2.23.16

Hi guys!

So I found out this morning that I'm getting transferred again. Not
sure where yet, but I'm excited, but sad at the same time because me
and elder cespedes are having fun and we have some baptism lined up
but I'm happy to get to try another are and ward.

So we thought Ricardo was going to go to a different ward, but his
(separated) wife feels uncomfortable still so he's going to just go to
solano. And he's super excited to get baptized. He's still on track
for the 5 of March so hopefully I get to come back for that one.

We may have yet another under 18 baptism get blocked again☹️ Giseles
dad doesn't think she's old enough. She's 14 and super smart and has
had the lessons taught to her three times, but he's not a member and
his wife is but she doesn't have a testimony, and so she doesn't push
very hard😔 hopefully he will say ok, but if not I know she will get
baptized when she turns 18.

Well I'm realizing I'm a lot more sad than I thought I was to leave
here and some great members. Speaking of which I'm going to go say
goodbye to them.

I'll let u guys know where I end up.

Love you guys

Have a good week

Elder Miller

2.15.16

Hey everyone!

It's beautiful here. All I hear is you guys are freezing haha, I'm sorry.

This week has been awesome! So we have had a girl name Gisselle
getting ready for baptism am. She's been so ready for a long time, but
her mom, a inactive since she was 19, hasn't had a very strong
testimony so the lessons have been more for her, but finally this
week, she's feeling the spirit. She told us that she's feeling like
the lord has been in her house, and has seen a change in her daughter.
She's ready, and the only reason why she's not getting baptized this
week is she wants to wait for her grandma that is coming up from
Mexico in a few weeks. We're so excited for her!

We have also had huge progress with a guy named Ricardo. His family
was baptized like a yr ago, and he didn't want anything to do with it,
and then he moved out but they weren't divorced. When we first started
teaching him, we thought Maybe he was doing it to get back with his
wife, but we e been working hard with him this last few weeks, and he
came to us and said he knoWs this is the true church, and he can see
such and incredible change is his life and especially the days he
reads the Book of Mormon. I too have seen the incredible power of the
Book of Mormon in my life, and know how true it is, and the difference
in my day when I read it and when I don't is night and day. I am so
grateful for it In my life.

We had exchanges with the zone leaders and it was awesome! They are
definitely older missionaries. We had such a spiritual day, I honestly
kinda hope I get transferred with an older companion. Don't get me
wrong, I love elder Cespedes. We've finally figured it out and we are
having a ton of fun, and we are working our hardest.

I can't believe we only have like 10 days left in this transfer. These
two have flown by. Next pday is Tuesday, and I'll know my fate😛

I love you guys so much.
I hope you guys are doing good.
Elder Miller

2.8.16

Hey guys!

well lets start off with the beautiful weather this week. It has been 75-80 all week. It has been wonderful. haha. while ive heard that many of you are under many feet of snow 😜
I think the funnest thing I did this week was exchanges with elder plourde. Hes the now 4 week old missionary thats my ward. We had tons of fun and had some good lessons.

Well this week has been full of meetings.
Last Thursday we had the zone conference where we got some training, and some new rules.
The theme of the new rules is they dont want you being friends with other missionaries. haha not really but thats kind of how it feels. We are not allowed to email other missionaries in our mission. We cant have transfer meetings where we get to see everyone. We cant have big zone conferences. We cant sleep in the same room as the other companionship in your apartment. We also are not allowed to go to the mesa Easter pageant now, or temple lights :(  So ya thats some of the changes. Oh well. its sad but its the rules.

We then had interviews with the Mission President, and those are always pretty intense haha. They were good though. Then we had a really long district meeting where I gave a discussion on achieving goals. I did pretty good if I do say so my self haha. And then we had a meeting with all the ward auxiliaries with our missions 1st counselor about missionary work and how the ward should be doing a lot more than just feeding us haha. although I do thoroughly enjoy when members feed us haha. The ward meeting was actually really good. We are trying to make a big push with working more with this ward. The big thing is that the majority of the members are converts and so there are some issues that come from that, for example our bishop is a convert of about 5 yrs and still is getting the hang of a lot of rules and things. But its okay, becasue we are here to help these guys out. That is one thing ive really learned this week is that the mission is a lot more than just baptisms. I mean I obviously knew that before, but this week we havnt had many people to teach, so we have been visiting a lot of inactive members and trying to help them. The first line of a missionaries purpose is "bring others closer to Christ" so thats not just non members. This week we are making a big push to try some of the training we received from the 1st counselor and work a lot more with these auxiliaries.

Our distircts all getting really sick, to where they are going to the hospital, so I really dont want to get sick.

I had some more fun with food this week. On exchanges me and Plourde went to a little whole in the wall vietnamies place. We had some awesome Pho. it was fun. We didnt have dinner a few times this week, and i made oconamiaki (or however you spell it) and fried rice. it was way good.

Thats it for this week. Really there wasnt much to it. It was pretty slow actually haha. but that will just make this week even better.

love you guys

elder miller
So fresh and so clean.

2.1.16

Hi everyone hope you're not all not freezing under the snow.

It's been a nice 70 degrees over here.

Sorry I didn't write last week, but we did have a baptism!! It was for
the 80 year old man named Francisco. Once again Satan was fighting us.
Of course we walk in and begin to set up for the baptism and 10 other
adults walk in and ask us what we are doing? Today was the big your
stake activity with over 300 kids coming not to mention any other
adults, and it started at 2. What time was out baptism?? 2.
It was quite the struggle getting him baptized because he can't
exactly bend his knees because he's really old, and then he completely
went limp and it was pure dead weight getting him up out of the water
haha. But it was awesome. After the battle of him getting him out of
the font and up the stairs, he sat down all wet, and cried. He was so
happy. He didn't stop smiling the rest of the time. It was also the
most people that have come to a baptism ( in the ward) in a long time.
It was just super awesome.

This week has been pretty eventful as well. We have helped 2 more
choose a baptismal date for the end of February! On Wed we had a big
conference and got some new rules that I will have to explain more
next week, but that wasnt the fun part. I got to see Elder Wells
again! And all my old zone. I miss them so much. The thing I realized
is that zone was full of old missionaries that have kinda figured it
out for the most part, and in this zone I'm considered old, besides
two others. 6 months is not old! So ya. We've definitely. Had
different problems because we are all so old (mission wise) age wise I
actually am the youngest. I am the only 18 yr old out of our district.
Um I got hair, always fun. Haha um oh ya yesterday there was a
farewell, and she had an awesome talk. She's going to NY. But about 5
min before sacrament I was asked to sing a duet because the people
didn't show up!! I don't know why they.  Just didn't skip it or
something, but me and elder Plourde ended up singing a child's prayer
in Spanish in the middle of sacrament. That was pretty dang scary
hahaha. But I mean we were highly complimented and there were some
moist eyes in the crowd hahahha. Idk I hope it was good. It wasn't
terrible partly because we've sang that song for like 18 yrs but ya.
Defiantly a first. I felt like Selli Desi and ari haha ( my cousins
who are amazing singers)
Just I wasn't half as good as them. Haha
Well I gotta run we have a lesson in 10 haha

Love you guys
Elder Miller