Janna Mills

week 34

2011-12-23T11:19:00.000-07:00

Hola!! So yes... I moved! Bracknell is nice.. it's actually really posh. ha ha but it isn't as beautiful as Devon, that's for sure. This is the city, that was the country side. ha ha but this week has been so so good because guess what? We went to the temple!! We had our Christmas conference, so we left the flat at 5 am ha ha and traveled to the temple with all the other missionaries around these parts and then we went through a session at the London Temple and then we all did little Christmas skits! Ours. Was. Hilarious! Oh my gosh. Elder Dearing and Elder Cross had a member in the Farnborough ward where they are serving tell them about this youtube clip so we reinacted it. We dressed up as monks and instead of singing Motabs version of Isaiah 9:6 we made cards with the words on it and when they would sing the words we would hold up a sign... ha ha it was so funny! I had someone record it on my camera so I'll send the memory card home soon so you can see it.

But I'm so excited for Christmas! Lately I have been thinking about the spirit of Christmas. The spirit of Christmas, the reason we feel so much warmth and peace at Christmastime is because it is truly the spirit of Christ. The warmth comes from the Holy Ghost testifying to us that Jesus is the Christ! I am so grateful to be celebrating Him at this time of year as a missionary! I get to share His message with people everyday. I love it. This is Sister Poleboina's 4th Christmas and Shipon's FIRST CHRISTMAS EVER! So we got permission to take him to the temple visitors centre on Wednesday and teach him all about Christ and the true meaning of Christmas there :D hooray! PS on lds.org there are some beautiful videos of Christ's birth. The girl that plays Mary is from a ward here in our mission so I guess in January we are going to have a conference and she is going to come speak to us about playing the role of Christ's mother in the new church clips. I'm excited!

So this week Sister Poleboina was pretty sick so we spent some time in the flat. She slept and I studied. But I'm so grateful for that extra time I got to study! And then I got a phone call from Exeter, it was Sister Gregson, for the past week she has been having weird pains and the last few days the pain has been RIDICULOUS so they took her to the hospital and then when she came up for their Christmas conference (the day before ours) they took her to the hospital again and they started doing tests and such, we think it's kidney stones but the NHS has to do more scans but she has to wait to be admitted into the hospital... so for the past 3 days she has been at the accomadation centre just WAITING... ugh. So anyways she got permission to call me so she did... like 8 times ha ha and I guess she was alone, they put her companion with other sisters so she could go out and work but that meant sister gregson didn't have anyone there with her (obviously) and the way she described these "fits" to me was that they come on all the sudden and the pain is so bad she can't breathe, she can't move, she is throwing up because she is in so much pain... so anyways I called the APs and asked why in the world she was alone Saturday night and of course they can;'t stay with her, they were doing everything they literally could but I told them if they needed they could bring her to Bracknell so she wouldn't be alone! ha ha So yesterday night she called before she went to bed and said that her new companion was going to be with her last night- GOOD! ha ha anyways I thought it was cool that because we were in the flat for Sister Poleboina to get better I was able to just be on the phone and talk with Sister Gregson and try to distract her from her pain and such as well whenever she needed. Pray for both of my little sickies! ha ha

Also, our ward mission leader is from South Africa he was in the Vereeniging ward? He is really cool, we always have correlation meetings during the week on his lunch break so he will take us to a really nice restaurant and we will have our meeting there ha ha it's very official.

*our exchange with Paignton (me, Sister Gregson, Priestley, Cabrera!)
*sometimes we share the word of God with storm troopers...
*our cute neighbors Jen and Tim (the ones I got the brownie recipe for! she told us she was pregnant right when I got to Exeter and she was due the week I left)

*the sisters I have served with so far! Christensen, Gregson, and Fekete!

*Ok you see the elder on the left? His name is Elder Jones and he is from Chihuahua, Mexico. Remember how I stayed with Wendi Jones when I went to Mexico? Ya that's his aunt. ha ha and he went with our group when we layed cement floors and such!! I'll have to go through those pictures when I get home and see if he is in any of them ha ha- so crazy!
*Guess who is in my district now? Elder Kory Cross! The district leader bought us all matching bracelets/ties for Christmas!
*Me and Sister Poleboina right after we did a session at the London Temple :)
*This family went all out for Christmas! Check out that huge bag, a recent convert called Jon gave us that and it had a few wrapped packages inside for Christmas! :)

*happy christmas from me and sister gregson! yes my mug says i'd rather be in bed, hers says i'd rather be in the pub haha Jo gave us these when she moved!

*me and sister poleboina!
*the haircut
*me and gregs with martyn!!
*sister terry (the sister from temple square :) )
*this post box was literally overflowing! we love post!!

Week 33

2011-12-07T11:39:00.002-07:00

It sounds like the Christmas season has had a beautiful start for you there. Yay for Christmas! We have been seeing so so many Christmas miracles. This morning for example.... Antony accepted a baptismal date for December 31st!!!!! I don't think I've told you about Antony. Last week we were teaching someone in the library and a guy walked past and I looked up and he waved so I waved back and Gregson was like who is this? I told her I didn't know ha ha but I have seen him before quite a bit in town and then the next day (Saturday) we got off the bus to go contact walk Queen street and we turn the corner and ran right into him! He stopped us and started talking to us so we arranged to meet him this morning. Well we met with him, taught him about the restoration of the gospel and he was SO PREPARED to hear this. Oh my goodness. The questions he was asking and the comments he was making, he really understood it all and he was feeling the spirit so strongly, we all were! And then after he said he wanted to be baptised he asked if he could say a prayer. :O ANTONY! Man it was so great. We are well excited to continue teaching him. I hope I get to at least, you asked when transfers are, they are on Wednesday so we will get moves call TOMORROW. Yikes.

Anyways this last week has been so fun. We started out by having a zone pday, had a thanksgiving dinner and just played all day and then we drove up to Reading. Remember I told you we were praying for a normal car ride? Ya it certainly wasn't. ha ha the sat nav told us there was a petrol station where there wasn't one so we got lost for a while and were convinced we were going to run out of petrol and have to walk but we FINALLY found a station and then things were fine, we got on the motorway again and 15 minutes later we got pulled over because Elder Parasso was speeding... oops. 20 minutes and £60 later we were on our way again. ha ha but the sisters conference was fantastic! We practised a lot and talked about core conversion. That has been something we have been talking a lot about lately. Not just having a testimony but being converted. I love The Book of Mormon. We have been teaching so many evangelical christians and jehovah's witnesses and... man everytime my testimony of The Book of Mormon and the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ is strengthened so much. THIS IS TRUE! Oh and Sister Fekete was at the sisters conference of course and she was walking! Without crutches! 2 1/2 weeks after having an ACL reconstructive surgery.. that's why we call her bionic knee. ha ha she says hello!

Oh mum I was going to tell you- Annukka Costello met us in town this morning and took us into a store and told us to look around and pick out what we want for Christmas. She took us Christmas shopping! It was so fun. We felt pampered. ha ha Sister Gregson was like my mum is going to be SO happy when I tell her about this :) so just know we are being taken care of here. :)

Is cousin Bryson in the MTC yet? Will you make him homemade chocolate chip cookies and send them to him? Because if I was in the MTC in Provo and had cousins close... that's what I would want. ha ha

Oh another really cool miracle! We got a referral last week and we tried to call this lady and she never answered but we finally got ahold of her on Saturday and she was SO excited. She took a few discussions with some friends in the states and wants to know more about the gospel, so we are going to meet her in town tomorrow and teach her more, she was seriously so happy when we called, it was so cool. I love this.

Well I think that's about all for now, I'll send some pictures though! ... Scratch that, I can't get it to work! Sorry. Rain check. I'm pretty nervous about moves call. I really am fine either way, it will be fun to start a new adventure, but I would love to stay here for Christmas where it feels like home! Well I'll know tomorrow! And you will know next week! ha ha I love you guys!

I got a birthday package from cousin Emily and a really nice letter and some money from Uncle Chris this week. Thank you!! I love our family.

PS Corbin sent me this and I thought it was so funny because it is so true. THIS is what a mission is like:

A mission is a strange experience
It is a trial and a test.
A mission throws at you the worst
Yet, teaches you the best.
I've never been so happy,
I've never been so depressed.
I've never felt so forsaken,
I've never felt so blessed.
I've never been so confused,
Things have never been so clear.
I've never felt my Heavenly Father so distant,
He's never been so near.
I've never been so discouraged,
I've never been so full of hope.
I feel I could go on for forever,
I think I've come to the end of my rope.
I've never had it quite so easy,
I've never had it quite so tough.
Things have never been so smooth,
Things have never been so rough.
I've never traveled through more valleys,
I've never ascended more peaks.
I've never met so many nice people.
I've never met so many freaks!
I've never had so many ups,
I've never had so many downs.
I've never worn so many smiles,
I've never had so many frowns.
I've never been so lonely,
I've never had so many friends.
BOY, I hope this is over soon,
GOSH, I hope this never ends.

Week 32

2011-11-30T08:06:00.000-07:00

Alright famalamaly I LOVED all the pictures and stories and even the video tan sent from the
week! I'm so happy you got to be all together for Thanksgiving! This week was such a good
week for us. The Lord knew it was Thanksgiving so he gave us a lot to be thankful for I guess. ha
ha so the week started:
*Monday night having FHE at the bishops house and we had a Mexican Fiesta! They invited a bunch
of non member friends over so for the message Sister Gregson and I talked about The Book of Mormon
and how Lehi and his family came from Jerusalem to America etc. etc. and we had the kids help
tell the story for their friends that don't know about The Book of Mormon and we sang Book of
Mormon stories and then we played duck duck goose and it was seriously so much fun we were all
laughing so hard. I love the bishops family ANDDDDDD guess what?! THEY ARE MOVING TO AMERICA! Utah
to be exact. :) They don't know where or how or anything but they know that the Lord wants them to
be in Utah. Bishop teaches at the deaf school here so if anyone knows if they are hiring at UVU
for sign language teachers or ANYTHING please let me know so I can tell them. Or if there are any
houses for sell... etc. man this family... you want them in our home ward. ha ha they are
fantastic. Oh and Tanner do you still have a snowboard? Bishop wants to get into snowboarding so
bad, he said if you have a snowboard you can sell him or if you know anyone that is selling a
snowboard he will send the money and we can just keep it until they get there. ha ha they are
probably planning on moving in April! Man I'm so excited. A little slice of England waiting for me
when I get home. ha ha
*Tuesday we had an exchange with the Paignton sisters. Sister Priestley (from up north) came to
Exeter and Gregs went to Paignton with Sister Cabrera (who is from Chile!) but there was a little
scare before the exchange.. I woke up Tuesday morning and my eye hurt so bad, especially when I
blinked. So I went and looked in the mirror and there was this bit dot on my eye lid... so Gregson
and I went to the hospital and after an hour going back and forth from the A&E (accidents and
emergencies) and the walk in clinic they finally gave me a diagnosis- a meibomian cyst. They
didn't say much else, they just gave me a pamphlet and sent me on my way. That's the NHS for ya.
ha ha ha They said I should put hot towels on it often and that it would go away by itself after a
week or so. It was big and it hurt all day Tuesday but Wednesday morning I woke up and it was
completely gone. Missions do weird things to your body. That's all I have to say. ha ha but
anyways we still did the exchange and it was so great! We went and taught Martyn about the
atonement and we saw Liz and Louise as well. We also did lots and lots of finding. Priestley is so
good at finding because she has no fear whatsoever. Open your mouth and spare not. We talked to so
many cool people this whole week.
*Wednesday we went to Paignton to exchange back and we had a little picnic on the beach and it was
such a beautiful day! It is getting so stink in cold though. Oh we took lots of pictures and I
have some I want to send but it won't let me put pictures onto the computers here at the mac
store! Boo.
*Wednesday we went knocking and the very first house we knocked a lady answered the door and she
was SMILING. She was so nice and started talking to us, told us she grew up as a Jehovah's
Witness but doesn't go to church now and her 3 kids started coming up to the door one by one and I
was just like oh a family! I want to teach you guys! At first she was really like maybe after
Christmas you guys can come over we're just really busy etc. etc. and she said that a few times
but we just kept talking about other things that would always lead back to the gospel and after a
while she was like it's so cold, I'm sorry I didn't even invite you in, come in! :D AHHHH that was
my first time knocking IN to someone's house on my mission. It was lovely. We don't usually go
knocking because street contacting is so successful here but now that it gets dark at half 3 in
the afternoon we have a lot more knocking time. ha ha but their name is The Goddard family. We
taught them about the restoration of the gospel and we are going back over on Wednesday and we are
so excited. Pray for the Goddard family.
Thursday- THANKSGIVING!! We went to the Curran's home for thanksgiving dinner. Leah, the wife is
from Utah and so she cooked us a proper thanksgiving meal. It was so yummy. They had their friends
there from Bristol and they said there is a girl in their ward in Bristol going to Ukraine in
December on her mission right before Christmas... She is probably going to be Syd's companion!!!!!
ha ha her name is Amy Lewis. So Pen tell Syd to watch out for her! oops I wasn't done. ha ha stupid Mac... anyways this Thanksgiving I'm thankful for....
*My family. (especially because you send me emails and PICTURES!! :))*How strong my family is in
the church. You are all such bright examples to me.
*Wonderful friends.*To feel so comfortable and at home here even though I'm so far from home.*The
gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that's why I feel so at home here. And I'm SO grateful for it.
*Heaters in our flat. :) ha ha*The fact that I'm an auntie this year!*To be a MISSIONARY!
Well friends we are off to Plymouth today to have a zone thanksgiving p day! We are going to have
a big feast and we will probably play football and American football and then we are driving up to
Reading! We have a sisters conference tomorrow in Reading so today we get an actual p DAY not just
a p 8 hours! :) ha ha it will be good. Hopefully this time driving up to Reading we won't have to
stop to throw up. I have great expectations for this trip. ha ha I love you guys!!

Week 31

2011-11-30T07:58:00.000-07:00

Hello hello!! Yes we are feeling much better. ha ha the week we were sick we lived on crackers and bread and it was SO good to start actually eating again. ha ha oh my goodness everyone is having babies!! Congrats Derek and Rachel and Ben and Chantal and Kent and Leisy! Did I miss anyone? ha ha oh and don't worry Court already told me the terrible news... that Nordstrom in the University mall is closing :*( ha ha ha well ok so this week was so great.

Wednesday we had a relief society activity and we did lots of different crafts, the women here are so crafty!! It was fun. Natasha our investigator was in heaven. ha ha she loved it. Did I tell you about her? She is the one that reminds me of your friend Nylene mom! We have been teaching her off and on for a little while now. We taught her up until the commandments and she doesn't love all of them so... we just keep teaching WHY we keep the commandments. She has some learning disabilities so she just takes everything in really slow. But we love her!

Ok probably the highlight of the week was Saturday. I'm so excited to tell you about it! First let me say that we have a goal mission wide to have a baptism on Christmas eve and confirmation on Christmas day or the week before as a gift to the Saviour. So we have been out "shopping" to find a gift for the Saviour ha ha and on Saturday we went to Paignton because they had asked Sister Gregson to sing at their baptism so we asked Martyn and Karina to drive us there. Karina is a member of the ward and we have been teaching Martyn (her husband) since probably the first week I got here. I have told you about them before I'm sure. Martyn reminds me so much of dad ha ha his humour and he LOVES 7 brides for 7 brothers and always sings it ha ha he is so great and anyways he had a baptismal date for.... months ago and he said he just couldn't do it, he wasn't ready he was still smoking and hadn't received an answer about the Book of Mormon and so we have just been working with him. Anyways after the baptism we were talking and then he showed me his phone and he had added an event on his phone and the subject was "Baptism Me" date 24 December and I just stood there for a minute :O what?! and his wife was like what? so I told her and SHE started freaking out What?! Really?! AHHHHHHHHH yay! Martyn is getting baptised! Oh I am so happy. Best Christmas gift ever. Really I can't think of a better gift that Martyn could give to the Saviour than to be baptised. I love it.

I'm so excited you all get to go to Colorado for Thanksgiving!! Please send lots of pictures. And drive safe. Yuck that's scary that the car isn't even fixed yet. I'll be praying for you all. A lady in the ward is from Utah and they are having a big Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, they have friends coming down from Bristol and everything and they invited us! Yay! I can't believe Thanksgiving is on Thursday! Holy cow.

TANNER! So yesterday a girl from China in the ward invited us for tea and she invited another lady from the ward named Keren from Ghana. We started talking and I asked if she had any family from Ghana that served in South Africa and she had some but they didn't serve in your mission and I was like oh because my brother had a companion from Ghana so I was wondering if you might know him his name is Sylvester Brown and she was like Sylvester Peter Brown? He is from my home stake!! ha ha so Tan if you are talking to Sylvester ask if he knows the Mettle-Nunoo family. So crazy! What a small world.

These are a few of my favourite things:

*The spell check on these computers is for British spelling so that's why I'm spelling everything with u's just FYI ha ha

*Alec wears 3 watches and 12 rings. Everyday. ha ha ha oh he is so funny

*On Saturday we were in town all day and we saw 5 cross dressers in Exeter.

*There was a big Christmas parade on Saturday in town and there were REAL reindeer there! Pooping on the streets and everything. ha ha they should have had a pooper scooper like Tanner there.

*Alec randomly asking "How's your mum" in the middle of a teach ha ha

*The sausage man! So there is a little sausage cart right by the library that we always walk past and we have become friends with the man that owns it and have talked to him about the church before and on Friday we were walking past and he yelled to us "I did my homework!" So we ran over and talked to him and we're going to teach him this week. :D We're gonna baptise the sausage man. ha ha

Alright last but not least Mom will you print this out and put it up on the kitchen cupboard so Santa Mills can see it? And DON'T let Jeff Demke put his list over mine.

Dear Santa,

I don't even need to explain I have been a good girl this year because you already know right? I have been thinking really hard about what I would like for Christmas this year. Well.... here it is.

*Burt's Bees chapstick (it's £5... aka 9 us dollars are you kidding me?)

*Purpose facewash (the soap bar, mine is almost gone)

*Listerine pocketpak strips

*Stride Non-stop Mint gum

*Hand warmers (seriously Santa my fingers are already cold all the time. Like right now... they are cold.)

*IOUs from my family signed in blood that they will each write me a hand written letter in January and/or February :)

*A 2012 calendar with pictures of my family on the months

*The Pride and Prejudice soundtrack. Or any other CDs :)

*Money for stamps

*Long sleeved shirts

*Warm Gloves

*Thermals
Now those last 3 things, you could just put some money in my account and I can just get them here because 1. they would probably be cheaper here 2.I could get them in the right sizes and such and 3. you wouldn't have to pay to post them because it is EXPENSIVE and let's be honest Royal Mail is rubbish. You'll probably have to send the things SOON if you want to get them here by Christmas. Oh and please send everything to the mission office! In fact from now on will you tell people to send things to the mission office? I might move right before Christmas and it would be a shame to not get letters and things forever because they are being sent down here to the boonies of Plymouth zone. ANYWAYS thanks Santa love ya! Love, Sister Janna Mills

Week 30

2011-11-30T07:55:00.000-07:00

Ohhh my. What a week. My birthday week was... Miserable. ha ha ha let me start off by saying I LOVE my new companion. Sister Gregson and I get along so well and it's a good thing because... it's been miserable. Here's why:

*We got food poisoning on Tuesday night. Stayed up most of the night feeling so sick.

*Wednesday we got a call that we were leaving that night for Reading. We were pretty nervous for the drive and sure enough... we had to make a pit stop for about 45 minutes. Man being sick on the side of a little English country lane is not the way I wanted to see England. ha ha ha so Wednesday night we stayed on the floor of the sisters flat in Bracknell and again... not a good night.

*Thursday we had a zone conference and Elder Wright came, a member of the 70 and let's just say instead of listening to him we were in the toilets for a lot of the day. ha ha ha ha oh my gosh looking back now we were a mess, a beautiful beautiful mess but at the time we thought it was SO funny. Seriously if we weren't throwing up we were just laughing about the whole situation ha ha it was a multi zone conference and our zone had to sing so halfway through we got up to sing and Elder Wright whispered to us "Good luck, I'm praying for you!!!" ha ha he had heard we were sick and came up and talked to us and then throughout the conference when he wasn't speaking he would peak his head around the pulpit and check on us every once in a while it was so sweet. The zone conference was actually really good and we did hear a lot of the message. The ride home was a lot better as well so the elders kind of filled us in on the bits we missed. Man... what a week. Sister Gregson kept saying to me "best birthday ever?!" and I kept saying to her "welcome to Exeter!!!" ha ha well she hasn't seen much of Exeter yet to say the least but we are so excited to just be better and finally go out and work without feeling like we are going to throw up on our investigators!! ha ha Oh this morning we went to "Sukkerz" there are tons of these foot spa places that they have these tanks of fish and they eat all the dead skin on your feet and it's really expensive but we saw this sign last week that said monday mornings you can go for really cheap, so for us it was perfect!! I'll send a picture. Man. What a week. ha ha ha it really has been a funny entertaining week. Church was really good. At 11 we all stood up and had a moment of silence to remember those that have fought for our freedom and bishop and a chap called David Richards (who is going to Exeter University getting a PHD and he is focusing on Book of Mormon studies.. it is so cool to talk to him about The Book of Mormon) spoke and they talked about how Jesus Christ is truly who has given us our freedom. It was so good. Anways we are going to go home after this and just... sleep probably. And keep praying and hoping we feel better so we can just work already! ha ha I love it. I love you guys! Oh did you get the email about sending Christmas packages and such? As for thermals... I have no idea what size I would need ha ha mediums? I don't know what sizes they come in! But ya I guess I could use some tights... I have those thick wool ones that I will probably wear a lot a lot so maybe just a pair of black tights. I can easily get them here though so don't worry so much about that. As for missionary things... did I tell you we are working with the young women and personal progress so maybe little things for them? Emily Jacobsen's mum sent me chapstick that said modest is hottest, maybe other fun chapstick Mormon sayings like that? I'll keep thinking. For reals this time ;) oh and... don't send me any food for Christmas. ha ha ok love you!

