December 26, 2016 - Feliz Navidad y un Prospero Ano Nuevo

Well I don't have a whole lot to tell you. This last week was pretty

Saturday afternoon Spanish caroling

great. We've had a couple investigators drop us but we were also able to find a couple more investigators this week, so when they start progressing I'll give you an update. 

I think I talked about just about everything last night, but I should have a lot of pictures for you guys. We did some caroling this weekend and it was a lot of fun. The cool thing about caroling was when you carol to a Mexican there is a pretty high chance that you get let in and fed. So we got a second dinner Saturday night and I was super stuffed, but it was fun. 

Love you all!
-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

Spanish Caroling Sunday night after dinner

I slipped jogging back to our van and Elder Aguirre wouldn't let me get up until he had taken plenty of pictures.

We played pool while the other elders got haircuts. I should have won but I scratched on the 8 ball at the end

We took some cool pics of the Christus statue I got

December 19, 2106 - Feliz Navidad

I honestly don't know where to begin this week. It feels like so much has happened this week, but it all seems so long ago. This week we had to organize transfers for the zone, which was quite the crazy experience. I don't think I've ever made so many phone calls in my life but it all turned out well in the end. 

This week has been full of some pretty amazing miracles. All of which I am certain are because of the Christmas spirit. We have been invited into so many houses and have had the chance to talk with so many cool people that I honestly am amazed. This week we have found 3 families to teach each of which has some awesome potential, plus we have found several individuals. Each time we taught these families the spirit has been amazing. 

The first family is Jorge and Maria Villamil Rojas with their

Elder miles tracting in the snow, in an orchard

daughter Juliana. They are the happiest people I have ever met. It's amazing. When we first went to knock their door the husband Jorge came down the stairs with the biggest smile on his face and opened the door before we even had to knock. Then when we went back to visit them they let us right in and we had a super spiritual and amazing lesson. 

The next family is the De La Cruz family. We knocked on their door and they instantly let us right in. It turns out that the mom is the sister of one of the members of our ward. We were shocked when we she told us they had never talked to missionaries before. So we taught them the Restoration and the lesson was super powerful. When we talked about Joseph Smith's first vision there was this silence that fell over everyone and it was honestly so cool. 

The last family is the Bernal family. They're great as well. They let us come right in and we shared the Christmas video with them and they were more than happy to let us come back. 

​"Exploring our area a little. Trying to find the Hispanics hiding in the hills."

Oh, we also met a Cuban guy this week who is honestly so cool. He doesn't really have a belief in God but he wants to. We talked with him about the Book of Mormon and how it's the proof that our church is true and a second witness to the bible that Jesus is the Christ. It was a super neat lesson and we are super excited to go back. 

This next week should be fantastic. We are really looking forward to being able to teach these families especially with Christmas coming soon. We're praying that things keep going well for them and that they will be able to receive the answers to their prayers. 

Love you all! Feliz Navidad!

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

December 12, 2016 – Leavenworth

This week was a pretty awesome week! We had the chance to take

Elder Miles and Elder Aguirre in Leavenworth, WA

part in a really cool service opportunity for the city of Leavenworth. Leavenworth is this German-like town that is up in the middle of the mountains about 30 minutes from Wenatchee and every year they have this huge Christmas event that people from around the world come to. They say on average they get 15-20 thousand people per weekend for each week here in December that come to this event. There are several members of the church that work with the city and they recommended missionaries to help with the event. One of the members got in contact with President Lewis and he agreed to send missionaries up there every Saturday for the month of December to help with the events. 

Elder Aguirre, Sister Hirsche, Sister Lowham, Elder Miles
These were the stars and bells they walked through
the crowd with

This last Saturday Elder Aguirre and I had the opportunity to take part in this event and it was honestly so cool. The city honestly looks like a little old German town and it was packed with people. It was a great chance for the church to get some good exposure for people all around the world, the hardest part though is that we weren't allowed to do any proselyting. So we couldn't bring up the church unless someone asked us about it. So to try and talk to as many people as we could Elder Aguirre and I would offer to take pictures for people and then chat with them as we were taking their photos. Not many Gospel conversations got started but we did get to talk to a lot of people.

We also got to help with their lighting ceremony, which I am sure is on the internet somewhere. Elder Aguirre and I help with giant stars and two sister missionaries rang bells as we walked to this little gazebo thing. When we got to the gazebo they did a countdown and then lit up all the lights. It was pretty awesome. The lights, with the snow falling, was quite the sight. 

