Wednesday, July 17, 2013

I love being a Sister Missionary!

Ah! Mi familia! I love you so!

I have so much to tell you this week. I'm just going to write about random wonderful events throughout the week so sorry if it doesn't flow well at all. Here goes:

Hermana Gardner and Jennifer
Each week I want to tell you a little more about the Hermanas and how great they are. Hermana Gardner is my companion. She loves basketball, Mormon movies, Reno, and BYU-Idaho...she's a white gangsta and she kind of hates wearing a skirt every day. She also makes funny sounds effects and is hilarious. She is 19 and has wanted to be a missionary since she first saw the missionaries when she was a little girl. She has four sisters.

Hermana Alley and Hermana Redford
 Hermana Alley is 19 as well. She is from Holladay. She writes awesome letters and takes hilarious pictures. By the correspondence between her and her family we can tell they are just super fun and adventurous. They always send us great festive packages. She struggles a little more than the rest of us with Spanish but her faith is super strong. Tomorrow we are going on "exchanges" and she and I get to teach Jose together. I'm super excited. We're going to commit him to be baptized. Hermana Redford is 21. She is kind of a perfectionist like me. She is awesome at volleyball. She is super spiritual and is really good at being patient with the elders (something I am not). I love her! She and I get along really well. I hope that helps you get to know them a little better. They are all just so wonderful!

Last Friday we had the most amazing lesson of my life with Jose. I couldn't believe how wonderful it was! We taught him about Joseph Smith and the 1st vision. We really tried to listen to the spirit and to him and take our time. I didn't feel nervous at all. I am really learning to see Jose as a real person (I know that sounds super weird because it's just Hermano Hardy but I'm really getting invested in him and his story). After we read Joseph Smith's account of the first vision (we didn't have it memorized quite yet) we just paused and let him think. We sat there for a while, neither of us wanting to say anything, because the spirit was sooo strong, you could seriously cut it with a knife (I don't know if that's a real phrase, but I just made it one so qualquiera) We just let him think about it for a minute and then we talked about how he felt. He said something like, "My head is confused, but my heart knows it's true." AHHH!!! It was awesome! After class as he was shaking our hands goodbye (he hugs all the elders but us Hermana's have to shake hands haha) he told us what an awesome lesson it was. I was so excited for the field in that moment! Imagine what that will be like with a real investigator! We get to change their lives! I still have so much to learn, but even in the first few months when I still know hardly any English, if I communicate with the spirit I can testify of Christ.

That day with Hermano Hardy we went outside for part of our language lesson. We were being a little noisy and so he told us all to fold our arms and line up. I didn't think he was serious, but then everyone started to do it! It was hilarious! I couldn't stop laughing, neither could Hermano Hardy. Then Hermana Alley and I tried to figure out how to sing "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" in Spanish. We only got as far as, "Jesu quere mi por un solbeam A luz por El todas las dias..." It was great. I wish they sold small Spanish primary books but I can't find one here at the bookstore. :(

I think I tell you in every letter how awesome our maestros are. They really are great. They give us pep talks like every other day about raising the bar (especially now since we are the 2nd oldest district in our zone) and having no regrets. "Vale la Pena" is Hermano Hardy's new phrase. I am really going to miss their pep talks helping me to be better. I'll just have to give them to myself. Or ask them to send me one each week haha.

On Friday nights we always play volleyball on the sand courts. Es el mejor! When we got to the courts though they ran out of volleyballs and only had soccer balls left. We LOVE it so much, and we can't play soccer together with Elders and Sisters so we decided to go for it with a flat soccer ball. It was...interesting. It hurt like heck to try and set or receive a spike from a few of the elders but it was still way fun! I'm still kind of awful at it, especially serving, but it's sooo fun! Especially because our zone is the best!

Speaking of our zone, there is an Elder named Elder Hutchings who is super nice. He and his companion, Elder Frampton, are kind of our favorites because they are always super friendly and run to open doors for us etc. Apparently Elder Hutchings wants to set me up with his brother, aka have is brother write me because he thinks I'm "a beautiful girl" or some other super nice respectful phrase he said to Hermana Alley. He's being all shy about it though and doesn't want me to know about it but keeps talking to Hermana Alley about it. It's kind of funny. I wouldn't mind though because he's super nice and kind of cute (but 18). And I've got to keep my options open for when I get back right? Besides, I LOVE letters.

Friday night we also had our last girl's night with the Hermanas from District C. I love them SOOO much! They are so incredibly sweet and kind and positive and such great examples to me. I miss them already! We sat around and talked with just our room and theirs about how excited we are for the field, what it will be like to be real missionaries, how we will approach talking to people etc. It was just so great to have discussions about our worries and about our calling with wonderful girls who all feel the same way I do about it all.

