Last Letter

This last week we have a lunch appointment every single day and we have a dinner appointment at night as well it’s been pretty crazy. I'm working to the end, and we are excited to see the success in Palermo=) I just receive an apostate call from my friend Anziano McMullen as well and its ridiculous how close we are to the end. We are sticking it out to the end but its going to be weird. I am in Rome for the last week...... sooooo weird! Leaving Palermo was sad... really sad my testimony was really weird because I couldn't really maintain myself and I have a lot of people that I need to keep in contact with.....Well I am coming home and it's super weird, and for the first time in my mission last night I have no idea what to do. I don’t know how I am going to handle the whole coming home experience but I will definitely find out. I cant wait to see you all make sure to take a video of me coming off the plane.=) I thought that would be kinda cool. hahahha A Big thanks to everyone for all the support they have given me on my mission. I will see you in two days... Love you so much family =) Anziano miller

I'm Coming Home!

Last Zone Conference

Happy Halloween=) What an interesting week we had this week=) Halloween was pretty easy going for us we didn't do much we just went to our church and and then they a haunted house all ready to go, it was pretty cool because I got to be the crazy guy coming out to of the coffin=) so that was pretty fun especially because all of the little kids were pretty scared. We did another split with kevin and Denis... We have a lot of fun with those two=) Kevin and I went up to Monreale and we taught a couple lessons=) they both went really well.=)
Last Friday was my last zone conference that was kind of sad. I tried to bear a good testimony but in the end I didn’t end up saying very much. I didn’t cry so I feel like I accomplished something in the end. It was sad seeing some people for the last time knowing I wouldn’t see them for a long time. I have gotten used to the fact of going home; I still don’t like it to much just because I am going to be a greeny again. I will be yet again thrown into a different environment with new rules, new trends, and a new culture. I will be yet again faced with difficulty and decisions to make. Yet, again I will have to choose the street which I would like to take. This week I have looked at it and I have been ready for the challenge we will see the Lord wants me to be among his mighty force=).
This last Sunday we did the mostra and it went really well, I had a good turn out of people and we have really like the whole thing but sometimes us missionaries attract the weirdest people. Really I am positive that we attract just strange people sometimes... for example, we met this guy who had been cut at the station and he comes over to us and shows us his wound which this other man had given him the wound and apparently you could see this mans fat and flesh from his skin and he wouldn’t get it taken care of here in the hospitals because he is afraid to die. So he wanted us to take him to America so he could get operated on... just really weird. I love Gods children but sometimes I just understand some of them. Monday we helped somebody move out and I have never been so tired form lifting in my life... never! We lifted a fridge and oven and a washing machine with a bunch of other stuff up four flights up a narrow set of stairs.... and the refrigerator had to be carried over our heads because it wouldn’t fit in-between the railing... it was ridiculous but we had a lot of fun at the same time. We had a good family night over at the Giambona home and it went really well. We had an amazing dinner and it was so nice after that ridiculous move. This Tuesday was a pleasant one... NOT... I yelled for the second time in my whole mission... I have never yelled at an Italian but yesterday I did, the man of our apartment complex came to our house and he was being so stubborn and rude from the moment he saw us. He started to check the out side of our house and he was checking for dust to see if we had been cleaning. He didn’t find any thing and he kept saying look look look how dirty your house is... I chuckled at him because he wasn’t able to find anything, after I a chuckled he started to scream at me and tell me that I was a $££$!$£! And a $$%&$$ and practically every swear word in the Italian language he used to chew me out... he then entered to into our pretty dang clean house and persisted to tell us that we lived in a $£$%%$% house and I just lost it... I felt soooo bad, I have never, yelled at anyone in my mission besides Anziano Vigneri... and I felt bad because I lost it and let him have it. In the end I know he is nuts and I am having a hard time getting over the whole thing. Today I saw someone steal from someone else and get away with it, and now I feel bad for that because I wasn’t able to tell the lady before he got off of the bus. But on a good note we went to mistretta and had a wonderful day the sisters were fantastic they were really nice and did a lot for us=) I never knew they were so nice until today. Haha no I pretty sure they are nice but I have never had any sister missionaries in my district besides at Bitonto and they were pretty unfriendly. Any who, we have a Halloween party to go to=) be good and don’t do anything stupid=) We will here from you for the last time next week=) Anziano Miller

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday DAD!!! Hope it was an eventful birthday! Well I hope the car accident wasn’t to bad, I am sure grateful to hear Kaitlyn is alive and to badly injured. I hate young teenage drivers; many times they still are not familiar with laws rules etc. Then again many times they are thinking of the cute girl in the back seat and how cool they must look driving a car with her in it. ALL IN ALL Kaitlyn is fine and I am grateful. I remember after I had been in a car crash I went to that chiropractor. Then I had fallen off the swing at the scout camp because Jacob Mann had pretended to push me and I fell from really high up in the air and my neck hurt so bad. The next day our doctor was not happy about the whole thing. So I am sure this guy will probably say something like, "ahhh we we're almost finished with your treatment and then you messed yourself up again". Funny that Jake and Tay have been over lately... I have been, thinking about them a lot lately, we had some good times. I have the bestest of friends but I would prefer only my family at the airport on Friday. Even though I love them, truly I do. I'll have to ask them to wait. Saturday, we can have what ever we want and invite friends over. I hope I am not to jet legged.=) Thank you for your shoes size I am sure you will like what I am bring you guys home. But you have to get this money to me some how... you said it was in the package right? If it was in the package you can activate it... it's at the office waiting for me. The missionaries will have it in there hands the whole way down here so if it was in that package the go ahead and activate it but is the pin the same as the old one? I sure hope so. Anywho this week was interesting... today I bought a fake Rolex watch for 10 euro. haha Normally they are about 80 but seeing that it is fake it's really cheap you have to tell them that you know it's fake, and then you have to continue to tell them that you wont move from ten Euro... hahah I like it cuz its flashy and its really cheap. In the end the guy was getting really mad, and he finally gave it to me for cheap. We did a bit of service this last week and it was dreadful, we worked hard for 3 hours straight in the hot sun, and we were panting a guardrail for somebody’s house... it was ridiculous, we then went and did less active finding with Kevin and Denis our two equadoran members here. It was way fun we walk for hour and hours... in the end there were two people that let us in out of the 40... We walked for ever.... for ever!!! We saw Anziano Larsen this week he flew down to get his permesso from Bari... It was so legit, he came we partied we went to the questura and then he left... the best part about it is that he didn’t even get his permesso... because Sicily doesn’t know what its doing with their permesso junk. So he just came down here to have a beautiful vacation. Tell Aunt Verna Hi=) and Kaitlyn I am glad your safe. I hope you all have a great week have a wonderful day and don’t get too trunky hahah Vi Voglio bene Anz. Miller

Nervous!

