Dear family,
I'm sorry I couldn't write last week; it was a holiday here! I'm still not sure who we were celebrating...someone important in Puerto Rican history, so that meant the library was closed. Luckily, we had a zone conference yesterday in place of Preperation Day. If P-day had been yesterday, you would have been two weeks without an e-mail from me, and wouldn't that be sad? I have a lot of things to tell you all though, because of the two week break from e-mail.
First of all the funny things (there are always so many when you are knocking doors as much as we do). As sub-80 degree temperatures continued this week, the people of Bayamón suffered. While knocking doors we encountered people in scarves, sweatshirts, and bundled up in blankets. One of our investigators couldn't attend us because when we came by, she was just too cold to unwrap herself from her coat and blanket to attend us. Haha. It kind of cracked me up. My companion was also suffering though; she wore a sweater all day one day, and was always cold. In everyone's defense, it was a lot colder than it usually is, but the lowest temperature that I witnessed was 73, so there really is not a lot to complain about.
The reason it was so cold is that it rained for about a week. And it was crazy rain like I told you about last time it rained; really heavy downpouring rain, that is. Our garage is not level with our house. Somehow (we're still not sure how) the rain enters into the garage when it rains a lot (like it did this week) and then, if it rains a ton (like it did this week) it starts to enter the house. So, one day this week we woke up and the kitchen had started to flood! It was quite exciting of an adventure, because since the ground is not level, when we swept the water out, it just kind of came back in. Luckily, the lady who owns and rents the apartment is always there and ready to help and she lent us a big scuigi on a stick, like they have at the pools. This helped a lot, but we had to continually use it every 30 minutes or so. Haha. It was crazy, but now our house is dry and nothing important got wet, just the floor, which is all tile anyway.
One of the things I really wanted to tell you about last week is about how new missionaries arrived last Tuesday (January 5). This was really exciting because 1. I am not one of the newest missionaries in the mission anymore!, and 2. Since we are in an area right on the edge of the mission and the mission home is just over the mission border in the east mission, we got to go and pick up one of the new sisters and take her out with us for a few hours. It was so fun! Her name is Sister Summers and she was really sweet. We were really worried because we didn't have any difinite appointments, because even though you have appointments, they fall through all the time. So, we called one of our investigators and asked him if he was going to for sure, for sure be there when we came, and he said "Yes, I'll be there...I promise I'll be there...and if I'm not, my brother will be. But, I'll be there, I swear." Um. He wasn't there. But, as he said, his brother was there, so instead we decided to teach his brother, Yan Paul (pronounced like John Paul). Halfway through teaching Yan Paul (well, more at the end, because we were talking about the Book of Mormon), another brother appeared, whose name is Angel (this is a very popular name in the Latin world). Angel was very interested in what we were saying, and so we started to answer his questions and committed him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. It was very exciting because He had a lot of questions; Good, good, questions that showed he was interested, and then when he understood something, he would kind of re-state it, and this is awesome because we could understand his progress well. Cristofer did eventually arrive (the original brother) but didn't seem to have any interest.
The exciting update on this story is that we returned to teach Angel this week with a member, and he was still really interested with a lot of questions and he seemed to understand what we were teaching him. The cool this about Angel is that he is really transparent, in a good way. Meaning that if he doesn't understand something, we know. If he has a doubt, he says it, which makes teaching him a lot more straight forward. He is frank and straight-up with us, which I wish all investigators were like that, because it makes it so much easier to adapt the lesson to their needs in the moment. We are going to go back and visit him this week (hopefully) and see how he is doing. I'm excited.
Other investigator stories. We met a lady name Yonoris (pronounced like Jo-NO-rees) who has a young baby. We were knocking doors and she said she was really busy with the baby. She had to bather her and feed her. We get this all the time "I'm too busy - well, you know. We should always make time for 'the word,' but right now I just don't have the time." But, the exciting thing about Yonoris is just as she was saying she was really busy, she said "But, if you could come back in a hour or two, I can attend to you." What?! It was realy kind of exciting. So, we finished knocking her street, went to pick up a member and had a lesson with her. I thought the lesson was really good, and I'm excited to see how she progresses. I'm always excited to teach people who have children, because when the accept the gospel, the gospel can have a greater effect over-all for a longer period of time, if they teach their children correctly.
The last exciting investigator story is that we had a district meeting last Tuesday and we had planned to eat lunch after wards, but for some reason neither of us felt like eating (which is weird...haha). So instead, we went to knock doors for an hour nearby to an appointment we had. We parked on the street and then went to the head of the street to start. We knocked about five houses with no interest, and then the 6th house a 13 year-old girl, Genesis let us in. She was really interested in our message and she understood it. She understood the importance of authority and all that, and it was really fun to teach her. When we finished, we left the house and had to get to our next appointment quickly, and our car was parked right outside her home, as though we had come to that street to teach her. It was exciting. We went back and talked to her mom on Sunday and she said she is okay with us coming by and teaching her and her daughter, so we're excited to have another potential-family. Yay!
