week 34

Hola!! So yes... I moved! Bracknell is nice.. it's actually really posh. ha ha but it isn't as beautiful as Devon, that's for sure. This is the city, that was the country side. ha ha but this week has been so so good because guess what? We went to the temple!! We had our Christmas conference, so we left the flat at 5 am ha ha and traveled to the temple with all the other missionaries around these parts and then we went through a session at the London Temple and then we all did little Christmas skits! Ours. Was. Hilarious! Oh my gosh. Elder Dearing and Elder Cross had a member in the Farnborough ward where they are serving tell them about this youtube clip so we reinacted it. We dressed up as monks and instead of singing Motabs version of Isaiah 9:6 we made cards with the words on it and  when they would sing the words we would hold up a sign... ha ha it was so funny! I had someone record it on my camera so I'll send the memory card home soon so you can see it. 

But I'm so excited for Christmas! Lately I have been thinking about the spirit of Christmas. The spirit of Christmas, the reason we feel so much warmth and peace at Christmastime is because it is truly the spirit of Christ. The warmth comes from the Holy Ghost testifying to us that Jesus is the Christ! I am so grateful to be celebrating Him at this time of year as a missionary! I get to share His message with people everyday. I love it. This is Sister P's 4th Christmas and Shipon's FIRST CHRISTMAS EVER! So we got permission to take him to the temple visitors centre on Wednesday and teach him all about Christ and the true meaning of Christmas there :D hooray! PS on lds.org there are some beautiful videos of Christ's birth. The girl that plays Mary is from a ward here in our mission so I guess in January we are going to have a conference and she is going to come speak to us about playing the role of Christ's mother in the new church clips. I'm excited! 

So this week Sister P was pretty sick so we spent some time in the flat. She slept and I studied. But I'm so grateful for that extra time I got to study! And then I got a phone call from Exeter, it was Sister Gregson, for the past week she has been having weird pains and the last few days the pain has been RIDICULOUS so they took her to the hospital and then when she came up for their Christmas conference (the day before ours) they took her to the hospital again and they started doing tests and such, we think it's kidney stones but the NHS has to do more scans but she has to wait to be admitted into the hospital... so for the past 3 days she has been at the accomadation centre just WAITING... ugh. So anyways she got permission to call me so she did... like 8 times ha ha and I guess she was alone, they put her companion with other sisters so she could go out and work but that meant sister gregson didn't have anyone there with her (obviously) and the way she described these "fits" to me was that they come on all the sudden and the pain is so bad she can't breathe, she can't move, she is throwing up because she is in so much pain... so anyways I called the APs and asked why in the world she was alone Saturday night and of course they can;'t stay with her, they were doing everything they literally could but I told them if they needed they could bring her to Bracknell so she wouldn't be alone! ha ha So yesterday night she called before she went to bed and said that her new companion was going to be with her last night- GOOD! ha ha anyways I thought it was cool that because we were in the flat for Sister P to get better I was able to just be on the phone and talk with Sister Gregson and try to distract her from her pain and such as well whenever she needed. Pray for both of my little sickies! ha ha 

 Also, our ward mission leader is from South Africa he was in the Vereeniging ward? He is really cool, we always have correlation meetings during the week on his lunch break so he will take us to a really nice restaurant and we will have our meeting there ha ha it's very official.

*our exchange with Paignton (me, Sister Gregson, Priestley, Cabrera!) 
*sometimes we share the word of God with storm troopers...
*our cute neighbors Jen and Tim (the ones I got the brownie recipe for! she told us she was pregnant right when I got to Exeter and she was due the week I left)

*the sisters I have served with so far! Christensen, Gregson, and Fekete!

*Ok you see the elder on the left? His name is Elder Jones and he is from Chihuahua, Mexico. Remember how I stayed with Wendi Jones when I went to Mexico? Ya that's his aunt. ha ha and he went with our group when we layed cement floors and such!! I'll have to go through those pictures when I get home and see if he is in any of them ha ha- so crazy!
*Guess who is in my district now? Elder Kory Cross! The district leader bought us all matching bracelets/ties for Christmas!
*Me and Sister P right after we did a session at the London Temple :)
*This family went all out for Christmas! Check out that huge bag, a recent convert called Jon gave us that and it had a few wrapped packages inside for Christmas! :)

*happy christmas from me and sister gregson! yes my mug says i'd rather be in bed, hers says i'd rather be in the pub haha Jo gave us these when she moved!

*me and sister p!
*the haircut
*me and gregs with martyn!!
*sister terry (the sister from temple square :) )
*this post box was literally overflowing! we love post!!

