Week 4...

Querido todo mundo! 
 
So.... the jokes on us. If a companionship is about to go teach a 
lesson we all say, "Boa Sorte!" If someone is about to go to the 
medico we all say, "Boa Sorte!" If Irmao McGill is going on a trip to 
Montana with his family we all say "Boa Sorte!" But it turns out.... 
Good luck is a bad thing in Brazil? Our native substitute Irmao Godoy 
finally broke down and told us about what I am sure is the biggest 
joke of all time played by the teachers here! Ha! Good luck is what 
you say when you are about to do something impossible. Like... good 
luck on that math test you didn't study for, or apparently good luck 
on converting people to the gospel!!! According to Irmao Godoy they 
say - good whatever the activity is, if they have faith in you. 
Liiiike "bon licao" (good lesson), or "boa weight loss?" DYING. Do you 
feel duped here? Because we did. 
 
Anyway, nothing supaz exciting happened this week. They are all 
starting to run together. We only have like 2 weeks left and it's 
getting nerve wracking. Our reassignments are set to come next Friday, 
so I'll keep you updated on that. I was really okay with getting 
reassigned til all of the sudden this week I panicked. Teaching in 
Portuguese is hard enough, can you imagine me in the bible belt? 
That's where they have been sending everyone. I'm terrified. AND I'm 
going to lose what Portuguese I have. But the Lord knows me. He set 
things up as they need to be and I will be okay with that. Sometimes I 
want to control my life and then I remember. I have a heavenly father 
who is all knowing. WAY better idea to let him call the shots. I defer 
to the expert when I can you know? 


I'm not going to lie. This week has been tough at times. I just keep 
thinking, where was I before this? I love this gospel. I knew that 
before, I know that even more now. What is that country song, I 
thought I loved you then? It's impossible for us mere mortals to 
comprehend the enormity of what is happening here, but we are not all 
created equal. We had our personalities before this life. We were 
chosen for specific things in this life. We promised people we would 
find them and give them the gospel. We were given tasks. We fought for 
this gospel, some harder than others. We were righteous souls. We came 
here to earth. We are here crescer (to grow) and progredir (to 
progress). If we aren't doing that then we have lost the eternal 
perspective. 
 
I love you all. I love you momma. I love you daddy. I love you Andrew, 
Ali, and Rore. 
 
TCHAU. 
 
Sister Mills 
 
PS sorry I wasn't that funny this week? I wrote Aunt Heidi and it 
sucked all my funny out? 
 
PPS we have added dance moves to our Cotton-mills jingle. You'd love 
it! It's so inspirational. 

3rd Week Letter from MTC...

Oiiiiiiii.  

Tudo bem!!! Loved the Dear Elder y'alls are so cute! I bet
Alaska was rediculously fun! Slash you met Shakira's neighbor and didn't teach her
about the gospel? This is going to be a slow and round about process, but as
soon as Shakira accepts the gospel everyone else will too? Blashepmy? Probs.
But my whole district talks to me about Shakira all the time. She is like our
district mascot or something. Slightly innapro, but we are positive she'll
figure out that Portuguese is better than Spanish, accept the gospel, and marry
one of our Elders? Mission Probs.  


Also, thanks for sending my yellow fever card. The yellow fever
jokes were abounding, and Sister Cotton threatened to get her VISA and NOT pretend
she had lost her yellow card too, so then I'd be left alone! I want you to know
that if that happened, we would probably be over. As in not companions, and I
would hate her. For obvious reasons. A companionship is like an arranged
marriage. You are together through thick and thin or Heavenly Father will be
dissapointed in you. We even have a theme song...  

"Here comes Sisters Cotton-Mills, riding down the mission
trail. Hippity Hoppity the gospel's on its wayyyyy."  


It's a winner. Obviously.  

Okay so down to business, this week I tried to keep a list of
things to talk to y'all about so I didn't forget everything in the moment like
last week. So get stoked. Also, for everyone reading this. Dear Elder me por
favor? I'm starting to look lame when Sister Cotton gets like 4 a day...  


First. I finally shaved my legs! Of course I wrote this last
P-Day, so they need to be shaved again, but I had been a month without before and
the Elders were all begging me to shave them. SLASH looking up words like
"repugnant" in the english-portuguese dictionary? It's fine. I
finally broke down because a native Brazillian teacher told me that in Sao
Paulo everyone shaves. Jokes on me. Although I'm preeeeetty sure there are some
people somewhere who don't shave, and once I get out there I will befriend them
and turn back to my Granola ways. Sorry for the TMI, but this was necessary to
the work if true, you know? People don't want to accept the gospel from a
Sister in sheep's clothing.  

