Hello Everyone,
Well I don't know about you but my Christmas was pretty great. Hopefully yours was special. My week was actually pretty boring until the holiday came closer. My family started sending me a "12 Days of Christmas" package a day type thing which was super fun. Among top gifts, my sister sent me a pretty legit ninja throwing star which I have always wanted. It's kind of sad that I got it on my mission where I don't have much opportunity to really use it but nonetheless it's pretty cool. Normally I open things and see that they're made in China and think to myself that it's a little less authentic than hoped for, but a ninja star being made in China really made it way cooler in my eyes. Anyway, my other sister sent me some fake mustaches which are awesome, and I got some much needed sweatpants and an amazing t-shirt made by one of my many sisters which says "Keep Your Friends Close And Your Sandwiches Closer". And a hacky sack and delicious mudbars and the fixings for Tim Tam Slams which I got to make use of while skyping with my family.
On Saturday we had a mission wide breadfast. We all congregated in San Jose and were fed steak and eggs and pancakes and pop tarts. Then we had a white elephant gift exchange. We separated according to which zone we were in so we exchanged with the missionaries that we see all the time and know best. If I learned anything from that it would have to be that our zone is full of a bunch of cheapskates. Myself included. I just regifted. Other zones had like Chinese yo-yos and nerf guns and nice ties and candy. I got an old teddy bear. Anyway, that's not important. That night was pretty neat as we got to eat dinner with a family in the ward who was baptized 364 days ago. Last Christmas they became members of the church and Christmas eve a year later we got to be with them for dinner. It was great, and I had a fun time teasing the little girl about Santa Clause. Her mom mentioned that she knew about santa and so I asked the girl, "You know who Santa is?" in my most serious interested voice and stare. She said "Yeah." and so I had to ask, "Well who is he?" and she replied "My Dad." I kept it going and asked if she had let any reporters know cause this was newsworthy information. I should have asked her why her Dad was still at the dinner table with us if it was Christmas Eve shouldn't he be out making deliveries. Perhaps it was stupid but I had fun and so did the family.
Christmas was fun. We were invited to have breakfast with a family in our ward and I had some of the best waffles of my life. Putting blackberry jam on there is the key. They were so generous. Their son used to come out with us all the time to help teach lessons but he is now in the MTC and I guess they don't have missionaries in the MTC call home cause there probably aren't enough phones or just too much of a hassle maybe so they were slightly bummed about that, but he'll get to call when he flies out of Salt Lake in a few weeks I guess. Then we had church for just one hour which was kind of neat in that we were able to convince some less active members to come. Church only being one hour sealed the deal a little bit. This only happens once every like 7 years I guess so better advertise it well. One less active guy actually came to perform "Oh, Holy Night" and he has an amazing voice. It was great, and members handed us goody bags with candy in them. After that we went to a recent converst house and he let me use his iPad to skype with my family. That was fun. Catching up with everyone and doing synchronized Tim Tam Slamming. Which if you don't know is taking pepperidge farm cookies called Tim Tams and using them like a straw for hot chocolate so the hot chocolate melts the inside of the cookie and then you eat it and it is divine. I had fogotten how good those molten cookies are. My companion called his family all normal like on our cell phone and talked for a long time. I figure since a picture is worth a thousand words my skyping and his extended phone call are about equal.
Then on Monday I exchanged some shirts my sister had gotten me for the most expensive pair of pants I've ever owned, and then we got to play some basketball, volleyball and then ulitimate frisbee which was super fun. I'll likely be transferred on January 3rd and I hope my new zone gets together as often for sports on P-day as this one cause it's really great to get to play sports each week.
This whole week past we had a great time going around and sharing Christmas messages with our investigators and members. Nothing too special but I guess recounting the Saviors birth and discussing the atonement is always special. I mentioned how happy I was with all the Christmas gifts I recieved this year and that's not a bad thing as long as I remember that in reality they are to be representative of the ultimate gift that comes from our Heavenly Fathers love for us. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son..."
I hope everyone had a great holiday season.
Sincerely, Elder F. Miller
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Merry Christmas Everyone,
My week was pretty good. Some memorable moments. The end of it was when it picked up. First few days were not so great. Wednesday night we started our exchange with our Zone Leaders. I went into their area and we have two zone leaders and they have a third companion who isn't a zone leader but I was with Elder Bunker and Elder Teo'Tafiti and Elder Sotele went with my companion in our area. It was fun. Our Zone leaders serve in a Tongan ward as well as a "pulangi" (white) one. So we drove mostly about East Palo Alto throughout the day and visited a bunch of members and were sharing little Christmas messages and also trying to visit their investigators. In the car we had some Christmas music by some Italian opera singer. His music was beautiful but we couldn't help but giggle when he sang "everybody knows a Tourkie and some mistletoe". His accent just didn't quite make the right sounds some times. It was fun visiting the Tongan members and hearing my Zone leader converse with them. This really slim skinny white guy from Utah speaking Tongan like he's one of them, awesome. They were fun to be with for the day and get to know some other elders a bit better.
On Friday we had a great lesson and got a new investigator because of a very enthusiastic sister from our ward that just got back from her mission. She went ahead and invited an old school friend over for lunch and invited us as well to teach her. It was really great. The first time I've eaten with that family because it's a single lady but we finally got another guy to come with us. This lady, as tradition, makes every meal member display a talent at the end to kind of pay for the meal in a sense. It was fun. I juggled and three people sang someone drew a picture and another played the piano. It's a cool tradition that I think would be awesome to start doing if/when I have dinner guests. Fun way to end the session. Anyway, after that we went and were roped into helping set up for the ward Christmas party to be held on Saturday evening. It was quite the endeavor. When we got there it was little unorganized and we were told to start setting up tables but then a member showed up and was like "Why are all these tables already here?" They have a huge canopy made from like 12 parachutes sewn together that they put up to kind of mute the lights. So first we had to string lights all the way across the cultural hall which was actually kind of fun. Then we strung up the parachute canopy, the lights took most of the time and then the canopy but after that we got the tables placed and chairs and it was mostly done. It was fun climbing up and down ladders and working on stuff. Different kind of satisfaction that comes from that than you can get being a missionary otherwise.
So on Saturday we left the apartment early cause a baptismal candidate of the neighboring missionaries needed to be interviewed by our mission president and my companion being district leader needed to be there. So we waited at our stake center for a while and then she was interviewed and passed so her baptism was set for later that day at 12:30. We went back home and got lunch and changed into our suits and then went back for the baptism. The same missionaries had two baptisms later at 5pm as well and imbetween those there was a stake childrens baptism, where our first counselor in the bishoprics daughter was baptized and then another ward in the stake had a convert baptism. That pretty much ate up our whole day. Running around helping prepare for all those and doing what we could to help people. We had our ward Christmas party and we were there for a bit then had to pick up the Elders who finished with their baptisms and then went back to the party for the end of it. It was great. I really had my heart set on getting a picture with my companion and Santa Clause but we didn't make it in time. Had some good soup though and ice cream and then we broke the whole set down. Put all the chairs and table away and then dropped the canopy and folded it up and then we cut the lights down. Lots of work for a couple of hours of party but it was fun.
Yesterday we went to church and it was great. The program was a bunch of speakers giving little talks based on the perspectives of certain people in the nativity story. Really interesting and neat. One brother spoke on the Innkeepers perspective and I had never really given it that much thought but he mentioned how the man is known in scriptures to be this heartless man who wouldn't let a pregnant lady and her husband in cause there was no room. The speaker started off by saying that he felt sorry for the man, that he's learned who he rejected by now and is probably embarrassed in the spirit world. But in reality how was he supposed to know who it was knocking on his door. The best part of sacrament meeting though was a less active woman and her non-member husband who we have been teaching finally had their little baby girl blessed by our bishop and we got to stand in circle. The first baby blessing I've gotten to participate in. Also we got a new Ward Mission Leader. I don't think I'll get to work with him much, he goes on vacation for two weeks and I think I'm leaving in two weeks. But still he seems like an awesome guy, just moved into the ward with his wife and child from Boston where he was in the bishopric and he and his wife both served missions in Hong Kong.
A member who we visit often and his wife were at Stanford Hostpital due to pregnancy complications so we were invited over there to give his wife a blessing. One funny thing was that on the way to the hospital room we had to get visitors name tags and the security guard in charge of writing out our nametags was Indian I think and he noticed that we already had nametags so he first asked my companion his name and wrote his correctly but he didn't even bother asking my name cause he thought he saw it on the nametag. So when I got my sticker it read "Jeasus C." I was pretty happy with that. Really funny.
Now is Monday and Christmas is coming up. Should be good. On Christmas eve we have a mission wide breakfast which is a new thing and should be fun and then on Christmas our day will probably be spent going around sharing little messages with members and then accepting whatever cookies or treats they feel obliged to offer. Good times ahead. Merry Christmas Everybody.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
My week was pretty good. Some memorable moments. The end of it was when it picked up. First few days were not so great. Wednesday night we started our exchange with our Zone Leaders. I went into their area and we have two zone leaders and they have a third companion who isn't a zone leader but I was with Elder Bunker and Elder Teo'Tafiti and Elder Sotele went with my companion in our area. It was fun. Our Zone leaders serve in a Tongan ward as well as a "pulangi" (white) one. So we drove mostly about East Palo Alto throughout the day and visited a bunch of members and were sharing little Christmas messages and also trying to visit their investigators. In the car we had some Christmas music by some Italian opera singer. His music was beautiful but we couldn't help but giggle when he sang "everybody knows a Tourkie and some mistletoe". His accent just didn't quite make the right sounds some times. It was fun visiting the Tongan members and hearing my Zone leader converse with them. This really slim skinny white guy from Utah speaking Tongan like he's one of them, awesome. They were fun to be with for the day and get to know some other elders a bit better.
On Friday we had a great lesson and got a new investigator because of a very enthusiastic sister from our ward that just got back from her mission. She went ahead and invited an old school friend over for lunch and invited us as well to teach her. It was really great. The first time I've eaten with that family because it's a single lady but we finally got another guy to come with us. This lady, as tradition, makes every meal member display a talent at the end to kind of pay for the meal in a sense. It was fun. I juggled and three people sang someone drew a picture and another played the piano. It's a cool tradition that I think would be awesome to start doing if/when I have dinner guests. Fun way to end the session. Anyway, after that we went and were roped into helping set up for the ward Christmas party to be held on Saturday evening. It was quite the endeavor. When we got there it was little unorganized and we were told to start setting up tables but then a member showed up and was like "Why are all these tables already here?" They have a huge canopy made from like 12 parachutes sewn together that they put up to kind of mute the lights. So first we had to string lights all the way across the cultural hall which was actually kind of fun. Then we strung up the parachute canopy, the lights took most of the time and then the canopy but after that we got the tables placed and chairs and it was mostly done. It was fun climbing up and down ladders and working on stuff. Different kind of satisfaction that comes from that than you can get being a missionary otherwise.
So on Saturday we left the apartment early cause a baptismal candidate of the neighboring missionaries needed to be interviewed by our mission president and my companion being district leader needed to be there. So we waited at our stake center for a while and then she was interviewed and passed so her baptism was set for later that day at 12:30. We went back home and got lunch and changed into our suits and then went back for the baptism. The same missionaries had two baptisms later at 5pm as well and imbetween those there was a stake childrens baptism, where our first counselor in the bishoprics daughter was baptized and then another ward in the stake had a convert baptism. That pretty much ate up our whole day. Running around helping prepare for all those and doing what we could to help people. We had our ward Christmas party and we were there for a bit then had to pick up the Elders who finished with their baptisms and then went back to the party for the end of it. It was great. I really had my heart set on getting a picture with my companion and Santa Clause but we didn't make it in time. Had some good soup though and ice cream and then we broke the whole set down. Put all the chairs and table away and then dropped the canopy and folded it up and then we cut the lights down. Lots of work for a couple of hours of party but it was fun.
Yesterday we went to church and it was great. The program was a bunch of speakers giving little talks based on the perspectives of certain people in the nativity story. Really interesting and neat. One brother spoke on the Innkeepers perspective and I had never really given it that much thought but he mentioned how the man is known in scriptures to be this heartless man who wouldn't let a pregnant lady and her husband in cause there was no room. The speaker started off by saying that he felt sorry for the man, that he's learned who he rejected by now and is probably embarrassed in the spirit world. But in reality how was he supposed to know who it was knocking on his door. The best part of sacrament meeting though was a less active woman and her non-member husband who we have been teaching finally had their little baby girl blessed by our bishop and we got to stand in circle. The first baby blessing I've gotten to participate in. Also we got a new Ward Mission Leader. I don't think I'll get to work with him much, he goes on vacation for two weeks and I think I'm leaving in two weeks. But still he seems like an awesome guy, just moved into the ward with his wife and child from Boston where he was in the bishopric and he and his wife both served missions in Hong Kong.
A member who we visit often and his wife were at Stanford Hostpital due to pregnancy complications so we were invited over there to give his wife a blessing. One funny thing was that on the way to the hospital room we had to get visitors name tags and the security guard in charge of writing out our nametags was Indian I think and he noticed that we already had nametags so he first asked my companion his name and wrote his correctly but he didn't even bother asking my name cause he thought he saw it on the nametag. So when I got my sticker it read "Jeasus C." I was pretty happy with that. Really funny.
Now is Monday and Christmas is coming up. Should be good. On Christmas eve we have a mission wide breakfast which is a new thing and should be fun and then on Christmas our day will probably be spent going around sharing little messages with members and then accepting whatever cookies or treats they feel obliged to offer. Good times ahead. Merry Christmas Everybody.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, December 12, 2011
Hello Everyone,
This week was fine as usual. We have experienced quite the slow down which is to be expected once your main investigators get baptized and you no longer teach them. Our most exciting days were probably Thursday and Sunday. On Thursday we had interviews with our mission president. So we went at 9 o'clock to our stake center and met with President Watkins. They did a few other things that aren't normal however. First off this time our president was set up to have every missionary practice teaching a couple in one of the rooms and we were filmed and assessed on our teaching. It was a little nerve wracking waiting to teach while on camera and being evaluated but once I got in there I saw that it was a simple situation and designed to help us be at our best. Our presidents goal is that we can each receive a copy of our teaching so we can evaluate ourselves and recognize what we can do better and change. I was told I took too long to start smiling. On their sheet they had a check box for whether the missionary was smiling or not and at first they wrote me off as not smiling but for some reason I started near the middle of the lesson and so they went back and said that I did indeed smile but not until I'd gotten warmed up I guess. Obviously I knew most of what they were looking for and those are things that I kind of naturally do so I would kind of start checking the points off in my head. I never conciously thought about smiling though so that was a little eye opening that I come off as too serious or something for the most part. Then we all met with our mission President individually. He's a great man and although I imaging meeting with your mission president is supposed to be a whole game of intimidation our president has a real gift to put people at ease through humor and his comments. So it was great getting to chat with him briefly. He confirmed that I will most definitely move to a new area at the start of January. My companion also was told that our President was considering having him train his last transfer in the mission. We were told that there would be no more trainers that would only train for one transfer because a new program was started in which new missionaries have a study manual that they take two transfers to complete with their trainers but I guess our mission president is pleased with my companion and wants him to train and especially in an area as amazing as this one is. I think he'd do a good job but I'm not sure if he wants to train. After that we actually met with Sister Watkins who was talking to us about personal study tactics and a new program that we could use if we want to study. It's called SP90X. Taken from the popular workout program P90X, SP90X stands for Spiritual Power 90 eXtreme I guess. It's a ninety day calendar and accompanying study topics that would plan out for you to finish the Book of Mormon and all of Preach My Gospel in those ninety days. It's pretty neat and I think I'll do it once I finish up the program I'm already doing during my study time.
On Friday we got to teach a lesson to a lady who is staying at a half way house right down the street from us and she really wants to be baptized and we are happy to teach her. She called the Creche hotline when it was going on and the lady in charge of Creche let us know and we stopped by and have taught her just the first lesson but also gave her a blessing and she came to church yesterday. I guess her father is a less active member but she grew up in Utah and attended primary as a kid and was married to a member of the church and she has finally realized that she wants to change her life and is depending on the church to help her do it. She's very nice and has a great desire to change her life.
On Saturday after we played basketball we were asked by our bishop to help a single mother move who isn't a member but I think a friend of our bishops wife. We didn't have our car that day so we had a young man from basketball give us a ride. We showed up to the house and realized that it was the house of some members in our ward but apparrently they have a studio apartment in the back that they rent out and I had no idea that anyone lived back there. Just looking at the layout of their house fromt he street I wouldn't have even known that there was room back there for a little apartment. Anyway we gladly helped her move all of her things out and our bishop came along with his family and were fun to have around and help out. Instead of renting a u-haul the lady had her father come with his big flatbed truck that had a cool hydraulic lift on it and so we had some fun loading the furniture and other items. After that we didn't have a dinner appointment so we gladly accepted a lunchtime invitation to our ward mission leaders house. They were having a small party as they watched the Real Madrid vs. Barcelona soccer game and so we showed up right after the game ended and scrounged up some chili dogs and nachos. Their Barcelona team won so they were all super excited. I guess that it's one of the biggest rivalries and they won 3-1 so celebrating was in need. Plus their niece was having a soccer tournament a little later so they were all in a soccer mood.
