Good Morning from Port St. Lucie! April 19, 2010

Dear Mom, Dad, Reece, and Remi:

Hello! Sounds like your week was busy but good. Congrats, Mom, on the new calling; you'll do great! I am glad to hear that seminary and work are going well for you, Dad! Reece, I am so proud of you and excited for you to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood on Sunday! Remi, I can tell you're a big help around the house and I know Dad appreciates your efforts!

Well, I gave a lot of thought to what I wanted to do in regards to going "home" to Visalia or to Lakeland. During appropriate times of the week I made two Pros and Cons lists- one for going to Visalia first and one for going to Lakeland first. I had made my decision with the assumption that the whole family would be able to fly out to California. That was my mistake, I just misunderstood the circumstances. Dad and Mom, I had thought that maybe you would be able to take some time off work (less that a week) and you and my brothers would meet me in the Fresno airport and we would spend time with friends and ward family in Visalia. But since that is not the case I would prefer to see you, my family, first before going out to visit Visalia. I think it would be too hard for me to really enjoy my visit back "home" if I hadn't seen you first, you know? So I will be happy to meet you at the mission office or mission home (which ever the President prefers) on the 11th in Orlando and then go home with you to Lakeland. With that in mind, like you said I would really like to go back to visit Visalia, maybe like your friend suggested-with Reece and I before school starts or something. I just couldn't imagine my first "homecoming" being with out my family. Now, if for some reason all of you could come out to Visalia to meet me there I would choose that first, but unless that is the case I will be happy with Lakeland first, Visalia later. :)

Mom, I appreciate you looking for further scholarships for both of us. That will really be helpful considering I will be almost broke upon returning from my mission. I will get work as soon as possible, but scholarships will definitely be appreciated. I will also be talking with President Darrington and/or President Hall about the BYU-I return missionary scholarship that is available to me through them. I'm not sure if that is a sure thing because I know there are a lot of returning missionaries from our mission that are going the BYU-I at the same time as me, but I will definitely try. As far as classes go, at this point I do not want to take any more Psychology courses, but I do want to take more General Eds and Music classes (especially Sound Alliance). I would appreciate your help in seeing what classes make sense for me. I will be happy to answer any questions that will help. Thanks for helping me with this! One more thought- I would love for Reece and I to be able to get a nice apartment together with people that we know. A four man would probably be best. Andy mentioned wanting to room together with us in his last letter to me and I think that would be great! I would like to know from Reece what he would like to do and also where and with who would be best. Please let me know. :)

This week went well for us in many ways. We were able to start getting the members involved in our teaching. We've been teaching a lot of other lessons still - 23 this week!, but we are also starting to get the members involved in exchanges and lessons in their home. We had an amazing discussion on Sunday afternoon in the B. family home with their investigator friend Kenny. Both sister B. and her recent convert friend, Sister W., bore powerful testimony to Kenny about their own personal conversions, and of the restored gospel and truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. It was a great experience to be involved in such a special lesson with Kenny! He voluntarily committed himself to coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon-- in two weeks! We look forward to meeting with him and his two kids again soon and continuing to share the restored gospel with him. I am excited to extend the Lord's invitation for baptism to him as the Spirit directs.

This week we invited Tiffany, our friend from the Bahamas who came to church for the first time last week, to be baptized and she said she would need to pray about it. For our lesson with her we read a lot together from the Book of Mormon and helped explain its importance. More importantly we did our best to help her feel the Spirit as we read from the words of the Savior in 3 Nephi 11 as He taught us about baptism. I pray that she will continue to read the Book of Mormon and pray specifically for God to give her an answer if it is true. I know that if she follows the advice that Moroni gave in chapter 10 that she WILL receive an answer!

Elder Engemann and I did everything we could to help those we are teaching to make it to church this week and we prayed fervently together that those we had invited would be able to attend. Although none of them came, I have strong faith that they will come next week and that the Lord has a plan for each of His children, even if I might not always understand what He specifically needs for them. I look forward to a spiritually empowering zone conference tomorrow focused on the doctrine of the Plan of Salvation and I know that this upcoming week will be a successful, exciting one. I have prepared myself for a spiritual "feast." Please tell Grandma, Rodney, and Grandpa, Randy, Lana and our all family that I said hi! Thank you for all you do for me as my family!

Love,

Elder Miller