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