hilarious... They had root beer there, and that's not a thing in Germany so everyone was making a big deal out of it. For about 30 minutes, one small glass of root beer was passed around the room slowly. Every single person did the exact same thing: took a quick sniff of it, grimaced, giggled, took a tiny sip, went "ACH BLEHHHH" and then they would all look at each other and die of laughter. Literally every time. It was like a bunch of cavemen who just discovered something new that was terrible. 

I haven't laughed as much as I did this week in a long time. Elder Fritz and I were by institute this week and there is a handicapped guy in our ward. Super sweet guy. I love him - he is hilarious. He is probably my age, 20 or so, and he comes to class as well. But we were in there and the lady was teaching and during the lesson he kept calling elder Fritz a pig. "Du Schweeiinn, du Schweinnn!" And I was having a hard enough time keeping in my laughing at this point. All of a sudden the topic of the class somehow gets on gay marriage, and from there he kept calling Elder Fritz gay. After that I was done, I couldn't hold it. I was trying so hard to hold it in, I ended up just making weird noises. I got all sweaty and there were tears in my eyes. I tried to leave the room a couple times but I was blockaded in.

This week should be a good week. We have a lot of things planned so the time should fly by. Been feeling really grateful for my mission lately. Sure hasn't been easy, but the more the days pass the more I'm realizing that I am going to miss so many things about it. Thank you to those who have shown constant support to me throughout my mission so far, it means a ton. Even if it is just a quick 2 sentences. December here we come. 

Ich hab' euch so viel lieb 🇩🇪️🇺🇸

Elder Miller 

Week 74 November 21, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving!!

That's super sad I completely forgot it was Thanksgiving this week until someone told me. Germany doesn't celebrate it:/

This week felt super fast and super slow at the same time. There's not much going on out here at the moment to be honest. But Fritzy and I make the most of it. It has rained literally EVERY DAY since I've been here. If I see another drop of rain I'm going to go insane. Which is probably tonight. We have no means of transportation other than bikes, and there is not a single piece of flat ground in this Gosh forsaken city. 100% cobblestone, huge potholes randomly everywhere, dirt etc.etc. The elder before me was like 6 foot 2 and the seat is way too high for me so my feet barely reach the pedals. I wanted to lower it but unfortunately for me the last elder took the bike tool with him? Mix all that in with rain and you get Elder Miller nearly falling off his bike every 10 seconds. Elder Fritz has fallen off twice already. I'm sick of being soaking wet and having a soar rear end all the time so I'm pushing for a car  -  we will see what happens there. We can't even reach a couple of our Dorfs in our area because they are too far. 

ANYWAYS, we meet with this guy named Mike a couple times a week. He's kinda got a rough life backstory and he has recently gotten it back on track. He has a smoking problem and we are working on that with him right now. He comes to church every Sunday though and I can for sure see a baptism there in the future so I am really excited about that.

Landry is one other guy we are trying to teach. He's from Africa and I have sometimes a bit of a hard time understanding him. Super cool guy but every single time we go over there, no matter how hard we try not too, we end up back at the subject of "How do we know Jesus wasn't black? I think he could be black." And he's 100% serious. He says he wants to be baptized but until he gets answers to his questions of what skin color did Jesus, or Adam and Eve have, he can’t…. It's honestly really frustrating. He came to church on Sunday though so that was awesome! 

I can't remember if it was Thursday or Friday but we finally got around to celebrating Elder Fritz' 20th birthday. His family sent him a cake and frosting. We made the cake, but then something must have happened to the frosting, cause it was all watery and yellow and nasty looking.. So Fritz was like, “ well we can just make our own frosting, I know how." A stick of butter, some milk, and an entire box of powdered sugar later we still did not have frosting. I don't even know how to describe what we had. So we kinda looked at each other and decided we should probably just go buy frosting at the store. Unfortunately, it was too late at this point - we weren't allowed to go out - so we put the cake in the fridge. We looked back at the substance we made and we didn't want everything going to waste so we just started throwing random ingredients in there: eggs, baking Soda, vanilla, and then we put it in a cupcake pan and threw it in the oven! Actually turned out not bad, tasted like vanilla powdered sugar bread! We were proud. Made something out of nothing:) 

We went by some contacts with no luck, saw a fight break out at the train station, what else... Forst is kinda rough. This is the first city I've been in that when I walk the streets at night I am always checking my back and making sure I'm aware of people around me. The only bank that Forst has got broken into so we can't even pull money out here right now.

All in all I like Forst though. It's what you make of it:) I'm grateful I'm here with Elder Fritz and that we are having fun regardless of maybe some not so great situations. It could be worse. We went to Berlin today for Pday because it's only about an hour and a half away. I have missed that place so much. It's so happy/sad being there because we can only be there for a few hours before we come back and there is SO MUCH TO DO. I can't wait to come back after my mission.

I'm grateful for my family and friends and all the support I get out here! I love you guys. Have a good Thanksgiving, eat lots of good food for me!

Elder Miller

Week 73 November 14th, 2016

Heyyyyy there,

I hope everyone had a good week! I'm doing well. Just chillin out here in the boonies, aka Forst. It's not bad! There is just nothing here - it's literally empty other than like a grocery store and Döner shop... So we're going to Cottbus for pday today to do some shoppinnnn.

