August 29, 2016

Hey everyone! Great first week with Elder Morley, we are working hard and seeing lots of miracles! Literally this week has been just filled with miracle, after miracle, after miracle! It's amazing!! Elder Morley and I get along really well and things are going great! We also have met some pretty crazy drunk people and averted our eyes as a nudist protest bike parade was going on through the city, it was just a bunch of men, but still....gross. The people here remind me of my brother, Andy when he was little, always trying to take their clothes off but not too bad, just enough to give us some funny stories! 

So on our first night, we went to visit a less active woman from the Dominican Republic named, Altagracia and her nephew, Alberto! He's super great and is really interested. We taught him the restoration and he really, really liked it! He accepted a baptismal invitation and we're going over to visit him again this week, he's really great and we're excited to start teaching him! 

We also had our first official visit with Emilio, that man from my miracle story last week, that we met as went to go visit someone else. During he first lesson, as we taught him the Restoration, he told me, "I know that this is true. Elder Miller, I want you to baptize me in two weeks" I was totally shocked because we hadn't even gotten to that part of the lesson and that he specifically asked me was.....WOW, definitely something super special. It was a SUPER intense lesson and the spirit was super strong. I've never had someone ask me to baptize them, especially not in the first lesson! It was crazy, he told us, "You came into my life in the precise moment when I needed this the most. I've been searching for so long and I've found it now." It was amazing and tears came to my eyes as I heard him tell us this story. Definitely an experience I'll never forget. But he has a hard time with smoking so it looks like we're going to have to push back his baptismal date a little for him to be baptized. 

Another miracle we saw is we had an impression like we should pass by an investigator named, Norma from Paraguay whose been investigating for a 6+ months now and is just waiting on getting married to be baptized now, so we passed by her house and it turns out it was her birthday! As we talked in the door briefly, she told me that since the first lesson we had with her boyfriend, they've had lots of problems and her family doesn't want her to meet with us anymore or anything, and she told me, "Elder, I know these things are true! If he's not go to support me in this, I would rather live alone and be baptized and have this gospel, than stay with my boyfriend and not have it". Hearing this touched my heart so deeply, knowing that someone would give up everything they had so they could be baptized and become a member and come closer to their Heavenly Father. It reminded me of the talk that Gordon B Hinkley gave, when he told the story of a man from India who was baptized into the church in the United States during college and upon returning home to his family, he was kicked out of his home and shunned by his family. President Hinkley asked this man after he heard his story, "So why did you do it all? Why did you keep on following despite all the tribulations you have faced?" The man responded, "It's true, isn't it?" "Yes." The man then responded, "Then what else really matters?". How many of us are willing to give up everything for what we believe? If it's true, then what else really matters than that? I testify that I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored, that the kingdom of God has been established and that if we are struggling putting our priorities in order, just ask yourself that same question, "Is it true? And do I truly believe it?" I love you all soooo much! I hope you have a great week and can ponder on our own personal testimonies and conversions, if you have time take a look at John 21:15-17 and see how the Lord counseled Peter after receiving his testimony and really knowing that it's true. Have a great week!!

Love, 

-Elder Miller

August 23,2016

Hey everyone! Hope everyone's enjoying the transition of summer to
getting back to school! Not much has happened this past week, Elder
Perri caught Bronchitis and so we had to let him rest a good amount
this week. Other than that, transfers were today and my new companion
is......ELDER MORLEY! Haha Elder Morley is from South Jordan and also
lived in Rancho Cucamonga for a summer selling Solar! He is newer in
the mission, but is a great Elder! Also I forgot to mention....he's 7
FEET TALL!!! Hahaha he literally towers over me, he's over a foot
taller than me! It's super crazy!!
So this week it's been a mix of running to visits that are already
set, running to the hospital so Elder Perri can get treated, running
home so he can rest and saying goodbye to everyone in the branch!
Elder Perri was super sad to leave but he's done a lot of great work
here and now he went to Vitoria, in Northern Spain.
Now I have Elder Morley! He's really great and I'm super excited to
work with him, it's going to be an amazing next couple transfers with
him!
Other than that, we saw a miracle this last week with Emilio. A week
or two ago I had a strong impression that we needed to go visit a less
active woman, we went and she wasn't there, but as we walked away from
the doorbell, a man called for us and started talking to us. Turns out
he was homeless and had Mormon friends in another city in Spain where
he lived. We then invited him to come to church but he didn't come
last week. But this week, guess who was waiting outside of the church
Sunday morning? HIM! Haha he showed up and he's super interested! His
name is Emilio and he's a really interesting man with a lot of
religious knowledge. We have our first visit with him tomorrow morning
so we'll see how things go!
God has blessed us so much here, I've really learned that we don't
receive blessings because God "owes" us but because he loves us and
WANTS to bless us! With the Lord everything is possible! I hope you
all have a great week! Love you,
-Elder Miller

