Week 7

Hey yall!

Hope you all had a good week. Thank you for all of your emails and your uplifting words. As you know things have been tough but I have decided to stay out another transfer to give it a chance. It will not be easy but with your support I can do anything. Update on my health...I am working with missionary medical and my mission presidents to get the help I need to succeed. I have a doctors appointment coming up soon to be prescribed some medication to help with my anxiety and depression. I am now signed up for counseling so I will be doing that as well to help me through the whole process. Anyways....

Last week! 

So we saw this investigator and his name is Robert. Funny thing about Robert is he doesn't remember his birthday or if he has ever been baptized so we are trying to work with that haha. Hes hilarious. People here use the word "critters" and he always says "I gotta go feed the critters." Since this is all very new to me I can't help but be a little immature and laugh. The ice is starting to melt so it's so muddy everywhere. If I had my car here I would be off roading like crazy. Our car looks like we've been mudding so basically people are going to think the sisters missionaries off road and mess around haha. I guess you can say we are pretty hardcore. Since the ice is starting to melt it's super slippery so of course I have almost ate it a million times. I fear for my tailbone every time I slip because I'm like oh no this is the end. My tailbone finally healed so I don't have to say "Ow my tailbone" every 2 seconds (Inside joke). Last week we visited one of our investigators Glenda, and honestly I was like get me out of here. So she let's her farm animals roam around and this goat and pig were literally chasing after me and I was about to scream. The goat was trying to eat my clothes and everyone was laughing because I'm such a city girl. This is all brand new to me. I haven't gotten to milk a cow yet but when I do there will be pictures. We went to another farm to visit a man named carol. He is a less active we have been working with. He's a sheep herder so we went over there to see if he needed any help but he ended up being finished with his chores that day so we plan to go back. We did get to see the new baby lambs and they were cute to look at but I was like I ain't picking that thing up. I don't know how people stand the smell here. It smells everywhere we go but sadly I'm starting to be immune to it. Oh my goodness..so we went to visit this investigator Mike and his house is about a mile out from the road. There was no way our car was going to make it down his driveway because it was snowed in. So we decided we would walk. We trekked in 3 foot snow drifts for a mile and at this point we are sweating and dying. It took us 2 and a half hours to get there and back. Yes...2 miles took us almost 3 hours but we were literally trekking through the snow! We finally made it to his doorstep and he wasn't even home..we are like dead at this point and I'm just standing there saying whyyy. Haha we were extremely sore the next day. We ended up calling him and talked with him for about 20 minutes and we are planning to see him soon! Two nights ago we were dropping off treats to a bunch of families and of course we go to brother wright's house. Every time we go there he has a new story for us. This time his story was about his kidney stones and me and my companion are just dying inside trying to hold in our laughter. He is the most interesting person I have ever met in my life haha. Saturday night I got a little sick so we came in early and watched the Restoration movie and Thomas S Monson's documentary and it's awesome. Watch them both!

We think we have mold growing in our apartment so we are a literally concerned about that. This Sunday I'm singing in one of the sacraments so I've been practicing with one of the youth whose playing the piano for me. Her name is Maddie :) this Saturday I was asked to speak at a baptism and I'm actually really excited because one of the girls that is getting baptized I adore so much. Here name is Jaycee. In church we sang "Families can be together forever" and of course I cried because I miss you all so much. Last night we went to see Scottie and taught a great lesson. Scottie has some problems with the word of wisdom but he is so willing to give up everything. He gave up smoking as of yesterday and we are so proud of him. He wants to change. His baptismal date needed to be pushed back a little so I'm hoping I'm here for that. Last night I also realized that I am starting to become an awkward missionary. Scottie shook my hand but then went in for a hug and hugged me and I was freaking out inside haha. It was the most awkward thing and made me cringe. It was so funny too because my companion saw my face and in my head I was like I haven't hugged a boy in 2 months this is so uncomfortable haha. Well I can't think of everything. This week was kind of slow so not too much to report on....

