9.26.16

Well today's transfers and I'm staying! Elder clough is going back
down to Phoenix. He's actually going to my last area in Peoria. My new
companion is elder Waters! He's awesome, he was in Peoria when I was
down there. He's a good guy. He's been out about a yr. I'm excited.

I got the MRI yesterday, but they said they won't have the results for
a bit, so we'll see how it goes.
So not a whole ton of time because elder clough has to pack and say
goodbye, but I'll kinda go over that other week.

We had a branch party on monday and that was fun. There were a bunch of innactives, and some investigators as well. Its funny how everyone always wants to come to the fun stuff haha. but it was good and the following sunday a few of the inactives came to church so that was cool.

On tuesday we had 2 awesome lessons. The first one was with a lady named providence. shes 50ish and speaks spanish and english so we sorta go back and forth.She is down in spring valley. I cant remember if ive talked about her before. She is a lady who has been jehovas witness but doesnt feel its right for her and has been super excited to learn more. She had so many perfect questions and was just so ready to soak everything up. It was super fun to teach, because she knows the bible, and wants to learn and just loved it all. To make it even better, even though she likes what we teach, she said that she wants to pray about it and see what god thinks, because she wants to start truly doing what the lord wants. So its been super fun.

We also got to teach Denise that day and it was incredible. It was the strongest ive felt the spirit during a lesson ever. it was so cool, and he helped me say everything perfectly for her. She is such a special girl, thats gone through so much, she loves the church and loves the spirit. Shes been having to go down to phoenix on sundays, and hasnt been able to come to church, and with conference this week we wont be able to go down on saturday, so we are pushing her baptism just a little back and she was kinda sad. but thats cool that she cares about it like that. Its really cool teaching her.

On wednesday we had exchanges with the elders we live with and i went with elder gray. Hes a funny kid. hes been out 6 weeks now, and hes rocking it. haha its fun to see his energy and "greeny spirit" as they say haha.

Friday we had another exchange with the zone leaders from flagstaff. Becasue they have to drive so far we did one that was from mid fri to saturday night, and we did a ton of stuff haha. we were up in sedona, (half hr north) and then came back to cottonwood and did some spanish stuff, then went down to spring valley ( an hr south) and did back to english stuff, then went up to cortis lakes (20 min north of spring valley) and did more spanish stuff haha. its was a lot of lessons lots of language change, and tons of driving. We also met elysa and have been able to teach her a few times now as she is so sweet. She has been coming to church for almost a y ear now with her 14 yr old sister who is a member. Her goal is to get baptized on oct 15! shes super excited, and just likes learning about jesus :)

Then that sunday I was asked to give a talk up in the sedona ward, and that was interesting. It is a english ward with not many people in it, but i guess there are just tons of visitors each week, and thats how they are still a ward haha. It was weird giving a talk in english but i think it went pretty good. I talked on the atonement, and at one point read the story from elder hollands talk about the boys that went climbing and got stuck and the older brother tried to jump and didnt quite make it but the little brother saved him. I dont know if you remember that one, but i liked it and how it compared christ to the brother and how he literally saves us. but like the story we have to jump and do our part first.
And then to wrap up an awesome week, we went hiking up in sedona and it was beautiful. i about cried the whole way with my knee haha, but it was super fun.
This week was a bit slower, just sorta an off week, but im excited to have elder waters as my companion. we should have fun and we should have some awesome baptisms!

love you guys! have a good one

elder miller

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.

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.

