Hello again, family!

Yet another weekly email has landed in your inbox. A lot has happened this week, but I’m kind of unsure about how to describe it all. As I told Mom a short while ago, I’m kinda frazzled by everything which means this email MIGHT not be completely stellar. We shall see!

First up, we had a good district meeting this week. I went in with an entirely different attitude thanks to last week’s exchange with Elder Dixon (our zone leader). I enjoyed the experience and left with a smile. I’ve never been much of a fan of meetings. I’d much rather be out working than inside a stuffy chapel.

In other news, I’ve started teaching piano to a young boy in our ward. His name is Joshua. He’s a really cute kid who’s about nine years old. His mother plays flute but doesn’t really know how to teach him to read music or play with his left hand on the keyboard. I’ve only had one lesson with Josh, but he seems like an avid learner who actually wants to play piano. I’ll obviously have to tone everything down for him and teach in short segments, but I see it as good practice for teaching kids the gospel sometime down the road of my mission. Cool, huh? I’ll keep you posted on how things progress.

We had a service opportunity with a less active lady in our ward the other day. She lives on the Indian reservation. Her wood pile was starting to get a little low, especially in the kindling department, so we offered to help her cut some pieces into smaller chunks to help her start fires more easily. It only took us an hour, but it was quite the workout because she didn’t have a chopping block for us to use. When you have to precariously balance the wood on the ground and tap it with an axe instead of wailing on it with an axe (which is what you can do when the wood is balanced and raised off the ground), things are much harder. Against all odds, however, we succeeded!

We’re still working on setting up yearly mission plans with the members of the Wells ward. We’ve only visited two members thus far, but the two we’ve talked to have spread the word and people are beginning to see that we know what we’re doing (at least to an extent). Do you all have a mission plan? What are you doing to be more spiritual and open to more missionary opportunities?

The only other news I had was that of how our investigators are progressing. Hallie and her boys are loving the Gospel and everything about the Church. They’re set to be baptized on the 22nd (in one week) and are very excited. We’re excited too! Salvador has a few concerns and is hesitant about setting a date, but we asked him to pray about January 28th and he said he would. Those are the main investigators we have now. I’ll tell you more about the area in later emails as things progress.

I love you all and am incredibly grateful to know I have you as my family for eternity. That’s an incredibly comforting thought. Enjoy your week! Life is good!

Your missionary,
Elder Millar

Hey, hey, hey, family! WAZZUP?!

This week was incredibly momentous. Life exploded with work. Wow! Gotta love Wells! Here we go!

After district meeting on Tuesday, Elder Stone and I had what I call a “Violet Hour.” Remember Violet from “The Incredibles?” She could turn invisible. For a Violet Hour, we walk around town or ranches in our P-Day clothes and offer service. The service clothes make us blend in instead of standing out as missionaries which makes us feel invisible, hence the name! We walked around Starr Valley and asked members if we could help them with anything. After trying a few doors, we found John and Tami who were willing to let us split their pile of cottonwood. We set to work with a sledgehammer and splitting spike. We were successful for about an hour. At the end of that hour, I, the little guy that I am, managed to break the splitting spike clean in half. That put a stop to our work!

We had a wonderful dinner with a different member family later that evening. That day was kinda tough for both me and Elder Stone so chilling with this great member family for a while was incredibly soothing.

The next morning, we spent five hours splitting wood for Brother Haskell. My aim wasn’t the greatest and I managed to hit the axe handle on the wood a couple times which was not good for the tool. I should probably retire from wood splitting…I bought Brother Haskell a new axe though!

We’ve had a couple AWESOME lessons with our investigators this week. We met with Salvador and also with Hallie and her kids. They’re all progressing wonderfully! We’ve set baptismal dates for all four of them this month. BOOYA!

Those baptisms are a result of us working the area to death. We’ve had back-to-back appointments for the last few days which means I’m exhausted but pleased with our progress. Life is good, especially when it’s hard! As you might remember, I started the Book of Mormon again when I entered the field. I just reached 3rd Nephi the other day. Exciting! I’m sure I could read faster, but I’m really enjoying the added understanding I’m gaining!

One last thing which I suppose you can put on the blog for comedic purposes. I’ve been exercising religiously of late and am rather pleased by how I’m “buffing up.” I love being able to do hard labor, especially if it means I’m returning to the strength level I had in college.

I hope you’re all doing well! Enjoy your week and keep the Spirit with you! Life is good and the Lord is wonderful!

Forever yours,
Elder Millar