2.23.16

Hi guys!

So I found out this morning that I'm getting transferred again. Not
sure where yet, but I'm excited, but sad at the same time because me
and elder cespedes are having fun and we have some baptism lined up
but I'm happy to get to try another are and ward.

So we thought Ricardo was going to go to a different ward, but his
(separated) wife feels uncomfortable still so he's going to just go to
solano. And he's super excited to get baptized. He's still on track
for the 5 of March so hopefully I get to come back for that one.

We may have yet another under 18 baptism get blocked again☹️ Giseles
dad doesn't think she's old enough. She's 14 and super smart and has
had the lessons taught to her three times, but he's not a member and
his wife is but she doesn't have a testimony, and so she doesn't push
very hard😔 hopefully he will say ok, but if not I know she will get
baptized when she turns 18.

Well I'm realizing I'm a lot more sad than I thought I was to leave
here and some great members. Speaking of which I'm going to go say
goodbye to them.

I'll let u guys know where I end up.

Love you guys

Have a good week

Elder Miller

2.15.16

Hey everyone!

It's beautiful here. All I hear is you guys are freezing haha, I'm sorry.

This week has been awesome! So we have had a girl name Gisselle
getting ready for baptism am. She's been so ready for a long time, but
her mom, a inactive since she was 19, hasn't had a very strong
testimony so the lessons have been more for her, but finally this
week, she's feeling the spirit. She told us that she's feeling like
the lord has been in her house, and has seen a change in her daughter.
She's ready, and the only reason why she's not getting baptized this
week is she wants to wait for her grandma that is coming up from
Mexico in a few weeks. We're so excited for her!

We have also had huge progress with a guy named Ricardo. His family
was baptized like a yr ago, and he didn't want anything to do with it,
and then he moved out but they weren't divorced. When we first started
teaching him, we thought Maybe he was doing it to get back with his
wife, but we e been working hard with him this last few weeks, and he
came to us and said he knoWs this is the true church, and he can see
such and incredible change is his life and especially the days he
reads the Book of Mormon. I too have seen the incredible power of the
Book of Mormon in my life, and know how true it is, and the difference
in my day when I read it and when I don't is night and day. I am so
grateful for it In my life.

We had exchanges with the zone leaders and it was awesome! They are
definitely older missionaries. We had such a spiritual day, I honestly
kinda hope I get transferred with an older companion. Don't get me
wrong, I love elder Cespedes. We've finally figured it out and we are
having a ton of fun, and we are working our hardest.

I can't believe we only have like 10 days left in this transfer. These
two have flown by. Next pday is Tuesday, and I'll know my fate😛

I love you guys so much.
I hope you guys are doing good.
Elder Miller

2.8.16

Hey guys!

well lets start off with the beautiful weather this week. It has been 75-80 all week. It has been wonderful. haha. while ive heard that many of you are under many feet of snow 😜
I think the funnest thing I did this week was exchanges with elder plourde. Hes the now 4 week old missionary thats my ward. We had tons of fun and had some good lessons.

Well this week has been full of meetings.
Last Thursday we had the zone conference where we got some training, and some new rules.
The theme of the new rules is they dont want you being friends with other missionaries. haha not really but thats kind of how it feels. We are not allowed to email other missionaries in our mission. We cant have transfer meetings where we get to see everyone. We cant have big zone conferences. We cant sleep in the same room as the other companionship in your apartment. We also are not allowed to go to the mesa Easter pageant now, or temple lights :(  So ya thats some of the changes. Oh well. its sad but its the rules.

We then had interviews with the Mission President, and those are always pretty intense haha. They were good though. Then we had a really long district meeting where I gave a discussion on achieving goals. I did pretty good if I do say so my self haha. And then we had a meeting with all the ward auxiliaries with our missions 1st counselor about missionary work and how the ward should be doing a lot more than just feeding us haha. although I do thoroughly enjoy when members feed us haha. The ward meeting was actually really good. We are trying to make a big push with working more with this ward. The big thing is that the majority of the members are converts and so there are some issues that come from that, for example our bishop is a convert of about 5 yrs and still is getting the hang of a lot of rules and things. But its okay, becasue we are here to help these guys out. That is one thing ive really learned this week is that the mission is a lot more than just baptisms. I mean I obviously knew that before, but this week we havnt had many people to teach, so we have been visiting a lot of inactive members and trying to help them. The first line of a missionaries purpose is "bring others closer to Christ" so thats not just non members. This week we are making a big push to try some of the training we received from the 1st counselor and work a lot more with these auxiliaries.

