"Hermana Miller! ... Engordaste?" O Sea, The Downside To Returning To An Area

Querida Familia y Amigas,

I only have like three minutes left because (ugh) it's about that time where I have to apply for college. But I love you lots! This was an awesome week. Hermana Webb is legit.

Love you!

Hermana Miller

If You Go Over There, Wear Your Chastity Belts! Jan 20,2015

Hola!

This week was pretty great. (: I miss Hermana Brunsdale, but now I'm with Hermana Webb! She's from Illinois. She's only been out for 6 months. Remember when I was out for six months, and we were like, Wow! So long? and now it's like, She's only been out for 6 months. Haha. (:

So, there's a lot of fun things that happened this week. We were led to find a less active family after they read Enos 1:12 and prayed for the missionaries to come by. It was a really cool experience, but we don't have a lot of time today, so I can't go into it.

Love you!

Hermana Miller

Soda Bottles Don't Have Knives! ... Soy No Miedo! Jan 12,2015

This week was pretty normal, though kind of stressful. The week before transfers, you're always kind of on your toes, because you never know who's going to stay or who's going to leave.

One night, we were trying to contact a referral, who was the duena de a store, so we bought some snacks, but discovered that she wasn't even there. So we went to go visit someone that had had some issues with a member in our ward and wanted to complain to the branch president, and on the way, I tried to open this glass bottle of soda that I had purchased, and the metal cap wasn't just twisting off, so I tried using the keys to force it off, and it slipped, and I cut my fingers on the metal cap. I give up, look at my fingers, which look fine, and put the soda down, and we arrive at the apartments. We park, pray, and ascend the stairs. I knock on the door, and notice that my fingers are bleeding and almost dripping onto the floor. Oops. And of course, I was wearing my white skirt with blue and black flowers, so I couldn't really just wipe it on the skirt. I just kind of covered it and tried to make sure I would catch the blood if it dripped.

The lady answers the door, invites us in, and we sit down and wait for a moment while she finishes helping her child with something. Hermana Brunsdale notices that the blood is getting really close to dripping on my skirt as the lady comes over. Hermana Brunsdale asks her for a paper towel, and I kind of bandage my fingers as we talk about what President Waite had said in response to her comments. Then she's appeased, we invite her to learn more, and she says that she's a Jehovah's Witness, and we leave.

We go to her neighbor downstairs, who is a member, and she gives me son Ninja Turtle bandaids, then we go to our lesson with Georgina. We're trying to teach her the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and her son, Gabe, was super excited, as always, to have us over. He was overly excited this time, and we wanted Georgine to especially feel the Spirit this time, so Hermana Brunsdale and I exchanged the look, and she taught, and I distracted. So I was quietly playing with Gabe, and then he looks at my hand, and goes, "Did you use my bandaid?" I told him that of course I did, why not? And he turns around and points to a Ninja Turtle bandaid stuck to the wall. "No you didn't, it's still right here!" So then he asks why I had the bandaid, and it's like, "Was it a knife? Was it your llaves (keys, he have really good Spanglish)?"

I kind of laugh, and say, "No, it was my soda bottle." He looks at my in disbelief and said, "Soda bottles don't have knives!" Hermana Brunsdale and Georgina look up at us, and just laugh. Oops, Spirit lost? No, she accepted the baptismal invitation. (: Still without a date, but it's all good. Progress is progress.

Transfer news? Hermana Brunsdale is being transferred, and I'm staying. Maybe I'll die here in the area I was born. Who knows? (:

Love y'all!

Echele El Orgullo Jan 5, 2015

Querida Familia y Amigos,

Mmmm... So, we were going down this steep hill last week to avoid walking all the way around and wasting our proselyting time, and it was raining (you know, because this is Washington), and Hermana Brunsdale slipped. I was inching my way down, and I looked up just in time to see her feet and head be level, then gravity take over and her plop onto the ground. We both started cracking up. She was fine, just really muddy, and it was the highlight of our day. It was so funny.

