Week 18

I updated the blog with the rest of Janna's emails. Scroll down to get caught up!

KATE IS IN COLLEGE?! WHAT?! .... oh my gosh i can't even believe that... tell kate she better email me next week so i have her email and to email me her mailing address there at school as well. I'm SOOO excited for you Kate! I have heard so many wonderful good things about Utah state and I know you, you would tear it up no matter where you are but you are going to make that school and make your time there the best ever... I just know it. :) just keep remembering how much we all LOOVEEEE you! and don't be TOOO focused on school. :) ha ha i mean be smart, put the time in to study that you need to but don't you dare forget to have fun! and do crazy adventurous things those make for the best stories.

 

Speaking of! This is a shout out for all you Rexburgians- I hope you are all going to continue the first weekend of school bridge jumping trip to monkey rock- Flo I'm talking to you :) ha ha and send me loads and loads of pictures of it ok? What day does school start by the way?

 

Oh! Where is Michael Bell going on his mission? Does Bryson know yet either?

 

Well ok wow wow wowie this week was....  Well let's just say there were lots of ups and downs. But with a hard week just means that I learned A LOT and because it was a hard week I was able to see so many wonderful little miracles as well. Thank goodness for them too because those are the things that got us through those hard moments. Some of the things I learned this week is that trusting in the Lord is a lot easier said than done. It is something we need to DO. Trust in the Lord. He knows what is best for you. Always. I know that, and sometimes it is hard to believe that but that's the only way we can make it through this life. Know that the Lord does know what is best for you and the Lord knows you personally. He knows exactly how you are feeling and He wants you to feel joy but sometimes it's getting to that joy that is hard but it is worth it. I promise! We are preparing Damian, Martyn, Phil and Tezza for baptism but because baptism is such a joyous thing and satan knows that... he is going to put obstacles in the way to try to prevent them from reaching that goal. We are fighting like CRAZY against him. There is a line in our mission song that says "I will not cease from mental fight nor shall my sword sleep in my hand till we have built Jerusalem on England's green and pleasant land" .... true story brov. ha ha And I'll tell you what- one of satans trickiest tools is stinkin tea, coffee, ciggarettes, and alcohol. Ugh. ha ha but what is stronger than the addictions of those stupid substances? ... God is. It's true! ha ha but keep praying for them. They are stronger than they know.

 

*ha ha ha ha sidenote Sister Fekete just leaned over and asked me how to spell pee. ha ha she is probably writing her family about yesterday- we went and taught a lady that lives in this home with a bunch of other people and sis. F sat down on this chair and it was wet... she sat right in pee!! ha ha ha

 

So anyways there is a phrase here in England that is really really popular and I hate it. It is "can't be bothered" that is the attitude of a lot of the people here.

 

"Why didn't you come to church today?"

"... can't be bothered"

 

It. Is. So. Frustrating. ha ha and it makes it impossible to teach some people because we teach them and yes they love hearing about it, they love talking about Jesus Christ but then we ask them to do something and it's "can't be bothered." Jesus Christ's church is a "go and do" church. I'm sorry but you can't be lazy here on earth. We have to work and we have to learn and we have to help and share and be missionaries no matter what we are doing in our lives. That's just the way it is! I'm pretty sure I have said it before and I'll say it again- don't let laziness keep you from your testimony! The thing we are trying to figure out as missionaries is how to help other people do that as well.... well good thing I have some time left to figure it out. :)

 

Speaking of- we celebrated Sister Fekete's year mark on Saturday! :O it was fun we had a mini party because it was one of our recent converts birthdays as well. Ok Sister Fekete is so funny, I was singing the Utah state song the other day- don't ask me why- ha ha and for the last few days I have caught her singing it! and she doesn't really know the words so she just kind of makes it up sometimes oh it is so funny. Guess what?! We were in Exmouth the other day teaching Robin and we started talking to this lady and she said she doesn't speak English and I guess Sister Fekete recognized the accent and started speaking Hungarian to her and sure enough the lady is Hungarian!! She has lots of family that lives in Exmouth as well so she took us to meet her daughter and we are going back this week to teach her- so cool! Sister Fekete was SOOOOOO excited. Gift of tongues here I come :) ha ha ha

 

oh mom before I forget, we won't be emailing next Monday because it's bank holiday- boo!

