Hello Everyone,
It was a pretty slow week. All of our investigators were either gone for the holidays or wanted to skip our weekly lessons due to the holidays. So there isn't much to report by way of missionary work. But in the opposite side the weekend was awesome. We had a spectacular Christmas. Christmas eve actually we were invited to a party type nativity performance and it was good. The children played all the parts in the story of Jesus birth but they were short one wise man. So guess who they asked to fill in. So the audience was quite amused when I walked out wearing a pink snow flake adorned bath robe that was quite too small, and presenting a some sort of lotion that I guess was supposed to be myrhh. one sister in the ward snapped a picture and then demanded my parents e-mail address so that they could share in the amusement. So there's my explanation for when the e-mail gets posted all over the internet. Our mission president has all the packages held onto at the mission office that way they can ensure that every missionary gets something from their families and if not then the mission buys them some gifts. My companion had his parents send a package straight to our house but it hadn't arrived yet and so the mission got him a shirt and some ties and candy. We met at 5:30 on Christmas eve for our President wearing a santa hat to distribute all the packages. I'd like to take this time to thank everyone that sent me a letter or package. I think I had the most out of my entire zone. I got about 10 letters and 7 packages so I was looking forward to Christmas morning. That is more attention than I usually get each year. I'm thinking I've got to leave home more often.
But Christmas was great we really just went to three different members houses and had a grand time just sort of visiting with them and eating alot of food. I hope you all had a good Christmas and were able to take some time to think about our savior and the wonderful gift of the atonement. The mission is a great place to celebrate Christmas for it's really easy to keep in the true spirit and recognize the importance behind the holiday.
Have a Happy New Year everyone and I'll write again in 2011.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Not Transferred Afterall
Hello everybody,
There are quite a bit of computer problems here at the library today and so I used up all of my time trying to get the internet to access the LDS e-mail website. I thought having reliable internet service was one of the upsides of not going to a third world country on my mission but apparantly not. So I don't have much time to write which is unfortunate cause I think I got the most e-mails of all time from people wishing me a merry Christmas. So not much to tell I guess, Christmas has really snuck up on me. Every day is so similar on the mission that it really doesn't seem like Christmas should be allowed, it will throw the schedule out of whack. It should be fun though. I wasn't transferred like everyone here was telling me I would be. I think our mission president prefers not to move people around too much during the holidays. But since my companion will be going home after this transfer I will likely stay another one after that in order to immerse another person in this area. I am afraid that the baptismal date that we have for a man we've been teaching will be cancelled. The man it seems to me is really only taking the lessons because his girlfriend who we have been teaching is making him. I doubt that he has his own testimony yet and he is really more inclined to keep to his old church. I think that if we try to impose the law of chastity on him before he can get baptized he would rather just not be baptized. It's kind of funny how people can hold so closely to a religion but refuse to recognize or act upon the commandments they hold from God. I guess everyone deals with that but it really stinks when they seemed so close to baptism and now aren't looking so strong.
Merry Christmas everyone and I'll write next week.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
There are quite a bit of computer problems here at the library today and so I used up all of my time trying to get the internet to access the LDS e-mail website. I thought having reliable internet service was one of the upsides of not going to a third world country on my mission but apparantly not. So I don't have much time to write which is unfortunate cause I think I got the most e-mails of all time from people wishing me a merry Christmas. So not much to tell I guess, Christmas has really snuck up on me. Every day is so similar on the mission that it really doesn't seem like Christmas should be allowed, it will throw the schedule out of whack. It should be fun though. I wasn't transferred like everyone here was telling me I would be. I think our mission president prefers not to move people around too much during the holidays. But since my companion will be going home after this transfer I will likely stay another one after that in order to immerse another person in this area. I am afraid that the baptismal date that we have for a man we've been teaching will be cancelled. The man it seems to me is really only taking the lessons because his girlfriend who we have been teaching is making him. I doubt that he has his own testimony yet and he is really more inclined to keep to his old church. I think that if we try to impose the law of chastity on him before he can get baptized he would rather just not be baptized. It's kind of funny how people can hold so closely to a religion but refuse to recognize or act upon the commandments they hold from God. I guess everyone deals with that but it really stinks when they seemed so close to baptism and now aren't looking so strong.
Merry Christmas everyone and I'll write next week.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, December 13, 2010
Striking a Balance
Hello Everybody,
Things are goind well here. I had been hoping that we would have two baptisms this month. We've had a bit of pressure from our ward to try and get close to fulfilling their goals for the year and also from our Mission President to fulfill the goals for the mission, but unfortunately we can't force people to get baptized on our schedule. Our one date we set yesterday is for the 15th of January. We have set a lot of dates and all of them have fallen through. But unlike the rest I can't find a reason for this one to fall through. It's a little flawed the way in which we commit people to be baptized. We are encouraged to invite them to be baptized after we teach the first lesson unless prompted by the spirit not to. Usually I have been able to recognize a major issue blocking their way to baptism that must be resolved, the only problem is that we never tell them about this issue until it pops up in one of the following lessons. I'm thinking I'll start just trying to be as straight forward and up front as possible. Invite them to be baptized and then when they accept tell all the changes they must make in their life. Of course that is liable to scare them off. So it becomes a delicate balance. You pile commitments and life changing challenges on one side and try to not topple the scale. If you tell them too much at once then it's a turn off for them, the thought of all these life alterations compound and make them feel unable to surmount the obstacles. If you tell them too little though then they are never prepared in the frame that you have set up for them. So I haven't got the hang of it yet and it kind of seems like my companions haven't either. It's really more a game of chance that you will get someone who is so ready to change that nothing you tell them is any problem.
A recent convert in our ward when she was being taught assumed that part of joining the church meant going on a mission. She was so converted though that she was prepared to go on a mission until the missionaries informed her that is wasn't required. I can't wait to get an investigator like that. Someone who has truly sought out the truth for themselves and knows exactly what they must do and why they want to do it.
But I am thankful and proud of the investigators that I get to work with. Each of them are working hard to overcome the whatever is keeping them from being baptized.
Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the holidays.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Things are goind well here. I had been hoping that we would have two baptisms this month. We've had a bit of pressure from our ward to try and get close to fulfilling their goals for the year and also from our Mission President to fulfill the goals for the mission, but unfortunately we can't force people to get baptized on our schedule. Our one date we set yesterday is for the 15th of January. We have set a lot of dates and all of them have fallen through. But unlike the rest I can't find a reason for this one to fall through. It's a little flawed the way in which we commit people to be baptized. We are encouraged to invite them to be baptized after we teach the first lesson unless prompted by the spirit not to. Usually I have been able to recognize a major issue blocking their way to baptism that must be resolved, the only problem is that we never tell them about this issue until it pops up in one of the following lessons. I'm thinking I'll start just trying to be as straight forward and up front as possible. Invite them to be baptized and then when they accept tell all the changes they must make in their life. Of course that is liable to scare them off. So it becomes a delicate balance. You pile commitments and life changing challenges on one side and try to not topple the scale. If you tell them too much at once then it's a turn off for them, the thought of all these life alterations compound and make them feel unable to surmount the obstacles. If you tell them too little though then they are never prepared in the frame that you have set up for them. So I haven't got the hang of it yet and it kind of seems like my companions haven't either. It's really more a game of chance that you will get someone who is so ready to change that nothing you tell them is any problem.
A recent convert in our ward when she was being taught assumed that part of joining the church meant going on a mission. She was so converted though that she was prepared to go on a mission until the missionaries informed her that is wasn't required. I can't wait to get an investigator like that. Someone who has truly sought out the truth for themselves and knows exactly what they must do and why they want to do it.
But I am thankful and proud of the investigators that I get to work with. Each of them are working hard to overcome the whatever is keeping them from being baptized.
Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the holidays.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, December 6, 2010
Promising Investigator
Hello Everyone,
Things just got interesting around here. Our most promising investigator just got more promising. She has always from the get go been really excited about learning from us and agreed instantly to prepare to be baptized but we finally taught her commandments and brought up that she couldn't be baptized until she either moved out of her boyfriends place or married him. So she was quite upset but she still wanted to be taught which is good. Sometimes they take that lesson as a personal attack and figure that you're insulting them by telling them that they are sinning. But she just figured that she'd wait until the time she could be baptized. I think they were already engaged but when she told her boyfriend her dilemma he simply told her that he was ready to get married any time she wanted to especially if she felt the need to be baptized. This is a bit of a shock to me, no offense to California but this was the first time I've come across a relationship here that was a legitimate relationship. All of our other investigators are living with people who they aren't even involved with anymore. So she may very well be my very first baptism. And if I stick around long enough then perhaps her boyfriend will start coming to church with her and join the church as well. Only problem is that everyone keeps telling me that I'm probably going to be transferred on the 20th. So now it's a little depressing to see that I've been with my investigators this far and when the time arises for them to actually be baptized I'll be shipped out of here. But I guess that is the nature of a mission. It happens to everyone I'm sure. Well that is pretty much my good news. Don't really have any bad news so I guess that's good news as well.
I hope you all are doing well and I'll write next week.
-Sincerely Elder Miller
Things just got interesting around here. Our most promising investigator just got more promising. She has always from the get go been really excited about learning from us and agreed instantly to prepare to be baptized but we finally taught her commandments and brought up that she couldn't be baptized until she either moved out of her boyfriends place or married him. So she was quite upset but she still wanted to be taught which is good. Sometimes they take that lesson as a personal attack and figure that you're insulting them by telling them that they are sinning. But she just figured that she'd wait until the time she could be baptized. I think they were already engaged but when she told her boyfriend her dilemma he simply told her that he was ready to get married any time she wanted to especially if she felt the need to be baptized. This is a bit of a shock to me, no offense to California but this was the first time I've come across a relationship here that was a legitimate relationship. All of our other investigators are living with people who they aren't even involved with anymore. So she may very well be my very first baptism. And if I stick around long enough then perhaps her boyfriend will start coming to church with her and join the church as well. Only problem is that everyone keeps telling me that I'm probably going to be transferred on the 20th. So now it's a little depressing to see that I've been with my investigators this far and when the time arises for them to actually be baptized I'll be shipped out of here. But I guess that is the nature of a mission. It happens to everyone I'm sure. Well that is pretty much my good news. Don't really have any bad news so I guess that's good news as well.
I hope you all are doing well and I'll write next week.
-Sincerely Elder Miller
Monday, November 22, 2010
Investigators
Hello all,
It is the start of my third week in my third transfer and all is pretty well with me. We have a few investigators but each of them have pretty complicated situations that we have to work with until they can be baptized. One of them lives with the father of her child who she no longer is involved with but she recently got engaged to her boyfriend that we have taught a few lessons to. She can't get baptized until she moves out of the house or marries the man she's not engaged to so that doesn't seem likely. So right now our plan is to try and encourage them to drastically speed up their engagement process and then baptize them both. Our investigator who seems most prepared for baptism unfortunately lives with her fiance. We haven't taught her that rule yet so she doesn't know that she needs to move out or get married already but we're hoping that she takes the message well and perhaps their engagement will be drastically shortened as well.
I'm getting along with my new companion pretty well. He's very easy to get along with, just kind of relaxed and funny. He's not exactly at the most focused stage in his mission since he is looking at going home in, he told me this morning, 79 days. But he is still working pretty hard and I'm trying to get him up on time in the mornings.
