Letter #67

December 8, 2014

Drum roll please! 

I got transferred down to Madrid! I pulled into town a couple of hours ago.  I am very sad to leave Santiago and everyone there. I am now in Barrio 4 with Elder Heslington from England! I am finishing up his training. His accent is not too strong but it is fun to hear. It is weird to know that this will be my last area.. My life right now kind of feels like I did when I had 3 months before I left on the mission. I try not to think about it too much. I am excited to see what goes down these last two transfers!!

I got your Christmas package :) I packed it with me back to Madrid. Thank you so much! I haven’t opened up anything yet. I want to wait until the 25th.  Sounds like we will be searching for a members house to stay at for Christmas. 

This last week:

We helped out a member with his yard. I mowed the lawn in the first time in a while. We trimmed the bushes and trees and everything. It reminded me of the good Saturday mornings when we did yard work. 

Marcos, the branch mission leader in Santiago, said when we come back up together to give him a call.  The Bujans are one of my favorite families here that I have met! 

It was awesome to be able to be with Elder Molina! He was a hard worker and I learned a lot from him. I feel like my Spanish has improved since I have been with him. My new comp has only got about 3 months out from home so it will be fun to help him out with learning Castellano. 

Well I love you all!! Have a great week and remember the true reason of CHRISTmas. 

Love,

Elder Miles

Letter #66

Thank you for all of your awesome letters! Even after being out here for more than a year and a half I always look forward to hearing from you guys every week! You really recharge my batteries that seem to be getting warn out faster every week- haha. I am doing fine though! 

Sounds like you all had an awesome Thanksgiving!! I miss those good ol´ Turkey left overs. We didn´t do anything for the real Thanksgiving since we jumped the gun a week early haha, Oh well. The end of the year is always the best with so many family get togethers. I am glad that everyone had fun. This year here in Spain was the fist year that they did Black Friday haha. It wasn´t such a hit like it is there in the states but it was fun. The had it posted in all the store windows just in english. 

The transfer ends this week.. I doubt that I will be ending my mission here. Who knows though, every time I feel like I am leaving, I stay and every time I feel like I am staying, I leave. So we will see what happens. If I leave I will have to meet people real quick before Christmas so we can eat at a members house :P I don´t know if this year can get any worse than last year haha. I just laugh when I picture Elder Cordova and I missing that last train and having to walk over to the other Elders piso in the rain to ask them if we could stay the night. Good memories! 

This week: Vamos a ver.. 

We have still be on the search for new people to teach. Nobody will answer their phones or show up at appointments, which leaves us to contacting and knocking doors. 

We did travel out to a pueblo an hour away from Santiago named, Lalín. We met with a women mom and dad´s age. She was super nice and has some good potential. It is always funny to think that a lot of the people that we teach out here are Mom and Dad´s age. We took a bus to a pueblo that we didn´t know at all to meet with a lady that we have only talked to on the phone. But sure enough she showed up and had a nice little chat on a bench in the bus station. I was nervous that everything was going to go wrong with traveling so far to meet with one person but everything went well. 

We have a new friend. This man has changed his outlook on life. He has been a member since 2011 and is from Portugal. I met him about a month and a half ago with Elder Eskelson. He showed up in the chapel on Sunday and told us about some things in his life that were occurring. Last week was the second time that I have met him and he told us about more trials that he has been going through.  To imagine him you can think of the story of Job in the bible. The only difference is that he is healthy but he has had a very hard life. I don´t want to go into to too much detail because he trusts us a lot. He is homeless, doesnt have food or money. He has been sleeping out by the chapel for the past couple of days. Just from mistakes in his life that he has made it has changed his life to upside down! Decisions determine destiny. We have been meeting with him and helping him with the branch. When you look at him you can just tell that he has seen another side of life that many people haven't seen. Very humbling to be able to meet with him and help him return to the Path. 

I gave a talk in church on Sunday. I based the talk on Elder Scott in the Liahona in Feb 2011. I talked about basing desicions in our life off of Divine Truths. I always have enjoyed studying for talks because I end up learning way more than the people that listen to me. It is a great talk if your interested : "How to have peace, joy and purpose in the life". Something like that in English. One blessing that I have been able to see in the mission has been being able to just live the Gospel in its fullness. At home I went to church and read my scriptures, but never in my life have I felt such trust in the Lord and in His plans. I know that the Gospel was designed by God. I know that He loves us. I know that the Gospel is the way that we can overcome trials and have an eternal perspective. I know these things because I have experienced them. I have seen changes in my life and in the lives of others that I can never forget. Live the Gospel and the Lord blesses you. 

