Don't Let Satan Set Your Limits

HELLLOOOO!!!!!! :)

Internet is weird today, this will be short.

Life is so great! We leave in TWELVE DAYS!!!!!! And then I will be handing out Book of Mormons in Red Square! Gahhh!!! So pumped! And don't worry Dad, I'm not getting trunky in the slacking off kind of way! This week has actually been really productive! We made it a district goal to learn 30 words every single day! I use to only be doing like 4-6, and I thought 30 was impossible! But its working! Satan is working hard to set our limits, but we are not letting him. 

The Lord doesn't call the qualified, but He qualifies the called.

The Lord is definitely qualifying me in every aspect! There is no way I could do this on my own. This is His work, and I am only an instrument in His hands. 

So we got here last Tuesday, and guess who made a surprise visit to Raintree on Monday?? Jeffrey. R. Holland. I can't believe we missed him by one day!!!

Question: What are the different roles/blessings of each tribe? We know of at least 11/12 tribes are in Moscow and I want to know more about them. What are the purposes of each one? Any information about how they work would be super helpful! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!!!!!!!!!

Love you.

I hope your package gets there on time :)

Life is great! I am happy! I love being a missionary! Why? Because I know this church is true and I want others to find happiness in this true gospel also! 

Love you all!! Keep on smiling! 

Act as if, and you will become.

The church is true :)

-Sister Miller

Am I a missionary? Or am I at college? 8/28/13

This week week I have been looking for ways that God's hand has been in my life. It is so easy to take all of His blessings and guidance for granted! As I have been looking and paying attention these past few days, I have felt an over abundance of love from my Heavenly Father. We don't have to have crazy miracles everyday to be a witness of His love for us. That fact that he sacrificed His only begotten Son for us so we can return to live with Him again is evidence of His love. 

We witnessed the hand of the Lord during a lesson we taught to the younger district on Saturday. We taught Elder Hale (AKA Tanner, the guy with the rat tail who lived in wyview with us) and his companion. We were discussing the first vision and asked him to read the first vision aloud. We assumed he was capable until he looked down and saw that in was in cursive. Now understand that Russian cursive is a different alphabet than Russian print which is a different alphabet than English. The first half he absolutely butchered. Almost every word was pronounced wrong.  About half way through, something clicked. All of a sudden this was this strong powerful feeling in the room. This was a feeling I had never felt before. It was the gift of tongues. Elder Hale finished reading the vision in perfect Russian and powerfully. My companion's and my hearts were all full. At the end of the lesson we complimented him and thanked him for allowing us to witness this miracle. He had absolutely no idea it happened! This proves that we are continually be blessed even when we don't feel we are. God's hand is in our lives way more than we can recognize. 

Last night our devotional was with Neil L. Anderson! He discussed how Love and Sacrifice and connected. "We love the things we sacrificed. We sacrifice the things we love." He challenged each one of us to pray and study this more. What things do I love? What things do I want to sacrifice for? He said the essence of life is to "Learn to love God, and learn to love others."
Thoughts based on what Anderson said about the Atonement:How did Christ perform the Atonement? We do not know. But it was only possible because of His Divine Heritage. We cannot fully understand the the Atonement physically. The Atonement can only be understood spiritually, and even then it is very limited. To understand His love and Atonement is a quest of a lifetime!  I will talk more about the Atonement next week hopefully!

In the closing of his devo he said at least 6 or 7 times. "Christ is the Son of God. Christ is the Son of God." It was soooo powerful! His last words were: "Christ is the Son of God, and I His WITNESS." I felt like I was hit with a brick when he said that. 


Questions:- 
What was the veil like during the Savior's earthly ministry?
History is not my strongest subject..... How did the timing of Joseph Smith and the restoration relate to the the timing of freedom of religion and what not?
Why did Christ have to die on a Christ? (Besides to fulfill prophecy)
Is Satan only bound to this world? 

