#20

Hey hey hey!

So this week was good.  Hermana Andrew celebrated her half way mark, and I celebrated my five month mark! Crazy how the time passes.

This week we were able to meet with so so many people, many investigators and less active people! It was so fun, I love these people! 

There is this one woman we visit every week, she is so great! Literally missionarys have been visiting her every week without faith for many many months, at least like, 9ish.  She is less active, ha, but Hermana Andrew and I joke that she is the most active less active person we´ve ever met.  She absolutely LOVES the gospel of Jesucristo.  She has all the scriptures on tape, and she is retired so she listens to the scriptures for hours and hours a day.  She has lived in London so her English is pretty good, and every week she reads something to us from the Liahona in english.  Seriously she has such a strong spirit and I feel the spirit so strongly in her home. Hahah, but she just says she´s too lazy to come to church on Sunday because it´s too early.  She also lives a little ways a way and it´s kinda hard to catch a bus, they only come every once in a while.  But yeah, everytime we go she wants to read a scripture and watch video, it´s so great, and she loves sharing the gospel!  How funny it is.  She just loves taking control of the lesson, like last week we were like, ´´We were thinking about watching this twenty minute video,´´ and she was like, ´´Why don´t we just watch the Joseph Smith movie, i´ve never seen it.´´ Hahaha and we´re like, ´´It´s an hour,´´ and she´s like, ´´That´s okay,´´ and just plays it, oh man, i love the opportunities when we get to watch that movie of course, it´s literally my absolute favorite movie of all time, it was just funny how we weren´t planning on it and ended up watching it with her.  But I´m not complaining, it´s my favorite movie!  And I´ve seen it so many times that watching it in Spanish is so fun, because I know what´s going on so it´s some good language study. 

Also, we went to eat with one of our investigators! She´s a single 45 ish year old woman, and it was a blast!  There are many bar type places around here that have really cheap food and drinks if you buy them together, they´re called ´´Tapas.´´ So yeah, we went to a place literally on the coast called, ´´La Cabaña de Tío Tom,´´ Uncle Tom´s Cabin.  It was great, eating Spanish food, drinking grape juice stuff, looking out at the beach with our investigator.  She had a beer...haha so yeah we definitely need to cover the Word of Wisdom soon!  Ah, she is so kind, honestly one of the most Christ like people i´ve ever met.  Which is interesting because when I first met her she didn´t believe in God.  And she hasn´t exactly said it out loud yet, but now she does believe in Him.  She´s praying and reading the scriptures, she says she wants to feel peace in her life all the time.  That sometimes it´s there but she wants that feeling to stay.  How great, because literally the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer to that question!  That is the best blessing it brings to my life.  I feel peace in my heart knowing I´m doing what He wants me to do.  That i´m living in a way He would approve of.  I´m not perfect, but I´m trying to have pure thoughts and a pure heart, and that desire to do good is good enough for Him and so I feel peace. I love it!  So yeah.  She is great, and after we ate she invited us over to her house for strawberries and condensed milk and she´s just always being so kind and Christlike, so I just pray we can help show her the way to obtain the peace His gospel brings. 

This week is our missions Consecration week!  We of course should always try to be obedient, but this week we are just putting forth extra effort to be exactly obedient! It´s a struggle, not gonna lie. But yeah, we´re excited to really stretch ourselves and see the Lord´s hand! And it´s Hermana Andrew´s birthday this week, so that´ll be fun!

I´m so happy.  One of my very very best friends since the fifth grade is getting married this week, and I´m not there. Many times I miss my family, ha, I shed a few tears yesterday at church singing Eternas Puedan Ser las Familias, Families can be together forever.  I shed a few tears thinking about them, and how much I miss them...but then I had a smile on my face and shed a few more tears because I´m so happy and grateful that it´s true! I am away from them now, and it feels far and like a long time, but if we´re worthy and faithful we´ll have the rest of our lives and eternity together- what a blessing!

Also, this week I was reading Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmadge.  Ha, Hermana Andrew and I were talking about some doctrine, and somehow we got on the subject of Eternal Progression.  How we will constantly be learning and progressing and creating and how there´s never really a break from it.  Like, sometimes I think, well I can work really hard now and then at the end of my mission I can rest.  Ha, but that´s not true, then you have to work and go to school and get married and lots of other things..then it´s like, well I can rest after this life.  But no, we get to teach and learn and progress even still.  And wow, it even goes from there but basically there´s always work to do, always progression to be made.  Thankfully we can find rest and peace in the Savior.  We can find strength to press forward through His atonement.  It´s not only to cleanse us, it´s there to empower us. Sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed at what is expected of me.  But then I realize what the Lord really wants us to do is try, and to come unto Him during that process so He can help us do the things we need to do.  He doesn´t expect us to do it alone or to do it perfectly.  What a blessing it is to have a best friend who understands, and who desires to push along through life by your side.  He´s by my side, I feel it.  I have felt it even more the past several weeks, several times I have felt Him speaking through me to the people we´ve been teaching.  He loves them.  A lot is expected of each one of us, His isn´t a gospel of ´´say you believe and then go on with your life,´´ His is a gospel of believing and acting and asking for His help and Him lifting the burdens so they´re not as heavy, and strengthening you so they dont feel quite as heavy.  His is a gospel of change, it´s not comfortable sometimes, and most of the time I´m like, ´´This is bigger than me. I´m not capable of doing all this.´´ And I think I´m right.  Ha, it´s a lot bigger than just me, this is eternal salvation for my brothers and sisters here in Spain.  And I can´t do it on my own.  Thank heavens that´s not what He wants me to do anyway. 

I love life! I love España! And I am in love with Almería.  Leaving this city, whenever I have to, will be a trial.  This is the greatest city.  Thank you for your prayers, I really am giving it my all to honor them, and I feel strength from them through the Spirit. 

Love, Hermana Miller