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!
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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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