I love Christmas!

HELLO!!! 

Remember last week when I said I will be emailing you again before we know it. Thats how i feel again. Especially this week. It just FLEW! I dont know how... or even what we did... but it just goes so fast sometime.

But are you all just LOVING the christmas season? Im so glad that linds has taken christmas all on! I just smiling reading about the christmas music blasting! Oh i LOVE IT! That is something that is hard. We can only listen to hymns so I need to get creative with the music but our mission rule just changed and we can listen to anyone as long as they are singing hymns - before it was just MOtab. BUT let me tell you... a little Josh Groban singing christmas in the morning just starts the day off SO WELL! Its the best! :) So yeah! I AM JUST LOVING IT! Have you watched the christmas initiative yet? I hope you have! if not go watch it right now! Its amazing! And has the funnest things to do the 25 days leading up to christmas - it has the best ideas! Go onto mormon.org and look it up! We can do it together!! but I forgot until this week how much I LOVE being a missionary at christmas time. We have the christmas video on our ipads and all i get to do is go around and share about christmas and celebrating jesus christ and share the video with EVERYONE and it is the best becuase even those that aren't christian love christmas time too so more people are willing to listen. Oh ive just been having a blast. I sing christmas songs all day long and talk to everyone about christmas and goodness. Its the best ever. AND i am SO HAPPY that we got a new tree!! OH i can't wait to see it!! so YES PLEASE please keep it up until I can see it!! With the snow and christmas tree and ALL OF YOU i will just cry. It will be the best! But I would love to see it!! Today we are going out and I am buying stuff to decorate the flat. I dont think sister dorich knows what is coming.... its going to be awesome. heading to pound land (their dollar stores here:) ) and we will be SET! I'll send pictures next week. I am so excited though! OO i was just thinking... but yes Leave the tree up and I will make some english christmas things and we can celebrate england style!!! YOu in? 

With thanksgiving though My mouth just watered when you sent the picture of the turkey over in the SMOKER!  BUT thanksgiving here we didnt do anything. HOW SAD IS THAT? We didn't even have time for dinner with all of our teaches that day. DIDNT EVEN HAVE DINNER ON THANKSGIVING! ISn't that crazy. And we had salad and veggies for lunch. It was discusting. I was ashamed of myself. BUT it was still good. Something funny about england is you can not find canned pumpkin ANYWHERE!!! I have looked in stores and they just dont sell it. Its so werid. But we had a ward activity and the only american couple brought pumpkin pie. It was so yummy - apparently she had traveled like 45 minutes to some whole food place where she found it. Crazy. But that was fun and a good way to celebrate!  

 THe weather here has been so nice until about 2 days ago when a cold spell came in and FLIPPIN HECK its FREEZING!!! So cold. Its one of those things though where it looks really nice - we are blessed that the sun has been out the whole time so it hasn't been raining... knock on wood... but its crazy how cold it gets. Time to pull on the leggings and then thermals and then tights again! :) 

And dad I was laughing about your comment about almost falling asleep becuase I DID THE SAME THING THIS WEEK! I have always heard of the crazy stories of missionaries falling asleep in lessons and thought that was CRAZY. How can you fall asleep in a lesson? Well this last week I went on exchange with Sister Calle who is a spanish speaking sister. THey had a lesson that day so we ran over to teach their investigator and I couldn't understand anything, made me respect and appreciate ky so much more! But becuase I wasn't engaged as much, or i dont know what it was, but I was nodding off SO BAD! It was awful. I was so embarrassed and mad at myself. But i would sit there and just feel myself dosing a bit... oh mom and dad it was so bad. I almost started pinching myself. I kept moving around to keep myself awake. The spanish lady probably thought I was crazy. Did that ever happen to you dad? Oh im just glad i didn't fall asleep entirely. But lucky that has never happened in english! :) 

Starting this transfer I start doing Myplan. But we have to set goals for our lives and one of them is for how we will honor the sabbath. I think that is one that I will change the most from how I was before. I am excited to set goals and then honor the sabbath like we should! It will be GREAT!

And it does seem like ky is homesick. poor guy. I was thinking about it and it hit really hard for me too about the same time he has been out - the 6 months mark. I know it was hard too when sister barnes went home thinking how she was seeing her family and I still had so much time until I got to see you. president gubler talked to me about it a lot - and I talked to you both about it too. Just something I really struggled with. So i will definitely send him a good email and try and help. Its really hard being away from all of you and I always thought that the longer I would get out it would change - It would become easier. And i realised that it didn't. The whole time it has been hard. But the lord can help and give us peace to make us strong enough to do it! Grateful for him and for your help this whole time too!!