 

Oh this last weekend we went and helped with a wedding, bishop teaches kung fu and the parents of some of the kids he teaches asked him to marry them so he asked us to come and help out and so we did and we were able to talk to so many cool families and one of them is moving so they said we could come this week and help them move and another family asked us if we wanted to come for tea this week- sweet! It was so so cool. But can I just say.. after seeing Brittany and Grayson sealed in the temple and then seeing a wedding done at the church... oh my goodness it just did not even compare. The wedding there at the church was really beautiful and really sweet but it's that one line "till death do you part." That line doesn't exist in a temple sealing because it's not until death do us part, it is forever! The temple is just... absolutely magnificent.

 

Well let's see I'm trying to think of what else happened this week:

 

*we taught a lady that believes she has demons living in her home. We have taught her before and asked if she wanted us to come teach her in her home and she responded "oh no no no i don't want to upset the demons there i'm just afraid to pray or anything there" she wouldn't take a Book of Mormon for the same reason as well- she didn't want to stir up the demons in anger. Yikes.

*Oh my gosh. Ok so we were teaching Damian the other day at his house and we heard a knock at the door so Tammy looked outside and she was like it's 2 people it looks like missionaries so I looked over and sure enough it was the Jehovah's witnesses. We have run into them before- one time we were knocking and we walked down the street and there was a Jehovah's witness starting to knock the same street... ha ha anywho so Damian and Tammy made US go answer the door and we did and they smiled about to start talking and then saw our name tags and they were like "oh are you just going out? two going out and two coming in?" and we were just like nope actually we're just visiting some members of our church here ha ha ha and after we went in and Andrew (the 9 year old boy that was baptised a few months ago) was just like "i'm glad we're members of the TRUE church, dad you are about to be baptised into the true church, don't worry" Dang straight Andrew!

*ok ha ha ha ok i am laughing out loud in the library just thinking about this- we went to teach this couple this week named barbara and ray and they are an older couple. Do they wear dentures? Of course they do. Do their dentures fall out sometimes while they are talking? As a matter of fact they do. ha ha ha their dentures kept falling out and they kept playing with them the whole time we were teaching them sister fekete and i the whole time were trying so hard not to laugh oh my gosh as soon as we left theirs and turned the corner we were exploding with laughter ha ha seriously isn't there a special glue to keep those suckers in there? man that can't be easy to eat like that... ha ha oh my goodness it was so funny.

 

well folks i think that's about it for the day. we are going to meet the other missionaries in our district in Torquay... aka we are going to the beach today :D we will probably just play football on the beach- we always play football man last week we played and i got a HUGE bruise on my shin, one of the elders kicked me so hard ha ha and another elder was running for the ball and another elder hit him and he flew into the stairs (going up to the stage like at our stake center) and i mean FLEW his body like curled into the stairs and then he landed on the ground and it seriously made a splat! sound like in the movies or something ha ha and we all just gasped and i was like... welp he's dead. ha ha we were pretty sure he broke his arm. but it was epic. anyways ha ha it's cloudy here but hopefully it will be good weather there at the beach! thank you for EVERYTHING!!!!! I love you guys so much. I was just thinking around this time last year or maybe a little earlier we were in Europe playing! My favorite moment was probably in Italy- we were in Florence I think and I came out of the shower and I remember thinking oh my gosh i am so tired i am going to go lay down and fall asleep in like 2 seconds and i came out of the bathroom and there was kate and tanner just reading their scriptures- it was such a sweet moment for me. So of course I followed suite and did the same and I am so grateful for that example to me. Keep reading those scriptures you guys no matter how tired you are :) Love your guts!

Week 17

Happy birthday Uncle Richard!!!!!!!!

 

ok whoa whoa whoa wait, i didn't read all the email but i looked down and saw where it talked about justin's wife... she is from ukraine!? where did they meet? that is so cool ha ha but then that she is the one that got her friend to live at the shaw's house?! i remember that girl from ukraine that lived at their house- that is so funny! what a small small world.....

