December 14, 2009

Hey All,

Okay, so I know you have been waiting like a whole freakin week to find out were I am, since now I have been here for about a week. And so instead of delaying like I always have, I will just tell you straight up. I am now in Rego Park. That is the area that the mission office is in. So back to Queens I am. My companion is Elder Oliva. He is from Guatemala. It is pretty sweet. I already new him because we served in Brooklyn at the same time. So I am pretty excited about everything. It is a little weird getting back used to only being around Spanish speaking people, because everyone here is hispanic. But I am enjoying it a lot, and I have already met a lot of people I am already getting along with really well.

We are already having incredible success too. We just started teaching a couple younger people from Bolivia, who already are having plans to be baptized. We have a lot of other good people too. I am still getting to know all of them. But I am really excited.

I am going to have to let you know about all of the rite aids and such, as I am not really sure. I know there is a Target really close. There is not a Wal Mart but there should be a lot of Rite Aids.

Okay, so you have to hear something funny. You know how I finally broke down and told you not to get me a new tree? Okay, so this is crazy. Guess where I live? In the same pad that I started my mission. Because we lived in Corona, and now Corona is my area that I work, so weird, rigth? I am using the same desk i used when I started my mission. Okay, and on top of that, my tree was still right where I left it. So I already set it up. Way weird. Both of my Christmass on the mission will be in the same pad. And then also weird, though it already passed, if I would have known, for the pizza, it is actualyl the exact same address as it was last year. Haha, crazy.

When would be best for everyone for me to call? i still need to get that all set up.

So i got the two packages, and I will admit, I broke down and already opened everything. Thank you so much. They were all very fun.

Okay, so in the last like 5 days the weather has changed dramastically. As such, I think I am going to go buy me a new coat so that I can be super warm this winter. Just so you are aware. I don't know if I will for sure, but we are going to look today.


So everythign is going pretty well around here. It is still weird trying to get used to the city again, and not having a car. They would put me somewhere without a car rigth when it started getting cold. haha. But everything is realyl good.

Thank you so much for doing that Bible thing for me. That is going to be so cool.

It sounds liek everyone is going really well. So that is really cool. It is always good to hear when things are going well.

Well, I love you all very much, I better get going. I will talk to you next week.

-Elder Miller

December 6, 2009

Hey,

Can I honestly say that this week was so busy, that I honestly do not even remember everything that happened. But we will see how well I do at remembering good points on it.

I guess first off I should get to the real point, the biggest thing that happened. We found out about transfers this last week, and I am leaving Lynbrook. It has been pretty hard for me to accept. But that is how it has to go I guess. There is just so much stuff I don't want to leave behind. But I guess it is my time. So next week when you get an email, I will be in a new area, unknown to me at this time.

As part of my move, I will be sending a few packages home today. I am pretty sure one of them they are going to charge me my arm and leg for, because it weighs a ton. But so be expecting a couple.

So today awaits a day of packing for me. Which is never fun. Oh well.

Okay, before I get ahead of myself, I will get to your questions.

1. Sacarament meeting talk ideas, I'll talk about that later.
2. Pods, I think I have quite a few left, I will count today, but I think I have like 25ish.
3. Let's not get a Christmas see sent. I am still goign to see if I can get ahold of my old one. And if I can't, let's just save the money.
4. New pump is going well. It is really similar, jjust a couple things have been changed. Color screen, couple other recording options. It is way similar though.
5. Still goign to get ahold of the Doctor. Sorry.
6. I think the calling card still has minutes. I will double check.
7. I know. I love you too!
8. I don't know if i will be able to, because I probably wno't know until tomorrow, but I will try to get it to you if I can.

I did get to watch the Chirstmas Devotional. I really enjoyed it. It always makes me a little trunky, because a few years ago I was in the conference center. Haha. But oh well. I still enjoyed it.

Okay, I have something really cool I want to ask you to do for me. You asked if you could get anything for my companion. Yes, you can. Could you get him one of the new Bibles too, the Spanish one. That wuold be super sweet, because he still doesn't have one. If you wanted to get it engraved, his name is Landon Dodge Alverson. And if you could send it anonymous, I don't know if that is possible with packages, but if you can taht wuold be sweet. It would be the same address, the mission office. That would be cool, and by the time he gets it I won't be his companion anymore, so he will have no clue. If you would do that, oh man, yeah, coolness.

So yesterday we went to go say bye to Fernando and Claudia, and after we had been there for a while, they told us they loved us, Claudia said that their house is always open to us if we need a place or want to visit, and then they had gotten us ties. It was the coolest thign ever. Mine has penquins on it. I am pretty sure I am going to wear it every day until CHristmas. It was the nicest thing. I love them so much and I am going to miss them so much.

A few people have already invited you and Dad to come visit after I am done with the mission. I am excited for you to meet some of them. They really have become my best friends, and I love them so much.