So we have made the trek Westward to Zion. AKA Wyview/Raintree. They bused down all 160 of the Russian speakers yesterday. We doubled the population on this campus! The environment here is EXTREMELY different! Everybody here is very relaxed and chill and personable. We live in the same buildings as my old freshman ward. WEIRD. (Molly/Jensen/Olivia- Who use to live in building 23, room 302? It is the bottom, far right stairwell.... Tanner now lives in what use to be Tyler, Austin, and Diego's apt! I can see our apt from my bedroom window...) The parking lots are now basketball courts! The food here is AMAZING!!! I think my eggs actually came from a chicken this morning!!!! Good stuff! But, it is very, very weird to be here. I feel like I need to stay up late and sleep in. Every step I take I think of a flash back of memories I had at this place. Its going to take a lot of energy to focus here, but I know that I can do it! If God wants me to be on west campus, he will provide a way for me to do it! :)

After the devo ended last night we got to sing hymns until the lightning/thunder ended. Eventually they let us out and we got to walk all of the way from the Marriott Center to Raintree in the pouring down rain!! Everybody was completely soaked. IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I was singing and splashing in puddles like no other. It was the best! :) 
We are also allowed to go to Jamba Juice and Great Harvest and Burger Supreme and Subzero! :)

New address:2025 N 900 E Unit 900Provo UT 84602Make sure you write UNIT 900 and make sure you still write MOS RUS mission! 


And Pday is still Tuesday. (Besides today)

I LOVE my life!!!!! And and I can't do any of this by myself. Why do I love it so much?? Because the Lord's hand has been in my entire life. What a blessing. 

I love you all!!!! MAKE IT a great day! :)

Love, Sister Miller

Without faith, you can do nothing; therefore ask in faith 8/2013

Over half way done with the MTC!!! WHAT?!??? Crazy stuff!! And plus, we are moving to the West Campus next P-day which will make the last 3 weeks fly by! It will be weird living in Wyview again, but I am SUPER excited!!! :) [Warning, I might get a new address? I'll keep you posted!]

Every Tuesday the missionaries have a devotional in the Marriott Center. Besides going to the temple, this is the highlight of my week!! They are always the BEST and we walk out of that place with such confidence and eagerness to serve! 

But last Tuesday, I was able to witness something very, very special happen. Richard G. Scott came and spoke with us. This was the BEST devotional I have ever heard in my entire life. I could feel of the love that this Apostle had for me, as well as the love that my Heavenly Father had for me! He taught us about the sacred, power of prayer. "NEVER underestimate the power of prayer!" He explained that answers can come in 3 different forms. And while we are waiting for prayer to be answered, it will increase our Faith which will increase our Character. The most important thing for us to do is act upon the feelings we receiving during and after prayers.
But the time when the entire Marriott Center started crying is when he paused in the middle of his talk and left us with a very special blessing. "With an apostolic authority, I give you a blessing to learn your language through your faith."

I reflected upon that moment many times throughout the week. It was a hard week at times, but I was able to push through it because I remembered the way I felt when Richard G. Scott talked to us. 

I having being thinking a lot about the Atonement this week. This is a topic that I could study everyday and always learn something new. I wanted to know, "How can I better use the gift of the Atonement as a missionary?" I still don't have a solid answer for this question yet. But I do know that if I am working effectively everyday, doing my absolute very best, bringing souls unto Jesus Christ, and seeking earnestly to learn and improve, the enabling power of the Atonement help me  accomplish things above my own capacity. 

In order to accomplish a goal I have never done before, I must do things I have never done before. 

And through the Atonement I know this is possible. 

I am so blessed to be missionary, and I can't wait to get my feet in Russia! This gospel is the true gospel of Jesus Christ and I want everybody else to know of it also! :) 

Lots of Love,
Сестра Миллэр

P.S. Russian is a beautiful language!! (:

I Love Life 8/13/13

It has been another great week here at the MTC!!! I love truly love it here. I just feel so happy and filled with joy! 