You guys are scaring the living daylights out of me… Remember that I am 6,000 miles away. I am NOT HOME YET.  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH 

This week has gone really well I have to tell you all what I have been doing. I have been trying to be a good example to my Greeny so he learns not to die early. Thank goodness for Anziano Larcher, he was an incredible example to me when he was dyeing because he really did not show it until his last couple of days.

To answer all your questions Mom I don’t have any girls writing me and I haven’t decided if that is a good thing or a bad thing. hahaha. As for Bryan, I hope he can wait till' I get home to get married. I get scared with all these return missionaries running around. Good bye to the single life… I really don’t like the thought honestly

I am getting a little nervous everyone is asking me how I am feeling.... well I am will tell you Nervous!

When I come home I think that it would be ok for my friends to come over that Saturday night like you suggested. I will let you know that when I get home. I will be going to the temple that Saturday morning and it is very likely that I will be going on a hike by my self. I have those two things set in stone and do not try to change my mind because I have already thought about it. Basically you can plan anything you want after about 4 in the afternoon but those two things will come first. You can call me weird if you’d like. 

We have been visiting our investigator Anna Maria, she is doing really well and I really hope to help her all the way to the end. In fact, I would love to see that baptism, and we are doing everything we can to do exactly that. 

We have been trying to help another investigator with his baptism but we don’t know how far that will go. The work is slowing down but we are trying to pick it up. There are tons of people that give us their number but we have no success getting follow up appointments. Everyone is looking at me like I am a dead man... even the members.  It’s making me very Nervous!

It started Raining and Hailing this week and it has been so much fun... there has been hail the size of    M£Ms falling from the sky it was so cool the rain was coming down is sheets. We couldn’t believe it....

I get to see Anziano Larsen this next Thursday... he is coming to pick up his permesso, I am pretty excited, same with Anziano Longhurst, apparently he had some problems with one of his last companions and Anziano Longhurst and I know him too so we will get to hear some good stories from Anziano Larsen.

I love teaching English, I might come here and teach it for a while.... we will see.... there is a bunch of thing that I want to do.  That is funny that Elder Hopper was in Sister Judds office. He is a good guy I served in the same district with him in Battipaglia. 

I love you all thanks for the email dad... I still haven’t read it.... but I'd like to thank you in advance. 

Vi Voglio Tanto bene 

Anziano Miller 

21st Birthday Party from Palermitana MOM

HELLO, 

This is me, your son, Anziano Miller!

I am doing very well, we have been working pretty hard, we have been all around the city and we have been excited about the new work that is going on... Anziano Pizza is getting pretty stressed out. I am not really sure why.

I hope that I "fit" in back home; I have no idea what its going to be like. It’s kind of like Disneyland when you are a kid. You always hear cool things about it and you always picture what it might be like but in the end you have no idea. I really wont worry about it because, I don’t want to worry about it. 

I did watch conference and I loved it.  I didn’t watch all of it, mostly because we didn’t have the opportunity to, I can say that I really love the priesthood session, it was really good. I hope dad went because they really hit hard on the younger generation.=| haha But many of the talks you wrote about I didn’t hear, I will have to look them up later. 

 If I do have a package I will get it next week, because Anziano Longhurst is going to Capi Conference tomorrow so he will bring anything from Rome to Sicily.

I have seen more ghetto stuff this past week then I have seen in my whole mission, we went to Lo Zen area in Palermo and it is probably really similar to that place called Scampia in Napoli. haha It was an adventure, but I really liked it, the people are nice we have been trying our best to contact these less actives that are in that area.... 

 

This P-day we have not done too much we went bowling, so it hasn’t been too exciting. There is not to much more to see here in Palermo we have seen most everything=). This is some what sad because I have been trying to see as much as possible while I can. Yesterday we went up to a place to Monreal and I got my late Birthday party from my "Palermitana MOM". That’s what she calls herself at least, she is our investigator. Hopefully she will be baptized before I leave. I have been praying a lot for her. She is an incredible woman, and deserves the gospel. She gave me a cake, and she gave me Ice-cream... she lit the number 21 on my birthday cake and I got to make a wish and blow out the candle. It was really nice of her. She is really funny, her and we have the same Birthday=) hahah She is easily one of my favorite investigators. 

Other then that we have been teaching lessons doing service and looking for less actives almost all week, I really don’t know what to tell you.=) 

I am glad Kaitlyn got a yes to Morp, I hope that they have a good time! She also tells me she is getting a 4.0 in her schooling at the moment... is that true? 

Anyways, I really have to go, sorry for the short email this week. 

Love you so much Anziano Miller 

Kaitlyn, Wow, it sounds like your life is on the difficult side=), any good movies I have to watch when I get home? 4.0 wow that's pretty impressive... but lets remember that you are still in the beginning of the trimester and I don’t even know what your classes are. You are probably taking jewelry, then you have math with Mr. Meyers... or health with Mr.Lober... or even Mr. Moncur..... haha no I am just kidding, but I am proud that you have a 4.0 Wow, competitions in California sounds pretty cool, depending on when the vacation is for college I might come and see you compete!!!

I want my future to be Perfect

Finalmente, è riuscita dopo tre anni lunghi ce la fatta, è stato veramente duro per un gatto della sua mentalità ma il pesce è finito.E il gatto rimane felice, ora non c'è la guerra di loro due.

I am sorry I had to say something; it's too funny the poor, poor fish had to die sometime, but the cat has been hunting that stupid thing for who knows how long. 

I am still waiting for my visa card and I hope to get it soon, I want to be able to buy stuff again. I have called the office and it hasn’t even arrived there in Rome, so I wonder if it will ever get there. 

