8 September 2024
VOLUME 12 – NUMBER 572
Miller family at Andrew’s wedding
Mom / Jenny
In a book I have been reading called The Amen Effect, there is a quote by Rabbi Sharon Brous: “We have a sacred responsibility to show up in celebration and in sorrow.” He explains that if we wouldn’t miss the wedding then we shouldn’t miss the funeral, and vice versa.
When we experience these two powerful emotions juxtaposed in close proximity to each other, we build the threads of connectedness that are required for a healthy society to flourish.
I have never felt such crushing sadness surrounded by such beauty, happiness and celebration. How thankful I am that I experienced both of these emotions.
When Aura passed away, my sisters convinced me to keep my plan to attend my nephew Andrew’s wedding in California on Tuesday. Amy had planned an amazing event—wedding on the beach, hotel rooms for all participants, Mustang convertible car rentals, and even Disneyland tickets for all participants!
Mom, Wendy, Remi, Liz at Disneyland
It was an adults-only event, and Arkin wasn’t able to come because his BYU class starts this week, so I went alone. It was beautiful to spend time at the service as well as celebrate by going to Disneyland with my sisters and my mom.
It was a balm for my grieving heart as I talked with my sisters and with my brother Jon and his husband Johnathan about the blessings and lessons learned from our parents. I am thankful that I was raised by wonderful parents who taught me the gospel of Jesus Christ and showed me how to show up for others.
And when I got home, it was so nice to see the new house. Arkin and the kiddos had gotten everything put back together when I was gone. I was surprised by how different our home felt. I love it so much!
Liz, Kyle, Wendy, and Mom
So this week has been a pretty exciting one because we have finally finished the house! The carpet is all done, and the flooring is incredible. It all looks amazing. This week we had to move all the furniture back in, and put on wall plates and doornobs, mirrors, plants, and desks.
Mom left on Tuesday to go to Andrew Nelson’s wedding in California, and Dad stayed home, because his BYU class starts this week. On Tuesday the carpet guys came and finished Mom and Dad’s bedroom, and they finished the rest of the upstairs on Wednesday.
When they were finished, everyone was away from the house except me and Veidi, so we were the first to step foot on the new carpet. It was beautiful! It sounds dramatic, but it was wonderful to put our feet on the new carpet. It was fluffy and didn't get matted down with every footstep. It was soft and comfortable!
Newly refurbished house
To help with the new wood flooring on the main level, Dad ordered a very fancy robot vacuum that vacuums and mops. The brand is Narwal, and we named the vacuum Mo (from the movie Walle).
This is good because we would have had to sweep the whole floor and mop it regularly, and now Mo will do it for us. Dad set it up so that every night Mo vacuums the whole floor, and each night he mops one of the rooms, so that every week they all get mopped.
Jenny and Amy
This week has been rough for me. I've been thinking about Aura, and where she is. I had never lost anyone and never experienced how grief feels. It hurts me so much inside that I have been super depressed and feeling so lost.
Every time I go to sleep, I think about Aura and How much she was loved and cared for. Getting out of the house has been hard for me because I just needed to be with family. When I’m out I just want to go back home after a few minutes or an hour. I tried to hang out with Riley this week, but after a little while, I told him I wanted to go home. I’m glad he seemed to understand.
Every night I read my scriptures, just for the comfort and love God and Christ have for me. That really helps me to become less depressed and more happy.
Gloria and Riley before dance
After a long time of having total chaos around the house, things are finally wrapping up with the remodel. All the walls are now painted white, the floor is in, and new carpet was finished upstairs.
The house feels like it’s new. It definitely feels more connected thoughout the downstairs rooms, where we used to have divisions between carpet and wood floors. Now everything just sort of flows together. I’m glad all the hard work has paid off.
Newly refurbished house
This week we finally finished the house, and the final product is sooo nice! I love the new carpet upstairs, and I love the new white walls. Once the rooms were finished, we took all of our beds upstairs and put them back together, and slowly reassembled our rooms.
Although it was really fun to sleep in a tent, I was ready to sleep back in my room. Kai and I decided to keep our two beds as a bunk bed, so we could have more space on the other side of the room. I really like this arrangment, and the white walls make the room feel a little lighter. I love it all!
Miller girls at Disneyland
This week for our youth activities we did a neighborhood service. We went and served people in the ward. We split up into groups. I was put with Gloria, Taylor, Eisley, and a bunch of the deacons.
We went to help the Mowers by cleaning their backyard. It was hard because some of the weeds would not come out until multiple people were pulling on them, and then they would finally come out!
I liked the activity, and afterward we decided to stay at the church and play crazyball. It was really fun. We invited Tyler Visser to play, and we had other players too, which was nice. We did not stay too because it was a school night.
Newly refurbished house
This last weekend was our big move back to Utah. After four years down south, we decided we needed to be closer to family. Brooke’s parents flew out to pick up Ellie and Charlie, so that Brooke and I could drive back by ourselves. We towed our car on the back of our moving truck.
This was the fourth time I’ve driven from North Carolina to Utah. I’ve also driven the opposite trip from Utah to North Carolina four times, for a total of eight trips. This time we did it in two days.
We’ve never spent only one night on the road in all our previous trips and this time we did it. Our first day was 17 hours of travel. We went from North Carolina to Kansas City, Missouri. The next day was a 19-hour drive from Missouri to Utah. We ended up getting there a little after 2:00am.
We’re going to miss North Carolina. We loved living in the South and getting to experience all the places and people there. It’s a special place to us and we’re going to miss it.
Joanna, Charlie, Ellie
Our house is finally finished! It's so nice! We've got beautiful flooring, thanks to Natalie and Nate for training us, and everyone else who helped put it in. We also have new carpet upstairs, and all the walls have been newly painted white!
The house just feels so much brighter and happier for some reason! I'm grateful that the hard work has finally paid off.
Newly refurbished house
Another exciting week! On Monday, Caleb and Ashton came up to help us get the master bedroom and bathroom all masked off so I could get it painted. We had to get it all done so that carpet could go in the next day.
The carpet guys finished everything on Wednesday, and then we had a day and a half to get everything moved back into the house from the tent, and upstairs from the basement. We wanted to get everything done by the time Mom came home on Thursday, and she was pretty excited to see everything when she came home.
Wendy, Mom, Liz at Disneyland
A couple months ago, I mentioned my renewed interest in exploring the option to teach seminary. This week, I officially started that process. On Thursday, I attended a seminary teaching seminar at the U of U institute building.
A former member of our stake named Pete Hilton is the person in charge of new seminary teacher hires in the Salt Lake Valley. We knew each other fairly well when they were in the stake, so he was excited to see me. He and his wife also happened to be Aura’s trek parents way back in 2011, so I let him know about Aura’s passing.
After an hour and a half of training, and about 30 minutes to prepare a lesson, each of us had 10 minutes to teach a group of about six other seminary participants. I was a little nervous, but I also felt like I did okay.
Children playing video games
I was excited to learn on Saturday morning that I have been chosen to move on to the next step! There are four steps in this process: 1) attend the seminar, 2) get invited to a practicum, 3) to be selected as a student teacher for a semester, and 4) to be chosen as a full-time seminary teacher.
I will be teaching my “practicum” in about two weeks—an opportunity to teach an actual seminary class over two class periods. Based on how I do in the practicum, they will hopefully choose me as a student teacher for Winter Semester 2025 in January.
As I was sitting in the seminar—the official name of the seminary is Religion 471—it was interesting to realize that exactly 30 years ago this week I started my original pursuit to teach seminary…in the Religion 371 and 471 classes!
Miller girls on the beach