Hey guys!

Sorry its been a while, Ive been busy, but its been a good type of busy. Ive been transfered to my 3rd area, its called Agoo, and its hot, but awesome. My new companion is Elder Calipes, and hes pretty cool. Im loving the mission, its hard, but its worth it. Ill share  one quick experience. We were finding, we went to this one house, knocked, introduced ourselves, and ended up teaching Mary Lou about the Atonement, life after death, why blood or pork is not forbidden anymore, and that connection to the old and New Testaments, prophets, and prayer. It was an awesome lesson, and she likes to ask questions. We asked her to give the closing prayer, and there we discovered her love for her family, and that she wants the help of Heavenly Father. Powerful prayer, it was like she was talking to Him for the first time. After the prayer, he asked her what she was feeling, she said it was nice, uplifting, and then stated that she noticed it started when we first introduced ourselves. This is the work of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. He will not leave us alone when we try to help our brothers and sisters, or if we are struggling. He wont. I hope you guys all have a  great week. 

Elder Miklich

Hey guys,

I hope you all enjoyed General Conference because it was way good. This Church is true and our leaders are inspired. There were a ot of talks that hit home, and it all helps me become a better missionary. Sorry this is a short email, nothing new really. me and elder Vicente will be finishing our 3rd transfer together, Our area is still awesome, losing yourself in a work, especially this work, brings tons of blessings. Inat kayo lahat!

Elder Miklich

Email from September 25, 2016

Hey guys!

Sorry I didn't write last week, was a little busy. But over the past 2 weeks we had some exciting things happening. 1) they will open a meeting house in our area because our area is pretty far from the church, and the members and investigators have a hard time. So on Oct. 16, if all goes well, Things will really pick up here in Irisan. 2) Transfers were last last week, and me and Elder Vicente are still companions. Its been a long time, but its ok, we teach pretty good together. 3) We meet this new guy named Skyler last week. His had a rough background, but he really wants to change his life around. We gave him the Book of Mormon and he basically started reading immediately. There's a lot of miracles that happen everyday day, and I'm always so grateful when we find new people, and when people keep their commitments, and the feel the Spirit in their lives. Seeing people makes changes, or repenting, is a very humbling experience, and sometimes we are astounded at the act of faith that the investigators take. Its simply amazing. I hope you all have a blessed week, ingat.

Elder Miklich 

Email from October 2, 2016

Hello guys!

This has been a great week, and it came to a fantastic close this fast Sunday when one of our less actives, Bro Munoz, got up in the front to bear his testimony to the ward about the blessings of the gospel. When I first met him, about 4 months ago, he was a guy that had some word of wisdom issues, and he was looking for direction. Through a great amount of faith on his part, he started coming back to church, he has no more problems with WoW, and he is no longer afraid to come to church. Its the strongest conversion that ive seen on my mission so far. Its been amzing to see the changes that he made in his lives in order to live according to the gospel, and then the changes that came into his life because of those decisions. He made a comment one lesson, "I dont have very much, but Im happy and my life is peaceful. I believe!" Nobody is out of the reach of the Atonement. I really love that guy. I invite you guys to think about the last time the Atonement has played a role in your life, and the last time youve seen it play a role in somebody else's life. Well thats it for this week, short but powerful. Take care ya'll!

Elder Miklich

Email from September 11, 2016

Hi guys,

So this is transfer week, and we got a call earlier and the AP said that me And Elder Vicente or going to be companions again, so this will make 3 transfers in all. Thats a long time, but hes pretty chill, and so here we go again. haha, although we did have an interesting experience this week. us two have been struggling in talking and finding new people the past few weeks, so we made that our focus for this week. So we set a goal, and we achieved that goal, (it was a pretty high goal, but we worked and achieved it) and two families that we weren't really expecting would come to church came! We were pumped, and the investigators had a good experience as well. So thats kinda my cool thought for the week. The Lord will bless us when we try to improve and become better. All He requires is our compliance and willingness to obey. We don't know how he will do it, but the promise is sure. There's a deeper meaning to this experience Im just having a hard time explaining over email. Anyways, I hope each one of us can strive to be a bit more obedient this week, in order that He can more fully bless us. Ingat kau!!

Elder Miklich

Email from August 29, 2016

hey guys! 

So its been a pretty great week. We helped this guy named Salvador carry rocks up to his house. that was quite an experience. Right now he is building a house, but first he needs to clear the way, set up rocks to keep the dirt from coming in( He's builiding it into the side of a mountain) and he's the only one. He has also been coming to church straight almost two months now, but he still has WoW problems, but we are helping him with that. (its also hard because he also speaks Ilocano, and has a hard time understandiing Tagalog. minor obstacles in the way of Salvation.So he got a real good laugh watching a small white guy carrying rocks up to his house. Some were pretty heacy, and my companion also laughed at me, so it was a good time. Anyways, That was a fun service project, and he did come to church last sunday, so it was worth it. But there is also a good life lesson here. Sometimes in life, it feels like we are walking in an uphill slope towards heaven. every now and then we hit a really muddy patch of path, so we need to watch where we put our feet. And then we feel like we are carrying a big heavy bato (rock) on our backs. and then it starts to rain. So in other words, life gets hard. But if we endure it well, focusing where need to go, there will be a place where we can toss the heavy rock from our shoulders, and look back and see the progress we have made, and then be grateful for that trial. I hope you guys can use this experience somewhere in your week, I know that the Church is true, and n ot only will be able to cast off our rocks, but Jesus Christ will be their every step of the way, helping us, and guiding us to a better path. I love Him.

