December 30 2013, Sweetwater, FL

MIRACLE BAPTISM!!!! It was the best thing ever! So let me start at the beginning...So once upon a time there was this lady and she was watching the Shaytards on youtube and she loved them so she decided to look up there religion and calls the church in her area for their church service time and comes for three months STRAIGHT (She might have missed one but she had a good reason) She truly came to love the church and loved coming with her daughter. We were able to see her testimony grow as she came each week and see her make friends. She was the best!  We had asked her to be baptismed and couple months before but she had told us that she couldn't bring her self to be baptized again. This Sunday though was a miracle. Sacrament meeting had such a great spirit to it and then when we were in Sunday School with her my new awesome boss companion gave a great lesson about Jesus' life and ministry and we felt the spirit so strongly. After class she and I are talking and she askes me, "So are you guys having that baptism thing this week?" and I said, "No, I don't think anyone is getting baptized today." And then she says, "I think I am ready to be baptized." Which of course is music to any missionaries ears. I wish I could have seen my face! I must have just looked like she had just told me she had a million dollars for me! Hahah:) and then I stuttered out, "Well we can do one just for you?" and she said, "Okay." My eyes where so big! I was in shock. So while she goes to relief society I ask the District Leader if he can do her interview today and he says yes. So I go over to my companion who is sitting next to her in class and whisper to her, " Ask her if she wants the interview right now." and my companion looks at me weird because she hadn't heard the conversation that we had had and she didn't realize what was going on, so she just looked at me weird. So I said, "Ask her" For sternly, then again "Ask her!" haha my poor companion was a little confused asked her, "Would you maybe like to do an interview for baptism?" and she gets right up and says, " Okay" and my companions mouth drops and shes shocked in amazement and probably thought, ITS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE! hahahah:)) It was so funny and it was the best!! Her baptism was great and we are so excited to see her receive the Holy Ghost! I know that she is going to be a great member! Someone definitely has to email the shaytards now and tell them that they just got someone baptized!! Sorry if this email is a little confusing haha:) How was your guys Christmas?? It was so nice to see my family on skype and to talk to them!! I just figured out that I will be spending two Christmas' from home but thats okay:) I spent Christmas with a family in our ward and they were so nice to us! and I also got to spend Christmas eve with a great family!!! We were so blessed this year! I hope you guys had a great Christmas!!This week I was really able to study and to understand the true purpose of us being here on this earth and to understand that we all just want to return back to our Heavenly Father who is waiting for us with open arms! I love you guys! Thanks for reading my blog and for sending me Christmas cards! It was so great to see all of you guys!! I love you! HURRAH FOR ISRAEL

Love Hermana Miles

P.S. I slammed my finger in a door trying to run away from a dog ( I know it doesnt really make sense) and I like almost sliced it off. Blood was everywhere and I had to go ask our investigator to get me some first aid supplies!! But at least it got us into the house!:)) yay for more miracles!!!

December 23 2013, Sweetwater, FL

Hey guys!! 

Can you believe that Christmas is only two days away!!! WHAT DID YOU GUYS GET!!??? Anyways! This week was Crazy!! So my trainer went home and so I got a new companion! I also have to take over my area and I was so nervous about it! I think it was the most nervous that I have every been in my life! I was shaking and I felt all jittery and I couldnt eat and felt like I couldn't even move! I think just the fact of all the responsibility being on my shoulders and feeling like I couldnt let anyone down really got to me. But! I got over it really quick! My new companion is awesome!!!! Her name is Sister Johnson and she is from Brigham City, Utah! I am already loving her! I am really excited for this next transfer with her. She seems excited and ready to get to work which is great! So we were running out of miles for our car (We only get a certain amount of miles each month and if we use them all up we have to go on bike) and guess what? We are on BIKE!! At first I was like AWESOME!! This is going to be so much fun! I am going to love it! I am going to be talking to everyone on the street! Yeah!!!...30 minutes later I realized the horror of being on a bike...in florida...in a skirt... on a bike that is too tall for me...GUYS I ALMOST DIED!! So as I said before the bike is a little too tall for me and so I kind of have to jump on the bike to get on and so we were on the sidewalk on this really busy street and I am jumping on my bike but I suddenly feel myself tipping over INTO THE STREET!! and I see this car coming right towards me! I saw my life flash before my eyes! I fall in to the street! Skirt flying every where and thankfully Heavenly Father saved me and the car swerved in to the other lane! Oh man!! So I am lying on the floor and then I hear this ambulance start its sirens and I think "Oh man they probably think I am hurt" and I jump up and scream "I am okay!" haha but...the ambulance wasn't for me but no probably everyone on the street probably thinks I am a lunatic. But At least I now know that I still have work to do because Heavenly Father saved me:) hahaha  Oh the joys of bikes! Who knew they could be so exciting! Anyways So we found this lady named Mayda she seems so ready for the gospel. She has been having a really hard time because a lot of bad things have happened to her in her life and she is feeling really lonely at this time. She was so kind to us! She even gave us a huge candy bar for Christmas!! She was truly prepared her son had died a couple of years ago and she was feeling really lonely and she said that when we knocked on the door that she knew that we were truly sent from God. It was really a blessing to feel like I was able to bless her life in some way and feel like a true instrument in God's hands. MERRY CHRISTMAS GUYS!!!

Love Hermana Miles

p.s. For my Christmas gift you guys should send me letters...just saying...or an email just saying hi...you know

p.s.s TWO MORE DAYS!!

p.s.s.s Hurrah for ISRAEL!!!!

Our Christmas tree!

