Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Elder Ogden and Elder Miller in Merida


Almost November


From: elder.miller@myldsmail.net Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2008 Hey everybody! First off, Happy Birthday Mom, next week. I don’t want to forget it so I will say it a few days early. Also, I got 15 emails this week so that is way awesome.
For this week, we had some more great meals. At Hermana Nieves´house we had a way good tuna and potato salad and then onion rings, croquets, chicken nuggets and empanadas. At Hermana Ana’s we had Fideos soup and something else.
On exchanges, Elder Hinton, who goes home on Tuesday to Mesa, Arizona, and I ate at the Pedraja´s house. He is the District President, and was in Uruguay before now. We were preparing for District Conference. By the way, our District Conference went amazing, and there was a packed room for the investigator/recent convert meeting. Then for the actual conference it was crazy. There were 100 or more in our Chapel. We usually have 25, so it was packed. Elder Ford and his wife were amazing, and the same with President and Hermana Farnsworth. The talks were all great, especially the ones from Elder and Sister Ford in English translated to Spanish. I didn’t have to translate them to English for our two new Thailandes women who are investigating. They both loved it, and Patrick was there as well. Patrick got to meet President Farnsworth and shake his hand, and have a little conversation. It was spectacular.
I did more exchanges. The last of the 7 for this transfer with Elder Ogden who I went to Merida with on exchanges back in Mostoles.
Ana Maria and Dora are both preparing and getting ready for baptism. Now we just need for something to change so they can come to church. We will keep working with their situations. The girlfriend situation with Patrick still hasn’t been resolved, but hopefully today we can make progress. Other than the girlfriend, Patrick is a pretty awesome investigator.
We taught Teo yesterday and it went great, but Estefania was too tired and is super, super, super pregnant. She looks like she is a month or two over due, but isn’t due for 2 weeks.
This week we are set to have 4 dinner appointments with the 2 we have already had, and then 2 more on Sunday. It’s the 4 investigators that Elder Haynie and I have been trying to get, but we can’t ever get them all. This week we hit the Grand Slam though. Also, we are super excited for two new investigators who were referrals from the Alcazar elders. Their names are Renilda and Bruna, both are about 30 and from Brazil. They are so awesome. We had a lesson yesterday and are going back tonight. They are awesome and told us how even though they haven’t been baptized before, their prayers are just like ours, and they believed the whole Restoration Story, and already had been given a Book of Mormon by a friend in the past.
Anyway, have a fun weekend. I imagine there is snow in the mountains. It is super cold here, 3 degrees Celsius this morning for running. I will be way sad if I leave Ciudad Real. I hope to be here at least one transfer more. Well everyone have a Happy Halloween and I love you all. Keep on keepin’ on.

Much love from España.

