Hey Mom,
Things are going pretty well for me. I hope you don't miss me too much,
because that is no good. But a little bit I guess isn't that bad. We have
9 full time missionaries? Who are they all? Me, Chris, Brian, The Hansens,
that's like all I can think of. It is still weird to me that I am gone, it
has been such a blur. The other day we were walking over this hilly area
and you can see the Manhattan Landspace, and I was like, Woe, I am in New
York City. I forget it sometimes. Haha.
Missionary Lingo is not important. It is just easier for me to use it
sometimes, because it is how my brain works now. There is a lot (and I mean
a lot) that I haven't even told you yet. And it is pretty weird and
confusing, so. Haha. Okay, I will be expecting the Phone Card, that will
be sweet. Okay, just let me know on the doctor thing.
Okay, update on my supplies, I have about 2 1/2 bottles of insulin left,
maybe more like 3, but 2 1/2, and I have 10 pods left I believe, the boxes
are of ten right? If they are, I have ten. One whole box left.
I heard about the Jazz, it does sound like they are going to lose, but that
is okay, I wouldn't want them to do to well while I am on my mission and
can't see it.
I will be sure to find out about the Babylon guy.
As far as the Christ guy, I am certain he was on some sort of drugs. You
can tell that he was. BUt it is nothing new. It is rare to go a day
without someone on drugs or a drunk come up and talk to you. It is usually
just drunks though. It is really sad to see how people live there lives.
It is hard too, because we would love to teach them, but it is almost
impossible to find them when they aren't drunk, and they can't except it
when drunk. They just can't feel the spirit.
Okay, normal day, I'm sorry I haven't told you this before.
6:30, wake up, pray, exercise for 30 minutes.
7:00, get ready for the day.
7:30, breakfast.
8:00, personal study.
9:00, companionship study.
10:00, language study.
11:00, leave and work.
3:00, dinner and prepare for the night.
5:00, work again.
9:00 or 9:30, come back to the appartment and plan the next day for 30
minutes.
10:30 go to bed.
We do a little bit of everything, we plan every day and everyone is a little
different. We will tract, have set appointment, talk to people on the
street, all sorts of things, whatever we think wil lbe the most effective
use of our time.
My comp is Elder Matthew Heiner from Alpine, UT. He is a little bit of a
Peter Priesthood kind of guy. He is a golfer. We don't have too much in
common, but he is really nice and a really hard worker. It has been really
good being with him.
My pad is pretty ghetto. I will send you some pictures, and I am working on
seeing if I can get a video and give you a tour. I am going to see if I can
e-mail it to you, and if not i will just send you a memory card with it on
it. Then you can see me, hear my voice, and get a tour of my pad.
Last monday my companion had a sweater and a coat on, and yesterday it was
90 degrees. The weather in New York is beyond crazy.
It sounds like everyone is doing pretty good.
Jose is going to get confirmed this Sunday, as the plan goes. I am very
excited. It really was a miracle. He is really cool.
I haven't gone to Nathan's yet. I have bought some Nathan's hot dogs from
the grocery store, whenever they are on sale, but as far as getting one from
the actual original stand, I haven't yet. Proabably next monday.
Teach the Young Women to be member missionaries. I know people in Utah
already do a really good job at it, but it can always be better. The
importance of members is more than anyone can imagine until they become a
full time missionary. It is like in Elder Perry's talk in conference, the
missionaries should be full time teachers and members should be full time
finders. If I didn't have to spend time finding and got to spend it all
teaching, baptisims would explode. So start with that. I'll try to come up
with other stuff for you to share them.
Nothing too exciting happened this week. We had a lot of appointments
cancel and a lot of people not there when we showed up when they told us to.
But that is alright. That is how it goes. This week should be really good.
We are probably (depending on the spirit) going to invite a couple to be
baptized tonight, so keep them in your thoughts and prayers. Their names
are Ana and Arturo.
We have a really good plan going into this week, and it should go very well.
Okay, Mother's Day your will be home by 12:15, um that is 2:15 here, right?
I will let you know better next week when I can call. And I think I should
be able to call for like 5 minutes the day before to set up an appointment.
Anyways. That will be nice to talk to the family again. It seems like it
was just yesterday that I talked to all of you.
