Off to ROTTERDAM!!!!!!

Generation Photo: Elder Muller with his "father", Elder Childs, and Elder Childs' "father", Elder Elkins

Elder Hunt with  Elder Muller. Elder Hunt was his second companion/trainer in Brugge

Elder Muller and  Elder Hills

Land of the Tulips!

Elder Muller and Elder Pugh

Elder Muller and Elder Pugh,  Companions in Antwerpen

Elder Muller in the Keukenhof ...The Garden of Europe!

Love!

Elder Muller in the Keukenhof....beautiful tulips!

13 April 2015

That's right! I'm getting transferred to Rotterdam Noord (North)! I'm leaving Antwerpen :'( Elder Pugh is also leaving, we are getting whitewashed, (Term used to mean both missionaries are leaving and two new ones will come into the area.) so it's going to be a crazy couple days getting everything ready. 

Anyway, I'm going to Rotterdam North with Elder Paur as my new companion. I've only heard good things about him, so I'm excited. That apartment is right in the center, so it should be really cool. 

Something really cool, Elders Silva and da Silva are going to be in my district, and we are in the same ward! I'm so excited to see them! I haven't seen them since our first Zone Conference in the land. (They were all roommates in the Missionary  Training Center!)  I'm super pumped! Also, Elder Shelton, my last comp, is going to be my district leader. It will be fun!

Elder Pugh is also going to Rotterdam, but another area and ward. He is going to be district leader there (which is why we are both leaving). We will probably still see each other though. I'm going to miss him, he's a great friend and companion. We had a great time together. 

So the highlights from my week... Here it goes. 

So Monday was cool. Nothing crazy happened. We mostly studied the Disc of Knowledge. It's a collection of files and notes put together by a mission president in California about a whole range of topics. It has the whole set of the General Journal of Discourses, as well as notes for almost every verse in the scriptures. It's really cool, and we've been learning a lot from it. I added a link to where you can download it to the email. Elder Pugh gave it to me, and I uploaded it to my cloud storage thing. Go learn some cool stuff. Warning: It can get kind of deep, this isn't your run of the mill study guide. 

Tuesday was a busy day. We had dinner with the Evans, which is always fun. That night we slept over at the Zone Leaders. It was a lot of fun. 

Wednesday was the big day. Temple Conference! It was so good. It was about a two hour drive up to Zoetermeer where the temple is. We rode with the Zone Leaders (hence the sleepover). The temple was just absolutely great. I haven't been able to go since the MTC, and it was just awesome. We did a session with our whole Zone, all in Dutch. It was really cool. It definitely was a twist, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I could understand. The Spirit was really strong the whole time, and I learned a lot. There is nothing quite like being in the Celestial room with 40 other missionaries after an endowment session. It was really powerful.  (If anyone has any questions about our temples and the sacred ordinances that are performed there, please click on this link http://www.mormon.org/faq/use-of-temples )

Den Haag Temple

After the temple session we had a big lunch with everyone from the Antwerpen, Den Haag, and Eindhoven zones. A lot of missionaries. Then we hit up Keukenhof, all 70 of us. Yeah. The Garden of Europe. I have lots of lekker pics. We just wandered around for hours taking pictures and being with other missionaries. It was a lot of fun. 

Thursday was also a really busy day, we had 4 appointments, which was great. We started off by teaching Yury about faith. It was a pretty cool lesson. In the afternoon we taught Louis, a less active guy about our age. He's the best. He was the only one home, but his whole family are just awesome. They are probably one of the coolest families I've worked with so far. I'm going to miss them a lot. We had a dinner appointment that night with Ivan, another less active we've been helping out. He took us out to eat for couscous, it was really good. They hooked it up fat, we couldn't even finish it all. Missionaries can eat a lot, so it really was a ton of food! 

