It's Miller Time!

It's Miller Time! (Is that missionary appropriate? Not totally sure,

but it is how we have been answering the phone when other missionaries

call us all week!)

The struggles of trying to take pics with a tall companion are real.

What a crazy, insane, awesome, exhausting week!

This cutie left me this week! She will kick butt in Pennsylvania, though.

Elder Moser, and a baby picture of us. I will let my mom type in the rest

of the story. (If she doesn't remember, things just got really

awkward!)

**see story below**

Having all of Ojai is awesome. We have so much work to do, and so many

different people to see every day, that there is no time to be able to

stand still. We love it! Hermana Miller is so awesome. We are so

excited to work with the members here, and to help this work explode.

(More than it already is!) Some days we have felt a bit like chickens

with our heads cut off, trying to meet all of the new people, get this

apartment cleaned and set up (Nasty elders!) and trying to get

everything else done that happens in missionary work. We are loving

it!

The previous elders had managed to destroy the beds in our apartment

in just 3 transfers! So we got new ones delivered by a whole slew of

Elders. It was quite the funny sight!

 

My cutie companion, and our vegan burritos! You just have to have the

full Ojai experience! I am still not sure how I feel about cashew

cheese. I will get back to you on that one.

Hermana Miller is so fun. We have come up with all kinds of funny

slogans and nicknames this week. We are going to have an awesome

transfer. I can't wait.

Another Selfie, just because.

What happens when the elders abandon us for district lunch. (No

worries though, they came back... 30 minutes later….)

We had Stake Conference here in Ventura this weekend. It was an

awesome experience! We had to laugh though. Saturday night conference

didn't end until about 9:10. We were talking to President and Sister

Felix after, and they asked us how long it would take us to get back.

They didn't believe us when we said that it would be about 30-40

minutes. So we head out, get on the 101 only to hit some good ol'

Southern California traffic. An hour later, we rolled into our

apartment complex. It is always an adventure. Sister Felix got a good

laugh out of it the next day.

With everything going on this week, we were not able to do a lot of

service. However, we were able to help our investigator, D., as she

is getting ready to move. Sometimes it is frustrating, because it felt

like she was not appreciating what we do, and didn't have any desire

to progress. I was feeling like we had kind of hit the end of the

rope, and was praying the whole time we were there about what we

should do. At the end, right before we left, she stopped us, and just

expressed how incredibly grateful she was for everything that we were

doing, and for the love we show for her. She expressed the desire to

start taking the lessons more full time after the move, and that she

wants to better her life. Heavenly Father truly answers prayer. I was

so grateful for that experience.

Finally though, our apartment is cleaned (that only took a few HOURS)

and organized, we are all planned for the week, and ready to hit the

ground running! Ojai is such an awesome, beautiful, incredibly quirky

place. You never know what you are going to find. I love it so much. I

love being able to serve here! The work is crazy awesome, and we are

looking forward to what this transfer has to bring!

Ojai, CA. Home of hippies, tree huggers, and LOTS and LOTS of bikes.

This is the most Ojai restaurant I could think of. It was yummy

though!

"Wait, what's that" -- Caramello and Audrey

I love you all so much, and love getting to hear what you all are up

to! It sounds like everyone at home is doing great too! I love you all

so much! Keep doing awesome things!

Hermana Courtney Miller

**Mom's sidenote**

Denise and Gary Moser were some of our first 'married' friends as a newlywed couple.  When Scott was in grad school, and I was working, Denise was Courtney's sitter.  The picture Courtney is holding in the above pic was taken during that time.  It turns out, all these years later, Courtney and Mike were serving in the same mission!  They were in the same mission for exactly one year, but never met until this week, when Mike (Elder Moser) was on his way home, having completed his two years.
They had a mission Christmas activity that involved baby pictures, so I figured, what better picture to send?

No Transfer, but New Adentures

Hello all!

Well first, the part we all want to hear about... Transfers! I will be

staying here in Ojai, and Hermana Zarate will be going to Oxnard! My

new companion will be (wait for it) Hermana Miller! God really does

have a sense of humor. I am not sure how we are going to do this, but

it will be great. I am thinking maybe wearing thing 1 and thing 2

shirts all transfer. We will see. :) We are consolidating areas, too,

so instead of 2 sets of missionaries in Ojai, there will only be one,

and we will be covering the whole valley. We have both been insanely

busy lately, so these next few weeks are going to be an adventure,

trying to get everything figured out! Here we go! (p.s. even though I

am staying in Ojai, I will have a new address, you can get that from

my mom if you need it. Just a side note.)

My companion, everyone.

  

My cutie companion and I with some of our Christmas gifts :) The

things you do instead of packing…

Sometimes, Elder Jensen leaves behind his Canadian stuff, and we find it.

