January 30, 2017 – Traslados

To start Elder Aguirre and I are being separated, which is going to be tough because we've gotten super close these last 2 transfers. He's going to Othello and I'm staying here and getting Elder Cannon, who actually was the trainer of Elder Aguirre. Elder Cannon is a fantastic missionary and I'm stoked to work with him. 

So this week has been a crazy one with a lot of interesting things that have happened. First, as most of you have probably heard, the missionary schedule has changed. There was a World Wide Missionary broadcast on Wednesday and they made several changes. The first is the schedule. It is not nearly as rigid as it was and allows for a lot more flexibility. The biggest change is that we now plan in the mornings and we get the chance to make the order that we want to do these things. Also there was a huge change to P-Day. Now instead of starting at 10 am it's starts at 8 am. So we get an extra two hours on P-Day which is super weird. I'm super excited for the new schedule, because it's going to make it a lot easier to write in my journals at night. 

The second biggest thing is that they changed the numbers we track as missionaries. Now we only track, Baptisms and Confirmations, People with a Baptismal Date, People at Church, and New Investigators. They did some research and realized that only these four numbers show the actual conversion process of investigators and they got rid of a lot of other numbers. It's going to be interesting adjusting to these new numbers. 

The rest of the week was also pretty exciting. We had Zone

My greenie!! Elder Anderson and I got
reunited at Zone Conference!
And now he's training!
So I've got a grandson now!
My little family is growing so much!

Conference on Tuesday and Elder Aguirre and I got asked to train on using scriptures in lessons, so we focused on how we as missionaries have been called to teach old doctrines not our personal opinions and we shared Psalms 19:7 and D+C 18:34-35. It was a lot of fun. However our training was not nearly as good as the rest of Zone Conference. President Lewis talked a lot about giving up unnecessary things that are restricting us from reaching the vision our Father has for us. He shared the story of the guy who got stuck in the slot canyon in Southern Utah and had to cut off his own arm. He also talked a lot about using our agency correctly and be consecrated to the work. It was a super spiritual and powerful Zone Conference for sure. 

 

So this showed up at my apartment this week.
Do you all remember it?
I guess my birthday came about 7 months late.

So this week we met an awesome guy named Jose Rios. A different Jose than last week. We knocked into Jose on Monday night and have taught him now three times, had a church tour with him, and he came to a baptismal service. Sadly he didn't come to church but he loves everything that he has been learning and is totally willing to try it all out. He's been reading in the Book of Mormon and understands the importance of authority and the need for a Restoration. 

The longer I've been out the more my testimony grows. It's honestly amazed me how much I have learned and how much my testimony has grown. It's still super simple but the conviction behind it has tripled. I love being able to share that testimony every day.

I think that's it to be honest. I love you all so much! 

-- 

Elder Miles

Washington Yakima Mission