ANOTHER SNOW DAY!!! - March 20, 2017

 

Thanks, Nana, for the headbands!!!

 

This week was crazy. It flew by REALLY fast. There were a lot of things that happened, lots of ups and downs.

On Monday night we had a sweet FHE at the Martinez home with Brenda and Jorge and their kids and Nora and her friend (our investigator)Johnny. It went super well! We sang and talked and testified and ateand it was really good :) I love the Martinez family!

Tuesday we woke up and it was SNOWING!! People had been talking all weekend about the storm warnings, so we weren't surprised. But the wind was blowing super hard, it was way ugly out there. President Taggart told us we couldn't drive anywhere, so we worked on some planning and phone calls and stuff in the house for most of the day! We made it to Julia Torres house later! Love that family. They're super good to us. And we wore the headbands Nana made us :) I'll send pictures!

Wednesday we had district meeting, and then we saw a ton of members!

Thursday we had weekly Planning and SLAYED. We stayed super focused and called all he people and set all the plans and it was great! We worked really hard. We saw a couple people that night, and ended at Patricia's house with Hermana Gonzalez. She made us asopao (this traditional Dominican food) and it was yummy! A good chicken and vegetable soup. I love that family a lot, too.

Friday we had exchanges, and I went with  sister Flinders! We had a great time! We met some great English people, including this guy from Guyana. We knocked their door and met his sisters mother-in-Law who told us at the door she was struggling a lot because her son has cancer. We told her we wanted to share something with her and she let us in! It went super well, she's looking for a church to fill the hole in her life. And Jango (the guy from Guyana) took us through some of the history of he Caribbean islands. Haha! Good guy.

Then when she was backing me out from someone else's house, she started a conversation with this girl that had a cute coat! When we told her about Joseph Smith really briefly, she started crying. She said she had been looking for God a lot lately and felt like she was finally receiving her answer. It was so cool!

Saturday was a hard day. I've had some hard hours in my mission, but this whole day was rough. It was so dark and gloomy outside and things just weren't going like we wanted them to! It was hard! But I learned that having someone to listen is so important :) and that prayer fixes a lot! It doesn't take all our problems away, but it helps us face them a little bit stronger.

Sunday was good, our branch council went super well! I'm excited about it. We saw a few people last night, including Yahaira and her sons and then Patricia. She's super worried about Michael, we're going to try to see him and be in touch with him more! But he might be moving back to the DR soon.. so that's sad :(
 

But good news!! I finished Jesus the Christ this week! Woo! It was so good. I love that book. I'm stoked to read it again:)

Sister Allen is feeling like well be splitting up after is transfer, so that's a bummer :( but we'll see what happens! I'm loving the area and the people and life is good :) I'm learning and growing little by little. It's been a big year and I can't believe all the miracles and love I've seen. The Lord is so good :)

Hermana Millington

 

New Jersey Morristown Mission

Non-stop Pizza. It must be New Jersey. - March 13, 2017

This week in the space of four days I ate pizza FIVE TIMES. What in the world?! I love pizza, but... haha it was good though :)

This was a good week!! We had interviews with President this Tuesday and that went well! I love President Taggart. What a great man :) then we had exchanges with Sisters Malafu (from Hawaii) and Morenvile (from Haiti). It was fun! They're super different sisters but they're way awesome and we love them a lot :) sister Malafu and I found this less active who fed us this fish that was pretty much just a fish cut in half, we got the tail end luckily. Haha it was pretty boney, but not too bad!

Wednesday we had to drop off the sister up in New City, NY (the NY area that's in our mission). On our way to district leader council with the zone we accidentally went over the George Washington Bridge AGAIN. I'm so tired of that bridge. Hahaha! Then we went to a park to pray and figure out what the Lord wants us to do this transfer. We were feeling overwhelmed but we pulled ourselves together and then found a new investigator! Boom!

 

Thursday we had zone conference and that was great! We learned some good skills and had fun :) some good trainings by the zone leaders and assistants. Friday we went on exchange with sister Mora (from Mexico/Kentucky) and sister Gonzalez (from DR/Louisiana). They're awesome! It was fun to be with S Mora, she knew Raquel Demordaunt when we were back at BYU! I probably saw her at the cannon all the time! Small world, huh? She's a really great missionary, she goes home in May. Crazy how time flies! We taught and planned and contacted and talked and life was good! We did some service that morning and Saturday morning at this old church helping give food to people that

need it. My arms hurt pretty bad Saturday morning from lugging some big boxes everywhere. I also did like 100 leg lifts on Wednesday and it made walking for the rest of the week really rough.. yeah morningworkouts!!

