Wow... yet another week of CRAZY!

So first your questions that you have...

First, they do drink it here. The Brazilian lemonade as you put it. I think it's funny though because lemons are really expensive here but limes are super dirt cheap so that is why they make it like that. Fun fact for ya... haha. Not even the Sprite has lemon in it here.

I haven't made it back to my area yet... this week for sure Sister Tavares said. I am really excited but am really enjoying it here in the center of Foz. And my visa... at the end of this transfer I will be renewing my visa. I am now an illegal alien walking around on the street.... SHHHHHH don't tell.... haha. But I have a paper saying I am allowed to be here without the visa. So it's all chill.

The shirts worked out great for him (Bruno). Edinea was REALLY happy about them. They were so excited to see me. They hadn't liked any of the missionaries as well since us too which is funny. haha.

I met Elder Leete this week. We stayed there in Apucarana. I had met him before too. But we got to have a fun convo about the NW and it was nice. I miss all the green fir trees. I need some ´´Trunky´´ Pictures here of WA! haha. I also told him that we stalked him before the mission... haha.

So this week has been here in the center of Foz with Elder Delgadillo, My comp and Elder Figueredo have been just having a jolly good time here. haha. We did a lot of divisions this week and a lot of things in other places. Sunday for instance I stayed at another house where I didn't have anything.... Towel, toothbrush, NOTHING. It was pretty crazy hard to not break the Sabbath. But I made it through. We have just been moving around a lot to help the other areas here. I just want to get to my area still! haha. This week though for sure... But yesterday we had a conf with President and Sister. Sister says she sees a lot of your stuff on Facebook she says. She says there are two moms that love their missionaries the most on the mission.... and you were one of them.  I thought that was funny. I still have the best mom in the world. I am super lucky to have a mom like you and a lot of missionaries say it too.

I had a really cool experience yesterday that I would like to share with you guys. So during my meeting with president he talked about a lot of stuff. One of the things he always seems to talk about was the atonement, like you guys talked about Sunday. He got talking about how our savior died and sacrificed his life for all of His brothers and sisters who would live on this earth. Now I want you to imagine the following... think of the person you love the most. The person it feels like you just can't go a day without. Now imagine that you did something horrible and instead of you taking the punishment, that person that you love more than anything takes the punishment, suffers and dies. Imagine how terrible you would feel for that person dying for what YOU did!  It is the same thing. We have our loving heavenly father who gave his son to die for us. We made Christ suffer. But the thing is, He gave it to us as a gift. I am so very grateful for the atonement in my life. I have had the privilege to use it several times in my life, as have you all too. Just remember anytime you are about to do something bad, remember all the things He went through. He suffered for YOU. My only advice for you all, is two simple words. Avoid Sin. It's what we always need to strive to do. I just think that is such a sad and joyful thing that He suffered for me also.  I had read Jesus the Christ and it literally has changed my outlook on Jesus Christ. One of the things that I had read was about all the suffering He suffered on the cross and all the medical stuff behind it too. I will have to explain more when I get home but as for now, I invite you guys to read that book. What an amazing book.

I have a testimony that this is the true church, and that Christ died for us. Don't throw away that gift He gave us. The Book of Mormon is the most perfect book on this earth. Thomas S Monson is a prophet of God in our days. I am learning so much from these experiences I am having here and love it so much. A mission is the best choice I have EVER made and probably will ever make.

The experiences I have had here on the mission have changed my life. I want to give this gospel to EVERYONE here. I would invite you all to do the same. Grab a Book of Mormon from the missionaries this next week, and I want EVERYONE in my family at the least, to make it a goal to give it out to someone and share the gospel. It really strengthens testimonies and I promise that. I want to hear how it goes too. I think it is one of the most edifying experiences you can have. The Wards here in Foz do a think I really like. They do the following.... Have a missionary moment every week. They give a BOM to one of the people who then take it to one of their friends. The next week they report on how it was then give another Book of Mormon to another member (they choose who it is) then the person gets the Book of Mormon and has a week to give it to a friend. It's a really cool thing. But I challenge you, to give out a Book of Mormon this week. It's a great experience and I promise that nothing bad can come out of it.

I love you all and hope this week for you guys is wonderful! I miss you all like crazy (as normal) and I am thinking about you often and praying for everyone's well being. Smile often and don't let anything make you sad. Especially you mom with those braces! hehe. I love you guys!

