Christmas This Week!!

It was Christmas this week! 😄

And I got to see my family. 😊 Awwww :)

This week Sister Zschokke and I made higher goals for member presents and new investigators. Which, those take a lot of planning and work especially with member presents. And it was awesome because we got more MPs and news than I have ever had in a week. And it was because we worked extra hard and were extra determined to get them.🙆 Work brings miracles.

So now we're going to apply that again this week as well as with bringing people to church. :) Yay!

This week for Christmas we ate. A lot. And then we got left overs so we have lots of food in our fridge. :P Not complaining though. :) It's all delicious. 😜We shared the Christmas story from both the Bible and the Book of Mormon a lot and even went caroling!🎤 Nyaha, that was awesome.

We're also getting to know our members (active and less active) better because we don't know who on earth most of them are. :P Yay new friends!👪

I hope you all had a great week too and will have a fantastic New Year! :D

Sister Miller

Merry Christmas from Buckhannon!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!! 🎅🌲🎄🎁🎀🎉

I'm excited. :)

We had a Christmas fireside yesterday and Sister Zschokke had warned me that we sing in the choir but didn't tell me that we would be singing this week. :P So I practiced the song once and then sang it.🎤 Pretty epic. :) And there is 2 sets of missionaries here: Sisters and Elders. So we sang a song together last minute because the ward asked us to. :P Oh yeah, this area is a ward! Very different than serving in a branch, let me tell you. In a branch it's a lot easier to get to know every single member really well, but in a ward, everyone is a lot closer because there's more activities and people live closer to each other.

The whole everyone-is-related-to-each-other thing is the same though. :P Oh West Virginia.

And it snowed this week! ❄ Didn't really stick but there's still some on the ground. Sister Zschokke is from California and has never made a snow man ⛄so she is really excited for this winter so she can make one. :) More stuff about her: she has been out on her mission 15 months (which is awesome because she has collected a lot of great music to listen to), is one month older than me, and loves reading books.📚

We have an awesome investigator here and I'm super excited to teach her. And we were totally gonna put her on date for February too but then we found out she's on probation for a year. Sad day. :( So we'll have to wait for her to get baptized. More time for her to learn I guess. :)

Have a wonderful Christmas everybody!!!

HO HO HO

Sister Miller

NOOOOOOOO!!!

Guys! I'm leaving Ripley!!! 😱😨😖

Sister Anderson and I totally thought both of us were going to stay too. The Elders called on Saturday and they always have us guess what we think is going to happen and we were both like "Oh we know we're both staying. None of us are leaving, it's totally obvious." And the Elders just paused and said, "Well... we're sorry to burst your bubble but Sister Miller is leaving." And we were both like "WHAT!? Are you serious?! No!!" Oh, poor Elders. 😄

Oh my goodness I'm so sad. 😥 I love this place and the people here. I said a lot of good-byes this week and a lot of the men wanted to give me a hug and I had to stop them before they could. :P Tehe.

Plus that means I have to pack now... 😜 ugh.

I'm going to Buckhannon, West Virginia. And guess what. That's in the zone that Sister Kirkby is in so she's going to be one of my Sister Training Leaders!!!! That's gonna be really weird. Not gonna lie. But I'm super excited to see her again. :) It's also the area that my current Sister Training Leaders were last so I called them and they told me some stuff and gave me names of people to see. :) 

My new companion's name is something the Elders couldn't pronounce... so.... I guess I'll let you know what it is when I meet her. :P It's Sh... something... The Sister coming here is Sister Johnson but neither of us know her so we have very little information at the moment. :P

This week we were finally able to dedicate a whole day to Ohio. Yay!!! Because Ohio hasn't seen missionaries in foreeevveeerrrr!! Ok, not forever, but for a long time. We tracted like crazy around formers houses and random streets and got a couple potentials and referrals. Wahoo! But I don't get to teach any of them. :( Sister Anderson will have to let me know how it goes.

P.S Transfer day is thursday and that's my click day!! I'll have been out for officially 6 months!! That's crazy!

Have an awesome week everyone!!

Sister Miller

Exchanges!

Hello everybody!

It still has not snowed here, but it's raining a lot. How is it out west?

We went on another exchanges this week! It seems like just a week ago that we went on our last exchanges. :) We visited a less active family and an investigator. I loved it because the Sister I was on exchanges with is really good at asking questions. And it did so much for the people we taught. I need to get better at asking questions. :) And we tracted a little using the Christmas message we have and ran into a potential. We shall see how it goes. :)

I've started to read the New Testament! I don't know if I told you that already... anyway, I've decided to highlight every time it says something that describes Christ's character, or something that describes how He taught. He is really good at asking questions too. :) One thing that I've thought interesting is that the scriptures tell about a lot of miracles and healings that Jesus Christ did to those that came to Him and asked Him. They were the poor and the sinners, and all they had to do was ask and have faith. Also, it mentions Jesus Christ asking those who He had just helped to not tell anyone that He did it. And I thought that was interesting. I asked the Sister I had exchanges with what she thought about it and she said she thought it was because Jesus Christ healed that individual for that individual. Not for Himself, so that He could have fame as a healer, or for anyone else. It was just for that one person. And that's how He and our Prophets and Apostles work today. It's all for the individual.

If any of you have any thoughts on that, I'd love to hear it! :)

We decorated our puny Christmas tree this week too! It's quite special if I do say so myself. I'll have to get a picture of it to you all. I'm a slacker and do not yet have a picture of it.. :P

Have a great week!!

-Sister Miller

Que Christmas Music??

Hello Everyone!

