Protected By THE Lord

 MY FRIENDS. How are you all? I love each of you.

This week was great! As always. I picked up Sister Mather on Tuesday and she is the cutest. She was originally assigned to the Belgium Netherlands mission, but won't be able to go out before the end of her mission. She is a cutie and has a whole lot of WONDERFUL ideas. It has been fun trying them all out. We have seen many miracles as we have coupled our work with prayers and turned to the Lord.

I wanted to share about a neat experience I had street contacting this week. We went down to Saint Mary's by the sea on Saturday. I marched right on up to the first lady I saw and asked if I could sit by her on the bench. She said, "Yes!"  I began talking to her about her life and what she loves about Connecticut. She asked me why I was here in Connecticut and I was able to share a brief testimony and share one of my favorite scriptures with her: Ether 12:4.

"Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God."

She nodded her head as I said those words, the cool ocean breeze seemed to agree with the testimony of Ether. "Amen, we just have to believe in God. We gotta choose to believe," she said. I was able to set up a time this next week for us to talk again and share a message with her. I am so grateful that God let me cross paths with my new friend Josephine.

We also had MLC this past week in Woodside. The traffic was HORRENDOUS but we made it, so I guess that's a miracle in and of itself. I loved all of what we talked about, but one thing in particular stood out to me--we are accountable to the Lord. We need to show Him that we are trustworthy. How do we do that? We earnestly seek to improve each day. The Lord does not expect perfection of us, but effort is required. There is so much farther that I must go until I reach my divine destiny, but He is just concerned about the next step. So here's to taking a few more steps, each and every day!! OH and we got Levain cookies, which I hadn't had since Manhattan. That was such a big tender mercy.

Yesterday, Sister Mather and I had an interesting experience I want to share. We were online proselyting at the church, when it was about time to go home. It was getting late and was very dark outside. We were locking up the church and turning off lights when we saw another car parked right next to ours in the empty parking lot. Its lights were on and it was just sitting there in park. Normally, this would be no cause for concern. However, I immediately felt a pit in my stomach. I looked at Sister Mather and she confirmed that she too didn't feel good about the car. We considered our options. We needed to go home but we both felt that it was unsafe to go outside. We went back upstairs and called the sisters we live with, figuring that having someone on the phone could be a good protection. They asked us the question of the hour: "Have you prayed?" The honest answer was "no". We hadn't yet. So we bowed our heads in the Relief Society room and said a quiet prayer together, asking the Lord for safety and for peace. As soon as we finished the prayer we went back downstairs to go home. We opened the door to find that the car had left. Within the 3 minutes that it took to pray, the car was gone. I don't know what was negative or unsafe about who was in that car or what was happening inside the car parked beside us, but I do know that God protected us. The Spirit was there, and by the priesthood power, we were safe from harm that could've befallen us. I am so grateful that the Lord speaks when we choose to listen to the still, small voice.

For my spiritual thought, I wanted to share something that my mom and dad wrote me from 2 years ago in a letter that I have since treasured and read again and again. Their wisdom is impeccable.
Mom: "I promise you that as you turn to your Savior and your Heavenly Father, They will create something in you from that loneliness. You will become stronger, and grow in ways you could never have grown had you not decided to rely on them."

I love that wisdom.

Dad: "By staying close to [Christ] we will be protected and watched over. We will still face trials, but we can face them with confidence that a loving God died to help us overcome them."

Amen and amen. Trials will always be there, but so will Christ. Christ is our refuge. He will come to us in our hurt, in our loneliness, in our frustration, in our pain. He knows, and He is always there.

I love you all. The church really is true.

Be happy. Be brave. Be smart!

Love,
Sister Miller 

1) Ron & us 

2) COME TO CHURCH

3) our new friends Nora and Luis

4) Josephine--a street contacting miracle 💗

5) Sister Mather and I 

6) Levainnnnnnnnnnn @ MLC