Baptism!

Crazy busy week this week!

We weren't home very much this week or out proselyting very much this week.

We had a big world wide mission meeting on Wednesday. That took a few hours and the church put out a whole bunch of new rules and announcements regarding missionaries. All good things though. For example We get to go to bed at 9:30 now and no planning for the next day at night. That happens in the morning. Or on P-day there are no studies... P day starts at 8.

After that meeting Sister Garner and I went to Mount Pleasant (50 minutes away) and had trade offs with some other Sister's there. It was lots of fun and I learned a lot. We were supposed to have 2 lessons there but both of them fell through. We did get to go to CMU campus and find people there which was a new experience and I kind of liked it. Definitely weird talking to people my age the whole time but it was good. (They also have a good PA program there :))

Saturday we had the baptism for ROBIN~! I was very happy about this. The night before though she texted us and said Addy, her 3 year old, had been throwing up. That made us a little nervous but then she said she was going to just find a babysitter or hope she feels better by the morning. Thank goodness she felt better in the morning. The baptism went really well. I made some cookies for everyone after the baptism  and a few other people brought treats. Everything went really smoothly, even President complimented me on it. That was great! He doesn't compliment very often. There were two speakers that talked about the Holy Ghost and Baptism. The spirit was so wonderful. We also had a couple of our investigators there as well.

One investigator, Anesha, she has decided she wants to be baptized. We have her on date for baptism on Feb. 25th. We had been talking a little bit about baptism with her and she bore this beautiful testimony about Jesus Christ, the sacrament and how she wants to be better. As we kept talking I felt she needed to be invited on a specific date. So I asked and she said yes she does want to do it. I loved it!

The work is moving along so great right now. Slow and steady wins the race, is the motto I live by. I know that our Heavenly Father wants each one of us to draw closer to him. It takes time though. It isn't being converted over night but throughout your life. My District leader always asks me the question, "What is Success?".As I think about this question, I never come up with an answer because I feel like Success is an end point. It isn't a continuation or progression. Which to me is what we are supposed to be doing throughout life. Being successful at anything is a result and as we live life we  want to move forward and keep progressing.

I love you all, I pray for you all each and every day. I know that the Lord is with each and everyone of you and as you continue to put your trust in him he will guide and direct you through the spirit. Keep being so wonderful!

Love Sister Milar

P.S. Today I got the first stitches of my life! Ridiculous I know. I had this huge wart on my foot. Between my 2nd and 3rd toes. It has been there since September and been hurting me. SO finally we went over today. I told the Doc that I have had warts previously. He said well I can burn it or cut it. I said cut it. So he numbed me up and dug it!! I wish I could've watched the whole thing but I had to lay on my stomach. My poor companion got so queasy.. she hates anything medical and I thrive with it! Hahah  Anyway. I have 4 stitches.

How exciting! I am supposed to go back in 10 days to get them removed but I doubt that will happen :)

Small and Simple things

"Small and Simple things bring about great things."
Man do I love that verse. IT is so true though and let me tell you why.
This week has been crazy.

It started out very, very busy, as we are having a lot of lessons and we don't have a car. So we have been very on top of the game, organizing and planning our schedule down to a T.

One night as we were walking home , it was dark and there was a man that was approaching. I decide to stop and talk to him. My companion wasn't about to because it was dark and he is this big man walking down the street. Anyway, we chatted with him, his name is Todd or Brother Harris as he continued to say and he is from Mississippi. He lives in the apartments just down from us. He is wanting to get back to church and change his life. We told him we have a message about how he can draw closer to Jesus Christ and our Father in Heaven. We were able to exchange numbers with him and told him we would give him a call to set up an appointment.

Long story short, about an hour later our phone rings. We didn't have the number so we answered it and guess who? TODD! He was calling to make sure we gave him the correct number, we laughed and said well when can we come share a message about Jesus Christ with you? He said, well how about right now! We told him we couldn't, but what about tomorrow night (Saturday)? So we had it all set up. He called us later again to make sure we got home safe. Such a sweet man.

The next day we go to his house and our friend Jackie came with us. We opened with a prayer, which he volunteered to say. As he was praying, he prayed that he could continue to be sober and that he had done so good as he had been sober for 12 days.:) The lesson actually went really well, he loves to talk. We invited him to church and told him it was 3 hours and yet he was so excited. We were afraid he would back out but he didn't. He came and LOVED IT! After church we asked him what his favorite part was and he said the "men's group" meaning priesthood.  He wants to come back every week. We are so excited for him. We have a lesson again with him tonight and hope all goes well.

We are also so excited for our baptism this weekend! Robin is going to get baptized :) We just love her so much. She is from Michigan and is a twin about 23. She has been taking lesson's for many years now and is finally wanting to move forward and get baptized. We know this is the hardest week for investigators. The devil works extremely hard to push them away, but we know that she is strong enough. So please keep her in your prayers!

Overall, it has been a great week. I love being here in Midland and teaching so many wonderful individuals about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know the message of the Restored Gospel is the truth and that we draw nearer to our Heavenly Father everyday as we continue to study his word and share the message with others.

One last thought, as a missionary we get rejected all day everyday but as Sister Garner and I were discussing this week so many of these individuals will one day remember those two sisters that shared a message with them on their doorstep and it was then that their conversion began. Slowly but surely.  In life we are all rejected and pushed away by others but the small things that you do for them or say to them are the things that really count and the things they will remember in the future and the life to come.

I love you all and hope you are enjoying the snow!

Love Always and Forever

Sister Milar

"By small and simple things, great things are brought to pass."

4 Transfers in Midland

Good day one and all!

