Monday, November 23, 2009

November 23, 2009

Hey All,

I called Brenda on Saturday, did not answer and left a message. I have not heard back from her as of yet. I will call again today, and hopefully meet with her this week.

I think we have close to final plans for Thanksgiving. It will be a long day, but I get to spend some time with some amazing people.

Our performence went pretty well. I don't think anyone got a recording of it, which was kind of sad. But oh well, it is how it goes.

The weather here is about the same. It won't get really cold until later on.

Had a pretty fun week. Started offf thw eek on Tuesday with some exchanges with Elder Jones, an Elder that is serving in Far Rock Away. He was really fun to spend some time with. Fernando, our investigator with Lupus is back in the hospital. It is always frustrating for me to hear how often he is in there, I wonder how he feels?

There was of course the Thanksgiving Party, the food was really good, and of course all of the leftovers were given to the missionaries. I think we will be eating turkey until the end of dawn. Our performance was alright, I think people enjoyed it, but I don't know. I can never tell the difference between true enjoyement and being nice because you are supposed to.

Yesterday went over and gave a family some blessings with Bro. Anderson, the husband of the lady who wrote you. It was a pretty cool experience. I have a lot of respect for him.

Other than that things are well. I did get the package. Thank you so much. What was the pain reliever for? Haha.

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

I love you.

-Elder Miller

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

November 16, 2009

Hey,

Ok, before I forget, I need something. To renew my Driver's Liscense I need my Social Secuirty #, which I don't know. So if you can send that to me, that will be taken care of.

I will call Brenda ASAP, this should be a good week.

Ok, so I think that is all of technicalities. As far as if we have set plans for this Thanksgiving, the answer I guess is no. But not how you might think. It is because we have too many plans. We have been invited over to I think 9 different families, and we are trying to decide what to do, we want to say yes to all of them, but obviously we can't. So we will see what ends up happening. It will be great whatever ends up happening.

It is still weird to me to know that this time next year i will be home. But I guess I will get more used to it.

So this week was really good. We got a lot of good stuff done and had a lot of fun while doing it. We had some awesmoe appointments and some awesome lessons. Two kind of out of hte norm things I guess happened. Yesterday was the Primary program, and we were asked to sing with them during one of the songs. So we were part of the Primary. It was fun though, we got to practice with them and things like that, so it was great. People said we did a good job, but you know, people always have to be nice. We finally got a Branch Mission Leader called, so we are excited for that. He is from the Dominican Republic. He served a mission 4 years ago. He is great. Ok, and I guess the last thing is that we spoke in Sacrament meeting, but not in ours. We spoke in Hempstead branch. So it was kind of weird. I am still not very sure why we did, but we were aksed to, as well as the 2 missionaries that serve in that branch. It went pretty well. It was weird because it was the first time I had given a complete English talk in a long time.

Other than that things are going pretty well. The weather has stabalized a little bit, and I don't think that it will be really cold for a while, hopefully. Sister Anderson, the one that wrote you a note, called today and asked if there was anything I needed from Utah because she is going out there this weekend, and asked if I needed any Utah stuff or anything from home. I obviously couldn't think of anything, but I think it is amazing to see how willing to help people are.

This week we have something kind of fun going on. We are having a branch Thanksgiving dinner thingy, and as part of it, we as missionaries are going to put on a little Fireside. We are going to have little talk, and also we are preparing a musical number. We found an arrangment for Come Thou Fount for Piano, guitar, and voice, so Elder McGuire is going to play the piano, I will play guitar, and Elder Burk and Elder Alverson will be sining. Hopefully it turns out well. It will be really fun.

I think that is about it for what is going on for me, out of the norm. I got to get some P-Day stuff done, so I will talk to you all next week.

I love you.

-Elder Miller

P.S. Ok, so I had this idea that I thought you could help me out with. Here is what I want. I want as many people as are willing to, to email me there conversion story. Whether born in the church or not, we all have our conversion story. And I want to hear them. So anybody and everybody, you, Dad, the sisters, and anyone else you want to send this email to. I want to hear them. Easy enough, right?

So if you would do that for me Mom, forward this email to whoever you think would be willing to send me their story.

And in case when you get this email and you don't know mine, please email the story to elderellisbradonmiller@myldsmail.net.

Thank you so much, and I love you all.

Monday, November 9, 2009

November 9, 2009

Hey,

I did get the teststrips. I will keep you posted on everything else.

