#64

So this week was basically the craziest week ever. But ever. I have never been so stressed and never had so much fun and ah, I enjoyed every minute of it. For the most part haha.

So one of our amazing investigators, Evans, he´s from Nigeria. He is the one who said ´´do you have my bible?´´ the second day we met him, that´s how bad he wanted the Book of Mormon! Well, we saw him basically everyday this past week and he has taught me so much! 

We were with him, and we were just answering all of these really sincere questions he has about the nature of God and about the mosaic law and things like that. Well, we had had a couple of lessons with him up until this point, and he is just one of the most amazing people I´ve ever met! You can tell by the way he talks and acts that he honestly just wants to obey God. Sometimes teaching people about the law of chastity can be a little hard or awkward, but i could just tell that we needed to teach him all of the commandments as soon as possible, because he´s the type of person who wants to know them so he can live them. So this week we taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ, the word of wisdom, the law of chastity and tithing and fasting, and wow, his reactions are just incredible! Because he accepts everything, but not just in a way where you´re like, ´´okay, do you really understand what we´re teaching..?´´ but instead he asks good questions and verifies what they all mean.  When we taught him about the word of wisdom, and we told him it´s a commandment of God that we don´t drink coffee and tea, he asked, ´´oh, that is sin?´´ and when we told him yes, he said, ´´okay, it will be no problem then.´´ What an example of obedience! Hermana Read and I were talking about it, and kind of just asking ourselves if we were like that. Do we hear every word and command from the prophets and apostles, and recieve them with attitudes of ´´oh, that is sin? okay.´´ Do we recieve the counsels from our leaders and bishops and stake presidents and mission presidents and joyfully respond, ´´Oh, that is sin? Thank you for telling me so I can change!´´ If we all received counsel that way we would be happier and I know our Heavenly Father would be pleased, because part of the blessing of keeping the commandments is that inner peace that we are changing, and the happy attitude is part of the blessing! I don´t know...I just know I have a lot to change to become more like Evans. 

And we saw the biggest miracle with him yesterday. So, he has been planning on being baptized on April 4th. On saturday night we had a lesson in the church with our ward mission leader and his wife, and as we were walking there Evans told us that he couldn´t come to church on sunday. He said he was so sad about it, but that he doesnt have a job. He has been looking for one, and the only one he has found is for sunday mornings.  He goes from8am to 2pm and gets paid after right on the spot. It´s the money he gives to his roommates to contribute to his part of the food for the week. If he doesnt go sunday morning, he wont have any money for to give to the food fund. We told him to pray about it, and to keep looking for another job, and that God would guide the way. But we told him for the time being we understand, and our ward mission leader told him that God does want us to be self sufficient and work. So that´s where we left off on Saturday night. Well, Sunday morning while getting ready, that´s all i could think about. Just thinking about all the people that we beg to come to church, but that don´t want to come or get up early, but could totally go. I thought about all the times it´s been hard for me to want to go. And I thought about Evans, he just told us that it breaks his heart to not be able to go, because he knows that ´´Sundayis a day for God´´ he told us, and that he just wants to worship God on that day. Well, suddenly at 8am, the phone rings, and Evans told us to meet him at 10 in the park, and we were all going to walk to church. We just started tearing up and got on our knees and thanked God, we didn´t know how it had happened, but Evans was coming to church and was going to be able to feel of the spirit there is there, and the peace that comes from obeying the commandments. 

We saw him at 10 and he told us that all night he just hadn´t felt comfortable, and that he knew he needed to worship God on sunday by going to church. So we went, and luckily lots of our members are americans (from the military base close by) and others speak english, and one of the missionaries was always translating for him. But he felt the love of all the members, and even though he doesn´t know what he´s going to do this week for food, he knows he did what God wanted him to do. So please, keep him in your prayers. He is one of the most obedient, amazing people I know. And I know God will provide for him. I can´t imagine how it must make God feel, to see His children obey Him, and with happy hearts. Children that trust Him, and trust His promises. Now i´m not saying everyone should give up their jobs to come to church, I´m not even sure I would have the faith to do that if I was in a foreign country with no family to provide for me if I don´t have money- but I am grateful for Evans´ example. That is discipleship. That is giving up everything, and not begrudgingly, but with pure desires to keep every commandment of God. That is understanding that commandments are there to guide us, help us, and push us to reach true and full happiness.

So yeah, that´s all I have time for! But it was a great week, a fun week, and a miracle week! Love you all!

Love, Hermana Miller

Alma 38:10-12

#63

So....I love Dos Hermanas! 

Surprise, Surpise. The Lord knows what we need better than we do. If I didn´t already know that before this last transfer has been just another testimony to me of that truth. I love this little town! Ah, it seriously is the cutest. I´ve always served in places with big buildings, but here in Dos Hermanas there are lots of little houses, and the biggest buildings only go up 2 levels! And it´s just little and cute and the most spanish place I´ve ever served in. It kind of stresses me out because there are tons and tons of little streets and I don´t know how i´m going to learn it, but I figure I´ll eventually get it with time...

