Wednesday, April 29, 2009

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

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Aluche

Last Transfer


I was transferred to Aluche, just amazing! I always wanted to serve here. Elder Ott served here in Barrio 3 as well, but he was in Barrio 3 Arriba and I’m in Barrio 3 Bajo. Our district is awesome of the 6 missionaries who serve here. I’m companions with Elder Karren, who was in Puerto llano while I was in Ciudad Real and he is the one who lives on the Watts’ street and went to Skyline. Mom, you should get in contact with his mom.
The District Leader is Elder Read, who I just love, and then Elder Murga. He is 26 and from Peru. Elder Trujillo and has been in Barcelona for like 10 years and is a convert of 3 years. He is way sweet and speaks almost perfect English. It’s a way great piso. I’m so glad to be with Elder Karren, and living with a native finally and then also to be with Elder Read who is just hilarious. There are 2 hermanas in the district. Hermana Toone is new and from Bountiful, and then Hermana Lester from Washington, a convert of 3 years. That is so crazy that Grandma and Doug will be in Madrid this weekend. I hope they have an amazing trip.
That’s so great about Brian’s mission call. Elder Jarman and Elder Decker both waited in the Maryland Baltimore Mission - English speaking until they got their visas and they loved it. The only thing I know is that the cool souvenir to take home that all the elders got was a grill, like the platinum and gold diamond studded mouth pieces. Pretty sweet Brian! Good luck and baptize like crazy. That is so crazy Brian will be gone when I get back. We won’t see each other for 4 years.
I got the card from Sharon and Tanner and I thank them a million times over for the 10 euros. They went towards my 13 euro pair of Chino shoes I bought so I could get the toe of my Eccos re-glued. The Chino shoes are great, black with silver buckles and very Spanish looking.
Angel was just doing amazing when I left on Monday and I’m sure Elder Finlay took over just fine. Everything should work out for him to be baptized as he has gotten out of the shop deal and is just selling off the products until they are gone. He is going to close on Sundays from now on and has now been to church 5 weeks in a row. He received his testimony on Easter Sunday as he was reading the Book of Mormon. He just felt the spirit tell him super strongly that the Book of Mormon is true and that the church is true and Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. It’s pretty awesome, and now he just doesn’t have any reservations or hang-ups before baptism. The first lesson after he signed to get out of his rent of the location he rents he just told us “I’m ready to get baptized now. When can we do it?”
So, here is just some Barrio 5 info. It was super hard to say goodbye after the 4+ months there, but one cool thing is that the Torres family from Colombia that was baptized by Elder McCoy and Calderon from Barrio 5 really lives in our area in Barrio 3. So we get to go and visit them on Friday, so I didn’t really have to say goodbye to them. It was a great week last week and we got a ton of member referrals and were able to do a bunch of meeting house tours, a big focus recently in the mission. They went really well, and the members are just getting more on board every week. Along with Angel at church on Sunday were Emilio, Manuel, Augustin, and Oliver, most of the eternal investigators I taught while I was there. They keep investigating kind of, but now they really seem to be changing, especially Manuel who came to church all dressed up in a new suit with glasses on and just looking changed. Here in Barrio 3 we are working with some people I don’t even know yet so I can’t really fill you in. We have 8 ward missionaries though, so that is awesome and is 8 more ward missionaries than I have had in the other 5 of my areas. President told me I would be finishing here in one of the most powerful mission wards with one of the best Bishops he has ever worked with in Spain or Utah. So I am overjoyed. Have a great week. Much love from me to you all…and much love from Spain.
Love, Elder Miller

