10110

Good morning folks and people,
I might have low key ran outta time last week to write an email. My bad.
Well, you have it this week! I hope all has been well at home, and that
you're all enjoying the super cold weather everywhere but Houston right
now! I have a bit to talk about (I think) so lets start talking about it!
Spiritual thought:
Today's scripture comes from Alma chapter 5. This chapter is kinda the
questions chapter haha. I'm not sure if any other chapter has as many
questions as this one. One of my favorite questions of the entire chapter
is verse 26:
And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a
change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I
would ask, can ye feel so now?
In other words, if you have felt the holy ghost before, can you feel it
now? If not, you need to change whatever you're doing. Alma goes on to say,
Have ye walked, keeping yourselves blameless before God? Could ye say, if
ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been
sufficiently humble? That your garments have been cleansed and made white
through the blood of Christ, who will come to redeem his people from their
sins?
Behold, are ye stripped of pride? I say unto you, if ye are not ye are not
prepared to meet God. Behold ye must prepare quickly; for the kingdom of
heaven is soon at hand, and such an one hath not eternal life.
Holy smokes. That question is kinda crazy. If you were to die right now,
would you be ready to meet God? I don't think I'd be ready! I really like
the council of Alma to try to live each day as if we would meet God at the
end of it. I also think that it's interesting how Alma says "the kingdom of
God is at hand". There is a difference between the kingdom of God, and the
kingdom of Heaven. The kingdom of God is the church, while the kingdom of
heaven is the celestial kingdom. The church is also the kingdom of heaven
on Earth. So basically, Alma is saying that the authority and knowledge of
God is already with us, and so you need to repent and be ready NOW. It also
reminds me of what President Nelson said in his most recent General
Conference talk, "It is neither too early nor too late for you to become a
devout disciple of Jesus Christ." The time is now. This moment, right now,
is the only moment you get to choose. You can't change the past, and you
can only influence the future. Choose ye this day whom ye shall serve.
Choose the Lord. I know you will be blessed. The atonement is real. It
heals. Use it. Strive to be ready, during each moment of your life, to meet
God again. Begin singing the song of *redeeming* love again. Strive for the
spirit, and it will strive with you. Be redeemed. Please.
Ok gamers its (two) weekly rundown time!
Gosh, I honestly don't really know what to run down to be honest. This week
has just been busy busy! I guess the craziest thing that happened was last
Wednesday, when Elder Donnelly slipped while we were playing soccer, and
hurt his knee. We are currently in the doctor's office to make sure
everything is okay. Last Sunday (the one that wasnt yesterday), we got NINE
friends to church!!! We got a family of 5, plus 4 other people. It was
awesome! We also found 45 people in the last 2 weeks, and we also have
"mission tour" this week, wherr a general authority will come and talk to
us and tour the mission and stuff. We have Elder Michael A. Dunn coming to
our mission! Elder Dunn wrote one of my favorite talks, One Percent Better (
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2021/10/54dunn?lang=eng)
my homework for you is to listen to this talk, and see what you can apply
in your life. We can always be one percent better! Anyway, we had a zoom
call with him last night and he seems so awesome! I'm really excited to get
to learn a bit more from him! In other news, we also got a returning member
to church yesterday! Her name is Gloria, and it seems like she hasn't had
contact with the church in several years. We found a ride for her, and she
seemed so happy to be at church! It was such a blessing.
We had a really interesting experience on Saturday, with a guy who tried
bashing us. He tried asking us what the name of God was (Jehova's Witness
style (this guy was actually catholic though)) and we told him it was Jesus
Christ. He asked us to prove it in the old testament, and I did with Exodus
3:14, and John 8:58. Jesus Christ is the great I AM, the God of the Old
Testament, and the New. He kinda flipped around his argument and was super
confusing after that haha. We then tried telling him about the Book of
Mormon, and how it is a record of Jesus Christ and contains his perfect
doctrine. We bore our testimonies of the Book of Mormon so strongly that he
actually took it and told us he would read it! We invited him to pray about
it as well. We'll see if he actually got anything out of it but it was a
very interesting situation.
We are teaching like 4 seperate families right now, which is a pretty big
tone shift from the last few transfers. It's been awesome, but a lot of
work! Well, I think thats just about good and I also can't really think of
anything else super interesting or cool. I did see an opossum for the first
time just running around, that was pretty cool.
But yeah that was the past two weeks!
Photos:
Dinner

Temple Pday

Cont.

There's always a train stopped in the road in Houston!

More photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/LvH1u7A88T9LSwoS8
Thanks for reading my email! I really appreciate it. I would also like to
submit a formal apology to anyone who has sent me an email, I have
forgotten to respond to basically any of them for basically my entire
mission. I'm thinking about y'all and praying for y'all! Please forgive me
🙏.
Ok love ya
Talk to you next week,
XOXO,
Elder Miller
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