*Gregson and I at Sukkerz!

*At the mission office

*Fekete and I and the Poppy Appeal!

*We made these mittens!!!!!!!

*David Boxhall. :) Oh happy day!

*A lady from the ward went to the states and brought back Twizzlers for me :) and someone from the ward gave me takeaway Sainsbury's curry Mmmmmmmmmm AND Jo gave us her old cooker. Yay for a working oven! Happy birthday to me!

*How cool is that?! Yes it's backwards but oh well. Gregson and I drawing 22 with our sparklers!

week 29

2011-11-21T06:26:00.000-07:00

hello!! oh thanks for all the birthday wishes! I'M 22!!!!! what in the world... it's weird, it doesn't feel like it's my birthday at all but people from the ward have been calling all day to wish me a happy birthday and it's just like oh ya... it's my birthday! ha ha but guess what I got for my birthday? a new companion!!!!! ha ha so yes I am emailing today because we were traveling all day yesterday, Fekete and I took the train to London, picked up Gregson, said goodbye to Fekete and we were on our way back home to the boonies of Exeter! ha ha by the way Sister Fekete's surgery is tomorrow... pray for her! So today has been absolutely brilliant. We woke up and we were about to go on a uni walk tracting and we realized that we didn't have any food, we hadn't gone grocery shopping on pday because we didn't have a pday! so we came into town and got our groceries, took them back to the flat and then Sister Gregson took me to Nando's for lunch. It. Was. Deeelish. It's so good, it's like a Portugeuse or Brazilian restaurant and the chicken is divine. There is one in Vegas apparently! Anyways then we went and taught Liz and Louise (2 really cute girls we met on the street last week that are Christian and believe we are saved JUST by the grace of God...) and then here we are emailing! By the way it's 4 o'clock and... it's pretty much dark. Brace yourself, it's going to be a long, dark, cold winter ha ha we are going to teach David after this and then we are going to the Turpins for dinner! It's going to be great.

Speaking of David.... he got baptised on Saturday!!! yay!!!! and the hot water worked and everything!! ;) ha ha I was going to send pictures but I forgot my cord! oopsie daisies. But oh it was so good. It was scary because he was walking into the font and got to the last step and just stood there for a minute, long enough for me to think 'oh my... he is going to turn around and run right out of the church... he's going to run!' but then he took that last step and it was all gravy. Fewf! ha ha oh ya and by the way he didnt' show up for his confirmation on Sunday. ha ha oh my gosh the most stressful hours of church ever, we tried to call him probably about 20 times... literally. Right as sacrament was about to begin (sacrament is the last hour by the way) he called and said he had just woken up he slept through his alarm, and our 20 calls! So he rushed down but by the time he got there fast and testimony meeting had already started so... next week. :) ha ha ha man. Oh mom you said you just switched the clocks? We did last Sunday, that's weird.

You asked about Halloween, yes we went to the bishops house and it was so much fun. We took a load of pictures but they are on Fekete's camera so I'll have to have her send them, we just played lots of games mostly eating games like a jelly (jell-o) eating contest, doughnut eating, find the chocolate button in the flour... mostly games that their kids made up that were all really messy and just fun to laugh at everyone while they did it ha ha it was fun. Oh and Friday we went to a ward party for bon fire night!! Bon fire night was Saturday but we did our celebration on Friday. It's the day they celebrate when Guy Fox was caught trying to blow up parliament so usually people have a Guy Fox cut out and burn it... ha ha ha we just had a proper bonfire using pallets and stuff and tons and TONS of fireworks! It was great. And there is something called the Poppy Appeal that is for Rememberance day on 11 November to honour all the veterans from WWI and 2 so EVERYONE wears these paper poppies on their coats, I'll send you a picture don't fret. So it's true, the holidays are upon us! Halloween, bonfire night, my birthday, rememberance day, thanksgiving, and CHRISTMAS!!!! :) Dad you asked about if we could do skype, yes! That's what all the missionaries do instead of a proper phone call, so I'm really excited! I probably have a webcam downstairs in that treasure chest looking thing of mine too if you want to use that.

Happy Birthday cousin Ellen and aunt Rosemary!!!! and a late birthday shoutout to Syd too!! I cannot believe that lady is going to UKRAINE!! oh she is going to love it. I'm so excited for her! Well I apologise again for no pictures today... I know that's always the best part ha ha but next week it'll happen. Oh did I even tell you about Sister Gregson?! She is so cool. She's from Holiday, Utahand people kept telling both of us that we are going to get along so well yada yada and... it's true. We might be the same person... ? ha ha it's going to be fun. This morning during companionship study it was so great, it's always fun to see how a new companion studies and how much you can learn from someone in just a day! She's a fantastic teacher oh and she just got her British drivers license so.. we're going to talk President into giving us a car here in Exeter. That would be SWEET!!!!! Oh my gosh side note, Jo moved!! :( She moved to Wolverhampton (Birmingham) to live with her dad so she can save some money while she works. I'm so sad. I'm going to miss Jo so much. She was always always there for us and she still will be.. but just in Birmingham. ha ha well anyways we have to go to teach Alec and David but I love you guys! Thank you for all the prayers and happy birthday emails and Tanner for the birthday pictures of Evie! She is standing and walking and growing so big! I can't wait to see her and talk to her on Christmas! :) Oh mum you asked what I might need for Christmas that the relief society could send me... I have no idea ha ha I haven't even thought about that. Can I think about it and tell you next week? Maybe just thermals :S man tis cold already. But ya I'll give it a think and let you know. Ok byeeeeee!

Week 28

2011-10-31T11:25:00.000-06:00

Happy halloweenie!!! This morning I sang that song "i'm a mean old witch with a hat and i ride on my broom with my cat!" so sister fekete, she loved it. ha ha ha ok SO no I'm not moving- 7 1/2 months in Exeter, here I come!!!! Will it be 9 months? ... we'll see. :) ha ha yesterday was stake conference and it was so funny because so many people from other wards/ branches came up to me "Sister Mills, you're still here!?" ha ha ha BUT Sister Fekete is leaving me for Haywards Heath. (Close to the temple so she will be closer for her surgery and what not which speaking of is just next week!) but she is still here with me!! Tuesday night we got home and Sister Sebald and Priestley were there to sleep over for traveling the next morning and we started to quickly pack all of Fekete's stuff and then we got a call from the zone leaders "actually sister Fekete you aren't moving... for another week" Sister Gregson (from Holiday, Utah!!) who will be my new companion has a driving test in London this Thursday so they just decided to let her and Fekete stay where they are until after that- yes!! We were well excited. We still had to go on a roadtrip on Wednesday up to the temple and back because the 2 sisters were going in completely different directions, so Fekete and I were their stand in companions for the day but it was great because we got to run into the distribution center to get a big picture of Christ for our investigator David!

Let's see... oh one of the reasons we were so chuffed that Fekete is staying for another week is because bishop and his wife had told us they would take us out for a proper curry, so Thursday night that's exactly what we did and it was so delicious! They LOVE their curry here in England. This morning we also got a phone call from a Hungarian lady that is in England for the week and is passing through Exeter today. Fekete's mum knows her and Sister Fekete's mum actually gave us a referral from this lady so today when we meet her we are going to meet that referral as well! After Sister Fekete got off the phone she was just like.... and that's probably another reason why I'm still here in Exeter. :) It's amazing how perfectly God aligns things for the benefit of His children. I know He is so conscious of us and our needs.

Like I said earlier yesterday was stake conference in Plymouth and it was amazing. President Shamo and his wife spoke and then the stake presidency spoke as well. 2 recently returned missionaries from the stake also spoke and all of them gave such wonderful talks. A lot of them talked about covenants, the atonement, and true conversion. One thing the stake president said that I loved was "Testimony is a point of departure NOT destination. Conversion is the destination." You can have a testimony without being converted.. I have seen it so much here with the people we are working with. You know what? That's ok! Because it is your testimony that will help you get to conversion. President Martin talked about how the key to conversion truly is The Book of Mormon. The more we read The Book of Mormon, they more we feel the spirit and God's love for us and the more we want to DO the things that God asks us to do. So if you feel like you don't want to keep the commandments or go to church open The Book of Mormon and find out why those little things are SO important. You will find it in The Book of Mormon!!

Oh we also got to go down to Plymouth for the adult session of stake conference on Saturday because they told us about 2 days before that they wanted the missionaries to sing at the session! So we met 10 minutes before the conference, went through the song once and then had to perform. I'll tell you what... the Lord helps you in ALL you do if it is His will. ha ha because when we practiced we sounded horrid but when we performed somehow we sounded good. Not just good but kind of great! ha ha it was well cool. Oh President Fullwood from the stake presidency spoke as well (he is from the Exeter ward!) and he talked about The Book of Mormon as well- he talked about how if you have a problem with hearing you get a hearing aid. So if you have a problem with DOING... what is the doing aid? The Book of Mormon. :) (By the way President Fullwood is nearly completely deaf and there is a man on the high council who is deaf and there is a deaf school here in Exeter and they all teach there- seriously about half of our ward teaches there, so at church they all take turns signing for President Fullwood and I love it. It is so cool! 3 members in our ward including the bishop and his wife served sign language missions here in the British Isles!)

Well tonight for Halloween we are going to Bishops house for a halloween and they are inviting tons of their friends over ;) so it is going to be sweet! We are really excited. The kids came up to us at stake conference yesterday telling us all about the haunted house they are going to make for us ha ha they are so cute. Oh did I mention the bishop and his wife have 7 kids, the oldest is 13 and the youngest is 2... their house is a mad house, I love it!

These are a few of my favourite things:

*Driving through all of Southern England on a foggy autumn day. The colours are fabulous!

*Actually knitting something that I can wear!!!! I'll send pictures next week :D

*Still being able to teach in the parks.... occassionally :)

*Waking up at 6:30 but oh wait... it's only 5:30- we got to sleep for an extra hour. It was delicious. (the only downside to the time change is that it is almost dark at half 4 in the afternoon :( )

Ok love you! Bye!

*The Tower Bridge

*Sister Mills in front of the Tower Bridge

*Sister Fekete in front of the Tower Bridge

*Sister Mills looking at the Thames

*Sister Mills on the train writing in her journal

Week 27

2011-10-25T08:45:00.000-06:00

surprise! Since it's moves week we didn't think we would be able to email home today, just wednesday or thursday but last night we got a call with some announcements and they said that we needed to come email president our numbers and such and that we could email our family as well- hooray! Especially because I have A LOT to tell you! This week has been absolutely mad!

So Tuesday we taught seminary and it went so well, I loved it! The youth in the Exeter ward are fantastic. The young women spoke yesterday about their experiences at EFY and the spirit was so strong, they all have such strong testimonies, they're are wonderful examples to me. After we taught seminary on Tuesday we had an English lesson with Krzysztof and then after the zone leaders came to do his baptismal interview. Elder Wojtysiak (voitecheck) was on the loud speaker translating for them as they did the interview and anyways afterwards Elder Hotchkiss came out to get us and let us know they had finished and he was just like "His understanding is amazing! ... How did you guys teach him?" ha ha we definitely didn't teach him, the spirit did. That was an AMAZING example to me that the spirit truly is the teacher. But Krzystof was so golden, he was a seeker for sure and every time we would have him read something in Polish he just soaked it all up and we were able to teach him the basics in English. Oh it was so cool.

Wednesday we were supposed to meet this cool girl called Betsy we met on the bus and she flogged us but later we were meeting with David at the library and guess who walked by? Betsy. Sorry Betsy but there's no running away from the truth!!!!! ha ha We rescheduled to meet with her this week. After that we were on our way to LONDON! Actually to East Grinstead, we stayed the night with the sisters there. Sister Allred is serving there and she just moved from our district so it was really fun to see her again! Oh and get this- they get to go to the temple 2 or 3 times a month during study time... :O man I want to go to the temple so bad. Christmas is coming! ha ha aka temple trip. :D

So then Thursday we woke up and took the train from East Grinstead to the London Bridge station. It was about 8 in the morning so we were on the train with all the really smartly dressed business men and women of London, we felt so posh. ha ha ha so we got off the train, walked onto the London Bridge and looked down and there it was, the oh so famous Tower Bridge!! Then we looked just to the right and along the river was the London Bridge hospital where Fekete had her appointment. I'll send a pic. So we went to see the doctor there and he just looked at her knee and said he was doing some tests positive for a torn ACL but we would need an MRI just to be certain so he said we could book an appointment to have an MRI in a few weeks and we told him we came up from Exeter and he was so good he was like oh ok well then let me just go talk to the receptionist and we will see what we can do... so he came back in and said there weren't any openings there but there was another hospital just 3 tube stops away and they had a cancellation so we could get the MRI done there! What a blessing! The only problem was that we have to wait about 3 hours before that appointment. 3 hours we had to wait in London for a doctors appointment... what a shame. :) ha ha it was perfect. So we walked around, took a billion pictures of the tower bridge and it was so brilliant, people would ask us to take pictures for them and so then we would just start chatting and they would ask why we were there etc. etc. they should just have missionaries at the tower bridge everyday just walking around ha ha so we took the underground to the other hospital and there was a huge mall right next to it so we went in to get some food because we had forgotten to eat all day and we did just a little window shopping ;) and then we went to get the MRI done. It took about an hour and then we had to go straight back to the London Bridge Hospital to look at the results. She has a torn ACL and also a torn medial miniscus and other problems becuase of the torn ACL so the doctor said she most definitely needs surgery. So we booked her surgery for the 9th of November!! The day after my birthday... happy birthday to me! ha ha oh speaking of- HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUBREY HOWELL! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBY MURRAY! We had tried to call any of our leaders to ask when we should schedule the surgery for and of course we couldn't get ahold of anyone so we just scheduled it so when we did talk to Sister Shamo so was likeNovember 9th? That soon? Well that's going to change moves! So... we are thinking Fekete will probably move closer to London and so she can work in the office or something because she will be on crutches for 2 weeks after and need to recover etc. our ward yesterday was GUTTED! They were like you guys can't move. I'm sorry but you just can't. Adrian, the 2nd counsellor in the bishopbric was like listen sisters you can fight moves, I have before and won! Call your mission president and tell him neither of you can move! ha ha It's a shame because even before the doctors appointment we both felt like one of us was going to move... the ward also kept saying if Fekete has to move for the surgery you better stay here, we don't want elders again! ha ha but sisters have been here for over a year.. they could very well whitewash the area :S yikes. I have no idea but I can't wait until we just know! The few days before moves is so weird, you don't know if you should be saying goodbye or what! Anyways so we got home pretty lateThursday night, we missed the connecting train from Clapham Junction because our train from London bridge was delayed... it was crazy. It was a good little change in the week though. And oh boy London is SO different fromDevon. Ha ha my goodness. OH! so when the doctor was talking with us about the results from the MRI he started asking us about our missionary work so for like 5 minutes of the doctors appointment we were teaching about The Book of Mormon. It was brilliant. Then the chap sitting at the front desk started asking us as well and he was really interested! But he's Muslim. So missionaries can't teach him- shame.

Wait, it gets better. Saturday afternoon we met the Basingstoke elders at the train station and then we all went up to the chapel to get everything ready for Krzysztof's baptism!!!! So we started to fill up the font like normal- up to the first step with cold water and then up to the fourth step with hot water but oh wait hot water wasn't coming out, only cold water! So we called Adrian, he came to see if he could fix it but the pilot light was out so he called Brother Snell the whiz when it comes to the building and he came and fixed up but told us it would take an hour for the water to heat up and then another 45 minutes for the font to fill. Well because the elders came in to do the baptism they had to catch a train back- they didn't have time to wait for that! So Krzysztof was baptised in freezing cold water. He didn't even mind, not one bit. The spirit was amazing there. I love baptisms!

Well I guess that is pretty much it... I'll attach some pics :) we might get to email again on wednesday or thursday, but I'm not sure we will have to wait and see. Thank you so much for the pictures kate tan and shan, and emily bcf!! I love getting pictures! :) I love you guys so much.

*Our best friends Sam & Effie Durstan and Charlotte & Adrian Chrimes!

*Our delish and noutrish dinner on the train ride home. it was SO funny we had about 5 minutes before our train was going to leave and there was a sainsbury's right across the street and so we literally ran over ran through the store trying to find food and ran back and caught our train :D ha ha

*6 months... what?! So crazy. How did we celebrate? With a baptism. :)

*Plus Elder Wojtysiak (Poland) and Elder Wan (Hong Kong)

*Us with Krzysztof

*Devon district October 2011. We went to this yummy all you can eat chinese buffet for lunch after our last district meeting of the moves- yum! The second elder from the left is a wrestler from West Jordan, Penny ask the Frost's if they know Nicko Parasso!

*Me and Feketeeta

*The exact spot me kate and tan took a picture last summer on the tower bridge.. i couldn't resists ha ha

Week 26

2011-10-17T08:10:00.000-06:00

Hello hello hello! What a week. I'm glad it's over. ha ha ha no it was a really good week, some of the highlights that stick out in my mind:

*last Monday Sister Fekete was looking for something for her mums birthday so we went into this charity shop and there it was- the most perfect winter coat just waiting for me to try it on. So I did. And we fell in love. ha ha I found a winter coat and it's in brand new condition and it was only £9!! So I used some of the money Deny and Rita sent me (yes I did get the money from them, I thought I wrote home about it! I knew I needed to save it for a rainy day and that's exactly what I did!) so happy early birthday to me- I got my coat!!! :) So mom don't worry about sending money for a coat! And Deny and Rita, thank you again!!

*Our English teaching lessons with Krzysztof, it was so fun! And Adrian, a member of the bishopbric studied English as a second language so he has been helping us with Krzysztof as well, it's great. We also teach him after we have an English lesson as well and when we ask him something "Krzysztof do you believe we have a living prophet today?" and in his thick Polish accent "Of course! It's normal!" ha ha :)

*Zone training!! It was so good. We talked a lot about prayer and it was exactly what I needed. We also talked about the attention the church is getting because of the politics in America. This last week there was a 20 minute segment on BBC about the church! And they were speaking very highly about the church! We talked about how this church will be the last beacon of hope- it's amazing that we are so blessed to already have the knowledge about this beacon of hope, and I'm grateful that I can go share that hope with others.

BUT I am so looking forward to this coming week because we're going to LONDON!!! We'll do some shopping and sight seeing... ha ya right. But seriously we are going to London! When we were with president's wife on Friday we finally got an appointment scheduled for Sister Fekete to go have her knee looked at so we can schedule her ACL reconstruction surgery. Man it was so funny and terrible at the same time yesterday one of the bishopbric members pulled us aside and asked if we are ok and then told us that he had the same surgery and that we should be careful because he almost died after the surgery because of blood clots.. ha ha ha Sister Fekete was so scared after that. I told her it would be fine and she is ok now but please pray for her! Wednesday evening we will be catching a train up to East Grinstead to stay with the sisters there near the temple and then Thursday morning we will take the tubes into London for her appointment.Are we going out of our mission boundaries? Yes, yes we are. ha ha We are going to the London Bridge Hospital which is literally right next to the London bridge so that will be cool to see that! And to think last time I was there I was being a swamp witch to Tanner and Kate and some random person was throwing bags of crisps on us and I vowed I would never go back to London again.... ha ha ha

Oh but before that we are teaching seminary tomorrow!! Oh we are so excited. They are studying the old testament and we are talking about Joseph in the lesson tomorrow- will we bust out in song and dance? TBA. Oh but for my birthday I already said I want a copy of the November conference Ensign issue but could I also ask for you to send my cd of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat? ha ha my cd might be all scratched up but you can go on my itunes and just burn another copy? Sweet! Speaking of the Ensign, have you seen it this month? ALL about The Book of Mormon- it's beautiful. And we'll have another English lesson with Krzysztof on Tuesday and he will have his baptismal interview for his Saturday baptism!!!!! Before the baptism Saturday we are going to Newton Abbot to help with this huge family history extravaganza as well- it will be well cool! What a beautiful week planned. Now let's all just pray everything will go well. :) ha ha

Well here are some random thoughts:

*The other night we were about to say our night companionship prayer and my toe started to itch but before I could even reach down to scratch it Sister Fekete reached over and scratched my foot. My mouth dropped open and I started laughing and I was just like what in the world my toe was just itching and you leaned over and scratched it!!! She was like what?!?! I just randomly thought hmm I'm going to tickle/scratch her foot right now. ha ha ha now THAT'S what I call comp unity.

