In Memory of Pascual.

Familia,

The first bit of news I have for you is a little bittersweet. My convert Pascual has been sick for about 3 weeks now. This week his family took him to the hospital to stay. I hadn't been able to see him in these weeks because he was in bed so Hermana Miller and I went and visited him in the hospital. His face and neck were really swollen and he looked completely different. His energy was up, however, and he assured us he would be back at home this next week. On Friday Hermano Luis sent us a message to let us know that Pascual had terminal cancer and on Saturday morning as we walked by his house his neighbor, Gabriela Fernandez, told us he had passed away that morning.

Jen with Pascual

It was a relatively difficult day for me because Pascual has been like a grandfather to me. I have tried not to cry or think too much about it but every now and then it just hits me and I begin to cry again. I am so incredibly blessed to have been a part of his life and to get to know him in these past few months. His baptism was a miracle back in November and I am convinced now more than ever that it was God's plan. In these short months he has shared the gospel with almost all of his friends and family. He has given us references, baptized his grandson, begun his family history and was preparing to enter the temple and receive the Melchizedek priesthood. He received the gospel just in time to bless the last few months of his life and I am at peace now knowing that he is with his sweet wife sharing it with her. I may not be able to attend the sealing of one of my investigators but I plan on making sure that Pascual is sealed to his wife as soon as I can. I can just picture him seeing his Savior and his sweet humble love for him. That is what this work is all about; really bringing people unto Christ.

Pascual at his grandson Bruno's baptism.

This week I am extremely grateful that we were able to help a sweet little family be baptized into the church of Christ. We worked extra hard with them all week to make sure no temptations or problems would arise and to ensure their understanding of all the principles we had taught. The father, Marcelo, is not the most intelligent person, and his kids really aren't either, but even if he doesn't understand everything completely he has a wonderful testimony of obedience. He is so excited to tell us every day that he was able to read and pray and he and his kids have walked to church for the past two weeks on their own. I know he will need help from the members to strengthen his testimony and continue learning but I have confidence that he will continue being a faithful member of the church.

Marcelo, Jorge and Rosana at their baptism.

To be completely honest this week was a little hard. For the first time in many weeks our fechas were not progressing. Right now we are pretty worried about the month of May because we don't have any sure baptisms. We have not found quality investigators and do not have a family that is progressing right now and I know we will begin to see the results from this in the coming weeks. We are searching to find ways to improve our obedience, diligence and planning to improve our efforts to help our investigators progress. I know this week, if we work with unity, we will be able to find miracles.

Ready for church!

We were super blessed this week to find a man named Jose. He is separated and lives alone but visits his kids often who live close by. We taught about repentance in the first lesson and he was so sweet and humble and willing to listen. In the second lesson as we talked about Joseph Smith he told us he already knew the story because he had read the introduction to the Book of Mormon, not even his assigned reading! He has been praying and receiving answers, however, right now his work schedule isn't a sure thing and he has to work some Sundays. We are praying that he will be able to find a way to change his schedule to keep the Sabbath day holy and be baptized this month.

This week we also had an awesome opportunity to go to Catan to help with a special training. Catan is a zone that is just elders and there are very few hermanas who have ever been there so we felt pretty privileged to go. We were selected to help our zone and a few others in some special training that the mission is doing. Our job is to be investigators as the missionaries teach us a 20 minute lesson. We then evaluate them and give them suggestions for how they can improve and they do it again. It is an awesome opportunity for us to help the other missionaries and for us to learn from them. I learn personally from their teaching methods and sometimes see mistakes that I know I have as well.

Training in Catan.

It's been a good week of learning and I'm excited to learn even more this week. We will be pretty busy this week with more training and an HLE meeting so pray for us to make use of the little time we do have to really help the people here.

I know this is the Lord's church. The more I bear my testimony of the restoration the stronger my conviction grows of this great work. We are so blessed to be members of his gospel. We see so much wickedness and sadness here with the people in Argentina and I am so grateful for the strength and security of the gospel. I know there is no other path to happiness. Sometimes it is difficult to be obedient but I know that is the key to eternal joy. I hope we can all remember our purpose and live worthily to receive of all the blessings the Lord has in store for us.

Thank you all so much for your love and support! I continue to pray for you each day and love to hear about your adventures and growing testimonies.

Sincerely your favorite Momma's girl (13 more days!),

Hermana Millet

New bikes!  Yay

P.S.  On Saturday we got new bikes! They are pretty much the most beautiful things you have ever seen. They are white and have baskets! We are in heaven. On Sunday I thought I had gotten way out of shape (which is true) because it was so hard to pedal, but I realized after church, however, that my tire was way low in air. Now that I have air in my tires I am loving it more than ever haha. They are not allowed out of our sight right now because we have learned how much more difficult the work is without them.

