Mission Accomplished

well........ that was the last thing I was expecting!!! I knew that it was a possibility of sending us home but I was thinking in at least a couple weeks to see if the situation got worse in Mexico. I found out on Sunday night that all American missionaries would be leaving the country immediately. You shouldve seen me pacing the kitchen with my 20 dollar brick phone texting Elder Cordeiro and Hermana Maldonado like a maniac. They were sending me all the information. I kind of wouldve liked to still be in the offices at that time to get all the first hand info.

I couldnt sleep on Sunday night. I couldnt believe what was happening! On Monday we finally found out when we were going to leave, wednesday morning! I had a pretty emotional call with my wonderful mom. Thats when my mind stopped denying what was happening and all the tears came. The mission was sweeped from right underneath me! It was just so fast. After getting all my feelings out in that video call, I felt a lot better. As soon as I had all the official information, and it wasnt just a rumor. I was at peace with what was gonna happen.

I had all of tuesday in full quarantine to pack and write everything down. I had time to reflect on all of my experiences. On tuesday night, we had a last minute devotional for all of the american missionaries. Luckily the members that were gonna take us to pachuca on wednesday morning, also took us tuesday night for the devo. We watched Elder Uchdorfs message to the missionaries and then we heard some testimonies from some missionaries. President called me as the last testimony. I shared Luke 9:62 " And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the ^aplough, and ^blooking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." which for some reason was the first scripture that came to mind! This is an opportunity to look forward and remember all the blessings God has given us.

Wednesday was pretty crazy. All the americans bussed off from the offices in pachuca after singing God be with you til we meet again, and headed off to the Mexico City airport. The airport was completely vacant! There were very few people there that werent missionaries. There were some flights canceled last second for the missionaries going to california, other places. Lots of missionaries had to do layovers in SLC since it was one of the few airports still accepting foreigners in the entire nation (thanks church). It was kind of a scary sight seeing a place that usually has thousands of people, empty expect for a few (almost all with masks).

The flight went by really fast. Ill never forget seeing our incredible mountains for the first time!! I didnt appreciate those babies before the mission! After customs and everything, I found my parents in the parking garage. My mom arms open waiting for me, what a glorious reuniting! Then my dad got out of the car for a hug as well. Ever since then, we havent been able to hug haha, and Ive had to keep the famous 6 ft away from everyone. On the way home, we took the turn to the street of my house, and my mom had me stand through the sunroof. We passed by all of the neighbors and friends that had parked on my street to create like a runway!! It was such a fun surprise to see all of them! Im blessed with the best ward, family, and friends! I was released the same night over facetime, and now Ive been getting back into the groove of everything.

These 22 months will never be forgotten. It was so beautiful to see God work in the lives of his Children and my life as well! The mission is so amazing, I cant imagine not having gone! I now have such a bigger perspective on whats most important and what kind of goals I need to make. The people of Mexico will be missed greatly. The food, the speedbumps, the super ugly banda music, the tacos, the rejections, the lessons, the members, the converts, working with President and Hermana Maldonado, my amazing companions, the 100% consecrated time to the Lord. Things that will definitely be missed. The good news is, though, that not a lot of that actually has to change! My Stake President Glover gave great advice to use the tag as a reminder to ask myself every day "Did I do that how I wouldve if I was still a full time missionary?". Really things dont have to change a lot if I keep these habits up. I thank God for this precious time Ive had, and for all of the life lessons I learned.

I'd also like to thank all of you and all of your support throughout these 22 months. Ive loved receiving emails, pictures, packages, and even just knowing that you've been on this adventure with me!

A new mission has started now. Im excited to use the knowledge of my savior to keep on sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ while pursuing my future goals!

I love you all so much,

Robbie Millard

801-616-0020

Manuel's Baptism

Que onda familia y amigos!

Happy late valentines day! Our neighbors/landlords really showed their love with the apricot cake and Santa Clara milk they gave us that night! Blessings haha

This was a really really good week. We had interviews with Pachuca Sur, and we also had two different conferences. One with Valle del Mezquital and Tezontepec, and the other with Pachuca Sur, Pachuca Mexico, and Tizayuca. The Conferences went soooo good. Everything was really well prepared, they were some great musical numbers, and some very strong testimonies! Many missionaries told us that it was their favorite conference they've had on the mission.

