No time!
Well transfers are this week! And... I am leaving Hoover!!! Kinda bummed but at the same time excited to where the Lord needs me next. It will be a great place without a doubt! We’re staying super busy today in getting everything worked out for transfers tomorrow. This past week was interesting, a little bit unconventional and not really typical but we made it work. Last Monday we had to turn in our car to get it fixed so we've been on bikes all week and that's been fun...lots of hills that I didn't realize before.
I'll give you a couple quick updates on people. Theresa and her boys, Jabori and Javon, are doing well. They are still progressing and Theresa is working to free up her schedule still which is proving to be a bigger stumbling block than we imagined. Hopefully within the next little while she will open up to allowing her boys to get baptized. We taught them a little more about revelation this week and how to receive personal revelation so that should help their conversion. Landyn and Lydia are better than ever. They are just the most accepting people I've ever taught and I'm sure they will eventually get baptized. There are a couple obstacles so they won't get baptized on the 28th but they will soon, I can tell. Their comprehension is perfect and they are just so ready to learn. Last night we had a lesson and talked about the changes that they've already begun to see in their lives as we have met and it's amazing. The Lord knows which of his children are prepared!
We met a couple other new people who we've had lessons with. Jake is one guy who let us come in and share the Restoration. He was interested in the Book of Mormon but once we started explaining Priesthood he told us that "[He] just wanted to take the opportunity to tell [us] that he wouldn't be changing churches or religions." We were pretty blunt in testifying that this was the whole truth and that he wouldn't be able to find it anywhere else. Then we invited him to read the Book of Mormon and we left. It's really interesting that just as the Spirit starts to work on someone they immediately kinda shut it out by saying things like that to tell their natural man that they care more about it that about their spiritual salvation. We also met a guy named Joseph Smith-imagine that! He was a cool kid so hopefully we'll get to visit with him again. This lady named Lena was awesome too! She's been here for about 7 months and we were the first to invite her to a church so that alone made her super interested. The best part is that she responds to messages. We finally got in to teach a guy named Demetrius who I met like 6 weeks ago, at least. (Time just runs together now). He believe that if all we shared was true it would change his life, however he wants his fiance to be on board as well so hopefully she doesn't disagree with meeting with us. Finally, Jewel is a referral we received not too long ago. She's been reading out of the Book of Mormon and won't progress to baptism because she moves back to Jamaica in like 2-3 months but we are hoping to teach her to the point of investigating back home.
All is going well with everything else. I don't really know why I'm updating you on all sorts of stuff because next week it will be something totally different! We did go on a couple exchanges this week and obviously we have stories from being on bikes...
- Elder Tausinga and I contacted all these kids and told them to give pass-along cards to their parents.
- When Elder Harman and I were together we were teaching this guy and the manager of the apartment complex came up to "talk" to us. I recited the First Vision and Elder Harman talked to the guy and we got kicked out.
- Elder Stanger rode his bike for the first time on his mission this past week.
- Elder Canty called us one night as he was riding back down the highway to our apartment because he lost Elder Stanger and didn't know what to do.
- The amount of ice cream I ate this week was ridiculous.
- We went to the Barkers for dinner and sang a song for our spiritual thought. Afterwards Sister Barker says, "David Archuleta has got nothing on you two!"
- Brother Asay won a bet for a quarter about Lydia's age and so as we were walking out of Ward Council we gave him his winnings and everyone else was really confused.
- We biked to the mission home: #firstinhistoryprobably
- We got dropped off at an appointment without a ride home one night when we were in Pelham. Luckily we got bailed out and didn't have to walk 10 miles home in the rain haha!
- Brother Wells forgot us on Sunday morning.
- I had a weird dream that someone was bearing their testimony of the Prophet. It was great, but the weird part came when instead of saying "Russell M. Nelson" they said "Nick Sabin." I was confused but everyone else in the dream acted normal so that happened. RTR.
It was another good week that I'll never forget. We had the opportunity to attend the Follow-up Training Meeting this past Friday and there were only three companionship there. My favorite part about that meeting is talking about the Atonement of Christ and especially how it applies to Missionary work. It's amazing to me all the things that the Lord had to go through for us, and this time around it inspired me to work to make sacrifices for others and their progress and conversion on the gospel. I was also called up randomly to give my testimony is Sacrament Meeting on Sunday because a speaker wasn't there and I have thought a lot about Mosiah 3 this week. As King Benjamin describes the Atonement and life of the Savior in a sermon like perhaps no other in scripture he ends it with this verse: "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." All of us know our natural man, some more than others. But, the Atonement was made so that we could put off that natural man and becometh like a child. After all, "And little children also have eternal life" (Mosiah 15:25).
Hope y'all have a great week, love you!
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
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