Week 33

 It sounds like the Christmas season has had a beautiful start for you there. Yay for Christmas! We have been seeing so so many Christmas miracles. This morning for example.... Antony accepted a baptismal date for December 31st!!!!! I don't think I've told you about Antony. Last week we were teaching someone in the library and a guy walked past and I looked up and he waved so I waved back and Gregson was like who is this? I told her I didn't know ha ha but I have seen him before quite a bit in town and then the next day (Saturday) we got off the bus to go contact walk Queen street and we turn the corner and ran right into him! He stopped us and started talking to us so we arranged to meet him this morning. Well we met with him, taught him about the restoration of the gospel and he was SO PREPARED to hear this. Oh my goodness. The questions he was asking and the comments he was making, he really understood it all and he was feeling the spirit so strongly, we all were! And then after he said he wanted to be baptised he asked if he could say a prayer. :O ANTONY! Man it was so great. We are well excited to continue teaching him. I hope I get to at least, you asked when transfers are, they are on Wednesday so we will get moves call TOMORROW. Yikes.

 

Anyways this last week has been so fun. We started out by having a zone pday, had a thanksgiving dinner and just played all day and then we drove up to Reading. Remember I told you we were praying for a normal car ride? Ya it certainly wasn't. ha ha the sat nav told us there was a petrol station where there wasn't one so we got lost for a while and were convinced we were going to run out of petrol and have to walk but we FINALLY found a station and then things were fine, we got on the motorway again and 15 minutes later we got pulled over because Elder Parasso was speeding... oops. 20 minutes and £60 later we were on our way again. ha ha but the sisters conference was fantastic! We practised a lot and talked about core conversion. That has been something we have been talking a lot about lately. Not just having a testimony but being converted. I love The Book of Mormon. We have been teaching so many evangelical christians and jehovah's witnesses and... man everytime my testimony of The Book of Mormon and the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ is strengthened so much. THIS IS TRUE! Oh and Sister Fekete was at the sisters conference of course and she was walking! Without crutches! 2 1/2 weeks after having an ACL reconstructive surgery.. that's why we call her bionic knee. ha ha she says hello!

 

Oh mum I was going to tell you- Annukka Costello met us in town this morning and took us into a store and told us to look around and pick out what we want for Christmas. She took us Christmas shopping! It was so fun. We felt pampered. ha ha Sister Gregson was like my mum is going to be SO happy when I tell her about this :) so just know we are being taken care of here. :)

 

Is cousin Bryson in the MTC yet? Will you make him homemade chocolate chip cookies and send them to him? Because if I was in the MTC in Provo and had cousins close... that's what I would want. ha ha

 

Oh another really cool miracle! We got a referral last week and we tried to call this lady and she never answered but we finally got ahold of her on Saturday and she was SO excited. She took a few discussions with some friends in the states and wants to know more about the gospel, so we are going to meet her in town tomorrow and teach her more, she was seriously so happy when we called, it was so cool. I love this.

 

Well I think that's about all for now, I'll send some pictures though! ... Scratch that, I can't get it to work! Sorry. Rain check. I'm pretty nervous about moves call. I really am fine either way, it will be fun to start a new adventure, but I would love to stay here for Christmas where it feels like home! Well I'll know tomorrow! And you will know next week! ha ha I love you guys!

 

I got a birthday package from cousin Emily and a really nice letter and some money from Uncle Chris this week. Thank you!! I love our family. 

 

PS Corbin sent me this and I thought it was so funny because it is so true. THIS is what a mission is like:

 

A mission is a strange experience
It is a trial and a test.
A mission throws at you the worst
Yet, teaches you the best.
I've never been so happy,
I've never been so depressed.
I've never felt so forsaken,
I've never felt so blessed.
I've never been so confused,
Things have never been so clear.
I've never felt my Heavenly Father so distant,
He's never been so near.
I've never been so discouraged,
I've never been so full of hope.
I feel I could go on for forever,
I think I've come to the end of my rope.
I've never had it quite so easy,
I've never had it quite so tough.
Things have never been so smooth,
Things have never been so rough.
I've never traveled through more valleys,
I've never ascended more peaks.
I've never met so many nice people.
I've never met so many freaks!
I've never had so many ups,
I've never had so many downs.
I've never worn so many smiles,
I've never had so many frowns.
I've never been so lonely,
I've never had so many friends.
BOY, I hope this is over soon,
GOSH, I hope this never ends.

