Conference Is Coming

Life is great here in Arroyo Seco!  The weather has been extremely pleasant: absolutely no humidity and a perfect fall chill.  My comp and have been singing Christmas hymns de vez en cuando (every once in a while) because the weather makes us feel like it´s the holidays.  I´ve been wearing a cardigan and tights every day this week and I love it.  We have been teaching a lot and finding some great people who were quite excited when we gave them a Book of Mormon during our first contact.  I will never tire of seeing someone so genuinely grateful and excited to read that precious book!  

Conference is coming up!!  If you haven´t heard of General Conference, take a look at The Church´s website at lds.org and you can watch the Prophet Thomas S. Monson, his counselors, and the Twelve Apostles speak inspired words to all the world every six months. We believe that the same Church that Christ organized on the Earth during His ministry is here today.  We have prophets who are called of God to give us, His children, the specific guidance we need in these latter days.  Take a look!  I know you will be lifted and edified.  There is a promise that if we have a certain struggle, or a need for certain guidance or advice, we can pray to find an answer and if we listen attentively to the conference talks we will hear the answer! 

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Love you all! ! !   Hermana Miller 

The Mission Is Full Of Surprises!

This week was crazy!   Let me fill you in..

After going to the ciber to email, I received a phone call from the Assistants that I would not be going to the mission home on Thursday to pick up my new companion because she has Visa problems.  Sound familiar?  Now I know what it is like on the flip side!!  The Elders said that I needed to go straight to my new area. On Wednesday, the crazy day called Transfers, I traveled to Rosario from Cañada de Gomez.  From the Terminal I traveled with another Elder 3 hours south on a bus to Venado Tuerto, where Hermana Collins picked me up. There are two areas for hermanas in Venado right next to each other, and our apts are two houses down!  I was pretty pumped to hear about all the fun things the missionaries do here in the zone.  They get together often in the morning to play basket and have asados (bbq´s) and activities every PDay, which is so different from being alone in Cañada! So the plan was for me to be in a trio with Collins and her comp Velasco for a week or so until my new companion came.  On Thursday I got a call from the assistants again, telling me ¨Hermana, you are going to Arroyo Seco to serve with Hermana Rentfro.  Pack all of your things and take the next bus out!¨  What?!  Hermana Rentfro had a ¨visa-waiter¨ who got her visa for her mission in Spain, and was without a companion!  So I quickly packed up everything again (they are definitely putting my speedy packing skills to the test!) and took a bus on Friday to the terminal in Rosario, and I was told that from there I would take a taxi to the mission home and find Rentfro there, but to my surprise I found President Giuliani and one of the Assistants right at my side once I hopped down from the bus.  It was a pleasant surprise and a nice treat to have them chauffeur me down to Arroyo Seco.

So here I am!  In the middle of all the chaos Hermana Rentfro called a member from Rosario who had served a mini mission (one transfer to help out the mission when we are short an hermana) to fill in as her comp for a bit.  Her name is Hermana Machuca and she is great!  She stuck around this weekend because we had a baptism!  That was another big surprise for me.  Hermana Rentfro didn´t tell me a thing about it until we started planning for the weekend.  No wonder she needed more help!

I love Antonio, he is in his 70´s, a bit deaf, and reminds me of Bill Cosby.  We arrived at his house to tell him the details the day before his baptism and there was music playing from his house.  I smiled and introduced myself and told him I loved his music, and this HUGE grin appeared on his face and he said ¨Quiere bailar?¨ and threw back his head and leaned back just like Bill Cosby does his little dance, the arms and everything!  I was sold.  He shared alfajores with us after the lesson too... such a sweetheart.  The baptism was perfect, and we invited our neighbors... that´s another story for another week, but to make it short we are teaching them tonight and the daughter wants to be baptized!!

I love this work. No matter where we are the work keeps going.  It´s in Arcadia, Glendale, La Cañada, Pasadena, LA, Anaheim, New York, Provo, Paris, Florence, it´s everywhere!  The Lord needs his servants, and that includes those who don´t wear a name tag ; )

I love you all.  Thank you for your letters and emails.  They mean the world to me.  (dearelder.com is the best!! Thank you!) YOU mean the world to me!!

xoxo hermana miller


Baptism of Antonio in Arroyo Seco with my companion Hermana Rentfro and our mini misionera Hermana Machuca who helped out Hermana Rentfro when she didn´t have a companion for a few days. It´s a bit complicated but I will explain everything!  : ) 

I'm going to Venado Tuerto!

