Hey everyone I am in Segovia!

Hey how's it going? I am in Segovia and I saw snow on the mountains on the bus ride in. We had a very distinct Christmas, and had a great week. No, Elder Gunn and I aren't on a vacation to Segovia.

I got emergency transferred! Wow, what a crazy Christmas present. Basically that means I had to pack up and leave today and get here in Segovia with a new companion arriving at 5:45 pm. What a crazy day. My carry on bag that has a broken off handle was a pain to haul around, along with 2 other very large bags that took a beating for the amount of weight they were carrying. We had to navigate the metro lines with our huge bags, and I came out the other end with a broken wheel on my bag. I still had to get to the bus station, and then from the stop to our awesome piso here in Segovia. It has an all in one gym, two sweet nice comfy chairs, along with a matching cozy couch, and an awesome kitchen, 2 bathrooms, and 3 bedrooms, and a patio. Wow how sweet is that. It is like living in a 4 or 5 star hotel. I thought we had the Fuenlabrada piso in shape, but I was wrong. I am here in Segovia, which is one of the most picturesque pueblo cities of the mission.

Well, even crazier than all of this, I am with another missionary named Elder Jensen from my same CCM Madrid group. How nuts is this' We are both under 6 months in the mission, and we are going to stress the Spanish study. Anyway, I had a great week in Fuenlabrada, and I am excited for an amazing week of learning about this beautiful area.

Sorry I have to run, cause time is short today. I wasn't sure I would get a minute to email, but I found one.

We had a large Christmas eve feast, and I made the mashed potatoes and gravy, the salad with ranch dressing, and the brownies. They provided the chicken. Oh yeah, it was at Eduard and Francis's piso, and there were 9 of us around the table.

I am sad to be gone, and also happy to be in such an awesome area with one of my great friends of the mission. We will do our best, because that's all anyone can do, and we will leave the rest up to the Lord. I love this work, even when the Lord decides to throw us a curve ball. I have learned to stay on my toes, and to listen to the Spirit, but I know that I have only begun the learning process that will commence here in Segovia.

Much love from Spain, and I hope you all had a very Christ like Christmas. I know that Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. I wish you all a Happy New Year and many goals that hopefully last longer than a week. Anyway, later!

Love,

Elder Miller

Christmas is in the air

Christmas is in the air, even over here in Spain. I am loving it as usual. The most common Christmas decoration is the favorite Santa Clause or the 3 kings hanging off the balcony like they are falling or climbing a ladder. Weird, but you see at least one per building and sometimes up to 10. They celebrate the 3 kings because they are the ones who came bearing gifts, which actually makes a lot of sense. Anyway, they celebrate that on the 6th of January. But of course, they celebrate both for double the presents. Anyway, just a little on what's going on around here for Christmas.

We played some awesome futbol in Mostoles last p day, and it was on fake turf. It was one step up from the normal cement here, but still not real grass. It was a blast though. We gave two blessings this last week to a member whose brother died, and to a lady who is the mom of a friend of a member, if that makes any sense. They both were awesome. Try this if you dare, but I promise it is delicious. Ok, so there is the tortilla de patata over here with the potatoes cooked like hash browns, then you pour the scrambled eggs in the frying pan with it. Do the same, but use bananas as the thing fried first, and you will have a delicious Elder Miller mission original.

It has either been super slow the last week or hopping, but not just middle ground all the time. But that's all good. The slow times help you appreciate the awesome spiritual charlas that we are able to teach. I truly love this work, and there is nowhere I would rather be then here serving in the Lord's vineyard at this special time of year. I love this saying that my Grandma Linda has on one of her Christmas sweatshirts, "Remember the reason for the season." Don't get caught up in the present receiving. Be the giver, and feel the real spirit of Christmas.