On Sunday, we had ward council which was a little long, since there is no activities committee anymore the auxiliaries were all argueing almost trying to determine whether to have ice cream or cookies for some activity and then determining which auxiliaries should bring what. Pretty important stuff. I was able to show off my sacrament cup placing skills to our recent convert as he was learning to prepare the sacrament. Our investigator at the half way house was brought to church by some awesome members and then the young couple that we had been working with but haven't been able to meet with recently due to sickness and some other issues, they showed up for the first time in a while. It's pretty interesting. We haven't been able to meet with them for a while but the families of other young couples with children we kind of set them up with, they've still been hanging out with them during the week. They have kiddy dates to the library and other things so it's great to see that they came to church not because they had us at their door reminding them but because they have made friends and truly feel comfortable coming and just seeing other couples like them that they can relate with. Hopfully we'll get back to teach them soon, but if not I'm sure it's just a matter of a little more time before they recognize that they are so happy around these other couples and the church because what we have taught them is true and is the spirit is the source of their joy.
Today we've done laundry and received the unfortunate news that the man that we have been teaching who has lung cancer passed away last night. I'll miss him and being able to visit him. He was a truly nice guy and I know that he would have been baptized if his condition hadn't prevented him. So he'll accept it immediately beyond the veil and I know that I'll get to see him again. We hope we can provide his wife the same comforting information now.
I hope you all have a great week and enjoy the season.
Sincerely, Elder F. Miller
This week was fine as usual. We have experienced quite the slow down which is to be expected once your main investigators get baptized and you no longer teach them. Our most exciting days were probably Thursday and Sunday. On Thursday we had interviews with our mission president. So we went at 9 o'clock to our stake center and met with President Watkins. They did a few other things that aren't normal however. First off this time our president was set up to have every missionary practice teaching a couple in one of the rooms and we were filmed and assessed on our teaching. It was a little nerve wracking waiting to teach while on camera and being evaluated but once I got in there I saw that it was a simple situation and designed to help us be at our best. Our presidents goal is that we can each receive a copy of our teaching so we can evaluate ourselves and recognize what we can do better and change. I was told I took too long to start smiling. On their sheet they had a check box for whether the missionary was smiling or not and at first they wrote me off as not smiling but for some reason I started near the middle of the lesson and so they went back and said that I did indeed smile but not until I'd gotten warmed up I guess. Obviously I knew most of what they were looking for and those are things that I kind of naturally do so I would kind of start checking the points off in my head. I never conciously thought about smiling though so that was a little eye opening that I come off as too serious or something for the most part. Then we all met with our mission President individually. He's a great man and although I imaging meeting with your mission president is supposed to be a whole game of intimidation our president has a real gift to put people at ease through humor and his comments. So it was great getting to chat with him briefly. He confirmed that I will most definitely move to a new area at the start of January. My companion also was told that our President was considering having him train his last transfer in the mission. We were told that there would be no more trainers that would only train for one transfer because a new program was started in which new missionaries have a study manual that they take two transfers to complete with their trainers but I guess our mission president is pleased with my companion and wants him to train and especially in an area as amazing as this one is. I think he'd do a good job but I'm not sure if he wants to train. After that we actually met with Sister Watkins who was talking to us about personal study tactics and a new program that we could use if we want to study. It's called SP90X. Taken from the popular workout program P90X, SP90X stands for Spiritual Power 90 eXtreme I guess. It's a ninety day calendar and accompanying study topics that would plan out for you to finish the Book of Mormon and all of Preach My Gospel in those ninety days. It's pretty neat and I think I'll do it once I finish up the program I'm already doing during my study time.
On Friday we got to teach a lesson to a lady who is staying at a half way house right down the street from us and she really wants to be baptized and we are happy to teach her. She called the Creche hotline when it was going on and the lady in charge of Creche let us know and we stopped by and have taught her just the first lesson but also gave her a blessing and she came to church yesterday. I guess her father is a less active member but she grew up in Utah and attended primary as a kid and was married to a member of the church and she has finally realized that she wants to change her life and is depending on the church to help her do it. She's very nice and has a great desire to change her life.
On Saturday after we played basketball we were asked by our bishop to help a single mother move who isn't a member but I think a friend of our bishops wife. We didn't have our car that day so we had a young man from basketball give us a ride. We showed up to the house and realized that it was the house of some members in our ward but apparrently they have a studio apartment in the back that they rent out and I had no idea that anyone lived back there. Just looking at the layout of their house fromt he street I wouldn't have even known that there was room back there for a little apartment. Anyway we gladly helped her move all of her things out and our bishop came along with his family and were fun to have around and help out. Instead of renting a u-haul the lady had her father come with his big flatbed truck that had a cool hydraulic lift on it and so we had some fun loading the furniture and other items. After that we didn't have a dinner appointment so we gladly accepted a lunchtime invitation to our ward mission leaders house. They were having a small party as they watched the Real Madrid vs. Barcelona soccer game and so we showed up right after the game ended and scrounged up some chili dogs and nachos. Their Barcelona team won so they were all super excited. I guess that it's one of the biggest rivalries and they won 3-1 so celebrating was in need. Plus their niece was having a soccer tournament a little later so they were all in a soccer mood.
On Sunday, we had ward council which was a little long, since there is no activities committee anymore the auxiliaries were all argueing almost trying to determine whether to have ice cream or cookies for some activity and then determining which auxiliaries should bring what. Pretty important stuff. I was able to show off my sacrament cup placing skills to our recent convert as he was learning to prepare the sacrament. Our investigator at the half way house was brought to church by some awesome members and then the young couple that we had been working with but haven't been able to meet with recently due to sickness and some other issues, they showed up for the first time in a while. It's pretty interesting. We haven't been able to meet with them for a while but the families of other young couples with children we kind of set them up with, they've still been hanging out with them during the week. They have kiddy dates to the library and other things so it's great to see that they came to church not because they had us at their door reminding them but because they have made friends and truly feel comfortable coming and just seeing other couples like them that they can relate with. Hopfully we'll get back to teach them soon, but if not I'm sure it's just a matter of a little more time before they recognize that they are so happy around these other couples and the church because what we have taught them is true and is the spirit is the source of their joy.
Today we've done laundry and received the unfortunate news that the man that we have been teaching who has lung cancer passed away last night. I'll miss him and being able to visit him. He was a truly nice guy and I know that he would have been baptized if his condition hadn't prevented him. So he'll accept it immediately beyond the veil and I know that I'll get to see him again. We hope we can provide his wife the same comforting information now.
I hope you all have a great week and enjoy the season.
Sincerely, Elder F. Miller
Monday, December 5, 2011
Hello Everyone,
This past week went by really fast. Last Monday, perhaps I already wrote about this, but we were volunteered for service at the Creche exhibit in Palo Alto. I guess Creche is an old French word that means crib essentially and is now used to denote old nativity scenes. I don't know who started it but every year they display hundreds of nativity scenes in a building and they heavily set up for it. I spent much of the day hauling tables to set up and hanging garlands along the walls of the cultural hall. Well yesterday we were called upon for a shift. Apparrantly missionaries weren't technically allowed in the beginning of the Creche because it wasn't necessarily a mormon event, it's coordinators also include people of other religions. But a missionary asked if he could set up a hot chocolate table outside and remain out there and draw people that way without being intrusive. And so for however long that was missionaries have been at the Creche passing out steaming cups of cocoa. We went last night and it was sadly not very well set up. And we ran out of cocoa pretty quickly. As far as missionary opportunities go this one wasn't that great. The majority of people that come are members and all the hot chocolate is snatched up by all the little kids, and missionaries. It was pretty hot as well, I burned my tongue good. We did get to wander around inside and check out all the Creches though and that was pretty neat. Kind of amazing how many there were. It's nice to know that the awareness of our Savior is worldspread. Items from Poland and Japan and South America and everywhere. Lots of them had little signs next to them and talked about how many were picked up by missionaries as souvenirs upon leaving their missions. I thought about what kind of nativity I could find here in California that would embody the area as well as tell the story of Christ's birth. I guess just carve it out of a Redwood tree, or perhaps a surf board. There were some from Vietnam that used recycled paper rolled up and glued in some fashion.
Anyway, on Thursday we had our first district meeting with my companion recently assigned as the new district leader. I however missed most of it because I had to go with one of my Zone Leaders so he could interview the man we have been teaching who has lung cancer. He passed the interview and is actually scheduled to be baptized today at 2pm so I have to wrap up this e-mail quick. He has an intravenous pump that we'll either have to have taken out real quick then baptize him and put it back in or wrap it in plastic and hold it out of the water. He also suffers from a lot of anxiety attacks and when he's drugged up he's not really with it. We are rushing this baptism cause unfortunatly he is not expected to live much longer. It is really sad but I'm glad that we have gotten to know him and taught him and he has accepted it all. When we taught him the plan of salvation and we had the knowledge that he was planning on dying soon it was strangely peaceful to let him know exactly what was in store for him and he was looking for just that information. That this life was not the end but that he has a long future ahead of him. He's counting on being with his wife in the after life as well so we hope to continue going over there and teaching her more and see if she can hope to be with her husband again too.
Actually nothing else all too exciting happened during the week. I'm not sure why it seemed to pass so quickly. We're doing well though and are gonna have to find some more people to teach since the ones we have been spending so much time with have kind of graduated up and we spend less time with them. I hope everyone has a great week and enjoys the things the seasons bring.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
This past week went by really fast. Last Monday, perhaps I already wrote about this, but we were volunteered for service at the Creche exhibit in Palo Alto. I guess Creche is an old French word that means crib essentially and is now used to denote old nativity scenes. I don't know who started it but every year they display hundreds of nativity scenes in a building and they heavily set up for it. I spent much of the day hauling tables to set up and hanging garlands along the walls of the cultural hall. Well yesterday we were called upon for a shift. Apparrantly missionaries weren't technically allowed in the beginning of the Creche because it wasn't necessarily a mormon event, it's coordinators also include people of other religions. But a missionary asked if he could set up a hot chocolate table outside and remain out there and draw people that way without being intrusive. And so for however long that was missionaries have been at the Creche passing out steaming cups of cocoa. We went last night and it was sadly not very well set up. And we ran out of cocoa pretty quickly. As far as missionary opportunities go this one wasn't that great. The majority of people that come are members and all the hot chocolate is snatched up by all the little kids, and missionaries. It was pretty hot as well, I burned my tongue good. We did get to wander around inside and check out all the Creches though and that was pretty neat. Kind of amazing how many there were. It's nice to know that the awareness of our Savior is worldspread. Items from Poland and Japan and South America and everywhere. Lots of them had little signs next to them and talked about how many were picked up by missionaries as souvenirs upon leaving their missions. I thought about what kind of nativity I could find here in California that would embody the area as well as tell the story of Christ's birth. I guess just carve it out of a Redwood tree, or perhaps a surf board. There were some from Vietnam that used recycled paper rolled up and glued in some fashion.
Anyway, on Thursday we had our first district meeting with my companion recently assigned as the new district leader. I however missed most of it because I had to go with one of my Zone Leaders so he could interview the man we have been teaching who has lung cancer. He passed the interview and is actually scheduled to be baptized today at 2pm so I have to wrap up this e-mail quick. He has an intravenous pump that we'll either have to have taken out real quick then baptize him and put it back in or wrap it in plastic and hold it out of the water. He also suffers from a lot of anxiety attacks and when he's drugged up he's not really with it. We are rushing this baptism cause unfortunatly he is not expected to live much longer. It is really sad but I'm glad that we have gotten to know him and taught him and he has accepted it all. When we taught him the plan of salvation and we had the knowledge that he was planning on dying soon it was strangely peaceful to let him know exactly what was in store for him and he was looking for just that information. That this life was not the end but that he has a long future ahead of him. He's counting on being with his wife in the after life as well so we hope to continue going over there and teaching her more and see if she can hope to be with her husband again too.
Actually nothing else all too exciting happened during the week. I'm not sure why it seemed to pass so quickly. We're doing well though and are gonna have to find some more people to teach since the ones we have been spending so much time with have kind of graduated up and we spend less time with them. I hope everyone has a great week and enjoys the things the seasons bring.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Hello Everybody,
This week was amazing. On Monday yet again we got to teach the family with 5 unbaptized children that we have been working with and we taught them on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My companion bought a bunch of pizzas to keep them satiated as we held them through their dinner hour. The kids uncle who is in the bishopric of a single adult ward was able to come with his family and we had a great lesson. These kids are really bright and always remember the things that we taught them in the past lessons and keep right up when we teach the new stuff. I think they have kid of been learning from their mother their whole lives even though she wasn't active in church she was still an example and rubbed off a lot on them. The scariest thing for this family was the prospect of telling the grandmother that they were going to be baptized. The moms mother in-law is who they live with and she is an old lady set in her ways and very determined to hate our religion. It was only 5 days until their baptism when they decided they better tell her and even invite her. The next night we met with them yet again the teach them all the commandments as their last lesson with us. They let us know how the discussion with the grandmother went and I guess it wasn't as bad as it could have been cause they were still permitted to live in the house but she wouldn't be attending their baptism or giving much moral support. So it was good that the worst thing that happened was merely a little show of disappointment. In my first area, our neighboring missionaries had a man about to be baptized and the day of his baptism his in-laws were kicking he and his wife out of the house and so he was going to cancel the baptism but the missionaries helped them move real quick and still got him to his baptism. Wednesday was kind of a dull day. Understandably most of the people we have been working with kind of requested a few days off to celebrate the holidays. We mangaged to find a few people to visit and then we gave our car to the other Elders cause one was to be training so he had to go pick up his new missionary in San Jose.
Thanksgiving day we still didn't have our car and so our whole day was basically a big meal time at a members house. My worries about the Tongan people not having traditional meal items were quickly banished when all the food was placed. Turkey and ham, delicious chunky mashed potatos and yams and green beans and pie and cake and all the best stuff. I was wonderfully content. Thanksgiving was oddly enough just a warm up for the next two days however.
On Friday we attended a wedding for a young man in our ward. He is Tongan as well and this was my first time attending a Tongan wedding and it was pretty impressive. The church gym was packed and the buffet like food line was incredible. All types of more food I was continually stuffed since the day before. Tons of hula type dancing and the giving of mats or area rugs as gifts to the families and guests of honor. I didn't get any wedding cake however and it seemed like part of tradition is to give a whole layer of cake away to the families and guests of honor. I remember we once delivered a Tongan mat to our Bishops wife and she was almost upset cause since her husband has been the bishop they have gotten tons of these mats and they have no use for them. Hand made mats that a lot of effort are put into but they have no real need for them and they end up in bags in their attic. Anyway, our bishop got like ten more at this wedding. The wedding was supposed to end at 6 cause the other ward had reserved the building for their thanksgiving party but it was obvious that it would take a lot of effort to clear out all the partiers. We worked hard to clean up and the other ward was a little upset but we tried to clear out as fast as possible. Without the effort of a lot of other people the wedding party probably would have gone all night. Short of calling in crowd control we did all we could. I wonder if the cops have ever been called on a church party. Anyway, that night we printed up a copy of the program for the baptism the next day and then we went to bed.
On, Saturday we prepped the Stake Center baptistry and filled the font. There were no dust bunnies this time which was good, but there was a bit of plaster from the wall that had chunked into the font but I fished it out easily. The plan had been to have the oldest son get baptized and then recieve the Aaronic Priesthood and baptize his siblings but he didn't really feel comfortable so instead his uncle was still to baptize him and then my companion and I each baptized two of the other kids. That may have been decided according to relative back strength. I ended up baptizing the oldest girl and the youngest boy, aka the lightest ones. I'm not certain how it was determined but my companion baptized the two kids, a boy and a girl who both are pretty big kids and play football. The turn out for the baptism was incredible, we didn't have enough seats for everybody and the the spirit was amazing to feel. It was over too quick but was wonderful while it lasted. That is the first time I have ever baptized anyone and it was marvelous. I wish the oldest son had done it but I'm delighted that I had the opportunity as well. Afterward there were refreshments which was really a whole meal and it was great. Our mission President came and he told me that when he had just recently been considering transfers my name was moved four different times but ultimately he kept me in this area and he said that he was glad that he had left me where I was, and that makes two of us. This was probably the greatest experience of my mission thusfar. After the refreshements we then got taken out by the family to get more food which was too much but we were grateful.
So it was a food fun filled week and I will always remember it. On Sunday a sister from the ward got back from her mission in Canada and is now tri-lingual and that was really great to hear from her. It was weird sacrament meeting cause we had a baby blessing and then 5 confirmations and then a return missionary speak. Great great week and I am sort of wondering how the coming weeks can possibly compare but they don't have to. Christmas will be great too and hopefully there will be future events to trump even this one. I hope everyone had a grand Thanksgiving. I am thankful for many things but presently the main one is to be where I am at this moment and having the experiences that I am having.
