8.22.16

More awesome people this week. More blessings and more work!


We hit standards of excellence for a month now. The work is going
great. We found four new people to teach is week that seem pretty
excited. Three are some kids of a investigators we had and they wanted
us to get the kids involved. The other was a yet another referral from
rosa!! It's crazy how many people she has told and got them excited
about the church so we can teach them. She's not even a member yet!
It's been super cool to see.

I don't remember if I have said anything, but we now cover an English
area because a old couple that was there finished their mission. We
are not there full time, just if there are specific people to teach,
but there are right now, so we were excited about that. We went down
for the first time on Tuesday. It's about an hr to hr and a half away
from cottonwood so we won't be there super often, but we are going to
try at least once a week, and then go to the ward once a month,
because it is at the same time as the branch. That being said,
yesterday was the first time I have been to church in English in a
year and it was really weird. It was weird to be in a chapel as well.
Havnt had that in a few months either haha. So ya, it's weird teaching
in English, it's kinda easy to be honest haha I don't have to think as
hard of how to word things and what not haha. They are very different
people tho. The whole town is old retired people for the most part so
they have some different concerns that the Hispanics.

Stephanie came to a English baptism this week, and really liked seeing
how everything was done. We made a new baptism goal for her this week,
partly because we needed a little more time to teach her everything,
as well as she says she likes everything she likes baptism, but hasn't
felt like she's gotten a answer, and wants to make sure this is gods
church. It's been really cool to see her desire to want to know, and
learn and come closer to God. I think she is going to be great and
help the branch a lot. She now has the goal to be baptized sept 10, so
three weeks away.

Rosa is still the same with the divorce. She is still coming and
growing. She really wants to baptized but is stuck until she hears
more from Mexico. She has been doing some awesome stuff with her
friends and is a huge reason for us having some great weeks these last
couple.

The English elder we live with got his new trainee this week. His name
is elder gray. It's made me feel kinda weird, because it makes me
think that it's been a year since I was in training with elder wells.
Elder wells was about 7 months out when he trained me and is now going
home in December. Time is so weird out here. It's so fast and yet slow
at the same time haha.

Well that's it from cottonwood.

Love you guys

Elder Miller

8.15.16

Hey!
I just found out im staying with elder Clough in cottonwood and im super happy.

Crazy week this week. On Monday, the elder we lived with went home and
that was super weird. So then the rest of the week, I went back to the
trio life. Speaking of trio my old trio companion, from Argentina,
goes home today as well. But ya we were in a trio this week with an
English companion. It was hard trying to do stuff in technically 5
wards but it all worked out. Even being together we still both hit
standards of excellence in our numbers!

A few times I went on splits with a return missionary, as of about a
month ago, and we had some good lessons. It was cool to see how he
taught while being in chile, but of course that it was the same
gospel. It's always fun to pick up new ideas of how to teach a certain
point.

While being with elder Townsend this week, we taught a few English
lessons here and there and they were really cool. One was with Mr
Parker. Mr Parker is 82. He has been a Methodist his whole life, but a
few years ago married a Lds woman. He has thought we were always
interesting and finally decided to let us by. We had three lesson with
him and he loved it all, he lives the different ways we look at
things, and how we do them, and wants to be baptized. His hold back
this week was Coffee. 60 years of drinking coffee is quite the habit,
but by the time we returned a few days later, he had acted upon his
faith and trust in this gospel, and through it all away, and according
to his wife, boldly told her that we would never drink it again. Haha.
It was really cool to see. And really touched me by seeing his faith
in the lord, and really wanting to change his life. He is getting
baptized in 2 weeks.😊

I had another really cool eye opener teaching some English lessons
with a man named Mr Allen. Mr allen is 94, he was a rocket engineer,
and a Atheist. Now this was the first person I have taught that was a
true atheist. Add on top that he's an engineer an boy is he stubborn.
Haha. His member wife, and member brother died within the last few
years, and finally decided to let the missionaries in. As we begin
teaching very quickly we learn he has absolutely no belief in God or
any sort of religious deity. He cant believe that something could
listen to all our prayers at once, or fort the least answer them all.
So this has been a real struggle, but he has invited us back 3 times
now. He is quite stubborn haha but seems like he wants to know if
there is such thing.