So yeah. And Hermana Read. So basically it´s the best thing ever because I thought I knew her sort of well, and I already really liked her and had hoped to serve with her one day, but I actually came to find out that I didnt actually know her and I love her more than i ever thought I would! She has so many similarities to Taylor S. and ah, it makes me so happy! Several times a day she reminds me of Tay and I am just having a blast with her. And it also doesn´t hurt that she knows spanish perfectly and she´s helping me out with mine! I may have never had a native companion but i get american companions who know it well and can explain to me why things are the way they are so that´s a blessing! 

So last week was full of hard goodbyes and food and fun! On pday we went and ate at an american restaurant here and it felt like we were in america, except for that there werent as many options and it was more expensive...I´m not going to say anything negative about spainish restaurant service but...let´s just say I´m grateful for america and for real hamburgers and for options and for free refills. :)

But we had fun, i was there with some of my very best friends. 

For the last couple weeks of last transfer, I don´t know if i ever mentioned this but we went several times in the mornings running to a fútbol field to play soccer with the elders for exercise time!  It was so fun, they are a trio, elder Lindley, Martín, and Alomia, so we were allowed to be with just them. So Hermana Jones and I got really close to them, we would eat lunch together lots and play soccer lots of mornings and so it was hard to leave them! But yeah, on the last morning there were lots of missionaries in Málaga, because all of the trainers came in early, so we all ran to that futbol field and there were like 17 missionaries playing soccer at 7am. It was awesome! 

Then the rest of Tuesday morning we went in and met the new missionaries, ran from cita to cita saying goodbye to people. It was crazy and there wasn´t time for all of it but we got almost everything done that we needed to. I still hadn´t packed and it was like 12 hours before i needed to leave. Needless to say I stayed up all night long packing and writing notes to people that i´m pretty sure didnt even make sense because i was half asleep the whole time..but yeah, anyway, by 9 the next morning we had headed out! (I left like tons of stuff in my piso because I knew i´d be coming back to málaga soon). But yeah, went, said goodbye to people at the train station, cried a little and asked the natives why they have to live in spain and told them to come to America, said goodbye to Hermana Merrill (so lucky to have served by her for 6 weeks!), and got on a fast train to Dos Hermanas! As i got on i just wanted to sleep, but i sat next to an italian couple and we talked in english for a while, then i slept, but when i woke back up we talked some more, and it turns out she went to an LDS baptism for a boy in her school when she was 8! How cool is that? and so i asked if she´d like to talk to the missionaries in Italy and she said yes! So yeah, I have to pass her information over, but it was way cool! And I thought about Lucia and told her I had a friend there haha. 

The train ride didn´t last very long at all and I got to Dos Hermanas in like 2 hours! It was nice though because I got there right before medio dia! So i had time to rest and unpack and we went to the grocery store. Our piso isn´t too bad! I have my own bathroon, we share a shower but it´s so nice to have your own bathroom! And they just moved into this piso recently, like a couple months ago, so it´s nice and not cluttered.  This building has an elevator, and it doesnt actually work most of the time but thankfully it worked for my first day (that´s the only time we´ve taken it actually) and it got my suitcases upstairs, so that was a tender mercy! 

This place also has a terrace, so even if my comp doesnt want to run outside i can run out there! It´s lots of little circles but hey, I´m sweating so i figure it works haha. 

Dos Hermanas has a new church building as of a few months ago, and it´s literally the nicest church i´ve ever been in! IT HAS CARPET. I never see carpet in Spain. It´s awesome. And there are some military families that come to our church, so they´re american! It´s weird talking to americans at church, it just doesn´t feel normal...but it´s fun and i like the variety of americans, spanish people, and south americans. Not many nigerians though..yet. 2 days ago we were teaching this nigerian man, and his friend walked by, we asked if we could give him a book of Mormon. He said yes and gave us his number. Then yesterday, we went to teach his friend again, and he was there and he was like, ´´did you bring me my bible?´´ and luckily we were close to our piso so we ran back and got him a book of mormon in english! 

We explained it to him and he loved it! He has lots of good questions and we´re really excited, so i´ll keep you posted on that. 

We´ve seen lots of miracles already, and have talked with lots of cool people! This place hasn´t had a baptism in like 2 years or something, but last week Hermana Read and her old companion baptized the son of a woman who was inactive for like 20 years! He´s 14 and so cute! This ward is awesome, and we have lots of support. Also our ward mission leader is like the best in the world. I´m so excited to work with these people. Haha, also, funny story, so we go to these one investigators´ house, and we´re talking for a while, then this guy walks in and they´re like talking in the corner and we hear the investigator say something about ´´they´re missionaries dont worry they´re not going to say anything´´ and then they exchanged money and some green stuff that I´m pretty sure was meth haha and then we just continue talking about the book of mormon. They kept asking us questions about our lives and how we stay chaste until marriage and we talked about how we don´t date while we´re in the mission. But yeah apparently i didnt make that point clear because at the end i asked the drug dealer guy if he wanted a book of mormon and he said yes, so then i asked for his number and they all just start laughing and my comp is like ´´they think you´re asking him because you´re interested in him´´ and i´m like, ´´we want your number so we can talk about...the book´´ but apparently i said ´´book´´ with a weird intonation and it sounded even more sketchy than before and they were just all laughing and i´m pretty sure they were high, but we just walked out. Haha, the gospel is for everyone but yeah...not every moment is the best time to try and share it with them i think. Haha