So, we have done a lot of knocking, but there is an abnormally high number of funny stories lately. One of my favorites is that we knocked a house from which I highly suspected Barbie herself might emerge. It was Barbie pink and white and big. Beautiful...in it's own way. We plan on returning and taking a picture someday. Another story is that we met a white dog with pink toe-nails. I am sad to say that it was not outside the Barbie house, because that would just be too perfect, but all the same it was hilarious/a little sad.
Someone yelled at us from inside their house this week "¡No hay nadie! ¡Se mudaron!" Which means, "There's noone here; they moved! Haha. It was one of those moments where you just have to laugh. We were like "What?!?" Haha.
Ooo. Last funny story. This is one of my favorites; probably one of the funniest things that has happened while I've been here. We were menos-activo hunting the other day, which is when you search for people that are on the list, but who you have never met. We met a lot of menos-activos this week that were no longer interested in the church, which is always sad, but at least they said it to our faces that they didn't want anything to do with it. Another lady found another way of "indirectly" letting us know. We like to park a few houses away so we can sneak up on them and they can't prepare to hide while we're getting out of the car. We walked up to Ana's house and we actually saw her from a distance in the garage, typing something. We yelled "¡Buenas Noches!," as is our custom. I knew she was there, so I looked down at my planner for 10 seconds to find her last name. My companion says "What?!" (Which is always funny, since she doesn't speak English but sometimes says what?! when things are especially shocking/puzzling). I look up and see that Ana has somehow managed to escape, but we can't figure out how, because we heard nothing. No doors are open, nothering. There is no escape route. We were standing behind the car and I go over to the other side to peek in "Where is she? Is she hiding under the table?" I can't believe my eyes when I see it, but I can see her lying prostrate on the ground under the table, with her hands at her side. I don't know why she doesn't want the church anymore, but there has got to be a better way to escape us than this. You can yell at us; we get it all the time, but I guess she just wanted to avoid conflict. I don't know. It just cracked us up. I will always remember that story.
Well, time is up and I have to go. As I said, yesterday was a zone conference, so I got my mail, and wow! I got a ton! Thanks so much for your love and support; all the short notes really boost me up a ton! I love you all, keep up doing all the great things you are doing!
Love,
Hermana Miller
I'm sorry I couldn't write last week; it was a holiday here! I'm still not sure who we were celebrating...someone important in Puerto Rican history, so that meant the library was closed. Luckily, we had a zone conference yesterday in place of Preperation Day. If P-day had been yesterday, you would have been two weeks without an e-mail from me, and wouldn't that be sad? I have a lot of things to tell you all though, because of the two week break from e-mail.
First of all the funny things (there are always so many when you are knocking doors as much as we do). As sub-80 degree temperatures continued this week, the people of Bayamón suffered. While knocking doors we encountered people in scarves, sweatshirts, and bundled up in blankets. One of our investigators couldn't attend us because when we came by, she was just too cold to unwrap herself from her coat and blanket to attend us. Haha. It kind of cracked me up. My companion was also suffering though; she wore a sweater all day one day, and was always cold. In everyone's defense, it was a lot colder than it usually is, but the lowest temperature that I witnessed was 73, so there really is not a lot to complain about.
The reason it was so cold is that it rained for about a week. And it was crazy rain like I told you about last time it rained; really heavy downpouring rain, that is. Our garage is not level with our house. Somehow (we're still not sure how) the rain enters into the garage when it rains a lot (like it did this week) and then, if it rains a ton (like it did this week) it starts to enter the house. So, one day this week we woke up and the kitchen had started to flood! It was quite exciting of an adventure, because since the ground is not level, when we swept the water out, it just kind of came back in. Luckily, the lady who owns and rents the apartment is always there and ready to help and she lent us a big scuigi on a stick, like they have at the pools. This helped a lot, but we had to continually use it every 30 minutes or so. Haha. It was crazy, but now our house is dry and nothing important got wet, just the floor, which is all tile anyway.
One of the things I really wanted to tell you about last week is about how new missionaries arrived last Tuesday (January 5). This was really exciting because 1. I am not one of the newest missionaries in the mission anymore!, and 2. Since we are in an area right on the edge of the mission and the mission home is just over the mission border in the east mission, we got to go and pick up one of the new sisters and take her out with us for a few hours. It was so fun! Her name is Sister Summers and she was really sweet. We were really worried because we didn't have any difinite appointments, because even though you have appointments, they fall through all the time. So, we called one of our investigators and asked him if he was going to for sure, for sure be there when we came, and he said "Yes, I'll be there...I promise I'll be there...and if I'm not, my brother will be. But, I'll be there, I swear." Um. He wasn't there. But, as he said, his brother was there, so instead we decided to teach his brother, Yan Paul (pronounced like John Paul). Halfway through teaching Yan Paul (well, more at the end, because we were talking about the Book of Mormon), another brother appeared, whose name is Angel (this is a very popular name in the Latin world). Angel was very interested in what we were saying, and so we started to answer his questions and committed him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. It was very exciting because He had a lot of questions; Good, good, questions that showed he was interested, and then when he understood something, he would kind of re-state it, and this is awesome because we could understand his progress well. Cristofer did eventually arrive (the original brother) but didn't seem to have any interest.