*"I'm not bein funny but..." is one of the most popular phrases here. People say it all the time! "I'm not bein funny but I have seen more people get hit by busses here in Exeter than anywhere else" ha ha we heard a street performer saying that to his crowd on Saturday. There is your British quote for the week. :)

*We had more American tourists at our ward this week- from Salt Lake! It's always fun to talk to people from home. And they always say how much they love the ward, seriously I love the Exeter ward. I love Exeter so much! I feel like I'm going to move.... I love it too much. ha ha we'll see oh speaking of next Monday we don't have pday because it's MOVES WEEK AGAIN! Are you kidding me? Sheesh louise.

*I loved the random pictures from Shan, Tan, and Kate this week. The best was a convo Tanner sent me a picture of from him shan and kate, kate asked what she should wear and tan and shan wrote the same answer at the same time, ha ha that might sound so stupid and random but i LOVED it! I like being included on the little things like that ha ha so thanks Tan!

Alrighty well I think that's all for today, hopefully I'll have some good pictures for you for next week :D I love you all! Ps keep reading The Book of Mormon everyday! Are you?

Week 25

2011-10-10T10:12:00.000-06:00

Heller! Ok I can't believe I'm missing Bishop Murray's pie making adventures! Man... When Nat told me they have been sharing pies with the family... I wanted some pie. ha ha And mom, I can't even tell you there is nothing sweeter to me than to hear you saying that you have been reading The Book of Mormon everyday and having family prayers as well! Something so small that makes a HUGE difference. We had a zone meeting for district meeting this last week and the Stake President came and talked to us about the importance of The Book of Mormon, we are going to be studying a chapter of The Book of Mormon with all the members of the ward council and their families and get them excited about reading The Book of Mormon which will get them excited about sharing it as well! The Stake Presidency has invited all the members to bring a friend with them to stake conference and they feel The Book ofMormon is the place to start. :) Oh that reminds me- Penny was telling me how at general conference when President Monson walked into the room it was just a flood of the spirit, that it was so strong- that's exactly how it felt when Elder Bednar came intot he room when we had the mission conference with him. It was amazing. Penny- write down how you felt in that moment and the impressions you had at conference and look back at that often. SO many times in the scriptures it says to REMEMBER and that is exactly what we need to do. We need to remember the spiritual experiences that we have had because Satan will try and make us forget! We met with a guy this week that was a member and he just... forgot. He studies theology and he has let facts get in the way of spiritual experiences he has had himself. He has forgotten the importance of the Holy Ghost and FAITH. Sometimes God doesn't give us exact answers or physical evidence because he wants to let us show some faith! He wants us to FEEL the truthfulness of this gospel and wants us to act on those feelings even if they don't always make sense.

let me just say- we are at this internet cafe place and they are playing Rosanna by Toto... on repeat. And it's getting pretty annoying. ha ha ha

SO a few weeks ago the APs gave us the phone number of a Polish member in the Reading zone so we called him a few days ago while we were teaching Krzysztof and they talked and it was so cool because Peter, this member said he is going to take some days off work and come down and just teach Krzysztof because Krzysztof wants to know EVERYTHING he always says to us that he is just hungry to learn more about the church! We found the book "Our Heritage" online in Polish so he has been reading that- he is really interested in how the church got to the point it is now from when Joseph Smith was the prophet. He is amazing. We love teaching him. Oh! This week we were on the bus coming home and I looked over and there was a man that looked so familiar so I sat there for a second trying to remember how I know him and I asked Sister Fekete if we have talked to him on the street before and she said no so I kept thinking and then it hit me- when Robin was in the hospital for weeks and weeks there was a man in the bed next to him that was there the same amount of time as Robin so everytime we would go to see Robin we would talk to this man as well! His name is Sir Michael. Well it's just Michael, I don't really even remember why we started calling him Sir Michael ha ha so I went and started talking to him and he was so sweet, he looks SO much better more healthy and happy and full of life and said he wants to meet with us so he can hear more about what we would talk to Robin about. :) The Lord works in mysterious ways that's for sure. Well I'm sorry this is so short, there is a sweet lady sitting next to me typing a letter and she needed some help using the computer. Love you all! p.s. we are having zone training this Friday in Plymouth :D yes!

Hi Janna,
Got your email today. Yes I did enjoy the conference...watched the afternoon sessions both Saturday and Sunday at my new Church in Arlington Heights IL!
Funny how things work out...been thinking bout contacting the church ever since meeting you on the plane. Last weekend visited my cuzzin Michelle and her family in DC. I happened to be there for their family home meeting.
Of course they asked me if I wanted to join them. So many little hints from God over the years...including meeting you on the plane. Was an amazing experience..the topic was preparing their daughter for her Baptism at the end of the month
Got home and contacted the church and the next day two missionaries were sitting in my house.
Started out on this little journey but so far loving it!
I'll keep you up to date.
God bless.

Also, Sister Mills really wanted me to post these pictures.

*That's right American flag trousers. Fugliest things ever. I had to try them on.

*Plymouth Zone!! September-October 2011 :)

*Us with Phil, Tezza, and Dave :) -pray for them!!!!!-

*I cut Sister Fekete's bangs :D it was fun. ha ha

*Ok last week when we went to Torquay I ALMOST got pooped on. It was so close it just hit my finger. Man did I get lucky. ha ha

*Paignton Sisters and Newton Abbot elders and us. This is our tv reality series cover picture. ha ha oh and we are all holding ice cream. The most delicious ice cream ever :)

*Us with the elders at DARTMOOR. Beautiful eh? ps i think i was trying to fix my badge or something cause the wind was blowing it upside down.. ha ha

*Comp item. :)

*Another comp item! It's the softest blanket ever. Thank you Primark!!

Week 24

2011-10-07T07:04:00.002-06:00

CONFERENCE!!!!! Oh I have so many happy thoughts and wonderful moments I want to share with you. First of all another temple in PROVO!? You have got to be kidding me!!! ha ha the missionaries from our district came to our chapel for the broadcast and one of them is from Orem and he and I were both freaking out- are you serious?! Yay!!! Does anyone know when they will begin construction or when they plan to have it finished? AND a temple in Starvalley!? Ha ha I could only imagine dads reaction to that! That is so so exciting. I love temples! And how cute was President Monson when he got up to announce the new temples "Hello!" ha ha

OK so let me rewind a little bit- this weekend started out with a lovely zone conference. I love zone conference so much. AND we had heard they were flying the Jersey sisters (Sister Christensen) over for it and then the day before we heard they wouldn't be able to come- we were gutted. Sister Fekete said they would always do that, say they could go to a conference and then last minute say they wouldn't be able to go but we walked into the chapel in Poole and I saw this tall Sister out of the corner of my eye... sure enough it was Sister Christensen! It was so good to see them! So anyways zone conference was amazing- one of my favorite things was during lunch they said they had a film they wanted to show us, it started and we were all a little skepticle but by the end... we were all in tears. (Of course I was, I'm a cryer what can I say. Oh my gosh it was so funny President Shamo was telling us a story and he was talking about Elder Packer crying about some hymns and he said "Elder Packer doesn't show his emotions, me on the other hand, I was crying over the COLOR of the book! ha ha) anyways I think if you search on youtube you should be able to find it and watch it- watch it tonight for family home evening, I'm serious it's amazing! It's called "The Butterfly Circus"

So President Shamo started telling us about how for 30 years his life revolved around conference. He timed everything from conference to conference. He told us that about a week and a half before to a week and a half after conference he would disappear- he was the guy that was in charge of making sure everything ran smoothly for conference. He said that President Faust used to always say to him "What's the word Brother Shamo?" and President would respond "Redundancy, redundancy, redundancy" he told us how at the conference center they have MANY systems for one thing. If the main sound system goes down, they have another system that will start right up etc. etc. and then he started talking about how it's not only redundancy in the way everything runs behind the scenes, but it's redundancy in what they say as well. That was one thing I noticed about general conference- there were certain things that stuck out to me that kept coming up speaker after speaker- it's amazing! Some of those things that stuck out for me were-

*making and keeping covenants

*the second coming- and preparing for it!

*charity

*The Book of Mormon

Ok that may have been my favorite talk- Tad R. Callister's talk about the Book of Mormon- wow I loved that! He made it so clear and spoke about it so well. I loved the visual how many straight lines or interpretations can come from the bible but when you have the Bible AND The Book of Mormon only ONE straight line can be drawn between the two. I also really liked the two talks about NAMES LeGrand Curtis Jr. about the name of Jesus Christ and Elder Ballard about the name The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Elder Bednar told us to study the name of Jesus Christ so that's something we have been doing so it was so neat to hear them speak about names and the importance of names as well. Oh and I LOVED Elder Holland's talk during Priesthood session (... ya we went to the priesthood sesh. ha ha don't worry we went with an investigator) but holy cow it was amazing! It was so funny to see the difference between the Relief Society session "We love you, you are amazing, you are not forgotten" and then the Priesthood session "We are going to get close enough to just singe your eyebrows, come on men we need to do better!" ha ha I loved it though because that's what I needed to hear. The Lord has set the lines for us and we CANNOT dribble outside the lines. We can't play for both teams! Oh I just remember thinking they spoke of the hymn "We are all Enlisted" a few times, and they spoke of Lehi's vision and Timothy 4 more than once as well... those are things I want to study more. Ohhh President Uchtdorf's talk Saturday morning session, that number 4 spoke so much comfort to my heart. I loved that.

So something rather amazing- Krzysztof was so excited about coming for conference, he showed up Saturday and we got everything set up so he could listen to the Polish translation live while watching it ps how cool is that? I love that we can do that with technology! They can instantly translate it so he can watch and understand as well! and afterwards we talked to him about it and then he asked if it was ok that he was parked out in the car park and we told him of course it is and he said no is it ok if I leave my car in the carpark over night and sleep in my car so I can be here in the morning for conference too? .... :( He told us he didn't have money to drive all the way home and back but he wanted to see conference the next day! What a stud!! He is amazing. He loved conference! Well... man I don't even know what else I want to tell you about but I guess that's all for now. :) Szeretlek! OH we went and saw those Hungarians on Thursday we found a few weeks ago and we went in and Sister Fekete said they are really excited about learning about the gospel of Jesus Christ so we are going to go back this week to teach them, AND the daughter speaks English, so I'll get to teach a little bit too :) ha ha

These are a few of my favorite things-

*Getting an email from Sister Blackham with the subject "Your hugs have been delivered" :) I don't know if I said last week but thank you SO much for going to their homecoming!!

*We found a new place to e-mail, it's a little cafe and it's only £1 for an hour where we were paying £2.50 at the library for an hour! Yikes. Plus last week when we were leaving the nice man said "don't even worry about the cost- just come see us again!" ... we are hoping he says that again today ;) ha ha

*Jo got a new job at pizza hut and she gets free pizza... and brings it to us. :D Am I getting fat you may ask? You bet your cotton socks I am!! ha ha

*Learning how to knit :) Last pday Rachael taught us how to knit and we might go over for a little bit again today and learn how to read patterns, you just wait Penny and Mary, I'll be ready for the knitting parties when I get home!

*When your investigator uses words from the Book of Mormon in jokes for example: Last week one night I fell asleep with a bun in my hair and I slept right on the bun and woke up and my neck was killing me and for days it hurt so bad and I moved it weird after we were teaching him one day he said "Sister Mills are you stiffnecked?" ha ha ha

*CONFERENCE WEEKEND!

*THIS-

Hi Janna,
I had two missionaries visit last night and joining them today to watch the broadcast and church. Took a few months...but God didn't forget me:)
Tell you more later...but for now just wanted to thank you for our little talk on the plane.
Dave

:) This is Dave, the man I sat next to on the plane on my way to the England MTC. I told him about the church and I gave him a passalong card and we have been in contact here and there and then today he had sent me this email. :) God never forgets His children. :)

Week 23

2011-10-07T06:54:00.000-06:00

Hi famalamaly!! It was so good to hear from you all today! And I have loved all the random email clips from the Oswalds/ Met and Clair and Haley andPreston! Hello!!!

I am SOOOOO excited for conference!!!!!!!!!! After reading what mom and shan said about the relief society broadcast I am so excited for that as well. Our conference schedule will go as follows: Saturday- Relief Society broadcast 3-4 Saturday morning session will be broadcast LIVE from 5-7 and then Sunday morning they broadcast the priesthood session from 10-12 then the Saturday afternoon session they broadcast on Sunday from 1-3 and then they broadcast Sunday morning session LIVE from 5-7 and then Sunday afternoon session they broadcast live from 9-11.... ya we won't get to see that one :( ha ha and also we are having zone conference on Friday! It is going to be a wonderful weekend of conferences!!!! So as you are watching Saturday and Sunday morning know that I am watching the same exact thing at the same exact time ;) And don't worry Kate and Pen I'll be looking for you and the Langagers!! Our investigators are so excited for conference as well :) It is going to be such a neat thing to be able to watch conference with them! One of our investigators called Natasha is so excited for conference- it's cute. She kind of looks like your friend Nylene mom! Oh and she is a Romany Gypsy. Yup we are teaching a gypsy. :) Have I told you about Route? (Zoot) she went to Bristol for a week and just got back and oh ya I'm remembering now that I have told you about her because I remember telling you about Lin in the ward that is from China as well! They are so cute. Things are going well with Krzysztof and Csabi as well. Yesterday was Krzysztof's first time at church and he said he didn't understand much but that there was such a good feeling there. Oh it was the primary program yesterday! SO funny. But so spiritual. Kids should teach every class at church I think. ha ha It is so easy to feel the spirit because of their sweet simple testimonies. Anyways for Krzysztof we are going to set up one of the computers at the chapel in the family history centre so he can watch conference with Polish translations! I am so grateful for the blessing of technology. Ps you should all write me next week and tell me what your favorite talk was and why. :) ANDD... just give me a little sum up of what I miss from Sunday afternoon sesh. Oh that's what I want for my birthday mom, a copy of the conference Ensign that will come out in November. Mmmk?

Last week we had ward council and we talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon- I love it! Our bishop said they did some research and the time when visiting/home teaching and all the other things were the greatest in the ward was when President Hinckley gave us the challenge to read the Book of Mormon. So our stake presidency has challenged us to read the Book of Mormon everyday. So... dear family, will you read the Book of Mormon everyday as well? I promise that if you read it every day, even if it's just one verse you will have a greater love for it and you will come closer to Christ. I know because that's what it has done for me! What an amazing blessing we have in our lives to have more scripture from God, we just need to use it! Along with that- listen to conference, watch conference, go to conference, we are so blessed in Utah to be so close to it all. Besides, what's the point of having a prophet and apostles on the earth if we aren't even going to listen to what they say?! Just do it. You will have your very personal questions answered if you do. What a cool promise!

Welll just a few quick faves for you:

*When someone is trying to avoid you but you see them in town 3 different times throughout the week... then they finally realize that God wants them to talk to us. Coincidence? I think not. :)

*A Witheridge week. The bus ride up to Witheridge is breathtaking.

*A bird pooped on my shoe this morning. ha ha ha ha ha I guess that wasn't a fave but it made me laugh so... good enough.

Mmmmk then, until next week! Szeretlek!!!

Week Something....

2011-09-23T07:35:00.000-06:00

Ahoy hoy mates! I cannot believe it is Monday again already... ok something really cool I realised this morning- this Thursday September 22 it will be 184 since Joseph Smith obtained the plates. Cool huh?! ... or is that only cool if you are a missionary? ... ha ha ha anyways this weekend was such a good weekend. We had so many crazy teaches oh my days. Ok so this week we have been teaching a lot of foreign people. That's what I love about serving in England. We get to teach not only English people but... everyone else too! ha ha Especially here in Exeter because it's like the third biggest University in England. I told you about that Polish chap- so this week we taught him again and it was so cool because we would just have him read the information in Polish and then ask him simple questions about his feelings- it was so neat to watch his face as he was reading through and seeing that he was feeling the spirit. So cool! There is an elder from Poland here so we call him everytime and let Krzyztof ask him questions and really make sure he understood. We are also teaching a Chinese girl and a Hungarian chap so... ya I think we are going to be starting a little bit of an English teaching class! That will be really cool. How are we going to do it? I have no idea!! With the spirit though that's for sure.. ha ha but it's so cool because a Chinese student just moved into the ward here and she has been a member of the church for 2 years and she sat next to me and asked if we were teaching any Chinese people and I told her about Route (pronounced zoot) and she asked if she could come help us teach her! Um yes you sure can!

So yesterday at church was amazing. They rearranged some of the leadership in the ward so the stake president was there but as he got up to speak he said that he wasn't supposed to be there conducting business that week- that his counselors could have done the Exeter ward business for him but he felt the spirit so strongly last week that he wanted to bring his wife and his daughter to the ward so his daughter could speak to US. He said he was worried because moves was last week and when he found out that we were both still here he said he was so grateful and felt that one of the reasons we both stayed was so we could talk to his daughter and share our excitement about being missionaries with her. You see Sister Fekete and I and our ward mission leader spoke in church last week and we talked about missionary work and so the stake president told us that he felt the spirit so strongly telling him that he needed to bring his daughter to talk to us. So as he was saying that Sister Fekete and I just looked at eachother like... well I guess we need to go talk to his daughter after sacrament meeting ha ha so we did. We talked to her and she asked us why we wanted to go on missions and what it was like because she has been thinking and praying about going and.... it was amazing. I remember when we went to the Salt Lake temple before I left for my mission and we met that sister missionary from Reading Stake here in England and I remember after talking to her just thinking that was exactly what I needed to hear. Well yesterday after talking with her she looked at us with tears in her eyes and told us that is exactly what she needed to hear. It is amazing that the Lord has put us here for the people that are ready to learn about the gospel but He has also put us here to help strengthen others as well. It's amazing how the Lord always puts us exactly where we need to be. Even if it's just to talk to one person! When she was leaving she was SO happy and SO excited and I loved it because I remember feeling like that as well before my mission everytime I would talk to a missionary or a returned missionary about going on a mission I was just absolutely on cloud 9!! I can't even believe that I'm actually here now, I'm a missionary! :) ha ha

Oh my goodness one thing that was so funny, yesterday we called a lady we are teaching to make sure she was coming to church and she was like "well I would come to church but I don't think I can leave my cat for that long" ..... and then a few minutes later she was like "well I would come but it's raining outside and I don't like to go out in the rain." ... Lady you live in England. It is ALWAYS raining. Ha ha ha oh my. I love it.

Random thoughts-

-The Blackham's are coming home on Wednesday!! :( Sister Blackham's mother just got diagnosed wth cancer and they have to go home and take care of her so they are leaving early. I am gutted. I have told you about the Blackham's before, they are serving in Newton Abbot and they were in charge of the YSA program for the stake. They are going to be greatly missed, they have done SO many wonderful things for the people here AND especially for the missionaries.

-Last week in the email you said that Erica Littlefield saw Travis as a missionary or something.. what were you talking about? Who is Travis?

-For pday today all the missionaries in the district and the zone leaders are coming to Exeter and we are going to get chalk and play 4 square. :D ha ha it's going to be like Mr. VanCott's 4th grade class all over again!

Well the church is true. How could it not be? Until next week, Szeretlek!

Week 19

2011-09-01T09:39:00.000-06:00

Oh man. Can I just tell you that I love England. Do you want to know why? I'll give you just one little reason. Today as we were walking to the chapel we saw a man pushing a shopping cart down the middle of the street... with a ski-do on top of it. ha ha ha ha ha oh I wish we would have taken a picture of it. A post carrier walked past us right after we saw him and she was like what in the world was he pushing?! ha ha ha

Anywho I have the best news EVER for you all! First can I just say I am so happy. I love being a missionary. :) Secondly- GUESS WHAT?!

Item of business number 1: We did an exhange this week with the sisters in Weston-super-Mare and I got to go to Weston to serve on Wednesday and Thursday- it was so cool!! Oh my goodness miracles happen on exchanges! Sister Barton came here to Exeter with Sister Fekete and I went to Weston with Sister Sebald, my MTC companion! So it was so fun to serve with her again! While I was there we went and taught this guy called Darren they are teaching and I guess he had just had a problem with the fact that this is the one true church- so he voiced that concern with us at the beginning of the teach and we were able to read some scriptures but more than anything we were just able to bare our testimonies of the truthfulness of this gospel and it was amazing to see his face- his whole countenance changed from the beginning of the teach to the end. By the end he just smiled and he was like "I know it. I know this is the one true church. We need to say a prayer, I need to thank Heavenly Father for helping me realize this!!" ha ha it was so cool. I know without a doubt this is the one true church on the earth because it is Jesus Christ's church. What an amazing thing to know and what an amazing thing for Darren to realize! I feel so blessed that I was able to be there with him when he came to that realization. When we left Sister Sebald was just like THAT was the miracle of the exhange for us, we have been teaching him for 1 1/2 months and that has always been his concern and now he knows!! Well that night as we were calling Exeter they had some miracles as well! There is an investigator that we have been teaching and she would not pray in front of us at all but the sisters went and taught her and they asked her to pray and she hesitated but in the end she said the prayer out loud! Hallelujah!! AND they went and saw a family that is less active that we have been going to see that just did not want to come to church and they went and taught them and had an amazing experience with them and they were all like we want to come to church- we will be there! :) So cool!