I have been in Midland for 4 transfers and 5 months now. It is crazy that the time has just flown by! Now with the Elders not in the first ward, Sister Garner and I have been incredibly busy!

We have had some awesome lessons this past week.

One random funny story. So one of our investigators. Wendy, had just picked us up for our lesson as we did not have a car and we were going over to the church. As we were driving she said oh no... and pulled off into the middle lane. The car had turned off. Well I said get out let's hurry and push before the traffic comes. So we jump out and push the car for her. We call a member from our ward and pray that she just ran out of gas. The gas came and we put it in.. YES! She just ran out of gas, her gas gauge doesn't work and so she had just been calculating the miles and thought she had more gas than she did. As we stopped at the gas station to get gas she got out of the car and my companion and I both said, we don't feel good about teaching her what we had planned. So we went into the lesson having no idea what to teach. Slowly as the lesson continued. The spirit was so strong. She then told us she had met with missionaries about 20 years prior. They acted like they worshiped Joseph Smith and she wasn't interested. She see's now that we don't worship him. The spirit led the whole conversation. At the end we read Moroni 10 and gave the account of Joseph Smith. We asked if she would pray to know of the truthfulness and she said that she knows it all to be true. That the spirit testified it to her and she knows it is true with out a doubt in her mind.

We also had another lesson with a couple with the last name Wilky. They also told us that they want to be baptized and know that the church is true. They are wanting to go over all the lesson's though. We had a good discussion with them. Sister Garner is an amazing missionary. I have learned so much from her and it has only been 2 weeks. I keep praying that I can serve with her a bit longer.

Robin is another awesome investigator we have. She is on baptismal date for January 28th. We taught her last night at the Jaime's home. We talked more about her baptism. She said she is a bit nervous because she doesn't love groups of people and being the center of attention but that she still is very excited and knows that it is the right thing for her to be doing. Please pray for her to not have any doubts and to keep going with what she has found to be true.

Lastly, we took a less active member to the temple for the first time. His name is Sean. He is just the best. He hasn't been involved in the church for about 25 years. Since he was just a kid. He got into a lot of things that he shouldn't have. He wanted to change though. For the past few months he has been working hard to make it to the temple and becoming active again. We found family names for him to be baptized for at the temple. His experience was amazing. He is so cute. He just cried and cried and felt his family all around him.

I am so grateful that I have had the opportunity to serve here in Midland. I love the people here so very much. I know that I am supposed to be here serving the Lord. What a blessing the gospel is. I have seen it work in so many various ways. To know that everything is made possible through  Atonement of Jesus Christ is absolutely amazing. I LOVE IT SO VERY MUCH!

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic day! Keep being so wonderful :)

Love Sister Milar

New Week... This week has been crazy busy!

Monday January 9, 2017

This week has been crazy busy!

Starting off, we taught 20 lessons. We went from lesson to lesson, which honestly was really nice because it has been so freezing cold here. I feel like it never got above 10 degrees. Having the Elders gone has put a lot of stress on my shoulders but everything is working out!

We have been able to get into contact with most of their investigators. They have some really solid investigators as well which has been really nice. One of the families that we are now teaching are moving forward great. They have a baptismal date of March 3. They are progressing really nicely. We are hoping that we can move that date sooner. Which would be really nice especially because they are ready. One of the girls in their family Debra (12), she has bible study with her stuffed animals each day. She is so ready. Then on Sunday Jeanna (9) was the only one that was able to come to church because the mom threw out her back and Debra was home sick. So Jeanna came to church all by her self and loved it.

We also have been teaching a lady named Robin. She took the lessons in Bay City for awhile (about 1hr north). She reached out to a family in the Bay city ward who has family in the Midland ward so she could come to church. When she came to church for the first time She reached out to us and asked if we could meet with her again. We put her on date to be baptized on January 28th. She said she thinks she will be ready for that. She wasn't baptized before because she was living with her

boyfriend and they weren't married yet. Well they broke up and now she is ready to move forward.

My new companion is Sister Garner! She is adorable. She is from Bountiful, UT She plays the Harp, Her mother is actually the Harpist for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Before her mission she went to USU and started to double major in  Art therapy and music. She is really great. She came out just the transfer before me. I am so grateful for such a wonderful missionary to work with.

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful week. I love all of you!!

Thank you for all of your support out here!

Love Sister Milar

Transfer Week Again...

December 31, 2016

Everyone drum roll please!
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 I am staying in Midland! YAY!!! My companion is leaving and going to Battle Creek. My new companion we think is named Sister Gardner or Garner. We don't know much about her though. Then more crazy news...

The Elders in the Midland 1st ward, so the elders that I serve with, Elder Thompson and Elder Strauss, are closing their area.  MINDS BLOWN!!  We thought they were lying to us when they told us, but nope they aren't. So yesterday I sat down with them for a couple hours and got the lowdown on everyone. Starting Monday, I will be meeting with 23 investigators weekly. Hopefully there will be some awesome baptisms. We will be teaching a ton!  I now will be serving in Midland, Hope, Sanford, Beaverton and Coleman. 

We believe this is happening because a lot of people have been leaving the mission and not tons of people have been coming out.

We had an early new years party at the church which was tons of fun, We were able to get some investigators to that party which was just wonderful.
Sorry the email is so short this week.
I love you all.
Have a happy new year!!

Love SIster Milar

Happy Day ~

Monday Dec 26, 2016

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! I sure did, the Midland 1st ward is the best! They are just so very kind and loving :) We went over to the Flint's house Christmas Eve, Sister Flint made a delicious dinner. I ate fresh artichokes, which was the weirdest thing but they were delicious! I encourage everyone to try some! We had a lot of good laughs at their house and then a spiritual nativity thing with them.

