Elders Miles, Raddon, Groesbeck & Higginson all entered the Provo MTC on July 15, 2015 to report to the California, Carlsbad Mission. They knew their friendships that began there were definitely going to last a lifetime.
Servants of the Lord💓😍💓
WE WILL BE THE LORD'S MISSIONARIES
TO BRING THE WORLD HIS TRUTH!!!!
We have been born, as Nephi of old,
To goodly parents who love the Lord.
We have been taught, and we understand,
That we must do as the Lord commands.
We have been taught, and we understand,
That we must do as the Lord commands.
We have been saved for these latter days
To build the kingdom in righteous ways.
We hear the words our prophet declares:
“Let each who’s worthy go forth and share.”
We hear the words our prophet declares:
“Let each who’s worthy go forth and share.”
We know his plan, and we will prepare,
Increase our knowledge through study and prayer.
Daily we’ll learn until we are called
To take the gospel to all the world.
Increase our knowledge through study and prayer.
Daily we’ll learn until we are called
To take the gospel to all the world.
We are as the army of Helaman.
We have been taught in our youth.
And we will be the Lord’s missionaries
To bring the world his truth.
We have been taught in our youth.
And we will be the Lord’s missionaries
To bring the world his truth.
Received a random text from a friendly stranger😍
It said, "Happy 4th! See you in 2 weeks!!!"
Ahhhh!!! I cannot wait to hug this boy!!!💞
I love surprises!!😃
This photo was posted on the mission page & a friend shared it with me, thanks Jeanette Raddon!!👍
"Snapped a picture of Elder Miles and Elder Lundquist while serving in the Escondido Hills ward. If you know their moms, please share with them, thanks!"
Photo courtesy of Greg Nielsen😊
July 3, 2017 ...2 WEEKS TO GO!!😄👍
Well, two weeks to go. I still can't believe all the stuff that's going on back home! Way too many people getting married without me!
This week was pretty good. Mainly because we were able to go to the temple. I'm still waiting to get pictures from Trent Halgren that he took of us. But I do have some of my own I can send in the meantime. It has been way to long since I've been to the temple. Over 9 months. It was a great experience. And I get to go back in two weeks again!
All of the people that we have been trying to work with were out of town this week or were busy with other things. And will be for most of this week as well. But we have been able to stay in contact via text. Things are going well with JLo and with Jamel. Actually, I don't remember if I told you guys about him. He's a black guy that we played basketball with. We met with him on Monday, and he is super solid and has sincere questions. We didn't really follow a set lesson plan, but we were able to answer his questions by teaching different points of the restoration. It was more of a discussion than lesson. Which is how it's supposed to be. It was really good. But he is up in the bay area for the 4th. We won't see him for about a week.
This week I have my exit interview with President. Kinda weird. But other than that, nothing is really set. Glad to hear that everyone is doing good back home! Talk to ya next week
Elder Miles
......The sisters wanted me to take a pic of them, and I felt like I should be in the picture too.
June 26, 2017. 💞3 WEEKS LEFT!!💞
Well I am down to 3 weeks. And everybody in my ward is doing a great job of reminding me. That's pretty much all they want to talk about. So that kinda sucks. But it's the truth, time keeps flying by and there's nothing I can do about it.
This week the only thing that is really notable is that we taught Jennifer again. She has been up in Utah visiting the U's campus apparently. She still want's to be baptized and everything. We came up with a plan to make sure that she's ready. We are still trying to figure out a date. It will most likely be after I come home. She said that it could be on the 29th, which would be awesome because we will be back visiting by then. So we will see.
We get to go to the temple tomorrow. Kinda exciting, since I haven't been in over six months. Been a long time coming. I think this week will go by super fast because we have that, then district meeting on wednesday, then exchanges on thursday, and friday, then saturday, then church on sunday. Busy weeks are always the fastest.
There was a quote I read this week that I thought was really cool and applies to everyone in every situation. It's by Jimmy Johnson "The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra." So this week, work a little harder, serve a little more, and smile a little bigger. Hope everyone has a good week!
Elder Ethan Miles
Bitter sweet changes to come!😄😪
This group will be exiting the California, Carlsbad Mission in the next few weeks!