I have had a great week, I have been in Trapani for the last couple of days doing a split with Anziano Meldrum... which is a blast him and we will become really good friends when he gets back. I am sure many of these fellow missionaries will be eternal friends=)

I am really excited to hear how Jordan responds, to Kaitlyn’s Morp dance invitation, we will see!!!

But other then that I have really been doing alright, I am staying here in Palermo to finish my mission, I am excited there is no need to complain. I love Palermo and this ward really needs me, I do not know if anyone notices the work we do but we are trying our hardest to keep things going. When I was in Trapani, I locked us out of the house. Well, Okay, Trapani has a terrible door and you are suppose to not lock it, and well I locked it and we couldn’t open it with the key, so we opened the door with my old debit card. It was pretty cool, I had learned to open doors without a key at Bitonto and I still have that talent today. 

As for Lexi, I am glad she is getting a bigger bed; she is a big girl and needs to have a bed to herself.

So Eric did a mini mission, I think that is really cool I would suggest that to everyone... they do mini missions all the time out of the states, everyone who goes on a mission in Europe normally does a mini mission before doing the real thing. The mini mission missionaries are really helpful and they are good for all the members as well.  

We have been hardly at home this last week; we have been out with the members. We have eaten at a members house everyday this week, and Sunday we ate at Salvo Minà's house who is not even part of our ward, He is part of the ward =) so I thought that was pretty cool. In other wards, I am eating well.  

Our work has been going really well and I am really excited for this next transfer we could easily see a couple baptisms, I hope to help all those that are in our teaching pool, and then more! Our English course is going really well but I would like to have more interest with the gospel in our students. I am not sure how I can do that, but we have been trying so I guess that’s what counts. 

Anziano Meldrum, helped me with something this last week, and I kinda wanted to share it with you all. 

He said, " I want my future to be perfect" we were speaking about what we were going to do as a career or things we were going to do in the future, and he said those word that had really hit me. I want my future to be perfect so I will do as much as I can to make it that way, I don’t know if it will end up the way I want it to end up but I can sure try my best.

I want to challenge you all to do the same, plan on a perfect future and work towards it. 

I hate to ask question like this, but is there anything I need to be planning for? such as school, work, ECT. Everyone seems to be asking me a whole bunch of questions like this and I have no idea what to tell  them. 

Anyways family, I will hear from you in a week, be good!

Anziano Miller 

PS  Kaitlyn, I was really looking forward to your letter this week, I wanted to here your story with max and what you thought of what I told you from last week, I know your busy but if you could jot down of couple of words it would mean a lot to me.=) thanks BE GOOD 

Caving! Born for those kinds of things.

Well, I thought I was going have some pretty crazy stories to tell you but I might as well log off after hearing that story about Homecoming. That is incredible. I can’t believe all that can happen in one day. That will be the coolest first date story in the world if you ask me. I remember my first date and it was too normal. Just think you can tell your kids. Maybe when you’re older you two can make a movie out of that experience and become millionaires!  If you ask me you were ridiculously lucky to go with Max for your first date. I am sure that even when he looks back he will laugh about homecoming.

I am glad you had good time at Lake Powell and I hope that we can go there next year too, that is if the Angers still like you guys=) 

Anyways today we went to this sweet cave. It goes on for miles and some of the caverns are really hard to get through so it makes things very difficult.. We went there with some chalk and flash lights and our back packs and crawled through some of the smallest caverns I have ever crawled through. So I am probably not following the advice of Aunt Sandy when she asked me not to do anything dangerous. I can’t really help myself in the end; I was born for those kinds of things. We went with my friends Salvo Minà and Denis Cedono, we had a really good time! Except everyone that goes in there marks everything up with spray paint and a bunch of stuff that just destroys the cave. I don’t know why they do that, but it is a crazy cool practice cave. I will show you the pictures when I get home.  I don’t have any desire to send you more pictures it takes up to much time and I just don’t like it. I want to be able to explain to you all the fun things that happened on my mission. If I send them to you, you already have an idea of what I have done. That’s not as cool for me. 

The night before we showed English course the Joseph Smith film... it went incredibly well; I loved it to pieces.  People were crying and just shocked about all the stuff that happened to that man. There was a girl that was there for her first time and she was just in tears, I am pretty sure she will be baptized soon, mention that she had come for a reason that night and she knew God had led her there for a purpose. 

Lexi, I am responding to your email, so you don’t get mad at me, and because I love you. 

I am glad Mr. O’Malley misses me, I miss him. Italy is in crisis but I like it because it keeps me on my toes, plus, there are lots of people who want to know about the gospel. I hope you never come to Italy because there are more dogs on the street then there are trees, we would never get to were we'd want to go. I am glad you got new PJ's from our Swedish friends; I really want to go see them at their house. Love you very much and I hope that you are being a good girl. Thank you for writing me!

Anyways, my time is up I will talk to you in a week. Kaitlyn I hope that you have great week, you will only have three homecomings in your life so keep living it up! 

Love you all Anziano Miller 

Church Inside A Cave

Well this week we headed to Monte Pellegrino and it was pretty cool we really enjoyed it. It’s a church that is inside a cave and its pretty nice, we have had a nice P Day. We are as broke as it gets, but we are still happy and working. We both have a 1.50 each. I have still not received my package, I am hoping it gets here soon. The card will get here in a little bit. If I get it, it will be in about three weeks. We have been doing a ton of work and learning we have a couple new dates and we are hoping for the best.

My birthday didn’t even seem like my birthday but to be honest it doesn’t bug me. Everyone sang Happy Birthday to Anziano Simonetta and me and it was pretty nice.

Other then that we came back and we had Ice-cream from Ciccio's and it was fantastic. That is really all I needed for a birthday present.

Yesterday was my first zone conference without President Kelly and it was pretty weird, he was very sick and needed his rest, In fact his wife wouldn’t let him leave the airport. =)

We have a lady that is ridiculously ready for baptism her name is Sabrina and she is going to be baptized one day... she has a beautiful baby, and she has a husband from Tunisia. She is Italian and is a friend of a member. We talked to her about the simplest thing the last time about prayer. It was the second lesson and normally we never talk about Prayer thoroughly for the second lesson. When give the lesson she just started crying and she had realized how much she has been missing the presence of God in her life. It was pretty cool.

