Central Ward South Week 5

Sorry there was no letter last week. As I've mentioned before, sometimes I'm a bum and I just don't get around to it. Had a great experience with the Tucson Temple two weeks ago. The First Presidency suddenly decided they wanted a whole different landscape for the outside after they had already finished the first one (they want to plant grass there instead of having the decorative rocks they already put in). So we elders were recruited to help get rid of all the rocks around the Temple. It was really a wonderful opportunity to get to participate to some degree in the construction of the House of the Lord in Tucson. After the Elders in my Zone were done with their shift, the adviser over the construction of the Temple (I wish I remembered his name) gave us all a tour of the inside, weeks before it was to be open to the public! The freakiest thing was we weren't even in church clothes - just jeans and a tshirt walking around the Temple. It is a beautiful building; it's a mid-sized temple - about 38,000 square feet I do believe.
We have so many people we are teaching now; I don't think I've mentioned half of them. Our assistant ward mission leader brother Williams was out with us seeing people a few weeks ago when he decided to introduce us to his friend Arshad. Arshad is from Iraq and has been paralyzed from the waist down since he was five. He is very intelligent; he's lived in the states for only a few years, but he has learned to speak English only from listening to others speak it. He is a Shiite Muslim and actually teaches theology to students in Iraq online. He has an interest in the Church as well; it's more of an intellectual interest more than anything, but at least he's someone who will listen to us, right?
Robert Alexander is an eternal investigator that showed up at our church out of the blue a few Sundays ago and has been coming to church ever since. My companion Elder Lee has been pretty bold with him lately when it comes to getting him to commit to baptism, and he finally got him to commit to a date this past Friday for Bastille Day (July 14 - yes, he told us he wanted to get baptized on Bastille Day).
As for Russ Collins and his daughter Audrey, we are still trying to get Audrey to want to come to church. If anyone has any ideas on how to make an eight year old want to come to church - I'm open ears.


Elder Miller

Tucson Central Ward South Week 2

This week we have found a pretty good amount of new people to teach, which I'm happy for - needless to say. One Saturday we found a new Family that was taught previously by missionaries in this area who are really golden. It is a father and daughter. They were going to church and everything, but the meeting time changed after the new year and they didn't know when our ward met. Apparently, some missionaries just stopped teaching them because they weren't home for a couple of appointments - isn't that just a little bit silly. They were going to go to church yesterday, but the girl is seven and she didn't want to go (and she seems to be afraid of us for some reason), but we'll just have to work on that. The father really wants to get baptized, but he wants to wait until his daughter turns eight in July, so they can be baptized at the same time. We went to 7/11 on Friday to get some food and the the cashier started talking to us and obviously recognized us as elders. She asked us where we were from and how long we've been out and whatnot. Turns out she was taught by sisters years ago and was getting ready for baptism, too, but she was having a problem in the last place she was living. Needless to say, we asked her if she'd like us to teach here again and she agreed.
Last Sunday, an older gentleman asked us for our phone number and wanted to meet with us. We figured he must have been a less active who wanted to come back, but turned out to an eternal investigator (someone who has been taught by missionaries on and off for years). He seems to be seriously thinking about baptism now. It's simply amazing the miracles I've seen this week.
Yesterday I look at the program for sacrament meeting as saw that I
was supposed to speak. The bishopric asked me to speak last week and I forgot all about until a half hour before sacrament! I jotted down a talk quickly and it turned out to be the longest talk I've ever given (wasn't half bad either). I'd take that as a fulfillment of a promise in my patriarchal blessing that said I'd be able to communicate well if I chose to serve a mission.
I'll go for now, but I hope you have an awesome Monday,

Elder Miller