#56

Oh man, hello! 

Sorry I didn´t email last week, we had a crazy day and all final we didnt have time to finish emailing!  It was an awesome day though! Last week on pday we woke up and cleaned and then hurried and walked to meet up with some other missionaries. We met up at the church and then walked up a little mountain like thing and it was the most beautiful view! Ah I have to send you pictures! But yeah, we did our studies up there, and it was a really fun and cool experience. It was a cool thing to look out over Málaga and the ocean and just reflect on what lead me to this point, being in this place at this time in my life reading my favorite book (the Book of Mormon...just in case there was any doubt there haha). But yeah. I just felt very grateful. Then we went with the other missionaries to the Frosts, a senior couple missionaries house, and one of the Hermana´s from Bolivia made empanadas and we talked and ate and it was way fun! It was a good pday. 

ALSO Before I forget! Uhmmmm...so my companion and I are obsessed.  Have you all heard the 2015 EFY cd?! EMBARK. Que fuerte! We just love it so so much and it´s basically always on when we´re in our piso. It´s just the best thing ever and if you don´t have it you should download it on LDS.org.

Oh man but so much has happened since I last wrote! We had another concilio! It was way fun and we had a good time! Then on Friday we gave a talk in zone meeting, and the zone leaders asked us to do it in english! Uh yeah you don´t have to ask me twice, so that was kinda nice! We spoke on Hermana Deere´s talk, and she talked about not being shaken. She talked about what we need to do when faced with opposition, specifically anti mormon literature and things like that, because people are constantly attacking our beliefs and we talked about how to react to it. It was really powerful, and I really appreciated this message. That we need to go to the right sources, pray, and decide to leave some questions behind.  One elder brought up that some questions are ´´dead´´ questions, because we just won´t find out the answer until we´re dead, and also some questions just lead to nowhere, so it doesn´t benefit us to dwell on them or allow them to shake our faith. She shared the scripture in Jacob 7:5. It´s so powerful, and really this is our goal, to build our faith until we too can say, ´´I can not be shaken.´´ My faith is getting there. I´m not perfect but everyday I can feel my base of Jesus Christ getting stronger and stronger and firmer and firmer and I cannot deny the testimony I have recieved!  I definitely have moments of difficulty though out here. Mostly brought on by my own weaknesses of planning time poorly. That day we had a musical number and I was just so stressed out with the talk and the song and just everything and I had a mini breakdown and was just like, ´´I don´t want to be here!´´ Meaning the zone meeting, ha, not the mission. But God is so merciful that He has surrounded me with angels out here, and one of my good friends Hermana Knowles was there for me and really helped me out. And it all worked out really well in the end! Also yesterday I had another breakdown. I just get frustrated with myself sometimes, because I feel like I struggle with the same things over and over again, and it´s no one´s fault but mine and so that makes it even worse. But when we got back to our piso, I just went to my bed and hit my knees. I poured out my heart to Heavenly Father and I felt a very calm feeling come over me that I can´t get overwhelmed with all of my weaknesses, I just have to go little by little. Poco a poco. I´m so grateful for this gospel because honestly I felt really down, and the gospel of Jesus Christ and the love of my Savior is the only thing that helped me to get up off my knees and get to work again. 

Also, on January fourth, Isel got baptized! The woman who had been recieveing the lessons  a couple years ago but moved and lost contact with the church but continued to gain a testimony of the book of Mormon and just showed up to church one day! Yeah, and her baptism was beautiful. Thankfully, since our last one was kind of a struggle, we really worked hard to prepare this one well. And it did go well, except for a few loose screws. Hahaha as always. So we went hours early, because the baptism was sunday at 5pm, and we went to turn on the font and get the water filling up, and we thought we had plugged the drain (you see where this is going) and we went to another room to do the program. Well about 30 minutes later we go in and it´s at the same water level as before. Que fallo. Hahaha it hadn´t plugged. So we got it plugged up, but we didn´t have enough time to just let it go, so Hna Bangerter and I started getting bowls to fill water up in the bathrooms and kitchen and dump it in. Well the elders came and these poor elders...2 of them are the assistants to the president and they have so much to do, the whole mission to run, but they started grabbing buckets and heating up water in pots on the stove and all the members were helping too and we started like a half an hour late but it was a great and fun experience and Isel felt really special. Then hna bangerter and I sang ´´I feel my saviors love´´ while she played the piano and a boy in our ward played the cello. The spirit was very strong and Isel has a testimony so strong it brings me to tears. I just am so honored to know her. I love this mision and life! I love my Savior! 

