Elder Holland and Gumbo!

Rice, peppers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, jalapeños, chicken, shrimp,
Tabasco, Cajun seasoning, some others weird seasonings haha, and more
Tabasco .  Literally restaurant worthy!

6.27.16

Hey guys

So another pretty good week. Monday once again we had an awesome
lesson with Oscar and Luz. They are finally getting  the hang of it. I
think this is the fourth week they've come and it's awesome. They have
only been able to stay for the first hr because of work, but today we
talked about how he. Wants to start looking for another job so he can
get Sunday's off and so we are going to fast together. I'm happy :)

We had an amazing lesson with Patricia Jalapa. We watched the
restoration video and it always brings the spirit really strong. She
really liked the video, and saved it helped her understand a lot more
and feels like it helped her testimony of the restoration. Then i felt
pretty strongly to talk about a baptismal date. I got scared and had a
bunch of thoughts go through my head because of the last time when she
dropped us. But I ended up bringing it up but I asked her to choose it
with Heavenly Father, to pray and decide on a day. At that point she
started to cry and said she was feeling really good and getting ready.
Then to end we asked the member to pray and we all kneeled, and by the
end of a long beautiful prayer we were all crying. It was quite the
experience.
The next day we dropped by to see how she was doing, and she brought
up how she had prayed the night before, and asked us if the 9th would
work! I was super excited. She is really trying right now. She's
dropped coffee for two weeks now, and stayed all three hours for the
first time this Sunday. She is getting there and it's awesome.

We also had begun teaching a man named Sacramento who is about 50 and
is a really good guy. He has already been to church three times and
loves it. He has said he wants to get baptized, but just wants to make
sure he is learning the things we are teaching him well. He's very
open to everything and says he already believes in the Book of Mormon
so that's awesome. We made a goal with him to be baptized on the 30th
of July!!

Sadly we weren't able to talk to Luis this week. Some things just came
up I guess but hopefully we'll pick back up this week.

On Tuesday I had an awesome day on exchanges because I got to be back
with my dad, elder wells! It was awesome, especially during lessons,
because I already know how he likes to teach, but this time I could
actually fully contribute and talk hahaha. It was super fun. I remeber
it being kind of hard, but I think it was mostly because I didn't know
Spanish and he was my first companion, but we had a blast and it was
fun to show him that what he taught me and everything turned out
alright haha.

Then on top of all this awesome stuff, guess who came on Wednesday!
Elder Holland. It was sweet. He talked about some pretty cool stuff
and a big one was truly converting ourselves out here on a mission. It
was super cool and he is super powerful speaker. He also talked about
how when we got to shake his hand he interviewed us, he said he looked
us in the eyes and new what kind of person we were and what kind of
missionary we were. kinda weird but pretty cool. Soo that was pretty
dang cool.

Next pday is the 4th off July so that will be fun. Someone light some
fireworks for me haha. Next week will also be transfers and I'm super
scared to leave. I've been working so hard here for 4 months and
finally these last two weeks are we finally seeing some success, and
of course I love this ward, because I've been here the longest, and my
Spanish has been so much better here and I've been able to actually
have member relationships haha. So ya, but I have trust in the lord
and he'll put me where I need to be.

Have an awesome 4th of July weekend!! Love you guys!

Elder Miller

6.20.16

Dear Family & Friends!

Well I'm not sure what's left of me after this week, because
everything inside of me has boiled and then evaporated. Haha it has
been so hot this was me yesterday.

Our car got up to 125 I don't think it was ever that hot, but while we were driving it did stay at 122 yesterday, but an awesome week none the less. So let's start with Monday. We had our weekly lesson with Oscar and Luz and it was really cool. We only did about 10% of the talking and they talked the rest of the time. We asked them why church is important, but why it was to them, not he primary answers we all know. It was really cool, and I think they really realized why it is important for them. I love them so much, they are awesome, and I pray that they become strong in the gospel and keep going their whole life. I guess we do for everyone, but I've really gotten to know them well and connected with them. Tuesday we got a referral from a member (our first since I've been here! From our hero of salvation lesson with the members, which has really exploded! It's been sweet to see the members get excited about missionary work.) Anyways we went over to a kid name Luis. I'm not sure why we hadn't realized or heard before, but Luis has been coming to mutual for a few months and even came to church two weeks ago, and is awesome. He's 15 and works at Waldo's tacos. He asked about what happens when we die and if he'll ever see his grandparents again. He was really sincere and we taught the plan of salvation. When we were about half way through he sort of paused us, and asked "how to I become a member?"  It was pretty cool. So we are pumped for him!! He has had a ton of support from the ward and youth and it's been cool to see how well they have just brought him in. Wednesday we had our first counselor of the bishopric come out with us, and we went to a lesson with Patricia Jalapa. She expressed her desire to still be baptized and we hit hard on the things she has to do to become ready. Hermano helped a lot, being one of the few RMs in the ward, and it was cool to see she really does want to be baptized. Now we feel like we just need to wait with her and see how committed she really is to coming to church, praying and reading. We found out she read a little anti and that was one of the reasons she wasn't baptized last time. But we've cleared all that up and are really praying that she gives it her all so she can become prepared. Thursday was sad. We had a lesson with Alma and Jackie, and the Mezas (mom and 2daughters) came with us. (The family that had been inactive for some 3 years, but that has come back and is pretty strong) they came and bore really awesome testimonies about why they love the church and the blessings they've seen since coming back. But sadly with all of this, Alma said her husband was upset that prior she never wanted to go to church with him at a Christian church, but now wants to go to ours. It was sad, but we had to drop them and stop going so that there aren't any more problems for them. We were pretty sad, but felt it just wasn't their time. ð Friday was good though. We had zone meeting and there were some awesome talks. My companion gave a pretty good one about being leaders even when we are not in positions of leadership, and elder Heller, gave a powerful one about truly consecrating ourselves. It was a good meeting. Saturday was super fun night, because our ward had a Father’s Day party and we had some investigators come and it was fun, we got to talk to a lot of non-member friends as well as many less actives. Everyone got pretty sad in the middle though because hats when Mexico lost to Chile but the 4 Chilean families were pretty pumped haha. We also had an Hermano and his two brothers play love most the time it was fun. We also were given to talk about our fathers and how they are our heroes, and I talked about restful I am for my awesome dad, and everything he did/ does for me. I talked about all the help and time he gave me during basketball and how fun it was. But I especially talked about his example and how important the gospel is to him and how he always put the things of Heavenly Father first. Thank you dad. I love you!

