Letter # 56

I love reading about your weeks back home! Time has started to feel very strange to me lately. I feel like I have enough time left in the mission field but at the same time I feel like I don´t have enough! I know what is left is going to fly by though. I just hope that I will feel satisfied with the work I have done-mas que todo. I also hope the Lord is satisfied with the work I have tried to do. 

Dad & Mom, I would love to show you guys my areas. They are kind of spread out now since I am back up in Galicia. I could for sure show you some cool places though :) Life just feels so normal for me here now. I usually drop by a bakery every week for either for a un barra de pan or some sort of pastery. I take advantage of medio día and the Spaniards definitely do as well. There is usually no one in sight when it is from 2 to around 6 in the evening. They sleep for a little longer than we get to....! There is a festivo here about every week which makes things a lot more complicated.  All there are is tourists with backpacking gear that take the road to Santiago when it is festivo. I also love a good bowel of lentejas with pan de galicia, or a nice slice of empanada gallega. I have been picking up a little more on gallego here. It is very similar to Portuguese so it was fun to be comps with Elder Ávila for a transfer and hear all his random Portuguese words that he would throw into his Spanish. My Spanish is good. I wish that I had a comp that was willing to speak it all the time but es lo que hay. Maybe someday I will come back and study in Salamanca to perfect it. I definitely want to minor in Spanish. It really is the celestial language :) 

My week went well. We contacted, contacted, contacted. We did manage to find 4 new investigators though! I am really excited for them! We found a kid that is from here and wants to learn how to become a better person and wants to learn more about God, a girl our age from Brasil who is open to listen, and a Romanian couple that a member family hooked us up with. I am so grateful for people that will at least listen to the reason why we are here. So may people assume and just don´t want anything to do with God.. It is tough and makes me sad but I know that their time will come. 

Saturday was an interesting day, we got the door slammed in our faces by some Catholic Priest. We were actually looking for an old investigator and he didn´t let us get a word in edge wise. He just said that he didn´t have time or interest and that he was a priest.  We were just trying to see if a guy named Marcos was lived there... He told us to get out because we had bad manners.. very christlike I just have to say..haha! Then about 30 minutes later two drunk guys with there shirts off stopped us and tried to get us to come get a beer with them. "vamos al beer!" is what they said. They were pretty persistent because they were literally grabbing us and trying to drag us to a bar-haha. They couldn't really budge us since they were about a foot shorter than us. When we walked away Elder Eskelson said,"wow, so that is what peer presure feels like." I thought that was good! 

It is crazy to see how grown up Jonny and Jenna are getting. They look like they are having fun together though :) It is super cool that Jonny has braces now! That was a surprise to me! And now he has a longboard, a pretty sick one at that! 

You´re the best Mom with the packages. The Correos is pretty far away from my piso but I will be willing to hike up there to get it. I have been in search of water flavoring packets for a while but I have not had any luck. Don´t let the package weigh too much, those things get expensive to send. 

Love you! 

Love Elder Jayden Miles

Letter #55

Elder Miles in Santiago, Spain

 This week was a fun week of updates from you all! I am glad that Dad is starting to feel better. It sounds like Jenna is just having a blast with all her friends. Mom, I am glad that you are doing well. Sounds like everyone is doing great and having fun with their lives. Malad sounds like a cool little place. I will be looking foward to visiting Grandma and Grandpa Miles out there. 

I was suprised to find out that I was getting transfered to the North again. I have always thought that it would be cool to come back up here but I never thought that was actually going to be able to happen. I actually really wanted to come to this area, so it is a huge blessing for me to be here. Galicia is beautiful and breathtaking. It is so green and the weather is perfect right now. We did have a couple days of rain this week, but it was nice in contrast to the beaming Talavera sun. 

There are a lot of tourists here. This is the final destination of the Road to Santiago. There are people from all over the world that come here to see the Santiago Catedral. It is actually pretty fun to see people from all over, but it does make it a little more challanging to contact on the street. We have been doing a lot of that up here. The people here are really nice when you get to know them or when they give you time to talk to them. They are a lot more closed off than any of my other areas. It is the 2nd most populated Catholic place in the world though. The city is beautiful. I was whiped out all week last week from getting used to all the hills here. My legs are sore my knees are tired, my shoes are doing fine though. 