 

well I don't even know where to begin (is that how i start off all of my emails? ... it sure feels like it ha ha)

 

this past week was interesting. with the riots going on we had a few new rules such as an earlier curfew and we couldn't work on the high street (bummer) so it was a bit of a weird week. (ps wandsworth zone was on lockdown during all of it which is where elder cross is- how cool for him! ... and scary of course) oh we also had to do some training on tuesday that sucked up like 3 hours of our day but it was really good- it was about using family history work in finding and it was so cool and it got us really excited about using the family history centre more! we have a family history centre here at our Exeter chapel so it's so nice that we have it so close. man family history work is so cool! that is one of the things that got karina wanting to come back to church.

 

oh that same day we had to do that extra training the mission doctor came down- sister fekete tore her ACL :S it happened before her mission but when she was in jersey she hurt it again. the doctor said she will be fine to wait until she gets home for reconstructive surgery but said we should go to the hospital to get her a brace... we just need to find time to do that ha ha but she doesn't let that slow her down- she is such a hard worker, i love it! this morning i was cleaning the bathroom and i came out and she was sweeping our carpeted stairs so i started laughing a little and asked what she was doing and she said "i was so determined to hoover the stairs this morning because they are dirty but the hoover isn't working but i'm not going to let that stop me from getting it done!" Sister Fekete in a nutshell. :)

 

I love Sister Fekete and I love having a european companion. Her accent is fabulous and she loves learning new words and phrases. Sometimes I'll say something and she'll pull out this little notebook she has from her bag and write it down. It makes me feel pretty important, like I have important things to say. Don't worry... I don't. ha ha it's usually funny slang words that I say that she has never heard before or something. Oh and she LOVES camp songs and other little American songs like do your ears hang low, she makes me sing them all the time. ha ha I'm learning so much about teaching from her because when I'm explaining things to her I have to simplify the words I'm using so she understands... well that's what I should be doing anyways! The gospel really is so simple. It's simple enough that a child can understand it and I LOVE teaching children here because they are the ones that say the most beautiful things, because they say everything so simply. It's understanding the simple things that makes the difference.

 

WELL have I ever told you about Phil and Tezza? I remember I told you about Tezza naming sheep and pigs after us on farmville but have I told you their story? ... I'll try to sum it up quickly:

 

About a month and a half ago or two months ago Sister Christensen and I were planning for our day and in our backup plans we felt prompted to go knock on a street called Herchelle road. Our plans went through she we didn't go knock there but for the next couple days we put it down as our backup. A few days later we ran into a chap from the ward called Mark Peoples and he told us that he invited his sons friend to church and his sons friend said he would go to church if Bro. Peoples went to his wife's farmville party..... well that week at church Bro. Peoples introduced us to Phil, his sons friend. Late 20s tattoos and piercings ALL over long hair etc. pretty rememberable (sp.?) well a few days later we ran right into him on the high street and started talking and he agreed to let us come over and teach him and his wife. So he gave us his address: 1A Herchelle road. Sister Christensen and I just looked at eachother and smiled and wrote it down. ANYWAYS fastforward to now.. Phil loves coming to church and comes with his friend (bro. peoples son) who was inactive and now loves coming to church as well! It has been amazing to see the SLOWWWWWW but sure changes in their lives. They love the things that we teach them and are determined to live the gospel. Last week we told them about the word of wisdom and we went over to their house again a couple days later and Tezza said that after we left she threw away all her fags, Phil went out and got nicotene patches. Phil has been smoking since he was 9 and drinking about the same so... it is going to be a long hard process for them but it's amazing how much they WANT to quit and want to change their lives so they can feel the blessings the Lord has in store for them. It's beautiful!! But it will be hard hard work. Please pray for them. Man this last week the theme was people having problems with the word of wisdom.. especially COFFEE. UGH. I have a testimony of keeping the word of wisdom. I KNOW that the Lord knows us and knows our bodies perfectly, He created them! He knows exactly what we need to do to best care for our body and guess what? He said no coffee, no tea, no alcohol, no tobacco, etc. well.. that's good enough reason for me. But... pray for those that we are teaching who don't have a testimony of these things yet. :) I love you all!!!

Week 16

Hello!!!!!!!!

