Monday, May 28, 2018

Yee Haw

I'm happy to say I'm living to type this email after the eighty head of cattle we had to hold down and brand on Friday and Saturday. Saturday we did the bulk of them and they were huge! The biggest ones we hovering around 200 lbs, and guess who had to hold down their legs. What made it even better is that Bishop thought it'd be a good idea to have the young men help out. We held down the first one and Bishop gave the scissors to one of them so they could cut its ears. The calf was screaming and flopping around while Bishop was yelling, and the young man just started crying and climbed out of the pin. Poor kid. The good news is we got through. And by the way, Rocky Mountain Oysters are pretty dang good (if you know what those are).

I guess as far as missionary work goes, the only two current investigators we got to were Keith and Lisa. We had really good discussions with both of them. Kieth had a lot of questions about how we will be judged in this life, and Lisa had a lot of questions about repentance and baptism. We feel like they both could be baptized at some point and would like to challenge both of them to it before we go home.

We also had Shelby's baptism Wednesday, which was super great. Probably the last baptism Elder Sherwood and I will attend as missionaries. A lot of her family were nonmembers, so they also got to feel the Spirit of the ordinance. I've always enjoyed the scripture D&C 84:20 (or something like that), where it talks about how in the ordinances of the gospel the power of Godliness is made manifest. I really believe that to be true, because I felt it this last Wednesday and many other times as a missionary.

Well, we're down to the last three P-Days now. It won't be long at all time I get to see you all again. I hope you all have a wonderful, safe week,

Elder Miller

Monday, May 21, 2018

Cowbob Ranchpants

This week has been a lot of fun. We picked up a new family to teach named the Muniz family. The husband Ted was a former who we contacted and he told us to come back; when we came back, his wife was there as well and she listened and participated in the lesson as well. Then their grandson, who lives a few house down, came in and listened to the last half of the discussion! So in all we've been able to find four new investigators this week, which was more than I ever got in my last area.

On Friday, the other elder's joined us to go out and help our Bishop's dad brand his cattle. That's right, I had to help tackle calves and hold them down while Bishop branded/castrated them. I certainly preferred holding down the legs over the head, it was a lot easier. You had to hold them down just right or Bishop and his dad would yell and cuss at you, haha. We only did fourteen, but we were so tired (and then they had us move literally a hundred bales of hay that weighed 120 pounds each). Then this weekend, we have to go over to Bishop's ranch and help him brand his calves and he has 90 he needs to do on Friday and Saturday! I think I'm going to die.

Shelby texted us on Saturday and said she wants to move her baptism to Wednesday, which is now in only two days! So we are also scrambling to get all her baptism stuff figured out. This may be the last baptism I see as a full time missionary; it's a crazy thought.

Just found out I'm speaking on the 25th of June in Huntington. It's so nuts to be in this position. I honestly never thought I'd get this far.

Love you guys and I hope you have a good week

Elder Miller

Monday, May 14, 2018

One more month ahhh!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday. It was so much fun being able to talk to me family (for the last time on the mission, too)! Elder Sherwood and I are continuing to work hard in Silver City. President is going to put sisters in after we leave, so we need to get everything in order the absolute best we can before we leave. We've been going through the list of potentials investigators (which is pretty much a list of people that have been contacted by the missionaries in the past, but haven't been invited to be taught). We found two new investigators from it so far. One is a guy named David, who was actually referred to us by his girlfriend in prison who has been being taught by the senior missionaries there. When we mentioned that to him at the door, I think that is what had him allow us to come back and teach him. The other guy's name was Keith, who we actually just saw yesterday. He even let us into his house! He's an artist and a good one at that. He showed a few of his painting he's working on and they are so detailed and beautiful; a lot of them inspired by the desert landscape of the Southwest. He took a Book of Mormon from us and was very intrigued by it. He knows a lot about history and he said he could definitely believe that Jews came to America around the time they did in the Book of Mormon.

Shelby should still be getting baptized on the 26th, and I'm pretty excited for that. Like I said before, it will be wonderful to be able to see one last baptism before I go home.

