MESSIANIC JEWS AND TOP GOLF - 25 April 2023

Hola! que tal todo el mundo!! I'm now Spanish!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's been crazy translating to a Spanish missionary, I've eaten more tacos now than my entire life which is crazy cause we would eat tacos all the time back home. So things are just going amazing! This transfer has absolutely flown by! This is our very last full week of the transfer and by our interviews with president last week or two, my comp is pretty positive he is leaving so we will have to wait to confirm but I might be getting a new comp very soon. Also I'm not getting translated by the way hahahah I'm just hilarious like that! I still speak English and I don't even know what I typed I just wrote a welcome statement into Google translate and chose that one. 

So the beginning of my week was pretty fun, Tuesday I had my first exchange that I had to.put together so that was pretty crazy! I went with a new missionary in our district and he's pretty funny, he's definitely adjusting well so props to him. But looking back on that day, we grinded our area that day, we found like 5 new people to teach and taught a ton of people. Our area looks like the best area in the mission that day and its all because we were persistent, the entire transfer we were struggling to find but we kept pushing through and today we were blessed! Wednesday was kinda cool! We were knocking pretty much all day and it got to the evening when we finally decided to go but we kept knocking and we got to a place where we could hear a guy singing so we go up to him and he was playing his guitar just jamming and we asked if he wanted to hear a message about Jesus Christ. He immediately jumped up and was like YES! It kinda surprised us so we thought he was punking us but he was so cool!! He said he was struggling with addiction and that morning he was at an addiction Recovery meeting and they asked what everybody wanted to work on, and he said his faith! Well needless to say, God answered his prayer when we showed up! He was so hyped we came and knew it was from God. We gave him a Book of Mormon and hopefully we can go by soon!!

Thursday was a rough day, we had weekly planning so it already wasn't gonna be the best but then the entire day we were just sick, and annoyed at everything that it just made the day crappy, we ended up putting a guy on date that should not have been put on date, we knew he had some issues but we were trying to see if asking him to be baptized would get him to say no or something but when he said yes we didn't know what to do Cause it just didn't feel right and now we got to figure out how to help this guy understand a lot of things before he can come close to baptism. Who knows maybe he is ready. Friday we were supposed to go on an exchange with the Assistants but they bailed on us and rescheduled. So our day was super stacked with lessons, in fact, we had 8 lessons that day planned. To a very disappointing surprise, not a single one went through, it was so sad, so we ended up knocking and calling people the entire day. Saturday was pretty sweet though, we had three lessons planned and they all went through! So that was a great way to end out the week. Sunday was I think my first or second member meal I've had in this area though. The members made us Parmesan Egg plant, I was a little nervous not gonna lie but man was it scrumptious! Monday was also hype too! We had district Pday and just balled out at Top Golf! Our district do be hype for real! We got pictures but the APs haven't sent them yet so you'll have to wait for those, after that though we hung out for a while with half our district since the APs had to bounce, then we came home and relaxed and then went and balled up at the basketball court on our apartment. I tried so hard to make a full court shot and I literally made it but God decided to swoop in a reject my shot hard core! It was disappointing but then the rest of the day was just a knock session. We did however meet this guy named Chad! He is a Messianic Jew and I've never really studied what they believe in but he seemed really cool and super devote to his religion and to christ. He's was also completely blind but then one day his eyes were just healed and so now he can partially see! He's a cool guy and definitely fits the name Chad.

Anyways that's my week! Hopefully yall had a bop week as well! Look forward to talking with yall in the next one!!

-Elder Milius

Me and O’Donnell

Me and Boehme

Calls do be fun!

Album Cover low key 

Spider

The last day of the Temple open house 

(all the missionaries)

Me and Dozer

State Minister of Virginia for the Church Of God Prayed for us! - 17 April 2023

YO YO YO!! How's yalls week been!! Hopefully awesome and if not hopefully it's better since your hearing from me cause what's awesome without "me" lol. Jk jk but my week was pretty sick! It went by super quick not gonna lie and I'm super late to writing this email, I'm literally sitting on our couch in my undies writing this before I have to go change into my white shirt and tie.

This week honestly was pretty sweet! Nothing insane happened and we did a lot of knocking but I finally convinced my comp to make some calls in the evening instead of knocking and we found two new people to teach doing that so that was pretty sweet. 

