Aug. 23, 2011

things have been going pretty good this week! we will be having 2 baptisms this saturday so that will be awesome, it is always nice to see people get baptized and follow christ. so that will be awesome. but another really cool thing that happened this week was that Elder Bednar came and spoke to our misison, it was a really awesome experiece, it was up in logan so it was quite a drive, and the drive up was really funny too. this old guy named Brother Foote took us up in his little truck, and it is one of those trucks that only has 3 seats, so we crammed ourselves in there and then we didnt' take the normal way up to logan, we took this way called Avon pass, and how you get up there is that you go through weber canyon and then you go through huntsville and then you get on avon pass, and avon pass is pretty much a dirt road covered in rocks, so it was really interesting and we were pretty much off-roading for about 40 minutes and then you end up in cache valley and then we were in logan, and it was a really fun bumpy ride, we actually caught air a couple of times!! but anyways about Elder Bednar.

So Elder Bednar, and his wife came and spoke to us and also the Presiding Bishop, Bishop Burton and his wife was there and 3 70's. it was Elder Yamashita, Elder Callister and this other person and their wives who i couldn't remember. at the beginning Elder Bednar told us to put our notebooks away, because he said that we shouldn't take notes on what people say but what the feelings of the holy ghost you have. he said that people often time take notes on what general authorities say and that we write them down and then time passes on and then they become useless to us. (which has happened to me a lot...) but they didn't give us written talks, they pretty much taught us on how to bear pure testimony, and what was interesting was that pure testimony is pretty simple, all you have to say is that you Believe in Jesus Christ. that is pure testimony and how when we tell random stories and prolong our pure testimony with random doctrine, it detracts from others and also the person bearing testimony, from feeling the Holy Ghost.  He also explained to us about how we should be agents, not objects. and what he meant by that was for example when we pray we often pray for blessings upon our selves, which pretty much means we pray for blessings for us doing nothing. For example: Please bless me that my health will be good. that is an object person's prayer. but an agents person's prayer is, For example: Please bless me that as i eat healthy and exercise that my health will be good. and then you go and exercise and eat heatlhy and the lord will bless you. He told us that too many people in this world act as objects, they don't want to do anything and just receive blessings in their life for it. and he told us that god doesn't work like that, and how we are to be agents and go out and do something. he also explained to us how we are to use the holy ghost in our work and to carefully look for it in our daily lives. but also the other general authorities gave in their inputs in certain doctrine and it was an awesome mission conference.

Sadly enough that was the most interesting thing that happened this week, we did pick up 2 new investigators this week, and so we have started to teach them and the work is going really well here in layton. thank you for the birthday wishes, we are going to take a quick run to the liquor store to get some booz!!! whoo hoo 21!!!!!! ahah just kidding.

Love

Elder Miller

Aug. 16, 2011

As far as the work goes things are going pretty good. We have a baptism happening tomorrow of this girl named Michelle who has been taught by missionaries for a while, at least 6 years on and off and she is pretty much just a dry mormon. The reason why she hasn't been baptized is because her parents wouldn't let her get baptized until she is 18. so she is going to be baptized tomorrow. but the sucky thing about it is that usually when we do convert baptisms we have them confirmed in sacrament meeting that sunday. but since this upcoming sunday is stake conference she won't be confirmed until the 27th....which kind of sucks and the solution to that is to just have her confirmed right after she is baptized, but in the handbook it says for convert baptisms that you must have them confirmed in sacrament meeting but the bishop can approve a change that to have them confirmed right after they are baptized, but the bishop of the ward, bishop brown(hole) won't let that happen because he says that we have to do it by the "book". when he can easily just let her be confirmed right after she is baptized, instead he insists that she has to wait a week and half to receive the holy ghost....which is really lame. my companion right now has had some problems with that bishop in the past, he was teaching this kid who had only been to church 3 times and the requirement to be baptized is to go to 3 weeks of church and to pass a baptismal interview, but the bishop wanted that kid to go to church for 2 months straight to be baptized, but since the kid had done the 2 previous things my companion just baptized him. but that has probably been the most frustrating thing this week. but oh well.

but other than that things are going pretty good, i will actually be going to a baptism later tonight of a lady who i taught back in farr west. her husband was baptized when i was there and now she is finally making the commitment to be baptized, so that is awesome! we have also picked up 2 new investigators this week and also we have been teaching this kid named aaron, who is pretty awesome and he is planning on being baptized on the 27th! but if things go as planned we might even have 5 baptisms this transfer, which is pretty awesome. i love serving with Elder Ortiz, we have been out pretty much the same time and we get along, we communicate well with each other and also we both like to get work done. so i feel that we have been really inspired to be put together.

