Familia,

Hmm...this week. Interesting.

First of all, with a lot of help from a priesthood blessing, your prayers, ibuprofen, and care, my back is doing much better. Thank you so much for your prayers! I will continue to try to take care of it and let you know if it becomes worse. Sorry for the scare. I was a little worried last week but I think it's just something I'm going to have to continue to watch. I haven't gotten the package from Zobell's yet :( but we have a meeting in Ramos next Monday and so I should be able to get it then. Hooray!!!

Lujan in her dress.  Isn't she adorable!?

Adventures in the mission first:

Monday we learned to follow the spirit. ALWAYS! I was trying not to carry very much because of my back and so I didn't take my regular bag into centro. I had the keys with me and during email time I looked down and thought, 'maybe I should give those to Hermana Castellanos to put in her bag' but was busy writing you and ignored it. Hermana Castellanos also had the impression in the morning to take her set of keys but she didn't think she would need them. Well, guess what happened. When we returned to the pench with all of our groceries we found out we didn't have the keys. We have some awesome neighbors who helped us try to find a solution but the only option ended up calling a locksmith to replace our whole lock and give us new keys. A few hours and 330 pesos later we have decided to make another copy of our key to give to our neighbor and ALWAYS follow the spirit.

On Valentine's Day Hermana Castellanos and I wanted to celebrate, so for language study we wrote valentines and translated them into English and Spanish and then delivered them to some of our members and investigators throughout the day. We also ordered ice cream. YAY for love!

Grido for Valentine's Day! Yummm!

Roberto: Remember the investigator who wanted to change clothes for church. Well we taught him this week and it was an adventure for sure. Remember how I told you the whole town was flooded. Well there is a new river right next to his house. We had our bikes and weren't quite sure how to cross. There is a metal thing (not sure what to call it) like a makeshift bridge. Roberto walked across and carried our bikes (almost dropping mine) and then we made our way across. I kind of felt like the girl from "A Little Princess". Don`t worry, I'm still here. It also turns out he's got a little problema with the Word of Wisdom. He was completely wasted the last time we went to visit him haha. He told us he would be ready for church, however. We went and picked him up and made it to church, but this time after priesthood we went to find him to go to Sunday School and found how he left right after priesthood and no one stopped him! AH! Needless to say, chau Roberto.

And one more. Promise not to laugh. Pinky swear....this week I crashed into a car in the middle of an intersection with my bike. Basically there are no rules to driving in Lujan and no one has the right of way. Well we started to enter the intersection, but saw a truck coming and so we tried to stop. I couldn't stop fast enough and caught the back end of the truck. He was fine and drove away but I have a little road rash. Yeah...

The highlight of my week was an interview with President. He and Sister Carter came on Valentine's Day and before dinner they interviewed a bunch of the missionaries here in Lujan. We have been doing well here in Lujan but I have been feeling a little discouraged with myself and my inadequacies. I really wanted to achieve 100% this week, especially after a message to the missionaries from President about how if we are diligent and obedient we can. I kind of expected him to get after us for our terrible percentage this month, and kind of hoped he would in order to find out how we can improve. He was exactly the opposite, however. So full of love. The first question he asked was why I am having so much success. I told him that I try every day to do the work in the Lord's way and am constantly trying to improve and ask what more I can do. He told me this is what I need to teach the other hermanas. My interview with him was such a great moment to feel his love and confidence in me as well as the love of my Heavenly Father. I know I have a lot to improve but I also know the Lord is pleased as long as I try my best.

This week we had our disappointments with Sacrament Meeting as usual and we are really struggling to find fechas (baptismal dates). On Sunday, however, I chose to focus on the miracles we had rather than on those we didn't.

Some of our favorite kids!  Luana is on the right (her family are members) and the rest are Veronica's kids.

Luana is our mini companion!