After dinner we had a really cool appointment with a recent convert/less active named Jen. He hasn't been able to come to church because of work, but he recently got his schedule changed so he wants to come back. He wants to go to the temple this summer, so we talked a lot about it and answered some questions for him. It really was a blessing being able to teach that lesson right after temple conference. We were able to bear awesome testimony about the temple and how it's helped us. It was the icing on the cake for temple conference. Sharing it with others. That's what's so cool about everything in the gospel, the best way to strengthen yourself, is to share it with others. Recognizing and being grateful for the blessings you've received, and then sharing those blessing with others and helping them learn how to receive them for themselves. 

Friday was also a really cool day, we worked with Michael Boegaerts, a fairly recent RM. We looked some people up, and knocked doors with him. It was a lot of fun. He knows what he's doing as well, so he was a big help. He's a really cool guy, I think if I had stayed here and Belgium, we would have been friends. :)  He also took us out to eat, so that was cool. We went and had some lekker frietjes. (delicious Belgian fries!)

Saturday was tough because it rained all day. We stayed inside and worked on area book in the morning. We had a really cool look up though, it was an Easter Referral that is actually in the sisters area, but we went and looked it up for them. The lady was really cool and was pretty interested in learning more about the church. Sadly, we had to give her info to the Sisters. Jammer haha. (Too bad!...meaning they would like to have been able to keep teaching her, but because she is in the Sister missionaries area, they turn the contact information over to them!)

Sunday was great. They had a special Easter service, and it was just great. The whole sacrament meeting was based around musical numbers sung by the Young Single Adults.

The Sunday School was combined and was probably the best part. Every class (so teens, gospel principles, gospel essentials, gospel doctrine, YSA, etc.) gave a ten minute 'presentation' or something. In Wijk Antwerpen (Elder Muller's Ward), there are two main Sunday School classes, one for the Dutch speakers, and one for English. The English class is mostly made up of African people. For their portion of the meeting, they sang a song. It was great. By they end it had turned into an African gospel choir with clapping and Alleluias. Probably mag niet (isn't allowed) but it was great anyway. Made my day. 

Sunday night we also had transfer calls... which I already talked about.

It will be a cool transfer. I'm excited to go to Rotterdam. All of my companions have served in Rotterdam South. I'll be in North, but I'm still excited to serve there. 

I'll talk to you guys more next week! Loves!

Elder Muller

My new address:

Wijnbrugstraat 131

3011 XW Rotterdam

Netherlands

The Keukenhof

Elder Muller & Elder Childs

This is why I hesitate...

Elder Pugh and Elder Muller emailing today from the church building!

Hello everyone, I hope you've all had a good week wherever you are. It's been an interesting week here in Antwerpen; ups and downs. 

So first the subject. This is a quote from Elder Pugh. We were sitting in a dinner appointment when the wife started yelling at the husband. Elder Pugh turned to me and said, 'This is why I hesitate...' It's funny because he's going home soon, and we've been talking a lot about his future. Let's just say that ;) 

Anyhoo, The Week. 

It started off well, Tuesday we had a great district meeting, talked about companionship inventory, and how we can make sure we make the best from it. Companion inventory is when we sit down with each other and discuss our relationship. Our strengths, our weaknesses, and how we can help each other as companions and friends. Pretty cool. We do it once a week. 

Afterwards we had a surprise apartment inspection. Luckily we had cleaned our apartment yesterday (Monday), so it looked squeaky clean. #blessingsofnonprocrastination!

Nothing else too crazy happened that day. It was really bad weather out. It reminded me of Florida in the summertime around 5 pm. A lot of wind and rain. It was bad enough that some of the trams were down. We had dinner that night with the Evans, which is always an adventure. I love them. :) 

 Wednesday it was an up and down day. Elder Pugh and I both were not feeling very well, so we stayed in for the morning and worked on the area book. We did have a great lesson with a less active named Jen. He's a cool young Belgian guy that we've been working a little bit with. We talked about prayer and how we can use it to build our relationship with God, and how we can make better decisions with His guidance. 

Thursday was a pretty crazy day. We thought we had finally found a Russian joint teach for Yury, our Russian investigator. Our prospective joint teach was a young by the name of Jermaine.  (Joint teach is when a member is present helping the missionaries teach a lesson.)

