Interesting Week!

What we do for conference is go to the stake center and watch it. There is an english room, we just sit for hours and watch apostles give us new modern day scripture. Its seriously like Christmas. You already bought boots? Good, are they cute????? Please tell me yes.

DRAKE!?!? I HAD NO IDEA!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH SARIAH!!!!!!!! AGH IM SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Hope you had an awesome bday Jake!! I said a birthday prayer for you! Sorry... that may not have been the most noticable present but its about all you can do as a missionary haha

Aw how fun to hear about missionary month! I told all the sisters here about it and they all thought it sounded so fun!!! Bummer alex didn´t get to try something cool from New Zealand!!! I was excited to hear about it!!!! But Spaghetti is good. Especially american spaghetti. Chilean sphagetti is NOT the same. So Alex count yourself lucky for the opportunity you had to eat some nice American Spaghetti. 

Surprise surprise you are staying at homefor conference... didn´t you stay at home last conference? I hope you know when I get back that we BETTER BE GOING TO OGDEN. Or you can make plans for Bear Lake... I would also be fine with that haha, you have a year to plan. 

Haha dad I sent the pic of me and elder schade, but its possible that he sent it too because I think we took one on both cameras. I´m gonna miss having a ward buddy here on the mission! I haven´t seen him in like a month because he isn´t an ap anymore but I´ve liked having a familiar face! One of my DECA friends Melissa Cook is in the CCM right now prepping to go to Viña del Mar, that was a fun surprise. I also saw Nick Spinder the other day at the temple. Thats the fun thing about serving where I am, its the center of like 6 different missions so I get to see people and be right in the middle of all the church action. When apostles come we creepily watch the temple grounds for any out of the ordinary commotion hahaha its fun, I love my sector. 

Anyway, this week was .... interesting. I am trying to work on being positive because I sometimes feel like I just have so dang many weaknesses and things I need to fix that its easy to get down on myself. The biggest thing I am learning with my comp is that it helps to have someone that complements you because if you have the same weakspots its a lot easier to fall in those areas. We have been doing fine and we are trying to work super hard but its just those little day to day things that we aren´t doing as well at that cause me to realize that I was so used to Hna Altamirano being the strong one that we just coasted along a lot easier, now I realize that if I´m not always on my feet guarding against my little weaknesses (like loosing track of time and not leaving the apartment in good timing, spending 10 or 15 min too long in lunch, etc... probably more than anything just not being firm because I don´t want to cause problems) that we don´t do well, or we don´t use our time well enough, etc. So. Pray for me to have the spirit to remind me to not let my time slip and to keep up with all of the things I need to do to keep things going well here in my sector! 

Crap gotta go. I was gonna tell you a bit about the investigator that we have with a baptismal date that told me he loves me and wants to marry me and has made this week very difficult but I don´t have time.... update on that next week. But don´t worry I talked with pres about it and he gave me some good advice. 

Katie, about Less Actives, President told us the best thing you can do is focus on the temple and it seriously helps a TON. Also, make good relationships with them so they don´t feel like you just want them to go back to church but that you really want the blessings of the temple for them!! 

Well, Love you all! 

Chau!

Hermana Millett

I Feel Like Me!

Hey everybody. I´m so sorry I have SOOOOO little time to write this email I was replying to lots of emails this week. But I hope everything is going well at home! I LOVE hearing about how you are all doing in school and everything.

Mom and Dad, David and Lisseth left today for peru and then they are going to get to salt lake on the 2 of April. So would you please invite them to dinner at the house or something? I´d be so freaking happy. here is Lisseth´s email liessel.boccangel@gmail.com I sent them with letters for the boys and becca. 

