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!