Hermana Miller: Week 32: I'm Officially Old Enough To Do Everything I Have ZERO Desires To Do!

First off, big, huge, ENORMOUS thank you to everyone who was so sweet about my birthday!  I felt/feel very loved!  My birthday was a normal day, worked hard as usual which means it was a perfect day.  I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend the big  2-1 than by being a missionary in the Lord's vineyard.  I sure love missionary work!

This week we road-tripped out to Lincoln (PS: IT IS GORGEOUS) for our Zone Conference, and let me tell you, it was perfect. The theme was all about families and the gospel. We had a commitment to find conversion stories for our families, and the Lord inspired some wonderful woman to put incredibly detailed ones of our ancestors on Familysearch.org. Reading those was one of the most powerful experiences of my whole life. As I pondered the sacrifices that my own family members went through to instill this great legacy of the gospel into my family, it made me think about what kind of legacies I will leave behind for my posterity. (No better time to think about that than on a birthday, too!) I can truly say now that I understand and appreciate the Spirit of Elijah; the turning of the hearts of the children to their fathers. As we understand and study our past, we are instilled with deep desires to better the future. I know that is true because I feel it in my own heart. I am in the process of making a set of goals and plans to reach my goal for who I will be as I turn 22 next year, and I know that with the Lord's help, I can be transformed; not just for myself, but for my future husband and children as well. I have decided the motto of my family will be 2 Nephi 5:27 - "And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness."   I know that the only way to familial peace, happiness, and progress is through living the gospel fully and actively.   There is no true joy in a family that is successful in every way except for spiritual,  because the other types of success never last. Harsh, but true. I am making a commitment NOW to do ALL that I can to ensure that my family will be rooted in Christ and in His restored gospel.   Because that's all that counts in the end. An eternal family.

This last year has been one of such absolute growth, progress, refinement, and learning. I am so grateful for the Atonement of Christ and the ability we have to change a little every day to become more like Him, our perfect brother. That's such a priceless gift.

Our 24 miracle went very well. Not exactly according to our plan, but things never do. Heavenly Father always has better plans! Between the elders and us, we ended up with about 14 set baptismal dates for the branch! That's incredible! We gave the 4 wonderful guys to the elders to teach, which was very hard, but God blessed us for it in so many ways. We have received so much revelation about how to help and strengthen this branch, and found SO many promising people to teach that I know we never could have found without the inspiration to set this goal. the sheer amount of daily miracles and answered prayers we saw and are still seeing has grown my faith by like a million percent.  God is good.  I love doing His work.

I love you all, have a wonderful week! Go study The Family: A Proclamation to the World and your patriarchal blessings! Make goals for YOUR future generations!

Love,

Hermana Miller :)

Hermana Miller: Week 31: Extending my Island Vacation! (Aloooooha!)

Warning, this will be a VERY short email!

I am staying in Grand Island! Hallelujah! Hermana Buhler and I have big plans and we are
already putting them into action. Saturday we started up a weekly BOM study group that is
going to be a blast! We created this awesome "pick your own adventure" game and decked
out the gym to the nines so that as we journeyed through the first few chapters of Nephi,
the members could travel from Jerusalem, through the desert, and to Bountiful. It was so
fun! Can't wait for this Saturday! We decided we have been working too much like elders,
and not using our natural feminine gifts enough in this branch. So this transfer we are just
going to love people until they HAVE to come and then we are going to make everything
pretty! We sneak attacked the Relief Society room and redecorated it and it looks great so
far! I love being a sister missionary. :)

This evening we are road-tripping to Omaha with some other sisters for Zone
Conference tomorrow, I am so excited. It's so wonderful to go and receive personal
revelation.

