WOODLAND! (woot woot!)

Hello Wonderful Lovely Sweetheart Family and Friends,

I safely arrived in Woodland. That was heart-wrenching.... having to leave Rio Vista. Ouch. Not fun. Not something I would like to relive again, but I handled it like a champ if I do say so myself. No crying yet. Hermana Bryant just hugged me goodbye. "You done good, kid. You done good." Still don't know if she meant that about the missionary work and growing, or about not breaking down crying during transfer meeting. 

Sister Carter is a sweetheart. It's definitely a different situation from what I came from. I've never lived in an apartment with just one companion... there's always been at least two other Sisters or another companionship. Sister Carter... I knew her in Santa Rosa. She's amazing. She just wants to be exactly obedient. We've set some pretty high goals for this transfer. I'm very excited to learn from her. I always love being an STL's sidekick, if you will. I get to hear all the fun plans that are coming up, etc, and I get to learn and improve everyday. So excited. 

The only investigator that I've really gotten to know is Eli. He's a middle-aged man, and he's ready to be baptized! He has a date for the 26th of July, and at church yesterday we pulled our ward mission leader aside and had Eli pick out the size of jumpsuit he'd need, style of program, etc. Saturday night we had had a lesson with Eli on Priesthood and Auxiliaries and Missionary Work. When we invited him to prepare himself to receive the priesthood after he is baptized, he immediately responded "What do I need to do to prepare?" Wow. I've never met an investigator so ready to be baptized! 

I also had an interesting experience with a man named Sam who hadn't been to church in years. His wife doesn't believe in God, but she is very kind, and listened in. We talked to him a bit, and then shared our testimonies and did a Harvest Blessing. I was privileged to offer the prayer. I've never felt the Spirit come whooshing in like that before. It was as swift as a wave crashing on the beach, but as light as morning sunshine. Sam is paraplegic. In the prayer I asked that he be healed if it is part of Heavenly Father's will, and if not, that Sam would feel his testimony of the resurrection flood his life and help him through his life, and that His life would stand as a testimony to his posterity of the free gift of life after death that the Savior has given us. Sam was teary-eyed after the prayer ended and his non-member caretakers were teary-eyed. The room was filled with the feeling that was there when Grandma Donna and Grandpa Dean passed away... the veil was thin and I could feel that gentle reassurance that this life is not the end.

My mission is a third over. That makes me so sad. I want to be here more than a year and a half! I don't want to go. I used to be homesick, and I guess I do still miss my family, but I just want to focus on everyday here... moment by moment. Those moments like the ones with Eli and with Sam are so precious, and I get to have them every day. I once upon a time heard someone say that work doesn't end in this life... and I was confused by that. I had thought that heaven was a place of rest! As a child, work and heaven didn't go together! But now I think I understand a little bit better what that person was trying to say. If a mission is anything like what Heavenly Father does, I want to be like Heavenly Father for sure! It's hard. But who cares? I'm so happy! It's not that I'm stress-free or task-free or worry-free. I have a lot of things on my mind, but I'm happy. Every night when I go to bed, I am worn out, and I like that. Every morning I wake up and there are 20 more people waiting for me to talk to them. I'm so happy to be here. Heavenly Father loves me so much. 

A while ago I was fighting the sorrow that comes to a missionary when they realize that a lot of dropping investigators happens, etc. As a missionary, you love your investigators. Every one of them is a miracle... because that's how you found them. Everyone of them has a story... has a need for the gospel. It's hard to drop someone, but you can't take away their agency. You can't force anyone to listen to the missionaries. They have to want it. They have to respond to texts and calls, etc. When you drop an investigator, you start back at zero... contacting, the hardest part of the work. If a mission is like a garden, contacting/tracting is like weeding, especially if you are in the hot sun. It's a lot more relaxing and pleasant in the evening. You have to weed out all the ones that aren't ready yet and dig around for the miracles. This is IMPOSSIBLE without the Spirit, because unlike real gardening, where you just see the weed and pull it, missionary work is a spiritual work. You have to pay attention to which door, which street, which person. 

