6-25-12

Happy Monday everyone! I hope things are going well, and that you are all enjoying summer. :) The summer here has been kinda crazy so far. Plenty of rain, some rather cold days, and some very hot days.

Not a whole lot to report. Cool member from Africa who had been having a hard time finding the Church in Germany showed up yesterday. Speaks English, and very little German. He didn't understand much of the meetings at all, but he was very happy to be there, and talked about how he would be there every week now that he knew where it was. I knew exactly how he felt not understanding the meetings. :P

As far as my spiritual thoughts this week, I would like to focus my thought on Christ. He is such a massive concept. Such a wonderous person. Through sheer love for us, He was enabled to suffer all things for all of God's children on all worlds for all of time. There is a wonderful quote, which seems to be a preface to a book written by a wonderful LDS woman. http://www.sober.com/forums/t/6580/talk+given+by+chieko+n+okazaki+lighten+up.aspx I encourage you to go read it. It is beautiful. I will also be posting a wonderful song on my blog that our stake Christmas choir sang a couple different Christmases. I hope you go listen to it.
I hope you all have a wonderful week. Remember Christ, and let Him play a bigger role in your day to day life. I promise you He would love to. I bear my testimony in His name that He truly is The Son of God. The Divine Redeemer. Our Loving Lord and King. Amen.

- Elder Michael Bright Miles

6-18-12

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having wonderful weeks! My email this week is going to be a little short. I hope that's ok.

Things are going well. We still have two investigators preparing for baptizm, and that's wonderful. :) They are learning a lot, and are happy to learn. They are even getting married, in part to live the law of chastity. :) Wonderful.

I thought I would share a piece of a conversation I was having with my grandma, and my mom:

"One thing I started working on before I left for my mission was the idea of 'retaliate with love'. When someone loves you, retaliate with love. When someone is not so nice to you, retaliate with love. Fighting punches with hugs. That kind of idea. :)"

This applies to all of life. When an unhappy thought comes up in your mind, retaliate at it with a loving thought. A positive replacement for the negativity. When someone says an unhappy thing, retaliate at them by thinking and speaking positively. It will help a lot. :)

I challenge you all to try to retaliate more and more with love. You will become so much more of a happier person.

I made pigs in the blanket this week finally! They turned out very well. They got a little darker brown than I would have liked, but they weren't really burned. They were delicious. I will attatch pictures. If they aren't up here on the post, bother my family about it. ;)

Well, have a wonderful week everybody! Retaliate with love, and don't forget to read in the scriptures. Make this a good week. :) I will close with a wonderful quote my grandma shared with me from a book she is reading:

"The injunction to repent is, in effect, an injunction to change one's mind. This is not a trivial requirement. In fact, it suggests a profound transformation. In Classical Greek, the word noos may be variously translated "mind," "thought," "reason," "intellect," "purpose," "will," "heart," "design," or, we might say, "mind as the active principle of the universe." In light of this, Jesus' commandment to repent, becomes a call for the transformation of the individual, the remaking of the self at the most profound level. Christ calls upon His listeners to become completely new creatures. Closely linked to that change, and in an interactive and inextricable relationship with it, is faith: We must believe the gospel as a sometimes precursor to, sometimes result for, the necessary transformation."

-Elder Miles

6-11-12

Hello everyone! I hope you can all honestly tell me you are doing well. :)

Things are going well this week. We got Jenifer and Elson commited to baptizm! Very cool. They are actually living together, and are not married, so they will be making the choice soon as to whether to get married or have one of them move out. Worst case scenario is that they drop the baptizmal date because they don't want to commit to a big, relationship changing decision like that. But I don't think that will happen. :)

We are teaching quite a few people, but to go down the list would be long and boring. :P

My new companion is great. We are getting along very well. There are always differences that one runs into, but there hasn't been anything of note. He's a fun guy from Middletown, Pennslyvania. Likes music a lot and has a guitar here in the field. Cool guy.

The weather here has been rather up and down. Some days warm enough for short sleeved shirts, other days cold enough for a coat. Rather intense. Not too bad though. I'm not really complaining. :)

I will now be including a couple sections from my correspondence with my uncle Walter again. He asks quite good questions. :)

He asked what we do for food on the run, I told him that there are bakeries everywhere, and we normally would just drop by one of those. Pastries, really nice bread, snack stuff like little sandwiches or even little pizza-looking things.

He asked about whether little kids said stuff to us a lot, he having gotten that a lot on his mission. - - There was actually one kid that came up and talked to us once. He said 'Was arbeiten Sie?' Which kinda translates into what work are you guys doing, or what are you up to kind of a thing. We told him we were missionaries, and he just kinda said 'Oh.' And pretty much walked away after that. Funny little moment. We also have had a couple different instances where teenagers hear us speaking English, and speak a couple phrases to each other loud enough for us to hear, and then laugh with each other about it. None of them ever actually try to really talk to us or anything. Funny people.

