Greetings from Daytona Beach September 7, 2009

My Family,

Thank you for your encouraging email and your weekly update on your life in Lakeland. I always look forward to hearing from you each week. Mom and Remi, I apologize for not replying yet to the letters you sent me a couple weeks ago. I will definitely reply to the letters you send me, sometimes it just takes a little longer than I would like due to a busy week, but I will do my best to write you letters soon. I also want to send you some picture CD’s that I plan on making today so hopefully I can get those sent to you this week.

Dad, you always know how to give the best advice. You are very spiritually in tune and have that extra fatherly sense. I appreciate your comments, because I do feel myself sometimes slipping into that cruise mode and I do my very best not to because I want to continually improve at being a missionary. The only way to do that is to move forward, because if I am not moving forward I am moving backward. I am excited for the new transfer that starts today because I will be receiving a new companion and a new calling (senior Zone Leader). This will help me to not slide into a rut but to press forward with steadfast faith in Christ. My new companion’s name is Elder Hansen. That’s about all I know about him for now but he will arrive in the area tomorrow morning. Elder Palmer is going to Goldenrod (in Orlando area) to serve as a district leader in what will probably be his last area (he has 4 ½ months left). Elder Maughan is leaving to Hunter’s creek zone (where I came from to Daytona) and Elder Bernhisel is getting a Trainee. There are many exciting changes taking place in the mission! Because our mission is still growing and there is a lot of missionary work to be done in this part of the Lord’s vineyard, our mission is growing with 24 extra, missionaries in the next couple of transfers (19 missionaries came in today from the MTC to replace our 10 that were leaving, and a similar pattern will follow for the upcoming transfers.) Our mission is growing and there is work to be done!

Reece, it’s good to hear about all the progress our family is making on the house! I would love to have you join me at college for a semester before your mission! We would have a lot of fun together, I’m sure. :) I’m sorry your school feels like a prison, but that is good that you will be able to focus on your academics. Did you say that you were doing the duel enrollment this semester? It sounds like a great program to finish off high school with because when you do the program for a year you are well on your way to earning your Associate’s Degree. By the way what was the name of your school again? Was it Lakeland High? And what is your mascot? To answer your question we do have some new investigators and one of them went tracting with us this week (his name is Nick). Ironically he was smoking while we were out tracting, but we did speak to him about our program to help him quit. I am really enjoying the work here and I hope to be sending you the picture CD’s this week.

Remi, I am still working out every day but we haven’t pushed the car lately. I did get a little behind a week ago due to a cold, but I am steadily catching up again. What was the name of your school again? I hope everything is going well for you in school and that you are learning a lot. My companion is doing well but like I mentioned to Dad he will be leaving tonight for his new area. We actually don’t e-mail from the Library because the Library doesn’t allow us to (something about being out of state residents) and even though I can prove that I am from Florida, my companion can’t so we email at Grandpa A’s business office at his home.

Eddie and Kathy’s marriage is on the 19th and their baptism is on the 26th! They are so excited and we helped them make some wedding plans on Sunday with Kathy and Sister B. from our ward. The ward is very willing to help out with everything which makes it a lot better for Eddie and Kathy. This way they will have fellowship even after the missionaries who worked with them are long gone.

Mom, your favorite Elder is doing great, thank you! Thank you for sending my stuff, it will really help me out. It was funny to hear about Reece playing in the rain and bothering the cows. I can’t say I’ve bothered Florida livestock yet, but we “play” in the rain all the time when we’re tracting and a storm comes. :) The L’s are doing great and are still preparing towards marriage, baptism and confirmation. I can’t wait till they make that step in their lives! :) Overall I had a great week, but I look forward to the changes being made and the new transfer in which will come much more success. As a mission we baptized 75 people in the month of August and we plan on staying consistent with bringing God’s children back into his fold. I hope the house continues coming along and I wish you the best in your writing and freelance work.

I love you all and wish and great September and an awesome week! Please tell Grandma and Grandpa that I said hi!! Stay strong and keep the faith.

Love,

Elder Miller

Hi my Family! 31 August 2009

Hello Reece, Remi, Dad, and Mom! (Roxy and Truman, too!),

I am glad to hear that you had a busy yet productive week. I am happy to hear that the house is coming along. I will definitely keep you in my prayers.

