Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Salamanca, Spain


3-25-09


Hey Mom thanks for emailing me the article about Spain from the Church News. I saw the Avila wall from the article, today from the bus to and from Salamanca. We went up after our exchange with Elder Sansing and Elder Stearns. Elder Sansing and I were here in Madrid, and left today with Hermanas Thompson, Swasey, Wilcox, and Hardcastle to go up and meet Elder Finlay and Elder Stearns, the Salamanca district leader. We had a grand old time and saw the great sights of Salamanca a lot more thoroughly this time, and went to the Roman bridge and up in the tower of the cathedral. It was great.
I finally wrote Elder Brown today and Hermana Thompson wrote him too, so he should be getting that. So anyway, we contacted Jaime in a plaza and he said he knew some missionaries who were probably home by now who served in Villalba. They contacted him in the street and showed him pictures of a ranch. So it’s a small world and Jaime remembers Elder Brown. Elder Brown, you should write him he is a way cool guy.
I talked with President Farnsworth and he said to get online and check out the registration for the University of Utah. I found out that my registration period is the General registration that starts July 27th or June 27th. I guess we won’t be doing this any time soon, unless you can try to talk to someone at the U and change that so I can enroll earlier and actually get the classes I want. I guess it will all work out how it should. So yeah I guess we will just roll with the punches on that. Thanks for jumping through the hoops you have so far.
This week has been a good one. I am not sure what to do with my suits, they are too big to get taken in or used after the mission. My green one has taken a beating but has been repaired good enough to still look alright. It’s just too big. The black one we got at Mervyn’s has a nasty stain on the collar and on both sleeves, where it lost its coloring, and both pairs of pants have oil and cooking and eating stains on them. So I don’t wear that suit any more. I am going to get the black suit with brown pinstripes tailored, and the brown one is great. So basically, I am going to throw out the black one, and then the green one would just be being kept to be a keepsake. What should I do with it? So that was random.
I had an exchange with Elder Glad last Friday that went well. He is working way well with the ward and things are getting done. On Wednesday night last week after we got back from Alcala, we had a great experience in a meeting with Elder Paya and the other zone leaders. He had a talk/presentation planned with a PowerPoint, some hand outs he gave us and didn’t use, and then obviously a talk to go along with it. He started out with Zone reports and put some elders on the spot a little about priesthood not getting to the recent converts, which is a common flaw that happens here in Madrid because it’s hard to get them into interviews with the leaders, and have them take over the recent convert sometimes. Then after those, he had the assistants start a council amongst us about how we can apply the things learned in the mission tour to the mission. This went on for 2 hours of us bouncing around ideas about baptismal calendars, baptismal interviews, progress records to the ward, nightly planning, and some other things. It was way great and we were all able to see how to improve and get better as a mission. Then he stopped the council after about 2 hours and noted the spirit in the room brought by a council done the right way, like they are done in the organization and leadership of the church. He told us he did it as a practice, and that it would help us all as we went forward and served in the church as future Young Men’s presidents, Bishops, Elder’s Quorom presidents, Stake Presidents and wherever else the Lord would have us serve. He got really teary-eyed and emotional, then President Farnsworth bore his testimony tearily, and then Hermana Farnsworth, and then Hermana Paya. It was a great experience and I just loved the amazing spirit that was there.
We had some sweet new investigators this week both found in a “faith” street that was selected by a member, John Freddy (who also took us to Burger King again yesterday). One is Angel. He is a great Ecuadorian man, and he came to church on Sunday and then in the cita (lesson) on Monday he felt the truthfulness of the restoration, and was just in tears during his closing prayer. He is finding the truth he was looking for. Also Mom, there is a girl here as a nanny and she goes to our ward. Her name is Brittany Clark and she is a year younger than me. She went to Uintah Elementary as well. Also, she knows Cami Pendleton and Elder Finlay because she went to Alta her sophomore to senior year.
Things are going really well over here. The members in our area treat us just dandy, and are giving referrals and helping investigators like Thomas come to baptism. Thomas has his baptism on Friday at 8pm and it should be awesome. Andres de Batres, the Spanish recent convert, is going to baptize him. Andres and John Freddy were our heroes on this one for searching and checking habitations with Thomas to get him in the situation with 2 men in his piso that he is in now. Things are going great with him and he is just super prepared. I need to tell Thomas´ story in detail next week, with the hoops we jumped through and stuff and how prepared he was from day one. More next week…
Much love from Spain.
Love, Elder Miller

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Happy Birthday Evan!