Love these group messages we get!!💞
"Your sons were over at our house helping build a log cabin, we had a great time!"
June 12, 2017 Great week!!
This week was actually really good! We saw a lot of cool things happen which led to us finding a part member family with 3 non members that want to be baptized.
We made a visit this week to a really old guy that just moved into our ward named Lyle Miller. He is 91 years old. And fought in WWII. He has been losing circulation to his left leg from the knee down. His foot is basically black now. So I'm pretty sure he went into surgery today. But while we were visiting him he told us a ton of crazy stories about the war. How he would go out after battles and find wounded on both sides. And that how a lot of the time, the Americans would shoot the Nazis or whoever they were fighting. But he never shot one person. He would take them prisoner and they would take care of them and stuff. He also baptized a ton of people. Another cool thing is that he was best friends with General George Patton. He hung out with him all the time and was a paw bearer at his funeral after his accident in Heidelberg, Germany. Crazy!
We also met a semi active guy in our ward named Michael Poolman. Who was one of the main construction managers for the Bible videos, and the new temple videos. Both were filmed in Utah right outside of Nephi. That was cool. He came to church yesterday.
Then we ran into that part member family. They aren't married. So we gotta work on that. But he has a son that is 7 that turns 8 next month. She is interested and wants to be baptized, and also has a daughter that is 8 and turns 9 this week. Then they both have a baby that is a month old. They all came to church yesteday and we have a lesson with them this friday. I feel like they have been prepared.
Well that's about it for this week. 5 weeks left and can't wait to see what can come of it. Glad to hear that things are going awesome back home! Cya
Elder Ethan Miles
We made a visit this week to a really old guy that just moved into our ward named Lyle Miller. He is 91 years old. And fought in WWII. He has been losing circulation to his left leg from the knee down. His foot is basically black now. So I'm pretty sure he went into surgery today. But while we were visiting him he told us a ton of crazy stories about the war. How he would go out after battles and find wounded on both sides. And that how a lot of the time, the Americans would shoot the Nazis or whoever they were fighting. But he never shot one person. He would take them prisoner and they would take care of them and stuff. He also baptized a ton of people. Another cool thing is that he was best friends with General George Patton. He hung out with him all the time and was a paw bearer at his funeral after his accident in Heidelberg, Germany. Crazy!
We also met a semi active guy in our ward named Michael Poolman. Who was one of the main construction managers for the Bible videos, and the new temple videos. Both were filmed in Utah right outside of Nephi. That was cool. He came to church yesterday.
Then we ran into that part member family. They aren't married. So we gotta work on that. But he has a son that is 7 that turns 8 next month. She is interested and wants to be baptized, and also has a daughter that is 8 and turns 9 this week. Then they both have a baby that is a month old. They all came to church yesteday and we have a lesson with them this friday. I feel like they have been prepared.
Well that's about it for this week. 5 weeks left and can't wait to see what can come of it. Glad to hear that things are going awesome back home! Cya
Elder Ethan Miles
June 5, 2017
Hey Y'all!
Well today marks the first day of my last transfer. Kinda crazy how fast time is going by!
This week was pretty much same old same old. We still haven't been able to meet with Jennifer. We keep texting and calling the family that she stays with on the weekends and they aren't giving us any updates on what's going on. It's sorta frustrating that we can't really do anything at this point.
We did meet with the Best family this week. They are doing good. We talked a little about him gettting the lessons and working towards being baptized. He said that he would like to give it a try. The only thing is that they won't be able to meet for another two weeks. So we won't really see anything happen with that for a little while.
We aren't really able to find anyone through our own efforts. I am a strong believer that God has to trust the ward before he will let people start getting baptized. And I feel just because of the missionaries in the past, the members have a bad taste of missionary work. So mostly what we are doing is visiting members to get them on the same page. And we get have some awkward visits, even with active members. Just them basically saying they don't want anything to do with us. And I think that I've learned one thing from all of this. And from my mission as a whole. Usually missionaries come back home and say that they want to be like the people they served because of what they were taught by them. And have the same characteristics they have. But I am the complete opposite. I don't want to be anything like the people here. They are just way too selfish and only have the desire to help themselves. It's pretty ridiculous sometimes. So I am grateful that I have had that experience.
