Miller's Online Outpost: November 2010

Probably the last update we'll be getting from our missionaries! We can't wait to see them in a few weeks!

---------------------

Dear Family and Friends,

It's coming! The Ennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd! We're excited, not so
excited, sad, happy, smiling, crying.......................this is
hard, easy, work, play, frustrating, rewarding I could go on and on.
The more things we've figured out the more we don't understand! But
"IT'S BEEN WONDERFUL".

Thanks to all of you who have called and written and blogged etc. It
probably seems like it has been a short time to those at home but your
notes and calls made our time here go by rapidly, especially when we
got discouraged. It helped to know there were people on our team
cheering us on.

We now understand why the elders and sisters use language about birth
and death when they talk to each other about where they have served,
and who they have served with, in the mission. Your first area is
where you are born and your trainer is called your father or mother.
Any other missionaries trained by the same trainer are your brothers
or sisters. At each zone or mission get together the first person most
missionaries look for is their parent and a lot of hugging ensues. The
area where you finish your mission is where you die. Well we don't
have a father or mother, since no one trains senior proselyting
missionaries but we were born and we will die in the Greenwood ward.
And they have definitely become our family!
With all the joy and pain that comes with being a family.

We have a great friend who has just found out he has liver cancer and
he only has 2 to 4 months left. He is a drummer in several different
kinds of bands and we became his groupies (sad looking groupies I
know) after we arrived here. He is a great guy, last week he took us
to dinner and in the conversation we were talking about his work as a
landscaper,(he'd been standing in a lake all day). He made us laugh
when he said he had somehow always known he was going to have to work
until the day he died and now he know that was going to be true! Great
Attitude.

We're looking forward also to attending the endowment and sealing of a
couple and their two 6 &7 year old daughters on the 4th of Dec. They
weren't active when we got here and we have made great friends with
the little girls (you know ruben). Last night we went over to their
new house (they did live on our street) to play Nephite fish and
Gadianton robber old maid. The two girls are so competitive it is a
fight but fun. We will be having Thanksgiving with this family.

I have wondered out loud (to those to whom I thought it might do the
most good) about the dearth of ward activities. Well we had an awesome
Halloween chili cook-off, carnival and trunk or treat! Then a Potluck
dinner two weeks later and the ward Christmas party which will be on
Dec. 4, two days before we leave. Now the parties are seeming to come
quick and fast and I ask someone how come so many parties all the
sudden. They just looked stricken and gave a funny laugh! Well now I
know why. Last Fri. evening the big potluck turned out to be a going
away party for us. BIG SURPRISE! We now have a beautiful scrapbook
with many pictures from the past year and every family and their
address. What a great gift AND
We have a new quilt with a block made by every family with their names
embroidered on them. We were kind of embarrassed, we love teaching
Gospel Principles and don't really mind giving talks when asked but
being made the center of attention is uncomfortable! WE also gave our
farewell talks last Sunday. It seemed a little early but this week is
stake conference and next week is a farewell for a full-time
missionary from the ward, the sunday before we leave on Mon. the 6th
is fast Sunday so it was last week or not at all. We've seen the ward
change while we've been here but we really couldn't tell you what has
changed, we have changed too, but I can't really figure out what has
changed about us. We do have a lot of new friends that is the biggest
change and we love them all, even though we are sometimes frustrated
with them.
'
No blog posts have been made in the last four months, at least not
from us so I'll list a few things that have happened and things we
have done.

Our area was white-washed in June and we got a pair of elders and a
pair of sisters. That didn't last long before they sent the sisters to
babysit another companionship where one of the sisters was hurt. Those
sisters never came back and so for the summer we worked with just the
one set of Elders. Three weeks ago at transfers we got a new set of
sisters and one new elder, but kept the district leader that we got in June.
So our district is back up to full speed. We had no baptisms from June until
last week, but with these new missionaries the work is really
progressing. They have another baptism this Sat. and about 8 lined up
for the next week! We're praying for them! ALL of the missionaries we
have worked with here have been great people, some of our new best
friends.

When a zone has 16 baptisms in a month we get a reward and that reward
is a trip to the temple and dinner at the Presidents home. In July our
Zone had 16 baptisms and so in Aug. we all met at the temple. There
were so many of us that we couldn't all fit in the small rooms of this
small temple so some of the elders did baptisms. It was a great day!
We have very little social life in this mission and so events like the
temple trip are highly valued.