Love, Elder Miller

Wednesday, October 22, 2008


October 22


So, let’s start about the week we have had. Last preparation day was nuts, and then we had a night of work, and then planning session, and then another exchange until Saturday with Elder Dorner and Elder Porter the Valdapeñas elders. They come up and stay with us because of the crazy travel, and we can do more work and less travel that way. It all went. I went to the Branch President’s house in Miguelturra, just right outside of Ciudad Real with Elder Porter. It was the first of our pueblos I have been to. All of La Mancha is covered with pueblos and there are only 8 elders in 4 cities. Each of us has a bunch of pueblos, but we have too much to do in Ciudad Real itself, so I haven’t ever made it out of the city. But it was a great cita they gave us Pringles, which was something I hadn’t had in a long time. The Branch President is Presidente Sanz. He is a Spaniard. He has a wife and 3 little girls Adriana, Nirella and Laura (8,5, and 4 respectively). They are a great family, and we had a great lesson on the Christ like attribute of faith. We shared scriptures and drew pictures of seeds that can grow like our faith into trees. It was a good chapter that we all know and love. Alma 32 is the spiritual thought for the week because of that lesson.
So anyway we also made some great meals while those elders were in town. We made taco soup, and potato cheese soup with bacon. They were both way good and then on Sunday, Elder Haynie and I ate at Ana’s house. We had breaded pork chops and tuna salad and pesto which is like salsa, and then for desert we had natillas, which is like the best vanilla pudding ever, but more runny than normal and they put cinnamon on it and cookies on top. At Nieve´s house on Monday, we had fried fish and chips and salad and then brownie pudding and natillas. Basically we ate a lot this week.
This transfer we have had 5 total exchanges spanning over 7 or 8 days with half days in there. So it was kind of crazy for Elder Haynie in his first transfer. But we only have two more with Elder Ogden and Elder Hinton from Alcazar.
We taught Olinda and her family this week, without the dad though. But Francisco was there, a referral from a member, so that made it 6 in the lesson. It was the 3rd lesson in that household, but the other two have been incomplete combinations of the kids and mother. This time it was everyone. It felt great teaching a family all around us about the Book of Mormon. We also taught Ana Maria and she couldn’t come to church because of her crazy Alzheimer’s woman she takes care of. We teach her twice a week, but it has just been an absolute battle with church, same with Dora and her Alzheimer’s woman. So Dora’s and Ana Maria’s baptisms should both work out, but for later in November. Patrick is still on board for the 15th. He got to talk to Nieves about her conversion and baptism and things like that. It went great. Also, he came to church on Sunday. We are going to keep teaching him 3 times a week to prepare him for baptism, but the big hurdle is still the girlfriend living in the same piso. So pray for all to go well with the marriage, break up, or move out. Obviously, the marriage is the best option, but one of the 3 has to happen for Patrick to be baptized.
Zone Conference went awesome yesterday and we stayed with the one and only legendary red headed rapping super bajito Elder Ott and his piso mates in Barrio 6, right next to the temple. That made it convenient to get to the temple this morning for a wonderful session. The temple is amazing, and I love to go there and learn in the University of the Lord. Elder Ott and I were able to catch up a little last night, and it was truly grand. I have missed him, and it sounds like he misses “the stain” (La Mancha). Elder Haynie and I took foam camping pads that we had in our piso up to Barrio 6 because they don’t have any couches or spare beds. We slept well, and the mats roll up kind of small, and then we tie them with a jump rope and my other belt... sweet.
We are headed to the Prado today and maybe to see the Rembrandt special that is there right now. We are going with Elder Dubray and Elder Read and I am super excited about that, but the Prado will be a cultural experience that I will be able to say I had.
This week we have District Conference in Ciudad Real, which should be great. There will be the whole district and then also Cuenca as well. So there will be 10 elders, and then the investigators and recent converts of each area will be there for a sweet meeting with Elder Ford of the 70 and President Farnsworth. It should be so great. Elder Haynie taught these two investigators this last week on exchanges, and they came to church. They are a couple who is expecting a baby in a month and they are friends of the members because they used to come a lot. It should be great to teach them, Teo and Stefani, and hopefully now is their time, since it wasn’t last time the elders were teaching them.
Also last night, working in Barrio 6, right next to the temple, we had a great night. We went to a little grocery store to buy some lunch after Zone Conference, and while we were leaving, we met a man that is a refugee from Kenya named Prince Bright. No, you didn’t read that name wrong, he is Prince Bright, wow Africa. We took him over to the temple and had a temple tour with the hermanas there. It went great. He was saying he needs to get baptized and he really felt something different on temple grounds. So we get to send over a pretty amazing investigator to Elder Jensen because he lives in Parla.

Love you all.

