Christmas Skype

I'm trying to attach the first 5 minutes of our skype phone call just so you can see how great he looks and some of the things he talks about.  I will have it all figured out for Mothers' day and should be able to record his whole call!

Enjoy!

First Baptism.

Hey everybody!!!

 So this week was pretty great!! i got to go to the temple and do a session in spanish!!! it was a little difficult but it was awesome!!! Then we got to go to the market and look around for a bunch of stuff the markets are pretty cool! as far as investigators, we have a baptism this Saturday of two young  boys named Anthony and Leonardo! they are so awesome! their testimonies are 10 times stronger than mine ever was when i was 11 or 14 they are legit! Also at the temple like one block away is a subway!!!!! needless to say i ate fresh!!! it was great! not exactly american but the closest that i could get!  so excited for Christmas coming up! even though i don't really get to do anything, the 25th for us is going to be a normal day of preaching the gospel, but if i look on the bright side im almost kinda like santa because im bringing gifts to my investigator, and this gift is the greatest gift of all, the gift of the gospel!!!! Thank you everybody for all you love and support  i really appreciate it! hope you all have a great week!!!!

Letter for Mom

Heya Mom!!

 My week was pretty great! We had pday on Friday and we got to go to the temple and do a session!! it was a little difficult in spanish but i understood probably 85% of it all so that's good! then we went to this store that is in front of the temple and bought some stuff, we don't get to go often so i got what i needed like cover for my book of mormon and a backpack for pday and stuff. as far as appointments and teaching, this week was a little rough, we didn't find anyone new and didn't have very many lessons. but that's okay because we are demonstrating our obedience and our diligence and i know that the lord will bless us! For Christmas our zone is having a party on the 22nd where were doing a white elephant dealio and were watching a movie, For us Christmas day is a normal day like any other day. we get up get ready and preach the gospel. woo hoo! haha but i do get to skype home on Christmas! ill just be using a computer of one of the members in our ward. i don't know what time yet but ill figure it out with my companion and ill let you know in next weeks email! also i get to call on the 22nd for like 2 minutes just to set up the time and what not so well know for sure by then! thank you for everything you're so awesome!!! Im having so much fun down here its awesome!! as far as music the easiest thing is for me to just download songs and stuff from lds.org or other church websites, our mission president says we cant have anything like piano guys or david archuletta because although they're members. they're in it for the money and he just says its better to avoid it altogether, but i would greatly appreciate if i could get the inside out acapella and any other cool groups that you know of that pretty much just do hymns. Awe man shucks to hear about football but that's okay!! wish coltin the best of luck!! 

With our ward the missionaries are in charge of a lot, pretty much we always have to make sure that church starts on time and that people are reverent, its a lot different down here. usually we show up during mutual on Tuesdays to help out the bishop with things he needs but that's about the extent of things we do with the ward other than the ward leaders. we have to constantly teach them and help them because the best way to find new people is through the members of the church and that's hard because they don't understand that very well that they need to help us. tracting does practically nothing it just shows diligence. references through ward members is the best form to find people. its a little tough but im confident that we can do it.

Sounds like everything's going good in burley! cant wait to call you guys next week!" im so excited!!!

Letter week of 12/8

This is his letter he wrote to his friends:

wow its december already i cant believe how fast the time has flown by!! it doesnt feel at all like december because is summer down here and its like 90 degrees every day!! but im having tons of fun! i love it down here! its 100% filthy but its awesome!!! ha literally you sweep the floor in your room and then you sweep again 10 seconds later because its already dirty! but im having lots of fun and learning lots! we have 3 investigators with baptismal dates! two are brothers Leonardo y anthony and they are the bomb.com!! they are 11 and 14 years old, and they have such strong testimonies its unreal. they will definetely be strong in the church! and we have marizol, its a great story, we went to her house because we received a reference from a ward member tthat maybe we could teach her sister, we knocked on the door and she answered because her sister wasnt there, and she has so many questions, the first was do you guys believe in baptism? haha shes definetely a chosen person to hear the gospel of the lord, and she is progressing really really fast!  spanish is coming along pretty well! i still cant understand when the people talk really fast, but when we are teaching the lessons i can get most of whats going on, my companion is a big help because hes from mexico and he talks slow and i can understand him and he helps me a lot! this week we are focusing on being exactly obedient. this week when you have time i would encourage you all to read in mosiah chapter 2, it talks about obedience and whats required of us. if were obedient we are entitled to many blessings that will be poured out upon our heads. THis week i get to go to the temple with my zone! its funny because they have been trying for 6 months to get permission to go to the temple on a pday to go through a session and they finally got permission! for me its great because ive been here like a month and i already get to go! the temple is an awesome place!! also a big thing here in peru is the bank in 2010 started an iniciative, every 2 to 3 months the bank is making a new coin with a new image on it, it is a 1 nueve sol (equivelant to about 33 cents) they come out with new ones every few months and they are a big collectors item down here, they will finish making them in 2016 so some of them dont even exist yet, ive started to make a collection its pretty cool! anywho i hope you guys are having a great time! have a great week!!!

