Thanksgiving

Mom's Reunion

No TIME

everything is going good here in guatemala, the work is progressing an moving forward. hope to have to some good baptisms in the month of september. i love you all and take care.

Miles Moving Bros. Inc.

This is just a shout out to the Miles' brothers for their packing, driving, and road tripping skills. Enoch has a lot to be proud of...they couldn't have learned from anyone better. Thanks again for all your help and to the wives for letting their husbands go!

ONE YEAR!

Well, one down, one to go. I did the the one year ritual of burning one of my shirts. It was pretty intense, especially because my cook and her sister decided to throw buckets full of water at me. But, besides that we are working hard and finding a lot of those choosen people. One went to church yesterday, his name is Wilbur. A great man, has a lot of integrity and wants to find the thruth. He already had read the chapter we left with hi and starte reading the BOM from the beginning. I´m doing my best to teach my comp the best I can, the best part is at the same time he is teaching me a lot. I have found these past two weeks that obedience is key. It is the most obedient I have been my entire my mission and the most happy that I have ever been. Love you all, take care,
Love
Elder Miles

Howdy

Well, just finished my first week as a trainer. I will say it is really nice to have a new elder as a companion and one that likes to work. His name is Elder Guzman and he is from El Salvador. He is a stud, he speak a lot of english so I have a lot of fun messin around with him. This change is looking pretty good. I just barely realized yesterday that so far in this area they have only baptized 5 people. Every thinks that in Central America, that you are going to have a ton of baptisms, but I´m coming to see that it isn`t so easy. But, right the members and the bishop are so willing to help us. I had to work my can off for the respect and help. Now the members are giving to many references I can´t handle them all in one week. Sorry that I haven´t wrote for a while, I´m not really sick, Mom and Dad are over reacting. All I have is bacteria in my intestines, but I´m doing just great. It was just I was a little down in the dumps because this area I´m in is really rough. But thanks for all of the support from Craig and Jeff. David, Jackie? I have no idea if your alive and the same with Chris and Michelle. I would like to know how my nieces and nephews are doing. But I love you all, press forward. One down, one to go. I love you all. Can we not go forward in so great a cause?

Love
Elder Miles

Baptism

We had another baptism this past Saturday. It was awesome, first, because I didn`t have to plan it and second, the spirit was really strong. We baptized an 11 year old, but she is going to trun 12 this thursday. I think im the 5th Elder who has tried to baptize her, but all of the other ones before she always said no. She was so nervous, but it turned out well. Besides that, I have put the members to work. I now pass around a sheet every week and the members have to put a name down as a person we can visit. From yesterday, we have 11 people to pass by this week. Im really trying to imply the words of Elder Bednar. But im just helping the members by showing them, HOW they can help the missionaries. So for the experience has gone really well. I love you all so much. Take care.
love
Elder Miles

Hello everyone

I should have posted on the blog as I was writing an e-mail to him when he was writing here but my messenger is shut off I just noticed or we could have had a minute with Andy. I hope to write some kind of e-mail tomorrow as Sunday was spent in the kitchen preparing dinner for the new President. It was fun to make a lot of American food. It is easy to remember why it is so hard to loose weight at home. It all actually tastes good! African food is mostly about survival.

We have been quite immersed with the new President today. He starts Zone conferences in the morning and has transfers the 17th. The area office didn't get new signature cards at the bank so that is our next dilema that Dad is working on.

Welll it is 6:00 and I am beat so will sign off -

Love, Mom

Another Week

Well, Tomorrow in 11 months in the mission. how time flies? especially when your having fun. we are working hard and trying to get things going in this ward. Jeff wrote me an email that really inspired me, so yesterday we were combined with relief society and priesthood. after the bishop taught his class, i asked for a few minutes and explained a new way that we are going to try and do missionary work in the ward. i read part of the talk from Elder Bednar`s talk from general conference that gave it pretty good to everyone in the church, that members find and missionaries teach and that the members shouldn`t pray that the missionaries do their work. i explained that the next week im going to pass around a work sheet that i have prepared that they put there name, a person that we can teach, the direction of the person and the hour that the member can visit with us to teach this person. i know im going to get a good response and in this ward we are going to have a lot of success. it was absolutely amazing when it came to me, i was praying and the idea just popped into my mind. Jeff thanks for the needed inspiration to help me think and mediate for a better way to advance the work of the Lord and involve the members. the other thing i talked about was, every new member needs a friend. Well, what is a true friend, when that greets you a church every week or what? well, Elder Clark taught us, a true friend invites someone to his house for dinner. that is what a true friend is. we are going to figure out a way to start implying this concept into the ward and reactivate a ton of people. in gautemala the activation percentage in %25. ya, pretty low. well i love you all. i hope all is well and going great. we have a meeting with the new president tonight so that should be pretty interesting. i love you all. take care
love
Elder Miles

