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

April 26, 2010

Hey All,

Yeah, it really had been working without seeing much, but we are starting to see a bunch, and we will see some soon. I will talk about that a little later.

The weather has been great, unless of course you are a missionary. Haha. The last few days it had been raining tons, which as you know is exactly what I love, but when you are a missionary and you are required to be outside all the time it is about the worst weather. Kind of lame. But Ilove the temperature, so that it great.

It is crazy all of the natural disasters that have been going on lately. I heard someone say the other day that the 5 largest earthquakes in the history of the world have all been in the last like 10 years of something crazy like that. It is interesting how much it is going on, but I also believe that we need to not stress about it and just take it for what it is. Stressing is not good. Just be prepared and happy.

Okay, for a couple of stories I guess.

We have an investigator, his name is Pedro. He is from Guatemala. He is great man. He is about 45 I believe. We have been meeting with him a lot lately, and he has been progressing very well. The other day we had him over to Hno. Ovalle's house, who is also from Guatemala. It went very well. We watched the Restauration video and Pedro and Hno. Ovalle got a long very well, and Hno Ovalle did a great job teachign and testifiying. So it went very well. Keep Pedro in your prayers, we are hoping that he will be baptized in the next couple weeks.

Another investigator we have his name is Victor and he is from Ecuador. He is 21, so like our age. He has a wife and kid back in Ecaudor. He is doing great. He basically asked us what he needs to do to be baptized, and we talked about what he needs to change and what lessons he needs to be taught, and he made a check list in the front of his Book of Mormon, and had been checkign them off as we are doing them. The only thing that has been holding him back is he has had a class on Sundays, but it ends this sunday, and will be able to come after that. He also gave us the information of his wife to send to the missionaries in Ecaudor, so they can go visit and teach her. He said he wants her to be taught the same things he is, so when he calls, they can discuss it. He is great. So pray for him, we are hoping all goes well, he gets to come to church the week after he gets out of his course, and gets baptized 3 weeks later.

So a funny/cool story I guess. I was on a little exchange with and Elder named Elder Morales, and we were working in Astoria, an area in Queens, if I remember right, it is actually where Spiderman is from. Haha. Anyways, we were walking down the street and they were filming a film, we asked about it. It is going to be called Son of No One, and it is staring Al Pacino, Channing Tatum, and Katie Holmes. So if you hear about it, or it comes out before I get home, know I saw it being filmed. Haha.

As far as the box, just send whatever you want. I will be happy with whatever. As long as it involved dry fruit. haha.

Without talking about anything or making any plans, I would prefer the Jeep.

It sounds like all is well. I think that is about all that is up with me. I love you all and will talk to you all next week.

-Elder Miller

April 18, 2010

Hello,

So another week has passed by pretty quick. It was an interesting week. Really hard work, not a lot to show for it, but great pontential. Me and my companion both feel really good about it. It was a good week. One of those that you just sat down last night and said, yep, that was good. So that is, as already stated, good.

Ok, so for pods, i think I have about 14 left or something like that. Wait until at least next week, and I will get an exact count for you. I will need test strips again soon, as I am now down to my last vial again, so please send more of those in the package that is coming up. :)

Oh yeah, I don't think I ever told you, I got my A1C done, I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was a little higher than I wanted, but not bad high. So that is good.

The weather has been good here. It has been a little bit cooler, as well as not having to wear a suit. Those two combinations make it perfect. I make fun of my companion a little bit. He is a cold blooded one like mom, always cold.

Hermano Ovalle is the ex-communicated member who was baptized. He is great. One of my favorite people I have met on my mission. He is really goofy though. I didn't even know he was sending those texts until after you had sent a few back. He is goofy that way.

It sounds as all is going well. That is really good.

As it turns out, I don't think that I have almost any really cool stories to tell from this week. Like I said, it was a really busy week, with just normal stuff, that will hopefully lead to good stuff further on. It was weird to be working with just the one companion. I feel like I am missing something all the time, or I am breaking a rule or something like that. But it will be good, just take some time to get used to.

One kind of out of the norm thing that happened is we now have another missionary living in our apartment, and got made into a trio with the other Elders. His name is Elder Habberman, and it from Germany. So this is the story with him. He was in the Provo mission, and finished his mission, and was on his way home. He made it to JFK airport, and his flight to Germany got canceled due to a Volcano or something like that, I am sure you know better, you hear the news. But so he won't be able to get a flight until tomorrow. So he has been in the New York New York South mission for almost a week. What a nice surprise that would be, be on your way home, and then, wait, you don't get to go home for another week. haha. He is really cool though. It has been interesting to learn about the Provo mission, and how things work over there.

