Open the Fish's Mouth

 This week was one for the books. HELLO ALL!! 

We had our mission tour this week! This means a general authority came to our mission to help us learn and grow. It was amazing and I feel so spiritually fed. But I'll get into that in a minute :) 

On Thursday this week, President Teuscher joined a lesson we had with our friend Ramy. It was perfect. She was having a hard time understanding the importance of our message and what "made us different" from the rest of the world. We really pondered that and decided we needed to talk about the priesthood. The lesson was amazing. The Spirit was there, and we could feel the power that it had as it witnessed of the priesthood. PS: priesthood just means God's power, or the authority to act in His name. God has asked us to build His church upon apostles and prophets and to use His power to do it—aka the priesthood. We shared with her a favorite scripture of ours, and then a thought came to my mind. I knew it was revelation. "Ramy, if God gave you a blueprint to build His house, would you follow it? Or would you just do your own thing?" She answered that she would follow it. I testified to her that God has given us a blueprint to build His church and we have followed that blueprint. It was a super powerful moment. I am so grateful for the Spirit that leads and guides our words, but also for the priesthood—the blueprint of our church. 

On another note, in our wonderful mission tour this week, I felt totally inspired by something that Sister Mando shared. She was talking about a scripture in the Bible. You may have heard of the story before. It is in Matthew 17:27. You can look it up for a bit of light reading if you want! But I'll just give a quick summary. In this story, Peter comes to Jesus with a problem. He needs to pay taxes for him and all the disciples, but they have no money. Jesus tells Peter to go grab a big, ugly, slimy fish, and to open its mouth. Inside, he was promised that a coin would be there to be used for taxes. Peter went and did just that and found this precious coin. This scripture story has never stood out to me before, but I love what Sister Mando shared. She said that sometimes, we may feel like an old, big fish with not much to offer. But we are looking at it all wrong. In reality, we all have a coin inside that is far more valuable than what we realize. We have something special to offer. Sister Mando then went on to say, "Open the fish's mouth. Find your coin. Ask God to help you see it." I loved that. Each and every one of us has something beautiful to offer. We just need to have the courage to see it. I think often it is easy to get wrapped up in the world and to compare our coin to someone else's. Maybe mine isn't as shiny or as big or as perfectly golden. But what we often forget is that it is unfair to make those comparisons. In the end, the coin is worth the same. And Christ loves us all infinitely more than we can ever imagine. 

This week I also did something AMAZING!! That's right. I finished the Book of Mormon. You probably don't remember, but when I first got out here to the field (a whole two months ago--almost!), I was challenged to read the Book of Mormon looking for God, and the promises that He makes to His children. My mission president promised that if we did this, we would see God in our lives. Yesterday, I finished this challenge. I was amazed as I finished Moroni chapter 10. I prayed once again asking God if the Book of Mormon was the word of God. The feeling was overwhelming: "This is my word." I know without a shadow of a doubt that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It teaches how I can draw closer to Christ and helps me feel peace in a troubled world. I also know that God is in the details of our lives!! As I have read each page of the Book of Mormon looking for Him and for the promises He makes to us, I have seen His hand in my life. I have seen His tender mercies every single day. The big and the small. Sometimes I feel Him as I pray. Other times as I wave at a stranger. I have seen Him lovingly reach out and remind me that He is here. He is listening. 

The last thing I want to share is my spiritual thought of the week!! I was reading a book by David Butler called "Redeemer." In it, he talks about the different names of Jesus Christ and how each name helps us better understand the Savior and His role in our lives!! 

He shared a story from Exodus chapter 3. This is when the Lord tells Moses that he needs to go back to Eygpt and tell Pharoah to let the Israelites go! Don't forget that Moses is technically an outlaw and Pharoah probably has some kind of bounty out for Moses! At the moment that God asked him to go back and attempt what seemed to be impossible, Moses cries out—who am I? Who am I to go tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go? In other words, don't you have someone more qualified? But I love how Jesus Christ responds. He says, "Certainly I will be with you." He continues to be a little nervous but He says, "I AM THAT I AM." I learned that "I AM" is the name of Jesus Christ. It is a reminder to Moses that even though he is scared and doesn't feel adequate, Christ in him, and He can perform any miracle. He has in the past, He does in the present, and He will in the future. He is the great I AM. 

I know He has that same miraculous power today. So when you feel inadequate and scared and need the strength to face your own Pharoah, remember that you don't have to face it alone. Christ is that great I AM who will hold us up in everything we will ever face. His name is a reminder that no obstacle is too great for Him to help us through. I know He is here. He is carrying us through. 

I love you all!!
The church is true!
Be happy! Be brave! Be smart!
Love,
Sister Miller 

Pictures:
1) Me and Sis Lines rolling up at Marshall's 
2)Exchange with Sis Benefield 
3) Pizzaaaaa with Sis Benefield
4) Me and Sis Lines again :)
5) Manhattan district!! 

Hi Hailey, how are you doing? How is your mission going? I've been doing great. I got back to school. I have all A's. Mom told me she would help me type one paper a week. If I tell her what to write. My computer has a draw feature in Word. I use it for writing Math answers. I have so much in common with my Math teacher. 

