"For unto us a Sister Hopson is born..." - June 26, 2017

 

 

Part of our fun bus adventure - we got a little lost

 

 

 

 

 

Hey!!

This week was CRAZY. It was super busy. It was way fun :) So my new companion is Sister Hopson! Yes, she's the one who plays the violin like an angel. She's so talented. I met her on Tuesday and it was awesome! I was so nervous on the way to transfers.. I was like "what if she doesn't know anything about spanish? What if she doesn't even want to be here? What if she doesn't say anything at all? What if she talks a lot and I can't stop her? What if she's super buried and disobedient?" Anyway, all these worries floating around.ya know, like they do. But when I walked into the meeting before we got put together, I saw her and I knew she was my new comp. She played piano for the opening hymn and sat right in front of me and I just felt it!  We went into the gym after the meeting and lined up and got our companions, and sure enough I get to be her momma! I'll send you the video. I accidentally totally almost tackled her. I was really excited. It kind of freaked her out. Haha oops. But anyway, then we took a ton of pictures and headed out. The Cutlers took us to lunch with some other sisters they were driving back, that was good. Then we got going and haven't stopped running since! 

So Sister Hopson is from Salt Lake City, and she's awesome. She went to BYU for a year before she came out. She was on their triathlon team and almost did the half-iron man, but it was a couple days before she left for the MTC so she didn't end up doing it. She's the oldest in her family, so her parents are having a fit, they're so excited to hear from her today :) Haha it's pretty cute. She studied french for about 10 years, so her spanish is pretty good, but she speaks with a french accent. Haha! She actually has spent a little time over in Europe doing some orchestra tours, so that's cool too! She really wants to work hard and become a powerful instrument in the Lord's hands. It's really funny for me to see the difference between her and I in the little things. Like how she powders her nose and does her hair and just looks so cute all the time, and I just look pretty much homeless. But it's okay!! It's the light in our eyes :)  Anyway, I just love her to death. I'm excited to come home pretty much just so I can send her stuff. I adore her. 

Other than that, this week was super full of appointments! We met with Lina, Amber, and Sandra and Edgar all a couple times. They're the investigators we're working with the most right now. Lina couldn't come to church because she had to work :/ But Amber came! And she stayed after for a baptismal service of a couple cute kids in the ward, and she said "When that little girl got baptized, I felt it! I felt like it was me in the water!" It was SO COOL. She's the one that's fourteen, and she has a date to be baptized in July. She's friends with some of the youth and she really wants to bring her mom next week. Sweet, right? Also Sandra came to church! That was so exciting! Her and her husband have a TON of questions, but they're really learning and progressing a lot. Sandra wants to bring her husband and kids next week. 

We did our musical number in sacrament meeting on sunday (the one I posted on facebook) and our sweet ward was very complimentary. I love them! It was so much fun to practice and perform with such a talented musician. I am so blessed. 

my two babies - Sis. Gibson and Sis. Hopson
6-20-17

Also this week a couple times I became very overwhelmed with love for these people. I know I say it all the time, but it really is incredible that I never even knew these people existed and now they have such a big piece of my heart. Including my dear sweet Sister Hopson! There was a moment last night when we were teaching some members after a delicious dinner of taquitos (with sister Soriano, the one that texted you!! She's the sweetest ever.), and S Hopson was bearing testimony of priesthood blessings. Although her spanish isn't great, she did all she could to tell them an experience she'd had and tell them she knew blessings were real and powerful. As I watched her tell them about it with all the effort and love she could, it nearly brought me to tears. I'm so excited to see the amazing things she does on her mission, I know she'll be so powerful. Her potential is incredible and I'm so blessed I got to be her to welcome her to mission life and learn from her dedication and sweet spirit. And I also know it doesn't matter what we say or what language it's in, as long as we pray for the spirit and the gift of tongues, he's the one that does the teaching through us. It was a really powerful moment. I'm so proud of her.

Life is so good here in Union City! We're looking forward to some baptisms soon and working on finding and getting members involved like CRAZY! I'm glad you got that package, I taped it up REALLY good so no one could get in there and take anything. That's precious stuff. I'm packaging up some more stuff, I'm in the process of getting things back to you. 

I love you guys so much and I can't wait to see you again soon! I know the Lord has blessed you while I've been here. Maybe I'll just stay here so He'll keep blessing you... Hehe just kidding, I wanna come home :) I love being a missionary and I'm so glad I've still got some time out here to make it the best.

I love you! Have a fantastic week!! 

