2-17-14 - The End

This, my last week, I have a couple scriptures to share that I stumbled across. The first is actually found in the Book of Mormon, and in Isaiah:

Isaiah 48:18

"Oh, that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea"

I would like to focus on the second half of this verse. In the original context, it is a verse of reprimand, but I would like to take the principle out of the context. Let's rewrite it a little bit:

'Hearken to my commandments! then shall thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea'

Or perhaps even:

'Well done, my good an faithful servant. Thou hast hearkened unto my commandments, and thy peace is as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.'

I love this imagery. I love the power in the comparisons. I testify that as we strive to follow God's commandments, we experience a kind of peace and uplifting that can truly come from no other source. We find rest (Matt. 11:28-30). We find safety.

Secondly, I would like to talk about a short reference from the Book of Mormon:

2 Ne. 2:21

 "And the days of the children of men were prolonged, according to the will of God, that they might repent while in the flesh; wherefore, their state became a state of probation, and their time was lengthened, according to the commandments which the Lord God gave unto the children of men. For he gave commandment that all men must repent; for he showed unto all men that they were lost, because of the transgression of their parents."

Now a thought. Try replacing the word 'repent' with 'change'.

'that they might [change] while in the flesh'

'For he gave commandment that all men must [change]'

I found this exchange of words helped me to throw new light on the idea of repentance... I now try to swtich out the word repentance every time with the word change. It is a powerful idea to me. I hope it helps. :)

I want to bear my testimony to seal this blog.

I testify, in the name of the Lord of Lords, that this Church is His Church. Furthermore, it is the only Church with the divine right and commission to carry the Name of Jesus Christ. I testify of the atounding, breath-taking, and peaceful Love that we can feel from our Heavenly King when we read in His Scriptures, listen to His messengers and meetings, and speak with Him in the wonderful opportunity that is prayer. I have felt it. It is truly the fruit spoken of by Nephi and his father Lehi. It is white above all that is white and sweet above all that is sweet. I testify that God loves you, and wishes so very much to see you again. Never give up. I testify that Jesus Christ is at your side. Never lose hope. I testify that angels are watching over us. Let them help you through your righteous strivings. I seal these words and my testimony in the blessed Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

- Elder Michael Bright Miles, signing out

 Elder Michael Miles will be coming home on Wednesday, February 19th. He will be speaking in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, February 23rd at 9:00am, 942 N. 500 E. Everyone is invited to our home that Sunday evening from 6:00-9:00pm to visit.

1-26-14

One night, as I was praying, trying to ask God about how to work with some challenges, and imploring about where I needed to focus my efforts in order to change and improve, He began to prompt me to study love and charity. I have been working on just that. (Besides, it's one of my favorite study topics.) At about the same time, I decided that I wanted to begin working on reading all of Isaiah. It has been powerful to me to read of the destruction and the wrath of God, while pondering about love, or the love of God. I came to some very touching conclusions. God cares about us so much. He feels everything that we go through (perhaps even more than we do) and understands how we feel. And yet, He knows that we need the trials we get and He knows that we need the hard times and the challenges in order to progress. He loves us so much, that He is willing to overcome His immense empathy for us, in order to put us into the refiners fire. This must be one of the hardest parts about being God... But I know He is with me. And now I have a greater testimony that the trials that we go through, the wrath of God, the destructions and challenges, are amazing signs of God's boundless love for us...

I testify of these things in the name of our Messiah, Jesus Christ, amen.

I love you all. :) God bless you. :)

- Elder Michael Bright Miles

1-20-2014

Today I want to share a thought I had, as inspired by a scripture that was shared during Church yesterday (Mark 13:24-26). As I thought about it, the following formulation of the idea came to my mind:

Don't rely on the sun for light,
rely on the Son for Light.
For the sun cometh and goeth and shall pass away,
but the Son abideth forever.

I thought about how we must put our real trust in God, and stop worrying about worldly things. We need to trust our Lord more than 'mammon'. I testify that the promises that the Lord our God has given us are sure. They are true. They bring hope. The real abiding hope that comes in the faith we exercize in these promises. I testify that our Heavenly Father loves us, and that this Church, the Church of Jesus Christ is the organization of God upon the earth, organized and led by Jesus Christ. I know that everything will be ok. :) We can have hope. We can have joy, as we are intended to. (2 Ne 2:25) Never doubt in the Love of thy God. :) I testify of these things in the sacred Name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I wish you all a wonderful week, and that your hearts may be softened for the workings of the Spirit. :) God be with you. Love you guys.

