Monday, December 29, 2014 - ONE YEAR

HOLAAAAAAAAAAA

It was seriously so good to see you guys this Christmas!!! Made me cry my face off but it's ok I ate a lot of ice cream after I hung up. hahaha We didn't really do anything that day because there were no members home so we just hung out outside the pension of the elders, it was so hot that day too. I was seriously dying. Oh and I also got pictures of when we hiked the mountain at 5:00 Christmas morning. Seriously so hard, ahahaha I was dying and I hiked it in toms. So stupid, lol, but it was so beautiful to watch the sunrise, definitely worth it. I guess on New Year's we're going to do it again. haha There's like this huge virgin Mary statue that they're building up there it's kinda crazy!!

This week was really good though, it felt kinda long, we did so much. We sang in the park (kinda super awkward but super fun) and the elders have 3 solid investigadores from that now, they all came to church yesterday! So cool!

Also I gave my first talk in church yesterday. It was super hard, haha but not really.  I didn't even plan a talk, just read a little bit that morning and went and gave a talk. It was about faith and repentance. Also the whole like 16 people being in sacrament meeting wasn't too intimidating lol. But it was funny when I couldn't say a word, they'd help me out. hahahhaah I was dying, I couldn't say repenting and people were laughing haha oh my gosh. You'd think I'd have this spanish down by now. But my companion helps me so much. It's awesome!!!

Also can we talk about how on Wednesday I'll hit the year mark being set apart as a missionary then on Friday a year out in the field. Jaymi turns 19 on Saturday!!! NINETEEN!! SERIOUSLY SO CRAZY!!!

Hope you have a great bday Jay! Love you guys so much and I miss you! But hey nos vemos en 6 meses!

Oh also I got a bunch of letters!
Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
love love
xoxoxo
Hermana Miller

Monday, December 22, 2014

HEY

Primero, "FELIZ NAVIDAD A TODO"!! Can't believe it's Christmas already, how fast has this year gone by. It's so crazy. So excited to see you all this Christmas!! It's going to be so awesome.

This week was kinda weird, haha I'll just tell you the funny things that happened because it wasn't too crazy spiritual miracle stuff.

So we went to go buy groceries and this guy in the market came up to us and said "You look like really good, nice people." We said thanks, then we gave him a card, and said "maybe one day we can stop by and teach you." He said, "ya you can teach me and I'll teach you karate." I guess he's like some karate guy hahahahaha so funny.

Then the next day we're walking home and this guy, an old guy with a moustache comes up to us and starts hugging my companion and asks "why are you guys so white?" Haha "well, we're not from here!" He says, "oh you're cute." Pointing to me, "you're more brown, we like brown." Then he starts kissing my companions head, then he comes and kisses my face and then my hand. When we left he kissed us again. Seriously I got kissed like 3 times. It's so weird. He wasn't gross, just an old man who was so shocked to see 2 white people here. He's like hermosa, que linda. Haha so weird.

I did remember something cool that happened this week. We were in central shopping and we were walking through the park and on the corner this girl was painting, she's also selling bracelets and writes on rice. Really cool stuff so we go and talk to her at the same time we run into the Elders. We start talking and she knew our church without even looking at our name tags, then she started talking about how she went to our church in San Juan, I think. Then we found out she was baptized and that her whole family was baptized, and that her brother served a mission!!! So cool! She's so tight, half of her head is shaved and she's got dreads. We gave her a Christmas card, el es la dadiva. She put it on her stand where she was selling stuff. It was so cute. She said she didn't want to come back to church but that we could pass by and share a message with her. So we'll see what we can do to get her back to church and active again. She has 3 little kids. So cute. Pretty cool eh!

Also we found an old investigator this week, and we met her boyfriend. We found out he is in LOVE with Canada, it's so funny. He just has so many desires to go to Canada. It's so cute, he's 17 and is just I love Canada. He's totally read and done some research and everything. He told us we needed to bring pictures and all that. So if you have any cool pics of Canada, send them porfavor, like maybe Waterton or something. Anyway, they're going to come to church next Sunday. They have a lot of potential!! They're awesome.

So that's my week. I'll be seeing you guys soooooooooooon!
Love you so much!!!
xoxoxoxox
Love Kenzie =) besito
Whoops, I mean
Love Hermana Miller

Monday, December 15, 2014

Hola familia,

This week was super amazing. We had our Christmas conference and it was so amazing. I felt the spirit so strong. President Lovell's mom had just passed away this week and he had a slideshow set up and just talked about his mom and taught us about the resurrection. It was so amazing. He had a video clip of when his parents got married and Hermana Lovell said it was like looking into heaven because his parents are together again. Perfect, happy, and healthy, I loved it. I just sat there while he bore his testimony crying because I know that we will be with our families after this earthly life.

