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