From: elder.miller@myldsmail

Happy Birthday on Friday Evan - the big 17, holy cow I can’t believe it!
Hey thanks Dad for the email and all you do for me, I am running into Colombians like crazy. They are all over the place here. Keep Evan in line and have fun on his 17th birthday Can you believe he is 17 and me almost 21? Its ridiculous how fast time flies!
Hey mom, first off can you thank Ruth Stevens for the email, and tell her they still have the English classes at the temple, and that Elder McBride is the teacher now that he is over there in the temple zone, so those people are in good hands. Also tell Kelly I was way glad to hear from her, and hope all goes well in their move. It will be sad not to be able to visit them in Virginia again. Tell her I got the post cards, like the Harry Potter School one and stuff and I loved them.
Elder McBride’s new companion is Elder Nicholl who Elder Brown knows because they are both from little towns in Arizona.
Manuel is doing way well on quitting smoking, and he is getting some pills from a doctor today to help him. We will see how the actual quitting goes. With the Thomas baptism, it has been a crazy roller coaster. Quirico’s wife didn’t like having Thomas there, but I think it’s just because she doesn’t like the church and stuff. She has never liked us, and is atheist. So she has always been a problem. They kicked Thomas out and back to the hostel after a little over 24 hours. So craziness on that, and then members have been looking on line for him, and Andres has been helping him find a situation that would work out. Then when we finally got one we felt good about yesterday, and he was going to move in today, and had the cash out and everything, the man with the habitation pulled out. So we are high and dry with the baptism on Saturday. It got moved because the ward mission leader has to work Friday, and so he wouldn’t be able to fill the baptismal font. So stay tuned till next week to see if the overly prepared Thomas is baptized this week or next. He is just an amazing man, and went to the temple to buy himself a triple combination because he wanted to have the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price so bad. He has a testimony, the members have taken him in really well, he has been to church 3 times, he came to the Joseph Smith movie on Saturday and loved it, and he is keeping all of the commandments, and passed the baptism interview questions when we went over them with him. Andres will hopefully get him in to stay at the Red Cross today, which is the best hope. We will see what happens, but the Lord’s will be done is the most important thing.
This week was another great week at church with Thomas, Manuel, Augustin, Gisela, and Oliver all there. Carl accepted a baptismal date for the 18th of April. We hadn’t taught him in a little less than 3 weeks and then he just turned up at Miriam, a Filipino member’s house for our lesson with her and Thomas. It was awesome to hear Thomas and Miriam both bearing testimony to Carl and helping him in his decision. Also, Augustin and Gisela are praying about the 18th for their baptism as well, so we will see in our lesson on Friday how they feel, but they finally understand authority and the apostasy and the restoration. They have been to church 4 times as a family.
The conference yesterday was just amazing. Elder Gorts had medical problems just before the weekend and so the plan was changed to have Elder Paya come, who came to the mission while I was in the CCM. He is from France and was mission president here 20 years ago. He spoke to us in the CCM and talked for 4 hours about Zion. It was way good then, but I appreciated his help in the mission field more than I did as a CCM missionary. It was just great. Also, Elder Ott did a good job translating, I didn’t have a headset, but I could hear him because he kind of talks loud. So then also I got called out by Elder Paya to teach about commitments out of the blue. He just said, “And so now we are going to learn from Elder Miller a little about commitments for 5 minutes”. He asked me to answer 3 questions with my talk, but I was so nervous I don’t remember what the 3 questions were, but I have heard I answered them with what I said. It was in English, and just a really great experience to stand up and speak with nothing to say and have the script play out for me as I said each new word and sentence that came to me. It was scary but a good experience. It was weird though, because they didn’t call on any other missionaries to do anything else, other than answer questions and stuff. Tonight we have a Zone Leader meeting for 3 hours with Elder Paya and it should be just great. Today we are headed to Alcalá to see the sights over there with Elder Ott, Elder Monson, and the Alcalá elders. Elder Haynie and Elder Coley are the two you have heard of. So it should be way fun. We are going to eat some donor kebab as well.
Elder McBride and I ate cow tongue at Bernardo and Lorenza’s his last Sunday. I don’t know how it slipped my mind. It was way good, and I loved it until they told me when I was over half way done with it. Then I scraped off some of the sauce that was covering our beefy meal and saw little taste buds and discovered why I had been finding so many stinking blood vessels in my meat. Another weird food experiences in Spain, to add on to the cow stomach, intestine, pig ear and tail and mussels and all sea creatures, and just a whole list of things I would never touch with a 39 and a half foot pole before the mission.
The chocolates from Grandma arrived and they were delicious. I sent a copy of that article with Elder Sewell’s family over to him, how funny. I would love some Samoas and some Thin Mints if Grandma is willing to send them. Thanks so much, Grandpa, for having missionary experiences and sharing them with me. I hope she gets baptized. You should offer to call her a few times a week to help the missionaries maintain their daily contact with her, they should be way glad for your offer because it is hard to get members to do things like that.
Hey mom what is the deadline for sign ups at the U of U? I will talk to President Farnsworth and then get online to put together a plan as well, but if you could send me what I need to sign up for as in the general areas I still haven’t filled, and then the Science and Math I still need to fill it would be awesome. If you could coordinate an institute class with Elder Ott, that would be great. I will get with your report and try to see what I think we should sign up for and stuff. Then I will tell you and you could do the actual signing up and add and drop classes and stuff. That would probably be the least stressful on my end.
Tell Elder Brown that I am trying to get his emails responded to today on the train to Alcalá. We will see how it goes.
Thanks for everything you do. I love you all very much and hope the best for all of you.
Much love from Spain.
Love, Elder Miller

