Hello Everyone,
This past week was a bit of a downer. We have a nine year old girl scheduled to be baptized but her parents aren't quite on board with all the commitments that that entails and so we feel like we'll have to post pone her baptism until we can get everyone excited and committed to coming to church and meeting with us. Busy lives are the missionaries worst enemy. I have also come to the conclusion that it is unhealthy for missionaries to visit a Tongan household more than once a week. So much food I almost died. Just joking. But really, I don't know what it is but they are way too generous. I appreciate all the nice things the members do for us but it is too much. I guess they really take the fact that we are servants of the Lord seriously and they expect blessings from taking care of us and I'm sure they do. But I wonder if they can be held accountable should I develope diabetes or something. They do practically force food upon us and expect us to eat a few times what the average pulangis' (white boy) stomach can hold. They are great people though.
Anyway, things are looking up here in Redwood City. We are expecting to have to cancel that little girls baptism but thanks to the wonderful members we have other people to work with. There was a part member family that recently had a new born and the members, props to the relief society, took over and provided meals and baby clothes and all that jazz and now the father is interested in taking the lessons and coming to church and the mother is interested in becoming active again. So really everyone benefits and us missionaries just get to piggy back on the success of the awesome ward. Christ like service is where it is all at. I'm really looking forward to getting to work with this family and hopefully my companion and I will be able to find some people on our own and show that we aren't totally dependent on the ward. Though that's not a bad thing.
I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the summer. How is the summer in Oregon so far?
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Monday, July 25, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Some Quotes
In Fletch's last letter to me he included some funny quotes he's been keeping that his companions have said:
"Freak! I feel like deaf people can feel the spirit way better than non-deaf people"
"I know...but she's like a nice witch"
"And where does the meatball come in?"
"Could you please not rub my missionaries."
"Come on, I can hug you in your chair or are you going to stand up and hug me like a man?"
"Did you throw that piece of bread away? It's like 10 inches thick! Just cut that side off. Someone will eat it, they won't know!"
Fletcher also is trying to set me up with his companions older brother. At first I was skeptical but he sounds like he has some nice points.
"Freak! I feel like deaf people can feel the spirit way better than non-deaf people"
"I know...but she's like a nice witch"
"And where does the meatball come in?"
"Could you please not rub my missionaries."
"Come on, I can hug you in your chair or are you going to stand up and hug me like a man?"
"Did you throw that piece of bread away? It's like 10 inches thick! Just cut that side off. Someone will eat it, they won't know!"
Fletcher also is trying to set me up with his companions older brother. At first I was skeptical but he sounds like he has some nice points.
Hello Everybody,
This past week was good for my companion and I. We had a tentative baptism scheduled for a nine year old girl whose aunt and uncle are members and we are trying to get the parents ready as well for baptism. I was counting on the baptism to be postponed and it was. The girl was really unsure about that particular date in the first place cause her dad told her that he'd be on call for work and might miss her baptism so he convinced her to reschedule it and we are kind of glad that that happened cause we want them to be baptized as a family cause ultimately that will work out better in the long run considering prolonged activity but in Preach My Gospel it tells that baptism should not be post poned just to wait for other family members to get on board. So as missionaries we couldn't really enact what we really wanted to happen. We couldn't tell her to wait cause that goes against our guidelines. It's correct that baptism should never be put off and the reason is that some missionaries in the past have tried to get people to wait until they get their family members on board as well and in the process they lose everyone even the person that was ready from the start. I felt along those lines but wasn't too worried about it. I figured that she would want to wait and will ulitimately feel more comfortable when her parents join her and she will be the driving force for the parents to eventually come along. So the girl is rescheduled for the 30th of this month and we are really pushing to get her parents with it as well.
On Sunday we were lucky to have our new mission president speak in our ward and actually join us in attending the ward counsel beforehand. The problem with it all is that my companion and I had not really been aware that we were supposed to speak alongside our mission president and so we had no material planned. We both gave very poor talks that were shorter than the average youth speaker and our mission president had to revert to telling some stories in order to take up all the time we left on the clock. I think it worked out for the best. Everyone loved the stories and his talk and they hopefully forgot about us entirely.
One of our investigators just seems to remember everything about sports especially local sports and players. We brought a less active young man with us to teach an investigator and this less active Tongan guy just so happens to be a really good running back and has a few full ride scholarships to BYU and other schools. He comes from a high school that was our investigators rival high school growing up. But he got talking about a bunch of players that are now big. Apparrantly Tom Brady and Barry Bonds came from his high school. And there is another local high school where Dana Carvey graduated. I just find that interesting and am trying to think if I know of anyone famous from my high school.
Well that is about it. Oh, anyone who regularly writes me letters be aware that president Watkins has changed the policy requesting that all mail is sent through the mission office. He now wishes us to just have our mail sent directly to our addresses. So if you'd like to write me then here is my address. 450 Redwood Ave. Apt. 20 Redwood City, CA
94061. So the only issue arises if I get transferred which shouldn't be for a while but I'll tell people to stop mailing me if I sense a transfer is getting imminant.