Quick side story here, I guess. Jermaine is a recent convert from Estonia! He is 17 and he was here in Antwerpen for a school trip. What is the first thing he does in a strange country where he doesn't know anyone? Call the missionaries! (They can help you!)  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/ask-the-missionaries-they-can-help-you?lang=eng  So last week he called us and we met and taught a quick lesson with him. Turns out he can speak Russian (and American English.... Like he even said cool beans!) so we invited him on joint teach with Yury. Sadly something came up, so he wasn't able to come. 

Instead we shared the new church Easter video with Yury, "Because He Lives", in Russian. (Please watch the video here   http://www.mormon.org/easter  At the end of the video there is an invitation, Find Him. That is what we discussed with Yury, and I'd invite all of you to do the same. What does it mean to Find Him? 

Thursday night was also pretty cool. We went and ate Chinese food with Boma and Tante Ingrid. (Elder Muller's Belgian Grandmother and Aunt Ingrid) It was really good. Elder Pugh and I LOVE Asian food, so it was quite the treat. We had a really good time. It's so cool being able to serve here!!!!!

On Friday the storm hit. It had been creeping up on me all week, but it came full force on Friday. I was sick as a dog. So we stayed inside the whole day. I slept for the whole day, and Elder Pugh... sat in a chair and was bored the whole day... haha. Nah, he kept himself occupied. That night we did go out and teach a lesson though. To Familie Grauwels-Alva, our miracle family. We also shared the Easter video with them, and asked the same question. They are so great. I really feel at home there. The kids are so crazy. 

Elder Pugh was telling them about how he almost died by getting hit in the head with a shot-put, and the oldest son just sat there and squinted at him saying 'liar.... li-ar.... liiii-aaaar' it was really funny. One of those things that you had to be there. Made my day.

Saturday and Sunday were great because it was General Conference!!!! About time!!! Thankfully a full day of rest left me feeling really better, so we were able to go watch it. We got to watch all but one session. The Sunday Evening. We watched Saturday and Sunday morning live, and the Priesthood and Saturday evening sessions recorded. It was fun. I learned a lot. You will have to send me your thoughts on the conference and what you've learned. I guess I'll share a few tidbits. 

I really loved President Uchtdorf's talk about Grace, I'm definitely going to print that one out and study it. Something interesting I noted was that he said, "His Grace unlocks the Gates of Heaven". That made me think. Christ has 'unlocked' the gates for all of us, but they are still closed. We have to choose to open them ourselves. We have to choose to follow Him. He's already made it possible for us to come in, we just need to make the effort to OPEN the gate for ourselves, that part is up to us. 

Another talk that I really liked was by Dale G. Renlund. He said something that went along with something I've been thinking and studying about. "A saint is a sinner that keeps trying". I think that's very true. It parallels something that I've thought about, and come to the conclusion of. Mistakes are proof that you are trying. 

I want to explain what Elder Muller was talking about when he mentioned General Conference.  General Conference is held twice a year, usually in April and in October. As far as our family is concerned, these are the best two weekends in the year! This is when we are able to sustain our leaders of the Church. And we have the opportunity to hear from the President of our church and the Prophet of our Lord. I realize to some those words will sound outlandish and some will laugh, but do you really think a loving Heavenly Father would shut communication down between the Heavens and the world? Of course not. President Thomas S. Monson is the current President and Prophet. Please don't let that word "Prophet" scare you into thinking we follow this man blindly....all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are admonished to pray and ask questions and receive their own answers. I bear you my testimony that I have done this, and I know that this Church is true.  My family spent our weekend at our church building listening to the men and women who lead our Church speak to us, teach us, and share testimonies with us. It was another glorious conference. As it came to a close Sunday, my emotions were tender wishing I could make others understand the truths that were taught this weekend. That I could be a better example of Christ and minister to my fellow brothers and sisters. That I could help bring His truth to my friends and family. The power of General Conference cannot be explained in simple terms. It confirms to me why I am here, where I have come from, and where I can end up if I can hold firm to the gospel of Jesus Christ and endure to the end. It is a message of joy and happiness, not doom and gloom.

