Baleadas and Mangu - FINALLY! - August 22, 2016

August 22, 2016

 

 

Hey family!! So this week I finally got to eat Baleadas and Mangu, which I've wanted to eat for the last six months! So yay! Baleadas are a Hondurian food with eggs, beans, cheese, meat, and avocado in a really thick tortilla that's eaten kind of like a burrito. Mangu is mashed up plantains with onions. We had it "cuatro golpe" style, which means we had salami, sausage, fried cheese, and egg with it. It was so good! We also had a typical Mexican chicken--just a chicken leg floating in some spicy green stuff, with rice, beans, and tortillas. Oh man, this ward is WAY too good at feeding us! That's probably why I've been sick for the last three weeks.. Haha!

Anyway, this week was way good! We went on a beautiful hike again on Monday, this time with the Sanchez family. Hermano Sanchez is our ward mission leader, and we went with his wife (who is the funniest lady ever) and a few of his kids. It was really awesome! That family is so sweet. We went to their house yesterday as well for that Mexican chicken. Hermana Sanchez is SO funny, but it's so hard because her and Elder Medoza speak Mexican to each other and the rest of us get lost. Even my companion from Venezuela can't always keep up! So I just laugh and pretend I know what's going on :) Hahaha

On Tuesday we went to dinner at the Ramos family home, which was lovely! We had some good steak with some rice and beans and fried plantains (are you noticing this pattern in what I'm eating? Haha). Their house is right on this beautiful lake, so they let us walk around and take some pretty pictures. There was a huge storm that blew in while we were there, though, and it was fun to watch the rain on the lake! We'll hopefully be going back again this Wednesday! 

Wednesday and Friday we go out to Bristol Glenn, this assisted living center, and volunteer. On Wednesday we are in Memory Care, where the people stay that have Alzheimer's dimensia. It was pretty interesting this week.. I was trying to be kind to this lady we were doing a puzzle with, and I reached out to pat her hand, and she reeled back and smacked me! Haha she only smacked my hand away, but her face looked so mad! I felt so bad! But it's okay. She doesn't remember.. :) We had dinner that night with Hermana Lefkaritis, who brought some yummy food to the church for us. She's really sweet and really willing to help with our missionary work! And the chicken, rice, and carmelized bananas were delicioso! 

After all our weekly planning on Thursday, we had an awesome lesson with Walter (a recent convert) and his two friends, Victor and Victor. We taught about the Restoration and it went really well! We were blessed to have Walter there to help us out and to bear testimony. He's so excited to share the gospel with his friends, it's really great. Then we sped-walked while eating watermelon back to the church and had a lesson with Silverio, another friend of a member! He's the one with the lady troubles. But we taught him yesterday (Sunday) again, and he's totally changed! He really wants to learn about the gospel and really loves it. He came to church and he knew a ton of people! He's had a lot of interactions with people from the church, and he feels like God has led him here finally. So that's pretty cool :) 

On Friday at service we played with dolls for a couple hours.. It was so hard. I totally forgot how to play with dolls! But the ladies were nice and we did our best! We also tried coloring, but we couldn't keep their attention very well. Anyway. Interesting times at Bristol Glenn. Then we went to Applebee's to get some wifi to talk to the Vega family over Skype! That was super awesome! Sister Pace and I were on and we talked about how they are and their reading in the Book of Mormon. We read together in 3 Nephi 11 an talked about how to apply that to their lives. Then we taught the Hernandez family! It was definitely different this time. The elders weren't there, and we were more firm about who we are and what we do as missionaries. We tried to make it really clear what our goal was for them. We also found out that Hna Hernandez can't read, so that's going to make it pretty tough.. But we watched the Restoration movie with them, which was really good. It kept their attention long enough and I think they really started to understand! Yay!!

Saturday afternoon we went to a Habitat for Humanity thrift shop and found some service! Woo! We also found some cute little scouts selling popcorn, so we got some really yummy carmel corn :) They were so cute! We took cupcakes to a couple members for their birthday and because their family is moving to the states, and that was pretty fun! We tried to find this guy, Rene, but we didn't have much success.. The guy behind door A said he lived in door B.. And the guy behind door B said he lived in door A... So bummer. That night we went to the church to have some Facebook lessons, and ended up fixing a toilet that was exploding. Haha! And then Sister Yalily came and took us out for baleadas with the elders! You probably saw the picture on facebook, it's so cute :) They were so yummy!!

Sunday was a crazy day. We had two investigators at church, and that was great! They both really enjoyed it and learned a lot. They're so awesome :) That night we went to a couple parties with the elders, and that was way fun! The first was with the Sanchez, and that was a blast. The second was with some member, Hermano De la Cruz, who's grandson turned 15! They're all from the Dominican Republic, so they made Mangu for us, and we had some yummy ice cream cake. But oh man, my stomach still hurts. I actually called Sister Taggart (our temporary mission nurse) about it yesterday, because I haven't felt super well in a few weeks. So we'll see what we can figure out about that.. But for now I'll just drink a ton of water and pray for the best!

