#45 March 17th & 24th

Spanish Sunset

March 17th, 2014

This week went pretty well. 

The work now is basically the same as the rest of my areas that I have had. Lots of contacting in the streets and the city lifestyle. We had to walk to our favorite grocery store and carry our groceries back to the piso. Sad life I know. I don´t really feel like the area has changed that much. I don´t really miss the car. Even though it is really convenient, it hasn´t hit too hard. My comp would tell you otherwise. 

District meeting this week went well. The president, his wife, and both zone leaders came so that they could check up on our district and take back the car. It is a pretty usual thing to happen in Madrid but it is a lot more rare to President to come out to Catilla la mancha. I gave a talk about "Talking to everyone". I was a little nervous to speak in front of president but it turned out well. I came out of that meeting empowered and ready to get back to work. I know the Lord is preparing people here in Talavera and not having the car may be a way to find them. 

I did intercambio in Toledo for 2 days. I had fun getting lost in the little spanish streets up in the old town of toledo. That city is amazing. If I were to show you cool spots in Spain on of them would definitely be Toledo.
I came back from Toledo Sunday morning just in time for sacrament meeting. (The branch here does the meetings backwards, sacrament last.) Elder Stephens and I had a baptism! Two little Spanish boys that live in a tiny pueblo of Mebrillo. That is the pueblo that there is no bus to. My comp and the DL walked there to do the interveiw which took about 4 hours. I am going to take that same stroll sometime this week. The kids that got baptized are my buddies! Little Jorge and Jesus, 9 years old.  

Jorge and Jesus Baptismal Day

The work here is going great. It would probably be really slow compaired to other missions but es lo que hay. I love the work. I have learned so much this past year. I can´t even believe that I am already at a year. I  am excited to see what the next year brings. I remember this time last year I was getting ready to hit the airport and leave. It is going to be weird to me to think of what I was doing a year ago and think of memories of the mission.

Well I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love you 

Elder Miles

March 24th, 2014

This week went by pretty fast and this week is the last one of the transfer. The main things that happened were on Tuesday and Thursday and Friday. 

Tuesday: Elder Stephens and I got a ride out to Membrillo where the two kids live who got babtized and taught a quick lesson to their family. Then afterwards we walked back on a dirt trail which took about 4 hours. I don´t know if our calculations were quite right but we think we walked 17 miles back to Talavera. It was a long walk but it was nice to see some beautiful scenery. Last week there was a bull running around where we were walking but we didn´t see it this week because they killed it. I took some fun videos and pictures while we were out there. It was a pretty big waste of time but it was fun for a one time thing. 

Spanish Kebab

Thursday and Friday we helped out with a move. There is a member that lives in Talavera, the only member that lives here, that needed help moving. We expected it to last a couple hours at most but it ended up lasting 2 whole days. We were moving stuff from the 10th floor but luckly there was an elevator. He is refurnishing his whole piso so we took everything out from tiolets to kitchen counters and we gave a lot of stuff to some members in need. It was a good long time of hard work! The next day I was completely exhausted and my comp had a really bad migrain so we stayed home for the morning. It was bad. 

The work has been alright. It has been hard to find new people to teach. We don´t have a lot of lessons here. We are working on it though! 

Something fun that we did was we took out all of our bed and put them all together on the ground in the main room of our piso. We have to have some sort of change or fun.  I have been doing better with cooking. I am pretty good at cooking fried chicken now :)   

It is weird that I am going be 20 this week. I don´t really feel like I am going to be. I don´t think anything special is going to happen, probably just a normal day in the mission.

Well I hope that everyone is doing great! I am working hard and having fun. The church is true and I am so grateful to be here on my mission! I feel kind of like I am going to be here for the rest of my life. I don´t know if that is a good or bad thing haha.