This week we were able to do a lot more missionary work!! It's weird to be writing that sentence as a missionary haha. But this week we were able to contact a lot of new people in our spare time and we also went to a lot of lessons with president. After the conference in Tezontepec we went to a lesson in Mixquiahuala with President and Elders Rowley and Morales. It was a family that was super receptive and it was a pretty good lesson, I think they'll end up getting baptized. Then we went to Actopan to go to a different appointment. This one was really cool because President and Hermana Maldonado were able to participate a lot more to help the couple feel more comfortable about baptism. Hermana Maldonado got baptized at the age of 19. Beforehand, she was a hard core Catholic or in spanish (un Catolico de hueso colorado) haha but she took her time and really found her conversion. I love hearing their testimonies. The couple felt a lot better afterwards and they accepted a baptismal date!

The next day after the Pachucas and Tizayuca conference. President sent us to a nearby pueblo San Agustin to give a blessing to some hermanas misioneras' investigators. I gave a blessing to a 2 year old girl that doesnt have any strength in her legs and afterwards she just gave a really big smile which was super sweet. The mom and grandma felt a lot more calm after the blessings. 

On our way back home from the blessing, I got a call from my past companion Elder Cordeiro telling me that Manuel was gonna get baptized the next day and that he asked me to baptize him!!! So today I was able to baptize Manuel who was my investigator in Tizayuca and who couldnt get baptized because he wasnt married. But he just barely got married with his wife this week so they came down to villas for the baptism. I love how they have to come here for every baptism since their chapel is in construction! Its so convenient haha. President was able to come to the service too and it went really well!

Something that I really love that President shared in the zone conferences was from Exodus 33:1,3,12-16

The story is about how Moses was commanded to take the people to the promised land but since the people were being disobedient (with the idols and everything) Jehova told Moses that His presence would not go with him to the promised land. To which Moses responded "If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." eh. We can apply these words to our life. If the spirit isnt going to be with us, it is not possible to accomplish all things, so we need to stay where we are and figure out how to get the spirit back with us. Every day we should think about this before leaving. When we leave, is the spirit going to be with us? I invite you all to read those 7 verses that I put down. Its a great story!

I love you all!

Elder Millard 

Pic 3: Manuel's Baptism ft. my awkward arm because we were way too close together haha

pic 2: President going to the lessons!

pic 1: where we fill up our garrafon water almost weekly

Transfers!

Buenas tardes familia y amigos!

We are in February now!! Thats crazy.. I hope everyone had a great week!

It was a pretty chill week here! Monday and Tuesday were the craziest, and then the rest was pretty low key.

On Monday, we had 19 new missionaries come in! It was so fun to see all of them arrive! There were like 16 Mexicans and then 2 Americans, and 1 from New Zealand. We took them all to the clock to contact and take pictures! And then we went to President's house to have lunch with the trainers and trainees! Then we took them to the chapel and the offices to do the trainings and the interviews! That was a lot of interviews, but they all got home by 9pm ish! I love being with all of the nuevos, they have so much animo!

On Tuesday, we went to the airport in CDMX again to pick up a missionary who came from the New Mexico Farmington mission while he was waiting for his visa! His name is Elder Morales and he's super cool! His trainer elder Rowley came with us too. We got there at 1 o'clock because his flight came in at 1:30. We saw all of the brand new missionaries coming in and when we saw his flight, all of the missionaries were there except for him! We seem to always have issues at the airport haha. We saw 220 missionaries come through the airport that day to go to the CCM and they all thought that we were the ones there to guide them haha. At first we were super confused at why he wasnt in that flight, we were looking around everywhere and we followed the guy from the CCM because he was making some calls. Long story short, I know basically the entire airport at CDMX by now haha now Im not worried for my flight back home, I know exactly where to go and what to do. We called the church transport people who had just barely found out that his connection flight was canceled so he ended up flying in from Dallas a little later. While we were looking around for him, we saw a flight come in from China and everyone had their mouths covered. We definitely took a short detour just in case.... haha. We were in the airport for a total of 7 hours that day. We finally found him and got outta there! He was super happy to finally make it to Mexico, he woke up at 2 am that day! We went to presidents house that night to have dinner with the missionaries going home (two of which were latina hermanas from my generation) and then we had the testimony meeting at like 11:30 for everyone going home.

There have been a few Elders staying with us recently because some things went down and most of them will probably go home. Then yesterday, another Elder came over to our house who is also going home. It's kind of annoying to have them all there for so long because it makes everything a lot more complicated. Mainly the shower in the mornings, and the whole food situation haha but hopefully everything if figured out soon. 

This week we were able to visit the zone leaders in Tizayuca, Pachuca Centro, Pachuca Sur, Pachuca Mexico, and Valle Del Mezquital. They're all doing great and it was fun to talk to all of them. We had straight up interviews with them. I felt like the mission president haha. We were able to talk about a lot of things we want to fix during the leadership council this coming week! Im grateful for our good zone leaders. The missions on a good track!