I gotta get running now, I might be able to send some pics a little later on in the day.
Hope you all have a good week.
Well today marks the first day of my last transfer. Kinda crazy how fast time is going by!
This week was pretty much same old same old. We still haven't been able to meet with Jennifer. We keep texting and calling the family that she stays with on the weekends and they aren't giving us any updates on what's going on. It's sorta frustrating that we can't really do anything at this point.
We did meet with the Best family this week. They are doing good. We talked a little about him gettting the lessons and working towards being baptized. He said that he would like to give it a try. The only thing is that they won't be able to meet for another two weeks. So we won't really see anything happen with that for a little while.
We aren't really able to find anyone through our own efforts. I am a strong believer that God has to trust the ward before he will let people start getting baptized. And I feel just because of the missionaries in the past, the members have a bad taste of missionary work. So mostly what we are doing is visiting members to get them on the same page. And we get have some awkward visits, even with active members. Just them basically saying they don't want anything to do with us. And I think that I've learned one thing from all of this. And from my mission as a whole. Usually missionaries come back home and say that they want to be like the people they served because of what they were taught by them. And have the same characteristics they have. But I am the complete opposite. I don't want to be anything like the people here. They are just way too selfish and only have the desire to help themselves. It's pretty ridiculous sometimes. So I am grateful that I have had that experience.
I gotta get running now, I might be able to send some pics a little later on in the day.
Hope you all have a good week.
Ice cream🍦 ice cream 🍦we all scream for ICE CREAM🍦
The Mercier Family lives in one of Elder Miles' first areas. They are amazing & take such good care of the missionaries Sister Mercier has become the ICE CREAM lady for these elders!! Whenever she's close by she makes sure to treat our boy & his companion.
We are so grateful for the wonderful families in the California Carlsbad Mission!!
May 30, 2017 Yay!!! A letter!!....finally:) the threat for no more ice cream worked apparently...hee hee
Hello all!
I apologize for not writing the last two weeks! Last week I literally forgot. And I need to this week because Sister Mercier said she wouldn't get me ice cream anymore if I didn't write...
Not a ton has changed since last time though. We haven't been able to meet with J Lo for about 3 weeks now. So we aren't exactly sure what is going on there. The family that is fellowshipping her has been out of town so we haven't been able to talk to them. I hope things are going ok for her.
We have made contact with a really promising Part-Member family though! Their last name is Best. And the husband is a non member. He was really open to us. We mainly just talked about random stuff. Not really about the gospel. So when we visit them this week we will focus more on that. But I do think that he is super solid.
Elder Lundquist and I are doing great. He makes me trunky talking about me going home and stuff haha. So we are working on that haha.
Well today we are busy so I am going to have to get going now. Hope you all have a good week!
Elder Miles
I apologize for not writing the last two weeks! Last week I literally forgot. And I need to this week because Sister Mercier said she wouldn't get me ice cream anymore if I didn't write...
Not a ton has changed since last time though. We haven't been able to meet with J Lo for about 3 weeks now. So we aren't exactly sure what is going on there. The family that is fellowshipping her has been out of town so we haven't been able to talk to them. I hope things are going ok for her.
We have made contact with a really promising Part-Member family though! Their last name is Best. And the husband is a non member. He was really open to us. We mainly just talked about random stuff. Not really about the gospel. So when we visit them this week we will focus more on that. But I do think that he is super solid.
Elder Lundquist and I are doing great. He makes me trunky talking about me going home and stuff haha. So we are working on that haha.
Well today we are busy so I am going to have to get going now. Hope you all have a good week!
Elder Miles
Caves, Fish🐟 & Squirrels...
This was a cave that the elders went down last week. We probably made it 40 ft down before it got too tight to squeeze through rocks.
Me and elder Yeck fishin for some bass. They were hitting hard!! The females had started making nests and were hitting anything that came near them....
