Como la Cola de un Chucho! April 27, 2015

Querida Familia y Amigos,

Well, this week. I don't think a lot happened. There were a lot of cows. A lot of doors knocked on. Not a lot of doors opened. This is what missions are often like.

And yet I still never want it to end. (:

We had a really cool experience this week, though. Love these moments. (: We had about half an hour before we had to be home, and we were only in Ferndale, so it wouldn't take that long to travel. We were unsure what to do, as we had already gone through all of our plans and backups, and nobody answered the door, so we were hesitantly heading back to Lynden, praying for inspiration. We passed a sneaky trailer park that I didn't see, and a few minutes later, Hermana Hubner mentioned it and asked if maybe we should have gone and knocked a few doors. We stopped in the middle of the road (in the middle of no where, don't worry, there were no other cars), and sat there for a moment, pondering and listening intently for the Spirit to tell us where to go. After a minute, we discussed what we felt. We didn't feel like we should go back to the trailer park. So we continued driving, a little worried now that we'd have to be disobedient and go in early, but we both strongly felt that it wouldn't be bad if we went to the park, but that it wasn't what we needed to do.

We drove past fields and fields or berries and cows in silence, praying for direction. We entered Lynden and were getting a little anxious, who on earth could we see? There aren't a lot of hispanics in Lynden. We're driving along Grover, and I was reviewing in my mind the roads we would take to get home. I recalled that there was a former I had visited once with Hermana LeBaron on the way, but I dismissed the thought; he was a Jehovah's Witness and just wanted to Bible bash. I reviewed someone the route we would take home, and I kept coming back to him, though I couldn't remember his name. I finally spoke up, saying I didn't know if it was the best thing to do, but I did know someone we could visit. I told Hermana Hubner relatively where he lived, because I couldn't remember exactly, and she smiled this cute little crooked smile she does sometimes, but didn't say anything, just asked questions to make sure she was going the right way.

We're going down the road, and I point out his house, and she gets really excited. She told me she'd never met the people that lived there, but she was reading about them in the area book recently, and she really felt like we needed to see them tonight. We say a prayer, then knock on the door. The woman that answered was really happy to see us. She said it was late, so we'd have to come by another day (which was fine, because it would be nine o'clock by the time we got home after talking to her), but she really wanted her daughter and granddaughter to learn, so she said she'd invite them over and we could come over another day and teach them, now that she was divorced and her husband couldn't keep her from really learning more.

I know that the Lord answers our prayers. I know that He is preparing His children, so that when the time is right for them, they will be ready to accept the gospel. I know that we really do have the gospel of Jesus Christ restored on the earth again, and that the fullness thereof can only be found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know that the things I (try to) teach every day are true, without a doubt. I have taught a lot of people on my mission, helped build a lot of testimonies, but the most important one I worked on was mine.

I also know that missionaries are supes awkward when they return. I used to not understand and maybe laugh at them a bit. I swore I would not be return missionary awkward when I returned from my mission. Well, I saw a friend from home the other day. I gave her some boxes to take back to my house so I wouldn't have to send them, because she was going back to Utah anyway. We tried to talk for a while. What I mean by that is that she talked for a while, and I felt really awkward. I tried to keep up conversation enough so that it wouldn't feel like I was using her, but it was hard. Missionaries are really awkward. I could talk to you about the scriptures and what I learned in personal study all day long, or how important the Atonement is. You want to talk about Doctor Who and people that are married and plans for the future?  I will try my best, but I don't really know how anymore. So, moral of the story, when I return in three years (don't be confused or burst my bubble, that's what I have to tell myself lately to keep from crying), I will be super awkward. I am only sorry for you, that you have to suffer return missionary awkwardness, I am actually quite pleased with this growth I have achieved.

Pues, I love you all!

Hermana Miller

La Unica Nueva Foto

Hermana Hubner made this. Don't be jealous that I have the coolest companion ever. #10thCommandment

Serve the Lord with Love, April 20,2015

                                                                    
                                                                        

This week was super long. I don't remember a lot of it, and I need to type up my exit interview essays ): so this'll be short. Sorry!

Hermana Hubner and I had an awesome lesson with Miguel this week. (: His wife is a less active member, and she was married in the temple previously, but is now civilly (is that how you spell it? English is hard.) divorced, and civilly married to Miguel. We watched Finding Faith in Christ, and talked afterwards about Because He Lives, so much is possible, and even that we can live with our families after this life. Miguel really enjoyed it, and the next morning, his wife texted us and asked if it was possible to be sealed to someone else after having been divorced. (: I love the progression this family it making. It's wonderful.

We also had a lesson with Lorena this week. It was the first time I had met her, and she'd been in Mexico for two months, and so we kind of did some how to begin teaching and getting to know her. The Spirit was really strong, and we invited her to be baptized. She accepted without hesitation. We knew that we could have even invited her to be baptized on a specific date, and she would have accepted, the Spirit was so strong, but we felt like it wouldn't be okay, because we want her to fully understand what baptism is before she commits that seguramente. Maybe next time. (:

Also, we we had met with Miguel, he told us to go visit his sister and teach her, too, so we did that on Thursday night before exchanges. We parked our car in Everson, and took off on our bikes, sure we knew the road was, and knowing it was a little far, but not too bad. So we started our trek, and an hour later (the road being further that we thought; past Nooksack, I'm sure almost to Sumas), we hit the end of her street, not having seen her address, the numbers not even close to her house number. We take a deep breath, being careful not to inhale too many cow fumes, and stand with our bikes, trying to decide what to do while we let our pompis take a break from the super hard seats. We decide to try the next street up, and I sit down, try to

pedal, but the chain jumps, and I fall over. Jajajajaja. I have had so many bike problems on my mission.

