Morgan's coming home!

Morgan's plane has landed in New York City and he will be home at 7:50 tonight!!!

Elder Miller's last email

*This is Morgan's last email he will send from his mission. He will return home on Tuesday, July 14th, and will be speaking in church on July 26th at 10:50 am. The address of our church is 4366 South 1500 East. We would love to see you there. Thank you so much for your prayers and support for Morgan and our family over the last 2 years.

Love, Laura


I want to thank the Shaws, Merki & Grandma, for their emails, and let Grandma and Sarah know I got the birthday card from Oliver and I am very grateful for it. Tell Had thanks for his encouraging email. Tell Grandpa “Happy Birthday” on Thursday, and thank Grandma for putting that in bold so I would comment on it.

That is so awesome that the missionaries will be moving into Gene Flowers' basement. I am so excited!

Mom, for sure you should go to the Farnsworth's homecoming, and you could hopefully get in touch with some missionaries and invite them to come to my homecoming if they knew me or remember me.

Thanks for all you do for me and for keeping me in touch this whole time. Thanks for everything. I love you so much and whatever you plan when I get home sounds good. I will just fly by the seat of my pants and try not to be to weirded out about not being on a mission, and embrace the change that will be interesting.

This morning we had an amazing accidental experience, in that we were late to the temple session by a couple of minutes, so we were left with a 1 hour wait until the next session. Luckily, one of the temple workers, I think he was one of the counselors in the temple presidency, was nice enough to offer to let us do sealings until the next session, which I had never seen or done before. The temple president acted as the sealer and just was amazing, teaching us and letting us ask questions, and it was just awesome. Then we had a temple session that went extremely well.

I got to say good-by to some elders, and then also we stayed there at the Stake Center to eat a district lunch and play some group games and then told funny missionary experiences about the language, investigators, awkward moments, and embarrassing moments. It was great, and then I was oh so grateful to Elder Karren who was there with our district. He got me some sweet gifts, some funny ones like a Hannah Montana notebook and tissues, and some awesome ones like a framed picture and a picture cube with photos on each side. It was a farewell luncheon you could say, and it was way fun.

Everything went well with picking up and dropping off Elder Gerrbo, and it was weird to be at the airport. It was so awesome to be Elder Read's companion for 3 days, even if it was crazy to juggle our areas with the downed metro. The metro re-opens for our area on the tenth. We had a goodbye dinner last night at Alex's restaurant, where mashed potatoes and gravy and cheese cake were the stand-out items on the menu. Also we have 7 more dinner appointments with the members before I leave, 2 on Friday, 3 on Saturday and 2 more on Sunday. Craziness, but it should be a really fun time and a great way to see the members I love so much at least one more time.

Elder Jeppson is doing great and now has insoles that are helping his feet. We had an awesome Monday of 5 lessons, one of, if not the best Mondays of my mission. Also, on that Monday, Freddy a Colombian, that we contacted at his store, and have taught 4 times since, accepted a baptismal date. Alex and Alejandro are still working on it, but don't have much time to meet.

I love this work, and the Lord really blesses us so, so, so much. May he bless you all.


Much love from Elder Miller, from Spain for the last time.

