RE: How's our Awesome Elder? February 22, 2010

Dear Dad, Mom, Reece, and Remi,

Thank you for your emails! Wow, this new gmail format for myldsmail is great! It's fast, reliable, and really gets the job done. I am grateful they finally changed it!!

To answer your questions... yes, I think Rockland would be a nice place to stay again, but I haven't really seen any other places so I am not sure. I hink a four man apartment would be really good - Reece and I, Elder Henz, and someone else from my mission who's going to the I because there is a ton of us (unless Reece has some friends who are going to BYU-I as well?)

Please let me know if you hear anything from or about Grandpa getting my package. I am curious to know if he got it and what was done with it. I will continue to pray for him. :)

The weather is warming up now and it feels great! Although I think today it is going to rain.

Elder Henz is at Disney World right now having fun with a recent convert from the Orlando Portuguese ward and some other Brazilian missionaries. He served a great mission and he says thanks for your good wishes and support from last week. This morning I was filling out my new six week planner and had a startling realization. I only have four transfers left starting today. This was surprising to me because I remember when Elder Palmer only had 4 transfers left and it didn't seem like that long! I am going to make the best of the time that I have left because it only comes once in a lifetime.

It was hard to say goodbye to Elder Henz because he was a great companion but I know that I will probably get to see him this fall. A lot of members gave him gifts and great dinners due to his departure, including the B. family treating us to a dinner at Texas Roadhouse: very tasty steak!

Thank you for all your recent letters! I apologize that I haven't been able to send my reply letters yet, I should finish them today and send them out along with pictures and some other things. :) I will do my best to get those to you soon.

I am glad that you got an e-mail from the W. family! I am excited for the family whom we took the picture with because we have a teaching appointment and dinner set up with them for Friday. They have a lot of children (3 others that were not in the picture) and are very positive about the church. They know lots of members like the W. family and definitely have the potential to be baptized! Their oldest son is already a member (baptized maybe a year ago). Please pray for them that their hearts will be touched by our message and that they will want to be baptized.

The Baptism of Brother C. went very well on Saturday! He is such an amazing man. I am so happy to have been involved with his progression towards baptism. The G. family is the family that has fellowshipped him the most. Brother G. is Brother C.'s dentist and has been there for him every step of the way. In fact, do you remember the scenario that President Hinkley described of members being the finders and fellowshippers and missionaries being the teachers. Well, this is a perfect example of that! Bro. C.'s hometeachers both attended the baptism and both of them said many great things about him in their talks. He is now the oldest member of the Viera ward and the eldest of the high priest group! The G. family will be sending you pictures of the baptism soon and I am excited for you because Bro G. is also a professional photographer!

I want to share an awesome experience with you that I had this week: After the baptism and our appointments on Saturday afternoon, Elder Henz and I went to Ross so he could get some final things before his departure. My initial thoughts on this trip were ones of frustration because I wanted to be out tracting or teaching someone, not making last minute shopping trips. But the Lord definitely wanted us there that day because he needed us to teach four lessons in the store and He put us right where he needed us. The first people we talked to while Elder Henz was unsuccessfully looking for a backpack was the G. family [different "G." family]! Of all the people in Viera we ran into this member referral from the J. family in our ward. We had a nice conversation and invited them to come to church which was going to be Elder Henz's last Sunday. They said they would try and we continued on our way. Then we talked to a man in Spanish whom we had never met before, but he was from Honduras and his son was a member. We taught him a little more about the church and missionary work and left him with a pass a long card and our personal information. He was really nice. The most important person we talked to in that store was another member referral from the J. family. As I was walking to the counter to pay for some gold toe socks that I found for 2.99 (great deal! :)) I ran into Vilma coming into the store. She and her family are from Venezuela and they are very nice. They have already been coming to church for the past three weeks and they are great friends with 5 very solid families from the ward. We had only met once but she new who I was before I remembered who she was. She said do you remember me? I said yes because I remembered her face even though at first I couldn't remember her name. As we spoke she immediately began to express some questions and concerns that had been pressing on her mind and I helped answer each of the questions she had about the church. Elder Henz came over after he saw me talking with her and we ended up teaching to her needs for over an hour in the store, standing in the women's sweater aisle. She shared with us a number of spiritual experiences and promptings that she has had lately and without our prompting she realized that they were from God and were all pointing towards joining the Chruch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints. I felt the spirit so strong as we spoke and yet we were standing in the middle of Ross! As we were answering a question she had about why we do not use the cross on our buildings (she is formerly catholic) a minister of another faith came over and surprisingly joined our conversation and confirmed what we were already saying. I'm glad he was nice. Vilma invited us for dinner on Thursday and to share with her family the missionary lessons. She said she had realized that all her spiritual experiences were pointing towards her and her family joining the church. We are going to set a baptismal date with her family then and I know that the Lord places others in our path to help them learn of the restored gospel. This was a great last day of full-time missionary work for Elder Henz and I am so grateful to be a missionary!

