Memory of a Family Reunion in 2004

I was going through some old pictures, getting ready for the wedding when I found this video. Our family sang to my parents this song and then we sang it again at my mother's funeral. It brought good memories back of the reunion that we had. It is one song that helps me to remember my Mother and her testimony of the Savior. I hope that you will take time to listen to us sing. We are not the Mormon Tabernacle Choir but we sing with feeling.

Me and Elevators

I have this thing with elevators. When Dad, Jan, and I were in Anchorage we stayed on the second floor of this hotel. It was the day before we left and I got into the elevator. Suddenly the steel fire doors closed and the alarms went off. I was trapped and could not get out until the elevator went to the first floor. People were being herded out of the building when the elevator doors opened and I went out too. My Dad and Jan were waiting in the parking lot. Then the fire engines came around the corner and the firemen ran into the hotel. Wow. What was happening?

When I found a fireman I asked him where the fire was. He said, "Oh, the elevator motor caught on fire and we have it out and under control." So the elevator was on fire when I was in it?!?

Earlier this year I get in the elevator in the temple to go to the third floor from the basement and the elevator stops. The elevator is broken and I'm in it with Sister Gunn. We had to call for the engineer to get us out of the elevator because we were stuck between floors. The elevator was out of commission for a couple weeks while they repaired it. So I happen to have challenges with elevators.

Kerry told me a joke once about elevators. It goes like this:
"There was a couple who went to New York for the first time. They had never been to a large city so they were really nervous about being there and the strangers in the city. They had heard a lot about people being mugged and how unsafe big cities were. They had reservations at one of the large hotels in the city. The husband went down to the lobby one day and was going to meet his wife for dinner. When she got in the elevator to go down to meet him three big men got in the elevator with her. She was very nervous because they strange men and couldn't help but think of all the stories she had heard about getting mugged. She nervously turned around and faced the doors. One of the men said to her, "Hit the floor lady." Quickly she got down on the floor spread eagle just waiting for the mugging to begin. The men started laughing. "Lady, I meant hit the button." Later, when they went to the front desk to pay their bill, the men had paid it for her and left her a note. "Lady, that was the best laugh I've had in a long time."

Back Home Again

Kristen is out of town, traveling in California with the Phillips this weekend. She is meeting Bryce's relatives for the first time. I hope she passes their approval. Invitations should be coming in the mail because they were sent out this week. We hope that people will come out for the wedding. Kristen really has gone to a lot of work.

This week I had a melt down. Kerry has been living at this house in Olympia while it has been up for sale and the house was sold this week. He has to go back to living in the hospital now while he is at work. When he told me that I sat a cried and then had an especially frustrating day the next day at work. My emotions got the best of me. UGH!

Today we had four trees planted in our yard, three flowering crabapple and one red bud tree. They will have beautiful pink blooms in the spring. The volunteers who planted them did it in the middle of a rainstorm. The thunder was really loud and Sophie took off running through the house. I have never seen her run so fast. She disappeared for the rest of the day.

Chieti, Casoli, FrancaVilla, Pescara, MonteSilvano, Roma, Lanciano...tutta d'Italia!

Wow we've traveled a lot this week!!

General Conference

This weekend we had a feast when we were able to sit and watch General Conference. The repeating themes of the talks seemed to be Love for God and Neighbor, Service, The Book of Mormon, and Having the Spirit. I was impressed by the music and preparation of the brothers and sisters. I took notes also. President Holland's talk impressed me as he bore testimony of the Book of Mormon. He quoted his great-grandfather George Q. Cannon who said, “No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.” I also believe this is so.

President Bednar asked that we tell our family members that we love them and that we treat them with respect. I would like to tell my children that I love them. They are really important to me and I wish them the greatest happiness in life. I also love my husband who has been good to me. I respect and love my parents. My father and mother have done many good things for me throughout my life, which I appreciate.

YEAH CONFERENZA GENERALE!

Hello all you people in my life!

Well, another week has flown by. I can't keep them straight anymore, it's making me dizzy!Right now my companion has the flu, so i've been in hibernation mode. She wants to work, but we also don't want to make all our investigators sick so we have to sit at home. I cleaned everything.

This week we've been really trying to help the members. We've realized how neglected some of them have been recently, because they live about 2 hours away from the church and no one goes out to visit them. So we've been trying to make an effort and the members are SO happy! We've been seeing some good results from our efforts too. When I came into this ward the members didn't work with the missionaries at all, and now they're going up to our investigators and asking for appointments! We've really discovered that praying to find the right members for our investigators is extremely important. Some of the people that we thought wouldn't go well together are perfect fits.I'm excited for general conference...are you?