Our distircts all getting really sick, to where they are going to the hospital, so I really dont want to get sick.

I had some more fun with food this week. On exchanges me and Plourde went to a little whole in the wall vietnamies place. We had some awesome Pho. it was fun. We didnt have dinner a few times this week, and i made oconamiaki (or however you spell it) and fried rice. it was way good.

Thats it for this week. Really there wasnt much to it. It was pretty slow actually haha. but that will just make this week even better.

love you guys

elder miller
So fresh and so clean.

2.1.16

Hi everyone hope you're not all not freezing under the snow.

It's been a nice 70 degrees over here.

Sorry I didn't write last week, but we did have a baptism!! It was for
the 80 year old man named Francisco. Once again Satan was fighting us.
Of course we walk in and begin to set up for the baptism and 10 other
adults walk in and ask us what we are doing? Today was the big your
stake activity with over 300 kids coming not to mention any other
adults, and it started at 2. What time was out baptism?? 2.
It was quite the struggle getting him baptized because he can't
exactly bend his knees because he's really old, and then he completely
went limp and it was pure dead weight getting him up out of the water
haha. But it was awesome. After the battle of him getting him out of
the font and up the stairs, he sat down all wet, and cried. He was so
happy. He didn't stop smiling the rest of the time. It was also the
most people that have come to a baptism ( in the ward) in a long time.
It was just super awesome.

This week has been pretty eventful as well. We have helped 2 more
choose a baptismal date for the end of February! On Wed we had a big
conference and got some new rules that I will have to explain more
next week, but that wasnt the fun part. I got to see Elder Wells
again! And all my old zone. I miss them so much. The thing I realized
is that zone was full of old missionaries that have kinda figured it
out for the most part, and in this zone I'm considered old, besides
two others. 6 months is not old! So ya. We've definitely. Had
different problems because we are all so old (mission wise) age wise I
actually am the youngest. I am the only 18 yr old out of our district.
Um I got hair, always fun. Haha um oh ya yesterday there was a
farewell, and she had an awesome talk. She's going to NY. But about 5
min before sacrament I was asked to sing a duet because the people
didn't show up!! I don't know why they.  Just didn't skip it or
something, but me and elder Plourde ended up singing a child's prayer
in Spanish in the middle of sacrament. That was pretty dang scary
hahaha. But I mean we were highly complimented and there were some
moist eyes in the crowd hahahha. Idk I hope it was good. It wasn't
terrible partly because we've sang that song for like 18 yrs but ya.
Defiantly a first. I felt like Selli Desi and ari haha ( my cousins
who are amazing singers)
Just I wasn't half as good as them. Haha
Well I gotta run we have a lesson in 10 haha

Love you guys
Elder Miller

Pictures 1.18.16

1.18.15

Dear Friends & Family,

Another week down haha. This week has breezed by as we worked hard with a man named Francisco. Francisco is 76 yrs old, and has never wanted anything to do with the church. His wife is a member, but has been in active for over 40 yrs. About a month ago we started working with his wife, Maria, to get her to come back. We invited Francisco to join us multiple times, but never would. Then one day he had already been sitting at the table when we arrived, and decided it was easier to stay and sit, then try to get up and leave haha. But that lesson, he said he felt something that he'd never felt before, and that he wanted it again. From then on, he came and listened to us, taking notes and being super attentive. We invited him to be baptized but told us that it would take time, months even, to learn and decide if this is what he should do. Well last week, we invited him again, expecting him to choose one in Feb. even March., and he chose the 23 of Jan! We were super excited. He still needed to be taught some things, but said he felt it was time. So this week we've been teaching him the commandments, at first he seemed confused and surprised they were commandments, but immediately after learning what they were, every time he would tell us, "Hermanos, if its from God, then of course ill follow it!"  It was pretty awesome. Because he is kinda old, he forgets a little, and needs a little reminder sometimes when we are asking him questions, but his faith is awesome, and is super ready to get baptized! Now we just have to get everything set up and ready for him this Saturday!!!

