ANOTHER WEEK BITES THE DUST! - 26 August 2024

Hello hello hello!!! It is a great day here in Virginia and a great day everywhere! This email might be a little shorter than others but I'm making sure I get every email out before I come home which is so soon! 

Anyways our week was a pretty chill one. Nothing too crazy happened, most of our lessons fell through and we weren't able to find that many people but we stay grinding! Our friends are all still super super awesome, most things have stayed the same with them. 

We did have a lesson with Jason who is on date for middle of September and it was an incredible lesson. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and everything we taught made so much sense to him. He comes from a catholic background and so he explained what he was taught with Adam and eve but when we taught what we believed about Adam and eve, it was like a spark just lit! We told him how what eve did wasn't a bad thing and that it all happened so that we could be here on earth and I mean he just was illuminating the entire time, in awe about how we view our lives. Then when it came to the idea of Celestial, terrestrial and Telestial heavens, he literally said HOLY CRAP! as we were sharing it. Then he goes on to explain that he's had questions his whole life about how he doesn't feel like God would punish people to eternal suffering and fire and brimstone if they don't make the mark and so his entire life he's rejected hell. So when he found out that we believe everyone on earth will recieve a glory in heaven he just knew it was true! He's known this was true his whole life, he just never knew where to find it till now. The spirit was so strong the entire lesson and I'm excited to keep working with him while I can! 

Anyways that's the big highlight of the week, we've got exchanges this week with our Zone Leaders and a few lessons scattered throughout the week so hopefully if all goes well, this next week will be more successful than this past week! But I'm so happy to be here in Virginia right now, i would want to be anywhere else doing anything different! This is the greatest work on earth!! Love yall stay cool and in school!! 

-Elder Milius 

SORRY I MISSED LAST WEEK…19 August 2024

OK so a lot has been going on these past couple of weeks! Sorry I didn't get the chance to write about it last Monday. Me and my companion had the incredible opportunity to go to kings dominion for our Pday which was a blast!!!! But let's get into what happened my past couple weeks.

So to start it off great, our friend Faith got baptized!!!!!! And the baptism was so awesome, we didn't have to do anything, her mom did it all for us basically! It was awesome!! God seriously blessed us with this baptism cause for years missionaries have tried to get her baptized but finally she said she was ready when we came into the area!!! 

We also have a great amount of other friends progressing towards baptism. We did have to push back a baptism that was gonna happen this last Saturday just cause he wasn't ready yet. But we have 4 solid friends who are progressing towards being baptized and it's awesome!!! 

Our friend Nadia is still solid for her baptism on the 12th of September,  we have to finish teaching everything which has been a struggle with them but pray for her and her mom that we will be able to get lessons scheduled! Last Sunday actually, our mission president and his wife showed up to our service at church and so Nadia and her mom got to meet our president! It was pretty cool!!

Jason is on date for the 7th and he is seriously a miracle friend. He had been found about 3 months ago, said he was interested in church but never picked up the phone until finally one day after he missed our call again for like the 8th week in a row, he texted saying he was coming to church! We then got everything set up and started teaching him. He said he read a little of the Book of mormon one night as well and just felt the spirit so strong, more strong than he has ever felt with the Bible! He is so cool and it's so crazy that just out of the random, he texts us saying he was coming to church and now he is gonna get baptized!!! Miracles are real!

Connor is the kid we are teaching, he's actually really funny and it's never a normal lesson when we teach him. It's always fun to go meet with him. He is the one who we pushed his date back because he isn't ready yet but come end of September he'll be getting baptized!!!

Ben is our other friend we are teaching, he is so funny and we have such a fun relationship with him. We literally text him like we are best friends! Which I mean we are to be honest! He has such a big desire to be baptized but has some struggles right now. All he needs is one miracle to allow him to be baptized, so please pray for him that he may recieve that sooner rather than later. We haven't had the chance to meet with him this week but we've got a lesson set up this week so hopefully when we show up he'll tell us the miracle has happened!! 

But that's about all our friends who are super progressing right now. We are struggling to find new people to teach but we just have such a solid teaching pool that I haven't worried too much about that. 