Christmas we went over to the Nanny's house for breakfast, they had cute stockings for us and let us open those at their house! Then we went to church, a lot of  beautiful songs were sung and the spirit was all great! Then we just hung out at the church for about an hour and went over to the Southwicks home, and played with the kids! Then went to the Brodericks to call home.

Earlier in the week we were able to go to the temple too! It was so fantastic! Sister Flint took us and we enjoyed every minute of it.

Our investigators are doing alright, many are struggling to come to church. They back out or something comes up at the last minute. It would be awesome if you all prayed for them! (Julia, Nicki, Robert, Linda, Robin and Karen.) They are all being very receptive and most know that the church is true. For example, we just need Julia to come to church twice and she can get baptized!

The work is moving along, slowly but surely! Here are some great pictures from this last week!

I hope all is going well for everyone :)

I love all of you so very much, Thank you for all the love and support you show me.

Love Sister Milar

Top row. Me Jenny, Josh, E. Thompson, E. Strauss, Bro-in-law, Sister of Sister Flint (Michelle),

Bottom row, Caleb (15), Jojo, S. Heugly, Summer, Logan, Lucy

E Thompson, E. Strauss,  S. Heugly, me, Bro and Sis. Nanney and Eiliah.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Monday December 19, 2016

MERRY CHRISTMAS One and all!!

Happy day, I love the Christmas season :)

This week was kind of a crazy week. We had trade offs so I took control here in Midland. We had some awesome appointments with our investigators. Julia is progressing very nicely, She has had all the lessons. Now we are just waiting for her to come to church.. Nicki is progressing very slowly but she is progressing. They were some great lessons though!

We had a ward Christmas party. I made all the center pieces and we pretty much did everything. IT was not nearly as organized as mothers parties. It turned out alright though. We made about ummm 600 or so pancakes and they did a breakfast for dinner. We were able to get a few less actives there so that was nice.. 

At church Sister Jaime, a member of our ward told us that she was told someone just moved here from Bay City and they were investigating. To look out for her and talk to her. So we did. She is great! Her name is Robin and has a 3 year old named Addy. They came to gospel doctrine and things were great. She seems pretty great so I guess we got a new investigator!

Well Christmas is Sunday!! Merry CHRISTMAS TO ALL!! Thank you to everyone who has sent me packages! You are so fantastic :) I haven't opened any yet but I am so excited to!!  I hope you have just a very Happy day and I can't wait to talk to one and all. As for our plans, we are going to a families house for breakfast, the Nanney's. Then church is at 10 am. (8 am at home) Then I will probably call home around 4 here so 2 at home and then dinner at the Southwicks home!~ This week will be just great, we are having a mission Christmas party and then I get to go do a session at the temple in Detroit! Then Christmas Eve we get to go to the Flints! All in all it should be pretty great! 

I love and Miss you all! 

Love Sister Milar!

Snowflakes Falling all over Michigan!

Monday December 12, 2016

On Monday, December 12, 2016, 8:38 AM, Paige Marie Milar <paige.milar@myldsmail.net> wrote:
Wow! Yesterday and last night it just dumped snow! We have about 2 feet of snow.. Did I mention I HATE SNOW! haha  It looks nice and pretty don't get me wrong, but it is miserable to walk in and just be in. Today school was cancelled for all of Midland. To me that seems a bit strange as the roads were all cleared this

morning and that school is rarely cancelled in Utah. However, most kids were quite happy about it as you can imagine.

This week there were some fun things that happened. We have been reaching out to a lot of less actives lately. This past week we were able to visit with 9 different less actives and their families. With one of them, her name is Jackie, We got to go visit Santa at his house and get a picture with him as well as see his reindeer and go on a train ride. It was a lot of fun! She has been coming back to church slowly, we had her bring another lady to the Christmas devotional last week an

d so she was able to attend. It all worked out very nicely!

We have also been reaching out to a couple families that are struggling a lot. One family is the Hess family. Oh how we love them! They have two little kids, Ella and Drake and they just love us. We try to stop by and see them at least once a week. This week they fed us Café Rio for dinner and it was delicious! Then we made some gingerbread houses with them, Drake was my partner and we made an awesome house. I think his favorite part was checking to make sure the candy wasn't poisonous. Yes, I taught them that they have to taste everything to make sure it isn't poisonous. They thought it was great! They are originally from Idaho and Utah. Jeanna, the mother, her little sister is going to Utah state and we were talking with her and she knows Sarah Jane really well, they were in the same major there. That was fun, she listed off people she knows that went to Bingham and we had a few connections.

We did some good finding this week, we knocked into this old couple. They let us right in. My goodness, my mind was blown. They are so artsy fartsy!! He does everything with wood and it is incredible. Then she paints everything and does stitching. Their whole house was decorated with it... I thought the most incredible thing was this Noah's Ark that he made out of wood. It was awesome.

The lady, Karen, we went to the funeral with came to church yesterday! We were so very happy about that. She enjoyed it and we have another appointment with her this week. Our investigators are slowly progressing, but at least we know that they are gaining a testimony before they just get baptized. We are trying to help them understand things and to learn line upon line.

The work here is moving along very nicely. We had interviews with President on Friday. He was so chatty that they took almost 3 hours and then we had district meeting after. So we were at the church most of the day. He pretty much told me I would need to make sure I know the area very well... so we will see what that means but I think that means I will be staying next transfer.. We will find out on December 30th.

Two weeks and I get to call home! I can't wait to talk to one and all!! I love you all so much and hope you have an amazing week.

Good luck to everyone with finals! YOU CAN DO IT!

Love Sister Milar

Such a wonderful Feast this week...