This is the letter he wrote to me!  He is getting excited to call home for Christmas! (so am I)

hey momma!

thats awesome!! sounds like your job is going to be great for you! thats awesome! haha i don't really have any problems getting up in the morning which is strange! hows everything going in december? can't believe its december already its crazy! im going to skype on the 25th at whatever time works for you guys, depending on when my companion can too, also i need my username and password for skype so i can log on haha! im going to start writing just a massive group email telling about my week to everyone so i have more time to write you guys about other stuff and what not so ill see how that goes. yeah jaxon told me thats awesome! no i havent seen any llamas and what other package? i got the one with the beef jerky and the peanut butter and stuff but if there was another one i havent got it yet... ill ask my my mission president. the weather has been great here too! no snow either! ha matter of fact its about 80 degrees or hotter every day! i left summer in the states for summer down here! crazy! i actually kinda miss snow and especially snowboarding thats a little hard ha but ill live for two years! the weirdest thing that i have eaten so far is bread with chicken and peaches so not much haha its mostly rice, chicken and potatoes here so not much different from idaho except it has a latin twist to it. its really delicious and im getting fat haha, no but seriously i have a little bit of chubbiness, can you send me (only if its sittin there not being used, if youre using it thats fine use it) but can you send mle the t 25 discs? i have a half hour in the morning when i wake up to workout and thats it so that would be perfect to keep me going! also things that would be good to have that i don't necessarily need but are floss picks, they are so much faster than flossing and you cant buy the down here only dental floss, also maybe some command strips with hooks but ill live without them. and i think i have in the avalanche in the glove box a tiny book of mormon in english, that would be good to have becase when i have free time i don't have my quad with me because it weighs a ton. thanks! this week im focusing on being 100% obedient and trusting everything in the lord because without him we can't do anything. anywho hope you have an absolutely fantastic week this week and have fun everyday! always look for the good in the day! im loving every second out here it really is a neat experience!

Love you lots momma! and i cant wait to skype on christmas!!! love you tons!!!!!!!!!

Information on Peru!

 

Here is the letter to his dad! It had more information than what my letter had this week. :)Also I don't know what to say about his not capitalizing other than I think he is in a hurry? Maybe? It drives me crazy but I love getting to hear from him  so we deal with it!

hey daddio! 

haha yes i am very much enjoying the weather! its warm and awesome! the food is great! turns out peru is the other place famous for potatoes so im happyhaha. every meal consists of arroz, papas, y some kind of meat. with sauces. its a little spicy but im growing to lvoe it. the fruits are so far just oranges, bananas, and apples havent had many opportunities to buy much else cuz we don`t have lots of time. but ill let you know. oh actuallythere is this one that is really really weird, its like an orange, but on the inside is like this stuff its weird its like slimy with little bug kinda things in it, its good but you just have to eat it fast, no there not really bugs haha. i love inka kola its the best! well second best next tomtn dew!  most of our area is close enough we walk! theres lots of hills we have 5 cerros in our area. but we take buses when we need to go anywhere. there are big charter bus type deals and there are like uncle ricks stalker van type buses. imagine one of those with at least 30 people in it. and add to that they my back is touching the roof when i stand up! fun haha! money is holding up okay! today is personal pday so im going to a market to buy some things ineed, and some cool ties and whaqt not with the money that i brought withme. every month the mission gives us money on a card that we use for all the mission stuff so pretty much my money in my account from home is for personal stuff. we are assigned to an area our ward and another ward share a chapel, its kinda small but its okay.

