Strippling Warriors

Hello Family and Friends, 

This week was not nearly as bad as last weeks, I was not very happy and I had kinda lost all my patience. I am having a pretty fantastic week, I dont know if you knew this but there is a missionary couple here in Palermo that are also from our parts of town in the Utah. They live up by Kim Brown, they told me that they know her, but I didnt know this until this week.Their names are Anziano and Sorella North... hahah I dont know their real names. They are just keeping my spirits up, they are the coolest people ever! They are going up to visit the temple for a week and a half so that will be a little upsetting for me but hopefully they will be ready to come back. The Norths work so hard and they have great ideas. We have been working with them and we are really getting our ward moving along. Anziano North is our unoffical ward mission leader, he was called not to long ago, but he has some great plans and is ready to help us out. Our bishop is really pulling through too, he is a fantastic man himself he is very intelligent and was born in the states. Its kinda wierd because I have not spoke a word of english to our bishop but I know that he speaks my native language which is wierd for me.

Man, what did Xanziano Weeks tell you guys, McMullen and I are fine. We had fun with the training sessions when we were betting with the whole gelato and pizza thing............. It was really fun! Everytime we had gone out and did training he would come back and be so tired hahah it made me laugh. Mostly because the next day you would find him limping because he was so sore... he would also take short and simple steps=). Infact after the first work out his told me he was not going to obey the contract... which was kinda of a bummer because I totally forgot to put a punishment on the contract, so when he did break it, it was not a big deal. In the end he is still getting larger and now he is eating worse then he was eating before. I love that missionary to death and I want the best for him. I have lived with Anziano McMullen for 8 transfers. that is half of my mission so stop thinking I am to hard on him. If I was too hard on him he would tell me... Anziano McMullen is like the Brother I have never had. (He just has a speech impediment) =).

Did you know that if you find the RED BULL car they give you a free RED BULLl? Basically since I was in Napoli I have kept my eye out for this car, Anziano McMullen and I were the first missionaries to search, find and recieve goods from this RED BULL car. After those moments I have been continually finding the car all over Italy. I have found it in Napoli, Bari, Lecce, and Palermo. This last week we found it again, We were on our way home when we saw it, we got off the bus and ran to retrieve the goods. I think it's so fun to find and continue to find fun things to do like that. 

I might say the frase (I hate) but I really mean it when I say I hate August in Italy, There is literlly no one. I can not stand it when people tell me that they can not see me until september, mostly because I know that they are so full of crap when they say it. 

This week I wanted to talk a little bit about the strippling warriors and how they are a lot like us youth.  I hope that I can still count myself as being someone who is in their youth. Anyways, I was reading the story of the strippling warriors the other day and I was relating it to our time here in 2012. The strippling warriors where a really young group of people that could of been less then 17 years old. (Alma 56:46) They fought against many MEN 10.000, if i remember correctly. So it was 2.000 young men against 10.000 men. These 2.000 young men came from the people of Ammon, they were the tribe that promised God that they will never pick another weapon to slay their brothren, so these men were also untrained and had never fought in their lives.(Alma56:47). These young men obeyed their parents expecially their mothers like we all know. They never doubted and believed that God would always deliver them out of their hardships. These men went to war not knowing what was going to happen and were ready to fight for Freedom and Peace. These young men go and fight not one of them died, but 200 where wounded. Those that were wounded and had fainted had lost hope and faith for a small moment in that battle I am sure their friends and fellow soldiers looked around and saw that some of their friends had fallen, after seeing that their freind had fall they lost that faith and hope for a split second as well. 

The point is, is that we do not need to fall and loose faith just because one of our friends has made a bad choices. it has happened in my life and I am sure that it will happen in your lives. Continue to have faith and dont loose track of you objectives in your live weather those objectives are physical or spiritual. Help your friends heal those wounds, get them back on their feet and back in the game. Not one of us can be lost everyone is very valueable in this army. We are as the strippling warriors, we are fighting against many, sometimes its not easy and we are out numbered but we have the strength of our God behind us=)

Thanks Brian Stewart and Cache Guzy for your words of encouragment. That does make me feel better. I thought everyone had forgotten me for a little while there=) jk

Love you all so much talk to you later Anziano Miller 

Learning Patience

Well this week has been a rough one... hahah  In the beginning of last transfer I had asked to learn more patience and now with all the new trails that I am going through right now, I am learning patience. I am no where near perfection but I am glad that Christ has filled the gap that I can't manage to fill. 

I am doing ok there is nothing wrong, I feel really tired, in these last couple of weeks.  I have told my companion I want to go on strike... He thinks I am serious! Which makes things hard on me; I really want to work hard these last couple of month in the mission. I am trying to more enthusiastic about the work but it’s been pretty difficult with this blasted heat. I have never felt so hot in my life, if there is one thing I do not like in this world it would be high humidity. Humidity is like that friend that always exaggerates. Every time you look at the temperature you always saying 92 degrees? That’s it! This last week we reached 108 degrees.... it was killer. 

