March 31, 2014

This week we taught a guy from Trinidad named Martin. Elder Oyler and I tracted into him like 2 months ago. We have been calling him occasionally trying to set up appointments and we finally had a lesson! He is almost 60 and has lived here for almost 40 years. When we first started teaching him, he made sure to tell us that he wants to hear what we have to say, but that he isn't going to change churches. He attends a Pentecostal church in Alexandria and sings in the choir. At the beginning of the lesson he was slouched in his chair and not really focused, but by the end he was leaning forward and listening closely! It was really cool to see the spirit work in him and change him right there in the lesson. He got really interested when I shared the account of The First Vision. He committed to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. He is also really interested in coming to our church service. I’m not saying he is ready to be baptized, but the spirit definitely touched his heart. We still have some work to do with him.

Elder Miles

Everyone should try thinking about our message from another person’s point of view. Most people are living comfortable lives, attending church occasionally, and reading their Bibles. Then we come along claiming that God has called Prophets today and that the same church that Christ organized is on the earth. We tell them God has revealed new scripture and we teach them truths about the Plan of Salvation that they've never heard before. No wonder lots of people think we are crazy and others are really interested in hearing it. It is huge news! I know it is true and I am glad that I have been blessed with the gospel in my life. Sharing what I know with others is awesome and it has strengthened my own testimony so much.

It has been really nice using our iPads in lessons to show videos and pictures. During a lesson with Ian the other day we showed him a diagram of the plan of salvation and he loved it! It really helped him to make a visual picture of what we have been teaching him. We have also showed Mormon Messages to less active members and to Zohra. It can really bring the spirit into a lesson when we watch something. After the lesson this was Ian's prayer "Dear Heavenly Father, bless us that we will be able to make it to the Celestial Kingdom. In the name of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah, Amen." I love teaching Ian (haha). He is slowing making progress and really wants to be baptized!

The weather is warming up and I really excited about that! I look forward to the coming weeks! This past week was a little difficult with the weather because it rained for several days and it was pretty cold. This upcoming week it will get up into the 70s and I am excited to wear short sleeves again! The last 9 months have gone really fast and it’s weird to think I am one of the more experienced missionaries now.

Love,

Elder Miles 

March 24, 2014 - Transfers!

This past Thursday we had transfers. Elder Oyler was shipped to a new area and I got a new companion! Elder Van Dyke also got transferred. The Elder that replaced him is Elder Capt. He played football at Pleasant grove and knows Chase Hansen pretty well. He graduated a year before me. Me and Elder Oyler had a lot of fun together. I’m going to miss playing him in basketball on Mondays. He was the best competition out here. We could have taken any other companionship easily!

Elder Miles and new companion, Elder Smith

My new companion is Elder Dexter Smith. He is from Arizona. He used to live in Mesa, but currently his family lives in Scottsdale. Elder Smith graduated this past year with me and he is my first companion that I am older then! He turned 19 in February. All of my past companions, including those that I trained, were older than me (haha). Elder Smith is different then all my companions that I’ve had. He isn't much into sports or working out but I still get him to come to the gym every morning at 6. He went into the MTC at the same time as Elder Oyler (in October). We are getting along good and having fun. It will be a great opportunity to develop love and patience.

Zohra's(in blue) Afghani Feast

Zohra was sad to see Elder Oyler leave so she made us an Afghani feast! She cooked a bunch of her favorite dishes from home. It was a lot different from the foods I’m used to eating. I can’t remember the names of the foods. It was all pretty good and we ate a ton! After dinner we watched "The Testaments" with her while we ate homemade cheesecake and another Afghani dessert. She is so ready to get baptized and she is really excited. She is reading the Book of Mormon everyday and she is currently in the Isaiah chapters of 2 Nephi!

Elder Miles and Driss, from Morocco

Our other investigators are doing well. Richard is in Houston for the next couple of weeks and we are going to try and have some lessons on Skype with him. Rose is in Ghana for the next month for her dad’s funeral. Ian and Amy are still trying to quit smoking and the Jehovah's witnesses recently knocked on their door and took them to church... great! Ian says he likes our church better because we take the sacrament every week (haha). Anthony, Delmy, and their son Brayden are awesome! They are really cool and I love talking to them. Delmy and Brayden come to church, but Anthony has work. He has been reading the Book of Mormon quite a bit though. We have some great investigators. Now we just need to get them to take the next step!