November 21, 2016

 I hope that all of you enjoy such a wonderful Feast this week. I know that it will just be fantastic and then you enjoy setting up Christmas trees! Anyone going black Friday shopping?!  Just remember or try to not get trampled on.

Transfers were this week and thank goodness I am safe!

I am still with sister Heugly and in Midland. We will be here until at least the 31st of December!

So we will spend Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years together. Actually out of our whole zone only 4 people got transferred and one of those four went home! Next transfer will probably be crazy!

This week has been great. We actually put two people on baptismal date for December 17th! Julia is the first, she is in her late 20's. Just got married in May and has a little baby boy. He is half black and just so adorable! He is about 6 months old and is nothing but smiles :) She is awesome. We door knocked into her about 2 weeks ago and she let us right in! We have had 2 lessons with her and have another one with her tomorrow. She has read in the Book of Mormon without even us asking her to. She is super solid.

The other investigator is Robert. He is 59 and black! He has permanent crutches and is just very optimistic. Has 3 girls and just enjoys life. He has been through a lot in life and has seen many, many miracles. We are excited for him as well.

For district Pday this last week we went bowling and it was tons of fun! WE had a good competition and just messed around. After bowling the Elders decided that we needed to learn how to play Pokemon. How pathetic, so we played! Yes, I know what you are all think "are you serious" and I am completely serious. It reminds me a lot of dominion. It is very much strategy. It was actually fun and I can say that I did win hahah.

Thanksgiving my plans are to go to a members home. We told her we would come over and help so that is the plan. Dinner will be at 5:30 here so about 3:30 at home. We will probably just hang out with their three girls and the Elders at their house, play games etc. President made it an all day Pday so that will be fun. We can go shopping or do whatever we'd like!

This week there was a huge moon!

Love Sister Milar

Transfer Week

Monday November 14, 2016

Well we got notified that transfer calls are on Tuesday and Transfer day is Wednesday this week because of Thanksgiving! I imagine I will stay here in Midland, however, my companion thinks that she will be leaving here. Also, a big joke going around my district is that I will train. I am officially done being trained though! Time flies by. I just can't wait to see what happens!

This week has been a crazy week.

The most exciting story of the week, I will try my best to make it make since haha but if you know me and my story telling abilities...

We have been planning to go to the temple with our recent converts here in Midland for the past few weeks. Our ward had organized it and made it possible for all of us to go. The credentials for missionaries to be able to go to the temple is if we can find a ride and if they have family names we can do.

So our recent convert Fred, we got him his names about a month ago. Shania is the elders recent convert however is from Guyana and they are really good at procrastinating.

We get a call on Friday from the Elders. They sound so upset and disappointed and said that they had a name for Shania to go do at the temple but since they hadn't been born past 110 years she had to request permission. I had a really strong impression though that we needed to keep searching and we would call a member of our ward and she would help us search.

Fred, Sister Heugly, Me, Sister Osmond

We came to the family history center and searched for 3 hours. We got no where. We went home and the Elders came back later that night and tried again. They called us and said that there was no way they were going. Well we told them tomorrow morning before the baptism (Sister's in the 2nd ward had a baptism that we attended)  we would come and search again.

We did just that and again got no where. We kept praying for a miracle. The hardest part is that her family knows nothing about their family history so it honestly is just searching. So after the baptism we ran and got lunch and came back. We walked in the room and Elder Thompson runs over and says I found her line!! He looked and me and said can you plug the names in and see if we can get the cards to go do baptisms. So I did just that. 20 minutes till we are about to leave for the temple we found her 4 names. We called her and she was so happy!

The temple was an amazing experience. They were both so very happy to attend. That experience really built my testimony on prayer, faith and diligence. That even when everyone else may give up to just keep pushing forward. The elders had given up. If I didn't feel like we had to keep working it wouldn't have worked out but because of our faith, prayer and diligence it was made possible.

God wants each of us to go to the temple and to always turn to him. I pray that each of you can find those experiences in your life because they are amazing!

I love you all!!
Love Sister Milar

Happy Thanksgiving!

Monday November 28, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Here in Michigan, I went and hung out with the district in the morning. We went to a grocery store and played a game. The Game: We had to take pictures with something of the alphabet and do it with every letter in order. It was a good time. We then bought my favorite.... Sparkling Cider and drank that!

We went over to the Hill's home for dinner. It was lots of fun, they have twin daughters and a younger daughter as well. We played games with them and then ate dinner, which was delicious but not as wonderful as mothers! After dinner we went to the Southwicks home. They are the best, we played a very rigged game of apples to apples.. it was lots of fun, children are very persuasive and do whatever you like them to do. hahah They also love the missionaries and we enjoyed our time with them. They are originally from Utah and Las Vegas so this is their first time here in Michigan.

We also have picked up another investigator. She is going through a really hard time right now and has been trying to watch uplifting videos, when we knocked into her she almost started to cry. We talked to her and told her we were going to come back and rake her yard for her. She felt bad but was so grateful for it. Some members in our ward showed up and helped as well. It was awesome! She is going to be a wonderful investigator.

This week we have met with some solid investigators though, We are excited to keep teaching them. Hopefully we will have two baptisms on the 17th of December. Can you believe it is almost already December!! Where has the time gone!?

This past week really hasn't been too exciting. I am sorry this is such a short email. I don't know what else to say.

I am so excited for all the Babies though!! Congrats to everyone!!!

The snow isn't as bad as it is in Utah yet... knock on wood... It was snowing though and it looked really pretty.. Not so much fun to walk in though. Hopefully, it will just be a mild winter this year!!

Party hard everyone I hope you have a wonderful week!!

Love Sister Milar

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Monday October 31, 2016

Happy Halloween to one and all!

