March 30, 2011

Hi Family,
We went to Capri today it was so cool, I would say the coolest place I have gone so far. Next week we go to Pompeii so I will have more then enough pictures to share with you this next week...

Thank you for the fun updates they really do make my day... except when I hear terrible things about the jazz, but all in all I have not been watching anything on TV. So it’s all the same hopefully when I come back everything will be back to normal, I can only hope. I am glad to hear about Cache and the Vincent twins, it will be quite fun with them when they come back. I will love to share experiences with the language that will be similar but different.
Italy is absolutely beautiful! Today we had a crazy and fun experience... We met this man named Jerry. He is an Italian man and he is so sweet; well I think he is sweet! When we were in Capri and we took a boat ride from this man. Well we had to find him first and the only information we knew about him is that he was tan and he had a yellow boats. So we started walking looking for these yellow boats we found this man (well he found us) and said you looking for a boat ride? We said maybe (people are very pushy in tourist places... but that’s another story) We asked him if he had taken people like us on boat rides before even meeting us, then asked him if he had a yellow boat. He said yes to both questions. We then took a boat ride like no one else... you see Jerry has two small boats and he can go into caves and other things that are really cool places to see. Most people have to pay for this really expensive boat ride and do not get this personal and fun experience. It was just us four and him on a boat. His family had been on the island for seven generations... so he knew a lot about the island, but it was incredible! The fun experience was Jerry forgot to change the belt on his boat before he left... and so he over heated his engine (120C). I don’t know how hot it was, but it was really hot! He removed the cap to the radiator.... not good ... hot water went everywhere and very high up in the air. I can not explain how high and how much this water went out, but there was a lot of pressure. Rusty water went everywhere and luckily nothing and no one had any problems after. (I’m fine mom)! We then went to the shore were you could only get to by foot and by boat and we stayed there and waited for Jerry... We must have been there for about 45 minutes.
Now for bad news- I just got back from Capri so I have the pictures and my camera but I do not have the cord and I also have my song and recordings but I do not have the recorder.... I am really sorry I will try to get them to you soon... don’t look at the pictures on the internet because they might be cooler then mine... I don’t know if they are cuz I have not checked it up on the internet, but it’s sweet!
Just wait till next week.
I need to go.

Thank you for giving me that support dad of leaving this area, I will find out Saturday but I am more then sure I am leaving!
Love you all Anziano Miller

Boat Ride in Caprii

March 23, 2011

The Italian translation isn’t exactly right (says my companion) did you Google translate it because.... yah but its really easy to read because of the errors. So thank you for helping me with my Italian but for me it’s not the reading, it’s when people speak. They speak faster then I can translate. I have translated for a couple Americans in church while me my companion was teaching; let’s just say that I am not very good. It is probably one of the hardest things in my life. Just because I have to do everything in my head, say what is being said and catch what someone else is saying in the other language while I am telling others what is being said. I just have a hard time with it.

Thank you for telling the DeMartinos about St. Patrick’s Day. Luckily I was wearing my only green tie but luckily for my companion he was not so he got pinched.

That is not good to hear about Anziano Cluff he is a good missionary he was one of my favorites in the mtc. He is a stud! Yes the language is hard. It will get better.... after it starts to make little sense. Its nice because people try to listen to you a lot more and they let you into there homes because they want to know why you are here and why you are learning this other language. I really enjoy seeing the lord work in that kind of way.

About Bryan yes I am feeling the same way.... so let me tell you what has gone down the last week in a brief paragraph or two.

This last week my companion was made Branch president because the Dandolfos are going out of town for three months to go adopt 3 beautiful Mexican babies, there was no priesthood holder who would be able to be branch president, so my companion is branch president. Let me try to explain to you how this works hopefully dad will understand and be able to explain it to you.

My companion leaves in May which is too early to leave because the Dandolfos come back on the 7th of July. So he can not be Branch President for the whole time he is gone. This transfer ends on April 8^th and after that will be my companions transfer to go home. So they will have to have a new branch president.... there is no one who is old in the mission who is staying that long who is going to be good enough to take care of a branch. He will have to teach someone who is a year in the mission, which is young. I will probably leave very soon. I will know next week but I know I am leaving. The President called Anziano Hansen yesterday and asked him who he would like to be a branch president. (Just for an opinion) but yah

There is almost no question that I will be leaving. So I am passing my book around, to the members. So tell Bryan I know how he feels.

That is the worst thing I have ever heard about Kandlyns mother please if you see them tell them that I am thinking about them and I hope the best for them no matter what happens.... that is the worst ever. Her mom is the coolest wow that is unbelievable.