We are also involved with some less active/ part member families and trying to teach there and see if we can get anyone active or baptized. One family are pet fanatics. Apparantly their house used to be a complete sty and no one could hardly stand being in there for any period of time. They had so many dogs and cats and whatnot that the smell was unbearable. My last companion had visited once before I got to the area and he had to go home and take a shower directly afterward. But the city cracked down on them and they are watched and limited to two dogs and cats and then they have two parrots. They used to have a bobcat that weighed 40 pounds and it was the youngest childs best friend. The parrots are funny. One of them is named Toowie and has just the best timing when delivering a line. And my favorite is when one of the owners yells at him to be quieter and he then whispers his own name repeatedly. But they are a fun family and the father likes the church he just couldn't quit smoking 20 years ago when they were investigating.
So those are the people we're working with as well as some others. It's hard to find new people but we're trying. Not that the old ones aren't a handful enough, but we are here to find as many as will listen.
Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone and I'll write next week.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
It is the start of my third week in my third transfer and all is pretty well with me. We have a few investigators but each of them have pretty complicated situations that we have to work with until they can be baptized. One of them lives with the father of her child who she no longer is involved with but she recently got engaged to her boyfriend that we have taught a few lessons to. She can't get baptized until she moves out of the house or marries the man she's not engaged to so that doesn't seem likely. So right now our plan is to try and encourage them to drastically speed up their engagement process and then baptize them both. Our investigator who seems most prepared for baptism unfortunately lives with her fiance. We haven't taught her that rule yet so she doesn't know that she needs to move out or get married already but we're hoping that she takes the message well and perhaps their engagement will be drastically shortened as well.
I'm getting along with my new companion pretty well. He's very easy to get along with, just kind of relaxed and funny. He's not exactly at the most focused stage in his mission since he is looking at going home in, he told me this morning, 79 days. But he is still working pretty hard and I'm trying to get him up on time in the mornings.
We are also involved with some less active/ part member families and trying to teach there and see if we can get anyone active or baptized. One family are pet fanatics. Apparantly their house used to be a complete sty and no one could hardly stand being in there for any period of time. They had so many dogs and cats and whatnot that the smell was unbearable. My last companion had visited once before I got to the area and he had to go home and take a shower directly afterward. But the city cracked down on them and they are watched and limited to two dogs and cats and then they have two parrots. They used to have a bobcat that weighed 40 pounds and it was the youngest childs best friend. The parrots are funny. One of them is named Toowie and has just the best timing when delivering a line. And my favorite is when one of the owners yells at him to be quieter and he then whispers his own name repeatedly. But they are a fun family and the father likes the church he just couldn't quit smoking 20 years ago when they were investigating.
So those are the people we're working with as well as some others. It's hard to find new people but we're trying. Not that the old ones aren't a handful enough, but we are here to find as many as will listen.
Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone and I'll write next week.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, November 15, 2010
Corny Zone Conference
Hello Everyone,
This past week was awesome. My new companion, Elder Terry, is terrific. He's a larger fellow and always says thing that are unexpected and therefore funny to me. So it's great to have a humorous spirit about us as sometimes we go about less than exciting tasks. Yesterday was a bit of a drag, as we had none of our investigators show up to sacrament. It wouldn't have been so bad if we hadn't had a landmark seven investigators there the week prior. So members noticed that this week was not as successful as the week before, but it's not that we've lost any investigators, it's just that one was sick three were out of town and another had just gotten back from trip and hadn't slept for a while. So we are still working with some great people and are slowly trying to overcome their concerns and everything else that is stopping them from being baptized.
On Friday I attended my second zone conference which was good, albeit a little corny. President Jackson feels that there is an obedience problem in our mission and so we went to conference with ways we can improve ourselves on mind. As part of zone conference we all had ties on which we wrote down something that is holding us back from baptizing more people, our "weapons of rebellion" and then we cast them to the floor as though we are sacrificing our rebellious acts. I put down that I would give up my relaxed view of the daily schedule. I could do better to follow the plans that we make for our day. It's just that sometimes things arise that you have to take care of and your time gets spent in a different area than originally scheduled. I don't think it's much of a goal but it's one thing to work on that may help.
The most exciting part of zone conference though was that we got new cell phones. We had these old Sanyo phones that are pretty much indestructible. I really like them and through practice I have gotten down how to flip the phone open in a variety of ways just using one hand, or in one method just two fingers. But we got these new LG phones that aren't as sturdy and I would love to find new ways to slide it open using centrifugal force or whatnot but it's not as protected and I'm afraid of breaking it. Plus it's too complicated. I never had a phone before the mission and the simplicity of the other one was nice. I don't think I need 90% of what our new phone can do. Oh well. Have a good week everyone.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
This past week was awesome. My new companion, Elder Terry, is terrific. He's a larger fellow and always says thing that are unexpected and therefore funny to me. So it's great to have a humorous spirit about us as sometimes we go about less than exciting tasks. Yesterday was a bit of a drag, as we had none of our investigators show up to sacrament. It wouldn't have been so bad if we hadn't had a landmark seven investigators there the week prior. So members noticed that this week was not as successful as the week before, but it's not that we've lost any investigators, it's just that one was sick three were out of town and another had just gotten back from trip and hadn't slept for a while. So we are still working with some great people and are slowly trying to overcome their concerns and everything else that is stopping them from being baptized.
On Friday I attended my second zone conference which was good, albeit a little corny. President Jackson feels that there is an obedience problem in our mission and so we went to conference with ways we can improve ourselves on mind. As part of zone conference we all had ties on which we wrote down something that is holding us back from baptizing more people, our "weapons of rebellion" and then we cast them to the floor as though we are sacrificing our rebellious acts. I put down that I would give up my relaxed view of the daily schedule. I could do better to follow the plans that we make for our day. It's just that sometimes things arise that you have to take care of and your time gets spent in a different area than originally scheduled. I don't think it's much of a goal but it's one thing to work on that may help.
The most exciting part of zone conference though was that we got new cell phones. We had these old Sanyo phones that are pretty much indestructible. I really like them and through practice I have gotten down how to flip the phone open in a variety of ways just using one hand, or in one method just two fingers. But we got these new LG phones that aren't as sturdy and I would love to find new ways to slide it open using centrifugal force or whatnot but it's not as protected and I'm afraid of breaking it. Plus it's too complicated. I never had a phone before the mission and the simplicity of the other one was nice. I don't think I need 90% of what our new phone can do. Oh well. Have a good week everyone.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, November 8, 2010
He's all grown up and off to share the gospel...
I wrote Elder Miller about a friend of his who was having a hard time on his mission in another part of the U.S., and he had this to say:
I figure many missionaries get down when they have few investigators and no baptisms. I analyzed this a while ago and concluded that too many people try to gauge their success and thereby their happiness on baptisms. I would love to see a baptism and I know it would make me happy but baptisms aren't our purpose. We are called to invite people to be baptized and recieve Christ as their savior. The difference is whose choice the happiness [is in the end]. If you rely on baptisms for happiness then you're putting your happiness out of your control and letting it rely on someone else's agency, and that makes no sense. You have to recognize that inviting people to be baptized is your purpose and everytime you talk to someone about Christ you are fullfilling it. It's your happiness and therefore it should be in your hands[...] Recognizing this early on I think has made me much more content in my work despite the rare interest we get from people around here. But [my friend] is just working really hard and experiencing no baptisms and he just has to recognize that talking to people, even if they aren't receptive, is success in a major form.
I figure many missionaries get down when they have few investigators and no baptisms. I analyzed this a while ago and concluded that too many people try to gauge their success and thereby their happiness on baptisms. I would love to see a baptism and I know it would make me happy but baptisms aren't our purpose. We are called to invite people to be baptized and recieve Christ as their savior. The difference is whose choice the happiness [is in the end]. If you rely on baptisms for happiness then you're putting your happiness out of your control and letting it rely on someone else's agency, and that makes no sense. You have to recognize that inviting people to be baptized is your purpose and everytime you talk to someone about Christ you are fullfilling it. It's your happiness and therefore it should be in your hands[...] Recognizing this early on I think has made me much more content in my work despite the rare interest we get from people around here. But [my friend] is just working really hard and experiencing no baptisms and he just has to recognize that talking to people, even if they aren't receptive, is success in a major form.
What a great attitude. I am so (wipes tear) proud of Fletcher.
A New Companion and A Lot of Investigators
Today was pretty exciting thusfar. I got a new companion named Elder Terry from Orem. I was sort of sad to see my trainer go but people always say that you learn different things from different companions so we'll see what I can pick up. I'm still in my first area and we have a number of investigators we are working with. Sunday was actually amazing. We had 7 investigators there. Some of them I guess we should kind of be careful to call investigators but they were there and we are sort of working with them. We picked up one lady because there is a less active man who started coming back to church and he told us to come over so he could have some refresher lessons. But he lives with his sister, he's in his 60's, and he was hoping to get his nephew interested while he was at it. So we went over and he invited some people who we couldn't really see who were sitting in their family room to join in on the lesson. Well his nephew didn't come cause he was busy watching the Giants parade, but his nephews fiance who lives there as well came and was really excited. She was extremely open with us considering we just met her and she just seems so excited to learn and she seems to retain information at a phenomenal rate. She does talk way too much though. Any time she asks a question she has to explain her feelings behind it and why she has the question. So it gets into some pretty long lessons with her when we are supposed to keep them to an hour at most. But she is very promising and has kept all the commitments we extend to her and she is scheduled to be baptized on the 27th of this month. The only foreseeable setback is the fact that she lives with her fiance and they obviously aren't married yet. So we'll have to get to the bottom of that and figure out if we can try and speed up the wedding date or see if she'll move out instead.
But I'm having a great time out here. The weather was very similar to Oregons on Sunday and I was glad that I wasn't in a biking area. I hope you all are doing well and have a good week.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
But I'm having a great time out here. The weather was very similar to Oregons on Sunday and I was glad that I wasn't in a biking area. I hope you all are doing well and have a good week.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, November 1, 2010
Halloween
Hello Everyone,
I'm doing great. Halloween was actually a pretty fun series of weekend events even though my ward didn't have a party. So here's what happened. I serve in Centerville ward and they share the building with Glenmoor ward. Every year Centerville has a party and every year I think Glenmoor either has a trunk or treat or a party as well. This year since Halloween was on a Sunday both wards had been planning on having their party on Saturday. Glenmoor had actually reserved the building for Saturday and when Centerville realized this they kind of just assumed that they could combine their ward parties and it would all be good. So Centerville I think was planning on that up until they actually got around to asking Glenmoor about it and Glenmoor said no. Centerville ward is like twice to three times the size of Glenmoor and I believe a while back they tried to do a combined party and Glenmoor felt left out within the party. So Glenmoor wasn't having it this year and Centervill was left with no plans. Ward dynamics are interesting sometimes so that's why I just shared this. Plus I'm not in the Philippines and don't have any cool local quisine stories so I have to get in on the interward gossip. That's about all you're going to get from an elder in California.
But we didn't have a party to go to and so we were thinking that this Holiday would be a bit of a bummer. But our dinner appointment on Saturday was this lady in the ward that went all out and had kind of her own party that we ate at and so that was fun. The food ranged from a mummy meatloaf to an eyeball casserole and gummy worm punch. And then our Ward mission leader gave us some extra halloween decorations and we got to decorate our house with huge spider webs and lights. And my companion bought candy to give out on Sunday when trick or treaters (really teenagers who didn't bother to wear costumes) came to the door. And my companion also made a cake to give to our bishop and we took it over to present after he finished a Bishops youth fireside. So it was a fun chain of events. Oh and we also got volunteered to help run concessions at a local elementary schools halloween party. Apparantly the elders help out every year and have been for like 25 years. It was good many of the people that live in the neighborhoods that we tract got to see us in oversized lunch lady serving gloves and preparing their nachos and hot dogs so maybe we'll have some better doorstep reception rates now that people have seen us doing something other than proselyting.
