May 27

Hi Fam,

I hope you all had a super good Memorial day! YAY for school being out! This week was pretty good in good o midlo.

We met with Jonathan, and man. That guy is so solid! He's super smart, and every time we assign him to read something from the Book of Mormon, he gets sooo much out of it! When we met this week, there was just something different about him. He said that since we've been meeting, he feels so much more happy and hopeful. He said that when he used to look at the state of the world, he just felt depressed. He said he sees things now with new eyes. It's so beautiful to see the gospel changing his life! Please keep him in your prayers. And Lisa too. She sort of fell off the face of the earth this week, so we are trying to get back in touch with her. 

We started teaching a guy named Zenos! Like in the book of Mormon! Haha he is super cool, but we will probably be giving him to the ysa missionaries. 

The other day, sister Armstrong and I were both just super down. People don't usually put this in their emails home, but there are some days on your mission when you wake up and you just plain don't want to be a missionary. I realized that satan really never wants us to go out and do anything good, and he especially doesn't want us to share the gospel. So we did it anyways! And the first person we met was a young man reading at the  park. We asked what it was and he said, "It's all about how there are tons of different religions with little bits of truth." Wowee, could ya be more prepared?? So that was cool! He'll go to ysa too, but still cool. 

We met with Larry this week.I wish I could just record one of our meetings with him and show you because you would laugh so hard. We were talking about the second coming of Jesus, and he said, "I'm tellin you man, the world is so crazy! I'm going to be the first one on that Jesus bus when He comes. Be like 'Come on sista armstrong and sista milla! We got our chicken salad, we got our RICE. Let's go man! Get us outta hea!' I'mma bring my cell phone, be textin my friends like, 'Wassup I'm in the clouuds playaa!'" ha ha Larry...

This week was pretty long and hard, but I saw the Lord's hand in my life over and over again. Thank you so much for praying for me. I could especially feel your prayers this week, and they are what got me through.  I know that the Lord goes before me and beside me in this work. He's called us "that the fulness of (His) gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers." D&C 1:23. Sometimes it's so overwhelming just how weak and simple I am, but I'm realizing that the Lord doesn't want me to be anything else. I may not know every little thing about the gospel, but I sure love the people here, and I think that's what matters. 

I know the gospel is true. I love the Book of Mormon so much. I know it contains the fullness of the gospel. It brings us closer to Jesus Christ. 

I love you so much family. You guys rule! Have an amazing week!

Love,

Sister Miller

May 19th Update

Hey family!

So many good things happened this week! First of all, JONATHAN AND LISA BOTH CAME TO CHURCH! :) Yay! it was so awesome. Sister Armstrong and I did a special musical number, which was sweet. "There's no growth in the comfort zone and no growth in the comfort zone!" It was scary, but super worth it! Sister Carboni, a less active member played piano for us, and we had such a great time getting to know her at practices. She's a super amazing lady. 

I love the atonement. I love that no matter what, we can change. And it's so cool because when the Savior changes us, he doesn't make us into someone else. He makes us more fully who we are! We truly find ourselves when we surrender our hearts to Him. When we took the sacrament yesterday, my heart felt the way it does when I'm in Zion National park. It's this tiny connection to something soooo huge! "The Lord is able to do is own work." And I'm sure grateful that I get to be a little part of it.

So yesterday Sister Armstrong and I recieved a letter addressed to both of us from the New York New York mission... It turns out, one of her best friends is companions with Daniel Steiner! Haha. Also, I found out that my bishop here used to be in a punk rock band and that he had a huge mowhawk and tattoos. So that's pretty  cool!

We finally got in touch with the Whites! They're not super interested in learning about the gospel right now, but please keep them in your prayers. They're going through a lot. We got to help them out with a ton of yard work the other day, and that was a really cool experience.

Well, I hope you all have a great week! Life is good :) I love you so much!

Love,

Sister Mimi Miller

Staying in Midlo

Looks like sister armstrong and I will stay in Midlo for another transfer! :) So stoked. I still love it here!

I'm sorry my email last week was a little impersonal. So much happened and I was trying to jam it all into one email haha.. I never really know what to put in these still! Aslo, Brooks, I don't have your email address, (because you always send great letters,) so sorry I'm not sending these directly to you. I just kind of figure you all get them. 

Anyhow, this week was good! We had some super crazy weather, which I thought was fun because I'm really not used to it. We woke up to a cold, rainy morning, and by 1:00 PM it was 80 degrees and super humid! There was a tornado warning and the sky was going bonkers. Then it started pouring and it was like someone just turned on a warm shower. Just running through the parking lot, we got completely soaked through!

We got to meet with Lisa again. She is so amazing! My testimony grows so much every time we meet with her. She is prepared for the gospel! She told us that when her niece was born, she just had this feeling like she had been there all along. She said, "I don't even mean it in an endearing aunt sort of way. I just knew I had known her before." We then explained the plan of salvation to her. When she heard that we all lived together with God before we came to earth, it made her so happy! Once again, things just clicked for her. It made me so grateful to have been taught the plan of salvation from the time I was young. Mom and Dad, I really won't ever be able to thank you enough for raising me to know the gospel!

So... ELDER BEDNAR CAME TO MY MISSION!!! Wowee it was soooo incredible! He said to come to mission conference (which was combined with the whole Chesapeake mission) with questions. I never raised my hand, but every question I had was distinctly addressed and answered. Elder Bednar taught completely out of love and by the spirit. It was so powerful! I have no doubt in my mind that he is an apostle of the Lord. I learned many things in that meeting that won't just help me on my mission, but for the rest of my life.