Yes you can I send you pictures or you can send them through email now. I didn’t want you to send them in the MTC because of time limit... now that I do not have that stupid timer thing I would love a picture or two.

About three weeks ago me and my companion split up and basically prayed for a person we were going to find... what he would look like, what cloths he might be wearing ... his name all these things... anyways a couple weeks went by and we had not met anyone except for a man name Guseppe. He was just not ready to hear the gospel so we kept looking. We met a man that had the name and the life style and the looks we described to each other.. His cloths where different... but we can’t be right on everything. We invited him to English course and basically he is golden. We set an appointment with him and taught him the restoration, he accepts everything. He is amazing... We still need to teach him a lot but he does not have any problems so far. The next day we taught him the plan of salvation. There have been a lot of things he has done that are just crazy amazing for an investigator to do. We were going to meet with him on Thursday but he decided that that is to far away and wants to meet at six today and then wants to meet Thursday again. There is good hope with this man....

We also have Carrie who basically told us she knows the church is true but she still has the problem with her family but we had a fantastic lesson with her last Friday.

These two investigators will probably be baptized really close to when I leave-sooo :(

Time for me to go love you family ciao ciao ciao! Anziano Miller

Thank you for the idea for Easter mom I hope we can use it :)

March 16, 2011

We heard about the Japan Earthquake here, it sounds pretty terrible and I hope everything is going to be alright. The good thing is that I saw a rainbow, a double rainbow in fact so we will be good for at least another year. Well I hope.

I am glad to hear about the visas for my two boys I hope they get there and start to love it. I am sure they will Jake if you did not know, knows Spanish pretty well he knew it pretty well before the MTC but I could be wrong with that as well because I do not understand Spanish.
But he spoke it a couple of times when we went to taco bell so I don’t know maybe he is doing really well with the language.

As for my book I will take care of it, I already gave it to the DeMartinos so hopefully I can get it back soon and give it to someone else.

This last week we went to Rome... nothing was really cool about Rome mostly because we were on a bus, train, car, or in a building while we were there so on that note I didn’t get any pictures.... I am sorry. We spent the night in Napoli last week it was pretty enjoyable we had six missionaries there and we all played basketball and with elder Hansen there we had people flocking around the court so it was pretty fun... we taught a lesson and gave Napoli a new investigator.

The next day we left for Rome on an early train but lucky for us we found out that the metro does not start running for another hour after we got there.... so we sat in the metro station for another hour. And then we were able to take another train to Rome. (We take a lot of trains in this mission) I am really upset we do not have trains in the America because I would go a lot more places. President Kelly gave some really wise council at our zone conference. At conference we were able to talk to a lot more people in Rome because we had two zones there it was awesome and really helpful.

The Assistance came to Battipaglia to say goodbye to the D'andlfos and we were able to go with them to eat food :) which is always a plus in my book. My favorite part about going to the D'andolfos house is grandma. They always ask grandma who gives the prayer and it’s always the mom or my companion, after the prayer grandma always wants points at another person to say another prayer. its not as funny when I write it but its way funny when you are there so I will apologize now for my terrible story:)

The next day we went and did publicity for English course... we plastered the town with lots of fliers... we then we were maybe a 100 meters from our house and my companions eye got something in it... and well he scratched it with whatever was in his eye.. so we have had some wonderful problems in the last couple of days with his eye... we were able to go Napoli to a member eye doctor and it was fun for me because I got to drive, I may sound childish when I say that but please try to understand me, Driving in Italy is way better then any racing video game....

We saw two old members of the church this last week and one spoke English.. He said he doesn’t want to come back to church because he was offended by a person seven years ago in the church.... we told him to forgive and forget. I tried to relate to him because I have felt the same way in the past with a couple of people but he understood and said he wanted to keep meeting with us and he hopefully become reactivated in the church.

We saw the Barretta family that same night and they have a lot of American recipes ( side note... mom they will probably ask you for some recipes especially banana cream pie)

There is a lot of work that we are doing right now we had a new investigator who wants to become a missionary... we have a lot of potential right now with both our stop smoking course and language course. There are always people who want to meet with us after we give the spiritual thought (my companion says it is not normally like that) so it’s good that it is happening here. Today is rainy... it has rained on Wednesday more then it has not rained on Wednesday.... I really want to go hike Mount Vesuvius. (The volcano that you sent me the stuff about) but it keeps raining on preparation day. So hopefully it will stop soon.