He asked whether I have been doing any splits or exchanges - - We do do exchanges actually. My last companion was district leader, and he is asked to do a lot of exchanges. We usually did them once a week. Did one with each of the other elders in our district, one with one of our zone leaders, and one other time with the elders in Neuköln. Was pretty intense. Weird to sleep somewhere other than my appartment, and be with someone other than my companion. Makes for some good adventures though.

In any case, I hope you all are doing well. I challenge you all to kick your Book of Mormon reading up a notch. If you don't read, try reading one verse a night. Not bad at all. It could be random, or it could be in order. If you already read each night, try moving it up a notch. Read more. Start using colored pencils to mark. Come up with a creative color coding that makes sense to you. You could try studying a topic instead of just reading at random or in order. I have heard that studying a topic can make for much more wonderful study time. Maybe try expanding what you are studying in. Jesus the Christ is wonderful. The Bible is always there. Conference talks are a great resource of modern day scripture. :) Try to keep the Book of Mormon in there every day though. :) Just do what you can! Challenge yourself! Go start enjoying the Gospel! It's such a glorious thing. :)

Have a wonderful week everyone. Go spread the Light you have. And if you don't have any, I have got to recommend finding some. :) Talk to you next week!

- Elder Michael Miles

6-3-12

Hello everybody! I hope you have all had a wonderful week! Gotta be a bit quick today, have a lot to respond to, and a lot going on today, but my uncle asked some very good questions, that made for some really good stuff to include. :)


Firstly, he asked if I had found any tasty cereal. -

I actually like the off brand frosted flakes pretty well. The granola here is also very delicious. Everything tastes rather different. Even name brand cereals have a completely different taste. And since the chocolate here is rather different, the chocolate cereal is way different. It was the first kind I got, and I haven't gotten any since. :P


Then the subject of delicious foods that I have found so far -

Hmmm... I think maybe the bread... They have a lot of tasty quality bread products around. I really like these things called spitzel rings. Kinda looks and tastes like a churro-style doughnut, minus the cinnamon.


He commented that root beer was a big deal back in his mission -

There is quite a bit of effort over here on the missionaries part to make root beer and such. You can buy classic A&W and such, but it's hard to find, and expensinve. It's rather a divided subject for Germans. Some people hate it, some people love it. But any German person that I have heard of that actually really tries it a couple times, grows to love it very quickly. They actually had quite a bit of it at a ward event a few days ago. Lots of people were drinking it.


He asked if we see people selling food on the street -

They do sell food on the street. I have seen bratwurst stands quite a bit. In very large busy areas, you will sometimes see guys will an entire grill setup with condiments and everything hanging off of their front like a massive reverse backpack. It's almost as big as they are. maybe I'll try to get a picture of one for you guys.


He asked about whether my companion and I pray and sing together, and talked about there being a lot of Elders in one appartmet where he had been -

There is usually two to an appartment here. Sometimes four. There is one appartment I know of that has six. My companion and I don't really have any traditions to sing or pray together at the end of the day. We get home, pray, plan, and then go about our own things, talking and relaxing until bed.


He asked how big my area is -

My area is rather large. I think you might be able to look it up online. The Berlin area has one central area, and then there are six areas coming out from that like spokes of a wheel which cover their little chunk of the circle, and extend out into the countryside, covering little 'dorfs' or small towns here and there. It's all very well connected by busses and trains. We spend a lot of time on public transportation, and then walk the rest of the way once we get as close as we can. We spend most of our time in the dense city though.


He asked me about terminology that my mission has -

Terminology... Well new people are called goldens, not greenies. They strive to make it a positive term. Goldens have 'golden power'. That mysterious ability to make miracles happen through hard work and effort, even though they don't have much skill at all. We also have a kind of 'mission geneaology' (I hope I spelled that right). My trainer is my father. His trainer is my grandfather. Other people that my trainer has trained are my brothers. Pre mission life is the pre-mortal life, the MTC is the womb, your first city is your birth city, going home is death. My dad is dying this tranfer and going home, and goldens are considered golden for two transfers, which means that my secondary trainer that finishes my golden training will be called my step-dad. We had a big conference call Saturday where the mission president was able to read off all of the transfers and everyone could listen from their phone. It was cool. My new trainer that will be coming tomorrow is named Elder Stoe. We'll see how that goes. Also, a missionary going home soon that stops working as hard is getting 'trunky'. They have packed their trunks and are cheking out early in their mind. My trainer has been doing well though not getting very trunky.