This week has been good. Stressful, but good. Its funny how before in my mission I haven´t really felt the stress that comes from feeling a lot of personal pressure to achieve things or do everything well. I felt it a LOT this week, but I liked it. I felt like me again. Not that I didn´t before, but this week more than usual. I guess being with your trainer for 6 and a half months you just get used to not having to be in charge completely and not having all the weight of the sector resting on your shoulders, but as I have been the only connection between the work that was happening before and the work that is happening now in the sector I have been a little stressed and kind of exhausted. But I love it. Its AWESOME to see miracles happen and things finally start to come through. We had two investigators in the Church this week, Luis Alberto was FINALLY able to come to a FHE and to the church!! Agh it was awesome because he was super nervous at first but then by the end after priesthood class he came and found us and was just beaming!!! He LOVED it. Its been crazy busy and tiring and stressful but I feel so much freedom to make the sector whatever I want it to be and I like being able to just work my brain to figure out what I can do to get people to the church on sunday or accept baptism or etc. If you could PLEASE pray for Luis Alberto, Abraham, Maria and Victor this week I would love you forever. 

Haha funny story. I was reading the letters of Katie and Mal and I was just laughing about the miracles we wrote in our letters. Mal about a family of 8 agreeing to get baptized. Katie about doubling the teaching pool and me about having one investigator in church on sunday. As I was laughing about it Hermana Nuñez said "Hey! We are doubling our teaching pool too!..... of less active members......." We all laughed because we are all working with like 20 less actives each but its funny because in zone conference we started working with a program for the missionaries in Chile to get in contact with the less actives in Chile whose records are lost...... and we litterally are doubling the teaching pool of less actives..... But its a good thing because its helping people come back to the gospel and it doesn´t show so much in numbers but it really makes a big difference in these peoples lives. Plus you can always find new people along the way. I just thought it was funny how we litterally are doubling the teaching pool of less active people even if it started off as a sarcastic joke. But yeah I´m doing super well and we are seing a ton of progress!!!! Well I have to go like 1 min ago oops.

Chau

Kyrstin Millett

Explanation of Pictures:

-Some of the hermanas with our Las Condes zone polos.

 -I dressed up as a typical sister missionary. Would you be scared if I came back looking like that?

-Jennifers Birthday party (she is a less active, family of Angie and Rodrigo, I LOVE THEM ALL SOOOOO MUCH) 

-Us eating lunch at Zone Conference

Elder Ballard

Kyrstin and Mallory both mentioned Elder Ballard coming to visit their missions.  The seminar for mission presidents was in Santiago.  His grandfather Melvin J Ballard worked hard in South American and dedicated the land for the preaching of the gospel and for the preaching to the Lamanites back in 1925.  Here is part of that original dedication.

“The work (in South America) will go forth slowly for a time just as the oak grows slowly from an acorn. It will not shoot up in a day as does the sunflower that grows quickly and thus dies. Thousands will join here. It will be divided into more than one mission and will be one of the strongest in the Church. The work here is the smallest that it will ever be. The day will come when the Lamanites here in South America will get the chance. The South American Mission will become a power in the Church.”

The ongoing fulfillment of Elder Melvin J. Ballard’s prophecy remains one of the miracles of the restored Church. Today there are some 4.5 million members living in South America. Fourteen temples operate on all ends of the continent — from Caracas to Buenos Aires — and several more are being built.

He also came to dedicate the land of Argentina as that original blessing was dedicating the whole country of South America and every other country and had a later dedication specific to it's country.  Argentina never had, so he did that.  This was a picture taken from Mallory's blog. 

A Week of Contacting!

first, Congrats Paige! New york New york thats AWESOME!!!!!

 

Shoes are doing great, the cutesy shoes look a little oldish but they are fine, and my sperrys and danskos are awesome. I think I should have enough warm sweaters like cardigan type but if you want to send me 1 or 2 cute pullover type sweaters I wouldn´t be opposed. I also am gonna need some more make up, I have medium beige right now that should last me another month or so but when my tan goes away I´m gonna need something lighter. Also..... sorry to ask for more but will you send me some stephens hot chocolate (mint or something yummy flavored) because I´d love that for winter. Now the nights are a little chilly but not too much, but I think in april it starts getting cold.

 

Oh thatll be fun for carli and curt!! I hope they are doin alright! CARLI WRITE ME A LETTER!!!!! PLEASE!!!!

 

And yeah kates how is the spanish!?!

 

Yeah mom, I think its suuuper important to teach the plan of salvation including Christ in each part, here EVERYONE is basically Christian, so its cool when they can see how each part of what Christ did really was part of the plan of salvation, normally when we teach it we lay out the little pictures and explain how Christ went through the process and how that is how we know that we are going through the process  and participating in the plan as well.

