May 31, 2010

Hey All,

Yeah, last week was a weird one, but this week has been pretty normal getting back in the swing of things.

It is super weird to be back in Flushing. Getting to see a bunch of people I already know and love. I am sure it is going to continue to be strange. I will get used to it though. Well, I am already used to it, but it is just trippy to seem like I never left. My companions name is Elder Jacobs. He is from Idaho. I already knew him pretty well, because he was ina neighboring area when I was in Rego. He was also companions with Elder Call, so we share a companion. He is super cool and a good missionary. So I am back in an area that I already know, with a companion that I basically already know. So it is almost not like change, but still a change. And I will almost for sure finish my mission in Flushing, so the only possible other change that I could have is to get a new companion, but that might not happen either.

You will be happy to hear that I am now living in a very nice apartment. And by very nice I mean by far the nicest I have lived in so far. We have side by side beds, it came furnished when the church rented it, so we have very nice furnature, it is all hard wood floors, just everything. We have 3 couches. So it is way nice. It will be good to finish my mission living in a really ncie place.

The weather has been horrible. It has been like 80 degrees inside our bedroom at night. We need to talk to the office to see if we can get another air conditioner. I might die. But I am sure we can get another one. We already have 2 going full blast, and they just don't handle it.

So it was kind of a slower week. The work in Flushing, as it was before, is very hard, because there are very few hispanic people that live there, as you know, it is all Asians, but as you also know, I also enjoy really hard work. So most of the week was spent trying to find people and such. One kind of funny story, just yesterday I believe, I talked to this guy on the street. You'd never guess it, but he was a member, or so he said. He said he was El Salvador, and that he got baptized in Guatemala like 7 years ago. Now for the best part, guess who he said baptized him. . . Joseph Smith. He said Jospeh Smith baptized him. It was pretty interesting. I politely told him Jospeh Smith and been dead for some time, and that was not possible, but he persisted. Very interesting. The people you meet in New York City, no?

It sounds like everyone is doing pretty well. That is good. It is always good to hear.

Just so you know, I will have to buy test strips soon. I was expecting the package to be sent last week and get it today or tomorrow, so I will buy those today or tomorrow, I will remember to try to use that card and see if they will take it. So yeah, just so you know.

Well, all is well. I love you all very much, and will talk to you all next week.

-Elder Miller

May 23, 2010

Hey All,

So this week was one of my craziest weeks yet. You will hear why. So first things first I guess.

Got our transfer calls on Saturday. As expected I am getting transfered, so I am packing my bags today. I still don't know where I am going, and will not know until tomorrow, so that means you won't know until next week. Maybe I will get ahold of Hmo. Ovalle and have him text you so you know. If I could pick I think I would pick to go back to Lynbrook, but we will see what happens. So anyways, that is the big news on that. It will probably be my last area, which will be weird, with one or two more companions.

Okay, so now for my week, I think I will go day by day, so you can see how crazy it was.

Monday - P Day, and then after P Day we went and dropped off dinner for some of our investigators, after which we went to a member and less actives house and had a family home evening.

Tuesday - We had what is called "Deep Clean". We do it once a transfer to make sure that the pad stays looking good. We tore apart our pad and made it look really good. Then at night we had Coorelation, our meeting with the Ward Mission Leader.

Wednesday - Elder Call had to practice with a couple other Elders for a musical number. Then after that we went and did some service at a Senior Citizens Center. Then we went and looked up Media Referrals in Forest Hills, the nicer part of our area. Then we had a normal night of missionary work.

Thursday - went and looked up a few people, then we had our weekly planning. After planning we had another normal night of missionary work.

Friday - We had Zone Conference. Elder Ringwood from the Seventy came and talked to us. It was pretty good. It was nice to hear from him. Then we went home and ate. Afterwards there was a fireside with Elder Ringwood, so that took up the day.

Saturday - In the morning the office elders needed our help, because they were taking some things to go in storage in Manhattan, and when you get there you can't stop the car, so you need 2 elders to move the stuff, and 2 to stay with the car. Well, we get there and there is a Flea Market going on on the exact same street, so we end up not even being able to do it. Lame. So we came back. Then we had like a little picnic with Tatiana and Francisco, a kind of goodbye. It was nice. Then Elder Call had another one of his Firesides, so we went all the way out to Brentwood in Long Island. So that was the day.

Sunday - Church and such.

