#32

Ah! This week has been great and crazy and exhausting and fun!

We walked. And walked. A lot. Up inclines. Down hills. Like the little pioneer children. And it was so fun, we sang hymns and talked and Hermana Grant is literally the greatest. I am learning so much from her, she´s one of my best friends! I feel very priveleged to serve with her. And it´s lucky because we have tons to talk about! So that makes walking for hours in the blazing hot heat on sketchy highways way fun. We were searching for a menos activo family and a recent convert and they all live far away so we have to travel by bus or tram and then walk a lot.  

Also right now in Benidorm is party time! There are thousands of people here from all over, and lucky for us, the huge part is only a few calles away from our piso! Haha, so we go to bed hearing a concert going on and people partying all over. We woke up Sunday morning and there were tons of people who had been in the streets all night long, like really when do these people sleep?! And it was so funny, we sat there looking out the window and watching these drunk guys run across the street dodging cars. We cant watch tv so it´s some good entertainment!

We saw lots of sad times and miracles this week. There´s one member here who´s going through a really hard time, and he got kicked out of his house last week, but it´s just because he has made a series of bad decisions. It was sad and hard and frustrating trying to talk to him and help him realize that Christ still is reaching out to help him. But pride gets in the way.  Hermana Grant and I were just talking about it and it´s incredible and beautiful to see how far reaching the atonement of Jesus Christ is. And honestly seeing these people´s situations out here has helped me to learn so many lessons, and many lessons that you just can´t learn without seeing some of this pain firsthand. We came out of talking to him, and Hermana Grant was like, ´´what i just learned in the last hour of talking with him would´ve taken me years to learn out side of the mission.´´ and it´s so true!  

Also I had one of my first experiences with a Jehovah´s witness!  He asked us a lot of questions...and honestly was not nice at all. But it was cool because I finally got to ask some questions I have wondered about them for a while.  And one thing I am just grateful for is I know that through the Atonement of Christ we all recieve His gift of Salvation. No matter who you are. We will all be resurrected. I am also glad to know that God desires for each one of us to return to live with Him. And there´s no limit- we can All return to see Him, face to face.  We can all be cleansed through Christ´s Atonement and be pure, not perfect, but pure.  He is a real being, with flesh and bone and that´s why I´m trying to do what I can to have a pure heart, because once I see Him again I wanna feel like I´ve fought hard to do His will, and I haven´t done everything and maybe not even my best but I´ve tried, and I hope when I stand before Him I can hug Him and not have to leave that Heavenly home again.  I love my Saviour and I love my Heavenly Father and I´m grateful for this opportunity. 

Love, Hermana Miller

I also finished the Book of Mormon this week and it´s the best book EVER. Moroni 10:32

#31

Okay this week was crazy and great! 

It´s so lame, because we seriously see miracles everyday but then i get here on Mondays and I´m like, uhhh what do I tell them about?

This week was amazing because we really felt the Spirit guiding us. During lessons, on the streets, it was just amazing! 

It´s incredible, because people say the beginning of the mission is good, when you don´t know Spanish, because then you fully rely on the Spirit, and that´s kinda true. I´m not saying I know Spanish, but I can get by enough that during lessons I know what I can say and stuff and I don´t have to plan it out before hand like I used to. So this week we just really tried to make sure that we were open to the Spirit, so we could really say what these people need to hear to help them desire change. It´s just always good to remember that you should be the mouth piece that the Lord can speak through.

So we had a crazy night on Friday, ha, yes I love that. Missionaries having a crazy night in Benidorm, the Las Vegas of Spain. Well yeah. Our kind of crazy is not the same as the world´s. So anyway, we got a call saying that a recent convert was moving into our area. His uncle called us from Austria. He was baptized there like, 3 weeks ago, and he´s 12 and the only member in his family. His uncle called and really just begged us to visit him and help him stay strong. Well we only had his address, so we couldn´t call to confirm an appointment. So Friday at about 5 30 we left for his house. And here in Benidorm we have to use the bus to pretty much go anywhere, and so we´re completely dependent upon the bus schedules.  It´s hard cuz there arent only a few we need to keep track of, there are tons of trams and buses we´re constantly taking, so it´s hard to know when leaves at what time and from where. So we got on one bus to get to the bus station, because you have to take a whole different bus line to get to around where this boy lives.  So then we get to that bus station and see that the next one leaves in 40 minutes, so we try to use that time to call people and set different things up and such. Ha, anyway, then we take the bus out there. After like a 30 minute bus ride we get off and had to walk 45 minutes down steep ish terrain and on a busy highway #ItWasSuperSketchy.  Then we got to his house and he wasnt home, and we cant call the uncle cuz our phones don´t call outside of Spain! So we wait and sing hymns by his house for like 35 minutes, then we had to start walking back, this time those downhill´s were uphills, for like 45 minutes, and then caught the last bus back to Benidorm (full of party-ers, we felt really funny standing next to people dressed in sketchy party clothes with our longs skirts on haha) and got home at like 11. So yeah it was super funny and a long night but so amazing. We just felt so at peace and that the spirit was so strong, we knew the whole time that´s what we were supposed to be doing.

