Friday, April 20, 2012

April 15

Welll this week has been so good, Sister Ho and I are doing well in our little ole lovely Bracknell. Did I tell you about the Chinese men that we met last week or 2 weeks ago that we have been teaching? They are so cool, they are here for work and it's a good chance for Sister Ho to use her Cantonese- yay! It's so so SO cool to see them slowly take steps to pray and to find out who God is. He is real! He is there! I love it. Oh so YES we met up with Aunt Annie :) and yes she gave me the package, and I LOVED the home made cookies!! Everyone we taught yesterday we gave them a cookie and one man called Jon was like "... I'm sorry but you're going to have to leave a few more of those behind when you leave" ha ha.  It was so lovely to see Annie, a member took us to the station to meet her right after church and the member offered to drive us to Windsor so we could see the castle and eat! Then Annie made her way back to London for work. It was a great little mini adventure. The weather wasn't very pleasant though. oh well. Anyways we are so excited for this week- we have a lot of people that we are so excited to teach- YES! I love this work. Love you guys!

April 10

"Can't we just have like a salad or something... " :) name that movie? ha ha Helloooo and happy Easter holidays! So Sister Ho and I are both staying here in Bracknell and I am honestly shocked. I thought for sure I was leaving- everyone at church even said goodbye to me on Sunday! ha ha So here we are! Bracknell it is! So you can let Annie know :) Thanks very much for sending those things with Annie! To be honest I'm bummed the pictures got deleted from the cards... I'll probably need some of those so I might write you every once in a while needing you to email me some of those pictures.... we'll see. Speaking of did Pen get the little email about sending me that picture from the MTC? :) Well I didn't get to write much about conference last week! I loved it. I loved President Monson's talk and especially when he said at the end "Come back. Come home. Come in. Come unto Him." ... or something like that :) Oh I loved that. and I loved Elder Koelliker's (?) talk- man that was exactly what I needed to hear! And Holland- of course his pleasant rebuking. Love it. Did I write all that last week!? I'm losing my mind I swear. I cannot believe Gregs and Christensen come home tomrorrow. I talked to them both last night :S man so weird. So Gregson's homecoming as you know is this week and Christensen's isn't for a few weeks. She gave me her number to give to you but I left it at home so I'll send it next week! Easter was wonderful. We went to the Phillip's home with other members from the ward and had a big delicious dinner and then the kids had an Easter egg hunt! Easter egg hunts aren't super popular here... oh but in Bracknell high street they had all these farm animals in the middle of the square the day before Easter. ha ha it was sweet. And on Good Friday all around England (mostly in all the old towns) they do Passion Plays so we got permission to go to a members home and watch the Preston Passion- it's a live play reinacting the sacrifice of Christ and  different Christian things... it was really interesting. It was cool! Well anyways I love you all!







I lied I have more to say. So I don't know if I told you at Christmas time there was a lady that came to the ward Christmas party with her daughter and their names are Penny (the mum) and Katie is the daughter :D ha ha and anyways Elianna got baptised on Tuesday (the girl I asked you to send me the baptism bag for, and did I tell you she asked me to speak at her baptism so it was perfect! She loved the baptism bag as well!) and Penny knows her family so she came and we talked with her for a long time after and invited her to church on Sunday and she invited us back to hers after church and she is SO sweet. She investigated the church years ago (because of the Osmonds- go figure. ha ha seriously there are SOOOO many members here that are members because of the Osmonds and so many people that we meet on the street "Oh Mormons, like the Osmonds?" ha ha they are coming to Woking next week! Penny and her daughter are going to see them!) but then stopped but now we are teaching her again. :) I love them. Oh also, Kaylea Terry, the sister missionary from temple square from England that I met before I left was at church again on Sunday- it was so fun. Ok for reals that's all this time. :)

