TALK TO GOD!! - 23 October 2023

Well hello! How's everyone doing!! Time for another weekly email from ya boi! So to get started this week was pretty great, I feel like I never realize how hard coming to a new area is and how hard that first week is but now that I've been here for a week I'm chillin!! 

So early in this week we pretty much have had lessons planned that have fallen through so we've been doing lots of finding. But it hasn't been too bad, I'm starting to get a feel for the area and have enjoyed my time so far with elder robison!! On Wednesday we got the chance to teach one of our recent Converts about the articles of Faith. It was kinda nice to have a lesson and not have to teach loads of Doctrine. We just read the articles of Faith and talked about what they meant, it was pretty cool. Then later that night we had dinner with a member in our ward and we were there for like 2 hours. They were pretty sweet though and we had a great time, after that though both me and my comp kinda died a little, just with allergies and probably a little bug going round. But it was OK, wendesday we were able to find someone to teach which was cool, it's been a fat minute since I've had some success just with the slow areas and the season but it's been good since!

Thursday we had zone conference which was awesome. I got to hang out with all my mission friends and then we got to hear from our wonderful president who talked a lot about just our faith and the continuation of miracles and how faith is a principle of power and how sometimes if not all the time, faith has to be acted upon before a miracle come occur. Then he talked a lot about personal studies and the significance of having our study and how we can have effective studies. I was kinda happy when he mentioned that the best personal study layout consists of reading a little of the Book of mormon, reading a little from the four gospels, and then spending some time in preach my gospel. I've literally been doing that for a while and I've had some of the best personal studies following that outline. Spend some time with the book of mormon, spend some time with Jesus, and spend some time on how to be a better missionary! 

Anyways Friday was a chill day, we had a few lessons throughout the day and a couple of then canceled but we were able to find someone and have an awesome lesson with this one girl who is truly searching for something and is close to finding it. So it was fun to be able to teach people more and share my testimony more. I've been focusing on sharing my testimony more because as much as I know I've had one, I've never shared it enough to put a stamp with my name on it. So ive been studying my own testimony and been trying to share it more which has helped me so much with teaching and it honestly makes lessons more genuine and sincere rather than just a history lesson. 

Saturday and Sunday were kinds the same, we had planning on Saturday and knocked lots of doors, then Sunday was bout the same. Except on Sunday it was around 6pm and we went out to knock and there was a lady walking her dog outside, so since we are trying to talk to everyone, I called out to her. We told her we were inviting people to church and she told us she already had a church but then her dog started pulling her over to us. So we pet her dog for a while and just talked to her. She shared her story of how she is trying tk get back into church and understand the Bible and her own testimony. Over a while as we were talking about her church and what not, we pulled the Book of mormon out and explained it to her, she had lots of questions and was very interested in learning and reading more about the Book Of Mormon, so we gave her one and she said she would totally read it. She wasn't interested in church or anything at first but after a long 40 minute conversation, thanks to her dog wanting to say hi to us, we were able to teach her about the Book Of Mormon and get her info to share more about it sometime in the future. God works in mysterious ways and sometimes he works through dogs. 

Anyways, this is getting long so I'll end it here, I love yall, miss yall, and think about all yall everyday. There is a reason I'm on my mission and the testimony of hope I have is what is keeping me going through some hard times. But enjoy yalls week and I'll talk to you in the next one! 

-Elder Milius 

FEELING BREEZY - 16 October 2023

Yo here we are back at it again! I've transferred to my new area down in Virginia Beach and even though it's still Virginia and there are trees everywhere, I still get the breezy vibes of the ocean which is pretty sick! But the area is epic! We've got lots to do and I'm so excited to get back into my grind with success energy! I loved rockhill so much and there were so many pros to being up in Stafford like the wards were just so awesome, but the work is slow. So I'm excited to get working hard on a whole new level now! 