 

Ok first- happpy birthday jason! from your favorite jamburglar ever!!!!!!

Daysabugs birthday is this month as well...  happy birthday lovely lady!!!

 

Well we are emailing a little bit later than normal because today we went to Powderham castle!!!! It's in our area and I had no idea that there was even a castle in our area until the Blackham's called us last night and asked if we wanted to go! So us, the Paignton sisters, and the Newton Abbot elders and the Blackhams went and then the Blackhams took us out to lunch after- it was so nice! And the castle was beautiful, so so cool! I'll send pictures as soon as I get that picture box thingy!

 

Um ok this week I got a package from Marcelle Emily and Jana that they put together before Emily left on her mission and it was amazing!! Thank you so much Marcelle and Jana! Tell Emily thank you as well! It came at seriously the perfect time, all my little black socks have holes in them and i was about to go buy new ones and in the package they sent there were packs of socks!!!! man it felt like christmas! ha ha really it was such a fun little package oh they sent some of that del sol nailpolish where it's clear inside and you go out in the sun it's pink- so cool! the girls in the ward saw yesterday at church and said i have to bring it to church next week so they can borrow it ha ha THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

 

Leslie sent me a letter and explained in detail Kelsi Manwaring's wedding reception- it was glorious! Thank you SO much Leslie! Seriously stuff like that is the best. especially hearing about the turnbulls dressing up like white trash hillbillies or something ha ha ha oh that made me laugh. So someone please tell Kelsi and Christian congrats for me and someone send me some pictures! please! ha ha Oh there is a new couple in the ward and the guy reminds me of christian!!!

 

Well these last few days have been good because we have been teaching a lot! The best way to get used to how someone else teaches is just actually teaching with them! ha ha so it's been really good. We have also had a lot of our investigators tell us really personal things they need help with so that was amazing to see how quickly they felt comfortable with Sister Fekete. It's amazing how the work just continues no matter what. Missionaries move in and out but the work just keeps moving forward. His truth is marching on! In the rain, in the sun, in the wind, in the rain... ha ha His truth is marching on. :) Oh by the way England had its one week of summer last week. It was well hot! But now it's nice and cool and rainy again. ha ha

 

Dad you told me I should write a little something that they can put in the ward newsletter, it's probably too late but something I have been thinking about lately as I've been working with our ward here and seeing how a ward really runs (it's so cool to see and understand the behind the scenes!) is how AMAZING our ward is at home. I always love so much when dad writes home about different random little things that have happened in the ward like when Brother Brown helped someone's father off the stand one day after he bore his testimony and other members just going the extra mile because that's simply what they do and who they are. I love it! I love the term "our ward family" well in the Sunset Heights 3rd ward, it truly is a family and I am so grateful for it. Thank you dad for sending me those little things, keep sending those little moments to me. And thank you to I think Sister Whitney? For sending me the ward newsletter every month- that is so fun!!

 

Well tonight we are going to teach our dearest darlingest Martyn. He has a baptismal date but is still apprehensive about it. Please please pray for Martyn. He is so wonderful and is going to do amazing things for this ward here!!

 

Ok a few of my favorite things:

 

*new cds mom- seriously thank you. that newest cd is amazing we listen to it non-stop I had just been telling Sis. C about Kalai and Alex Boye so it was so perfect that they were both on this cd! ps there is a cd that kalai has that is all hymns... i would LOVE that cd sometime :)

*There is a chap in the ward called Bro. Koczaban and when he says the sacrament prayer he sounds JUST like Professor Snape. I'm not even kidding you. ha ha ha

*Opening a new box of copies of the Book of Mormon (see how i dodged the books of mormon vs. book of mormons fiasco there? ;))

*They call sprinkles "hundreds and thousands" here :) how cute!

*Johnny Lingo... I know I have said it before but I'll say it again. ha ha we are going to watch it with some investigators this week that couldn't come to our fireside night- yes!

*Sister Christensen showed me a picture last week of her cousin in the Brazil MTC and guess who was standing 1 person away from her.... SHAWN WIBLE!!! :) Lex, how are you!? I need to write you lady!

*There is a lady that has been playing the saxaphone on the high street this past week-it's beautiful :)

 

Olright well I think that's about it for the day. I LOVE YOU! 