Elder Miles with "Elder Stanley"

I’m still trying to get used to teaching with our iPads. I’m used to flipping to scriptures in my paper copy and I feel like that is a lot easier. It will take some getting used to finding them digitally but the iPad is lighter to carry which is nice.

Life is great out here in the mission field! My testimony, knowledge, and understanding are continuing to grow! I love feeling the spirit work through me to teach others about the gospel!

-Elder Miles

March 17, 2014 - McDonald's

Hello! You probably weren’t expecting to hear from me today! The library is closed today, but thanks to McDonald’s free wifi, we are emailing on our iPads! 

Elder Miles and Elder Oyler at McDonald's

We were only supposed to get 2-4 inches of snow, but we got more than that. The weather has been so mean to us! It was in the 70`s several days ago and we were wearing short sleeves. The next day was in the 30s and we were in full cold weather gear! It has been a crazy last couple of weeks, but I think it should be settling down soon.

We had stake conference this weekend. We had an adult session on Saturday night and a meeting Sunday morning. Saturday night was not to exciting but Sunday morning was really good. We watched a live broadcast from SLC. The whole North East was part of this broadcast. We listened to the Stake president speak and then we watched several talks by members of the 70 and Elder Perry. That was awesome, but my favorite meeting was last night. There was a stake fireside that we went to last night with Zohra. Some Mormon choir from DC did a performance and a couple recent converts spoke as well. It was really good and it was a really powerful meeting. I loved the spirit I felt as we listened to the music about Christ and then heard the testimonies and conversion stories of newly baptized members. The spirit was strong! I wish we would have had more investigators with us because they would have felt the spirit for sure. I came away feeling really good. You can’t help but be happy after a spiritually uplifting meeting like that. Zohra texted us later that night thanking us again for taking her because it was such a great experience.

Obviously not everything works out with investigators, so there are disappointments. Naturally being with someone all the time for long periods you are going to disagree at times. The wards are not perfect and have a lot they could improve, but none of these things have bothered me to the point where it restricted the work. Some days are hard, but I am having lots of fun. I am doing great and there isn’t anything that you need to be worried about (haha). All is well!

I see people from Lone Peak all the time! Mostly in the form of Elder van Dyke. He goes home next February. Next transfer I will still be here as district leader and I will get a new companion of some sort. My district is doing well. We had two baptisms and several more upcoming. Not everyone is as hard working and obedient as they should be, but I am doing what I can to help them. I am loving my mission! It is awesome! We should be having several baptisms in April so that will be fun! 

Sorry for the short email, but these are hard conditions to email in!

Love you all!
Elder Miles

March 10, 2014 - Great week!

This past week has been awesome!

Elder Miles along the Potomac River

Last week the sister missionaries passed a referral to us because it was a single guy. We finally were able to meet with him and he is golden! His name is Richard and he is from Liberia. While he was in Liberia his boss was a Mormon. He went to church 8 times with his boss and learned a lot about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. He has even seen the Joseph Smith movie! Right off the bat when we first met him he was telling us that he wants to be a missionary. He kept asking us what he needs to do to become a member, so we told him that he would need to get baptized. We were having the lesson at the church and he asked if we could baptize him that night! We set a date for baptism for April 5 because he is leaving for Texas next week. We taught him the restoration, he pretty much knew everything and said he wants to help us teach people. That was really exciting! We have some great investigators right now!

The sister missionaries in my district (also in my ward) were having a baptism this past Saturday. It was an older single lady and all the members that she knew were sisters, so they needed someone to baptize her. They asked me to do it! I got to baptize her on Saturday and stand in the circle to confirm her on Sunday. It was a great experience to be able to baptize somebody! Ian and his friend Amy (that we have also been teaching) were at the baptism and it got them really excited. They want to be baptized but need to quit smoking first! It was a great service and I definitely felt the spirit!

Elder Miles and his new iPad Mini

On Thursday we got our iPads!!! Every missionary got iPad minis that we will keep for the rest of our missions. I heard that there are now 30 missions that have them. We had a four hour meeting to learn about them, get them set up, and to hear the rules. They are pretty locked down and we can’t download anything. The two main things that we use them for is for the gospel library app and the area book/planner app. It feels really good to have some technology again! The area book and planner are going to take some getting used to because it is harder to use then just a paper planner. In the long run after we get used to them they will be very helpful! At the meeting President Riggs talked about how these have been given to us to help hasten the work and they are to be used as proselyting tools. We didn't get iPhones and those might not come for a long time. It is really great to have access to the gospel library because we no longer need to carry around our bulky scriptures. During meals and free time I love to listen to general conference talks! I can’t wait until General Conference!