The Provo Temple opened again this week and we were finally able to go!! WOW! I walked out of that place with such love for everybody and everything! It was the perfect confidence booster and reminder that everything in life is alright! I feel so blessed to be a missionary at this time and this place! I know that I can accomplish every thing I need to with the Lord's help. I know that the Savior love us each soooo much! We need to recognize that we can't get through life on our own. When we are truly humble and accept and recognize His help, we can get through any tribulation or task. I know that great things will come to pass as I continue to put my trust in His hands. 

The only downer about this week was our district has been super sick... Its no fun being sick, but we are surviving! :) 

I also now have a new "assignment!" My companions and I are the Sister Training Leaders for our Zone. Basically like zone leaders, but for girls! Which is going to be super awesome and fun because we ABSOLUTELY LOVE every single sister here! :) I'm super excited!!!

Last night we a super crazy awesome adventure!!! I was able to leave the MTC!!!!!!!!!! There is a real world out there!! With real people! And cars!!! My companion Sister Biorn was having some chest/breathing problems after playing volleyball last night. It was getting super bad and scary so we had the Elders in our district give her a blessing. She immediately felt lots of relief. She still had some problems, but definitely WAY less severe. There was no doctor because it was late at night, so they put us in a car and took us to the ER. [Which was FULLLLL of people!] We stayed there till about 11 pm, but by then she felt much better with no pain so we left because the line was so long! We don't know why she had those pains, but we do know that everything happens for a reason. And we know that the Priesthood holders who gave her a blessing truly had the power of God with them. I am so grateful that we can live in a world with this wonderful power on Earth. And I am so grateful for my brothers and my dad who honorably hold this power.

On Sunday, Sister Rosemary Wixom taught Relief Society! OH MAN! This women is soooo amazing and happy and inspiring! She was absolutely glowing! I want to be like her when I grow up! She told us three steps we can take to put our confidence in the Lord.

1.  KNOW Jesus Christ.  - How well do we actually KNOW Him? Do we show our understanding of our knowledge through our actions and countenance? So my question for everybody who is reading this email is: How have you come to know Jesus Christ personally? Please share with me!
2. LOVE OTHERS (Even while I'm wearing a dress and it is -100 degrees outside) - As we increase our love for those around us, our love for others will increase. If we are not feeling this love, we can pray for it. Charity is the pure love of Christ. Moroni 7:48.  Love in the same way that our Savior loved others. 
3. Follow the Savior's Example - This is so broad. The message I got out of this was the way that the Savior loved. He expressed His loves through His actions and didn't have to use His words every time. This is something I will strive to apply on my mission! I can heal the hearts of others by having the love of the Savior in my eyes. I don't NEED to use words. (This is super comforting...)

I know that as we strive to do these three things, our faith in the Savior will grow. I challenge everybody to read the Christlike attribute in Chapter 6 of Preach my Gospel! Pick one to focus on and incorporate it into your life more. This chapter has changed my life! How can you better know, love, and follow the Savior?
I LOVE being a missionary! Thank you for all of those who are supporting me! This opportunity to serve is such a wonderful blessing! 

His Humble Servant,
Сестар Миллэр

P.S. My District learns Chinese phrases when we get tired of Russian! I'm so proud of them! :)

Life isn't just about the Destination but the Journey that takes you there. Find Joy in every second of the Journey.

There are no failures in missionary work. God would never let that happen.

I highly recommend President Eyring's talk called "Recognize, Remember, and Give Thanks." It has changed my whole perspective on life for this week!! I am so grateful for everything here!!!!!!!! So here is a list of just a FEW of my gratitude moments and things I am grateful for from the past few days. If time allowed, this list would be MUCH longer.