The people who speak at General Conference are not assigned subjects to talk about. They all individually pray about what the Lord would want them to teach. And, without fail, every Conference you will find an undeniable theme. This Conference's theme, in my opinion, was about the importance of family and the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman. 

I would anxiously invite all of you who have not participated in a General Conference to go to the link I will provide below and watch and/or listen for yourself and see if there isn't some particle of truth that you will hear from speakers, or from the marvelous music shared, that will spark that feeling deep in your soul to learn more. It is why my son, Elder Bryan Muller, has left his family and put his life on hold for two years....to be a disciple of Christ and teach and serve God's children in the Belgium/Netherlands mission. No one forced him to go. He has prayed since he was a young boy to know if this is the path he should take. He received his own confirmation that serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was what he wanted and needed to do. As hard as it is for me to have him gone for two years with only weekly emails on Mondays and two phone calls a year, I know that he is where he should be. He is showing the light of Christ to people just like the wonderful missionaries did to me when I was living in Belgium. 

I bear you my testimony that I know these things to be true after much prayer and reading of the scriptures, including the Book of Mormon. And I say this in the name of Jesus Christ.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/?lang=eng

Well that's all folks, talk to ya next week. (BTW this time next week I will know if I'm getting transferred or not, stay tuned) 

I hope this email made sense... Kind of mixed up a bit. I'm sorry for any confusion. 

Love you guys!!!

Elder Muller

I look like a Turkish man....

Elder Child's holding a member's dog named Caeser! So cute! Shout out to my friends, Anne and Herman, the owners of this precious puppy!!

I hope my friend Anne Rigby does not get upset with me, but her artistic talent is amazing!!!  I will simply quote what Elder Muller said about this painting:  

• The greatest painting ever made. The face of Elder Lyman in a penguin body. Penguins are the symbol of Linux. DNA is for bioinformatics, the field that Elder Lyman wants to go into.

Please check out her website at http://www.artworkbyannerigby.com/

Maybe Elder Muller will be lucky enough to receive such a prized possession!! Now I understand why he says he and Elder Lyman are like one in the same! Elder Muller is also a big Linux fan!

Elder Muller's most recent hair cut!

Another view! I am sure this picture was taken at the church building as they were emailing home! He is in his "civies" but still wearing his missionary name tag!

March 30, 2015

So this has been a very fast week, it feels like I just was sitting here emailing.

So, I look like a Turkish man. We just went and got hair cuts for temple conference next week, and well, they gave us European hair cuts. Even though we told them not to. So now my hair looks like what every Turkish guy here does, way short on the side and long on top. Thank goodness we have two weeks to grow it out. I guess hairdressers here just don't know what a missionary haircut looks like. Oh well.

So it's been a pretty fast week. Tuesday we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I was with Elder Lyman, and we worked in the city of Lier most of the day. We looked up some people and knocked doors. Elder Lyman is very good on the door. He's just good at making conversation with random people. It's a real talent. When we were out there, we drove past this chicken place that totally ripped off Chick-fil-A. We stopped and took pictures of it so you could see. Middle of nowhere in Belgium.

On Wednesday we had exchanges with the District Leaders, I was with Elder Reynolds. We had a pretty good day. We taught Yury, our Russian investigator about prayer, and he prayed for us in Russian for the first time. It was really cool. President has taught us a certain way to teach people to pray. We walk them through the steps. First we address God, by saying "Dear Heavenly Father" or something like that. Then we thank Him for things. We then ask the person things they are grateful for. Next we can ask God for help, or for blessings we would like to receive. We then ask them what is something that God could help them with in their life. Then we close in the name of Jesus Christ. 

Pretty cool. We walked Yury through it, but he couldn't think of anything that he needed or was grateful for. He wants a new PS4, but he said he figured he shouldn't just ask God for that. Then he had a realization, he could ask God to help him find work, so that he could earn money to buy a PS4, and that's what he prayed for!

It's so cool when things just click in investigator's head. When they finally understand concepts. In this case, that if we want blessings, we need to do our part to work for them. God will help us, but He can't just give us things. Otherwise we don't learn.

