Hermana Miller

We had another exchange this week! It was fun. It was Friday and Saturday. We changed on Friday morning and then switched back on Saturday night. It was cool. I stayed in our area with Hermana Henk, and Sister Reyes went to San Sebastian with Hermana Ibanez. They are both from Guatemala, so they had a grand old time. Hermana Ibanez is going home at the end of this transfer (the same time Alyse is coming home...crazy that she's already done!) and Hermana Henk is going home the next transfer, in August. It was cool to work with someone new and especially since it is someone with so much more experience than me. I learned about patience from Hermana Henk. It was also refreshing to work with a new companion, because although I like Hermana Reyes, after working with the same companion for a while you kind of start to fall into a routine, which makes missionary work kind of boring after a while, and not as effective as well. So, it was good to work with Hermana Henk because she gave missionary work a fresh new look. The work part of it ended kind of early though because of a slight car inconvenience. We were going to English class and stopped at home to get some chalk and as we got out of the car, we heard "sssss". The right front tire was flat! Actually, it was just losing air. It wasn't flat yet. But, it was eventually. So, we took the car into the driveway and decided to change the tire. We called the missionary (a senior couple) who is in charge of the cars and told him about it and said we could go and get it fixed. We told him we were going to put the spare on, and he just kind of laughed at us and said good luck. We got the jack out of the back and were just trying to figure out how it worked when out of nowhere appeared a man. He was just walking by and asked if we needed help. So, he ended up changing the tire...it took him about 10 minutes and we were on our way. It was a lovely Christian act. I've seldom experienced something like that before...a good Samaritan in our day. It was so refreshing. The experience helped me realize that I've changed. Before if that had happened, I wouldn't have tried to invite him because "He's done enough, I don't want to bother him." But this week, I really wanted to invite him as a thank you for the help he gave us. We tried to, but he was really hard to understand and didn't seem that interested anyway. We know where he lives though (small town) and I hope to stop by and visit/invite him some day. We went to the panaderia afterward, which is where we buy pastries and such (dangerously delicious and cheap...I can't wait to take you to one) and we saw him again. We bought him a pound of bread as a thank-you (a pound of bread is like a loaf of french bread). I felt like it was kind of a pathetic gesture, but that's what we could do right then. First flat tire, one of my first good Samaritan experiences, trip to the panaderia :) it was kind of an exciting day.

Hermana Reyes had a good time on the exchange too. She talked a lot to Hermana Ibanez about Lajas...a really small area that struggled a lot like Utuado is struggling right now. They recently closed the area to missionaries and closed the branch down there. So, Hermana Reyes wanted to talk to Hermana Ibanez and pick her brain about what we can do to better help the area where we are serving right now, which definitely has some similarities to Lajas. I think she got some good ideas, and we're going to continue to try to make the branch stronger.

So. I don't think any one is taking the BoM (.com) challenge quite as seriously as I am (all are invited to participate), but I sure have had fun with it. I read in 2 Nephi this week and found it interesting. One of the most difficult things for people to accept in the Book of Mormon. We had two memorable contacts this week who just couldn't accept the Book of Mormon and so just couldn't accept the message. Hermana Henk and I talked to a guy, Ramon who was really cool. He knew all about the 12 tribes of Israel and all that good stuff and really understood it. I thought it was interesting when he said the Ephraim was going to gather the house of Israel. He even knew how to listen, which is actually a skill that very few people possess. He could have been so prepared, but he just couldn't accept the Book of Mormon. I wanted to leave him a copy so bad, but he just couldn't. We tried to spark his interest by telling him that it was a story of a branch of the tribe of Joseph, but nope. I really wanted him to read in 2 Nephi. Another guy, who was really prepared just couldn't accept it either. He was great, because he was very humble, stating his opinion, but also admitting that it could be wrong. We tried to leave him a copy of the book of Mormon too, but he didn't accept it. Second Nephi is really cool because of all the prophecies in it. I like how he talks a lot about the latter-days and the restoration, and (as part of that) The Book of Mormon. I especially like 2 Nephi 29:7-10. I don't know why people limit God by refusing to accept that He would write more. One of the problems (here at least) is that people don't understand the word gospel (I finally realized that last week when we were talking to Octavio). People are always quoting Galatians 1:8-9 to us, claiming the we are preaching another gospel. But we're preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ! They think that gospel means scripture. I can only assume because the New Testament titles Matthew, Mark, Luke and John "The gospels" of each respective. What a blessing to have a modern prophet to help us interpret the scriptures, because you can really see the confusion people create for themselves when they don't have that guide in their lives.