It was awesome to hear that your trainer had contacted you, Dad, and to see what a far reaching impact missionary work really has! Reece and Remi I pray for you to do well in your classes and I know that you will. Mom, I know that the paper will love you and I pray for you and Dad, too. Thank you for all of your prayers, letters, emails, and support on my behalf. It is so strengthening to know how much you love and care for me and to know that you are there for me.

My week went great! This week Elder Palmer and I attended district meeting in Deland. We are trying to help our districts become enthusiastic about the work and have greater personal faith that investigators will be found and progress. I went on an exchange with Elder Dahle (pronounced "Dolly") and it felt really good to help the work in his area.

This week went well for Deland Zone. We had three confirmations in our ward during Sacrament meeting leaving us with a total of 8 confirmations in August. Deland 3 (our Spanish Elders) also had three more baptisms on Sunday which means that we finished August with 11 baptisms and 8 confirmations. I am proud of our zone and the hard work they put towards reaching our goal of 12 baptisms. Deland Zone is excited for September and we have plans for investigators in many of the areas to be baptized and confirmed.

This week we had a nice dinner with the S. family. Brother S. came on exchanges with us afterwards and we really enjoyed it. He actually looks exactly like the actor Daniel Craig (James Bond) ha-ha. Guess what Remi? We were driving down a country road and we saw a whole family of deer! I tried to take a picture, but it was dark so it didn’t come out very well. We also had a huge dinner of Pork shoulder cooked Puerto Rican style with the A’s on Thursday.

Guess who I saw on Friday? The H. Family whom you met while you were in Kissimmee! I’ll send a picture in either a separate e-mail or just a hard copy in the mail when I am done with this e-mail. I saw them at the temple tour that Elder Palmer and I went to on Friday. [Luckily Scott and I did NOT go to the temple on our Ward Temple Night! LOL We might have run into our missionary!] I also saw Elder Nelson there so I saw three people Friday that you had just met and talked with only a couple of weeks earlier. Cool! For the temple tour we took Kathy (Eddie wasn’t able to make it) and her fellowship family the T's. Kathy said how beautiful it was and she really enjoyed the trip. We showed Eddie the pictures later and he wished he would have come. Both of them and their whole family were at church on Sunday and we are now planning their wedding and baptismal day (September 19th). Thank you for keeping them in your prayers. : ) Last night we taught Mike M. at Brother C’s house. We explained to him that if he didn’t keep his commitments of reading, praying, and coming to church that we could now longer meet with him. We shared with him the parable of the sewer from Matt. 13 and related it to how we need to be the good ground by keeping our commitments so that the seed can take root and produce fruit. I think this will help him to understand the effort it takes to receive a testimony.

Well, it was great to hear from all of you and I hope that you have an awesome week as we start September. I love you and I will keep you in my prayers. Stay strong!

Love,

Elder Miller

School Starts Already? Time Flies! 24 August 2009

Dear family,

How is everything in the Land of Lakes? I can’t believe school is already in session and before you know it will be out again. It was great receiving your letters, Mom and Remi. And thank you all for your e-mails.

The L. family is doing great. Their baptismal date and marriage date is set for September 19th. Bishop P. is going to perform the marriage ceremony. According to the State we could perform it but the Church doesn’t allow it for good reasons. : ) They figured out which criminal stole their valuables and the police have a warrant out for his arrest. Kathy was able to stay for the baptismal service we held yesterday for Gloria S. and her two grandchildren, Nakell and Natia. We also had our investigator, Neville, at church and then at the baptism too. The service went very well and the Spirit was very strong as all three of the South Elder’s investigators were baptized. Elder Palmer and I did the baptismal interview for the family and it was awesome to see how excited they each were for their baptism. Tony is about to have full hip replacement surgery so he wasn’t able to make it to church due to the pain. We are continually finding new people and I will tell you about the individuals as they start progressing. One new person we taught this week was Janice and her niece India, both very nice. We have a return appointment for next week to teach them both and the rest of their family.

