30 June 2014

Hello Family and Friends,

 

Another transfer has passed and a new one begins, and unfortunately it will be the last. This past transfer was the best of my mission. Elder Aires and I had accomplished our goal of baptizing 7 people this month and our zone achieved 18 which was also tied for the best this month in the mission. Although this was great for the mission, church, and lives of these 18 individuals I say this was the best transfer for me because it was the transfer in which I finally woke up. I was able to look deep down within in me to see what strengths and weaknesses I have and what I need to do differently to help more people and myself get closer to God. I look to apply the things I learned in this transfer so that I can finish my mission with honor and give a boost to my life back home.

 

So Elder Aires finished his mission today, it is very sad because he really is one of the best missionaries of this mission. I will be staying in Medianeira and I will be companions with Elder S. Silva from Bahia, the Northeastern part of Brazil. We will finish our missions together. You all are probably asking yourselves why is this happening. It is because the President plans on taking out the ZL's of the area and placing the assistants in our place so that they can be examples for the rest of the mission. This transfer I will be doing a lot of divisions with the assistants so they can get to know the area, members, and investigators. I will finish my mission as ZL with another ZL who is finishing his mission. It will be cool and kind of dull at the same time because together we will have a lot of success due to the experience that we both have however dull however really trunky. I really wanted to train a new ZL but that won't be the case. I have always wanted this on my mission to really train someone but I only had one transfer with that priviledge.

Moreover, we had 4 baptisms this past weekend. Pedro, Willian, Guilherme, and Bruno were all baptized. They were references from a member of the ward. I will work hard this transfer in order to baptize the rest of their families especially their parents whom are progressing. the baptism was awesome.

 

 President Castro and Sister Castro showed up which was nice. It was a real miracle that they came because at the last second we needed President to do an interview because Guilherme, who had participated in all the lessons, decided he wanted to be baptized when he saw his brother Pedro dressed all in white. It was not planned that the President would come to the baptism but it was inspired in order for him to do that baptism interview with Guilherme. He said in his interview that he wanted to be baptized because he wanted to follow God.

 

Today we went to Harmony which is a Gaúcho festival in Porto Alegre. Everything Gaúcho is there. A member of the church who has a cabin there invited our zone and we had a good Gaúcho lunch. We took a lot of photos and had a great time.

 

Germany plays tonight here in my area. You can hear the screams from the stadium. Brazil advanced which means that we will have to stay indoors during their next game. I am excited to hear that the United States is playing well.

Tomorrow it is that routine again, go to the bus station, pick up my new comp, take him to the new area, show what has been going down the past couple months, and then get to work. I know that these last weeks of mission will be the best. I ask for your many prayers for us and our investigators.

 

 

 

Thanks for all the support,

Lots of Love

Elder Miller

24 June 2014

 

Hello Family and Friends, 

Before starting this e-mail I have to mention that this week, the 27th, is my Mom's Birthday, Yay! I will sing the Brazilian birthday song to you.

Parabéns pra você, nessa data querida, muitas felicidades, muitos anos de vida!  

Translating it means, congratulations to you, on this special day, lots of happiness, and years to come. The divine calling that Heavenly Father gave to his daughters was chance to become mothers or the chance to give life to others. I can't think of anything more grand than that, and I thank Heavenly Father that I earned a place in your family. I have your present here with me and in a little while I will give it to you. Happy Birthday Mom, I hope that it is the best yet.

Well we got to go to the temple this week which was a good experience. There is always something magnificent to learn there. This is a great privledge that we have as missionaries of the Porto Alegre missions. We get to go to the temple almost every two months!

The work is progressing in Medianeira. When we are not baptizing the other companionship is. By the way there are two companionships working in the ward. There are activities in the chapel every week. We have various investigators going to church. We will have a baptism this Saturday and hopefully others on Sunday. My companion is showing no signs of being "trunky" with only this last week left on the mission.

 

 

Things are getting tenser with Brazil going to the next round in the world cup. Yesterday we were in the center and there was a full blown platoon of soldiers attending to the strike that was going on against the games. Brazil is a country where the people like to voice their opinion. Tomorrow Argentina plays here in Porto Alegre. Apparently thousands of Argentines are coming to the city to watch the game. Oh and the stadium in which they will play is part of my area in Medianeira, the stadium Beira Rio! That is cool, is it not? You will get a clear view of where I am working right now. Maybe you will see me on T.V. in the streets of the neighborhood on the other side of the stadium.

Well that is all the news for now. Next week will be a new transfer. I will make it the best.

 

 

Lots of Love, 

Elder Miller

16 June 2014

Hello Family and Friends, 

The world cup is going on right now, I am sure that you are all aware. There is not much world cup buzz here in Porto Alegre. I hear that in other states in Brazil they are going crazy for soccer. We have a rule that when Brazil plays we have to go to our apartment a hour before the game and stay there until a hour after the game has ended. In total it is about 4 hours in our apartment listening to the shouts and greets of fans cheering for Brazil. There is a neighbor in the other building that has a big flat screen TV so I am not totally out of the game. When we are walking in the streets I also get to see some highlights every now and then.

