Hi everybody!

Hi everybody!
Dad and Evan, sorry Lake Powell wasn’t prime weather, but I hope you still had a good time. Sounds like a fun, crazy trip. So thanks for the email, and for everything you do. I loved the tape in the package you sent with the Ivorys. I loved hearing Jason Stephen’s farewell talk, and then the Barcelona elder’s homecoming talk. I couldn’t put a face with his name though. Thanks for the foot stuff, and the anti-perspirant. I ran out yesterday, and so it came just in time. Mom and Evan, it was great to hear from you guys. Dad I just loved hearing your talk on Easter, and thanks a ton for the journal entries. It was awesome to hear. I just loved it. It was just great to hear all is well and to hear your voices. I sure do love you guys. Mom, thanks for going to Elder Van Dyke’s homecoming. That’s just awesome you got to meet him. I will miss him.
The Romanian meal we had at Christina’s was great; I actually had another on Monday night too. She is a great cook. The first meal was like boiled or baked cabbage wraps with beef and a bunch of spices and onions and garlic in them. They were way good, and then you put sour cream type stuff on top. I took over the cookies I made, and they went over really well. They loved them, and want the recipe. The second meal with Christina was a green bean and milk based soup that was way good. The big theme in Romanian cooking, from what I have seen is garlic and onions, but more so garlic. Then we thought that was it, until she brought out the main course of 2 steaks about 3 inches by 2 inches, topped with garlic, and then rice with veggies. The rice was super different and tasted more like mashed potatoes than rice. It was all great though, like not even kidding it was awesome tasty food. Then also with that she brought out these cordero or lamb meatballs that I think had little veggie pieces in them including onion, carrot, and you guessed, it garlic. They were awesome and served cold, kind of weird concept, but just as delicious as all the other Romanian food. Then there was dessert that we couldn’t eat because we had to run home to be on time. She is saving the dessert for tonight in the freezer. It looked like a mix between flan and ice cream, and then also looked like a frozen root beer float, so we will see what it really is and tastes like tonight.
Oh, I forgot to tell you that on the second meal at Christina’s, I was on exchanges with Elder Weinert. He is the new Assistant to the President to replace Elder Manning who goes home in like 4 weeks. We had a way fun time. It was his first exchange as an assistant. We had two lessons go sour when we got stood up by them that day, but we were able to contact some awesome people instead. Also, he taught me a lot, and it was a really fun time. His parents are converts and he has lived in 4 states: California, Illinois, Ohio, and Tennessee, if I remember right. His parents are in Tennessee now. He also lived in Utah before he came on his mission. He did computer programming, and graduated from ITT Technical Institute. He is way awesome. We were able to teach Christina a way awesome Sabbath day lesson, and to commit here very firmly to come to church this Sunday. She has been to Noche de Hogar (family night), the Charla Foganera (the Fireside), and the Joseph Smith movie. She loved them all, but was nervous for the first two. They all went really well though, and she just loved the Joseph Smith movie, what an amazing, amazing spirit.
Elder Sewell and I get on real good. I just realized I said “get on”. That’s what Elder Sewell says when someone gets along with someone else well. I love this whole English companion thing. The other day, I accidentally said, “si somos Americanos”, which would be true if I was with about 95 percent of the missionaries in our mission.
Interviews were yesterday, and they went really well. Mission Council went really well also. We had quiche, cinnamon muffins, yogurt and juice for breakfast, and then Mexican Volcanoes for lunch with all of the fixins you can think of. After two big meals, I went and weighed myself and was 208 with a full stomach and all my clothes and shoes on. Also, I measured myself the other day to be 5 foot 11 and ¾ - just an update.
So anyway, interviews were great. The Assistants to the President talked about the raising of the bar with our mission goals in equilibrio. Elder L. Tom Perry has asked us to raise the standard and norms of missionary work to 20 lessons a week instead of 15, and also as a mission we now desire and strive to get 2 baptismal challenges weekly instead of 1. Also, we have 15 minutes during companionship study to do practicas of lessons, contacts, and teaching in general. That’s what Elder Sewell and I talked about, is the 15 minute practicas with the 3 districts. It went really well, and we did a 10 minute intro with the scriptures and “Preach My Gospel”, and then a 15 minute demonstration, then 5 minutes critiques and comments. It went well.
I love you guys.