Then on Saturday night is was cool, we went to one of our pueblos, La Villa Joyosa, and we were going to visit people. Then at one point we just stopped, went off on a backish like road and said a prayer, asking Heavenly Father to guide us to where he needed us to be, and we specifically asked if he´d put people in our path who needed us.  Then as we were walking around the streets, suddenly one of our investigators was coming towards us on this little side street. And he was like, yeah I needed you guys tonight. So we just went and talked to him and tried to give him animo- we dont know how to translate that into english, there arent words that fully express it, it´s like, give them...positiveness, encouragement? Well, anyway, animo. Haha. It was just amazing, seeing Him answer our prayer so directly, literally putting one of His children in need in our path.

This week was just good and fun and crazy! 

Oh, also, another cool miracle! So we met this lady on the tram, and we were talking and she told us that she had been looking for the church for like ten years, so we thought she wasnt a member, and she told us she lived in Alicante, and gave us her number and address. So we called the missionaries in our zone over in Alicante, and they went and visited her and it turns out she´s a member! But she is from Bulgaria and hadnt known where the church was! Her son is also a member but hadnt been going, but now her two grandchildren who arent members have baptismal dates! So we´re praying they get baptized! It was cool to see the Lord´s hand there,  missionary work everywhere! 

I love being a missionary, and I love this gospel. I love my Savior, and I love this opportunity I have to feel His Atonement more fully and more deeply than I ever have in my life. I can´t imagine my life without the mission. I can´t believe how I even got through life before this! I don´t know..it´s just been a huge blessing to see how much of a change the seemingly little things make. The daily scripture study, the continual prayer in your heart, preach my gospel, and really, meaningfully partaking of the sacrament. Ah, it´s just made all the difference. I love love love my Heavenly Father and I´m grateful for His mercy with me, and for the love I feel and know that He has for all the people I come in contact with here. This gospel of Christ is true! How could it not be? I´m so grateful and humbled for this opportunity! Even if it´s not easy, it´s worth it! Have a great week!

Love, Hermana Miller

3 Nephi 5:20

#30

This has been such a great, funny, ridiculous, and wonderful week!

Oh man. I literally don´t even know where to start. So last week, after p-day we had to go to Alicante to sleep over so Tuesday morning we could head to Murcia for Tri-zone conference at 7am! Oh man. But before we left Benidorm, we had one more cita, but since everything in our area is so spread out because our area is huge, of course we had to catch a bus to go like a half hour away. Hahaha so, we leave the piso, we´re trying to head towards the bus stop, but we weren´t exactly 100% sure where we were headed, so we kept asking people to direct us there. So we were just running around, trying to get there, when suddenly we come to this huge road, and see the bus we need on the other side of the road. Well, since I am a fool, I was like, ´´Hermana, we can make it, we just have to run after it.´´ Haha and we were on the opposite side of this huge busy street, and we were stopped at a cross walk. Well, once it turns green, we book it, but like, straight up run as fast as we can. With our bags full of scriputres and such, and in our skirts, wearing our tags, looking like fools. Hahah but i was just so determined to catch that bus, because we were running super low on time as it was, and we weren´t even sure where this ward member lived. So we are booking it, but the bus is also driving at the same time, so everytime it stopped at a bus stop, we´d run up and come close to getting it, but just not close enough haha. So we´d run, and it´d go and stop, and then take off and we´d just keep running! Hahaha it was hilarious! But oh man, Hermana Grant was just like, ´´ i am not chasing this bus on this huge street on these side walks crowded with people´´ and it´s true the people were all looking at us weird but i was just like, ´´No Hermana we´ve gotta catch it´´ haha it was so funny! Seriously we ran like the entire huge main street thing, but, al final, we didn´t catch it and we just ended up sitting at one of the stops and waiting for the next one.  But oh wait, the night´s not over yet.