Today for pday Elder Molina and I got a quick haircut, (with a nice little head massage, definitly worth it) did some grocery shopping, went down to the center of town and browsed around in all the clothing stores. If only I had €€$$ haha. No, I don´t need anything. Later we ate at a pub. Had some puplpo and a bocadillo. Hit the spot :) Now I am here writing you guys. 

All in all, pretty good week. Had my ups and downs like I always do but everything always turns out okay. 

Love you all and hope that you all have a great week!

Elder Jayden Miles

Letter #65

Nov. 17^th, 2014

Typical Spaniard snack

I am happy to hear that you are all doing well with FHE and family prayer! One thing that I am grateful for in the in mission has been my excitement to read the scriptures and have meaningful prayers. I have developed a good habit that I am excited to use at home. It feels like after the mission I am not really going to have too many spiritual experiences or have many opportunities to serve others, which I love doing out here. I trust that once I am home I will be able to see things like that if I desire to. I love the mission. I have learned so much. Although I really feel like I am being molded and broken down and pressured down into something else. It has been hard this past week to feel like I have had success out here. I feel like I have been doing to same thing these whole two years. Contacting, teach a couple lessons, lose a couple investigators, contacting ahaha. I guess that is all apart of the work though. I really want to feel like I was able to make a difference out here for these people. I have made a definite difference in myself. 

Fuaah, my Spanish has been struggling lately. My tounge is getting lazy and tired from speaking it with my comp. I have been fore focused on saying things the way they should be and it has led to me speaking with more of a gringo accent.. I always hope that people can understand me. I still maintain that ´theta´even though my comp is Ecuatoriano. 

This past week was good. It rained on us a lot. My shoes are soaked every day. If I were to know for sure if I was going to stay here longer I would have bought some rain boots! The heaters at night do a good job of drying them off though. We found a cool Dominican family whom I hope has some good potential. We found them knocking doors and we set up another appointment. We come back a couple days later and were able to teach them the Restoration and leave them with a Book of Mormon. Junior, is name, seemed a little distracted. The spirit was there but I hope that he was able to feel it! 

The Book of Mormon is true. I have been enjoying reading that everyday and then sharing it with others. I am in Alma 20 por ahí and I love reading it for the story. There is so much that goes on all at once and it is fun to figure it all out! 

Well I hope that you have a great week! Let me know how the hot tub is working. I am going to try and keep as dry as possible. 

Love you all!

Hey Mom,

Your email really took me home for a minute. I had to look around me to realize that I am in a library here in Spain, still kind of weird sometimes. Thank you so much for your wonderful emails and support every week Mom :) They mean the most to me. I love hearing about the day-to-day things that go on at home. Visiting grandma and grandpa, the tree man, Jenna’s first dance! She sure has grown up a lot! I picture the family like it is on that blanket that you gave me for my 19th birthday. I am glad that the family is doing well!

Well this week was good. We had Zone Conference in A Coruña. It seems like I am never going to get out of the city! haha I am going there again this week for another intercambio. We played soccer in some icy rain for a couple hours for p-day as the zone. Luckily I didn´t get sick or anything. Zone Conference went really well. It is always really good to see President and his Wife. They talked to us about listening and being representatives of Jesucristo. I was the oldest one there along with another Elder that has the same time as I do. Weird... We stayed in a hotel and had a delicious breakfast there. I ate a croissant with jamón and some fresh orange juice. There was also some tarta de Santiago that I had to have a piece of for breakfast :) We finished up conference with pizza as usual and then we caught the train back to Santiago.

The rest of the week was contacting. We luckily were able to get our usual amount of lessons even though we were out of town for 2 days. We have been working on teaching more when we stop people in the street. Lately we have been stopping people and introducing ourselves but we only get their number or they just run away. But we have been able to teach more lessons in the street which I actually really like doing. It is cool to meet someone random on the street and testify to them about the Book of Mormon. I don´t care if they look at me weird or if they don´t really have interest, the spirit still testifies of the truth and I hope that is what happens every time. 

Thank you for telling me about our cousin M. Josh. That inspired me to be more grateful for this opportunity to be about here. I love how he tried really hard to be able to serve a mission. It really touched my heart and made me realize that I need to kick it up a notch, raise the bar. It has been hard for me to measure if I have been having success out here on the mission. I feel like I have been doing the same thing everyday. I have read talks about missionaries having great success. I just hope that the Lord will tell me, “Well done my good and faithful servant." If I can feel that by the end of my mission, I will be satisfied. 