July 1

From: elder.miller@myldsmail.net

Well its been a great week, and it sounds like it was there at home as well. Thanks to the Ginnie and Joe for the package they sent me for my birthday, with some sweet jerky from Wyoming. Also, thanks to Elder Braghini, Elder Brown, Evan and Kelly for their emails. Grandma Judy can feel free to send me weekly emails my whole life. I love them.
I had a feeling Dad might be the new bishop. It will be interesting. Dad will do an amazing job, but that's lots of work and stress. Good luck Dad. Steve Allen and Tyler Healey will be amazing counselors. Brian Mecham will be a great executive secretary, and Daniel Marriott will be an awesome ward clerk.
Today we are going to Islazul (the big shopping mall) one more time to grab some last minute stuff, hang out with Elder Karren, and have some Taco Bell.
I didn't really mention what we did later in the day on my birthday, but the members were just awesome. When we got back from Segovia that day, we went to Gonzalina´s house, from Ecuador. She has two kids, Johnny and Veronica. They had balloons all over the ceiling and a cake and a bunch of snacks for us. It was really fun. Then Alex and the young single adults made me a cake that I got at church on Sunday. Also, Alex had a party at his restaurant with some of the way awesome young single adults. We had cheesecake that they made, and then Alex made chicken wings, and ribs, and bread with cream cheese and salmon on top. It was way awesome that the members are so generous and went over the top for me. The elders in my piso put up a banner and cleaned the piso. So don't worry Mom. I was well taken care of for my birthday. I've been trying to serve extra ever since, to make up for it all.
On a less cool note, we have 2 metro lines going through our area. We live 2 stops from our area, riding line 6 of the metro. Our area starts and goes for 3 more stops. Those stops that we cross every single day to get in and out of our area and through it are all closed down until the 10th of July, and have been closed for 3 weeks. We also have line 3 of the metro that goes south that isn't closed, but we have to take a replacement special service bus to get there and to get into our area. That has put a damper on traveling, and makes it harder to teach as much, but we keep on keepin on none the less.
This week I had exchanges with Elder Gerrbo from Sweden, which was awesome, and then yesterday with Elder Read. I have now been on 4 exchanges with Elder Read, more than anyone else I have been on exchanges with. That was my last of 73 exchanges that I have been on, as far as my count goes. We have a trio going on this weekend from tomorrow morning until Sunday morning. We are taking Elder Gerrbo to the airport tomorrow, bright and early. He is going home for his father's funeral. He passed away 2 Saturdays ago from cancer. Elder Gerrbo has handled it like a champ, and I haven't seen him sad about it, but that's only because he has the opportunity to bear testimony of the plan of salvation so often, and feel the refreshing comfort that comes from this lovely plan our Heavenly Father has for us. Elder Gerrbo didn't even really tell anyone, until about 3 or 4 days ago, only Elder Read and I knew, and President Farnsworth as well. Everything will be okay for him. It should be a good opportunity to attend the funeral, and put everything in order, and put it all in the past. Then he can prepare to finish the year and a half of his mission that remains.
Elder Jeppson is doing well, other than a sore foot and back, but he is getting insoles from a foot doctor tonight and has a muscle relaxant to take before bed for his back, so everything is under control. We had a crazy experience when we went to a less active member's house as a back up plan the other day. We arrived to find him freaking out with depression, a panic attack, and hyper- ventilating. He hadn't eaten or had anything to drink since early in the morning when he threw everything up. He was laid off from work, and super nervous about that, and it just threw him head long into health problems. We walked with him to the hospital, ten minutes away, and called his sister to come and be with him. She is one of the hermanas' investigators. Now everything is doing great with Francisco. They have everything back in balance.
The Joseph Smith movie was way awesome on Saturday because Alex brought 3 cousins as referrals, but sadly their parents won't let them have anything to do with the church or Alex now. He is having lot of resistance from his family, but his mother stays by his side, and even if she didn't, he would stay strong in the church. We were able to participate in Alex receiving the Aaronic priesthood in quorum meeting on Sunday. It was simply splendid. Even though they had to do it twice because they messed up the wording. Also, Jose came to the Joseph Smith movie, and loved it. He is still studying with the Jehovah's witnesses, but is getting more and more convinced by the spirit each lesson.
Israel, one of our old investigators from when I was with Elder Karren, and attended Barrio 5 for 4 weeks while I was there, was just baptized on Sunday. It was awesome. Another young single adult(23 year-old Bolivian) to add to the great group here in Barrio 3. I was so glad the other elders were able to bring him along to baptism.
I had a farewell noche de hogar with the Torres family of Barrio 5. They are the Colombians. They had us over because John Freddy left today for Mallorca until after I leave. So it was fun to see them all one more time, and they gave us Dunkin Donuts, which was extremely nice of them.
We are teaching some awesome referrals from the hermanas, Alex and Alejandro (20 and 11). They are brothers from Bolivia, and their mom is getting reactivated. They accepted a baptismal date in our second lesson yesterday for the 2nd of August, so that is just awesome. Last night we had an amazing noche de hogar with Jose Viences, the referral from Gonzalina. We were able to give Johnny and Veronica blessings for their nervousness to journey to Ecuador for 2 months. It was amazing, and the spirit was so strong. I love this work and I love you all so much.
Keep on keepin on.

