April 26, 2016

Going to be baptized this week.

Crazy week! This week has been so good! Elder Islas has been
transferred to Granollers today and my new companion is Elder Tyson
from Eagle Mountain, Utah. This week we also had a Catalan Holiday
named Sant Jordí, which really means Saint George, and that was really
good!
So first off my new companion, Elder Tyson, is the new district leader
and my companion and he's super great. He's very funny and
lighthearted, but in an obedient way so I'm all good for it! He was
actually companions with my old companion Elder Allen and so we've
just really been hitting it off talking and getting to know each
other. Turns out his Dad and Mom and my Dad served in the same mission
and maybe at the same time? So yeah, things are going really well with
him and I'm excited for this transfer, although I'll miss Elder Islas,
this'll be a good transfer or two.
This week we celebrated a Catalan Holiday named Sant Jordí, which is a
day where all the men give a women a rose and the women give men
books! So our ward being the great missionary Ward it is, decided to
hand out Book of Mormons for this holiday. So we set up a stand, and
just about the whole city is filled with stands and people selling
books and flowers, we did a good job and handed out a ton of them! We
also got to see Castillets, which are those human towers they make by
standing on each other and I guess that originates from Catalunya. So
they made some HUGE ones in the center of the city and Elder Islas and
I took some pictures of it! It was one of the greatest things I've
seen in Spain!!
Also XIMENA is being baptized this weekend!!! She is very excited, and
is GOLDEN!! We're getting her really excited about having her sights
on the temple and being sealed to her boyfriend, who is a member and
is living in Ecuador right now. Last night we taught her about the
Laws and Ordinances of the Gospel and the spirit was sooooo strong, I
literally was holding back tears throughout the lesson. She told us
that she's sooo surprised she feels the way she does now and is going
to be baptized. She said, "a month ago I didn't even know about the
church hardly and now I'm being baptized! I keep on feeling this
feeling inside of me telling me all these things that I'm doing are
right and that I'm really in the right path" a When she said that I
couldn't hold back my tears and it was so great, were extremely
excited for her!
I've really felt that the worth of souls is great in the sight of God.
I've really been able to feel the love the Lord has for her as we've
taught her, missionary work is truly indescribable. It can be very
hard and discouraging at times, but all in all its the greatest thing
I've ever done in my entire life. I hope you all can do your best to
share this joy we have with those around you! Love you and have a
great week :)
-Élder Miller

April 18, 2016

Hey ya'll! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!! And Dallas came back, Dallas I'm
really glad to hear that you're safe and back now. My parents sent me
the picture of you greeting Little Dallas and I couldn't help but get
a little tears eyed seeing that. Also Congrats on completing the Tough
Mudder, Brooke and Dad! And also CONGRATULATIONS Jordan on your
mission Call to Chile!!! It's been a huge blessing to be able to see
all these pictures and communicate with everyone. This week has been a
little bit of a slower week but things are still going well here in
Terrassa :)
My companion is still not doing so well and isn't really
improving....he's been having some internal problems (constant
fatigue, migraines and some other things), We've been able to get some
half days in this week, but I usually have to tell him to slow down.
He is just such a hard worker that he pushes himself really hard. We
have a doctors appointment for him on Tuesday to get some Blood work
done and a CAT scan, so hopefully we'll be able to get to the bottom
of this and figure what's going on.
We also had interviews at the beginning of this week and I had a very
good interview with President Dayton, he told me that he's very happy
of the progress I'm making and the missionary I've become. Interviews
are always very spiritual and I left my interview wiping away tears
from the Spirit that was there.
I've really come to understand that this work really isn't about me,
but really about those that I'm serving, Elder Islas is a great
example of that to me. My companion has really taught me sooo much.
We've been able to have great success because of our united-ness and
determination to be 100% obedient, we've broken all my personal highs
number-wise and also for this area in the last few months. The work
has really grown here tremendously, and it's still growing and so are
we!
I testify that Jesus is our Savior and that he has restored his Church
on the Earth through Joseph Smith. I also know that the Book of Mormon
is a key witness to the divinity of Christ and contains the Fulness of
his Gospel. God loves each one of his children and wants us to return
to him. I truly know the priesthood authority of God has been restored
and can only be found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints. We truly can receive all the blessings God has for us in these
days through his restored Church and the ordinances therein. We all
can receive these blessings, thanks to a loving Heavenly Father. I
hope all of you grasp these blessings and never let go, and if you
have already let go, come back....the Savior is waiting for you with
open arms.   "Behold, he sendeth an invitation unto all men, for the
arms of mercy are extended towards them, and he saith: Repent, and I
will receive you" -Alma 5:33
I love you all and hope you truly can come unto our Savior and embrace
the love he has for you! Have a great week :)
Con mucho amor,
-Elder Miller
Enviado desde mi iPad

