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

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.

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.

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.

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

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 Miller

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