Sincerely, Elder F. Miller
This week was amazing. On Monday yet again we got to teach the family with 5 unbaptized children that we have been working with and we taught them on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My companion bought a bunch of pizzas to keep them satiated as we held them through their dinner hour. The kids uncle who is in the bishopric of a single adult ward was able to come with his family and we had a great lesson. These kids are really bright and always remember the things that we taught them in the past lessons and keep right up when we teach the new stuff. I think they have kid of been learning from their mother their whole lives even though she wasn't active in church she was still an example and rubbed off a lot on them. The scariest thing for this family was the prospect of telling the grandmother that they were going to be baptized. The moms mother in-law is who they live with and she is an old lady set in her ways and very determined to hate our religion. It was only 5 days until their baptism when they decided they better tell her and even invite her. The next night we met with them yet again the teach them all the commandments as their last lesson with us. They let us know how the discussion with the grandmother went and I guess it wasn't as bad as it could have been cause they were still permitted to live in the house but she wouldn't be attending their baptism or giving much moral support. So it was good that the worst thing that happened was merely a little show of disappointment. In my first area, our neighboring missionaries had a man about to be baptized and the day of his baptism his in-laws were kicking he and his wife out of the house and so he was going to cancel the baptism but the missionaries helped them move real quick and still got him to his baptism. Wednesday was kind of a dull day. Understandably most of the people we have been working with kind of requested a few days off to celebrate the holidays. We mangaged to find a few people to visit and then we gave our car to the other Elders cause one was to be training so he had to go pick up his new missionary in San Jose.
Thanksgiving day we still didn't have our car and so our whole day was basically a big meal time at a members house. My worries about the Tongan people not having traditional meal items were quickly banished when all the food was placed. Turkey and ham, delicious chunky mashed potatos and yams and green beans and pie and cake and all the best stuff. I was wonderfully content. Thanksgiving was oddly enough just a warm up for the next two days however.
On Friday we attended a wedding for a young man in our ward. He is Tongan as well and this was my first time attending a Tongan wedding and it was pretty impressive. The church gym was packed and the buffet like food line was incredible. All types of more food I was continually stuffed since the day before. Tons of hula type dancing and the giving of mats or area rugs as gifts to the families and guests of honor. I didn't get any wedding cake however and it seemed like part of tradition is to give a whole layer of cake away to the families and guests of honor. I remember we once delivered a Tongan mat to our Bishops wife and she was almost upset cause since her husband has been the bishop they have gotten tons of these mats and they have no use for them. Hand made mats that a lot of effort are put into but they have no real need for them and they end up in bags in their attic. Anyway, our bishop got like ten more at this wedding. The wedding was supposed to end at 6 cause the other ward had reserved the building for their thanksgiving party but it was obvious that it would take a lot of effort to clear out all the partiers. We worked hard to clean up and the other ward was a little upset but we tried to clear out as fast as possible. Without the effort of a lot of other people the wedding party probably would have gone all night. Short of calling in crowd control we did all we could. I wonder if the cops have ever been called on a church party. Anyway, that night we printed up a copy of the program for the baptism the next day and then we went to bed.
On, Saturday we prepped the Stake Center baptistry and filled the font. There were no dust bunnies this time which was good, but there was a bit of plaster from the wall that had chunked into the font but I fished it out easily. The plan had been to have the oldest son get baptized and then recieve the Aaronic Priesthood and baptize his siblings but he didn't really feel comfortable so instead his uncle was still to baptize him and then my companion and I each baptized two of the other kids. That may have been decided according to relative back strength. I ended up baptizing the oldest girl and the youngest boy, aka the lightest ones. I'm not certain how it was determined but my companion baptized the two kids, a boy and a girl who both are pretty big kids and play football. The turn out for the baptism was incredible, we didn't have enough seats for everybody and the the spirit was amazing to feel. It was over too quick but was wonderful while it lasted. That is the first time I have ever baptized anyone and it was marvelous. I wish the oldest son had done it but I'm delighted that I had the opportunity as well. Afterward there were refreshments which was really a whole meal and it was great. Our mission President came and he told me that when he had just recently been considering transfers my name was moved four different times but ultimately he kept me in this area and he said that he was glad that he had left me where I was, and that makes two of us. This was probably the greatest experience of my mission thusfar. After the refreshements we then got taken out by the family to get more food which was too much but we were grateful.
So it was a food fun filled week and I will always remember it. On Sunday a sister from the ward got back from her mission in Canada and is now tri-lingual and that was really great to hear from her. It was weird sacrament meeting cause we had a baby blessing and then 5 confirmations and then a return missionary speak. Great great week and I am sort of wondering how the coming weeks can possibly compare but they don't have to. Christmas will be great too and hopefully there will be future events to trump even this one. I hope everyone had a grand Thanksgiving. I am thankful for many things but presently the main one is to be where I am at this moment and having the experiences that I am having.
Sincerely, Elder F. Miller
Monday, November 21, 2011
Hello Everybody,
FALSE ALARM!! Turns out I'm not being transferred. It is hereby safe to keep sending me letters and or candy packed boxes to Redwood City still. I would have bet untold amounts of money that I would be transferred but I guess I'm sticking around which is a relief to me. I assumed that I would be transferred because my companion only has two transfers left until he goes home and usually they rotate people into new areas and give them two transfers to get used to the place before they boot the old guy out. My companion told me that he has been including in his weekly letters to our President, pleas or really more like hints that it would be a good idea to leave in the area still. Hopefully that wasn't the real reason I stayed since our transfers area supposed to be influenced by the Holy Spirit but I'm not complaining that I'm staying. I will now get to be here for Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's too but I don't really care about New Year's so much.
Anyway, this week was pretty amazing. On Monday we had a lesson with a woman and her 6 kids. She is a less active member who, when she got married kind of just started going to her husbands church and her in-laws are kind of against our church as well so that didn't help anything. Unfortunately her husband died a number of years ago and long story short she has recently been coming back to church with her 6 kids tagging along. Our Bishop met with her and invited her to have us teach her and her children at his house and we did that Monday night and it went great. My companion and I are now sharing our car with some neighboring elders so we had their bikes and had to bike across our area but we got there and had an amazing first lesson. All 6 kids said that they wanted to be baptized, one of them is 7 years old though so she'll have to wait a little while but the other 5 are on board. The mother is just great with them. Obviously with children you expect parents to the shot callers but this lady told her kids that it is their entirely their decision. She didn't expect them all to accept a baptismal day but they did. So it's not ideal if some them are just succumbing to the pressure of their siblings but perhaps that will work out in the long run. The oldest son is amazing and really wants this for himself and since his father died he's kind of like the father to his siblings. He really takes a heavy amount of responsibility upon himself and they're all good kids. Their baptism is set for this Saturday. They were obviously ready and so we didn't waste any time getting them to this ordinance. We just have make time to get in all the lessons we need to teach them.
The rest of the week we didn't have any more lessons with the miracle family but we have been meeting with a man who has lung cancer everyday who I think I wrote about last week. His memory is just going so we have to be patient, which is easy cause he's such a likable man. More than anything he enjoys the company. He just spends all day at home and his wife kind of likes us to come over and teach him so she can get some other things done. It'w been really eye opening to teach him cause we are always teaching people the Plan of Salvation, and what is in store for us after this life but I've never taught to some one who is so close to that stage of their life that they really take it all in. Younger people don't think it over so much cause death is a long way off. I do the same, it's a nice concept but when you know your transition is near that's when you better start believing in somthing. Anyway, it's been great meeting with him. He gets anxiety attacks and so we often walk alongside him in his new scooter and stroll through the park periodically stopping to teach more important points and catch a little bit of the senior softball league games.
Yesterday we were able to meet with the large family that we are teaching right before church and teach the Plan of Salvation. The oldest son who is 17 is just so focused and into it it's amazing. He came with questions cause he's been reading the Bible and Book of Mormon, not just reading but studying. He really wants to know everything and he embraces it. It is really inspiring and he's the best investigator that I've ever had as far as desire and motivation go. Our investigator with lung cancer came to the second hour and sat to listen to the lesson in sunday school but he fell asleep alot. After church we were able to witness a returning member who we've been working with recieve the Melchizedek priesthood. That was really special. And afterward our Bishop spoke with the family who is to be baptized on Saturday about the possibility of having the oldest son baptized first and receiving the pristhood and then baptizing all his siblings, The Mom had been telling them that in order to kind of respect the missionaries who were teaching them they should have us baptize them but I think it would be way better and more special and meaningful if their brother does it. So we have a lesson with them tonight so we'll bring that back up and let them know that we won't be offended in fact we'd much prefer if they had their brother baptize them. If it works out that will be a for sure highlight of my life.
This week is looking spectacular. Lessons with our lung cancer investigator and Thanksgiving is with our Ward mission leaders family, who are Tongan. Normal dinners are like a feast so when an actual feasting occasion arises I'm looking forward to see what kind of food quantities will be achieved. And then there is to be a wedding on Friday for a young man and his fiancee which counts as our dinner so we'll pig out at the reception, which is also a Tongan function, and then the baptism on Saturday. Should be an amazing week. Hope all of yours are fun as well and that you can be full of thanksgiving and not just food.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
FALSE ALARM!! Turns out I'm not being transferred. It is hereby safe to keep sending me letters and or candy packed boxes to Redwood City still. I would have bet untold amounts of money that I would be transferred but I guess I'm sticking around which is a relief to me. I assumed that I would be transferred because my companion only has two transfers left until he goes home and usually they rotate people into new areas and give them two transfers to get used to the place before they boot the old guy out. My companion told me that he has been including in his weekly letters to our President, pleas or really more like hints that it would be a good idea to leave in the area still. Hopefully that wasn't the real reason I stayed since our transfers area supposed to be influenced by the Holy Spirit but I'm not complaining that I'm staying. I will now get to be here for Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's too but I don't really care about New Year's so much.
Anyway, this week was pretty amazing. On Monday we had a lesson with a woman and her 6 kids. She is a less active member who, when she got married kind of just started going to her husbands church and her in-laws are kind of against our church as well so that didn't help anything. Unfortunately her husband died a number of years ago and long story short she has recently been coming back to church with her 6 kids tagging along. Our Bishop met with her and invited her to have us teach her and her children at his house and we did that Monday night and it went great. My companion and I are now sharing our car with some neighboring elders so we had their bikes and had to bike across our area but we got there and had an amazing first lesson. All 6 kids said that they wanted to be baptized, one of them is 7 years old though so she'll have to wait a little while but the other 5 are on board. The mother is just great with them. Obviously with children you expect parents to the shot callers but this lady told her kids that it is their entirely their decision. She didn't expect them all to accept a baptismal day but they did. So it's not ideal if some them are just succumbing to the pressure of their siblings but perhaps that will work out in the long run. The oldest son is amazing and really wants this for himself and since his father died he's kind of like the father to his siblings. He really takes a heavy amount of responsibility upon himself and they're all good kids. Their baptism is set for this Saturday. They were obviously ready and so we didn't waste any time getting them to this ordinance. We just have make time to get in all the lessons we need to teach them.
The rest of the week we didn't have any more lessons with the miracle family but we have been meeting with a man who has lung cancer everyday who I think I wrote about last week. His memory is just going so we have to be patient, which is easy cause he's such a likable man. More than anything he enjoys the company. He just spends all day at home and his wife kind of likes us to come over and teach him so she can get some other things done. It'w been really eye opening to teach him cause we are always teaching people the Plan of Salvation, and what is in store for us after this life but I've never taught to some one who is so close to that stage of their life that they really take it all in. Younger people don't think it over so much cause death is a long way off. I do the same, it's a nice concept but when you know your transition is near that's when you better start believing in somthing. Anyway, it's been great meeting with him. He gets anxiety attacks and so we often walk alongside him in his new scooter and stroll through the park periodically stopping to teach more important points and catch a little bit of the senior softball league games.
Yesterday we were able to meet with the large family that we are teaching right before church and teach the Plan of Salvation. The oldest son who is 17 is just so focused and into it it's amazing. He came with questions cause he's been reading the Bible and Book of Mormon, not just reading but studying. He really wants to know everything and he embraces it. It is really inspiring and he's the best investigator that I've ever had as far as desire and motivation go. Our investigator with lung cancer came to the second hour and sat to listen to the lesson in sunday school but he fell asleep alot. After church we were able to witness a returning member who we've been working with recieve the Melchizedek priesthood. That was really special. And afterward our Bishop spoke with the family who is to be baptized on Saturday about the possibility of having the oldest son baptized first and receiving the pristhood and then baptizing all his siblings, The Mom had been telling them that in order to kind of respect the missionaries who were teaching them they should have us baptize them but I think it would be way better and more special and meaningful if their brother does it. So we have a lesson with them tonight so we'll bring that back up and let them know that we won't be offended in fact we'd much prefer if they had their brother baptize them. If it works out that will be a for sure highlight of my life.
This week is looking spectacular. Lessons with our lung cancer investigator and Thanksgiving is with our Ward mission leaders family, who are Tongan. Normal dinners are like a feast so when an actual feasting occasion arises I'm looking forward to see what kind of food quantities will be achieved. And then there is to be a wedding on Friday for a young man and his fiancee which counts as our dinner so we'll pig out at the reception, which is also a Tongan function, and then the baptism on Saturday. Should be an amazing week. Hope all of yours are fun as well and that you can be full of thanksgiving and not just food.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, November 14, 2011
Hello Everybody,
This week was quite good. I'm not sure if I can explain exactly why but it was a good week. Perhaps it has to do with a few lessons that we taught that were just really open and progressive discussions. One investigator confided to us that he has been having some weird dreams that as far as I can interpret make him feel like he is lost and I think that's a good thing cause we are here just in time to guide him. He also told us that he has been having some odd neurological problems as well. Some members in our ward invited this couple over for dinner and as far as we could tell it was a successful and fun evening for them all. But apparantly our investigator lost his memory of that whole evening. All these efforts are spent to fellowship our investigators by our members and our investigators lose their memory of it. That's insane and though I don't want to attribute it all to the adversary, there's something going on that is rather disruptive to our investigators' progress. It's great that he told us all of this so we know how to help him from here.
On Tuesday I was on exchanges so I went around Palo Alto with a couple of Tongan missionaries from my district. It was fun but when we get into lessons I'm kind of useless not being able to speak any Tongan. Most of them speak english so it's not a complete failure when meeting their investigators and members. I found myself getting a little frustrated though cause both of the missionaries being straight from Tonga, don't have drivers licenses and so I was driving but I don't know the area and taking instructions from someone who has only been speaking english for a year is kind of difficult. We almost ran out of gas on the freeway at one point and I was not happy. I just don't like driving in general and when I switch to unfamiliar cars my back starts to hurt. I probably need to work on my posture, and oh shoot I'm probably boring everybody right now, sorry.
On Wednesday we had our second lesson with a man who has lung cancer. His good friend just happens to be the Stake Mission Leader and in his current condition he has really been concerned with what happens after we die and his friend has been able to teach him a lot. His memory isn't very good given all the drugs he has to take I assume and so we just power through the lessons and we're almost more concerned with teaching his wife than him. He kind of just accepts it all because he really trusts his friend, but we want to help his wife discover the truths as well so that they can eventually be sealed and have that great hope of being together again in the eternities.
On Friday we went with some other missionaries to volunteer at a local church that has a soup kitchen. It was great, that's the first time that I've ever worked at a soup kitchen and it was fun and all like 450 people that came in and I dished up steamed squash to were grateful and often times in cheery moods despite the rainy outdoors they had just been waiting in. We got free breakfast there and were offered lunch as well but I was full enough from breakfast. There was one little old lady who came up to us and insisted that we turn our name badges around since it was a non-denominational church we were at and they didn't promote any specific church. I didn't really notice an issue and so complied but my companion ignored the lady until she came back again and they argued a little bit. It turns out the lady wasn't even in charge of anything, she was a fellow volunteer and the head honcho guy didn't care if we kept our tags or not. I felt kind of guilty having so quickly removed my tag that is my symbol of faith and discipleship of Christ. Another missionary bickered with the lady too and uncovered that she just held a grudge against our church. But still it was an enjoyable service day.
Saturday we attended a baptism for a couple of children in our ward because we had an investigator come. It was a good service and we were glad our investigator got to witness it. Our area authority a week ago on Sunday in a missionary oriented fireside quoted some statistics and said that 70% of investigators that are taught in members homes are baptized and 80% of investigators that attend someone elses baptism get baptized. This investigator is doing both of those things and so I'm confident that she will make the commitment to follow Christ but she has a few things in her way to overcome first and I'm planning on being transferred next week so I probably won't be here when she does finally accept and gets baptized.
Yesterday was good as well. We had ward council and it went great. There are always some good laughs to be found even though serious issues are discussed as well. Our bishop had been talking about potentially changing our 1pm start time to 11:30 for Christmas but everyone seemed to object and the primary reason was so people would have more time to lounge in their jammies. Right when I walked into the room Bishop and his 2nd counselor started talking to me saying, "okay Elder Miller let us have it, no need be humble or hold back." I had no clue what they were talking about. My companion caught on before I did, somehow he knew that Oregon had beaten Stanford so they were awaiting my cocky jibes I guess since I'm from Oregon. I didn't really care, especially since I have no clue what the score was or how that affects teams standings. I've never really been one much to follow football but given I'm on the mission I know and care even less than normal. After church we had a lesson with our investigator who has still never come to a church meeting though we meet with him directly after church every week. Partway through the lesson my companion got pulled out and replaced by our ward clerk cause our bishop was meeting with a family and wanted one of us their to ask them to listen to the missionary lessons. This is a family where the mother is a member but has 7 kids that aren't baptized and they have recently been coming every week for the past month or so. They agreed to take the lessons, in fact our first one is tonight and they are counting on being baptized. The older son is a senior in high school and I guess a really good running back/lineman and he got a call from BYU wanting to offer him a scholarship but he's got hair like Troy Palamalu and they told him he'd have to cut it. His response was to hang up the phone.