Second. The teacher sitch. Okay, so we have two teachers
everyday but Sunday. Turns out our first investigator "Fernando" is
now our teacher Irmao Read. He is 6'5'' and speaks Portuguese faster than a
native I'm almost positive. Sooo that's been interesting. Irmao McGill and
Irmao Read are the best. We've broken them down and now they make jokes with us
all the time, and we are known as the fun district. Everyone comes to play with
us. Although we've had to start kicking them out when we are done with our yard
time. This is spirit prison nao? Irmao McGill is our new investigator
"Rafael" and he thinks his life is perfect, he has a wife Adriana and
a 1 year old (boy or girl, still not sure and debatably too awkward to ask)
named Yudu? Youdi? Yodu. Nao se. He corrects us every time. So is life. Que
vergonha (how embarrassing). I think it is our mission to figure out how to
apply the gospel to his life, but jokes on Irmao McGill because that's how I
feel about myself. This nut will be easy to crack. I'm now getting proficient enough
to make jokes in Portuguese and last lesson I had him red in the face/crying.
Success? Then Sister Cotton quick bares her testimony while he is incapacitated
and then I ask him to be baptized. Estou brincando. Except it kind of is like
that... hahaha. Irmao Read is harder because he is playing "Michel"
(PS they play pesquisadors they had on their missaos, so they know how they
would react.) who has a wife Sheila (who he is actually married too! No law of
chastity THIS WEEK, good thing because our first week was awkward enough!) and
two kids Davee and Isabella. Michel doesn't know which church to join because
there are so many! SCOREEE! Neither did a young boy named Joseph Smith! When I
heard Michel's reasons for investigating I about morrei (died - the double RR
makes an "H" sound, so "I die present tense is morro.
HILARIOUS). We teach two lessons or so a day and it's nice because we don't
really have to prepare anymore for very long. When we were first here it was
out daily activity learning the words from the lesson and deciding who would
say what, but now that we know enough to be... understandable? We can better
follow the spirit. I know multiple times this week I said something in a lesson
I did not know how to say. Words I heard one or two times were brought to my remembrance.
I know these are role plays, but I know that the spirit participates in them.
That we have his gift, and that missionary work is real. When we leave each lesson
our fake investigator is again a "real" person and made stronger in
their testimony of the gospel through the spirit. Nos tambem. Irmao Read and
Irmao McGill have been out of town a bit lately so we have had visiting
teachers who play new investigators. One of our subs is Irmao Goody
(prounounced GOOD-OI). His pai is the 1st counselor in the Brazil area and you
can tell he grew up with a general authoridade. He is also TOTALLY a
Brazillian. He told me there is a Brazillian Shakira and that she is better. Probably
falso, but I'm excited to find out? Also he told me when I get a little bit of
a tan and if I speak with a perfeito accent I will look Brazillian and no one
will know I am American. Also that my personality will fit in PERFECTLY with
Sao Paulo. Which of course we already knew, but was so fun to be told. He was
super blunt slash hilarious slash mean and our banter gave me EPIC EXCITEMENT
for Brazil. I'm ready to go. I know that God knows us each individually. We are
his children. Nothing happens by chance. He chose me for this at this time and
I've never been so sure of it. I know the gift of tongues is real. I know I am
not perfect at Portuguese but I am getting better, and it's through the help of
my Heavenly Father that I can even start to construct each broken sentence.  


Third. I gave everyone in my district their huminal and I
MIIIIIIGHT have opened a can of worms. HA! They made a poster of us with our animal
heads in our mission attire, and they also ask me about EVERYONE we ever meet.
It's a talent, but I'm trying to only use it for good you know? Buttttt YOLO!
Or as Elder Wilson said the other day (PS we have a quote book and I am in it
like 5 times talking about food. FATTYYY.) - it was probably against the rules,
but YOLO!  

