Week 62

Sister Galloway: "Are you wearing blush? Me: "Yes." Sister Galloway: "Oh it just looks like someone punch you in the face."

Hey hey! Well it's been a great/crazy week! It was a sad time saying bye to Sister Hunter but so great to bring in Sister Galloway! She's a hoot! She's a convert of TWO YEARS! She's such a rockstar! I love her so much! 

This week was madness! Sister Galloway got sick so we spent a whole day inside and never saw the light. Then I got sick and was dead on the couch for a good while. 

Highlights:

-three new investigators!

-ward split! 

I'm too lazy to write a full email so here's a copy of Sister Galloways email:

"Also I forgot to mention my new companion Sister Miles she's awesome and from California.  I was excited to have a companion that hates the cold but she actually likes it. We pretty much have a gospel party everyday.
One of our conversations:
Me. "I'm too big for the trash" Sister Miles: "you're right the dumpsters a better fit"
as you can see we're already best friends (like seriously I love this woman). Also my new apartment is so nice WiFi and washers and dryers!!! Even though the apartment is haunted my clock/CD player was plugged into a power outlet that doesn't work and it randomly started playing, and then some of the lights on the wall fell down. Send help.
It's been crazy trying to get to know so many people so quickly but it's been fun. Also from who I met so far our district is going to be really fun.
We also have some really interesting investigators. One family thought they were baptised into the Mormon church but weren't. Another family believes in Jesus Christ but not that he's perfect. Is been fun and hard getting to know all these people.
And guess what remember how last week I was throwing up sick well this week I had the pleasure of being introduced to a new germ here in Billings and woke up Saturday with a sore throat and very sick again and ended up taking the day off so I slept for over 20 hours I didn't know that was possible.
Then the following day we ended up having 6 hours of church we were both kind of dying. It's been a fun week."

Love you all, keep the faith. 

Love,
Sister Austin Miles ♡

2215 Monad Rd. Apt. 4
Billings, MT 59102

Montana Billings Mission 

WEEK 61

*Talking about the Plan of Salvation & Resurrection* Brother Lewis: "When I have a perfected body, I want to be able to surf again." Randy: "I'm gonna ride my Harley in heaven."

TRANSFER NEWS: Shocker...I'm staying! Sister Hunter will be leaving me to my old area Deer Lodge/Philipsburg to be trained by Sister Lewis my bud! My new companion will be Sister Galloway who is fresh out of training! Another crazy thing going on...ECHO CANYON WARD IS SPLITTING AGAIN! President was unaware of this so we might be covering three wards but we will wait and see! 

This email is going to be short today but here are a few highlights!

-We spoke in Echo Canyon Ward 

-We had such a fun dinner with the famous Sister Vance 

-We got a referral! (After working our butt off #miracles)

-Did service for the greens!

-Our car broke so Elder Baird came to our rescue!

-Went to the temple!

-LOTS OF FACEBOOK FINDING!

Sister Hunter and I have been super busy helping our sweet Monad ward and we are seeing alot of progress and success! 

I am so grateful that I was able to be Sister Hunters first companion in the mission field. I probably should her what not to do and how crazy missionaries are but I have learned so much. She is the most obedient and diligent missionary I know! Sister Lewis is super lucky! 

Lastly, here is a quote I shared in my talk that I wanted to end with:

"Last January President Thomas S. Monson taught Brigham Young University students that their student days should include “the matter of spiritual preparation,” including service to others. “An attitude of love characterized the mission of the Master,” President Monson said. “He gave sight to the blind, legs to the lame, and life to the dead. Perhaps when we [face] our Maker, we will not be asked, ‘How many positions did you hold?’ but rather, ‘How many people did you help?’ In reality,” President Monson concluded, “you can never love the Lord until you serve Him by serving His people.” - Elder Oaks 

Keep the faith. 

Pictures:

-Modeling caffefine free DP

-Me when I first came out, me now 

-The greens! 

-Sister Vance 

-The district 

Love,
Sister Austin Miles ♡

2215 Monad Rd. Apt. 4
Billings, MT 59102

Montana Billings Mission

WEEK 60

"It's going to be a great day, we are going to go out and be persecuted like Paul!" -President Ballard

Goodmorning everyone! This time change is getting to me for sure! Today we decided that we are definitely taking a nap! Also this is the last week of the transfer already! What! 

