July 29

Hello dear family and friends. :) My goodness this week has been such a different one. You ready for this?

On Tuesday the area medical advisor came down from Preston to see me. I have been having knee problems for the last few months and it hasn't been terribly bad but... the last few weeks it has gotten a lot worse. So he came down and examined my knees and said I have patellofemoral pain syndrome. He showed me some exercises I can do to help strengthen the muscles in my thighs which will take some of the stress and weight off my knees and I am on a steady diet of ibuprofen and just... lots of prayers (not kneeling prayers don't worry ;) ) Did I tell you at the conference a few weeks ago during the lunch break President Millar held a little "doctors clinic" for those that are having problems and so he took me in there and took a look at my knees- I am so grateful for him- that he is a doctor and that he knew exactly what he needed to do so I cold see the area medical advisor and that he took action so quickly. I am so so grateful. Elder and Sister Hales came down from Preston and I had met them both before, they came into the MTC the same time as me and he looked at me when I sprained my ankle in the MTC (I asked if that may have caused the pain in the left knee to be worse...) and they are the ones that came down to see Sister Fekete when she was having knee problems and had to go in for surgery. They are so sweet and helped a lot. 

So he and President and all the elders in the zone have encouraged me to take it easy and stay off my knee as much as I can. The problem is that I don't want to!! ha ha It has been hard to have to take it easy but it has been absolutely amazing to see how the Lord blesses us. The other day we were only out of the flat for maybe 5 hours but RIGHT as we walked out the door people were stopping US asking about the church and asking if we could meet with them and teach them again. Or our investigators would call and say they are out of town but wondered if we could teach them over the phone... the Lord will always provide a way if our hearts and our desires are in the right place- even if our physical body may not let us. 

I'm also grateful that President Millar is a heart surgeon. We got a call from him on Saturday night saying he had some bad news for Sister Paulsen- her father collapsed while playing tennis on Saturday- he had a heart attack and his heart stopped. They flew him into the hospital and he has been in a medically induced coma since then. Because President KNOWS the heart he was able to explain to us what was going on and what they were doing and was able to counsel Sister Paulsen as well. We still haven't heard anything- he should be waking up anytime so we are just waiting for the call from President once he is informed how things are going. Sister Paulsen is so strong. She has been so hopeful through the whole situation and we are very hopeful and the doctors involved are as well! Please please pray for her father. He's not a member and his wife and her children are not either. Sister Paulsen has mention that she knows everything will be alright because of the knowledge we have of the plan of salvation- but is worried for the rest of her family that are not members. I am so so grateful for the plan of salvation that we have. That is the most comforting thing we have. 

Even though this week has been.. different :) and hard in many ways it has also been one of the most spiritual weeks of my mission. I am very very grateful to be where I am right now with Sister Paulsen. We have been able to GROW a lot this last week and we all know how hard and painful that is but it has been peaceful despite the pain. I was asked to give a talk yesterday on Remembering Christ and I am so very grateful for that reminer I have had this last week pondering about that. Our thoughts have truly been on the Savior and that has made all the difference. 

On a lighter note- yes we got permission to watch the opening ceremonies but then found out they didn't start until 9 pm!!! So we watched some of the pre things and then about 15 minutes of the ceremony and oh my goodness it was brilliant!! And I especially LOVED that they started by singing Jerusalem- that is our mission song so Sister Paulsen and I sang along and just loved the feeling of unity that we have felt this whole week in preparation for the olympics. We saw the torch... twice!!! And the second time we saw it we were heading to the YSA FHE and we ran into a guy called Sherwin that we had met on the bus the week before- gave him a pass along card and told him to call us and then that evening he did! He wasn't able to meet at all during the week because of work (he works for Apple) but we ran into him and were able to sit down with him and his friend and tell him about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and The Book of Mormon. :) It was such a beautiful beautiful day! (the SUN was shining as well- BONUS!) ha ha and today we are going to the Thames and then to Greenwich where they have a huge huge screen set up of all the olympic games going on and a carnival as well. It will be good to be with the zone and get our minds off.. things. :) This zone is wonderful by the way. All of the elders- every single one are such good missionaries, we have powerfully spiritual district meetings and we are able to meet for baptisms and teaches and things because we are all so close travel wise and when we get together for pdays and things- we have so much fun. It is just good. We are excited for this week- we will spend Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday at the London eye at the table talking to people and sharing the gospel so if anyone is in London... stop by!!! :) Last week when we were looking to see if it would work we were only there for 3 hours and we got 95 emails, gave 10 Book of Mormons, and got 5 referrals for all over the world. And the olympics hadn't even started yet! So we are soooooo excited! (We also tried to set up a table here in Wimbledon but they won't let any religious groups set up booths or anything during the Olympics- boo. Oh well I'm sure there will be more foot traffic at the Thames.) Ok well cheerio for now. I love you all! Love, Your Sister Mills