Silver City Week 1

Hello everyone! I've finally arrived to the mission field and am doing great. On Monday I got to meet President and Sister Passey in Tucson, and they are some of the nicest people I've ever seen. We had a wonderful dinner and testimony meeting in their home; it was a great warm welcome to the mission field. Also on Monday, the new missionaries got to visit the Mormon Battalion Memorial in downtown Tucson which was very fun. I never knew the Battalion played such a huge role in the colonization of the far West and had to march over 2,000 miles!

Yesterday morning we had our transfer meeting, and I'm glad to say I'm getting trained in the least hot place in the whole mission - Silver City, New Mexico! I'm literally the only one in the entire mission who is feeling a breeze outside; after sweating my rear off all day in Tucson, I was happy about that. My trainers name is Elder Coyne (pronounced "coin"), and he's from Denver Colorado. He's a really cool guy, and I think I'll have a good time learning from him and teach with him for the next three months. Our first day in the field wasn't too busy; we had a three and a half hour car ride just to get back to the area. After I unpacked in the guesthouse (we have our very own house, not an apartment), we had a dinner appointment with a nice old lady named Sister Lack and her grandson Jake Rocco. I don't know what it was they fed us, but it tasted pretty good. Later that night we had to give a blessing to an other elderly lady - Sister Stewart - who is going in for hip surgery tomorrow. Elder Coyne gave the blessing, but I anointed the oil, which was cool to do. 

939 West Chapla Drive Tucson Arizona is the address of the mission home. If you want to send me letters and such you should send them to this address where they'll be sent to me in Mew Mexico. Love and miss you all and will talk more next Monday.

Elder Miller

Arizona Tucson Mission

Hugh has made it to Arizona safely. He and the rest of the missionaries were met by the mission president, President Passey and his wife at the airport yesterday in Tucson. 

From the airport they all went to the Mormon Battalion Monument in downtown Tucson, where they talked about commitment and leaving behind all the cares of the world to focus on the work of the Lord. They then stopped at the mission office to meet the staff then to the mission home, where the missionaries received instruction and training from the Assistants to the President, Sister Passey and President Passey. 

Hugh has been assigned to the New Mexico Zone, with Elder Coyne as his companion. We will be updating his mailing address as soon as we receive it.

June 23, 2016

Things are still going great in Provo. I can't believe my stay at the MTC is almost over; this coming Monday I'll be hopping on a plane and heading into the field! The campus has been ridiculously crowded lately. Yesterday over 700 new missionaries arrived (some of whom my district and I had the oppertunity to host), including sixteen new to our zone. Plus from Wednesday up until Sunday, over 180 new mission presidents are meeting for seminars with general authorities! Later todaymy district will be taught by one of these new mission presidents; I'm yet to bump into a general authority, but I'll be sure to let you know if I do. 

We got new TRC investigators this week, meaning we no longer teach Braulio and Ny - sadly. I don't know what ever became of Ny; I assume she is continuing to take lesson. Braulio we see ever now and then luckily since he works in the cafeteria here; last time we saw him he said he's having a baptismal interview with his bishop on Sunday! This week we are teaching two young men named Dylan and Samson. Dylan we're having a hard time getting through to; he's very vague in his answers to our question, so it's hard to discern and teach to his needs. Samson is a huge Samoan police officer and used to be a ranger in the military; he seems to have this emotional wall over him and it's also difficult to decided what to teach him as well. Plus we only get 25 minutes with both of them for each appointment, so that makes it exceptionally hard to teach them. Our time with them is almost to an end now, but I hope we can increase their faith in our Savior one way or an other before we have to leave.

I have a few more pictures to share this week. Again, I'm on a computer that I cant' send them on, so I'll try to get that done later today.

Have a good week, I love you all,

-Elder Miller

June 16,2016 - Photos

Photos of Elder Miller and his companion at the Temple. With bonus photos of Sister Spencer.

June 16, 2016

Greetings from Provo! I can't believe it's already been over a week since I've left home; so much has happened to me since then it's unbelievable. Things here are going fantastic. My companion Elder Sherwood and I are getting along great, and are now the zone leaders in our branch (basically all we do is orient new people and teach priesthood meeting). Speaking of new people, when I was giving our new district a tour last night I may have ran into an Elder Hutchinson for a split second. If you have no idea what this all means: a district is the group of missionaries that come here the same time as you and are in all of your classes with you, while a zone is a group of three or four districts that live in the same area of the residence hall as you (and that's what my companion and I are leaders of). Sister Spencer is in my district, meaning not only are we from the same ward and going to the same mission, but we are also in all of the same class here in the MTC. When ever we tell people were from the same ward their jaws just drop, this sort of thing is practically unheard of. Nonetheless, it has been a joy to have her in the district.

Believe it or not, you get to teach investigators at the MTC! Some of them are real, same already members, but you never know who's who. We're teaching two people this week: Braulio Gonzales from Lima, Peru, and Ny (pronounced "Knee") Andrianavalona from Madagascar. Both of them are currently learned english and speak it beautifully; their accents are quite amusing to listen to. Elder Sherwood and I had a hard time in the beginning learning how to work together; I'd open up my mouth and nothing would come out - I even forgot the first vision in the middle of reciting it! Luckily they were patient with us and by the time we gave them the second lesson we were doing much better. Ny is very interested in the BOM and the priesthood, and we still working on having her pray. Braulio works at the MTC cafeteria and we see him at meals a lot, and he is trying to get a high enough english score so he can go to BYU Provo and continue living with the LDS family that welcomed him into their home when he moved to the states. He's very much interested in the repentance process and trying to show him how true repentance will eventually lead to baptism. He said a prayer aloud with us yesterday and said he'd consider being baptized! 

As far as pictures go, I can't remember how many I've taken. I know for a fact I have a picture of my district and I at the temple (we just walk to it; we don't go inside until latertoday). Unfortunately, I can't upload anything on this computer; I need to go to a different lab. But I'll try to get them out to you before my P-day's over.

Have a good day; I love and miss all of you,

Elder Miller 

June 15, 2016

We received a letter from Elder Miller yesterday. He is doing fine and he will be going to the Temple every Thursday while at the MTC. Hopefully we will be getting an email tomorrow on P-Day that I can post telling us more about how things are going for him and his companion, Elder Sherwood.

Photos

 Some of the awesome photos taken by Jen Christiansen before Hugh left on his mission.

June 9, 2016

Dear Family,
Sorry for the late email; I didn't get a chance yesterday to send one. I'm at the MTC now and I'm safe. I've learned a lot already and have an even busier day ahead of me today. My P-Days are on Thursdays while I'm in Provo. I got my very first companion yesterday; his name is Elder Sherwood and he's from Dayton, Ohio. We're both going to Tucson, and we'll be teaching a lesson together for the first time later today. Know that you're all loved and missed.


Elder Miller