I also read in Jacob this week, which is a charming little book that I've never quite appreciated as I should have before. I especially liked chapter 4 which talks a lot about Christ. I especially enjoyed verses 7-11 (but lots of others too...just read the whole chapter!), which talk about the hope we have in Christ...through His resurrection, we too have the power of resurrection, and through his sufferings we have a hope to see God again by being reconciled through the atonement, but we have to have faith. I liked how it talked about building upon Christ as our only sure foundation at the end of the chapter. Everyone should read the Book of Mormon! It is the best!

In food news, I tried tamarindo this week, which is a fruit (well, it's something that grows on a tree) that looks like a brown pea pod and then you open it and it is a long-ish slimey-ish strip of sticky stuff. You eat the meat off the seeds and it is kind of sour, like lemon, but it is brown and soft. It was pretty cool. Didn't love it. Didn't hate it. I like trying all this new produce. Also. We go out to eat at a restaurant every week that serves criolla food (classic Puerto Rican rice, beans, and meat) by invitation of a member. I've had rice and beans at least once a week since arriving in the DR in October. Although I had it every day in the DR and nearly every day in my other area, I still love it! Until this week. I looked at it and just couldn't do it any more. I still ate it, but it is the first time I didn't think it was "very very good." I kind of just ate it because I had to. That is truly a change. We'll see how I feel next week. So, it just takes months and months of nearly every day to change preferences from "si!" to "no, thank you."

That's about it for this week. Not very exciting, I know. But I hope all is well at home and that you are all working hard on the Book of Mormon. I didn't tell you, but I would like to extend the challenge to one and all...not just Tyler.

Love,
Hermana Miller

Dear Family,

You know that lots of people think we're nuns...but not every one asks us if we are. This week we were in a summer camp and a 7 or 8 year old girl asked us if we were nuns. You can always depend on kids to tell you what every body else is thinking... :). It was just funny to me, because we always joke that we're like nuns, but one of the first times we've been asked. Speaking of the summer camp, the branch president's wife is in charge of this summer camp at a local university. She asked us to come and teach the kids how to play piano. We agreed. When we got there, it ended up she just wanted us to play the piano while the kids sang a song they've been working on..."Madrecita de mi amor." It is a song from the children's songbook in Spanish where the lyrics are (roughly translated) "Dear mother of my love, seeing your sweet face, makes me feel so happy that I love you more and more." It was funny to hear all these kids (non-members) singing a primary song. It was cute. I guess we're doing one for the fathers next week.

Random side-note. Usually when we walk through the Pueblo, we see people that we know and say "Hi." It is a small town, so we know the postman, the lady who runs the restaurant, the policeman, (sadly) the town drunk, the owners of the stores and some random people who are just always there. For example, Hector. He is just a random guy who is in town all day. We always see him and say Hi. I think we've invited him like, 20 times now to learn more about our message. When we walk through town, sometimes I hear the song from Sesame Street running through my head, "The People in your Neighborhood," you know, where they talk about people in the neighborhood like the postman and the cable guy and the milk man. I am now wondering why they never had missionaries as one of those people in your neighborhood. We're always there! One day we were walking through a parking lot and a kid says to his mom, "Hey, look! It's the people who are always knocking on our door!" It is like the church doctor in charge of the Caribbean area told us, "There are three things that you'll find no matter where you go in this world: Pepsi, Marlboro cigarettes, and two Mormon Missionaries." It is true, and I feel like we merit a spot in "the People in Your Neighborhood" song.