To answer more of your questions Elder Palmer and I are doing well and enjoying each other’s company as we serve here in Daytona. He has a crazy sense of humor and so there is never a dull moment, plus the elders we live with are pretty crazy themselves so we have a lot of fun. Grandpa A. (we e-mail at his office each week) shaved random spots into his leg hair because he made little knots on his leg and it looked gross. It was hilarious. Grandpa A. is quite the character!

So far the Deland zone has had 8 baptisms for the month of August. We are shooting for 12 and it looks like we’ll have 11 baptisms this month with three of the confirmations done in September so they will count for next month.

Tell Uncle James that I said hi. No, I never had the chance to volunteer at Give Kids the World but I will with you when I finish my mission. We really wanted to but we had to go to a meeting to be able to volunteer and we weren’t able to make the meeting so it didn’t work out. I think it’s awesome that is where Josh went and that you are going to volunteer there. Brother and Sister Jensen in Kissimmee ward go there every Monday to volunteer. What a neat family home evening!

I miss talking with you, too, Reece and although I cannot be there to give you this brotherly advice for your senior year in person I hope is still means as much. Definitely make sure you don’t procrastinate anything like I did. It’s best to do homework, projects, college applications, etc., as soon as possible so that you can do your best effort on them. Also, have fun at dances and on group dates but do not waste time on girls. I did that way too much and trust me, your time and money are much better spent on academics, extra-curricular activities, family activities, gospel related things, and things that you like to do for fun. I love you Reece and I want for you to be able to have the best senior year possible. I know that you are at a brand new school in a new state but I also know that you will do well wherever you are and that as usual you can make tons of good friends and have a great senior year! I wish you the best and you are always in my prayers.

Remi, I am excited for you to start middle school! I know you will really enjoy it and have an awesome year. My advice for you is to be yourself and do your best on all your school work and assignments. Also keep sharing your testimony with your friends and teachers. You are an awesome missionary and can influence many people to come closer to their Savior, Jesus Christ. I love you buddy and always pray for you, too.

Mom, your letter really made me think about the far reaching effects of missionary work and how much joy there is in sharing the gospel! Thank you! I hope you will continue to make friendships with the wonderful people that I have had the opportunity to serve around and I am glad that you are friends with Sister R. I knew that you would be good friends! I love you and keep you in my prayers every day.

Dad, thank you for your important and helpful advice that you give so well. I have learned a lot from what you have taught me over the years, specially the past year and I continually try to apply it to my day top day efforts in missionary work. I have learned now better than ever how to listen to the promptings of the Spirit and follow them immediately. I love you and you are also in my prayers always.

I hope all of you have an awesome week and enjoy the new school year. Keep the faith and stay strong!

Love,

Elder Miller

Wow! You were in my mission! August 18, 2009

My Family,

I was amazed to read in your emails that you had been in Kissimmee and met the wonderful people that I worked with there! It's still hard to even imagine that you just visited where I was for 5 months of my mission! I am so glad that you were able to meet Danny P. and tell me that his mom is being baptized. I remember teaching him about the temple and how that work could be done for his mother. That fills me with so much joy that it brings tears to my eyes! Thank you for sharing that experience with me. It really helps me to better understand the far reaching effects of missionary work. Thank you!

My week went really well. We committed Eddie and Kathy for marriage and baptism the last weekend of September. They have to wait a little longer than expected due to the thieves who cost them a lot of money that could have been put towards a more immediate wedding. But they will not let that deter them from their goal! The way we committed them to marriage and baptism was really fun. Elder Palmer and I made a giant calendar on poster board and cut our pictures from pamphlets to plaster on the days for church, family home evening, and their baptismal date. It was a lot of fun making it and even more fun giving it to them. They really enjoyed it and they hung it up on their wall where they could see it every day. We will continue helping them prepare for baptism and I will give them our testimony dad (I printed it out for them). Thank you for keeping them in your prayers!

Grandpa A. has really been taking care of us lately. He takes us out to eat when we don't have dinner appointments and he took us shopping this morning so we could use his Sam's club discount. What a nice guy!

There are some tropical storms on their way here as I'm sure you know, but I don't think they will affect either of us too much besides just rainfall. And even if a storm does hit us I know that the Lord is watching out for our family and will protect us.