Fourth. Elder McLaughlin is our new District leader and it is
MUITO vergonha. We love him so much, but Elder Carney has been our District Leader
until now, so at the end of the song we'll all turn to Elder Carney to see who
he wants to pray, or we'll ask Elder Carney if we have any mail. It's a rough
transitition. He also forgets he isn't the District Leader and that gets
PRETTTTY hilarious. Elder McLaughlin is super into politics so he makes all these
jokes about how "He cannot take Elder Carney's place but he is succeeding
him." Soooo Elder Carney was pretty much George Washington. With a red
patch of hair? Perfff. Also, Elder Carney burst his appendix (probs because we
are so stressful) so he was out for a couple days last week. It was crazy how District
G just pulled together to help him. All but one Elder has now had hard core
medical problems in our district and none of the sisters (KNOCK ON WOOD) so we
are constantly praying for saude (health.) Oracao (prayer) has been our refuge
for the past couple weeks and I personally think it is because the Lord knows
we are all a little... TOO humble (HA!) and we need to rely more on him and his
will.  


Anyway, I'm outtie. I love you and miss you like crazy. I hope
the blessings you are recieving are awesome in my wake. I know I'm sacrificing
muito for you to get them! HA! But really, I love you and hope everything is
going well back in AZ! OH also, I met someone who works here at the MTC who
served his mission (he said so lamely) in MESA, AZ. Hahaha. I was like what
wards?! And he goes have you heard of Lehi? I was there for 7 months! HA! It
would have been Elder... Berardi? Or something close? His name was sketch and
he made me repeat it like 12 times and I still forgot it. Oi, life of a
misisonary. Never prepared with a writing utensil? Anyway, he said he lived in what
I'm guessing is a Nelson house, and that his fave person in the ward was the
ward mission leader "Brother.... Dana, he had like 2 kids, Shelll...
and  Cooper?" Hahahaha. Morro. I was
like BISHOP DANA now IRMAO! Anyway, shoutout, he says hi. Hahaha.  

Alright for reals, I'll talk to y'all next week!  


Sister Haley Kristina Mills 

Some MTC Photos...

Here are some of the photos we've received from Haley so far...

This is Sister Mills and her companion Sister Kaela Cotton.

Here's one of Haley's famous jumping pictures
 - also with her comp. Sister Cotton.

Sisters Jones, Evans, Mickelsen, Mills, Cotton, White and Hauet.

And a district picture - Elders Thomas, Carney, Turk, Fraizer,
Wilson, and McLaughlin and Sisters Hauet, White, Mills and Cotton.

And finally a photo of Sister Mills with
Sister Crystal Gardner from Monument Ward.

Haley Week 2 @ MTC

Soooo I took the liberty of telling everyone else who emailed me let me write them handwritten letters so I would have time to email this week. OH and I'm not doing it in the laundry, soooo there are only minimal distractions! I kept a list all week of things to tell you, but I'll start with 5 people in our zone got their visas today! GOD SEND. No one had gotten a VISA to Brazil for weeks, and everyone was getting reassigned to the south (so get stoked for some serious dairy stories I'm sure!) when they called up one of the TRIAD ( the sisters next door in the zone who I LOVE) and told her she got her VISA! We went down with her just to touch it. Sounds weird, but it's good luck. When we got down to the travel office there were 4 others there getting their VISAS and we all had a good scream fest in the bookstore. People love us. Sister Jones had to pack and be ready to leave by 9:30 this morning and we just dropped her off. So now the TRIAD is just a normal companionship... Sad day. ALTHOUGH, someone misheard us calling it the TRIAD and thought we were calling it the "Trial." Ha! So now Cotton-mills and Sisters Evans and Mickelsen call ourselves the trial. ("Um Prova"). Sister Evans is super hilariously sarcastico and she goes- "that's what our haters call us." Hahaha. They are in the other Distrito that got here the same day as us in our zone, so we are tight. They are also the only sisters in their distrito, so we gotta stick togethah! Also, Irma Cotton's Southern accent is getting out of control and Irma Mickelsen thinks she is black so I sound like a broken juke box when I hang out with them too much. Which let's be real, on a mish is all the time.

Cotton fala: Oi so your daughter is awesome. i couldnt imagine having a different companion. She is so funny and bright. She can be a little strange compared to my country ways but we get a long just great. She makes me put stamps on all yalls letters I feel like i am writing all yall myself. She picks on me so bad all the time for my country accent but I know secretly she wants it. She makes me eat all her dariy free cookies and brownies with her. I try to tell her just cuz we are stuck to each others hips 24/7 does not mean i have to eat like her too but she refuses to listen. Here comes Irmas CottonMills Riding down the mission trails. Well got to go tchau tchau for now.