I hope you guys have a good week and I'll see you all very soon.

Elder Miller

Monday, April 30, 2018

Last Transfer!!

First off, I never thought I'd ever get to the point where I'd say I'm going into my last transfer; second, I never would have guess I'd end my mission the way I am. Saturday I found out I'm going to be transferred back to Silver City, New Mexico to serve in the 1st and 3rd wards (I was in 2nd and Gila ward the first time I was there). If not's not freaky enough for you, my companion over there is going to be Elder Sherwood, my companion from when I was in the MTC! I get to end my mission in my first area with my first ever companion. I couldn't imagine a better way to do it.

My last week in the area had us doing a ton of finding. We found three new people to teach, and they all came from tracting. The goal was to get someone new on date for baptism, but it didn't quite happen that way. However, I think I mentioned last week that our investigator Chris got back with us and we got to teach him on Thursday night with our ward mission leader. My teaching was a little rusty, as I hadn't had a lesson inside of a home in a while; most of our teach for the month has been outside and not in not so formal of a setting. Nonetheless, it went pretty well, and he said he really wants his family to start coming to church at least a couple of times every month. He's probably the most promising prospect in the area at this moment.

Saturday I did my last exchange as a district leader (as I won't be one in Silver, luckily - lol). I was with Elder Dodson in the Spanish ward - my second time exchanging there. We spent most of the day helping a nonmember move, so there wasn't too much Spanish to be said that day. I can only really introduce my self and say where I'm from and all the stuff a lot of people ask you all the time, anyhow. We did have to go to a correlation meeting with their WML, which was in Spanish and went on for an hour, so I kind of tuned out for a while. I will miss being in this district, as it was very interesting to have the Spanish elders as well as the American Sign Language Sisters in it.

I really love you guys, and I can't wait to tell you all about my next adventures in Silver.

Elder Miller

Monday, April 23, 2018

Lakeside ward is normally where we focus a lot of our efforts, since we have a lot easier time finding there, but we tried focusing little bit more on Saguaro Park this week. We visited a part member family named the Devitos and only the non member husband was home. We had a long discussion with him about his interest in the church and whatnot. We previously invited him to take the lessons from us, but he said he's still going to have to think about it; not because he's not interested, but because he knows it will involve more that just listening and require action on his part. We had a really good - and I think significant - visit with him nonetheless, and when we left he looked at our watches and saw it was way past time to be home! The time flew that night. We are still teaching Nereida - who at this point is our only consistent investigator in the Saguaro Park ward. I don't mean to sound negative, but she will probably have to be dropped if she doesn't keep her commitments soon.

As far as Lakeside goes, we are still struggling to find a family we can get past the doorstep with. There are a few who have agreed to have us come in, but we just need to set a time that works with them. Hopefully that can materialize this week. We also got back into contact with our investigator Chris, who kind of disappeared on us for a little while. He and his family have been going through some hard times, and he said they're going to make a greater effort to get involved in the church. We're going to see him for the first time in a month tomorrow, so I'm real happy about that.

Other than all that, we're going to continue knocking on doors and try to find someone who is ready now to accept our message. This could very well be my last week in the area, so I'd like to get some things rolling for Elder Williams and his new companion when i leave.

Elder Miller

Monday, April 16, 2018

What's up?

