Goodbye Ojai...

Well friends, it would appear that my time in Ojai is over. I will be

heading south to Agoura Hills to see what awaits me there. It should

be a lot of fun! Hermana Miller is also leaving, (AKA we're white

washing out) so it has been pandemonium this weekend.

Sometimes, you just have to take Artsy pictures in a field of flowers

Oh, Ojai, how I will miss you.

Ojai is great. I am sad to leave, but know that the Lord has good

things in store for me in Agoura. (I hope that's how you spell it. If

not, that's awkward.) A lot of investigators are having a little bit

of a hard time with both of us leaving, but I have faith that the

Sisters who are coming in are exactly what this area needs right now,

and that they will love these people just as much as we do. F.

and S. are still progressing really well towards their baptisms,

and I know that the Lord will watch over them, and make it happen in

his own time. We were able to see a lot of different miracles this

week, and there were a lot of times that we showed up at someone's

house, only to have them tell us that they had just been praying for

help, or for us to stop by. It is such a neat experience to be that

kind of instrument in the hands of the Lord. I love being a

missionary!

Us and F. The little punk is getting baptized two weeks after I leave. Typical.

F's mom. Oh the stories I could tell about this woman. They

will just have to wait until I get home. :)

La querida Hermana T.

K. What a cutie!

Miller squared + S. and D.

Our cutie investigator, MA, and her (not so cutie) dog Bella! :)

Did capture the flag with the youth on Tuesday. It was a blast!

Here is just a funny story to brighten everyone's day. So yesterday,

the alarm on the phone goes off. We get up, I shower, and we start

getting ready for church. All of a sudden, it hits me that it should

have been day light savings, but figured since the alarm was on the

phone, it would have switched, and we would have been fine. Ward

council was at 8, so we had about an hour left, and we were sitting

pretty on time. That was until the bell tower rang in Ojai, and chimed

8 times. We almost died! We ran and got all of our stuff together, and

got to the church ASAP, wet hair and all. You just have to keep it

classy, as a missionary. :) So, there you go. Don't ever trust the

church's new cell phones.

This week's photo series called: My companion with things in her mouth...

The last photo in the things in my mouth series

I still can not believe it has been 6 week since the beginning of this

transfer. Time has gone way too fast. It feels like we just started.

Well, my brain currently feels like it is melting out my ears from

everything that has happened this weekend. So instead, I will just

send a lot of pictures! Enjoy!

Love you all!

Hermana Courtney Miller

Awesome week!

First things first.

Rain, clouds, wind and SNOW! I literally can't... Before everyone freaks

out, it was just in the mountains, but it was the first thing I saw

when I rolled out of bed Sunday morning. I literally freaked out and

screamed. Hermana Miller thought something was dying. There are

pictures though, no worries. It had been so long since I had seen snow

though, it was a really exciting event!

SNOOOOWWWW! (Okay, so there is like none of it, but when you're in

Southern California, you take what you can get!)

Ojai is crazy awesome. I can't handle it. We have seen so many crazy

miracles this week. Our investigator F. FINALLY accepted a

baptismal date. This has only been coming for about 3 transfers. He

has been able to be clean for about 3-4 months now, and has been

progressing incredibly, but he would not accept baptism. He thought

that his baptism in another church was enough, and he didn't need to

change. This week we went over, and pulled out the Gospel of Jesus

Christ pamphlet, and he said, oh yeah, the baptism one. (We had tried

to go over it a couple times. It didn't really end very well.) We

talked a lot about baptism, and how that by doing it with the

Priesthood Authority he would be making a covenant with God. He sat

there for a while, and then said, well, then I think I need to be

baptized. WHAT?! I was trying to act cool, but I probably looked like

an idiot. I was so happy! He accepted March 28th as a date, and we are

SO excited to work towards that date with him. Talk about a 180 flip.

It is incredible. One of our other crazy miracles this week was with a

random phone call we got Monday night. The man calling identified

himself as a member who lives in Salt Lake, but who used to live in

Ojai many years ago. He told us one of his friends who lives here had

told him he wanted to go church, and learn more. He gave us his

number, and we called Tuesday morning. The man said he was for sure

interested, and we set up an appointment for Saturday. We went by

Saturday morning with one of our ward missionaries. It was such an

incredible lesson. He really does want to learn more, and said he

wants to "figure out whats the truth in this life. I don't want to

have to be searching after I am dead and gone. I want to know now."

Incredible. We talked a little about the Restoration, and the BOM and

he is going to read this week. We talked about church, and he said he

had only two concerns. 1) "Do I have to wear a real tie, or can I wear

a Bolo tie? The whole tie thing just isn't me." and 2) "Can I ride my

motorcycle to church?" He is a riot. He had plans yesterday, but is

planning to come next week. He and the ward missionary hit it off, and

we are excited to work with them to help him progress. Such a crazy

miracle. We saw so many others this week as well, from Less Actives

coming back into town, and us being able to help them, to working with

members, and everything it was such an awesome week. Sorry this is

forever long, it has just been one of those weeks. I love it!