Also this week on Tuesday, we had our Christmas Gathering in Quincy! And I got to see both Elder Allsop and Elder Klossner for the first time since the MTC. It was so cool. We had a chance to see so many missionaries and it was a really neat experience. We had to do a musical number and share a short Christmas story. So our zone sang "Mary, Did You Know?" (the Pentatonix version), and just shared the Christ story using scriptures from the point of view of Mary. It was super awesome and went really well. 

The week has been great. It's been pretty busy but things are going really well. We have found several more investigators this week and the work is coming along. We just need to find those people who have to the desire to make a change. This week has also been super cold and snowy. We got our first snow storm and it snowed for a good long while. The week has been great and I couldn't be happier! Love you all!!

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

Elder Aguirre and Elder Miles in Leavenworth, WA

Elder Aguirre, Elder Miles, Sister Hirsche, Sister Lowham

December 5, 2016

Elder Allsop, Elder Harman, Elder Wunderlich,

Elder Cannon (the one half squatting),

Elder Miles, Elder Kiser - 

Elders Allsop, Harman, Kiser, and I all served

around each other in Yakima. Now we get to see

each other once a month at a meeting! 

This week has been another crazy week. We've had so much going on that I haven't left my study room until 10:25 every night, which means I just brush my teeth, pray, and then go to bed. We've had a lot of things to take care of this week and we're looking at another pretty busy week. I honestly can't remember how much stuff we've had to do but I know it's always been crazy. 

This week we've had quite a few meetings. On Tuesday we had a meeting in Yakima with President and the other Zone Leaders and STLs, then on Thursday we had a meeting with our District Leaders, and then on Saturday we had a meeting with the whole zone. It was crazy and we had to plan for a lot of it, as well as try and get all of the numbers we needed for a meeting with the Stake Presidency that we had yesterday. Even with all of the meetings we've had we have seen some cool miracles. We were teaching this girl named Jenny, and she was progressing super well and reading in the Book of Mormon, but sadly she moved to Mexico this last Thursday, so we got her all set up so hopefully the missionaries down there will help her make the final steps. We also have been working with a lady named Norma. She's the mom of two young kids who is going through the loss of a loved one. We've taught her a few times about the strength that the Book of Mormon can bring into our lives, as well as the Plan of Salvation. 

It was a little foggy Sunday morning,
so we decided it was a nice time to pose

Last night we had the chance to watch the Christmas Devotional and something struck me that I had honestly never thought of before. I don't remember who it was but one of the talks was about the gift of the Holy Ghost and how it is one of the greatest gifts we could ever be given. At one point he said that the Holy Ghost is part of the godhead and for some reason that struck me like it never had before. I realized just how much we take for granted the Holy Ghost in our lives. We literally have one of the godhead promised to be our constant companion. He is one of the 3 most powerful beings ever! And we get him as our constant guide! What an amazing blessing that is for us. I think that so often we think of the Holy Ghost as our buddy when we behave correctly but he is so much more than that. He is a member of the godhead and he is our constant companion. That struck me pretty hard. I had never really thought of it like this but it was definitely a wonderful learning opportunity for me. 

I think that's it for the week! Love you!

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

November 28, 2016 - Feliz dia de accion de gracias!

This week has been great! I love the holiday time on the mission! It just seems so much more spiritual and happy but at the same time it seems a lot more sad. It's a happy time but it can also be a time of struggle for a lot of people and I've already seen some of that. 

The Ward

This week started off really well with Zone Conference here in Wenatchee on Tuesday. It was our zone and the Omak zone. It was an amazing zone conference and we really focused on what the purpose of the Book of Mormon is and then we worked on our finding skills. Which was really cool because Elder Aguirre and I got to help with this. We were in charge of directing everyone and splitting them all up so that way they could spend a couple minutes trying out new ways to approach people about the Gospel. It was super cool. Also at the zone conference we got a chance to watch the new Christmas video that the church has put out. It was a super powerful video and I loved how it showed just how much we can spread the light of Christ simply by helping those around us. Then on Friday we were given permission to go on the computers and spend some time studying the new mormon.org website where there are another 24 short videos for each day up until Christmas! I'm super excited for the new video and we've already seen some really cool things as we've shared it with others. 

Elder Aguirre and Elder Miles

This week was also Thanksgiving which is such an awesome excuse to eat as much as I want! Though I struggled to keep eating. We were fed 2 dinners and at each one they just kept giving us more and more food and we were given so many goodies as well. President decided that it would not be the best idea to go tracting so instead we made some brownies and went and delivered them to a bunch of members, and of course they made us eat their desserts. So in the end I think we ended up with 2 dinners and 3 or 4 extra desserts. It was so much food! But it was worth it. 

