CIM: Den Haag

Elder Muller and Elder Foltz

Goedemorgen Dames en Heren,

(Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen)

It has been another week here in Delft. A very, very emotional week, I might add. Lots of ups and downs, but I ended on an up, so that's good. :)

First off, I had a lot of things to take care of today, so this will be a short email.

We had Zone Conference this week in Amsterdam. It was a good conference, but also very hard. The Sisters from my group gave their "dying" testimonies at this conference, so it was pretty emotional for me. A lot of really good friends are leaving in a couple weeks. It's kind of hard to accept actually. (The Sister Missionaries that Elder Muller has known since entering the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT on September 17, 2014 are now completing their 18 month missions, and are headed home at the next transfer.)

Friday was a really good day. I was on splits with the Zone Leaders while Elder Foltz was in Belgium for legality stuff. It was such a good day for me. I had so much fun just working. It was exactly what I needed after a pretty tough, emotional week. The title of this email is the initials of these three Elders: Clukey, Isaksen, Muller.

Saturday we helped a family move the whole day which was a lot of fun. Reminded me of all the times that I've moved. There were a lot of people, so it was a party.

So to close off this email, sorry that it's so short, here is the "song of the week"

RELENTLESS by Hillsong United

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N9mCUsTapY

That is what we are -> Relentless. Remember that.

Love you guys!

Elder Muller 

The adventures of Elders baking!

Stroop Waffles in an open air market! Elder Muller loves Europe! 

Elder Muller is loving the chocolate milk!

February 15, 2016


Hey everyone!

I had a pretty good week. We taught a lot of lessons this week, and we had some cool answers to prayers happen. 

So if you remember last week I said something about a visit being mom approved? Well we went back this week to look that young student up. The thing that we've been struggling with most in Delft right now is finding new investigators. We've been doing a lot of finding, and we are trying to turn it around. Friday we prayed specifically for the opportunity to have a RAD (a first lesson with a baptismal invite). We practiced giving RAD's in companion study, and we were just really looking out for any opportunity to share one. 

We knocked on the door, and the girl, I---, was home. She was actually pretty excited to see us again. We asked if we could share with her a short explanation of the Book of Mormon. She was like "Ik heb net een tosti klaar gemaakt, dus ik wil niet dat het koud wordt. Kunnen jullie heel even de kern van waar het boek vandaan komt uitleggen?"" ("I have just made a toasted sandwich, and I don't want it to get cold. Could you give me a really fast explanation of where the book comes from?) I was like this is my chance! So I launched into the fastest 2 minute first lesson with a baptismal invite of my whole mission. It was so cool! So we got a RAD. She didn't really want to know any more than that, but for us, our prayers were answered! 

Yesterday was also Valentine's day. During the week we made cookies and brought them to a lot of the members and investigators in Delft. It gave us a good opportunity to visit people that we haven't been able to get in with for awhile, as well as a great introduction to new people we met. 

So, real short, here is the message that we shared with people. 

Reading from the Book of Mormon, the Book of Moroni, Chapter 7, versus 47-48:

47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

 48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.

So this time of year we celebrate romantic love! We wanted to talk about a very special kind of love that trumps everything else in the universe. That would be the pure love of Christ, or charity. There are two very important things we learn about charity from these two verses. First, charity is a gift from God. It is a spiritual gift that we are given. Do you know what is cool about spiritual gifts? We can ask God for more of them :) and, just like this verse says, we can pray to have more charity. 

The second is that it is through the love of Christ that we are cleansed from sin. 

We shared this Mormon Message: 

Enduring Love - Showing Love & Giving Service To Build Strong Marriages

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdCPMwhvJ88

It is a tear jerker, isn't it!? So my invitation to you is to think about how you can be more charitable to your spouse. This couple in the video do not live in the "ideal" situation, but they have overcome that through their pure love for each other. Love can change the world :) 

So this is my message to you this week as well. Cling unto charity! Charity never faileth.

Love you guys!

Elder Muller

Song of the week, shared with us by my great friend, Cleo! :) 

Tamela Mann - Take Me To The King / I Surrender All @DAVIDANDTAMELA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqHgZpdZJvo

Here is a link to read the complete Book of Mormon. In chapter 10 of the Book of Moroni, you will find the following promise:

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

Mom Approved!

Elder Muller

Hey everyone! 

It's a gorgeous day here in the Netherlands! (aka that means it's not raining... yet) 

We had a pretty good week. We just went ham on finding and teaching. We came out with a new investigator, so I'm satisfied. 

We had a pretty intense lesson with one of our investigators/my best friends this week. It was the most spiritually powerful lesson on my mission up to this point. I'm not going to go into detail about it, but suffice it to say that there were tears all around. 

The Atonement is real, and if we let it change us we will achieve heights that we never thought possible. 