TRABAJO

I haven`t wasted much time trying to put this area into order. The past two Sundays I have sent to Priesthood and the Bishopric out to make some visits to less active families. I`m pretty sure that the Bishop doesn`t like to do it, but it`s good for him. Afterwards they give me a report and all tell me that they had a really good experience. So, I think it is going to help this ward really turn around. Also, we put a ton of baptismal dates. To tell the truth, I don`t know how many will go through, but at least it really made the people think serious about baptism. In total, 7 dates. One family of three, but they have a daughter, so only one priesthood holder. The others are with a woman that is about 40 years old and her daughter, and the other two with an 11 year old girl and a 9 year old girl. The 9 year old girl is a neighbor of some members, so she goes to church every week, we just have to teach her and the 11 year old, everyone single one of her aunts is a member of the church. I have been really busy, we had a baptism Saturday too. A 73 year old man that is absolutely hilarous and very punctual. It was pretty funny, not one from the bishopric came to the baptism and yesterday at church when we were about to confirm him, he started saying in front of everyone, Where were you yesterday? Yesterday was the important part. Everyone heard and were laughing there heads off, because there is no support for the missionaries from the leaders. It was awesome and later the Stake President came everyone told him what happened. It was pretty funny because the Bishop pretty much got cuffed in front of everyone. My comp is started to open up a little more, he doesn`t know the doctrine so he doesn`t have much confidence. He hardly studies and he is always talking about his girlfriend. I have to get on him to snap out it all the time. But we get along really well. I love this work, it is really kicking my trash right now, becuase I really feel like I have no idea what I`m doing. I just do someone how do it and it all comes through. There is no way I can do this without the help of Christ. Everything I do is because it is what He wants and He just guides me to these places and the Spirit helps me to the things I need to say. I love you all so very much, I hope everyone is well and having success.
Love
Elder Miles

Hey There!

Sorry I've been slacking. We've been out of town and then had a lot of company. It was fun! I wanted to scrap the pictures before I posted them too. I was at my four month mark for catching up on scrapbooking. (Then I only have to worry about it 3x/ a year) We are doing great, enjoying the basement and the nice summer weather. I can't believe that I have to be pregnant for 2 1/2 more months! I'm getting really uncomfortable already. We bought the kids a new swimming pool last night and they will play in it today. Check out or blog for all the pics!

FIRST WEEK

Just ended my first week as Senior Companion. Let me tell ya, the mission is a whole lot different now. A lot of responsibility and worry about just little things, and my comp doesn`t like to talk much when we are in lessons, so I do a lot of the teaching. I really need to help him learn the doctrine and how to teach eficiently. But everything is going really well, we have a baptism the saturday with an older gentleman that is about 70 years old, and we actually put the date with him. We also are helping an 11 year old girl get ready for baptism. All of her aunts are members, so she has a lot of support and her testimony is really growing. I have really been thinking a lot this past week, life is way too short to not take advantage of all the opportunities that we have in this life. Even if it may be something small, such as going to the temple or reading your scriptures by yourself and with your family. You all have such great opportunities to teach your children the gospel and watch them learn and grow in the gospel. Hay que aprovechar este oportunidades y enseñen sus hijos el evangelio para que ellos puedan tener un testimonio fuerte y un buen conocimiento de los principios del evangelio. No creo gue haya un gran gozo mas que ver sus hijos haciendo las cosas buenas y seguiendo adelante. I love you all very much and I hope all is going well. Recognize the hand of the Lord in all things, things don`t just happen, they happen because you are suppose to learn for those experiences and change something is your life.
love
Elder Miles

Where's the updates?

Where are all the new pictures? We actually have pretty fast internet and so we are looking forward so some video clips and pictures.

LaRue

All Is Well, All Is Well

We had changes today. They took me out of my area, that kinda of sucked, my cook and her family were all crying when I left. They are pretty much my family here in Guatemala. But I am still in the capital and I moved up to Senior Comp. My new comp is Elder Arita, from Honduras and is from the city as my other two comps from Honduras. He is really quiet, but I will knock that out of him. My new seems pretty cool, but kinda small. And it has been raining non stop for the past week and a half. It is absolutely crazy. I have never seen so much water in my entire life. I hope every is doing,ya`ll need to update your pages so i can know what is going on. Take care. Love ya all.
Love
Elder Miles

No Mucho

Not a whole lot happened this week. I had to go to the doctor for some chest pains that I was having, but it just turned out to be something that I had from the flu that I guess I had and didn´t know it. But it had nothing to do with my heart, just the muscles in my chest. So everything is fine with that, don´t worry mom. This past week the mom of that family passed away. They finally took her to the hospital and that day she died. It was probably about 3 months too late. The worst part was the two kids didn´t know and they were at church with us when we found out. So, I had to muscle it up and break the new to them, because my comp couldn´t do it. It was pretty hard but they understand a little better the plan of salvation. but this is all i got. love ya all
love
Elder Miles

How are you?