Funny story about fishing. So there were all of the these ground squirrels, they were everywhere. And I assume that it was the males doing this, but they would go and attack the younger squirrels & one of them ended up breaking both back legs of one of them. We watched this happen & started walking toward the injured squirrel to kill it to put it out of suffering. And when we got about 5 feet away a HUGE hawk swooped in and grabbed the squirrel and flew off hahahahaha. It literally went maybe a foot over my head. Scared the crap out of me! I wish we got it on camera. It then flew off and ate the squirrel...
May 8, 2017 See ya on Sunday!!😄😍💞
Fam!
Sorry I wasn't able to write a letter last week. Things got busy and I didn't get the time. I will be at my bishops on Sunday to skype. I will have Sister Jacox call mom to set everything up.
The last two weeks have flown by way fast. We've basically just been trying to figure the area out and meet the members. The missionaries that have served here over the last year haven't been very impressive. Our ward mission leader had requested that the area be white washed with two new missionaries to get the work started up again. So when he found out we came in he was pretty excited.
We currently have one investigator named Jennifer Lopez. Haha yeah I know. She's 17 and is a friend of one of the daughters of the Mitchell family in our ward. She has had some lessons with the missionaries before. Her parents are a traditional mexican catholic family. And they haven't been very supportive of her getting baptized until she's 18. Sound familiar??? She turns 18 in August but graduates high school this month & will be attending the U of U in the fall. She loves the mormon culture. And wants to be baptized. She just needs to be more open with her parents about it. Sister Mitchell is going to talk to her mom about everything because they are good friends and have talked about it before. Her birthday is about 2 weeks before she would head to school, and we feel like it would be good to be baptized a few months earlier to get into the habits that you need to have as an active member of the church. We have taught the Restoration and another lesson on baptism. Comparing the Book of Mormon to the Bible and their doctrine concerning it. She's super elect and prepared. It will happen, just a matter of time.
We have met some cool members though. It's a gold mine that hasn't been cracked in about a year. Hopefully some good stuff happens!
I gotta get running now. See ya on Sunday!!
Love y'all
Elder Ethan Miles
Today we went ice skating as a zone! Super fun and nobody split their eyebrow open this time. So I would say that it was a success.
This gets its own post all by itself because it made me cry😭😄
For Elder Miles' birthday we called a local pizza place & had🍕BIRTHDAY PIZZA🍕 delivered to the elders. When sweet Sister Rawlins from the ward in Murrieta confirmed that they got it ok she also sent me this message & I definitely teared up😢😌
This is from Elder Miles -
"Just tell her that I love her and miss her and thank you for dinner!"❤😊
*Stake Conference*
The members in the different areas where Elder Miles has served have been absolutely amazing!! Sister Rawlins from Murrieta sent these photos & a few messages over Easter weekend😊...
"I am smiling watching your son while his Mission President is speaking in our adult session of Stake Conference. Elder Miles has gotten an awesome haircut and is absolutely beaming. : ) Sis. Rawlins"....Maybe the haircut was the angle I was at in the back😂- but he says "Hi!! Awesome Conference this Easter Morn - Happy Easter!"
Elder Figgins, Los Alamos Elders and Elder Miles. : )
April 25, 2017 "Excited to make things happen"
Well, got transferred. Back to Escondido into the Escondido Hills ward. I'm glad I'm out of Murrieta. It was starting to get a little frustrating the way things were working out. My new companion's name is Elder Lundquist. Fresh out yesterday. He's from Pittsburgh. He went to college for a year at BYUI then came out on his mission. He seems pretty prepared and humble. Also ready to learn. It's going to be cool ending my mission training.
The area is super ghetto. We are in the heart of Escondido. But we also cover a pretty wealthy area up in the hills north of Escondido. We met with our Ward Mission Leader last night and he is super cool. He served in Sydney, Australia in 2004. So he's pretty young, and has a young family. But is super missionary minded. He said that the missionaries in the past haven't really been very impressive, and he's excited to have two missionaries that actually want to work haha. We could tell that when we walked into our apartment and it was absolutely disgusting! We will be spending some time cleaning over the next few days. He also said that there is a lot of potential in the ward. I'm excited to make things happen.
I don't have any more time, we have to go get him a bike and some other things, but there should be a lot more next week. Love you all!
