Hermana Miller

Dear family,

How is everything back at home? Things here in Puerto Rico are going great. We had a wonderful zone conference this week where we talked about a change of heart. The president discussed a little bit of the talk "Clean hands and a Pure Heart" by Elder Bednar (Nov. 2007), which I had happened to read the week prior to the conference. I really love zone conferences and learning from the Mission president every transfer. This was his last zone conference. Sad! He and his wife are so amazing; I have learned so much from them both. Sister Martineau is always happy. I don't know how she does it. But she is always happy and always thinking of us missionaries. She is a wonderful example of selfless service and I hope to be like her one day (of course, I want to be like you too, mom:) ). President Martineau is so knowledgeable and has a wonderfully powerful testimony. He has a wonderful way of leading us missionaries without telling us what to do. He just leads with love. Somehow. He definitely gives us guidelines and pointers of what we should do, but we do it because we don't want to disappoint him. He has taught me so much and I will always look up to him and Sister Martineau.

On Thursday after the zone conference, we toced doors for a few hours in the upper part of our area. We found a really cool family. Seriously, so cool. While we were teaching, there were visions of baptisms and missions for their kids dancing in my head. While getting to know them, we found out that the mom is a cousin of one of the members from Caparra. One of the strong members. She's been a member for 20+ years and has been to the temple and everything. She always accompanied us on citas and everything. So, that was factor number one. Factor number two is that the son was really interested. When we mentioned the Book of Mormon, he was like, "Whoa. Can I see that?" and he took it and started looking through it. He understood the message quite clearly. He had great answers to our questions and had some really good, thoughtful questions himself. The family has two older parents and two kids that are 20-somethings. The daughter showed up from work half-way through and sat down and listened to the lesson too. We always invite everyone to listen, but usually people who come in late don't listen. But she came. When we invited them to read in the Book of Mormon, the parents both said they would prefer not to because "all who add or take away from [the bible] will be taken from the book of life." You know the verse...in the bible. Every missionary does too. Anyway. Omar, the 20-something son started defending the Book of Mormon to his parents, "They aren't adding of taking away from the Bible. This is a supplement to the Bible...to be read with the Bible. It was written by other prophets." I could hardly contain myself. I was just so excited. The daughter chimed in too. Sister Reyes and I were sitting next to each other and throwing excited looks back-and-forth. Omar accepted the Book of Mormon and said he was going to read it. I believe him. Then we asked them if we could come back another day to share more of our message with them. That was when everything turned sad. The parents had already decided they didn't want us back. But we were really surprised that Omar didn't want us to come back later. He and his sister both believe in one of the most pervasive lies of Satan, which is "It doesn't matter what church you belong to, just that you believe in Christ." And I thought they understood authority. It was very sad. All my visions came crashing to the ground. But. We have not lost hope. And why? We have an awesome story this week.

A random returned missionary from Guatemala called us this week and asked us about a couple people that he had baptized and how the branch was doing and other such pleasantries from "ex-misioneros." Later, we were looking through the area book and noticed that this missionary had left a Book of Mormon with a couple, Jose and Evelyn in 2005. They were only able to teach lesson one and didn't return after for a third appointment. Jose (also known as "Junior") and Evelyn are recent converts, who were baptized in January. They are one of the strongest couples in the branch. Evelyn has already read the entire triple. They come to church 30 minutes early every week. They are one of the couples that attend English class. They are on fire in the gospel. It is amazing to see. Junior bore his testimony on May fast Sunday and shared the story about when the missionaries first came to his house (the Sisters who taught and baptized them). He was sitting in his front room looking at and holding a copy of the Book of Mormon (that we now know this missionary from Guatemala left for him) and thinking about it. Then, the Sister missionaries called outside their house. He let them in, and now they are baptized and going strong. It just took more than one exposure. Omar, if he really reads the Book of Mormon like he said he would will come to know the truth one day. I love meeting prepared people. Sometimes they don't know they are prepared, (or sometimes they are short just a little), but they will accept it eventually. Isn't it amazing what a small world this is? I just thought that was a really cool story about Jr. and Evelyn and this RM that randomly called us. The Lord works in amazing ways.