Well a little bit about Weston-super-Mare, it's a beach resort type city and it was absolutely beautiful!! The flat is right by the sea and it was so weird because we just walked everywhere- in Exeter we have to take the bus 20 minutes to get anywhere, it was so different to just be able to walk to the chapel for a teach in 3 minutes! Oh man it was so pretty.

Ok Item of business number 2: are you ready for this one? So on Saturday we are going up to Reading for a mission conference and guess who is speaking at our mission conference? .....Elder Bednar!! He is going to speak to us and then he is going to have a question and answer session with all of us and he said he only wants doctrinal questions.. OHHHHHHHHH! Oh my gosh we are so excited. We will have to get up well early though because we have to be there for 9, at 9:30 church security is going to lock all the doors so if you aren't there in your seat by then too bad so sad (seriously that would be SOO sad) so then we will be in there with him from 9:30 until 1. :O and THENNNNNNN we have to leave right after because we have to get home because Damian is getting baptised on Saturday night! YAYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness. There is nothing more beautiful than seeing a family come closer to Christ. :) (Damian is Andrew's dad, the boy who got baptised a few months ago. The one that talks to Tanner on facebook! ha ha)

Oh man.... can you tell I'm excited? ha ha oh it's going to be so cool.

Ok wait so Emily said Bryson is going to Long Beach California Spanish speaking?! Is that correct? .. or is that where MIchael Bell is going?! Either way- CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Oh that is so exciting!

Well.... these are a few of my favorite things:

*Teaching Jehovah's Witnesses that don't want to bible bash with you. What?! I know we were surprised too. We went there expecting to be yelled at and everything but they ended up being lovely! They just honestly want to learn more about our church. So cool.

*Dartmoor! We went for pday yesterday with the Blackhams and the Newton Abbot elders and it is absolutely gorgeous. We went and saw these huge rocks that someone carved the 10 commandments into- so cool

*Being called mum by random little children. That's right it happened to me twice this week. ha ha ha one little girl I said hello to that was sitting behind us on the train on our way to Exmouth and when we got off the train she took my hand and started walking with us ha ha but because of these little kids their dads started laughing and talking to us and we are going back to teach one of them this week!

*Midnight snacks (... ok 10 pm snacks mainly nutella toast with bananas on top mmmm)

*Teaching out in the garden in the POURING rain (that happened in weston-super-mare and we were completely soaked afterwards even though we had all of our rain gear on ha ha

*2 minute powernaps on the train- train rides are so relaxing, it's like a lullaby!

*Finlay Poulter (4 year old boy) asking Sister Fekete why she is wearing a wig. ha ha ha

Ok well I feel like this is a little bit random today, I guess I just have so much on my mind that I want to share! I'm going to send a few pictures right now as well but don't you dare forget- I love you all! And I love this gospel and I love being a missionary! :)

XxOooXxoO (Nacho Libre style ;)) Love, Sister Mills!

Week 18

2011-08-23T11:34:00.000-06:00

I updated the blog with the rest of Janna's emails. Scroll down to get caught up!

KATE IS IN COLLEGE?! WHAT?! .... oh my gosh i can't even believe that... tell kate she better email me next week so i have her email and to email me her mailing address there at school as well. I'm SOOO excited for you Kate! I have heard so many wonderful good things about Utah state and I know you, you would tear it up no matter where you are but you are going to make that school and make your time there the best ever... I just know it. :) just keep remembering how much we all LOOVEEEE you! and don't be TOOO focused on school. :) ha ha i mean be smart, put the time in to study that you need to but don't you dare forget to have fun! and do crazy adventurous things those make for the best stories.

Speaking of! This is a shout out for all you Rexburgians- I hope you are all going to continue the first weekend of school bridge jumping trip to monkey rock- Flo I'm talking to you :) ha ha and send me loads and loads of pictures of it ok? What day does school start by the way?

Oh! Where is Michael Bell going on his mission? Does Bryson know yet either?

Well ok wow wow wowie this week was.... Well let's just say there were lots of ups and downs. But with a hard week just means that I learned A LOT and because it was a hard week I was able to see so many wonderful little miracles as well. Thank goodness for them too because those are the things that got us through those hard moments. Some of the things I learned this week is that trusting in the Lord is a lot easier said than done. It is something we need to DO. Trust in the Lord. He knows what is best for you. Always. I know that, and sometimes it is hard to believe that but that's the only way we can make it through this life. Know that the Lord does know what is best for you and the Lord knows you personally. He knows exactly how you are feeling and He wants you to feel joy but sometimes it's getting to that joy that is hard but it is worth it. I promise! We are preparing Damian, Martyn, Phil and Tezza for baptism but because baptism is such a joyous thing and satan knows that... he is going to put obstacles in the way to try to prevent them from reaching that goal. We are fighting like CRAZY against him. There is a line in our mission song that says "I will not cease from mental fight nor shall my sword sleep in my hand till we have built Jerusalem on England's green and pleasant land" .... true story brov. ha ha And I'll tell you what- one of satans trickiest tools is stinkin tea, coffee, ciggarettes, and alcohol. Ugh. ha ha but what is stronger than the addictions of those stupid substances? ... God is. It's true! ha ha but keep praying for them. They are stronger than they know.

*ha ha ha ha sidenote Sister Fekete just leaned over and asked me how to spell pee. ha ha she is probably writing her family about yesterday- we went and taught a lady that lives in this home with a bunch of other people and sis. F sat down on this chair and it was wet... she sat right in pee!! ha ha ha

So anyways there is a phrase here in England that is really really popular and I hate it. It is "can't be bothered" that is the attitude of a lot of the people here.

"Why didn't you come to church today?"

"... can't be bothered"

It. Is. So. Frustrating. ha ha and it makes it impossible to teach some people because we teach them and yes they love hearing about it, they love talking about Jesus Christ but then we ask them to do something and it's "can't be bothered." Jesus Christ's church is a "go and do" church. I'm sorry but you can't be lazy here on earth. We have to work and we have to learn and we have to help and share and be missionaries no matter what we are doing in our lives. That's just the way it is! I'm pretty sure I have said it before and I'll say it again- don't let laziness keep you from your testimony! The thing we are trying to figure out as missionaries is how to help other people do that as well.... well good thing I have some time left to figure it out. :)

Speaking of- we celebrated Sister Fekete's year mark on Saturday! :O it was fun we had a mini party because it was one of our recent converts birthdays as well. Ok Sister Fekete is so funny, I was singing the Utah state song the other day- don't ask me why- ha ha and for the last few days I have caught her singing it! and she doesn't really know the words so she just kind of makes it up sometimes oh it is so funny. Guess what?! We were in Exmouth the other day teaching Robin and we started talking to this lady and she said she doesn't speak English and I guess Sister Fekete recognized the accent and started speaking Hungarian to her and sure enough the lady is Hungarian!! She has lots of family that lives in Exmouth as well so she took us to meet her daughter and we are going back this week to teach her- so cool! Sister Fekete was SOOOOOO excited. Gift of tongues here I come :) ha ha ha

oh mom before I forget, we won't be emailing next Monday because it's bank holiday- boo!

Oh this last weekend we went and helped with a wedding, bishop teaches kung fu and the parents of some of the kids he teaches asked him to marry them so he asked us to come and help out and so we did and we were able to talk to so many cool families and one of them is moving so they said we could come this week and help them move and another family asked us if we wanted to come for tea this week- sweet! It was so so cool. But can I just say.. after seeing Brittany and Grayson sealed in the temple and then seeing a wedding done at the church... oh my goodness it just did not even compare. The wedding there at the church was really beautiful and really sweet but it's that one line "till death do you part." That line doesn't exist in a temple sealing because it's not until death do us part, it is forever! The temple is just... absolutely magnificent.

Well let's see I'm trying to think of what else happened this week:

*we taught a lady that believes she has demons living in her home. We have taught her before and asked if she wanted us to come teach her in her home and she responded "oh no no no i don't want to upset the demons there i'm just afraid to pray or anything there" she wouldn't take a Book of Mormon for the same reason as well- she didn't want to stir up the demons in anger. Yikes.

*Oh my gosh. Ok so we were teaching Damian the other day at his house and we heard a knock at the door so Tammy looked outside and she was like it's 2 people it looks like missionaries so I looked over and sure enough it was the Jehovah's witnesses. We have run into them before- one time we were knocking and we walked down the street and there was a Jehovah's witness starting to knock the same street... ha ha anywho so Damian and Tammy made US go answer the door and we did and they smiled about to start talking and then saw our name tags and they were like "oh are you just going out? two going out and two coming in?" and we were just like nope actually we're just visiting some members of our church here ha ha ha and after we went in and Andrew (the 9 year old boy that was baptised a few months ago) was just like "i'm glad we're members of the TRUE church, dad you are about to be baptised into the true church, don't worry" Dang straight Andrew!

*ok ha ha ha ok i am laughing out loud in the library just thinking about this- we went to teach this couple this week named barbara and ray and they are an older couple. Do they wear dentures? Of course they do. Do their dentures fall out sometimes while they are talking? As a matter of fact they do. ha ha ha their dentures kept falling out and they kept playing with them the whole time we were teaching them sister fekete and i the whole time were trying so hard not to laugh oh my gosh as soon as we left theirs and turned the corner we were exploding with laughter ha ha seriously isn't there a special glue to keep those suckers in there? man that can't be easy to eat like that... ha ha oh my goodness it was so funny.

well folks i think that's about it for the day. we are going to meet the other missionaries in our district in Torquay... aka we are going to the beach today :D we will probably just play football on the beach- we always play football man last week we played and i got a HUGE bruise on my shin, one of the elders kicked me so hard ha ha and another elder was running for the ball and another elder hit him and he flew into the stairs (going up to the stage like at our stake center) and i mean FLEW his body like curled into the stairs and then he landed on the ground and it seriously made a splat! sound like in the movies or something ha ha and we all just gasped and i was like... welp he's dead. ha ha we were pretty sure he broke his arm. but it was epic. anyways ha ha it's cloudy here but hopefully it will be good weather there at the beach! thank you for EVERYTHING!!!!! I love you guys so much. I was just thinking around this time last year or maybe a little earlier we were in Europe playing! My favorite moment was probably in Italy- we were in Florence I think and I came out of the shower and I remember thinking oh my gosh i am so tired i am going to go lay down and fall asleep in like 2 seconds and i came out of the bathroom and there was kate and tanner just reading their scriptures- it was such a sweet moment for me. So of course I followed suite and did the same and I am so grateful for that example to me. Keep reading those scriptures you guys no matter how tired you are :) Love your guts!

Week 17

2011-08-23T11:19:00.000-06:00

Happy birthday Uncle Richard!!!!!!!!

ok whoa whoa whoa wait, i didn't read all the email but i looked down and saw where it talked about justin's wife... she is from ukraine!? where did they meet? that is so cool ha ha but then that she is the one that got her friend to live at the shaw's house?! i remember that girl from ukraine that lived at their house- that is so funny! what a small small world.....

well I don't even know where to begin (is that how i start off all of my emails? ... it sure feels like it ha ha)

this past week was interesting. with the riots going on we had a few new rules such as an earlier curfew and we couldn't work on the high street (bummer) so it was a bit of a weird week. (ps wandsworth zone was on lockdown during all of it which is where elder cross is- how cool for him! ... and scary of course) oh we also had to do some training on tuesday that sucked up like 3 hours of our day but it was really good- it was about using family history work in finding and it was so cool and it got us really excited about using the family history centre more! we have a family history centre here at our Exeter chapel so it's so nice that we have it so close. man family history work is so cool! that is one of the things that got karina wanting to come back to church.

oh that same day we had to do that extra training the mission doctor came down- sister fekete tore her ACL :S it happened before her mission but when she was in jersey she hurt it again. the doctor said she will be fine to wait until she gets home for reconstructive surgery but said we should go to the hospital to get her a brace... we just need to find time to do that ha ha but she doesn't let that slow her down- she is such a hard worker, i love it! this morning i was cleaning the bathroom and i came out and she was sweeping our carpeted stairs so i started laughing a little and asked what she was doing and she said "i was so determined to hoover the stairs this morning because they are dirty but the hoover isn't working but i'm not going to let that stop me from getting it done!" Sister Fekete in a nutshell. :)

I love Sister Fekete and I love having a european companion. Her accent is fabulous and she loves learning new words and phrases. Sometimes I'll say something and she'll pull out this little notebook she has from her bag and write it down. It makes me feel pretty important, like I have important things to say. Don't worry... I don't. ha ha it's usually funny slang words that I say that she has never heard before or something. Oh and she LOVES camp songs and other little American songs like do your ears hang low, she makes me sing them all the time. ha ha I'm learning so much about teaching from her because when I'm explaining things to her I have to simplify the words I'm using so she understands... well that's what I should be doing anyways! The gospel really is so simple. It's simple enough that a child can understand it and I LOVE teaching children here because they are the ones that say the most beautiful things, because they say everything so simply. It's understanding the simple things that makes the difference.

WELL have I ever told you about Phil and Tezza? I remember I told you about Tezza naming sheep and pigs after us on farmville but have I told you their story? ... I'll try to sum it up quickly:

About a month and a half ago or two months ago Sister Christensen and I were planning for our day and in our backup plans we felt prompted to go knock on a street called Herchelle road. Our plans went through she we didn't go knock there but for the next couple days we put it down as our backup. A few days later we ran into a chap from the ward called Mark Peoples and he told us that he invited his sons friend to church and his sons friend said he would go to church if Bro. Peoples went to his wife's farmville party..... well that week at church Bro. Peoples introduced us to Phil, his sons friend. Late 20s tattoos and piercings ALL over long hair etc. pretty rememberable (sp.?) well a few days later we ran right into him on the high street and started talking and he agreed to let us come over and teach him and his wife. So he gave us his address: 1A Herchelle road. Sister Christensen and I just looked at eachother and smiled and wrote it down. ANYWAYS fastforward to now.. Phil loves coming to church and comes with his friend (bro. peoples son) who was inactive and now loves coming to church as well! It has been amazing to see the SLOWWWWWW but sure changes in their lives. They love the things that we teach them and are determined to live the gospel. Last week we told them about the word of wisdom and we went over to their house again a couple days later and Tezza said that after we left she threw away all her fags, Phil went out and got nicotene patches. Phil has been smoking since he was 9 and drinking about the same so... it is going to be a long hard process for them but it's amazing how much they WANT to quit and want to change their lives so they can feel the blessings the Lord has in store for them. It's beautiful!! But it will be hard hard work. Please pray for them. Man this last week the theme was people having problems with the word of wisdom.. especially COFFEE. UGH. I have a testimony of keeping the word of wisdom. I KNOW that the Lord knows us and knows our bodies perfectly, He created them! He knows exactly what we need to do to best care for our body and guess what? He said no coffee, no tea, no alcohol, no tobacco, etc. well.. that's good enough reason for me. But... pray for those that we are teaching who don't have a testimony of these things yet. :) I love you all!!!

Week 16

2011-08-23T11:11:00.000-06:00

Hello!!!!!!!!

Ok first- happpy birthday jason! from your favorite jamburglar ever!!!!!!

Daysabugs birthday is this month as well... happy birthday lovely lady!!!

Well we are emailing a little bit later than normal because today we went to Powderham castle!!!! It's in our area and I had no idea that there was even a castle in our area until the Blackham's called us last night and asked if we wanted to go! So us, the Paignton sisters, and the Newton Abbot elders and the Blackhams went and then the Blackhams took us out to lunch after- it was so nice! And the castle was beautiful, so so cool! I'll send pictures as soon as I get that picture box thingy!

Um ok this week I got a package from Marcelle Emily and Jana that they put together before Emily left on her mission and it was amazing!! Thank you so much Marcelle and Jana! Tell Emily thank you as well! It came at seriously the perfect time, all my little black socks have holes in them and i was about to go buy new ones and in the package they sent there were packs of socks!!!! man it felt like christmas! ha ha really it was such a fun little package oh they sent some of that del sol nailpolish where it's clear inside and you go out in the sun it's pink- so cool! the girls in the ward saw yesterday at church and said i have to bring it to church next week so they can borrow it ha ha THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

Leslie sent me a letter and explained in detail Kelsi Manwaring's wedding reception- it was glorious! Thank you SO much Leslie! Seriously stuff like that is the best. especially hearing about the turnbulls dressing up like white trash hillbillies or something ha ha ha oh that made me laugh. So someone please tell Kelsi and Christian congrats for me and someone send me some pictures! please! ha ha Oh there is a new couple in the ward and the guy reminds me of christian!!!

Well these last few days have been good because we have been teaching a lot! The best way to get used to how someone else teaches is just actually teaching with them! ha ha so it's been really good. We have also had a lot of our investigators tell us really personal things they need help with so that was amazing to see how quickly they felt comfortable with Sister Fekete. It's amazing how the work just continues no matter what. Missionaries move in and out but the work just keeps moving forward. His truth is marching on! In the rain, in the sun, in the wind, in the rain... ha ha His truth is marching on. :) Oh by the way England had its one week of summer last week. It was well hot! But now it's nice and cool and rainy again. ha ha

Dad you told me I should write a little something that they can put in the ward newsletter, it's probably too late but something I have been thinking about lately as I've been working with our ward here and seeing how a ward really runs (it's so cool to see and understand the behind the scenes!) is how AMAZING our ward is at home. I always love so much when dad writes home about different random little things that have happened in the ward like when Brother Brown helped someone's father off the stand one day after he bore his testimony and other members just going the extra mile because that's simply what they do and who they are. I love it! I love the term "our ward family" well in the Sunset Heights 3rd ward, it truly is a family and I am so grateful for it. Thank you dad for sending me those little things, keep sending those little moments to me. And thank you to I think Sister Whitney? For sending me the ward newsletter every month- that is so fun!!

Well tonight we are going to teach our dearest darlingest Martyn. He has a baptismal date but is still apprehensive about it. Please please pray for Martyn. He is so wonderful and is going to do amazing things for this ward here!!

Ok a few of my favorite things:

*new cds mom- seriously thank you. that newest cd is amazing we listen to it non-stop I had just been telling Sis. C about Kalai and Alex Boye so it was so perfect that they were both on this cd! ps there is a cd that kalai has that is all hymns... i would LOVE that cd sometime :)

*There is a chap in the ward called Bro. Koczaban and when he says the sacrament prayer he sounds JUST like Professor Snape. I'm not even kidding you. ha ha ha

*Opening a new box of copies of the Book of Mormon (see how i dodged the books of mormon vs. book of mormons fiasco there? ;))

*They call sprinkles "hundreds and thousands" here :) how cute!

*Johnny Lingo... I know I have said it before but I'll say it again. ha ha we are going to watch it with some investigators this week that couldn't come to our fireside night- yes!

*Sister Christensen showed me a picture last week of her cousin in the Brazil MTC and guess who was standing 1 person away from her.... SHAWN WIBLE!!! :) Lex, how are you!? I need to write you lady!

*There is a lady that has been playing the saxaphone on the high street this past week-it's beautiful :)

Olright well I think that's about it for the day. I LOVE YOU!

Week 15

2011-08-23T10:57:00.000-06:00

Again, sorry it took so long to post these!

Hello August- it's good to see you. :)

Well... Sister Christensen broke up with me. Ha ha but it's ok because she went to JERSEY in the channel islands!! So so cool. And my new companion just switched her places! My new companion is Sister Fekete (fehkuhtuh) she is from Hungary and she is adorable. I'm so excited to be working with her. AND she has been on Jersey for 9 months so she is loving it here so far! Of course she has only been here a few hours... ha ha speaking of oh my goodness today has already been the longest day ha ha we didn't go to bed until late because Sister Christensen had to pack up everything but she had to choose what she wanted to take because she could only take 20 kilos (44 lbs) with her to Jersey, everything else has to be sent up to the office!!! Yikesabee. Then we had to leave the flat a little before 5 this morning to get her to the Exeter airport for her 7 am flight and then we had to wait there for Sister Fekete until a little after 10 this morning. Jo, Tracey, and Aisling drove us to the airport so they were my companions for a few hours :) ha ha it was good.

Well I told Tanner he should read the talk from last conference by Elder Kent F. Richards "The Atonement Covers All Pain." It's brilliant. We have used it a lot in our teaching because it is so applicable to so many people. The atonement truly is appicable to us everyday and NEEDS to be appicable to us everyday. It is there for us, it is the most beautiful gift we have been given so use it! Just remember there's no earthly sorrow that heaven cannot cure. That's true, and I love it.