The Portuguese is still a little cray, I can say pretty much whatever I want, it just sounds like- "We can to go through shopping?" Makes perfff sense right? We laugh all the time about how stupid we must sound to Brazillians when we are repeating things over and over. Like IRMAAA. That's like saying "Seesterrr, Siestar? Seestar? SisTEER?" really slow. I hope you are laughing, because we do a REAL good impression of ourselves in English and I am sorry you have to miss it. Cottonmills started speaking only Portuguese at dinner and it has done SO much good. Either we sit in silence and listen to the rest of our distrito tell stories or figure out how to say things. Which obvi works for the both of us. Positive motivation people! We also got Fernando to commit to baptism! HOLLLLLA! It helps that the next day he showed up as our teacher, but we felt pretty legit. Now we have two more investigators (our teachers) Michel e Rafael. Cottonmills has a serious giggling problem AND it turns out we are pretty hilarious in Portuguese (or we can't speak it, but we chose to believe the best) that we get our pesquisdors CRYING they laugh so hard. They'll come unto Christ for sure now riiiight? Estou brincado. We do get them laughing, but I rattle off in Portuguese and Irma Cotton jumps in with an H-core testimony of whatever I just said. She never knows what I am saying, but for some reason she always knows what to testify about. This truly is the work of Christ.

OH PS Cottonmills had the CRAZIEST experience the other day. We were going in for branch president interviews, but they didn't have time for both of us so we went in together. President Mackay, a counselor, asks us how we are doing and if we like each other and we both go- NO. At the same time. Then we rattle off random redic reasons we would hate each other and got the Pres laughing. Well then he stops and looks right at both of us and says- "I have no idea why I am saying this, but I feel impressed to tell you that you need to learn how to give a priesthood blessing. Someone will need it and there will be someone there to give one, but they won't know how. You need to learn so you can teach them. I don't know if someone will be very sick, but they will need a blessing right then. You have been prepared for this. You are here because God needs you specifically. He has tasks for both of you to do." We both walk our crying and then we both swore he looked RIGHT at each of us and it was for us! HA! We love competitions. Well that night we prayed about it and decided maybe he didn't know which one of us it was for or maybe it will be in Sao Paulo Norte when we are together. But we got the distinct impression that it was for both of us. And I had never felt the spirit like that before.

Eu sei que O Livro de Mormon e a palavra de Deus. Eu sei que Jose Smith e o profeta de Deus. Eu sei que Deus e nosso amorosa Pai Celestial e podemos vive con ele de novo. Eu sei que familias pode viver juhnto para sempre e que nos temos o profeta de Deus vivendo oje. Eu amo isso evanghelo. Eu amo isso igreja e eu sei que eu estou fazer certo. Eu sei que nos podemos sentir pas e se nos temos fe en Jesus Cristo nos podemos estar salvar. Hope you can google translate that? Or it's close enough to espanol?! #luta Desculpa nao desculpa TCHAU TCHAU POR AGORA!

First Letter - a little wild and unedited...

Hey Brother and Sister Mills,

My name is Elder Frazier and I am in your daughter's district. I am currently holding her computer so no one steals it while she hangs her skirts to dry in the laundry room. She is really awesome!! We have a lot of fun talking about politics and all that sorts of stuff. We both decided our 2016 Candidate was Condi Rice. Great choice, right? Pretty much we are best friends. Oh and Elder Wilson, who is currently reading over my shoulder, says hi too! Oh your daughter is now yelling through the room if anyone has a card reader for her camera. Oh it looks like she is ready to write. TCHAU!

Heyyyyyyyyyooooooo! This Is elder wilson! Sister Mills is so great! I'm pretty sure she has been OBEYING all of the rules to exactness all of the time. She is such a great example and I know you all will be so proud of her. She is so great at speaking the language! you guys will be so blessed for her hard work!

Oh heeeyyy. This is Elder Thomas. Ya raised her right. She's gonna killll the mish. Straight up shootin up the people of brazil wif all her love n effextcion (This is Sister Mills- he doesn't really talk like that....)

Tis is Elder Carney. I am basically the pride and joy of our district, especially Sister Mills. I too love Condi Rice, she is from Denver, which is where I too hail from. Sister mills is basically the greatest and is so incredibly good at port. She also brings a really good spirit to our District. So thanks for giving her so many fun stories about your family. Tchau!! -District Leader.

