Feliz in Porto!

Im gonna talk about cockroaches again. Forgive me.

But also... desculpnãodesculp.

So we were talking a lot about how we missed our house this week. As it turns out exercizing, studying, eating lunch, writing in the area book, and sleeping ALL in your bed everyday wasnt as liberating as we were thinking. But anyway, we were thinking about how every day we found 1 or 2 cockroaches in our house. But last week we found like 50. So we were talking about perspective.

When you have a house, you want a mansion. Obviously, you never want cockroaches, but if you have them you only want 1 or 2. Sometimes we just have to be grateful for what we have. It can always be worse. And it could always get better! So thats what our cockroaches taught us this week. And if you are sad now that you didnt get a lesson on perspective from cockroaches in an area near you, just remember, be careful what you wish for!

Oh and to continue our analogy. We had 15 young men that hang out in the street come to our activity last week. And im not exaggerating. Looks like we were setting our sites low before! Just invite all the rapazes (young men) in the rua (street). They love us Americans! One even told me we could have black babies? Dont worry, a member guarded me the rest of the activity.

Also, highlights from our week-

-we have one family that is ELECT. Its like a dream when we visit them. I wish I could even explain it. Just remind me when I get home to tell you about Cida and Cesar. Its like they are ACTING they are THAT perfect.

-we invited a man in a random store to church and he went?! Also, we forgot to tell him what time it was (all star missionaries!) and he showed up at 7am to make sure he didnt miss it! The best part is he stayed all three hours, said he would come back next week and then DISAPPEARED! 

-we decided to bater portas the street of the church (way easier to get these people there right?) and we marked 3 baptismal dates? If you served a mission you KNOW how many times missionaries have already knocked all those doors. Milagre mesmo.

-also, Giovana (that we baptized 2 weeks ago) got called to be in the young womens presidency! Nevermind that we now have more leaders than young women, a gente will just baptize more! BUT seriously SHE IS THE BEST.

Other than that, our week was the BEST. SUPER tiring, but we got to go to the temple so TOTALLY worth losing our preperation day!

Te amo!

Saudades!

Sister Haley Mills

PS - I imagine that hell isnt as hot as it currently is here. Im not kidding...

PPS - I forgot to respond about the indian fry bread- but its sooo easy and everyone loves it. Thank Uncle Aaron for me. Everyone has now given me permission to marry! HA!

PPPS - We had pancakes too. Thanks mom. They were DELISHHH.

PPPPS - you threw out that scripture reference like a pro dad!

 

 

QUE ECKA!

Im a total noob and was SO excited to go to the temple in Campinas today that I left my planner AND my temple recommend in our hotel... AWKWARD...

Buuut I will do my best to tell you about the most thrilling week of missionary work ever.

Oh did I say missionary work? I meant to say BARATAS. I know, you were thinking I would be all fluffy like the resto do mundo and talk about conference and everything uplifting and wonderful that happened this week. And I will. But it all starts with BARATAS. AKA cockroaches? 

Sooo as it turns out we have an eternal family of cockroaches living in our walls? Like... I hope they are sealed eternally because we had to kill 49 of them (and one beetle) when they decided to make a synchronized attack this week. QUE ECKA!

So im taking a shower suuupes happy that last week was transfers so we dont have to wake up with the roosters for district meeting. I turn off the shower, put on clothes, put my towel on my head, aaaaand COCKROACHES start a synchronized bomber attack! We had to count the dead, because when we called the office they thought we were exaggerating. So as it turns out there is a huge cave under our shower and they made themselves a home there. Oh and any day our shower could have collapsed and we would have been seriously injured? AND/OR died. I imagine it like the tv shows were a herd of ants carry a giant, stake them to the ground with miniature ropes and what not. That could have happened to us!!! 

BUT, thanks to my "the squeeky wheel gets the grease" theory. After calling the Presidents wife, we are in a hotel AND they are making us a brand new bathroom! AND WE DIDNT DIE! Can you say BLESSSSSINGS?!

