Greetings From San Jose

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