We have been teaching lots of people, new and old. One new one is blessing who we taught while she was braiding another Nigerians hair, and her daughter Victory was crawling around. I love the people here, and believe me, this is a melting pot of cultures. We are getting lot's of our investigators to progress when before, they were just coasting and not keeping commitments except to keep the teaching appointment. Anyway, I can see the Lord's hand in this work daily, and I love it. We had 3 investigators in church, and that was awesome to see. We took Francis to church, and then after, we were invited over to eat at a member's house and they invited her too. It was a great opportunity to share a message in the member's home to our investigator. We are trying extra hard to go through the member list even more than ever. Hopefully, we will continue to see great things like we have been. Teaching lessons is not a problem anymore, but now we need to get those investigators to walk into the waters of baptism. We are going to have the elders from Leganes living with us starting Friday, and that should be good but a little crowded, but not much.

I love it here and hope you all have a great holiday season.

Much love from Spain. Don't forget what this holiday is really about.

Love, Elder Miller

5 months

Hey guys what's up?

I am doing just dandy as usual, and I hope the same to you all. We had dinner last Wednesday at the Moro's who fed us the delicious Thanksgiving dinner, to introduce them to Elder Gunn and to have more great food. Of course it was great. Elders Peaden and Silver from Talavera stayed Wed. night, and so did Elders Cavanaugh and Clack from Badajoz. We had zone conference the next day that was absolutely brilliant. Pres. Johnson of the 70 and also the Europe west president spoke and presided. He was amazing!!!!! Also Elder Camargo (I don't know how to spell it) who I think is a 70, also came and spoke to us. Pres. Johnson spoke for the majority of the time, and really helped us know what we need to do to utilize our potential as missionaries. Tons was taught and learned. Pres. Johnson mentioned, and I also love what is says, about prayer in the bible dictionary... I would strongly suggest looking it up.

Thursday night we taught Jenny and her husband Manuel and their two little daughters, the first charla. One of the girls is 9 and not yet baptized. It went great. They are menos activo and we will see what happens with that. Also we went to Pres. Murillo's and he fed us as usual. Some people feel so obligated to feed the missionaries, I feel bad, but you just have to eat it whatever they put on your plate, which I don't mind, but I just feel bad sometimes always eating their food. If that made any sense.

My companion was looking at my family's Christmas card for this year, and said "your brother looks a lot like you." He thought the two guys in the picture were my brothers, but in reality he was pointing to me when he said I looked a lot like my brother..... if that gives you any idea how different I look. I don't even look like myself.

Friday and Saturday were super foggy all day and you couldn't see past the next piso building while walking around, it was pretty cool. It felt like we were living in a cloud.

We taught an awesome second charla with Francis and set a baptism date with her for the 19th of January, the day after their wedding on the 18th. It should be awesome. Also we taught at their house again to teach the other people who live there and their visitors. We taught them Sat. night and it was 8 people we were teaching a third charla with brownies too. It went awesome. They cooked the brownies in the oven we had set to preheat, but someone had put chicken in the oven to cook at the same time as the brownies. p.s. they found out that it is a bad idea cause all that came out of the oven was burnt, uncooked brownies. Oh well, they got the gospel message. All in all it 'twas magnificent!!!!!

Sunday during the leaving prayer at church, my belt decided it had had enough. It was one of the reversible JC Penny kind, and the little part that it pivots on just broke. I guess it was tired of cinching up the pants that are huge on me. I have punched 6 holes in it and, have moved down 8 belt loop holes. Wow. Anyway I had to grab out my other one and wear it. It was too big, but better than nothing. Thank goodness I brought two for some reason... but after church I had to punch 5 holes, one extra for the future. The reversible belt went around me one and a half times, so it was probably time to get a new one anyway.

We had an awesome charla Sunday night with some people we contacted on the streets near a park. we didn't expect to get in, but we did. They are a couple from Ecuador with an 8 year old. It was awesome, and they both said that they knew everything we said was true. It felt just grand!!!

We got 16 charlas last week, and it was awesome. This area has been really built up these last two transfers with Elder Van Dyke and I, but I know none of this would have happened without the Lord's help. I love this work, and we are seeing the fruits of our labors. This week so far has been great. We were teaching at the Peruvian Tienda, and had the most awkward baptismal commitment ever. It was just one minute of silence, and then "no's" all around. But we got out there doubts and answered their questions.

I want to wish my friends Mike and Ike good luck on their missions. They leave next week. If you write or email me, I will write back as soon as I get a chance. Have a great week!