One of our fechas, Ivana, happens to be our next door neighbor. On Tuesday she wasn't home for our appointment and we had a hard time contacting her this week. We talked with her on Thursday, however, and discovered that her Grandfather passed away. She was really struggling and during the week was in Buenos Aires with her family. We wrote her a note and slid it under the door on Friday but still weren't able to meet with her. The week before she had promised to go to church with us but we didn't have a lot of hope after not meeting with her all week. On Saturday we asked a member of the ward to send her a text inviting her to church but when she didn't reply we decided to call. She answered the call Saturday night and to our surprise accepted the invitation. In the morning she was ready to go with her two young children as soon as we knocked on the door. She loved Relief Society which talked all about strengthening families. In Gospel Principles she shared her testimony of how she had been praying for a church and when we found her it was her answer. She also shared how much it had meant to her that we and her member friends were there for her this past week. Afterward she invited us to her apartment to cook our lunch together! Our branch president mentioned later that he thought Ivana was a member visiting because she has such a light. Ivana really is a golden investigator and I am so excited to see her progress and be baptized in March. Her husband needs a little more time but I know she will have an amazing influence on him and change the lives of her family.

Veronica and her family a few days before her baptism.

Our other grand miracle was Veronica. She was baptized and confirmed yesterday and has plans to attend the temple this coming Saturday. We had a lesson with her on Valentine's Day where we talked about love and families and how she can show more love for her children as she continues to make changes in her life. She began to cry as she shared how grateful she is for this opportunity to start over and be an example for her children. Her baptism was one of the best moments of my mission thus far. We had so much support from the members of our branch and the elders. She was beaming and her face was full of light the whole time. As her sister-in-law bore her testimony Veronica started to cry and her happiness radiated. She is going to be an amazing member and I can't wait to see the changes in her family that are to come.

The whole bunch.  Aren't they wonderful!

Hermanas Millet and Castellanos with Veronica

Classic shot of us and Veronica with her kids. We had been chasing Gabriel and Matias for five minutes just to get this shot.  It is the best we were able to get. :)

We are still waiting on the signature of Miriam, the mother of Bruno, but he loves church and has now been 4 or 5 times. We talked with her on Friday and I think as we are careful to be sensitive to the needs of Miriam and include her in the whole planning process of Bruno we will be able to see his baptism this weekend.

This week we have a lot of work ahead to find new investigators who can progress and be baptized in March. This week we found some awesome new investigators but they are basically all juntado. We're going to work with them for one more week but if they don't have plans to get married we can't keep teaching them.

I have hope that I will be able to stay in Lujan another transfer but if not I want to leave Lujan better than I found it, flourishing with investigators, members who are excited for the work and an area blessed with the spirit of the Lord.

One of our favorite streets in Lujan because it is so peaceful and pretty. We try to walk down it every chance we get. 

On Thursday Hermano Luis gave us milanesa to cook in our apartment for lunch. We don't exactly have a lot of experience cooking milanesa so we put a little oil in the frying pan and started to cook it. When it started to brown we took it out and were ready to eat. Well as we began cutting into the meat we realized it was still a little red. We didn't have much time for lunch so we just ate it. lol. Terrible, I know. We are still alive though so it's all good. We also asked around and found out how to cook it the Argentine way with a ton of oil. Hooray! We'll be gorditas but we won't die of raw meat.

Milanesa!

On Sunday we have a member who brings lunch to us to cook at home as well. Well, each week they get a little more interesting. This week I have a competition for you all. I will list the ingredients and the person who can come up with the best recipe wins a prize. Three eggs, two packets of ketchup (the kind you get at McDonalds), a can of peas (I think they were basically peas, not sure exactly what they are) and a package of 6 hot dogs. Good luck! Luckily, Ivana is amazing and she had a few more ingredients that we used to make a decent meal.

Ooh guess what else. Random fact of the day. President gave us permission to ride our bikes on calles de tierra! Hooray! It's definitely an adventure, kind of like mountain biking all day but much faster.

I think that is about all for the week. Thank you for all your love and support and everything. I love your letters and pictures! I am continuing to pray for each of you. Please let me know if there is anything specific I can pray for.

Love your favorite Valentine,

Hermana Millet