With Love from Daytona 13 July 2009

Hello my Family!

It was so good to hear about your week!

Dad and Mom that is so neat you went to the temple! I should have told you before but next time you go just remember that I know most of the ordinance workers there, especially the ones that are from the wards I have served in so far. Say Hi for me if you run into any of them that knows me. :) Mom, don’t be silly, the picture looked great. I thought it was so neat to see you guys in front of OUR new temple. Dad, congratulations on your new/old callings. The Lord is really using you to help his youth out and that is a great blessing and honor. Reece, congrats on all your hard work. That’s awesome that you still have your job at Mimi’s and that it was an upgrade as well! Keep up the hard work for the Stake President as well. Remi, I was surprised to hear that Aunt Jenny sent you a PS2, wow! Please tell all of our relatives that I say hi! It sounds like you are having a lot of fun with your brother and your new friend. I love you all!

I hope you got my letters that I sent mid last week. If you haven’t received them yet they should get there today along with pictures and other cool things that I sent. I did receive your wonderful letters and so I replied to each of you. I haven’t received the package yet but I am sure that I will get it sometime today hopefully. :) Thank you for your kindness in sending me the letters and the package. :)

Thank you for reminding me about the launch tonight. I will keep an eye out for it as well and hopefully we can both see it at the same time. :)

[They "scrubbed" the launch at the last minute on Monday and then we missed it on Wednesday, ah well.]

I think that is awesome that you take such good care of the missionaries (feeding them, helping them out zone conference, sending them messages from their family, etc.) I know the Lord really appreciates all that you do for His servants and you will be blessed for your efforts. To answer your question we are really cared for by the members in the area; they are very kind to us. And they always take really good care of us at zone conference with a large, delicious meal! So I can tell you first hand that your efforts will be appreciated.

To answer you question, Dad, Elder Palmer and I, as zone leaders, give training to our District leaders on both the mission transfer focus (ex. this 6 week period focus is working in unity with the members) as well as specific concerns and challenges that come up throughout the weeks. It is a great opportunity to serve the other Elders and Sisters in our zone and help them accomplish the goals and plans that they have made. Examples of specific trainings we have given include: the importance of obedience, how to work with the members in the ward, and attitude and effort.Thank you for your continued prayers on my behalf and more importantly for our investigators. They definitely need your prayers.

Let me tell you a little more about our current investigators. One of our main investigators is Brother C. He is a young man who previously served in the military but is now working at Wal-Mart. He has a little boy who is very energetic and his wife and his wife’s sister live in the apartment with him as well. They live in apartments that are a block away from the church. We usually teach him at his house but it is difficult to teach there because of all the distractions. We are trying to get him into a member’s home to teach him where the spirit can reside better. Just so you know, if you ever want to really help the missionaries out when you guys buy that new home and get situated, invite the missionaries’ investigators into your home so they can be taught there. It is essential to an investigators progress to have not only that member friendship but also the spiritually safe environment where they can learn on a higher level. Bro. C. is coming to church again this Sunday and hopefully not only staying for the first and second hour but the third hour as well. He has fasted and prayed in efforts to receive an answer but he must put his full efforts into this in order to really receive his answer. Part of that is coming to church (he didn’t come the past two weeks) and another part of it is being willing to change churches when he does receive his answer from God. We have not yet met with his wife because she is not comfortable with meeting with us yet but please keep her (I don’t know her first name but you can call her Sister C.) and Bro. C. in your prayers. Thank you for your help.

I answered your questions from your letters in my letters to you so please let me know that you got them. I told you already in the letter, but I honestly will be happy with whatever house you choose. Please do not hesitate to get a three bedroom house if that is what you need to do, because like Dad said I will definitely be there sometimes, but at the same time I will be spending a lot of time up at college furthering my education and won't be at the house often enough for you to have to sacrifice an entire room for me. I love you and thank you for considering me in your decision, but definitely go ahead with whatever is best for the family now. [Remington is now absolutely thrilled to "share" a room with Elder Ryan!]

Well, I have been doing well, besides multiple mosquito bites, ha-ha. But you probably know how that goes. :) I told you a lot about what I have up to do in my letters to you so I won’t repeat myself. But I will share one crazy story with you that happened a couple of days ago. Elder Palmer and I have been tracting the streets closer to the beach recently and there are a lot of crazy people who live there! We ended up teaching this older man (81) who was emotionally unstable and had supported his family through gambling on dog races. He liked the message, although he cried off and on through the whole thing. We are bringing him back a copy of the Book of Mormon but I don’t know how much we can really teach him due to his emotional circumstances. There are definitely crazy people here in Daytona area, but every one of them are children of God and they need our help.

I love each of you and I look forward to opening that package today. Thank you again and I hope you get my mail soon, too. I hope you have an awesome week. Think of me if you see the shuttle. :)

Love,

Elder Miller