That was my week. Do people like how I write my e-mails? A day by day breakdown is kind of easiest for me to remember.
Sincerely, Elder F. Miller
P.S. I'm planning on getting transferred next Tuesday so all letters should either be sent to the mission office or wait until I find out my new address to mail them.
This week was quite good. I'm not sure if I can explain exactly why but it was a good week. Perhaps it has to do with a few lessons that we taught that were just really open and progressive discussions. One investigator confided to us that he has been having some weird dreams that as far as I can interpret make him feel like he is lost and I think that's a good thing cause we are here just in time to guide him. He also told us that he has been having some odd neurological problems as well. Some members in our ward invited this couple over for dinner and as far as we could tell it was a successful and fun evening for them all. But apparantly our investigator lost his memory of that whole evening. All these efforts are spent to fellowship our investigators by our members and our investigators lose their memory of it. That's insane and though I don't want to attribute it all to the adversary, there's something going on that is rather disruptive to our investigators' progress. It's great that he told us all of this so we know how to help him from here.
On Tuesday I was on exchanges so I went around Palo Alto with a couple of Tongan missionaries from my district. It was fun but when we get into lessons I'm kind of useless not being able to speak any Tongan. Most of them speak english so it's not a complete failure when meeting their investigators and members. I found myself getting a little frustrated though cause both of the missionaries being straight from Tonga, don't have drivers licenses and so I was driving but I don't know the area and taking instructions from someone who has only been speaking english for a year is kind of difficult. We almost ran out of gas on the freeway at one point and I was not happy. I just don't like driving in general and when I switch to unfamiliar cars my back starts to hurt. I probably need to work on my posture, and oh shoot I'm probably boring everybody right now, sorry.
On Wednesday we had our second lesson with a man who has lung cancer. His good friend just happens to be the Stake Mission Leader and in his current condition he has really been concerned with what happens after we die and his friend has been able to teach him a lot. His memory isn't very good given all the drugs he has to take I assume and so we just power through the lessons and we're almost more concerned with teaching his wife than him. He kind of just accepts it all because he really trusts his friend, but we want to help his wife discover the truths as well so that they can eventually be sealed and have that great hope of being together again in the eternities.
On Friday we went with some other missionaries to volunteer at a local church that has a soup kitchen. It was great, that's the first time that I've ever worked at a soup kitchen and it was fun and all like 450 people that came in and I dished up steamed squash to were grateful and often times in cheery moods despite the rainy outdoors they had just been waiting in. We got free breakfast there and were offered lunch as well but I was full enough from breakfast. There was one little old lady who came up to us and insisted that we turn our name badges around since it was a non-denominational church we were at and they didn't promote any specific church. I didn't really notice an issue and so complied but my companion ignored the lady until she came back again and they argued a little bit. It turns out the lady wasn't even in charge of anything, she was a fellow volunteer and the head honcho guy didn't care if we kept our tags or not. I felt kind of guilty having so quickly removed my tag that is my symbol of faith and discipleship of Christ. Another missionary bickered with the lady too and uncovered that she just held a grudge against our church. But still it was an enjoyable service day.
Saturday we attended a baptism for a couple of children in our ward because we had an investigator come. It was a good service and we were glad our investigator got to witness it. Our area authority a week ago on Sunday in a missionary oriented fireside quoted some statistics and said that 70% of investigators that are taught in members homes are baptized and 80% of investigators that attend someone elses baptism get baptized. This investigator is doing both of those things and so I'm confident that she will make the commitment to follow Christ but she has a few things in her way to overcome first and I'm planning on being transferred next week so I probably won't be here when she does finally accept and gets baptized.
Yesterday was good as well. We had ward council and it went great. There are always some good laughs to be found even though serious issues are discussed as well. Our bishop had been talking about potentially changing our 1pm start time to 11:30 for Christmas but everyone seemed to object and the primary reason was so people would have more time to lounge in their jammies. Right when I walked into the room Bishop and his 2nd counselor started talking to me saying, "okay Elder Miller let us have it, no need be humble or hold back." I had no clue what they were talking about. My companion caught on before I did, somehow he knew that Oregon had beaten Stanford so they were awaiting my cocky jibes I guess since I'm from Oregon. I didn't really care, especially since I have no clue what the score was or how that affects teams standings. I've never really been one much to follow football but given I'm on the mission I know and care even less than normal. After church we had a lesson with our investigator who has still never come to a church meeting though we meet with him directly after church every week. Partway through the lesson my companion got pulled out and replaced by our ward clerk cause our bishop was meeting with a family and wanted one of us their to ask them to listen to the missionary lessons. This is a family where the mother is a member but has 7 kids that aren't baptized and they have recently been coming every week for the past month or so. They agreed to take the lessons, in fact our first one is tonight and they are counting on being baptized. The older son is a senior in high school and I guess a really good running back/lineman and he got a call from BYU wanting to offer him a scholarship but he's got hair like Troy Palamalu and they told him he'd have to cut it. His response was to hang up the phone.
That was my week. Do people like how I write my e-mails? A day by day breakdown is kind of easiest for me to remember.
Sincerely, Elder F. Miller
P.S. I'm planning on getting transferred next Tuesday so all letters should either be sent to the mission office or wait until I find out my new address to mail them.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Hello Everybody,
Mighty fine week! Actually on Tuesday we drove another companionship to the mission office where there is a doctor that meets exclusively with missionaries on tuesdays for a few hours. Heres the story. Our neighboring missionaries are in the Valparaiso ward and they have a ginormous area and are on bikes because previous missionaries didn't use their car very wisely and it was taken away. The current missionaries have been trying to get a car for quite some time now but there just happens to be a car shortage in the mission. I think roughly a quarter of the missionaries in this mission are on bikes and they usually are in areas that are small, like parts of downtown San Jose. In the weekly e-mails we get from our Mission President it sounds like there have been quite a few car accidents recently and so there are even fewer cars floating around. It used to be that missionaries could claim health issues such as back or shoulder pain and they'd be given a car to cope. My first companion for instance had a "shoulder injury" some time ago and so was given a car even though he was in a tiny area. Anyway the the missionary now in Valparaiso has extreme exzima and the tips of his fingers are always peeling and riding a bike and having to grip the handlebars makes his hands bleed. He didn't want to draw attention to it but his new companion tried to exploit it in the hopes of it getting them a car, and it resulted in us taking them to San Jose to have a doctor check it out. It didn't change anything. But it was fun to drive to San Jose and it was the day after halloween and the office workers had candy put out in trays on their desks and I helped myself quite happily. So that was Tuesday, and then on Wednesday we had our Zone conference.
Zone conference went well. It started off with an amazing presentation by a member who was the former Chief of Police of San Jose. His presentation didn't really have anything to do with his career or field of expertise which I found strange but he talked about the different levels at which we should be capable of teaching. He brought up how people learn in different ways. Touch, listeners, visual. And correspondingly we should be able to provide multiple ways to help them understand. Our mission president hit it off by briefly telling us to not be boring when we teach. Try and connect with people logically, emotionally, and also give them something to do, put something in their hands to grab their attention on all levels. It was a great message and I think extremely helpful. Probably the best part of the conference so it was kind of sad that we started with it. We had lunch though and I got to catch up with a couple of missionaries from past areas I served which was fun. Members of the Relief Society always prepare lunches for us and they do a great job and we are always so grateful. And then for some reason our tradition is to repay them with a rousing verse of "Called to Serve". After lunch we did some role plays and learned a bit more how to practically apply what we were learning and also to set goals for it. Fun day.
On Thursday our bishop took us out to lunch at his favorite new Mexican Restaurant. He said the name translated to "little bright star" or something like that. And then I remembered that he served his mission in Brazil so I was wondering how he knew that unless it's the same phrase in Portuguese as it is in Spanish. And he said that he couldn't remember what star is in Portuguese but that for some reason he knows quite a bit of Spanish. It seemed odd to me. Anyway, had a good meeting with him and he was pleased with the update we were able to give on who we've been trying to work with.
On Friday we had a referral from a member to go teach one of his friends who is dying of lung cancer. We went over there right at 10:00 am and attempted to teach him but he was kind of impatient, and rightfully so I'd imagine. He first asked "what happens after death?" so we tried to start teaching the plan of salvation, but he wanted it in brief and after that he asked "what do I have to do to make it to heaven?" so we started on teaching the main points of the gospel which is generally the third lesson we teach. Throughout he asked us questions that drew from all 4 lessons we teach and in the time that we did it I don't think he got very much out of the encounter. But he was already set on coming to church because of his friends influence and my hope is that we'll be able to meet with him more and try and get more across. Later that day we got a call to give a blessing to a lady in the hospital who had had an emergency C-section on halloween and lost her baby and now had an infection from the incision. It was a really peaceful and pleasant visit with this lady and her mother and step-mother were there and it was just nice. I think she really appreciated the blessing that I gave and was truly comforted by her Heavenly Father.
On Saturday we played basketball with our ward members and then afterward we got to help an inactive family with some backyard cleanup. They had ivy taking over their fence and so we trimmed it back and got to spend some quality time with them. They have two teenage sons that were never baptized who could really benefit from just having new friends in church. They are considering being baptized. And after that we got to teach our investigator who Elder McKenzie knows quite a bit of her family back in Utah. She has a really tough time understanding the Book Of Mormon but we read a chapter with her and kind of translated it into easier terms and she picked up the principles and message from it no problem and we could tell that she accepted it all as things important to her life.
On Sunday we were on our way to church when we got a call from some members in San Jose whose parents live in our area. They were calling cause their father had slipped from his chair and the mother wasn't able to lift him back up. So we abandoned the ward council meeting that we were headed to in order to help this old guy out. We got there and he didn't seem to be in much distress, he was just sitting on the floor leaning against a chair watching television. But we hefted him up and on his wheelchair and his wife took him to use the bathroom and give him a bath. We waited around in case she needed further help with him. She wheeled him out eventually. He has Alzheimers and can be pretty difficult with her. She said she could handle it from there so we went back to church. Church was good. The man with lung cancer did indeed come with his wife and so did the young couple with a baby that we've been teaching. It was a good turn out. After church we met with another investigator who says he has some presentations to give concerning his new product that saves elctricity in LA so he may soon quit his other job and come to church. Then we had a good dinner with a family. We were sitting on the couch waiting for dinner to be finished when the dog was let in. It came rushing in and stopped on the rug and spat something up out of it's mouth. It was bright red and I at first though the dog had puked up something and at first glance I thought it looked like a heart. I was freaked out for a split second until I noticed a bunch of seeds in the juice on the rug and realized that it was a tomato. Sparky's a maniac.
After dinner we went to our stake center to catch the tail end of a fireside that our mission president and area authority were doing to inspire all the members on how to assist the missionary efforts. It was great. After that it was bedtime and today I'm writing to you all.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Mighty fine week! Actually on Tuesday we drove another companionship to the mission office where there is a doctor that meets exclusively with missionaries on tuesdays for a few hours. Heres the story. Our neighboring missionaries are in the Valparaiso ward and they have a ginormous area and are on bikes because previous missionaries didn't use their car very wisely and it was taken away. The current missionaries have been trying to get a car for quite some time now but there just happens to be a car shortage in the mission. I think roughly a quarter of the missionaries in this mission are on bikes and they usually are in areas that are small, like parts of downtown San Jose. In the weekly e-mails we get from our Mission President it sounds like there have been quite a few car accidents recently and so there are even fewer cars floating around. It used to be that missionaries could claim health issues such as back or shoulder pain and they'd be given a car to cope. My first companion for instance had a "shoulder injury" some time ago and so was given a car even though he was in a tiny area. Anyway the the missionary now in Valparaiso has extreme exzima and the tips of his fingers are always peeling and riding a bike and having to grip the handlebars makes his hands bleed. He didn't want to draw attention to it but his new companion tried to exploit it in the hopes of it getting them a car, and it resulted in us taking them to San Jose to have a doctor check it out. It didn't change anything. But it was fun to drive to San Jose and it was the day after halloween and the office workers had candy put out in trays on their desks and I helped myself quite happily. So that was Tuesday, and then on Wednesday we had our Zone conference.
Zone conference went well. It started off with an amazing presentation by a member who was the former Chief of Police of San Jose. His presentation didn't really have anything to do with his career or field of expertise which I found strange but he talked about the different levels at which we should be capable of teaching. He brought up how people learn in different ways. Touch, listeners, visual. And correspondingly we should be able to provide multiple ways to help them understand. Our mission president hit it off by briefly telling us to not be boring when we teach. Try and connect with people logically, emotionally, and also give them something to do, put something in their hands to grab their attention on all levels. It was a great message and I think extremely helpful. Probably the best part of the conference so it was kind of sad that we started with it. We had lunch though and I got to catch up with a couple of missionaries from past areas I served which was fun. Members of the Relief Society always prepare lunches for us and they do a great job and we are always so grateful. And then for some reason our tradition is to repay them with a rousing verse of "Called to Serve". After lunch we did some role plays and learned a bit more how to practically apply what we were learning and also to set goals for it. Fun day.
On Thursday our bishop took us out to lunch at his favorite new Mexican Restaurant. He said the name translated to "little bright star" or something like that. And then I remembered that he served his mission in Brazil so I was wondering how he knew that unless it's the same phrase in Portuguese as it is in Spanish. And he said that he couldn't remember what star is in Portuguese but that for some reason he knows quite a bit of Spanish. It seemed odd to me. Anyway, had a good meeting with him and he was pleased with the update we were able to give on who we've been trying to work with.
On Friday we had a referral from a member to go teach one of his friends who is dying of lung cancer. We went over there right at 10:00 am and attempted to teach him but he was kind of impatient, and rightfully so I'd imagine. He first asked "what happens after death?" so we tried to start teaching the plan of salvation, but he wanted it in brief and after that he asked "what do I have to do to make it to heaven?" so we started on teaching the main points of the gospel which is generally the third lesson we teach. Throughout he asked us questions that drew from all 4 lessons we teach and in the time that we did it I don't think he got very much out of the encounter. But he was already set on coming to church because of his friends influence and my hope is that we'll be able to meet with him more and try and get more across. Later that day we got a call to give a blessing to a lady in the hospital who had had an emergency C-section on halloween and lost her baby and now had an infection from the incision. It was a really peaceful and pleasant visit with this lady and her mother and step-mother were there and it was just nice. I think she really appreciated the blessing that I gave and was truly comforted by her Heavenly Father.
On Saturday we played basketball with our ward members and then afterward we got to help an inactive family with some backyard cleanup. They had ivy taking over their fence and so we trimmed it back and got to spend some quality time with them. They have two teenage sons that were never baptized who could really benefit from just having new friends in church. They are considering being baptized. And after that we got to teach our investigator who Elder McKenzie knows quite a bit of her family back in Utah. She has a really tough time understanding the Book Of Mormon but we read a chapter with her and kind of translated it into easier terms and she picked up the principles and message from it no problem and we could tell that she accepted it all as things important to her life.
On Sunday we were on our way to church when we got a call from some members in San Jose whose parents live in our area. They were calling cause their father had slipped from his chair and the mother wasn't able to lift him back up. So we abandoned the ward council meeting that we were headed to in order to help this old guy out. We got there and he didn't seem to be in much distress, he was just sitting on the floor leaning against a chair watching television. But we hefted him up and on his wheelchair and his wife took him to use the bathroom and give him a bath. We waited around in case she needed further help with him. She wheeled him out eventually. He has Alzheimers and can be pretty difficult with her. She said she could handle it from there so we went back to church. Church was good. The man with lung cancer did indeed come with his wife and so did the young couple with a baby that we've been teaching. It was a good turn out. After church we met with another investigator who says he has some presentations to give concerning his new product that saves elctricity in LA so he may soon quit his other job and come to church. Then we had a good dinner with a family. We were sitting on the couch waiting for dinner to be finished when the dog was let in. It came rushing in and stopped on the rug and spat something up out of it's mouth. It was bright red and I at first though the dog had puked up something and at first glance I thought it looked like a heart. I was freaked out for a split second until I noticed a bunch of seeds in the juice on the rug and realized that it was a tomato. Sparky's a maniac.