So it was way crazy and out of the norm. But anyways. Today Hmo. Ovalle is going to take us out to lunch which will be really fun.

Everything else is going well. Just kind of the same old same old. Nothing too crazy or exciting.

I think I am still good on supplies and all. You should be good to send the package whenever you want, feel free to put whatever else you want to put in it too. :) I don't think I can think of anything specific that I need though.

Oh yeah, I sent a couple packages your way just of stuff that I don't want to carry around anymore, so you should be getting those soon. If you could just put them in my room or whatever, that would be great.

Well, I love you all so much. I will talk to you next week, when you know where I am. Haha.

-Elder Miller

May 17, 2010

Hey All,

So things were pretty good this week. It was a really long week, I am not really sure why, but it sure seems like it has been years since I have emailed ya'll last. But it is all good, I had a pretty good week.

I will be coming home with Elder Furlong, we will probably be on the same plane, I am not sure exactly how many of us Utahns are going home that day, I know of at least a few, so yeah. It will be weird, you might be at the Airport with the Whettons, strange.

Weather here has been pretty warm, not very fun. Some few really sweaty days, not really my favorite. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain I think, that won't be fun either. But as we know, we only have more heat ahead of us, hopefully I will get transfered to a car area so i can get some air conditioning. But who knows.

The transfers will be a week from tomorrow, so next week I will be able to tell you if I am leaving or not, although it is 95% sure that I will be leaving, and next week I will probably not know to where, unless it is fluke, so you might have to wait another week to find that out.

Okay, so a couple fun things that happened this week.

-Okay, so remember Javier? He is the one who got baptized like 3 months ago now I guess. Well, so I guess a couple weeks ago he and Hma. Pepin, a great member in our ward, and actually the first person I met when I came to Rego Park, started dating. It is a kind of a weird looking couple, he is like a 50 year old Mexican, and Hma Pepin is like a 45 year old Dominican lady. Anyways, as the story goes the other Elders go over to Hma Pepins house on Friday to visit her, and she isn't home, but her Brother in Law is there. And he tells them, Um, she is not here right now, she is at the court house getting married. So yep, Javier and Hma Pepin are now married. It is super strange, it went super fast. But I guess you can't really complain, it is a great option, he is married to a great legit member, you can't ask for more for a recent convert I guess. Hopefully now all that is left is them getting sealed in a year. But yeah, that went quick. 2 weeks or so frrom starting dating to married. Crazy Javier.

-Something kind of fun we got to do, it Elder Call goes around the mission and does this Fireside things with other missionaries, and there has been this new one that was planned by some other missionaries called "He is Risen". Anyways, we got to go down to Brooklyn and do that one, so that was pretty fun. It was funny, because obviously everyone knew about it, including President, so it was all legal and approved, but on the surface it broke a lot of rules. Number 1 you are not allowed to leave your area, and obvioulsy, Brooklyn is not in our area. Secondly, to get to Brooklyn you have to take the train through Manhattan, which is obviously out of our mission. And thirdly, you are supposed to be home at 9:30 and in bed at 10:30. Well, the train ride home took like 2 hours because the express trains were not running, and we were still in Manhatattan at 10:30. Haha. So it was pretty funny. We ended up getting home at about 11:15. But it was really fun and went well.

Other than that the work is going well, we have a few new people that are looking really good, and our other people I have told you about are still doing well.

Okay, as far as the Bars and seasoning, wait until next week to send it if you would. Then it wil be after transfers and I will not have to pack it. So yeah, that would be great. I think I thought of something else I wanted, but I forgot, so I will see if I can come up with it, maybe tell you next monday. Anyways, so wait on it.

Other than that I think everything is going pretty well. This past week I hit my 21 month mark which was pretty cool.

Well, I have to get running. I love you all and I will talk to you all next week.

-Elder Miller

May 10, 2010

Hey All,

As you all know, it was great to talk to everyone too. It was good to hear that everyone is doing well. It was weird to hear about Heidee doing things it seems like I just barely did, and things like that. It really has been a while since I have been around. But that's how it goes. But it really was great.

You got the weather pegged here obviously. It seems like this week is going to be a lot of really sunny days that look beautiful, but are actually really chilly when you actually go outside. But that is about how I like it. Today we are going to have a Zone Activity, we are playing Ultimate Frisbee in Flushing Meadows Park, it will be really nice. Perfect wear a sweater and feel great weather.