We had a really fun zone P-day today! That is why I am emailing towards the end of P-day. Because we went down to Deland chapel to play football (in the rain), basketball, and watch the movie Hoosiers (we saved up coupons off Kellogg's products and got the free DVD, then got it approved to watch for zone p day with permission from President). We had a lot of fun and enjoyed the day with the zone!

On Saturday we took our investigator Tony to the missionary fireside in Deland and I had the opportunity to practice and perform with the Stake Choir. We were told by our Ward mission leader that if you closed your eyes during the singing that it sounded like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. What a compliment! Tony enjoyed it and has decided to be baptized. He still has a lot to do to prepare towards baptism but is going to nonetheless. He is still happy that he has found the church of Jesus Christ and wants to change his life.

Zone Conference was also this week (we had a busy week :)) and I participated by leading a couple of the "round table" discussions as well as the Zone meeting during the conference. Our focus has been on teaching with the Spirit and learning to recognize its promptings. I can definitely see the effects of this focus as we are very close to reaching our goal as a mission this month of 100 baptisms!

We had two exchanges this week (one with each district leader) and I really learned a lot from Elder Back and Elder Maughan. We worked hard and set goals to improve in areas where we saw the need.

My week was awesome and I am so glad that yours was, too! Thanks again for letting me know about your Kissimmee experience and I look forward to writing my recent converts there letters to give encouragement and thanks. Have another awesome week!

I love you!

~!Elder Miller

Hello from the East Coast! 10 August 2009

Hello family!

I am glad that you received my letters and pictures. I received all of youre-mails this morning so thank you! Thank you so much for the awesome package you sent for my year mark! The goodies were great and the camel is perfect! :) I put the camel on my desk display and the treats are almost gone.

My week went very well. Our zone is having struggles with effectively finding and teaching people, but we set goals and made plans to help them with these struggles. We are still being blessed with success as a zone, though, and this weekend our zone had four baptisms. I personally did the interviews for two of the three sisters that were baptized from the G. family in Deltona. It was a special opportunity and a real blessing to meet with these children of God who have prepared faithfully for baptism.

Guess who I heard from this week? Well Aunt Jenny wrote me a letter and said some very nice things and so did Grandma. I also got an e-mail from Steve Montes letting me know how he was doing and asking me how I was.

Today we are actually not going to get to do our planned zone P-day but hopefully we will get to do it in one of the upcoming weeks.On Thursday we had a very productive exchange with the assistants. I learned a lot from Elder Burdick on our exchange and we set goals and made plans to improve ourselves as missionaries.

Eddie and Kathy are still very golden and we are now going to give them the Lord's invitation to be married on Tuesday. They are definitely being met with opposition as they continue to work towards baptism. Their house was broken into by their own neighbors and many of their cameras as well as her wallet were stolen. But they are keeping their heads up and trying to work with the stubborn police to get their belongings and family pictures back. (Remember when our camera was stolen while we were at that Braves game?). Thank you for continuing to keep them in your prayers.

Well, I have now been out over a year. Weird, huh? For my year mark we went to the Port Orange Stake House with Grandpa A. and we all got haircuts at a barber shop. Speaking of Grandpas I am going to write my Grandpa today to see how he is doing.

Well, I love each and every one of you and hope that you have an awesome week. Keep up that wonderful missionary work that you told me about and I will pray for you in your missionary and other efforts.

Love,

Elder Miller

Hello from Daytona 3 August 2009

Hello Reece, Remi, Mom, and Dad!

How is life in Lakeland for you? Life in Daytona is awesome! I am very excited for the Deland Zone. I am watching miracles occur with member referrals, upcoming baptisms, and member exchanges that point the way to a very successful August for Deland. The Lord is preparing a way for our baptismal goal of 12 to be accomplished and even exceeded. I have faith in our new district leaders, Elders Wilson and Bernhisel, and I look forward to this exciting month.

It was fun to hear about your beach trip! I am very excited for our family having a beach so close by. Dad, I think that would be a great idea to give Eddie and Kathy your testimony. They are very receptive and are preparing for baptism. Mom, you are right, I cannot believe how fast my mission is going by.

