24 July 2017 - Elder Milius Week 56

Another week down y’all,

The work in Prattville, AL, is moving forward!!! Just at a pretty slow pace right now… but that’s okay! Luckily the Lord is still in charge and we just have to try our best. Like I said it was a pretty slow week but still full of the Lord’s work so I’m happy. We found a few people, got dropped by several who texted us and told us not to come back, but are excited for this week! 

I’ll start by updating on some people I’ve mentioned before. Ann is making me sad. She cancelled our appointment we had set with her and it just seems like she’s lacking desire. We called her an hour before the appointment and she told us not to come by but then when we were trying to figure out another time to stop by she hung up. We called back, and she answered and hung up. We called back again, and she rejected it. So that’s pretty much where we stand with Ann unfortunately. I don’t know if she’s been reading but we are going to try and send the Sisters over there to maybe connect with Ann in a way we couldn’t and help her progress. 

(Speaking of giving people for the Sisters to visit there still isn’t really any progress with Lee. She’s still stuck in her “I’m curious” stage and we haven’t seen her in a while. I have hope though that one day these people who we think are prepared might one day be ready to make and keep covenants with our Father in Heaven. Just like all the Recent Converts who go less active to the church will one day realize the things they felt and come back. Like I said in the beginning the Lord is ultimately in charge). 

Pauline was a lady that we tracted into a couple weeks ago who told us to come back. Then we found her walking through Wal-Mart and she stopped us last week and told us to come by. So, last Monday we went and taught her the Restoration and from what we think she took it all in. She didn’t come to church with us on Sunday but we are hoping to go by again today and teach her again to see what she felt about the Book of Mormon! She’s a great representation of a Southern Black lady haha! 

Kerri, Alex and Shelby we haven’t been able to get a hold of at all. We haven’t been able to get in touch with Courtney and Brooklyn. Haley is out of the state currently and has been for a couple weeks but she’s responding to our text so we’re good there. CHristine, the lady who we thought was so ready dropped us over text. And the really cool Henley family with the little girl who came out and hugged Elder Foudy dropped us over text.

But, this week we found Allen and Danielle who live in a trailer park where a potential sent us to without giving us a number. So, we started at Lot 1 and “coincidentally” knocked on Allen and Danielle’s home! What was crazy was our goal for New Investigators was “A Family of 3.” Even though their daughter is 1-year-old we still found a family of three. I don’t know how solid they will be but it was a cool lesson. That morning we had interviews and President told us to focus on getting in home and getting people to church. Well, we got in and invited them to church (they didn’t come but it’s all good). Hopefully they will be promising! 

We also met a lady named Shayla who told us to come by and talk about the Restoration. She’s methodist and doesn’t see herself changing and is kinda putting walls up. With the Spirit though they can be broken down and we are praying for a text/call from her (she told us not to push because the more we push the more she backs off). 

Another guy named Terris told us to come back about a week or so ago. So, we went back yesterday and are looking to teach him and his wife and two kids, one of which is 8. Again, praying that they keep meeting with us!

Last, but not least, we met Jill. This lady was investigating the church for a year and called herself “an investigator.” Crazy! We were walking into Office Depot to store contact and I said hello to this lady and told her that she was very happy and I liked that. She responded by saying “So are you,” and then she said she knew who we were. Long story short, we stood in Office Depot for a half an hour and talked to this former investigator. She started texting the missionaries who she knew and whose numbers she had from 10 years ago. She was picked up by the Sisters 5 years ago, but having to take care of her 90-year-old mother has kept her from coming back to church as consistently as she was (for a whole year). She said that she used to have the Elders over and they would clean up her yard-the four lots that her dad bought that is half of a city block. We are going to keep meeting with her and hopefully get her coming back again. HEr hold up, like a lot of people, is she isn’t quite sure if the whole Book of Mormon is true. Lucky for us once she gets that testimony it’s time for Baptism!! :) That was probably our biggest miracle this week, and Jill is awesome. She’ll hopefully be in my emails for a while instead of those who are mentioned once and then never again. 

