Hermana Miller: Week 15: Aye Aye Aye Hate Nebraska Weather!

1/27/14

What a WEEK. CRAZY.  Just ridiculous. Nebraska goes from like 50 degrees to like 5. AND IT IS SO WINDY. Yuck. Oh well, good thing I love the work! This week was a good week, but a learning week for sure! The Lord truly is stretching me, growing me, and testing my patience. I am grateful He loves me enough to do that. First I will tell you some things that happened!

-We finally got to start volunteering at the Grand Island Veteran's Home! Oh my goodness, I love it so much. We will be spending most of our time in the Anderson unit, which is for the members who are farther along in their illnesses, or have problems like Alzheimers. I love them so much. Everyone knows that I have never been a compassionate person, and that I struggle to love people, but I can't even tell you how my heart feels when I am there. We just get to sit and talk with them, and we will start doing a little church service soon as well. (With a Lutheran minister, we will let you know how that goes.) I have already become dear friends with a few of them- Joe, who made prosthetics for Indian chiefs back in the day (he told us that three times so it must be important,) Jeff, who has ridden across the country on a motorcycle (and was upset he didn't win enough in bingo to buy a new one so he could escape,) Clark (who has had the most interesting life EVER,) and Gerald (who is convinced there is a government conspiracy to keep him from being a State Marshall.) I sincerely love them all and I love hearing the stories these people have, and the things they have done with their lives! It makes me think about the kind of legacy I will leave behind. I can't wait to go back.

-Keyla and Alfy got BAPTIZED!!! We really were worried things were not going to go through with Keyla, because we got a text two days before the baptism from her mom telling us that her dad did not want her to get baptized. Well, we went over and had an amazing lesson that the Spirit taught us all about God's love and how He truly is our Father and wants to give us good things, and his heart was softened. He is now an investigator of ours as well.  Better than the baptism though was her confirmation. The blessing she received from a member in our ward was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. I bawled the entire time. He promised her that she would be a light, example, and influence for good in her home, and also in the mission field. He promised she would play a hand in bringing many, many souls into the gospel as she serves as a full-time missionary in the future! I cried so hard with joy and gratitude and love! In my missionary setting apart with President Crane, I was promised that I would be able to baptize influential people. Keyla is one of them. I love her so much. She is my other little sister! I am so proud of her.

-I got to go on exchanges last night with the English sisters because one of them was sick, but they had an appointment with my beloved KONG FAMILY! So I got to go see them! Oh holy day! They opened the door and all the little girls screamed "SISTER MILLER!!!" and ran and gave me huge hugs! I almost started crying! And then "Mama Gouny" (That's what she likes that I call her,) came out and hugged me and kissed my cheek and told me "Where have you been?! You are not leaving. You are sleeping here and staying here for forever!" My heart almost exploded. The 8th grade girl, Tanisha, kept calling my family her family, because we are basically like sisters. I have never met a more loving group in my whole life. They love God and others so much it is incredible. They are inspirations and examples to me. I am constantly being hugged and kissed on the cheek and things like that at the Kong house. These are people I will never forget. They are rooted in my heart forever.

I had other things I wanted to talk about, but I will just write them in a letter or something since I don't have time. I love you all, but more than that I love the Lord. I can't believe He loves me enough to not only give me this opportunity and these people, but His dear son. I always want to serve Him with all I have.

Be good and pray sincerely!

Todo mi amor,

Hermanita Miller :)

Hermana Miller: Week 14: Nebraskans are Interesting!

1/21/2014

Hermanas Miller & Pocock

Hey there everyone! What a blur of a week. Seriously, I am struggling to remember what happened! I'll tell you one thing that happened though-we were at a lesson with some members, and their little 5 year old was not feeling very good, and I hear her cry "moooommy" and my mommy instincts went "Oh no. This kid is going to lose her lunch." I turned around just in time to watch her throw up EVERYWHERE. SWEET. You all know how much I love vomit. Not at all. And you also know I am a germaphobe, and almost right after she threw up, complete with left-overs on her shirt, she came over and hugged me and was blowing in my face and stuff. I could have died. Oh my gosh.

