July 29, 2009

Hello All,

Yes, my birthday turned out well. Still have a hard time thinking that I am
20. But, hey, one bonus, it is a lot easier to say 20 in Spanish than it is
to say 19. Haha. But yeah, I really enjoyed my Birthday.

So I attatched a picutre. I hope you haven't opened it yet. Before you
open it I want you to remember that I am serving in the Ghetto. So now that
you remember that, this picture was taken right outside my pad, just a few
steps down the street on the corner.

Yep, you got it. That is me standing next to a Lambo. That car is worth
more than my life. And it was just chillin on the street. I thought it
would be a good picture to send. Make you all laugh a little bit.

I got the card, and I got a present from Kadee and Jim. I also got a card
from Aunt Nannie. It was great. Everyone is so nice.

Okay I will wait on the pump situation and see if she contacts me. I
believe I have 12 pods left. I didn't count for sure, but based on last
time. I know I have at least 11.

Let's see, other things in the package. Anything you want would be great.
I think I am pretty good on most things. But anything you think I would
like.

Oh yeah, I wanted to mention something I saw the other day I saw in the
store. It was an at home A1C test. You sucked the blood in, mailed it off,
and they send you back results within 3 days. It cost like $20. Maybe you
could do some research on these and see how well they work. It seemed like
a cool idea. Anyways.

Thank you for helping me out with the test strips.

Weather has been horrible. Yesterday it rained so much, everywhere was
floded. It was really fun to try to run home, even with umbrellas we all
got drenched. But oh well.

Juan is doing pretty well. We had a sad moment the other day with him
though. We went over to visit him and he was very drunk. Enough that his
family had left the apartment. So we will continue working with him and
praying for him.

We knocked into this kid last week. His name in Robin, he is 17 and from
Colombia. He has been here for about 7 years. He listened to a quick
message and we set up a return appointment. When we came back we took a
member with us, Leda Delao. It was an awesome lesson, and he totally felt
the spirit. We have another apointment with him, and are going to see if he
had read the BOM and if he had prayed about it. I am really excited for
him.

Last week i got to have my first interview with Pres. Nelson. it was great.
He is an awesome man, and I think he will do great with this mission.

Well, I better get doing. Until next week. I love you.

-Elder Miller

PS, it was weird to not celebrate Pioneer's Day. Haha.

July 20, 2009

Howdy Hey Hey,

Ok, so here are the updates to the points you really want.

1. How my birthday went.
It started out just kind of normal, not very fun. Just went and did my
normal P-Day stuff. I had to run to the mission office to give an English
Class packet thingy to Sister Heininge (she was in my district in Flushing)
and she had made me a cake and some cookies. That was so cool. Then in the
night we worked, and then we went over to this families house, the best
family ever, Alarcon, and they had got me a cake, and they got me a present,
a Rubik's Cube, haha, they had heard I liked them. Then on Saturday, they
had felt bad for my cake being a last second not fancy one, so they got me
another one. I felt so spoiled. I got them a way cool thank you card
though. But they are so awesome, so I really enjoyed my birthday, I am
including pictures of all my cakes. Haha. I bet I gained so much weight.

2. If I got my presents.
I am not sure all that was sent, but this is what I got. The shoes,
they fit awesome and look great. I am hoping to keep them in good shape and
wear them for mostly special occasiones, like transfer meeting and
interviews with the president. Package with lots of candy and the gifts
from Sandee and Heidee. All was great. You know my food taste so well.
The CD is awesome, and the books are great. I had been reading a copy of
Nuestra Busqueda de la felicidad, so I am really excited to have them and
read them. I haven't recieved the card from Grandpa and Grandma, but we
haven't got mail in a few days, because the store we live above has been
closed. Lame. But thank you so much to all for all the wonderful presents.

3. Supplies.
Yes!, the AP's were actually on exchanges with the ZL's that day, so
they just brough it to the church, put it in the fridge there, and I got it
out of the fridge and brought it home. Do you want me to send that package
back?

4. I got the test strips at Rite Aid, but they couldn't find the
prescription for some reason, they might have been able to, but I didn't
have the time to wait, so I bought them at full price. I am sorry. So my
card is probably on overdraft, if you would look at that for me, and get it
worked out that would be awesome, you are the best.

5. Mission President.
he is really cool. I have actualyl ahd a lot of time to spend around
him, and I think he will be really good. he has the right attitude about a
lot of things. So it will be good.

The weather hasn't been too bad here. But you know what not too bad weather
in New York means? Horrible. It hasn't been that hot, but hte humidity
here is redonkulous. You come home soaked in your own sweat. Oh how happy
i am it is not hotter. I heard last year was pretty bad.

Just so you know I think I have about 14 pods left, I will count for sure,
and let you have the exact count next week.

Ok, so I have one story for ya this week. We came into contact with this
man named Juan this week. We met him through English Class. His main
interest was in English. He says he needs to learn how to read and write so
he can pass a test he needs to take, taht is only offered in English. We
said we could help. I was talking to him the other day, and he was telling
me what he needed to learn to pass the test, and I was just listening and
said we could help, then after he said, "But I know you guys also teach
about Christ, and I have always liked learning about him and the Bible, so I
would love to hear about that too." It was so cool. You could really tell
that he wants to learn about the gospel. We actually have an appointment
with him tonight, so next week I will let you know how it went.

That is super crazy about camp. Camp Browning is a fun place though. I am
sure it will all work out and be fine.

It sounds like everyone has been doing pretty well. That's great.

That is awesome about the shoes and them being cheaper.

Well, I had better get going, so I will talk to you next week.

Love you bunches.

-Elder Miller

July 13, 2009

Hey Mom,

How is everything going? Hope it is all good.