Week 32

Alright famalamaly I LOVED all the pictures and stories and even the video tan sent from the 
week! I'm so happy you got to be all together for Thanksgiving! This week was such a good 
week  for us. The Lord knew it was Thanksgiving so he gave us a lot to be thankful for I guess. ha 
ha so the week started:
 *Monday night having FHE at the bishops house and we had a Mexican Fiesta! They invited a bunch 
of non member friends over so for the message Sister Gregson and I talked about The Book of Mormon 
and how Lehi and his family came from Jerusalem to America etc. etc. and we had the kids help 
tell the story for their friends that don't know about The Book of Mormon and we sang Book of 
Mormon stories and then we played duck duck goose and it was seriously so much fun we were all 
laughing so hard. I love the bishops family ANDDDDDD guess what?! THEY ARE MOVING TO AMERICA! Utah 
to be exact. :) They don't know where or how or anything but they know that the Lord wants them to 
be in Utah. Bishop teaches at the deaf school here so if anyone knows if they are hiring at UVU 
for sign language teachers or ANYTHING please let me know so I can tell them. Or if there are any 
houses for sell... etc. man this family... you want them in our home ward. ha ha they are 
fantastic. Oh and Tanner do you still have a snowboard? Bishop wants to get into snowboarding so 
bad, he said if you have a snowboard you can sell him or if you know anyone that is selling a 
snowboard he will send the money and we can just keep it until they get there. ha ha they are 
probably planning on moving in April! Man I'm so excited. A little slice of England waiting for me 
when I get home. ha ha 
*Tuesday we had an exchange with the Paignton sisters. Sister Priestley (from up north) came to 
Exeter and Gregs went to Paignton with Sister Cabrera (who is from Chile!) but there was a little 
scare before the exchange.. I woke up Tuesday morning and my eye hurt so bad, especially when I 
blinked. So I went and looked in the mirror and there was this bit dot on my eye lid... so Gregson 
and I went to the hospital and after an hour going back and forth from the A&E (accidents and 
emergencies) and the walk in clinic they finally gave me a diagnosis- a meibomian cyst. They 
didn't say much else, they just gave me a pamphlet and sent me on my way. That's the NHS for ya. 
ha ha ha They said I should put hot towels on it often and that it would go away by itself after a 
week or so. It was big and it hurt all day Tuesday but Wednesday morning I woke up and it was 
completely gone. Missions do weird things to your body. That's all I have to say. ha ha but 
anyways we still did the exchange and it was so great! We went and taught Martyn about the 
atonement and we saw Liz and Louise as well. We also did lots and lots of finding. Priestley is so 
good at finding because she has no fear whatsoever. Open your mouth and spare not. We talked to so 
many cool people this whole week. 
*Wednesday we went to Paignton to exchange back and we had a little picnic on the beach and it was 
such a beautiful day! It is getting so stink in cold though. Oh we took lots of pictures and I 
have some I want to send but it won't let me put pictures onto the computers here at the mac 
store! Boo. 
*Wednesday we went knocking and the very first house we knocked a lady answered the door and she 
was SMILING. She was so nice and started talking to us, told us she grew up as a  Jehovah's 
Witness but doesn't go to church now and her 3 kids started coming up to the door one by one and I 
was just like oh a family! I want to teach you guys! At first she was really like maybe after 
Christmas you guys can come over we're just really busy etc. etc. and she said that a few times 
but we just kept talking about other things that would always lead back to the gospel and after a 
while she was like it's so cold, I'm sorry I didn't even invite you in, come in! :D AHHHH that was 
my first time knocking IN to someone's house on my mission. It was lovely. We don't usually go 
knocking because street contacting is so successful here but now that it gets dark at half 3 in 
the afternoon we have a lot more knocking time. ha ha but their name is The Goddard family. We 
taught them about the restoration of the gospel and we are going back over on Wednesday and we are 
so excited. Pray for the Goddard family.
Thursday- THANKSGIVING!! We went to the Curran's home for thanksgiving dinner. Leah, the wife is 
from Utah and so she cooked us a proper thanksgiving meal. It was so yummy. They had their friends 
there from Bristol and they said there is a girl in their ward in Bristol going to Ukraine in 
December on her mission right before Christmas... She is probably going to be Syd's companion!!!!! 
ha ha her name is Amy Lewis. So Pen tell Syd to watch out for her! oops I wasn't done. ha ha stupid Mac... anyways this Thanksgiving I'm thankful for....
*My family. (especially because you send me emails and PICTURES!! :))*How strong my family is in 
the church. You are all such bright examples to me.
*Wonderful friends.*To feel so comfortable and at home here even though I'm so far from home.*The 
gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that's why I feel so at home here. And I'm SO grateful for it.
*Heaters in our flat. :) ha ha*The fact that I'm an auntie this year!*To be a MISSIONARY!
Well friends we are off to Plymouth today to have a zone thanksgiving p day! We are going to have 
a big feast and we will probably play football and American football and then we are driving up to 
Reading! We have a sisters conference tomorrow in Reading so today we get an actual p DAY not just 
a p 8 hours! :) ha ha it will be good. Hopefully this time driving up to Reading we won't have to 
stop to throw up. I have great expectations for this trip. ha ha I love you guys!! 

Week 31

Hello hello!! Yes we are feeling much better. ha ha the week we were sick we lived on crackers and bread and it was SO good to start actually eating again. ha ha oh my goodness everyone is having babies!! Congrats Derek and Rachel and Ben and Chantal and Kent and Leisy! Did I miss anyone? ha ha oh and don't worry Court already told me the terrible news... that Nordstrom in the University mall is closing :*( ha ha ha well ok so this week was so great. 

Wednesday we had a relief society activity and we did lots of different crafts, the women here are so crafty!! It was fun. Natasha our investigator was in heaven. ha ha she loved it. Did I tell you about her? She is the one that reminds me of your friend Nylene mom! We have been teaching her off and on for a little while now. We taught her up until the commandments and she doesn't love all of them so... we just keep teaching WHY we keep the commandments. She has some learning disabilities so she just takes everything in really slow. But we love her! 

