Light The World!

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving because it is such a wonderful time to reflect on all of your wonderful blessing. I just have to say that I am so thankful for all of you. For your support while I am out here, for your desire to help me with any and everything. I truly do love you.

This week has been an interesting one if I do say so. Tuesday and Wednesday were jam packed with lessons because of the Holiday. So we were teaching a lot those first couple of days. Our investigators are still just chugging along. I think they are all doing great.

Thursday we went out to do missionary work. There was only one slight problem with this… we are on campus. Campus was closed and literally NO ONE was on campus… So we decided to be creative. We got sidewalk chalk and walked to campus talking to the few souls on campus we got to play with SIDEWALK Chalk! It was great. All over campus we wrote down things like, “Want to Serve, Help #Light the World.” “In a world full of darkness help bring out the LIGHT!” and “Because I have been given much I too must give. #Light the world”.

Funny story of the week. Most of you know how much I truly enjoy Chemistry. Every-time I am here on campus and we walk by or through the chemistry building I say, "I HATE CHEMISTRY!" (The funniest part is I will probably be taking more classes when I get home. Yay for me) Anyway, usually after we leave the building we start playing the periodic table game. I ask them an element and they tell me what it is.  We were playing this week and I asked, what is O in the periodic table, and Sister Eisert yells, "WATER!" Oh it was so funny, Sister Larsen and I busted up laughing. In case you are wondering water is H2O.  It gave us a good laugh. 

Our investigators overall are doing pretty great. We have decided to move Wiley's baptism to this next weekend because of the holiday. We are so excited for them and are praying for many more miracles this holiday season.

We had a surprise baptism this weekend though. It is one of the elders investigators Savannah. She is so cute and great. We were so happy for her. She had such an amazing experience. She was feeling very nervous, but her whole family came to support her and after the baptism they took two copies of the Book of Mormon and are wanting to read them. She came right up to us after and gave us each big hugs.

Yesterday church was just amazing. It felt like the whole thing was just centered around Savannah. The whole branch was just lifted up. There was a lot of talk about blessing and things we are thankful for. As I was study yesterday I ran across something really cool. It started with at church, President Volz was talking about the gift of charity. He was quoting the scripture that says, "If ye have not charity, ye are nothing." That started to make me think. As I was doing my personal studies later I was studying Christ-like attributes. I came across a scripture in Moroni 8 that talks about the first principles and ordinance of the gospel and these attributes. I decided that in order to truly live by the first principles and ordinances of the gospel we have to be applying different Christ-like attributes. That they truly work together so that we can become like our Savior.

This week is also transfer week! So I will be emailing on Saturday instead of Monday.
I love you all and hope that you start on Light the World on Friday. It seems so fantastic. I can't wait for it to officially begin.  I love you!

Love Always,
Sister Milar

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

 

I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and eat lots of yummy food for me and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving day Parade and Charlotte's Webb. I think those are some of the funniest Thanksgiving traditions, but I love them!

 

Wow time as usual has just been flying by. This week was a great week.  We had trade-offs with the Sisters From St. Joesph and those went pretty well. I love being able to help them when I can. Then we had interviews with President. Man he is just great. He truly just cracks me up. Sister Eisert went in right before me and they talked about marriage and dating. So when I got in he talked about how I am a strong independent women and I need to find a man who is the same way and not settle for anything. haha it was funny, truly made me laugh as I haven't even thought anything about that life as I have no idea what I am even doing when I go home... Lots of possibilities still up in the air.

 

We also had stake conference this week. It was just great. Elder Snow from the 70 came again and the Brennan's were there as well as the Lunds! I love the Lunds! They are from Midland so I got to talk to them for a minute. Then here I was walking down the hall and this guy said "Milar" and I turned because let's be honest. No one knows how to say our last name. So I was a bit surprised. Well turns out he is Aunt Pattee's nephew. Small world. Anyway, I new that Mike Powell was around here somewhere but I still haven't met him yet. But I have met Zack how knows Mike. We only talked for a minute as I had to run off to a meeting with the Branch President but it was kind of a fun thing. He has a cute little family too!

 

Well I am proud to say that both of my companions are sick and I AM NOT! Blessings. I haven't hardly gotten sick while out here  which I am so grateful for as I hate getting sick! It is honestly miserable. So I have been healthy as a whip. Taking lots of vitamins. One day this week we were sitting in a lesson with a guy named Jessy. The lesson was going really well, Sister Larsen was talking and in the middle of her sentence he jumped in and said are you okay? You look like you are going to die. So let's just say we went home after that and she took a nice nap.

