9.19.16

Hey!

How's everyone doing?

This week has been one of the best weeks of my mission! It has been
awesome! I don't have a ton of time today so I will definitely tell
you more next week. For pday as a district we went up to Sedona and
went hiking. We have been wanting to do this for a while now, but for
one reason or another havnt been able to. But we did and it was super
fun.

So a little over view of this week and then more detail to follow.
Mon- Branch party celebrating Mexico's Independence Day
Tue- Some of the funnest, and spiritual lessons of my mission
Wed- Exchange with 4 week out elder Gray
Thur- Pretty solid weekly planning haha
Fri-Exchange with Zone leader for day and a 1/2
Sat-continue exchange, crazy day down in spring valley, with a awesome
ending of a member introducing us to a awesome little new investigator
named Elysa. She's 11, super sweet and loves the church, has a 14 yr
old sister who is already a member, has been coming to church with her
for almost a yr, and wants to be baptized!
Sun-Get a talk in Sedona ward and it was awesome haha.
Mon-Hiking in Sedona

Super fun week, full of awesome stuff! Sorry I can't give much more
than that right now, but I'll make sure to tell you all about it next
week.

Hope everyone had as awesome week as mine!
Love you guys
Elder Miller

9.12.16

Hey everybody!

To start off with, I guess most of you know now, but ive been having some pain in my knee and some people in the stake think i may have a torn meniscus. I went into a real doctor, and he wasn't sure what it was hahah, but he said I needed an MRI. So I got in contact with them, and I now have an appointment for the MRI on Monday the 26 so well wait till then to find out more about the ol knee, haha. Thank you for all the prayers already. I know everything will happen the way God wants :D

Anyway, another awesome week. We were able to get back in touch with stephanie and had a lesson with her. She seemed down, but seems to want to continue learning and wants to be baptized. She understand what she has to do, and what she need to decide, so until then we are planning on continuing to help her learn and grow, and wait till she feels confident in following the gospel.

We had a few really good lessons with Denise this week. She is the bomb. She just soaks everything in and then goes home and prays about it. She also has been reading the book of Mormon, and says she loves the way it makes her feel. She says she has a lot to do but wants to still read it, so she said she wakes up early. So I asked how early, Oh ya know i get up around 4 and read and pray about what you teach me. What!! Shes 13!!! No one does that, especially not a kid! Its pretty cool. Sister graham, the family we have the lessons at, took Denise to the temple and they went and walked around, and read in the waiting room for a while. She said she really liked it, and said she loved the calmness. Shes a really special girl. She decided on a baptismal date for october 8. We think she could be ready sooner, but with some family things, and then conference on the 1st, we decided on the 8th!

We met a woman down in spring valley, the english ward, and she was super interested. She talked a ton about her life and her backstory, but about half way through told us she wanted to be baptized. I guess her daughter is a member and says she loves the way shes changed and wants to change that way too! We also helped her pick a date for oct 15!

We had a fun zone meeting up in flagstaff. It was good. Its fun going up to flag. Its about an hour and half north of us and we go up through sedona, and go through a really pretty canyon.
 We talked about preach my gospel a lot. President griffin found a paper on the history of preach my gospel and its pretty incredible how many people, and how much effort was put into it. So now the focus is preach my gospel.

Umm what esle.
I hit my year mark in the field this week haha.

Oh we found edgar again, down in spring valley. He has been having some issues with his shoulder and has had a bunch of doctors appointments, but we passed at the right time. Its really cool teaching him, because he is really searching for the truth. He is the man that is really focused on John ch.17 where it talks about missionary work, and only two churches really seem to do that. But he was really into the lesson, and loved the first vision. I dont know it in english so i said it in english He asked us to bring it to him in writing, because he says he would like to memorize it as well! haha Ive never had an investigator want to memorize the first vision, and especially not before they even became a member. So that was fun.