Ok probably the highlight of the week was Saturday. I'm so excited to tell you about it! First let me say that we have a goal mission wide to have a baptism on Christmas eve and confirmation on Christmas day or the week before as a gift to the Saviour. So we have been out "shopping" to find a gift for the Saviour ha ha and on Saturday we went to Paignton because they had asked Sister Gregson to sing at their baptism so we asked Martyn and Karina to drive us there. Karina is a member of the ward and we have been teaching Martyn (her husband) since probably the first week I got here. I have told you about them before I'm sure. Martyn reminds me so much of dad ha ha his humour and he LOVES 7 brides for 7 brothers and always sings it ha ha he is so great and anyways he had a baptismal date for.... months ago and he said he just couldn't do it, he wasn't ready he was still smoking and hadn't received an answer about the Book of Mormon and so we have just been working with him. Anyways after the baptism we were talking and then he showed me his phone and he had added an event on his phone and the subject was "Baptism Me" date 24 December and I just stood there for a minute :O what?! and his wife was like what? so I told her and SHE started freaking out What?! Really?! AHHHHHHHHH yay! Martyn is getting baptised! Oh I am so happy. Best Christmas gift ever. Really I can't think of a better gift that Martyn could give to the Saviour than to be baptised. I love it. 

I'm so excited you all get to go to Colorado for Thanksgiving!! Please send lots of pictures.  And drive safe. Yuck that's scary that the car isn't even fixed yet. I'll be praying for you all. A lady in the ward is from Utah and they are having a big Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, they have friends coming down from Bristol and everything and they invited us! Yay! I can't believe Thanksgiving is on Thursday! Holy cow. 

TANNER! So yesterday a girl from China in the ward invited us for tea and she invited another lady from the ward named Keren from Ghana. We started talking and I asked if she had any family from Ghana that served in South Africa and she had some but they didn't serve in your mission and I was like oh because my brother had a companion from Ghana so I was wondering if you might know him his name is Sylvester Brown and she was like Sylvester Peter Brown? He is from my home stake!! ha ha so Tan if you are talking to Sylvester ask if he knows the Mettle-Nunoo family. So crazy! What a small world. 

These are a few of my favourite things:

*The spell check on these computers is for British spelling so that's why I'm spelling everything with u's just FYI ha ha 

*Alec wears 3 watches and 12 rings. Everyday. ha ha ha oh he is so funny

*On Saturday we were in town all day and we saw 5 cross dressers in Exeter.

*There was a big Christmas parade on Saturday in town and there were REAL reindeer there! Pooping on the streets and everything. ha ha they should have had a pooper scooper like Tanner there.

*Alec randomly asking "How's your mum" in the middle of a teach ha ha

*The sausage man! So there is a little sausage cart right by the library that we always walk past and we have become friends with the man that owns it and have talked to him about the church before and on Friday we were walking past and he yelled to us "I did my homework!" So we ran over and talked to him and we're going to teach him this week. :D We're gonna baptise the sausage man. ha ha

Alright last but not least Mom will you print this out and put it up on the kitchen cupboard so Santa Mills can see it? And DON'T let Jeff Demke put his list over mine. 

Dear Santa, 

I don't even need to explain I have been a good girl this year because you already know right? I have been thinking really hard about what I would like for Christmas this year. Well.... here it is. 

*Burt's Bees chapstick (it's £5... aka 9 us dollars are you kidding me?)

*Purpose facewash (the soap bar, mine is almost gone)

*Listerine pocketpak strips

*Stride Non-stop Mint gum 

*Hand warmers (seriously Santa my fingers are already cold all the time. Like right now... they are cold.)

*IOUs from my family signed in blood that they will each write me a hand written letter in January and/or February :) 

*A 2012 calendar with pictures of my family on the months 

*The Pride and Prejudice soundtrack. Or any other CDs :)

*Money for stamps

*Long sleeved shirts

*Warm Gloves

*Thermals
Now those last 3 things, you could just put some money in my account and I can just get them here because 1. they would probably be cheaper here 2.I could get them in the right sizes and such and 3. you wouldn't have to pay to post them because it is EXPENSIVE and let's be honest Royal Mail is rubbish. You'll probably have to send the things SOON if you want to get them here by Christmas. Oh and please send everything to the mission office! In fact from now on will you tell people to send things to the mission office? I might move right before Christmas and it would be a shame to not get letters and things forever because they are being sent down here to the boonies of Plymouth zone. ANYWAYS thanks Santa love ya! Love, Sister Janna Mills

Week 30

Ohhh my. What a week. My birthday week was... Miserable. ha ha ha let me start off by saying I LOVE my new companion. Sister Gregson and I get along so well and it's a good thing because... it's been miserable. Here's why:

*We got food poisoning on Tuesday night. Stayed up most of the night feeling so sick.