Tuesday we had interviews with president and we just chatted about me being DL, president do be fire though! He gave some fantastic insights and now I'm ready for war. It was so awesome though cause we got to go to the Mission home which is the house in the backyard of the temple so we basically just got to hang out at the temple while we waited for interviews. President does have like the best house out there though. It's insane just waking up and looking out the window and seeing the temple 50 yards from you. Then later that night while we were knocking we ran into a pastor who was super nice and tried recruiting us for the army, he says we already git the build so I'm taking that as a compliment 💪💪 then he was gonna let us go but he said he was on the phone with the state minister of Virginia for the Church of God so he asked him to say a prayer for us and for what we have to share aka the Book of Mormon! It was sick! Lowkey felt honored to have the strength from that.

Wednesday and thursday were pretty normal I guess. We got a member meal on Wednesday with a very funny family which was sick. Thursday we got to work at the Temple and we were supposed to go through with one of our friends but she never texted us so we just assumed she bailed, but later that day she texted us saying she went! I mean I'm glad she went but I wanted to go with her! 

Friday and saturday were basically just filled with knocking since we didn't have any lessons but Saturday was the last day for the open house and we got to close! So when time came we got to go through the temple one more time at the end of our shift and so we were the very last people to tour the temple before it gets dedicated. After we got out of the temple though we wanted to take a huge group picture but it started pouring, we still took the picture but we all got soaked and then said screw it and just basically all hung out in the rain at the temple at night. It made me feel like I was back in highschool and it was so nice! It was just a party! 

Today we had an awesome day! We woke up, played some pickle ball with some old guys, came home, slept for a couple hours, went to hang out with our zone, played volleyball and basketball which was a blast! And then came home, went to the store, came home again, went to go drop our suits off at a dry cleaner since they got soaked at the temple and then came home to relax! And now we start the week off with knocking!!!

Anyways that's my week! I hope yall have a great week and I look forward to emailing yall in the next one!! Dueces ✌️

The view from President’s house

InterviewsL

More Temple

The Bros

Zone P-Day

The Baptizers

MY ACTUALLY BAPTISM LOL!! - 10 April 2023

WOOOOOOO!!! Finally!!! My hard work paid off!!! I got to help a child of God be baptized! It was the greatest thing in the world!! Like I loved seeing members kids get baptized at 8 but there was something about teaching someone for a long time to then finally see them make those covenants with the lord!! Also I'm gonna be doing my email a little different since most of the week was just the same.

Over the past few days we've been doing lots of service, at a Baptist church, a farm, and a non members house. We also had a lot of free time so we went out knocking pretty much all day everyday. Occasionally we had some lessons but they didn't really go super well. One we had with one of our greens and he just talked about his life for an hour so we didn't teach him anything. Another one we just talked to a guy about prayer while he was driving so it was short but pretty good. And some other ones we had with our most progressing kid, Joshua, we've been stressed about him and his baptism for a while and since it was Saturday we had to make sure he was ready. But whenever we weren't teaching, we were finding and we were putting in lots of effort and not getting a whole lot back, we've been struggling to find interested people. BUT, Sunday night we were knocking a referral and she didn't answer but I felt impressed to knock her neighbor and how would you guess, it was actually our referral!! She must have put in the wrong address but it was awesome seeing the lord just like, nah she lives here, and boom! We taught her about the Book Of Mormon and set up a time to come back! Then that same night we were knocking some apartments and a guy walked out shirtless at one door but listened to us and seemed super interested and willingly gratefully accepted a Book of Mormon!! So all week we have been struggling to find people and finally the lord directed us to two children of God who were ready to listen!! It was awesome.

OK now to the Baptism!! Joshua got baptized Saturday afternoon. His dad baptized him and confirmed him that day and it was so fun to see his smile after he came out of the waters. We were super stressed though because it was my first baptism and my comps first baptism not being a trainee so we both were like uh how do we do a baptism. But we figured it out and we were happy to say he got baptized!! Then the family was so so kind and took us to a 5 star Brazilian steakhouse......this was the best meal I've had in my life. I mean they had filet mignon, bacon wrapped filet mignon, picanha steak, flank steak, lamb, lamb chops, fried banana, the best creamy potatoes, I mean so amazing, the best quality meat cooked the best way, served buffet style all you can eat! I felt so out of place walking in there but I have never been so close to heaven then in that restaurant! It goes to show that when you put in the work, God blesses you with very very nice members who know steak! 

Uhm also my parents made me trunky, they decided to come up and see the temple open house and not only could I not see then but they got to see my MTC comp and Sister Mahr! So not fair, now I have to live with the fact that it's been longer since I've seen my parents than they have! But I'm just banking on that two year hug, in 18 months that hug is gonna be the best!! Haha 😅

Anyways that's my email for the week! I might stay with this format because it's easier to talk about days that are just the exact same, but I hope yall had an amazing week and I look forward to talking to yall in the next one. 

Fresh Cut!

Lunchtime on the Mish

We didn’t get a picture with Joshua at his baptism

Rio Brazil with the Villanuevas 

We aren’t solicitors, but this was funny!