This week was a little crazy, but it was so awesome! Time flies when you're having fun, and we definitely are :) This area is amazing and I love it so much! I'm doing better at letting go of my imperfections and weaknesses as a missionary and trying to look outward to the people I'm here to love and serve. The Lord has blessed us so much, and I know that as we continue being obedient and working hard, we'll be able to progress with the investigators we have and find new ones that are prepared! 

Love you with all my heart! 

Hermana Millington

 

There Goes Six Months! - August 15, 2012

Remembering her heritage
Once a spud - always a spud
August 2016

August 2016

HOLY COW. So that's super weird. I'm a third of my way through! GAH!   I had a minor melt-down about that the other day and how much I feel like I've accomplished in my areas, but I know that whether or not people around me are changing a ton and becoming more converted because of what I've done, I've definitely changed a lot. And I'm so thankful that I still have another year out here, I know I have a lot more changing to do! And there's someone out here who's life I can bless, I'm sure of it :) 

 

Anyway, this week was kind of weird! We had some weird lessons and some awkward service activities. And we went to go contacting at the train station again the other morning, but we got there and kind of felt weird. So we prayed about it, and it just didn't feel right. And I'm not sure exactly why that happened like that, but it was good to know that the Lord is aware of us and will communicate to us what we need to (or need to not) do. 

We had a pretty funny first lesson with a referral this week named Silverio. We were super excited to meet him, we'd actually already been sending him daily scriptures (a suggestion from his member friend, Jacobo)! So we went to the chapel and he met us there. We sat down to talk to him, and we tried to get to know him a little bit. He said he wanted to meet with us because he heard we could help him.. So we asked what his situation was, and we spent the next twenty minutes hearing about his woman problems with his long-distance-girlfriend. We had no idea what to say!! And he finished telling us, and Sister Troconis just looked over at me and I knew I had to take it. And I  might have been a little bit too bold, but I was just like "ummm what we do as missionaries is bring people to Christ... And we teach them about His gospel... And I know this message could bless your life and help make your burdens light.. But we aren't really sure how to help you with your girlfriend... " Hahaha it was so weird. But then we really got talking and helped him see that our message really will bless him and help him, even though we can't really counsel him on his woman problems. But anyway, he's a nice guy and we're looking forward to really being able to teach him. 

On Thursday, we had a cool experience with technology! woo! We got to call the Vega family over Facebook with Sister Pace and Sister Jenkins (their other missionaries)! That was way crazy! But they sound like they're doing really well, and they're totally still reading the Book of Mormon! We were so happy to hear it :) So we'll see what happens with that situation, but I think we'll try to stay in  contact with them and hopefully be able to teach them a little more with Sister Pace! I just love that family. I also talked with Maria (of Maria and Antonio) on the phone for a minute, and that was really sweet! She didn't know who I was for a second.. But then she figured it out and was so happy to talk with me! It was so darling :) She told me all about her surprise birthday party and how they're going to Puerto Rico this month. I love those guys. 

On Friday we went to Bristol Glenn, this assisted living place, to start doing some service! But we didn't know the Sparta English Sisters served there, too, so we ended up in the same place at the same time! But we spent a couple hours doing some puzzles with some sweet old ladies. We were in Memory Care, where all the patients have Alzheimer's-Dimensia, so that was pretty funny. The ladies were super nice, though, and it was great! :) 

On Sunday we finally did our musical! I don't know if I've talked a lot about that.. But apparently Sister Troconis dad, when he was on his mission in Venezuela, kind of wrote a little musical thing that the missionaries did down there and had a TON of success! It has like a letter from Heavenly Father, a story about a boy's brother who died to save his life, and a lot of songs. So we did that for an FHE with the ward, and it was great! I pretty much sat at the piano and sang a little bit, and it was fun! We had a pretty good turnout, and some pretty yummy cookies. And everyone who came was super sweet and appreciative about it! So we're glad it went so well! We practiced for it a ton with the elders, and that was fun, too. Our elders are so funny. Elder Mendoza is from Mexico and he's our district leader, and his trainee, Elder Aybar, is from the DR! They are super funny together. We went on a super beautiful hike last week for p-day, and we're going on another one again today! And Sister Troconis and I got some rockin men's basketball shorts from WalMart so we don't totally die in the heat. It should be good :) 

Anyways, things are great! This area is definitely putting us to work, and we love it! We're doing our best and having a good time :)

I love you!

Hermana Millington 

When the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days... - August 8, 2016

At Ellis Island
August 5, 2016

Ellis Island
August 5, 2016

Hola family!!

