5.30.16

Hey guys!

So this week was transfers, and I stayed in Agua Fria. I really like
this ward a lot and we've been working super hard with the ward, and
after this whole month of doing these member lessons trying to pump
them up to do missionary work, the big ward temple trip is tomorrow
night!! People are super excited about it. Which also means from here
on out we re going to follow up with families and they should begin to
have people that they will be inviting to church! So ya we are happy
about all that.

Transfers. I got a new companion who's name is elder Studyvin. He is
from Missiouri and came out 1 transfer before me. He seems like he
wants to work hard so I'm excited to get going and get some good work
in this transfer.  One weird thing about elder studyvin is that he is
the same elder I replaced when I got here. Turns out he was trained
here and then stayed for 8 months, then left for 3 ( the moths I've
been here for) and then now returned?? A bit odd but he's happy to be
back. We also got a new roommate named elder Heller. He is from Tampa
Florida and is a super funny kid. He also came out a transfer before
me, but because he is a English missionary, we go home at the same
time. He's been telling me stories about what his jobs were growing
up, and one was he used to catch alligators to relocate them. He said
how it was hard and a little scary and how it was just him and his
cousin at night in the summers. Well turns out that they were doing
that at 12 and 14 years old hahaha. And he showed me pictures, these
were 2 to 6 feet alligators haha it sounded pretty cool.

We got back into the jalapas house this week. First time since she
texted us and told us she didn't want to get baptized. It was ok. We
didn't really talk anything about the church or baptism, and we're
just trying to figure out just how she was doing. So hopefully we can
try again and maybe help her try again.

The young inactive couple are so cool, and I love them so much, but
they just aren't progressing. They have so much potential, they are
soo good, they just don't do the things we ask. They pray, and
occasionally read, but I've been here 3 months now and they haven't
been to church once 😔 so we have one more lesson with them tonight,
but if they don't come to church this next week we are going to drop
them.

So we found a new investigator on Monday!!! Her name is Alma. She is a
mom of 5 and seems pretty interested. We taught the restoration to her
and it was the bomb, for many reason. One being that that was the
first time I've been able to teach the restoration in a while, two the
spirit was really strong, and she felt it, and three Studyvin and I
taught really well together, so it was cool.  We are going back
tomorrow and are pretty pumped.

Oh I almost forgot. So elder Tamayo also was transferred, but guess
who is here now. My trainer!! Wells and Miller are back haha. Elder
wells has been in his last area ( Monte Vista) since I left haha. But
that ward is the best in the mission, so he didn't mind. But once
you've been there for 10 months, you kinda get attached, and they
really miss him, to where they keep texting and facebooking him all
the time haha. But I'm excited for him to be here and so far we've had
a lot of fun.

So this should be a good transfer. I'm ready to work hard, and we
should be on the edge of getting a good amount of work to do here
pretty soon.

Nothing too huge this week, but a good week overall none the less.
School all got out here last week so it's weird to see kids around all
the time, because summer doesn't feel any different as a missionary.
well that's a lie, it's a lot hotter haha. It's been a consistent 100
this week, and everyone says this isn't anything. Apparently when you
are hitting that 110 and up you feel like your insides are boiling
haha.  But havnt got there yet so we're all good.

Hope everyone has an AWESOME summer!!

Love you guys!

Elder Miller

5.24.16

Hello Family & Friends,

So I am staying in Agua Fria! Elder Pennington is leaving tho. But
he's excited. This is only his second area after 16 months so he's
excited to try something new. All that  being said I don't have much
time because we are going to say goodbye to the ward.

But real quick, we recieved answers to all our prayers this week. We
havnt had anyone to teach in a while, and we found three new
investigators! It felt good to teach the lessons again haha. But it
was awesome. Two were referrals, and one we found just knocking on
doors. I'm super excited. We are just hoping they want to progress.
We still haven't been able to get back with Patricia Jalapa. So we've
been sad about that. We don't know what happened but ya she won't
answer us or anything like that.

We also don't know what happened to Oscar and Luz. They've ended up
cancelling our last two lessons, so I hope everything is okay. They
are so close to coming back,and getting back to the path, we just need
to get back in there haha. So this next week should be good.
I just found out that the other elder in my ward, elder tomayo is
being transferred. So now there will be three new people to the area.
Elder buckway went to the mission home yesterday, and flew home this
morning. I was pretty sad. I really didn't think I'd be this sad, but
of course, as all of you know I am a baby and cried when he left. It
wasn't fun😕  but he's home now and deserves it. He worked hard, and
taught me a lot. I'll see him again tho, because he's in Utah up in
Ogden. He actually went to the same school as tanner and Trevor. But
ya I'm gonna miss him.

