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

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