Happy Easter! or Felices Pascuas!

Familia,

How was your Easter? I hope you had a wonderful day! We had our lovely delivered lunch of rice with a spoonful of mayo lol. Luckily we had half a pizza and two old milanesas and some onion and hot dogs that we added to the rice to make a semi decent meal lol. Let me just say I'm excited for Easter dinner next year lol. The most important part, however, was that we were able to think about the Savior and help some of our investigators come to church.

Hermana Miller and Hermana Millet on Easter

This week has been kind of a blur but full of tiny little wonderful miracles. Hermana Miller and I are still adjusting to each other and I am really trying to improve my teaching. We have some wonderful investigators that are progressing. I'll just share a few of the stories and highlights of the week:

Marcelo, Jorge and Rosana had their interviews yesterday and everything is prepared for their baptism on Saturday. They are amazing! Marcelo is learning to read as he reads a few verses in the Book of Mormon and every day and he tells us, "me cambio un poco" (I've changed a little). It's just the sweetest thing. On Friday we had an awesome FHE at the Merlo's house. We watched the restoration and afterwards Marcelo began to cry. In that moment I had the confirmation that he really does get it. He's been wonderful every day but in that moment I had no doubt he is going to be a worthy convert.

We are working with a few different people to get ready for May. We found two different families this week and taught them about the law of chastity. Both lessons went pretty well. The first family lives behind Mario. We taught them on Tuesday night and at the end the husband, Marcos, invited us to lunch the next day! He told us he has never listened to any religious group before but that it was a huge step that he sat down to hear us and invited us to lunch. As we began the lesson after lunch he started talking about some of his mistakes in the past and he began to cry and left the room. His wife, Nora, is amazing and has a ton of faith but Marcos has a lot to change. I have faith that we found them for a reason though and we can help them to find the peace they are looking for.

We also had a few really great lessons with the Fernandez Family this week. We hadn't passed by for a while after they didn't come to church last week and when we went on Wednesday Gabriela told me that she had felt something different since they hadn't been to church and we hadn't stopped by. They have been having problems with their oldest son and need the gospel. Gabriela still has a lot of fear about baptism because of her catholic past and although we all know she knows it's true she has to give up her fears. Dionicio told me that he would quit smoking for good, so we'll see this next week if he kept his word. I was super disappointed, however, after these awesome commitments they made when they didn't show up to church yesterday. I know they are so close to being ready I just need to find out what it is that I haven't taught them yet. What is their need I haven't found? I'm not going to give up on them, however, because I know one day they will be sealed as a family.

On Thursday night we had a ward activity. Without bikes we were super late and I almost wasn't sure if we should go but it was a miracle! When we walked in there were like 100 people from our area that weren't members! It was amazing! Some of our investigators had come and a bunch of the members had brought friends or family members that aren't members whom we were able to talk to. We also were able to play soccer with some of the young men and our investigators. It has been a LONG time and I was terrible but it was really fun. It was so great to feel unified with the rama and see them become involved in missionary work.

Finally, one of my favorite miracles of the week is Luciano. He is the 19 year old son of our convert Rolando. We were always inviting him to church and to listen to the lessons but he was never really interested. This week Hermana Miller and I stopped and talked to him in front of his house and we talked super bluntly with him about where his life is headed. He has started doing drugs and has some bad friends and we just told him he needs to begin now to make the necessary changes in his life. We invited him to the activity on Thursday and guess what! HE CAME! It was awesome. He played soccer and ping pong with some of the youth and felt the peace of good people and a good environment. We then stopped by on Sunday and he came to church with us! He still has a while to go to progress and have stronger desires to change but I'm so excited for him. Since the first time Hermana Castellanos and I saw him we knew there was something special and I think now might be his time.

The work is moving forward in our area and we are seeing lots of success. There is still a lot that I am working to improve upon personally to find more of Heavenly Fathers children and help them be worhty converts. We are also really working to help the hermanas find more success in their area. I know the Lord will help us as I become more humble and have more faith.

I love you all soo much and I am so grateful for your love and support. Please know that I am praying for you each and every day.

Love,

Hermana Millet

Millet and Miller...Is that with a "T" or an "R"?