Speaking of blessings. ELDER GODOY! What a grande benção. General Conference! But fo´reals. I have SO much more respect for the rest of the world these days because it turns out the live translations to other languages are HORRIBLE. They talk SUPER fast or SUPER slow, with weird accents and you can see President Holland up there pulpit pounding and crying about ofertas de jejum?!? And you are just like... how is this happening?! Our guy is speaking in a monotone voice and missing every 4th word of what he is saying! SOOO props to the rest of the world. And props to #genconf for doing something amazing and letting Elder Godoy speak to us in Portuguese! Everyone after was like WOW he is an amazing speaker! I had to cry a little in my english speaking heart that I missed everyone else that spoke in the same respect. But im proud to be a brazillian (adopted. Desculpnãodesculp) and rough it trying to imagine why elder holland was talking about fasting with tears in his eyes!

Other than that, our 3 baptisms planned for this week are on the fritz, they remind me a little of the "Hot and Cold" song by Katy Perry. Oh well. We are trying. And after watching conference I always gain a little more testimony to try a little harder. I loved there words on personal testimonies, families, and our loving prophet. I hope you all watched it, BUUUT if you didnt get a chance, check out Elder Godoys talk, and get someone to translate it for you REAL GOOD. 

Are you worthy of the blessings you want to recieve?

Get on it.

Love yáll so much, and next week you are gonna get a reeeeal cute picture of more than 50 cockroaches (the kill count up-ed after lunch.)

 

 

HAPPY DAY... TUDO BEM!

So you know how every thing good has a theme song? As it turns out the voting for Brazil is coming up here in the beginning of October. And the way they vote is every candidate has a number. So like they have a husband and a wife running and their numbers are 5555 and 55555. So when you go to vote, you dont have names there you just vote for the number? SO they have these cars that pass by every couple of minutes with a little jingle about their numbers (SUPER LOUD), our current favorite is 7777. "seite... seite... seiteSEITE."  BUT the point of this story is that we have our only little theme song that we sing like 10,000 times a day. "And should we DIE, before our journeys through, HAPPY DAY, TUDO BEM!" 

Now you are probably thinking- thats awful! But im gonna tell you why we love it. We were running in the street the other day to make a huge activity and it started to rain. And I mean POUR (you have a little inkling of what thats like lately I think!). We didnt have coats with us or anything because it was after a conference in a different city so we came home and just went to work. We were SOAKING wet but we couldnt exactly not arrive in the church, so we were trying to run in between every covering we could find. Slipping and sliding and just thinking- ONLY ON THE MISSION would you do this. So you know the phrase YOLO? I always say- "YOMO" (you only mission once) and we just do whatever it is that is hard. But this day, we needed a little more pioneer encouragement. So ever since we start singing, AND SHOULD WE DIE, BEFORE OUR JOURNEYS THROUGH? HAPPY DAY! TUDO BEM!

So this theme continued the next day when we were walking to our lunch appointment. They dont have trash cans here. Like in the states you put your trash can out on the curb and the trash man picks it up right? WELL, here, everyone has a metal bucket? And a couple days a week people run around behind a truck and collect it all. Another important detail- Brazillians are SUPER short. So we are walking along talking about something or other and my companion WHACKS her head on one of the lixeiras that was like... floating in the air right where her head was? So she starts to bleed profusely. Like its all over her arm and hand and head and she is just chilling there like... AND SHOULD WE DIEEEE BEFORE OUR JOURNEYS THROUGH!!! Hahaha. So Im trying not to laugh because im thinking- shes gonna need stitches! So I start batendo portas (knocking doors) and asking really strange things like- "irmão, is there a woman in your house? No?! Okay just kidding! Tchau!" So we go from house to house with the whole street starting to panic until we find a woman in a house (we´ve got rules ya know?) AND we manage to get it to stop bleeding and she didnt even need stitches! BLESSINGS! Buuuut she still has a huge egg on her head where she hit. But its all good because the next day we passed by for her to pose for a picture there! Youll be recieving that soon!

In other news I tried to kill a moth by slamming our bedroom door, the moth made it back inside (FAIL) but the door got stuck... So at like 10:25pm my companion was stuck outside of our room taking a shower and I was stuck inside. WITH A MOTH! So my companion is like THROWING herself again the door and Im on the other side freaking out on the phone with the mission secretary. Im all- Elder Curtis DONT REPEAT this! He goes- yeah right this is going in the mission newsletter! AAAAND as it turns out ALL the office elders could hear because it was on loud voice! OOPS! Desculpnaodesculp! The good news though is that we found where elders in the past chipped away the wall (so not the first time?) and we managed to wedge the door open with a screw driver! BEM VINDO A BRASIL! HAPPY DAY! TUDO BEM!

