Transfers!!!

Well. Im not gonna lie I was REALLY NERVOUS for transfers this week. Friday seemed like it would never come and when it did we didn't even get the call till saturday but yeah pretty crazy. President ended up closing a sector here in sotero and so there is only one companionship here in the ward. Hna bohman went to pocuro and took hna mckinleys spot and will be visiting a lot of the people that I worked with in my first sector! Hna Contreras (my companion) also had changes and she left to Macul. And hna Orton got called as an STL and we got put together in a companionship as an experiment for the mission to see if president will put STLs in a companionship or not. So we are gonna have like 5 or 6 companionships instead of 2 to take care of and we are going to be doing divisions like crazy. So yeah exciting stuff! Haha I'm way excited to be with a gringa (someone from the USA) for the first time in my mission and I'm excited to be able to have the whole ward as a sector so we can better work with the whole ward and all that is happening inside of it. It will be kinda sad to have just two of us in the apartment.... I went from 6 to 4 and now to 2..... crazy. But hna Orton is AMAZING. She is such a hard working missionary, way obedient, cooks lots of american food and we are already having a blast, it's funny because almost the same thing happened to me as to mal. She went with a girl in her zone with the sector al lado (right by it?) and now she is teaching another girl to be an STL without even knowing well how to do it. I'm taking over the sector right next to mine, with a new STL without knowing what I'm doing etc. What fun. 

Well. This week I have a pretty funny story. This friday we were FREAKING OUT all during deep cleaning about getting a call from president and so the pther hnas promised to call us if they got a call and we did too. So later as we were doing our weekly planning the hnas called and told us that they just got a call from president and that me and hna bohman were leaving and so my companion and I freaked out and we cried and I even started packing my suitcases knowing I wouldn't have time later..... then like 5 min later the hnas came in and hugged us and freaked out with us and then like 5 min after that they came and told us it was a joke......... haha it was pretty funny, I totally believed them they made it sound so real. Haha and then that night our phone was ringing and I picked it up and it said that the incoming call was from president wright so I run in the room with the phone and we are all freaking out till I answer it and..... again it was a trick from the other hnas they changed the contact name in our phone as a joke.... so yeah when the transfer calls finally came the next day I was nice and ready for them. And man I am THRILLED to be staying here I love this ward. 

Alex! I cant believe you have started high school! It is the greatest ever huh? I hope you love it! Who are your teachers? Spence who are your teachers? how is your senior year going? Im sending you guys letters!

mom and dad I got the package! I love love love love everything you sent me thanks soooooo much! 

Agh Im sooooooo glad you guys got to meet hna mckinley and you got my pics ok! I cant even believe that she is at home already. I miss her! We lived in the same apartment as the only gringas for 9 months and she for reals became my best friend here. We are going to be the best of buddies when I get back :) Ha. Yep that's funny but so true that all of my pics were little celebrations. It spiced things up and helped us get closer as an apartment.... needless to say I won't be having many of those here with just my companion and I. 

And freak the ogden temple looks HUUUUUUGGGEEE. Dad can you send me pics that the church may have of inside the building? I wanna see!!!!

So another little adventure this week: we have two investigators that were in the road show for the ward this week (which was a good thing because there are only like three young men and 1 young woman) so we got permission to go see it. They did like a 15 min version of tangled which was cute. I was in the middle of filming it and the ground started to move, I just kept filming knowing it was gonna pass but all of the people started to get nervous and you could hear the whole crowd gasp and then boom from one moment to the next it got SUUUPER strong I thought to myself "yep this is it, in a few seconds more we are gonna have a full on earthquake" So I get up and run to my companion, everyone had gotten out of their seats and were about to go crazy when it suddenly stopped. Haha it was an adventure. In the end it was just like a little temblor it didn't get bigger but I think it was one of the longest and biggest I've felt while here in Chile they said it was like a 6.2 or something here in Santiago? But yeah, it was kinda crazy. But interesting! 

Anyway, I gotta go but I love you all and I'm doing GREAT!

With Love,

hna Kyrstin Millett

Pictures:
Zone Pics

Me and mia the cutest dog ever

Painting the background for the youths road show (it was our service for the week. I loooooooved painting again after so much time.
GOT MY PACKAGE!!! THANKS SOOOO MUCH! I LOOOOOOOVED THE SKIRT!

The background for the roadshow when it was pretty much done

The sotero girls our last day in the capilla together

Me with Dominique and Carla two girls in my ward that are thinking about and or preparing for missions!

