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!

~(this is where you insert the paragraphs etc.)~

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

5-6-13

No time for blog again. But I have some stories you could use if they seem good:

We were up in an area doing doors this last week in a very nice area where very rich people must have lived. We also came across a couple houses where there was no name on the doorbell. We were pretty sure that it meant that the person did not want you to know who they were, as in they were super famous. It was interesting.

We were also talking to a guy who we meet with every Sunday who is very Catholic. We were talking about how we can become like God. He had a hard time accepting it. He kept talking about how satan (in Genesis) says to Eve 'you will not surely die [...] your eyes will be opened, and ye shall be AS GODS, knowing good and evil' (Gen. 3:4-5) and how that idea of becoming as gods was a direct lie from Satan, words of the adversary. We then talked about the scripture that comes up a bit later (verse 22) where God says: 'the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil'. God acknowledges that Adam and Eve had become like Him. He had -never- noticed that scripture before. He was left rather wordless. We also talked about how they had the command to have kids and could not fulfill it in the garden. He was then very pensive and told us he would have to read back over it and then we could talk again. It was interesting.

4-29-13

Michael didn't have enough time this week to write a blog post, he says, "Sorry!"

Thanks for reading!

-Micheal's loving brother.

4-22-13

Hello everyone! :) I hope you are all doing well and don't feel too bogged down.

Things are going well over here. The plants are starting to throw out green leaves again, and weeds and flowers alike are popping up everywhere. The weather is a little cooler, staying about jacket weather for now, but keeps getting warmer.

The work is going well. We are finally getting appointments with a couple different less-active families who we have been wanting to work with, are seeing wonderful little changes in one of our investigators named Urgen where he wants to make changes and renovate his appartment and stop smoking, and also may have just found a cool new investigator. We'll see how that goes this evening if he's home.

Random German thing(s):

Trains. Trains everywhere. I guess that might be a little more common in some other states, but in Utah I saw hardly any. Every now and again we would see a cargo train go rumbling by, but tracks were few and far between, and the trains were rare. Here, trains is one of the main forms of travel. There is an intense train system run by a company called 'Deutsche Bahn' (German Train(s)). This system can get you to most of the cities in Germany. (The only villages it can't get you to are the little ones built off to the side, that they don't want to spend the money to connect with.) The system really is asounding though. Ridiculous to think of how much logistics must come into managing it. Along side these trains, there are many busses and trams/street cars run by larger cities. The bigger, busier cities even often have subways. (These are simply street cars on underground tracks, and some of these overlap, going below ground for the thick, busy part of the city, only to resurface a ways later when things thin out.) These trams also share the road with cars in some cities and areas, the tracks being flush with the road so that cars drive without being bothered at all.

There are also a lot of bikes used here, a lot of bike paths, traffic lights next to the pedestrian 'walk'/'don't walk' lights that tell bikes when to go, and when not to go. Lots of bike shops and repair shops. Etc.

Spiritual Thought:

I actually had a couple things to share today.

Maybe this is just me, but it seems like I often come to little things I can do that really help me. Little mental tricks or perspectives or helps or ideas that really help me to be closer to God in one way or another. It seems like I am always forgetting to continue applying these little tricks and ideas, and end up stumbling upon them later, and they begin to help me a lot again. Now, my advice to you on this subject, is to recognize these little things that build you up and take more note of them. Keep good hold on them. If you stumble across one that you seem to have forgotten, take special note of it. Satan loves to help you forget, and God loves to help us remember and grow. :)

--

Here is a little spiritual thought I shared with a member family just the other day:

First let's look at some words from Nephi, as he describes the journey they took through the wilderness:

1 Ne. 17:1-2:

1 And it came to pass that we did again take our journey in the wilderness; and we did travel nearly eastward from that time forth. And we did travel and wade through much affliction in the wilderness; and our women did bear children in the wilderness.
2 And so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us, that while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their children, and were strong, yea, even like unto the men; and they began to bear their journeyings without murmurings.