I just found out a little while ago that I am leaving Cañada de Gomez and going to an area further south called Venado Tuerto = one eyed deer.  Interesting name, don´t you think?  It has been hard saying goodbye to people, but I know it is my time and there are great things ahead for me.  I am really curious to meet my new companion, and I am very excited to be in this new area because we have other sister missionaries in the branch with us, and other elders in the zone meet up with us every Monday to play sports and cook.  It will be a nice change, because here in Cañada we are at least half an hour away from the other elders in our zone. 

Hermana Miranda and I had something really amazing happen to us the other night.  On Wednesday we attended a training meeting and did a practice/ role play, which I have not been a big fan of in the past.  It was actually really successful and it felt real to me, which is usually rare.  We need a pretend contact, lesson, and invitation to baptism.  On Thursday all of our planned appointments fell through in the evening, which frustrated me for a bit because I really felt right about being in that area that day.  I said aloud ¨What am I doing wrong?! What does the Lord want... there must be a reason why we are here right now!¨  Miranda asked me if I had contacted this certain street before with Gerratt, I said no, and so we started contacting.  At the second door we met a girl my age who was Evangelista and not interested, but when Miranda was persistent (love her!) the girl asked if we wanted to come in.  That is music to a missionary´s ears, folks.  We ended up asking her a lot of questions, said a prayer, and taught her about faith, repentance, and baptism.  Then we ended up inviting her to baptism, which at first she rejected, but once again we were persistent and when we told her that Heavenly Father answers all prayers and asked her if she would follow the example of Jesus Christ after having received an answer that these things are true, she said simply ¨If God says so, then yes!¨  

 As Miranda and I walked down the street we held our excitement in for a few blocks until we were far enough away when we could finally jump for joy and skip down the street with delight. I now have a testimony of role plays!  I know the Lord prepared us the day before in that training meeting so we could help out this young mother. Miranda and her new comp are going to continue teaching her, and I am crossing my fingers that she will be baptized the 7th of April!! 

This work is full of surprises, and full of ¨pruebas de fe¨  and ¨pruebas de paciencia.¨  If we are patient and faithful, we can be content with the Lord´s timeline.  I know that he answers prayers, and it is even better knowing that I can be happy while I am waiting for an answer.  That´s the trick! 

I love you all, and I hope you are happy and well.  

Love Hermana Miller 

Dominga and Familia Bustamante.

little victories

The sunrise this morning was crazy orange... (it shows up more red on the camera)  and we keep hearing that some big storms are coming our way.

A lot is different in the area right now.  We are focusing on gaining help from the branch members to attend lessons with us and become more excited about missionary work.  We  are receiving more references and teaching families to sincerely pray to know who is ready to hear the gospel.  A lot of times we hear ¨We´ve tried already, none of our friends are interested!¨  A member who was inactive for six years and then returned said the very same thing.  I told her ¨You had a change of heart and came back to the Church, right?  So maybe these people will have a change of heart too and are now interested in the gospel, when years ago they weren´t ready yet!¨  I think that got her thinking : )  My companion told her to write a list of every single person she knows and when we next see her we are going to have her pray to know which people are ready to hear the gospel. 

Saturday night we had a lesson with a less active member and invited a member of the Branch Presidency.  The less active member has been telling us how lucky we are as missionaries to have the Spirit constantly and have such a strong relationship so close to God.  We kindly reminding him that he too can have the companionship of the Spirit, and although he is not called to be a missionary, he is still able to share the gospel with others and is in the most important mission of his life, the strengthening of his home and family.  I loved listening to the counselor´s testimony of the importance of attending Church and the gift of the Holy Ghost.   The next day at Church the less active man came and bore his testimony,  Let me tell you, little victories like that make me want to jump and do bell kicks down the aisle in the chapel.  But I refrain and resort to dance moves in my head.  YES!

Little victories happen everyday, and each one of us can be part of it.  I love this work!! And the greatest thing about this work is that there is no separation between missionary work and the gospel.  When we are members and not full time missionaries, we are ¨full time finders and missionaries are ¨full time teachers¨.  It´s a beautiful thing, my friends.

Thanks for the birthday messages!   6 years and going strong!  : ) 

Love you all.  xoxo hermana miller