Anyways, my last week in Stafford was pretty much just a wild one. Tuesday was technically my final day of work in that area because come Wednesday, both me and my comp had to pack as we were about to take my comp down to Richmond to fly to Japan, but since our other comp left, we had to have the white Oak elders come down with us so I had a companion on thursday and Friday. So we just jammed all night driving down to Richmond, dropped off our Japanese comp and headed back up to Stafford where I hung out in white Oak for a couple days. 

Thursday was a basic day of missionary work but I was new to the area so I just followed along, we did get to go to their district council so I got to say goodbye to all those missionaries which was nice. Then Friday came and we loaded up the car for transfers. Transfers were sick, I got to see all my friends and had a blast hanging with them for a little bit until I loaded up again In a new car with a new companion and drove down to Virginia Beach. My new comps name is Elder Robison and he's a pretty sick guy, he's into trucks so me and him definitely bouta get along. Then we got home and had an appointment to go to from which the appointment fell through but because we were in the area, we were able to find this one super cool dude. We taught him about the Book Of Mormon and even gave him one to keep! It was sick! My first day in a new area and already having awesome miracles!!!

Anyways, Saturday was a long day, we had to go shopping to grab some things for me and then we had some weekly planning, then we just went out to visit a bunch of people, unfortunately it was raining all day and night and of course, now that it's fall, the sun goes down at like 7:30 so people don't want to talk at night anymore. It's so dumb like cmon people, the lord doesn't run on a clock, he's eternal! But then Sunday came along and boy was this ward super small!! We straight up didn't even open the cultural hall, I was so surprised this was a ward cause there was like 50 people max at sacrament meeting. But the ward is pretty sick, there's a couple homies I met and I'm excited to get to meet all of them as it probably won't take me long to get around to everyone lol. 

Today we got to vibe out with the district, we went to an aquarium and looked at some sick fish, got to touch some sting rays and check out some narley looking turtles. 

Anyways I'm so hyped for my new area because I've lowkey needed something to get me back to my grind energy. I was very hard working at the beginning of my mission and stayed that way for a while but after my last area when we genuinely had like nothing to do, we just didn't have work enough to keep that energy but now, now I can lock down, put my head down and work harder than ever. But I love yall! I miss yall! I enjoy my mission so flipping much but I can't wait to see yall again! Anyways, talk to yall in the next one, ayo!!! 

-Elder Milius 

HEADING SOUTH - 9 September 2023

Yo what's good my bruthas and sistas in christ!!! So I definitely forgot to click send yesterday on this email so your getting it today! It has been a couple weeks since I've written and I promise I'm going to get better at writing every week. But getting on with the past couple weeks, things have been interesting and fun to adjust to. 

Big news is I found out last Saturday that I'm actually gonna be transferring out of Stafford and I'm going to be heading down south to the wonderful zone of Virginia Beach!! It's definitely gonna be a blast, even though it's winter time now basically lol. But I'm super excited to serve the people in Virginia Beach and I'm very interested to see how the work is down there. 

Basically the rest of the past couple weeks has just been a finding grind, we haven't had many lessons with non members at all, which is super sad, and that just leaves us with lots and lots of time to fill in our day. So we fill it with finding, we go to Walmart parking lots for an hour, then we go knock doors for another two hours, we call people, go knock more doors and the hardest part is all of the "NOs" but we keep pressing forward praying for miracles along the way and fortunately we were able to see some miracles. Just this past weekend we were at Walmart and both me and my comp did not feel like being there so we found an investigator close by and stopped by and actually got in contact with them, gave them both copies of the Book of mormon and set up a return appointment. So even in a slow slow area, the work still moves forward. 

General conference was also this past weekend and boy was it one of the best conferences I've ever watched! It was legendary!!! And theres gonna be yet another temple in Virginia!!!! Things are popping off in this dispensation and it's such a blessing to be a part of it all. Of course one thing that stuck out to me was the Think Celestial but also the huge emphasis on our freedom to choose what law we want to live! I love the boldness of our prophet and apostles to lay the fact and truth that God is truth and that no popular worldy opinion is truth. God's law won't change and its up to us to live this Celestial law to then be that example of the tremendous blessings that come from living this law so that others can come to know the truth for themselves! General conference was amazing and I hope yall enjoyed it!! 

