30 May 2017 - Elder Milius Week 48

My Friends!!!

What a week in Prattville, AL! We have been super busy grinding and working and basically exhausting ourselves, but that’s all what Missionary Work takes sometimes! We are doing a lot of finding people to teach. We have a few solid investigators, but we need more people to teach. You could say that this transfer we are really hitting hard the principle of always finding. But there were a couple experiences we had that are worth sharing. 

I’ll starting with the not-so-great stories and work my way up. On Monday night last week we went to talk to Dylan, someone that the Sisters had seen a couple times. When we went to talk to him is was later at night and we didn’t go inside so we stood and taught him about the Book of Mormon in the light of the burning butt of his cigarette. He started off very uninterested, but as we began to teach and explain to him what the Book of Mormon was his entire mindset changed and he became interested to read. We were looking forward to go back, but realized the odd situation it was and why the Sisters asked us to go over. So, a few days later we come back to teach him and he pretty much lied to us as far as what he had been taught and learned and everything he told us was straight from Googling “Mormons” because it was almost all anti. So that started off to be a cool experience but the turned into something very frustrating. Story of our lives haha! 

On Tuesday we did find a few people that we set up appointments with for this coming week, so we are hoping that all works out with them. That night we also went back to visit with the Brooks family who we had found the Sunday before and we read the introduction to the Book of Mormon with them and explained it a bit more. We determined that the church needs to simplify their introduction to the Book of Mormon because it was confusing in some places when you are trying to use it to teach non-members. We haven’t seen them since then but are hoping we can get in their home this coming week as well to re-teach the restoration and put the wife on date for baptism-is not both of them. It’s been interesting to have used baptism as a contact at the door how easy it is to go back and continue to reference baptism and our expectations for them.

There isn’t really any more updates on anyone else individually. We did have a good lesson with Lee just about everything she had learned and hopefully she applied it and is able to recognize her answers...because she is getting answers we know it. We taught Alex the Restoration finally in an actual lesson and he was very receptive to it, I think. It was one of the best lessons that Elder Matthews and I have taught together. Other than that though like I said a lot of finding which means a lot of tracting. They always say that tracting is the least effective way to find people, but we both beg to differ. 

This past week I was able to offer two different blessings for a couple different people and each time I get a chance to do that my faith is strengthened. One was a Blessing of Comfort and the second was for a little boy (who we are hoping to start to teach and baptize) because he wasn’t feeling well. It is always a unique experience thought to give blessings, specific blessings with certain words that I can assure you weren't mine to individuals I do not know. But, He knows them.

Last night we had a pretty cool experience though. It had been a long day, a long day. And we were tracting to hopefully find a family of seven (that’s been our goal the past few days and we haven’t found them yet). No one was answering their door and if the did answer they weren’t interested. After about 30 minutes we decided we were going to pray to ask if this was where we needed to be but there was a car driving by so we decided to wait for the car. Our luck, the car pulls into the driveway of the house we had just knocked and like all good missionary we ate the TOAST and took the awkward situation head on. We started a conversation with Cindy, an older lady who was fairly interested in what we believed about the Book of Mormon. We ended up giving her a Book of Mormon and scheduled a time to come back. As we were writing down her information and waiting to again, pray to see if we needed to leave a younger girl walk past us with her headphones in and we smiled and said hello. She continued down the street and we continued talking about Cindy and where we could go next and then as we were talking I see the girl stop and look back at us. I thought she felt weird because she must have thought I was looking at her so I looked away but she still stood there a couple houses down watching us. She took out her headphones and walked back towards us and stops right in front of Elder MAtthews and I. We didn’t really know what to do so we just started talking to her, not necessarily about the gospel and then she says “Why do y’all always skip my house?” After more conversation we discovered that she hadn’t really talked to missionaries before, and she didn’t really know who we were. WE taught her the Restoration and scheduled a time to come see her as well. Whether you want to think it was coincidence or just a weird situation with weird timing-Heavenly Father answered our prayers without us asking in the first place. He didn’t give us a chance to ask Him. Oddly enough right before all of this happened we had been talking about how if God has people prepared He is going to lead them to you. Now, that doesn’t take aways your responsibility to do what you’re asked nad to work; but, it does mean that when you’re doing all you think you can He will send you those He has prepared. And both Cindy and Ann were sent straight to us, we didn’t move more than fifteen feet in finding both of them. 