*Wednesday we got a call that we were leaving that night for Reading. We were pretty nervous for the drive and sure enough... we had to make a pit stop for about 45 minutes. Man being sick on the side of a little English country lane is not the way I wanted to see England. ha ha ha so Wednesday night we stayed on the floor of the sisters flat in Bracknell and again... not a good night.

*Thursday we had a zone conference and Elder Wright came, a member of the 70 and let's just say instead of listening to him we were in the toilets for a lot of the day. ha ha ha ha oh my gosh looking back now we were a mess, a beautiful beautiful mess but at the time we thought it was SO funny. Seriously if we weren't throwing up we were just laughing about the whole situation ha ha it was a multi zone conference and our zone had to sing so halfway through we got up to sing and Elder Wright whispered to us "Good luck, I'm praying for you!!!" ha ha he had heard we were sick and came up and talked to us and then throughout the conference when he wasn't speaking he would peak his head around the pulpit and check on us every once in a while it was so sweet. The zone conference was actually really good and we did hear a lot of the message. The ride home was a lot better as well so the elders kind of filled us in on the bits we missed. Man... what a week. Sister Gregson kept saying to me "best birthday ever?!" and I kept saying to her "welcome to Exeter!!!" ha ha well she hasn't seen much of Exeter yet to say the least but we are so excited to just be better and finally go out and work without feeling like we are going to throw up on our investigators!! ha ha Oh this morning we went to "Sukkerz" there are tons of these foot spa places that they have these tanks of fish and they eat all the dead skin on your feet and it's really expensive but we saw this sign last week that said monday mornings you can go for really cheap, so for us it was perfect!! I'll send a picture. Man. What a week. ha ha ha it really has been a funny entertaining week. Church was really good. At 11 we all stood up and had a moment of silence to remember those that have fought for our freedom and bishop and a chap called David Richards (who is going to Exeter University getting a PHD and he is focusing on Book of Mormon studies.. it is so cool to talk to him about The Book of Mormon) spoke and they talked about how Jesus Christ is truly who has given us our freedom. It was so good. Anways we are going to go home after this and just... sleep probably. And keep praying and hoping we feel better so we can just work already! ha ha I love it. I love you guys! Oh did you get the email about sending Christmas packages and such? As for thermals... I have no idea what size I would need ha ha mediums? I don't know what sizes they come in! But ya I guess I could use some tights... I have those thick wool ones that I will probably wear a lot a lot so maybe just a pair of black tights. I can easily get them here though so don't worry so much about that. As for missionary things... did I tell you we are working with the young women and personal progress so maybe little things for them? Emily Jacobsen's mum sent me chapstick that said modest is hottest, maybe other fun chapstick Mormon sayings like that? I'll keep thinking. For reals this time ;) oh and... don't send me any food for Christmas. ha ha ok love you!

*Gregson and I at Sukkerz! 

*At the mission office 

*Fekete and I and the Poppy Appeal! 

*We made these mittens!!!!!!! 

*David Boxhall. :) Oh happy day! 

*A lady from the ward went to the states and brought back Twizzlers for me :) and someone from the ward gave me takeaway Sainsbury's curry Mmmmmmmmmm AND Jo gave us her old cooker. Yay for a working oven! Happy birthday to me! 

*How cool is that?! Yes it's backwards but oh well. Gregson and I drawing 22 with our sparklers!

week 29

hello!! oh thanks for all the birthday wishes! I'M 22!!!!! what in the world... it's weird, it doesn't feel like it's my birthday at all but people from the ward have been calling all day to wish me a happy birthday and it's just like oh ya... it's my birthday! ha ha but guess what I got for my birthday? a new companion!!!!! ha ha so yes I am emailing today because we were traveling all day yesterday, Fekete and I took the train to London, picked up Gregson, said goodbye to Fekete and we were on our way back home to the boonies of Exeter! ha ha by the way Sister Fekete's surgery is tomorrow... pray for her! So today has been absolutely brilliant. We woke up and we were about to go on a uni walk tracting and we realized that we didn't have any food, we hadn't gone grocery shopping on pday because we didn't have a pday! so we came into town and got our groceries, took them back to the flat and then Sister Gregson took me to Nando's for lunch. It. Was. Deeelish. It's so good, it's like a Portugeuse or Brazilian restaurant and the chicken is divine. There is one in Vegas apparently! Anyways then we went and taught Liz and Louise (2 really cute girls we met on the street last week that are Christian and believe we are saved JUST by the grace of God...) and then here we are emailing! By the way it's 4 o'clock and... it's pretty much dark. Brace yourself, it's going to be a long, dark, cold winter ha ha we are going to teach David after this and then we are going to the Turpins for dinner! It's going to be great.