This week was super crazy! We had so many meetings and trainings and things, we didn't have a ton of time to actually proselyte! But we did some good work for sure :) 

On Tuesday we started the day nice and early and went out to contact at 8am. We went to the train station a couple minutes away and found a ton of hispanic guys standing around waiting to find work for the day! In total, we taught 7 lessons and got a few new investigators! It was so awesome! Sister Troconis is such a rock star. It was an amazing way to start the day! By noon we'd already done a ton of work! It really motivated us to keep working hard and doing awesome the rest of the day. And it was pretty intimidating because most of them were all standing around in groups, but we put on our big kid skirts and got to work! It was cool to be able to be out and about and meet so many people in just a couple hours. We also almost died today because of some crazy driver... But the Lord surely takes care of his missionaries :) We also met with a less-active guy from CHILE!! Woo!!! So that was cool :) Chilean spanish is really pretty, so I've heard! We also got a personal concert by some guy in his apartment belting Josh Groban.. Hahaha it was so funny. We were trying some other less-active and we were walking past a pond with some geese, and we heard him jamming out. Throughout the song he switched off from vocals to trumped to keyboard.. It was pretty epic.

 

On Wednesday we had interviews with President Taggart! That was pretty good! I love President and Sister Taggart. They are so loving. We had a couple lessons with some new investigators--Cornelio and Juan--that went pretty well! We're doing a lot of teaching the Restoration! And man, Sister Troconis is such an awesome teacher. And we're getting our flow down and our comp unity totally figured out! It's great! We did a little table stand with the elders in downtown Dover for about half an hour, but there weren't a lot of people out. But that was pretty interesting and new! I'm having lots of fun getting outside my comfort zone! 

On Thursday we had a TON of training. We went over to Morristown and had some 3-hour training from the Taggarts' neighbor, Dennis, that was cool! He goes around and trains people all over the world on business communication. So we talked a lot about non-verbal communication and about reflective listening. Then we had a lovely lunch, and then another 3 hour training, but this time on Facebook! We talked a lot about different ways to find and stay in touch with people over Facebook. It was a pretty crazy discussion, all 200 of us were just blurting out ideas pretty much, but it was helpful nonetheless. And THEN we came home and had our first Facebook lesson! It was so weird. But our investigator said he couldn't leave his house, so we found him on FB and had a whole lesson over chat! We taught about the Book of Mormon and it all went really well! And then for the closing prayer, we recorded it and sent it. And he messaged back "amen, hermanas." Haha it was so crazy! Missionary work is definitely changing here in New Jersey. And ALSO! I got permission from President Taggart to start teaching Katherine Barber over Facebook!! Isn't that so crazy?! She's living in Utah now, but she told me she wanted to maybe meet with missionaries there, but wasn't sure.. So I messaged her on Facebook and we've started teaching her! I'll write more about that in a little bit :) But we did get some sad news on Thursday. Jesse Vega of the beloved Vega family in Lakewood messaged Sister Pace and I and said they've decided not to meet with the missionaries anymore. They said they don't really connect with the new sisters and don't want to be pushed into something they aren't ready for. So that was a super bummer. But Sister Pace and I talked about it with President and we've decided we'll try to keep teaching them and helping them over Facebook! They love the gospel and they want to keep learning and reading, so we'll do our best with that. It's so crazy--the whole world is our mission now! 

On Friday we went all the way over to Ellis Island and did service there! That was SO awesome. We took a bunch of pictures before and after. It was my first time serving, so I had to get trained a little bit on the program. But they have a little family history place there where people can pay for some time to search for their ancestors in the Ellis Island records. They can find the ship's manifest, pictures of the ships, and passenger information for their families. There's such a cool spirit there. It was really cool to help people find their grandparents and family members and see a whole bunch of information about who they were and what their lives were like when they came to America. The Spirit of Elijah is so real! And it was cool to talk to a couple people about what we're doing there and why we have black nametags in Spanish on :) The traffic coming home was CRAZY, but we eventually made it back! Then we went to a lesson with the Elders to the Hernandez home. I love that little family. We taught the Plan of Salvation, but we only made it about half-way through before we got way side-tracted. But long-story-short, the elders gave their home and Sister Hernandez a blessing, and that was lovely! And of course, she fed us some tacos before we left :) We were pretty late getting home because the elder who was driving got pulled over.. Haha but the cop was super nice, it was just our tail-light :) It's so interesting to go on drives with the Elders, one is from DR and the other is from Mexico. So in the car, we usually all talk in Spanish! Oh man, I'm learning SO MUCH. It's so awesome. I'll have Spanish as good as Seth's someday ;) 

On Saturday we did a TON of weekly planning, but it was good! We had to get it done at some point. We also had a lesson with Katherine! We set up the Facebook video chat and talked to her for about 20 minutes. She's in a similar boat than Sister Troconis, and they totally connected. It was way awesome. I just stinkin love that girl. All this technology makes the world so much smaller! But yeah, it all went really well! And then, at like 8:50, we realized we had no gas in our car for tomorrow.. So we ran to the gas station without shoes on. And in New Jersey, they have people pump your gas for you, so we thought we would be okay! But Sister Troconis needed cash for fast offerings.. haha so we walked into this tiny conveince store (literally all they had was soda and chips) and bought some chips. And the guy was all "do you have sandals on?" And I was like "ummmm nooo..." And he was like "hmm. Well be sure to wash your feet, we just painted the floor." And so I said "yeah, of course!"... but I didn't wash my feet. #rebel. 