Also my new comp is Hna Jones! I´ve heard great things about her so I´m excited! Also Hna (Rachel) Merrill is going to serve in ward 2, and we share a church building with ward 2, so i´m super pumped cuz I´ll do intercambios with her and see her lots! It´ll be a great transfer!

Love, Hermana Miller 

Alma 45:7

#55

BEST WEEK EVER. 

Okay but really can I just say I´m in love with my life? I think I say that all the time but literally...my life is the greatest. Not perfect...but perfect in it´s imperfection. Or should I say my imperfections? Haha I don´t know but I just really enjoy it! 

Okay so first of all thank heavens I have Hermana Bangerter here! She is so funny and we´re almost always laughing, life is so enjoyable with her! I wish so badly that she wasn´t ending the mission so soon! And this last week we tried some of the gross oranges that grow on all the trees here (I took a funny video I´ll have to send you!...actually that might be embarrassing) and we started memorizing ´´The Living Christ´´ in spanish with one of our cute 12 year old investigators who´s doing personal progress, and we ate way too much chocolate and food in general and we made goals and just had a blast!

So yeah last pday we went to the other sister missionaries apartment, one is from Peru and the other is from Bolivia, so yeah they can cook well! and the one from Bolivia taught us how to make something i love called pan de bono. It´s just this bread this with cheese in it and it´s so good! But i didnt buy the right flour like thing so they turned out a little weird, but we still ate them! And this yummy juice they made from one of the fruits here and we sat around and played phase 10 and it reminded me of Tuesday´s with Gommie and the kids, playing phase 10..it was fun!  Then we all four went to the center and went shopping and it was so beautiful and fun! And hermana Bangerter tried on flamenco dresses that are spanish and beautiful and expensive and that was fun! 

Then on Monday it was Elder Rojas´ birthday, one of the elder´s in my district who I´ve known for a while now, he was my zone leader my last transfer in Almería, so Tuesday we have district meeting, and we went to the church to try to make brownies, since we don´t have an oven, but I fail at baking so they just sort of turned out, but it was fun anyway!