Ate Mais!
Elder Millett
(Cam)

Long week of NOTHING!....

So the week was pretty interesting... To start off, I don't even have a house in my new area as of yet. But we also still haven't even made it to our new area yet. We had to wait around here until my companion had an appointment to go to the police office to get registered. He is there right now as we speak, FINALLY! haha. But what we did the entire week.... We went back to APUCARANA! haha. We stayed there for a whole week which was kinda fun, and really draining. We did like absolutely nothing there which was just horrible. But, I got to see the people I baptized, come to find out all of them are FIRM! When I went to Edineas house I stopped by and had my comp clap at the gate. She just thought it was the missionaries and just said as normal, come on in! it was really funny. I just started talking and as she got closer, she realized that it was me and just started screaming for Bruno. Bruno came running out and just gave me a huge hug super excited. Edinea said he was REALLY sad when I left. He loved the tie you sent, and I took a picture but I don't have it with me right now because I am in the mission office. But I will send it soon! She was really excited. She is preparing to go to the temple and has a calling as the young women's president. She is just so much happier. Edinea bore a powerful testimony that just changed a huge outlook on the mission. We get rejected at least 100 times a day, but it's still worth it to keep going always. It was awesome to see that.

Your questions....

The buses that we take long distances are like greyhound buses. Like any other bus. But the ones in the city are just terrible. haha. They are dirty, really noisy, and lots of other stuff. haha. The bus we take to FOZ has water on it and only stops once for food, and its super expensive. haha.

I will probably, hopefully, see those letters you sent to my last house. It's still owned by the church and all so it should get to me one day. They do have mail forwarding here but I will stop by there one day and get it.

I did get two letters at our house. It seemed like it took forever to get there though. I don't know why either...

No we are not still in the same ward. We are in another city called Medineiras close to Foz. It is a really strong branch and the area hasn't had missionaries in more than 3 years! Crazy! So it's all ready there!

Elder Anderson, he is from Texas. He has 4 sisters and he is the oldest in his family. He swam back home, swing dances, worked as a computer something or other also. I don't know a whole TON yet, but I will fill you in on more details. He served in Texas for 1 transfer waiting on his visa.

So tomorrow we are going to head back to Foz, finally. We will have to take a bus for an hour to our area though until we get a house there and everything. I hope that we get one here soon. They found one but are waiting on the paper work. But I will be there with Elder Finati still and another Brazilian. But as for now, I get to spend my pday working.... And sitting here in the office doing almost nothing. I will try and find something to do to be active, but we might just go to McDonalds, just cuz its been a while! haha. But I am super glad to see everyone is still happy and alive! And yes mom, I am alive too. Don't have to worry about me! There are others watching over me with a lot more power than any man has.

Take care!
Até Mais
Elder Millett

Ps. That thing with the email to others is just in the states from what I have heard... Even if it was allowed, I wouldn't write my friends in all honesty. Gets really distracting I think.

Sorry for the wait....

Argentina!

Yep so I kinda didn't get to write you guys... I will tell you what happened. So basically what had happened this week... I am training again! I had to travel ALL day, actually for 12 hours to be exact... We had the longest trip EVER. There was a lady with a kid that was so annoying for the whole trip... yeah it was pretty annoying. You know how it always is... But the lady right behind me threw up all over the floor... It was terrible. haha. It reminded me of the time I went to the movies with some people, I remember Aimee and Aaron were there, but the kid behind us just threw up like CRAZY. It was pretty gross. We also starved the WHOLE TRIP!

So I am training another American. I guess the President trusts me. And looks like I will stay as a District Leader. I don't know for sure yet. But what happened... The guy came after us again, so we got emergency transferred. We had police officers outside of our house for over 3 days, keeping an eye on us. The members cared about us enough they wanted everything to be all good. I was really grateful for them. President and Sister took care of us. I'm very grateful for them. But I will now be in a city nearby in Foz. I will get you an address pretty soon.

But your questions...
I got the box okay. My companion Elder Finati loved a lot of the stuff. Speaking of that, I will still be with him in the same house in our new area. I am really excited. Start sending them to the mission home until the new address comes alright?

