Quiero Ser Un Misionera Ahora. Dec. 26

Querido Familia y Amigos,

Before you look at the pictures, know that my district is crazy. That's why I love them.

I wrote the Arvesens last week... I asked Mike and Theresa for permission to write Emily and Erica, so pray with me that their hearts will be softened, if you would.

The new district is super awesome. I don't remember if I mentioned them. The Hermanas are Gamble (she's my favorite, shhhh....), Blau, Jones, and Dunne. Some of the really cool Elders are (by name, not personality) Shank and Going.

Ummm.... WE WATCHED MR. KRUEGER'S CHRISTMAS THIS WEEK!!! If you don't know that that's my favorite Christmas movie, you do now. I was so flipping happy. Hermana Weller didn't like it, but Hermana Gamble cried. (:

On Monday, in our lesson with Johnathon (Hermano Hernandez's new persona), I don't know what happened, but when I bore my testimony on the Book of Mormon, el Espiritu Santo was so strong. No sé porque, pero it was great. Like, for serious. I've been having this issue that when I speak Spanish, it's just teaching lessons, not people, because I don't feel comfortable with my Spanish, but it was just coming out and the Spirit was so strong. El fin.

Also on Monday, at like 10:15 (quiet time, 15 minutes before lights out), mis compañeras y yo realized that we hadn't been doing service for McKenzie and Favero, so we went over to their casa, had Elder Oviatt and his companion go in and wake them up (they were coming home from a tie trade and vive in the same casa as McKenzie and Favero) so that we could get their suits they've been complaining that they needed to sew. We're pretty great.

Yesterday was great. You know a lot about that already. But Bednar wasn't live. ): He was in Provo. The rest of the day was just devotionals where we sang the same Christmas hymns over and over. I pretty much have Noche de Luz (Silent Night) memorized.

Muchas Amor,

Hermana Miller

P.S. Something I thought of the other day, as written in my journal:

"Fe is faith in Spanish, but it English it's the element name/abbreviation thing for iron. Our faith needs to be iron clad, and we need to cling to the IRON rod."

Think on that, if you want. I shared it with my district, and all the Elders were like, "Miller Time! Why are you getting out that deep doctrine and hurting our brains like this? Our brains just exploded!"

q

Feliz Navidad Dec 25th

¡Feliz Navidad! ¡Tenemos una media hora para escribe familia y amigos! Entonces, I just wanted to say that I love you all. I'm not going to tell all the exciting things of this week, as tomorrow is still P-Day.

But I will tell you some exciting things. (: I don't remember if I told you guys about the Secret Service I initiated in our district, so I'll talk about that really fast. Entonces, we've been doing Secret Service. The first week, it was just secret service for everyone in the district. Last week, we pulled a companionship and did secret service for them, and today ,we gave them prezzies.

My compañeras y yo tuvemos Elders McKenzie and Favero. We got them the best ties from the Tienda (the Tienda has super bad ties. For serious. There was only one good tie, and it was striped green and red, so we got them each one of those), and we each wrote something on the back. I wrote: "Miller Approved. ♥/Hermana Miller Time"

.... I'm Miller Time. I guess it's related to beer, so the Elders have said, but they love calling me that. So I named my specialty Miller Time. It's two punches of jamaica, one punch of manzana, y the rest is piña. Sooo good.

Also, there's this thing where if I don't compliment their ties, they don't wear them again. I didn't intend for that to happen, but they just value my opinion a lot more than they should. No sé.

Today, after breakfast, we had to clean up the comedor (cafeteria) because none of the workers work today. Then, after some good ole hackey sack time (meaning my district and the other district in our zone played hackey sack, and I read Conference Reports from 1906), we went to the gym, where we put together baby kits, with baby blankets, baby jabon, reusable diapers, safety pins, and booties. After lunch, there-s special activity after special activity after special activity. We don't even know. We think we'll hear from Elder Bednar live, though, because a day or two ago, they asked to write questions for him, and I'm fairly certain there wasn't enough time to get those to Provo (there's a weekly General Authority that speaks at the MTC in Provo, and we just get the broadcast because this is Mexico).

