Letter #23

This past week was a tough one. Not tough on me but it was a tough week of work. It is more or less a drought up here, in the sense of the word.  Elder Barragán and I contacted and knocked doors a ton this past week but we saw very little fruits. It has been so hard to get any referrals and when we get them half the time they are wrong numbers. I haven´t gotten down from it but I've been wondering what I need to do to see more fruits of our labors. I realize that sometimes there are just hard times, so that is also a possibility. The work up here in Northern Spain is hard.  If we are lucky we will get 2-3 references after contacting for hours. I am still holding together strong and I am determined to get more referrals this week so we can have more lessons. 

Juan Carlos is doing well. Oh that guy. He is working on a few things so he can get baptized. His date was going to be this coming Saturday but it may be a little longer. We gave him a 15 step plan to dejar fumar and also bought him 4 liters of grapefruit juice to drink after every meal when he has an urge to smoke.  He has ganas to dejarlo but it is still a challenge. He is excited that we are preparing him to get baptized though. He thinks that I am some sort of American God or something, haha.  Que pasa Miles, Que Pasa Miles??

Transfers are this next coming Saturday. I am probably staying here one more transfer but there is always that possibility of me leaving. 

The leaders in my branch all changed so that will be fun to get to know all them and workin with them in ward counsel.

The other week we visited a couple in our branch and they asked us to share something profound. The rest of that day while we were waiting to go to their house we were thinking of a profound message. What I realized is that the message of the restored Gospel is very simple and can be easily understood with an open mind and an open heart.  The profound part about the Gospel are the changes that people make in their lives in order to live according to the Gospel. The message of the Gospel itself is not the profound part, it is the way people change their lives around. The message of the restored Gospel is beautiful and interesting and touches the hearts of God's children through the spirit. But it's what we do with this this knowledge... is what is important. Faith, Repentence, Baptism, Holy Ghost, and Endure to the end. 

I love the Gospel and all the blessings that I have seen in my life from trying my best to live it. No matter what challenges we may have or trials that we must live, the Savior is always there for us and we just have to accept him into our lives. God is our Heavenly Father and He loves us. He wants the best for each and everyone of us. He has blessed us with families and with a modern day prophet that we can learn from.  He has shown us the way to return to him by living a life with more purpose and happiness. These things I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, Amen.

Letter #22

Elder Miles A Coruna coast

5 Months!
This past week was so full of things that I will not be able to talk about it all. First off, Elder Barragán and I are doing great. I have learned so much Spanish in the past week that it is crazy. I have that constant practice now and I am feeling a lot more comfortable with calling, contacting and teaching. We are making a good team so far.  We have been teaching pretty well in unidad. 

This week we took a hike out to the outskirts of A Coruña to go visit a less active member that hasn´t been back to church in a long time. He is a dog walker and he lives with hardly anything. No water access, no electricity and his house appears to be abandonded. We really want to help this guy and get him to come back to church. We really had no idea how to get to his house.  All we had were some 3 step directions that he gave us and a map that didn´t have names of the streets of where he was living. A long the way we had to ask some people where this place was and they responded in Gallego which was not too much of help but we managed. We ended up finding this guy walking literally out of the forrest with all five of his dogs. Dogs that ranged from horse size down to a little pup. He asked how we found him because we had already passed his house at that point. We had a lesson at this place and I hope that he allows us to return so that we can help him.

My new companion, Elder Barrigan

Elder Barragán and I have been doing a lot of street contacting.  We haven´t had much luck with recieving correct numbers which has kind of felt like a waste of time but we continue onward.