 

Wiley is still planning on getting baptized on December 2nd. At the KUB we are planning 3 baptisms for that day. We are really excited for that! Jaylen is still chugging along. he is doing well, just still struggling to know if God is truly there. It was really cool though this week we were sitting having a lesson and he was like I have been listening to the Book of Mormon on my phone. I found an app for it. Well we showed him the gospel library app and he totally loved it. He was so excited. it was like a child on Christmas morning. (or even me :))

 

We also found 5 new investigators this week. They are all amazing! As this year is coming closer to an end we are truly seeing the blessing from it!

I love all of you. I hope that you have a real feast this Thanksgiving. Know that you are all in my prayers. Party hard and make good choices!

 

Oh the picture is really crappy. I am kind of sad about it. The photographer must've not really known what she was doing.... oh well. This is a picture of us with President Nelson.

I LOVE YOU!!

Love, Sister Milar
 

 

I know that God Lives~!

What a wonderful week this past week has been. I have been so blessed while serving a mission. This week was extremely busy. We had a lot of fantastic meetings this week. It started off with going to MLC in Lansing. We learned what the new Christmas initiative is this year. I don’t know if any of you participated in Light the World last year, but they are doing it again this year, but even bigger and better.   I encourage you all to participate in it. It starts November 24th.

 

Wiley is doing so great. He is still on date for baptism on December 2. We talked to him about the Law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom this week. He took it like a champ.. In the past he told us how much he loves tea. We weren’t sure how he was going to respond when we told him we don’t drink tea (except herbal), he was really sad to hear about it because he loves tea, but he said if God wants him to do it he will.  He is also very nervous to tell his family. So please keep him in your prayers this week.

 

We also had a couple of wonderful lessons with Jaylen. Oh I was so, so happy. He has been struggling with Faith lately. He just doesn’t know how to believe in something he cannot see. We have talked to him about how it may make him feel or thoughts that he gets. This week we decided to focus on Jesus Christ. We talked about who Christ really is and how he can truly become our friend. We asked Jaylen once more if he would come to church on Sunday. Guess what he did!! We were so happy. There was also a devotional on Friday night that he came to too. President Nelson spoke and it was truly an answer to our prayers. We had been praying for a miracle on how we can help Jaylen find the faith that he desires to have. President Nelson spoke exactly on that.  He was able to talk medically which Jaylen really appreciated, because he just doesn’t know if God and science can really coexist. Once again though, that was an answer for him.

 

Wow, I LOVE PRESIDENT AND SISTER NELSON! Let me just say it was such a privilege to be able to hear, talk to, and shake hands with a living apostle. Who dedicated 2.5 hours just to the missionaries. He is such a lively, funny, happy man. Him and his wife. They were cracking jokes throughout the whole thing. There was a funny story he told. I want to share it with you. It was at the devotional on Friday night. He told us a story about how he and his wife were sitting outside one beautiful summer evening having dinner. When a visitor came over. He was just buzzing all around. President Nelson got his napkin and started shewing the bee, but it just kept coming back again and again. Until finally it found some yummy food that it wanted to devour. THE BUTTER!  He told the bee that it needs to leave, but it kept eating that butter. President Nelson soon noticed that the bee wasn’t moving. It was DEAD! He said I looked at the bee and said, “You dumb bee, you didn’t listen to an apostle of the Lord.” I know that we have a living Prophet on the earth today and living apostles who are here to lead and guide us if we will just listen.

 

He also emphasized on listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. That right now we are missionaries, but that is not what we were born to do. We were born to be mothers and fathers. To have families, and that this is God’s greatest yearning. I also learned just how incredibly intelligent he is. Not only with the scriptures and knowing the gospel but with EVERYTHING! I one day hope to have knowledge like him. He was talking about the scriptures and their translations. He is very well versed in Greek, and Latin. He told us recently he was talking to a good friend who is the department chair of Doctor of Egyptian studies at the University of Utah. He told him that he has a book about his people that he should read. His friend became very interested. He handed to him a Book of Mormon and invited him to take it home to read and study it. So he did. His friend came back and was absolutely amazed. He said that he decided to translate it back to Egyptian and he noticed how perfect the translation was. That all those, “ And it came to pass,” are essential in the Egyptian language. He pointed out a verse in the scriptures that has 18 and's in it... his friend pointed out how important those and's are.

 

Anyway, it was such a wonderful experience and I truly enjoyed it.  I hope that you all have a wonderful week and that you go on an adventure. I love you all.

Love

Sister Paige Milar

 

The one of the group is pretty great. Those are all my companions except Sister Heugly.

I love full mission!!

left to right:Hughes, Me, Larsen, Bair, Hymas, Eisert, Garner) Also funny fact. Sister Bair and Larsen served together and Eisert and Garner served together too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween!!