So I heard that a video put up by the church of Elder Holland's talk was the
highest viewed video on the internet on Easter. That is so awesome. That
made me very excited.
Espero que Dios te bendiga. Te amo muchisimo. Hasta Lunes.
(I hope that God blesses you. I love you, lets see, best way to translate
this. . . bunches. Until Monday.)
I love you.
-Elder Miller
Monday, April 27, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
April 21, 2009
So last week a few days it was up to the 70's, very hot when you are outside
all day walking around. And since every is all concrete, and humid, hot
here is a lot different then hot back home. Today it is back to pretty
cold. It is very breazy and is supposed to rain, so we will see how that
goes. If it was about 60 every day all day long I would be a happy fella,
but it just isn't that way in New York, there isn't a Spring, it goes from
Winter to Summer.
This week we started to see success coming, which is very exciting. We have
a few investigators that look very promising, so that is awesome.
We has one "miracle" happen this week. Well, obviously several miralces
happened this week, but one big one that stood out. There was a guy who got
baptized in January, before I was in this area obviously, that got baptized
on a Sunday, and after that he disappeared off the face of the earth
apparently, so he never got confirmed. He was completely gone, his phone
was disconnected, and he was never home. He also had a friend that got
baptized that same day as him, and is strong member now, that didn't know
where he went. Well anyways, we were at that members house the other day
teaching him a lesson and while we were there he got a phone call from the
guy who disappeared, Jose. Jose came over right then to visit and stuff.
He had been in like California or something, just kind of taking a break
from life I guess, but he is now back. We talked to him, had a lesson about
the gospel, and we invited him to church obviously, and asked him if he was
still interested in following the church and being confirmed. He said yes.
On Sunday, he came to church, which is amazing, because tons of people will
say yes, but when they come through, wow. So we are not working with him,
reteaching some stuff, and getting him ready to be confirmed. It has been
so awesome. It is such a miracle.
This last week we taught as many lessons as we had taught in the last 2
weeks combined. It is amazing how things are finally starting to happen. I
am very excited for them.
So another not so miracle story that happened the other day that I would
like to share. haha. The other day me and my comp were standing on the
subway platform waiting for the train, and a young man came up to my
companion, in his mid 20's probably, darker skinned, and he shook my
companions hand and said, "God Bless You, I am Jesus Christ." My companion
kinda laughed and said, "Great, want to come to church on Sunday?" At this
point "Christ" kind of got upset and said how dare you invite to Church, I
am Christ, then he explained how he was invisible and how only my companion
could see him, interesting, since I could see him, and stated that he was
back from the dead after 33 years, which is also intereseting, since I think
he died a lot longer ago then that. He then started trembling and said, "I
will destroy you and everything in you." Then he rain off yelling some
profanities and said, "Quit doing that Mormon &#%^, ok!" It was very
interesting. Just for your information, I was standing directly behind the
guy, ready to do what I had to in case he tried to get violent with my
companion. But luckily he didn't. So that was kind of interesting.
Other than that I am doing pretty good. I think I am putting on a few
pounds, so I have been working on trying to eat less. That is really hard.
Haha.
Well, I guess i had better get going soon. I love you so much. Talk to you
later.
-Elder Miller
all day walking around. And since every is all concrete, and humid, hot
here is a lot different then hot back home. Today it is back to pretty
cold. It is very breazy and is supposed to rain, so we will see how that
goes. If it was about 60 every day all day long I would be a happy fella,
but it just isn't that way in New York, there isn't a Spring, it goes from
Winter to Summer.
This week we started to see success coming, which is very exciting. We have
a few investigators that look very promising, so that is awesome.
We has one "miracle" happen this week. Well, obviously several miralces
happened this week, but one big one that stood out. There was a guy who got
baptized in January, before I was in this area obviously, that got baptized
on a Sunday, and after that he disappeared off the face of the earth
apparently, so he never got confirmed. He was completely gone, his phone
was disconnected, and he was never home. He also had a friend that got
baptized that same day as him, and is strong member now, that didn't know
where he went. Well anyways, we were at that members house the other day
teaching him a lesson and while we were there he got a phone call from the
guy who disappeared, Jose. Jose came over right then to visit and stuff.
