March 3, 2009

Hey Mom,

So another week is up and gone. It is crazy how quick they go by. You know
what else is really crazy? It is March. I'm not really sure when that
happened, but time is going by way too fast. It still feels like last
August, anyways.

Things are going good. We are in a storm right now. It snowed about a foot
last night, so that is pretty lame. I like snow, when I am not a
missionary, I get to sit at home, maybe watch a movie, maybe with a girl,
just kidding, but as a missionary, there are few things worse than snow. It
is not so fun to truck through. The high is supposed to be like 20 today,
but by Sunday it is suppose to be 58. Crazy New York weather. It doesn't
make any sense. You need 8 coats one day, and you want to be in shorts the
next.

So this week nothing too exciting happened. We just taught normal lessons
and such. I am still trying to get used to the area and find our where I am
all the time. The other day we were out on Coney Island, and I saw the
Nathan's Stand, I'll have to make it a point to go on a P-Day or something
and get a hotdog, so I can say I've had one from the original stand.

Oh yeah, you asked if I knew any Chinese. I know enough to do a street
contact, and bare a brief testimony, it is a very strange language. Haha.
It is kind of funny, all of the time I will get people on the street walk up
to me and start talking to me in Chinese, because I am a white teenager with
a suit and a nametag, and sense most of the missionaries in the area speak
chinese, they think I do too. It is funny.

One thing I really realized this week, English is a very hard language, not
that I didn't know it before, but I was teaching English class about the
past tense. As far as how the verbs conjugate, about half of English verbs
are irregulars in the past tense. That is a joke. That is half of the
verbs that you just have to memorize, there is not other way to learn them,
they don't follow any rules. What a pain. It was fun to try to explain it
to all the students. Haha.

The economy is making things hard right now. We have one investigator who
is ready to be baptized, but he works on Sundays, and he can not find a job.
It is just impossible. It makes things so hard. He actually had me write a
letter in English to give to his boss to see if there was any way he could
at least have a few hours off on Sundays to go to church, he has asked
before, but he just wants to give it one last try. So I wrote a letter out,
and he should have given it to his boss yesterday, so pray for him that that
will work out.

Lets see, other than that, nothing too exciting happened, just normal stuff.
We got flipped off, had a couple crazy people run up to us and talk to us,
things like that. Nothing exciting.

Well, that is my week, things are going pretty well, still working to keep
my companion going, it is hard, but I'll do my best, if worse comes to
worse, it is just one more month. So, I'll just keep it going. I love you
all. Talk to you later.

-Elder Miller

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

January 26, 2009

Hey :)

Typing is kind of hard for me today. I cut my finger this morning, so I
have a bandaid on it. Haha. Don't worry, it is just a small paper cut,
nothing big.

It sounds like things are being rough for a lot of people. That is sad, but
one thing I have definately learned since I have been out on the mission it
that what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.

Speaking of which, this week was rough for us in that way. My whole
distrcit at one point in time got this virus thing. It was pretty pad. It
made you weak, tired, ears hurt, eyes hurt, throwing up, the whole bit. It
was bad. Luckily I never threw up, but the rest I got. Being sick on the
mission is no fun, because all you want to do is to go out and to work, but
you are so weak you can't do much. So it was an interesting week because of
that. I was sick Monday, Tuesday, Wendnesday, and started feeling better
Thrusday, and felt fine by yesterday. So it is nice to be feeling better
now. The sisters are still feeling a little weak, but they are doing a lot
better too.

So that made the week pretty slow, but we worked the best we could. Things
were slow, but it is amazing how perservering really blesses you. Sunday we
had the most amazing day. We taught a bunch of lessons, and found a bunch
of new investigators, so that was awesome.

So there wasn't really any amazing stories this week, but everything is
going great. THe work is really coming along. We have some potential
baptisimal commits coming up, so that will be exciting.

I will be at the mission office on Wednesday anyways, because we have Zone
Conference, so hopefully it gets there. If the strips don't last until
Wednesday, I will probably just buy some will my home card, so if you would
check that, that would be great.


Some dishcloths and scrubbies would be awesome, because, obviously, we have
to wash all our own dishes, and we don't have dishwashers, so those would
actually be great.

Okay, I know I make requests almost every week, but I have two more. Sorry.
Okay, Jon Schmidt CD with the song called Pachabello's Cannon Meets U2, or
something like that, and then some really nice hair clippers. THose would
be sweet. The hair clippers we have kind of just rip the hair, not cut,
haha, and some of the sizes are missing, so it is hard to work with some
time. But yeah, sorry for asking all the time, but I like to ask when it is
on my mind, or otherwise I know I would forget.

So today is the first day of Chinese New Year, in China Town, there is
suppost to be a big parade, but it is yet to be seen. It is suppose to be
down on Main Street, which I am on right now, and nothing has even been
blocked off yet, so maybe they cancelled it, because I think it is suppose
to start in like 10 minutes, but I don't know.

