Merry Christmas from Viera! December 21, 2009

Hello Family!

I hope you have a great week ahead of you and that everything is going well in Lakeland! Guess who I got an email from... Jeff! I shared with him some mission experiences in my reply.

Your package should arrive there today so keep an eye out for it. I hope you enjoy it and I will look for yours as well.

So how is everything?

I am doing great. I am excited for our zone because we are getting closer to our goal of 10 baptisms for December and Elder Henz and I are having three baptisms this weekend (the day after Christmas!)

The family getting baptized is the H. family and the three children are the ones preparing for baptism right now. There names are Takiya (13), Eshawn (10), and Enijae (8). Their uncle, Brother N., is a recent convert and he is going to be the one baptizing them! What a neat experience! Hopefully the kids' mom, Leshawn, will decide to get baptized soon as well.

Elder Henz is doing great, too. He has been given a lot of money and gifts lately since his family can't send anything in the mail and he is really happy.

Our mission is doing awesome. We recently set goals together with the other zone leaders, the assistants, and President Darrington for the New Year! We call our plans the Lord's Battle Plan 2010! I am excited for these goals especially striving for 100 baptisms every month next year!

It was nice to hear about the returned missionary sharing his experiences with the youth. I look forward to doing that as well when I finish here.

So I am planning to call round about noon if that is ok with you. That way if you get up about 7 or 8 and open gifts/eat breakfast by the time you are done I will be calling.

It is suggested that we do a conference call (everyone at once) to utilize the 40 minutes we have to talk but I would like to talk to each of you individually for at least just a little bit. I look forward to talking with you on Friday!

Mom, I will definitely continue fervently praying for you to get that Library position. [Yea, it worked!] I wish you the best and want you to know that I have prayed everyday for the Lord to help you with this opportunity. I know the Lord will do the best thing for our family.

Remi, I'm sorry to hear about your pinky finger! I hope it heals quickly so you can open gifts on Friday. For Christmas dinner I will be going to the F's with the Z's there as well. (President F. is the counselor in the stake presidency who let me borrow his saxophone.) we will also be visiting many other families like the S's, the McA's, and Brother B. Many members have asked me to play some Christmas music on the sax for them when I come over so that will be fun. I look forward to Christmas and I will let you know how it goes!

Dad, I look forward to getting your letter and I will be considering your questions. Here are some questions for you and our family to think about that I will ask in our conversation: What has been the biggest (possibly unexpected) blessing for you about the Lord having you move to Lakeland, Florida? (as a side note with that question I was just thinking about the comparison between your journey across the united states and the journey that Lehi and his family took across the wilderness and the blessings they received for following the Lord's commandments.) Also, What is the best thing that has happened to you in the year 2009? Dad, I appreciate your comments about honesty and I will do my best to be honest to myself and the Lord.

Reece, I hope you enjoy what I got you for Christmas as well. I sent notes about each of the gifts I gave to you because I am not there to explain it to you. What did you mean by "BYUI (improved)"? did you mean your friend had improved or the school (most likely both, huh?). [Reece just says that BYU-I stands for BYU-improved! LOL] I hope you have a great Christmas and enjoy the time you have with the family!

Just a few more comments about my week...
Our Sacrament meeting Christmas program went really well. I enjoyed the musical numbers and the great talks and I even got to sing with the choir, too! We sang a version of The First Noel that was combined with the music of Pachelbel's Canon and it sounded great! (Mom you would have loved it). For zone conference I really enjoyed the musical presentations as well and my saxophone/flute duet went very well! [See photo] I even got a recording of it that I can hopefully send to you! Then on Saturday I was asked to do the same special musical number (What Child Is This?) with Sister E. for Charley's baptism in Palm Bay. I enjoyed that, too.

I wish each of you a Merry Christmas and above all I want you to know that I love you and the Savior loves all of us!

Love,

Elder Miller

Christmas is coming... December 14, 2009

Hello Family!

Thank you for your email as always. Can you believe how warm it has been? It's like an extended summer! haha.

Right now it's going really well for the Cocoa Beach Zone: we have 1 confirmation so far in December but 3 coming up this weekend with more to follow. Elder Henz and I are setting a date with a recent convert's sister (Jennifer) tonight at their home. Jennifer is in her late 20's and she is responding to what we teach her really well. We look forward to meeting with her tonight!

This definitely is a great time of year in which we remember our savior Jesus Christ's birth and life. Although Elder Henz and I are very excited for this time of year to share the gospel as missionaries, many of the people we talk to are taking a "vacation" from spiritual things and just want to "relax." This is obviously what the adversary would want them to do because they are B-U-S-Y (Being Under Satan's Yoke), but we are doing our best to help God's children find their way back through our savior Jesus Christ. I went on exchange with the Palm Bay Elders (Elder Hyer) this past week and tried to share the same excitement that we are feeling in our own area.

I am glad you got my letter and pictures! You should be getting other things in the mail soon, too! And yes, we actually did knock on that "no Mormons door" [Elder Ryan sent a photo of a door stenciled with "No Soliciting, No Mormons, No Special Offers, No Door to Door," and a big "Beware of Dog" sign on it!] and talked with the guy. He was actually fairly nice but didn't believe our true doctrine. Hopefully he'll change his mind some day, but for now in made a great picture. :)

My Christmas plans are going Christmas caroling and eating dinner with the Bishop C's family and other families who will be there on Christmas eve. Then on Christmas we will go to the Z's (another awesome family in the ward) for dinner and of course during the day I will be calling you!! I will be thinking about things to talk about with each of you (including Dad's questions from your email) and I look forward to our conversations. I'll call in the afternoon so you will be awake when I call this time. :) Does that sound good?