So I'm doing well and having fun here. We have picked up a few new investigators who I am hopeful will progress quickly. It's much more fun out here when you have people to teach. Teaching is always more fun than finding. Transfers are next Monday and I am a little anxious cause my Trainer suspects that he'll be leaving and I am not looking forward to being the foremost authority on my area. Should be fun though.
Have a great week.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
I'm doing great. Halloween was actually a pretty fun series of weekend events even though my ward didn't have a party. So here's what happened. I serve in Centerville ward and they share the building with Glenmoor ward. Every year Centerville has a party and every year I think Glenmoor either has a trunk or treat or a party as well. This year since Halloween was on a Sunday both wards had been planning on having their party on Saturday. Glenmoor had actually reserved the building for Saturday and when Centerville realized this they kind of just assumed that they could combine their ward parties and it would all be good. So Centerville I think was planning on that up until they actually got around to asking Glenmoor about it and Glenmoor said no. Centerville ward is like twice to three times the size of Glenmoor and I believe a while back they tried to do a combined party and Glenmoor felt left out within the party. So Glenmoor wasn't having it this year and Centervill was left with no plans. Ward dynamics are interesting sometimes so that's why I just shared this. Plus I'm not in the Philippines and don't have any cool local quisine stories so I have to get in on the interward gossip. That's about all you're going to get from an elder in California.
But we didn't have a party to go to and so we were thinking that this Holiday would be a bit of a bummer. But our dinner appointment on Saturday was this lady in the ward that went all out and had kind of her own party that we ate at and so that was fun. The food ranged from a mummy meatloaf to an eyeball casserole and gummy worm punch. And then our Ward mission leader gave us some extra halloween decorations and we got to decorate our house with huge spider webs and lights. And my companion bought candy to give out on Sunday when trick or treaters (really teenagers who didn't bother to wear costumes) came to the door. And my companion also made a cake to give to our bishop and we took it over to present after he finished a Bishops youth fireside. So it was a fun chain of events. Oh and we also got volunteered to help run concessions at a local elementary schools halloween party. Apparantly the elders help out every year and have been for like 25 years. It was good many of the people that live in the neighborhoods that we tract got to see us in oversized lunch lady serving gloves and preparing their nachos and hot dogs so maybe we'll have some better doorstep reception rates now that people have seen us doing something other than proselyting.
So I'm doing well and having fun here. We have picked up a few new investigators who I am hopeful will progress quickly. It's much more fun out here when you have people to teach. Teaching is always more fun than finding. Transfers are next Monday and I am a little anxious cause my Trainer suspects that he'll be leaving and I am not looking forward to being the foremost authority on my area. Should be fun though.
Have a great week.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, October 25, 2010
Musical Fireside
Hello Everyone,
So on Sunday we performed at a musical Fireside that was put on my my zone. It was the sister missionaries idea and they did most of the work. We had four or so practices and frankly I felt we sounded terrible and wasn't looking forward to performing in front of anyone, let alone our mission president who was coming. But we invited a number of people that we have been teaching or are trying to teach. The musical fireside was just all about Christ. Being only and english missionary who can't really sing very well I only had to participate in the group songs, one to kick it off and another to end it. But throughout our zone we have a sister who is from India and so sang in Hindi, and then we had Spanish elders, and Chinese elders and also the American Sign Language elders. Then there was a member couple who sang an operatic type hymn in Italian. And then the master mind sister Robson is pretty awesome at singing so she had a couple of solos. And between performances we played video clips or mormon messages from mormon.org. So of all the people we invited one came but she brought her boyfriend and afterward we got to talk to them for a long time and many of our ward leaders and our old bishop chatted with them and it was great.
During most of the night I sat next to a flutist and when she learned where I was from she said that her husband grew up in Beaverton and went to Beaverton High School. But he wasn't a member until he was converted in Paolo Alto. But she asked if I knew the Miners. Which doesn't sound familiar to me, but she said that they were in one of the ward bishoprics many years ago so I thought I'd throw the name out there and see if anyone knows them.
So last night was pretty great, but Sunday we had our primary program which we encouraged everyone to invite their friends to. And one member actually did and now we will be teaching her. She sounds like she's already converted. The only problem is she didn't sound too enthusiastic about how her husband would feel. So it won't be choice to only baptize one member of a family but we will try and hope that the rest will follow.
And then we also went through a list of less active members that our Bishop gave us and found a man who is married to a non-member. We come accross a lot of them but this guy is totally friendly and even said that he's been meaning to get back to church. But we got invited back to teach them and we hope that we can reactivate him and perhaps get his wife and even her two daughters interested. It seems a long shot but it's not like we have much else to focus on. That's one of the great things about being out here and knowing your purpose. As a member you generally don't want to be too forward with people. Your goal is to be their friend and then slowly get them to come to church and whatnot. As a missionary everyone already knows why you're at their house so you might as well just spit it out. I'm not saying that I've totally lost all sense of tact with people but it's a very freeing thing to know what is expected of you and to know that everyone knows it as well.
Well I also finally found out that my sisters' new baby is a boy named Benjamin. I wasn't hurting too bad from info lag until I knew that I had a new baby something on Wednesday but had to wait until Monday to finally find out that it's a nephew. I still have no pictures but I'm glad I no longer am anticipating something. I was hoping I'd get an express letter in the mail. Overnight delivery or something, but I guess it doesn't exactly matter.
Have a good week everyone.
-Elder Miller
So on Sunday we performed at a musical Fireside that was put on my my zone. It was the sister missionaries idea and they did most of the work. We had four or so practices and frankly I felt we sounded terrible and wasn't looking forward to performing in front of anyone, let alone our mission president who was coming. But we invited a number of people that we have been teaching or are trying to teach. The musical fireside was just all about Christ. Being only and english missionary who can't really sing very well I only had to participate in the group songs, one to kick it off and another to end it. But throughout our zone we have a sister who is from India and so sang in Hindi, and then we had Spanish elders, and Chinese elders and also the American Sign Language elders. Then there was a member couple who sang an operatic type hymn in Italian. And then the master mind sister Robson is pretty awesome at singing so she had a couple of solos. And between performances we played video clips or mormon messages from mormon.org. So of all the people we invited one came but she brought her boyfriend and afterward we got to talk to them for a long time and many of our ward leaders and our old bishop chatted with them and it was great.
During most of the night I sat next to a flutist and when she learned where I was from she said that her husband grew up in Beaverton and went to Beaverton High School. But he wasn't a member until he was converted in Paolo Alto. But she asked if I knew the Miners. Which doesn't sound familiar to me, but she said that they were in one of the ward bishoprics many years ago so I thought I'd throw the name out there and see if anyone knows them.
So last night was pretty great, but Sunday we had our primary program which we encouraged everyone to invite their friends to. And one member actually did and now we will be teaching her. She sounds like she's already converted. The only problem is she didn't sound too enthusiastic about how her husband would feel. So it won't be choice to only baptize one member of a family but we will try and hope that the rest will follow.
And then we also went through a list of less active members that our Bishop gave us and found a man who is married to a non-member. We come accross a lot of them but this guy is totally friendly and even said that he's been meaning to get back to church. But we got invited back to teach them and we hope that we can reactivate him and perhaps get his wife and even her two daughters interested. It seems a long shot but it's not like we have much else to focus on. That's one of the great things about being out here and knowing your purpose. As a member you generally don't want to be too forward with people. Your goal is to be their friend and then slowly get them to come to church and whatnot. As a missionary everyone already knows why you're at their house so you might as well just spit it out. I'm not saying that I've totally lost all sense of tact with people but it's a very freeing thing to know what is expected of you and to know that everyone knows it as well.
Well I also finally found out that my sisters' new baby is a boy named Benjamin. I wasn't hurting too bad from info lag until I knew that I had a new baby something on Wednesday but had to wait until Monday to finally find out that it's a nephew. I still have no pictures but I'm glad I no longer am anticipating something. I was hoping I'd get an express letter in the mail. Overnight delivery or something, but I guess it doesn't exactly matter.
Have a good week everyone.
-Elder Miller
Monday, October 18, 2010
Post Script
Just wanted to post my favorite part of the email Fletch sent me this week. It's in reference to dad's new computer.
"yeah dad wrote me about how Hannah ruined his computer through using facebook. We've really put dad through a lot of computer grief. If it was common to bury your computers when they die we'd almost have as many computers in the backyard as little pets."
Also this in response to something I said about Fletch's favorite show "Modern Family"
"I miss Modern Family, and my family too of course."
-Freyja
"yeah dad wrote me about how Hannah ruined his computer through using facebook. We've really put dad through a lot of computer grief. If it was common to bury your computers when they die we'd almost have as many computers in the backyard as little pets."
Also this in response to something I said about Fletch's favorite show "Modern Family"
"I miss Modern Family, and my family too of course."
-Freyja
Not Much To Report
Sorry everyone, I recieved a slew of e-mails from friends and family that I spent too much time on prior to starting this e-mail so I am about out of time. But I am doing great and am teaching a few people, thought they never seem able to make it to church I am enjoying the work. Don't really have any fun or crazy stories but have been trying my best create some. There are a number of members that are working with friends of theirs and so we are pretty excited to hopefully start teaching even more people. It actually rained here on Sunday if you can believe that. I thought it was crazy, but then I thought about the time of year and what that must be like in Portland and kind of laughed at how mild California is.
I hope you all are doing well and having a wonderful Fall. Have a great week.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
I hope you all are doing well and having a wonderful Fall. Have a great week.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, October 11, 2010
A Messianic Jewish Sikh and a Dead Lemon Tree
Hey everyone,
This week was good. On Tuesday we had interviews with our mission President and also his wife sort of. They, as well as our housing coordinator Elder Winn, came around 10:00am and President Jackson shook our hands and then immediately said "Who's first?" It was good we just caught up on how my mission has been thusfar and he suggested how we can help our ward out and improve the work. I really like President Jackson. He's a little shorter than me and has some large glasses and gray hair and a booming voice. I think I've heard that he has done some stage performance in his time as a hobby. He's a farily successful lawyer from Arizona though. His wife is Canadian I learned though. Not to be stereotypical but she always talks in a high pitched voice and once I learned that she was Canadian I felt that explained it. Elder Winn was there to kind of inspect the living quarters plus Sister Jackson is a bit of a skeptic and so her suggestions on how to improve the places were given and I think Elder Winn was there so that he could take her suggestions into account and try to make changes. We were a little wary of how Elder Winn would react when we told him that one of the two main limbs of our lemon tree in the backyard broke at the trunk. It had so much fruit on there that the limb just cracked. We were only instructed to take a half a bag to the lady that owns the house and so we toss the lemons that fall and the rest just weighed down the limb. We don't have enough time to pick all that fruit but we probably should have cause now half the tree is dead. Anyway Elder Winn is a pretty relaxed individual and didn't mind too much, just told us he'd get us a saw so we can chop it up.
On missionary work: it's been crazy. It seems like it's very simple and easy to extend baptism invitations and people commit to certain dates but then they never come to church and so don't qualify to be baptized. I don't understand it. Why would you commit to baptism if you won't ever go to church?