In Book of Mormon study with the class Hermano Hardy made an awesome connection that I thought I would share with you. We were reading about Alma the younger and his experience with the angel. He then referenced the scripture where Alma says "Oh that I were an angel and could speak with the voice of thunder" or something like that. Alma had such a life changing experience that he wanted to be able to speak like that angel to change others. It's not super deep or anything, but I had never made the connection between his experience and what he wanted to be able to do for others and I thought it was pretty cool. Maybe it was a "had to be there moment"....

We had an interesting encounter with an elder we met on the 4th. We talked to him for a few minutes waiting for the fireworks. He asked for our emails and we didn't know what to say but we gave him our first and last names. He totally emailed me all about himself, but I don't have time to email a random stranger so I haven't gotten back to him. We've seen him a few more times since then and it's a little awkward. Oh, the MTC. :) It's the best!

On Sunday our branch president, President Cosgrave was released because he and is wife are going to
President Cosgrave and Counselors 
serve a mission in Uganda. Our district was also given a bunch of new callings because we are now one of the oldest districts. Elders DJ and Kelley are Zone Leaders. Elders Cline and Pedersen are Portal Coordinators. Elder Brown is the Sacrament Coordinator. Elder Ringwood is our new District Leader. Hermanas Alley and Redford are Music Coordinators and Hermana Gardner and I are the new Sister Training Leaders. That means we get to go to all the meetings on Sunday and each night we go visit the Hermanas and talk and give them hugs. (Basically our job is to give them hugs.) We also get to interview the sisters once a week and just see how things are going. If any new sisters come in we help them and give tours and things like that. We are not getting a new district though this week so maybe next week we'll get that opportunity. We went and visited for the first time last night and it was super fun. BTW their dorms are WAY nicer than ours. It's okay. I love living in the ghetto dorms. It's kind of like Wasatch my first year at USU. Plus we have a prime location right next to 1M (the main building/cafeteria) the bookstore and close to our classroom. Here in the MTC things are still all about ourselves as we learn and get spiritually fed but this gives us an opportunity to look outward and focus on the Hermanas. We are getting to know them more and love them. I really want to practice loving everything about them and showing that in my actions and interactions with them.

Our new Branch President is President Laney (I think he may have been a mission president in Salt Lake). He is pretty interesting. He joined in our devotional review last night with our district (kind of like a mini testimony meeting where we talk about what we learned at the devotional). As we talked he was just writing scriptures on the board based on what we were saying. His scriptures were INSANE. Literally I don't think there was any white left of the page because of the all the words and markings and what not. Every. Single. Page. And he wrote about 20 scripture references on the board all from memory. He's crazy. He was a little...energetic and had about a million words of advice but he is definitely very smart and I can learn a lot from him.

Our air conditioner in our classroom has broken I think and it's so hot, even I am hot. Usually everyone else complains about the heat, even when the air conditioner is working, but you know it's bad when I'm complaining. Our ceiling also leaks when it rains haha so it kind of has a lovely humid musty feel. They are totally preparing us for Argentina. I love it. Our room is great though. The elders have stolen pictures from all the other rooms to decorate ours with so now the walls are filled.

Oh another great story. An elder in one of the other districts asked me if I was related to any Miller's a few weeks ago. I reminded him that my last name is Millet, not Miller but he kept insisting that I could still be related. It went on for a few rounds of me saying, "No, I'm not. My name is Millet" and he just insisted that I was related to Miller's too. "Maybe on your mom's side" he said. Eventually I just told him maybe I was somewhere down the line. It was hilarious. Hopefully you're laughing a little, or at least smiling. If not, just delete this paragraph and move on, it's hard to know the BTM from the seriously funny. :)

Elders on ugly tie day!
The elders can be a little frustrating, but I'm really trying to love them and appreciate them. I think I've been spoiled with too many awesome boys in my life. Everyone keeps comparing the elders to annoying brothers but my brother isn't annoying like them. And especially since I'm older, my friends are so much more mature and wonderful. I have to keep reminding myself that maybe my friends were like this in the MTC too.  Pray for me to love them. :)  In spite of the frustrations, I'm really trying to be supportive of the elders and their callings. They have grown a lot, however, and I know they will continue to grow.

Ah! I'm running out of time! NOOOO! Guess who spoke in Relief Society Sunday? Carole Mikita from Channel 5 news. She was amazing! She shared hers and her mother's conversion story. It was really powerful! I can't describe the whole story but it really gave me hope about following the spirit which will direct me to find those who need me. She also mentioned how when we teach children, even if their family doesn't join, we can spark a fire in them that they will remember later. That was the case for her in a way and it got me really excited to work with the children in Argentina. She is amazing. If you can look her up on the internet, you should try. It was one of those meetings where I didn't want it to end.

I will try to get my travel plans to you ASAP. I could find out my reassignment any time from tomorrow to Monday.

Thank you all so much for the letters and support! I love you and I love hearing about your lives! I hope you have a wonderful time on trek this week. Will you send a shout out to Connor Chandler from my kindergarten class? He sent me a picture that was adorable!

I LOVE YOU SOOOOOO MUCH!

Love,

Hermana Miller (cross out) Millet ;)

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