I have had the opporunity to spend quite a bit of time with the new mission
president. He seems like he will be good. He is a really friendly man, and
is all about getting the work going. It will be good. I mentioned to him
about Stacey Jennings.

It has been pretty hot. Not too bad. It could be worse. I am still having
struggles with my pods. If you could find out about those tagderms, or
whatever they are called, haha, that would be great. Today we have a Zone
activity and it is going to involve much playing and sweating, so I actually
decided to go on shots for the day, so I took some lantus. That way I don't
have to deal with falling off pods. But if you find out about the tagderms
taht would be great. I haven't had much problem with them falling off
except for on P-Days. Also, when you send insulin, if you could send a new
bottle of Lantus, it would be awesome, because I think the one I am have is
technically expired.

Also, test strips, I guess I miscounted, and I only had 1 bottle when I said
I had two. So i am down to like 5 strips, and you said you forgot to send
them, so my mistake for counting wrong, but I guess I will be going and
buying a vial today. I am pretty sure that will put me on my overdraft for
my card too, so you could take care of that for me. Sorry for the
struggles, but I know you are the best and always take care of them for me.
You are the best.

So, yes, it is my birthday, but I think it will just be a pretty regular day
mostly. I didn't tell too many people it was my birthday. I got a phone
call from Sister Nelson this morning wishing me a happy birthday. For today
we have a Zone activity, we are going to a park and having a BBQ and playing
handball, so it will be like most other P-Days, just with a BBQ, but it will
be fun. Two of the youth in the branch I am serving in found out it was my
birthday, and they said they were going to buy me presents, but we will see.
Haha. There is a family in the branch also that I know if I would have told
them it was my birthday, they would have made me a cake and had me over, but
I didn't want to put more stuff on their plate, so I didn't tell them. So
mostly today is probably just going to be another day in the mission field.

The work is going slowly but surely. We were able to find a few people that
hopefully will be really good. One cool thing that happened last week is we
were knocking this building, and not much luck, which is pretty typical with
knocking, it was actually less than luck, people were being pretty mean to
us. Then when we were on the last floor, with only like 3 doors left, we
knocked on a door, and as soon as it opened, I felt good about it. It was
an older hispanic man. We introduced ourselves, did a little door approach,
and he said, I really woudl have you, but my wife is sick. Pretty typical
excuse I thought for about a half a second, it is a normal one. But then he
said that he had met with missionaries before, and they stopped comign for
one reason or another, but that he had a Book of Mormon and loved it, and
wanted us to come back in a while, when his wife was better. It was sweet.
So i am really excited fo him.

So it was a pretty good week. It went by really fast. Not only today I am
20, I am also 11 months in my mission. Only 1 more month and it is over the
hill. It's gone so fast. I had this discussion the other day with some of
the other missionaries that right in the middle is a really weird feeling,
because you feel like you have been out forever, but you also feel like you
don't go home forever. It just causes cognative dissinance. You have been
a missionary forever, and you will be forever. I got a letter from a
missionary who has gone home that I met here saying they can't wait for me
to be home so we can hang out, and I responded, I am never coming home, the
second coming is happening first, and then I will be doing missionary work
through the milenium. Haha.

Well, I hope everything is going well. Let me know if there is anything I
can do for anybody. I love you so much. I will talk to you next monday.

Love,
-Elder Miller

July 6, 2009

IMG_0141 - Welcome to Brooklyn! :)

DSCN7491 - Me in front of the Jamaica Chapel. The 2nd Floor of a Farmer's Market.

DSCN7494 - Me on the roof of the Chapel.

IMG_0036 - New York during 9/11. I wasn't there, I stole the picture.

Hey Mom,

Yeah, if situations happen where I can't e-mail you for some reason, I will try my best to let you know why.

It is not scary about the drunks. Don't worry about the drunks. If I had a dollar for everytime a drunk came up and talked to me I would be a millionare. Honestly. They are something that is not scary at all, they are more frustrating than anything.

The new mission president seems really good. We just had a short meet and greet with him on Wednesday. I think he will be really good. He seems really nice. He came up to me, looked at my name tag and said, "Elder Miller from Layton, UT. What was your A1C the last time you got it checked." He said he had been studying on the missionaries for like 3 months now, so he knew more about us, so we could bond.

This week was pretty good. Again, a lot of rain which was really frustrating, but oh well. Just a couple highlights of the week.

So on the 4th the ward was having a BBQ at the park, but in order to get a spot in the park, people had to go to the park and save a spot at like 5 in the morning. Some members voluntered, but slowly but surely came up with reasons why they couldn't. Like it usually the case, missionaries in New York do everything, so they asked us to go. So we were in the park at 5 inthe morning, and we all laid on the tables we were saving and tried to sleep. We looked like total bums. The party did not even start until 10, so we had like 5 hours before anybody was even there. We ended up being at the park for about 12 hours. It was crazy. It was really fun though. We have a pretty sweet branch.

Another funny story of the week. Yesterday before church, we had been out working, and we ran home to grab our suit coats to go to church. When we got to our pad we found an older lady at our door. She was the census lady. So we had to get interviewed for the census. It was pretty funny to explain to her that we had a 3 bedroom aprtament, no living room, 6 twenty year old males living there, How many hours we worked a week (like 70) and how much money we made in the last year ($0), it was pretty funny. She didn't know much about mormons, but it was interesting to tell her a bit. We were also asked our last place of residence, so on the US Census, Ellis Miller is listed as living in Jamaica New York, making no money, recieving no food stamps, and his last place of residence was in Brooklyn New York. We definately threw off the census.

I've included a few pictures. Some newer, some older. Here are some descriptions.

Well, I hope all is going well. I will talk to you next Monday. I love you so much.

-Elder Miller