Week 5 - MTC

Here is Elder Miller's weekly e-mail from the CCM in Lima Peru.  This will be his last week at the CCM.  WE may not here from him for a couple of weeks.  That might just about kill me but I know he'll be OK and that he'll e-mail as soon as he can.  Don't forget you can e-mail him too.  Check his address and e-mail on the right hand side of the blog.
Next time we hear from Elder Miller he will be in the field somewhere in the South Trujillo Peru Mission. 

My final week in the CCM here in Lima. I fly out to Trujillo next Monday! I definitely don't know Spanish yet but I'm well on my way! I have really enjoyed this past month here at the CCM and I will miss my district and teachers so much, but I am so excited to get out to the people that are prepared for this message.

This past week was not near as exciting as the previous one, but it was great nonetheless. It was fast and testimony Sunday and all four of the Elders from my district got up to bare their testimonies in Spanish.(sacrament is always in Spanish) It was so cool, we all four walked up at the same time. I felt like we were like leading the charge. We have grown so much here, especially with our Spanish it was so cool. The CCM(MTC) is an amazing place.

My teachers here have such strong testimonies. I have talked about them quite a lot lately, but they have had such a great impact on me. I have grown to love them and really appreciate them. They give us pep talks sometimes and their words are so inspired. One of my teachers this past week told me ¨Usted es Bueno¨ that means you are good. Pretty simple, but that simple phrase made my whole day.

Watching Elder Scott´s funeral on Monday was quite the experience as well. Hearing the testimonies from the other apostles and the prophet were so powerful. Wow! I definitely admire them and the work that they do. I especially admire the example that Elder Scott was in enduring through tough times. That hit me hard. I want to be like him. Positive. Faithful. Valiant. Happy.

Hurray for conference this weekend. I feel so blessed to get a pep talk from the prophet and apostles this weekend just a few days before I head to my area. I love this gospel so much. Heavenly father loves us so much and he is sooo merciful. I'm so excited to share this HAPPY message with others.

Like I said I am heading out to my area next week so this will be my last email for almost two weeks so don't worry if you don't get one for a while it is coming!

Elder Miller, his companion (Elder Klein), and some of the other

missionaries at the Lima Peru Temple.  What a beautiful place! 

 

Week 4 - MTC

I can't believe that Elder Miller has been out 4 weeks?!  Wow, this past month has really flown by.  Enjoy his weekly summary. 

 

Here's my summary...enjoy!

¨Wow¨ it has been another great week here at the CCM. I love being a missionary so much! My companion says I say ¨wow¨ a lot so I guess thats a good thing! Peru is an amazing place and I feel so priveleged to be here with the Elders I am with and to be led by the leaders that have been called to lead us.

On Sunday our Branch President gave a talk about how repenting is a life long process and that was awesome. I really like the Branch Presidency here. The first councilor is awesome. He is so straight forward and to the point. I really like that about him. You dont have to read his mind or guess anything.

My highlight of this past week was definitely proselyting on saturday. I learned so much. It was amazing ¨wow¨! If you have seen any of the pictures that i have sent I want to let you know that what you have seen is the nice part of Lima. I have realized that where we are at here in Lima is very nice and come to appreciate it more. Here´s why...We went proselyting in Lima East. We arrived on busses and went into the church building to get paired up with a missionary from that area and a member to go out proselyting for the afternoon. When we stepped out the door I was a little bit nervous, but excited for the day. I want you to picture this in your minds...dry, rocky and sandy hills with little to no vegetation growing on them with shacks on all of them about half way up the hill...my immediate reaction upon seeing this was that I wanted to go up there. I got my wish! It was such a humbling and amazing experience. All but one of the roads was dirt, there was dogs and chicks running around everywhere, and people working in and outside of their houses. I honeslty couldn´t believe my eyes. I didn´t know there was a place on earth like that. These people were living in less than desireable conditions, but were happy. Their houses were small, I would guess most didn´t have mattresses for beds and most didnt have cars or any form of transportation. Some shacks didn´t have roofs. It was quite the sight. The people, however, were the most amazing part. They were so patient with my companion, Elder Klein, and I. They waited for us to think of the words to say as we are not the best at spanish and listen attentively to the words we said. They were so nice. We gave a lesson and contacted many people out in the streets. It was a great experience. The thing that amazed me the most was how the people, even though they lived in rough conditions, kept pressing forward with whatever they were doing. Not one person I saw that day looked like they were about to give up on anything. I came back to the CCM that night with dusty shoes, dusty clothes and a whole lot of motivation to do the best I can to help these people on my mission.