A few months back I started to lose hope that I could find miracles. I lost the greenie-fire. I think that is what Rio Vista taught me. Pray. Get out and work. Watch for the Miracles. I am so grateful for having been able to serve in Rio Vista with the companions that I had there, but I'm excited to serve here in Woodland 2.5. I have the faith that there are souls praying, asking Heavenly Father to guide them. 

Sister Carter and I are going to knock on their doors. 

Heavenly Father loves us so much. I'm so grateful that I'm a part of His work and His glory. I'm His forever. I know He's going to take care of me, and lead me, and help me. I know I'm not doing this on my own. I'll never have to do this on my own.

Sincerely,
Sister Darby Miller

Goodbye to Rio Vista, Hello Woodland (6 months old and a 4th of July!)

Dear Family and Friends,

So surprise!
Guess who is getting transferred again! Sister Miller!
I cried, long and hard. But now I'm at peace with it. The Mighty Power
of Prayer our mission does to close our fasts really helped. What I
was left with is gratitude.

The past few days have been rough, knowing that I will be leaving. The
news of the transfers came as a shock to me, but after much prayer and
fasting I feel at peace. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan. I'm
sad to leave my little exile to paradise, but it truly has been
amazing. I love Sister Warnock and she has helped me to be more kind
and she also has a way of being bold about the gospel. She doesn't
complain or make a fuss. She has a testimony, and she is also very
smart. It's been very good to serve around her.

I love Hermana Bryant like an older sister. Funny enough, she reminds
me a lot of Darah, and even that makes it harder to leave. I know that
I needed to serve with her. It has filled my soul with hope. I've
learned so much from her about time management, setting up lessons,
contacting, being obedient, and probably most importantly: being
yourself. She is so accepting of others and she loves others, yet she
is so bold and not awkward. She is also one of those people that march
to the beat of their own drum. Wow. I've enjoyed learning and growing
with these sisters. It's flown by.

The Lord has taught me out here in Rio Vista to love others, and to
let them into your heart. I've grown close to the members,
investigators, and my companions. I also learned a lot about families
and how important families are and more about the type of person I
want to marry, and what kind of mother I want to be. I don't know what
the Lord's original plan was for me, but I'm glad that He saw fit to
let me serve in a Rio Vista. It's amazing what can happen in just six
weeks. This place will forever hold a special place in my heart. I
love the people here. They've still got some good missionaries here,
who are going to take good care of them.

I'll go where He wants me to go! :)

I guess Woodland it is. :)

Because I trust Him, and I know that He loves me.

Rio Vista is doing amazing. I can't wait to hear about future
miracles. The Lord has some great plans for that tiny branch, I'll
tell you that much.

I'm excited to go to Woodland and be with a Sister Carter. Scared, I
will admit, but I guess it always come down to trust. That's what it
always comes down to. Do you trust The Lord? I guess another thing
that Hermana Bryant has taught me is that all you have to do it trust
The Lord that He will help you do your part, and then get out and make
it happen. Every time we've contacted, people come out of nowhere. I
want to keep that up. The Lord has shown me that I don't need to be
frustrated with myself. After all, I am imperfect. Heavenly Father
doesn't want me to feel guilty or angry. He wants me to be humble and
trust Him. I am His daughter, after all, not an employee. He doesn't
stop watching out for me at 9:00. He is there for me 24/7. He is not
interested only in how many numbers I can whip out, but the hearts
that I can touch.

I'm ready to take this to Woodland. I know that someone out there
needs me. I'm sad to leave Rio Vista, and I don't completely
understand, but that's okay. I feel it in my heart, that support...
those hands holding my heart, those armies of angels round about me.