Love, Elder Miller

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

9 months left


Hey everyone! Wow let it snow let it snow! I can’t believe it snowed there already. We were pretty hot here today so far.
Dora couldn’t come to church due to work again on Sunday, but we have another cita on Saturday, and are going to reset her baptism day for the 15th, I believe. Ana Maria is doing great and we had a great Plan of Salvation lesson yesterday with Luis in the capilla. She is still on to come to church on Sunday and for a cita Friday, and then her baptism the 15th of November. She is doing great.
We have a new investigator named Patrick. He was a referral from a month or more ago, and then the address and phone numbers were wrong. Elder Reid (from Mesa) and I were on exchanges Thursday night and found Patrick and his girlfriend on a bench. We taught him on Friday with Elder Dubray on exchanges and baptismal challenged him for the 15th of November. He is on for that date, and came to church on Sunday. He is from Ghana and his girlfriend is from the Dominican Republic. He has been here 3 years and they are both about 30 and 35. He is awesome, and we had another lesson with him on exchanges here with the Zone Leaders, Elder Jones (from Mesa) and me in the capilla. It went great.
This week consisted of planning Thursday morning, then exchanges with Puerto llano for 2 days to go with both elders here in Ciudad Real. On Saturday night, Elder Haynie and I were back together again. Then Sunday, we had 2 dinner appointments. The first appointment was after church, to eat cocido which is soup with noodles and garbanzo beans, and then meat and garbanzos that were cooked in the soup and are served separately on a plate. It is chicken, beef, and jamon (ham) that are in there. It is way good. Then on Sunday night, we had fish, potatoes and tomatoes/green olives in olive oil (like on a plate as everyone just grabs more olives or pieces of tomatoes when they want a bite of them. We finished that meal with lemon pie American style. The first meal was with Ana who has a daughter Anita, who is 21 and is thinking about serving a mission. The second meal was with a couple who is from Alcalá where there are a ton of members. The husband is in the District Presidency. They were on a vacation for 3 months, and so Elder Ott never even met them his whole time here, but they are a great addition to the branch. They have 2 little boys, so now the Primary is 8 strong, and it is awesome. There were 24 at church this last week as compared to the last two of 12 or 14. Last transfer, with 4 elders we were averaging 25 or so weekly.
On Monday we had a dinner cita with Nieves, and we had something I don’t even know what it was. It was like mushroom, chicken and potato soup, but the mushroom thing was definitely not mushroom, but still delicious. There were also gambas or shrimp, but with heads on, and then green olives. I love green olives, and you just pop the heads off of the shrimp and some juice comes out all over your hands, and then they taste like normal shrimp. We are going to get 4 dinner appointments this week with those 3 plus President Pedraja of the District Presidency is getting home from a Uruguay trip. He is a pastelero, and makes pastries and gives them to us by the bucket full, literally- a 5 gallon bucket. We are glad to have him back.
The work is going great. We found a family of 7 this week at paseo playground, that’s what Elder Haynie and I call it.
Elder Jones and I had our companions in Getafe, where the Zone Leaders work, and then we were here and we taught 4 lessons. It was great. We had piso checks, and we went to Valdapenas last night. Mom have Elder Baxter’s mom send you all of the pictures of the angel statue because we ran there this morning at 5:45 and then ran back, and then went to Alcazar, and then our companions went to Puerto llano. They are coming to meet us here in Ciudad Real. We have run all day long. It was 6 kilometers to the angel statue, and 6 back. That was the longest I have ever run. Well, I’ll talk to you next week.
Much love from Elder Miller in Spain.
Oh yeah, the Zone Leaders were doing piso checks today. That’s why we ran all over the place.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Elder Miller and friends at General Conference in Madrid

Elders Dubray, Hutchings, Peterson, hermana, Haynie, Miller and Nicoll

October 8


Hey everybody! Elder Haynie and I are doing great. So about Dora, things are still on track for the 1st of November, and we have a lesson on Saturday with Luis Gallego. She came to the capilla on Sunday and the internet didn’t work there. She was there with Luis and Jose Antonio. She knows both of them from lessons, but still hasn’t had the opportunity to attend church. We are hoping for this week. It was sad she didn’t get to see or hear conference, but we are going to watch a talk from the last conference on Saturday with her. Luis took advantage of the situation to teach her about family history and the temple and the importance of it. She wants to go to the temple now. So, Luis is awesome. To bad the internet didn’t work but life goes on.
General Conference was amazing for me. We had interviews in Leganes on Friday, and then worked in Elder Jensen’s area on Friday night. We stayed there in parla with Elder Jensen and Fairbanks and there companions in a real stand alone house. Way weird, and it has 4 floors! We worked there on Saturday morning and then that night, we saw the Saturday morning session. We saw all but the Sunday night session on Sunday. I got to see a ton of elders, and loads of members from Mostoles, one from Fuenlabrada, and non from Segovia. We had one member from Ciudad Real there. It was just great.
Well, time is going by way to fast, and I wish I could slow it down. Good things are happening here – well, great things.
I talked about Ana Maria back with Elder Ott. We taught her 3 lessons, two of which I wasn’t there for because of exchanges. But anyway, she was a referral from Irma. She is awesome. She has been super stressed and on vacation from the crazy Alzheimer’s woman she takes care of. We had an appointment last week that she couldn’t make it to, but this week we had the first appointment in about 4 weeks. We reviewed the first lesson and it went just great. She told us she felt the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. Both of which are great signs. Then we both felt like a baptismal challenge of the 15th of November was perfect, and so did she. She accepted, and we are so excited to prepare Ana Maria and Dora both from Bolivia to be baptized in the month of November.
We had a way awesome experience yesterday. Well, we had our plans a little messed up by people not being at appointments, and so we went to one of our back up plans which was parque pilar in the east area where I am learning the area still. We were just contacting there, and saw this man walking calmly without one ounce of hurry or "prisa". We walked after him, and after a little bit caught up. We just introduced ourselves and got to know him, and contacted him as we do everyone. He was a nice man from Brazil named Henry. He was here because he studied his doctorate in law here at the university, and lived here 4 years. He is 40 now, and was just coming back to visit a teacher he had (and to meet with us). He has a member friend her in Madrid, and also his cousin in Brazil where he lives is a member of our church. He told us he was going to the train station, and that he was going to Germany next, and then back home to Brazil. He speaks English, Portuguese, Spanish and German by the way. He told us he was just walking with a prayer in his heart that he could find some friends, good genuine people. He told us how he had just finished his prayer as we walked along side him and said “hi”. How amazing, the Lord answers prayers, and Elder Haynie and I got to be an immediate answer for Henry. We told him to keep praying and keep having faith that Heavenly Father is listening.
We also found a family of 6 from Peru last week, but they lived in a pueblo more than an hour away. So we didn’t really have a way to teach them. We went over to Jesus and Kriss´ house to teach them, and they were like – “we are going to have a family come over for you to teach them”. So they gave us as a referral the of same family of six who just moved here to Ciudad Real 2 days ago. We started teaching the family yesterday and have another cita tomorrow. We haven’t met the father Raul yet, but Olinda the mom, and the 4 kids are just awesome. The kids are Cindi -18, Jeni -16, Alexis -12, and Jorge’- 11. We are so excited for this family that Heavenly Father helped us come back into contact with and teach this amazing gospel that blesses families.
We have exchanges in Puerto llano tomorrow until Saturday, and then with the Zone Leaders Tuesday. District Meeting went great on questions in chapter 10 of “Preach my Gospel”, and then we also talked about language learning plans. It went great. I love it here, and we continue to work with the great members here. We took Arnaldo, a very humble member to a lesson. It was amazing to hear his testimony. It was so powerful- even though he has only been a member for about a year and a half. I love these people and this amazing work. Elder Haynie and I will continue to work hard, be obedient, and pray our guts out. Love you all!
General Conference was just amazing. I didn’t get to watch the last session, but I know it was amazing as well. My Grandma shared this quote President Monson shared. He reminded people that "stresses will come no matter what." He said, "We must deal with them the best we can, but we should not let them get in the way of what is most important...and what is always most important almost always involves the people around us. Often, we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should let them know. Despite the changes which come into our lives, and with gratitude in our hearts, may we fill our days as much as we can with those things which matter most." There were just so many great talks. Take a look at them if you get the time. Well have a great week, and use your time wisely. Thanks for all that you do for me. Much love from me to you all.

