Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope everyone has an awesome week! I can not believe how fast time is going by. I still can not believe that it is Thanksgiving. What happened to this year??

Ojai is doing great. We were blessed to have some new doors open up to us this week, as far as new areas to work in. We might have gotten *slightly* lost on Saturday (Okay horrendously lost. There was a lot of laughing and trying to find where we were on a map. Why did I ever think I could do this without a GPS?) We were trying to find a less active (who we never found, by the way,) but it worked out well, because we were able to find a couple AWESOME neighborhoods on the south edge of our area, that as far as we can tell, have not been worked in in a long time. We talked to a couple people, but are so excited to go back and work there more in the coming weeks. We were also super blessed that the Elders worked everything out, so we are now able to tract in the other half of Ojai. Before we were only allowed to go and visit people in the area book, and go to referrals from the English Elders, but now with that door having been opened, we are excited to get in there and find lots of people. 

S. is still doing great. We are really hoping that we will be able to work towards her baptism really soon. Right now, we are just waiting on a couple more things to happen. This week we are really going to be focusing on her and her husband together, and finding out if there are any ways that we can help them together. Lots of prayers are being said for both of them right now. We have pretty much finished all of the lessons with Shirley now, we just have a couple of things left from lesson 5. She is so incredible though. Last night, we were teaching about following the prophet, and she couldn't remember who Thomas S. Monson was, so Sister Longstaff pulled up a picture on her phone, and instantly S's face lit up, and she was like, "Yes! He talked at conference. I know he is a prophet. Of course I will follow him." I love her so much. I can not wait for her baptism.

We had a great zone conference this week. We talked a lot about staying "awesome" and staying true to ourselves, and then being the best we can be. It was really neat. I got to see Hermana Clark as well, and see photos from Rigoberto's baptism that happened last weekend. I was so bummed I couldn't go. It's all good though. It is always a fun day when you get that many missionaries together, though. I love it.

Other than that, there is not a ton to report this week. I can not believe it is already over. 

I know I have been slacking on the picture front, so I will try and take more this week. Promise. For now though, here are a couple fun pics from last weeks mini golf adventure with the district.

A Great, Crazy, Miracle-filled, Cold-fighting, Amazing Week.

What a week! It has been a great, crazy, miracle-filled,

cold-fighting, amazing week.

First off, Ojai. What a town. So not only is it like hippie central,

but we also found out this week about all of the celebrities that live

here. Not to brag, or anything, but I had dinner two doors down from

John Krazinski, and two streets over from Channing Tatum the other

night. I died. Just a little bit. Okay, a lot a bit. I will meet them

before I leave this town. Even if it takes my whole mission!

Okay, so now back to more focused things...

The work here is awesome. One of the Elders from our district served

here about a year ago, and this week, he and one of the Zone Leaders,

came up and worked in Ojai for a night, finding a bunch of old

investigators and contacts that had been lost over the past year. They

had some amazing success, and found us some awesome investigators, and

saw some awesome miracles, all while I was passed out sick trying to

sleep off a cold. It was so neat though, because even though we

couldn't do a lot that day, the work still went forward. Talk about a

miracle. I was so tickled about that. (Is tickled even the right word.

I don't know. Pretend like that fit.) We also saw an amazing miracle

yesterday. This man walked into church about an hour before it

started, and came right up to us. Hermana Zarate and I just happened

to be there getting some things together for the day. He told us that

he was baptized when he was stationed in Germany with the Army

probably 40 years ago, and he was really active for a long time, but

after a while, fell away, and had his records removed. He showed up

yesterday though, because some things have happened in his life, and

he wants to come back, and be re-baptized! What?! It was crazy. And

amazing. He couldn't stay for church, but we exchanged phone numbers,

and we got his address, and are going to go by tomorrow to visit him.

It was such a miracle.

Our other awesome miracle this week is S. She is the

awesome investigator I have talked about a couple of times. She is

from the Phillipines, and is totally deaf. Her husband is a returned

missionary, and can barely hear, and mostly relies on signing. So this

week, we went over, and took them a "Stories of the Book Of Mormon"

book, for Shirley. Since English is not her first language, it was

easier for her to understand. Last night, we went over, and not only

had she read the chapters we had assigned her, and explained them to

us in detail, she said that wasn't enough, and started reading from

the beginning. She is so amazing. She is going to be baptized here

really soon, we are just waiting for a couple more things to fall into

place first. I am so excited for her. She is one of my favorite people

in the world. I love her so much. I am so happy to get to be part of

her life right now.

