Hola! I'm still alive out here!! This week has been very full of
experiences. To start off the week we had "intercambios" or exchanges
and I went with my District leader, Elder Jones, and he is just one of
the funniest guys ever! Contacting with him is something I'll NEVER
FORGET! Haha I think the highlight of our night was contacting an old
Catalan couple who he tonight about prophets and they started arguing
back and forth and while the wife was full on yelling at him calling
him a "MENTIROSO!!" He word for word asked them if they would follow
the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized, while she was still
yelling at him. Haha he is definitely something for sure haha!
I totally forgot thanksgiving was this week, but thankfully the
sisters in our ward had it under control! We ended up having a dual
district, Thanksgiving for lunch and then a Thanksgiving with some
members who lived in Florida for a couple years. The members made the
BEST stuffing I've ever had......(well at least in Spain haha), but it
was still pretty legit!
This week we began teaching a Muslim girl from Morocco who's name is
Sukina and she is GOLDEN! She has all the perfect questions, she is
reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church and wants to know. She
told us how much contacting into her was a miracle. When we were
walking by her that one day in the Metro station I just had a quick,
strong feeling to talk to her and so I approached her and we talked
for a little and gave her a Book of Mormon, got her number and left
not thinking much of it. BUT it turns out she had literally seconds
before we talked to her had been praying to have someone come into her
life to help her, and then we met! Amazing huh?! Such a tender mercy
from the Lord. There are truly so many prepared people out here and it
is the greatest feeling to just be an intruder to bring one soul unto
him. Just thinking about it right now makes me tear up, but I know God
loves his children and I'm getting better everyday at becoming a
better, more effective, harder working missionary to do his work.
I love you all and hope you know I'm very thankful for the times we
have had together, our relationships and just being able to know you
all! Most of all I am thankful for this Gospel and the blessing it is
to have a knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. Love you all so much!
-Con amor,
Elder Miller
Sent from my iPad
Hola!!!! Well week 2 has been absolutely great, and I'm starting to
get over the culture shock haha. So this week we had a tri-zone
conference with Elder Christiansen from the Presidency of the Seventy
and Elder Dyches from the Europe Area Presidency and it was soooo
good! I got to sing in a choir that sang for the meeting and it wasn't
the best but not too bad haha. They are so amazing to hear and singing
in a huge group of missionaries is THE GREATEST THING EVER!!!!!!! I
could feel the Spirit sooo strong when we all sang together.
It's been pretty cold lately and I seemed to have caught a cold or
respiratory flu or something so we have to stay in piso (Apartments in
Spain) Thursday and it was nice to just relax a little, sleep and
watch church movies in Spanish hahaha. And just at the perfect time
one of my sweaters ripped, so now I'm down to one sweater and my huge
coat(which is fine!).
The work is starting to pick up a lot more and we have about 4-5 new
investigators just since I've got there. It's interesting to be a
missionary in Barcelona, I've definitely gained a testimony that there
are prepared people everywhere. There will be times where we will go
contacting for hours and people won't even look at us, and then other
times we will find people left and right. It's really strange! The
Catalan people really don't like us (because there is a bunch of
"Testigos" or Jehovah's Witnesses nearby so they all think we are
Testigos). People will cross the street to get away from us when they
see us walking down the road, but somehow this is the greatest thing
ever and I love it!!! I've really come to realization that life isn't
going to get any easier and there's always going to be hardships but
we just got to learn to love it and be grateful for what we do have!
My ward here, Barcelona 3 is pretty big, probably bigger than our ward
in Upland and the Elders quorum is like huge! The people are so nice
and sweet, they have been very patient with my slow Spanish or in
their words, "Castellano". This week in church I got called on to
answer something in Elders quorum and I just like froze while everyone
looked at me, and my trainer had to cover me for me haha. This week
was really so great! The work is hard, but so so sooo worth it. My
interesting story for the week is that we have three investigators
from Russia and since we have iPads we can get all the resources in
Gospel Library in Russian in like the snap of a finger! It's sooo
amazing what we can do with this technology. I also have two other
investigators I teach in English, which is sooo nice, but I like
Spanish better! ;p
Today we went into La Sagrada Familia and it's sooooo amazing! We got
in for free because we were a religious group and it's indescribable!
My mom will attach some of the pictures I took there but yeah, it is
IMMENSE! I had to take a video because a picture couldn't do it
justice. It's really strange and geometrical but very interesting!
¡Os quiero tanto!!!!