Much love from Spain.

Elder Miller

It's December!

Hey guys what's up?

I am here with my new companion named Elder Gunn from Thousand Oaks California. He is an awesome missionary, and just an all around great guy. He is a surfer, and has 3 months until he will be back surfing in Cali. Elder Van Dyke got called on Saturday to be a zone leader over in Alcalá. Pretty neato I thought. That area and one right near, nicknamed "the cake" by missionaries, are the sweetest in the mission. They have barrios of 150 to 200 members, and the whole deal. Their capilla is supposed to be absolute paradise. I hope to serve there one day. But I love it here in Fuenlabrada, and I wouldn't trade my time here for anything. Transfers were Monday, and I found out Elder Gunn was coming here Sunday night. We visited him and his companion in Toledo a while back, and I got to know him then. It has been smooth sailing. We have had success so far this week, and have been in the right place at the right time a bunch of times. Like today at the beginning of email, one of our investigators that I haven't been able to get a hold of just walked up behind me at the computer and said hi. We are seeing miracles daily, some larger than others but none the less miracles.

We have zone conference tomorrow, and went to the temple today as a companionship. Zone conf. should be sweet because Pres. Johnson, I believe from the Europe west presidency, is coming to our conf. It should be a day of spiritual enlightening. I am so stoked. Anyway, last p day Elder Van Dyke and I had to clean the piso because we thought some elders were going to be moving in. They didn't move in, but the mission president came by Thursday during weekly planning, so I am so grateful those elders scared us into cleaning the piso. We finished up the deep cleaning stuff Wed. night, and then he came Thurs. It went great, and it was good to talk to him and show him what we have done. It looks great by the way, and my mom has some pictures coming soon of the before and after shots. It is crazy to be In my 3rd transfer by the way, and during this week I will have been on my mission for 5 months. Wow, how time flies.

We taught Celedonio in his house, where he has tons of his paintings. We found out he also teaches painting for money, even though he is for the most part retired and really old, at a school along with helping the members out with there works of art on Wednesdays. We taught Francis and Eduardo, and then Marco and Erica who also live in there piso and came to church a week ago with them. It was awesome. We taught a spirit-filled first lesson using the restoration video. Everyone in the room was wetting the floor with tears. Anyway, things are going great with our investigators and our area. Also, we committed Francis to baptism that night, and we are still working on Marco and Erica.

I thought I would make a list of all of the brands of cars here that are rare in the states, I think. Anyway, here goes: Seat, Peugeot, Citroen, Renault, Alfa Romeo, Opel, Skoda, Fiat, Ssanyong, Rover, Iveco, M.G., Galloper, and Dacia. I have heard of Fiat and Alfa Romeo, but never had seen one. Anyway, they have most of the cars we have in the states, but then throw in the mix all of these brands, and think of what the streets look like here littered with cars, cars, cars. We taught Miriam Friday morning, using a talk in the new conf. edition Ensign, and it went awesome. We taught at the Peruvian tienda also, Johnny, David, and Miriam (a different Miriam). Also, here is a little update on the fashion sense of the teenagers to middle agers here in Spain. The mullet is officially the most popular hair cut I think. But they call it the casco romano (roman helmet), how sweet is that?

We had a baby blessing at church on Sunday, and it went weird but ok. Elder Van Dyke and I were 2 of the 5 priesthood holders, so we participated in the blessing and the sacrament. In the middle of Sunday school, Mimi and here family walked in, and they haven't been for like 3 weeks. It was awesome, and they brought Enrique, the non member dad, which is totally crazy and awesome. He used to be super mad at the missionaries for pushing baptism so hard. Also, right before the sacrament, Hermano Marquez came in. You have no clue how hard we have been working on him. He is an inactive member who hasn't been of 8 years, cause he was super offended. It was nothing short of a miracle. Hermano Marquez bore his testimony and so did one of Mimi's twins. It was awesome. I was so happy then and now, I feel like if it was all over now I could be satisfied.... but thanks goodness its not, because I am going to tear it up for another 19 months out here and "thrash" (d and c scripture reference) Spain. Anyway, much love from me to you. The church is true and God loves you.