After dinner we went to our stake center to catch the tail end of a fireside that our mission president and area authority were doing to inspire all the members on how to assist the missionary efforts. It was great. After that it was bedtime and today I'm writing to you all.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, October 31, 2011
Hello Everybody,
This week was different, as all are I guess. Anyway last Sunday we went with our High Priest Group leader to administer a blessing to a girl in the ward who had dislocated her knee and wanted a blessing to help heal up and hopefully dodge having surgery. This is a family that we had attempted teaching before cause the husband is a non-member and they had agreed to hear all the lessons that we teach but we only ever got around to having one lesson back when I was with Elder Orgill here. So it was a little awkward sneaking back under the invitation of their home teacher to give a blessing but it went well and we even talked to the Sister and she said that she had signed up to feed us dinner so we'll be able to teach a lesson when we go for that and it should be good. On Thursday, I think I ranted a little about this last week but again our District leader gave the lesson duties to another companionship in the district to teach. And this companionship, well first heres a breakdown of how district meeting is supposed to flow. First we talk about how we accomplished goals last week, then we have a 25 minute lesson from the "district leader" and then we do role play type practice teaching lessons. So this companionship that was put in charge of teaching the lesson basically distributed the lesson onto everyone else by having us each go up and practice teaching a part of our first lesson in front of everyone. I'm mad at them yet jealous of their genius at the same time. They took an invitation to teach and basically do more work for District meeting and turned it around into an opportunity to reshift the work amongst everyone else and actually did less work than you'd do in an average district meeting. I wish my companion and I had thought of that when we went the previous week. Oh well. It was good yet right after the "lesson" we did almost the exact same thing so it was a little overkill. We get good practice though so that's the bright side.
On Friday we adopted another missionary for the day. Our Zone Leaders have a third companion who isn't a leader so when they go to leadership training meetings they have to drop him off at day care. He's a pretty cool guy. He came on his mission at the same time as my last companion and they are from the same place, La'ie Hawaii. He's part Samoan so he and my companion got along immediately, and I like him so our day was pretty fun together until my companion got sick later in the evening. That was the night of out ward halloween party but since my companion was sick we didn't go. Instead I read a little bit as my companion lay on the bathroom floor anticipating a puke that never came. It's okay though. I probably would have just eaten a bunch of food and candy at the party that I don't need.
Saturday we went and did some service for a lady that is a member of our ward I guess but I've never seen before. I think she manages a property that has a bunch of duplexs on it and a house that she lives in I think. Under the front porch of the house there was a bunch of tools and paint and random stuff, oh and spiders. Anyway we hauled it out of there and loaded it into a truck. We had another companionship come with us to help out. Funny how of all these missionaries I am the tallest but for some reason I was the one under a porch the whole time. The lady also had us move about some old rototillers and hose them off before loading them in a shed to store. She had a chicken coop, and we moved some old doors that had been sitting by the chicken coop for a while and as I know, where there are chickens, there are rats. Moving the doors unleashed a powerful rat urine smell that wasn't pleasant. She gave us a couple of rotisserie chickens and a bag of rolls and potato salad and we went back to our apartment to eat and then the rest of the day was pretty boring after that.
Yesterday was our Primary Program Sacrament meeting so obviously the chapel was packed. Somehow those little kids never fail to be really entertaining on accident. The third hour of Church was combined Relief Society and Priesthood and the bishopric was telling everyone about their plan to reach out to all the members of the ward that don't come. They split the congregation into four groups and had everyone pick a member off a list and agree that they visit that person and make them brownies or cookies and invite them to come to the ward Christmas party. Getting a jump start on it, I think it's a great idea seeing as there are like 663 people in this ward yet only about 170 come to church regularly. After church we had dinner with a family who happened to have chickens so I've gotten a lot of chicken time this week. They told about how the chickens escaped earlier that day and they had to wrangle them. The man had short sleeves and the evidence of chicken scratches were all over his arms. After dinner they asked us the 300 million dollar question. Which was "After your mission you go home and under your bed you find a suit case with $300 million in it, tax free, what do you do?" Both my companion and I were uncertain where to start so they offered up areas of spending and we gave some pretty lame answers I guess. But the whole point of the exercise that this couple likes to do with missionaries is that the dreams are all attainable without the vast sums of money to start. Aside from my companion wanting to own the Steelers. Of course we made it pretty easy on them, when asked what car we would buy I stuck with a Datsun 510 station wagon, of course that is attainable without 300 million dollars. Anyway it was a fun evening. Going to dinner with that family we sacraficed attending a fireside at which Steve Young was the main speaker but I wasn't too set on going to it. If you think about it, no offense to Steve but I'd rather turn up to play catch with him or something related to what he's famous for, not necessarily to hear him speak.
And that was my week in a nutshell. Hope everyone has a fun safe Halloween.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
This week was different, as all are I guess. Anyway last Sunday we went with our High Priest Group leader to administer a blessing to a girl in the ward who had dislocated her knee and wanted a blessing to help heal up and hopefully dodge having surgery. This is a family that we had attempted teaching before cause the husband is a non-member and they had agreed to hear all the lessons that we teach but we only ever got around to having one lesson back when I was with Elder Orgill here. So it was a little awkward sneaking back under the invitation of their home teacher to give a blessing but it went well and we even talked to the Sister and she said that she had signed up to feed us dinner so we'll be able to teach a lesson when we go for that and it should be good. On Thursday, I think I ranted a little about this last week but again our District leader gave the lesson duties to another companionship in the district to teach. And this companionship, well first heres a breakdown of how district meeting is supposed to flow. First we talk about how we accomplished goals last week, then we have a 25 minute lesson from the "district leader" and then we do role play type practice teaching lessons. So this companionship that was put in charge of teaching the lesson basically distributed the lesson onto everyone else by having us each go up and practice teaching a part of our first lesson in front of everyone. I'm mad at them yet jealous of their genius at the same time. They took an invitation to teach and basically do more work for District meeting and turned it around into an opportunity to reshift the work amongst everyone else and actually did less work than you'd do in an average district meeting. I wish my companion and I had thought of that when we went the previous week. Oh well. It was good yet right after the "lesson" we did almost the exact same thing so it was a little overkill. We get good practice though so that's the bright side.
On Friday we adopted another missionary for the day. Our Zone Leaders have a third companion who isn't a leader so when they go to leadership training meetings they have to drop him off at day care. He's a pretty cool guy. He came on his mission at the same time as my last companion and they are from the same place, La'ie Hawaii. He's part Samoan so he and my companion got along immediately, and I like him so our day was pretty fun together until my companion got sick later in the evening. That was the night of out ward halloween party but since my companion was sick we didn't go. Instead I read a little bit as my companion lay on the bathroom floor anticipating a puke that never came. It's okay though. I probably would have just eaten a bunch of food and candy at the party that I don't need.
Saturday we went and did some service for a lady that is a member of our ward I guess but I've never seen before. I think she manages a property that has a bunch of duplexs on it and a house that she lives in I think. Under the front porch of the house there was a bunch of tools and paint and random stuff, oh and spiders. Anyway we hauled it out of there and loaded it into a truck. We had another companionship come with us to help out. Funny how of all these missionaries I am the tallest but for some reason I was the one under a porch the whole time. The lady also had us move about some old rototillers and hose them off before loading them in a shed to store. She had a chicken coop, and we moved some old doors that had been sitting by the chicken coop for a while and as I know, where there are chickens, there are rats. Moving the doors unleashed a powerful rat urine smell that wasn't pleasant. She gave us a couple of rotisserie chickens and a bag of rolls and potato salad and we went back to our apartment to eat and then the rest of the day was pretty boring after that.
Yesterday was our Primary Program Sacrament meeting so obviously the chapel was packed. Somehow those little kids never fail to be really entertaining on accident. The third hour of Church was combined Relief Society and Priesthood and the bishopric was telling everyone about their plan to reach out to all the members of the ward that don't come. They split the congregation into four groups and had everyone pick a member off a list and agree that they visit that person and make them brownies or cookies and invite them to come to the ward Christmas party. Getting a jump start on it, I think it's a great idea seeing as there are like 663 people in this ward yet only about 170 come to church regularly. After church we had dinner with a family who happened to have chickens so I've gotten a lot of chicken time this week. They told about how the chickens escaped earlier that day and they had to wrangle them. The man had short sleeves and the evidence of chicken scratches were all over his arms. After dinner they asked us the 300 million dollar question. Which was "After your mission you go home and under your bed you find a suit case with $300 million in it, tax free, what do you do?" Both my companion and I were uncertain where to start so they offered up areas of spending and we gave some pretty lame answers I guess. But the whole point of the exercise that this couple likes to do with missionaries is that the dreams are all attainable without the vast sums of money to start. Aside from my companion wanting to own the Steelers. Of course we made it pretty easy on them, when asked what car we would buy I stuck with a Datsun 510 station wagon, of course that is attainable without 300 million dollars. Anyway it was a fun evening. Going to dinner with that family we sacraficed attending a fireside at which Steve Young was the main speaker but I wasn't too set on going to it. If you think about it, no offense to Steve but I'd rather turn up to play catch with him or something related to what he's famous for, not necessarily to hear him speak.
And that was my week in a nutshell. Hope everyone has a fun safe Halloween.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, October 24, 2011
Hello Everyone,
This week was good. A couple of times we went on exchanges with our neighboring missionaries cause they don't have a car yet their area is larger than ours. So we helped them out and got to know them a bit better so it was fun. I got to be on bike for half a day and it was fun to change things up. Whenever we both don't have dinner with our members we just have dinner together so it's like a missionary version of having friends I guess. Every missionary is different and it's a good experience to see others in action and how they handle situations or talk to people and learn from them. We met with a less active man in their ward who I guess is or once held some sort of national title in wrestling and is now still a coach for mixed martial arts and other competitive fighting styles and whatnot. It's sometimes weird to think of some of the people who are converts to the church. It's amazing how some people you wouldn't guess are religious or concerned about that aspect of their lives but it just goes to show that we are all in the same position in life. Everyone on the earth is here because they wanted to follow Gods plan. Even though it is extremely buried from many peoples understanding that doesn't change the fact that they have the potential to connect with their original desires and accept the Gospel. This tough burly wrestler at one time felt the need to join this church and be baptized, and though he stopped coming to church his initial reasons for being baptized and coming are still there and are still valid, he just needs to be reminded of that and rekindle his desire to follow Christ. It's great working with all the people we get to meet and befriend.
On Thursday we had our regular District Meeting but our district leader discovered that it is acceptable to have other missionaries in his district teach a portion of District meeting. So my companion and I were invited to teach this week and it went alright but to be honest a district leader doesn't really have too many duties. It doesn't seem like district leaders have all too much else to do besides teach District meeting and now he doesn't even do that. I'm of course just saying all this because I don't like being in front of large groups and trying to teach. If I'm ever a district leader then I'll be sure to delegate lessons to members of the district. That's a great idea in reality from the position of leader.
We had a good lesson with the young couple that we went on a hike with last week and finally taught them the first lesson. The woman is a less active member and her husband isn't a member of the church. They're really nice and easy going. I don't think they have much socializing in their lives since they had a baby so they don't mind us coming over cause perhaps they enjoy other company and consider us friends. So that's all good. And then yesterday they came to church. We were looking out for them but weren't sure if they'd make it. And then after sacrament meeting ended I realized that they had snuck in and were on the back row. They took off soon after sacrament meeting probably cause they have a very young baby but we'll try and get them to stay next week. I'm a little glad that they didn't stay cause I found out that our gospel principles teacher wasn't at church and so the responsibility fell to me. I got the lesson going which was on the priesthood. In the past when this has happened my companions have usually been the eager type who take over and do all the teaching unbothered by the big class. My companion has already taught twice but that was when we had warning that the teacher wouldn't be there. So I took over and it's not hard to do cause the manual makes it pretty simple. Read a section and then ask questions or answer questions. The hard part is having a class that is uncooperative and quiet. For the most part this class is uncooperative, there were like thirty people in there and most of them don't participate. But luckily there are like 3 of them that are only too willing to make comments and participate so I called on them alot and we filled up the time and it went alright but still wasn't the best lesson. I survived however and that's all that matters.
After church we met with our regular investigator. He's excited about a new business that he's starting up and we're excited too cause if it's successful then he'll be able to quit his other job and come to church finally. It seems like he's got a good product, from what he says. It's some kind of box that manages electricity spikes on your home so it balances your electricity usage and reduces your bill each month cause apparently PG&E measures based off your spikes in usage and not the average so this box prevents surges or something. It sounds really logical and worthwhile. If ever I'm a homeowner I think I'll look into it. Anyway, so he's got another business starting and he's a really solid guy who we think will get baptized if he can make it to church.
That has been my week as far as highlights go. I hope everyone is doing splendidly and has a good halloween celebration.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
This week was good. A couple of times we went on exchanges with our neighboring missionaries cause they don't have a car yet their area is larger than ours. So we helped them out and got to know them a bit better so it was fun. I got to be on bike for half a day and it was fun to change things up. Whenever we both don't have dinner with our members we just have dinner together so it's like a missionary version of having friends I guess. Every missionary is different and it's a good experience to see others in action and how they handle situations or talk to people and learn from them. We met with a less active man in their ward who I guess is or once held some sort of national title in wrestling and is now still a coach for mixed martial arts and other competitive fighting styles and whatnot. It's sometimes weird to think of some of the people who are converts to the church. It's amazing how some people you wouldn't guess are religious or concerned about that aspect of their lives but it just goes to show that we are all in the same position in life. Everyone on the earth is here because they wanted to follow Gods plan. Even though it is extremely buried from many peoples understanding that doesn't change the fact that they have the potential to connect with their original desires and accept the Gospel. This tough burly wrestler at one time felt the need to join this church and be baptized, and though he stopped coming to church his initial reasons for being baptized and coming are still there and are still valid, he just needs to be reminded of that and rekindle his desire to follow Christ. It's great working with all the people we get to meet and befriend.
On Thursday we had our regular District Meeting but our district leader discovered that it is acceptable to have other missionaries in his district teach a portion of District meeting. So my companion and I were invited to teach this week and it went alright but to be honest a district leader doesn't really have too many duties. It doesn't seem like district leaders have all too much else to do besides teach District meeting and now he doesn't even do that. I'm of course just saying all this because I don't like being in front of large groups and trying to teach. If I'm ever a district leader then I'll be sure to delegate lessons to members of the district. That's a great idea in reality from the position of leader.
We had a good lesson with the young couple that we went on a hike with last week and finally taught them the first lesson. The woman is a less active member and her husband isn't a member of the church. They're really nice and easy going. I don't think they have much socializing in their lives since they had a baby so they don't mind us coming over cause perhaps they enjoy other company and consider us friends. So that's all good. And then yesterday they came to church. We were looking out for them but weren't sure if they'd make it. And then after sacrament meeting ended I realized that they had snuck in and were on the back row. They took off soon after sacrament meeting probably cause they have a very young baby but we'll try and get them to stay next week. I'm a little glad that they didn't stay cause I found out that our gospel principles teacher wasn't at church and so the responsibility fell to me. I got the lesson going which was on the priesthood. In the past when this has happened my companions have usually been the eager type who take over and do all the teaching unbothered by the big class. My companion has already taught twice but that was when we had warning that the teacher wouldn't be there. So I took over and it's not hard to do cause the manual makes it pretty simple. Read a section and then ask questions or answer questions. The hard part is having a class that is uncooperative and quiet. For the most part this class is uncooperative, there were like thirty people in there and most of them don't participate. But luckily there are like 3 of them that are only too willing to make comments and participate so I called on them alot and we filled up the time and it went alright but still wasn't the best lesson. I survived however and that's all that matters.
After church we met with our regular investigator. He's excited about a new business that he's starting up and we're excited too cause if it's successful then he'll be able to quit his other job and come to church finally. It seems like he's got a good product, from what he says. It's some kind of box that manages electricity spikes on your home so it balances your electricity usage and reduces your bill each month cause apparently PG&E measures based off your spikes in usage and not the average so this box prevents surges or something. It sounds really logical and worthwhile. If ever I'm a homeowner I think I'll look into it. Anyway, so he's got another business starting and he's a really solid guy who we think will get baptized if he can make it to church.
That has been my week as far as highlights go. I hope everyone is doing splendidly and has a good halloween celebration.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, October 17, 2011
Hello Everyone,
This past week was unusual and great. Perhaps the coolest thing to talk about is the hike that we took with our investigators. When I first got to this area my companion had been working with a young couple who were expecting a baby. The baby came along which made it difficult to get in touch with them and set up appointments. That kind of settled but then there were some health problems with a young niece in southern California so the woman was frequently visiting down there and we couldn't teach them. But finally everything is back to normal and we visited with them one afternoon and were trying to set up a time that we could come back and teach them and they were thinking later in one evening because they were planning on going on a hike and they were sort of talking amongst themselves but turned to us and said, "unless you'd like to come with us on the hike." And we were like, "Sure." So that Friday we went and followed them to a wooded place higher up in the hills and there was a hiking trail and they had their baby strapped in one of those kangaroo carrier things and we just walked with them and it was awesome. Awkward thing was that we were still in our shirts and ties and slacks. It was a warm day too so I got rather sweaty but it was cool just sharing that experience with this nice couple. We meant to sit somewhere and teach them but we didn't end up finding a spot and we were getting close to having to make it to our dinner appointment so we set up another day that we could just visit them at home and teach. So we went to our dinner appointment and that was really great. It was technically with our Relief Society president but her sister happened to be visiting and her and her husband offered to prepare dinner. So we got dinner made by our Relief Society president's brother in law who lived in Italy for 17 years and made his favorite dish which was a creamy cheesy pasta of some sort that was really tasty. Anyway, during the dinner conversation we talked about the hike we just went on and we admitted that we didn't really know exactly where we had gone for the hike so they were trying to narrow the possibilities down. One person asked if we came to an intersection with a restaurant at it and I said yeah I remembered that. And they said that that was Alice's Restaurant. And I was like "wait, like Alice's Restaurant from the song by Arlo Guthrie?" and they said that it was one-in-the same. So I may have to go back somtime and eat there just so I can say I did.