- Elder Michael Bright Miles

Pictures

Video

If you would like to see Elder Miles in a music video that his district made, go to this link:

http://germanyberlinmission2012-15.blogspot.de/2013/12/german-advent-preparation-time.html

12-16-13

Oh, on that note, I have been needed for translating for the Americans in our Ward the last few weeks. It is so hard! I am sitting there, trying to listen to the speaker, not hearing everything they say, having to wait until the end of the sentances (some of which are -very-  run-on) before I hear the verb (which belongs at the end of the German sentance in most cases, but is needed for the beginning of the English sentances), and getting tangled up by the more complex and obscure words. Then as I understand one part, and begin translating it, trying to find the English equivlants, I have to put in large mental effort to keep paying attention to what is said, or I would only be able to convey every other idea to the listeners, switching between listening and translating... such a challenge... I would love to translate from German to English so much more... That way you understand everything that is said (in your native language, you understand most accents, mumbled or quickly said words are still easily understandable, and almost none of the words are new or undefined in your vocab), and then are able to express it with the words you know in the other language. Would be so much nicer...

The other day, the Sisters who work in our area talked to a man on the street. He expressed a surprising amount of interest to their brief intro of our message. They gave him a Book of Mormon in his native language, and invited him to Church, not sure what would come of it. (We do a lot of inviting to Church, and don't often see all of the peoople we invite actually at Church, and usually only after we have had some appointments with them and really had the chance to teach them.) This man, after his brief introduction, had begun reading in the Book of Mormon of his own initiative, and came to Church. We were happy to recieve him and will be meeting with him this week to start teaching him. :)

Our God is a God of miracles. :)

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas season, and a receptive mind for the wonderful focus and reminders we have during the CHRIST-mas time. :)

Another random thought I have been processing a lot this last week. I have been working on reacting to others as I would treat Jesus Christ. Especially under the context that He has to experience every way that I interact with others. I really am doing what I do not only to the individual, but also to Christ, He having experienced their lives in full during the Atonement. It has been helping me a lot to treat others better. (when I can remember it. :P ) I can recommend it. :)

God bless you and be with you. Stay in the Light, and let your good desires work in you. :)

Love you. :)

-Elder Miles

12-9-13

Hi everyone! Sorry about the post drought. :( I have some stuff this week though, just little snippets from other emails

I was astounded to find out what the actual rules for tea were in the Church when I came out here. I used to be completely unsure, and just kinda thought that all tea was against the word of wisdom. Turns out I was wrong. You just need to watch out for black, green, white,  and onlong teas. They are all made from the actual 'tea plant'. As far as my experience with tea, I have always heard very good things about Camomile and Peppermint teas. They are supposed to help with colds. Also, Camomile tea is also supposed to help with relaxation and stomach problems, and peppermint is supposed to also help with diareah and headaches. (these are all health tips from Sister Kosak (Mission President's wife)) I have also heard very good things about the anti-bacterial qualities of lemon juice and honey. Sometimes, I mix Camomile and Peppermint tea in one cup, and then put in honey and lemon juice. I keep changing the name of it, but I call it things like 'destructo tea, ulti-tea, tea of doom, etc.' I feel like it's helped with snipping a cold in the bud, and it actually tastes pretty good. :)

The German here sounds a little different, but not really. -shrug- Though there are little things. Like how in the South-East (Sachsen, Brandenburg, etc.) they say 'bissel' instead of 'bisschen', and here, as a greeting they say 'moin' or 'moin moin'. (I think that started out as a shortened version of 'guten morgen' shortened to 'morgen' shortened to 'moin', and then, in this area, they started using that as a general greeting, instead of just in the morning. Sometimes, in other areas of Germany, you will occasionally hear 'moin' as a form of 'good morning/guten morgen', but only ever when it's actually morning.)

Side note, I have been transfered to Hamburg, Altona Ward. It is great here. We even got some snow for a little before it melted the next day. :P 

God bless you. I challenge you all to let go of the 'flaxen cords' with which the adversary would bind you. The little things that would pull you away. You can always let go. You are free. Christ, through His Sacrifice, has made it possible. He loves us. Of these things I bear testimony, in the name of the Good Shepherd, even Jesus Christ, amen. :)

Have a great week! Love you all!

