Week 2 Still Doing Great

Well its so great here in Chile and I am LOVING IT!!! Seriously I'm so blessed to have my awesome district and hermanas and just everything.  ITS just the best. 

So thursday I went to the temple in Chile and holy cow it doesn't look super pretty on the outside but its really really pretty on the inside.  I just walked in and felt so much peace.  It was awesome to see all of these people in the CCM that I've become such good friends with in the Celestial Room.  The Latinas left today. I cried so much.  i'm going to miss them!! I feel like I've known them for years and even though we couldn't say much to each other we had great talks about pololos *Chilean for Boyfriend haha* and the gospel, and just everything through broken english and spanish.  I really love the latinas and I'm going to miss the girls soooooo much.  Especially my roomies Hmna Benitez and Perez!! I'll try to get some pics on here if I have time!!

Will you send me some pics of the whole family? I won't be able to print them off yet but I'd love some!!

Or send them printed off in a letter or package would be better!!!

We had an amazingly spiritual lesson about the doctrine of Christ and the power of a missionary.  We each took turns to ask our teacher to commit to baptism and feel the power of the spirit come as you promise blessings.  SO AMAZING. I just sat there and cried as I watched a bunch of my bestest friends use the power of God that they have with them as His missionaries.  It was pretty amazing.

I had a very humbling day this week where I did a TERRIBLE job. Me and my companion just didn't flow well and it was BAD.  Then our other teacher got really upset with us for not focusing well enough during TRC time.  We have 3 or 4 hours where our teacher leaves to be the fake investigator and we each have an assigned time to teach her, we dont do well at focusing for that long after teaching and at the end of the day. Its hard but we are trying to do better!!

I had a better lesson with the same investigator later though. I didn't really understand all of the words he said, but I just kinda somehow got the gist of his ramblings and I just felt the spirit basically yelling TESTIFY! so I did.  I couldn't say much but I just said what I knew and said it with all my heart and all the power I could and the spirit just rushed in the room and it was great.  I learned that I really can't rely on myself, I need to silence my mind and allow the spirit to enter.

Pray for me for patience and focus ok? Its like 14 hours of classes and its soooo hard to focus at the end!!

I also spent some money, the electronics don't really work with the adapter so I bought a new straightener and curling iron and some other things... and maybe a little bit of chilean candy hahaha

Agh I don't have much more time and there is SOOOOO MUCH I want to say!!

This week if you get the time will you try to find Elder Hollands MTC address from Jan 11, 2011? If you find it on you tube or something you should watch it because it is AWESOME and it just completely changed my whole perspective, I've left my net and I've been called to feel His sheep, and He has asked me to do it FOREVER.  If you love God he expects you to serve FOREVER. Agh its so great, just look it up and watch it.  Its long but SO WORTH IT!!

Love you all!!

Hermana Millett

ps the one with jamba is me with the first hermana I met after going through security, and my roomies, my comp is the blond one, and me and hermana matching

Kyrstin's 2nd Letter from the Chile MTC

Oh my goodness its been a week!! It honestly feels like it has been 3 million years.  I dont know how that works but yeah it feels like its been forever.  No way its only been a week.  Wierd.

Well I'm suuuper happy and having THE BEST TIME EVER.  Like it is so so so so fun.  And really spiritual too.  Finally we have a schedule going but its still not the same or as rigid on the schedule as I think Provo is. 

Ok.... so there is soooooo much to say and not much time and I just have no Idea how to organize it so its just going to be a bunch of random stuff and I'm sorry I can't make it more organized!!

First, the food. Uhhhh its wierd but its good! For breakfast we have pan and manjar, basically bread and dulce de leche, but in Chile dulce de leche is called manjar.  For those of you that don't speak spanish it sounds like manhar.  Its soooo good.  We also have cereal with yogurt not milk.  Its actually really really good! For lunch and dinner we have more pan, loooooots of bread and we choose like a base and a meat type of thing.  So there is an assortment of rice, lentils, potatos made from potato pearls, pasta, or soup and you choose some type of meat in sauce or whatever to eat with it.  I'm getting creative with my food but its actually pretty great! The salad.... is kinda no bueno but its ok.  I really miss lettuce, instead its like chopped celery and peas, or diced beets and corn or something as the base of your salad and the salad dressings are mayo, oil, or lemon juice.  Sooooo I'm getting creative hahaha. Oh and its not just oatmeal pudding now.  There are LOTS of wierd puddings and gelatins.  Every day is a new adventure because you never know what you are going to get! Like I think they just grab stuff and put gelatin in it. Like handsoap, and gogurt, and oatmeal, and WIERD STUFF.  I think I liked one or two of them ok but we have two every day one for lunch and one for dinner and you just never know what you are going to get.... WIERD

But I haven't been as picky with the food and I'm not sick of it!! I may get fat from all the carbs but its good!!

