"Como esta su hombre?" "Que??" "... Hombro! Hombro." March 24 2014

Querida Familia y Amigos,

If this email seems a bit off or scattered, I'm kind of flipping out right now. Transfers are tomorrow, and we don't know yet who's staying and who's going. I don't feel ready to leave my lovely Lynnwood, and I don't feel ready to leave my trainer, so we'll see.

This week was so short. Scratch that; this TRANSFER was so short. I don't even know what happened.

Kinari didn't come to church yesterday. ): So she can't be baptized this weekend. And she can't be baptized next weekend because of Conferencia General. And transfers are tomorrow, so who knows if I'll even be here for her baptism.

But General Conference is next week!! I'm so excited!!! I love conference! I hope I get to watch it in English. I mean, I'd understand it in Spanish. I can understand almost all Spanish. But I still can't connect emotionally with it, entonces, yo quiero mirarlo en Ingles.

I don't know that I have more to say. If I do, I'll say it, but for now, I'll try to get you some pictures off Hermana Andersen's camera (I did get the camera yesterday that you sent me, mom and dad, pero todavia, no tenia tiempo a usarlo. Pero voy a usarlo! :D).

I put a lot more that just one on, but whatever. I'll go through and do it again.

Also, we just got the text. I'm being transferred. I kind of knew this was going to happen, but it's such a shock. Holy cow.

I'm just going to do a few at a time so they'll fit and all send, and so I can tell you about them.

This is after the last district meeting. Me, Hermana Andersen, Hermana Pellegrini (from American Fork, Utah), and Hermana Martinez (from Mexico)

Left to right, Elder Fiala, Elder Gressier (Gress-ee-ay), Elder Cottle, Elder Jone's head, Hermana Andersen, yo, Hermana Martinez, Hermana Pellegrini

Hermana Andersen is so funny. (: This awesome wall with the Beatles is at the Hard Rock Pizza Cafe. We didn't end up eating there because it was expensive. This was on Saint Patrick's Day, that's why we're being matchy.

I saw the ocean for the first time!

We made tamales with the branch!

Mari, before she went to Spain. ):

Olive Garden with Hermana Pellegrini and Walhstom, Book of Mormons in other languages

So these last two pictures are of a Persian Book of Mormon. We meet a lot of people from other countries, and so we often get asked if we could get their a Book of Mormon in their native tongue.

Sorry my email was so lame this week. Ojala it'll be mejor next week. (:

Les queremos!

"This feels like a DVD." "What? We can't watch movies." ... "Studio C?" March 17th

Querido Familia y Amigos,

Wow. I just love you all so much. I really do.

I had awesome things to tell you, too. I really did. But I just spent half my time emailing people back that sent individual emails, so I don't remember what all I was going to say.

Can you believe that this is the last full week of the transfer?? Holy cow! I'm about to start my fourth of twelve transfers! Whaaaat?? How is it that at the end of next tranfer, I'll be a third of the way done?! Didn't I just get out here? Aren't I still just a baby missionary? But at the same time, it feels like I've been here forever.

I love my area. I love my companion. I love my investigators. I love the ward, even if they seem to forget a lot that Hermana Andersen has a companion. I will be so sad if I have to leave. But I know that whether I stay or whether I go, that's in the Lord's hands. I'll be exactly where I can best help the Latinos here in Washington.

This transfer has been so short!!! Every Thursday night, when we're planning for Friday, and we're trying to fit in weekly planning around our lessons, we're like, "Wait, didn't we just weekly plan yesterday?"

This week was so short. I don't even remember it.

Ayer, oh my gosh. So, Saturday night, Elder Gressier (the district leader) texted us and asked if we could teach the lesson in Gospel Principles. So we accepted, of course, and we prepared this TOTALLY AWESOME lesson on sacrifice, and it was going to involve cookies, and we were SO excited.

The members that we asked to give us a ride to church were half an hour late. From the time we tell people church starts. (We tell people church starts at 10 even though it starts at 10:30, because you know how MST [Mormon Standard Time] is just barely on time-10 minutes late, and MST (Miller Standard Time) is later than that? Well, the standard time here is about half an hour late.) And it takes 20 minutes to get to church, so we got there with ten minutes left of class, and Elder Gressier didn't get our text to go ahead and start without us, so he had just started teaching. And because he didn't get our text, he was too upset with us to let us take over.

Then we got a text from Kinari, our awesome investigator that's going to be baptized in two weeks, saying that she didn't think her dad was going to make it home from work in time to take her to church (she's 13). We've already had to reschedule her baptism once because you need to go to church at least 3 times before you can be baptized, and she's been ready to be baptized since we met her, but she hadn't been able to make it to church, only once two weeks ago. So then we were more flustered.