We set the four guys for baptism!!!!!! And one of them (Israel) came to church yesterday!
He told us that the night before he tried to drink a beer and just couldn't because he felt so
terrible and he knows it is because he is focusing on God. He promised the Lord he will
come to church every Sunday if He shows him the right one, and I really think he is feeling
that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the complete and restored gospel.
Someone asked him at work this week if he was Catholic, and he said "No! Soy Mormon!"
That was so awesome! :) And the Lord handed them a job! Thank you all for praying! We
also found two wonderful families to teach this week and several other really promising
investigators. God is so good. I love Him.

I hope everyone is praying for and working towards miracles. I love you all!
Sorry I have no time this week! Lots to do!

Love, Hermana Miller ;)

Hermana Miller: Week 30: I'm simply in love.

Hermana Miller & Hermana Buehler via Skype on Mother's Day 2014!

Hello, my dear hearts!

I just adore being a missionary. I wish I could express that enough but I can't and I never will be able to. You know you've got something good when you smile all day every day. This gospel truly is one of happiness, and if you want that happiness to be increased dramatically, you will share it! I'm serious! 

Talking to everyone yesterday was so nice, it made me so grateful for the upbringing I had in the gospel and for the opportunity I have in my life right now to share that foundation I have had so that other children in the future can have that solid rock too. Every single one of the people that we ever meet need and deserve the gospel, who are we to keep that from them? Heavenly Father loves them just as much as He loves us! Who are we to keep that precious gift from them?? Every decision we make, every word we say, everything we do can either bring another of our brothers and sisters closer to the fullness of Christ's gospel or delay the finding of their joy a little bit. That's a huge responsibility! And it's not just full-time missionaries who have it! We are ALL missionaries! The best way to be missionaries is through our examples-examples of love, charity, service, and kindness. The way we TREAT people will always speak infinitely louder than what we say to them.

Matthew chapter 5 tells us:

"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

We truly can be that light for other people, through our examples. Through LIVING the gospel, not just believing it. Through acting on little promptings to do good, kind things. Heavenly Father tends to answer prayers through other people, how many prayers could YOU answer today?? Like Elder Richard G. Scott said: "Decide to do something that will have eternal consequences."

I just wish everyone could understand how important and wonderful and powerful we are to the Lord and in His work...every single one of us.

This week was amazing, we found four really solid investigators named Juan, Alvaro, Israel, and Gary. They are SO prepared and wonderful and I just love them dearly. They are already like my big brothers. We taught the Plan of Salvation to them this week and I cried as I talked about eternal families (it's hard sometimes to think about Grandpa and other things, but the peace is always so overwhelming,) and as I called them later that evening, they told me they had been praying for me and my family. They already started reading the Book of Mormon and want to finish it by the end of the month! And they are coming to an activity tonight! Gosh, I just can't say enough about them! It's amazing the love that comes from serving others and sharing spiritual experiences. That is a bond that can't be broken. If anyone is having relationship problems, those two things can solve basically anything. I can promise you that they will be necessary and daily staples in my future marriage. Anyways, if you guys could all pray for them I would really appreciate that. I'm nearly desperate to see them progress and have all the blessings of the gospel-I would literally do anything for them. Prayers would be nice!

I love all! Serve someone today! Answer a prayer! Share the gospel! Be a light!

Joyfully serving,

Hermana Miller

Hermana Miller: Week 29: Aye Aye Aye Love Cinco de Mayo!

VIVA MEXICOOOOO!!! Jajaja, just kidding. But also, really. I seriously love Mexicans, so I can already tell today is going to be a great day. I want to go back to Mexico so bad one day after the mission. I love these people so much. (But even more than Mexico, I want to go to CUBA! Oh my gosh, Cubans are my very favorites ever! They have the sweetest accent and they are all just way too cool for school. I want to be them! And the best thing about them is that Cuban Spanish is like supppperrrrr different than generic Spanish. It's almost a completely different language. At the beginning I could not understand a word they said, and now we go into the Cuban restaurant here in town and I feel so at home! I. Just. Love. Cubans. Miami, here I come.) Anyways, sorry for that little derailing. I really love Latinos. And I really love Spanish. And I really love my mission.