These past two weeks have been good ones and we've seen a lot of good things happen. I don't know if I've mentioned it in an email yet, but Julianna was baptized back on the 7th and confirmed on the 8th. Now we just need to get to her dad, Eric. He's come to church and has even gone through the entire Book of Mormon. Plus, he's playing basketball with the elders quorum every Wednesday. He just doesn't feel the need to be baptized at the moment. They're planning on moving it Salt Lake here in the next year, so he's pretty much doomed:)
Last Friday, we were supposed to have a lesson at this apartment complex and it fell through. Elder Williams and I felt like we needed to stay a little bit. We tried to knock some doors and stuff, but it wasn't going anywhere. We saw a big UHaul in front of one of the buildings and thought we'd try to figure out who was moving. On the second floor we saw a lady coming down the stairs carrying an endtable by herself. We offered to carry some stuff out and she said "Are you serious!?" We waited for her husband to come home and we helped him carry out the heaviest furniture of all time. Originally, he was going to try to do it by himself, but there was no way he could have. We found out they were getting kicked out and needed to be out that day. They said we were the only good thing to happen to them in weeks. Of course, we gave them Book of Mormons when it was all done. Almost nobody wants our help when we offer it on the spot, so to give it to someone who appreciated it and needed it was refreshing. I really hope that family finds their way to a home soon.
Some highlights from this week is that we found three new people to teach - and just from going door to door. Probably the most promising of them is a lady named Muriel. She asked a lot of questions about the church and took a Book of Mormon. We talked a lot about her family, too. Her husband passed away a few months ago, but she still has some kids in the house. She also only has one leg; I was curious as to why, but I figured I shouldn't have asked. Of all the people we've talked to, she has really stuck out in my mind.
On Thursday, we had the most gnarliest service project of all time. The sister missionaries in an other ward had someone they used to teach move out of their apartment since it got infested with roaches. And guess who got to throw out all the stuff he left behind?? There were roaches coming out of the furniture and we found out one of the mattresses had bedbugs - that's when we got the heck out of Dodge! Luckily, I didn't have to touch the bedbug bed or go into that room, so Elder Williams and I just threw our clothes in the drying and hopefully that killed anything that got on us.
Really love you guys and hope you all have a good week.
Elder Miller

Monday, April 2, 2018

Conference Weekend

I'll have to start out by saying what an amazing conference we had thus past week. So many changes and I know they are for the better. It's a blessing to be a part of a living church led by inspired men that can receive revelation on how to make the Lord's work efficient.

This week we made a big push as a zone to talk to as many people as possible. Elder Williams and I got 50 gospel conversations this week and 12 BOMs passed out. Probably one of the best weeks of my mission in that respect. We found a new guy to teach named Patrick. When we came back for a return appointment, he started asking us questions about stuff he saw on South Park about Joseph Smith, lol. Luckily a lot of the people who see that stuff are doubtful of it's accuracy to begin with. His intentions are honest and he really wants to learn more.

Julianna's baptism is this Saturday, so we're very excited for that. Saguaro Park is a difficult place for missionary work, so we're glad we have this happening.

Monday, March 19, 2018

End of another transfer

Another transfer has ended and it turns our I'm staying in Lakeside and Saguaro Park ward even longer. This will be my fourth transfer here, which equates to six months. The only other place I've been in that long is Silver City New Mexico.

This week has been a good one. I'm the Lakeside ward we've been trying hard to get less actives to church and three of them came! Julianna should be getting baptized the first weekend in April. We also found a new person to teach in Lakside named Ray. We've only talked to him, but we've invited him to all his family to hear or message. He said would. It's been a while since I've taught a no member family, so I'm anxious to see how this one turns out.

Monday, March 12, 2018

Referrals are great

We've been able to have a few great teaching oppertunities come our way lately. A bishop in Latyon, Utah told us an investigator just moved into our area in Arizona. Her name is Lexi and she's here to take care of her grandma and will probably be moving here permanently soon. We met her for the fist time on Saturday. She's been through pretty much all the lessons and wants to be baptized! She just has a few things to work out as her situation is a little hectic at the moment. We also got a call from someone in Idaho and he said we really needed to see his aunt. He wasn't joking, she was a complete mess. She recently lost her husband and got robbed while in the hospital a few months ago. She was SP glad we came and she really wants to learn and be a part of the church. She seems to be desperately searching for help and also for some answers and hope in her trials. It's going to be great being able to teach her for the next little while.

Monday, March 5, 2018

What’s up??

