Divertimento, is Important but not the Most

Hello again, It’s your famous kid Anziano Miller

I am doing well, better then I have been in a long time. This last week Anziano Stewart and I have been talking a lot about the mission. We have come to the conclusion that there are way too many that are just KICKIN' IT and thinking that this is just a vacation. That we are here to speak with people but the first priority is what we are going to do for fun. Divertimento (FUN) Is important, but we need to remember why we are here in this country. I do am not trying to say that we have not been working but we have a space for improvement.

Anziano Stewart and I have been working really hard this last week, we had a good zone conference and everyone else was really inspired, but it I didn't feel as inspired as I normally do. I had finally come to the conclusion that it was because I can only feed off of the words and experiences of others for so long. I had come to the conclusion that it is now in my hands and in my control to make my own spiritual experiences. Experience that I WILL SHARE in the future. I spent some time with the President and Anziano Texiera he is a member of the 70’s. We had a personal meeting with him as the zone leaders and as companions. My companion and I are doing great, better then most. The Trani, Italy is going slow, we haven’t had time to go out there lately.

This week has been pretty crazy. Since last Friday we have receiver two new investigators one being very knowledgeable and another who has already showed piratical of faith by coming to church. Along with that we have received seven new numbers from our encounters on the street. Which is more then we have had since my arrival. We have five potential investigators that have more that a lot of potential to become new investigators. We have been working hard and we and we don not plan to stop, I don not know what would happen if we stayed together for another transfer but I am sure we will do some insane work. I feel like that Anziano Stewart and I are going to be some pretty good examples after all this stuff that we have been doing.

Bitonto is a city with a horrible reputation, but to be honest I love this place the members are the best members this mission has ever seen and they are willing to help and they are more then ready to do missionary work. It is important to be obedient and there is power when you are obedient. After you have become exactly obedient, I think the question is what are you going to do with that power?

I think I am done with that little spiel but anyhow, all I have to say is "BASTA"!!!!!

I am sorry you are going through a rough spot, know that God will not put you through anything you can’t handle.

I feel bad for Todd, believe it or not that stuff happens so often it is not even funny. I don’t think that I can explain how big it is, people really need to be careful. There are many people that I know that have a big problem with those things. I am sure that Kaitlyn knows just as well as I do. I am sure Todd is a good kid, I don’t think differently of him.

Tell Lexi that YES you can buy pizza in vending machines here but it is not very good. It is worst then a hot pocket!

GET BETTER MOM!!! Remember your well being is more important then the well being of others. Its sounds selfish but you need to learn how to take care of yourself before others. I am sure you are doing all you can, Keep it up and remember I love you all very much.

  

Ciaò ciaò ciaò ciaò ciaò

Anziano Miller

Best child / Brother ever=)

Hot Water?

HELLLO, 

This week was not as good as it could have been, MY COMPANION caught a cold and I managed to catch the cold myself. So Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were inside. I managed to get over the cold quickly. I was only down and out for Friday and Saturday Morning. So in the end we have not done much sense I talked to you last.

So after we were sick and after we cut our hair, but shortly after we realized that we did not have any hot water. Lucky for us it was Saturday, and for anyone who has not ever been in Italy. There are no shops opened on Saturday or Sunday... so we had no hot water until Monday afternoon.=) 

I am really happy to hear that auntie Verna is back in Rock Springs, I hope she is recovering well! How is Grandma Medill? Is she still having a hard time? 

I am glad to hear that you went up Bells Canyon.=) that is a gorgeous hike. I do not know what falls you are talking about, the falls that I know are really far away from the first lake...? But the important thing is that the girls had fun. Sound like Lexi is becoming a popular little butterfly. I hope she isn’t growing though; it breaks my heart when I think I won’t be able to hold her in my arms when I get home.

I have not gone anywhere this past week and we probably wont go anywhere for a while. Every Preparation Day there is nothing but BIG CLOUDY grey skies and rain. But I will have plenty of time to go see the rest of Puglia. We will probably go see Gallipolli in a week, if the weather permits us. 

I have just started to read the New Testament from the start... I have read it before but from one book to another, but I have never read it like a story. It is very interesting to me how many people neglected Christ and how the Pharisees would not believe in him even when they saw miracles. It comforts me, especially when I see all these people who will not accept us or even listen to what I have to say to them at the door step. 

I hope you are all well and that you all have a wonderful week. 