Elder Miles at Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon Museum

Washington's Tomb

Love, Elder Miles

March 4, 2014

We had an awesome Saturday this week!

In the morning we attended a baptism and took two of our investigators to see it. They both had a good experience and I did to. I will say that the singing wasn't too great and the talks were odd, but I could definitely feel the spirit. The lady that got baptized bore her testimony afterwards and that was awesome! After the baptism we went to the temple visitor center with Zohra. A member couple took us to lunch in DC then we drove up. The sisters at the temple taught Zohra about the temple and we watched a video about families being together forever. She really enjoyed it and said she hopes she can go in someday! She asked if her and her mom could be put on the prayer roll, so the member family did that while we looked around.

We took some pictures with Zohra in front of the temple, but I don't have my camera with me right now. I will send those pictures tomorrow. I will also send the pictures from our trip to Mount Vernon (George Washington's house) from last Monday. There is a little Mormon.org station at the visitor’s center and when we passed it I saw a familiar face. A guy in our ward was on one of the pictures. He has muscular dystrophy and is in a wheel chair. His name is Vance Taylor and there is a video about him on the website you should go watch.

Last week we received a referral from Mormon.org for a lady that we had tracted into a few weeks before. The first time we talked to her she didn't seem very interested, but said we could come back. We tried back a few more times and she was a lot more friendly and nice, but we could never seem to get an appointment or a lesson with her. We didn't stop by for a couple weeks and then she referred herself online. That was pretty surprising to us. When we went by her house she was really excited to talk to us! She had referred herself because she thought she had lost the Book of Mormon we gave her and wanted another one. Turns out she has been reading it! She started talking about how she works on Capitol Hill and knows some of the Mormon Senators. Then it looked like her eyes were tearing up a bit as she told us that all the Mormons she knows seem to "glow". She said "I don't know what it is, but you all have this glow about you!" She loves how Mormons are so nice and happy. We got an appointment for later this week. Then she invited us to come to the capitol building next Monday and she is going to give us a VIP tour! It is going to be awesome! It was a great experience and I hope that we can have a great lesson with her this week.

Rose is doing good. Her dad just passed away so we just met with her for the first time in a couple of weeks. She is also leaving to Ghana for a month so it will be awhile until she can get baptized.  

The food supply is okay, but definitely could be better. We had 6 people feed us this last week! That was a miracle! That’s more than the rest of the time I’ve been in this ward (haha).

We are getting our iphones and ipads on Thursday! It’s going to be a big day! We have a four hour meeting on Thursday morning and they are going to give us all the info we need to know! It’s pretty funny how I wasn't allowed to have an iphone before my mission, but now I get one while I am a missionary (haha). It snowed a bunch yesterday, which is why I am writing this email today. The libraries and schools out here close down anytime there is any snow. For our preparation day we stayed inside and relaxed. Elder Van Dyke and Elder Tang (the other Elders in the ward) came to our apartment and we played some games. It was nice to have a day to relax because usually preparation days aren't really that relaxing because we are either playing basketball or walking around some historical site. I also started reading "Jesus the Christ" and so far I really like it. It is about 800 pages, which is more than I probably read while in high school (haha).

I am really enjoying my mission and I love to see the change that the gospel can bring into people’s lives!

Love you!

Elder Miles

February 24, 2014 - "I'm Flabbergasted!"

We have been teaching Zohra a couple times each week and we usually have a different member of the ward with us each time we go over there. Every time, after the lesson, the member has been amazed with her. She has been so prepared that it is almost ridiculous. We tracted into her just over a month ago and you would never know it by talking to her. Elder Van Dyke commented that she is probably the most solid and prepared investigator ever tracted into! She only knew very basic things about Christianity and now she is like a scholar! (haha) When we go over there and talk about what she is reading in the Book of Mormon (she is in 2 Nephi right now) she understands almost everything. Her questions are more about what words mean, like "What is Zion?" and deeper questions like "Where did God come from?".

