God Is So Cool!!

Man.

I

am

tired.

I wasn't able to email yesterday because it was Memorial Day and the library was closed. :( Sorry! But the good news is that because of that, I had time to take a much-needed 2 hour nap. 😴😴:)

Wanna hear about something awesome that happened this week???? Good. Because I'm gonna tell ya. :)

So last Monday we were walking around town to people we were going to see (because we were low on miles for our car and we had to walk all week this week, thus the 2 hour nap) and we passed by a less actives house. We'd met her before but she would never let us in for more than 10 seconds so it was obvious that she didn't want us to come over. Sister Cutler jokingly said, "Well, we could go visit her if we wanted to." At first both of us didn't think it was wise because she didn't seem to want us over plus she said afternoons were best for her and it was 7:00 in the evening. Something that I've been trying to improve on, though, is to follow every prompting, even if it's just a passing thought. So we kept walking for a little bit and I stopped and said, "Well, it could have been a prompting though..." So Sister Cutler and I turned around and went to the house. 

We were let in and we saw that her granddaughter, who is a little older than us, was over visiting her. We made awkward small talk and were about to leave, but we didn't want to go there without at least trying to share a message so we asked if we could share a really quick one. We were mainly asking the less active so we were looking at her, but out of the corner of our eyes we saw the granddaughter nod her head really quick at her grandmother. We were permitted to stay. :)

The granddaughter's name is Maria and she is awesome! We asked her some questions and the conversation turned to the Plan of Salvation. We shared some scriptures from the Book of Mormon. We found out that her brother had just passed away a week earlier and she loved our message on the Spirit World and the 3 kingdoms. We didn't have a Book of Mormon with us so we asked if we could come back the next day and give her one. She said we could. We left that lesson in total shock of what had just happened and panicked at the thought of what would have happened if we hadn't gone back and knocked on the door.

When we came back we went over the whole plan of salvation with her. And without us even bringing up church, she asked what it would be like. :D

We met with her again yesterday, and she told us that another one of her brothers had passed away on Saturday. She was having a hard time understanding why two of her brothers would be taken within a month of each other. Our hearts truly broke for her. We testified that Heavenly Father loved her and heard her prayers and would help her during this time and bring her peace. We read 2 Nephi 2 with her and said it helped. She said that she had been praying about what church was right and what she needed to do..... and then we showed up. She said she thinks it was an answer to her prayer.

After that lesson we walked to another appointment we had but realized that were going the wrong way so we had to turn around. On our way back, we passed by this woman who was crying. We asked her what was wrong and she told us that she had just lost two of her sons. This woman was Maria's mother. She was having a harder time with it than Maria and was, and it was the hardest thing to see her in so much pain. She said she was angry and frustrated with God and was confused as to why He would do that to her, and that the only reason she could come up with was that she had done something wrong and was being punished. I don't remember everything we said but we testified to her of God's love for her and encouraged her to pray. She said she would. She is the less active's daughter so was familiar with our church and the Book of Mormon. We gave her one and testified of the answers and peace that would come from it.

We walked away from that in total shock of what had just happened. What are the odds that we had run into her as she was outside crying? And it was only because we had gone the wrong way! God truly does love his children.

In other news, the Ordancez couple came to church on Sunday!!!!! They were only able to come to Sacrament because the wanted to still go to their church because their pastor is like a father to them and they feel bad not going. We stopped by yesterday and she said she'd been praying that thinks it could be the right path for her! AND we met their friends who are another spanish family and the father is a member too!!!!! GUYS! WE COULD HAVE A SPANISH BRANCH IN BUCKHANNON!! I'm so excited!!!! :D God is so cool.

Sorry for the seriously long email. 😬

God loves you!!

Sister Miller

 So a member in our ward is from Thailand and eats bugs. She said she would make us some Locusts if we caught some and boiled them and then brought them to her.... soo.....

Yummmmmmm. We hope to eat them later this week. :)

Strawberry Festival!!

