May 27

Hello my lovelies! Man LONDON is the best!! I really just don't even know what to tell you ha ha there is so much that happens everyday, it is never the same. London is absolutely CRAZY!! 

We had a zone conference this weekend- it was fab. Elder J. Jensen, the president of the 70 came and spoke to us about being Preach my Gospel missionaries. I love Preach my Gospel so much, it is amazing. I don't know if I told you but last moves President invited us to read it from cover to cover as a companionship and it was amazing to see the difference it made. It made us so excited and so much more knowledgeable about sharing the gospel. I am so grateful for a living prophet and living inspiration that we have to guide us. Love it love it love it. It was also the first zone conference I have ever been to in Crawley- random fact. ha ha we always have 2 different zone conferences and it is split between the west and the east so I have always been at the west conference, but not anymore! ha ha so it was fun to see and meet different missionaries I have never met before. One is Elder Jarman, the Jaynes neighbor! Another is Elder La Mazza, the Ybarra's were serving in his home ward in Germany!! It is such a small small world. :)

There are 2 stories I really want to share. The first was on Tuesday. We went to go see a member called Kristina. 1. Her house is beautiful. She is definitely one of the posh members Elder Cross was telling you about ha ha she showed us the balcony on her roof and you can see the London Eye from there- it's so sweet!! 2. We shared a message with her and we told her we were going to finish our food shopping and she was like you need food? I have food for you! So for the next 20 minutes she was looking through all her cupboards finding food for us, we went home with 2 boxes and 2 bags FULL of delicious food. It was amazing. And literally an answer to our prayers. Because of all the travel from moves and things we had no money whatsoever and we had no idea how we were going to buy our food (ps mom i had to use my home money to top up our oyster card the other day- (the card we use for the tube (overground and underground) train, tram, bus all of our London transportation!)  It was such a blessing. 

Then on Thursday we were going to see a member called Ruth. Go take a look on youtube at Ruth Lorenzo- Purple Rain. A few years ago she was on X Factor (England's version of American Idol) She made it to the top 4, and she is a member here in Wandsworth Common ward!! So Ruth has a flatmate called Lisa that we have been teaching and they were both about to go away this weekend for Spain and we told them we would go drop by a scripture reading calendar we made for them. So we got there and they weren't home, we were so sad, we really really wanted to see them before we left and we had been praying all morning that we would be able to go at a time that they would be home. So I started to write them a little note to slip through the post flap and this lady called Margaret walked by. Margaret started chatting to us and we just listened patiently for proably like... 10 minutes ha ha and her accent was super duper cockney (Londoner) and it was really hard to understand and she kept asking us if we had ever worked in a factory ha ha she was a tiny bit crazy, but the whole time we were talking to her I was thinking maybe God sent Margaret our way so that we would stay here and wait and when she leaves Ruth and Lisa will get home. So we continued talking and margaret finally left and I told Barker that I was hoping they would get home right then, so we turned to leave and all the sudden we hear "LADIESSSSSS!!!!!!!!" Ruth and Lisa. :D oh it was so so perfect. It was amazing how every little thing worked out that day so we could be there right at that moment. We needed to be there as well because while we were there she got a phone call that her nan only had until Monday to live, and her and her nan were really close. Oh the Lord's timing. It's amazing. As we were leaving we had to get on the bus and then the tube to get to Joyce to visit her and we were hoping to go visit a less active woman called Natalie but we just didn't have time, well as we were walking guess who we saw- Natalie Malcom. It was divine rendezvous day. :) 

Well I want you to know that I wrote this whole email and then I went to send it and my computer froze so we had to restart it so then everything else I wrote didn't save in the draft. BOO!!! But I pretty much just said that I know I say how much I love England and how much I love being a missionary (AND I DO!!) but that doesn't mean that I look forward to hearing from you every Monday. It is necessary. I need it and I love it. So thank you! I love you and miss you all so much! With love, Sister Mills


ps Jo just wrote me an email and this was the subject: 

Stop pinching yourself this is for real :)

ha ha right?

Look who I saw!

*Show this to Metta. This is Rachel Anderson and I when the BYU singers came to Guilford!!

*Elder La Mazza and I! Show this picture to the Ybarra's please :D and tell them we send our love! He came up to me at zone conference "Sister Mills!!! Are you THE sister Mills?" ... um yes? ha ha and then he told me the Ybarra's served in his home ward!

