Week 5

P day!!!!!!!!!! ha ha yay! Well first of all the first letter received in the mission field award goes to.... CAIDY!!!! with Shannon and Courtney following closely behind. Thank you so much for your letters and for the pictures! You are all so sweet. It's amazing how much letters and encouragement and pictures from home help SOO much. It's true. :) Well this week has been so great. I was going to send some pictures home but we forgot the camera cord! Next week. :) Well guess what?

I'm a month old!!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday was my month mark- what?! Sister Christensen and I celebrated by dancing around our living room and having ice cream cake and VIMTO!! (the most delicious drink ever ps) it was really fun!

Well let me just tell you sometimes I feel like I'm just playing dress up here on my mission ha ha sometimes it just doesn't seem real, I can't believe I'm here on my mission I can't believe I can tell anyone and everyone about this gospel and look like a complete idiot to all the people of Exeter and LOVE it! ha ha people are always staring at us, we are different but it's great! It's the reason sometimes people will stop and talk to us! The people are so kind here though. ... for the most part we stopped a lady on the street the other day who was pushing a stroller and we started talking to her and asked her how it would feel to know she could be with her family forever and she said ".... i hate my family, i don't even want to be with them now I believe in aliens, not God" ha ha ha yikes. We were able to say some things to her and made her happy and maybe a little hopeful and I couldn't even tell you right now what we said- one of those the spirit completely took over because we had no idea what to say moments. ha ha But I'm grateful that I have a family that is so easy to love and I treasure the knowledge that I can be with you forever! It just takes some faith and dilligence. :)

Well we have been teaching this adorable almost 10 year old boy named Andrew Lennon-Miller whose mother is less active and we just asked him a few days ago if he wants to be baptised on June 12th and he is SOOO excited! It is wonderful to see him help and lift his mother as well. We can help so many others by just the things we do and simply by letting our lives be filled with happiness because of the gospel.

You can tell so much about someone's relationship with God by the way they pray. So if you feel like you're not that great at praying, then do it more! We don't get good at something unless we practice it like mad!

Oh ps we taught Alec about the law of chastity the other day and he said "Well I'm not even married... I know I'll ask the Queen to marry me! Hang on- I guess she is a little bit old" ha ha ha and a little bit married? Oh bless him. I can't wait to send the picture of him!

We have also been teaching a lot of uni students. We are in a proper university town and it is so amazing! We went on a uni walk the other day so we started at high street and then walked all around university and met and talked with so many people along the way, we find so many people that are just waiting to learn more about God!

Ah I wanted to tell you about Keith! Keith Martin is our ward mission leader and he is the most wonderful man! He would do anything for anyone, and he truly does! He does so much for the ward it's amazing. All of the members here really go above and beyond, it is so amazing to see. They have to really because if it wasn't for all of these sweet members the ward would just crumble away! They are each others life support and they are truly a family, it's beautiful to be a part of it.

Ok one last story. A story Sister Christensen has named the Tiverton Bus Saga. We went to Tiverton for a dinner appointment this last week and it's about 40 minutes away. We got a ride there with a member that was there cleaning the church and after dinner the family walked us to the bus stop so we could catch a bus home. Now the busses outside of town don't come as often, in fact they only come every hour so we got there about 15 minutes before it was to arrive so we were sitting there waiting and waiting and we saw a bus go past and I was like oh look there's a 52 going into Exeter and Sister Christensen started freaking out THAT'S THE ONE WE NEED TO BE ON!!!!! ha ha ha the people from dinner told us to wait on the wrong side of the road so we had missed our bus! ha ha ha oh it was terrible, so we walked into a little tesco and asked when the next bus and of course that was the last bus that was going out for the evening SO we had to walk into town (about a 25 minute walk) and then wait at the bus station for another 10 minutes to catch a bus home. Oh my my my it was quite the adventure. ha ha BUT that walk was SO beautiful and then we got to ride a double decker bus home- my first time on a double decker bus woohoo!!!!! ha ha so in the end it turned out well.