We have that big meeting coming up on wed. about all the changes. Not too excited for some of the rumors I've heard haha, but when they are coming from an apostle I guess their important right? haha. We'll see. I hope their not too big of changes.

So we got our new roommate. His name is elder Diamonate (jamante). He is from the Philippians. He is a super nice kid, but definitely is a foreigner haha. It'll be fun having him around, and his happiness he brings.

Well that's it for this week 🤗haha

Love u guys

Elder miller

1.12.16

Hi world,

I have had such an emotional roller coaster of a week haha

So we started well with another exchange with the district leader. This time I was with elder Bryan. There were no ghost peppers, or having a amazing experience with the gift of tounges, but we had the spirit the whole time. That is one thing I have learned while being out here is, if you are worthy and seeking for the spirit, your day is so so much better. That was our goal of the transfer, was to have the spirit with us as very very much as possible. That should be our goal everyday, especially as missionaries, but that day was special. I was able to learn so much through the spirit, that I want his presence that strong everyday. It was just a really cool experience.

Then we go to a lesson with a girl named Lesly. She just turned 17, and we have been working hard with her, and she has been so excited to be baptized. We go over and start making plans for her baptism for the 16th! The spirit is there, and she is happy, and then her mom walks in. And for the second time, with a girl that is 17, the parent denies permission to be baptized until she is 18. and it crushed me. I was so sad. The rest of the day I was pretty down. She is so ready, and now has to wait for another year. I just know how hard high school can be, and to wait a whole year to be baptized just seems so long. Ya, it was sad, but she has some good friends in the ward, and hopefully the plan is to just act like shes a member just not be baptized haha.

Thankfully the next day we were able to go to the temple again!! President Griffin gave us a goal of hitting 1500 contacts in the month of December as a zone. Each companionship had to get 200 each to go, and everyone in the zone did it! It was awesome. I love the temple soo much. It was another amazing experience, and while we were there, I received a lot of comfort, especially with Lesly. I was reminded that everyone has there time, and everything is part of the His plan. After the temple, President also took us to breakfast, it was super fun.

So with the passing of the 3 apostles, and different apostles moving in to new positions, elder oaks is now over the mission department, and there are apparently going to be a lot of changes. Sadly from the ones ive heard, it just sounds like we cant have fun anymore. haha not really but there is going to be a lot of change, and we are going to have a big mission wide meeting all about it.

Then with it being transfers, the nervousness of being transferred or staying or just all the change. Our district is changing a ton but I will be staying with elder Cespedes for another 6 weeks. we also found out we will be getting a new roommate. we also had a lot of little things trying to throw us off throughout the whole week. Some of them definitely through me off the tracks for a bit, but the temple was at the perfect time.

Ya kinda a weird week, but we are ready to hit this new transfer hard, and do awesome haha.
Love you guys
talk to you next week :D
Elder Miller

