First Week in Santa Paula

Wow! I love Santa Paula! It is such an amazing area, and there is so

much amazing work happening here! There are some awesome

investigators, and we are finding so many new people every day. I am

still trying to keep all of our investigators straight, so I don't

have a lot to report about them now. It is so neat though to see how

many of them are reading the Book of Mormon, and really want to know

more about what we have to say. I really want to start working with a

lot of Less Actives that we have in the area, but one step at a time.

There is so much Spanish work to be done here, it is a lot of fun to

see. We work in an english ward here that provides translation, and

also work with the Spanish Branch that meets in Ventura. It makes for

a lot of church on Sundays. It is fun though! I am excited to see what

happens this week.

Vogue picture. We were meeting with one of our recent converts,

Vanessa. She was silly though and jumped out of the picture the second

I took it. Punk. :) Love her though.

Just another casual Sunday. SO MUCH CHURCH.

My companions are absolutely amazing. I love Hermana Shepherd and

Hermana Clark. We get along really well, and work well together as

well. It has been a good learning experience for all of us to be in

this tri-pan. We all bring really different things to the table, but

we are learning a lot from it. We are really working on finding that

balance when we teach, and that has been a great goal. It really will

be a wonderful transfer. We come home every day just exhausted and

happy, which is an amazing feeling. I love this work!

I taught Hermana Clark and Hermana Shepherd how to make chicharrones.

It was a lot of fun! Love these two!

District Picture. (For the record, I have no idea what is going on

with Elder Moreno and Elder McKay's hands.)

The three of us are actually going to the temple this week for my birthday.Yes, I

know my birthday isn't until much later in October, but we are going

the first of the month because none of us could wait! (Plus, we are

afraid they will split up our tri-pan, and we all three want to go so

bad, so we figured the sooner the better!) I love the temple so much

though, and can't wait to get back. Womens conference this week made

us all pumped up too! I am so excited about it. With that on

Wednesday, and Conference Saturday and Sunday, it is sure to be an

amazing week!

Time is super short today, but just know I love you all. I am so happy

to be here, doing this work right now. It has been such a good start

to the transfer! Here is to another great 5 weeks!

Here are some pictures from transfer meeting on Tuesday.

Can't believe that this cutie is home now! I miss her so much. Love

you, Hermana Rubow!

I think the Felixs might be starting to be scared at how similar we

are. And how much time we spend together. Oh well! :)

Look who I found! I missed Hermana Martin!

Transfers! Elder Walker and me. (We were in Paso for two transfers

together, and now he is in Ventura.)

First Transfer Ever!

Happy Transfer Monday! So after what has been an amazing 6 months, I

am getting transferred out of Paso. I am going to be going to Santa

Paula Spanish speaking. I am so excited to start this new adventure.

It is pretty bitter sweet to be leaving Paso though. I found a lot of

comfort in Alma 37:6-7 this morning though as part of my reading. It

is by small and simple means that this work goes forward. Paso has

been great, and a lot of small and simple (and great) things have

happened. I have loved my time here, and it will always feel like a

second home to me. I am headed now to the South end of the mission,

and will be in a tri-pan with Hermana Shephard, and Hermana Clark. I

am excited to see what happens! It should be a really good transfer!

Yeah, we're cute!

Friday, we had an awesome zone conference with Elder Mahlm of the area

70. It was so amazing. We learned so much, and it was such a spiritual

meeting. The best part of the day though was seeing everyone! I got to

see Hermana Rubow and Hermana Howell, and HERMANA AH MU. I might have

cried a little bit when I saw her, but whatevs. Its cool. Obviously we

took a lot of pictures, so enjoy those.

LOOK WHO I FOUND!

Sorry I struggle when it comes to looking at cameras....

Hermana Howell

Casual--Notice the photo bomb!

Two of my favorite people in the whole world, one of which is leaving

me tomorrow. This is not okay.

This week was a good week! Hermana Jeronimo's birthday was this week,

so we had a good day Saturday. We made her breakfast, and had a really

good working day. We met some awesome people, and saw some cool

miracles. The Hermanas surprised Hermana Jeronimo with Burger King for

lunch. The only one in the area is in south Atascadero, so we could

never really get it, and she had been wanting it for a while. We had

dinner with the Arellano family, and that was a ton of fun. Hermana

Jeronimo got her face smashed into an ice cream cake. What more could

you want? Oh yeah, and there were Tamales. I love tamales. It was

great. I have pictures. When we got home, the Hermanas had decorated

her desk with a bunch of stuff the Elders had bought her. It was tons

of fun.

"I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22!"

Happy Birthday Hermana Jeronimo!