I hope those were cool things to hear about. :) I don't have a whole lot of time, or things to talk about... A couple investigators of ours have a baptismal date now, and that's very exciting. :) My companion has been doing a lot of getting ready to go home. Taking pictures with the investigators and members. Saying goodbye to people. It's been kinda nice to watch, and to see how much the relationship is there between him and these people.

Have a wonderful week everyone! Keep your Light shining. Find something positive that you are good at, and make it even brighter. On the flip side, find something your struggling with, and go make a plan! Work on it, pray about it. You got this. :) Talk to you next week!

-Elder Michael Miles

5-28-12

It has been rather warm here. A bit humid, but not as bad as it was a week or so ago. Still pretty comfortable. I worry about how bad it's gonna get, but I try not to worry. I'm supposed to be here. So I know I'll be able to handle the heat. :)

Ooh, had a pretty nice meal this sunday at a member's house. Had some chile concarne (spelling?) kinda stuff with corn and beans and meat and some onions. It was tasty. We also had rolls and juice. Afterwards, she served us some sticky rice stuff. I got the recipie from her. First you make plenty of rice. Then you mix equal parts brown sugar and coconut milk and mix well while cook until the brown sugar all melts and it gets sticky. Then start adding rice until it reaches a good consistency. It should turn out as rice with sticky tasty sauce stuff all over it. It shouldn't be runny or like pudding or anything. It was delicious. :)

I actually think that street contacting is more scary than doors. After you ring the doorbell, you're already in for it, so you just do what you can, and then walk away. With street contacting, you have to try to stop someone on the street and talk to them. And they are not very likely to stop and talk to you. And even when they do, once they hear that you are talking about religion, most of them say any one of a variety of kurt, though not overly rude phrases, all pretty much meaning no and walk away. Silly people don't know what they're missing out on. :)

Had a wonderful fireside last night (Sunday night) from one of President Pimmentel's old companions. Wonderful theme about miracles and going big and not letting opportunities pass you by. :)

Anyway, it seems that this post may be a little short, but I can't think of a whole lot else to talk about. -shrug-

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Feel free to email me if you aren't already. :)

Keep your Light and Happiness close. Never walk away from truly good and pure things. Keep your standards from slipping. And always remember to find the good. :) Talk to you next week!

-Elder Micahel Miles

5-21-12

Hello everyone! I hope your weeks have been going well. Mine has been.

We had some cold weather too. Cloudy and windy. We have had a couple days now though with very nice warm weather. And today is shaping up to be very warm and pretty. :)

The food has been strange, but not horrible. When something comes along that I really just do not want to eat, it is usually simple enough not to eat it. The families are all very nice, and all seem to understand that I might not like all of what they are serving. It's nice.

Still planning on making pigs in the blanket and such. Found some meat that seems to closely resemble hot dogs, and my companion says that it's about as close as we're going to get as far as flavor. They come in jars! A lot of things come in glass jars here. It's odd.

The work out here is going well. A lot of people that we can't seem to get a hold of, and plenty of people canceling on appointments, or not showing up. But it doesn't bother me. Did doors for the first time the other day. Liked it more than street contacting. It wasn't so bad. Helped me to think about relying on the Lord, and simply conveying his message. :)

I also have been striving to simplify how I think about the Gospel. I feel that I have a full, great understanding of it all, but I very easily get caught up in the details, and that can be bad in a lesson, because it can confuse the investigator, and distract the overall atmosphere from the true message of the lesson. It is nice learning to simplify. :)

Things are going well out here in any case. Plenty well off buying groceries and such. (Easier than I thought ;P) Getting along well with my companion. He is easy going and laid back, and a good missionary. Weird though, because he is going home after this transfer. Normally a new missionary would get two transfers (three months) with his first trainer, but I am going to have only one transfer (six weeks), and then I will have a new trainer. A 'step dad'. Your trainer is called your dad, his trainer is your grandpa, etc. Other people that your trainer has trained are your brothers, the end of your mission is death, the start is birth, your first area is the area you were born in, lots of funny terminology.

Anyway, I'm off. Have a wonderful week everyone! And remember, at the end of the day, no matter what kind of a day you have had, you are always the one in charge of how you feel about how that day went. You decide whether to focus on all the disappointments and shortcomings, or the positives and progress. Decide to dwell on happy things, and keep moving forward. Have fun! Talk to you next week. And feel free to email me if you aren't already. (Cody, Danny, would love to hear from you.)

Elder Michael Miles

Skype call.

 We (Michael's Family) were able to talk to him today on mothers day. Here are some screenshots of the call. The person in the second photo is his current Companion.