Other than that, this has been a pretty routine week. We have done a

TON of service, and had a few other weird things. I wish I could

remember it all right now, but I can't. I promise, I will try and get

better at this!

We did confetti eggs again this week. Always a blast!

I am excited for this new transfer and the new adventures that it will

bring. It is going to be a blast! Hopefully next week I will have a

lot of new, fun stories!

I love you all and am so grateful for all of the support and love you

show me. Time is going by so INSANELY fast! I can't believe it. I can

not wait to see what happens next!

Mi querida Hermana T. I love her so much!

The skies over Ojai

La Familia V. They are so much fun! :)

Stay awesome!

Hermana Courtney Miller

A Little Under the Weather, but Still a Good Week!

Helloo everyone!

So, I am sorry for the lameness of this post. I spent a good chunk of

my week sick with the flu/weird cold thing. So that is fun. NOT!

Hermana Zarate is about ready to run out screaming. I am doing better

now though. Modern medicine is a wonderful thing!

Alas, there is no rest for the weary, so we still worked a few days

this week. It was an awesome week too! We had a couple awesome lessons

with S, who is still doing well, and progressing. We love her so

much, she is just too cute.

Also, life lessons: When you show up for a dinner appointment in Ojai,

you never know what you are  going to get. This is this weeks

adventure! Such a gorgeous view!

I also spent some quality time playing with these crazy magnetic

things with my new best friend. He is 4. It was awesome.

It's a castle. Obviously. :)

Other than that though this week was just a lot of sleeping and

getting better. I wish there was more to report. Next week will be

better! I promise! I can't believe that it is the last week of the

transfer! These last few weeks have FLOWN by. I can't believe it. Time

will only tell what is in store for me next! Here we go!

Chipotle got deep.... I don't know how to handle it.

I love you all lots!

Stay awesome!

Hermana Courtney Miller

Miracles...and Benadryl

Hi everyone! I can't believe it is already Monday again!

I live in paradise.

The Ojai valley from the top! So pretty!

We had to scrape our car the other day.  Don't know how I feel about that.  I thought I was in California!

Ojai is awesome! We see so many insane miracles every week. I will try

and include a few. Our investigator F., is one of our miracles.

He was going to the Stake's Addiction Recovery Program meeting this

week, so we felt like we should go over the word of wisdom with him

first. He was okay with all of it, except for the coffee. It made for

a slightly awkward lesson. Nevertheless, we kept pushing on, and

finished the lesson. We always sing him a song at the end, so we did

as always, and during the song, he told us that God had spoken to his

heart, and had told him, "you idiot, you know the doctors told you to

stop drinking coffee." He took that as his sign from God that he

needed to stop. Such a cool miracle. Another miracle was last night

with Shirley. We had felt this week like we needed to review the

baptismal interview questions with her, so we went over those last

night. We were able to have a fun time, laugh a bit, and at the same

time discern what we need to review with her more. It was an awesome

experience. She is also learning right now to sign the Book of Mormon,

so she can understand it better. She is so awesome.

We had confetti eggs on New Years at District Meeting.  Here are a couple of pictures.

The Ojai elders, and a bunny.

So one fun story from this week. So, we had exchanges, and I was with

Hermana Costilla in Camarillo! It was so awesome! We had so much fun,

and got work done. That is, until dinner. Being in a new area, I

forgot to tell them that I didn't eat fish. And we got shrimp at

dinner. Don't worry, I didn't eat it! But it had been cooked with

everything else, and that still got me sick. Within 30 minutes, we

were running to Vons for Benadryl. It was awful. Sound vaguely

familiar? I swear, President is going to emergency transfer Hermana

Zarate and I. We are a wreck when it comes to allergies!

Had an awesome exchange with Hermana Costilla this week! (Pardon the

weird outfit.)

My lovely companion!!

Me. And a bunny!

Service really does open so many doors! The lady we have done a lot of

service for here in Ojai, Lys, told us this week that she would come

to church if I ever sang. So this week, when the music coordinator of

the ward called and asked if I could sing, I said yes! She came to

church yesterday, and really enjoyed it. The singing was a little

iffy. I just get so nervous. But hey! I did it!

I have loved this transfer so much. It is going by all too fast! I

love Ojai so much! I just wish time would slow down a bit!

I love you all so much!

Keep being awesome!

Hermana Courtney Miller

Happy New Year!

I pre-apologize. I was planning on a short post with a lot of

pictures. Aaaaannnnndddd, I forgot my camera. The struggle is real.

Ojai is great. Cold, but great. (We had to scrape a little bit of ice

off of our car before church yesterday. I didn't expect to encounter

that on my mission!) It has been a good, crazy, miracle filled week.