Another sad-ish story from this week though. We lost Candida and Miguel as investigators. It is sad. We tried to set a baptisimal date with them 2 weeks ago, and they said no, because they understood the importance of authority, but incorrectly thought that men in each church had this authority. This is good. That is why you try to set baptismal dates with people, because then you find out what they don't understand. We spent our next two visits focusing on authority and how Christ only gives it to one church. They came to understand it. We then (on our third visit after) invited them to be baptized again. They refused again and it was sad because they believe they are too old to change. Candida is a Methodist and Miguel is a Catholic, and that is who they are. They definitely understand the authority though, so it was really sad to see them refuse to accept it. It was also sad to tell them we couldn't come back anymore, because you could tell they really enjoyed our visits. They were great investigators (always kept commitments!) and and it sure was sad to say goodbye. We saw Miguel walking through the Pueblo today and I wanted to say hi, but we didn't because we were in the car. It is sad, but we told them that our purpose here was to find the people who were prepared to make those changes in their lives, that we had really enjoyed helping them learn what they've learned, and that they could call us when they were ready to take the important steps in their lives that we had taught them about.

So. This week was a little hard. On the up side, Omar's dad grows pineapple and gave us some. So. Good. Not even kidding. Natural, fresh pineapple is amazing. Like candy. It is a different species though I think, because it was white instead of yellow and you could eat as much as you wanted without hurting your mouth. And, the core wasn't really hard. He just peeled it and then cut it into four long slices (from top to bottom) and gave it to us like that. We each ate three. That equals a pineapple and a half. It's just because he offered it to us! Not because we are demanding, nor that we eat everything we see. He offered it, so how could we say no? It was delish.

I hope all is going good at home. I've enjoyed hearing about all your summer plans and hope your "trip across the world" is turning out as planned.

Love,
Hermana Miller

That means "in the middle of nowhere." I learned the phrase this week because that is where we are! In the middle of nowhere. I really realized that this week while tocing doors and standing in the middle of three houses completely isolated from all civilization and calling "Buenas Tardes!" and getting no response. We really are rather isolated here, but it is really fun. It is just a completely new experience.

We have lots of exciting happenings this week that I'd like to share with you. Number one is? We had English class! It was really fun. I was a little nervous, but it turned out to be cool. It is the first time we've had it since I came here because it has rained every Saturday since I came, and Puerto Ricans just don't leave their house when it is raining. We talked about families and learned two new words: siblings and parents. We asked the people who came to tell us about their families. Everyone said they had 5 brothers (or however many) and then said that two were men and 3 were women (or however many…you know). That is because in Spanish “hermanos” means both brothers and siblings. So, I taught them the words siblings and they were just blown away by the concept. Also, one of the participants said she had two fathers ( it was my companion). Since I knew she didn’t have two fathers, I cleared that up by telling them that although “Padres” in Spanish means father and mother (in plural and in context), it means two men in English. They were surprised but grateful. It is fun. We also talked about personal pronouns. The participants are two couples from the church (one couple is the recent convert couple who are really cool) and our investigator, Carlos. I’m excited for future English classes.

We also had transfer meeting this week in Toa Baja. I got to talk to Sister Reid and Sister Lopez (ex-companions) and they confirm that Carolina was baptized on April 10, as planned. It was so good to hear! I am really happy for her. Also, her friend who was giving her anti-literature is apparently taking the lessons right now. That is cool! We were hoping for her, because in our last lesson with Carolina, Jennifer (the anti- friend) was there and listened. She had been present in two lessons previously, but had never sat down and listened (and when we asked Carolina if she was interested in listening to the gospel, she would say “Oh no; she hates you.” ), so when she listened to our lesson, we found it interesting and hoped that her heart was softening. I guess now she is following the example of her friend.

Also, we had an earthquake on Saturday night. Well, I don’t know if it can be called an earthquake, but it was a 5.8 up in the northern corner of the island, in the area between Aguada and Moca. It woke us up at 1:17 on Sunday morning with a powerful shaking and a noise like “Brrrrrrr” Or, as companion says “Trrrrr.” You get the idea. I can’t really write down the noise, but it was a strong noise and strong shaking too. I’d never felt it before! It is weird to feel something that has always been so solid move…especially when you’re on a bed with wheels. I was just going to go back to sleep, but I guess I sat up and said “(sharp intake of breath like Arthur does at times) What was that?!” and so, my companion turned on the light and said it was a “tremble.” In talking with others, we found out that everyone else in town got out of bed and went to the streets…but we just went back to sleep. It was a cool experience, but I guess we were really tired.

Finally, I hit a bird while driving this week. It was rather exciting, seeing as it’s kind of a life-long dream of mine. It kind of just flew into the windshield, and seeing as we were driving at a good 30 35 mph, I looked in the rearview mirror and saw it fall to the ground behind us. The windshield is okay though, thank goodness. I would feel bad calling the guy in charge of the cars twice in one transfer to ask for a repair.

I found a new favorite scripture this week. It is in 3 Nephi 19: 25, 26. It talks about prayer. I love the imagery in 25, and then the response of the people in 26. I can just picture Christ smiling as we pray. I know that prayer is a powerful tool that we’ve been given and a true gift. Have you ever stepped back and thought about what prayer is? Prayer is the capacity to communicate directly with the most powerful being in the universe. There are some humans we’re not even allowed to communicate with, but we have been given the opportunity to converse with our Heavenly Father at any time and in any place we desire. He will always listen to us and will always respond. As verse 25 says, we will always be blessed for pray. And so, “Pray on...” and cease not to pray.

I love you!

Hermana Miller

Dear Family,

It was so good to talk to you this week! Thanks so much for calling me! It was a great time to talk because it was raining outside here, so instead of going out and working in the rain, I got to stay inside and talk to you. :) It was happy.

I don’t have much to report since Sunday. It continued to rain on Monday. Apparently May is the rain-iest month here in PR. It rains really hard when it rains and all the roads change into rivers. It’s cool.

Today was P-day and we are in Arecibo again because we had to come and get our car repaired…there was an unfortunate incident with a telephone pole this week and we needed to take care of that. What happened is this…some of the roads here are really narrow, so we were on a narrow road and we met another car. This always happens. You just have to pull off to the side a little and somehow make two cars fit on a one lane road. It’s totally possible and we do it all the time. This time however, we were right next to a pole…apparently. We didn’t know. Even my companion says it jumped out of nowhere. We thought we were clear, but apparently not and the right mirror was removed. We (using our sister missionary ingenuity) bandaged it up with tape and a handkerchief. We got it fixed today, and it is all better. In the meantime, Sister Reyes sat in the back seat because the door was helping to secure the mirror in place…so we couldn’t open it. I felt so lonely and dangerous up in the front all alone! But she is back in the front next to me now, and I feel good again.

We also went to a beach in Arecibo that was right next to the Arecibo Lighthouse. It was such a beautiful beach! We took a few pictures, and I will attach them for your viewing pleasure.

We are having a birthday party for one of the Elders in our district today and then we are staying the night in Lares because we have a transfer meeting tomorrow morning. I guess there aren’t a lot of changes this transfer. This is our President’s last transfer, which is weird. I’m excited to see how things will be different with a new president, but at the same time, I’m definitely going to miss President and Sister Martineau; they are really cool and teach us so much. They are supportive like you wouldn’t believe and their testimonies are fuerte. I sure do love them and it’ll be hard to see them go.

