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

Jun 30, 2014 - Did you tell him I was coming?

We had one investigator come with us to church this week. His name is Ben and he has been my favorite investigator to teach! We found him when we stopped by an inactive member of our ward. He was sitting outside the house smoking and we started talking with him. Turns out he is the cousin of the member we were stopping by to see. He technically lives in Sterling and is in his 20's, which means we need to pass him to the singles ward. The problem is he just sits at his cousin's house ALL THE TIME and smokes Hookah in his car (haha).

He pretty much lives out of his car in his cousin’s parking space. We are trying to figure out who to pass him to, but in the mean time we have been teaching him. He loves basketball and is super funny. He has two cousins who converted to the church and he really wants to know why. We have been teaching him outside while he sits in his car. He pulls two folding chairs out of his trunk and we sit in the parking space next to him while we talk. It is probably a really funny sight. He has been reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and yesterday he came to church.

We went over early to his house to give him a tie and Elder Gledhill tied his knot for him. We caught a ride with him to church. He was a bit nervous, which is understandable, because he hadn't been to church in 5 years. He met some people and it was a good sacrament meeting. One question that the last speaker asked really hit him hard. The question was "What are you willing to give up in order to be happy?" After the meeting Ben asked us "Did you tell him I was coming?" He said he felt like he was talking directly as him. We explained that was the spirit talking to him. Earlier before leaving for church I asked him if he had stopped smoking yet and he told us he probably never would. The spirit really touched his heart when he heard that question.

He loved Sunday School and then he had to leave for work. Before he left he said "Based on what just happened at church I am going to significantly cut back on smoking starting right now." I gained a stronger testimony of the power of the spirit in changing people’s hearts. He definitely experienced what Alma calls "a mighty change of heart."

I'm grateful for the opportunity to have spiritual experiences everyday and to share the gospel that I know is true.

Love,

Elder Miles

June 23, 2014 - !!!

Washington DC South Mission: Braven Your Stride  Here's a link to a video made by the mission.  Braden is in the upper left at about 1:05 into the video.

I am emailing this from a laundromat because our washing machine still doesn't work. We got the AC and plumbing fixed, but now the shower upstairs is leaking and it's dripping through the ceiling into our dining room. Just another thing to fix! President Riggs said they will try and get us out of the townhome. It was his birthday this week and he invited over us and the sisters from our ward to have cake with them after church yesterday. They invited some non-members but they never showed up, but it was fun to talk with the Riggs family a little bit. They are pretty awesome.

We had a great week in our area!  When I got here last transfer there was nothing going on. They had one investigator who has been really flakey anyways. Elder Mathews and I worked super hard last transfer and we didn't start seeing too much from it until the last week before he left. Now we have a solid teaching pool and people coming to church. We haven't had very much time because we have been busy teaching and we had three people at church yesterday. It all started happening when we started the #talkto20. It took a lot of miracles to make that big turnaround happen.

Service project (and workout!)

The most recent miracle came when we had a dinner with a less active family on Saturday night. When we talked with him on the phone the night before he said there was someone that rented out there upstairs that they gave a Book of Mormon to and she wanted to know more. She (Marina) wasn't there when we ate dinner, but she got home from work right before we left. We all sat down and had a great discussion about the restoration and how she can know the truth for herself. We invited her to church and she brought her son and husband. Plus the less active members came with them!

The same less active member also referred the

Baptist family (Peter and Monica) that we are still planning on church swapping with. The mom has been nice when we have gone over but for the most part she has just sat back. She is very religious and not looking to change. She told us she read the Book of Mormon once and didn't learn anything. This past week she left us a voicemail saying she read from the Book of Mormon and wants us to come back! It sounds promising and we are going over on Wednesday. Hopefully she isn’t setting us up with her pastor or something (haha).

Joel, the older man that we have been teaching, came to church yesterday! He is really sincere and wants to really seek out if what we are teaching is true. We had a great lesson this week with him after we helped him dig a drain in his backyard. He also made us wooden signs that say "JESUS" that are really cool. He says he really looks into something before he buys, but for now he is doing well.

Wood carving by Joel

We started teaching a family that lives in President Riggs' neighborhood this week. We found them several weeks ago but we just sat down for the first time a few days ago. They have 9 kids and five are adopted from China. Elder Gledhill can relate to them a lot which is nice. One son knows several kids in the ward including President Riggs' daughter. President and another lady in our ward said he told all the kids in our ward about us and said he is excited to talk to us again!

We have been having so much fun. It is definitely more fun to teach people then to be knocking on doors all day.

It's hard to believe that my year mark is this week. The time has gone quick. I have learned so much about myself and the gospel. I am glad that I have another year and I wouldn't trade his past year for anything.

Love you!
Elder Miles

June 16, 2014 - Transfer Week

We had transfers on Thursday. Sadly both Elder Mathews and Elder Smith got transferred. It was a great transfer, but all transfers have to end at some point. In our town home there are pictures of each group of missionaries from each transfer. For our transfer picture we took some GQ photos at a parking garage near our house (haha). I think we look pretty good!

"Lookin' pretty good!"