- Elder Michael Bright Miles

11-18-2013

Oh. Interesting thing. Because the Germans don't have the big holiday of Thanksgiving, and because they start celebrating Christmas with the 'Advents' (the 4 Sundays before Christmas), they start putting up decorations and stuff much earlier. This last week, the city has already started putting up some of the decorations on street lamps and stuff. Though none of it is lit. And a member told me that some Germans get very upset when you decorate and start turning on the lights before 'Toten Sonntag' (dead's Sunday/Sunday of the Dead). It is a sort of memorial day for them, where they visit graves and leave lots of flowers and stuff. It's a really big deal here. And there's some kind of superstition about how you shouldn't set up/turn all your Christmas lights before that day. It's supposedly disrespectful of the dead or they don't like all the lights or something... Odd. :P But the member house we're in right now is working on decorating as we speak, and has Christmas music playing. :)

1 - French Toast!

2 - A random little man-made pond/lake thing in Bagenz.

3 - Awesome view of a factory in a city called Peitz. It was dark, we were walking back to the train, and there was a little man-made lake right in front of it. I thought it looked super cool, so I took a picture. :)

4 - (Kinda out of order) Me cooking the french toast!

9-23-13

Study:

Lately we are reading the Book of Mormon together as a Mission, and focusing on the Atonement. As I was reading thorough I hit the vision of Nephi (Nephi 11-14?) and was very impressed by something. Almost every time that the Spirit of God in the vision referred to Christ, he said The Lamb of God. I checked and realized that there are only a small handful of other times in the Book of Mormon that Prophets refer to Christ by this title. But in those few chapters, the Spirit of God says is quite a lot. It made me wonder if that's just the title The Spirit normally uses or something... Was interesting. I was also impressed by the title itself. A title that really described the Atonement in a powerful way in just a couple words. 'The Lamb of God' The imagery we have when we think about his title is also supported quite nicely by the imagery and types and shadows that God showed to us in the Law of Moses. Christ is the offering of God. What God is giving up in order to save us. Giving His Son. Powerful concept. I liked it a lot. :)

Random other cool things:

We went to a baby amusement park last week called Teichland http://www.erlebnispark-teichland.de/. It was fun. Got to climb the tower, ride the little roller sled things a few times, and ride a little sky lift thing. Many of the other attractions were shut down because the weather is gettting colder, and quite a few of them we just didn't have the motivation or time to go on. Kinda wanted to play some mini-golf, but didn't have time.

Anna is getting baptised! We set a date for October 12th. We are super excited and so is she and so is Elder Thorkelson (who is now in Minden). We had a very powerful lesson where we got to ask her a lot. We talked about what she thinks of the Church and the Book of Mormon, what feelings she has been having, and how it has been changing her. She expressed how good it all felt, the good it was doing for her, how her faith was growing, and how she has been changing for good, becoming more aligned with God. We then were able to challenge her to Baptism, and she accepted. X)

I know that God is in this work. He is a God of Miracles, and He loves us. :) I testify of that in the Name of Jesus Christ, amen.

- Elder Michael Bright Miles

8-19-13

Hello everyone! I hope you're doing well. I'm doing pretty well. :)

Not a whole lot to say this week, but I can tack on a couple things at least. :)

Germany things:

They use a lot of graphed paper. Perhaps more than lined paper.

I'm used to only seeing alchohol as beer in gas stations, or tucked away in liquor stores (perhaps that is very different in other states in the US), but here they just have it sitting out all over the place in grocery stores, or any store really. Weird.

I can't seem to find any balogna.

They have oreos, but they aren't as good. :P

They have massive yogurt sections at the grocery store. Everything you can imagine mixed with yogurt. Also, they spell it jogurt because they pronounce the j as our y sound. (their y sounds like ü. don't worry about that one.)

Spiritual thing:

Mark 2:17 - When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

The Gospel isn't for perfect people. It's for people still learning and progressing. It's also not for the unrepentant sinner either. We have to be working at striving at it. :)

Preach My Gospel pg. 6: "The purpose of the gospel is to cleanse people of their sins so they can receive the Savior’s mercy at the day of judgment."

You don't need to worry about beating yourself up for falling short of perfection after you strive. You don't need to compare yourself to other people. You just need to keep taking steps. Keep working.

“Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.' " - Thomas S. Monson

You can do it. :) Just keep improving. - 2 Ne. 28:30 - "For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, ^aprecept upon precept, here a little and there a little ..."

