Mid-Week Update

(Courtney wrote a hand-written letter to us to be posted on her blog this week.  Here it is!)

Sorry about Monday; I slightly lost track of time while writing my letters.  Anyway, I wish there was more to report this week, but we had a lot of just weird things, and first lessons.  

Our miracle of the week is this lady named A.  We got her as a referral from the elders, who met her while they were out with a member who happened to speak Spanish. (the Elders are English)  She came up to them and started talking.  Of course when they gave us the referral, they couldn't really give us very much information; only what little the member could tell them from what he understood, and that we had an appointment with her the next day at three.  

We showed up, and I don't think anyone has ever been so excited to see missionaries on their doorstep.  She invited us in, and there was absolutely nothing  in the apartment.  Right away she started talking about how she wanted to pay tithing and how she wanted to feed the missionaries, and asking how she could give service in the branch.  Meanwhile, we stood in her empty apartment, completely confused.  Upon talking more, we found out that she had just moved here from Utah with her 6 month old son, and she is 4 months pregnant with another one!  She said "Oh yes, I am a member, I am just not baptized yet.  The father of my kids wouldn't let me."  4 out of her 6 sisters are members, and she has been going to church with her family in Utah for the last 4 months.  We aren't quite sure what her history with the missionaries is, but we are so optimistic for her.  She asked to come to church before we could even ask her, and she came yesterday.  Everyone loved her, and her son, Kevin.  He is so stinking cute!

We are so optimistic for her,and hope everything works out.  She has absolutely nothing, no furniture or anything, so we are working with the branch on that.  We have a table, couch, and bed lined up for her, so that's great.  We have an appointment with her tomorrow, and are planning on setting up a baptismal date.

It has been a good week.  Lots of little things.  I am so grateful for my area and my Hermanas.  Heavenly Father truly knew what I needed.

My challenge for you this week is to read/watch (preferably watch) Elder Holland's talk from a few years back on the Book of Mormon; the one where he basically just bore a testimony.  Watch it.  I have seen a couple of clips this week.  It is so good.  Also a good passage to read is the Bible Dictionary, under "Miracles." (preferably the 2013 edition).  So good!  It is our zone's scripture of the week this week.

Also, one of my favorite quotes this week comes from this month's Ensign.  It says "If our hearts are in the right place, then service will become a part of who we are, and not just what we do."  I love it because it is just so simple.  It goes along with one of my favorite scriptures; 3 Nephi 27:27, where Christ says "...Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be?  Verily I say unto you, even as I am."  As we go about our lives, every question we have can be answered in the question, "Is it helping me to become more like Christ?"  At the end of the day, that is all that really matters.

I love you guys lots.  It is hard not being able to be there for Bri right now, and having to miss John's funeral, but I know that there are people here who need me as well.  I am so glad for our family being sealed, and the knowledge we have of what happens after this life.  It really just keeps everything in perspective.  

I love you all, and will email you on Monday!

Courtney

Update: Since writing, we moved a couch, TV, entertainment center, table and chairs, and recliner into A.'s apartment.  people in the church are amazing!  Now we just need a bed.  Life is good!  :)

A Very Quick Update--More to come

Hey everyone!

I am out of time for today! Just know that I am not dead, and everything is beyond great! I can truly see the hand of Heavenly Father in our work. I will send a blog post in the mail to my mom and she can type it up and post it later this week.

Love you all

Hna Miller

Paso Robles

Happy March from California Everyone! What a crazy week it has been!

It was really hard to leave everyone at the MTC, but know that all of our adventures will be amazing. We took some fun pictures on Sunday night, so here those are....

Noe, our favorite guy at the Comedor

District 10c

The entire zone

I am loving California though. I am serving right now in Paso Robles California, all the way on the northern most border of the mission. It is wine country up here and absolutely gorgeous. It has rained here every day since I arrived though, but after six weeks of straight sun, it is kind of nice. My companion is Hermana Martin, and she is absolutely great. We get along wonderfully, and she is a great trainer. I have learned so much just these last few days I have been here. We serve in the Paso Robles 3rd Spanish Branch (which is slightly ironic seeing that it is the only Spanish branch in the stake. Oh well!) We serve in the northern half of the stake, and our area goes to San Miguel and Shandon, if anyone knows the area or cares to google it. We live with two other Hermanas, Hermana Corniea and Hermana Rubow who serve in the southern half of the stake. I love them all so much. We have so much fun together, while also getting so much done. I could not have asked for a better group of girls for my first area. 

Hermana Martin

Love it here!

Our first dinner in the mission. Love it!

