Letter #70

January 12, 2015

Hello family! 

Well I am just going to jump into what happened this week. I am tired again! 

This week went well. We were able to see a lot of people that we have not been able to see in a little while. We found some new people to teach which I am excited for that. Elder Heslington and I are doing great. Something that I like about our companionship is that we are constantly trying to improve our efforts. Sometimes it is easy to slow down and complain when things don´t go as planned but we just keep on keeping on. 

Something cool that I saw this week. We are teaching a family that has been having troubles with alcohol. We had a lesson on the word of wisdom and the Dad, who is the one who drinks.  He understands that he needs to stop but the lesson was crazy. He was arguing with his wife and blaming everything on her. It was sad to see and I tried to show compassion to his wife so she understood that we were on her side getting him to quit. We had a lesson with them 2 days earlier and it was completely different. The spirit was really strong and everyone was chill and it was just amazing. I know that the gospel blesses families. We are working with them for baptism and most of all getting a testimony of the Book of Mormon. There was just such a big difference between the two lessons and it was a miracle for me to see. 

One of our investigators decided to come to church yesterday! He had to decide whether he was going to help out with work or come to church and he decided to come to church. It was awesome to see him there. I feel like we saw progression this week.

One of the kids in our ward got his mission call and he wanted to open it up with just his family and us 4 Elders there. He is awesome and has been waiting for this call since I got here. He helps us out with visits and stuff and we are good friends. It was cool to see that excitement. He is going the Spain Malaga Mission and leaves in April. He announced this call to all of his other friends later that day just how I did mine. 

We went to Toledo today. That is a cool city. I have been there a lot now but I am excited to show Mom and Dad. 

Jenna: Congrats on the patriarchal blessing and on the service trip! That so cool that you are going to Cambodia. When are you leaving and for how long? 

Josh: Keep on working hard man. It seems like you are enjoying the mission life. 

Jonny: Hope school and stuff is going well. sent me a pic of you hitting up a box on your skiis :) 

Mom and Dad: I love you guys! The coolest Parents that I could ever ask for! 

Pday goes by too fast sometimes haha.. Well back to the old grind.

Love you all!   Elder Miles

Letter #69

Jan. 5, 2015

Happy New Years to you all!! It is crazy that 2015 is here already! New Years went well. We had a nice dinner with a sister in the ward. She has been feeding us a lot lately and its always really good :)  The four elders always eat together when members invite us over to eat and it is always fun. We take the Metro together and ride over and then we visit and get to know the members better. There were lots of fireworks that went off on New Years Eve. Where I live there were not many that shoot up in the air and sparkle and stuff, although there are some even it being a city with 5 story buildings, but most of it was firecrackers and things of the sort. Our window in our bedroom is right next to our bunk bed so we just lay in bed and stuck out heads out the window to listen to the war zone of fireworks around us. It was pretty fun just Elder Heslington and I. 

As I most likely explained last year everyone who wants to experience the real New Year goes down to La Puerta del Sol, which would compare to Time Square. Everyone counts down and the when the clock tower strikes 12 everyone tries to eat 12 grapes in 12 seconds. Keep in mind that the grapes here have seeds. That is what everybody does here. Tomorrow is los Reyes and I feel like it is bigger than Christmas here. 

This week went well.  We didn´t get very many lessons which I was disappointed about, but we worked hard with what we had. We did a lot of contacting and calling and Area Book work. We met a lot of cool people and we have been able to set a couple things up with them. 

Our three main investigators that were progressing before have come to a complete halt... So frustrating. I have wracked my brain trying to think of things to share to help them realize how important the Gospel really is but it has been pulling teeth trying to meet with people. I respect their agency but I just wish that they understood better. 