 

Speaking of David.... he got baptised on Saturday!!! yay!!!! and the hot water worked and everything!! ;) ha ha I was going to send pictures but I forgot my cord! oopsie daisies. But oh it was so good. It was scary because he was walking into the font and got to the last step and just stood there for a minute, long enough for me to think 'oh my... he is going to turn around and run right out of the church... he's going to run!' but then he took that last step and it was all gravy. Fewf! ha ha oh ya and by the way he didnt' show up for his confirmation on Sunday. ha ha oh my gosh the most stressful hours of church ever, we tried to call him probably about 20 times... literally. Right as sacrament was about to begin (sacrament is the last hour by the way) he called and said he had just woken up he slept through his alarm, and our 20 calls! So he rushed down but by the time he got there fast and testimony meeting had already started so... next week. :) ha ha ha man. Oh mom you said you just switched the clocks? We did last Sunday, that's weird.

 

You asked about Halloween, yes we went to the bishops house and it was so much fun. We took a load of pictures but they are on Fekete's camera so I'll have to have her send them, we just played lots of games mostly eating games like a jelly (jell-o) eating contest, doughnut eating, find the chocolate button in the flour... mostly games that their kids made up that were all really messy and just fun to laugh at everyone while they did it ha ha it was fun. Oh and Friday we went to a ward party for bon fire night!! Bon fire night was Saturday but we did our celebration on Friday. It's the day they celebrate when Guy Fox was caught trying to blow up parliament so usually people have a Guy Fox cut out and burn it... ha ha ha we just had a proper bonfire using pallets and stuff and tons and TONS of fireworks! It was great. And there is something called the Poppy Appeal that is for Rememberance day on 11 November to honour all the veterans from WWI and 2 so EVERYONE wears these paper poppies on their coats, I'll send you a picture don't fret. So it's true, the holidays are upon us! Halloween, bonfire night, my birthday, rememberance day, thanksgiving, and CHRISTMAS!!!! :) Dad you asked about if we could do skype, yes! That's what all the missionaries do instead of a proper phone call, so I'm really excited! I probably have a webcam downstairs in that treasure chest looking thing of mine too if you want to use that.

 

Happy Birthday cousin Ellen and aunt Rosemary!!!! and a late birthday shoutout to Syd too!! I cannot believe that lady is going to UKRAINE!! oh she is going to love it. I'm so excited for her! Well I apologise again for no pictures today... I know that's always the best part ha ha but next week it'll happen. Oh did I even tell you about Sister Gregson?! She is so cool. She's from Holiday, Utahand people kept telling both of us that we are going to get along so well yada yada and... it's true. We might be the same person... ? ha ha it's going to be fun. This morning during companionship study it was so great, it's always fun to see how a new companion studies and how much you can learn from someone in just a day! She's a fantastic teacher oh and she just got her British drivers license so.. we're going to talk President into giving us a car here in Exeter. That would be SWEET!!!!! Oh my gosh side note, Jo moved!! :( She moved to Wolverhampton (Birmingham) to live with her dad so she can save some money while she works. I'm so sad. I'm going to miss Jo so much. She was always always there for us and she still will be.. but just in Birmingham. ha ha well anyways we have to go to teach Alec and David but I love you guys! Thank you for all the prayers and happy birthday emails and Tanner for the birthday pictures of Evie! She is standing and walking and growing so big! I can't wait to see her and talk to her on Christmas! :) Oh mum you asked what I might need for Christmas that the relief society could send me... I have no idea ha ha I haven't even thought about that. Can I think about it and tell you next week? Maybe just thermals :S man tis cold already. But ya I'll give it a think and let you know. Ok byeeeeee!

Week 28

Happy halloweenie!!! This morning I sang that song "i'm a mean old witch with a hat and i ride on my broom with my cat!" so sister fekete, she loved it. ha ha ha ok SO no I'm not moving- 7 1/2 months in Exeter, here I come!!!! Will it be 9 months? ... we'll see. :) ha ha yesterday was stake conference and it was so funny because so many people from other wards/ branches came up to me "Sister Mills, you're still here!?" ha ha ha BUT Sister Fekete is leaving me for Haywards Heath. (Close to the temple so she will be closer for her surgery and what not which speaking of is just next week!) but she is still here with me!! Tuesday night we got home and Sister Sebald and Priestley were there to sleep over for traveling the next morning and we started to quickly pack all of Fekete's stuff and then we got a call from the zone leaders "actually sister Fekete you aren't moving... for another week" Sister Gregson (from Holiday, Utah!!) who will be my new companion has a driving test in London this Thursday so they just decided to let her and Fekete stay where they are until after that- yes!! We were well excited. We still had to go on a roadtrip on Wednesday up to the temple and back because the 2 sisters were going in completely different directions, so Fekete and I were their stand in companions for the day but it was great because we got to run into the distribution center to get a big picture of Christ for our investigator David!

 

Let's see... oh one of the reasons we were so chuffed that Fekete is staying for another week is because bishop and his wife had told us they would take us out for a proper curry, so Thursday night that's exactly what we did and it was so delicious! They LOVE their curry here in England. This morning we also got a phone call from a Hungarian lady that is in England for the week and is passing through Exeter today. Fekete's mum knows her and Sister Fekete's mum actually gave us a referral from this lady so today when we meet her we are going to meet that referral as well! After Sister Fekete got off the phone she was just like.... and that's probably another reason why I'm still here in Exeter. :) It's amazing how perfectly God aligns things for the benefit of His children. I know He is so conscious of us and our needs.