We tracted an apartment complex the other night though and this lady chatted with us. "oh, you're missionaries, so am I. Latter day saints right? Well I'll tell you what I am but you probably won't understand. I'm a messianic jewish sikh."
We talked with her for a while. Most of the time got eaten up cause she would tell us something and then she'd back up her belief with something from the bible. But she is fluent in Hebrew and has the bible memorized practically in Hebrew. So she would quote the scripture in Hebrew and then translate it. There wasn't much point in talking with her cause there was no way that she'd be interested in taking lessons from us but she was kind of fun to listen to go on. She mainly pretended to listen to us and then would get off on a tangent of her own crazy thinking and end up at a random topic. Just in one conversation we probably touched on everything that we are supposed to teach and investigator in 4 lessons. But she was an interesting person. She is very involved in her community of Sikhs and on her wall there was an election poster with pictures of candidates, all men wearing turbans and had beards. She pointed to the poster at one point when she talked about her husband. My companion afterwards in the car told me that he didn't realize what the poster was for and was about to make a joke about her having an FBI most wanted terrorist poster in her house when she pointed to her husband on it running for some religious postion.
I was glad he didn't make that joke.
Well we're just trying to meet new people and talk about the Gospel. Being out here makes me think about how un-outgoing I was at home. We try to rely so heavily on members and I never really thought much about what the missionaries challenged me to do but now I recognize the importance and really wish I had been more helpful.
Have a good week everyone.
Sincerely Elder Miller
This week was good. On Tuesday we had interviews with our mission President and also his wife sort of. They, as well as our housing coordinator Elder Winn, came around 10:00am and President Jackson shook our hands and then immediately said "Who's first?" It was good we just caught up on how my mission has been thusfar and he suggested how we can help our ward out and improve the work. I really like President Jackson. He's a little shorter than me and has some large glasses and gray hair and a booming voice. I think I've heard that he has done some stage performance in his time as a hobby. He's a farily successful lawyer from Arizona though. His wife is Canadian I learned though. Not to be stereotypical but she always talks in a high pitched voice and once I learned that she was Canadian I felt that explained it. Elder Winn was there to kind of inspect the living quarters plus Sister Jackson is a bit of a skeptic and so her suggestions on how to improve the places were given and I think Elder Winn was there so that he could take her suggestions into account and try to make changes. We were a little wary of how Elder Winn would react when we told him that one of the two main limbs of our lemon tree in the backyard broke at the trunk. It had so much fruit on there that the limb just cracked. We were only instructed to take a half a bag to the lady that owns the house and so we toss the lemons that fall and the rest just weighed down the limb. We don't have enough time to pick all that fruit but we probably should have cause now half the tree is dead. Anyway Elder Winn is a pretty relaxed individual and didn't mind too much, just told us he'd get us a saw so we can chop it up.
On missionary work: it's been crazy. It seems like it's very simple and easy to extend baptism invitations and people commit to certain dates but then they never come to church and so don't qualify to be baptized. I don't understand it. Why would you commit to baptism if you won't ever go to church?
We tracted an apartment complex the other night though and this lady chatted with us. "oh, you're missionaries, so am I. Latter day saints right? Well I'll tell you what I am but you probably won't understand. I'm a messianic jewish sikh."
We talked with her for a while. Most of the time got eaten up cause she would tell us something and then she'd back up her belief with something from the bible. But she is fluent in Hebrew and has the bible memorized practically in Hebrew. So she would quote the scripture in Hebrew and then translate it. There wasn't much point in talking with her cause there was no way that she'd be interested in taking lessons from us but she was kind of fun to listen to go on. She mainly pretended to listen to us and then would get off on a tangent of her own crazy thinking and end up at a random topic. Just in one conversation we probably touched on everything that we are supposed to teach and investigator in 4 lessons. But she was an interesting person. She is very involved in her community of Sikhs and on her wall there was an election poster with pictures of candidates, all men wearing turbans and had beards. She pointed to the poster at one point when she talked about her husband. My companion afterwards in the car told me that he didn't realize what the poster was for and was about to make a joke about her having an FBI most wanted terrorist poster in her house when she pointed to her husband on it running for some religious postion.
I was glad he didn't make that joke.
Well we're just trying to meet new people and talk about the Gospel. Being out here makes me think about how un-outgoing I was at home. We try to rely so heavily on members and I never really thought much about what the missionaries challenged me to do but now I recognize the importance and really wish I had been more helpful.
Have a good week everyone.
Sincerely Elder Miller
Monday, October 4, 2010
Conference Weekend
Well this week feels like it's automatically going to be great just because we were blessed with the opportunity to listen to conference. I never seem to remember what any of the speakers said in particular so I took notes this time and when I get around to reviewing them I'm sure I'll be delighted in what was said. Mainly I remember the jokes that were made. When President Uchtdorf lost his voice and cracked that joke I thought it was pretty witty.
Today feels cut short though cause we scheduled an appointment for 5:30 which isn't bad cause P-day wraps up at 6 anyway but then our dinner appointment said they'd rather eat before our teaching appointment than after so we are eating at 4 and now it's 1:40 and I don't even know where the day has gone. It's kind of crazy cause on a proselyting day we have time up the wahzoo. It tends to feel like forever when you are knocking on doors but when you're doing nothing somehow it slips away.
The work has picked up a little. We found a couple of people to teach. They don't seem too strong but who knows what will happen. It's all just about relying on the Spirit to convert them and having faith that they'll accept when you ask them to be baptized.
I hope you all enjoyed conference or, if you didn't watch, that you will cause it's great. Have a great week everyone.
-Elder Miller
Today feels cut short though cause we scheduled an appointment for 5:30 which isn't bad cause P-day wraps up at 6 anyway but then our dinner appointment said they'd rather eat before our teaching appointment than after so we are eating at 4 and now it's 1:40 and I don't even know where the day has gone. It's kind of crazy cause on a proselyting day we have time up the wahzoo. It tends to feel like forever when you are knocking on doors but when you're doing nothing somehow it slips away.
The work has picked up a little. We found a couple of people to teach. They don't seem too strong but who knows what will happen. It's all just about relying on the Spirit to convert them and having faith that they'll accept when you ask them to be baptized.
I hope you all enjoyed conference or, if you didn't watch, that you will cause it's great. Have a great week everyone.
-Elder Miller
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Uneventful Week
Hello everyone,
My week has been pretty good. Just been directing our efforts on finding people to teach since we don't have many. On Monday we did transfers and we get to visit the Temple on Wednesday so that is technically my preparation day. But we were permitted to e-mail today so that we could update our President and get it out of the way. We keep meeting people who are too polite to say upfront that they aren't really interested so we go back for follow up appointments that they weren't serious about and therefore aren't home. So even thought this kind of sucks I prefer the polite people who string you along than the abruptly rude people. I guess ultimately they're just wasting my time but we are supposed to view it as a possible seed planted that will eventually lead them to the Church.
I'm excited for Conference to come. When I was at home I don't think I thought much about it but conference is pretty darn awesome. Plus out here it's king of like Christmas cause it's like two days of lessened work load. You get to watch something very similar to television which, those of you who know me pretty well know I could do for hours, and then there are the obvious things like hearing from the Prophet and stuff of that sort.
It's actually been a very boring and uneventful week so I'll have to leave you with those few words. Have a great week everbody!
Sincerely Elder Miller
My week has been pretty good. Just been directing our efforts on finding people to teach since we don't have many. On Monday we did transfers and we get to visit the Temple on Wednesday so that is technically my preparation day. But we were permitted to e-mail today so that we could update our President and get it out of the way. We keep meeting people who are too polite to say upfront that they aren't really interested so we go back for follow up appointments that they weren't serious about and therefore aren't home. So even thought this kind of sucks I prefer the polite people who string you along than the abruptly rude people. I guess ultimately they're just wasting my time but we are supposed to view it as a possible seed planted that will eventually lead them to the Church.
I'm excited for Conference to come. When I was at home I don't think I thought much about it but conference is pretty darn awesome. Plus out here it's king of like Christmas cause it's like two days of lessened work load. You get to watch something very similar to television which, those of you who know me pretty well know I could do for hours, and then there are the obvious things like hearing from the Prophet and stuff of that sort.
It's actually been a very boring and uneventful week so I'll have to leave you with those few words. Have a great week everbody!
Sincerely Elder Miller
Monday, September 20, 2010
How to Answer the Door with Panache
Hello All,
This past week was rather slow as far as mission work is concerned. We have fallen out of contact with a number of people that we have been working with, so we really need to try and set up furthur appointments with them somehow. I did, on Tuesday, finally get the banana bread package that Mom sent me though. And I got to read about my Dad's paintball trip and getting rammed by a truck. I don't have too many new adventures or stories but I would like to share my impressions concerning tracting.
Since our week has been slow and we don't have anyone to teach we tracted quite a bit. Two things stuck out to me, I don't like some people, but I do like others. I imagine you recognize that these are pretty simplistic understandings for me to come to and are probably wondering what type of education your children are getting out of public school system if they produced me, but let me explain. The group of people that I don't like when tracting are those that: 1)slam the door as they shout not interested 2)look out of their peep hole and then just decide to ignore you 3)pretend to not speak english 4)are afraid of you
Thinking about the last one, it's logical but I hate it. It makes perfect sense for the little old ladies or single mothers to be guarded when answering the door to two strange guys but it really gets annoying, especially when you compare it to the few awesome people that like come out and stand on their front step with you and give you a real conversation. My favorite guy just stepped right out and said "how can I help you?" with a small grin on his face and just beaming with friendliness. After we gave our spiel he simply said, "Oh, we are of another faith, and aren't exactly interested in changing. Okay?" and I was just thinking, I want to be his friend cause he is so cool and confident. Once he said that he initiated the shaking of our hands and told us to have a good day. That guy is awesome, I may go back and write down his address so I can look him up and become his friend when I'm off my mission. Just kidding, but I would actually look forward to tracting if we got a few more people like mr. happy pants answering doors than the people who just shout through their doors.
I'm making it a goal for myself to be more outgoing so that I can be more successful and approachable out here and that hopefully I'll be a cool guy who answers doors with an air of awesomness when I'm home.
Well those are my thoughts on tracting. I hope we can all learn something from it and answer doors with more confidence. Growing up my Dad's motto directed to me when he would dare me to do something silly, was "What's the worst that could happen?", now it's important to not let your imagination get out of control when pondering this question, but rather look at it realistically and recognize that odds are you won't be attacked or become a victim of home invasion when answering the door. So you might as well answer the door with a little panache. And that's all I have to say. Good day to you all. have a great week everyone.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
This past week was rather slow as far as mission work is concerned. We have fallen out of contact with a number of people that we have been working with, so we really need to try and set up furthur appointments with them somehow. I did, on Tuesday, finally get the banana bread package that Mom sent me though. And I got to read about my Dad's paintball trip and getting rammed by a truck. I don't have too many new adventures or stories but I would like to share my impressions concerning tracting.
Since our week has been slow and we don't have anyone to teach we tracted quite a bit. Two things stuck out to me, I don't like some people, but I do like others. I imagine you recognize that these are pretty simplistic understandings for me to come to and are probably wondering what type of education your children are getting out of public school system if they produced me, but let me explain. The group of people that I don't like when tracting are those that: 1)slam the door as they shout not interested 2)look out of their peep hole and then just decide to ignore you 3)pretend to not speak english 4)are afraid of you
Thinking about the last one, it's logical but I hate it. It makes perfect sense for the little old ladies or single mothers to be guarded when answering the door to two strange guys but it really gets annoying, especially when you compare it to the few awesome people that like come out and stand on their front step with you and give you a real conversation. My favorite guy just stepped right out and said "how can I help you?" with a small grin on his face and just beaming with friendliness. After we gave our spiel he simply said, "Oh, we are of another faith, and aren't exactly interested in changing. Okay?" and I was just thinking, I want to be his friend cause he is so cool and confident. Once he said that he initiated the shaking of our hands and told us to have a good day. That guy is awesome, I may go back and write down his address so I can look him up and become his friend when I'm off my mission. Just kidding, but I would actually look forward to tracting if we got a few more people like mr. happy pants answering doors than the people who just shout through their doors.