How was everyone's Thanksgiving?!?! I bet you suckers only got one or two. I got three!! We volunteered with a charity company to give free Thanksgiving to those who couldn't afford it or who didn't have families to have it with, then we were invited to a member's home, then we were invited to an investigator's home. Plus all the left overs!! Our fridge is so full it's insane. We're gonna be eating turkey and mashed potatoes until Christmas. 🍖🍖🍞🍞

So now we can listen to Christmas music!!! 🎅 I am so happy. And Sister Anderson is getting used to it. :P Tehe. We bought a little Christmas tree today.🌲 It's so cute! And we're gonna try to make each other ornaments. 😄

So, this week was kind of awesome because we served people a lot. We were helping a family put their pool away for the winter and it was raining and we got soaked! And we had to put water into some water weights to hold down the tarp and we sprayed each other several times by accident... ☔

We also went to the hospital this week.😷  :( Sister Anderson's gall bladder is throwing a temper tantrum. Iz no bueno. But she's such a trooper and is sticking through it.

Have a wonderful week!!

-Sister Miller

It's Thanksgiving!!

This week we met with our Branch Mission Leader and finished up the first draft of the Branch Mission Plan! Yaaayyy!! Our Branch Mission Leader is so awesome. I love him to death. Now we just have to meet with him and the other leaders of the branch to make any changes we want and decide how to implement it. 📜

We also went to Ohio this week! We visited two inactives there and the lessons went really well. The first one is the woman who hasn't come to church since her baptism because her husband doesn't like it so it starts contention in the home and she hates that. But she really want to go to the temple to do ordinances for her ancestors but she needs a recommend first! Ugh, it makes me so sad. 😞 We pray that her husband's heart will soften and she'll be able to come.

The other one we went to see grew up in the church, is soooo nice, and has been inactive for several years. We did meet her husband and found out he's a former investigator! He started taking the discussions to learn more about his wife's religion after they got married but stopped because his work schedule was unpredictable and the missionaries had a real hard time meeting with him. But he is so great and we're going to see if we can start teaching him again. 😄

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

-Sister Miller

Elder Kopischke and Thanksgiving!

I had my first General Authority meeting on my mission!! Elder Kopischke is in the First Quorum of the Seventy and oh my goodness I loved it sooooo much. The spirit was so strong and he answered a lot of our questions. He didn't have a set topic to talk about because all he wanted to do was have the spirit there so Heavenly Father could answer our individual questions. It was amazing.

Things I learned/loved:

You can only receive what you are ready to receive (so if you want something, you have to spiritually prepare yourself for it)

True doctrine understood changes behavior

The gospel is JOY!

We go through difficult things to become special

Hard things are wonderful things that we don't understand

The Lord means what He says

When you share your testimony, you are literally sharing a part of you.

We had our branch Thanksgiving dinner after church yesterday! 🍖🍤🍞🍜🍲Yum!! And it probably won't surprise any of you that our chapel was the most full this week than I have ever seen it. 😄 Everyone we invited was like "What? Food? Ok, I"ll come." Maybe we need to have Thanksgiving dinner after church every week. 😜 3 of our investigators came and many many less actives. :P One of the members had to ask me who a couple of the less actives were because she had never seen them at church before. Haha!  And we wouldn't had 5 investigators there but one of them got really sick and the other slept in. Next week. :)

I hope you all had a great week!!

Sister Miller

Fall Is Here!!!

Yaaayyy!

Well, not really yay because that means it's gonna get colder... and all of our trees are dead... buuut the holidays are coming up so that's good! 😄 Sister Anderson hates holidays, which I think is hilarious because she has to be with me and I CAN'T WAIT for them!

This week we finally met with an inactive! We've been trying to contact him since I got here and he finally called us! And he came to church!! He got a job that will allow him to come every week so that is definitely God at work. I'm super excited for him. Except he now lives in an apartment building that's known for the drugs there... we're gonna see if we can find him a better place.

And we were able to see another inactive that we've been trying to contact since I got here. 😆 Unfortunately, this one has to work on Sundays soooo he's not coming to church yet, but we were able to come and teach him and his family and make an appointment to come back.

I hear it's waaaay colder over there than here. I hope none of you are frozen yet! ⛄

Have an awesome week!
Sister Miller

Transfers and Exchanges

It was transfers this week and I tooootally forgot to tell y'all about that.... whoops. But yay I'm writing now! 😜 Neither of us are being transferred so I'm gonna stay in Jackson county for at least another 6 weeks, which means I'll have been here for 6 months! Crazy!

Last week was exchanges! (It was a lot less stressful than last exchanges if any of you remember that.. 😅 so that's good. :)) I served with Sister Webb and she is awesome. We visited some less actives, had dinner with a member, taught a new investigator, and contacted some referrals. It gets dark now at 6 (ug) so when we were contacting some referrals it was reeeaaallly dark. I felt like a creeper knocking on people's doors asking them if they wanted to learn more about Jesus Christ from two strangers walking around at night. 🌚

We are getting to know our members tons better and it is awesome!! I don't know if I mentioned this in past emails but 6 months before I got here something happened and there ended up not being any missionaries in Jackson County for a whole transfer.... 😖so the members kind of lost hope in the missionaries. Since then, we have been trying to gain their trust again and it is soooo much better now! Yay! They are becoming more involved and are slowly getting more excited about doing missionary work themselves. Happy day.

We also ran into another preacher yesterday. Oh my goodness. There's a preacher on every block here and they all want to tell us we will burn for eternity if we don't stop teaching the Book of Mormon. Sister Anderson is still getting used to that. 😆 It's kind of funny.

We did get lots of candy on Halloween from the people we taught so that's always fun. :) 🍭🍫🍬

I hope you all had an awesome Halloween!!!

Sister Miller

Oh my goodness the transfer is almost over already!!!

Hello everybody! 🙌

I can't believe how fast the time is flying! It's crazy! This week was a whole lot warmer, thank goodness.