But this week was a lot of fun. Jamal is coming along. We watched the
Restoration on his doorstep on couch cushions for an hour. It was
great. Jamal is having trouble because he doesn't want to get married
to his girlfriend that he is living with and has daughters with. I
don't fully understand, but you could see the wheels turning in his
head as he watched the example of Joseph Smith. I've never realized
how good of a husband and father he was. There's this little portion
in the long version that is all about Joseph and Emma's love story and
their children. The next time we went to see Jamal he has only smoked
a half a cigarette the day before, and none yet that day. Wow. He also
had deep questions about the priesthood and about temples and about
families, and they weren't defensive questions, but things he really
wanted to know. We also talked about the current prophets and
apostles, specifically Thomas S. Monson and how the Lord can help us
become better people than we are right now. Jamal kept smiling as we
showed him pictures of the temple. When we asked him if he believes
that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, he said yes. When Hermana
Bryant excitedly asked him if he loved Joseph Smith, he said "I don't
know him like that!"

Sounds a lot funnier in person. :) I promise. Jamal is this 30 year
old black man who acts like he is 19 still... Sarcastic and loves to
play devil's advocate.  We meet with him again tomorrow. Probably my
last time ever seeing him. Hopefully not. But probably.

Rio Vista! It's breaking my heart! I just might move here after I
retire. I love it here.

Well. We also had a good fourth. We went to Fairfield and the three of
us started off a flash mob singing the Star-Spangled Banner. It was
great. Seriously one of the coolest things that has happened to me. We
contacted 100 people that day. We also taught some lessons on
Facebook, as usual. We then went to our branch BBQ. I walked around
and got to know a lot of the members more. I love them. We also had a
member's cousin come. She is a non member and had had dinner with us a
few night previous when we had invited her to come. It was great so
fun. It was a wonderful fourth, even with the news of Transfer
Doctrine. Holidays on hype mission are the best, but I will say that I
miss all of my family. The members out in California Santa Rosa
Mission take us under their wings though. :)

Some pics. Nursery kids who absolutely love me :)

Sister Miller

Such an Awesome Week That I Can't Even Think of a Title for It.... :)

Dear family and friends,
I'm nervous for transfer day, so I just won't let myself think about transfers. I know that all my companions have been exactly what I have needed, but the work out here in Rio Vista is going so well, and I've never seen "three gums" stick together so nicely, and I honk that Sister Alba would agree if she could see us. :) so to avoid the nervousness, I'll just talk about out blessings these part few weeks.
We picked up a miracle family last night. Wow. They had just moved and were literally just finishing unpacking. They accepted a soft invite to be baptized, and said they'd pray about a hard date, and they opened up to us about religious background, and Ezekiel, the husband said that he wants to get back into going to church, but he has been having some struggles with his relationship with God, he feels, but they are so prepared. I'm so excited to go back.
Krystal is our investigator with cancer. Her husband, Richard has been on a mission and is a really good guy. You can see in his eyes that he is so excited that his family is heading towards becoming a part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. So excited. We've been moving slowly with the lessons because Krystal's dad was a minister of a local church before he died a few years back, but you can just see how Heavenly Father is using her trials to help her be open to the gospel. She is very string in her faith. Last time I left my heart just ached in a good way. I love that family. The love for everyone here in Rio Vista is just starting to sink in to a deeper level. It's amazing. I'm just a little blip in their week, yet they are my everything right now. Everything I do is for them. I'm beginning to not mind or get hurt when we drop someone who is ignoring us or someone who is rude. It doesn't get to me like before. I guess it's just because I feel so loved by all the investigators and members and companions, that here isn't any room for those icky feelings. I love it here. 
The week before that we picked up some extended family of Jamal's.... his almost bother-in-law named Jon and his pregnant wife named Yolanda, who is about ready to have that baby any day now! (Hurry up baby! We have missionary work to do ;) 
Yesterday we picked up Jamal's girlfriend Treshawn and set a baptismal date. Wow. Progress. So excited for this family! Miracle!
We had a goal to teach 20 lessons in our area, and 20 more on Facebook, and literally by the grace of God we reached that yesterday. He helped us out so much. He's letting us know that it's Him and not us doing all this work. Really and truly. I have so many things to work on, I have no idea why He's blessing us so much, but we're not complaining! We just want to teach and baptize. For the first time in my mission, I'm not worried about numbers, and now they are flowing. They just keep coming. We taught 10 lessons yesterday. All we did was pray and ask for His help.
I think sometimes I complicate the gospel in my head, and being on a mission has taught me that it is really quite simple. Obey and the blessings flow. If you fall short, repent sincerely and go and do. Have faith in Jesus Christ, and trust in Heavenly Father, obey the Spirit's promptings, repent when you fall short (a lot of repenting) and repeat the whole process. Continue daily to rededicate yourself.
One of my favorite quotes that a Sister Tyler had on her wall: "God doesn't demand perfection, He commands progression."
Reflecting back over my life and recent life the past week, I think the adversary really tries to get me by making me over think everything.
The gospel is so simple, that even a 9 year old investigator named Michael can understand and desire to be baptized.
The gospel is so deep that even an Iowa recent convert named Betty can learn and understand more every time she picks up the scriptures.
It's amazing. I love it. I'm excited for eternity, I'm excited for today. :)
Thank you so much.
I know that the doctrine of Christ is true, and that the Book of Mormon is 100% true! and that this church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, really is Christ's church. You have to be a part of it to know it.
And that's why I'm out here :)
 So sorry I ran out of time. I love you all. Working hard. Safe, extremely happy. Find out transfer doctrine and what's happening on Friday, so next Monday you'll know if I'm leaving Rio Vista that next Wednesday or not.
Excited for the 4th... We're having a big BBQ firework party because the city doesn't do one, I'm so excited.
Everything I said to President Alba is 100% exactly true. :)
Especially My testimony :)
Send emails throughout the week! I love to hear from you all! I love you all! You are all the best! Not even lying! I'm the luckiest sister out there! :)
Love, 
Sister Darby Eleyce Miller