I'm making it a goal for myself to be more outgoing so that I can be more successful and approachable out here and that hopefully I'll be a cool guy who answers doors with an air of awesomness when I'm home.
Well those are my thoughts on tracting. I hope we can all learn something from it and answer doors with more confidence. Growing up my Dad's motto directed to me when he would dare me to do something silly, was "What's the worst that could happen?", now it's important to not let your imagination get out of control when pondering this question, but rather look at it realistically and recognize that odds are you won't be attacked or become a victim of home invasion when answering the door. So you might as well answer the door with a little panache. And that's all I have to say. Good day to you all. have a great week everyone.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, September 13, 2010
A Clean House
I recieved a few letters on saturday I think and those are first ones that have been forwarded from the mission office successfully as far as I know. Now the first couple weeks I was here the mission office just hangs onto the letters and gives them to you by hand if you are going to a big meeting or something. Since the letters made it here yesterday, I herby repeal my plea to mail straight to my house address here. I didn't really think much of it until a sister that works in the office called me about a letter that was just addressed to an elder miller, there are four in the mission now. Shain had sent it so she was checking whose it was before forwarding it. It never made it to me and it was a couple weeks ago that she told me to expect it. So that made me question how many letters I've been getting. so I'm not sure if there is or ever was a problem. All I know is that Shains letter never came. I think I'll send a letter to him within an envelope to the family and you can get it to him cause I don't know his address. I haven't gotten the package yet, I guess they can only forward it if you used the us postal service, not UPS. They may just be holding onto it because we have a pretty large meeting tomorrow, Elder Golden is addressing us. And he might inspect some Elders or Sisters living quarters. We had and inspection on our house by a member who was assigned to make sure we weren't fouling up the place. As I said before the Elder I replaced and his companion before mine let the place fall into mayhem, giant stuffed gorilla in the corner, chairs and tables wearing the paint off the walls, soda spots sticking up the floor, unwashed dishes only and everything else apparantly. Elder Bludworth had it nice when I got here and we've been keeping it in good shape. My companion apparantly got chewed out by the owner of the house and then also this guy who does inspections on a separate occasion, both times his companion(the one responsible for the mess) hid in an avacado tree or in his room. So Elder Bludworth was pretty scared this time, he scoured out the bath tub and was pretty detail attentive, he said the inspector was pretty anal, but the guy came and could apparantly tell right off the bat that the house was in much better hands and was really helpful and even complimented us, and then said he'd put us on a list of possible living quarters to have Elder Golden inspect. That sounds pretty intimidateing but it would be cool.
so I'm doing great having a good time been teaching a load of lessons. Perhaps the most interesting thing I have to announce right now, which is completely not connected to missionary work but is sort of neat is
1. We have a brother Beck in our ward who is the uncle to John Beck, star quarter back of BYU a little while ago and now back up for the Redskins
2. Our Bishop, Bishop Hess is the uncle of Jared Hess, director of Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre.
3. The same Bishop has produced his own album. It's called Take the Chance by Jim Hess. I have no idea if it's in distribution by Deseret Book or what but his wife gave us copies and it's not bad. and its' mission appropriate so I can't complain.
So I'm doing well here, we played some football today, it was fun and I got paired up with a slightly less athletically inclined elder so I got the ball way more often than I normally would. Things are going great, my companion is a very good match for me I believe, the right combination of work ethic and able to find the fun within the work. Well I hope you all are doing fantastic I am having way too much fun out here. Oh an investigator gave us her cigarettes as we challenged her to obey the word of wisdom, then she thought we looked funny carrying them and took a picture with her cell phone. We gave them to a member who has been involved in her conversion process and she threw them away.
Well that's about it, I'd like to thank everyone that writes me, it's great to hear from you all. Have a great week, I know I will.
-Elder Miller
so I'm doing great having a good time been teaching a load of lessons. Perhaps the most interesting thing I have to announce right now, which is completely not connected to missionary work but is sort of neat is
1. We have a brother Beck in our ward who is the uncle to John Beck, star quarter back of BYU a little while ago and now back up for the Redskins
2. Our Bishop, Bishop Hess is the uncle of Jared Hess, director of Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre.
3. The same Bishop has produced his own album. It's called Take the Chance by Jim Hess. I have no idea if it's in distribution by Deseret Book or what but his wife gave us copies and it's not bad. and its' mission appropriate so I can't complain.
So I'm doing well here, we played some football today, it was fun and I got paired up with a slightly less athletically inclined elder so I got the ball way more often than I normally would. Things are going great, my companion is a very good match for me I believe, the right combination of work ethic and able to find the fun within the work. Well I hope you all are doing fantastic I am having way too much fun out here. Oh an investigator gave us her cigarettes as we challenged her to obey the word of wisdom, then she thought we looked funny carrying them and took a picture with her cell phone. We gave them to a member who has been involved in her conversion process and she threw them away.
Well that's about it, I'd like to thank everyone that writes me, it's great to hear from you all. Have a great week, I know I will.
-Elder Miller
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Labor Day BBQ
This Monday was Labor Day of course and the library was closed where I do e-mails so I am e-mailing you now on Tuesday. But Yesterday was great, P-Day on a Holiday is quite an occurance, maybe. My ward here had a picnic and it was very successful on the subject of missionary work. On Saturday my companion and I were tracting at Miller Place. Mainly because I wanted to get a picture with the street sign, but perhaps that was inspiration on my part because oddly enough we found some people who were interested. We first approached the house and noted that the door was ajar, which is a great indicator that someone is home so we were excited after all the unanswered doors we had just left. Then as we started up the driveway we noticed there was a massive Rottweiler laying on the front step asleep. I noticed it's choke chain collar was linked with a fourth inch braided cable the led into the open garage and attached to a dumbell rack with probably a couple hundred pounds on it. But I didn't doubt that this dog could tow that rack if he wanted to. So we approached with caution. I know from playing with the neighbors dog that some Rottweilers are nice and just loveable like Rocky, but still I was ready to run if this one proved stereotypical. We got closer and the dog heard us and opened his eyes and raised his huge head and I figured a bark would be enough to let me know that my presence was unwanted and I'd leave, quickly. But the dog just stood up and my companion pet him and he wagged his tail and now he's my best friend. We ended up knocking on the door and wether the lady didn't hear us or she just didn't believe someone would be standing on her front step when her menacing dog was there I don't know. But we sort of startled her and she was impressed that we braved her dog (Baron) and she was just friendly anyway so we talked and she seemed interested and then we went back the next night to inviter her and her husband to the picnic and she and her son came.
So she and her son showed up and her son had a great time and members went over and made her feel welcome and so it was awesome. Plus we had a family that came and has been meaning to come to more church things but their kids are high functioning autistic and they were worried if they would fit in but they had a blast and the members all like them and talked to them and are so helpful that it was awesome.
The picnic was fun, I got to toss a frisbee a bit and it was right next to a pool and we pass pools like every day and I always wish I could swim cause it is always perfect swimming weather but alas, I'm a missionary. But it was great and I ate so many sweets that I haven't bought for myself cause that would be a waste of money but they are delicious. And it was just a great experience and I am grateful for the ward I'm in, and my companion and all the blessings I witness each and every day out here. It is just amazing to me how many people are here and how diverse this area is and how many are quick to refuse the gospel but at the same time there are those that pick it up like nothing.
Well I hope everyone is doing well, I'm doing great. My companion has IBS and so I get amusement out of every dinner appointment bringing it up. Though I'm worried they'll start feeding me non dairy and gluten free stuff all the time, my enjoyment from members feeding us meals may end. But it's good. Have a good week everyone.
Love, Elder Miller
So she and her son showed up and her son had a great time and members went over and made her feel welcome and so it was awesome. Plus we had a family that came and has been meaning to come to more church things but their kids are high functioning autistic and they were worried if they would fit in but they had a blast and the members all like them and talked to them and are so helpful that it was awesome.
The picnic was fun, I got to toss a frisbee a bit and it was right next to a pool and we pass pools like every day and I always wish I could swim cause it is always perfect swimming weather but alas, I'm a missionary. But it was great and I ate so many sweets that I haven't bought for myself cause that would be a waste of money but they are delicious. And it was just a great experience and I am grateful for the ward I'm in, and my companion and all the blessings I witness each and every day out here. It is just amazing to me how many people are here and how diverse this area is and how many are quick to refuse the gospel but at the same time there are those that pick it up like nothing.
Well I hope everyone is doing well, I'm doing great. My companion has IBS and so I get amusement out of every dinner appointment bringing it up. Though I'm worried they'll start feeding me non dairy and gluten free stuff all the time, my enjoyment from members feeding us meals may end. But it's good. Have a good week everyone.
Love, Elder Miller
Friday, September 3, 2010
A Letter from Members in Fremont
Brothers & Sisters Miller & Bludworth,
We had your sons into our home Saturday night; they are currently serving in our ward. Elder Miller made it to our area safe and sound and is enjoying his first weeks in the field. Elder Bludworth has been serving in our ward for a little while now and is doing a great job. They both serve with smiles on their faces and joy in their hearts. You have raised fine sons and they are anxiously engaged in the work of serving the Lord and sharing the gospel with those in the Fremont area. They are working hard to not only be great missionaries themselves but are doing all they can to help the ward members be better member missionaries as well. They have given us many tools and ideas on how to share the gospel with our friends and those we meet.
We know what it is like to have sons serving a mission and the joy it is to receive a photo of them and an update from others once in awhile. Our eldest is currently serving in the Salt Lake City South Mission and will return home in February . . . time flies! Our second son has been in the field for about a month now and is getting familiar with the Spanish language in the Ogden Mission.
We thought you might enjoy a picture of your sons, you'll see they are well.
Sincerely,
Kortnee & Adam Feriante
We had your sons into our home Saturday night; they are currently serving in our ward. Elder Miller made it to our area safe and sound and is enjoying his first weeks in the field. Elder Bludworth has been serving in our ward for a little while now and is doing a great job. They both serve with smiles on their faces and joy in their hearts. You have raised fine sons and they are anxiously engaged in the work of serving the Lord and sharing the gospel with those in the Fremont area. They are working hard to not only be great missionaries themselves but are doing all they can to help the ward members be better member missionaries as well. They have given us many tools and ideas on how to share the gospel with our friends and those we meet.
We know what it is like to have sons serving a mission and the joy it is to receive a photo of them and an update from others once in awhile. Our eldest is currently serving in the Salt Lake City South Mission and will return home in February . . . time flies! Our second son has been in the field for about a month now and is getting familiar with the Spanish language in the Ogden Mission.
We thought you might enjoy a picture of your sons, you'll see they are well.
Sincerely,
Kortnee & Adam Feriante
Monday, August 30, 2010
Fletcher's First Car Accident
Hello,
This past week has just rushed by. I guess we've been busy, but most days are much of the same so I don't know if it's cause we are always just all over the place or cause I forget a lot of the monotony. The missionary work is going pretty good, we have two investigators with baptismal dates and then a few other people who we're working with.