The work is still going great like I talked about yesterday. So hopefully it just keeps going the way it has been, well, I guess I hope it progresses because progression is always great. But I don't have any complaints. :)

Well, I am sure as everyone figured this letter is probably going to stay pretty short, because, well since it has been one day I haven't come up with much else I can think to talk about. So just like you said this will probably be the shortest email ever. Haha.

Okay, so as far as the list.

1. I will tell you the things I needed/wanted next week if that is okay. I can tell you 2 things right now I can think of, one was possibly Cliff Bars, and the other one was the McCormick Chili mix stuff, you know what I mean, I am just explaining it really bad. But you are the expert at those things. So those were the 2 I thought of, but I am sure there are more if I take some time and think.

2. I totally forgot to bring my card. I promise next week I will send the pics and testimony.

3. I also didn't have time to get and exact count, but next week.

Well, I love you all tons. Longer email next week. :)

-Elder Miller

May 3, 2010

Hey All,

So I actually just heard about the car today. How interesting that was. I guess from the details I heard that it was all set up ready to explode, but for some reason it didn't go off, and the only reason that they caught it is because it was smoking. Crazy. It is weird to be right here where everything is happening.

Weather was pretty miserable this week. It was either way way way hot and humid or it was pouring buckets, which is not fun as a missionary either. You know that as a non missionary I would take that all day every day, or even if I was back in the island and had my car again. Haha. But not when I am on foot. But oh well. I will probably have to deal with the rain until i am back in Utah.

I most certainly got the box. Thank you so much. It was great. I am pretty sure you sent enough toothpaste to last for a year, haha, so I might end up giving some to companions or whatever. I started the white strips, I'll see if they give me the pearly whites I will need when I get home to drive all the girls crazy. Haha. Just kidding. The dried fruit is great. It will be a good little mid morning snack to keep me going without making me fat. Last week I purchased a scale. I am currently at 160 pounds. Not too bad. I think I have a goal of going home at about 153. That would be sweet. Anyways. I think my favorite part was the slinky. It is great. It is gorgeous too. It has like a very retro look to it, and it is black. It is the coolest looking thing ever. It is also a great unwinder. So thank you so much, it was great.

That is crazy that the film doesn't come out until 2011. It will be fun if we can go see, than I can tell you all about where it is filmed and such. Haha.

Pedro and Victor are both doing very well. We just purchased a Large Print edition of the Book of Mormon for Pedro, because he has vision problems. So he is loving it. We are currently teaching him the Gospel out of the BoM. It is going pretty well.

Victor is still doing good. He had his last class on Sunday last Sunday, so he will be able to go to church this Sunday, so just pray that all goes well and he can come without problems.

So let's see, one cool thing that happened this week. Yesterday we go in to go to gospel principles, and the teacher had just been released a few weeks ago, and they still haven't called a new one, so they have been having mostly the missionaries teach since then. But we walk in and they say and the teacher for today is going to be Javier. He is the one for got baptized not too long ago. So that was a special treat. He did a really good job, taught a little lesson on the atonement. It was cool to hear him and see how he has grown since he got batpized.

You can send the disk and i will see what I can do.

Okay so the calling should work perfectly, because you will get home at like 2:15, which will be like 4:15 here. We have church from 1 to 4. So we will probably be calling around 4:30 or 5. I will be calling from Brother Ovalle's cell phone. So yeah, that should work out great. It will be great to be able to talk to all of you. I have been looking forward to it forever. It is weird to think that it has come so quick. It seems like I just barely talked to you all. Come to think of it, it was actually in Rego Park, I haven't even changed areas since the last call. So that is kind of funny.

Okay, one last thing. I think I will be getting some insulin this week. So I don't know how much or whatever it will be, but will you check maybe on Friday or Saturday what is up with my card and where I am at and such. Thank you so much.

So I don't know if you will think this is funny or not, but I found it funny, so I will tell you. This morning for the first time in a long time I felt like sitting down and writing maybe, I don't know, poem/song lyrics? anyways, one of those 2. I haven't felt like that in a long time. So I sit down and open a notebook and get maybe 4 lines down. Stop. Then I write in my notebook, "Wow, well I think I am going to come back to this later, because those sounded very emo-cutter like." haha. It was funny. I had a great idea, and when I sat down and tried to get it out, it sounded horrible. Anways, I don't know if that story was funny to anyone but me, but it was funny.

Well, I love you all. I will talk to you all next week, wait, this Sunday!

-Elder Miller