This week I was able to go to the temple with the Linton family and it was a very nice visit. I had a lot of questions answered and learned a lot! They even took us out to 5 Guys burger joint afterwards. The Lintons are another one of my favorite families in the ward. There is a lot of favorite families that I have in this ward because the ward is so awesome!

I don't have my new apartment address because we haven't moved yet but when I get it I will let you know. We may not move until later, it just depends on what the mission office wants to do.

My new companion is Elder Derek Devine from Washington and he has been out as long as elder Shepherd and I because we all flew out on the same plane together from the MTC. He will arrive here tomorrow morning. This will be Elder Devine's first time as a zone leader so I will be training him on zone leader responsibilities. I know him a little bit also because he was district leader in the Deland Zone when I was there as zone leader a few transfers back. I am excited for the new elders and sisters coming into our zone and pray that it will help bring more fire and excitement so we can work harder towards reaching our zone goals.

We are working as a zone to accomplish our goals of extending the Lord's invitation for baptism daily and role playing it in our companionship study daily. This has helped us increase in the number of new investigators from 3 per week per companionship to 6! Another goal that has helped is President's challenge to take 30 minute lunches. This allows us more time to focus on the work and investigators. I am looking forward to the new transfer. I will do my best to show Elder Devine the role of a zone leader by example and help the Cocoa zone to reach our baptismal goals. I know it is possible through the Lord's help. Thank you for all your support!

Mom, I hope work at the Library continues to go well! Dad, it was awesome to hear about your teaching seminary on Friday and I am excited for your to finish the house! Reece, I am so happy for you being accepted to BYU-I and BYU (I know prayers are answered!) and I hope you feel better! Remi, I hope school is going well and that you are having fun with your brother! Roxy and Truman- meow, meow. bark, bark! Hope you each have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Miller

Elder Miller's Visit to Our Home February 19, 2010

[This is an e-mail we received from a family in the Viera Ward where Elder Ryan is serving. We've received calls and notes from several families where he has served and they always, always touch my heart. We so appreciate those folks who have taken the time to give us a peek into Ryan's mission. Many thanks!!!]

Hi,

We just wanted to send you a little note of appreciation for supporting your son on his mission and to let you know how much we enjoy having him in our home. He and Elder Henz came to eat dinner with us and our neighbors/friends, the G's. The two little boys are planning on being baptized in April. Their older brother is a member. We love their family and we have become very close friends and look forward to their baptism. Hopefully your son will still be serving in our ward.

I enjoyed listening to your son talk around the dinner table as everyone else wandered in and out . . . I felt a great spirit around your son and you should be proud of him.

I've attached some pictures of the group.

Thanks again!

The W. Family

RE: Howdy Elder! February 15, 2010

Dear Family,

It was so good to get your e-mail this week! I am glad that my new email address actually works. Although the church still uses "myldsmail" as the name they switched their service to google mail. It is a lot more reliable and faster, too! Remember all those times when my e-mail wouldn't send? Well those days are over, I hope. We'll see how the new service works out, but I have faith that it will.

Thank you very, very much for the awesome package you sent! It came on Friday and I loved it all! Actually the TP [For padding! LOL] did come in handy since we had run out and the Valentine's stuff was great, too! I absolutely loved the photos and picture frames and I already have the ones in frames displayed on my desk and the others (which were great, too!) in my family photo album for other missionaries to see as well. :) I loved the letters and everything! I will be sending you letters and pictures soon (I will be writing them today for P-day) so you can be expecting those in the mail soon. By the way, I finished Grandpa's letter (all 6 pages of it).

Dad, your design sounds ingenious! It was really neat to hear about that so thank you for sharing that with me. :) I am sorry to hear they had to let go the young man, I know the economy is tough. They definitely need your contribution to the company, though, so they better keep you for as long as you want to stay there! It was also cool to hear about the mine preserve [Scout service project]. It sounds like you and Remi did some great service. I always really enjoy service projects. what a great way to help the community and also be missionaries through example! I am sorry to hear that our family is sick, but I hope that everyone gets better soon and that you have another great week! Love you!