I have loved this last month I have been back. I have learned and

grown so much. Can't wait to see what will happen next.

I love you all! Go do awesome things! We literally are Christ's hands

on the earth, so look around this week, and see who you can help, in

any way!

Hermana Courtney Miller

Is It Fall Yet??

Hello all! So, yeah. This is going to be another short one. Sorry, I

spoiled you the last couple of weeks.

So good news is, I didn't totally melt. Just my nametag did. No. But

really. It was so hot on Friday that the glue that holds my nametag

onto my magnet melted, and the front fell off. Luckily I saw it

happen, and was able to stick it back on, and hold it in front of the

air conditioner in the car to get it to re-adhere, but still IT WAS SO

HOT. 112 degrees in San Miguel on Friday. I can't make this stuff up

folks. Isn't it supposed to be the seasons of scarves and boots and

crisp fall air? Oh well, I still love it here! :)

This week was fairly uneventful. Monday, after e-mails, Hermana

Jeronimo and I went to the candy store down by the park. (Yes, more

about food. I know. Oh well!) It was the happiest thing of my whole

life. No worries, pictures are included. That phrase "like a kid in a

candy store" doesn't even begin to describe how happy I was. They had

LITERALLY EVERYTHING. (Except Ritter Sports, but I guess that's okay.)

Casual Hermana Jeronimo in the front, but that candy store. I can't even.

They are constantly playing Willy Wonka on the TV on the left, so

yeah. Quality store. (Yes, that is a wall of jelly beans on the far

side.)

Oh wait. You can't see the jelly beans. Awk.

We had to get some turtles and rocky road clusters, obviously.

Okay, onto things people actually care about. Oh who are we kidding,

we all care about candy stores. Onto bigger and better things than I

suppose.

Other than being hot this week, we did have a really good week. We

were able to find a lot of new people, and really work on our teaching

skills. It was a good week of progress.

We played this game at a dinner appointment on Saturday, talking about

the Apostasy. Really though, it was just hysterical laughter. This is

how one of them turned out. :)

Alfredo came to church again yesterday, which was so awesome. It was a

great day, and he was so happy to be there. He even gave the opening

prayer in Gospel Principles. So that was super cool! Hermana Jeronimo

and I taught Relief Society as well, and it was just such an awesome

lesson. Not because of what we taught, but because of what everyone

shared, and the spirit that was there. I really love this branch. It

is really like my second home.

Anyway, it is the last week of the transfer, and I can't believe it.

We have a mission tour and zone conference this week with a memeber of

the 70, and I am really excited for that. Plus, Hermana Rubow AND

Hermana Ah Mu are going to be there. I am literally going to freak

out. I am so happy that Hermana Ah Mu is back. It is kind of

ridiculous.

Anyway, Like I said. Short.

Life is good, my friends!

Lots of love from Paso!

Hermana Courtney Miller

The Work is Moving Forward!

Hello everyone.

I was going to insert some witty comment here about how "All is Quiet

on the Western Front" But then I realized, it really isn't! The work

is moving forward, and life is great!

We had exchanges this week, and I went out and worked with Hermana

Taylor. It was such an amazing day. Not only did I learn so much, but

she really is a ton of fun to work with. We had a great day. I will

include some pictures, but I am sorry. I look ridiculous in all of

them.

Hermana Taylor and Me

 Obviously, we had to get Chipotle and Panda, and share it all!

We had a couple of really great miracles this week. We are teaching

this girl named A, who is a Senior right now. She has a really good

grasp on the gospel, and reads and studies literally EVERYTHING we

give her. It is so wonderful to see. This week we talked to her about

baptism, and she said that as she came to know a little bit more she

really wants that in her life. It was so great!

One amazing miracle really stood out to me this week. About one week

before I got here in February, the Hermanas were teaching another

investigator A, who had a baptismal date for the Saturday before

I got here. He got offended by something, however, and never came to

his baptismal interview. Hermana Schmidt and Hermana Jeronimo went on

exchanges, and found him outside of his apartment complex, which is a

miracle, because we can't go in. They talked to him, and Hermana

Schmidt was able to help him a lot. (She was one of the ones teaching

him before.) They committed him to come to church, and yesterday, he was

there! The members were so happy to see him. He had been to church SO

MANY times before, and they all remembered him. He was so welcomed,

and it was amazing. We have a return appointment with him on

Wednesday, and I am really hoping to be able to see him progress soon!

It is amazing. He is so ready to come back.

Today's blog post includes a lovely little photo series titled

"Hermanas After Dark." It is a little glimpse into life after planning,

but before 10:30 p.m. I hope you all enjoy it. It will be balanced out

with some cute pictures from Sunday in hopes of not totally scarring

you all.