Anyways, that's pretty much everything important from this last week, like I said, we've been doing a lot of knocking and street contacting so it's just grind, grind, grind. But I'm so hyped for Virginia Beach and I can't wait to get there and start fresh and go finish the work that's been set forth in my next area!!! Anyways love yall!! Enjoy your week!!

-Elder Milius 

GOD IS REAL!!! - 25 September 2023

 Good morning from ya boy Elder Milius! It has been a couple weeks since I've emailed, and that's because last week, we switched our pday to Wednesday cause we got to go through the temple!!!! Which was a blast, I love being inside the temple, especially as a missionary because then I get to continue to do missionary work but without the world yelling at me for it lol. 

Basically these past couple weeks we had a blast! Lots and lots of miracles and spirit filled experiences just engulfed us! One thing that was super cool was we had a lesson with one of our friends and we had a member join us on the lesson, unfortunately that lesson fell through so we decided to go knock some doors around her with the member. Eventually we knocked on this one door and a young married couple answered and for some reason they had the most relatable life with the member ever!! Both our member and the guy were both in the military and both of them had experiences that related so well to eachother! It was incredible, we ended up sharing how powerful the gospel is and families and our member just testified so strongly! The spirit was so strong and we know that the lesson we had planned was not the lesson we had to be at. This couple was the reason we were there with that specific member!

Another cool thing was we went to go visit some people who had been taught in the past and for some reason when I knocked the first door, I had a feeling to just continue knocking the row of doors and to our surprise, we found a super cool guy who accepted a Book of Mormon and was really interested! It was all because of the Spirit! And it's so cool to see spiritual promptings actually create something right there! 

Something else that I just loved this past couple weeks was, recently I've been struggling with some things and I just felt completely broken down, lost, scared and had no way to feel peace. I found myself in our bedroom one day just down on the ground in tears, of course I decided to pray and plead for forgiveness and mercy and for peace and comfort. After this prayer I got up and felt a prompting to open up Gospel Library. When I did, I found a talk just randomly opened. It was titled "My ming caught hold upon this thought of Jesus Christ" from Elder Andersen from this previous general conference. Basically this is one of my favorite talks now as I genuinely felt so loved thinking about christ! The wonderful quote from this talk is 

"As you continue to attentively catch hold of the thought of Jesus Christ, I promise you not only heavenly guidance but heavenly power."

Right then and there I felt the overwhelming power from Heaven just fill my soul. Then when I clicked out of the talk, it just disappeared and there was no evidence that showed I ever opened that talk, it was just there! I've seen miracles and blessings before in my life with heavenly protection to guidance but this was something I've never seen before, something that should not have happened, happen to me personally. God is real and he has the power to do anything, I know that as we remember christ and never forget him in our daily lives, we are promised heavenly power and guidance! 

That's pretty much the highlight of my past couple weeks, I did go on exchanges with our zone leaders which was mega fun of course, but other than that, we've just been grinding the finding, and teaching a lot more people now!! So things are going great for me!

Hope yall have had an awesome past couple weeks and I hope yall have an amazing week ahead of yall!! Talk to you in the next one!!

-Elder Milius 

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD - 11 September 2023

So this week went by slow but also super fast! I'm at the point in my mission that I'm just so used to doing missionary work that everything is just a blur! 

But this week truly was one of the best weeks I've had! We as a missionary baptized 52 children of God last transfer which means we broke the mission record and have set a new one! So to celebrate our president allowed us to have a celebration game hour before zone conference started. It was a blast! We did a zone against zone party and all zones were hyped up, we were going crazy! We ended up winning two out of the four games that were played, one of which was the oreo on the forehead challenge, then a wrap the mummy challenge. But the other zone won two as well so we had to go to a tie breaker. We were doing a trick shot with ping pong balls and a water cup and you just had to throw it in. So we start the tie breaker and the other zone got so close so many times, adrenaline was pumping through us all and then it gets to my turn, so I step up, throw the ball and I swear, life was in slow mo as I let go of the ball. To my surprise, I made the shot and the whole zone went wild!!!! We won the zone challenge and truly became certified as the best zone in the dang mission!!! Best part? I was lucky enough to seal that with my shot! I kid you not this was a core memory for me!! My zone leaders hoisting me up in the air, all of us chanting our zone name! It was awesome! 