I am going to send you the pictures from the last couple of weeks; I don’t know how much time it will take.

Anyways I have a Sicilian mom that is in North Italy for the moment, her name is Anna Maria, she is fantastic, she has a baptismal date in Oct, but she has the same birthday as me. We are going to celebrate together when she comes back. =)

We played a bit of soccer with our investigators, I am becoming a bit better at soccer, I am not as bad as I used to be. =)

I have had a bunch of testimonies of prayer this week, I have been praying for things like Lunch appointments, or that the weather would be good. In the end it worked out, in the end all I have to say is that God always listens to us.

Anyways I hope you like the pictures, love you Anziano Miller

Working hard and Helping Others

Mom you seem trunkier then me, you even know when I am coming home? I am sure that everyone in the ward is asking you if you are getting excited and if you are ready for me to come home. We have been doing well and have been working hard and helping others. I don’t know what to think, sometimes I have the thought of coming home jumps into my mind. I am honestly excited too but not as excited as I thought I would be. 

That is sad to know the kid from Brighton died (Nate Short), I know them both. There are a lot of people that I won’t see for this short period here on earth. 

We have been doing a ton of work, we did a split these last couple of days and it has been good for all of us. My greenie learns a lot from all these other missionaries that are here in the mission. For example Anziano Meldrum is in my district and he is an incredible missionary, so I am always happy to let my greeny learn from others. I keep telling Anziano Pizza that these will probably be some of the best missionaries he will see in his whole mission. I hope it’s not true but there are some really good missionaries here. 

We are working hard to find more investigators through our own efforts and through the English course. Yesterday went well there were over 60 new people in our English course and we are hoping that we can bring them unto the gospel. We are happy with our turn out even though we want more people to come. We have four baptismal dates=) The bad new is that I probably wont see any of them, they are all in October. But that is not what matters, I hope they get baptized=) That would make me happy. We have been having the GANZ help us a lot which has been really helpful. 

Something that was funny this last week is that I ate Anziano Meldrums potato cake!!!! I probably shouldn’t have eaten it but I did anyways... I don’t know if I have told you but Anziano Meldrum is famous for his food inventions. He made pasta with jam and tomato sauce in Napoli and no one could eat more then three bits of it.  Anyways he made this potato cake the other day and it was horrid... It wasn’t even cooked all the way through, but it was funny just because he tries so hard to make something new and he never succeeds=) Although he has learned to make a pretty good tuna pasta. 

Today we went and saw this place called Erice.  It was pretty cool!  It is a province of Trapani. I really like it there, its not the most beautiful thing I have ever seen but it was cool. I have been trying to do these trainings for Anziano Pizzas first 12 weeks and sometimes I feel like I am the one being trained=) I love these new greenies.

Gotta go.. It has been a stressful day, we just missed the bus to go back home and we missed it by three seconds literally. So I apologize if my email doesn’t make a lot of sense. 

See you love you bye Anziano Miller 

I will miss Heidi Smith!

I feel like every week I have to search for words in which I have to say... I cant believe that Heidi died... she was really one of my favorites in the family (not saying that I have favorites but there are those I like more then others) she was really someone special. She reminded me a lot of my own mother in the prospective of her personality and her creativity. She was and is a great person... Their family will have a hard time. It seems like Terry and Shelly’s side of the family has had some major trails. I hope that they will be ok; I hope that Sammy and Troy can really help their father out. I don’t know what has happened these last two years but I really hope that they can remember the heavenly fathers plan. I can’t even imagine how hard it will be for them, they are going to be some pretty strong children of God if they manage to get out of all this crap! I don’t know what to say, and I don’t know what to think, but I will put my trust in God. 

This week has been a rough one, my companion is still adjusting to the life style here. He doesn’t say anything but you can see that it over whelming him in his eyes. This last week we helped a lady that is going through the crisis, and she was put in a state hotel for a short time period while they found her a new place to stay. When she told us she needed help she didn’t tell us anything, she just told us it was an emergency. After we arrived in front of the hotel she told us everything, she told us that the hotel she was staying in was a Hostel for prostitutes and that the Mickey Mouse club was running a business out of that state hotel. After she started to tell other people they wanted to act on it but everyone who was in that hotel is really poor. The Mickey Mouse club had robbed the little money that she had and a couple belongings and framing another young family that lived in the same building as her.  Let’s just say that the situation is pretty crazy. There was a man that was in there that was laughing at her decision to leave. It was pretty absurd and I still can’t believe everything that happened. 

Anywho, we have had a pretty good week this week with all of our investigators but we also need some new investigators. I am so glad that summer is over and we can get back into the swing of things. We have been working our hind ends off this week and everything is going really well. I am always excited to show my companion new things, but its kind of difficult at the same time because I have to teach him how to cook, how to clean, what he can and cant use. I do have the joy of showing him the new things that he has never seen such as, the food, the laws, the language... everything=) I love it... I am trying to work his shoes right off his feet and he seems to be enjoying that. I honestly believe that Greenies work miracles. I think that we do not notice all of the miracles that happen around us until we have someone to show us. We have been studying the training Manuel and I like the simplicity and the efficiency of the whole training manuel, it really makes these Greenies stretch.

I am loving this city and I am loving my mission, its pretty difficult sometimes but it would be nearly as fun if I didn’t have the difficulties. I hope that you all are fine and that you can give Troy, Sammy and Paul my best and give them a great big hug for me! 

Tell Kaitlyn I feel great oh I feel so great.... I am still waiting to hear how she feels. 

The computer that I am using right now will not send you all the pictures so you are probably going to have to wait for another week. 

Dad thanks for the email and I hope that exam went well last week, I will be praying for you!! Love you so much, 

Anziano Miller...

PS. Lexi I have three mosquito bites on my foot=) 

Light House Top of the Mountain

As for my card, just send it to the mission home it. I will get at zone conference which is on my birthday. So it shouldn't be much of a problem. 

Today has been good we have some new anziani in the house so Palermo has changed quite a bit! When you change companions it’s pretty hard to get used to.