I got meet the branch yesterday. There are some really fun/nice members. I actually gave a talk for my first Sunday here. It was on Faith and how through faith we are able to stand strong and be brave. I think that was only my 2nd talk that I have had to give in the mission so it was not bad. I love the Gallegan accent. There is a definite difference from Madrid and Galicia in the way that they talk. If you remember from when I was up here about a year ago, a lot of people speak Gallego. I have been trying to let the accent stick to me so we will see how that goes. You could almost compare it to an Argentinan accent and an Italian accent combined with the Castellano Z(theta.) I love the culture here in Spain! 

Elder Miles and Elder Eskelson

Elder Eskelson is a really good guy. He walks pretty fast, but maybe I have just noticed that because of all the hills here. He is a really hard worker. We both have a good vision for this area, we really want to help it grow. 

It sounds like for a long time this area has been the same. There have been some baptisms but a lot of people move away or fall away. Santiago has only been open since the beginning of this year so there has only been a handful of companionships up here. I know that if I let it, this area will break me and form me into a more pacient and hard working missionary/person. I think I am going to learn to rely even more on faith and obedience here. I want to become stronger and learn more but I also want to take the area itself and break it and form it into a better area. I have been a seed planter for the majority of my mission, it has been tough but it has also been fun. I would really love to see some true progression here. The branch is awesome and they are pumped up to help us but we just have to figure out an effective way to use them. We have maybe 2 or 3 investigators right now and I feel like we can find a lot more. Well those are my outlooks for this area and for the next couple months for Santiago!!! God Speed!!

David was baptized the week after I left

Los 3 Muscateros de Talavera
Love you all and I hope that everything goes well this week.

Elder Miles

P.S- Answers to Mom's questions-

1-Area, comp, y tal arriba.

2-The greatest thing that I have learned on my mission so far is that... hard one to put into words. I know that God is our Heavely Father and that He knows each and everyone of us. I know that he is perfect and that the plan, the Gospel, he has made for us is perfect. I also know that even though we are all so different in this world, with different lives, experiences, trials, but the Gospel blesses all of us in the same way. 

3-The hardest thing on my mission has been the amount of time that I have had to spend on the streets. It is fun to meet people but when it's are all day, I get exhausted and my pacience gets warn down. I feel so much more purpose when we have a set lesson and it goes well. I know that being on the street and finding is a part of my purpose though. 

4- I just love the Gospel in general. I love how key Jesucristo is to it. He fullfiled the will of the Father without a single mistake. 

5-I wanted to buy some peanutbutter today from Carrefore but it was 4 Euro!! There are lots of things that I miss about the U.S. At the moment I can´t really think of them. I have grown in some American Pride since I have been out. I miss Road Trips and National Parks. 

Letter #54

August 4, 2014

Transfer Day:)

It was sad to say goodbye to Talavera. I was there for 6 months and I became very close to the members and my investigators. I gave my testimony at church and let everyone know how grateful I was for everything.

This morning I took a train and 2 buses to get to my new area. President sent me back up north!! I am in Santiago de Compostela! I pulled into A Coruña today and then from there I met my comp, Elder Eskelson. I flew with him from home to Spain. We have been out the same time. He is from Logan, Utah. We worked together when I was in Madrid a couple times. It is so strange to be back up here again. I thought that I would never be able to see this place again, but I lucked out! I am back with my Gallegan People. Elder Harrop was also transfered but Elder Ávila is still in Talavera.

Thanks mom for sending Ávila a package. I am really grateful for that and I am sure that he will be as well. Don´t be surprised if he sends you an email in response. I am going to miss that guy. I have a home on his Island now:)

I am going to keep things short. David didn´t end up getting baptized. We went through a ton of hassle to get the baptismal font but it turns out that he needs a little bit more preparation. It’s a bummer that I was not able to see him get baptized but as long as he does I will be happy.

Love you all and I hope that you have an awesome week!

Elder Jayden Miles

Letter #53

July 28, 2014

It is unbelievable to me to think that Josh is in Guatemala right now. The photos helped though, thank you. I am glad that he is doing well. I wish that I could have been there to say goodbye and to wish him luck at least. He is going to do awesome though!

