Almost December!

From: Morgan Miller (elder.miller@myldsmail.net)

Hey everyone! I thought I would tell you what the Madrid mission does around Christmas. I would guess at this time they do Christmas lights on the Madrid Temple Square, and then the Madrid elders carol on Christmas Eve at Plaza Mayor. I haven’t seen the lights and didn’t do the caroling last year because I wasn’t in that area. Hopefully this year I will at least see the lights on Temple Square.
We had our Zone Mission Home night for the holidays on week 2 of this transfer, so like a week and a half ago. This week there were 3 more exchanges since last Wednesday. We have 3 more this transfer with Alcazar again on Friday, and then Puerto llano on week 5 and 6 of the transfer. It is wacky because we have so many exchanges, more than anyone else in the mission, even more than the Assistants and other District Leaders over large districts, but it’s all right because Elder Haynie is a top-notch amazing missionary, and takes over the area like a champ. Teo and Estefania had their baby, and all is well. Elder Decker and I went to visit them on exchanges. Elder Decker is way sweet. He is our Zone Leader and I get along with him really well. He is in my MTC group of missionaries, so we have been on our missions the same amount of time, but he waited 6 months in the Baltimore, Maryland English speaking mission for his visa.
The work is going amazing here, better than I ever imagined it could possibly go. It is Wednesday morning, and we still have 5 days in the week of teaching, and we already had the opportunity to teach 12 lessons on exchanges in the past two days. The exchanges were with Elder Dorner and Elder Korongo. I have served around Elder Korongo a lot. In each of my areas he has been in my Zone. So now I have finally been on exchanges with him. You might remember him. He is the very tall, dark guy in the picture with me a few months ago. He is an interesting person. I have always gotten along with him.
Mom, will you ask Tom about my gums around my molars? They are receding a little bit. I can’t figure out why. Am I brushing too much, or not getting enough vitamins, or what? The members feed us a ton here, so it isn’t by any means malnutrition, and I don’t think that’s a reason for it anyway. Thanks!
The good news is my suits are holding in there. My shirts are always ironed and clean and my shoes stay polished. Holidays pass like nothing happened. The days are going faster and faster. I sleep deeper and deeper. I am happier and busier than I have ever been, and I love my family more than I ever knew before.
Happy Thanksgiving! It won’t feel any different here, but we are going to buy a roasted chicken and have chips and dip. We are going to make the pumpkin muffins Grandma sent, salad with ranch dressing, and of course, mashed potatoes. I haven’t had mashed potatoes my whole time here, well a couple times the instant mashed potatoes, but we are doing the real thing.
Patrick is doing great. Elder Haynie and Elder Dorner gave him a blessing yesterday of council and comfort, and it went “out of this world” well. Also, Oswaldo is doing well, even though he went to Madrid last weekend and didn’t make it to church there. We just had a great lesson with Higinia from Bolivia. She is a menos activo lady who just came back to church. I think I mentioned her last week. It was an awesome lesson, and the members are taking her right back in and loving her to death. It’s great! This unit of the church is amazing here, and I am glad to be a part of it.
We were able to teach José Antonio’s sister and dad. His dad is 97, turning 98 in January. He lives with his brother Ramón and sister Ana. Missionaries have never visited them from what Ana told us, and Elder Dorner and I just figured we would ask if we could come over. It went great and we have another lesson on Saturday with them. José Antonio is the only member of the church in his family. He is amazing, and loves, loves, loves missionary work. He goes with us at least once a day to lessons. Also, we taught a Colombian woman named Mabel, who is golden. She came to church and accepted the baptismal date for the 27th of December.
We are way excited for her. She was telling us how the Lord sent us to Spain to help her see the light and find the truth. It was awesome. We got to serve some members and trim there patio trees, and sweep up their leaves. They didn’t have a rake because it is a weird thing to live on the bottom floor of a building, and even weirder to have a patio with trees. It is more normal here in Ciudad Real, but in Spain as a whole, it is different. It was way fun, and we had a great time helping out the members. It was surprising how much fun manual labor was. I absolutely loved it, weird.
Hermana Nieves, who lives a roller coaster life with depression, is doing great right now, and is consistently praying, reading the scriptures, and just doing great with all of her problems, so that is just awesome. She is helping others find the gospel as well. Her latest ones are her friends Lourdes and Amelia. So we are going to teach Amelia for the 3rd time on Saturday, and Lourdes for the first time.
Have a great day! The spiritual thought this week is in Doctrine and Covenants 109 verse 14.
Love, Elder Miller