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
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