Then, also, before I forget, ha, yeah right like i´d ever forget but yeah Isel got baptized yesterday! And oh my, it was a great baptism! Hahaha not without it´s struggles...so anyway. With Rosi´s baptism I learned a lot, and vowed to never be so unprepared for a baptism again. So we were calling lots of members and less active people to ask them to give talks or prayers and we got pretty much everything figured out, besides someone to baptize her (but that ended up working out too because I asked one of the members to do it after church and this ward is seriously the best and so of course he was happy and willing!) but yeah, so everything was working out.  Oh and I can´t forget to mention! So Isel didn´t have a job, and we were always praying for her that she´d be able to find one that was good but would also allow her to come to church. So one day last week we call to confirm one of our cita´s with her and she´s like, ´´I can´t come I´m sorry I´ll be working´´ and we were like, ´´aww that´s a bummer...wait what?!?! you have work!?´´ and we freaked out and her and us we were just all thanking Heavenly Father for that tender mercy, honestly it was a miracle! Because if she didn´t get work she would have to go back to Cuba soon! So yeah that was awesome. And anyway, her baptism, so yesterday, we left the church building like an hour late because we were talking to people and getting things figured out, then we got home, ate super fast, then ran back to the church, and started filling up the font.  Well we were pretty positive that the font clog was drained and that it was filling, so we went to go start making the baptism program.  Well then we go back like 25 minutes later, and the water is still in the same place! It was so sketch! And btw this is like 30 minutes before the baptism, and the font takes like an hour and a half to fill! So we got it plugged up good, and then my comp and I just started grabbing tubs or in other words, large bowls to fill water up in the bathrooms and kitchen and throw it into the font! Hahaha so then the Elders come and they´re like, ´´Hermana´s what are you doing?´´ and thankfully they started doing it too, and they started putting huge pots of water on the stove to heat them up to the water wouldn´t be freezing haha and we went to finish the program and I got the videos on the tv and ready this time (so as not to have a remote dropping battery flying accident again) and then more members started showing up and everyone was grabbing bowls and filling them up to put into the font! I personally think it was a great unity building activity.  And we were like apologizing to Isel, but she was just laughing and saying it would be a great memory and that it was more fun this way, and I agree with her! I think it also meant a lot to her to see that lots of people we there to support her, and that they were filling that font just for her! It was a cool experience, and I´m just very very grateful for kind elders and amazing wards members and people who have strong testimonies of the Book of Mormon who choose to follow Jesus Christ by being baptized. We needed all of those things to pull of what happened yesterday! But really though. And it ended up being a wonderful service! This young boy in our ward said he´d play the cello for us and Hermana Bangerter played the piano and her and I sang ´´I feel my saviors love´´ and I´m not gonna lie the Spirit was just so strong and it filled my heart.  So yeah, great experience! And the picture I´m sending you she´s not in white because in all the commotion of filling the font we started a half an hour late (that´s not that crazy for spain (or me) though)) and we didnt have time to take a picture of her in white! But yeah, she is incredible! Seriously, she was even just introducing herself yesterday in one of our classes, and we all had to do it, but she stood up, said her name and where she was from then started bearing her testimony and teared up, saying she felt very grateful to have found the true church of Jesus Christ.  And when she bore her testimony in her baptism everyone was in tears, she just knows. She´s knows this gospel is true and you can feel it. Yesterday we were talking to her and she started crying after we said a prayer with her, I asked her what she was feeling and she just she was grateful for repentance because now she feels true joy. 

Isn´t that the good news of the gospel? A message of glad tidings of great joy, through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ, the opportunity to repent and be baptized and recieve the Holy Ghost, and live these principles again and again for the rest of lives so as to obtain a joy that can only be obtained through our Redeemer?  Our sorrows and weaknesses are swallowed up in the joy of Christ, and His hand is always extended, He´s always doing His part, but we must decide if we want to use our free agency to accept that gift that He already paid for. I´m glad Isel did. One by one.

Ah, and New Years Eve! Funnest thing ever!  So it was a normal day until 7pm, and then we party-ed (I think that´s a verb, right? I don´t know how to spell it! But if it´s not a verb in english that is funny cuz it´s not a verb in spanish but I used it several times with the people we saw that day ´´y despues de las 7 fiestamos´´ haha they all looked at me weird and laughed)  but yeah so we went with our district to the center and walked around and looked at the pretty lights and talked and saw the cathedral and it was gorgeous! And then we went to a members house and we invited one of our investigators Killian, and he came and loved it and it was awesome! This is the family where the dad is from mexico but they lived in the U.S. so the kids speak english to us always and they of course speak spanish too. But yeah, they made us TACOS. I´ve been looking for a good mexican restraunt my whole time in spain and there arent any! So that was beast. And then we talked and played a few games and it was fun just to be with everyone, and then after the new year we had to go home, but we still got to sleep for 8 hours so that was nice! 

Ah, and there are so many other miracles and stories! Next week. Now we´re going to concilio so we´re sleeping at the mission home tonight, should be fun! Love you all! And happy King´s day! It´s bigger than Christmas here I´ve heard, so everyone´s excited for that tomorrow! 