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

4-15-09

Well, I hope everyone had a nice Easter.
Today we are going to the wax museum with the district and with Elder Ott and Elder Monson.
So first off, there is Angel over here who wasn’t ready for his baptismal interview, so we had to wait on his baptism. We need him to get an answer to his prayers as to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and the church as the only with the priesthood authority on the earth. It makes sense to him mas o menos, but he hasn’t had the spiritual confirmation yet. Lessons with him go really, really well though and he always does his prayers and reading and is really going to be ready when the time comes for him to be baptized. He should be closing down his shop this week and is trying to rid himself of all the food on the shelves, counters and fridges so that he can sell the spot to someone else, and then he is going to get a piso in the ward and make clothes and tailor clothes for a living instead of his terrible situation at a store that doesn’t make any money.
Also, an update on Alcides and his wife that he went and picked up in Paraguay; they have returned to Spain and have a baptismal date in Barrio 8, so that is way sweet. Eva and Juan Carlos liked conference and are still receiving the missionaries and noches de hogar from them. Also, I forgot to mention about Thomas’ confirmation. I confirmed him in Sacrament Meeting in English. It was kind of hard to do it in English. It went way well though, and then this last Sunday he received the Aaronic Priesthood from the High Priest group leader who is from Missouri, and it was in English for Thomas as well. It was way sweet, and all of the 4 of the Barrio 5 elders the bishop and Hermano Wilson were in the circle. It was great, and an amazing blessing. So thanks for everything. I love you all a ton. I will let you know what happens with transfers.
Much love from Spain.
Love, Elder Miller

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Happy Easter


Thanks to both of my Grandmas, the Stevens, and Elder Brown for their emails this week.

Well today we went to a museum for the blind. It sounds weird but it was neat. They had all miniature models of famous buildings and monuments, 3-D art, brail books, and then history of the blind culture as far as like the inventions leading up to Braille and stuff. It was sweet, and you could touch all of the models because that’s obviously how the blind people figure out what’s going on with each piece. There was a Segovia overview, the Statue of Liberty, the Roman Coliseum, tons of famous cathedrals and building around Spain, the Eiffel tower, and much more. All of the things were all pretty big and impressive.
Thomas is doing great, and the other elders are teaching him as a recent convert because he moved into their area. He is just on fire, and came to all of the possible 4 sessions of conference we could attend and loved it. It was so fun to have him there in English with all of the missionaries. Also we watched one session in Spanish with Angel, who stayed for 2 sessions on Sunday, one with Andres and the other with us. We saw tons of members, and it was just awesome. Also, one of the coolest things was seeing Hermana Ana Camarero, who I knew as Anita back in Ciudad Real. She is in the Madrid CCM right now since last week. She is going to Barcelona on a mission, and it was great to talk with her about Tak and Rei who were put in the Primary presidency after I left. Conference was just amazing, amazing, amazing. I loved the sense of hope it gave to the world that has most obviously been turned on its head more and more since I have been in this bubble-world, free of doubts and fear of the real world.
I had a good exchange with Elder Ellsworth. He is from a small town in Arizona, Shiloh or something like that. He is was cool, and is in his first transfer. We had a great opportunity to teach some lessons, but one in particular was just awesome. We were put in the hard situation of teaching some member referrals for their first lesson. It was to a mother about 50 and her son Erik 25, and then Erik’s girlfriend, a member of Barrio 1. The tough part about the situation is that Jenny, the daughter, committed suicide last Saturday, due to a problematic life of suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. We taught them on Monday while they were still very sad and in shock as you can imagine. We taught them the plan of salvation, but mainly it was a short lesson focused on the atonement and it’s all encompassingness of all of our problems Alma 7:11-13. He is with us and helping us. We also taught about faith in preparation to give Erik a blessing he had asked for, prompting the visit. So it was super intense. The tension could have been cut with a knife. Elder Ellsworth is new, and doesn’t speak fluently yet, and so I had most of the lesson. It was a great opportunity to just be completely guided by the spirit the whole lesson and then during the blessing was just amazingly spiritual. I felt just an overwhelming calming feeling. Then the mother asked for a blessing, and when she said either of the two of us could do it, I got Elder Ellsworth to agree to do it. It was his first blessing; Spanish or English. It went great. He spoke Spanish better than he usually speaks. The gift of tongues helped him, and the Lord was helping this hard-hearted mother follow her son’s example to come more unto Christ. It was just a priceless 30 minutes and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Angel was doing just amazing and had jumped all hurdles we could toss in front of him; chastity, which has been a problem throughout his life, and the word of wisdom, which helped him quit drinking coffee and tea, and having the resolve to not even drink occasionally as he did before. Then we came to the Sabbath day and we just can’t get him to close his store. It was hard the first time to get him to church and close the tienda, but then it happened now 3 weeks in a row and so we need to get him ready to close on Sunday which looks super grim right now. But, I guess we will have faith instead of fear and we will do what we can and leave the rest up to the Lord.