Kaylor Photos 1.4.16

1.4.16

What another crazy week. So we had two more days off for New Year's
Eve because everyone getting ready/ partying, and New Year's Day
because their all hung over haha. This week has gone so fast.
Wednesday, we had our first exchanges since I've been in this area. I
got to go with elder clough and we were in his area. We had a super
fun day with some awesome lessons, and just great day. We found a
couple that let us in and they started asking us tons of questions.
Elder Clough has only been out 1 more transfer than I have, and has
been struggling with Spanish. So as this couple is spouting off
questions, elder Clough look very confused. I kept waiting for him to
answer, but he didn't understand. That's when I realized I understood
everything they were saying. And as I began to answer I spoke with a
clearness and fluidity that I never have before. It was so cool. The
spirit was helping me, bringing words, phrases,and scriptures to my
mind, as if I were almost reading it all from a paper. The power and
gifts of the spirit are so amazing. With these few days off, I spent a
lot of time reading talks and scriptures about listening for, and
receiving revelation and inspiration from the Lord. It has been
incredible how different the day goes when you are truly seeking for
His guidance. I have learned a lot, and it has become a  one of my
main goals throughout the day. Sadly I feel like I should have been
doing this all along, but better 5 months in that 2 yrs in right?
Haha. It is crazy how much I feel like I have learned and grown in
such a small time, and I am excited to see how much farther I can go.
So anyway, back to the exchange. So after we have this awesome lesson,
(Food section: I know it's early in the email for that but ya know
it's part of the day, haha) We end up going to a members house who
actually goes to Monte vista (my old ward) but lives in our area. So
we stopped in and we're talking, and my little chile hunt comes up and
how we ate this little no name chile and how hot it was. He chuckles
and goes over to the fridge. Turns out he has some ghost peppers.
(Dang I totally just realized that I've been calling peppers, chiles
because that's what they are in Spanish haha.) but anyway ya he pulls
out a container of Ghost Peppers! And of course elder Clough and I
being the stupid 1 9and 18 yrs olds we are, said sure lets do it. So
we start off with half in a delicious taco she made. She actually had
spent 6 hrs preparing this lamb, that they had gone to a farm thing,
killed it and prepared it themselves, and then took another 12 hrs to
cook it. It was one of the best meats I've ever had. It was Devine.( I
was told I needed to change up my vocabulary haha). So ya the taco
delicious, the pepper, really not too bad. So we go ok we'll eat half
alone. So we split a little one, really not that bad. We ate another
taco after, but I expected so much worse. I totally thought the little
nameless pepper was hotter. So Hermano was impressed and goes, your
not down to eat a whole one alone, totally jokingly. Haha once again
we not fully processing our actions proceeded to each choose a ghost
pepper, the hottest pepper in the world, and each chewed about ten
times...... Worst mistake ever.😵 I thought I was dying. Round 1 I
began to sweat so badly I took off my jacket. Rnd2: My mouth Hurts so
bad I felt like a had a hot coal in my mouth. Rnd3 My nose felt like
Niagara Falls, as I used 10 napkins to hold back the flow, and to
really seal the deal Rnd4: I began to cry. My tears burned my face. It
was the most painful food related experience I have ever had in my
life. 10 min pass nothing changes we are dying. We have been chugging
milk, and eating ice. Together we drank about a half a gallon. Then it
slowly, slowly begins to fade. And then begins round 6 The monster
that has been dormant in my stomach has been awoken and is far from
happy. I began to feel one of the worst stomach pains in my life. It
hurt so bad I thought I was going to throw up then and there. Luckily
it didn't happen.... Until I got home. (I think part of the problem
was that was a ton of milk plus tacos plus the pepper, plus a dinner
only an hr prior.) Rnd7: the toilet. It became my new friend that
night, as what felt like boiling liquid, was projected from my insides
into/on my porcelain friend. I have decided that it burned worse
coming out then going in. Just as I began to feel better and thought I
may be able to sleep, the monster inside read my thoughts, and decided
coming up wasn't enough, and so it went down. Rnd 8: back to the white
Throne . Rnd 9: I died 💀

Now with this fun tale having been completed, could it have been
prevented if two boys had merely waited a short few seconds to ponder
the consequences, yes I believe so, but the true question, if those
boys were to know the consequences prior and had taken time to ponder
the out come would they have still have taken on the mighty ghost
pepper? Ya probably hahaha.

It was pretty awful as you can see, but I bet I would have done it
even knowing how bad it was going to be, because I can now say I HAVE
EATEN THE HOTTEST PEPPER  IN THE WORLD!😂😜👻🌶 haha. So there goes my
chille/ pepper quest. Looks like I'm back to what's the weirdest food
I can try haha.

So then Thursday and Friday we had off, and we just chilled slept,
read, played to games, and slept some more haha. It was fun.

