Hermana Miller

In the picture, you may notice my hair is down and that I am wearing a cardigan. That is because it is getting cold here! It is like, 80 or 83 every day, and that is really chilly. It has been cold for the past several weeks. I am going to buy a quilt or comforter today or something because at night it gets down to like, 75...and I just can't handle that. I'm not really sure how I'm going to handle the Utah weather in March...especially beginning of March; In like a Lion. I'm scared for that.

This week was cool. On Thursday night we had an activity where the Relief Society thought it would be cool if I taught people how to conduct music. It was harder than I thought to explain. I kind of just wanted to say..."just feel the music...and when you feel a downbeat, bring your arm down." But it wasn't that easy. I don't think it was that successful, but we did learn things and practice a lot, so that was cool.

Every body (well, lots of people) went to the temple this week. They'll be gone for this entire week and should be back on Saturday. There is a stake temple trip and there are about 80 people going from the stake. That is so cool! We saw the people from Puerto Rico who were there last year, while I was in the CCM, and now I realize that they were probably people that I know now. How strange. It is interesting to me that our paths already crossed once without me knowing, and now here we are again and we know each other. Anyway. I am excited to go to the temple when I get home.

Yesterday we went to Centro Medico again and did contacts. We did a ton in the train station before we left, and then we did some in the train and then walked around Centro Medico for a while. We found a member of the church there, and she informed us that it was the area of Hato Ray, the ward that is just to the North of us, which is a shame because there are tons of people there, just sitting...perfect for contacting. But, we won't go back because generally speaking, I like to be obedient (haha...not generally speaking. I do like to be obedient...always?). Anyway. On that little trip we taught 4 lessons. We are really struggling getting in a lot of lessons during the week, so we are just teaching more in the contacts that we do, and counting them as lessons. For example, we share some more of the doctrine and then we ask a few questions that get the person to think about and feel the doctrine, and then we maybe share a scripture, and we try to end with a prayer. But right there in the street? You say. Yes. Right in the street. We gave out a Book of Mormon yesterday and committed someone to pray about the Book of Mormon. They were some cool experiences. And...when they are waiting (for a bus, for their ride to come, for their family member to be released, etc...), it is a great opportunity because they can't say they're in a hurry.

The Elders met a really cool lady a couple weeks ago who was baptized in the DR but who is now inactive, but she has come to church twice and she came to the RS activity (the other women present were the presidency members...). We went to visit her yesterday, and she is so cool! She loves us, first of all...and we didn't have to do anything! And, we talked about the baptism of Jesus Christ, and we talked about the purpose of baptism etc, and then we asked her if Jesus Christ had any sins, and she thought, and she's like, "well, as I understand it...no? I mean, he's supposed to have been perfect, right?...so why did he get baptized?" she asked us.) She loved the lesson, and you could tell she really learned from it. That is not always the case. She is really awesome though, and has a 7 year old daughter who participated in the primary program on Sunday.

Karina was going to be baptized on Tuesday but couldn't be because her husband's mother couldn't make it, and since everyone is at the temple anyway, no one else would be there but us missionaries and the Kay family...so we decided to put it off until next Saturday, 4 Dec. We had a really cool lesson with her on Sunday where we talked about the baptism of Jesus Christ and she asked us some questions about the Holy Ghost and miracles/spiritual gifts. She testified to us of the power of prayer, which was really special. She said she had never shared that testimony with anyone before, but you could just see the fire in her eyes. I was really impressed by the spirit that she invited by sharing her testimony.

Well, I love you and look forward to seeing more pictures. Attached are some pictures of me with my daughter...um...the girl I am training.

Love,

Hermana Miller

Dear family,

I love you so much. Thank your for writing me. I can't wait until next week to see what happens with the baby. Yay! I can hardly contain myself.

This week was fun. We did lots of fun missionary activities. One day we ended up at a large hospital complex called Centro Medico. It has like, 11 hospital right there next to each other. We were planning on doing contacts there, and we thought vaguely that it would be cool to come back sometime and visit the patients there and sing them a song or something. We happened to contact a member from another ward, and mentioned that we were thinking about doing it "sometime," and he said that he has seen other missionaries do it before. So, he said, "follow me," and he introduced us to the guard and got us into the Trauma unit. Unfortunately, we didn't see any blood or anything, but we did visit 3 people. It was kind of weird, but we are going to work on perfecting our approach and maybe do it again sometime. I know that we were led there though, because we had planned on doing contacts that day but without a specific location in mind, we got on the train and we decided to get off at Centro Medico. We walked a random direction (because we don't really know that area very well), and ended up at the hospital (and met a guy on the way and left a Book of Mormon with him! :) ). We happened to find a member whose wife works in Trauma and who knows all the guard people and who got us in, because we just happened to show up right at 6:30, which is when visiting hours start. It is a wonderful feeling when you feel you are being led by the Lord.