But we were able to go to presidents house this week! iT was the best! We kind of had thanksgiving there - but no stuffing which is my FAVORITE! But it was great! So fun to get to be with presdient and sister gubler. And there were so many missionaries that are such good friends that were there too! So it was so fun to get to see everyone. We almost got to sleep over again... another set of elders baptised 3 as well last transfer so becuase of the tie they counted key indicators. And the elders beat us by 6! BY 6! Ah it was so close. But thats okay! It was still so fun to get to be with everyone and celebrate gods help in the work! 

THings are going really well in the work too! Charlie is still doing so well! He came to church on sunday and has accepted the commandments easily! We taught him the word of wisdom and he was suprised about the tea and coffee- said he had it every morning- but then was silent for a minute and said "well it looks like I will be drinking a lot more water"! Ah he is the best! We are teaching him again tonght and then he will be taught everything and ready for his baptism next friday! We also had a miralce this week where a RC from mitcham ward moved into peckhams boundaries and has a little girl who is 10 and really wants to get baptised! So we got her on date for the 30th and are seeing them twice a week now. it just blows my mind in gods kindness. he really just prepares people and brings them to us. Im so grateful! SO so grateful! I also think heacenly father might be preparing me for either a lot of kids or a future primary president - a lot of the people I have taught on my mission have been kids! Which i LOVE! they are the best to teach. Its just kind of funny. 

I LOVED your quote you sent over mom. THANK YOU for reminding me about it! That quote has helped me so much throughout my whole mission with almost everything! That idea of not stressing. THANK YOU! And for both of you reminding me to just stay focused and take it a day at a time. I think that was my problem last week. I was looking so far into the future and that can sometimes make us worry BUT i am going to apply that quote and just live in the moment and enjoy it! Just LOVE this time i Have here. I do have a lot of people ask about plans and talk about it but I am doing my best not to bring it up to not make it harder on sister dorich as well. No one likes a companion who only talks about home. So thank you! That was the perfect reminder for me!! 

BUT I HAVE SOMETHING URGENT i need your help on!!! So this is really funny - but I have really been working on eating well but as you know dad I am a snacker... or a vulture as you like to call it.... :) BUT with that I have just resorted to eating a lot of carrots. I eat A LOT of carrots. I just snack on them at meals and throughout the day. Just lots of carrots becuase they are delicious and I dont feel bad for eating them. well I have had lots of comments (even from a nutritionist we are teaching) that I am looking slightly orange. ORANGE! a tint of orange. NOT GOOD. And from taking nutrition I know it is a real thing - if you eat to many your skin turns a little orange. SO its a problem/ I will get celery today at the store but will you google it and make sure it isn't toxic. I know its funny but just make sure I am okay and I will get celery to switch it up. THANKS! Love you! oh and please send me and email to let me know. :)

AND YOU HAVE MY FLIGHT PLANS!!!?? OH my goodness. What are they? I know i need to stay focused and I wont let it get me off - Sister AUbuchon was at the dinner (she is flying home with me and going to byu the next day with me as well! Can't wait for you to meet her! :) ) but we just wanted to see if she and sister bills and I are all on the same flight. We woudl assume we are but we watned to check. If you are willing to send it over! 

OH and iwth your question with preparation days - last week we went over by the water and to bourough market again. Im obsessed with it! ITs like a super posh costco - they give our samples! :) But its of fancy cheeses and yummy bread with olive oils... :) But we will DEFINITELY go when we come back some day! you all will love it! But sister dorich and I were saying how we had to start doing all of the fun things on these days! Obviously making sure we do the most important things first but I only have a few more days to get to go see London so we are going to try and use them! Hopefully lots of cool pictures coming up! 

BUT i just love you all so much! Thank you for all of your help and support and love. SO grateful things are going so well and you are all happy and safe! :) Im so grateful for you. Truly when I think about all of the blessings I have been given you are at the top - so grateful to have parents who are just always there no matter what. It has brought me the greatest comfort. Thanks for being my biggest fans and support team while i am in england too! I know i say it all the time but i couldn't do it without you! 

I LOVE YOU!!! Have the best week!!! 

Love, 

Sister Gwilliam