CHANGING TRACKS - 19 February 2024

Hello everyone!! It's a great day here in Virginia! The weather is amazing, still cold some days but most of the time when the sun's out it’s nice!!!

Anyways, this past week has been awesome! Lots has been going on but it's all gonna be for the good! I think I mentioned it last email but we had to drive up to Richmond a couple times this week so Tuesday was lowkey shot. We didn't have much happen then, Wednesday was a long day of finding, we did have an awesome lesson with our friend at Panera bread. She had lots of questions written in a notebook so we just went over all her questions about Christianity and the Book of mormon. 

Thursday we had lots of meetings and traveling as we had to pack up my temporary comp and get everything ready for transfers which transfers happened on Friday. And I am now with Elder Sims, from what I know, he's a beast. I'm excited to get going on the transfer and get into everything so we can start to see some miracles!! We also had a fire lesson with ty on Friday which went really well! Then Saturday was a longer day of finding. We did some weekly planning too which took like 3 hours. 

Sunday was one heck of a day. We unfortunately didn't have anyone attend sacrament which was super super sad but we were able to schedule a couple lessons with friends in the evening. One was with ty and as soon as we got to the lesson, we knew it was gonna be an interesting lesson. We talked bout tithing which from knowing ty, we knew it was gonna be hard to hear that. But when we were talking we had a member who has such a strong testimony of tithing and the blessings poured out from God. Ty took this lesson hard though cause his circumstances were really freaking him out and then to hear he has to pay tithing was hard to hear. But he had the faith, he just basically said if this doesn't work, he was gonna lose everything. So we promised him crazy blessings and the spirit was so strong despite the fear and doubt that was running through ty's head. Fortunately things started clearing up and ty began to be hopeful! So this Saturday ty will be able to be baptized into God's true church on earth and he will see how the lord will bless him as he lives the gospel! 

Anyways that's my email, this next week gonna be crazy just because of all the planning we will do for ty and also trying to grind the find. I never remember how hard transfers are until I have them. All the missionaries around me all changed, either went home or somewhere else and it was honestly depressing but Sunday was a day I needed to reboot and get focused back on the important things. I made so many great friendships this past transfer and I know they'll live on forever, for now I'll go back to work and serve the Lord! Aight talk to yall next week!!! Love yall tons!!!!!

-Elder Milius 

DRIVERS GONNA DRIVE - 12 February 2024

Hello everyone! Today is the last pday for the transfer. I got news last Saturday that I will be staying in my area for another transfer and I am super hyped as we have great people we are teaching! 

Ty is doing amazing! He is so ready and accepting of all we talk to him about. He loves the ward and the ward loves him, he is truly elect and it's been such a pleasure being here with him. He will probably be my favorite friend I've met on my mission. 

All of our other friends are good too but lots of them have brick walls they are trying to get over. I truly believe all of them could be baptized here soon if God provides the miracles they need to keep moving forward. So pray for them all please! 

This week has been a little chaotic, we got news that Elder Weaver is headed to Mexico and so the whole week we were tryna plan out all we could do so elder Weaver could say goodbye to people. Then the APs called us Tuesday and said he was leaving Wednesday afternoon and so we canceled everything, Elder Weaver packed and we drove up to Richmond to drop him off and say goodbye. It was lowkey kinda sad, me and Weaver had so much fun together but he's off to bless the lives of many down in Mexico!! 

Then I had to drive up again to Richmond to take the other visa waiter to go get his visa so after church we quickly picked up the other elders and headed out for Richmond, drove back and got home at like 8. Then tomorrow morning we gotta do it all over to pick him back up. Then with me getting a new comp, I'm gonna drive back up to Richmond on Friday! Then when we take the visa waiter to go to Mexico I'll have to do it again!! I've literally memorize the trip to Richmond cause I've been there so many times! 

Well that's all the updates I git for the week, nothing else crazy has been happening, next week's email will be super sweet as I'll have a new comp and a new transfer ahead! 

I can't really share more of a testimony than I know God Is real, it's an undeniable fact that there is a Supreme being but even better is that this Supreme being is a perfect father who loves each and everyone of us. Don't let the world tear you down because this world is not eternity, the way we live right now will not be the way we live in the future. Peace will be forever, stress will be diminished. God will reign and sadness will end. So if you are worried about what the next step holds for you. Remind yourself of what's more important, the love of God! 

Alright I'll catch yall in the next one! 

-Elder Milius 

FROM BASHER TO “ON DATE” - 5 February 2024

Hey y’all! It's a great day to be here in the VRM! Hope it's a great day for y’all as well! My week was super sweet, we had lots and lots of miracles! God is truly hastening the work here in Virginia! 