I lost control this week and I thought I was going to wallop my companion. I told him three times we had service last week at 8:30 and that we needed to catch the bus at 7:55. He then tried to worm his way out of going but then after that he made us miss the bus because he couldn’t manage to get out of bed and he still had to take a shower.... I thought I was going to loose it when we missed the bus but then, we manage to get to a place where we could climb these stairs and we would arrive about 15 late. Anyways, I kept my cool but I had lost all control inside of me. Long story short I need more patience.

Enough complaining, I hope that you guys had a splendid week. I hope gramps is OK, he sound like he is getting very depressed, and the doesn’t really have much to do.

Our church is shut down so that they can work on it and we can’t go in to do our lessons. My companion hates anything that has to do with running so I am like an overcharged battery that just wants to explode. A couple of investigators and members are getting really difficult. 

I don’t know it’s just been stressful week. I hope that everything is going well for you. I am going to take off I am sorry for the short letter. 

Love Anziano Miller 

Army of Helaman

Holy CRAP! It’s hot! 

I hate humidity, I know as a missionary I am suppose to learn to love things but humidity is something I will hate until I die. It’s only about 90 degrees here, but with humidity it’s been horrendous. 

I will tell you how my day is in the afternoon, I come home throw my bag on my chair then I sit in front of the air conditioner for at least 10 minutes, after those ten minutes I am still sweating from my back and I will not stop sweating until I take a shower before I go to bed. I can literally be sitting in front of a fan that is right next to my face inside with the air conditioner on, and I will still be sweating! It's pretty absurd

Other then that its been a great week I have had the opportunity to do a lot of service this last week, yesterday we moved a girl out of her old house into her new house. Today we helped paint someone’s home. Last week we also painted someone’s house... I feel really good when I do service, and it’s been a great opportunity to talk about the gospel. People are always so interested in the fact of why we are here. I have had the conversation so many times I can guess what people are going to ask me next.=) 

I really like telling people why I am here, they come to realize that I am not a monster that wants to tell them they are wrong or that they are a terrible person. They come to realize that I am here to help them, and to invite them to be a better person.

We celebrated the fourth of July, and I had a great time. We ate lasagna and hot dogs, we played ping pong and Foosball... you better tell Kurt Brey to get practicing because I have gotten pretty good at Foosball and I am going to see if I can beat him when I get back.

I am sorry you had such a terrible week. There is a reason why pride is expressed so much in the Book of Mormon. It’s the sin that make you transgress the sin that makes you think you don’t need God or anyone else. We all have pride but when you have an abundance of pride you can only be taught by falling. 

I teach at least once a week about the Old Testament and how we see a pattern with God and his children. When his children are humble he sends a prophet to help them and to care for them, also to guide them. His children begin to prosper then they become wealthy then they become prideful... thinking that they don’t need God, or someone to help them anymore.... so his children kill the prophet and they don’t repent... they fall so deep into apostasy that they are poor and needy again, after a while they become humble, they realize they need help so they turn back to God and God sees that they need help and sends another prophet to help them... The pride cycle is very interesting, it is in everyone’s life and it will always be like that until we die.

This week went really well, we didnt meet our goals but we felt really productive.I think its really strange, we have been speaking a lot about baptism in our lessons, we have been trying to help people realize that it is a step that will change their life and a covenant that is really important to make with our Father in Heaven. We have explained the restaration very clearly and we just cant manage to get a dates, but here I have seen that these people are truly investigating and they are truly searching for the truth. I find it strange but I feel like its how missionary work should be. But our work has started to slow down.... its not a thing that I am proud of but its kind of scary I don’t really like the fact that we have been loosing investigators left and right thanks to the summer.

Everything else is going well and I am fantastic, I am having a good time and I am continuing to try my best.

I like what TJ said, "It's not to make life about yourself, but to make life about others". But it’s hard for anyone to do what he said even if we know its what we should do. I will do my best to follow his advice. Numbers where not to fantastic we had three investigators drop us.=(

Dallan is so right that’s why he is such a stud=) Dallan's story * This week was a good one. We could have been busier, but I suppose everyone has the option to choose. People accept us, and people reject us. Saturday was an interesting day. The majority of the people we contact, either in the streets or knocking their doors, are just regular old people who were raised Catholic and never really did anything with that, but use that as their excuse to tell us to move on. "Oh, sorry, we´re Catholics. We´re happy." And that´s about as deep as our conversation gets, even when we are persistent and use all our resources to provide a short, powerful testimony that touches deep enough to inspire them to listen to us. But on Saturday, we encountered three (that´s a lot for one day) deeply-rooted, highly intelligent, ready with argument people. A Catholic and an Apostolic Christian in the street, and a Christian in his home later in the day. They ran loops around us with their knowledge of the bible. The second, the Christian, was the first person to ever openly insult me in a contact, to my face.