So, this week we had some technical issues with our apartment... yay. First, the disposal wasn't working (when we turned it on, the stuff in the pipes would shoot out the other sink. Yum), then the warm water stopped working for no reason (on thursday I had to heat up bowls of water for Sister Anderson in the microwave and on the stove and ran back and forth from the bathroom to the kitchen so she wouldn't have to take a cold shower 😆) and then we got a call from the mission office saying that we used over 3 times as much water this month than the past and we found out it was because our toilet was broken and leaking water. 😓

But they're all fixed now!! 😁

And I took Sister Anderson to Ohio for the first time! We saw a less active there who is still having difficulty understanding the importance of taking the Sacrament every week.

The primary did a primary program in Sacrament Meeting yesterday and it was sooo cute! 👪 There are 5 children in our primary and they just sang their little hearts out.

Sister Anderson is such a people person and she's really good and involving the members and helping them feel excited about the work. 😇

Have an awesome week everyone!

Sister Miller

It's Getting COLDER!!

Brr!!! ❄❄ Our first frost was this weekend and Sister Anderson and I couldn't find an ice scraper for our car so we ended up using our MTC ID cards to scrape off the ice because we were too impatient for the defroster. :P Tehe. We're buying a scraper today.

And guess what! One of our investigators who we've been trying to get to come for aaages now finally came! The woman who went to pick her up got lost though so she arrived after the Sacrament but she came! Sooo happy. 🙌 And an in active who had her records removed from the church a couple months ago came to church too! She hadn't come to church in years. Last week we got a letter in the mail from a previous sister missionary who had served here for her and she didn't know her address. 💌So we paid her a visit to give it to her and talked to her. Of course we invited her to church but she didn't seem like she was going to come. We went to church the next day and lo and behold there she was! She said she thought she'd surprise us. And she said she had a good time. We told her that she should surprise us more often. 😝

My ponderizing scripture last week was Mornoni 7:13 "But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God,a nd to serve Him, is inspired of God."
Aaaaaand THIS week is 3 Nephi 27:21! "Verily, verily, I say unto you this is my gospel; and ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do"

Our second counselor's son just got back from his mission! 👔 Haha, it's awesome. Every Sunday he comes up to us and asks us how the work is going and how many investigators are coming to church and who they are and then says he'll introduce himself to them. We're gonna try to take him out with us to teach lessons.

Have an awesome week!!
Sister Miller

Yay Finding!!!

Sooo we've been doing a lot of finding this week... A lot of finding. 😅 I had to reward Sister Anderson with famously delicious cake balls because of it 🎂 (these cake balls are THE best things in the entire planet. YUM!!) but it was totally worth it. :) We have several more potential investigators now and I am very excited to teach and meet them.

We have also gotten to know a lot of our investigators better this week which is awesome because they are opening up to us more and we know how we can better help them with the gospel. I can tell their desire to know more is growing and I love it!

Umm.. nothing really exciting or interesting happened this week.... 😕 ummm.... the weather has been... nice?.....

The referral we got from the member is doing really well and the member is always super excited about our lessons with him which I loveand I hope that other members will soon be able to feel that way as they come out with us.🙌

Hope your guys' weeks were more exciting than mine! 😆

Have a great one!

Sister Miller

General Conference!!

WASN'T GENERAL CONFERENCE FANTASTIC!?!?! Oh ma goodness. 🙌😆

I loved it. I don't know about you, but I definitely needed some prophet in my life. Yay! And the 3 new apostles were amazing! I loved their talks and testimonies. 😊

What was your favorite talk?? Mine was Elder Renlund's.👔(that tie represents Elder Renlund) Are you guys doing anything for Elder Durrant's challenge to ponderize a verse a week?? Mine this week is 3 Nephi 14:8: "For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened" If only that worked on every door we knocked on. 😋 I wanna hear all of your verses!

We had zone meeting this week too and we talked about how to have the HG with us and how to help our investigators feel the Holy Ghost and be guided by it too. Good stuff. :)

Sister Anderson and I have been gathering different verses in the scriptures that are hopeful and peaceful because that's something that everyone could use a little more of. :) My favorite so far is John 16:33. Looove it.

So guess who got a cold this week and is totally dying. 🙋 Me! Sister Anderson has officially declared herself my doctor. 😷 She's so sweet. 

Have a great week!

Sister Miller

Training!

I'm training! And it is awesome. Sister Anderson is the greatest thing ever and hardly needs any training. Makes my job easier. 😆 She is a convert to the church and has been a member for almost 2 years. She grew up in Oregon and moved to Las Vegas to nanny for her friend's sister. Her family are not members but her friend's family is and they introduced her to the gospel and the joy that it brings. 👪 She has had so many experiences that she shares with our investigators and she already loves them all. And she knows what it's like to be an investigator so she has some awesome insight that have helped me be a better missionary. I am so excited to serve with her. 

She doesn't like to be in pictures (don't worry, she will be once I'm done with her) so I don't have one of her yet. I'll send one next week. 😁 

This week we had our first member referral!! 🙌We've been working with our members on how they can share the gospel so Sister Kirkby and I were super excited about it. She was so upset that she couldn't teach him because our appointment was for thursday evening. It was a great experience for Sister Anderson's first day though. The member came with us and it went really well. The referral's name is Gary and we taught the plan of salvation because he was expressing concerns about the afterlife and judgement. We're meeting with them again next thursday. 💃 

Looking forward to another great week! 

Sister Miller

Transfers!!

I'm getting a baby!!!!!

I'm gonna be a trainer starting tomorrow! 😝😆🙌 Oh my goodness I can't wait to meet her.