Then to wrap up an awesome week, we had a packed sacrament, (which sadly has been a first) but also had everyone that we worked with that week came. Oscar and Luz, Luis, Patricia Jalapa, as well as another inactive family we are going to try to start working with, and another referral that he member brought to church with him (like we invited during the heroes lesson!!) and then that nights had a lesson with this man. His name is Sacramento. He is a cool guy, probably about 60, and had talked a little to missionaries in the past. He really likes our church and is excited to learn more and wants to come back next week to church!! It was awesome. This area is finally picking up, but now I'm scared I might get transferred haha. But the ward is excited and willing to help, there's been some leadership changes so they are excited and fresh and this are just going good. Sorry this wasn't anything more than a basic summary of the week but now you know what's going on in freezing Arizona!

Love you guys, hope Father's Day weekend was good!

Elder Miller

6.13.16

Dear Family and Friends,

I'ts so hot😲 hahaha everyone says we should be this hot yet. 120 is not
normal for the body. I feel like when we were born we should have had
a label that said do not store in area over 100 degrees. And if that
were the case we are soo far past that. Haha

I don't have like any time today sorry. This morning we did a huge
service project shoveling rocks and it through our day a little and
haven't had anytime to sit down. But Not a ton happened this so that
mean next week it'll be awesome and I'll tell you all about it haha.

We have been back with Patricia Jalapa and we have a new date for
baptism for July 2. We'll see how it goes. She's ready she's just not
confident in herself and feels like she needs to be perfect after she
is baptized and is scared.

Oscar and Luz came to church again this week! We have another lesson
tonight with them, and we are going to just continue to help get over
some of her doubts and fears of things.

Alma canceled on us this week and haven't been able to get back in. I
really hope she hasn't given up on us because she seemed to have some
pretty good potential.

Well that's about it around here I'm sorry I can't write more. But
I'll make up for it next week.
Love you all
Elder Miller
The great escape.

6.6.16

Hi Friends & Family!

5 new investigators! That's all I need to say. Haha. No it's been
quite the week, between transfers and getting in sync with a new
companion, taking an area over, and then finding 5 new investigators
was pretty fun.

So I don't remember if I've said anything about my companion. He is
from Missouri, but loves the Oklahoma Sooners. He came out 6 weeks
before me, and is about to hit is yr mark in a week or so. He did band
orchestra and choir, and loved all three. He was also trained here and
stayed here for 8 months of his mission, so he already knows all the
members and what not, so that's kinda good haha. At least we have just
been able to just go right into the work.

So we haven't had anyone to teach in a while, so we have been tracting
all week. Which is pretty hard, because knocking every door doesn't do
us much good, because we are Spanish in the USA. But it works out. the
only problem was this has been the hottest week of my mission haha. It
never went below 110 and went up to 122. My insides are melting
hahaha. But it was worth it because we found some new people. Our more
solid investigators are a mom and her daughter named Alma and Nickie.
Alma is around 50 and Nicki is 16. We have already had 2 lessons with
them and they seem pretty interested. I'll definitely keep you up to
date on them :)

Do you remember Patricia Jalapa, she was on date, and a week away from
her baptism she backed out. Weeeellll we were able to find her again,
and she wants to keep learning! She said baptism is still something
she feels that she wants to do, she just wants a stonger testimony on
some things so we're pumped about that.
Then not only did she tell us she was still wanting to be baptized,
she came to church! And to add the cherrie on top, for the first time
in some like 3 years the inactive couple Oscar and Luz were there
too!!!! It was awesome. I love them so much. They are so cool, and are
almost there.

I'm not sure what it is but I have loved my last two roommates. Elder
buckway was awesome but he's home now, but instead I get to be around
Elder Heller. He is from Florida and he is soo funny. Everything he
says is a joke, but at the same time is a bomb missionary. I really
like him, he's a hard worker and loves being out here.
According to the forecast it's supposed to go down this week around
105 which sadly sounds really good right now haha. I'm not sure how
anyone could be on bike here.

Hope everyone s had a good beginning to there summer!

Shout out to the fam, you guys are the best!!!!

Love you guys,

Elder Miller