Elder Ethan Miles
Elder Miles & new companion Elder Lundquist are back in the stompin' grounds of "old buddy" Johnathan so they had to meet for a cool treat:)
April 21, 2017 HapPy BiRtHdAy ELDER MILES!!!🎂💞🎉
Some of my favorite smiles of our missionary😃 Elder Miles is officially out of teenage-hood! This is his last birthday serving in the California Carlsbad Mission....but don't worry Californian friends, "he'll be back"!!😉 Happy 20th bud!!🎂🎉 We love you!!💞
Easter Feast!!
A sweet ward member sent a note along with the photos...
"We had fun with him today! He asked me to send you a picture of the bunny cake. It's not my best, thankfully missionaries are easy to please!😃 They are great young men! We weren't planning on having company for dinner, but we were glad we were asked to feed them. Our oldest has been serving for almost 5 months, so having the missionaries in our home made having Easter without her a little easier. "
Out to dinner!!🍜😋
The Mercier Family lives in one of the wards where Elder Miles was serving in Vista last year. They were coming through town & wanted to treat the Elders to dinner!! Absolutely love all these sweet members that take such good care of our missionaries!!💞😍
April 17, 2017 Happy Easter!!
Well this week was CRAZY!
I had to take 2 missionaries to the hospital in the middle of the night. One was throwing up blood and couldn't even stand up by himself. We got a call at 1 am to come get him. It was pretty scary. Then the other guy was having stomach problems all day and at like 3 in the morning the next night our mission president called us and told us to go pick that elder up and take him to the hopital where they found that his appendix was about to burst. And they immediately took him into surgery. I stayed at the hospital the whole night while Elder Figgins and the other companion went home and got some sleep. It was weird being all by myself. Kind of relaxing though haha.
Then last night I was up late writing in my journal. It was probably like 11:30. Somebody knocked on our door. It freaked me out because it was super loud. So I like tipi-toed over to the door and looked through the peep hole and didn't see anyone. I was like, "Somebody is here to kill us." Elder Figgins was asleep, so I went to wake him up, but then he just got mad. Then there was another knock. A lot softer this time. So I went over and looked through the peep hole again. Nobody. So I opened the door and this chick jumps out from around the corner and scares me. I end up yelling a word that isn't very good haha. Then she asked if she could borrow a phone charger. And I told her that we only have one for our phone. And she didn't believe me so she was trying to walk in. But trying to be seductive at the same time. I've seen her before in our complex, and she is always staring at us. So I knew she really didn't want the phone charger. I ended up pushing her out of the door and locking it. Then she left. It was freaking weird. Satan man. He'll do anything.
We had a lot of meetings this week as well and didn't really get any time to proselyte. But with the time we did have we were able to find a potential investigator from the family ward we cover. His name is Malcomb. He has a family but we only talked to him and were able to set up a lesson for Wednesday afternoon. Seem's like a good guy. He knows members in our ward, and in the Winchester ward. We will see how it goes.
That's about it for this week. Happy Easter!! Talk to ya later
Elder Ethan Miles
Zone Conference - Elder Miles is surrounded by 3 of his companions he's served with😃
Finally, a photo with the new comp!!😆
Thank goodness for great members who take cute pictures!!😃👍 We got this tonight with a sweet message...
"They are Awesome Elders!!! I had to send them to In/Out - much rather visit - but both my girls are performing in a concert and I signed up a month ago not realizing - and my husband is stuck in traffic - they tell me their favorite milkshake is chocolate so they are having double double meals with milkshakes - they are happy - but next time we will have lots of veggies!!! My son is also on a mission so I like to have the elders over!!! The Spirit just flows from them!!! They are a blessing!!!:)"
Elder Miles with "not so new" new companion Elder Figgins!! This is just the first photo we've seen of them together!😂
April 10, 2017 "Looking forward to this week. Hoping for some miracles!"
Well we just got done giving a blessing to a recent convert named Angel. She is super cool. She was baptized last September. Her dad is Stephen J. Bronder, the Commander Master Chief of the Sasebo Naval Base in Japan. He is at the highest rank you can get in the Navy. And he is anti against the church. He sent her an "easter" letter this week and she felt like she needed a blessing. He is constantly giving her crap.