So then we get to the member´s house and we´re just like, literally, if we wanna catch the tram to Alicante we can only be here for like, a few minutes.  But we had arrived like, and hour+ late so I felt bad...ah, it was rough.  So then it gets to be late and we´re just like, we gotta go and we were like 100% sure we were gonna miss the tram and we didnt know what we were going to do to get to Alicante, and we started stressing thinking we might miss the entire zone conference!  So the member was like, we´re gonna drive you, so we get in their car and just fly down the roads, praying the whole way that we´ll make the tram. So they take us to our piso, and we grab our suitcases and get back in the car and fly to the tram station and literally get there minutes before the last tram leaves. We were just on there, thanking Heavenly Father for helping us to make it, and we´re headed to Alicante, glad our worries were over...well pretty soon we´re the only ones on the tram, and as we come up to this little pueblo like 20 minutes outside of Alicante, the tram slows down and then just stops and a lady comes on saying, ´´end of the line.´´ but we´ve ridden this tram like 100 times before and i know it goes all the way to Alicante. So then the driver comes over and is all, ´´you have to get off.´´ and we´re like, ´´but we don´t even know where we are, and we´re supposed to go to Alicante.´´ and he´s like, ´´i´m sorry you´ll have to take a taxi then, this is it.´´ So after talking to him for a minute we were just like alright we´ll get off. So here we are, okay, it´s 11 30 on a Tuesday night, and we´re out here in the middle of some random spanish pueblo, literally there was nothing around. Like homes and stuff, but no stores, no cars, no people. So I start panicking a little, i was like, ´´Hermana, what are we gonna do?¨¨ And she was like, ´´We´re going to do what we tell all of our investigators to do. We´re going to pray.´´ Ah, that really hit me and I knew everything would be fine.  So we stood on the side of the road, said a little prayer, then just started walking in a random direction. Haha, then of course we stopped for a photo, because come on, we´re part of the generation that wants to tweet everything, but since we couldn´t tweet our funny experience we just snapped a picture and laughed instead.  Well then randomly a taxi drove by, and so i start jumping up and down, but there were people in it. And we didnt see the number so we couldnt call it, but thankfully a few minutes later it came back for us!  Then as we got in we realized the taxi rate was a little high, and we only had 20€, so we were just like, ´´Just take us 20€ worth and then drop us off wherever we are.´´ And we started talking to him and his wife had known mormons a long time ago, and it was so nice, we told him where we needed to go, and we were like 5€ short of it, but he was just like, ´´I´ll just take you all the way there, it´s fine.´´ And it was such a blessing! Then one of the ward members in Alicante kindly picked us up and took us the the Alicante Hermana´s piso, and we spent the night there!

And then we had to wake up at five the next morning to make sure we´d get to the bus by seven to go to Murcia. Well the Hermana´s just moved into this new piso, but they thought their piso was probably only 15 minutes away from the station, so we start walking there, and turns out they realized we were really like 40 minutes walking distance away from the station! They were pretty sure we were gonna miss the bus, so we did what we do best, and we ran. And ran. And kept running. It was so hard and took forever but thankfully we got there at like 7:02, but it had waited for us! Oh it was such a tender mercy, and so fun to show up in front of all those missionaries disgusting and sweaty but whatever haha. So yeah we went to zone conference and I saw tons of people I know and love and it was so much fun! President Deere is literally the best and when he talks you can feel God´s love through him.  AH, it was so great! Then my comp had to go to Málaga for residency, so I got to spend Tuesday night and all of wednesday with the Alicante Hermana´s in their area and it was super fun! 

Oh and also something else super funny! We were on the tram, heading back from citas, and these two 25 ish year old drunk men were sitting on the tram, smoking and drinking, and you can not do that! But anyway, they call out to us, and they´re just like, are you mormons? and we told them yes and then they just started saying all this weird stuff and it was really awkward. And then one was like, ´´It´s his birthday.´´ so i am just trying to be nice and i tell the other one, ´´feliz cumpleaños!´´ and then, just seriously as naive as ever, i was like, ´´do you have any fun plans for tonight?´´ but it spanish it just sounded so much less awkward and my comp was like, dont ask him that. and then they all laughed and i´m pretty sure they thought I was asking them out. Ha, yeah. My awkwardness just extends beyond language barriers, it´s quite impressive.