April 11, 2016

Hey everyone! Things are going well here in Terrassa!! I'm growing
everyday and so is our area!!! Not much has happened this week, we had
to do TWO different companion exchanges, I guess on of the perks of
being companions with a district leader.
We also have been working a lot with one of our investigators, Ximena
and she is going to be baptized pretty much for sure on the 22nd of
this month and I am sooooo excited, it'll be my first baptism and she
is GOLDEN! She was able to come to a baptismal service on Saturday and
just loved it, then she came to church and said, "When I walked into
the church, I just felt like I was at home. It feels so peaceful. I'm
coming next week FORSURE!" She has been feeling the spirit very
strongly and really knows that baptism is the next step for her! She
has a member boyfriend who is living in Ecuador and were hoping that
after her baptism we can get them to the temple together!!!
Other than that, for one of the companion exchanges this week, I went
to Barcelona in the Zone Leaders area and I got to have Paella for the
first time!! It was just loaded with Seafood and I literally almost
barfed!!! Haha, it was pretty awkward, it all tasted super
good...apart from all the Seafood that was put in it haha. It was
little octopuses in there completely WHOLE, squid heads the size of a
thumb, shrimp, fish, mussels, oysters and practically any other type
of Seafood that makes me want to puke haha, but I held it down!! The
most awkward part was I was talking to the member who made it and I
took a bite while we was looking at me and I got a FULL squid head,
and it like burst open when I bit it with the most nasty liquid ever
and I totally started gagging, so fighting it I swallow the squid head
whole without chewing, and after this whole personal battle I look up
and the member is just staring at me....AWKWARD! But at least I was
only in the area for a day haha. Eating with members can be very
interesting to say the least as a missionary!
Things are really going well though! Elder Islas and I are like best
buddies and things are just going amazing for us! I hope all is well
and have a great week!
Elder Miller

April 4, 2016

Hey ya'll! Hope you all enjoyed General Conference, I know I did! Well
the parts I saw haha, it's a little harder to watch conference here in
Spain when we are 8 hours ahead of Mountain Standard Time in Utah, so
the morning session starts at 6 PM and the afternoon at 10 PM. So we
still have a couple sessions to watch!
This week has been great and very long! We started off the week doing
service for a family of investigators, Noemi Andres and Nicole! We
were told that they were doing some painting of their new apartment,
but as we walked into their apartment it looked like a construction
zone....walls with holes in it, everything was covered with drywall
and dirt and the apartment was pretty much completely gutted(I'll send
a picture). They told us, "Welp get to work, we gotta be moved in by
Friday!". So we got down to business, picking up a kitchen full of
broken tile and moving broken furniture and bags of broken tile down
to the dumpster. Luckily they had people working, because we weren't
able to stay for more than a couple hours.
We also continued teaching our Jehovah's Witness family, Andres and
Teresa. The lesson this week went really well, we taught the plan of
salvation and although they didn't see eye to eye we taught it in a
way that wasn't threatening to them and brought the spirit! I love the
clarity of the gospel of Jesus Christ and how it really is just so
simple.
We went to visit that family we found miraculously last week at the
end of the week and as we went to visit them, we knocked on their door
and a man answered. He said he was one of the sons of the mother of
the family, he said the family wasn't there so we tried to set up
another time to come back and teach everyone. He told us, "Well I mean
you can come in and teach me if you would like?" We readily excepted
his offer, taught the restoration and invited him to be baptized on
the 30th!!!! He is very excited and we are anxious to get to see him
and his family again!
We also received a reference from the Hermanas in our ward and we went
and taught her this morning, and she has committed to be baptized on
the 23rd!! Her name is Ximena(sounds like Himena) and from Ecuador.
She is literally the perfect investigator and were super excited for
her too!!
Things are going absolutely great here, we've started teaching
probably like 5-6 new families and have three investigators right now
who have baptismal dates! 5 of the families live in a city south of
Terrassa, called Rubí and we are suspecting that they'll be able to
open up a branch pretty soon if these families can get baptized!!
The harvest is great my dear family! This area has sooo many prepared
people and I am loving it! I know that this work is the Lords and that
he is with us every step of the way. I can feel it as we experience
the good times and the harder times, I truly know that my Savior loves
me and that he loves ALL of his children regardless of how many times
they may reject him. I've really tried to imagine the Savior
physically being with me in everything we do throughout the week, and
I sadly feel that we would still see some of the hard rejection we see
daily even if he was here beside us. I've really come to feel some of
the sorrows of Savior has felt and understand how he feels when we
choose to ignore him or reject him by some of the things we do or the
choices we make. But I know he loves us nevertheless! As we live the
gospel we can feel that love, the love is always there but it's
dependent on what we do to if we feel it or not! Remember that you are
a child of God and that we have a royal heritage, God is literally our
Heavenly Father. Don't let the world make you forget who you TRULY
are, we are heirs to the kingdom of God, don't sell yourself short!
Love you all, have a  great week!!!
Elder Miller