We met this awesome girl this week named Jenny but she's moving to Mexico on Thursday. She's already read up through chapter 7 in 1st Nephi! It's been super awesome but sadly we have to refer her to the missionaries down in Mexico, which is a good things I guess, but she was so cool. 

The members here are honestly all so awesome! They are so willing to help with everything. I love the ward up here and I'm excited to be able to stay here for a while longer. The missionaries in the zone are all so great! There are 26 missionaries in the zone which is the biggest zone in the mission. Elder Aguirre is from Colorado and wrestled in High School. He has been out 2 transfers longer than I have and is a fantastic missionary. He was born in Mexico but moved to the US when really young but he speaks super good Spanish and I've already learned a lot. 

Dining room

Love you all!!

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

Bedroom

November 21, 2016 - The Area

To start off I'll tell you a little bit about my area. Its official title is Malaga Spanish. Malaga is a little tiny town just to the south of Wenatchee. Plus we also cover the very south part of Wenatchee, south of the street Crawford. So if you check it out on a map you'll see just how small it is and about half of our area is Spanish speakers. So we have to be very smart about how we use our time. If we tracted all day we would run out of people to talk to so we try our best to go by former investigators, people that seem to have good potential to become investigators, and those who are less active. It's been a really fun and crazy first few weeks in this area and I'm loving it! 

We've met some pretty cool people this week, actually last night we met this guy named Salvador by following the smell of frying chicken (it's amazing how the spirit guides you). We went to these apartments and smelled the chicken so we followed down some stairs and walked around the corner and his door was already wide open. We talked to him for a minute and he expressed desire to return to church and let us in. It was pretty late so we didn't get a chance to talk with him long but we briefly shared the message of the Restoration and invited him to be baptized. He told us that he wouldn't mind it but he needs to spend a little more time studying before he gets baptized. So we talked with him about how if he wants to come closer to Christ he'll keep commitments and be ready to be baptized in December. So we'll see what happens. He's way cool. 

This week has been pretty crazy again. We've gone on 3 exchanges this week. 2 with the district leaders and their companions and then the APs came up from Yakima for a day. It was super legit going on exchanges with them. I went with Elder Taele. He played football down at SUU and is an amazing missionary but sadly he doesn't speak Spanish. So during our exchanges I translated everything so that he would be able to share his testimony and wow it was a pretty neat experience. There was a really special spirit that was with us as we did that. It's been a wild week though. Elder Aguirre and I haven't spent that much time together this week but the week to come should hopefully slow down a little, but we'll see. We have Zone Conference and 2 more exchanges this week as well as Thanksgiving so we'll see what happens.

So I don't think I've told you much about our car. It's a Dodge Minivan. I know. It's sad. But we named her Gina and she does a good job, but let me tell you it's tough to drive a minivan. 

I think that's everything for the week. I don't think I have any pictures but I'll check my camera and see. Love you all!!

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

November 14, 2016 - Transfer Week got Crazy

Sorry this email is going to be pretty short. This week has been crazy. I never thought how much stuff I would have to do being called as a Zone Leader.

Wednesday we had to deal with all of the transfer stuff and make sure everyone got settled.

​Elder Aguirre and Elder Miles

Thursday we were running all over the place trying to get things set up for a baptism, and we had to do a welcome for all of the District Leaders, and we did service. It was a crazy day in which we were unable to do any actual proselyting. 

Friday we were pretty packed as well. We had to help with some Veteran's Day event and we also had Weekly Planning (which is usually around a three hour process). So we only got a couple hours to proselyte that evening. Then Saturday we had to help take down the Veteran's Day event so we missed out on a couple more hours of pros work, but it was all good. Things are going super, super well. And even though we haven't had a whole lot of time to do a lot of proselyting we have seen some pretty cool miracles. 

Me, Miguel (Recent Convert), and Brucy (Miguel's sister).
They're so cool! 

So lately, President Lewis has put a huge emphasis on talking with everyone and on Saturday we saw a pretty neat miracle. We were walking down a street and we saw a guy sitting on a bench waiting for a bus, so we went over to talk to him. He was a rough looking guy and I'm sure that a lot of missionaries would have passed him by, but we walked over and we sat down and just talked with him, and he was absolutely amazed at everything we said. When we talked with him about the Book of Mormon he wanted to read it so bad, and there was a lady that showed up about 10 minutes after we started talking with John, the guy, and she bore testimony of the Book of Mormon for us. She said that it had helped her out in her life and that she had also given a copy of it to her friend because of how much it had helped her. And she wasn't even a member! She had been given a copy by missionaries a few months previously and they never came back. It was honestly an awesome miracle. Sadly both John and Cheyenne, the girl, only speak English so we have to refer them, but it was still an amazing miracle.