It was a cool experience and in the days following the lessons, has
really made me think, and shown myself really how grateful I am to
just have, at bare minimum a belief in a greater being, but also for
the blessing of having the knowledge he is our Heavenly Father, who
loves us more than we can comprehend. And like almost all things on my
mission, it has help me grow my appreciation and love to my parents
and family for teaching me about the gospel, for loving me, and never
giving up. Thank you, I love you guys.

Stephanie and Lupita are progressing really well. They like everything
we teach, they like coming to church, they just haven't felt like
they've received and answer yet. Luckily however that hasn't slowed
them down. They are still listening, still reading, and praying. We
have felt like we should move their baptismal date back a little, but
just because we need a little more time to teach, and its stake
conference that weekend, and the English elders are taking the morning
for a baptism of their own. So it will be good.
I had another awesome experience with the gift of tongues in a lesson
with them. Neither of them speak any English, and I was with the
English elder on splits, and I got to a point where I felt I should
really say something and talk about something but I didn't know how, I
never had talked about it in this way I guess. And I sort of was
getting frustrated with myself. But I took a second a said a little
prayer and asked for help. Immediately after I said all these things
that just flowed together and used some words that I think I may have
only heard once ever. It was really cool and definitely a blessing
that I needed, and like many of our experiences with the spirit, a
testimony builder of God answers our prayers. Sometimes it is
immediate and those are always super cool, but if it's not quickly, it
will come.

I have been praying and studying about Christ for a while, and each
time I've asked for a confirmation of what I've read, what I've
learned, and on Christ as our savior. And it's been a while now, but
some answers don't come when we want them or expect them, but it came
this week and it was incredible, just as the spirit always is.
We were closing zone meeting with a hymn. I have listened to, and sang
this song many many times, but this time it was different. About
halfway through the first verse I couldn't sing anymore, I actually
couldn't really see the page anymore, because I was overcome with
tears and happiness and love and comfort from my Heavenly Father. It was a super special moment, and an answer to praying and studying. The song was: I Know My Redeemer Lives.

I know he truly does, and that because of his atonement we all have
the opportunity to be forgiven of our sins, to have the chance to
start over and be clean, and on top of that incredible gift, the gift
we all will receive of living again. I love my savior and and am so
grateful for him.

Love you guys so much

Elder Miller

8.9.16

Another good week in the APM

Elder clough and I hit standards again so we're doing pretty good up
here. we also had our highest sacrament attendance in a long time
apparently. We had 39 people (that's with kids, but still haha) but ya
we were happy about that.  This week is going to be sorta weird. So an
elder we lived with elder Sultan left this morning to get back for
school. So for this week we will be in a trio with his companion elder
Townsend. Not sure how we will do this with having potentially 5 wards
to cover, but we'll figure it out. Probably lots of splits haha.

This week I went on splits with elder Townsend, so I was a lone to
teach for that day, which wasn't bad (which makes me happy that I felt
good without a companion). I had a super cool lesson with Stephanie
and her mom on the plan of salvation. It was really cool because they
would make comments about how they'd never heard this or that, or
never thought about it that way, but every time would say they
believed it, and liked it so that was cool. Sadly for some reason they
didn't come to church this week, but Rosa did!! It was awesome because
we weren't able to have much contact with her this week and so we
wondered if she would, but Sunday came and there she was. She really
likes the church and the feelings she has when she's there. She wants
to be baptized, but still can't 😔. They are having problems with
getting the divorce all done in Mexico which means she can't get
married here, which means we are still waiting😕 but I know it will
all work out.

And Rosa was at it again this week. She's a better missionary than our
whole branch! She was talking to some friends who have been going
through some rough stuff, and told them all about us and our lessons
and the church, and convinced them to let us come by some time. So we
stopped by on Wednesday and met Maria. Maria is probably around 50 and
with the first question just broke down and let out a lot of hurt. A
big one was that her parents had both just died within a month of each
other and was very sad she wouldn't see them again. The plan of
salvation was perfect and you could see brought so much hope to her.
She was very thankful we came by, and asked us to come back. Right
before we were about to leave, I had the feeling to bring up baptism
and ended up asking her to be baptized on the 17 of September. She
said yes without hesitation, and said she would like to learn more. It
is super cool to be apart of moments when the spirit touches peoples
hearts and you see them change, in such a small amount of time, the
spirit gives them just the thing they need for that moment in their
life.

So transfers are next week, and we have no idea what is going to
happen. The mission right now has 20 Spanish missionaries, 4 are going
home, and only 1 is coming in, so that's 2 areas just without
missionaries haha, so there may be some major changes. I hope I get to
stay 1 more. I really like being with elder clough, and we are doing
pretty well. It's interesting up here tho. It definitely has its only
problems that Phoenix didn't have.  A huge one is keeping the sabbath
day holy and coming to church. Everyone in the branch or that we are
teaching, works at these hotels up in Sedona and they all work on
Sunday. It's so annoying. And the thing is, our branch isn't super
converted as a whole, and no one seems to have the faith or some just
the desire to try and change to be able to come to church. So that's
our push right now is to help them to grow their testimony.

I don't know if I want to stay much longer than a transfer tho because
then I'll be here for winter with snow and I have nothing to wear
that's warm haha, so we'll see how that goes .

Hope you all have a awesome week
Have fun and good luck for everyone that started school or is just about too.

Love you guys
Elder Miller
Discover something new.

8.1.16

Hi guys

I hit my year mark on Friday. Its kinda a weird feeling. Time is such
a weird thing on a mission.  It feels like it's been long, but at the
same time has gone by really fast. We had a little fun at district
meeting, the sisters made some brownies and they sang happy birthday
to me haha. Then I got a fun package from my parents with a cool hump
day shirt haha. Thanks Mom and Dad.  We also burned a shirt as
apparently tradition. Mom don't worry it wasn't mine it was elder
sultans since he goes home in a week haha. Which I'm pretty sad about.
This is the second time I've lived with someone who I really like and
then they go home after one transfer with them.

But ya so even on top of all that it has been an awesome week, full of
awesome blessings!

It all started 2 Sunday's ago when Rosa came and was super pumped
about the church and started coming to church. She has now been twice
and is dong awesome. Then on top of that this week she brought over
two different friends while we were teaching her, and they really
liked the lesson and asked us to come to their house. And so we did
nod inn our first lesson with each of them, we both felt very strongly
to bring up baptism, and ended up making goals with both of them to be
baptized in a month! It was super cool. The spirit is so amazing. It's
always hard to know when it's talking because it's so quiet, but when
you follow it's guidance and everything works out, it feels so cool.
And rosa referred us to another family yesterday and we are going to
go by this week and see if they are interested as well.

Then out of no where a lady in our ward who hasn't been super active
stared coming back right when I got here, and then this week brought
two of her friends to our branches family home evening and they really
liked it. Afterward we were talking to them and they asked us if we
could come and teach them more about the church! Their names are
Stephanie and Lupita. A daughter and mother about 30 and 50 years old.
So then we went by on Wednesday and had the lesson in the members
home. The spirit was really strong and after explaining baptism a
little bit we invented them to be baptized when they received an
answer to if this is true. And without hesitation Stephanie said, of
course I will still pray and ask God, but I believe everything you
guys are saying so I can work towards a goal. So we set one for about
a month as well!!
The mom didn't seem quite as strong, but none the less agreed to a
goal for sept 3

Then to make this week even better, Rosa, Stephanie, Lupita, and
Clemente all came to sacrament! Sadly we didn't have many members come
this week but it was really cool to see all of them come. It was a
really good 3 hours as well. The classes were really good and fit
perfectly for the investigators, and the talks were pretty good in
sacrament, partly because it was me and elder clough but ya they were
good haha.

We went by Clementes this week and sadly had to take him off date for
baptism. He came in super high and was same some of the weirdest stuff
I've ever heard on my mission. It's was so weird. So ya, he doesn't
seem to quite get the concept of the word of wisdom, and we are
realizing he really isn't as there in the mind as we thought he was.
And that's without the drugs.

The branch seems to be struggling more than I thought, and now there
are rumors of it being dissolved into a group that would meet with the
English ward and just have translation, which I think would really be
hard. I think we would loose the few people we have, personally. No
one speaks English, so they wouldn't be able to really talk to anyone
and I thin it would be a littl bi of a pride thing as well of them not
wanting to be apart of a different ward. But we'll see.

So ya that's been this week! It's been super awesome and big answers to prayers.

Hope life's going good for everyone!

Love you guys
Elder Miller

7.25.16

It was a pretty solid week this week.

We were 1 person away of having a date to be baptized, from hitting
standards of excellence. We had a bunch of decent lessons, found a few
new people, have a man with a date to be baptized, and a few people
came to sacrament. So that was pretty good.

Sadly so far, no one seems to really be progressing. We have a ton of
people to teach, at least compared to my last area, but no one really
is committed. It's kinda stinks.
We do have one lady that tells us she wants to be baptized, I think I
mentioned her last week, but her name is rosa. She's really cool, but
the thing is the set back is she has to get divorced and then married.
Buuut we made a big jump this week and she faxed some needed paper
work to Mexico, and she says it's now just a little time and she can
be officially married, so that she can be baptized!! And I mean we
need to teach her all the lessons, but you know that's just a little
part of it haha. 😋 but hey she has a desire so thats more that most
right now.
We have a man named Clemente who wants to be baptized, knows all the
lessons knows the doctrine, has been to church for over a year but
hsasnt quite smoking or dirnking. well its been 3 weeks of no alchol
and says he is slowly cutting down on the smoking so thats really
good. The goal for him is to be baptized on the 13 of August so we're
praying for him!

There is a senior couple done with their mission, so we found out we
are receiving 2 new English areas so that's interesting. They are both
wards, but we won't be proselyting in them. So if there are people to
teach or big needs in the wards we will teach and help, but we won't
go try and find people there, or go to church with them. So we'll see
how all that goes. Officially part English missionary for the first
time haha.

The branch is doing good. Everyone is getting ready to get their
patriarchal blessings. I think it's really going to help. I hope that
it will help strengthen their individual testimonies, and convert them
more. They are all converts from 7 to 1 year ago haha. But I know my
patriarchal blessing helped me so much right when I got it and
continues to help me each time I read it. So this should be really
good for our little branch🤗

So while we had a little time in between doing some awesome missionary
work I played with some bugs. The first round was a night that we
caught scorpions in out house and tested the myth that if you put a
scorpion near heat and it feels like it can't escaped, it stings
itself to death. So we put it in a circle of fire using hand
sanitizer, and released it into the ring. Within seconds in stung
itself in the head some 5 or 6 times it was intense haha. I, then
longing for some new food challenge, ate not 1 but 2 scorpions haha.
You may be asking why? My response is, I'm not sure, but it happened
and it was super gross. The first one was super gushy and then
exploded and popped like a grape in my mouth. They second we fried and
when I chewed it it went in a billion pieces of like ash, and I almost
threw up haha. It was fun. It was one for the books.

Another night we were at the church, and we are about to walk in at
about 9 and a tarantulas crawls across my foot!! I freaked out pretty
bad haha. But then I got over it, and I picked it up. It was suuuuper
weird. It was fury and was actually pretty fast. I took some pictures
with it, and scared some other elders with it haha. It was fun. So ya
that was my week of playing with bugs.

Weather was beautiful some nice rain and just making things really
green so that's cool.
So over all just a fun week.

Hope you guys had one as well
Love you all
Elder Miller
Discover something new.