Nov. 9, 2015

Friends, Family-

 

How are you guys doing?! Everything is good over here, we had another good week. I am still loving being here with Elder Miles in this area. On tuesday I went to my first consejo (means "counsil", its where all the zone leaders have a meeting with the mission president and the assitants and they give messages about what we need to do as a mission to get better). And then on Thursday we had our zone meeting. At the zone meeting we just say to the missionaries in our zone almost exactly what President Franco said to us in consejo. So I did my first zone meeting and it went really well, Elder Miles and I just talked for like 3 hours in front of 15 missionaries. It was very spiritual and everything went great, the missionaries really liked it and I think we did a good job saying what we needed to. The sister training leaders in our zone gave the part that Sister Franco said in consejo. So that was all very exciting! The rest of the week was good, just the same old. Romina and Antonela didnt come to church again, so that was a little disappointing. This week we are just going to start from scratch and find new investigators to teach.

 

Something that I am really liking about the Book Of Mormon this time I am reading it is how often the prophets say, "Remember, Remember".. I think it is fascinating that Laman and Lemuel were so quick to be disobedient even after the had seen an angel and known of the surety of the existence of God. As well I think it is fascinating that in the story of Moses and the Children of Israel, the children of Isreal were so forgetful in remembering the miracles that Moses had done and were quick to sin. One of the prophets of our latter days (I dont remember who) said that the word Remember is the most important word in the english language (and in any language). Ive noticed as I have been reading that as long as the characters REMEMBER the tender mercies of the Lord that they have seen in their lives, they avoid sin and remain faithful to the Lord. But as soon as they would start to forget the Lord, then God would withdraw his blessings and they become unhappy. So it is the same with us. Its not easy to read the scriptures and pray everyday and go to church, but if we can just remember the spiritual experiences that we have had and all the blessings our God has given us, we will realize the responsability and the need we have to do those things. And we see that as we keep the commandments, we are blessed and we live happy. Its like a cycle. When we start to not keep the commandments, thats when things start going bad for us, until we remember God again and the promised blessings if we keep his commandments and do the little things (read, pray, church). And then we are blessed and we live happily. So, I invite you all to remember. Remember big things as well as everyday miracles. For example, just remembering the wonderful family that God has blessed me with and the amazing youth that I had (growing up in Riverton, Utah, having all the friends I did with good standards, having the blessing of going to church growing up, my parents that taught me so many good things, being born into a family that always had what we needed, etc.), I realize how truly blessed I am. I realize that I am a very very choosen son of God, and with great power and knowledge comes great responsability. So that motivates me to always go to church and live the gospel. As well we need to remember the everyday tender mercies of the Lord. For example, the other day I was really worried about talking in front of the whole zone because I am not the best at public speaking and my voice always shakes, so I said a prayer and asked God to help me, and as soon as I got up there and started talking, all my fear went away and I was able to talk clearly and I could think staight. I knew that God answered my prayer and helped me in that moment. So, I wrote that all down in my journal. And for all that day, I just remembered that tender mercy from the Lord, and that motivated me to be obedient and work hard that day. As humans, we are so quick to forget. But I promise you all that if you remember God and look for the ways that he blesses us, we will always be happy.

 

This week I will be doing divisions with Elder Cordero (Mexico), he is an office Elder. We will probably just be working in my area. So that will be fun. We also have a multi zone conference tomorrow. So this week should be pretty good!

 

I hope that you are all doing great, thank you for your emails and support. Have a good week!

 

Elder Miles

 

P.S. I will be sending some photos in another email.

Nov. 2, 2015

Buen día!!

How are you guys? I hope that all is well. This was a good week here for Elder Miles and I! Antonela and Romina are still progressing pretty good, so we are praying for a baptism or two by the end of November hopefully!.. One day this week we were eating asado (argentine barbeque) with a member family, the Genes family, after church and they had prepared this lunch super nice, and we were eating, and my companion went to grab a bottle of soda and he knocked it over all on to me. He bathed me in soda. From the top of the collar of my shirt down to my pants, all over my suit, just drenched me. Haha. I looked up at him, and he just starred back at me, and he said that he thought that I was going to just going to freak out at him, but we just both burst out laughing and then the whole family laughed too. Super funny. haha.