The branch around here is so awesome. There are only about 38 members with records in the branch, and so on a good Sunday there are around 20. It reminds me so much of the Kaw River ward, and it just makes me so happy. The members are so welcoming and friendly, and put up with my fairly broken Spanish quite well. :)

I guess I can talk about what we are doing out here. Every day we do the typical teaching and other stuff you would guess come with missionary work. I am also working with Hermana Martin on my 12 week training program, so that is another hour of my day. On top of that we usually try and have something else every day of the week for a few hours. We go to the Food Bank on Tuesdays, go to a Soup Kitchen on Wednesdays, have District meeting on Fridays, and alternate what we do on Saturdays. Obviously Sundays we have a full schedule with meetings, and then on Mondays it is P-day. I am blessed in every way. Mostly with Target, Walmart, In and Out Burger, and 7-11. I am a little bit spoiled. I love it. 

Quality can at the food bank

One quick fun story from the week. On Saturday, we were up in San Miguel visiting some people, and were walking back to where we parked the car, and it started POURING rain, We ducked under the overhang on someones garage to keep dry. They saw us out there, and let us in until the rain calmed down. We talked for a bit and headed back to the car and headed home. About an hour later, I realized my glasses were missing. We went back, because I knew I had taken them off in their house to let them dry off, and figured I must have left them. However, they weren't there. I was slightly worried, becasue I didn't know where else they could be. Well the puddles were starting to go down, and well.... you can see the pictures.

Do you see them?

Glasses

They fell out of my bag on the way back to the car. I was lucky nothing else happened. 

I have a few more pictures, but I have to run. Hopefully there will be more next week. 

Love you all and thank you for your love, support, and prayers.

Hermana Miller! 

Bonus Update!

Hey everyone! This is officially my last post from Mexico. I am so not ready to leave this place. Especially the people. It went by way too fast, and I am going to miss everything! I am super ready to get out into the field though. I will write as soon as I can once I get to California, but I have no idea when that will be. 

Looking back on these past six weeks, I can truly see how blessed I have been. I got the most amazing zone in the whole CCM, and if you don't believe me, then I have plenty of pictures and videos to prove you wrong. I have learned so much about the gospel, and so much about myself as well. I am so beyond amazed at how much I have had happen in the last six weeks, and how much I have progressed. Firstly, I can kind of half way speak Spanish now, so that is kind of exciting. I will have a lot to learn the first few weeks in California though.

I am going to miss this girl so freaking much. She is kind of my favorite.

I really wish I had more to say, but it has only been about two days since I last e-mailed and not a lot exciting has happened. We had In-Field orientation yesterday, so that was something different. Boring, but different. We took pictures with our teachers today, so I have some of those. 

Eyre and me with Muñoz

This seems about right.

Our district with Hermano Muñoz

Our district with Hermano Matias

Tonight is the coveted and long lasting tradition of zone 10: The frisbee lord ceremony. Basically there are no frisbees in the CCM, and someone from a zone a long time ago brought one and they have passed it down through the ages. (Ages being a relative term since this place has really only been open less than a year.) Entonces, the person who holds on to the frisbee is the frisbee lord, and right now that person is Elder Arnell from my district. Since we are leaving it is time to pass it down. We have this whole thing worked out, so I am hoping to have some fun pictures of that the next time I e-mail.

Welcome to our zone. I promise we are productive. Kind of.

Our lei that we gave to Hermano Muñoz. (Lei courtesy of Hermana Te'o)

Other than that it is time for me to peace out of Mexico. As much as I have loved it here, my time has come. All I know is that if every six weeks is as awesome as these last six weeks my mission will be the best thing of my entire life.

I am so grateful for this gospel, and the opportunity I have to be on this amazing experience. I love every minute I have, and can't wait to see what is in store in California. 

USA Here I Come!

Mucho Amor A Todos

Hermana Miller

Final Report from Mexico

Happy Thursday everyone! It is so crazy how fast these past 6 weeks have passed. I leave (really freakishly) early on Monday morning for California! I have officially come to the conclusion that the worst thing any one can ever do to a missionary is to give them a freaking awesome companion for six weeks, have you spend 24 hours a day together, so you get super close, and then send said companion to Ecuador. Same with the rest of my district. I am going to miss these kids like crazy, but at the end of the day, I have to remember that we are all going to where we need to be.

Boredom often leads to really weird things. Like Elder Gorman sitting on top of the cupboards. Oh wait, that's not weird, that's just Elder Gorman.

"And on Wednesdays, we wear PINK!"