We also spoke in church Sunday and that went well! My time was cut pretty short, but I read in 1 Corinthians 12 where it talks about being members of a United body and talked about how enduring to the end includes looking out for our neighbor. We also got a new RS prez that I'm super excited about! We have an FHE at their house tonight with Brenda and Jorge and their kids.

The most eventful thing this week I think was that we were with Brenda and Jorge like every day. We're doing what we can to be a strong support for them and really get the members involved!! Their lives are just so crazy and it hurts my heart a lot.

 

Anyway, I love you guys :) I know this gospel is true. It's got to be. And the Book of Mormon is the word of God. If I didn't know it, I wouldn't be out here for a year and a half trying to give all my heart

and soul to it every day. I wouldn't go through the heart-ache that comes with seeing consequences of other people's misuse of agency. It's hard. But I will do it because I know there's a light at the end of the tunnel. The lords love in infinite and powerful. There is ALWAYS hope in Him.

 

Have a miracle-filled week!

Hermana Millington

New Jersey Morristown Mission

WELL, I GUESS THAT WAS FEBRUARY - MARCH 6, 2017

 

Sisters Conference

Man, how crazy is that? I'm still waiting for Thanksgiving over here..

haha crazy how time flies.

This week was a good one! Tuesday we stayed in all day as well so we

didn't get everyone and their dog sick, even though sister Allen was

feeling better. We Skyped into district meeting, though, and that was

funny! Yay technology! But it totally worked and it was sweet!

Wednesday we had our all-sisters conference! That was a blast :) they

had it all cute and Easter-y with pretty flowers and yummy desserts

and all kinds of stuff. It was very sister-y. Haha. But we had some

great trainings about confidence and team work, and then all the STL

companionships did a training on something-- a couple approaches,

teaching repentance, and the baptismal invite. It was fun! And we did

a TON of role-plays, so that was good too. I don't hate role-plays

quite as much as I used to. Not quite ;) that night we got home pretty

late, so we just went to see Patricia and Michael and teach them more

about temples. They're excited to go!

Thursday we did a TON of weekly planning. Yay planning! We also tried

to go find a couple people, but a referral we went to go see had just

had an eye operation so she couldn't really sit and talk with us haha

ah well. But we got a return appointment! Woo!

Friday we had Mission Leadership Council up in Morristown and that

went well! We learned good things. It's funny to see Elder Follett, my

MTC district leader, as an AP up there. He's a funny kid. Then we went

to dinner with the cute Woodlands to this sweet buffet place with

shrimp and crab and sushi and steak and chocolate mousse and all that

good stuff. It was amazing, actually! Then we had a lesson with Brenda

and Jorge that was super crazy. Long story short, it hurt my heart a lot. It hurts how hard

and real the world is. Their problems are so giant and there's nothing

little Sister Millington and Allen can really do for them. But there's

everything the Lord can do for them! So there is hope :) but it's just

crazy.

Saturday was a crazy day! We saw a bunch of awesome people, including

Brenda and Jorge again. It went better this time! But when we left all

3 of the kids were crying because we wouldn't let them have our name

tags and sister allen's iPad :( we also met this little family,

Bolivar and his sons, Matthew and Joshua. They're really Catholic, but

cool! But unfortunately we can only see them Saturday's when his wife

is home. But we're hopeful!

Yesterday was a lovely Sabbath!  After church we had a few lessons that

all went well, except that we got fed pizza unexpectedly twice, and

then some good Dominican chicken and shrimp. So much food. I hadn't

had so many dinner appointments in a row like that in a long time. So

I just came home at 9:30 and laid on the ground and wanted to die for

a few minutes. But that's okay!! Life is good :)

Anyways that was my week in short! I'm learning a lot that missionary work is pretty simple, but

it all has to do with our personal conversion and how hard we're

really willing to work. Our trust and faith and motivation comes from

our understanding of the Atonement and the changes we've seen in our

own life that make us want to help and serve those around us :)

I love you chickens! Have a great week, find joy in living ❤

Hermana Millington

New Jersey Morristown Mission

TRANSFERS - February 20, 2017

Hey family!! This week was a good one! Definitely had its highs and

lows, but all around really good :) happy late valentine's day! I was

remembering the little package Chloe sent me to the MTC with that had

notes from all of you. I remember Seth sent one that talked about how

now I didn't have a Valentine because I was giving my heart to God, so

it was just a normal day. This year was similar. Haha! But it was

great :)