   awesome! keep working with robert i know hell come around the spirit has a way of touching people and changing their lives! the best way to help him out is using the OLAT haha, its orar, leer, asistir a la capilla, y always have the templo in mind. doing that prepares everyone for baptism. things are going pretty swell here. the kinds don`t play with boleros they play with little top spinners like they wind them up on a rope and then you throw it holding on to one end of the rope and the spinne flies off and goes wherever its kinda cool actually. they play regular soccer in dirt fields and they are pretty good haha. but i cant play basketball or soccer in my mission because mission president says no, our mission is like the 2nd most obedient in the whole world its pretty cool actually, a big order to take but tons of blessings to go with it. have my first baptism the 13th of december! that will be awesome and hopefully there are more to come! lvoe ya dad and hope youhave a great week!

 Elder Millward

1st Week in Pachacamac

Not sure why he doesn't use capatalization but I'm not going through and correcting it..  It will have to drive you as crazy as it does me!! And there are some things in here that you shouldn't tell your mother or grandma until you are home!!

heya momma!

Congrats on the job!!! thats going to be awesome!! hope you have as much fun if not more than i had working for the school district haha make it worth it and have fun everyday! Boy this week was crazy!!! everyday i am exhausted because my body is not accustomed to the new schedule and the new workload! i am in eastern standard time so for me when i get up at 630 its like im waking up at 430 in the morning! but i know that will change with time, just gotta push through it!  

Peru is great! it is very very smelly and dirty because there is just garbage everywhere it is so so dirty, and also there are dogs everywhere! you can´t look anywhere at all without there being at least 3 dogs in that area its ridiculous! and sometimes the dogs try to attack you which is loads of fun! its funny though because you just have to bend down like youre going to pick up a rock and the dogs run for their lives! it is pretty funny. To get anywhere in peru you have to get on a bus, don´t even consider driving youd be a fool to do it! if you thought that utah traffic was bad you should come down here! there are no speed limits you go as fast as you can, the only thing that slows people down is speed bumps every so often in the road so they don´t go so fast! and they use their breaks as much as possible! they aren´t afraid to use them and thats good because it is pretty sketchy! um i wouldn´t say that pachacamac is like declo, it is actually probably better described as a salt lake city. its big! haha but not quite as big as salt lake but its still quite large. but the people here are awesome! im in an area called pachacamac! fun fact it is the most dangerous area in the whole mission! just last week before i got here our zone leaders were robbed at gunpoint! so fun! sadly i haven´t had a fun encounters like them to report.. yet! haha no but its really not to bad here! i have a pensionista that cooks all of our meals for us and washes our clothes, were not allowed to eat at members house because pretty much we have to make sure that it is properly cooked so we pay hermana sonya to cook for us she is trained and won´t give us any sicknesses with food haha. i also have a water bottle from the ccm with a filter in it, they gave us enough filters to last two years because the water is a little sketchy too. but peru is awesome! my spanish is coming along great! i can have conversations with the people and help alot in the lessons! ive already asked two people to be baptized and they said yes! they are in the familia travis they are two kids antoni and leonardo, their parents can´t be baptized because they are not married so they have to fix that but they are trying and will be baptized here before too long as well!  its so much fun being a missionary!!!!!!! i am learning so much about the gospel! the thing i think that hit me the most is just overall how simple the gospel really is! there are only essentially a few things we have to do.... have faith in jesus christ and his atonement, repent, be baptized and make covenants with god, receive the holy ghost, and endure to the end living righteously and keeping the commandments of god! also in spanish we say the 3 things that help the most are OLA orar or pray, Leer or read the scriptures, and Asistir a la iglesia, go to church! essentially this is what we teach everybody everyday and that is our objective to invite everyone  a venir a cristo al ayudarlas a que reciban el evangelio restaurado mediante estas cosas. thats our entire objective. I am having such an amazing time here and i feel so much joy and happiness when i teach people and help them! and you at home too can feel and experiece this joy, every member a missionary!  well i hope that everything is going great back in the states! how is our fantasy football team hanging on? better than dads i hope haha... my companion is from veracruz mexico! he´s the bomb.com! he doesn+t speak any english so i testify to you that the gift of tongues is real and is truly amazing becase i can understand him and can communicate what i need to to him! sounds like everything is going swell in the states! that does sound like a great mutual activity and not too far off from what we have to do here! haha we wake up at 630 exercise then get ready for the day, then personal study, comp study, thendepending on the day we either do service or have weekly planning or to preach! then we have luch at 1 then we study the language, i have to teach my companion english too! then i have training because im a new guy, then we have the rest of the day from usually 4 until 9 to preach the gospel! thats the usual day in the life of me now! and i love every second of it! Hope you guys are having tons of un too! take advantage of every second of every day and have fun! its not ever worth it to let something get you down!  have an amazing week!!!   I love you guys so so much you are awesome! and great examples to me! 