Christ has your back. You can do it, with Him. :)

2 Ne. 25:23 - "... for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do."

Trust in the Savior who loves you with all His Godly Heart. :) I testify in His Name that He will support you and help you to progress. Isaiah 41:10 - "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."

I say these things in the Sacred Name of Jesus Christ, Amen. :)

Have a wonderful week. :) Go do something fulfilling. :)

- Elder Michael Bright Miles

8-1-13

Ooh. Got to use a scythe a few days ago. Some Germans still have them from when their families used to use them for farm work. They look totally legit and homemade. Now they just use them for when their grass gets really tall. They trim it down with the scythe before hitting it with the lawn mower. We helped a lady with her lawn and got to use one to trim it before we mowed it. It was fun. :)

Things are going well. :)

Spiritual something:

Alma 8:9-13 - Life can get discouraging. Sometimes people around us are making bad choices despite our best efforts, sometimes we fall short, sometimes things just don't turn out the way we want it to, despite everything we do. And sometimes we feel like we have failed God. Missionaries run into this problem a lot. Often we feel like we are giving our best, and yet we are not seeing the results we expected. We become discouraged. Let's read further.

verses 14&15 - This is a powerful principle. One might think that Alma had just 'failed' in the city of Ammonihah, and yet this angel is telling him 'blessed art thou, Alma; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice'. And why? 'for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God'. That is success. Alma was successful because he was obedient. Because he was striving. I testify that God loves us and sends us exactly what we need. I testify that true success and happiness comes not from our circumstances or from things around us, but from us. When we are striving and being obedient and following God, then we are donig what is expected of us, and we can be assured. I testify that Jesus Christ lives and that He has shown us the way. He helps us at every step. He asks us to keep stepping forward. We can do it. :) I say these things in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.

7-29-13

Hello everyone! I haven't written forever and I am sorry about that. We have been having some crazy preperation days where we were always really pressed for time. Some days I didn't even have time to email my Mom. X/

Things are going wonderfully well here in Forst. Let me tell you about a miracle we experienced in the last 9 days:

Saturday the 10th. We were on a train coming back from an exchange we had just had, and talking about how it had been. There was a young woman sitting across from us. The sun was glaring in her eyes quite badly, so my great companion decided to offer her to switch seats. She quickly declined the offer, jumping without pause into asking us with overflowing curiosity about who we are, she had heard us speaking English (she hadn't heard any German from us until my companion said something to her) and looking at our nametags. We explained who we were and quickly found an opportunity to begin talking to her about God, and then the Book of Mormon. She didn't have much of a religious background at all, but found what we said interesting, and was also fascinated to be talking to two Americans. :P

Suddenly, her stop had come, and we were scrambling to get out a Book of Mormon, and our card. We realized that neither of us had a card with our information on it and began to panick, the train was stopping. We whipped out a blank card and scribbled our number on it as fast as we could. My companion handed it to her and told her to call us. She said ok, a little timidly, and got off the train.

That's when I realized that the Book of Mormon was still in my hands. X/ (facepalm)

We were kinda disappointed. People that you just give a card to hardly ever just call. She did wait for the train to drive off and waved as we left though. That was nice of her.

Two days later we are sitting in Görlitz, waiting for the rest of the District to get there for an activity we were going to do together, when suddenly, we get a call from an unknown number. We were a little confused, and I picked up the phone. "Hallo, hier ist der Elder Miles von der Kirche Jesu Christi." (Hello, here is Elder Miles from the Church of Jesus Christ) "Hallo, hier ist die Anna." (Hello, here is Anna.) I moved the phone quickly away from my mouth for a moment, "Elder! It's Anna!"

We talked for a bit about meeting again and what we could do. There was a youth camp going on that week in Forst, and we invited her to come have lunch with us there. It was a bit far for her, but she agreed. We hoped to get some opportunity to teach her after we ate.

The day came, we picked her up from the train station, and had a pleasant walk and talk until we got to the camp. The moment we got there she was swept right up by a leader, who got her some food and set her down with some of the young women. (Anna is 17) We went to sit down and eat some food as well, not really knowing what else to do with ourselves. Our new investigator had just been stolen away. After a while she walked back over to where we were. She remarked on how kind and open everyone was. :) She told us that the young women had invited her to stay and do some river rafting with them. (they were gonna do river rafting on the Neiße, the river between Germany and Poland) She wanted to go, and we encouraged her. We came back later that evening to see how she was doing. She was doing great and really enjoying herself. We then had an opportunity for We then had an opportunity for a wonderful lesson about the Restoration of the Church. It went great. We talked a little more after, and she let us know that she was enjoying it so much she wanted to ~stay overnight~! She hadn't even really brought anything with her. X)

Well she ends up reading some in the Book of Mormon that night and we talk to her a little the next day before she goes home. I think she would have stayed longer, but hadn't brought enough stuff with her.