But really, things are going so well here, the work´s not easy but we´re working hard! 

I also got to give a talk yesterday, and I gave it around Ether 6. It is an incredible chapter and ah, I just love it! Go read it! I know the Savior lives, and although we may feel the winds strongly at times in the seas of our lives, we have His light and if we are faithful He will always deliver us!

Love, Hermana Miller

Mormon 7:5-10

Sometimes when you´re wandering around looking for less active members in the desert heat for a long time you start to wonder if you´re efforts are in vain. That´s when you find a lot of comfort in the phrase, ´´No effort is wasted´´! Hahaha.

Fourth of July!

Fourth of July!

Ice cream on the fourth!

​Chocolate Factory in VillaJoyosa!

​Chocolate Factory in VillaJoyosa!

#29

Hey! So we´ve seen many miracles this week and it has been great!

So first of all, Hermana Grant is a maquina and we´re super good friends! She is a fantastic missionary and her Spanish is unreal! Everyone asks her if she´s a native! It´s so cool! I love teaching with her, and we´ve laughed a lot and seen lots of progress in our area!

Let´s see. So first off we got a couple of great new investigators this week!  We got this one girl named Carolina, and her story is super great!  So she said she´s seen us Hermana´s on the tram before but hasn´t ever talked to us, but then last week the Elderés from Alicante, our District Leader and his comp came out to help us with the Hawaiian Luau! So on their way back to Alicante they were on the tram with our Branch President, who has a son that goes to the same school as Carolina´s son. So they all started talking and talked about the church and she told them she wanted one of our ´´books.´´So they got her number and this last week we went by and visited her and she is amazing! She told us she has read the bible and the quoran and all sorts of other religious books but she still feels like something is missing and told us she is ´´thirsting for the truth.´´ and that when she finds the truth she wants to bring her mother and her sister and all of her family members to a knowledge of the truth! So when we gave her the Book of Mormon, she got SO excited! She asked us if we had read it, and we told her yes and she was just like, ´´i´m going to read it! I´m going to read all of it!´´  She had more enthusiasm than i´ve ever seen before on my mission!  It´s so great because we know that if she really does want to know she´ll get an answer, no question! We´re super content about it!

Also, another man stopped us in the street and said he has cousins that are missionaries, but he´s never been to our church and would like to know more about it!  So we got his number and went and introduced him to the Book Of Mormon and we´re excited to see where he goes as well!

And another miracle! This one´s super cool. So the other day we were at this bus stop waiting to catch a bus to go visit and elderly woman in our ward who´s in a residency. While we were waiting, this man from Argentina starts talking to us and says he wants to learn english and stuff and even showed some interest in the church, so we gave him our card and then the bus came and we got on and right as it starts going away we were both just like, ´´dang it we´re so dumb! why didn´t we just miss the bus and talk to him more and get his info..?!¨¨  But we were both just hoping he would call, and we were a little bummed and disappointed in ourselves to be honest. But then we both just stopped and said personal prayers in our hearts that he would call.  Well the night went on and we went to our visits and at the end of the night we walked past our piso but it was a little too early to go in yet. So we just decided we´d start walking around and contacting people in the calle, so as we´re walking this huge huge busy street in Benidorm, suddenly that same guy comes up to us and calls our ´´misioneras!¨¨ and we just flipped and we were talking to him and he said right after we left he had the thought that he should call us but didn´t, then he said he wanted to call us later but he searched and searched and couldn´t find the card we gave him and he was like, but i swear i just put it right here! Ah, it was just so cool! Because the Lord´s purposes will be accomplished No Matter What. Maybe we should´ve kept talking to him, but since we didnt the Lord prepared another way for us to have contact with him again that same day! It was just such a testimony builder to me that we just do the best we cans and sometimes we make mistakes but as long as we have that desire to serve Him and to do His will it´s all in His hands and He´ll make sure His purposes are accomplished!