 

Like I said earlier yesterday was stake conference in Plymouth and it was amazing. President Shamo and his wife spoke and then the stake presidency spoke as well. 2 recently returned missionaries from the stake also spoke and all of them gave such wonderful talks. A lot of them talked about covenants, the atonement, and true conversion. One thing the stake president said that I loved was "Testimony is a point of departure NOT destination. Conversion is the destination." You can have a testimony without being converted.. I have seen it so much here with the people we are working with. You know what? That's ok! Because it is your testimony that will help you get to conversion. President Martin talked about how the key to conversion truly is The Book of Mormon. The more we read The Book of Mormon, they more we feel the spirit and God's love for us and the more we want to DO the things that God asks us to do. So if you feel like you don't want to keep the commandments or go to church open The Book of Mormon and find out why those little things are SO important. You will find it in The Book of Mormon!!

Oh we also got to go down to Plymouth for the adult session of stake conference on Saturday because they told us about 2 days before that they wanted the missionaries to sing at the session! So we met 10 minutes before the conference, went through the song once and then had to perform. I'll tell you what... the Lord helps you in ALL you do if it is His will. ha ha because when we practiced we sounded horrid but when we performed somehow we sounded good. Not just good but kind of great! ha ha it was well cool. Oh President Fullwood from the stake presidency spoke as well (he is from the Exeter ward!) and he talked about The Book of Mormon as well- he talked about how if you have a problem with hearing you get a hearing aid. So if you have a problem with DOING... what is the doing aid? The Book of Mormon. :) (By the way President Fullwood is nearly completely deaf and there is a man on the high council who is deaf and there is a deaf school here in Exeter and they all teach there- seriously about half of our ward teaches there, so at church they all take turns signing for President Fullwood and I love it. It is so cool! 3 members in our ward including the bishop and his wife served sign language missions here in the British Isles!)

 

Well tonight for Halloween we are going to Bishops house for a halloween and they are inviting tons of their friends over ;) so it is going to be sweet! We are really excited. The kids came up to us at stake conference yesterday telling us all about the haunted house they are going to make for us ha ha they are so cute. Oh did I mention the bishop and his wife have 7 kids, the oldest is 13 and the youngest is 2... their house is a mad house, I love it!

 

These are a few of my favourite things:

*Driving through all of Southern England on a foggy autumn day. The colours are fabulous!

*Actually knitting something that I can wear!!!! I'll send pictures next week :D

*Still being able to teach in the parks.... occassionally :)

*Waking up at 6:30 but oh wait... it's only 5:30- we got to sleep for an extra hour. It was delicious. (the only downside to the time change is that it is almost dark at half 4 in the afternoon :( )

 

Ok love you! Bye!

*The Tower Bridge

*Sister Mills in front of the Tower Bridge

*Sister Fekete in front of the Tower Bridge

 

*Sister Mills looking at the Thames  

*Sister Mills on the train writing in her journal 

Week 27

surprise! Since it's moves week we didn't think we would be able to email home today, just wednesday or thursday but last night we got a call with some announcements and they said that we needed to come email president our numbers and such and that we could email our family as well- hooray! Especially because I have A LOT to tell you! This week has been absolutely mad!

 

So Tuesday we taught seminary and it went so well, I loved it! The youth in the Exeter ward are fantastic. The young women spoke yesterday about their experiences at EFY and the spirit was so strong, they all have such strong testimonies, they're are wonderful examples to me. After we taught seminary on Tuesday we had an English lesson with Krzysztof and then after the zone leaders came to do his baptismal interview. Elder Wojtysiak (voitecheck) was on the loud speaker translating for them as they did the interview and anyways afterwards Elder Hotchkiss came out to get us and let us know they had finished and he was just like "His understanding is amazing! ... How did you guys teach him?" ha ha we definitely didn't teach him, the spirit did. That was an AMAZING example to me that the spirit truly is the teacher. But Krzystof was so golden, he was a seeker for sure and every time we would have him read something in Polish he just soaked it all up and we were able to teach him the basics in English. Oh it was so cool.