Sister Miller with a Moose

Rio!

Dear family and friends...

I love you....
We're killing it here... (Killing Satan's work, that is...)
:) Lots of success... I'm almost out of time, so I'll tell you more next week.

That week we picked up a lot of people, we had a less active come to
church. He hadn't been in 14 years because of some hard feelings
against some leaders, but that was a miracle.

Also.... A  long time ago I had written about Carolina... She in
in Santa Rosa. But she still talks to Hermana Bryant on Facebook. She
has a baptismal date, and awesome story... Right after we had passed
her off to the Spanish Sisters she had been afraid because her mom was
Catholic. One day Carolina went over to her mom's and guess who was
there... Missionaries! Her mom is going to be baptized as well...
Super exciting! So excited!

Also... I don't know if I ever mentioned that Elliott and Jessica are
going to get married the beginning of July, and Elliott will be
baptized the end of July. So cool.

So Jamal our investigator was out of town working all week, but we
picked up another family nearby.... His girlfriend's teenage brother,
and also Jamal's girlfriend's older brother and family. Pray for
Yolanda and John and their kids... They've accepted the baptismal
invites.... Wow... So cool... I'll tell you more about that next
time... We had a phone lesson with Jamal and he was so excited. You
could hear it in his voice.

Hmmn... We also have talked to many cool people on the streets. We
usually do that every day. I have so many stories, but this one dude
named Tony... So many tattoos... We have an appt with him on Tuesday.
So excited.

Hmm... we also had a great lesson with Misty and Chrystal.. We are
having the with them tonight... I can't remember if I told you about
them before... I'll write more next week.

Also... Last night this guy ran out of an aptmt and yelled to us to
come back... He wanted pamphlets to read. Wow. Miracle... We're going
to have the first lesson tonight. Super excited. All Heavenly Fathers
work.

I love you all. I'm thinking of you all. I pray for you every night.

I know the church is true,
Thank you to all of you who helped me get on my mission. I wouldn't be
here if it wasn't for you.
Pray for Sister M (not me.... Someone else who needs it...) thanks!

Loves!

Love,
Sister Miller

Pictures!

We're Not There....YET. Can You Hang On a Little Longer?