Let's see, you asked as far as things you could send me in a package. This is so not like me, but I think I will ask for some stuff. :)

1. Dried fruit is the fasted way to my heart. Mangos, Craisins, whatever. Anything dried fruit.

2. I could use some sort of something to entertain me. I know that is as descriptive as it gets. But something to do.

3. Ok, well this list is getting short quick, I am having a hard time coming up with stuff, but anything you want. Fun cool stuff.

Haha, Sorry for the bad list.

Now, what is it that I can do you any of you? Let me know.

I love you all so much, and will talk to you again next week.

-Elder Miller

March 29, 2010

Hey,

So about the whole weather being really hot. Well, that changed really quickly. The last few days have been freezing cold. But really not that bad for me, because you know me, I enjoy the cool more than the warm, so it has been alright, but the changing back and forth without warning is kind of hard and weird, but so is life I guess. Today it is raining pretty good, but the rest of the week is supposed to be sunny and warm. I don't know how I feel about that, but only like 6 more days of having to wear a suit coat, so I am excited about that.

Leandro got confirmed yesterday, so that was good. Everyone is still doing well. Javier is still good, Brother Ovalle is doing great, basically everyone is going good, so that is good. We are working with a bunch of really good people. We are hoping things go well, and maybe a few more baptisms in the next few weeks. But we will have to see. Our best prospect is this 20 year old-ish Dominican boy named Lenny. He is very intelligent, and is almost testing the church with his questions, which I love, I think more people should do that, because after testing you will be truly converted. He is doing great though.

Interviews were good, they are always about the same. He asks the normal questions that he has to. The are very unexciting actually. But I understand, he only has to do like 180 of them every 6 weeks. It would get old.

This week was another not very exciting as far as stories go week. But that is how it goes. On Saturday we had what is called a Zone Street Sweep, which is something when a bunch of missionaries from the Zone get together and go and talk to as many people as possible in an area. We did it in a train stop, and made a bunch of signs and stuff. It was pretty fun. There was a J-Dub that set up camp right next to us, and I actually went and talked to her for a good period of time. She was from Colombia and was really nice.

Okay, so here is the deal. I think I am still good on pods, I will check to make sure, I am not sure. But I am basically out of strips. I totally wasn't paying attention, but I am almost out, like 40 strips, maybe less left. Sorry for not paying attention, I will do better. So if you could try to get them in maybe the package you are sending tomorrow, that would be awesome. If i run out before I get some, I will just go buy some. I think I will be getting 2 more vials of insulin this week also, just so you know.

Well, other than that everything is going well. I love you all so much.

-Elder Miller

March 22, 2010

Hey All,

So here is the the weather talk, as that seems to be the first thing I always talk about. Haha. The weather this past week has been great. But there has been one downside. It has been a little bit on the hot side, like 70's, and we are still required to wear our suits. So with the suits and the weather, it has been really hot. But only 2 more weeks, and we only have to wear suits to Church. So I am super excited about that.

Next cool thing that happened. Leandro got baptized yesterday. I will try to include a picture or two. It was super cool. He is an amazing guy. He is proof of member missionary work. He had a member friend in Ecuador who talked to him about the gospel like 3 times, came to the US, met the missionaries, we got in contact with him, and got baptized 3 weeks later. So that was pretty exciting.

Other aspects of the work are all going well. Javier continues to be on fire. He is giving us referrals left and right. He is the bomb. He gave an awesome testimony during the baptism yesterday as well. As far as everyone we are teaching they are all doing pretty well. We also have a lot of really good potential people. So basically all is well with the work.

Saturday was Elder Call's birthday. It was fun. Elder Oakes and I got him some whitestrips for his teeth, because, well, I have become a little bit of tooth crazy on my mission, and have a lot of good tooth supplies, and it got him really excited about it, so we got it half as a joke, half as he would really like it. He really did. It was funny.

As far as how I am getting the fiber, a lot of different ways. I have tried a few of the fiber one cereals, I think the frosted shredded wheat is the best, but there are also other cereals that have just as much fiber and taste a lot better. The cereal that has the most fiber is All Bran, I haven't tried it yet, I think it will be horrible, but we will see. Also you can find bread that has upwards of 50% that tastes really good. And then just little things. I am eating lots of nuts. All fruit jam with added fiber. All sorts of stuff. So it is all going well. I need to work at getting more protein, and more fruit. I started buying fruit, but it is hard, and expensive.

It is sad to see Northridge HOSA going down. It used to be the best in the state. Mrs. Quilter just doesn't care. It is sad, but oh well.

Other than that I think things are all going pretty well here. Had interviews with the mission president last week. IT went well.

Anyways, I think I will include pictures of me at a place called Hunter's Point, the closest you can get to Manhattan that is still in our mission, and maybe a picture of me in front of PS 1, it is actually a school, but has a MoMA exhibit (Museum of Modern Art). We went last P-Day. It was way cool.

I love you all. Talk to you next week.

-Elder Miller