27 August 2023
VOLUME 11 – NUMBER 518
Jen cooking dinner for the family
Last week was such a busy week, so I wanted to write a little more about a couple things that happened at the end of that week.
I watched James and Israel last week for Jen, and she came over on Sunday and made an amazing meal for us, as kind of a thank you for us watching the boys.
Jen’s dinner also ended up being Quinn’s birthday dinner. We loved her dinner it so much that I’ve already tried to duplicate it for another meal this week.
Miller family get-together
We also had a Miller family reunion of sorts the evening after Cougar and Endia’s gender reveal party. Meredith and Chris and their family came into town. Their cute family has grown so much. It was fun visiting with everyone and getting reacquainted.
My mom and dad even made a surprise showing when they drove all they way from Montana on an invite from Amy. We loved seeing everyone. It’s nice to have a little down time every now and then. This week has been a bit of that. I only had one major work night that I had to leave the house.
On Saturday, we helped a family in our ward load up their moving van. They did a great job of having everything ready to go. Not many families are prepared like that, so it was nice.
Mom talking with dad at get-together
Jen's birthday was on Monday this week, and Natalie's birthday was on Saturday. Happy birthday Natalie and Jen!
On Wednesday, for our young men’s activity we had a “Hamburger & Testimony” night. The hamburgers were simple but delicious. Once we were done eating our burgers, we went outside to the backyard, to bear our testimonies.
During the testimony meeting, I felt the spirit a lot. It was cool hearing everyone's love for the gospel show as they bore their testimonies.
On Saturday we went to the Curtis's (one of our young men's leaders) to help Brother Curtis move. I didn't have to take any of the big items, so the work was pretty easy.
Children loading Curtis’ moving van
Once the work was done, we split a doughnut, (provided by the Curtis's) and Troy, Quinn, and I hopped in Luna. I was thirsty so I took a drink from Dad's water bottle, which was a big mistake.
The reason why it was a big mistake was because, Isaac, who has gotten sick, had taken a drink from it earlier that morning, so when I took a drink...my fate was sealed. I was bound to become sick!
Throughout the rest of Saturday, I was working on the great battle of the sickness verses the chore of the great battle of the desks. Dad assigned me to disassemble our old school desks, so that's basically what I did for the rest of the day.
The desks were hard to take down, but eventually I did my job. I later learned that Mom had decided to throw away the desks instead of storing them, so there was no need to disassemble the desks properly, apparently all I had to do was "smash it will a hammer!" When I learned that, I was pretty gosh dang upset!
Sick Kai
On Monday night we had a pretty cool miracle. Our mission president had set a goal for us to talk to at least 10 people in the street daily. So we headed out at 6:30pm after ending our P-Day, and even though it was Monday, we only had three hours to work, and it was already dark outside, me and Elder Urquiza decided to do it.
We said a prayer to be led to the chosen people and that they might be led to us and we committed to talk to every single person that came across our path. We did the first contact, and…nothing. Second…rejection. Third…not interested, and it continued like that up until the ninth street contact.
Then as we were walking we saw a lady crossing the street and we made our way to her. By the time we got to where she was, she had entered her house, but suddenly a man opened the front door right as we got there.
We started talking, asked some questions, and the lady came to listen as well. We shared a bit there in the doorway and then the lady expressed that she was looking to get closer to God again and took it as a sign.
Caleb and Elder Urquiza
We had another experience where we had a visit set up with a lady, but we had recorded her address wrong. We called her once the day before the visit, and she said here was no problem with the address and gave us the name of the neighborhood. We looked again on the map and couldn't find it. The next day we headed out to the visit, and we said a prayer to find the house.
Long story short, we found it! But no one answered. We thought that was a little weird. God answered our prayer leading us here, but she's not even here. So we thought, “Well, there's got to be a reason why we're here.”
So we talked to another lady that was on that street, and she was way interested and had a lot of doubts and questions that we were able to answer. Then we set up a time with her to visit again.
Two big stories, but in truth every week of my mission there are always stories like this. I don't always share them, but they're always happening. It's pretty amazing.
I like being a zone leader I feel like I've got it down now, and I'm excited for the increased responsibility and opportunity to minister and lead! It's helping me a ton.
I love being a missionary, I know the gospel is true. Jesus Christ lives, I know from countless experiences big and small. I hope all of you can strengthen your bond with him. It will bless you more than anything else, and in every aspect of your life.
Mom and Veidi sewing
This week we started doing school. I enjoy the classes I have. They are fun. I tried to get all my grades up and be ahead by a week.
Also, work started back up again and so far so good. I enjoy working and making the school clean. The one thing I don't like is coming in at 4:00pm instead of 3:00pm.
For our young women’s activity, we learned about the car engine and about tires. On Thursday, Riley came over at dinner time and we watched the Third Harry Potter.
During the movie, we had ice cream floats, or ice cream with chocolate and wiped cream. After the movie was over we all talked.