We then invited her to come to Church, and also to a Baptism that was going to be happening for a newly-8-member's-daughter. We were very excited for her, because we knew that there is a very special spirit at Baptisms. She agreed to come. We got it all set up to where she would get picked up, come with us to our member appointment, and then stay for the Baptism.

Sunday then went swimmingly. We had good meetings, she was taken in really well by the young women in the ward, and she found it all very "interesting". Then we had some opportunity to begin talking about the Plan of Salvation while at the members house for lunch before the Baptism, and then came the Baptism. That was beautiful. They even decided to give this girl the Gift of the Holy Ghost immediately after, so we had a plethora of teaching opportunities, telling her all about what was going on. After the Baptism was over, while they prepared the refreshments, we then had some more time to sit down with her and a young woman from the ward in order to finish talking about the Plan of Salvation, and talk a little about how to get more from the scriptures. (she had already read 40-ish pages on her own, which is a lot) We were able to bear powerful testimony that God is our Heavenly Father, and that He loves us. We taught about the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. We asked her, "Was würde es dir bedeuten wenn dieser Plan wahr wäre?" (What would it mean to you, if this plan were true?) She thought for a moment and responded with words from the heart, 'Well, I want to get to the sun one (Celestial Kingdom). I would really try to do everything I could. I know I have already lost some years...' This was powerful. She was recognizing how significant the message was. How important it is. She was feeling the urgency. We assured her that it is not too late. We continued talking. We talked a bit more about how she needs to read and pray to find out for herself if God is there, and if the plan is true. We asked her about how she has been feeling while she has been meeting with us, etc. She paused a bit, trying to collect her words, and then began describing a strange, almost pressing feeling that she had felt during the Baptism. We began grinning. :) We then bore powerful testimony to her that she had felt the Holy Ghost testifying of what was happening. This made her smile, and she even looked like she felt accomplished for having felt it. :) We then asked her "Wenn du weißt dass diese Dinge wahr sind, wirst du dich Taufen lassen von jemandem der die Priestertumsvollmacht hat..." (When you know that these things are true, will you get baptised from someone holding the Priesthood Authority...) Before I could even finish the question she was nodding with a big smile on her face.

I testify that God is in this work. I testify that he knows and loves His children. I testify that I have felt no greater joy than the kind of joy I felt as I was able to tell this young woman the truth, to tell her about her Loving Heavenly Father, to help her see the eternities. I testify that this Church is the true Church of God, the Church of Jesus Christ restored upon the earth through a Prophet, Joseph Smith, called of God. I reiterate, God - Loves - You.

I testify of these things in the name of our Lord, in the Name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Have a wonderful week everyone. :) God be with you.

- Elder Michael Bright Miles

7-7-13

Blog again!

Sorry I haven't written for so long. We have to take a train out to do emails in another city because our little city doesn't have any internet cafes. (Ok, we have one, but it's super sketchy looking and has smoking paraphernalia in the front window.)

Things are going well in Forst. The ward is cooler and cooler the more we get to know them. They are also the largest ward I have ever been in, even though the city is the smallest I've ever been in. :P Very nice members who are strong in the Gospel.

Also having a great time with Elder Thorkelson. I'll upload some pictures. :)

Cool success story! We were in line at the grocery store one day, and a guy in front of us was kinda trying to catch a good look at our nametages. All the sudden he asked us what we were selling. This caught me off-guard, so I didn't process what he said right away. (He also had a heavy accent.) He asked if we were selling anything nice, we told him that we are missionaries. He asked what that means. We told him that we talk to people about God/Jesus Christ/etc, and the Book of Mormon. We then shortly introduced the Book of Mormon, that we give it to people as a gift, and that we invite people to read it and pray about it to see if it is from God. (handing him a Book of Mormon) he seemed confused for a bit that we were just handing him a book, 'Did I just get gifted a book?' 'Yes.' He then happily took it and said he would read in it. It was a powerful moment to us as we realized that God puts people in our path. :)

God knows His plan. You can trust Him. He loves you. :)

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Go do cool things!