This week we recieved a text from Erika saying that she isn't really wanting to continue to meet with us until her friend, Darby, comes back from school in the summer. It's a bummer but to be honest, it's probably best, because by then she will be moved out from her dad's house and able to make a decision without any influence. I will be out of the area but its ok.
For my birthday, if it's easier, everyone can just send money. Rather than spending $15 on stuff, then another $15 to ship, you can just mail $30 haha. Whatever is easier. And I can buy what I need to. Just an idea.
Looking forward for this week. Hoping for some miracles! I gotta get running now.
Elder Ethan Miles
April 3, 2017 Ears to Hear...
Well it's official, my last General Conference is over. It's a bitter sweet feeling. But at least it was a super good one. I felt that everything was directed to me and the questions I had. It gave me motivation to finish strong! It was very much needed. This one was also special because I went into it with different questions. Not just doctrinal, but questions on what I need to do to stay spiritually alive when I do eventually come home. President Thomas challenged us to do so. I am so grateful to have living prophets and apostles! We, as members of the church don't realized how important it is for us. And we take it for granted. There are literally over 30,000 christian denominations (not counting other religions like Muslim, or Hindu) that think that there are no more prophets. Or that revelation from God has ceased! And they are ok with it.
When I look at it that way it makes me feel like the sons of Mosiah when they would "tremble" because the people didn't know the truth. Mosiah 28:3, "Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human should should perish; yea, even the very thought that any should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and to tremble."
We need to take what the prophets say to heart and have "ears to hear" (Matt 11:15) just as Christ's apostles did. When this scripture talks about hearing, it isn't just to listen. The context that this is used in is to hear to build faith. As taught in Romans 10:17, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of god." And when we read James 2:17, we learn that, "Even so faith, without works, is dead." (For more explanation read versus 14-26) So if we are going to have our faith built at all by listening to general conference, we need to "hear" or listen with the intent to act. If not, it will profit us nothing, and we will have listened in vain.
Mosiah 2:33,36 says, "33 For behold, there is a wo pronounced upon him who listeth to obey that spirit; for if he listeth to obey him, and remaineth and dieth in his sins, the same drinketh damnation to his own soul; for he receiveth for his wages an everlasting punishment, having transgressed the law of God contrary to his own knowledge."
36 And now, I say unto you, my brethren, that after ye have known and have been taught all these things, if ye should transgress and go contrary to that which has been spoken, that ye do withdraw yourselves from the Spirit of the Lord, that it may have no place in you to guide you in wisdom’s paths that ye may be blessed, prospered, and preserved—"
And then King Benjamin goes on to say in verse 41, "And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it."
Let us all take King Benjamin's advice and consider how blessed the people are that keep the commandments given to them by the prophets. I challenge all of you to do so. I know that we will be blessed in all things, that God will give us the strength to endure (not take away) all of the trials that we face in this mortal life. And he has given us prophets for this very reason. And I am personally grateful for them.
I am out of time, but I am glad to hear from everyone and hope this next week is awesome!
Elder Ethan Miles
March 27, 2017 Struggling to finding them...
Well first off I want to say congrats to Durrant and Christian for their engagements. It's super weird to hear about all the things that are happening back home, and how drastic things will have changed by the time I get back. I mean Gavin is like what, 6' 3" now???? What the heck.
As for me this week, we weren't able to meet with any investigators. Nobody responded to texts or calls or door knocks. Even when they were home. Soooo not much more we could do. Murrieta is hard to work. Nobody walks outside, they all commute to work, so tracting during the day doesn't go anywhere. And nobody is interested at night haha. So we are trying to find some new creative ways to find people. It's just a struggle finding them.
This morning we went fishing with the Temecula zone leaders. Didn't catch anything. The pond we went to gets hit pretty hard, and it's catch and release only, so the fish are pretty smart. We are going to try another lake in a few weeks that is more promising.
That's about it for this week. Hopefully this next one is better! Hope you all have a super awesome week! Love you
Elder Ethan Miles
March 20, 2017 Service, Snakes🐍 & Beehives🐝,..oh my!!
Well it was a good first week of the transfer. Elder Figgins and I get along pretty well. He is 18 and still acts like he's right out of high school though haha. I wonder if I was like that at one point. Probably not haha. Just kidding I probably was. But he is a good guy, and realizes he still has a lot to learn.