The forever cutie, and amazing cook, la Hermana S.

We were able to have a lot of different service opportunities this

week. It was great. One of the neatest has been with a Less Active who

just got back into town after being gone for over a month. While she

was gone her roommate and close friend passed away,

and she has had a hard time coping with that. We were able to go over

a few times this week though, and help her move his things out of the

house, do some yard work, and to visit and bring words of consolation.

Last night, we really felt impressed that we should go over and visit

her, knowing how her week had been. We stopped by and one of the first

things she said is that we were an answer to her prayers. She had been

wanting to call, but felt like she didn't want to be a burden, since

we had spent so much time helping her that week. She had prayed,

however, that if we had any time, maybe we could stop by, and there we

were. Such a cool experience. When we follow the promptings of the

Spirit, we will ALWAYS be where we need to be.

I have been reminded so much this week of Ether 12:18:

"And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their

faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God."

We washed, sanded, and painted all of these in under 2 hours. Impressive, right?

We have been able to see first hand that as we remind ourselves whose

work we are doing, we really do see miracles. This week has been so

crazy, and I know it is because we as a companionship have been trying

to put more focus on the Savior. It's awesome. (I feel like I have

said that a lot in this email. It's because it really is just that

awesome.)

As week 6 of this transfer comes, I am really hoping my time here in

Ojai isn't done. We will have to see what happens, though. I just love

this place so much! I love you all, and hope you can have an awesome,

miracle filled week as well!

A beautiful day in Ojai

Just another view from our morning hike. (Okay, walk, but hike makes

it sound cooler, okay?)

Love ya!

Hermana Courtney Miller

Keeping Christ at the Center of Everything

Hello everyone!

I am sorry that I don't have a ton to write today, it has been one of

those weeks where everything was good, but you can't really remember

any specifics! Sorry!

We had an awesome zone conference this week. The whole thing was

focused on the document, "The Living Christ," and focusing on how we

need to keep Christ at the center of everything that we do. It was so

awesome! 

(Mom's sidenote: I have included this document, in case you aren't familiar with it.  It is well worth reading!)

Hna Miller is doing great. We have had a fun time doing service this

week, and really getting to know each other. It is so fun! Also, I am

like 99% sure I am allergic to nectarines, or at least white

flesh nectarines. That led to some fun times with my good friend

Bennadryl this week. Hermana Miller got to see my funny side. She

hasn't run away yet! She needs an award. :)

Fresh picked Tangelos are the bomb.

(These are NOT the ones she is allergic to)

Hna Zarate just forwarded me this, it is from a while ago, just kind of fun! :)

Other than that, I am not sure what to write. It has been an awesome

week. Ojai is so great, the work is awesome, and time is going way to

fast. Nothing has really changed there! It is so crazy!

Another picture from the Stake Center. One of these days I will get

sick of these pictures. Today is not that day.

I send pictures of this field all the time, but again, it never gets old!  I love this place!

Anyway, I love you all, and hope you have a great week!

Lots of love!

Hermana Courtney Miller

Service Brings Blessings

Hello everyone! I hope everyone had a great Valentine's day, and a

wonderful week in general. It was a great week here in Ojai.

We won't talk about how many outtakes it took to get one picture with

both of us in the air! (Valentine's socks courtesy of Mom.)

Mom's sidenote-Don't know why her socks look orange.  They are black, with pink hearts.

Casual Valentines day pictures. The "all black" look was necessary.

Ojai is such a quirky little town. I love it so much. So many crazy

hippies. It is awesome! I wish I could capture all of it in pictures

and words, but they will never do this town justice.

The style, the trees, the mountains. Ojai can really grow on you.

 Ojai, CA, everyone.

A lot of our investigators have been really sick lately, which has

made it hard. S. is still doing great. There is still more

waiting to be done, but there is progress on that front, something we

haven't seen for a while. Hopefully things will move along more

quickly now! This week, we were also able to have an INCREDIBLE member

present lesson with our investigator M.A. and one of the new ward

missionaries, Sister P, for short. M.A. can have a really hard time

comprehending things some times, but Sister P was able to go in there,

and help her understand so much, from Prophets to the Plan of

Salvation. It was such an incredible lesson, and M.A. was so engaged

and happy to be learning. It was an incredible experience. I hope that

with more member help we will be able to help her progress. Other than

that, though, Ojai is still Ojai. It is such a weird quirky little

place. I love it so much!

One thing we did have a lot of this week was service! We were able to

help investigators, members, and potential investigators with all

kinds of things this week. Sometimes, it felt a bit like spinning

wheels, but it is worth it. On a day where, without us planning it, we

had felt like we spent our whole day doing service, I felt

discouraged, and like we weren't going to help anyone progress that

way. I went home and picked up and old journal, and the paper that

President gave us when they first announced the service program fell

out. It talked about how Christ served, and if we were his hands,

should we not do the same? It made me realize that we are really

making a difference, and that this is what the Lord wants us to be

doing. Service is really a blessing to the people, and the

missionaries.