Well that night we also had a really cool joint-teach (meaning they had a member with them helping them teach) lesson with a less active named Jen. We brought Michael Beogarts with us. He just got back from his mission a couple months ago. We talked about the Restoration, why it's important, and what we can learn from it. 

Thursday was Zone Training. President and Sister Robinson came. It was really good to see them again. The Zone Vision for this transfer is Receive the Holy Ghost, and we talked about ways to invite the Spirit into our lives, our investigators' lives, and into our teaching. It was really good.

Friday we had a cool lesson with Familie Alva. I think I talked about them last week as well. We now have a weekly appointment with them. We showed the Mormon Message "Origin". It was really cool. We talked about prayer and how to gain your own testimony of truth. 

Here is a link to the Mormon Message Elder Muller shared. This is one of my favorites!  

https://youtu.be/YqZ8bTjj-_E

Saturday was fun. We had a met zin 6 dinner appointment with our ward mission leader. (They had dinner with the member in their ward whose assignment it is to be the Ward Mission Leader..He works with the missionaries and members in the ward to further missionary work. They had all six missionaries from the ward at the dinner! I am sure it was fun!)  It was pretty crazy. That's all I've got to say about that.

Yesterday was cool as well. It was Ward Conference, so a lot of Stake people were there. Other than that, nothing too crazy happened.

(Ward Conferences are held to sustain our local leaders that serve in our wards or congregations. Leaders from our Stake Leadership come to be part of these services. Our wards are made into stakes, similar to perhaps a Catholic Diocese. So our local stakes would have many different wards that make up that stake. For instance, here in Florida, we are members of the Veira 1st Ward, and our ward is part of the Cocoa Florida Stake. Our stake is made up of nine different wards. So our members who serve in Stake callings, travel around to these different wards to help teach, support and serve the members. Again, all of the work/service done in our wards and stakes is all voluntary. No one is paid for the services they render.  It is a unique aspect of our Church, and one that I love. It gives all of us opportunities to serve others, to learn new things and to grew in our testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.)

I'm out of time, but I hope you all have a good week. We have a killer week planned out, so hopefully everything goes through!

Love you all!

Elder Muller


So following are some pictures of the Chick-Fil-A situation mentioned in his email! Elder Muller sent these because his younger brother, Jeremy, is a Senior Team Member at Chick-Fil-A!!  I think an international incident has now been started as Jeremy has shared these photos with his franchise owner!!!  

A complete use of the Chick-fil-A logo! And they even add their website on the sign!!!!!!

Elder Muller's caption reads "Should we sue them?" He is on splits with Elder Lyman....now look at this picture of Elder Lyman and then look at the penguin picture above!!  Anne's portrait of him is spot-on!!

This is a "Chicken House" in Kempens that is using the Chick-fil-A! Check them out at www.kempenskiekekot.be !!

Week #26 I'll just get back on the tree and keep climbing....

A giant Ferris wheel in Antwerpen! Most of his pictures are atop this monster!

The Diamond Wheel - sitting by the Central Train Station which happens to be in the Diamond Sector of Antwerpen....hence the name!

"The Crew" before getting on the wheel!! Elders Lyman, Pugh, Sisters Young and Thomas, and Elder Childs! Elder Pugh is looking quite apprehensive!

Is it almost over???!!!!

Elder Pugh - Elder Muller says he is terrified!

Looks like a great preparation day activity!

Central Train Station from high up on the Ferris wheel!

The beautiful Cathedral of Antwerpen in the distance on the right of picture.

City view from the Ferris wheel!

(I get to do lots of translating for Elder Muller in this email!)

March 23, 2015

Hoi iedereen... (Hey Everyone)

Ik wil gewoon in het Nederlands vandaag schrijven. Nee, grapje, maar ik zou moeten proberen om mijn Nederlandse schrijf te verbeteren. Dus, wij gaan verder.

(I am going to write only in Dutch today. No, just a joke, but I do want to try and improve my writing in Dutch. So, we will continue...)