• I took a two hour nap on p-day last week and it was glorious.
• We were asked by an older lady if we were brothers and when we said, “No,” she responded “Oh, you could be twins!” 
• We keep having weird meal appointments with people, but that’s okay.
• There was a Bible study at Alex’s Church of Christ on Wednesday that we attended. We sang hymns out of their hymnal before we started and it was lead by whoever wanted to go up. So, we (us and the Sisters) found “How Firm a Foundation” and they went up to lead it...only to discover that women aren’t allowed to lead. SO we saved them and no one knew the song and we were singing it “mormon-version” which was totally wrong, but oh well! 
• I drove an electric cart back into Wal-Mart for an older lady.

Well I hope y’all had a great memorial day! It was cool to be in basically an armed forces town during a holiday like that. A lot of respect goes out to those who have served, are currently serving, and will serve in our Armed Forces. I love y’all and hope you make it another wonderful week!

Much Love,

Elder Milius

-- 

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

 Elder Milius and Elder Matthews

 Elder Milius is somewhere in that pile of pillows!

22 May 2017 - Elder Milius Week 47

Happy P-Day Everyone!

So, it’s official. I am moved from Wetumpka, AL, to Prattville, AL. A whole twenty-five minutes down Highway 14! But the Prattville area is awesome and the ward is great! Elder Matthews is an amazing companion and I’m upset he’s leaving me for Utah next transfer...but that’s a touchy situation so we won’t mention that anymore! I got a lot of pictures from people in Wetumpka that I’ll be sending as well! Fun!

Now for the update in Prattville! We don’t have a ton of investigators that we are spending too much time with so we are finding a lot and dropping people and finding again! IT’s fun though! We are teaching a family, sort of. Dee (one of the boys) has been taught for a while and we are looking to put him on dte for baptism for next month. Since Wednesday we are also  teaching his older sister Amber and since Saturday teaching his younger sister Kennedy. All of them seem to be interested in the church so we hope we can put them all on date to be baptized together in June. 

Our most progressing Investigator is Lee who is a girl in her twenties. She claims not to be Christian but she’s coming to church consistently and so we are hoping the she really gains a witness of the Book of Mormon so that she can be baptized soon too! 

Yesterday we tracted into the Brooks family and are now teaching them. The family is Mom, Dad, and their little boy Eli who is 1. We went and taught them the Restoration and it was great! Elder MAtthews and I learned a lot about how we can improve our teaching together but it wasn’t a bad lesson at all! The Lord blessed us with them because of all the finding we’ve had to do! 

A couple of other things to add and mention is our District is awesome. Elder Egbert is our District Leader and he’s great, he came out with me! The members in the Prattville Ward are great and feed us regularly which is always a good sign. I’m sure I’ll have more next week but I’m settled in and ready to get to work! 

• We went to help Lee move and we had to use our car...we weren’t told that until she said “Pull your car a little closer.”
• A member in our ward has the coolest conversion story that includes working for the FLDS community and Warren Jeffs. 
• Elder Matthews turned 20 on Saturday!!
• On Elder Matthews Birthday some Elders told basically the whole mission and said to call and wish me Happy Birthday instead of Elder Matthews-it was kinda messed up.
• It started pouring rain on us and we ran through it and got soaking wet. Life was good though.
• A lot of people tell Elder Matthews and I that we look alike.
• We tracted the same street as the Sisters a day after them and found a whole ton of people to teach.
• We had a dinner appointment where the family had already eaten apparently and so they all sat there a watched us eat our food.
• Our Zone Theme is titled “Nacho Normal Transfer” and we are having a competition between the Districts to see who does more of the “Daily Challenges” which range from waking up at 6:30 to go contacting outside of a Mexican restaurant. 
• I talked to my companion in my sleep and groaned, “Finding” acting so disappointed that we had to go finding again! Haha! 