August 15,2016

Hey everyone! Time is just going by so fast out here in Ibiza, it
seems like I just got here last week and now we've gotten to the last
week of the transfer...but this week has been jam packed, we had about
3 days where we weren't able to work due to Conferences, Setting up
for the  baptism and having a companion exchange to do the baptismal
interview. It seems like we lose a day anytime we have to travel. But
it was worth it because FIORELLA WAS BAPTIZED WOOOHHOOOOOO!! Hahaha my
mission president and his wife, President and Sister Dayton came out
to Ibiza to see the baptism and visit the branch and the whole branch
was on their best behavior hahaha. It was funny, but the Daytons loved
it here!
So this is the smoothest I've had a baptism ever go. She came early,
the Daytons arrived and it was packed! To show you how significant it
was, normally we have 40 people in church on a good Sunday and 35
people came to the baptism! The chapel was FULL! Fiorella was sooooo
prepared, she had been receiving the lessons for about 2 years, and
the Elders stopped visiting her about 2-4 months ago because she
wasn't keeping her commitments and didn't really want anything, and
all of a sudden she came on her own and had a huge change of heart,
and within two weeks of that moment she was baptized! It was a
wonderful service and I think my favorite of my whole mission. Elder
Perri baptized her and I was able to do the confirmation, it was
really great. I could feel the spirit really strong during that
meeting and I was soooo excited for her!
We also had Specialized Training this week, which is a pretty much
like a Zone Conference except they don't feed us :( Hahah but it was
really good. We learned about being fearless missionaries, the
converting power of the Book of Mormon, fighting against
discouragement *my favorite lesson* and the Assistants to the
President taught us how to call people out on disobedience. The one
about discouragement really helped me, because I've been feeling a
little down and discouraged and it really helped me realize what
things I need to do to feel happy and how I can combat those feelings
of feeling down. Really at the end of the lesson I realized that, This
work isn't about me, it's about my Savior, Jesus Christ and preaching
his gospel to bless his children. I mean I had already known that but
it was a refreshing reminder of why I'm here on the mission!
President and Sister Dayton really seemed to love the branch! The
branch is on fire!! As a branch we had a goal for the year of 8
baptisms and this week we met the goal of 8 in August!! We are the
first branch in the islands to hit the goal and we can see that the
Lord is blessing us a lot out here. President Dayton also pulled me
aside and told me, "Elder, you ready to take over the island?" Haha I
told him I was and he said, "I know you are Elder!" And winked at me.
Also next transfer the mission has a group of 30+ new missionaries
coming in so it's very likely I could be called to train this next
transfer, so we'll see what happens next week!
But overall things are great out here! I love the branch, the people
are great and the weather is getting cooler, so I'm happy! It's warm
like 83-87° and 60% humidity so it's not too bad haha! Hopefully it'll
start cooling down some more :)
Well I just want to let you all know Heavenly Father loves you! His
love is unconditional and does everything he does because he loves us.
I've come to know on my mission that his love is truly unconditional,
but he also is anxious to bless his children and when we aren't
obedient we withhold from ourselves these blessings. I know that
obedience brings blessings and that God doesn't owe us anything, I
will always be in debt to him for sending his son to come to the world
and die for me, so that I can be clean of my sins and one day return
to his presence. I love you all so much, have a great week!
-Elder Miller