Week 15

Again, sorry it took so long to post these!

Hello August- it's good to see you. :)

 

Well... Sister Christensen broke up with me. Ha ha but it's ok because she went to JERSEY in the channel islands!! So so cool. And my new companion just switched her places! My new companion is Sister Fekete (fehkuhtuh) she is from Hungary and she is adorable. I'm so excited to be working with her. AND she has been on Jersey for 9 months so she is loving it here so far! Of course she has only been here a few hours... ha ha speaking of oh my goodness today has already been the longest day ha ha we didn't go to bed until late because Sister Christensen had to pack up everything but she had to choose what she wanted to take because she could only take 20 kilos (44 lbs) with her to Jersey, everything else has to be sent up to the office!!! Yikesabee. Then we had to leave the flat a little before 5 this morning to get her to the Exeter airport for her 7 am flight and then we had to wait there for Sister Fekete until a little after 10 this morning. Jo, Tracey, and Aisling drove us to the airport so they were my companions for a few hours :) ha ha it was good.

 

Well I told Tanner he should read the talk from last conference by Elder Kent F. Richards "The Atonement Covers All Pain." It's brilliant. We have used it a lot in our teaching because it is so applicable to so many people. The atonement truly is appicable to us everyday and NEEDS to be appicable to us everyday. It is there for us, it is the most beautiful gift we have been given so use it! Just remember there's no earthly sorrow that heaven cannot cure. That's true, and I love it.

 

I'm excited to serve with Sister Fekete. I'm excited for a new adventure. But I LOVED serving with Sister Christensen. Our companionship was simply explained in a thought we shared often from 2 Nephi "and they lived after the manner of happiness" :) When you are building the kingdom of God, you will live in the manner of happiness, it's as simple as that. Sister Christensen and I saw amazing amazing miracles together and I learned A LOT. I'm so grateful for her knowledge and her love of the Book of Mormon. She truly found joy in the journey and I'm so glad she taught me how to do that as well. I love missionary work. I love being a missionary!! It was so sad yesterday when we went to teach our last people together, they were all families that we love so much and have gotten so close to and it was amazing to realize how quickly we have all become lifelong friends. The reason we love them so much is because we were able to serve them! Man.. the work is great. :) I love you all! 

*Fernando the bus driver. Yup some of our best friends here are the bus drivers. :) 

 *The Poulter family :) Rachael, Dean, Fin, Abi, Chris, Albert, and Veronica. Chris' grandad (Albert) baptised him and it was glorious!

 *Us with Chris making goofy faces- naturally

 *Our Johnny LIngo tropical night! Ok if you haven't seen the newer full length feature film Johnny Lingo for the love PLEASE go watch it- it is so good! Are Sister Christensen and I a little obsessed? Definitely. We even named our huge pet wasp that lived in our closet room for days Mahanna :)  Alex, Me, Miley, Jo, Sue, Chris, Tracey, Christensen

*Sometimes we wear sunglasses in our flat and put grapes in our mouth when we are on the phone with the other missionaries in the district... :)

 *Our comp item- matching owl necklaces because of Robin. I'll send you the wise old owl poem he always tells us

*Us with Abdulmonien. We call him Abdul. He is SO cool. Unfortunately he is Muslim and is going back to Qatar to teach soon so we can't teach him anymore :(

Week 14

Oops, sorry it took me so long to post these!

 Mom tell the girls from the ward thank you so much, the girls here have been SO excited to hear back and all of their testimonies were so wonderful! and the cards with everyones little notes from a family party, I loved those so much. I have read them over and over again. One thing cousin Ben wrote was "and remember you've got a lot of family praying for you!" :) Thank you for your prayers, I truly feel it all. Last week there was a day that should have been just miserable but all day I couldn't help but feel joy for the gospel and so much joy for the people here, I felt like I was being held up and I KNOW it was all of your prayers. It was a really neat experience for me. That day we also sang "Because I have been Given Much" that is such a family hymn for us, I remember singing it at Leisy and Laney's farewell and Tanner's farewell as well and I know it was sung at grandma's funeral and it amazes me to think about how much we truly have been given, how much I truly have been given. At the MTC there was another verse that we would always sing. Kenneth Cope wrote it specifically for the Preston England MTC in 1999 and it goes like this:

"Because of Thy life's mission, Lord,

I too will serve.