Love,

Elder Miller

Hey Everybody!

Hey Everybody!
Pedidos were at the Stake Center on Monday. We will be at the Mission Home for Mission Council again on Friday, as they are the first Friday of the transfer for the zone leaders. It will be weird with Elder
Van Dyke not there, but Elder Peterson will be there. He was made a zone leader this transfer in Aluche. Thanks for sending that stuff with the Ivorys. That was so nice of them to bring it over to Spain for me. I will get it Friday at Mission Council or Monday at the Stake Center for Pedidos.
Elder Brown got transferred to Salamanca to take Elder Bradshaw’s place there with Elder Cummins from England. I got Elder Sewell, also from England. He is way awesome and we get along so, so well. I can’t believe how lucky I have gotten with companions still, maybe a challenging one will come eventually, but I have been way lucky so far. Elder Sewell is 20, and is one transfer ahead of me, so in his 8th transfer. He is from a village in England called Puckle Church. It is near Bath and Bristol, and in the bottom right of England. He is a surfer and likes all the same music as me. We get a long way good. He is from a family of 15 kids, all from his one mom and one dad, holy cow! The youngest is 11 and the oldest is 36, so all in about 25 years. There are 5 sisters and 10 brothers, and he is number 11. Wow, wow craziness! His parents were converts after they had 3 of the children. His family pictures are huge. So that’s background on Elder Sewell, and I am super excited for this transfer. He has also been companions with Elder Brown earlier on, and they lived with Elder Van Dyke – so just a web of companions. All of the 7 areas in the zone switched up, and so there are 7 new faces. We have interviews next Tuesday, and so I will start to get to know them all. Elder Glad went to the Temple zone and so the other Elder Brown’s new companion is Elder Fairbanks. He is originally from Page, Arizona, and then from Phoenix. He is a blast as well.
Christina is doing great, and progressing little by little. We are going to teach her tonight with Wilson, the recent convert from Ecuador. She is making us a Romanian meal that I am super excited for. Also, we are making peanut butter chocolate chunk oatmeal cookies for dessert. It is going to be great. We took Christina along with Paul, another Romanian who was recently reactivated, to the Fireside on Temple Square. Paul drove us all in his car, and it went great. The talk was a little over an investigator’s head, well, way over an investigators head, even though the point is to bring investigators... so anyway, we were worried Christina would just get confused with all of the knowledge and doctrine and stuff thrown at her. I don’t think she understood it but loved it. I think because of the spirit she felt more than anything. So that was great. She wants to go back to the temple, and so we are going to the Joseph Smith movie this Saturday. I haven’t been to see it again since I have been in the mission field, and the Fireside or Charla Foganera was my first.
It is awesome having these tools and being able to use them. Especially members, they are so important. All of you members try and help the missionaries with lessons. You will feel an amazing spirit, and have the opportunity to teach and testify. The missionaries would love it if you just told them when you are available for a lesson for 1 hour of the week. It’s a blessing to the members, the missionaries, and to the investigators.
The work continues over here, and we met an awesome 11 year old to teach on Sunday. We just went over to give her a lesson yesterday and it went great. Her family is not active in the church, soon to be, I hope. The family was baptized 7 years ago in Chile, and have been here in Spain for 6 years. The parents can’t make it to church, and I don’t know how long it has been exactly since they came, but a long time. The 11 year old daughter picked up the Book of Mormon in their home and read to Alma 42. Then she reactivated her 17 or 18 year old sister to come to church with her. She was in church Sunday and asked the bishop is she could be baptized. So we will keep working with her. She is pretty much amazing. I am so blessed to be here on a mission, and love it so much. I love you all, and have a great week. Be a missionary.

