12/2/13
Wowwww I have so much
to say and soooo little time! Heart attack time! What a humbling and incredible
week!
First of all, it is no
secret that I have been a little hesitant about Nebraska, but as the plane was
flying over the state and I was looking around I just got this overwhelming
feeling that this is where I am supposed to be. I am so grateful to be here. And
speaking of being grateful, this was the best Thanksgiving EVER! WE spent our
Thanksgiving at the Mormon Trail Center at the Winter Quarters temple.
IN-CRE-DI-BLE. We have so much to be thankful for, everyone! These people gave
up everything for this gospel and to ensure that we could have it as well. We
have eternal families and temples. We have the true and restored gospel! We
have countless blessings! And now we need to make sure we live in a way that
honors the sacrifices of the early Saints and Christ and also live in a way
that ensures we are worthy of those blessings. I thought I was going to be
really homesick but I wasn't which was a massive blessing. These people have
become my family here in Nebraska. Sister Weston wants us all to call her our
"Mission Mom" and is just the greatest little gal ever. Some other
very special ladies I have met are Sister Sherman and Sister Burt-two of the
senior ladies who work in the office. Oh my goodness they are like my other
grandmas! We bonded right off the bat. Sis Burt is so sassy and hilarious and
Sis Sherman is one of those great "TV" grandmas. I love them.
Thanksgiving night we opened another mission call which told us our
assignments! I am now in Grand Island, NE (about
2 hours west of Omaha) with Sister Pocock! Sister Pocock was the first
Spanish speaking sister in this mission. There are only six of us total now!
Wow! That is a lot of pressure but so exciting! She is from Idaho and so
wonderful. I love her already and we are working our little behinds off.
We are opening Grand
Island! We are the very first Spanish speaking sisters here! And let me tell
you-it is the promised land! It is about 50% Hispanic in this area, and so
there are plenty of people to teach. And they are so diverse! We actually have
a whole ton of different dialects-mainly there is a massive population of
Cubans. (That is like learning a whole other language, let me tell you.) We
have also met Guatemalans, Bolivians, and all sorts of other people. Saturday we
went to a baptism the elders had for a little man from Spain named Eduardo! Oh
he is just the greatest thing! He is so funny and chatty and just a fireball
who is so excited to serve.
Our branch is going to
be a challenge for us-it is having a lot of problems. Out of 200 members right
now we are lucky to get 30 to church on Sunday. Uh ohhhh. But we have been
doing lots of visits and got some people to come yesterday and also to
Eduardo's baptism! We found out a lot of little girls between 8 and 10 have not
been baptized, so I had this idea to throw a little "tea party" where
we would have cookies and hot cocoa and teach about baptism to the daughters
and their moms, so that is something exciting in the works!
As hard as it has been
so far, we have been seeing miracles! We met a Guatemalan family with three
tiny kids that we get to teach this week, another Mexican family who have
four kids and an inactive father-in-law to teach, and a lady that had moved in
and replaced where one of our members used to live. Our directory is really
inaccurate because everyone is always moving here, so we have been stopping by
to visit and verify, and at first that was a major burden, but we keep finding
more and more people to teach that have moved into those houses! Incredible!
The Lord is so good. I am so happy to be here.
It is so humbling to
be out here finally. The area and the people are so poor. We have been in so
many trailers this week. (And I have seen so many cockroaches.)
It actually makes me feel bad to go home at night because our apartment is
newly renovated and so lovely. But I know these people will see blessings
as they come back to church! The big stressor right now is our car share-we
only have 500 miles a MONTH and tons of spread out people to see. Pray for us!
I love you all! Sorry
this is short!
Love, Hermana Miller
PS If you want to send
a big comforter for my bed that would be nice. I am freezing my tush off at
night.
PPS Everyone thinks I
am Italian or Puerto Rican. Apparently I speak like one and look like one.
They love it! Especially Eduardo hahaha.
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