Homer, Alaska, Week 9

Buenos dias,

Well, this week our toilet broke again. Why do the toilets in all the
apartments I live in keep break. This time wasn't as bad as the last
time, we just couldn't flush the toilet for a while. It didn't smell
good in there. So we went in with a flashlight, a wrench, and some
rusty pliers and Jerry rigged ourselves a functional toilet. Sure we
could have just called the landlord, but that's too much effort. The
only problem was, to fix the problem we had to break he toilet in a
different way. So now to flush we have to go into the water tank in
the back and pull the thingy by hand. It has led to much more thorough
hand washing.

I also learned today that one of the people I taught in the YSA, Eve
Moss, just got baptized this last weekend. That made my week. Long
term successes are great.

This week was pretty crazy. Along with the toilet breaking we also did
a lot of work this week. There were many service projects. This
Saturday we did an eagle project on steroids. We rehabilitated three
trails. We were also the only two there that were younger than 50. So
we did most of the heavy lifting. We were hauling actual trees out of
the woods. It was great. We got to look all tough it was sweet. And
there was free pizza.

All our investigators are on vacation this week so we tracted a lot.
It was actually very fun. Only 4 people were mean. But I'm out of time
now so next week you will get a more detailed report of actual things
that happened. The highlight this week is that Elder Freestone is
hilarious. He told me one of the funniest poop stories I've ever
heard. Life is great. Have a good week!

Love y'all

Elder Miller

Week 8 in Homer, Alaska

Hello,

Exactly one year from today I will be arriving home at the Portland
airport. How weird is that? I know it's weird for me. It's halfway
over now. I'm on the downhill. That's madness. The last year has been
filled with the craziest experiences and wildest adventures of my
life. I've almost been killed by at least 4 moose and at least 7
people. I've seen -40 degree temperatures. I haven't seen anything
above 80 degrees in a year. I've talked with more people than you
could shake several sticks at, knocked on literally thousands of
doors, dramatically improved my basketball skills, climbed several
mountains, made a lot of friends, eaten many strange foods, had more
impacting life experiences than ever before, had more powerful
spiritual experiences than ever before, prayed harder, worked harder,
and eaten harder than ever before, watched two people make the
commitment to whole heartedly follow the Savior, and come closer to
Jesus Christ than I ever have been before. I'd say that's been a
pretty successful year. And I get to do it all in the most beautiful
place on Earth. Booyah.

This week was pretty awesome. We've been really busy which is always
what we want to be. I don't know if too many exciting things happened
this week, but I am also super tired right now so I can't really think
clearly. The struggle is real sometimes. There comes a day on a
mission where you realize that you will never wake up before 6 30
again, for at least the remainder of your mission. It's kind of a hard
realization. You get used to it though. One of the members in our ward
here takes us out running so we run about 4-5 miles on Mondays,
Wednesdays, and Fridays. Never skip leg day.

We had a lot of meetings this week. Meetings can get pretty boring,
but our zone is pretty awesome so it's always exciting when we get
together. One of the zone leaders threw me an iPad when I wasn't
paying attention so it hit me in the face. And a bunch of other
ridiculous things happened. Oh the joy of meetings. I feel like that's
how corporate office meetings go too. I hope so anyways.

It's been raining here for the past week. It hasn't stopped, it's been
constantly raining. But it's also been super foggy which is fun to
drive in. None of these Alaskan people seem to know how to drive in
the fog. They all start driving like 90 year olds. But it's also much
harder to spot the moose in the fog so you have to be careful. My
policy is just to drive really fast. Don't tell anybody that though.

Our people are doing well, or they aren't doing anything. That's life
in Homer. Everybody either has too much to do or they loaf around all
day. Funny people. Hopefully y'all have a good week, I know I plan to.
I love you all!

Elder John Miller

Homer, Alaska Week 7

This week has been crazy. Very crazy. But that's life. Now that I have
a new companion I realize that I don't know this area at all. Or
anybodies names for that matter. And because previous missionaries did
not keep up well with the area book I don't know where anyone lives.
The stress is real! But it's also been a heck of a lot of fun starting
training again.

Tuesday we drove up to Anchorage. It's about a 4 hour drive, but it
was made significantly longer by the amount of times we had to stop
and pee. This is the problem with staying hydrated. You don't do good
on long trips. I realized when I was back in Anchorage that I missed
Anchorage. I still know that city super well, so it was fun driving
around and seeing a few people. I hung out with Jackson, which was
awesome. He's doing great. Probably going to move pretty soon, but
he's not sure where yet. He's thinking about going to Utah, when I
asked why he showed me a picture of a girl he had met and said "Those
legs though." That's Jackson right there.

