25 December 2017 - Elder Milius Week 78 MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas to All!!

Well, I don’t want to be too long because I’m going to go call my family but I do want to share a few things about what happened this week and how people are doing etc. Especially considering that these emails have become my records/journal for my mission. 

So, first order of business: Elder Lewis is still here. He is working on passport stuff but it’s just a big crazy mess. He is however working in the Inverness Area with Elder Webb (who came out with me and was trained by Elder Lewis)instead of being in a trio with us. But, he’s still in my district and we’re working on things for him. Elder Egbert drew him into the Transfer Board the other day and I’ll send a picture of that.

Second, Christmas Zone Conferences and parties kept us busy in the middle of this week. Wednesday and Thursday were hectic days but we did it and all was well. We made President and Sister Sainsbury a Christmas Video of all the missionaries which turned out great! I’ll share it from my Drive so y’all can see it if you’d like to. I may have to share it with you though so next week! We watched “Moana” for our Annual Christmas Movie and Elder Egbert and I have been singing it this entire week; I can’t imagine how many times it played at my house after it came out but two days in a row was enough for us. 

A lot of the people we are teaching have pretty much stayed the same especially because of the holidays and everything but we had a few cool experiences in finding this week. On Monday we went to Wal-Mart to get some things and ran into two people, Javarus and Sis. Loretta. They weren’t together or anything but Javarus we talked to for a little bit and he was just really down. We shared with him LighttheWorld and then a little about the Book of Mormon and went to the Library the next morning to teach him. He is a 19 year old who is off by himself, at least as far as he told us, trying to make it. Kinda a sad situation but we’re hoping he reads and comes to feel the same joy that we all fell when we read and pray about truth, especially in the Book of Mormon. Sis. Loretta stopped us and started talking about how she had meet with the missionaries over in Florida or something and we invited her to come to church with us. On Saturday we sent her a text to remind her that she was invited and she responded and said she’d come. But, that’s happened before so we didn’t really have high hopes and then right after the opening song she walked in! It was awesome. After Sacrament we introduced her to Brother Huff and President Sainsbury because he was there and she said she loved it so much she wanted to come back the next week. She hasn’t allowed us to meet her at her home yet to teach her but we gave her a Book of Mormon and committed her to read it. It was a good Christmas Eve Service! 

• We missed a meal appointment because we were up in Huntsville for the Christmas Zone Conference. We’ve just been great with those the past week.
• Santa came in to Chick-fil-a when we were there eating dinner and I jumped up and yelled, “SANTA!! I know him!!” Just kidding, but that would’ve been funny.
• We met a lady named Alethia who seems genuinely interested in the church and everything; but, the best part is she said that she used to stay in Atlanta because she was a nanny for a player on the Atlanta Braves. I asked who it was and she said, “Do you know who Chipper Jones is?” WHAT?! So then I asked if I could get a picture with her...I met Chipper Jones’ former nanny for his kids. Crazy.
• I took a Book of Mormon back from a lady named Whitney because she said she’d read it but she didn’t want us coming over to talk about it afterwards. 
• We played the LighttheWorld video on repeat again at Wal-Mart.
• Elder Barfuss let Elder Egbert drive the mission truck with the trailer when we were moving Elder Lewis and Elder Webb into their apartment; it made the his life.
• After knocking on a door trying to follow up with someone a couple girls were walking out of their apartment below us to their car and I made a fart noise with my mouth and they totally got silent and stared at us until they got in their car.