Snippets of the Week:

• We went on an exchange in Hoover and a guy came up to us after chasing us down. His name was Kevin, he’s an atheist, and he wanted to apologize for being rude to some missionaries a while back. It was a cool tender mercy to be apologized to for a missionary who got slammed previous.
• In Hoover again we prayed with like 7 people on someone’s porch because people kept coming up and out the doors in an apartment complex. Elder Muaka, my companion at the time volunteered me to say it. 
• I watched baseball in a restaurant after District meeting. It was refreshing. On top of that Sister Scoleri talked baseball with me, even though she didn’t like the Red Sox it was ok. Phillies fan, tisk tisk.
• We got bashed by a lady named Erin. She asked about the biblical proof of baptism for the dead, then the spirit world. We proved it to her even if she didn’t accept it.
• Interviews with President Sainsbury were good, as always! Transfers will be interesting because I have no idea what’s happening!
• We tracted into a lady who told us that “Gale used to be a Mormon, but she wasn’t anymore.” “Whose Gale?” we asked. “She’s my wife.” Oh… ok. Talk about a conversation killer.
• A young woman gave her farewell talk in church with Elder Foudy’s awesome talk about member-missionary work! :) Which is going better by the way, we’re getting there with our member visits.
• I talked baseball with another Part-Member family that we found on Sunday! :)
• A new family moved into the ward who is loaded. They sell doTerra and were one of the first 25 distributers when it first started. So they’re blessed. And they love the missionaries and missionary work so that’s exciting! 

As I said, lots of ups and downs this week but the Lord is still hastening his work and I’m glad to be part of it! I love y’all, and I hope you make it a good week! Let me know if your Elder in Alabama can do anything for you!

Much Love,

Elder Milius

PS: We saw a car flipped on the interstate on our way to Hoover this past week, crazy! 

-- 

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

17 July 2017 - Elder Milius Week #55

Peeps Around the World,

Well what another wonderful week in the Alabama Birmingham Mission. First of all the weather here varies like crazy and storms come out of nowhere which is kinda fun! We had to run through it a couple times but that’s pretty typical now, especially with it being the summer! It’s starting to get humid again just like when I first got here, yay! People alway comment that I’m used to the heat but in reality it’s so different. I’m just nervous that by the end of two years my body is going to adjust and then I’ll have to adjust back to the dry heat. Can’t wait!! Haha! 

As far as investigators go there isn’t much to update concerning the people we’ve been working with. Ann didn’t end up coming to church and is basically too affected by her “previous experience” in church (that she won’t tell us) is keeping her from coming or going to any church in general. But she’s still reading the Book of Mormon so maybe there is hope there! Basically everybody else we’ve not been able to get in contact with because of either vacations or they just don’t like us all of the sudden. It’s frustrating but we’ll hopefully be able to find some more people to help the Ward out a little bit! 

We were able to find a few people this past week, one of which might be worth mentioning-and there may be more we’ll just see how the typing goes. Kristine was a lady who we knocked into on Wednesday! We had gone to visit a less-active, who ended up not living at the address we had but we are going back to that family that does live there this week, and we were going to tract the street we were on. When Kristine answered she was very nice and explained that she new a member named June! June is also less-active but we had had dinner with her and the Kemptons a week or two prior! Crazy cool connections. Then she started about how she was Catholic but was really looking for a church and then didn’t like the ones she had attended so she stopped really looking. As we went through the Restoration and especially the First Vision is totally made sense to her and she looking excited to read and learn more. We had an appointment for this past Friday that she missed but we’ll hopefully be helping her as this week goes on. 

Another cool story, simple but cool to me happened at McDonalds. Elder Foudy had to use the restroom so we stopped and I saw this guy that I knew! Remember a month or so ago when Elder Matthews had to go to the bathroom in an emergency situation? Ya so when he was doing that I saw a worker who looked like he needed some cheering up. So, I gave him a Book or Mormon and told him it would bring him joy because I had an impression to! I told him to call us if he needed anything and he never called. But, when we were in McDonalds again he was there and his demeanor didn’t really change and he didn’t talk to us and nothing really happened but it was a cool reminder of an experience I had a while ago. The Lord knows who we are!

There was nothing else super eventful. We did some more Family History this week, we store contacted, tracted, taught some people, found some more, went to bed, and woke up the next morning and did it again! Pauline, this lady that we had tracted into a couple weeks prior stopped us in Wal-Mart and told us “don’t worry I haven’t forgot about you, we’ve just been really busy!” Cool thing was we had scheduled to see them that day and were able to reschedule an appointment (maybe that will turn into something). We went on an Exchange with the Millbrook Elders which was awesome! It was fun to be with Elder Egbert, another missionary who came out with me. He’s a great missionary and an even better friend! Also, we are 6th cousins. Someone put together a “Relative Finder” ABM page for all of us missionaries! 

