Hey everyone! So this week was pretty great and we had a baptism
WOOOOHOOO!!! So this week we got to see the baptism of Mercedes Ferrer
Tur! She is an 81 year old Spanish woman(she's technically Ibizzenca
because she's a native of Ibiza). She's the sweetest lady! We also are
starting to get into the swing of things as a companionship and things
are going well!
So this week I also got to do a companion exchange to the island of
Mallorca, which is the biggest island out of the 3 Balearic Islands,
and because we are the only missionaries on Ibiza we skype into
District meetings and we have to fly for Zone Conferences, and
companion exchanges! So we did a companion exchange this week so our
district leader, who is in Mallorca, could interview Mercedes for her
baptism! Mallorca is really big and the main city, Palma is pretty
much like Valencia to me with more Spanish people haha. We had a good
time there and I got to fly there and back!
We also had to set up a bunch of things for the baptism, and had to
make lots of adjustments for her because she has a bad back and knees,
and we have a portable baptismal font that is above ground that we put
up in the Chapel. So we were either going to have to pick her up and I
was going to have to hand her to Elder Perri in the font and he was
going to have her float and push her under to baptize her or baptize
her in the Beach! We were hoping we were going to be able to baptize
her on the beach but sadly she wanted to be baptized in the church.
She told us the day before the baptism, "You are going to get brownie
points in heaven for baptizing a Spanish lady!" And also "I'm so
excited to get baptized for the second time!" Hahaha she's sooo funny
and sweet. We got to Saturday, the day of the baptism and she called
us at 10:30 and told us that the lady she lives with who is 86 years
old, and she got super sick all of a sudden that day and she didn't
know if she was going to be able to come to the baptism. Luckily she
got someone to take care of the lady and came to the baptism, and when
it was time to do the ordinance she climbed up the stairs normally!!
We were sooooo surprised because she was so worried before and then
when Elder Perri finished the prayer and was about to help her float,
she just let him baptize her like normal, IT WAS A MIRACLE!! We were
sooo surprised that she was able to do that! And when she raised up
out of the water, she did the Catholic cross thing on her chest and
everyone just started laughing super hard! And Elder Perri just says,
"It's alright, she's a Mormon now" haha. She also did that when I gave
the Holy Ghost the next day! It was super funny, but that's what
happens after a practicing Catholic of 81 years gets baptized! But she
was soooo happy after her baptism and said she felt sooo good and
could feel that the Holy Ghost really was with her and that she had
had a great change of heart. It was truly a miracle to see her get
baptized!
The weather has been getting hotter and the miracles are being
showered down upon us out here in Ibiza! I don't have much time to
write but I love you all! I know that this church is true and that
Jesus Christ directs it and that any person can come closer by reading
the Book of Mormon! Love you all so much, have a great week
Hey everyone! Things are going well here in Ibiza, the weathers been
pretty cool this week and the branch is amazing here!!! I'm super
excited to be here! So this week has been a lot of resting(Elder Perri
has been feeling kind of under the weather) and getting to know the
members here. The Elders here have done a super good job and so now we
are just reaping up the rewards, I know that we can keep things moving
here but most of the elders the have served here have been ex-Zone
Leaders or are now Zone Leaders so the area's pretty great!
The branch president, President Gomez is super pumped!!! Every time he
sees us he says, "Baptism! Baptism! Baptism! We gotta be baptizing
every week Elders!" President Gomez is a super great man, he's
recently been called as branch president a year ago after 2 years of
coming back to the church after 26 years of inactivity in the church.
He has great faith and it shows in this branch! Haha he's been excited
because the branch has had 5 baptisms in the past couple months and
they all are really great members! And we also have two people who
possibly could be baptized next week!
One of the people who are going to be baptized this week is a 81 year
old, Ibizzenca(what the people from Ibiza are called) woman named
Mercedes. She's super sweet and really sweet! She's excited to be
baptized and she calls us her "nietos" which means grandsons.
The other lady's name is Mariana. She is Ecuadorian and has lots of
problems, but is a great person! She has been meeting with the Elders
for a while now and hasn't been able to get baptized for a while but
finally, things cleared up and got straightened out so we're helping
her get ready for this week or the next!
Another cool fact about the church here in Ibiza......the branch is
made up almost 100% of Ecuadorians! But that's okay, I LOVE
ECUADORIANS!! Ecuadorians are some of the sweetest, humble and loving
people I've meet in my life. The branch has about 30 active members
and usually 40ish show up to Sacrament Meeting.
On Sunday Elder Perri told me about a deaf member from Canada who is
in the branch and told me that I'd have to translate the meeting to
him, but writing it out on my iPad in English so he could read what
was going on. So that was interesting communicating with him, because
he doesn't speak Spanish either, so later I translated for him as he
taught a class to the young men of the branch about the Plan of
Salvation! It was actually pretty fun trying to figure out what he
wanted me to say then communicate it to the class of young men! Haha
Well yeah, things are pretty great here! It's getting hotter so
hopefully I can shed off a few pounds haha. Please pray that Elder
Perri can feel better so we can get back to work and help the people
here in Ibiza!! I know that this is the Lords work and that missionary
is one is SOOOO IMPORTANT! The Lord is anxiously waiting to bless all
of his children(including ourselves) and as we share the gospel with
EVERYONE we allow the Lord to bless all of his children abundantly. I
hope you all have a great week, love you!
