Happy Thanksgiving Week from Florida! Nov. 24, 2008

Hola mi Familia!

I did some contacting in Spanish this week, thus the greeting. : ) So how is everyone? Holding up ok? Staying Strong? (as our Ward mission leader says.) I certainly hope all is going well.

Reece I will definitely miss snowboarding with you, too! And I will be sending some pictures of the apartment soon, so you can be expecting it! Florida is amazing!!! To answer your questions it is amazing because the weather is in the 70's and there is a nice cool breeze blowing. Just the right amount of humidity and the weather has been perfect!! It will stay that way for a while (thats why so many people vaccation in florida)

And as far as investigators go we have had some new investigators this week: Don and Trisha P. who have invited us for an after Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. They are a nice couple, recently married. Nikki dropped of the face of the earth and I personally haven't heard from her for weeks. I guess she just decided against it. I am definitely not discouraged, though. We have some other great investigators and they are progressing well. I will tell you about them in my next e-mail . . . So I'll sign off and get back on. Talk to you in a sec . . .

I'm actually going to send you all a nice package full of mementos for scrapbooking or saving and and a picture CD starting where the last one left off and going till now. (In other words lots of pictures on it!!) I'm making it today at the store and I am so excited to send it to you!

So yes . . . our investigators . . . We just finished teaching Kayla the final lesson before baptism. Now we are just waiting on her mom's approval for the baptism. Hopefully she will be baptized this Saturday or next week at the latest! I'm definitely excited for her! Kathy S. -- we just taught her on Saturday and she said that everything about the plan of salvation made sense to her and that she believed it. We will invite her to be baptized this weekend. The Mc. family is doing great, just busy as usual. We stop by their restaraunt regularly and yesterday three of the kids all got a ride to church with Brother L. from our ward. They stayed for all three hours and really had fun in their classes! Sister Mc., Brother Mc. and Adolf all had to stay and run the resteraunt so they didn't come. We set up an appointment last night to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ and then commit them all to baptism, but when we got there with our ward mission leader only the three kids who came to church were there. So we have to reschedule, probably for Thanksgiving. So that's the investigators.

Let me tell you about my new companion. His name is Elder Jordan Kline Bradford; he is fresh out of the MTC, 6' 4 1/2'', plays football, and is excited for missionary work. We get along great and no, Reece, he is not like the guy in "The Best Two Years," haha. Right when I got back from picking him up I took him out tracting and we talked to a lot of people. Training him has been a really good experience for me, and a learning experience at that. I have learned in life that many times I learn the best when I teach and that has really been true here. I felt humbled as I was given this call to serve and I know that the only way I have been able to handle this new responsibility is through fervent prayer and divine guidance and help from my Heavenly Father.

Dad, I had my first egg nog and pumpkin pie of the season and it really brings back some memories. I miss drinking that first glass of the season with you and Mom, Reece and Remi. But I'm glad that I have good memories to think of as we start this holiday season. I'll be at the S's this Thanksgiving and they are planning to make many of the dishes that we traditionally have together as a family, so that I can feel closer to home. They said they need to get the recipe from you for the pistacio pudding, : ) Sister D. from our ward made some homemade pumpkin pie and it was delicious. She is also making me some homemade egg nog!! Yea! But nothing will be able to compare to my memories of Moms cooking on Thanksgiving [Awe, isn't he a diplomat!] and spending time with my family whom I love so much!

I recovered from my illness just so you know, the doctor never told me the result of my test but the antibiotics worked so I must be fine. : )

This week I had some real neat spiritual experiences: We were tracting with an exchange in some apartments and I felt the spirit tell me to pray for guidance. So I stopped everyone and told them we needed to say a prayer and we said one right on the steps of the apartment building . I prayed for guidance and for Heavenly Father to lead us to someone who was ready to be taught. As soon as I said "amen" a large man downstairs (must have been a manager) said "Hey, you guys can't be knocking doors here, you need to leave." Although it was not the answer I expected it was still an immediate answer to my prayer and so we left and went to a appointment. I know that God answers our prayers even if it isn't always what we expect, He still hears and answers our prayers.

Mom, I hope all is well and your job is going good for you!

Remi, I love you and I'm glad you have the Priesthood, now!

I love you guys and look forward to my phone call. Have a happy Thanksgiving and a wonderful week!

Elder Miller