So Sunday was super nice because it was a major slow down from the past few days, but then once Sunday night rolled around we had to get a ton of information from the zone, write it all down and then get all that info to the APs which just barely happened before bedtime. It's been an interesting week and I'm looking forward to the coming one.

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

November 7, 2016 - Transfer Week got Crazy

Waterville Area

So this last Saturday we got our transfer calls, and we also had a Zone Training Meeting. So all Saturday morning things were pretty quiet and I started to think I was gonna get away from anything, but sadly that didn't happen. I will be transferred on Wednesday across the river. So I'll move from East Wenatchee to Wenatchee. So after ZTM we went back to the apartment so we could change out of our suits and do some language study. Well we were about ready to leave and President called. We answer the phone and he says that he didn't think I would be leaving this soon but I he asked if I would be willing to step into a Zone Leader role. When he asked that I was pretty shocked. I'm also pretty excited though. At the monthly mission leadership councils I'll get to see Elder Allsop and Elder Harman! Who both just got called as well! I'm pretty stoked for that but humbled because this will definitely be an adventure. I'm going to be in Elder Spackman's (My Trainer) old area. 

"The 4 Rocky Reach elders in front of the Dam sign
that gives us our names."

That's honestly the biggest update of the week. I don't know if I have mentioned it yet but we have been teaching a recent convert family the whole time we've been here. The mom and daughter were less active for a while but the dad just decided to join the church, so we've been going over and doing the recent convert lessons with him. It's been super fun to see their progress and the cool thing is that I don't have to say goodbye yet! Since I'm going to Wenatchee I'll be staying in the same ward. So things won't change too much. I'll just have to memorize a new set of streets. 

This last week we did a lot of service. We went to Waterville again

​"That is a lifted corvette for I guess when you want
to be able to drive through mud and snow in style."

but his time we helped a new member move in. Then we helped a member move into a town in our area called Entiat. It's been an exciting week, and this coming week should be full of surprises. That's all for the week! Love you all!

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

October 31, 2016 - Happy Halloween!

Elder Gaeta and Elder Miles

This week has been a pretty awesome week! Thanks to the temple trip we had last Tuesday! I honestly love going to the temple. The spirit inside is like nowhere else. As I was sitting inside the temple I kept thinking over and over again at how much I wanted to just stay there forever. As I thought that, my desire and motivation to keep all the commandments grew immensely. I knew that if I stayed true to my covenants, that I would be able to live in a place like that for all eternity with my family. 

Waterville Area

This week the highlight was definitely that we got to go to the temple. Other than that we spent a lot of time out knocking doors and trying to find people. At the beginning of the transfer we spent most of our time going by people that Elder Gaeta had found the previous transfer, but now that we've spent time working with them we've had to drop many of them and we've started to spend more time knocking on doors. It doesn't sound that fun, but it's definitely become more enjoyable the longer I've been on my mission. 

View of Wenatchee on our way back
from Waterville

This week though we were able to talk with Mario again. He's doing well, but he says he wants to take things slow and serious. He doesn't want to jump into something that he is unsure about. He's a great guy though. He loves his kids a lot and is willing to do anything for them. His kids also are super awesome. One of them told us that he knew it was all true because it was said by prophets, so we're excited to see how they progress. We've also found a couple more people this week. One named Felipe and the other Nancy, both we just had a first lesson with, but they seem interested.

Last Saturday we did a little exploring of our area and we went up to a town called Waterville. It's a 35-40 minute drive from East Wenatchee and it's up some mountains, but at the top of the mountains it opens up into a huge plain in which people grow stuff called winter wheat. It's a pretty beautiful area but sadly there weren't too many Hispanics. 

Elder Gaeta, Elder Miles,  Hermana Hansen,
Hermana Tecuatl, Elder Etter, and Elder Christensen

So this Saturday we get our transfer calls again. It's going to be interesting to see what happens. We had our last district council this week and at the end we all guess what's going to happen, and many of the missionaries think we're going to be split up, but I'm not so sure. I guess we'll see what happens.