Love you all

Elder Miles

#44 March 10, 2014

It has been a pretty eventful week. We got some good news and some bad news. Elder Stephens and I set 3 baptismal dates for the  coming weeks! We have some pretty awesome investigators here. They come to church and we get along with them like friends. They even do their reading assignments and everything! I have not taught progressing investigators in a while. We did a lot of service again this week. We cleaned up the front yard of the Cucheli´s and painted their walkway. It is a night and day difference of the change with their yard. We basically used cave man tools to cut down the weeds but we had a hard days work which I enjoyed. We also painted the inside of our investigators house. The paint we used litterally consisted of this paint paste, glue, water, and milk. I was preparing to clean up a big mess in the next couple days from rotten milk but it actually turned out really nice. Painting the walls reminded me of the days of working in the basement. I hope there is still work there to do when I get home! If not I would be excited to work on the Dad´s Car. My companion worked on cars before his mission and he has peaked my interest with that :)

Bad news is that President Jackson has decided to take away the car. We visit a lot of people out in little pueblos 30  minutes away and taking the car away is not the smartest idea. I am going to respect his decision on that. We have it until wednesday. I don´t know why but the president of the area in Europe want to take out all the cars in Europe. We use the car everyday. This means no more gym, no more cool pdays.  We are going to have to take the bus out to the pueblos that have service, Membrillo where our recent converts live does not have a  bus that goes there. Elder Stephens and I are going to take a trail to their house. We are going to pack lunch and bring our music and pass through the Spanish hill to visit this family! I am excited to do that. 

I am glad to hear that everyone is doing so well at home!  I am so happy to hear that Josh is getting excited to go on his mission, Jenna is  doing so great in the church and having fun, Jonny is skating and using a typewritter. Keep on doing so awesome! Stay strong with your testimonies and stand strong in what you believe in the gospel. The church is true. I have see my testimony growing everyday that I am out here. I have been finishing up in Alma and I am getting excited to get into Heleman. The Book of Mormon is true and it brings more knowledge and understanding to all things in this life. Trust in God and his will. Sorry if this testimony was hard to read in English, it was weird not to say it in Spanish. jaja

I hope that you all have an awesome week! Sorry I was not able to write each of you  a personal letter. For my birthday I have no idea what I would want.. Sorry, I will think about it lol. 

Love you all so much!    

Elder Miles                       

#43 New Area - Talavera de la Reina

 February 24, 2014

Elder Miles & Elder Stephens

P-day in the foggy mountains

I am enjoying my new area, Talavera de la Reina. I'm getting along with my new companion and the branch seems really great. Every area that I go to seems like they are all different from the last. All different styles of work because the people are different and the size of the area is different. It is cool going out to the little pueblos in the car. It is so interesting to see how people live in little pueblos in the small villages here. The rain in Spain really does fall in the plains. There are tons of olive trees and rolling green hills in my area.  It is beautiful! We took the car up to the mountains for p-day which was very refreshing and it recharged my bateries for the coming week.

Thanks for the update on what happened at the cabin. That is so lucky that Jenna just walked away with a bruised arm. Poor Jenna. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and testimony about that experience. Prayer is very powerful! I would not know what I would be like here without prayer.

I am excited about this area. It is always fun to get to know new people and new areas. The people here are really nice and receptive. I love that about this place! Even the Spaniards will sometimes give us the time of day to stop them in the street.

My spanish is going really well. I can feel myself picking up more of an accent. The ward was excited that I can speak spanish.  It is a lot more fun to talk to people in the ward when I know what they are saying and I can resond to them. I have enjoyed being around two other elders that do not know spanish all that well. It is fun to watch them learn :) I have been able to help them a little bit.

That is amazing that you are in the young womans chior! Very slim odds! That would be cool if I were able to see it here but I don´t know If I will be able to. I am having a mission tour this Wednesday which means a  member of the Seventy's will be coming.  He will talk to us for a couple of hours! I am very excited to recieve a new boost of excitement for this work!

Thanks for all of your prayers! 

#42 11 Months

Ward Mission Leader

Arganda is doing well, sadly I am not there anymore. Both Elder Cordova and I were transferred.  There are now two new elders in the area. We said goodbye to all the ward members that we love and we packed up and left this morning. I am now in my fourth area in Talavera de la Reina which is about an hour and a half southwest of Madrid.  It is close to Toledo. We have a car here! We have a lot of people that we teach that are in little towns so the car will be useful. I am excited to be here. It sounds like the members feed us a lot and it seems like a pretty cool area. I have only seen a little bit of the area but it reminds me of Cuenca when I did intercambios. My comp's name is Elder Stephens, another kid from Idaho. He seems cool. He lived in California and was actually born in San Jose as well! His home now is just right outside of Boise. He has about a year and a half out in the mission so we are both senior companions. Time to get some work done! 