So the saddest news on the planet: Sister Holguin is leaving Englewood

:( she's headed to Morristown as an STL to be with Sister Smith. I'm

excited for them, it'll be great! And my new companion is Sister

Allen, who I already love a ton! She's a good one. We were asked to be

STLs at the same time. She's super tall and sings really well and

she's an awesome missionary. It's going to rock :) it'll be good to

have a little change here in the area, I was getting a little

comfortable. And good news: our car coordinator texted us today and

said we'll be getting a RAV4 at our leadership conference this

weekend! Woo!!! A brand new car! So that's going to rock too :)

blessings!! But I really am super super sad sister Holguin is going.

We found out on Thursday because sister smith saw the transfer board

in presidents office and told us. So we've had time to mentally

prepare ourselves and to say goodbye to the members. She'll definitely

be missed here, the branch LOVES her. We have big shoes to fill for

sure. And I'll miss her a lot. We've become so so close through the

last three months. She's taught me so much about missionary work and

Mexico and love and patience and everything!! She's an amazing person.

I'll miss her.

Man, I'm trying to think about prioritizing what happened this week.

It was a good one. There were a couple moments when I pulled myself

together and began to think about what our purpose out here really is.

I got a little frustrated this week reading the Book of Mormon because

the people are SO DUMB. Again and again they are blessed, they get

proud, and they fall. Then they get all humble and the get blessed

again, then they get proud and fall. AGAIN. I actually got really

frustrated! But then i realized that I bet our Heavenly Father gets a

little frustrated with us sometimes too. Maybe not frustrated, but

kind of sad. We're really forgetful. We forget who we are, why we're

here, what we're doing, etc. all the time. And when we forget, we

fall! And then we get humble again, and we're blessed. And then we get

all proud and we forget. We're SO DUMB. Haha :) anyways, the Book of

Mormon is true, folks.

I'm excited for this week and all the adventures ahead of us here in

Englewood. Patricia and Michael are rock stars, were hopeful we'll go

to the temple with them soon :)

Love you guys!!

Hermana Millington

New Jersey Morristown Mission

First Week of the Transfer - February 27, 2017

 

Sis. Allen
 

This week was pretty interesting. With all the meetings and everything we didn't actually have a lot of time to really work the area.. but we tried our best!! This is what went down:

Monday: we said goodbye to Hermana Holguin with some froyo and she said goodbye to some members that night. This branch LOVES her, she definitely left big shoes to fill.

Tuesday: we had transfers!! I played the mission song while we all sang and it was crazy! I'd much rather sing, but ya know :)  We came back to our area and we taught quite a few lessons! It was really good, Sister Allen got to know the area pretty quick! We had a fun branch FHE that night where we played a crazy game about popping balloons and looking up scriptures. We won one of the rounds so we got some chocolates and a cute little bear. Go team!! It was fun to see a bunch of the members there, and that was also good for Sister Allen. I think she probably felt a little overwhelmed by learning so many new names and faces (as it goes in a new area), but she's a champ. She's learning really fast, I'm not worried about her :)
 

Wednesday: district meeting woo!!! Our district leader is Elder Koo, a Korean elder from Southern California. He's pretty old in the mission, he really knows what he's doing. He's a good one! It's funny how different the zone feels, and not much changed. But most of the zone is training right now, there's just 4 companionships out of 11 that aren't. We're a super green zone!! After that we got some groceries and saw a few people that evening, including cute old Pola and Michael. We brought the YM President, Harold, with us and taught about the priesthood and it went super well! I love Michael so much. He's such a stellar kid.
 

On Thursday we had correlation in the morning which was super good and needed. Our little branch here needs a lot of love. We're doing what we can! We did a TON of weekly planning that day and i tried to catch sister Allen up on the area and the people. We're making plans to do some FHE's with all the members and have them invite their non-member friends to come. We hope we can really help them learn how to do their own finding. Members are the finders, were the teachers, you know! (Hint hint go find some people for those poor Boise elders hehe) We saw Brenda during the afternoon and she's doing well. She had her baby last week!!