Sorry for last week I am sure that you are not very happy with me but MY companian/copanians left the house sooooo dirty it wasn’t even funny! Anziano Simmonetta and I went up to climb a mountain with a couple of friends and the after doing so we came back to take a shower and then go down and do internet, but to our surprise the house was completely destroyed.  I was not very happy and I don’t need to say more. That morning I had already done an hour or more of cleaning then I came back and saw the whole house a mess. The first thought was Crap, we have a new Greeny and two very clean missionaries coming to this house. So instead of doing internet I cleaned for another two hours with Anziano Simonnetta, who doesn’t even live at our house.

Then we had to leave to Catania it was still dirty but, it was better than it was. That night when I was in Catania I received a phone call from Anziano Lacher and he asked me why our house so dirty and I was a little bummed because I had already put three hours into that house that day.

Anyways, I am going to talk about something else now. Last week I went up to this light house that is at the top of this mountain. It’s pretty cool because it was all abandoned but the coolest part is that there is this old man that has been working on it by himself for 15 years. You may ask, why? But he has been taking little stones that are from the ocean, stones that are really smooth and polished by the waves and carrying them up the mountain in a backpack.  He then takes all of these rocks and makes images, like the Star of David and crazy stuff like that.  I am telling you, it was some of the craziest stuff I have ever seen that has been built by human hands. I couldn’t believe all the crazy stuff he did. The cool part of the story is that normally no one is aloud to go in. He wouldn’t even let Anziano Larson in a few weeks ago. He only lets people go in when he is not there.  Because he thinks that they have been guided by the lord to go up and find this place. But I sat down and talked with him for about 30 minutes, we spoke about God and how he works, also about different scriptures and how I felt about them.  Anyways when we were about to leave and said I could go it and he let us go inside! It was really cool, my camera was low on battery and so I couldn’t take any videos but I have a couple pictures. We really enjoyed ourselves that day until we came back down and had to clean up after everyone else. 

After all that we had to stay in Catania for 3 days which was ridiculous. We stayed there Friday I got my Greeny, Anziano Pizza! He was one of Landen’s friends so I knew him pretty well in high school. Everyone says that returned missionaries are weird, but I think that the MTC changes the heck out of people too. I have been trying to be Anziano Pizza’s friend and making sure that his is completely comfortable and that he is happy. I hope that he can really start his mission off well and that I can help him have a great mission. 

We have been really busy but we have not been busy with investigators.They have this new training program and I have to follow everything to a tee. I really like it, In fact I am kind of jealous that they didn’t let me do the whole thing but it really stinks for the person training. You have to really be diligent and remember to do everything.  But the most important thing is to be a good example. I am learning a lot and I am hoping to continue learning. I love this new house there are a lot of fun people and they are really ready to do the work. It’s really hard to think that I only have a couple of months left. I haven’t slowed down a bit.  If anything I have sped up even faster, because of this new Greeny.

Tell Carol I love her and I am very sorry for all of the crap she is going through. I am sure it’s not easy to handle. Also give my best to Bill Sheldon, Hope he gets on the mend soon.

Tell Kimiko I am proud of her and that she is an awesome woman, I am sure she will see a lot of growth in the next couple years of her life. I know she will be OK, she is a strong and always has been. I hope everything goes well for her.

Well family I gotta go Love you so much have a great week.

Anziano Miller 

P.S Kaitlyn, I feel great, OH I feel so great. HOW DO YOU FEEL!!!!!!????

Stop Counting the Days!

Great Friends - Salvo and Laura from English course

I am really sorry I will don’t have anytime this week to email. I will explain next week. McMullen went to Terni which is above Rome and Larsen went to Bari which is next to Bitonto. I am staying here and I am training Anziano Pizza. That is his name Pizza, you won’t believe it but I know him from High School. Bethany was one of his good friends and from what I know about him he is an incredible kid. So I am really excited to work with him really hard and I am sure that he is prepared as well. I will talk to you next week, It looks like you are having a great time!!! Stay safe and play hard=) I love you and I hope you are not counting the days. 

Love Anziano Miller

Happy Feste!

Hello, 

I am so glad you guys received my package; I always think its fun sending something home every now and again. My bed was naked because... I was the only one cleaning my sheets, and it was cleaning day so I thought it would be a good idea to clean my sheets. So don’t worry about me and my sleep.  I stole Anziano Weeks's mattress when he left, it is brand new and it is really comfortable, we have plenty of sheets and plenty blankets.

That is really funny that you flipped the Hardman over in the canoe. I am sure it spiced up girls camp a little bit.  I don’t know how it usually is but I am sure that they will remember that for the next couple years. It’s always fun to have good memories like that. 

Today was really nice we woke up early and we went to go play basketball at eight.  It was good for me because the last couple of weeks we have been inside doing absolutely nothing. This drives me literally insane! INSANE... if I am with my companion for another transfer I think I will just go crazy because he just really likes being inside and I don’t!  We do get along just fine we went and played basketball which made me really happy.

You better hope and pray that you are still in the young women’s because that leaves you open for another call and EVERYONE loves you as the ward activities leader =)... so you should pray that you stay in the young women’s. 

This week was holiday and it was absolutely terrible.  I dislike summer as a missionary but thank goodness the worst part is over. Everyone will start coming back and everything will be good again. We have been working a lot with the new English course, we are doing a lot of publicity for it and we would like about two hundred people to start coming.

I am really happy to be in Palermo!!! I have a higher percentage of leaving then he does, but I know president will do the right thing. I really hope I don’t go but I guess we will find out this Saturday. 

Sorry I didn’t email much I was switching pictures and things on the computer=) so I will show you all that stuff when I get home =) 

But if you would so kindly give my best to the Shur family this week it would be greatly appreciated.  

Love you Anziano Miller 

Opposition of Lives & Gratitude

Well, I don’t know what it is but it seems to me that when things are going good here things are bad there, and when things are good there things are bad here. 

=) I am doing well I we just had zone conference and I really enjoyed it. Normally I don’t like zone conference that much but yesterday I loved it, it was absolutely fantastic!

I hear from Anziano Weeks every now and again. So that puts a smile on my face, President has told me some good news about my future... things about where I am going, who I might be with, and things like that. But, I am not going to say anything to you guys, because he hasn’t made up his mind yet. 