Sunday was AWESOME. GUESS WHO CAME TO CHURCH. HERMANO HERNANDEZ!! It was crazy! We totally weren't expecting him to come!! It was so awesome. And his daughter, Alexa (10 years old) came too, and she totally loved it! We also had a bunch of recent converts and less-actives at church, so it was way fun! And the pianist was out of town, so I played. And then the primary president stopped me and said they needed me to play in primary. But the chorister didn't think she had a good voice, so I had to sing to the kids. And play. This song I'd never heard before. hahaha it was pretty interesting! But it was in English, at least :) But I was so happy to serve and help! After church we went to Bishop Haro's house for dinner again, and that was awesome. We told them all about Facebook and it totally blew their mind! They have a daughter who's 18 and a son who's like 15 and they're so kind. Then we had a lesson with an investigator at the church that went super well! All in all, it was a really great day.

So anyway, this week has been super awesome! I've found myself feeling pretty weak, but I know the Lord is aware and He's here to help. This area, companion, and everything are such an amazing opportunity for me to learn and grow. The Lord surely loves me! I feel his love every day as we focus on all the little miracles that happen. I'm working harder than ever and I'm so happy :) 

I love you SO MUCH! I think about you and pray for you all the time :)

Hermana Millington

Wecome to Dover--EAT ALL THE FOOD - August 1, 2016





 

 

Holy cow, guys. This is crazy over here.

So we showed up in Dover on Tuesday, and we have the loveliest apartment! It's actually the bottom floor of a house, and the landlord lives upstairs. They are super nice and quiet and they gave us their wifi password! Woo! But the house is way nice and big and beautiful and clean. But we only had a few things of Ramen, some water bottles, some beans, and some cereal when we got here.. Haha so we went shopping for some food and unpacked. We met with the elders that night and got the low-down on the area. There are about 5 new investigators the sisters had, so we'll be picking those up, but that's it. We're starting pretty much from scratch! So this week has been super interesting and a little tough, to be honest. I just don't know what I'm doing at all. It's a little overwhelming and stressful and I just feel super inadequate.. But I know that this is where the Lord needs me. There's things I need to learn from the people and Sister Troconis, and there's someone here somewhere that needs me too!! 



Sis. Troconis "hammering" in nail
 

Also, Sister Troconis is AWESOME. She's from Venezuela, but she lived in Utah for about a year and a half before her mission, so her english is way good. But it's kind of funny, she's still learning english so she wants to talk in english all the time.. But I'd rather we talked in spanish all the time because that's what I'm learning.. But either way, she's helping me a ton! She's way good with the people, and she's a very experienced missionary. And this isn't her first time opening an area, so she knows a little about what she's doing! Anyway, she's super awesome. She's beautiful and so smart and so committed and so diligent. I'm lucky to have her as my companion here. 

We had a pretty crazy lesson with a new family this week, the Hernandez. The elders have been teaching them, but they're in our area, so we'll be taking over. But they came with us for a hand-off lesson, and they'll keep coming a few times I think. Hno Hernandez really likes them. Anyway, we taught about prophets and dispensations and things, but it got pretty off-rails. But Hna told us that she was going through a really difficult time right now. So we all knelt in prayer together to invite the Spirit to be with us more so we could know what we could to for her, and that was cool. After that, she was crying and expressing how she felt like God was with her. She said she'd prayed that morning and she'd felt God tell her that she would receive the answer and the help she was looking for. She totally felt the Spirit, and knew that what we were saying was that answer. She was pretty emotional, so we made sure to give lots of hugs after the lesson (after she'd made us hamburgers haha). So I'm excited to go back and see that family and see what can come of it! 

We got to know the area boundaries a little bit, but that was kind of tough.. So I'm in the Dover Ward, and our area goes all the way to the top of New Jersey! So I went from the southern-most, to the northern-most parts of the mission. And this is the biggest area! But there are most hispanics in a couple towns pretty close to us, so that's nice. We spent a lot of time trying to find people and meet with them, and we met some really awesome people! A couple investigators and a ton of members. We made lots of plans for finding (doing a table stand on the street, inviting to musical FHE things, etc.) that I'm really excited about. Our ward mission leader, Hermano Sanchez, is super awesome and I'm excited to work more with him! He gave us a whole list of people to see. 

Last night was rough. Oh man. We came home from church and got our Facebooks up (!!!!!), and then we spent the rest of the night eating dinner. Literally. Three back-to-back dinner appointments. From the Bishop to the RS President, to the Ward Mission Leader. And these lovely hispanic people, they just LOVE to pump us full of food. We came home and literally just laid on the ground for about twenty minutes. We couldn't do anything. Hahahaha! It was way rough. So I ate some yummy peruvian chicken and ice cream, the biggest steak of my life (8,000 pounds), and lots of rice and tortillas. On our way to the third dinner we felt like we were driving to our deaths. But we survived!! I still haven't really eaten anything today, and I probably won't until our dinner appointment tonight!!