Elder Molina and I are getting along. He is a really hard worker. Sometimes I feel like I am the younger companion and he is training me haha. I have really had to push myself everyday to work hard. I never thought that that would be a problem but I am always trying to focus harder and push aside my pride and work. I am grateful for your prayers at home. 

I love you Mom and family! Hope that you have a great week! Loved the pictures that you sent me. Sending pictures here in this area has been kind of tricky. I am at a library right now, which is free to use, but the computers are pretty slow, so I will go to another locotorio to send pictures in a little bit. 

Thank you so much for sending me a Christmas package Mom. I hope that you didn´t spend too much to send it. I am really excited to recieve it :) Love you! 

Travel plans sound great! I am excited to discover a new city with you and Dad :) 

Que tingui una molt bona setmana (Catalán) 

Elder Jayden Miles

Letter #64

November 3, 2014

New Companion Elder Molina and Elder Jayden Miles

November 3, 2014

All is well this week. It has been fun/ challenging getting used to the new companionship. It is getting tiring trying to get to know new companions and figuring out how to work with other people. I am sure that it will be something that I will have to be doing for the rest of my life with work and dating and stuff so I guess I better get used to it.

It has been fun cooking with Elder Molina. That is something that we both enjoy doing together. Today we made a pasta with carabona sauce with bacon and some Pa amb tomaca, which is a thing from Barcelona, bread soaked in tomato and olive oil with a little bit of salt. Pretty good, I really liked it. It has also been fun speaking Spanish all day every day. The fist 2 nights I came home pretty tired from not speaking English haha. Speaking Spanish all the time has helped me realize all the little mistakes I make and how much more I need to work on my pronunciation... Stuff never gets easy around here.

Elder Molina & I have very different styles of teaching and contacting. He is very Boom Bam Bing! Reference, lesson! I work hard but I prefer to build more relationships of trust and teach as we go. He has definitely helped me to step out of my comfort zone a little and be more confident. I do miss Elder Eskelson. We got along really well and both had a lot of fun working here in Santiago. We keep in touch often on the phone. 

It has been raining pretty good here the past couple of days. My feet are soaked right now. I have noticed that I had a big crack in the right shoe of the both pairs that I have so I had to fix them right up with a little super glue. Worked like a charm. 

We have been doing a lot of searching like usual. We were able to find 3 new people and get in touch with some people that have been ignoring our calls. The work is different here than it is in Madrid and Elder Molina found that out quick. His first area was there. We have a small branch, not many people can help us, lots of students on the streets, no latinos, and lots of time to be on the street. 

I am now the oldest in my district... I am not a fan of that. I miss the old district. I got along pretty well with the people that were there that have left. I am getting tired of meeting new missionaries... Hahah it will be fun to see people that I actually know again sometime. 

We have seen some miracles for sure here. It is always amazing to me how quite and soft the voice the spirit has. I have had many occasions where I have a feeling to turn somewhere or stop for a moment or to do something, almost always something that seems very insignificant, where I later realize that I was able to follow the spirit and be where the Lord wanted us to be. I love the little day to day experiences that I have. 

This past Saturday I made about 50 chocolate chip cookies haha. Every fast Sunday the branch stays after church ends and we all eat together and the Elders are in charge of the American cookies :) They were a hit and everyone liked them. 

Well, that is how this past week went. Getting used to a new comp, still in the search for teaching, walking through the rain, and having a blast. 

Love you all and hope that you have a great week! 

Letter #63

Hola! que hay? 

I loved the pictures!!! I was missing the ocean myself but today we got to see it. I will mention that in a second. I am really jealous that you guys went down to San Diego! I still haven't been there yet. That will be a fun place to go to. Everyone is looking great! 

This week went well. We have started to knock more doors. I have always like knocking doors because it gets me to talk to more people. It has always been harder for me(siempre me habia costado) to contact in the street. We have met some pretty cool people and some with some potencial. It also allows us to go to different parts of town where we usually don't go because there aren't people on the street. We are usually in the downtown part of town by all the shopping and stuff, but this week we were able to be in the more old town area with the cool old buildings. It is really refreshing to see new views and switch things up. We met a guy named Casimiro, cool name, it meens, Almost look haha. We followed up on him after recieving his number a couple days later. We knocked his door but he wasnt there but then he ended up showing up and then letting us in and we taught him the Restauracion! He is Gallegan encima! Really cool little miracle for me to see. Hopefully we can teach him this week. 

Santi is no longer in Santiago.. He moved down to Segovia to buscarle la vida, find a job and home and such. I was able to pass the reference down to Elder Weixler, it was good to talk to him for a bit. 

