Happy November!
I just want to start by saying I love the fall in the South, that’s all! Also, I am currently living in Hoover, AL!! Wahoo!! I’ll be sure to put my new address in at the end of the email! This week we were busy with all sorts of moving parts but we still had some awesome experiences that I’ll tell y’all about. I probably won’t have a ton of time to email today either so I apologize if this one is shorter than you’re used too-maybe that’s a good thing (at least for everyone but my Mom).
So, leaving Smithville was sad and there are a lot of investigators and members that I am going to miss spending time with all of those great people. I got to say a few goodbyes though on Halloween so that was good! Then transfers happened and I went to Hoover! We were doing a lot of driving around that day and we got to spend some time with the departing missionaries in a small testimony meeting. That was really cool, and there are a lot of powerful missionaries in the mission-the missionary spirit is evident of that! Thursday we had some more adjusting to do after the transfer and then I went and met a couple of investigators, Anita and Lance! Anita is hard to catch sometimes but when you do she’s on top of things! Lance is a Jamaican and accepted a soft baptismal invitation so we have high hopes for him if he would just read and come to church!
**I have forgotten to talk about Elder Lewis, my new companion, and I think this is an appropriate place to do it. He is from Jamaica (which is why I thought that Lance being Jamaican was comical) and the place where Lance lives has a ton of Jamaicans in it...we go there quite a bit. He is a great missionary and he’s going to help me out a lot! He’ll be leaving after this transfer so I’m killing my second missionary but he doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a problem for him. We just don’t talk about it. He is great at impersonations, especially Barack Obama, and is a convert to the church. He was baptized when he was 10 and his family followed him soon after. Before being LDS he and his family were Jehovah's Witnesses! He brings new perspective on things and I’m excited for these next six weeks!
Now that I’ve got that out of the way I guess I’ll talk about the Hoover Ward! They’re great, a lot of longtime members of the church and a lot of converts. Their numbers are going down because people are moving out west for various reasons but they all work hard and are a huge help to the missionaries! Brother Huff, our Ward Mission Leader is anxious and ready to help us so it’s going to be a good place to be!
Like I said we had a few cool finding experiences this week and one of them was Bailey! Last night as we were about to back out of an apartment complex he was in the way and so Elder Lewis started to talk to him (I was in the car). After a few minutes I got out and he had a really cool story about how God had helped him and so he helps others by giving them food and things from his work. He gave us a box of food and we set up to come and see him sometime on Saturday!
We also found a group of college kids, I think, who we knocked into last night. They were having a Bible Study and invited us in and so we joined them and our new goal is to put all of them on date for baptism! They’re cool though, I like them!
Some funnier experiences as well:
- There was a guy that was walking through the parking lot speaking in spanish to us when we asked him a question and so I ran across the parking lot, “Yo hablo un poquito espanol!” like I actually could talk to him...I think it went well.
- Having church at 1:00 is amazing.
Not too many of those this week, but there was one more thing that was really cool. We felt prompted one night to go and visit Brenda. She has been worked with for a while and has been on and off date for baptism and was gone on vacation for a couple weeks. When we went to see her it was cool how the Spirit kinda took over the lesson and Elder Lewis and I were sharing things that you would’ve thought we planned word for word, subject by subject. Eventually we put her back on date for the 25th of November and we are going to be working really hard to get her to that day!
Things are going good, I getting settled, and the church is still true! It couldn’t have been a better week! I love y’all and hope you’re taken care of; remember, God loves you! (1 Nephi 11:16-17). Make it a blessed week!
Much Love,
Elder Milius
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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
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