11-19-08

Well, first of all thank the Petersons for the email and family updates.
I sent an email to Jessica to help her with her report on Spain. I thought you might like some España facts so here it goes:
The jobs for Spaniards are usually the nice business men office jobs, where they wear nice suits and fancy clothes. The teens don’t work and don’t get married until 30 or near there, and they live with their family until then. They have school just like us with Colegio, then Middle School, then Instituto or High School. Then they go to the University or Universidad. There are trees, but no grass in the cities except for 2 or 3 parks. They like plazas and parks, and open mall stores like at The Gateway. There are just a ton of apartment buildings except for in the little towns. But houses are hooked together, or small. They live mostly in the big cities and don’t spread out across the country. There are way to many cars and not enough room to park them. Public transportation is popular. There are a ton of immigrants. I have met people from all over the world including every nation in South America, Central America, USA, Canada, all over Africa, all over east and west Europe, and then Russia and China, and all over the place. The most common stores are lottery stores, pharmacies, snack stores and candy stores, clothes stores that aren’t in the United States, tobacco stores, banks, real estate agencies, restaurants and bars. Also, the famous people from Spain are Rafael Nadal from tennis, Torres from soccer who plays in England, and Pau Gasol from the Lakers. A former Utah Jazz player Raul Lopez is from here, Antonio Banderas, and I don’t know who else. But good luck with the report. I get home in a little under 8 months. Love you tons, Elder Miller

Well also, I would like to request the Angel’s Landing hike at Zion’s for whichever age group I fall in, but I always loved sitting at the kids table, so you can send me up there with Jake, Abbie, Tessa, Tyler and Cole if you want.
Have fun snowboarding this season Evan. Don’t break anything but have fun.
About the nativity sets: I haven’t seen anything too cool, or anything much at all, just cheap stuff from chino stores that looks way lame. I will search a bit. Most of that stuff is going to be in Madrid, but I have really only been in Madrid on my mission about 10 days of tourism and that includes the temple in the morning and back to missionary work at 6:30, which leaves about no time to run and see one thing. I will try to find one, with zero guarantees.
Well we had exchanges on Monday with the Alcazar elder’s trio here. I went with Elder Ogden, and then Tuesday with Elder Lundell. The baby of Teo and Estefani should be born any day or is already born. Patrick came to church for the fifth time and Takisne and Rei came for the 4th time. All is well with them. We are trying to figure out how to teach Tak and Rei still with their limited English and almost non-existent Spanish. Also, Oswaldo from Ecuador has a baptismal date for the 27th of December. He is awesome and prays always and reads the assignments, along with Tak, Rei, and Patrick. Another menos activo lady came back to church. Her name is Higinia. She is very nice and Elder and Ott and I contacted her about 3 months ago. I use the Ranger Cookie recipe from Grandma Judy, by the way.
To answer Grandma, I can’t remember if Hermana Farnsworth received the cookie book. I think I gave it to her. Tell Dusty and Katie “Hi” if they come to dinner on Sunday. Have them drop me a line if they have a minute. I would love to hear from them. I miss getting Dusty’s emails every week.
Elder Haynie and I are lost in the work and are just having a blast. I am having the time of my life helping the District and loving the members and missionaries. Our investigators are good ones, and the Lord is just blessing us a lot. Thanks for the prayers. We had District Preparation Day today. We played soccer this morning on a little turf field at a near by park here in Ciudad Real. Elder Karren from Skyline High School knows a bunch of people I do, and it was fun to be around the other elders. I gave Elder Reid a hair cut. That is about number 15 or more, and Elder Karren needed a trim. All is well, and the work is going as it should. Tell everyone “Hi and I love them”. The spiritual thought this week is a good “endure to the end” one in Alma 1:25. Keep on keepin on. I love you all.
Much love from España Elder Miller