Monday, January 28, 2013

What a week. January 28, 2013

Here's a photo of a sign I painted for a service project with recent converts (I love this family)

and one from the baptism!!



 [I looked it up, and "costureira" means seamstress!]



Oiiiiii,

So, this week was another good one! I feel like all my emails start of like that!! But its true! They have all been good weeks!

We had two baptisms! M. and K.! They are the young kids we have been working with for a while and teaching them a lot. (I think we've been teaching them for over a month and half) And it was so cool to help them get baptized! I love those kids!! Their family is awesome, too! We are working with the rest of them...

Also, this week we have found lots of new investigators and had a lot of progress with a few of the families we have been teaching... I'm not sure if you remember Luis ( I baptized him). We have continued working with his family... And it's been difficult, his dad is a singing pastor for a few churches. He was pretty closed to our messages for a while... and he was one of the 13 investigators that heard about baptisms for the dead... and wasn't happy. But we went there this week and explained it all, and immediately after, he had a testimony of the importance of batismos pelos mortos! haha It was awesome. And now he has quit drinking coffee and he and his wife have a date for baptism this Sunday!

Also, this week, we were at the house of a Sister in the ward, trying to help her come back to church. And one of her little kids came running in and said the train hit a man (the train tracks are right behind her house and we had just heard it go by). So we went running to see what happened, and when we got there there were a few other people looking at him... I checked to see if he was breathing (he wasn't). It was pretty gruesome and sad.

But this week we found his wife and family (4 young kids) and we have an appointment to teach them this Wednesday. I know the message of the Plan of Salvation can bring her comfort and I'm excited to share.

Also, this week we were tracting, clapping doors, and we clapped one and an old lady invited us in. When we got there, we saw 5 young kids sitting on the couch (16 and 17-year-olds) and they all had Bibles ha.. I thought, oh boy, here we go. ha But then we talked to them and found out they were a youth group from another church traveling and sharing scriptures... and we asked if we could share a message with them : ) We shared the message of the Restoration and when I told of the First Vision, one of the  boys cried a little. It was really cool and we all felt the Spirit.  We used lots of scriptures from the Bible, too... because one of them didn't want to read anything out of the Book of Mormon (He probably heard it's "of the devil"), but by the end of the lesson he wanted a copy. They don't live in our area, but we got their addresses and sent them to other missionaries and hopefully they will have success! It was awesome though to teach a youth group, ha.

But thats all for now.... oh! Yes, I would like my jump rope, Mom! Also, thank you for getting all the package ready.

Oh, also this week... We were supposed to hear from Dallin H. Oaks, but he wasn't able to make it, so we heard from the Presiding Bishop and two members of the 70 and it was a super cool experience. It wasn't an apostle, but the next best thing! ha

And I got the Valentine's cards Mom and Dad and Remi!! Thank you. haha Dad, thanks for what you wrote! LOL

But that's all for now,

I'll send pics too.

I love you all!!!

Elder Miller

Monday, January 21, 2013

Oii! January 21, 2013


So, this week was a good one!! We had a baptism! It wasn’t the three I was hoping for... but the other two are for sure getting baptized this coming Sunday. But this week I baptized M. He’s 17 years old and we have been working with him for a couple of weeks... He is an awesome guy, and he’s baptism was a super good experience... I will send pics!

M. and K. were supposed to be baptized this Sunday, too... but they are only 8 years old and their mom wouldn’t sign the ficha.... so we were praying for help and yesterday out of nowhere she said she wanted to sign it! M. and K. are super cool, they have been going to church for the past 5 weeks and they love it. Their aunt is a member and their older brother, too... but the mom doesn’t want to hear the discussions so we have just been teaching them... and I’m super excited for their baptism this coming Sunday.


Yesterday we worked super hard and got 13 investigators to come to church!!! We have classes for the first two hours and sacrament 3rd hour... so we left and ran to our investigators houses and brought 3 more (we already had 10)... and I was super excited because it’s been a while since that many investigators have visited in the same week!!! but then we had a talk in sacrament about baptisms for the dead... and I think we are going to have a lot of fun this week explaining it to our investigators... a few of them were very confused by it and others were a little mad... so it should be a good week! ha


Also, this week, we had a birthday party for a super family we are teaching....A's b-day was the 18th and V's (her brother) was the 19th, so we bought a huge cake and a few little presents and it was awesome.. The mom was so happy!!!