• Momma Cook from Wetumpka took us out to Logan’s for dinner! :)
• We contacted at the park by sitting on a bench and asking people “Can I interest you in a copy of the Book or Mormon?”
• We were bashed hard core by a guy in Bass Pro shop. We started talking to this guy’s wife and mother who were sitting on a bench. His mother was from Germany and we were talking to her about that because his wife was not interested in us even standing there. At one point the Mom asked us if we were saved and the wife told her “No, no they’re not.” THEN she CALLED her husband who came up to “talk” with us and when he shook our hands he pulled us real close and was very aggressive-jerk. When we told him we agreed that it was only through the blood of Christ we are saved he was kinda taken back and then kept on. Stupid people. After we left him we gave away a Book of Mormon to someone on the way out and talked to a previous part-member (her ex husband was a LA member). 
• On our exchange we all sang “Hallelujah” to Elder Egbert on the guitar.
• We saw lightning strike the traffic light 10 feet in front of us and knock the power out to the light. 
• Elder Foudy called me in give him his towel that he left in the dryer after he got out of the shower.

I want to finish talking about a little girl named Avery. Last week we went and visited our Ward Mission Leader’s family and gave them our “member-missionary work” thought and invited them to pray as a family and give away a Book of Mormon. Yesterday we get this text from Sister Campbell: “Happy Sunday Elders!!! I wanted to tell you that Avery gave away the Book of Mormon to the friend she told you who came to her mind when you left the Book of Mormon with us. When she gave it to her friend I listened as she handed it to her friend and said this is an invitation to our church. Our church is the only true church and I know this book is the word of God and I got one for you of your very own to take home. Her friend was very happy and asked if she could put her name in it before she leaves. Thanks for all you do Elders! You are SO important and make SUCH a difference!” Later that night we went over to tell Avery how awesome that is and we learned that after she gave it away she told her mom that she needed to give a talk to tell everyone! We’re going to reminder her to give her talk on Fast Sunday. (In the same aspect another girl from a family we gave sorta the same lesson to gave away her pass-along card we challenged her as well as two copies of the Book of Mormon. Brother Campbell also gave a book to one of his colleagues. We are very excited to continue meeting with the members and making this the “norm” for the Prattville Ward!) By the way Avery is nine years old.

Love y’all, have a great week wherever you might be!

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

 Me and Mama Cook

 IT IS HOT IN BAMA!

10 July 2017 - Elder Milius Week 54

To the General Population:

Well not too eventful of a week. It was the Fourth of July (not too different of a day in the mission field). We had zone conference and so I got to see a lot of missionaries I haven’t seen in awhile. And…..I hit my year mark! Time flies by and it’s crazy to think that I have been gone for over a year now! It’s even crazier to think that I will be headed home in a year! I just want to be a missionary forever! 

First, for the sake of it being my year mark I have to mention Elder Erickson. He is the brand new Elder who is serving with Elder Egbert (who came out with me) in Millbrook. He is so excited about missionary work and is like the brightest kid you’ll ever find. It makes me laugh because of how evident that “greenie fire” is and I can only hope and pray that even as a more “mature” missionary I can still have that same enthusiasm. Maybe not as outwardly expressed, but the same enthusiasm nonetheless. Also I’d like to mention the Kempton family! They are awesome (and they are both from Safford, AZ, which makes them even cooler and I’m sure we have some family that knows family so if there are any connections to “Kempton's” let me know!). They fed us a couple times this week as an FHE night and after we helped them with their yard one morning. They are thinking about putting in for Phoenix next year as they are military and such. I’m trying to get a few families from the ward here to put in for Phoenix or Tucson so that I can come see them after I get home. The Cole’s, another great family, are moving out there in a few weeks or so to Tucson and it’s going to be fun keeping in contact with them so that they can go to my Homecoming! 