So to get going, Ty is still doing amazing, we had a dinner/lesson with him and some members and it was so awesome. He has the most perfect questions ever and our members just testified of their experiences and he wa loving it, he is so ready to be baptized. He is already telling everyone about it. He literally wants to fly his grandma from Jamaica to see his baptism. Then he came to church on Sunday and obviously it being fast Sunday, there were lots of members testifying if the church and the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Then afterwards ty told us he was praying to know if this church was the right path and then just felt God speak to him while our members were sharing their testimonies! It was so awesome!! He is so excited to be baptized, just pray he doesn't have any word of wisdom issues or anything like that so we don't have to push his date back.

We had another friend come to church as well, he is chilling but unfortunately has so much on his plate right now. He is from Cuba and is battling trying to get his green card but needs the money to pay for lawyers but just doesn't have enough time to do so. We are really relying on the lord right now. If God be willing, and our friend keeps coming to church, we believe a miracle can happen so he can stay in the U.S. and be able to make a covenant with God. So please pray for him so everything will work out!! 

Now to get to the title. We have this one friend who previously talked to missionaries who apparently he bashed with cause he didn't believe in our prophet or the Book of Mormon. We took the approach to just love him and solve his concerns in a friendly matter. We helped him overcome a lot of problems with our church and he is now reading the Book of Mormon a lot. Last Tuesday we read 2 Nephi 31 with him which talks all about baptism and then my companion at the end invited him to be baptized and the spirit just took the works! He is now on date to be baptized in March and If you asked me when we first started teaching him that he would be on date to be baptized, I would tell you that you're crazy! But here we are, God is a God of miracles!

We had an interesting experience with the sister missionaries this week as well. On the day we had the dinner/ lesson, the sisters spam us basically saying they need a blessing asap. They said they were being followed by a demon and one of the sisters felt it touch her. They were lowkey freaking out and I believed them completely. So we came by and gave them a blessing and it was honestly super cool to see what was in the blessing. My comp literally afterwards said he was thinking basically everything I said and word after word just felt like the spirit, it didn't even feel like I was speaking. Then we also dedicated their apartment so they felt safe. It was crazy, kinda spooky but the power of God is way stronger than the power of the devil 

OK that's my week. I'll keep yall posted bout my comp next week cause if things go smoothly, my comp will be in Mexico by next Monday and I'll have a new companion for a week. God has seriously had such a huge part in everything that is going on. I've got Mosiah 14: 5 on my mind which is...

“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”

I've focused so much on how this principle not only applies to us as individuals but also our relationships with others. Because of christ, our area is seeing miracles. Because of christ, people are preparing to recieve the gospel. Because of the atonement of Jesus christ, things are slowly coming together. The atonement doesn't just save us from sin but also saves the whole world from brokenness. Fear is disturbed by the atonement of Jesus Christ. Hate is diminished by the atonement of Jesus Christ. Joy is emerging because of the atonement of Jesus Christ. Contentment is found because of the atonement of Jesus Christ! 

OK I hope yalk have a great one! Talk to yall later!! 

- Elder Milius 

A COUPLE WEEKS PASSED - 29 January 2024

Good morning everyone! Sorry it's been a fat minute, last week we went to the temple and I didn't have time to write an email. So here we are, hopefully I don't write such a long email. 

So the highlights of these past couple weeks is, we have been seeing so much success in finding and in having amazing lessons with our friends! Between both weeks, we've found 26 new people! It's been insane how much we are seeing the fruits of our labors! 

We also have amazing friends we are teaching right now. We have this one guy who was a referral and we ended up putting him on date a few weeks back and we've been having awesome lessons with him. He is so ready for this gospel and is truly accepting it all! He came to church yesterday and loved it! He said he looks forward to coming back, and his baptism is in a few weeks so pray for him!!! 

Our other friend who was on date for a while didn't come to church so we had to take him off date again. He always has something come up that stops him from coming to church, like he just got covid so that put him out of commission for a minute! But he has a great testimony of the gospel, he believes this is the true church but he just isn't making the effort to come to church. He will eventually get baptized but it won't be till after he comes to church. So pray for him as well! 

We also have been seeing lots of other friends progress as well, there is this lady who we called out of the blue and had an awesome lesson with. She literally came to church yesterday and loved it. The talks were also amazing cause they were all about the Book Of Mormon and that stirred some inspired questions about the Book that this lady wanted to ask us. She was super down to come back as well so things are looking up for us right now. 

Other than all our friends, nothing else crazy has happened, we are just seeing tons and tons of success. Probably the most success I've seen my whole mission. And it's also crazy how quick these past 3 transfers have flown by. I've had so many people tell me the last year of your mission Flys by so fast and I am starting to believe them. 