The area I live near is called Niles, it's part of Fremont and the downtown part of it is pretty cool. Apparantly it was made notable by Charlie Chaplin. He chose Niles as a the spot to film a few of his films. I heard all this from some old-timers on the street we stopped and talked to. But they said that he filmed some cowboy type film in the hills that surround Fremont and stayed at an inn or cafe or some store in town while on site. So there are lots of paintings and signs depicting Charlie Chaplin in town. My first week here they had a "Hot August Niles" car show. My companion and I walked through it and checked out the sweet rides, and talked to a few people, one car contestant even gave us a doughnut. Then just yesterday they had an Antique Fair in the street, vendors all over the place the road blocked off. And at the same time, the community organizes it so that everyone has garage sales on the same weekend. So about every other house has items out to sell and there are people walking all over the place, so many people it's crazy.
I am getting to know certain families in my ward better and they are awesome people. Our mission President recently gave us a new thing to do after dinner appointments instead of just sharing a spiritual thought. Now we give the family an index card and challenge them to ask a stranger if they like to read and if so they tell them that they can get them book all about Jesus for free if they just write down their name and address. Sort of sounds like a bad scam but it's an attempt to get the members on board with the work so it kind of is a scam.
Today my companion and two other companionships got up early and hiked a place called Mission Peak. It was cold and windy at the top but fun. We attempted to make our own path back down the mountain but it resulted in a number of sticky situations and a couple of Elders getting stung by a bunch of bees. So after that we stuck to the prescribed path.
At Zone conference on Friday my companion put a lot of effort into sucking up to our vehicle coordinator in order to trade up our corolla for a malibu. He succeeded eventually mentioning that he's never been in an accident. Ten minutes after hopping into the malibu we traded the sister missionaries our corolla for we got rear ended when stalled in traffic. It was crazy. That was the first accident I've ever been in. No one was injured but the impact crunched up one of the back corner panels so the frame is out of whack, we drove it until today when we traded it in for a worse corolla than the one we had. Sad times.
Well that is my news from Fremont. Write you all in another week.
From, Elder Miller
This past week has just rushed by. I guess we've been busy, but most days are much of the same so I don't know if it's cause we are always just all over the place or cause I forget a lot of the monotony. The missionary work is going pretty good, we have two investigators with baptismal dates and then a few other people who we're working with.
The area I live near is called Niles, it's part of Fremont and the downtown part of it is pretty cool. Apparantly it was made notable by Charlie Chaplin. He chose Niles as a the spot to film a few of his films. I heard all this from some old-timers on the street we stopped and talked to. But they said that he filmed some cowboy type film in the hills that surround Fremont and stayed at an inn or cafe or some store in town while on site. So there are lots of paintings and signs depicting Charlie Chaplin in town. My first week here they had a "Hot August Niles" car show. My companion and I walked through it and checked out the sweet rides, and talked to a few people, one car contestant even gave us a doughnut. Then just yesterday they had an Antique Fair in the street, vendors all over the place the road blocked off. And at the same time, the community organizes it so that everyone has garage sales on the same weekend. So about every other house has items out to sell and there are people walking all over the place, so many people it's crazy.
I am getting to know certain families in my ward better and they are awesome people. Our mission President recently gave us a new thing to do after dinner appointments instead of just sharing a spiritual thought. Now we give the family an index card and challenge them to ask a stranger if they like to read and if so they tell them that they can get them book all about Jesus for free if they just write down their name and address. Sort of sounds like a bad scam but it's an attempt to get the members on board with the work so it kind of is a scam.
Today my companion and two other companionships got up early and hiked a place called Mission Peak. It was cold and windy at the top but fun. We attempted to make our own path back down the mountain but it resulted in a number of sticky situations and a couple of Elders getting stung by a bunch of bees. So after that we stuck to the prescribed path.
At Zone conference on Friday my companion put a lot of effort into sucking up to our vehicle coordinator in order to trade up our corolla for a malibu. He succeeded eventually mentioning that he's never been in an accident. Ten minutes after hopping into the malibu we traded the sister missionaries our corolla for we got rear ended when stalled in traffic. It was crazy. That was the first accident I've ever been in. No one was injured but the impact crunched up one of the back corner panels so the frame is out of whack, we drove it until today when we traded it in for a worse corolla than the one we had. Sad times.
Well that is my news from Fremont. Write you all in another week.
From, Elder Miller
Monday, August 23, 2010
First Email from California
I'm in a little house in Fremont, it's the northernmost area in my mission and boarders the Oakland mission. The house we have is owned by a member who rents it to the mission for a dollar a year I think so really for free. We just have to tend to the yard and thing like that. There are two orange trees in the front and an avacado and lemon trees in the back. We have to gather a coulple bags full to take to the owner once a week I think. And then we just give out avacados to everyone in the ward. My first week was a little confusing. My companion is Elder Bludworth from Albaquerque(still don't know how to spell it) New Mexico. He's a cool guy and really relaxed. I think I really lucked out to have such a patient trainer. According to him he was a terrible missionary to train. He didn't really want to serve a mission but is now over it and seems to be training me okay.
My first day here we got off the plane met the mission President and then went to the mission office to eat some snacks and watch some instructional videos and meet the senior couples who work in the office. Then my companion drove me around in our Carolla to meet some of the ward members. Then we ended up at a members house for dinner and it was a good night.
The house I stay in apparantly was not very well taken care of by the previous missionaries so my companion, the first six weeks he has been here has spent the whole time cleaning it up cause his second day here he got chewed out by the lady who owns it while his companion the one responsible hid in the avacado tree.
I'm really excited cause we seem to already have a crazy. I don't want to sound incensitive and perhaps my family should edit this out but I've grown up hearing mission stories of the interesting people that you meet on your mission. There is one lady that we met with at the Bishops request because she just started showing up to church one day and seemed like she was a member but they requested her records from church headquarters and they don't have any record of her being baptized. So we met with her and brought this up and her story is that she works for the government and because she's involved in some pretty hefty government work the government has to keep any records affiliating her with anyone under wraps. It is all pretty ridiculous. She isn't as crazy as some of the stories you hear but I figure if I've gotten this my second day then I'm in store for some good ones throughout my mission.
Anyway things are going good. We haven't really tracted too much. My companion hates it for one but really I think the mission President expects more member visits than is normal because the duty of my companion and I is to sort of clean up the area from some damage that previous elders left behind. Five missionaries were sent home the week before I came out so we're trying to regain trust a bit and establish a presence.
I'm having fun though. The members feed us every night and everyone I've met thusfar is really interesting and cool. A bunch of young couples in the ward keep having us over and they are really fun to talk with. At dinner last night we got on the topic of mission animal stories. The Brother last night said that his Dad went to London and a lady let them in to her house and was preparing them hot chocolate in the kitchen and the ladys cat started really attacking his companions leg so his companion flicked it in the nose and the cat dropped dead. So they stuffed it under the couch, drank their hot chocolate and left as quickly as possible. That is horrible I know but I find it funny.
Then the same Brothers brother served in New Jersey and they were driving and a cat darted in front of the car and they hit it and just drove on nothing they could do. But the guy in the passengers seat felt guilty cause the cat hadn't died and was just suffering there so they circled around the block until they came to a cat in the rode and so they drove over it, reversed back over it and then once again drove over it. They then drove off as a lady started yelling and chasing after them. They kept going wondering what she was so mad about when they had gone a couple blocks and found a cat half alive in the middle of the street. The first cat they had run over, the other one had just been sleeping in the street. Heh heh.
Anyway things are great here in Fremont. The zone leaders had talked my comapanion and I into waking up a 5am this morning on our Preparation day to go hiking up some hill but then they called at 4:55 as we were ready to leave to tell us that one of them were sick. They normally wake up at that time to work out so I'm thinking they were just pulling a prank on us, making us get up early just to mess with us.
My mission president gives us more time to e-mail so I can respond to more than I thought I'd be able to. I had to get a library card but hopefully it will be usable throughout all my areas. That's all I got to say.
Love, Elder Miller
My first day here we got off the plane met the mission President and then went to the mission office to eat some snacks and watch some instructional videos and meet the senior couples who work in the office. Then my companion drove me around in our Carolla to meet some of the ward members. Then we ended up at a members house for dinner and it was a good night.
The house I stay in apparantly was not very well taken care of by the previous missionaries so my companion, the first six weeks he has been here has spent the whole time cleaning it up cause his second day here he got chewed out by the lady who owns it while his companion the one responsible hid in the avacado tree.
I'm really excited cause we seem to already have a crazy. I don't want to sound incensitive and perhaps my family should edit this out but I've grown up hearing mission stories of the interesting people that you meet on your mission. There is one lady that we met with at the Bishops request because she just started showing up to church one day and seemed like she was a member but they requested her records from church headquarters and they don't have any record of her being baptized. So we met with her and brought this up and her story is that she works for the government and because she's involved in some pretty hefty government work the government has to keep any records affiliating her with anyone under wraps. It is all pretty ridiculous. She isn't as crazy as some of the stories you hear but I figure if I've gotten this my second day then I'm in store for some good ones throughout my mission.
Anyway things are going good. We haven't really tracted too much. My companion hates it for one but really I think the mission President expects more member visits than is normal because the duty of my companion and I is to sort of clean up the area from some damage that previous elders left behind. Five missionaries were sent home the week before I came out so we're trying to regain trust a bit and establish a presence.
I'm having fun though. The members feed us every night and everyone I've met thusfar is really interesting and cool. A bunch of young couples in the ward keep having us over and they are really fun to talk with. At dinner last night we got on the topic of mission animal stories. The Brother last night said that his Dad went to London and a lady let them in to her house and was preparing them hot chocolate in the kitchen and the ladys cat started really attacking his companions leg so his companion flicked it in the nose and the cat dropped dead. So they stuffed it under the couch, drank their hot chocolate and left as quickly as possible. That is horrible I know but I find it funny.
Then the same Brothers brother served in New Jersey and they were driving and a cat darted in front of the car and they hit it and just drove on nothing they could do. But the guy in the passengers seat felt guilty cause the cat hadn't died and was just suffering there so they circled around the block until they came to a cat in the rode and so they drove over it, reversed back over it and then once again drove over it. They then drove off as a lady started yelling and chasing after them. They kept going wondering what she was so mad about when they had gone a couple blocks and found a cat half alive in the middle of the street. The first cat they had run over, the other one had just been sleeping in the street. Heh heh.
Anyway things are great here in Fremont. The zone leaders had talked my comapanion and I into waking up a 5am this morning on our Preparation day to go hiking up some hill but then they called at 4:55 as we were ready to leave to tell us that one of them were sick. They normally wake up at that time to work out so I'm thinking they were just pulling a prank on us, making us get up early just to mess with us.
My mission president gives us more time to e-mail so I can respond to more than I thought I'd be able to. I had to get a library card but hopefully it will be usable throughout all my areas. That's all I got to say.
Love, Elder Miller
Friday, August 20, 2010
Hey Family, just a note to let you know that Fletcher made it safely to California on Tues. We talked to him Tues. morning as he was waiting to board the plane and he sounded really good. We also received a call Wednesday night from his Mission President (Michael Jackson) who said that Fletcher had arrived safely, thanked us for preparing such a fine young man to serve in the California district and assured us that he would take good care of him for us. Fletcher will be serving in the Centerville Ward and his companion is Elder Bloodworth. I'm sure we will receive more info. from Fletcher later. His new "P" day will be on Mondays. Thanks so much for all your letters, emails and prayers on his behalf, We sure miss him here at home, but we know he's where he is supposed to be at this time..