Life is going good in Alabama! I love missionary work, haha, love finding! If y’all need anything from me let me know! Love you guys!

Much Love,

Elder Milius

-- 

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

 Happy Birthday Elder Matthews!

My family talking to me on Mother's Day

15 May 2017 - Elder Milius Week 46

Good Afternoon!

Well first I have to say Happy Mother’s Day once again to all the mother’s! I know I love mine and can’t begin to explain how grateful I am for her! It was a pleasure to be able to see and talk to her as well as the rest of my family this weekend! 

But, just to give y’all an update on the week. I am being transferred after 4 ½ months in the Wetumpka Ward and I will be moving about thirty minutes down the road to Prattville, AL! It was an amazing transfer with Elder Schrubb and I am looking forward to serving with Elder Matthews in Prattville! I’ll be able to attach my address to my email next week, and if you have any other questions let me know! 

My last week in Wetumpka was definitely one to remember though-but most of the weeks are! To give you updates on some people, Joe and Shannon are doing great! Shannon is progressing really well and Joe is following. Our other RCs are being frustrating but that’s life. Tyrone and Chance haven’t been able to make it to church since they received the gift of the Holy Ghost. However, we’ve meet with Tyrone a lot and his heart is in a good place. He wants to do what’s right and he wants to get the Priesthood and progress in the Gospel but he is also trying to take care of his family, which means work...sometimes getting called in on Sunday. I worry more about Chance because he kinda acts like after he got baptized it’s over; which, he knows it’s not the end, but that’s the way he makes it seem. Anyways, I hope all three of them keep making the choices to keep them on the path now that they’ve gotten there! 

Trevor and Sebastian are doing great too! On Tuesday Elder Robertson (from Clanton) and I went over to teach them and we had a really good lesson on the Sacrament. Elder Robertson shared an analogy about how Sacrament before being baptized is like “tryouts.” But, once you’re baptized you’re on the team and every Sunday after is “Game Day.” It was very bold and powerful and just what that entire family needed. It showed the importance of baptism and invited them all to church without ragging them to come! One of the best lessons we’ve had with them and I hope that they keep moving forward as well! 

We found a couple other people this week as well but I was also able to do two different baptismal interviews for 4 girls who were getting baptized. Layla (13) and Lexi (9) were the first set of sisters who were baptized up in Clanton this past weekend. They belonged to a family where both the parents were baptized but neither of them were. They were both very on top of things and I was excited to hear that everything worked out well for them and their baptism. The second interview was Lexi (9) and Hayden (8) who are also sisters. They are getting baptized in the Alex City branch this coming Saturday and these two girls blew me away. They are so excited for their baptism and I have never seen more prepared people for baptism than those two girls! One of my favorite things to do is conduct those interviews. 

It was a good week to finish out my time in this area, and I can’t wait to see where I’m needed next! Again, Happy Mother’s Day and I hope y’all make it a great week! I’ll close with some not-so-spiritual stories.

• I set up and built a five piece dining table set by myself because Shannon didn’t know what she was doing.
• I taught a Spanish Lesson in District Meeting about the verbs “Estar” and “Ser.”
• I wrote a “Character Letter” for someone who is possibly getting kicked out of the Military.
• We played Dominos in the black part of town with some guys we found a few months ago.
• No one showed up to our Book of Mormon class Thursday.
• Brother Hamon, our WML has been taking us around the world before Coordination meetings when he feeds us. I’ve been to Hong Kong, Greece, Israel, Russia, Japan, Scotland, and finished in India. 

Much Love,

Elder Milius

-- 

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

 These Elders received some fresh new haircuts courtesy of Sister Underwood 

in preparation for their Mother's Day Skype

8 May 2017 - Elder Milius Week 45

Hello World,

Time continues to tick by as I reach 10 months on the mission! Don’t quite know how I feel about that but I’m just gonna keep on keepin on! Hope everyone’s week outside of the ABM was a great one. Here it was pretty typical! We did not have another baptism this past weekend but hey life goes on!