First, the subject... 

So last night on the way home from our dinner appointment, we (Elders Muller and Pugh and the sisters) did a little activity. We came up with an animal that describes each one of us. Elder Pugh is a monkey, Sister Thomas is a fox, and Sister Young is a dolphin. They decided I was a sloth... Hurtful right? Nah, not really. They meant it because they said that I'm just a really chill guy. I just always do my thing, slowly climbing the tree, and that if I fall off the tree I get up and just keep climbing. I'm still not sure what that's supposed to mean, but oh well. :)

So we had a pretty fun week. We had some cool experiences, I have decided to only share the highlights instead of doing a day by day summary... 

We had a really fun dinner appointment with Familie Boegaerts op Woensdag Wednesday). They live right outside of Mechelen (this is the city we lived in and where we met the missionaries!!!), and their son, Michael, just got home from his mission in Lyon, France (Formally the Geneva Switzerland Mission :) ) a couple months ago. They are just a super solid, super cool family. Sister Boegaerts is just disappointed that we moved from Belgium. She says that I should be in the Young Single Adult program here!

We had a cool miracle that night. Michael drove us home, but we did some less active look ups with him first. We stopped by a guy who we've been trying to get in contact with for awhile, but is never home. That night he was home, and we got to talk to him for a bit. He committed to coming to church on Sunday (which he did!) and we were able to set up an appointment for this week. 

On Thursday we had a really cool miracle as well. We had given a Book of Mormon to a younger guy named Maxim about a week ago. We were just knocking doors, and he said his mom would be interested. We set up an appointment and went and taught her the first lesson. It was really cool. It was what we call a RAD (Restoration and Doop Baptism). We teach the first lesson and invite them to be baptized. 

On Friday, we had a similar experience. About a week ago, we received a referral from the Zusters te Antwerpen (Sister missionaries in Antwerpen). They had talked to a man in Centraal Station who was a recent convert here on vacation. He gave them his brother-in-law's info who happens to live right by our apartment. We looked him up and did the same thing as with the other woman. This one was even cooler though, before we began teaching he was asking us where the church was and if he could come. He's just really ready. He is a refugee from Iran living here in Antwerpen. His wife is also a recent convert which is why he is interested. It was a really awesome lesson. 

That night we also had a really cool lesson with a less active family. It was one of the best appointments I've had here in Antwerpen. The mom is from Peru, and the kids are half Peruvian and half Belgian. The two boys are about our age, and it was just a lot of fun. It was the perfect mixture of spiritually powerful testimony and discussion with having fun and showing them that missionaries aren't robots. :)

Saturday was also pretty special. We went to Rotterdam for the baptism of a man named Sjaak. Elder Pugh had found and taught him, but was transferred before the baptism. We got permission from President to go to the service so Elder Pugh could give one of the talks. It was really fun. Nederland is so different from Belgium though. It makes it even weirder, because the signs and everything are all still in the same language, but the way people speak is almost totally different. #DialectLife 

The baptismal service was really cool. What made it even cooler for me was that I got to see Elder Hunter (from my MTC group) again. It's been almost six months since we've seen each other. It was really funny because we didn't know they would be coming. I walked into the hallway and we both saw each other and then froze. He was like "No way" (in a Scottish accent of course :) ) and we just had one of the strongest hugs I've had in my life. It was great, I missed that kid. He is part of a group of elders called "The Singing Elders". They've put a musical program together, and they are traveling stake to stake and preforming. The idea is to help generate referrals by inviting non members to the activity (that's the members job). It's had a lot of success in Nederland, and will be coming to Antwerpen in late May. 

Well those were the highlights of my week. Something that I've been learning is just how powerful hard work and obedience is. We've seen the blessings of it the past couple weeks. President had an awesome picture of a runner at the end of a race, totally just wrecked, he left everything out on the field. As missionaries we have to do the same if we want to be successful. 

Well I hope you all have a good week. I love all of you. 

Elder Muller

This looks like it must be an early morning picture! Notice the white shirts and ironing board in the background!!!

