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

Week 50 June 6th, 2016

Gucci Greetings from Neumünster!!!

Wow what a first week here! I love it so much already. How do I begin

to describe this place..? If the city of Compton and the projects of

Brooklyn had a baby, it would be Neumünster. Elder Spangenburg was not

lying when he said it was ugly. The only nice part of town is by a

mall a little ways from our apartment and it lasts for about 20

yards:)

On Monday we had our last pday in Bremen with the district. We just

kinda hung out and enjoyed each others company for the last time.

Played a little ping pong, (I have not lost a match of ping pong in

the year 2016;)) ate lunch, and yeah. When we came back to Bremerhaven

we went to Bruder Daniel's for my last family home evening. He cooked

a ton of steak, wurst, chicken etc. and we ended with some games

before I said one final Tschüss. Really going to miss that family and

going over there every Monday night!

Tuesday was the normal weird feeling stage the day before you leave

your area. I was excited to go, but I also started to get really sad

thinking about some of the people I was about to leave, especially Oma

Tants! I went over there for one last time and tried to keep it cool and

normal as possible. I did the usual and drank pretty much all of the

poor old ladies Apfel Schorle, and things were going smooth! But we

shared our spiritual thought and I bore my testimony telling her how

grateful I was for her and then it was game over. Oma Tants was

shedding tears:( She says "Du darfst nicht gehen, du bist mein

Taufer!" I said not to worry because we will be staying in contact for

sure! And I invited her to my wedding and said that we would pay for

her ticket mom sorry:)

Wednesday transfersssssssuhhhh. Hopped on the train to Hamburg with

Elder Matis and Sister Ellis and our 15 bags of luggage and took off!

Got to Neumünster and just unpacked.

Thursday we did some street contacting! It was so so so hot. We

stopped at the store and bought an 11 pack of Popsicles. I ate 5 and

Elder Spangenberg ate 6.. We went to Familie Matthiesen afterwards, a

family in the ward and they fed us! They will be the fun family of the

the ward I can tell:)

Friday ehh weekly planning

Saturday we had a ward activity at the lake. We played a bunch of

games, threw around a football and BBQ'd ja wohl:)

Sunday first Sunday:) it was a conference thing and only two hours.

But that didn't stop the ward from making me get up there and

introduce myself unfortunately.. I was nervous.. I'm used to a

branch of 20-25 people not 80! The building is way nice. It's a stake

center so it's pretty big. I feel like I'm in America on Sundays

because of just the building, all the people, and there's a ton of

little primary kids running around causing havoc. I honestly love it! I

could have stayed there all day.

It's going to be a fun transfer! Elder Spangenberg is awesome and were

going to see some miracles out here I know it!

Love you guys - have an awesome week:)

Elder Miller

Week 49 May 30th, 2016

Dear friends and fam,

Alrighhttyy 7 week transfer is in the books! And I will be heading

too........ Drum rollllll drum drum drum drum drum drum NEUMÜNSTER! I

can't get out of the North.. My new comp is Elder Spangenburg and no, he's

not a native. I've heard good things about him so I'm way pumped! It's

been a rough last couple transfers. I love Bremerhaven and I always

will but it is my time. Elder Spangenburg says Neumünster is very

ugly! Yay! But he also says the WARD, yes WARD, not branch is amazing

and the members are so good and that makes me so happy!! 70-80 people

every Sunday... I'm like a giddy school boy over here thinking about

that! Unreal! My main Elder Glissypoo has been transferred only a few

cities away as well!! I'm going to miss this district though. Love

everyone in it and it's always hard to say goodbye for who knows how

long.

Anyways, lets get to the natty gratty. Wednesday night we were

dreading having to wake up at 5 to catch a 6 am train to Hannover for

zone conference. *Ring Ring Ring* "Hallo hier ist Elder Miller" " Hey

Elder Miller it's Elder Kreutz, yeah so you actually were one of the

missionaries picked to have an interview with Elder Adler of the 70!

Can you be in Hannover an hour earlier?" "JAA MACH ICH" So we went

down to Bremen, spent the night there so we wouldn't have to wake up

at 3am, and caught a yoga class with the sisters and their ward before

heading to bed. 

Zone Konference was good. My interview with Elder Adler was something

I needed. It was short but the opportunity to talk with a 70 one on

one ANYTIME is an amazing opportunity that I will always remember! He

told me never to forget in my testimony, to know that Jesus lives.

Many people say that, but do we actually know what that truly means?

