Ok gift of tongues!!

Holy cow crazy week here in Virginia!! Every week is honestly crazy but this week was really fun!! 

We had exchanges which was really fun! I was slightly nervous because with Hermana Morales gone, I was now the only Spanish speaking missionary in my area which was terrifying. We also had three lessons planned that day that I was now going to have to do by myself BUT God provides as always. I was truly mezmorized by the gift of tongues this week because my mouth was FILLED with words! I was able to understand people that I've never been able to understand and teach principles I've never taught about! It was a much needed confidence boost and reminder that God's will is always going to prevail, even if that is through the gringa Spanish of a 19 year old girl. So cool. 

We got to go to a baptism for Elder Fetzer and Elder Clarke (our bffs and also district leader) and it was SO cool! It was the first baptism I've been to as a missionary and it was so so emotional! I was so excited for Katia! She is a consistent student at English class and is one of the people I've connected to the most in this transfer. I love her and it was awesome that we got to be part of this day for her. She also was such a boss and wore this sweet like pantsuit with a cape afterwards. It was iconic I wish there was documentation of it! Also Elder Fetzer and Elder Clarke sang an amazing musical number so love to see that. 

I'll keep it brief but I had one of the most life changing experiences EVER this week! We were headed somewhere else but we had to stop at McDonalds because I had to go to the bathroom SO bad and I was running in there and waved hello to a group of people at a table and then went on my way. When I came out they were all staring at me so I started to introduce myself and one of the men interrupted and just told me that he knew I had something to tell them. He saw a light in my face and in my eyes that he had never seen anywhere else and he wanted to hear what I had to say. I was crestfallen obviously and kind of turned to my companion so she could share in her fluent Spanish but he said no, I want to hear from you. I was shocked because that is the first time in the history of ever that anyone here has said that so I shared my simple but very sincere testimony and he started to cry, I was crying, Hermana Morales was crying, all around just so spiritual and so good. It was a much needed reminder that this is where I need to be. That even with my jumbled Spanish I have something to give here and there are people who can be blessed from the expereince that are unique to me!! The same principle applies to all of us!! You have something to offer in the work of God and He gave you skills, talents, opportunities, and experienes to help you to connect with others!! I hope this week you can find someone who you can connect with!! (this story does not sound as cool typed out but it means everything to me) 

Other notable things from the week

-we go to MOD Pizza a lot to make calls and the owner started giving us free pizzas all the time because she thinks we are so nice. I love Stephanie she is the greatest

-got blocked on WhatsApp 3 more times. SOS

-saw the most circular dog I've ever met in my entire life named ANDREW cmon now

-3 strangers let me use their bathroom this week

-held a chameleon!!

-saw an eel. yuck.

-shoutout Natalie Walsman. I made cesear salad with pasta this week. miss you queen. 

-H. Morales sneezed I'm not joking over 65 times last night. She was not well.

-chipped my tooth. bummer.

-interviews with President Mac Pherson were SO fun. I love to chat.

I love you!! God loves you!! Seek him out this week I promise He is there and He cares about you!!

Please pray for our friends Carlos, Joycelyn, Luis, and Yoseph!

Hermana Miller

P.s If anyone sends me any clips of literally any sport of any kind I will watch them with so much excitement! 

1. Taking pics of my teeth for the dentist 

2. Exchanges!

3. Virginia in the fall is insane

4. Ok rapunzel moment!

5. Ok lizard!

6. Ah!

7. A young man in my ward gave me jorts and wow. big highlight. feel like myself again.

Those mosquito people don't know anything

 Hello all!!
(This one's a little hefty so I'm sorry about that)

I hope you're all doing so so well!! I've seen some good highlights this week from the BYU game! Seems like things are fun there! Sko cougs always. 

These past two weeks have been CRAZY! Honestly everyday here is crazy kind of, you can never really have expectations for the day because it always just goes a different direction which is fun! God has so much in store for the people here!! And for me!

We got to go to the Washington D.C Temple last week which was SO SO SO cool!!! It's ginormous and beautiful and amazing. Lots and lots of members of our ward came and that was fun! We brought a recent convert Erika (she is my queen I love her so much) and she was able to be baptized for her mom!! It was so tender. Then we did a session in Spanish which was so cool and luckily I know it pretty well in English so gave me a little boost for the day that I was able to understand most of it. There were SO many miracles that day I can't even list them all but God provided a way for everything to work out and it was incredible. We saw so many familiar faces there! 

This week Hmna Morales and I made a goal that all the new friends we would find, would have Sundays available. This is a huge ask because basically every person we talk to works on Sunday, but we had a lot of faith that there were people who had the time. We set a goal to find 5 people who had Sundays free and were interested. Somehow as soon as we set this goal EVERYONE we talked to was free on Sundays??? I truly can't explain it but we ended up finding 10 people who were really interested and who have Sundays off!! How cool that we have a God of so many miracles!!! Lots of prayers of gratitude were said this week. 

We had noche de herencia hispana! I kid you not one of the most fun things I've ever been to ever in my life. It was INSANE! Basically everyone in the ward (and the community in general) makes tables representing their country with lots of food and decorations and tons of people do presentations of traditional songs or dances. It was so fun. There were probably over 200 people there. We were welcoming everyone in and then I heard my name over the mic and they had me say the opening prayer and sing "Come Come Ye Saints" so I could represent my "pioneer/American heritage" it was hilarious. The whole thing was in Spanish and I struggled through it but it was a fun memory for sure! Some of our friends came too! 