Con mucho amor

Elder Millward

Letter and Pictures from El Presidente

Brother and Sister Millward,

Sister Douglas and I thank you for trusting Elder Millward in our keeping.  We are grateful that he is serving in the greatest mission in the world.  We know that missionaries are assigned by revelation and that your son is where the Lord wants him to be at this time of his life.  In 3 John 1:4 it reads "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth."  We can attest that your son's service will bring you great joy and will bless the lives of thousands.  We love your son and will do our very best to care for him.  

Sincerely,

President and Sister Douglas

Elder Grover

Misión Perú Lima Sur

Secretario Personal del Presidente

+51-1-222-4445 Oficina

+51-998-477-553 Celular

The Plane Made it to Peru

Heya momma! 

So I made it to Peru alive! haha I am in the Pachacamac area which is pretty much the outskirts of Lima so I'm in the same city as Alex... kinda. the flight was good except that it took 6 hours and I lost my ctr ring but other than that it was great! We got here Monday night at like 1030 at night then got a hotel and woke up at 5 in the morning to go to a training meeting that went from 7 until 3.. longest meeting of my life but I learned lots of things! It was great! then I got my companion elder Orea! Its funny he kinda looks like Zeke which always makes me smile a little ha. he has been out for about 20 months and doesn´t speak any english but luckily for me I can understand most of what he is saying. We got here around 4 or 5 and then I unpacked my bags at the casa and we went to the stake center because the district leaders needed help with baptismal interviews so I went on splits while my companion helped out. I went with the zone leader Elder Morrison and we taught a family that was baptized last week. We talked about the book of mormon and its importance and how we need to read it all the time. elder morrison speaks english and is from las vegas so i learned lots from him! this morning we woke up at 630 and studied and at 1030 we went to a district meeting and then a zone meeting. in the district meeting i had to demonstrate how to use the book of mormon to extend a baptismal invitation... let me just say the gift of tongues is a beautiful, real amazing thing! ha i can understand most of what everyone is saying and i can say what i need to so that´s great. um the city is different than i thought. there are literally stray dogs everywhere you go and everything is so dirty and there is garbage everywhere it is really bad and the smell matches pretty well. we get on buses to go wherever we need to go which is kinda fun cuz i don´t have to walk as much. usually pday is on Monday but because we had everyone changing and being reassigned to new areas and what not this week we had it today on Wednesday. the weather is great and the people are awesome! they are short haha i am pretty tall, but they people are so open to the gospel it is amazing! they are so humble and just great! so far i think that im going to be okay here and have lots of fun! one thing that they told us to do is to in the morning when we study to study at least one verse about the atonement. if we get into a habit of doing this every day our testimony of the atonement will be so strong. and that is the main thing we need to build on. Love you guys so much thanks for all of your support and prayers. can´t wait to hear from you again! 

  Elder Millward

Peru bound

Got this letter tonight from a sweet Sister and her family traveling home from Mexico today. It was a nice surprise!  And a tender mercy for me today!

Hello all,

We had a chance to meet your missionary at the Mexico airport. The phones were not working so they were not able to call home.

We took a few pictures of them and had a chance to visit with them briefly. There were 19 of them traveling together. What a great sight!

They looked well feed, safe, excited and anxious to arrive in Peru.

They send the following messages, "mom I love you", "the Mexican mafia didn't get us, JK", "I'm okay", "dad I love you", "I'm not home sick yet."

They will arrive in Peru this evening and may have a chance to call/email you tonight or tomorrow. It sounded as if they would stay with the mission president tonight.

Our visit was brief but we were excited to meet them. They were eager to send a message home.

Thanks for your sacrifice. Time will go quickly. Your children were a great example for my son and daughter.

Take care,

Yissel & Matt Lingenbrink
Dallas, Texas

Pictures attached

November 12

Cody's latest letter! He is getting ready to leave the CCM in Mexico and head to Peru on Monday so chances are we won't have a letter next week! :(

Heya momma!