Aug. 9, 2011

so anyways i am liking this new area in layton, it makes me feel more at home, to compare it back to home, our area pretty much covers an area like state street in orem and we have alot of apartments and a fairly decent neighborhood. we are on bikes so that is kind of annyoning but it is still pretty nice. but my legs are becoming HUGE!! like big hunks of meat....hahah! but i almost got hit by a car a couple of times this week so that was pretty fun. but one things that i was really disappointed with is that when i first came to the apartment, our apartment was filthy, i would use swear words to describe it but that wouldn't be good... so pretty much when i first walked into the apartment it smelt like garbage...like when the garbage truck drives by and you get that garbage smell...yeah it smelt like that, i was disgusted, but anyways pretty much this week i spent cleaning the apartment, i used up a whole bottle of 409...yes one whole bottle and also half a bottle of febreeze. and now the apartment is clean enough to where i can handle it. i have become really OCD about cleaning on my mission but some missionaries do not know how to clean. but i live in another 4 man apartment, so the aparment gets dirty quick, which i hate. but hopefully i will survive.

As to the work, this saturday we had 2 baptisms, 2 boys and they were ages 10 and 13 and it was really good to seem them get baptized. both of the baptisms were a little hectic becuase the ward mission leader is a sack, a.k.a. lazy so he wasn't able to put together anything for the baptism, which usually is the job of the ward mission leader. so we had to make the programs, fill the font and also call everybody to make sure that they could come to the baptism and so that was annoying, but the baptisms did happen so that was good. also this week we have picked up 3 new investigators which is really cool, and they all pretty much want to be baptized! also there is this girl that missionaries have taught int he past and her parents wouldn't let her get baptized until she was 18 and now that she is 18 she was sort of shying away from the whole baptism thing but we taught her a couple of lessons, and now she wants to be baptized and she is going to be baptized onthe 17th!! but anyways that was pretty much my week today. hope you have a good week and don't break too many sprinkler heads and make sure jack gets some long walks!

Love

Elder Miller

Aug. 2, 2011

i have already been out for 11 months now. sot that is pretty amazing in itself, i never thought that i would be able to be out for this long, but anyways yes i am finally feeling better, it wasn't until like friday when i actually started feeling just about 100 percent well where i was actually able to eat a full meal but anyways that is really cool that Matt got his mission call to Nashville, Tennessee. I am so proud of him!! haha! but he is going to the bible belt and it is going to be nice and humid out there, i hope he enjoys it! ;) and that is funny that him and Tom are going into the MTC at the same time so that is awesome.

I am getting transferred now out of here, at first i didn't want to be in this are because is really country like and now i have grown to love it for just that and the people, but anyways i am getting transferred to Layton now, but that is good because i am going with this guy name Elder Ortiz and we knew each other when I was in Sunset, and we are pretty good buddies, but i am excited now that i have an opportunity to be able to serve with him! But i am also sad to leave this area because there are going to be some baptisms happening in this area, but i am close enough that i will be able to come back to see them get baptized!!

but this week i had the opportunity of being able to baptize this 9 year old girl named Kaylie and it was really cool, she got baptized on wednesday and she was confirmed on sunday! and also we gave talks in her ward and for the first time in my life i gave a 30 minute talk....yeah i was just rambling on about stuff that i had just prepared and when i looked at the clock it had been 30 minutes and so actually i didn't give my full talk which was kind of weird because through my life i have only been put in situations where i have given talks and left a bunch of time left on the clock, but anyways that was cool. and also we set up a baptismal date with a woman who has been taught by missionaries for about a year now and she has finally decided to be baptized on her birthday which is the 14th. but anyways that is what has happened this week, i will let you know how the new area is, i heard that it is a lot like sunset. Anyways love ya hope you aren't too lonely!

Love

Elder Miller