We are putting forth a lot of effort in keeping our RCs in church, unfortunately none of them showed up this past Sunday and only one of them had a legitimate excuse. We are hopefully going to make contact with all of them this week and kick them in the butt a little. We did find some more people with some potential this week so I want to share a couple cool stories with y’all! 

First, the Mann Family. Mom is a less-active member of the church and she and her three boys (14, 12, and 10) were all baptized a couple years ago. She just recently got married and we are looking to teach the husband, ideally bringing them all back to church. The first time we went to go meet them we ended up playing tackle football (yes, this family) with the kids in the front yard and some other neighborhood kids joined in as well. That next Tuesday we went back to read the Book of Mormon with Mom and her boys and the other kids in the neighborhood came over but didn’t want to interrupt. After we were done we played some ball with all of them and invited the other three to come for study next time we came over. Friday rolls around and we pull into the Mann’s driveway and as we are getting out of the car you hear from down the street a couple houses “They’re here!” and the other kids come running to the house. We sat and taught the Restoration to 7 people in alland 3 of the kids weren’t LDS. After that we went to introduce ourselves to their parents and now are getting them all involved! For me that was one of the coolest experiences this week and I think it is the time I’ve felt closest to representing the Savior. There’s just something about those 12 year-old kids yelling “They’re here!” that gets me to pondering. 

Also on Wednesday we met with Trevor (14) and Sebastian (9) two boys who are being prepared for baptism-Mom is a LA member and Dad is a non-member. Without the parents being there we were able to take the opportunity and follow our plans in asking the boys the baptismal interview questions. Trevor and Sebastian understand everything...they just need to come to church which is where we struggle with Mom’s support in bringing them. However, I think it was a big step for them in realizing that they could be baptized by the end of this month beginning of the next if they stepped up and came to church! It really hit home with Trevor too because he loves the Sacrament and receiving the Priesthood to pass makes him think a little! They are progressing just fine! 

Joe and Shannon are progressing great as well! Shannon is reading through the Book of Mormon and we’ve really made our last few visits pretty meaningful so that’s exciting. Chance is doing good as far as we know and we are still teaching his younger sister. Tyrone seems like he is all in for something but he isn’t really showing it too well. Hopefully we’ll be able to get him the Priesthood. 

Another person I want to mention is Brother Maynard. Love this guy. He is less-active for some health reasons but we’ve been spending a lot of time over there recently and he gave each of us an envelope full of testimonies and things he has written or found. It was really cool to go through it all and he is a very bold person so reading all of it I wanted to show some of it to our investigators. But, he is a great man and I feel like the Maynards are another set of grandparents! 

Not a whole lot happened this week but here are some funny notes:

• We chased down Tyrone to talk to him because we saw him delivering pizzas.
• Found an ex-communicated member in the Wal-Mart parking lot.
• We went out with a RM of two months and his car died on us.
• Elder Schrubb and I made some bomb tacos for our Fast Sunday Dinner.
• Made another pen with James, a guy in our apartment complex.
• One of our investigators who works in the Air Force was busted on a drug test and is probably going to get kicked out of the Military.
• Our Zone picked wild blackberries together this morning. 

As always it is a wonderful week in the mission field and I hope all of y’all are doing great! Happy Pre-Mother’s Day for all you Mom’s and enjoy talking to your Elders and Sisters! I know I can’t wait to talk to mine! Love her! Make it a great week!

Much Love,

Elder Milius

-- 

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

1 May 2017 - Elder Milius Week 44

Hello!!

I told y’all that Wetumpka was going to get wet! This week was another hard week of work but it all capped off with our third baptism in a row! 