Classes have been going great as well. Some days are better than others, but thats life. Our teachers are so amazing and they have had some really fun lessons lately for us. Elder Klein and I have been improving with our lessons still. Which is definitely nice to see. All is well here in Peru.

I know that God lives and that we are his children. I kow that he knows us on an individual level and cares about each and every one of us so much. And for that I am grateful!

Elder Miller & Elder Klein (CCM - Lima, Peru)

 

Week 3 - MTC

Here is Elder Miller's Summary of the week. 

This past week has been awesome! We are still learning so much! I have grown to love both of my teachers so much. They are so awesome! I have laughed quite a bit with them actually! They have a lot of good advice for us as well which I'm so grateful for. They really push us to do things over and over and over again so that we really get them down. It is great. We have been busy preparing for our activity this Saturday. We are going proselyting here in lima for practice with the missionaries from that mission. It should be an awesome experience!

Once again...Sundays are my favorite here at the CCM. Our branch presidency is sooo sooooo good. They are amazing. They have the best lessons. I got to talk to one of them about the first vision this week too and that was awesome. We talked about how when we get doubts we go back to the first vision and that sweeps them all away. So thank you Joseph Smith History :) They are so personable and direct. They definitely don't mess around. They tell you how it is and I like that.

My companion is the new district leader! He is awesome! we have really become good friends throughout the weeks. We always are finding something to laugh about! so that definitely makes it fun!

We got to go to the temple again today. Elder Klein and I led a group of 17 Hermanas and that was an adventure! But we all got there and back safely! They rented busses for us this time so that cut down on the adventure of catching a bus!

This past week we have had a few really sunny days which I LOVE! it doesn't happen a lot, but when it does It makes my day 50 times better. One of the hardest parts of being here is the fact that we spend so much time inside. It kills me haha ok maybe it doesn't kill me, but I'm excited for the field because ill get to spend more time outside.

I am loving my time here at the CCM and I am learning a lot! One of my favorite things from this past week is something that Presidente Gonzalez said...be obedient, but its ok to have fun too...That made me feel really good!

I love being a Missionary! Peru is awesome!

Elder Miller & a friend

The MTC (CCM is what they call it here - Spanish for MTC)

View of the City - he said, "The Wise Man Build his House upon a Rock".  :-)

Companion Elder Klein, another Elder & Elder Miller

Another view of the City of Lima

 

Week 2 - MTC

Elder Miller has been in the Peru MTC for 2 weeks.  Here is his weekly summary.  Enjoy

From Elder Miller: 

This week was another great week here in Peru. I still sometimes doesn't seem real
 that I'm here.Classes are going very well. I am really starting to love my two teachers. 
They are both very different but have taught me so much. Our practice lessons are starting 
to get a lot better too. It is getting easier to hold a conversation in Spanish about the gospel.
 I love it here.This is my last week of being a District leader, it has been such an awesome 
experience. At first I was super nervous and the calling seemed like such a burden, but I was 
so wrong. My district has been so awesome.This calling hasn't been a burden at all. Only a
blessing. My district has started a quote wall with sticky notes - on one of our classroom 
walls. My favorite quote from one of our teachers is -Que en el freaking MUNDO!-

Hahaha he is so funny! It means what in the freaking world. We accomplish a lot, but we
still have fun doing it!