Well, on Sunday I started getting pretty sick, and we were at a Cuban family's house. Here is something I am learning out here. NEVER TELL A HISPANIC YOU ARE SICK. Oh my lands, they made my drink and entire glass of lime juice and salt and baking soda, and then cut up a bunch of slimy aloe for me to eat. (Which I narrowly avoided.) If I wasn't sick before, I was after I had to down that "mad scientist" experiment. I thought I was going to have to pay to get their carpets cleaned, for realsies. So we headed home after that lesson and I was dead to the world from six that night til about six thirty the next morning. But maybe it worked because I didn't throw up, so it beats me. Just something funny I thought you might enjoy!
But I am feeling a bit better from all the sicknesses, that medicine is helping I think. I still can't hear very well and cough, but it's manageable.

Secondly, we have been so protected this week. We have been having to walk around a lot at night, and Grand Island is not a very well-lit town; especially in all the poor parts we tend to be in doing the Spanish work. (Trailer parks, alleyways, that sort of thing.) I cannot count how many times this week Heavenly Father has rescued us from scary men. So many times cars have followed us, or men have made lewd and suggestive comments, or things like that. God truly is on our side. I always think about that picture of dad and uncle Brian and Zack around grandma and imagine Grandpa and my future sons and some angels around us protecting us too. We always pray to be safe, and no matter what happens, we always are. Heavenly Father is so good to us, I can't thank Him enough.

I don't have much time, but I wanted to let you know we are having a double BAPTISM on Saturday! FINALLY! Keyla, the little nine year old daughter of what used to be a less-active family, and Alfy, a member's son! Hallelujah! I am so excited I could cry. Whooohoooo! Pray that all will go through. I really want to encourage everyone to be accountable for seeking out the "lost sheep" this week. It is our duty as members. One of our member families is really struggling, and Hermana Pocock and I felt prompted to go to their house when we didn't see them at church. So we missed an hour of church because we went, got their kids all ready for church, and helped the sister get ready too. She and her husband are having serious problems, and I sincerely believe if she had not had someone show up for her and cared, she never would have come back to the church again. Please, please, please, take notice and care for those around you. Never rest on your laurels, because we are "only in the service of our God" when we serve others, and we are always in debt to Him.

Read Mosiah 2:15-24,34. This has become one of my favorite scriptures. We are accountable to the Lord for what we do with the opportunities He gives us, including people to save. Do your best. I love you!

Love, Hermanita Miller :)

Alyssa FINALLY sent some pictures in the mail!  So, here they are!

Hermana Pocock & the groom & sweet investigator they planned the wedding for a few letters prior 

&, of course, Hermana Miller

 The  cute Christmas (nearly Arbor Day!) card she made & sent to us!
HEY!  We'll take it!  It has pictures!!!

Hermanas Pocock & Miller - Frosting mustaches.... need I say more?

Hermana Miller & the Kong family that they tracted out that she has spoken of in previous letters...

With the Kong family & their cousins...

Hermana Miller: Week 13: He Never Forgets Us!

Hermana Miller:  Week 13:  He Never Forgets Us!

1/13/2014

What a week! We got transfer calls! Both Hermana Pocock and I are staying in Grand Island, which I could not be happier about. I absolutely love my sweet companion and this place. (Not actually the place but the people. I love them! Oh man...I am starting to sound like a missionary now!) Hey mom, I went to the doctor finally! I have an ear infection, a sinus infection, and bronchitis starting! But they gave me some sweet meds so I am feeling gooood!

This week has been a serious blur. Time goes so fast on the mission. I can't believe I am already coming up on three months! I am not counting down because I want to go home, I am panicking because I feel like I don't have enough time to work hard for the Lord! I seriously LOVE being a missionary. It's super hard some days, and we are always EXHAUSTED, but it is SO worth it. It feels so unfair sometimes because I just want to show my love and gratitude to Heavenly Father through working my little tush off, but He keeps blessing us so much it just doesn't seem right! This time has been irreplaceable for me. The biggest blessings I have seen is I truly can see and say that I am starting to become the woman I want to be. A woman of God. I am learning lessons now that I KNOW I will use as a wife and mother, and I couldn't be more grateful for this time. It's truly priceless. Heavenly Father is just too good to us.

