I am grateful !

Estoy muy agradecida por....

This gospel

The Atonement

Temples

Carpet

Air conditioning

Peanut butter

Spanish dictionaries

sunglasses

my family

swimming

rice

ecuador

my mission

Mis padres

mis hermanos

My best friends :)

my mission

spanish

patecones

Savannah

Garret

Ria

Jessica

Sam

Momma

Dad

tootsie

hammocks

the fact that ecuador uses us dollars

emails

raviolis

movies and music

my companion Hna Cordova

my ghetto apartment

family history work

Cameron Decker ,)

ecuadorians

slippers

fuzzy socks

Jesus Christ

Heavenly father

the commandments

my investigators

my ward

Iguanas

the lizards that live in my house (they eat the spiders)

annd annnnd AND!?!?!?!?!

...pretty much everything.. haha I am just so grateful! (pero.. no por las cucarachas) 

I love you all, please enjoy this holiday, know that I will be thinking of you. :) Ria, enjoy the mashed potatoes.. and Dad... go easy on the salt this year, okay?? ;) Have fun making pies momma! and kiddos.. garret and Panda... dont fight over the wish bone, okay? :)

I love you guys so much, remember... wear stretchy pants so you can eat more!

Love, Sister Miller

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!

I am so very grateful this thanksgiving. Even though I am in a country muy muy lejos that doesnt even celebrate this holiday my heart is full :)

I know that I am doing things to change peoples lives, and for that... this Thanksgiving I AM GRATEFUL FOR THIS GOSPEL. Its power and guidance really can change people. Ive seen it.. and I know it because its changed me aswell. :)

I am amsolutely loving my new sector and my new companion! She is just the cutest and we get along really well. I really feel like I am becoming the best missionary I can be! FINALLY language isnt something that I worry about completely. I mean im not fluent and there are A LOT of people that I dont understand but I am finally starting to feel a lot better. 

I totally was wrong about my sector.. for one.. its HUGE.. sooooooooooooooo big. Haha I come home everyday just absolutely exhausted. And to help its built on the side and top of tons of hills and mountain type stuff. We climb hundereds of stairs everyday... Im not even exaggerating. Haha and the slant is more crazy.. its difficult for buses and cars to make it up that hill, and so my little chicken legs are sore and tired haha luckily.. ive only fell once haha but I have no idea why.. I just live it it is so pretty. This sector is known for making buff calves hahaha I feel it already. The cool thing is I am losing weight again. So thats nice. 

And the poverty gap here is huge.. I will be teaching a lesson in a house that id describe more as a tree house hut thing with rats bigger than my hand... and then before I know it we will be sitting in a million dollar home with marble floors and swimming pool. Its opened my eyes really. I cant describe the feeling. All I know is that there are a lot of things in this world that we dont understand, its just what we do with these things that really matters. I have met little kids sitting on a cement floor playing with little plastic cups that were a lot happier than a little kid sitting in their house with an iphone. 

My house (apartment) is really really ghetto.. haha more ghetto than the last one.. but hey guess what! NO MORE WASHING BY HAND a member of the ward washes our clothes! We just pay him a little money and he does the rest! Yipee! haha but yeah, so that made me happy!and our shower is EVEN COLDER haha I dont know how but it is. And its not like a shower head water that sprinkles water on you.. its just this pipe that sticks out of the wall with a stream of cold water into the shower tub thing. haha ooooh yeahhh living the high life! haha Lets just say my shower time is really short. haha

I am happy, and healthy, and just loving my mission :) 

I love you all so very much! Eat lots of turkey for me!

-Hna Miller

C A M B I O S !

Big surprise! I had cambios! I am still in Guayaquil but completely different Zone and different Sector! I am now in a place called prosperina in a sector se llama mapasingai (I have no idea how to spell it) I just got here like an hour ago. We live in a little apartment that doesnt have very much in it, haha even more humble than before! Its just my companion and me in the little apartment, it will take getting used to. 

My companions name is Hermana Cordova. She is from peru.. and she only has 3 months in the mission.... and I have 5.. haha so I am Senor Companion. It stresses me out because now I am incharge and I dont have very much expirience still! SO ya, there is my stress level for the day. She is hard for me to understand, her accent is different and she talks really fast.

It was such a big surprise that I had cambios, I knew that I was going to have a new companion, but didnt know I was gonna leave. It broke my heart! I love the people in portete so much! We spent all week with Hermana Zarate saying goodbye and taking pictures and all that. But we didnt know I was gonna have cambios so I didnt say bye, didnt take many pictures, nada! haha At least I was able to say goodbye to Hector and Evelyn y their daughter Sofia. It made me sad to leave, but I felt good knowing I did my part.

Wearing glasses is weird, but they help lots! haha I will try to send pictures next time!

My new sector is crazy different. I think its a lot more like camerons now. All cement, all ghetto, city.. but not city like minneapolis.. its like ... ghetto annnd stray dogs.. and ya! BUT haha this sector is legendary for people losing weight... wanna know why??? THERE ARE HILLS EVERYWHERE. everything is hills, stairs, hills, stairs... its crazy! Ive never seen so many hills in my life haha... I will let you know what happens! But lets jus say I am gonna have some nice legs haha too bad they are covered in scars and misquito bites!

Love you all! 

Hna Miller

A Ver

Helllloooooo and HAPPY PDAY its about time! Haha this week was really slow. BUT with some cool expiriences.