Love,

Elder Miller

10 Months!

Well, to start out we are in Getafe today. It is on the Madrid sur metro belt as well as Mostoles, Fuenlabrada, Alcorcon and Leganes. Now I have been to them all except Leganes. We went to a huge factory outlet store, and I got a long sleeve, size 17, well fitting shirt for 8 euros. It is a way nice Zara brand. So I am pretty excited about that. It was a way cool mall, and just huge. There were tons and tons of clothing stores. We went with Elder Slade and Elder Korongo from Fuenlabrada. Elder Korongo stands about 6 foot 6 inches tall. He is from Russia or the Ukraine, or a parent from each, I’m not sure. But he lived in Malaga before his mission, in the south of Spain. He is kind of a funny guy. Elder Slade is on his last transfer coming up, so this was a “check out the clothes before the end of my mission” trip for him. We had a great time, and just had some doner kebabs for my companion’s birthday, which was yesterday. Also, we had a way good cake yesterday at district meeting to celebrate as well. The cake was a white cake with white frosting, and then like a delicious flavored frosting on top kind of like butterscotch. Then all around the sides had nuts or like toffee brittle tasting stuff. It was way good, and a good birthday for him. We also taught 3 lessons that all went really well.
I was sick last Thursday until Friday afternoon, but we worked through it just fine. It was like a stomach flu for about 30 hours or a little more.
This last week was great. We made Equilibrio, which is when you teach 15 lessons. It was Elder Brown’s first time doing that, a pretty good birthday present. For transfers next week, I would love to stay with Elder Brown for one more transfer. He has been here for 3 and a half transfers, and will probably be out. I would stipulate that my possible companions are Elder Brand from my MTC group, or Elder Frost, Elder Ott’s current companion. They are both in a situation to move to another zone leader area. So that’s just a guess, but we will see.
We have had some really good dinner appointments as of late; the members here are very generous and nice as in all the world. They are also willing and ready to work. We have been utilizing the members we have here, and teaching with them regularly with our investigators. Our main investigators include Christina, Arley, Antonio and Andréa a Brazilian couple & unmarried; Carlos and Aline who are also Brazilian but married; Jessica, the wife of an inactive member Luigi; Mari and Flavio, who live in Villaviciosas and are from Romania; Angel, the Dueño of Wilson; and then Corina, who is atheist and was living with her member boyfriend.
So the best was Miguel Angel Fernandez. He was baptized this last Saturday. He has been investigating the church since June or July of 2005 in Aranjuez, so almost 3 years. He has read the Book of Mormon 4 times, and is now married to a member named Marlen. They live in Navalcarnero, about a 10 minute bus ride out of Mostoles. It is a really nice, nice clean town. It is like a resort town. I didn’t meet Miguel Angel until last Sunday, when he came to church. Starting from the beginning, he was married for years to a woman, and they separated about 4 or 5 years ago. Then Marlen from Bolivia came into his life. They had one son named Brian who is absolutely adorable. He is just a perfect little “sit quietly and doesn’t fuss” little kid. They never got married due to Miguel not being divorced. He started investigating with Marlen’s help, and has been that way for a long time. They were awaiting the divorce that took so long because he was having it done by a lawyer who was doing it for free, and it just never got to the top of the pile of things to do. Miguel was also a smoker. My companion has been teaching him since he came to Mostoles on December 26th, and tons and tons of missionaries before him. It was just one big group effort that I just happened to be at the end of. Miguel’s divorce was finalized January 22, and he also quit smoking that day. Well, the next step was marriage. This was put off due to the stipulations of getting the family of the Montaños, Marlen’s family, to Bolivia. They just gave Elder Brown and his companion a wedding announcement one day near the end of March, and then told them they would be gone the whole month of April for the wedding. While there, they had their wedding, and also brought back llama cheese that they have fed us a couple of times. It’s just absolutely disgusting. Also Miguel Angel is a Spaniard as well, which is just awesome. So anyway, they just showed up 2 Sundays ago after they got back from their wedding. We were thrilled, and they were both just grinning from ear to ear. We set a lesson for Monday the very next day, and went to Navalcarnero. We caught up with him, and set a baptismal date for the 24th. We went back the next day to teach him again, and I just kind of thought to myself why not this Saturday. I suggested it to my companion. We were thinking it was a rush and hurry to baptize him on Saturday, but he was all ready, and so, so, so, so anxious to finally be baptized. We set it as the 10th and then called the Assistants to the President, and the Bishop, and then the Mission President. The bishop gave us the thumbs up and that he, having interviewed Miguel Angel over the years, thought he was ready, and backed us in the decision. Then, after talking together, President and the assistants, including Elder Manning, who served here in Mostoles didn’t come to a decision. So President left it up to us, since we are the teaching missionaries, and told us to “let it rain”. This was a reference to a quote by President Packer or Scott who instead of just getting water to the end of the rope, likes the rain - so rain, meaning revelation, personal or for the stewardship of our area or zone. He put a really difficult decision in our hands, and we didn’t know what to do with the ball in our court. We went into the lesson on Wednesday, planning on helping Miguel wait until the 24th. Well, the spirit directed the lesson, and our hearts were softened to know that Miguel was ready, and that the baptism should be on the 10th. So we called President afterwards and proceeded to prepare for the baptism. The interview was on Thursday by Elder Glad, and then we taught him on Friday one last time. We filled the font on Saturday, and the baptism happened at 7:00 PM. It was awesome, and there was great support from the ward members. There were about 30 people that came on really short notice. It all went smoothly, and then he was just the happiest guy in the world. He was baptized by his father-in-law. Elder Brown and I were witnesses. Then he was confirmed on Sunday morning in church. We are preparing him to receive the priesthood this Sunday. So it was a great week.
I love you guys. It was great to talk to Dad, Mom and Evan on Sunday!