Where does the time go?! I can’t believe that it is already November. These past few weeks have just flown by, I hate to think that next weeks are just going to fly by too. 

 

I hope that you all had a wonderful Halloween! I hope to see some fun happy Halloween pictures, send them my way.   My Halloween was just amazing. It started off by having a zone conference here in Kalamazoo. I absolutely love President Brennan. He truly has been called of God to lead and direct this mission. As a mission we have been trying to involve the spirit more and truly understand how to apply it to the work in finding people to teach and while we are teaching. This has been a very big focus for me as I have been out here. (I am no perfect follower of the spirit, but I am working on it.)

 

As we were discussing, I found that I truly want to always have the spirit with me ALWAYS. Whether out here on my mission or when I return home. I can’t imagine how lost I would be if the spirit left me alone. In the scriptures, it talks about how we have to be worthy of the spirit and always strive for it to be with us. In 2Nephi 26:11 it says, For the Spirit of the Lord will not always strive with man. And when the Spirit ceaseth to strive with man then cometh speedy destruction, and this grieveth my soul. I truly never want this to happen in my life. The spirit is so essential. It is our constant companion that is truly there to inspire, direct, teach, comfort and testify. The spirit only testifies of goodness, and truly directs the light of Christ in each of our lives. When it leaves us, the adversary doesn’t waste any time. He jumps right in to all those little cracks that we have in our armor. DON’T LET THAT HAPPEN!

 

At the end of zone conference President Brennan gave us each copies of the Book of Mormon and invited us to read them in 52 days (10.5pgs a day), marking every reference to Jesus Christ, every time Christ speaks, his attributes, and doctrines and principles. We are just finishing page 66 and it has been a wonderful journey so far, lots of hard work and dedication but what would the point be if it were easy? I know that it is truly another testament of Jesus Christ, I love reading the Book of Mormon. I encourage each of you to study the Book of Mormon each and every day. Follow the counsel of our prophet, it will change your life and I can promise all of you that in the name of Jesus Christ.

 

A couple of amazing stories this week. We have seen so many miracles! I love miracles and they are all around me. The first miracle we found this week is a kid named Andrew. He is a senior here at WMU. He has been studying economics. We met with him and talked about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He had so many profound questions and was able to receive answers to all of them. I know that the spirit was truly there to teach and testify to him about the truthfulness of the everlasting gospel.

 

Jaylen, he has been doing really great. We were able to have a church tour with him. This helped him feel so much more comfortable. He is trying so hard and has such a desire to receive guidance and revelation to his life. He just hasn’t been able to figure out how the spirit truly feels or if it is just him feeling something. We watched a short video from Elder Bednar called the Patterns of Light. He felt the good feeling and peace after watching it. For him Slow and steady wins the race  Funny story with him. So I was really tired, and I am not very smart or very bright (hahah). We were having the church tour and we were talking about the different hours of church. He wasn’t understanding why we separated for Priesthood and Relief Society (He’s a really smart kid too!). We tried every explanation (no joke) and to no avail. Then… I looked at him and said, “Okay Jaylen, look I can have babies, you can’t.” Then I paused, and my companions busted up laughing. Well let’s just say my thought was done for…. So I tried to save it and it just went down the drain. But then I did save it after a few more statements and he understood and all was well. Oh the things I do… my companions are definitely never going to let me live that one down. So embarrassing. No one laughed except them… It would’ve been just fine. Hahaha

 

We have also been meeting with Emily. Oh she is so so great! She came to sports night again this week and everyone thought she was a member and came with a girl named Hannah. Soon they found out otherwise. She fits in just great and has loved learning and is preparing for more. We hope to invite her to baptism this week.

 

Wiley is doing so great still! He has been very much involved in the branch lately. He is planning on getting baptized on December 2. We are so excited for him! A really cool experience we had with him was when we asked him why he wants to be baptized. He said he wants to be baptized to get closer to Christ. And I asked him why? He said that he wants to know Christ perfectly, that if he was to come down right now that he could know who he is and be able to recognize him in any instance. It was so amazing to be able to hear him say that. He honestly has such a true desire and pure intentions to get closer to Christ.

 

I just love being able to come out here and to learn from so many choice individuals. I strive to be like them each and every day. I am so grateful for the time I have to serve now. That I am able to help people find the truth. I encourage each of you to find the truth. Find what your purpose is and how you can more fully accomplish it.  Never be afraid to ask our loving Heavenly Father for help, guidance, and direction. He is there. He will never leave us alone. I know that. I feel it every single day out here. If it weren’t for him I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be doing the things I am, because I couldn’t do them by myself.

 

I love you all so very much. Thank you for the inspiration you provide to each of me. Let me know if there is anything I can do for you.

 

Love Always and Forever,
Sister Milar