On Saturday we had a lesson with a lady and her less active husband who are from Seattle but they are Tongan and have relatives in Utah so naturally my companion knows them and is actually like good family friends with her brother. So my companion has high hopes that we can teach and baptize this lady. She seems really nice and two of her children have even been baptized but for some reason she herself goes to the Methodist church. The problem is that she seems more set on the influence coming from just socializing rather than actual belief and faith in what we teach. That works but it's not a true conversion that is necessary for someone to really be prepared to continue on in the faith.
Not much else going on I guess. We have some pretty solid people we're working with and are looking to get more always. Halloween might be pretty exciting. Apparently Willie Mays lives nearby and on Halloween he hands out baseballs. They're not autographed but still it might be worth trying to get one. I'll let you know how that goes. And my Dad's birthday is soon so heres a shout out for that. Happy Birthday Dad!
Sincerely, Elder Fletcher Miller
This past week was unusual and great. Perhaps the coolest thing to talk about is the hike that we took with our investigators. When I first got to this area my companion had been working with a young couple who were expecting a baby. The baby came along which made it difficult to get in touch with them and set up appointments. That kind of settled but then there were some health problems with a young niece in southern California so the woman was frequently visiting down there and we couldn't teach them. But finally everything is back to normal and we visited with them one afternoon and were trying to set up a time that we could come back and teach them and they were thinking later in one evening because they were planning on going on a hike and they were sort of talking amongst themselves but turned to us and said, "unless you'd like to come with us on the hike." And we were like, "Sure." So that Friday we went and followed them to a wooded place higher up in the hills and there was a hiking trail and they had their baby strapped in one of those kangaroo carrier things and we just walked with them and it was awesome. Awkward thing was that we were still in our shirts and ties and slacks. It was a warm day too so I got rather sweaty but it was cool just sharing that experience with this nice couple. We meant to sit somewhere and teach them but we didn't end up finding a spot and we were getting close to having to make it to our dinner appointment so we set up another day that we could just visit them at home and teach. So we went to our dinner appointment and that was really great. It was technically with our Relief Society president but her sister happened to be visiting and her and her husband offered to prepare dinner. So we got dinner made by our Relief Society president's brother in law who lived in Italy for 17 years and made his favorite dish which was a creamy cheesy pasta of some sort that was really tasty. Anyway, during the dinner conversation we talked about the hike we just went on and we admitted that we didn't really know exactly where we had gone for the hike so they were trying to narrow the possibilities down. One person asked if we came to an intersection with a restaurant at it and I said yeah I remembered that. And they said that that was Alice's Restaurant. And I was like "wait, like Alice's Restaurant from the song by Arlo Guthrie?" and they said that it was one-in-the same. So I may have to go back somtime and eat there just so I can say I did.
On Saturday we had a lesson with a lady and her less active husband who are from Seattle but they are Tongan and have relatives in Utah so naturally my companion knows them and is actually like good family friends with her brother. So my companion has high hopes that we can teach and baptize this lady. She seems really nice and two of her children have even been baptized but for some reason she herself goes to the Methodist church. The problem is that she seems more set on the influence coming from just socializing rather than actual belief and faith in what we teach. That works but it's not a true conversion that is necessary for someone to really be prepared to continue on in the faith.
Not much else going on I guess. We have some pretty solid people we're working with and are looking to get more always. Halloween might be pretty exciting. Apparently Willie Mays lives nearby and on Halloween he hands out baseballs. They're not autographed but still it might be worth trying to get one. I'll let you know how that goes. And my Dad's birthday is soon so heres a shout out for that. Happy Birthday Dad!
Sincerely, Elder Fletcher Miller
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Hello Everyone,
This week was alright. We really worried about one investigator we have that we never seemed to get in contact with. Normally he doesn't do much and we just catch him sitting at home but when we went by he was in a bad mood according to his roommate so we left him alone that day and tried back later and missed him. It's not too heartbreaking cause he wasn't much of an investigator if that doesn't sound too mean, but he wasn't showing much commitment. We'll still try to visit him but I guess it's not the worst thing if we have to drop him as an investigator. Sorry to say it but he's had more than his share of opportunities to embrace the Gospel.
Transfers are today and I'm e-mailing today because yesterday was Columbus day and the library was closed. I'm not being transferred and neither is my companion but I heard that the many people are being moved around. The other set of missionaries close to us and in our same district, one of which is going home so we are anticipating finding out who the new companion will be. Much is at stake to see if they'll be fun to be around on Preparation Days and whatnot.
On Sunday we met with our investigator who is dating a member of the Spanish ward and I'm not sure what the state of their relationship is but basically we have started meeting at the church instead of the members house cause our investigator has realized for himself how outspoken and pushy his girlfriend is. I think I already talked about this but it's amazing that he is still meeting with us despite that it seems like his relationship is strained. He has the tendency to talk the whole time we meet with him, just all these thoughts he has it's incredible how he transitions so fluidly and nonstop. I bet, if sleep weren't a necessity, that he could talk forever. Anyway we finally got a member of our Bishopric to sit in on a lesson with us and as missionaries we are taught to above almost all else be patient listeners so our investigator tends to take advantage of that I guess. But our 2nd counselor in the bishopric was expert at just inserting his comments and finding the most miniscule pauses in our investigators speech to slip in and revert back to a scripture in the Book of Mormon or whatever. I was very impressed and extremely glad that we invited him to sit in on the lesson. I think our investigator got more out of it and really connected with another member that is actually in our ward, cause he has yet to make it to church due to his work schedule so it was great that he is meeting some people so perhaps next week when we meet with him we'll get another bishopric member. I know our bishop is dying to meet him at least.
Probably the most exciting thing that happened on Sunday however, *SPOILER ALERT TO MY PARENTS AND THE LETTER I'LL SOON MAIL HOME EXCEPT THAT IT'S NOT REALLY THAT BIG OF NEWS* is that in ward council the leaders brought up the halloween party and they seem to expect us to come and in costume. So we'll probably pull out all the stops and go as Men in Black or secret service or something. One member suggested that we be Nuns, which would be awesome but harder to actually get our hands on that kind of costume.
Either way it should be fun.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
This week was alright. We really worried about one investigator we have that we never seemed to get in contact with. Normally he doesn't do much and we just catch him sitting at home but when we went by he was in a bad mood according to his roommate so we left him alone that day and tried back later and missed him. It's not too heartbreaking cause he wasn't much of an investigator if that doesn't sound too mean, but he wasn't showing much commitment. We'll still try to visit him but I guess it's not the worst thing if we have to drop him as an investigator. Sorry to say it but he's had more than his share of opportunities to embrace the Gospel.
Transfers are today and I'm e-mailing today because yesterday was Columbus day and the library was closed. I'm not being transferred and neither is my companion but I heard that the many people are being moved around. The other set of missionaries close to us and in our same district, one of which is going home so we are anticipating finding out who the new companion will be. Much is at stake to see if they'll be fun to be around on Preparation Days and whatnot.
On Sunday we met with our investigator who is dating a member of the Spanish ward and I'm not sure what the state of their relationship is but basically we have started meeting at the church instead of the members house cause our investigator has realized for himself how outspoken and pushy his girlfriend is. I think I already talked about this but it's amazing that he is still meeting with us despite that it seems like his relationship is strained. He has the tendency to talk the whole time we meet with him, just all these thoughts he has it's incredible how he transitions so fluidly and nonstop. I bet, if sleep weren't a necessity, that he could talk forever. Anyway we finally got a member of our Bishopric to sit in on a lesson with us and as missionaries we are taught to above almost all else be patient listeners so our investigator tends to take advantage of that I guess. But our 2nd counselor in the bishopric was expert at just inserting his comments and finding the most miniscule pauses in our investigators speech to slip in and revert back to a scripture in the Book of Mormon or whatever. I was very impressed and extremely glad that we invited him to sit in on the lesson. I think our investigator got more out of it and really connected with another member that is actually in our ward, cause he has yet to make it to church due to his work schedule so it was great that he is meeting some people so perhaps next week when we meet with him we'll get another bishopric member. I know our bishop is dying to meet him at least.
Probably the most exciting thing that happened on Sunday however, *SPOILER ALERT TO MY PARENTS AND THE LETTER I'LL SOON MAIL HOME EXCEPT THAT IT'S NOT REALLY THAT BIG OF NEWS* is that in ward council the leaders brought up the halloween party and they seem to expect us to come and in costume. So we'll probably pull out all the stops and go as Men in Black or secret service or something. One member suggested that we be Nuns, which would be awesome but harder to actually get our hands on that kind of costume.
Either way it should be fun.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, October 3, 2011
Hello Everyone,
This week was great. Went by super fast because we had a trip to the Temple on Wednesday and then of course General Conference ate up our Saturday and Sunday. On Wednesday we actually got our Bishops parents to give us a ride to the temple even though they are actually members in a neighboring ward. But they are super cool. We showed up to their house around 8:15 and they had us load up in their mini van and we headed out. The sister had water and candy mints to give us and we had a pleasant ride up to Oakland. We crossed the San Mateo bridge I think and it was huge. They mentioned that it used to be the longest in the country but I think one recently supassed it in Florida or something. Normally I hold my breath over bridges just for fun but I would have passed out five times at least if I had tried on this one I'm sure. That took us across to the East side of the bay into Hayward and then we headed North to the Oakland Temple. I guess we made pretty good time but about 20 minutes from the Temple my companion realized that he had forgotten his recommend, but we didn't say anything to our hosts. We got to the front desk in the Temple and I was surprised to see a member from my last area which is almost a 2 1/2 hour drive but he's one of my favorite members from back in King City who rides unicycles. Anyway we told him the situation and my companion had to fill out a little form and they had to try and contact our Mission President to validate my companions worthiness I guess. They eventually let us in and we managed to make the 10 o'clock session and it was great. Then we headed back to Redwood City and the couple stopped for lunch at In n' out burger and it again was pretty good. We have two In n' out burger joints in our area alone but that's the first time I've eaten in one of them. So it was a great temple trip, pulled it off successfully.
Then this weekend was spectacular, mainly in the sense that we got a ton of free food. We picked up some other missionaries on Saturday morning and we watched General conference at our Stake Center in Menlo Park and it was great. We took a lunch break between the sessions and had to drop our fellow missionary pals off at a members house where they were watching the second session and then we watched the second session back at the stake center. I have real difficulty remembering which general authority specifically spoke about what even though I took extensive notes. But an overall feel I got from conference was a resolve to read the scriptures more and really study them as well as renew my abandoned plans to memorize the scripture mastery scriptures. After the second session we were about to leave but were invited by members of the Tongan ward to their youth conference where we had to introduce ourselves, share what we learned from Conference and then sing a hymn in order to earn a meal. It was a good meal and they had doughnuts so the effort was all worth it. Then we went to the Priesthood session which is always a little more comedic than the rest of conference so it was great as well.
Then yesterday we had much the same pattern, except that after the first session a bunch of members set up on the stage for a lunch and all the missionaries were invited and we didn't have to perform anything to get a meal this time. We did break down all the tables and chairs afterward though but we ate a lot so we needed the exercise afterward to try and burn off some calories. Then we watched the fourth session and it was great. I don't remember if it was that session or not but I really enjoyed President Monsons story about the tour bus in Texas of all the churches.
I hope everyone enjoyed hearing from our Prophet and take the counsel from it seriously. I consider conference more of a mormon new years. Time to evaluate and apply new things into our lives.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
This week was great. Went by super fast because we had a trip to the Temple on Wednesday and then of course General Conference ate up our Saturday and Sunday. On Wednesday we actually got our Bishops parents to give us a ride to the temple even though they are actually members in a neighboring ward. But they are super cool. We showed up to their house around 8:15 and they had us load up in their mini van and we headed out. The sister had water and candy mints to give us and we had a pleasant ride up to Oakland. We crossed the San Mateo bridge I think and it was huge. They mentioned that it used to be the longest in the country but I think one recently supassed it in Florida or something. Normally I hold my breath over bridges just for fun but I would have passed out five times at least if I had tried on this one I'm sure. That took us across to the East side of the bay into Hayward and then we headed North to the Oakland Temple. I guess we made pretty good time but about 20 minutes from the Temple my companion realized that he had forgotten his recommend, but we didn't say anything to our hosts. We got to the front desk in the Temple and I was surprised to see a member from my last area which is almost a 2 1/2 hour drive but he's one of my favorite members from back in King City who rides unicycles. Anyway we told him the situation and my companion had to fill out a little form and they had to try and contact our Mission President to validate my companions worthiness I guess. They eventually let us in and we managed to make the 10 o'clock session and it was great. Then we headed back to Redwood City and the couple stopped for lunch at In n' out burger and it again was pretty good. We have two In n' out burger joints in our area alone but that's the first time I've eaten in one of them. So it was a great temple trip, pulled it off successfully.
Then this weekend was spectacular, mainly in the sense that we got a ton of free food. We picked up some other missionaries on Saturday morning and we watched General conference at our Stake Center in Menlo Park and it was great. We took a lunch break between the sessions and had to drop our fellow missionary pals off at a members house where they were watching the second session and then we watched the second session back at the stake center. I have real difficulty remembering which general authority specifically spoke about what even though I took extensive notes. But an overall feel I got from conference was a resolve to read the scriptures more and really study them as well as renew my abandoned plans to memorize the scripture mastery scriptures. After the second session we were about to leave but were invited by members of the Tongan ward to their youth conference where we had to introduce ourselves, share what we learned from Conference and then sing a hymn in order to earn a meal. It was a good meal and they had doughnuts so the effort was all worth it. Then we went to the Priesthood session which is always a little more comedic than the rest of conference so it was great as well.
Then yesterday we had much the same pattern, except that after the first session a bunch of members set up on the stage for a lunch and all the missionaries were invited and we didn't have to perform anything to get a meal this time. We did break down all the tables and chairs afterward though but we ate a lot so we needed the exercise afterward to try and burn off some calories. Then we watched the fourth session and it was great. I don't remember if it was that session or not but I really enjoyed President Monsons story about the tour bus in Texas of all the churches.
I hope everyone enjoyed hearing from our Prophet and take the counsel from it seriously. I consider conference more of a mormon new years. Time to evaluate and apply new things into our lives.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, September 26, 2011
Hello Everybody,
This week was pretty good. We are working with a guy who doesn't seem to have much going for him. I think he's been homeless for much of his life and is just recently living in a group home type place. He's really nice and easy to talk to. It just seems like his disadvantages in life are now disadvantages in accepting our message. He never received a very complete education so I have to really think about everything that I say and try to make sure that it is in it's simplest terms possible, and even then he just naturally agrees with everything and probably doesn't want to feel stupid for not understanding something. So it is a real challenge working with him and helping him progress when he hasn't really found the motivation for him doing this for himself, if that makes any sense. He's just a really very nice and likeable guy so everyone around him wants him to want the Gospel but he's getting in his own way. He has no problem coming to church but he won't commit to be baptized fully yet. The member who gives him a ride to church every week was telling us that he sees our investigator as one who will come to church for like a year before they fully realize that they want to be baptized. I hope that's the case and that it's just a matter of time.
Other than that our most devastating news is that the little old Tongan lady who is in charge of our dinner calendar is moving to Hawaii and so there may be a rough transition period in which no one is bullying the relief society to feed us, but we'll survive.
We had a lesson/meeting thing at District Meeting in which we were encouraged to try and use Family History as a means to contact people, and we were also told to invite the members to do the same. So for my little after dinner message with a family I shared a scripture about geneology and then asked the family how familiar they are with it. Unfortunately it was more of an elderly couple and they then spent like a straight 15 minutes just relating their experience and family history and other peoples family histories and it was kind of bad. But it all worked out and I encouraged them to share what they just shared with someone who might find it interesting and want to learn more.
The shut in guy that we teach, I think I just realized that he could probably be diagnosed as a hypochondriac, just had a heart test conducted and said that he was perfectly fine as far has heart disease goes but he feels he has a weird skipping beat and that compounds with this condition where his chest wall tightens up and he can't breath and so that's why he's never come to church. Anxiety causing situations set it off and so he doesn't want to come to church and risk socialising to set it off. But he did go to general conference six months ago and hopefully he'll go this time as well. General conference attendence counts as attending church. So then we'll just have to wait another six months for him to go to April conference again and he'll be eligable for baptism. Except he also has a bit of a problem with tithing. Long story short he's full of problems, as is everyone though.
So I'm having fun working with these, different, people and it's rewarding. They are all great people but have their own hang ups and it's a challenge but cool to work on them.
I hope everyone has a great week. We get to visit the Temple on Wednesday and I'm looking forward to that.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
This week was pretty good. We are working with a guy who doesn't seem to have much going for him. I think he's been homeless for much of his life and is just recently living in a group home type place. He's really nice and easy to talk to. It just seems like his disadvantages in life are now disadvantages in accepting our message. He never received a very complete education so I have to really think about everything that I say and try to make sure that it is in it's simplest terms possible, and even then he just naturally agrees with everything and probably doesn't want to feel stupid for not understanding something. So it is a real challenge working with him and helping him progress when he hasn't really found the motivation for him doing this for himself, if that makes any sense. He's just a really very nice and likeable guy so everyone around him wants him to want the Gospel but he's getting in his own way. He has no problem coming to church but he won't commit to be baptized fully yet. The member who gives him a ride to church every week was telling us that he sees our investigator as one who will come to church for like a year before they fully realize that they want to be baptized. I hope that's the case and that it's just a matter of time.