Church yesterday was awesome! It was pretty overwhelming to try to meet everyone and know their names and everything. The ward here was probably 70-80 people yesterday, which seems like a ton to me! I'm used to like 25! But there's a lot of families with kids and youth, so that's pretty fun! Way different! Everyone was really happy to have us there, and they seem really loving and really organized. There are a few ward missionaries that I've heard are really helpful with the work. So we're excited to actually have people to teach so they can help us! 

Anyway, this week hasn't been super easy, but it's been super awesome. And we're excited to keep hitting it hard this coming week! We'll be visiting less-actives and finding like crazy! I just love being a missionary :)

Also FACEBOOK! So I have that now. CRAZY. I've gone through and made some things private and done what I have to, so now I can start using it as Hermana Millington! I'm friends with some missionaries now, and some people from my last area. That Margarita Lopez lady? She's the Maria of Maria and Antonio. They are so dang sweet. I went and said goodbye to them and to the Vegas on Monday night and we all totally cried. I love those families. Anyway, I'll be able to keep in touch with them better now! So we'll start adding all the members and investigators (when we have some) and everything, and that'll be super awesome. We can have group chat lessons and video calls when people can't make it to appointments or when they don't have a lot of time. We'll be able to have daily contact with our people better, and see what's going on in their lives. We'll be able to reach a lot more people through the posts we make and encouraging members to post and message their friends. There are a lot of people these days that feel a lot more comfortable expressing themselves on facebook chat (isn't that sad? But so true), so that'll make it easier to connect with people, too. It'll take a lot of training and some discipline, but I'm excited about it. As a mission, I think this will really help us. So you'll be able to see things I post and what-not! And if you spoke Spanish, you could even help in some teaching situations! Maybe Seth can in a little bit, he needs to download duolingo ;) But yeah! I'm online!

ALSO I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT SETH'S MISSION CALL!!! I've told practically everyone. I need to find someone from Chile and ask them about it.. But Sister Troconis said it's awesome down there!! Definitely a different place than Boise, Idaho. And his spanish will probably end up better than mine. Haha but it'll be SO FUN to be able to talk in Spanish together for the rest of forever :) Thank you for sending the updates and pictures and everything!! I totally flipped out when it all came in . You guys are the BEST! 

I love you with all my heart!!

Hermana Millington

Transfers Round 3 - July 25, 2016

With Maria at Philadelphia Temple open house
7-24-2016

Norma
7-21-2016



So here's the news, folks:

I'M LEAVING TOM'S RIVER. AAAAAAH I am so sad :( but I am so excited
for the adventure before me! I'm going up to Dover, which is the
largest area in the mission! It's where my MTC companion, Sister
Davis, served for two transfers. And it's actually been closed to
hermanas for the last transfer, so there's no food or anything in the
apartment. So...that'll be fun! But I've heard there are lots of
Hispanics, and lots of Hondurians! I am so excited! And my companion
will be Sister Troconis! She's a native Spanish speaker (I don't
remember where she's from), but she was actually called to serve in
English! So I never thought she would be my companion! But I've met
her a few times, and she is SO cute. I think we're going to get along
really well:) and my Spanish is totally going to improve! Yay! Spanish
all the time!

So anyway. Crazy. I never thought i would actually leave! I never
wanted to! And I only got one transfer with Sister Smith! But this
transfer was just so good. It'll go down in history as the dream
transfer for sure. We had so much fun and I learned so much.
So today I'll be packing and saying goodbye! Plus we have a zone
activity this afternoon, so we're in a little bit of a time crunch.
But it's okay! Well get it all done and all figured out! But yeah, so
I don't have a ton of time to write. But I got a feeling at the
beginning of this week that was like "treat this week like it's your
last," so I've been trying to work extra hard :) I'm so glad I did! So
a lot happened this week, but I just wanted to write about one
experience we had Saturday night.

