8-13-12

Hello everyone. :) I hope you are all doing well, and that you are all staying close to the Light. :)

I was thinking I might be able to tell you a few fun little stories of little things that have happened to me in the last week that you may find interesting. :)

An older man sitting on an electric wheelchair (there are lots of those here) by a bench the other day stopped us and after confirming who we were, told us he was a Jehovah's Witness. We nodded carefully, waiting for him to start arguing with us, because people of that religion are known to do so. He asked 'The Bible says that we are all brothers right?' We agreed, and he seemed satisfied. That was pretty much it. He was rather pleasant about it. We gave him our card, and walked away. It was nice. In that moment he was just another Christian briefly talking with us about nice Christian beliefs. :)

We have been able to get into contact with a handful of people who were formerly meeting with the missionaries, but who got out of contact at some point. Some of them seem rather interested. We are excited for them. :) Wonderful to see how the Lord works. :)

Elder Williams (who is part of the other companionship in our district) and I were walking down the road just after having had district meeting. We were now on exchanges, and were doing a little finding in my area, before we left for his area to do the work for the day. We saw a guy looking a little exasperated looking at four large bags of stuff and a bike. He seemed to be trying to figure out how to carry it all while riding the bike. We asked if  he needed help. He did. We gave a card to his friend, who seemed rather interested, and then his friend had to go, and we proceeded to help him carry his stuff for a good thirty minutes or so to his appartment. The whole way we were talking about the Gospel. He seemed to have been raised Lutheran, but had very little religeous knowledge. For example, I asked him what he believed about Christ, and he told me that he knew of Christ, and that some people had killed him. He then proceeded to ask me questions like, why they had killed him, why he had a crown of thorns, what the resurection was about, and other various things. He seemed to have a blief in a God and a Christ that he knew very little about. Seems to have inherited the faith, so to say, from his mother. Very cool kid. We answered all the questions we could in the time we had, and finally got him and his stuff to his place. Plan to be meeting with him soon to have some more formal lessons. :) (His name is Celvin.)

Those are all I can think of right now. I hope they will suffice. :)

As for a spiritual thought, I would like to draw your attention back to a story that I think is rather common, at least in some parts of the church.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego

Now these wonderful role-models come from the book of Daniel in the Old Testament, chapter 3. The story goes that the king, Nebuchadnezzar, had errected a golden tower, and concocted some gods to go along with it. Every time that loud music was played throughout the city, everyone was required, by law, to stop what they were doing, and bow down and worship this tower. Now of course our righteous, upstanding three brothers here would not do such a thing. They were loyal to God.

So of course the king was very angry. He had decreed that all who would not worship his tower would be thrown into a fiery furnace. He brought the three to him by force and demanded of them why they would not serve his statue, threatening them with the aforementioned furnace. They boldly told him that they were not going to worship his gods, and that they had full faith in their God. The king was so infuriated by this statement, that he caused the furnace to be intensified to seven times the original heat level. The king then commanded some of his soldiers to take the men and cast these three rebels into the flames. The flames were so hot, that those who delivered the three were consumed by the heat as they carried out their order.

Let's stop and think here. We have seen how wonderful the works of our Lord are. As we read through the Old Testament, we have seen him rain fire from the sky, turn rivers from their course, move mountains, and countless other marvelous miracles. We know he has the power to change this situation. He could strike the king, he could put out the fire, he could do any number of things to change this situation so that they would not need to be thrown into the fire. But he does not. The story goes on, and the three are thrown in. And then is when the miracle happens. They are preserved. Not a hair on their head, or a thread of their clothes is even singed, or, as noted in verse 27, 'nor the smell of fire had passed on them'. They didn't even smell like smoke! And then my personally favorite part, verses 24 and 25:

 24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.

 25 He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.

Christ was standing with them.

Now here is the moral I would like to share with you: God does not put out the fires very often. He is much more likely to strengthen us, and send us help that we may endure it. Trials come. Hard times are a necessary part of growing. God loves us enough to leave the hardships there, that we may progress. We all want to progress. And we always have help. We always have someone at our side. That is Christ. Have no fear. Christ is there. Do not fear the flames. Do what you can. Stay true to your faith. God will not fail you. All things 'shall give thee experience and shall be for thy good' - D&C 122:7.