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Transfers


From: elder.miller@myldsmail.net

As far as transfers goes, here’s the scoop: I am still here in Barrio 5, and Elder Weinert completed his mission and went home to Tennessee. Elder McBride went to be a Temple Zone Leader in Barrio 6. Hermana Salas, from Barcelona went to Barrio 6 also. The new faces in the district are Elder Glad replacing Elder Weinert as District Leader. He was my District Leader back in Mostoles my 6th transfer. We get along way well and he is way funny. He is from Copper Hills, Utah. Hermana Thompson is training a new missionary from Emery High in Castledale, Utah named Hermana Swasey. Right now my new companion and I are emailing together at a locutorio or internet store, and we did a temple session together this morning. I am with Elder Finlay, my companion from the Madrid CCM, which is just crazy. It really shows that we have both matured a lot, and it is fun to be back with him. So now I have been companions with both my Provo MTC companion and my Madrid CCM companion in the field as well. It’s really weird that I will be here in Barrio 5 for one more transfer and then 2 more in just one more area. It’s sad to think about. It was also sad to see Elder Weinert and Elder McBride leave, and its always different getting used to teaching with a new companion and stuff. I am excited for the usual exchanges, interviews, piso checks, locutorio checks, Mission Council and that stuff.
Elder McBride’s dad’s surgery went amazingly well, better than expected. It was under a 50 percent chance that he would live before, but he will recover and be better than before the surgery because they took some platelet thing out of one of the valves that was causing him mini strokes regularly. So it was amazing.
I am so excited for Thomas´ baptism on the 20th. He is so awesome, today he is moving into Quirico’s piso so that he isn’t living in the hostal with single women. He also committed to keep the law of chastity and the word of wisdom. We have taught him 6 times with 6 different members and he has been to church twice now. He does his reading, prays and receives answers from the Lord consistently during personal study and the lessons. It is just awesome. He talks about our church, and asked Andres, the recent Spanish convert of 4 months, to baptize him. It is just a miracle. We are going to finish up teaching him in the next 5 lessons and then take him to the Joseph Smith movie on Saturday. He will have his baptismal interview next Thursday. Pray for him please.
Manuel is doing well and passed all of the baptismal interview questions when we went through them to give him a feel for the interview, except the word of wisdom. I hate cigarettes. He needs some help with that and so he asked for a blessing and we are going to give him one tonight. We are going to have a member who is 18 and just got the Melchizedek priesthood to give the blessing. It will be a great opportunity for Jaad, from Colombia, and Manuel Robledo the baptismal candidate. By the way dad, Jaad´s family was baptized in 1981 or 82 and he wanted me to ask if you know his family. It is the Torres family and they were baptized by Elder McCoy and Elder Calderon, a Colombian, in a city right near Cartago, Colombia. I wrote down the city but I don’t have that planner with me.
Agustin and Gisela were at church on Sunday again with little Agustin, and then Thomas, and Oliver too. It went way well and there were 149 people there, a record since I have been here in Barrio 5. There are usually around 115ish on Sunday, so that was awesome. Right now we have had to drop quite a few investigators and we are in the search for new ones. We mainly just have Thomas, Manuel, Agustin and Gisela and kind of Quirico and Carl, but neither of them is progressing real well right now.
Elder Gorts is coming to our mission again and we have a Zone Conference with him on the 19th. I am way excited. On my mission we have had Elder Johnson of the Seventy come, and Elder Viñas of the Seventy as well. Elder Lopez visits regularly. Elder Gorts is coming for the second time, and Elder Bednar. It has been amazing to hear from them all.
I am loving the work, and learning more than ever as we try to apply the teachings of Elder Bednar. It really has revolutionized my mission.
I love you all a ton and I hope you all have a great week. Much love from Spain.
Love, Elder Miller

