Hey Hey!! There's my Californian!! An amazing local missionary mama, Alexx Summers, snapped this shot & sent it to me! Elder Miles' new companion is Elder Wight & I can't wait to get all the details of his first week when that blessed email comes on Monday!! Woohoo! #lookatthatsmile #proudmama #loveourmissionary #ctr
I feel like a kid on Christmas morning, but I get so excited to see there's an email,
even if all it say is...
-----Original message-----
From: Ethan Miles
Date: Tue, Jul 28, 2015 2:33 PM
To; nate.miles;Amy Miles;
Subject: Arrived
We are here in California. Just get to tell you that I will email you on Monday.
(I'm one HAPPY momma!!;)
This snapshot was taken during Elder Miles' senior trip (thanks Sarah!) He's headed back & rather than shorts & flip flops, he's in MISSIONARY MODE & in his own words from yesterday's email "I'M SO PUMPED!!" MTC has geared him up so he's ready!!! Here comes Elder Ethan Stephen Miles CALIFORNIA CARLSBAD MISSION!! So excited for all the wonderful people he's going to meet!! #calledtoserve #best2years #loveourmissionary#blessed #service
2nd WEEK!!!
This week has flown by! But it also feels like I've been here for three months. It's crazy to see how awesome it is with the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. We leave tomorrow morning at 3:35 am. I did get your letters mom. I just haven't had any time to write you back. Sorry. But I am having so much fun. Elder Raddon is such a great companion and we have grown so much together. It's crazy. This week I tried to specifically study the second coming. I want you to look at 3rd Nephi chapters 24-25. And the footnotes in 24's verses 2b and 3b and c. It explains kind of when the second coming will happen. And it's way crazy haha. I liked learning about it.
Being a zone leader was way stressful. But it was awesome to see all the blessings that came from it and to come to love all the elders and sisters in my zone. And I had a great time doing that. I don't have much to say but I'm sure I will have a lot more to talk about next week! I'm so pumped! But anyways I'll talk to you later. I'll call you when I'm in the airport.
Love always
Elder Miles
Being a zone leader was way stressful. But it was awesome to see all the blessings that came from it and to come to love all the elders and sisters in my zone. And I had a great time doing that. I don't have much to say but I'm sure I will have a lot more to talk about next week! I'm so pumped! But anyways I'll talk to you later. I'll call you when I'm in the airport.
Love always
Elder Miles
Elder Miles FIRST LETTTER!!!!!!!!!
WOW!! The MTC is sooooooo AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! It's so crazy to look back and see how much I've learned my whole life compared to what I've learned in just the last couple days here! Thanks everyone for all the emails those are so fun to read and I love every one of you.
I've never felt the spirit so strong. And you know how Joseph Smith, after he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus how he went back home and slept for a long long time because the spirit was so strong? I feel the same way. Except I don't have the opportunity to sleep until 10:30 every night. The days feel so long like I've been here for 3 months. I don't know how the missionaries that are here for 6 weeks can stand it! I just want to get out in the field and start teaching people. But I really am grateful to be here.
Our teachers do a lot of role playing as investigators with different needs and that really helps you learn to come to love the individual that you are teaching and find what they need to hear from you to better improve their lives and bring them closer to Christ and Heavenly Father. And I've really learned so much from that.
I've been called to be a zone leader and to preside over 69 missionaries this next week! And that is insanely stressful. For those of you that don’t know what that is, it's basically the equivalent to being the Presidents Assistant in the mission field. We had to wake up way early yesterday to go to meetings which really started Sunday off for me. Sacrament is way awesome and we also sang in the Choir practice for our devotional Tuesday. It's like singing in the Tabernacle Choir and the spirit is so strong. Especially when its double forte and the Elders and Sisters join together and sing our hearts out. Listen to that Tabernacle Choir sing "Praise to the Man" because that's what we are singing and it’s such a powerful song.