Love,
Elder Miller

It's May!

So hey you guys how are things going?

First off, all of you mothers and potential mothers and expecting mothers and future mothers, Happy Mothers’ Day. Just a quote for you moms by Abraham Lincoln, "All that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother." Mothers’ Day was last Sunday here in España, and they had the children of the primary sing a song and also handed out flowers and chocolates to the women at church. So it went pretty much the same as at home.
Also, the 2nd of May is Independence Day for us. To add to that, the 2nd of May is the 200th Anniversary or Bicentennial I guess, of Mostoles as a city. There was a constant party from the 1st until Sunday, and the carnival like a mini Lagoon went even longer. There was dancing at the big park, Liana, starting at 10 at night until 12. That was like the not teenager discoteca dancing. Then from 12 until 5 am was the crazy joven dancing. When we would run at 6:30, the party had just ended for most, but not for all. Also, the king came to Mostoles on the 2nd, and made 3 appearances at different locations. We didn’t see him or plan on it, but it’s kind of cool he came.
I made chocolate chip cookies for an appointment that turned out to be a no show. The cookies were a consolation prize, but the appointment would have been better. We taught Arley again with the member Julio, and also Julio was permitted by his work schedule to make it to church this week. But sadly, Arley wasn’t able to make it. We had a great Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson, but the baptismal challenge didn’t take flight as we wanted, hopefully in a little while.
We actually got to teach Christina last night with Wilson. It was just great. Wilson did a great job of testifying and helping Christina understand some things we couldn’t. He was a great companion for us.
We had an awesome experience in which we were contacted by a member who just moved here from Chile a month ago, named Blanka. She is about a 30 year old Master’s student, and is way awesome. She has been looking for the capilla here in Mostoles. She lives in the other Elders’ area, but will be a great member there. We had delicious paella at a member’s named Mary Lynn and it was just delicious.

Love you guys.

Elder Miller