!Hola!, Aloha!, Gutentag!, Hello! from Daytona Beach! June 29, 2009

Hey Mom, Dad, Reece, Remi, Roxy, and Truman!

It sounds like you are adjusting to Lakeland and Florida as well. I’m glad myLDSmail started working again. I was about to have to use yahoo to send my mail, but then I wouldn’t have gotten your mail. But don’t worry its working now. : )

To answer your questions: I love being a zone leader because not only does it provide me with the opportunity to serve at a higher capacity (serving the elders and sisters in the zone along with the investigators), but there is also a lot of fun things you get to do as a zone leader: baptismal interviews, interviews with other missionaries, you almost always have a good companion because he is a zone leader too, and you get to go to ZLC (Zone Leader Council), a top secret meeting with the president and the assistants. J/K [Just kidding] it’s not really secret I just never really knew what went on there until after going to the meeting for the first time. It’s really fun because first you receive leadership training from the president and the assistants, then each zone leader from the entire mission accounts for their zone, and finally we close the meeting and have a delicious lunch with President and Sister Darrington at the mission home in Orlando. We have another one coming up on Friday. I’m excited for it. :)

Yep, I am definitely keeping track of the individuals that I teach and baptize. Guess who was baptized this Saturday? Nikki Y.! Remember her? She was the first baptismal invitation I ever extended. It is so neat to hear that she was baptized and that the many months that I taught her were not for nothing. She was confirmed on Sunday in the Minneola ward and although I didn’t have the opportunity to attend the baptismal service Elder Katz who baptized her is giving me a picture of the baptism at zone conference this week. She is the 12th person to be baptized to whom I have taught the missionary lessons and extended the baptismal invitation to. I am so happy for her! The only thing I have to do now is to get caught up in my journal today so that I can write about Nikki’s baptism. I got behind because of all the new responsibility but I am getting caught up slowly but surely.

Yes, I have now seen the beach up-close and personal, the first time in my life that I have ever seen or been to the Atlantic Ocean. Daytona Beach (Sun Splash beach in particular) was nice and we had a fun time playing football there last Monday. I told you how I was on TV right? The local news station was doing a segment on rip tides and they got some footage of our football game. You should look it up on the Internet. The station was WESH 2. I thought it was pretty funny they just happened to bee there at 6:00 in the morning while we were playing football.

I do like the missionaries I am living with in this four-man apartment because we are all willing to work hard and we get along great. President has us, the zone leaders, and Elder Hulon, the district leader, and his companion living together so it is a hard-working apartment. The only thing I don’t like is the ghetto apartment that we live in. It is falling apart and is very old. We will get a new apartment in October, but until then we will just have to wait until the lease is up.

Elder Palmer is my companion. Let me tell you a bit about him in case I forgot in my last e-mail. He is 5’10’’ 195lbs. (of muscle), brown hair and eyes. He is from Mesa Arizona, plays football, and is very knowledgeable. He has been out about 18 months and really enjoys the work. He actually reminds me a lot of Andy Owen! [One of Ryan's best friends, now serving his mission in Poland] He is a lot of fun.

Let me also tell you a little bit about the area. Daytona is a great place to be a missionary, but it is not the nicest place to live. I love it here, there’s just a lot of ghetto (perfect for tracting) and run-down neighborhoods. The people are humble and teachable, which is very important. The beach isn’t the nicest Florida beach but I enjoy it because it’s the only beach I have seen my whole mission. The population here is mostly black or white but not very many Spanish people at all. I have only spoken to one person in Spanish since I have been here in the area. Daytona Speedway (where they host the Daytona 500 is close by our apartment. We won’t go to the race of course, but we will be able to hear the cars this weekend as they host the races. There will be a lot of people here, too, for the races! It’s definitely hot ‘n humid here like the rest of Florida, but there is a nice ocean breeze that cools things off at night. We cover the strip of land (ocean side) that is separated from the mainland by the inter-coastal waterway. We have to cross causeways (bridges) to get to a majority of our area. We also cover Holly Hill and Ormond Beach as part of our proselyting area. There are a lot of big bugs here like large cockroaches and giant grasshoppers. They are a lot of fun to play with (and use them as pranks in the apartment). The giant crickets are harmless but very fun to throw onto each other because their legs stick to you like Velcro.

And no, President didn’t really move me because of you moving to Lakeland. The only reason I was moved to Daytona is because President needed me here as a zone leader. SO don’t worry, it wasn’t because of you. : )

We really do have a sweet work out routine! Reece and Dad, I think you would really enjoy getting buff with us the way we do. Our routine involves: Biking many miles every day, tracting in the 104 degree weather, lifting weights for alternating muscle groups in the morning at 6:30 and at night at 9:30, pushing the car one at a time in the morning 3x’s a week around the complex (uphill included), drinking protein shakes (just protein and water) with every work out, eating healthier, not eating after 7:00, etc. It is a great routine and I have lost 10 lbs of fat and gained almost that much of muscle. Right now I weigh 150 and I won’t tell you my height because I have grown a little but you’ll just have to see me when I’m done growing. : )

Just so you know… I sent in that Court thing for jury duty cancellation, so I think everything should be good with it now. So I have some questions for you… Did you get the letter that the mission office sent to you? It is a copy of my call letter to be a zone leader and I think you will enjoy it. : )

SO Dad and mom were you sad that Michael Jackson died? It was what all of our investigators and members were talking about on Thursday night. So what are you doing for the Fourth of July?? Any fun or exciting plans? How was Clearwater? I hear that is a really nice beach! Did you see the Rocket Launch on Saturday at 6:51pm? It was really neat and I was wondering if we were watching it at the same time? Have you been hit by any of the same storms that have been hitting us here? Just before I got to Daytona there was a serious flood that ruined a lot of houses. The other elders here were showing me pictures of peoples cars halfway submerged in water. I hope that if there are storms like that while I’m here that it will provide service opportunities for us so we can share the gospel with people.

I’m glad you had such a good time on your high adventure, Reece! Remi, I am so proud of you for swimming! Mom, have you found any newspapers worth writing for or are you going to go for the whole novel thing? Dad, I hope work is still going well for you! I love you all, just so you know. : )

Well, I had an amazing week and we taught a lot of investigators. We taught 33 lessons and found 14 new investigators. Our main investigators are Neville C. and Hector and his family. Neville has a baptismal date for the 18th of July and he has come to church once. Hector and his family came to church this week and they said they enjoyed the talks. I really look forward to my first baptism in this area and it should be even sooner than Neville’s. I will keep you updated on our investigators progress.

Right now we have been trying to mobilize the ward and get them exited about missionary work. We are also focusing on getting the less-actives to come to church. At sacrament meeting there were only 111 out of 600+ people who actually attended church. We are going to find a lot of opportunities for missionary work as we work on reactivating the ward and seeking referrals from the members. This week we had an awesome exchange with a recent convert named Gu’Shawn. He has such a strong testimony and really did a great job teaching our investigators. He also taught gospel principles class yesterday and his teaching was spectacular! It is so neat to see recent converts on fire like that.

I hope you had an awesome week, too, and that everything is going well for you. I will pray for you to help you in your finding a home to buy and you are always in my prayers. I love each of you very much and look forward to getting that little package in the mail. : )

Love,

Elder Miller