One really fun thing this week was our weekly service project. We got to work in the kitchen this time. When we walked in they were playing ABBA, and it took then a while to realize they should turn it off. Anyone who knows my family will understand why that was so awesome. Hermana Te'o and I were definitely jamming hard. That night too, there was one of the legendary parties on the hill. (Outside the CCM) In case I have not already talked about these, they can easily last until about three or four in the morning, and they can blast their music unlike anyone else I have ever met. Entonces, Saturday night, around 10 o'clock they started blasting the Beatles. I have no idea how long it went on for, all I know is we had a small dance party. And by small I mean as big as you can get for four girls at 10 at night. It was a quality way to fall asleep.

Another thing that tends to happen when boredom sets in. Drawings. Next week I will have to send some pictures of what is currently on our board.

How Hermana Te'o plays volleyball

How I play volleyball. :)

I know I have used the phrase awesome way too many times in this post already, but it is because it has just been that kind of week. By far one of the biggest highlights was the package from Daniel De La O Roa('s mom, but details.) It is seriously the best thing ever. The whole box was filled with flipping awesome flavored marshmallows (actually my new favorite things ever) and my favorite Kinder chocolate cakes. It made my whole week a little bit brighter. Needless to say that in the next 3 days before I leave, I  will probably gain at least 10 lbs in marshmallow weight. A lesson learned the hard (and extremely hilarious) way was to not let a bunch of 18-20 year old boys (or me, or Hermana Eyre, or Te'o, or Welch, okay so really all of us) see a whole gigantic box of bags of marshmallows. We might have possibly kind of played marshmallow dodge ball from our desks yesterday for a solid 20 minutes. Then Elders Tingey and Arnell decided that eating one marshmallow at a time was for the weak. In case you weren't sure where this was going, pictures are enclosed.

Sweet note from Daniel's mom. :)

This is pure joy.

Cuties.

To those who have known me through my struggles of learning Spanish, you know I can not in any way shape or form roll my R's. Well after weeks on end of straight practicing, I can finally do it! Kind of. Sort of. Sometimes. But still. It is exciting!

Wish there was a little bit more to report this week, but things are all starting to wind down before we leave. We all started packing a little bit today, and tomorrow is In-Field Orientation all day, so at least that will add some variety to our schedule. Other than that, our free time for the next few days will be spent weighing baggage, moving stuff around, and saying goodbyes.This Sunday I am accompanying some girls who are singing a musical number for the devotional, so that is another fun little part of the week. 

I am not sure exactly when I will get to write next. It could be before I leave, or not until I get to California, but only time will tell. If this is my last post from Mexico, I just have to say how much I absolutely love it here. This place is amazing, the people are amazing, and I would not have traded these last 6 weeks for the world. I can not wait to see what else lays in store for me these next 17 or so months, but I know that if they are anything like these last six weeks, it will go by way too fast.

Can't wait to see what is next!

Hermana Courtney Miller

Almost Done!

Happy (Almost) Valentines day everybody!

Wish I had more to report this week, but this week has been quite routine at best.

To those who have known me for an extended period of time, know that I can get quite legendary end of January beginning of February colds. I thought I had escaped this year, only to just have it pushed back a couple of weeks. So that has been fun. But I do have to say, I am not sure what exactly they put in the medicine here in Mexico, but I do know, everything gets really fun about an hour after you take it! Haha

We did have the dedication on Sunday. It was absolutely amazing. I got to sing in the choir, which was an amazing experience. We had Bishop Davis from the presiding bishopric, President Christensen from the presidency of the seventy, and Elder Oaks. It was amazing to hear all they had to say, and it was one of those meetings that I just felt like everything was meant for me. I loved one thing from Elder Oaks in particular. He was talking about the purpose of a dedication, and how it is meant literally to set apart for a purpose. He then talked about how in a dedicatory prayer there are two purposes, to sanctify and consecrate, and to evoke blessings. To me it really made me think about if I am fully dedicating myself. I think we can all take the challenge to fully dedicate ourselves more in our lives, no matter what we are doing. (And cheesy missionary moment over. Thank you for indulging me.)

Other than that, distrito 10B left this week, making us the Father District in the zone. I don't feel like I have been here long enough for that, but I am starting to get all of my travel information for leaving, so it looks like whether I like it or not, they are kicking me out of here in about a week and a half. It is crazy how time flies!

Hermana Eyre and I started a new tradition this week. We call it "And on Wednesdays, we wear PINK!" Props to anyone who catches that movie reference. Of course we didn't think to document this in any way. Oh well! It was still a lot of fun! All of the girls from our zone were all decked out yesterday.

This week I learned that true joy lies in tamales for breakfast, and enchiladas for lunch. Especially when they had told you they ran out, and then about two minutes later, our favorite person in the whole world (Noé) comes out with two plates of them for Hermana Eyre and I. It made my day.

Probably the best dinner yet at the CCM. Curly fries. (Okay so there might have been other stuff, but our table just kept going back for more fries. It was like manna in the wilderness.)

