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> Inside days!:)
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Called To Serve
Monday, November 30, 2015
Hello wonderful Family!
Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
From: Megan Gwilliam <megan.gwilliam@myldsmail.net>
Date: November 30, 2015 at 4:52:33 AM MST
To: Denise Gwilliam <denisegwilliam@outlook.com>, Bruce Gwilliam <brucegwilliam@yahoo.com>, Kyle Gwilliam <kylegwilliam@gmail.com>, Lindsey Gwilliam <lindseygwilliam@outlook.com>
Subject: Hello wonderful Family!
Sister GwilliamLove you and talk to you soon! :)I love you ALL SO MUCH! and hope you have the GREATEST WEEK!!!!!!And craziest ever. Grannie annie is going to america for Christmas - her grandson is getting married in the Las Vegas temple on december 29th so she is taking us out for our christmas present tonight - I guess we are going to this super fancy place to eat and having a traditional christmas dinner! Im super excited! But the craziest ever is we get to choose the main meat we have - like turkey or ham and all that sorts and guess what I chose? SALMON!!! I literally chose that and I SO EXCITED for it. Having it a couple times at members have made me love it and so I chose it. WHO AM I? I don't even know anymore. Haha! SO yeah. THe whole Salmon Sunday will be fine with me when i get home! :)This week will be a busy one too as it is the first week of the month so that means MLC and DLC again! So a week full of sitting in meetings BUT it will be wonderful! 2 weeks from now too we get to go to the TEMPLE! I CAN NOT WAIT! and then only 26 days until I get to talk to you!! OH I CAN'T WAiT!!!!!!! I love you so much and just can't wait to talk to you all! :)Something that I have loved realizing and remembering being on a mission is realizing how much our Heavenly Father knows us and our needs. He really does understnad and care and his plan is just to help us and love us. The past couple of weeks I really struggled with just being incredible stressed. Which is SO WEIRD for me. I feel like i have always been a laid back, easy going person, but looking back I realized i was just a little bit of a mess. Just the idea of being a leader and so with that I was supposed to have a model area, I wanted to have amazing miracles to be able to share, I wanted these people to progress, I wanted baptisms, I wanted to be EXACTLY obedient, and talk to EVERY SINGLE PERSON, and more times than not I wouldn't measure up to what I wanted and then it would stress me out. It really hit last weekend and I just was praying so hard for help and peace and to help me refocus on what I needed to do and not let things stress me out. And then BOOM. I had a whole week where all I could do was literally build my relationship with my Saviour and have the time I needed to refocus. OH heavenly Father is just so merciful. This week was honestly exactly what I needed. I just had time to be in the scriptures and then REMEMBERING how loving and merciful he was and how he was always there to give me the peace I needed. I was able to realize that I was so stressed out and worried because I was all focused on me! I was trying to do this work so OFCOUSE i was stressed. there is NO POSSIBLE WAY sister gwilliam can do this work. I would fail EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. And so having the time to be inside i realized that I needed to rely on Him. THis is HIS work and HIS people and I am just here to do my best. TO be obedient and talk to people and do my best to talk to as many but when i fall short just try better the next day. I just really am so grateful for a merciful heavenly father who knew what I needed. So i feel super sorry if sister stephenson needed to get super ill so that I could refocus and learn my lesson but either way SO GLAD that i did! I feel like my head is back on strait and I am refocused and leaning on the Lord so life is great! im back to my usual self and just excited to go out and do my best! :)THis week was also really different becuase cute sister stephenson got dealthy ill. Fun english fact for ya: In England if you have the flu or a cold you are ILL - not sick. You are only Sick if you are throwing up! Kinda funny! So sister stephenson was Ill becuase she had the worst cold - we think it actually might have been the flu. But with that we were inside/ not working from pretty much Wednesday until Sunday. She slept a lot of that time and I HAD TO STAY INSIDE TOO. OH my goodness. THe first couple of days it wasn't bad. I finished the book of mormon for the 2nd time on my mission which was really exciting! I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON! I hope you all are still reading it as a family and on your own. Are you doing that highlighting thing I told you about from PMG? If you are not START NOW! i PROMISE it will change everything and help you understnad how incredible and powerful the book of mormon can be! So yeah I finished that, went through potentials in the area book, started reading the book of mormon again, organized the area book... yeah. it got a little boring. BUT it was great! I also started the New Testament. I