#2 March 28, 2013  Happy Birthday Jayden!!

Hello my family!

Thank you so much for the warm birthday wishes!  Thursdays are my Pdays just so you guys know.  I am glad that I have a PDay on my Birthday. I was able to go do a session at the Temple this morning and it was great. Thank you so much for the candy and that awesome blanket!! Me and my roommates think it is so cool.

My companion is Elder Berry.  We went to High School together and lives over by Summit Academy in Draper! He is an awesome guy and we get along pretty well. My roommates are Elder Larsen and Elder Wiexler.  They are some of the funniest guys that I have ever met.

Things are going very well in the CCM(Español).  There are probably around 60 Elders and hermanas here. We are all brand new and this is the largest amount of missionaries that the Spain CCM has had.  Most of the Missionaries here are from Utah!

I have had some amazing experiences here in Spain already.  Last Thursday we all got to go down to the center of Madrid and proselyte to random people on the streets.  It was very hard. I know barely any Spanish and a conversation is very difficult to have when I can barley understand them.  It was a very humbling experience because lots of the other Elders and Sisters got to place Book of Mormons but me and my companion didn’t have any luck with talking to someone for more than 30 seconds.  I loved being in the city though and my love for the country and people grew that day.

I gave my first blessing.  One of the Hermanas was sick and she asked for me and Elder Berry to give her a blessing.  We gave it with my district in our little classroom. I could feel the spirit so stongly when the words of comfort and peace poured out of my mouth.

Every night my roommates and I have a family night.  We just talk about our lives before the mission and share pictures and stuff.   That has helped me to get to know them a lot better and I have become to love them.

The Spain Temple is beautiful.  This morning while I was there I felt so close to you guys.  I felt the Love our Savior and your love for me.

Some scripture that I really like and have been using to teach. 3^rd Nefi capitulo 11 y 2^nd Nefi capituloo 31.  We have had the opportunity to teach fake investagators.  Elder Berry and I have to prepare a lesson in Spanish and teach two of our teachers like it  is a real situation in the field.  Our teachers are really in character and it is very hard to but I love it.  It has been very good practice.

I hope that all off you are doing well.  You are all in my prayers, morning evening and night.  I know that the Lord is with you and He loves you.  I have missed you but I know this is where I am supposed to be.

I love you guys so much and I can´t wait to talk to you next Thursday.

It is really hard to send letters for me because it is a 15 minute walk down to the Correos to get stamps and I don´t have any time to go down there.  The MTC is an open campas which is super cool.  I am so glad that I am not stuck in the Provo MTC…

You are welcome to send letters in the mail but it is difficult for me to respond to them other than EMAIL.

The Lord is with you and I love you.

Love Elder Miles

#1 March 19, 2013

¡Hola mi familia!

I have made it safe to the Madrid MTC.  It was sad to leave but I was immediately comforted by those around me in the security line. One man congratulated me on my call and gave me twenty dollars and told me to go get myself something nice to eat! There were about 15 there elders and 4 sisters on my flight from Paris to Madrid.  Everything went very smoothly with me and getting on the airplanes and going through customs.  The flights felt very long but I was able to sit next to my new buddy, Crayton. I do not remember his fist name.. We have a ton in common. We both are way into music and he skateboards and longboards.  

After we all got our luggage we were picked up from people that work at the MTC. When we were picked up all our drivers spoke was Spanish. They can speak English but they chose to make it very difficult for us. I loved it though, I am so excited to learn the Spanish language. 

I have been at the MTC for about 4 hours now and I have loved it so far.  We first had a language evaluation and I think that I did pretty well. The evaluation was to decide what level of Spanish class to put me in.  I also had an interview with one of the MTC´s presidency counselor. That went well.  I am sharing a room with 5 other Elders.  The room looks exactly like they do on LDS.org.  Sorry I am probably all over the place and I hope it is not to annoying to read.

All of the missionaries that I flew out with were from Utah!! It´s crazy that there are so many that are serving in Spain.  We have all gotten along very well and we are all excited. 

I ate a delicious authentic Spanish meal.  I still do not know how to describe the Spanish food but I will work on that and give you a description later.

I am not sure who my companion is yet and I don´t know how I can send pictures yet but I think I will find out tomorrow. 

I miss you guys but I am having a great time and don´t worry about me too much.  I love you all very much!! I am so excited to update you on all of the cool experiences that I am going to have.

I am safe and I am having an awesome time.

Love you all,

Elder Jayden Miles

Thank You

I had my Farewell talk at church today.  I feel satisfied about giving it. I am so excited for the 19th to leave to Madrid and start serving! I would like to thank all of you who came and supported me today, it really meant a ton to me that you came.
I want to let my parents know how much I love them.  They are the best parents a kid could ask for. They are my best friends. I am going to miss them an incredible amount but I know that I am doing the right thing by leaving for two years.
Mom, I love you. I am so appreciative of all the things that you have done for me. I can not even begin to list off all things that you have done for me throughout my life! I love you so much, Mom. I am going to make sure that you get my letters and take good pictures in Spain for you. It feels like the whole family is coming with me like our last Europe trip but i am going alone and I could not have asked for a better mother to raise and prepare me to serve a mission.
Dad, you have been such an awesome example to me of what kind of man that I want to be when I grow up. I want to be as hard working, loving, caring, thoughtful, and spiritually strong as you one day.       You are the best dad in the whole wide world! I am going to miss you so much too. I hope that I will have some exciting stories to share with you and Mom.
I am sorry for those who are not my Mom and Dad that are following this blog but i just want to publicly let them know how much I love them. My parents are very important to me and I want everyone to know that.
I am leaving soon. I have my plane ticket, my visa, my passport and I am ready to get on that jet plane.

My Visa for Spain has been approved and I am going to the Provo MTC to pick it up on Friday. I am hoping to see all the other missionaries that have been called to Spain and have also been waiting for their Visas.
I have been practicing some Spanish guitar to hopefully help bond me with the natives. I have been also practicing Spanish with mi padre. He told me that with Spanish you really have to have a loose tongue to roll the 'r's and I found that similar to playing Spanish guitar. To pick and strum as fast as a true Spaniard you must have a loose hand and really just flail it around on the strings.
As it gets closer to leaving I feel like I never have enough time in the day. I have been waking up earlier to try and start getting used to the missionary schedule. Most the time in the morning when I wake up I find that I really don't feel like doing anything else besides sleeping. The snooze button has become very tempting. I have exactly three weeks left before I leave. There is never enough time to spend with mi familia.
I know the next two years are going to fly by and I hope I have prepared enough to be ready for it. I will keep you all posted with the hard work and good times I will be having in Spain.

February 11th 2013

Getting ready to leave for my mission to Spain, Madrid.  My farewell is March 10th at 1pm.  I'm excited to get out there and serve the Lord.  I picked up my suits today and they are pretty classy.  Anyways... follow this blog to see what is going on with my mission.