- Elder Michael Bright Miles

7-1-13

 1. Somebody slashed my tire while the bike was at the train station. Not the outside rubber rim of the tire, just the inside tube. I think they hoped that they could steal the bike later in the night if I left it there to fix it in the morning. (We don't take our bikes to the train station anymore. We're close enough to walk anyway. :P)

 2. Delicious oreos!!

Biking!

'declared in -every- ear'

The forest on the edge of town. The street just kinda ended in forest. :P

Birthday Cake prep

Cake baked

Cake double-layered

Cake done

Birthday Cake delicious X)

6-10-13

I am getting transfered! Surprise! (6-10-13)

I am going to a place called Forst. It is to the right of Cottbus (Cottbus is south,southeast of Berlin, north of Dresden). I'm gonna be right on the Polish border. :P I will also be serving with my favorite Missionary, best Mission friend Elder Thorkleson. I am so very excited. X) (try searching for him on the current mission blog and on the old one, should be able to find pics (old one:http://germanyberlinmission.blogspot.de/)) We are whitewashing in. That means we have both never been there before. We are stoked.

Whitewashing doesn't happen all that often. Forst is really pretty. :) Small and nice, and the ward is really big for Germany, and for how small the town is. I haven't noticed a pollish accent at all, but they have a bit of a Sechsisch accent here. Not too bad though. (About the same as in/as bad as Köthen, but with a bit less influence from the Berlin area.

The ward is wonderful. They are very good to us, good about joint teaches, and all very active, strong members. When they found out that my birthday was coming up, a family approached us and told us that we now had an appointment with them that evening. :P Was funny. Excited for that. And to bake my cake that day. :)

Elder Thorkelson and I are both rather musical, so we are planning on doing some musicl numbers together for the ward and for missionary meetings.

Oh! There is a senior couple in our District that keep a blog: thegorlitzdistrict.blogspot.com.  Görlitz is the name of the city where the couple is serving, and where the District Leader is. We have district meetings at the couple's house. Because the District Leader is in Görlitz, we call the District: District Görlitz. The couple's name is Bauman.

I used to go to bakeries more in Berlin. I love getting the simple jelly-filled doughnuts (often called Berliners) and another pastry that is wide and flat and dense and has crumbs and drizzled glaze on the top. :)

Those really are their staples. Bread, meat, cheese. They don't eat it for every meal, but it is a common thing. And they have enough variety in those categories, that it doesn't get boring. :) It's kinda like how often we eat sandwiches for lunch. They do bread meat and cheese, and eat it for dinner.

 

6-17-13

Michael was not able to write a blog post this week. But he loves you all, and loves the work!
-Andrew Miles

5-27-13

Michael had to be quick this week, but he has a spiritual thought to share real quick,

Firstly - D&C 121:1 / Matt 27:46

Often it feels as though God has forsaken us or forgotten us somehow. Often we feel overwhelmed and as though we somehow have drifted far from God, and know not where to find Him. I think we all know this feeling. But let's look at a couple more scriptures:

1 Ne. 21:14-16 (Isa. 49:14-16) / Matt 10:29-31

God promises us that he has not forgotten us. That He thinks about us. That we are important to Him.

And lastly - D&C 24:8 / Isa 41:10

God is always with us. Sometimes we don't feel it, but we have His ~promise~ that He is there. Just press forward in faith. Fear not. He loves you and will ~never~ forsake you.

6-3-13

Hi everyone! Gotta be quick, but I have some stuff ready. :)

Germany stuff! (brought to you by the clever asking of Danny)

- Lots of bakeries. Just little cafes where you can go in and buy nice breads and pastries and rolls and stuff and they usually have coffee there as well.
- There also is more support from the Government for little stores that specify in one kind of product (big chains with a little of everything, like wal-mart, being discouraged and given less help(there are no wal-marts in Germany that I know of)).
- Fast food is also a lot more expensive here. At Subway for example, they kinda do the 5-dollar foot-long thing, but it's not as wide, like it's only at specific times or for very speicific sandwiches, and they do it in Euros (5 Euro foot-long). If you look, at the exchange rate, it turns out to be a much sadder deal than in the states.
- People eat a big lunch, it being the real big meal, and then usually eat 'Abendbrot' (eveningbread) where they just have rolls and other bread where you take a slice and put on some cheese and meat and eat it. Big full time jobs often give big long lunch breaks so people can go home or go out to eat and have a good big lunch.