Wednesday I picked up my new companion, Elder Freestone. I didn't know
there was such a thing as a freestone peach until now. Clearly I don't
know enough about fruits. He's awesome. We drove back from Anchorage
to Sterling that night after many hours of meetings and we talked a
lot. He's from Monticello Utah which is a very small town in the
southeast corner of the state. It's about 2000 people. So he's used to
the small town life. He was a mechanic before he came out, and he
graduated this year. That's messed up. But he's awesome. He's also
much taller and stronger than me, so hopefully we never get in a
fight.

Thursday we finally got back to Homer. The next couple days were
filled with a lot of teaching and finding and it was really busy and
we had a lot of fun. We get lost sometimes because I have no idea
where I'm going but that's okay because Elder Freestone doesn't know
I'm lost. I'll get it figured out in a couple weeks I hope. The
highlight of the week was that yesterday we put our long term
investigator Billy Swisher  on date for baptism! Miracles happen. And
she's going to need one. Her roommate hates the church, and her sons
are super bitter about it. But she's this sweet old lady who's
attitude went from "Well I don't want to upset the family" to "I don't
care what these people think, I'm following Jesus and they can eat
it." She's really funny. Old ladies are the best.

Other than that Elder Freestone and I are just out here finding all
the crazy people. Who knew tracting was the best way to build a
relationship with your companion. Elder Freestone loves tracting. It's
awesome. Alright I gotta go, y'all enjoy yourselves for another week.
Next week will be crazy. Love ya!

Elder Miller

Elder Freestone, Elder Miller, Elder Jesperson (John's trainer), and I don't have this other Elder's name.  Elder Jesperson is training him.

Several weeks ago John told me he bought a knife.  I asked him for a picture and this is it. 

This is Elder Miller with his previous companion Elder Contreras.  John says he's not that fat, the wind was blowing from behind and making his shirt puff out.

Week 6 in Homer, Alaska

Hello,

Welp. We got our transfer calls again this week. I'm staying in Homer.
And I'm training again. I pick up a new missionary on Wednesday and
we'll be here in Homer for the next 12 weeks together. What madness is
this. But I'm not the district leader anymore. Apparently one transfer
of ghetto district meetings was good enough. Except for this last
district meeting every single one started late because we couldn't get
the technology to work. So I don't have to worry about that anymore,
which is very relieving. The weird thing is this is transfer 9 of my
17 transfers. Meaning that this transfer I go over the hump.
Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh. Scary thoughts. I feel like I came out yesterday.
I'm too green for this.

Elder Contreras is going to Bethel. If you don't know where Bethel is,
it's in the southwest corner of Alaska. And it's a native village. And
the only way there is by plane. And the missionaries there live in the
chapel. And he's whitewashing it because it's been closed for a few
transfers. So he's freaking out. So this week we ended up saying a lot
of goodbyes, which was weird for me because I'm staying here. I love
this area. The people here are awesome mainly because they're
absolutely insane. Especially the members. They're funny people.

This week we got drafted into building a cabin, which was pretty fun.
We were laying down the foundation beams. Those things are heavy.
Hopefully next time the Elders quorum will be able to help. Then on
Friday we went running with our Elders quorum President. I haven't
been running in a year. We were so sore afterwards and he was just
running in circles around us. I never knew there were so many hills
here until Friday. I think we ran up all of them. Homer is actually
very similar to Newberg in a lot of ways, there's just a lot less
people. And an ocean.

We were also able to teach a lot this week. The tourists were finally
willing to talk with us so we spent a lot of time out on the Spit
talking with people. We met a lady from South Africa, another from
Kenya, a man from Germany, some Samoans straight off the islands, and
a Chinese guy. People from all over the world come here. It's really
fun to talk to all of them. I'm finally starting to pick up the
differences between accents.

That's pretty much been our week. I'll let you know who my companion
is next week because right now I still don't know who it is. Hopefully
all of you have a good week as well! I love you all.

Elder John Miller

Me and Mama Dee 

(No other explanation given)

We found this at the Russian beach

This Seagull reminded me of the penguin from Wallace and Grommit.  He just stares you down.

This is a video from the Russian beach

Week 5 in Homer, Alaska

I think I am becoming far too Alaskan for my own good. Tourists make
me angry, I'd rather drive on dirt roads than pavement, and TV shows
about Alaska make me want to break the TV. Those shows are so dumb.
There was a member of our ward here who's from Homer Alaska who was
paid 1,000 dollars to walk around Homer, look at houses, and pretend
to be someone looking to by a house which isn't even for sale, because
it's owned by another member of the ward. It's just another prime
example of the man trying to squeeze as much money out of the most
beautiful place on earth as possible. Grumble Grumble. Alright, my
Alaska rage is sedated. For now.

This week was pretty fun. The area here is too huge. We use so many
miles on the truck it's unbelievable. Today we went down to the
Russian village Voznenskya to check it out. That was pretty fun.
Russians party hard up here. It's scary. We drove down the steepest
hill ever and ended up driving along the beach for a while. It doesn't
make much sense to me either. Nobody knows how to lay out a town
apparently. Or they just don't care. Or they were drunk. Probably a
combination of all three.

