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

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

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

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

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

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.