Almost May

From: elder.miller@myldsmail.net





I saw Elder Rodriguez on Sunday and he had taken a photo with Grandma and Doug in Barrio 6 while they were here. It was so crazy!

I got the package on Tuesday with the amazing cookies that they left for me. Thanks Grandma and Doug big time! I hope you have a great trip!

The ward in Aluche has about 180 members and it’s really focused on missionary work. I love it. We have 6 missionaries assigned to the ward, but then as the members we have 8 ward missionaries that come to coordination meeting and come to lessons with us.

So far the week has been great. Last week by the way, for preparation day we went to Isla Azul, a big mall, and shopped. Well we looked around and ate at a salad bar buffet place like Souper Salad. Today we are in Aranjuez, and it has an amazing palace. We came with Elder Glad and his trainee, and Elder Finlay and his new companion, and then the hermanas in our district. Elder Murga didn’t want to spend money so they other elders didn’t come. It has been fun. We got some pizza at an Italian restaurant with the elders from here in Aranjuez, Elder Pringle, and Elder Castro. They are both from Texas. Elder Castro’s parents are from Mexico, so he’s bilingual from the start. He has been out like a month.

We visited the Torres family in a part of our area called Orcasitas. There is Iaad, his mom Blanca, and John Freddy was there as well. He was the awesome member in Barrio 5. They made us platanos machos covered in cheese, battered and deep fried. It was way good and really rich. We are going by again Saturday for roast chicken.

We had a crazy experience. We had our first plan fall through the other day, and then our back up plan as well. Then we got lost onto a calle where we had previously been lost twice earlier in the week. I felt like we should knock the street and it was good, but we just got one pass back, and then went on to the next thing. Instead of taking the metro, we walked and took a way zigzagging through the city. Then we asked for directions upon nearing our destination, and the man pointed us down a street. I felt distinctly like “don’t go down that street". So knowing it was the way to get to where we wanted to be we walked past. On the very next corner a man contacted us. He is from Peru and was baptized at the age of 15 in Peru. He has been inactive here for the 3 years. Since he has been here he never found the church. He is about 30’ish and has 4 kids. 2 of them are baptized, and the others are still too young. The kids are all still in Peru, but his wife who isn’t a member is here and the hermanas were able to teach here on Saturday. They took her to the Joseph Smith movie. So it was just amazing to me how the Lord had us right where he wanted us on the exact corner at the exact right time to help Jaime, and to help his wife Karina prepare for baptism.

This week was also neat in that during two of our visits to recent converts or less actives, we were interrupted by home teachers and visiting teachers. You don’t understand how amazing this is. Home and visiting teaching is happening in our ward! I love it. It’s just awesome to be in such a functioning, working, missionary enthused ward. One cool connection in Barrio 3 is that Kenny, the bishop’s son, was on my basketball team that I coached in the Summer Slam basketball camp last year. I was always like, “someday maybe I will serve in Barrio 3”, and now here I am. We have a decent sized Primary, and a good amount of youth and single adults. Another crazy connection is that Francisco, a recent convert from Barrio 5, gave us a referral of his sister while I was there. Now we teach her, well the hermanas are going to teach her from here on out because her sons and husband don’t want to get on board yet. We had a great lesson with Francisco and Narcissa though.

Thanks for everything you do.

Much love from me to you.

Love, Elder Miller