The things you find on peoples doorsteps. Hope they are okay we took

a picture with it! Some opportunities just can't be passed up!

Last week, the Ventura Stake center looked like a scene straight out

of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Still slightly scared for my life.

I love this work. I love Ojai. Time is going way too fast if you ask me.

I can not BELIVE it is already week 4 of this transfer! What

happened?? MAKE IT STOP!

Anyway, I love you all and hope you have an awesome week!

Hermana Courtney Miller.

The Work is Hastening!

Ojai is so great. I love working with Hermana Miller. She was not

tracting in her last area, and when she came here, President asked her

to "Share the Vision." Well, she did, and it is awesome. We are moving

to only working with members, and we are already seeing success, and

miracles. I can not wait to see what is in store.This week, we were

able to contact a few member referrals that seem like they have a bit

of interest. We are excited to see what happens with them. The member

that gave them to us was excited to hear that they had invited us

back, and is happy to be able to work with us in their progress in the

gospel. Working with members is great. All of the members we visited

this week were excited to see us, and gave us direction as to where we

should go less. In a ward with over 500 on the records and only around

120 active, we will have a lot of Less Active work coming up, which is

always a lot of fun. I love working with Less Actives.

Ojai at 6:30 in the morning is a wonderful place!

Ojai.

One of the investigators from the new area, is showing a lot of

potential. The first time we met her, we committed her to read the

restoration pamphlet. We went back this week to teach her, and she had

read, and understood the whole thing. She told us that she liked it

all, but her only hang up was Latter Day Prophets. We explained that

the way to get past that would be to read from the Book of Mormon and

pray about it, and her first response was, "where do you want me to

start!" She committed to reading a chapter a day, and praying about

it, so we are excited to go back again tomorrow. She has such true

desires to know if this is true. I can't wait to see what happens with

her. Another one of our Investigators, that we hadn't been able to

find all week, F., showed up at Sacrament Meeting yesterday,

because he knew it was where he needs to be. So awesome! If we could

only get him to realize that where he really needs to be is at his own

baptismal service! Oh well, small steps. S. is still also doing

really well. For the last couple of weeks, we had felt kind of at a

dead end as to what to teach her next, since we had been over all of

the lessons multiple times. Sister L., who goes with her to

interpret gave us the idea of teaching from the Primary Manuals, and

that has proved so helpful! The stories are at the right level for her

to be able to understand, and it has given us a lot of new angles to

look at. I am so grateful for Sister L.'s help. One quick funny

story, yesterday was fast and testimony meeting. Our Ward Mission

Leader went up, and shared part of his testimony in Spanish. Poor

Sister L. was translating from Spanish to English to ASL.

(Fortunately she speaks all 3!) Her face was panicked, but she was

translating perfectly. After the testimony, she looked up, and we all

started dying laughing. She is just so awesome! It was hysterical.

Hermana Miller is doing awesome. She has so many great ideas with how

to work with the members in this area, and we are finding new ways

every day to find success in the work. She has such a desire to do the

work, and is really teaching me a lot. I love working with her, and

finding new ways to bring to pass the work of the Lord. We have also

found a lot of joy in finding fun "Miller themed" ways to answer the

phone when the District or Zone leaders call. Our favorite so far is,

"You've reached Miller Squared!" She is a riot. We have spent a good

chunk of time working on perfecting our British accents over the past

week. So yeah. We are having a lot of fun, and I can't lie, we did

check on our family trees this week to see if we were related. We're

not. It was slightly disappointing.

Miller Squared.

Sometimes, your companion sits in front of the heater in her PJs,

writing in her journal, eating chocolate cake right out of the

container. She's awesome.

This week, I have really been reminded how much the Spirit guides us

when we are doing what we should. All week we were able to visit

people at the perfect time, and deliver the message they needed to

hear right then. It was such a reminder that we truly are the hands of

the Lord. It is a theme that has been popping up throughout my studies

this week as well. We truly are the hands of the lord, and we need to

be worthy of that. I am grateful for the constant reminder that I can

do better, and the will to do it. There is no end to progression in

the gospel!

This week, we were able to help someone in the area pack up to move.

We were never really able to teach her, but she had previously been

married to an LDS man, and when things didn't end well, she kept a

very negative view of the church, as well. We have done service with

her a few times, and she mentioned to us, this last time, that she

really has seen a different side of the church, and was grateful for

that. It was amazing reminder that our examples can have such a strong

impact. By small and simple means.

Elder Kingrey.

Oh, Elders.

Elder Kim and Elder Fagan. They're a riot!

District Selife! We went to the cross again this week!

Ojai is such a great area. I love it so much. Time is just going too

fast. I can NOT believe that it is already week 3. It all just seems

like a blur!

I live in paradise. (I feel like I say this a lot. It's true though.)

(Ps. I feel like I am spoiling you all with such a long post this

week. Don't get too used to it!)

I hope you have a great week!

Much Love,

Stay awesome,

Hermana Courtney Miller

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?