I'll leave the comfort of my home

to teach Thy word.

I'll seek Thy sheep who've gone astray,

and those who've never known the way.

I will make Thy work, my work, today."

:) I love that so much. I really have been so blessed in my life and I feel so blessed to be here now doing the Lord's work.

There is a guy we have been teaching called Ryan, the other day he asked if we wanted to go see Harry Potter with him. We have told him our rules and such before (and actually he had looked up all about missionaries before he met with us to see what our life as a missionary is like) so he knows we can't go see movies and he was like well but you two do such wonderful work, I think the Lord would want to reward you guys by letting you go to the movie!! We laughed and explained that's not how it works but I have been thinking about that and the day after Ryan said that to us ROBIN GOT BAPTISED!!!!! oh it was so beautiful. He got out of hospital on Thursday and came to church Sunday and so we went ahead with his baptism and it was so glorious. Sister Christensen and I were talking about it and THAT is the reward we receive as missionaries. The joy of seeing someone be baptised and seeing how happy the gospel makes them... man that's what it's all about.

Robin's baptism was especially fantastic because Sunday started out to be quite the bad day. ha ha all of our baptismal dates called that morning and said they wouldn't be able to make it to church. Bummer. So we went to go walk with another investigator to church and his dad wouldn't let him go to church. Bummer. So Sister C and I were walking to church and the sidewalk gets really narrow at one point so I went and walked in front of her and all the sudden I hear "Mills! There is a huge hole in your dress!!!!!" then as soon as she finished saying that this HUGE dog jumped out of these bushes just barking and barking at us, he was on a leash thankfully but it still freaked us out so we started screaming and running away ha ha ha ha oh my gosh I wish someone would have been recording that moment. So cliche missionary moment. So uh ya hole in my dress. Right at the butt. Stupid sister missionary mall. Ha ha i'm pretty sure it happened earlier when we were going to pick up Chris to walk to church because his little siblings were playing with us and jumping up and down on us ha ha don't worry Fiona found some pins and stitched me up so everyone didn't see my knickers and then after church and the baptism we went to Karina's and she sewed it back up for me. :) Now it's even better than before.

Well let's see... I have some random thoughts..

-Did the Zabriske's move? I saw on Jo's letter it was a Mapleton address?

-You saw Bronson! so cool! Kate will you get on facebook or something and tell him congratulations!!! Tell him when I was at the MTC I met his mission president and I asked if he had an Elder Bronson Taylor and he was like well of course we did! We love Elder Taylor! oh and then I saw a picture of Bronson and I saw Sister Smith in the picture as well- she wasn't my teacher but she did a lot of group teaches and stuff with everyone, she is proper cool! When I told her I know Bronson she said that she had seen a girl in his facebook picture and so she sneakily got her phone out and showed me ha ha ha :)

Well I'm going to send pictures in another email so they will send quicker but one last thing I want to share with you it's from a talk Haley sent to me by Barbara Workman called The Quest for Joy- go and read it. Seriously it's fantastic. But one thing in there that has helped me so much this past week is this: " We may not feel deeply enough to know joy unless our hearts have been hollowed out by sorrow. A heart may not be big enough to know real joy until it has been stretched and pulled by trials and hard things." As hard and crummy as that is, I know that is true. So don't be discouraged when you are in the hollowing out process, just look forward with faith to when that big hole will be filled with joy. :) I love love love your guts! Love, Sister Janna Lynn Mills!

*Chris and Abi Poulter. We LOVE these guys. Finlay isn't in this picture though :( we'll take another with him soon.

*We went and helped Jo paint her flat the other day for our service... we painted the walls and she painted us. ha ha

*Here is a better look at the paint in our hair. It was ridiculous to get out!

*Robin's baptism!!!!!!!!!!! :) Man Robin is so so great. That guy is on fire! .... not literally. ha ha ha sorry Tan. I feel like I'm digging myself in a hole right now... I'm just going to move on.

*The hole in the butt of my skirt right before Karina fixed it :)