 

These next two weeks we are working hard in order to finish the month with 7 baptisms! I am stoked and it will happen according to our faith and work ethic. We are working like never before, but the world cup is interfering a bit and last week it rained for 2 days straight. Elder Aires is showing no signs of slowing down until the end of the transfer which is 2 weeks away. I think our zone will be able to achieve more than 20 baptisms this month. That would be my best month as a zone leader. I am praying hard that this all happens. I can't think of a better way of finishing the mission than baptisms and hard work.

 

Before I finish this e-mail I would like to congratulate all the fathers in my life this Father's day. My Dad, Grandpa, Oupa, Per, Lars, and all the other that are reading this e-mail. Personally, my Dad is superman to me. I am grateful that my Heavenly Father gave me the parents that I have. They are the best!

My parcel arrived this week which was a relief. Thank you for all the goodies. I will cook the brownies with our recent converts here. I liked the booklets that the Lofstrand family made me. Oh, and the birthday card was priceless. The monkey with the bad to the bone music. I get a kick every time I open it. So I received 100% of all the packages that you all sent me. That is definitely not normal. Usually the American missionaries lose a few on the mission but I got all of them which was a great blessing. So you liked the picture of me with the rooster. Yeah it is Maria pet. It is crazy you can pet the rooster and he falls asleep.

 

 

That is all for now,

Lots of Love,

Elder Miller

9 June 2014

Hello Family and Friends,

Thank you for all of your prayers this week for they were anwsered.  Maria, Luis Felipe, and Nicolas were baptized this past weekend due to the power of prayer. Friday night Nicolas was baptized by Wilker, Nicolas's next door neighbor whom gave us the reference. Nicolas's family went to his baptism and had an uplifting experience. For sure they will be baptized inasmuch as Nicolas continues to exercise his faith. 

 

Saturday was the baptism of Maria and Luis Felipe which completed the family. Now they are all members of the church. The missionaries had been trying for years to baptize Maria and after much effort they conceded. Upon meeting Maria Elder Aires and I knew that we were prepared to teach and baptize her and it happened. The change that each one of these individuals experienced was tremendous. They are totally different people. Happy people, people that are now closer to God. I am grateful to be but a mere instrument in God's hand to help his children come back to him.

 

 

This week was very eye-opening for me in that many of my flaws and weaknesses were presented to me. I know that I am full of defects and faults as a human and follower of Christ and I am grateful that they were shown to me. Now that I am aware I know what I need to do in order to overcome these obstacles and become more like Christ, our perfect example. So this was God's lesson for me this past week that you can never be satisfied because there is always something that needs to be improved, and if you wait for someone else to resolve the problem you will never win the race. A missionary once told me the satisfied animal sleeps or in other words when the animal eats and is filled he goes to sleep. We can never stop improving ourselves for progression is part of the plan of God and if we want to progress eternally we will have give our 100% to God now.

Lots of Love,

Elder Miller

 

2 June 2014

Hello Family and Friends, 

My birthday last week turned out to be one of the best birthdays ever. One of the sisters in our Ward planned a surprise birthday party with some of our young investigators from her condominium. We arrived for a family night which was really this surprise birthday party. They had made cake and bought balloons and soda. We taught a few lessons that night to these investigator's families and all-in-all it was a really good day.

The missionary work is progressing quickly here in Medianeira. We will have 3 baptisms this Saturday, Maria, Luis Felipe, and Nicolas. Maria and Luis Felipe Mother and Son, and are eternal investigators since about 8 years back and we will baptize them this week! Nicolas is a young teenager that was a reference from one of the members in the Ward. We are working hard to get his whole family to go to church which has been a challenge but it is going to happen one of these days.

Last night my companion had an allergic reaction to something that he ate so we spent the night at the hospital. His face puffed up, his eye became swollen, and his throat closed up. We got home around 2 in the morning and then we had to go back to the hospital a few hours later. That is why I am writing so late today because I just took like a 5 hour nap to recuperate. He is slowly getting better and in a little bit we will back firing on all pistons.

Other than the baptisms this Saturday we are really focused on the Ward game show activity that we are putting together. It is a 4 week game show so every Friday the 4 organizations, Young Women, Young Men, Elders, and Relief Society, we be competing in variety of different things such as, Theater, Music, and Dance. Based on the quality and attendance from these organizations they will be rewarded points and the team with the most points will win a prize from the bishopric in the end. It should bring in a whole lot of in-actives and investigators so we are stoked.  

That is all for this week,

Pray for Maria, Luis Felipe, and Nicolas 

Lots of love, Elder Miller