Visa Update

Hillary has an appointment at the MTC tomorrow with the Argentine Consulate for her Visa!!!  She will be leaving for Argentina by November 4th or sooner.  Stay Tuned...

XOXO Cousin Cara

Hello family and friends! 

I  may be here for another month - and I feel that I am here for a reason and I am grateful for the time I have here! 

I have learned so much about teaching and feeling the Spirit this past week.  I had an amazing experience with Hma Brignone when we taught an investigator about the Restoration.  She told us we are the only missionaries she has let into her house out of all the other churches that have come to visit her. She really opened up and said she has been thinking about the Spirit ever since she heard our last lesson, and that she has been able to feel it more often too!    There came a point when tears came to her eyes and the Spirit was SO strong.  One of my favorite things about teaching lessons is when the investigator feels comfortable enough to share really personal thoughts about how they feel or how they have changed.  My perspective did a bit of a 180 when I realized that this woman had been thinking about our last lesson that was given over 3 weeks ago.  I didn't realize how much of an impression our words were to her - and this helped me remember that the Spirit testifies of everything.  I have such a great responsibility to be worthy to hold the Spirit, to be a vessel that can hold these amazing feelings and be a connection for this person to understand how much the Lord loves them!  Hearing the Spirit tell me what to say is an incredible feeling. 

We hiked the Y on our P Day AND went to the Alpine Loop!  I sang "The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music" and "Consider the Lilies"  - talk about breath taking.   (Do you know the scripture behind that song?? It is wonderful!  Matt 6 I believe..  talks about everything having its place and purpose, and how "the morrow will take thought for itself."  That is my theme right now, not worrying about my Visa and just working my hardest here!)

Also - district lunch was at IN N OUT this Thursday.  No complaints here!  We are so spoiled - and the new thing our Elders like to say to tease me is "It is NOT going to be like this when you are Argentina!"  Of this I am fully aware, which is probably why I highly reccommended we eat at the best burger place around.  : )

I love you all, thank you for your letters!  It feels like Christmas whenever I get something from you.  I hope you all are doing well and are happy!! 

xoxo hermana miller

Trio

This week we had transfers, and we are now a trio!  Hermana Montano and I now work with Hermana Brignone, who grew up in Washington State, had been living in New York, and goes to Stanford!  We three have a lot of fun together - and we are able to get more work done!  We go on splits - where one missionary teaches with a female member - so we can teach three different lessons with three different investigators in three different places at the same time!  The Spirit has been really strong in some of our lessons recently - I am slowly but surely learning to follow its promptings in asking inspired questions about our investigators needs, and trying not to worry so much about the lesson plan.

 

I have to share with you a really awesome story about an answered prayer - one of those missionary moments where you know the Lord is hearing you at that very second!  Hma. Brignone and I were on splits and we didn't have the phone, so we could not call our fellowshipper (ward member who helps us teach) to let her know we were outside her complex (we never went to her front door before, so we didn't know her apt number!)  We walked to the courtyard of the complex and I said a little prayer out loud.  Hma Brignone asked what impressions I had and I felt to go to the middle floor on the building to our right.  Right then someone walked up the stairs and I asked her if she knew a Teresa, and she said no.  Then I asked if she knew where her roommate Cynthia lived, and she said yes and pointed to a door right in front of us.  I laughed to myself thinking it might be a different Cynthia - Cynthia Sandoval, a friend from the home stake whom I knew lived in this complex!  We knocked on the door, and a guy opened the door - "SISTER MISSIONARIES!! COME IN!" and sure enough at the end of the hallway inside the apartment was Cynthia Sandoval, she gasped and ran out and gave me this HUGE hug.  We chatted for a minute, she and her friends gave us cookies, and I looked at their ward directory to find our Cynthia and Tere.  Sure enough our fellowshippers live right below them!  AND Cynthia Sandoval may have a contact for us to teach.  We found our fellowshipper in less than five minutes.  This could have happened in so many other ways!  We could have knocked on a different door and found the ward directory, but the Lord led us to a friend - I got a nice little piece of home, a great big hug and smiles from friendly return missionaries who were excited for us - and our we got our answer instantly! !!  This was one of my first times have a prayer answered this way.  It was excited, and I can't say that I was surprised because I know the Lord is looking out for us.  And the Lord is looking out for YOU too!  It may not be that speedy all the time, I know it usually isn't for me.  But if your heart is in it and you are doing what's right and you pray with all your might, amazing things will happen.  : )

 

We went up to South Fork Park and took pictures with the beautiful trees!!  Isn't fall wonderful?  Another little tender mercy - being able to drive through Provo Canyon during the fall...  Heavenly Father knows I loved doing that during my school days here, and we were allowed to go up yesterday.  I am thankful for the little beautiful things that happen everyday!  Sometimes it is hard to find when days are rough, but if you look hard there is always something!