Love,
Elder Miller

Greetings from Fuenlabrada

Hey everyone how was Thanksgiving?

It was awesome here, and we even got 2 Thanksgiving dinners. Well, they weren't just dinners they were feasts! We had a slow Wednesday night, and then a super slow thanksgiving day. Our thanksgiving entailed a 3 hour planning session, and some lessons that didn't happen, and some contacting.

We did go by and see a referral from some of the Hermanas in our mission though, and it was a gold mine! We found an inactive returned missionary, but we will work on that, and then his girlfriend who we already committed to baptism. Also, there are 4 other investigators living in the piso. They are all from Venezuela, and they all came to church on Sunday, how sweet is that! We are teaching them tonight, and I can hardly wait. The returned missionary knows one of my old neighbors, the Hamby family. He served with Jessica Hamby on his mission to Venezuela I think, but either way she had told him to look for me when she heard he was moving to Spain. Lo and behold, Elder Miller knocks on his door a couple of weeks later. This is such a small world.

We had a dinner appointment on thanksgiving that was just to die for. Homemade ribs,that were made by the loving hands of one of our members from Venezuela, Hermana Moro. She and her husband are awesome and feed us sweet stuff always. They asked the first time, what my favorite food is and I said ribs, they were delicous. She made them exactly like my grandma, mom, or Tony Roma's would, (which by the way they have here in downtown Madrid). It even had American bbq sauce that she got at AlCampo, Hunts brand.

That night, we had Elders Peaden and Cochrane stay over, and then, Elder Cavanaugh and another Elder Clark we have in our mission (they serve in Badajoz, part of our zone). It was fun to have them all over in our newly remodeled piso. We had zone conference the next day from 9:30 until 4:30. It was long, but much needed, and I learned so so so so much. Afterwards, we booked it as a zone to go to the mission home. Oh yeah, our zone conferences in this mission are 4 zones in each of 2 conferences, so just our zone was over at the mission home on Friday night. It was some good times, with delicious food and great conversation and Christmas/Thanksgiving spirit. We had some of Hermana Farnsworth's delicious lasagna.

Saturday we found Luis, a really nice guy visiting from Honduras. We taught him the whole first lesson. We invited him to church and went to pick him up at the park where we taught him. He didn't show up, but hopefully we will see him around before he goes home in 3 weeks. He is super interested either way, and we will give his address and phone number to the Honduras mission if we don't see him before he leaves. Oh yeah, we have transfers on Monday, and we find out what's going on Sunday afternoon. But we got a new assistant to the president on Monday. They announce it a week early so they can start studying the driver's hand book, because only the assistants and the office elders ever put there foot on the gas pedal or the steering wheel. The new assistant is Elder Manning who I had my awesome day with in October. It is sweet to know him already, because I haven't really gotten to know the others. The two that were here when I got here, are already back to normal missionaries, and so they are both new since I have been in the field.

Saturday during medio dia, we set up the Christmas tree that was in the piso. Somebody must have given it to the elders a while back or something. It is sweet. We taught a couple of our investigators at their Peruvian tienda on Saturday night. On the way to church Sunday, Elder Van Dyke almost got hit in the crosswalk. The cars here always have to yield to the pedestrians unless there is one of the walk/don't walk lights. Whenever there is a crosswalk, you just go for it and the cars have to stop unless the situation I said above. Anyway, this took some getting used to, but it always works out, except this girl was texting, and my companion didn't see she stopped like 2 inches from his leg. Call that luck... or call that divine protection whatever you like, but I prefer the second.

I had splits with Elder Cochrane on Monday, and he is only one transfer ahead of me... somehow we taught 2 lessons in Spanish. How sweet is that? It felt great to have that test of my Spanish. I was scared, super scared, but then they worked out and we were able to communicate just great. Oh yeah, I saw a castle on the bus ride back from district meeting on Tuesday, and we also saw a golf course. Anyway, it was a great Thanksgiving week.

Becky the inside of the temple is beautiful. That is sweet about the blog with Matthew. Thanks!