April 2

Helloo!!! What a beautiful spring day it is today. And this whole week has been just beautiful! Zone conference was amazing, Elder Johnson (an Ameritus general authority) spoke to us and he was SUCH a good speaker! he was hilarious too. and then this weekend GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! So we went to Aldershot (in the Staines zone) because we took Aigars, our Latvian investigator so that the Russian speaking elder there could teach him and then they brought their cantonese speaking investigator so we (Sister Ho) could teach him- it was perfect!! So we went Saturday night and watching hte Saturday morning session (5-7) then went home and then Sunday got up and went for the Saturday afternoon session (1-3) and then the sunday morning session live (5-7) and a member from the Aldershot ward brought all of us missionaries food and we had a big feast inbetween sessions, it was great. I didn't get to hear all of Saturday afternoon session in English, only Elder Holland's which was of course fantastic and then the rest of the session we watched in Cantonese ha ha it was fun BUT I'll look forward to reading the talks in English when the Ensign comes out :D speaking of mom will you send me a copy of the conference engsign when it comes out?  we will get some from the mission maybe in a couple months but htere is a member here (Jean Hearne, have i told you about her before?) that would love a copy! ps did you guys see Elder Archleta singing in the choir in the... Saturday afternoon session? ;) ha ha ha love it. well I'm sorry this is so short and so rushed, I'll write more next week ok? We are going to Windsor again for a big Reading vs. Staines football match today :) i love you guys!

March 12

WELLLL oh my goodness I have so much to tell you!!! SOOO many favorite and exciting things that happened this week. I shall tell you through pictures..... (ps did you get my pictures? will you upload them on the computer and send me the things back? :) i am sending pictures from sister ho's camera today!)

*No. 4 Privat Drive Surrey is ACTUALLY No. 12 Picketts Post Close Bracknell, Berkshire :D This is the Dursley's home! and us knocking the door... ha ha we walked about 40 minutes to get there with Lexie and we got there and turned the corner and saw Tesco and realized it was actually only about 10 minutes to walk there from our flat ha ha it was a fun adventure

*Saturday we went to the TEMPLE!!!! We took Aigars to the visitors centre and the elders serving in Guilford brougth their investigator (her name is Shannon and she is from New Zealand- she was so cute and we loved her accent!) and we taught Shannon while Elder Culciu (Moldova) and Elder Sutcliffe (New Zealand) taught Aigars!! (Culciu taught him in Russian :)) Sister Aslett, our ward relief society president drove us there and it was such a lovely day!! (It was Shannon's birthday so we made her cookies... that's what that picture is of me and Sister Ho, it was just while we were waiting for sister aslett to pick us up ha ha 






*and last but not least..... president called us on Tuesday morning asking us about Shipon and how he is doing. He said he was going to a mission presidents conference in Germany and that he would be seeing some of the 12 apostles. He told us it was time to get this sorted. He told us he was going to talk to them and ask if Shipon could be baptised. He called us again Saturday saying he wanted to come speak with Shipon after church. Well OF COURSE Shipon couldn't come to church on Sunday because he had to go into London to getsome thigns for a big exam he has today- let me just tell you Shipon never misses church. So we call Shipon and he was just like oh my goodness ok I wil come straight after and see president! So Shipon goes to get on the train to get here, and missed it by seconds. Calls us it was fine because president was running late as well :) so Shipon gets on the train but THEN the train line from London Waterloo to Bracknell for some reaon stopped at Virginia Water- about 5 stops from Bracknell, so then Shipon had to get on a stinkin bus and take the bus from Virginia Water to Bracknell! So president got there and Sister Shamo was just like oh I'm not surprised things always go wrong, that's how you know you are doing something right!! ha ha so anyways Shipon finally got there and went in and talked with president for a while anthen came out and they were both red teary eyes and huge smiles and president told all of us that the first presidency said that Shipon could be baptised finally. Finally!!!!!!! Oh my goodness it was incredible. So we jumped on a train to Reading and met with the district leader there (Elder Cross) so Shipon could have his interview so we could start telling EVERYONE about his baptism this Saturday. :) hooray!!!!!! It was so great. Oh and we got to see the CES fireside as well which they held at BYUI in the center there... it was so weird i had completely forgotten about the new BYUI center! ha ha anyways. man what a good day. what a good week!! pray for shipon! We told him it would be hard this week and he said "it ok, i kill satan!!" ha ha oh so the first picture is me and sister ho this morning being so anxious about what president would say to Shipon and the second picture is all of us right after president told shipon he could be baptised and then us on the train going to Reading for the interview. :D





