Elder Miles suggested we all take a few minutes to read or listen to this...
The California Skyline🌇🌆🌅
"This is the hightest point in our misson. The one picture you can see the ocean from where we are from. Vista, Oceanside, Carslbad. Then if we turned to the south you could see all the way to downtown San Diego. We could also see the temple."
P-day Hike
Elder Miles & Nokes took a hike through Elfin Forest with Elders Boden, Allen, Dressman, & Banana 🍌😃👟🌲
This is Johnathan!!!😁 Investigator.... Friend.... Brother
We received a text last night saying, "My name is Johnathan. Your son has been teaching me....we have a lot of fun together... you have a great son he has shown me the importance of the gospel in my life!
Elder Miles...or shall we say Mr. Pose & his "photo shoot"...😂😃
We got these photos sent to us last night. They were taken by Johnathan, their investigator!!😁
Oct. 24, 2016 "...moving in the right direction"
Well to be honest this week was hard. It wasn't bad, but hard.
We weren't able to see anybody. Nobody was home and all of our appointments fell through. Pretty rough. We were able to teach Johnathan after church yesterday. But other than that, nothin'.
Adonis ended up dropping us. He's so dang hard on himself and has a way hard time letting things go. We showed up at his house on Wednesday for a lesson and he didn't answer. So we left and texted him later that day. He said that he wanted to take a break from meeting with us. We will still keep in touch. We just won't push him. Sometimes investigators need a temporary drop to see what it's like without the gospel. And then, if they are elect, they come back even more ready than they were before. I'm sure that will be the case with him!
Johnathan is still going strong! His fellowshipper was able to talk to his step dad this week about him. And Johnathan feels like he is becoming more ok with everything. Still not all the way there yet but moving in the right direction.
We did teach a new guy last night. His name is Douglas. He was a referral from a set of sisters in our zone. They apparently contacted him a few days ago. So we call him to set up a time to meet. And all he gives us are these one word answers. Super weird too. So we show up to his house, which by the way is way out in the middle of nowhere. We didn't even know that anybody even lived out there. So we knock on his door and he answers. And instantly we realize that he's such an awkward chicken. He won't even look at us haha. So he comes out of his house and closes his door behind him, and in my mind I'm thinking, "Alright, what are we getting ourselves into?" And again, he is only giving us one word answers. "Soooo, whats up man?"..."Nothin." haha, "What have you been up to lately?"... "Just reading the Bible." "Sweet man...well what made you want us to come and teach you?"... "Jesus." "Cool man haha. Well would it be alright if we went inside?"... "Yeah." haha so it was just super weird. So we went in. The member we brought with us was able to share some stories and stuff and eventually he opened up a little bit. He is still pretty weird. But seems sincere. He wants to join a church. So we are still trying to figure out if he's completely accountable. We have another appointment for Wednesday. So we will see.
Well thats about it for this week. Because of halloween we are going to go find some "haunted" places in our zone. We are going to this forest today that apparently has wild children that live there haha. Should be fun. I will send pics of that later today.
Love,
Elder Miles
Can he lift it??!! YES HE CAN!!!🎃💪
Elder Miles thought for sure this pumpkin weighed AT LEAST 170 LBS!!😄🎃😄
Oct. 17, 2016 Pues pues pues, que tenemos aqui?
I had a funny experience this morning. So we went and played soccer with all of the elders in our zone. And we ended up having to hop a few fences to get into the place where we wanted to play. It was an arena field. Meaning it had like walls and stuff. The size of an indoor field. We played for about an hour and a half, then this guy came and told us we had to leave. He was a pretty nice guy. Then asked us if we love soccer. We all said that we liked it. And he laughed and said, "Yeah, I grew up in Argentina. And I remember breaking into fields to play as well. I love soccer. But you still have to leave." Haha so that was pretty funny.
Jonathan: His mom said that she doesn't care if he get's baptized! But then his step dad said no. So we need to call President Thomas to see what the rules are. Because we can probably get his mom's signature to allow him to be baptized. So we will see. Our bishop gave him an assignment to help with the FHE committee also. He's basically an active non member.
Adonis: He has been slowly progressing. We are still working with him with his past and stuff. He was doubting himself. And struggling to have patience with God. But church was good for him. Some of the things that were said meant a lot to him. We wil see how he is doing on wednesday.
We found a few more people to teach this week as well. But we haven't been able to contact them after our first lessons. So we don't know what is going on with them. We will keep trying though. We assume some of them are just busy with work and school.
Well that's about it this week! Love you all!
Elder Ethan Miles
Thanks Jeana Skinner for sending these!!
It's so fun to get random messages with photos!! Jeana Skinner took a photo of Elder Miles doing some serious pumpkin carving!!🎃🎃🎃 Elder Miles & Elder Nokes we're also able to do a family history video with her help & it is hilarious!! I'll try to move it to the blog...
Welcome Escondido Zone🎃👻
Our Zone Training Meeting decorations. President and Sister Thomas said that they were very impressed haha. So we gave ourselves a pat on the back.🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻
Oct. 11, 2016 "We need to do things that are going to stretch ourselves..."