Today is an all day P- day for us in the Michigan Lansing Mission because it is Halloween. How fun is that?! The plan is we are going to a members home and we are going to pass out candies to the trick-or-treaters and maybe watch Ephraim's Rescue. We aren't sure but we know we are passing out candy!

This week it freaking snowed. Yes, you read that right SNOW! I hate snow. It is wet and cold and miserable and we are on foot right now so it is even more terrible! We were able to pick up 5 new investigators this week.

One lady we met last week, the lady we took the groceries in for, let us have dinner with her. She let me make the mashed potatoes which I loved because they actually kind of tasted like moms! Everyone thought they were just delicious. So I guess that is good. We talked to her about the Restoration. She enjoyed the lesson and loves us. We will see how it will go. She has a injured knee so she isn't able to get around too well.

Nothing too exciting happened this week. We did service for a couple of people and raked their leaves. One lady who is 86 year old was out raking the night before and we told her that we are going to come tomorrow and rake for her. So we went over the next day and didn't answer so we just started to rake. After a few minutes, she comes out and says what are you doing?! We said we told you that we were going to rake your leaves. She said she just wanted us to forget about it and come inside and talk. We told her that we were going to rake for a few more minutes.. so about 20 minutes later she comes out and says okay you are done! We said 5 more minutes. Then she came out again and was like come inside now. So we said fine. Then she just talked and talked. We had a dinner appointment soon so we couldn't talk very long. I was looking at her Hummels she had hundreds of them. She asked if I wanted one and I said no. Then she reached in and said here these are for you two. I am old am going to die soon and I just need to get rid of things. I hand them out to everyone. She was really cute!

Sorry this weeks letter is so short! I hope all is doing well. I love you all!

Love Sister Milar

Fall is here....

Monday October 17, 2016

Fall is here and it is getting very, very cold! This whole week we haven't gotten above about 50 degrees. Which in the morning is about 39 degrees. Leaves are falling everywhere. They love to stick to everything because unlike Utah everything is so wet here, the leaves don't crunch at all.

Not to many exciting things have happened this week. Starting off though we were door knocking and a couple was out walking their dog, we stopped and talked to them and then they invited us to have coffee at their house. We told them we don't drink coffee but we would love to go and discuss more about our beliefs. He proceeded to tell us that he just got his PhD in Pastor things. So we thought BIBLE BASH! When we went to the lesson the next day we had invited a member to come with us and she texted us as we were walking over to the house and said, sorry I forgot I don't have a car! Uhhh we were like okay well here goes. Surprisingly they didn't even try to bible bash at all, the conversation went really well. The last question he asked us was about Kolob haha That somehow is the question that everyone has about our church and what it is.

A lot of questions people keep asking me.  My apartment it is only Sister Heugly and I the elders live about 1/8 of a mile away from us. We are assigned to one ward, the Midland 1st ward as well as those Elders. Our ward has large boundaries though over 40 miles that it covers. No I never get to cook because the Members feed us about every night, They send out a sign up to feed us each week. I love/ hate it. I love it because it is nice to have food ready and get to know more people. Hate it because well you never know how sanitary things will be....

For example last night I started to gag because at the end of dinner the lady gave her dog her plate to lick clean. They wash it after but still. My mouth and the dogs mouth on the same thing!! EWWW Or when the people tell you that they have no taste buds and you can taste it in the food. Sometimes though the food is good, as long as you go to normal peoples houses.

The new Elder, Elder Thompson is a stud. He is now companions with Elder Strauss, Everyone will love this. He is planning on being Kicker for BYU when he gets home this year from his mission. They did the nicest thing for us though. We had done service at a breast cancer awareness run and after went home to do studies. We got a quick knock on the door and that only means one thing.. the elders. We open the door and hand us a cake! They ran away as they said sorry we have a lesson right now but we made a cake for you!

All is going well in Michigan and I love to hear from everyone! I love you all so very much!

Love Sister Milar

Packages

Also, bad news bunnies. My packages have been getting stolen lately. So I talked to a member in my ward and she said we could send the packages to her house. Just put her last name on the package so the mail knows that it really does belong at her house.

The last name or her full name is Carolynn Southwick.
The address is 6105 Summerset Dr. Midland MI, 48640

I love you all!

Love Sister Milar

5 Weeks

Monday September 26, 2016

I can't believe I have been out here in Michigan for 5 Weeks!! Time has flown by! I had tradeoffs this past week with sister Sanderagger. She is super cute and nice. We were able to go to about 5 lessons together... We dropped every single one of them. It was a week of dropping. It sucks to have to drop so many people but when they aren't willing to do the things we ask then they aren't progressing. We kept two of our investigators and picked up another one on Sunday. Suzanne one of our investigators called us Thursday night and said that her family wasn't too excited about her meeting with us. We asked her if we could have one more lesson and she said of course!

We had that lesson with her the next day and talked about what was going on. She said she wanted to keep meeting with us and was so happy that we were able to come by. She wasn't able to come to church yesterday because she was home sick. We are going to invite her to watch conference with us though!

We also had a ward party today, It was at a families farm up the road a little bit. It was super nice and fun. They had soups and hay rides, you could ride horses play football etc. We went around talking to people and just made friends with ward members. I am trying so hard to remember everyone!!

The missionaries of the Midland 2nd ward also put on a BBQ for less actives and member and Investigators. The point was to meet new people. Also, we have a missionary from Samoa so he wanted to use his family's recipe for chicken. It turned out great. I met a couple of families that weren't members and they were very loving and kind. Very open to learn more about the gospel. Too bad they are in the other area...

Women's conference was amazing! I hope everyone get the opportunity to read it. Something that stood out to me was when they started talking about how many area's of the gospel are just left out of the teachings now. Don't be afraid to talk to your kids about marriage is between a man and a wife or that we have standards that we are commanded to live by.