This week was amazing! So last week I wrote about being tired and how
I wanted this week to be full of energy. It was still hard, but not as
much. I feel like after Elder Falabella came, I just wanted to work
work work again. We had found our two families, both of those
experiences were outright miracles.

Wednesday night we followed a prompting to a potential family.
Richard, the father of the home, served an LDS mission and has served
in the armed forces and just completed that and is home for good now.
His wife is the daughter of a deceased pastor here in Rio Vista and
she is looking for a new church. Their daughter is 11-12 years old,
loves Jesus, and is a natural leader. We had a lesson and picked them
up. Miracle.

Thursday night we were anxious about finding and picking up another
family. We were down to our last half hour of finding before we had to
go to a lesson. We went to a home of a potential named Jon. His wife
answered. She knew who we were although we had never met her, and she
kindly told us that although her husband was interested and was
probably going to come to church Sunday, that she wasn't feeling good
and that we should come by at her time. My heart sunk. I didn't want
to lose hope, and I turned to go. But Hermana Bryant struck up a light
conversation about nonsense, or so I thought. She wove her way through
the conversation and offered a house blessing. Cool.  The television
spouted noises and chaos, and two boys sat in front of it, eating
dinner. We had them turn off  the t.v. and all gather around.

We spent a while talking with them, taught them that the gospel
blesses families, and about prayer, and then prayed for them. The two
little boys, Kaden (9) and Savion (11) sat there afterwords for the
longest time after the prayer, reverent. It was  amazing the feeling
of gentle peace that filled the room. The mom looked so calm. A change
had definitely come over her. She wasn't stressed anymore. We talked
to her about the feeling, what it meant, and how she could have that
in her family more. Amazingly, the boys also listened, obviously
something was catching their attention. We invited them to be baptized
I with a soft invite, and we are going to go over and have a Family
Home Evening with them tonight. The father hadn't been there, but he
was the one that was initially interested. Then we came to find out
that These weren't even his sons, although we had oftentimes seen him
outside playing at the park with them, teaching them Kung Fu moves and
stuff.

I had another miracles. I had prayed that morning to find someone that
needed my help that day. I feel like the past week I've really had my
mind on improving and letting the mission change me into not only a
better me for my benefit, but firstly for the person that God wants me
to be. I want to be an instrument in His hand, because I'm sick and
tired of getting in the way of that with all my worries, doubts, and
apathy. I want to be ready at His every command. Anyway, that night we
were walking Main Street, right past the bar. We were talking to these
ladies  and another lady slipped past us into an ally. I didn't know
why she had caught my eye, because usually I try to keep all my
attention on the contact at hand and what they are saying, but I had
this nudging that I needed to go talk to her. We kept walking to catch
another person, and  we contacted them. They were't interested. I
voiced the prompting, a little hesitant, but then I told them I was
sure it was a prompting, and I marched after the lady because she was
just getting in her car. I talked to her, and it came out gat she had
grown up in the church and that she felt
Like she wasn't worth wasting our time. I hate it, but we get that
excuse a lot... Sometimes people mean it, sometimes they don't, but I
could tell that she meant it. I looked into her eyes, and simply
stated "You are a daughter of God, and nothing you could do could ever
change that." Tears came to her eyes, and she gave me a hug. We left
her our card, and offered service (she had broken her arm and was a
bar-tender...and that the bar was having a fund-raiser for her because
she couldn't work. Well. Hopefully she'll call us or come to church.
As we walked away, my heart broke. It's a familiar feeling these days.
You just want so much for people to trust God's promise at things will
get better as they partake of the gospel. But at that moment, I
remembered my prayer earlier that day to find someone who really
needed my help.

It's small moments like that that I won't ever forget. If there is one
thing that I have learned form my mission thus far, it is that every
individual is worth so much to God, and that He never gives up on
them, even if they give up on themselves. He never gives up even when
they give up on Him. I've learned that it is the same with me. Looking
backover my life, there were so many times when Heavenly Father was
reaching out to me. My life is like night and day, when I compare the
times where I reached out for Him as well, versus the times where I
was blind. It's not that I was intentionally keeping myself away from
Him and His love. I just wasn't looking.