I've been praying for snow, but this is Mexico. My faith wasn't strong enough to change the weather. ): Esta bien, though. It's still super pretty here. I just wish I could see the CCM covered in snow. It would be even more beautiful.

Yo sé que la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Días, en verdad, tiene la evangelio de Jesús el la tierro hoy. Yo sé que El Libro de Mormón es verdadera, tambien. Yo sé que con El Libro de Mormón, nosotros podemos progressar mas circa de Dios. Yo sé que Jesucristo es mi Salvador, y el Redentor del mundo. Yo sé que Dios es my Padre Celestial, y sus, tambien.

Esté iglesia es la mas verdad iglesia en el mundo. José Smith fue uno profeta, y Thomas S. Monson es el profeta hoy.

In a week, I will be in Washington, and I will be able to share that testimony with the lovely people there. I´m excited, but also nervioso. God is trusting His Children to me, to bring them to salvation and help them return to Him. That's a big responsibilidad, but if my Heavenly Father says I can do it, I can to it with His help.

Muchas Amor,

Hermana Miller

Querida Familisa y Amigo Dec 19, 2013

Querida Familisa y Amigo,

Le amos.

Entonces. A lot happened. The best people ever (other than my district) left this week. ): I miss Hermana Jorgensen and Hermana Boley so much. Without them, life is pretty much lame.

But esta bien. Elderes Forrest, Jeppson, and Johanson are Zone leaders now, Elder McKenzie is District Leader and Elder Favero is DL Wifey. Elder Perkins is Secretary and Elder Peterson, other than being our go-to castidad person, is Secretary Wifey. Ummm.... If you don't know what castidad is in English, maybe this isn't the context in which you want to find out, as is might make this sound a lot worse than it is. So hold off on looking that one up for now. The next time you feed that Elder from Mexico, familia, you can ask him. That'll be really funny. Tell me how that goes.

Hermanas Bingham, Weller, and I are the new Sister Training Leaders. We're just legit like that.

Oh! Last week, there was this super cool Spanish traditional dancing thing about the birth of Christ. It didn't all make sense, but is was really awesome.

Mis compañeras y yo have been really sick all week. We don't know why, and you don't want to know more. So I'll tell you more. We feel fine more of the time, then we feel really nauseous randomly, like we're about to puke. There's more, but that's beyond the point of something that should be put on a blog, as you guys are apparently putting these on a blog. Can I get that link? I want to see if it's Linaish enough. (:

Now, I'm going to tell you the worst story EVER. So, Tuesday night, we go to TRC, kay? I don't know what TRC stands for, so don't ask. We just taught Elder Allen's district. Oh! Kelton! Jonathon Allen, do you remember him? Well, he's here! I've wanted to tell you every week since he got here (the week after I got here), but I kept forgetting. But I'm pretty sure he's writing you a letter, so that's all cool. He'll probably tell you how weird I am. Esta bien, you already know that.

Anyway. After TRC, I was really feeling no bueno (physically) for muchas razones, and I was like, "Oh my gosh! I forgot I have a Bueno!" (Buenos are the chocolate ever. Dice: 'Galletas con relleno cremoso a base de leche y avellanas, recubiertas de chocolate con leche.' THE BEST THINGS EVER.) Entonces, I was really excited to get back to the classroom where I had this Bueno sitting on my desk. So we enter the Wilford Woodruff building, turn the corner, and we see some punk elder leaving our classroom. We were really confused, then we got to the classroom, AND MY BUENO WAS GONE. We looked everywhere is the classroom, and we're fairly certain that punk elder stole it. I'm still upset. And we don't know who he was.

Then that night, I went to wash my face, and I bumped my towel in my effort to get my face towel, and between them, where they were overlapping WAS A COCKROACH. THAT WAS THE WORSE DAY EVER.