We met a couple other cool potentials this week: Britney, Crystal and Oscar, Kris and Andrew, Kayla (Who, by the way totally tried to avoid us coming by to see her. As we were walking up she pulled in so we waved and walked back down the stairs and she pulled out and left. Luckily we waited for her to come back haha!) But nothing surmounts our Christmas Eve Miracle! No one really likes you to knock on their door on Christmas Eve night, so we had a list of people who were members to go and visit with for a few minutes. It was getting closer to the end of the night, about 8:20 and we went to see this older man who would be alone on Christmas. As we pulled in, turns out we went to a different address to a different member and to make matters worse we didn’t have an apartment for this member on the roster. Deciding that we were sent there for a purpose we knock doors, haha! No one was really rude, we found a cool decoration, and passed out a LighttheWorld card. Then as we were leaving we had a few minutes before our night was over or before we had to go to our next activity. We looked around and Elder Egbert spotted an apartment that had its lights on. The man answered the door and almost immediately invited us in out of the cold, gave us some water and we started to talk to him. He recently moved from Chicago (it was actually Juliet which is right by Romeoville which is where we used to live) and was here with his fiance. We shared with him the Restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon. To close, we showed the LighttheWorld video and totally brought the Spirit! It was awesome! His name was Lloyd, and he was our Christmas Eve Miracle! 

Great things are happening in Hoover and in Alabama! It’s a chilly one today but I hope y’all are having a great Christmas wherever you are! Love you, and remember that we wouldn’t have a Christmas if it wasn’t for Easter (Alma 7:10-13).

Much Love,

Elder Milius 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

-- 

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

18 December 2017 - Elder Milius Week 77

Merry Christmas!!

I can’t believe that it’s already the Christmas season! I hope everyone is making good progress in the LighttheWorld initiative! We are definitely loving it out here in the mission field! We’ve had a crazy busy week let me tell ya. Elder Egbert is my new companion and he is awesome! We served around each other when I was in Prattville and he was in Millbrook and so we’ll have a good time together I’m sure!

Transfers were crazy so I figure I’ll start there. We picked up the new missioanries and they are all on fire! It was cool remembering back to the first day I arrived in Alabama. What made that crazy though was the MTC wasn’t waking up the missionaries early anymore so they arrived around 5:20 and we didn’t get back to the mission home until 6:30. Which was fine, we just had to do all the training and interviews Wednesday morning. But that wasn’t the craziest part of the week. Thursday morning we went to drop off the departing missionaries so that they could get home. Half of our missionaries got their bags checked and then half of them we not able to check their bags. So the heart started to race as the lady at the counter gave me a number to call to try and rebook flights. What?? We all sat in the airport, Elder Egbert and I and 8 other missionaries who are ready to go home, while I called a guy who told me that there were no flights out of Birmingham for the rest of the day. Or for the next day. As he started to give me options I sent Elder Egbert to get another phone and call President because he left his phone at the apartment. It took us a few tries but we finally got a hold of President and I told him that we had 8 missionaries that weren’t going to make it home and then we talked through some options. The next hour I went back and forth talking to President and then the airlines guy and then finally booked 7 flights from Atlanta the next morning. We dropped off all the missionaries with surrounding areas and then re-grouped at 5:30 to leave for Atlanta. Unfortunately we did not go to Atlanta but a senior couple drove them and they all made their flights the next morning for home. It was a very eventful moment and we were all on edge to say the least. But, to add to it a missionary going home tried to take home a gun that had been give to him by a member in his carry-on bag! So he almost go thrown in jail but the senior couple took it and we avoided that problem. The side issue was that Elder Lewis’ passport was expired so he couldn’t go home and he is currently staying with us. I can’t tell you how stressed out I was that day but apparently I didn’t look it as I calmly talked to two people at once and too charge of a situation I had no idea about. Gotta love it. Especially that it’s now all figured out! I’m trying to locate pictures that I can send home soon.

Anyway, other than that our week has been going good! We had a follow-up training meeting with the missionaries who have been out for six weeks now which is my favorite meeting! That was great. We have also gotten a new whiteboard so that we can keep better track of all the potentials that we are meeting and that is going well!