'great were the blessings of the Lord', the children were taken care of, the raw meet was made sweet, they all became strong, sounds like a challenging, but good experience. Now let's look at the same journey, as described by Nephi's brothers later in the chapter.

verse 20

20 And thou art like unto our father, led away by the foolish imaginations of his heart; yea, he hath led us out of the land of Jerusalem, and we have wandered in the wilderness for these many years; and our women have toiled, being big with child; and they have borne children in the wilderness and suffered all things, save it were death; and it would have been better that they had died before they came out of Jerusalem than to have suffered these afflictions.

Wow. One massive complaint.

They were talking about the same journey. They even touched on the same subject matter in the journey, and yet as Nephi described the blessings and good that came of it, all that Laman and Lemuel had to say about it was how horrible it was.

What made the difference?

Perspective.

They were talking about the same stuff, but because the one was in a good state of mind, trying to follow God, and looking for God's hand in his life, he was happy, and saw goodness and blessings coming, even in the middle of and -from- hard trials. The brothers on the other hand, poor blokes, were struggling and could only see the hard things. They were looking for faults and negativity. They were unhappy, unsatisfied, regretful, etc. This was not just a difference between people. This example does not mean that Laman and Lemuel are incapable of being happy/positive, or that Nephi was imune to discouragement/negativity. Quite the opposite. We all have the capacity to look at our surroundings and life in whatever light we choose. Do we notice the Hand and Blessings of God? He is there. 'His arms are stretched out still'. You can be happy. He wants you to be happy. Life itself is not, in and of itself, happy or sad. -We- are the ones that are either happy or sad. Which would you rather be? :)

I testify that God has love for us that runs deeper than the sea, and higher than the stars. I testify that He wants nothing less than for us to really be happy and grow and progress. He wants true joy for us. I testify that you can find joy in your life. This is not a case to case concept. This is truth. God is there. Happiness -can- be found. God can reach you no matter where you are. And I testify of these things in the name of the Son, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Have a great, and spiritual week. And maybe let yourself smile about something extra this week. :)

- Elder Michael Miles

4-15-13

Hello Blog-readers near and far!

Hope you are all doing well. :) Things are going pretty well here. Found a cool guy that is possibly from Africa, and are getting some good work set up with some less-active families. Also! The weather finally warmed up! We are enjoying warm weather finally! Yesterday we walked to an appointment with just our suit jackets on and were sweating a bit, and today we are walking around in t-shirts. Wonderous.

Random German thing!

They have lots of McDonalds and Burger Kings here, as well as a Pizza Hut here and there (none of them truly taste like the ones back home, but it is similar). They do not, however have Wal-Mart, and the similar stores are not nearly so well set up, and usually have a much smaller selection than you would find at someplace like Wal-Mart. Apparently the government tends to favor (taxes-wise) the smaller companies that focus on one genre of products. Then the bigger companies have to pay heavier taxes. Interesting system. Makes it a bit harder to do one-trip grocery shopping, but it works out.

There is also lots of candy from the States here. And most of it tastes rather the same. Snickers, Skittles (they look like the red-bag kind, but have different flavors), gum, M&Ms, etc. Funny thing though, the Milky Way bar here is like the 3 Musketeers that we have back in the States, and the Mars Bars are like our Milky Ways.

Along these same lines of Americanizing, there are -lots- of American influences over here in general. Very good examples are found in the German language. They simply adopt a lot of Enlish words: 'Remake', 'Management', 'cool', etc. (Though they all struggle a LOT with the 'th' sound, and our 'r' sound.) They also wear t-shirts from colleges in the States (and often have no idea what they mean) listen to more American music than German (probably not understanding half of it) and all are required to take English as a foreign language starting at something like 5th grade.

Spiritual Thought!

I have been thinking a lot about the idea of 'standing where your feet are'. Working where you are and not concerning yourself too much with hypothetical situations or with comparing yourself to others. Starting where you are. Not stressing over how little or how much progress you have made.