And guess what. Sister Kirkby was called to be a Sister Training Leader in Fairmont!! I'm so proud. And her companion is going to be the Sister who trained her trainer so pretty awesome. She's super excited and nervous. 😜

So today we're buying cute things for my new trainee because we're sister missionaries and that's what we do. 😊

This week we had something called Specialized Training which is kind of like Zone Conference but I guess.. different.. I don't know. But this time the mission installed something in our cars 🚐 that told the Mission Office when we are speeding, driving without a seat belt, or driving aggressively. It totally stressed Sister Kirkby out and she wasn't even driving. 😄

Our investigators are doing well. We had a lot more progressing this week which is awesome. We just need to help them to continue to progress and see the blessings that come from it and help others to progress too. :)

Have a wonderful week!!

Sister Miller

I'm Almost Done Training!!!

Ah! I can't believe my training is almost over!😱  Just one week left! Training really never stops though. Let's be real. (My companion always says "lets be real" and I've adopted that catch-phrase)

This week we got a media referral for a woman in Ohio who wanted a Bible.🔰 We tried to find her address but it didn't exist... so we called her and told her who we were and that we had the Bible she requested. She then apologized for ordering it because she didn't realize that it was the website for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and didn't want it because she was a Christian and wanted a Christian bible. 😇We tried not to laugh with each other and explained to her that as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we were Christians too and read the King James Bible. She then told us how to get to her house and we gave it to her.

She's on the quote board. 😄

Sister Kirkby and I have also been singing a lot more in lessons this week. Thank goodness I took some voice lessons before I came out. 😜We started doing it because we realized how many of our investigators loved church music and gospel music and singing in general.🎶  My favorite lesson we did this with is for a young couple who are going through a really hard time with lots of things going on and have gone through a lot. They don't know much about Jesus Christ and the Atonement or that Jesus Christ actually has a lot to do with them personally. So we taught them about the Atonement and then sang "I Stand All Amazed." The husband doesn't listen as much as the wife and he isn't as open to having a religion as she is. But about half way through the song he came closer to listen better and we could tell that the song really touched him. The wife teased him about looking emotional afterwards. 😊

We're also singing with a little girl in our branch in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday so looooots of singing this week. :P

Have an awesome week!

Sister Miller

Labor Day Weekend!!

Hello Everyone,

We went to a baseball game this week! ⚾ I know. Tooootally weird for missionaries. But the guy that's "in charge" or whatever of the West Virginia Power Baseball team or stadium is a member and he set up with our Mission President a "Mormon Night." So we invited all the investigators and members and anyone else we could and there was a little devotional beforehand and the missionaries were aloud to come! Mostly so there would be more people there, but fun stuff! And we're actually on the news. Whaaaaaaaaaaat!

Also, I started driving! Thank goodness because driving rreeaaalllyyy helps when trying to get to know the area its geography. Still having issues with which way is north. I need mountains!

Sister Kirkby and I were asked to give talks in Sacrament meeting last week. We also had to teach the YW class that same day so lots of preparation for that Sunday. 😝 My talk was only 3 pages long and Sister Kirkby's was 6 ish so I went first so she could take up the rest of the time. I did it and didn't look at the clock while I talked because I knew it would make me nervous and I didn't look until after I had finished. I ended up taking up 30 minutes. 😮 Haha, whoops. Poor Sister Kirkby had to summarize her talk in 15. But she did awesome.

Haha, sooooo guess who played Dungeons and Dragons on monday. :P I'm gonna be one of those weird return missionaries who is asked if they've ever played it and I'll be like "yeah, I played it on my mission." Two elders in our district love to play it and invited us to play. I'm was a troll named Yokacitch, but I died.... an undead village person killed me after I was shocked by lightning with magical properties. So an elder used his magic spells to put my "spirit?" into the body of a dead elf named Aertheria. So I have full health now and killed about 5 flaming bats who were attacking the town. Pretty exciting stuff. :P

Library was closed on Labor Day so we couldn't write but I hope you all had a fun no school day!

Sister Miller

Yes Amanda's mom realizes they're tipped but after 30 minutes, I gave up and you
 just get to tip your head to look :)

Another Week!!

Hello everybody! 🙋

This week my companion and I decided we're in a route and we really need get out of it. So one of the things we're doing is we've started a competition between the two of us to ITL (invite to learn) as many people as we see when we're out and about because sometimes we're shy about doing it. It starts today! And the one who ITLs the least by Sunday night has to clean the apartment by themselves on Monday. :P My companion is a lot more competitive than I am so I really need to step it up to beat her. 😰

We got together with the Branch President, his wife, and the Branch Mission Leader and his wife to make a Branch Mission Plan! Obviously, it's not done yet. But we've started. We'll see how long it takes to actually get it done... 😅

We made a quote wall with sticky notes of funny things that we've said or heard. Our most recent one is by an investigator who called us and asked us what we were doing. We told her nothing (because we had one hour left before we had to go to the apartment and all the people we had planned to see weren't home) and she said "Well then get your butt over here and preach to me!"😄

Taught new investigator! She's a young mom and wants to get back into religion and come closer to God. Unfortunately we can't help her with that but we wished her luck.😜 Juuuust kiiiiiding, we taught her about the importance of Jesus Christ in her life and her family and will go back on Wednesday.

ALSO! Sister KIRKBY did a MEEEAAAN thing to me this week! 😱 We were walking around Ripley to the people that we had planned to teach and no one was home. I asked Sister Kirkby what we should do and she shrugged "I don't care. Whatever you want," which is very weird for her. We start walking down the street and she sits on the curb and says, "what's the point? We're not finding anyone, we haven't taught anyone all day and no one wants to hear our message" etc. And I'm just like 😨 oh my gosh my trainer's lost it and now I have to give her a pep talk what the heck is happening. Of course, she was FAKING it the WHOLE time and she made me give her a pep talk for NO reason! Ok, she had a reason. It was "part of training" to "train me for when I have a companion one day that becomes discouraged and gives up." Fun stuff. :P

She says I passed, so, I guess that's good. 👏

There's my week! Have a good one!

