Wednesday, August 27, 2008

August 27


So, the week in a nutshell went as follows: We just had an awesome preparation day. It was a Zone Preparation Day, and all 10 of us were here in Ciudad Real playing basketball and hand ball (way awesome). You play handball like soccer and basketball mixed, and there is dribbling, and then soccer nets. Actually Ciudad Real has a World Championship team of hand ball, and Spain took 3 medals in the Olympics, from what I heard. Also we played fútbol. It was with about 6 youth who were at the field- about 14 year olds, and then the Branch President Sanz (about a 40 year old Spaniard), and then Luis, the Branch Mission Leader and Elders Quorum President (about 60 or a little less Spaniard). So it was really fun and we played for about 2 or 3 hours, then had sub sandwiches (or bocadillos if you prefer) and Spanish horchata which is different. Then everyone parted ways and got back home.
I cut Elder Griffin’s hair, and he really needed it. Also, I cut my own about a week ago, as well as Elder Ott’s. He has gotten a few compliments on it. So I am getting better at the hair cut thing. We then went to a Chinese/Asian buffet for 6.95 euros. You get all you can eat food that comes around the restaurant on a conveyer belt to the tables and you just take off the stuff you want as it passes. Elders Ott, Cavanaugh, and Starley each ate about 20 little plates of everything you can think of. It was just delicious. Then they give you ice cream to go with it.
We went on exchanges 2 times this last week. On Friday I went with Elder Starley in their area, so that was interesting because we had both only been here 2 weeks. But it went well and we found a really cool Spanish family for them to teach. Then we did exchanges in Valdapeñas, I went with Elder Baxter. It went really great. We found 2 of their investigators who had gone missing, and then taught a new homeless man in a park- a frustrating lesson. The exchange was a blast, and it was really fun to work with Elder Baxter, after living with him twice already. We have exchanges tomorrow with Alcazar and then Saturday with Elder Cavanaugh here. So that should be good.
Sadly René moved to Valencia because he was out of work, we had set a baptismal date with him for the 6th of September, so hopefully that works out in Valencia since we sent over all of the information to the Barcelona mission. We found an awesome new investigator named Sergio from Brazil. He is awesome. More on him next week… Well, thanks again Grandma Judy for the spiritual thought I pirated and re-gifted. But this is from President Monson "Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies.That is the phrase I believe in. You just plow in and go to work. I've done that all my life. I haven't had a period in my life that I can remember when I didn't have any thing to do. I do have a good work ethic.”
So make good choices team, and keep on keeping on.

Much love from Spain.

Love, Elder Miller

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

8-20-08



From: elder.miller@myldsmail.net Hey how are things going? It sounds like things are going well. Elder Sewell stayed in Mostoles and received Elder Guerrero who is from Ecuador as his new companion. He was in the CCM with Elder Ott and me. He is way awesome, Elder Sewell is way lucky. Well, a kid who is 6 yrs old who is named Arnaldito is here at the email place with his aunt. He is way funny and is the only boy in the Primary of 5. He is way cool and wears spiky hair. He is way funny. He is kind of distracting, but he doesn’t know that we only have one hour to do emails. Well, thanks for everything and for giving me the updates. A man told us there are around 80,000 people living in Ciudad Real but I am kind of iffy about that. We had a meal at Nieve’s house on Sunday with her son Javi, her daughter Veronica, and her husband Toy. It was interesting food, that was pretty good, but usually it is way good there, so I am looking forward to the future meals we eat there every Sunday after church. We had an awesome lesson with a new investigator named Augusto from Bolivia. He was in Parque Gasset when we met. He and his wife have an 11 month old baby. He is an awesome new investigator for the pool of not very many. We are working to find new people through our efforts, and the members are helping by giving us a bunch of references and helping us in that way. Also, they are awesome for coming to lessons. It is just great. Also, we taught a new investigator who was a member referral. The member is name Yrma, and she is awesome. She does street contacts and shares the gospel. We met a man the other day in a parque who had Yrma’s contact information and the church address. She is awesome and she put us in contact with a woman named Ana Maria who is a new investigator. We taught her with the Branch President on Monday morning. So the work is picking up, and I like it here in this area with Elder Ott. Every Saturday we have a noche de hogar, and so that is a good opportunity for members to bring friends as well. But last time it was just 3 members, and Yrma had no clue how to play Hang Man. So it was way frustrating on her turn because she didn’t catch on to the game. We ended up just finishing the game by guessing all the unused letters. There were 25 people at church on Sunday, so about the same size as Fuenlabrada was. I have enjoyed the members so far and getting to know the city has been fun as well. We do a lot of street contacting and knocking, and so we are out and about all over the place. I gave out HLJ rings or haz lo justo/Choose the Right, on Sunday in church. The Primary children loved them, so that was good to get in with the rama. Arnaldito just closed my email, but luckily he didn’t close the email itself just the mylds page, so I was able to copy the email and re-log in. So I am short on time, but I want to let you know that I love you guys.
Well, for a spiritual thought this week, I will take a thought my Grandma Judy shared with me, and the thoughts were taken from an Elder Wirthlin talk, May 2005 Ensign which said: "Kind words not only lift our spirits in the moment they are given, but they can linger with us over the years...Kindness is the essence of greatness and the fundamental characteristic of the noblest men and women I have known. Kindness is a passport that opens doors and fashions friends. It softens hearts and molds relationships that can last lifetimes...Kindness is the essence of Celestial life. Kindness is how a Christlike person treats others. Kindness should permeate all of our words and actions at work, at school, at church, and especially in our homes....We never need to repent of kind words we've spoken, or regret kind deeds we've performed." well make good choices team, and have a very extraordinary week. Also, I will be going on exchanges in Valdapeñas next Tuesday. Much love from Spain. Love, Elder Miller


