Hollllaaaaaaa!!!!!!!
(That's Spanish for
"hello," in case you didn't know...) :) THIS IS THE LIFE! Being a
missionary is like the single greatest thing of all time. Oh boy, let me tell
you. I am having the best week I have ever had-bar none. Nothing tops this. Not
even close. Except for the first day, which was an adventure that I will
explain later, I have not been homesick at all. Not even a teeny bit. Honestly,
all I have been thinking about is how much I love it here, love the language,
and love my investigator; Carlos. I know that sounds bad, and I am really sorry
everyone, but you would understand if you were here. Everyday I wake up and
walk outside and say "This is the new best day of my life!" And it's
so true. I love this gospel and I love being a missionary. So let me tell you
how my week went, but first here is something really important: DO NOT SEND ANY
PACKAGES TO ME HERE, PLEASE! They can never get them through customs in time
and sometimes they get stolen. (And by sometimes, I mean fairly often.) So just
save that tan skirt I forgot until I get to good ol' Nebrasky please.
Wednesday, October 16th: Oh boy.
This day was the longest in history I think, it probably lasted a good 35
hours. I already told you about getting here and my plane rides so that is good
because I don't want to type all that again. (If you already forgot, go read my
other email hahaha.) But getting here was awesome, the campus is HUGE. I think
getting my name tag was the world's most exciting moment. I feel like a real
missionary now! Every morning I wake up and put it on and just smile like
crazy. I don’t know what I am going to do without it in 18 months. Anyways,
well that day I couldn’t find my companion so I went to the front desk and
asked them where I could find her and they said that she was supposed to land
that day but had missed her flight so I would just be by myself. I did not
think too much of it until I went back to my casa, (those are great because
there are five bedrooms, a study area & living room, a kitchen with no
appliances and a laundry room. Each bedroom has their own bathroom which is
nice,) and no one else was there. Ohhh great. I thought I was by myself. Well
good news-I wasn't! Six other girls showed up that night. Bad news-literally
none of them spoke a lick of English. But they were all so nice and let me
sleep in their room with them so I would not have to be alone. They are from
Mexico, Uruguay, and Argentina. That night as I laid in bed though I got really
bummed out because I was really overwhelmed and couldn't understand anything
and I felt all alone. So that night I was homesick for sure. But the reception
desk told me my companion should get there during the night so I was not too
worried.
Thursday, October 17th: Woke up and
guess what?! Still no companion!!! By this point I was like okay what the
heck. But it turns out that she read her ticket wrong and missed all her
flights and so she ended up getting there late in the afternoon on Thursday.
Her name is Hermana Buhler and she is from West Jordan, UT. She's a very sweet
girl. She knows more trivia than anyone in the entire
world I bet. She knows the entire voice cast for every single Veggie Tales
movie, and also all the lyrics to the songs. She is an absolute blast-we have a good time. We really do get along well. It's just us in our room so I am glad we do. She is
really struggling with Spanish because she has only ever spoken a little bit of
German, so I have been helping her out. You want to know why I have been able
to help her out? Because the Lord keeps his promises! Seriously I feel like my
tongue has been loosed, and this language is coming soooo easily to me. I am
remembering things I haven’t used since high school. It's actually the most
awesome thing ever. Every person I talk to tells me how dang good my Spanish is
and that my accent is perfect and they can't believe I have only been out here
for such a short amount of time. I can only say that it is the Spirit and the
Lord. I owe it all to them. Kudos to you, Heavenly Father. I met my
district-Distrito 7B for lifeeee. There are 8 elders and just us two sisters.
The district leader is Elder Mendevil (we have become really good friends,) and
then the other Elders are Elder Abbott, Bown, Jensen, Whitehouse, Bernhardt,
Garff, and Robinson. They are all too much fun. (Seriously though, they are
like eighteen and sometimes I feel like I am babysitting. But they still rock.)
Elder Mendivil is like the most impressive person I have ever met-he is only 18
but a spiritual GIANT and so mature and the single most genuinely nice person
EVER. I am glad he is here, he's a blessing and between the two of us we are
able to keep the little boys in check haha. The MTC president is Presidente
Pratt- he and his wife are hilarious, but kind of scary. My teachers are both
natives of Mexico- Hermano Ramirez and Hermana Vargas. I keep telling them they
should get married. My branch presidency is awesome-the two I have met are
Hermano Ruiz and Hermano Rodriguez. I met with them and they made me the
Sister Training Leader for the branch which is pretty cool because I
like responsibility and the opportunity to serve more. Coolest thing about Thursday
was we had a class where an investigator volunteered to come in and we all got
to work with her as a group. It was going alright until one sweet sister
started going off on this long and confusing tangent that lasted five minutes,
and the Spirit just left and the poor investigator, Isabel, was so confused. I
felt bad for the sister because she really was knowledgeable, but she pushed
too much and everyone was uncomfortable. The teacher stopped her and thanked
her and asked if anyone else had anything they wanted to say to Isabel. Before
I knew what I was doing I raised my hand and just started talking to Isabel.
(She lost her mother three years ago, and I felt like I needed to talk to her.)