 

Haha dad we had pi day too!! But I can´t send pics this week, sorry!

 

This week with the comp has been great! An awesome learning experience. Elder Ballard came to chile like 3 weeks ago and he told our mission pres that he wants us to do 20 contacts daily per companionship..... way easier said than done, we get talking and the Chilenos NEVER STOP.  Plus, we really never contacted much before because it was never very fruitful, but I decided, its a new companionship, new opportunity to improve in my weak spots. So we dedicated time specifically to contacting each day, we went to the park (because much of our sector is big gated buildings so the park is the only place to go) and we basically said we weren´t leaving till I conquered my fear of contacting........ We were there for like EVER but in the end my companion and I contacted a few people and felt a little better, we did it each day this week and now I honestly feel SO MUCH BETTER. I still don´t know if it was suuuuper fruitful but at least we were able to help a lot of people understand better about the church even if almost none of them live in our sector or want to hear more. 

 

One AWESOME miracle that happened though to show that you just NEVER KNOW where your contacts are gonna go: We were on the bus and this older guy was looking at me wierd so I said Hi, and he asked me what my real Name was and if I live in the temple or something, I explained a bit about what we do and that we live close by and a bit of what the temple is etc. He asked about if we had church meetings and I quickly told him the address and the time and he got off the bus. Then on Sunday we got out of a meeting late and everyone was freaking out like "Hermana Millett Hermana Millett! Your investigator is here! He has been looking for you!" And I was just like "What the heck? None of our investigators could come this week!" They all told me its a guy you invited in the bus..... I was soooo confused because I am often to scared to talk to people in the bus so for sure it couldn´t have been me... and then Abraham walks in and all the sudden I remembered that I had quickly told him the info etc. Anyway long story short it was an absolute MIRACLE and I was sooooo happy to see that it doesn´t matter if you contact for HOURS every day, if ONE person comes out of that its soooooo worth it.

 

My comp is great, we have a lot of fun together, I´m excited to work with her, but I need you guys to pray for me, hna altamirano was sooooo exactly obedient and my new comp is AWESOME but doesn´t have the same dedication to exact obedience and so sometimes things get rationalized to easily. I´m trying to be strong and just stick up for the rules but the problem is that there are a lot that aren´t in the handbook that I´ve heard are rules of the mission..... but we don´t have them written down anywhere to review them so its hard because I don´t have anything to fall back on when I´m not sure about the rules..... so pray for me lots please!

 

Well, gotta go!!!

 

Kyrstin Millett

What a Crazy Week!

Well.  I´m with a new comp! I can´t believe how emotional this week has been, its been super hard accepting that my trainer was gonna leave me but I´m gonna be ok.  But if you could all pray for me that would be great!

So.  Its been NUTS this week.  

First.  There were two temblors (earthquakes) this week and one was like CRAZY strong and in the middle of the night, I was sleeping in a different pension on divisions in puente alto (the flaite or ghetto part of santiago ) and I just wake up to crazy screeching and shaking. There was soooo much noise and the bunk bed was shaking like crazy. So we all jump out of bed, and open the door and wait..... luckily nothing bigger but wow Its scary enough to have the building start shaking and screeching out of nowhere when you're awake, but out of nowhere when you are sleeping and totally out of it is kinda terrifying.... but its all good haha I´m getting more and more used to it..... kind of.

Second.  Luis Alberto.  I need you guys to pray for him LOTS. He is the sweetest old man and he doesn´t ever leave his house, but there is something special about him so we visit him as often as we can and teach him at the door. Little by little he opens up more, reads the book of mormon more, and commits to more.  This week he agreed to go to church which was HUGE.  We were worried because his shoes are completely torn apart and his feet stick through them and his clothes are always dirty and stained and we didn´t want him to feel bad walking into a church with a bunch of people in suits and skirts.  We tried borrowing sunday clothes from other people but couldn´t get it, it got to sunday morning and we got to the door and it turns out the Old lady he takes care of got really sick and he couldn´t go, but I almost cried when he opened the door and we saw that he had shaved, had a clean shirt on, sunday shoes and everything. He was soooo ready to go and for us it was huge that he had such a desire to go because even that is huge progress here in pocuro, so pllleaaassee pray for him to be able to progress, leave his house, go to church, feel the spirit etc because he is seriously the sweetest man and is on the verge of some real progress.