Reece, I have been praying for you to have help with the ACT's and other tests and I know you will do great! Anything for Christmas will be great my brother. I told mom some things in my last e-mail, but some of my favorite things now are things that would remind me of memories our family has made together!

Remi, things are going great!! Today I did some fun Christmas shopping for my favorite family. :) (you guys) I am excited for you to have your Christmas break and although we can't spend it together I hope you have fun with the family! Love you!

Mom, I know what you mean about the weather! It's been a hot summer/winter! It's crazy that you are now closer to the temple than me and you are having practically the same weather. On the bright side at least we didn't get hit with that blizzard that has swept half the country, right? I will definitely pray for you with your job opportunities coming up this week. I love you!

Dad, I appreciate your love and concern. :) The fire place is looking fantastic! You're quite the carpenter. There is a picture in our new chapel (the Viera chapel) of Jesus and Joseph doing their carpentry. It made me think about what a great father Joseph must have been to raise the Son of God!

Hey, I have a question for anyone who knows: When do I need to contact BYU-Idaho about class registration and everything for the fall semester? Please let me know, especially if it is soon. thanks

I am going to put together a gift basket for a less fortunate family that lives in our area and I am really excited for that! Remember when we did that as a family for a less-fortunate family many Christmases ago? Those are great memories.

I look forward to making some great Christmas season memories this year while sharing the gospel with the people here in Viera area. I wish you all the best in your Christmas endeavors and I hope to hear about the traditions that our family continues to have throughout the years. On that note I remembered that a few days ago Elder Henz and I were driving back from an appointment at night and I spotted one of those houses with the music and light show. Elder Henz had never seen such a display so in honor of our family tradition I showed him the light show with music and thought about you guys driving around to look at the Christmas lights. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy week!

Love,

Elder Miller

Cocoa Beach Zone Conf Pictures December 2009

The entire Cocoa Beach Zone. Including Elders Miller, Henz, Hager, Nelson, Smith . . .

Three generations of missionary trainers: Ryan, Elder Nelson, whom he trained, and Elder Nelson's brand new companion (I'm sorry Ryan didn't tell me his name!)

Merry Christmas! December 7, 2009

Dear Family,

How is my favorite family doing in Lakeland? It sounds like things are still coming along with the house. Hopefully, before I finish my mission it will all be complete so I can see the finished product And so I don't have to paint or lay floor, haha, just kidding. :)

I love my new area!! I was amazed how welcomed I was and how smoothly everything runs here. Testimony meeting was great! All the testimonies were heartfelt and relevant.

We had an amazing experience with a member referral yesterday. A brother from our ward came up to us after church and told us the spirit had prompted him to tell us about a friend he had been talking to and he asked us to come with him right then to go teach his friend. So we finished up our things at the church and went over with him to teach his friend Maurice. Maurice has had a tough life but he really wants to change his life and come closer to God. We shared with him how he could have the spirit to ALWAYS be with him and not just some of the time and taught him the steps that lead to receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost including baptism. It was one of the most powerful times I have ever felt the spirit speak. The spirit guided us to set a baptismal date with him to work towards as a goal and he full-heartedly accepted the Lord's invitation. Yesterday our whole zone was fasting and praying to find families who had been prepared to receive our message and this was definitely one of the hopefully many families that we are seeking for. Maurice and his soon to be wife have four children. Our next appointment with him is on Tuesday and I look forward to helping him and his family prepare towards baptism.

My new house is not very new or nice, but its a roof over our heads. Who knows, maybe we can move out of this one too. We live right now with the Melbourne Elders in their house which is 4 miles from the bottom of our own area. Our area is really nice though, probably the nicest area I have served in. The neighborhoods are mostly wealthy areas except for a few spots and it is completely the opposite of my last area. I love it here so far and look forward to serving the people here.

To answer your questions: My area is actually named Viera (it covers Viera, Rockledge, Suntree, and part of Melbourne but the church building for our ward is located in Viera. This will be my second to last area (one more after this). Elder Henz (pronounced just like it looks-- Henz) is a lot of fun to serve with and he always keeps us laughing. His slight Brazilian accent makes it even more funny. This is his last area and last few months.

I really look forward to Christmas and I love this time of year. I hope you are all having a wonderful December and that things continue to go really well for you. :) I apologize for not sending any letters or pictures lately. Things have been very busy lately adjusting to the new area! I will do my best to get one out today and also I will make sure to get my Christmas stuff to you soon. By the way, altohough you already know please continue to send letters and packages to my immediate address because the mission office can't forward packages. thanks. :)

[If you have a package for Ryan just call or e-mail me for the address. ~Mom]

At Christmas I will get to talk for about 40 minutes so I was thinking about a brief hello to the whole family and then talking to each of you for 10 minutes separately so I can get to talk with everyone. Or maybe part of the time separately and then we can all talk together again before I have to go. It's up to you as long as I get to talk to you. :) I will try to call later then last Christmas because I want you to be awake when I call. :) It will be easier with no time difference. :)


I love you all and look forward to speaking with you at Christmas, too! I hope you have a wonderful week! I will continue praying on your behalf. Stay strong!

Love,

Elder Miller