We did have Martin at church, and that's exciting, but he's not progressing. He comes to church, but he has no desire to be baptized, so that didn't raise our spirits at all.

Then, in Relief Society, we were sitting there, trying to be good little missionaries and be happy, and Hermana Pellegrini came over (she was on her way to the bathroom), and was like, "Do you guys know Maria and Marcos?"

Oh my gosh, we were out of that class room and in the foyer so fast! And there were Maria, Marcos, Angel, and Marco (that's Gordito's real name), beaming at us, like, "We're here! After we've been trying to get of work for 14 weeks to come to church, we're here!"

We were trying so hard to not fall on our knees and cry unto the Lord in thanks, like Alma, or burst into tears. Either would have freaked them out.

So we directed them to the classes, and right after Relief Society, guess who walked in? No, not Jackie Chan. That's ridiculous, he doesn't even Spanish, why would he walk into Relief Society in a Spanish Branch.

Kinari!! She walked in holding Angel; she and her dad had just got to church, and they saw the poor Primary teacher (who doesn't Spanish; the Spanish branch is flipped to Sacrament is last so that the primary classes can overlap with the English primary) wandering around, holding Angel's hand, trying to find his family.

Oh, Cesar, Kinari's dad, is Maria's cuinado (brother-in-law).

Yeah yeah yeah!

I love how the Lord tries our faith. Sometimes, He waits until the last possible moment to answer our prayers so that we can not only become stronger, but acknowledge His hand in everything. Ether 12:6 says:

And now I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.

If we hadn't have had such a trying morning, we would not had fully appreciated that Maria and Marcos came to church. We still would have been super happy, but it wouldn't have been so powerful to us. It was definitely a testimony builder to me.

After church yesterday, we met a squirrell named Squirt. We knocked a door, no one answered, and we turned around, and there was a squirrell three feet from us. So we tried talking to him, but he didn't English, so we tried saying, "Quiere aprender mas de Jesucristo?" and he sat up, and came super a lot closer to us. He started climbing of Hermana Andersen's shoe. Not only does that squirrell Spanish, which is awesome, he wants to know about Christ. (: Awesome.

Pues, adios! Les quiero!

Amor,

Hermana Miller

Fuzzy Squozen Beads March 10,2014

Querido Familia y Amigos,

Wow. What a week. First of all, happy birthday to my baby brother Jessie! He's 14 today! Sooo oolllldddd! (: Love you, Jess!

And I missed it, but last week was my older brother, Jake's birthday. He's 22 now. He's also supes old. (: I love him, too.

So, holy cow. Tuesday, we biked up to the capilla (chapel) to get the llaves (keys) from some Elders so we could have a lesson there later, and one of the elderes was Elder Lemon.

So, Elder Lemon was getting the keys off of the chain, and he was like, "Are you going to do a church tour? Do you want the baptism key, too?" and we did, so them he was like, "Which one is it?" I showed him, and he was like, "Sorry, I'm still relatively new." I said, "Well, so am I. This is my second transfer in the field,"

He looked at me, and was like, "Wait. Hermana... Miller? Where are you from?" I said the generic Utah, and he was like, "No, where are you from?" When I said Smithfield, I was thinking that he should calm down a bit, as there was no way we knew each other; I'd remember someone with the last name of Lemon; he'd be on my list of people to marry for their last name. (Come on, don't act so surprised. I'm sure every female has a list like that)

So then he's like, "I'm from Hyde Park. Do you have any brothers?" So we established that he didn't know Jake, then we established that he knows Kelton ("what does he look like?" "A taller, skinnier, male version of me with a little darker hair." "what?"). Holy cow, Kelton knows all the people! There was Elder Allen in the CCM, too, recuerda.

So then, on the way back to our apartment, it was pouring, and there were cars turning right as we were crossing at a light. In an attempt to miss a car and with the help of the rain and my dysfunctional brakes, I went up the curb, and back down right into the road. My basket fell off, and guess what? I RIPPED MY TIGHTS. ): Remember last time when I got a huge whole in my knee and it was bleeding everywhere? Well, it was like that, but the other knee, bigger whole, but (thankfully) less blood. I was so upset. I only had one pair of tights left now!

The next day, before lunch, we went up to visit an investigator that doesn't know her work hours like, ever, so we just go and try her at likely times. On the way back, we were coming down this super steep hill, and before the light, because I knew my brakes were sketchy, I attempted to get out of the bike lane and onto the sidewalk at a vehicle entrance to a parking lot. I have no idea what happened, but the next thing I knew, my face was on the ground, my glasses were broken, and guess what. Yeah. THERE WAS A WHOLE IN MY LAST PAIR OF TIGHTS. Huge, right on the first knee. I was so upset that I no longer had tights. My glasses had just broken on the right corner, and, with my hood and my helmet on, though I could tell they were broken, they just stayed in place.