Love,
Elder Miller

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Elder Miller at the Madrid Temple


It's October!



Hi Everyone!
Zone Conference went just great. Elder Gorts was awesome, and helped us out a lot. There was a workshop where we had 3 different stations of teaching skills in chapter 10 of "Preach My Gospel". I learned a lot.
I'll tell you some things about Elder Haynie since mom asked. He is from Escondido, California, or in English "hidden." He is way cool and we get along great. He played soccer in high school on the defense. He played in the Turkey Shoot a couple times and his team is the Rancho Bernardo Renegades, if James or Ian ever played against that club in the turkey shoot. He is from a family of 4 sisters. One is older and married and has a baby. He has one brother who got married just before Elder Haynie came on his mission. That brother served here in the Spain Madrid mission as well, but we found out he didn't serve in La Mancha. Elder Haynie had already been to Spain to pick up his brother, and even to the mission home, Toledo where his brother served, and Sol and Valencia and all over the place. His dad is a Stake President and he is just an amazingly prepared missionary. He got a 35 on the ACT so he is way smart as well.
Elder Lambert went home at the end of last transfer, and his family came to pick him up because they planned it without him knowing. He wasn't super happy about it. He just wanted to go back to Gunlock and ride the wakes. I would imagine he is back by now.
Today we had a lesson with a member referral from Puerto Llano. The woman's name is Maricruzes and she is a way nice 37-year-old Spaniard woman. It was so hard at the end when she didn't want to hear more or have another lesson with us. It was really sad, because the spirit was there so strongly, and then she didn't want to hear any more. Oh well, I guess this isn't her time.
We taught Dora last Thursday and then again on Monday. We challenged her to baptism on Thursday, actually Elder Haynie did the actual challenge and it went really well. She accepted for the 1st of November. In the district there are 4 other baptismal dates coming up. The district is catching the vision of baptismal challenges weekly. District meeting went well on using scriptures and teaching to needs. I did a practica with asking hard investigator questions and then everyone would search for answers and then we would hear one of them and then get a bunch of scriptures to answer some hard questions. It went well, even though I made it sound really confusing.
We also had a paella dinner appointment with Nieves and family and it was delicious. We also had a noodle paella dinner appointment with Ana and Anita, members of the rama who were in the other elder's area that we get to visit and teach now. The work is going great and we are getting a good base of teaching the members from both areas. I like it a lot here, and am really excited for General Conference. The spiritual thought will be whatever you learn in conference this weekend.
Love,
Elder Miller