Sister Millington

 

Bed Bugs..??!! - June 12, 2017

Cool blue wall :)
6-11-17

This week was super good :) nice and busy!! One thing

cramped our style-- we may or may not have some kind of bug eating us.

This week I got a total of about 22 bites, mostly on the back of my

calves. So weird! But we checked the mattresses and washed the sheets

and everything and haven't really found anything.. but we got some

strong bug spray stuff and are in the process of spraying down the

whole apartment, so that'll be good. But all good in the hood anyway :)

 

 

Last Monday we had our all-mission conference, that's why I didn't

really write anyone. It was so fun!! So fun to see all my friends :)

all the zones were assigned different parts of the Book of Mormon and

we did funny skits of the whole book. It was awesome fun! Then

President and sister Taggart gave some little trainings. This is their

last month on the mission, so they talked about what they've learned

and gave us some last advice. We all sang "God Be With You Till We

Meet Again" at the end and everyone was crying. Really tender. I love

the Taggarts so much. It'll be a weird month & 1/2 without them!

That night we saw Lina, she's doing okay. She was actually kind of

sick so she wasn't feeling too hot. But she's awesome, she'll be okay

:)

The Taggarts
6-5-17

Tuesday I gave a little training in district Meeting, that was fun.

Our role plays went really well, I actually enjoyed them. It's funny-

a year ago I HATED role plays. I hated them more than anything ever.

But now I understand how awesome they are and I feel like I can

actually teach a little bit so it's not as uncomfortable. Haha

missions change you.     Oh! And before district meeting we had interviews

with President and Sister Taggart. It was so awesome. Wow. When I met

with sister Taggart first we talked a lot about how I've changed on my

mission. And it didn't really click until I was talking with both of

them, but I've really learned on my mission to take a chill pill, love

myself, and trust the Lord. I knowit'll be different when I come home and it'll still be a challenge to

feel like I'm doing enough, but I've built a foundation of

self-acceptance and trust in the grace of the Savior that'll carry me

a long way. When I asked President for his final advice for me, he

said "keep your celestial shades on. Keep the big perspective.

Remember who you are and what you're really doing here, and don't let

little things bring you down. Trust in the Lord, really trust him.

When you get all stressed and tense like you do, walk outside, look at

the clouds, take a deep breath and say 'I know it'll be okay. You've

got my back.' Because He does and He always will."

Anywaysss it was an awesome interview. I really love President Taggart.

Sis. Gaytan
6-7-17

Wednesday was awesome!! Sister Gaytan came to union City with me on

exchange! Man, it was so fun to be with her again! I love her so much

:) we had appointments all night, we stayed nice and busy! We had an

awesome lesson with s new investigator and her husband. They'd been

visited by the missionaries like three years ago, but the husband was

telling us that he'd had a lot of questions but the poor elders didn't

understand a lot of Spanish so they couldn't really help him. But he

loved that we could communicate with him and he really began to trust

us! It was cool. We have another appointment with them tomorrow. I'm

excited :) plus they have two kids! Woo! Families!

We also saw Lina and a couple brothers from the ward came and gave her

a priesthood blessing. She's felt a ton better since! It was cool,

they really connected to Indira, actually. It was really good for both

of them. And we read 2 Nephi 31 together and they really liked it.

Thursday morning a Venezuelan member made us arepas for breakfast-

they were SO GOOD! It made me miss Sister Troconis :) she's married

now! Crazy, right?? To an elder from here! Haha so funny. We also did

service at Salvation Army, planned, and had dinner with a sweet

member. English Class was fun that night, we had a few new people! I

love teaching English :)

Friday we finished planning, saw a few people, including Lina! Oh and

when we were walking around on the street we had a weird experience

with this guy that jumped in the middle of the sidewalk and said

they're looking for people who like Joseph smith.. then he asked us if

we had to be virgins to serve missions. It was very bizarre. There

were some other creepy guys on Bergenline later, but we had a brother

from the ward walking with us, so all was well :) thank heavens for

the angels we have around us. We had a good lesson that night with

Lina and our member, Libardo. He was baptized about three months ago

and is just amazing. We talked about the word of wisdom and Lina had

some doubts about coffee.. pray for her. She'll make it, we have

faith. It just takes work, ya know?

Saturday we got in trouble for chalking on the sidewalk.. haha this

man was so angry at us. It was pretty funny, actually. Hahaha but it's

okay, we talked to a lot of people while it was there and I think

that's a success! The cutlers bought us burritos for dinner and we

found some sweet new people while talking to everyone. Union City is

the bomb.