Well I wish you all a good week and to keep trying to be a better person everyday... love you

Anziano Miller

March 9, 2011

Hello Momma I hope that you can send me more of you activities by next week I let me know what you need to do whether you need to copy some and send them in the mail. But I would love to have them for the rest of my mission... thank you so much for the minute to win it stuff.

Dad is right time is going fast. It’s ridiculous I have already been out for 4 months infect I think it is five now but I could be crazy... :) I love you and wish you the best of luck back home I wish I could help with everything

Hello family,

This week I do not have very much time to write I am off to Rome for a conference and we need to go to Napoli for the day but I will tell you a little about what happened in my week. and yes I do not have the song and I do not have time this week to type everything to solve Bryans dilemma but I will try next week yes I know how to work the voice recorder but its hard because when the files come up it has numbers and that’s it but I will start writing the numbers down and try to send you the rest of them unfortunately I have deleted most of them because I thought you had already received them but you probably did not receive them... sorry and don’t get mad at me ... :) but anyways I will try again next week.

This week I got to go to the questura which is like the DMV ha-ha the Italians looked really annoyed with me while I was there but sense we speak their language they are not to annoyed I think . we are going to Napoli this afternoon for p day I hope that we can have some time to go check out the city.. Supposibly Napoli is crazy but I think it will be fun:)

This week we have done allot of work with the maps and with both our big cities hopefully to get some more of members reactivated here in the branch.

the last week after email we went a played some basketball and played just by ourselves but we found some raggazzi and they wanted to play with us it was three v two but it was really sad we would have had a harder time against Kaitlyn and Lexi ...... but anyways we took it really easy on them for little while but after that we said we will play a game to six and if we win we get to talk to them for fifteen minutes if they win we get to buy them a gelato. well... we won and we talked to them they want a follow up lesson next week and we told them we wanted to go bowling sometime... when we find time to do that... I don’t know but it sounds fun:)

We have had some good contacts this week and like always there has been allot of people we have talked to we are just waiting for someone to show up to church. Or call us I would not mind that either. We did get a new investigator yesterday but there still have been way too many good contacts to be ok with just one so I just can not wait till they flock to the church :)

Well that’s about all I have to say this week I hope you have a great day and a fantastic week.

Lexi,

I am so glad you write me letters I think they are awesome I have read that one that you sent me with mommy’s volcano stuff and its wonderful I love it thank you. My companion and I love to read it. I hope you help mommy and daddy everyday and that you are being a good grill.

Kaitlyn

I saw you typing to Rossella on facebook the other day, I told her to send you some stuff and it looks like mom received my message.... thank you. Also Marilou was looking at your facebook and says that you are in a relationship... she told me I need to protect you.... I told her I will try from afar... do well in school and stay away from boys... also do not do drugs. I thought I would throw that in there just cuz I was telling you thing to do already.

PS. tell Jake to write me back or I will find him and.... give him a great big hug when I am home......

Love you my two favorite grillz

Your bubble and brother

How Tall Are You?

Dear Lexi,
I am being a good boy. I am trying to be very obedient so I can find new people to teach about the book of Mormon I am so glad you write me cute letters like the one on the yellow papers. Please help mamma be happy she is always worrying. Maybe you can ask her to play animals with you sometime. You can learn how to cook so you can cook for me when I get home. Guess what my favorite color is not black it is blue light blue.
There is a man who will come over to our house soon please give him a really big hug he is my height and speaks Italian but don’t worry because he also speaks English too. His name is Anziano Rogers. Be a good grill and make sure Kaitlyn stays away from boys... they are trouble... believe me I am one:)

Dear Kaitlyn
Stay away from boys... I almost sound like mom telling you to clean your room. so just take my advice and stay away from boys they are no fun anyways and they are not funny they are also not cute! Sono shemi e bruta anche sono scifo, ok I wrote it in two languages just in case you did not understand English at the moment. (There is probably a mistake in there somewhere to but that is not important) Allora how is dad is he alright? He is probably really stressed because of Roger and mom. I hope you are taking good care of our parents both of them really need your help right now so do your best to be a good girl and not give them grief. I am glad you like talking to my friends the only one baptized is Alexandra, the other two are great friends and we love teaching them. Rossella is trying to become a cook!!! And Linda is trying to be an artist. They like talking to you and understand everything you say, thank you for being a good friend they like American friends. Alexandra is trying to go to America, I imagine she wants to go to school there but I am not sure. Be a good girl and try something new every time you go snowboarding. It will make you better and it is way more fun. Try something that is to hard for you like piano piano, you will get it and I expect you to be pro by the time I am back.
PS Tell mom I was never aloud to have a gf in middle school, looks like she is slacking on her rules again just for you.