•  The Russian Language- I am truly falling in love!!! It is so beautiful,even if most people think of it as an angry language! The words within each sentence rhyme because of the way cases work! And if you know me, you know how much I LOVE making up songs and rhyming the lyrics! And everything follows rules! To make a sentence you look at a specif case chart and find out which "rhyme" or "ending" applies to each word. I love these rules and charts because it reminds me of math, and I love math!!! I may have a hard time memorizing things right now, but I'm taking baby steps. Russian. is. the. BEST.
• The Girls on our Floor - Everybody here is sooooo nice! We are like one big family of sister going through the same thing at the same time. The new sisters arrived this weeks which means we are no longer the babies of the Russian family. It feels great! But then again they all have Russian experience and are probably better than me at the language.... But I am so grateful for their sweet, sweet spirits and the gung-ho attitude about missionary work! During gym time, my companions don't like to run, so I do splits with the other sisters. [Side note: By the end of the mission, my abs will be tight. Like unto a dish.] I love going on runs with them and getting to know them better! This morning I went running with a girl from Seattle who previously studied Chinese. Crazy. I am so grateful to know everybody here! They teach me so much!
• Our Investigators - We are currently teaching Maxc and Buktop. I have learned so much from these two! It is easy for me to recognize what my strengths and weaknesses are while teaching because we are forced into a real situation with real people and real Russian! I am so grateful for these lessons because it has given me a small taste for what lies ahead! I have learned that one of my weaknesses is to be passive while teaching. Because I have 2 other companions, they always have something to say. I need to step up my game, and be proactive at learning Russian phrases confidently so I can say things instead of letting my companions do all the work.
• We have Agency, but Limited Options - Alright, this may sound awful, but it is truly a blessing!!! Let me explain. Here at the MTC we have schedules, yet we still can plan a lot of what we do with our time. In the cafe, we only have about 5 options of what we can eat. In the morning I can decided between my black skirt, or my brown skirt. We go to bed at 10:30 and wake up at 6:30. Everyday. Now all of this may seem like negative things, so why would Sister Miller put it on her Gratitude list? Because instead of spending all day long focusing on things of the world, we can center our lives around "Our Purpose!" This has allowed me to view everything with an eternal perspective! And I love it! The things that matter most in life are the the things that are eternal. Jacob 2:18. D&C 25:10
• Fast Sundays - My absolute favorite day of each month! I always feel the spirit so strongly and I can tangibly feel the testimonies of those around me! My major take away from this past Sunday was about Faith. If I want to increase any aspect of my faith, (which there are many....) I need to first increase my faith in Jesus Christ. He is the center of everything! Through the power of the Atonement, ANYTHING is possible. I know this is true and I am so grateful for the blessing of the Atonement in my life!
• Laughter -  OH. MY. GOODNESS. My abs will definitely be tight like unto a dish in the near future! I laughed to the points of tears, several times this week!!! Funniest. Thing. Ever. On Friday my companion Sister Taylor get us each an orange cream Popsicle. On her first bite, her tongue got stuck to the Popsicle. I laughed at her soooo hard!! Later I carefully took my first lick. No problems or stickage. So I dive into my popsicle and BOOM. Guess who's lip gets stuck! Karma!! I pull it away and we all laughed it off. But apparently I didn't learn my lesson because guess who's lip got stuck again. And when I say stuck, I really mean STUCK. And this time it was both lips. This Popsicle was not coming off!!! By now my companions are rolling in laughter and people from other tables in the cafe are pointing and laughing at me as well. I finally ripped off the popsicle and a big chunk of my skin came off with it! Apparently my lip was bleeding profusely. This was the most excitement our district had seen in days! It was quite the event and we all were laughing.
• The Book of Mormon -  I have such a strong testimony of this book! I know that it is the word of God and it can be a source of modern and personal revelation for each of us. Every time i read from it, I hunger to know even more truth! It always makes me want to be a better person and be proactive in serving others! Since I have been here at the MTC I felt so much guidance from it! It has helped my learn the things that I need to hear and has helped me receive guidance on what to teach my investigators. I know that the Book of Mormon has increased my faith because it is centered around the Savior, Jesus Christ and is evidence that he lives! His works never end. And His words will never cease.

 Thank you everybody for your support and emails! I love you all very much! My testimony is growing everyday here! The MTC is awesome!

 I love you all so much!

- Sister Miller

If you're a Russian in the hallway, what are you in the bathroom?

 I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!! 

Apparently a lot of Red Heads are sent to Russia

So much. Words cannot describe how lucky I am to have this opportunity to spend all day every day learning how to become closer to my Heavily Father and be more like my Savior, Jesus Christ. There have been many hard moments this week, but the moments that are good by far outweigh the bad ones.

