November 5

Well it was a good week this week. As far as transfers, Elder Haynie and I stayed together for hopefully another six weeks, at least. So I will probably be here in Ciudad Real until the next transfer on the 15th of December. As far as the rest of the district: Elder Hinton went home, and he was replaced by Elder Gamarra, from Peru and in the Madrid CCM with me. Elder Lundell was in Valladolid while I was in Segovia and we were in the same district. Elder Korongo replaced Elder Porter in Valdapeñas, so Elder Korongo and I have been in the same zone 4 times now. Elder Read was made a senior companion for his 4th transfer, and is with Elder Karren from Skyline who is in his 3rd transfer. So there are 2 experienced companionships, one inexperienced, and then Elder Haynie and I are a mix of the two. District Meeting went great. We have a trip to Madrid on Monday morning to renew my residency, and then to go to the mission home that night for the holiday dinner as a zone, and then stay over, and go the next morning to Leganes for interviews. Then we will be back home Tuesday night to Ciudad Real. I got your package by the way, and I love the calendar. Also, I got a tape and pictures from Greg. We have been way blessed with investigators lately. Patrick is doing great. He quit smoking, drinking alcohol and coffee, and is moving out tomorrow or Friday. Pray for him that all goes well and he can be baptized the 15th. He came to church for the 4th time in a row. He has such a strong testimony that as we teach him commandments he just accepts them and says he wants to do anything to follow the Savior and be baptized into the church. It is awesome to see him grow, and learn and prepare. The members fellowship him amazingly, as well. Also, Takisne and Rei came to church again. We spell there names phonetically in Spanish so we can understand the names. We watched the Restoration DVD in Tai with them on Saturday, and they came to church on Sunday again and brought a friend, Suni. Then we at Tai food at their house after church that wasn’t hot, because they know we are Americans. But they did have us try a chili, and my mouth was on fire. Also, there is this man named Manuel. Elder Ott will remember him as the old man of 80 years we taught and he didn’t seem to listen or understand anything, and he had some interesting tangents. So it has been about 7 or 8 weeks since we last went by, but we decided to go by in planning last Thursday. When we went by, he was home and reading the Restoration pamphlet. He has accepted the Book of Mormon amazingly, and we went back the next day, and he had read the first 18 chapters of first Nephi. How amazing is that? I am so excited for this man, and we will see what we can do to help him know of the truthfulness of the gospel. Also Renilda and Bruna, we taught and challenged to baptism, and they said they would when they know it’s true. They are still reading. We just need to help them pray about it. There was a friend of theirs named Marilyn who was there that we taught last time. Estefania is due in about a week I believe, and is resting a lot. My hair cut is kind of interesting right now. It is just fine. I did the usual 19 cm. on top and 7 on the sides and then blended between. Elder Haynie helped me finish the blending to line up the back and around the ears. Well, with the one last stroke above my left ear he took out a chunk of hair. So I have one step in my haircut. I could add two more and be way retro if I wanted, but I guess we will just try to fix it after it as grown for about a week or so. Also this morning, we studied in the light of the patio door because a light bulb blew up when Elder Haynie flipped the light switch this morning. So we waited until our dueño, who’s on vacation in Barcelona, was for sure up, and called to find out that one of the paintings is hiding the breaker box. Good to know- and the lights are back on. We had a dinner appointment at the Pedraja’s again Monday night for family night, and then the Lopez’s for stew on Sunday night. On Monday for medio dia we had pasta with beef sauce at Nieves’ and then the Tai food Sunday for medio dia, and then Thursday we go to Luis´ for paella. The members are awesome, and I love this area, the investigators, and the people of La Mancha or Manchegos. We got a bucket of cake for the 3rd time since I have been here from Pres. Pedraja who is a pastelero, or a pastry baker. Things are going amazing in the district and area, and the Lord is blessing us a ton. I love what it says in Alma 5:49 I believe it is. We preach to everyone and help all to come unto Christ and especially here in a way diverse country. Love, Elder Miller