June 8th - 14th

Hey friends, family!

I hope that everyone is doing awesome. We had a week for the books. Super solid. Elder Williams and I finished well. First of all, Omar got baptized this saturday! WOOO! He passed his baptismal interview on thursday and was able to get baptized on saturday and confirmed sunday. His baptism was really special, we had to organize everything and invite everyone really last minute, but the members really came through for us and we had a great attendance to his baptism. A member named Ulises baptized him, he is an awesome guy. The branch president made a lot of refreshments and it was a great activity where all the members came together. I felt the spirit so strongly in his baptism, I really felt God´s love for me. I am glad that I was able to an instrument in the Lord´s in bringing a soul unto him, it makes me want to work harder and do everything I can to help more people come unto Christ. Omar is such a good kid, I know that we will be good friends forever. It makes me so happy to see him take a positive path in his life, there are so many bad influences that surround him and I am glad that he has choosen to follow Jesus Christ in his life. So that was a really happy day. 

Next big news. Are you all ready? As you know, transfers were on monday, and Elder Williams left. We had a great two weeks together and we had a lot of success, but the Lord has called him to a different area. Starting tomorrow, I will be a training!! Woohoo!! But, its not your normal training. President Franco called me and told me that I am going to be training 1 of the 4 new missionaries that are coming from Paraguay. These special 4 missionaries are indians, from the tribe nebucle. (Pronounced in english, NAY-BOO-CLAY). They dont speak spanish, and they dont speak the normal language in Paraguay (guarani) either. The speak nebucle. Its like an ancient extinct language from Paraguay. These 4 missionaries have never been in civilazation before, the MTC in Buenos Aires was their first taste of real city life. They had never seen running water before. We are going to stay in my area, Armenia 1. So that makes me feel better because I already know really well my area. I know that this will be really hard.. I have no idea how well they have learned to speak spanish in the MTC and I know that it will probably be a real culture shock for him, but I know that the Lord has called me to do this work. If the mission has taught me anything, it has taught me that the Lord qualifies who he calls. I know that the Lord would never give me a challenge I wouldnt be able to do, so I know that the Lord will be with me in ever step of this training. I am stoked to be a trainer, I have wanted to train for a long time now and I know that I am going to learn so much by training. Training a nebucle will be an experience that I think I will remember for the rest of my life, so I am super ready to get out there and start working hard with him. I am going to try hard to learn his language. How cool would that be?.. Anyway, I could really use all of your prayers this week to help me be able to give this new missionary a great training experience, I sure hope that I can help him enjoy the mission. 

Other news, my best friend, my zone leader Elder Morrin, went home on monday! He has put in his 2 years and now he is heading home. It was sad to see him leave, I am super grateful for all that he has taught me. Now we have a new zone leader with us, Elder Stout, he has 7 months in the mission and he is from Whoyming. I have been staying with them since Monday and I will leave to Resistencia tomorrow to pick up my new missionary, and then we will head back here to Armenia. ALSO, I complete 11 months in the mission today!! WOOO!! We are coming up on the year mark here. The mission has gone crazy fast and slow as molasses all at the same time. 

We didnt find any new investigators this week and we dont have any potential baptisms, so my new companion and I will be starting from scratch. AKA, a ton of door knocking. So I am super excited to get out there and start sharing the beauty of the message of the Restoration with people that are searching for the truth.

I would like to bare my testimony that I truly know that Jesus Christ loves and loves everyone of us. Words cant express the gratitude that I have for the Restoration of the gospel, it has changed me life and has given me a greater purpose. I promise that true happiness comes by following Jesus Christ by living his gospel. Thank you for all your emails and support, I am not sure how emailing is going to go with my new companion but I am sure that I will be able to write you guys like normal. I am excited to give you guys the updates next week of the beggingings of this great new adventure. I hope you all have a great week!!

P.S., I have a lot of photos from the baptism of Omar but the computer that I am using wont let me upload photos, so I will for sure send them next week when I am in a better cyber!

Elder T. Miles

Photos

Here is proof that I am eating and learning how to cook. The first is empenadas (argentine food, kind of like a sealed taco), the second is what I eat for breakfast everyday, its oatmeal with liquid yogurt with bananas and coconut and honey. Super good. And the last is homemade mac and cheese that Elder Herrera taught me how to make. 

