Re: Hi Elder! March 1, 2010

Dear Family,

My week was great! I enjoy serving in the Viera ward! Overall things are going well with the work here. Sorry the letters took me so long to finish but I finally finished them. You should get them on Wednesday this week.

Elder Devine is doing well. He is a hard working missionary and already loves the area. (Of course, it's Viera! :)). We were in different districts in the MTC so we didn't know each other there, just from the plane ride and then serving around each other during our missions. He was one of our district leaders when I was zone leader in Deland, so we knew each other pretty well from our interactions then. We look forward to helping the Cocoa Zone reach new levels together.

The lesson with the R. family went really well. The spirit was strong and we had a recently reactivated member with us on exchange who bore his testimony to the family and really brought the spirit in their home. The name of the member that came with us is Spencer and he is the 18 year old we recently taught him all the lessons and have been helping him prepare for his mission. The R's accepted their baptismal date for the 13th of March and we have been helping them along the way. They were very honest with us; that it was a difficult change for them to be making in their lives but they are willing to work their best towards baptism and I know the Lord will help them because of that. I told you more about their family in my letter to Dad.

It has been really cold lately but at least I haven't been sweating when I go running in the mornings. For my work outs now I stretch and run over a mile in the morning and then alternate every other day with perfect push-ups & abs and perfect pull-ups and bicep curls ("perfect" is the name of the equipment). It's been working pretty well for me and without trying to I have gotten down to the weight I came out at: 145-147lbs. I'm glad that I have been able to work out every day recently since two weeks ago I was too sick to work out. Being sick every once in a while helps you appreciate the times when you are healthy. It feels good to be healthy! :)

I recently had a neat opportunity with a friend who emailed me to share my feelings on the restored Church of Jesus Christ. I was happy to find out that they accepted my invitation to learn more! I am excited to continue to share the gospel with friends that I have had for a long time but maybe never took the opportunity to share my feelings about the church with them.

It was crazy to hear that another earthquake hit, this time in Chile. I hope everyone over there is getting the help that they need and that all the Church members and missionaries are okay there. I have friends serving there and I hope to find out how they are doing. It was great to hear about Kyle bird getting his mission call to Cali! There are a lot of missionaries who used to live there that get called there. Caleb, too! I can't believe that they are already on their missions. I still remember them when they were 14 or 15. Time flies, though. I'm not sure where I think Reece will get called, but I am pretty sure he won't get called to Florida like me, haha. Where do you think it would be cool to go on your mission, Reece?

The work is going well in the Cocoa Zone, but we will need to double our efforts as a zone and a mission to reach the goals we have set of 100 baptisms every month. I feel that if every missionary will grasp the concept of urgency and the importance of the work we are engaged in then the work will advance in a way pleasing to the Lord. Our zone has struggled in the past many months to reach our baptismal goals. We shared an analogy at our zdm [Zone District Meeting?] that related all the work that goes into making a shuttle launch happen to the work it takes for us to reach our baptismal goals as a zone. I hope our missionaries understand that in order to reach our goal we will need to make personal sacrifices and double our efforts to reach the goal. I know it is essential for every missionary to be committed to reaching our goal so we made sure that it was everyone setting the goal together and not just a few of us. Everyone is committed to our goal of 9 baptisms in the month of March and the Lord is holding us accountable to reach the goal He helped us set. I pray that March will be the month that this mission hits 100 baptisms!

It was great to hear about your week and I hope my letters get there soon. I love all of you and want you know that I know that this is the Lord's work. I know that this church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is His church restored on the earth today. I know that Christ leads and directs this church through our living prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. I would love to hear any missionary experiences you have had lately so please tell me about them in your next email. Have another great and productive week!

Love,

Elder Miller