English Class this week was cool. Carlos came, which is cool, because he hasn't been around for the last couple weeks. We had planned to talk a little bit about future tense, but there were some questions. Let me explain. Before we start, we always have a little part I like to call "Introductions," which is where we have a question on the board that the class members have to answer. For example, "Tell me about your family," or "Why do you want to learn English?". You know; something "conversational." This week it was "Tell me about your favorite book". We had finished talking about it and we were about to start future tense when Moncho (which is a nickname for Ramón...I know. I don't understand it either.), who had lived in the states for a while and knows a good amount of English said, "Well, yeah, book is like what you can read, but I also saw the police use it in a movie once." It took me a second to figure out what he was talking about, and initially thought he meant "to book" as in a flight or a reservation. I started to explain that, and said that it is like making a reservation, but finally realized he was referring to the expression "Book him!". So, I had to explain that to Carlos, who is very interested in the complex expressions that aren't in the dictionary. And then Moncho was like, "Oh, but this word 'make' is interesting too because it means a ton of stuff. Like, 'make up' means to reconcile." I explained that one to Carlos, and then Carlos was like, "Well, can you say this too?" And he writes 'make off' on the board. Initially I said no, but then remembered that you can use it. I explained it as like to escape. I was worried he was just going to keep adding prepositions to the word make, and was worried we'd eventually get to 'make out'...and didn't know how to explain that one. Haha. I can understand why they were interested in the idioms, because it is something that is hard to learn from any source other than a native speaker. It was interesting to realize all the strange things that we say. Because literal translations make no sense. Also realized this week that the whole subject/verb agreement thing is kind of complicated.

As I said last week, Carlos just kind of disappeared for a while, but he is back. We were able to teach him twice this week. We finished lesson 3 with him, which is The Gospel of Jesus Christ (Fe, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End), and we're going to talk to him some more about the restoration next week. He is really cool and really likes the Book of Mormon (I don't remember if I told you, but he was totally sharing scriptures from the Book of Mormon the other week in Sunday School), but we're thinking he is not sure about Joseph Smith. So, we're going to go back and try to help him understand his role in the restoration better.

You may have noticed that I don't talk so much about investigators any more. It's not because I don't love them, it's just because we don't have any! Well, false. We have investigators, but they just aren't as promising (read: interested) as our investigators over in Bayamón were. It is weird how people can be from the same country, but so completely different in another area. I will tell you about two of our investigators and one of our exciting contacts this week.

1. Carmen. Carmen is a Baptist who lives in the middle of nowhere on the top of a mountain. She is really cool because she has a testimony of the gospel...the gospel that her church teaches. Even though it is not the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, I can really respect her that she has a testimony of the gospel and lives it too. She let us share with her, but she said that just because we can share with her "doesn't imply I am going to change my beliefs." Usually people like this (who say, " Yeah...I like to listen to 'the word'.") we just share something once and that's it. But, we felt something different with her. She read in the Book of Mormon but said she didn't pray to see if it's true because she doesn't have faith that it is...which is also respectable. When we're in the area next time (I don't know when that'll be...seeing as she lives on the top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere...), we'll stop by and see how she's doing. She is pretty cool, and may one day accept the gospel. She understands basic principles like faith and what a Savior means and why we need one.

2. Luis and María. Luis and Maria are Catholics who live in the Pueblo. We toced into them the other day. Luis is a very happy fellow who is just kind of bubbly and excited and loving (think Bert's (?) uncle who "loves to laugh" on Mary Poppins.). He says that he loves the missionaries and then said a classic line that we hear all the time "The 'muchachos' used to pass by all the time, but then just stopped coming for some reason. I don't know why...." Haha. We know why! We asked them if they had ever attended church and they said no because they have to go to church in the morning (their church), and then they spend the rest of the day with their family. We weren't going to set a cita, but he insisted, so we did. We came back without much expectation, but we soon found out why the muchachos always visited them; because they're cool! They are prepared, but they (Luis and Maria themselves) just don't know it...and that is why the Elders stopped visiting. They know that the bible is incomplete. They know the Catholic church isn't perfect, and they understand what the restoration is. They even believe that God would give new scripture and that the Book of Mormon is true. Their main problem is that they don't believe God would call another prophet. They believe we can receive personal revelation, but that according to the Book of Revelation God will not call another Prophet to receive revelation for the world until Christ's second coming, or something. They are really cool because they understand the message on an intellectual level, which is actually quite difficult for the average person (Maria has actually studied theology and knows some doctrine that others don't. She knows that the church "conveniently" left some doctrine out of the Bible and believes in some things that the church doesn't teach...like the spirit world, for this very reason). They just don't completely understand authority, I think, nor the relationship between Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. One really cool thing about our lesson with them was that at the end, we requested if we could have a prayer and their 20-something daughter kind of jumps out of her chair and says "Claro!" which means, "of course!" She was very excited to pray and that was a very refreshing sight, because in some houses we visit it is like we are always trying to cajole family members to pray. I want my children to love to pray, and I liked seeing that she was so excited to do so. As we walked out the door, Luis calls after us, "Take care, chicas!" Haha. Cracked me up. We'll see how it goes with them.