A couple people that we’ve met worth talking about is Claude. Claude is a brother of a member who we’ve been trying to work with for a long while. However, he is more interested than his brother for sure. Their parents were members and they were raised as far as childhood in the church but Claude was never baptized. We’ve had a couple great lessons with him and he is doing good as far as his reading and such. He is on date for baptism for the 20th of January and we are hoping to keep in touch well with him. Another lady that we met last night was Tori. She seems somewhat interested but the cool part about her story is as I was quoting the First Vision the Spirit couldn’t have been stronger. Elder Egbert made the comment after that it looked like she was about to cry. So, we are hoping for that to go somewhere! 

We’ve also met Kevin a guy whose family is all members but who isn’t, “Yet.” That’s what he said. We are going over there this evening and so we’ll see what happens there! Things are going well though and hopefully I’ll have more to report on next week! Transfers was the bulk of this one.

• Elder Egbert ran out of the car and knocked on a lady’s window at a red light because he lost the game “What are the odds.”
• Transfers was insane.
• We were late for a dinner appointment that we were planning on with our neighbors who are ukrainian. When we called back Alex answered and then his wife Maria took the phone and in her russian accent said, “Where are you? We have not eaten yet!” (It was 8:10pm and we missed their call about dinner at 7:20pm).
• Teaching in a trio is very interesting. We have to split 33/33/33 instead of 50/50.
• I gave a talk in church off of just an index card :)
• Transfers was crazy.
• Transfers.

This week was a good one. We got a lot done and solved a lot of problems and met some cool people in the middle of it all! The testimony meeting of the departing missionaries was very spiritual and it was a privilege being a part of that. We were also able to go assist the Sisters in giving their investigator who was supposed to be baptized like three weeks ago a blessing and it was the first contact they had with her in weeks. That was a pretty amazing thing as well.

I hope y’all are doing good and that Christmas is going to treat you well! I love y’all, thanks for all your support and examples! Keep letting “your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matt 5:16)

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

11 December 2017 - Elder Milius Week 76

It’s been good.

Well, our weeks are busy! They’re going good though. Full of finding a ton of cool people to teach but meeting with them again is hard, but we just keep finding. We have meet great people and I’ll tell you about all those new ones. Everyone else is pretty much the same, but I’ll just go into our week!

So, on Tuesday we had gone to the temple and then that night we had a great lesson with a guy named Alex. He was really interested in the church and we meet him at the chapel. He had done some “research” which often times is dangerous but with his heart and intentions it turned out okay. We taught the restoration and then shared that the Book of Mormon is the only real way he will know the truth. 

Then, Wednesday was our big multidistrict meeting which was good, and sad because it was Elder Lewis and Sister Terry’s last district meeting ever. Dang. We also had exchanges with Prattville and I was able to go out with Elder Canty who is a super stellar missionary. I remember being in the MTC with him (he was in my District in the MTC) and we said we would serve together one day, didn’t really think it would literally be “one day” but hey you get what you ask for I guess! We found this lady named Ashley who let us in right away and we showed her the LighttheWorld video and set up a time to meet with her and her husband again. She didn’t make her return appointment but we’re not giving up on them. We also met April that night! April is Hannah’s friend who is staying with her to help her with her kids (Elder Fotu and I found Hannah last Monday and had a super cool spiritual experience with her outside). But April was really open and we were able to teach her the Restoration and so her and Hannah are now somewhat on the same page and they are getting back into town this week so we’ll be back over there soon. April sent us a text cancelling our appointment but saying that she was still super interested in learning more about the church. So, at least her heart is open currently! Let’s not let it get closed and hardened! 

We also met a guy named Joel who should be LDS we can’t really figure out why. He is very intellectual and has met with the past two Mission Presidents since 2013. He knows a lot about the church and agrees about the Priesthood! He does throw out some other theories as well to, I think, see what our response is. (It’s so hard to answer sometimes because I basically speak in behalf of the church as a whole). I don’t know how many of those “theories” he believes however. But hopefully things will work out there, he has an awesome family-a wife and two kids in their teens.