I love you so very much!

Sorry that it is so short this week but I hope all is doing well! I love you to pieces :) Remember God is on our side and he wants us to be successful in all that we do. Be strong and of great courage!!

Love Sister Milar

Ola

Monday September 19, 2016

Good day everyone!

Bay City was so much fun. We went to the beach and there were probably 35 to 40 missionaries there as well as a senior couple. That was a good time. The highlight was probably teaching Elder Fiame how to do a cartwheel. Honestly, It was hilarious. He is a big Poly and just is so kind and loving. He reminds me of a big teddy bear.  He was so hesitant but he told us he stunted in high school because they needed someone who could actually lift the girls. He was doing leaps and jumps but said he has never tried a cartwheel. We just played games, built sand castles, volleyball, football etc. I loved going and seeing the water and all the views. They have tons of Salmon in the lakes, which I didn't even know about!

We put three of our investigators on date this week for baptism. Azon and Andrew (Oct 22) Suzanne (Nov. 5). It was so wonderful Suzanne came to church. She wrote down a lot of her questions. Amazing experience with her was we had a member lesson with her and they talked about all the people she knows and knew that were members. She was so inspired by it and said well they all encouraged me to go to church with them and see for myself. So she finally did just that. She had a lot of ah ha moments at church and was able to ask me a lot of wonderful questions. We will be inviting her to a couple of our ward activities this week, we have a devotional and a ward fall party and then the women conference. Azon came to a baptism that we had for a girl named Shanina on Saturday. Shania was an investigator that our elders were teaching. I will send a picture with her. Azon was meeting a lot of new people at the baptism and was able to hear and learn so much from the spirit. He was given the B.O.M. last week and is already in Jacob, he is doing really well. He is also telling us that he reads and has questions and as he continues to read he finds more answers in the book. He was also quoting scripture to us which was amazing. They are all progressing~! Right now we have 7 progressing investigators so we are teaching a lot of lessons all the time right now.  There is a man named Josh that loves to talk deep doctrine all the time. He is one of our tougher investigators because he likes to know all the deep details which makes it difficult to even teach him.

We had a cool experience this past week. We had a lesson on the front porch! We taught her the restoration after she was telling her who we were and she was telling us how she appreciates what we do and would love to keep talking. She was so willing to listen and learn. We have been able to learn about more religions also. We had a Baptist preacher that took us into his home and we all talked him and his wife. They talked about what they believe and then we shared what our beliefs are and we hopefully will return back there and share more. They were very open to what we had to say. They were very willing to listen. There are so many wonderful people here and most all people believe in God. There are some atheists but mostly Baptist, Methodist, Protestant. A lot are very stuck in their ways. We actually had a Greek Orthodox stop us the other day and shared his experience with Mormons. he said he appreciates us so very much and has so much respect for us. We loved it!

Funny things we did this week, we pranked the Elders a couple times for example we saran wrapped their car before we had district meeting, today they got back at us and put crickets in our shoes and honey on our car handles haha I don't think we should do anything back to them because it will probably bite us in the butt. My comp. is wanting to do something though so we will see. Another joke we did was when We did service at a non members house and one of the sisters climbed in the box and when they went to pick it up they jumped out and scared them. It was hilarious, they were pretty mad about that one too.  All missionaries like to make other missionaries do things like backing cars up. So there is a picture where the elders pulled so close to the other car that yes they were touching. They also decided to buy a bowling ball and pins and we went pulling in the parking lot.

I love you all and hope everything is going well. Thank you so very much for all the letters. It has been wonderful reading about everything that is going on.

You are all in my prayers. keep being so wonderful!

Love Sister Milar

Howdy from Michigan

September 12, 2016

Michigan is beautiful! I love it here so much, I can't believe I have already been out for a month. It is crazy that time flies by that fast. This week has been pretty great. Here are a couple of this weeks highlights.

1. We picked up four new investigators this week! That is pretty crazy, we turn in a paper to the ward each Sunday and this week it didn't fit all on one sheet. A couple of cool stories, the first is about an investigator named Azon, he is a black man who lives by us. We had been wanting to meet with him. When he did he was so inspiring and so interested. He was pretty much bearing his testimony to us instead of us doing it. He wanted to read the BOM and was so excited to do so when we invited him to do that. His grandson was in the hospital last week so he wasn't able to make it to church yesterday but we are hoping this next week. Roz is another investigator, we knocked her door in hopes of talking to her daughter. My companion told me that she is just an old lady (88) who likes to talk a lot but isn't interested. We started talking to her and I decided to start talking a little bit about church. After our discussion she started reading the BOM and is very excited to learn more. Anyway, it has been a wonderful week for investigators. They all have return appointments this next week.

2. We had to get new tires on our car.. they were so, so bald and just not good for this winter season that is arriving very quickly, our colors on the trees are slowly turning to fall and it is so beautiful. We took it over and decided that we would just go walk around while they did it. After we were supposed to call the church offices to have them pay but no one would answer. We called about 10 times and left messages on the personal phones... So good thing I have my own personal card and was able to pay and keep the receipt so that I could get reimbursed. They finally called us back about 2 hours later! It was terrible but I am just grateful that I didn't have to sit there that whole entire time.

3. It was my companions 1 year birthday this week! We celebrated and went and got ice cream with another 1 year old birthday! We also were able to go to Olive garden with everyone in celebration. There is one right by us here in Midland. I am slowly getting oriented with everything here but it is so hard because it is just all very poorly organized. Streets are just all over the place. I can't believe it is taking me so long to be able to get around, I usually am so good with directions. My companion and I just laugh when we get lost or just randomly door knock into members... that happened once this week but it turned out really good because she is a less active and just needed people to talk to.