 

I love you all and I appreciate your letters and your prayers.  

xoxo hermana miller

First Baptism's

Hello my wonderful friends and family!

 

We had two of our investigators get baptized on Saturday!  We were so happy that Tito's family (the younger boy in the photo) were willing to sign his papers so he could be baptized!  It is kind of a long story, but in a nutshell his father had a very big change of heart right before our eyes.  I am so grateful that our prayers worked and that he was able to feel the Spirit!

 

On Saturday after the baptism we attended a Fiesta de la Culturas!  Man, I feel like I am serving a mission in seven different countries after that event.  There are so many different cultures in our wards!  I absolutely loved the food, and I of course hit up the Argentina table and tried everything.  I am wishing their desserts were not as delicious as they were - I will have to hold myself back once I get there! 

My Spanish is coming along as well as it can considering I am in Provo.  I am learning to understand senses of humor better and have even wiggled out a laugh or two from members.  Score!  I especially love hearing a whole bunch of our Mexican fellowshippers joke and laugh with my companion who is also from Mexico, because it reminds me of the slang and humor of some of my friends at home. Everyone is so sweet with me even though my grammar sometimes flies right out the window because I want to speak as fast as everyone else! 

 

You need to look up the lyrics to "I can only imagine."  (Toby Keith sings a cover of it) and on our Cd's we have two covers of it by two different LDS artists.  I think of how beautiful heaven will be and what it will be like to see Christ's face after all I've done - it's a big motivator to do the best I can! 

 

Sorry this is short. There are so many things going on - OH and I am sorry that my reply to your most recent letters are late!  The other day I got two letters that were written on September 19th!  I guess the MTC had them the whole time... better late then never!  I am going to be here for another two weeks or so.  Cross your fingers that the consulate member will come this week so my Visa can be processed!

Love you all!!!

Hermana Miller

 

Mi Montana

(I can't figure out how to put the tilde on the n's!  It's supposed to be mountain in spanish, and my companion's name also has a tilde.  oh well : )

 

Wow.  There are so many things that happened this week! 

 

The Lord is really looking out for me and my companion.  There have been little tender mercies everyday!  I feel so enveloped in the Spirit and I wish I could tell our investigators exactly how it feels, but they have to pray to know and understand for themselves.  This is a new struggle I have discovered.  My companion and I were trying so hard to contact a member family to help us on Saturday when another member family cancelled their appointment for us to watch conference with them and our investigator (we can't watch it with just him, members must be present.)  I started praying really hard. We had just taught him about the importance of modern day revelation and having a prophet today on earth, so I wanted him to be able to hear President Monson's words!!  We finally were able to contact our Bishop Kemeny.  When we called our investigator to update him with our plans, he told my companion, "OH by the way, I got my answer.  I want to get baptized." I heard her shriek with joy.  We hugged and I cried and I said, "So this is what it feels like!  Oh my goodness, and I've barely been here a week!!"  We rushed to Little Ceasar's and bought our investigator a pizza and soda to celebrate during conference. I told Hermana Montano, "I prayed for a 99 cent store blessing and we ended up with a Costco sized blessing!"

I must tell you about these brownies - we have a very finicky oven and I tried to make some for an investigator.  Let's just say they could be "brownie jerky."  In the past I know I would have been frustrated and maybe a little bit embarrassed, but no!  It provided a hilarious moment for me and my companion, which was very much needed as we hadn't had a lot of funny moments yet.  I am forever grateful for those brownies because they helped break the ice between Hermana Montano and I!

 

I hope you all enjoyed conference.  You can go onto lds.org and watch the words of the prophets right now if you don't know what I am talking about!!  It is amazing.  My favorite thing about conference is being able to pray beforehand for personal revelation / specific answers about what I would like to improve in through the words of our inspired Church leaders.  I especially loved Sunday afternoon's conference - (and sidenote, how funny/strange/different it is to hear talks about missionary work now that I am a missionary!)  I loved Matthew Richardson's story about the hard hike he made with his children, and instead of feeling overwhelmed at the mountain ahead of them, they would turn around and take in the beautiful sight of all they had climbed so far.  I am loving this whole mountain analogy.  : )

 

Here are some other things I loved:

 

J Devn Cornish -

"Not only say our prayes, but LIVE them."

 When praying, honesty is essential in requesting what we desire.

 

President Monson

How close He is willing to come

How far He is willing to go

(which made me think:  how close am I willing to come?  How far am I willing to go?)

 

I love you all. I hope you enjoyed conference and found some useful gems that can help you!  I love being here in Provo!  I know that my time here is short, so I hope I can do my best and help others understand how much God loves them! 

 

Con amor,  Hermana Miller