Elder Holland said something very good in this last General Conference:

"I would say to all who wish for more faith, remember this man! In moments of fear or doubt or troubling times, hold the ground you have already won, even if that ground is limited. In the growth we all have to experience in mortality, the spiritual equivalent of this boy’s affliction or this parent’s desperation is going to come to all of us. When those moments come and issues surface, the resolution of which is not immediately forthcoming, hold fast to what you already know and stand strong until additional knowledge comes. It was of this very incident, this specific miracle, that Jesus said, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” The size of your faith or the degree of your knowledge is not the issue—it is the integrity you demonstrate toward the faith you do have and the truth you already know."

I loved this idea. This concept of recognizing and appreciating what we have, and holding fast to it. We can only work where we are. We can only make progress up the hill from where we stand. Don't stress it too much. I testify that God does not expect us to suddenly be perfect, or even to attain perfection in this life. It is a direction. The only true direction. But life is a journey, not a destination. Focus on what is before you. Keep taking steps forward. You got this. :) God loves you and will help you progress as far as you let Him. And I close these remarks in the name of our Great Healer and Shepherd, Jesus Christ, amen.

- Elder Michael Miles

4-8-13

Hello blog readers! Hope you are all doing well, and that you got good things out of Conference. :)

We had a really good Conference. We got to watch the Saturday morning session live at 6-8(pm) and then on sunday we watched Priesthood session (11-1) Saturday afternoon (2-4) and Sunday morning (6-8). We still have not seen the Sunday afternoon. We plan to pull that off the church website and watch it at home at some point. :) (To watch the afternoon sessions live, it would have been 10-12 at night and Priesthood would have been 2-4 am. :P )

The ward was going to watch a lot of it together in the Church, but on Saturday when they went to watch the live session, they were having technical problems with it not coming in smooth and catching a lot, so they all went home. Elder Myrabo and I had already gotten ourselves set up in a sepparate room with a computer running it in English. (We probably could have understood pretty much all of it, but Conference was too important for us to risk not knowing the words the translator uses. And you can get more meaning out of it in your native language.) The members let us know that they were leaving, and we had the church to ourselves. On the following day, the ward decided not to even try anymore with watching it at the church and we were pretty much in the church all day by ourselves watching Conference. It was nice. We had desks to write on, and to strew our snacks across. :P

Random Germany Thing(s):

They have entire stores dedicated to meat. Little shops where you go in and pick out a meat, specify an amount (in grams), they weigh it out, and you buy it.

The cities here were originally designed long ago before the use of cars, and so most cities have a 'market place'. This space was probably orignially used as town square and an actual market place. Now-a-days these spaces have been converted into a wide road with no cars where one can walk along. The sides are lined with shops, and there are often little stands set up here and there, and street performers and such. There are sometimes even entire streets in the main part of the city that are used as areas like this. Paved with cobble-stone and not driven on by cars, but reserved for pedestrians.

Spiritual Things:

This week, I would like to encrouage you to do something. As I was sitting thinking last night, I realized that as much as I loved Conference, and had taken plentious notes, and recognized some themes that stuck out to me, I coudln't name many specific things I had learned. I then determined that later I am going to sit down, go over my notes, and possibly the talks again, and really define what I learned from it, how it touched me, what God was really saying directly to me in the Words. The preaching is all good and fine, but unless we pull out the meaning and apply it, what good does it do us in the long run? I encourage you all to pick up this wonderful resource we have and really search the good out of it. :)

I also bear testimony of our Church Leadership. I know that they are called of God and functioning in a God-given manner in a God-given Organization. I know that God choses His people carefully, and that we can trust them (anyone with stewardship over us) as long as they are living up to their covenants. I testify that Thomas S. Monson is God's Prophet on the earth today, and that when he speaks to us at General Conference, it is not simply his own ideas and observations, but inspired words through with God can truly speak to us. It is living scripture. And I testify of these things in the Sacred name of Jesus Christ amen. :)

Love you guys! Keep standing up for what you know is right! :) Have a wonderful week.

- Elder Michael Miles