Ola familia e amigos! Tudo bem!
So this week has been good too. Let me think...it's
hard to just sit down and write everything at once when all my days and
weeks are meshing together into one giant blob called "my mission" haha
We started teaching a family called the
Cunningham's. This family is sweet, the father is in his mid-50s and is a
member, he has 3 daughters that we know of that are members and are
inactive (meaning that haven't been to church for a while,
like since they were 13 and 14) and then one of the daughters that we
are teaching (she asked us to come over and kind of reteach a lot fo the
stuff so that she can relearn them because she said she wants to make
changes in her life and get back to church),
she has 7 kids and then some of her kids have kids. Yeah, it's uma
grande familia! she is a grandma at 36 and Bro. Cunningham is a
great-grandpa at 55. They are an awesome family though and they always
laugh and joke around with us. The first night we taught
them, which I believe was Tuesday night, we walked in and 2 little boys
(one of the great-grandkids) said "oh no..it's the police!" hahaha that
made my night right there. We had a good time and we have been tecahing
them. One of the grandkids who is 17 (I
think haha) said she wanted to be baptized after our first visit. It
was amazing to see how her face lit up as we were teaching about Joseph
Smith and the Book of Mormon. Then they came to church this past sunday
(yesterday) and there was about 8 or so of
them there, so that increased the attendance by 10% haha They are
an awesome family and we are going to continue to teach them this week.
The other fmaily that we have been seeing is the
fmaily from Panama and things are going well, we taught them the Plan of
Salvation (or the Plan of Happiness) which is really about families and
how we can be together forever. It's awesome
so if you want to know more, look it up on mormon.org.
We taught them with a family that goes to church and the mom speaks
Spanish so if sometimes things get mixed up, she can clear them up.
Actually the mom who is a member
of the church lived in Oakland, CA a little bit, which if you don't
know is about 25 min from my house, home of the Oakland Athletics!!
sorry, had to get that in haha anyways..it went really well, we were
showing her some Bible and Book of Mormon scriptures
about where we were, why we are here, and where we are going (in the
Book of Mormon read Alma chapter 40; talks about resurrection and the
spirit world) and they soaked it up like a sponge. We are meeting them
later this week so hopefully everything keeps
going well. It's pretty cool because the 2 older boys (14, 12) always
ask me how church is, ask if it's boring haha, and also that they want
to come check it out, so I reaallyy hope they come soon so they can
check it out for themselves! They have been making
great progress and they always express how much they love us coming
over to visit. Also, the grandpa of the family is one of the
elders/ministers at the church down the road but he is a really nice
guy. He actually told his daughter (the mom we are teaching
with her family) that he would maybe want to sit in on one of our
lessons so he can listen in and stuff, so that is pretty neat. Hey, if
you want to find out more about someone or something, go to the source.
That is what I have learned a lot being here and
actually from friends and family back home. if you have a question
about another religion, ask someone who is a part of that religion so
you get the facts and truths. I ask my best friend about Catholicism all
the time because he is Catholic, pretty simple
huh? Ask the source.
This last Wednesday we got a third companion! A
third! What?! Yup, his name is Elder Nelson, from Vancouver,
Washington, and I already knew him from when I was in Utah doing my
training in the MTC. His MTC district and My district were
pretty close and hung out a lot. He is going to Santa Maria, Brazil
also and he got in the same day, so he and I are on the same schedule
pretty much. He came from Tuscaloosa which is where the University of
Alabama is and he got transferred here. (Every 6
weeks they kind of rotate guys around to be able to be in different
areas of the mission but not every rotates every 6 weeks) My companion
and I are staying so it's cool but now we have a third. It's nice
because now Elder Nelson we can say stuff in Portuguese
and understand and practice so it's a cool addition to the group.
Weather-wise, it has been getting cooler but I am still rocking the
short sleeve haha I am not a huge fan of wearing long-sleeves all day so
i am probably going to wear short-sleeves until it
snows or whatever haha It has rained a bit but otherwise it has
gradually gotten colder. The other day we walked about 12-15 miles, good
size hills involved too. It was cool because we a different side of the
town, the ghetto area haha, actually where we are
going to play basketball at the rec center later today, (which is
actually a much nicer gym then our church gyms. By the outside of the
building you would think it isn't very good but the indside court is
like a nice high school basketball court.) but we walked
through there and saw some sweet Oldsmobiles, Cadillacs, Mustangs, and
other cool cars but then the houses were literally caving in, standing
on bricks alone and stuff. Kind of sad that they spent all that money on
a brand new car with 26 inch rims and new
paints jobs with sweet speaker systems, but then leave nothing for
their family or whoever they are living with. Kind makes you wonder what
things you put first in your life. There are some cool people there and
we will probably go back to try to contact some
more people. Every time I see those areas I always want to help them,
so we'll see how much of a difference we can make. Might as well try.
Elder Spencer Miller
p.s. the picture included is of this interesting
house that we saw and I thought it looked like a bizarre disney looking
house or something I don't know. The whole street was filled with some
other historic ones liek this that were being
repainted other wacky colors, but it was hecka cool and I figured some
of you would like it.
p.s.s. I've heard sports updates here and there and
it looks like college football is getting closer to and end and the
bowl games. Heismanology! (the study of who wins the Heisman trophy)
haha got to love sports. College Bball started...oh
man...I am going to be going through huge withdrawals..pray extra for
me with this that I may survive haha
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