have decided this next transfer I really want to get to know my Saviour more. TO really KNOW him. And so I decided that a good way to do that would be to keep reading the Book of Mormon but also read about his actual life and teachings from the bible. So that was exciting too. I also made her your yummy chilli mom! she LOVES it!! Thank you so much for the cute recipe book you sent over. I use it all the time and love it! THanks so much mom! But yeah. It was an interesting week because of having to be a missionary inside but it taught me so much.And mom and dad! You guys are the GREATEST! I got a call early thanksgiving morning here from TESCO telling me that the card hadn't gone through. I tried to get them to call you just to let you know that there were problems but the whole Idea of your number not starting with a 0 (all english numbers do) just really confused them and I eventually just had to cancell it. BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH! Even though the food didn't show up I just can't even say how much it just helped me have the greatest day still! It really is the thought and it was the most lovely thought and I just LOVE YOU! So thank you so much for thinking of me and cute sister stephenson and grannie annie too. You guys are the best parents and I love that you had that fun idea!! so It was a bummer the card didn;t go through but im glad you got the call and there weren't other problems with the card. Just silly enlgand making things complicated. BUT I LOVE YOU!!!! Thank you again! Just knowing what you had planned made it the HAPPIEST thanksgiving! :)Hey Family!!!I love hearing from you SO MUCH! It sounds like you had the greatest week! And I am so glad! THanksgiving sounds like it was SO FUN! Oh, how fun to have family over! I bet it was the best. And hopefully delicious! We have one american family who lives in the ward and we guilted them into making us thanksgiving dinner thursday night. It was so great and all night they just kept joking with me saying how they were only doing this for me and hoping this would help me feel at home. It was the nicest of them and I am so grateful for incredible ward memebers. Build strong relationships with the ELders of our ward if you can. I didn't realize until now how much it means to just have members you can turn to! :) So hopefully it was fun to have them over this last week! Probably not as great or as fun as Sister Stephenson and I but im sure they are great! ;)
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
IM SO SORRY!!
FAMILY!
Oh my... I am SO SORRY for the craziness I caused all of you yesterday! haha FORGIVE ME! I mentioned to Sister Stephenson last week how I had forgot to tell you all it was transfers and because of that I wouldn't be emailing until Tuesday... and then I didn't have wifi at all yesterday so I didn't get to see any of your emails... whoops. :) BUT OH I LOVE YOU!! Seeing all of the emails and that you were worried about it just makes me feel so loved. OH I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! Thank you for loving me. I'm sorry for the craziness though! i promise that I will be better! I think next transfers are Jan. 5. So just incase.... it should be around then! :) Oh i just love you all and miss you a lot. With that though I am working on being okay with not being perfect. As I have seen all of the different ways that I can improve.. I also then realize all the things I am lacking and it stresses me out. Haha i just love my Saviour and want to do EVERYTHING I can to serve him fully these 18 months and see how I constantly fall short. Ha kinda funny but multiple nights this week I have woken up at like 3 or 4 a.m. in pure panic because I am just laying there and I don't have an investigator with me. Obviously my head isn't fully there since it is so early but I just panic and don't understand why I am just laying down when I could be out working and being with the friends we are teaching. Once I wake up a little more I realize that it is night time and I am allowed to sleep so I go back to bed... but yeah. That pretty much sums up the fact I also need to relax a little bit and just trust in the Lord. I know that I am SO IMPERFECT and honestly will never do enough but that is okay because it is HIS WORK! This is all in HIS TIMING and all I am asked to do is try my best. Just work hard to BECOME better each day and that if I do that it will all be great! So that is something I am working on... I am grateful to become the missionary and woman my Heavenly Father needs me to be but I am also grateful to realize that he understands and plans for me to fall short while doing it! And that's why we have the Saviour! OH Our Heavenly Fathers plan is just SO PERFECT!
But i hope you all have the greatest week!! Im working hard and we have A LOT Of people progressing towards baptism which is SO exciting! This truly is the Lords work and I am so humbled to get to have this time to be apart of it FULL TIME!
I love you! Sorry again about yesterday! :)
TALK TO YOU SOON! (next Monday! :) )
I LOVE YOU!
Sister Gwilliam
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
I LOVE YOU!