Have a wonderful week everyone. :) I love you all. Keep close to Christ. He will take care of you. :)

- Elder Miles

8-6-12

Alright everyone, crazy quick post today.

Question from uncle, do many Germans try to immitate English?:
Many Germans here actually speak some broken English. It is a very good language to have in this area, because it is pretty much the language you need to speak with tourists and other European countries. The kids are required to learn some all through school. Many of them don't retain much though. :P In any case, there are a surprising amount of members in our ward and people on the street that speak and understand very fluent English.

Another from uncle, how many appointments do you teach?:
We are teaching one or two lessons (as opposed to discussions) a day on a slow day, and more like four on a more packed day. Sometimes as many as five. These last couple of weeks were a bit slow, but things are picking back up again this week. I love having appointments to go to. I am actually doing my share of the teaching. I was doing a good chunk by about four or five weeks in I think. I just got blessed having had some German before I came.

Found an awesome scripture this week. Romans 13:8-10. Love is the key. If you truly, purely, try to love, everything else will fall into place. I can feel that it is true. I challenge you all to see where you can exercize more love.

Keep Christ close. He is the BEST example of love.

Have an awesome week everyone! Love ya!

- Elder Michael Miles

7-30-12

Hello everyone! Hope you are all doing well. :) Pressed for time, but here is a post! (madly copy-pasting from other emails) ;)

This week was alright. A bit rough. Some appointments fell out, which is always hard. We plan out a block of our time, and then take the effort to get all the way out there, only to have the person not show up, or not be home. We then resorted to finding. Walking the streets talking to people and looking up old contacts so we can go knock on their door and ask if they still have interest. Had a small handful of people tell us to come back another day, which was very cool, and we got a new investigator out of it too. He has been meeting with the missionaries for quite a while on and off. He likes his church, and thinks that our Church is very nice and cool, but doesn't seem to have any real motivation to change, or any perspective on whether our Church is the right one. We hope to be able to change that. ;)

It is always nice to have the time in the day all planned out with appointments. You just go from one place to another getting things done. Having blank time is hard. Talking to people on the street is a physical strain as you walk around for however long, and try your best to present this glorious message to people that mostly do not have time to talk, or interest in talking about religion. But sacrifice brings forth the blessings of Heaven, and finding on the street does work. We have to bring these people the Gospel in whatever way we can. :)

Good scripture: Alma 37:36-37. Go look it up and read it before you continue to the next paragraph. :) (If your scriptures aren't nearby, lds.org has online scriptures. ;) )

...

The part about watching over your sleep is amazingly touching for me, because I always have such a hard time sleeping, and almost always wake up with a mild form of dispair creeping in my heart. Feeling like life is unhappy and being kinda sad. I don't know what causes it. Normally I am not that negative. I don't go to bed that negative. :P But I truly have experienced Christ's protection. When I really focus on Christ and fill myself with Light before I go to sleep, and imediately think about Christ and the Light when I wake up, I feel so much better. I feel so much better rested, so much happier. I feel Christ's care around me, and know that He really has watched over me while I slept. When I really dedicate myself to it, I see wonderful, merciful results. :)

This scripture is also very straightforward and informative. I have it written on a little thing on my desk so that I see it often and think about it's council. I hope you can benefit from it as well. :)

Have a wonderful week everyone! I wish you all the best, and challenge you to bring down the blessings of Heaven through your faith and obedience. :)

- Elder Miles

07/23/2012

I don't have much time, but I still plan to get a bit of a post out!