*No. 4 Privat Drive Surrey is ACTUALLY No. 12 Picketts Post Close Bracknell, Berkshire :D This is the Dursley's home! and us knocking the door... ha ha we walked about 40 minutes to get there with Lexie and we got there and turned the corner and saw Tesco and realized it was actually only about 10 minutes to walk there from our flat ha ha it was a fun adventure

*Saturday we went to the TEMPLE!!!! We took Aigars to the visitors centre and the elders serving in Guilford brougth their investigator (her name is Shannon and she is from New Zealand- she was so cute and we loved her accent!) and we taught Shannon while Elder Culciu (Moldova) and Elder Sutcliffe (New Zealand) taught Aigars!! (Culciu taught him in Russian :)) Sister Aslett, our ward relief society president drove us there and it was such a lovely day!! (It was Shannon's birthday so we made her cookies... that's what that picture is of me and Sister Ho, it was just while we were waiting for sister aslett to pick us up ha ha

March 4

Yay I'm so glad it was fun meeting the Gregson's, I can't wait to meet them all!! Well you will see them all again soon- Sister Gregson gets home in 6 weeks!!!! :S :( Sister Christensen does as well! Speaking of- Christensen white washed LONDON! Like proper London- Wandsworth! Man I'm so excited for her and to hear her sweet dodgy stories ha ha Penny you are hilarious- I'm glad you enjoyed Titanic. Courtney and I used to watch it all the time at sleepovers ha ha and Nearer My God to Thee isn't just a church song but it is in our hymn book! Obviously. ha ha. Congratulations to Leisy and Kent!!!! Metta Joy how adorable is that? I'm sure Metta is thrilled!!! Her very own name sake. :D 

Well this last week has been wonderful. The weather has been good some days and the weather has been miserable some days. It was hard to prepare for the day and know how to dress because in the morning it was so warm but by the evening it was freezing and windy and rainy. BUT Sunday morning we woke up to a rain storm and we both shouted for joy because that meant Hossein could come to church!!! ha ha (he works at a car wash and he works on Sundays- unless it's raining then they don't work.) So he called us "I can come to church today!" :) 

We also had some fun with a new thing the church is doing called the lost sheep program. The church is having us missionaries go out and find people that have been lost from the records and have us go visit them and invite them to church etc. and then to knock 10 doors on each side. This week we saw one lady and the member had moved so it wasn't even the right door but as we were knocking the 10 doors on each side we met the coolest family- they have 2 little girls that are adorable. We are going back to teach them tomorrow- we are so excited! 

Well today for pday we are going with Lexie to see Harry Potter's home!!! Well the Dursley's home. The home where they filmed the Dursley's home in Harry Potter is in Bracknell! So we are going to go on a bit of an adventure today to find it. It seems like a lovely day for it as well- the sun is shining! There are lots of grey clouds though.... we'll see how it goes. ha ha well I hope you all have a fantastic week!!!

February 26

YAYYYYY for BYU!!!!! Congratulations Kate! So I haven't gotten your Valentine package yet, but probably someone will be moving from our zone and hopefully will pick it up from the office. Pendragon I loved the British accent in your letter by the way. ;) ha ha ok Mum, I LOVE the young womans camp theme. Did I get a little teary eyed when I read it? YES. I'm a baby alright? Oh I love the idea of the girls writing their testimonies in copies of the Book of Mormon, I think that is fantastic. If you want you can just have them write on pieces of paper and then I can glue them into copies here so you don't have to pay for shipping a bunch of books! 

This week was moves and Sister Ho and I are staying in Bracknell. :) We are both really excited! Well last week was fantastic. We did an exchange and I went to Royal Tunbridge Wells (the other side of London) with Sister Housley!! Sister Housley is from Orem, and I remebmer seeing her picture in the Orem Institute building before I left and wonderred if I would ever serve with her. ha ha. But it was so good. Exchanges= miracles that's for sure! AND for dinner when I was there we went to a members restaurant there called Chez JJ, it's a French restaurant and we could order whatever we wanted so of course we ordered escargot. :D ha ha and then this really yummy chicken dish and creme brulee... it was soo good! 