Love, Elder Miller

Last Zone Conference

From: elder.miller@myldsmail.net

Hey, thanks for the love and support, I love you all so much.
Thanks to Matthew for the note and pictures he sent me, and the Shaws for their email as well, and then Sharon and Grandma Judy for their awesome emails.
Well, I just deleted part of my email, so I will try to remember what I had typed. I was telling about Zone Conference and how it went with the goodbyes to President and Hermana Farnsworth. They are just so amazing. It will be sad to see them go, and weird to have a new President and Hermana here for a few days. But the Lord guides this work and loves us enough to give us exactly the situations that we each need for our optimal growth. At Zone Conference I got to say goodbye to lots of missionaries and then also I gave my final testimony that we do at our last Zone Conference. No one went first, so I just jumped up to the podium, and it went well. I just felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the opportunity to serve the Lord in the mission field. Also, the bbq went really well, and was lots of fun with our zone. We had hamburgers and hot dogs, and then s'mores and root beer floats. It was awesome and fun to be in the mission home, but sad to have my last interview with President Farnsworth. I owe President and Hermana Farnsworth the world for all they have done for us missionaries.
Also today, we went to Toledo and it went well. Elder Ott and Elder Wolfley from Wyoming came to pick us up in the mission van, which was nice to have an air conditioned car to go in, and faster and cheaper. It was our district and then Elder Ott. The trip went well. We got some great pictures and an awesome view from the back side of Toledo on the other side of the gorge and the river. Also we saw the cathedral from the outside and then the city. We also saw those plates that they hand press with gold being made. It was way cool, and it was one of the things that I still really wanted to do in Toledo.
Now we have shopping, and then cleaning, and then working tonight. It has been great here in Barrio 3 and Johnny is still doing pretty well. We had a great lesson on Saturday and found out he is in 1 Nephi 17 in the Book of Mormon, and doing really well with reading daily. We just need him to come to church next week, something he has had a problem with due to other commitments the last two weeks. On Sunday morning, we had a great lesson with Randy and finally with his mom and younger brother, and another member referral Sergio. They are all family or friends to Victor and Julia, members from the Dominican Republic. The lesson went really well, and then afterwords, we were able to give Victor a blessing of health, due to his stomach tumors acting up. Elder Jeppson did a splendid job. His Spanish is improving daily. Also that night after church, we gave a blessing to Karina, who had surgery. She is the wife of Jaime the menos activo member who contacted Elder Karren and me in the street one morning. Both blessings were awesome spiritual experiences. It was also great at church to see 9 less active members come to church. It was just awesome. Two of them found us, or we found them during this transfer. I love this work.
Much love from Spain.

Love, Elder Miller

I'm 21!

Hey everyone-

I love you all so, so much and appreciated so very much the birthday package that was oh “so beautifully simple, and simply beautiful, like the gospel”. I am going to make the caramel brownies soon. I just got the package yesterday, and haven't had time yet.

We just had an awesome day in Segovia. It was just splendid to go back and remember times with Elder Peterson and Elder Jensen, and the members contacts, people and places. I wish I could take it all home with me in my bags. It was awesome because we were able to go out on the balcony off the front of the castle - the far point of the cliff where it has never been open before when I was there. It must be a summer thing. We were going to go with our district, the six of us, plus Elder Karren and his companion. It almost worked out, but Elders Read and Gerrbo didn't come, and the Barrio 9 hermanas, who live with the hermanas in our district decided to come with us.

So that rotten old Elder Ott can stop giving me beef about preparation days with hermanas. The elders are just flaky on our plans sometimes, and wouldn't it be funny if I had to flake on the Toledo plans with him for next week.