Enoch, LaRue & Andy, are you guys out there? I'm sure all is well and Craig said that you probably don't have internet. Just wanted to let you know we're thinking about and praying for you. Keep up the good work. I've put new stuff on our blog if you want to see the kids. :-)

GOOD TALKIN

Well it was good to talk to ya´ll yesterday. The one thing I didn´t tell you about is that we had another baptism on Saturday. It was a really cool experience, the little boy started to cry after we confirmed him. The spirit was really strong. I honestly think that this is the best baptism that I have had in my mission, and he is only 9 years old. He two older sisters are members and his dad is really interested, but he isn´t married with his wife, and he doesn´t want to because he thinks that she is going to kill him some day. This Saturday we have two more baptisms, the younger brother of Leonel, Gerson, and the other is Kevin. Kevin is 17 years old and his aunt introduced us to him. He told us that he wanted to be baptized before we had even asked him. Next week I will bring my camera and hopefully Jackie will be able to post some pictures on here. I love you all, keeping pushing along, and put your shoulder to the wheel.
Love,
Elder Miles

60! Hip Hip Horray!

We hope that you had air conditioning on your birthday. :-) 60 years well spent, what an accomplishment. Happy Birthday.
Love,
Craig, Michelle, Carson and Victoria

60!

You're the birthday, you're the birthday, you're the birthday boy or girl! I sure hope Ghana gives you the senior citizen discount, you deserve it once you turn 60. Happy Birthday, Grandpa.

Jeff, Camille, Marcus, and Katelyn

BAPTISM!

Well we had a baptism this past Saturday. We baptized Leonel, he is 13 years old and his family is the one that we have been helping out a lot lately. The dad has decided to stay and not return back to Honduras, becuase his wife is so sick. So i am pretty sure that it should be a bapitsm. All we have to do is get them married. They already have all of their papers, we just need to find a lawyer that will hike down to their house and sign the papers. We are going to have another baptism this week, and we are scheduled to have another the following week, possibly two. My comp works hard, but he doesn´t talk to me. He hates gringos, he has had 3 emergency changes because he has fought with his gringo comps.
well, not much more has happened. It will be good to talk to you all again. Sounds like all is well. I love you all take care
love
Elder Miles

I think I broke his freaking neck...

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It's a...

BOY! Now the girls club is out numbered. Oh well, we get what we want anyway! :-) Everything looks good and healthy on the utrasound and the due date is September 9th. If all is well and the baby and I am ready I will be induced on the 4th so that my Dr. is in town and the baby comes before Craig's fall manager's meetings. We are excited! Carson has know all along that he was getting a baby brother.

The first image is a 3D one. You can see his eyes, nose, and mouth with the left side of his face pressed up against the side of my tummy. Looks cramped! The second one is a profile and the third is his arm bent at the elbow with his thumb in his mouth! Looks like we got a thumb sucker.

Cambios

Well we had changes today. It was quite a shock, my comp had a change and I didn´t, which was fine, but everyone thought that I was going to move up to senior comp. But that didnt happen, I´m still junior comp, but oh well more time to prepare myself to be a Senior and learn. My new comp is Elder Cuello from Honduras. I have already heard some things about him and everyone told me to be careful with him, so we will see if i have improved since Elder Nelson and when he pulled out a machette on me. haha. But everything is going really well right now. We have a baptism this Saturday, one the following week, and a date for the one after that. The are finishing the new stake center nearby, so we won´t be meeting in a school anymore for church.
I don´t know if you all remember the family I have talked about before that is really poor and the mom is extremely sick, well we took food to them this past week from the Bishop´s storehouse, when we came in with the food and starting showing her what we had brought, she just starting crying. It was a lot of food, that should last for a couple of weeks. It was a really powerful moment, and we then put a date for baptism with her son, Leonel, who is getting baptized this Saturday. When then had her give the closing pray. It is the most marvillous and powerful pray I have ever heard, there wasn´t a dry eye in the room. I love this work so much and I love this people, they really try your patience, but that is something I really need to learn. As for these last couple of weeks, I chose a Christ-like attribute to focus on from Preach My Gospel. I chose Humilty. After really focusing on it, I have found it is extremely hard to be humble, I really am missing a lot of that attribute and I hope to continue to develop it.
I love you all so very much, can you believe it? 9 Meses ya, puchega, el tiempo se fue muy rapido, pero hay que provechar su tiempo en el campo por que uno regrese y nunca va a ser un misionero por tiempo completo jamas. les amo and les extrano mucho. solo quiero que ustedes puedan seguir adelante y aue puedan ensenar sus hijos el evangelio. Que bendicione que tenemos que tenemos este evangelio restuarado en nuestras vidas. les amo a ustedes. dos semanas y puedo comunicarme con ustedes.
con amor
Elder Miles