The temple was awesome too, we got to go up and do a session and it was super fulfilling. I had lots and lots of thoughts about my testimony and how I am where I am. And I won't share everything but because of an experience I had when I was younger, with my dad, I have the strongest witness of God's love for me, his existence and my divine heritage! We are all sons and Daughters of God. Even when we fail and fall short of the justice of God, we have a second chance provided to us by christ! We talk to so many people who don't have a relationship with christ and if you would describe your connection with God as not too great, I invite you to make it better, grow close to the teachings of christ, grow close to God's love, grow close to those around you who have the same godly desires. This is the way we can get through these strange times we live in. The world ain't sunshine and rainbows, it is a cruel cruel world and it will beat us to our knees if we let it. But with God we can overcome this world and have an army of angels by our side. And even when we don't feel it, or see it, God is with us. 

God is with us all. 

-Elder Milius  

ABSOLUTE MIRACLE WEEK - 15 January 2024

This week was crazy!!! Probably one of the greatest weeks in my mission!!! We found a total of 13 new people, we put 1 person on date to be baptized, we had a couple lessons with members present and had one of our friends show up randomly to church!! 

So to get into the details of everything, as I said before we found 13 people which was consistent of lots of street contacting. And it was something super cool cause in zone conference, our zone leader promised us one of the strongest blessings that we will see success if we apply the invites and use the finding flow and we did! It was incredible!! 

Zone conference was actually pretty sick! One thing that sucked though was all the sisters who came out with me gave their departing testimonies because they are going home soon, which says a lot because I've been out for literally that long! But it's whatever, our president gave a great talk about mission culture and being obedient! He is very adamant about us being laser focused because one it will make everything easier and we will see so much success! 

A crazy thing that happened after zone conference is we were invited to a Bible study at another church so of course, we went! It was so sick, and crazy!! They don't even realize how close they are to the truth!! They were teaching about baptism and how it is essential to the salvation of souls and the remission of sins, then they taught that afterwards you get a gift which is the Holy ghost and you have tk have it given by the laying on of hands! They were literally missing the power and authority! Me and Elder Weaver were both just itching to shout out, why did Jesus have to be baptized by John! Why did Peter have the authority to give the gift of the holy ghost while Simon didn't!! It was crazy! And then we got our friends who invited us to set up an appointment with us, so it was a successful night! 

Friday we had an awesome time at Walmart, we found 3 people in total that night and each were solid solid contacts! And while I was teaching someone else, my comp met a lady who literally was praying before coming to Walmart for God to help her and then we showed up at Walmart at the perfect time! She even said she never goes to that Walmart but some reason she did. 

Saturday we had an awesome lesson with this guy who we were so close to dropping. I was honestly tired of calling him but finally he answered a few days before and we set up this lesson. Then when we had this lesson he was asking about his purpose in life and felt a war for his soul. We just taught him about his divinity and God's plan for him and then we started talking about baptism. So the spirit was so strong and I felt like putting him on date. So I put him on date for the 24th of February which afterwards he said that is a day before his birthday!! It was so cool!!!! He also said before we called a couple days ago he was praying to God as well to help him and give him a sign of guidance and then we called! It was so cool! So he's on date for baptism. 

Then time finish up the week we had an awesome lesson with the lady my comp found at Walmart and we taught her about the Book Of Mormon and we were able to clear up so much of her concerns with Joseph Smith and she was so happy she came because she felt like not coming but she still did. We also read the account of Jesus Christ in America and we asked how she felt and she said she felt the spirit so strong! It was awesome! 

So that was our week, this next week is gonna be one of the busiest weeks I've ever had because of all the success we had. So be ready for my next email, it may be another long one!! Aight stay sweet! Keep it real! Don't forget that Jesus is leading us every single day whether we see it or not!!!

- Elder Milius 

CRAZY LADY AND GRINDING - 8 January 2024

Wassup everyone! This is crazy that we are already into the 2024 year, I've only got about 8 more months then I'm gonna be flying back to the desert! But my week has been a good one, nothing crazy crazy has happened this week but it's just overall been a good week. This email prolly gonna be a little short but oh well.

So on Tuesday we had a pretty good evening, we went out finding before a lesson and we met this cool guy who said he wanted to meet sometime so we got his info and then we had an awesome lesson with a member about the Book Of Mormon, then we were bout to go home but there was a guy who we recently stopped teaching who we felt impressed to visit, so we go and we were kinda fishy bout it but we said a quick prayer and there was an intense feeling that I may not have the chance to teach him again of we don't go now. So we went and he was home and let us in and we had an awesome super spiritual lesson with him. We were able to find out his issues and we just promised blessings like non other. It was super powerful and we got him to commit to letting us come back more. So that was an amazing blessing from God that day. 

Thursday we had district council for the last time with our old district before Fridaywhen transfers happened. Me and my comp however stayed together so we got another 6 weeks here in Oceana!