Buttttttt there was something good between those not so good things. So, after the Book of Mormon study with Hermano Hernadez when we found out my Bueno was good, and after dinner, there was a live devotional with an Area Seventy. Okay, yes, that was cool, but that's not what I'm talking about. So, during that whole devotional, I was about to cry because I'm just emotional this week, being sick and stuff, and a representative of Jesus Christ stole from another representative of Jesus Christ, and at dinner, my skirt ripped on a table. Muchas razones para ser emotional.

So when we got back to the classroom to discuss the devotional, I walked to my desk, and there was a note with a Milky Way taped to it. It said, "I heard you were looking for me!!" in Hermano Hernandez's cutesy handwriting. I laughed at first, because it was a Milky Way and not a Bueno, but then I realized what happened.

I have the best teacher in the world. Hermano Hernandez knew I was upset, and I don't know if he realized it was more than just my candy being gone, but he went out and bought me a candy bar because I was upset. When I realized the love this teacher had for me (and my district), I started bawling. I slid down the wall, sat on the floor, and cried for ten minutes. The Elderes were really awkward about it and left for the baño or something, but my hermanas, once they realized that these were tears of gratitude and joy, just let me be. Which is good.

Mis compañeras dice que I'm Hermano Hernadez's favorite, but I don't believe it. They say that I must be, because last week, I asked him to get me a pencil sharpener because they don't sell any at the tienda, and he bought me this adorable one from Office Depot rather than just finding one around the CCM like I expected him to, and now he got me that Milky Way. But I'm not his favorite. He's just a super good and caring teacher.

Yo quiero un platano.

Ummm... I think that's all.

I love you all.

Amor,

Hermana Miller

Este fotografia es que todas las hermanas that were in the Zone when we got here. Now it's just my companions and I. Plus four new hermanas that came yesterday.

Grande Eres Tu Dec 12,02013

Querido Familia y Amigos,

Oh my flip. This week has been so crazy long. En Lunes, uno districto en mi zona left para el campo. They were the best. I miss them like crazy. This Monday, the only other district in our zone will be leaving, and we'll be the only ones left. Elder Forrest, Elder Johanson, and Elder Jeppson (the trio of Elders in mi districto) are the new zone leaders. Elder McKenzie and his companion, Elder Favero, are the new district leaders. Hermana Weller, Bingham and I will be the Hermana Mamas when Hermana Jorgensen and Hermana Boley leave on Monday.

What the platano. Didn't I just get here? How is it that this is my fourth week already? No sé. No sé at all.

Speaking of platanoes, we went to the temple today, and because today is El Día de la Virgin María, we took a different route on the way home from the temple (as the road we usually take is covered with Catholics with paintings on the Virgin Mary on their back, crawling towards the cathedral), and there were no platanos for sell en la calle! ); Estoy muy triste.

But let's go back to the chronological order of things.

On Monday, we were playing ultimate frisbee with the zone, and Hermana Weller twisted her ankle. It really sucks, in general, but also because yesterday, it was district on district for frisbee, and we totally lost because Hermana Weller couldn't play.

It was funny, though. We have gym at 11:40, right before lunch (which is at 1), and during the morning class, they left a note on our door window saying: "Read Alma 44:6-7" It reads:

Yea, and this is not all; I command you by all the desires which ye have for life, that ye deliver up your weapons of war unto us, and we will not seek your blood, but we will spare your lives, if ye will go your way and come not again to war against us.

And now, if ye do not do this, behold, ye are in our hands, and I will command my men that they shall fall upon you, and inflict the wounds of death in your bodies, that ye may become extinct; and then we will see who shall have power over this people; yea, we will see who shall be brought into bondage.

So then Hermana Bingham told us about a scripture she'd read the night before, and we sent it to them. 3 Nephi 3:3 reads:

And it seemeth a pity unto me, most noble Lachoneus, that ye should be so foolish and vain as to suppose that ye can stand against so many brave men who are at my command, who do now at this time stand in their arms, and do await with great anxiety for the word--Go down unto the Nephites and destroy them.

So, now we're the Gadianton Robbers. No big deal.

