SNOWWWWWWW - November 21, 2016



Elder Frostbite
11/20/2016

Hey family!! What's up?? Man, this week is going to be weird.. The beginning of my first holiday season away from home! That's dumb. But I'm glad I have my little family here in Dover, they take good care of us :) And we already have a couple dinners scheduled for Thursday! Woo! And on Friday the new Christmas Initiative that the church is doing is coming out! Have you seen the videos on Facebook about that? It's all about service this year. And every day in December they'll have new ideas for how to follow the example of the Savior and serve! There's a cute little advent calendar and everything :) Not quite like our little Santa in the tree one at home, but still good :) 

So this week was pretty rad! We worked hard and saw a lot of miracles! On Monday we had a funny experience visiting a sweet Dominican lady, Violeta, who isn't a member, but her daughter is (and is inactive). She's met a lot with missionaries before, but said that they were always pushing her to be baptized and do all these things, and she doesn't want to do anything until she knows for sure it's the right thing to do. Until she has her own desire. So we were reading in the intro to the Book of Mormon where it has Moroni's promise, and we asked her, "so have you ever prayed to know if the Book of Mormon is true?" and she was like "um no." WHAT. So this lady is sitting here this whole time telling us she has to know if it's all true, and she's never even ASKED. Silly lady. So now we need to find her motive--why would it be important for her to know if it was all true. Anyway, that was kind of funny. People are silly sometimes. Just flipping pray and ask. 

Tuesday was a good day, we had a great family time before district meeting, and lunch after was lovely as well. Our awesome zone leaders brought us ice cream and grahm crackers with chocolate frosting. We told them they were our favorite comfort foods :) So great! Then we went and served at the Restore, and later that night had a lesson with Edwin. Yalily (an awesome lady from the ward) came with, and that was really rad. The lesson kind of turned into a lecture from Yalily about how to ask his girlfriend to marry him, but it was good nonetheless! And we don't really know how to talk to him about that, soooo.. Haha! Good stuff all around. 

Wednesday I got SO EXCITED when I got Sether's email!! That's like my favorite time of the week. I can see how moms of missionaries wait and wait to hear from their kiddies :) He's so awesome. What a stud. We finally found this cute less-active lady, Himelda. We showed her the video and gave her the invitation to come back and reconnect with the Savior through partaking of the sacrament again. She got pretty emotional as she told us she'd struggled a lot, but knew she needed the Savior in her life. And she came to church on Sunday! Woo! And her family aren't members, so we're excited to try to keep meeting with her and hopefully helping her family, too. She's just the cutest, shortest, little Mexican lady. I love her a lot. We went to Bristol Glenn this afternoon and were upstairs this time, not in memory care. The whole time we talked to this funny lady, Sonia, about her life. She told us the same four stories over and over again, but it was darling. And we kept trying to change the subject and talk about other things and hear other stories, but she kept bringing up her "Big Brother Johnny" and how her dad used to walk her mother home from work every night and it was the sweetest thing. What a cute lady :) We had dinner that night with Carmen Almeida, and it was seriously some of the best food I've had since being out here. Delicious potatoes and chicken and rice. Which is like all we ever eat, but this time it was way good!! 

Thursday we served at the Restore and organized the Christmas stuff! Woo!! And I heard my favorite song, "Hot Makin' Grill" so that was pretty rad as well. Haha :) We did a ton of weekly planning that day, and our comp inventory went well. I just realized how much of a fish I've been this whole time! I wish I would have known nine months ago that what I really need to work on is living in the moment and stopping comparing myself to other missionaries. I mean, I know I've always been bad at those things, but I wish I could have been working harder on them this whole time so I could really be improving! But the Lord is so good, He's brought them to my attention and I still have so much time left to work on them :) 

Friday was a CRAZY day. I didn't know I could experience so many ups and downs in one day. Haha! At the beginning of the day we had like 6 lessons planned and we were so excited for all of them! And then I think only two actually ended up happening. Boo. But!! We got a call a couple days before from a sweet sister in the Morristown branch asking us to help with some service project a couple doors down from the chapel. So we went and helped bring bags of food into this little room from a truck! We were helping the Morris Center for Hispanic Affairs, they were going to give these turkeys and bags of food to people in need. So we brought them all in, and then went home and finished studies. A couple hours later, we went back and helped hand them out to people! One of the people was this darling little lady, and I helped her carry her turkey outside. I thought we were just going to put it in her car.. But then it turned out she didn't have a car and had to walk pretty far. And we couldn't let her carry this 10 pound turkey and another bag of food all the way home on her own! So we went with her:) It ended up being an amazing opportunity to get to know and teach Mora Luna. She's struggled with some deaths in the family and understanding what she did wrong and how God would let that happen to her. She also had a question about if God had a daughter, too, which was weird. Anyway! We were able to testify of the Plan of Salvation and help her understand that she will see her parents and her siblings again. It was amazing to see the light and the smile come to her face as we told her about how loving our Father in Heaven is and how everything will be okay :) When we got to her house, she commented that she never really talks to people, but she was glad she got to talk to us today! She gave us waterbottles and her information and we plan on trying to see her again this week! I really love her. So then we walked back to the MCHA and continued serving there. And THEN. We're just hanging out serving and whatnot, and in walks this lady. And she's all "hey! It's the hermanitas from the church!" Turns out, she's this inactive member we've been looking for, Monicka! So she told us her whole story, how she found the church in Peru. And she told us she has a daughter that's fourteen that she wants to be baptized! So we set an appointment to see them saturday, and they weren't there. Punks. But! We're hopeful we can work with them and figure out what's really holding them back. So awesome and so random, right? Such a miracle. THEN. We went and saw this lady, Adriana, and her daughter. And they are the SWEETEST. Holy cow, I totally fell in love with them. We showed a video and talked about the Book of Mormon, and they got so excited to read! They know they need peace and fulfillment in their lives and we helped them begin to understand how they can find that in the gospel. So we have super high hopes for them! And when we went to the Stone family's home for dinner that night we talked to them about them and said they'd love to come with to teach them! It would be so perfect. They're both so spanglish, have 11-year old daughters, and are the cutest ever. So we're really excited about that! Our dinner with the Stone's was so nice. They are a very American family, and really sweet. But it ended up going way long, so we made it really late to our lesson with Salvador. And I was so worried, he didn't sound very happy about it on the phone when we said we were on our way.. But when we got there he was just fine! But we made sure to bring him cookies on Sunday so he doesn't stay mad at us.. Haha! But he's pretty awesome. 