 This week for me was quite eventful.  I had successfully made it 5 weeks without having to give a talk during sacrament meeting! Well that streak ended.... but I think I did really good! Even used a quote from Spiderman! con una gran poder viene un gran responsibilidad! Also the funniest thing happened this week! The gym is closed because they have to fix it up because of flood damage, some guy managed to flood the entire gym within a matter of minutes....... and this guy just so happened to be in my district! so elder Wabel was in the bathroom doing his thing at the urinal, he finishes and flushes, nothing happens, he flushes again and nothing happens.... he flushes a third time and in his words he says 'I flush and the next thing I knew I was on the ground' the pipe to the urinal burst and water started gushing out like crazy!! So now we can't use the gym because of that but that's okay because we only have 5 days left! We got out travel itineraries today and we leave Monday at 10 am! I’m so excited and can't wait!!! Oh and Morgan Hunt is here! Talked to him for a little bit and I see him every now and then. It feels good to know someone here. Oh yeah and I got to leave the ccm for a little bit this week too! My companion Elder Jones had to get an x-ray on his leg to get something checked out so we got to leave this place! It was a good stress reliever and he's fine there's nothing wrong with his leg which is good. I got both of my suits dry-cleaned today and it only cost me 15 bucks! I love Mexico! haha... but yeah this week has gone really well! Other than yesterday... there's a stomach virus going around the ccm and it found its newest victim... me :) to sum it up you could say it was a party at both ends! But you'll be happy to know that today I’m doing lots lots better! How’s fantasy football going? I’ll still have to figure out my address in Peru so I can get the trophy shipped down here haha! That is after you spend your time with it! oh and regarding the weather... thats crazy cold!! The coldest it will ever get here is like maybe 50 degrees! I don't even know what snow is! Although that is one thing I am going to miss is snowboarding! But I’ve heard that in Peru is some of the best surfing in the world! So maybe once I’m done and off my mission I can learn how to surf! That would be way cool! anywho im doing great here and sure hope that you guys are having a blast! Have a fantastic week!

 Con mucho amor

 Elder Millward

Here are  a couple of answers to some questions I asked him relating to this letter:

yeah I’m feeling lots better my stomach just hurts a little bit but I can eat food now without losing it so that's good. My talk was on the restored gospel and missionary work.

Playing tennis for Elder Jones BDAY

Elder Jones his companion

Elder Millward King of the court!
Noone would play with him after this game!

November 5

Here is pieces of Cody's letter from last week.  November 5, 2014

Hey momma!!

It's going great this week! Same schedule every day for a month without changing! The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again expecting a different result! I can honestly say that I am not going insane here because even though I do the same exact things every day... its never the same result. the more I learn and the more I apply what I learn and try my hardest to do everything I can be doing to improve the results are amazing!

I don't really know what I think of mexico because I'm not in mexico, I'm in the mtc which is a completely different experience! but its great here! I'm actually kinda glad we're separated from the outside world because it is a totally different way of life outside these walls. Inside the spirit is so strong and everyone has a great glowing awesome attitude about them! It's really a great place to be!

     What is cold? I have no idea what weather feels like below 60 degrees! the weather is perfect here its superb! Although one thing I miss a ton is snowboarding! I miss the snow and being able to go to pomerelle and just have a blast going down the mountain! its definetely different without it.  

love you all lots!!!

Love Elder Millward

Elder Millward and Elder Downs from burley

Elder Carrasco

Elder Herrera

Learning learning Teaching Learning

Hey momma!