 

Wednesday we were supposed to meet this cool girl called Betsy we met on the bus and she flogged us but later we were meeting with David at the library and guess who walked by? Betsy. Sorry Betsy but there's no running away from the truth!!!!! ha ha We rescheduled to meet with her this week. After that we were on our way to LONDON! Actually to East Grinstead, we stayed the night with the sisters there. Sister Allred is serving there and she just moved from our district so it was really fun to see her again! Oh and get this- they get to go to the temple 2 or 3 times a month during study time... :O man I want to go to the temple so bad. Christmas is coming! ha ha aka temple trip. :D

 

So then Thursday we woke up and took the train from East Grinstead to the London Bridge station. It was about 8 in the morning so we were on the train with all the really smartly dressed business men and women of London, we felt so posh. ha ha ha so we got off the train, walked onto the London Bridge and looked down and there it was, the oh so famous Tower Bridge!! Then we looked just to the right and along the river was the London Bridge hospital where Fekete had her appointment. I'll send a pic. So we went to see the doctor there and he just looked at her knee and said he was doing some tests positive for a torn ACL but we would need an MRI just to be certain so he said we could book an appointment to have an MRI in a few weeks and we told him we came up from Exeter and he was so good he was like oh ok well then let me just go talk to the receptionist and we will see what we can do... so he came back in and said there weren't any openings there but there was another hospital just 3 tube stops away and they had a cancellation so we could get the MRI done there! What a blessing! The only problem was that we have to wait about 3 hours before that appointment. 3 hours we had to wait in London for a doctors appointment... what a shame. :) ha ha it was perfect. So we walked around, took a billion pictures of the tower bridge and it was so brilliant, people would ask us to take pictures for them and so then we would just start chatting and they would ask why we were there etc. etc. they should just have missionaries at the tower bridge everyday just walking around ha ha so we took the underground to the other hospital and there was a huge mall right next to it so we went in to get some food because we had forgotten to eat all day and we did just a little window shopping ;) and then we went to get the MRI done. It took about an hour and then we had to go straight back to the London Bridge Hospital to look at the results. She has a torn ACL and also a torn medial miniscus and other problems becuase of the torn ACL so the doctor said she most definitely needs surgery. So we booked her surgery for the 9th of November!! The day after my birthday... happy birthday to me! ha ha oh speaking of- HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUBREY HOWELL! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBY MURRAY! We had tried to call any of our leaders to ask when we should schedule the surgery for and of course we couldn't get ahold of anyone so we just scheduled it so when we did talk to Sister Shamo so was likeNovember 9th? That soon? Well that's going to change moves! So... we are thinking Fekete will probably move closer to London and so she can work in the office or something because she will be on crutches for 2 weeks after and need to recover etc. our ward yesterday was GUTTED! They were like you guys can't move. I'm sorry but you just can't. Adrian, the 2nd counsellor in the bishopbric was like listen sisters you can fight moves, I have before and won! Call your mission president and tell him neither of you can move! ha ha It's a shame because even before the doctors appointment we both felt like one of us was going to move... the ward also kept saying if Fekete has to move for the surgery you better stay here, we don't want elders again! ha ha but sisters have been here for over a year.. they could very well whitewash the area :S yikes. I have no idea but I can't wait until we just know! The few days before moves is so weird, you don't know if you should be saying goodbye or what! Anyways so we got home pretty lateThursday night, we missed the connecting train from Clapham Junction because our train from London bridge was delayed... it was crazy. It was a good little change in the week though. And oh boy London is SO different fromDevon. Ha ha my goodness. OH! so when the doctor was talking with us about the results from the MRI he started asking us about our missionary work so for like 5 minutes of the doctors appointment we were teaching about The Book of Mormon. It was brilliant. Then the chap sitting at the front desk started asking us as well and he was really interested! But he's Muslim. So missionaries can't teach him- shame.

 

Wait, it gets better. Saturday afternoon we met the Basingstoke elders at the train station and then we all went up to the chapel to get everything ready for Krzysztof's baptism!!!! So we started to fill up the font like normal- up to the first step with cold water and then up to the fourth step with hot water but oh wait hot water wasn't coming out, only cold water! So we called Adrian, he came to see if he could fix it but the pilot light was out so he called Brother Snell the whiz when it comes to the building and he came and fixed up but told us it would take an hour for the water to heat up and then another 45 minutes for the font to fill. Well because the elders came in to do the baptism they had to catch a train back- they didn't have time to wait for that! So Krzysztof was baptised in freezing cold water. He didn't even mind, not one bit. The spirit was amazing there. I love baptisms!

 

Well I guess that is pretty much it... I'll attach some pics :) we might get to email again on wednesday or thursday, but I'm not sure we will have to wait and see. Thank you so much for the pictures kate tan and shan, and emily bcf!! I love getting pictures! :) I love you guys so much.

*Our best friends Sam & Effie Durstan and Charlotte & Adrian Chrimes! 

*Our delish and noutrish dinner on the train ride home. it was SO funny we had about 5 minutes before our train was going to leave and there was a sainsbury's right across the street and so we literally ran over ran through the store trying to find food and ran back and caught our train :D ha ha 

*6 months... what?! So crazy. How did we celebrate? With a baptism. :) 

*Plus Elder Wojtysiak (Poland) and Elder Wan (Hong Kong) 

*Us with Krzysztof 

*Devon district October 2011. We went to this yummy all you can eat chinese buffet for lunch after our last district meeting of the moves- yum! The second elder from the left is a wrestler from West Jordan, Penny ask the Frost's if they know Nicko Parasso! 

*Me and Feketeeta 

*The exact spot me kate and tan took a picture last summer on the tower bridge.. i couldn't resists ha ha