I am doing well. The heat is going to be the death of me. It is 100 and up everyday with either hot wind or still air all day everyday. I can´t wear a backpack or anything because it is just too hot to have anything on my back. A big contrast to last year in A Coruña that´s for sure. People are leaving the city and going on vacations, no one is on the street anymore so we have been doing some door knocking. Yesterday we knocked doors for an hour straight and 4 people out of 100 doors actually answered. The 4 that answered were not interested. The work has been a little bit frustrated by the summer and so have I a little but I am glad that I have 2 awesome companions. I couldn´t do it with out them. Elder Harrop is always ready to hit the pavement and work hard and Elder Ávila is always ready to help people. and then I just do what I do. we are a good team. 

David’s baptism will be next week. I hope that someday the work that I have done here will build the branch so that the Elders in 5 or 10 years will be able to get more work done. 

Everything is going well here though. The transfer ends here this week so we will see if The Lord wants me to finish training Elder Ávila or if he wants me somewhere else. I will do which ever He wants me to do. 

Love you all!

Elder Jayden Miles

#52

Sounds like you guys had an awesome time with the Taylors! I love the pictures you posted on google drive. Sorry I have not been so good with pictures lately, just because I have not really done anything cool for P-day lately. I feel a little trapped in the city. I have been itching to get out to the wilderness or something. We have talked about going fishing in the river here. I feel okay about staying here. The area has completely changed just with putting the two areas together and having a new companionship. I know the city like the back of my hand and I feel comfortable with all the members and the investigators so it has been a lot of fun. 

This week I had an interesting thing happen. We were on our way to go knock doors and 3 guys stopped us. I figured that it would be to talk about who we were and why we are here but it turned out to be 3 guys that work for immagration. They asked us to take out our residency cards, which I don´t have. I have a long story about all of that which started when I got my wallet stolen in the metro. They ended up taking me away from my comps and putting me in their car and driving me to the immagrations office in Talavera. My companions were to meet me at the office when they were done checking me. So I drove away in the car of 3 immigration officers. It was not bad, they were talking about the world cup so I asked about who was playing that night and then they talked about how USA was doing pretty well this year. They checked out my story and the next day I was finaly able to put down my fingerprints so Ï could get my new card. I have been trying to update my immigration card for the for the past 6 months! So it actually worked out very well. Now I am legal in Spain again. It was a fun experience. I was a little nervous at first but it made for a good story. 

David should be getting baptized this Sunday. He has true desire to be baptized! It has been amazing to see him change from the moment that I stopped him on the street until now. I don´t think I will be the one baptizing him... just becuase he wants my companion to do it for some reason. I think I am to serious with him or something haha. I get him to get stuff done! 

President Jackson and his wife came down to Talavera yesterday. It was a pretty chaotic Sunday as usual in our little branch but it was good for them to see that. They came down to interview us three just to see how we are doing. We don´t get to see much of President like you do in Madrid. 

Training has been fun. There is a whole program that you follow called "12 Weeks" We get an extra hour to study and pratice so that Elder Ávila can feel a little more comfortable about teaching. Josh will probably be doing the same! I can´t believe that he only has 2 weeks left. Those are are going to fly by. He seems very prepared though. He is going to do awesome!! 

For the 4th of July, I cooked up some Peach Cobbler which turned out great! We also ordered a bunch of chicken for lunch. We have made the goal here to start eating a lot more healthy. This week Ï bought 3 premade salads, fruit, meat and cereal. We have been running in the morning and doing p90x at night. If you want to get fit abs I would recommend it. Abb ripper X!! 

Well that is basically all that went down this week. I have been studying the Atonement lately. It has really helped me to understand the perfect role that Jesus Christ played and how incrediblaly important He is. I am going to try and get to know him more and more every day. If I wasn´t subconciuosly before, I am going to put forth a true effort.

Love you Mom! Hope you have a great week! 

Amo-te Mae (Portuguese)

#51

It sounds like it was a fun and eventful week for everybody! I am glad that everyone had a good time with grandma andersons birthday party! Was that at our house or at somebody elses? That is crazy to think that she is 90 years old. I wonder what the work will be like for me in 70 years. I wish that I was home to see Josh give his talk and bare his testimony. He sent me his talk in an email and he sounded like a very well educated author. Bravo bravo. 