Family,

This week we had some wonderful miracles. The first began with a man named Mario. On Monday morning during studies we made a goal to do better contacts in an effort to find more new investigators. That night, on the way to our appointment we stopped to make a contact and ended up teaching Mario. He is from Columbia and talked to the Elders in Ecuador a few years ago. We had a wonderful lesson with him and walked away wondering if he really is as awesome and prepared as he seemed. Due to transfers and other changes this week we ended up not being able to meet with Mario again during the week. On Saturday night, however, we called him to confirm his plans for church. He told us he was planning on it but we weren't sure if he would actually come. On Sunday morning, however, there he was on time, participating in all of the classes. That night we met with him again and were able to set a fecha bautismal. His biggest setback right now is that he wants to be completely prepared and worthy for baptism (if you can even call that a setback). He has such a desire to be prepared and completely understands the importance of baptism. I was so impressed with his strong desire to learn and change his life. It was such a testimony for me that when we set goals and really work to accomplish them the Lord will bless us with people that are prepared.

The Lujan Hermanas before transfers.  Every companionship had a change.

We had transfers this past week.  I am still in Lujan, but with a new companion Hermana Miller.  Creepy? Maybe...but her first name is Jenna. Hermana Miller is from St. George. As you can tell she is absolutely gorgeous. She has been out for almost 13 months. She has been in Chivilcoy for 9 months and served in the Oregon Visitor's Center for one transfer before coming here. She is an awesome missionary and had a ton of success in Chivilcoy. As always with transfers, it has been a little bit of an adjustment with Hermana Miller. We are trying to blend our personalities and teaching styles but already we are having success together and I know we will continue to grow in love and unity. She is such a wonderful missionary and I am excited to learn from her. I know she has a lot to teach me. I am super happy to stay in Lujan and to be with Hermana Miller. (I want to stay here one more transfer and then go to Chivilcoy until the end of my mission, I don't really want to go to the city).

Our last goodbye.  We are basically bawling!

Hermana Miller with Jen

Our fechas for this month are progressing well, especially Marcelo and his children. They are reading and praying and each time Marcelo tells us how he is changing little by little. We are working on finding and preparing those for May as well so that we can continue to bring worthy converts to the waters of baptism in our area.

JUANA GOT BAPTIZED! It was absolutely beautiful. She is so incredibly prepared and so ready to be a member. She is such an example for her family and she has the faith that they will see her example and begin to change. Hermana Castellanos was able to come to see her baptism and we were able to all be together one last time. It was a great day!

Juana's Baptism

I didn't write about the Fernandez Family because we haven't been able to meet with them much. I am super worried we are losing them. Especially because Hermana Miller doesn't have the relationship with them. We'll see what happens.

In other news, it has been freeezing! and I'm super excited for winter. NOT! It was super hard on bikes these past few days because it was so windy and cold. I might end up wearing the same clothes over and over again to stay warm lol. Also, yes there were floods from the Lujan river but I don't live close so we didn't have any problems. Also, we heard about the national strike thing (kind of) on Thursday but we didn't have any problems. We actually didn't have to stay in the pench all day because luckily our area is pretty tranquillo. After planning we went out and worked like normal. Our zone leaders told us it was fine and we had no problems. Our bikes were stolen yesterday. :( We locked them up near our apartment (which we have done countless times before) for the afternoon so we could walk and do some contacts. When we came back a few hours later the lock was cut and the bikes were gone. :( Hopefully we can get some new ones soon or begin walking again.

This week was relatively uneventful other than that. The members were all sad to see Hermana Castellanos go (I'm pretty sure she was their favorite haha but have been super open to Hermana Miller. And yes, the name thing is going to be super fun this transfer. Practically every person we talk to does a double take and can't really pronounce the difference. It's great.)

That's about all. I LOVE YOU! I hope you have a wonderful week. I know this is the true church and Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us. He loves us so much and is just waiting to bless us as we follow his plan and are obedient.

LOVE YOU!

Love your favorite MilleT, Hermana Millet

P.S. Tell Kat hi for me!

Forgetmenot!

Family,

Wasn't conference amazing! We were lucky enough to have all of our goals met by Friday so that we could attend all of the sessions (it was especially nice because Saturday it rained ALL day like crazy and we were safe and sort of dry and warm in the church) including the General Women's Meeting Saturday before the first session. It was absolutely beautiful! I loved all the sweet primary girls and the awesome video. Hermana Castellanos and I were both a little trunky as we saw all the moms and daughters and thought about our families watching conference at the same time we were.

I saw a big theme this year in defending the truth and having the faith to be obedient to the commandments, even when it is not popular or easy. The world is becoming increasingly wicked and we have to become more truly converted disciples. I loved hearing all the talks addressed to the youth, especially after hearing of the experiences of Nicole in the past few weeks and months. Nicole you are such a wonderful example to me, to your friends and to the world. I am so grateful to have such an amazing sister to look up to. You are the kind of youth our Heavenly Father needs. He is so proud of you for your courage and conviction to do what is right. Thank you for being so truly converted to our Savior and for serving as an example to those around you. Stay strong sister! I'm praying for you and I love you so much!