We also had a lot of success on the Spit this week. One day as we were
walking along the harbor to guys yelled at us from up above and
invited us to talk with them. So of course we did. I thought we were
about to get reamed by some drunks, but we actually ended up having a
really good, spiritually uplifting conversation with some drunks. It
was pretty awesome. Craig and Kevin. My two main Spit homies. Then the
next day we started a conversation with the most touristy looking
people on the Spit and it turned out they were locals and one of them
was a less active member. They gave us their contact info and we set
up a lesson. Craziness. When the weathers nice people love talking on
the Spit. It's super fun.

We also got a tour of an ice factory. That was pretty crazy. I never
knew so much effort went into the making of ice. The more you know.

We were able to teach a lot this week and some of our people's are
finally starting to progress which is really nice. Hopefully soon the
area will be en fuego like it should be. That's the dream. Alright
people. I love you all. Peace out.

Elder John Miller

Week 4 in Homer, Alaska

Howdy,

I say howdy all the time when I greet people now. I'm turning into an
Alaskan red neck. That's different than your average red neck. They're
more crazy. And they live in dry cabins and sometimes walk around in
nothing but chest waders. Don't ask me why. I don't ask.

This week has mainly been filled with rain. Which is good because I
like the rain. But it makes everyone else all cranky. So luckily the
sun came out for a few days and we were able to talk to a ton of
people. The second run of the red salmon hit this week and dip netting
is starting so everyone is fishing right now. And we eat a lot of
fish. It's so good. This one guy who fed us halibut took the halibut,
cleaned it, filleted it, deboned it, then chopped it up, breaded it,
and dropped it in a frier. It doesn't get much fresher than that. The
whole time I was thinking "Man, if there's bacteria in this I might
get diarrhea for a week, but I don't care, it tastes too good." I did
not get diarrhea for a week, thankfully.

We also went on exchanges this week so I was up in Sterling with my
zone leader Elder Bailey. We did a service project while we were there
for this man at his home which was seriously rundown and he's trying
to renovate it. He's a former drug addiction, his wife is in failing
health, and their house is falling apart. And he has two kids, a son
who's like a little mechanic, and a daughter who's like an Olympic
level gymnast. And even in this rough situation this guy is one of the
best dad's I've ever seen. He supports his kids in every way and
provides for them when he can barely provide for himself. It was
really impressive. Oh, and that girl did a round off into a triple
back hand spring into a back flip and landed it off the trampoline
with a perfect finish. Next year they're trying to find an Olympic
coach for her. It was nuts. Random people you meet in Sterling Alaska.

Also, last Saturday, Jackson, the guy I taught in the YSA, got
baptized! And Elder Call was the one who baptized him! It made me so
happy. I was so overjoyed at the whole situation. I wish I had been
able to be there, but just knowing that I got the privilege to help
him out feels good to me. Now we just have to get the rest of them.

That's the highlights over here. Hopefully y'all (dang it) are having
a good time as well. Enjoy the travesty of not being in Alaska.

Love
Elder John Miller

Elder Bailey and Elder Miller

On exchanges with Elder Bailey in Sterling, AK

The Kenai River

Zone Meeting

Jackson on the day of his baptism.  Elder Call is the one in white next to him.

Week 3 in Homer, Alaska!

Happy Independence Day!

So the Fourth is kind of lame in Alaska because it's so light out so
late, so you can't even see the fireworks. Saying that, they're also
Alaskans so they just blow stuff up anyways. Because huge explosions
are fun. And massive forest fires are fun. That's why fireworks are
illegal here. Too bad no one cares.

This week was pretty slow here in Homer because of the holiday weekend
and it's been raining for days. People get grumpy when the clouds are
out. But other than that we're still doing good. This week we went out
to the Russian villages and they are sketchy. The roads are all
unpaved and they drive so fast down them. While they're drunk. And
shooting off firearms. It's awesome and terrifying at the same time.
Also, at one point we were driving down the road and this guy just
started sprinting after our truck. But they have a super pretty church
out there. The patron saint of it is Saint Nicholas.

I also got stung by a hornet twice. We were doing a service project at
Haven House (the abused women's shelter in Homer) and as I was putting
a box in a shed I learned there was a hornet nest in there. They came
at me. Elder Contreras smashed one so they came at us. We ran. They
got me anyway. My hand is still a little swollen.

We also met two crazy cat ladies, cut down a tree with a machete, ate
some pie, bought some big knives, shanked a punching bag with them,
and then ate some more pie. Good times. Hopefully this next week the
sun comes out and everyone is in a better mood. Have a good fourth of
July everybody! It's one of my favorite holidays. So enjoy it for me.

Elder Miller