Im finishing up Jesus the Christ right now and I just loved reading about the restoration of Christ's church. It's something Ive taught so much about but reading Joseph Smith's account is just something so special. In preparation for the conference, we all need to ponder more on that occurrence and make sure we truly have a testimony of it!

Les amo un buen!

Elder Millard

pic: Hermana maldonado's favorite natural ice cream. Mandarina limon esta bien rico

Calling Old Investigators

Como estan mis hermanos!??

September is already here! That sure went by fast. I absolutely LOVE this season! College Football is among us. Well I guess its just among you guys but I still love hearing about it and seeing pics haha. Fall here in mexico is also super fun! Im gonna start hearing more mariachi, eating more posole which is super good, we have the 15th of september celebration coming up, etc! What a fun time to be in the mission.

This week was pretty good; we found some pretty good new investigators! One of my favortie parts of the week was when we were calling all of the old investigators in the phone. Of course most of them didnt answer, we don't even know who these people are but we needed to clear up space on the phone and before deleting the contacts, we wanted to give these people one last shot! So long story short, I got a hold of a lady named Luz Maria who answered the phone and said "I just finished the book of mormon and I would love for you guys to visit me"!! Of course we were super stoked about it! That same day, we went to go visit her and I think shes gonna start progressing well! She even went to church with us on sunday. 

The rest of the week was pretty normal, I had exchanges with a brazilian elder which was super fun! Portuguese is honestly so similar to spanish, it was fun to try and understand him speaking!

I just barely finished reading the book of Job. He is one of the most popular figures in the Old Testament because of his faithfulness! I love one part where he says, paraphrasing, "If we receive blessings from God, shouldnt we also receive the trials he gives us?" we should be grateful for everything that happens in life. Most of the time, the hardest times are the times we learn the most from!

Les amo un buen!!

Elder Millard

p.s. sorry I left the camera in the house, next week ill send the pics!

Temple and Zampoala!!

Como les ha ido a todos!??

Happy fathers day to all dads out there but especially to my very loving and wise dad! Im so grateful for his amazing example and advice! 

It was a great week here in Huauchinango! It all started off with the trip to the Mexico City Temple!! I love this place with my whole heart, definitely gonna be a place I take the family to. The session we did was so beautiful, its been almost a year since the last time I went! I love the whole grounds of the temple. A couple days after the trip with the mission, my comp and I went back with some investigators in our zone! We got a little combi that the stake presidency provided for free and went down to Mexico with 18 people! All the investigators loved it even though they couldnt go in haha. the visitors center is something else though, it has so much information and cool ways to learn about the church! Its cool how the temple trips work here in Mexico. Instead of being in Utah where theres always going to be a temple nearby, the wards here have to plan in advance to travel in a bus to the temple! When we went on Saturday, there were busses after busses coming in with wards from all over the place! From different states too! They make it a whole party with the food break and time to go to the stores too. I am definitely planning on going back to that place.

After the session at the temple, we all went to the stake center to the side of the temple to have our last zone conference with President Kimball!! It was a great conference, him and his wife will be very much misses. We will be welcoming President Maldonado from Saltillo Mexico on the 28th!

As soon as my comp and I arrived in Huauchi, we saw this humongous mountain in the distance. Its hard to miss because of how big it is. Its called Zampoala and it is one of the biggest peaks in the state, and today we were able to summit it with some members!! It was very very steep sometimes difficult haah but we made it to the top and it was absolutely gorgeous!! It was a little bit of a bummer because of how foggy it was but I think it made it look cooler seeing all the cliffs with fog. Its a beautiful place we live in! 

Everyone needs to find time to go to the temple! Its incredible the insight and instruccion that we get as we participate in these sacred ordinances!

Elder Millard

Pic 1: This is the first thing you see as you walk into the Mexico City Temple. It was come to be the favorite painting Ive ever seen from the church. There is so much history here in Mexico and I get to live right in the middle of it! Jesus Christ came to the ancestors of the people I get to teach!

Pics: Temple Trip, Zampoala!! we got to the very top of that baby

Navidad!!

Feliz Navidad familia y amigos!!