Shannon is someone that Elder Harris and I started working with only a couple months ago and now she is baptized! She is the first person that I’ve been part of the Finding, Teaching, and Baptism of-and to top it off she asked me to perform the Baptism! It was a long ride for her and a lot of changes had to be made but miracle after miracle was evident as she gave out coffee, sweet tea, cigarettes, vaping, and as her work schedule changed to allow her to come to church. One of the most pivotal moments along her path to conversion that I clearly saw was that of her attendance at General Conference. Even though she only went to one of the sessions of Conference that Spirit she obviously felt stuck with her and she desired to have more of it. After conference her progression rapidly increased to the point where we only had to work out the details of when. Shannon’s feelings coming out of the font were, “Cold!” but after getting dry she told me that she felt “Better.” and that she was ready for the work ahead, “a job well worth it!” 

As missionaries our goal is to ultimately to help people be prepared for baptism and their entering the gate by that first covenant. After that, they are on the path of “enduring to the end” and that falls under the Ward’s jurisdiction. Being able to be with Shannon from the beginning to the end (as far as we take people as missionaries), and going through all the obstacles with her has opened my eyes to the path of conversion and of discipleship. It is not easy, but it never was intended to be. It was never easy for Him as He was beaten, spit upon, scourged, forsaken, betrayed, and brutally murdered; so why should it be easy for us? However, because of Him and to use Shannon’s words it is going to be “a job well worth it!”

A couple other updates on individuals. Trevor and Sebastian are doing good but they are hung up on coming to church-which is where we run into the roadblock of Mom and Dad. Mom is a less-active member and Dad is not, they both support their kids but not necessarily in the way we would hope (like giving them a ride to church, etc.) But we’re working on that this week! Kendra moved to her parents house this week and so we are going to try and track her down to teach her again this week. She was reading the Book of Mormon and was interested (she also has twin girls who are 3 years old...they’re adorable). Emily is doing great as well and even though her Mom isn’t interested she is supportive of Emily being interested. Although, Emily stays with her Dad on the weekends so church is something we’ll have to tackle-like every other investigator! Dalila is the mother of a few kids, none of which are her own. She is an awesome lady and we were able to catch her and she told us her “story” I guess which was good. We left her with a Restoration pamphlet and are hoping to be able to get back over there this week as well to discuss that. Her son is 8 and when the sisters were going over there apparently he has said he wants to be baptized! We are going to start working with Erica and her family (she and her three boys are LA) as well as her new husband, Willie, who is not a member but generally interested! Love their family! 

• A family took us out to dinner at the Wind Creek Buffet. (One of the three Casinos in AL).
• We have been playing cards with an older man in the ward who is less-active for health reasons and he’s beaten us every time.
• We played tackle football, in proselyting clothes, with Erica’s boys and some others from their neighborhood. I dove after one kid and scraped up my arm but it was worth it. 
• The power in Elmore County went out because of “a large snake in one of their substations.” We were at the church finishing up a baptismal program and is all shut off-creepy.
• A baptist pastor, Shane, took the time to get out of his car and come up to us as we were talking to a guy whom we’ve talked to before (his name is Tommy and he isn’t too interested but he’ cool. He is the guy with all the clocks. I sent picture a while ago of one from the 1600s.) in order to “protect Tommy from the false things we were teaching him.” We also don’t believe in Jesus Christ and even though it says Jesus Christ on my name tag it is a false Christ. We are “wolves in sheeps clothing” and preach evil and false things. Joseph Smith also wrote the Book of Mormon by translating scrolls (two different things, wrote versus translate) and he did it all with an Elementary Education as a farm boy. That was a stupid encounter.

Again, it was an exhausting week but we’ve got three baptism and more to work with. We had some cool experiences talking to a couple people who we are hoping to make new investigators and church was great! A young man who is preparing to go to the Canada Vancouver Mission confirmed Shannon and it was the most inspired blessing I’ve heard-just what she needed! Times are good in Wetumpka and I hope they’re good everywhere else! Love y’all, let me know if you need anything! 

Much Love,

Elder Milius

-- 

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

 Elder Milius, Shannon, Elder Shrubb

 Elder Milius and Elder Schrubb

A family took us out to dinner at the Wind Creek Buffet. (One of the three Casinos in AL)