July 28, 2014 - Transfer Week!

From left to right: Elder Gledhill (previous comp), Elder Miles, Elder Ni (new comp), Elder Day (the AP that just went home), and the Sisters from the previous District

It was a crazy transfer week. President Riggs showed up at our town home last Saturday unannounced and asked me to be his next Assistant. That was a shock. I had to pack and be ready to leave by Sunday night. I spent the rest of the week with the other two Assistants while Elder Gledhill was in a trio with our roommates. We are supposed to keep it a secret and not tell anyone who the next Assistant is, so we hid it really well and when it came to transfer day almost nobody knew about it. President talked about how he wasn't really considering me because I haven't served as a zone leader yet, but my name kept coming back to him. He testified that it was inspired by the Lord. That brought some comfort and made me feel good.

Elder Miles with the White House

I didn't end up moving very far. I still live in the same ward boundaries. I am also still in the same District and Elder Gledhill (my last companion) is now my District Leader. I loved being with Elder Gledhill last transfer. My new companion is Elder Ni. He is from Taiwan and he goes home in December. He is a very good missionary and very loving. This will be his third transfer as an Assistant and he has been teaching me a ton of stuff. His family was baptized when he was 10 years old and he has a twin brother serving in Houston. He went to BYU for a little before his mission and plans on going back.

One of the hard parts of the week was getting very little sleep. We went to sleep after midnight every night and sometimes as late as 2. We also had to wake up early several days around 5 in order to take people to the airport or to get to meetings. I won’t be able to work out for the foreseeable future because of the crazy hours we work. We had to stay up late in planning meetings, writing papers, and working on transfers. It was really strange taking the departing missionaries to the airport and picking up the new missionaries. I remember that moment when I walked off the plane and it seems like a long time ago. I haven't been able to eat as well as I would like. Partly because we never have time and also we have no food in our apartment. We have to eat out a lot because we are on the road.

Elder Miles with the Washington Memorial

We drive the only truck in the mission. I realized the only two vehicles I’ve driven on my mission are a minivan and a truck (haha). Our apartment is pretty old, but we are moving to a new one in a few weeks. We are kind of cramped in there. We live with the office elders and they are in a trio this transfer which makes it even harder. A lot of the room is gone because we all sleep on queen size mattresses :). Apparently I also have the most comfortable bed in the mission. Elder Ni and I each have our own phones too! One of our biggest responsibilities seems to be to forwarding phone calls between missionaries in different zones (haha).

It is great to be able to see President more often and have the chance to work closely with him. I am going to learn a lot about leadership and serving others with this new assignment. We do a lot of training other missionaries at meetings and on exchanges. Our schedule is already packed this transfer, so it’s going to be crazy!

Love,

Elder Miles

July 14, 2014

Good afternoon!

Elder Miles and a turtle they found

We had a good week, but not quite as awesome as I had hoped. We found a couple new investigators. Joel is no longer meeting with us due to the fact that he now believes we are a cult.... He got really deep into anti Mormon stuff. That was disappointing.

My allergies are doing good and I haven't taken any meds for a long time. He heat is uncomfortable to bike in to say the least (haha). Everything is good in the apartment except for the leak in the shower.

Hello!

We are at the Air and Space Museum right now and they have wifi! It's my third time being here.

Happy Birthday daddy! I hope you have a great day! It's also my companions birthday. He turned 20. I made him eggs, toast, and bacon for breakfast.

Love you

-Elder Miles

July 7, 2014 - Independence Day

July 4th Fireworks over DC

For the 4th of July we were allowed to watch fireworks as long as we didn't stay out too late. Since it was my only Fourth of July in the field I wanted to make it good, so we drove out to Arlington with our roommates to watch the fireworks in DC. There were tons of people there and we got a really good view from the bank of the river. It was awesome seeing the fireworks over our nation’s capital on the birthday of our country! Ironically enough that morning I was reading in Alma about Captain Moroni and his love for liberty and freedom. "A man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country" I’m sure he would have loved to be an American! We also had a BBQ at our Ward Mission Leader’s house for lunch. There were several other families from the ward there as well.

Elder Miles' World Cup Team

Last Monday, in honor of the world cup, a couple of Zones got together to have a "Missionary World Cup". The other zone was a Spanish zone, so naturally they had some good players. We split up into four teams and played for several hours. At the end of the day our team came out victorious and took the cup (literally because someone made one out of Styrofoam). I even knocked in a couple of goals :). I came away with a nice sunburn. I’m out in the sun all the time, so I didn't think of getting sunburned. My neck, legs, and watch line got it the worst because they haven't seen the sun in a little while (haha).

Ben doesn't have a cell phone so we weren't able to get a hold of him this week. We have lessons when we stop by and he happens to be home. That makes life pretty difficult when you don't have a car. Hopefully we can catch him this week because we still haven't been able to talk with him since his spiritual experience last week at church.

Fireflies caught by the Missionaries

Joel got into some anti Mormon materials so he now has a lot of concerns and doubts. We had a great lesson this week about the Book of Mormon. We told him about how gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon through the spirit will answer his questions for him. He committed to set aside his concerns for two weeks and just focus on reading and praying every day. He has definitely felt the spirit while we have taught him and we are going to focus on those spiritual experiences he has had. We fasted for him as a companionship yesterday as well. Three of our investigators moved last week. Bummer. That just means we will have some miracles this week finding new investigators!

Love,

Elder Miles