I had my departing interview with my mission president yesterday which was kinda crazy and didn't feel real. It still doesn't feel like that was my last interview with him. I was super sad after I finished it though, I am and will be forever grateful for President Hutchison. He is one of the greatest leaders and is so spirit led in his work. I fully sustain him and his calling, during my interview I received so many answers to questions about home, I have been so nervous about my future ever since I got out on my mission and I finally feel hopeful and content with what I need to do come middle of September. 

Speaking of which I am getting down to my last few weeks here in Virginia and as much as I'm excited to see my family again and be back in AZ, I'm truly gonna miss Virginia in all it's beauty, I'm sure everyone says that about their missions but it's true. I'm sad that I won't ever get this opportunity to do what I do again. Which is why I'm gonna make these last few weeks count!!! 

Anyways it's always great to talk to yall! I hope everyone has a fantastic week wherever they are. I'm gonna try and get every email out these next few weeks so I don't miss anymore weekly emails lol! 

-Elder Milius

BEGINNING MY LAST TRANSFER - 5 August 2024

Hello everyone!! Sorry I didn't send an email last Monday, we went to the temple a couple weeks back and I sent one then but didn't feel like sending another 4 days later lol. But here we are for another email. My time is getting shorter and shorter and it's crazy to think that just a few more weeks and I'll be in the hot desert again. But none the matter, I'm still lucky enough to be here in Virginia doing what is most important to me and God! So let's get right into my week!

Nothing crazy has been happening other than my last transfer officially starting. We've had lots of changes throughout the mission but I'm lucky enough to stay with my companion for another transfer! We've got a few baptisms lined up for the transfer that I am super excited for. In fact by the end of this next week we should have our friend faith getting baptized!! I'm so pumped!! 

We had an awesome dinner with another one of our friends who is getting baptized, her name is Nadia and she is doing fantastic, they haven't come to church In a little bit but they are super solid with the ward! They have been fellowshiped better than any other friend I've seen so I know that once she is baptized, she will be met with a family she never knew she had! The only issue we are running into is that they are super busy so we struggle meeting with them but I know once school starts, we'll be able to crack down with them!

We had to clean our apartment like crazy this week cause we are actually moving apartments at the end of this month so we've been packing things up and stuff like that so that it'll be easy to move when we have to. 

We have another friend who is getting baptized on the 17th, his name is connor, he is another kid but he's super cool. His parents have been so nice and hopefully come the 17th he will be ready. He's on the spectrum but when he is taught something he will remember it for a while! The only issue is he has a hard time staying still to listen. But we are going over there this week so hopefully we'll be able to get him situated for the 17th, but please pray for him and us 😅

Other than the 3 friends who are solid for baptism, we've got some more people we've found that are super cool and could potentially get baptized soon! One of them is named Ben and a couple days ago we had an awesome lesson about baptism and the blessings from it. He knows he is gonna be baptized but it's just a matter of when. He has a buddy who is serving a mission and gets back next may and he wants to baptize Ben but we told Ben that is these blessings are something he truly needs right now then he shouldn't have to wait until that day comes to recieve them! He enjoyed the lesson a lot and for the next week we invited him to pray about it and see what God thinks. 

We also had another friend who we just randomly called one Saturday to invite to church and wouldn't you know, he came to church on Sunday! He really enjoyed it too, said he hasn't been to church in a while and wanted to learn more! 

Other than that we've been having the usual stuff we have to take care of at the beginning of the transfer, we've got zone conference tomorrow which I will be giving my departing testimony in. I'm super nervous because I never thought this day would actually come! But I'm excited so you'll hear more about that next week. We've got exchanges scheduled through this month and interviews scheduled for the 20th of August, where I'll have my departing interview with president Hutchison. Kinda crazy everything has brought me to this point but I'm insanely happy to be here to witness God's work for another 6 more weeks here in Virginia! 

Anyways, love yall, keep killing it with whatever your up to. Be God's best version of you! Talk to you in the next one! 

-Elder Milius