Third. Cambios. Shoot, I´m kinda terrified!!! Ok not really I´ll be just fine, but it makes me nervous to be here without hna altamirano! She was so sad when she heard she had to go, imagine 10 months in the same sector!!!!! We had 6 months together!!!! I´m so glad that I had such an AWESOME trainer and such an awesome example to help me and work with me. I´m missing her lots!!

My new comp is named hermana Fuentes. She is from Salta Argentina and I think we are going to have a great time.  She has 3 transfers left which means I´m leaving sooner than I thought or I´ll be here until august or september so no one has to white wash (when two new missionaries enter a sector without any experience in the new sector). Hahaha I´m sending our first pic together, with me her and hna altamirano. I was really scared when I first met her because she was NOT happy to see me. She was suuuuper sad to leave her other sector, but now its only been a few hours and she is starting to warm up, I´ve gotten her to laugh which is a good sign and I´ve heard she is super funny so I´m excited for this transfer, I´ll just have to give her some time to get used to things here. Hna A and Hna Rivera left so the pension is suuuuuper different!! But i´m excited, hopefully by next week we will all be back into the swing of things.

It was super sad to see Hna A leave and for the three days that we knew she would be leaving we hardly talked because we started crying when we did, but the nice thing was walking around and realizing that I was way sad that she was leaving but still so happy. So confident that the Lord is gonna help me take over this sector, and so excited for a new experience. So don´t worry I´m doing great, just in need of a lot of prayers because I have no Idea how this is all gonna be, but what I´ve heard is that my comp is a suuuper hard worker and hna wright told me that she absolutely loves hna fuentes and that I´m gonna love her. 

We also had interviews with pres wright. IT WAS AWESOME. SO GREAT. He basically just asks if you have questions and that is the whole interview. So I asked him all sorts of questions about the scriptures and doctrine and everything. HE KNOWS EVERYTHING. Seriously he is a genious of the scriptures. I was bawling the whole time and he was crying a good portion of it too.  So just so you know I´m doing GREAT. 

Well I gotta go, but one more thing, David and Lisseth a couple from my sector are going to utah for 6 months and I REALLY REALLY REALLY want them to meet you!!! So I told them that you were going to invite them to dinner.... hope thats ok haha I´ll try and send them with letters for you guys, I´ll add more info about it next week when I have time, thanks!!

Love you

Kyrstin Millett

ps. Mal do you guys have ecco? I thing its like that argentine barley drink you guys have too, at least thats what all the mormons drink around here anyway haha

 Me and my old comp and my new comp...... hahahahha our emotions are so obvious in this pic haha hna fuentes especially kills me in this one hahaha

With Alejandra Martinez, literally one of my favorite people ever, she is a less active and she reminds me sooooooooo much of becky, probably why I love her so dang much!

 Saying Goodbye to elder Schade, probs not gonna see him till I get home bcause he isn´t an ap anymore!!! Awkward photo haha

 Our sweet conserje, I think he is evangelical, he calls us reverendas

David and Lisseth,

I'm So Happy!!

I´m so happy.  Period.  Such a good week.

So to start off CONGRATS SPENCE!!!!!! I was praying for you like crazy that day agh I couldn´t be more proud!!! 1st in state thats sooooo awesome!! Now study your little heart out for nationals because I didn´t do that I just assumed it was a fun trip and didn´t take the national competition as seriously as I probably shouldve but agh I´m so proud!!


I hear about transfers this week so its possible (and very likely) that I will have a new comp next monday.... a bit terrifying because I´ve been with hna altamirano for 6 months and she is absolutely the greatest.

So just saying.... if there are people that speak spanish and want to write their book of mormon testimony for missionary month in spanish I would LOVE it.  You could send them with the schades.  And I so called it before mal.

ANd yep mal I´m super greatful to have a washer.  And a dryer.