Something neat I learned this week came from an English member, Brother Oberweiser, that we visited while we were in Waterville. He talked a lot about how he focuses on learning from the little things around him, and as he talked I realized that the smallest things can often have the profoundest meanings, so thinking on that over the weekend I came to realize how often we overlook those small things. In President Ucthdorf's first talk this past conference he talked a little about how we lose appreciation for those small things. As I read through part of that talk, and thought about what Brother Oberweiser said, I decided to focus more energy on seeing the little things and the little blessings in everything. Things like having another day on earth, having rain every day, and all sorts of other small things.

Anyway, love you all!!

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

Elder Miles is 3rd from left on middle row, Elder Gaeta is 1st on left on middle row

October 24, 2016 - Another normal week

Our email time got shortened this week because our P-Day is

Elder Miles

actually going to be tomorrow. So this email will be a little bit shorter. We get to go to the temple again and so our P-Day was switched so that way we don't miss too much proselyting time. This last week was just another normal missionary week though. Nothing crazy or too exciting happened, except that it rained every day. I love this area up here. 

The two coolest things we got to do this week was first, we got to teach Mario again! We called him and we set up a lesson for Friday and when we got there he first tried to give us coffee, so there's a small obstacle, but after that we had a really good lesson with them. We taught him and his kids and the spirit was super strong. At the end when we invited him to be baptized he said that he wasn't going to promise anything right then because he wanted to spend some time with it. He wanted to take it seriously, which is really good. 

Widening the path

Then the other thing we got to do was do service for a horseback riding for those with disabilities company. We helped to widen their riding trail and cleaned it up a little. It was super fun and we got to take pictures with the horses afterwards. That's all I've got time for this week. Sorry!

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

"All of us with a horse."  Elder Miles is the 3rd from the left and Elder Gaeta is the 2nd from the right.

October 17, 2016 – East Wenatchee

Okay, so I'm running low on time for emailing so this email is going to be a little shorter. I'm really starting to adjust to Wenatchee. It's honestly super awesome! It's rained a lot the past few days and it sits in these amazing mountains. It's kinda like Park City, but the city is built on the mountains. There isn't really much of a valley. It's super amazing though.

The ward is great! It's pretty small. Probably the smallest group I've been in, but it's strong. The members are great! 2 of the 3 members of the bishopric are white, and there are like 2 white families, but they are all awesome! There are a few families from Ecuador in the ward, so that's kinda nice. 

My district covers all of East Wenatchee and the towns of Cashmere and Leavenworth. The sister training leaders and another set of Elders are in my district. I went this last week on exchanges with the elders up to Cashmere and Leavenworth and they were amazing. I forgot my camera but Leavenworth is absolutely beautiful. I highly recommend looking it up. It's like a little German town sitting in the mountains.

We've met some really cool people this past week. Our area is interesting. There are quite a few Hispanics but they are spread out quite a ways, so you really have to be thorough when you find. Last night we taught a guy named Mario. His whole family was there, but he just sat outside with us and we talked for a little. At the end he told us that he would love to learn more, and that the next time we go over he wants us to sit down with his whole family and teach them all. I'm pretty excited for him and his family. 

I'm excited about this upcoming week! Sorry I know it's kinda vague I don't have time for much more! Love you!

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

October 10, 2016 – El area

So this week we spent a little bit more time exploring our

Scenery pic of Wenatchee from East Wenatchee

area. Elder Gaeta has only been here one transfer longer than I have and our area is pretty huge. We cover a portion of East Wenatchee and then three small towns on the outskirts called Entiat, Orondo, Waterville. Elder Gaeta has only been to each of those once and since our area isn't super populated with Hispanics, we did a little exploring elsewhere. The other towns are pretty small and have some scattered Mexicans there but not as many as we were hoping. Our area is pretty awesome though. It's a little more spread out than my last two areas and so we don't do a whole lot of walking. Which means I get to drive!! It's so nice to be consistently driving again. We drive a 2016 Ford Fusion, so we got a pretty nice hookup. 

The bridge pics came as we were cleaning up
the trails by the river for service.

We met this guy in Orondo named German who is honestly pretty awesome. He had a lot of really good questions and the Restoration really seemed to make sense to him. We have another lesson set up with him this coming Wednesday. We also met a really cool guy last night named Evaristo who knew specifically what a prophet does. Most people we talk to say that a prophet is someone who shares the word of God, but Evaristo understands that a prophet is much more than that. That a prophet is someone who speaks with God because he has the authority to do so. It was really cool to see that and then he asked where the prophets were, which of course led greatly into the Restoration. It was a really awesome lesson and I'm really excited to see where he goes. 