I actually just sat there and looked at the picture of Jorden that is taped in my libro de mormon and cried. Thinking about the Christmas season and how it is always hard for the family, but just feeling so much peace and joy. I know Jo is with us this Christmas. Love that girl so much.

This week we were able to work a lot, even though we went to Zapala for 2 days. We found 13 new investigadores who are so bomb. We have 3 baptism dates this week and are just working so hard. We saw so many blessings this week. 

Also we're decorating our pension all Christmasy. We bought a tree and lights and are making paper chains and snowflakes. Haha, if Argentina doesn't want to celebrate Christmas - we still can. I love it. Christmas in the pension, I'll try to send some pics next week. 

I'm already overtime and I have so much to write about, mucho. But this week was just really good. We basically ran the church meeting yesterday. We taught the lesson, played the music, I lead the music. When I was leading the music, it just took me back to the good ole days when I lead the music in church and always saw the fam. 2nd row, and the little boys just looking up at me and I'd always get the biggest smile. Or they'd try to follow me. Got a little trunky, not gonna lie. And we did a musical number. There were only about 17 people there. Not a lot at all but the Spirit was there. Which is always good. 

Hermana Agustina, a member, came with us to a lesson and after she took us to the grocery store and just bought us so much stuff. I felt so bad, but she's like no, I know I'll get blessings for this. She just bought us so much stuff, she even bought me a pair of shoes. Like so crazy. She's adorable. She said, just pretend like I'm your mom. Hermana Christensen said, I feel like I'm with my grandma. So funny. We're so blessed here.

Pucha, I'm out of time. but realmente thanks for everything. I'll see you guys in like a week!! 

Love you so much 

xoxoxoxo

Hermana Miller

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Hola familia!!!! 

=) Como estas todos?

This week was oh soooooo good!!!! I love my companion! We get along so good it's so crazy. We are like the same person!! It's so fun!! Also it was her birthday on Saturday and we got to celebrate together, so that was really fun. She turned 20! She's so cute!

So this week was so good! We had the most spiritual sacrament meeting, it was amazing!!! It was fast and testimony meeting right, we had 18 members come plus the 6 missionaries. Not a lot at all, but it was the strongest testimony meeting I've been to in the longest time. I bore my testimony and I actually started to cry, it's been a while since I've felt the spirit so strong and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be serving here in Chos Malal. I realized this week how many people are prepared to hear about the restored gospel. The Elders found this investigador like the day before church and she was there and bore her testimony, she loved it. There is just so many prepared people! Chos Malal is something so special! Everyone here in the mission wants to come to Chos Malal and I feel so grateful for the opportunity to be here. =) The Lord loves me!

Also yesterday was a holiday right, the day of the virgin, crazy. Everything closed down and they just climbed up this mountain and worshipped Mary and other strange things. But we worked our butts of yesterday!! We left at 4:00, taught 6 lessons, found 4 new investigadores, contacted 5 references and received a lot of references. We worked so hard. I think it's so awesome that I get along so well with my companion that it makes the work so much funner and so much easier. I'm like waiting for something terrible to happen because I've never had such an amazing companion. 

Also this week we have a conference with the president. The christmas conference, so that will be fun! And spiritual! 

The mission is great! I love it so much, I can really feel myself growing spiritually more than ever this transfer! Such a blessing to be part of this work. It's amazing!! =) The church is true! 

les amo besitos

hermana miller

P.S.  Are you guys sharing "He is the Gift" with other people.  Because you definitely should! #elesladadiva

Hey, here is the life of Hermana Christensen and I. We have a blast. Make stir fry (normal american food), eat kinder eggs, eating ice cream in bed, there's a bbq goat, it wasn't that good, the picture with the hula hula was our first day together and we we're already best friends, and our cute clean pension.

Love you 

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Hola familia!!!

This week was really good! We just had transfers and I'm with Hermana Christensen, she's from the US from New Mexico. She's super cute, has like 5 months in the mission. This is her second area. I'm super excited that we get to work together here in Chos Malal. There will be 5 whities and 1 latino hahaha super crazy. 

Also have you guys heard about, "He is the gift". The new video that the church is sharing all over the world. It will be in time square and all over youtube on the 7th. so amazing. I love this video, it is so spiritual. Makes you really think about the purpose of Christmas. Speaking of Christmas I'm hoping to get something sent to you guys, definitely won't get there for Christmas but oh well.

Also Hermana Malmrose went home!! =((( my best friend in the mission is home! So crazy!! I'm seriously going to miss her so much! We have big plans for after the mission haha. 

