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!