Just finished zone conference! It was the greatest. And yes. I'm
siting next to sister Hiatt! We took a picture I'll send on Monday! :)
I love you so much! I'm so grateful for all of your love and support.
Nothing brings me greater happiness than this gospel and my family!
I JUST LOVE YOU and am so grateful for my saviour and to have this
time to testify of his reality and love.
And we got to see the new Christmas video. IM SO EXCITED!
I LOVE YOU! Talk to on Monday!
>Sister Gwilliam
Monday, November 9, 2015
DLC
THE zone leaders and the sister training leaders. These elders are so great and so funny! I love working with them!!!
Hi mama G-William π¬π§✌π»️
Hello!
So I just wanted to send you an email to let you know how thankful I
am to be serving with Sister Gwilliam, or Megan as you know her. She's
crazy and I love her. She's teaching me so much about missionary work
and just giving me to sweetest advise about all sorts of things. I
feel so blessed to have this opportunity to be serving with her and
she really is one of my best friends. We have so much fun together, we
just act like complete loonies half of the time, which is what I
loveeee because I never got that with my trainer. She is simply
beautiful in every way and I can't thank you enough for bringing her
up in such a way that has benefitted me so much. I've been out on my
mission nearly 6 months now and I've learnt more in the last 4 weeks
than I have since being here and that is because of her. She's trained
me. Without her, Jack and Fern wouldn't have got baptised when they
did, because of her great faith and trust in the Lord that He can do
mighty miracles within us, we saw it happen and I really admire that
about her.
I love that she loves yoghurt. Last week we bought 6 tubs of yoghurt
and we've eaten it all. We also bought like 20 bananas and they're all
gone too. It's the best. We have skippy peanut butter and apples as a
snack and that's even better and we are pros and making sweet potato
fries. I just love her. Every time we cross the road she screams,
that's a problem cause now I scream too and it draws attention to
ourselves. Oops. The other night president called, he left us a
message and we both like freaked out and started screaming and
laughing. It was so funny, we don't even know why we were doing it,
but j just love that we can act silly together all the time and she
doesn't judge me. It's great. We wear each other's clothes which I
love! Down east is the best store in the world and when I come and
visit I need to get some of those dresses for my own wardrobe.
I just love your family. She tells me about them all the time. I've
seen videos of Kyle when he got his wisdom tooth out, that was funny
and I've heard about Lindsey eating ward stringed cheese, that's gross
and Tyson eating Mayo, that was funny too. I've also heard that papa
G- William doesn't like it when people crack their knuckles, amen to
that ππ» (as I typed that she popped it. Of course she did!)
You're family are great, even though I haven't met you, I feel like I
already know you.
Serving the Lord has truly blessed my life and made me realize how
important family is and the gospel. Every great thing I have in my
life is because of Jesus Christ and I don't want to let his sacrifice
be waste. I love my saviour and this work, it's what brings families
together and gives them happiness.
Have a great week, you're all amazing,
Love,
Sister Stephenson, the Brit ππ¬π§πΊπΈ
4 months a missionary!
Hey greatest family there ever was!!
Guess what!? Today i have officially been a missionary for 4 months! how crazy is that? Part of me feels like it has FLOWN by! LIke what I have even done in these 4 months? But then at the same time its like Ive lived in england forever and everything else before is just starting to feel like it wasn't real. Like it was a dream. BUT its exciting either way! :)
That also means I havent even seen you or talked to you in 4 months. Do you ever think how crazy that is? Sometimes I do. Just the whole idea of the fact I got on a plane to england at 19 and don't have any big contact with my family and all the other things that a mission entitles and i think about it for a minute and think about how crazy it is. But then the crazier thing is that I love it! That it doesn't feel weird to me becuase I just feel so at peace. Its crazy that with everything going on that I am just happy and content and grateful to be here!
But this week was great! The begining of this week there isn't a lot to report on. I really did just sit in meetings. We had MLC which was literally ALL of tuesday! It was great but also really long. Fun to be there though and be with all of the other leaders and president. Then on thursday we had district meeting and then saturday DLC which took most of the day as well! So lots of sitting there but it was all great because at the end of the week...