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Hi! Andy, you know that each family has an individual blog that you can link to from this site. That is why I don't post much here. I didn't want to post too much stuff on this one so I started one for our family. I will still put things on here, but more there. Sounds like you are having a great mission and learning a lot. A couple funny things Carson has done recently involves his imaginary friends. As referred to earlier Jerry (from Tom and Jerry) resides in the heat register in our kitchen. Well, the other day Carson cut what looked like big mouse holes on two pieces of paper and taped them up on the wall near the kitchen. We just laughed and said is that Jerry's house? He said "no, it his two garages for his two cars". Now Jerry drives in and out of them. Today Carson said that he took a picture of Jerry in his car and went so much to say that Jerry had the window down and his elbow sitting on it. Another funny one is when I was doing laundry Carson started freaking out saying "Mom, Stewart is in the washing machine!" (Stewart Little) We had to go and stop it, open it up and he had to go through all the wet clothes to find Stewart. :-) I knew imaginary play was big for 4 year olds, but I was getting a little nervous. I talked to some of my friends and they assured me that this is normal and he is not schizophrenic.

Blessing in Spanish

Not at a whole lot happened this past week, just a bunch of frustration because Guatemalans have no structure and can´t commit to anything, but you still gotta love ´em. They are good people, they just don´t know any better. But yesterday at church, one of the sisters in the ward asked me to give her a blessing, at first I said ¨I think it´s better if my comp does it because I dont know if I can in Spanish,¨ but she insisted that I do it. So, I did. I will tell you what, you really have to rely on the spirit when doing it in another language and in a different form of talking. My fellow brothers and brother-in-law understand that. Talking in tú form and not usted. But, the spirit helped me along and put the words in my head. I was just an instrument in the hands of God giving a blessing to a faithful daughter of God and gave her the counsel, guidance and comfort that she desired from her loving Heavenly Father. I promised her some pretty powerful things, and I when I finished, she was in tears and just told me Thank You, Thank You. I had a testimony before I left on the mission, but I think it was built a little bit on the sand not the rock. But everyday, my testimony has more and more of a foundation on the rock. I love this humbling work. I love you all. I thought we had this to communicate one with another, but I´m the only one using it. But Jeff, can you explain to me again how to use te Brother of Jared and Baptism again. thanks
Love
Elder Miles

A little rumble....

Well, last night while I was eating dinner about 8:30, and a little rumble came about from beneath my seat, and for the first time it was a terrible case of gas. It was a nice little rumble from mother nature, an earthquake that lasted for about 10 seconds. It was quite a relief when it was over because for one, I hadn´t soiled myself and two it was just a little earthquake. This morning we went to the temple, so we have our p-day today. It was really cool to get to go again, beings i hadn´t been in 6 months. I was also able to buy some really good teaching materials. We because some missionaries are so smart, our Zl´s decided that we could all fit into a 1986 toyota truck. It was about the size of our next door neighbor Bob Knighten. Well we made it there, with the entire zone in this tiny little truck, 18 elders in total. Well on the way back, we weren´t so lucky. We blew out a tire and some of us had to take a bus back. I just love elders who use their head. But as for that, all is going really well, working hard and trying to get people to go to church, it is really a try for patience with these Guatemalan people. But at last, I am learning patience and lots of love. But we are getting really close with a few people, but I don´t know if I will have the chance to see them get baptized, but as my Patriarchal Blessings states, that it is my job to plant the seed. So that is what I am doing. I love this work, I hope everyone is doing well, there is one thing that I would like for my birthday, a Boston Red Sox sweatshirt would be pretty cool. Preferably the color red. But as for that, I don´t have much more, except it is pretty cool that once you have left you session to go change and there are two members of the Seventy right there and you can stop and talk to them for a little bit. Espero que todo esté bien and que Calvin y Isaac están leyendo el Libro de Mormón. Les amo y sigan adelante.
Con mucho amor
Elder Miles