This Friday a bunch of gringos from a volunteer group in Utah came and donated toys, clothes, reading glasses, and sunglasses at the church and my zone was incharge of helping out. It was pretty fun, and a really cool expirience to watch all the little kids get super excited over their toys! We were there from 9 until about 2 and when we were all done the lady incharge gave all the missionaries a pair of sunglasses, which was nice... but also kinda funny because we arent allowed to use sunglasses in the mission! 

This week is my last week with Hermana Zarate. She heads home to Guatemala this next week, so next Pday I will have a new companion! I am sad to see her leave but mostly because I am scared! haha new companion, and I will be leading the sector! Yikes! Also its super weird.. because I am just starting my mission and to see someone going home makes me a little jealous not gonna lie. But really I feel so blessed to be here. It continues to be the hardest thing Ive ever done.. but also the most satisfying :) and I already have 5 months! Solo me faltan 13 meses! Yo recuerdo cuando era 18! Haha 

I also saw Hernama Hobbs this week! We have intercabios (splits) and so I was with her, and her companion was with hermana Zarate. It was really fun to see her but also really hard because we have the same time in the field so our spanish was really funny. 

Also, keep an eye out on the mission blog for me, beacuse we had a zone conference and so Hna Dennis will be putting up pictures soon i´m sure. 

I love this work so much. Its actually funny because its the most frustrating, exhausting, stressfull thing... and I still love it!! I really can feel myself learning and growing everyday.

I go to the eye doctors today to order my glasses and he is gonna look at my eyeballs. Last week he looked at my vision.. and today he is gonna look at my eyeballs haha but dont worry cause the mission fund will cover it this time.

I cant believe it snowed there! Oh how I miss the snow. haha It is getting hotter and wetter everyday. More humidity, more degrees. Its funny because hermana Zarate was talking about how cold it is at her house. and she was all "one time... it was so cold... we could see our breath!" and everyone freaked out.. because the people here havent expirienced that. I just kinda chuckled to myself.. haha they dont even know!

I love you all! Have a good week! :)

Con cariño,

Hermana Miller

 couldnt find a pumpkin to carve for Halloween so I decided to try a watermelon!

 As I am completing my 5 month ...

Hermana Zarate will be ending her 18 month! Sad to see her go!

Well here is my new glasses!!!! 

 Another blister!!!!

this is the new hair cut! I went in for a trim and i guess thats not what i asked for!

Look a letter from Elder Decker!!!!

That one time...

That awkward moment last P-day when you want to carve a pumpkin... but couldnt find any at your local ecuadorian market... so you carve a watermelon instead! haha I will be sure to send pictures, but yes... I carved a watermelon!

Sorry I am emailing a little later than usual... I was at la clinica... annnnnd yeah, so here is some news! I went to the eye doctor today! I have been having some hard times seeing stuff sometimes and my eyes have been bugging the crap at of me, like always red and achy and yeah. So I went to the clinic and he did a bunch of weird sight test thingys and told me I need glasses now. He said not to worry because I am at the age where peoples vision starts to change, and Ecuadors sun is really strong and it just happens... epecially to the gringas. So I have whats called an Astigmatism and Myopia... which is just fancy talk for I have a hard time seeing things the farther away they are from me. And the shape of my retna is a little off. He said there is slight damage effect showing because of the sun and dirt of ecuador. BUT he said the glasses will not only help with the myopia (the stuff thats far away) but it will block out UV rays, protect me from the dirt and wind... annnnd ya...

So I will now be Miss Hermana four eyes. I asked if I need to wear them just to read, or only sometimes or what... and he told me he highly recommends that I always wear them and when I get home I can switch to contacts. The only thing that really sucks is that the church doesnt pay for it.... soooo thats why I am telling you all the info.. and asking your opinions. The lenses for the frames cost 85$... and then the lenses cost either 45$ for plastic ones.. or 75$ for polycarbon which are more durable and dust scratch resistent, sooooo tell me what you want me to do. If I dont hear back from you in time I will just go for the cheaper ones. 

So ya that is new for me... haha and next pday I have to go again to a different kind of eye doctor... this one was for vision stuff.. the next one is to look more at my eyes and not the vision. BUT the church nursing pays for that stuff so dont worry.

I was joking with the other Hermanas now saying that I am getting fat, have horrible acne, and now I wear glasses too! Freaking trials of a sister missionary. hahaha But whatever.

Hey and last week I got my haircut! At first I hated it (like always) but now I actually really like it. I just wanted her to cut my bangs and trim the layers... buuuut I guesss I translated wrong and she gave me a new style! I have one of those V cut things.. ask jess about it. But ya everyone has them here. It looks better on latinas but Im actually liking it! I will be sure to send pics!

Hermana Zarate goes home in 2 weeks, its gonna be really weird! We think they are gonna close down sector 2 which means the other hermanas will get transfered out and it will just be me and my new companion living in our little house. Haha, and 3 new latina hermanas are coming this transfer so they will need 3 Americans to train. YIKES! haha We will see how this goes! I am nervous but I know that if God thinks I can to it, I can do it!

Everyday I have learned to find joy in the little things, there are so many BIG problems in the world, Its hard not to get caught up in it all.... but God gives us SO many tender mercies every day and we dont even realize it! Where have you seen Gods hand in your life today? 

LES AMO MUCHO

-Hna Soon to be four eyes.