 

I forgot to write about that last week. We called her on Sunday to see how she was doing, and she said "I'm good! Did you get the pictures I sent you? I had my baby on Thursday!!" Hahaha it was crazy! We were so surprised, and so was she! Anyway, she hadn't named it at that point, but she told us just yesterday (Sunday) she's naming her Lia Michelle (after Sisr Holguin) isn't that adorable? So cute :) so anyway, the baby was premature so she has to stay there until April, but Brenda has been home and all is well with her :)

 

Friday we had a new leader training meeting and then a meeting to plan for the all-sisters conference happening this Wednesday. It's going to be super awesome! So all us STL's were there helping sister and President Taggart plan for that. Well be doing lots of trainings and role plays, it'll be sweet. Sister Allen and I are working on the baptismal invite and how to be confident in that :) woo! After that meeting we got our new car! It's a RAV 4, pretty sure it's a 2017. When we got it it had 23 miles on the odometer. Haha!! It's insane, folks. Probably the nicest car I'll ever drive. It has voice control and I can ask it to call people for us. I can also finally play all the music I've had on my USB my whole mission! And if we get to close to a car while on cruise control it automatically slows down, and correct us if we're going outside the lane lines. I love that car so much. It's name is Fab. He's a babe.

 

Saturday we went to Ellis Island! It was pretty slow when we first got there, so they sent us to go have a little tour around the building led by a ranger. It was fun to explore a little! I love that place a lot, there's always something more to learn. It'll be fun to go there with you guys someday! I'll show you all the cool stuff :) When we were walking outside after lunch we met this sweet Colombian guy,

Mazo, and talked about who we are and what we do as missionaries. He kept talking about how we're so pure and have so much light because we stay out of the world. He was so intrigued to know how we got to close to God. We finished our service and it actually got busy, and then we came home. We saw Nora and Jared and their abuelita, and when we started the lesson a random guy, Johnny (probably a friend of Nora?) walked in and sat down with us! We taught about repentance and it went super well. The Spirit was really strong and they took it all well. They know what they need to change, and we know too! Something I'm trying to work on is being more brave. I'll write about that in a second :) But on the way home Sis Allen wasn't feeling super well, so we came home early and she went to bed while I made a couple calls.

Long-story-short, we were up for a couple hours in the middle of the night because she was moaning and groaning because of stomach pain and bad dreams. I felt so bad and helpless, there was nothing I could do :( But we called the mission nurse at 2 in the morning and she told us about some pills we could give her and that she just kind of had to gut it out.
 

In the morning on Sunday she was feeling okay-ish, so we went to stake conference over in Morristown. It was a good meeting, but I was having a hard time focusing because I was worried about how Sister Allen was feeling and if Michael was understanding what was going on. Patricia was super sick, too, so she couldn't make it.  Anyway, we came home and then Sister Allen took some Dramamine and was out for the day. I studied a lot, and read a bunch in Jesus the Christ. It's taken me forever, but I'm almost done now! Just a couple more chapters! It was really powerful to read about Gethsemane and Calvary and all that happened there. The book is a little deep and complex sometimes, but I like to think it keeps me sharp ;) haha just kidding. But I love how it's written and how everything comes together andmakes so much sense. It just amazes me to think that it's all real. Ya know? Like this man that lived a perfect life was arrested and condemned through trials that were illegal and made no sense, and he was killed because of peer pressure from an angry mob. He did nothing wrong and was given the most cruel, awful form of death. He died because his heart literally broke as he hung on the cross. But he rose again!! The first resurrected, perfect being! He came back and met with his apostles and taught them again. And today, He lives. And He knows and loves each one of us! He did all he did out of love for us, his brothers and sisters. And no matter what we do, we'll never be able to repay Him for all He's given us through His infinite sacrifice. But he asks thatwe come with broken hearts and contrite spirits and He promises He'll make it enough. It still makes no sense to me, His mercy is too overwhelming. The way it overpowers justice is incredible. I don't get it. And I don't think I ever will! But that's okay :) I trust Him and I know it's real. Anyways that's my insight for the week :) it's all true!!
 

In other news, sister Allen is still sick this morning, so we'll be here in the apartment for the day. I organized my desk and the Elders came and got the car and are doing some grocery shopping for us. They brought us Gatorade and cinnamon rolls, so those are cooling off right now :) it's weird how old I am out here.. I'm literally 3 years older than most of the Elders, especially the new ones, and I've been in the field for a year. Isn't that weird? I thought by this time I'd have this whole thing figured out. Haha nope. The Lord is so good to me, He helps me find new weaknesses every day :)
 

Have a great week! 

Sorry this email is forever long!! I just have a lot of love for you guys and the Savior today :)

Hermana MillingtonNew Jersey Morristown Mission