Life's a Beach!

Hello Everyone!

Oxnard is doing so awesome! We are so excited for the baptism of

F. this weekend! We met with him yesterday and went over his

interview questions, and is really confident in all of his answers. He

told us that he feels so ready to be baptized, and that he can't wait.

He has realized recently how so much in his life has prepared him for

his baptism, and it has really put him at peace with everything. It is

awesome to see. We just have a couple of things left to teach him, all

of which he has learned about in church recently, so hopefully it will

be pretty smooth sailing to his baptism this weekend.

This is what happens when it gets hot and humid, and your apartment

doesn't have AC. Fans everywhere.

 My cutie companion. :)

So this week, we got to go to the beach! (Kind of. There was a baptism

on the beach in the 5th ward, and we got permission to go to the

service at a members beach house, although we didn't get to actually

go on the sand. It was still incredible, though.) Our investigators

were the first people there, they were so excited, and M. said it

was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. They are waiting to

get baptized because they can't get married due to some paperwork

problems in Mexico, and we were afraid they were losing steam about

their desire to be baptized. But the baptism on Friday refueled them,

and they are going ahead now full steam, again. We are praying and

praying that their papers will come soon, and that they will be able

to progress again towards their own baptism! It was such an incredible

night though. I got to play the piano, with a view of the beach, and

while the investigator was changing, I got to play with Hermana Huey,

who plays violin. We just jammed and made up arrangements, and had

such a fun time. It was an experience I will NEVER forget. Oxnard,

man. So many miracles. I love this place SO MUCH!. :)

Out that window you see nothing but beach. Sorry you can't see it in

the picture. But this was my view for the night. Elder Moreno joined

me, because it was standing room only. AWESOME NIGHT.

 Love her so much.

 Everyone goes to the baptism. We stay on the patio. #Obedience

There are a ton of pictures, so I need to get all of those uploaded. I

love you all, though. Have an incredible week!

Much love,

Hermana Courtney Miller

Weird Week!

Hello Everyone! Hope everyone had a great week. It has been nice and

toasty warm and humid here. (But then again, I might have just gone

soft...)

Oxnard is doing great. It was a weird week, but a good week. We were

stuck inside on Tuesday due to neither of us being able to drive

(although we got that figured out,) and us not living in our area, and

then Saturday Hermana Garza and I had a 24 hour stomach flu (I don't

know what it is about Oxnard and the Stomach flu... Starting to get

suspicious), so it was an interesting week through and through. 

We got sick. The Elders got us flowers. So tender.

But the rest of the week was so awesome. We kind of inadvertently worked

with a lot of LARCs (Less Active/Recent Converts) this week, which was awesome. There are so many

less actives in this area, and the ward really wants to focus on

reactivation, and retention. We are continuing forward working on

accountability, and trying to get to know all of our LARCs that are in

our book. We had a really cool miracle last night with one of our

LARCs. He was someone we had tried to contact multiple times, and we

decided last night that he would be our "one last person" before we

went in. We finally found him at home, and he is awesome! We found out

that he has been a member for about 4 years, but went inactive when a

members son from the other ward went on a mission (they were best

friends.) He said he was interested in meeting up with the YSA elders,

and was going to try and get in contact with his friends family. (We

were sure to tell him where he could find them every Sunday morning

around 9:00!) But we got in contact with the 5th ward elders last

night, and found out that that son should be getting home in about 10

days, and that ward is going to try and reach out to him to get him to

the homecoming. AWESOME! We are super excited for him. We are also

still working with F. He has a baptismal date right now for the

1st of August, and he is so excited to work towards that date. He is

someone who has truly taken ownership of his date, and is progressing

so well. He really liked church yesterday, and loved the youth class

on temples. The members have really taken him under their wing, and

are fellowshipping SO WELL. It is helping him so much. It makes me so

happy!

