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.

Thanksgiving

Things are going good, as always. Thanksgiving was pretty fun...we sort of had a day off, and so I got to write some of you letters. Speaking of which, your letters are awesome! Thanks so much for taking the time to write. It's so great to hear how everybody is doing. But anyway, Elder Hill and I had a good time. We started in the morning by playing some futbol with the other missionaries. Then we went out for breakfast together and kind of chilled out after that. We had two dinner appointments, so we were really struggling to bike back home after the second Thanksgiving meal. So it wasn't too eventful of a day, but at the same time it was awesome. I have so many things to be thankful for, but I'm mostly grateful for the chance to serve a mission! In the four months I've been out I've met some incredible people. I'm most especially grateful for the days that were completely terrible. Although I try not to burden you with such things on this blog, there have been some pretty lousy days.There have been times where I've found it difficult just to keep pedaling on my bike. My legs get sore, I'm hungry, and I just don't want to do anything. Everything goes wrong, appointments fall through, and I just want to be able to go home and take a nap. But out of those days, I've learned to put complete trust in God. When all else fails, I just tell Him that I've done all I can do and put it in His hands. And every time He's blessed me with some sort of miracle. I've come to appreciate the little things in life, whether it be somebody honking and waving at us when we're biking, or how awesome scrambled eggs and tobasco sauce taste. I love being able to forget about myself and go to work. There are way too many times in my life where I just sat in my room and lamented about how bad of a day that I had when I could have been out helping somebody else or at least enjoying the many things that God has blessed me with. We always have countless blessings. We need to list those off everyday and always be grateful. I know that the Lord has blessed us with more than we can ever comprehend, and that even in our difficulties and trials he's pouring out more blessings upon us. I hope that all of us can express more gratitude to God and to our loved ones for all that we have.

Love,

Ammon

 

Elder Miller and Catus man

Elder Hill and Elder Miller

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Well, it's almost been 4 months since I started my mission, which is really weird to think about. In some ways it's been really long, but in some ways it's gone by way too fast. I've just started my third transfer, and I'm no longer a "greenie" in the field. I can't remember if I've explained transfers in my blog before, so I'll just explain it, and you can deal with it if you already know. Basically while you're on a mission, the time is organized into six-week periods called transfers. You're placed in an area with a companion, and that's where you serve for at least those six weeks. Near the end of that time, you'll get a call from one of the missionary leaders to find out where you'll be for the next transfer. You may go to a new area, your may stay where you are and get a new companion, or you may just stay where you are and have the same companion. Well I found out last week that I was going to be moved down to Mesa and have a new companion named Elder Hill.

I haven't talked too much about my last compaion, Elder Lyon, but he was awesome. He's a super good musician, and is especially good at piano. He tells the lamest jokes you could possibly think of, but they're the kind that are so bad that they're hilarious. He did a really good job training me and taught me a lot of things by example. One of the most important things that Elder Lyon taught me was patience. I realized just how impatient I am. When I want something really bad I tend to complain a lot until it happens the way that I want it to.  But Elder Lyon rarely complained about anything. He put up with my complaining and a lot of other dumb things that I did, and always tried to be positive no matter what was going on. He always looked out for me and made sure that I was doing alright. I'm always going to be grateful for Elder Lyon and what he's done for me.

I'm really going to miss serving in Taylor. I'll miss all the awesome people I met, especiallly Patty and Bennie. I'll miss Navajo Tacos, killin chickens and even the goats that would keep me up all night. But I'm really excited to be in the city! Mesa is awesome. The temple is gorgeaus, and there's so many people. Oh, and the weather is AWESOME! This North Dakota boy can hardly complain while experiencing temperatures in the 70s in November. The palm trees and the sunsets are gorgeous. Although there was a duxt storm my first day. That wasn't do cool. But overall, it's pretty rad. There aren't as many hills down here, so biking is a lot nicer. Oh, and I need to get way better at Spanish. People think that I'm lame down here for being hispanic and not knowing Spanish. Some lady came up to me at Walmart the other day and started talking to me in Spanish. I honestly probably know more Navojo than Spanish nowadays. Oh well.

I love all of you guys! As always, thanks for your letters and support.

Love,
Ammon