Sister Miller

Exchanges!!

Hello everyone! Happy beginning of school time!

I don't know when school started so I'm just gonna be vague. 😝

On Wednesday we had my first Zone Conference!🎉 I went totally expecting to be spiritually enlightened and invigorated (you know, like how you feel after General Conference or something) and after we talked for hours about faith and helping people keep commitments.... I ended up feeling just really stressed out. 😲 But I learned a lot and I am getting much better at those two things. 🙌

Then we went on exchanges right after and I stayed in my area and had to plan what me and the Sister Training Leader were doing and what we were gonna teach and I was already stressed out and.... yeah it was special. We did teach though, it wasn't too bad and we did do things I promise! :) Afterwards, I gave my planner to Sister Kirkby saying "I'm sorry! This is a horrible schedule and I didn't know what I was doing and I tried, I tried so hard I'm so sorry!" She looked at it and read who I had put on there, looked at me, and asked me who Elanor was. We're not teaching an Elanor. 😶 

Lets just all be glad that I'm not training this transfer. 😌

We had a new investigator at church yesterday! ⛪It was Amanda and she really liked it. She brought her Bible and everything and one of the speakers in Sacrament asked us to turn to a scripture in the Bible and she got really excited that she could use it.🔰

Hope you all are doing well!

Sister Miller

A Lot of Memorizing!!

Hello everybody!

Hmmm let see... this week (not even because I talked to you guys on wednesday) we did a little of everything. We met with members, less actives, and investigators, and did some tracting. My companion and I have learned a lot about the mind set we need to have when we teach and talk to people and how important it is to have charity. We can always have more charity. :)

Taught a lot of people about the importance of prayer and Sacrament Meeting. More less actives are coming to church so yay! And we would have had 3 investigators there but 2 couldn't because one was really sick. They plan to come next week and tomorrow we're putting them on date again. My companion and I have made a goal of 2 baptisms this transfer. We know that if we work hard for these people and help them as best we can and get the branch involved, we can do it.

Finally memorized everything I need to memorize! Woot! Every morning before we leave the apartment, my companion and I recite the Mission Commission:

"I am called of God. My authority is above that of the kings of the Earth. By revelation, I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my master. And He has chosen me to represent Him. To stand in His place. To say and do everything He would say and do if He personally were administering to the very people to whom He has sent me. My voice is His voice. My acts are His acts. My words are His words. My doctrine is His doctrine. My commission is to do what He wants done. To say what He wants said. To be a living, modern witness in word and in deed of the divinity of His great and marvelous latter-day work. How great is my calling!"

And then we say, "Eliminate all self-defeating, faith-destroying, atonement-denying thoughts, words, and actions."

Then we recite a promise that our Mission President made to us:

"If you, each of you, individually and personally become Preach My Gospel missionaries, and we become unified as a mission in our love of Jesus Christ and His restored gospel, you will become strengthened and sanctified, and your families and loved ones will be blessed mightily by the power of God, and we will significantly increase those who are converted by baptism, by renewing covenants, and by returning to covenants."

And throughout the day we recite D&C 4 and our Mission Statement: "The West Virginia Charleston Mission is a covenant loving mission, with covenant keeping missionaries. Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Through Preach My Gospel principles, we will be obedient, teach by the spirit, work hard, love one another, and pray with faith to help others make and keep sacred covenants."

Whoosh.

Have a wonderful week!

Sister Miller

Transfer Week!!

I have officially been here for one transfer! Woot! My companion and I are staying here (thank goodness). She kept teasing me and saying that I might have to train someone even though I haven't finished training myself. :P I found out though that one of the sisters in my MTC district IS training someone now! Oh my goodness that would be so stressful!😵

We taught less lessons this week (awww)😢 because we didn't see three of our investigators. One moved unexpectedly and one had a lot of work hours and one had a surgery for her teeth. (By the way, everyone has surgery on their teeth here. I've met so many people who had their teeth pulled out and just have fake ones. Brush your teeth everybody!) 😁So we did some tracting and finding. Ugh, I don't like tracting. Iz no fun.

Last week we got a referral from a friend of one of our less actives that came at the same time we were teaching him. The referral is her sister, Virginia, who she wanted us to see because she is having some serious struggles and challenges in her life right now. 😮We went on tuesday and met Virginia, her husband, Mike, and their daughter, Amanda, who is in her 30s and has 2 children who she can't see anymore because of some stuff that happened. They allowed us to come see them and teach them because Mike was not sure God existed because of all the horrible things he's seen. We've visited them 2 times since then and they are awesome. Mike is really funny and terribly blunt. He drinks and smokes😯 and has a serious anger problem but he tells us all the time that he knows he needs to change and wants to change. He is very protective over his family and wants to be better for them. Amanda is so sweet and loving despite what she's seen and gone through, which is a lot. Virginia doesn't talk much but we know that she's been through a lot as well and we are excited to teach them all. Every time we go Mike calls us angels. :P😇 So we like going there.

Oh yes, and I turned old on Saturday.😒 I ate sooooooo much foooooood that day! The branch had their annual picnic that morning and one of our investigators and her two girls were able to come. They had a lot of fun and I think it was good for the branch members to see that we actually are teaching people... even though none of them come to church. Still working on that. And my companion blabbed that it was my birthday so the branch sang to me. I'll get her back for that one day. Then for dinner we ate at a less active's home. My companion warned me that he gets really insulted if you refuse more than one serving so we had to eat... a lot. And that night I opened up my birthday packages from my family and one from our investigator, Lisa. They were awesome! I loved them so much.🙌

One transfer down!