All of the garbage hanging on our fence waiting for the garbage guys to come after deep cleaning

hna sindy at work (the young womens president, she is a nurse)

The bishop and his family (his wife looks a TON like sandra bullock but with softer facial features but like a TON)

Un Ano!

First of all Mal: Wow how crazy!!!!!!! I totally know bryson wiggins! Tell him hi for me! And is hna micklesons name paige mickleson? she totally went to my school!!!!

mom, the food is good.... sometimes healthy sometimes not. Its waaaaaay less processed and with way less alinio (whats the word? condiments, spices, extra yummy crap) than in the U.S. but yeah.... they eat a toooon of bread and scone type things here.... my face is growing a little bit. Bummer. Foods I really miss? just anything american I guess. Except mac and cheese they sell that in the american section here :) Mom could you send me the recipe we have for making rolls? (my companion wants it :) )

As far as extending goes..... I still don{t know. Its crazy because idk if pres would let me go home at the same time as Mal, he already told me he didn{t want to do that but Im gonna see if I can get him to let me. Because if I can yep 100 percent extending for a month. If I cant.... idk. its like I feel good about extending for one minute and then bad the next. Suuuuper back and forth like crazy. but when I think and pray about one month and coming back with mal I feel SOOOOO good. Soo.... we will see if I can convince president. If not we will see what I do. 2 more weeks isnt a big deal to me but the change in feelings that I have about it is. so..... we will see. Its like I would love to be here just a bit longer. but I also miss and love america and my family so dang much when I think about extending. But yeah.... im a bit torn. mom and dad. If I dont extend what can I do in the month before mal gets back to keep me busy? 

So. This week we did a looooooooot of things as you can see in all of the pictures. It ws fun to complete a year, we ate a yummy ice cream cake that hna orton made us and we took crazy jumping pictures haha it was fun. Mom. I still don{t have the package but don{t worry I would assume it'll be here this week because they probably picked it up from they office by my old sector last district class. 

So transfers are this week. We will see what happens. Im a little scared heres why: 16 hermanas are leaving and we are receiving like 10 more. So for the first time ever lots will be training (because only like 6 or 7 hnas have come after me in the whole year Ive been here so barely anyone here with 16 months in the mission and below has trained) and I heard a rumor that now president is gonna put STLs together in companionships which would be crazy because we've been hearing that forever but they said that for real that might happen this transfer, and also president said he might take a companionship out of sotero del rio. Soooo..... its pretty likely that this change will be affecting me.... and it could be a drastic change.... we will see. 

Well. I honestly don{t have a ton of time to talk but it was a SUUUPER great week. I completed a year, went to the temple to see nancy do baptisms, had some awesome experiences, and today we went to a "jungle inside a building" type of thing that was an adventure! 

One lesson though that I learned that I also want any of you boys reading this (especially you Spencer, Alex, Jake, and Nik) to learn is about the importance of selfless service as priesthood holders. I was honestly really dissapointed this week with what I saw in many priesthood holders and very impressed with others.  We planned with one of the members to go give our investigator a blessing and last minute the night before he said he couldn{t because his daughter was coming over for sunday dinner, so we called others and they had firesides and other meetings to go to, others didnt want to have to haul their little kid with them, others had family stuff, and others just said they were too busy... (and we passed by and saw through the window that they were watching the soccer game) We called like every single member of the ward and those that answered all gave excuses (some of them legitimate, some of them not so much) We were really sad to see how unwilling many were to take 10 minutes out of their time to help with missionary work and give a blessing to someone in need. FINALLY we found the last person on our ward list and he said "Yes!! When do you need me?" It was great to find at least one person willing to fulfill his priesthood duty. It really made me sad to see that the very people who in church practically praise the priesthood that they hold arent even willing to fulfill their duties. Im sure many said no thinking that someone else would do it, or that for someone else it would be much more convenient than for themselves. But boys. When called upon to serve, if it is physically possible for you do... DO IT. Selfless service isnt just for the times when it is convenient, I think more often than not the opportunities for such service come in the least convenient moments of all. I just wanted to say thanks to those of you that were willing to help me or others at times when you had other things going on and you had to sacrifice a bit. Thanks dad for always being such a wonderful example of service. I know its like never convenient because you always have a million things to do, but it made me so happy thinking back and never having heard you say no, even though you always have to leave to fulfill your responsibilities I was always grateful for it. Thanks Nik for that time you came over at 3 in the morning to give me a blessing when I was sick at college. I know that was like THE WORST time that I couldve possibly called but man all those things make such a difference. 

Well Im out of time. Chau!