Funnies:
If you're a Russian in the hallway, what are you in the bathroom?


If you're a Russian in the hallway, then European in the bathroom!!!
This was super funny because our floor has both Russian and European missionaries on it.

What a fabulous week it has been here at the MTC! Every day is sooo long, but the weeks fly by so fast!

So this week we found out that the guy we were teaching lessons to all of the last weeks is our new teacher!!! WHAT?!? That blew our minds! Lets just say we had some trust issues we had to work out on the first day.... But seriously, this teacher is INCREDIBLE! He is soooo patient and willing to teach us! And most importantly he has a super strong testimony of the gospel and we can feel the love that he has for his Savior every day during class.
Bret- you asked how the whole investigator thing worked: I have 2 teachers. They are both pretending to act like real people they met while they served their mission. It really is a cool experience!!! We are currently teaching BUKTOP (Victor) and MAXC. I think we overwhelmed Victor during our lesson with him yesterday. We are going to have to slow it down, get down to the basics, and find more out about him and what he already knows. I may not be a good teaching yet, but I can feel that I am improving. My companions and I do a much better job at "team teaching" than we did out first week here. At first we focused on teaching with the spirit, but now we know that it is just as important to plan lessons with the spirit. Without God's guidance, we can't do anything!

Speaking of teaching by the Spirit, my loving companion taught a lesson on Sunday. I was totally following along with the topic the first five minutes or so when all of a sudden something hit me hard! I have had this personal question that has been eating me up for the past 5 months. This past week especially I have been praying that I would receive an answer to this question. And then BOOM. I knew the answer. It was crazy. I immediately just wrote like a crazy women in my journal for the rest of the lesson as the spirit flowed in me. To be honest, I have absolutely no idea what the lesson was on. But because my companion invited the spirit into the lesson, I was able to receive an answer to my prayers. And the answer was SOOOO obvious!! I can't believe I hadn't seen it before. I can be so oblivious some times...

This life is not about accumulation, but contributions and service.
It is time to get to work, and tell the world the good news of the Gospel!

Improvement is a HUGE thing! There are so many time when I feel like I don't know Russian. But then I think to myself how much I knew before I got here and feel much better! It is crazy how fast we are learning!

Cool thing I found in my scripture study this week:
After Cain killed Able, he was cut off from the Lord's presence. At this time he went from the WEST to the EAST side of the garden! The Angel Moroni calls people from the West. My mind was blown.
Also, did you know that the BOM was translated in 63 days!!! That's crazy fast! I have a hard time just reading it that fast! It shows us that any thing can be down when we have the hand of God in our lives.

Read Philippians chapter 1. It is great. I've discovered that many a times I start to act like my crazy Elyssa self and start laughing and acting silly. This is fun and all, but it truly distracts me from my purpose here which is to invite others come unto Christ. [Side note, we memorized "Our Purpose" in Russian already and now Imp memorizing the first vision] In Phil 1, (I think it is verse 26?) It says to rejoice more abundantly in Jesus Christ. The days and moments that I do this, I can feel myself immediately coming closer to God. So my goal this week is to focus my conversation and thought around the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I have a stronger relationship with my Heavenly Father than ever before. This week has been full of lots of study and heart felt prayers. I know that my Healy Father is pleased with me and my work as I strive to be a good missionary. I also more than ever before, I believe in Christ.

Thank you for the emails and prayers. I feel very blessed! I pray for you all everyday!!
Thanks for preparing me for this moment in my life. The people of Russia are also thanking you, for it is them you have blessed.

I love you all so much!


LOVE,
CECTPA Miller

HELLO FROM THE MTC!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tue, Jul 23, 2013 

HELLO FROM THE MTC!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh man!! Where do I even start?!? Maybe with this analogy. I am thirsty for the gospel and all forms of learning... But this past week I have been drinking out of a fire hydrant. Yep, that sounds about right. My head is always hurting from an explosion of knowledge and I always look forward to sleeping, but man do I LOVE it here!!!!!!!! And every day gets better and better!

