And...her letter to her mission president

Dear President Alba,

Thank you so much for all the fun and encouragement that you and your lovely wife gave us the day we arrived. It was much needed and cherished by all of us new greenies, I think.

I have absolutely loved being companions with Sister Zenger! She is amazing! Wow! I don't have a big sister, but I think that she fills that role nicely. She is easy to get along with, so considerate, and she is patient, but she lives on such a high standard that I'm naturally drawn to push myself to be on her level. It's truly amazing, the blessing of a companion. I hope to continue to learn from her wonderful example of obedience and courage. She is so brave. I've been a little afraid of contacting, but she's taught me a lot about that so far.

I'm loving Santa Rosa! Sister Decker has a GPS before she left, and so now Sister Zenger and I are learning to navigate. It's been pretty fun. I know that God has a sense of humor. Let's just leave it at that. But truly, this is a blessed place.

She and I are working hard. I'm looking forward to getting organized. Planning is essential. I know that I need to step it up this week and be a contributor to the companionship. She's worked herself so hard getting things ready. We are seeing many miracles.

We met Dana the first night. She knows that her life isn't where it needs to be. She knows that there is a God, but I think we really helped her to understand that Heavenly Father loves her. We had some pretty cool experiences with her, that touched her heart and I know that she felt the Spirit, and the love of her Savior and her Heavenly Father. I think she was tearing up too. I read my mission scripture to her (1 Nephi 21:14-16) and I think it touched her. She accepted the soft invite to be baptized, and we are going to be teaching her later in the week. She also committed to read from the Book of Mormon this week. She took it willingly. I've been praying that she reads it and feels Heavenly Father's love for her. 

Rhett is going to be baptized soon. He came to church for the first time yesterday. I think he really liked the singles ward. At first he was quiet, but as the day progressed, he opened up and was talking to a lot of members, and even though I didn't hear all of the conversations I watched, and he was smiling a lot at the linger-longer nacho party after. I thought it was cool because in sacrament meeting I got to bear my testimony along with Sister Burgess, and the speakers spoke about missionary work, and also about the nature of the Godhead being three separate being and how we know that through the First Vision and when Jesus Christ was baptized. I thought that Rhett really liked that. SO EXCITED for his baptism. Pray that he can overcome smoking through the Atonement.

Elliott, an agnostic, and his girlfriend/fiance Jessica (a member when she was growing up) came to linger longer. They are extremely friendly, and both have a strong desire to be kind and love others and treat everyone the way you would want to be treated. You can tell that Elliott wants to believe in God, but his brain gets in the way. We taught him the very first point of the Restoration: God is our Loving Heavenly Father. It took an hour. But he has a sincere desire to learn. I learned a lot about the Spirit and testimony from Sister Zenger that lesson. I could feel it every time she bore her testimony with boldness. Jessica could feel it. I don't know if Elliott felt it yet, but you could see that it left an impression on him. He is very open-minded. The real question is this: is Elliott's heart open and sincere? You can tell that Jessica has had a lot of struggles in her life, and a lot of trials, but you can also see in her eyes that she was touched deeply by the lesson we had with them. She asked if we could give them a Book of Mormon even before we really had time to offer it. I had the opportunity to invite Elliott to be baptized. Wow. Never really done that before. He accepted, but expressed that he wouldn't commit to something like that unless he really felt true to it in his heart. He was kind, but I'm praying that he accepts in his heart Moroni's Promise, and experiments upon the word of God.

We also had a miraculous miracle. I later told Sister Zenger that it was probably the best experience I had ever had. It's probably now one of my favorite memories. This was friday night.

I had had a hard day with planning. Wow. Five hours. Didn't know that it was that long. (I'm laughing at myself. All the things I've learned this week. I'm sure you're laughing too!) After planning we went out to give a house blessing to a lady named Carolina that Sister Zenger had met a week or so before. She had said to call her before so she could come down and open the door for us. She didn't answer her phone, so we walked a block or so over and started contacting. Wow. People can be rude. Let's just say that I really felt like a greenie. I heard a lot of things that I've never heard before. No one wanted to listen. I felt quite discouraged. I was wondering why we were even trying, because people not only didn't care, but they were outright rude. 

After a long while, we decided to go back to the car and try something else. Sister Zenger had a prompting to call Carolina again. She answered apologetically, saying that she was just a few mins away. She pulled up with her 8 year old daughter, Elizabeth and led us up to her apartment. She apologized about the mess-- she was just moving in and her kids were getting used to the school, and she was looking for a job-- and then invited us in. We sat down on the clean but empty living room carpet. Before we could jump into the house blessing, she asked us kindly "So what are you going to teach me today?"

Wow.

Carolina expressed her faith in Christ. She is a single mom of three children, trying to find a job. She said that she prays to God for help to relieve the pressure, because she knows that no matter what, she has to be a smiling face for her children. She told us how she prays with her children, and tells them to pray to relieve the pressure and pain that they feel. She has them pray for their Daddy. She says she doesn't know if that's okay, and she doesn't want to bother God, but that she knows that they need to do it.

We taught her about prayer, why we pray, that God hears and answers all of our prayers. I asked her why if He knows everything, does He have us pray? She was tearing up. She didn't know. "He commands us to pray because He loves us and wants to have us not just talk, but to listen to Him also." I replied in a whisper. She felt the spirit testify of that to her heart, and you could see it in her eyes that she willingly believed everything we were saying to her. "The message that we bring is from Your Heavenly Father and your Savior JESUS CHRIST, who hear your prayers, and answer them. The message of the gospel that we are going to teach you, if you choose to listen, will bless your life more than you can imagine."

We introduced the Book of Mormon. She wanted to understand the word "gospel" in English, so we told her the definition. We explained that it is what Jesus taught while he was on the earth, that it is faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. The whole lesson, her eyes were glistening with joy, love, relief of pain, and tears almost ready to fall. 

We told her we would send Spanish Sister to help her understand. She then did something that will forever be engraved in my memory.

Before we could invite her to read the Book of Mormon, she asked timidly "How much do one of those books cost?"

We gave one to her daughter, one to her. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes. You could tell she meant it.

Then startled, she said that she would have to read it first, but only so that she could understand and be true to the commitment of baptism. 

She's Catholic.

Not many Catholics will commit to being baptized like that.

She is so prepared. Wow.

I love her. I've never felt the love of the Savior so strong like that. 

Her daughter asked us to find the scriptures we shared. Wow.

We left, and felt her love for us. Wow.

This week has been amazing. All the horrible contacting is so worth it. Even if it's just putting our eyes in the light to find the elect, and to recognize their faith in the Savior Jesus Christ.

Thank you for all you do!

Love the mission!

It's not mine, it's HIS.

Sister Darby Eleyce Miller