Have a wonderful week everyone,
Sincerely Elder Miller
This past week was good for my companion and I. We had a tentative baptism scheduled for a nine year old girl whose aunt and uncle are members and we are trying to get the parents ready as well for baptism. I was counting on the baptism to be postponed and it was. The girl was really unsure about that particular date in the first place cause her dad told her that he'd be on call for work and might miss her baptism so he convinced her to reschedule it and we are kind of glad that that happened cause we want them to be baptized as a family cause ultimately that will work out better in the long run considering prolonged activity but in Preach My Gospel it tells that baptism should not be post poned just to wait for other family members to get on board. So as missionaries we couldn't really enact what we really wanted to happen. We couldn't tell her to wait cause that goes against our guidelines. It's correct that baptism should never be put off and the reason is that some missionaries in the past have tried to get people to wait until they get their family members on board as well and in the process they lose everyone even the person that was ready from the start. I felt along those lines but wasn't too worried about it. I figured that she would want to wait and will ulitimately feel more comfortable when her parents join her and she will be the driving force for the parents to eventually come along. So the girl is rescheduled for the 30th of this month and we are really pushing to get her parents with it as well.
On Sunday we were lucky to have our new mission president speak in our ward and actually join us in attending the ward counsel beforehand. The problem with it all is that my companion and I had not really been aware that we were supposed to speak alongside our mission president and so we had no material planned. We both gave very poor talks that were shorter than the average youth speaker and our mission president had to revert to telling some stories in order to take up all the time we left on the clock. I think it worked out for the best. Everyone loved the stories and his talk and they hopefully forgot about us entirely.
One of our investigators just seems to remember everything about sports especially local sports and players. We brought a less active young man with us to teach an investigator and this less active Tongan guy just so happens to be a really good running back and has a few full ride scholarships to BYU and other schools. He comes from a high school that was our investigators rival high school growing up. But he got talking about a bunch of players that are now big. Apparrantly Tom Brady and Barry Bonds came from his high school. And there is another local high school where Dana Carvey graduated. I just find that interesting and am trying to think if I know of anyone famous from my high school.
Well that is about it. Oh, anyone who regularly writes me letters be aware that president Watkins has changed the policy requesting that all mail is sent through the mission office. He now wishes us to just have our mail sent directly to our addresses. So if you'd like to write me then here is my address. 450 Redwood Ave. Apt. 20 Redwood City, CA
94061. So the only issue arises if I get transferred which shouldn't be for a while but I'll tell people to stop mailing me if I sense a transfer is getting imminant.
Have a wonderful week everyone,
Sincerely Elder Miller
Monday, July 11, 2011
Hello Everybody,
The past week for me was very good. We had more lessons that we were able to teach than usual which we always enjoy having. Some of them were to less active members and that is part of our goal in order to try and find new investigators we go through the less active members cause they are more likely to have friends that are not members of the church already, plus we teach the less active members and hopefully uplift them and encourage them to come back to church. Thusfar we haven't gotten any new investigators from it but we look forward to the day that we do.
On Tuesday we finally set up a dinner for our investigators to come to our Bishops house, and they already knew him cause he's their dentist. But the father of the household didn't make it and that was a real bummer. It's kind of sad because one of his main concerns about joining any church is that he won't be able to be himself. That is a tough thing to overcome I think. He respects religion and considers it a very serious ordeal, which it is, but that makes him feel like he can never be himself in church cause he's such a jokester. So we really want to get him go to High Priests Quorum. We figure once he gets around those guys he'll no longer figure he has to be a total stiff at church. We almost got him there too. On Sunday they finally came to church and stayed for sacrament and then we talked to him and he said he'd be fine with staying the next hour but that we better talk to his wife and then she was the one who let us down and said they had to go. Fortunately their daughter stayed and went to primary for an hour before they came back to get her. So their daughter is the one who really wants to get baptized and the parents are fine with that so she is scheduled for next saturday and then we really hope the parents want to tag along and get baptized as well on that day but we're not sure what will happen. It will be an adventure and we are pretty certain it's just a matter of time but we hope that it will be soon. Not too much else is going on. We often teach a couple different older men who have severe health problems and so can't really make it to church. There is a man who we read the book of mormon with weekly and he is about finished with it and seems to believe it all and really wants to join the church but he suffers from a condition where he experiences extreme anxiety in social encounters and that triggers a serious issue he has with is chest wall tightening up and making it so he can't breath. So the elders before me really pushed him to be baptized despite his condition but he didn't really go for it. Plan to offer him a blessing the next time we meet and pray that our faith will allow him the opportunity to overcome his anxiety and apprehension. Otherwise maybe we'll plan a baptism and make sure that no one is invited and doesn't come, and then when he comes to church we'll put like a quarantine sign on him or something so people will stay away. Just kidding.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
The past week for me was very good. We had more lessons that we were able to teach than usual which we always enjoy having. Some of them were to less active members and that is part of our goal in order to try and find new investigators we go through the less active members cause they are more likely to have friends that are not members of the church already, plus we teach the less active members and hopefully uplift them and encourage them to come back to church. Thusfar we haven't gotten any new investigators from it but we look forward to the day that we do.