Next, My companion!!! Her name is Hermana Lofgreen she is from northern Arizona and she is soooo great!! She is very obedient, hard working, and she helps me lots with spanish because although we both struggle she speaks italian so she can understand more. We flew over with like 16 ish people and 6 of the elders and 3 of the other hermanas are in my district.  I LOVE MY DISTRICT.  Seriously its like I've known these people my whole life and its only been one week.  \

So While we have been here they have put almost all their focus on adjusting your teaching to meet the needs of the investigators.  So dad I think I could give a really good talk on that now.  Its amazing how much they focus on finding the need.  I almost feel like our pracitce lessons are like detective work trying to uncover the mystery... but its good to focus so much on the person, its just hard when I ask them a question and don't understand a thing they say in response.... But I'm slowly getting better.  I have to remind myself that although it feels like its been a year this is only week 1 haha.

Sooo for those of you wondering about my carry on, welcome to miracle uno of my mission.  We were about to board the plane and I was terrified because I knew I was going to have to lift my 50 lb carry on over my head and it was going to be an embarrasing struggle.  And I didn't think it would fit.  Then a man stops me and says

Ma'am I'm sorry we just ran out of overhead space so we will check your back all the way through to Chile.  MIRACLE.  I was FREAKING OUT.  If I've learned anything out here its that God loves me very very much.  Like another miracle was on sunday, I was thinking about how much I wanted a Chocolate chip cookie and I couldn't stop thinking about it and it was really hard because I REALLY REALLY WANTED A CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE.  And then that night

 out of nowhere they brought us chocolate chip cookies in CHILE.  That doesn't happen.  Or I guess it did, but that is not normal hahaha. So yeah I was just like GOD LOVES ME AND KNOWS ME!!!!! There have been so many moments like that this first week. 

My first lesson was scary.  I don't speak spanish!! So yeah the spirit was there and it helped me a lot but lets be real I am TERRIBLE at teaching in spanish, its hard not to be able to share your feelings well in lessons or to understand what they are saying in order to help them, but even though I don't comprehend the words, somehow I pick up the general message which is a huge blessing.

So my advice for you, use a planner, plan your day, don't sit around.  DAYS HERE ARE SOOOOOO LONG but its because we get sooooo much done!!! You can get so much done with your life if you just work!! I heard in one of our devotionals, that if you waste 30 min a day on your mission you lost more than 3 months of work.  Time adds up when you only have so many hours to be awake and working in the day, so don't waste your time its precious!

Advice for Mallory, get a spanish Hymn book, I'm regretting not getting one right now but I'll pick one up athe distribution center later.  PRACTICE SPANISH.  Its not like you get here and they start at the begging teaching you spanish.  They don't begin anywhere.  They just expect you to pick things up and seriously the more you know the better because otherwise you are just more behind!!

Can I have some good Elder Holland quotes... I don't know how to make the question mark work.... or the parenthesis, or the quotes button, or anything else for that matter hahaha

I met my mission president for the Santiago Mission!! I FLIPPED OUT!!! I was eating dinner in the cafeteria and I saw this man and got sooooooo excited and I didn't know why, my first thought was OH ITS AN APOSTLE OR SOMETHING!! Because he just had this aura about him and I recognized him somehow but I looked at his name tag and saw that it was president wright!! So I flipped out and shook his hand and introduced him to my district.  I may have cried because I was so excited...

My teachers are super great.  First it Hermano Figueroa, he is really good at helping with the language and he is really fun.  My favorite teacher is Hermano Traverso.  He looks kind of like Chris Hatch and he has the funniest Chilean accent and he is sooooo crazy fun but he also gives some of the most spiritual lessons.  And my third teacher is Hermana Leyton, she is really sweet and helpful, I like her a lot.

Exercising is also really fun, we go to a park, which other than our 2 hours of pday is the only time we get to leave the compound.  It feels like a white stucco prison here haha but its fun! But the park is fun because we teach the Latinas american games in broken spanish and they teach us games that we half understand haha.  There are wild dogs everywhere.  Super cute but super scary.  They always want to play with us but we don't want to get a disease haha.

Well I have to go, sorry hopefully my next email is better and has more spiritual messages, I just have so much to say and nooooo time!!

Love,

Hermana Millett!