Greetings from Wet-ville, Rainstorm Central, West Virginia! 🌧☔☔🌂

Our umbrellas were really nice this week. :)

This week we had Zone Conference! It was awesome because they addressed a lot of stuff that we had some questions on and needed help with. Loved it! My favorite thing was when we role played committing people to repent and strengthen their faith in the Savior. We would practice addressing different concerns and my favorite way the Assistants to the President suggested was just to read John 14:21 and ask them if they loved God, and if they loved Him enough to do as He asked no matter what. :) I loved that because it really doesn't matter what's going on. It all gets down to if you love God enough to follow Him. :)

It was also the Strawberry Festival this week! We didn't go to it because it didn't take place on a Monday, but we did hear it and pass by it as we walked to different places. There were tons of people there! There were rides and concerts and several parades and lots and lots of food. :) I didn't go, but at least I was here while it happened! :P

Brother Dennis Hobbs came to church again yesterday!!!!! He's struggling with the Word of Wisdom because he really likes his tea. We gave him some herbal tea but he still doesn't wanna give up his tea. Stinker. He even prayed about it and said that he felt that he probably shouldn't drink his tea or coffee! He'll get there. :)

Sister Miller is silly story:

So, I'm really bad with names.

We started teaching a really fun teenager last week and we were just about to start our second lesson with her and I was chosen to say the opening prayer. It was great... until I realized in horror that I had forgotten her and her grandfather's names in the middle of the prayer. 

Usually when this happens I just say "thank you for the opportunity to be together...etc" but... that's not what I said.. I said "Thank you for the opportunity to be here with...." and, hoping that I would get the names right, nervously said, "Steve.... and.... Karen."

I now know that their names are Ken and Hannah. 😅

My companion says that's her favorite memory of me now. :P

Have a great week everyone!!

Sister Miller

Nothing weird or out of the ordinary ever happens here.

I never see anything strange.  Nope, nothing unusual or totally gross here!

Totally made Sister Cutler's day. :)

Whope! Hello!

More bonding with Ramps!!

God is in This Work!!

I love being on a mission. :)

This week was super busy and I think God has blessed me with a calmer personality in times of crisis because He needs me to calm Sister Cutler down when she's stressed out. :P The work is hastening so fast and we can hardly keep up! We put more people on date this week and found a bunch more new investigators too. I love teaching people. It's super fun. :)

This week we found this awesome family. :) I love families. And the thing is, Sister Zschokke and I had talked to the father months ago and he was not interested. Last week we started talking to the wife's brother on the street and he told us we could find him at his sister's house, which I recognized as the one that wasn't interested. But we went back the next week (this last tuesday) anyway and the wife answered. She was totally interested and invited us in. We started teaching and her husband comes in. We're both super nervous and felt kind of awkward because of course he would recognize us.... but we invited him to sit in with us because, you know, it's good to have the father of the family involved, and he came in. We continued teaching and it took a little bit, but by the time we got to the First Vision, both were super excited to learn and come to our church and be baptized. 😱🤗 They have two little kids and I'm excited for them. They are so sweet!

And Dennis came to church again!!!!!!!! *Happy Dance* I'm so excited for him!! It was Ward Conference so there was a dinner after and he bonded with more members. :) Yay. He's on date right now but is struggling to recognize an answer from God. At this point, an answer, and a few more lessons are all he needs to be baptized. :D And then he can go to the temple and be sealed to his wife and happy day!!

I went on exchanges with the Elkins sisters this week and went to the Elkins area, which was super fun. :) I learned a lot and met a bunch of awesome people.

It's raining. A lot.

The Strawberry Festival is this week! Wahoo! We hope to be able to do community service in it so people can see us and we can meet lots and lots and lots of people. :) No booth. :( Didn't have the funds for the spot. But that's ok.

The Church is true everybody!

Sister Miller

Guess whose tire went flat right before her first exchange as a Sister Training Leader? :)

We were heading home from a meeting in Clarksburg and there's a Chick-Fil-A there so we got some to eat on the way home and Sister Burt fed it to me while I drove. :) 

Sister Sorenson, Sister Kirkby, Me, Sister Lunt

(Sister Sorenson trained Sisters Kirkby and Lunt)

So every seventeen years, there's something called the Year of the Locusts. These gross little bugs come out and eat everything green and invade the state. And guess what year is the year of the locusts. THIS YEAR! THE YEAR I'M HERE!! They're everywhere!!! Oh my goodness help!

Look who's ready for the Strawberry Festival! A member made us headbands. Isn't she sweet???

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day everyone!!

Guess what I got to do. :) I got to talk to my family! It was awesome. :) I love them very much. 😘

This week was seriously a crazy, weird week. Longest week ever. Tuesday we had my first ever MLC meeting (Mission Leadership Council). It was intimidating somewhat, but it was good. :) Learned lots. Because of the meeting we didn't go back to our area until around 6:30 pm, so we were only able to teach one lesson. So we were a little discouraged because two days had passed in the week and we had only actually worked in our area for about 6 hours. 