Traveling back from Rotterdam

Elder Muller, capturing a cow!

Where our family rented our van when visiting in 2008/2009!

Apparently, Elder Muller almost broke his toe last Monday when they were playing indoor football (soccer)...this is the first we knew of it!

This is now a chocolate shop, but it used to be a beautiful tapestry  and souvenir shop. Many of my tapestries are from this shop. So sad.
 

Roads in the middle of nowhere that Elders Muller and Pugh walk to find people and to go to dinner appointments!

A cool sculpture in Antwerpen where we used to take pictures of the kids when they were small!

Week 25: #NotAfraid

A letter from Mama that went to Canada! No wonder it took so long to arrive!

Elder Pugh Studying

Knocking a Hobbit Door?

Hello everyone,

I hope everything is going well, I don't have a lot of time, so I want to knock out this big email first. I apologize if I don't get to personal messages! 

So #NotAfraid is our district vision for the transfer. Not afraid in every aspect. Most if it has to do with having trust in God, and not being afraid to be bold in our message. 

So it's been a pretty long week, not much happened. A lot of appointments fell through, which is always frustrating. It was still a good week though. There is a new project in the mission called Project: A Wrinkle in Time. President has looked at how we work, and he decided that we needed to find ways to improve how we work. We have a new standard of excellence; 20 hours of proselyting time a week. That includes only the time we are actually actively contacting, or teaching. Sounds like it should be easy, but you really have to work for it.  Even though we didn't have a whole lot of lessons, we made 20 hours, so at least we worked hard! :) 

So, I went on two exchanges this week, both in Antwerpen. One with Elder Childs and one with Elder South, my new district leader. He's pretty cool. Something funny we figured out. We have a mutual friend--Connor Randall. They knew each other in Texas, and I was friends with Connor at BYU-I. Small world this mission. So Connor, if you read this, Ben South says hi. :) 

We did have a couple of cool lessons with some people. We watched the Restoration video with our Russian investigator, Yury. They have Russian as a spoken language on it, so it was really easy for him to understand it. It's pretty cool how you can feel the Spirit while watching the video, without understanding anything it was saying. (I don't speak Russian...) Shows how powerful the message is!

Something sad happened. A member of the ward died last week, so we went to the funeral. All the missionaries sang a hymn as a special musical number. It was kind of sad. The family members were able to bear powerful testimony of the Plan of Salvation, and how we will be with our families again. 

Today was pretty fun! We had a Zone P-Day. All the missionaries in Belgium came to Antwerpen, and we played voetbal. Our district is pretty awesome. Sister Young played Goalie at SVU (Southern Virginia University), so she's pretty good. Elder Pugh is also a beast, he had a hat trick! It's always a ton of fun to be with other missionaries!

Well I know this isn't much, but I really don't have a lot of time. We still have to go home and change for a lesson tonight. It's sad that it takes an hour to get home... oh well Antwerpen opportunities! (That's something we started saying to stay positive. It used to be bij voorbeeld (for example), "We don't have a car today because it's in for maintenance, Zone Leader problems"... NO! Zone Leader Opportunities! That probably doesn't make any sense, and I'm sure you're all confused... Oh well. :) ) (Elder Muller is saying that they are trying to turn unfortunate events into positive opportunities for missionary work! If the Zone Leader's car is in for maintenance, then they have a problem - they can't get to where they need to be. But that isn't really a problem! Now they have to walk or use public transportation which will give them OPPORTUNITIES to meet people and share the gospel!)

I would like to encourage all of you to go and read Alma 7. It's a great chapter, and we can learn a lot. I studied it a couple days ago.

 https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/7?lang=eng

Also Elder Pugh and I learned something interesting  this week. The word Atonement doesn't exist in Hebrew... atoning, atone etc does, but Atonement does not. It's an English word. If you put it into a Hebrew context, it translates into something like "wrapped in the arms of love" or "encircled in arms". So just remember that next time you read the Book of Mormon, and you see that, it means the Atonement!

Well that's pretty much it!

I hope you all have a good week!

Loves!

Elder Müller