They didn't respond until right before gym, with Alma 44:10:

And now when Zerahemnah had made an end of speaking these words, Moroni returned the sword and the weapons of war, which he had received, unto Zerahemnah, saying: Behold, we will end the conflict.

So, that was pretty cool, even though we lost.

Entonces... Hoy, we went to the templo. Muy bonito. Me encanta el templo. After the session, I was all sad, like, "Oh. Now I'm going to change back into my clothes, and not have this special Espiritu with me, and I won't even get to go on my next temple day, porque the temple is closing after Christmas for a year for repairs."

Then I opened my locker, and the first thing I saw my name tag, containing the words: "Hermana Miller; La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días"

Guys, I may not be at the temple right now, and I may not get to go back for a really long time, but that name tag has a very important name on it. Hermana Miller.  .... Just kidding, haha.

Jesucristo. Jesus Christ. I have the privilege and responsibility of openly wearing His name. I am a representative of Jesus Christ, and as such, I have the PROMISE from my Padre Celestial y my Hermano Jesucristo that I WILL have the Spirit to be with me ALWAYS, IF I live worthy of it and and of the name of my Salvador.

I am to grateful for this opportunity I have been given. I get scared a lot when I think about leaving the CCM and ACTUALLY being a missionary, but I know this is what I need to do. There are people in Washington that need me to be their mediator with the Spirit and the Lord until they are baptized and can have the Spirit to be with them always.

Yo sé que no puedo convert nadie. Yo sé que el Espiritu Santo will convert todas las personas yo commit a bautizado. La amor yo tengo para la Iglesia es muy grande.

Mi cantacion favorita lately es Grande Eres Tú "How Great Thou Art". First and last verses (my favorites) as follows:

Señor, mi Dios, al comtemplar los cielos,

el firmamento y las estrellas mil;

al oir tu voz en los potentes truenos

y ver brillar el sol en su cenit;

(Chorus)

Mi alma canta a mi Señor y Dios: ¡Grande eres

Tú!  ¡Grande eres Tú! Mi alma canta a mi Se-

ñor y Dios:  ¡Grande eres Tú!  ¡Grande eres Tú!

Y cuando Dios me llame a Su presencia,

al dulce hogar, al cielo de espledor,

le adoraré cantado la grandeza

de Su poder y Su infinito amor

I love singing in Spanish. I really do.

Oh, yo hablé en Iglesia este semana sobre de la restauracion y oracion. I used this quote from the General Conference in 1906 even though it's in English (p.s. Hanna, my zone leaders before Elder Forrest said that it was an okay book to be reading, it was better than if I was reading Harry Potter, and also, that conference? ALL ABOUT MISSIONARIES AND MISSIONARY WORK! Thank you!!)

"You will find in every case where the Prophet received communication from God, it was the result of his asking."-Elder Brigham H. Roberts

and this scripture:

1 Nephi 15:8 And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord?

Entonces.... Yo pienso es todas las cosas.... Now it's time to play volleiball! Me gusta volleyball. Pero, when I serve, es "Miller Time," apperantly referring to some beer commercial, and they sing something like, "A-milly a-milly, a-milly," which is apparently from a rap song. Esta bien.

Muchas Amor,

Hermana Miller

¡Hola Amigos y Familia! Dec 5,2013

¡Hola Amigos y Familia!

Entonces... Not much has happened this last week. My Zone is amazing, and we sing a song and prayer together every night before lights out. We also do frisbee during gym twice a week... Not as cool. That just reminds me of Frisbee Friday with all the band geeks... I mean, I love my friends that did(/do? Sometimes I can't remember if I still have friends that go to high school) that, but really. No.

Has it snowwwwedddd yet? I can't believe it's Deciembre and there's no snow. I mean, I guess that's how it was in Virginia, but shhhhh.

Saturday, for our service activity, we had to mop the kitchen floor. ¿Que divertido, no? Indeed. It was entertaining, but that kitchen is crazy big. Cual makes sense, porque there are 300 missionaries here currently, and the numbers of incoming missionaries has been steadily decreasing. Meaning there's usually a LOT more missionaries here.

