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Playing Volleyball on Preparation Day!
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Email from Monday, May 25, 2015
Hoi mannekes, (Hello Friends!...loose translation...doesn't translate literally!)
So I'm getting a new companion! Whoo! 6 for 6! (This will be Elder Muller's sixth transfer. A transfer is a six week period. And this will be his sixth new companion!) I am actually pretty excited. My new companion is my buddy, Elder Hills! We are going to have a blast together.
Elder Paur is getting transferred to Genk, Belgium. We were actually pretty surprised because President had told us that we were probably going to stay together.... So much for that haha. Elder Hills and I are going to have a blast though.
The Elders te Cappelle (from Cappelle, another area) got closed down. Due to visa problems, there are not enough new missionaries coming in to replace the ones going home, so our area just doubled in size. So we will be teaching all of their investigators now. Good news, we probably won't have to do any hardcore door knocking for awhile, we will be busy with our current investigators, and now theirs as well. Bad news, our area just got huge, and we don't know it at all....such is missionary life! ha ha.
So this week has actually been tough. It seems that after five weeks of the windows of heaven being open and blessings pouring out upon us, the Lord saw fit to actually give us some challenges this week. Nothing too serious, just appointments falling through and people not coming to church. Stuff that was totally beyond our control. This week should be better, hopefully. V--- should be getting baptized Saturday, so I´m pretty excited.
SOOOO this week.....
Tuesday was pretty cool. We had a really cool dinner appointment with a young family in the ward. They are SUPER Dutch, so it was pretty fun. They have two little girls who are just super cute bundles of joy. We had a great time getting to know them better. That was something that Elder Paur and I were focusing on, and something that Elder Hills and I will continue. Getting to know the members better. Sadly Dutch people aren't always warm and cuddly, and they aren't always very outgoing. So we are trying to do our best to change that--at least on our side. (My Dutch friends, please don't take offense to that! The same description can be used for Belgium people! Belgian and Dutch people are warm and fuzzy once you get to know them! It is just some times a bit harder to break into their circles!)
Wednesday we went on splits with the Elders from Cappelle. Elder Jones and I went to teach an investigator that they have who is a computer programmer. We thought it would be cool if I went and taught them because I love computers as well. #nerdlife Sadly, he wasn't home, so we knocked doors and contacted instead.
We did have a cool experience though. Elder Jones and I decided to contact a Jehovah's Witness standing outside the metro station. We see them a lot, and normally we don't talk to them because, sadly, a lot of them like to argue with us. But for some reason I felt prompted to talk this guy. We went up to him, and asked him if he could give us a five minute explanation of what he believes. It ended up being a 45 minute conversation about faith in Jesus Christ and people having agency in their lives. It was one of the coolest contacts we have had in awhile. At the end he was like, "Ik vind het echt tof dat jullie met me gesproken hebben. Jullie zijn echt goede mensen, en ik ben blij dat jullie bezig zijn om anderen met hun geloof te helpen. Ik wist niet dat jullie zo toffe mensen waren." So now he loves the Mormon missionaries... :) (I find it really great that you spoke with me. You are really good people, and I am happy that you are busy trying to help others develop their faith. I didn't know that you guys were such great people!) Elder Muller's Dutch is flawless is this passage!!
Thursday we went on exchanges with the District Leaders. I was with Elder Blackhurst in Zuid (Rotterdam South). We had a pretty fun day. We started off by doing service for one of the members. We did yard work with the zone leaders for most of the morning and into the afternoon. We made it fun, and they fed us lunch, what more could you want? We did lookups and door contacting for most of the rest of the day, nothing too exciting. We did get ice cream though. Elder Blackhurst is dying this week, and I was his last exchange, so I tried to make if fun. (Dying is missionary speak for going home...finishing his mission!)
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| Elder Strikwerda |
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| Elder Tomiainen - From Finland! |
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Missionaries Doing Service! (If you need help with anything, find your local Mormon Missionaries...They Will Help!!)
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| Elder Muller & Elder Blackhurst |
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| Ice Cream!! |
We did have a nice dinner appointment though, it was with the Stake Patriarch. They have this little bird that roams free... pictures are uploading as I´m typing this :)
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| The bird seems to like Elder Muller! |
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| "Free Bird!" |
Here is a link to explain what a Stake Patriarch calling is:
Friday we had a good day as well, we mostly did our weekly planning and prepared for V--- baptism. Pretty exciting!
Saturday was a tough day.... All three of our appointments fell through.... yay. At least we had a really fun dinner appointment with Familie Van Den H---. We had some really awesome traditional Dutch food. Stamppot It was amazing.
Here is a link for Stamppot. It is a great dish, with many variations. It's all about getting the vegetables mixed in with the mashed potatoes!
Sunday was fun! We had a big BBQ with all the missionaries in the Rotterdam area with a member named Mama G. It was a blast just chilling with 14 missionaries in one dinner appointment. Pictures are included....
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| Sunday Dinner Appointment at Mama G's! |
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Elder Muller's Buddy, Elder Pugh at Mama G's
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Something that I learned this week..... I learned to appreciate the scriptures more. We have seen in our companionship the difference we have while we are teaching when we teach out of the scriptures. I finished the Book of Mormon this week for the first time on my mission. My testimony of the scriptures has really grown as I have studied them. It is so cool to see how things that you just happened to study that morning help you later through out the day. It is awesome :)
Well that´s about it this week. Love you guys,
Elder Müller
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| Cutting the cake we made! |
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| They ate too much cake! |
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The Cake!
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| Elder Muller's buddy, Elder Lindstrom...might be the last time they see each other because Elder Lindstrom is completing his mission and returning home. |
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| Elders Pugh and Sudweeks...always smiling! |
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Friends from the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah! left to right: Sisters Jensen, Kimmons, Hansen, Elders Hunter, da Silva, Muller and Silva!
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Elder Muller saying "Dat mag niet!"...that's not allowed!
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