Mom, I am sorry to hear that you are sick. I hope you feel better today so that you can have energy for your training today. I am at the library right now and I was just thinking of the work you will be doing since I see all around me different library workers. I will pray for your success and accomplishment with that. I am glad that we still get to e-mail today even though it is Presidents' Day. Elder Henz still has one more week. His last day of full-time missionary work is on Sunday the 21st and he flies home on the 24th. I will let him know that you wish him the best. :) I know that I will at least have 6 more weeks of time in Viera after Elder Henz goes home because I will need to train the next zone leader on the area. But my guess is that I will be here for longer, possibly my last area like Elder Henz! I will let you know next week when I find out who my next companion is. I love you and I hope you have a great week at work!

Remi, so good to hear from you, brother. I am writing you a letter today that should get there soon. It was cool to hear about your service project with Dad. Elder Henz is excited to go home and see his family in Brazil, but he is also going to miss Viera and the members and recent converts here a lot. It is definitely mixed feelings for every missionary. So what are you doing in school these days? What activities do you have coming up for school or for church? I look forward to your letter. I also am excited to be your roommate when I arrive in Lakeland. You're a great brother and I can tell that you love and care about me from your frequent letters. I love you!

Reece, it is pretty crazy that your friend, Sam, is already leaving on his mission! I am so excited for him and the opportunities that lay ahead for him in his missionary service! It's amazing to think how fast the time will fly by for him on his mission. Just think, yours isn't that far away either! I will be praying for you to receive the art scholarship. Please do me a favor and ask mom if she knows of any scholarships available coming up for me that I should sign up for. I am not sure if I will have my scholarships that I did before my mission or not. That's something else I need to find out. I want to let you know that I really appreciated your letter. I don't know if you know how much it means to me to know that you look up to me and love me, but it really means a lot to me! Thank you! I am really glad you liked my letter and I am excited to be rooming with you at college! I love you, bro.!

This is an exciting time to be a part of the FOM! I really look forward to seeing the blessings that come from the efforts of all the missionaries who are working hard to achieve the mission and zone goals. I had a great exchange with Elder Bracero (one of the assistants to the president) and we set some important goals to increase our effectiveness as missionaries. We will be following up with each other this week. I have greatly encouraged all of our missionaries to take advantage of this missionary fireside with the Saints Unified Voices choir directed by Gladys Knight. I pray and have hope that they will invite their investigators to attend with them so that we can utilize this missionary tool the Lord has given us. Elder Henz and I already have a huge list of tickets that we have ordered for our investigators. Do you remember Takiya who was baptized? We invited her whole family to come and most of them are non-members (her mom, her great aunt, etc.). They are all coming and really looking forward to it! As a zone we will be setting goals to extend the Lord's invitation every day at least once to help us set baptismal dates with those who are ready. I look forward to seeing the blessings that come from this!

On Saturday we got a call from one of the couple missionaries letting us know that we are moving this week. I guess the office forgot that our lease was up on this place (and we definitely don't want to sign it again) so we will be moving, probably tomorrow to some apartments closer to our own area. The apartments are called Caribbean Isle and they look pretty nice so hopefully all will go well.

Today we have an awesome lesson planned with a new family that we are going to teach (the G. family) in a members home (the W's). We will be teaching them about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and inviting them to be baptized. Please pray for us. :)

Brother C. is on track for baptism this Saturday. He is very excited and happy to be baptized! Brother G., his friend, got him a triple combination with his name engraved on it and he really liked that. He jokingly said, "I can't back out now, now it's official." He makes me laugh. :) The baptism is on Saturday at 2:00 pm. please pray for brother C., especially since his assisted living center was recently on lockdown due to a virus that had gotten inside and was very contagious.

I love you all and enjoyed getting your package and letters. I hope you had a great Valentine's day yesterday and that you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Miller

Happy Valentine's Day February 6, 2010

Hello my favorite family!

This week went well. I enjoyed your emails. It sounds like Grandpa is doing well, Mom, but I will pray that the tests go well, too. I haven't sent his letter yet but I will send it to the address you gave me. Thank you. Congratulations, Reece, on being accepted to BYU-Idaho! And I think you mean going to school this year, right? haha. I knew you meant next school year. My companion is doing well, Remi, he is just a little "trunkie" for Brazil and his family. He has been buying all sorts of random stuff that you can get for cheap in the U.S. but not in Brazil. He is excited but of course has mixed feelings. Dad, the house sounds like it is coming along at a steady rate! There sure is a lot of work that goes into it, isn't there? I have enjoyed the beautiful weather, too.