I am so grateful that I get to be a missionary. It's so stinking hard. But I am a different person because of it. President Robbinson, another GA that was there, said, "Your mission is a university for your life... and you're enrolled in some pretty tough courses!" It's so true! In an email, dad referred to an experience I had as "Part of my education." I am learning so much each and every day, and I'm so thankful to be here. I especially love that I have 2 hours set aside each day for studying the scriptures. My testimony has grown so much! I didn't think anything was better than SUU as far as education goes... but Virginia totally wins.

I am happy. I am learning. I love it here. I have a testimony of the atonement. I know that Jesus Christ lives, and because of Him, change is always possible. Nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:35-39.) The sccriptures are true. I love them. I know that angels are real. Sometimes we see them. Sometimes we don't. :)

I miss you guys so much, but I am so happy that mom and dad were married in the temple, because I get to be with all you Julios FOREVER!!! :) I LOVE YOU HUMANS!! I hope you have the best week. Talk to you in 6 days!!!!!!! I can't wait!

Love, 

Sister Mimaw Miller

Good Week!

Dear Family,

We met this amazing lady named lisa. She saw some youth from the church helping a neighbor wit yardwork and wondered if she could have some help too, and they referred her to us. We taught her the restoration and she just kept saying, "Oh my gosh! That all makes so much sense!" I invited her to be baptized, ans she said YES. I almost fell on the floor! We had a sweet lesson a couple of days later, and it was the most amazing experience I've had on my mission so far. IT was beautiful to see just how prepared she was and to watch the light in her eyes as she learned. The member who was with us shared a powerful testimony, and it just felt like, "click." I love lisa! And by the way, she is a huge art history fanatic!! It's perfect.

So before this transfer, Sister A tracted every single door in our area... some more than once. When we had no one to teach last week, we started going through a haystack of former teaching records. I came across the needle named Marcus. Apparently he told the previous missionaries that he wanted 1 year to read the Book of Mormon and then to come back. It had been almost exactly a year since that date! We went back and met him, and he's basically the coolest guy ever. He teaches kung fu, ti chi, and energy healing. He's crazy smart and knows a lot about many different religions. He went from quoting the bible to singing Bob Marley to spitting rhymes all in just a few minutes! Haha it was awesome. We had a lesson over some herbal tea, and it went really well. He's definitely got a pure heart and I'm excited to meet again.

We also visited a guy(Jonathan) who was taught by some elders 3 years ago. We didn't really know anything about him. We rand the doorbell, and he came out wearing a nice sweater and glasses, holding a wooden spoon and a pan of scrambled eggs, and smiling the most sincere smile you have ever seen. It turns out that he had moved away for college, so he stopped meeting with the elders. He couldn't afford it anymore, so he just barely moved back in with his parents! We had a good lesson with him the next day. He's super prepared for the gospel... just an honest seeker of truth!

I feel really humbled and just so lucky to be a part of this work. Last week was rough for a reason. If people hadn't dropped us and our appointments hadn't fallen through, we wouldn't have had time to come through our area book and find Jonathan and Marcus. My testimony has grown so much this week, and I know that this is truly the work of God. I have no doubt that if he wanted to, he could do all of this without a dorky 19 year old like me. But he is so merciful that he wants me to be a part of this work so I can be converted too. The love I have for these people is a gift from Him, and I just feel so lucky to be here. Thank you so much for your support. It means the world. I feel your prayers every day. Miracles are happening. I love you all.

I know that this church is true. Jesus christ is the immortal son of God. He lives and he loves us. I know that His gospel and His preisthood have been restored to the earth. I know that Joseph smith was a prophet of God. He was only 14 when he sought God in earnest prayer, with hardly any education at all. He was imperfect. he was human, "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of this world to confound the mighty." 1 cor1:27. Had this been a man's work, it would have crumbled and fallen. But the Book of Mormon stands as a witness of the divinity of this work. I love the  Book of Mormon. I know It is true.

I love you dearly!

Love,

Sister Miller

Art Musuem

Dear Family,

Sister McGill took us to the Richmond Museum of Fine Arts today! As you can imagine, I LOVED it! It was the best art museum I've ever been to. There were Kandinskis, Reniors, Monets, and a bunch of other awesome things!! Happy mimi :)

On Tuesday we vonlunteered at an assisted living center. WE played bingo with elderly people, and it was way fun. Virginia, the woman I was playing with, fell asleep randomly and then started waiving her arms around with her eyes closed. I got all panicked and thought, "Oh shoot! What if she dies?!" (She didn't.) Other than that moment it was great! Just before going I read Pres Uchtdorfs talk on gratitude. (It was a rough week as far as homesickness goes for me..) I like how he says gratitude does not necessarily mean you are pleased with your circumstances, but that you are happy and grateful IN your circumstances. A landy at bingo mentioned something to me about not being able to remember enything, then said, "But I could loose a lot worse things than my memory! I have my hearing, AND I have this beautiful wheelchair to move around in! So The way I see it, I'm as lucky as a person can be." :) So sweet. That really struck me because there are a lot of people who have it a lot easier than she does, myself included. Yet she chose to be happy and grateful in the moment. 

I don't have a lot to update you on because this week was really hard and slow. But I have many things to be grateful for. I'm learning patience one cancelled appointment at a time. ;) 

Love you all lots. Sending lots of prayers your way! Please pray together as a family. :) 

Love, 

Sister Miller