Pavones District

I am doing well. One of the members wanted to test Elder Cordova´s blood and mine.  I had pretty low blood sugar even after eating. I am going to try and eat more sugar than I guess, fine with me. My level was 118 after eating. 

It was sad saying goodbye to all the ward members. I was there for 6 months and I got to know quite a bit of them. There were some members that cried and that made me realize how much of a difference that I was able to make while I was there. It was very touching to see. I have couple places to stay here in Madrid if I ever get to come back. I will really miss all the wonderful people here.

Mom the dream that you had was really cool! I have prayed for you to be blessed with dreams like the ones you have had  a couple times before. I am glad to hear that you are being taken care of and comforted.

Thanks for all the updates on everyone! I am doing great. I am a little quiet around the new Elders I am with, which I have noticed is what usually happens with me. I am not comfortable with them yet but I soon will be.

It is always weird to be in a new area. It is exciting to see new things and meet new people. I will let you know how my first week goes here! 

Love you Mom,

Elder Miles

Letter #41 Ten Months

 Had a great week this week. Elder Cordova and I are getting along great and working hard. We call each other the white boy and the brown kid.  We are going to have another baptism this week! I am so excited :) He is a guy from Colombia, which is where Jace served.  He has been taught since last April. We have been trying so hard to get this guy to come to church to help him progress and finally he came.   We actually got him to give us ride there :) Usually it takes about an hour to get to church by Metro but in his car it took literally 10 minutes. He is a quick driver, haha. His baptism will be this Friday and he might be the first person that I baptize, if he wants me to! 

My companion and I are great friends with some great families in the ward. They are inviting us over now without us asking them :) There has been some people that have been adding me on facebook here so make sure to add them.

This week went pretty well. It was the first week of the transfer and it was nice to get another fresh start. We do not have very many investigators and now since our main one is getting baptized we are going to be on a serious search for some new people to teach. 

It is so cool to hear that Jace is back from his mission and to hear that he enjoyed his mission. I am learning so much here and I can´t wait to see how much knowledge I can take home with me when it is my time. 

The weather here is awesome.  It has been spring since the new year. I told my companion that this city is a metropolis that controls their weather. As soon as they put out some planter plots with palm trees the weather turns to spring! It has been fun to see the seasons change while I've lived here. 

My debit card is now activated and I withdrew 50€ last week. My package is now in the mission office and now I am just waiting from the office elders to bring it down to my chapel! It has been a good wait and I am excited to get it! 

Well on to another week of work! I have been trying hard to improve on my Spanish. I feel like a lot of people can't understand me lately so I am studying harder on pronunciation and listening closer to people.  Also, I have been studing a lot in Preach My Gospel and it has been really good. I am on page 6 so far in ´My Purpose.´

Love you all so much!   

Love Elder Miles

Letter #40

It was so good to see you on Christmas with skype! I am  still on that high. I am so glad that you were all able to have such a good time together in California with the Truemans. It reminded me of the good old times and I can´t wait to head back over to those neck of the woods sometime. It is really cool that everything seemed to just work out when you decided to take off for a weekend. It just goes to show that Heavenly Father is mindful of your desires, He provided. 

Here goes my week.

Monday: I went to Toledo and had an awesome time there just seeing the sights and stealing away a little bit away from my area. Later when I got home Elder Cordova and I had two really good lessons right in a row. We had a member with us for both of them which was super good.

Tuesday: Someone called us the night before and told us that someone gave us a package and it was waiting in the church. It wasn´t our packages from home and no I have not gotten it yet, but we went and grabbed it Tuesday morning and it was full of Spanish sweets :) Somebody, we don´t know who, really spoiled us with chocolates and chorizo, and other Spanish dulces :) We felt like kings! Later that day we somehow had 3 meals to go to with member! The first meal was with a Spanish Family, the first counselor, the second was with a less active member from Peru, and the last meal was with our Argentinian family. I was filled to the brim with food. After having a rough and trying December we were blessed so much that we could literally not receive anymore. We had to take the last meal home with us so we could eat it later :) 

Wednesday: My last district meeting as district leader... It went well and afterwards we all went out to eat together as a district :) 

Thursday: I did another Baptismal interview for Hermana Palomino and Gauna. His name is Jorge and is from Peru and he was very prepared. It was so cool to interview him because every question I asked him he basically answered with his testimony. I love giving interviews because it shows the end result of somebody that is ready to get baptized. 