NEW MISSION PRESIDENT! (This is from an email from President Darrington. I thought you might like to know:)

"Last week, the Church announced the new mission president and his wife assigned to the Florida Orlando Mission. It is Garth Vaughan Hall, 63, and Sharon Laub Hall from the Rexburg, Idaho North Stake. President Hall is Vice President, Brigham Young University-Idaho. He is currently serving as a ward mission leader and temple ordinance worker. He is a former bishop, counselor and high councilor. For many years, he was employed as a college football coach working at several universities in the West.

Sister Hall serves as a ward Sunday School teacher and temple ordinance worker and is a former stake Primary president and counselor, counselor in a ward Relief Society presidency, counselor in a ward Young Women presidency and ward Young Women adviser. Both President and Sister Hall are originally from Salt Lake City, Utah.

We welcome the Halls to the FOM. It is with mixed feelings we contemplate our departure on or about July 1st as the Halls take the reins of this mission. It is our job in the meantime to make sure this mission does not miss a beat that the work continues forward with the transition to a new mission president and wife." ~President Darrington

Crazy huh? Already getting a new president soon! The weird thing is I go home the transfer after President does. :0 Isn't great, though, that President hall is Vice president at BYU-Idaho?

Well to be honest I was heartbroken this morning. I had the opportunity of a life time slip through my hands and I felt horrible. A kind member in our ward set it up so Elder Henz and I could go with him to watch the last night-time shuttle launch this morning. It required us getting up at 1:30am and our phone alarm was set on the wrong mode so only beeped once, not loud enough to wake us. My other alarm (I always set 2 or 3) either malfunctioned or wasn't loud enough to wake us up either. :( We missed it, but half of our zone got to see it, some of them in person. This is probably the saddest I have been in a long, long time, but I learned something from it. I thought of the parable of the ten virgins and the five whose lamps did not have enough oil. That was me this morning in a temporal sense, but I never want this to happen again! More importantly, I absolutely do not want to be in this position in a spiritual sense when the savior comes again. If I felt anguish for something so temporal I know it would be 10 times worse in a spiritual case. There will be other launches I suppose, just not like this one. Lesson learned.

In brighter news I was able to go to Kennedy Space Center today. I'll send pictures sometime soon. My favorite part was riding the launch simulator. So even though I missed watching the launch I did get to go to outer space!

We're meeting with Bro. C, tonight. I am so impressed with this man's humility and grasp on the gospel. I am excited for him to be baptized!

We're receiving lots of member referrals lately! Our member presentations are a great success thanks to the help of the Lord and the awesome members of the Viera ward.

Well, I hope each of your weeks go well! Thank you for sending the package and the letters. I really look forward to receiving them. I love you all!

love,

Elder Miller

Ryan's Sax playing on Good Morning America!

In today's e-mail Elder Ryan made reference to the news I just gave him . . . I just discovered that a single he recorded just before he left BYU for a very talented young lady named ShaLyse Walker, was played on national TV! ShaLyse was an intern for ABC's Good Morning America in the summer of 2008, and she competed in an "intern superstar" competition. She used the instrumental track of her single -- which had Ryan playing the sax parts -- he played harmony with himself and was even featured in a solo! It was fun to hear him. Here's the link:

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5593561

Hello again! Happy February!! February 1, 2010

Dear Dad, Mom, Reece, and Remi,

This was a great email! I loved it because it was packed with great news, thanks! I hope you finally got my last weeks email. If not I resent it so you could still have it and save it. You will enjoy my e-mail because I have lots of great news for you, too!

Reece, I appreciate you working on your reply letter, I look forward to receiving it! So how is work? Is Sam excited to enter the MTC? [Missionary Training Center -- Reece's friend, Sam, leaves for his mission to the Philippines in mid Feb.] Tell him that I said he will love the MTC! The food gets old after 3 days but the spiritual and mental growth you experience there is awesome! Guess what? Elder Hager called me this morning from the Goldenrod area in Orlando to tell me that he met two of your friends yesterday: Hamilton and Andrew B. (the twins). I think they were at Beau's house as well for the Cribs footage. Elder Hagar lived with me for 6 weeks so when he heard them talking about MTV Cribs and Beau's house he asked them if they new you and they said, "Yes, that's the guy who is really good at the piano and has a brother on his mission in Viera." (both great things to be known by! ;) It was great to hear about your home teaching experience. I hope they accepted the lessons. We are doing the same program here and it is a world wide program the church has been implementing. Its a great program from the Lord and I am glad you get to help with that family! From home teaching you can get a small glimpse at the happiness and joy that come from serving a full time mission. I love it! Thank you for working on the movies and songs. That will be fun to do together this summer. Have an awesome week!