I would have to say, that my mission has changed drastically in these last three weeks. They have easily been the best three weeks of my whole mission. We are having so much success and finding so many good people. I have had some of the most spiritual experiences of my life. The ways that we have found so of the people is an absolute miracle. One family that we are teaching, has to be the most humble family in the entire world. They have absolutely nothing, a few times we have had to take them food because they have no money to buy anything. The father is in Hondurus working right now and only comes back every 22 days. The wife literally in on the verge of death, she has now been sick for the past three months. The first time we meet this family they told us that they want to get baptized; as of right now, only two of the sons have gone to church because she can´t and her 11 year old daughter has to stay to take care of her and her little baby brother that is 2 years old. At one point, everyone was sick and hadn´t ate in three days. We showed up, saw the condition and immediately left to find some food and medicine. Some members in the ward willingly gave us food and we food some medicine of our own. Through it all, the wife always says I know that i´m going to better some day because I have in Christ and in you. We gave her a blessing, and after the blessing she said, I know more than ever that I will be better and that my prayers will be answered. It is absolutely amazing to me, through it all, she still has the faith of a mountain. It nevers wavers and is so strong. It truly is humbling to see how these people move foward everyday. There house is made of pure aluminum and they never complain. They keep pressing forward with steadfastness in Christ. I hope that one day that can all receive a baptism that valid before God so they can one day enter into the Kingdom of God.
Everything is going awesome, thanks for everything. For my birthday, money is probably the best because President doesn´t like when we get packages, actually his wife doesn´t because their are some latinos who will never get one. Que les vayan bien.
Elder Miles

Hello from Ghana

Hello from Ghana It started out as such an ordinary week we doubted it would be
worth our time to write today as it would be such a disappointing message, but the
end of the week proved interesting. We did our big banking and carried home $11,000
of cash without incident and spent most of the week doing mundane office tasks, we
were here alone most of the week. Thursday we had visitors, Elder and Sister
Shipley came to Cape Coast from the area office. They flew out with us and Elder
Shipley serves as the executive secretary to the Area Presidency. They were able to
have a few days off as the Presidency were in SLC for general conference. They
brought us some of our favorite cereal from Accra and invited us to join them for
dinner on Friday night at the Coconut Grove. We did that with President and Sister
Dil. It was fun to be out at night and be able to see the stars from a different
part of the world. It felt just a little bit like being home and was very
enjoyable. Before we went to dinner our baptism candidate needed to be interviewed
by the assistants, because there are no real addresses here we showed them to her
house and waited for them while the interview took place. It is a small village,
when we arrived we were greeted by 6 or 7 children. As we waited in and by the car
the word spread that white people were in the village. I was sitting in the car
with the window down and the children crowded around and would put out one finger
and touch my arm. Most did not speak English but I asked one who did if they had
seen a white person before and she said they had not. I felt kind of like I was in
one of those booths at the fair! Enoch was standing outside the car and some would
touch him but they got very close kind of in your face close. I got out to take a
picture and as one girl carrying a baby got close so she could be in the picture,
the baby burst into tears, just scared to death. It reminded of us when Santa
visited the grandchildren. Anyway it was a very amusing event! Anita passed her
interview, then we ran into a snag. She does not reside in the Abakrampa boundaries
and so she would not be able to be comfirmed. Today we stopped at the Yamoransa
Ward to get permission for the baptism and confirmation, the Bishop Coleman gave
permission only if Anita promised to attend the ward there afterwards and because he
really likes the assistants and trusted them. Anita agreed so we will procede with
the baptism and then attend church with her next week in Yamoransa to have her
confirmed and that is where she will attend. We loved seeing the leadership handle
everything in the proper order. Saturday we did not have a p-day because there was
Zone Leader Council which I had to take notes at and then a nice luncheon and
afterwards we were able to get conference via the internet. The whole first session
went without an interrruption, which is a miracle! It was a wonderful opportunity
to sustain a new Prophet and know that he is God's chosen leader on the earth at
this time and are so grateful for that knowledge. That was at 4:00 p.m. our time
(10:00 a.m. MST) It was great to view it though. We did not stay for the second
session and President Dil said that the computer would not stay on for that one. We
have now just finished watching the first session today and are writing our e-mails
and then will see if we can get the second session. It is already dark at 6:25 p.m.
We do some night driving but try to avoid it as there are so many pedestrains and
it is so dark you really don't see them until you are right on them. If you hit one
of them and you stopped you would be responsible for that person for the rest of
their life or if death resulted for all funeral expenses and possible jail! We
always pray before driving and gives thanks for safety every night. It is a real
blessing. I thought this week was going to be so boring that we could tell you about
names, church records, and marriages, but that will have to wait for another week.
We are grateful to be here serving a mission to share the message of the restoration
of Christ's church on the earth. The people of Africa have waited a long time and
it is such a blessing to those who accept this message, we feel blessed to be part
of this great work. Love, The Miles'

Attached are some pictures including the tomato salesman who comes to our door on
Saturday's, some pictures of the highway out of Accra, complete with goat in the
back of pickup, also some pictures of Takoradi marketplace and the soccer stadium
nearby. A chapel in Takoradi, Enoch at the Toyota dealership - note the top of the
building, most structures here are in this incomplete mode. We went to Toyota to
get a tire fixed and also to get a new oil cap. When the main mechanic opened the
hood of our car, it was like a magnet drew all of the help to watch the boss try an
oil cap on, and then it didn't fit. Then there's a picture of a typical telephone
pole, straight lines are highly overrated here.

