0 - The Journey of No End

Hello for the last time from the Netherlands!

I can't believe that this is the last email that I will write as a missionary. It's been two years. 

Well, I will take this time to share my testimony one last time with all of you. 

I'm going to quote a part of Journey of No End, the musical program we did as the Singing Elders, but in my own words. 

What will I remember most when I look back at the stories of my mission? Will it be the district meetings, the doors, the zone P-days? No. It will be the love that I have felt. The love that I have both given and received. The love for the work. The love for the people. The love for the other missionaries. This is the love of God for all of His children. For each and every one of us. I felt His love these past two years, and I have a sure knowledge that His love will continue to help and support me for the rest of my life.  My story did not begin with the MTC (Missionary Training Center), and it does not end with Schiphol (Amsterdam airport), this has been but a chapter. Although this chapter in my story is now at a close, a new one begins. God's love will illuminate the way on our journey of no end. 

I am so grateful for the amazing experiences that I have had the past two years. Deep inside, I still haven't accepted that it's over. One day it will hit me. I'm sure it will be like waking from a dream. 

I know that God loves us. I know that I have been doing His work, and that despite my weaknesses and imperfections, He has molded me into a capable tool in His hands. He has changed me forever. I will never forget the lessons that I have learned here in the Belgium/Netherlands Mission.

I'll see you in a couple days!

Love,

Elder Bryan Müller 

Belgium Netherlands Mission

Sep. 2014 - Aug. 2016

Romans 8:35, 37

8:35: Who shall separate us from the love us Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

8:37: Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 

P.S. If you want to know what I'm feeling, this song describes it pretty well. 

Lay down
Your sweet and weary head
The night is falling
You have come to journey's end
Sleep now
And dream of the ones who came before
They are calling
From across the distant shore

Why do you weep?
What are these tears upon your face?
Soon you will see
All of your fears will pass away
Safe in my arms
You're only sleeping

What can you see
On the horizon?
Why do the white gulls call?
Across the sea
A pale moon rises
The ships have come to carry you home

And all will turn
To silver glass
A light on the water
All Souls pass

Hope fades
Into the world of night
Through shadows falling
Out of memory and time
Don't say
We have come now to the end
White shores are calling
You and I will meet again
And you'll be here in my arms
Just sleeping

And all will turn
To silver glass
A light on the water
Grey ships pass
Into the West

1 - I wish that I was President's wife

Elder Muller & Elder Da Silva outside the Den Haag temple. (They were in the same MTC group at the start of their mission, September 2014!)

One last time together! They are both completing their missions next week. Elder Muller & Elder Da Silva

Elder Richards outside of the Den Haag temple.

Last dinner with Daan & Emma

Last visit with Family Spier

The subject line is a nice quote from Elder Richards. Take it as you will ;) 

Hello everyone! Hello from Schilderswijk, or as we like to call it here, little Turkey. It's another beautiful day.

Well this has been an interesting week to say the least. It had a lot of ups and downs. 

Let's do a little recap. Tuesday Elder Richards and I both went to Haarlem on exchanges with the Elders there. It was pretty fun. I worked with Elder Roberts, and he's just a gem. A really solid missionary, and absolutely hilarious. I also got to go to dinner at the Stigter's one last time before I head back. It was a good day. :) 

Wednesday was pretty odd. We came back from Haarlem in the morning to have a lesson with M---. She proceeded to drop us, and her baptismal date. For whatever reason she has changed her mind about baptism, and doesn't feel like its a good time for her right now. It's kind of disappointing, but there is nothing we can really do. She's still a good friend, and we are going to do our best to help and support her. The ward was pretty disappointed as well, but they are all super gung ho about supporting her and helping her no matter what. At least I know I will leaving her in good hands. :) We explained very clearly that we love her no matter what, and we want the best for her no matter her decision. 

However what the Lord takes, He also gives. We had a lesson that same day with a less active that we hadn't seen in awhile and who is just a blast. She was on vacation, and she just got back. We wanted to help jump start her progression again, so we gave her the "chapters of all chapters" to read on vacation, Alma 5. That was inspired. We had a lesson, and she was just full of the Spirit. She is so excited to keep learning and growing. We had a great lesson on personal revelation, and she went and grabbed a notepad and started writing down everything we said. I was kind of shocked because nobody has ever done that before in one of my lessons. People have taken notes, but never like she did. It was pretty cool though. So she's on a fast track to finding herself again. I'm really excited for her. 

Thursday was my last exchange EVER with good old Elder Turner from Calgary. I couldn't have asked for a better exchange. We worked hard. We found people, we taught lessons, and we even set up two dinner appointments. 