August 8, 2016

Hola familia! ¿Cómo les va todo? Everything is going AMAZING out here
in Ibiza! The Branch is doing super well and are giving SOOO MANY
REFERENCES, never in my mission have I received so many references in
my mission. Last week we received 6 references and the branch council
set a goal of giving us 10 references as a whole in the next 2 weeks!
We have a baptism this weekend for Fiorela, I'll tell you more about
her later and I possibly have the worst ingrown nail I've ever had in
my life haha, SO PAINFUL!
So we started off the week going to Zone Focus in Palma and all our
flights went well! We learned about how we see baptism and how the
Lord wants us to look at baptism, that as missionaries we are helping
people come closer to Christ and that baptism is something they do! We
should rejoice because that person has been baptized, not because we
personally had a baptism. Baptism shouldn't be looked at as a personal
achievement. And the mission set the goal this week to invite someone
to be baptized 15 times throughout the week! Elder Perri and I were
able to invite 15 times and thanks to this goal more people are go
into be able to return to their Heavenly Father! How amazing
missionary work is, to see people taking these steps in their life!
Later in the week we met with our investigator, Fiorela. I believe I
explained a little but she has been passing through a really hard time
this past year after the passing away of her father and she has been
investigating for 1 year. And all of a sudden she came to church last
week and things have completely changed! Elder Perri was sooo
surprised and pretty much we just are going over all the lessons again
and just need to have the interview and baptize her haha. President
Dayton, the mission president, will be flying out with his wife to see
the baptism!
So this week I've had a super bad ingrown nail! But the bad part about
that is that I really can't rest it because we're always running from
one part of town to another trying to cover all our visits and so it
got worse and worse and worse as the week went on. At the beginning
Elder Perri just told me to cut it out but I didn't listen....until
Sunday morning not being able to put up with the pain soaked it and
cut it out! BUT now it's infected.....so we're going to see what
happens with my toe. Haha, but I've been thinking a lot about it and I
realized that an ingrown toenail is like a sin....
To explain at first it starts off small, the nail begins to ache and
hurt (or in other words we make a small mistake) but put off cutting
it out(REPENTANCE) because it's an uncomfortable process. As we go on
we think that it would be easier to just put it off continue on with
life, but as life goes on  we realize that it just gets more
uncomfortable and even painful step by step, day by day. We
contemplate cutting it out but are scared because of how much it will
hurt. We think maybe if I put a bandaid and ointment on it(good deeds)
everything will be fine and we eventually will be able to avoid the
painful process of cutting out the nail. As time goes by we see that
the nail continues growing, progressively getting worse despite our
efforts of bandaging and putting on ointment it can't replace the act
of cutting out this nail that progressively is wedging itself deeper
and deeper into the flesh. Until we reach to the moment where we can't
move anymore, it is not even bearable to take one more step on the
foot. Family and friends, sin is just like this. As we put off our
repentance, rationalizing our behavior, the sin becomes more and more
serious. It affects us more and more as we put it off. An ingrown nail
hurts, but spiritual wounds pierce much more deep and can only be
cured through our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. I know that
repentance is not comfortable but I promise that the pain that is felt
cutting out the nail, or repenting, will be far less than that of the
consequences of continuing in the sin. I invite you to think about
your lives and examine if you have any ingrown nails in your own
personal life, and if you do, be brave enough to cut it out. As you do
so, you will feel the love of the Savior healing your soul and this
burden be let go. I know that it's not easy, but it's completely
necessary. I know that the Savior can heal our spiritual wounds, that
through him we can be whole again. I know that he loves us so much and
his greatest desire is to live with us again and for us to enjoy all
the blessings he has waiting for us. I love you all family and friends
with all my heart! I hope you can really reflect on this little
message and apply it in your lives. Have a great week :)
Con mucho amor y cariño,
-Elder Miller

