10/24/11

Hey guys! ¿Comó les va?

 

 

That was a very quick week. So last Monday night after we spoke I had a cool experience. We have been teaching a man named Carlos for 5 months, and I don´t think I have mentioned him in a while because he hasn´t been progressing too much lately. Anyways, when I called him he said Elder Miller I have great news, ¨I´m getting baptized Saturday the 29th of the this month.¨ I was super caught off guard, but very excited. Carlos has been familiar with the church for 7-8 years, and he knows a ton about the gospel. His baptism is going to be amazing.

 

So later on this week we found out that Carlos had been mugged on Tuesday and his phone got stolen. We weren´t able to contact him until Sunday. Luckily he was okay, but we were a little worried. Sunday we had some great things happen. Our recent convert Jason was able to recieve the priesthood. A member told us that her friend who we were teaching is going to get baptized this Saturday as well. Her name is Edith, and we taught her a few lessons until she moved to the sisters area in our zone. Hopefully we´ll be able to go to the baptism.

 

Marvin and Xinia, a new family we met recently went to church for the first time and loved it. This week we will be looking forward to putting a baptism goal with them.

 

My companion Elder Gomez completed a year in the mission on Thursday so we celebrated with some authentic Burros in a place called México Lindo. There was also the cremonial shirt burning, and pizza partying. That´s about all I can think of that happened recently. I really hope you guys are all doing great! Love you!

 

Pura Vida

 

Elder Miller

 

10/17/11

What´s up everybody?

Hope everything is going well for you guys. It´s a pleasure to be writing you again. Well not too much has happened from the last time you heard from me except rain, rain, and more rain. This has been a week of super wet shoes and missing umbrellas. I think I have gone through about 5 to 6 since my time here in Costa Rica. A good umbrella is very hard to hang on to (kind-of like pens). On Wednesday I bought a pretty good one. It was about $12 bucks. I enjoyed it for a great 4 days until I brought it to church on Sunday. Somehow it slipped out of my view for a short 20 minutes and before I knew it, it was stolen! I was pretty darn devestated. haha You´d think the chapel would be the safest place to leave an umbrella without it getting stolen. Well, I sure did. Now, I´m not so innocent. I commented to my comp as well, ¨What kind-of person who lives in a country where it rains 300 days a year doesn´t already have an umbrella?¨ I think some people use not buying an umbrella as an excuse to not leave the house. Yes, that is laziness of a tico for you. It definitely showed in our attendance in the chapel as well. We usually have an average of  180 attend the ward, but with the rain storm it dropped to 135. haha Well thank you for listening to my small rant. 

My stolen umbrella set a tone for the week we had. It included dropping investigtors and frustrating appointments failed. Elder Gomez and I are not letting anything get us down though. We´re determined to have a solid time together. One thing that did go well for us was working with members. I found it interesting that my mom mentioned that to me in an email as well. We had one member in particular who was an all-star and gave us 4 refrences of families. She really went out of her way to help us and help her friends recieve the gospel. I found it really interesting that she was so excicted about missionary work so I asked her what her motivation was. I was pretty humbeled by her response as well. She said, a while ago a watched a video on the savior and the atonement and it created an amazing feeling inside me. I felt such a great debt towards him for all that he had sacrificed, and I decided I was going to dedicate myself in helping others realize the joy of having the atonement in their lives. That´s what I call a member missionary! haha

I hope to continue with the spirit of the work of the lord after my mission too. My mission has been great by planting a seed inside of me. I hope you all can enjoy the blessings of missionary work as well. Have a great week! Love you. 

Pura Vida 

Elder Miller  

10/12/11

Greetings Everyone, How is it going?

 

We´re getting poured on here in Costa Rica. I hope you guys are more dry than I am.

 

So I´ll oficially be here in Heredia for 6 more weeks with Elder Gomez!! I was very excited to hear the news. This will be the longest I´ve been in area and think I´ll enjoy it. It gives you a chance to really get to know everything better, members, area, style of work etc. I´m hoping will be able to keep the success rolling as well.

 

The internet we´re at is proving to be pretty darn slow so this wont be as lengthy as I´d like it to be. Let´s see what´s new... One of our investigators, Edith who has a baptism goal  is moving to another area close by. Unfortunately that area is covered by Sister misionaries and so we will have to hand her over. Also, Angel who came to conference last week went MIA, and we have no way of contacting him. Hopefully he comes back to church.

 

Our recent converts Jason & Tatiana and Miguel & Alejandra are doing very well. We did an activity with the other Elders in our area with them where we talked about temples and showed them a video. It turned out pretty well.

 

I´m very excited for the upcoming transfer and I´ll let you know more of what´s going on Monday. Thanks for everything guys.

 

Pura Vida

 

10/3/11

Hola everybody, 

I hope you all enjoyed conference weekend. It was such a pleasure for me to just watch and take in everything. I´m glad we have a prophet that is a so jolly, but also a great orator who speaks by the spirit of the lord. 

Coming into the weekend things were a little hectic because we moved houses. We just changed apartments around the corner, but it cut into our work time and we were not able to have a very productive week. Needless to say we were still very blessed. After baptizing the majority of the investigators we had the past couple weeks we were left with almost nothing as far as new people to teach. Fortunately we received several references from members after a month with not receiving one. I realized the Lord always provides means for us to comply with our calling. I was really surprised to see people pop out of nowhere right when we needed investigators. One of those people was Angel. The final session of conference he came and sat in the back. He was very moved by the talks and the spirit, and began to cry. We went and sat next to him. He later told us that he was walking by the church and felt he should enter. Years before he had also met with missionaries. We set up an appointment with him this Tuesday. I´m stoked for the upcoming days because we also have a conference with President on Wednesday. 

The transfer also ends next Wednesday. I´m pretty much up in the air with staying or going. We have much to accomplish still in Heredia. However, a change in scenery would be nice as well. I´m trying to think of funny things that have happened lately. All that comes to me are pranks on Elders we´ve been doing. haha i.e. Pouring cold water on someone while they´re in the bathroom. I have been both the recipient and culprit. Not the most mature thing ever but we´re missionaries. We also got a good laugh of the owner of our old apartment. When she came into to do a final inspection she was horrified at the condition she found it. The walls were black and the bathroom a disaster. We tried cleaning up a little, but it wasn´t up to par I guess. She said "No one has ever handed me in a dirtier apartment." All we could really say was, "Sorry lady that´s what happens after Elders have lived in a place for a year." Hopefully we don´t destroy our new place too quickly. haha 

Well Next Wednesday I'll let you know the news of transfers. Until then take care. Love you Guys. 

Pura Vida 

Elder Miller