Jello Legs

Yeah the title of this email is exactly how my legs feel... I walked a TON this week and don't know how my legs are still working in all honesty. haha. But yesterday for real I was walking and almost fell on the ground and it was horrible. I feel weaker every week. haha. But all in all was a pretty chill week...

First, yes that was me that took some money out. I didn't know if my old card worked or not and REALLY needed money. I was super broke last week.

This week though, we got home at 9 the day before my birthday. I thought it was a little odd when someone knocked at our front door because we know like no one and normally the members don't ever stop by. There was a guy at the door with 12 pizzas. 12 PIZZAS! I was so stoked and hungry also. haha. This guy was an investigator that was taught a long time ago and owns a pizzeria. I was super happy and we ate pizza for a good 3 days... That was enough of a birthday present for me. haha.

For my birthday I sat on a bus the ENTIRE DAY. I had to go do a few interviews with Elder Ricks in another city. It took 6 hours (waiting for the busses and stuff cuz it was a holiday here, basically anti-racist day). But I didn't have any money and didn't know if my card still worked or not and stopped by the ATM and grabbed some money and was super happy to see it still worked. We celebrated by buying the best Juice you will ever drink! Its super good. I was happy with that and also had a bunch of people sing to me. Even one of my investigators called me wishing me a happy birthday when I didn't stop by. She got me a cake the next day. I consider her my mom here in the area. She said to me ´´don't let your mom get jealous, but I am your step mom until you are home!´´ haha. She is a super sweet lady.

We had 2 baptisms this week and it was great. We have been teaching them for 2 weeks only but they are an awesome family. The parents can't get baptized yet because they need to get married first but the kids got baptized. It was a great service and really funny too. The dad yesterday was really upset about something and in the middle of sac meeting he went to the bar and got drunk so it made for an interesting baptism later... haha. But I loved what one of the boys said... He told his mom when he was right next to us, ´´mom I want to be an Elder, would you let me be an Elder?´´ That just made my day. He is already going to start leaving with us to help us teach and everything and learn some stuff. It makes me happy knowing that through helping 1 person I will be helping hundreds of others in another part of the world.

It was a great week all in all and am super happy to be able to serve here in Londrina again. I am really enjoying it here! Got another busy week ahead of me. I love you guys and will talk to ya next week!

Ate mais!
Elder Millett

Another week!

Excited about the rain...not!

So first of all you are going to kill me... I forgot my camera at home today and won't have pictures for ya this week... SORRY! haha. But anyways, I am in my new area here and am liking it a lot. I am in my first area right now (Centro Civico) using the LAN house because our area doesn't have computers... Super annoying. haha. But the area here is a really big area. My comp is Elder Espinoza from Rio de Janeiro. He is a really chill guy and we work really well together it seems like. I am going to like it here. We live in a HUGE HOUSE too. It's got 4 bathrooms, 5 rooms, a huge kitchen and a huge area out in front of the house. We actually sleep out front of the house because it is a lot cooler outside. It's REALLY getting hot here and I am super glad to not have to use a backpack anymore. I am just carrying around a scripture bag now. So much better.

Got to know the members here and the area pretty well. Me and my comp are both new here, so it's not super easy to know where the members live or anything. Super tough. I traveled for 8 hours until I got into Londrina at 10 o clock on Tuesday night. I hate the bus... I am ready to get out of the habit of taking the bus everywhere... lol. I miss taking my car to where I need to go... But after that we just got working and we worked a ton. We work on the side of a MOUNTAIN! I am not kidding... It is super steep the hill. I will be super ´´buff´´ getting home now. haha.

Funny story this week. We were in the sisters area here helping them for a bit and as we were waiting we decided to do some contacts with people on the street. There is a big avenue near where we were and you are able to see it about 100 feet in front of us. As we were there doing contacts a car came whizzing by passing us. A lady yelled out of her car... ´´Mormons!!! We love you!!!´´. It made me laugh really hard actually and it was okay until the lady blew us a kiss. I am going to be super awkward getting home with girls. Now I see why the elders are always super awkward... haha

We also this Sunday got woken up to the rain soaking us at 6 o clock. We sleep outside and it didn't really work out to stay cuz the rain was coming down really hard. We got up and the day started. I HATE Sundays here on the mission. I will be completely honest. Walking in the morning without much energy having to wake up investigators to go to church. We started our journey to our area with it POURING DOWN RAIN! My umbrella broke and so did my comps, but we just went. It was good. I got soaked from head to toe for 50 minutes walking in the rain. The whole time I was thinking, ´´I would never do this if I wasn't on the mission.´´ We got there, soaking wet to pick up the family we had marked with and to my surprise everyone was already ready. The mom looked at us and said she was a little hesitant in going but saw us soaking wet and said ´´now I know this is really important for you guys to have walked in the rain just to come get us. Let's go guys!´´ Wow that really made my day. I really wouldn't do a lot of things that I do unless I was on the mission. It's crazy. But really what we have means a lot to me and means even more to me being able to share it with lots of people.

