Chi Chi Chi Chiiiiiiillllleeeee!!!!

Wow the mundial (world cup) stuff is going crazy here.  We (Chile) lost today... that was a bummer but we beat Spain!! You are right dad it is HUGE.  All of the cars go by waving flags and honking and they all go celebrate in Plaza Italia. Its the country's center where they go to celebrate that type of stuff, it was in my old sector haha. Today for pday we couldn't go anywhere that we couldn't walk because of the mundial protestors and other crazy people (someone burned 300 city buses or something). So we couldn't use public transport today for our safety (but I'm sure we would've been fine). It seems the people in chile use every excuse they can to have some big march, strike, protest, or crazy public demonstration.... its interesting) 

Wow. Girls camp canceled because of the Hippies. I had never heard that one before. How interesting. 

Ok since when did the Rickers have a private Jet????!?!?!?! 

So dad you had a big bishop week? All I have to say is THANK YOU. Wow, I don't think I've ever seen better examples of faithfully fulfilling callings than you guys and wow being out here helps me realize just how important that is. So thanks dad for everything you do. 

Mal! sister training leader!! How AWESOME!!! Chilean companion!? EVEN BETTER!!!!! How fun! What comuna is she from? 

Well. Once again not much time to get through all I wanted to say. But I'll try. 

First of all will you guys pray for me and my companion to be able to focus on the right investigators and less actives to help them to progress? There are sooooo many less actives and soooo many people that listen but I just feel like we aren't doing a good enough job of focusing in and helping the people that are really gonna progress and the first part of the problem is that we just don't know which ones are gonna progress or how to make enough time to focus on all of them...and this sector has a history of no one progressing and I really think that could be changed if we could get some inspiration of who to focus on and how. 

Well I also need your help sending me ideas of Young Womens activities, or you could even ask the young women in the ward about their favorite activities. We have one active YW in this ward and the rest are investigators, less actives, and less active recent converts. So I thought about a letter from Mal forever ago when she said no on was coming to mutual or something so they decided to build the ym and yw program. So I decided why not? Shoot I would give anything to help the Young Women here in Sotero have the same type of experiences and spiritual growth I did in YW, so we are gonna help the Lord build the YW program here in this ward because its pretty much nonexistent here. So your prayers would be much appreciated!

Well we had zone conference and something that I LOVED was what president said about our "residency".  I'll attach a pic so it makes sense. He said that so many people divide their lives into segments and make church one of them. but he drew a circle and divided it up into parts of our life and drew another which was the kingdom of God and explained that we had residency in the kingdom of god and even though we may visit the other segments in the other circle our heart and our loyalty will always be to our home country (the kingdom of god). He explained that the danger comes when we take up residency in the other circle, somewhere we don't belong. I thought that was such a good explanation because people often look at church as a part of their life, and don't understand how it must be our first priority before absolutely everything else. But every time we make decisions to put those segments in the other circle before the kingdom of God we are "taking up residency" in a country where we don't belong.... 

Well I am like 4 min over oops. Sorry gotta go!

Kyrstin Millett

   
Other Picture: Hna Jennings one of my friends that was in the las Condes zone is leaving this next transfer, so I took a last pic with her at zone conference (Nik she is Nick Emerys cousin! small world!)

Living Here and Loving It!

Alright that's totally Glenwood Apartments saying but I really am loving it here. 

Its still freaking cold but I think I'm getting used to it and plus we have seen the sun like 2 days this week! When it gets cold you can't even see the blue sky or the sun. Just clouds. 

And before I forget, DAD HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!! I soooo would've written something last week but..... here there is just no way of knowing when its a holiday or something until someone tells you and I didn't hear until saturday.... so happy belated fathers day. Love ya dad! Hope you had a great day without your favorite daughter.... haha jk..... 

Yeah mal its FREEZING. AND IT SNOWED!!!!!! It was like raining big giant snow chunks, it looked like dryer lint falling from the sky. It was so great all of us in our little house ran outside and danced in the snow (I attached a pic for ya'll but don't judge me because I had just gotten out of the shower so I hadn't brushed my hair or put makeup on.....)  we turned on Christmas music and drank hot chocolate to celebrate.... it was a GOOD DAY. 

Kates. I want your address also..... or your mission address I guess. Cuz I never have time to talk to ya much on email but I can send letters!! 

Mom and dad. shoot the house looks so different!! But it looks good!!! How weird. DAD. YOUR OFFICE?!?!?!?! WHAT HAPPENED!?!?! I don{t think I've ever seen it that empty haha wow you must have gotten rid of a TON of stuff.  