3. Octavio. Octavio doesn't attend any church, but he was very contrary to our message. His mother is the one who let us in to share a little something one day while we were knocking doors on a mountain. For me, this experience was the epitome of popular ignorance. He was vehemently against our message, and refused to accept what we were saying. He knew enough to sound informed, but too little to actually be considered intelligent. Ignorance is one of things that is most annoying to me lately. We talked about using the Book of Mormon to resolve doubts in a district meeting with the Mission President this week, so Hermana Reyes read him Helaman 5:12 and after talking for a bit, he actually said, "Well, it (the Bible) contains the fundamentals." We asked him if he wanted the fundamentals or the fullness. That tripped him up a bit. It was interesting how sharing a verse from the Book of Mormon had such power in a situation like that. But really. He didn't know what he was talking about. He kept saying "John Smith" (we get that all the time...) and at one point, when he was going to tell us what he knew about the Book of Mormon, he said "Well, I don't know much, because it really doesn't interest me...but I do know..." Argh. Annoying. My favorite little piece of information he shared with us was "Nine out of every 10 religions is false." When he said that, I was just like... ... ... "Wait a second. Think about what you just said and then tell me if it makes sense." And I thought about sharing with him Adrienne's statistic, (that is that 83% of statistics are made up).... But I contained myself and when it was time to go said, "Well Octavio, You yourself just told us that you haven't read much and don't know much. We are here to invite you to read more and understand these things better, and when you're ready to learn more, we'll come back and help you." Mostly just underlining the fact that he had no idea what he was talking about. It was an unfortunate encounter, but part of the mission experience. I just re-read that paragraph, and it sounds like there was a lot of contention there, but it was mostly just on his side. We were very calm and it wasn't ugly like it gets sometimes.

We've had an interesting week, but a good week. We ate fresh mango this week (I love mango!); $1 for a bag of 8 - 10 from a guy selling them on the side of the road. Sounds sketchy, I know. But that is totally normal here. :)


Love you all!
Hermana Miller

Dear family,

I got your little letter this week...with the pictures. I love the pictures! I seriously love receiving pictures, especially with litte comments on the back. I think you're all so cute! For reals. You all are very good looking people. Haha. :)

This week was full of fun. It all started early in the week. One night I was in the kitchen, cutting up mango (mango is delicious. I am sad I had to wait 23 years to try it. It is wonderful!), and I saw out of the corner of my eye a dark spot. I ignored it and kept cutting the mango, and then I saw the spot moving, really fast. I looked down, and what should I see? It was a monster like that one slithery one in Monster's inc., who has all the legs and steals screams from children. I definitely screamed. It was a big worm with lots of legs and it was headed towards me. I screamed, but thought quick and grabbed a box and put it on top. When the box started to move, I added weight. We decided to get rid of the bug the next day, but the next day, it had disappeared! So, we were kind of living in fear all wee as we would come home and not see him, but know he was in their. We just decided that he had escaped the same way he had come in...but then we were cleaning last night, and he magically appeared again. I got a picture to send to you. It was frightening, but also exciting. We talked to a member about it and he said that when they bite, it is like being bitten by 10 waps simultaneously, and that to kill it you have to cut it up into pieces using a machete. Well, seeing as we don't have a machete, we just swept it out the door.

In other news, we finally got our hands on a conference issue this morning! (no...not the one you sent me, but one from the office). It is so good! I love conference. I have only read three of the talks so far, but they we all good. I read one by Elder Oaks in the priesthood session that talked about priesthood blessing of healing, and I loved it. I know the priesthood is real and that men on earth again have the power to heal...if (as Elder Oaks says), we have faith and it is the will of the Father. I loved the talk. I also read the Happily Ever After talk by Elder Uchtdorf in the Young Women conference. You all know how I love fairy tales, and would love to live one...little did I know I actually was living one. :) What he says is true; if there are no tests or trials or tragedies in your fairy tale, well? It is really boring and there is absolutely no growth. I never really thought about eternal life being the "Happily Ever After" that Heavenly Father is offering to all of us, and it is in our reach, if we just do what we can and follow the map that He has given us. Wonderful talk. Honestly though, I think I can say that about all the talks in conference.