This week I did divisions in Las Palmas with Elder Christensen. Las Palmas is an hour and a half away from Resistencia, you have to buy special bus passes to get there, its kind of like jungle but not really, its just a small town out in the middle of no where. It was way fun to go out there, they say that sometimes in the mornings they hear monkeys screaming outside their house in some near by trees. I didnt see any monkeys because it was just raining and raining the whole time that I was there and monkeys dont like rain. Elder Christensen is a really cool elder from Nephi. He has like 3 months in the mission, it was fun to be with him because it made me remember when I had that much time and how hard it was to learn spanish and everything. Divisions went really well, while I was there I did a baptismal interview with a lady named Sister Riveros. It went really well! We didnt have any problems. It went well for my first interview. She got baptized this past saturday. 

On saturday night and sunday morning we had stake conference here in Resistencia. It was an AMAZING stake conference, probably the best one that I have ever seen. Presidente Franco and Hermana Franco both gave really touching talks and the temple president of Asuncion, Paraguay came out to talk to us as well. But I think the best part was when 2 recent converts, one of them being a woman that the other Elder Miles found and taught a year ago in Barranqueras, gave talks and bore their testimony and their gratitude that the missionaries came to their house and taught them the restored gospel, the talked about how it has changed their lifes. It was just cool because it really encouraged me to keep working and struggling to find those people that God is preparing. I know that if we are obedient and work hard, God will help us find people like that to teach. 

As a mission we are reading the entire Book of Mormon in the month of Noviembre. So we are all reading 22 pages everyday to be able to finish it in a month. I am loving it, I love the Book Of Mormon so much, there are so many things that we can learn on every page and I truly testify that it brings us closer to Christ. It is the rock of my life, all of my life I want to understand better the Book of Mormon and live its principles. It shows us the tender mercies of the Lord and how we can see his hand in our lives more. I invite you all to read it as well and I promise you that you will feel the spirit and youll feel closer to God. 

Well, thats about it! This week is going to be great, I am super excited to be here. Everything is going well. I hope that you alll have a great week, thank you for your love and support!

Elder T. Miles

Oct. 25 2015

Friends and Fam-

This was a good week for us here in Rio Negro! I am still loving being with Elder Miles and things are all going swell. Our same investigators are still progressing, slowly but surely, nothing too new. It was exciting for me to hear about Austin and Matt´s wedding, I am glad that everything went so well, I am so happy for you guys. 

Next week I will be going to Las Palmas to do divsiones with Elder Johnson, and I will do my first baptismal interview with an investigator that they have thats going to get baptized. So thats exciting! 

Something that I am doing right now is I am marking in my scriptures every time it names or makes a reference to God or Jesus Christ. I am also writing summaries of every chapter and writing down and making chart of all the principles the Book of Mormon teaches. Basically, I am just devouring and memorizing the Book or Mormon in any way that I can. I truly see that so much motivation and spirit comes from reading and living the BOM. It makes me so happy and I feel so good when I read it. 

Uuuuummmm. Yep! I hope that you all have a great week! Thank you for all your emails and support, I hope that you have a good week. 

Elder Miles

October 20th 2015

Hola hola!

This was a good week. I am writing today and not yesterday because we had transfers yesteryday. Elder Miles and I are staying here as ZLs still! The zone changed a lot, there was a change in every area. We now have here Hermana Gull and Hermana Allred, which are the sisters that were with me in my MTC group! We are super good friends so I am excited to be with them her. Also, Elder Gonzalez, my last companion from Mexico, is now in my zone too. He is in the Leonesa, its his last transfer. 

This week nobody came to church, but we did have a lesson with Romina together with a really cool recently married couple in our area named Ammon and Laura. It was probably one of the bests lessons we have ever had on my mission. It was super key to have Ammon and Laura there. She committed to baptism for the beggining of November. I think that this one will probably really follow through. So that is exciting. Romina is 23 years old and she is a single mom of 2 little girls. I want her to find and understand the gospel for herself more than I can tell you. It would bless her life so much. So please, lots of prayers in order that she can came to church and enter the waters of baptism!

Yesterday, as ZLs, we were in the bus terminal from 6 in the morning to 7 in the evening. With transfers, the missionaries came to the bus terminal in chaco and then they go out to the different providences, Formosa, Santa Fe, Corrientes, etc. So as zone leaders in Resistencia we just stay there all day and we have to help everyone buy their tickets and make sure they get on the right buses. Probably 50 missionares pass through the terminal. It is the most stressful thing I have ever done.. some missionaries miss their buses and we have to call the other zone leaders and get things organized and we have to make sure that everyone travels with another person so they arent alone. Its fun!!

Thats about it for me this week! Sounds like a lot of great things are happening on the home front with Austin getting married and Matt getting married this friday, baseball in Arizona and all that fun stuff. Thanks for writing me and for all your support! have a great week!