The times here are kinda crazy, we watch the saturday morning session at 6 pm, and then the saturday afternoon session on sunday at 2 in the afternoon. Sunday afternoon session is out of the question! Almost all of our investigators have been wanting to hear a prophet speak so they can gain their own testimonies. We are very excited and hopeful. I've realized how much of a blessing it is that we can hear the prophet speak. I was reading an ensign article yesterday about the martin and harris handcart companies, and how those pioneers gave up their lives in the hope of seeing the prophet. I was reading in Mormon 1 today about when the people went into apostasy and the Lord took away the apostles and prophets. It's a testimony to me of how much God loves us by giving us a living prophet.

Nino is making some awesome progress, as always. Before, his wife had to beg him to come to church with her, and now he's making HER come to church! haha he's so great. He's reaching out to the members and they're reaching back. I think he's going to be the next bishop. :)

So one last story and then i'm off. This one is about sincere prayer, and involving the Lord in all our decisions. So the other night we were trying to find some old investigators, and we finished early so we had an hour to do finding before we went home. We were sitting on a corner, discussing what to do, and neither of us had any idea. So I said a prayer and asked the Lord to lead us to where he wanted us to go to find the elect. I opened my eyes and waited for a response, and I felt I needed to stand up, and then I would know what to do. So I stood up and waited. Then I felt I needed to cross the street to throw away the piece of paper I was holding. We were staring down a dark and deserted street and my companion looks at meet and says "now where?" I said, "We need to walk down that street and do surveys." Yeah, random. We usually only do surveys at the park, and especially not at night in the dark. So we start walking and we spot these two girls who were hidden behind some trees and we go over to talk to them and they were both incredibly interested and both asked us for book of mormons and want to meet with us again. God does answer our prayers, even the most simple ones.

Lots of love to you all! Vi voglio un sacco di bene (I want for you all a sack of good) :)

Sorella Jenessa Miles

The pictures are from pday last week...it was my companion's birthday, and two sets of sisters showed up in Pescara to get their permesso's taken care of! We ate yummy pizza with french fries on it.

What do you get when you throw pasta into the ocean?

Apostasy!

Wow, has it already been another week?? I feel like I was just here writing to you all! Time is flying by on the mission...I hit my 7 month mark last week. I still feel like I was just in the MTC! So strange. Well, it's been a fun week full of finding and appointments! We have made a bunch of contacts with some ladies in the area doing house, and we're working hard to make things come of it. I've really discovered that doing house where there are actually houses is really effective, because people can see our happy smiling faces! No new investigators as of yet, but there are about 6 people who we've talked to and/or gotten phone numbers from, and a lot of them have potential...we'll see what happens!

We had an incredible appointment with our "golden family" the other day. We taught the plan of salvation to Chris, and he was asking a MILLION questions! Every question he's ever had in his entire life about God and our purpose. The incredibly beautiful and miraculous thing was that every question he asked was answered by the scriptures and the plan of salvation. It was really a testimony to me about how scriptures teach things that I never could as a simple sister missionary. They are so full of power-they are from God.

On Sunday we had a cool experience...we wanted to go and visit a family in our ward about getting involved in our missionary work, and when I asked the husband if we could stop by and visit them he said, "hey, why don't you come over for dinner because we're having a friend come over that we wanted to introduce to the church, and you can teach her." WOW. That was the first time we've ever had that happen between the two of us companions. So we go over and when I first met the lady I looked at her face and it completely threw me off-she looked EXACTLY like Mom 10 years ago! Yeah. So we talked to her about the church and gave her a Book of Mormon. We're hoping to do a family home evening with them sometime soon. YAY! This is how missionary work is supposed to happen!

The members in Pescara are really catching onto the fire. It's incredible. We were really excited when our investigator Nino came to church on Sunday with his new member wife Iolanda. He had an incredible experience, and the spirit was so strong when the stake president spoke. Nino jumped out of his seat at the end and ran up to meet the bishop and stake president and they immediately made friends and ended up hugging in the end. Yay! He's making so much progress. If you had known Nino before I came here you would have thought that he was a hopeless case. Now he's excited to start praying with his family every night, and he's reading in the scriptures with his wife nightly. It's such a testimony to me about example-his wife is incredible and loves him so much and wants them to do this together and eventually get sealed in the temple when it's built in Rome.

TEMPLE NEWS...so the first presidency had their big meeting last week to approve the temple, and then yesterday the commune in Rome got together to approve the permesso. We have been praying with all our hearts daily for this temple, and things are going forward! There will be a temple in Rome! Who would have ever thought? So much good is going on here. I love serving my mission, I love my companion, I love Pescara. It's definitely not easy in the slightest bit, it's probably the hardest thing i've ever done in my entire life...trying to convert catholics. haha, but it's true. I know it with all my heart.

I read an ensign article the other day about a pastor who converted himself to this church. He said that above all to be effective member missionaries we need to be an example of our religion, and live it. Second, we need to know and understand what we believe. What is the purpose in living a religion if you don't even understand it? The gospel makes sense...it's simple. If you don't understand it, then I suggest reading Preach My Gospel along with the Book of Mormon. It will change your life.

Have a wonderful week!

baci e abbracci,

Sorella Jenessa Miles