We have a baptismal date with Giuliano and things are going well with him, next week we will have our P day next Tuesday so make sure you send your email a day earlier if you would like to email me. 

I really don’t have much time this week because I am going to go to Trapani to do splits... 

Also, I have been inviting people to come to Utah and stay at our house.... I hope that is OK because I am more then excited to host them and see them all. Palermo is ridiculously cool and I just love these people. 

I have been feeling really good these last couple of weeks; I have loved being with my companion even if we are two people that are absolutely the opposite of one another. 

ARE CHURCH IS OPENED AGAIN!!! THAT MEANS WE CAN HAVE LESSONS IN CHURCH!!!! I don’t know if I told you but is has been closed for the last two months... It is absolutely beautiful. 

This email I just wanted to thank mom and dad more then anything else, for everything you two have done for me. While I am here in the mission you really notice how much I was supported by your parents. I miss their guide, advice, help, encouragement, and even their correction. In the mission I have noticed that I am a really stubborn person when it comes to correction( I have been getting better)! But I have two parents that knew me very well and they were literally destined for me. I am convinced that if I would have  anyone else as parents I would be a rather lost in this world. I thank you and love you. 

I will probably be a strange person for all of you when I get home because I will know how to do things that I didn’t know how to do before. I will probably be a lot quieter then I was... (you probably don’t believe me but I will be). hahha I guess we will find out. 

Mom there isn’t much time left to write but pray your heart out, I ask all of you to find a place where it is quite this week and pray for the many problems we have in our lives in this moment I also ask you to kneel and pray for the things we need most... I love you so much family, I hope you are doing great things.

Kaitlyn keep up the good work, I have heard nothing but good things about you. I’m so proud of you, I know you will be a great cheerleader and I can only imagine how much you love it. I can not wait to see you at all the games and at all of the events 

Good luck dad!  I really admire your efforts, You have never givin' up and I know that we are close to the end here...we have been praying for you and I hope that you are excited to take on this new work. 

Mom, A good country song of mine says... If you’re going through HELL keep on going, down slow down, if your scared don’t show it. Remember it’s always darkest before the dawn, don’t stop fighting. 

Lexi, I love you so much, please stop growing and please help your mom and your dad. Keep smiling and make sure that you pet Mr. Omally for me=) 

Grandpa, I only got a couple of months left... YOU Keep walking up those stairs, and do what your doctor says=) and keep bowling your heart out

Send my best to Wendy and the gang.... (Our neighbors)

Tell grandpa Miller I am praying for him 

Love you so much Anziano Miller 

Spirit of Contention

Alright, What a fantastic week! we had a beautiful baptism in Palermo 2 in Anziano McMullen's and Larsen's ward.  We had a great week just because we wanted to have a great week. It started with somebody persecuting us in public=). Every Sunday we do a demonstration... were we go to a big piazza and we go to talk about our church with the people that walk by there. We have a big sign that asks certain questions. Like, what can I do to have a strong and faithful marriage? etc. When we were doing this demonstration we were speaking to a lot of people like always but it just so happens that every week the same Baptist are on the same street directly across the street in which we are on each week every week.  Finally this Baptist got all mad because he was seeing that everyone was talking to us, so mad that he actually crossed the street and started yelling at us telling us that we were wrong that we had 10 wives and that we were telling lies to everyone. One of our members was there and he went over and started talking to him telling that he brought the spirit of contention and that that kind of spirit can only come from Satan=) It was pretty legit. hahah After he left everyone started to talk to us asking us different questions. The Baptist were really not very happy with us. I thought it was funny but I didn't laugh about it until I was at home.

I really jealous that you went boating. I cant stand August as a missionary. In August everything doesnt open until 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Its pretty stupid, we wanted to go play bowling and there was a sign telling us that there was no bowling until 4 o'clock. then we went to go play laser tag and there was another sign that said no laser tag til' 4 o'clock. I wanted to cry because I cant stand August and its only the start. 

I recieved the letter from Lexi this week, I was so happy to see those wonderful scriptures. I am sure they will help me so so much. Many of those scriptures are my favorite scriptures. I thank you so much Lexi for your thoughtfullness and your help. =) 

We have been really helping our investigators that want to progress. Its been a bit difficult because its summer so they are often late. 

MOM what is your shoe size? Dad I know you think that I might have bought you a shirt but I definatly havnt done that yet they cost way to much money. and they are not the prettiest of shirts that I have seen. but what is your shoe size?

It was good to hear from you,

I love you so much Anziano Miller 

Strippling Warriors

Hello Family and Friends, 

This week was not nearly as bad as last weeks, I was not very happy and I had kinda lost all my patience. I am having a pretty fantastic week, I dont know if you knew this but there is a missionary couple here in Palermo that are also from our parts of town in the Utah. They live up by Kim Brown, they told me that they know her, but I didnt know this until this week.Their names are Anziano and Sorella North... hahah I dont know their real names. They are just keeping my spirits up, they are the coolest people ever! They are going up to visit the temple for a week and a half so that will be a little upsetting for me but hopefully they will be ready to come back. The Norths work so hard and they have great ideas. We have been working with them and we are really getting our ward moving along. Anziano North is our unoffical ward mission leader, he was called not to long ago, but he has some great plans and is ready to help us out. Our bishop is really pulling through too, he is a fantastic man himself he is very intelligent and was born in the states. Its kinda wierd because I have not spoke a word of english to our bishop but I know that he speaks my native language which is wierd for me.

Man, what did Xanziano Weeks tell you guys, McMullen and I are fine. We had fun with the training sessions when we were betting with the whole gelato and pizza thing............. It was really fun! Everytime we had gone out and did training he would come back and be so tired hahah it made me laugh. Mostly because the next day you would find him limping because he was so sore... he would also take short and simple steps=). Infact after the first work out his told me he was not going to obey the contract... which was kinda of a bummer because I totally forgot to put a punishment on the contract, so when he did break it, it was not a big deal. In the end he is still getting larger and now he is eating worse then he was eating before. I love that missionary to death and I want the best for him. I have lived with Anziano McMullen for 8 transfers. that is half of my mission so stop thinking I am to hard on him. If I was too hard on him he would tell me... Anziano McMullen is like the Brother I have never had. (He just has a speech impediment) =).