Thanks for everything! I love you all so much.

Love, Elder Miller

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Segovia

It's April!


From: Morgan Miller (elder.miller@myldsmail.net)
Sent: Wed 04/01/09 10:26 AM
To: terryandlaura@msn.com

Happy April Fool’s Day! We are in Segovia right now doing email. We had an exchange and I went to Valladolid with Elder Scott from Los Angeles. It was a good exchange. We were there from Monday before pedidos until we switched back here to do the piso (apartment) check in Segovia. Today we have a preparation day with Elder Boyce and Elder Muller here in Segovia, and Elder Scott and Elder Moreno, the Valladolid elders we did exchanges with. It should be fun to see Segovia today and maybe for the last time on my mission. I love Segovia. It is so charismatic and nostalgic.
So now for the update on Angel; he is doing great and progressing towards his baptismal date the 18th of April. He walked 35 minutes to church this week, the walk we did with him the week before. Even though it was Daylight Saving Time, he still made it right on time. Also, he came to Thomas´ baptism on Friday.
So now for Thomas’ story from the start until now; firstly, he is from Kerala, India in the south, and speaks perfect English with a way funny accent. He was in Mongolia a year ago teaching English like he has done also in Hong Kong, mainland China, and Maldives. He saw on the internet, video footage of President Monson meeting President Bush, and that was his first contact with the church. Then he found the local LDS church in Mongolia near his house, but didn’t attend. He went to the Czech Republic and studied a little more in Prague for an international certification allowing him to teach throughout all of Europe. Then he came here to Spain. That was 5 weeks ago. Four weeks ago he located the Madrid temple and attended church at the stake center. Elder Dubray and Elder Cummins referred him to us because he was staying in our area. Thankfully Thomas called us that Sunday night and we met the next day. We met with him 4 or 5 times a week with 6 different members to prepare him for his baptism on the 27th (Friday). It was just amazing from the get go with Thomas. He was so elect and prepared. Thomas was living in a co-ed hostel like I have said in other emails. The problem with him getting baptized was only the living situation. Thanks to Andres de Batres going to the piso visits with Thomas, and John Freddy finding the pisos online and then setting up the citas (appointments), everything worked out - even though when he moved in with Quirico, his wife kicked Thomas out. When we were trying to find another place for him to stay, we kept running into pisos who wanted just men in there piso, but just wanted gay men... so that wasn’t going to work out. Right now Thomas is 44 years old, and finally got baptized in The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints. He bought himself triple combination scriptures after he had known about the church for only a week or so, and is just dominating in his scripture study. It was a bumpy road with crazy money and piso problems and scheduling stuff, and then the Ward Mission Leader was 20 minutes late to Thomas’ baptism and didn’t have the programs. Thomas had to drop his chastity problems and quit drinking coffee, but everything worked out. He is just awesome, and I recognize how much the Lord blessed him every step of the way.
The missionary reduction in Spain starts as my group leaves in July, and the mission will only receive 2 or 3 missionaries to replace 13. Then they will just keep receiving fewer missionaries than are going home until the mission is at 64 missionaries, which makes one companionship for each of the 32 units (branches and wards) in the mission. So the affects will firstly cause the city wards like Barrio 5, the other 7 barrios and then the suburb wards like Mostoles, Leganes and Alcala, to reduce to just 2 missionaries. So immediately there shouldn’t be cities without missionaries. But once the mission is spread thin and a city explodes with success, they will pull missionaries out of other areas to put them in areas where the work load is unbearable. What does this all mean? The members will have to step it up and be full-time finders. Elder Bednar told us he has only seen baptism numbers go up after the missionary number went down, so it’s a good sign. The Lord has huge plans for Europe and this mission.
Hey, so have a great next week. Thanks for keeping me posted on everything.
Much love from Spain!
Love, Elder Miller



Love, Elder Miller