Hermana Miller

Dear Family,

Once again, this has been a fairly uneventful week. I doubt Puerto Rico has gotten less exciting, I think I have just become less excitable. I really feel like there are no surprises any more, and I just work.

I should note however, the interesting man we met outside the train station yesterday. His name was Wilfredo. Once we got talking, we found out he had visited the church before and had possibly been baptized. As we continued talking however, we came to find out why he no longer attends church. When asked whether he still reads in the Book of Mormon or not, he promptly replied that he "delivered" that to one of the ex-bishops. "Why is that?" I replied, and received an answer that was fairly entertaining. The ex-bishop was a member of the FBI, and Wilfredo said that he was being helped by him (it seems the FBI stole his identity and gave it to a criminal or something). He says that he doesn't read the Bible or the Book of Mormon anymore because that is how the CIA and FBI can track us, and they do it using radio waves. I'm not really sure what we said, but we were able to escape without any problem. Sometimes I wonder if people actually believe the things they tell us, or if they just do it for kicks and giggles, to see how we respond...or to give us a good story. Although he seemed fairly normal, I'm pretty sure he genuinely believed what he was saying.

In other news, we are still teaching people.... Every day. We've been able to talk to lots and share the gospel with them. Unfortunately, Saima seems to be avoiding us (a great disappointment since she was genuinely cool), and Wanda called us today to tell us she had made a decision (about whether to...I don't know, listen to us? Come to church? Be baptized?), and that decision is no. So, we don't get to visit her anymore. I don't think I've ever had someone call me to break up with us. It is a Puerto-Rican first, and we were a little surprised. Usually people just avoid us (see above, Saima). So, basically, we are back to looking for new people to teach, and have even resorted to searching for more less actives to teach. There seem to be a lot, so that is a fairly bottom-less pit...I mean pool...teaching pool.

It has been very sunny all week, which is good for my tan. haha. Like I tan. I don't seem to be burning any more though, even though I don't apply sunscreen any longer (yuck, I'm sick of the stuff). I may come back with skin cancer, but I won't smell like a trip to the beach anymore. In fact, I smell like vanilla now because a couple weeks ago I bought some more perfume (I left mine at home with the fear that the bugs would attack me, but as it turns out, they attacked me without the perfume anyway, so I thought I would start using it again, and smell pretty.). It is the same scent I used before I left, so it reminds me of Indiana when I put it on, which is interesting. Isn't it interesting how smells and sounds/music can take you back in time? I love that.

I know this letter has been rather boring and non-missionary-ish, I'm just a little disappointed in our recent set-backs and would rather focus on my new perfume and our funny contacts.

Okay, here is a good story...I guess. A classic "we were led by the Lord" story. We went to look for a less active one day who hardly ever opens her door, and who is hardly never home, but we were completely out of back-up plans (we make about 5 back-up back-up plans for the last hour of the day, because it always seems no one is available), so we went looking for her. In the elevator up to her house, we met a lady who has a Book of Mormon in her house and wants to start learning more about it again. It was exciting because we could set a cita and we're going to teach her more about the Book of Mormon. yay! That was a fun time.

We also found a less active in her home who we haven't been able to teach for a long time. In fact, Hermana Comoletti never even met her, so that was a true miracle too. Additionally, two less actives made it to church on Sunday, even though one, in response to our lesson about keeping the Sabbath Day holy recently told us that "It is important to keep the commandments and all, but you have to keep a balance, you know?" I don't know. It seems to me that you keep the commandments or you don't, but perhaps that is why she is less active...she doesn't understand that. We shared the story of Naaman with her yesterday, and talked about how all commandments are important, and how we have to keep them 100%...if Naaman hadn't washed himself a full 7 times in the water, he would not have been cleansed. It was a good lesson, although I don't think she fully understood (she chooses to misunderstand). But, we were really happy that two of them could make it to church on Sunday. Yay!

Thanks for the letters and support. I love you all!

Love,j

Hermana Miller.

It is the first day of just another transfer in the life of Hermana Miller. But, it also happens to be the first day of the last transfer in the life of Hermana Miller. How strange it feels. I never thought this time would come, but here I am at the beginning of the end.

Yet again, my companion has been changed on me. Hermana Comoletti and I just had too much fun together, so they took her away and I am working with...Hermana Summers! Again! It was very surprising and exciting. We worked together two transfers ago for a couple weeks, and it was a good experience. So, it will be cool to have 6 more weeks with her. (By-the-way...I don't want you to read too much into "[We] just had too much fun together." There is no rule-breaking involved here.... It just always seems that the people I like are taken away so fast. Sad.).

It has been a really great transfer with her. I think I grew the most in this last transfer, and learned a lot and strengthed a lot. It was a really wonderful experience. She taught me a lot, and we got a lot of good work done. We have two investigators now!

Wanda: She couldn't come to church because we had a Regional/Stake Conference thing (the satellite stake conference ones), and she was sick, but she is still letting us come over and we are still working with her. She seems very sincere and real. She is honestly looking for an answer and we are just trying to help her recognize it.

Saima: She is a new-ish one who is pretty cool. We were just neighborhood walking the other week and ran into her and we taught a first lesson. She wasn't there for the return cita, but we went back another day and she was there. She let us in and we shared something. She is studying to be baptized in another church, but has read a little in the Book of Mormon and says she likes it because she can understand it and becaue it seems to teach the same sort of concepts/doctrine that the Bible teaches. She has two little kids who are really cute, one in 2nd grade and one in Kindergarten.