Love to all, Susan/Mom xoxox
Love to all, Susan/Mom xoxox
Monday, August 16, 2010
A Couple of MTC Pics
The Elders in Fletcher's district:
Fletcher and his companion, Elder Fultz:
San Jose!
Classic "Matrix" picture that every Elder has taken since the movie was released in 1999:
Fletcher leaves for California tomorrow! We'll update his address once he lets us know what it is!
Fletcher and his companion, Elder Fultz:
San Jose!
Classic "Matrix" picture that every Elder has taken since the movie was released in 1999:
Fletcher leaves for California tomorrow! We'll update his address once he lets us know what it is!
Friday, August 13, 2010
Letters to Fletcher
I recently sent Fletch a postcard from Disneyland. I'm hoping he likes it considering he himself will soon be the sunny state of California.I'm sorta just bragging here...but if you send Fletch a letter from a cool place you should let us know about it!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
MTC Week 2
Hey everyone,
It is really crazy that it has been two weeks in the MTC now. The first week seemed to drag on and really felt more like a month, and this past week just flew by. Everyone here told me that that would happen and didn't necesarily believe them but here I am saying the same thing.
Marcene sent me a letter warning me not to eat the french toast cinnamon sticks cause they are just deep fried pieces of heaven that are the worst for you. Her warning came too late, we had them for breakfast earlier in the week and they are pretty much the best things in the cafeteria.
I don't exactly remember what I put in my last e-mail so I may cover some stuff that I've already written about. The MTC is starting to feel more comfortable, I still don't sleep very well at night, but I am much more familiar with campus and the way things are run. Gym time was limited this week thusfar cause we had Sunday of course no gym, and then on Monday we had service project which ate up our time slot and then Tuesday we had a devotional that night, by Elder David F. Evans, it was really good and I probably shouldn't say this but I would have rather played volleyball.
We also finally got to have the health instruction seminar that everyone prior to entering the MTC told me to look forward to. It is more commonly known as the ingrown toenail lecture cause apparantly the most common health problem among missionaries is ingrown toenails. Really what made the lecture great was Dr. Moody. The guy was hilarious. It could possibly just be a case of the "Immature Health Class" but really I would like to believe that I'm pretty mature and Dr.Moody was trying to make the topics funny. I won't share any of the vast majority of quotes I felt prompted to copy down, cause I know this will be shared with many people who may not share my same sense of humor. And really the quotes won't be that great by themselves, I mainly copied them down to serve as a memory stir stick. My memories will start to settle at the bottom of my thoughts and I'll need something to recall these precious Dr. Moody quotes.
Let's see, today is of course preparation day and then I'm scheduled to head to the field on Tuesday the 17th. Should be exciting. Being kind of trapped in the MTC has me ready to leave to California already. I'm not saying that I think I'm prepared to enter the field, cause really I feel like I have alot to work on, but the MTC, despite feeling more comfortable is a little cramped.
One of my instructors got us all excited the night before the devotional cause he mentioned that the MTC is kind of due for an Apostalic visit. Apparently there haven't been any here for a few monthes so I hope that it will be sunday cause it would be awesome to get to hear a talk from one of the Apostles directed at me as a missionary about to start the work. It would be so inspiring. I don't remember if I mentioned that a bunch of my district members saw President Uchtdorf in the parking lot, but they did and that was the night of a Tuesday devotional and everyone was crazed at the thought. This time we fought hard to get good seats but were, and I probably shouldn't say this, a little dissappointed to find it was just a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy.
What else, I just wanted to thank everyone who has written me letters or sent me stuff. I think I've gotten the most letters out of my whole district. One day there happened to be five letters waiting in the mailbox for me and everyone thought it was my birthday.
Yesterday we went to the TRC (Teaching Resource Center, i think) and met for a second time with a volunteer investigator. I kind of feel like her goal is just to boost our confidence in our ability cause you can tell when she sort of assists us by bringing up subjects that we were trying to insert into the conversation naturally. I honestly feel like we learned more from her than she did from us. She has an orchard and informed us the plums and prunes are two different fruits. Prunes are their own fruit, and here I was thinking that they were just shriveled up plums.
Well I am just having an amazing experience here and I am surprised at how quickly I am able to learn so much new yet familiar stuff. Thinking about being in California in less than a week is a little scary but at the same time I am glad that I don't have to hang out in the MTC for 6 more weeks to learn Spanish or 9 weeks to learn Russian. Well last time I waited until I had like 1 second left before I sent this and I didn't like the feeling of rush. So I'll send it with a healthy 2 minutes.
Love, Elder Miller
It is really crazy that it has been two weeks in the MTC now. The first week seemed to drag on and really felt more like a month, and this past week just flew by. Everyone here told me that that would happen and didn't necesarily believe them but here I am saying the same thing.
Marcene sent me a letter warning me not to eat the french toast cinnamon sticks cause they are just deep fried pieces of heaven that are the worst for you. Her warning came too late, we had them for breakfast earlier in the week and they are pretty much the best things in the cafeteria.
I don't exactly remember what I put in my last e-mail so I may cover some stuff that I've already written about. The MTC is starting to feel more comfortable, I still don't sleep very well at night, but I am much more familiar with campus and the way things are run. Gym time was limited this week thusfar cause we had Sunday of course no gym, and then on Monday we had service project which ate up our time slot and then Tuesday we had a devotional that night, by Elder David F. Evans, it was really good and I probably shouldn't say this but I would have rather played volleyball.
We also finally got to have the health instruction seminar that everyone prior to entering the MTC told me to look forward to. It is more commonly known as the ingrown toenail lecture cause apparantly the most common health problem among missionaries is ingrown toenails. Really what made the lecture great was Dr. Moody. The guy was hilarious. It could possibly just be a case of the "Immature Health Class" but really I would like to believe that I'm pretty mature and Dr.Moody was trying to make the topics funny. I won't share any of the vast majority of quotes I felt prompted to copy down, cause I know this will be shared with many people who may not share my same sense of humor. And really the quotes won't be that great by themselves, I mainly copied them down to serve as a memory stir stick. My memories will start to settle at the bottom of my thoughts and I'll need something to recall these precious Dr. Moody quotes.
Let's see, today is of course preparation day and then I'm scheduled to head to the field on Tuesday the 17th. Should be exciting. Being kind of trapped in the MTC has me ready to leave to California already. I'm not saying that I think I'm prepared to enter the field, cause really I feel like I have alot to work on, but the MTC, despite feeling more comfortable is a little cramped.
One of my instructors got us all excited the night before the devotional cause he mentioned that the MTC is kind of due for an Apostalic visit. Apparently there haven't been any here for a few monthes so I hope that it will be sunday cause it would be awesome to get to hear a talk from one of the Apostles directed at me as a missionary about to start the work. It would be so inspiring. I don't remember if I mentioned that a bunch of my district members saw President Uchtdorf in the parking lot, but they did and that was the night of a Tuesday devotional and everyone was crazed at the thought. This time we fought hard to get good seats but were, and I probably shouldn't say this, a little dissappointed to find it was just a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy.
What else, I just wanted to thank everyone who has written me letters or sent me stuff. I think I've gotten the most letters out of my whole district. One day there happened to be five letters waiting in the mailbox for me and everyone thought it was my birthday.
Yesterday we went to the TRC (Teaching Resource Center, i think) and met for a second time with a volunteer investigator. I kind of feel like her goal is just to boost our confidence in our ability cause you can tell when she sort of assists us by bringing up subjects that we were trying to insert into the conversation naturally. I honestly feel like we learned more from her than she did from us. She has an orchard and informed us the plums and prunes are two different fruits. Prunes are their own fruit, and here I was thinking that they were just shriveled up plums.
Well I am just having an amazing experience here and I am surprised at how quickly I am able to learn so much new yet familiar stuff. Thinking about being in California in less than a week is a little scary but at the same time I am glad that I don't have to hang out in the MTC for 6 more weeks to learn Spanish or 9 weeks to learn Russian. Well last time I waited until I had like 1 second left before I sent this and I didn't like the feeling of rush. So I'll send it with a healthy 2 minutes.
Love, Elder Miller
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
First Email From Elder Miller!
Hey, wednesdays are my preparation days so I get to e-mail you now and mail off some letters. Uh, I got a card thing when first I got here and on it it has a bunch of information that is useful for parents, I plan on mailing it to you but on it it says that I will most likely to report to California on the 17th of August.
I guess this will be the generic e-mail that gets sent to everyone so I'll just talk about my experience at the MTC thus far. The first day I came in was crazy. I got an Elder from Finland who helped carry my luggage and then directed me through a building where they did everything from take my picture, give me my nametag to handing me a bunch of papers and dorm keys. After that I went to the bookstore where I got a notebook and supplies for class and then I dropped off my stuff at the dorm and went straight to class. It was a really hot day and our class room wasn't very cool despite the air conditioner unit and fan but I got to take off my jacket and meet my companion named Elder Fultz along with the others in my district most of them are going to Santa Rosa, one sister is going to Roseville and then two others besides me are going to San Jose. We met one of our instructors named Brother Smith who is actually the nephew of the MTC President. Nepotism didn't seem like it should exist within the confines of a church run place like the MTC but he is actually a really good teacher and I think he's pretty awesome.
That night was the coolest though when they had set up a bunch of chapels within a main building and arranged a kind of mock discussion/lessons with actors playing investigators. It was really cool to see the missionaries come in and talk to people, who I assumed were already members of the church just volunteering. A couple of times they opened up the discussion and allowed us observers to ask questions. They are really emphasizing taking the first major part of meeting an investigator to just get to know them as much as possible cause then you'll know them well enough to be able to cater to their needs and sort of be able to teach what they need to hear. It makes perfect sense and I guess this is the whole purpose of doing away with the memorized discussions and the whole raising the bar. The Spirit is the real teacher and so missionaries must be in tune with the teachings of the gospel all the time.
It's kind of crazy to think that I have only been here a week. The days are so long that I often am preparing to go to bed and someone mentions an aspect of the day and I think that we did it the day before. The days are so structured and long that they really feel like a week themselves. Being sort of couped up in the MTC though has me more excited to go to California and get to do something real and new.
The food is of course pretty good and in abundance. I ate the full portion they gave me the night I got here, it was chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy I think and that was way too much food. They tell you not to waste food but I've started trying to cut back my portions otherwise I don't feel so good the rest of the day. \
Everyone looks forward to Gym time, supposed to be once a day but we did a service project yesterday and had some devotionals and today is P-day so laundrya and temple visit take it's place. So I'm excited to have a p day but I'll be more excited to get gym time tomorrow. The first day we played sand volleyball, it was okay but I guess I'm kind of a snob and was little unenthused at the level of play. Actually Elder Adams in my district and he is in the same dorm room is like an extreme athlete he like can't not dive for everything. So he played quite extraordiarily but not with a technical skill just pure athleticism. Anyway, the next day we played soccer which was crowded and confusing as I had no idea who exactly was on my team, then we played four square which is pretty fun and the level of competition is beyond my abilities I got kind of annoyed at having to wait in line for three minutes just to be sent straight to the back of it again. I've gotten to toss a frisbee a couple of times which is a comfort but Ultimate is banned and so I guess I won't be playing it anytime soon.