We were busy this week, as always, and we found a few new investigators that we are hoping turn into something solid. Unfortunately once something solid happens a couple weeks later it fizzles but we keep working! That’s what we’re called to do anyways! But, by way of updates:

Ann is being frustrating. We are trying to help her work through an event that happened when she was 16 at her church that made her stop going to church. From what she tells us that’s really the only thing that is holding her back and if the “event” is what we are assuming it is I guess it’s not a bad reason to not come to church. I’ve heard worse. But right now that’s what is holding her back so I think we are just going to focus on helping her gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon and all the other dominoes will hopefully fall. She’s a sweet lady though and she’ll get it one day.

Kerri and her kids, Alex and Shelby, haven’t been too present. We’ve tried to contact Kerri all this week to no avail but she’s resting from her surgery. Her kids are now at their dad's for the second half of the summer so they are getting more and more distant because we aren’t able to visit them. But, again hopefully when school starts they will be back with Kerri and we’ll be able to continue teaching them and preparing them for baptism! They have all already committed to a soft baptismal invite but the date is the trouble because we don’t know the schedule. Prayers that they don’t fall through the cracks.

Courtney and her daughter Brooklyn are another two we’ve found and been teaching. They just left out of town on vacation to Florida though to see family so we won’t be able to see them for at least another week. Summer rocks.

Haley is someone I think I’ve mentioned before. She’s doing her research but last time we went to see her she brought up something that was straight from like anti...we sent her to mormon.org so that she’ll have a legit place to do her research rather than finding things that say a leader of our church said you have to go through Joseph Smith to be saved or to get to Jesus of something like that. Probably taken out of context with a lot of “....” in the middle. Or not true at all. Gotta love it! 

We did meet a couple other families this week that were really awesome! The Henley family was someone we tracted into. The little boy answered the door, then the little girl came to the door and hugged Elder Foudy, and then Mom came! She taught her kids a lesson about opening a door to strangers and then we talked to her a little bit on her doorstep. She is baptist but has an open mind and I’m praying that that family lets us come back and teach them because they’d be great for the church! We need more active Priesthood in the Prattville Ward. We also, went to visit the Smith family who is Less-Active. We FINALLY were able to see them after trying forever! They, we think, got offended by someone and then haven’t been back to church for a while. They have three kids who aren’t baptized and a family of four, family friends of theirs have moved in recently too! We are going to try making them a more of a priority and trying to reactivate, baptize, and bring lots of people into the church that blesses families so much! We’re just praying for softened hearts. 

Couple other fun things to note, one being our mission’s focus on Family History! I forgot how much I liked Family History until we were encouraged to spend a couple hours of the week participating in it! That’s going to be fun to continue and it’s going to be cool to do it with Elder Foudy because his line is almost the exact opposite of mine. Full and complete versus not. Also, we (Elder Foudy and I) had a long conversation about member-missionary work. A long conversation. We are trying to figure out how we can make the member-missionary work better here in Prattville as well as around the ABM. We’ve decided to try and start implementing lessons and visits with members, just as we would with investigators, with commitments and follow-ups. Not only would this allow us to meet a lot of the members and get in their home (besides dinners which are now almost strictly at 5:00-which is where this conversation started), but it would also allow us to teach and encourage the members in a more personally tailored way. We are going to try and implement our idea in seeing and teaching one member family each night around 7:30/8:00 for 20-30 minutes. Short, quick, bold, powerful, and missionary work changing...hopefully! So that’s exciting, wish us luck!

The funny stories:

• We went to a wedding of a lady in Millbrook Ward on the 4th. She had us (the missionaries) serve the food. And her daughter told me that I look like a Ken doll...in a good way.
• As we were teaching a lady in the park about the Apostasy (she was highly disagreeing with us) her little girl asked me if I was a missionary. Elder Foudy was teaching at the moment so I responded with a happy “Yes!” She looked up at me and said, “Well then I want to be a missionary too!” Thankful for the tender mercies of the Lord! 
• Pauline told Elder Foudy he could have some chocolate milk. After drinking it he looked at her disgusted and said “Pauline this milk is bad.” She responded, “Yes, I know.” Hahaha!!!
• Also about Pauline, I made her laugh out loud.
• Oh and she was also at the wedding and I danced with her...sorta. I was helping her get around with my arm and I told the other missionaries I brought a date to the wedding. Pauline hit me and called me a bad by but I know she thinks I’m cute. (I’ll have to send you pictures next week, the ones we took are on the phone but I’ll figure out how to put them on the computer next week). 
• A little girl ran out and hugged Elder Foudy after we tracted into the house. Never have we seen them before so that was weird/cute and worth mentioning twice.
• Elder Foudy had a vision of a house that we were going to knock on tracting. Then when we got to “the house” no one answered which was contrary to his vision so we are going to go back.

