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