I got 23 wonderful birthday emails! I think that's a new record for me. Jackson wrote me an email. Can you thank him? The letter he sent me a month and a half a go got lost, or is hopefully on the way. I hope it comes before I leave. Also, I want to do a general thank-you to Rusty, Ike, Sophie, Tess, Susie, Mike Manning, Yasmin and her family, Elder Ott (even though it was a half shout out, half stab in the back), Eliza, Dad, Mom, Merky and Gary, Grandma and Grandpa, Nancy, Ashley and Evan. Thanks so much for taking the time to shoot me a line. It was all well received and super appreciated.

I just wanted to check that my new home email address is morganmiller88@gmail.com. If that isn't it, can you please get in touch with Hermana Farnsworth through Facebook or email to tell her what it is. We have Zone Conference next Wednesday, and I haven't used that email ever, so I'm not sure if I remember it. I have to tell the mission office my home email, so they can put it in the newsletter they are going to give out on Tuesday at the first-last Zone Conference. I want to make sure I give them the right email, so everyone can stay in contact with me if they want to.

So, this week I will start off with talking up the members of Barrio 3 again, because they are the best I have seen on my mission. We taught 11 less active member or recent convert lessons last week to great people who are coming back to church. Every week this transfer, at least once, we have had an encounter with a new less active member that just found us on the street and contacted us and didn't know where the church was, or we contacted them thinking they weren't members. There are 4 that I can recall right now, and one that came to church last week is doing great. We found another one yesterday, and I hope he and his family get reactivated soon. A lot of the work Elder Jeppson and I have been offered by the Lord this transfer, has been teaching members and asking for referrals, working with less active members, and helping them back to church, and then working with amazing recent converts like Alex and helping other recent converts be more like Alex.

We do have a sweet investigator now, though. He is Bolivian and about 25 years old. He is oh so nice, and oh such an amazing person. He was a referral from Elder Read and is just awesome. In this district, more than any other, we have a great unity and just an awesome passing of investigators, referrals and we work together as a team. The hermanas have a baptismal date with Narcissa, who had stopped progressing and her husband wouldn't listen or participate. They both are just doing awesome now and have baptismal dates for the 4th of July to be baptized. The other elders have a date with Israel, who moved from our area to their area. The referrals just flow through from one to another. Its great, and we are all just working “one for all and all for one”.

We had an awesome lesson with Johnny on Saturday, and it was just amazing. Afterwords, he read 3rd Nephi 11 and prayed, and felt the confirmation that it is a true book and that Joseph Smith is a prophet. So we have a great stepping stone with him, and will work towards baptism with him.

We have weekly Family Night at the chapel for the ward members, and the missionaries can come if we take investigators. This week, the missionaries put it on, and I gave the lesson on the Book of Mormon. It went really well, and then we had brownies from the hermanas and cowboy cookies from me. (Elder Read's mom's recipe with chocolate chips or in Spain, chocolate chunks, coconut, oatmeal, and corn flakes.) They're great, and the noche de hogar went awesome. Both of the members we asked for referrals on Thursday brought them to the noche de hogar on Friday. The hermanas are going to teach them, seeing as they are all women, but it was awesome to see the members just being great missionaries.

I love this gospel and I love this missionary work, and I hope to be a missionary my whole life as a member, if I can't stay on a full time mission for the rest of my life.

I love you so much.

Love, Elder Miller

6-10-09

From: elder.miller@myldsmail.net
Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009

Well, another week has flown by too fast! I need to slow down time. Thanks Ginny and Joe Shaw, Becky, Abbie, Grandma, Mom and Dad for the awesome emails. I loved seeing the photos. It was sweet to see Evan's hair so long. It will be interesting to see it short again. Also, I liked the ones of the little cousins. Please thank Grandma Linda and Doug for the birthday card and the letter. It was so very much appreciated. I especially was touched by Grandma's comments on Memorial Day and the specialness of it. Thanks to all the grandparents for their support financially as well.