Oi! This is Elder McLaughlin. Your daughter is HILARIOUS (in spite of the politics.) Is she always this way?! Or is it just because she is in Elder McLAUGHlin's dictrict?!?!?! Tchau Tchau for now! Oh and I hear you work with exploited children... can you please get on Jimmy Kemmel's case for me? That guys show is a crime against humanity.

HIIII!!!!! This is SISTER MICKELSEN! (Her favorite sister...okay maybe besides her companion sister cotton) but i'm her gym partner and i absolutely LOVE SISTER MILLS!!! thank you for passing on genes of such a fun girl!!! she's hilarious and i feel like myself around her!! k bye!!! (Sister Mickelsen and I are in the same zone!)

Oi Tudo bem?? I am your daughters companion Sister Cotton aaaaaand, she wastes my time all the time with her weird phobias and diet allergies. For reals she puts a smile on my face. Love having her as a companion but I plan on leaving her as soon as my VISA gets here because she forget her yellow fever card. (Oh yeah, mom, can you send that ASAP?? It's yellow with international stamps on it??)

Oh heyyyy. The Elders want me to send you a picture  of them to illustrate their little snippets. Ha! Sooooo I LOVE THE MTC. The first day I was considering taking a flight of shame (home) because it was soooo awful, but it turns out your first day being the day before the 4th of July creates muito problemas? So we'll start from the beginning. I get on my flight to SLC with like... literally 30 other elders/sisters and we take a shuttle bus to the MTC from there. We drop our stuff off in our room where we are promised we will have time to unpack later. (And I thought missionaries didn't lie!) We go to the classroom and proceed to learn more Portuguese than I learned Spanish in two whole years! So now that our brains were fried we were sent from orientation to orientation until 11PM when we get back to our room. Then we unpack until 12:30AM. But it's fiiiiine, because we have to get up at 5:30 because Brazillian missionaries have to eat breakfast at 6:30 before everyone. Then we get told we get to stay up late and watch the fireworks! Our whole district literally GROANED! Ha! But after two days of staying up late and accidently sleeping through gym on Monday, we are feeling sooo much better about the sitch. Every second of every day is planned out and we don't know what to do with ourselves when they give us a 5 minute break. We all find ourselves back in the classroom. Our teacher Irmao McGill is the best and literally everyone in our district is amazing. They are all SUPER hilar and we have a blast laughing about every Portuguese mistake (aka every 5 seconds). I wish I had time to hash out every Elder and Sister, but we have limited computer time and I'm hoping to send some pictures!

And now for the good stuff, my companion is Sister Kaela Cotton! Our celebrity nickname is Cotton-Mills. Literally everyone calls us that even if we just introduce ourselves. She is soooo outgoing, sarcastic, hilarious, and just... nice? It's the weirdest combo but it totally works! We have a BLAST and she is super chill so it's like a match made in heaven.... wait.... it was! We have already taught 3 lessons and Sister Cotton has this HEAVY Southern accent from North Carolina so whenever she says anything in Portuguese it sounds like texmexitalian? It's HILAR. We have a ball laughing about it. Sometimes I accidentally pick up her accent too? Imagine me as a hick? Muito bem eh? Also we found out he wasn't married soooo law of chastity second lesson? AWKKK. Never ask a question you don't know the answer for/ aren't prepared for. But we dealt with it well I guess!  Anyway I have to run, but I'll write more next week PROMISE! Oh and the cafeteria LOVES me! There is a special diet room! It is the best! They have a menu that tells me what I can and cannot eat and then have a room where I can get stuff to eat if I feel like everything else is too sketchhhh. And thank you sooo much for the cookies! I might be the most popular person in our district... Just kidding. But really. Thanks for the cookies, and the Richter's sent oreos! Sooooo I'm eating like a QUEEN! Alright no joke I'm outtie.

I know that I am doing the right thing here, my testimony has grown so much in just this one week here. I know that we can return to live with our father in heaven.

No more time for realzzzz.

TCHAU!

Sister Haley Kristina Mills

Haley left for the Provo, Utah Mission Training Center

Congratulations to Haley! She left for the Provo MTC on Wednesday morning July 3rd.  She is excited to serve.  Please keep her in your prayers as she waits for her Brazil Visa and learns the Portuguese Language.