Monday, December 28, 2009

December 28, 2009

Hey Mom,

It was great to talk to all of you too. It really made my day. Christmas was pretty good. We ended up just eating with the family that we were at there house doing the calls. We just had some sandwiches and some hot chocolate. In the spanish culture, the 25th isn't a very big day. Everything is done on the 24th, so every was already done.

That is cool that Karl is already home, it is weird for everyone to be coming home.

It is nice to know that eveyone is doing well, and that everyone had a good Christmas. I'm sorry everyone was mad at you for hogging the phone. This may sound weird, but it is not that bad, because, well, I will be home pretty soon, so I can just talk to everyone. Haha. Maybe if it was like my first call, it might have been worse, but I only have 1 more now. Weird. Anyways.

Haha, no it was not offensive to be called an office elder. Some of them are pretty cool, the ones right now are alright. Office Elders have always been English, so that should never happen to me, the AP's have changes back and forth, I think they will be english for a while though.

The work is going alright. A lot of people are having a lot of struggles that we are workign through right not, but I hope they will all work out.

The coat for $30 was sweet. it was exactly what I wanted too. A pretty "cool" looking coat.

ON New Years eve we have a 6 at night curfew. We are trying to find a fun game or something that we can play that night. Staying in is always hard. I would rather be out working. BUt oh well, I don't want to get killed by a drunk driver either.


I Spaced off the Rite Aid things, sorry. I know I need strips pretty soon. I think i ahve like 70 left. But just give me one more week I guess. haha. Sorry again for spacing it.

Well, I will get going now. Sorry if the email is short or lame, but I jsut barely talked to all of you. Haha. I love you all so much. Until next week.

-Elder MIller

Monday, December 21, 2009

December 21, 2009

Hey,

Yep, Rego Park. I do absolutely no work out of the mission office. That is where I go to church on Sunday, but that is all I have to do with it. The only missionaries that do anything as far as "work" in the mission office are the Assistants to the President and 2 Elders that are fittingly called "Office Elders". And I am neither of those and so I don't do anything out of the mission office.

As far as packages go, so far I have recieved the 1 from Sandee, 1 from Kadee, and 1 from you that had a few things in it, including something from Heidee. So that is all I have recieved as of yet. So I guess I should be expecting 1 more. I haven't checked yet today, but I guess we will see. :)

Okay, as far as work goes, I guess I will just keep in brief. We are working really hard, and hopefully we see results from it. We should. You know how we have the time from 3-5 where we can go and get something to eat and take a little break, well, we haven't been taking that. We have been taking about 10 minutes to grab something to eat, and then going right back to work. It has been really good, and really really really tiring. It has been really hard. But really good at the same time. As far as the two Bolivian kids, they are doing really good. They want to get baptized, and are ready to. The older 19 year old one was interviewed last week, passed, and so can get baptized any time. But the mom now is very against it. I am not sure on all the details, but her mom, the grandma talked to her, and went on a "we are catholic" spill or something like that, and totally changed the mom's mind. So we are trying to deal with that right now. We can baptize the 19 year old, becuase past 18 you don't need anyone's permission, but under you need written permission from the parents. So we are going to wait on him and talk to the mom a lot, because we are worried if we go ahead and baptize the son while she is mad, then it will ruin all chanced for the younger sister until she is 18, which would be like 6 years. So it is a hard situation. But we are working on it.

We also have several other people we are workign with. Some really cool really good people. They all have their own personal obsticals that they are trying to get over. It is really hard when you start to try to tak on others problems and all. I love being a missionary, dont' get me wrong, but it will be nice when the day comes that I just have to worry about my own problems. A lot less stress on my back. :)

Okay, so total side note, but I went and got a new coat last monday, and I got a killer deal. I only ended up spending like $30 because it was on like triple clearance.

As far as the weather in NY, it is never clear. It is New York, haha. I like to call the sky in New York a New York Grey. It is pretty nasty most of the time. But you get used to it.

Okay, I haven't checked on the pharmacies yet, I will. I will try to get that done, and then I can just tell you on Christmas. I will also get counts on how much of everything I have, so I can tell you all of that on Christmas too.

We are not going to have a "party" but we are going to have a mission conference on the 24th, so that will be cool. Well maybe, sometime conferences are really boring, but we will see how it goes. I hope it is good.

Well, I probably have more to tell you, but I will just talk to you about it all in a couple days.

I love you.

-Elder Miller

Monday, December 14, 2009

December 14, 2009

Hey All,

Okay, so I know you have been waiting like a whole freakin week to find out were I am, since now I have been here for about a week. And so instead of delaying like I always have, I will just tell you straight up. I am now in Rego Park. That is the area that the mission office is in. So back to Queens I am. My companion is Elder Oliva. He is from Guatemala. It is pretty sweet. I already new him because we served in Brooklyn at the same time. So I am pretty excited about everything. It is a little weird getting back used to only being around Spanish speaking people, because everyone here is hispanic. But I am enjoying it a lot, and I have already met a lot of people I am already getting along with really well.