Hna Millett

Pictures

Hna Bowman and Kyrstin complete one year

Baptisms for the Dead with Recent Convert

Visiting the Indoor Jungle

 an awesome picture of a ruin that there is in bolivia that spencer w kimball translated when he visited bolvia, it has a really cool story

One Year This Week!

Well I will be completing one year this week! I cant believe that a year ago was my farewell when I said goodbye to you all! Its crazy to think about all of the things I have or haven{t done for a whole year now. Like wearing a skirt everyday. I haven{t painted my nails in a year. Haven{t gone swimming. Haven't had a day off (because we even work pdays and its a suuuuper busy day) Just crazy crazy to think about it all. I'm excited to complete a year though, I'm with hna bohman who will be completing a year with me. She was the first hna I met in the mission and the first one I took a pic with! I'll attach the pic haha. So weird. sooooo different. 

Well. So mom and dad I already sent you an email a little bit ago asking you for your thoughts but yeah. Im thinking about extending. Not sure yet. But thinking about it.Anyone else have any thoughts? 

Agh mom good to know you guys got the letters(Kyrst wrote everyone a personal letter to open at Cedar City)! I wasn't sure if they'd get there on time! Haha did you guys really cry? that's sweet :)

As far as Curt goes, hey bud be good! I sent you a letter in the mail a few weeks ago so if everything goes right you should have it any day now! I looooved getting your letter I cried when I read it! Remember its soooooo important to just keep trying your hardest to do what is right. Man I am SOO FREAKING GRATEFUL that my parents cared about me enough to restrict things, be strict, etc. It has changed my life and helped me to make it this far and helped me to be doing what Im doing now. I know you are capable of making GREAT decisions. And if you want to make those great decisions I can promise you that your parents and my parents will help you know what they are, they've been through the same times and they know what they are talking about even when it seems like they totally don't! (haha trust me I know!) And most of all when you feel upset, before reacting go to your room, say a prayer to feel better and think more clearly and then make decisions. It always helps! 

Alex! I was thinking the other day and I realized you are totally gonna turn 16 in a few months! WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED!?!?! When I left you were a little 14 year old and you are now driving and gonna be dating?!?! Crazy. But hey man way to go with the acapella thing! 

Mom. I still don{t have the package. I have my fingers crossed hoping to get it tomorrow when we get the mail. If not it may be another week or so. We will see!

Katie! That's so freaking awesome! How fun that we are all gonna be STLs together! That's so great :)

Other cousins: Freak I wanna know how cedar city went TELL ME!!!! Show me pics of your new clothes! I'm not dead! I promise Ill read and look at whatever you send me!!! I hope you had the GREATEST TIME EVER. I cannot wait to be there next year! 

Well this week we helped out with a capilla abierta in the Los Prados ward (its an elders ward but they needed hnas to do the tour) it was sooooo fun! When I did the capilla abierta in Pocuro it was fun but I loooooved it even more this time. We honestly only gave like 3 tours but we contacted like CRAZY and we had a great time. I'm a happier missionary when I contact. But its just hard to get going sometimes. My companion is so great at helping me with that though! I am so glad to be serving with hna contreras for that. One of the greatest miracles of the capilla abiertas was when we went inside to grab coats before continuing to contact and invite people to take the tour and right when we walked out a man passed by. We had already talked to a ton of people that said no and we were expecting the same thing from him but when we asked him if he wanted a tour he said "For reals? Can I?" We were like HECK YES YOU CAN! So he came in and we had the AWESOMEST TOUR EVER. He like already has a testimony of the church he just never found a church that believed that. He talked about how important his family is and his testimony of basically the word of wisdom and how he knows that Christ lives and loves us personally. He asked us about eternal families and when he was taught by the elders about baptism he just told them I BELIEVE! (he said it in english haha) it was super great. The whole thing was worth it just for him haha. The sad thing is he is not from our sector (the bummer of this teeny mission we got like 10 addresses of people we contacted that couldn't go through the tour but were ok with missionaries passing by later and not a single one was in our sector its not like many missions where basically everyone you find is from your sector, here its a VERY SMALL chance that the people you contact in public places within your sector actually live in your small boundaries haha) but its all good it doesn't matter which missionaries teach him as long as he is receiving the gospel I am happy! 

We also had interviews with pres this week which was super awesome. I love having interviews with him. We basically start off asking whatever questions we want and you learn so dang much about the scriptures, the gospel, and just life in general. what a good week. 

Well this week should be great with my year mark and I'm gonna get to go to the temple to see Nancy (recent convert) do baptisms for the dead. Im soooooooo happy!! The rule got changed so that people can enter to do baptisms with recent converts or less actives that came back if you help them to prepare their own names. Yay. I looooove the temple. 