Have a good week,

Elder Miklich

Email from September 5, 2016

Hi guys,

Doing good over here. Teaching people, finding people that are just waiting to find the truth. The mission is hard, but fun. This is just a short email ngayon, but this has been a good week. Earlier this morning we tried playing soccer, the field was really muddy, but its been a long time so me and Elders Jenson, Vicente, and Plania went to play. I line up for the first shot, ran to the ball, took the swing, and pulled a charlie brown haha. mud everywhere on my back. pretty embarrassing. It wouldve been worth it though if the ball wouldve made it to the goal. it was a pretty bad slip, but it made the others morning pretty fun. We went home soon after that, and so  its a good thing im not worried about playing soccer here. But heres a pretty cool story. We taught he word of wisdom to Salvador, the guy who has been coming to church for a while, that was on Sunday. We went back to him on Saturday, followed him up, and he was like, "I havent smoked or drunk in 5 days." This guys a stud. he also said that his head really hurts, but hes still going strong. it was a miracle that the Sisters found him, and that hes wiling to follow the commandments. This is just one miracle that I noticed this week, but this is also my "thought of the week". We are really stronger than we think we are, we just have to grit our teeth and endure. This life isn't easy, but it gets better when we follow the commandments. That gives us strength to endure the hard times, just like Joseph Smith in liberty jail. We can do this!! take care til next week,

Elder Miklich

Hey guys!

Sorry its been like a really long time since Ive wrote. Things are busy over here, and I havent quite mastered typing. Anyways, things are awesome here in Quezon Hill Ward. The members are awesome, strong, and we have some cool investigators. One is named Salvador, the Sisters actually found him in their area, but they cant teach him because there usaully isnt any women around, so they gave him to us. he has already come to church like 4X, but he has a slight obstacle of WoW, so we will help him with that. He really likes Church, he says that "magadang pakiramdam" which means good/beautiful/nice feelings. (yes there are a lot of meanings to that word) We had another investigator named Brian that asked when he could get baptized, so we gave him a date, and then he got a job at McDonald's, so he might move to Dagumpan or Manila, someplace far. Satan really works full time to stop the work from progressing. He is still way cool, but because his schedule changed we can't teach him that often anymore. So thats some of the kool guys we've met and are progressing, Things are great being a missionary. I get to see miracles everyday, and get to spread the love of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ sa lahat. I love this church, for the Gospel it bears and the hope of an eternal family. I love you guys, hope you are all doing well wherever you are. 

ingat kayo, 

Elder Miklich

Richard's camera just sent us pics, which means he was close and connected to WiFi...the first time his camera has been able to do this since the MTC!  What a joy to get random pictures of my boy!

We saw a pic of Richard playing basketball a couple of months ago and we all wondered if it was a banana on his shirt, but we weren't sure...but this picture proves he does indeed have a banana shirt...

Two Americans feeling patriotic on the Fourth of July!  God Bless the USA!

This is quite a waterfall...Wow!

hello guys,

Sorry I didnt write last week, Ive been busy. I had a few cool experiences this week. We have been doing a lot of finding, and that means we met people of all sorts of beliefs and ideas about our Heavenly Father. We met this one guy who asked us what was the most important part of our message. We said that Jesus Christ lives, he said "Amen, lets sit down and talk about Him." Well, it turns out he is a Baptist preacher, and a kinda preached to us about how our salvation is free, as long as we have faith, and that we didn't need works. (He ignored our James 2:17 reference) but then in the same sentence, he told us that we needed to repent, so I think his defintion of works was a little bit off. Then, there is a lot of one certain church around here that are pretty stalwart in their beliefs. I actually kinda admire them for their firmness, but at the same time i'm pretty depressed because it is of course, the wrong church. I wont go into what they believe, but needless to say Im so grateful for the Book of Mormon, and its purpose. There are two ways that I would like to share real quick. 1) it clariefies doctrines in the Bible. (ex. 2 Nephi 25:23 for my example) Then 2) It testifies that God has indeed called again a prophet in this Dispension. No other church has the Book of Mormon, And no other Church can make the claim we make, because there is no other true church. So my testimony and gratitude was really strengthened this week for the BoM. if you ever have any questions, turn to the Book of Mormon. It is the most true book in our time, and a symbol of God's love. People of different faiths aren't bad people, they are just doing the best they can with the Bible. I hope you all search a little more deeply this week, because sometimes we often underestimate the power within. take care this week,

Elder Miklich