My companion and her two trainees. 

A tracel buddy from the MTC.  

Our ward christmas party. 

December 17, 2013, Sweetwater, FL

Hey guys so I don't really have a lot of time this week but I will fill you in next week:) This week my companion is leaving home:)!!! And I am getting a new companion!!! I am super excited to see who I am getting. I am also getting to take over my area and I am really nervous about it! But we will see how it goes  and see how my new companion can help me out. My companion is freaking out a little bit but she will be okay:) hahaha This week we went to a christmas party of my ward and it was a blast. A new investigator came and he had a blast and then we had a whole bunch of nativities in the relief society room and you could really feel the spirit in the room and he really felt the spirit there so it seems to really be progressing:) We will be going out to the everglades soon so I will send you guys pictures of it! I am super excited about it:) I love you guys and I sent you a picture just because I didn't write a lot this week:)) Merry Christmas!!

December 9, 2013-Sweetwater, FL

So this week was really amazing! We were able to meet with Brandon again ( the guy that said yes to baptism last time we were knocking doors) and He is such an awesome guy! He seems so prepared for the gospel and he said that as we knocked on his door that as that exact time he had been contemplating some things and when he saw that it was missionaries offering a prayer he said to himself that God really does answer prayers!! It amazes me how many experiences like this happen and how we think that we are doing all of this on our own sometimes but God shows us that he places us in the paths that he needs us to be in order to help others. He came to church this last Sunday and he was awesome! He loved it and he even called his Mom and his Daughter to tell them that he had gone to church because he was so excited!!:) We are so happy for him and are excited to see the progress that he will be making:) Another miracle that happened this week was crazy:) We were on the street trying to apply some principles that we had just been taught about OYM's (Open your mouth; Basically just talking to everyone) and we had passed him a Mormon.org card and told him that he should look it up and it would change his life and we bore testimony to him. Now, this is a normal thing and we do this a bunch of times everyday and I have never really ever seen these people again but the next day this guy comes up to us, we didn't even recognize this guy and might have just passed him another card but he says to us, "Hey I looked up that website you told me to look up. I really liked it" My companion and I just kind of stood there for a second in amazment while our jaws dropped! It was crazy we were so excited we just smiled really big and said really!! and then we remembered that we should probably get his information before the leaves so we could set up an appointment with him.;) Also another exciting thing happened this week! :) We were in a lesson with Brandon and we come out to see that our car is blocked by a person that had parked right behind us... Turns out that we had accidently parked in the apartment parking and not in the visitor parking and this guy decided to park right behind us to show us a lesson I guess. So it is 9:00 at night and we have a curfew at 9:30 and we just don't know what to do! We started knocking on doors and then my companion said "hey we should just push it out of the way, it isnt that hard I have done it before". So you see these two sister missionaries in skirts trying to PUSH a car. Then my companion suddenly remembers that the car has to be in neutral in order to move a car   -_-...  So by this time I am starting to panic thinking that they are going to tow our car and I am going to have to pay a lot of money and then I am going to have to bribe the tow truck so that we dont have to walk home, that I just start laughing my head off which my companion did not appreciate too much. Hahaha but! I all turned out okay! We said a prayer and then a lady comes out and tells us where the guys apartment is, we knock on the door and this mad Latin man comes stomping out with his car keys. We jump in the car after he moves the car and drive off before this angry latin man has a chance to rear end the sister missionaries...but! moral of the story, God answers prayers!! (also we might or might not have ended up being 30 minutes late after curfew and having to call the mission president leaving him a voicemail telling him how dumb the sister missionaries are) But its okay! I love this work and I love these experiences! I have been laughing ever since!!  

God is great! and people are crazy;)

Love

Hermana Miles

P.S. We found this bakery a couple of blocks from our house and they have these delicious little cake thingies I don't know what they are but they are made from heaven! HEAVEN!! pastelitos de guayba I think is what they are called. Everyone has to try these. Put it on your bucket list right now!!

December 2 2013-Sweeetwater, Fl

GUYS!! GUESS WHAT!!!

I am driving now!!!! It is so crazy! The people here in Miami are kind of a little bit crazy drivers but maybe that will help me fit right in:) How was your guys Thanksgiving?? Mine was crazy!! We ended up getting invited to eight Thanksgivings and we ate at five of them. Guys...never eat five Thanksgiving dinners...never. It was kind of bad at the end of the night. I felt like my stomach was going to explode! But it was really nice to be around all those families and to see the love that they all have for each other! It was really nice just being in a family setting during Thanksgiving! It really felt like the holidays. And also I will probably not eat turkey until next year. Five turkeys was enough for me:) My companion goes home in two weeks so that means that I will be going to take the area over when she leaves! AHH!! Its crazy! It's a little stressful but hopefully everything will work out:) One miracle that we had this week was finding this guy named Brandon. We had been knocking on doors for a while without much success and we had decided to go home. My companion and I were about to leave when we felt that we should knock on one more door and this is where we found Brandon! He was super open to everything and accepted Baptism! we were really happy to meet him! It is becoming more and more apparent to me how much we need the gospel in our lives and for our families especially just being around all these families during Thanksgiving. Each family was different but they all had this special feeling and that is definitely something that I want in my own family:) I love you guys! I hope you all had a GREAT Thanksgiving and I am sorry this post was a little short.

Love Hermana Miles

P.S. We were at the mall earlier today and this salesperson asked if me and my companion were BFFL's (best friends for life) haha :D SUCCESS! WE LOOK LIKE WE ACTUALLY LIKE EACH OTHER:) haha just kidding I love her:)