Birthday!

Elder Miller's birthday is NEXT week! It would be fabulous if everyone could send him a short email wishing him a happy birthday! His birthday is on his P-day so he will even get emails on his birthday!! It will be his first birthday away from home.  Go forth and email him at miller.dallin@myldsmail.net

7-28-14 Pictures

Branch missionaries and Elder Miller's companion

Elder Miller and a 14 year old branch missionary

7-28-14

So last P day we played some basketball with some members and some other people. The courts we played on were probably the worst things I've ever seen haha. Elder Lehr and I got there a little after Elder Garcia and Elder Morely were done and they left to go buy something. So they were decent at basketball I suppose, but I let it rain on them. I hit at least 2 threes and almost every one of my jumpers. Of course they foul a lot and its somewhat streety but it was pretty fun for awhile. Bought some corn flakes and some milk and a kilo of sugar and I've been eating that for a week. Switching back to getting doughnuts for breakfast though. Dont know if this is normal in Madagascar but for lunch we usually go to a place called Tampico and I get hamburgers there every day. They are really cheap compared to the other food here which is already pretty cheap, But its nice to keep the rice to a minimum. I ended up buying a milkshake on Thursday at Tampico and it was a little disheartening. Fairly small and for some reason it was like a chocolate banana flavor. So of our investigators there are some younger kids that are really good at coming to church and keeping commitments and learning things well which is awesome. There is also a guy from our English class that is now an investigator and lessons with him are interesting because he asks some deep./long/weirdish questions. Mostly everyone is really receptive but some just don't come to church. One lady said she couldn't come because she was cleaning clothes, another said because it was cold. So thats kinda sad but weve had more people and investigators at church every week.

I bought some icecream and milk and oreos and I'm making a shake today. I also got a speaker that is made out of a soda can and its pretty sweet. We ran into some drunk guys and one was driving a motorcycle on his dirt road and the others tried to jump on the back and they fell and almost got ran over and the driver ended up in the ditch. Crazy stuff. Drunk people also seem to stop us while we are walking and just try and talk to us about stuff forever..... On Sunday some of the branch missionaries got a hold of my camera and were looking through my pictures and then ELder Lehr and I stopped to talk with someone and they were up above on a different ledge. They took a ton of pics haha and its lots of fun having all of the youth/branch missionaries come with us. Usually Francois will come with us, then some of the girls come every few days. We usually have more on Sunday. But its amazing how much they help out, I think its vacation from school now too though. Our new DMB is way cool too and he speaks English pretty well since he takes that class here. But things are well. Some weird stuff going on with someone who is technically a polygamist right now... But going pretty well. Our area is fairly large and we have to hike a lot of mountains too so I'm getting my walking in. Apparently missing  out on Lebrons Proclamation to the World and how hes taking his talents home. Sounds funny.
Elder Miller

Email and Mission Home Address!

If you would like to send a letter to Madagascar you can currently send it to the mission home in Madagascar:
Elder Dallin Thomas Miller 
Madagascar Antananarivo Mission 
BP 5094 
101 Antananarivo 
Madagascar

You can also always email him as well! 
miller.dallin@myldsmail.net
His P-day is on Mondays but remember he is 9 hours ahead now : )