So you see what I am saying.... AWESOME WEEK!

One of the ladies we are doing service for this week kept quoting a

Psalm, that I think perfectly applies to how I am feeling right now:

"My cup runneth over." It is so true. I feel so blessed this week, and

am loving this work. It has been such an incredible week.

I love you all. Stay awesome.

Hermana Courtney Miller

I Live in Paradise!

This has been a great first week here in Ojai. The area is great!

There are so many awesome people here. It really is a fun area. Super

quirky too. Hippies for days.

I live in Paradise. Enough said.

We have some awesome investigators, and I am excited to be working

with them. One of our investigators, S., is absolutely amazing.

She is deaf, and her husband can barely hear, so sometimes

communicating with them can be a struggle, but through the spirit all

things are possible. Her husband is a member, and a returned

missionary, so he has been able to really help us, and make sure that

she is understanding what we are teaching. We are looking into maybe

learning a little bit of ASL to be able to help her learn, but we will

see. That might just be getting a little too crazy. We will have to

see. But anyway, last night we went over, and they told us that they

had prayed about the baptismal date that we had committed her to,

November 22. They said that they had gotten an answer, and that

Shirley was ready to go forward with that day. We are excited to work

with her towards that date, and for her to be able to be baptized. It

is something that she wants so much in her life, and I am so grateful

to be a part of her journey. I am so happy to be here, with her, to

help her make these first steps in her journey towards our Heavenly

Father. She is so much fun to be teaching.

Hermana Zarate is great. I am loving serving with her. She is a super

fun missionary, and a hard worker too. That is my favorite

combination. :) We are going to have an awesome transfer. I can

already tell. Plus she kills the spiders that apparently love to crawl

all over me. It is a win-win situation. (Yes, this is a situation we

have been in more than once.)

Hermana Zarate and me

I love this work, and I love this area. It really is a great time to

be a missionary.

The district

I am so sorry this is such a short post, but hey, it's something. I

hope to have more to report soon. I love you all!

Hermana Courtney Miller

Awkard pictures for days. (Last P-day in Santa Paula)

Is It Transfers Already?!

Wow. I can't believe how fast these last 6 weeks have gone. It is time

for transfers already! I am going to be "back up training" Hermana

Zarate, in Ojai. For those of you, like me, who before living here had

no idea where that was, it is only about 20 minutes north of where I

currently am in Santa Paula. It will be such an amazing experience. I

am staying here in the same Stake and Zone, too, which I am super

excited about.

Us with our Ward Mission Leader "Master Sargent Ennis" (He gave

himself that name.)

So Monday, I got a WRETCHED hair cut, which then resulted in an

AWESOME member hooking us up with her friend who owns a Salon here in

town who totally fixed my hair on Tuesday. It was a blast. Back to

short hair again, for now at least!

My short hair!

Halloween was awesome! We got to do a lot of service here at the local

community center helping them set up for their activity, and went to

the Ward Trunk-or-treat that night. It was a blast. Great Day.

Our Halloween service. We still have blisters from tying all those balloons!

The Elders halloween costume and trunk!

An awesome pumpkin from the Trunk-or-treat. It is Lehi's dream from 1

Nephi chapter 8. Hermana Shepherd ended up with it after a drawing and

a little bit of loving threats from the other missionaries.

Trunk-or-treat with the glow-headbands Mom sent

So, as all of you know California has been in a huge draught. All

transfer, we have been praying for rain in every prayer. (Which is a

LOT of prayers.) But guess what happened Friday night? IT POURED. It

was a Halloween Miracle! (Is that a thing? Well, it is now.) Obviously

we went and played in it. It was awesome. It rained all day Saturday

too. It was great.

Playing in the rain!

Santa Paula is such a great area. I am sad to be going, but I know the

Lord puts me where I need to be when I need to be. This week, our

investigator, R., set himself with his own baptismal date for

the 15th of November. I am so excited to be able to still be in the

zone for that, and to be able to go (hopefully.) He is an amazing

investigator who is progressing a LOT. Last time we had talked he was

in Jacob 2, and now, about a month later, he is in Alma 62. Such an

amazing thing to witness. I will be praying fervently that he will

make it to his date. He is such an awesome man, and I have loved

teaching him.

I know I am probably forgetting something from this week, but I can't

think of what it is.

I love you all bunches, and hope you are all doing awesome!

Hermana Miller