On Tuesday we finally set up a dinner for our investigators to come to our Bishops house, and they already knew him cause he's their dentist. But the father of the household didn't make it and that was a real bummer. It's kind of sad because one of his main concerns about joining any church is that he won't be able to be himself. That is a tough thing to overcome I think. He respects religion and considers it a very serious ordeal, which it is, but that makes him feel like he can never be himself in church cause he's such a jokester. So we really want to get him go to High Priests Quorum. We figure once he gets around those guys he'll no longer figure he has to be a total stiff at church. We almost got him there too. On Sunday they finally came to church and stayed for sacrament and then we talked to him and he said he'd be fine with staying the next hour but that we better talk to his wife and then she was the one who let us down and said they had to go. Fortunately their daughter stayed and went to primary for an hour before they came back to get her. So their daughter is the one who really wants to get baptized and the parents are fine with that so she is scheduled for next saturday and then we really hope the parents want to tag along and get baptized as well on that day but we're not sure what will happen. It will be an adventure and we are pretty certain it's just a matter of time but we hope that it will be soon. Not too much else is going on. We often teach a couple different older men who have severe health problems and so can't really make it to church. There is a man who we read the book of mormon with weekly and he is about finished with it and seems to believe it all and really wants to join the church but he suffers from a condition where he experiences extreme anxiety in social encounters and that triggers a serious issue he has with is chest wall tightening up and making it so he can't breath. So the elders before me really pushed him to be baptized despite his condition but he didn't really go for it. Plan to offer him a blessing the next time we meet and pray that our faith will allow him the opportunity to overcome his anxiety and apprehension. Otherwise maybe we'll plan a baptism and make sure that no one is invited and doesn't come, and then when he comes to church we'll put like a quarantine sign on him or something so people will stay away. Just kidding.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Hello People,
This past week has shot by. We have been spending much of our time trying to get in contact with less active members that the Bishop told us to go see and try and teach. We haven't had any success thus far, but I look forward to when we'll be able to bring some one back to church. One name our Bishop gave us is a lineman for the 49ers and we were kind of interested to go and visit him but he moved before we got around to it and so I guess we missed our opportunity. I hear he wasn't particularly friendly anyway so that's okay. Our bishop also informed us of a less active man whose wife isn't a member and actually practices witchcraft. It was kind of an odd thing to hear come out of our bishops mouth and he noticed our confused faces and he added, "I know, but she's a nice witch at least."
Then we are still struggling with this one family that we feel is extrememly close to being baptized. We scheduled a baptism date in order for them to feel the burn and actually come to church but they had a family reunion to attend so we missed them there. We are supposed to teach them at our bishops house tonight however unless they flake on us again which I'm wagering there's about a 72% liklihood of. But they are a great family. The Dad is very deceptive and it's hard to tell if he's lying or not. Most of the time everything he says is a joke but his face never lets on that he's not being serious. Only once have I felt that he's been really sincere and that time he told us that all joking aside he was very grateful that we come and teach his family the gospel, so that was really touching.
My fourth of July was okay. Preparation Day so we did our laundry and played some tennis and then went pants shopping. I'd been meaning to get some new pants since January I think but for some reason never got around to it. It's done now though, I got two pairs of pants and anyone reading this is probably wondering "why the stink is he so excited about new pants?" I guess it's perhaps a missionary thing, and probably also a girl thing.
Well I hope everyone had a good holiday and has a great week.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
This past week has shot by. We have been spending much of our time trying to get in contact with less active members that the Bishop told us to go see and try and teach. We haven't had any success thus far, but I look forward to when we'll be able to bring some one back to church. One name our Bishop gave us is a lineman for the 49ers and we were kind of interested to go and visit him but he moved before we got around to it and so I guess we missed our opportunity. I hear he wasn't particularly friendly anyway so that's okay. Our bishop also informed us of a less active man whose wife isn't a member and actually practices witchcraft. It was kind of an odd thing to hear come out of our bishops mouth and he noticed our confused faces and he added, "I know, but she's a nice witch at least."
Then we are still struggling with this one family that we feel is extrememly close to being baptized. We scheduled a baptism date in order for them to feel the burn and actually come to church but they had a family reunion to attend so we missed them there. We are supposed to teach them at our bishops house tonight however unless they flake on us again which I'm wagering there's about a 72% liklihood of. But they are a great family. The Dad is very deceptive and it's hard to tell if he's lying or not. Most of the time everything he says is a joke but his face never lets on that he's not being serious. Only once have I felt that he's been really sincere and that time he told us that all joking aside he was very grateful that we come and teach his family the gospel, so that was really touching.
My fourth of July was okay. Preparation Day so we did our laundry and played some tennis and then went pants shopping. I'd been meaning to get some new pants since January I think but for some reason never got around to it. It's done now though, I got two pairs of pants and anyone reading this is probably wondering "why the stink is he so excited about new pants?" I guess it's perhaps a missionary thing, and probably also a girl thing.
Well I hope everyone had a good holiday and has a great week.
Sincerely, Elder Miller
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