Well this past week was full of ups and downs. To start off with a good thing, I'll share about Dons lesson last Monday night. So I have been meeting with Don since Sister Mounteer was here. This last lesson we were concerned that he wasn't reading the Book of Mormon and having a real desire to learn. By the end of the lesson Don shared that if he finds out that the church is true he will be baptized and bring his family. So we have some hope for Don! 

Tuesday we got to go to the temple again and it was the best! We also went over to the Shiloh sisters old apartment to help them clean it and as well with Elder Kasper. After that we were so dead so the rest of the day I was moving kind of slow. We baked cookies for some of our investigators and members that were sick and spent some time passing those out. The rest of Tuesday wasn't all that eventful, we just went about finding! 

Wednesday we had interviews first thing and man I just love President! I spent well over 15 minutes in my interview (35 minutes) because I was a blubbery mess. Anyways, the rest of the day was full of lessons, piano playing, singing with the sisters and more. 

Thursday was wonderful. Why? BECAUSE OUR APARTMENT FLOODED FOR THE SECOND TIME. We had left to go do some service and came home to a giant puddle in our kitchen. The main line (once again) had backed up into our sink and least to say we had some yummy things come up out of the sink. That was Thursday for ya!

Friday I had a doctor's appointment so that was how we started off the day. We also got Cafe Rio because why not. We were feeling charitable that day so we picked some Cafe Rio up for Elder Black and Elder Griffin because they were dying in their apartment. Later that day we went over for our usual lesson with the Seavys and it did not end well. Long story short Haileys baptism is being postponed until April and Heidi won't be getting baptized anytime soon. It was sad and so discouraging but we are just going to keep continuing to love them. 

Saturday was exciting! President Ballard visited the mission in Missoula. We didn't get to meet him but we had a devotional where he spoke to the whole mission. It was pretty awesome and President Ballard is the most blunt and humorous man ever, my kinda person. Here are some of his quotes:

-"It doesn't matter what you think, it doesn't matter what I think, what matters is what did Jesus teach?"

-"You can't get one because you're not President of the Dessert Book"

-"I don't know about talking about basketball, I don't know that they play that in heaven"

-"I'm too old to convert"  "Well that's all the more reason to convert, you're gonna die soon"

Gotta love him! 

Sunday was madness as always! Not much else to report there! 

I hope you all had a great week and I love you lots! 

Keep the faith. 

PICTURES:

-South side 

-painting the Greens dogs nails with a sharpie 

-after flooding 

-Sister Hodges! 

-temple! 

-shiloh sisters aka Sivley crew 

Love,
Sister Austin Miles ♡

2215 Monad Rd. Apt. 4
Billings, MT 59102

Montana Billings Mission 

WEEK 59 less than 100 days until I return home

Me: "Would you like to come to church this Sunday?" Diego: "I'm scared!" Me: "Why?" Diego: "Because you eat snails!"

Hello hello hello! Above is the most interesting thing anyone has ever said to me! Apparently we eat snails at church! 

Well this week was uneventful in some ways. I have been sick for the past couple of days so I've been struggling to keep up my energy. I'm such a joy when I'm sick (poor Sister Hunter). 

Last Monday we went bowling and least to say I'm horrible at bowling. 

Tuesday we saw the Greens and did some service for them. Sister Green is getting some results back soon so please keep her in your prayers! We then went to see the Seavy girls as usual and taught them the word of wisdom! The girls are approaching their baptismal date so we are so excited! Since Heidi is eight she will be interviewed by the bishop but since Hailey is nine she will need to be interviewed by Elder Jackson. When we told Hailey who she needed to be interviewed by she said: "OOO I HIT THE JACKPOT." Yup a nine year old said this. Classic. Throughout the day we contacted some people and checked up on Randy. Towards the end of the night we had this prompting to go try this potential investigator one more time before we decided to stop trying him. Whenever Sister Mounteer and I tried he was never home or never answered. Finally Sister Hunter and I tried one last time. He came outside and didn't seem too interested in talking with us in that moment. We set up a time to come back and that was it. As we were walking away he yelled to us: "Wait! We can talk now if you'd like." I was confused to be honest but we went up and taught him the Restoration and he committed to reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know if it's true. We are pumped for Dan! 