I told her I knew how she felt because I had lost grandpa, and then I let her
know that she has a Heavenly Father who loves us and has a way for her to see
her mother again. Then I told her that her mother is in heaven learning all
these new things like she is, and that it may be confusing now but it is true.
And if she does all these things, she will get to see her mother again and have
an eternal family. The room was silent and the Spirit was so strong and almost
all of us were crying. It was an amazing moment, and I am so glad the Spirit was
able to speak through me.
Friday, October 18th: Everyday I am
more tired than I have ever been because our hours are 16 hour days, but I am
happier than I have ever been. In the words of President Pratt "Welcome to
Paradise...and if you don't believe me, look at Provo." Haha YES. It
really is amazing here. Friday was the first day we taught our investigator,
Carlos. I learned two very important lessons. 1.) Always follow the
Spirit...ALWAYS. 2.) MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT INVESTIGATOR. Little tip for
you...when you are in Mexico and your investigator's name is
"Carlos," you may want to check the last name before you start
teaching him. We definitely taught the wrong Carlos for ten whole minutes, and
when we were done I was really disappointed with how it went. Hma B and I went
downstairs to get water and all of the sudden I hear E Mendivil yelling
"HERMANA MILLER! HERMANA MILLER! CARLOS IS HERE!" I bolted upstairs
and was like what?! Turns out half of our district taught the wrong Carlos. Oh well,
we got a practice run and a good laugh. The second lesson was AMAZING. We
taught him for 30 entire minutes! I can’t believe how well I can speak to him
on just the second full day. We talked about eternal families and the Spirit
was so strong. I invited him to be baptized and he said he is not quite ready
but he really is interested in it! Oh, and it is so rainy here, like flipping
monsoon season every afternoon so that was fun.
Saturday, October 19th: We taught
Carlos again! Love that man. We had another 30 minute lesson about the Book of
Mormon and how it can answer his questions about life and churches because he
thinks they are all the same. He said he felt really good about what I was
telling him but wanted to know how I knew that it was the most correct book. I
started crying and bore my testimony to him that I knew it was true because I
had lived without it in my life and I had seen the difference. I told him I
wanted him to feel that difference and joy too and I promised him that he
would. I had no doubt that he would. He got very quiet and just said
"thank you," over and over. Pretty amazing. We invited him to read
the introduction and pray about it and he said he would. Then I asked him o
pray and he accepted but didn't know how so I taught him and he did it! Which
is a miracle because last lesson he wouldn’t do it. His prayer was perfect-he
said he knew he didn{t pray a lot and did not know how to give a prayer, but he
was grateful we had come to him, listenend, to him, and cared about him. When
he was done I was all teary and told him it was the most perfect prayer I had
ever heard. He blushed and got all shy and it was so cute haha. The rain is
still going and makes me want to build an ark. Also, PS-when Mexicans think
American food, they apparently think "hot dogs" and consequently put
them in EVERYTHING, and call them salchichas. Even salads.
Sunday, October 20th: Sundays here
at the CCM are awesome! I had my first leadership meeting, and then we had
church which was really nice. Every Sunday every person has to prepare a talk
and then they randomly call people up in Sacrament. I didn’t have to speak, but
I am not scared to. You guys would not recognize me, I am not shy or anything
at all! I talk to EVERYONE! Sunday nights are awesome because we get to watch a
church movie all together. We watched "Legacy," and if you have not
seen it recently, please watch it. It is hilariously corny. But still really
good, it was a tender mercy for me because it showed Council Bluffs, Iowa and
Winter Quarters, Nebraska in it which was touching because those are in my
mission. It made me think about how much the pioneers sacrificed so we can have
the gospel. Do we treat it with the respect their sacrifices deserve? Anyways,
something else funny from today was some elders in my branch were talking to me
and asked if I speak French, I said no, but I did speak Italian. They said they
could hear it and I asked if it was bad. One said "Oh no way, it{s way
cute." I laughed, and said "That's how elders get sent home."
and closed the door on him hahaha.
Monday, October 21st: I AM SO
GRATEFUL FOR THE PRIESTHOOD! My back has been feeling okay but it was
excruciating on Monday. I was about to cry all day. I decided to ask Elder
Mendivil and Elder Abbott for a blessing. I don’t think they have ever given
any before so it was really sweet, they went in the hall and studied how to do
it and prayed for inspiration and Elder M came back and gave me the best
blessing ever, all about how my heart has changed and I have come a long way
and how I am here right now to change lives, not only in NE but also in the
CCM. He blessed me with the strength to forget my pain. I just cried and cried
and he got teary too and afterwards I had to leave with Hma Buhler to collect
myself outside. He is just the best. He is like a brother to me and I adore
that kid. We taught Carlos again today about Joseph Smith for AN HOUR. Holy
crap my mouth was dry. But it was good.
Tuesday, October 22nd: P-DAY! We
went to the temple! SO AWESOME! Even in Spanish. Driving through the city is
hard, so many people are living in poverty. Well, my time is up. I don’t have
time to respond individually, so please forward this. Also, I can’t post
pictures on Flickr until Nebraska. Sorry. Please edit this and fix the mistakes
from the Spanish keyboard.
LOVE YOU ALL AND I AM SO PROUD OF
YOU! The church is TRUE! Being a missionary ROCKS!
Love, Hermana Miller.