I can't believe it's been a year since I graduated. It felt like
yesterday, but soo much has happened that it makes it feel like
foooreevver ago. Hope everyone has an awesome summer!
Gotta run. Love you all. Do something fun for me this summer. haha

Elder Miller

5.16.16

What's up everyone!

This week has been quite the week. We sadly once again can't find
anyone to teach and we now have 0 investigators to teach, but with all
this going on this has been one of the best spiritual weeks of my
mission. I feel like the lord has opened my mind and I have learned so
many things. It has been really really cool.

Ya so we are one week away from Patricia Jalapas baptism and. We began
to worry last Sunday when she didn't show up To church. She said she
had company over and we just sort of brushed it off. Well then she
wouldn't answer our calls or texts, and we got really worried. Then
Thursday she texted us and said she had second thoughts about her
baptism. It hurt. I think that is the absolutely worst part of the
mission. The devil working against everything we do and everything the
investigators are doing and everything the spirit has done. There is
still some hope tho. Our bishop asked us to schedule a day we could go
by with him to hopefully answer Hermana Jalapas questions.

The young inactive couple we have been working with are so close. We
had a lesson with Oscar and Luz and showed them the Joseph smith
prophet of the restoration movie and the spirit was so strong.  Luz
was crying after and definitely felt something. We are planning on
trying to get them to church this next week. They are such good people
they just need a little help, and to strengthen their testimonies.

    This transfer has been the fastest transfer yet. It disappeared. So
we have transfers next wed, so I'll have p-day on Tuesday again. We are
pretty sure my companion is getting transferred as well as the other
two in the apartment. Elder Buckway is going home and his complain is
most likely leaving as well. I'm really sad that elder Buckway is
leaving. He has taught me so much and definitely worked hard during
his mission. It's crazy how much you can learn from someone that has
been through it all.

We are so close to having a lot of people to teach. We have had a
bunch of referrals that just haven't been home when we go by, but
they're going to be awesome haha.

Yesterday I had one of those awesome experiences with the spirit. We
were sitting at dinner and I had this little thought to go by a less
active member that has had some really rough things happen recently.
My first reaction was ya ok we will go as soon as we were done. But I
got it again and I felt I needed to go right now. I felt kind of
nervous but I said we had to go and stood up in the middle of the
dinner, and left. We got over there as soon as we could and asked if
we needed to do something. She said no everything was fine but she was
just so surprised. She said the night before she had a feeling that we
would come over and be willing to do anything she needed. She was so
happy, and said that she had begun to wonder if Heavenly Father was
done talking to her. It was sad to hear that should felt that way, but
felt really cool to be able to be apart of helping her strengthen her
testimony.

That's it for now down here in the desert. It's been a solid 105 all
week and it's only may. I think I may cry. You walk out and it's an
oven.and it never cools off either soo that's fun haha. It was still
100 at 8 last night. Fun stuff.

Well have a good one :)

Elder Miller

5.9.16

Dear Family and Friends!

The highlight of the week I think I must say was talking to the family.
You guys are the best! I love you all so much and it was awesome
talking to you all. I wish I had time to talk more individually and
all that but I had to go back to work. Haha. We had an awesome lesson
with a family right after and did our ward initiative. So a little bit
about that, our theme if you will, is heroes of salvation. So we made
a bunch of silly videos and stuff of superheroes stuff and had a
scripture with it, posted them on Facebook, all to sort of introduce
the lessons. We then have been going over to members houses and
talking about heroes, what they are, heroes in our lives, and the Book
of Mormon heroes, specifically the brother of Jared. We focus on how
he was a hero for his people with getting light for their trip. We
talk about how he came to God with a specific request and the faith
that God could make the stones shine. Our lives are like that trip
over the ocean for the people of Jared. Without the gospel we travel
in darkness, lost, but through Christ and His light, we know where to
go, we know the path he has for us, and this is our invitation to the
members. To pray for someone, to find someone specifically to invite
to church, to let someone have the "shining stone" of the gospel. And
just like the brother of Jared we invite them to go to the mountain to
pray, or the temple, with the ward at the end of the month. They the
dress up in some costumes a member made of Book of Mormon looking type
things, and if the kids have super hero stuff, they wear that too! So
we are pretty pumped about it, hopefully find some new people to
teach, but as well as bring the ward together and closer by going to
the temple together. So ya that's been most this week and next.
Between those, we were able to have a lesson with Patricia Jalapa, and
she is doing great! She is getting ready, and is on track for getting
baptized the 21 of May! She is excited and has changed so much since
when I first started teaching her.