We’ve also met a few people that are potentially interested: Wes, EJ, and Jerod live in our apartment complex. We found them on Friday because we couldn’t drive our car in the morning (I’ll explain that in a few). Jemeka, and Gabrielle were a couple others. Gabrielle was funny, she answered the door and was just very dynamic but we asked if we could come in and share our message with her. And, like I said she was dynamic so I got to be dynamic back and kinda a smart-alec in some places, maybe even sarcastic...but it’s nice when people are like that so you can be yourself more. It makes missionary work easier. 

It SNOWED on Friday!! 5 inches of snow!! That’s why we couldn’t drive on Friday morning, but it was pretty cool. Also considering I have a companion who is from Jamaica and that as the second time he’s ever witnessed snow-the first time it actually stuck to things and he could pick it up and throw it, haha! It was fun though. Except we helped someone move on Saturday morning and it was pretty cold then.

That was pretty much our week though, and we are getting into Transfers! Wahoo! 

• Elder Canty and I figured out how to put the LighttheWolrd video on repeat at Wal-Mart on the computers. We played it, showed it to some people, and then left it on repeat. Hopefully it stayed on for the rest of the night! 
• We were tracting this week when we ran into a member...from another ward. So we looked up our Ward Boundaries and we were totally not in our area, lol.
• Riley is a guy that missionaries have taught in the past and we went over to check in on them. He introduced us to his friends who all go to the Church of the Highlands, and they were asking questions. So, one of the friends asked, “What do you believe it takes to get to heaven?” Well we had been talking about all of that on a deeper scale with Joel, but couldn’t bring that up and so I thought to ask, “Which kingdom?” I decided that it was a bad idea...but smart me asked anyways! I swear I got the weirdest looks and they were like “What?!” My companion saved me though! Haha, “Which kingdom?” 
• Ward Council in Hoover are hilarious; we talked/debated for a solid 30 minutes about the Christmas Party! 

That’s all I got! This week will be fun! Transfers happen and the new missionaries arrive and such! We get to go pick them up tomorrow and the airport and shuttle them around for a day or so! Elder Lewis goes home (I hate killing missionaries) but I’m grateful for all I’ve learned from him. My next companion will be great and I’m excited to get it! Hope y’all have a great week! Love y’all!

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

5 December 2017 - Elder Milius Week 75

Fellow Saints!

Hello!! Man, what a week it’s been. Time keeps flying by but I’ll be the first tell you that it’s always a good week. Not too much went on this week, nothing really special and out of the ordinary, but I’ll get into sharing a few of the cool experiences and people from this past week! 

So, to start off with a bang I’ll share what we would call a “Missionary Miracle” here in the Alabama Birmingham Mission! Elder Krupa and I were driving down the road and met this guy named Demetrius. But, let me start from the beginning. We were tracting in an apartment complex and I had the feeling to go and follow-up with this investigator in the same complex just a different building a little ways away. It was the end of the night but I got the impression and I felt like we’d be able to visit them! We did. But Twila wasn’t home. There was another potential though and so we went and knocked on her door. But Shaquele wasn’t home either. Feeling a little bummed I got into the car to drive home thinking, “I thought I was inspired. Why aren’t they here?” Then the Lord in a gentle way reminded me that it was indeed a prompting and I need not worry about the outcome. With a little bit of a lifted heart I told Elder Krupa about my simple spiritual experience and we headed for home. As we were driving I saw a man, barley. I really could only see the light of his cigarette butt as he puffed on it walking down the road. Out of nowhere I slow down to a stop-in the middle of the road-and tell Elder Krupa to roll down his window and talk to this guy. His name was Demetrius and he had met missionaries before. He used to play ball with them at the church and with little conversation we had discovered that he was a Christian but went to different churches here and there, wasn’t really grounded anywhere. I then invited him to be baptized and told him we could come to teach him more about Christ’s Restored church and gospel. Then after exchanging information we drove off and the Lord reassured me that my initial impression was from Him.