In just over a month she went from not knowing much to having a strong testimony and knowledge of the gospel! She always bears her testimony to us and it is amazing! She has so much faith in the power of prayer. The stake did a "mini MTC" for all the youth and she was one of the "investigators" for them to teach. It was mostly just adult members of the wards. The youth were learning how to teach about prayer. She said she would bear her testimony to them about the power of prayer! Zohra is also being a missionary! She has been inviting the non-member husband of the family she lives with to read the Book of Mormon with her! It’s too bad that the only thing holding her back is her divorce. She is so ready to get baptized.

Elder Miles

She had some very bad anxiety and depression when we met her and now she doesn't even take medication. She’s always so happy! The gospel changes lives! After Saturday’s lesson the first thing the member said to us when we got back in the car was "I'm flabbergasted!" (haha). He then proceeded to go crazy about how amazing she is! It’s so fun teaching her and my own testimony is strengthened every time we get to teach her. I always come away feeling the spirit and wanting to work even harder! I’m going to try and remember to get a picture with her next time.

Here is a poem that was shared by President Monson in an October 2013 General Conference talk titled "I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee."

Good timber does not grow with ease,

The stronger wind, the stronger trees.

The further sky, the greater length.

The more the storm, the more the strength.

By sun and cold, by rain and snow,

In trees and men good timbers grow.

We shared this talk with Zohra and she loved it. She has a testimony that the trials in our lives make us stronger. In my personal study today I came across this verse in the Doctrine and Covenants 136:31 -

"My people must be tried in all things, that they may be prepared to receive the glory that I have for them, even the glory of Zion; and he that will not bear chastisement is not worthy of my kingdom."

I know that God allows difficulties and trials to occur because he knows that it will strengthen us and prepare us to receive the great things that he has in store for us! Always remember "Good timber does not grow with ease!"

Ian (investigator) and Elder Miles

Ian (attached picture) is still progressing slowly, but surely. He wants to get baptized when things settle down. He is currently in a housing dilemma. He is so funny and except for the fact that he smokes in his apartment, I love going over there!

We are going to visit Mount Vernon (George Washington’s home), a Masonic temple, and TC Williams High School (from Remember the Titans movie) today for preparation day! I’ll send pictures and let you know how it goes in my email next week! Have a great week and God bless!

Love you!

Elder Miles

February 19, 2014

Funny sign

We weren't able to email on Monday because of the holiday and yesterday we had a Zone Conference pretty much all day! It has been a good week. It started off very cold and snowy. We got around 6 inches of snow and we spent the whole morning helping people shovel their driveways. Everyone was really appreciative and friendly. Some people offered money and others made us coffee... which we had to turn down. Why aren't people that nice when we go tracting!? Service really does soften people’s hearts! Several people were interested to hear about what we do which led into gospel discussion. Today it’s 60 and sunny! It feels great!

The other day after it snowed really bad it was pretty warm and the snow turned into tons of slush. We trudged around in it all day and my shoes were completely water logged by the end of the night. On our way home that night we passed a lady carrying tons of groceries in the slush and cold. We asked if we could help and she was so grateful. She knew God had sent us to help her! We helped her carry everything back to her place which was about a mile up the road. Turns out she doesn't live in our boundaries! Too bad cause she was really excited as we taught her about the Book of Mormon while we walked. We have to pass her to missionaries in another ward.

The work has been going great! Some of the things that we talked about after the Saratov approach were pretty good. We talked about how every person that we talk to has a story. Both the kidnappers had different stories and reasons for what they did. We need to get to know the people we talk to and look for ways to relate to them (they talked about bball cause he was wearing a bulls hat). Elder Tuttle also talked about how he felt the spiritual warning and he didn't follow it. We need to follow our spiritual promptings! You can learn from the faith they had, how they struggled in terrible situations, and still finished their missions, etc.

Raccoon!

We have seen a couple of raccoons around here lately (picture I sent). One scared me pretty bad when it jumped out of a trash can. We have seen stray cats, fox, skunk, and squirrels. One guy that we talked to the other day said he eats squirrels!

Zohra is still doing awesome! We are still just waiting for her divorce to finish before she can get baptized, so we really have no idea how long that will be. We have been teaching her some of the commandments recently. Tonight we are teaching her about modern day prophets and we are going to watch the October 2013 talk by President Monson.

There is a missionary in my zone from Heber. His name is Elder Wagner. He mentioned he was from Heber and I told him I have family there with the last name Sparks. Turns out Hal was his Young Men’s leader! Small world in the mission field.

Sorry for the short email this week! Love you!

-Elder Miles