JACK AND FERN WERE BAPTISED!!! Oh it was the GREATEST night!! They are the CUTEST kids and just so prepared and so happy and the night was just perfect. The ward was so supportive. their mum even said how happy she was and how blown away she was with all of the support they recieved. So it was such a blessing! Ill send over pictures. But it is just the greatest blessing to see these people and how the gospel has blessed them. They just get it. The gospel makes sense to them and that is something that i have loved. OF COURSE IT MAKES SENSE! Becuase it is the truth. and they are just so close to the spirit that they can feel that! Oh its just the greatest blessing to be a missionary and have the privledge of being so aware of the blessing this gospel is and how it truly does change lives.
Another great thing about this week is that we saw SO MANY MIRACLES! president gubler always talks about the season of miracles that is coming to the England London South Mission. he has been talkinhg about it since he came in - pretty much since i have been here. WE have all felt it too! That just like in times before when hundreds of saints were baptised here - that it will happen again! And I can just feel it! there are SO MANY miracles all around us! WE are just finding people that are SO PREPARED and ready to be baptised. A miracle of this week is as we were counting up our key indicators at the end of the week there were a lot of days where we had more new investigators (people who we have a lesson with and then get a return appointment with) then we did actual lessons. People truly are just walking up to us and are prepared and want us to teach them. So right now we are teaching this sweet napalese family as well as this AMAZING girl named isabelle. I love her. So it is just incredible. It is such a blessing and humbling experience to be amissionary here at this time when SO MANY miracles are all around us! The season of miracles really is here and Jack and Fern were just the begining of the baptisms that will be coming! Just wait! :)
So things here in good old england are just the greatest! We have Zone conference tomorrow. another meetting.... i was telling ky I think it is a good sign that meetings are a little hard now. At the begining of my mission i LOVED meetings becuase i could be inside and not having to talk to people... I know. It was the worst. BUT now I really would rather be out talking to people or teaching, even knocking! So I think that is a good sign that Im hopefully progressing and becoming a better missionary and person! But zone conference will be great! And we are singing at it! With president and sister gubler which will be the best! Then on wednesday I am going on exchange with the Stains siters which will be fun! I think i will be going there this time so it will be fun to see a new area and work with another sister!
And fun fact! I just got a haircut! I'll send a picture. I was almost crazy and cut it short again... and then i remembered how rough it was last time and decided that it wasn't the way to go! Plus with the humidity here my hair is just a mess all the time. but it was getting a little out of control so hopefully with it being al ittle shorter it will help! A cute man in the ward cut it for us for free! Yay for members! :)
But I hope you have the GREATEST week!! Please keep me updated on everything and send more cute videos of tyse. I miss that cute boy!
You all are always in my prayers! i love and miss you so much!! Thank you for being the greatest family. Your love and support really is what keeps me going!
I LOVE YOU!!
Talk to you soon!
Sister GWilliam
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
MLC
It was The greatest day at MLC!! I love being with president and sister gubler and getting to be with the other leaders! The spirit was so strong and ohh I just love this gospel and my saviour!! I LOVE YOU!!!! So so much! Talk to you Monday!:) Sister Gwilliam
Monday, November 2, 2015
Out to lunch with Joy and Martyn. |
Oh happy days. England's peanut butter is NOT the same and Joy bought this from Costco for us! |
We walked these around for Halloween!:) Pinterest worthy I'd say!;) |
Since when is it November?
Hello Family!!
I hope you all have had the greatest week! I still have to read most of the emails you sent.... BUT I will after this is sent and respond to those! :)
This week was so great! So many fun things going on and so many miracles! AH i just have so much to tell you all the time and so little time... This whole only 2 hours thing is just the greatest struggle.