He is literally here. For us. He wants us so bad to choose the right

so we can live with him again. This life is not easy but he is

constantly stretching his arm out for us to grab. He wants to help us.

And the knowledge of that alone can be SO powerful. 

It was good to see my MTC comp Elder day again. He's a good AP and he takes care of me;) I

texted him on transfer call day and I said "You call me first." And he actually did it! 

What a stud😂

Fast forward to my last Sunday yesterday... Wow, so tough saying goodbye to

people you love. The branch was not too happy with me and the fact

that I am leaving. I made a lot of good friends here and have had a

lot of good times on the Nordsee. I will for sure miss it and I won't

soon forget it. I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to serve here.

I still have things planned with the Daniels and Frau Tants so I

haven't had to say goodbye to them yet. Not looking forward to that..

But I'm so excited for this new and upcoming opportunity in my new

city. Thank you for all the continued support. I love you all so much!

See ya'll in Neumünster:)

Elder Noah Miller

Week 48 May 23, 2016

Guten Tag meine liebe Freundchen:)

It was an awesome week this week. Awesome awesome awesome. I learned a

ton. This is the last week of our extended transfer and I'm sad but at

the same time I'm excited. I'm ready for a change, but I'm not going

out without a bang here.

On Wednesday/Thursday we had the normal district meeting and our ZL's

came. They gave a thema and it was way needed. Haven't been this pumped for

a long time but they did a really good job on exciting us. They

exchanged with Elder Rogers and I afterwards and I was with Elder

Hopkins for the day. Such a stud. We talked a lot about the mission.

It's is in a little bit of a funk right now. A lot of missionaries

aren't exactly motivated. It's a long story and there are a lot of

factors involved BUT WE JUST ALL GOTTA BUY IN OR NO ONE IS GOING TO BE

HAPPY AND WERE NOT GONNA BE SUCCESSFUL.

Friday we went over to Frau Tants', ate her famous currywurst and had

Deutsch Kurs. She reads to us out of a book and we have to write down

what she says with correct spelling and all and then she corrects it:)

Your boy got like a 92% this last time with only a couple spelling

errors.

Saturday turned out to be really good. The branch had their annual

"Frühlings Fest". I was absolutely ticked at the beginning because

they had Elder Rogers and I carry down all the tables and chairs to

set up. Now I'm all about helping, but when we are doing all the work

while everyone else is watching and talking that's when I start

getting a little testy. Plus these chairs and tables weren't just

plastic little things, they were big heavy wooden tables and chairs.

And we have a 4 story church. Two of the seven tables came from the

4th floor. But everyone helped clean up and it went twice as fast so 

Elder Miller was a happy camper:)

In our appointment with the refugees, We taught them about the word of

wisdom and law of chastity. Afterwards Mohammed typed into google

translate and showed us "I believe in this religion because it is so

pure." That was a really cool experience for me. I thought a lot about

his comment throughout the rest of the day and week. It makes so much

sense. Christs' true church on the earth would be nothing short of

perfectly pure. And that's what we preach very boldly as Saints. To do

nothing that would have the potential or opportunity to harm our

bodies. Even if it might not be bad in "moderation" or "just once or

twice". Don't even make it a possibility. I'm grateful for that short

short sentence that really grew my testimony for these two

commandments.

I love you guys!

Elder Miller

Week 47 May 16th, 2016

Hi friends and family!

Not a lot of time again today so this is gonna be a short one:)

It was a quiet week for us but it was still good! We had our refugee friends at church on Sunday and they loved every second of it. I love those people. We taught them about the Holy Ghost! Sometimes it's hard but google translate did a good job this week:) We are going to Cuxhaven again to meet with them tomorrow.

I went on exhange with Elder Staley on Wednesday! He's so sick! He is from Oregon and we had a way good time. Finding and.. Yeah we pretty much just actually found the whole day. But it surprisingly went fast because we chit chatted in between about everything you could pretty much chit chat about:) Found a couple people that we are going to go by later this week and see if we can make something of it!

We had another Straße Ausstellung (Street Display) on Saturday. It was a little scary because it rained the entire morning leading up to it. Amazingly,  as soon as we got there it stopped! Went for 3 hours and as soon as we were finished, what do you know, it started to down pour again;)

The Elders from Oldenburg spent the night with us last night and we met up with the Sisters to go to the beach today to find that it was closed:( No beach volleyball for us, but it's all good, we found the last floating German U-boat from world war 2 and we toured that thing! Way cool!

I had a few more things but I am out of time so I will write more next week! I am sorry! I love you guys so much!

Elder Miller