I have talked to a couple sisters that are in my group that came out with me and it is insane that they leave in September. That is so soon! I'm sure it felt a little too short for you on your mission. Here in the mission, all of the Elders workout harder than they did before the last six months of their mission and they call it 6 months to sexy. So watch out! haha

I had a very spiritually uplifting week this week. The first part of the week went pretty well. We were able to include some more members in our lessons. We only have 3 members here in Talavera so it is a tough one to do that. Thursday we got up at 4 am and caught a bus to Madrid for a zone conference. That was the highlight of my week. We listened to President Jackson and his Wife and his Assistants. I left that meeting completly refilled and recharged. The rest of the week was completely affected by that meeting. I have never had such good lessons with the people here. I have been working harder on asking questions that cause them to think and then leaving them time to think. Our investigators have opened up a lot more than ever and I am starting to see some real progression from some of them. I am really excited to see what happens in this area in the next couple of weeks. 

I included this in Joshies letter but I will tell it to you as well. 

I could keep telling you over and over again that the mission is amazing man. There definitely are trials out here just like you described in your talk but that is how you learn. I had an awesome zone conference and I came out of it completely recharged and ready to work. There is a joy that you will feel in Guatemala that you have never felt in your life before. This week I met a 29 year old girl from Ecuador that we practice english with. The second time meeting with her we started to talk a little bit about God. She shared what she believed and how she came to that belief. She is soooo close to the truth and she needs to do is read the Book of Mormon and pray for a testimony and she is there. The next couple days I prayed with all my heart for that girl. I have never wanted somebody to have the truth of the gospel more than this girl. I don´t know why. I have talked to her for a total of 2 hours but I know that the gospel will eternally bless her. You will feel love for people in your mission and I think this is what this work is all about . Love.  A new part of your heart will open and you will develop a desire to help people.

I am loving the mission. More this past week than most. We are still having a hard time on finding new people to teach but my attitude on contacting has changed from why do I have to contact this person to why shouldn't I contact this person and I have come home a lot more satisfied. 

Pday we just hung out in the park and through frisbies and had fun. We went to an American burger place and devoured  the best hambugers I have had since I left. I am American and my body was asking for that. Don´t worry though I bought a Spanish cook book today and I am going to start cooking my own meals. I bought fresh ingredients and I hope that I can master a couple dishes before I come home :)

Well I love you Mom! I hope that you have a great week! The church is true and my testimony grows every day of it. 

Take care,

Elder Miles

Letter #50

Goodies from Home!

This week went pretty well. I feel like I am getting better at teaching more clearly so that the spirit can testify. It has been hard to keep investigators in that teaching pool but we are trying hard. Just for fun I have been trying to learn a little french here and there from a french book of mormon. I have no clue how to pronounce any of it! Spanish is much easier to pronounce. I GOT YOUR PACKAGE this morning durning companion study! That was an awesome start of the day :) Starbursts, Skittles, and Sweedish Fish were a perfect selection. And the deodorant you sent was perfect as well, thank you thank you. 

Lately, I have been studying a lot about my purpose as a missionary. I think I have been living somewhat in the wrong state of mind here. Some days we don´t recieve a single reference or teach a single lesson and returning to the piso after a day like that is hard. But what I have learned from that is that you should always look to tomorrow as a new day. Some nights I will just go to bed exhausted and not want to wake up for the next just knowing that I will have nothting to do except walk in the streets for 8 hours, but there is always something that pushes me to wake up and keep going. It is hard to explain. This morning I realized that I need to focus more on relying on faith in Jesus Christ. Yesterday is the past and the only thing we can do about it is learn from it. Today is today and I must always try to wake up with a new perspective that miricles can still happen even though they did not happen yesterday or if we just did not recognize them. This area has been tough but there are still people here that need the gospel. I know I am supposed to be here at this time. As I testified to the branch here, I could hardly hold myself together. The Gospel is True.

We have a baptismal date here in Talavera between the two companionships here. David is our date and we will see if he is willing to progress in the gospel.

Not much is new here in Talavera. This week we are going to a zone conference in Madrid which I am very excited for. 

Love you so much and I hope that you have an great week!

Elder Miles