Sundays here at the CCM are amazing! The spirit was so strong. A group of missionaries
who left on Monday all gave their testimonies. They were soooo good! This Sunday we 
watched a devotional from a while ago that was a talk by Jeffrey R. Holland to a group of 
missionaries. I got some really awesome things from that! I wrote down a few things that
he said on my planner so I can read them every day one of them 

reads -Be Converted!- and the other one says use -Spiritually driven love filled words-
He emphasized that every missionary should have at least one convert, or your mission 
was not successful. That one convert should be yourself! I really liked that because I feel
like being a missionary and speaking Spanish are going 

to be things that I will never be perfect at, but I can get a little better every day. That's
part of my purpose out here....to make me better!

Today we went to the temple again and Elder Klein and I got to do a session this time in
Spanish with some other missionaries. That was an awesome experience. Its cool to be able 
to make sense of a few of the sentences that you hear in Spanish. I feel like I'm learning 
something that's for sure! Much like Whitewater rafting on the Flathead river, the scariest 
part is the bus ride there. We get in a group of about 18 missionaries and go out on the 
street a try and catch a bus that can fit all of us. It is such an adventure! 

I love it.

Week 1 - MTC

Wow it has been quite the week here in Peru! It is different from Montana thats for sure but I love it! There are so many awesome Missionaries here. A lot of the older ones who have been here for quite a few weeks have been helping us out a bunch.

The first few days here were hard, but once we got into the routine every thing really smoothed out. The classes here are not one bit easy, but nobody ever said it was going to be easy, only that it would be worth it. I love it here. Our teachers so far have been great. They speak mostly Spanish so we play some sherades with them. I have already been forgetting english as I learn spanish so excuse my bad sentences if there are any.

Elder Klein my companion from Indiana is awesome. We have taught two lessons so far in Spanish and they are going pretty good considering we dont really know a whole lot of spanish....our lessons do consist of some sherades every now and then too haha. I have learned soooo much since coming here holy moly! Elder Bednar mainly taught us that the spirit is the teacher so we need to be sure to include him in our lessons. The other thing he taught us which I really loved was that we as humans are agents NOT objects. So we need to act like it and treats others like it. I really loved that.

We have had rice for almost every meal except for breakfast....oh wait we have had it for every meal except for breakfast hahaha its good though. The food is good! One of my highlights from the first week was the ice cream....its delicious. Way better than American Ice Cream! :)

The people here are sooo nice. There are a lot of Latinos here at the CCM(spanish version of MTC). They love chicolets(gum idk how to spell that but thats how it sounds) it is so funny. They are super good at soccer too. We play soccer almost every day for our physical activity. They have a turf soccer field here and a nice basketball court outside too that I am anxious to try out as well as some ping pong tables. The CCM President is so good at ping pong! WOW!

So far in my time here I have learned how to pray and testify pretty good in spanish. I also wrote a talk last week because you are required to write one for every sunday and then they just randomly pick people to talk. It is really cool. The Branch Presidency for the CCM is awesome. Their joke is that they always have 100% attendance. I have also gotten the opportunity to be the district leader of my district here for the fist 3 weeks. It is so awesome because my disctrict is litterally soooo solid. They are so nice and have strong testimonies.

This morning we got to to go the Lima Temple and I got to do Initaitory Work. It was a great opportunity. It is crazy how much spanish you are able to understand with the spirit.

Last week when we were in the computer lab there was an earth quake... two actually. You could feel them for sure, but they were small. No need to worry :)

I know this is where I am supposed to be and I am so greatful for this opportunity. Yo se que el libro de mormon es verdadero, que Thomas S. Monson es un Profeta de Dios, y que JesuCristo es el salvador. Translate that ;)

On the plane, gone and first email from MTC

Elder Miller left for the MTC on Tuesday, August 25th at 6:30am from Helena Montana.  That was probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.  Here is the first e-mail I received from Elder Miller.  It was short, sweet and all I needed to know he was safe!

 

From Elder Miller:

Hi mom! Yes I am here now! We got here last night and I have a busy day planned. I cannot write very much today we only get 5 mins, but all is well. It is so nice to be in among so many missionaries. I love it! Talk to you soon! Love and miss you all!

Elder Miller

forward this to dad please