These bikes are super awesome, in that they are not actually mission bikes, but they're old, rusty, worn out bikes a member gave us before he moved to California. They're also men's bikes, so getting on and off, we have to be supes careful because it's like climbing the Great Wall of China, and if you're not careful, however short or long your skirt is, you might end up showing off your testimony to those around (but usually they're just cows, so not too big of a deal) Mine is older and rustier that Hermana Hubner's, because hers is shorter, and she's shorter than I am.

We laugh, check to make sure the bike's okay, and take off toward's the next street. Miraculously, it was a continuation of the other street, so we biked it for a while, then when it got super steep, we got off and walked. When I was dismounting my Great Wall of China, Hermana Hubner got this concerned look on her face, so I looked down at my legs, and saw a stream of blood flowing calming down both of them. Guys, I am condemned to Maxi skirts the rest of my mission to hide these (awesome) bruises I have, and probably despues to Maxi's and jeans for the rest of my life to hide the all the scars. The number of times I have fallen off my bike of my mission is too high for me to remember, and my number of scars has increased dramatically, as well. Shame shame.

So, I shrug my shoulders, readjust my skirt to cover my pobrecitos legs, and we continue on for another mile or más before we reach Lucy's house, which has the longest driveway ever, because her home is behind all of her fields and greenhouses. Then she wasn't home, and we journeyed back to the car. Other than the ride to Paola's house, and the smell of cow that has seeped into my skin super bad I will never smell like a human again, that's probably one of my favorite bike rides. It's probably about a 15 miler. (:

Then exchanges. (: That was fun. I discovered that cute German little Sister Bartsch is friends with the only other person I know from Germany, Sister Menchien (or algo asi) who served where I lived in Virginia. Small world, big family.

So, that was our week. Nobody came to church (surprise!), but this was a good week. (:

Love you all!

Hermana Miller

P.S. I know I said this was going to be short, but I was stalling to not have to write my essays. Oops...

Sé que ustedes solomente quieren las fotos.

                                                                                     

The patch of mud is indeed where our tire was.

                                                                                      

                                                                         

 I was eating some Conversation Hearts, and I found one in Spanish. It made my day.

                                                                                 

 

                                                                               

Lynden: A town so Christian, they hate Mormons

Snowing on the mountains?

                                                                                                                                                              

                                                                  

                                                                         

Picture one: These are aguacates. Seriously. They're babies!! (sorry, I don't know how to say aguacate in English)

Las demas: Personal faves found on my camera. Yes, you've seen them before.

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

"I'm from Utah." "Yeah? You didn't get overrun by the Mormons?" April 13,2015

This week was pretty fun. We had transfers, and I'm back in Bellingham. Hermana Hubner is my companion. She's seriously new-she just finished training.

Our first night together was fun. We were heading over to Blaine to teach Miguel, and we accidentally made a wrong turn. So, to save miles, we were just going to make a U-turn. First of all, Blaine (and every other part of our area) is super country. It's like the drive out to Mendon, that road with the cows, and, during the summer, the zonkey, camels, zebra... I don't remember. But yeah, it's like that, but with a few more houses. So we saw two driveways in a row, and decided that would be a perfect place to make a U-turn without having to reverse. But somehow neither of us saw the ditch between the driveways.

We drove slowly into the first driveway, we were turning into the second, but de repente, the front right wheel dropped. Hermana Hubner quickly put her foot on the brake, then tried to reverse (without a backer...) out, to no avail (because there was no backer?). So we put the car in park, and discussed what we should do ("Should we call the district leader?" ".... No, he won't be able to do anything." "Oh! Duh, let's call Elder Walkinghorse (the vehicle coordinator)!"), as it get colder the closer you get to Canada, and we weren't sure how far in we were, so we didn't really want to get out of the car.

Then some people pulled into the driveway that we hadn't quite made it into, and asked if we wanted them to push us out. We told them we had tried reversing to no avail, and they told us that made sense because the back end of the car was so high in the air. They told us they were going to call someone with a truck to pull us out, and that we shouldn't get out of the car or move around too much or we might flip, and we called Elder Walkinghorse.  He was very adamant that we did not have some guy with a truck pull us out, because that might damage the bumper even more that it might have been damaged, and apparently bumpers are really expensive to repair/replace. So he asked to speak with one of the men outside and have his suggest a good tow truck company. There was a lot of talking, and us waiting anxiously in the car, and finally the phone was returned to us, and we were told that someone would be there in 45 minutes to tow us out (because it's farmland up here, it takes forever to get anywhere). The men left, because there wasn't anything they could do, and we sat in the car and waited.

Thankfully, I had my emergency bubbles that my mom sent me for Easter, so we weren't totally bored. But we called Miguel and told them we wouldn't make it because we were in a ditch, and they decided they HAD to come see if they could help, even though we told them everything was under control. They got there about the same time as the tow truck. We got towed out, Miguel and his wife invited us over for pizza, and all was well. (:

We also had two confirmations yesterday! (: Elizabeth and Eduardo, Jr. were baptized last Sunday. Their parents and younger sister were baptized last month, so they're just this cute little recent convert family. (: Their testimonies are so cute and STRONG. Seriously. They are truly converted. I love it. (:

That's all. folks!

Hermana Miller

There will be pictures of the ditch next week, I forgot my camera in the car.