The exciting update on this story is that we returned to teach Angel this week with a member, and he was still really interested with a lot of questions and he seemed to understand what we were teaching him. The cool this about Angel is that he is really transparent, in a good way. Meaning that if he doesn't understand something, we know. If he has a doubt, he says it, which makes teaching him a lot more straight forward. He is frank and straight-up with us, which I wish all investigators were like that, because it makes it so much easier to adapt the lesson to their needs in the moment. We are going to go back and visit him this week (hopefully) and see how he is doing. I'm excited.
Other investigator stories. We met a lady name Yonoris (pronounced like Jo-NO-rees) who has a young baby. We were knocking doors and she said she was really busy with the baby. She had to bather her and feed her. We get this all the time "I'm too busy - well, you know. We should always make time for 'the word,' but right now I just don't have the time." But, the exciting thing about Yonoris is just as she was saying she was really busy, she said "But, if you could come back in a hour or two, I can attend to you." What?! It was realy kind of exciting. So, we finished knocking her street, went to pick up a member and had a lesson with her. I thought the lesson was really good, and I'm excited to see how she progresses. I'm always excited to teach people who have children, because when the accept the gospel, the gospel can have a greater effect over-all for a longer period of time, if they teach their children correctly.
The last exciting investigator story is that we had a district meeting last Tuesday and we had planned to eat lunch after wards, but for some reason neither of us felt like eating (which is weird...haha). So instead, we went to knock doors for an hour nearby to an appointment we had. We parked on the street and then went to the head of the street to start. We knocked about five houses with no interest, and then the 6th house a 13 year-old girl, Genesis let us in. She was really interested in our message and she understood it. She understood the importance of authority and all that, and it was really fun to teach her. When we finished, we left the house and had to get to our next appointment quickly, and our car was parked right outside her home, as though we had come to that street to teach her. It was exciting. We went back and talked to her mom on Sunday and she said she is okay with us coming by and teaching her and her daughter, so we're excited to have another potential-family. Yay!
So, we have done a lot of knocking, but there is an abnormally high number of funny stories lately. One of my favorites is that we knocked a house from which I highly suspected Barbie herself might emerge. It was Barbie pink and white and big. Beautiful...in it's own way. We plan on returning and taking a picture someday. Another story is that we met a white dog with pink toe-nails. I am sad to say that it was not outside the Barbie house, because that would just be too perfect, but all the same it was hilarious/a little sad.
Someone yelled at us from inside their house this week "¡No hay nadie! ¡Se mudaron!" Which means, "There's noone here; they moved! Haha. It was one of those moments where you just have to laugh. We were like "What?!?" Haha.
Ooo. Last funny story. This is one of my favorites; probably one of the funniest things that has happened while I've been here. We were menos-activo hunting the other day, which is when you search for people that are on the list, but who you have never met. We met a lot of menos-activos this week that were no longer interested in the church, which is always sad, but at least they said it to our faces that they didn't want anything to do with it. Another lady found another way of "indirectly" letting us know. We like to park a few houses away so we can sneak up on them and they can't prepare to hide while we're getting out of the car. We walked up to Ana's house and we actually saw her from a distance in the garage, typing something. We yelled "¡Buenas Noches!," as is our custom. I knew she was there, so I looked down at my planner for 10 seconds to find her last name. My companion says "What?!" (Which is always funny, since she doesn't speak English but sometimes says what?! when things are especially shocking/puzzling). I look up and see that Ana has somehow managed to escape, but we can't figure out how, because we heard nothing. No doors are open, nothering. There is no escape route. We were standing behind the car and I go over to the other side to peek in "Where is she? Is she hiding under the table?" I can't believe my eyes when I see it, but I can see her lying prostrate on the ground under the table, with her hands at her side. I don't know why she doesn't want the church anymore, but there has got to be a better way to escape us than this. You can yell at us; we get it all the time, but I guess she just wanted to avoid conflict. I don't know. It just cracked us up. I will always remember that story.
Well, time is up and I have to go. As I said, yesterday was a zone conference, so I got my mail, and wow! I got a ton! Thanks so much for your love and support; all the short notes really boost me up a ton! I love you all, keep up doing all the great things you are doing!
Love,
Hermana Miller
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