Thursday, August 14, 2008

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Windmills of Ciudad Real

Ciudad Real


Ciudad Real, the "Royal City", lies between the rivers Guadiana and Jabo'lon.It preserves few remains from its glorious warlike past. Now chieftown of its province, it lies in the center of La Mancha, the home of Don Quixote, the "knight of the rueful countenance".

New Area!


Well, I will cover the end of Móstoles first, and then tell you where I am now. Elder Sewell and I had an amazing week, maybe the best week of my mission. We taught 21 lessons, and accomplished the raised standards of our mission’s weekly goals of 20 lessons, and other important aspects of the work to be balanced missionaries. We call it equilibrio. It was an awesome week.
On Sunday afternoon, we needed 1 more baptismal challenge, and got 2. One was to our investigator Jesus, who accepted. But that wasn’t until Sunday night. He still wasn’t able to come to church, but we were able to set a baptismal date for the end of September. He will have to come to church 4 times, preferably before then, and I don’t know how it’s going to work out. But the Lord will find a way. He is probably moving back to Colombia in 2 months after his contract runs up. He will live with his family, and I believe he will end up getting baptized over there. We could use his help here in Spain. Colombia, I am sure, already has armies of amazing members.
The other was to a different guy named Jesus that we found in Parque Lliana. We were just like, “We will contact the next person and challenge them to the 20th of September to be baptized.” Well, I started the contact by telling him about faith in Christ, repentance, and baptism. Then Elder Sewell talked about baptism, and then gave the baptismal challenge. Jesus, our brand new contact, accepted the challenge. We taught him about prayer and committed him to pray about this date and set an appointment for this week. I hope all goes well with that. It was quite the amazing experience. Most contacts just walk away or say “no”, and those who listen aren’t usually interested very often.
Rita came with us in Paul’s car to the Joseph Smith movie and a temple tour afterwards. Paul is the Romanian member of 15 years, and he has a girlfriend, who happens to be an investigator with the other Mostoles elders. So she came as well. Her name is Arnovis. She is from Colombia, and will be getting baptized this Saturday. I am sooo sad to be missing it.
Also at church on Sunday, after 18 weeks of hard work, was Christina. You probably forgot about her a long time ago, but she is from Romania and fed us some crazy food twice. So we couldn’t meet with her to say goodbye, and so we finally got her to church by telling her we would say goodbye there. She came. Kind of a lame reason, but she will hopefully keep coming now she sees there is nothing crazy or anything. It’s weird because she has already been to a fireside, the Joseph Smith movie, and a Ward Noche de Hogar. Now she has finally been to church.
I was so sad to leave Mostoles. What an amazing area! I absolutely loved the investigators, and people there. The members were exemplary, and we haven’t shopped for food for 4 weeks because they fed us so very often. I love the people there, and am so sad to be gone.
I have been transferred to be with Elder Ott in the La Mancha zone. Our area is called Ciudad Real, and we live with 2 other elders, Elder Cavanaugh from North Carolina, and Elder Starley from Ogden High School. Elder Starley is in Elder Ott’s and my group, and we have a fun piso. The piso is nicer than the one in Mostoles, and bigger. I like it a lot here, even though it is a little pueblo where we do a lot of contacting. It is just unreal to be with Elder Ott again. I can’t believe it! Elder Baxter, that I have lived with twice before is also in the zone, along with 2 other areas here. I lived with Elder Baxter at the beginning of my mission in Fuenlabrada, while Elder Van Dyke was training me, and Elder Baxter was training Elder Cutler. We lived together for 7 weeks that time, and then in Mostoles for a little over a week. He has been fun to serve around. So all in all, we are 4 cities down south, with 4 elders here and then 2 a piece in Valdapeñas, Alcázar, and Puerto llano. Our district is Puerto llano and just the 4 of us. Kind of crazy - I hope this all makes sense.
We had an amazing day for a pueblo yesterday, and taught 2 lessons with a member present to René and Delfin, each separately. René is amazing, and we took him over to a member named Jesus´ house and the lesson, which was a review on the plan of restoration, along with a dvd. It went amazing. The 20 members down here are great, or at least the 5 that I have met so far. We had correlation with the Rama Mission Leader and it went great. District meeting went well also. I think I am really going to like it here. It’s kind of a crazy change of gears though.
The church is true.
Much love from Spain.
Love, Elder Miller and Elder Ott too.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

