Letter #6

Hola Familia,

All is well here in Spain! I am leaving the MTC on Tuesday and I find out where my first area is on Monday! I am way excited to find out where I am going. I hope that I get to go up north, but I may be serving in the Pavones Mission area which is where I am right now. I will be fine with where ever I am sent, I know that the call is inspired.

I am so happy to read your emails. I wasn’t able to print them off today because there was no more ink… That made me rather upset because I love to read them throughout the week.

This past week was pretty good. Although, everything that I thought I knew about Spanish got crushed with a bomb with the subjunctive tense.  Dad you will know what I mean.  I remember you tried to explain a little bit of it when I was at home.  I am getting the hang of it though.

I am sorry that this email is kind of short this week but I will send you a letter later.  I have a little package coming in the mail for you guys. It reminded me of you so I hope that you enjoy it.

I have really enjoyed my companion Elder Berry.  He is a great guy and we get along really well.  We are both pretty easy going and have a lot in common such our music tastes.  He is really great at futbol. He played soccer a lot as a kid.  Be sure to tell his mom that he is a great guy and all is well here.  

Something spiritual I learned this week, we can overcome fear through love.  I learned that if I love to serve the people then I will not be afraid to talk to them or teach them. You can apply this in your lives as well.  Do not be afraid because the Lord loves you and will help you in hard times.

Ooh, something that is crazy about being in the field!  I discovered that I am probably going to be a trainer after my first transfer and I will be a trainer for over half of my mission.  I am excited!  That means that I am going to be a pro at teaching Spanish and I will be able to go to all the cool places in the area multiple times!  There is a huge group of missionaries that will be coming to Spain after this group i'm with.  I am just on the beginning of the wave and it is starting to curl! 

El Parque Reterio

Elder Jayden Miles and Elder Marcus Berry

These pictures were taken in the El Parque Reterio. Everyone comes here to just hang out and get sun.  A lot of people just lay out on the grass in their swimsuites and sunbath. The only place I can think of that compares with this park is Central Park in NYC.  I love this park though its so peaceful and friendly.  We go proselyting in this park aswell.  The people that are just hanging out on the benches are golden because they will give you the time of day to have a conversation.

Prado Museum

This picture was taken infront of the Prado Museum of art. We didnt actually get to go in but it is pretty cool on the outside :P The line was way too long and we didnt have enough time.  I plan to go there sometime during the mission though for sure. The Prado is the second largest art museum in Europe, behind the Louvre. Since we spent so much time in the Louvre I am excited to go to the Prado sometime.

The park

This second picture is in the park again. This is the famous picture that you find when you look up Spain Madrid on google images.  It is such a cool park. I would chill here all day if I wasn´t on a mission :P

Dont send any letters to me in the mail until I send one with my new address. I am leaving the MTC this Tuesday and I don´t want anything to get stuck here in the MTC. I think I'll get to email home on Monday to inform you on where I am going though!!

The mission is getting harder than it was the first couple of weeks but I am learning so much! I love this Gosple.  It is so worth it to serve a mission and it is only the very beginning for me!

Thank you for all your love and support! I love you so much!

Que tenga un buen día :)

Elder Miles

P.S. Happy Birthday Mom!! I hope you had a wonderful day! You are the best Mom that a kid could ask for.  Thank you for being my best friend and thank you for being so fun to hang out with.  Thank you for raising me the way I have become. 

I love you!

Letter #5 

I have a letter coming your way! I figured that I could use my 30 minutes of computer time uploading pictures :) 

Me and my companion Elder Berry

Everything is going well here. I am working hard and feeling the spirit.  I love getting your letters, they make me so happy and they keep me going throughout the week.  I am having fun with all the other Elders here.  We play fútbol and workout and mess around by teasing each other.  Me and my buddy, Elder Weixler draw stupid pictures of weird faces and give them to  Elder Curtis. It is so funny and it helps relieve the stress. 

This week I basically studied. The language is getting tough.  We really dived into the meat of things this past week.  I need to keep studying so much more. I know and can feel that the Lord is helping me learn at a much faster pace.  There is no way that I could have learned this much in the same amount of time at home.

Loving all the art and the sculptures!

This picture is from Sol.  It's a really cool place with tons of people! This is where most people go to do their souvenir shopping in Madrid. 

P-days are nice to get out and about to see the city and the people!

These two photos are from the Real Madrid Stadium. I went there a couple weeks ago.  I can´t really remember because the days here have all molded into one :P The Stadium was really cool. I play fútbol sometimes during activda fisica. I am not that good but I enjoy it. Every once in a while I surprise people with a nice boot across the field.  Most the time we play on a cement court.  It is a lot smaller then the grass field but it is a lot more action packed!

Love you all!!