And it was the fourth of July this last week! Aka my favorite day of the year! It was so fun, we wore red white and blue and we had district meeting in Alicante and we hung up a flag and sang the star spangled banner and some people cried, hahaha i swear to you Spain has just turned all of us Americans so patriotic! I love it! Then we ate hot dogs (boiled, not grilled...but still haha) and chips and watermelon and coca cola and it was so american! Haha and we talked about baseball and football teams and it was just so much fun. Also my comp cooked me eggs and french toast! I seriously am just so blessed! We also had english class and taught our two students (everyone´s working so hardly anyone comes) what we do for the fourth in the U.S. and sang them a duet of the star spangled banner hah. And at the end of the night, after working, we went and bought ice cream, Philadelphia cake it was called- it was cheesecacke and it was so good and very appropriate for the 4th of July! haha we had fun celebrating!

And we had an amazing lesson Saturday night with one of our less actives! It was great and usually we really try to invite her to church but this night we comforted her but just didnt press it quite as strongly and SHE CAME TO CHURCH. She took a taxi and paid 7€ and everything and there we talked about modesty in Relief society, cuz it´s so hot here it can really be a problem, and we talked about piercings too. And she has a nose piercing and she was just like, well what about this? And pretty much everyone just told her she really shouldn´t have it in, and even though we sometimes dont understand fully why some commandments are we just do them to try and be obedient, and so she was just like, okay, and just pulled it out! And to get it back in would be hard and expensive and painful and she just pulled it out right then and there! And keep in mind, we visit her lots but she has only been to church 2 times this year and before that was inactive for a long time! It was super cool and powerful and a good example and we just pray she stays strong in her determination to follow Christ and be obedient.

Also today, because I have fat kid problems, we went to a Valor Chocolate factory! Our district came all the way out here and went with us and it was so fun!  We toured the factory and ate free chocolate at the end, then went out to eat, and one of the missionary´s started talking to the lady who owned the restaurant and introduced a little bit about our church to her and then they had to leave to catch their tram but we stayed back and talked to her for like an hour just about Christ and God´s plan for us and she´s so spiritual, the spirit was just really strong and it is just very filling to find people of other faiths who just love Christ and want to follow Him.

Life is so great! I love being here! Thank you for your prayers, they are felt very strongly here!

Love, Hermana Miller

Mormon 8:12

#28

This week has been fantastic! 

We had the Hawaiian Luau, and it was such a success! There were many people there who aren´t members and since we had 6 missionaries there it was so nice, becasue Hermana´s Roan and Bercerra, and Elderes Flint and Simón could just work out a lot of the details during the party and Hna Grant and I walked around and got to know people and we´re really hoping lots of them turn into investigators! We worked for so many hours and so so hard to prepare this party, thank you so much for all your prayers, it all worked out so well! And we saw so many miracles from the Lord.  It was amazing. We felt His love and approval and saw so many tender mercies from Him.  So so many. He is so aware of even our smallest needs and this last week is one i´ll never forget!

My new comp, Hermana Grant, is the best! She is so much fun, and we get along really well! Last year at this time she was serving in Almería, so we´ve had a lot of fun talking about people we know and the differences that have occurred over the past year there! She is from Orem, Utah, my first field companion from Utah!  Yesterday our branch president texted us at 9 15 and asked her to give a talk...church starts at 10. Hahaha i was like, ´´welcome to Benidorm, Hermana.´´  But she´s great and she knows so much and has great ideas and is so ready to work out here! We´re going to take this area by storm and we´re so excited!  

Yesterday was cool at church, we had like 52 people there! Hahaha, but TONS of them are here for vacations from England, so Hna. Grant translated for them...I could have but honestly I just really understand for myself and I have to be listening very intently, so i was just like, ha, I cant translate that into english! I just understand the idea a lot of times, not the exact translation...but it was so fun to get to talk to them! And they knew Makenna´s brother from when he was on his mission, so that was super cool!  And yesterday was just a crazy day, because then someone called the church speaking english, so we had to leave sunday school early and go talk to him. Turns out he´s from Norway, he´s been a member for about three years and is here on vacation and wanted to come to church! But he was far away so the family from england gave us a ride to where he was and then we walked back to the church with him! Haha we totally missed the whole third hour, but it was cool cuz then the branch president prepared the sacrament for him and he got to take it! Then we just stayed after for a while with him and we all shared our favorite scriptures! It was a fun, cool experience!

Well I´ve just had the greatest week this week and i´m excited for this transfer!

I love my Savior and I know He lives!

Love, Hermana Miller

3 Nephi 28:18-23