Remeber the Cubano Juan Carlos..? He has a baptismal date and he wants me to babtize him! He is a very hard one to teach because he likes to talk wayyy too much. He has been effected in the head by the fact that he was in the army when he was 17 and he saw some pretty crazy stuff. He tells us that he has a testimony and that he feels the spirit but it is really hard to know or not if he is really understanding the lessons that we are teaching. I just pray that he can change. It is always super hard to get out of his house under an hour and a half because he will just talk and talk and talk and never allows an opportunity to leave. We have to tell him multiple times that we have to leave and have our backpacks on and pretty much have to be standing up to get out of there. It is really a patience tester. His date is the 31st, in which he has to quit smoking as well :) I will keep you informed about good 'ol Juan Carlos.

Those are pretty much the highlights from this week. Other crazy stuff happened but I don´t have time enough to explain it all.. 

Thank you for your emails and all the prayers for me. I love you all and I hope that you have a great week!!

Love Elder Miles

#21

Dear Mom,

I had a great week this week. I am doing great and working hard.  Mom, I loved hearing about the dream that you had :) I have dreams all the time where I come home and get to see all of you.  A lot of the time I try to speak Spanish with Dad and I can understand him! Something that I always pray for is that you all have the spirit with you and that you know that I am doing all right and that you are not worrying too much about me. I feel that dream that you had was an answer to my prayers :)

I got the package that you sent me this morning!! Thank you so much! Everything in there was absolutely perfect! The other Elders get jealous of me because I have gotten a couple of packages from you and from Carly. They claim that I get one every week, but that is not true... haha.

This past week was great! I was able to witness a couple of milagros (miracles) which was something that I have been praying for as well. For one, yesterday the chapel was absolutely packed! Normally we have around 80 people that attend church but yesterday we had 115! The people that we have been inviting to come are actually coming! :) There were not enough seats so we had to go grab more. That was super cool to see. 

Also a man stopped us on the street and asked us if we could visit him and if he could come to church with us. He was completely sober and seemed like a nice guy! The work is going fine out here. Although, all of the people that Elder Bird and I started teaching have stopped answering their phones and doors. That has been pretty annoying!  I will not stop calling them and trying to get a hold of them until they tell me to stop or tell me that they are not interested! 

I got my new companion today!! President just shipped him up here after giving him a days notice, haha. His name is Elder Barrigán and he is from Mexico! I have a native speaking companion! I am way stoked about him! I am going to learn so much Spanish! He has 19 months in the mission and he seems like a great guy! We have a lot of work to do to find new people.

Thanks so much for all that you do Mom.  I love you so much and miss you. I am doing just great! 

I love you!

Elder Jayden Miles 

#20

Things are pretty much back to normal here in A Coruña. The madness from the train crash last week has died down. I am still in a trio and I am expecting to be in one until at least the end of the transfer. We all get along really well and we have learned to teach in unity with three of us. Contacting in the streets with three is still a little tough, we all just have our own initiative to contact and find people. I was so determined to have a better week. I continued to pray for charity, love and patience. I have felt pretty at ease with everything and I have been able to love the people here a lot more. Prayer is amazing! I hardly ever see instant results but things always seem to work out. God is always there for us and we just have to trust in His will.

Monday:

Pday was alright. We had a lot of things that we had to do, such as clean the piso. Wood floors are the worst! They get so dusty and they are impossible to keep clean. At least with carpets it appears clean. The Hermanas gave us a recipe so we could make some cookies. We have an investigator who I will explain in more depth in a minute, but he was insistant on giving us wine, It was a nice jesture but he just didn´t understand that we can´t drink alcohol. Instead he gave us some apple cider... 4.1% alcohol. He gave it to us so we could take it home. We were all excited for a nice cold glass of liquid gold until I found out that there was alcohol in it. Elder Williams just poured it down the drain. We felt bad that we couldn't drink his gift so we were going to make him cookies to say thanks. Yeah.. those cookies did not turn out. We don´t know what went wrong with those. They just were terrible. We couldnt insult him like that.