Other than that our most devastating news is that the little old Tongan lady who is in charge of our dinner calendar is moving to Hawaii and so there may be a rough transition period in which no one is bullying the relief society to feed us, but we'll survive.
We had a lesson/meeting thing at District Meeting in which we were encouraged to try and use Family History as a means to contact people, and we were also told to invite the members to do the same. So for my little after dinner message with a family I shared a scripture about geneology and then asked the family how familiar they are with it. Unfortunately it was more of an elderly couple and they then spent like a straight 15 minutes just relating their experience and family history and other peoples family histories and it was kind of bad. But it all worked out and I encouraged them to share what they just shared with someone who might find it interesting and want to learn more.
The shut in guy that we teach, I think I just realized that he could probably be diagnosed as a hypochondriac, just had a heart test conducted and said that he was perfectly fine as far has heart disease goes but he feels he has a weird skipping beat and that compounds with this condition where his chest wall tightens up and he can't breath and so that's why he's never come to church. Anxiety causing situations set it off and so he doesn't want to come to church and risk socialising to set it off. But he did go to general conference six months ago and hopefully he'll go this time as well. General conference attendence counts as attending church. So then we'll just have to wait another six months for him to go to April conference again and he'll be eligable for baptism. Except he also has a bit of a problem with tithing. Long story short he's full of problems, as is everyone though.
So I'm having fun working with these, different, people and it's rewarding. They are all great people but have their own hang ups and it's a challenge but cool to work on them.
I hope everyone has a great week. We get to visit the Temple on Wednesday and I'm looking forward to that.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, September 19, 2011
Hello Everbody,
This week was nowhere near as exciting as last weeks since we had that baptism basically sneak attack us. We haven't been able to visit with that family yet since be we are really hoping that much more missionary work will generate within their home. My companion and I are doing well and we have so much support from the ward that it's really easy to appreciate this area despite our week being a bit of a bummer. Perhaps the highlight of my week though was having dinner at a members home. Everything went just right. We got there and they had two Papa Murphys pizzas waiting on the table. A pepperoni pizza and a garlic chicken pizza, my favorite. They asked if we got pizza a lot and the truth is I haven't had a single member in this area before now serve us pizza. I responded that I haven't had Papa Murphys in 13 months and the member thought I was joking, but sadly that was the truth. I was super glad it was Papa Murphys too cause that is all I ate back home. As I was eating their son kept asking sly questions trying to determine if after dinner we would be able to hang around a bit and race his slot cars with him. They had a huge long track that took up the living room and then stretched down the hall. We certainly had time to race a little and it was fun. I lost to Elder McKenzie on a ten lap race and then we had to leave. I tended to keep my speed up a little too much on the sharp turns and would go spinning off the track. Those little things are fun. And the members told us that there are smaller ones that you can drive upside down. So a new ambition of mine is to get tons of that track and then attach it to my ceiling and then you can just have it out of the way. For when I get home of course, not at our missionary apartment. He he.
Anyway, my companion and I were asked a lot of questions from our members after stake conference because in a session that we hadn't attended our mission President spoke and mentioned that a missionary that used to serve in this area but is now in Pleasanton was punched in the face a few days ago. My companion and I didn't know anything about it since we don't really communicate between areas that much so we had no clue what our members were asking about. But I guess he tried contacting an unpleasant person on the street and didn't come off as the most respectful missionary to an already grudging guy and so the man popped him one. Not to sound uncaring but that sounds like a good story at the very least. Unfortunately the people I try to contact on the street are usually non-confrontational, they sooner just avoid eye contact and ignore you. But hopefully at some point in my mission I shall have the pleasure of getting a good punch to the face. Or maybe I don't want that.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
This week was nowhere near as exciting as last weeks since we had that baptism basically sneak attack us. We haven't been able to visit with that family yet since be we are really hoping that much more missionary work will generate within their home. My companion and I are doing well and we have so much support from the ward that it's really easy to appreciate this area despite our week being a bit of a bummer. Perhaps the highlight of my week though was having dinner at a members home. Everything went just right. We got there and they had two Papa Murphys pizzas waiting on the table. A pepperoni pizza and a garlic chicken pizza, my favorite. They asked if we got pizza a lot and the truth is I haven't had a single member in this area before now serve us pizza. I responded that I haven't had Papa Murphys in 13 months and the member thought I was joking, but sadly that was the truth. I was super glad it was Papa Murphys too cause that is all I ate back home. As I was eating their son kept asking sly questions trying to determine if after dinner we would be able to hang around a bit and race his slot cars with him. They had a huge long track that took up the living room and then stretched down the hall. We certainly had time to race a little and it was fun. I lost to Elder McKenzie on a ten lap race and then we had to leave. I tended to keep my speed up a little too much on the sharp turns and would go spinning off the track. Those little things are fun. And the members told us that there are smaller ones that you can drive upside down. So a new ambition of mine is to get tons of that track and then attach it to my ceiling and then you can just have it out of the way. For when I get home of course, not at our missionary apartment. He he.
Anyway, my companion and I were asked a lot of questions from our members after stake conference because in a session that we hadn't attended our mission President spoke and mentioned that a missionary that used to serve in this area but is now in Pleasanton was punched in the face a few days ago. My companion and I didn't know anything about it since we don't really communicate between areas that much so we had no clue what our members were asking about. But I guess he tried contacting an unpleasant person on the street and didn't come off as the most respectful missionary to an already grudging guy and so the man popped him one. Not to sound uncaring but that sounds like a good story at the very least. Unfortunately the people I try to contact on the street are usually non-confrontational, they sooner just avoid eye contact and ignore you. But hopefully at some point in my mission I shall have the pleasure of getting a good punch to the face. Or maybe I don't want that.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Hello Everyone,
What a crazy week it has been. Rather unorthodox. I believe on Tuesday night we were actually about to start eating dinner with a family when my companion got a call from our Bishop telling us that there was less active family that just moved into the ward with a 16 year old son that wanted to be baptized. The next night we set up an appointment and met them. The son has a very rare disease called Battens disease which, since the time he was 7, is eating away at his motor and speech skills. He was very hard to understand, his father basically translated for us. And he is basically still at the emotional and mental state of a 7 year old, or at least that is how he seems. Perhaps on the inside he is much more developed but incapable of expressing himself. Anyway it was unique situation. The father is a less active member and his wife is catholic. They are great parents and have really done well to take care of such a situation so well. The boys desire to be baptized stemmed from his uncle who is fully active and lives in Utah. He gave the boy his first Book of Mormon and because he is blind he told him to ask his father to read to him every night, which his father did our of love for his son. And he has grown to love the Book of Mormon. He calls it his "Mormon handbook" and doesn't want to go anywhere without it. He has been taught the missionary discussions a number of different times when he lived in Nevada and has always wanted to be baptized but I think his mother stood in the way until now. I believe he is not expected to live past the age of 20 so as his 17 birthday approaches and a family reunion was planned to take place this past weekend anyway they decided it was time to grant the boy his desire. So we were the lucky missionaries to be a part of this wonderful event. He truly is a very special person. The things he says are very simple and he is always talking but he really touches you and makes you happy to be around him. It's hard to imagine being in the situation he is in and it's even harder to imagine being as happy and unconcerned about it as he is. Right after our stake conference we set up for his baptism and welcomed his extended family and got to witness his very caring uncle baptize him. I think it's understood that the boy was innocent and a place in the celestial kingdom is reserved for him whether he be baptized or not because he is as a child. But baptism was something he desired very badly and we realized that it wouldn't do any harm, but rather increase his faith as well as hopefully bring the church back into the life of his father and perhaps introduce his mother to the church as well. We are excited to continue to work with him and his family and see the changes that may arrive in their lives due to this wonderful faithfilled step that their son made. So the week was a fast one. We had to meet him and teach him all the lessons before Saturday. Many exceptions were made on his behalf and it was worth it. His parents said that he has a website that they seemed eager to let everyone know about so I don't think they'd mind if I told you all. I think it was connorsbattle.com. I guess his parents fundraise for research on his disease because not many research has been done cause it's so rare.
I hope you all have a good week.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
What a crazy week it has been. Rather unorthodox. I believe on Tuesday night we were actually about to start eating dinner with a family when my companion got a call from our Bishop telling us that there was less active family that just moved into the ward with a 16 year old son that wanted to be baptized. The next night we set up an appointment and met them. The son has a very rare disease called Battens disease which, since the time he was 7, is eating away at his motor and speech skills. He was very hard to understand, his father basically translated for us. And he is basically still at the emotional and mental state of a 7 year old, or at least that is how he seems. Perhaps on the inside he is much more developed but incapable of expressing himself. Anyway it was unique situation. The father is a less active member and his wife is catholic. They are great parents and have really done well to take care of such a situation so well. The boys desire to be baptized stemmed from his uncle who is fully active and lives in Utah. He gave the boy his first Book of Mormon and because he is blind he told him to ask his father to read to him every night, which his father did our of love for his son. And he has grown to love the Book of Mormon. He calls it his "Mormon handbook" and doesn't want to go anywhere without it. He has been taught the missionary discussions a number of different times when he lived in Nevada and has always wanted to be baptized but I think his mother stood in the way until now. I believe he is not expected to live past the age of 20 so as his 17 birthday approaches and a family reunion was planned to take place this past weekend anyway they decided it was time to grant the boy his desire. So we were the lucky missionaries to be a part of this wonderful event. He truly is a very special person. The things he says are very simple and he is always talking but he really touches you and makes you happy to be around him. It's hard to imagine being in the situation he is in and it's even harder to imagine being as happy and unconcerned about it as he is. Right after our stake conference we set up for his baptism and welcomed his extended family and got to witness his very caring uncle baptize him. I think it's understood that the boy was innocent and a place in the celestial kingdom is reserved for him whether he be baptized or not because he is as a child. But baptism was something he desired very badly and we realized that it wouldn't do any harm, but rather increase his faith as well as hopefully bring the church back into the life of his father and perhaps introduce his mother to the church as well. We are excited to continue to work with him and his family and see the changes that may arrive in their lives due to this wonderful faithfilled step that their son made. So the week was a fast one. We had to meet him and teach him all the lessons before Saturday. Many exceptions were made on his behalf and it was worth it. His parents said that he has a website that they seemed eager to let everyone know about so I don't think they'd mind if I told you all. I think it was connorsbattle.com. I guess his parents fundraise for research on his disease because not many research has been done cause it's so rare.
I hope you all have a good week.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Hello Everyone,
Elder Miller here, pleased to announce the arrival of my new companion, (drum roll please), Elder McKenzie! He's pretty cool. He's from Lehi Utah but was born in Hawaii and raised in Washington mostly and just spent his high school years in Utah. He is full Samoan and the McKenzie name is just a fluke apparantly. I think he is going to be a great asset in this particular area since there are so many Polynesians and he gets along with everyone so well. He only has roughly 5 months left on his mission so I'll probably just be with him for 3 months and then be transferred somewhere else.
Our week was pretty good. On Tuesday I went to the transfer meeting with Elder Orgill and he is now in San Jose, the southern part I guess and I picked up Elder McKenzie and we drove back to our area. We actually stopped first by our Bishops workplace just so I could introduce him to Elder McKenzie and he ended up taking us out for lunch which was cool. Since Elder McKenzie is pretty old by mission life he is already very much in command and capable to help out in the area. I still don't always know how to respond to every situation we come across but Elder McKenzie does so it's all good.
On Thursday we got a text message from one of our investigators and he told us that he had run out of money and didn't have any food for the rest of the week. So we searched our cupboards and fortunately had some things to give him to get him by. It was a kind of neat experience being able to help in that capacity. Generally we only take care and try and help out the spiritual needs of the people we work with but this form of serviece was pretty fulfilling.
On Saturday we generally play basketball in the mornings with our ward but we had some members sign up on the "Feed the Missionaries" sheet for breakfast so we were excited about that but sorry to miss basketball. Especially since Elder Orgill and I had been trying for a long time to convice our Bishop to come and play with us and the day that we didn't go is the day that Bishop finally made it. Bummer. But the breakfast was good. Apparantly the kids couldn't agree on something. One wanted cinnamon rolls and another wanted pancakes and so they found a recipe for cinnamon roll pancakes which you put a glaze frosting on and it was delicious.
Sunday the investigator that we gave the food to finally came to church so that was good. And then right after church we had a lesson with our golden investigator. His only hold up is that he hasn't gotten work off to come to church yet, but he promised that nothing will stop him from making it to stake conference next week. Which is when there will be a bunch of general authorities there cause we're getting a new stake president.
Then yesterday was fun. Our ward mission leader invited us to have a park party BBQ with his family and I got to toss my frisbee around and play volleybally which I haven't been able to play for a whole year until now. I'm kind of sore and sun burned today though.
That was my week and I'll update ya'll next week.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Elder Miller here, pleased to announce the arrival of my new companion, (drum roll please), Elder McKenzie! He's pretty cool. He's from Lehi Utah but was born in Hawaii and raised in Washington mostly and just spent his high school years in Utah. He is full Samoan and the McKenzie name is just a fluke apparantly. I think he is going to be a great asset in this particular area since there are so many Polynesians and he gets along with everyone so well. He only has roughly 5 months left on his mission so I'll probably just be with him for 3 months and then be transferred somewhere else.
Our week was pretty good. On Tuesday I went to the transfer meeting with Elder Orgill and he is now in San Jose, the southern part I guess and I picked up Elder McKenzie and we drove back to our area. We actually stopped first by our Bishops workplace just so I could introduce him to Elder McKenzie and he ended up taking us out for lunch which was cool. Since Elder McKenzie is pretty old by mission life he is already very much in command and capable to help out in the area. I still don't always know how to respond to every situation we come across but Elder McKenzie does so it's all good.
On Thursday we got a text message from one of our investigators and he told us that he had run out of money and didn't have any food for the rest of the week. So we searched our cupboards and fortunately had some things to give him to get him by. It was a kind of neat experience being able to help in that capacity. Generally we only take care and try and help out the spiritual needs of the people we work with but this form of serviece was pretty fulfilling.
On Saturday we generally play basketball in the mornings with our ward but we had some members sign up on the "Feed the Missionaries" sheet for breakfast so we were excited about that but sorry to miss basketball. Especially since Elder Orgill and I had been trying for a long time to convice our Bishop to come and play with us and the day that we didn't go is the day that Bishop finally made it. Bummer. But the breakfast was good. Apparantly the kids couldn't agree on something. One wanted cinnamon rolls and another wanted pancakes and so they found a recipe for cinnamon roll pancakes which you put a glaze frosting on and it was delicious.
Sunday the investigator that we gave the food to finally came to church so that was good. And then right after church we had a lesson with our golden investigator. His only hold up is that he hasn't gotten work off to come to church yet, but he promised that nothing will stop him from making it to stake conference next week. Which is when there will be a bunch of general authorities there cause we're getting a new stake president.
Then yesterday was fun. Our ward mission leader invited us to have a park party BBQ with his family and I got to toss my frisbee around and play volleybally which I haven't been able to play for a whole year until now. I'm kind of sore and sun burned today though.
That was my week and I'll update ya'll next week.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, August 29, 2011
Hello Everybody,
This week was pretty good. Especially the weekend. On Saturday, for our workout time we go and play basketball with the ward so that was great. Then the young mens president was moving so we went and helped out with that and then we went back to our apartment to get freshened up and do our study time but we saw a couple of guys that were moving into our complex so we offered our help in unloading the U-haul (once we saw that they didn't have much furniture and that they live on the ground floor) They seem like pretty cool guys though. While handing stuff to us we got to know them pretty well. They had a huge crate filled with Dungeons&Dragons manuals which my companion used to play and so he talked to one of them a bit about that. And then they also had a bunch of rock climbing equipment and some old fencing gear and snowboarding stuff. I think one of them is a math teacher and the others occupation I would guess as a hippie. Our ward just so happened to be hosting a softball/BBQ party later that day so we invited these two guys to it but they didn't come.
Instead we walked with our investigators to the ward event and our investigators had a great time. Free hot dogs and watermelon I think appeals to just about everyone. My companion and I even got to play a little softball. I think I scored one run but my other hits were all fly balls easily picked off by the five year old boy playing short stop. I pitched a bit as well and it was near the end of the evening when all the ladies were finally coaxed up to bat and perhaps I made the pitches too easy cause they filled up the bases and then started scoring runs on us. I picked up a bunted ball and got a runner out though. At one point I retrieved a way foul ball that went over a fence and I threw it back towards an out fielder who I though was expecting my throw but she wasn't and so cowered up protecting her face when people told her "heads up" and it bounced off her back. I felt really bad but I don't think it did any damage. She was nice about it. Her son is the one we always take with us to appointments cause he's about to go on his mission. Later I was standing around and I heard him call out, "You hurt my Mom!?" It was all in good fun and the BBQ was a big hit. Although we had dinner with the former relief society president last night and she hadn't realized that our investigators were our investigators and was talking about how a couple of strangers came and helped themselves to the food and festivities.