Did you know that if you find the RED BULL car they give you a free RED BULLl? Basically since I was in Napoli I have kept my eye out for this car, Anziano McMullen and I were the first missionaries to search, find and recieve goods from this RED BULL car. After those moments I have been continually finding the car all over Italy. I have found it in Napoli, Bari, Lecce, and Palermo. This last week we found it again, We were on our way home when we saw it, we got off the bus and ran to retrieve the goods. I think it's so fun to find and continue to find fun things to do like that. 

I might say the frase (I hate) but I really mean it when I say I hate August in Italy, There is literlly no one. I can not stand it when people tell me that they can not see me until september, mostly because I know that they are so full of crap when they say it. 

This week I wanted to talk a little bit about the strippling warriors and how they are a lot like us youth.  I hope that I can still count myself as being someone who is in their youth. Anyways, I was reading the story of the strippling warriors the other day and I was relating it to our time here in 2012. The strippling warriors where a really young group of people that could of been less then 17 years old. (Alma 56:46) They fought against many MEN 10.000, if i remember correctly. So it was 2.000 young men against 10.000 men. These 2.000 young men came from the people of Ammon, they were the tribe that promised God that they will never pick another weapon to slay their brothren, so these men were also untrained and had never fought in their lives.(Alma56:47). These young men obeyed their parents expecially their mothers like we all know. They never doubted and believed that God would always deliver them out of their hardships. These men went to war not knowing what was going to happen and were ready to fight for Freedom and Peace. These young men go and fight not one of them died, but 200 where wounded. Those that were wounded and had fainted had lost hope and faith for a small moment in that battle I am sure their friends and fellow soldiers looked around and saw that some of their friends had fallen, after seeing that their freind had fall they lost that faith and hope for a split second as well. 

The point is, is that we do not need to fall and loose faith just because one of our friends has made a bad choices. it has happened in my life and I am sure that it will happen in your lives. Continue to have faith and dont loose track of you objectives in your live weather those objectives are physical or spiritual. Help your friends heal those wounds, get them back on their feet and back in the game. Not one of us can be lost everyone is very valueable in this army. We are as the strippling warriors, we are fighting against many, sometimes its not easy and we are out numbered but we have the strength of our God behind us=)

Thanks Brian Stewart and Cache Guzy for your words of encouragment. That does make me feel better. I thought everyone had forgotten me for a little while there=) jk

Love you all so much talk to you later Anziano Miller 

Learning Patience

Well this week has been a rough one... hahah  In the beginning of last transfer I had asked to learn more patience and now with all the new trails that I am going through right now, I am learning patience. I am no where near perfection but I am glad that Christ has filled the gap that I can't manage to fill. 

I am doing ok there is nothing wrong, I feel really tired, in these last couple of weeks.  I have told my companion I want to go on strike... He thinks I am serious! Which makes things hard on me; I really want to work hard these last couple of month in the mission. I am trying to more enthusiastic about the work but it’s been pretty difficult with this blasted heat. I have never felt so hot in my life, if there is one thing I do not like in this world it would be high humidity. Humidity is like that friend that always exaggerates. Every time you look at the temperature you always saying 92 degrees? That’s it! This last week we reached 108 degrees.... it was killer. 

I lost control this week and I thought I was going to wallop my companion. I told him three times we had service last week at 8:30 and that we needed to catch the bus at 7:55. He then tried to worm his way out of going but then after that he made us miss the bus because he couldn’t manage to get out of bed and he still had to take a shower.... I thought I was going to loose it when we missed the bus but then, we manage to get to a place where we could climb these stairs and we would arrive about 15 late. Anyways, I kept my cool but I had lost all control inside of me. Long story short I need more patience.

Enough complaining, I hope that you guys had a splendid week. I hope gramps is OK, he sound like he is getting very depressed, and the doesn’t really have much to do.

Our church is shut down so that they can work on it and we can’t go in to do our lessons. My companion hates anything that has to do with running so I am like an overcharged battery that just wants to explode. A couple of investigators and members are getting really difficult. 

I don’t know it’s just been stressful week. I hope that everything is going well for you. I am going to take off I am sorry for the short letter. 

Love Anziano Miller 

Army of Helaman

Holy CRAP! It’s hot! 

I hate humidity, I know as a missionary I am suppose to learn to love things but humidity is something I will hate until I die. It’s only about 90 degrees here, but with humidity it’s been horrendous. 

I will tell you how my day is in the afternoon, I come home throw my bag on my chair then I sit in front of the air conditioner for at least 10 minutes, after those ten minutes I am still sweating from my back and I will not stop sweating until I take a shower before I go to bed. I can literally be sitting in front of a fan that is right next to my face inside with the air conditioner on, and I will still be sweating! It's pretty absurd

Other then that its been a great week I have had the opportunity to do a lot of service this last week, yesterday we moved a girl out of her old house into her new house. Today we helped paint someone’s home. Last week we also painted someone’s house... I feel really good when I do service, and it’s been a great opportunity to talk about the gospel. People are always so interested in the fact of why we are here. I have had the conversation so many times I can guess what people are going to ask me next.=) 

I really like telling people why I am here, they come to realize that I am not a monster that wants to tell them they are wrong or that they are a terrible person. They come to realize that I am here to help them, and to invite them to be a better person.

We celebrated the fourth of July, and I had a great time. We ate lasagna and hot dogs, we played ping pong and Foosball... you better tell Kurt Brey to get practicing because I have gotten pretty good at Foosball and I am going to see if I can beat him when I get back.

I am sorry you had such a terrible week. There is a reason why pride is expressed so much in the Book of Mormon. It’s the sin that make you transgress the sin that makes you think you don’t need God or anyone else. We all have pride but when you have an abundance of pride you can only be taught by falling. 

I teach at least once a week about the Old Testament and how we see a pattern with God and his children. When his children are humble he sends a prophet to help them and to care for them, also to guide them. His children begin to prosper then they become wealthy then they become prideful... thinking that they don’t need God, or someone to help them anymore.... so his children kill the prophet and they don’t repent... they fall so deep into apostasy that they are poor and needy again, after a while they become humble, they realize they need help so they turn back to God and God sees that they need help and sends another prophet to help them... The pride cycle is very interesting, it is in everyone’s life and it will always be like that until we die.