We sadly are dropping Billy. We had a lesson with him the other night,
and I asked him pretty straightforwardly what he though about the
church. He told us he liked it, and how it was a different way of
looking at things, but sadly told us that he just is too busy for it.
His life style isn't normal, so he can't do normal things. He just
doesn't have time to read or go to church. Sad. Buuut we did find a
new investigator this week! We aren't super sure how solid she is, but
we found her through a referral from some English missionaries, and
had a little lesson on her doorstep. She seemed to like it but was
hesitant. She was very quiet, and didn't say much, but said it would
be okay if we came back the following Saturday, so we'll see. We think
she is shy and maybe her husband doesn't like the whole church thing,
but she felt the spirit, and I think she is curious. We'll see.

Today was fun. We went to some cool outlets and I had some birthday
money, so I got a cool Diamondbacks hat, a Phoenix shirt, and some cool
D rose socks.  It was really weird tho. Being back in "normal" world
stuff. Elder Buckway doesn't want to go back. I can't believe he only
has two weeks. This transfer has gone really fast with him.
I also got a haircut today. Probably my favorite one I've ever had,
she spent a good 45 min on it haha. I told her to do whatever she
thought would look good. She gave me a awesome fade, and a light
Part/line. I like it 😊I got it from a inactive lady who we are
teaching and had an awesome conversation with her. ( I realized a
little why people say missionaries are weird is we tie everything back
to the gospel)  But it was really cool. We talked about trials in this
life and how the scripture say we will never be tempted more than we
can bare. And I told her how it is more than that, because we also
talked about how hard our individual trials can be, but during those
times, if we have the lord with us, if we are doing what he wants us
to do, we can use the strengthening power of the atonement to help us.
God does not get ride of our trials but gives us a way through them,
and because of what Christ did he knows how we feel as we are tempted,
and tried, and knows what's going to help us.

She wants to come back, she is an awesome girl, they are like 27,
married a cool dude, they are both converts, and just never got a
really strong testimony, so that's what we are trying to do.
The family Meza are doing really good. They have been at church every
week for the past 5 weeks and it is awesome. It has been so cool to
see them grow and come back. We talked to bishop about the temple, and
he said we should try to wait just a little longer because they've
never really been active since they got baptized 3 yrs ago, so he just
wants to make sure they continue to come and everything before they go
to the temple. But I have confidence in them. They are going to be
great, just a little time.

So that's Arizona for ya! Starting to get really hot, and I'm scared
to death for July haha.

Love you all so much
Have and awesome week!
Elder Miller

5.2.16

Sooo it was my birthday and it was fun😊

That morning I went out to the park to try walking on my knee and
Pennington ran, and for that 30 min elder Buckway and Misenbacher
threw streamers everywhere and signs all over, and wrapped me a
present and it was quite the surprise. I love these guys. Especially
elder Buckway. He's a good guy and has taught me a lot. He has helped
me so much, and I am going to defiantly cry when he goes home 😭
Thank you for the package! It was fun 😊. It was super fun morning
between the surprise and he presents, it really did feel like my
birthday. We then got ready to go to elder Holland. This was the first
time I've been with the whole mission before. It was cool and really
fun, but I realized how little we are, and how many missionaries I
don't know now that we don't have transfer meetings☹️ but ya, I said
hi to everyone I've been around and it was so much fun. I ended up
sitting by elder wells and had really good time. I found out that
Jennifer got baptized!!! It took almost 7 months but she held strong
and did it! She was the girl in my first area that her mom wouldn't
let her get baptized. Elder wells said it was awesome. He said that
Niki's son Dominique got baptized and wants to prepare to go on a
mission!! Sadly Quinteros mom nor husband have gotten baptized😔 I
also found out that elder wells trainee, my "brother" was sent home.
Something pretty big happened and salt lake told president to send him
home. Wells has been having a pretty hard time with it. I miss him it
was fun with him haha. So then as it begins we are told that elder
Holland couldn't make it because of plane issues 😑😫😖😩😭 I was
pretty sad to be honest. And just thinking about it makes me sad, but
elder Robbins  from the presidency of the 70 would speak. And I knew
if I didn't figure it out I would just wallow in the fact that elder
Holland didn't come, so I prayed for help and strength to get over it
so I could focus and learn from elder Robbins. Wow. It was incredible.
He spoke for almost 4 straight hours and it was incredible. This talk
changed my life. His main topic was Accountability is linked to
Responsibility, as well as control. He talked about how the second you
turn to a list of negative things such as blaming others, running
away, justification etc. you lose control of positive outcomes of your
life. When you let go of that list of bad, is when you begin your path
to becoming a champion. It was awesome and the spirit was super
strong. The more and more I learn the stronger I know everything
happens for a reason. Elder Holland wasn't supposed to talk to us
sadly, but that because I as well as the mission needed elder Robbins.
It was an incredibly spiritual day. It was awesome. After we went and
had a awesome lesson with the Meza family. They are doing awesome, and
are the first real family I have helped reactivate. They are such a
cool family, and their girls are super smart. They are only 15 and 13
but for the most part are very mature. We had a lesson on the
restoration and an active with Jenna blocks that is fun, and focused
on how though the people may not always be,our church is perfect, our
doctrine is perfect, and through Joseph Smith God restored His 1 and
only true church. It was a awesome lesson. During it as we were
teaching I realized how much my testimony has really grown of Joseph
smith, and how there is no way I could ever deny what happens in the
sacred grove that morning. I know he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus
Christ, and through him God restored his church. Man I love this
church.