I'm almost a third of the way through my mission. I panicked inside
when I realized that. It's almost been six months. That scares me.
Let's kick things into gear! That's how I feel. There is no time to
waste, especially since it goes faster and faster through my
fingertips every day, week, and month.

I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father. I know that even now my eyes
are blind to some of the things that I will yet begin to see. I'm
going to start praying for my eyes to be opened to His will, His love,
His mercy. I want to know God so well that I even know His
personality.

I can't be upset with people I run into everyday for not wanting the
gospel in their lives. Their eyes are just not opened. Yet.

That's another thing my eyes have been opened to.... I can't be upset
with the members for not getting it. Their eyes are just not opened.
Yet.

I can't be upset with myself. I've got to stop. I have to keep trying,
and I need to put harder, but I don't need to be down on myself.
Heavenly Father and my Brother and not done with me. They are not
upset or disappointed. My eyes are not opened.

Yet.

Yup. Dearest family and friends. I'm excited to share one other fun
thing that happened yesterday. You see, Sundays on the mission don't
really feel like Sundays because we still go out and do missionary
stuff. Pretty fun stuff. :) no really. I love it. Not even being
sarcastic. Well...

There's these kids that run around Rio Vista all the time. We see them
everywhere. They are basically our friends. Well, we talked to them as
they took this free couch and decided to walk it to the nearest park,
which just happens to be nearby our house and the new family we picked
up. So hours later, we are tired, and Hermana Bryant isn't feeling top
good. So we plop down on the couch. We decide we'll probably call one
our not-recently-picked-up families that we are teaching because they
need a couch and they need to see us even more.

All the kids start coming, over, excited about giving away the couch,
and we ended up filming a little funny video that I won't send because
I know I'd never live it down with some of you :) well, after, I ended
up teaching them about how God is our loving Heavenly Father, and then
I showed them this:


Yup. :) pretty cool for Father's day. During that time, they cuddled
up against me without realizing it, and one little girl even laid her
head against my arm. It make my heart ache and warm at the same time.
Wow. :) I miss my Brookey and my Jane so much, and being around those
boys made me think of my brothers. But it was cool to be able to share
the gospel with them.

I love you all! :)

Thank you for all that you do for me! And also... They announced that
we can check our emails throughout the week and read them just as we
would letters, but we can still only email and write on P-Day.... But
that means feel free to email me. :) I might just be able to read it
the night that you send it. :) Sorry I have been late with all my
letter responses. I'm the worst, but I do love you all and appreciate
all that you have done for me. :)

If you are going to pray for me, pray that I will receive more energy
of Spirit, and that my mind and heart will be opened to what I need to
do. :)

Love you all!

I know the Book of Mormon is true. Gotta read it and pray about it to
know that it is true. Phone Holy Ghost is the ultimate test for any
question, any doubt, and any concern you ever have. I know that Joseph
Smith saw God our Heavenly Father AND His Son Jesus Christ. I KNOW
that you have to be living according to the light you have received,
or you start to slip back. That means for all of us members, the
ultimate test is this:

Will we do the small yet hard things that God has commanded us.
Is it a surprise that the first commandments that we teach people is
to read scriptures everyday, to pray to Heavenly Father every morning
and every night, and to go to Church every Sunday?

That is the test.

The story of Naaman is a good example. "Master, if he had not asked of
you a great thing, wouldst thou not have done it?"
God will not give us great things if we will not do what He has
already asked of us.

See...
:) I'm learning!
:)

LOVE YOU ALL!

Sister Darby Eleyce Miller

Remind Me of Who I Really Am, Who I am to You! ~Jason Gray

This week has been a really good one. I feel like I really lucked out with my companionship. They both have so many strengths and I'm learning a lot from them. Hermana Bryant is bold and loving. People just like her, even if they have never met her before. She is determined, yet also courteous of others feelings. Sister Warnock is a sweetheart and she is just full of joy and light. She is straightforward about the truth and she stands for what is right.