Wednesday we had good ole district meeting and I brought cookies for everyone. Elder V and Elder Black downed them in minutes. I provided their breakfast apparently. Throughout the day we delivered cookies to some of our investigators and they are just the cutest! Let me tell ya about some of our investigators...

-Carol brings her crickets to church.

-Randy came to a baptism with his drunk friend. 

-Don thinks we are frickin crazy because we don't believe in hell. 

-Alberia is a super crazy black lady who says her ulcer is always bleeding. 

-Bryce is normally smoking when we talk to him. 

But I love them! They keep my life interesting. Later we had dinner with the amazing Wing family! Brother Wing was just called as the Stake Patriarch in Stake Conference yesterday and I was so happy! He's amazing! Our last lesson for the night we taught Harlee Groesbeck who is turning eight soon so her parents want us to go through the lessons! We are teaching alot of kids and I love it! Okay here is an experience for ya...

Lately we have been calling a bunch of members who haven't attended church for the last couple of years to see if they are interested or live at their current address. We called this one older gentlemen and his wife who is not a member picked up. We told her who we were and she immediately went off on us. She asked us about 10 times not to come by the house and we respected that and said we wouldn't. She then said:"He doesn't want anything to do with the church. I don't want anyone coming over here. And he's naked! So if ya wanna come over than be my guest. I'll chase you down with a stick." And that was the end of our night! 

Thursday was my sweet Sister Zullos birthday so we went over and dropped some flowers off to her! I just adore her! We ended up getting Cafe Rio as well (and two other times that week oops). Thursday was when I was starting to feel sick so we slowed down a bit. We went to the Adams house for dinner that night and man I just love them! After dinner we went over to our investigator Elizabeth's house and chatted with her. Her son Diego is a Jehovah's Witness so he was cracking jokes while we were there. After we invited them to church Diego then said how he was scared because we eat snails. Nice! Lastly we ended up at the mission home for Elder Holm to open his mission call! He's going to Alabama! 

Friday I woke up and was so dead. I ended up sleeping from 8 am to 12pm and passed out. Sister Hunter said she came in every 30 minutes to check on me to make sure I was still breathing. We had planned exchanges that day so we started exchanges a little later. We saw the Seavy girls again and talked about the Sabbath day and fasting! Hailey especially is so dang smart and catching on quick! That night we had the Sweetgrass Creek open house for the new building and it was awesome! Carol our investigator came to check it out! After the open house we went over to check up on Tiffany and Bryce and walked in right as they were doing some game show thing to win 5,000. Everything is so unexpected when we are with them haha. 

Saturday morning we helped a family in Central ward move so that took up some time. I was hecka sweaty after we were done so that's what I get for not working out as hard in the morning! The rest of the day wasn't all that crazy. I was still sick so we weren't able to do much. We went to the adult session for stake conference so that was fun! The Stahls and the wonderful Zullos were both there from my Helena ward. Reunion! 

Sunday was wild because we had ward council at 7:30, Monad church started at 9 and Stake Conference for the other stake started at 10! So we booked it over there after we took the Sacrament. Working in two stakes is always an adventure! After all that shenanigans, I still had a migraine so I ended up laying down and I was out. The rest of the day we shoveled snow for some people including Sister Hodges! We started to shovel her walkway in secret and she ended up coming outside. She got mad and invited us in and fed us at 8 at night haha. We had just come from dinner not that long before so I was struggling to pack down the food she gave us because she was sweet enough to offer so we sucked it up. Joys of being a missionary! 

There's my week for ya! You all are amazing and I love you tons! 

I'll leave you with two of my favorite scriptures President Wadsworth loves to share with me: 

"I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." -D&C 82:10 

"And now, O my son Helaman, behold, thou art in thy youth, and therefore, I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my words and learn of me; for I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day." -Alma 36:3

Keep the faith. 

Pictures:

-Sister Zullo! 

-Exchanges with my bestie Sister Larsen!

-Elder Holms mission call opening (I was sick that day so excuse me for looking dead)

-The moment I shared that I had 15 check your speeds on the way to the mission home and Elder Baird was right there :) 

-Hailey and Heidi Seavy 

Love,

Sister Austin Miles ♡

2215 Monad Rd. Apt. 4
Billings, MT 59102

Montana Billings Mission