So the ward I work with covers all of Wenatchee and East

A shack in Orondo that's pretty sweet looking.

Wenatchee and there are 10 missionaries that work in the ward. The ward has about 50 active members with like 10-15 of those being white people that speak Spanish. It seems like a great ward! It's small but it's definitely powerful. Listening to some of the testimonies yesterday was pretty amazing. That's been one of my favorite parts of the mission. To have the chance to listen to the testimonies of so many converts is honestly amazing! It's helped to build my testimony so much. 

On Saturday we had a zone training meeting and the zone leaders asked if I would give a training on overcoming doubts. So I focused my training on looking at doubts as a blessing rather than as something to be ashamed of. Satan wants us to feel like our doubts make us weak, but there were two amazing things I found that shows just how important it is that we recognize those doubts. The first was a quote from Henry B Eyring in the April conference. He said "Those who are saddened by the loss of the joy they once had are the blessed ones. Some do not see the withering of faith within themselves. Satan is clever. He tells those he wishes to be miserable that the joy they once felt was childish self-delusion." Satan wants us to be miserable, so he tells us that everything we believe is a lie, but in reality struggling a little allows us to grow, and this shows that those who recognize their doubts (will be blessed) but with what are they blessed?

In Ether 12:37 it explains what the blessing is that comes from recognizing those doubts. It says "And because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father." So the blessing we receive from recognizing our doubts, or our weaknesses, is that those weaknesses will become strong and we will rest in the mansions of God. I know that our doubts can be scary, but if we act on our doubts, and study and pray in faith, then we can make those doubts into strengths. 

That's it for the week! Love you all! 

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

October 3, 2016 - Cafe Rio!

Mission office staff: Sister and Elder Call, Me, Elder
and Sister Thompson.  They're honestly so great!
Had to make sure to get a pic with them before the
end of the year when they finish their missions. 

Well, I got to Wenatchee this week and there's a Cafe Rio here! And yup we've already been to it. We went in-between Saturday's sessions, and it was soooo good. I got a classic pulled pork salad, cause I needed to have that ranch. That was definitely a huge highlight for the week, of course other than General Conference. 

The Garcia and Verduzco families!
Coolest families in the branch! 
Sister Garcia,Diana, Jessica, Sister Verduzco,
 Elizabeth, Laura,and Erika. 

General Conference was so cool though! I honestly love being a missionary and watching conference. I'm not sure that conference will ever be the same. You get so hyped to watch conference that every talk just blows your mind. I loved conference and I would have to say that my favorite talk was President Uchtdorf's Saturday morning session talk. He said "We tread a path covered with diamonds, but we can scarcely distinguish them from ordinary pebbles." When I heard this it kinda hit me about how often we don't look hard enough at what we have. We often look beyond the mark and we become too focused on the little things, but we don't recognize the beauty of the things around us.

The kids that came to church with us that last 
Sunday - Manny, Me, Jr, Chewy, and Anthony
Their sister didn't want to be in the pic

So, a little about my area now. My new companion is Elder Ruben Geata and he's way awesome! He's is a convert of about two or so years and has given up a professional BMX biking career to be out here on a mission. He's won several world championships and was like the leading edge for bikers before he came on his mission. He's a super awesome Elder and is about 21. He came out on his mission a transfer after I did. I'm still District Leader here and I have another set of Elders and the Sister Training Leaders in my district. I'm super stoked to be here. It's a super pretty area and I can't wait to get going. This week was a little different because of conference so we didn't get a whole lot of teaching done, but it looks good. The area I cover is a little richer so finding the Hispanics will be a little harder, but I'm excited. We also cover three little towns outside of Wenatchee, they're called Orondo, Waterville, and Entiat. 

​This is the Dominguez family. David, me, Uriel, 
Arnulfa, Uziel, and Gael. He's the new Elders Quorum 
President and is killing it! His family has only 
been in the church for a few short years, and 
now they're getting sealed in October! 

Its weird being here, and I miss Yakima, but I'm way excited to start new here and get things moving.

Love you all!

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission

Daniel Santos. Elder Harman and I were working with him for 3 months until our area got split, and he is now being taught by the other elders. While we were saying goodbye he taught us the Restoration and killed it. His testimony is super solid!

Reyna. She works at Salvation Army and got baptized after she met the missionaries that were doing service. She's so awesome!

The Contreras family! Aurora, Crystal, Me, Oscar -
their son didn't want to be in the pic