A couple more spiritual thoughts and then I’ll let y’all stop reading if you’ve actually made it this far. I know my Mom has, thanks Mom! You’re cool. But anyways on Thursday we went out with Brother Campbell, our WML, to see some people. When we were walking away from one house we had someone else to go see but there was this lady in the street a little ways and I had the impression to go talk to her but I talked myself out of it. After we left I felt terrible. Ask Elder Foudy, as a missionary you vocalize your thoughts so he knew everything I was thinking! I felt like a failure, and when we got to the next house I asked for forgiveness and promised that I’d never disregard a prompting ever again. It was sad, and depressing. But then, to make it worse Brother Campbell asked to take us out to eat! At dinner I brought a Book of Mormon inside and set tit at the end of the table. I told Brother Campbell that it was to make up for ignoring a prompting to talk to someone earlier. “Who?!” he promptly asked. I told him there was a lady down the street… He cut me off “...in a green skirt.” I said “Ya,” and he responded, “You’re going to make me cry. I had the same prompting and the entire ride in the car over here I was beating myself up about it.” That was one of the most butt-kicking experiences I’ve had. But I will never, never ignore a prompting as long as I live. I learned a lot from that experience but the most comforting thing about it is even after the mission I will still, if I choose, be able to receive promptings-like Brother Campbell-to talk to random individuals about the gospel.

The second experience was more in studies. I was reading in the Ensign of sometime last summer and Elder Bednar was in it from a devotional he gave on Neal A. Maxwell’s talk “That I might not shrink” (or something of the sort). And in it he told the story of a friend who had cancer and wanted a Priesthood blessing but before the blessing was given Elder Bednar asked “Do you have the faith to NOT be healed?” Likewise in missionary work-as I apply everything to missionary work these days-do we have the faith to NOT find success, to NOT see the fruits of our efforts and work, or to NOT reap the rewards of baptizing! Kinda cool thought. We’re called to sow, to necessarily to reap. And the guy in the story made a comment about having faith that the Lord “could” do something, not the faith that he “would” do something because that’s not up to us. 

There are my thoughts for the week. A not so eventful week was still full of miracles and good experiences! I guess that's what happens when you focus so much on others. I love it! Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers! I love y’all! Make it another good week wherever you are!!!

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

 This is Pauline :)

 Elder Foudy and Elder Milius

 Burning The Shirt ceremony to mark ONE YEAR DOWN!!!

3 July 2017 - Elder Milius Week 53

Children of God,

When I was little I never believed that time went by fast. Yet, here I came at a year out on my mission and time won’t slow down! It was another week full of teaching, finding, getting a new companion, going to meetings, and, as always, being disappointed when no one shows up for church. But that’s just life in the ABM!

Elder Foudy is a good guy! He is from Tyler, Texas and has one older brother who is 26. He is a convert to the church with a really cool conversion story that I don’t even know all the details to yet. He did a year at BYU before coming on a mission where he studied Mechanical Engineering but he’s looking to change that upon his arrival home. He’s been out a while and goes home this coming November. His hobbies include cooking, playing sports, and sorta singing (he’d tell you know but we’ve already sang plenty together in the car). He is a little more on the shy side of things but I think we are going to get along great and teach well together! 

Into our week! Monday things started to get real for Elder Matthews. We got some packing done and then did a few other things. We had a great lesson with Kerri and her kids! They are doing great in their Book of Mormon reading and all of their questions were pertaining to understanding. I hope I’m around when they are baptized! Tuesday was full of “lasts.” We had a couple of solid lessons too which was good! We talked to Lee more about baptism and Elder Matthews shared some final thoughts with her. We then told her that we were going to give her to the Sisters so that she could get taught over again with a different perspective, which was sad but it was what she needs to progress I think! We also taught Ann with a Youth in our ward, Gideon. It was cool because we were at his family's house for dinner and as we were walking out I yelled down the hall to see if he wanted to come. His parents immediately jumped on board and encouraged him to go so he did. It was good getting to know him a little bit better. He just graduated and isn’t really thinking about a mission but a good kid nonetheless! Coolest part was both Elder Matthews and I had the same impression to ask him to come, so we know he needed to be there. At Ann’s lesson we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited her to be baptized; she’s now on date for the 22nd of this month and we’re hoping and praying that works out! 

