December 20, 2010

Hey everyone it was a great week in California, it is still raining like crazy. And being on bike is pretty challenging because I get soaked! But it’s still way fun. Over the last week I have been on a lot of exchanges. On Thursday I went with the Spanish elders for the day and I discovered that I would not do that well in the Spanish program. I had no idea what anyone was talking about most of the time and during dinner this family kept on asking me questions. And since I didn’t understand any of the questions so I said si to everything. Then Thursday night to Friday night I went on an exchange with the Zone Leaders in Santa Clara. That was fun and it was nice to get out of my area for a few days. I came back on Saturday and had my double baptisms , which was amazing! The spirit was so strong and I felt so much joy watching them get baptized. It was pretty nerve racking baptizing the first person baptized on my mission but it was still awesome! Everyone was pretty excited about it because in the last year my area had only seen one baptism so we have started to pick up the area. Then on Sunday we went to a member’s house and played bingo with Michelle our recent convert and some friends. I won so many games it was so sweet. Well Christmas is coming and I am pretty excited, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. I love you all so much, and want to thank you for all the support you have given me.

Elder Zach Miller

December 13, 2010

Hey everyone it has been another great week in the San Jose Mission. Both of the baptisms for the 18th are still on, and the program is set.  So I am excited to watch Mandy get baptized and then I get to baptize Michelle! It’s crazy my first baptism and I will be baptizing. I am so excited to call home on Christmas. This last weekend was our ward Christmas party and my companion Elder Bludworth and I decided to make some chili, it was a New Mexico Recipe and it tasted great it is called Green Chili Stew. It was the best chili there in my opinion. As for the weather I keep expecting to get worse but here it stays the same through the whole winter. So this week most of my time was spent tracking and it is so crazy here I have probably tracked into every kind of people and religion. Jewish, Budist, Hindu all the types of Christians, it is crazy! It truly is the melting pot of the world for sure. But it is still fun and I am still loving California. I am working hard and hopefully I will see more baptisms come. I love all of you and thank you so much for the support you have given me

Elder Zach Miller

December 6, 2010

Hey everyone it has been another great week in the San Jose mission. The first thing that happened was last Monday our dinner was crazy. We ate with a member and he had a little 2 year old kid who wasn’t feeling good. During dinner he was holding his little kid and all of a sudden the kid threw up all over his dad. It was so funny and so gross at the same time! But it has been interesting I have had a lot of people to teach lately but we are having a hard time finding new people. But we have 2 baptisms set for December 18th and they look really solid. I am really excited for them to happen. I am growing closer to the members and this Saturday the Calls the members we are living with took us to get our own Christmas tree. It was so sweet! But things are going well and I feel like I am really making a difference over here. Its weird because today it is really sunny and I heard back home that it is like snowing like crazy! Biking is getting better and it is pretty fun other than the fact that I am still gaining weight , but that’s okay. Well hope everything is good at home! Thanks for all the support I love you guys!

 Elder Zach Miller

November 29, 2010

Well everyone it was my first Thanksgiving out in the mission field and it had its ups and downs. Overall it was a pretty slow week. First we started the week off teaching our investigators Michelle and Mandy and they are still solid to be baptized soon! Then we had two Thanksgivings right after the other it was crazy. I practically ate until I was sick it was nuts. But also we were able to watch the Dallas /New Orleans football game and also Kung Fu Panda it was awesome! Then on Friday we had another Thanksgiving dinner and they sent us home on bikes with tons of leftovers. The leftovers weighed more then my bike, and as we were going the bag ripped that had all the leftovers in them and they were on my handlebars and I screamed NO! So they went everywhere and I was picking stuff up in the middle of the road which was embarrassing. So then I had to carry all the leftovers home in a makeshift bag in one arm. So here I am riding my bike with one hand so we came home and there are the zone leaders and I tried to stop but with only one hand I lost control and totally ate it for my third bike crash on my mission! It was so embarrassing but other than that the week was good. Thanks for all the support I love everyone so much!

November 22, 2010

Hey everyone! So things are going great here in California back at home it should be snowing about now. While it might not be snowing here it still gets really cold. The lowest it has been was around 50 degrees but it feels a lot colder it is definitely a different cold. When you put more layers on it just seems to go right through the layers. So now that thanksgiving is coming up and we have two Thanksgiving dinners planned. We have one for that day and then one on Friday, so that will be awesome. Only one downside our mission president told us that we couldn’t have a turkey bowl, so I was a little disappointed. But this last week has been good we picked up two new investigators and they are set to be baptized on December 18th. One of them is actually a girlfriend of a missionary from the Heritage Oaks ward that just left on his mission. So that would be cool if she got baptized. But the week has gone by fast and we had our zone conference and I am finding out that Miller is a very common last name. There are 2 other Elder Millers in my zone. It has been raining a lot here and on bikes that is not really a whole lot of fun. Most of the time I am soaked and freezing but it is all part of the experience. Well thank you to everyone that is home writing me and supporting me I love you all so much.

Elder Zach Miller

November 15 2010

So its been a little over 2 months here in California, and things are really great. I just finished my first transfer and I am with my second Companion and his name is Elder Bludworth from New Mexico he is really sweet and we get along great. We are having fun out here in California! No baptisms yet but I am hoping that we will have one this next transfer. Alix is ready to be baptized but her husband is against it and holding her from her baptism. But since we found her trackting and to the point now I have seen a big difference and the gospel really affect her life and she is a lot happier. Then when we met her and its great to see that change. So I bought my new bike which has helped me out a lot out here but this week I had another bike crash, you think I would have learned from the first time but I got distracted and a curb took me out. Embarrassing I know. But I am okay and going strong and it is great over here other then when people talk about Christmas they all say well its not Christmas unless we get rain which is so weird. I am used to snow not 70-80 degree weather but I am not complaining. So this last week it was really hard to find people but we had some good lessons and we are teaching about 5 people/families right now. With some work and if they read the Book of Mormon I know they would be ready and feel the spirit and want to be baptized. The members here are great and they feed us every night and really do a lot of missionary work. The youth is amazing and after this week we should be teaching a lot of the youths non member friends. This last week in church one of the young women brought a few of her friends to church because they had to research another religion so they came to church. We shared our beliefs and then after the first lesson its crazy how little people know about the LDS religion. One thing that I thought I wouldnt be doing when I came out here is put up some christmas lights but some old lady called us up and we put up christmas lights and cleaned her gutters. Well things are going great over here in Cali. I am trying my best to work hard. I would love to hear from everyone!