Spence! Tryin to beat me on the ACT?! Good. DO IT!!!!!

Awww girls camp. Man dad just tell them how lucky they are. For reals that time when they are in young women's is seriously the BEST TIME they have to develop a testimony. Literally when I am here and people beat on my testimony or our beliefs I just draw back on those special moments I had at girls camp when I went off by myself and said a prayer and felt a burning confirmation of God's love for me and the truthfulness of this gospel. Sometimes I don't have words or reasoning to defend my beliefs but when my testimony is challenged, it is not any physical proof that reminds me how true this all is, it is the feelings I had there at girls camp that remind me how true the gospel is. Agh such an important time. 

Shoot I just don't have any time left... 

Ugh lets see what I can get out about this week in 5 min. hope it makes sense!

Well we had a devotional from elder Robbins this week and there were a ton of things he said that I just LOVED.l 

He talked about how the mission is the best university that you could study at, with some of the hardest classes like premarriage 505 (being with a companion 24/7, living with them, getting along with them etc haha) physical fitness 202 (walking around all day) and a bunch of others but the one that he really focused in on was diligence. He said that's the class that you are forced to take in this mission diligence 505 which largely determines if you will fail or succeed. He talked about having days where nothing works out and every possible bad thing happens. He told us we should celebrate those days because we are simply being tested and if we pass we will receive huge blessings. Haha funny because the next day was one of those days. We didn't get let in one door, I stepped in a big thing of dog poop, the power went out, my comp lost her wallet, etc. But wow its true, after that come alllll the blessings. I am loving the mission, it is the best learning experience I could possibly have. There really is no better university than the mission! 

Well I sooo have to go

Love you all!

Hermana Kyrstin Millett

Explanation of Pictures:

First pic is of my mission comps. I thought it was fun that I could take a pic with all of them that I've had so far at the same time. :) Love them all

The sotero hermanas, we are having fun living all together in our teeny house :)
My new zone Puente Alto Norte

Got to see the temple again when we went up for our mission wide meeting with Elder Lynn G Robbins and mission Chile Santiago Norte

Made a no bake cheesecake (with a mix)... but we are poor and don't have a pie dish... so we made it in a frying pan

We had an asado (bbq) at presidents house haha we asked for permission to go to his house for an asado as a joke the last week we were in pocuro... so he invited us to come this week!! Super fun pday haha it was just the pocuro girls and me and my comp! 

Sotero Del FRIO

Before I forget. WAY TO FREAKING GO ALEX AND SPENCE! I'm so proud to have two eagle scouts as little brothers.... but I prefer three so jake you better get on that. ;)

Mom. My comp is super great. She is Chilena so I hope I can improve my chilena accent. She is super obedient and really nice. Lucky me, three AWESOME companions. 

Alright so my sectors name is Sotero del Rio. But I thought that Sotero del Frio was a little more fitting (for those of you that don't speak a bit of spanish frio means freezing) BECAUSE IT IS SOOOO DANG COLD. We live in a cement house with tile floors, no insulation, and heaters that don't do almost anything. In otherwords.... a refrigerator. Haha It poured rain 4 days this week, the stove stopped working very well, the heaters are burning out, the dryer plug got fried, and the hot water is mostly broken..... I don't know how I'm still alive. Haha jk Ill be fine the microwave and the toaster still work so we are able to get a little heat. And for reals don't worry Ill be fine I've been layering lots, heating up a sock full of rice to put in my bed to get it warmed up. I also went to Lider (walmart) today to buy a few more things to stay warm and I'm sure some day the guy in charge of fixing everything will come and save us. 

Haha but wow. WHAT A WEEK. I think I'll just start from the beginning. 

DAY 1 Monday. 

So I got here walked inside and realized.... that I live in a refrigerator. I didn't sleep almost at all because even with my sleeping back it was so dang cold that I couldn't sleep.... 

DAY 2 Tuesday.