Dad, I am glad you enjoyed the music from Good Morning America. That's really neat! I do remember how fast my first 6 months went by! It passes too quickly! I appreciate your advice because it increases my desire to fill every last bit of my last quarter with hard work and the joy of bringing souls to Christ! I will pray to learn the lessons I am here to learn. I appreciate your prayers, too. By the way I sent Aunt Jenny a birthday card and told her that my guess about her age was 45 not 65, haha. I think she will like that one better. :) Thank you for letting me know about things like birthdays for extended family because I wouldn't have remembered that on my own. I appreciate your help. :) I hope you have a great week at work!

Mom, I am doing great, thanks for asking! And thank you for your surprise! That was awesome! I had no idea that my saxophone playing was on national TV! I will definitely have to see that after my mission (along with MTV Cribs and other things) I look forward to it!. By the way, thank you for the pictures you sent last time. I printed out the one of Grandpa so I could have a picture of him. I also printed out the one of you because I was surprised to see that you looked younger, skinnier, and prettier than the last time I saw you. Your friend in St. Cloud is right: Dad did pick well because his bride not only started off great but also gets younger and prettier as the years go by! I will make sure to follow his example when I get to make that choice, too, in the upcoming years. :) And, no, I am not about to ask for something so I am not buttering you up, just speaking my mind. :) [I already put the check in his account! LOL]

The work is going great! We set a baptismal date with our friend Bro. C., the 91-year-old member referral. His date is February 20th. He reminds me a little of Grandpa so it is a special experience to work with him.

Remi, everything is great! I loved stake conference, too! [Our Stake Conference was Sunday and we had the same Regional Satellite Broadcast as Ryan in Melbourne!] I felt very spiritual empowered afterwards. I felt the same way after the zone conference that we had on Tuesday. That is one way you can feel the spirit. When truth from God is spoken you can feel knowledge and insight flow to you. You also feel happy as you learn these truths. I am grateful for the restored gospel. I know we have prophets and apostles on the earth today! My favorite talk was President Eyring's on eternal families. Thank you for your letter. I look forward to writing you back, hopefully today. :) I hope you have a great week back at school!

The Cocoa Zone ended the month spiritually strong although we did not reach our baptismal goal. We had 5 baptisms in January. We started laying the ground work for February many weeks ago so I look forward to seeing the results and pray that for every month we can stay ahead and work hard to reach our baptismal goal. We learned a lot in zone conference this week about the importance of personal conversion and commitment. It really does come down to the personal sanctification of each missionary in order to reach our goals as a zone. We have set goals and made plans as a zone to increase the spirituality and efforts of each individual missionary which will help us reach 12 baptisms in February. I appreciate the prayers and faith that you have for us. We will achieve 100 baptisms this month as a mission!

This week was great! We started off the week with last P-day having Elder Henz' 21st b-day party at the Z's from our ward. We had a delicious brisket (spell check) wrapped in Spanish style burritos. Mmm...

So did I already tell you about the SUV choir directed by Gladys Knight? They are preforming March 6 and 7 in Orlando and we get to bring 8 investigators per companionship to it! I am excited for that because it is going to be a great musical presentation and Gladys Knight and her family are going to be sharing their conversion stories on stage! What a great way to do missionary work! She is also performing at the Brevard Community College King Center with the Pips on February 18th. She is hitting the central Florida area very well!

This week we did service by helping Betty (the wife of an investigator named Earl) paint her elderly neighbor's garage. It was fun and a great work out! I can't imagine the amount of hard work and effort you put into our house in California and our new house. It's hard work! We also helped move two pianos, both uprights, for a member. Remember when the missionaries helped us move ours in Alabama? At least I didn't have to go upstairs!

The G. family is doing well but they could definitely use your prayers.

Tonight we have another FHE with the G's and Brother C. I am looking forward to finishing "The Gospel of Jesus Christ" lesson with him as well as watching "The Restoration" DVD. Please keep Brother C. in your prayers as he continues on this path towards baptism.

Question: What is the last picture on the last CD that I sent to you? (I need to know so I can send you a new one soon)

I love you all very much! Thank you for your great e-mails and continued support. I hope you have an awesome, productive February!

Love,

Elder Miller