I don't know exactly what people want to hear from me. I feel like I've covered pretty much everything. I'm pretty tired most days, before and after breakfast when we have personal and companion study I usually doze off while quietly reading. There are some other pretty cool people in my district. We have 3 sister missionaries which is apparently a privelige in the MTC. One of which is from Palau and has only been a member for Two years. Our district leader is originally from Wales and has lived in Buffalo NY for 4 years and has been a member for 5 years. He also is like conversationally fluent in Tagalog cause his mom is some percent Philippino but I don't see it in him at all. And his full name is Matthew Graham Hubert Hugh Van Jenkins. He's is really awesome and a good guy.
Well my time is up on the computer, please don't e-mail me anyting too long cause I won't have time to write back and read it. Apparently a thing called dear elder allows you to type an email and theuy print it off and mail it to me and it's free I think Haley knows about it.\
-Love Elder Miller
I guess this will be the generic e-mail that gets sent to everyone so I'll just talk about my experience at the MTC thus far. The first day I came in was crazy. I got an Elder from Finland who helped carry my luggage and then directed me through a building where they did everything from take my picture, give me my nametag to handing me a bunch of papers and dorm keys. After that I went to the bookstore where I got a notebook and supplies for class and then I dropped off my stuff at the dorm and went straight to class. It was a really hot day and our class room wasn't very cool despite the air conditioner unit and fan but I got to take off my jacket and meet my companion named Elder Fultz along with the others in my district most of them are going to Santa Rosa, one sister is going to Roseville and then two others besides me are going to San Jose. We met one of our instructors named Brother Smith who is actually the nephew of the MTC President. Nepotism didn't seem like it should exist within the confines of a church run place like the MTC but he is actually a really good teacher and I think he's pretty awesome.
That night was the coolest though when they had set up a bunch of chapels within a main building and arranged a kind of mock discussion/lessons with actors playing investigators. It was really cool to see the missionaries come in and talk to people, who I assumed were already members of the church just volunteering. A couple of times they opened up the discussion and allowed us observers to ask questions. They are really emphasizing taking the first major part of meeting an investigator to just get to know them as much as possible cause then you'll know them well enough to be able to cater to their needs and sort of be able to teach what they need to hear. It makes perfect sense and I guess this is the whole purpose of doing away with the memorized discussions and the whole raising the bar. The Spirit is the real teacher and so missionaries must be in tune with the teachings of the gospel all the time.
It's kind of crazy to think that I have only been here a week. The days are so long that I often am preparing to go to bed and someone mentions an aspect of the day and I think that we did it the day before. The days are so structured and long that they really feel like a week themselves. Being sort of couped up in the MTC though has me more excited to go to California and get to do something real and new.
The food is of course pretty good and in abundance. I ate the full portion they gave me the night I got here, it was chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy I think and that was way too much food. They tell you not to waste food but I've started trying to cut back my portions otherwise I don't feel so good the rest of the day. \
Everyone looks forward to Gym time, supposed to be once a day but we did a service project yesterday and had some devotionals and today is P-day so laundrya and temple visit take it's place. So I'm excited to have a p day but I'll be more excited to get gym time tomorrow. The first day we played sand volleyball, it was okay but I guess I'm kind of a snob and was little unenthused at the level of play. Actually Elder Adams in my district and he is in the same dorm room is like an extreme athlete he like can't not dive for everything. So he played quite extraordiarily but not with a technical skill just pure athleticism. Anyway, the next day we played soccer which was crowded and confusing as I had no idea who exactly was on my team, then we played four square which is pretty fun and the level of competition is beyond my abilities I got kind of annoyed at having to wait in line for three minutes just to be sent straight to the back of it again. I've gotten to toss a frisbee a couple of times which is a comfort but Ultimate is banned and so I guess I won't be playing it anytime soon.
I don't know exactly what people want to hear from me. I feel like I've covered pretty much everything. I'm pretty tired most days, before and after breakfast when we have personal and companion study I usually doze off while quietly reading. There are some other pretty cool people in my district. We have 3 sister missionaries which is apparently a privelige in the MTC. One of which is from Palau and has only been a member for Two years. Our district leader is originally from Wales and has lived in Buffalo NY for 4 years and has been a member for 5 years. He also is like conversationally fluent in Tagalog cause his mom is some percent Philippino but I don't see it in him at all. And his full name is Matthew Graham Hubert Hugh Van Jenkins. He's is really awesome and a good guy.
Well my time is up on the computer, please don't e-mail me anyting too long cause I won't have time to write back and read it. Apparently a thing called dear elder allows you to type an email and theuy print it off and mail it to me and it's free I think Haley knows about it.\
-Love Elder Miller
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
A Few Fun Days in Provo
Elder Miller came to Provo to visit his sisters, Tamsen and Maranda, for two days before reporting to the MTC on July 28th. Here's Tamsen, Sam and I driving to the airport Monday morning to pick him up. I am holding a tie that I bought him, and a denim bag I made for him to hold some hair-cutting clippers that he wanted to take on his mission.
Here's Fletch! Can you spot him?
Waiting for his baggage. He managed to fit everything into one large suitcase! Amazing.
Then, we took Fletcher to eat at the best burger joint in Utah County!
Tamsen, Fletcher and I went to a Tumbling Gym in south Provo that night, because Fletcher had the goal of being able to do a standing back-flip before he left on his mission... and time was running out! Here's one of the 'experts' we made friends with at the gym helping teach him.
He had a couple of good attempts, (that I did not get a picture of, of course.) that he really nearly landed... but as time went on we all just got more exhausted from jumping around... so he wasn't quite able to do it.
Here's a video of one try.
The next morning, Tamsen, Sam and Fletcher went up to the Timpanogos temple to be there in support of my roommate Eliza who was going through for the first time. I stayed at home to babysit her nieces and nephew, and then rendevous'd with everyone at Los Hermanos mexican restaurant that afternoon! The food was great! That's Eliza with Tamsen, Fletch and Sam.
I gave Fletcher a haircut, and also we bought him some clipper guards for his clippers to take with him. I think he misses his legos just a little....
Which silhouette is a real sculpture and which is Fletcher's creation? Can you tell?
Tah-Dah!
That night we hit up a 'Happy Pirates Improv Comedy' reunion show and had a blast laughing and introducing our kid brother to our old friends. Sorry, no pictures of that.
Well... here it is. This morning I made us all some french toast and waffles, and then Tamsen and I took Fletcher to the Missionary Training Center.
Talking to Haley.
Our turn to take pictures by the sign!
We love you Elder Miller! We know you'll make us proud.
Here's Fletch! Can you spot him?
Waiting for his baggage. He managed to fit everything into one large suitcase! Amazing.
Then, we took Fletcher to eat at the best burger joint in Utah County!
Tamsen, Fletcher and I went to a Tumbling Gym in south Provo that night, because Fletcher had the goal of being able to do a standing back-flip before he left on his mission... and time was running out! Here's one of the 'experts' we made friends with at the gym helping teach him.
He had a couple of good attempts, (that I did not get a picture of, of course.) that he really nearly landed... but as time went on we all just got more exhausted from jumping around... so he wasn't quite able to do it.
Here's a video of one try.The next morning, Tamsen, Sam and Fletcher went up to the Timpanogos temple to be there in support of my roommate Eliza who was going through for the first time. I stayed at home to babysit her nieces and nephew, and then rendevous'd with everyone at Los Hermanos mexican restaurant that afternoon! The food was great! That's Eliza with Tamsen, Fletch and Sam.
I gave Fletcher a haircut, and also we bought him some clipper guards for his clippers to take with him. I think he misses his legos just a little....
Which silhouette is a real sculpture and which is Fletcher's creation? Can you tell?
Tah-Dah!
That night we hit up a 'Happy Pirates Improv Comedy' reunion show and had a blast laughing and introducing our kid brother to our old friends. Sorry, no pictures of that.Well... here it is. This morning I made us all some french toast and waffles, and then Tamsen and I took Fletcher to the Missionary Training Center.
Talking to Haley.
Our turn to take pictures by the sign!
We love you Elder Miller! We know you'll make us proud.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Farewell and Open House
Fletcher, or Elder Miller as of about 6 pm this evening, gave his farewell address in the Sacrament meeting of the Maplewood Ward on Sunday, July 18th, 2010. It was funny and thoughtful, and it was as though Fletcher was transformed into an adult and, what's more, a missionary, before our eyes. Mom and Dad gave talks as well, and Freyja and I kept exchanging tear-filled glances as Mom spoke about Dad's joy in finally having a little boy, and of the preparation that has gotten Fletcher to where he is today, ready and worthy to wear the name of the Lord on his chest. Dad gave a list of things he knew for certain. Number four was that "hot dogs don't taste as good as they used to," but some of them were insightful, even spiritual, and it was beautiful to see the confidence and love that our parents have for Fletcher, and how their strength has shaped him into the wonderful kid that he is.
We were all surprised at (and grateful for!) the number of friends and family members that attended sacrament meeting to show their support. We had neighbors, former ward members, high school friends, and tons of family in attendance. Afterward, the whole Burnett clan, Aunt Diana, Aunt Pam and Caitlin, and Aunt Shannon and her kids came over for lunch, and it seemed right to be surrounded by those people that have shaped Fletcher in such positive ways over the years.
We had an open house that evening at the house. It was very well attended, and it was great to see familiar faces from the late Beaverton 3rd Ward. Mom had Dad slaving away to get the kitchen ready for weeks beforehand, and we set up some of Freyja's cute patio furniture on the lawn.
The Ludlams surprised and delighted us by making the few hours' drive down, and brought Sophie Wilson with them. Fletcher was totally surprised, and it was great to reunite some of the original B3 clan.
Fletcher has been working for Sister Huffaker for the last year or so, doing yard work and odd jobs around her house, and we are so grateful for her support.
Friends from high school.
Nathan gives Fletcher some friendly mission advice.
Double-teamed!
Matthias, Grant, Shain, Fletch, Noah
The chilluns: Carson on Connor's shoulders, Jack, Hannah, Sara, Maddy, and Kendall.
A million other people came, and I took a million other pictures, but this is enough to give you an idea. It was wonderful to be able to actually see all of the love and support that Fletcher has as he embarks on this new adventure.
We love you Fletcher!
We were all surprised at (and grateful for!) the number of friends and family members that attended sacrament meeting to show their support. We had neighbors, former ward members, high school friends, and tons of family in attendance. Afterward, the whole Burnett clan, Aunt Diana, Aunt Pam and Caitlin, and Aunt Shannon and her kids came over for lunch, and it seemed right to be surrounded by those people that have shaped Fletcher in such positive ways over the years.
We had an open house that evening at the house. It was very well attended, and it was great to see familiar faces from the late Beaverton 3rd Ward. Mom had Dad slaving away to get the kitchen ready for weeks beforehand, and we set up some of Freyja's cute patio furniture on the lawn.
The Ludlams surprised and delighted us by making the few hours' drive down, and brought Sophie Wilson with them. Fletcher was totally surprised, and it was great to reunite some of the original B3 clan.
Fletcher has been working for Sister Huffaker for the last year or so, doing yard work and odd jobs around her house, and we are so grateful for her support.
Friends from high school.
Nathan gives Fletcher some friendly mission advice.
Double-teamed!
Matthias, Grant, Shain, Fletch, Noah
The chilluns: Carson on Connor's shoulders, Jack, Hannah, Sara, Maddy, and Kendall.
A million other people came, and I took a million other pictures, but this is enough to give you an idea. It was wonderful to be able to actually see all of the love and support that Fletcher has as he embarks on this new adventure.
We love you Fletcher!
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