Forgetmenots.  It reminded me of President's Uchtdorf's talk.

I received an answer, personally, that I need to develop more charity and love for every single one of God's children. Some of our contacts or investigators are a little more difficult for me to love with all my heart. I plan on focusing this month on seeing every single one of the people I come across as a child of God and doing all I can to help them come closer to Christ in their own way. As I develop this level of charity I know I will be able to serve them more fully and lose myself more in the work of the Lord.

One of our greatest miracles this conference weekend began with a small family. The dad, Marcelo, is a brother of Gabriela Fernandez (one of our investigators). Marcelo was present in a lesson last week and we set up a CPB. We couldn't find his house the first time we tried but this week we finally found him and his children. He and his wife are separated and right now he is living with his sister and is without work. He has three adorable children (Jorge 11, Rosana 9, Sonya 7) who all sat and listened to our first lesson.

We taught the gospel and learned that his process of repentance is with his children, to spend more time with them and make them a higher priority in his life. The first night the children read the pamphlet and prayed but he did not do it with them. We applied what we learned about verification in zone conference and commited him to read and pray with his children. The next day he found us in the street and stopped to tell us excitedly that he had followed through.

On Saturday he came to conference in the rain on his own and we told him that is was important that he bring his children on Sunday. Sunday afternoon they didn't show up. As we left conference we checked our cell phone (which had been on vibrate during conference) and found a text message we hadn't seen. Marcelo and his children had waited for a colectivo but it never came so he was asking if we could come with a car to take them to conference. As we were walking away from the church kicking ourselves for not seeing the message sooner we saw Marcelo and his children walking towards us. They had walked from Ameghino to Lujan 1 (probably at least an hour with the kids) to attend conference and arrived just as it was ending.

We were so sad that they couldn't see the session but were so incredibly amazed at his faith. He brought his children walking at least 2 or 3 miles to hear the words of the prophets and to be obedient to the commandments. While his children were not able to see conference I hope they will remember that experience forever and the faith of their father. I hope we can all develop testimonies as strong as this man who is completely new to the gospel of Jesus Christ and is already willing to sacrifice so much for the blessings of the gospel.

We have really stepped up our teaching skills and are seeing miracles as the Lord is blessing us for our efforts with great families that are progressing. We hope to achieve or exceed our goal of 3 baptisms this month with families that are truly converted. We are working with some other wonderful families that are progressing toward baptism this month and a few who will be making appointments to get married in the coming month. Our area is flourishing but I know there are more chosen people who are just waiting for us to find them.

Here are a few of the other highlights of the week:

This week we found a man named Gustavo. He was a reference from a family in the rama. He is 20 years old and has a 2 year old son, but is separated from the mom. He has a lot of tattoos and is a little rough around the edges but in the first lessons we taught about repentance and the gospel of Jesus Christ. He told us he would quit smoking completely by Sunday and when we gave him a few choices for baptismal dates he chose the closest date. When we talked to him two days later he told us he had already quit smoking and had been clean for two days!

We went to Open Door again. Do you know what that means? Miracles! We found a man who had fixed our bikes once and gave us his address in Open Door. One of his friends told him there was no way we would be able to find his house and he was amazed that we had found him. His wife was a little hesitant at first but after teaching them about forever families and the blessings of the temple they agreed to get married!

Juana got married! It's probably been a little hard for you all to catch up on the drama with Juana. (It's a little difficult for us as well) She's amazing, however, and has the faith that if she follows the commandments and is baptized Miguel will begin to change. Their wedding was on Friday and she is counting down the days for her baptism this Saturday.

Juana and her husband at their wedding.

We taught Dionicio and Gabriela about priesthood authority and the difference in our church and the rest of the churches in the world. It was a little hard for Gabriela to grasp but Dionicio totally understood and began telling Gabriela that the Catholic Church isn't true lol! (She didn't like that very much) He committed more firmly to actually read and pray to know if the church is true.

Transfers are this week and the desires of our hearts are to stay together and continue working and growing. I know there is more we can continue to learn together. I know, however, that the Lord knows us and our needs better than we do and I will accept His plan as He needs.

We made matching planners this week  because after this transfer we probably won't be together.

I love you all soooo much! Thank you for your wonderful examples and the things you have taught me all my life. I am continuing to pray for you each day. I love you!!!!

Hermana Millet

PS Nicole! Congratulations! 29!!!! Holy cow! You are amazing! Now go take it again and beat both your brother and sister lol!

PPS. I don't know if it is possible to send CD's in the regular mail but if so I would greatly appreciate the conference talks (in English) and or a Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD (from iTunes, don't buy one) and or another normal church CD (again, a collection from iTunes, don't buy anything). If not, that's totally fine. Oh, and an Ensign of conference in English.