On Sunday, we were talking to people again and I went to talk to one man while my companion went somewhere else. It was a long contact with a guy that looked really cool and normal on the outside, but who was really against us on the inside. He insisted on several things that we didn't agree with, including the fact that he had to contend because the bible says to contend for your faith (and it does, but there are a billion others that say that contention is of the prideful and devil, blah blah blah). Anyway. It was kind of an ugly experience. I've had that experience before. Many times before, but why do I share it with you this time? Because there was a different result this time. Not with him (you can't say anything that will touch those kinds of people), but with me. I've always walked away from experiences like that feeling a little disheartened because, well? Somebody is attacking you and your beliefs, and they refuse to stop attacking, because the Bible says they have to. Ok. This time, I'm sure he didn't feel the spirit because he was yelling and stuff, but I could feel the spirit because I stayed calm and asked him questions, and even though he barely allowed me to talk, when I did talk, I just testified. I know that I benefited from the conversation. I know that my testimony grew in that moment. I know that we are children of a Heavenly Father and that we lived with Him before we came here, and we are here to prepare to live with Him again. I know that the Book of Mormon is true because I've read it, and I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. It's that simple. So. It is true that we grow through trials. Although it was an ugly experience, I can look back on that experience and see that it was a actually a really wonderful one.

As far as investigators go, I don't know what we're doing wrong, but we haven't had a new one for weeks now. I guess it could be because every body we find seems to be in a different area, but it is frustrating. We are continuing to look though, as we prepare for the baptism of Karina. She couldn't come to church on Sunday because Diego, her two year old had a fever on Saturday night. They were in the hospital until 4am and so didn't want to come to church on Sunday. We hope they'll make it next week. We're excited for her baptism!

Thank you for your love and support. I love you so much and can't wait to see the pictures...lots of pictures. :)

Love,

Hermana Miller

Dear Family,

This was a crazy week! We ran around a lot and did lots of fun things. On Friday we had a missionary activity which was a movie night/dessert competition. The idea Hermana Summers had was a movie night, because she had done it in another area and it was a big success. The idea I had was to mix with the movie night a dessert competition because then people would want to come. So, we did them both, although I think the dessert competition kind of overshadowed the movie night part. But it was still good. We started The Testaments at 6:35 (the activity started at 6:30) and just let people come in during the movie. By the time the movie ended (almost) every one had arrived. Later, we sang a song and said a prayer and shared a little thought and then invited people to come up and explain their dessert. Next, people came up and ate what they wanted. We (the missionaries) judged the desserts and gave each a title. For example, "most creative," or "most exotic," or "Choco-liscious" (but in Spanish), and awarded them. It was a fun activity.

On Sunday, we ran around like crazy trying to find people to teach. Due to a set of circumstances during the week, we were short a lot of lessons (we try to have 20 a week). So, we ran around and successfully taught 8 lessons in one day. It was kind of exhausting, but it was a good experience, because we could feel the hand of the Lord. We had a set of plans, but ended up changing them a couple times. We ended up going to this one lady's house who is on the brink of inactivity, and it turned out that she had been in a car accident the day before and was really bumped and bruised. So, we were able to help her by sharing something really fast and then informing the Relief Society President. I felt like we were led there.

Yesterday we had a zone conference. Zone conferences used to be every transfer. Now, they are every 3 months. BUT, they also last for 8 hours. I don't know why this change was neccesary, but I know I've mentioned before that we are kind of a prototype mission right now, so the new schedule is based on what the church wants us to try out. It was kind of tiring to be in a meeting all day, but it was a nice meeting. We talked about the prophet Joseph Smith and the importance he has in our lives. We watched the Joseph Smith movie that is shown in downtown SLC and it was really good. I haven't seen that since I was in the CCM, so it was cool to see again. It is a really powerful video. I can't wait to see it again someday. We also met with the new ward mission leader last night and he is really excited to help us in the work here in Guaynabo. I've never had a real ward mission leader before, so I'm kind of excited to see how the work may change with that blessing.

Thanks for your prayers and your other forms of support. I love you. :)

Love,

Hermana Miller

Dear family,

So the craziness is finally settling down. Hermana Beltran came in on Friday afternoon (we found out Friday afternoon and had to run to the airport to get her), and we are learning a lot together. We are going over lesson one principle by principle in companionship study and we are making outlines. She is very ready to learn, and although she feels uncomfortable talking to people and using the phone and teaching, she is taking steps out of her comfort zone and doing all of those things. I am so happy for her. Yesterday we were out doing contacts and the phone rang. I answered it and was talking to the Elder's Quorum president and she was waiting for me to finish. The conversation took a while and after about 8 minutes, she left and went to talk to somebody waiting for a bus nearby. I was so impressed! She is getting more and more comfortable, I just think everything about Puerto Rico is a shock for her. But she is doing awesome.

We really don't have a lot of investigators right now, but we are looking for new ones and have had a couple promising contacts, but we haven't had a lesson with them yet, so we'll let you know about them next week.

Two investigators came to Church on Sunday. Karina is the wife of a less-active, and we have been teaching her since we arrived in July. We have let up a little bit recently because she wasn't progressing, but the new Elder's Quorum President is really helping a lot with them. They have been in church 2 weeks in a row now. It is cool to see her in church finally, with her family. We'll let you know about the baptism. We hope that her husband, Gilberto can prepare himself to be worthy to baptize her himself. :)

The other investigator was Monique. She is the one who went to California for a week to see a healer because she has lower back pain. She is really cool and I like her a lot. She rode the bus to church, which I was so happy about, because she is acting. She says that there were a lot of impediments that were keeping her from coming to church, but she realizes that was what it was; obstacle from the devil, and she overcame them. We've also been teaching her since about July. I am happy she finally came to church, and the members were really friendly and offered her a ride and everything. She says she is going to come back next week because she felt really good.

Other then that, we don't have a lot going on. I was super excited though that there were two investigators in Church.

I love you! Thanks for the letters and packages; they make me feel good and loved. I like reading about your lives.

Love,j