I'm excited to serve with Sister Fekete. I'm excited for a new adventure. But I LOVED serving with Sister Christensen. Our companionship was simply explained in a thought we shared often from 2 Nephi "and they lived after the manner of happiness" :) When you are building the kingdom of God, you will live in the manner of happiness, it's as simple as that. Sister Christensen and I saw amazing amazing miracles together and I learned A LOT. I'm so grateful for her knowledge and her love of the Book of Mormon. She truly found joy in the journey and I'm so glad she taught me how to do that as well. I love missionary work. I love being a missionary!! It was so sad yesterday when we went to teach our last people together, they were all families that we love so much and have gotten so close to and it was amazing to realize how quickly we have all become lifelong friends. The reason we love them so much is because we were able to serve them! Man.. the work is great. :) I love you all!

*Fernando the bus driver. Yup some of our best friends here are the bus drivers. :)

*The Poulter family :) Rachael, Dean, Fin, Abi, Chris, Albert, and Veronica. Chris' grandad (Albert) baptised him and it was glorious!

*Us with Chris making goofy faces- naturally

*Our Johnny LIngo tropical night! Ok if you haven't seen the newer full length feature film Johnny Lingo for the love PLEASE go watch it- it is so good! Are Sister Christensen and I a little obsessed? Definitely. We even named our huge pet wasp that lived in our closet room for days Mahanna :) Alex, Me, Miley, Jo, Sue, Chris, Tracey, Christensen

*Sometimes we wear sunglasses in our flat and put grapes in our mouth when we are on the phone with the other missionaries in the district... :)

*Our comp item- matching owl necklaces because of Robin. I'll send you the wise old owl poem he always tells us

*Us with Abdulmonien. We call him Abdul. He is SO cool. Unfortunately he is Muslim and is going back to Qatar to teach soon so we can't teach him anymore :(

Week 14

2011-08-23T10:19:00.001-06:00

Oops, sorry it took me so long to post these!

Mom tell the girls from the ward thank you so much, the girls here have been SO excited to hear back and all of their testimonies were so wonderful! and the cards with everyones little notes from a family party, I loved those so much. I have read them over and over again. One thing cousin Ben wrote was "and remember you've got a lot of family praying for you!" :) Thank you for your prayers, I truly feel it all. Last week there was a day that should have been just miserable but all day I couldn't help but feel joy for the gospel and so much joy for the people here, I felt like I was being held up and I KNOW it was all of your prayers. It was a really neat experience for me. That day we also sang "Because I have been Given Much" that is such a family hymn for us, I remember singing it at Leisy and Laney's farewell and Tanner's farewell as well and I know it was sung at grandma's funeral and it amazes me to think about how much we truly have been given, how much I truly have been given. At the MTC there was another verse that we would always sing. Kenneth Cope wrote it specifically for the Preston England MTC in 1999 and it goes like this:
"Because of Thy life's mission, Lord,
I too will serve.
I'll leave the comfort of my home
to teach Thy word.
I'll seek Thy sheep who've gone astray,
and those who've never known the way.
I will make Thy work, my work, today."
:) I love that so much. I really have been so blessed in my life and I feel so blessed to be here now doing the Lord's work.
There is a guy we have been teaching called Ryan, the other day he asked if we wanted to go see Harry Potter with him. We have told him our rules and such before (and actually he had looked up all about missionaries before he met with us to see what our life as a missionary is like) so he knows we can't go see movies and he was like well but you two do such wonderful work, I think the Lord would want to reward you guys by letting you go to the movie!! We laughed and explained that's not how it works but I have been thinking about that and the day after Ryan said that to us ROBIN GOT BAPTISED!!!!! oh it was so beautiful. He got out of hospital on Thursday and came to church Sunday and so we went ahead with his baptism and it was so glorious. Sister Christensen and I were talking about it and THAT is the reward we receive as missionaries. The joy of seeing someone be baptised and seeing how happy the gospel makes them... man that's what it's all about.
Robin's baptism was especially fantastic because Sunday started out to be quite the bad day. ha ha all of our baptismal dates called that morning and said they wouldn't be able to make it to church. Bummer. So we went to go walk with another investigator to church and his dad wouldn't let him go to church. Bummer. So Sister C and I were walking to church and the sidewalk gets really narrow at one point so I went and walked in front of her and all the sudden I hear "Mills! There is a huge hole in your dress!!!!!" then as soon as she finished saying that this HUGE dog jumped out of these bushes just barking and barking at us, he was on a leash thankfully but it still freaked us out so we started screaming and running away ha ha ha ha oh my gosh I wish someone would have been recording that moment. So cliche missionary moment. So uh ya hole in my dress. Right at the butt. Stupid sister missionary mall. Ha ha i'm pretty sure it happened earlier when we were going to pick up Chris to walk to church because his little siblings were playing with us and jumping up and down on us ha ha don't worry Fiona found some pins and stitched me up so everyone didn't see my knickers and then after church and the baptism we went to Karina's and she sewed it back up for me. :) Now it's even better than before.
Well let's see... I have some random thoughts..
-Did the Zabriske's move? I saw on Jo's letter it was a Mapleton address?
-You saw Bronson! so cool! Kate will you get on facebook or something and tell him congratulations!!! Tell him when I was at the MTC I met his mission president and I asked if he had an Elder Bronson Taylor and he was like well of course we did! We love Elder Taylor! oh and then I saw a picture of Bronson and I saw Sister Smith in the picture as well- she wasn't my teacher but she did a lot of group teaches and stuff with everyone, she is proper cool! When I told her I know Bronson she said that she had seen a girl in his facebook picture and so she sneakily got her phone out and showed me ha ha ha :)
Well I'm going to send pictures in another email so they will send quicker but one last thing I want to share with you it's from a talk Haley sent to me by Barbara Workman called The Quest for Joy- go and read it. Seriously it's fantastic. But one thing in there that has helped me so much this past week is this: " We may not feel deeply enough to know joy unless our hearts have been hollowed out by sorrow. A heart may not be big enough to know real joy until it has been stretched and pulled by trials and hard things." As hard and crummy as that is, I know that is true. So don't be discouraged when you are in the hollowing out process, just look forward with faith to when that big hole will be filled with joy. :) I love love love your guts! Love, Sister Janna Lynn Mills!

*Chris and Abi Poulter. We LOVE these guys. Finlay isn't in this picture though :( we'll take another with him soon.

*We went and helped Jo paint her flat the other day for our service... we painted the walls and she painted us. ha ha

*Here is a better look at the paint in our hair. It was ridiculous to get out!

*Robin's baptism!!!!!!!!!!! :) Man Robin is so so great. That guy is on fire! .... not literally. ha ha ha sorry Tan. I feel like I'm digging myself in a hole right now... I'm just going to move on.

*The hole in the butt of my skirt right before Karina fixed it :)

Week 13

2011-07-18T08:29:00.000-06:00

Well first of all yesterday at church we had some fun visitors. Sister Christensen and I were teaching a class in primary and so we met the 2 little visitors there and of course we asked where they are from. Utah. So of course the interrogation began. Where in Utah? Orem?! Where in Orem? Stonehenge 2nd ward?! (or something like that) so I asked if he knew the Blosils and the Mattingly's etc. etc. and the little boy said he does carpool with the Blosils and so then I met his sisters and his mom and they live in Marissa Stowell's ward I think just in that neighborhood and anyways so I asked how old they were and one of the girls was like 9th grade and I got SO excited "do you know penny mills?!?!?!" "ya!" It was such a happy moment!! So anyways I met the Sampson family! Lindsay and Kelsey and their brother is Brad who worked with Kate in the play ya? Brad didn't come with them to England because they are at some camps or something but it was so fun!!

Random side note: I'm glad you loved HP! We haven't met anyone that has seen it yet so we can't ask them details... ha ha they aren't quite as enthusiastic about things as they are in America over here. "Oh Harry Potter is out? Ya I'm sure we'll get round to seeing it sometime" ha ha But mom... who won biggest loser? ha ha ha just curious!

Oh! cool random thing, last night on our way home we got a phone call from GERMANY! There are some sisters there that just baptised a man from Ghana that is coming to Exeter for Uni and so they gave us all his information so we could continue teaching him. Their mission president was on the line too and it was just really cool to hear about the work in other places!

So speaking of people coming to Exeter for Uni, there are SO many university students here. We teach a lot a lot of university students. One of our favorite finding techniques is to go on uni walks. We walk close to the high street down some streets that lead us up and around near the university and we get to talk to so many cool people from so many cool places! Well the other day we were walking and Sister Christensen was telling me about a time they went on a uni walk and they stopped a man and asked him something and he said you know i was JUST asking myself that and i was thinking wow that's so cool, i hope that happens to me! Well not even 5 minutes later we stopped this chinese girl called Macy. We started talking to her and asked her some questions and for all of them she just looked at us with her mouth gaping open and then she would say... i was just asking myself that. She is SO cool. We have been able to teach her a few times since that experience and it is so different to teach someone from the ground up. Someone that had never heard of Christianity before and didn't know much about God either. And it's so beautiful to see them pray for the first time and start to feel the love that God has for them and to see them want to know more because they love that feeling so much! She brought one of her friends to church as well and now her friend wants to know, her friend wants to feel those things too! Wow. So so wonderful.

Well these were a few of my favorite things this week:

*One benefit of being from Utah county... when you are watching a little church clip about the priesthood with a new investigator and Russell Wesley is in the clip! ha ha it was so funny

*Alec and Jason received the priesthood this week!!!!! They are able to hold the power of God now... So cool.

*Having members of the ward from Ghana= Jalaffa rice. Mmmmmm

*Curry!!!! Everyone loves curry here. Last week we had curry just about everyday... it is delish.

*When our recent converts or investigators are little missionaries!! Robin is in hospital and has been for 3 weeks now waiting for surgery (NHS... what do you expect... ha ha) and he has told all the nurses about the church and we gave him some Restoration pamphlets and he has given them all away! :) little cutie.

Ok I'm going to attach some pictures and hope that I have left enough time for them to send. I love your guts!!!

PICTURES:

-Oh man this is a story. After zone conference our zone was going to get together and eat at a place called Nando's for dinner before everyone continued driving on to plymouth and cornwall and the elders told us to run and grab a seat while they waited for the others to find parking so we did and they called and told us just to order... so we did and then they came and told us they changed their mind and wanted to go to burger king. so this is sis. c and i with our nando's takeout at burger king. ps nandos is like the equivalent of pf changs but it's portuguese. oh well, it was yummy! ha ha

-TA DA!!!! Howell Road. :) Enough said.

-Magnum bars!!!!

-Lindsay and Kelsey Sampson, Chloe Williams, and me :)

And the pictures from our service day on the farm!!!! There is the most hilarious video of me catching a little piglet that you will see when I send my memory card home. It's funny. ha ha

-On the little boys toy tractor :)

-the field is white :) ha ha us with little Marcus Johns

-we had to spray the piglets with this blue stuff when they have been fighting and they have cuts all over them, it protects it.

-You can't see it but in the corner there was a spider web... CHARLOTTE'S WEB!!! ha ha

-There's the web

Week 12

2011-07-18T08:20:00.000-06:00

Hello! I have so much to tell you today I don't even know where to begin! This last week has been beautiful madness. We had a zone conference on Thursday in Poole and the drive there... mom you would have been in heaven. Valleys and valleys of green, flowers, and thatched roof cottages all along the way. England is so beautiful!!! I still can't get over it. Zone conference was amazing, we talked a lot about member missionary work and how we can help the members here get excited about helping us in the work. President Shamo was the head of the audiovisual department for the church so pretty much any movie you have seen from the church... he made it. So he used that talent of his and made a movie of a woman that lives in Staines zone called Jean Hearne that they call Jean the Machine. She is an 80 year old woman that is just pure member missionary. Every day she goes out she makes sure she has 2 or 3 copies of the Book of Mormon that she can give out to people along the way. They interviewed her and she gave a few examples of how she approaches people and it is so easy for her because she simply loves the gospel and wants to share that love with others as well. I'm going to try to get a copy so maybe I can send it home or something because cute little Jean is so inspirational. Ps everyone go take a look at mormon.org. We tell people to go look at it all the time and Sister Christensen and I finally got a chance the other day to go take a look and the testimonies on there are so amazing.

But I am SO grateful to be in this mission. President and Sister Shamo are simply amazing. They really really are. President came to Newton Abbot on Sunday to do a fireside and we had no intentions of going even though we knew it would be fabulous but on Sunday we were at the hospital visiting an investigator that is about to have surgery and as we were leaving we both just decided we needed to go invite Karina and Martin. We had no idea why and we thought it was absolutely mad that we were going all the way over to their house to invite them to a fireside that we would have to leave for pretty much right when we got there but... we did it anyways. And guess what? THEY WANTED TO COME!! Well Karina wanted to come and Martin is just so sweet he said if she wanted to go he would go as well. So we went and President got up and said that he wasn't going to talk about what he had planned, instead he talked about coincidence. One thing he said that I loved, "Coincidence- where miracles happen and God remains anonymous." I remember I said something about coincidence in the last email as well but it's amazing how many coincidences we see but really... they are just miracles happening. For Martin.. that was exactly what he needed to hear. It wasn't coincidence that we decided to go to their house and invite them over, and it wasn't coincidence that President talked about what Martin needed to hear. President also talked about how the resoration of the gospel wasn't a coincidence and the way he explained it was so beautiful and when he read from the scriptures I opened mine and Karina was looking over at them and then Martin was leaning over her so he could see them too, he was so excited after that! We went over the next day for tea and we asked Martin if he enjoyed it and he said that he was so happy when he left and the night seemed to be better and it felt the same as when we go over to teach him. :) AND after the fireside President Shamo and Martin talked for a bit and Martin really really liked President Shamo (who doesn't!) but their humor is so similar and Martin just kept talking the rest of the night how brilliant President Shamo is. It was just something so little that Martin needed. I love that I was able to help the Lord bring that beautiful miracle to Martin.

We also had zone training on Monday and President talked a lot about anti Mormon stuff. It was so perfect for Sister Christensen and I because we have been teaching a girl from the Philipines that has been searching out anti Mormon stuff because she just wants to study and see if it's true... ugh. President said something like "if you put your hand in a fire you are going to get burned" Who cares what random men say about this church. That doesn't matter. People are different and people are going to have different opinions about religion and guess what, that doesn't matter. What matters is what God says. And guess what? God says that this church is true. Enough said. :) ha ha oh but ok so Sister Shamo used to be a drama teacher and the way she speaks is SOOO dramatic it is so powerful and... kind of amusing as well. ha ha ha it reminds me of Kate's stories :) I love them!

Ok well I just have to tell you one more miracle first. Seriously this week has been a week of miracles. Our zone has been praying and fasting for the seekers to be found and for people that are seeking the gospel to find us. Well Saturday afternoon we got a call from a chap from the ward called Barry Stanley. He had been at the church doing family history stuff and a chap called Patrick called the church just asking about it. Barry said he knew 2 people that could answer his questions better than he could and called us with his number. We called Patrick, talked to him for a while and invited him to church. He came on Sunday and he loved it. We called him on Monday to make sure we could still meet wth him on Tuesday and while we were talking he said to us "I want to get baptised, I just want to learn more about your church first. But I like you and I like your friend and the way I feel when I talk to you and when I was at church... I just want to keep feeling that." :O Did we start jump up and down for joy in the middle of the street? Yes, yes we did. :) ha ha The Lord is preparing people everywhere to learn and accept the gospel. Ps Patrick stopped drinking 5 years ago and stopped smoking 2 years ago because he just felt like it wasn't good for his body. (Well duh.. ha ha) .... Um sweet! Oh and he is from Belfast, Ireland and we have STRAINNNNNNN our ears to try to understand what he is saying. ha ha ha I love it. Dad did we go to Belfast last summer? I don't remember- oops. ha ha

I love you all!! Pray and ask the Lord how you can help him bring miracles to peoples lives and to your own life! I'll give you a hint... you can start by just simply keeping the commandments. :) ha ha ok I don't have time to send pictures again oops sorry! Bye!

Week 11

2011-07-07T07:55:00.000-06:00

Dear America, I miss you. Love, Janna

ha ha oh my goodness!!!! It's the 4th of July! My favorite holiday ever! I'm so glad Shan Jas Evie Denny and Rita are all there with you together, I love that! Sister Christensen and I the other day were just saying some of our favorite family memories and I said the day that sticks out the most right now is when Evie was blessed. We were all sitting in the living room and in the kitchen together talking, laughing, making silly cartoons on Shannon's ipad with all of us and Denny and Rita and it was just... bliss! I'm sad I'm not there to do that with you all now but I'm SO grateful for the pictures you sent! I have a lot of fabulous pictures to send you BUT I'm not going to have time to send them this week because we are going to Newton Abbot today for a 4th of July celebration!! Last night we decided that we needed to do something so we called the district and decided we would all get together and celebrate by having fireworks (those little party popper confetti things) and have a barbeque (.... mcdonalds... ha ha) real American like! Then we called the Blackham's and they said they have this barbequer and so we are going to have a REAL barbeque now! They are also bringing their laptops to the Newton Abbot chapel so what I don't finish writing right now I'll send in another email because I only have .... "oh about 5 minos" left. :D ha ha ha ha ok this morning I looked at the clock and realized we only had 5 more minutes of personal study left and "oh about 5 minos" came to my mind and I just started laughing and laughing... I had to explain the story to Sister Christensen of course but she loved it. :)

SOOOOOOO we are having a multi zone conference on Thursday which will be fantastic! and Oh and before I forget, next Monday we are having zone training so we won't have pday so I won't be emailing on Monday fyi! I don't know when we will have pday so that will just be a little surprise I guess :) um ok sorry I have to go but I'll finish in just a bit! Beautiful train ride to Newton Abbot, here we come!!!!

A little while later....

I'm back again. :) So I got to read your email on the train ride over and it really sounds like you all had such an amazing week! Ohhh girls camp I cant wait to see pictures! Ok and I hope Nat Karl and Haley took pictures too, tell them I want to see them! Oh and the parade is this morning, yay!!! Daysa please take a pictures with cotton candy like we did last year :) ha ha i loved hearing from Days Cabays that was such a great surprise! Fireworks were Saturday night then? Oh that picture was perfect that you sent, you and Evie with everyone sitting around you in the pictues and jeff! ha ha :) And Oh. My. Gosh. that picture of Evie hugging the picture of me on the computer... i love that so much!!! And my picture is the screensaver? You guys are nice :) I was going to say Shan please make sure Evie is getting her Janna time everyday ok? Just show her pictures, video, my little cartoon I made for her. Deal?

Okk so just a few things.. some of my favorite things if you will:

*Again-thank you for the music!! Sister Christensen just wanted me to make sure I told you that again. We turn it on and dance around to it often. :) Oh Kate do you have the Alex Boye cd? If so.... send it to me? ha ha ps please turn with me now to page 138 of the gospel principles manual... Alex Boye is in congregation of that picture! ha ha we realized that yesterday morning, it was great

*Ok we have been teaching this couple and the wife is called Tezza and she likes to play Farmville on Facebook and she named sheep after Sister Christensen and I! I'm cute. I have stars that change colors. Oh ya and I'm a Ram. ha ha ha but anyways... we are trying to help her see that the gopel can make her happier than Farmville can.... :)

*We went and taught the Lennon-Miller's last week and in Andrew's prayer he said "we are grateful for the vibrant colors and the lovely nature and our lovely familly." :) That family is so great. They are all growing so strongly in the gospel together.

*Sister Christensen's cousin is Jason Hewlett the entertainer, he does stuff at the scera and what not and she will tell me things from his acts and I want to see him perform when I get home! So family and friends... go see him perform and tll me how it is!

*We went and did service for a guy called Ed this week, his wife is a member and we were at their house for tea last week and he said he could use help on the farm.. so we went andd we were farmers for a few hours and it was SOOO cool. And so hard. ha ha I'll send the pictures next week!

*It is amazing to me how we always seem to be at the right place at the right time... always. For example, there is a woman called Kim that we ran into my first Sunday here and we talked with her and we see her ALL the time, we ran into her again this morning because we decided to do a little shopping before emailing today and there she was right on high street, she finally gave us her phone number so we will see how that goes but I love that! I love recognizing people on the street because we have talked to them before and they realize that it's such a weird coincidence that they keep running into us... coincidence? I think not!!!!!!!! :)

*We just had our bbq and we brought some poppers that we had leftover (we had a party for Sister Christensen's 9 month mark on Saturday and had balloons and poppers, i was fun!) and we just sang the star spangled banner at the top of our lungs and then popped our poppers, it was the perfect way to celebrate! :)

Well everyone... just keep on keepin on, ya? :) I love you!

Janna sent pictures! As soon as I can get them onto my computer I will post them here!