Hermana Garza is great. I love working with her so much. She inspires

me to be my best, and we work our hardest every day. She has some

great ideas for finding new investigators that are fun and different,

that we are going to try and implement soon, and I am so excited to

see where this work goes. It is going to be an awesome transfer. I

love her so much!

I am so excited and happy to be a part of this great work. I love

Oxnard, I love the 6th ward, and I love being a missionary.

I hope you all have a great week! I love you lots!

Hermana Courtney Miller

Son Muchos Los Dias

First things first, transfers! I am going to be staying here in

Oxnard, with a new companion, Hermana Garza. I have heard awesome

things about her, and am so excited for our adventure together.

Had lunch with some members this week at Toppers Pizza. By the harbor.

Talk about awesome. (This is as close to the harbor as I will be

getting any time soon.)

Oxnard is doing so awesome. We spent a lot of this week working on

accountability (aka tracking down all of the people on our ward

roster.) Fun fact: Most of the people on the roster that don't attend

church have moved. Another fun fact: That creates for an awesome

finding opportunity. We have a lot left to go, and I am excited to see

what happens. This week, though, we did have to move back a baptismal

date for one of our investigators, F. He had a camp this weekend,

and was out of town, and couldn't come to church. He is still really

excited about getting baptized, though, and was sad we had to move the

date, but is willing to do whatever he needs to to get baptized. Go

him! He is really helping out his Recent Convert brother, as well.

They are reading together, and praying together, and both of them are

so excited about the gospel. It is so neat to see this family come

closer and closer together. Their mom has shown interest as well, and

we are hoping to be able to teach her, as well. Yay families!

I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve. Time is going fast (way

way way too fast. Like, "where is the giant slow it all down button?"

fast), but one of my favorite quotes is from Hermana Zarate. She would

always say, "Son Muchos Los Dias!" Y es verdad! We have so many days,

and we have to treat every one as the gift from our Heavenly Father

that it is. Every day is an incredible opportunity, and as we use

those opportunities to its fullest, we will have success. I am excited

to see what this transfer has in store.

Played Hungry Hungry Hippos Live last week at Zone Activity. So psycho. LOVE IT!

Bring it on.

Hermana Courtney Miller

Happy 4th!

Hellllloooo everyone! Hope the 4th was great! We had an awesome ward

picnic in the morning, which included Hermana Eames getting smashed

with a couple of water balloons. It was priceless. We had to be in by

7 that night, which was a bummer, but if you stood on the bed on the

third floor of our apartment, you could see the fireworks at Port

Hueneme. So I was happy. (Okay, I was acting like a five year old, but

that is a different story.)

#MURICA

Oxnard is great. We focused a lot on Less Actives this week, and saw a

lot of success with that. Bishop has asked us to really focus on

helping and strengthening the members, and so that will be a focus

this week. Most of our investigators were out of town or really busy

for the fourth, and the few that weren't moved out of our area this

week. These kind of weeks happen, but we are excited to hit the ground

running again this week. I am so grateful for the chance to serve here

in Oxnard, though. It is such an awesome area. The people here are so

open to our message, and are so willing to listen. It is great. Even

the people that we talk to on the street are generally willing to at

least hear some of our message, and for that I am so grateful. It has

been a good week for growing and learning more about how to most

effectively work in this area. The majority of our members live with

non-members, or have close friends who are interested in learning

more, so as we go forward working with members this week, we are

excited to see what is to come.

This week I have been studying a lot about enduring, and strength. I

think as missionaries we all have weeks where it would be easier to

just "not" or to just live under our potential, but that is not what

Heavenly Father wants us to do. I was able to find a lot of strength

in the scriptures, and Jesus The Christ this week that has helped me

to persevere, and keep going with more strength than I had before. As

I have studied more about the final days of Christ's life, and about

what he went through, I have found so much more strength and had an

increased desire to be my best every day. I am excited for the

upcoming weeks, and what they have to bring. I know we will see

miracles. They aren't always tangible, but they are always there.

I love being a missionary. I love this work. I love California.

Life is good.

Stay awesome.

Hermana Courtney Miller