Oh and we had a miracle baptism. Its fine. This week has been pretty legit. Her name is Giovana and the elders taught her like 5 years ago. I have a huge testimony in baptizing people in the area book so against the will of all my companions we visit everyone that has already been to church. ANDDD Giovana didnt have any interest the first time. We marked to come back. And she was all- I was reading the Book of Mormon and I had a dream that its all true. She went to church and then we baptized her all in 20 days. Sister Conley kept saying- this is a MIRACLE! And Im just like- when is ANYTHING in our life not a miracle these days?

Com amor,

Saudades,

Sister Haley Mills

PS we survived transfers, our next goal is to die here together. ONLY 1 MORE TRANSFERRRRR! AHHHHH.

 

Multi-Zone Conference

Giovana Baptism

 

 

Lets start a church or something

So lets start with the sad. Our baptism for this week (Ashley) decided the day of the interview that she didnt want to be baptized anymore. She still came to be interviewed but spent the hour explaining to our District Leader that she just doesnt want to be baptized. (She had been super excited now for 2 months to be baptized.) Sooo em fin we cancelled the baptism. We think someone talked her out of being baptized, buuuut she wont own up to who so all we can do is hope and pray that when the time is right she´ll remember her testimony of Jesus Christ and where she can find him. It´s amazing to me how much the Lord loves us. That as we continue to sin and make bad choices the Lord continues to lead us in the right direction with continual chances. He sent His Son to die for us because he so loved the world. So its hard to leave Ashley like this but I know she is in the hands of the Lord, who knows best.

Speaking of the Lord knowing best. One of the biggest blessings of my whole mission happened this week. In the way of a small simple miracle. We planned to break in our new branch mission leader taking him to a lesson with a recent convert. We get there and the house is pitch black without any windows open. We call him and it turns out he forgot? Normal. But awkward with members there. So we decide to just go to our next lesson and we invite our branch mission leader and his wife along. Hoping and praying that our next appointment would be there and would have interest enough not to be weirded out by 4 peoples clapping at their door. So we show up and the wife goes- I was reading the Book of Mormon and what a marvelous book! She goes on the say she believes in everything. That wasnt the miracle part (this is brazil after all) buuuut what was so amazing was our branch mission leader baring his testimony about how he came to know the truth. I have confidence that it was the first time in 10 years he bore his testimony. And it blew me away. He spoke of the day 10 years ago he saw 2 teenage boys in white shirts and ties selling something in the street (or so he thought) they passed the house and then returned and knocked their door. They gave them a book (FOR FREE) Haaaaaa. And he read it and HE KNEW. I know that we can all read it and know. That´s why this was such a miracle. It reminded me of the little things.

In other news we´ve decided to move people to our city. If we cant baptize enough to make a ward here we will just move people who have already been baptized? So now everytime we pass houses for sale i take a picture and write down the address. Then every Sunday we give the list to our Branch President (who doesnt live here....) Everyone here has a phrase- (if God wants) "se Deus quiser" and my companion and I always say- "Ele quer" (He wants) Hahaha. But seriously. We can help out a little riiiight?

Also fun fact. Here in the lon house where we write our families the guy who runs it LOVES 80s music from the US. So every Monday I hear Betty Davis Eyes and under my breath sometimes I sing/hum the words. My companion is QUITE impressed with my 80s pop music knowledge. She is also SUPER excited to see the snow shovel and cheese grater dance moves that go along with it (Dad).

