Hello Everyone,
This past week was very good. I'm most excited about a new investigator who we picked up. On Saturday we went and taught her with a member that we brought with us. It was kind of awkward cause she's only 14 and her mom and grandma weren't home and so we just stood on the porch and talked to her. So the lesson was understandably brief but she was very sincere in wanting to learn more and so that quickly puts her at the top of the list for investigators that we have that are most likely to get baptized. She doesn't have any religious background which is always odd for me cause when we get into discussions I still always fail to recognize how much knowledge I have that I just take for granted. It's amazing how little many people know about the Bible or even God. So she has a lot to learn but I'm really excited to get to be the one who gets to help teach it to her.
But then Saturday night was a shock as I found out that my companion was getting transferred. We are in an area where it seems that the missionaries always stay for at least 6 months and he is leaving after only 4 and a half and I've only been here for the past 6 weeks. So I wasn't too exited to already be the leading authority on my area after I feel like I barely know it, but my new companion is pretty awesome and I think we'll be all right.
Only problem is my new companion doesn't have his license. He's never gotten one and so obvously can't drive. I have never really enjoyed driving, and in the past I've been blessed to get companions who love to drive and so I can enjoy just relaxing in the passenger seat. But I'm doomed to drive now and it's already pretty apparent that I didn't take good enough notes on where important places are and how to get there. I'm working on it though and we'll just be sure to provide extra time for me to make a few wrong turns along the way.
Hope you are all doing well. I'll be getting my new companion situated. He is our new district leader and it should be pretty fun. Have a great week.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Hi Everybody,
Had a great week last week. For those of you who don't know, missionaries keep track of all the appointments they have and who they teach and how many new people they meet and teach. These numbers all get tallied up at the end of the week and then reported to our leaders and Mission President. So when I say we had a great week, that is partly in reference to our numbers. It always feels good to look over your numbers before you report them and be able to recall the specific lessons and the people taught that those numbers represent. The missionaries before I got here had ran into a lady and started to teach her and then she mentioned that she had been baptized a member of our church years and years ago. So then we had the membership clerk look up her records and we just this last week finally found them. So she is already a member and we won't get to baptize her, but she has gotten her granddaughter interested in the church and we just set an appointment with them to teach her the lessons. So I'm pretty excited to see where that goes. Her granddaughter came with her to a general conference session and was confused by it cause she has no religious background but she seemed truly interested in hearing what it is that we have to say. We are also sitting on a guy who is perfectly ready and agreeable towards baptism but he works every Sunday and so hasn't come to church yet. So we are anxiously awaiting the day when his work hires a new guy and then his seniority kicks in and he will claim the Sundays free shift. That's what is going on with us, at least the most exciting stuff anyway. It seems pretty crazy that I've already been in this area for 5 weeks. I guess that is because I'm still getting used to stuff. It's a big area to take everything in. I hope you all are doing well and I thank you for your prayers and communication.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Had a great week last week. For those of you who don't know, missionaries keep track of all the appointments they have and who they teach and how many new people they meet and teach. These numbers all get tallied up at the end of the week and then reported to our leaders and Mission President. So when I say we had a great week, that is partly in reference to our numbers. It always feels good to look over your numbers before you report them and be able to recall the specific lessons and the people taught that those numbers represent. The missionaries before I got here had ran into a lady and started to teach her and then she mentioned that she had been baptized a member of our church years and years ago. So then we had the membership clerk look up her records and we just this last week finally found them. So she is already a member and we won't get to baptize her, but she has gotten her granddaughter interested in the church and we just set an appointment with them to teach her the lessons. So I'm pretty excited to see where that goes. Her granddaughter came with her to a general conference session and was confused by it cause she has no religious background but she seemed truly interested in hearing what it is that we have to say. We are also sitting on a guy who is perfectly ready and agreeable towards baptism but he works every Sunday and so hasn't come to church yet. So we are anxiously awaiting the day when his work hires a new guy and then his seniority kicks in and he will claim the Sundays free shift. That's what is going on with us, at least the most exciting stuff anyway. It seems pretty crazy that I've already been in this area for 5 weeks. I guess that is because I'm still getting used to stuff. It's a big area to take everything in. I hope you all are doing well and I thank you for your prayers and communication.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Thursday, April 14, 2011
New Pictures!
Here are a few pictures that Fletch sent to me. I'm posting all of them on his facebook.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Hello Everybody,
I'm doing pretty well as usual. Today we had our weekly district meeting and our focus was on the Atonement. Our goal is to teach someone each day and really emphasize the miraculous event that is so important to us all. It's kind of strange how when we teach people we often get so caught up in trying to keep track of all the right points that we are supposed to hit on in order to cram as much knowledge into our investigators as possible that we sometimes fail to give the special message we share the kind of thought and reverence that it truly deserves. So we recognize that the atonement is key, and that no matter who we are teaching or what we are teaching the atonement can always be linked in and is no matter what always relevent. I think this is great preparation for us as well as we get ready for this Easter season.