New Address in Cottonwood, AZ

Elder Miller's New Address:

2675 S. Sunset Drive Cottonwood AZ 86326

7.9.16

Saturday 7-9-16  Patricia Jalapas Baptism!!!! And the farewell

What a day!! So we started in cottonwood, proselyte do  but and (used
to be) elder Manzano came and picked us up to go back down to Phoenix!
So we get down there and everything's ready to go, which was super
nice because I didn't have to stress much haha. One of he coolest
things I thing is that nothing wrong happened, at least not things
that we saw this time so that was awesome!! Patricia showed up early
and we got dressed, and took some pictures. Obispo Quintero gave an
awesome talk about baptism and then we went into the font. It was
actually suuper hot, like hotter than bathtub hot, I kinda got
worried, but it was okay. It went perfect on the first try 😊 and
Martha helped her out and to change. I then returned to the changing
room and the spirit was amazing. I just sat there crying in the
bathroom. It was super special so I can't imagine how Patricia felt.
But it was super nice. I felt like it was Heavenly Father telling me
good job, well done, now keep going, keep working hard. It was
wonderful. The ward then welcomed her in so incredibly she was crying
and I think really felt their love. It was awesome.
I am so happy for her, she is such a amazing woman, and I know
Heavenly Father is going to help her grow so much, just as He already
has. I'm gonna miss her.

Then afterward I couldn't go more than 5 steps without someone wanting
a picture, it was really special. I love this ward, and am so grateful
Heavenly Father helped me and used me to touch their lives. I took
soooo many pictures after, and tons of tears from everyone including
me and wow it was hard. Especially because for some of them I already
said goodbye once to, and died and now had to do it avian Aaahh. Haha
but I was super happy to see everyone again. I love that ward.

The mezas gave me a gift, not sure what it is yet, and said they were
going to come up to cottonwood to see me haha. Mariah wouldn't let go
of my hand, and was crying, and kept telling me I was now just her
older brother on a mission, it was cute. Luz gave me a super special
letter, from a typewriter actually haha. Maura gave me a ton of
pictures and little notes. Everyone was having a really hard time
saying goodbye. And they all told me over and over not to forget about
them. Ahh It was hard 😢

7.6.16

Wednesday 7-6-16 Transfer day!

So we woke up early this morning to go run to our ward mission leader
(Cesar Perla) to say goodbye befor he went to work. He's a really cool
guy. I said it in day one and I say it again he is just like Ev from
back home, just a lesser on the extreme. But just like Ev when it is
something serious or something that means a lot to him like a goodbye,
they are some of my favorite people, because hey tell you everything,
they really let you know how they feel and it was cool to see that
from him. He told me thank you a lot, and for fixing the ward numbers
wise, but especially for helping the ward. He said the ward loves you
and we are really going to miss you. You showed them that they can
trust missionaries again. As well as you showed them you, you weren't
a robot and you showed them your love and care. So that made me feel
pretty good. I really am sad that I had to leave them.
So after we came back I finished packing, said goodbye to elder
Heller. We traded ties and had some good last words(😂 just remember
Tyrone)
I'm gonna really miss him too. But I know I at least get to see him 1
more time because we go home together so that's good.
Then angel Flores picked me up. Went up to transfer building and I
found elder Clough. I'm pretty excited to be with him, I knew him from
solano so I'm excited. I already know he works hard, he's he district
leader up there, and his Spanish is awesome so I'm pumped.
We then started the 2-1/2 hr drive to my new home, and was it weird.
It looked a lot like certain parts of the drive from Utah to like
Vegas, so in a super weird way I felt like I was driving home from
some weird trip or like a tournament haha. But it was a pretty drive,
but there was like nothing around, it was just the street and cacti
everywhere. But we made it and it is beautiful! It's so cool up here
there like actual mountains, and trees, and grass. Haha I never
thought I'd be so excited to see grass haha. So we dropped off my
stuff, and we live with two pretty cool English elders in a trailer
house haha. It's kinda cool being in a house setting rather than
apartments. So that's fun.
We then went to ward council and met some members. Well it turns out
it's actually a branch of about 20 haha, so very different then down
in the Phoenix. We are the only Spanish branch up north, so we cover a
bunch of little towns: cottonwood, Sedona (which I hear is beautiful),
valley verde, and like three other ones that are even smaller. It's
very different. But I'm super excited. Looking through our area books
and plans there is a bunch of work up here too! Elder clough says they
are super humble here, so people like talking to us and what not but
they are pretty flaky, and if they aren't in cottonwood, sometimes
they don't want to come to church because it's anywhere from a 25 to
40 min drive depending on which town. Still super excited tho.
We then went to our elders quorum presidents house, and talked a
little. Turns out we are the elders quorum councilors. I know that's
more common in other places but not where I've been so that's fun.
So while we were there he just started making a fire outside, and my
first thought was whoa, what are you doing we are in Arizona where it
hits 120s and doesn't drop below 100 after dark!! But then about 10
min later the sun went down and it kinda got chilly! It was crazy
haha. He then made us some elotes (corn on the cob) on the fire it was
fun.
We came home and had some fun getting to know the other guys and
they're cool. Elder sultan was a college wrestler and is actually done
in 5 weeks, and elder Townsend is his trainee from Georgia and has 6
weeks haha. This is actually the first person younger than me that
I've lived with, but technically older in age by a month haha. I'm so
happy to be here!! Awesome area, no death heat, I mean when I got here
at like noon it was 100 degrees and I got out and my first words were,
we it feels nice out here hahaha. Who would of thought I would ever
say 100 felt good.
So ya awesome area, no heat from down under, awesome companion, living
with cool hard working elders, and we have people to teach! This is
sweet!