Two less actives came to the Stake conference, which was very exciting for us. Having Less actives come to church is just as exciting as having investigators in church, because you work just as hard with them, and it is good to see them where they belong, doing what they need to be doing.

I am excited to keep working here in Guaynabo and to work with Hermana Summers again too. I love you all. Thanks for your support!

Love,

Hermana Miller

0296: This is Sweetie, our dog. We were afraid she was going to die, so we took some pictures. She is still alive though, but I think she'll die soon enough. She is so cute (personality, not body...). She loves us.

0305: Hermana Comoletti and I have the same shoes! It was funny when we discovered that. Which ones do you think are mine?

0324: One of Hermana Comoletti's friends is serving in the NYC mission and sent her this shirt. So, we took a picture. She is standing on a chair next to me.

0339: This is one of our favorite look-out places. Do you see the ocean in the background? I know I send you one of these with every companion I have...but it is a cool spot!

Dear Family,

There is not a lot of new and exciting things going on; we are just kind of for more people to teach and sharing the gospel with everyone! It is fun.

We are still working with Wanda, a really great investigator who has a son. She is really reading and praying and has a lot of hard questions. I think she really wants to know, but at the same time, she is not looking to feel the spirit, she is looking to understand logically. It is hard because she has a Pentecostal background and sees that as truth, because that is what she knows. The wonderful thing is that she knows how to pray, and we are really happy about that. She says she really is praying to see if this is what the Lord wants for her life. We really want her to come to church, but two things have come up these past two Sundays, so she hasn't been able to. I know that coming to church can really her answer, so we are really going to work on that this week, along with how the feel and recognize the spirit. I'm excited to work with her.

After all the less-active confessions these last couple weeks, we have now had a lot of them avoiding us, which is fairly frustrating, but we are still looking for them to try to work with them.

We are also studying the character of God and the conversion process, in preparation for a zone conference at the beginning of February. I am learning a ton; I just finished reading the Book of Mormon again, and so I am just studying Nephi's conversion story right now, and it is really very interesting. It is interesting to see how his conversion and the character of God are strongly related. I love the scriptures!

Thanks for your love and support.

Sincerely,
Hermana Miller

Today is emergency p-day. Not because there is an emergency, just because they want to do interviews tomorrow, so we are p-daying it today. Surprise!

This week has been good. We made it to 2011! I can't believe it is already January. We tried to go and buy Chinese food on New Year's Eve, but everything was closed, so we ate Chinese food yesterday in commemoration of the new year. It was fun.

We were able to visit Wanda again this week a couple times and she is doing really well. She read in the Book of Mormon and has good questions. Her number one doubt is whether or not Joseph Smith could have seen God the Father. We told her to pray about it and also to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true. She is really really sweet and her son is really awesome; we got to meet him this week. He is not your average kid. He really likes church things and is really calm and super sweet. We are really excited for her and how she is progressing. She was going to come to church, she said, but it was raining a lot on Sunday, so she didn't come. I really think she'll come to church next week.

On SUnday we went walking for a while to be able to talk to people and we decided to start heading home because it was starting to get dark. On the way there, we ran into the Elders who were with some members from another ward on an exchange. It was one of our Elders with another guy and another girl. The girl is really cool; she just got baptized last March and always goes out with the missionaries and is just very active. Apparently they were calling all the missionaries in the Metro area and nobody was answering and then when they called the Elders they were like, "Is this a joke?" because it was 3 young adults wanting to go on splits with the missionaries. It was cool that we ran into them though because then the girl came with us and we had two really cool visits with her.

First we went to Karina's house and they clicked really fast, because we told Karina that Victoria was a recent convert too and that was really a bonding point for her. Victoria testified of the blessing of the Holy Ghost and of the Sacrament and then Karina was asking about the best way to share the gospel with her family. It was a really cool experience, because it took us months for Karina to feel that comfortable with us, but with this new member, it was instantaneous.

Next we went to Karem's house. Karem is the daughter of the second Counselor in the Bishopric and doesn't really like us and never lets us in without an appointment, but is never there for appointments. We haven't even tried to contact her in a couple months (I don't think Hermana Beltran ever met her), but when we knocked on her door and she saw us, she let us right in. We hadn't planned anything, because we were planning on just saying hi, so we were really surprised when we just got right in, but we had a really good lesson about "The three Rs of Choice" by President Monson and Victoria shared a wonderful testimony again. I think she is a better missionary than we are.

Later on, the Elders called us and told us about their experiences and both of them had really good experiences too. I know that coincidences don't happen but that Heavenly Father arranges everything for us so that as tools in His hands we can bless His children in our areas. It was interesting to see that all three groups had great experiences. I love it when things like that happen that just help us to see the hand of God in His work.

I love you. I hope you have a great week.

Love,

Hermana Miller

0277: These are the missionaries in our ward. We went over to the Kay's house to eat on Sunday and then we sang some hymns, and this is Elder Wouden's last picture. He is the one next to me. Guess what? He is from South Jordan, UT! He also has a 16 year old sister in Bingham, so maybe she and Tyler know each other. He is going home this Saturday. It is always really weird to see missionaries leave. He and I have been in the same ward since August, so now I am teh only remaining one of the original four...those of us who opened the ward again to missionary work. How strange. Also...my companion is not that tall. She is standing on the couch behind me. Yeah. She is that short.

0273: This is us with the Kays. They have two little girls. Sylvia is the big on and Vivian is the little one. They are a really nice family. (Ben Kay is from Buffalo Stake)

0269: This is another orchid that came out today. I know flower pictures aren't really that exciting, I just think the environment we live in is quite exotic and different.