As far as President and Hermana Farnsworth, they are headed out between the 1st and the 4th of July, and we have one last Zone Conference with them on week 4 of this transfer, and then a Zone Conference week 5 with the new Mission President the week after that I think. We have interviews on June 18th at the mission home with a bbq, which should be just delightful and awesome. Hopefully the birthday package comes by next Monday and if not, it will come eventually.

By the way, Elder Matthews is living in a piso with the other Elder Miller.

So last week, I didn't give details about the District. Elder Murga the Peruvian, left to go to Valladolid, and Hermana Cachari (p.s. Hermana Cachari told me I look like Oscar de la Hoya. Correct her if she is wrong. I can't remember what he looks like, so you will have to be the judge.) left to go to the Barcelona Mission. The new-comers are Hermana Ball, a trainee with Hermana Lester, and then Elder Gerrbo from Sweden is with Elder Read. Elder Gerrbo is 6´4, and blond, and looks way Swedish. He knows tons of languages and is a Taekwondo black belt. He is way funny and off the wall. One interesting fact about him is that the Cammans live in his Ward in Sweden. Brother Cammans and Elder Gerrbo were both Ward Missionaries together. Brother Cammans is way close to Elder Gerrbo's sick dad, and visits him all the time. Also, Patrick Cammans was in Young Men's with him and they switched from doing it in Swedish to English when Patrick arrived. We are going to send over a letter with a picture to the Cammans with the two of us together. What a small world.

Like I told you last week, I am now with Elder Jeppson. He is way interesting. He is struggling with the language, but we work on it daily and we are teaching a ton of members, and practicing the missionary lessons which is helping him open-up. I´ve decided he is a mix between Sean McPharlin that went to Olympus with me and is in our Stake, and Diego, the kid that was Evan's age and came to our ward for awhile. Elder Jeppson played football in high school and at Dixie State. He also did drama and lots of stage crew stuff. He is big into computer games, but bigger into Halo and video games. He is from a way little town in California, and is the youngest of 8 children. He´s the only red head. His family is spread all over from Missouri, North Carolina, Idaho, California, Arizona, and none in Utah. He´s a way big country music fan, and I only know one Rascal Flatts song, and one Garth Brooks song. Our common ground is football and missonary work. So we just work our tails off. Elder Jeppson has had some interesting moments, and often looses his train of thought during lessons, always leading to funny moments. After his first lesson, he fell down the stairs while a member and I both watched helplessly. I love Elder Jeppson. He keeps me happy and having a great time.
Well, we will keep making funny memories and working hard. Have a great week.

I love you all so much.

Much love from Spain.


Love, Elder Miller

Last transfer

Hey everybody!

With transfers first off, I´m still in Barrio 3, but not with Elder Karren, sadly. I am with a new missionary in his first transfer. It's way cool because Elder Peterson, that I trained, is training as well, and we got a picture with him and me and his trainee. So my new companion is Elder Jeppson from Blythe, California, near the Arizona border. He is way nice and I'm excited to be with him. He has big desires and so we are just going to work our guts out.

Alex´s baptism went great! Actually, it was amazing! Elder Karren ended up doing the baptism when the member who was going to do it couldn't come, but other than that change, it went flawless. Alex´s mom came! She loved it and just was crying a lot, a lot. She loved it, and is really opening up to the hermanas. I gave a talk at the baptism, and then the rest was members singing to Alex and talking and bearing testimony. The young single adults did amazing for him. This was the second young single adult baptism in Barrio 3 in the transfer, so they are just awesome members to help us with our investigators of those ages. Wow, confusing sentence, sorry.

I got a great email from Hadley a few weeks ago, and I just loved it soo much, and then forgot to mention it. Thanks Had!

That is crazy about the swine flu at the Provo MTC.

Thanks for the emails and all the updates. Now, to let you in on what's going on here. We have Carlos and Elma still, but they haven't come to church, sadly. Also, we have Randy, and things are going really well with him. He came to Alex's baptism, and it went way well to have him there.

Thanks for everything you do.

Love, Elder Miller