This week has been great. We are seeing SO MANY MIRACLES! I can't even believe it! Are we still struggling against the adversary to get people more faithful than fearful and accept baptism? Yes. But is the Lord giving us crazy success in the ways He wants us to have? Yes! And that is the whole point of this whole "Miracle 24" experience. To work towards a miracle, and happily accept the natural blessings and miracles the Lord sees fit to give us that result from that work, faith, and obedience! Huge thank you to everyone for all the prayers, I knew there was a little extra something fortifying us this week-those must have been it! I wish I had time/determination to write everything amazing we have seen happen recently, but I don't have either, unfortunately haha. Sorry! But we have been basically stopped by people who are interested in us and what we share, we have found long lost members, and we have been massively blessed with faith and an extra increase of the Spirit. I know we are on the right track for whatever the Lord sees fit to bless us with! He already is!

I wanted to share something I enjoyed studying this morning. It is the story of when Christ washes the apostles feet. (John 13:4-9)

"He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.

 After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.

 Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?

 Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.

 Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.

 Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head."

I divided this account into three parts to analyze it. These are all still rough thoughts that I have not refined yet, so please forgive me! Haha!

1.) The Reaction

Initially, Simon Peter balks at the thought of the Savior washing his feet, and I can imagine why- they wore sandals all day. Their feet were caked in mud and dust. They were cracked and rough and worn. Would you want the Redeemer of the world to wash your feet? Probably not. Whether it was out of shame, embarrassment, respect, pride, or any other factor, Simon Peter did not want the Lord to wash his feet. We often do something similar. We got through this life making mistakes everyday. Our souls become spotted and soiled with the mud and dust of an imperfect life and they become cracked, tough, and hardened by everyday wear and tear. It's in those states that the Savior seeks us out and offers to wash us clean, and yet, for many different reasons, we tend to turn Him away. We don't feel worthy. We're embarrassed. WE think we can or should do it by ourselves, etc. The point is, we balk at being cleansed by Him.

2.) The Rebuttal

The Lord responds lovingly, but firmly to Simon Peter's hesitation, as one would expect from Him. He essentially says, "Peter, I love you. You don't understand right now what this means to both you and me. Please let me; you will understand later." After further protest from Simon Peter, the rod responds in a characteristic loving reprimand:

"If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me."

I believe the directness of this response came from the Savior's deeper understanding of the situation and how it would apply to each one of us. Was He saying that if Peter had dirty feet they could no longer associate? No, of course not. Essentially, He was saying that anyone who has been dirtied in any way or degree by the world must humble themselves enough to let Him wash them clean or else we cannot be heirs with Him and live together forever because we will not be pure, nor will we know Him. Because He loves us, He wants to be with us. He knows the only way that is possible is through the sometimes humbling and difficult process of being made clean as He washes us through His Atonement.

3.) The Reconciliation

I am sure the room got very quiet after the Lord's rebuttal-all were probably anxiously awaiting to hear Simon Peter's response. Dear, dear Peter gives us a wonderful example of what we should do:

"Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head."

Wow. When he finally realizes the gravity and importance of the cleansing, Peter, being Peter, essentially jumps from the boat and swims ashore to Christ. He is all in. He asks the Lord to cleanse him entirely-he wants so badly to be with and like Him. He wants to be "clean every whit." He offers his whole self to the Savior to be washed. He offers his head, so that he can be cleansed of impure thoughts the lead him to temptation. He offers his feet, which daily bring him to unholy places and have become scarred with each imperfect step and stumble through the briar bushes and rocky roads. He offers his hands, which don't serve as much as they should, which act on temptation, and which don't cross themselves in prayer as much as possible. He offered his whole self to the Lord to be cleansed, and so should we.

I love you all, hope you have a great week and don't forget to let the Lord cleanse and bless you.

Love, Hermana Miller :)

PS-Happy Mother's Day week! :) Love your mommies.