This week went really well, we didnt meet our goals but we felt really productive.I think its really strange, we have been speaking a lot about baptism in our lessons, we have been trying to help people realize that it is a step that will change their life and a covenant that is really important to make with our Father in Heaven. We have explained the restaration very clearly and we just cant manage to get a dates, but here I have seen that these people are truly investigating and they are truly searching for the truth. I find it strange but I feel like its how missionary work should be. But our work has started to slow down.... its not a thing that I am proud of but its kind of scary I don’t really like the fact that we have been loosing investigators left and right thanks to the summer.

Everything else is going well and I am fantastic, I am having a good time and I am continuing to try my best.

I like what TJ said, "It's not to make life about yourself, but to make life about others". But it’s hard for anyone to do what he said even if we know its what we should do. I will do my best to follow his advice. Numbers where not to fantastic we had three investigators drop us.=(

Dallan is so right that’s why he is such a stud=) Dallan's story * This week was a good one. We could have been busier, but I suppose everyone has the option to choose. People accept us, and people reject us. Saturday was an interesting day. The majority of the people we contact, either in the streets or knocking their doors, are just regular old people who were raised Catholic and never really did anything with that, but use that as their excuse to tell us to move on. "Oh, sorry, we´re Catholics. We´re happy." And that´s about as deep as our conversation gets, even when we are persistent and use all our resources to provide a short, powerful testimony that touches deep enough to inspire them to listen to us. But on Saturday, we encountered three (that´s a lot for one day) deeply-rooted, highly intelligent, ready with argument people. A Catholic and an Apostolic Christian in the street, and a Christian in his home later in the day. They ran loops around us with their knowledge of the bible. The second, the Christian, was the first person to ever openly insult me in a contact, to my face.

   So after the day, we came home pretty tired from the week and pretty quiet. As I thought back on the day, I remembered all the times that I did not know how to respond. I thought of the simple, powerful invitations that we gave to each person, and what that would mean for them after this life. Even though I was feeling a strong lack of sufficient knowledge, I felt reassured that I was in the right. We are members of the Kingdom of God on earth. Neither sword nor death nor word nor any clever usage of bible passages will EVER apart us from our royalty and our inheritance. We can trust that we will have a VERY rich recompense waiting for us. Isn´t that a relief? Like it says in Galatians 5:22-23, there is no law against such things. When we receive a confirmation from the Spirit (love, joy, peace, faith...), nobody can take that away. We as missionaries don´t ask that our investigators believe us, or the Bible, or the Book of Mormon. We ask them to ask God. Because once HE says how things are, there´s no questions to ask. There´s just following to be done. Applying the answer we received. And once we´re sure we´re in the right, nothing has power over it. Elder Carter

I thought about it the other day and its going to be ridiculously hard to choose my best man.

Mom is wondering if he would at least tell us who the Bride is first=)”

Anziano Miller said that the Best man is a very important.... the bride can be anyone but the best man is THE BEST MAN, it’s like the most important thing to every wedding=) jk 

I will talk to you next week love you so much

muah 

Love your favorite son Anziano Miller

Happy Independence Day!!!

Today, I woke up and the first thing Anziano Larsen and I did was sing "The Star Spangled Banner" ! =) It was really great, Anziano McMullen filmed it. 

 

This week has been soooooo hot, I am always damp, I am always thirsty, and I am always sweating. Today, we did all our work in the morning and now I have the rest of the time to do what ever I want. So we will go with a couple of our investigators and a couple of our members to go play laser tag=). My companion really hates anything that has to do with archeology and so I don’t think I will see anything that has to do with archeology for a while, maybe for the rest of my mission. He really likes to relax, he does not like to do much, unless, we are going to go out and do something fun. So, Instead of doing nothing, I would prefer to go have fun with our investigators. 

This week the European cup was pretty legit. Sunday night there was absolutely NO ONE on the street. Everyone was inside preparing for the big game. So I am glad it’s over with. Mainly because I can’t watch it, and if I can’t watch it, which means everyone can’t watch it. 

What I am trying to say is, if no one is on the street I am bored. It also means that we have nothing to do. So I am glad it’s all over. 

This last week we had some of the highest numbers I have ever had in my mission, I like to look at numbers because I know that with each number there at least one child of God that is listening to us or coming to church....etc.

It will be really difficult to this week to top what we did last week, But we are going to try... my companion is really tired because I have been running around a lot. He likes to have lunch breaks; I don’t really care for them... I am actually really skinny but I am eating like an idiot... I should start my four month till sexy diet. 

I hope I can say this without hurting anyone’s feelings but... I HATE EMAIL.

Not because I don’t like to hear from you guys, but because it takes so long and most of the time I am just thinking of things that I have done in the last week.

QUINDI; MI STUFFO 

Anywho, you guys should have gone boating without Wally... that’s lame that you didn’t go. I am sure you would have had a fantastic time.=) I bet I won’t even be able to slalom ski when I get back. I have lost every muscle I once had. 

That reminds me... Dad, what are some good ways I can get some protein without eating meat... because I have need of protein. 

This week we also have our fix-it guy in the mission, his name is Fratello Pastano, he is just the coolest guy ever so we have a blast in the house. He has come to fix our horrendous apartment. He is like having your favorite Uncle come and stay with you for the weekend.=) 

Well, I just have about had it with some missionaries, sometimes, I think, man!!! It’s going to suck going home.... then other times I think... Man!!! I can not wait to be away from these people! 

I will think about the sunscreen thing, I don’t know if I really need it, that and I don’t have any sunscreen. 

PS – email me, Kaitlyn’s shoe size. I might get her some really cool shoes from Italy. =) They are more like sandals but still, everyone is wearing them here and I really like them.

I am really scared to come home. I bought some jeans and they might be a little too tight for American style. But I really like them; it might be because I have grown into the European style... I am going to still wear them when I come home... prepare yourselves for the future Tanner Guzy =). 

This week we came one short of our goal…we had twenty lesson this last week and we are really struggling with all our investigators this week we will probably not be able to see them all twice this week.

Anyhow, I am going to get off the computer my eyes hurt 

Ciao!!!!!

Anziano Miller