Keyla, our little gal who was going to get baptized this coming Saturday, won't be getting baptized until next week now because she was sick and could not come on Sunday. Ughhh. :( Things always happen to our baptisms! But it is okay because the Lord always provides! He really and truly loves us so much! We had that baptism "tea party" for the little girls in the ward this week and it was a beautiful experience. We taught them all about baptism and the five steps of the gospel of Jesus Christ. (Faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, endure to the end.) It reminded me of my baptism and got me so excited for Brock to be baptized soon! I am so proud of him! Sometimes it is hard because we really are working SO hard every day and trying SO hard to be exactly obedient, and our baptisms and investigators have kinda been dropping or falling through recently. It's been heartbreaking, honestly. I sat and just cried one day this week when we stopped by for a first real lesson with an investigator we were really excited about (We randomly decided to stop and knock her house and found out her husband recently died in a tragic accident. The Spirit was so strong and she could not wait to have us come back and teach her more about eternal families!) because she opened the door and wouldn't even let us in because her pastor's wife said not to listen to us because we would confuse her. That was the hardest moment of my mission so far. To know that she felt the Spirit, that she is super prepared and ready for the gospel, that she needs it desperately and could be so much happier and more comforted knowing that she can have an eternal family, and watching her just reject it because of the opinion of another. I was so, so, so devastated! I just love her so much and pray for her every night that she will remember what she felt. I am going to write her a note today. So sometimes it feels like we are not making a difference; in moments like that it is easy to get discouraged. But we are truly seeing miracles and working hard. We had the highest numbers in the zone this week and I still want to push them higher every week! So we know we really are working and changing lives, it's just that sometimes Satan tries to tell us we aren't, or that we aren't good enough to be out here because of our pasts.

I had an amazing study session today that helped me truly feel the love of our Father. I started reading in 2 Nephi 26 and found this tiny little line that meant the world to me:

"all those who have dwindled in unbelief shall not be forgotten."

He never forgets any of His children! Even the ones who have forgotten Him. We all go through points in our lives when we dwindle in our faith, and yet His faith in us never dwindles. He has never doubted our goodness, He doesn't now, and He never will. His arms are always stretched open, waiting for us to run to Him for a big hug. If you continue reading in that chapter you will find these, some of the most tender verses about God's love that I have found so far:

"24 He doeth not ^aanything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he ^bloveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw ^callmen unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.

 25 Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: ^aCome unto me all ye ^bends of the earth, ^cbuymilk and honey, without money and without price.

 26 Behold, hath he commanded any that they should ^adepart out of the synagogues, or out of the houses of worship? Behold, I say unto you, Nay.

 27 Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his ^asalvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath ^bgiven it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to ^crepentance.

 28 Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but ^aall men are privileged the one ^blike unto the other, and none are forbidden."

How incredible is His love! No matter what we have done or who we have been, He ever stands, waiting for us to return to Him. He will never deny us His love. He will never deny us forgiveness. He will never deny us the opportunity to become new and become tools in His hands. Often, I feel just like Alma the Younger when he said:

"28 Nevertheless, after wading through much tribulation, repenting nigh unto death, the Lord in mercy hath seen fit to snatch me out of an everlasting burning, and I am born of God.

 29 My soul hath been redeemed from the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. I was in the darkest abyss; but now I behold the marvelous light of God. My soul was racked with eternal torment; but I am snatched, and my soul is pained no more."

I know I have been forgiven by my loving Heavenly Father. I have lived far from a perfect life, and I know I must have caused Him countless tears, because I am aware of how many I caused my earthly parents to cry. But the past is to be learned from, not lived in. We all are imperfect, and we must learn to look forward to the future, not to dwell in our yesterdays but to gloriously and confidently march into our tomorrows. I am so grateful for the perfect and empowering love of my Heavenly Father. Feeling that, I can't help but to want to be a better daughter. I love Him. With all my heart. And I am so grateful for this time to help other feel that love too. Because everyone deserves it. It is the most valuable treasure, and yet it is free.

I love you all and hope all is well. Stay safe, warm, and worthy of the Spirit. Never forget that it is never too late to return to Heavenly Father. He will never reject you.

Much love,

Hermana Miller

Hermana Miller: Week 12: Feliz Ano Nuevo!

1/6/14

Well hello, hello, hello!