Hello everyone! :) Hope you are doing well, and are happy and at peace. :)

Public service announcement! I have accidentally falsified the pronunciation information I gave you last week about the word 'doch'. In German, the ch sound on the end of the syllable either makes the softer sound without the phlegmy, gargly sound, or the deeper, rougher sound with the phlegmy, gargly sound. (kinda like trying to clear your throat very softly without roughing it up, verses doing it more rough and making that gargly sound) This all depends on the vowel sound preceeding it. I knew that the open 'oh' sound in 'doch' meant that it should be the deeper, rougher, gargly sound on the 'ch', but I forgot in that moment. I realized my mistake a few minutes after leaving from doing emails, and am now here to rectify the mistake. :) The 'do' makes a normal 'doh' sound, and the 'ch' makes the gargly, rough clearing your throat sound, all coming together as one syllable. 'doch'

My mother had realized a strange thing happening with my spelling: So, in German: the z, when at the beginning of a syllable, makes a 'ts' sound, like in the word pizza. 'pee-tsuh'. Anywhere else in the syllable, it makes an 's' sound. X/ The 's' in German normally makes a 'z' sound. This, I have no doubt, may be affecting my spelling. Funny. Gonna have to re-learn English a little when I come home. :P

Mom asked if we switch wards each week like the Elders in her area: We actually attend the same ward every week. In Germany we are called to serve in areas defined by ward boundaries, so we only have the one ward in our area. :) (I am not sure how it works with branches and districts when there aren't enough members. Those exist here in Germany, but I have not learned about them yet.)

Mom asked my favorite food this week: Bakery stuff. There is a wonderful treat here of a rather wide and flat and kinda dry pastry which is round, has crubles on top, and simple white frosting drissled on it. Very tasty. I have been buying it too much. :P Though I did finally get myself to stop buying candy to stash in my appartment. :P

I am now reading Articles of Faith, and was very fascinated by the take it gives on following the laws of the land. I loved the explination it gave and how clearly it seemed to define and explain how it ties in with LDS beliefs. It made a lot of sense, and affected the way I think. I would recommend it. :)

Short spiritual thought from my Grandma's email:

"When our belief is confirmed upon our souls by the Spirit of God, faith becomes a causative force in our lives, driving every thought, word and deeded heavenward. We pray for strength and guidance with trust -- just as they did. That's what it means to walk with 'faith in every footstep.' It was so for our pioneer ancestors, and it must be so for us today."

I challenge you all to work a little bit more to improve your faith. As it permeates your soul, you will see wonderful glorious differences and good changes in your levels of Light, kindness, and other Christ-like attributes. You will love it. You will come closer to Christ, His Peace, and His Love. I promise that in His name. :)

Have a wonderful week everyone! Thanks for all your letters! I love them! Talk to you next week!

- Elder Miles

7-16-12

Hey everyone! Happy monday once again. :) I hope this monday finds you all doing splendidly. :)

Got another email for you guys, consisting mostly of responses to things said by others in their emails. I hope you enjoy. :)

Crazy things that have happened to us?:
Well my companion and I did get approached by a Jehovah's Witness lady the other day getting off a bus. I missed most of what she said, because she was talking rather softly in a loud area, and companion didn't hear too much more than I did, but she was talking about how she was holy and we aren't, and other strange things. Wasn't too hateful, just seemed a bit rude. But she is just following her belief, and following Christ the only way she knows how. That is good in my eyes, though it does make things hard.

After a comment on how I am being exposed to many cultures:
It is interesting to get to know so many people. There are lots of Turkish people, some Russian people, I think I may have heard some French, I have seen plenty of Muslim women, and I am sure I have seen quite a few other kinds of people and been completely oblivious!

On the topic of weather:
I'm glad you guys got some rain! It has been raining here on and off for almost two weeks, two out of every three days or so. Pretty crazy. But it never lasts all day. Always sporatic weather. Two days ago it went from light rain, to heavy rain and thunder, to hail, then back to rain, and then mostly clear and sunny within the space of an hour. Pretty crazy!

After having discussed unexplained bouts of negative feelings:
My advice when your sad and don't know why? Search your soul. Pray. Meditate. Deep breaths (I know deep breaths sound cliche, but it is so true. It helps so much to mellow out and let go.) Find your balance again and figure out what's wrong. Sadness is NEVER a happy way to live. ;)

'Do you still have to pass off discussions?':
We don't pass off discussions or anything like that. We learn the content of the lessons in preach my gospel, and pratice teaching them, but there is no certification or test. And we are always encouraged to modify the order and time spent according to their needs. To teach only as much of each lesson as we have time for as we really work to teach for understanding and answer questions, and to teach them what they need, and not just what comes up next in the que. There is also a very large stress on following the Spirit. Being ready to ditch the lesson plan and follow promptings when they come.