Saturday we had some meetings and did some planning.
Sunday was an awesome day. With it being the first Sunday of the year
as well as fast Sunday, the chapel was full. This has been the first
time since I have been here that the chapel wasn't half empty, it was
Awesome! Then what seemed like almost everyone stood up and sat in the
front to bear their testimony. It was kind of funny to see almost more
people up by the stand then there were sitting in the congregation
haha. It was a super powerful testimony meeting. Then after we were
able to talk to many members that have been less active, and set up
some times to go visit with them, and hopefully help them start to
come back.

And then the next thing I know I'm writing this letter today, and
realizing I have 1 week left in the transfer!?! what, where did this
transfer go. I feel like I've been in this area for maybe 2 weeks.
It's been crazy. So next week I could possibly be transferred or just
stay right here. I have no clue. At least last time I new for the most
part one of us was leaving, because I was done with training. This
time I have no idea. So I'll know by the next time I talk to you guys.

Hope you all had a fun New Years, and have some solid goals and
resolutions to make this year awesome, and better than the last .😎😄
[i can't believe it's already 2016. I was thinking about how that
whole big2012 end of the world thing felt like maybe a yr ago haha]

Love all you guys so much
Elder Miller

12.28.15

I hope everyone had an Awesome Christmas!

We hit standards again this week! third week in a row, even on a week
where we didn't proselyte for two days. So I learned more about this
whole "standards" and why its like a good thing to achieve even though
its called Standards. Turns out its called Standards Of Excellence. So
its like the top.
So its the standards to be awesome,the best,the top, to achieve
Excellence hahaha. So it is a bigger thing than i thought, and we got
a shout out in the mission email from President this week!

So we hit standards on a super weird week. So we didnt proselyte on
Christmas eve or Christmas, and on top of it we had some crazy stuff
happen.

So Tuesday morning our trio got torn apart and Elder Rodriguez was
transferred up to the cold in Prescott. He is now training a new
missionary. So now it's two fairly new missionaries in an area they've
been in for 2 weeks driving around with no gps and many people to see.
It has been a struggle haha. Then that night we have his old man
talking to us not letting us leave his house and is trying to tell us
there is no way he can stop drinking. And then we get lost trying to
get home so ya we don't show up till 10 and our roommates are all
worried and so the zone leaders are at our house all worried and ya
that was fun. Even though we were only a half hr late it was quite a
big deal apparently.
So then Wednesday night, elder dwigans, one of our roommates, broke
his elbow, when he crashed on his bike. So I drove him to the hospital
and we didnt get back until 1 am. Then on top of that President shows
up as well to our apartment, so that is always a little nerve racking
being around him. Not because he's scary or anything just the fact
that the mission president is in your home, like that's not normal. So
ya that was fun. So if that's not enough at about 3am on Christmas
morning elder dwigans has a reaction to a medicine and can't stop
throwing up. So they wake me up and we give him a blessing. Well he's
still throwing up and we are about to take him back to the hospital at
4am. We call president and he comes over again! So we've now had him
over 3 times since when he told us that elder Rodriguez would be
leaving us. He called a doctor and we got elder dwigans sleeping and
by then it's 6:30. President leaves at about 7, and we are supposed to
have breakfast with a member at 8:30 haha. So we slept for about an hr
more and went and had biscuits and gravy and tamales with the whole
zone. It was actually really good. So this is Christmas Day, we dont
have much to do now haha.we end up going to the institute building and
play pool and ping pong for a bit, but you can only do that for so
long haha. So we went back home and slept pretty much from about 11 to
3:30. I then finally got to open my presents and I got some sweet
stuff. Thank you thank you for everyone that sent me stuff. It was
awesome! One of the presents that I got that we had some fun with was
a huge box of candy I got from my grandma. The reason for this massive
box was to give it away😊 so Christmas Eve we went around to
investigators and members and doorbell ditched a ton of people and
left a bag with candy canes chocolate and Christmas hand towels. It
wasn't this huge special present but it was fun, and I hope that it
made them happy.
Another fun thing I got was some snow in a can from my other grandma
haha. So we did have a white Christmas. We made a little house scene
thing  haha it was fun. And we made this little video of us doing it
haha. I felt like a little kid but we didn't have much to do Christmas
Eve night after we ran out of candy to pass out. Wow I'm skipping all
over the place. And thank you for everyone that wrote me for the 12
days of Christmas thing. It was so special to hear from all of you
guys. I love you guys so much.
But ya back to Christmas best part of the day was obviously was when I
got to call home 😊 it was awesome seeing the family and talking to
them. It's weird how much has changed in my life, and how"normal"
things are still at home haha. It was the best, but It was so hard to
say goodbye 😣 but hey 5 months I get to do it again yay. It's been
officially 5 months tomorrow so I can wait another 5 to talk to them
again haha.