Anyways that’s about it for me. The computers don’t take memory cards so i probably won’t be able to send pics for a little while. But that doesn't mean you guys can’t! Send lots!
I'm so grateful all you guys and want to let you know how grateful for the example of Christ and the atonement so that we can have families forever and return to live with our father in heaven again. That’s such a comfort for me and can’t wait to help share that comfort and that message to others on the mission field so that I too can bring peace to their lives.
I love you all so much and for your examples. I will talk to you all next Monday. (that’s when p-day is)
Love always,
Elder Miles
Oh I forgot to talk about my companion. He is from beaver and he actually played football. He played on the line and he is way funny. I laugh all day because of him haha. He is great and helps everybody stay on task during class or study time. He's just a great example and I'm thankful he is my companion.
Our teachers do a lot of role playing as investigators with different needs and that really helps you learn to come to love the individual that you are teaching and find what they need to hear from you to better improve their lives and bring them closer to Christ and Heavenly Father. And I've really learned so much from that.
I've been called to be a zone leader and to preside over 69 missionaries this next week! And that is insanely stressful. For those of you that don’t know what that is, it's basically the equivalent to being the Presidents Assistant in the mission field. We had to wake up way early yesterday to go to meetings which really started Sunday off for me. Sacrament is way awesome and we also sang in the Choir practice for our devotional Tuesday. It's like singing in the Tabernacle Choir and the spirit is so strong. Especially when its double forte and the Elders and Sisters join together and sing our hearts out. Listen to that Tabernacle Choir sing "Praise to the Man" because that's what we are singing and it’s such a powerful song.
Anyways that’s about it for me. The computers don’t take memory cards so i probably won’t be able to send pics for a little while. But that doesn't mean you guys can’t! Send lots!
I'm so grateful all you guys and want to let you know how grateful for the example of Christ and the atonement so that we can have families forever and return to live with our father in heaven again. That’s such a comfort for me and can’t wait to help share that comfort and that message to others on the mission field so that I too can bring peace to their lives.
I love you all so much and for your examples. I will talk to you all next Monday. (that’s when p-day is)
Love always,
Elder Miles
Oh I forgot to talk about my companion. He is from beaver and he actually played football. He played on the line and he is way funny. I laugh all day because of him haha. He is great and helps everybody stay on task during class or study time. He's just a great example and I'm thankful he is my companion.
May I be as candid & open as a social media page allows....This week has truly been a struggle for me. I've been so excited & caught up in our preparation phase that I was ill prepared & did not realize the array of emotions that I would go through. We've had parents serve, brothers, sisters, several nieces & nephews leave & return home from missions, but your child leaving is a whole new ball game!! Ethan is our oldest & our first "missionary parent" experience...18 years quickly flash through my mind of awaiting the birth of our new baby boy...they weren't very patient years of waiting mind you... Flash forward to him 8..is he really ready to be baptized? 4 years later..is he really ready to receive this sacred power of the priesthood? Another 4...he's 16 years old, & I, a troubled mother who is trying to figure her teenage son out...watch & listen in awe as Ethan quietly, humbly kneels to say the Sacrament prayer & the spirit whispers to me...Be patient with him. I will allow myself one more good cry thinking of our separation this past Wednesday... the handsome young man in a new suit & bags filled to the brim, allows a tear to escape & slip down his cheek as he encircles his weeping mother & assures her that it's ok... it's going to be okay.
May I plead with you to hug your babies tight. Even if those babies need to look down to peer into your face or if you must kneel to peer into theirs. Whether we as parents think they are ready or not, God qualifies these amazing spirits we are blessed to call our sons & daughters. He is with them always & will not leave their side. May we teach them to hold fast to their faith...to hold tight to their Father in Heaven & never let go. I love my children! I love my missionary! I love the gospel of Jesus Christ & I am so very blessed! I look forward to the beautiful journey that we'll all experience over these next 2 years:) 7/18/15
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