The Reward is not Usually Behind the First Door!!

Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry this email is so long. I always start emailing like, "I don't know what they heck I'm going to write about this week" and then I remember lots of stuff. So here's a summary because, let's be honest, no one wants to read this long of a letter.

Summary:

*We had a lot of people come to church and are feeling the spirit and it makes me very happy. :)

*General Women's session of Conference was awesome and everyone should watch it.

*A member made us Cafe Rio because God is good. :)

I hope you all had a great week!

Really Long Letter Version

This week was a great week for the whole zone. I love being a Sister Training Leader because I can know about how the whole zone is doing and even the whole mission. :) Sister Willis and I are getting better at planning (it is a skill Brothers and Sisters) and we are seeing rewards from diligently striving to get better at it.

This week we saw Sister Hopkins who looooves her church and her pastor. She lets us teach her because she "hasn't felt that she should say no to us yet, so we may have something that God wants her to hear." :P We taught her the Restoration and she thought it was incredible.... and the spirit told us to teach her the Word of Wisdom... which we don't usually teach so early on. Well, she did not like it. :P We told her to pray about it and read the pamphlet. We came back this last week and she said she read the pamphlet and it made a lot of sense. She also said that she thinks we're probably right because in church last Sunday her pastor actually talked about keeping our bodies as well as our spirits pure and clean by watching what we put in them. :P Loved it. Now she just needs to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.

We picked up an awesome investigator this week named Brother Waddell. It's difficult to meet with him (sigh) but he loved the Restoration and has read some of the Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized. :D

The Shepherds are doing awesome!!!! We taught tithing and they're going to try to figure out how they can pay it. And they came to church again. :) Sooooooo happpyyyyyyyyy.

We met with Sister Breeden again too and it went well. She came to church as well. :D

BROTHER DAVIS IS GOING TO THE TEMPLE ON WEDNESDAY!!! Finally!!! I'm telling ya, getting to the temple is the hardest thing ever for everyone ever. Geez louise. We are very excited for him.

And we saw our other recent convert, Brother Martin! He totally bore his testimony of the truthfulness of this church and I loved it. :) He came to church too!!!!!! It was the first time in forever! And his parents came(who are members as well) and it was such a sweet thing to see.

I have a new goal in life: I am going to bear my testimony every fast Sunday. Even if I don't go up there and bear it vocally, I'm going to write it down in my journal. But getting up there and bearing it is a great thing too. :)

We also taught Brother Angle the stop smoking workshop and before teaching anyone the workshop, they have to crush all of the cigarettes that they have in their house to show their commitment. It's a very difficult step. And Brother Angle had two brand new packs of cigarettes in his house. He crushed them all!!! Like, took out the cigarettes and broke them all in little pieces and put them in the trash can!!! I could not believe my eyes. He sat down and was like, "Ok, my blood sugar is really high right now..." :P Wish him luck everyone!!

And one of our members did the sweetest thing this week! She is from Provo (everyone in our ward is from Utah except like, two families, so it's kind of like home away from home :)) and we were talking last week about how much we missed Cafe Rio because it's sooo good and the closest one is 3 hours away. Everyone always gets it when they go to the temple in DC because there's one there. :P And she invited us over for dinner and cooked Cafe Rio for us!!! :'D I just about cried. She was like, "Everyone needs Cafe Rio!" :)

General Women's Conference was the best!!!!!!! I loved the talks, they were so helpful with what I needed. I know faith, hope, and love are crucial attributes for our lives here and in eternity. We can't afford not to have them. And I loved President Uchtdorf's talk. He's the greatest isn't he? I know that he, and all the others that speak in General Conference are chosen by God to lead His church. I know the President Monson is the prophet and that they are telling us what we need to know right now. We are so blessed to know that there is a prophet on the Earth today. Everyone needs to know this!!!

Favorite things from Conference:

God loves the people around you and helps them to improve. So should we.

Everyone is in need of the same Atonement.

We need to study essential doctrines!!!!

There are more ways to see than with our eyes.

Faith empowers us to act on God's will, trust in His will, and trust in His love.

The reward is not usually behind the first door.

Happy Fall Y'all!!

Sister Miller

Lots of Stuff!!!

Hola!

This week was actually really great for our zone. All of our numbers went up, which is super exciting. :) Progression is good.

One of our less actives, who we've been working with for several months, came to church for the first time in a long time today! She loved it. In Relief Society the presidency likes to announce if anyone is new or visiting and they asked if she was an investigator. When we told them she was a member they were all so excited that she was there. :) They love it when less actives come. :)

Sister Lamb is doing good. Having a hard time seeing her because she's super busy but we told her about prophets and she thought it was "really neat." :P We pray she'll be able to see some of General Conference.