Week 10

2011-06-27T12:28:00.000-06:00

Helloo!! Ok I cannot believe girls camp is this week and the 4th of July is next week? What?! I'm so happy Shan Jas and Evie are going to be in Utah though, that is so fun! I am expecting a billion pictures I hope you realize. :) Man I'm so excited for you, I love the 4th of July. Parade, cotton candy, sitting on the hill by the bell tower playing games with the family and making new friends, walking to Wendys or Brick, waiting not so patiently for the jets to fly across... woohoo!!!!!!!! I love it. Who is singing at the stadium of fire again? Did Jennifro make it?! Seriously.... God bless America. ha ha America is so wonderful. Yesterday a woman called Grace told us she had a surprise for us and she walked into the chapel and started playing America the Beautiful for us and so Sister Christensen and I sang it for her and just had a moment of wow... we miss America. Ha ha it was great.

Well things here have been wonderful. I don't even really know what to report because I wrote so recently! ha ha Oh we went and did some service and helped Karina paint her daughter Hannah's room on Friday and it was so fun to paint! I thought of you mama and wondered if you would mock my crappy painting job ha ha but it was a really good and just relaxing time, man that is the best kind of service ever! ha ha Hannah has been wanting to paint her room so we went over while Hannah was at school and so it was a surprise when she got home and she loved it!! That family is so beautiful to me. They are the ones we took a family photo with last week! Karina is a member but the rest of her family isn't but Hannah mentioned to Karina the ways she feels when we come around and when Karina prays with her family, etc. so they are recognizing the spirit and it is just amazing! Oh when Karina told us that we were so excited. Love them love them.

Well these are a few of my favorite things this week...

*We went over to the Lennon-Miller home to watch the Joseph Smith movie for FHE last Monday and Tammy told us Andrew was so excited that he kept going outside and looking down the street, waiting for us to come :) man that family makes me so happy

*Bert the bus driver. He was driving the bus this morning and he was whistling this happy little tune, it was great! ha ha

*When people say things to you such as "I feel like I have known you for a hundred thousand years"

*The flowers in England. Ohhhh I am in flower paradise!!!! I just want to pick them all and bring them to the flat with me :)

*Hearing bits of funny random songs. Is N-Dubz popular in America? Well they are huge here and they have this ridiculous song that we always hear playing. Go ahead and have a look. It's called "I Need You" or something like that. ha ha

Well I'm sorry this is so super short today but OH mama and pem! Good luck at girls camp! I love girls camp so much. Mom I know you are going to do perfectly. Just don't worry about anything ok? I know you have put the preparation in, now just go and have fun and help the girls feel the spirit! I love that you said the goal for camp this year you want the girls to gain a greater love for the Lord, that is beautiful. It is truly the greatest thing we can do. The first principle of the gospel is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for a reason! It is the base of everything else we do and know. It is because of Jesus Christ that we can find happiness and joy and return to our Father in Heaven. I love that! I am so grateful for the Savior. Oh and mom I love that the leaders all went to the temple before, that is beautiful!!!

Ok I love you all!!!

****PICTURES****

These first 2 pictures are of the Quay. This is where we are going to go today and just walk around the little shops and just enjoy the beauty of the River Exe!

-Look who we saw this morning right here in England! Voldie!!!! ha ha Sister Christensen and I got on the bus to come email and the bus driver was having a smoke break (surprise surprise) and we both saw the poster at the same time, gasped, and stood up so we could go take a picture with it. ha ha ohhhh H.P. ok ps there is a guy in our ward that seriously sounds like professor snape from the potter puppet pals thing... ha ha ha

Week 9 (lots of pictures)!

2011-06-23T07:11:00.000-06:00

Hello me lovers!! Olright so I don't even know where to begin today. I survived my first transfers! ha ha Sister Christensen and I are staying here in lovely Exeter. Yay! I'm really really grateful, there is still a lot of work that we need to do here so we are grateful for at least 6 more weeks to do it. :)

A few things first- there were so many birthdays this week of people here in the ward and it was so fun to celebrate and I thought of Jana-Leigh and Whitney as well, happy birthday!!!!!!!!!!

OH MY I almost forgot. Mom. You are a rockstar!!!! Ok that package was absolutely the best. It was the perfect combination of everything. We started jumping up and down when we saw the cds, new music!!!!!!!! ha ha oh and it is so lovely. Ok we are sister missionaries, we LOVED the wedding announcements. Please keep sending those :) the treats were fantastic and it's always just so wonderful to get some encouragement from home! Really thank you.

Well it feels like it has been forever because of moves day and so much has happened! Oh I went on my first exchange last week! First we did a workover in Paignton (it is so beautiful there! it's a little seaside town) and then Sister Marchioni (from Denmark) came back up to Exeter with me and we worked together for a day. It was so great! It's always fun to see how other missionaries work and to learn from them. ANNDDDDDD she is shorter than me. Oh yes it's true. I'll send a picture. ha ha
Well something I have been thinking about a lot this week is how we live the gospel when no one is watching. I was asked to speak in sacrament meeting on that but it was funny because it was something Sis. C and I had been talking about. Well in a series of unfortunate events our darling Robin was having a terrible horrible no good very bad day and after sacrament meeting he came up to us and he told us that he had the feeling to get up and walk out and never come back just like he had 20 years ago. Then he said "But I didn't. I wanted to stay, I wanted to stay and hear you speak so I didn't get up and walk out" ... you know me. I'm a cryer. You better believe I started crying ha ha it really was so sweet and I realized that sometimes we don't know we are helping others. We do things because we know they are true, I wrote that talk because I thought it was something I just needed to reiterate to myself and remember the reason WHY I do the things that I do, because I know they are true. I follow the rules because I know when I'm obedient I will be safe and feel the spirit, not because I know Sister Christensen or the district leaders etc. are watching but in sharing that talk I was able to help Robin! Now he wasn't staying just for me, but the spirit told him and prompted him to stay so he could feel the spirit that is always there in sacrament meeting! Moral of the story- when you think no one else is watching.... people really are. But don't do things because you know they are watching, do things because you want to and because you believe and know those things and I promise that in doing that you WILL bless the lives of others. I'm so grateful for Robin sharing that with me so I could remember that. Bishop was able to give him a blessing after church that was incredible and we went and saw Robin yesterday and he is doing really really well. A trial came to him but he was able to overcome it with the help of the Holy Ghost! (... I hope any of that made sense ha ha I feel myself rambling a lot of the time :))

Well these were a few of my favorite things this week:
*Our toilet is fixed! We can flush our toilet!
*The heaters at the church are fixed! We aren't peoplesicles all the time anymore!
*My 2 teared umbrella and my rainboots :D ohh I love staying dry-ish on rainy rainy days
*Ward parties. Seriously, it was so great.
*Hearing the cathedral bells chime
*Exeter. It's a postcard waiting to happen. :)

More pictures!!

- We went to dinner at a family's house that owns a farm so we got to go see everything. Ya we are going to do service there next week. Are we excited? Um YES!!!

-Our darling Ida. Our BFF from the Netherlands. :) She came for uni to study and interview people about how people eat in England and she stayed with a woman from the ward called Pat. She came with us to different teaches within the ward to interview people after we taught them but she goes home tomorrow :( Anyone want to go to the Netherlands in 16 months? ha ha oh ya ps that's right, 2 months yesterday. What?!

-We found this cute gate and had to take a picture in front of it. ha ha PS! Check our my skirt and my raincoat... ya those are my fab flat finds! There was a sister here a couple moves before me that was my size and she left so much stuff here because she went home from Exeter and I'm so grateful! She left some shoes as well so since I couldn't find my vans before I left, I have shoes for pday!!

-So we had a ward party on Saturday and it was a fabulous success! It was a 1940's street party and it was Phyllis' 90th birthday party!!! So everyone dressed up and we played lots of old fashioned games and it was just so much fun! You can see the Sneil's really well in the picture here, ha ha Brother Sneil and his draw on mustache, love it!

-Sister Marchioni and I and a little tiny baby puppy we saw on the street! Sister Christensen saw this picture and said "Ohh a miniature dog for the miniature sisters!!"

-Andrew right before his baptism. 9 years old and he is seriously the man!!!!

-We had dinner at the Bakewell's home and... yes we were playing wth our food ha ha (we put grapes above our teeth... it's hilarious, seriously try it sometime) oh and that's Sonia!

- the front of the temple... where's waldo! ha ha yes i'm in the picture but you can barely see me

-the temple :)

-Devon district June 2011

-Alec right before his baptism. I can't remember if I sent this or not! He is so so sweet. Oh and that's Scott Jolliffe next to him who baptised him, he is so wonderful!

One last thing, we asked our darling neighbours Tim and Jen if there is anything we could do for them to help them (Jen if pregnant!!!!! She is due in December :)) and they told us they would love some help in the garden and they would LOOOVVVVEEEEE some homemade American brownies. :) SO will you please find the most delicious homemade brownies and send it to us?

If you have a recipe, leave it in the comments and I will convert it to english measurements (unless you really want to convert it yourself)

:) That would be magic! Thank you! We love you all!

The purple italicized writing is Shannon.

Week 8

2011-06-14T17:01:00.000-06:00

Hello hello hello!

So.... the Savior amazes me. We were reading a conference talk to a woman called Doris and we were talking about how the Savior CHOSE to go through the atonement for us. He could have known through revelation the things we will go through and the things he will feel but he chose to suffer those things himself so he really could feel what we feel so He can be there to comfort us when we need it. I know that's true. I know the Savior suffered all things for us. Sometimes I wonder why He would ever choose to go through the pains that we go through and it just makes me love Him more. I truly stand all amazed. I know the Lord suffered every physical pain that we have, every heartache and heartbreak, every fear that we have so that he can comfort us when we need it most. That is how we get through this life and you better believe that's how we get through as missionaries.

I cannot believe I forgot to tell you last week the most exciting news ever.... we got to go to East Grinstead on Wednesday for training aka... we got to go to the temple!!!!! Oh my goodness it was a blissful day. I love the temple so much and I'm so grateful we were able to go! It made me think of what President Monson said in conference "there is no sacrifice too great, no price too heavy, no struggle too difficult in order to receive the blessings of the temple. There are never too many miles to travel, too many obstacles to overcome, or too much discomfort to endure. It is the saving ordinances received in the temple that permit us to someday return to our Heavenly Father in an eternal family relationship." Oh I love that so much. I'm grateful for that time we had there at the temple. The members here in Exeter drive 4 hours one way to get to the temple and they do it often so.. if you have a temple recomment, take the time, MAKE the time to go! If you don't have a temple recommend, go get one! Do what you need to do to get one and you will be blessed.

This gospel really does change people. We met with Alec, the man who was baptised last and as we were discussing the gospel it was AMAZING the change that we can see. He would say things that we were just astonished that he remembered or understood and when we were reading to read the Book of Mormon with him (before he would just pretend like he was following along in the book because he can't read) but this time he busted out these reading glasses we have never even seen and started actually following along as we read! He told us story after story how he helped people and told them about the gospel and about how God loves them. He told us how he went and bought more herbal tea! It is just amazing the way he is embracing the gospel!!!!! It's beautiful. I love Alec Nigel Antony Sims so much.

This week our dear sweet Andrew Lennon-Miller was baptised. It was the most beautiful service! His mother spoke and she said she was so nervous but she calmly bore her testimony about baptism and shared scriptures.. it was just perfect. His grandad came from the Helston ward in Cornwall to baptise him and it was just a lovely family moment! Andrew is seriously the man. He is the smartest and most spiritual 9 year old I have ever met! He is going to do amazing things for this ward, for his family, and for the church!

So... something I was just thinking about: You know you love your companion when....

*you randomly bust out singing I.N.D.E.P.E.N.D.E.N.T. at 11 at night at the same exact time as your companion- oops
*you say the same thing at the same time... all the time
*when you can't finish all your food at a dinner appointment your companion gladly finishes it for you :) ha ha

Love ya love ya love ya!!

Week 7

2011-06-06T07:35:00.000-06:00

The Blackham's are the senior couple in our district and they are FANTASTIC! We love them so much. Sister Blackham is our little mission mum. We hadn't gotten any mail for a week on Friday and then when the Royal Mail man walked by on Friday ready for us to yell at him he slipped an envelope through the slot and we cheered and it was a letter from Sister Blackham to us about the Exeter cathedral here. :) ha ha so I think we are going to tour it today with them and the other sisters in our district.

Oh so did Penny get my birthday package? One thing about packages- Sister Christensen's mom sent her a package for her birthday and IT NEVER CAME!!!!!! We don't know what happened but we think it was stuck at customs because they put that it was worth over £50 but no one told us it was there so we didn't go get it and I think they just sent it back home! So moral of the story is.... don't claim that it's over £50 so I don't have to pay crazy customs fee and so I actually get the package? ha ha Sister Christensen said I better give my voice of warning because not getting mail is bad enough but when you are expecting a huge beautiful package and a month and a half later it's stil not here... not good! ha ha

-Side note I just touched gum under this computer desk and I dry heaved a little bit.- ha ha

SOOOOO I have the coolest story for you. Ready? So we went over to a members house on Friday for a dinner appointment and I was really excited because Sister Christensen said it is the most beautiful ride (and it was!!!!) and when we got there Eileen Hanes (the member) took us to the fish n chips truck and we got some proper fish n chips and it was so tasty mmmm and anyways so we just started chatting and I asked her about her conversion story and anyways she was saying that she has been to Utah since to visit her missionary and she said something about how her missionary is in charge of Aspen Groves and I was like wait a minute what is your missionary's name? ... Glen Parker. WHAT?! Aka Amber Myers dad!!!! So I told her his daughter Amber is in my home ward and she was so excited, it was so neat! So thank you Amber Myers dad for converting our beautiful wnderful Sister Hanes because she is truly an essential member of the Exeter ward and she was able to feed me dinner on Friday because of it :) ha ha it's such a small world in the church.

Well... these were a few of my favorite things this week:

*Witheridge, Tiverton, and Exmouth oh England is so beautiful
*At McDs they are giving out these mini little radio things that play popular songs and there are always kids on the bus that have them and play them over and over so yes these random songs that we don't even know get stuck in our heads ha ha -one of them is by Pixie Lott, it's pretty catchy!
*The overgrown trees that hangover the road like a tunnel everywhere

(This is Shannon, the pictures got out of order so try to figure it out based on these descriptions from Janna)

*The Hewin's family. Peter this little boy and his parents were baptised a few months ago but the wife is having a really hard time with her testimony so we helped them build testimony houses!!!! Jesus Christ is the foundation and we build on that walls that are obey, pray, study the scriptures, and follow the prophet- yay! ha ha and that gives you your testimony roof... it was fun and the kids loved it. Look there is chocolate all over Rebecca's face she loved it so much ha ha

*Next is beautiful Honiton! I forgot to add that into my little list of beautiful places I visited this last week... well we went for dinner and we had about 5 minutes before tea was ready so Chloe said we should go out and try to catch and ride the sheep... ha ha ha we certainly tried but we couldn't catch any sheep so we decided we wanted to catch the chickens instead! Please note all those lovely green bushes all around us, yes that is poison ivy and yes I learned that the hard way ha ha ha but finally....

* I caught one! We borrowed some of the Lewis' wellies to run around in and I wanted to steal them kind of...

*Beautiful Honiton :)

*You know you are a sister missionary when you get massive holes in your tights after wearing them for only 2 weeks... boo!!

*Exmouth!!!!!! This day was SO hot, and you can kind of see all the people at the beach behind us.. :( ha ha but this is our darling Robin Roberts. Robin is a 20 year less active and has been recently coming back to church. The ward had a temple day on Saturday and he was able to go and yesterday he bore his testimony and he said he wants to go through the temple next time he goes and then he wants to do all the work for his siblings and his parents too, he also said I'm back for good!!! :) It was so sweet to hear him say that especially because we went to teach him on Friday and he gave the closing prayer and the spirit was so strong, it was amazing we were all bawlin like babies, and after he finished his prayer and looked at us and looked down and started crying and said I can't believe I stayed away for over 10 years. Why did I stay away. I'm back, I want to be back! Oh bless him. He is so sweet.

That's really something I have been thinking of this past week. It is so frusterating when so many people give these little excuses why they don't want to come to church or why they don't want to be baptised or this and that but really it's just laziness! You KNOW what you need to do, you know what our Savior has done for you and you know what you need to do in return just DO IT! Don't let laziness keep you from your testimony!

* So... we went to tea at Jo's house (a recent convert) and she had her niece, nephew, and a friend over and they were all playing with chalk and Jo thought it would be hilarious to write something on my shirt with her chalk so of course the little kidlets wanted to too... and this is the result, what a beautiful masterpiece!!!! ha ha ha ps the little boy Cam looked SO much like little Zeb!

* Ta da!!! This is Alec Nigel Antony Sims. :) Alec was baptised yesterday and is SO happy! He was so excited for his baptism, he would call us everyday just to talk to us about his baptism. :) He is just so sincere, he always looks you right in the eye and says "y'olright?" ... their lazy way of asking if you are alright ha ha after his baptism he said to Jo, Jo we are all going to be friends forever. :)

Week 6

2011-06-01T12:40:00.000-06:00

Hellooooo everyone!
I'm so glad everyone is doing so well!

Oh so yes I can't send pictures again because guess what- it's a bank holiday! Well of course it's a bank holiday! I've been in England 5 weeks and there have been 4 bank holidays. ha ha so we came to Newton Abbot to Elder and Sister Blackham's to email and play! Ok and the train ride down here was absolutely amazing! It was so beautiful!!!! I had two thoughts on the train- First one when we got on and the people in front of us had huge suitcases and they were trying to get them on those racks on the train and i thought of me tanner and kate doing that over and over last summer everytime we took the train in italy etc. ha ha ohh what a beautiful headache :) Second thought came when the voice on the train said "Mind the gap" and I thought of our first time in London when we were riding the tube and the man was yelling and cussing at the conductor because he hadn't stopped right on the line. Remember that? ha ha ha ohhh good times. Speaking of- we were walking yesterday and saw a bumper sticker that said "EXETER- probably the best university in the world" and I just laughed and laughed and told sister christensen all about Ireland. "Probably the best furniture store in Ireland" and then Shan sent me a picture of Evie wearing her "Probably the best baby" bib. Ohhh I love it. We have had so many wonderful times on our trips, it's so wonderful to think back on!

Tanner said something about the big game Saturday night- there was a huge game between man u and barcelona on saturday night and we had 2 people cancel their appointments because of it! ha ha we went to teach alec and he had the game on.... don't worry we turned it off so we could teach him. was it hard to do? yes yes it sure was ha ha ha and man u lost, but they aren't too heartbroken about it because they said they played horribly ha ha ohhhhh football football

one thing that really stood out to me this week is that Children know best! They really do. They cling to goodness. There is a recent convert family called the Turpins that we had family home evening with last week and we watched a little movie with them and then at the end it was showing a lot of pictures of Jesus Christ and the little girl Miley who is about 3 was like "That's Jesus Christ! I love Jesus Christ" and then she started asking everyone in the room "Do you love Jesus Christ? Mum do you love Jesus Christ?" Oh it was so sweet! And they had relatives there that aren't members so she asked her gran and her gran just kind of shrugged her shoulders and Miley said "Well I love Jesus Christ" ha ha oh bless her! Oh and then we were doing a little armor of God lesson with bishops family (by the way did I tell you he has 7 kids?!) and each of the armor of God pieces were part of the missionary wardrobe so at the end they looked like missionaries and we gave them little pass along cards with the picture of Jesus on it and their cousins Anya and Ted were there and their parents aren't members (but the mom has taken the discussions with Sister Christensen and Sister Housley before I got here) but they did the little activity with us and when it was time for them to go they had given back the pass along card and Book of Mormon Anya had and they went out to the car and came back a minute later with Anya just bawling because she wanted her picture of Jesus!!! Oh and then there was a little girl sitting in front of us on the bus yesterday and we were going to visit Joan in the rest home so we were choosing a hymn we wanted to sing to her and we started singing one on the bus because I couldn't remember how it went and the girl sitting in front of us turned around and said "You should be on Britain's got talent" ha ha ha and then she started asking us about what we do as missionaries. Children are so wonderful!!

Yesterday was wonderful, we had an area broadcast from Preston and guess who was there? President Monson!!!!!! And Elder Perry, and Sister Thompson! It was so good. Especially because we just taught both Alec and Andrew a lot about the prophet so it was so cool for them to see the prophet and hear him! Afterwards we were talking to Andrew (the 9 year old that will be baptised soon) and Sister Christensen asked "Can you feel the love he has for you?" and Andrew said "Ya! I can tell he does more for others than he does for himself" :) It was really sweet. and true! The leaders of this church are so amazing they do so much for everyone else! Speaking of, when we went to go see Joan yesterday, the one in the rest home, we were talking with her (and by the way she asked us to sing like 6 hymnsfor her, remember pen when you said you feel bad for the people here if they have to hear me sing?! ha ha ha yup poor joan ;)) and then she was just talking to us and she told us there is never a day without an opportunity to help someone. She said there would be days she would ask God for help and ask for just a little miracle to help her get through and then she said the most beautiful thing ever- she said "and then He would always send someone I could help!" when Joan would be having a rough day and knew she needed God's help, she didn't ask for God to help HER she asked for God to send her someone that SHE could help. Oh she is so lovely. It was her birthday last week and she is 87 and has been in the church for 51 years and she has done so much for the church. The missionaries used to live with her for free and she would feed them and everything just because she loved the missionaries! She told us that she hasn't been around the world but the world has been brought to her through all the missionaries that lived at her house.