Domingo was wonderful. For real. I love Sundays. So many devotionals and Church meetings. (: Also, I don't know if you remember that long ago (I know I have issues remembering what happened today lately, as todas las dias are so long), but Sunday was Fast Sunday. Sacrament was fantastic. Everyone bore their testimonies in Spanish... AND I UNDERSTOOD THEM ALL. Muy bonita.

Entonces..... We have two 'investigators.' Luis (Hermano Valdez) is 19. His mom joined the Church a few months ago, and his dad is Catholic. Luis is bored by the scriptures, but he promised to pray and read Alma 32.

Daniel (Hermano Hernandez) is 50. He's Christian because he's blind and believes they can restore his sight. He asked us three times about blessings to restore sight before I understood what he was saying. I didn't understand his words, but I know what he was asking. I told him about bendiciones sacerdocio (priestood blessings), and it took mis compañeras a minute before they knew what I was saying so they could find a scripture to back up my words. We couldn't commit Daniel to read, obviously, but pero we did commit him to pray.

My district is awesome. Twice a week, we have our own District Devotionals (testimony meetings). Wednesdays and Saturdays we just love crying our eyes out. (: Also, today being P-Day, we spent most of our time playing volleyball! Me gusta volleiball, pero only in the sand court. I just love my entire district. The District Leader is Elder Forrest, and his companions are Elder Johanson and Elder Jeppson. They're hilarious. They're all going to... Chilé? No sé. Pero Elder Forrest and Elder Johanson are from South California, and Elder Jeppson is from Washington. Elder Peterson and Elder Perkins... They're great. I don't remember where they're from or where they're going. Then there's Elder McKenzie and Elder Favero. Elder McKenzie is from Idaho, and Elder Favero is from Virginia. I don't know if I've expressed this lately, but I LOOOOVE Virginia. He was also on the BYU baseball team, so that's cool.

Pienso es todas las cosas. 

Amor,

Hermana Miller

This is Hermana Jorganson. She's not my companion, but we're super cute and matchy hoy. Y nuestras es en el comedor. She emailed me this picture. I have to send pictures one by one apperantly, so be patient. My camera is crap, so I haven't taken a lot. I'm hoping my district will do as they've promised and email me some pictures.

Muy Bien ;) (2) Dec 5, 2013

This is my group from the airport. Notice I'm the only Hermana. And Hanna, Elder Oviat is the second from the left.

So, Hermana Bingham's arm had been hurting for a while, and the doctor within the walls of our mini city couldn't do anything for her, so we ventured out of the CCM (with an escort), and by the X-ray place, we saw this. Dominoes delivers pizza on motorcycles. The roads here are so crazy, I would hate that job!!

I hope this picture turns out. It's not loading in the email.

 

Okay guys, I'm smart.

Notice the Angel Moroni. There are only a few temples where he's holding scriptures.

B stands for Buenavidea or something, that was the name of this high school. Apparently, it's just a Utah thing to put the initial of the high school or college on the mountains, and, as this was an LDS high school, they thought it'd be fun.

Alright everyone from Utah this is NOT Brigham City :P Sister mom :)

I looove looking at the houses here. Also, Hermana Weller is wearing the peach cardigan, and Hermana Bingham is in the red blazer.

Happy Thanksgiving! November 28, 2013

¡Hola!

Today is my first P-Day en la CCM, it's Thursdays, and last Thursday was orientation.

My first day was so rough (Thursday, not Wednesday. I arrived Wednesday, late at night). It was good and fun and all, but I swear it was three weeks long. By the time it was time to go to bed, mis compañeras (yes, compañeraS) and I were ready to pass out. I have two companions, Hermana Weller and Hermana Bingham. We're the only hermanas in our district.

But even weirder? I was the only misioneria on the plane. There were plenty of elders, but no hermanas. I'm such a rule breaker, I broke the rules even before I entered the CCM.

