Sept. 26, 2016 "Johnathan, you were just taught by the Spirit."

Family,

Not getting transferred. Chilling in the dirty dido for another transfer! Keeping the Dido dirty.....

Not really much else is exciting. A missionary jacked his face up ice skating last week. He started slipping and then locked his legs and just face planted into the ice. He got some stitches but he is doing better. It really sucked for him. But he is super dark and brooding (or so he tries to be). He basically wants to be batman. So he has actually been happier lately because his face has been jacked up. Pretty funny.

We have a few investigators right now. A lot of them are super busy with school and stuff so it is hard to meet up with them, but we have 2 that could become super solid.

Our investigator, Johnathan, that wants to get baptized is not being able to because his mom said he can't until his bday in April, but we are going to have a fast for his mom in 2 weeks.

Johnathan sent us a scripture this morning from 1 Nephi 22:26: And because of the righteousness of his people, Satan has no power; wherefore, he cannot be loosed for the space of many years; for he hath no power over the hearts of the people, for they dwell in righteousness, and the Holy One of Israel reigneth."

He said "To me it means that no matter how hard Satan attackes you, you will always be able to overcome it. It really stuck out to me because I have many forms of evil attack me everyday but the power of the gospel never lets it hurt me."

"Johnathan, you were just taught by the Spirit."

That was really cool. It just goes to show how powerful the Book of Mormon really is and how it doesn't matter where you are at or what verse you are reading that you can still receive revelation from it. Further witnesses along with my own that the Book of Mormon is true.

Otherwise, we are going to make some baptisms happen this transfer!!! BOOM!

Elder Miles

Dinner at the Rush home💗😊👍

Yep. Luckily it isn't my bike....

So this is what happened: (we were on exchanges). I  was with another missionary (my grandson, elder Urey) driving home at night with our bikes on our bike rack. We were driving on the highway and we heard a "woosh." I looked back and said to the other missionary, "Woah, is your bike gone?." We pull off at the next exit and then a car behind us flags us down and says to us, "You guys just lost a bike" and drives off. So we flip around and look for it and find it in this state. Apparently it got run over by a car too. Bahahahahaha. Shredded.

Luckily, it wasn't mine....

Sept 19, 2016 "The cool part is you're not just preparing just for your mission....you are preparing for your life"

Whats up everybodyyyy?

It was awesome to hear that everybody is doing good back home! Hayden tearing it up in football and making most of the playing time that he got.  Then Miranda BEAST MODING against North Summit in volleyball.  Letting 'em know that SSHS don't go down easy!  That really made me happy.  And good job to Maycee for leading out in FHE!  It's definitely important that we prepare for our missions starting young.  There are too many people that start their mission unprepared and it takes them 6 months to finally figure it out.  Start now!  And you can start harvesting even before your mission!  Something I wish I would have done.  And the cool part is you're not just preparing just for your mission.  But you are preparing for your life.  The habits you make now (scripture reading, praying morning, throughout the day, and at night, family home evening, participating in church/seminary, and sharing the gospel with others) will affect you the rest of your life.  That's why we need to start young. So good job Maycee!

Johnathan didn't end up getting baptized this week.  He is still 17 and his mom wouldn't allow him to until he was 18.  Which will be in April.  He was really bummed that his mom wouldn't let him.  He is a great guy.  Us, and a few other members of our ward are going to have a group fast this week for his mom to soften her heart.  We also weren't able to meet with Kyle this week.  He has been pretty inconsistent with appointments and responding to texts and phone calls.  But we did finally meet with a guy that we had been trying for a few weeks now.  His name is Anthony.  He seemed closed off at the beginning of our lesson, just by saying that he wouldn't ever come to church because of experiences in the past at other churches.  But towards the end he opened up to us.  Commited him to read and pray.  He couldn't come this week just because of plans he had already made.  But said he would this coming Sunday.  We have another lesson this week so we will see how he is doing on praying and reading.