Sister Miller

Constantly Improving!!

My goodness this week went by so fast. Phew!

With the exception of last monday, every day has been sooo busy and we've had no time to even think. Thank goodness we have two hours of study every morning but even that doesn't seem like enough. I am learning so much as I study and as I learn about the people here that I am teaching. My trainer is sooo wonderful I love her to death.

So this week we started meeting with some members and taught them about member missionary work. A lot of the people here have concerns about sharing the gospel and we hope to help them through them because we know that they have so much to offer their friends and family.

We dropped a couple investigators this week :( but we also gained a few! One is named Michael and he lives in an apartment owned by one of the members, so that's how we met him. He's on house arrest so I think he initially let us talk to him because he had no one to talk to. :P But we've taught him the Restoration and he wants us to come back. I hope and pray he will read and pray about the Book of Mormon.

So, I've done A LOT of improving this week because I have practiced tracting and ITLing (Invite to learn) so I have definitely improved on my confidence. :P And my testimony of charity has improved sooooo much. These are my brothers and sisters and I know that they need what I have. If I remember that, my desire to share it grows and it is so much easier for me to ask them to hear our message. Funny thing that happened this week was one of our investigators was being told by her friends that we missionaries are trained to love people and don't actually care. We just want to get people to join the church. So she was telling us this and we shared with her our testimonies of how this gospel has brought us so much joy and helped us get through any trials that come up in our lives so because we love her we want to share this gospel with her and help her move toward being baptized so she can experience that same joy and strength through trials.

So, I'm turning old on saturday.... and it's the same day as the branch picnic so we're inviting tons of people to that in hopes that everyone will get to know the members and build relationships with them so they won't be afraid to come to church. Everyone's afraid and nervous to come to church. 😶 I don't know why. (That's a picture of a confused blob) Soooo we're working on that.

Here goes my last week of being 19! 😰😫🙇

Ok, I love these blobs. Can you guys see them? They're now my favorite thing.

-Sister Miller

Working With The Members!!

We finally got a Branch Mission Leader this week! We met with him and his wife this last week and talked about goals to help our progressing investigators and help the members in our Branch be more excited about doing missionary work and more willing and comfortable sharing their beliefs with their friends and coworkers and neighbors. Our Mission Leader is totally devoted to his calling and truly wants to help which is such a great blessing. He is a convert and didn't serve a mission so all three of us are new at this. :P But God isn't so we'll do just fine. :) Also met with Branch President to talk about goals and making a Branch Mission Plan. We have a lot of baby steps to take but we think the Branch is ready to take them.

Taught a couple new investigators this week and put some on date and invited them to church, along with several less actives. Unfortunately only one of our investigators came. :( A lot of the people we teach are nervous about coming so we're going to try to find them fellowships so they'll be less nervous.

One of our progressing investigators had an interesting week this last week. Her boyfriend (and father of her 4 kids) went to jail and she was really stressing out. (Started smoking again.. gr. But she's gonna try to stop again) He came back a couple days ago and is on probation. He said that he had an experience in jail that made him realize that God does exist and that He loves and watches over him. Sister Kirkby and I were so excited! We're gonna start teaching both of them now and see how it goes. It will definitely be slow but we think God is preparing them.

The Book of Mormon is awesome. It is fantastic. It is the best thing. I have seen it help so many people and I know that it is the word of God and if we cling to it, we will reach eternal life. Oh my goodness it's awesome.

Here goes another week!

-Sister Miller

So Many Bugs!!

Oh my goodness I have been bitten more than I'd care to count. :) And there's another bug besides mosquitoes here called Chiggers....  and their bites are worse if you can believe it. And I walk into a spider web about 5 times a day. :P I'm not even kidding, it's so hard talking to an investigator calmly as you try to take the spiderweb pieces off of you and you can't find the spider....After a year and a half of this, I'm going to have zero fears of bugs.

Taught 21 lessons! Woot! And I taught my very first one all by myself because the investigator has very rambunctious children and my companion had to entertain them while I taught the mom. :P I think it went well. Could have definitely gone better but I'm getting there. :)

And we had exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders this week! Sooooo fun. Taught a new investigator the restoration and put her on date to be baptized. The STL I was with was so excited because they haven't been able to put anyone on date for a little while. The investigator was so wonderful and prepared and full of faith. Gah! I wish I could keep teaching her.

Another highlight this week was one of our investigators who has been investigating (basically) since 2010 and hasn't read the Book of Mormon or kept any commitments. We were thinking we were gonna drop her but we decided to have a Book of Mormon read with her where we read Enos with her and tried to see what she could find applied to her and what she could learn from it. Then we committed her (again) to read and pray every day and promised blessings and expressed the importance of doing so.

THEN SHE TEXTED US THE NEXT DAY ABOUT WHAT SHE LEARNED IN 1 NEPHI!!!!!

Oh my goodness I was so freaking excited. She read!!! And she keeps reading!!!! Oh my goodness.

Other highlights are one of our investigators got a priesthood blessing for comfort so she got to experience that which is awesome and learn about the priesthood, one of our investigators had her baby and we're hoping she will continue to exercise faith and pray (she doesn't know if she believes in God), taught some new investigators, and had... wait for it.... 3 member presents!!!! I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but here, it is. We were so excited.

Still raining but less than last week. Awesome, busy week.

-Sister Miller

PUPPY!

EVERYONE here has a dog. I'm not even kidding. Everyday our clothes smell of dog and cigarette smoke. Quite the combination. :P

Serious flooding! Oh my goodness rain.

alrighty...

Went on my first split!