Also we dropped Javier, he just wasn't making the progress that he needed to make so that was really sad. If he really wants to make a change in his life, then we'll teach him again, but he needs to know we're not here to be best friends, but to bring the gospel in his life. So we'll see how things go! 

That's my life this week, nothing really exciting! Hope all is well back home! Love and miss you guys like super much. =)

A huge hug and kissy kiss

xoxoxox
Hermana Miller

Monday, December 1, 2014 - 11 months

So Hermana Miller is currently in Zapala, which is about a 3.5 hour bus ride from Chos Malal, waiting for her new companion to arrive.  She'll arrive around 4am.  Her name is Hermana Christensen, she's from the US, she's been out about 5 months.  So that makes Makenzie senior companion.  She's a little nervous but super excited to have a greenga for a companion.  She said now in her district there will be her and her new companion, and then 3 american Elders and one Latino Elder.

She didn't send a letter, we just chatted back and forth for a little bit.  She said she'll be back on tomorrow.  I did add her long letter to last weeks post so in the meantime you can go read that.

Also this is from Hermana Lovell's blog from last Thursday (American Thanksgiving):

I'm so very grateful for a loving and supportive family. They've helped me more than they even know.  I'm also so grateful to have the gospel in my life thanks to my parents who had strong enough testimonies to raise me and my 5 other siblings in the gospel. I'm grateful for the mission and that I have the opportunity to serve gods children here in Argentina. There's nothing better or more important that I could be doing with my life than being out here in the mission. It truly is a blessing. Happy Thanksgiving! Even if Canada celebrated it in October. :)

Monday, November 24, 2014

Hey this one is a shorty because I wrote a long one to mom. But this week was good. Here in Chos Malal was the Fiesta de Chivo. It's a really big party for…. goats. Haha they're apparently super good here and famous. So it's like a worldwide party. Maybe you can find something about it on the internet. 

Also we got to see another baptism here on Saturday. So spiritual and amazing.

This week is transfers and that is really crazy because I feel like I just got here. My companion is good and we've gotten along so well these past few weeks. She also had lice and I was super scared I was gonna get it. 

Also an Elder here burnt his face this morning lighting the hot water tank. He has no eyebrows left and I laughed so hard when I saw him this morning because he looks so funny.  Then I found out what happened and I felt really bad. I thought he was trying to trim his eyebrows and shaved them off. Poor guy =( 

Anyway, love you guys 

xoxoxox

Hermana Miller

PS. 32 days till christmas. =)

We celebrated American Thanksgiving!!

 This is Javier.

Note from Juli:  So I've been asked to talk this Sunday (Nov. 30) for 5 minutes about Hermana Miller and her mission.  So I asked her 4 questions last week for her to think about and answer me back today.  Once my talk is written I'll post it below.  K, so I used most of her letter for my talk but not all of it.  So I'm posting her letter instead of my talk. :)

Super cool that you have the opportunity to talk about me in church haha better be the best talk ever. haha joking.

OK the most spiritual experience was probably when I had my first baptism. Two of our investigators got baptized this day. Our ward had a total of 7 baptisms this day. Which is super rare, the president his wife and assistants even came for this day. I remember seeing my converts enter into the waters of baptism and not being able to stop the tears. It was so amazing. Then I realized my whole purpose here as a missionary. After that I felt the spirit in every moment as I watched them progress. Receiving the priesthood, blessing and passing the sacrament, giving a talk in church, and preparing for a mission. It's so amazing to see your converts progress in the gospel. I received a letter from Aldana, my convert in Plottier, saying how she's so grateful to have the gospel in her life, and that she wants to serve a mission too. It really is an amazing experience.

Most memorable experience, idk there's lots. All the times I got bit by dogs, hahaha one time when I ate cow stomach, when I fell and bruised my leg so bad that I couldn't walk for a day and it's still not healed, it has this huge indent haha only in Argentina. Or the one time it rained for like a week in Roca and we couldn't leave our pension for like 3 days because the roads were rivers. Our pension had a lot of water too, crazy. Or when we were in the CCM and would leave to proselyte for the day, without knowing one word of Spanish. Then all these Argentinas would kiss your cheeks haha super awkward for a newbi missionary. Haha now it's normal. I'll probably be kissing everyones cheeks when I get home. Another experience was when we were at an investigators house (Marisol) and her 3 yr old daughter dumped a whole bottle of rubbing alcohol on their new 2 month old puppy. Haha, it almost died. It took us forever to even untie his collar because the alcohol was so strong, it was burning our nose and eyes, the poor dog didn't know up from down. But it was sooo funny once we knew he would live. hahaha.