We had some really good lessons this week. A recently returned missionary was home from school for the holidays, and he was so excited when we invited him to come to lessons. He even wanted to come tracting with us. Being a missionary is so great, I don't blame him for getting excited. (: We all know the first thing I'm going to do after I get home and take a nap is go knock on the sister missionaries door and ask if I can be their chauffeur because their biking missionaries so I can go to all their lessons. I would have to do it before 10am (because they're English, otherwise it'd be 11am, because they'd have language study), between noon and 1pm, or after 9pm, though. They wouldn't be at home the rest of the time. Or I could look up their phone number on the online directory and call them. That might work better.

So... This week was good. That's about it.

Love you guys!

Hermana Miller

Aun Que Navidad Fui Yesterday Dec 29,2014

Querida Familia y Amigos,

So, do you remember Shyla Drake, who's mom called us one day when I was English, and she said that she wanted her daughter to be baptized? Well, she was baptized last night! :D Yaay!! (:

Not a lot else happened this week... That's the most vital thing... Except that we had Christmas! (: I got to skypyskype with my familia, and that was great. I got to see everyone (a menos que mi hermano menor ): ).

Hmmm... We didn't have a lot of lessons this week because everyone canceled because of Christmas, so we did a lot of tracting and singing Christmas songs.

And that's it... Love you!

Hermana Miller

Let's take pictures shall we

I just thought I'd start with the pictures first this week because I always forget.

                                               

Rule Number One: Don't Touch the Presents, Dec 15, 2014

Querido Familia y Amigos,

This week... Hmmm, que paso....

We were tracting one day (after biking for like, an hour and a half), and the first house we tracted into, we talked the lady came up after we knocked on the door, then an older man opened the door, and the lady was like, "Yeah, we're Christian, lalala," so we're like, "Well, we're sharing this card about the true meaning of Christmas, and..." and she was like, "I told you, dad! I told you people still say Christmas here!" Then he was like, "Well, most people say Happy Holidays."

I heard a bit of an accent in his voice, so I was like, "Are you from England?" Hermana Brunsdale looked at me like I was crazy, but he when he spoke again, his accent was more evident. He told us about how he lives just outside Liverpool, and he met the Beatles before they were famous; there was this small club where new bands would play and try to get their start, and the Beatles played there a lot. One night, Ray (this British man), went to go pick up his sister from this club, and she was like, "No, Paul's going to give me a ride home today." You know, Paul McCartney. Ray was like, "Thank you kindly, Paul, but my mum wanted to make sure that I took her home." He said once they were famous, his sister never forgave him for not letting her get a ride home from him.

Then the next house that opened their door, the man was like, "Yeah, I've met missionaries before, but they always ignore me." Hermana Brunsdale and I were like, "That's strange. Why?" and he says, "Because of my partner-- my future husband. We have nothing to hide." We don't meet as many gay people as you would think up here in Sodom and Gomorrah, so that was a bit of a surprise.

The next house was even more of a surprise. We opened the screen door to knock, and there was a wreath made of dead twigs and flowers, with animal bones hanging from it and racoon and cat skulls in the top. We told ourselves that it was probably just left over from Halloween--people don't actually live in their houses, they live at work or somewhere, so they're never home. So we knock, and this totally gothic but well groomed man opens the door. He's very polite, but he tells us that he doesn't believe in Christmas. So we ask why, and he's like, "Oh, I was raised Pagan." So we ask his what Pagans believe, because we're innocent little missionaries that were raised in the church and don't know a lot about other iglesias, and he said that Pagans worship death and stuff like that. Umm, scary. He also said that his wreath was a housewarming gift. That's fun.

Then that night, Hermana Brunsdale was like, "Let's go to Mongolian Grill! I love it there!" So we went, and members paid for our meal. (: We are so blessed.

Last night, we sang in a stake choir concert because the branch signed up for it. There are about 12 people in our choir, and 8 of them are missionaries.... So that was fun...

Love you all!

Hermana Miller