'Do you have a favorite German word or phrase?':
My favorite word is one that does not translate very well. It's a phrase really: 'doch'. The o makes an 'oh' sound, and the ch is like the phleghm-y sound, but without the actual phleghm. Kinda like the same way you gargle, but you close your throat a little more so that the air passes through smoothly without the gargling sound. 'doch' The closest equivalent to this phrase in English is 'yuh-huh'. It is a contradiction to a negative. But only to a negative. i.e. Someone says 'I don't think that's possible.' You could say 'Doch!' As in you think it is too possible. 'I don't think the bus is coming.' - 'Doch!' - meaning, it is too! Etc. Fun phrase. Nothing like it in English which is sad. But that's ok. Fun to say too. :)

Now for a spiritual thought! The other day, we were teaching a family, and they expressed the concern that it is impossible to tell which church is correct. They all say that they are true, so many churches claim to be the true church of Christ, so how are they supposed to be able to differentiate.

In answer to this family's question we gave the following analogy: So my companion here has a favorite color, could you tell me what it is? They said that they of course had no idea. We followed to tell them that of course if they wanted to know his favorite color, the would need to ask -him-.

We went on to tell them that they had the Book of Momron in their hand, which they could read for themselves, and then pray about it, and ask God. God is the one with the answers. God has the truth. God would be able to tell you which church was his chruch. We invited them to read in the Book of Mormon, and then to pray. To ask God whether the Book of Momron is true, and whether our message was true.

They were very happy with our answer. They then understood that they could find out for themselves what is truth, and they commited to read and pray.

This truth of our Gospel applies to every aspect therein. When we want to know whether this Church is true, we can ask God ourselves, and if we ask in faith, believing that we will recieve, He will testify of it to us throuh His Holy Spirit. If you don't know about Joseph Smith, you can ask God about it. If you are having a hard time with something one of the Presidency or Twelve has instructed you to do during General Conference, you can ask God about it. If you pray and ask sincerely, with real intent, planning to act on the answer you recieve, our loving Father in Heaven will -always- let you know. You will feel the Holy Spirit testify to you, straight to your heart, that every piece of this Gospel is true. I can testify of that. I have proved this concept in my own life, and in the name of Christ our Lord, I promise that you can find the same.

Have a wonderful week everyone. Keep Christ close, and love those around you, no matter what. I'll talk to you next week. :)

- Elder Michael Miles

7-9-12

Dear blog readers!

Hello everyone. :) I hope you are all doing well this week. :) My post will be a bit short today other than my spiritual thought, because I spent so much time writing it. It is dedicated to my brother Andrew, because things he said inspired me to write it. I hope you all enjoy it. :)

Let's say that you have a very large bucket full of your soul. It has two handles, and is very wide and difficult to carry. We are striving to carry this massive tub, so to say, up the mountain of progression. Trying to carry our soul higher. Christ is always there. Often times we look to Him and we ask Him, tears in our eyes, why is my bucket so heavy? I am so tired. I don't know how much longer I can go.

We begin to dispair, and He always feels our pain. The problem is, we are often so busy dispairing, and telling Him how heavy it is, and asking him to take some of the weight out of the bucket, that we are completely deaf to His pleas to let Him help you carry.

'Your soul has two handles.' He says. 'Please, please let me take one. Let me help with some of the load.'

Finally we hear His plea. We let go. We stop worrying. We release our death grip on one of the handles and allow His careful loving hand to begin to bear us up. He begins to help you to see where to step. He begins to be able to help you find the path. Things become easier and easier. Our soul becomes lighter under His glorious influence, and we find peace. We begin to look around and the beautiful landscape. The wonderful flowers and view. The way becomes joyous and easy. Constantly moving up.

Then you see others. Other people carrying their souls. Christ is helping some of them too. You see how heavy it is for them. Your soul begins to yearn to help them. You look back at Christ and He smiles that bright loving smile that only he could muster. He tells you, 'I can carry this load. Will you please help these others?'