He had been in like California or something, just kind of taking a break
from life I guess, but he is now back. We talked to him, had a lesson about
the gospel, and we invited him to church obviously, and asked him if he was
still interested in following the church and being confirmed. He said yes.
On Sunday, he came to church, which is amazing, because tons of people will
say yes, but when they come through, wow. So we are not working with him,
reteaching some stuff, and getting him ready to be confirmed. It has been
so awesome. It is such a miracle.
This last week we taught as many lessons as we had taught in the last 2
weeks combined. It is amazing how things are finally starting to happen. I
am very excited for them.
So another not so miracle story that happened the other day that I would
like to share. haha. The other day me and my comp were standing on the
subway platform waiting for the train, and a young man came up to my
companion, in his mid 20's probably, darker skinned, and he shook my
companions hand and said, "God Bless You, I am Jesus Christ." My companion
kinda laughed and said, "Great, want to come to church on Sunday?" At this
point "Christ" kind of got upset and said how dare you invite to Church, I
am Christ, then he explained how he was invisible and how only my companion
could see him, interesting, since I could see him, and stated that he was
back from the dead after 33 years, which is also intereseting, since I think
he died a lot longer ago then that. He then started trembling and said, "I
will destroy you and everything in you." Then he rain off yelling some
profanities and said, "Quit doing that Mormon &#%^, ok!" It was very
interesting. Just for your information, I was standing directly behind the
guy, ready to do what I had to in case he tried to get violent with my
companion. But luckily he didn't. So that was kind of interesting.
Other than that I am doing pretty good. I think I am putting on a few
pounds, so I have been working on trying to eat less. That is really hard.
Haha.
Well, I guess i had better get going soon. I love you so much. Talk to you
later.
-Elder Miller
Monday, April 13, 2009
April 13, 2009
Hey Mom,
Zone Leaders are just missionaries assigned to be leaders over the zone.
There are districts, and several districts make up a zone, and all the zones
make up the mission. So each district has a District leader, each Zone has
a Zone Leader, and then there are the Assistants to the President.
That is wonderful that she got the letter. It was a wonderful package from
her. It was all sorts of food that I love, but would never spend the money
on, with my limited budget. So it was awesome.
I did get your and Sandee's packages. Thank you so much. They were great.
How was Easter without me? It is weird having holidays here, because they
basically feel like normal days. The Herrera Family did have us over for
dinner. He is the 2nd counseler in the stake presidency. They are the same
ones that made us the crazy tacos. They made vegetables, potatoes and ham.
It was so good. I felt like i was eating right at home. It was so nice. I
love hispanic food, but my body has been craving some normal american food,
and they made us some, and it was great. So easter was pretty good.
Conference was great for me too. The emphasis on the temple was kind of
weird for all of us missionaries, because we all love the temple, but we
only get to go twice in two years. When it was mentioned about people that
haven't been in a long time, Elder Baker, a chinese missionary, went, oh
man, I haven't been in almost a year. It was pretty funny.
Having someone telling me I was going to hell just makes me laugh. It is
the attitude you have to have, or else you would get so broke down. I have
had much worse things said to me, so you just have to learn to laugh.
I do not believe I need anything else right now. Anything that pops in your
mind is fine by me though. :) Maybe some vienna sasuages??? :)
That is awesome that you get to go to the Jazz game. Are you using Dan's
tickets? You are so lucky. But oh well, I'll get to enjoy all of that
stuff in a couple years.
So this week me and my companion worked so hard. I have been exhausted all
week, to the point where I just go home and can't even move. We aren't
seeing too much success right now, but we are seeing progress, which is all
that matters, because success will come. So I am very excited to see things
change.
So yesterday I realized that today was going to be the 13th. (I rarely know
what day it is) And realized also that that is a month mark for me. I
commented on it, and my companion added it up and said it was 8 months.
That seemed like a lot longer than it has been, but I was still okay with
it, but then he said, hey, that means you are a third of the way done with
your mission. Can you believe that? That really freaked me out. A third
it a lot. It has gone by so fast. It almost scared me. Oh well.
So this is a story that happens a lot, but it happened again, and i think it
is funny, so I will share. We knocked a door and they said, Quien? (Who?)