Wooof sorry this email is like 10 million pages long. BUT I saved the best for last. WE ARE GOING TO START A NEW BRANCH OF THE CHURCH IN A VILLAGE IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!!!! Let me explain. We have a less active member that sent a Book of Mormon to her sister. And her sister has a HUGE family. So they asked for another. Then they started reading the Book of Mormon to the whole village? (Ohhh Brasil) So then they started calling our member (Neide) every week to move there and start the church for them? So thank goodness she has her wits about her and called us up. She is like- sooo we need someone with the priesthood to go baptize this whole village. Because I told them about the church and how you have teenage boys with white shirts and ties that go around preaching. So this whole group went to the middle of their village and waited in a park for weeks on end to see these missionaries. Then they started going to the nearby villages to find a church. As it turns out the nearest church is 5 hours away (we called the zone leaders to look it up for us) ANNNND now our President will need to call that mission President and maybe we´ll baptize a whole town. Miracles na? But fo´reals. Only in Brasil.

Amo vocês.

Saudades de vocês.

Sister Haley Mills

NOSSA!

The weekly cockroach kill count was 4 here. 4 is a week high, I think they like the heat. THE ONLY ONES THAT DO! And by the way im starting to regret leaving Montana.... thats when you know its hot.

Highlights from this weeeeek... other than the cockroaches.... just kidding.

So my companion had the stomach flu! Our week was mainly spent dying without food in our house. With lots of throw up. What blessings right? But actually it was awesome because I got to read the Liahona! I read ALL of the past general conference in one day and was chomping at the bit to go tell people about what I had learned. We also gave talks about obedience in the branch Sunday. That's the problem with... I mean BLESSING of branches- you get to speak like once a month! I told about when Jessica Andrew Josh and I went camping and Jessica got stuck in that bush. How you told us we couldn't leave sight of the camp, but we did it anyway. I talked about how God gives us commandments because he knows better than us. Just like parents with children, he is OUR father. So I brought it back together talking about how we need to trust that our Father has more perspective than us. And if we cant see the danger on the other side of creek, it doesn't mean its not there! Obviously everyone loved it, and afterward I received a ton of parenting advice! HAAAAA.

Also this week our branch called a branch mission leader! The good news is that he has been returning to church after 10 years of inactivity? The bad news is he was inactive after like 3 months of membership so we get to field questions like- for the baptism you need 3 priesthood members... could it be women?!

HAHAHAHA. But we love him so much and he is really excited. We´ll just have to start a weekly apostasy list of things that happen. You are gonna LOVE ITTTT!

Also we saw a TON of miracles this week with one investigator asking - But how can I KNOW which church has the authority of God?! GOLDENNNN. 

Also I know I always have to include a good story about men trying to kiss me. So this time Ill tell you about a man that stopped on his bike and almost fell over trying to kiss me on the lips? The good news is that he said he´ll go to church Sunday! HAAAAA. Also, he wants to marry me, which here is like 300 dollars. So at least he isn't super poor? You always knew I was a gold digger!

But in all seriousness. I know that God loves us. I know that he wants us to return to live with him. I know the purpose of this world is to have families and seal them together for eternities to have eternal happiness and joy in the life to come. I know that without this the world would be utterly wasted, and for this I am here sharing that message with the world.

LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU!

Sister Haley Mills

 

Sisters Conley and Mills

 

I'm crazy but you like it!

So my companion and I are flighty and trunky TOGETHER because we both received our flight plans this week. And we BOTH fly through Atlanta. And like... 30 more sisters. So you can say that will be a party, and you definitely wont be wrong!

I'm so glad you already reserved my spot so SOON after I get home to speak! Ive been practicing my English a little bit lately praying, so I hope I'll be able to talk normal? Just no one make fun of me okay? The other day Sister Conley and I were practicing different ways to invite people to be baptized in the street and she goes- I think we need to be more (in Portuguese)... "sneaky" (in English)? and I go... "sleuth" (in English)? Then we have a 2 hour conversation about if the word sleuth is a real English word or if we are going crazy. So... that's just a little sneak peak at what you all are in for!

Also, we will have Christmas in casa?! I can't even believe my little ears! Does that mean we have to buy presents? What do you guys want from Brazil? I think I'll just bring home Paçoca, Goiabada, and Coshinhas. Ask Sister DePaula about them, they are the best things in the world! 

Anyway, lets get to the good stuff. We baptized INGRID this week! It was probably the cutest baptism of my whole life! She was so excited to be baptized! She told us after I'm baptized (with hand motions) "I can't SMOKE, and I can't DRINK, not even BEER!" CUTEST THING EVER. Also, she was praying after a lesson we had with her and she goes- "Please bless me with... i have no idea (sei lá! Saude?!), health?!" ...maybe you had to be there? It was hilarious in Portuguese.