Now...if you haven't gone to church yet this month you're lucky that another Sunday is coming up for this month! I challenge you to go to church this Sunday and all you have to do is stay for sacrament. Take of the sacrament and I want you to really think of what the sacrament means to you. Without the Atonement we wouldn't have access to repent and a way we repent is taking of the sacrament every Sunday. Will you do that? Don't do this for me...do this for you and for Christ. How has every one's scripture study and prayers been going? Each week I will be following up to see if you are keeping commitments! That is the only way we can change. If you don't pray, don't read the scriptures, go to church, you can't expect to see things change in your life. I challenge you sometime within the next 2 months to have missionaries in your home to have dinner with you and teach you a lesson. Give it a chance. Missionaries love doing service as well so maybe contact them and ask for their help! I want you all the downloaded the gospel library app and watch some Mormon messages or read some conference talks. A goal I have set is for each day to read a conference talk and write my thoughts down. If you feel confident enough hand out a Book of Mormon and write your testimony in it. Keep some book of Mormons in your car. You never know when the opportunity will arise for you to share a message. If you are struggling with negative thoughts throughout the day I challenge you each night to write down three things good that happened that day. Three things you are grateful for. It can be anything! For those that do temple work I challenge you to go to the temple as often as you can and bring your own names. Get involved with family history! There are people on the other side waiting for you to do their work. Make it a goal. For all you coffee drinkers, there are two things that you can try..post em and paro I believe is how you spell them. Apparently it tastes just like coffee and a lot of lds members drink it and can still follow the word of wisdom. These challenges don't need to all be mastered in one month. Each month maybe try something new. First month read your scriptures and pray. The next do family history work on top of praying and reading your scriptures. I'm not asking for you to be perfect at anything, I'm asking you to try. Will you do that? These invitations are meant for everyone! So no one is off the hook! I love you all so much and I leave you with my testimony that this is the most true church on the earth. Heavenly Father does hear you and listens to your prayers. Don't ever give up. Your prayers may take weeks to be answered, be patient. Cry your heart out to him. I know that the book of Mormon is true. Read it with you families. It will change your life and your faith will grow I promise you that. Check my missionary Facebook for inspirational quotes and talks. You are all in my prayers and I love you very much. Have a good week! Stay tuned for another email with more pictures! ​

Sister Austin Miles

​

Love the mud. NOT!!!

"For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you." -Deuteronomy 20:4 

week 5

February 4th I finally hit my one month mark. Took forever!  Thank you for all of the birthday wishes! I wasn't able to light the candles because we aren't allowed to handle fire but I loved everything in the box! Thanks Matt and Michelle for the little bell for my bike. I was laughing so hard. I loved the "20 things we love about you". I was having a really rough day and that made everything better. It really didn't even feel like my birthday, I honestly forgot it was. My birthday was spent in the hospital with my companion. She has a few chronic diseases and wasn't doing so well so we had to drive about an hour to the nearest hospital.  I received the birthday package the next day and wasn't expecting something so big! But I loved it, it definitely brought me to tears. Last week consisted of two trips to the hospital and being snowed in!  Our car got stuck again and it took about an hour to get it out. Brother Parker (who we stay with) had to hook us up to his truck and pull us out. The snow drifts here go from 4 feet to 10 feet high honestly. We cant pull into our driveway anymore because it pretty much doesn't exist due to all the snow. There was pretty bad wind as well hitting us so hard it felt like shards of glass coming at us. Not fun haha! Pretty sure I almost got frostbite too my hands looked so bad after digging out the snow under the tires I was afraid to look at them. The past couple of days its been around the 30s and that's warm for us, so we're happy! This week we also lost our phone so we wont be getting a new one until Wednesday. Its probably buried in the snow somewhere. RIP. The snow here goes to my knees sometimes and I'm literally trekking in snow to get to peoples houses. Friday we went on exchanges and I went with Sister Jacoby and we spent about an hour hitting ice off of the bottom of our car because it was so bad the tires wouldn't turn. I was literally hammering at the car haha. Just to explain...exchanges are when you switch with another companionship and have a new companion for the day. It gives us a chance to get to know the other sisters and just to try something new. So I had packed clothes that had logos on them and that's actually a rule in this mission. You cant wear anything that has a logo on it that's bigger than your name tag. So guess what? Ive been wearing a lot of my clothes inside out haha.  Oh well! Another rule is that we aren't allowed to use any slang. For example, we cant say "PDAY" we have to say "preparation day".  Also no referring to the elders as dude or the sisters as well. Everyone here as big dogs and I get attacked everyday and my companion is so funny she was like "If that dog kills you, I'm going to take a picture with it." haha. I think Saturday was one of the better day I have had in the field so far. Sister Robertson and I spent most of the day laughing and things were looking up.  We saw this horse scratching his butt on this pole and it was the funniest thing I have seen in forever. Made my day, but that's how I am the dumbest things make me laugh.  Last week it was so cold early in the morning my hair froze. I was running late and didn't have time to dry my hair and right when I stepped outside my hair went stiff. Apparently your hair can break off if its that stiff so basically I almost lost some of my hair. So this week we have an appointment to milk cows and possibly feed baby caves! Since I never grew up on a farm everyone makes fun of me for being so fascinated by cows and horses all around me.My companion always says "whoa there California." haha. On Saturday we went and saw Carla Loveland and she is the cutest little lady.  She asked us if we could sing to her so we sang a few hymns to her.  The look on her face was so peaceful I just love her.  We also saw Kathy and she cracks me up.  In her prayer she said "thank you Heavenly Father for bringing me these ornery girls". Haha shes the best. Shes so stubborn. We have to go over to her house to read the Book of Mormon with her because she wont do it on her own. We also met with Hilda and her mom and Hilda asked if I could give the prayer in Spanish and I did! I'm picking up words here and there but I was so nervous. Yesterday I fasted until 5 and I was dying. I bore my testimony 3 times yesterday and took of the sacrament 4 times. Perks of being in charge of 4 wards! I obviously didn't bare my testimony in the Spanish ward because I'm not that confident yet! I was asked to sing in church so now I'm singing February 26th. I'm singing "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul." Thought I was keeping myself on the down low!  This little boy Bennett Gormley came up to me yesterday in church and was like "HI MRS MILES". Hes seriously the cutest, I love that whole family. There's also this little girl names Sharon and we went to her house because her mom is a returning less active, so we have been teaching her mom. Anyways, with barely knowing me at all she gave me the sweetest look and the most sincere hug I have ever gotten.  That reminded me when I got set apart..It was said "That the children will be attracted to me and I will attract the children." Its so weird..the kids here for some reason love me haha. The kids are what make me happiest and help me get through all the sadness. They are just so innocent and pure. Its sad that we aren't allowed to pick up kids because they are just so cute! I forgot! Also on Saturdaywe went by to see Brother Wright and his family. Brother Wright is seriously one of the funniest guys I have met. Hes about 50 but acts like hes 15 and just the things he says cracks me up. His son in law Ricardo was there and he was so anxious to hear of what we had to say. We sat down and barely taught him. The spirit taught him. With barely teaching any doctrine he says "I know this is true". We gave him a Book of Mormon and after we walked out Sister Roberston and I looked at each other and were like what just happened...It was awesome.  Guess what dad? My companions sister served in the San Fernando mission and said "I know Sister Miles's family! Her dad is so funny! He took us missionaries out to Costco general conference week!" What a small world... So in other news of this week my companion has to be on antibiotics for three days before going outside. So for the next three days we cant go outside because her sickness is contagious at the moment. We have to deep clean our apartment because I'm in the zone of getting it as well. I have been good so far but hopefully I don't get it either. I have no idea what its called but basically we cant get to close to each other or share anything or go out.  Yesterday was a really hard day for me. I cried the majority of the day. Everyone I meet asks me about my family and honestly I hate it. It hurts to talk about you guys because I cant get through one sentence without crying.  In my testimony yesterday I shared your quote dad "I've never had a bad day in my life, just some are better than others." I got alot of compliments on that quote. I have to put on a fake smile the majority of the time and its hard. I have been sleep deprived since I got here.  I'm mentally and emotionally exhausted.  I have been having nightmares here and there. I have bruises on my knees from kneeling so much and praying for comfort/help. Every night I look up the stars and just cry. Its so beautiful. The stars here are so visible. It's one of my favorite things about Wyoming. Well that's pretty much this week. Its a rule that I'm not able to email back and forth (I had no idea) and I would like to be obedient. I can look at emails until 6 today so I'll still see them. If you want to stalk me on Facebook its Sister-Austin Miles. I just can't add you. Also I met a girl whose name is Austin! I've never met another girl named Austin, pretty cool. Hope you all have a good week. I think of you everyday and how lucky I am to have the family that I do. Love you all so much. I challenge you this week to read in the Book of Mormon. Its changed my life. It is the most true book ever. I'm not kidding. Read it, your life will never be the same. 