Love, Hermana Miller

John 15:16

#54

First of all Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! This week has been crazy and fun and full of tender mercies!

Last pday our whole zone got together and we went and rented out a court and played volleyball and soccer, it was way fun, even though I´m screaming the whole time, I´m like running towards the ball but scared I´ll actually get it haha so I´m pretty sure I just annoy people but hey, I participate! Haha.  Then we went back to our church and some amazing members had prepared a huge lunch for us! With Spanish paella and salad with real salad like dressing not just olive oil (reminded me of the States!) and it was delicious and super nice of them!  Then that night we all went and sang in the center of Málaga, and let me tell you it is gorgeous! Like, unbelievable. So so beautiful.  But yeah, we went out to sing, and the missionaries from our ward were the first ones who were supposed to go out and contact the people in the street and start talking to them about the church.  I hadn´t really talked to anyone about the gospel all day and I felt so self conscious in front of the other missionaries and I just honestly had a pretty bad attitude and after getting rejected by a few people I was like, ´´Okay Hna Bangerter let´s just switch out now´´ so we went and started singing while other people contacted. And as we were singing it suddenly hit me that this is why I´m here, to preach the message of Jesus Christ, and thankfully, God helped me change me heart and I was singing with all my heart, and then when it was our turn to contact again, even though I still wasn ´t 100% I gave my will to the Lord, and He helped open my heart and I felt the urgency of this message, and we just started contacting everyone! It was so fun! We talked to one lady who is catholic, and asked us the best questions, one of which being, ´´what makes your church different from mine?´´ Yes we can answer that question. So we told her the story of Joseph Smith and how today we have a prophet who leads and guides us. Testifying of that just filled my heart and I didn´t want to stop contacting, we just kept going and talking to people and inviting them to watch the video of ´´He is the Gift´´ and it was an amazing night!  

The next day, Christmas eve, we went and saw a member of our ward who can only come every once in a while because she takes care of an older man basically all month and it was sad, she´s super lonely, so it was fun to visit her for the first time and we´re gonna go more often now.  

Then for lunch, we had the best lunch! We went to Elenir´s house, one of the members, with the other missionaries! It was so much fun! Her 2 boys are around our age and they are the funniest people in the world and always give us a hard time and we just always have a party with them!  We ate outside and the weather was perfect and it was a barbeque and it was fun but seriously with this weather it does not feel like Christmas! Elder Skousen was like, ´´did you even know it´s Christmas eve?´´ and it´s so funny because it´s so easy to forget!  But yeah, then later that night all of us missionaries when to another members house and she made yummy empanadas (she´s from argentina so you know they were incredible!) and we sang and had a good time! We had to be home by 11, and thankfully the AP´s have a car so we can get around easier! Then when we got home Hermana Bangerter and I opened some of these cute envelopes her mom sent with quotes and scriptures in them and it felt more Christmasy, and then we talked for a long time about the future and stressed a little then read our patriarchal blessings, which made us realize life will all work out and then we went to bed haha.

Then Christmas morning we woke up like usually, at 7am and we studied and got ready and then went to the church with the other missionaries! But while we were waiting for the elders to pick us up, we were in the street, and President Deere asked us not to contact the night of Christmas Eve and Christmas day, but we saw this lady and as she passed us all we said was ´´Hola Feliz Navidad!´´ and she stopped us and started talking and gave us her information and wants us to come visit her! It was actually a super cool experience!  But yeah, we went to the church, and our district apparently didn´t get the memo that they were gonna play fútbol (soccer) and so we´re there in our church clothes. But yeah, we played fútbol anyway and well...i think my sports skills are making some progress (not really) but it was fun!  And we tried to make the zone a breakfast, but of course the elders called us the night before and asked us to bring what we had, and we only had 3 eggs and like 17 pieces of bread. So we show up expecting other people to have brought stuff too, but really we only had that an some pancake mix the zone leaders brought haha. So everyone got a tiny tiny pancake and a mostly cooked piece of french toast. I think we probably just made the new missionaries trunky but hey, we tried. Haha.  Then after we went to lunch with some of the missionaries in our district with a spanish family and ate delicious chicken with jamón pieces cooked into the inside and mashed potatoes (which we hardly ever get here!) and it was just a delicious meal. And we ate clams...they weren´t bad but I just would rather not. Haha, my mind just cant get over itself sometimes! But yeah they were so good to us and were like ´´Papa Noel left you guys something under the tree too!´´ and they gave us all mugs with the spain flag on them! It was so sweet!