Love you, Jacob

Dear sister Miller,

I sure do enjoy all your letters. Thank you for being such a great example and I know the Lord will continue to bless you because of your goodness. Starting next week I’ll be going back to the temple on my shift day. I’m not sure what I’ll be doing but they’re having the sealers return to the temple regularly.

Today we're doing the last work at the ranch and supposedly everything has been fixed. The next few springs will tell us if what we did was enough.

The fire that’s up by the ranch is up the canyon above Paradise Hot Springs and supposedly it’s not going to cause us any problem. It has been smoky, however, when we’re up there working in the river. 

Since the temple has been closed I’ve been able to have the time to spray weeds at the ranch often. I go up and spray one week and come up the next week to see if they died or if I missed them and then I spray again and continue to repeat this process. So maybe I’ll get most of the weeds.

Jolene and I are doing well I’ve been going down to help Jeff with the harvest. Just glad I’m able to continue to do that. This Saturday is the big potato giveaway. We will probably get five or 600 people there picking potatoes.

Keep us posted, we love you,

Grandpa

Hailey,
I know!! It’s Sunday night!!! I’m sorry!!! It’s been a little crazy. I got a ymca pass!! I’ve been going to the gym at least 3 times a week. All of my classes are super boring and I’m counting down the days until next quarter. When you were in APES, did you have to do that 3 tiered bottle experiment? We have to do it at home. It stinks and I have no idea how to set it up. Also. We are getting our papers for college comp peer edited and I don’t agree with basically anything that the kid that did mine said. Oh well. I don’t think I’ll take most of his suggestions. Will I be marked down on that with Galloway? I hope New York is going good!! I love you and miss you! I’m sorry that I’ve been so behind this week!
Love you!!
Amber

HayBay,
Today we are driving to meet grandma and grandpa at Camp Hodia. We will have church in the mountains with our grandparents. A bonus of Covid is that we can have church wherever and whenever. I do miss the gathering though. I miss taking care of people and seeing them. I think we can better fulfill the commandment to love as we see people in church.

It’s been a busy week. The kids have been so busy with school work. I feel bad that a lot of the high school activities will not be happening. Amber will not go to Homecoming as a Junior. It just won’t be happening for our area.

On Thursday, Dad and I celebrated our anniversary of our first date. We went to Big Judd’s and Crumbl. The girl who was our waitress tried to be so generous and kind by saying how excited she was for us, but then her explanation of her excitement didn’t have the effect I think she meant to have:

“Holy Cow! That is so awesome you’ve dated for 22 years!!” ... she was still good until... “That is three years older than me! Seriously, it’s crazy that I wasn’t even born when you guys were dating! That’s so long. I can’t even believe it. Congratulations!”

Her intentions were good. And I honestly didn’t feel bad that I was essentially being told I was super old. Nope—not at all. I just kinda chuckled and laughed at how sometimes what we intend to communicate isn’t actually what we communicate. I knew her intention was to say that was amazing. And, to be honest, I am old 🤣🤣🤣. I just wear my age well!

Well, little girl. I realized I never recorded the confidence podcast for you. I have to have two phones to do it. I’ll do it this week. Promise. And anything else you might need. I’ll send some pictures of today later on.

One final note: I emailed Emily Freeman asking for help in publishing. She never responded. I’m a little sad. I guess I’m going to have to figure this one out on my own.

Love you, Mom

Hey Little Girl,

 

How are things in the Big Apple?  I am currently miserable because Texas is losing to Texas Tech.  I am so angry I can barely see.  I should just give up on football.  I just end up mad and everyone in the house feels like they have to avoid me.  Stupid game.  Stupid Texas.

 

In better news, Manchester United won today.  I guess there was a crazy ending and Bruno Fernandez scored the winner as the whistle blew. 

 

Ok.  It has been a couple hours since I started this email.  Amber can and bugged me to help her find bugs for her decomposition project.  I am told Texas made a miraculous comeback and won the football game.  I am still too mad at them to think about it though.  Tech is terrible  They lost badly to some little school two weeks ago.  It should not have even been close.  Oh well.  I may give up watching college football.  Texas just makes me mad and then no one wants to be around me. 

 

More good news though Oklahoma lost today.  At least I can find joy in other people’s misery.

 

So how goes the work?  Are you having any luck finding more people?  Or at least getting fed?  We fed the missionaries twice this week.  Three times if you count the leftover pizza mom gave them today.  I am thinking about condemning the ward in the next testimony meeting like was done for the westside sisters.   It kind of sounds fun. 

 

I found out that I was promoted at work this week.  That was good news.  Unfortunately, there is not money for raises at work.  Story of my life.   I am still glad I got the promotion.

 

We are going to deliver Jake’s eagle project to Camp Hodia tomorrow. It is at Alturas lake.  That is a cool place, but I am not too thrilled about the drive.  Three hours there, three hours back.  Lots of driving and since it will be a Sunday, we cannot even stop at the Pizza Factory in Sun Valley.  It is ok though because once the eagle project is out of the garage, I am going to declare war.  Your stuff is getting stacked or moved or stored in a way to make room for a car again.  I have to get rid of a bunch of stuff too, but that garage is driving me crazy. 

 

Ok.  I guess I need to go.  Amber is home and wants me to go find bugs for the Environmental Science project.  Hopefully, you have a good Sunday and all your friends come to church.

 

PS.  BYU is winning their football game 24 -7 right now.