Pictures

More photos!.. The first picture is Elder Herrera and I the day before he left in our Boca jerseys (one of the popular soccer teams here) and sombreros, the second one is us celebrating elder Herrera´s birthday witht the Navarro family, and third picture I took on the 20th of May. It is implied that you need to understand a little spanish. 

Week of June 1st-7th

Hola todos!

I hope that everyone is doing well, this week was AWESOME for us. Alright, well, none of our investigators came to church, no surprises there, but we did find a lot of new promising investigators that we are teaching. Elder Williams is a great companion, I am loving being with him. We think a lot alike and we both like to include and try the ideas of one another. We are contacting A TON and really being exactly obedient, we are super good friends and we have a lot of unity, and that is all that I could really ask for. So I am super happy, things are going really well. It is just too bad that transfers are next week and its likely that we wont be together. Speaking of wish, P day next week will be on tuesday because of transfers, so I will be writing on tuesday next week. But anyway, I am going to really try to take advantage of the time that I have with Elder Williams in Armenia because we are doing good things here.

Omar´s baptism was going to be this past saturday, but he didnt pass a few questions on his baptismal interview, he has some problems with the Word of Wisdom that he didnt tell his about. That was a little disappointing but we helped him make some good goals and plans and he should be able to pass the interview this week and he will be baptized this saturday! We are really hoping that it goes through this time, to see him be bapitzed would make me so happy.

This week we found Aldo and Juliana. They are a young couple that recently had a baby. They both stronly believe in God and Jesus Christ but dont belong to any church. They accepted to listen to us and they really liked the message of the restoration. They had a lot of questions and were very willing to read the Book of Mormon. So we are really excited for them. We also found a new investigator named Claudia, she also recently had a baby and she really likes to listen to us. We are going to see this week if they are going to progress, I sure hope they do!

I cant believe we are already in June. Are you kidding me?! All my friends that were seniors this year graduated this week. It literally feels like yesterday that I was graduating. Thats weird!

There isnt too much else to say for this week. I am excited for transfers next week, I know that whatever happens will be the will of the Lord and I am willing to accept changes. This week I have been thinking a lot about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I testify as a reprensentative of him that the atonement was the most important event in each one of our lives, even though it happened 2000 years ago. If we come unto Christ, he can make our hardest moments times of peace. It is truly the source of happiness in this life and a peace to our conscience. 

The picture that I attached is Elder Williams and I eating some awesome empenadas that we made with salad. MMMMMMM.

I hope that you all have a great week, thank you for your emails!

Elder Miles

Week ending June 1st

Hola hola!

This was a pretty interesting week. The highlight is that Omar came to church and we will now have his baptism this saturday! Yayy! I will for sure take some photos for you guys. In other news, we had an emergency transfer, and I am no longer with Elder Herrera. I am now with Elder Williams, from Maryland, U.S.A. Woohoo! My first american companion. But I am still in the same area, Armenia 1. Elder Williams has been in the office for 10 months, he was the finance secretary. His first area that he served in was Armenia 1, so he basically knows the area and all of the members already! haha. He has 18 months in the mission. Transfers are in 2 weeks, so we will see if this is a permanent change. But I am stoked to start to get to work, Elder Williams is a cool elder. I will send some pictures next P day. Today I traveled to Resistencia to the mission office with Elder Herrera, we said our goodbyes, and then I left with Elder Williams. We are currently writing in the library in Resistencia and then we are going to travel back to Corrientes. 

Cool spiritual experience: Today before leaving the apartment to travel to Resistencia, we were about to get in the taxi to leave and I had an impression to go back into the apartment to grab my missionary handbook, which has a photocopy of my passport tucked in the pages. Well, while in the taxi driving to resistencia, we got stopped by like a police barricade that checks cars and makes sure that the passengers have identification, especially foreigners. So they stopped us, and they asked me for identification. And luckily, miraculously, I had it. But if I hadnt have had that with me, they would had sent us back to corrientes, which would have been horrible. So, the spirit brought that thought to my mind to grab my missionary handbook right before we left! How lucky. 

But not too much new, for sure I will have a lot to write about next week! Changes are always hard especially so quick, but changes have happened so much that I have become used to changes. The more things change, the more things stay the same. I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and for the Restoration, I know that I am so blessed in my life to have the knowledge of these things and I am so blessed to have the family that I do. I am super happy to be here preaching the gospel and helping other people change their life for better. The gospel brings peace to the mind, brings purpose. I hope you all have a great week, thank you for your emails!

Love,
Elder T. Miles