For you talk, if it was all up to me, I would focus on the atonement. That is really what matters. Everythign else is important, but it woudl be nothing without the atonement at the center. You know a bunch of my experiences, and I am sure you have some favorites. My favorites are hwn eyou can see Christ helping people in times of need. Like with Fernando, the Andia family that we met in the hospital, Anythony in Flushing, all of those stories, when it was above and beyond. The normal amazing stories of finding somone, teaching them, having them being golden and baptizing them right away are great, but my personal favorites are hwne you can see exactly how it helped them, and how it was planned out. How Christ is our Friend, and as missionaires we get the chance to be somones friend and try to make a difference, no matter what it takes. I think missionary work in about love and about helping people, exactly how the atonement is about love and helping the children of God return to him. I know those thoughts are kind of scatter brained, but I hope it helps a little bit.

Well it sounds like everyone is doing pretty well. I love you all, and I will talk to you next week, because I have to go get packing, and I'll hear from you in a new area. :)

-Elder Miller

November 30, 2009

Hey,

So another week up and gone. I will have to see how much of it I can contact to you. This morning we decided to take a road trip. Ok, so I know that sounds crazy, haha, but just a little one. For our P-Day we decided to drive out to Montauk, which is the very end of Long Island. There is a lighthouse there that was built I believe in 1798 under the order of George Washington. So a pretty cool place with really cool views and such. They call it Mantauk - The End. But anyways, we got up at like 3 so that we could get out there and be there for the sunrise. It was really fun. But needless to say, now I am really tired. Probably spend most of the rest of the P-Day sleeping.

I will give you an overview of my Thanksgiving. We started off the day at about 10 were we had a little Turkey Bowl that the Zone Leaders got approved from President to do. So all of the missionaries from our ZOne got together and played some football for a little bit. It was very fun. Then we started off at 12 at Sister Cynthia Jones house. She is a very nice lady, a recent convert of a few months, older, and from Jamaica. It was the normal Thankgiving meal but she had done everything organic. It was good. Then we went over to a different Jones. They are an older couple, and there son was there, who lives in the branch, his wife was in Utah. And they had invited a Senior MIsionary couple from new Jersey that they knew. It was excellent. Afterwhich we went over to the Andersons, but we were late on the food, no big deal though, I couldn't have ate more. We more so went over to visit and have some good times. There daughter was there back from school and BYU, and we got to watch her beat her 13 year oldr brother Spencer and arm wrestling. We told him we were going to make fun of him for it forever. Then we went over to President Scala's, he's the branch president. He is from Chili, and had his sister in law and two other Chilian friends there. Then also the Reynoso's, a family from the ward was there. And an older widow named Betty from the ward. It was fun because it was very Spanglish the whole time, and all the none member friends that were there were amazed taht we spoke Spanish. That rounded out the night. We were going to go to the Rothenberg's, but the canceled and we went over the next day to help them move some stuff. So it was a great day.

The weather seemed good for the Parade. I know part of the Anderson family went and saw it.

We went and saw Fernando yesterday, and he seemed to be doing realyl good. He is home except for when he has to go in for Chemo treatments. He is always fun to be around, and the house is great, because, again, it is Spanglish. But we are just hoping praying and waiting for him to get better so we can get him to church.

One kind of rough thing happened this week. I don't know if I have mentioned them before, but the Tessels, a really nice couple, who is actually the family that we went with Bro. Anderson to give some blessings, they are converts of a little under a year, and he had a stroke type of thing a few months ago, and left him not remembering anything, not even his wife. He had since recovered. But on Thankgiving the same thing happened again. Went into the hospital and was not remembering or recognizing anything. We went and visited him a couple times actaully already, and he is already doing great. he is remembering everyone and seems pretty back to normal. They did some tests and found cloggage in his artery to his brain, which was causign the problems, and are now doing tests to see how to go forward. So keep him in your prayers.

So on the way the first time to the hospital to see him something amazing happened. We actaully ended up going to the wrong hospital, because there are 2 literaly within minutes of each other. While we were looking for his room, which obviously turned out not to exist, we ran into 2 members from Brentwood, further out on Long Island. They said Hi Elders and asked us if we spoke Spanish. They were Bro and Sis Andia form Peru, who I had actually heard about from Elder Lee, on how cool they were, anyways, they needed help. They needed some translating done for them, which was fairly easy, got that all taken care of, and then had us give a blessing to their daughter who is in the hosptial with cancer, who is 15. It was great to talk them them, and great to help. I think it was amazing how the Lord put us in each others paths so perfectly, and it was even at the wrong hopsital.

On Sunday I think as I mentioned I had to speak in Sacrament Meeting. I spoke on unity with Church. I think it went fair.

Those were the main points of the week. It was good.

I did get with Brenda on tuesday and I am on the new pump. It uses the same pods, just the PDM is new. She gave me a sheet of things that if the falling of problem persists to try.

I coudl not get ahold of the mission doctor. I believe he was out of town for the holiday, but I will be getting ahold of him asap. I will call today and see.

Well, I better get going. I love you.

-Elder Miller

PS, Oh, about Stacy Jennings, I probably need to know when she is coming, because it is possible next tuesday I will be in a new area. So yet me know, and i will etl you know.

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

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.

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

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