I noticed that I hadn't explained a couple pictures. The second picture isthe view
from the Cape Coast post office. Across the street you'll see a lot of cinder
blocks and if you look closely or zoom in you'll see a man pushing a wheelbarrow
full of dirt into the construction site. He has no shoes or shirt on. Wheelbarrows
are called "wheelies" here. You'll also see the dirt road leading up the hill, it
is very steep. You'll also see a picture of a dump truck on the beach. It is being
filled with sand by people using only buckets and tubs to scoop up the sand and
carry to the truck. The sand will be used for construction and brick making. It's
sort of the reverse of America where sand is hauled in to reclaim beaches. Here,
the sand is being carried off the beaches. Where are the environmentalists?

near new record

The highlight of the day yesterday we last night Enoch and I played scrabble. On my first turn I was able to play the word drooling, which was a double double + the fifty points for using all my letters for a total of 82 points. The whole game was magical and I would have scored over 400 points but dad quit and wanted to start over, He led the whole second game until the end, I played the last letter but he had the Q and had to subtract it and with the extra points I got, I was able to win by 1 point.
All this office work has cuased my brain to begin functioning again, atleast temporarily! The Shipleys who flew with us to Ghana and work in the area office in Accra as executive secretary to the area presidency came to see us yesterday. They are on a little holiday while the presidency are all in SLC for conference. We will join them and Pres. Dil at the Coconut Grove for dinner tonight.

We made our trip to the bank for $11,000 cash this week and got it all counted out for the misssionaries. Need to go to work.

Love, Mom

Well, I lost my post, I wrote another post but it got erased. i love you all, next week i will write a good post. when did all this news happen?
love
Elder Miles

I recovered his posts!!

My comp and I had another really good week, but only 1 investigator in church. A girl that is 20 years old and has two kids, one is a little girl that is 5 and a boy that is 2. She has a husband, I guess that is what you call it. They aren´t married, but have lived together for 6 years. We just found out that he is a member, but hasn´t gone to church in over 10 years. Last night we past by to see how she liked church and everything and to see if he was there. He happened to be there and so we decided to teach them the plan of salvation and how families can be together forever. We finished teaching and at the end I felt that I really needed to bare my tesimony. So I just started by telling them that this plan brings so much peace and happiness in my life because I know that when this life is over I don´t have to say good bye to my loved ones, that I can live with them forever after this life. But that I have to continue to live the gospel and do what the Lord wants me to do. When I finished, it was dead silent, you could hear a pin drop. What was most amazing of all is the husband started crying. The spirit was so strong, it is just one of the experiences that you can never forget. We are so blessed to have this gospel in our lives, to guide and direct us. I love this work. Thank you all so much for being an example in my life and showing me the way. I love you all. Hay que seguir adelante con confianza in Christo.

Love

Elder Miles

ps My english rocks, not really I really starting to forget how to speak, and Jeff whatever happened to sending me a package?

Hooray!

We are so happy to hear that it's a girl! I bet that they are very excited. I am pretty sure that Craig has told everyone... here they don't do an ultrasound until 20 weeks so in about 4 weeks we will find out. The pressure is off on us though. :-) Although, Carson is convinced that he is getting a baby brother. He says he doesn't need another sister.

Did everyone hear?

Michelle is having a girl! That's Chris' Michelle! The blessings are really pouring in! We arrived home safely from Accra with just a bit of off roading adventure. The time went way to quick, we were able to attend the temple, which was in French as they had a group from the Ivory Coast there so we had to wear headphones. We also got haircuts which turned out great - except now I am completely
gray. It's time to go to work the President just came in. We send our love to all of you.