This week we had a few St. Patrick's day parties. The best one was probably with the ysa where there were 5 non members there. 4 of which are willing to sit down and learn a little about the church. I don't remember all of their names right now. But I have them written in my planner. We are going to try to get in contact with them this week.
We still haven't been able to meet with Erika. But we still aren't giving up. We talked to her on the phone and she still seems hopeful. It's just hard when her dad isn't giving in at all.
No contact with Melissa this week.
I don't remember if I told you this, but every week on Thursday we go do service for a woman named Sister Demkey. She has a non profit horse ranch for kids with disabilities to ride her horses. But she is getting old, so we go up every week and scoop horse poop for her and fix anything else that is needed. She lives about 30 minutes into some hills west of Murrieta in the Murrieta Hills ward. We decided that we would do some exploring around her property while we were taking a break and I stepped right on a bee's nest. And when I realized it I was like, "Oh freak!" So I took off (which is probably the wrong thing to do) sprinting away, and didn't even get stung. There were thousands of bees coming out when I stepped on it. Pretty awesome! Then we found a 3 1/2 foot snake. Cool stuff. And of course I had to take a cool picture with it.
I gotta get going. Hope you all have a good week!
Elder Miles
Another dinner in a members home!!
Monkey in the Middle or a missionary "sandwich"😄 These missionaries are enjoying being with the good members of the ward where they're serving ....especially when they're being fed dinner😉
Elder Miles, Elder Nokes & Elder Wilson
March 13, 2017 Love all of you!
Ok so a brief summary of this week. Not too bad. We had a lesson with Erika on Wednesday and it was awesome! We finished teaching her the Restoration and she believes it. But we still commited her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. She did and knows that it's true and wants to be baptized. She told her dad, and he was mad.... so, we are going to give it a week or two and have the Stake President talk to him,... because he volunteered. Her dad would be open to it as well, that's at least what Erika told us. So we will be waiting to see what happens.
We haven't met with Melissa at all this week, she hasn't been responding to texts or calls, and she hasn't been home at all. So not sure what's going on with her or if she's even wanting to take the lessons anymore.
Transfers are tomorrow, and Elder Wilson is getting transfered to a ward in Murrieta. So not too far. My new companion is Elder Figgins. He has been out for 7 1/2 months. And that is all I know about him. Never served around him or anything. But I have heard good things. So it should be good.
That's about it for this week. Looking forward to it! Love all of you! Send some pictures, I wanna SEE what's going on back home haha.
Elder Ethan Miles
Thank goodness for amazing members!!
Received this photo from a wonderful family that was having our cute missionaries over for dinner💞😊
March 6, 2017 Hello from 75 degrees!!
Hello from 75 degrees and no clouds! It just makes me feel good to hear about how cold the weather is back home and I get to walk around in short sleeve shirts all day. And get tan haha.
This week on Tuesday we had to drive a companionship down to Vista to meet with President Thomas. It is a missionary that goes home in 2 transfers and his greenie. This greenie is on his second trainer, his first one requested to be trasferred 3 weeks into last transfer. And now this one is requesting it as well because this greenie is super tough. One thing that I would advise everyone, is that 18 is not the new 19. Just because the new age to leave on a mission is 18, if you aren't ready to go, then wait until you are. Because if you leave before that point, you will waste months if not more trying to either mature, gain a testimony, or even have a desire to be there. Serving a mission is not easy at all. And if you don't do the necessary things to prepare for it, it will walk all over you. There are way too many missionaries that don't do these things and end up going home, and won't be able to come back out. Now think if they would have waited another year or even two if necessary, and experience being away from home and taking care of themselves, they would have served an honorable mission. This week we had 7 missionaries ranging from 3 - 9 months go home because of this exact cause. And likely more in the coming weeks.
We picked up a new investigator this week! Her name is Melissa. She grew up surrounded by members of the church and was even a brides maid at a wedding a few weeks ago for a member of the church. She doesn't have any religious background. She was contacted by the missionaries in the Winchester ward and they passed her off to us because she is YSA aged. She is pretty cool, and will probably take a little longer to progress. So we will see how it goes.