7.18.16

What's up everyone. Sorry about last week, had a few difficulties but
I got the schedule down a bit and how we do things up here.
But I am officially in cottonwood and it's weird. Haha, but also very
cool in so many ways. So I am about an 1.5 hrs from my old area to the
north. My companion is elder clough from Michigan. I served with him
in Solano and spent Christmas and New Years with him so it's awesome
already knowing him. He is an awesome guy, and already we are having a
bunch of fun.  He's 20, went to a semester or two at BYU and then came
out a transfer before me. So he's a little more than a year and I'm
just a. Bit behind one. I really like him. I know it's two weeks in,
but I think my favorite companion.

So cottonwood is a little town of apparently about 10,000. People here
are either really old and retired (I've never seen so many old people)
or Mexican to be honest. So we have a good amount of people to teach,
they just aren't super solid. I feel like the rest of my mission I've
had the opposite problem of ot having anyone but one, but they were
solid and got baptized, here it's the tons of people but no one keeps
commitments.
So we are in a branch of about 10 active adults and maybe 15 kids, so
super different from the first half of my mission. There are some
super great people, all converts in the last 7 yr or less. Since we
can't really do any big initiative or ward lessons, so we've decided
to try and help people have the goal to get their patriarchal
blessing,  ecaszue no one has it, besides the branch president and the
elders quorum councilors, which are me and elder clough haha.

So we also cover some 5 other smaller towns all from 30 to an 1 hr
away. Sedona is the other town we go to most and it is really cool.
It's all red rock with pines trees it's a weird cool mix, compared to
like Moab. It's super pretty.

We had zone meeting this week up in flagstaff so I got to go see that
up there. It's pretty as well. Even more green and pines, and smaller
haha. I guess it's a little college town as well as more retired
people haha.  It's weird tho because we're all so separated, meaning
the zone, so the only people we see is the elders we live with. They
are really cool,but one, elder sultan, goes home in a few weeks.
That'll be sad. Buuuut I guess this is more like what most missions
are like.

So that's what it's like up here in cottonwood. It gets up to about
105 which sounds a lot but it feels great. But I freeze at night when
it drops to 60 at night haha. Oh we live in a house too so that's
sweet. I never thought I'd say I would live in a trailer home buts
it's cool for the mission 😋

I'll try to give more info about people we are teaching, once I learn
people's names and all that haha.

I LOVE YOU GUYS
Have a good week
Elder Miller

7.5.16

What's up guys!