So Saturday was my last day of real work here in T-Riv. We worked
really hard and saw lots of people! We were taken out to lunch and
dinner, actually, which was super sweet and really kind of our little
members. I love this branch so much. Anyway, after a really sketchy
Philippino dinner with a less-active, we went to see Manuel and
Yolanda Hernandez.  They are the humble little family we've been
seeing Saturday nights. So this time we taught about faith and
repentance, and that went really well! And as we left, they gave us
two bananas each. Oh man. I wish they would stop giving us stuff. They
don't have anything to give! Anyway, they are just too good to us. And
then, as we were walking out, Hermana Laura was in the kitchen. We
stopped to hug her, and without saying anything she handed us a loaf
of challah (some kind of Jew sabbath bread). Please stop giving us
things! Anyway, sister Smith and I walked out, and we're feeling
pretty humbled and so loved by these people. Then we drove to another
appointment that ended up falling through, but the sky was so pretty
we didn't even care. We just drove and reveled in the beauty of
everything. We were listening to pretty music and thinking about how
crazy it was how much love these people have. It was actually super
overwhelming. As I was driving, we were passing a bunch of houses, and
the thought that came to me was that Heavenly Father loves every
single person in every single house we were passing. Jesus Christ died
for them. And they might not even know it! So that's why I'm here.
They don't know about the joy, peace, and fulfillment that comes from
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I was so filled with love for these people
that I've never even met! I just want to go tell all of them about
Christ and His love!! Long-story-short, we ended up sitting in the car
at our apartment complex and just crying for about half an hour. We
were just totally overwhelmed with the love of these people and of our
Heavenly Father.mAnyway, we sat in the car and talked about how I
always say I'm from Idaho but my heart is from Mexico, but how that's
totally not true. Hispanics have the purest, kindest hearts. It's my
life goal to have the heart of a Hispanic. They are the most
hard-working and the most giving people I've ever known. On Friday we
were walking the streets inviting people to our English class, and we
stopped and talked to a lady with a couple little girls. One was about
four years old, and she was eating sunflower seeds. Without any
prompting or anything, she reached her little hand out to us with two
tiny sunflower seeds in it. She smiled up at us and we each took one
seed and ate it. She looked so pleased to be giving what she had. I'm
getting fed so much which is totally bad, but it's so wonderful. These
people are just so full of love and they want to give all they can.
Most of them don't have a lot, but they give anyway.
So i decided that the members here don't need us at all. But I learned
that I needed them way more than I ever realized. I'm so thankful to
be here on this mission, meeting these people and having these
experiences. Heavenly Father is so good to me. And He knows how great
it's going to be in my next area! I just have to trust Him :)

Fish Pasta - July 18, 2016

This is Juana
7-18-2016

Hey family! This week was SWEET! So many little miracles, it was so great :)

On Tuesday we had an AWESOME lesson with a less-active, Gerardo. He's
living in a boat right now so we went to see him and had chips and dip
and coconut cake on his boat! Don't worry, we didn't go anywhere :) but
it was awesome! So many beautiful boats. Dad would have died. We also
drove past a place called Hammet gardening service, so that was sweet.
We also saw Judith down south, whom we hadn't seen in a really
long time. That was sweet! She's such a nice lady. We had our English
class, and we had fourteen people there!! It was so fun. Sister Smith
is so funny. We taught about families, and she kept cracking jokes
about how her husband is Enrique Iglesias. Hahahaha they probably
think we are SO DUMB.

Wednesday was pretty good! We helped Norma pack her car with some
stuff to sell at the flea market. We went to her storage unit, and she
has SO MUCH STUFF. Literally 40 suitcases of clothes, hundreds of
pairs of shoes, so many cups and plates, it's insane. We also went to
see another lonely old woman, Ana, who is super sweet. Then we went to People's
Pantry to serve.

Thursday we had zone conference, which was just lovely! We learned
we're getting FACEBOOK on July 29th! Crazy, right?! I have so many
mixed feelings about it. It'll be really interesting. But I think
it'll be really good for the English program especially, they'll have
a better front for talking to people as opposed to knocking doors.
Anyway, we also went on exchange Thursday, and Sister McAllister came
down to T-Riv with me. We went to Maria & Antonios and they fed us
Puerto Rican food! Oh man, it was so good! I love those guys :) we
talked a lot about potatoes. Maria and I talked about our
favorite kinds of potatoes and everything! It was funny!

On Friday we had breakfast with the Bolaños, then lunch with Hermana
Laura. And oh man. She made this pasta. I know she made it with all
her heart. She is so kind. But she didn't have enough beef, so she put
fish in it. Fish. In the pasta. With the red sauce. What. Oh man. This
was the first time I had to drink so much juice to swallow my food
totally whole. It was so bad. I know she made it with love! But it was
rough. Hahahaha oh heavens. But Sister Smith and I learned just how
great we have it down here :) we had an AWESOME lesson with a guy
named Gabriel this evening! He had totally read from the Book of
Mormon, and he had good questions! We taught the whole restoration,
asking good questions and everything, and he took it all really well!
The Spirit was with us SO strong. We were praying really hard before
we went in for the Spirit to guide the lesson, and it totally
happened. We walked out to our car and just prayed and thanked
Heavenly Father for how awesome that lesson was. So we're hoping we
can keep seeing Gabriel and working with him!