Letter #4

Dear Family,

It´s another P-day already!! The time here is flying by so fast! Has time felt fast over there?
My week was pretty great. I did a lot of language and scripture study.  Confrence was great! I took a lot of notes on each of the talks.
I hope everything is going well at home! Thank you so much for keeping me updated on everything you guys are doing.

Last P-day I went to the Real, Madrid Stadium! It was really cool. We were able to take a tour through the whole thing, including the locker rooms and the field.  I definitely have a better appreciation for soccer the next time I watch a game.  I took some great pictures so don’t worry about that.

I went proselyting again in Goya, which is the city.  Once again not very much success.  The city is so much harder than the park.  People know who we are on the streets and they know that we want to talk religion.  Most of the people here are either atheist or catholic.  I was temporary companions with Elder Eskleson.  We had a good time just walking the streets and saying "hi" to everyone we came across.

Conference was awesome, I will give you the highlights of what I picked up in each talk.

Packer: Times are getting worse
Davies:Build on a firm foundation
Dalton: Be an example
Carden: God forgives
Ballard: Priesthood Power/ We have unlimited potential
Eyring: Serve the Lord and in result we will get blessings
Hales: Be a faithful priesthood hold, Armor of God
Callister: Priesthood/ The right to have revalation
Beck: Ministry: Act as if you were Jesus Christ would
Uchtdorf: Priesthood titles

There are more notes but I don’t have much time left… I went into conference wanting to know the pure love Christ.  My prayer was answered. As I was listening to conference I looked out of the window and saw people walking on the street.  My heart literally ached because they were missing out on what the prophet of God was saying to all the people on this earth. I truly wanted them to come into our classroom and listen.  We watched conference on a recording since there is a time difference.  We were able to watch Sunday sessions live at 6 pm Spain time.  I imagined what you guys were doing at home.  My guess is that you were all having a delicious breakfast together and enjoying each other's company. 

Keep me updated on everything!
Josh: I want to know how debate, work, your bass and your driving is going.
Jenna: let me know what you are up to and write me what you did every week
Jonny: let me know about the news on the lizard. That story you shared with me was hilarious about the lizards!
Mom and Dad: let me know how work and the family is going.  What shows are you watching? Just your average day to day stories and fun.

I love you all and I want you to know that the church is true and time is flying by in the MTC.  I am leaving the MTC April 30^th and then I am going to be put in the field.

Love you,
Elder Jayden Miles

Letter #3

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for your emails. They mean soo much to me to hear from you.  Keep emailing me please ;)

I sent you a letter in the mail on Monday so hopefully you will be getting it today or tomorrow.  I answered some questions that you guys had.  I am not reading your emails that you have most recently sent because I don´t have time on the computer to read them and respond.  I will give you a brief summary of my past week and I will try to write a more personal letter through the mail.  I am really scatter brained right now so I hope that everything makes sense.

I am teaching investagators in the MTC with my companion.  They are pretend investagtors but we are to treat them like real ones.  Elder Berry and I have been teaching Miguel Luis and Edjuardo for the past two weeks since I've been here. I am already teaching lessons in Spanish!  We have commited them to baptism already.  This has been very good practice for me and my Spanish.

Last Saturday we got to go proselyting in the biggest park in Madrid.  It is huge! It is like 3 miles by 3 miles.  I was companions with Elder Jacobson.  He is from St. George. He is a cool guy and we made a good team.  I will just share one experiece that I had with proselyting in the park.  We found an old man sitting on a bench.  We weren't sure how we wanted to approach this man so we just introduced ourselves as misioneos de la igesia de jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias.  We began to talk to him in Spanish.  As I taught him about the Libro de Mormon, this man just peered into my eyes and I could feel the spirit as I testified to him.  We gave him a Book of Mormon and then wished him a good day.  We walked away and then realized that we should have gotten his information so that more missionaries could meet with him.  We turned back and we saw that he was flipping through the Book of Mormon.  This made me so happy!  I thought for sure that most people would just toss it to the side and continue about their day, but this old man was looking through it!  We returned to him and we asked him if he wanted to learn more.  He responded, Sí.  This was awesome. We asked him if we could get his name and number so that more experienced missionaries could meet with him.  He seemed to be super receptive to what we were telling him.  I felt so good doing missionary work and was filled with the spirit.  

The church is true and I am loving it here.  I have grown to really enjoy reading the scriptures.  If you read them with pure intent then you will feel the spirit and you will know that they were written for this day in age.

Let me know how things are going back home.  I love reading your emails throughout the week.  I print them off and read them even after I respond to them. 

I am working hard here in the MTC and the language is coming.

Thank you so much for everything. 

You are in my thoughts and prayers.

Love, Elder JJ