I am thinking I am all good on needs. Shirts is just a thing that has been getting really dirty. You have any secrets I can use? That and how to clean ties.

I was only about 20 minutes away by BUS from the falls. It was pretty sweet. I also could walk to Argentina. That was pretty legit too. haha.

My new companion Elder Anderson. He seems like an awesome guy and has a sense of humor. Thank goodness! haha. I will really enjoy the guy helping him. His Portuguese is like mine used to be but he will learn really quick.

Sorry for the late and short letter. I just gotta get going. We will be staying here in Londrina for about 5 days it sounds like. I think it will be pretty fun. I will just help my companion do contacts and all that fun stuff. I love you all so very much and I hope this week is wonderful! I will have a better email for you this next week! Promise!

Take care!
Até Mais!

Elder Millett

I will warn you mom, you probably won't LOVE this email... haha (Just what every mother wants to hear!)

So to answer your questions first... then to tell you the story of me running for my LIFE... No skipping this part just to read it... haha... Anyways your questions...

Pdays, yes I do study just like any other day of the week. Only Tuesdays and Sundays if our schedule doesn't give us time to study. Who won the bet???

So today the email is late because I went to the waterfalls today with president. It was AWESOME. We went with Cascavel and Foz do Iguaçu, both the zones. Man there were lots of gringos there! I also got to take pictures and talk with a bunch of Americans and help some out. I fed my addiction of taking pictures on nice cameras with some of the sweet cameras I used. haha. I really enjoyed that. I will be sure to send you the pictures and some videos so you can see k?!

Anyways... my CRAZZZZZZZYYYYY week. You ready mom? Take a deep breath and remember everything is ALL good. haha. Well first off, Tuesday, we met this guy and were talking to him when all of a sudden he started telling us about how he had a lot of drugs on him, and a gun. He was telling us about EVERYTHING about his drug dealing life then told us, if you tell anyone, I will kill you guys. Yeah, it was just a little bit of a scare. We called president and worked everything out...

Then Saturday came along... Everything fell through. Our appointments and everything. Even LUNCH! But that's not the craziest part. We went home grabbed a drink of water so we could continue going and then everything was all good. We left and started walking down the street when we saw this guy walking about 100ft behind us with a giant axe in his hand. To be honest, this is a normal thing, people heading to work and everything. But what had happened, we had a prompting to cross the street towards the other side, my companion had the same thought. We crossed, and at this point the guy was about 40ish ft behind us. He started walking a lot faster and crossed the street also. The adrenaline started immediately after that. We then felt like we should cross this field toward the other side to a members house. He followed us in the field, we for sure knew at this moment something wasn't right.

I asked him, Tudo Bem Irmão? (is everything all good?). He just started yelling nonsense and lots of other things. At this point we started to run. This got crazy. We got to the other side on to that street and he was still chasing us, yelling to come back (with the axe ready to swing). We then got to the corner of the next street and continued to run. It was CRAZY. I saw him still running to try and get us then when we got around the corner my companion was, from what it appeared, ready to kill the guy. He has trained for a long time so I trusted him... haha. But the guy didn't come around the corner. We then entered into the house of the member then everything was alright. We got talking about it and I looked back and realized just how close he got to me in that moment asking if everything was alright.

From what it seemed like in that moment when I started running after saying that to him, that he seemed to have froze for a moment. I am not being crazy, or being ´´cheesy´´ with a god saved me story, but it is the truth. In that moment he could have killed me and I am VERY grateful for the hand of the Lord in that moment. This, yet again, builds my testimony even more that this work is the work of the our Heavenly Father.  All in all, things ended well. The police are helping us find this guy and we are going to head out with them to hunt this guy down, who we have seen before.

Wow, what a crazy week. It ended well today though, going to the falls and taking lots of pictures, relaxing. I am so very grateful for everything I have in my life. These falls here are spectacular! I hope one day you guys can make it down to see it. I made a video on my comps camera imitating all the things dad would say when he saw these. (you know all the funny comments dad makes) haha.

We have 26 Americans that just got into São Paulo this week, so who knows next week I could be training! That would be crazy. A lot of people are going to be Seniors here soon and lots of areas are going to open up here soon.

I love you all and hope everything is still going well.  All in all, this was a great learning experience, and great to know that whatever the adversary tries, can't stop the work of the Lord.

Até Mais
Elder Millett