Pictures 7-21-14

One from when he was in Provo

7-21-14

This week has been way crazy and has felt like a long time. So we have done absolutely no tracting because we have so many investigators and recent converts to teach. The members here are awesome as well and give us a lot of referrals and people to teach. So my language skills have been growing somewhat but it still sucks being in the dark about what people are saying a lot. But we eat pretty well here. There aren't any big stores here in Fianarantsoa so we buy some things to make at Ipisseraries and we eat at Tampiko restaurant a lot too. It's really good, they have some good steak and hamburgers there. When we make food its rice or noodles but when we make it ourselves it usually seems better than what you get elsewhere. So on Wednesday is when we make our hike over the mountain to teach some people on the other side, it was pretty cool. But we hike around a lot here, which is good to stay in pretty good shape. But since they don't have root beer here I've taken to getting fanta orange as the replacement. They really have like 6 different sodas. Fanta orange, pineapple, and some other weird fruit. Then they have coke. and then they have Bon Bon Gilasy. Or something like that. It's a kind of soda they don't have in the US and it tastes like that double bubble gum stuff. Its pretty good but I like fanta orange better. They also have sprite. So we went to this restaurant place which is a total vazaha restaurant or a foreigner's restaurant. We were sitting waiting to order when like 3 drunk guys, French, came over and were talking to us. They were actually talking fairly normally for awhile but then they were getting pretty annoying. The owner came over and told them to leave us alone which was nice. Its funny since a lot of the restaurant places where missionaries go are really nice and like having the missionaries there since we frequent their places quite a bit and but quite a lot of food. Thursday we gave a blessing to a girl and I had to the annointing part, and I didn't really think I was saying everything quite right but my companion told me I said everything like perfect- it was nice having the spirit to help me out with that. But weve done a lot of teaching and I have to lead out on whenever we teach the first lesson, which is a lot, but Ive been improving on that. We also went to teach this guy and he was drunk or hungover which was interesting- my companion was like I will read this and he just started reading at like 1 word a hour. haha but it was interesting. We got a new DMB or ward mission leader. Hes a little more active in helping us out and meeting with us. We ate at the branch presidents house on fri and sun which was nice. He's really cool him and his wife are planning on going to America to visit temples and places or something. Saturday was also apparently girls day, in madagascar so they had a party in the basement in the church and a bunch of activities. I got my Bible in malagasy and it came with a sweet zip cover binding thing that almost feels like bubble wrap. Its nice. Planning on playing basketball with some members today which should be fun, Elder Garcia and Elder Morley also play basketball and are both like an a couple inchs taller than me but bigger too. So im guessing they wont let us play missionaries vs members ha. But its been a blast and I took some really sweet pictures as well. We also made some dessert with choclate bars being cooked in the flour and its really good. Also my birthday happens to be in two weeks on a PDAY I'm pretty sure which is cool. The people here are awesome!
Elder Miller

(His birthday is August 4th  ~Kyla)

Pictures!

First Email from Madagascar! (Week 7?)

So this past week has been crazy awesome; the 4th of July we got to watch 17 miracles and have an icecream bar and watch fireworks for like 30 mins. The last few days of the mtc we had culture days which was fun. We flew out on Monday morning, the plane rides were pretty boring and the food was sub par of course, but in London we left the  airport and walked around West Minister which was a lot of fun. I didn't really know how strong the pound was against the dollar and it was quite suprising actually, but it was nice there. We saw some members some actual missionaries there and a man who I guess works in the Rexburg temple which was random. We got to Madagascar and ate with the president and the trainers and learned stuff. The next day we got our assignments and I got assigned to Fianarantsoa North with Elder Lehr who is a way cool trainer. Elder Garcia is in Fianarantsoa too. It's cold here a bit since it's the middle of the winter and it's higher up but the jacket is only needed in the mornings and later when it gets dark at like 6. So we took a bus to here and the first one was so crowded I was literaly squished, one of us had to lean forward while the other leaned back for the whole 7 hour drive. Then one elder was throwing up the whole time and he was sitting next to me and that was fun. But then in Antsirabe we rode the bus me and my companion for like 7 hours and the road was terrible. The other companionhip had someone drive them on Sunday but it was nice. So everyone is way short here and we went around and taught a ton Saturday, then Sunday at church I had to bear my testimony in front of like 150 people but it wasn't too bad. Then we went teaching that afternoon with the branch missionaries and there are like 6 of them and we can't split since I'm new so we went around and taught with 8 people it was pretty crowded. Rhen we played a game with kids that night and it's pretty fun, the kids are so cool here and they really like missionaries and giving donas or fists to them or just pulling on our arms or holding our hands haha. Also my trainer is Elder Lehr he's really cool and they say that Lair and so they call me  MELAIR and they think it's really hilarious haha. But it's awesome here sooo sorry this keyobard is so bad and hopefully my parents fix up what I'm typing haha. (I most certainly fixed up his typing. Not only is it a bad keyboard apparently it is also a French one. I hope I fixed everything correctly : ) ~Kyla)
Elder Miller

examples of Malagasy

nahafatynyakoho aho. I killed the chicken.

Ny antony namakiako ny Boky dia ho mahafinarita. The reason I read the book is for fun.

Matory aho satria reraka aho. I'm sleeping because I'm tired.

Marina ny Bokm a  Mormon. The Book of Mormon is true.

Nanoratra ny Boky aho momba paomasy soda. I wrote a book about apples and soda.

Arrival in Madagascar!