We are already having incredible success too. We just started teaching a couple younger people from Bolivia, who already are having plans to be baptized. We have a lot of other good people too. I am still getting to know all of them. But I am really excited.

I am going to have to let you know about all of the rite aids and such, as I am not really sure. I know there is a Target really close. There is not a Wal Mart but there should be a lot of Rite Aids.

Okay, so you have to hear something funny. You know how I finally broke down and told you not to get me a new tree? Okay, so this is crazy. Guess where I live? In the same pad that I started my mission. Because we lived in Corona, and now Corona is my area that I work, so weird, rigth? I am using the same desk i used when I started my mission. Okay, and on top of that, my tree was still right where I left it. So I already set it up. Way weird. Both of my Christmass on the mission will be in the same pad. And then also weird, though it already passed, if I would have known, for the pizza, it is actualyl the exact same address as it was last year. Haha, crazy.

When would be best for everyone for me to call? i still need to get that all set up.

So i got the two packages, and I will admit, I broke down and already opened everything. Thank you so much. They were all very fun.

Okay, so in the last like 5 days the weather has changed dramastically. As such, I think I am going to go buy me a new coat so that I can be super warm this winter. Just so you are aware. I don't know if I will for sure, but we are going to look today.


So everythign is going pretty well around here. It is still weird trying to get used to the city again, and not having a car. They would put me somewhere without a car rigth when it started getting cold. haha. But everything is realyl good.

Thank you so much for doing that Bible thing for me. That is going to be so cool.

It sounds liek everyone is going really well. So that is really cool. It is always good to hear when things are going well.

Well, I love you all very much, I better get going. I will talk to you next week.

-Elder Miller

Sunday, December 6, 2009

December 6, 2009

Hey,

Can I honestly say that this week was so busy, that I honestly do not even remember everything that happened. But we will see how well I do at remembering good points on it.

I guess first off I should get to the real point, the biggest thing that happened. We found out about transfers this last week, and I am leaving Lynbrook. It has been pretty hard for me to accept. But that is how it has to go I guess. There is just so much stuff I don't want to leave behind. But I guess it is my time. So next week when you get an email, I will be in a new area, unknown to me at this time.

As part of my move, I will be sending a few packages home today. I am pretty sure one of them they are going to charge me my arm and leg for, because it weighs a ton. But so be expecting a couple.

So today awaits a day of packing for me. Which is never fun. Oh well.

Okay, before I get ahead of myself, I will get to your questions.

1. Sacarament meeting talk ideas, I'll talk about that later.
2. Pods, I think I have quite a few left, I will count today, but I think I have like 25ish.
3. Let's not get a Christmas see sent. I am still goign to see if I can get ahold of my old one. And if I can't, let's just save the money.
4. New pump is going well. It is really similar, jjust a couple things have been changed. Color screen, couple other recording options. It is way similar though.
5. Still goign to get ahold of the Doctor. Sorry.
6. I think the calling card still has minutes. I will double check.
7. I know. I love you too!
8. I don't know if i will be able to, because I probably wno't know until tomorrow, but I will try to get it to you if I can.

I did get to watch the Chirstmas Devotional. I really enjoyed it. It always makes me a little trunky, because a few years ago I was in the conference center. Haha. But oh well. I still enjoyed it.

Okay, I have something really cool I want to ask you to do for me. You asked if you could get anything for my companion. Yes, you can. Could you get him one of the new Bibles too, the Spanish one. That wuold be super sweet, because he still doesn't have one. If you wanted to get it engraved, his name is Landon Dodge Alverson. And if you could send it anonymous, I don't know if that is possible with packages, but if you can taht wuold be sweet. It would be the same address, the mission office. That would be cool, and by the time he gets it I won't be his companion anymore, so he will have no clue. If you would do that, oh man, yeah, coolness.

So yesterday we went to go say bye to Fernando and Claudia, and after we had been there for a while, they told us they loved us, Claudia said that their house is always open to us if we need a place or want to visit, and then they had gotten us ties. It was the coolest thign ever. Mine has penquins on it. I am pretty sure I am going to wear it every day until CHristmas. It was the nicest thing. I love them so much and I am going to miss them so much.

A few people have already invited you and Dad to come visit after I am done with the mission. I am excited for you to meet some of them. They really have become my best friends, and I love them so much.