It started to rain.... and when it rains the streets become rivers. Haha it was fun because we were sopping wet and I was walking around like a zombie because I hadn't slept well in a week and in normal life you can usually get by but when you are working your butt off every second you, sleep is very necessary. Hahaha so we went to visit some less actives and in one lady's house my eyelids started to feel reeaaaalllly heavy. What was a 45 min lesson felt like a 3 hour battle. I was trying soooooo dang hard to keep my eyes open but..... I like half lost the battle. Haha luckily my sweet comp noticed and just kept bearing her testimony and talking to Jenny (the less active) and she didn't notice at all..... so it was ROUGH. But then I said a little prayer in my head after we left asking the Lord to help me get through the day because I physically had ZERO energy to go on but all the ganas.... shoot how do you say ganas in english..... ugggh all the desires? Yeah good enough. I had all the desires to keep working but my body was shutting down. And you know what happened? It rained harder. so I kept going. And then.... the power went out. All except my teeny street (that has like 5 houses on it including ours) so we were like.... ummm what do we do? We called our district leaders and they told us it was way too dangerous to go anywhere without the lights and that we couldn't even cross a dark street to get to a light one.... and the only houses that had lights were ours and like three others. So we knocked the doors, no one let us in, and then we went back and studied language for an hour and cleaned the house for another hour. But seriously it was suuuuper lame but I was so grateful that after the Lord saw that I was gonna keep working even if I couldn't stay awake during the visits and practically forced me to go back to the house. Then we planned well and went to bed and I slept like a rock. 

Day 3. Wednesday.

SUCH A GREAT DAY. I met members of the ward and they were all SOOOOO NICE. Like for reals everyone that lives here is suuuuuuper nice. We had a family home evening with one of the recent converts and her kids and we were singing a hymn and her two little kids came and sat on the arms of the chair I was sitting in and agh Idk it was just really cute and nice and I looked around me and saw that we were in a house where in worldly standards they had nothing but they were just so happy, and I realized that I really was too. It was such a great day because I was full of energy, not as cold and able to really focus in on getting to know the sector. And oh my goodness I love this sector. It may have and average just as many if not less baptisms but the truth is I've learned not to care so much. I will try my hardest to get people to reactivate and get baptized but oh my gosh I am just so grateful to be here with people so nice. Everyone we contact is like "Oh yeah for sure come over some time this week!" The members I met are super nice and take care of us, drive us home at night if we need it, give us food. They rock, this place rocks. Like for reals even the group of drunk men on the street are suuuuuper nice. Probably nicer than anyone I met in my old sector. Its just a coooommppllleettelly different type of life here, less rushed, more friendly, less businesses, hospitals, and colleges and just a ton of little houses. I love this place. 

Day 4. Thursday. 

Once again it was an awesome day. We went around to visit people and stuff and we were in a less actives house when president called. And of course the first thought is oh shoot.... what now? so I answered and said "Hi president..... How are you?" and he was like, "Hi hermana millett. I'm great. Hermana Millett I'm just calling to tell you how grateful I am. (at this point I was SUPER CONFUSED) I was reading through the letters people sent me and I saw the letter from Hermana Fuentes and she expressed to me a lot of her feelings about having you as a companion and I was really touched. It seems like you have really helped her a lot and you have really impacted her mission. She wrote me a long letter about how grateful she was to have you as a companion and for all that you did for her, so I am just calling hermana to tell you how personally grateful I am for helping her so much. She has had a really tough mission and it makes me so grateful to see the impact that you had on her mission." ..... I was kinda shocked. I knew my companion was really sad that we were gonna have changes and that I wasn't going to get to finish off her mission with her but wow it really touched me to see that I had actually made some type of a difference  (I think I just pushed for obedience and tried to make things fun the best I could but my companion had been with lots of other hermanas with emotional difficulties and had spent most of her mission in the apartment because her companions wouldn't leave).  I think it really taught me how important it is to be obedient and use your time as a missionary to do all you can to serve other people, because I really didn't feel like I had done anything special for my companion or anything, but just being a normal missionary that gets up and tries everyday to help the people in his or her area makes a difference.

Well. I have to go. But it has been an adventurous week. Sorry no pics this week because I am trying to copy the pics onto my other memory card and its taking forever, but THANK YOU for all of the prayers sent my way I have been so happy this week and I am doing so well. I definitely could see all the prayers taking effect this week as I was happy and emotionally stable with all of the CRAZY changes and all of the goodbyes.... goodbyes are usually what get me feeling pretty down but I have been doing GREAT all week..... except for a little less on Tuesday haha. 

Well. Love you all!

Chau!

Hermana Millett

Puento ASAULTo

Well. The world is pretty much ending. I am no longer in pocuro. I know. I know. You can all stop the gasping. IM GONE!! No more pocuro :( :) :/ I'm just not sure how I feel. 

 Right now I am writing you from my new sector Sotero del Rio. Its in Puente Alto. Now none of you know what that means but if you were serving in Chile Santiago East mission you would know that means two things

1) Flaite. In other words Ghetto. It's a leeeetttle ghetto. That's why they call it puente ASAULT-O hahaha but don't worry I may be in the ghetto area but not the ghetto of the ghetto area. Its pretty flaite but I think I'm gonna love it

2) A little more receptive. That doesn't mean everyone makes and keeps commitments. That is still a huuuuuge problem (like baptisms wise they have had less than we had in pocuro). But at least they let you in the door around here. At least there are doors around here!! No more citofonos and doorbells that's for cuico people (rich people) here. We just have to yell HAAAAAALLOOOOOO as loud as we can. but Ive heard it will be a big change from good ole pocuro.