Tuesday: So this investigators name is Juan Carlos, just like every other person that live here. Excuse me for the comparison, but he reminds me a little bit like Lenny in the book "Of Mice and Men". He has the best of intentions and he has a big heart but he is just a hard guy to listen to. He absolutly adores the United States. He is from Cuba and he hates that country. We can´t have a conversation without his mentioning how bless the United States is. The problem we have with this guy is that he won´t let us get a word in edgewise. He will just ramble on and on and on and on..... It is so frustrating and it is next to impossible to leave the guys house! We tried to have english classes with him but he ended up telling us his grave sin or cursing a man with black african vudoo! He told us that 2 weeks later that man died of cancer! We have some work to do with him..

Those two days were the only ones that were really making note of. We have been crazy busy, literally running to get to buses and make it to lessons. I always wonder what it looks like to the people on the streets when they see 3 American boys sprinting through the streets with white shirts and ties on. I guarantee that they think that those Testigos are crazy ;)

I got a reference from some other elders for a man named Sheriff John Brown! Awesome name. I called him up the other day and he was so glad to here that I was a missionary from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He told me that Jesus was his holy coffee and his holy sugar! I can´t wait to meet with this guy this Saturday. He also told me that he has been shot 3 times and his family was killed and that he believes that Jesus is why he is still alive. He has got some real potential.

This past week has flown by! It was so much faster than the last. I had a lot more animo and was not so concentrated in if I was working hard enough. My stress level has gone way down and I have been working harder. 

Thank you so much for all of your prayers :) Your support for me in this work means the most! I know that I am on the Lord's errand and that I am called to serve. I know this church is true and that this is the way to eternal happiness!!

I love you so much and I hope that you have an awesome week :) 

Elder Miles

PS.  Thanks so much mom for the advice and comfort you have given me! It has helped me a ton. I am so glad that you  served a mission!

#19

Train Wreck with Elder Ward:

I don´t even know where to begin with this email from the past week... It has been a challenging one.

Monday: Elder Bird left early in the morning to Madrid. I did Pday, nothing too exciting. An Elder from El Ferrol, Elder Alverez, came down to A Coruña because his companion left as well, so I was with him.  The new Sister Missionaries arrived that night. Elder Ward was supposed to be on that train with the hermanas but he somehow got the wrong ticket and had to take the train the next day. I met my new companion, Elder Kunz. He is from Texas and seems like a pretty cool guy. I really haven´t been able to get to know him because he has been with Elder Alverez in Ferrol for the past week now. Elder Ward was going to take the train to A Coruña and then a bus to Ferrol. Monday I was with Elder Kunz and Alverez for the night. 

Tuesday: Pretty usual day. I was still in the trio with Kunz and Alverez. Tuesday night was when Elder Ward was supposed to arrive to A Coruña. There was another change and that night I was with Elderes Williams and Kunz. We were the ones that were supposed to pick Elder Ward up at the train station. We waited and noticed that his train was late. The time changed and we almost decided to go back to the piso and then come back an hour later to pick him up. After waiting and talking to other people waiting for the train to arrive we found out that the train had wrecked. The train station claimed that they didn´t know anything other than the train had wrecked. People in the train station were crying and freaking out trying to call their loved ones that were on the train but nobody would answer. We contacted President Jackson and all the APs and our zone leaders and notified them what had happened. We stayed at the train station and waiting for news of this train. We gave all the information we knew about this Elder that was on the train and then all we could do was wait. After about 2 hours of waiting and calling people we finally were informed that Elder Ward was found on the train and that he was on his way to A Coruña by Ambulance. We rushed over to the hospital where he was and met people from our branch there and waited again for time to see how he was doing. I never got to meet Elder Ward, he sounded like a great guy though. The president sent him back to Madrid to watch over him so he will no longer be in our area. That was an insane night. I didn't get back to the piso until 4am. The next day was impossible to wake up.   
Mormon missionary survives Spain train wreck

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A young Mormon missionary and cancer survivor from Utah who lived through the Spain train crash that left 80 dead said Thursday he remembers the train lifting off the tracks "like a roller coaster" before he blacked out and awoke to a "gruesome" scene.