CHECK THIS WEEK OUT

My mission has taken a drastic turn for the better. My comp is probably the best missionary in the whole mission. Everyone was telling us that our area is probably the worst one in the whole mission and that we wouldnt find anyone. Well, I have learned that there isn´t such a thing as a bad area, only that they are lazy missionaries. We started the week with only having two investigators and just running with it. We contacted like crazy, and we ended up in places that I have no idea why we were there, but the Lord did. We found some really amazing people who were really prepared to listen to our message. One family we found was absolutely poor, I don´t think that had ate in a day or two. The mom was so sick, she was on the verge of dying, i´m not kidding. We gave her a blessing and told her that we were going to return. We went to our house and found what medicine we had and went to our cook´s house and took a couple of cup of ramon and a jug of agua pura. We went back and gave them the medicine and we have returned back a couple of times and seems to be recovering just fine. But this family already wants to get baptized, we just have to get them to church, which they went yesterday, but the dad left for Hondorus today for his work and doesn´t come back for another 22 days. They are so many more just like that, the thing is when we first went to the house the parents weren´t there. But as we were returning back, they stopped us and told us to come to their house. It was just amazing that we were right there in that moment. In the end, we found 31 new investigators and 6 investigators in church. It is possible that next week we could have more than ten next week, because this past week Semana Santa and so absolutely no one was in the street or anything. Everyone left for the beaches. Honestly, there were more drunks in the street than people that could actually talk to us and stand still. I also had to give a talk in church yesterday. It went really well, everyone told me spanish was really good and that I had improved from the last time. We are going to be pretty busy this week teaching all of these people and putting dates with for their baptism. We have really been pushing hard to invite for baptism in the first lesson and put a date in the second. I love you all, it´s always good to hear all is well. It´s like David O. Mckay said ¨every member is a missionary¨ in D y C 33, there is a promise, if you open your mouth the Lord with fill you with the words that you need because He is with you.
Love
Elder Miles

leaving for Accra

We are leaving for our first trip to Accra, so if you never hear from us again, you'll know the maps were bad, we don't have passports so I don't think we can get to Nigeria or Togo without being stopped.

The President asked us if we thought our mission or Andy's mission was the toughest, we said that we didn't know. We were able to answer the question last week after we saw that Andy's debit card had been used at McDonalds!

Have a great day, I am sure we will have adventures to share after this trip.

Easter Pictures!

Hi there! Sounds like all missionaries are doing well. We are very glad for that. We loved the Ghana pictures. Looks beautiful!

For FHE last night I did a felt board story about Easter. We taught Carson last year, but it didn't seem to stick. When saying the lunch and bedtime prayer tonight he said "thank you Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected on Easter". We are still trying to get the significance of the egg, but I think that it is hard for a 4 year old to grasp. He is definitely getting it though, which we are happy about. Craig and his counselors stuffed 750 eggs for and Elder's Quorum egg hunt on Sat. Hopefully we get a good turnout so Carson doesn't get 100 eggs!

Above you will see the kids' Easter pictures. For all of them visit our blog.

Changes

Well, we had change conference today. I can already tell that this is going to be a good change. I still stayed as a junior comp, which I am happy about because I really need one more change to prepare myself to direct an area. So all I had to do was move one block away from where I was to another house, because they split our area and they put me with the our new district leader. I knew him a little bit before, he is a really cool guy, his name is Elder Valdez and is from Panama. I really am going to learn a lot and the work is going to progress. It was really lagging with Elder Recinos. I am really learning that obedience is the key and thats what I am really focusing on. My spanish is getting better and better everyday, I really just have to learn some more vocab and use it. It is absolutely remarkable to see how much I teach. The people really understand what I´m saying and comprehend it too. This last change was really weird, it went by really fast. By the way they split the area, my old comp gets to take advantage of all the work that we did and run with it, and we pretty much get to start from scrap. He knew what was going to happen with the areas before hand and where he was going to be so we didn´t work much in the area that we have now. But that just means we have more oportunities and have to work hard to find those people out there. I love this work, I really just want to share the gospel with these people, but they don´t want anything to do with us, it really is difficult to get in doors and teach. That is why we have really tried to work purely through the members and get references. If we have the name of the person when we knock, they almost always let us in. I hope all is well with everyone. I love you all.
Love
Elder Miles

Pictures

We didn't put these two photos out generally, but thought would be appropriate for the few who access the blog. The first is the classic "vanity" shot of us at the MTC map. The other is with Richard Andersen who I got to teach and he joined the Church in Chicago 40 years ago while attending Northwestern. He has taught for 30 some years at BYU in the music department and been branch pres at MTC, etc. We just didn't stay in touch over the years but I looked him up while at the MTC and he came over for a visit. I came to know where he was from Bro. Hiram Smith, who ran into Richard near the St. George temple and Bro. Smith mentioned to us that Richard was prof at BYU. It's kind of an incredible story. Richard sent us his conversion story that I will pass on to you later. Dad.

Ghana Pictures

Happy Birthday LaRue!

The kids and I just got back from a week in Pocatello. I know your're probably asleep now, but it's still you b-day here! We hope that you had a great day!

Happy Birthday Mom!

http://www.happybirthdaytoyou.com/c.php?f=Mar081205436019592&p=s

Copy and Paste in your browser!!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I hope you can find some chocolate cake. We love you, Grandma!

Jeff, Camille, Marcus, and Katelyn

I guess I better write

It seems that if I want to communicate I will have to use the blog, we were wondering where Andy was this week until I got Jackie's e-mail about Andy using the blog.

We are having a rough day as we have made 2 trips to the bank to cash a check and we haave no money(the church). they claim that they made a transfer last Thursday. Interesting!