Always gotta do my food section haha😋
Christmas Eve dinner we had it with this super nice cute old lady from
DF Mexico. She made us tamales beans rice.... And a huge bowl of
menudo. For those of you that don't know what menudo is a dish with
tripe, or in normal mans terms cow stomach 😅 I have had it before and
actually liked it, but this stuff was interesting. It was in huge
I mean HUGE chunks, and she didn't cook it enough so normally it's
pretty chewy but this was the chewiest thing I have ever put in my
mouth. It wasn't bad the flavor was actually pretty good, in was in a
lemon onion squash caldo( soup) but it was just soo chewy that I ended
up just swallowing the pieces whole haha. So ya pretty fun. Sadly
that's been the weirdest thing I've eaten so far, but I have already
eaten that prior to the mission. I'm still seeking for something down
here haha. Oooh I did eat and start a Chile eating challenge. So one
of our investigators has a bush in her backyard that grows these
little little chiles, and she has no idea what they are. So I ate one
and o my gosh. The hottest thing I have ever eaten in my whole life. I
started sweating and my nose was running and I was crying. Oh my gosh.
So of course I asked for some more haha and now we are seeing who will
take the challenge so far I've gotten 3 others to die with me in the
flames of this tiny nameless chile😂

So ya this has been a interesting week to say the least.
Love you guys all sooooo much. I really wish I could have called you all
Thank you for all the love and support you guys have given me.
2016 here we come!
Hope u all have some good resolutions 😋
Elder Miller

Pictures 12.28.15

1.) elder Nicholson my first district leader. love that dude. Hes the one that is from South Carolina, but went to Herriman his sr yr.

2.) Nikki's baptism  

3.) Lizet and Juan Carlos Baptism- First baptism in Solano right before Elder Rodriguez left

4.)Mesa Temple -Middle Elder Cespedes Right Elder Rodriguez

5.) Mesa cespedes-Elder Dawson, Our roomate

6.) Mesa- Elder Rodriguez

7.) Elder Bryan- I love this dude. Hes my new district leader and he is the other elder in the ward. He is an awesome dude.