-- 

Love,

Sister Miles

week 4

HOLA.

Yup you heard that right. I have to learn Spanish! Sister Robertson and I are in charge of four wards! So that means every Sunday we partake of the Sacrament four times haha. Its great. So I was the only sister that got sent off to Wyoming. I stayed at the mission home for one night and then the next day they announced where we our first areas were and only two of us got sent out to Wyoming. I had a feeling my first area was going to be Wyoming so I wasn't shocked at all! It was a bit of an emotional time saying goodbye to the sisters in my old district because they only gave me literally an hour after telling me where I was going. Then off I was! My companion has really been helping me get out of my comfort zone. This first week has been extremely hard and awkward. There is literally nothing out here. We have to drive an hour to get to a grocery store and there is only one gas station in the whole town. The population here is 288. We have five people on date for baptism so we are hoping all goes well! Saturday our car got stuck because there is just so much snow! In the mornings its about -1. The snow boots are coming in handy! Its so cold that your nose freezes up and you literally can't breathe. Good thing I love the cold! My first night here we had dinner with this couple in the ward, the Preators. Guess what? They served their mission together in Addias Ababa, Ethiopia! They know Diana Bingham too, so we had a lot to talk about! It was nice to have that in common with them and be able to bond with them on that subject.  I have yet to teach an actual lesson because all of our investigators keep backing out. Most of the time knocking on doors people don't answer. Its sad and its hard to keep positive when things aren't working out. Brother Jones in one of the wards actually served his mission in Valencia! He was the first person that knew where Valencia was. I will be honest I have never cried so much in my life. Ive been praying more than ever before and I'm relying on the lord more than ever. 

         Love,
         Sister Miles