As just a regular update, because you always do that, haha, I am doing
great. I am really enjoying this transfer, the only thing that has gone a
little hard was being sick, but I can deal with sick. Things are just
awesome. One of the Zone Leaders was actually talking to me and my comp the
other day and talking about how there are lots of hard times and problems
going on in the zone, basically every companionship has a struggle, except
for our district, so he was really greatful, and asked us to try to keep it
that way. So things are awesome. It is crazy how when things are going
good times flies too. It seems like it was Christmas yesterday. At I was
home the day before that. So that is my update, things couldn't be better.
Oh yeah, I don't remember if I told you, but I finished the New Testament,
so now I am on to the Old, then I will be doing D&C, after that I think I
will try to do them all in Spanish.

Well, it looks like my time is up. Thanks for everything you do for me. I
love you very much.

-Elder Miller

January 19, 2009

Hola,

So it is a Holiday, I don't even know if I know which one, Martin Luther?
Something like that. Haha. It is crazy how you really don't know about
anything as a missionary. So I am at an internet cafe because the libraries
are closed. So no free e-mail today. It cost me 2 dollars. Haha. Oh
well.

Vanessa does a little update thing were we all send a little letter to her
and she puts it together and sends it out to everybody, so I hear from
everyone like that, and I have heard from a few of them directly a couple
times. Not a lot, but it is because missionaries don't have time to do
that. I totally understand. I don't have time to write them, haha, so it
all works out. I think today I got almost caught up in the letters I wanted
to write. There were some people I hadn't written back from like 3 months
ago. It is crazy being so busy all the time. I love looking back before
the mission and thinking of all the times I said, "I'm so busy, I have no
time, etc" Because now i look back and I had so much time. Now I have no
time. Haha. Anyways.

So far including the MTC I am up about 3 pounds I believe. I gained like 9
in the MTC, and lost about 6 since I have been here. I am hoping to get
back down to my high school weight by the time I get home, becase I put on
my Freshmen Fifteen (that is lingo for about 15 pounds most college freshmen
put on). So I want to get that off too.

I think I am good on pods for quite a bit, and I am fine on insulin. I will
make sure to give you an exact update of exactly what I have next week. So
test strips and alchohol swabs should be on the way?

My blood sugars have been really good, considering all the crazy activites I
do. They have been low a bit and high a bit, but nothing worse than when I
was at home.

Okay, as for the plane crash. There was a plane crash. That is about all I
can tell you. That is all I have heard. Haha. I really am so seperated
from the world I don't know anything. All I heard is that there was one,
the pilot if a hero, because he did everything perfect, and that everyone
lived. So you probably know more than me. Oh yeah, I also heard it was
because of segulls or some bird flying in both of the engines, and everybody
said that it is impossible for two birds to go in two sides at the same
time, so everyone jokes that they were Terrorist Segulls. Anyways, that's
all I know about it.

I really enjoyed everyone commenting in e-mails and letters one how cold it
has been in Utah. A low of like 15 right? And that is a dry cold. Oh how
I miss dry cold. Here it is a wet cold, and it is really windy. The wind
is the worst. The wind chill can take the temperature down 20 degrees or
more. Okay, so you have you dry cold, low of 15. Two days ago the high
was. . . . .. . . . 12. Haha. It is so cold here. When it is about 35
here it is about what 15 feels in Utah. It is crazy cold. So as for
undergarments, if you could send a few more pairs, the same size, i would
love them. They have been working great. The lowest it has been so far has
been like 6 or something like that, but February apparently is the coldest
month. And they are saying this will be the coldest winter in like 15
years. I miss Utah weather. Haha.

That is horrible about Justin, but it is good they caught it. It is better
to catch it early and start doing treatment then to not notice and have it
spread. I hope he is okay, and gets better.

Everybody seems to be doing pretty good. It makes me happy. That will be
funny when Heidee comes. It is just a train ride away.

So lets see, what has been going on it my life.

Um.

Oh yeah, yesterday, we had a baptism! Haha. It was awesome. Anthony got
baptized yesterday. It was last minute too. He was going to get baptized
this Sunday, because he could not get work off to save his life, he was
trying so hard. So we told him that was fine, and we could do it the next
week. Then he called us like Saturday night and said his boss finally gave
in to letting him have this week off too, and was wondering if we could do
it, and we said of course. It is amazing how much work he has put in to
getting baptized. He went from working every Sunday, to like once a month,
and I know he'll get it to the point where he doesn't at all. So yeah, the
baptism was great. He had the most awesome feelings after he was baptized,
I ask him how he felt, and he said he couldn't even describe it. It was
awesome. So that was way exciting.

Work has been going really good. I really love my new companion. We work
great together, and it is just great. We found a bunch of new people this
week, we taught tons of lessons, and we have a few investigators who are
diffenately progressing towards baptism. So it has been great. Other than
that we have spent our time trying to work hard and stay warm.

