E-mails from Minneola September 22, 2008

Hello Mi Familia!

It was good to hear from you both in your emails and in your letters! I appreciate you taking the time to write me. : ) To answer some of your questions from both your letters and your emails... Yes, a lot of my friends have been dutifully writing me. : ) the Loyds, Justin, Andrew, Josh, and even Makenda wrote, too. All my friends have had some cool experiences including Justin getting to see a family go from his first lesson to baptism and he got to baptize one of the little sons. How cool is that!? My friends are good about writing so the ones that have written are doing well. Will you send me Jeff's address? Nathan's? And just anyone that you think I could use their address every once and while.

To answer more questions... I haven't talked to the football players since that first time with them because we haven't been able to get a hold of them or catch Anthony at home. Oh, well, we'll keep trying! and I haven't talked to Mauricio in a while either because we met with him again after his first lesson and he just said he wanted some time alone with the materials that we gave him and that he would move at his own pace. But I am going to go contact him again and give him your letter, Dad! I like it. Short and sweet.

I have a lot more experiences now, because to answer your question yes, we are all better and have been working hard. I will write a hand-written letter about these experiences, but let me share some with you now . . . Remi, our Ward's primary program was on Sunday. I felt the spirit so strongly!!! Have you done your Primary program yet? If so how did it go or how are the practices going? Ours went so well! Towards the end my companion and I sang in unison with the primary in a rousing rendition of Called to Serve and it was so powerful with us, the missionaries, standing amidst these sweet children. WOW~! And guess what? The spirit was so strong during the meeting that a non-member came up to us afterwards and asked to be baptized!

The person was Bother Scambia's sister (Brother S is an amazing man. He is an amazing chef and cooks for us all the time. He claims he is going to call you to tell you how much he appreciates us as missionaries. Ha, ha. I gave him your phone number so who knows. : ) But anyway, we are preparing and teaching his nine-year-old, adopted son, David, who has autism. And David was in the primary program. That's why Brother S's sister was there on Sunday. She felt the spirit so strongly that she simply asked us how to become a member of the church! And Bro. S's mom is now interested in hearing the lessons too! So all in all we may baptize three people all in the same family soon! I just wanted to share that experience with you for now and I will tell you more later. : )

I love you all and wish you the best!!

Love Ryan

PS
Well, I hurt my back just working out on the ground. I was doing these military leg lifts and it put too much stress on my back and strained it. But I told you that I received a Priesthood blessing for it, right? After that it was much better! From time to time this week it has been sore, but nothing bad enough to stop me from doing the work. : ) I'm doing great!

(Ha, ha, your cookies are great mom and all of the elders like them!) I want to hear more about everyone. How is everything going?? Wow, bright blue for the house, huh? I wonder what it looks like? I look forward to that picture. : ) How is school? I hope I get some replies to those letters bros. : )

Well, got to go but please continue to update me and I appreciate all the encouragement I can get! : )

Love you!

~Elder Ryan Miller