WEEK TWO - February 24, 2016

Hola familia!

Well it's true, the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days here at the MTC!

I had a cool experience all the way last Tuesday after I'd written. Elder Oaks came to speak to us here at the MTC and we all got to shake his hand after! He winked and said, "Hermana Millington, mucho gusto!" Which means "Happy to meet you!" It was so cool. He talked about miracles are still happening, and the greatest miracle is seeing someone change their life and convert fully to the gospel. Sister Oaks spoke as well about staying focused and our purpose here. I made a resolution in a devotional on Sunday that I need to let these meetings change my life. I'm taking great notes and journaling about everything, but I need to be making changes in my life to be fully blessed. And I know if I can do the little things that I'm inspired to do during these meetings that I'll continue to receive greater revelation. So I'm praying for patience and love and I bought a new English Book of Mormon to read and highlight all the different characters of Christ in different colors. It'll be so darn cute. 

And I totally forgot last week, FELIZ TARDE CUMPEAÑOS, PAPA!! Lo siento mucho for that one, but I hope it was a wonderful day and you got to eat some wonderful steak :)

So I told my district about how we have cheese platters on Sunday afternoons and how I miss that, and somehow it's turned into this huge joke about how proper I am. And I also cut my fruit because the chunks they give us are enormous! Anyway, that's kind of our running joke these days. And we have a lot of things we say, like "por favorrrr" and "perfecto" in funny gringo accents like our teacher does sometimes. I love these guys so much. I'll send some pictures on this email and to mom from campus and me with Hna Davis and the other sisters. We took some cute ones today! We're only allowed to take pictures on P-Days here, but it's all good. So that striped shirt and purple skirt are what I'm wearing in this little computer lab ahora! 

Oh Spanish. I still just love it. I set some new goals in class yesterday about memorizing words and scriptures. It's going to require some work, but I've got the Lord on my side! We can do anything! Especially if it's His work. 

We get gym time every day except Pday and Sunday and it's been great! I'm doing all my squats and my crunches so I can come home like mom. Mis hermanas and I are getting better at ping pong and volleyball, we play like every day! It's another goal of mine to be able to dribble a basketball between my legs by the time I leave here. It's gonna rock.

This last Sunday was so fantastic! We have RS in the morning (in English, thank heavens), then a district meeting in our classroom, then a sacrament meeting in another building. Our branch is our district and two others, our whole zone. But one of the districts all left yesterday, so for now it's just the two of us! But we'll probably get another one in a couple days. Anyway, our branch president gives us all a topic to prepare a talk but doesn't tell us who's going to speak until right before the meeting or even at the pulpit sometimes. It's un poco stressful. So when we walked in I volunteered to play piano right off the bat cause I thought maybe I wouldn't have to speak then. Well nope. While I was playing prelude Presidente Fisk walked up and asked if I would speak as well. So I gave my first talk in Spanish! It was about the Restoration! It went well, I think I pronounced everything right! I've gotten to the point where I can write pretty much a whole lesson or talk in my own words, but I still have to read a lot of it off the page. So I wasn't super good at looking up, but I was speaking Spanish, soooo I've got a good excuse! But I'm glad I got the practice! 

 

I had a cool experience while I was teaching yesterday with Hna Davis. We have a new investigator, Louis (he's the same guy as Bruno was, one of our teachers). We had our lessons all written out and I was practicing saying everything I wanted to about the Restoration. It was our first lesson with him and I was a little nervous, but I prayed that the Spirit would guide the conversation and guide me, and it totally happened! I only read probably a couple sentences I'd written down. But he asked a lot of questions and I understood what he was saying and came up with some valid, doctrinal answers that I think made a little sense! I even invited him to be baptized (which I was not planning on doing) and he accepted! The Spirit there was very real and very cool. I felt so happy afterwords. But we got some feedback about how we need to play ping-pong in our lessons as comps and trade off asking and answering questions.

Anyway, life is good. I couldn't be happier anywhere else in the world. This is a blessed place and I'm so blessed to be here. I look around my classroom sometimes and can't help but shed a couple happy tears that I'm here with my amazing district, teachers, and friends. I miss you all and think about you and pray about you all the time, but I know you're in His hands and I have nothing to be worried about.

Les ama muho!!

Hermana Millington

 

 

FEBRUARY 10, 2016 - THE AIRPORT

 

THE BEGINNING OF

HERMANA MILLINGTON'S

MISSION ADVENTURES

 

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

 

Off She Goes!!

 

 

This morning will forever be etched in our memories. It was bittersweet.

 

 

 



 "peace out"



One last glimpse and wave.

 

Video cred: Joan Boren

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FEBRUARY 16, 2016 - MTC Mexico City - Week One

 

Hola mi familia!!

 

 

Wow, it´s been quite the week! So many crazy amazing things. I don´t even know where to start!! 