  

The last week of the transfer the AP's got switched into my district. That week I had been really pondering and praying about what I could do to "make something happen". In the leadership meeting a few weeks ago President talked about making things happen and causing change. I felt inspired to focus district meetings on something that Elder Ballard said at the mission conference. He said "if you want to baptize more people, talk to more people. Missionaries should talk to at least 20 people every day outside of planned activities." I started an initiative called #talkto20 and as a district we started counting how many people we talked with each day and I would text the totals out to the district. We saw lots of success from it. The AP's really liked my idea and so this week at transfers they introduced it to the whole mission. I gained a stronger testimony of the need to seek for personal revelation and inspiration. I don't think I have done enough of that in my life or on my mission. I have made it a goal to seek divine guidance more in my life.

My new companion is Elder Gledhill. He was born in Ukraine and lived in an orphanage until he was 16. He was adopted into a LDS family in Sandy, Utah and went to Alta High School. We both came out at the same time, but he was in a different MTC district, so I didn't really know him before. Elder Smith was replaced in the town home with Elder Raban who also went to Lone Peak. He was a year older than me in school. Now I have served around all the Elders in the mission that went to LP (Elders Smith, Raban, Van Dyke, and Hawkes).

New roommate? New mission mascot?

Right after transfer meeting I got to eat dinner with Sam Campozano, his sister, and her fiancé! Sam had asked me before if I thought I could meet up with them, but I didn't think we could. His dad called the mission and we got permission! We ate at Café Rio just up the street just like old times. It was really fun, but way too short. I wish we’d had more time! One of the first things Sam mentioned to me was that he thinks I’ve grown :). It will be awhile before I see him again because he said he is going to leave for his mission around December sometime. It was awesome to see a familiar face!

We got the plumbing in our kitchen fixed this week and we got temporary AC that sits in the window. This week was the first time that our town house was under 80 degrees! Before the plumbing got fixed we had to put a big bucket in the sink to wash stuff in and then throw the water out the window when it got full (haha). One day Elder Raban threw out the water and hit a little baby bird sitting in our backyard! We didn't know they were there. He killed the one :'( but we still have another little friend who made it.

We got to teach Joel (the guy we found smoking in the park), Peter and Monica (the Baptist family), Canon (member’s 10 year old son), and some other people. One awesome guy that we've been teaching is the cousin of a less active member in our ward. His name his Ben and he just sits outside in his car and smokes Hookah all day (haha). He really wants to know why his cousins joined our church. He is really funny and sincere in wanting to find something more in his life.

I think the weekly average for our mission is 7.2 baptisms, so about 30 each month. We aren't on track to reach the goal right now, but we still have time to catch up. It’s a pretty huge goal to reach.  I’ll tell you more about investigators next week!

Love you!

Elder Miles

Washington DC South Mission: Braven Your Stride  Here's a link to a video made by the mission.  Braden is in the upper left at about 1:05 into the video.

June 9, 2014 - What else could go wrong...?

Elder Miles at the NRA Museum

Last week for preparation day we went to the NRA (National Rifle Association) Museum. It is only about a 15 minute drive from where we live. They had guns from as far back as the Mayflower. It was really interesting, but there were almost too many guns to look at.

We have been washing our clothes at the public Laundromat recently... I never thought or wished I would ever to do that, but we are pretty desperate with no washing machine. As if not having an AC or a washing machine wasn't enough, the drains in our kitchen are all backed

Doing laundry

up now.

The other day we got a text from the other Elders saying "DONT COME BACK!” The sink filled with water and a pipe in the pantry started shooting out nasty water and rotten food. They cleaned it up, but now our house smells bad and we can’t use the sink or the dishwasher. Yay! It’s been pretty crazy, but we have had some good laughs. Turns out the owner had 3 family members die, which is why they haven't been able to get a hold of him. Hopefully now something will get fixed or else I hope we can move. We are all still sleeping down on the main floor under all the fans and it will only get hotter... The town home is just falling apart.

We had a great week and found some cool new people to teach. One of them was an older guy we found smoking in a park. I saw him straight down the path, but we needed to turn left to get home. I felt like we should go talk to him anyways. Turns out he was awesome! We ended up talking for about an hour right there in the park. He was really intrigued about our beliefs about life after death. We are going to help him with some service this week and he wants to come to church on Sunday. We talked to another great family with six kids. We are going to go to their Baptist church next week and they will come to ours after. Things have started picking up and we just got a new ward mission leader. He is really cool and very excited to get to work.

We had to move the lesson with Canon to this week. His dad was out of town. (From last week – they were going to draw chalk pictures on the driveway with him about the Plan of Salvation.)

This week I hit 100 hours and 1,000 miles on my bike! That's not counting my first transfer because I didn't have the odometer then. Biking is fun for the most part, but with the summer hitting, I really wish we had a car! The transfer ends this Thursday. Each one goes by faster and faster.   I hope Elder Mathews stays. Elder Mathews and Elder Smith have both been here for three transfers, so they both might be leaving.  We have worked really hard together and had lots of fun. It will definitely be a memorable transfer with everything that has happened.

The ward is great and it’s fun to see President Riggs at church every week. I’ve played basketball with him a couple of times. He is really good for being 47. 

I miss you guys, but I know I’m doing the Lords work. Love you!

Love,

Elder Miles