SO these are a few of my favorite things this week:

*Waiting for the bus ALLL the time
*Alec and Andrews prayers. I might cry every single time. Just little tiny teardrops though :)
*Waking up an hour and a half early, looking at the clock and thinking YES another hour and a half of sleep :D
*Walking up ETERNITY HILL the other day to get to a dinner appointment and when we got to the top we realized we didn't even need to walk up that hill. ha ha ha seriously that hill was never ending. it was huge. seriously.
*Our fake little fireplace we have in our living room. Mmmmm. :)
*The trees in front of our flat that make everything smell like grapes! It is such a delicious smell and a wonderful change from the cigarette smoke we always smell
*Sister Christensen man is she goofy and I LOVE it! We have so much fun together but she is also the most amazing missionary. It's amazing the miracles we are able to witness together because of her goodness!

Happiness!!!

Week 4

Hooray for missionary work! It has been NONSTOP since I got here and I love it so much. You know how I'm a busy bee, I wouldn't have it any other way! I love this work so much. I have met so many people already that I just love. The ward is fantastic! They had me get up in church yesterday and bare my testimony and tell a little bit about myself and of course I had to adjust the microphone when I got up there and it was just funny and so anyways after Brother Lewis who was conducting was like she may be small but boy is she a dynamite! or something like that ha ha so everyone kept calling me the small sister :) Did I tell you Sister Christiansen is a foot taller than me? It's perfect- it makes me feel like I'm walking around with Nat! :)

We have been doing so many different things- it has been great. We have taught lots of less actives, lots of cute old ladies, we have done lots of finding, lots of teaching to people that Sister Christiansen and Housley found on the streets.... it's been so neat to see how much the gospel blesses everyone's lives no matter what is going on in their life!!

So the baptism yesterday was fantastic. But it was a baptism, things are always going to go wrong because that silly satan doesn't want people to be baptised! But thank goodness for the sweet Blackhams (elder and sister from SLC) they had some white trousers in Jason's size in Newton Abbot and so an hour before church they drove them up 40 miles to us so that Jason had trousers to wear! Jason loved it, and you could feel his happiness! I asked him on Friday when we were teaching him what he loves about our church and he said he loves the principles of our church. I do too! It's so amazing the things we are able to do and the commandments we are able to keep through the help of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Week 3 part 2

Yay!! I'm a for reals missionary! ha ha it still doesn't feel like it, it's still so weird. BUTTTTTTTTTT transfer meeting was awesome, it was so much fun and I saw Elder Cross there!! It was realy good to see him and catch up a little bit, and he is training one of my buddies from the MTC! They will be in the heart of London so they are going to have a blast! I however am very very far from London ha ha my first area is (drumroll please!) Exeter!! It's in Southern England in the Plymouth zone (so we will go down to plymouth for zone conferences and such) and we are the Devon district! So yesterday: we drove 5 hours from the MTC to the mission home (right next to the London temple, ps the London temple is fantastic! it is so beautiful and OLD looking! we will get to go through in 3 weeks when we go back for training and such!)

we had a big meeting, got all of our assignments and companions- my companion is Sister Christiensen from Riverton, Utah and she is awesome! She is so much fun and just so sweet! We are going to have the best time. We already have 3 teaching appointments today and we have a BAPTISM on Sunday! His name is Jason and we are going to teach him today and tomorrow as well so he is ready for Sunday but that is going to be so neat to see! Sister Christensen said we have such a good ward here and everyone is so kind so that is really truly comforting to me! Oh and our flat is precious! We have a little kitchen with washer and dryer and a little pretend fireplace that is a little heater thing, then upstairs is our bathroom, our clothes room, and our bedroom :)

I told everyone at the MTC the other night at a testimony meeting we had that i'm embarrassed to share this but when i first opened my call I was a little bit disappointed that I wasn't going to the Provo MTC because all my life driving by it I thought "I want to be in THERE getting ready to serve my mission!" well I can honsetly say the Lord has humbled me and I learn over and over again that the Lord knows me better than I know myself, he knows exactly what experiences I need to have to make me His best servant. I am SO lucky I got to learn of the gospel and feel of the spirit at the England MTC and I know it was the perfect place for me. I can honestly say that I made 41 new friends in such a unique environment where we are all looking towards the same goal- to invite others to come unto Christ! I miss them all already but I am so excited for all the new adventures Exeter will bring!!