Background:  Kyrst's parents were feeling like Kyrst was thinking her area was hard and she has been struggling with having lots of extra mission rules in her mission.  So mom probably gave too much advice last week.  She also gets to read her sister's letters each week (she is an area out in the country and it has been easier to find people to teach).  It's so great when missionaries have experiences that show them that God knows and loves them!!

Alright so to explain this week:

So I started off the week feeling a little sad because you guys said you were worried about me and idk it made me wonder if I´m not doing a good enough job and idk I just started feeling kinda sad and a little compared with Mallory (which happens understandably) but bad because idk my mission experience has been soooooo different.  I just wanted you guys to know that I´m trying my best with things with pres, with the work, with everything.  So I got home and as usual when I´m not feeling so happy I go in the bathroom and cry for a minute or two and then kneel down and have a really good prayer I basically just told Heavenly Father that I didn´t want to feel bad or compared or upset with how my mission is working or with my mission president or anything.  I just told Him I want to feel good.  I want to do more and do better like my parents are suggesting but please don´t show me more all at once so I feel like a horrible missionary like I do right now. I basically said I want to know how I can be better and improve my teaching but still feel good about my efforts, please let me see how I´m doing in YOUR eyes Heavenly Father. Then I ended my prayer and flushed the toilet so the other hermanas in the apartment wonth think I´m a wierdo just sitting in the bathroom hahaha.

So then the next day Hna Wright called and told me she wanted to come to all of our lessons with us for the rest of the day.  She came and we were also with one of our ward misioneras so hna Altamirano ended up talking to Ingrid our ward missionary in spanish a lot of the time and I ended up talking to Hna Wright in english a lot of the time because her spanish is.... doing ok but not as good as her english haha. But seriously. It was just what I needed, we talked about lots of things and it was interesting how much understanding and love I felt for her, then president picked us up and drove us home afterwards which was GREAT because it saved us a 45 min walk. But then Hna wright also had Elder Schade call and ask us how much more money we need to be able to take the bus around because she was concerned about us having to walk so far so much. It was great (not just because i won´t have to take so much out of my home account to pay for food or transport) but becuase being around them and hearing about how much they cared for me and my comp, other missionaries, and the work in our area was really important to me.  It helped me to have a better understanding of why president is doing everything the way he does.  Later in the week i was on divisions and seriously most of the members of this ward I was visiting and the missionaries were just bashing on me for being from Pocuro the rich part of santiago and how I don´t ever have baptisms and my sector is the worst and yada yada. and then they started bagging on president, and I just stood up for him, and I meant it! They were talking about things that to me a couple months ago would have been my doubts but I realized that now I understand and accept it better. I am honored to have him as my president and I am so glad to have my ward even if it isn´t the highest baptizing ward there is.  I got home and gave hna Altamirano a hug and was just sooooooooooo excited to go to work. I LOVE my sector. It isn´t hard, its just different. I don´t baptize a lot, but I do make a difference, I don´t see almost any progression in the investigators as far as key indicators go but I do see progression in their lives.  I was happy to realize that even if it was by having people throw a bunch of insults in my face

But the greatest thing ever that I am out of time to explain is that Elder Evans from the 70 (the executive director of the missionary program) came last second and called all four of the santiago missions together for a conference, his ENTIRE talk was about the doctrine of Christ and our purpose as missionaries and that our purpose is NOT just to baptize and get numbers etc but how it is about our quality of teaching in our personal ministry and focusing on ALL parts of the doctrine of Christ.  Overall I had this HUGE feeling of LOVE from the Lord, that he accepts and is very happy with what I´m doing and how I´m doing. With everything Elder Evans said I realized that I am doing almost exactly what he said, and then I realized a few things I can focus more on in my own personal teaching but seriously I was so impressed by Gods love for me.  Even if he has to send the director of the mission department to a last minute meeting of 1000 missionaries He will do it if it means answering a prayer and showing us His love.  I´m seriously so happy. This was a GREAT week.

Crap gotta go! 

Hna McKinely's 1 year celebration

Zone Meeting with the Sisters

 s at angie and rodrigos house (their surprise birthday party that they threw for her last week) seriously some of my favorite people ever, on the other side is angies sister jenifer, and rodrigos grandma and dad

Doing dishes with Hna Zalaya

A Cherished letter from Nik.