Today I had the coolest pday in the mission! We went with our Branch mission leader to Finisterra! We drove along the coast in his little read Audi for about 2 hours and then reached the End of the World! Back in the days of Colombus it was considered that because it is the farthest west point in Europa! It was beautiful driving there and back! If it be possible I would want to take you, Mom and Dad there. It is kind of out of the way but it would be fun to take a bus out there or drive there or something. Reminded me a little bit of California, it is the west coast, just of Spain :) Pictures will be coming probably next week, I don have much time today. 

The Branch is doing well. Presidente Bolter is doing a good job of trying to get the brach excited to work with us. It has been tough to have set lessons to have members to come to but we will figure it out. 

I love you all and hope that you all have a great week! I am really glad that you could all take a breather down in that Californian ocean air :) 

Elder Jayden

Letter #62

Cathedral  under renovation

 This week went really well. Although, it was kind of a tough one on the streets.  We did not find as many people that were willing to listen to us this week but that is okay. I have been learning to trust in the Lord´s timing in all things.

Conference was great! I was able to watch it with members and an investigator for one of the sessions. I love how straight forward they all were in telling us the things that we need to do! There was not much gray space. It is either right or wrong these days. I watched it all in spanish which was good. I missed hearing their real voices but it was great to hear it in spanish. 

District Elders

Cool Experience... So last year when I was in A Coruña I was with Elder Barragán and one night we found a man that was drunk out of his mind. He could hardly walk so we helped him back to where he told us he lived. We got his name out of him, which was Santi, like Santiago. We left him with a card with our number on it and that was the end of that. This week a man called our attention and told us that he had been meeting with the missionaries down in the south of Spain and wanted to have more charlas from the missionaries here in Santiago! He was going to get baptized there but he moved. We met with him that night and we invited him to follow Christ and be baptized. He expressed to us that he really wanted to make changes in his life and stop drinking and be a better person. That guy was Santi from a year ago! I read back in my journal and was able to confirm it. It is so amazing to me to see how the Lord works! Miracles happen!

I am doing well. I am having fun, working hard, and learning to trust more and more in the Lord. Love you all and hope that you all have a great week! 

Elder Jayden Miles

Letter #61

Q: Favorite Area:

A: My favorite area has probably been this one. It is beautiful and it is fun being getting to know that cultures of so many people and also traveling around our area.  

Q:  My favorite companion:

A: So far, probably Elder Harrop even though we were only comps for a transfer but we shared the same bathroom for 6 months haha. We always had fun just talking and singing and stuff, good guy. 

Q: What bothers you about Spain: 

A: I feel like there is no authority here and you can pretty much get away with anything, I don´t know what cops really do here other than pick up illigal immigrants hahah. Q: Most spiritual moment:

A: I can´t think of a specific one, but I love seeing the changes that people make in order to follow Christ. 

Q:The hardest part of my mission:

A: Has been realizing how much I have needed to change and then actually doing it. I have been humbled many times and have learned many times from my mistakes. But I guess that is probably what is going to help me the most. 

Q: What bothers you about the mission:

A: I hate when people tell us that they are going to meet us and then totally flake on us.. Super annoying!!

This week we saw some miracles. Small miracles more than anything but they were definitely blessings. First of all we were able to set two baptismal fechas for the 25th of October. It is going to take some serious faith and prayer for the investigators to be prepared for that date but I think they will be ready if they do their part. We are trying to do better with exact obedience. I think the fact that we are the older ones out in the mission got to our head and that we figured out what rules were of less importance, like getting to breakfast exactly at 8:30. But we are doing a lot better this week and we have been seeing little tender mercies such as running into investigators that we have not been able to get a hold of or meeting really cool people that have potential. Nothing too big but it has made a difference in the work for sure. 

We getting really tight with Pam's brother´s Restaurant and their employees there. We have not taught any of them but we walk by there every day probably 10 times a day and wave "hi" to them. So you know, you could say that we are pretty tight. We can walk in and chat with them anytime if we want. 

Church went well. We did not have any investigators there but hopefully we will next week for General Conference! I am really excited for conference next week! I have been getting by studying the Ensigns and and now it is time for a bunch of talks to learn from and study! Elder Eskelson just reminded me that this will also be the last conference that I will have out here in the field... weird. 

I splurged a bit and bought peanut butter for a nice price of 4€.. It is so good. That is probably one thing that I have really missed that is out here that I never buy becuase it is pricy. 

I am doing well health wise, no problems. Now on to week 3 of the transfer. Love you all and hope that you have a great week! 

Elder Jayden Miles