This is transfer week. 3 elders have left for home today and 7 arrive tomorrow so we are very busy trying to figure all that out!

We tried to e-mail pictures and didn't get that done so maybe Sat we can try the blog.

Que Onda

Well everything is going really well in Guatemala. We are going to have a baptism this Saturday with Jose Luis Chavez. His wife is less active and they have two little boys and a girl. They are absolutley poor, right now he can´t work because he broke his arm and is now trying to rehab it. This change is almost over, next week is change conference and i´m pretty sure that i´m going to have a new companion. I have no idea if i´m going to move up or not, so we will just have to see. We are working hard and really trying to get the members involved in the work. I can´t believe how big those kids are getting, it´s absolutely crazy, time flies that´s for sure.
We know who our next mission president is, his last name is Torres and is from Taylorsville, Utah. So we got a president that no one thought, a latino from the states. Well i´m out of stuff for this week. I love you all, hay que seguir adelante, y por ustedes con el sacerdocio, guian tus familias. cuidense. espero que todo este bein. con mucho amor.
Elder Miles

I'm getting bigger!

Katelyn just keeps growing! I can't believe she will be 8 weeks this Friday! Time has gone by fast. I am curious to see how much she will weigh when we take her in next week for her 2 month appointment. She is a great sleeper after her couple hours of colic in the evenings. She has started to smile back at us occasionally which is really fun to see!

Snow Fun

Marcus had fun eating the snow. Unlike the song we've taught him, before our snowman had time to melt in the sun, Marcus decided that tackling it would be a better way to see it go.

Jackson Program

Jackson had his signing program at school last week. He just stands there with the most terrified look on his face - poor kid. His class sang "I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee" and "Twinkle Twinkle little star" - he know both songs - he sang them to me but in a crowd he gets very shy - at least he goes up there!

Snow in March?

We woke up to snow this morning! The kids were very excited at the site of snow - Jackson wanted to build a snowman but the snow was hard and crispy!! Anyway - they played in it for five minutes and then were ready to inside! It is supposed to get to 56 today so the snow will be gone soon!

I finally found the blog

I thing that this will be an awsome way to keep us updated and hopefully we will find time to figure out downloading pictures as we hae some. I will show all of you with children under 2 to keep your children under control and out of your hair while your are cleaning and cooking - you just wear them on your back! We do not need nursing mother's room in Africa! That is the news of the day! We just taught the first discussion to 5 people, the wife of a member and daughter, a young woman, an older gentleman who passed the church last week and stopped and listened and this morning he had gone to the fields to weed and harvest and was prompted to come back to church. It is very interesting teaching with an interpreter ! We had some amzing tesimonies, we will probably write about next week. Friday Teresa, who works for the Dil's came over to the office and asked if she could talk to us, She asked if we wanted her to work for us, her job with the Dil's is just part-time and her husband is in nursing school. We told her that we would talk about it and let her know. Sat we talked with the Dil's and asked how much they paid her etc. and told them about the conversation. Sister Dil then said that Teresa had said to her Sister Miles doesn't like to do dishes because she asked me where to buy paper plates! I guess you have to be careful with your questions they might get misinterptretted! Keep using the blog and so will we.

Love. Mom

What's happening with the Craig and Michelle Miles family

Well, I finally got on here. I hope that everybody uses it. I am sorry that it has taken so long. This is such a good idea! I have been working 4/8 last weekends and I am not working at all in March. I over did it. :-) Craig just celebrated his 30th birthday. He is now away at his manager meetings for a few days. Hopefully he will hear something about a possible promotion????? We hope! I really do not want to spend another winter here, but the high is 49 tomorrow, yeah! Carson is busy doing preschool twice a week and comes home doing something new every time. We had parent teacher conferences and he is a great student and actually does a lot of things they don't test them on because they are not supposed to do them yet! Way to go! He is beginning to become a very good artist. I will scan in a drawing and post it when I get to it. A funny thing that he said is (when he had a earache recently) "there is a switch far in my ear and the bees keep going in there and turning it off and on". We think his ears were buzzing at times and would pop. He would tell us when his ear turned back on. :-) Victoria is the same princess she has always been. She is usually very well behaved, but has been showing signs of tantrums. She loves to be a little mommy. She is not content unless helping me or playing right by me. Sometimes I fell like she is attached. She is very good for a 2 hr nap and sleeps very good at night so I enjoy that. She just had her 18mo. check up and is in the 90th percentile for her height (40th for weight, just the opposite almost of Carson's stats). I did notice her 18mo. clothes were getting very short. Well, this is getting very long. I hope you all get this and post about your families. I hope that you can see the pictures. They are supposed to be 12x12 scrapbook pages. I have many other recent ones including Christmas and our Hawaii trip that I will e-mail.