Lets get straight to it... Christmas!! On Monday, Housley and I had to go to the stake center to unlock it and prepare everything for the christmas party for the whole mission. It was the first time that the whole mission has been together for a year and a half. Usually we do two different meetings, each with half of the mission, but the other meeting was scheduled for this past Saturday and they had to cancel it because there were rioters setting the freeway and everything on fire because people were protesting to get higher salaries for teachers haha. So we had the whole mission together and it went super well! We had a really good devotional at the beginning and then we had a talent show where my comp and I did some dope dances that we had been practicing. One of the was to Santa Tell Me by Ariana Grande and the other was an island song that a Polly sister taught us all right before the conference. It went super well haha, President Kimball went up to the front to record it all haha. After, we ate tacos de Jabali which is wild boar and it was SOOO good holy crap. It was also a fortune to buy all of that food but we wont even get into that haha. It was fun to see and talk to everyone in all the mish and get to know the new kids too. To finish Christmas Eve off, Housley and I and a few other missionaries went to a members house for the Christmas Eve dinner which was also super fun.

Christmas Eve here is even more important than Christmas day. Its called NocheBuena and people always have humongous dinners with their fams. Its sad though because people celebrate the day of the Virgin Guadalupe more than they do Christmas here. Its the same case with the days the dedicated to celebrate the three wise men. I{m just sitting here thinking, who is the most important in this whole event__ But the people and the Catholic religion definitely have their traditions.

Christmas day went really well! President allowed us to sleep in a little bit so that was glorious haha, and then we went to a members house for the skype call! Everything went just fine until my incredible mom got in front of the screen for her personal time to talk to me and thats when I started to lose it a little bit gosh dangit. Haha but definitely was super fun to talk to the fam and hear their voices to them. Definitely super fun to talk to Maddi and Kenny in spanish too haha, that{ll be useful to have them after the mish to keep the spanish up.

After the video call, we went to the bishops house for the rest of the day to watch movies, play games and have some traditional food from England since thats where theyre from! It was super fun, what a great fam. There are still some times when I legit cant understand them because of their thick accent but it always makes for a good laugh when I find out what they were trying to say haha.

So overall, Christmas was definitely a success! It was a little disappointing seeing the lack of Christmas spirit here haha but that{s why we{re here to bring it up right_ But for real, what a special time of year to spread this special message of Jesus Christ and his church. Testifico que realmente la iglesia ha sido restaurada y que hay un plan de salvacion que Dios ha creado para nosotros. Si solamente seguimos fiel, heredaremos todas las bendiciones del senor como familia eternas. 

Feliz Navidad!!

Elder Millard

Real del Monte

Buenas Buenas tardes from one of the highest inhabited places in all of Mexico! It was cool to be able to get to know Real del Monte better this week! I hope all of you are doing well!

On Tuesday this week, we went with the bishop to real del monte to meet some less actives and get to know the area a little bit. This place is like a MAZE! Holy crap its gonna be so hard to navigate. A lot of streets dont have names and all of the are super crooked and lead to random paths and there are hardly any main streets! It has been interesting navigating throughout the place, especially with all of the crazy hills!

Honestly its been kind of a slow start. Since there hasnt been constant missionary work for a very long time, there are no investigators, converts, or anything. We've met a few people from part member families and so far those are our only investigators. Weve contacted quite a bit but wow this place is Catholic! Im used to going to other pueblos that are also very catholic but this place is even more extreme. While we were contacting, there was a woman low key following us and knocking the same doors we knocked but to organize their next march to worship the catholic saints and everything hahaha. Despite a lot of rejection, we have find a few people who we have appointments with this week. I hope they progress! I have faith that this week will be better and we'll find more people. Its going to be very complicated to figure out the sunday situation with the reunions canceled! The mission right now is figuring out how to act, and how to measure investigators progress instead of requiring the 3 sacrament meeting attendances. 

RIght now we're living with the other Elders in Loreto and we're still trying to find a house. Right now we're just living out of our luggage haha there's no space to hang up our clothes and unpack! I hope we'll find something soon. all of the options have been falling through.

My kid is doing well! He's doing great in the few lessons we've had, but he still doesn't feel used to contacting and the rejection haha but thats definitely normal. We just have to be patient that the Lord will provide us with people to teach! Its been a while that Ive been so desperate to find new investigators, but thats part of opening a brand new area!

This week I finished Helaman in the Book of Mormon and I really like the part where Nephi's preaching was rejected but that the Lord comforted him and he didnt even get home by the time he turned around to keep on preaching to the people. Those feelings of rejection were kind of what I was feeling, just a little less extreme obviously haha, but It gave me motivation to return to the pueblo to keep on preaching! Its never been an easy thing to do, thats why I know it'll take some time to see results!

Les amo a todos!

Elder Millard

Pics: Ill miss working with them! Welcome Elder Cordeiro to the offices!

(we ended up moving to Atotonilco, a pueblo a little further away from Real del Monte to start working. Everything was going great until the virus shut everything down.)