4. District meeting each week is also so great. My companion always draws little pictures of all the

missionaries and labels them as things. This week was Disney, I was put as tinker bell. I am not sure why... but we put one of the elders as Ken Barbie off of toy story. It was hilarious. After lunch  We were able to go do service for a place like the DI. we helped tag and hang up clothes. It was a lot of fun but I found a Ken Barbie doll there and tried to get the elder to take a picture with it but he was way too embarrassed. So instead when it started down pouring we got a picture of him traipsing through the rain acting like Ken... I don't know if that even made since, usually my stories are much longer. It is so hard to keep them short haha

Today I am so excited, we are going to a city call Bay City, it is right by the beach. I LOVE WATER! Even if I can't swim in it, I am hoping to see some beautiful things. I will hopefully tell you all about it next week. I love hearing from everyone. It is honestly a real treat. Keep being such wonderful people and examples to others. That is something that I have learned while being here in Midland. Is that being an example is by far the best thing you can do to bring others closer to Christ, reaching out to others and just being their friends. It is something that we encourage our members to do here because it allows the missionaries to be invited in more easily.

Anyway, I love you all so very much. Thank you for all the support. I hope all is going well back at home. Let me know if there is anything that I can do for you! Keep being wonderful friends and examples!

I will explain a few of the pictures. The one with the door, well turns out that there was no way to open that door. We were so confused but it had a doorbell so we rang it... No one answered haha  Then these animals were also put up in someone's front yard. They were really cute, all made from metal! The drawing of hand foot and mouth. I diagnosed one of the Elders with Hand foot and mouth. I have never seen it on a 19 year old but it is what it is... He was miserable for a full week and so we wrote him this picture get well card... haha don't mind my artistic abilities.  oh and HAPPY LABOR DAY! :)

Love Sister Milar​

WELCOME TO MICHIGAN

Monday September 5, 2016

Hello to one and all! Well I am officially in Michigan and I absolutely love it! Some fun facts for everyone. I am currently in Midland Michigan. It is about 1.5 hours out of Lansing. Couple of fun facts, there are squirrels and chipmunks EVERYWHERE! When I say everywhere I mean every morning When i look out the window there are probably 30 running around on the grass. Some are brown, black, grey yellow etc. They are pretty cute though. There are also all sorts of colorful birds and Danny's favorite... BUNNIES! Yes I think they are just the cutest :)

My companions name is Sister Heugly (Huge ley is how you say it) She is from West Jordan. She has been out for about a year now. She has been a wonderful trainer. We get a long just great. She is half black and just spunky. She has taught me so much so far! I can't believe I have only been here for about 5 days. It feels so normal to be here. I know that she is the best trainer that I could have. This week has kind of been a crazy week. Mostly because it has been very atypical fro the first week. When I got here I slept the first night at President and Sister Jacobsen's house. They are so kind and loving. They will be leaving here next summer sadly. Then we got our trainers the next day and drove down. That first day we were able to go door knocking. We talked to a lady named Barbara. She was telling us about some of the Crisis's she had been going through and she said I just wish that God would put the answer on the front door step. And then we said well what about us? She thought about it and said ya maybe. She is out of town this week but we are going to go over and talk to her next week. Another quick comment about Michigan. EVERYONE is pretty much religious. There is a different church on every block, a lot of Methodists too.

On my first day here I was able to go the Detroit temple. We got special permission to go because my companion one of her recent converts was going for the first time in her last area and he wanted her to go and do baptisms for the dead for his sister. She died when she was eight from leukemia. So we went down there and spent mostly all day there! It was so amazing!! The spirit when we went was so so strong. I honestly felt like his sister was standing right in the room and I am sure she was. IT was also really cool because it was a very diverse room. People were baptized in Spanish, English and Chinese. It was so fantastic.

 

We have found a lot of potential investigators. This next week will be pretty crazy. We have at least 2 appointments every single day. We also taught a Less active named Matt Brown this week He is about 23 and just really has no ambition to do anything with himself. Lives with his parents, doesn't have a license or a job just doesn't know what his purpose is. Hopefully we can help him out.

One of our appointments on Sunday was pretty cool, we went to this place called the tridge. It is a triple BRIDGE! If you know me I love bridges so this was especially exciting. As we were going to find our investigator a man stopped us and we stopped and talked to him. His name is Ron. He has recently lost his home and started going to a new church. We offered to talk to him later in the week. Hopefully he shows up. It is scheduled for Tuesday! Last night I went door knocking again. I had two really amazing experiences. The first was when I handed a lady a Book of Mormon. She is from India and told us that she loves literature. I gave it to her and she was very interested and said she would read it. She is leaving back to India at the end of the week though but at least she got a copy. I also found a girl who is Japanese. She was at her parents house for the weekend, oh happy labor day everyone! She said she wasn't religious and we asked why, long story short she just said she felt that she couldn't relate to much of anything they said. I told her how General Conference is coming up and we talked a lot about that. She is going to watch it, when she goes back home. We plant a lot of seeds here which is a lot of fun!

I am going to send lots of pictures this week. I hope all can get them and open them! I love the people of Michigan. It is such a beautiful place here. The weather is cooling down but it is still very nice. God loves each and everyone of you! Keep being so wonderful. I pray for each and everyone of you everyday! (We pray a lot haha) I hope all is going well. I will be better at emailing. I now have an hour and a half to email which is wonderful. More time to get it done. 

My address for those who would like to know is:
4907 Universal Dr. Apt. 4, Midland, Michigan 48640

LOVE YOU ALL!
Love Sister Milar

Good Day to One and All

August 24, 2016

Good day to one and all!