This week I'm going to work on keeping my focus very sharp. I feel like the heat of the sun and things really got to me, and I just felt so tired the whole week. This week I'm going to drink lots of water and stay energized. I think I'll call it operation: Sister Alba! Seriously! I want to have energy like that all the time! So that is my goal for this week.

We are teaching a lot of lessons on Facebook, and that is cool. We are just trying to see miracles, especially out here in exile to Paradise (Rio Vista).

We had exchanges with the other Sisters and that was fun. I think I learned that I need to step it up with being on top of knowing my area. That's another thing I think I'll focus on this week.

Also... A cool experience, we were just street contacting and we walked behind a little apartment complex. This little dog ran out of an open door and this lady followed. "Hello!" She just turned to go back in her house, pretending that she hadn't heard me. I called out again in a last ditch effort, after getting to know her a little but (I love contacting people with their dogs) she said that she had requested missionaries online, but hey hadn't ever shown up, she set up a return appointment because she had guests and then we went on our way like normal, then it hit me. That was a miracle! I guess I'm just growing accustomed to miracles like that. Well, that's another thing I think I'm going to work on: recognizing the hand of The Lord in the miracles that He weaves through all my life.

I'm excited for Friday, but I will say that I'm very scared about the two families we will need to have by then. But I know that Heavenly Father has a plan. Thank you for all your prayers for us.

I love being a missionary! I'm falling in love with the work again! This week is going to be awesome! I can feel it. This week, I am going to be different. This week, I'm going to be extraordinary. :)

I hope you have a wonderful Father's Day!

 So.... I'm really upset. I just typed out this big long novel. It was amazing. And my iPad died. I know. That's a Darby thing to do. It's all her fault, not Sister Miller's. Sister Miller never does stuff like that ;)

Anyway... Basically the best part of it was when we went down the Sacramento River and we were contacting all the windsurfers and kite surfers and I talked to this almost 8 year old girl named Athena. She had never seen missionaries before and she believes in a God, but when asked her if she believes in Jesus Christ she said "I hear that name a lot, but I don't really know what it means." I told her the first thing that she should know about Jesus Christ is that she loves her and that and is the Son if God. I told her that God is our father, and that we lived with Him before we came to earth. I told her that He is the King, and the we are his daughters. I pointed to my name tag and said that that was why my name is Sister Miller. She excitedly called herself Sister Athena and I smiled.
Then I paused. "Athena, if God is our Father, and He is a King, what does that make us?"
"Sisters!" She blurted out.
"Yes, but what else?" I smiled and waited. I could see the thoughts having through her mind. She paused, looked up at me and cautiously asked me to give my answer first.
"If your Father is a King, what does that make you?"
Everything was still, but I knew better. Things around us were still loud. It could only be one thing. I knew the Spirit was speaking.
I leaned down, and looked into her eyes. I could feel the truth of it well up inside me. I didn't need tears to accompany any of my words. I knew that she would feel it, because she could see I really meant it.

"A Princess."

And then I could see it in her eyes too. She knew it too. But what she said next will never be erased from my memory.

"Then that means you are a princess too!" Athena smiled, and we continued our conversation. What a moment. Those are the moments I live for, moments of truth, where it all hangs in the balance and you as a missionary can't do anything but step back and watch as the Spirit of God works its miracles.

Those moments are everywhere. I wish I had more time, but I want to testify that I know if you, the person reading this, were to pray for your eyes to be open to the miracles around you, you would see them. Chariots of fire and armies of angels ready to catch you, help you fight the battles you face. I know they are there.

I know Who is at the head. I know Who I serve. I know the message I bear, the Book of Mormon, is from Him. I am divinely commissioned, and I speak by His authority.

I am a servant of Jesus Christ.

Sister Darby Eleyce Miller
A daughter of God, a princess,

And nothing can ever change that.

P.S. I love all of you. And nothing will ever change any of that, either. :)

May He keep you all. I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers, and that He loves all of us. You are in my prayers. :) And believe me, I pray a lot. :) I need it.