 the mission life is great i absolutely love it! sounds like burley is still awesome which is good! hows the weather? ha don´t worry about the weather here it is a solid 80=90 degrees everyday! i love it! the CCM is awesome! everyone in my district is super duper cool and were all getting along great! thanks for the mail! it iwas awesome to get a package! although i think there was a mixup because i got notes in it that were to a different missionary! did you send me like a halloween bag with candy? either way it was delicious! don´t be afraid to put the missionary package mx .com thing on the blog haha. The food here is actually very good despite what everyone thinks! i love it! they have a bunch of citrus drinks in a pop dispenser and i believe i have found the recipe to make the closest thing to mtn dew as possible! tender mercy of the Lord! haha also nutella is amazing! it makes any meal better! we´ve moved from teaching 1 investigator a week to 2 which is fun! its a little difficult because my companion is a gringo in every sense of the word! ha no he´s awesome he just struggles with the language so i end up talking 90% of the time. but he´s coming along and he´s doing great now! the gift of tongues is a real thing i can feel it! thanks for all of the prayers i can feel their effects every day here! Also i think it is funny that literally everyone except me and my companion have had ¨mexican stomach training* with the new diet haha that is another huge blessing! the devotionals here are absolutely awesome!! Jeffrey r Holland is my all time favorite speaker! he speaks with so much power and so much spirit it is amazing! also we had the privilege of having elder neil l andersen come to the ccm and speak to us! everybody got to shake his hand which was awesome! very neat experience i won´t soon forget! The spirit is so strong here it is unbelievable and awesome at the same time!  my favorite days of the week are sunday tuesdsunayand wednesday! sunday is awesome because we have tons of meetings and devotionals all day which is great! i haven´´t had to give a talk yet in sacrament which is awesome!let me explain how it works. everybody writes a talk on the same topic and during sacrament it is announced who will speak so you just have to get up there and give your talk all in spanish! next week is fast sunday and then we get a new district or two so there´s more people to choose from and i only have to make it two more weeks i might not have to speak at all! its funny though because the last two ive felt like ive prepared an awesome talk and want to give it but never get chosen! maybe ive figured out the secret! ha if only i could have told that to coltin before i heard he is speaking in stake conference! thats a great experience i know he will do great! in a way i have it easier because nobody can understand our talks in spanish anyways so there´s not much pressure! ha but in english the pressure is on to do well! he´s a great kid though and will do awesome! this week i have been focusing on being a better example as a district leader to my district and just to everyone around me! it makes a huge difference! people really do watch you and what you do so it is important to always do what is right! not only for me as a missionary but for you all as well! you are so lucky that you get to watch meet the mormons! ive heard its great but won´t get to see it! use it as a missionary tool it is a great way to invite others to come unto christ! i´m so greatful for everyone at home and for the huge examples they are to me! i love you all and love hearing from you! keep being awesome and  strong individuals in the gospel! ive been working on memorizing heleman 5  12 in spanish and challenge all of you to memorize it in english! it has made such a huge difference for me! also did you go to the byu bsu game? without me?!?! haha jk thats awesome that bsu kicked some trash! love you lots! can´t wait to hear from you all! tell carli to dedicate herself and commit to swimming in preparation for state! i know she has the drive and i know she can do it! love you all a ton!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! keep being awesome!

   Love Elder millward

Here is an explanation to his pictures he sent last week.  I didn't post all the pictures but I will post all the descriptions cause he talks about all of the elders at his casa!

also an expalanation of all the pics...

We got to go to the mexico city temple visitors center because the temple is under renovation so most of those pics are from the visitors center!

the guy that is eating the sour patch kids is my companion elder jones, the one walking out of the door with a weird look on his face is elder denton... he´s a little bit of an oddball but he´s a good kid.

the guy in the chair against the wall is elder wabel he´s awesome! every night we laugh our heads of and vent through laughter which i think he needs a lot so im glad i lvoe to laugh ha

The two outside are elder rogers and elder leavitt. the blonde is elder rogers. he is a really cool kid. i have like a whole book full of quotes from him that are hilarious. his companion is elder leavitt from canada! he´s awesome and i think me and him connect really well which is good because he´s been struggling a little bit but now he´s been working hard and i can see the difference in him its awesome! thats my bed and we live in casa 25 which is like one of the furthest away from the comedor or lunchroom ha so we walk fast! all the houses is the view from right behind my casa over the fence. hope you all have a great week!!!!! weve been challenged to play cage soccer against another district so we have to go show them whose boss. haha its actually funny because everyone on my team in my district works together so well and we dominate at cage soccer! Elder jones is a defensive guru! he is the bomb at playing goalie he has reflexes of a cat! elder rogers is good on offense so me and him do all the scoring! elder denton is kind of a ball hog but he does alright so its chill, he has no idea what he´s doing half the time and its hilarious because he will kick the ball and it looks like he´s a total professional but thats because he has no control and the ball goes wherever he just stays with it its funny! elder wabel is pretty good all around so is elder leavitt. i play in the midfield in the center so i can play both defense and offense its the best of both worlds but is a ton of running! its so much fun! i think its  cool to say that i´d rather play against a bunch of latinos than white kids because the latinos are so much friendlier and acceptive and they really love ya you can tell. it is a very neat experience

Love my boy!

