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!!!