On Friday we had MLC which was really good. We weren't given any training. It was a team building meeting. We did a lot of activities and it was super fun.
Well I gotta get running right now, but it was good to hear from you all! Wish you all a good week!
Elder Ethan Miles
P.S. I fixed my camera. I threw it at the ground and it started to work again
Funny story about these pictures....
We couldn't see them until we were done taking them. Soooooo our heads are cut off! But you get the point. We were having fun!
February 27, 2017 We all can improve:)
Well this week was pretty good. We were pretty busy teaching lessons to members in both of our wards. And we even picked up an investigator this week. Mom and Papa already know about her. Her name is Erika and she is friends with a girl named Darby Conners. She is the daughter of one of the bishops in the stake and returned from her mission not too long ago. Erika is super solid. We only taught her the first 3 points of the restoration just to keep it simple. But she had a lot of sincere questions about God and in her closing prayer she said that she is excited to continue learning more. Darby will be a really good friend to help fellowship into the church. If she stays in good contact there is no doubt that Erika will get baptized. She's ready. We wont be able to meet with her for the next few weeks because she will be out of town.
This week we will have Mission Leadership Conference. We were asked to study this article from President Spencer W. Kimball. https://www.lds.org/ensign/1979/08/jesus-the-perfect-leader?lang=eng
I would encourage you all to read this as well because we all can improve on our leadership skills. For real though that's about it for this week. Love you all!
Elder Ethan Miles
February 21, 2017 Hopefully this week will be better..we have a lot of lessons set up with members...
Well there wasn't a whole lot that happened this week. We spent most of the week driving around the mission going to zone conferences doing car inspections. Then we had our own zone conference. So that took up most of the week. Which sucks because we didn't really have any time to work in our area. And I'm sick of it. With all of the administrative things that we are asked to do as Zone Leaders it feels like we never have any time to actually work. Especially this transfer, but as well as the last 4 transfers. I feel like I haven't even been a missionary because I'm not doing what missionaries do. So I think I am going to ask president to release me at the end of this transfer and be put into a full time bike area. I just want to bike all day and it doesn't matter if I'm not teaching lessons, I am at least outside, sweating, and talking to every person I get the chance to. Right now at the end of the night I go inside and I can still smell my deodorant just as strong as when we leave in the morning. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it means I am not really working hard. And it's making me super stressed out. I only have about 4 1/2 months left, and I am not going to spend it driving around in a car. I'm so sick of it. I feel like I will be able to make more of an impact if I'm able to do that.
That's cool to hear that Mark Dressman is working for Uncle Dave! I was his ZL for 3 months in Escondido. He was companions with Elder Nokes right before I got there. So that's why he taught Johnathan. He's a super good guy and I respect him a lot. Maybe Uncle Dave could hook me up for a couple months when I get back? Haha I don't know if it would work with commuting and stuff but maybe it could work out haha?
Hopefully this week will be better. We don't have as many meetings and we have a lot of lessons set up with members. We have interviews with President Thomas on Wednesday so I will have a good talk with him about what I'm feeling. It should be good. Well I gotta get running now. We are going mini golfing with one of the districts in our zone and hit up some batting cages. Should be fun. I love you all!
Elder Ethan Miles
Words of wisdom...& dinner!!😄
So grateful that the Rawlins family had Elder Miles & Elder Wilson over for dinner & sent a photo & some thoughts...(we were, well my Mama Bear kicked in & I was concerned about Elder Miles' experience the previous Sunday with the Stake President) Sister Rawlins said....
"The Elders and we had a long talk about preach my gospel statement that as long as they were doing the very best they could - they could feel peace in what they have done - 'When you have done your very best, you may still experience disappointments, but you will not be disappointed in yourself.' I had no idea why I was saying these things to them - they hadn't and didn't mention anything - now I understand though. I was also telling them about the difference in the preparation of the hearts in different areas. Elder Wilson made the comment - "as long as we go home converted that is the main thing" and I had to say amen. They shared an awesome spiritual thought about obedience to commandments and blessings and then were off to an appointment to teach a family. Elder Miles is strong - we will help keep him buoyed up. : )"
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