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

El Escorial


It's March

We went to El Escorial today and it was awesome. It is a palace in the northwest part of Madrid, near the huge cross I went to a few months ago. It was so sweet. It is huge and has tons of paintings. It is right up next to the mountains in the north of Madrid and has some great views. Then after, we went to Mi Wok, an oriental buffet. It was so, so good and you could have tons of prepared food, desserts, and then pick your own ingredients to get cooked wok style. We ate a lot and then traveled home an hour on bus.
Eva and Juan Carlos have a situation update. They are going home to Paraguay this week because Juan Carlos lost his DJ job, due to not having residency papers. So they just bumped up there flight from the 1st of May until now and are headed out. It is a blessing in disguise because they will be able to get married and baptized faster. They are so strong and are way excited for baptism. Manuel’s baptismal date got pushed back. Unfortunately, in his week to quit, he couldn’t do more than 24 hours. It’s great though, because he was able to get down to 5 or 6 a day, from 50 about 4 months ago. He has a job that he got on Monday this week, so that is really great for him.
This last Sunday was a great week in church, and there were 5 investigators. It was a great Fast Sunday, but Saturday, night Elder McBride got kind of a scary call from President Farnsworth. He found out his dad was getting heart surgery number 4 tomorrow and that he went into the hospital yesterday. He was way nervous. It was an awesome experience to give him a blessing with Elder Weinert on Saturday night. What an awesome opportunity to help Elder McBride. He wanted the blessing to help him focus on the work, and he has been as focused as ever. Keep his dad in your prayers, and please put his name on the prayer roll at the temple when you go tomorrow. The surgery is to put in 2 pig valves and replace old ones. It is going to be 5 hours.
At church as I was saying, Manuel, Alcides, Julia, Augustin, Gisela and Agustinito were all there. It was awesome. Alcides went back to Paraguay about a month ago to pick up his wife. He was waiting to get baptized with her, and their son has already been baptized. He is with his grandparents in Paraguay. They are related to Bernardo and all of the other Paraguayan members and investigators here. So that’s great they have a bunch of friends already. Both Alcides and his wife have had all the lessons already and we are just way excited to help them get baptized. Agustin and his family were back at church after not going for about 4 weeks. It was great to see them again. He has been to church 5 times now. We just need to be able to teach them more regularly, which is hard to do with the crazy schedules they have.
This last week I was on exchanges with Elder Garcia. His home is near Barcelona, and we were working in our area. He serves in Villalba, and my companion was over there with Elder Cardon. On Sunday, we received a call from someone named Thomas on a Czech Republic phone number, and the guy tells us he is from India and wants to meet on Monday. He went to church in one of the barrios near the temple, Barrio 6. The elders there gave him our number because he lives near us. He is about 40, and we thought he was a member. He isn’t, but wants to be, and we had an awesome lesson in English. He has a crazy story. He was born into a Catholic family in India. He has lived in England, Hong Kong, mainland China, Mongolia, Maldives, and now he is here for 2 weeks. He has been searching for this his whole life, the true gospel of Jesus Christ, and has now found it. On Tuesday, Elder McBride and I set a baptismal date for him on the 21st of March and Thomas wanted it sooner, so we are doing it the 20th. By the way, they are usually scared of a baptismal date, or at least hesitant, but he was like, “can we move it up any sooner”.
Well I love you all a ton. Have a great week. Much love from Spain.
Love, Elder Miller

PS. Tell Grandma Lois Happy Birthday, and tell Elder Brown, Grandma Judy and Evan thanks for the emails. I was way bummed to hear that Evan broke his arm. That's sweet that Elder Brown went to Sunday dinner. Also, daylight savings isn’t until later in the spring here.