It felt like we were constantly going from one place to another, from

miracle to miracle. It has been incredible to see the Lord guide us in

his work. But, it has simultaneously left me completely brain dead.

Sorry.

New years was uneventful. We both fell asleep before 10:30. We woke up

to everyone banging pots and pans outside at midnight. That was about

it.

We had interviews with President this week, which was really nice. He

did mention how fast time was flying. That has been a crazy thing this

week. It has almost been a year since I went into the MTC. Weird.

Anyway. I warned you this would be short. I am sorry. I love you all

so much and hope you had a wonderful New Years. God Bless.

Hermana Courtney Miller

Christmas Week and Christmas Day

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a verry Merry Christmas and will

have a happy New Year! I can't believe it is almost 2015! Where did

the time go?!

Anyway, a quick report from Ojai. It was an interesting week.

Christmas Eve Tea with Lys! (Someone we have been doing service with lately!)

We found the Griswold house. Casual.

This week, we accidentally were served a casserole that had cream of

mushroom soup in it. For any that didn't read last weeks post, Hermana

Zarate is horribly allergic. But this time, since she ate the actual

mushroom (just one bite) it was way worse. We ended up spending

Christmas Eve in the ER, getting her pumped full of Bennydril. It was

rough. She then had to be on Bennydril for the next 3 days, and then

it didn't wear off until this morning, so yeah. It has been a fun

week. And Hermana Zarate doesn't remember most of it! Which is a shame

because she said some REALLY funny things. (No worries though, I wrote

them all down!) But, because of that, we had a really sleepy week,

full of, well, a lot of sleeping.

(One pic is Hermana Zarate during our Christmas District Meeting, the

other is our Crepes and movie night last night. There is only so much

you can do in an apartment with a loopy companion.)

Other than that, we had a really happy Christmas. It was a lot of fun,

and awesome to get to talk to my family!

Christmas selfie

And my AWESOME blanket from my Mom! IT is appreciated because our

apartment is FREEZING at night!!!!

Wish there was more to report, but that is about it!

I love you all!

Stay awesome, and have a good New Years!

Hermana Courtney Miller

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone has a blessed day!

Ojai is doing great. We saw so many miracles this week! We were able

to find one of our investigators that we had not been able to find for

a few weeks, and had an awesome lesson with him. We were also able to

find a couple of former investigators who seem interested, and invited

us back, so we are looking forward to working with them. Ojai is just

such an awesome area. There is so much work here. (Sometimes it is a

little hidden, but when we look for it, we are blessed an hundred

fold.) We are really excited for Christmas Eve and Christmas. We have

quick appointments set up with almost every one of our investigators

and less actives those days, and it will be great to share a part of

this wonderful holiday with them.

Went to the cross in Ventura last week with our District. It was so

much fun, and SO BEAUTIFUL.

The view from the Cross

Us and the Ojai Elders on Elder Jensens last night in the mission. He is a riot.

Hermana Zarate is doing awesome. As always. I love her so much. This

week we found out just how allergic to mushrooms she is. She has known

she was allergic since she was little, so she never eats them. We have

been given pizza with them on before, and if she picked them off it

was fine. Well this week, we were eating out with some members, and we

ordered a soup that had mushrooms in it. They were pretty easy to pick

out, so we figured, that like the pizza, she would be fine. She

wasn't. It turned in to a crazy night of going to get bennydryl, and a

pretty serious allergic reaction. It was actually pretty terrifying.

There was talk of going to the ER. The Elders came up from Ventura to

give her a blessing, which we were so grateful for. They gave her a

beautiful blessing of healing, and she instantly felt better. It was a

neat experience. She doesn't really remember anything from that night,

which is a bummer, because we had some really funny conversations. We

will just call it blackmail.

Frosting Cookies for DAYS

We had the chance this week to do a lot of service. One miracle was a

new investigator named Renee. She just moved here from Pismo beach,

where she had been investigating on and off for quite some time. We

had tried to get ahold of her mulitple times since she had gotten to

Ojai, but had never been able to find her. Wednesday, one of our

appointments fell through, so we decided to go and visit her. We had

just walked up to the door, not even knocked, when she opened the

door, and said, "I can't believe your here. I need your help. I was

just about to call you." It turned out that she had to have the last

UHAUL of her stuff unloaded that day. We were able to call the elders,

and get it all done. She was so grateful. After the Elders left, we

were able to stay for a little bit and help with some other things,

and talk a lot about religion and God. She was such a miracle. We are

going to be going back on Christmas to share a message, and we are so

excited about the potential she has. We were also able to do service

for a few other investigators, and it was so awesome to get those

opportunities to help build that trust and love. I love service!

Elder Jensen made us Perogis (sp?) for a goodbye gift. We ate them.
All. They were so flipping delicious!

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I have a lot of pictures to

send this week, so be prepared!