Ohh I just love the people here! Exeter is wonderful the gospel is wonderful. Keep doing what you need to do and you will be blessed!!

Week 5

2011-05-24T15:13:00.000-06:00

P day!!!!!!!!!! ha ha yay! Well first of all the first letter received in the mission field award goes to.... CAIDY!!!! with Shannon and Courtney following closely behind. Thank you so much for your letters and for the pictures! You are all so sweet. It's amazing how much letters and encouragement and pictures from home help SOO much. It's true. :) Well this week has been so great. I was going to send some pictures home but we forgot the camera cord! Next week. :) Well guess what?

I'm a month old!!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday was my month mark- what?! Sister Christensen and I celebrated by dancing around our living room and having ice cream cake and VIMTO!! (the most delicious drink ever ps) it was really fun!

Well let me just tell you sometimes I feel like I'm just playing dress up here on my mission ha ha sometimes it just doesn't seem real, I can't believe I'm here on my mission I can't believe I can tell anyone and everyone about this gospel and look like a complete idiot to all the people of Exeter and LOVE it! ha ha people are always staring at us, we are different but it's great! It's the reason sometimes people will stop and talk to us! The people are so kind here though. ... for the most part we stopped a lady on the street the other day who was pushing a stroller and we started talking to her and asked her how it would feel to know she could be with her family forever and she said ".... i hate my family, i don't even want to be with them now I believe in aliens, not God" ha ha ha yikes. We were able to say some things to her and made her happy and maybe a little hopeful and I couldn't even tell you right now what we said- one of those the spirit completely took over because we had no idea what to say moments. ha ha But I'm grateful that I have a family that is so easy to love and I treasure the knowledge that I can be with you forever! It just takes some faith and dilligence. :)

Well we have been teaching this adorable almost 10 year old boy named Andrew Lennon-Miller whose mother is less active and we just asked him a few days ago if he wants to be baptised on June 12th and he is SOOO excited! It is wonderful to see him help and lift his mother as well. We can help so many others by just the things we do and simply by letting our lives be filled with happiness because of the gospel.

You can tell so much about someone's relationship with God by the way they pray. So if you feel like you're not that great at praying, then do it more! We don't get good at something unless we practice it like mad!

Oh ps we taught Alec about the law of chastity the other day and he said "Well I'm not even married... I know I'll ask the Queen to marry me! Hang on- I guess she is a little bit old" ha ha ha and a little bit married? Oh bless him. I can't wait to send the picture of him!

We have also been teaching a lot of uni students. We are in a proper university town and it is so amazing! We went on a uni walk the other day so we started at high street and then walked all around university and met and talked with so many people along the way, we find so many people that are just waiting to learn more about God!

Ah I wanted to tell you about Keith! Keith Martin is our ward mission leader and he is the most wonderful man! He would do anything for anyone, and he truly does! He does so much for the ward it's amazing. All of the members here really go above and beyond, it is so amazing to see. They have to really because if it wasn't for all of these sweet members the ward would just crumble away! They are each others life support and they are truly a family, it's beautiful to be a part of it.

Ok one last story. A story Sister Christensen has named the Tiverton Bus Saga. We went to Tiverton for a dinner appointment this last week and it's about 40 minutes away. We got a ride there with a member that was there cleaning the church and after dinner the family walked us to the bus stop so we could catch a bus home. Now the busses outside of town don't come as often, in fact they only come every hour so we got there about 15 minutes before it was to arrive so we were sitting there waiting and waiting and we saw a bus go past and I was like oh look there's a 52 going into Exeter and Sister Christensen started freaking out THAT'S THE ONE WE NEED TO BE ON!!!!! ha ha ha the people from dinner told us to wait on the wrong side of the road so we had missed our bus! ha ha ha oh it was terrible, so we walked into a little tesco and asked when the next bus and of course that was the last bus that was going out for the evening SO we had to walk into town (about a 25 minute walk) and then wait at the bus station for another 10 minutes to catch a bus home. Oh my my my it was quite the adventure. ha ha BUT that walk was SO beautiful and then we got to ride a double decker bus home- my first time on a double decker bus woohoo!!!!! ha ha so in the end it turned out well.

SO these are a few of my favorite things this week:

*Waiting for the bus ALLL the time
*Alec and Andrews prayers. I might cry every single time. Just little tiny teardrops though :)
*Waking up an hour and a half early, looking at the clock and thinking YES another hour and a half of sleep :D
*Walking up ETERNITY HILL the other day to get to a dinner appointment and when we got to the top we realized we didn't even need to walk up that hill. ha ha ha seriously that hill was never ending. it was huge. seriously.
*Our fake little fireplace we have in our living room. Mmmmm. :)
*The trees in front of our flat that make everything smell like grapes! It is such a delicious smell and a wonderful change from the cigarette smoke we always smell
*Sister Christensen man is she goofy and I LOVE it! We have so much fun together but she is also the most amazing missionary. It's amazing the miracles we are able to witness together because of her goodness!

Happiness!!!

Week 4

2011-05-16T17:07:00.000-06:00

Hooray for missionary work! It has been NONSTOP since I got here and I love it so much. You know how I'm a busy bee, I wouldn't have it any other way! I love this work so much. I have met so many people already that I just love. The ward is fantastic! They had me get up in church yesterday and bare my testimony and tell a little bit about myself and of course I had to adjust the microphone when I got up there and it was just funny and so anyways after Brother Lewis who was conducting was like she may be small but boy is she a dynamite! or something like that ha ha so everyone kept calling me the small sister :) Did I tell you Sister Christiansen is a foot taller than me? It's perfect- it makes me feel like I'm walking around with Nat! :)

We have been doing so many different things- it has been great. We have taught lots of less actives, lots of cute old ladies, we have done lots of finding, lots of teaching to people that Sister Christiansen and Housley found on the streets.... it's been so neat to see how much the gospel blesses everyone's lives no matter what is going on in their life!!

So the baptism yesterday was fantastic. But it was a baptism, things are always going to go wrong because that silly satan doesn't want people to be baptised! But thank goodness for the sweet Blackhams (elder and sister from SLC) they had some white trousers in Jason's size in Newton Abbot and so an hour before church they drove them up 40 miles to us so that Jason had trousers to wear! Jason loved it, and you could feel his happiness! I asked him on Friday when we were teaching him what he loves about our church and he said he loves the principles of our church. I do too! It's so amazing the things we are able to do and the commandments we are able to keep through the help of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Week 3 part 2

2011-05-13T13:13:00.001-06:00

Yay!! I'm a for reals missionary! ha ha it still doesn't feel like it, it's still so weird. BUTTTTTTTTTT transfer meeting was awesome, it was so much fun and I saw Elder Cross there!! It was realy good to see him and catch up a little bit, and he is training one of my buddies from the MTC! They will be in the heart of London so they are going to have a blast! I however am very very far from London ha ha my first area is (drumroll please!) Exeter!! It's in Southern England in the Plymouth zone (so we will go down to plymouth for zone conferences and such) and we are the Devon district! So yesterday: we drove 5 hours from the MTC to the mission home (right next to the London temple, ps the London temple is fantastic! it is so beautiful and OLD looking! we will get to go through in 3 weeks when we go back for training and such!)

we had a big meeting, got all of our assignments and companions- my companion is Sister Christiensen from Riverton, Utah and she is awesome! She is so much fun and just so sweet! We are going to have the best time. We already have 3 teaching appointments today and we have a BAPTISM on Sunday! His name is Jason and we are going to teach him today and tomorrow as well so he is ready for Sunday but that is going to be so neat to see! Sister Christensen said we have such a good ward here and everyone is so kind so that is really truly comforting to me! Oh and our flat is precious! We have a little kitchen with washer and dryer and a little pretend fireplace that is a little heater thing, then upstairs is our bathroom, our clothes room, and our bedroom :)

I told everyone at the MTC the other night at a testimony meeting we had that i'm embarrassed to share this but when i first opened my call I was a little bit disappointed that I wasn't going to the Provo MTC because all my life driving by it I thought "I want to be in THERE getting ready to serve my mission!" well I can honsetly say the Lord has humbled me and I learn over and over again that the Lord knows me better than I know myself, he knows exactly what experiences I need to have to make me His best servant. I am SO lucky I got to learn of the gospel and feel of the spirit at the England MTC and I know it was the perfect place for me. I can honestly say that I made 41 new friends in such a unique environment where we are all looking towards the same goal- to invite others to come unto Christ! I miss them all already but I am so excited for all the new adventures Exeter will bring!!

This morning during personal study I was reading the end of 2 Nephi and in chapter 28 verse 4 talking about false churches and such in the last days it simply says "and they shall teach with their learning, and deny the Holy Ghost, which giveth utterance." I am so grateful I read that because all the sudden my feelings of inadequacy (spelling? ha ha) were smaller because I know that I felt prepared until sister c said we have 3 lessons tomorrow for reals? what?! all the sudden I felt so unprepared and like I couldn't do it but after reading that... it's ok! Because I know the spirit will help me teach so much more than just my knowledge will. Fewf! :)

Oh so after the transfer meeting we had to drive 4 more hours to our area so we didn't get home until after 11 and then I had to make my bed and we had to plan for today! So... it was a late night and I'm looking forward to bed time tonight but I'm so grateful for all of the opportunities we will have today for me to start teachings!! I just can't wait until I know the members of the ward and until I feel like this is home to me for the moment. Oh BUT so yes it was a bummer we had to drive so much more yesterday and we didn't get home until late but did we drive RIGHT past stonehenge? Yes we sure did! It was right as the sun was setting and I'm not gonna lie I got the coolest picture of it! Ha ha OK President and Sister Shamo- so sweet! It was instantly like we all knew eachother, I love how quickly everyone can feel so loved! Blessings of the spirit man... ha ha Well.... Just know that I am happy, healthy, and loving the work. OH also, I would love to get some letters, real letters because.. they are fun! :)

Week 3!

2011-05-10T13:52:00.000-06:00

Well hello my lovelies! So they are letting us get on right now before dinner because we leave tomorrow morning around 6 aka we have to get up at 5, yikes! Although I wake up at 5 almost every morning because the sun is so bright right in my window, it's beautiful! I get to watch the sun rise every morning :)

Keep writing me ok? It helps a lot. :)

We got to go to the temple again this morning and oh my goodness I had been so excited all week about it and I CANNOT wait till I get to go again. I love the temple SO much. If you are able to go to the temple, do it and do it often!

I love this gospel so much, I can't wait to go tell everyone about it. I can't wait to meet all those cute Brits and hear them yell at me and slam their doors in my face but I especially can't wait for when the Holy Ghost touches their heart and they are able to know for themselves that this is the true church. I love it! Love, Sister Mills!

ps Families can be together forever, what a blessing!! I'm so so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and for the atonement so it is possible that we really truly actually literally can be with our families forever! :D I'LL BE IN LONDON TOMORROW!!!

Week 2

2011-05-04T19:27:00.000-06:00

Snippets from Janna's e-mail:

we just got back from a church history tour and it was the most amazing thing ever! To be able to see all the places where the prophets FIRST went in this country and to feel the spirit that is still so strong in all of those places was just spectacular!

last week on thursday we went proselyting in the town of manchester and preston and it was INCREDIBLE! Sister Delgado and I were able to talk to a lot of people and talk to a lot of people about the gospel and it was just... it was perfectly what we needed to help us focus and learn how we can teach people and touch their lives! It was also SO amazing to realize that as much as we need this preparation from the MTC here, it is the spirit that does the teaching! So we walked up to these 2 ladies sitting on a bench named Marian and Margaret and we started to talk to them and they knew we were missionaries and they were kind of not wanting to talk to us but Sister Delgado just plowed right through and started talking to them about the gospel, Marian was listening and accepted a Book of Mormon but Margaret was just not havin it ha ha but as we were talking to Marian about the gospel and about how it has changed our lives nd brigns us so much happiness Margaret physically started to get closer to us and started listening and thenin her eyes we could just see this longing- she wanted to know, it was completely the spirit it was so strong! so then i offered her a book of mormon and promised as she reads it that she will feel peace and happiness because i know she is going through hard times and i said the lord knows you are going through hard times and he wants you to be happy! and she said well if this will bring me happiness then i'll read it every day! :) it was so SO awesome.

April 22. Picture of the missionaries.

This is a picture of the women on the day of the royal wedding.

Week 1

2011-04-28T10:09:00.000-06:00

We got another e-mail from Janna! Here are some highlights: (anything written in this color is me explaining something)

so i hope you got my email the day i got here, but it has been such an adventure since then! we have been studying our little buns off and we have seen ourselves and each other change in ways we never thought were possible, we find ourselves saying things we didn't even know we knew! that's just the way missionary work goes! we have been working so hard and it has been SO rewarding! but we have been playing too :) it is so great to be here in a small mtc because we all know eachother so well at this point, we are all best friends! and the mtc president and his counselor and their wives know us personally and it is just so great to have this family here! ps the mtc presidents wife is President Hinckley's daughter! so that has been so so neat to hear her stories and experiences growing up. so i'll just go through the days and tell you some things

* friday was such a chill day, we met with everyone, filled out paperwork, had some big group meetings and then they let us go to bed early :) oh and they gave us a 2 hour nap, it was fantastic ha ha

*saturday class class class!

*sunday i went to a meeting sunday morning and then we had sacrament meeting, the night before they asked everyone to prepare a talk and yes of course i was called to speak on sunday ha ha but it was such a powerful meeting, then we had district meeting, relief society, choir practice (we just sang for an hour- it was beautiful) and then we had an easter egg hunt! ha ha it was a big devotional that in each egg there was a scripture and then we got into little groups and sang duets etc. etc. it's amazing, i haven't felt nervous here once, not when i'm talking to everyone or singing in front of everyone- it's great! ha ha

*monday and tuesday we just had class class class- teach and testify teach and testify!!!

and today we went to the TEMPLE!!!!!!! it was so beautiful i can't even believe it! well OH my companions name is Sister Delgado, she is 32 and is from Uruguay but she is the best! she is so sweet and we work so well together! there are 4 other sisters from the states, one from germany, and one from scotland, so there are 8 of us and it is just pure love :) it's great! and there are 32 elders here from seriously all over the world: south africa (cape town!) singapore, germany, england, scotland, the states.. etc. etc. so it has been fun to get to know everyone and learn from so many different people!

oh sister walker (the mtc presidents wife/ pres hinckley's daughter) said to me on sunday 'i didn't realize you are kelly's cousin- that's why you are so delightful!!!' ha ha

Kelly is in charge of all of the international MTC's, and obviously our cousin.

I love you all!! I feel so lucky to be able to be here and I really do feel ready and so excited to go teach! It's amazing how much we learn everyday and I know that will just continue to grow everyday along with my testimony of Christ. It can grow EVERYDAY... it's great! I know he lives! Until next week :)

OHHH ps! we are about to go into town (Chorley) right now to go to Azda (walmart!) to do a little shopping for whatever we need and tomorrow we are taking a train to Manchester to go proselyte! AND friday on our schedule it says british cultural celebration... ya we get to watch the wedding. ha ha ha we are quite excited! I will definitely let you know how everything goes. yay yay yay!! I'm praying for all of you because guess what? we pray all the time :) ha ha

First e-mail

2011-04-22T09:27:00.000-06:00

I received an e-mail from Janna early last Friday morning letting us know she arrived to London safely. She sat next to a guy on the plane who has family that are members of the church but he has never really looked into the church and he didn't know why. Janna said, "we definitely had a fantastic talk with him about the gospel and I gave him that pass along card they sent with my passport, it was so neat!"

Her MTC president was the Salt Lake temple President a few years ago!

She flew with 2 others sisters from Chicago, and there will be 7 more sisters meeting them there. She flew with 26 elders and 5 more will be going as well. It sounds like such a fun experience and she is excited to get to know everyone there. (Typical Jan, right?! Ready to get to know everyone!)

The Airport

2011-04-21T15:33:00.001-06:00

While Janna is on her mission I, Shannon, will be updating her blog with how she is doing. In a couple of days I will put up her address and information on how you can send letters to her.

Her flight left salt lake city to Chicago at 10:45am this morning (although when our plane took off hers was still at their gate, then again we left a little early). Evie and I were lucky enough to get to go to Utah for janna's farewell and then book our returning flight for about the same time as Janna's so we were able to check in, go through security and walk each other to our respective terminals. (Evie and I walked Janna to her gate, took this picture

, then she walked us to our terminal). I had to use the ladies room after Janna had gone back to her gate and change the babes diaper. As I was reaching for her desitin I noticed the packs of gum I bought Janna at the gas station on our way up to the airport. I checked the time, 9:45, I still had plenty of time to take the gum to her. We hurried over to her gate, she was sitting there talking with the large group of missionaries that had accumulated since I had been there last. She seemed excited to see me again! And when I showed her the gum that I had for her she seemed a bit more excited. I had to change Evie again, so we walked to the bathroom and around her terminal for a couple of minutes having our last little chat.
As Evie and I were about to head over to our terminal the group of missionaries were about to take their first official group picture! There was a kind woman who was taking it for them, then I whipped out my camera and took one with it.

The rest of the missionaries followed suit, they piled their cameras on the seat next to us and the woman would take a picture, then I would and we would grab the next camera and take turns taking the pictures with each camera. It was very neat and we got those pictures done in record time! By the time we were finished Evie and I said goodbye to Janna one last time and hurried of to our gate. We made it just in time for boarding. We are now sitting on the plane at 11:16 am. I am drinking cranapple juice and eating delicious peanuts while Evie is in her carseat next to me.

So that's it for now, I'll keep you updated!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Here I go!

2011-04-20T10:20:00.001-06:00

I can't believe it's here! Tomorrow I'll go from here:

to here:

janna.mills@myldsmail.net

Sister Janna Lynn Mills

England London South Mission
The London Temple
West Park Road
Newchapel, Surrey
England RH7 6NB

I'll miss you all!

Mission Shopping...

2011-03-29T15:14:00.000-06:00

The greatest thing about being a Sister Missionary these days is the wide range of clothing options (comparatively :)) not to mention how truly easy it is to find missionary appropriate clothing in Orem, Utah- thank you Sister Missionary Mall!! Here are a few more beauties I have found that would bring me fashion happiness...

http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=20111423&catId=CLOTHES-SKIRTS&pushId=CLOTHES-SKIRTS&popId=CLOTHES&navAction=top&navCount=246&color=038&isProduct=true&fromCategoryPage=true&isSubcategory=true&subCategoryId=CLOTHES-SKIRTS-ALINE&templateType=subCategory

http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=20095295&catId=CLOTHES-SKIRTS&pushId=CLOTHES-SKIRTS&popId=CLOTHES&navAction=top&navCount=246&color=041&isProduct=true&fromCategoryPage=true&isSubcategory=true&subCategoryId=CLOTHES-SKIRTS-PENCIL&templateType=subCategory

http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=20253639&catId=CLOTHES-SKIRTS&pushId=CLOTHES-SKIRTS&popId=CLOTHES&navAction=top&navCount=246&color=049&isProduct=true&fromCategoryPage=true&isSubcategory=true&subCategoryId=CLOTHES-SKIRTS-PENCIL&templateType=subCategory

Remind me again why I'm not a millionaire?

Sister Janna Mills

2011-03-04T12:25:00.001-07:00

Hellooooo! Well in case you haven't heard the news, I'm going to be one of these:

Aka a Sister Missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!

I have been called to serve in the England London South Mission and yup, you guessed it, I am ECSTATIC! I report to the England MTC on April 22nd, fly out of the Salt Lake airport on April 21st. AND my goodbye everyone see you in 18 months, I will miss you but I'm going to be in LONDON :) talk is on April 17th at 9 am bright and early!! See you there folks :)

voila!

2010-11-12T10:33:00.001-07:00

Before...

AFTER!!!!And man does it feel good!

2010-11-05T10:09:00.000-06:00

So... it's November huh and the last time I posted was April? ... oops! Today has been the most magnificent day so I thought I needed to share some of my favorite things:
*giggling with Flo all night in our room as we pretend to be studying that turns into laughing uncontrollably with Flo until my stomach hurts so bad I can't even breathe and Florencia can't look at me because she is crying because she is laughing so hard and if I see her in a state like that I will just cry even harder. Now that is true happiness. :)
*blog stalking (it's so much better than facebook stalking... i'm just sayin. my favorite's are youaremyfave.com and taza-and-husband.blogspot.com)
*homemade carmel corn -mmmm delish. thank you cort!
*B.E.A.utiful sunshine days in Rexburg in NOVEMBER! (it's true!)
*tandum bikes... an epic means of transportation-i'm obsessed!

and last but most excitingly... I get my braces off in 3 DAYS!!!!! stay tuned for some pics :)

oh and side note I'm turning 21 in 3 days as well :D

Fourth time's a charm

2010-04-12T17:00:00.000-06:00

All weekend I have tried to watch Sherlock Holmes. Saturday I put it on 2 different times and fell asleep both times and same thing Sunday! It's not that I didn't like it, I was just exhausted I guess! But today I DID IT!! I watched the whole thing and boy am I glad I did. It was brilliant. A very creative and thoughtful movie. I guess I have just been super behind on my movie watching. Last weekend was my first time watching Blindside as well and I LOVED it!