As for Kaitlyn and her losing her Gloves twice? Do what you would have done with me, and make her buy new ones... she has lost two pairs!!! Besides if she really needed gloves she would use the one of the pairs that we have in the closet. =) hahaha 

Nah, I don’t know what you need to do with her, I am sure you will can handle that decision on your own.=) 

Well family, I love you, I pray often for you, and I hope your being good boys and girls. 

If you are not being good boys and girls... you are doing something wrong=). 

Anziano Miller

Branch In Trani?

OK Family, Happy Valentines Day.

We had a great week this week we have had lots of work to do, we received three new investigators!!! But the problem is that they live so far away. They live in Trani and believe it or not we could possibly be the missionaries that could make a group out there!. It's a pretty hard task to do though. We would need to do a couple things. First - consent from the mission president, second - a priesthood holder and third - people that want to come and participate... oh and a place to hold sacrament meeting. which in theory is not two hard, with the amount of members we have in Trani.. The problem is no one has been out there to visit them in the last 15 years.  So I am sure there are a couple that are pretty hurt about the church closing Barletta and Trani.  Anyways we asked President if we could go out there and see all these old members that live out there. We go once a week and we stay the whole day out there walking from house to house. It’s pretty interesting how many people really remember missionaries from 15 years ago. They really are influenced by everything they we do. They see the goodness in the missionaries and they are always really respectful to the missionaries when they know who they are.

Anyways this week has been full of things to do.

Yesterday was saint Valentines Day, we had party in church and it was ridiculous. They had dancing and games and all sorts of fun things. They also had a game where there were two people (husband and wife) who sat in chairs with there backs to each other... the husband would have a set of headphones that had music playing so loud he couldn’t hear anyone in the room.  Then they started to interrogate the wife with questions such as, when and where was your first kiss? How did your husband propose to you? What is his best trait? Where did you first meet? Etc… They would then take the headphones away from the husband and ask him the same questions.... MAN OH MAN!!!! I have never laughed so hard in my whole mission people had totally forgot about their engagement their first kiss... everything!!! It was hysterical....

As far as the snow goes, it’s not to bad anymore..  We received about three inches of snow last Monday but after that it never snowed again.

 

We had zone leader conference and that was fun, we had a great time. Anziano Larcher and I are really trying to tear up this zone. I hope that we can meet our goals and do what we have planned for this transfer. We have been doing our best out here, which makes me happy and I can not wait for the next week!!!! 

I love you so much...

Stay out of trouble....And most importantly...Don’t do anything stupid!!!!....

Anziano Miller  

Snow in Bari!

For those have you that think Italy is perfect temperature, I bet you will find it hard to believe that it snowed here in Bari. That means it is really cold. It snowed about 3 inches... NOW, for those of you that read Trevor’s blog pay no attention to what he says about Italians. South Italy and North Italy are completely different places. When it snows here in the south, EVERYONE FREAKS OUT. Like the world is about to end! I do however have to agree with him it is pretty cold. We had two investigators call us yesterday to tell us we could not meet each other. I thought it was strange they used the excuse of the snow for a reason why we couldn’t see each other, especially when we were going to walk to there house. Italians are an interesting bunch of people when it's cold and snows.

It has been pretty cold here in Italy, the mayor in Rome will not let anyone leave their houses because it has been snowing! It has been -3 -4 Celsius here where I am at.

Which it is really cold when you have all this humidity. I would rather have dry heat any day. 

I received your package from Christmas, everyone loves the caramels... I have only eaten' a couple. I really like giving them away so I can tell everyone that my mom made them. 

I was supposed to go to Capi conference this week but it was cancelled thanks to the mayor in Rome. So I will go tomorrow with Anziano Larcer to hear what president has to say. I have heard he is a bit mad about all this nonsense in the mission. I am pretty sure he will be breaking our boxes tomorrow. So I hope you are praying for me! 

We went to Trani this week to find all of the old members of the church. There was a church out there many years ago, but then it was closed for some reason. There are about fifty contacts and about ten members we went to find. After we had gone there we had only found 6 people out of twenty. It’s been about 15 years since anyone has gone out there. We did find one family though; it was really cool they still remembered the name of the Anziano that found them. They asked us to come back, so next week we will see them on Monday. 

So, I guess you can say things are going amazingly well here in Bitonto. They sent a new zone leader that wants to actually put some work into this zone and step by step we are chiseling off the ruff edges this zone has.

I hope everything is OK with everyone tell grandpa I personally know how he feels about what he is going through. It’s not very fun!!!! Tell Aunt Verna I wish her the best.