'Are you sure?' You ask him. 'My load is heavy, and the way is steep.'

He smiles again, and assures you, 'I am very sure. Let go. I've got you.'

That is the moral of this story. Let go. You are safe. You are taken care of. You will always be in charge of your soul. You decide which path to take. Chirst will always defer to you as he carries you up the mountain. But you don't have to stress. You don't have to carry it alone. You can stop worrying, and instead focus on helping others. As you work to help others up the mountain, the way will become brighter and brighter. You will be filled with the joy that can only be found by doing the work of Christ. Things will work out. As you let go of your stress over your own bucket, Christ will be able to lead it up better and better paths. The way will become easier, even though it never flattens out.

You can do it. Christ knows it, I know it, your loving Heavenly Father knows it. Be at peace. Matthew 11:28-30

"28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Follow Christ, do His work, the work of serving others, serving God, and you will find true rest.

Moroni 7:3 "Wherefore, I would speak unto you that are of the church, that are the peaceable followers of Christ, and that have obtained a sufficient hope by which ye can enter into the rest of the Lord, from this time henceforth until ye shall rest with him in heaven."

God loves you. Jesus the Christ loves you. Your friends and family love you. Let go of the stress. Don't worry. Things will work out. God is on your side and is always working, always doing everything for your good. For your joy. You just need to work with Him to get there. :)

I hope you all have a wonderful week. :) I will mail you all again next week. :)

7-2-12

Hello everyone! A bit of a short one today, I apologize for that. But we should have the picures figured out this week, so hopefully you all get to see some of those. :)

First of all, I want to thank everyone that sent a birthday card. It turned out wonderfully because all of them came exactly on my birthday. Wonderful little thing to brighten up the day. :)

We got a new mission president! He got here a few days ago. We actually met him at a baptizm that we went to in another area yesterday. I like him a lot. I think we are going to enjoy being led by him. His wife is also very nice, and they are both lots of fun so far. :)

I have been hearing that there have been a lot of fires going on. I would ask you all to please remember that in your prayers. There are many people getting affected very hard by them.

The concept I stumbled across this week, which I remembered from having developed the idea earlier in my life, is the idea that we don't need to worry. When stressed or upset or anything negative, I remind myself as meaningfully as I can that it doesn't matter. I will do what I can. I will continue moving forward. I do not, however, need to worry myself about it. Everything will turn out. I just need to keep doing what I am supposed to, and moving forward. :) I try to prevent myself from judging others when judgement is not necessary. I try to stop myself whenever I find myself thinking negatively and remind myself that it doesn't matter. I strive to replace the thoughts with positive ones. :) I challenge you to look for opportunities to stop worrying and dragging yourself down. I hope you live happy. :)

Well, hopefully you all get to see some pictures this week. :) Have a wonderful week, and I will talk to you all next week! Keep Christ close. :)

.- Elder Michael Miles

Pictures:

  -My side of the main room. We also have a kitchen to the left, cant see that doorway in this pic, and then the entry way back through that doorway has a bookshelf and the clothes off to the right, and the bathroom is over on the left through another door.

 -Our little deck out back with the grill

-Telephone booth! Way cool.

 --There was a really cool Christus statue in a large church/cathedral courtyard right nearby that palace from picture four.

 -Went to this really big Castle/palace place. Walked for hours around the gardens and other buildings in the area. It was crazy

 -That doorway has a mustache!

 - (This one belongs with the other ones from the palace place) Gorgeous archway of greenery in the surrounding gardens of that Palace place. Way cool.

 -trying tea for the first time. It was apple cherry, and it wasn't bad. :)

 -the hot dogs, they came in glass jars! Weird huh.

 -cutting up the hot dogs

 -the dough

 -There was a really heavy rainstorm! It was crazy. If this picture actually uploaded, it should be me standing under a tree in the rain. There was some thunder, which made it rather cool, but mostly we just got really wet. Kinda forgot the umbrellas that day.

 -peeled an orange in one piece! Woohoo!

 -ready for the oven!

 -baking

 -all done and being delicious!

 -Elder Miles approved!