Old Father Christmas

This email was received on Monday, December 21, 2015. We have been traveling and just returned home, so I apologize for the late update! 

(Elder Muller was unable to send pictures again, so I "borrowed" some from a member friend who saw him on Tuesday, December 22!)

District Meeting 22 December 2015, Den Haag

Lill Stigter and the Singing Elders after the Christmas Concert!

District Meeting 22 December 2015, Den Haag

Hello and Merry Christmas everyone! 

I hope that you are all enjoying the season as much as I am. This past week has been really long, but really good.

So first off, my son, Elder Foltz. What to know about him. He's 19 and from American Fork Utah. He has never been outside of the western half of the US. He loves to read sci fi, and yeah. There you go. He's a good kid, I've been warming up to him, he's a lot different from any of the other companions that I've had, but that's ok. We've been working hard, and we are starting to see the blessings of it.

So small miracles that made my week really nice.

First, on transfer day I bought a bike from a missionary going home (got a really good deal on it). There were a few problems with it but I figured I would just buy it instead of looking all over the city for a bike I liked. Originally the plan was that I would have to leave the car in Leiden and take the train back, but they let us take the car instead on the condition that we brought it back that evening. So we get back to the apartment, unload all of the stuff (it's about 4 pm) and I call Elder Robison to see where I need to take the car. He said we could keep it until the next morning. BLESSING! Because we had it that one last night, I was able to stuff my new bike in that back, and take it to Den Haag and have it fixed by a member (Broeder Scherf, amazing man, I look up to him a lot). So that was a good start to the week.

Second, when we bought Elder Foltz a bike, I was able to talk to the shop  owner for about 20 min about the gospel while Elder Foltz was trying out different bikes. Really cool!

Third miracle, yesterday our investigator Cleo was going to come to church with us in Den Haag, but he woke up late so he didn't come. We were really sad of course. In Priesthood, Stacey, a member who knows Cleo pulled me out of the meeting really excited. She told me to invite Cleo to the Gouda dienst (service) for the YSA (Young Single Adults) that afternoon, so I did, and he came! (It was another miracle that he even got there because of train problems, but yeah, no time for that, suffice it to say it was a miracle) So It was really nice to have an investigator at church, even if it was in Gouda.

Cool beans, so the subject line of the email. That's what I feel like. This past week two of my companions went home, Elder Childs and Elder Shelton. It only really just hit me this week how old I am compared to all the rest of the missionaries in this mission. I only have 5 transfers left after this one. There aren't very many missionaries going home between now and then, only two groups before mine. It's really weird. I was talking with some of the other missionaries my "age" and it was really refreshing haha. We talked about experiences we had "back in the day" when we were still young missionaries with people who are married or engaged now. Its kind of freaky. Time goes by soooo fast. I'm going to blink and it's going to be over.

Maar goed, (But good, ) I really feel like some old ancient beast that nobody knows anymore. All these young missionaries are great, but it's just strange to not know who anyone is anymore.

Being a trainer is a lot of fun, it's challenging, but I like it. It's been strange having to do normal missionary stuff, but then having to do it all on my own because my companion doesn't know what to do haha. It is good though, I'm learning and growing a lot.

I hope you all have a merry Christmas! I will be Skyping sometime after 4 pm here. Either between 4 and 6, or at like 7 or 8 here. All the missionaries are going to the Bishop's house to do it, so it depends on what order we go in. I can't wait to talk to you guys though, it's going to be fun!

I love you all, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

Elder Muller