These past few weeks have been pretty good. It’s just been hard lately getting into contact with a lot of the people that we teach. Matt - who I thought was making good progress the last time I met with him, hasn’t had us back in weeks. It almost seems like we need to kind of start over from scratch in our teaching people and just start dropping people. It’s quite an act of faith, because you’re never sure if you’re going to find enough solid people to teach. It’ll be hard, but I’ve done it before; I’m starting to feel like it’s what’s going to need to happen in order for our work to progress. On the bright side, Julianna is still progress toward baptism and it should take place on the 24th.

Elder Williams and I had the opportunity to speak on sharing the gospel in Saguaro Park Ward. The family that we had dinner with that night was actually listening to it too. I mentioned something about setting a date with the Lord to find someone to share the gospel with and they said they wanted to hear more about it. They have a missionary out in North Carolina, so that’s probably a big reason why. It was just really cool to see that someone actually wanted to apply something they heard in a talk at Sacrament Meeting.

We got smartphones last Tuesday. Not really that much of a change. It was actually a bit of a inconvenience because we got the wrong phone and didn’t realize it until after conference. We weren’t able to make any call for the evening and ended up missing an appointment because of it. That’s all fixed up now, so it’s all good.

I hope you have a good week. I’m very thankful for this time I have to serve and I thank you for all the emails and support you’ve shown.

Elder Miller

Monday, February 12, 2018

Hey everyone. Real excited about his new transfer, new companion, and new district. My district is pretty interesting. It consists of two Spanish elder companionship’s and American Sign Language Sisters. Oh yeah, and a senior couple. When I go on exchanges it will be Spanish area, so that’ll be fun. Elder Williams is from Jacksonville and he has a pretty thick southern accent that’s pretty fun to listen to.

I had gone eighteen months without getting sick once on my mission, but last Thursday I got sick for the second time in less than a month! We got some bad pizza from Dominos and it destroyed our stomachs!

The teaching continues to got pretty good. We should be setting a baptismal date with Julianna soon. We picked up a new person to teach named Chris who just married a member in the Lakeside Ward. He has had so many wonderful experiences with latter saints during his time going through the prison system and whatnot. He said he’s all for having us over to learn more and he is an individual the lord has certainly been preparing. Let it be know that our examples as members has a huge impact on people and can even bring them closer to the knowledge of their God.

I love you guys and I hope you stay safe this week!

Elder Mille
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Monday, February 5, 2018

New Zones, New Companion, New Transfer

Lots of changes this time around. I'm staying in Lakeside and Saguro Park wards, but Elder Esplin is going to Silver City, New Mexico where I started my mission a while back. I'll be getting an Elder Williams who is fairly new in the mission. Plus all the zones in the Tucson area have been redrawn. It used to be there was a Northwest, Central, Southeast, and Spanish Zone in Tucson. Now there is a North, South, East, West. My area is in the new Tucson East Zone, and I'll still be a district leader - only I have no idea who's in the district now and we haven't really received many details, yet.

We had a few good things happen this week. On Tuesday we were out trying to find a former investigator. We knocked on her door, but there was no answer. We walked toward an apartment complex across the street when we heard our ward mission leader Bro. Parrish calling for us. He had just decided to try to find the same investigator at the same time we did! We took that as a sign meaning we need to keep on trying to get a hold of her. We tired later in the week with no answer, but we're not going to stop until we find her! Anyway, since he was already there, Bro Parrish decided to just start knocking other doors with us. We when down the road and tried to find a less active we haven't met. We were greeted by a nice, young man who was living with him named Dovante. Bro. Parrish and Elder Esplin talked to the less active we went to see while I broke off and talked to Dovante for a few minutes. He's not a member, but he said he'd really like to get back to church. We gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him if we could come back later next week. We should be going back on Saturday, so I'm pretty excited about that.

Wednesday, we were going to see our investigator Matt with our stake president, but just as he was coming to pick us up Matt canceled. So we decided to go see a part member family that has been coming to church that stake president hasn't met yet. We talked to the wife who's a member and she mentioned that her nine year old daughter hasn't been baptized quite yet. We asked her daughter if she'd like for us to come back on an other day to teach her and she agreed. Her name is actually Julianna. We should be going by to give her the first lesson later tonight!