Saturday was a pretty interesting day, we got juked a bunch. But! That morning we went to the construction site and helped this guy Julio, who's actually going to live in the house we were working on! So that was cool! And he's from Peru, and doesn't speak a lot of English. So it was super fun to speak spanish with him as we were drilling things in! I was able to translate a little of what he didn't understand and I was glad that I could serve a little bit :) But there was a moment when I was hammering a nail in, and I hit the wrong nail. And my poor little finger is still blue. Haha! Oops. That hurt pretty bad. But! It's alright, no pain no gain, right? Anyway, good stuff. That afternoon we met with Noe at El Catracho and talked about the priesthood and preparing to go to the temple. He's so cool! He's doing well, he just needs to be better at reading the scriptures and being consistent in that. But he's paying his tithing now and is doing well :) Then we tried to do a little finding in Newton, but to no avail :( Flippers. 

Salvador brought chocolates to church for us!
11/20/2016

Sunday was awesome! We woke up to SNOW!! I woke up at like 4:30 and saw it, and I had to walk around the house and make sure it was real life. I was so excited :) But my excitement was NOTHING compared to Sister Gibson! Haha! It was her first time really ever seeing snow! She was so stoked. So we went outside for a few minutes and made a little baby snowman named Elder Frostbite :) It was so funny to be with Sister Gibson to play in the snow for a few minutes. Although very chilly. And by the time we'd gotten there, it was all pretty icy. But it made for good snowballs! ;) We had the primary program that day and it was sweet! The little kids were SO CUTE. It was mostly in spanish, and some of them don't really know Spanish because they've grown up here their whole lives, but they all did so well :) And this darling little grandson of a member, Denzel, was so flipping cute. And his dad came who wasn't a member! And we hadn't been able to see him! Woo! So we talked to him for a second and he said we should coordinate with his mom to come over next Sunday and see them :) So yay! Sunday school all went well, and we had cake in Relief Society (sorry Dad) so that was all good :) and right after RS the bishop's daughter gave us a referral to give to the english elders of her boyfriend! yay! So we're hopeful they can do well with him, they're really awesome elders--our fearless zone leaders. Then we went to a baptism! The Dover Elders baptized an investigator, Leonel, who is super awesome. And the son of a member, Dave, was also baptized. And they live together, so that was really sweet. The service all went really well, except I think Dave got a little water up his nose.. Haha! But we had a good time, I gave a little talk about the gift of the Holy Ghost and all the missionaries sang. We had a really good turn-out, too! And Salvador came! Isn't that sweet? He's awesome. We saw him again that night and read from the Book of Mormon. He's progressing super well and we're so happy about it! We actually went Sunday morning right before church started and knocked on his windows because he wasn't there yet. And we'd threatened to do that, but I don't think he took us very seriously. Haha but we did it, and we woke him up, and he came! And he thanked us later :) We also found a new investigator from some knocking last night, so that was good, too! 

Anyway, this week has been crazy. And next week will be really interesting as well! We have a Turkey Bowl Thursday morning with a couple other zones, and I'm really excited! I'll get so see Sister Smith again, which is sweet! She's so awesome. And Thanksgiving dinner(s) will be lovely I'm sure :) 

So I started a new Book of Mormon last week (I think) and today I finished Jacob and Enos. I just love the Book of Mormon, you guys. This time I'm reading it about prayer and the Holy Ghost to learn a little more about that. I've learned a lot about prayer lately. I've learned how grand and beautiful it is, but also how small and sweet and simple it is. It really just depends on us and where we're at and what we need or want to say. I'm working on being more myself in my prayers and keeping our comp prayers from being too repetitive. I think because we always pray in spanish, we just get in the habit of saying certain things we know how to say. But we're getting better at praying specifically for things and for people. I'm thankful that I've been brought to be a little humbler in order to step back and look at what the Lord really needs me to improve right now. I'm thankful to be a missionary every day, and I'm thankful for my awesome family back home :) I really do miss you guys and love you a lot. I think about you all the time and wonder what you're up to from time to time. I think about how in the world I'm going to tell you all the things I want to about all the things I'm learning, but then remember that when we're together again we won't be able to talk, the food will be too good ;) hehe wahoo. 

Okay i love you all! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving :) 

Sister Millington