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 2017 "MLC" - Missionary Leadership Conference

The "serious" & the "silly"😃

After doing some service we had to have some fun by the cliffs..

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