My parents in the exact spot 

I was in like two days before

TWO VIRGINIA TEMPLES?! - 4 April 2023

What’s good! Guess who's back! Ya boi! Elder Milius!! Back with another email!! Yes today is my Pday. We had to go work in the temple yesterday from 8am-2:30pm so we just moved our Pday to today. But I'm doing amazing in my new area. My comp is honestly awesome, we get along very well and I have had a ton of fun just grinding out the work all the time. We've actually got a baptism this Saturday so pray for my boy Joshua! He's 10 years old and an absolute genius, he can name any capital of any state in like 2 seconds! It's insane, he is so excited for his baptism and we can't wait to help him enter into that covenant with God!

Anyway my week was awesome! Tuesday was a pretty open day, we went a did some service at this farm one of our friends has. Yes I am a farm boy now, I've got boots, dirt on my hands and just a will to do the dirty work! But after the farm we literally just went out knocking all day. The one thing that is hard about this area is that it is a very wealthy stable area so everyone we knock on is either not interested or mad that we are there. We've had a lot of confrontational people open their doors, we had one guy tell us he hopes God blows up the temple we just built. But needless to say we continue to grind because we know there is someone out there who has been prepared by God for us to meet.

Wednesday was Zone Conference and it was an awesome one too! We learned a lot about baptism and the importance of focusing on that goal of helping people make covenants. President Hutchison shared a very powerful talk about our prophetic priority and our purpose as missionaries. We are called to "Preach Repentance and Baptize Converts" it was an awesome zone conference and it was really nice to relax a little and see a bunch of missionaries. After that we went out knocking some more and met a catholic guy who was super friendly and knows who we are as missionaries of the church of Jesus christ. He said he knew a bishop in north Carolina and that he had missionaries over for dinner all the time, so we might be having dinner with him in the future. 

Thursday we finally got paid after three weeks of trying to stretch our missionary money. It's funny cause when we first got to Virginia they told us we get paid every two weeks but they has not been the case, we have had three week long money weeks all the time and it is hard to stretch that money. But we finally got paid and went to the store. We then had some weekly planning and went knocking the rest of the day 

Friday was awesome! We got to go do service at this Baptist church that does a clothes supply. We basically just moved a bunch of boxes around because all the people that work there are old ladies hahah! But it was awesome they were all so nice and it was a great way to start the day. Then I had to give my second district council and I actually think I'm getting better, I still forget sometimes that I'm the lead of the whole council because we will finish with one part and then just sit in silence and I'm like Oh Crap! It's still my turn! But I'm definetly getting the hang of training the APs surprisingly. The rest of the day we went knocking!! Crazy!!! We do a lot of knocking in this area!!

Saturday was general Conference!!!!! Woooooo!!!! I have grown to absolutely love general conference. I've always loved conference but most of my life it was because I didn't have to change and I could just lay there and sometimes sleep. But now I love it cause i get to hear so many inspired great things from so many inspired great people. One of the things I loved was how everyone was emphasizing the importance of Easter is more than just a bunny in fact Easter is more important than Christmas because without Easter we would celebrate the birth of Jesus. Because Jesus christ lives today, we celebrate his birth. That's something I think I've always overlooked but not anymore. But between conferences we basically just went out knocking doors and visiting people because that's all we had time for. Sunday was the same pretty much. But we did get to have a lesson with Joshua, the kid we have on date for saturday!! He is literally a genius and is so excited to be baptized, I can't wait to see him enter into the waters of baptism and make the covenant he is ready for!! Oh yeah also Virginia is getting blessed with Another Temple!!!!! Praise the lord, he is so good!!!! This state is the greatest!!!! 

Yesterday we got to work in the temple and I got to hold the doors open as people entered into the temple! It was so fun, long day of standing but fun. I did however get pretty sun burnt so that wasn't as fun but hey sometimes we have to sacrifice stuff to help gather Israel, and in this case I sacrificed my skin lol. But after that we had a couple member lessons but the last one we had, we got to meet a members husband who isn't a member and we taught him about the three kindgoms. His name is Ben and he is super smart and knows a lot about the church but has a very open mind and a lot of questions we were able to answer. He even wants us to come back!!!

Anyways I'm getting tired of writing this email, I'm starting to procrastinate and if you know me I have a bad problem when it comes to procrastination. So I'm gonna end it right here but I love you all!! Yall are just the best!! I hope yall know how much fun I'm having and that I'm so happy to know I've got a whole army of family and friends cheering me on haha! Anyways I'll talk to yall in the next email!!

Zone Breakouts 

Zone Conference

Virginia Richmond Temple

Me

More Temple