8.)Middle elder Dwiggens (The one that broke his elbow) and elder Dawson

9.) Valdomeros Baptism

Video 12.25.15

Christmas pictures 12.26.15

Photos 12.24.15

12.21.15

Merry Christmas everyone!!😄

So I had another awesome week. To start off we hit standards again! So
hitting standards isn't huge, because it's called standards, but it's
not just something easy you get by waking up and walking around ya
know. The hardest for us right now is finding new investigators. On
Tuesday we came across this guy who was setting up some pretty cool
lights in his front yard. Started talking to us and he invited us in.
He seems pretty open and had a lot of questions. So there's 1 new
investigator!. Then I was going through the ward list a saw that there
was a 9 ur old that wasn't baptized. We stopped in wed and his mom
said that she wanted us to teach him so his baptism meant more to him.
So that's what we're going to do! 2 boom we hit standards. We are
going to see how many times we can do it in a row. 😁
Everyday I can count on something awesome from my 12 days of Christmas
letters. Everyday I get different letters from you guys and it's the
best. Thank you for all your letters and love and support, but
especially thank you mom for setting it all up for me😊 and the tree
is looking pretty good haha. So with that plus grandmas treats from my
other 12 days things it's been Christmas everyday! And I keep getting
different packages and I'm super excited to open them. The only thing
is I don't know who their from? But Thank you! Haha it definitely felt
more like Christmas this week with the presents and tree, but
especially with the spirit that I've been able to feel throughout this
week. We had lots of different lessons and neat experiences with all
kinds of people at the beginning of the week, and the weekend just
made it perfect.
We had our Christmas conference on Friday and it was incredible. So we
split the mission between three different days, but my group was
Friday. Anyway we all met up and rode a bus together, about 70
missionaries, to the Mesa temple! We got there at about 10 and got to
tour their newly reopened visitors center. It's awesome. They have all
these really neat new displays/exhibits. It was really cool. Then we
watched a movie of Christ's birth.  I think I forget most years that
Christ was born pretty much in a cave. Like you think of a nice little
stable or something, but this video shows this dirty cave and it
reminded me truly how humbly he came into this world. That our King
and Savior was born in a gross little cave. It then went on and showed
parts of his life and was through narration of the apostle Paul. It
was cool. After the video we went out side and president talked to all
of us and bore his testimony of the atonement. It was awesome. He is
such a spiritual man, and every time he talks to us he puts things
ways that just are perfect. We then all went and did an endowment
session. Wow. It was so cool to see that many of us in the temple all
together with our president and his wife. I also felt the spirit so
strong, and received so much love and comfort from Heavenly Father.
The temple is such a powerful place. If you are ever down, need the
spirit, have questions, the temple is the place to go. I know that
it's the Lords house and the spirit will always be there. I love the
temple so much.
After, we went to an awesome buffet. It was funny because we pretty
much took the whole restaurant hahaha. After dinner we went back to
the temple and got to walk around the lights. They were really pretty.
It's was weird with having seen the salt lake lights, like I wouldn't
say they were worse or better, just different, and both really pretty.
They had  some a awesome displays and the last one was the manger with
president monson voice reading from Luke. It was a fun night, kinda a
big break time to hang with other friends, and feel the spirit really
strong. It was a pretty awesome day.

So if that's not enough for this week, Saturday at about 11:00 we get
a phone call. It's our mission president, and he says he'll be there
in 2 min! We were all freaking out trying to clean, and figure out why
he would be coming, and it was crazy. He arrives, and has us sit down.
He starts off with how sometimes there has to be emergency transfers
and that when that happens one companion ship has to get split up and
they didn't do anything wrong. Well turns out that elder Rodriguez is
getting transferred 😢 I'm actually really sad. He's a super nice guy,
he's the one that knows the area and the ward, and he's been the one
taking us around haha. So then on top of him just leaving in the
middle of the transfer he's going up north in the snow and he has no
warm clothes, so president gave us permission to go get him a coat and
stuff. So we're just at the mall on a non pday haha it was weird. Then
we spent that night/Sunday visiting members for him to say goodbye. So
he leaves tomorrow morning. I really am sad though because he's a
super nice guy, and we've had some fun.
After getting him all ready to go, I was able to go back to Monte
Vista for valdomeros baptism!! He's the 9 year old boy that we were
working with that I put on date a few weeks before I left. It was
awesome to see such a young boy mature while learning about this and
see he choose to do this. He was nervous every but kept saying how
excited he was. It was super fun to see elder wells again and a lot of
the members including Nikki! It was fun. I love being out here, and
the feelings at baptisms are the best.
Sunday, it being the Sunday before Christmas, we sang in a little
choir for the sacrament meeting, as well as later that night in a
stake fireside. It was a very well done program and there were a bunch
of different musical #s all celebrating our savior.

A lot of you have told me how I am lucky to be out here especially at
this time of Christmas, and you are all so right! It has been an
incredible Christmas season full of the spirit and remembering our
savior. In just this short time my testimony of my savior has grown so
much. I am so grateful for Him and the atonement. The feeling of being
able to be forgiven from our mistakes is indescribable. And then the
strength and comfort he gives because of His perfect love is
incredible. I love Him and will always be thankful for him.

I love this scripture. As a mission we read it every morning since
I've been on the mission. It's Alma 7:10-12

10 And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the
land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen
vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the
Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God.
11  And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and
temptations of every kind;and this that the word might be fulfilled
which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his
people.
12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of
death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their
infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to
the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his
people according to their infirmities.

Love you guys soo much
Merry Christmas everyone 😄🤗😜😊🎄🎄
Elder Miller