Elder Miles

October 12th 2015

Buen día!!

Hows everyone? Thank you for your emails and support. This week was pretty good for us, a lot of stress and a lot of work but I am learning a lot of new things. I am still LOVING being here in Resistencia and being with my main man Elder Miles. This week, on monday, I did divisions with Elder Webster in La Leonesa. Elder Webster has 10 weeks in the mission but he is a great elder, he speaks spanish like a boss and he can already direct his own area. His companion, Elder Ware, goes home in a week. La Leonesa is a tiny little tiny on the outskirts of Resistencia. So that was fun. Also, while I was in Corrientes I made really good friends with an ex missionary named Gabby. He served in Brazil and hes been back for 2 years now. I was talking with him one day and he told me that he baptized EVERY WEEK of his mission. Its given that it is Brazil and they baptize insanely.. but that is still really impressive. He told me that the secret is just talking to every human that you see, because God puts the prepared people in our way. So I was thinking about all of that this week and we decided to call him to see if he could come and work with us for a day so that we can learn from him. We called him and he was super excited to come help us, he came all the way out from Corrientes to be with us for one day. Well, we learned A TON from him. The lessons that we had were amazing. So that was definitely the highlight of the week, he taught us a lot about how to talk to people and how to teach to the necessites of the investigator. So that was on wednesday, and then after that all week we were in a trio, one of the missionaries here got really sick so his companion had to stay with us for 3 days. So its been a busy hectic week, we havent had a single day like to ourselves. But ive learned a lot, its been great. AND, GOOD NEWS, Sebastian and Antonela came to church on sunday. Woot!! Sebastian is 20 years old, Antonela is 15 years old. Sebastians uncle is a member that lives next door to him, so we got the reference from him and we have been teaching them for 2 weeks, and they finally came to church. I think Antonela really liked it, she made a lot of good friends and she looked really happy. They are golden, its just that they live together, so they cant get baptized. Theyll probably have to stop living together if they want to get baptized. Thats argentina for ya. 

We had a cool experience this week. On tuesday night we were planning for the next day and we didnt have anyone to visit. So we decided that we were just going to put the name of a street down and we were going to talk to every person we see until we find the person that God is preparing for us. So we put down the street Mendoza and we prayed to God to help us find the person. We went there, we knocked the first door, and out comes a man from the family grocery store next door, and calls us over. So we go over, and he says that thats his house, and this grocery store next door is his family business. And then a guy comes out that was his uncle, who is a member from the zone below us whose daughter served a mission and is a super faithful member. So we started talking, and this guy that we found is awesome. Super prepared. And then we had a lesson with him on saturday night and it was amazing. His name is Eduardo. He didnt come to church but he has a lot of potential. So that was just a cool little miracle for us, a true evidence that God is watching over us and will prepare the way for us if we just talk with everyone. 

This coming week should be really good, I will be doing divisions with Elder Johnson from Las Palmas, another small town an hour away from Resistencia. Things are going great. I hope that you are doing well, thank you for your emails and support!

Elder Miles

Old friends

Enrique

Oct 5th, 2015

Friends and Fam!

