WEEK 92 MARCH 28TH, 2017

This week from Monday to Wednesday we were on super exchange in Wartenau. I was with Elder Thiriot and we came back to Bergedorf for the day to try and get some work done. Elder Thiriot is quiet and doesn't like to have fun. I learned that from my first exchange with him last transfer but he's a good kid! We contacted a referral out in Egypt and he ended up not existing. Well actually, that's not true. There are 4 different places of his exact address in our boundaries so we just need to do some hunting for the right one and see if it exists. Other than that we did some street contacting, gave out some cards and then headed back.

Wednesday was a good time, more street contacting and going by people. There was institute that night and it was my first time being at that. I saw Enrik from Neumünster! He walked in but didn't see me at first and then I coughed loudly to get his attention, he looked over and was like ELDER MILLER! It was fun to catch up.

Thursday was Elder Hickenlooper and I's first white day in a while... 'Twas not fun. We did a lot of doors. At one door this guy told us there is no way there is a God. I asked why not and he proceeded to give me the whole "look at all the war and suffering" spiel. He started to shut the door and I'm not usually the persistent missionary type but I spit some fire right back. He shut the door after anyway but he didn't give me backlash so maybe he's thinking about it..

We weekly planned on Friday then went to Bruder Imbeck's to hack some wood. It's actually way hard. I was sore the next couple days.. After we got in his car and he says we'er gonna go visit Elena. Elena is a recent convert but she went inactive literally right after. She's an 1,000 mph crazy Italian. She does not stop talking. One thing to the next. She doesn't come to church because it's too early and she says she needs sleep. So we're just working on getting her to sacrament which starts at 11:15. She actually came on Sunday. She was late but it's a start!!

That's about all the big stuff I believe.. We visited Michaelis Kirche

today for Pday. You climb to the top and can see all of Hamburg. It was rad. Three weeks to go hard! Love you all!

Ciao,

Elder Miller

WEEK 91 MARCH 20TH, 2017

One month.. Kinda freaking out about it. We have somewhat developed a

teaching pool here in Bergedorf so that has helped to take my mind off

it a little bit.

Tuesday night was SO dope! We had about 10 people at ping pong! 4

non-members and 6 members. Elder Hickenlooper and I made

advertisements for it a few weeks back and went around to the grocery

stores and university and hung them up. We were kinda disappointed

that nobody was coming the first couple of weeks. But low and behold

two new people saw it at the grocery store and they came and had a

good time! They didn't beat me though:)

Wednesday was pretty much spent at the train station helping

missionaries get on and off with their luggage. We had a contact near

there as well that we tried to drop by on but a homie in his

underwear (that was not the same guy) answered and said he wasn't home

so.... yeah.

Thursday we went home teaching/had an eating appointment with sweet

old Schwester Kindt. She is so funny. She was explaining how no one in

the ward will help her with some kitchen remodeling and Bruder Maak,

our joint teach said "well the missionaries can do it!" And of course

we would. We would be so happy to help Schwester Kindt with anything but

then she goes "ohhhhh yaaaaa missionaries, bring the missionaries, that's what 

everyone tells me! No! they have another job to do!" She just gets it...

Friday we planned almost literally the entire day. Got a big Easter

initiative coming up and we are gonna do lots of good here in Bergedorf

with that.

We brought a new guy to soccer on Saturday. His name is Mehbrahtom and

he is 19 from Ethiopia. Super cool. He self referred himself online

and asked for a Book of Mormon so we stopped by, brought him one, and

invited him to soccer and he came! He didn't come to church though:/

We will see what goes on with him.

We also had a random guy walk in church the other week and he came

again this week. He is an alcoholic and says he wants help and he

wants to go to therapy and make things right with God. Really super

sweet guy and it's kinda sad to see cause you can tell he definitely

has a problem but is trying to fix it. We will see what happens there

as well.

All in all it was a solid week. It has rained non stop which is a

bummer and super annoying but whatever. Excited for the weeks to come!

Love you all! Have the best week!

Elder Miller 

WEEK 90 MARCH 14TH, 2017

Liebe Squad,

And so it has arrived. The last transfer of my mission. It doesn't really feel real. Kinda want it to stay that way though so I can focus on giving it everything I got and finishing as strong as I can.