This morning during personal study I was reading the end of 2 Nephi and in chapter 28 verse 4 talking about false churches and such in the last days it simply says "and they shall teach with their learning, and deny the Holy Ghost, which giveth utterance." I am so grateful I read that because all the sudden my feelings of inadequacy (spelling? ha ha) were smaller because I know that I felt prepared until sister c said we have 3 lessons tomorrow for reals? what?! all the sudden I felt so unprepared and like I couldn't do it but after reading that... it's ok! Because I know the spirit will help me teach so much more than just my knowledge will. Fewf! :)

Oh so after the transfer meeting we had to drive 4 more hours to our area so we didn't get home until after 11 and then I had to make my bed and we had to plan for today! So... it was a late night and I'm looking forward to bed time tonight but I'm so grateful for all of the opportunities we will have today for me to start teachings!! I just can't wait until I know the members of the ward and until I feel like this is home to me for the moment. Oh BUT so yes it was a bummer we had to drive so much more yesterday and we didn't get home until late but did we drive RIGHT past stonehenge? Yes we sure did! It was right as the sun was setting and I'm not gonna lie I got the coolest picture of it! Ha ha OK President and Sister Shamo- so sweet! It was instantly like we all knew eachother, I love how quickly everyone can feel so loved! Blessings of the spirit man... ha ha Well.... Just know that I am happy, healthy, and loving the work. OH also, I would love to get some letters, real letters because.. they are fun! :)

Week 3!

Well hello my lovelies! So they are letting us get on right now before dinner because we leave tomorrow morning around 6 aka we have to get up at 5, yikes! Although I wake up at 5 almost every morning because the sun is so bright right in my window, it's beautiful! I get to watch the sun rise every morning :)

Keep writing me ok? It helps a lot. :)

We got to go to the temple again this morning and oh my goodness I had been so excited all week about it and I CANNOT wait till I get to go again. I love the temple SO much. If you are able to go to the temple, do it and do it often!

I love this gospel so much, I can't wait to go tell everyone about it. I can't wait to meet all those cute Brits and hear them yell at me and slam their doors in my face but I especially can't wait for when the Holy Ghost touches their heart and they are able to know for themselves that this is the true church. I love it! Love, Sister Mills!

ps Families can be together forever, what a blessing!! I'm so so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and for the atonement so it is possible that we really truly actually literally can be with our families forever! :D I'LL BE IN LONDON TOMORROW!!!

Week 2

Snippets from Janna's e-mail:

we just got back from a church history tour and it was the most amazing thing ever! To be able to see all the places where the prophets FIRST went in this country and to feel the spirit that is still so strong in all of those places was just spectacular!

last week on thursday we went proselyting in the town of manchester and preston and it was INCREDIBLE! Sister Delgado and I were able to talk to a lot of people and talk to a lot of people about the gospel and it was just... it was perfectly what we needed to help us focus and learn how we can teach people and touch their lives! It was also SO amazing to realize that as much as we need this preparation from the MTC here, it is the spirit that does the teaching! So we walked up to these 2 ladies sitting on a bench named Marian and Margaret and we started to talk to them and they knew we were missionaries and they were kind of not wanting to talk to us but Sister Delgado just plowed right through and started talking to them about the gospel, Marian was listening and accepted a Book of Mormon but Margaret was just not havin it ha ha but as we were talking to Marian about the gospel and about how it has changed our lives nd brigns us so much happiness Margaret physically started to get closer to us and started listening and thenin her eyes we could just see this longing- she wanted to know, it was completely the spirit it was so strong! so then i offered her a book of mormon and promised as she reads it that she will feel peace and happiness because i know she is going through hard times and i said the lord knows you are going through hard times and he wants you to be happy! and she said well if this will bring me happiness then i'll read it every day! :) it was so SO awesome.

April 22. Picture of the missionaries.


This is a picture of the women on the day of the royal wedding.