-Elder Miller
Hey! Welp looks like my time in Valencia has come to a quick end....we
received transfer calls this week and I've been called to serve in the
Balearic Islands, on the famous party Island of IBIZA!! I'm now
serving with Elder Perri from my district in the MTC. We are also the
only missionaries on this island and the branch has about 30-40 people
here.
Turns out missionaries have only been here for about 4 years and the
church has only been here for 10! So it's pretty crazy to get to serve
here, and the branch is doing super well! I met the branch president,
President Gomez and he's amazing, he has so much faith and is a super
great man. The missionary work here has been going super well too, the
past transfer they baptized 4 people and it looks like this place is
just filled with miracles!
I'm super excited to be here, even though it's super hot and
humid....I would say it's about the same as Florida in the summer,
it's going to be great! Hopefully I can sweat off a few pounds haha.
But it's going to be a great area I'm very excited and feel privileged
to get to be one of the few missionaries that have ever been able to
serve here.
Serving in areas where the church is smaller is so amazing. When you
serve in big cities and big wards, you become just some other
missionary and really it's not as evident the good you do, but in
these small wards and branches you become "THE MISSIONARIES" and the
members just love you sooo much! It helps me understand how important
this work truly is and how much it can bless the lives of those around
us.
Although it was sad to say goodbye to Valencia, I'm excited for this
new challenge and opportunity to serve the Lord in this part of his
vineyard! I hope you all have a great week, love you!
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY EVERYONE!!! I actually forgot it was going to be
Fourth of July, but then an American family from our ward invited us
over for preparation Day today for an American Barbecue. But in other
words this week was good! Our investigators Monica and Franklin are
making huge progress and I got to preach the gospel a group of
Ghanians outside an African Store and try some INCREDIBLY spicy
Nigerian "Pepper Soup".
Monica and Franklin are progressing really really well! Not only have
we seen a huge change in them but they just look sooo happy now!
Monica told us that when she hears the lessons and reads the Book of
Mormon she feels so happy and that she can feel the spirit testifying
to her of it. Also Franklin is coming around, before he wasn't super
excited about meeting with us, but now both of them have accepted a
baptismal invitation for the 16th of July, and they are SUPER pumped
to be able to be baptized on this day!
So this week during an companion exchange with the Zone Leaders, Elder
Kimball(He just finished being an Assistant to the President)and I
passed by a store named, "Zion Afro Store" and we saw some African men
sitting down on a bench outside and so we contact them all and set up
another visit. We came back during a member split I did and the member
didn't speak English so I was teaching this group(6-8 guys) of men
from Ghana. I taught them the first lesson and when I started talking
about Joseph Smith, one of the men who kept on cutting me off named
"Adi", says "The United States was founded by aliens!!! All you
Americans just do everything for money, you can see there's that weird
pyramid thingy on the US Dollar." And I just say, "What does that have
to do with anything I just said?!" All the African men started
laughing and told him to chill, I finished teaching the lesson and
invited them to read the Book of Mormon and to pray and if they
received an answer to be baptized and only one of them said yes. His
name was Ishmael and he was contently listening the whole lesson and I
could really see that while the other men were not very focused, he
had his eyes fixed on me the whole lesson. Although the other men
didn't feel the spirit I know he did! We're going to meet with Ismael
next week so we'll see what happens!
An investigator from Nigeria named Patrick gave us some soup and rice
after a lesson. And I swear it was the spiciest thing I've ever had!!!
I started coughing and sweating and it was super intense!!
Other than that the week was pretty normal with finding lots of people
and talking to nice people in the street! The Gospel truly blesses
people and changes lives! Have a great 4th, and have fun eating some
hot dogs and watching some fireworks!!! Drink some extra Root Beer for
me because we don't have Root Beer in Spain!
-Elder Miller
Hey everyone! Things are getting VERY warm out here in Valencia and
the work is great! We are working hard and things are going well for
us. This week I had some interesting things go on to say the least!
We started off the week with an companion exchange with Elder
Lightfoot, who is from my group and so that means he has the same
amount of time as me in the mission, so we worked hard and did a lot
of finding! Later in that day we were contacting down a street, and
started talking to a gypsie man, who goes to an Evangelical gypsie
church and he was super interested. We ended the contact short because
we had a lesson and we were late, we knocked the mans door and he
wasn't there so we went back to teach the man a little more, but turns
out he was starting church or "culto" as they call it, so we asked him
if we could see and we talked to his pastor and they invited us in! We
gladly sat down in the pews, in this beat down evangelical church and
they started blasting music and gypsie scream singing(it sounds weird
but gypsies sing like they're screaming always haha). Later in the
meeting the pastor announced our visit to the congregation and we
continued watching as they blasted music and scream sang and said some
weird prayers......it was definitely an interesting experience seeing
the way that the gyspies worship to say the least. And we've been
approached by lots of gypsies asking us about who we are and what we
do! So it was a pretty good finding activity if I would say hahaha.
Our investigators, Monica and Franklin from Ecuador are doing really
well! We taught them the plan of salvation this week, and it was super
good! They are really changing and you can just see the difference in
them from the time we've met them. They came to church and now have a
TON of friends in the ward and really enjoy it. Anytime we invite them
to do anything, the wife Monica looks to her husband and says, "Do you
want to do this? because I really do!" And Franklin always tells her
okay, and at first he didn't seem very excited but now he really wants
to do everything. He can't read on his own(it's not so uncommon here),
so we downloaded the Book of Mormon audio onto a usb-drive and he was
sooo excited to be able to read the Book of Mormon! I'm sooo excited
for them!
Hope everyone has a great week! Love you!
-Elder Miller