For you talk, if it was all up to me, I would focus on the atonement. That is really what matters. Everythign else is important, but it woudl be nothing without the atonement at the center. You know a bunch of my experiences, and I am sure you have some favorites. My favorites are hwn eyou can see Christ helping people in times of need. Like with Fernando, the Andia family that we met in the hospital, Anythony in Flushing, all of those stories, when it was above and beyond. The normal amazing stories of finding somone, teaching them, having them being golden and baptizing them right away are great, but my personal favorites are hwne you can see exactly how it helped them, and how it was planned out. How Christ is our Friend, and as missionaires we get the chance to be somones friend and try to make a difference, no matter what it takes. I think missionary work in about love and about helping people, exactly how the atonement is about love and helping the children of God return to him. I know those thoughts are kind of scatter brained, but I hope it helps a little bit.

Well it sounds like everyone is doing pretty well. I love you all, and I will talk to you next week, because I have to go get packing, and I'll hear from you in a new area. :)

-Elder Miller

November 30, 2009

Hey,

So another week up and gone. I will have to see how much of it I can contact to you. This morning we decided to take a road trip. Ok, so I know that sounds crazy, haha, but just a little one. For our P-Day we decided to drive out to Montauk, which is the very end of Long Island. There is a lighthouse there that was built I believe in 1798 under the order of George Washington. So a pretty cool place with really cool views and such. They call it Mantauk - The End. But anyways, we got up at like 3 so that we could get out there and be there for the sunrise. It was really fun. But needless to say, now I am really tired. Probably spend most of the rest of the P-Day sleeping.

I will give you an overview of my Thanksgiving. We started off the day at about 10 were we had a little Turkey Bowl that the Zone Leaders got approved from President to do. So all of the missionaries from our ZOne got together and played some football for a little bit. It was very fun. Then we started off at 12 at Sister Cynthia Jones house. She is a very nice lady, a recent convert of a few months, older, and from Jamaica. It was the normal Thankgiving meal but she had done everything organic. It was good. Then we went over to a different Jones. They are an older couple, and there son was there, who lives in the branch, his wife was in Utah. And they had invited a Senior MIsionary couple from new Jersey that they knew. It was excellent. Afterwhich we went over to the Andersons, but we were late on the food, no big deal though, I couldn't have ate more. We more so went over to visit and have some good times. There daughter was there back from school and BYU, and we got to watch her beat her 13 year oldr brother Spencer and arm wrestling. We told him we were going to make fun of him for it forever. Then we went over to President Scala's, he's the branch president. He is from Chili, and had his sister in law and two other Chilian friends there. Then also the Reynoso's, a family from the ward was there. And an older widow named Betty from the ward. It was fun because it was very Spanglish the whole time, and all the none member friends that were there were amazed taht we spoke Spanish. That rounded out the night. We were going to go to the Rothenberg's, but the canceled and we went over the next day to help them move some stuff. So it was a great day.

The weather seemed good for the Parade. I know part of the Anderson family went and saw it.

We went and saw Fernando yesterday, and he seemed to be doing realyl good. He is home except for when he has to go in for Chemo treatments. He is always fun to be around, and the house is great, because, again, it is Spanglish. But we are just hoping praying and waiting for him to get better so we can get him to church.

One kind of rough thing happened this week. I don't know if I have mentioned them before, but the Tessels, a really nice couple, who is actually the family that we went with Bro. Anderson to give some blessings, they are converts of a little under a year, and he had a stroke type of thing a few months ago, and left him not remembering anything, not even his wife. He had since recovered. But on Thankgiving the same thing happened again. Went into the hospital and was not remembering or recognizing anything. We went and visited him a couple times actaully already, and he is already doing great. he is remembering everyone and seems pretty back to normal. They did some tests and found cloggage in his artery to his brain, which was causign the problems, and are now doing tests to see how to go forward. So keep him in your prayers.

So on the way the first time to the hospital to see him something amazing happened. We actaully ended up going to the wrong hospital, because there are 2 literaly within minutes of each other. While we were looking for his room, which obviously turned out not to exist, we ran into 2 members from Brentwood, further out on Long Island. They said Hi Elders and asked us if we spoke Spanish. They were Bro and Sis Andia form Peru, who I had actually heard about from Elder Lee, on how cool they were, anyways, they needed help. They needed some translating done for them, which was fairly easy, got that all taken care of, and then had us give a blessing to their daughter who is in the hosptial with cancer, who is 15. It was great to talk them them, and great to help. I think it was amazing how the Lord put us in each others paths so perfectly, and it was even at the wrong hopsital.

On Sunday I think as I mentioned I had to speak in Sacrament Meeting. I spoke on unity with Church. I think it went fair.

Those were the main points of the week. It was good.

I did get with Brenda on tuesday and I am on the new pump. It uses the same pods, just the PDM is new. She gave me a sheet of things that if the falling of problem persists to try.

I coudl not get ahold of the mission doctor. I believe he was out of town for the holiday, but I will be getting ahold of him asap. I will call today and see.

Well, I better get going. I love you.

-Elder Miller

PS, Oh, about Stacy Jennings, I probably need to know when she is coming, because it is possible next tuesday I will be in a new area. So yet me know, and i will etl you know.