I hope you are all doing well. This week was pretty great for us. I am loving being in Resistencia and I love being with Elder Miles, its probably the happiest that I have ever been on my mission, we have a lot of fun together and we work hard. This week I did my first divisions as a ZL with Elder Grover, we stayed in my area. It went really well, Elder Grover is a great missionary. To explain a little bit more the zone that I am in, we are the biggest zone in the mission, but thats because technically all the secretaries and the asistants to President Franco are all in my zone, even though they almost never leave the office because they are always working nor do they come to zone meetings. So my zone consists of us, (Rio Negro 1), Hermana Phister and Hermana Neville (Rio Negro 3), Hermana Valdarrama and Hermana Smith (Barrio 2 north), Elder Ware and Elder Webster (La Leonesa), Elder Johnson and Elder Porter (Las palmas) and Elder Da Silva and Elder Grover (Barrio 1). We are all from the United States except Hermana Valdarrama (Peru) and Elder Da Silva (Brazil) and Elder Webster (Canada). La Leonesa and Las palmas are little tiny towns outside of Resistencia, and Barrio 1 and Barrio 2 are the center downtown of Resistencia. The rest of us are like on the outskirts of Resistencia. And then we have 6 missionaries from the office that are technically in our zone. It is a great zone, I am so happy to be here. All the missions here work super hard. This week on Friday we had a Meet The Mormons activity here in Rio Negro, its was like the same exact thing we did in Armenia but here in Rio Negro. We didnt have almost anybody come that wasnt a member, so that wasnt very successful again. On thursday and wednesday we went to the big Resistencia plazas to give out invitations to Meet The Mormons, that was super fun to contact in the plazas, it was definitely a fun change of rutine. But alas, nobody came to the activity. Then we had general conference this weekend (Wooooo!! Christmas for missionaries). I cant believe ive already been here for three general conferences, that means that I only have one left. It was way fun, in our chapel the secretaries made a "gringo room" where they played the general conference in english for us gringos. In between the second session and priesthood session on saturday we all went to subway in Resistencia, it reminded me of how we always go out to eat after priesthood session in the USA. I had a lot of spiritual experiences with conference, I learned a ton, and it was a great 2 day break for the shoes. I will talk about my favorite conferences talks later on in the email. All of the members from Barranqueras came to my church to watch conference, so I got to see and talk with all of my old friends from a year ago. That was way fun. The very best part was seeing Enrique!! Do you guys remember Enrique?? My first baptism in Barranqueras? Hes the one that didnt want to quit Marijuana. Well, I see him at conference, and I was pleased to find out that he is the new ward secretary for Barranqueras. Called it! He is awesome. I could really see that the church has greatly changed his life.. He is more calm, he understands more his purpose, he has better unity with his wife. It was great for me to see him. Today for P day we had our zone activity, all of the male missionaries in our zone we got together at the church and we played basketball and football together. It was pretty fun, and after we all went to subway. Every month every zone has a zone activity, girls and boys seperated. Later today after P day I will be traveling to Las Palmas with Elder Webster for divisions today and tomorrow. Las Palmas is a really poor place like 40 minutes away, it should be great. Elder Webster has like 8 weeks in the mission. This week in our area, Elder Miles and I had a lot of success in finding prepared people. We are still working with Sebastian and Antonela from last week, they are GOLDEN, but we just cant seem to get them to go to church. I know if they would just come to church they would know that it is the true church, but every week they fail us. We are going to keep working with them. We also found this week a 23 year old single mom named Romina. She is super prepared as well, just said that she knows that God sent us to help her in her life. She is really sincere with us and she wants to know if this is the true church. She is reading the Book of Mormon and praying. She unfortunately didnt come to church either this week, but she has a lot of potential. Aside from that, Elder Miles and I are contacting a lot and we are just trying to give it everything we got. I am super happy here, I love it. 

So I had a lot of favorite talks this conference. I loved the very first two talk by Uchdorf and Ballard, how they were both centered in living the gospel of Jesus Christ and becoming more like him, or in other words, discipleship. I love with all my heart the plainness of the gospel, it makes life beautiful. Life is more beaufiful with a divine purpose like the gospel. I also know that the fulness of this gospel was restored by Joseph Smith, like how Elder Ballard said. I loved Elder Hollands talk about mothers, and I really am truly grateful that my dear mom bore me and carried me and gave me life, just like my savior Jesus Christ did when he bore my sins and suffered for me. They both are the two most important people in my life. I loved how a lot of the talks were about standing strong in the faith, and always striving to achieve more faith through obedience to the gospel. If there is something that I want to learn more in my mission, its to have sound standing faith. I want to have complete confidence in God. I like how Elder Uchtdorf said something along the lines of "With great power comes great responsbility", thus making Spiderman now doctrine. I loved Elder Eyrings talk in priesthood session when he talked about how the Lord adds his power to your faith. Thats something I want to apply more because I want to talk with EVERYONE, and I know that if I can just get up the courage to talk with them and strike a conversation, the Lord will add his power to my efforts. I loved what he said when he said "Our authority IS OUR COURAGE". I want to have more courage knowing that I am a representative of Jesus Christ, my calling is above that of all the earth. I want to be bold. I want to do everything I can to bring people unto Christ. Above all, I think I liked very most James Martinos talk about the importance of REMEMBERING. Because I think that is the most important aspect of the gospel.. remembering the tender merices of the lord and all the blessings that he has given us. If we always remember, we will always obey. Thats the difference between Nephi and Laman. Thats the difference between being a good missionary and a great missionary, is that the great missionary remembers WHY he is here and what is the motivating factor.. Christ. I want to be more humble and diligent. I hope you all could watch a little conference and enjoy some of the truths as I did!

Well that was my week, I am doing super great here. I hope that you all have a great week! Thank you for your emails and support. 

Elder Miles