Reece, thank you for sending me those face book posts. It was nice to see that some of my friends remembered my birthday. :) Will you please check up on my face book and music myspace every once in a while to make sure they are still working and that there are no inappropriate posts. Thank you. :)

Remi, my Sunday was awesome. It was fast Sunday and the spirit was so strong the whole day. I know our investigators felt the spirit as well and I told you more about it in your letter. I taught our Sunday school lesson on obedience and it went really well. I wrote each of you letters which are going into the mail today (hopefully with some more pictures :) and I told you a lot already so now I will just tell you more about what’s been going on.

Tuesday we welcomed in Elder Bernhisel to the area through "Grandpa’s" mafia surprise (just like I was welcomed in.) [See previous post for an explanation!] It was fun to be on the giving end of that surprise this time. We had a lot of meetings this week including our Zone Leader Council and Zone Development Meeting. Elder Palmer and I prepared an awesome meeting and I told you all about it in Dad’s letter. It might bring back memories for you Dad of when you put together meetings and things when you were a zone leader in Ecuador.

Kathy and Eddie were both at church on Sunday and the spirit was very strong! Sasha, one of the young women in the ward had her friend Amber there and I could see out of the corner of my eye that they really felt the spirit during the meeting, especially when we sang “The Spirit of God” as our closing hymn. I am excited for the many baptisms our zone has coming up for this month! I will let you know about them as they get closer. This coming weekend the Spanish Elders and some of the Deland missionaries are having a total of 7 baptisms. Elder Palmer and I are helping our investigators prepare for the end of August so we should have about 5 baptisms. I can hardly wait!

Lately Grandpa A. has been taking us to Sam’s Club for our grocery shopping and we got a ton of food today for the same price that we normally pay and it will last us the whole month!

Well, I hope you all get my letters soon and that you have an awesome week. Thank you for sending the package and I look forward to getting it on Thursday!!

I love you and miss you.

Love, your son and brother,

Elder Miller

Congratulations on the House 27 July 2009

Hello my Florida Family!

I am very happy for you finding a home and I wish you the best as you fix it up and prepare to move into it in September. I think it is a great choice for our family. I have to admit it is so weird seeing a "Florida Home" as the place where my family will soon reside. In my mind those are the homes I was used to seeing when I was tracting in Clermont and now my family lives in one of them! :) It is a very beautiful home and it's nice that it has a pool, too. How deep is the pool? If there is room you should add a diving board (hint, hint). :)

Dad, congrats on your awesome bowling score! I appreciate your letter and your advice. To answer your question about Teacher’s quorum I think one thing that can really help you is to try to get to know each of the Teachers individually. Know their likes, their dislikes, who they are, where they are from, etc. This will show them that your relationship with them is not strictly a business relationship, but also a friendship and that you are there for them as a leader and helper. I hope that helps a little bit.

Mom, thank you for your updating my blog and making it so nice. I really enjoyed your letter, too. That will be a source of some awesome memories in the future. :)

Reece, I hope you are having a really fun summer and enjoying work as well. I enjoyed your letter and will reply soon. Tell Jeff and all of our friends that I say Hi, too. I am excited that I will have now faithfully served a year (a year on Aug. 6) and I look forward to another faithful year of service.

Remi, I enjoyed your letter as well and I am so glad that you have so many friends! We haven’t had any baptisms lately but we will continue working hard to help people come closer to Jesus Christ through baptism.

Thank you for your letters. I really enjoyed reading them and I appreciated the advice and encouragement you gave me. Dad, I especially appreciated your advice for my current calling and I will do my best to apply what you learned on your mission to what I am experiencing now. Just so you know I am going to try alternating letters to you each week (for example: I will send Reece and Remi letters next and then Mom and Dad the next week.) If I have time I will just do all of them at once but if I don’t I will send them alternating week to week. :) I love each of you and thank you for your support.

My week was stellar. We didn’t get to work in our own area as much as we wanted to due to taking care of some concerns within the zone, but we did accomplish a lot and we will continue to work hard our own area to set the example for our two districts.