The Shepherds are doing well too. He's doing so much better at not drinking coffee, even though it is so hard for him. We love him to pieces. They are so great. :)

And we finally saw one of our recent converts, Brother Martin! Missionaries haven't met with him in soooo long because he is soooo busy and it went really well. Every time we scheduled an appointment with him it would fall through last minute for different reasons. :( But it happened this week! :D

We also went on exchanges (surprise!) with the Bluefield Sisters. :) I was in Bluefield with Sister Mortensen which was fun because she was the Sister that was in the trio with us about a month ago.

Sister Copeland is struggling to sit at church for all three hours.... maybe we'll have to get her a pillow or something. *shrug*

We had specialized training with President this week too and it was really great. We learned a lot and it was a good boost for the week.

At church yesterday we talked about honesty, which was pretty funny because we talked about how even sneaking snacks into the movie theater was dishonest and everyone in Relief Society was like, "Oh! We're all dishonest!" Haha! :P It kind of turned into a "how much is your integrity worth?" sort of a lesson. I thought it was really great, because it can apply to any commandment. Is our integrity worth that small justification?

La vie es bien.

Sister Miller

Sister Willis and I got Minion pajamas to wear on exchanges. :) Aren't we adorable?

Sister Willis loves taking selfies at random moments. :) So here's a picture of us getting gas and texting members. :)

Exchanges! Sister Mortensen, Sister Berger, Sister Willis, me. :) I'm really not that tall, everyone else is just super short...

our little dvd player is broken and when we were watching the district it froze while this Elder was talking. :) You're welcome world.

Sister Willis and I on our 15 month click day and freaking out because we've been out for fifteen months.

Busy!!

This week was certainly eventful. :) We had Sister Willis's first MLC and Zone Meeting with exchanges right after. Stressed her out just a little bit. :P But everything went well. :) The Sister we went on exchanges with are in a walking area so Sister Willis had to walk all day. :) Nyehehe. The Sister that came here loved having a car for a day. :)

We also gave talks yesterday. :) Mine was on replacing bad habits with good habits and Sister Willis's was on forgiveness. The Shepherds came again and Brother Shepherd joked and said, "I come in and Sister Miller gets up there and starts talking about me!" :P He talked with the Bishop too about getting the priesthood and he really wants it!!! :D The Bishop is going to work really closely with him (fist pump). And we are soooo excited. :)

We picked up Sister Webb's husband! Yes!!! Families are forever!!!

Another cool spiritual tidbit on the Sabbath*:

We were talking about it in Gospel Principles class and the teacher made a comment (don't know if completely doctrine but it's a fun thought) that God probably didn't need to rest the seventh day. He was probably setting for us an example of what we needed to do. Like baptism. He didn't need to be baptized but he was setting the example for us.

Anyway, I liked that thought.

*I don't know why I'm so obsessed with the Sabbath lately. I just love it so much. :)

Have an awesome week everyone!!

Sister Miller

MTC companions reunite at MLC!! Wahoo!!

Good-bye picture with Sister Farnsworth

Sabbath Selfie!

This is my Mission President throwing fruit snacks at us during our break at MLC. :) He's silly. :)

Hhhhhello!!

Happy September everyone!

It's the beginning of the month which means we now have miles to drive and money to spend! Yay!! We had to walk all day Tuesday to stay under our limit but it was great. :) We were on exchanges that day so the poor Sister who came here had to endure it. :P Tehe.

We had two investigators at church and the Shepherds came again!!! I was so happy! Progress! We really really hope they can get to the point of being sealed in the temple in this life (they're a little old). But, God's will be done. :)

We picked up a less active's mother whose daughter died and she is really torn up about it because she doesn't know if she was saved or not before she died. We talked about the Spirit World and gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and told her to pray about it. We hope that she is able to feel and recognize her answer.

Brother Davis (RC) is working towards going to the temple and a couple ward members are helping him out with getting names and a ride there. I love this ward. :) Sister Breeden even has visiting and home teachers assigned to her. :O That made us very happy.

Have an awesome week everyone!

Sister Miller

Taking pictures on exchanges and we found Dracula's car. :)

Sister Willis and me,

and a peach cobbler a member made for me because I told him that it was my favorite dessert. :) We ate it for breakfast this morning. :)

Also, this is what happens when I get bit by mosquito bites all the time and have no self control.... :P