Elder Miller has arrived in Madagascar after about 25 hours of flying and 25 hours of layover time! He has been sent to Fianarantsoa with his trainer Elder Lehr : )

Elder Miller with his mission president and his mission president's wife 

Week 5 pictures

                                 A Elder from Madagascar who is going to New Hampshire on                                  his mission wanted a picture with Elder Miller and his District : )

Elder Miller and his District at the temple for the last time for 2 years!

Elder Miller and his zone at the temple. 

They're going to Madagascar! 

Elder Miller's District with their teachers

Week 5 Final Pday in the MTC!

So we did our TRC, teaching practice with other people who speak Malagasy and they were both over Skype. But the connection is so bad that there isn't any video and we have to call like 10 times before we can connect. Then sometimes when the member from there was speaking it was hard to tell what he was saying. So kinda a cool experience but I don't know how really helpful it was. We also played a Jeopardy Malagasy game last Saturday. Pretty cool. Last Friday night we got our travel plans!!! We are flying on British Airways from Salt Lake to Chicago 11:10 AM to 3:15 PM. Then we fly to London from 8:20 PM to 10 AM. Then fly to Johannesburg, SA from 7:10 PM to 7:10 AM and then on the South African Airways from 10 AM to 2:10 PM. So overall it will be from Monday morning to Wednesday afternoon. I've also never flown before so that should be exciting. I've been finding out a lot of the rules of flying from the other missionaries too. Took a zone picture on our temple walk last Sunday before all the new Indonesians and Malaysians showed up on Wednesday. Played soccer on Tuesday against the Hungarians and we only won 5-0/ we tied, because this is the MTC, nobody wins. Yeah some people in our district also made a Malagasy battle card game which is somewhat fun and educational a little. The rules still need some ironing out though. We had to say goodbye to two of our teachers on Wednesday- Brother Sell and Brother Bingham. They showed us a bunch of pictures from their mission and gave us a mini culture day. We took a farewell picture with our three teachers and our district. Today I got my first and last haircut at the MTC. Time here in the MTC is wrapping up though... Really excited to be leaving for Madagascar on Monday!
Elder Miller

Week 4

Elder Miller didn't know why we didn't get this email. He said it sent but for some reason it didn't reach us!

So last Thursday we had the Speaker of Parliament come to our classroom. We had to be there at like 1:40 and she was supposed to come around 2;15, but she didn't actually show up til 2:45. Our teacher just had us sit there and recite the same lines on the board for like the whole hour though-I almost died of boredom. Then she talked to us for like 5 minutes. Then we went out for a picture and I was totally not ready for the first one and did not smile at all. They took a few others, but of course the first one is the one they sent us. So I pretty much look like an idiot in it. From last Saturday to Wednesday was the mission president seminar here. They locked down the main building and kept us away from the general authorities as much as possible and cut our cafeteria in like thirds. With walls and dividers in between. Otherwise mostly just had a lot of class, and teaching and learning. Sunday night was a devotional by Sister and Brother Perry and it was really really good. Brother Perry is one of those sweet/funny dare I say "cute" old men and his wife was awesome too. So she was telling a story how she almost married the wrong man, and she said it was during some music test when she was wetting her reed for her clarinet. When then he said"Your lips look like they were made for better then sucking a clarinet read" or sweeter than just for that or something. Then as she said that he got up and smiled waved his arms up and down and went and kissed her at the pulpit.It was pretty hilarious and all the missionaries started clapping. She also sang her family song that she made with her family. It was pretty cool. 

We watched a Joseph Smith movie Sunday night and it was great. Otherwise just had a lot of class Monday. Tuesday we had the special general authority devotional where Elder Christensen spoke. There were six apostles up on the stand. Elder Nelson, Elder Oaks, Elder Ballard, Elder Bednar, Elder Christensen, and Elder Andersen. It was really good but the devotional was shorter than normal for some reason. Our district hosted again and I hosted 5 missionaries, one going to Tahiti, Mexico, Tallahassee Florida, Belgium/Netherlands/Finland. The missionary going to FL was from Burley. He had played Borah in basketball and was telling me how he had to guard Isiaiah Wright and how good he was. I also saw Elder Newbern by the book store when I was hosting. Today was the last time going to the temple for 2 years...On the way back I somehow ran into Elder Newbern again.... Otherwise leaving for Madagasar in 11 days! We are all getting even more excited to go. 

Elder Miller