Well thanks Grandma Judy for the spiritual thought, I am going to pirate it. Thanks also for sending the package. English rings are just dandy. The people here will love them.

There was a good thought on the back of the Church News the week after Conference entitled "Edified and Uplifted." The article stated: "It will be another six months before Church members assemble for the next general conference. In the meantime, we may continue to bask in the glow of this past conference as we accept President Hinckley's counsel to read again and again its messages. These talks can serve as a spiritual oasis in a parched world where blow the winds of war, conflict, discord and all manner of temptations and challenges. The conference messages can refresh and revitalize the soul and mind as effectively as water in a desert freshens and enlivens the body. The challenge for us as Latter-day Saints, is to apply the principles we were taught, and do our part in helping the glorious work of the gospel to fill the earth, to bear witness of Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind."

Much love from Spain! The church is true and god loves you.

Love, Elder Miller

Happy Thanksgiving part 2

Hey, I got time to type some more about this last week...

we went back to finish up the Calle Constitucion where we found Celedonio, but all we found was a dog. We were knocking doors in a building, when out of one door ran a border collie that is all black with a white spot, and its name is Luna. How small is this world that all the way in Spain, I saw the exact dog that we have at home with the same exact name.

We taught Mimi's family on Saturday, and they fed us hotdogs American style, but they also had this interesting mixture to put on them. It made them like Chicago dogs, but they are from Paraguay so I don't know how that works out... anyway, we keep getting back to back dinner appointments, and we went to Mirella's right afterwards. We literally took the train straight from Mimi's to eat another meal. We found out that she is moving to Germany where her husband lives, which is very sad because she really wants to get baptized. But, we got her info in Germany and we are going to teach her one more time before she heads off to Germany on Monday.

We had Stake Conference in which a member of the Quorum of the Seventy spoke, Elder Viias, and also our Mission president and his wife spoke. She has learned all her Spanish here and he served a mission in Argentina.

We had splits from Sunday afternoon until Tuesday morning before district meeting, and I was here with Elder Peaden. We had a great time, and saw lots of success. We also got very creative and made some delicious meals.

I would strongly suggest looking at the talk by Elder Bednar about the pickles in the April 2007 conference. We taught Miriam about changing your life using this talk. I hope all is well, and I hope that you all have a very grateful Thanksgiving. Thanks for all of the support and love.

Happy Thanksgiving from Fuenlabrada! P.S. I forgot to thank Hadley for his email.

Love,
Elder Miller

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!

Hey guys, how's it going?

It sounds like everything is going great. I am in Toledo today, in the library on top of the hill you can see from most of the pictures of Toledo, emailing right now. It's the building that has four pointy corner towers and is in the middle of the famous hill area. It is awesome. We have been to the Elder's piso here, and it was built in the times of Columbus. It has way low ceilings and is super, super old. We have been to the huge capilla on the hill also. We also went to the Lladro store that sells the Missionary Lladro and the one of the Christus. The only catch is that you have to mortgage your house to buy one piece of that stuff.

We taught Hamilton on Wednesday, and we had tuna fish with sliced tomatoes on top of rice and then some beans. Tomatoes and tuna fish are my kryptonite, but I scarfed it down and I am still alive. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

The floors were finished on Thursday, and then we moved back in on Friday morning, but couldn't put our stuff on the floors until that night. The floors are spectacular! You can use them as a mirror, they are so squeaky clean. It was fun living in Mostoles for the week, but I am so glad to be back in our sweet brand new looking piso. We are for the most part, finished, with a few odds and ends to finish in the next week and a half before transfers on the first Monday in December, when my companion is pretty much for sure leaving. I am pretty sad, but we have had a lot of fun, and have done tons of great missionary and construction work.

We taught Mimi and company at English lessons and it went really well. We took a member named Hermano Moro to teach a recent convert who isn't a very recent convert at all, but we just haven't been able to teach all of the after baptism charlas that the last missionaries started. Have a great Thanksgiving I will hopefully add more to this back in Fuenlabrada, but if not have some delicious food. Pete and Grandma Judy, thanks for the emails this week.

Love,
Elder Miller