*Elder Jarman and I. Show this to the Jaynes HELLO JAYNES!!!!! :)

*Mitcham District at the tower bridge. Notice we have not crossed the mission line :D ha ha

May 17

I mooooooooooooooooved! I, Sister Janna Lynn Mills am now serving in WANDSWORTH!!!!!!! I'm a London Sister :D So I got here yesterday and we were so busy we didn't have time to come emailing so here we are today. We got home yesterday and then went to go see a woman called Joyce. She is from Zimbabwe and she came to England to study nursing but she got here and found out she had cancer. She is just recovering from cancer and my goodness she is amazing. She has a cold at the moment so she was really really weak and tired but she said she didn't want to cancel the appointment because she loves when we come over and said it brings her so much peace and helps her sleep at night. :) I'm so excited to teach her more! As we were on our way home from her we met this guy called Peter from Uganda and we started talking with him and told him who we are and he said "Jesus Christ's church?! I only see England's church in this country, it's about time Jesus Christ's church was here!!" ha ha and as we kept talking to him and telling him about The Book of Mormon he was just yelling (in a good way) about it all "of course I'll meet with you sisters! Jesus Christ's church is here in England, it is about time!!" ha ha man I hope he's not just a flogger but he was so cool. 

So here in Wandsworth (by the way Elder Cross served here for like 9 months and then Sister Christensen served here as well!) So sisters have been here now about 3 months and before that sisters haven't served here for 18 years! So my companion is Sister Barker (who sister Christensen trained, we are SISTERS! ha ha) she is from North Carolina, she comes from a family of 10 and she has a brother AND a sister both on missions right now as well! (One in Salt Lake, one in California) She's great! 

Oh before I forget my new address is:

#12 Elms Court
Montague Road
London
SW19 1TZ


Ok well we have to go we just got a call from some elders that we need to meet up with because they have a Book of Mormon on CD for us to take to Joyce, YAY!!! oh and they are bringing us krispy kreme doughnuts. yes! I love you guys! Don't worry mom, I'm safe! :)

*Me and Sister Barker on the tube. We use any and every type of transportation here. The underground, the trains, the buses, and we walk! 

P.S. we live in Wimbledon :)

*Me and allllll my stuff

*Me and Sister Ho and Penny the day before I left. This is Penny!!

May 6

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA HOWELL!!!
 
That is so fun to hear you saw Meg Cross working at Brick!! Tell Kate and Penny to tell her hello from me!! Pen- I want to see you play lacrosse!! Well done my dear! Undefeated and MVP! Well this last week was so so good. On Sunday Penny was at church and after she drove us to a teach that we had but we stayed in the car for a while just talking with her and shehad the most amazing questions- she is so ready for this! But she really wants to go at her own pace. She is having a lot of problems with her tooth as well- she is going to the dentist tomorrow to try to get it sorted but please please pray for Penny! Did I tell you about Becky? Becky is a girl who is dating a returned missionary and so she started having the lessons with us and she is so ready to be baptised, she knows it's true, she wants to be baptised, she just has to wait until July when she turns 18. Boo! ha ha We saw Shipon last night and spoke with him more about going on his mission :D and we gave him a copy of Preach my Gospel and you would have thought it was Christmas, he was SOOOO excited. It was so so cool. He loves this gospel. "I am going to read all this book and then be best missionary ever!" he said to us. ha ha YES Shipon! 

Well in some exciting news- the BYU choir is coming to Guilford on Thursday and we are really really trying to go! We have an investigator that wants to go but we just have to find a lift for all of us :S ha ha 

So people keep referring to May as "murky May" and "miserable May" and.... it is completely true. ha ha we haven't seen the sun once this May and I'm ready for spring! COME ON SUN! The flowers are still in bloom and there is the most gorgeous field of yellow flowers that we can see on the train ride to Wokingham/Reading. Oh my days it's fantastic. I LOVE ENGLAND! That's what I keep reminding myself, it's still raining so that it can be even more beautiful this summer! :) 

ps Elder Cross comes home next week- WHAT! His homecoming is 20 May! I don't know what time, maybe Tanner could ask Parker. 

Well my lovelies next week is moves again already! :S So I think we will still email Monday but we won't know moves until Tuesday! YAY! It's all so exciting. Also- there are going to be TONS of moves because there are 40 elders/sisters giong home this moves. So president said 52 of the 64 companionships in the mission are going to be effected because of all the missionaries going home! :O ha ha crazy stuff. I'm excited. 

Well these are a few of my favorite things:

*making mums chocolate chip cookies with Cadbury chocolate bites :D
*finding parks on our morning runs and let me tell you the parks in England are so good!

oh this is NOT a few of my favorite things but definitely note worthy: the price of stamps went up last week :O NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! 

oh mom, last week when we went to zone conference (OH! that's what I forgot to tell you about- zone conference! man it was so so good. President and Sister Walker were just as lovely as ever. It was so sweet the way they stook at the pulpit and taught us together. I love them.) anyways some sisters slept over and we were all taking the train together and one of them noticed my ctr ring, the cursive one you gave me for christmas a while ago- anyways they loved it. 