August 1, 2016

Hey ya'll! This week has definitely been one for the books to say for
the least....hahaha. It's gotten stinking hot here in Ibiza and we've
been working hard! So this week I've gotten back home the latest I
ever have on the mission, I've eaten raw chicken, gotten dropped of by
a bus in the middle of nowhere, marched past a nude beach on the way
to an investigators house and taught a lesson in the combined 5th
Sunday class!
So to start off the week we had some "Noche de Hogar"s (Family Home
Evening) with our branch president, one time teaching his Sister and
one of our investigators, Manuel, which was a reference from
President. We taught his sister and her family about the voice of the
spirit and how it softly speaks to us. The next day we taught Manuel
the plan of Salvation and he really liked it! Elder Perri has some fun
laminated drawings we use for it and it's pretty great! We invited him
to be baptized and he said no....sadly but he wants to take things
slow so no worries!
Later this week we took a bus out to an eating visit with a member in
one of the farther out cities in the island. Usually we walk and it's
about a 20 minute walk but we decided to take the bus because it was
sooo hot, so we get to the bus stop and wait for about 30 minutes(it
was supposed to come 20 minutes earlier than that) and then the bus
driver takes a 5 minute break in the middle of the bus route with a
bus full of people. Eventually he starts driving again and we get to a
city named "Jesús" and tells us, "This is the end of the route, you
have to get off and turns out they have just canceled that last bus
stop which was the one we needed to get to that members house. So
determined to make it to the visit we start marching in their
direction and call them to see if they could pick us up, eventually we
got to a meeting point and arrived covered in sweat and 1.5 hours late
to the visit.....so we ate quick and the members we super
understanding and sweet.
Later in the week we had interviews with President Dayton on Mallorca,
so we flew out at 7 in the morning and did interviews and it was
really good! President talked to me about a lot of inspired topics
that I really needed personally and got my outlook on the branch.
Later we were planned to head out of Mallorca on the 6:30 flight. We
arrived and saw that our flight has canceled and we would be able to
catch the 8 PM flight, we ran over to McDonalds in the airport and
relaxed for a little as we waited for the news of where our gate would
be. At about 7:30 they announced that the flight was canceled again
and FOR SURE they would get us on the 9PM flight, but sure enough that
one was canceled too! Haha, long story short we left the Mallorca
airport at 10:45 and got to Ibiza at midnight, and IBIZA IS CRAZY AT
NIGHT! But our good luck didn't stop there! We arrived and found out
we had missed the last bus that takes us to the main city where we
live, Ibiza city and began calling members to ask them to pick us up!!
Haha it was crazy, but eventually a member named Wilbur, was up and
came and picked us up. We got back home at about 1 in the morning.
Elder Perri and I were sooo tired!
My first week we found a Brazilian lady named, Marlyne from Santo
Espiritu, Brazil and she lives in one of the party cities named, Sant
Antoni and we had a visit with her this week. So we took a 45 minute
bus ride and realize that she lived near the beach and the we would
have to walk by a road that is right on the beach. And this city is
known for being a crazy party city and have a bunch of naked people,
Elder Perri and I just booked it down this section of the road that
passed by the beach and pretty much were facing the complete opposite
way of the beach and started singing Primary Hymns! It was pretty
funny! After the dreaded walk we made it there and taught her about
the Restoration, she really opened up to us and told us she had seen,
"The Other Side of Heaven" movie and we talked to her a little bit
about that. She really liked the lesson and said she would be baptized
but didn't accept a baptismal date. But no worries, she's really good
too!! Teaching her was interesting because she spoke half Spanish and
half Portuguese. I've realized I actually want to learn Portuguese,
it's a super funny sounding language haha!
Yesterday we went to visit two investigators named Jacinto and Maxima
and they started making us food, and the husband made us chicken
wings, but when we started eating we realized that the chicken was a
little too slimy and chewy, after a couple bites Elder Perri showed me
his chicken and it had blood all over it, because IT WAS RAW!!!! It
was so gross, I would put that chicken on a number one of the grossest
food I've ever eaten on my mission, or a close number two to Cow
Stomach Lining. But we told them it was raw and Jacinto had started
drinking and was totally drunk and was convinced that chicken isn't
supposed to be cooked all the way. He wanted us to eat it, but his
wife Maxima didn't make us and just awkwardly took our plates and
tossed out the chicken. It was pretty awkward and gross, but oh well!
We don't have salmonella yet...!
Other than that the work here is good! There's SOOOO many people that
are so prepared here, I feel like the Lord is just handing us these
people! Maxima, the wife of the man who gave us raw chicken, accepted
a baptismal date for the 20th and a members daughter who has been
investigating for a year came to church for the first time and we
passed by their house later and when we invited her, she said, "We
were just talking about getting baptized before you both came over,
and I'm ready". She's passed through a hard time after the death of
her father last year and has some emotional problems, but she's ready
and were so excited for her!
I love you all sooo much! Hope you have a great week! I know that God
loves us and that he is there. He is waiting to bless us, but
sometimes we get in our own way of receiving those blessings. I know
that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and I'm so grateful for the
Restoration of the Gospel! Have a great week! Love you!!!
-Elder Miller