Business as Usual

Here is his letter this week.  Not the Novel like last week but still good to know he is loving it!  He included a letter to Caden too, I won't post that but he did say his date to fly to Peru is November 19!

Hey mom! things are going great! i still think its amazing here! thats awesome that they Won!!! they deserve that they played awesome! Sounds like everything is going good at home! yeah we have lots of devotionals on sundays and tuesdays! you'd never believe it but me and the guys from my district joined the mtc choir to sing yesterday before the devotional! i don't even mind singing haha its weird! we sang come thou font in spanish it was pretty cool! we got to go to the temple today! it is under renovation so we didn't get to go inside but it was still neat! our district is the bomb at cage soccer! not really ha but were actually pretty Good! none of the other white kids here want to play soccer when the latinos are playing but we go in there and show them whos boss! we haven't beat them yet but the matches last forever because were so awesome! it is tons of fun! language classes are going well, we haven't really learned anything new that i didn't know but i'm still learning lots! i think my favorite thing about the ccm has got to be tuesday nights because for dinner its costco pizza and we have devotionals! i love hearing from you guys keep me updated on all things burley!!! love you tons! 

 Elder millward

Day to Day Happenings

missionarypackagemx.com ..... use it! ha its better than dear elder for down here because they are down here in mexico and it only takes about a day to get here!

    hiya momma!    i absolutely love it down here in mexico in the CCM (mtc) it used to be a school and just like a year and a half ago they converted it to the mtc! i live in a casa and not an apartment which is great because then i only have to share a bathroom and a room with 3 other people instead of 5! and we don{t have lots of time to shower! haha but my schedule is pretty busy from 6:30 am all the way until 9:30 pm13 hours of nonstop doing stuff! we wake up in the morning as 6 and my room goes running to the weight room and come back at 630 then we shower and get dressed and go to breakfast. the food here is absolutely the bomb i don´t know why people have told me they don´t like it i have never had a complaint about a meal! and i haven´t had any bathroom issues because of the new diet of food so i count that as a blessing! haha but then after breakfast we go to our classroom for personal study time, we study for about an hour then our teachers come in and we work on spanish! tell Kody Coltrin that studying spanish with dad is the best thing he could possibly be doing! literally everything that we went over with dad is being used down here and you need to know how to pray like the first day you get here! funny right? dad actually knows what he´s talking about when he teaches us haha ;) ha but then after that we have additional study time in the classroom and we pretty much stay in there and study from like 730 until 12 when we go to lunch! then we come back and have individual language study without the teachers until 2. then gym time! oh man oh man do i love gym time! it is one hour of the day where i just go crazy and have tons of fun! we play cage soccer and im actually pretty good! ive scored at least one goal everytime we´ve played! we also play volleyball and basketball and all sorts of stuff its tons of fun! then depending on the day we either go do a service project, usually cleaning, or we go back to class for additional study. we study and study and study from 330 to 5 or 530 then go to dinner where we have until 630 until we have to go teach our investigator! i know that he is actually a member because i saw his garments poking out of his shirt one time so there´s a little less pressure but i still try hard to teach him. he is a great actor haha, his name is pablo escobar and he´s so cool! they say that he is going to be our night teacher once were done teaching him so i´m excited for that! my companion elder jones, and i are doing pretty well teaching him. elder jones knows absolutely no spanish so i do most if not all of the teaching, let me say that the gift of tongues is an amazing thing!! elder jones is trying really hard to get the language and i think he´s starting to get it which is good! he knows how to pray and knows how to say some phrases, he doesn´t say much when we teach, but he invites the spirit which is key to helping teach! we got pablo to pray the second time we taught him which is a huge step because everyone in our district was trying so hard to get him to pray and he said no to all of them! you should have seen how happy elder jones was when pablo said he would pray with us haha! it was amazing! also now everyone expects me and him to be like super missionaries but its all joking in good fun. my district consists of eight people counting me and were all going to lima south! its amazing because we all have super different personalities but we all connect in such a way that is just so amazing that i know our district was inspired of God to be together. oh yeah and one little thing you might want to know is that im the district leader!!! im in charge of everybody making sure they are all living the mission rules and i have to lead all ofour discussions and classes and get the mail and go to a bunch of meetings and just be in charge. it is a lot of responsibility but it is so much fun i love it! im greatful for the opportunity ive been given to serve the members of my district and help them out! they ask me lots of questions about what we need to be doing and its funny because i pretty much only know as much as them but i can tell they look up to me so i need to be obedient to the rules and be the best example that i can be for them. they are all huge examples to me!