August 6


Okay, so here it goes on what’s going on here. Well, we had Zone Conference this last Thursday and it went so, so great. I learned so much; as everyone does in Zone Conference. Elder Clark took a picture of he and I. That will be the last time I see him until I get home. He goes home on Tuesday. He said he would show you the picture and say hi for me. Have fun at his homecoming on the 17th.
It is smoking hot here right now. I believe it was 45 degrees the other day, or 113 F. Our investigator named Jesus wasn’t able to make it to church this week. I was really sad about that, but we will keep working towards it. He just works so, so much.
Francisca’s family bought us pizzas again this week. This time they bought Pizza Hut stuffed crust pizzas. It was so, so good. We had a great time with them. They are way sad that one of us will almost for sure be transferred on Monday, because we have been together for 2 transfers now. I will probably be out, and will be really sad when I leave.
We had a great lesson with Rita this week, and with Leticia and her boyfriend Effrain Bonilla. They are awesome members and the lessons went amazing. Except, Rita didn’t accept a baptismal date yet. She has some worries about things in the church. We aren’t really sure what her real doubts are yet, but we know she has a testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She has 2 sisters that are members that don’t live here. Her sister that is not a member is the one who gave Rita the doubts. We will continue with her and try to help her out.
Elder Sewell’s brother is at EFY in Provo, and then I don’t know where else he is going while he is there. He is 17 years old. He probably has plans, but if he has time or needs some help he has your number.
We have been doing a bunch of repairs and have a really well functioning piso now.
We had an awesome meal at the Bascopes who are members. They are from Bolivia and live in Navalcarnero. Also, so far this week, we have been able to teach 7 lessons. This area is really doing great. We are teaching a lot to members, and with members. This last week, 14 of the 16 lessons involved members, and really the only way to do this work is through members. They are the key.
The whole Montaño family bore there testimonies on Sunday (Miguel Angel’s in-laws). It was just awesome. Miguel’s 9 year old son Bryan is back from Bolivia. He was stuck there without a passport for the last 6 months.
I just love this place. We had amazing paella from a member named Marylynn the other day. All is well here. I hope with you all is well as well.
Be sure to check out Mosiah 2:41. It is a great scripture. It goes really well with Ether 12:4, and we use it when we are teaching with a new amazing church dvd called “Finding Happiness”. Try to get your hands on a copy of it because it is amazing. The Spanish version of the movie is filmed here with Spanish members and in Spain Spanish. It is so great as a tool.
Have a great week this week.
Much love from Spain.

Elder Miller