Saturday we had a few lessons scattered through the day. We had one of the most spiritual lessons with this less active member. He has had lots of problems in his life but we brought a member who went surfing with him when they were younger and they just talked for like an hour. We had a great time with him and got to give him a priesthood blessing before we left. Then later that night we had a lesson with a lady who was super crazy, she basically just preached to us about showing your light and how you can't be preaching repentance while smoking, drinking, cussing, and sleeping with random people. She was honestly so annoying cause she would repeat herself so many times, we didn't even get to teach her anything cause she just talked. We probably won't go back there cause that's kinda a waste of time. 

That's basically all that happened this week, we did end up finding 7 new people to teach which was really cool to see. We also got an appointment set back up with our most progressing friend which was a super blessing. 

Before I go I guess I'll share a spiritual thought. I was reading 1 Nephi 11 recently and my brother has a favorite scripture which is 1 Nephi 11: 16-17. And something I've always wondered is when the angel says "knoweth thou the condescensions of God?" And so I studied about what that is and I came to know that to condescend means to descend from an exalted point to be as low as what we are on earth, if not lower. And it made so much sense because then the angel in 1 Nephi 11 explains and shows Nephi the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the condescension of God! He was next to God and he descended to mortality and even descended lower than anyone of us. He is the lord and savior and he is the way to eternal joy because he literally knows every pain, sickness, sadness that we will ever experience. 

Anyways that's my email, hope yall have a wonderful day and enjoy your week! 

-Elder Milius 

TAKE ME TO THE NEW YEAR - 1 January 2024

Yooo!! Merry Christmas and happy new year everyone!!! I'm forgot to write last Thursday cause we was at the temple but ima try and do my best to catch up on everything.

This last couple of weeks have been pretty cool, of course it was Christmas this last Monday so that's obviously amazing. It's my last Christmas on the mission so I had to make the most of the time I have to really completely focus on the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ! 

At church this last Sunday we had an awesome service, we didn't have any friends attend but we still had a great time worshiping christ on Christmas eve. Then for Christmas we woke up and headed to play basketball with the elders in our zone. We played for like 3 hours and then went to go shower and relax basically the rest of the day. We then got to spend some time with our district and got to do some secret Santa with eachother. Can't complain, one of the elders got me a duck dynasty bobble head so that was funny! 

Tuesday was a day for sure, it's hard to get bakc into the groove of things after having the whole day off but we did some street contacting and the last time we did street contacting I absolutely hated it. I got yelled at a couple times and nobody was talking to me. But then today we had a blast, everyone was chilling and nice and I actually talked to a couple cool people! It's crazy how everything can just swing from good to bad. And honestly what makes or breaks a good day is literally if people are nice, when people are rude it just sucks. I could have no success but if people are nice, it was a good day. 

We had an awesome miracle this last week. We were knocking and this one guy opens up and he is Hispanic and so my comp takes the lead and the dude let us in. So we sit and my comp starts talking to this guy and I started to kinda pick up context clues but apparently this guy is a member who was married in the temple! Unfortunately his wife passed and he hasn't been to church in forever but my comp just testified that he will see his wife again because of christ and even though I can't understand so well, the spirit was so powerful. Then this guy says one of the most heartfelt prayers and gives me and my comp a hug for like 5 minutes each just in tears. It was so cool to see the impact we made on him and I'm so grateful I gotta a fire comp who can speak Spanish! 

Yesterday I had to give a talk in church and I lowkey didn't feel prepared but I came thinking I would speak for like 10 minutes, nah I accidentally took like 20 minutes! But it was a good talk, I had a lot of people come up and thank me for my thoughts. I also got to bless the Sacrament for the first time since I left on my mission which was pretty sick! Then the senior missionary couple in our ward invited us over for lunch which was so nice! 

Other than all that, these past couple weeks have been awesome. Something cool that's been on my mind for a while is Acts 5: 40-42 which says...

40 And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 

41 ¶ And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. 

42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

I don't think I have found such a powerful testimony of missionary work right here. We read all the time that we will be blessed because we are cursed for christs name sake. But to hear the apostles get beaten then wake away rejoicing because they were counted worthy to suffer shame for christ and that they did not stop preaching his name. Are we worthy to suffer shame for his name, and when the wicked beat down on us, do we get up and continue to preach Jesus Christ! I'm getting choked up writing this because I know gathering Israel is hard, my whole mission I've had experiences where I've been beaten or cursed at or spit upon but why do you think I'm still out here. Because I rejoice knowing I'm counted worthy to suffer for christs names sake. I will not and can not stop preaching Jesus Christ. His name will ring forever in my head and all those around me will hear his gospel whether they accept it or not. 

Anyways, that's my long long email, thanks for all the support! Hope yall had an awesome new year and I can't believe this is my last year on the mish!! See yall sooner than you think!! 

- Elder Milius