Yesterday was a good day! Unfortunately none of our investigators

could come to church, but we had some good meetings anyway. After some

studies at home, we went out and found some more new investigators!

Woo! And we just happened to run into Amber and her mom, some

investigators we've been working with. We walked to the laundromat

with them and then had a little lesson there. Amber said she's been

reading and praying! Woo! She's fourteen, but she has a mature soul.

She's a really sweet girl.

A way rad sunset. The city can be beautiful too,
 just in its own way.   6-8-17

Anyways this week was great! I wasn't sick anymore, but do have some

gnarly bites on my legs. But I'm happy and healthy and life is good :)

sister McCoy is the bomb and we're hopeful they leave us another

transfer together here in union! We'll find out next week...

I love you guys! Can't wait to see you all again :) I'm praying for

you! Keep up the good work, keep pounding though the Book of Mormon!

That book is  true. I love that book. It's probably my

favorite.

Have a great week, sillies !

Hermana Millington

New Jersey Morristown Mission

Busiest week EVER - May 29, 2017



Zone trip to the NYC temple
5/2017

This week was seriously awesome. I think I had the most lessons I've

ever had. On Tuesday we literally taught all day. There was one hour we

did service and taught math and English and then an hour of

correlation, but from 11-9 we were working hard and teaching all over

the place! It was awesome. We came home super super tired every night

this week.


My cute comp and I going through the
  Lincoln Tunnel on our way to the Temple

Some of my most favorite sisters
in the world at the NYC temple



We also went to the temple as a zone this week! It was really

beautiful. Every time I go I learn more and I love it more. When I was

sitting in the Celestial room I was pondering and praying a lot. I

asked Heavenly Father what He wanted me to know. I opened the

scriptures to Isaiah 63:16 which says "16 Doubtless thou art our

father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us

not: thou, O Lord, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from

everlasting." From that I learned that sometimes I just need to

remember he's our Father :) He loves us, no matter who we are or what

we do. Our worth is infinite in His eyes. But that also means that

those around us are His sons and daughters too, with an incredible

eternal potential. So we ought to treat them that way! There's so much

darkness and dumbness in the world (I was exposed to some of today's

pop music at a Dominican barbecue yesterday-- wow. So dumb.), but we

don't have to live like that forever! In Alma it talks about how the

way to find hope Christ offers us is through repentance.

Anyway, Lina and Indira are doing super well! They came to church on

Sunday and both loved it! Except Lina thinks our songs are too slow

and boring.. haha! She said she was falling asleep in the first hour!

But she got into it in relief society and it was good. The sisters

were good to her and Indira. Indira even shared her story with the

sisters-- why she went inactive 30 years ago but how because Sister

McCoy and Millington are visiting her she's finally coming back. Wow.

It's amazing the love I have for them and the love they have for us.

When we teach them the spirit is so powerful. I know they were people

I was sent here to find because I need them. I seriously adore them as

my sisters. I didn't understand before my mission how big love can be.

I can't believe there's still room in me to love these cute Hispanic

people I hardly know, but it LOVE them! It's going to feel weird to be

in a white people ward. Way too white and organized and quiet. Hahaha!

Oh man.

We had a cool experience last night. The Cutlers are awesome. They're

the senior couple for our zone and they work in the ward here. Sister

Cutler is the primary chorister and the pianist and pretty much

oversees everything. Haha and Elder Cutler is the second counselor in

the bishopric. This is their 2nd mission together (the first was in

Nauvoo!) And they've got their act together. They're so awesome. They

actually took us to Walmart, lunch, and froyo just now. Wow. I love

them so much, they're so loving and giving. But Sister Cutler doesn't

take any crap. Haha she's so awesome. Anyway! She decided the YW need

help, because we have about 15 but only like 2 are active. So we

planned a cupcake wars activity with the YM and then last night Sister

Gaytan and Virgin (our STLs there in englehood) came down and we all

split up and visited all the YW and brought them invitations and

cupcakes :) it was cute! But we went and met his cute girl, Marilyn,

who asked us if her mom had sent us. I laughed and said I was new and

didn't really know anyone, I didn't know who her mom was.. she said

her mom is active, but her dad isn't a member. She said she'd been

thinking a lot lately and had felt like she'd been getting hints that

she needed to come back to church. She was really surprised that we

were there! It was just hard because her dad doesn't agree. But she

was super sweet and thankful we thought of her. It was really cool to

see that the Lords timing is perfect and He remembers us all

individually. And he'll inspire and send people to help us when we

need it :)

This gospel is the best, you guys. I love it more and more all the

time. I'm so blessed to be a missionary and to meet and love and serve

these people here.