Then we had Zone Meeting on Friday (first one that I was a STL for so I had stuff to say and teach in it) and then we went on exchanges with one of our Sister companionships right after. I stayed in Buckhannon with Sister Burt and Sister Cutler went to Bridgeport with the other Sister. We had a bunch of potentials to contact that day and guess how many new investigators we picked up during the exchange. NINE!! That's a lot!!! In this mission two is the standard for a week, so Sister Burt and I were like, "What on Earth is happening??" It was super fun. :) After the week was over we had picked up 12 new investigators and put 11 on date. :D Yay!! We're still in shock and are wondering what on Earth is going on. :) A bunch of the news are families, which we're really excited about. :) Now we're teaching four families!!!!! :D

I love teaching people the gospel and helping others to make sense of the world and who they are. I love the Book of Mormon and what it does for us. It is truly amazing and I know that it is the word of God. I learn more and more every day and love sharing simple truths with people every day. I get to do it every day! How cool is that!

It has been raining for about 2 weeks now and is supposed to rain all week this week. It may not surprise you all that I have a cold right now. Yay... 

We have a less active who is hilarious. I love her to pieces. She is so sassy. On tuesday we went over to visit her and at the end of the lesson we asked her to say the prayer. She didn't want to say the prayer. But we both just kept starring at her batting our eyes so she'd say it. :P She closes her eyes and says "God, thank you for this. Thank you for that. Thank you for everything. Help us to have a good day. Amen." She's so sassy.

And then yesterday we contacted a referral who had a 5 year old grandson. At the end of the lesson we asked the adults if they'd like to say the prayer but they both declined (no one ever wants to say the prayer. Seriously people. Just say the prayer. It's not that hard). So we asked the 5 year old to say it. He shyly closes his eyes and says (I'm paraphrasing because I can't remember it all) "Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, thank you for Jesus..... and..... we can go to Heaven..... and ..... He died.... please help that people will be able to dig Him up and bring Him to the Hospital so we can see Him again. The end."

Oh my goodness, when he was saying the digging up Jesus part I looked up at his grandparents and both of them just had their faces in their hands shaking their heads like "oh no, this is not good." Haha!! We thought it was so funny. Best prayer ever. :)

Anyway, missionary life is fun. :)

Have a fantastic week everybody!!

Sister Miller

Busy Week!!

*Whistle* Man, this week was busy.

Helping Sister Zschokke pack was fun because she had to do the whole weight thing for the airplane. :P We had fun weighing her stuff on our bathroom scale. :P But we did it! Wednesday was our transfer day (which was weird because it's always on thursday) and I got my new companion!

Sister Cutler is awesome. :) She is from San Diego, California and has been on her mission for about 8 months. She is super peppy and energetic with everything she does. She is totally made to be a Sister Training Leader. I'm excited to work with her. Her last area was the college campus, which is a very different culture and environment than here. :) She is in culture shock again, poor thing. :P I forget that things that we see are strange because I'm used to them. :P Things like road-kill and long and dirty roads and abandoned houses everywhere and redneck people. :P People are so funny.

This week we taught and found a lot of people. Yay! My favorite people are the Ordancez family. They are a spainsh part-member family that we found last week. They are so cute! I love them to pieces. Sometimes I wish I spoke spanish so I could teach them better but the spirit is a universal language so it'll be great! We have a couple in our ward that speaks spanish so we brought them yesterday and it was awesome. It was kind of funny because they kind of took over the lesson in spanish and we were sitting there like... "Ok, we think they're teaching them the Restoration..." :P We did get to add in our testimonies and invited them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. They have three kids: Kimberlee, Angel, Emmanuel, and Sophia. I'm so excited for them!

Plus, they were a member referral. MEMBER REFERRALS ARE THE BEST!!

We picked up 3 new investigators this week, one being a buddhist/agnostic person. Those are always fun. :) She's open to learning though so we'll see how it goes.

We had an investigator at church yesterday that hasn't come since he started being taught in October!! He's always said no. BUT HE CAME YESTERDAY!!!! He like it too, obviously. Because church is awesome. :) And several less-actives came too, which made me happy.

Have a great week everybody!!

Sister Miller

Me, Sister Collister (one of the Sisters we get to go on exchanges with), and Sister Cutler! We were a trio for a day on transfers while we waited for Sister Collister's companion to come up from Charleston. Super fun!