That is cool that you got a letter from Sister Anderson, but also weird, because I have no clue how she got the address. She must have talked to the mission office or something. Anyways, that is nice to hear. She is very nice. Your stereotypical mormon mom. They both graduated from BYU, they have a million kids. They are great though. They just moved here from Chicago. They are a great family and are fun to be around. You should write her back. Maybe you could become cool little pen pals or something. At least for while I am here in Lynbrook. Maybe you could send here you e-mail address.

Mom, you know that that is not fair to tell me that you bought me a present, but then to tell me you won't tell. But I guess it is alright. I will just not think about it. And before I even know it Christmas will be here. Time just seems to be going that fast.

We have been invited to one family so far for Thanksgiving, but they told us that if we had somewhere else we needed to be, we should go there. But it is the Malinka family, the other stereotypical mormon family we have. She is the one that grew up in Layton. I am excited to go there though, I"m sure we will go. I love that family, and it will be American food. Don't get me wrong, I love hispanic food, but that's all I've been eating for over a year.

Ok, so here is the exciting news for the week. On Tuesday we met a man named Matt Hazen. He had been taught a little bit by other Elders, but turned out to live in our area, so he got handed over to us. We got to know him and taught him a little bit. The next day he texted us and asked us some questions. One thing led to another, and we ended up committing him to be baptized over text messages the day after we met him. And you used to say that all my texting was just a waste of time. Haha. But we are really excited for him. Just a couple days ago he texted us and told us that he ordered himself a leather LDS Bible and Book of Mormon, as well as some other mormon litterature. He is eating everything up like a kid in a candy store. His only down fall is coffee right now, which he is really working on. So pray for him that he can get over that.

Other than that it was just a long crazy week. Saturday night I layed down in bed, I went to bed early, at like 10, and was laying there, and I was so tired that I couldn't sleep. It took to much energy to fall asleep. It was a really weird feeling. So the long work has been taking it's toll, but it is all good. I am loving it.

This week we had interviews with President Nelson, which was good. He is always good to sit down and talk with, as long as joke around with.

Yesterday we were asked to teach Elders Quorum. It was on the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times. It went pretty well. We are pretty booked for the rest of the month too. Next week we are singing in the Primary Program in our ward, as well as my companion and I will be speaking in another branch, I am not really sure why, but we were aksed to. They next week we are putting on a Fireside for the branch. And then the next week we will be speaking in our branch in Sacrament meeting. Quite a busy month. But busy is the best.

Well, I have to get going. Let me know if there is anything I can do for anyone.

I love you.

-Elder Miller

Monday, November 2, 2009

November 2, 2009

Hey,

Ok, I will answer your questions first.

1. I haven't got it signed yet, have to get ahold of the mission Doctor, he has been in other states, he covers several missions.
2. Haven't got ahold of Brenda, it was another busy week. This week should be slower.
3. I haven't sent it yet, might actually be a few weeks.
4. I will tell you when I get it. :)

Anyways, I am really excited to be staying in Lynbrook. That means i will be here all the way until December, which is crazy. It is weird how fast time goes. Why do you feel the same way, that you want me to stay?

I may not be in Lynbrook for Christmas, probably not actually. We will see where I am at. I didn't bring my tree with me, but I just left it in Corona, which I could probably get a hold of depending on where I am, so we will just have to wait and see, and then I will let you know then.

Our Halloween Party was fun, nothing too exciting. It was mostly geared towards the youth, like primary, so that was about it. It was in the morning. We did a little trunk or treat, and do to there not being very many vehicles there, they had us use our car. So that was a little weird, but fun. We have a lot of really funny Primary age kids in the branch, so that was fun.

The night was pretty boring. We are not allowed to do missionary work on Halloween, kind of weird, everything I do every day, we can't do one day, so it is weird. But just like last year we had to be in out pad by 5 and stay in the whole night. So it was pretty boring. We played like Clue, and then we made some caramel apples with the caramel you sent me, but the carmel got a little burnt. Kind of tasted like burnt marshmellows. So that was about it.

Yes, the district presidency is our equivilant of a stake presidency. I live within a district, made up of branches.

I did get Sandee's package. It was so cool. It made me so happy.

I am sure you will do great with Thanksgiving. It will be interested to see what happenes this year for us. Last year I had like 3 hispanic Thanksgiving dinners. Now I am with hispanics, whites, everyone. So it will be wierd to see.

This week was pretty good. It went by really fast. With a bunch of meetings and such. We had a couple really good meetings with some people. The one investigator that i told you about hat has Lupus, he is finally starting to feel a little bit better, so that is really nice to see.

Well, I am off to go do some more P-Day activities. I love you all.

-Elder Miller