let me introduce the members of my district

Elder Jones: my companion... he´s awesome! you can tell that he is very nervous and timid and shy but he is such a cool guy! hes from joseph utah and he likes music a lot which is good because he connected with pablo because of music! i love my companion a ton! he is also a defensive guru when it comes to any sport. hes good at defense and is fun to be around

Elder Wabel: he is from heber city utah and he played water polo, he´s 6 foot 4 and he´s awesome! hes super funny and knows what to say always and has just these huge deep thoughts. he came from a group of friends where it wasn´t necesarrily cool to be part of the church so he´s a huge example to me because of his decision to serve. 

Elder denton: he is from mesa arizona! he is a pretty smart intellectual guy! he knows spanish pretty well so me and him help out the rest of the district when they have questions. he is also very athletic he plays rugby and wrestles and he´s funny. he always has a different point of view on things, he thinks of things how i never would have viewed them before and he´s great to be around!

Elder Rogers :) oh man elder rogers! he has got to be my favorite hes from utah and he´s awesome! you might have seen him at the airport he had a big tan trench coat on with big glasses! he is always just so excited and has so much enthusiasm about everything. he is also drop dead hilarious. he made us laugh so hard one time that elder wabel peed his pants a little. hes just so awesome! he has what can be described only as a spiritual swagger about him! he´s da bomb. and he´s super athletic even though he doesn´t look it. he and i run the basketball team haha.

Elder leavitt: he is from canada and he´s so cool! he loves basketball and i talk basketball with him all the time. he also has me convinced that everyone from canada is like ripped and super buff. he has big time anaconda arms and he´s what i call instead of captain america captain canada haha. it came because he was wearing a captain america shirt when we went to gym time. he´s a little quiet but he´s just awesome!

overall my experience has been great! the devotionals are great! i absolutely love Elder holland and how he talks. im excited to be out here and can´t wait to get to peru and meet and serve the people there! Thanks everybody for all the love and support! i can feel your prayers and am greatful for all of you! Keep being the awesome people you are!

    Love Elder Millward

Wednesday must be P Day!!

Hey Dad!

oops ha Hola Papi! La comida esta muy muy muy delicioso!!! i don't know why people say they have "stomach problems" all the time, i think that as long as you stay away from the really spicy stuff for a bit and don't have a large plate of beans and rice every day its just fine! its great i haven't had any complaints about the food! tengo muchos clases por español. we had an investigator just the second day of being here (he´s really just going to be our night teacher, but he is a very good actor, however i did see his garments poking out of his shirt one time haha) theres like a ton of people here that are going to peru on missions! and in my district we have eight counting me so all of us are going to peru lima south! its awesome i can tell that out district was put together for a specific reason, every companionship has someone that can speak spanish and someone that cant and we all have different personalities but we are like the best of friends its awesome! oh yeah and im the district leader!!!!! i just have to make sure everyone is doing their job and lead the discussions and get the mail for everyone and go to a bunch of meetings! it is a lot of extra work but it is so fun and im so glad that i was chosen to serve my district! Thank you for being such a good example to me dad, i really appreciate everything that youve done for me and im so greatful for your example! i love you a ton! keep me updated on the goings on of good ole idaho!

   Elder Millward

Hola familia!

Here is Cody's first letter that we recieved after he was settled in at the CCM (MTC) in Mexico City.

Hola Familia! don´t have a lot of time so i´m writing to all of you on mom´s email! the trip was lots of fun i was with like 20 other missionaries and about 90% of them are all going to peru too! i met the elders that were going to milwaukee too they are down here with me learning spanish! who knew that was a big language in wisconsin! Im all settled in and everything is going great! the food is very delicious and i can tell i´m going to have a great time here learning and growing! love you all! oh and mom we need to remind coltin the fantasy football score of when we played him.... he believes he´s going to win or something.... haha ,) well just wanted to let you know im here and having a great time surrounded by great people doing great things! All of you stay awesome! love ya!!!!!!!!!

Elder Millward

This is one of the pictures I received from Living Legacy photography .  Yes he has on his Peyton Manning socks... he is quite proud of them!