So my little Distrito 8-C is all going to New Jersey! Isn´t that rad? So we won´t have to really say goodbye to each other, we´ll see each other all the time! My companion is Hermana Davis from Santaquin Utah (right around the Provo area I guess?). She´s awesome! She knew absolutely zero Spanish coming into this and it´s really cool to watch her learn and progress. I´m so proud of how far she´s come. I didn´t hear it, but apparently the other night she was talking in her sleep and asked for some beans in Spanish! Hahaha. That´s progress right there. We work well together and I like her a lot! The other hermanas in our room are Hermana Hettinger (the one from my ward last semester!) and her compañera, Hermana Woll. They are both from California. They´re super awesome as well, I love them mucho. We have two elders in our district as well, Elder Follet from Arizona (our lider de distrito--district leader) and Elder Hunt from New Mexico. We call Elder Follet Elder Pamphlet sometimes because folleto is pamphlet in español. I don´t even know how to express how much I love my district!! They´re such fantastic people, always lifting each other up and inspiring each other to be better. They are mi mejores amigos. My best friends.

 

So Spanish!! Holy cow, I love it. It is my favorite language, I´ve decided. It´s all coming along well! I´ve learned a LOT. I´m able to teach a lot of basics about the gospel and I´ve memorized the baptismal interview, Moroni 10:4-5, and my missionary purpose (mi objetivo) en español. I´m finding myself now wishing I knew more words to better express the more complex things of my heart. I love the gospel so so much and I´m learning so much about it, but I just don´t quite know how to say it. But have no fear, I will learn! I´m learning mucho every day. 

 

So crazy story, we taught an investigator on Thursday. We´d been here for a day and a half and we were teaching!! Fue loco. It was crazy. But it was just a teacher here at the CCM (MTC) and he was great! I read most of what I said out of a notebook and poor Hna. Davis read everything she said. She´s still working on her pronunciation, but we got the point across okay! And as we were walking back to our classroom we decided to go to the tienda (the little store on campus) and get a drink for Hna Davis. When we were walking, we ran into the guy we´d just finished teaching, Bruno!! He asked where we were going, and I said "vamos a comprar un bebé!" I meant to say we were going to buy a drink, but it came out as we were going to buy a baby. Drink is bebida, bebé is baby. Hahaha so awkward. Anyway, then "Bruno" came in and taught our district in our little classroom where we spend pretty much all our time.

They take good care of us here at the CCM, no need to fret. I have two other teachers that teach in the morning--Hermana Linarez and Hermano Borgel--and they are awesome. They take things pretty slow with us, but they rarely speak English. We really got thrown into the language! But it´s been really great! I've been so so blessed though. I will forever be thankful that I knew some Spanish coming in here. It's given me a good opportunity to be a leader and a friend to mis amigos.

The other day at dinner Elder Follet said I was like the older sister of the District. I laughed it off and everything, but then I really started thinking about it later in an interview with a branch presidency member and I think it´s really true. I do know the most Spanish of us (soon enough they´ll all know more than I do) and I´m usually the one they ask when they have questions about translations or pronunciation or anything. And I´m just so proud of all my hermanas and our elders, I do feel like their sister! When they pray perfectly en español or like when I saw Hna Davis taking notes in Spanglish, I just get so proud. They´re all working so hard and I know the Lord is blessing them.

So besides the baby and drink mix-up, there have been a couple other funny language problemas this week. The first I learned was pecado/pescado. Pecado means sin and pescado means fish. So when I´m teaching I have to be careful not to say that the Atonement can make us clean from our fishes. Also, priesthood in español is sacerdocio. We were trying to learn how to pronounce it late last night in our classroom and I don´t even know how it happened, but one of us ended up saying "sack-er-doci-do" which is SO wrong. But now when we want to sound like major gringas we say sackerdocido. Also, Hna. Davis started saying "seester" like Nacho Libre and now has our whole district saying it! It´s Elder Pamphlet´s favorite thing to say. Hahaha

Man, what else? It really feels like I´ve already been here for a month. Today has been a good day though! And Sunday was awesome. We had a lot more time for personal study, so I got to actually study some great stuff in English! We had RS and our district meeting in English as well, and that was so nice. I felt like I could relax and be spiritually filled instead of stressing about trying to translate everything they were saying so I could understand what was going on. But today we got to go to the Mexico City temple!! That´s why I´m writing so late in the afternoon. Lo siento, I´m sorry. But it was so awesome. The session was in spanish, but we got headphones so we could understand. The temple itself was beautiful and it was so nice to be home. When we were on the bus driving home we started singing our himnos en español and that was cool. It was so interesting to be driving through the middle of one of the craziest cities in the world (it´s so loco) and to still have the spirit with us on that little bus. 

 

What else would you like to know? I know this email is pretty general, but I don't have a ton of time and I´ve got a lot to say! But I attached some pictures of me and my district and at the temple today! Unfortunately I can´t send a billion in one email, but there´s a few for ya :) And ps, p-day next week is also Tuesday, but the week after it will be Wednesday. So don´t panic when you don't hear from me then :)

Thank you for the sweet sweet emails, I´ve been oh so excited to read them and to write y'all! Although this place is harder than I anticipated, there's nowhere else in the world I would rather be. After home and the temple, this place is heaven on earth. Such a sweet spirit with the sweetest people ever. 

Hasta Pronto! Los amo! Son in mis oraciones!

Talk to you soon! I love you! You´re in my prayers!

Hermana Millington