I only have one more week here at the MTC crazy! I can't wait to get to Michigan, I love to go to new places and I think it will be so amazing. 

I forgot to tell you all the funniest things that have happened. The first is when we were at a welcome orientation the first week we came we were talking about dress and grooming. This girl raised her hand to ask a question her question was, "Do we have to shave" uhhh I lost it right there. She continued on to say that she couldn't find anything in the rules about having to shave so she was wondering if she had too. I was crying from laughing so hard. She was from America, and no way was it part of her culture. Anyway, just in case you're wondering I can talk to my mission president to see if it is okay if i don't shave!! Also, today I went to pick up a package, it was wrapped all adorably and as I was walking down the sidewalk an elder stopped me and said is it your birthday? I said no I wish! Then as we proceeded down the walk way We hear them all start singing happy birthday to me... Mom are you sure you didn't mix up my birthday with Julies? Happy Birthday SiS!!

Well this week has been great. Sunday we heard from the Nashville Tribute Band. They were incredible. I love people that can sing. I also had to talk in Sacrament meeting. I laughed really hard when they called me because I had told my whole district all week that I would be the one speaking because every second Sunday that I attend a new ward. I speak no matter where I am at but at least I was prepared for it. This week we were able to teach Sydney again as well as Kyugin ( ask snib how to say it she said we say it q jen.) She is from Korea and her husband is a member. We got her to pray yesterday and she prayed in Korean. It was awesome! We also are teaching Sydney's husband Arnold. They have been married about 16 years. He lost his wife to cancer a long time ago and talked all about the trials he has been facing. He hasn't prayed in a very long time. Our goal today is to get him to pray. I have felt the spirit so much here. It is wonderful how it works, God always works in such mysterious ways but he helps us all so much. I know that God loves each and everyone of you. I pray for all of you every single day. I Love to hear about all the wonderful things that have been going on in your lives. 

I fly out this next Wednesday! I am so excited. We are leaving the MTC at 6:20 in the morning. I am not sure why the crap we are leaving so early but we are. I will be trying to call everyone but No promises. There are a lot of us! My flight is at 11:10 AM on Delta we have a layover in Detroit for about an hour and then I will get to Lansing at about 6:20. IT IS A FULL DAY OF TRAVELING!! The flight is with Delta and the numbers are 236 and 3747. If you are interested. Mother and Father I will call you probably closer to 9 hopefully. So make sure you are by a phone. Let me know which phones are best. I am guessing dad your cell will be best. I am flying out with 17 other missionaries. I have met almost all of them.

I hope all is going well! Love your favorite sister!

Sister Milar :)

Okay to explain a little bit.

Me point to the map with a sister and an elder. That is Elder Moulton, he is going to Indiana

Elder Torp I just yelled at him haha we were on our way to lunch and just luckily I was able to hurry and grab my camera. 

We found some red lip stick hahahah

The Elders posing at the temple.

Our Zone leaders

Service day we vacuumed and cleaned mirrors.

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Week 1

August 17, 2016

I have completed my first week at the MTC! It has been a wonderful experience thus far. I will start when I got here, I got my name tag and just took my stuff to my room and jumped right into things. My district has 12 people in it. Kind of Just like our family! Haha they are all about 18 and 19 which is what I expected. All the sisters(4)  are going to Michigan Lansing Mission. The elders are going to Boston and Indiana. We have had a wonderful time together. Sister Hymas is my companion. She is from Pleasant Grove. She is 19 years old and she is very nice. She is very shy at times and I have to push her a lot to teach but she is slowly figuring things out.

I also have seen Three people I know. Well half way. Peterson's I did see Elder Torp on day 1 and introduced myself and asked if he had any idea who I was. He said oh you're Mary's sister. I didn't have my camera but I will try to find him and take a picture for you all! I also so Abby Spafford, I danced with her, she works with the meals here so she isn't a missionary but it was fun to see her and also saw and Elder named Alex Brown. We went to school together in Cedar and I was shocked when I almost ran into him when I was walking down the stairs.

We have begun teaching many investigators. It's crazy they just jump the gun so fast. They don't care how long you have even been here. We taught and Investigator named Bernie starting on Thursday! I have 3 other Investigators their names are Sydney, Jules and Dominic. Cool story about Dominic, he isn't technically my investigator. My companion and I were talking in the stairwell after we had our TRC with Sydney which is pretty much just a lesson with an investigator. He came up to us and was so excited to meet us! He just talked and talked, he told us that him and his wife are pretty much the only nonmembers in Provo. He thanked us for being there and for helping people find Christ. He said he is still taking the lessons. He then continued on to ask us if we could pray to teach him next week. He wants us to teach him. This was really surprising so we said we would do it. So pray that we get to teach him.

This first week has been kind of crazy. I got sick with a bad cold. Hardly could breathe and had just bad headaches. Anyway I'm not as congested and am doing so much better. My district all call me the mom of the group. I guess I am just very observant and helpful. They ask me questions about everything, but it just makes me laugh because I have only been here as long as they have!

Thank you all so much for all the letters!! I have loved all of them.  I'm going to try and write everyone back today and I hope I do. I love getting letters, they make me so happy. My district hates it because I always get mail haha but then I just have to show them how cute everyone is.

I love you all so much. Thank you for your love and Support!!

Mom I have attached some pictures of my schedule so that you can see what it is like each day. We are in class pretty much all day everyday. It sometimes is long so I like to suck on candies but you learn so much. I know that God loves each and everyone of us! You are all wonderful!  Thank you thank you for everything!

Also Emma that picture of Christ and  me pointing is for you!!

My goal is a picture a day... I have only missed one day so far.

Love Sister Milar!