Hermana Andersen was already on the corner contacting someone, so I got up, dusted myself off, walked to the corner, and Hermana Andersen felt I was there, so she was like, "Hermana Miller, puede escribir su dirrecion mientras estoy escribiendo nuestra numero?" So I was like, "Si, hermana, cual es su dirreccion?" The woman looked at me kind of weird, and took my planner and wrote it herself.

After she left, Hermana Andersen turn to me to tell me what happened while I was still behind her, and she just stopped and was like, "... There's dirt on your face... What were you doing back there?"

Don't worry, though. After we got home and I cleaned up a little (you know in the movies when somebody gets hit or something, and there's that cut right there above the eyebrow, and you're like, 'that is so unrealistic. That is the silliest place to get a cut. That would never happen.'? well, I testify to you that even though it's silly, it happens.), we called the district leader and got permission to take the bus to WalMart, fix my glasses with that awesome warranty I got when I got new ones last June that promised that if they broke within a year, I could get knew ones for free, and get some more tights to keep my legs warm. Oh, and we took our bikes to the mission office for the mission bike repair man to fix on Saturday; we'll go pick them up tomorrow.

And guess what? The next day, we walked all the way over to Tahirih (she lives half an hour away on bike), and we got there, she wasn't home, and we looked down at my rain jacket, and there was bird poop. That apparently happens in real life, too.

You know what all this misfortune means?

It means that we're about to find someone that's super prepared to hear the gospel! Yeah yeah yeah!! I'm so excited!!!

But we have to reschedule Kinary's baptism and Maria y Marcos' boda. ): Kinary didn't come to church this week, so we have to move her baptism back a week so she can go to church all the required weeks first, and Maria y Marcos have things to take care of first, so we have to reschedule their wedding.

Esta bien. The Lord will provide.

Les queremos! Hasta Lunes!

Hermana Miller

UP UP UP ! March 3,2014

Querido Familia y Amigos,

Wow. No se porque, pero esta semana fue muy largo. No mucho occurio.

I don't know if I mentioned this last week, but we've been instructed on a new way to teach, using the pictures in the pamphlets and basing the lesson on what they need to know, rather than the doctrine. It's taking a lot of getting used to.

This week was awesome for letters! Gracias! Wow! It was so great to feel your love and support for me!

Ummm... We have a couple on date to be married! (because they're living together, and before they can be baptized, they need to be married) It's so exciting! Haha, it's so funny, though. We prayed about a date, felt it was good, and before we invited them to be married, we asked the relief society president if the building in Mukilteo was available for that night. She said it was, and we told her we'd tell her if they accepted it. We were going to invited them for the date that night... but they cancelled, they had to make an emergency trip to Seattle. So at church last week, when they were making the announcements, Hermana McNeely (RS President) finished, and everyone was like, "La boda en el 21 de Marzo!" and Hermana Andersen and I were like, "Oh dang." Everyone in the branch new about the wedding before the couple!! We were grateful that the couple had to work that day, and didn't have to find out that they were going to married before we even asked then.

But when we invited them earlier this week, they were so excited. Gordito (that's the nickname for one of their kids-you can probably guess why-, and I don't know his real name) can in to be disruptive, and Maria was like, "Gordito, stop. Hey, the missionaries want to marry your Papi and I." and Gordito stopped, looked at us, looked at his dad, and said, "No!" He was so upset, hahahaha.

We had a lesson last night, holy cow. They lived 20 minutes away on our bikes, and it was just pouring down rain. We got there, and we looked like drowned cats. She got us some blankets to use, and she tossed our skirts, gloves, and socks in the dryer during the lesson. It was bad, we were soooo wet.

After the lesson and the yogurt fight that her kids had, she went to get our clothes out of the dryer, and the two kids were talking to us. The older one, who's almost five, was showing me all his owies, and he was like, "And look, I have one on my face!" and I said, "And you brother has yogurt on his face!" and the younger one (about 3?) looked at me in shock, his hand flew to his face, and he said, "Whaaaat?!" It was sooooo funny!! (:

Estoy muy agradecida por esta opotunidad tengo estar aqui, aprendiendo como hablar este idioma, y como yo puede ser la mas mejor que puedo en ayudando la gente aqui. Y estoy muy agradecido que trabajo con la gente latino, porque personas blanco no son muy amable.

Gracias por su apoyo y su amor.

Hermana Miller