Friday: We had a busy morning planned and we had a member with us to go to a bunch of lessons but all of our plans fell through... It was kind of disappointing but it went by quick. That evening Jorge was baptized. It went really well and he was so excited! 

Saturday: We left the piso that morning without our umbrellas, first mistake. We ran over to see a less active member and then we went over to the other side of town to knock some doors because it was getting cold and we wanted to get out of the ugly weather. Pretty soon it starting raining really hard. We decided to call an investigator. (A guy who invited us to his church but we ended up not being able to go) Luckily he let us come over! We ran over as quick as we could in the now pouring rain and by the time we got over there we were soaked! It was fun though and I had a smile on my face. The lesson we had was intense because we were using a lot of scriptures to help him understand the Book of Mormon but he was very close minded.  We decided that he is not ready to take the lessons. It seems bad to do but he will be ready in a later time in his life with different missionaries. 

That night was also transfer calls!!! I am staying here in Arganda with Elder Cordova but now I am not District Leader... I am happy that I am staying the same this trasfer :) I am kind of sad that I am no longer DL though. It was fun but at the same time I have a bit weight taken off my shoulders.

Sunday: Church went really well. Jorge was confirmed. I feel so comfortable in the 8th ward here. I am friends with members and it is fun to say hi to familiar faces. Later that night we had a family home evening with our awesome Peruvian member family. We taught a lesson and had dessert and played pictionary. 

All in all it was a fun week. Happy new year! Love you so much mom and I hope that you have great week. 

Love, elder Miles

Letter #39 Merry Christmas!

The Christmas season in the mission field has been good. It has been different but I have enjoyed it. It definitly doesn´t feel like the christmas that I am used to at home but I have had fun. 

MONDAY: All the missionaries in Madrid sang a big Christmas concert for everyone here. There was about 150 missionaries and there was a nice program and refreshments and everything. It took place at the church and it was filled all the way to the back of the overflow! It was a great experience. We learned some fun songs in Spanish, such as Los Peces en el Río.

TUESDAY: My whole district came out to Arganda del Rey (my area) and we contacted todo el mundo! We were all there for a good hour and a half and it went really well. It was cool to have so many missionaries in one little area. Afterwards we all went to eat pizza at a little pizza place. 

WEDNESDAY: I got to go to the Temple in the morning which went great. I love being able to go there on my mission. I feel so close to our Hevenly Father there. I also had a zone meeting and then later I went to Cuenca to do intercambios (exchanges) I was with an Elder that is from a small town outside of Rome Italy! It was so cool to be able to get know him and his culture a little bit. It is amazing how we can both speak Spanish together even though I speak English and he speaks Italian. 

THURSDAY: We had a miracle baptism! A girl named Ana that has been going to church for the past 3 years with her boyfriend and their family decided to get baptized this past week. We did all we could to teach her all the lessons so she coud get baptized. Right after I came back from Cuenca I went to the church and filled up the font and she was baptized Thursday night. It was so amazing :)

FRIDAY: One of our member families that we visit gave birth this week and we went over to see how she was doing. We went over and she had dinner prepared for us! Just 3 days after having a baby and she was up and adam cooking us food! They are an awesome family. 

SATURDAY: I did an intercambio with an elder from Finland. We get along very well, his name is Elder Helske! 

SUNDAY: Ana was confirmed and I was able to stand in the confirmation circle! That was an awesome experience as well. Ana is from Romania and super nice. She is only 19.

MONDAY: I did a district meeting and it went really well. I gave a blessing to an Hermana that needed comfort. It was the most spiritual blessing that I have ever given. It felt so inspired and by the end of it, all of us were in tears... my companion, her who I gave the blessing, her companion and me. Right after that I did a baptismal interview of a man that is going to be baptized this evening! He is a Spaniard named Jose and he is an invetigator of the other elders in my district. 

TUESDAY: All the missionaries had a dinner at a families house. We all ate a delicious Peruvian meal. Later that night we had a devotional for missionaries only. President spoke to us and everyone got their packages. I'm sure I'll get mine soon. 

Wednesday: Merry Christmas! 

That was a very busy week full of fun, stress, excitement, the spirit. I hope everyone else had a great Christmas. 

Love you all.

Elder Miles