Anywho... I went with Tanner and some of his friends to the Real Salt Lake soccer game on Saturday and it was such a good game! We tied in the extra minutes given (because they don't stop the clock when they make calls etc.) and so we tied 2-2. But the greatest part was when cute David Archuleta surprised a sweet little boy whose "make a wish" was to go to an rsl game and sing with David and came out and sang a song with him at halftime. What a fun fun time :)

building airplanes in the air

2010-04-09T00:19:00.000-06:00

During the semester I e-mailed my teacher asking her about an assignment. She told me in response that since our class is a developing course it is sort of a building airplanes in the air phenomenon. At the time I didn't think much of it, I just thought it was a cool phrase but I kept thinking about it and realized my life is a "building airplaces in the air" phenomenon. I really have no idea what is next for me. What school will I go to for nursing? Will I even get into a nursing program? Am I going to be able to serve a mission? If so, where? Am I going to get married in the semi-near future, or ever!? ... The beautiful thing about life and about faith is I don't know BUT I still get up and do what I have to do everyday. I take life one day at a time knowing that eventually I will know what I should do, knowing that eventually things will fall into place as they need to be. All I know right now is after a week of finals and moving: I am exhausted, it's bed time for me.

What if...

2010-04-05T21:17:00.000-06:00

What if...

Jillian was yelling "last chance workout!" at me

The sun was out EVERYDAY

There was a Nordstrom in Rexburg

Shaun White was my best friend... or boyfriend

We could eat Taco Bell everyday and not gain any weight

We could drink diet coke as H2O (that one's for you Kaylea!)

Finals week was already over?!

I thought I would take an itty bitty break while I'm spending all my life at the library and share some of my random thoughts. :)

2010-03-30T17:30:00.000-06:00

Andie

Andy

Not Andi

In my ward there is this really sweet girl who likes to say hi to me on campus and at church and all that jazz... the only problem is that she thinks my name is Andi. I don't know how or when that started, I remember one day walking past her and I thought she was saying "and hi!" or something but come to think of it I think she was saying "Andi, hi!" It's a real problem though, she taught relief society the other day and I wanted to make a comment but I didn't want her to call on me as Andi! Awkward. So... what do I do? The semester is almost over so there is a chance I'll never see her again but in the chance that I do see her, do I say something or do I continue to be Andi for the rest of my life? ... I don't even look like an Andi!

Sun Drunk!

2010-03-21T20:08:00.000-06:00

This past week has been positively beautiful! The sun was out all day everyday. A record for Rexburg? I think so. It was still pretty chilly but there is an unspoken creed in Rexburg that if the sun is out you are outside ALL THE TIME no matter how hard the wind is blowing. It was just so great. (Before I continue I want to give a quick shout out to the lovely Leisy and Laney- Happy Birthday!!) As soon as we got home from class my roommates Florencia, Kaylea, and I were out on our front porch doing homework, sleeping, eating dinner, and just basking in beautiful sunlight. Yesterday was probably the highlight of our week long sun activities. As we were eating Subway on our porch for lunch (for the second day in a row) we were staring at the shed across from our apartment that all the bikes owned by people in our complex are kept and we decided that more than anything we wanted to go on a bike ride. So we finished lunch and decided to go bike shopping... in the shed :) There was one bike in particular that was just screaming my name (super old school looking) and Flo and Kaylea picked out some cute beach cruisers and we were on our way! We rode to the park and then just up and down some streets. It was fantastic. Don't fret we put the bikes back!! Oh and then while we were waiting for our dates to come pick us up (we went on a big group date with people from our ward, so fun! -Thank you Alex Trost!) we entertained "our bikes" on a mini bike ride again. It was so great. The only thing better than owning my own bike is pretending I own my own bike. Very poetic I know. Hopefully the sun will be out all week again so we can keep the adventures going!

long time no post...

2010-03-14T18:30:00.000-06:00

As my roommate Kaylea and I are just sitting here watching a movie and relaxing on this beautiful sunny Sabbath day, just finished a nutritious dinner of chesse-its, chocolate doughnuts, and diet coke (did I mention SUNNY day... and it's 6:30 pm? Thank you daylight savings!) I realized while I was blog stalking... I NEED TO BLOG! So here I am! Let's see what's new... THE SUN IS OUT IN REXBURG that's new for sure. It's beautiful. Last night we went and saw extravadance, fabulous job you byu-idaho dancers, got some taco bell after (that's definitely not new. we are kind of addicted, what can you do?) Oh last weekend was superb, we went and saw alice in 3-D in I.F. here's the gang in our sweet glasses waiting in line:
Precious right?! After we went hot tubbing for a bit, (it's absolutely needed on a Rexburg winter night) then Saturday we went and did a little shopping in I.F. (I needed new workout pants because p.s. I went running last week at the park and a dog BIT MY LEG! Bit a hole right through my pants. Was it bruised and hurt like crazy all week? yes. I went and got a tetnus shot, and the doctors as well as everyone else in the clinic LOVED the excitement of my story, it was a good break for them from the million students they get in a day that just have the common cold. BORING.) and then we went to craigos: delish. If you are in Provo go to the pizza pie cafe- same thing! and then we went to an opera production on campus. I felt very cultured. After we hung out on our balcony talking about our secret club. It was a perfect weekend. The best part is that we all got the best ab workout ever, we are pure laughs!! I love my Rexburg friends! Until next time... which will be soon. Adios!

Boise!!

2009-03-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

Well first of all friends let me inform you that there are only FIVE AND A HALF weeks of school left! Hooray! :D But Emily and I decided that we needed a mid-semester break. SO we went to her home and it was SOO fun! We rode with Emily's grandparents who are absolutely adorable and they wanted to leave Thursday, so we got there at around 5, played football with the boys, had dinner, just played around! We did a lot of that this weekend. Friday was our redeeming day. We got up and went with Chele to a Yoga class at 10 and then Emily, Chele, and I went on a 3 mile run later that day! It was such beautiful weather! Let me share with you a few other highlights from the trip...

1. Miss Tammy's Tea Cottage

This was THE cutest restaurant I have ever been to. Before you go into the restaurant there is a little store that has antique type things but then surprise surprise the store continues throughout the whole "house" in the rooms you eat in! So this is Sarah, Aubrey, Emily, and I dressing up in the fun things as we waited for our food. (Chele, Grandma and Grandpa Smith were also there!) Now the food oh my goodness I got a sandwich called the Monte Cristo that is a ham turkey and swiss cheese sandwich fried with powdered sugar on top... yes it was fattening and YES it was so delicious!!

2. Sarah's Junior Miss Pageant!!

This was the main reason Emily and I went to Boise, because Sarah was in the Boise city Junior Miss pageant! For those of you who don't know, it's a scholarship program! So on Saturday night she got all dolled up and performed an exercise routine with all the other girls, performed a yoga routine as her talent (and can I just say that it was the most unique and best talent out of them all!) and ended by answering a question given to her by the judges (again her answer was the best... it was one of the few answers that was actually well thought through :)) Sarah really did an amazing job! There were so many people there to support her too! Her OLD neighbor was there, (on the left in the picture of Sarah, Emily, and I) her young woman leaders were there, her friends were there, and of course we were there! :) She did a fantastic job!!

3. Story Time!!

Sunday after church Sarah, Emily, Carsen, Aubrey, and I collapsed on Sarah's bed and started reading picture books to eachother. haha it was so fun! BUT not only this kind of story time, all weekend was so fun because we just sat around talking and remembering old memories that we've had together. (and not to mention all of the stories grandpa Howell told when Emily and I went to visit him on Sunday... :D ) Here is one of my favorite stories from the weekend captured on film.

Bliss!!

2009-02-08T18:52:00.001-07:00

Bliss! Really life is bliss. This semester has been absolutely crazy!! Work, school, church callings, playing with friends, homework LIFE IS CRAZY BUSY!! But it's amazing!! We have been doing so many fun things this semester from horses to dances to hanging out at the apartment! The picture with the horses is me Russ and Liz. Russ was the nice man who had his horses and a carriage at I-night (the night before the semester started, it's a huge party!) so we went on a carriage ride and Liz and I asked if we could sit up front with him. He not only let us sit in front but also let us drive the carriage around Rexburg! Oh man it was quite the experience. Even better though, as we were going back into the parking lot by the Hart (which is slightly on a hill) and Belle, one of the horses, slipped and fell and the carriage started to roll down the hill and was about to hit a car! So all the boys jumped off and stopped the carriage and pushed it back up the hill where Russ untied the other horse so he could help Belle up, so he had Liz and I take both the horses to across the parking lot so he could get the carriage all situated and everything... we were quite the helpers :D haha it was a great adventure!!

This was one of the many dances I mentioned. This was an 80s themed dance and it was SO fun!! This is Lauren, Megan, Emily, and me. (my roommates!!) There's something about dressing up absolutely crazy in 80s clothing that makes you just want to dance! So uh ya... that's what we did. :) I'm not gonna lie we are pretty crazy. Just take a look at the video I uploaded. I was sick on Tuesday and Emily came in with a bowl of muddy buddies and we just.... played!! I was on my bed and she was just laying up against it while standing on a chair the whole time. hahaha you'll see. :) Anyways this semester has been so great. My roommates and I get along so well. We make lots of goals together, clean together, play together, read scriptures together... just like I said, it's bliss. :D

Birthday Wish List. :)

2008-11-05T01:09:00.000-07:00

My mom keeps asking me what I want for my birthday SO here goes! Janna Lynn Mills's birthday wish list for 2008!!

Cute it's just a baby picture. :) But really I just need hairspray so... la la la hairspray is on the list! I don't even know how much hairspray is... $3? $8? $20?

I love me some jewelry. :D This necklace is from the Nordstrom Dogeared Boxed Sentimental Pendant Necklace collection and this is the necklace for Karma. It's a little pricey ma but... you get the drift. You know I love jewelry and even though you think I have more than enough... I don't!

Pura Lopez 'N604' Pump
Nordstrom $370.00

Aren't they fantastic? Oh I just they they are adorable! And I LOVE the color! They are definitely a wardrobe must. :)

On Sunday we had stake conference. Emily brought her sudoku book and during one of the songs she explained how to play and then let me do one of the puzzles from her book. Well to say the least I'm addicted. I think I've done half the puzzles in her book in the past two days! haha

1. Miz Mooz 'Kent' Boot

Nordstrom $179.95

BUT I want them in black. I've been wanting black boots for a while now! I have brown and pink cowboy boots but I need me some black boots! And p.s. as I was looking on Nordstrom online at boots I saw the most beautiful pair of boots I have ever seen in my whole entire life and don't worry they were $1,100.00!! SHEESH!

And last but certainly not least a CAR! :D any car really. The flintstone "car" would even work at this point! haha I am in desperate need. Oh well.

WELL I hope this list has helped you mother and anyone else that would like to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on the most joyous day of the year (November 8th ;))

Mom... I'm sorry!

2008-10-14T18:06:00.000-06:00

Ok Mom you can stop calling me everyday and telling me to blog, here I go!! ;) The past two weeks have been amazing! Why you ask? Because A. I got to go home to wonderful, beautiful, magical UTAH! :D B. Because my mama and Kate and Penny came to visit me for mothers weekend! Yay for family! The night before we left Alexa and I were SOOO excited, SOO hyper and we had to make cupcakes for enrichment and... ya we took some great pictures. This is the least embarassing of the bunch so... that's what ya'll get to see. :D Anywho We got in on Thursday night and the best mom in the world (mine of course) had made me meatloaf, (MA! The meatloaf!!) home-made mashed potatoes, and her delicious peach cobbler! :D Oh my heck had I missed real, edible food! haha Oh and Kate made me that orange thing on my head. That is just a picture to explain the craziness that goes on in our household. A very small part of the craziness. haha For more craziness look at Shannon and Jason's blog about Sunday and the gift I sent home to Tanner... hahaha :D So then Friday I went to breakfast ERNIES with some friends and then I went and checked out Kate and Penny from school and the fam went to Salt Lake to eat at the Lion House for Shan's birthday and just walked around temple square and went shopping at the gateway. It was SOO fun! Minus Jason had to go to his class/internship thing :( boo. But lunch was delicious and shopping was great! So then we got home and I went to Jana's apartment and we honestly had a blast from the past weekend! I got there and her sister and her were singing karaoke so we sang for a few hours and then went with her mom and sister to the BYU hockey game (her dad is the coach and her brother is the star of the team... haha) and it was SO fun! I told them a joke and her mom just started laughing and laughing and said "Oh Janna Millos (when we were little her little sister always called me Janna Millos so it has just stuck for them!) you have not changed a bit since second grade" haha what can I say I always have been and will always be a dork... I'm ok with that!! So Saturday was just as great because guess who performed at the velour. JOHN ALLRED! Oh man... it was the most amazing concert. Before we all went to brick oven (of course ;)) and then went to the concert. Afterwards I left to go home with Chambrey and Courtney and oh don't worry 2 minutes after we left Marissa Whitney and Alexa got a freakin PICTURE WITH JOHN ALLRED! ugh. stupid. haha but that's ok but the concert was still amazing right? I'll keep telling myself that. So I got home and Kate Penny and I did a little pampering. :D That's what this picture is, deep sea facial masks. (No we are not trying to be Elpheba.) And then the moment I had been waiting for for a month... sleeping in my bed. :D Don't worry it was just as fantastic as I had imagined. The best part about it? I didn't have to climb up a stupid latter to the top bunk to get to my bed! Sheesh. So Sunday between session which by the way... the most amazing conference ever! Holy cow! Every single session, every single talk was amazing! But in between sessions we took a walk up the canyon. Holy cow was it fantastic! Just beautiful fall colors and it was the perfect temperature. :) I love fall. So then it was back to Rexburg we came. But last week was a good good week! Friday our friends from Orem came up with their 4 wheelers. So Friday after classes they took Alexa and I to the St. Anthony sand dunes and we went riding! It was SO fun but SOOOOOOOOO cold. My goodness it was cold. That's ok though we got to ride! The next day.. MY FAMILY CAME!! la la la! :) It was so great. Friday night we all went out to eat at Gringo's and then just drove around town, went and saw the temple and then came back and watched episodes of Full House all night. :) Saturday we spent some time at the bookstore (Emily and I found some amazing hats) and then we went to the Comic Frenzy, a comedy show like Comedy Sportz in Provo and it was HILARIOUS! oh man so fun. Afterwards we took Emily to Papa Murphy's for her first day of work at the Rexburg Murphs and then we went into Idaho Falls! We did a little shopping, went to Olive Garden, and then went swimming at our hotel and then we found this cute old movie on tv. At about 4:30 in the morning the friends that came up to ride had to leave to get home by 10 (Travis had to take his grandpa to the airport) and I woke up to texts from Marissa saying the roads were absolutely awful. Yikes. Alexa was sleeping at the hotel with all of them and since they all left to go home she was alone and she called me around 5:30 asking if I would go over and sleep there so she didn't have to be alone. It took me about 20 minutes to get all the snow off the car just so I could drive 3 blocks to the hotel she was at... oh well what else could I do... walk?! ... :D haha so this is a picture I took from inside my moms car when I finally got enough snow off so I could drive. LOOK AT THOSE OTHER CARS! :D But I'm so glad I did because the view of the Idaho Falls temple from their hotel was beautiful! ready? Anyways we drove back to Rexburg and mom and the girls were going to leave right away but they stayed and talked for another hour or so, of course. But good news, the snow cleared up and they got home safely! I was sad to see them go but oh man mothers weekend was so great! :) This picture is Penny, me, Aunt Chele, cousin Emily (the best roomate EVER! :D) Kate, and Mom! :D Now let's just hope this week will be as good as the last two weeks have been.... :)

airborne... yuck

2008-09-28T17:54:00.001-06:00

It's getting cold here in Rexburg, Idaho so naturally people are getting sick. To prevent our cute little bodies from getting sick Emily and I have been taking airborne and it is GROSS!! Oh I hate it with all my heart. Emily has to sit there and talk me into taking it for about 5 minutes before I actually drink it. Even then we plug our noses because... yuck. The things we do for our bodies. SHEESH!

I went with Alexa on Tuesday to get her hair done and on our way home we found the cutest little cafe. A cupcake cafe!! They have the biggest most delicious cupcakes ever! And there are like 50 different flavors! They also have drinks like at starbucks! Overall it's just the greatest place in Rexburg (minus the temple) Since finding it on Tuesday we have been there... five times. :) Come visit me and I'll take you there for sure!

SO! Thursday was Courtney's birthday so I talked to her boyfriend and he told her they were "going to the zoo" for her birthday so Thursday morning they got in the car and started driving towards Salt Lake and just keep coming to see me in Rexburg!! woohoo!! So the night before Alexa and I decorated the living room for her with hearts and... goodness!

When Court and Ben got here and went to I.F. to go SHOPPING!! We were seriously freaking out haha (embarassing i know) don't worry thought I didn't find anything... boo. But I found an adorable skirt for Court at Old Navy that was on SAAALE! :D Oh man I cannot wait to come home and go to Planted Earth and Nordstrom and the shops at Gardner Village. YAY FOR SHOPPING WITH MOM!! :)

THIS PICTURE IS FOR PENNY ELAINE MILLS! :D Pen I saw this bug at the mall in idaho falls and I thought of you! Too bad it's not pink. :)

Instead of a birthday cake we went ahead and went to the cupcake cafe for Court's birthday. :) Here are our delish cupcakes. I got red velvet, Lex go Madagascar Vanilla Vanilla, and Court got Better than Whatever. YUM!

By the way we had such great adventures with Courtney and Ben. :) On our way back from i.f. we sure did get pulled over and the highway patrolmen have these crazy hick town hats! Oh man this place is so great. :D

Alexa, Courtney, and Janna. :)

Random Pictures from the week:

A clean kitchen!! There are always people in and out of our place and people always just make a mess in our house so it's NEVER clean! But today we got a few hours and just clean clean cleaned and... it's clean!! :D (notice how there are no dishes on the counter or in the sink, no trash in the garbage can... :D)

Tanner: Another reason you should come to BYU-I!! :D

On Friday night I went to THE BEST concert EVER! In Rexburg?! you ask. YA! I know right? It was Allred, The Summer Set, and We Shot the Moon. It was at the Westwood theater on main street. P.S. Allred is coming to Provo next week... I'm gonna go then too! :D

Another one of our favorite places: Snoasis! :D Just a snowcone shack but it's so so yummy! Ice cream at the bottom and cream on top! The last day for the season was yesterday. :( Now we just have to wait for the REAL snow.

A picture of Rexburg from the temple. :)

it's getting cold...

2008-09-21T21:25:00.000-06:00

This is Alexa, Breia, and I all geared up to go to the library!! :) It was pouring rain on Saturday so we all had our umbrellas out even though it's only a 2 minute walk. We got to the library at around 3:30 and we were there until 6:45. We really are college students! We were going CRAZY though! I know that sounds wimpy for all you experienced college students but oh man it was killer for us! Right when it hit 6:00 Alexa looked up all frantically and said to me, "Janna! We are are the LIBRARY on a Saturday night!!!!!!" hahaha :)

Lexa and I decided to go to the temple on Saturday. We walked to the temple just to find out that they couldn't let anyone else do baptisms because it was too too busy. (p.s. that was the third time I've tried to go do baptisms :S SOMEONE doesn't want me to be at the temple... sheesh!) BUT it was completely worth it because A. we got a cute picture in front of the temple and B. we got a chance to remember how po-dunk Rexburg is. I took a picture from the front of the temple and on the left you can see apartments. When you look to the left you see downtown Rexburg. Lots of houses, stores, BYU-I, etc. When you look to the right you see... absolutely nothing. It's a field of nothingness for miles and miles, literally!! BUT it gets even better. :) When we walked through the gates into the temple we saw 4 people standing there and Alexa said to me, "Maybe there's a wedding!" I replied to her, "Ya right, there's only 4 people out here!" Oh no she was right. Right then the bride and groom walked out of the temple doors. Yay we got to see a bride and groom, I love going to the temple and seeing weddings BUT then we realized what she was wearing. Her dress was a polygamist dress. I'm serious! There was like a hoop at the bottom so it was really wide and bell like at the bottom and the top was all ruffles and lace and poof and turtleneck (heaven forbid any skin shows!!) and she was wearing this gold crown... :) yup. We sure are in Rexburg. :D

Friday was international talk like a pirate day. We took full use of the holiday making up ridiculous jokes that used AARRGGGG in them and making pirate faces. :D Emily and I were in hysterics all day long!!!! ... Literally. My favorite joke would have to be one that Em made up here it goes...

"What is a pirates favorite mode of transportation? .... the cAAARRRRRR" hahahaha it's retarded I know... ok maybe you had to be there. You just have to picture Emily saying cAAARRRRR like a pirate with a hook and all.. just like in the picture. hahaha