And we said, "Los Elderes de la Iglesia" (The elders of the church) again
Quien?, "Los Elderes de la Iglesia, estamos en el edificio compartiendo un
mensaje acerca de Jesucristo (we are in the building sharing a message about
Jesus Christ.) "I dont speak English" (In english) Pero, estamos hablando
en espanol (But we are speaking in spanish) "I dont speak English!!!!" And
she wouldn't answer after that. People will use anything as an excuse not
to talk to us.
Well, I better get going. I love you so much. You are in my prayers.
-Elder Miller
Zone Leaders are just missionaries assigned to be leaders over the zone.
There are districts, and several districts make up a zone, and all the zones
make up the mission. So each district has a District leader, each Zone has
a Zone Leader, and then there are the Assistants to the President.
That is wonderful that she got the letter. It was a wonderful package from
her. It was all sorts of food that I love, but would never spend the money
on, with my limited budget. So it was awesome.
I did get your and Sandee's packages. Thank you so much. They were great.
How was Easter without me? It is weird having holidays here, because they
basically feel like normal days. The Herrera Family did have us over for
dinner. He is the 2nd counseler in the stake presidency. They are the same
ones that made us the crazy tacos. They made vegetables, potatoes and ham.
It was so good. I felt like i was eating right at home. It was so nice. I
love hispanic food, but my body has been craving some normal american food,
and they made us some, and it was great. So easter was pretty good.
Conference was great for me too. The emphasis on the temple was kind of
weird for all of us missionaries, because we all love the temple, but we
only get to go twice in two years. When it was mentioned about people that
haven't been in a long time, Elder Baker, a chinese missionary, went, oh
man, I haven't been in almost a year. It was pretty funny.
Having someone telling me I was going to hell just makes me laugh. It is
the attitude you have to have, or else you would get so broke down. I have
had much worse things said to me, so you just have to learn to laugh.
I do not believe I need anything else right now. Anything that pops in your
mind is fine by me though. :) Maybe some vienna sasuages??? :)
That is awesome that you get to go to the Jazz game. Are you using Dan's
tickets? You are so lucky. But oh well, I'll get to enjoy all of that
stuff in a couple years.
So this week me and my companion worked so hard. I have been exhausted all
week, to the point where I just go home and can't even move. We aren't
seeing too much success right now, but we are seeing progress, which is all
that matters, because success will come. So I am very excited to see things
change.
So yesterday I realized that today was going to be the 13th. (I rarely know
what day it is) And realized also that that is a month mark for me. I
commented on it, and my companion added it up and said it was 8 months.
That seemed like a lot longer than it has been, but I was still okay with
it, but then he said, hey, that means you are a third of the way done with
your mission. Can you believe that? That really freaked me out. A third
it a lot. It has gone by so fast. It almost scared me. Oh well.
So this is a story that happens a lot, but it happened again, and i think it
is funny, so I will share. We knocked a door and they said, Quien? (Who?)
And we said, "Los Elderes de la Iglesia" (The elders of the church) again
Quien?, "Los Elderes de la Iglesia, estamos en el edificio compartiendo un
mensaje acerca de Jesucristo (we are in the building sharing a message about
Jesus Christ.) "I dont speak English" (In english) Pero, estamos hablando
en espanol (But we are speaking in spanish) "I dont speak English!!!!" And
she wouldn't answer after that. People will use anything as an excuse not
to talk to us.
Well, I better get going. I love you so much. You are in my prayers.
-Elder Miller
Monday, April 6, 2009
April 6, 2009
Hey Mom,
What is up? So guess what? It is raining again. Haha. The weather is so
bad. But I guess that doesn't really matter.
Okay, so . . . . .. . I am still in Dyker Heights, that I was almost
positive about. And my new companions name is Elder Heiner. He is from
Alpine, UT. He is pretty cool, and he is a really good hard working
missionary. So that is really nice. He is a little bit nerdy, but I can
deal with that. He only has two transfers left, or 3 months, so there is a
fifty fifty chance I will be his last companion too. But we will worry
about thinking about that in 6 weeks. He was just a Zone Leader. He is
more than willing to work really hard, so I am very excited about that.