April 29

helllooooo!!!! So this is coming a little later than usual because we spent another pday (or just part of our pday) traveling to London. We took Sister Lewis to the airport. :( boo!! So she is currently on a plane right now to Ukraine and we are here back in little ole Bracknell. We are going to miss her we had so  so much fun together. Tris- they are a riot! Oh and she is from Bristol so she lives like 30 minutes from Bath and she said her house is quite big with extra rooms because her dad is a builder so she said we could go stay there when we come back! Well other than that- this week has been wonderful. Oh and I finally get what the expression "April showers brings may flowers" means... ha ha it has been raining for like 3 weeks straight. BUT today the sun is out! Sister Ho just said to me, "Miss England is happy today!" ha ha 

Oh story for you: so Saturday we were going to take Aigars to a baptism in Aldershot and we got to the station and waited and waited and he never showed up- he then rang us and said he couldn't come, we were so sad but just shrugged it off and kept doin what we do. Just a few moments later we met this woman called Pretti (yes pronounced like pretty :)) she is from India! So we started talking to her and after like 10 minutes she asked us for our number and asked if she could come to church with us and she is so cool! We just saw her in town as well as we were walking here! "Sisters!" she called to us and ran up and hugged us both ha ha we are so excited to teach her this week. 

Well this week we are having zone conference and President and Sister Walker are coming to speak to us!!!! (The MTC president and his wife- yay!!) We are all so excited to see them again- it is going to be amazing. Other than that things are just normal as can be in the life of Sister Mills here in Bracknell, England. I love you guys!

April 22

Hellloooooo! Oh I'm glad you all got together on Sunday, I love that! I don't feel like I expressed my gratitude enough for Annie coming to see it- it really was so fun and so so great! She was so sweet and kind to everyone we met and she took Sister Ho and I out for a delicious meal as well, it was so good. and honestly it was so fun to be able to show her around and then we were at the temple Sunday and an elder was talking about how his family is coming to pick him up and all the sudden i was just like WAIT i want to show my family around!!! ha ha Let's put it this way, we WILL be coming back so I can show you everthing, the question is simply when. :) Um what you said might be true though... that you might just have to come over and physically bring me home... :) ha ha SO this last week was SUCH an adventure! 

Wednesday we got a call from President "Sister Mills, are you ready for an adventure today? I have a little sheep here that needs a shepherd!" ha ha SO there is a sister called Sister Lewis who is from Bristol that has been at the MTC learning Russian to go to Ukraine that is back in England just waiting for her visa- so we got ourselves a little present this week- another companion!! We are having so much fun together- I love tris so much. So we took her home let the jet lag wear off a bit and then we were right back to work! We got a call Saturday telling us that we had to go to London to the Ukraine embassay for her to apply for her Visa so Sunday after church we were on a train making our way to London! BUT FIRST I have to tell you about Sunday. It was quite possibly the best Sunday of my mission. (Have I said that before? Probably. ha ha) So Les, a man we have been teaching foor about 2 months FINALLY came to church for the frist time, and loved it, Aigars was there, Penny was there, Terry a less active lady we are teaching was there (and she hadn't been to church for nearly 20 years before that!) Shipon was there and passing the sacrament... I don't know it was just blissful. Afterwards we went to the Birches home for dinner and Aigars came with us and we taught him there and then their daughter Jess has a friend Becky that they have been talking with about the gospel and she came ruond with her boyfriend (who is a member) and we taught her and she is sooooooo cool. After that we went and got on a train and made our way to the temple :) We got there and Sister Lewis had to start sorting out her Visa application and then we went and satyed with the East Grinstead sisters and then in the morning we got on a train and started our London adventure. :) So we got to the embassy and found out she need to go to a bank and pay the consolate fee and then to the post office to buy travel insurance and ust all this stuff so we were running around London trying to get it all done and back to the embassy because the embassy closes at 12 and.. man. ha ha but we did it all we got it all done and then... we just had the rest of our pday in London!!! Yes that was my second time leaving our mission boundaries on my mission. So far ;) ha ha ha no I'm just kidding. It was so fun though because Sister Ho had never been to London- she took a million and a half pictures. ha ha ha ohh and we saw students from BYU! The choir is touring England- we are going to their Guilford concert in a few weeks (hopefully) so we are excited about that. We were walking and suddenly heard SISTERS!!!! :)

So yes THAT is why we are emailing today instead of yesterday. BUT even better than all of that news I just got off the phone with Shipon to make sure he is doing alright because he is on his way to the templ to do baptisms for the dead. :) :D yayyyyy! He is so excited. What a blessing to be able to teach someone that has such a love and deep understanding of the gospel and the IMPORTANCE of it. It's so great. Things are reallllyyyyyy good in Bracknell. :) I love you guys! Cheers.