We also had a lesson with Carmen Gutierrez. She is a in active lady
who says she has a testimony and love the gospel but never comes to
church. The spirit was very strong and prompted me to be very bold
with her. I told her how she was commiting sins by not reading praying and
going to church. I told her my testimony of the power of the
scriptures and how it hurt me to see her not doing these things. There
was a sweet spirit that touched her heart and I asked her to read and
pray for just 1 week, and see how she felt. It was cool. I also told
her it was my birthday, and she sang me las mañanitas. It was nice.
Haha. Then to finish off the birthday bash of 19 years, we had Waldo's
tacos for the celebratory feast. I had tacos de cabeza, lengua,
chicharon, and pastor. I also got a torta de pastor. It was sooo good!
Man what a day!!!

We also had an incredible lesson with Hermana Jalapa. She is so ready
she just needs continual little reminders and pushes along the way.
But in the middle of the lesson I stopped and asked her do you want to
be baptized??  She strongly said yes, and then chose may 21!! We are
really going to try to get her ready. We committed her to coming every
Sunday from now on and she came this week and love it! We know we've
been through this once before with her, so we're really praying but I
feel better about it this time😊

We also got to go to the temple on Saturday and that was amazing. It
always is. It was definitely at little boost I needed to keep pushing.
I love this ward, this area, this work! I couldn't imagine not being
here right now, and can't imagine who I could be in a year.
This week was awesome!! Here's to another great week!!
Love you all so much, thank you for all the birthday wishes!

Have an awesome week!

Elder Miller

4.25.16

Hey everyone!

I can't believe it's still snowing over there. It's getting to the
upper 90s here.😅

This week was fun. We did a couple service projects. One was this
really big one for the homeless. A bunch of associations came
together, and we helped the home
Es come try apply for jobs, some housing, clothing, showers haircuts
etc. it was really cool because it was a lot of people who wanted to
change their lives not just take hand outs. The other one was cleaning
up a massive river bed. Just picking up garbage and stuff.
This week we've starting going and finding inactive members and trying
to see if we could get them back to church.
We found a young couple that have been member for a few years but went
inactive right after their baptism. They are really cool, and we had a
sweet lesson where the spirit completely changed the game plan of our
lesson. ( I love when the spirit does that) we go in prepared to talk
about this, or show that, and we talk about something 180 degrees
different. We ended up making a goal for them to get their patriarchal
blessing the first week in June, and during that month we are going to
come over every Monday and teach the lessons again and try to help
them gain a testimony. I'm super  excited and they seem very open to
trying.
Another lady we found was an old lady that live all alone 😕 she has
been a member for some 25 years, but in the last few years had to have
breathing tube. She's struggled coming to church and hates having to
deal with all the tubes and what not, but loves the church. We are
going to start trying to help her get to church, and help her with all
the equipment, as well as bringing her some videos and lessons 😊
The Meza family are doing so great!! They are the family we found
about a month ago that had been inactive for 3 years. They are now
active, and talked to the bishop to get their recommends to get
sealed!!!! They are an awesome family and just needed the spirit to
remind them why they got baptized 3 yrs ago.

I'm so excited for elder Holland!! This is going to be sweet! He'll be
here Thursday as well as the president of the 70 elder Lynn g Robbins.
President sent out an email about it and says we have to be very
prepared and quiet and basically don't be stupid. It'll be good.

This week I had some awesome studies. Elder buckway, my new bud, who
sadly and kinda scarily, is going home in 4 weeks 😢 he taught me some
cool tips and things to do to make my studies more meaningful and get
more out of it and it's been cool.

So that's what's happening in Peoria Arizona 😋 everyday the heat is
going up and so the more desire we have to set up lessons so we are
inside haha.

Love u guys!
Have a good one 😄
Elder Miller
So fresh and so clean.