Greetings From San Jose

Hello Everybody,

This week has been mostly fantastic. Last Sunday we had a family tell us that they were signed up for dinner on Monday and that they were going to have a family there for us to teach. When that time came we were super excited. We had a nice dinner and then were able to share much of the message of the restoration of the gospel with them. Then we asked if they would be willing to be baptized when they knew for themselves that what we taught was true and they said sure. It was great and then we scheduled with them to tour the chapel on the following evening.

On Tuesday we were in San Jose for the whole first part of the day. First we had interviews with our mission President and it was just our Zone so we were there pretty early. After a few of us had been interviewed and were just waiting around president Watkins asked us if we'd already had breakfast and gave us 40 bucks and sent us to McDonalds to get some grub. It was pretty cool, I'd eaten some toast that morning but an extra big breakfast plate was a welcome addition. The rest of our mission showed up after that as we were being addressed by Elder L. Tom Perry and also Elder Richard G. Maynes and their wives. That was pretty terrific. Elder Maynes spoke about how as missionaries we are looking for what he called "searchers", people prepared and ready and looking for the gospel. And he said they are like a needle in a haystack and we need a magnet to get them out easily. That magnet was compared to the members and how they are a kind of filter for finding the right people, prepared people. Not really anything new but he did have a power point presentation animating the magnet and haystack and needle so it was pretty impressive and seemed new. And Elder Perry mainly talked about how we are in the midst of a great "mormon moment". I think he works closely with the public affairs cause he was mentioning that a lot of press has been seeking interviews from the church and what with the broadway play and the presidential candidates and apparently some guy doing the temple work for a holocaust victim, a lot of attention is being payed to the church and it doesn't matter if it's good or negative cause ultimately it just manifests as more questions be asked by people interested in what we believe. Elder Perry was really energetic and actually cracking quite a few jokes and telling some fun stories so it was a delightful meeting. An interesting part he got speaking about was how the President of the church is placed. He mentioned that he is the number 2 apostle after Elder Packer. "Now we don't walk around wearing jerseys that display our number but we all know them, Elder Christensen is number 12." He was just saying that it's not a popularity contest. There are the senior apostles if Elder Packer is meant to be the next President then when President Monson dies Elder Packer will assume the role but if it is meant to be someone else then the apostles ahead of the person that is meant to be the President will be "called home". I thought that that was really interesting cause I've never had it spelled out like that before to me.

That evening we were able to give a chapel tour to the family that we had taught the previous evening and we were kind of late and they had some fidgety kids so the chapel tour wasn't the best but it was alright. We took the opportunity to kind of reteach the first lesson cause the husband hadn't been with us the firs time. We tried to offer them an exact date on which to be baptized but they declined saying that they were pretty tied up in the middle of an adoption process that keeps being put back. So they may be a slower progressing family than we initially hoped but they are being fellowshipped by a really great family so we hope they will come along nicely.

On Wednesday we had the great pleasure of going to lunch with a senior couple that has been serving in the zone but are finishing their mission and so they took us to eat at Applebee's. It was fun and good but sad to see them go. They actually leave tomorrow but that was their last day of having district meeting so that is the customary time to say goodbyes. I guess the Senior couples don't follow our transfer schedule. They must be serving like exactly 18 months and so they'll just drive home.

On Thursday I was with another Elder all day for exchanges and it was a great day we were able to teach quite a few lessons and did some service for Habitat for Humanity nailing up a ton of plywood. Well we actually only did a few sheets of plywood but each one takes like 50 nails and it was a lot of hammering and my hand would cramp up. My companion for the day was less familiar with construction type work than me and so struggled with the hammer a bit. At one point we were on ladders and he was nailing plywood around the opening of where a window is going to be and he missed and threw his hammer through the window opening and down into another section of the house. Lucky he didn't hit anyone. I was reminded of that movie "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" when they are at the barn raising and the brothers rivals pick fights with them. One of them "drops" a hammer on one of the brothers heads. Anyway, a big brawl didn't break out which ultimately demolished the home we were supposed to be building. Instead the hammer just hit the ground and no one was harmed. We all wore hard hats anyway.

I'm running out of time but the rest of the week was great and now we are supposed to throw a beach party as a zone activity so we'll see how that works out, I can see storm clouds out the window, or maybe the window is just tinted. Anyway hope you all have a great week.

Sincerely, Elder F. Miller