-Elder Miller
Sent from my iPad
¿Cómo estáis?! So if you haven't heard guess where I'm serving(insert
drum roll).................................…….............Barcelona
3rd Ward!!!! My area is right in the center of Barcelona and it's
sooooo beautiful! My ward building is the Barcelona Stake center and
it's the biggest church building in all of Europe! My trainer is Elder
Byington and he is from Santa Cruz, CA. He is such a funny and nice
guy, he has been out for 9 months and is amazing! He is very obedient,
actually this WHOLE mission is obedient, everyone is very on board
with the rules and strives to be obedient and faithful. My Spanish(or
"Castellano" as they call it here in Spain) seems to be pretty well,
my trainer says he thinks I'll be fluent in two months. His Spanish
isn't the best but it's okay, we are learning together! I push him and
we only speak English in the apartment, or if we need to review
something or if we're doing something in the chapel by ourselves. I
took a fluency test and it said I'm 58% fluent, I feel like I can
communicate pretty well and I just can't understand people who mumble
or talk really fast, but other than that it's really not too bad.
Missionary life is Pretty dang hard to be completely honest, actually
a lot harder than I thought it would be. I've had a couple rough days
but I know why I'm here and who I'm serving! (Prayers would greatly be
appreciated to help me adjust to mission life) Funny story, we email
from 17:00-19:00 and we had a lesson planned with a new investigator
at 19:00 but he showed up 30 minutes into our email time at the chapel
and so we taught him right then! He was super receptive and actually
seemed very excited about reading the Book of Mormon, it was a
MIRACLE! Missionary life can be kinda hard here in Europe, I can
probably count on two hands all the people that have stopped to talk
to us in the week of proselyting we have done BUT the ones who talked
to us were great! The worth of souls in great in the sight of God!
Even though it's hard here it's not impossible, we have three
investigators with baptismal dates and about 3 more progressing
investigators on the way and a couple new ones we found last week.
So today for Preparation Day(We aren't allowed to say P-day in this
mission) we went to a little amusement park thingy on a mountain
looking over Barcelona and it was amazing! There was a big Cathedral
up there too and it was sooooo beautiful! I'll attach some pictures. I
can't even put words into it, but the pictures will explain better
than I ever could! Love you all and I hope to hear from you guys soon!
Sent from my iPad
Hola! Hey family, I made it to Barcelona safe and am in my first area
now!!! And guess where I am?(Insert dramatic pause and drum
roll)....................BARCELONA 3! My area is right in the center
of Barcelona and has the beaches too. Our building is the Stake Center
of the Barcelona Stake, the BIGGEST LDS church in all of Europe(I love
it here)! My trainer is amazing, I'll tell you more about him on
Monday but I'll attach a picture of us! I'm absolutely loving it here,
I know this is where I need to be and I can feel it and see it! ¡OS
QUIERO MUCHO!
-Elder Miller
PS My Spanish is coming along very well and I'm like actually able to contribute in our lessons pretty well!
Sent from my iPad
¡Hola! ¿Cómo estáis? Hey everyone, what´s up? I´m
ALMOST done with the MTC!!!! It´s crazy thinking that I´ll be in the
field on Tuesday! I am beyond excited to get out into the field and am
super excited/anxious to find out where I´m going to be serving. This
last p-day was sooooooo cool!! we went on a Tour of the Real Madrid
Stadium and it is HUGE, and super flippin cool(Even though Barcelona
is better). I attached some pictures below. We got to go on the field
and see all over the Stadium and I can put words into how cool it was.
Just so everyone knows, they don´t celebrate halloween in Spain, other
than some creepy guys dressed up by the entrance of the Metro(Subway)
that we saw on the way to the park. This week in the park was a little
bit rougher haha. My companion wasn´t super pumped to be out there and
we really didn´t have too much success, we handed out 3 Book of
Mormons but it was definitely a hard day. I won´t get too deep into
why, but just trust me it was tough! But oh well! The work still moves
on :) This week was fast Sunday and oh my gosh! Fasting as a
missionary in the MTC is amazing!!! Probably my most spiritual
experience in the MTC. We had this lesson that was amazing about why
missionary work isn´t easy and Elder Holland said(During this quote we
saw in a video, it was showing Christ in the Garden of Gethsamane and
on the cross) ¨"It´s not easy but it´s never been easy......Salvation
does not come cheap", I wish I could show you guys the video. But it´s
very true! Hopefully one of those people I tried to talk to will
remember what I said in my broken spanish and while my companion was
wandering off when I was talking tothem and decide to talk to the missionaries
or read the Book of Mormon we gave them or even just pray.(Haha my companion in the
park would like walk away when I was trying to make conatcts!) But I´m
greatful to be able to teach this wonderful message, even if people
make fun of me or yell at me in Spanish, I know this is His work, and
he loves all his children and I feel so priveleged to be able to a
representative for our Savior Jesus Christ! ¡OS AMO! (I love you
guys!) Next time I write I´ll be out in the field, AHHHH!!! Talk to
you all soon! -Elder Miller