Saturday was a very special day for me, and this will be the rest of my email. Saturday I was able to go to the Temple with E--- and do baptisms for the dead. I can't believe that it was more than a year ago that I was at her baptism when I was serving in Rotterdam. We've both grown a lot since then. 

This is Elder Muller and Elder Da Silva outside of the Den Haag temple with E! What a joyous occasion to see her at the temple. 

Elders Muller & Da Silva and E!

As missionaries, we aren't allowed to actually take part in the temple baptisms, but we are allowed to observe, so we supported E--- as she performed the ordinances for those who are dead. As I was watching I was thinking about my mission. How much I've experienced, how often I've done my absolute best to bring someone to the waters of baptism, only to have them choose to reject it. It's not easy, seeing people that you love get so close to experiencing something that you know will bless their lives so immensely, only to have them turn their back on it. E--- didn't though. She took that step of faith, and I am so happy and proud of her that she did. 

Happiness!

And more happiness!

I go home in a week and a half. I've been here for almost two years. I've talked to hundreds of people. I've knocked probably more than a thousand doors, I've taught hundreds of lessons, and yet I have only seen one convert baptism my whole mission. But you know what? It was worth it. Every second. Every drop of sweat, every mountain I've had to climb to be here, every sleepless night, every tear shed, it was worth it to see that one daughter of God enter the Temple and help others receive of the same joy. They may have already passed on, but they are thirsting for the gospel just as much as the people here on earth. We all need the Gospel of Jesus Christ, whether we are from China, from Europe, from Africa, from Canada, we all need it. Sitting in the Temple, I knew it was worth it. I would do it all again just for her. Because her soul is precious, as are those of everyone. We are all God's children, and we all deserve a chance. 

Doctrine and Covenants 18:15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

I know this scripture to be true. I have found the fullness of joy here in the Belgium Netherlands Mission. 

I have one full week of real proselyting left, and I am going to do my best to make the most of it. 

I love you all, and I will see you very soon. 

Salutjes

E.M. 

Destination Schiphol Airport - not yet!

Elder Muller and Elder Richards outside the Den Haag temple - #compswag

Elder Muller and Elder Richards

2 - Forever 21?

Artsy photo in Delft

Beautiful Delft

Hey everybody! Thank you for all the birthday wishes! I figured I can just thank you all in person in a couple weeks... Hope that's alright. :) 

So what happened this week? Well it was a slow/fast week for us. A lot of people we normally work with are still on vacation, or are sick. -__- You know what that means! Lots of door knocking! And that's what we did. It's good to refresh your teaching pool a bit as well. 

We had interviews with President this week as well. Mine was pretty weird, I mean there isn't much  to say... I go home in about two weeks. He just told me to keep working hard. :| 

I had two exchanges this week. One with Elder Davison on my birthday, and one with Elder Stanger on Thursday. They were both pretty fun. 

My birthday was pretty eventful. In the morning the Den Haag Elders came and attacked our car. You can see the aftermath in the pictures. The ward did something really cool for me as well. They bought a t-shirt and all signed it during church. It's going to be a pretty cool memory. 

This past Saturday we did service for (Brother) Broeder Van Basten. He's an older brother in the ward, and we helped clean up his achtertuin (back yard). It was a lot of fun. He's just the sweetest guy you've ever met. He made us lunch, and we talked about his experiences growing up in the Second World War. He's experienced some pretty crazy stuff. I'm thankful that I had the opportunity to talk to him and learn more about it though. 

Our investigator, M----, should be getting baptized soon. The date is the 20th of August, so right before I leave! 0.o I look forward to writing about that in my final email. :) 

One last thing, "de boodschap" (message) for today. Alma 47. Go read it. It's the story of Lehonti. Don't come off your mountain, and if you do, get back up as quickly as you can. 

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/47?lang=eng

Love you bye. 

Elder Muller 

There are many pictures this week of what looks like a village of miniature replicas of places in the Netherlands. Elder Muller did not mention what the name of this place was, but sent many pictures! Enjoy!

This is a replica of a store where Elder Muller has purchased many clothes!

Gouda

The yellow parasols have the name of Elder Muller's favorite drink - Chocomelk

The Red Light District of Amsterdam, thus the face!

Elder Muller lived close to this building in Rotterdam

Schipol Airport!  Just a couple of weeks!

Beautiful Delft

3 - How far is that Plane?

Elders Richards & Muller

Never a serious face

Elder Muller

Windmills!

