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 :)
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