Stephen Ward, 18, was one of at least five Americans hurt Wednesday when the train hurtled off the rails and smashed into a security wall. One American died, the U.S. State Department said.

Letter #18

To start off, I am still in A Coruña, same address & everything. Elder Bird has been transfered to the office in Madrid. I am really going to miss him.  He was an awesome trainer! My new companion is Elder Kunz. He is coming tonight por el tren.

This week we had a Zone Conference in Vigo :) It was a good time and I learned some good things from the presidente. We were able to have a p-day together which was a good time.

The rest of the week was pretty usual. We did contacting and met with investigators. The work up in A Coruña is definitely hard. I don't have anything to compare it to because I have never served anywhere else- pero bueno, todo esta bien. My goal this week is to really work hard on contacting in the streets. It has been my goal many times before but I am going to seriously focus on that. I am going to be in charge of the area for a couple weeks until Elder Kunz feels comfortable so I am really going to work hard on getting lessons and staying in tune with the spirit. I have been nervous all day to see how this week goes but I know that through the Lords power anything is possible. God is all powerful and if I am willing to do His will, He will be with me all the way. 

We had the baptism of Kenia this Sunday!! It was exciting to see her get babtized. She has had a baptismal date the whole time that I've here and it finally happened. She was so excited :) I was able to be a witness.  I also lead the hymns during the program. Her husband, Javier, Is a recent convert and he was able to baptize her which was super special. When he put her in the water he did it pretty hard...and I got wet.. Not too wet but it was really funny :) 

Yesterday was mainly despeidos for Elder Bird since he is leaving. We were able to meet with some members and eat a lot of food. I was able to play a little guitar as well :) 

Another change this week... We have two more Elder's moving into our piso this week.  That will make 4 of us in this small apartment. The Hermana's are moving in their old apartment. How nice ;) I am excited to see how this transfer goes! It is going to be tough living with all four of us in one piso but we are going to make it work. Our hot water heater broke this week but we got it fixed today. 

I hope that everything is fine at home and that everyone is safe and happy! :) 

I love and miss you all. I know that the church is true and I am so happy to be able to serve! 

Love Elder Miles

Letter #17

St. Sebastian Castle, Vigo, Spain (1600's)

I am in Vigo right now for a Zone Conference. The President and the APs are here along the whole rest of the Zone. We had a picnic in a castle on a hill and we played some fútbol as always. It has been kind of hectic but fun nonetheless.
My week was awesome! Our numbers of lessons and contacts didn´t really show it but we have had some success with progressing investigators. We have a babtism all set up with a program and everything for a woman named Kenia. She is married to a very recent member, really nice. I am so stoked to see a babtism that I got to help a little bit with. She could have been babtized a while ago but she just wanted to wait until her birthday. Next out inverstigators Pablo and Estefraní came to church yesterday!! I was super excited to see them there. Pablo has had a hard time believing if there is a God. He follows through with all the commitments that we ask of him and he continues to meet with us. So, how can he not believe? I was fasting really hard for him this week. 

My Spanish has improved a lot this week. It is coming slowly but surely. Even Pablo told me that my Spanish has improved while I was at their house! I was really glad to hear that. As I look back on these 4 months I have learned so much!! Gospel Wise and Spanish Wise! :) It is really exciting. 

Transfer calls are this next Saturday. The four of us Elders in A Coruña are trying to predict what will happen. I am pretty sure that Elder Bird is leaving and that I am going to get a new companion. It really is all up in the air right now. I am excited to see what happens. It is weird to me that living my mission life seems like it will be forever.  But, then at the same time it feels SO temporary. There are so many changes and it is not good to get too comfortable. The time has really been flying by!

Thanks everyone that has sent me an email. I really love you all :)

I am doing great physically, mentally and spiritually so it's all good.

Love Elder Miles