On Saturday we had a good time helping out a man and his family as they worked on improving their back yard. I got to sand a fence while my companion shovelled a lot of dirt and then we got fed way too much for lunch, but I'm just incapable of refusing three pieces of key lime pie. Sunday was a trying day. We had two appointments set up in Soledad which is about 8 miles north of where we meet for church. So we grabbed a quick lunch after church and book it over to Soledad because once we're done with these lessons we have to race down to King City for another appointment which is about 20 miles south of Soledad. Anyway, we get to Soledad and our first appointment isn't there and so we are mildly bummed. We go to our second appointment and they're not there either. Pretty bummed now. So we now have extra time in Soledad and we chose to try talking to a man that no longer comes to church. From meeting with him I gain a lot of frustration and finally we are on our way to King City only to find that our next appointments husband doesn't want us there. It was an unpleasant day to be me, and I was hoping that the end of the day would cheer me up cause we had dinner with a family that has a bunch of unicycles and let's me ride them sometimes. But there wasn't enough time. That's probably a good thing though. I was way too full to be riding unicycles, I could have lost my dinner. The day wasn't really that bad, I just hate it when I am in a hurry cause I think some one is expecting me at a certain time, only to find that they're standing me up after I tried so hard to not miss them. But it's a new week this week and It's looking fine. The weather is nice and I'm happy thusfar.
Have a good week everyone,
Elder Miller
I'm doing pretty well as usual. Today we had our weekly district meeting and our focus was on the Atonement. Our goal is to teach someone each day and really emphasize the miraculous event that is so important to us all. It's kind of strange how when we teach people we often get so caught up in trying to keep track of all the right points that we are supposed to hit on in order to cram as much knowledge into our investigators as possible that we sometimes fail to give the special message we share the kind of thought and reverence that it truly deserves. So we recognize that the atonement is key, and that no matter who we are teaching or what we are teaching the atonement can always be linked in and is no matter what always relevent. I think this is great preparation for us as well as we get ready for this Easter season.
On Saturday we had a good time helping out a man and his family as they worked on improving their back yard. I got to sand a fence while my companion shovelled a lot of dirt and then we got fed way too much for lunch, but I'm just incapable of refusing three pieces of key lime pie. Sunday was a trying day. We had two appointments set up in Soledad which is about 8 miles north of where we meet for church. So we grabbed a quick lunch after church and book it over to Soledad because once we're done with these lessons we have to race down to King City for another appointment which is about 20 miles south of Soledad. Anyway, we get to Soledad and our first appointment isn't there and so we are mildly bummed. We go to our second appointment and they're not there either. Pretty bummed now. So we now have extra time in Soledad and we chose to try talking to a man that no longer comes to church. From meeting with him I gain a lot of frustration and finally we are on our way to King City only to find that our next appointments husband doesn't want us there. It was an unpleasant day to be me, and I was hoping that the end of the day would cheer me up cause we had dinner with a family that has a bunch of unicycles and let's me ride them sometimes. But there wasn't enough time. That's probably a good thing though. I was way too full to be riding unicycles, I could have lost my dinner. The day wasn't really that bad, I just hate it when I am in a hurry cause I think some one is expecting me at a certain time, only to find that they're standing me up after I tried so hard to not miss them. But it's a new week this week and It's looking fine. The weather is nice and I'm happy thusfar.
Have a good week everyone,
Elder Miller
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Hello Everyone,
This week was great. On Tuesday we got to drive up to the Oakland Temple and go through and endowment session. The Temple was good but the drive up, not so much. My new area is about a 2 and a half hour drive away from the Temple. I know that there are thousands of stories of faithful saints that have had to spend their life savings and travel for days to get to the Temple, but being in the back of a small Acura wearing a suit and being all hot is still very uncomfortable. So I am grateful that I was able to go and I don't want to come off as sounding like an whiner but...I guess I am a whiner. So that was good. Afterwards we stopped for lunch in Oakland at an In N' Out burger. This is the secong time that I've been to one of these fast food restaurants that Californians rave about. The first time I really didn't see what all the fuss was about, in fact my burger and fries tasted kind of funky. But this time it was good and I'll no longer have to suffer the weird looks I get from people around here when I say that I don't like In N' Out.
Conference was great as well. It's easier to stay awake for since we are expected to be in our suits and watch it at the church and I can't just stay at home wrapped in a blanket eating breakfast.
My companion and I are trying to focus more on some families that are less active but have children that are now of age to be baptized. We think they'll be easy pickings if we do it right. And of course I know that it's all according to the Lords will and also that we aren't really teachers, the Spirit is. But that's where we think we can make the biggest difference and hopefully well get some people more active in church and back to fulfilling their covenants.
That's all for now folks. Thanks for reading and writing.
Sincerely Elder Miller
This week was great. On Tuesday we got to drive up to the Oakland Temple and go through and endowment session. The Temple was good but the drive up, not so much. My new area is about a 2 and a half hour drive away from the Temple. I know that there are thousands of stories of faithful saints that have had to spend their life savings and travel for days to get to the Temple, but being in the back of a small Acura wearing a suit and being all hot is still very uncomfortable. So I am grateful that I was able to go and I don't want to come off as sounding like an whiner but...I guess I am a whiner. So that was good. Afterwards we stopped for lunch in Oakland at an In N' Out burger. This is the secong time that I've been to one of these fast food restaurants that Californians rave about. The first time I really didn't see what all the fuss was about, in fact my burger and fries tasted kind of funky. But this time it was good and I'll no longer have to suffer the weird looks I get from people around here when I say that I don't like In N' Out.
Conference was great as well. It's easier to stay awake for since we are expected to be in our suits and watch it at the church and I can't just stay at home wrapped in a blanket eating breakfast.
My companion and I are trying to focus more on some families that are less active but have children that are now of age to be baptized. We think they'll be easy pickings if we do it right. And of course I know that it's all according to the Lords will and also that we aren't really teachers, the Spirit is. But that's where we think we can make the biggest difference and hopefully well get some people more active in church and back to fulfilling their covenants.
That's all for now folks. Thanks for reading and writing.
Sincerely Elder Miller
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