You might be from Utah when.... You make your own fry sauce at the comedor. (However, props to the Elders for actually making some pretty decent fry sauce.)

I am currently accompanying some girls who are singing for next weeks devotional, so it has been really nice to be able to take some time every day to sit down and play the piano, even if it is just for a few minutes. I love the break from the routine, and love getting to just sit down and play. It is so much fun!

I wish I had a lot of pictures to make up for the lack of real news this week, but why would things be that easy? There are some from volleyball last P-Day, and the beauty here. Then some other just random shenanigans. Next week will be my last P-Day at the CCM, so hopefully there will be a whole lot more to report. 

Volleyball! The group

  Hermana Hill serving

Tingey just being Tingey

Love you all, and talk to you next week!

Casual. 10B girls modeling.

This is what we call a Castidad Slap. Elder Cook thought Elder Warburton was being too flirty, so he slapped him. (I wish I had more explanation, but I think trying to look into it any further would put far too much substance and validation to this picture.)

Dennett's "Sermon on the Mount" 

He talked for 36 minutes about hunting while we all just sat there and listened. I wish I could say this was a rare occasion.

Halfway Mark at the CCM! Trip to the Temple and Shout Out to Daniel

What is up everybody?!

Everything is superb here in Mexico. And also nice and warm and sunny to all of those reading from the state of Kansas. I just saw all the pictures, so of course I had to go and stand outside for a minute in my short sleeve shirt and flip flops. 

Nothing out of the ordinary or horrendously exciting this week happened. However, on Sunday Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve, as well as one of the members of the 70 and someone from the presiding bishopric will be here do dedicate the CCM. (To all of those reading who have no idea what any of those terms mean, feel free to look them up on mormon.org, but basically they are all in the leadership of the church, and it will be a wonderful opportunity to have them here. :) So I am hoping I will have some fun stuff to report from that. I am singing in the choir for the dedication, so I get to sit in the front row, so that will be really cool too. 

 Just a typical night of studying.  Hermana Te'o died, ;)

 Somehow and we still don't know how, during the middle of our Sunday night movie, this popped up on the screen, and it took them a good couple of minutes to get it down.  Needless to say, I laughed way harder than any human being should!

Typical Hermana Eyre and me

Other than that just a routine week at the CCM. We got the opportunity today to get to go to the Visitors Center/Temple grounds here in Mexico City so that was really neat. It is such a beautiful visitors center, I was kind of blown away. The temple was gorgeous too, but it is closed right now, so we only got to look from the outside. Hermana Eyre and I contemplated making a break for it and running across the street to get a Diet Coke, but we didn't have time. (Any who have had to spend any time with me in the last 3 years will understand the devastating nature of this statement.) But we got to take a lot of pictures, and it was nice to get off of campus for a few hours. Driving through Mexico City is always quite the experience. To any who don't fully understand what I mean, take Johnson County, or Provo, or wherever you are reading this, and imagine the EXACT OPPOSITE. It makes me realize how truly blessed I am. But it is such an amazing thing so see also. 

 Although kind of blurry, I still love this picture.  Just a cool sight to see.

 This Christus looks out over the street through huge windows, and it is an amazing sight!

 Mexico City Temple

 Hermana Eyre and me

 Te'o refuses to take a picture without her hand like this.  It's kind of the best!

Distrito 10c!

This is from the inside of the visitor's center in the hallway going to the exhibit about the church in Mexico.

They can try and put us in a bubble all they want here, but we still have our ways of staying in touch with the outside world. We had all heard the Superbowl score by 7:30 the next morning, and Hermana Eyre, having gone to school in Seattle, was beyond excited. It was classic. Our new favorite person is Noé. He works in the comedor, and loves Hermana Eyre and I because we watch more sports than most of the elders. He told me that if we get him a schedule, he will keep me updated on KU basketball scores. Like I said. He is my favorite.

On Sunday, a bunch of girls sat down in front of us for the Devotional, and one looks at me, and looks at my nametag, and then starts yelling to her whole district, "I Found Her! I found Hermana Miller!" Well you can imagine my confusion, because I had never seen these girls before. Then they said that they think that their teacher had something for me. I just started laughing and was so happy. Leave it to Daniel De La O Roa (Sorry dude, if you read this, I am aware I probably totally butchered your last name) to leave a package for me when he was down here at Christmas with one of his old mission companions who now works here. I finally got in touch with the teacher last night, and he said he would bring it to me by next Wednesday. It was the best thing ever, and I can't wait to see what is in it!

Other than that, this week has been pretty awesome! We are now half way through our time here at the CCM, and time is FLYING! I need it to slow down, because I love it here so much!

Happy February everyone!

Hermana Miller!

Elders of distrito 10c