When the heck did Jake get a new truck and why....... tell him I am sick of him not writing me.... have him write me a email and I will write him letters. Give him this address there is no excuse for him not to write me. There shouldn’t be anyways:)

Hello mom dad and everyone else that reads this letter,
This is my mom’s cute son, who does know how much she loves her son,
Mom I am glad you liked the pictures because I have been taking an extra effort to take pictures. It is very beautiful here and there the swimming pool you saw was indeed a swimming pool many actresses and actors go there for a retreat. I do not know if it was anyone famous but it is a swimming pool.

You never told me what dad said about Pompeii.
Also how is big G is he been doing better?

Please be nice to Anziano Rogers he was and is an amazing missionary he has a way with asking questions and being a really inattentive listener. He will call you and come over probably sometime in the next couple of months. I do not know when but it will before the next semester starts.

I do not know what is going on with the memory card. My thoughts where, to just keep going until I can not take anymore because I have a 4 gig memory card. Then I could just by another one. I have a pouch for memory cards in the new fancy compact case I bought for the camera. It’s a long story, I did that because it was not very expensive. So don’t fret! I have not used my back account card yet so hopefully things are going well with that. I am sorry about Roger I have no idea what is going on but I can tell it’s probably really stress full for both you and dad. Don’t bug dad about writing me he is ok you keep me pretty updated. It sounds like everything with grandma is going well. I hope she enjoys her new home and maybe Grandma Miller and your mom can be good friends please send me the Suhr’s address. Maybe I can send them all letters sometime but its more or less because I just want it. Just incase.

One thing that I know is that it is always darkest before the dawn something Fertello Silva taught us. So hang in there momma your doing a great job as a mother, child, friend, and servant of the lord. I do not think that there are any parents who are as wonderful as mine. One thing I ask of you is that you look for something that you are learning from this experiences and try to look for the positive things. I know it is hard but it’s possible.

Fufu is the bomb it is an African dish that is made with red sauces and meat with some veggies. You take flour and water in a big pot and just mix it together... it just becomes a giant ball of un-cooked bread that taste like flour. Then you take the dough of the flour with you hands and dip it, scrape it, scoop it. Whatever you want across the pan and eat it. It is probably the coolest thing I have done... oh and you are not supposed to chew it you suck on it and then swallow it. I love it, it is so tasty! I will make it for you when I get home.

I think that I am in the “inside the MTC film” as well I shook some guys hand and there where a lot of cameras around... and they pulled me out of class to do it. I don’t know why me, but my impression was that it is because I am so handsome, but who knows. :)

I have a good story for this week we were doing house in a weird area this week. It was weird in the sense that it was a place that was pretty spread out and a place where we have already gone. We first passed by a man who basically believed in our church but did not really know it... ( I have met a lot of people like that) then we carried on. We went into a Palatso and rang a couple houses. We got some pretty hard rejection for the first couple of houses but after a while we rang a house and two dogs just start barking out of their minds. ( I love dogs ). A women opens the door and says hold on my dogs are barking... my first thought was I hope she wants to hear us or she will be mad. Then she opened the door and of course the first thing she says is " momma mia quanto sei alto" which is a question I hear at least once a day.. if not more. It means how tall are you? Then my companion response is always ." to tall" because he is taller then most doors in Italy, at 6’8”.. She invited us in and said " I have never invited the Mormons into my house before" which was cool!
She then tells us how she has been having a really hard time in her life lately... I do not have time to explain everything she said but she basically told us she has been prepared to hear the gospel ( without actually saying the words of course) so we are hopping things will go well we will see her again next week.
There have been so many cases where I know that we have been guided by the spirit... I have no question we are being guided every day.

I love you family and friends have a good week

Anziano Miller

in boca a lupa

PS. Tell Aunt Verna that of course I am going to write her back... why would I not write my amazing auntie back.
PSS Sorry I do not have my song, I will try to have it next week.

Rita from Battipaglia

My name is Rita. Elder miller is actually serving his mission in my city: Battipaglia!!! :D he is nice, sweet and very funny when he tries to speak Italian. It's a pleasure to have him here in our city!!
Just Sunday we were joking with your son about the language..but he is doing better.. :) he is a good missionary and you can be proud of him. It will be a pleasure to know you too one day! I don't know if Anziano miller has told you, that he is serving in the city of the real mozzarella (di bufala) :) whenever you are going to come you have to try it!
wish you a great day...bye