Quinn’s birthday celebration
Jen came on my birthday and made my birthday dinner! It was so good! Then we watched a show about the Maya, and Dad talked about how they are like Book of Mormon people.
Then we had cake, and i got toys for my birthday. It was F-U-N!
I am so excited that I can be baptized now. I want to share my testimony. I know that Jesus Christ lives, and we can follow by helping others and serving others, and listen to the talks in church, and follow him. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Quinn’s birthday celebration
This week was pretty chill for us. Cougar doesn’t have school right now, so he is just working. I started substitute teaching and helped in a special ed kindergarten class this week.
I also bought a new dice game called Quixx, and Cougar and I like to play that together in the evenings.
Newly reorganized storage room
For awhile now, I’ve been wanting to re-organize our three main storage areas in the house: the storage room, the Bunkhouse closet, and the attic. Fortunately, on Saturday we were able to get two of those three areas clean and organized, and get things moved into more logical places.
It was hard work, and it took most of the day to get it done, but it’s so much nicer now when I have to go into either of those rooms. Everything is neat and organized, and it’s great to actually see bare floor and be able to walk around!
Oh! And one other funny thing. We also finally filled the water barrels that we bought for our storage room back during the first couple months of COVID! For three years, our water storage barrels…have been empty!
Newly reorganized Bunkhouse closet
We’ve been watching James and Israel for most of the week, and the poor little guys have been pretty sick. It’s an interesting sickness that seems to linger longer than a lot of the normal bugs I’ve seen.
Now, it seems like some of our children are catching the same thing. Isaac has been sick for a couple days, and now Kai, Monte, and Joanna are coming down with something.
Dad snuggling with sick Israel
This week I have been working a lot on school. It has been really fun. I have all A's, and they are all in the green. That means that they are all ahead.
Mom made a new rule for school, and that was we can’t be done with school for the day if all of our classes aren’t in the green and ahead. I like it, because I have to only take three classes this semester and next to graduate. So I hope I can keep at this pace and keep them green.
Sick James and Israel
So this week me, Monte, Gloria, Isaac, and Kai all started seminary. Me, Kai, and Isaac have the same class, and then Monte and Gloria are in the same class.
So me and Kai went by ourselves the first day because Isaac was sick, Our teacher is Brother Hutton, who lives just one house away from us. He is a really good teacher.
For the first day, it was fun Friday, so we did a Jeopardy, and we were put on different teams. Me and Kai had different groups, so they split right in the middle of us. We both looked at each other and said, “Noooo!” But it was good for us to get to know other people.
I did not know anyone in my group, but I hope to get to know them better. I like going to seminary and learning more, and coming closer to Christ.
Jen with James and Israel
Nothing major happened this week. I planned some stuff for Homecoming, but then I found out that it was happening a week later than we had originally thought. That didn’t really change anything, except that we won’t be able to go to the region dance that our stake is hosting.
On Saturday, we helped Brother Curtis move. It was easy work, nothing too strenuous, but the real work for the day started when we got home. We started to organize the storage room, the bunkhouse closet, and the attic.
Just as we were finishing up with the storage room, I started to feel sick, so all day Sunday, I just rested on my bed. I was bummed that I couldn’t go to our FSY devotional, and that night I had one of the worst nights sleep ever.
Every muscle in my body was contracting, and it was just straight pain. Hopefully I’ll get better sometime next week.
Children starting up school
I love school because it is pretty easy. I am taking math, language arts, science, and spanish. I love science because it is the easiest. It is fun because it is so satisfying to get all questions right.
Right now I am ahead with passing grades, so I get to be done with school earlier. I play with knock-it-down dominoes with Quinn.
It is a game of war where we make our little tanks and slide other dominoes and try to knock down the other persons tanks. It is very fun because you might miss and sometimes it hits them, but it isn't hard enough.
Mom helping Joanna with schoolwork
The day we’ve been dreading all summer has come too quickly! It is time for us to head back to North Carolina. I have such mixed feelings about going back. I love NC, but we have absolutely loved spending the past few months with family.
We’ve loved spending hours playing games with siblings, having babysitters easily accessible so we could go to the gym together, having temples so close by, and Ellie has loved playing with her aunts and uncles.
Brooke and Braden’s funny dinner
Before we left, Braden and I decided to do a “funny dinner” for the family. It’s a tradition my grandma would do for us growing up.
There is a menu where each item has a funny name. You choose a few items per course, not knowing what each item is, and then are served what you choose. You end up with a bunch of random things each course. It was fun to do with the family and enjoy time together our last night in Utah.
We hit the road and survived the 30 hour car ride. Ellie loved being in the car and watching movies. Charlie struggled with sitting in her car seat, but that was to be expected. Overall, they both did really well. This was my eighth time making the drive and I hope the last…but probably not, ha ha!
Braden, Brooke, girls on road trip to NC