So you mentioned the storms in your e-mails. I wonder if you are getting some of the same storms that we are. The storms we had this week were pretty crazy. Elder Palmer and I enjoy watching them because we never saw these kinds of storms back west. But don’t worry or anything because we are well taken care of by the mission and if a larger storm was to create any problems for the missionaries we are very prepared and know what to do. The reason I say this is because we did have some tornadoes touch down in our area, but no missionaries were involved in the damages caused and everyone is safe and sound. Just so you know. :)

Saturday was Pioneer day and the Daytona Beach Ward had a fun activity that we attended. There were a few non-members there that we had the opportunity to teach so it was a great and non-threatening missionary environment. I spoke with two young men who come to church all the time, but have not been baptized yet. We are going to try to work with the Bishop and the family to help Dillon, Jared and Jacob enter the waters of baptism, because they really want to. At pioneer day they had a really neat display of many pictures since the 1960’s of the ward members and missionaries that have helped build the church here in Daytona area. Some of those members are still here! Some fun activities they had include tug-of-war, watermelon eating contests, the stick pull, a water balloon fight for the children (we filled all the balloons), and a “Ward’s best pie” contest. Elder Palmer and I as a joke made a Key Lime Pie for the contest with a very simple yet delicious recipe and framed Elder Hulon as if he had made the pie. And guess what? It won! Ha-ha. I was surprised because there were some really delicious pies there, but apparently our pie had what it takes. :)

On last Monday we had a zone P-day that I don’t think I have told you about yet. We had root beer floats and watched Saturday’s Warrior. That was the first time I had ever seen it and it was quite entertaining. Mom and Dad, I don’t think you ever told us about Saturday’s Warrior, probably because you thought we would have just made fun of it, and you were right. But while on my mission I think silly things have become more entertaining to me and Elders Palmer and Hulon introduced me to the sound track because we work out to it every Saturday. :) So when we saw the Saturday’s Warrior DVD in a member’s home we just had to watch it for a zone p-day. It was entertaining and enjoyable but it is one of those movies you only really want to watch once, ha-ha.

Guess what Remi? We taught Raven Samone from Disney channel when we tracting yesterday! Just kidding. She is not really the Raven from “That’s So Raven” but she does look like she could be and people tell her that all the time. I guess when you have the same name as a famous person it is inevitable.

In efforts to help unify our zone, mainly the Deland district, Elder Palmer and I went ton a double exchange with the two areas that were having the most struggles and I think it helped a little. I went with the Spanish missionaries and helped them teach lessons in Spanish. At our member dinner that night I had to eat two very hot chilies (Jalapenos). One of them fresh off the vine and another that was pickled. I almost threw-up with how hot the fresh one was, but at least I can say I have tried it now. :) Overall though I think the exchange helped us show them our love (like you talked about in your letter Dad) and I hope it helps. Transfers are tomorrow and we are receiving 13 new missionaries this transfer and everyone in my apartment is staying here except for Elder Hulon who has now finished his mission and is at Disney World as we speak.

That is so weird. I still remember when I first arrived in the mission field how Elder Hulon still had one year left. And now he is gone! I wish him the best of luck in his future and I know he will go far. The new Elder coming into our apartment is Elder Bernhisel from Utah (surprise) and he is an awesome Elder. He will be the Daytona district’s district leader and Elder Palmer is very excited for him to live with us since they have served together before.

Guess what I got to do recently? We got to pick out a new mission vehicle. And this time instead of a Camaro we picked a Green 2008 SRT-10 Dodge Viper with 600 horses. Ok, so it isn’t our mission vehicle, but Brother H gave each of us a ride in it and we took lots of pictures. I will send you some soon. :) Dad, I think you will love the pictures since I am pretty sure the Dodge Viper is your favorite car. :)

The Puerto Rican family we are working with is doing well and we had two member dinners with them this week. The dinners went really well and we reviewed the Restoration and taught them the Plan of Salvation. We are going to set a marriage date with them this week and also a baptismal date. Please keep them in your prayers.

Well I love you each so much and I hope you have another awesome week. Let me know if there is anything that I can do to help you out with anything that you need. I will continue to keep you in my prayers and in my heart. Keep up the awesome missionary work that you told me about and Stay Strong!

Love, Elder Miller