But yes, I´m very content and happy here! Well i´m actually back in Málaga right now for concilio, so that´s fun! Spending pday here. But yes, i love Dos Hermanas, i kinda got sick after my all nighter, and have been constantly having a runny nose...but i´m getting better now! And the weather in Dos is great! It´s already getting really hot during the middle of the day, so i´m scared to see what the spring brings haha! 

Love, Hermana Miller

Alma 19:33

#62

So this week has been crazy. Full of joy and beauty and talks and other churches and I´ve loved it. Haha.

So for starters last week on Pday we went to a huge, beautiful Catholic Cathedral. It was big and gorgeous! It always surprises me that there are no pictures of Christ resurrected in their churches...they´re very dark and solemn,  but stunning.  I have to send you pictures!!!

So this week we got several surprise calls from people wanting to learn aobut the gospel. One of them was a woman who knows one of the members of our church. He talked to her about the gospel then gave her our number! We went and taught her in the church and set a baptismal date with her!...She happens to live in the elders area (ha, this always happens where the people live in the elders area not ours). Oh and i forgot to mention, Our mission had a goal this last week to set 250 baptismal dates, so we worked super hard, and as a companionship we got 7! We´re really excited. The mission as a whole got 252, and there were 14 baptisms this weekend! It was a good week. But yeah, one of our friends with a baptismal date, Johnny, he came to church for the second time yesterday and the youth were so good with him, and made sure he went with them to class and ah...it was awesome. 

Also, funny story. So last week a man in our ward spoke, and he said that as he has been a member of the church he has learned how to speak in public, and he doesn´t mind it. Well...i dont like speaking in public. In English or Spanish. But i was thinking, ´´wow, i want to change that weakness into a strength!´´ So, what do i do? Well that night i pray to be able to love public speaking. And, just as i said in my talk in front of our ward on sunday, I´m here to tell you that the Lord answers our prayers. Hahaha, two days later a man in our ward calls me to speak. I haven´t seen a missionary speak in this ward, i dont think they normally do...but yeah, the Lord was willing to arrange something for me haha. So yeah, i spoke on how the worth of every soul is great in the eyes of God, and He wants us to ask questions, and search and once we find the truth, through Jesus Christ, it changes our hearts (Alma 5:6-7). Then with that change of heart we recieve desires to share the gospel, and it converts into being a joy rather than an obligation. It went well, I think! Once i got up there i wasnt nervous, but it´s just been a long time since i´ve spoken in front of that many people! In Benidorm there were only ever like, 40 people in the congregation, and in our zone meetings we speak in front of like 34 ish missionaries! Haha. So 130 was bigger, but it was fine. 

I saw a lot of my weaknesses this week also. So that was...fun. No, but it was just a testimony to me of Ether 12:27, that the closer we come to God, the more we can see our weaknesses. But I know He gives us strength, and I found a lot of strength in the sacrament. I need to go to church, every week, to feel that strength. I depend on Him so much. 

Also, another cool thing! So I went on an intercambio this week in a gorgeous place called Fuengirola, and we worked in a soup kitchen! I seriously LOVED it. I really was working as hard as i could, and I would love to do that all the time. I loved being able to talk to all the people, from many different countries and serve them hot food, most of them dont get a hot meal except for that one time a week, and ah, it just filled me to be able to talk to them, hear about their lives, and try to serve them in the smallest way. I hope to do that more when I go back.

Then later in the week we got another call from a woman who got a pass along card from a missionary in the street, went to mormon.org, talked to someone who lives in the United States, and he searched for missionaries here for her, and she called us! So we went and taught her at the church too, and her friend! Set baptismal dates with them too! ...They live in the elders area, but it´s all good! Good thing the elders in our ward are literally the best missionaries I´ve ever met, so i love passing people to them! I´m like, these investigators are lucky to be taught by such good Elders. Haha. Really though.

We also started teaching the bishop´s daughter´s boyfriend. He´s been in a lot of our family home evenings we have every week, but just this last week we officially started teaching him. Things are going well, but pray for him, his name is Samuel and his baptismal goal is March 08!

Also, our other friend with a baptism date is Eugenia, and she´s wonderful! She´s the one who cried when she saw the Book of Mormon.  She is trying to overcome some hard things so she can be baptized, but she REALLY wants to, so keep her in your prayers, too. 

Thank you so much! I love you all!

Love, Hermana Miller

1 Nephi 20:11