Few highlights: We visited Bruder Kaprinski on Tuesday while I was on exchange with an Elder from Lauenburg. This is the really old, less active guy who gets very distracted easily and talks about food 99% of the time. So we are showing him a short Mormon message about Geduld, and I kid you not 15 seconds into the 3 minute video the guy just got up and left! It was a part where Uchtdorf explained an experience while he was in the military and Bruder Kaprinski goes "hey my grandson is in the military!" Leaves for about a minute and then brings out a bunch of old pictures of him and starts explaining them. Absolutely no regard for the video.. it was funny. I think he is just at that age. 

Thursday we went on exchange again with the Elders in Wartenau. We went to their district meeting and I kinda never wanna go back to my four man ever again.. They have eight! It is double the size of my district. Unfair. Anyways I was with Elder Lex! He is from Österreich (Austria), and is one of my favorite missionaries of all time. We went by on a contact, talked to a couple people, but then it started to really come down again so we went to the church and prepared for the English class we had that night.

Friday we met with a man name Herr Zirkler. He is a Buddhist and the lesson was verrrry interesting. Basically the guy is super nice, but I think he is crazy. He is Christian, believes in the New Testament, but not the Old Testament, and reincarnation! Don't really understand what's Christian about reincarnation but ya know. I have met with a couple Buddhists on my mission and things don't seem to go anywhere. And this lesson definitely went nowhere so we are probably gonna leave him alone for a while. Elder Hickenlooper was gettin a little heated, nothing bad but I kinda had to step on his foot a couple times during the lesson;) at the end I just asked him to ask himself this week if he was a Buddhist because it was comfortable for him, or if he felt like that was really God'

s will. It's not always easy to be a member of the church of Jesus Christ, but I believe 100% that is how it is meant to be. 

Other than that we have been trying to find lots of new people. After a transfer of no success going by and trying to make out appointments with old contacts we don't know, I told Hick that I am done and I want to find my own people. So we're gonna give that a go. We got transfer calls on Saturday and I will be dying here in Bergedorf. Hickenlooper will kill me and I am his first comp he has had for more than 1 transfer. I am excited to end my mission here in Hamburg. 

Anddd that's pretty much it I think.. The sun shined 3 days in a row this week.. Unbelievable it was amazing! I love you all! Thank you for the prayers, they are needed.

Hab' euch lieb. Bis nächste Woche! 

Elder Miller 

Lunch

Gave Elder lex one of my caramel apple suckers. His first one. 
Er hat sich gefreut. Lecker!

IT'S FINALLY HERE - NOAH'S RELEASE LETTER!

Miller Family,

We are grateful to have had Elder Noah Miller, serving in our mission. I’m sure letters have shown the excitement he has experienced while serving the people here. As we approach the end of his mission it is time for us to prepare for his release.

 Elder Miller  will be released and fly home on 20 Apr 2017.  Until that time, we feel it is very important for him to continue to serve to the end with all his  heart, might, mind, and strength. We will try to make the planning process as little of a distraction as possible and we encourage you to help him to focus on his missionary efforts as well.  Nevertheless, Elder Miller will be informed  about the details of his release and trip home.

 I hope that the last months of Elder Noah Miller's mission will be among the most treasured. We are thankful for the efforts and dedication that he has given in service of the Lord. We are also thankful for the support you have given him in this work. 

May the Lord continue to bless you.

Sincerely,

Christian H. Fingerle, President
Germany Berlin Mission

WEEK 89 MARCH 8TH, 2017

It was a quick week this week and went pretty well. To start off on Wednesday Elder Sabin from the 70 came and visited us and had some really good things to say. 'Twas rad. Always fun to see half the mission too, even though I don't know a lot of the missionaries anymore. I'm an old man. Something that stood out to me that Elder Sabin said was, if we want to know the truth we have to pay the price. Many times we want answers and truth and blessings but we aren't willing to do the things we need to do in order to receive these truths, blessings and answers.  Many things in life that are worth it, with few exceptions, aren't going to come easy.

On Friday we had another Spanish family home evening. Spanish people are crazy. A different kind of crazy than Germans. But it's a good crazy. We had a better turn out this time. I can never understand a word but it's always a fun time. I wanna learn Spanish when I get home. 

Those are pretty much the two big highlights of the week. We had Zone pday today and had a cook off. Elder Lex from Austria wanted to make these pastry things and they were actually pretty good but I don't think we won. They were rolled up cooked dough balls and inside them had strawberry and chocolate. We called them wonder balls. But Elder Chadwick and his squad had sisters so obviously that's unfair and they made like some chicken curry something with pineapples and it was spicy and good and blah blah blah. The secret ingredient we had to put in was honey. We won in my book though. 

