Life as I Know It: "Joisey Baby"- Email

Hermana Millward let us know she landed :0) She will have P-days on Monday. Her letter mailing address is:

Hna Elise Millward

259 Griffith Street

Jersey City, NJ 07307

Hola!

My companera is from Chiuaua again! She is absolutely the best. We get along so well and she is everything I have been praying for in a trainer. She is absolutely obedient but so fun and real. She has taught me so much already and we have so much fun together! Her name is Hna Herrera and she has been out for 10 months now... that seems like forever away to me. I can't even imagine being that far out! But last night we taught my first lesson to a thirteen year old girl named Chelsea. She is set to be baptized this Sunday, and when the missionaries started seeing her she did not even know who Christ was! I was so excited to meet and talk to her all about the 10 commandments. She is originally from Honduras. I also met Hermana Santina, from the Dominican Republic. I absolutely love her! She is this lovely little old lady who has bad arthritis and just wishes she could have had the gospel when she was younger so that she could help with the missionary work here!

got picked up on Monday from the Newark airport by President Jeppson himself and the Assistants to the President. We immediately went and did a fear busting activity right in Newark (an area where sisters aren't even allowed to serve because it's so dangerous) and had to sing in a plaza and then run around like lunatics asking people if they wanted a Book of Mormon.... so when they told me it was supposed to make me get over fear of acting differently in public I just laughed because I felt really comfortable the whole time! Haha I'm such a weirdo. I guess it works though :) We also met Charles that day who promptly asked us to Subway for dinner after we invited him to read the Book of Mormon. That was nice, but... no thanks :)

I spent the night in the mission home and slept like I wouldn't ever sleep again, woke up with awful jet lag (who does that? Seriously. two time zones. Ugh) and tried not to sleep throughout all of orientation. That was fun! I met my companion, who I already told you about, and then we were on our way. Our apartment is nice and we've already met the neighbors. I had some time to unpack because we are opening an area, called Bayonne, right outside of jersey City! We have a better view of NYC than NYC has! It is so exciting. All of these years hearing about the Statue of Liberty and I suddenly realized I never actually thought it was real. Haha! It is.

I am so trhilled to be opening this new area! It was originally twice as big and now we really get to focus on getting work done in Bayonne. This state is beautiful and has a lot of variety that I've already seen. There's beautiful forest, super ugly city that i somehow fell in love with right when I stepped into it (we all knew I was hard core) and I just love it!

Today we will be teaching 3 lessons hopefully and I get to meet Marisol who is a member teenager here and who likes to come out with us and teach. I am also so thrilled because we live with the Jersey City Sisters, one of which is Hermana Jane, who was with me in the MTC and she is just so sweet!

This is probably super scattered... But I'm just really happy :) Loving this feeling of sharing the gospel, and so excited that I got chosen to go to a mission known for it's obedient missionaries and the fact that we teach people from literally all over the world. I have never been good at deciding, and now the Lord has helped me fulfill my dream of knowing so many different incredible cultures! Hermana Herrera has a list of all of the people from different places they have met and it is like 20 countries long. This is the real deal.

This church is true, and the power of the priesthood is real. I am so blessed to be here and I love all of you so much!

Con amor,

Hermana Millward <3