Elder Michael Milius: 6 September 2016

Family and Friends,

First order of business...I am staying in the Promised Land! I’m lucky enough to get to serve in Florence, AL, for another six weeks alongside my companion Elder Wheatley. We are stoked for the success that we think we can have in the next Transfer and I’ll keep y’all updated with that!

So this week was a bit busier than the past couple weeks. We were able to go do a Family Home Evening night with one of the Less-Active/Part-Member families in the ward (Candy and Jeremy). Candy is the member in the family and they have two super crazy kids Emma (7) and Bryant (5). Jeremy had had an accident at work the last week and so the Bishop came with us to drop us off and we were able to give Jeremy a blessing. It was cool to see how much he has opened up to the gospel here recently and Candy even commented on how we have been able to kind of get to him. We’ve also been told that Jeremy is saying prayers with the kids at night which is awesome. They are a great family and I look forward to the day when it all clicks.

I was also given the opportunity to go on an exchange with my District Leader ELder Honeycutt. We talked a lot about what I had learned over the past six weeks on a mission and we also had a deeper discussion about God’s plan for us. The concept of foreordination and predestination are a little in the grey area to some people. God does have a plan for us, and He knows everything we have done, we do currently as well as everything we will do. However, because of our gift of Agency, we are entitled to choose our own path. Therefore, we are all “foreordained” to be on the path that leads back to our Father in Heaven. This path may vary for some, but ALL of us, in order to receive the blessings of eternal life, must hit these key indicators:

Birth
Faith
Repentance
Baptism
Receiving the Holy Ghost
Receive Temple Ordinances
Endure to the End
Death
Resurrection

For men, there are a few more “key indicators” that include the priesthood, but it was interesting for us to break down God’s foreordination to apply to all His children. So does God care who I marry? Does He care whether I make choice A or choice B? Not necessarily, but God does care about you and He is going to lead you to meet the people and to make the choices that will keep you more straight and more narrow on the path of happiness.

This week was also what the town of Florence calls “First Fridays.” Every first friday of the month people come to a strip of two or three blocks downtown where they set up booths to show awareness of certain groups or sell things or whatever really. With school (UNA is the local college) starting up there were tons of people to talk to and meet. First Fridays is a missionary’s dream come true….and we have arranged to be able to set up a “Meet the Mormons” booth so we are pretty pumped for October.

Unlike Friday, Labor Day yesterday was boring to say the least. No one was out walking around, downtown seemed like it was a ghost town, and everyone was either with family here and busy or out of town with family. But, it wasn’t a total failure. I had a goal to read the Book of Mormon once every transfer and yesterday I finished it for transfer one. I have fallen in love with the scriptures and I know that they are God’s tool to answer our questions. No matter what the scriptures will never lead us astray. I love this gospel more than anything and I am becoming more and more grateful for my decision to serve everyday-even the boring ones. Nothing is more rewarding than directly serving our Heavenly Father, hand-in-hand with our Brother Jesus Christ.

I love y’all and thank you for the support you’ve given me! If you ever need anything or have any question just shoot me an email! God Bless!

Godspeed,

Elder Milius

P.S.: The pictures are of my crazy Zone (The Tupelo Mississippi North Zone) and of the empty ghost town due to Labor Day. Enjoy! Sorry about the lack of pictures, I’m working on a balance!

(Excerpt from Michael's letter to Mom and Dad - I had to include because he shares some funny stories)

This week was great as you can see from my general email, and I’m not getting transferred! Wahoo! I love Florence and I love the people here. My companion got assigned to be the District Leader which he’s not super excited about because he only has three more transfers but he is basically the only one who can do it. Our District is becoming a Relief Society, it’s our companionship, the Zone Leader companionship, and then three Sister companionships. This will make next Transfers go pretty crazy too, we don’t know what’s going to happen but we are excited for the next six weeks! We are looking to baptize at least 3 this transfer and hopefully get a 4th set up for the beginning of the next transfer as well as a possible family who could proved for 4 baptisms themselves. The work is hastening and Florence is about to explode. Elder Wheatley and I are about to “thrust in our combines.” (I don’t know if you remember that from that Scout Camp that was forever ago, but Mike Mortenson would appreciate that quote. Next time you see him tell him I’m thrusting in my combine and see what he says!).

President sent us an email last week that talked about Visions, Goals, and Plans. So, with that in mind I found my “vision” as a missionary. First of all “I am a disciple of Jesus Christ...I have been called of Him…”(3 Nep 5:13). Second, “I know that He [God] loveth His children, nevertheless…”(1 Nep 11:16-17). And third, “What can I do more?...” (Jac 5:47). I had a blast this past week in the scriptures! I also found my “vision” as a pediatrician in 3 Nep 17:21 and in Moroni 8. I love the scriptures.

Also some funny stories: This past week we got a call from the sisters and they said that their car wasn’t working so at about 8:30-9 at night we start walking to rescue the. We get all the way down our street and get a second call in which they explained that they just forgot to turn the key all the way on before putting it in reverse and that they were at our apartment….great. It turned out okay because they brought us candy and stuff. But it’s amazing how much you start to care and love for not only the investigators you’re around but also the missionaries you serve around. Funny story two was at dinner on Sunday we got invited over to a member’s home for dinner. Y’all know that I do not really do seafood a whole bunch but lucky for me we were having a shrimp boil! So on Sunday I ate boil shrimp and king crab legs! I mentally was just like whatever I’m going for it and it worked for the most part. I didn’t enjoy the crab but the shrimp I was at least able to get through. I’ll never seek it out and I’m still not a huge fan but God gives you power on your mission to eat whatever let me tell you. I just hope I’m never given anything that has a smell or taste greater than God’s power.

It seems like things continue to go really well for you and I’m glad time is flying by! Love you guys tons and I hope God is blessing y’all as much as he assures me. I’m praying for you, I miss you, but honestly what’s two years got on eternity?!

Love Your First Elder,

Michael

P.S.: I almost forgot! I got a letter at Zone Training this week and it was from Sister Hayward and the Activity Day Girls! It seriously made me so happy and I wrote them a response letter that I got sent off today so hopefully they get it! Have a great week in AZ!