We have had one zone activity while we've been here and it was the
week of Halloween. Our zone got together at a stake center and we
carved pumpkins and the elders all played basketball and then indoor
soccer. I always thought that missionaries got to recreate every p-day
but this is the first time we've known them to play at all. There is
very little down time in this mission, it takes almost all of p-day
(they plan and study until 11 am) to do their e-mail, and buy their
groceries. The four of them usually come to our place for a couple of
hours and write letters make cookies and play a game, "Apples to
Apples" until we all go back to work at 5:30 pm.

At 5:30 pm on p-day (monday here) the fun really begins for us. We go
to Single Adult family home evening! Most of my new best friends in
S.C. are between 60 and 85. We have dinner and a lesson every Mon. but
mostly we laugh and laugh. We are going to really miss this group.

The missionaries have spent many hours and driven many miles
delivering media requests. You know from the public service
announcements you see on TV and the mormonads. We know these contacts
can yield much fruit but, since our delivery sheet goes back to 2004
and is 77 pages long it has also yielded many laughs. I've told you
before about the dirt roads, high weeds and missing houses well we are
still delivering to such places, also quite a few dead people, even
one self proclaimed prophet. A fire breathing prophet who was just
about to raise Mary Magdalene from the grave. Elijah J. Brooks by
name, lovely van hand painted with scenes of the apocalypse and
himself breathing fire. Our green missionary from Pinedale WY almost
hurt himself laughing. A couple of weeks ago as we drove up to a huge
field of trailers one of the elders ask Ruben what he thought and he
replied "I'm wondering which of these abandoned trailers we're going
to deliver to". I have a theory that drunk red necks watching TV in
the middle of the night are the people who call in for free books and
DVDs. I can't even compare some of the places we've seen to anywhere
I've been before! Some places we can only tell are inhabited, because
their meters are running. We have now driven about 20,000miles mostly
inside our ward and tomorrow we're taking all four missionaries out to
do it again! One of the goals is to get to the state line with Georgia
and take their picture in two states, half in their own mission and
half in another. Forbidden fruit, indeed!

South Carolina has been beautiful since the end of Sept. Before that,
June July and August not so great. Enough about that. Right now the
trees are awesome and the weather is too.

At the end of Sept. we took 3 days and went to Highpoint N.C. to the
furniture market. I wanted a new dining room table and I had always
wanted to go to highpoint. We had a nice little trip and found just
what I wanted and still had a day left and so we went to Winston
Salem. They have an old town area that is preserved as a living
history museum sort of like Nauvoo. You know I love those kind of
things, so we spent the day there. I had heard the name Moravian
before but I didn't know who they were. Well now I do, they settled
Salem in the 1750's as a refuge from religious persecution in Germany.
I loved that day.

Luckily for me our bishops wife left town for two weeks and got sick
for two weeks and I got to teach early-morning seminary. There are
only two students, one girl who is a senior in HS and the young man
who is leaving on his mission in two weeks, who comes to seminary when
he gets off work at 7 am, after working all night. They are studying
the D&C and it has been fun getting to know them better.

The missionary going to Chicago is named DJ Harrison, his family
joined the church 18 years ago. When we arrived here his dad was in
the bishopric. His brother just signed to play basketball for the Y
next year. He was widely recruited at the schools around here and the
ward and his parents are relieved and excited that he chose the Y.
His name is Demarcus and the Harrisons are a great family. He is supposed
to be a great basketball player. We told his folks to let us know when
they are coming out to watch him play and we would drive up to the game.
It will be fun to know someone on the team.

Sorry this is so long, but it is mostly for me since I am a terrible
journal keeper! I have learned many new things serving a mission. The
most important is the Lord keeps His promises to his servants. Me, a
person who cannot remember the name of a person I have just been
introduced to, knows the name of every active person in the ward and
most of the inactive ones. THIS IS A MIRACLE! I've been blessed with
many opportunities to play the piano (poor listeners). The blessing is
that angels have assisted me every time, I really can't play as well
as I have been able to here. THIS IS A MIRACLE I have come to love an
amazing array of types of people, I'm able to just serve them and the
judgements disappear. THIS IS A MIRACLE. I could go on. Ruben has had
his own miracles he'll have to tell you about them.

Ruben has proof read this and passed off on it. We are under strict
instuctions from the PRESIDENT (a really nice, really tall man) not
to send any negative stuff home, especially on the internet. We go to
the President's home on the 27th to say goodbye and have dinner, that
will be fun.

I'm sure I've missed a lot but it would probably just bore you! We
love you and hope to see you all soon!

I really don't want to take off this tag, I'm afraid the miracles will
cease! love and hugs and kisses, THE MISSIONARIES