First off!! It looks like you had the greatest Halloween!!! THank you for the pictures. Cute linds and tyse looked great and I bet tyse just loved handing out the treats and I know linds loved eating them! :) Halloween is NOT the same here in England. I didn't realize it until I kept asking the members what they're plans were for Halloween and then they would all just give me a weird look... APPARENTLY Halloween is super dark and nasty here. Like the weirdo devil worshipers celebrate it and then just cause problems for everyone else on Halloween night - Like we had razor blades put on the playground by our house, bricks were thrown in members windows, and you have to be 18 or older to buy eggs at the grocery store because so many people go around egging houses. WHat the heck? Halloween is the greatest back in America but here people just close and lock their doors. I guess a couple people trick or treat but grannie annie only got 1 group. So yeah, its a lot different. SO sister stephenson and I stayed inside working on progress record and such and then took a late dinner so we weren't out walking around with the crazies! Plus we were fasting... so we didn't even eat candy. Haha definitely different than Halloween back home but it was great! We made cute treats and handed them out to Investigators and LA which was great! :)
This last week I went on my first exchange too!! It was great. I was with a sister named Sister ROusetti - she is from australia. It was a little crazy since we stayed in Aldershot and I still feel like I don't know where anything... BUT it all went well. It was fun for me to see that Sister Stephenson and I chose who to go with based on how we thought we could help the Guildford Sisters but I quickly found out that Sister ROusetti was there to help me. It is so great how our Heavenly Father always has greater plans than we do. She was such a help to me. Her last area she was in the same situation as I was and could relate to everything I was feeling so well. So it was just great! I feel like she helped me a lot more than I helped her but hopefully I was able to say or do something that helped her!
This week was also a fun surprise when I ran into district meeting - a little late... whoopsies :) - and I walked in and guess who was there? President and SIster Gubler!!! It was the greatest suprise!! THey just sat in on our district meeting. I just felt spoiled having them there. THey were just able to give so much council and we had them all to ourselves! It was so great.
And you know how I told you I was singing in Zone Conference on the 10th!? Well its a confusing story but the district leader really wanted to sing as well so we decided we would just sing it as a district. But we were going to practice after the district meeting that president was at and I brought all the sheet music that you sent mom! (THANK YOU!) And president and sister Gubler heard... so guess what? WE are singing that "Saviour Redeemer/Called to serve" Missionary medley WITH president and Sister Gubler! Because they loved it so much! How fun is that? So thank you mom!! Definitely got some extra brownie points with president for having such an incredible arrangement! ;)
This next week will be CRAZINESS though! TOmorrow I have my first MLC - where president and all of the ZL and STLs meet together and discuss the mission. Apparently that goes from 9-5. Then on Wednesday it is bonfire night - I guess it is something that they celebrate here in england? It sounds like our 4th of july! So we are having a party with the members and bringing our investigators to have food and roast marshmellows and then they set off fireworks! So it should be fun! And freezing! :) THen we will have DLC with the district leaders at some point and then... drum roll please... HOLLY JACK AND FERN ARE GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY! I know I said last week we were hoping for this week but after a crazy week and getting things set out it all set and ready to go. It was the craziest thing too - Up to yesterday Holly still was in the air on things and had told us that she was going to wait until we were sitting in Relief Society with her and they announced jack and fern were getting baptised and then she just raised her hand and said that she was too!! AHHH!! it was crazy. So yeah, THeir mom met with bishop yesterday, we announced it at church, and IM JUST SO EXCITED!! Please pray for them and for everything to go well! I can't wait though! And then sunday is Remembrance Sunday - Its when all of england celebrates their troops and the wars that have been fought. And aldershot is a military town SO it will be a party here! Everyone wears read poppies all of November too to honor the troops so we are going to go get ours this afternoon! It should be great! So yes! This next week will be great! It will be busy but that's when they are the greatest! :)
Last night we went to this DA with this family who have an 11 year old son and then a 3 year old little girl. I guess they really struggled getting pregnant, finally did, and then they just found out a little bit ago their little girl has autism. As I was sitting there and seeing her have little melt downs and the parents trying their best to calm her down and talk about her schedule and the struggles that happen at times and how much research she had done on the computer and just everything. I just wanted to hug them all. I just felt SO MUCH LOVE for them and was able to relate so well. I talked to them about tyse a little bit and just some things that we have done and mostly what you - mom and dad - had done and how there were crazy times but that tyse has been one of our families BIGGEST blessings and how much I loved him. After dinner Sister Stephenson mentioned how the wife had NEVER opened up to the missionaries like that before. I just feel SO GRATEFUL that Heavenly Father gives us blessings and experiences that help us relate to others so that we can help them!
I hope you all have the greatest week though! I know that our Heavenly Fathers plan is PERFECT that our Saviour is always there and that they love us unconditionally. I am so grateful for the testimony I have and for the chance to grow closer to my Saviour EVERYDAY!
He who was lifted up will never let me down! :)
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!! Have the very best week!! and I will talk to you soon! :)
Sister Gwilliam
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