Last night we also had a couple cool experiences. One was with a lady named Hannah. She was standing outside of her car as we were walking by and we had seen her previously unloading groceries-big target for missionaries. “Hey do you need any help or did we miss the unloading?” We had missed it, but we started talking about church and the gospel and she seemed pretty cool but not very interested per say. Before we ended the conversation and left however I asked if she would pull up the #LIGHTtheWORLD video on mormon.org. She did and we watched it with her and let me tell you the Spirit couldn’t have flooded in faster. Once the video ended we stood quietly, Elder Fotu and I weren’t going to break the silence and we could tell the Spirit was working on all of us. Then Hannah spoke. She said in the most heartfelt way I could put into words, “So, tell me what’s different about your church and every other Christian religion.” She then expressed some of her confusions growing up in the Baptist faith and reasons she went non-denominational. We taught her a brief Restoration lesson in which the Spirit was amplified, especially as the First Vision was quoted. Elder Fotu and I were both very impressed after the fact and I could remember somewhere in the video feeling so blessed and grateful for my opportunity to be a full-time missionary. I guess you could say that was a tender mercy, but as the LIGHTtheWORLD video testifies of, all the small things that we do can be compared to the miracles our Savior performed. 

Everyone else that we’ve been working with is mostly in the same spot. We have a few people who are on date to be baptized at the end of this month and the beginning of next month which is fun and exciting! Kenneth, the guy who was struggling with alcohol needs some breathing room so we haven’t seen him too recently. We’ve also found a few other people who are either potential investigators or current ones; Travis and Ash are 20 year olds living alone which is super mature of them. We left them with a Book of Mormon. Lataria was another, she missed her return appointment but we contacted her and got in to teach her because Elder Lewis had to use the restroom. Janette is an older lady, kind of like Brenda, who keeps telling us she won’t be Mormon but who seems more interested than she wants to admit. Deedee we contacted like a Romeo and Juliet scene. Lindsay was that lady that we met while trying to find a less-active and we followed her up to her apartment which used to be the less-active’s. Also, trying to teach the Hollensworth family. Yeah!!

• In connection with contacting Lataria, Elder Lewis needed to use the restroom. So, we were at a door and this lady was standing behind it. She told us in the conversation that she was busy and was taking a bath so I asked if we could come another time. Then, thinking with his bladder, Elder Lewis asked if he could use her restroom (he really needed to go pee). I about died and I whispered, "She's taking a bath..." Then she speaks up and was very awkwardly like, "Well I'm naked behind the door and..." How great is that story?! Anyway, good times.
• This one isn’t super funny but it was cool. We were in Wal-Mart and it was the end of the night. We were trying to promote the #LIGHTtheWORLD video and so we went on the laptops and got on mormon.org. After pulling up the video I looked around and called this guy over to come check out the video. He came over, watched the video, said “That’s a cool video” and walked away. Not exactly how I imagined that but it was good nonetheless. 
• Also regarding the #LIGHTtheWORLD campaign: we went with the Hoover Sisters and stood in front of the Library handing out pass-along cards to people who came in. That was fun! Go missionaries! 

It was another great week in Alabama and we’re looking forward to another one. (It’s Elder Lewis’ last full week so it better keep us busy!) He’s doing good though! I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season and enjoying the LIGHTtheWORLD campaign! It’s going good here! I love you all, and as always let me know if you need anything from me!

Much Love,

Elder Milius

PS: We went to the temple this morning (which is why I'm emailing today) and it was great! I love the temple!

-- 

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

27 November 2017 - Elder Milius Week 74

To all whom it may concern:

    It was a very Happy Thanksgiving here in the South! Shout-out to Wes & Lindsay for feeding my companion and I! It was an awesome experience for me and hope it was mutual! We had a full week still of missionary work and we have another full week ahead. I don’t have a ton of time today so forgive me if I haven’t email y’all back but we were busy playing Gator Ball in Tuscaloosa with our zone. Anyway, I’ll stop wasting time and just get to the week.

