Elder Michael Milius: 17 October 2016

Loved Ones,

Hello people! This week hasn’t been super crazy or exciting but things are always happening, and definitely as Missionaries.

Something that was awesome that happened this week is a young man in the Florence Ward received his mission call to the Texas Dallas Mission. He’ll be speaking his native language, which is Spanish, and he is leaving on November 16. Crazy! We’ve gotten to be really close to him and it was cool to the share that experience with him. Life’s been really nuts for him so it’ll be good for him to get out and serve. I told him it was the best decision I’ve ever made! Also, it was fun to reminisce on how I opened my call only about 7 months ago. (And I state yet again that time is just different…)

Speaking of time Transfers are happening this week. So...drum roll...I will be staying here in Florence and Elder Wheatley is getting transferred East to a fun little city called Huntsville ALabama. Elder Areno will be my new companion. I don’t think I’ve met him before but I’ve heard good things so far and I’m looking forward to living with him for at least the next six weeks. I’m excited to be running the wonderful are called Florence and for the opportunity to share it’s beauty with Elder Areno. This transfer ought to be a good one!

A couple other things that I got to do this week was do service on this land for an “Eternigator” (all y’all returned missionaries and current missionaries know what kind of guy I’m talking about) named Sam. He has a beautiful piece of property and we went and cleaned up around some trees for him. It was nice getting out of Proselyting clothes for a while and helping him out. Also, this morning-and this email isn’t really in chronological order so I apologize-we went with Brother Pennington who is a less-active to go Disc Golfing at a course here in Florence. First time I’ve been and I didn’t do half bad if I say so myself, but I hoping we can make that a regular Monday Morning thing! I might get into Disc Golf when I come home, who knows right?

As far as people go, this week our highlight was meeting an Investigator named Caleb. Caleb is a real open minded person, which is great to come across especially in the South. We shared a couple things with him and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon to start reading and to study. Before we left the apartment complex we saw him again and this guy had already ripped through the introduction, the and the testimonies. In a matter of 10 minutes this guy had read the beginning of the Book basically. So, we come back and follow up on Sunday afternoon. He was asking us a couple of questions outside of his apartment mainly asking why we both decided to serve missions. Both of us gave our answer which were both focused on Jesus Christ and share His Joy-which was cool-and then he invited us in to look at some “notes” he had taken. Caleb had done research and all of the things he was bringing up were true and legit as far as the information he came across. Also his “notes” were a 1 ½ page document on Word. Caleb is solid. And to top it off when we were leaving we asked him to read and pray and find out if all we’ve discussed is actually true. He interjected by asking us about our experiences and how we came to know the church to be true. And then he went on and before we could say the typical “...And if you find out these things are true will you take those next steps including being baptized…” he said that if when he found out it was true he would “...definitely take those next steps on God’s pathway…” or something along those lines. Y’all I’m excited for Caleb. I’m excited for Florence.

Nothing else crazy like that happened but I’m looking forward to this next week and this next transfer. I have also found that when one Elder is leaving an area you are BUSY on P-Day and Transfer Day (which is tomorrow instead of Wednesday because President has a meeting or something). Thank y’all for your thoughts and prayers, they are always felt. I love you, and so does your Heavenly Father!

Godspeed,

ELDER MICHAEL S. MILIUS

ALABAMA BIRMINGHAM MISSION

"Behold I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of Him to declare His word among His people, that they might have everlasting life." ~3 Nephi 5:13