Also, favorites of the week are one man stopping us in the road to ask for my hand in marriage and I'm just chilling there drinking my açai. My companion is literally freaking out (because she is only understanding half of what he is saying) but she knew it was something about my beautiful eyes and hair?? Hahaha. So I wait for him to finish and go- thanks so much, but we are running late, you are always welcome in the church. Then my companion goes- I don't think I understood what he was saying....? Hahaha. 

In other news it turns out the 7th of September is the 4th of July here? WOOHOO for learning Brazilian history? ALSO, as it turns out NO ONE goes to church? Including members? So our little branch had like 20 people and half of them are from other cities who have callings to come help a gente out. It was so sad because this branch has literally been dying for 12 years, and yesterday everyone saw how bad it is. People started giving DYING cliché testimonies like... "I know the church is true, We just have to keep hoping more people will see that." It was awful because our little baptism was like- why is everyone so sad? There are a TON of people here! A little perspective can turn any situation for the better right? Also we taught an orphanage and a pastor this week, so we are thinking we can just have a big baptism of like... 100 people at once?

One thing Elder Audikitis said when he was here- "God is happy with you, but he is not satisfied." I was thinking about the implications in our lives this statement has. He is happy with you, but is he yet satisfied with you? We can do more, we can be more, and it is my testimony that this comes through the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Saudades de vocês,

Te amo, BEIJOS,

Sister Haley Mills

The week of MILAGRES (miracles)

Okay, lie- they are ALL weeks of miracles, but this week- WOO did we see the milagres!

The first can be that I already knew about baby Jade on SATURDAY! We were on our way to our baptism with a recent convert named Sofia. She is fluent in English and her DREAM is to live in Mesa, Arizona (I have no idea why- but its just so perfect that we live there righhht?) So she said she was trying to find me on Facebook and she found DAD. And he had a picture with a baby! So she goes- you want to see I downloaded it for you! BABY JADEEEE! Ohhh que benção! I am so happy that it all happened so simply for Ali and that we have one more bebezinha in the family! She´ll be fun soon I just know it!

But really- our week- it just rocked! We baptized Maria Eduarda and it was so awesome! She was terrified of the water and it hasn't rained for a long time so our swimming pool (slash baptismal font) was filled like... to my knees. So we used the biggest man in the branch to just drop her down there and literally lunge her back up! HAAAA! But it was amazing how the spirit was there even though the situation was... a little less than perfect. But Maria Eduarda is really such a gem. She was laughing about the swimming pool after and being such a good sport. On Sunday she received the gift of the holy ghost and in her blessing they said she would be a huge help for this branch! So everyone is excited about that! And now the branch has two young women! HA!

Also, this week we had mission tur! AKA Elder Aidukitis (sp?) came here and did a little fireside/devotional with us! It was AMAZING. Did you know that when members of the 70 talk the spirit like... swirls around them? Just kidding... sort of. He was SO inspirational and he taught us so much! One thing I loved that he talked about was when he was a mission president one set of elders brought 100 non members to church in a little baby branch. And everyone was freaking out because they didn't have room for all of them in the church. This was less than 15 years ago and now they have 3 wards there! So me and Sister Conley go... VAMOS! 

So our goal now is to have the whole building filled with investigators.... we´ll see how this goes! HA! I think it would be better to have the whole room filled with baptized members? We´re working on it. We have 2 baptisms planned for this week and mais 1 for the next week! WOOOOO!

OH and the other day we talked with this group of teenagers in the street- we are like- can we come by another day and visit? They go- ya, there are a ton of us in the orphanage! HAAA! So essentially we are going to fix a whole bunch of broken families and there will be a bonitinho happy ending!

ALSO, in the lon house right now... Do you really want to hurt me- is playing. Like from the 80s. DAD you would love it here!

I had a ton more, but for some reason I am becoming boring as well!

Amor, beijos, e saudades!

Sister Haley Mills

Sisters Mills, Mayorga, Sares, and Armstrong