   So after the day, we came home pretty tired from the week and pretty quiet. As I thought back on the day, I remembered all the times that I did not know how to respond. I thought of the simple, powerful invitations that we gave to each person, and what that would mean for them after this life. Even though I was feeling a strong lack of sufficient knowledge, I felt reassured that I was in the right. We are members of the Kingdom of God on earth. Neither sword nor death nor word nor any clever usage of bible passages will EVER apart us from our royalty and our inheritance. We can trust that we will have a VERY rich recompense waiting for us. Isn´t that a relief? Like it says in Galatians 5:22-23, there is no law against such things. When we receive a confirmation from the Spirit (love, joy, peace, faith...), nobody can take that away. We as missionaries don´t ask that our investigators believe us, or the Bible, or the Book of Mormon. We ask them to ask God. Because once HE says how things are, there´s no questions to ask. There´s just following to be done. Applying the answer we received. And once we´re sure we´re in the right, nothing has power over it. Elder Carter

I thought about it the other day and its going to be ridiculously hard to choose my best man.

Mom is wondering if he would at least tell us who the Bride is first=)”

Anziano Miller said that the Best man is a very important.... the bride can be anyone but the best man is THE BEST MAN, it’s like the most important thing to every wedding=) jk 

I will talk to you next week love you so much

muah 

Love your favorite son Anziano Miller

Happy Independence Day!!!

Today, I woke up and the first thing Anziano Larsen and I did was sing "The Star Spangled Banner" ! =) It was really great, Anziano McMullen filmed it. 

 

This week has been soooooo hot, I am always damp, I am always thirsty, and I am always sweating. Today, we did all our work in the morning and now I have the rest of the time to do what ever I want. So we will go with a couple of our investigators and a couple of our members to go play laser tag=). My companion really hates anything that has to do with archeology and so I don’t think I will see anything that has to do with archeology for a while, maybe for the rest of my mission. He really likes to relax, he does not like to do much, unless, we are going to go out and do something fun. So, Instead of doing nothing, I would prefer to go have fun with our investigators. 

This week the European cup was pretty legit. Sunday night there was absolutely NO ONE on the street. Everyone was inside preparing for the big game. So I am glad it’s over with. Mainly because I can’t watch it, and if I can’t watch it, which means everyone can’t watch it. 

What I am trying to say is, if no one is on the street I am bored. It also means that we have nothing to do. So I am glad it’s all over. 

This last week we had some of the highest numbers I have ever had in my mission, I like to look at numbers because I know that with each number there at least one child of God that is listening to us or coming to church....etc.

It will be really difficult to this week to top what we did last week, But we are going to try... my companion is really tired because I have been running around a lot. He likes to have lunch breaks; I don’t really care for them... I am actually really skinny but I am eating like an idiot... I should start my four month till sexy diet. 

I hope I can say this without hurting anyone’s feelings but... I HATE EMAIL.

Not because I don’t like to hear from you guys, but because it takes so long and most of the time I am just thinking of things that I have done in the last week.

QUINDI; MI STUFFO 

Anywho, you guys should have gone boating without Wally... that’s lame that you didn’t go. I am sure you would have had a fantastic time.=) I bet I won’t even be able to slalom ski when I get back. I have lost every muscle I once had. 

That reminds me... Dad, what are some good ways I can get some protein without eating meat... because I have need of protein. 

This week we also have our fix-it guy in the mission, his name is Fratello Pastano, he is just the coolest guy ever so we have a blast in the house. He has come to fix our horrendous apartment. He is like having your favorite Uncle come and stay with you for the weekend.=) 

Well, I just have about had it with some missionaries, sometimes, I think, man!!! It’s going to suck going home.... then other times I think... Man!!! I can not wait to be away from these people! 

I will think about the sunscreen thing, I don’t know if I really need it, that and I don’t have any sunscreen. 

PS – email me, Kaitlyn’s shoe size. I might get her some really cool shoes from Italy. =) They are more like sandals but still, everyone is wearing them here and I really like them.

I am really scared to come home. I bought some jeans and they might be a little too tight for American style. But I really like them; it might be because I have grown into the European style... I am going to still wear them when I come home... prepare yourselves for the future Tanner Guzy =). 

This week we came one short of our goal…we had twenty lesson this last week and we are really struggling with all our investigators this week we will probably not be able to see them all twice this week.

Anyhow, I am going to get off the computer my eyes hurt 

Ciao!!!!!

Anziano Miller