My companion will be leaving tomorrow and I'll get another. He has been here his whole mission so far and all the ward members were very sad to say goodbye to him on Sunday. He truly is adored in this ward. I'll be surprised if a few members don't try and follow him to his next area and start up a Church of Elder Orgill. It's good to have such a connection with the members, hopefully my next companion and I will be okay substitutes.
After church we had a lesson with a man who is progressing extraordinarily well. We weren't expecting him to be able to come to church until November cause he said his work schedule doesn't change until then but he traded shifts with some of his co workers and he promised to be at church the next two weeks so that will be amazing. Then we had two dinners. Our ward mission leader was signed up on the dinner calendar so we went and had the biggest pizza I've ever partaken of. Like 3 feet in diameter just about. And then we had a lesson scheduled with, as I mentioned above, the former relief society president and her family and she just assumed we would join for dinner too so we didn't quiet that notion. We had lasanga and it was good. We were there to teach her non-member husband. Started off kind of rocky cause the first thing I said to the man as I entered the back yard and saw him working at the base of his giant tomato plants was, "Are they overgrown?" I guess he is very proud of the size of his tomato plants and all the work he put into them and so my question was a little unwelcome. But in all reality he must have recognized that the fact that he has no ripe tomatos by the end of August means his plants are off in some way, so really I guess I was adding salt to the wound. But it was all good. He is a really nice man and just enjoyed ribbing me because of my mis-step.
That's about all with me. Hope everyone is doing great.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
This week was pretty good. Especially the weekend. On Saturday, for our workout time we go and play basketball with the ward so that was great. Then the young mens president was moving so we went and helped out with that and then we went back to our apartment to get freshened up and do our study time but we saw a couple of guys that were moving into our complex so we offered our help in unloading the U-haul (once we saw that they didn't have much furniture and that they live on the ground floor) They seem like pretty cool guys though. While handing stuff to us we got to know them pretty well. They had a huge crate filled with Dungeons&Dragons manuals which my companion used to play and so he talked to one of them a bit about that. And then they also had a bunch of rock climbing equipment and some old fencing gear and snowboarding stuff. I think one of them is a math teacher and the others occupation I would guess as a hippie. Our ward just so happened to be hosting a softball/BBQ party later that day so we invited these two guys to it but they didn't come.
Instead we walked with our investigators to the ward event and our investigators had a great time. Free hot dogs and watermelon I think appeals to just about everyone. My companion and I even got to play a little softball. I think I scored one run but my other hits were all fly balls easily picked off by the five year old boy playing short stop. I pitched a bit as well and it was near the end of the evening when all the ladies were finally coaxed up to bat and perhaps I made the pitches too easy cause they filled up the bases and then started scoring runs on us. I picked up a bunted ball and got a runner out though. At one point I retrieved a way foul ball that went over a fence and I threw it back towards an out fielder who I though was expecting my throw but she wasn't and so cowered up protecting her face when people told her "heads up" and it bounced off her back. I felt really bad but I don't think it did any damage. She was nice about it. Her son is the one we always take with us to appointments cause he's about to go on his mission. Later I was standing around and I heard him call out, "You hurt my Mom!?" It was all in good fun and the BBQ was a big hit. Although we had dinner with the former relief society president last night and she hadn't realized that our investigators were our investigators and was talking about how a couple of strangers came and helped themselves to the food and festivities.
My companion will be leaving tomorrow and I'll get another. He has been here his whole mission so far and all the ward members were very sad to say goodbye to him on Sunday. He truly is adored in this ward. I'll be surprised if a few members don't try and follow him to his next area and start up a Church of Elder Orgill. It's good to have such a connection with the members, hopefully my next companion and I will be okay substitutes.
After church we had a lesson with a man who is progressing extraordinarily well. We weren't expecting him to be able to come to church until November cause he said his work schedule doesn't change until then but he traded shifts with some of his co workers and he promised to be at church the next two weeks so that will be amazing. Then we had two dinners. Our ward mission leader was signed up on the dinner calendar so we went and had the biggest pizza I've ever partaken of. Like 3 feet in diameter just about. And then we had a lesson scheduled with, as I mentioned above, the former relief society president and her family and she just assumed we would join for dinner too so we didn't quiet that notion. We had lasanga and it was good. We were there to teach her non-member husband. Started off kind of rocky cause the first thing I said to the man as I entered the back yard and saw him working at the base of his giant tomato plants was, "Are they overgrown?" I guess he is very proud of the size of his tomato plants and all the work he put into them and so my question was a little unwelcome. But in all reality he must have recognized that the fact that he has no ripe tomatos by the end of August means his plants are off in some way, so really I guess I was adding salt to the wound. But it was all good. He is a really nice man and just enjoyed ribbing me because of my mis-step.
That's about all with me. Hope everyone is doing great.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, August 22, 2011
Hello everyone,
This week went by pretty fast seemingly. On Monday of last week all the missionaries in our zone got together to play sports which hasn't been done for a while so it was a big deal. About the time I started my mission our former mission president banned missionary get togethers on preparation days because he felt we could be baptizing more people. The reinstitution of permitting us to play sports together on preparation days I guess would be a reward were we to fulfill the mission goals. Anyway, our new mission president is a bit more soft hearted, for now. So we got together and played rugby and basketball and then at the stake center couldn't resist posing for some photos with the wooden handcarts that were back from the recent youth trek. It was a fun day.
On Tuesday we taught a less active lady that we have been working with. She is the sweetest lady and insists on feeding us everytime we come over. As soon as we finish the lesson she jumps up and tells us that she has already prepared some sandwhiches or hot dogs or has some cake and yogurt and bananas. She is super nice. She takes care of her mother who has alzheimers though so that often stresses her out and prevents her from making it to church cause she has to take her mother to her own church often. But yesterday she was at church and brought her mother along with her. Her mother is super friendly and always complimenting peoples smiles and you always feel really good when you are around those two. They are really funny.
Then on Wednesday we had an appointment with a couple of guys who rent rooms out of this house nearby where we live. One of them has already come to church twice but he was sick so we taught the other the plan of salvation and it went okay. He has agreed to being baptized sort of but admitted that he's holding himself back. We basically told him to not do that and invited him to really read the Book of Mormon and figure out what he really wants from life.
Oh, earlier on Wednesday, how could I forget? We had to get up early to drive to the mission office because Elder Gavarret of the first quorum of the seventy was touring the mission and was addressing four zones that day. It was good. Sometimes they feed us but this wasn't one of those times. Elder Gavarret mainly spoke using stories from the new testament to highlight faith and it's importance in missionary work along with relying on the Holy Ghost. Frankly I had a hard time understanding him fully because of his Peruvian accent but the meeting was good. Those gatherings are always fun cause you can briefly catch up with old companions and where they are serving now and how the old wards area doing. Plus most importantly, I grabbed a spatula from the mission supply closet, so my pancake making times are back in business. President Watkins also initiated a shirt/tie exchange. He had a bunch of new white shirts and ties and told us all to trade in ties and shirts for new ones. I like all my ties so I didn't trade any and I didn't really like the new ties. All pretty bland if you ask me. Ties are pretty much our only form of fashion expression and I'm not about to trade away my personality.
Anyway, yesterday was a busy day. Church took up much of it. But then we had to rush to dinner and devour some pretty good tacos that some members made us. And then rush back to our apartment to be picked up by one of our investigators who agreed to give us a ride to the missionary outgoing fireside. I really wanted to go cause my very first companion who trained me is going home and so at the fireside you get to hear from all of the people finishing their missions and then chat with them afterward. In order to attend you have to get an investigator to come along with you though. It was a risky situation. We had accidentally scheduled an appointment with our investigator during the outgoing fireside so I had to call him and invite him to the fireside in place of the lesson. I think he's kind of eager to show his willingness to join the church and do what we say so it all worked out and he took us. I tried to invite him so as to not seem like we were taking advantage of him though. I'm not sure if he actually enjoyed it as much as he said he did but all that matters is that I was able to say good bye to my trainer and get some pictures with him. Plus some members from my first area were there so it was great to see them again. My companion chatted with the presidents assistant and he got the impression that he'll definitely be transferred next week so I'll be on to having my 7th companion.
Those are my week highlights I guess. This Saturday our ward is having a picnic baseball party so we are going to invite as many non members as possible so we'll have an excuse to go ourselves. Hopefully members bring their friends and stuff too so it should be a good turn out.
Have a wonderful week everyone.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
This week went by pretty fast seemingly. On Monday of last week all the missionaries in our zone got together to play sports which hasn't been done for a while so it was a big deal. About the time I started my mission our former mission president banned missionary get togethers on preparation days because he felt we could be baptizing more people. The reinstitution of permitting us to play sports together on preparation days I guess would be a reward were we to fulfill the mission goals. Anyway, our new mission president is a bit more soft hearted, for now. So we got together and played rugby and basketball and then at the stake center couldn't resist posing for some photos with the wooden handcarts that were back from the recent youth trek. It was a fun day.
On Tuesday we taught a less active lady that we have been working with. She is the sweetest lady and insists on feeding us everytime we come over. As soon as we finish the lesson she jumps up and tells us that she has already prepared some sandwhiches or hot dogs or has some cake and yogurt and bananas. She is super nice. She takes care of her mother who has alzheimers though so that often stresses her out and prevents her from making it to church cause she has to take her mother to her own church often. But yesterday she was at church and brought her mother along with her. Her mother is super friendly and always complimenting peoples smiles and you always feel really good when you are around those two. They are really funny.
Then on Wednesday we had an appointment with a couple of guys who rent rooms out of this house nearby where we live. One of them has already come to church twice but he was sick so we taught the other the plan of salvation and it went okay. He has agreed to being baptized sort of but admitted that he's holding himself back. We basically told him to not do that and invited him to really read the Book of Mormon and figure out what he really wants from life.
Oh, earlier on Wednesday, how could I forget? We had to get up early to drive to the mission office because Elder Gavarret of the first quorum of the seventy was touring the mission and was addressing four zones that day. It was good. Sometimes they feed us but this wasn't one of those times. Elder Gavarret mainly spoke using stories from the new testament to highlight faith and it's importance in missionary work along with relying on the Holy Ghost. Frankly I had a hard time understanding him fully because of his Peruvian accent but the meeting was good. Those gatherings are always fun cause you can briefly catch up with old companions and where they are serving now and how the old wards area doing. Plus most importantly, I grabbed a spatula from the mission supply closet, so my pancake making times are back in business. President Watkins also initiated a shirt/tie exchange. He had a bunch of new white shirts and ties and told us all to trade in ties and shirts for new ones. I like all my ties so I didn't trade any and I didn't really like the new ties. All pretty bland if you ask me. Ties are pretty much our only form of fashion expression and I'm not about to trade away my personality.
Anyway, yesterday was a busy day. Church took up much of it. But then we had to rush to dinner and devour some pretty good tacos that some members made us. And then rush back to our apartment to be picked up by one of our investigators who agreed to give us a ride to the missionary outgoing fireside. I really wanted to go cause my very first companion who trained me is going home and so at the fireside you get to hear from all of the people finishing their missions and then chat with them afterward. In order to attend you have to get an investigator to come along with you though. It was a risky situation. We had accidentally scheduled an appointment with our investigator during the outgoing fireside so I had to call him and invite him to the fireside in place of the lesson. I think he's kind of eager to show his willingness to join the church and do what we say so it all worked out and he took us. I tried to invite him so as to not seem like we were taking advantage of him though. I'm not sure if he actually enjoyed it as much as he said he did but all that matters is that I was able to say good bye to my trainer and get some pictures with him. Plus some members from my first area were there so it was great to see them again. My companion chatted with the presidents assistant and he got the impression that he'll definitely be transferred next week so I'll be on to having my 7th companion.
Those are my week highlights I guess. This Saturday our ward is having a picnic baseball party so we are going to invite as many non members as possible so we'll have an excuse to go ourselves. Hopefully members bring their friends and stuff too so it should be a good turn out.
Have a wonderful week everyone.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, August 15, 2011
Hello Everybody,
This week has been really good. It seems like missionary work is subject to high and low tides concerning how many people we have to work with and things to do and it seems like we are experiencing a bit of a high tide which is fantastic. We were recently challenged to contact way more people on the street or where ever through out the day aside from our normal activities and it is paying off. Not directly though. We have been getting a slew of referrals from other missionaries and the mission office or church headquarters. So we have a new investigator that I mentioned last time who says that he is a Fundamentalist Christian/Roman Catholic but basically has the standpoint that all churches as long as they believe in Christ are the true church. That's the problem with some of our different terms within the church, at least as far as missionary work goes. Either my companion or I probably said "The True Church" and now our investigator thinks that we hate on all other churches. So now every time we see him he makes sure he lets us know that he loves all churches. We'll just have to re-emphasize authority and priesthood and hope he starts to understand our view a little better.
There is also this lady in the spanish ward who has a friend from AA that we are teaching and he already has a very full understanding of just about all aspects of religion so he can clue into what it is that we are talking about right away and understands it all without much thought cause in one form or another he's already heard it all before. I think he wants to be baptized but he recognizes that we kind of have an order in the way that we go about baptizing people so in a way it feels like he's holding out. He doesn't want to seem too eager but I think he really wants to be baptized. He just can't come to church yet because of his work but he should be in the clear by November and we'll see what happens then. He's like the most reliable investigator that I've ever had. He really wants to hear what we have to say and is always anticipating us when we come over for appointments and he doesn't forget. It's kind of a strange thing, usually my investigators in the past have been a little grudging in the way they meet with us.
Then the crazy man who we helped move into the area accepted our invitation to have the lessons from us but he wasn't sure what time he'd be able to make for us. So he's not fully committed to hearing us out but he is dealing with a lot with his move and trying to find a job and things of that nature but hopefully it all settles down and we'll be able to meet with him.
The family that I was initially excited about when I was first in this area got back from their vacation to Hawaii and we caught up with them last night and sort of set up a time to teach them again. They are practically the flakiest people on earth but are super nice and agreeable. I'm not sure how soon progress will really be made with them but we'll keep cracking at it.
Well that's most of what we have going on in a nutshell. We have this super stellar lady in our ward who we just wanted to try and find out if she knew any of the less active names that we have on a big old list but she ended up not knowing a lot of them and so took it upon herself to seek these people out and find out who they are. She went through like 25 people in two days and asked them questions and got to know some of them and a few of them she even determined for us are possible homes that could use some missionary influence. It was awesome. Her and her husband are planning on going on a mission soon and they are going to be amazing. That's about it. Hope everyone has a fantastic week.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
This week has been really good. It seems like missionary work is subject to high and low tides concerning how many people we have to work with and things to do and it seems like we are experiencing a bit of a high tide which is fantastic. We were recently challenged to contact way more people on the street or where ever through out the day aside from our normal activities and it is paying off. Not directly though. We have been getting a slew of referrals from other missionaries and the mission office or church headquarters. So we have a new investigator that I mentioned last time who says that he is a Fundamentalist Christian/Roman Catholic but basically has the standpoint that all churches as long as they believe in Christ are the true church. That's the problem with some of our different terms within the church, at least as far as missionary work goes. Either my companion or I probably said "The True Church" and now our investigator thinks that we hate on all other churches. So now every time we see him he makes sure he lets us know that he loves all churches. We'll just have to re-emphasize authority and priesthood and hope he starts to understand our view a little better.
There is also this lady in the spanish ward who has a friend from AA that we are teaching and he already has a very full understanding of just about all aspects of religion so he can clue into what it is that we are talking about right away and understands it all without much thought cause in one form or another he's already heard it all before. I think he wants to be baptized but he recognizes that we kind of have an order in the way that we go about baptizing people so in a way it feels like he's holding out. He doesn't want to seem too eager but I think he really wants to be baptized. He just can't come to church yet because of his work but he should be in the clear by November and we'll see what happens then. He's like the most reliable investigator that I've ever had. He really wants to hear what we have to say and is always anticipating us when we come over for appointments and he doesn't forget. It's kind of a strange thing, usually my investigators in the past have been a little grudging in the way they meet with us.
Then the crazy man who we helped move into the area accepted our invitation to have the lessons from us but he wasn't sure what time he'd be able to make for us. So he's not fully committed to hearing us out but he is dealing with a lot with his move and trying to find a job and things of that nature but hopefully it all settles down and we'll be able to meet with him.
The family that I was initially excited about when I was first in this area got back from their vacation to Hawaii and we caught up with them last night and sort of set up a time to teach them again. They are practically the flakiest people on earth but are super nice and agreeable. I'm not sure how soon progress will really be made with them but we'll keep cracking at it.
Well that's most of what we have going on in a nutshell. We have this super stellar lady in our ward who we just wanted to try and find out if she knew any of the less active names that we have on a big old list but she ended up not knowing a lot of them and so took it upon herself to seek these people out and find out who they are. She went through like 25 people in two days and asked them questions and got to know some of them and a few of them she even determined for us are possible homes that could use some missionary influence. It was awesome. Her and her husband are planning on going on a mission soon and they are going to be amazing. That's about it. Hope everyone has a fantastic week.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
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