♦ Elder Miller week 63 (10-30-23)

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 Bon dia! Felis dia di Halloween!

 

Hope you all had a blast last week! It was a crazy one here in Aruba with the whole zone flying in for a conference with Elder Gavarret of the Seventy! It was fun to be with everyone and be uplifted together!

 

Anthony Gumbs! One of the friends I taught in Curacao was baptized yesterday and it was so neat. I was able to catch the end of it on a video call and was able to say hi to him for a sec when it was over. Pretty special! He'll be such a strength to the Priesthood on that island!

 

Had both branches come together on Saturday morning for an international day of service! We did some beach clean-up on the south end of the island and it was super nice. We picked up all sorts of plastic and other trash surrounding sea turtle nests along the coast. The water here still has me in shock. If I ever can come back, swimming is pretty high on my bucket list!

 

We had a crazy miracle this past weekend as we received a referral from Facebook requesting a Book of Mormon. She didn't feel comfortable giving us a phone number or house number but she said if we could go to the mall by the cruise port (where she worked) we would find her. So we dropped everything and went for it. After a while of walking around the outlet stores, pools, and casinos, looking for a lady we didn't know, we started to make our way back to the car. But as we were leaving the mall it started to pour outside, so we waited out the rain by talking to a few more folks in the mall. As the rain slowed we checked our phone once more to see if she had responded. Right as we were leaving she called us and we were able to meet up right between the Louis Vuitton and Gucci outlet stores. It was pretty sweet. She told us she felt like she was looking for something missing in her life and we were able to testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The timing was perfect and we look forward to teaching her more!

 

In my studies this past week I was reading a chapter in the Book of Mormon where an entire people make a promise to never take up weapons again, promising to never shed blood again. Their faith amazes me and I think we can relate so much of this story to our life today...

Alma 24:17-18

17 And now it came to pass that when the king had made an end of these sayings, and all the people were assembled together, they took their swords, and all the weapons which were used for the shedding of man’s blood, and they did bury them up deep in the earth.

18 And this they did, it being in their view a testimony to God, and also to men, that they never would use weapons again for the shedding of man’s blood; and this they did, vouching and covenanting with God, that rather than shed the blood of their brethren they would give up their own lives...

I like to compare these weapons of old to sin today. How grateful I am for the gift of repentance we have so readily available to us each and everyday. An essential part of the process of repentance is the complete abandonment of our sins. How much space do we allow between us and our previous mistakes? Are they "buried deep in the earth"  or just below the surface ready to tempt us again and again. I invite each of us to intentionally put those harmful things away in our lives for good. Don't go back, keep moving forward, continually in repentance and permanently leave what you have left thanks to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. As we sincerely repeat this process, He promises to remember our sins no more, and that means we don't need to either. Jesus Christ is the answer!

 

Have a great week! Thanks for always reading these!

-Elder Miller



























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