Hi guys! Thank you for all of your emails! I love seeing pictures! Send more! I love showing my zone pictures from home. Tell the kids that I love and miss them so much! I just got back from the temple and I got to do sealings! It was so cool since I've never gotten to do that before. I got to do people from the Netherlands! Really cool. So I saw Elder Crockett Thursday and was so pumped for him! I also ran into Sister Domingo yesterday! I get to see Sister Garrison everyday as well so it's nice to have some people from home here with me. Yestersay we had in field orientation which is an overview of what our first week in the field.Today we were all standing outside as it was snowing and it was so beautiful and the hymn "For the beauty of the earth" came to my head and I felt such peace. So Tuesday I head out to Montana and I'm a bit nervous but at the same I feel so comforted by the Lord. These last 3 weeks here at the MTC have been life changing. My faith and my testimony have grown immensely. I have taught a total of 4 investigators here in the MTC that me and my companion have been working with for the time here. Hannah, Jacki, Patty, and Melissa. We invited two of them to baptism and they accepted! The other two we only got two lessons with due to our time here in the MTC coming to an end. One of the investiagtors, Patty, has been an atheist the majority of her life. Going into the lesson we were super nervous to teach her because we were afraid we weren't going to be able to reach her. In just two lessons, Patty realized the meaning of her life and was able to gain personal faith and a testimony. During the lesson I felt the spirit so strong I began to cry and got chills. The moment when I saw the light in her eyes was the most precious thing I have ever witnessed in my life. I love how they make us practice how to teach actual investigators before we get out into the field. I have grown so much. I never understood why everyone said how horrible the MTC was because I have met so many amazing people that I'm sad to leave. My district is so awesome. We are literally a little family and we've helped each other really progress. All of the elders in my district (class) are going to Canada! Then the sisters Montana! Some of the days I have struggled with the feeling of feeling alone. I had a hard time feeling the spirit at times because me and my companion don't have as good of unity as I would like to have. It's impossible to feel the spirit when there is tension in the room. A lot of the times when teaching I was at a loss of words and couldn't carry out the lesson. Then one of the sisters in my zone told me this before she left..."If you don't know what to say, speak of the savior." That really inspired me and strengthened my testimony and my confidence. Tuesday we had a devotional and Elder Soaress (quorum of the seventy) shared the most amazing story to us. When he was a mission president in Brazil he met these 3 elders that had just arrived to the mission. They showed up with a Book of Mormon, toothbrush/toothpaste, only the suit they were wearing and nothing else. Elder Soaress had asked where all of their things were and they responded, "What more do we need than the Book of Mormon, toothbrush/toothpaste, a smile on our face and our faith?" That had brought tears to my eyes. What more do we need than our faith to bring these people unto Christ. Elder Soaress shared his experiences being in the room with some other apostles when assigning missionaries to their specific missions. He said after looking through all of our information they look into our eyes and our hearts and receive revelation from God of where we are supposed to go. They looked into my eyes and recognized my heart and God himself chose this mission for me. I was called to serve by God. That humbled me so much and filled my heart with so much gratitude. There have been so many moments of doubt for me in these last couple of weeks and times when I wanted to give up. Then...I came across these scriptures and my eyes immediately filled with tears. "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success." - Alma 26:27 "Praying always that the faint not, and inasmuch as they do this, I will be with them even unto the end." -D&C 75:11 I love you all so much and miss you more than ever. When I wanted to give up I thought of you all and how the day I get to come down that escalator in the airport when all is said and done, that will be one of the happiest days of my life. I will never give up on you and will always have hope that we will all get to live in eternity together forever. I challenge you to attend church once a month at the very least and to give it a chance. The gospel strengthens the family and the family itself strengthens the gospel. You are all so amazing and have so much charity and love. "If ye have not charity, ye are nothing." -Moroni 7:46. One last spiritual thought. I have taken for granted the amazing gift of the Atonement and the opportunity we get to partake of the Sacrament each week to renew our convenents. Because of Christ's sacrifice for us we can repent. "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you." -John 15:18 The world rejected Christ and crucified him on the cross on calvary. On the cross Christ said "It is finished". He did this for us. "But cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, they hated me without a cause." - John 15:25. It makes my heart ache that Christ suffered all of this pain, but as well comforts me because he did it for all of us so we can be cleansed from sin. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" -John 15:13. Know that we are so unique. You have a purpose and there is a plan for all of us in this life. "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own:but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you". We all chose to come down here and to bring the world Christ's truth. Though now you may not see that now, I hope I can inspire you to soften your hearts and to open your minds. People will disagree with me through this journey and tell me I'm am wrong, but I know that my Savior lives. I know that I was chosen to represent Jesus Christ and to lead people to salvation.
A little about my experience so far...the first day I arrived here the mission presidents wife shared this scripture..."When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child: but when I became a man (women), I put away childish things." -1 Corinthians 13:11. When she read that I then realized that I was now a women and I had to act like an adult. Of course I'm still goofy but things changed for me after hearing that scripture. Being almost 20 years old hit me then and made me think of the importance of life and being as charitable as I can be.
The food isn't bad at all! If you're hungry you'll eat haha. I drank soda for the first time this week in a little and I actually got sick because my body wasn't used to having soda so I guess that's good that I don't need it anymore! They obviously don't serve any sort of caffeine in the MTC so no temptation there.
We have service twice a week where we just clean the building. We have about a total of about 8-9 hours of class a day so there's a lot to take in! 90% of the time in class we do role plays which have really helped me come out of my comfort zone even though I dislike them. We get set exercise time every other day typically and go to the gym or once we took a nap because we just needed a break! Haha. We have personal and companion study for about 2 hours each day to study up on our lessons. This week during our daily planning time we have been practicing our farewell song that we are singing in Sacrament tomorrow and it sounds so beautiful. That's pretty much how everyday goes. Eat, exercise, class, plan, teach, sleep, so on...Lights out is at 10:30 at night and it's so weird this hunger games voice type comes over the intercom and says "It's 10:30 lights out" haha it scares me everytime. I got to pray at the last devotional in front of the whole MTC and I was super nervous but not everyone gets to do that so I was honored! On Saturday we get to do our laundry, stay in normal clothes, go to the temple write home and anything else we need to get done. Tomorrow me and my companion get the teach relief society on repentance so I'm hoping it'll go well! I attached some pictures below! Thank you mom and dad for sending those cookies! They were a huge hit everyone loved them and it was an huge comfort to have them since they have special significance and love behind them. Also Sister Porter is so awesome. She came in last week and we are literally the same person. She's seriously one of my new best friends and our personalities compliment each others. I'm sad I've only gotten about a week and a half with her but she is so amazing and is going to do amazing things. Well that's my report for this week! My next pday won't be for another week and a half since it'll be on Mondays from now on I'm assuming.
Love, Sister Miles