So like my family back home, I too am moving. I am heading up north to
get away from the heat haha. It drops to 65 at night, that will be
almost a 60 degree difference from here! It's called cottonwood near
Sedona. I'm excited but I am suuper sad to leave. His has been my
longest area and I love these people and I really don't want to say
goodbye.

But on happier notes, Patricia Jalapa is getting baptized this
Saturday!!! Yeeeesss it's taken so much work haha. But she is ready
and I am pumped!! It's going to be awesome. My only fear is not
finding someone that will drive me back down here from cottonwood for
the baptism. I really really hope I can come back or I will be sooo
sad.

Luz and Oscar are back! For the first time in 3 years Luz stayed for
all 3 hours, and she loved it. She said it was exactly what she
needed, and felt so much love from the ward. Oscar went to work after
the first, but she stayed and I think she will continue to do so
forever. We weren't able to fast with them, but I think they will this
week and then Oscar will be able to come to all three hrs as well. I
love them so much. Luz texted me a huge text that said thank you,
thanks for finding us again, for not giving up, and helping us back. I
love them so much. Luz is someone I know I knew before this life. I'm
going to say goodbye today and bawl cuz I'm a baby.

Sacramento has been working so much that we haven't been able to get in.
He starts at 2:30 am and gets home at like 8:00pm. He works at a field
some 2 hrs away from his house. I feel really bad for him. But he
takes his one day off and has come to church three times in a row now.
It's cool. I hope they can continue helping him.

I hope you guys had an awesome 4th. Mine was pretty sad, we literally
did nothing, mostly because we couldn't, because we had to be home by
6 and during the day no one was home or wanted to talk to us haha. But
for dinner, elder heller made crab cakes, and shrimp n grits. It was
quite good. We then were weird and played risk my second time ever and
guess who won, me😊

But anyway, I have to go cry now.

I love you guys hope all is well!

Elder Miller

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

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.

4.22.16

Hey guys,

Sorry I haven't written in a bit, to be honest not much is happening
around here. We are trying hard but we are struggling to find people
to teach her. People sorta seem to act like they are fine and don't
need any help with their life. But hopefully it's going to pick up. We
are doing a big month fast with the zone where 1 companionship fasts
everyday of the month and we pick 2 days each. We also are finally
getting a ward mission plan going within the next month so we are
excited for that. I can't believe April is almost over. Every month
seemed a to pick up speed.

We just found out that I'm getting a pretty cool birthday present.
Elder Holland is going to come talk to us on my bday!! It's going to
be sweet!! I'm pretty excited.

I can say one thing if I'm going to be going through a slow spell I'm
glad I'm here. This ward is such a nice ward and I love the bishop. He
such a cool guy and he cares so much about the ward. He has started to
see the importance of some of the stuff we do and is now willing to do
anything to help us. We hopefully will be getting w new ward mission
leader (because he has been to church 2 times since I've been here😕)
so hopefully we are finally getting everything Rollin here soon. It
should be good!!

We got a new elder in our apartment and he's super funny. Elder
buckway Sadly he goes home this transfer. He's from Ogden and we've
had fun just talking, especially because neither of our companions
talk much.

So my knee is messed up, it's super fun. When I try to put pressure on
it it buckles😊 I'm going to a doctor tonight to see what he says. Idk
how or what I did to it but it's been a month and still hurts and
still is swollen so that's been fun. And this zone there is a bunch of
guys who are pretty good at ball and I can't play😫😭  it's been kinda
frustrating, especially trying to tract with crutches haha. Yeah but
hopefully someone can tell me a little more about it tonight.

Well that's sorta it for around here. I heard it snowed, that's
exciting! Haha it's 90s over here now so I'm quite the opposite of you
guys. Hope you guys are doing good!

Elder Miller

NEW MISSION ADDRESSS

New Arizona Phoenix Mission Office Address.  All mail and packages should be sent to this address.

Arizona Phoenix Mission

6833 W Bell Rd

Glendale, AZ  85308