We had a really cool experience at Institute this week as well. Hans Noot (the head of Institute in the Netherlands) taught the lesson, and it was awesome! It was all about the temple and applying what we learn there in our daily lives. It really strengthened my testimony a lot, and answered a lot of questions I had. 

Another cool story, I was on exchanges with Elder Richards (my new DL) here in Delft. We had a really good day of just finding. We looked up a potential that Elder Foltz and I found last week. She is a student at TU (University of Technology) here in Delft. We gave her a Book of Mormon, and were just following up with what she though about it. Turns out she was in Spain on a school trip, but her mom was home. 

Now normally if we look someone up but get their parents, the parents just tell us to go away and not come back. It's pretty frustrating. This time was different! Her mom told us that her daughter had actually shown her parents the Book of Mormon, and the mom invited us to come back when I--- was back from her trip. We got Mom approval! That made us pretty happy :)

So I'm about out of time, but in closing I would like to share a song with all of you that has been close to my heart this week. It's called Oceans. I add my testimony to that of the song. :) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBJJJkiRukY

Love you all, and have a great week! 

Elder M

Delft

Elder Muller showing off his cooking skills!! Veggie stir fry with rice!

Look at that pan of yumminess created by Elder Muller!

His mission has surely blessed Elder Muller with a taste for veggies!

Lucky companion gets to enjoy Elder Muller's cooking!

Final product!! Broccoli, mushrooms, peppers, carrots and green beans!!

Drink the Magic Elixir!

Good-byes before transfers on January 27, 2016

Good-byes before transfers on January 27, 2016

Dames en Heren, goedemiddag. Dit is de Sprinter naar de W/C. Hou je vast tijdens de rit. (Ladies and Gentlmen, Good Afternoon. This is the Express Train to the bathroom. Hold on tight during the ride!....I guess Elder Muller is lucky I can translate his Dutch!!)

Yep. I don't have much to tell you this week. It was a pretty rough. One morning, at around 4 AM, I woke up and wasn't feeling good. I realized that I was about to hurl. So I jumped out of bed, barely made it, and puked my guts out. And that about describes the next three days as well. It's been a rough week.

So I don't really have too much to talk about. Most of the time I was in bed, asleep, or in the bathroom throwing up. My poor companion had to stay inside for almost three days. Not fun. We had the (brand new) district leader come over to help give me a blessing, and get Elder Foltz out of the apartment for awhile. They were able to give away a Book of Mormon in Urdu, so that was cool.

Thankfully, I was not alone in this trial. Elder Clukey got the same thing. We aren't sure how, because we hadn't been with each other at all for the days leading up to it, but we both got sick at the same time.

I did learn something though, and I shared it with Elder Clukey as well. As I was in the bathroom "taking care of business" in the depths of pain and in between staggered heaves and breaths, I remembered that Jesus knows how I feel.  Maybe that sounds strange, or a little bit silly, but it's true! He knew how I felt in that moment. It was very comforting. Then I passed out.

Maar goed, (So, good,) thankfully I am better now, and we had a really good end of the week to make up for the rough middle. Saturday we just went ham. We did a service project for a member in Delft, G---, who then came to church with us the next day. We helped paint one of the walls in her new apartment. Service projects are great. :)

Afterwards we ran home, got changed and went and visited C--- who wasn't feeling that well. To cheer him up, I made him a sandwich and we just talked about life. I have a lot of respect for him. For someone so young, he's gone through a lot, but overcome it all.

We had just enough time after C--- to grab a Broodje Doner (3 euro 50) (Turkish style sandwich), jump on our bikes, and head over to V---. We brought a coat back that we had borrowed for Elder Foltz, and had a short gesprekje. (talk or visit)

Sunday went pretty well.  We had three less actives in church, so that was pretty cool. We also had a pretty delicious dinner appointment with a family in Den Haag. They travel a lot, and have picked up a lot of cooking skills. We had a spicy shrimp soup, and a pumpkin curry (like a real Thai curry). IT WAS SO GOOD! The only rough part was that the pumpkin curry was so spicy that I could not eat it. Because of what happened earlier in the week, I had a bunch of sores on my tongue. The curry was really spicy by itself, but add sores on to that? I couldn't handle it. It was super delicious though.

Well sorry there isn't much more to tell. I'm feeling much better now, dus wees niet bevreesd Dochters Zions. Hopefully this week will be better. :) (Do not be afraid, or do not worry, daughters of Zion!)

Love you guys!

Elder Muller

Elder Muller and Elder Bruneau (with Elder Clukey peaking from the back!)

Sister Huber and Elder Muller

Sister Huber and Elder Muller

Elder Steenblik and Elder Muller

Having fun on a bus!

More fun on the bus!