Elders Richards and Muller

Just about three weeks away. Yep, someone tried to pull the age old missionary joke. Elder Richards and I were in Amsterdam working with the Assistants this week, and, sure enough, when we were in the area of Schiphol (Amsterdam's airport), someone pointed out a plane, and asked me how far it was. Three weeks! O.o I was looking through my emails from when I was at the MTC, and I found a gem from week three (ironic), so here is a little trip down memory lane.....

"So our zone is made up of all Dutch speakers, Swedes, Nords, and Danes. We've been having a grand old time together, but yesterday, a war started.

Early in the morning, we were still sleeping. We hear a knock at the door. My comp, Elder da Silva, still 75% asleep goes and answers it. It's the Swedes in full battle array with squirt and dart guns. They totally blast him in the face as he opens the door. They lit the flame that began the war.

All day we plotted our revenge, if you mess with one Dutchie, you mess with all of us. We enlisted the help of the Surinames (Dutch speaking South American country) who the Swedes thought were their allies. As soon as we got home from devo, and changed out of our suits, we prepared for war. Elder Silva and Elder da Silva painted their faces with shaving cream, and Elder Silva donned a hood from a winter jacket (it looked freaking hilarious) Elder Hunter filled several water bottles in preparation for a good dunking on a Swedish head. I prepared our diversion to draw them out of the room.

As I began the diversion, the Swedish lookout spotted my companions as they left our room, and alerted his Swedish brothers. They all piled into the Zone Leader's (a Swede) room, and barricaded themselves in. This is where the Surinames came in. After sweet talking the Swedes, the Swedes opened the door just a crack to let them in, thinking them to be their allies. That was all we needed. We pushed the door open the rest of the way and began unleashing our fury upon those who dared squirt a fellow Dutchie in the face at 6:15 in the morning. Elder da Silva smacked a Swede upside the face with a handful of shaving cream, while Elder Hunter dumped bottle after bottle of water on the enemy before being taken out by a cookie launched by one of the Zone Leaders hiding behind a bed. The leader of the Swedes, Elder Dixon (he was the one da Silva smacked with shaving cream) grabbed my companion in a headlock, so I did the only thing I could. I threw a donut at his face. It smacked him right in the cheek icing side first. This shocked him enough for my companion to slip away. As we ran back to our room, the Swedes, filled with fury at their defeat began to storm after us down the hallway. When we got back to our room, we realized to our horror that we were locked out, with an army of angry Swedes 10 paces behind us. Luckily Elder Matos had a spare key, and we tumbled into our room. One of the Swedes (Dixon) wedged himself in the door and started spraying us with a squirt gun. We batted his hand down with a shoe and closed the door. As he turned to run away down the hallway, Elder Hunter burst from our room and rat tailed him with his towel. The Swedes will never attack us again. 

It was an epic night. 

Everyone had a great time, and right afterwards, the zone leaders invited us over for chips and salsa. The whole thing took like 2 minutes. We have several war trophies, including the donut that smacked someone in the face, and we are planning on handing out Medals of Honor tonight. Our zone is the best."

Oh how I've changed since then. I still love a shaving cream fight though, don't get me wrong. It's just odd to think that we were there almost two years ago. 

Anyway, on to my week. 

Some stories.

We went to Delft last Monday, so Elder Richards and I decided to look up an old friend, C---. We were walking to his house when this guy starts heckling us asking us to bless him and stuff. My companion got a little freaked out, but I just walked up to him, asked his name, said a prayer, invoked the blessings of heaven on him and his family, and walked away. It was pretty great. #bossmissionarymoments. 

We knocked on C---'s door, but he wasn't home. We were just about to walk away when who roles up? Him and his neighbor. It was funny, he didn't have his glasses on, so he didn't recognize us at first, and when he did he almost fell over he was so surprised. It was a great evening catching up with him. 

This week I also got to work with my good friend Elder da Silva in Amsterdam. Our last exchange together. Pretty surreal. It was enjoyable being able to take a look back at our missions, what we've accomplished, and what we still have to do. 

In other news, Elder Richards and I managed to find some windmills. You'd think they'd be easy to find in the Netherlands, but serving in the city of Den Haag, you don't see them that much. There are a couple scattered around, but they aren't in picturesque places. We were on our way to Zoetermeer, and we managed to find a very nice row of windmills along the side of the rode. So we stopped and had a small photo shoot. Enjoy :) 

Beautiful Windmills

Well I don't really know what else to share. How about a scripture?

Hebrew 10:

35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

Love all you!

E.M. 

Wonder what they are thinking

Another shot of the windmills