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