I Think I'm In Seattle!!

It has rained and poured everyday this week. It's kind of hilarious. One day we were walking around the neighborhoods and my shoes got all muddy and we both got really wet. Basically I'm super grateful for my umbrella. :) It's cleared up this weekend though so maybe it'll stay sunny. The people here say it's not normal for it to rain this much. So many houses have flooded and the river has overflowed several times.

This week definitely went by faster than last week. :) We did a lot of service this week and met with a lot of people. We taught about 27 lessons which is super awesome. Most (okay, all) of the people we teach have a specific concern or trial in their lives that we try to help them with along with teaching them the missionary lessons. And most of them can be solved if they pray to Heavenly Father and ask if He loves them. We hope and pray that they will do so.

We also taught for the first time the Stop Smoking Workshop that the church has. It guarantees that anyone who will follow it to the letter will not want to smoke after a week. Cool right? It helps them to get rid of their craving for it and brings them closer to Christ by having them pray for strength every day. We taught it to a girl named Kayla and her boyfriend on Thursday and as of yesterday she was doing great. :) We hope to see her today and hope that she is still going strong.

I saw a groundhog yesterday!! It was like 5 feet away from us. We also saw a dead snake. But lets not talk about that...

Yesterday we went to a stake fireside specifically done for investigators and we were able to go because Lisa went. It was great because she usually doesn't have sunday nights available but this week she did so her husband, Charlie, was able to drive us all up to the fireside. I am so glad because it was awesome. It talked about the how the gospel helps our lives and the significance of the sacrament.

Still learning every day and I have grown so much within the past month. It's been almost a month! How crazy is that!

Ok, and I'll tell you something if you promise not to laugh. I may have prayed in my sleep last night.... Haha, missions are fantastic aren't they?

Hope you are all doing well! Have a wonderful week!

-Sister Miller

Totally hit a BIRD . . . Laughed forever!!

First Week In West Virginia!!!

LLLLLLLooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggeeeeeeeeessssssssttttttttt wwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkk
eeeeeeeevvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrr
oh my gooooooooooooooodneeeeeeeeeeessssssssssss.

I do have an hour and a half now that I'm out here which is GREAT because the hour they gave us in the MTC was NOT enough. :P I'm in the library in Ripley in Jackson County (zion :P) and this is where we'll write our little emails. :)

So, Monday we said our good-byes to the district and the MTC and stuff. I didn't smell the tree!!! I'm so upset with myself. But we didn't have time and I didn't wanna stop my companions so I could find a weird smelling tree. :P

Tuesday we woke up at 2:30 and got everything out and we went to the airport. Flew all day. Sat by a nice detective from Montana and a Catholic Pastor. Haha. I did bond with the pastor over the stories of Paul and how wonderful people's lives can be if they have the gospel in it. Met my Mission President and his wife (Salisbury) and they are so wonderful and sweet. They've been out for a year and are still getting the hang of it. :) The wife is so sweet, she is always looking at her husband for support and reassurance that she isn't saying the wrong thing or doing something wrong. And he was always like "you're fine, you're doing great dear." The sisters stayed with the Sister Training Leaders for 2 nights and the Elders stayed with.. some Elders... I don't know. :P

Wednesday we explored the WV history museum and learned about the different areas and the greatness of the work. Woot!

Thursday we went to the transfer meeting and I got my new companion! Her name is Sister Kirkby and she just got finished being trained herself poor girl. But that's a common thing here so when I'm done in October I'll likely be training someone right after. She is so kind and encouraging. I truly am so grateful for her. She has a very strong testimony and is not afraid of working which is good. Her last companion was a vegetarian so she loves me already. :P They sent us off, we had lunch, and immediately got busy visiting and teaching people. We've taught around 15 people so far and we would've taught more if people were home. :) I didn't think this would be a problem but it is a HUGE problem. People are never home. Gr. And there are so many Less Actives! If all of the members came to church, it'd be a ward instead of a branch. Come on people! Church is good for you! But really though, the people who live here have really hard lives and have gone through really tough trials. We are trying hard to teach them this message of happiness and help them see that there is a plan for everyone and they are not alone in their trials.

Friday we taught and visited all day. I am falling in love with the people here. Everyone is so kind and friendly. We ate dinner at a progressing investigator's house named Lisa. She and her husband are so great and I love them to death. While there I saw my first firefly/lightning bug! Woot! There are so many here! And we caught a frog. Pretty fantastic.

Saturday was the fourth of July! We had a district meeting then we went into town to talk to people. We had all of these American flags with a scripture about liberty form the Book of Mormon on them and we handed them out to the people around town while the parade went on. Apparently, Ripley has the biggest small-town 4th of July celebration in the country. So we saw lots of people. We walked and walked and walked and talked and walked and walked. We did get contact info from a few people and I'm excited to see if they accept our invitation to come unto Christ. We'll contact them this week.

Sunday we went to church! I definitely needed it. Our congregation has about 15 people in it and only one person knows how to play the hymns on the piano. :P And she wasn't there yesterday so we played a recording and sang to that. Sister Kirkby and I taught these two teenage sisters about preparing to go to the temple and then helped teach primary. After church we went straight to our first house to teach. A big problem was that a lot of people weren't home. Lots of people work on Sundays. We did visit with 5 people but were only able to teach 3 of them.

See? Told you it was a long week.

WV is kind of awesome. There are trees literally everywhere. We are in the middle of a forest. Sister Kirkby and I run on the track around the football field at the highschool which is surrounded by trees so it feels like we're right on the edge of a forest. We even saw two baby dear and some rabbits while running! There's as many Baptists here as there are Mormons in Utah so there's a church on every corner. :) It's also very sticky here. And my hair is freaking out because of the humidity.