Rosa is still doing good. Still no word on her divorce papers but as soon as those are in she is going to be soo ready!!! She is now the most active member of the branch, and shes not even baptized! She has been to church 8 weeks in a row. Sadly more than anyone including the branch president. Shes loves it, and come to everlasting we do, including cleaning the church this month haha. She invites all her friends and then wants to come to lessons with us to get her friends pumped about it haha. shes awesome.

Well were off to the branch party!

Everyone have a good one!

Elder Miller

9.5.16

Dear Family & Friends,

We almost went 6 weeks in a row with standards of excellence haha. we were 1 new investigator short. But its all good. we had an awesome week, and then we hit a little rough spot on Sunday, but it will be ok.

The big focus this week was Stephanie. She her baptismal date was for next Saturday. we were at her house a bunch , and she seemed pretty excited to get baptized. Then jump to Sunday she had her baptismal interview. The missions first counselor was up here and he did the interview. President juchua said she passed all the question parts, but he said he didn't quite feel the spirit the same way he does with others. He said part of it was that he found out that she has a boyfriend. We knew this but we had thought that when she said he is in California, we thought she meant he left her, but i guess she is expecting him to come back at some point. So now she needs to talk to him and decide that if he really does come back that they are going to get married or not, and if not then she has to leave him behind. President juchau said he didn't feel like she had quite a strong enough testimony to firmly say she wouldn't get back with him if he didn't want to get married, and he said she said she understood, and that she needed to make this decision, and strengthen her testimony in the church first. Form what he said, she seemed to understand and was okay . but then in the few minutes we talked to president juchau, she left and we didnt get to talk to her, and she hasn't answered us. i really hope we don't lose her. President juchau said normally she would have been ok to get baptized, no one has to have a perfect testimony to be baptized, but she has a hard thing ahead of her, and he feels like she needs to be a little stronger to be able to say that if they don't get married , then she will not move back with him.

So that was kinda rough, but I think that it will work out. We just need to talk to her and see how she really feels, and then go from there.

But back to the good stuff. On Thursday i got to go to the temple!! Its been a while since ive been able to go. Its always so cool. Our zone had a baptism per companionship, and the reward is a temple trip and breakfast with president. it was fun. After we had zone conference with him, in the mission home. It was weird being there because minus 1 other quick stop in a while back, i haven't been there since my first day in the mission. haha so that was cool.

So Saturday a lesson canceled on us around three, and so we were trying to figure out what to do. We needed to print some stuff, and we were close to the church. so we went over there for a second. The next thing we know someone is knocking on the door. We open it, and it is the Meza family from my last ward! They were a family I helped reactivate. They said they wanted to come see me so they just jumped in the car and came up here. haha. They didn't have a address or our phone number, so i have no idea how they expected to find me. We are never at the church at 3. normally we would have been in Sedona at least a half hour away from here, and we would have never known they came up here. haha. It was pretty cool how it all worked. We went and ate and talked for a little. They are a crazy family haha but i love them. It was really cool to see them again.

Last Sunday at stake conference, a member from our English ward came up and introduced us to a girl named Denise. They said she was a family friend that has been coming to mutual for a while, and wants to talk to the missionaries! So on Tuesday, we drove down to the area, called Spring Valley, and got to teach Denise. She is an awesome girl. she is 13 but is very smart, and had to grow up very fast. It sounds like shes had a pretty hard life. Her dad left when she was little, and then her mom has had kids with a lot of other men. She is now living with her grandma, who lives up here. We had a really good lesson, and talked a lot about Christ and the atonement. She doesn't really know anything other than she believes in god, and prays to him a lot. she says hes the only reason why she is still here, after all the hard stuff shes gone through. So we are super excited to keep teaching her. The gospel is going to help her so much. i love this gospel.

Well that's it from Cottonwood!

Have a good one!

Elder Miller

8.29.16

Hey everyone!

For the fifth week this week we are killing it, and hit standards again.
There are some awesome people we are teaching right now, and more just
keep coming up.

We had a man just randomly come to church last week. His name is
Edgar, and is interested in what we believe. We stopped by his house,
and had a pretty good lesson. He was raised Catholic, but has felt
that it's not the true church. After trying a few other religions he
came to the Jehovah Witnes' and has liked it there. He didn't say he
doesn't believe that it is not the true church, but for the fact that
he came looking for us may say something. He had some really good
questions, and knows the bible pretty well. We did run into a few
issues with his New world translation bible, but it's not a first and
won't be a last haha. He seemed to like everything we taught, but like
all still had some doubts. They were all good doubts and questions,
but just like everyone else, the only way he will get past a few
things is by knowing Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.  It was very
interesting teaching him, because he has been one of the very few JWs
that didn't just try and bash with us, and get mad that we don't
believe Jehova is God. We have a lesson with him tomorrow, and I'm
excited to see where it goes with him.

We talked to Stephanie and Lupita, and showed them the Restoration
video. It always brings the spirit so strong, and has been the tilting
point for a lot of investigators of that I've taught who chose to be
baptized. Well once again, as we are talking Stephanie tells us that
she wants to learn more, that whe still has questions and what not,
but told us that we kept asking herself throughout the video, why she
was waiting to get baptized (she was supposed to get baptized the day
of this lesson, but told us she wasn't ready, and wanted to wait until
the new year, so she could start next year clean)
She kept going, and told us she wants to be baptized on the 10!! It was cool.
Her mom, Lupita, still isn't quite sure, but we feel it's because she
hasn't recognized that she keeps feeling the spirit and receiving
answers. Last week we asked them to start really reading the Book of
Mormon. Well before the lesson started, Lupita kept going on and on
about the book, and was excited about it, and actually gave us a
pretty detailed summary of the first 8 chapters it was really cool.
She likes the book, she likes church, she likes what we teach, but for
some reason still hesitant. After Stephanie had said she wanted to be
baptized she actually asked her mom if she wanted to as well. She says
she doesn't want to join and be baptized and then go inactive right
after. But right after Stephanie told her that she doesn't have to
know everything,she doesn't need to have a 100% assurance that this is
Gods church, she just needs to take a leap of faith and God will help
her and bless her for it!
It was awesome to see Stephanie want her mom to be baptized as well!

I had one of those really cool experiences with the sprit this week.
We were driving through this tiny little town in the middle of nowhere
to get to another town, when I had this feeling to stop at this
certain house. It looked very Hispanic, with wind chimes and what not,
but I sorta pushed the feeling aside. We went a few min down the road
and I still felt like we should, so after sorta battling it in my head
I told elder Clough we needed to go back. So we turned around, and
went back. We found it but as we got out, three massive dogs came out.
Luckily it was all fenced off, but there was no way we could walk in
there with those dogs. I didn't really know what to do. I was sorta
confused. Why had the spirit told me to come to this house. Well I
felt sorta dumb, and I double guessed the feelings, asking was that
just me? I knew it wasn't, I knew it was the spirit, so I wondered if
it was supposed to be an trial of faith, to see if I would listen.
Well I said might as well try someone around here then for the heck of
it. So we went across the street, and saw a old man sitting in his
back yard. We started talking and he actually was pretty interested in
talking with us. He was Catholic, but enjoys studying other religions,
and had already been reading the "Mormon Bible" haha. It was pretty
cool. We showed him the Gracias a El video, and set a return
appointment for the following week. It was really cool. I know the
sprit directed me there to talk to him. I don't know what will happen
in the future, but the spirit told me to stop at that house. Not to go
to that house, but so I could go to the neighbors. It always feels so
cool to be worthy of the spirit directing you like that. And then
having stuff really happen. Sometimes it is just to see if we will
follow, but especially when something comes out of it, it really helps
strengthen my testimony of the spirit and how he really is our guide
for our life.

Well I hope everything going good. It's been super nice over here, 80s
and lots a rain and awesome lightning storms.

Have an awesome week!
Elder Miller
The great escape.