We also gave haircuts to M. and his friend because he wanted to look good for his baptism ha.

But that’s my week... I’m going to send some pictures too.

Also if you didn’t send the package yet id love it if you could put a workout band in there (mine broke this week... it was just a latex band)


But that’s all for now!

I love you all,
Elder Miller

Friday, January 18, 2013

"Spet"? January 14, 2013


 
Oiii,

So first things first... update on the animals in my apartment... I think the last one I wrote about was the rat. We killed it and spet [???] it out the apartment ha. But my new companion really likes to clean which is nice... and he was cleaning our room... and he found to brown recluses under my bed :) I’m glad he found them before they found me! ha Sorry Mom. You asked.

Also, I got the package from sister Quesada... please tell her thank you for me! I loved the tie!

Thank you for putting money in my account BTW! Things I wouldn’t mind adding to the package... peanut butter...
So this week, we have been working hard. Elder A Silva ha fogo nos ossos... fire in the bones... and we have been going to town. We marked 16 dates for baptism... and we are having a baptismal service of 3 this week!! We are helping four investigators quit smoking, too... and they each gave us their last pack of cigarettes. It was really cool, and three of them haven’t smoked since... were still working with K... she’s having a hard time.

Also, this week we had 7 investigators in church and they all loved it and want to go again next week. I don’t know if I mentioned this, but one of the wealthy people in the ward pays for a bus to pick up members and investigators. And this week I had to know where everyone lived in the area... and we have a really big area... but I did it without any problems, so I am pretty proud of that!

This keyboard is terrible by the way, so lots of the spelling problems aren’t actually me. Ha
But that’s pretty much my week. I got all your emails that you sent to the wrong address... R. (who’s not a member yet) and C. both helped me out so that was very nice of them ha. I’m glad to know you didn’t forget about me here : ) But thank you for everything.
I will send some picture real quick too.

I love you all,

Elder Miller
 

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Pics from Ponta Grossa January 8, 2013

 
Top to Bottom:
Ponta Grossa Brazil
 
Elder Miller finally got his missionary bear from Jaimee!
 
Luis' Baptism
 
Doing Service?

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Finally! January 8, 2013

So, this week has been crazy!!!!

I'll start with the good news... we had a baptism! His name is Luis and he is an elect! He's only 13 and he's been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy and memorized everything we taught him... and now he is already talking about serving a mission!! And his family is all progressing too, they are all awesome and hopefully we will baptize his mom and younger brother this week!

So the sad news... I lost my trainer... He's in Curitiba now as a Zone Leader there... and my new comp will arrive tomorrow. His name is Elder A. Silvia and he is Brazilian.. and he sounds like a cool guy... but I'm a little sad to have lost my trainer already... it very unusual to loose a trainer after one transfer, but for some reason a few of the new missionaries, including me, are getting new trainers... and it's a little nerve racking, because my new comp has never been to Ponta Grossa, so I have to know all the people and where they live... but I think I will be OK. Ha I have been praying a lot this week! But Elder Arriola was a good comp and we were getting a long really well together so it's sad that he's gone... But I guess it's time to learn from Elder A. Silvia now.

So yesterday my comp went to Curitiba and I'm here now with the Zone Leaders waiting for my comp to arrive... and yesterday I didn't email because we were cleaning an apartment for sisters because they are opening a new area in our zone... so we cleaned all day haha Best p-day ever!

But that's all for this week, please keep me in your prayers... I need them like crazy ha.
And why haven't you written an email for the past two weeks? Clearwater looks fun and I want to hear about it! I love you all!

Love, Elder Miller


[We did write our Elder the past two weeks. But we all write on one email and for the past two weeks they got sent to the wrong email address. But thanks to Elder Miller's wonderful friends in Ponta Grossa, he got to read his emails this morning! But boy did it break my heart to find out he hadn't gotten anything but the pictures I'd sent!!!]