Most challenging experience is probably when we would be out contacting doors for hours in the cold and no one wanted to talk to us. It sucks when people just rechazar (forget the word in english) us. It sucks. It's hard almost everyday. There's always something that can get you discouraged! But I've learned that the mission is what you make of it. You can hate the mission and not do anything to love it. Or you can love it. Even the hard days, when your comp walks a block in front of you because she's mad and won't tell you why, or when you feel like the only person in the entire world because you can't follow a conversation in this other language, or when you get the door slammed in your face all day, or when the investigator you've been working with for months doesn't get baptized on the date you planned. All those hard things are hard, but it's how you handle them. The mission definitely isn't easy. I never really understood dad when he said the mission will be the hardest thing ever, but it really is. Just depends on how you handle it. I honestly love the mission and am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be out here as a representante de Jesucristo. I LOVE THE MISSION!!!

Scariest experience puede ser when I had to use outdoor washrooms. Idk if you can even call them bathrooms. They're terrifying. I remember this one bathroom was like a shack, I had to duck through the door to get into this little bathroom and there was this cement hole, horrifying. Hahahah or the odd time a car almost hit us, that's scary, happens lots too. Haha but I've definitely felt the Lords protecting hand out here in the mission. I haven't really had any scary experiences. I know the Lord is protecting and watching over me. 

The mission is amazing. Never would I have thought that I would have the opportunity to serve Gods children out here in Argentina. I'm so grateful for everything that I've learned out here in the mission field. I've definitely changed, it wasn't the mission that changed me but the gospel of Jesus Christ that changed me. I know this is the true church on the earth today that was restored by Joseph Smith. That we are all children of God who loves cada una de nosotras muchisimo. The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, that we should read everyday. It was written for us and we need to do everything we can to apply it in our lives. I'm so grateful for the Savior and his atonement, without it we are nothing, and I'm so grateful that God could send him here to atone for our sins. This is the true gospel. I know it's true with all my heart. 

Thanks mom and dad for everything you've done for me and for teaching me the gospel. The things I need to do, and for raising me with a better understanding of everything. I'm so grateful to have known the gospel all my life. I would be completely lost without it.

Also thanks to the ward, for the bishopric, for our home teachers and stake president, How lucky are we to have our stake president as a home teacher (they really are amazing, Timmy will be an amazing missionary). Thank you to my loving visiting teachers who always went out of their way to visit me, (especially Angela, she helped me more than she knows in preparing me to leave on the mission, leaving me notes on my computer to read my scriptures, hahaha love her so much) for my visiting teaching companion and her example to me. for my teachers and leaders who taught me everything growing up. Love them. This ward is so special and I'm so blessed to be a part of it. And to all those missionaries who are preparing to leave I wish them the best. There's nothing more important or a blessing than serving a mission at this time. 

Hope that helps mom, it's a long one. 

Love youssssssss

Good luck on your talk hehe

Love Kenziiiiiieee Hermana Miller

Monday, November 17, 2014

Hola familia!!!!

Bueno, this week was good! Better definitely.  I'm really starting to love Chos Malal and the people here. It really is a special place. The people here are so receiving and receptive. It's a different and amazing experience to be here. The elders had a baptism on Saturday, the Spirit was so strong. It was such an amazing experience. In this little shack, with a dirt floor, sitting on tree stumps so we could be close to the river. We were at this campo, at a member house. The Spirit was amazingly strong. During the musical number, Hermana Norma, who was getting baptized, was crying from the Spirit. The investigadors were crying, it was amazing. The baptism in the river was unforgettable  Where else would someone be able to experience that. Love it.

Our investigadores we have right now are a little lost. Javier was progressing so well, was obeying la palabra de sabaduria and everything but his new friend, Jose, is a drug dealer. Javier has now been sucked back into his old habits. He's progressing but very slowly now. He came to the baptism on Saturday but was drugged. So sad to see this young boy struggling so much with his life. He wants to change. He knows what he's doing is wrong, but he just doesn't have the support and help he needs. As well with Nadia, she is amazing. Always goes to church, family home evening, but struggles with alcohol.  We're doing everything we can to help them. I don't know if you have any ideas or advice that we can use to help them. 

Love this work and I'm so grateful to be a part of it. Also can we talk about how fast the time is going. I have 8 months left. Like what. I'll finish here in Chos Malal, then I'll have 3 transfers left. Basically like 1 more area. Freaking me out. And skype. Super soon. Sorry I've been really trunky this week. Haha.  Anyway love you guys, have a super good week =)

Love,

Hermana Miller