The Best Christmas Ever!

 

Christmas 2011 was incredible! I thought that it would probably be really depressing since I wasn't at home, but Elder Hill and I have kept ourselves busy enough that we haven't had time to be homesick. We just had our first baptism in the area, and it was great! Isabelle is 9 years old, and she's hilarious. We've been spending time with her family lately and she's been lots of fun to work with. She has a little brother named Nathan who's completely crazy, but just as fun.

We spent our Christmas Eve with the Alldredge family. They have eight kids and everybody was there, so it was a packed house! We ate a ton of food, only to come home to more food that people in the area had dropped off to us...people are so great around here. Although I'm probably going to be eating nothing but Christmas cookies for the next month. Elder Hill and I live with two other missionaries, Elders Tomlinson and Simcox, and we've been trying to keep the Christmas Spirit in our apartment. We made our own Christmas tree out of empty boxes stacked on top of each other and we've been blasting the same three Christmas CDs over and over. Elder Tomlinson and I kept our family traditions of opening one present on Christmas Eve, and then Elder Hill set a timer for the lights on our "tree" to go off when it was time to wake up.

Christmas morning we woke up at 5:30 to open presents. Then we went to President Castaneda's home (of the mission presidency) for a breakfast of pancakes, spam tamales, and breakfast burritos. We went to church, and then we got to Skype home! It was great seeing my family and knowing that they're all doing well. I even got to see my dog. Then it was back to work. I'm so grateful to be a missionary! It's so great to serve God, even on days like Christmas when it's hard to be away from family. Our dinner appointment was awesome. We ate with the Requenas, who are an awesome family from Philedelphia. They made the best Italian food I've ever eaten, and afterward we all jammed out to a Gladys Knight CD. It was so much fun! After that, we spent the rest of the night caroling.

I hope that all of you had a fantastic Christmas, and that 2012 is the best year ever! (Insert end of the world joke here)

- Elder Miller

First Baptism

 

This week was awesome! Isabelle's baptism was perfect. Everything was really stressful until it started, and then everything went according to plan. I was so grateful and humbled that she asked me to baptize her. I was feeling really nervous about it before, and I turned to the Book of Mormon. I decided to read over Mosiah 18, since that talks so much about baptism. The following verses really stood out to me, "And now it came to pass that Alma took Helam, he being one of the first, and went and stood forth in the water, and cried, saying: O Lord, pour out thy Spirit upon thy servant, that he may do this work with holiness of heart. And when he had said these words, the Spirit of the Lord was upon him..." Well, I offered that same prayer to Heavenly Father, and He answered it. I felt the Spirit so strongly and really felt that Heavenly Father was proud of me.

 

Isabelle and Elder Miller

Just some pictures from Elder Miller

 

Celebrating with the Elder Miller flair!

Never use dishwashing soap in the dishwasher. It was Elder Hill’s idea.