Then it was back to Bracknell for me. We had a realy busy weekend on teaching and finding and preparing for a fireside we had last night. It was called the "Finding Strength Fireside" and we started out talking about strength and Nate Phillips did a little demonstration about strength for us. We had doughnuts and everytime someone took a doughnut he had to do 15 pushups. Well by the end everyone was like no I don't want to take a doughnut, I don't want to make him do the pushups! ... but he had to do the pushups anyways whether they took the doughnut or not. We then shifted gears and talked about how we can find strength through Jesus Christ and especially through the atonement. It was so powerful. We were all crying. It was great. ha ha. I am so grateful for the atonement and that I get to tell people who are so weak about the atonement and that I can invite them to find strength through Him- and that I can find strength through the Savior as well. ALL the time. 

Well these are a few of my favorite things this week:
*THE SUNSHINE! Man this last weekend was fabulous. When I was in Tunbridge Wells I was only wearing a cardigan while the sun was out! But now... it's dark and grey and cold again. Oh well. Spring will come!
*Seeing Big Ben, the London Eye, and the Tower Bridge on Thursday and Friday (Riding the train through London ;))
*When we wake up it is not PITCH black anymore- yay!
*When an investigator gave me his "favorite/ lucky" flask. :D He hasn't had alcohol for 23 days now!! It is beautiful to see people change.

I love you family so much. Thank you for everything- especially the emails AND pictures. :) I just want to share something with you before I send this off. THIS is what has gotten me through the week: 

http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#good-things-to-come 

February 19

ha ha ha and I laughed at what you said about speaking every Sunday at church mom IF it's about your kids. ha ha love it. 

Well this week was fantastic because we had a ZONE CONFERENCE! Man, it was so good. A woman called Savannah Stevenson came and spoke to us and it was brilliant. She is a member of the church here in England, she is from Derbyshire but she came down for our zone conference to speak to us because she had the opportunity of playing Mary in the church's new bible videos. I heard they showed them at the first presidency CChristmas devotional but in case you haven't seen them you can find them here:

http://www.lds.org/bible-videos/?lang=eng

But she talked about how she prepared to play the role of the mother of Jesus Christ and how she used Luke 2:19 about how Mary pondered these things in her heart. She talked a lot about pondering and how important it is and how Joseph Smith also had to ponder these things before he went and prayed and saw God the Father and His son Jesus Christ and how we are told in Moroni 10 that we must PONDER these things and it has made me ponder a lot this last week... at the things that I do ponder about and if I spend enough time pondering on the things that matter most instead of little insignificant things.

It was so good. President and Sister Shamo spoke to us and the APs as well. It's just always so good. And so fun to see all the other missionaries too!!!!! We have so much fun. AND Sister Christensen was there!! They flew her and her companion in from Jersey so I got to see her, maybe the last time before she goes home. :( I can't believe it. She goes home at the same time as Sister Gregson. I'm so excited you guys are going to see her family! Don't forget that little gift from Sister Gregson for them ok? :) Thanks!

Well fam, I love you guys. Keep doing what you need to do and you will be blessed. Love, Sister Mills

February 13




*Just a part of Windsor Castle
*Yay! Elders from L to R from Singapore, Switzerland, Idaho, Sweden, England, Utah and me and Sister Ho Hong Kong and Utah! PS look at Elder Cross's goofy face ha ha
*Me, Sister Ho, and Lexie (Lexie if from Provo and is here helping her brother and sister in law because they just had their 3rd little girl - annikka and nate, where we went for Christmas! Well Lexie is like our 3rd companion. ha ha) 
*Me & Sister Ho & Frank. :) 

P.S. The royal band played before the changing of the guards and guess what they played? Indiana Jones and Star Wars... ha ha ha 
P.P.S It was the perfect foggy English medevil feeling day :)