    A couple updates on those that you know: Brenda is still struggling. Her daughter was addicted to some medication but she got off of that, luckily, and then was at home with Brenda (her mom). But, on Friday night I believe she went back into the hospital and wasn’t doing too good. We went over to visit Brenda on Sunday morning and her daughter was on a ventilator and that was really the only thing keeping her alive. I hope all goes well, but we are trying to help her as much as we can-by helping her get baptized in December would be the ideal.

    Kenneth is an investigator that we’ve been working with for a while. He has a desire to change but he has some pretty hefty roadblocks in his way, alcohol being one of them. He has an addiction and it’s been a struggle to help him change but this past week he broke down crying because of how he sees his life. It’s really sad, and as frustrating as he is to work with sometimes, there hasn’t been another person in my entire mission who I’ve felt needed our help as much as this guy. Rick, a recent convert of earlier this year, went through and overcame an alcohol addiction so we are trying to use him as a resource for Kenneth. But that’s that guy!

    On Tuesday we went on exchanges and I went out with Elder Townsend-a stud of a missionary. This is his second transfer and Elder Egbert is training him up in Madison. We taught some people and really had a great day! We met a lady named Twila who got “tired of standing at the door” so invited us in. When we started to account Joseph Smith’s story to her she told us to wait, that she needed her phone. Great….but the reason she needed it was so that she could take notes! It was really cool and we went back again and invited her to be baptized on December 30th. So she’ll be one to keep looking out for in the coming weeks. We also met a lady named Shebra who I was courageous (finally) and tried the approach that I’ve been thinking about for months now. *Door opens and we introduce ourselves* “So, we have a question to ask you.” (Her) “Sure.” (Us) “Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God?” She then asked me to repeat it and after I did she said, “Well, what do you need me to do?” That was awesome and totally something I wasn’t expecting. She wasn’t there for our return appointment but they were traveling and stuff for Thanksgiving so that may turn into something!

    Speaking of Thanksgiving, like I said, ours was great. But before all the food we pulled into this apartment complex and we were going to try and knock some doors. There was a lady who was taking out some tables and chairs so we volunteered our help and she walked us to her home. Turns out Mesha had been on a “spiritual journey” and was looking for truth. Her and her husband were trying to get themselves back into church to prepare for their family (she’s pregnant with their first together). She wanted to wait for her husband to get home because he drives a truck before we came over, but blessings of having the intent to knock doors on Thanksgiving!

    A couple of other people were met along the way. We ran into a guy named Riley who had been taught in the past by the missionaries and helped him take in some groceries one night. We felt inspired to go see a less-active who subsequently moved but we met Lindsey and her friend who now live in that apartment (we followed them up to their appartment very awkwardly). We had Spanish Conference for all the Spanish missionaries. And, we went to that one Bible Study group that we found that one day. We asked to teach but they said that they would have to clear it with their pastor first…

• I walked into an open door this week and talked to Stephen who is a strong Athiest.
• Elder Townsend and I held doors open for people coming into Jim-n-Nicks BBQ while waiting for the family that was feeding us to get there.
• There was a girl, probably in her 20s that called Elder Lewis and I “two good-looking men.”
• I was sore on Friday from playing in the Turkey Bowl.
• So was Elder Lewis.
• A guy came out in his boxers and said, “Now is not a good time, not in the mood to talk. I’m in my boxers so, have a good night.” Like I couldn’t see him in his boxers….he answered the door that way...some people ya know!
• We asked a family for a spiritual thought this week what they were grateful for and one of the boys said, “Star Wars Battlefront 2…..and cousins.”
• Alabama lost in the Iron Bowl and I thought people were going to kill us just because we were available and they were angry. Felt that way a few times.

    I hope y’all had a great week and Thanksgiving was great! Be sure to go on mormon.org and look at the #LighttheWorld campaign for this year! Share it all over, it’s awesome! Merry Christmas, Mom. Let me know if I can do anything for any of y’all and have a blessed week!

Much Love,

Elder Milius

PS: I will send pictures as soon as I can!

-- 

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