"Fruit of my Loins".... he's labeled it with the "missionary lingo":)
An elder's trainer is his DAD & as he then becomes a trainer himself he has his own SON, GRANDSON...& so on.
San Diego Temple - SERVICE
Doing some service on the Temple grounds before Elder Nokes transferred. ..Thanks to Johnathan @nitehawk92027 for the photos!
Hanging Christmas lights!!🎄
This photo captures Elder Miles'
boyish grin, a sure favorite....😊
Nov. 28, 2016 "We help people feel the spirit and want to change..."
WELL there is so much that has happened since I have been able to send off an actual email! So I will try to remember what has happened over the last two weeks.
First big thing: November 19th, 2016 I was able to meet with Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve of The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-Day Saints!!! Woah! I shook his hand! It was kind of cool. He talked about a lot of stuff. One thing that he said that most of the missions do around the world baptize just to baptize. But our mission does a really good job at baptizing converts. People are converted to the gospel before they are baptized. And that our retention rates are above average. And we are good at it because we teach repentance. We help people feel the spirit and want to change. Then he told us some things that we can work on. But it was really good.
For Thanksgiving we had two appointments for dinner. The first one was with the Marlors. He is in the bishopric. It was a little different just because there were a lot of people there and we just felt like we didn't really fit into the group. And they barely ate any food. But they wouldn't let us stop eating. Even after they were done they told us to keep eating. Even after we told them we had another dinner. And we were late to it because it took forever to get out of their house. So we show up to our next appointment, and he loads our plates with food. I maybe ate half of it. Barely. Then had to lay on the ground because my stomach hurt, haha. Then I felt like he was shoving pie down my throat. He made it himself and told us we had to finish. Then at 6 we were supposed to leave, but he again wouldn't let us leave. So we just sat there and had small talk until 7. Then we were just exhausted the rest of the night. That was my Thanksgiving experience haha. Kinda rough but I know I won't forget it!
Johnathan is still doing well. Douglas surprisingly came to church two weeks ago. But didn't come this week. Our bishop is a little hesitant for us to keep teaching him, just because he would have to be babysat if he was going to be active. And we can't set him up for failure. So we will see. We dropped Anthony. He doesn't respond to us. And we are still looking for some new people.
So Maycee will hit home with this one. Doc McStuffins, the cartoon of the black girl and she fixes her toys and pretends to be a doctor? The voice of the girl lives in one of the wards in Murrieta. She's a member..... and she's white haha, thought that was kind of funny.
Other than that, not a lot has changed.
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2016-03-0019-being-an-agent-to-act?lang=eng
Thought this video was a good one. Worthy to share. Anyways I will talk to you all next week! SEE YA
Elder Ethan Miles
Elder Miles & Elder Phillips (photo courtesy of @nitehawk92027)
Palomar Mountain
"Picture with the view...You can see the sun reflecting off of the ocean about 30 miles away!!"😮
Also, Elder Miles was excited about being out in nature & properly shows his manners to his new companion... "I saw deer poop!!! It's been a long time. So I picked it up and threw it at Elder Phillips!"
Nov 14, 2016 "The Lord prepares them..."
Well the week was pretty good. Elder Phillips and I get along really well. We don't really have anything in common other than our personalities. But we do have a lot of fun together.
This morning we played football with our zone and the San Marcos zone. It was a blast. We got a lot of athletic greenies this transfer. So we will be trying to get more football in on pdays.
Anthony and Douglas both had no shows at church this week. If either of them don't show any progression we will probably end up dropping them. To allow the Lord to prepare them in his own time. That's something I've learned is that there really isn't anything that I do that help people come closer to Christ. The Lord prepares them in all sorts of different ways, and I just happen to have been GIVEN to harvest. Even though I have had only 1 baptism on my mission, I know that I have done what I can with what I have been given to help in the preparation of all of the people I have taught throughout my mission. And that is enough. Even if I never baptize again, the fruits of my labors will go far beyond what I will see in just these two short years.
We also went down to the temple again on Saturday to finish putting up the lights. They are going to look way good. Not as good as Temple Square, but still good. We will be able to go down and see them at night when our ward goes for FHE! Way excited for that.
Well that's about it for this week. Love ya!
Elder Ethan Miles
Elder Work & Elder Play😄😂😄...new companion Elder Phillips
Nov. 7, 2016 Short & Sweet😊
Well, Elder Nokes is getting transfered. My new companion's name is Elder Phillips. He is from Tampa, Florida. Pretty cool guy. I served around him when I was in Vista the first time. He was there my first two transfers. So I'm excited to be with him.
Sorry I don't have any time to email this week. Our day today is packed because of transfers tomorrow and stuff. So I will give a brief update.
Johnathan: Still the same basically.
Anthony: We met with him this week one time. He invited his girlfriend to take the discussions as well and she accepted. He didn't make it to church yesterday though. So that is what we will focus on with him this week when we meet up with him.
Douglas: We met with him twice this week. We just can't figure out whether or not we should just hand him off to the family ward missionaries. And try to get his family to take the lessons with him. We found out he has autism, so it would be better if he was able to do that. To have the support coming from his family as well.
I watched these videos a few weeks back and thought that they would be good to share with you all! We always need a reminder on Sabbath Day Observance!
Well I love you all. And can't wait to tell you how my first week with my new companion goes!
Love,
Elder Miles
Double Peak Hike....& new bike😆🚲
We had better get Elder Miles a new basket for his bike!! It's looking pretty worn out😄
Oct 31, 2016 Temple, Ocean & In-N-Out
Well this week was pretty good. We were able to go to the temple on Tuesday. That's always a neat experience. It's crazy to think that I only have 2 more temple trips left on my mission! Dang time flies by. Then we were able to stop by the beach on the way home and get to breathe in some of that "ocean breeze." Haha it really just smells like fishy water. But it is a nice fresh feeling. We also stopped to eat at In-N-Out on the way back. And while we were there I realized that I have eaten at In-N-Out at least once a week on my mission. Not even joking. Everybody eats it here. We also get to go back to the temple on Saturday to help put up the Christmas lights for the holidays. Should be fun.
Johnathan is still doing good. He still hasn't gotten permission from his step dad. They aren't on very good terms and he doesn't want to meet with us. But we are still able to meet with Johnathan at least. He has an assignment to help out with the activities in the ward now.
We met with Douglas a few times this week. We are still trying to figure out how accountable he is. It's hard to tell. He also didn't come to church yesterday. So if we don't see any progression with him this next week we will probably have to drop him.
We picked up a new guy named Anthony. He has been taught by the missionaries before and wasn't very ready at that time. But he seems like it now! We were able to explain some of the things he didn't understand from before and he looked really excited. He is a little nervous to commit to coming to church. But is reading and praying. So if he keeps that up, naturally he will want to come with us to church.
Well it is HALLOWEEN!!!!! I am excited for today. Elder Nokes and I have planned this out for a couple weeks and we have the day packed. Our Pday is also for the whole day, just because we aren't allowed to proselyte on Halloween. So we have a Murder Mystery planned with lunch and games. We started off today with the sunrise on top of Double Peak! It was beautiful. I will try to take a lot of pictures. But that's about it. Love you guys!
Elder Ethan Miles
Oh! Also Elder Dallin H. Oaks will be visiting us on November 19th! So that will be cool.
CALIFORNIA COAST - Moonlight Beach
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)