I thought Hickenlooper and I caught fire this week! We planned on having an investigator at church and 2 or 3 less actives. Except we ended up having 0 investigators and 1 Spanish less active who can't speak German. Better than none though right? Happens. We get transfer calls this week which blows my mind so we will see what happens. I would like to stay in Hamburg. 

Love you all! Tschüssyyyy 

Elder Miller 

WEEK 88, FEBRUARY 27TH, 2016

Hi family!

Sorry not a lot of time today as usual - my bad. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and that was good vibes. Till I saw my bill. 

Anyways quick funny story of the week. We got to head down to the temple on Wednesday and that was way good as always. Had our own Harry Potter room to ourselves the entire way down. 6 hours. We rolled into Freiberg a little before 9 and it was sprinkling rain. It's about a 45 minute walk from the train station to the Temple hotel. At about the last 10-15 minute stretch it started pouring HAIL. The temple is on a hill so for the rest of that time Elder Hickenlooper and I were sprinting for what felt like miles through BB pellet hail. It hurt. By the time we showed up to the receptionist, you guessed it - we were sopping wets. We also shared our room with another man visiting the temple. We opened up the door and realized he was sleeping and didn't want to wake him so we both hurried in the bathroom. The first thing we notice? His nice fresh pair of teeth sitting on the sink:) We still had to make some calls so we scuffled out of the room again laughing. We got back later and the light was on this time so I thought we were about to face a grumpy old man but he was so nice. I said sorry we were late and awoke him but he said no problem he was just happy he didn't have to be alone! Cute lil old grandpa dude. Gave us chocolate before we left the next morning. I'm grateful for the temple. It feels like I have been on the go on the go on the go for weeks and I finally got to slow down and have some time to think for myself. 

We have some appointments made out though for this week so it should be better week! I'm excited! I love you all and miss you.

Have a good one!

Elder Miller

WEEK 86, FEBRUARY 14TH, 2016

Not much to write about this week! Very little happened. People don't really feel like opening up the door this time of year cause they don't wantto let all the cold air in. Understandable....

Hoping this week we will see a little more! The sun came out today so that was good! We went to tour the Hamburg soccer stadium for my birthday but it was closed so we're just gonna go next week. Can't believe I'll be 21 on Wednesday whatttt???!!! Time really flies.

We did actually get the chance to meet with some less actives this week though. One man named Bruder Kaprinski. He is old. He loves to cook though and no matter what we talk about, without fail, he manages somehow to tie it in with cooking or food. It was so bad at one point Elder Hickenlooper and I just started cracking up trying so hard to

hold it in but we just couldn't. He's so nice though. We finally got to share our spiritual thought, invited him to church and got outta there.

We are getting ping pong Tuesdays started back up tonight in the church. Already have a couple people who said they are coming so I am way excited about it:) Hope everyone has a good week!

Happy Valentine's Day! Love you guys so much!

Elder Miller

WEEK 85, FEBRUARY 7TH, 2017

Tom Bradyyyyyyyyyy I am not even surprised. Go Pats!

I'm in Hamburg. I love it. It was literally a breath of fresh air as soon as I stepped out of the train. Lights, big buildings, people. Amazing. So different from Dark, empty Forst! It should be an aight transfer. My comp Elder Hickenlooper is a good guy. He's organized, he has some unusual cleaning requests and he's not a fan of shoes in the house so that's good. He is doing his 24/7 German transfer these next 6 weeks so it will be good practice.  He is starting his 4th transfer so he is still a fresh young buck. We are working hard and good so far. I can barely make it to 9 without falling asleep. 

The ward is good. Small but good. Got about 30 old people every Sunday hahaha. Everyone is really nice though. We got to visit a couple families this week as well as the branch president. He is awesome - just him and his wife. We weren't planning on having an eating appointment on Sunday but the only young family invited us over for lunch during church. They have a couple crazy kids so that's always fun.

So Monday and Tuesday was pretty much just packing and finishing up goodbyes. We played ping pong with Mike one last time and I wanted to let him win and I thought about it, but I just couldn't. We went to the Woites, had tacos, said goodbye to the crazy kids and the next day I was off to Hamburgggg:) 

Thursday and Friday we got right to it. It was a longer weekly planning to get me familiar with everything but later we got to some finding, went by on some contacts and called people. We had a little bit of luck so we will see what this next week brings. We got to have my first appointment with a dude named Andy. Super cool. Just believes that he doesn't need to do anything except chill because Jesus has taken care of everything already hahah. We will see what we can do about that.