Then we went and skyped our families! ahhhhhhhhhhh It was amazing. I miss my family so much, but mostly I´m just grateful for their influence on me. Some missionaries got off from talking with their families and were trunky for home, I got off and your guys´ words made me wanna work harder, and take advantage of the short time I have left here! I love you so much and it was so good to talk to you! 

So yeah, then after having all those days barely doing any normal missionary work finall friday came and we had a normal day! It was so nice and refreshing to go out and do normal missionary work again. We had an intercambio, which was fun! I stayed in our area and Hermana Smith came to work with me! We did one here last transfer too!  We had a good time and we met with Obi, one of our Nigerian investigators, and after talking to him I promised him we´d go to his church if he´d come to ours the next week. And so skipping ahead a little, I went to the Shining light gospel church yesterday after our church services! Yes my companion and I were the only white people in the building. And there was a drum and they were standing up singing ´´hallelujahs´´ and the preacher was...very very loud and animated and it was an interesting experience. But it was cool and Obi said he knows we love him now, so that´s good!

Also, on our intercambio, so during medio dia (which we have from 2-3 30) after we ate Hermana Smith decided to lay down for a minute cuz she didnt feel good, then i had my hair up, my makeup faded and was writing. Well suddenly the door bell rings, and i walk to the door and there´s Hermana Wilcox and all her family! She ended her mission here in February 2014, and her dad is Brad Wilcox. Like, yes, that Brad Wilcox. Well yeah, thankfully hermana Bangerter and I had cleaned up our piso a little more for intercambios because they all came in and were like talking to us and talking pictures and I felt so gross (I had eaten garlic for lunch and had not brushed my teeth yet haha) but yeah. So Brad Wilcox and his family were in my piso for a little while on Saturday and that was a cool, funny, unexpected experience. Good little reminder to always keep the piso clean just in case another church leader walks in on any random saturday afternoon haha.

And yeah, tons of other funny awesome things happened but I´ll just keep it at that. Oh so many more...Hermana Bangerter and I just have tons of fun together I love this girl so much.  Like it´s borderline too much fun together but we keep it under control most of the time. And she loves preaching the gospel and she loves the Book of Mormon. She´s teaching me so much about appreciating and using my time in the mission to the fullest, I just adore her!

But yes. Good week. Good times. I hope you all had a great week and continue to enjoy ringing in the new year!

I read a lot this week in Alma as he´s giving his sons advice, and one thing that really stood out to me is when he talks about desires (in chapter 40 or 41 of alma) and how God will reward us according to our desires. So if we can train our hearts to truly desire the kingdom of God, we´ll have desires to act accordingly. If we let natural man thoughts enter and take over our minds, naturally those will be the desires of our hearts, and we won´t desire to enter into the kingdom of God in the end.  That escalated rather quickly, haha, I promise my thoughts and studies aren´t so dramatic but I don´t have lots of time on here to explain my thought process, but I invite you all (and myself) to think about that as we enter into 2015, what do our hearts desire, and how can changing our thoughts and words help us refine our desires, so we can feel the Spirit of the Lord more abundantly in our daily lives. He´s always there. He is the Gift.  Free to all those who desire. 

HAVE A GREAT WEEK AND #ShareTheGift o sea #ComparteLaDadiva

Love, Hermana Miller

Alma 41:27