Spiritual stuff! I want to share with you an experience that I had with an investigator the other day. :)

Had an awesome appointment the other day! We are meeting with an older gentleman who is a strong Christian (Catholic) who has been meeting with the missionaries for a while now. (1-2 years) He has a strong testimony of Christ and a good knowledge of the scriptures and the Catholic Church. He is very kind and admirably humble. He even says that he probably would have already joined our chruch if it weren't for his strong Catholic roots. Awesome guy. In any case, we had a great joint teach (Br. Glück) who was really open and friendly with him, helped us review the Restoration of the Gospel with us really powerfully and got him thinking, asking him to think about what questions he has in life that we could discuss. We then visited him during the week shortly, shared Amos 3:7 with him "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." and emphasized how the scriptures (the words of God through the Prophets) can truly help him with his questions and concerns. He seemed to really feel the idea and said he would think about his questions. When we met with him yesterday we were really able to talk to him, he opened up and told us about how he has been having troubles since his wife died 15 years ago and doesn't feel like he is getting answers to what he is praying about. Expressed a fear that he had done something horribly wrong, or is doing something horribly wrong for which God is punishing him, or something like that. We were able to tell him very powerfully about how God loves him and cares about him and wants to help him. We promised him that God is listening (he didn't really doubt that God listened, just felt like God wasn't really doing anything about his prayers) and we were able to just perfectly share Alma 7:11-13 (http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/7?lang=eng) and  Matthew 7:7-11 (http://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/matt/7?lang=eng)

. We told him that Christ wants to help him and is answering his prayers, even if he doesn't see how they are being answered. He looked like he was getting choked up here and there and bore huge grattitude for what we had shared. He said we were freeing him of a burden he had been carrying for 15 years and that he had hope again. It was wonderful and I felt the Spirit very strongly. Even got choked up a bit as I was reading those scriptures to him and testifying to him. :P He also then told me that I was going to make a great therapist one day. :P That was fun. In any case, it was a wonderful appointment. Hope you enjoyed the story. :)

I want to bear testimony that following in the footsteps in Christ, partaking of this wonderful Truth and Joy of the Gospel, and then even more so, the abolute Joy of partaking of it with others is the most wonderful feeling I have ever felt. I have a testimony that it is the most wonderful feeling a man can have. (1 Ne. 8:12/1 Ne. 11:22) (http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/8?lang=eng - http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/11?lang=eng) God loves you so much. He listens to you. I testify of these things in the name of the Shepherd, Jesus Christ, amen. :)

Go have an awesome week! Don't forget to smile. :)

- Elder Michael Bright Miles

5-2-13

Hello all!

The week has been hard, but the good kind of hard. The hard work kind. The kind that makes you stretch and grow. Sometimes I don't want it, but good thing that God knows better. :)

So the other day I was doing some simple tracting on exchanges with one of my Zone Leaders, Elder Jex. Elder Jex knocked on a door, and out comes a mildly grumpy old man who starts being a little bit contradictory to what Elder Jex was saying, but not really in a negative way. We talked to him for a bit, and the conversation evolved to where we had a rather nice talk with him for about an hour. Very talkative. He was very friendly after the conversation got moving. He didn't give us much opportunity to share much sadly. Kept changing the topic away from Gospel stuff, but then he reffered us to a friend of his a street over. Upon telling this second man (Herr Schumann (Herr=Mr.)) that we had just talked with his friend, he began talking with us very comfortably, practiced some rather passable English with us, and was happy to set up an appointment with us, pretty much without any questions. Very nice man. It was very cool. Had never really experienced a refferal from a random person before. Wonderful to see the Hand of God in the work. :)

Random German thing!

Every other car is a hatchback-style car.

They do actually drive on the right side of the road. I was worried they would drive on the left.

Their licence plates reference what city the car is regestered in (if you live in too small of a village, you have to go to a nearby larger city to do it), as opposed to the USA plates where it is State-themed.

The traffic lights go from green, to yellow, to red, and then after the red, it transitions back through yellow before turning green. I am not sure why the drivers need a warning that the light will turn green. I think it should just turn green. :P They probably have a good reason though.

Spiritual Thing!

Today I want to testify about Stewardship. Let me share a couple stories, the first being a bad example, the second being an experience of mine.