I'm kind of getting into the groove now and am getting to know the area better. I'll most likely be here for 3-6 months so I'm trying to get a mental map of this place.

Hope you all are doing well!!!

-Sister Miller

This little manaquin at the museum totally scared me! I was walking towards it and then it suddenly yelled "Get Back!" It made the other missionaries laugh. :P

Sister Kirkby!

4th of July!!!

Week 2 (Last week of MTC)

Woot! It has been so great here and I'm so grateful that I had the time I did to be here. The spirit has been so strong and I've learned and grown so much. But, I can't wait to leave tomorrow. We're mostly packed and everything is set. I will be sad to leave the people in my district though. They are seriously awesome.

So, this week the newly called Mission Presidents and their wives were in training so the apostles and the Prophet came and were on campus all week teaching them. So we weren't allowed into the main building so we had to eat food in the gym which was special. Ok, funny story: On.... thursday I think, there was an announcement for all the sisters to go to the gym (which is also where devotionals are) in an hour and they wouldn't tell us why. They did say it wasn't on dress code though. So we're all thinking an apostle wants to give us a special devotional because why else would they keep it a secret unless it was a surprise right? So we're all excited and we go and there's security everywhere and when we go in they have us sing hymns and it's really spiritual and we say a prayer and we're waiting for "someone" to come. Then, when the prayer is said, the first counselor of the MTC presidency takes the microphone and says, " Sisters, I have an announcement that is going to change your life."

"There have been bats spotted in your residency building. So you all need to move to another building across campus right now."

Yep.

So we spent the afternoon packing and moving and unpacking. And we didn't even see one apostle! 

On Sunday we did see the general authorities driving in and we waved at them. Elder Christofferson and Oaks waved back. :P

Mostly teaching "investigators" and learning more lessons and building our faith yadayadayada. I have not smelled the creme soda tree yet but because apparently NO ONE here knows about it. But my friend on a mission says it's by the laundry room so I'm smelling it dang it! 

Last tuesday we sang at the devotional in the choir thing! We were flippin awesome if I do say so myself. And yesterday my district sang in a musical number for Sacrament which was super fun. We sang "Nearer my God to thee."

By the way, it's 110 degrees here. It's hot. And because the meals and devotionals were in the gym this week, we had to do gym time on the field. So we were running around in a sauna. But I actually love the field because there's so much space! And there's sky!! We played kickball and volleyball and we are the worst at both of those things so it is hilarious. I laugh so hard.

Ok, this letter is long enough. I'll let you guys know about the flight and first week of WV next week!

-Sister Miller

Me, Sister Robinson, Sister Eckley, Sister Farr, Sister Willis (Look how happy we were before we found out about the bats... :P)

Official First Letter Of My Mission, Oh My Goodness!!!

So I was dropped off at the MTC on Tuesday and got all my stuff and went to class. We've learned SO much about teaching and feeling the spirit in a lesson and being in tune with the spirit and getting to know the investigator. My teachers are amazing and so helpful. And I've already taught 3 "investigators" (really actors but it feels like they're not acting. :)) I am in a threesome companionship with Sister Robinson and Sister Willis. They're both going to WV with me. They teach me and help me to improve everyday and I'm so glad for that. I've learned though that being in a threesome is sometimes better than a couple and sometimes worse. :P When we're planning lessons we all have so many ideas on what to teach and how to teach and we sometimes have a problem organizing our thoughts. But we're doing much better now than we did on the first day thank goodness. :) I have another companionship of sisters in my district who are going to Arkansas and are so sweet. They are two peas in a pod and are very hard working. Then we have 3 companionships of Elders in our district which consist of almost every personality. They all love the gospel and have such great insight so I love our district discussions and classes. One of the Elders was a sophomore in Lehi High when I was a senior there so we thought that was funny, and another Elder is Elder Miller so we have two Miller's in our district.

I've officially adjusted to the schedule but not to how fast I need to walk to get places. My companions are very fast walkers (especially when we're going to lunch. :P)

Ok, and I went to the choir thing here because my sister said to go to the choir thing so I went to the choir thing. Guys. It was amazing. I couldn't even believe how wonderful the director was at helping us become unified in the song and be better singers and he brought the spirit and had such great stories and gave us a little lesson and oh my goodness he wrote the music we're singing and it is so powerful. The spirit was so strong. We're singing Precious Savior Dear Redeemer but to a different arrangement. Best thing ever. We're singing it for the devotional on Tuesday and a general authority will be speaking! Woot! So excited.

Also went to the temple today!!!!!!! After going at least once a week for two months I was seriously deprived. I don't know how I'm gonna last 17 and a half months in WV without going. And I when we went outside to walk to the temple it felt so good. Kind of sad that it felt good to get out of the MTC. :P But I love it here and am learning and growing so much. On Sunday we had sooo many spiritual thoughts and lessons and I wrote so much down it was insane.

I can't believe it hasn't even been a week yet. And so much has happened!

And I probably left a few things out but I don't remember. The important thing is they're in my journal so yay! Totally read it when I get back. :P

I hope you've all had a great week and I'll write you again next week!!!

-Sister Miller

Missionary Pictures!

Temples

So, I'm endowed now and can go through temples!! So I decided that I wanted to visit and do service in as many Utah temples as I could before I went on my mission. I am so glad I did this, they are so beautiful and I got to feel the spirit so much during my last month in Utah.

 Salt Lake:

Payson Open House:

Provo:

Draper:

Monticello:

Manti:

It was windy, and rainy, and we had just done baptisms, and ... yeah. We're gorgeous.

 South Jordan:

Sooo preeetttyyy

Logan:

Oquirrh:

Mt. Timpanogous:

Bountiful:

Ogden:

Brigham:

Payson: