Hermana Miller

Dear family,

First off, I am SO happy to hear the news about Jenn! That is awesome! I wish I could change my feelings to words. What joy to hear that one of my friends has accepted the restored gospel. I'm so excited that you were able to go to church on Sunday and see her there! It must be cool to visit Orchard Park and see such exciting changes. The gospel is for everyone; share it with everyone! Maybe you don't think the person will be interested, or even that they'll be offended, but it really is for everyone.

Speaking of exciting changes.... We have some more! We had interviews on Thursday in Ponce. During our interviews, President made the decision to take us out of Utuado and bring us to the metro area. We are now working in the Guaynabo ward. It is the area just to the east of Caparra, my first area. That means we have crossed the line and are now working in an area of the old east mission (but it's actually all one mission now...). We are the first west-siders to go to the black hole of mystery that was the east mission. Surprisingly, it actually looks a lot like the west mission. We feel safe here, not in a wild wasteland...as we expected. :)

We are white-washing a ward that has not had proselyting for 7 months. Since the change was so fast, and there weren't any missionaries previously, we don't have an apartment and are living with one of the office missionaries in my old area, right close to the office. It is weird to be back in this area again, but I like to be back in the city...living the rush and being part of the masses. Haha. It's not really like that, but it is a lot busier, and there are a lot more people. It is not quite as quaint as dear little Utuado was.

Our ward is called Guaynabo, but most of our area is actuallyin the San Juan Municipality. It is kind of an up-scale area; there are a lot of really nice nieghborhoods...the old mission home is part of our area. We're still trying to figure out the area, but it is fun. I like this white-washing thing, although, it is kind of sad that I have closed both areas I've been in...what is wrong with me? It was really sad closing Utuado, because he is not sending missionaries back anytime soon, and we were the only missionaries there. At least when we closed Caparra we left another set of missionaries there. I don't want to sound really full of myself or something, but I don't know what that branch is going to do without missionaries. They are really going to stuggle.

We were asked to visit everyone we could before we left, but not to tell them that we were going. That was probably the saddest part, because they didn't even know what was coming; we just didn't show up to church on Sunday. We shared a message about the doctrine of Christ. It is something that our mission president is really stressing lately, but I think I am still trying to understand it. We've taught it in pretty much every lesson we've had for the last 6 days now, so I am coming to understand it better, but still feel like there is something missing. One interesting insight I've gotten is what the doctrine of Christ actually means. At first, I thought it meant the gospel of Jesus Christ...the pathway Christ created for us to return to our Heavenly Father (fe, repentance, Baptism, Reception of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end). I still count that as the doctrine of Christ, but I feel like there is another understanding as well. In 2 Ne. 31, Nefi is talking about the "doctrine of Christ," and the more and more I teach it, I realize it is the doctrine of why we have a Christ. Why it is we need a Christ. It encompasses so many parts of the gospel, like the laws of justice and mercy, the atonement, the priesthood, faith, and most of all, love. I love that the base of the doctrine of Christ is love. It was all done (and still is) out of love.

We are working with a family here in Guaynabo that is really cool. The parents have been together for 14 years, I think and they have 3 daughters. There is true love in their home. They attended the Caparra ward on Sunday, where they learned about eternal families. We went to visit them on Sunday night, and they really want an eternal family. They are willing to do what it takes to have one. They have some problems in their life right now that are real struggles, and I know the gospel could help them. We excited to teach them and help them prepare to make those eternal family covenants. Yay! Our first family. :)

Continue having fun on your trip and say hi to everyone I know... :)

Love,

hermana miller