On Saturday at our English class, Sister Smith totally came out of her
shell. She was cracking so many jokes, but they only got like 50% of
them. I was laughing pretty hard, though! We went to Juana
Carrasco's house for lunch (she's a solid member), and had some
Peruvian rice and chicken and potatoes. And her niece is visiting from
Peru, and brought a whole bunch of handmade stuff to sell here. So
Smith bought some earrings, and I bought a sweet llama keychain! We
named it Juana, and she hangs in our car :) I'll send a picture! We
also went to the Vegas, and that was good. Things are still crazy in
their house, but we have faith things will fall together! And we had
some helote, this yummy Mexican corn thing. They are too sweet. And it
was raining SO HARD! My shoes were FULL of water! The streets of
Lakewood had rivers flowing through them! So crazy! Then we saw
Manuel and Yolanda again, and that was good. But it was kind of tough,
their two young daughters were pretending to make us food the whole
time! So as we were teaching he plan of salvation, we were
pretending to eat eggs and apple juice on little plastic plates.

Sunday was great! Lots of little miracles :) Yolanda was at church, we
finally found Ramon, and we found someone to take us and Maria &
Antonio to the Philadelphia temple next Sunday!!! We are SO excited!
It's going to be so beautiful and so awesome :) then we saw Rafael and
his family, and ended up with Popsicles, mangoes, and watermelon. Haha
it was great! They are too good to us. We taught them about the Plan
of Salvation, too, and they took it well! They're really sweet. And we
have good members fellowshipping them, so that makes our job a little
easier!

This is a lesson I learned this week:
I've had an interesting experience throughout this last week. There's
a family in our ward, the Hernandez family, that joined the church in
December. We went to see them one evening and it was humbling. They
live in a little house on Lucy street with another family in the ward,
the Velascos. The Velascos have just one son living with them, whose
name is Oscar. Oscar is in his thirties, but acts like he's five--he
has severe autism and he's really crazy, and not very kind. But the
Hernandez family has just one little room in the back of this house
for the mom, dad, and two daughters who are both developing little
mental disabilities as well. All they own is in this little, messy
room. But as we left, they insisted on giving us bananas and mangoes.
We couldn't believe they would be so generous when they really have
nothing to give! But they are so kind and sweet. We could feel their
love for the Lord and His word and each other while we were there.
We also have a woman in our ward named Norma. She doesn't come to
church, but she loves the missionaries! She lives all by herself in an
apartment and is pretty lonely. She has some health troubles right
now, so we do what we can to help her and be with her. But she has
closets and storage units full of hundreds of suit jackets, shoes,
pants, everything! And she wants to give it all away, but she doesn't
want to give it to the people of the church because she thinks they
won't appreciate it. She is very giving and charitable, but she's so
bitter about so many things, especially the church. And she tells us
all the time, "don't hold on to things. They don't do you any good.
Things don't matter." And it's so true! She has so much stuff, but she
doesn't have any family around or any love from friends, really.
Anyway, it was just an interesting contrast. It really doesn't matter
what we have in this life, it matters who we have. Our family and
friends and their love are what's most important. Our relationship
with them, our relationship to God, and our knowledge and experiences
are all well take with us into the next life!

All in all, it was a good week:) life just keeps moving on! Sister
Smith and I are making more of an effort to be totally completely
obedient to everything, and we've seen such a different in the
presence of the Spirit in our work. We're understanding the scriptures
better and finding more joy in reading, relying on the Lord to guide
our teaching, and having a lot more unity in lessons. I'm so blessed
to be here and be with her! This work is the most important in all the
world and I'm blessed to be a part of it :)

I love you and pray for you all the time! I know Heavenly Father
loves me because He gave me you :) thank you for all your love and
support. I am unbelievably blessed :)

Con Amor,
Hermana Millington

"Murica" - July 4, 2016

4th of July with Sister Smith



Hola family! Happy Fourth of July!! Tonight our curfew got extended by President Taggart, so we're going to see some fireworks on Point Pleasant Beach with the Bolaños family! We are so excited :) but this week has been so crazy! We started the week with a TON of appointments scheduled, but very few of them actually happened. Haha but it's alright! The best stories always come from contacting anyway :) so this is what went down!

On Monday, WE PUT THE VEGA FAMILY ON BAPTISMAL DATE. Aaaaaah!!! Finally! And if they don't make the date I'll be super sad, but they understand that they need to be baptized and they want to be! So that's good news :) we also got some free mango Popsicles (frozen mango juice in a little tied plastic bag) from some lady's trunk that we taught about the Book of Mormon.

Tuesday was awesome! We got a spontaneous appointment with Brenda, which went way well. She dropped us. But it was actually awesome, now we know! And we have more time to spend finding the prepared! We went downtown Lakewood for dinner, at a little restaurant called La Tapatia. As we were walking in, Libro de Mormon in hand, we walked past three policemen on their bikes. I heard one of them say something about "Mormon" and I whipped around and was like "you've heard of the Book of Mormon??" Anyway, long story short, we taught the three policemen the whole restoration there on the sidewalk! One had seen the musical, so he knew a little about the Book of Mormon. We gave him one and invited them to read! They were super nice! Smith was bearing down in pure testimony (she was so bold, it was so awesome), and one of them was like "okay, but like how do you know? Who told you?" And she was like "I know because I've read it and prayed about it and God told me it's true." So bold! So clear! And we ended up seeing a couple of them a couple days later and they were super nice! They hadn't read (haha), but they were way cool! So were tight with the Lakewood police now :) and in La Tapatia, they had some TVs playing crazy Spanish soaps and we were dying. So much drama. Hahaha so we decided after the mission when we hang out were just going to eat chips and salsa and laugh at Spanish soaps! We also broke an important barrier. We were in CVS and we got a Jew to talk to us!! First time. She told us about how she got her cute necklace at TJ Max:)  it was awesome!!