Well I have to go write a few more emails but I love you all!!!

With love

Hna Kyrstin Millett

Pictures:

Pic at the capilla abierta (the open house mini visitors center thing just like the one mal did in her ward)

The cinnamon rolls that went wrong...... haha I killed the yeast so they didn{t rise!

Pic with my comp in the National Library of Chile, us (all of the hnas in Sotero) in front of the national library :)

 First day in the mission in the airport with Hna Bowman

Really Busy!

Well. this week has been one of the craziest busy weeks of my mission (nothing like what I've heard from mal and nik though haha you guys have it crazier because traveling to the other side of the mission takes you longer than it does for me.... it takes me an hour haha)

Well mom I assume you didn{t say anything about leaving to cedar city this week on purpose. Dont worry I thought about it this morning during personal study and then I walked out my door, looked around at all of the grafiti, the crazy buses and taxis, the almacenes (little convenient stores in a house) and little houses and I stopped feeling bad. I freaking love it here. So don't even worry about me! I hope to hear loooots of stories. I wanna know all about it!

Mal! We have those capilla abierta things too! I'm going to one of those on Saturday!

So Tuesday we had a good district class and right after I met up with hna grannis to go up to san jose on divisions! It was fun because they are the "campo" girls like mal was and they live in the mountains outside of normal santiago, I felt like I was staying in a rustic cabin it was a blast! I was also able to buy my comp a camera and I surprised it with her the next day she was SO HAPPY. She told me to tell you guys thanks a ton.

Wednesday we got back from divisions, I was crazy car sick from the long crazy bus ride in the mountains and we went to visit people. We felt like we should go visit N*** our recent convert and when we got there she was NOT doing well. She has been struggling lots with financial problems and her family are the only ones out of all of the extended family that don{t sell drugs... so naturally they are the poorest, when she saw that she didn{t even have enough money to buy potatoes to make french fries to sell she was pretty much ready to go to church on sunday for the last time and say good by to everyone because she couldn{t see anyway to support her 4 kids without joining the family business. So we talked to her for a while and decided to plan a last minute trip to the temple for a recorrido and then my comp and I went to the grocery store to buy her food because she didn't have any. (mom and dad you probably saw that on the card) It was a crazy day and when we got home I just sat down and thought about how freaking happy I was feeling. My comp found the camera, N**** was so happy to see the food. I just love being able to help people... I didn't even do anything haha it was mom and dads money but I was so grateful for the opportunity to see their faces light up its a great feeling.

Thursday WE WENT TO A TOUR OF THE TEMPLE!!!!!! It was so good to be back in pocuro. I love that place. It was wierd to be sitting in on the tour instead of giving it but sooo awesome. The best part was when we were in the little waiting room (which is like the size of the mudroom) and I just felt like I should take nancy through the next door to the recommend desk and as soon as we entered the spirit just rushed in super strongly and we all started to cry. She met the temple worker at the desk and we talked with him for a moment. It was so wonderful to feel the spirit of the temple. It is for reals the house of God here on the earth. I know that this is the true church without a doubt because of the temple. It was so great being there because I just felt so at home, I felt like me. Like sister millett and Kyrstin at the same time. Sometimes its hard being soooo disconnected from anything that existed in my life for the last 19 years but being in the temple just felt so good, it helped me think back on all of my experiences in the temple back when I went every week and it helped me to realize how crucial temple attendance is to stay firmly on Gods path. Nancy had a great time and it was exactly what she needed to realize that she was not alone and that God would help her if she chose His way.

Friday. My first Mission leadership council. Haha I didn't know I{d be teaching half of it. That was a surprise. I walked in and president asked me if I was ready to teach family history.... haha I thought I would only be teaching my zone of 14 people.... nope I taught all of the zone leaders and STLs and I'll be teaching my zone this week. but it went well and when President was teaching about the doctrine of family history work I felt a burning in my heart. I don't think I'd felt the spirit quite that way before but I felt it soooo strong and I realized that I am soooo eternally grateful for family history work and temples. That is really where I gained my testimony. I could feel how powerful and important this work is and Im so excited to work with more people to find names and prepare them for the temple!

Well... I have to go now but I love you all,
have a great week!

Hna Millett

Pictures:

on divisions with hna grannis

My next door neighbors dog that comes to see me every time I open the door

went to a recorrido of the temple, it was wierd being on the other side of things this time!

Three generations of STLs it was fun to all be at the meeting together (my grandma, my mom, and me)

Having and asado and seafood with nancy and her family

Crazy pics with nancy and rola. Love their family to death