So, what else can I tell you that I haven't yet. I always forget what I
have told you. I am still in Flushing as you know, which is still great.
Serving in China Town, Spanish speaking. Haha. Next monday is Chinese New
Year, and I get to spend it in China Town, how sweet is that. I don't know
if I told you about the district for this transfer. My district is two
elders and two sisters.

Okay, time out, the guy at the internet cafe is talking on the phone over
some online dating service thing, it is really funny, he is flirting with a
girl, it is really funnny, anways, I just had to say that.

So the district is Me, my Companion, Elder Powell, who is awesome, he is the
district leader. Then there are two sisters. Sister Heinginge, who has
been with me for the last two transfers, she came out with me, she is super
cool, and then Sister Richey, who has served with us for the last 3 weeks,
because they got emergency transfered here, i don't know if I told you that.
I know I told dad. But she is super cool too. She only has like 2 more
transfers in the mission. Elder Powell has 5 or so, he is about exactly a
year further than me in the mission. So it is the best district ever. We
all get along really well, and we all work really hard.

So that is about it. Things are going great. I am loving this week, thing
are going great, and fast. I love you. I will talk to you next week. Let
mek now if there is anything I need to do for you.

I love you.

-Elder Miller

December 8, 2008

Hello,

Things are still going good. It is really starting to get cold here. Today
the high was like 19 or something like that. But that isn't the bad part.
The bad part is the humidity and the wind. With the wind chill the
temperature is definately in the negatives. Mail seems to take a long time
to get from here to Utah, a lot longer then I thought it would, but I guess
that is okay.

I took some pictures of my tree in my room that I will send you.

I got my Christmas presents today, which is the 8th. So I took it home with
me. I didn't know we would be opening them or anything like that at Zone
conference tomorrow. They told us taht we could pick up our packages at
conference, but I didn't know open them. But I have to tell you the truth,
I am very tempted to open them. Haha. If everyone else does tomorrow at
Zone conference I probable will, I don't know. I feel kind of like waiting
for Christmas, but not really, because our Christmas isn't really going to
be anyting special. I just get up and have to study and everything like
normal. I can't take time to do anything too special. BUt I guess we will
see what happens.

So are you sending me more christmas cards? I started writing on like 3 of
hte ones that you sent me already, should I not send those? Also, could you
send me a big list of addresses, because I looked and I only have like 13
addresses to send cards to. So let me know on that. I guess I will wait
until next week.

Okay, so I got two packages in the last two weeks. Both from amazon.com.
One was a box full of cereal, and one I got today was a box full of
pringles. Do you know who sent these? I need to know so I can thank them.
I have no clue who they are from they have no billing address or anyhting in
them. Please let me know.

I bet Christmas won't be that much difference. I'm not too loud or crazy or
anything. Mine will be difference, but won't. Because I won't even realize
it is Christmas. That is what happened with Halloween and Thanksgiving, it
didn't even seem like they were holidays, they just blew by.

So here is a cool story for ya. This week we were on exchanges with the
youth. I went to an investigator, and my comp went to another one. At my
investigator I went and taught him the Ten commandments and had a special
focus on keeping the Sabbath day holy, because he works on Sunday. He took
it all great and the spirit was very strong. He said that he would talk to
his boss right away to see what he could do about getting work off. At the
end of the lesson and told him he was the best investigator that I have had
yet and that I cared about him a lot. I then told him I thought that if he
started coming to chruch he was ready to be baptized, and I asked him to be
baptized on the 28th. He said of course he wanted to be baptized. So that
was amazing. My first commit. SO please pray for him and his boss to get
work worked out so he can come to church. That is the only thing that will
keep him, but I am super pumped.

while I was on the exchange my comp met with one of our other investigators
and asked him if he would want to be baptized too. And he said yes too. He
said he didn't want to set a stricked date yet until he had come to chruch,
but after he comes he wants to see if he likes it and to set a date.

Not a bad day, huh?

Lets see, what else.

Oh yeah,

55-10 103rd Street #2B
Corona, NY

That's our apartment address, I think. We are in the apartment in the
morning unitl about 10:30 every day, and then we normally aren't there until
about 9:30. So that is the deal-o on that. I just like pepperoni on my
pizza's.

It sounds like things are going pretty good at home. I hope they are. You
all deserve it. I hope these last few months have gone as fast for you as
they have for me. I miss you guys to, but not in a way that is distracting.
I think Heavenly Father has blessed me with that ability to not let things
from home bug me. It's been great.

So this week I taught English class for the first time. We offer a free
english class. We put up fliers and stuff. Little do people know that when
they come to English class we are going to teach them the gospel too. Haha.
But yeah, we had a bunch come last week, so I taught the advanced students.
and I will probably be teaching the beginners next week. So that will be
cool.

Entonces, ese es todal por este dia. No tengo mucho tiempo. Gracias a Dios
y gracis a tu por mi muchos bendiciones. Tenga un marvilloso dia.

I love you all so very much. Thank you for everything. I will talk to you
again next week. Love you tons.

-Elder Miller