We have some amazing friends right now! Carlos is an ICON and he came to the activity and to church-Libro de Mormón en hand. My heart exploded. We also have a friend names Oscar who came to church. Awesome guy but I truly can not understand a word he says I'm not sure why but his accent is so so difficult for me. He's awesome though we love him. 

We went to a wild Tex Mex restaurant this week and they brought us like a salsa sample and we got to try like 12 salsa and it was majestic! 

I held a humongous French Bulldog it was insane. He was 36 pounds. It was a highlight of my life. The family was so nice too they weren't interested in the church but they gave us food and chatted and let me hold their giant dog. So good. 

We're teaching a 19 year old girl which has been really fun because we're all the same age! She has a lot of questions and they've really had me thinking. She asked me to explain why some people who pray to be healed aren't and some people are healed who don't even pray. It was tough. I realized I don't really have an answer for that. I have faith that God has a plan for each one of us that is divine and individual, but why some people are healed and some aren't, I'm not really sure. I tried to explain that I believe God's "deliverance" looks different for everyone. He gives us experiences to help us rely on him and to change our hearts to become more like him. I don't think that answer really satisfied her so if anyone has other thoughts I'm very open to them. 

I've been studying patience this week and I love what Preach My Gospel says: "Patience is trusting that as you cheerfully do all things in your power, God will fulfill His promised blessings in His time" I hope to show a little more patience and faith in God's plan for me this week. 

Other notable things:
- we burned a pizza and our carbon monoxide alarm would not stop going off. We tried everything to turn the alarm off but it would not so we left it in the fridge to quiet it down a little bit, but we had to just disable the whole thing and get a new one eventually. 
- ran into one of our friends at a park with his family 
- our Temple reservation was under the name "Miller" HAHAHAHA the members were dying laughing 
- we had a lot of total epic mega fails this week
- I helped a young boy fix a toy car and it was like top 10 best moments ever
- got fed by every ward in our building on Sunday
-played the piano for the primary program it was so bad ahaha that's ok
- got flu shots!
- watched a little league baseball game!
- thought Quinny's Dad wanted to be my friend on Facebook but turned out he was just hacked 
- found so many little hidden walkways that we love!
-had major FOMO
- we talk to this man named Ron like everyday. He is hilarious. This week he was telling me how "all the mosquito people who work at the county don't know anything" and I could not hold it together I was dying. Our friend took like a stalker picture of that conversation I'll add it. 

- we've been running everyday which is so good for my soul
- someone in the ward sent out a mass message that rice is my favorite food and then some members took us to H-Mart (Asian market) and bought me a giant plate of rice ahaha so iconic. 
- got a package!
-went to this store called Black Friday Deals and on Wednesdays everything is $1! It is madness. It's like the bins in Salt Lake but way more crazy and everything is like Amazon returns so it's all in boxes I can't even explain it. 
- got blocked by WhatsApp twice
- had the best frosty of my entire life

God's got you!! He loves you!! I love you!! Have a good week and let me know how things are going!! (Especially byu lax people please give me an update I beg)

Hermana Miller

Conference week!

 I don't have time to spell check I'm so sorry. 

Hola! Hope you all had an awesome week! Things are going good in Virginia!!

Spanish is getting a little bit better! Day by day I'm starting to understand a little more! It's still really difficult when we teach and meet with members but I'm really grateful for the patience that Hermana Morales has, as well as all of the other people we talk to! People are really encouraging! I feel like God is always giving me opportunities to step out of my comfort zone with Spanish and this week I got to give a zone training completely in Spanish! It was hard and truth be told my heart is really really softening out here because I cry so much wow. Whenever I bear my testimony or talk to people about the gospel or my family or literally anything I get chocked up. It makes me super uncofortable but I'm learning how to be a little softer and sometimes you just have to accept the tears. So yeah basically I cried through the whole training BUT I think it was still good!

We made pupusas with Hermana Machuca this week and that was a huge highlight. They were so good and it was awesome to be with her. She is such a legend. Also that night a man told me in English that my Spanish was terrible and he would only talk to us if Hermana Morales taught which lowkey hurt my heart but alas good reminder there is still lots to learn! I'm dealing with rejection a little better everyday. 

For language study we started going to the library and I ready my FIRST EVER BOOK IN SPANISH!!!! Big stuff. It is like a first grade reading level but I felt accomplished after. It did take me two days unfortunately. 

We get to go to the temple this Saturday with Erika to do her first ever baptisms for the dead and that is so excited! We also get to do en Endowment session and I'm so so stoked to go to the D.C temple I've heard so many wonderful things!!!

Ok Conference!!! So good!! Ihad the opportunity to listen to it in Spanish which was actually so tender. I was trying so hard to pay attention to try and undestand but really it helped me to rely on the Spirit and to listen closely to what the Spirit was trying to teach me, rather than what the speakers were directly saying. There were a few talks I really couldn't understand, but I got something great out of most of them! I loved Elder Eyring's talk!