Great scripture! Thought I would share that! haha. It got me through the week.
Oi!!!
Red dirt, annoying dogs and confusion has been besically my week thus far. haha. I arrived here on tuesday, after leaving at 3:30 in the morning, and went straight to the mission presidents house. I loved it. We ate a really good lunch and had time to meet with him and attempt to talk about our family and life with him. I mean attempt because my portuguese is still not all that great. I am learning though. haha. My mission president is awesome! He is just a super loving man and you can feel it the moment you are in his presence. He just has that warm look about him. Well after our little orientation we went to our areas just for the next days (til sat). We all got put in londrina because the fact everyone was coming to londrina on sat for elder cook. I got to hear him again! And again on sunday! haha. How lucky! But my temporary companion was elder ellsworth. He was super awesome and had been on his mission for quite some time and trained 2 missionaries already. He is from pasco WA and it was crazy because he worked in Caldwell for a while on some farm out there and has family there. But the week was great and I loved the chances to teach my tiny portion of the lesson. One time in particular the rain was coming down so hard we had to stop somewhere so we stopped at this guys house who quickly let us in. We got talking and my companion goes, teach the whole thing! He just sat there and didn't say a word... haha. It was good for me. I taught just quickly about the book of mormon and how the gospel blesses my life and that we need to pray to know if these things are true. Luckily the rain stopped after that. I was super glad because things got a little awkward when I didn't know what to say. Come to find out, (my comp told me later) that he knows that guy. That guy is basically deaf... I felt pretty dumb for not even noticing. But he talked just fine! But I couldn't figure out why the heck he was blabbering about random things here and there... Anyways...
I got put into my new area and put in my house here. The area I am serving in is Londrina again. haha. Me and Elder Mcguire from the CTM are the only new ones that are here in londrina. Elder Folland is my companion and will be training me. He is really working to break me out of my shell because I always get so nervous when teaching. I have already said some things that I was like crap... why did I even say that! haha. But he is from Bountiful Utah and was CJ Powers comp in the mtc. Pretty crazy I would say. He is going to be an awesome trainer and I know it.
I got into my place that I will be staying, probably for the next 3 months, and it is super nice! The beds are nice, the ants in our room and kitchen are friendly,and the bathroom even has a baday! (No idea how to spell that...) [bidet] haha. But it is pretty sweet. I have never seen one before. Along with the house, everyone is super nice here. I have only met one person that didn't like us. (probably because he was a little intoxicated) but everyone is super friendly. We had stake conf this week and got to hear elder cook again like I had said and we had two younger boys come with us. We are working really hard to get them baptized because they really have a desire to be baptized and are super awesome. Their names are Lucas (13) and Washington (10). Awesome name right! I explained that his name was a united states state and he was super proud of himself. We recently also have been really working with 2 sisters in our ward to get the sisters husband baptized. He has a drinking problem but really wants to quit and be baptized becauuse his daughter Luciani (20) and Maria (the mother) have already been baptized. They are super awesome and we last time taught him to pray. Its one thing when we get to pray ourselves daily, but when I had the opportunity to hear him pray the spirit was there so strong. The amazing thing is that all that was said in the prayer was...Heavenly Father, please let me know the book of mormon is true, amen. Such a simple prayer brought the spirit so strong. Its amazing.
Yesterday I got to meet my bishop when we went to his house. He is a super nice and humble man. He looks about in his 70s and was doing dips (you will have to look up this excercise if you don't know what it is) in the middle of him teaching us. He is super cool. I also call him (not to him) Bispo Fonzy. He pulls out his comb and will comb his hair back every 20 minutes. Its super funny. Definitely a greese the movie moment. haha.
So I will never in my life own a dog. Dogs are super annoying down here to say the least. We clap at someones gate and get about 5 dogs barking so loudly and we cant even hear them half the time. We also get dogs that follow us and bark at us for 5-10 minutes. And the other dog that walks around with us for a good hour and those are the nice ones. They look like they have many diseases though... haha. So I totally understand as to why we clap at gates now. Everyone has a gate here and I love getting to clap. Everyone has their windows open and can hear and the cement walls echo the clap. Its super sweet. I now fully understand it.
Life is great here and times are for sure hard for me! I am just learning how to be an effective missionary. Struggling pretty bad with the language but I know I have the Lord on my side. I am just getting over the fear that I will mess up. I know I will mess up but it will be a great learning experience for me everytime I do mess up. Letters are always much appreciated so let everyone know, I would LOVE lots of letters! That would be wonderful!
Send the letters to that address in my packet and the packages to the one it says also! [Note the addresses posted.]
The food is a lot better here too. I decided the CTM just probably wasn´t as good because of the fact they had to feed so many people. I gotta learn to stop complaining so much. The mission will help with that and I know that for sure. I can already see it changing me to be better and I am super grateful for it. My mission president told me, its in the times of struggle and even homesickness that we learn the most. We learn to better people and prepared for anything. Elder Q L Cook also said, you don't realize it, but its not only ourselves we are blessing and the people we are serving that receive these blessings, but the bulk of the blessings will be seen in the ones at home making the sacrifices they are. Whether it be Family, Friends, Future Spouse or Future Children, all these lives will be blessed.
I Love you all and hope to be able to read lots of letters soon! I love you!
-Elder Millett
ps. I already have that tan line on my neck.... darn missionary tans!
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| CTM President and Sister Degn |
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| He wouldn't smile... my companion is crazy! But this is the best I could do! |