We had a Family Home Evening (Noche de Hogar) with the Sarrango family. They are from Ecuador. Hermana Sarrango has her brother living with them who is also one of those investigators that has stopped progressing. We organized it all a week before and when we showed up Javier (the brother) Didn´t want to be there for it... It was really annoying for me but it was sad for Hermana Sarrango... She prayed while she was coming home from work that our message would help her understand better how she can help her brother and then he didn´t want to come out and listen. We explained the Gospel by using a Tea Bag, I can show that one at home. It really hit her how she just needs to continue on with her faith and enduring. She cried and was really grateful for the message. 

She also explained about her mission a little bit and how she was frustrated that people would not get baptized. And she basically said what Mom said in her email that there are a lot of missionaries that are called to be seed planters. That really hit me coming from Hermana Sarrango and then reading it again from Mom. Hearing this helped me realize more of what I have done here on the mission. I have never had lots of success with getting people to come to church or getting people baptized but I am grateful for what I have been able to do in this huge work! 

I am glad that you all had such a great week. I loved hearing about you going sledding and skiing and watching movies and just being together. That is how I pictured home being like during the Christmas break season. Thank you for the google drive pictures! I loved them. Everyone looks great! 

I thought it was funny how all of you said something about me coming home... I have less than 2 months. Mind blown!!! It is such a strange thought... I feel so comfortable here in the mission life. Even though everyday has its different challenge it just all seems so normal to me. Mom, remember that I am here in Europe where you can´t really be too sheltered from the world. I am sure that there are many differences for the worse but I have gotten a taste of that here as well. Sheeze!! It was cool to hear that Jonny is doing boxes and rails on skis! I hear that it is harder on skis than snowboards to do the park, so props on that one man. It was good to hear from you all and sorry about my lame excuse of an email last week! 

Josh! Your area seems really cool! You sound like you are living like a king down there.  All your fancy scripture cases and handmade ties. That is super cool! I met another family that was from Guatemala. I feel like I have more of the Guatemalan accent more than you have now ;) haha with all that Kiche. I like it though, it is just very latino. Que te vaya bien en todo y que aproveches de cada momento que tienes. Sigas el consejo de nuestro padre sabio. Ame el Evangelio, tu compañero, y la gente a tu alrededor. Dígame cuando recibes tu corbata. Que la quiero ver. Cioa tio. 

Love you guys and hope that everything is going great!! 

Letter #68

Dec. 15, 2014

Hey family,

Had a pretty good week this week here in Madrid. The work is a lot quicker here. The members are all pumped up to do missionary work and they feed us just about every day! The metro makes everything close by and we have some really good progressing investigators. I miss the little branch up in Santiago but this area is fun too. 

My comp. Elder Heslington and I are getting along great. It has been fun to work with him.   He and I are pretty similar which has been fun. I have been doing the majority of the talking in lessons and street contacting but he is studying really hard to pick up on the Spanish. 

There is another companionship here in Barrio 4 so that has been fun to be with other Elders more often. They live in another piso across town but we see them just about everyday when we eat with the members. 

It has been really fun to get to know everyone here. I feel really confident in my Spanish so I have been able to get to know people a lot quicker. The majority of the members here are Latinos. They are all super nice and love the Elders. I have been trying really hard to make a good impression on the members so that we can work together well. 

This week we made a ton of calls to meet with people. We have an investigator named Hector who has a baptismal date this month on the 20th. We hope that we are able to get him ready for it. We also met with a new investigator named Leonardo who has a ton of potencial! 

Lately I have heard a lot from all the other Elders that I know that are here in Madrid. Elder Williams, Eskelson, Harrop, Weixler, Avila. It has been fun to be close to them all of them. 

Today we had to drop by a skate shop that is right next to our piso. I talked to the guy that owns it and asked him where some cool spots were and how skating is in Spain. He says that there are a lot of people that go to Barcelona to skate! It was fun to be able to be back in my old element. 

Well skyping next week! We will be on around 4-5pm this time which will be around 7 or 8 your time! Cant wait to see you guys again!!

Hope that you all have a great week! 

Love, 

Elder Jayden Miles

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