We have an investigator named AHTOH (pronounced Anton) and have been teaching him a lesson everyday. In Russian. He had the desire to get closer to God, but had no idea how to pray! So we taught him how and he is finally doing it on his own now! We also gave him a Book of Mormon and taught him about the Restoration. He committed to read Moroni 10:3-5 before our next lesson tomorrow! Although I have absolutely no idea what he is saying half of the time... okay, more like 99.8% of the time, I can still feel the deep love that Heavenly Father has for him as I bear my testimony to him. I am learning how to listen to the spirit while teaching even though I don't have the vocabulary yet to completely switch my lesson to something we didn't plan on teaching him. But that will come! :)

The Lord told Nephi to go and build a boat. How? He didn't know, but yet Nephi still found the means and accomplished it. I have been told to learn Russian. How? I HAVE NO IDEA!!! But am I doing it, OHHH DAAA!!! [which means yes in Russian!] I have learned that the gift of tongues isn't the ability to all of a sudden go and teach AHTOH and then magically say everything that I want to say. The gift of tongues is currently helping me learn Russian quickly and effectively. I think one of my biggest trials right now is Satan keeps tempting me to speak Chinese. When people talk to me in Russian, I instinctly start responding to them in Chinese. There are lots of missionaries here learning Chinese and I desire so badly to go and help them because I hear the mistakes they make as I walk by. At first I kept thinking to myself, that should be me.  But through prayer and through my very inspired, super, duper, awesome Russian teacher, I know that I have been called as a missionary to speak Russian because that is God's will for me. And he will not put any trial in front of me that I am not capable of accomplishing. I have found it best to not even say the the "C word" [Chinese] and to truly set my heart upon learning Russian.

My District- Such cute little boys! They all are 18 and just barely graduated from high school! They asked us yesterday, "How do we do laudry? Are suppose to sepperate colors? Why?" They are like our little brothers! You can tell they have never been to college because they have a really hard time focusing for more than one hour at a time. But they are definitely improving, and as a district we are growing and learning so much from each other!
Everybody in my district know me as the happy person! They say that I never stop smiling and get too excited and enthusiastic to learn! :)

My Companions!!! What a blessing it is to be with two wonderful people with such strong testimonies! Sister Taylor is 23 and from St. George and already graduated. Her strength is listening to people and gaining their trust. We all feel very comfortable talking to her! Sister Biorn is 20 and is from Rexburg Idaho! She has already had 2 semesters of Russian and her strength is definitely patience! We all ask her for so much help and she is always so willing to teach us! I love my companions so much and we get along super well!

Daily Miracles -

I have been trying to write down a couple that happen each day. One of them happened last Friday. We were all feeling SUPER DUPER stressed and overwhelmed when in the middle of class, our teacher stopped teaching and pulled out his scriptures. He gave us some very inspiring words and let us go outside and write in our journals for ten minutes. He truly is an inspired teacher. I am so grateful that he was listening to the spirit that day.

Another miracle- We were getting ready for the day on Thursday morning when I asked Sister Taylor if she remembered what "My Purpose" was and if we could write it down and hang it up so we could memorize it faster. Later that day she told me that at that moment she was thinking to herself, "What am I doing here???" And by just saying what popped into my mind, I answered her prayer.

Sunday was AMAZING!!! The spirit was soooo strong is was the BEST. DAY. EVER.  I'll admit, the first few days were very hard. But once we made it to Sunday, everything felt better!

I am so blessed to have the opportunity to serve a mission! It is so much fun learning more about the gospel, learning Russian, studying scriptures for over an hour a day, and learning from the people here at the MTC. I can feel my testimony building!

I love you all so much!! Thank you for your support!

Love,

CECTPA Miller

P.S. My toe is getting better, I think. I dont really pay attention to the pain when I am busy. Yesterday it was kind of bluish and today it is white? But dont worry, I washed it out and put some magical cream on it! All is well!

P.P.S. Elder Lundquist is here and says hello to everybody! I know like 10 million people here. I can't walk like ten feet without running into a friend. :)