Things in the area are already changing rapidly. We are going to work
really hard and get a lot done.
Last Friday I had my Presidents Interview, which are always nice, to get to
see President and talk to him for a bit. He always brings up that fact that
he has a friend named Ellis Miller. It is so crazy that there is another
one out there that isn't me, Dad, Grandpa, or Grandpa.
I did get Grandma's box. I sent her a thank you letter today.
I am in need of Starbursts pretty soon again, just an FYI.
I have not met the new mission President, as I won't until he gets here to
take over. He is not even in the MTC yet. His MTC time is the same as
Spanish missionaries, 2 months, so he won't even be in the MTC for another
month.
I will see if I can find out where Babylon is and find out who is teaching
him. Do you have any idea where it is? Is it on Long Island, Queens,
Brooklyn? I will try to keep in touch.
You don't need to ask for any donations on ties, I gave the ward about 25,
and they only asked for about 10, so I am sure they are fine.
Things sound like they are doing really great. I did do the half year
English, and I highly suggest that. AP only gets you a few credits more,
and they are not guaranteed, as you must past the test, which is very hard.
CE is guaranteed credit, and you get a full year of high school credit for a
half year class. It is great. I really liked that class.
Did you enjoy conference? It was great I thought. It was really wierd to
not be able to watch it at home, I had to go to church. And at the church I
go to there isn't an English ward, just Spanish and chinese, so wehre they
had the english TV set up, there were only like 5 people in the room, mostly
misisonaries. It was really funny. But it was great.
I had a crazy guy stop me on the street the other day and talk to me for a
while, and he basically told me i was going to hell, which is a bummer,
because I don't want to go to hell. Haha.
Anyways, things are going great. I better get going pretty soon. I am sure
i will have some good stories for you next week. I love you all very much.
-Elder Miller
What is up? So guess what? It is raining again. Haha. The weather is so
bad. But I guess that doesn't really matter.
Okay, so . . . . .. . I am still in Dyker Heights, that I was almost
positive about. And my new companions name is Elder Heiner. He is from
Alpine, UT. He is pretty cool, and he is a really good hard working
missionary. So that is really nice. He is a little bit nerdy, but I can
deal with that. He only has two transfers left, or 3 months, so there is a
fifty fifty chance I will be his last companion too. But we will worry
about thinking about that in 6 weeks. He was just a Zone Leader. He is
more than willing to work really hard, so I am very excited about that.
Things in the area are already changing rapidly. We are going to work
really hard and get a lot done.
Last Friday I had my Presidents Interview, which are always nice, to get to
see President and talk to him for a bit. He always brings up that fact that
he has a friend named Ellis Miller. It is so crazy that there is another
one out there that isn't me, Dad, Grandpa, or Grandpa.
I did get Grandma's box. I sent her a thank you letter today.
I am in need of Starbursts pretty soon again, just an FYI.
I have not met the new mission President, as I won't until he gets here to
take over. He is not even in the MTC yet. His MTC time is the same as
Spanish missionaries, 2 months, so he won't even be in the MTC for another
month.
I will see if I can find out where Babylon is and find out who is teaching
him. Do you have any idea where it is? Is it on Long Island, Queens,
Brooklyn? I will try to keep in touch.
You don't need to ask for any donations on ties, I gave the ward about 25,
and they only asked for about 10, so I am sure they are fine.
Things sound like they are doing really great. I did do the half year
English, and I highly suggest that. AP only gets you a few credits more,
and they are not guaranteed, as you must past the test, which is very hard.
CE is guaranteed credit, and you get a full year of high school credit for a
half year class. It is great. I really liked that class.
Did you enjoy conference? It was great I thought. It was really wierd to
not be able to watch it at home, I had to go to church. And at the church I
go to there isn't an English ward, just Spanish and chinese, so wehre they
had the english TV set up, there were only like 5 people in the room, mostly
misisonaries. It was really funny. But it was great.
I had a crazy guy stop me on the street the other day and talk to me for a
while, and he basically told me i was going to hell, which is a bummer,
because I don't want to go to hell. Haha.
Anyways, things are going great. I better get going pretty soon. I am sure
i will have some good stories for you next week. I love you all very much.
-Elder Miller
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