I read this week in Ether, and I've never really liked that book. At least at the end, because I felt like it was just a travelogue of ugly killing sprees and such. But, I feel like I understood something different this week. I never noticed before that Coriantumr was repeatedly trying to end the fighting and the bloodshed, but Shiz didn't want to. I found it to be a lesson in pride. In Ether 15:2 it says that 2 million men were killed...and their wives and their children. So, if you assume every man had one wife and one child, that is at least 5 million people. But, probably more. And that was before the bloodiest battle. How terrible! Then, they gathered more people for four years. There were so many people that it took 4 years to gather them (v. 14) and then had an epic battle to end all battles. Verse 15 in Chapter 15 was especially...I don't know. Touching? I don't know the word, but what I want to say is that it really affected me. It says that every one was armed, including all the women and all the children. How sad! How ugly! I just can't imagine an entire people falling so far that they would arm their children to fight. But, it was all for the pride of a man who insisted on avenging the blood of his brother (Shiz). But, Corinatumr himself had the opportunity to repent and save his people before all the battles really picked up, but also refused that opportunity because of pride. How terribly devastating pride can be! How horribly damaging to those people who depend on you. It never really hit me this hard until this week.

I fiinished the Book of Mormon again this week and I realized that I have fallen in love with that book. I love the Book of Mormon. It has so much power. The prophets who wrote it were inspired. It is amazing to me the powerful doctrines and teachings that are in there. Sometimes through stories, and sometimes more directly, but it is amazing all the wonderful testimonies that we find there. It is really cool as you read the book at different times in your life how the same verses can take on totally different meanings. I really like to think that everything in that book was put there for a reason. For example. Although I never really saw a reason for the end of the Book of Ether before this week, I now can see how valuable of a lesson it is for us in our day. It is really true that Mormon Moroni saw our day and spoke to us as if we were present. They shared some very valuable lessons for us that *sigh* are just amazing. I feel like I can't articulate myself in English anymore, but I think/hope you get the point.

I am also reading the New Testament, and I am falling in love with that book too. It just takes a little more time and effort reading it, but it is so worth it because there are beautiful lessons and lovely passages to be found there. Confession: I've never really read that book all the way through (unless you count seminary...), and really spent my time trying to understand, but now I have been reading it since the CCM and I am really moved by the beauty of the words of Christ and those faithful men who spent the time to write it. Although there are not a lot of words (as in you have to read between the lines a lot of times), I find that the people portrayed in the New Testament are wonderful examples of faith and obedience and diligence. I almost feel like a dork saying it, but, I love the scriptures! I feel like shouting it to the world. I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love! :)

Right now our "best" investigator (she reads in the Book of Mormon) is Mirta. She is cool because she reads pretty faithfully the assignments we leave her. She surprised us the other day by writing down her feelings and impressions on the assignment we left her; Moroni 7. It was cool to see someone take the initiative like that, and it really impressed us. She still hasn't made it to church, but she is acquaitances with two of our...15 active members, so we hope she'll make it sometime soon. We also talked about the Book of Mormon with her 20-something (or maybe 30?) year old son. He seemed interested, and we read the introduction with him and he really read it and understood. He had a couple things that he disagreed with, but I felt like he was really open and ready to learn, while others are mostly just ready to fight. We left him a Book of Mormon and he said he would like to read it and that he was going to start at the beginning. So. We'll see. He is really cool, and I think he could really gain a testimony if he has real intent in his heart and not just in his words. We'll see.

Carlos, our investigator, basically fell off the face of the earth, but we contacted him last night, and we have a cita with him on Wednesday. That is really great news, because we know he wants to get baptized, but apparently he has been in Caguas with his daughter for a couple weeks. He is really cool, and it's good will be able to see him again this week. Finally.

Well, we're out of time, but I hope everything is going great back home. I had some more things to tell you, but they weren't that exciting anyway. I love hearing from you all and hope you get some of our heat up there soon. It has been in the high 80's. Add humidity and it is gross! But oh, so fun. :)

Love,
Hermana Janae



That is my hand on the side, just so you can have an idea of how incredibly massive it was! Ok. "incrdeibly massive" is a bit of an overstatement, but it was quite large.



This is us before tocing one day. It rained on us really hard that day and we came back soaking. Also, a guy randomly gave us "Parcha", which is known as passionfruit in English. Yum.

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