February 23, 2009

Hello,

So are you excited to hear where I am at right now? Drum rull. . . . . . I
am in Brooklyn. I am serving in an area that is called Dyker Heights. You
want to know something really weird? There are two Chinese areas in the
whole mission. One is Flushing, the other is Dyker. Crazy huh, I am
serving the Chinese areas, Spanish speaking. Kind of weird.

My comps name is Elder Hernandez. He is from California, born in El
Salvador, so he is a native Spanish speaker, so that is pretty sweet, it
will help my spanish out being around a native all the time. He is in his
last transfer, so he will be going home in 6 weeks. Um, as far as a person,
I get along with him well, he is interesting as a missionary. He doesn't
really have any "flame" left I guess. He doesn't work very hard, very loose
about some rules, things like that. So it has been pretty hard this week.
I had my President's interview last week, and he told me pretty bluntly that
my job was to try to keep him going until the end, and then take over the
area and do something good with it next transfer. It is a really good area,
but not much has been done with it with past missionaries. So, I guess it
makes me feel good that President trusts me with it, but it is going to be
really hard, because it is hard to try to force your companion to do
something he doesn't want to do. So if anyone has any ideas, let me know.
For now, I'll just keep trucking.

So I am pretty sick right now, which is no fun, I have a super bad cold and
my nose will not stop running and I basically can't breath. Hopefully I
will start getting better. It would be nice.

So my apartment is pretty run down, I am going to try to clean it up a
little bit today, but there is one cool thing I found out about it. On like
my second or third day I was in the kitchen making some breakfast, and i
looked out the window, and you can totally see the Statue of Liberty from
our pad. It was pretty cool. The first time I have seen the Statue of
Liberty in my life was from the window of my pad. So that is pretty cool.

Not much else has been going on, just getting used to the new area and
getting to know people. It was kind of coool that a lot of the missionaries
that are serving down here, the chinese missionaries, I had already served
with in Flushing and they got transfered down here, so it made me feel
pretty at home, already knowing almost everyone. That was cool. I would
have never thought that my first two areas would be the Chinese areas.

Anyways, that's about it for this week, nothing too exciting doing on. I
love you all, you are in my prayers.

-Elder Miller

February 16, 2009

Hello,

So I totally just typed a lot and it all got deleted. No joke, it was lame.
Well to start again. Haha.

New transfers are tuesday. I will be moving to a new area and get a new
companion. I won't know where until Tuesday. My comp is also leaving, and
he is going to become a trainer, getting a fresh new missionary right out of
the MTC. When two Elders are moved out of and area at the same time, it is
called blinding out, and when two move in it is, well, blinding in. So we
got blinded out, my comp will be blinded in, and two Elders will be blinded
in to work Flushing. A lot of blinding in and out has been happening
lately, I think it is because of the AP's. They seem to like it. I don't
know why. I don't think it is effective. So it will be hard to give up all
the work me and my comp have done and hope that two Elders who don't know
the people can work well with them.

Um, nothing too exciting happened this week. We worked really hard and got
a lot of work done. We found tons of new people, worked really hard with
out progressing investigators, and stuff like that. We have 4 people
praying about baptisimal dates right now. I hope they all get their
answers. It will be sad to not see it go on though, but that part doesn't
matter, just the part of them entering the waters. So that will be cool.

So on Saturday I got the oppurtunity to baptize a girl named Ismeldy.
Remember Anthony who was baptized a while back? This is his younger sister.
It is awesome to see them both be baptized. And the coolest thing is that I
saw their mom get baptized like the second week I was here. So during my
stay here I have seen the whole family get baptized (they don't have a
father). So it has been way awesome to see all of them. I will try to
attatch some pictures. I'll have to see if my comp has his adapter. Ok, I
put some from Anthony's and Ismeldy's.

Well, I don't have much time to write. I got to pack. Bummer.

Well I love you all,

-Elder Miller

February 9, 2009

Howdy Hey Hey,

How are things going? Things are going great for me.

I think I have about a month left of pods left. Insulin I have 4 vials left
or so, I forgot to get an exact count again, I will count and maybe send you
a letter. Sorry. But everything should be good for a while. While the
fridge was out I kept one vial in the cooler box with ice, and then the rest
I had the Sisters put it in their fridge, so yeah, that is what went down.
I don't think the pen will work, but you could send one and I could try.

I did get to perform the baptism. It was awesome. I might be performing
one this week too, one of the sisters people,that I have taught before too,
but we will see. I don't really care about doing the baptism, just that
they get baptized. We have a couple other people we are teachign that will
be ready in the next couple weeks, but I might not be here in the next
couple weeks. Transfers are next tuesday, so that means I will get transfer
calls on Sunday night, so I'll be able to tell you for sure if I am leaving
or staying next Sunday, I have a feeling like I am leaving.

President was just talking about loving your companion, and then he told a
story of and Elder that is in this room that during interviews had asked
about his MTC comp and how he was doing because of a few situations and how
he thought it was awesome how much love that Elder had for his MTC comp and
how we all should have that kind of love for our companions. So yeah, that
was it. Not very many people knew it was me, but a few did, so yeah.

Things sound crazy at home. But that is good. One thing I have learned on
the mission is crazy is a lot better than boring. Speaking of crazy here is
one funny story from the week. We were leaving an appointment we had with
one of our less actives, so we went down the stairs and opened the door, and
a drunk passed out guy was leaning against the door and feel right in. So
to shut the door my comp had to grab him by his coat, lift him up, and I
reached in and shut the door, and then he leaned him back against the door.
It didn't even phase him, he didn't wake up or anything. It was way funny
because I never thought I'd ever see something liek that happen, but also it
made me think about how crazy it is that people actually live their lives
that way. It is kinda sad.

This week was good, lots of hard work, we had a hard time finding new people
to teach, but as for our existing people that we have been teaching, they
are all progressing really well. It is exciting to see things go that well.

I love you lots, you are in my prayers. Got to go send a couple more
e-mails. :) Love ya.

Happy Valentines Day.

-Elder Miller