On Sunday, we had a whole new family to teach come out of nowhere. It was a recently married couple who just moved into the Lakeside ward boundaries. The wife is a member but the husband is not, however he learned quite a bit about the Mormon beliefs during his time in prison a while back. They went to church for the first time in an other ward at the stake center, but the elders there told us about them and we were able to set a time to see them this week as well. So there have been quite a few teaching opportunities that have come our way this week.

It's incredible to think that I'm starting the first of my last three transfers. That's going to go by before I know it! I love you guys, and miss you. I hope you all have a good, safe week,

Elder Miller
 

Monday, January 22, 2018

Not sick among other things

This week was quite a bit better than last week as I was not so limited by health this time around. We were able to see our investigator Matt in the Saguaro Park Ward on Wednesday. We brought our stake president with us - who is a convert who had investigated the church for many years prior to his baptism. He seemed to be a good match for him as they have very similar backgrounds. With the intentions of reading the Book of Mormon with him, he surprised us by saying he had actually read what we had left with him the previous visit. We’ve been meeting with him for a few months now and that was the first time he had ever made the effort to do so. So we ended up going over what he read and discussing it. It was Mosiah 5:8-15 which talks about Christ being the only head under which we are free. It’s transitioned smoothly into a commitment to be baptized when he comes to know that the Book of Mormon is true. He said that he would once he does. We had been thinking of “dropping” him for a while while, but he has suddenly made a lot of progress.

I got to give a talk yesterday on the Gathering of Israel. Inevitably, it morphed into basically a talk on doing missionary work as members. I drew out a few experiences from my mission thus far. I hope it was of some use to someone who heard it. Speaking has tended to become much easier for me on the mission, as you get plenty of opportunities to be put on the spot. It’s just a matter of listening to the Spirit and saying the things He would want you to, rather than just something you thought would be good.

Aside from that, the Lakeside Ward has a good amount of less active that have taken up a good amount of our time in the evenings. In fact, we got into contact with a new part member Family in our complex who are actually named the Millers. We’ll be going back there for dinner on Saturday, so I’m pretty excited for that.

Hope you all have an awesome week

Elder Miller

Monday, January 8, 2018

Happy New Year!

I know the New Year has been a few days already, but I was never able to get an email out last week. I dropped my iPad on the sidewalk just before Christmas, so I need a library computer now. Anyway, today marks nineteen months I've been out on the mission (but like I've said before, who's counting?). I really enjoy being a district leader and being able to serve other missionaries in this capacity; I just hope I'm not screwing things up too bad.

This past week was very good. On Tuesday we went back to see Afa, who accepted a baptismal date for February 3rd! I don't know if I've mentioned her before, but I'll say she is certainly someone who has been prepared to received the gospel. She's Russian and from a Muslim family, but she wants to turn away from that and follow Christ, and she even asked us how it is she'd go about doing that. It's people just like that the we as missionaries are sent out to find and it's always such a joyous occasion when we do.

We had two investigator lesson lined up later that day, and we even had our stake president come and give us a ride for both, but guess what - they both fell through! We talked to a few people in the streets when President Thies thought it'd be good to see an inactive family he knew - the Alstons. I never met them till then, but it turns out they have quadruplets who are three! I've never seen that before. They let us in and were super welcoming; the dad even acknowledged they weren't coming to church but ought to be. President Thies afterwards said that it was probably a significant to have with them.

Aside from Afa, we have mostly been working with the less and inactive in our wards (since so many of our investigators are flaking out on us lately), but it's alright - whatever keeps us busy.

I'm pretty excited for this New Year; it's always as good a time as any to make resolutions to leave the old things behind and move on to better things. My district decided to start things strong by making a goal to talk to a combined one thousand people this month! I don't know if we're going to get all of them, but you'd better believe just trying is going to have some great results!

Hope you all enjoy your week and are having a great start to the new year!

Elder Miller