"Alma 26:37 Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every

people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people,

and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy,

and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God

forever. Amen."

I love you and miss you all! :) have a great week and keep plowing

through the Book of Mormon! I don't know if I'm going to make it with

all y'all there next week.. im in Alma 26.. ouch. Haha! But I'll try!!

Love of the loves.

The Promised Land - UNION CITY - May 22, 2017

Me and Sis. McCoy
Union City

Wow. This week was SO GOOD. Honestly. Holy cow. Santa vaca. My feet have never hurt so bad and I've never been so tired. But I've never been so HAPPY!! Being a missionary is the BEST. We saw so many miracles this week.

Here's one that was especially awesome: Friday evening we were doing finding and walked past a building. Hermana McCoy recognized it and said we should try a former that lived there. As we went up and knocked the door, a man walked up behind us and recognized Sister McCoy! We stood and talked to him (Julio) for a minute and then another woman came home to the door across the hall. We said hi to her and she said she was baptized in our church! We set an appointment to come back the next day. When we went back, we found out Indira and Julio were members (they're friends; they were baptized in their country but have been inactive for a long long time), but their friend, Lina, wasn't. She got pretty emotional when she told us about a bad experience she had at another church recently. Julio and Indira were really excited to have us over and to come back to the church. And Lina said she knew the Mormons were good people and she wanted to learn more and come to church! And that she'd bring her 12 year old daughter! Her and Julio were having a side-conversation at one point that I overheard and were talking about how they feel our "vibe" and they love it. Lina said she feels super comfortable and super loved by us! That's the Spirit!! There were a couple moments during the lesson I honestly had difficulty speaking because my heart was so full and the spirit was so strong. I'm so excited to work with them. And before we left they had us sign their Book of Mormons! Haha! They are super sweet. I know the Lord put us in their path at this time 100% on purpose. 

That night we got home and we're flipping out we were so happy. We went out on the roof outside our study room and Sister McCoy did some parkour (sp??). Hahaha we just laid on the roof at look at the stars (there were like 5 we could see) and smiled. It was the happiest ever :) 



This was us on the roof later that night :)   (If you look closely you'll see it has an avocado with a cape on it)

 

This week we literally found FOUR people (including Julio and Indira) who were baptized and we don't have them in our records! Crazy town! So it makes me wonder how many people of all the thousands in Union City are actually members.. haha! Did I tell you guys this city is the most densely populated in the US? Yeah. It's because in one house there's like 4 families and in every apartment there's like 2. It's crazy. There are always people out on the street! Especially this one street, Bergenline. If you go google maps this place and go to the street view of Bergenline you'll see it's just lined with stores (mostly Hispanic stores-- the city is about 80% Hispanic) and there's always people there. Today we're going shopping there for a little bit. I had a really sad moment this week: remember that Ann Klein watch Matt and Seth bought me for Christmas last year? It was my only surviving watch, my others stopped working like a year ago. Well, this week it stopped working too :( so I could put a new battery in it, but at this point I've been wearing it a TON and the band is super ratchet and torn up. So I think I'll get a cheap watch today and then repair it when I get back. It was so sad, though, I've LOVED having that watch every day!!

Anyways, this area is the bomb. I'm literally living the dream. I feel like I've finally hit the point in my mission (after 15 months) where I know what I'm doing. I speak Spanish well, I know how to teach, and I'm not afraid to find. I'm working as hard as I can and giving 100% of myself every day. I know that's why we've seen so many miracles this week. We're being obedient, we're working hard, and the Lord recognizes that. 

The members have been good to me this week. It made one less-active really happy last night that I could speak and understand so well and that I love Valentina! We hit it off really well, which is really good because she needs a lot of help. It was cool :) 

The members are really willing to have us over and the ward is big and pretty organized! They have their weaknesses, but it's getting there. We have a senior missionary couple, the Cutlers, that do a LOT for the ward. They live right next to us and are super awesome! I got to play piano in the primary and for one song in sacrament meeting because Sister Cutler couldn't play. I love to be able to serve :) 

Sister McCoy is from Bicknell, UT, a really tiny town! She knew Seth in the MTC! How funny, right? So she's that old in the mission-- about 7 months. She has such a strong desire to work hard and improve. It's super great! We get along really well, she's so sweet and genuine. I love her a lot :) 

 

Have an awesome week!!