Anyway, Hermana Weller is from Arizona and is going to Raleigh, North Carolina. She turned 19 TWO WEEKS AGO. She is so amazing. Hermana Bingham is from New Mexico and is going to Anaheim, California. She turned 19 in August. It's kind of weird that both of my compañeras are younger than I am. I mean, they're not a lot younger, but it's kind of interesting.

My district has three other companionships, and one of  them is a trio. There's Elderes Favero and McKenzie, Peterson and Perkins, and Forrest, Johanson, and Jeppson. They're all going to either Ecuador or Chile. Elder Forrest is the district leader, but he and Elder Johanson are sick. The latter was pretty much deathly sick yesterday, until at our District Devotional last night, amid the tears everyone was shedding, we convinced him to get a blessing. He seems a LOT better today.

Random side note? I shaved last night, and my legs feel so nice. For real.

Anyway... We went to the temple today! Es muy bonita! The building next to it (it's also SUD [Santos de los Ultimos Dias, or LDS], but I don't know what it is) looks really cool and Aztec. I'd show you the pictures I took... But I don't have my camera cord, or an SD converter. Hermana Weller has one, so we'll probably put our SD cards in her camera and put them on that way, but I don't know if that'll be today.

... Hoy es Thanksgiving. Lunch was pretty good, other than the dog food turkey. It doesn't feel like Thanksgiving. There's no snow (obviously, because this is Mexico, not Utah), but it rains sometimes. Has is snowed in Utah yet?

OH! Coolest thing. I really want an earthquake. We have these circles all around campus, and the're blue or green with white arrows in them. You go there during an earthquake, and you'll be safe. Mis compañeras y yo were trying to figure out how it works, and we decided that the only way it can keep you safe would be if the circles were blessed. They MUST be blessed. Otherwise, there's no way a circle in the road surrounded by trees can keep you safe during an earthquake.

We had an investigadora for this first week, and we had to teach him lessons in Spanish. Our first one was terrible because we didn't know much Spanish, and he didn't want to talk about what we prepared. The second one was alright, it was mostly Spanish, and el Espiritu Santo (the Spirit) was there sometimes. The third one was the best (of the four). It was mostly Spanglish, as we were prompted to say things that we didn't feel we had time to translate, but el Espiritu Santo was there most of the time. The lesson yesterday was really bad, though. We were all exhausted and wanted it to be P-Day, so it wasn't very good. Plus, he knew about the commandments! That was really awkward!

His name was Eric Campos. His father is a Seventh Day Adventist preacher, so he was iffy about meeting with us. He was a medical student, and concerned about children that died before they were baptized. We got him to pray by the second lesson, and invited him to be baptized then, too. He wasn't sure, but the next lesson, we had a baptismal date set, for el cinco de deciembre.

Awesome, right? Well, yesterday, he stopped being Eric Campos, and became Hermano Valdez, our teacher. Which is still cool.

Aaaaannnnndddd that's all. ¡Adios!

Amor,

Hermana Miller

P.S. dearelder.com

Do it. Send me letters I can receive that day, in addition to your handwritten letters which I am sure are in the mail, in the pouch mail variety. Also, apparently, you can send packages this way, too, by ordering it, then it gets delivered here from the store you ordered it from, if there's such a store in Mexico.

CCM -- 11/20/2013

Look what I just found: 

¡Hola mis padres! Esta en la CCM, y  soy bueno.

 

They asked us to email you and let you know that we arrived safely. The roads here are CRAZY! No one knows how to drive, and they all cut eachother off! I was so surprised we made it here alive. But we did, I{m all good. I slept all day on the plane, but I´m exhausted. 

 

Can you send the emails of all the family members?

 

Also, no me gusta this keyboard. It's all in Spanish and the punctuation is in different spots.

 

Te amo, adios!

 

Tu hija,

Hermana Miller

I'm glad to hear she made it safely. Now I know where to look to find her letters and messages. Better late then never. I knew she was safe and sound as there were no reports of any disasters.

 For any of you that would like to follow along on her journey feel free to join us :). I will be posting updates as they come in.