First story: There was once a young woman who was trying to decide what college to go to. There were various factors that made this decision rather large for her, and she was having a very hard time. She prayed a lot about it, and even tried fasting, but still felt unsure. She then felt that she should seek a Priesthood blessing. There was a Brother in the ward who was a very good family friend, and who she respected as being very spiritual. She went to this friend and asked for a Priesthood blessing. He was happy to. During the course of the blessing this family friend suddenly changed direction. He began telling this young woman that she was to become his second wife, and that they would take some 'choice' people with them and leave to start their own religeous group. She felt a very strong feeling that she mistook for the Holy Ghost and ended up going with this man. I am not sure about the fate of this little group that the man started, but I am sure it didn't last long.

The second story I would like to share is a simple experience I had just the other night. I was talking on the phone with some members of my District who are rather new. The one is only about 5 months out, and the other is brand new. I have been called as their District Leader, and was talking with them after having collected the weekly numbers. I asked if they had any questions, and after a brief pause, they told me they couldn't think of anything. I then felt like I should ask further for some reason and more specifically asked if there was a part of the work they were having a hard time with. One of them then explained a piece of the work that they were struggling with, that they had seen another missionary do well while they were on exchanges. I felt prompted and was able to share my experiences with that missionary, and some principles in the work that might help them. They thanked me, and the call was pretty much over.

Ok. You may have already guessed what I am getting at here. There is a very important principle in the Gospel called Stewardship. The President of the Chruch has the Stewardship for the church, the Stake President for the Stake, the Bishop for the Ward, the father for the family, etc. When someone is given a calling to serve any group of people, such as Area Seventy, District Leader, or even Father to their children, they are given special help from God in which they can better serve these people. Special direction.

This poor young woman from the first story made a mistake in asking a family friend to help her receive council from God, when she could have turned to her father or home teachers or Bishop. In contrast, God used me to convey some direction to Missionaries I am serving, as the called leader. I am not trying to tell you I am better than the man who gave the blessing. That is not the point. The real difference is Stewardship. God gives us a pattern in all things. He gives us leadership that we can always turn to. He sends us people and routes through which we can receive guidance from Him. God loves you and He wants to help you. He will send you help as you turn to the sources He has sent you. Do not be deceived. The adversary would love for you to look ANYWEHRE but to God. The media, movie stars, palm readers, etc. Don't trust it. Look unto God's pattern. Look unto God's Word. He will not deceive you. He will not yank you around. He will not cloud your mind. He will give you help. Exaclty as you need it. Even if sometimes it doesn't seem like enough. Just trust Him. :) His love for you runs deeper than the sea and higher than the stars. I testify that you can trust His established patterns and Church.

Jacob 6:12 - O be wise; what can I say more? :)

And I say this in the Sacred Name of Jesus Christ, Amen. :)

Have a wonderful week! I wish you the best. God be with you. Stay in the Light. :)

- Elder Michael Miles

5-13-13

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all having a good week. I am for one. Hard, but good. The good kind of hard. The kind of hard that challenges you to climb higher. :)

German thing!

They say their numbers backwards for some reason. Any time they express a tens-place number (like sixty or twenty or ninety) they always express the ones-place number first. Very confusing:

63 - 'three and sixty' (dreiundsechzig)

29 - 'nine and twenty' (neunundzwanzig)

Strange. They even admit themselves that it makes no sense to switch them.

They also do not include spaces in numbers:

82,641 - 'twoandeightythousandsixhundredoneandfourty' (zweiundachtzigtausendsechhunderteinundvierzig)

Random experiences!

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Spiritual part!

For the spiritual section, I would like to recommend something that I recently tried out that I heard from my old companion Elder Tolbert: writing a letter to God. I decided to try it out after a good evening where I felt I had learned quite a bit and wanted to talk to God and thank Him and solidify and understand what I had learned. I went to someplace quieter and began writing I expressed my thanks as best I could and began writing to Him. I went slowly, trying to ponder on what I wanted to say, and listening for what God was telling me. I even wrote down questions and then would stop and ponder and listen for the ideas and feelings that came. It was a very special experience. I received a lot of instruction and of course went to record these feelings and teachings (for spritual instruction not recorded is spiricual instruction lost, and one could even say disrespected).

I encourage you to try this. Make it something real. Take it seriously. It is just like a very concentrated, deliberate kind of prayer. It will be cool. :)

I wish you all a wonderful week. :) God be with you. Keep close to the Light you know. :)

- Elder Michael Miles