Then we got to relax a little and we had an awesome spirit filled zone conference. My favorite part was obviously president, and one thing I love about my president is he is just so fired up and truly helps us remember how important our role is in the world. When we baptize people we aren't just increasing numbers to the church, we are literally handing people the keys to the Celestial kingdom. We are the only ones on earth who can do that. Members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have that important role to invite others to come unto christ so they can in the end belong to God's Celestial kingdom. 

Other than zone conference we had a pretty chill week! We were able to get back into contact with some of our friends and they were seriously the most spirit led miracles we could have asked for. I had such a strong prompting to go stop by one of our friends but I almost disregarded it. Fortunately I didn't and we ended up getting a return appointment with this lady!

Another crazy thing was I had to give a talk in church about faith and hope. I thought it was a pretty good talk but I hate talking in front of that many people so my chest was pounding all week! Fortunately I ended up doing great and I had a lot of members come up and tell me how awesome my talk was which felt very good to hear. I've never been too fond of talking but I do love it when I can not only enlighten other people but myself as well! Just preparing for this talk I learned so much about faith and hope. Personally I never fully understood hope and how it applies to the gospel but now I've learned that hope are the dreams we have of happiness and eternal life and how that hope leads to action because if I want eternal life, I've got to take the necessary steps to achieve eternal life! And then that's where faith comes into play as well! I need to have faith that what I am doing will give me the chance to have eternal life! It's awesome and I'm so glad I learned more. 

Well that was pretty much my week, we just became champions in zone conference, we have done lots of finding with little to no success but then saw miracles as we were led to people to visit and I had to give a talk in sacrament on Sunday! Aight! Yall have a wonderful day/week! Love and miss each and every one of yall! Talk to yall in the next one!!!

-Elder Milius 

STAYIN IN ROCKHILL - 4 September 2023

Aye yo! What's up everybody! How's life been going for yall? Things up here in Stafford Virginia are going well! This week wasn't too crazy but we had some cool miracles throughout which made the week a baller week! Since this was the final week of the transfer we had lots of meeting and since me and my comps are all staying together we didn't have to worry about transfers at all. So we kinda just spent some time cleaning, having lots of meetings and doing lots and lots of finding!

Tuesday was a chill day, we did however get the chance to go to mutual for one the wards we cover and it was so fun! We played gator ball which is a mix of football and soccer, it was lots of fun. The bishop was popping off and so were a couple of the other leaders, we did show up in our white shirts and ties though so we got super super sweaty lol. 

Wednesday we had an awesome miracle with one of our friends. She has struggled finding time to talk with us and I personally have never met her since I came to the area and so we were getting really close to dropping her but then we decided to go over and knock her door for some reason and to our surprise, nobody answered the door. So it was sad and we just walked away but then she came around the corner yelling out to us and we were able to go back and have an awesome lesson with her. She struggled to understand where Mormon came from and after a lot of attempts to explain it, we finally explained how Mormon is a descendant of Lehi who is a descendant of Joseph from Egypt. This was the answer to her question and after that she seemed really interested in learning more! It was awesome 

Thursday, friday and saturday,we did a lot if finding and unfortunately haven't been able to find any very promising people. Things are incredibly slow up in Rockhill and I've truly been pleading with God to give us more miracles. But no matter how slow it is, we keep trekking along hoping for either a door to open with someone or a referral to come in who is ready to hear and accept the gospel! 

Sunday was awesome as always! We got to take the Sacrament and hang with members and talk about the section for come follow me! Which this week's come follow me is an amazing section talking about unity and about the gifts of the spirit and how everyone has a unique roll to play on the earth! But! When we went to go to Rockhill sacrament meeting, we saw our friend sitting in church!!! This friend we were struggling to get in contact with too, in fact I've never met him either and he was getting ready to be dropped off our teaching list very soon. But to our surprise he showed up at church and I was able to say hi and meet him and he seemed super happy to see us! So we are hoping it will soon become the miracle person we need to baptize his transfer! 