Hope you have a wonderful week 

Your favorite son Anziano Miller 

  

Missionary Work?

Long and endless hours of work

The countless doors that are slammed in my face

The classic and daily insults

Being with a assigned person 24 hours of the day

Having to study everyday for at least 3 hours

Having strict and immovable rules.

Being single for two years (it still applies to those who have girls friends)

Leaving your family and love ones back home

Being placed in new circumstances all the time.

Teaching and speaking in a language that is not your own.

ECT... there is much more 

I could never do it if I didn't know the message that I share with the people was true I have a firm testimony of this gospel and I know that our Savior has re-established his church again on the earth and that we are the ones who have to help these people come unto Christ. I have a rock solid testimony of the Book of Mormon. I know that this book brings Gods children closer to him more then any other book. I know that Joseph Smith was a living prophet of God. I know he translated that sacred book that we have today. I invite those who have not read the Book of Mormon, to read it, to pray about it, to ask if it is true. Put the promise of Maroni to the test, I know you will feel that burning in you heart even as I did. This work is something I love!

As for Bitonto.... This place is more then amazing! It is really similar to Napoli, I came here and I have a much easier time understanding people.  I couldn’t understand people that well in Lecce, they speak through their teeth. I love it here in Bitonto. Our house is more the big enough for the both of us. We have a sweet terrace with a way nice gazebo. But it is too cold to go outside and eat or have any kind of fun parties. I am hoping it will start warming up so I can go sun tanning. I am looking really ghostly, I need a good tan.=)  There Dialect here is really similar to Napoli, I find it really easy to understand them. It might seem strange to you that all these places speak so different when they are so close to each other. I don’t know about the North but one of the challenges of the South is that the dialects and the languages changes so much from place to place. From what I have heard, they do not speak much dialect in the North.... In Lecce they had a wedding and I actually met a lot of people from Bergamo, and I can’t express to you how strange they sound. I could compare it to a thick Jersey accent in English but I don’t know how I could explain it to you in any other way. 

It makes me way happy that package ended up getting there... I will definitely be sending a ton of stuff home now... Mostly because I have a ton of random stuff, I will not send anything of high value obviously, but at least it ended up in the right place=) 

Lexi, I am so excited you like your turtle, the Africans have not been selling the wooden turtles anymore so you may have taken one of the last. 

Kaitlyn I am sure you like your bag! I bought it because I knew you would like it... but do tell me what your friends think! 

Dad I will be sending off some ties soon. Some will be for you and some will definitely be for me when I get home. I do give you permission to wear the Napoli tie on special occasions but if you get it dirty, I will probably have to cry, and then by another one! 

MOM I am going to be dead honest. I have no idea what to get you I look at everything here and the only thing I can think of is pictures.... so maybe you can tell me something you would like. 

MOM I am really glad you were born in the 60's because if you were born any later... you would have been an online stalker, which is not a good thing. I guess it is ok to stalk your son, but I don’t recommend stalking anyone else... P.s. I don’t like my green shades they are a weird tint of green. =) 

Thank you dad for reminding me I have a mom that needs to know where I am every waking minute. For all I know she could have a Chip hidden in our phone....  

I am more then excited for my new, old companion. We do not speak much English to each other... we speak mostly in Italian, when we are around other missionaries, we speak in English but if it is just us two, we speak in Italian. I really like it my mind switches between the languages all the time, and sometimes I get caught up in my words. 

As for our work, It is not very big but we are more then hard workers. When we were in Napoli together, we tore the city up. In other words, I am more then content with my companion and where I am.

Mom if you look at our house on Google maps there is a Focaccia ria right under our house. They make the best panzarotti (calzone) I have ever tried in my whole entire life! The bad news is they are only one Euro, almost every night we go there and by at least one.... it’s probably not the best thing for my health.

I bought some pretty cool stuff lately I have some really nice skinny jeans and some sweet 3 dollar shirts... MOM I don’t remember if I told you, but I bought a really expensive coat for Christmas, it goes over my jacket and I can also wear it with nice pair of jeans... I just wanted to thank you and dad for the Christmas present. 

All the boys sitting together on the step, they are all in my zone   Yes I know Anziano Roe... He is in a couple of those pictures I sent you.. He is more then a great missionary. He speaks really well and has a Sicilian accent!!! Which makes me laugh! He is more then a hard worker, he is a great missionary.

Well I know this email has been a random one, but I hope you know I love you and I hope you have a great and wonderful week.. 

Love Anziano Miller