First Email From Chile

Hey everyone! I  just wanted  to let you all know that I am safe in Chile! We flew with about 15 other missionaries, 12 of which are going to my mission! The MTC IS SOOOOOO SMALL! There are less than 100 missionaries right now and this week we will hit 104 which is the record! These keyboards are wierd... Anyway, I'm doing great and I'm having a lot of fun! The mtc here is far less strict on the schedule, they kind of just lead us to the next thing. The mtc president has been in and out of our classroom and housing area 5 or 6 times today because there are so few missionaries he gets to know us all! We started memorizing things in spanish.... its hard.  And I speak like a gringo but its been super fun! I dont even know who my companion is yet but its probably one of the three other girls in my room who flew over with me.  I've become pretty good friends with the 12 who flew over with me and I assume they are my district, but like I said the schedule here is way more relaxed so we havent even learned that yet.... its interesting...but reaaaally good so far! I think I have a 3 hour P-day either next Tuesday or Wednesday which means I have 1 hour to write and 2 hours to get stuff done in the city.  Apparently the mail is on strike, so no written letters from me for a while hahaha.  Its wierd because all of the workers here don't speak good english so we are trying to communicate but failing.  My high school spanish is what is keeping me alive! I recognize little words and its suuuuuch a good thing that I already understand how conjugation works or I would be soooooooooo confused.  

But yeah, I'm doing great! I'm a happy camper! The food today was interesting. I loved the chicken and rice but lets just say rice and bread pudding may be good but oatmeal pudding is not.  Gross. 

The temple is small and it is right outside my window! The temple and mtc and stuff is all one complex of white buildings.  

Ummm Im not really sure what else to say... All is good here! I really am so surprised about how relaxed the organization is. It's not that they aren't organized its just not the hyperorganized provo mtc where you have your schedule, companion, dork dot, etc soon after you get there. I have no idea what the schedule is. I just wait till the president comes in to take us somewhere but all is good!! Hahaha one of the hermanas in my group asked for water and she got soda water.... yep we are in South America! 

Well I have to go but I just wanted to let you know Im doing great and having a good time so far!

Farewell!

Today I will get set apart as a missionary! Which means that from now on my mom will be updating my blog with my weekly letter.  If you would like to write a letter or send a package the info will be in the contact tab, I'll have my mom update that with each new transfer.  Feel free to send me a letter, email, or package whenever! I'd love to hear from you! My email and address are posted and the mission office address is posted for packages (which I would love btw)

Thank you to everyone who made it to my farewell I loved seeing you all there, I didn't have my camera with me for most of the day so I just stole pictures from people off of Facebook:

Nik's family came to see me speak, it was so good to see them one last time, this is a pic I stole from Kowhai, Niks gorgeous sister.  I've loved the opportunity I've had to get to know her over the past year or so.  She is such a beautiful, fun, and kind person. I'm jealous of Nikora, I wish she was my sister!!! I'm going to miss her lots and I can't wait to spend time with her and her family when I get back from my mission! 

I stole this next one from my cousin Sam.  We have had such a fun summer working together at farmers market.  She is always a goof and its so much fun to spend time with her. She has such a sweet and sassy spirit and I love her to death for it.  She is so dang beautiful even when making silly faces. Saying goodbye for the next year and a half was really hard. I'll miss you Sam Sam!

I stole this one from my cousin Savannah.  While sitting on the stand before my talk, the only cousin I could see was Savannah, she was just sitting their crying and it was so hard not to burst into tears myself.  She is one beautiful, spunky, amazing girl.  She is drop dead gorgeous and her personality is even better.  She is truly one of the most all around beautiful people I know! I will miss her so much!!  

I stole this one from my cousin Paige.  Agh I love my cousins, can you tell? Paige is one of my best friends from the Millett side.  She is so fun and so thoughtful.  I love getting to spend time with her and she has always been my buddy at family reunions.  It was so fun to go to the same high school as her for a couple of years I'm so glad that we have grown up so close to one another, I'll miss you lots Paige!!

I am going to miss this girl more than I can even describe.  We are closest in age to each other and Katie and I have been partners in crime since birth.  From playing with figurines and obsessing over Lion King, to staying up until 5 am talking about boys and college life. We have been through it all together and I'm going to miss her so much. 

I can't wait to leave on my mission i'm looking forward to it more than I can even describe. It is hard for me to be leaving everything and everyone behind but I know that this is the right thing for me to be doing right now and God will help me through it! God be with you till we meet again!

Mission Call Opening

Hello and welcome to my blog! I figured it would be appropriate to start out this mission blog with some pictures of how all of this began!

My sister Mallory and I had the opportunity to open our calls on the same day.  It was really fun getting ready for our missions together, its nice to have someone else doing the same things with you at the same time.

Right when I found out I was going to Santiago Chile!!

The map full of guesses!

Me and my best friend Nikora, he was able to come to my mission call opening just a week before he left on his own mission to Frankfurt Germany. We return within a month or two of each other. I'm really excited for that :)

 Some of my best friends for eternity, I love my cousins to death! Saying goodbye to them at my farewell was really tough! (Haha excuse the closed eyes in the pic)

Seriously some of my favorite people on the planet, Nikora's family.  They have done so much for me and I'll miss them as much as I'll miss my own family! I can't thank them enough for all they have done for me this past year!

I'm so grateful for the wonderful example my parents have set for me and my sister by serving missions! They have done so much for me as I've prepared to leave, my mission wouldn't be possible without them!