Hermana Sorensen and Hermana Miller

Perfeccionista... aka perfectionist

Hello family!!

I love you guys!! It has been a crazy second week!! So many things to write about and not enough time. Where to start.... hmmm. Well first off you should all "Write away, and keep a missionary posted" haha oh dear; it is off a missionary ad thingy I saw and it says to look up Proverbs 25:25. You know those corny litle photos with the captions yeah it was one of those haha.

This week has defiantly provided more growth for me. As hard as it is I am finally learning to forget myself and go to work. It is soo hard, but so rewarding. Like once I finally got over myself and my own inadequacies I was finally able to enjoy teaching lessons. We finally got Luz our first investigator to pray, then we committed Felipe to baptism, and just so much more. We have 2 new investigators Roberto and Monica. Roberto went really well but Monica is a tough one. It is so challenging for me to not be such a perfectionist and accept that I am making huge srides in the language, but I just want to be there right now... I still want to be perfect, but it is all in the LORDS time. I have to remember that. Honestly though I feel so much better after every lesson now that I have taken that advice to heart and have stopped stressing out over the language. Like it is now easy to love being here.

We also had our first TRC Training Resource Center lessons today teaching members who volunteer in order to help us  . It was really awesome to realize that we can teach some of the lessons in Spanish, plus all the people we taught were really nice (two seperate twenty minute lessons this week).

As far as everything else well lets see I definitely have to tell you about the crazy number of fire drills we have here! Seriously I have been in three in two weeks. One postponed our going to lunch then the other day some girl burnt popcorn (I knew I didn't like that stuff), and then one in class. When the popcorn burned though I was right in the middle of my shower. Yeah that totally sucked!! I was standing there covered in soap, shampoo in my hair, and wet makeup all over my face. I didn't know what to do haha. I call out "Hermana Sorensen are you still there?!" and then she calls back "yeah... BUT WE HAVE TO GO NOW!" hahahaha maybe that doesn't seem as funny to you but it seriously was the best. Felt like the pioneers have to leave everything behind and just go. So next thing you know I am tredging through the snow in my pj's and shower shoes. haha good times. Then after a police man lets us back in and we start the showers back up some male voice is all "Sisters? you're not supposed to be in here". and we were like NOOO. haha but we explained that we had been let in by an officer and so then we were good to go.

So you know how my date got pushed back bc of the huge influx of missionaries and the general conference announcement? Well now they don't have room for all the girls so they are adding an additional bed to every room in our dorm/apartment. That is nuts. IDK where they are going to put it hahaha.

So we get a new district today :) But we loose a district next week. Meaning the four sisters including me in our district will be the oldest Hermanas meaning one of us will probably get called as coordinating sister here soon. I am going to be sad to see our coordinating sisters go, I really like them.

Also because time on the computer is so limited please send your messages through Dear Elder or snail mail while I am in the MTC.... I love you, but there really isn't time to try and read and respond throughly via email to all the messages. Oh and on the topic of mail if some or all of you would PLEASE take some time maybe instead of writing me this week and write a letter of encouragement to Elder Wickenhagen that would be the BEST! I feel so sad for him, he is the only one in our district who hasn't gotten any mail at all yet. So really please, I will be so ecstatic if I see he gets a ton of mail this week, and don't tell him who sent you to send it or anything just like an anonymous pay it forward would be great. Just type his name instead of mine and then all of the rest is the same as far as the address goes and box number. 

It is freezing here!! It has been snowing like crazy. So walking to the temple proves to be a venture I feel like my flats that are ready for California are a little out of place here haha. But luckily knock on wood I haven't fallen on my face yet.

LOVE LOVE LOVE you!!!!

Hermana Miller

PS Thank you so much for the package with the tights and breakfast packets and the delish cupcakes :)) love you all!! 

Echemelo (accent over second e) AKA "Bring it" en Espanol: Week One in the Mission

Hello my dearest FAMILY!!!

I love and miss you all dearly. It is so nerve racking trying to type this email in 22 minutes after having read all the emails I had in my inbox this morning. Well I have made it through my very first week as a set apart missionary on the Lords errand. It has been crazy. This is definitvely the hardest thing I have EVER done, pero (BUT) it is also the most rewarding. I am so happy to be here even on the days where there are tears. I love the district there are ten of us total and they are great. My comapanion Hermana Sorensen is the BEST! I love her so much. We are twins practically haha well about mission stuff anyhow we both got our call on the same day in August and arived together and will be going to Fresno speaking Spanish and then at the temple this morning we realized we had both taken our endowment out on the same day in October; crazy huh? The Lord knows each of us so well and he defiantly knew exactly what I needed when I got here. There are two other sisters we share a room with in the district Hermana Shaw and Hermana Moffit also both great. Sister Shaw is going to DC and Sister Moffit to Carlsbad CA. All of the other 8 members of my district our Elders and they are all going to SLC; all of them to SLC west except one going SLC south. We all are Spanish speaking and are pretty tight knit: we eat together and of course all study together (we have to on the latter lol).
 The Zone leaders are Awesome and so is the Branch (49 C). Our branch President Johnson served in Tonga under John Grober; yeah like off the movie The Other Side of Heaven... So cool. Then there is Bro Harris and Bro Singerland. I got my Coco Bean with Ashley before coming into the MTC so no wories there, and yes it was delish. I wish I had time to write about ever little miracle I have seen and experienced since coming here, but there is no way I could. There is just too much. The language is hard but I guess one of the best things I have realized (just yesterday) is that I am not here to learn the language. I am here to deepen my doctrinal understanding and prepare myself. To strengthen my own convictions. My purpose is to bring others unto Christ not to learn Spanish (although that too will come). I am trying to be more faithful to EXERCISE my faith and to be patient with myself to remember that the Lord ALWAYS keeps his promises and that it is up to me to be faithful. I really wish I could send you the link to the devotional they had for us last night, but I don't even think there is a link. But amazing... it truly is purely amazing here. If I had one wish it would be that everyone had this oppertunity that they could live worthy and have this wonderful experience of serving a mission. I really have been loving Ether chapter 12 this week I highly recommend that you all read it this week. It has been a huge strength to me. Also THANK YOU to eeryone who has written me, those letters are like life lines that help me make it to the next day. Well I am on the Lord's time now, and I am trying to learn to do things his way. It is hard but it is worth it. Another great scripture from this week is 2 Nephi 2:2 I probably won't write much more today because of time and I want to try and attach pictures. Just know I love and miss you all so so much. The work is hard but beautiful and I am grateful to be here.  

PS I don't really need anything persay but it would be nice to have some scripture cases for my seminary scriptures and then a case for the spanish set we have here so they don't get damaged carrying them. Also some of the Carnation breakfast packets in Vanilla? The food here is really hard on my stomach and I have felt sick a lot, but not too much that I can't handle it so don't worry about me.  

LOVE,

Hermana Miller

SO SORRY only a minute left and I can't figure out how to attach pictures :((( Hopefully next week. Just know that I am taking them.

Also I see Tawny at meals sometimes so hopefully we can get a photo together before she leaves.