Saturday we had a gnarly service project. Dang Germans and their wood. Here's the thing, half of Germany is still living in the 19th century. So they have to constantly burn wood to heat their freaking house if they wanna stay warm. If they run out of wood they are in trouble, so we spent 4 hours chopping, hauling, and stacking! All good though.

I really like Hamburg so far. Can't believe I am going to say it but I think it tops Berlin. I've seen about 20 Jaguars, a couple Ferraris, Teslas, a billion Range Rovers, some Rolls Royces. Ridiculous. I think the people who live here have a little bit of dollars. But I'm praying Elder Hickenlooper and I see some success this transfer, I believe we will! Grateful to start this last chapter of my mission and finish strong! 

Love you!

Elder Miller 

WEEK 84, JANUARY 30TH, 2016

Transfer calls came and I ammmmm...... 

OUTTI FIVE THOU!! 

After two in Forst I'm headed for a bigg change! HAMBURG:) The city is called Bergedorf and I have heard good things about it so I'm way excited.

Plus yeah it is Hamburg sooo. My new comp is Elder Hickenlooper. Yeah, took me a few days to get his name down.. Hickendocker, Hickendooper,

Hickepoo...er  Anyways, he is in his fourth transfer so he's still pretty fresh. Heard he's a good kid and a hard worker so it should be good.

Other than that news, not much this week! Wednesday we went down to Freiberg to watch the worldwide missionary training conference. Way, way good. As a lot of you know, there has been some big schedule changes allowing us to be a lot more flexible with our time and choosing when we do things. It's going to be so much more efficient - I love it. We overnighted and then on Thursday went to the Temple and did baptisms. Always a good time in the Temple.

Sunday goodbye day was sad as always. It's always sad to leave some of your favorite members. We have a couple more appointments before we head out on Wednesday though. Thank you all for the continued support!

See y'all in Hambuuurrrggggg!

Tschüß!

Elder Miller

Bruder Bentke

The why do I gotta get transferred pose

Lena

Elder Illum goes home this week so we held his funeral.

 

Bye Forst!!!

WEEK 83, JANUARY 25TH, 2016

What's goooood!

It was a quick week this past one. Seemed like we were pretty busy looking for something to be busy with.. hahah

Tuesday was the first really good zone training meeting I have had in a long time. They gave some assignments to some older missionaries this time and they all killed it. Lots of motivational stuff and words of encouragement towards having a good attitude, positive mindset, and being confident. God qualifies whom he calls. We all have the ability when we're worthy, especially as missionaries, to get through tough times and to not fear. 

Thursday we went to eat at Familie Woites. They are probably my favorite family here in Forst. They are so real and honest and I feel like we can talk to them about anything. They respect us as missionaries but also treat us like normal people and not church robots like a lot of people think we are. The wife is American and she married a German. He speaks better English then I do though, it's crazy. They have three kids. The oldest daughter is maybe 6 or 7 and speaks fluent English and German and she speaks to us in English. But the other two are about 4 and 5 and they try to speak English but halfway through they always switch to German - it's so funny. I love going over there, it's always a good time. 

Friday we drove to a little Dorf outside of Forst called Döbern. We doored that place for about three hours till I couldn't feel anymore it was so so cold. We only really had luck at one door. She was super nice and said we could come back except there was no way she is coming to church ever. It was nice to get a change of scenery though. We came back and weekly planned and that was about it.

Saturdayyy we went to the temple:) Elder Fritz doesn't like to go which makes no sense to me, but I make him because it's not an opportunity you get often. Takes 4 hours to get there which really blows but it's all good. I printed out like 8 names for baptisms and we got there and they didn't have enough workers so we couldn't do it!! Our fault we should have called so that was kind of a bummer. Anyway, we did initiators instead, which aren't as fun but still necessary so whatevsss. 

Mannoh. It is the last week of the transfer. It's been a tough past little while. Probably the toughest of my mission. I've been thinking a lot about what Eyring said some General Conferences back. If the foundation of faith is not embedded in our hearts, then the power to endure will crumble. It has echoed in my head. Sometimes faith is the only thing that keeps us going and that's why it is so important not to lose it. I know we are the children of a living God who loves us. Everything he gives us and lets us experience, the good and the bad, is meant to shape us into the people he knows we can become. Just gotta let it. Fight the good fight, keep the faith.

Love you guys

Elder Miller