Wednesday, tears were shed. But they were all good tears! After going down and being at Transfers I figured out how “old” I am in the mission now. I remember all the people who were my leaders when I came out and now they are almost all home. Weird. But after getting everything figured out and everyone’s stuff packed and transported we had a good lesson with Susan. We hadn’t been able to follow up with her forever it seemed like but we taught her a recap of the Restoration and invited her to read, pray, and come to church (the three things that we invite everyone to do). Then that night we planned for our Zone theme! #buildtheship #fishersofmen We’ve had some good themes over the past few transfers and I don’t think we are going to disappoint at all! 

Thursday was full of planning and letting Elder Foudy get to know the people and the area a little bit better. We went out to find some people and knocked into Courtney and Brooklyn (mother-daughter). They were super cool and we shared with them the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. Later we went out with Brother Campbell to see a few people and he really helped out in our lesson with Ann and Jeanette. (Ann was the 18 year old who came up to us while we were standing on the side of the street talking to each other). Their progression might be a little slower but I think eventually they will both find the Book of Mormon to be true and join the church! Brother Campbell is a great teacher by the way. I look up to him a lot and he would laugh if I said that in front of him but it’s the truth. Friday we had a meeting to go to and then we went to visit with Pauline! She loves the missionaries and is in our ward. Kinda a crazy lady but gotta love her! We then had a cool lesson with Kerri and her kids again and ended up staying WAY too long answering questions. But, the bright side is all of them are open to the idea of being baptized! The struggle now becomes the kids being at their Dad’s house for the rest of the summer except for every weekend! We will figure things out though, the Lord will provide a way we just have to stick with them! 

The weekend went pretty much the same as the week. Saturday we played soccer with a group of people (less-actives and non-members and members) that is put together by some members of the ward. Then we had a few appointments to cover with people and by the end of the night we had 10 possible people at church! One of which being Haley who Elder Matthews and I found a couple weeks ago! She had a lot of understanding questions as well and we are hoping to keep in contact with her so praying for her progression as well! Sunday rolled around though and no one came to church unfortunately. We didn’t have any lessons but we found one guy, Bubba, who we hope to teach. Then we made missionary shirts and dropped them to all of our investigators who didn’t come to church! Oh, and we tracted in the rain again! Don’t really know what the weather will be like this week because it changes every 10 minutes. 

What another “fantastic” week in Prattville! I love it here and I love working for the Lord. It might get frustrating sometimes but you can never fail when you’re on the Lord’s errand! Thank you all for your support and love! Let me know if you need anything from Bama! Make it a good week! :)

Much Love,

Elder Milius

• Elder Matthews and I put a lock on the “lock bridge” in downtown Prattville.
• Elder Foudy ate some nasty eggs or something and messed up his insides. He was burping rotten eggs for like two days.
• That last one is a secret, don’t tell him I told you.
• We weren’t able to meet with Keri Thursday night because she was in the ER after passing out and hitting her head against the floor. Yes, she’s the lady who I mentioned before had neck surgery. 
• Pauline hit me for being a little too “smart.” She almost took me into the kitchen, and ome of the fellow ABMers may understand the context of that story.
• We went to a wedding on Saturday!!
• Somehow I got volun-told to sing a solo in Sacrament meeting sometime this month. “In the Quiet of My Room” Men’s Solo. Thanks Sister Franklin. I’m still confused at how that all happened.
• One of the Sister’s former investigators, who bashed them a couple weeks ago and was dropped following that, came to church on Sunday. She showed up and the Millbrook Elders met her in the foyer and then all the sudden she started up bashing them in the church foyer. The main topic of conversation was about how the Sabbath is on Saturday. A member from the Millbrook Ward also joined in and they “talked” for around 30 minutes. Elder Egbert said this about the experience: “I go to church to get my three hours of refugee where I don’t get persecuted for my beliefs, then in walks this lady!”

Happy Fourth of July! 

PS: I don’t have any pictures with Elder Foudy yet. I know I’m a failure. It will change after this week! 

-- 

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