First I need to apologize for sending out Christmas things to everyone late. I'm a real jerk sometimes. Haha, sorry guys. But in reality you should be glad because it just means that I am working so hard I don't have time to go to the post office so, hey! Totally a good thing, right?! Life is soooo busy. This week has been FULL of miracles. Just chuck full of them. In fact, every single day is that way!

I wish I had the time to sit and tell you all of them. Actually, I don't because that means I wouldn't be out working and that is my favorite thing to do. Sorry everyone! I will have to make up for it in a year and a half. :) I can't believe my first transfer out here is coming to a close. Time really does FLY on the mission. Hermana Pocock and I had a bit of a panic attack the other day freaking out about how little time we have left in the mission! (She has 9 months left and I have like 15...that's not enough!) We have so many high hopes and dreams for this area and these people, that we truly know will come true, that every second we have we just want to work so hard! And we want to be 100% obedient too! Something I am learning out here is obedience with exactness. As a missionary we hear this quote all the time:

"Obedience brings blessing, but obedience with EXACTNESS brings MIRACLES."

Ummmm, yes please! We can't do anything without the Spirit of the Lord. Without that power, we are useless. And we can only have it when we are being as obedient as possible-to the spirit of the law as well as the letter of it! We are seeing countless miracles every day as we are striving to be the most obedient and hard working missionaries we can be-and it always touches my heart when we see another miracle because it tells me that my effort is acceptable to the Lord and that He is proud of me. What more could I ask for? I just want to work harder and harder every day. As I have been prayerfully considering and setting goals for this new year, I have been trying to keep this in mind- what we do today should prepare us and teach so we have a greater capacity to do more tomorrow. If we do not have a purpose to work towards every day, I can promise that we will fall short of our great and divine potential. "If you want to get somewhere you have never been, you must take a path that you have never before walked." That is a thought that came to my mind the other day, and I know it is true. I once heard that the definition of the word "insanity" is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. That's so true. In contrast to that, In Hebrew, the word that means "joy" also means "eternal progression." How can we be happy if we are always staying the same? I don't want to look back tomorrow and realize I am the same person I was yesterday. I want to be better. I want to grow. And ETERNAL progression is key, too. We continue to progress in the Celestial Kingdom. I know that. I think that "hell" essentially is a state of static being, a state where you can no longer progress and change. How awful would that be? If Adam and Eve had never been cast out of the Garden of Eden, they would never have been able to learn or grow, and we would not exist. "Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have JOY." (Or eternal progression, since we just learned that they are interchangeable and dependent upon one another.) We must too leave our "Garden of Eden." We cannot grow in our comfort zone. It is impossible. One day we must go out into the "lone and dreary wilderness" and grow and experience both the good and the bad, and learn. And you know what? One day what once was a lone and dreary wilderness will become a comfortable Garden of Eden, and we are going to have to leave again so we can continue progressing, continue finding that joy. Change is good. Embrace it! Let God lead you where He will. He knows better than we do anyways. If there is anything I have learned out here, it is that. Trust Him, and He will make you an instrument in His hands to do miracles. I can promise you that with all my heart, as a representative of Jesus Christ.

How amazing is that?! That God, who is perfect and all-powerful, let little old me, Alyssa Marie Miller from Mead, Colorado, find, teach, and gather His oh-so-precious children. Alyssa who is scared of moths and spiders, Alyssa who has zero self-control when it comes to Reeses Peanut-Cutter cups (Thanks, Mom! Now I am gonna get more fat! Just when I was trying to start "losing myself in the work,") Alyssa who didn't even really become dedicated to the gospel until a little over a year and a half ago. If I can change and become a worthy and powerful servant for the Lord, so can anyone else in the world. If you doubt that, go read Mosiah 27. Like, right now. I love the story of Alma the Younger. If you want to know how I feel, read verses 28 and 29. So beautiful. God has never given up on you, and He never will. We all can change. We all can have eternal progression. We all can feel JOY. Live every day so that you will gain that. Serve the Lord and He will provide. Go read Mosiah 5:12-13 too. Serve Him, and He will serve you. I can't say that enough.

I love you all. Work hard every day. We owe it to Him. He will make it worth it.

Hermana Miller