"Hermanas After Dark"

Balanced out with cute Sunday pictures...

Hermana Jeronimo and Me

Hermana Costilla and me

Hermana Brown and me

Typical ;)

I hope you all are amazing.

I love you so much, and pray that all is great.

Hermana Courtney Miller

Crazy (but Good) Week!

Hello everyone! What a crazy week. I pre-apoligize for my grammar and
spelling. There is a lot to write, so I am going to be writing really
fast!

Casual car pic

Paso

Firstly, we had a zone conference this Wednesday. What an amazing day.
One thing that I really liked was President's remarks. He said, "A

trial of your faith can help you strengthen your commitment to serve

our Heavenly Father." How true that is. What an awesome week it has

been, and I know that everything that I went through really did

strengthen my desire to be a missionary. It was an amazing day.

Learned so much. We are starting this program in our mission called

"Just Serve." It is something that I am so excited about. We are going

to be doing a lot more service, and really getting to get out there

and help the people. I know that it truly is the way to be able to

best utilize our time here, and can't wait to get started.

 Our district at zone conference (well, most of it.)

A lot of squealing occurred. I love this girl so much! It was so good to see her!

Hermana Howell, Me, Hermana Jeronimo

So Thursday, we had to take this survey online at the library. Well, the internet was down, so while we were waiting on an answer from the

zone leaders on what we were supposed to do, the 5 of us went down the

street and got carmel apples at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. We

then went and ate them in the park. So naturally I have a ton of

pictures from that.

Casual

Hermana Costilla, and our giant bag of caramel apples

Saturday morning was when all crazy-ness broke loose. Right after studies, we got a call from the zone leaders telling us that Hermana

Howell was being emergency transferred to Pismo Beach, and that we

were going to have to drive her down to Arroyo Grande on Sunday

morning. So basically Saturday was a ton of crazy. There were two

things that Hermana Howell wanted to do before she left, get Jamba

Juice, and Pizza. So obvously we had to do both of those on Saturday.

I realize the amount of food pictures that I am sending home. No

regrets. 

Casual Jamba Juice

A lotta pizza!

Dropping off Hermana Howell!

Hermana Howell and me

So, Since I don't have a TIWI card yet (the card to use to log in to

be able to drive,) when we dropped off Hermana Howell, we weren't

going to be able to drive. So the Quote of the week goes to my Zone

Leader, Elder Atkin, who said, "I can't believe I am going to say

this, but you have permission to unplug TIWI." We couldn't figure it

out, so an Arroyo Grande Elder did it for us. Obviously we took pictures.

Anyway. So now it is just me and Hermana Jeronimo chillin'

like villans here in Paso Robles. She was being back up trained by

Hermana Howell, so now I am back-up-back-up training her. It is so

crazy. I am so grateful she is such an amazing missionary. She is

teaching me so much. We are working on speaking all Spanish, all the

time, and it is helping me so much. 

Hermana Jeronimo and me

I am so excited to see what will

happen these last few weeks of this transfer. I am so grateful to know

that Heavenly Father truly has a plan for me, because otherwise, this

could all be really crazy. I will send a lot of pictures.

I love you all.

Stay awesome.

Hermana Courtney Miller

Paso Robles Take 2

Wow! Can not believe I am here writing you again from the great State

of California. What a crazy week it has been. I can not believe I only

got my call to tell me I was coming back a week ago today. Time flies! It

has been really strange talking about things from home that only

happened a week ago.

So, as some of you might have heard, I am serving back here in Paso

Robles! President and Sister Felix picked me up from the airport, and

when they told me I was coming back here, I might have squealed, just

a little bit. I tried to keep it somewhat under control though,

President and Sister Felix don't need to know just HOW crazy I am

right from the start, right? Anyway, I freaked out. I was so happy to

get to come back. It was really hard to leave, and to get another

chance to come back is more than I could have ever asked for. We drove

up from Santa Barbra, and met up with everyone at Wednesday's Zone

Meeting.

On the way, we stopped at "Old West Sticky Buns" in Pismo Beach and

got some amazing cinnamon rolls. Picture attached. They were amazing!

When we left, we went down this street to turn around, and I got as

close to the beach as I probably will ever be on my mission!

Thanks for the walnut roll, President Felix.  It was absolutely amazing!

Pismo Beach.  The closest I will ever get to the actual beach during my mission.  It was gorgeous!

It was really neat to get to drive up with the Felix's. I got to

know them, and hear more about all the awesome things that are going

on in the mission. It was a really neat chance to be able to catch up,

and not feel left behind now that I am the newbie!