So because Elder Nokes and I are the ZL's we are asked to do a lot of administrative stuff.  Like giving blessings to missionaries and members all over the stake.  On Friday we were asked to give a blessing to a guy in the ER at the hospital.  So we go in and this guy is getting released from the hospital.  But doesn't have a ride.  And doesn't want a blessing until he gets home.  Which we later find out that it is like 35-40 miles north of the hospital.  Which is still in our zone.  But we never go out there.  Simply it is just wayyy too far away.  And nobody really lives out there, but he can't find a ride so we end up taking him.  And the whole drive he was barfing.  Luckily it was just water that he was throwing up.  And he had a special bag that the hospital gave to him to throw up in.  But it was making me dry heave as well just hearing him.  Blahhhhh.  Then we finally get out to where he lives and it's this run down trailer park.  Like way run down.  Like I could see people dying there and people would never know.  Or even care.  This was the boonies on steroids.  Like this would be the perfect place to hide a body.  Because nobody would ever find it!  But we ended up giving him a blessing and leaving and almost running out of gas.  But just barely made it to a gas station. That was crazy.  

Well anyways.  I enjoyed golf last week.  I am waiting to get the pictures.  I should be able to send them later today.  Then we are going ice skating today with our zone.  That will be fun!  So I gotta get running now.  But I love you all!

Elder Miles

Halloween is early for Elder Miles this year!!😄😂😄

   

Sept 12, 2016 "The gospel has already become a part of his life..."

Well I don't have a lot of time today. Today is Elder Nokes birthday.  We are going to grill up some steaks then go play golf with San Marcos ZL's, Fallbrook ZL's, and the AP's.  Should be fun.  

Things that happened this week:

Well the highlight of this week was we went on exchanges with the AP's.  They now serve in the Vista YSA ward.  So I was able to go back to my first area for a day!  We were able to see Lily Rodriguez.  The girl Elder Wight and I baptized almost exactly a year ago.  She seemed like she has kind of gone off the deep end over the last couple months.  It was sad to see.  But it was good to see her.  

Johnathan is still working towards being baptized this Saturday.  He was sick this whole week, so we weren't able to meet with his mom at all. So, just so it is fair for her, we might push his date to next week.  But he is still 100% into it.  We were able to finish everything that needs to be taught before his baptism last night.  He already seems like a member.  The gospel has already become a part of his life.  He of course still has struggles but whenever he tell us things he pretty much just bares his testimony of Christ and how He is helping him with whatever is going on.  It's pretty cool.

We also picked up this guy named Kyle last night.  He has been going to a pretty well known Christian church, North Coast Church.  Which in the past I personally have not had good experiences with.  But he is actually willing to listen and to take our challenges.  He told us that what his pastor told him about us was almost completely wrong.  And that what we teach makes complete sense.  We set him on date for the 31st of September.  We are going to be meeting with him on Wednesday.  So we will see how his is doing then.  

Well that's about it for this week.  Also Dallas Stanley will be coming home in about 3 weeks! We've been emailing off and on.  I remember when he left! Time has gone by way fast!  Anyways I gotta get going now. Love you all!

Elder Miles

 

Sept. 5, 2016 Reading, praying & coming to church...

Well what can I say? Another week in Escondido. 
I guess the highlight of this week was that we had MLC (mission leadership council). Where the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders meet with the AP's (ape's) and President and Sister Thomas.  We discussed the new "Standard of Excellence" that we wanted to set for the new vision that President Thomas has for the mission.  We wanted to set something that would stretch us all.  The goal that we all agreed on was one baptism per companionship every month.  There are a few other details that go along with that.  But I am excited to see how the mission changes over the next few months.  It should be pretty sweet.

We taught Jonathan a few times this week.  He is still doing awesome with his Book of Mormon reading and praying and coming to church.  And has a strong testimony.  The only thing that we need to work on now is helping his mom feel comfortable about it.  She feels like he's jumping into it too fast. He is still progressing towards the 17th though and can't wait.  We will be meeting with his mom here in the next few days just so she can get to know us.  We will see how it plays out.

We were able to teach Day for the first time this week.  He's a pretty cool guy.  And he's black haha.  We contacted him in a super nice apartment complex near our institute building.  We aren't necessarily sure on how elect he is.  Or whether he just doesn't understand what we are saying.  He talks with a strong gangster slang so it's even hard for us to understand him too haha. So we are still trying to figure him out.  

Well we gotta get headed out. I'll send some pics of Elder Nokes and I because Mom was complaining to me. Haha jk. Love ya!

Elder Miles

....authors note....I don't believe I've been "complaining" to Elder Miles😝, but in my defense, the only picture we received was this one from a nice member of the YSA Ward where he & Elder Nokes are serving

Christian Wallace from the YSA Ward in San Marcos, CA snapped this photo of our missionary...."I have had the awesome opportunity to be served by this great guy here. We all love having him around... rest assured that Elder Miles is alive & well!"