Thanks again for calling me and I’ll give you more updates next week…I don’t have much more to add to what we discussed two days ago. :)

Love,
Hermana Miller


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1. This is the dog I told you about that had his ears doced so short that he didn't have ears at all. It was so sad! He was a really loving dog though. I liked him.

2. we drive this road once a week and I love this picture because the sky/mountains are in layers of color. Beautiful, no?

3. We found a sweet fairy tale tree this week. I was reminded of the trees that walk in the Lord of the Rings.

4. this is our broken and bandaged car. He's all better now, though.

5. the beach we went to today. It was so beautiful!

6. My companion and I at the beach.

Beaches are a lot more beautiful than I ever thought before coming to PR. I love them now. :)

I love you family! Have a nice day!

xoxo
j

Hello, Family.

This week was a rainy week; it rained for a couple of days, and there were some real torrential downpours too. Several streets turned into rivers, and I guess the actual river overflowed. Wow! It was a lot of rain. One day we went out to toc doors because we really needed to. It was cloudy and threatening outside, and it was even dropping a sprinkle here and there, but we decided to risk it to go find the people who were prepared. We made it to the first house when it started to rain harder. There were only 3 houses on the street, so we decided to go back to a street we hadn't finished earlier this week. We went and when we got out of the car it was raining a little harder, but there were only 2 houses left to do, so we were determined to do them both. We had to climb up two hills to get to the second house, and by that time it was just pouring. Literally. It was kind of like fording a river, walking up the drive to the second house; you could just feel the water streaming through your shoes every time you put your foot down. It got to a point where it didn't matter anymore though because we were just so wet, so it was fun. When we knocked on the second house, the woman we talked to was clearly astonished we were outside and even offered to let us come in and share something just to get out of the rain. She wasn't really interested though, so we went home and changed. It was crazy! My shoes really stink now because they were really wet. I dried them in the sun yesterday though, so they're dry and usable again, I just fear the stench may scare people. I'm looking into remedies for that.

In other news, we have a new investigator! Betsy. We contacted her on the street a week and a half ago or so and she said we could come to her house. Well, the addresses here are not very useful because the houses are not numbered in order (and that is assuming the house has a number). Luckily though, every one knows everyone, so after a while of looking for her last week, we finally found her house (with the help of a few neighbors) and shared the first lesson. She has two young kids (and one of them is named Fabian...cool.) and she kind of reminds me of Carolina, which is cool. While looking for her house the first time, we contacted someone who lives close to her. He said he was interested and we went over to his house for an appointment on Saturday morning. After we talked to him on Saturday morning, we randomly stopped by Betsy's house and she had already read, and she remembered what she read! It was good. We had a nice lesson that talked about the importance of baptism, and she said she would like it if we continued to visit her. So, she is our new investigator.

Other investigators are Candida and Miguel. They are an old couple who are really sweet and receptive to us. They are not the typical old people who like to hear about Jesus but don't do anything about it; they actually read and understand and talk about the reading between themselves before we come back. Lots of old people invite you to come in and share with them, but it's because you talk about Jesus and things, not because they're willing to change. But Candida and Miguel are different. The missionaries found them before I came into the area. We took a member to a lesson this week, and it turned out that Miguel knew her, which was cool. I think that will really help them a lot as they continue studying the gospel. It is so nice to have random "coincidences" like that. :)

Speaking of "random" happenings, we had a contact that we tried to find last Saturday (like I said, the addresses are very vague...you basically have what street they live on, but the street goes all the way up the mountain and the house aren't usually numbered). We didn't find him and he hadn't given us a phone number, so we gave up. Fast forward to Saturday night, we went over to that same area, but a lot higher up the mountain, and who's door did we knock? Angel Gabriel (that is the name of the guy...haha. I think that's kind of funny). He let us in and we taught a first lesson to him and his wife and his wife's friend. It was cool to be led by the spirit to someone who we previously couldn't find.

That is about all the exciting things that happened this week. I am attaching a few pictures that you might enjoy. Hope everything is well at home. I love you.

Love,
Hermana Miller