Another week passed and doesn't even feel like my birthday is this week. These weeks are passing by super fast and I can't believe it. I love you guys though and thank you so much for all the birthday mail! Don't worry about the package mom. It will get here and I will be happy whenever it gets here.

Take care!
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Elder Millett

Not sure...

What is exactly going on with all the transfers here... We haven't received the emails to know if we are going or not, but Elder Demille (one that is going home tomorrow) told me I will be going to Londrina! It will be pretty cool to end the mission real close to where I started. I will be going to Ouro Branco it sounds like. Nice and close to the President. haha.

But I am pretty excited to have some changes here. It's been pretty tough these last few weeks and has been really discouraging... But it always gets better as things move. This week we ran around a lot. We had missed a bus that we really needed to take and ended up walking 7 miles (about) to a house that we received the reference from the church. Ref´s from the church are 24 hours and you have to contact it as quick as possible. We walked and walked and WALKED and I was dying from the heat. When we got there, no one was home... Yeah even more discouraging. haha. We talked with a few people on the way too to make the trip a little bit easier also. That was a highlight of my Saturday... haha.

But anyways, this week... We taught quite a few people this week. We got to know a lot of people but no one really wanted anything with anything. The people accepted us pretty well but in the end didn't want anything. I even told my comp during the day, ´´Woah, this has been the first day in a long time that no one has rejected us rudely, but politely instead´´. haha. It made me laugh. It normally doesn't happen that way. Normally the people want to argue with us or tell us how stupid we are for believing in the stuff we believe... haha. It made me really grateful.

Last night we went to Uderleis house to learn how to make a Macaroni soup. Yeah you guys will love it. I will try and do it as well as he did it, but seriously the BEST I have ever eaten in my life, no joke. I love that family seriously and am so glad I got to meet them and teach them. Stake conf is in 2 weeks here that I will not be able to see sadly, but he will be receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood. It makes me so excited. I just feel that if even a few of the people that I have baptized stay firm and receive the further ordinances, I will be very happy and feel like these 2 years were all worth it.

Every week is a testimony builder for me with little things. I even today got reading my journal entries from a year ago and wow... I have changed a TON. I didn't realize until I got reading those entries in my journal. It is crazy, but at least I can see now that the mission really has changed me.

Gotta get going though. I got to pack and tomorrow early in the morning I will be off traveling!

I love you guys!

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Elder Millett

Oi de Cascavel! (Hi Cascavel!)

Another week flown by and feels like we got nothing done this week. This week was another stressful week and sometimes just makes me want to give up. You know that feeling. But we kept working until the end as normal. This week got really frustrated and it was just one of those weeks. The first two days of the week we spent trying to find new people but with over 100 doors knocked, 1 person let us in... You could imagine my frustration. It was one of those kind of weeks. We got to the end of the week with only very few people wanting to go to church, and no one went. We did get to church however, with 9 people that the members brought to introduce to the church. I was SUPER relieved! Its super frustrating having no one from our group we were teaching go, but there is always next week.

I have been doing a lot of thinking these past few weeks about how I can use these last few months to better my life. I got to reading my blessing and found it very interesting... It's just a crazy thing when you read your blessing and nothing really makes sense to you in that moment, but when it had passed or come to that time when I needed it, I understood. It was the first time I had read my blessing in 3 months I admit... I got reading a part that really touched me in that moment. I got reading about the importance of the priesthood, giving blessings and whatever other ordinances are included. These ordinances have been blessings in my life many many times as to have remembered many feelings that I have had when receiving a blessing from dad or other priesthood holders. It is a great feeling. I have had the chance to give many blessings these past few months and it has been a huge blessing to me. I got thinking about how much it has changed me as a person and how it has blessed me in many aspects that I can now see. The priesthood is a wonderful thing that we are so lucky to have today in this world with so many problems. My advice, from learning, is to use it whenever prompted to use it, and the blessings don't have an end. It is the truth.

I also got thinking about how it will be so tough to give a blessing in English again.... haha. English will be really tough for me to ´´relearn...´´

This week was a pretty normal one. Not much happened and I am just trying my best working a ton. It's been really hot here and I am in for a HOT summer this year. It's already hotter than it was last year in the Middle of summer... Its only SPRING right now. haha. We will see if it really will get worse or not... haha.

But thanks for sending off that package. I hope I won't need to use my card anytime soon. It's good to know. We have transfers next week so maybe it will get there in time... who knows!

Have a great week everyone!
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Elder Millett