My companions name is Hermana Contreras. She is from Chile. She has almost 5 months in the mission. The other hermanas here in sotero with us are hermana bohman (the first hermana missionary I met in the airport, we came to chile together!!!) and hermana Taylor (she was studying at byu and only has two transfers left. She reminds me a toooon of Sarah!)

I'd like you guys to pray for me that I can listen and follow the spirit and adapt well to the sector please! Also if you could pray for the family lagos martinez. It was really hard for me to say goodbye to them and I really want them to keep progressing even if I'm not there to see the progress! 

Its been a really emotional week for me. Really rewarding, tooooons of miracles (like the typical mission miracles you see on the district or in Katie's letters... lucky lucky girl) but for reals it was an AWESOME week and I was feeling pumped and ready to go for another month in Pocuro and.....Nope. I got changed. I{m gonna copy down my journal entry because my brain is fried and I don't have time to think so here are my feelings from my journal:

Wow. I'm leaving. The Zone leaders called yesterday and I'm going to Sotero delRio in Puente Alto!!!! I'm goin ghetto! It hasn't really hit me yet but I'm happy and sad. My poor companion is pretty sad. I'm gonna miss her! Hna Huber is coming to take my place, I couldn't have picked anyone better! It was crazy I was thinking about all the potential progress, people I love etc that I'm gonna be leaving to someone else and I realized that I have left this sector better than I found it. When I came here we had like 1 or 2 investigators, 3 conversos, 4 potential investigators and 4 less actives. Now we have WAAAY more than that, so many people progressing, and so many miracles. I've seen this sector come alive. I feel so privileged to have been the Lord's servant and instrument to have done so much and seen so much.  I hadn't even realized but the progress I've seen in this sector has been an absolute miracle.  But not only am I leaving this sector better, it has made me better.  I'm leaving this sector a much better person than when I came. I've learned to love even the hardest people to love, I've come to love the scriptures (both ancient and modern), I've left many of my bad habits, made life long friends, become more like my savior, become more humble, and more patient, I've learned SPANISH!, experienced the gift of tongues, learned to trust in the Lord when I don't know what to do next. I've been able to trust in and desire the Lord's way first. So I guess now I have to accept this change. I've been praying for a month that the Lord would send me where the people need me most and now I just have to trust that that is exactly what is happening now. I feel good about it all. I'm ready to go even if its gonna be hard. I feel like I'm leaving behind a huge part of my life, 1/2 of my mission! But I'm ready for the next step. 

So yeah I'm excited to be here, missing the people but happy. Sunday was really really touching. Of course it was fast and testimony meeting so everyone got up and bore their testimony about the missionaries (because 3 of us left today). It was really really eye opening. I've seriously have gone 9 months often thinking about the stuff I hadn't done right or that I could've done better, but seriously not one bit of that mattered yesterday. EVERY SINGLE THING I have gone through in the last 9 months was 100 percent worth it for yesterday. Yesterday while visiting people and talking to people at church everyone expressed so much love for me.  We all cried and they shared their experiences and how I apparently had made such a big difference (even though I know that was really just the Lord). But I was just shocked, ABSOLUTELY SHOCKED, to see how much I had meant to people. How sad they were to see me go, how sad I was to leave them, it made it all worth it. It was a great day  for me to realize that I had really been the Lord's servant in that area and despite all my weaknesses he used me to bring miracles into their lives. And I didn't fully know it until yesterday. 

Well I have to go. But I'll send pics! 

Kyrstin Millett

Explanation of Pictures

-my district and zone in las condes. Gonna miss them!
-A view of my old sector
-typical mission apartment, using the ironing table to eat food with and one of the desks to play a quick 20 min of -monopoly while eating during our lunch hour
-saying goodbye to baby mattie. :,( how sad. 

-My desk spot in pocuro.... gonna miss it (before I had to take down all of my photos and stuff)

-our asado chileno with the obra misional from the pocuro ward

-We went to lunch this week with an hermana and what do you know her whole family was out below the building -watching two of the soccer players from the the seleccion de Chile for the FIFA mundial film a comercial. Hehe so I got a free Chile seleccion tshirt and everything!

-saying goodbye to "reverendo" our evangelical conserje who always calls us the reverendas

-saying goodbye to angie and rodrigo. I{m gonna miss them soooooooo much. we cried a lot.