Well not a whole lot happened this week. It was kind of slow. But it was good none the less.
Updates on Johnathan. His mom doesn't really talk to him at all. And doesn't respond to anything via phone. So we still haven't got an OK for baptism. But he is still doing very well.
Adonis. I think I mentioned him last week. The really excited guy. He is way cool. He is pretty hard on himself because of his past. So far he has also had a pretty tough life, with friends and family. We met with him twice this week and both times we went pretty deeply into repentance and shared some good videos with him. About forgiving himself and others. They are on mormonchannel.org if you want to check them out. "The Savior Wants to Forgive," and "Step 6" in the 12 steps to change program. We gave him the 12 steps to change booklet and he is starting that as well. He truly has a desire and its awesome to see that.
This week we had Zone Training Meeting. It went super good! For our training we focused on setting goals. We looked over our numbers for our zone and saw that they have been flat. Which is good because we aren't going down. But we aren't going up. So we talked and came to the agreement that when we set goals for our Key Indicators (weekly and daily numbers that we set for our area) they often rely on the agency of our investigators and other non-members and members. There isn't a whole lot that we can individually do to achieve them except work hard. Which is discouraging when we don't hit them. So we came to the conclusion that we need to do things that are going to stretch ourselves. By finding the things we each struggle with individually. And not just service concerns. Like waking up on time. Or not studying. Or not talking to everyone. We wanted the root problem that caused us to do those things. Examples: homesickness, thinking about girls/guys too much, not getting along with your companion. And even those things can be caused by other things. But we wanted to find the root problem. We saw great success come from it.
Anyways my laptop is about to die so I gotta get running. But I love you all and glad to hear everything is going great!
Elder Miles
Zone Training Meeting
Oct 3, 2016 "Because missionary work is great, and fun, and brings the spirit into your lives"
Man oh man what a great week! Well I remember it being great. But I don't remember what all happened haha. Gosh there was so much. Ok
First off. FHE on Monday. Super solid. It started off with a spiritual thought by the sisters in our ward. Then once they finished, Jonathan raised his hand and said that he had something to say. So he got up in front of the whole ward and gave his own spiritual thought. He shared the same scripture that he texted us last week and bore his testimony. He really surprised us. Then bishop said that he probably reads the Book of Mormon more than anybody in the ward. Which is probably true knowing that he reads about and hour to and hour and a half every day. This sunday we will be fasting for his mom to soften her heart.
Then we ended up wrecking everybody in 4 square! I haven't played that game since like elementary school. It is way fun.
Also our Ward Mission Leader, Chris Sanches, is a DJ/Producer for music. And he is really good. He threw together elder hollands talk from april conference with one of his EDM style songs.
Wayyyyyyyyy cool! It was a pump up for conference this last weekend and he did a good job doing it.
Then we met this new guy named Adonis. He is 19 and very energetic. It was funny. When we began our lesson with him he was just saying, "Yes yes yes yes yes yes yeah yeah yes yes yeah yeah yeah yeah yes yes yes yes yes!" Haha he was super stoked about everything. We have another lesson with him this week.
We went on a hike this morning and almost fell off of a 20 ft cliff with Elder Quinney on my shoulders. That was scary haha. Then almost kicked a coyote in the face. But it was too fast. It was a big one too. Then we went and got doughnuts after. They were pretty good.
General Conference was "steezy" and Elder Nokes and I like to say. A word we made up. I really liked Elder Oaks and Anderson's talks on missionary work. Y'all should re-read them. Because missionary work is great, and fun, and brings the spirit into your lives. Think of it this way. You have a general (God). And he gives us weapons. There are different levels in the battle field, and we all are familiar with the term "front lines" which means you are face to face with the enemy. Hand to hand combat. If you are a medic or some other guy that just runs around behind the lines he isn't going to give you very big weapons. Maybe a pistol or maybe even just a knife. But if you are on the front lines, he will give you his biggest, best, most powerful weapons so that you will be protected and feel confident. Being on the front lines here in the world is doing missionary work! Reading your scriptures will bring you the spirit. Saying your prayers will bring you the spirit. Going to church will bring you the spirit. But doing missionary work will bring the spirit even more than all of those combined. Return missionaries think this all the time, "Why don't I feel the spirit like I used to on my mission? I say my prayers, go to church, read my scriptures, fulfill my calling. What is it?" It's because they aren't doing missionary work! They aren't on the front lines of taking the devil out of people and shooting them in the heart with the HOLY GHOST!!!!!! So just saying, if you want the spirit all the time. Always be looking for opportunities to share the gospel. And God will give you his most powerful weapons. I can promise that.
Well I'm gonna get running right now but I love you all!
Elder Miles
Love the surprise messages out of the blue!!
A member sent these photos this past week of Elder Miles, Elder Nokes & the Sisters...
"I manage a senior community and all my lady residents wanted to take pictures with them."
A familiar face😄....
Elder Miles went to school with Abby Edmunds. She is staying with family in Carlsbad & has been going on splits with the Sister missionaries. When they found out Abby was from the same area as Elder Miles they were able to get permission to meet for lunch!!
Old comp Elder Trounce was also there😆