Monday and Tuesday consisted mostly of me just packing and saying goodbye to people. It was really sad to go. I didn't want to leave baby Ashby. It was weird to see my pictures off the walls of our apartment and my stuff taken out after six months of it being there. We spent our last pday in Kiel and went bowling. I literally bowled 4 strikes in a row one round. I ended with like a 171 score -  I should honestly probably go pro. Anyways we went out to dinner and ended the night at a traditional bayrisch restaurant where we all had schnitzel. 

We did transfers on Wednesday so after sticking around for as long as I could, I boarded my ICE. I gave one final wave goodbye out the window to my friends as my train departed from the infamous Hamburg Hauptbahnhof and disappeared into the white abyss of the Northern Germany snow. I traveled alone reflecting on the past 4 transfers I spent in Neumünster and could do nothing but smile and chuckle to myself. I eventually wound up in Cottbus, met my companion, Elder Fritz,  and we boarded another train to get to Forst!

I'm still kinda trying to learn my way around this new area. Meeting members, investigators, figuring out where stuff is etc. etc. Shouldn't take too long considering how small the city is. There is a lot of youth in the ward. Well not a lot, but for Germany a lot. We play soccer every Saturday and I've barely been able to walk the past couple days. The ward also on Friday had this cook off competition between the young men and women. Elder Fritz and I, along with a couple others, were the judges and it was way fun. 

Fritzy is from Utah. He is a sweetheart. We are going to have a fun transfer. It's only a 5 week one so it should go by super quick. He's really musically talented and can play the mandolin too so I gotta have him teach me some stuff.

I hope everyone is doing well! Miss you and love you.

Elder Miller

Elder Ashby and I

TRAIN RIDE

FORST CHURCH

WEEK 72 NOVEMBER 7TH, 2016

Halloooo

Yes yes the rumors are true. After 4 transfers in Neumünster I am being shipped off. I struggled the whole week with sleep at night. I knew I was leaving, I just didn't know exactly where. Transfers are actually a really scary thing if you can't already imagine. In Germany, certain areas have built reputations for themselves over the years and these reputations are bounced around from missionary to missionary like teenage girl gossip.   So everyone is pretty well aware of cities they want to steer clear from. My next area, on the border of Poland, on the dark and scary threshold of Sachsen, deep in the east, bombed to smithereens in World War 2 and never rebuilt, is a city with an extremely well known reputation. The small city of FORST will be my next home for at least the next 5 weeks, and could very possibly be my last area before I am home bound. Forst Forst Forst... My entire mission I have known about Forst. And have heard mostly not good things about the city. BUT, everyone very well seems to know that they have arguably the best ward in the mission. Win - lose. Bombed city, bomb ward. 

My new companion is Elder Fritz. He's relatively new on his mission and hasn't had it so easy. So Pres wants me to go in and cheer him up so ima do my best!

But gosh I'm gonna miss Elder Ashby so much. We had so much fun these last 2 transfers and I'm so lucky I got to train him. He's got a good mish ahead of him. I'm a proud father. 

I will miss this place. I feel like here is where I really learned how to become a missionary. How to really work with people and how to really figure things out on my own. I came into contact with a lot of friends that I will love forever. Crazy another chapter comes to an end. Neumünster will always have a place in my heart. 

See y'all in Forst:)

BYE BYE ELDER ASHBY :(

THE BISHOP AND I

THE NWADILIMS

Week 71 October 31st, 2016

Moin Moin! Happy Halloween!

''Twas a solid week this week. Finally after what felt like an eternity of bad weeks we were gifted with a good one. 

Monday night we ate with family Jäger. I love Bruder Jäger! He's such a solid, funny guy. His wife cooks awesome too. After we ate and chatted about mission life we got up and were getting ready to head out and he said, "ich finde es toll das Sie hier auf mission sind." I think it's really cool that you guys are here serving missions... I just about cried on the spot. Nobody has ever said that to me in this country like that so directly. He served in Switzerland so he just understands missionary life in Europe..

Tuesday good old Herr Gerlich. I love Herr Gerlich. He would be the best member. It's just plain and simply not his time yet. The thing is, when we have differences in doctrine or different outlooks on scriptures, there is never contention. Never. We simply put ourselves in each others shoes and see it from the opposite point of view. He said that's one of the reasons he loves meeting with us. I remember when I first started teaching him, I asked him regardless of the differences we had, if he felt the spirit when he met with us, and he said no. But this last time as we ended with a prayer he stood up and said, "Ya know guys we discussed a lot of differences today, but I definitely felt the spirit." 

Wednesday we ate at Familie Nwadilim. The guy is half Nigerian but raised in Germany and his wife is from the Netherlands. I kid you not we had 4 different languages going at once. They have a baby and the dad only speaks Spanish to it, the wife only speak Dutch to it, we were speaking English to it, and then mixing German at the dinner table. Crazy. It was so fun. Where have they been my whole time here in Neumünster dang it!? 

Thursday was shot because we had to go to Rendsburg. A city a little north. I did a baptismal interview for a 9 year old stud named Arkhadi. He's from Armenia and his parents just moved here about 6 months ago and speak Russian. They were baptized last year but wanted him to wait until he grew up a little bit and then make his own decision. A year I guess. Well he passed with flying colors yeeeeee!! #getaufed

The rest of the week was normal mish life but good! We had a zone pday today and carved pumpkins and played mafia. Was a good time. 

Love you guys! Happy Halloween! 

Elder Miller