We have zone conference Wednesday, and we are going to Santa Maria for

that. I am so excited. I know that at least Hermana Rubow will be

there, I haven't told her that I am here in Paso, I am going to

surprise her. I can't wait for that! It is going to be awesome. I love

Zone Conferences, and can't believe my luck in getting to be back for

that. I hope to have some awesome things to share from that next week.

I am serving in a tri-pan with Hermana Howell, and Hermana Jeronimo.

They are both so amazing! I love working with them a lot. We get a LOT

done, and have fun while we are doing it. It is great. We also live

with Hermana Costillo and Hermana Brown, and they are both a blast

too. I have been blessed with such great companions and apartment

mates since I have been a missionary. It is wonderful. I have a

feeling this will be an amazing transfer. Hermana Jeronimo and Hermana

Costillo are both native speakers, and I have really been pushing

myself to use more Spanish, especially with them. I can already see my

Spanish getting better, I can't wait to see what happens next.

There are still a couple of missionaries from the zone that are still

here from when I was, but it is a lot of new faces. There was a lot of

amazing work done in our area while I was gone, and it is so neat to

come back and see all of that. I have gotten to see a lot of people

that I knew from before, and that was great! It has really been a

testimony builder for me, that this is where I need to be, and that

there is work here for me to do. It was a little hard at first getting

thrown into something SO familiar, yet that had changed so much, but I

am absolutely loving it now. Things might be different, but the work

of the Lord is still the same, and that will always be the constant.

I really feel like I am back in my second home. It is so amazing. I

have such a love for Paso Robles, and everything here. I am so glad to

be back. This is going to be a great transfer!

Love you all,

Hermana Courtney Miller

I'm Baaacckk!

Why hello there, everyone!

I promise I didn't forget about the blog, I really am just that bad at keeping things updated.

So, first, the quick version of my last 2 months:

I found out I had gallstones. I had my gallbladder removed. I am leaving early tomorrow morning to go back to the Great California Ventura Mission.

(Like I said, quick version.)

Now, onto the fun stuff.

So, for the first bit of being home my life was a seemingly endless string of doctors appointments, dead ends, and not a lot of anything else. It took us a couple of weeks (and quite a few tests) to be able to determine that I had gallstones. Now, any normal sane person my age, when a doctor told them they had gallstones, would think, "Gallstones? But I am only 20! How can this be? Oh, no! This is horrible!" You all should know me well enough to know I am not a normal sane person. I was actually slightly giddy at the diagnosis, all smiles, and giggles, and just generally happy. I was just so glad to know what was going on, and to know that, as far as medical problems go, it was a pretty easy fix. A quick surgery, easy recovery, and back at 'em pretty fast. 

I was able to have the surgery about a week or so later. All things went well, and according to planned. One fun story I figure you all will appreciate: when I woke up from the anesthesia, I could only think or speak in Spanish. If you want to see a really confused nurse, come out of anesthesia speaking a language that no where on your file it says you speak. (She double checked just to be sure though, no worries.) I still get a kick out of that when I think about it. Once I was able to get my brain switched back to English, it was all smooth sailing once again. I was actually able to go home the same night, and it was pretty smooth sailing from then on. 

One cool thing that happened while I was home was that one of my best friends, the wonderful Marissa Albrechtsen (now Fryer: spoiler alert) got married. It was so wonderful to get to be home and to be able to be a part of that. Marissa and I have known each other since we were about two, and our families have pretty much been inseparable since then. I couldn't imagine not being here for her big day, and so when I knew I was coming home, and would be here for the wedding, I can't lie, it was a HUGE plus. She was married about a week after my surgery, so I was back to feeling well, and was able to have a fun weekend with everyone, and it was just such a blessing (and absolutely perfect timing!)

After the wedding, it has just been a waiting game. I had to be "fully" recovered before I could come back, meaning I had to be able to walk a certain amount, and get a doctors note, and all that fun stuff. I was able to put in my return papers about 2 weeks ago now, and now leave in just a few short hours.

It was also great while I was home to be able to catch up with other friends and family, and to be able to spend time with my family. I love them all to pieces and it has been absolutely wonderful to get to have this time together.

This time at home really has been a blessing. I have loved every minute of it. Don't get me wrong though, I am BEYOND excited to be getting to go back to California tomorrow. I know that is where Heavenly Father wants me to be, and that amazing things await me. I am so grateful that I am able to return and finish my mission. 

I have learned so much these last two months, about who I am, and why the mission is so important to me. I am grateful for everything I have, and for the gift of the Gospel in my life. I am so excited to be back on the Lord's errand, and to be able to wear his name over my heart yet again.

California, ready or not, here I come!

Hermana Courtney Miller