HOLA!

It was so incredibly wonderful to see and talk to you all on Christmas! I was so incredibly happy all day! It was the highlight of my Christmas! I am so glad you all look wonderful and happy and healthy. Sorry I wasn't able to ask more questions about all of you. Please send me ALL the details of your lives in emails! I LOVE hearing from you!

Christmas dinner at the Merlo's.

Also, THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOO much for the packages! They were wonderful! I opened them one day at a time to prolong the suspense.

Christmas packages all arrived there. Yay!

A shout out to Lindsay, one of my Kindergarteners. She sent me the cutest little note in the whole wide world. If you can get the email for her Mom then I can send her a reply. (If any other kindergartener Moms who follow this blog know Lindsay and her mom will you please see if you can get her email address for me?)  GRACIAS!

Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Kathy, THANK YOU! I LOVED your package! It was so fun that the presents were all wrapped. My companion and I took turns unwrapping them all. I am sooo grateful for the peanut butter and graham crackers, M&Ms, hand sanitizer etc. Everything was perfect. I can't thank you enough. I am also so grateful for the video you made for Skype! It was so great to see your faces! I love you all so much and pray for your health and happiness every day. Happy New Year! I love you!

Aunt Nancy and Sharon, you always know the best treats to send! Thank you so much! My companion and I are in love with crystal light and have been using it every day as well as the snacks. We take those with us for our dinner time snack around 5 or 6 (we don't really eat dinner here unless we eat something right before bed around 10:00) and they are perfect. The lotion is wonderful! Thank you so much! It was also great to watch your video as well! I wish I could have talked to you all over Skype but next year for sure! I continue to pray for your health and success! LOVE YOU!

And of course family... THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I am loving my pedometer. I now know our church is 2 miles away and I am continuing to track our average walking. Sometimes I accidently reset it so I don't have accurate numbers yet but stay tuned. I am SOO grateful for my puppy 2.0. This one is named Shayda haha. I loved the clothes as well and am so excited to wear the others when it is cooler. I'm going to make brownies for Hermana Castellano's birthday this Thursday.

Hermana Gardiner and Hermana Alley, companions at the MTC, with
Hermana Millet in front of the Buenos Aires Temple.

I hope I answered most of your questions when we talked over Skype. Things here are continuing to go well. Hermana Castellanos had a meeting in Ramos on Friday for her HLE calling. Originally they said we had to be there at 7:00 so we set the alarm for 3:30. Luckily at 10:29 they called and said we didn't have to be there until 8:30 so we got an hour more of sleep. HOORAY! In the meeting apparently President Carter 'bajana la cana' on the Zone Leaders for a bunch of things.(Jennifer later indicated that this was some kind of chastisement and has something to do with a cane.)  He also said that no one will be able to imagine how crazy this next transfer will be.  (According to the mission blog "The mission is super young at the moment and we are losing another 21 missionaries this coming transfer and receiving 24 new missionaries.")  Hermana Castellanos and I are praying to stay together in Lujan but I'm trying to be humble and accept wherever the Lord wants me to go.

Guess what. The other day a woman stopped us and asked if we could help this little puppy that was under a tree. It looked like it was only a week or two old. She lived near by but was waiting for the train so we took him to her house so her daughter could take care of him. He was super cute and black and white so we named him Elder because he was already dressed in his suit. Mom, you would've appreciated his cuteness lol.  And don't worry, I used lots of hand sanitizer afterward.

Our indicators were struggling a little this week as members weren't as available to work with us during the holidays and some of our investigators were out of town. I have been continuing to work on focusing more on my investigators and less on the numbers of the key indicators and in the past two weeks I have felt much more peace. We are still working to have success with the indicators and use them to plan well but I have not been stressed or worrying about them as I was in the first few weeks of this transfer. President gave us a message about the easy way and the right way and how we need to have faith in the Lord enough to focus on people and really find those that are prepared. This is my ultimate goal to increase in my faith and humility and really do everything in the Lord's way. I know that is how we will find success and see miracles in our area.

One of these miracles occurred for us this week on Saturday. We had contacted a family in the street a few days earlier and both Hermana Castellanos and I had a desire to visit them. On Saturday we had our first lesson with them and it was absolutely beautiful. We were able to have the whole family sit down and listen to us and by the end of the lesson they all agreed to be baptized (the mom, dad, and two of their three children who are old enough to be baptized). As the mom, Maria, said the closing prayer she began to cry as she thanked Heavenly Father that we had come. Her 13 year old daughter also started to cry as the spirit was so strong. It was AMAZING! I have been praying for a family that we can teach and this family is so prepared. I am so excited to work with them and help them progress. I know they will have challenges and struggles but as we continue to have trust in the Lord he will help us know how to help this family.

Another wonderful blessing this week was our ward activity last night. Our ward planned a living nativity and a bunch of the primary kids and adults all participated. It was absolutely beautiful. Hermana Castellanos and I sang the hymns that accompanied the story. All of the kids were dressed up soo cute (I'm sending pictures of a few). Our ward really is amazing! I love all of the members soo much.

The cutest little nativity cow ever!

Cast for the live nativity.

The best part was we had three different investigators come, two of which we didn't even invite! One family that came has listened to the missionaries for years and we have been visiting them and really working to get them to come to church. It was so great to see them interact with all the members. Hermana Castellanos calls them "dry members" because they are basically members but they just haven't been baptized.

We are continuing to work hard and try to find more families that are ready for baptism. Hermana Castellanos and I are excited to celebrate the New Year and her birthday together this week and have tons of success!

I love you all so much! Thank you for all your love and support!

Love,

Hermana Millet