Wednesday we met so many people! It was way good! We were going to set up a booth on the beach with the other missionaries, so we went over there, by the police told us we couldn't :( but we stood across the street from this sketchy motel and watched these crazy college kids that were a little bit under the influence.. Haha but as we were walking back to our car, the manager of the motel stopped us and asked what we were selling! We stopped and talked for a little while, and he was way cool! His name was Shipon and he was from Bangledesh! He's Muslim, so we talked for a second about his beliefs and told him some of ours. We didn't have any English Book of Mormons with us at the time, so next time we're by the shore we'll bring him one :) then we went to People's Pantry and served there for a while, helping this guy named Matt shelves of bread and tuna and whatnot. Then we went to Clifton and went crazy about our English Class! And we met this guy named Fernando with a beard like that guy from the Hunger Games. So rad. I also met a Columbian guy who told me a Spanish joke! Haha! Then we had dinner at the Esteban's, and it was just regular chicken this time:) 

On Thursday we went to Norma's in the morning and got all kinds of advice about marriage and children and everything. She is too great (: then we went to the Geschwandtner house and talked with them for a while! He's the 2nd counselor in the branch presidency but his wife is way Catholic. They fed us cupcakes and talked about their grandkids forEVER. That night we were at the Rec Center for our ESL class and there was some boxing thing happening in the main room. After they finished and the coach guy was cleaning up, he talked to us about how he coaches these pros and how this one famous boxer is going to "our country"... And then he started talking about how can never get "our kids" to come box with them.. And then he was like "but there are famous Jewish boxers, so I don't know why you're kids won't come out!" Haha then it all came together. We aren't Jewish, sir. 

Friday was good! Best part: Smith was making me a smoothie for lunch and she hadn't made many smoothies before.. So she thought it would be a good idea to stick a fork in the blender while it was on. Long story short, there was purple all over her sweatshirt and inside the open cabinet above it. Hahaha! I didn't think it was very funny at the time.. But looking back it's pretty hilarious (: I also caught a lightning bug! That was cute (: 

Saturday we did SO MUCH CONTACTING again! It was awesome. We spent a little over an hour on Clifton just walking up and down one street and we got like 16 phone numbers of people to text about the English class to remind them about it! Super awesome! We met some way interesting people, including two Maria Sachez's and four people with the last name Flores. We also taught two men who opened their door and were shirtless for the whole thing. Cool. We also stopped in to see a less-active who literally peed his pants while we were on the doorstep. And he didn't flinch. What. No jk. Hahahaha 

Sunday. Oh man. So we had church and it was all good. And then we went out to Brick to try to find a couple people. We were going to go back to Lakewood, but then we remembered that the bishop of the English ward had asked us to stop in on a family there on Brick. I guess their records had been in a Spanish branch before and the other missionaries hadn't been able to get a hold of them? We went and stopped by and oh man. The Lord blessed us. We knocked on the door, and Joanne Olszewski opened the door and sat us right down on the couch. She started telling us her whole life story! Also, they didn't speak spanish at all. And we didn't tell them we were Spanish missionaries.. But our name tags clearly said "Hermana" soooo.. Anyway, we were talking about the children their family had lost and how hard it was, and her husband walks in and is all "hey sisters, I just made some steak! Do you want some?" Soooo, we had a steak dinner with them! And wow. There was not one second of silence the whole time. They just talked and talked and talked. It was the funniest thing EVER. Their uncle Larry was missing teeth and called us the "sis-tors" from "Ee-da-hoo" and "oo-taah". Hahaha oh man. I literally had to stop myself from laughing so many times. And we tried to share a scripture with them about trials and hope and everything, and Larry kept interrupting with "mmhmmm, uh-huh, amen sister. Amen." STOP TALKING LARRY. And at one point there were three separate conversations happening amongst the six of us at that table. And Joanne just kept telling me about how she's teaching her autistic grandson and how he's learning and his dad is such a good father and everything. Anyway, we ended up leaving a while later with an entire watermelon. Not cut or anything. Just a watermelon. Too good. They still don't know we're the Spanish missionaries.. But how could we tell them?! They gave us steak!! And they were so nice (: I don't know why they don't come to church.. But well send the English sisters back (: anyway, tender mercy for sure. It was awesome. 

 

I love you! God bless America! (: 

Hermana Millington