Anyways, as long as this week was and as hard as this week was, we had a couple miracles that sealed the cracks in our hearts. It's truly amazing to see how God will wait till the last second to throw a miracle at us and just lift up our spirits entirely. God is a God of miracles and these miracles have not and will not cease. Moroni 7: 27-30 these are the set of scriptures that keep me going every day...

"29 And because he hath done this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men."

Enjoy yalls week and keep on praying for miracles, God will call his troops in and we will watch as God rains his glory upon the earth! 

-Elder Milius 

EDWINS BAPTISM AND THE STAFFORD STALLIONS - 28 August 2023

Yo, what is good? Everybody good to have everybody here. This week was pretty Baller. We had a great-great week. I know, I haven't emailed in like, 2 weeks. So this email is gonna be really long. So best with me. 

So just started off last week we had an awesome week. We were preparing for Edwin's baptism. And it just went so well. We had great lessons with him. They just went awesome and he ended up getting baptized on Saturday!!!!! WOOOOOOO

Edwin got baptized which was amazing. It was funny because we showed up and People were all showing up for his Baptism and we were getting close to the time. And Edwin hasn't shown up yet. So we were desperately giving him a call trying to find out where he was and he finally pulls up 5 minutes before his baptism, which was totally fine. Then he gets baptized and as soon as he comes out of the water he just says "Thank you Jesus!" It was so cool! He is so awesome. Then the stress came to Sunday because he was gonna get confirmed and Edwin was struggling to show up on time for church and we seriously needed him to show up. So we don't hear from him for a while until this brutha pulls up in a full tux looking like a million bucks! He was awesome and got confirmed in church!! So Edwin is a member!!!! Let's goooo!!!

Aight well now that we baptized Edwin we really didn't know what to do since that's all we spent our time on this whole transfer. So now we have to do a lot of finding and try and find someone else to help progress towards baptism, which shouldn't be too hard hopefully. 

But other than that, last week we had to move our pday, hence the reason I haven't emailed, and it was because we all got to go to the temple on Thursday!!! Oh man it was so awesome to go to the temple again, seriously I am so happy I get to go to the temple once a transfer because it seriously makes life so much better. What was super cool was when I was in the Celestial Room I didn't want to leave because I was like this is the best I've felt in a while but then I heard a voice in my head tell me that it was OK and that I can come back soon. Our heavenly father is truly the best! Love him so much and I can't wait to go back to the temple to talk with him again! After the temple we got to go to bodillaz which was absolutely bussin! Then we went and checked out this really cool antique store and then headed over to president hutchisons house to say hi! Overall one the best Pdays I've had! 

Other than the temple and finding a bunch of nobody and just being completely exhausted every day, we did have zone pday today and it was so fun! We played water balloon volley ball and some other yard games, then me and my zone leaders all went and got dressed up in cowboy stuff and we brought our guitars and played our Stafford Zone theme song! It was so cool! We looked so sick, we definitely messed up but it was such an awesome zone pday! Our band is called "Wild Willie in the West plus Cade" lol  

Anyways I don't want to make this email any longer but I truly want to share my testimony of the gospel, I haven't done it on here in a while and I just feel it's important to leave yall with the spirit. Yall, the gospel is so true, I've never been more converted to something in my entire life than I am to christ and his gospel, Jesus Christ is at the helm and this is his work, this is his family and he is not gonna stop the gathering of Israel, people will mock, people will murmur, people with persecute but people did that to prophets years and years ago. People did that to Jesus Christ and yet his plan was still fulfilled and so will his plan today! We are the armies of helamen taught in our youth and we will be the lords missionaries to bring the World His Truth! HIS TRUTH! HIS LIGHT! HIS GLORY! HIS LOVE! 

I love you all and I hope you have a fantastic week! 

-Elder Milius