I LOVE my FAMILY!!

Hello Family!!

I hope you all have had the MOST WONDERFUL WEEK! It sounds like it was busy with sports which is SO FUN! I miss sports a lot! KY! I still have to read your letter so I will respond to it after but i watched the video you sent of corner storming the court! OH MY GOODNESS. that is SO COOL!!!!! Oh i love it! AHH high school sports are the best. And then the pictures of the banners dad sent - holy smokes! AND you guys are ranked #1!! Its SO EXCITING!! I love getting the updates on the game! PLEASE keep it up! And keep killing it! STATE here you come!

This week in England was just great! The weeks of transfers are always just weird with P-day being off and then we don't have district meeting so that throws me off to BUT don't worry! I survived! And it was a great week!

First off! Rob is so excited to get baptized and it is the greatest thing ever. He is just so excited and all the members are so excited - everyone was talking about it at church yesterday and so many came up and said they will be here.  It is so amazing to me to see how the gospel really does change people. Rob is so different - he is happier, more confident, has more drive and purpose, is more kind, just EVERYTHING! It has just been really humbling for me to see how when we accept and apply the teachings of the Saviour it really does change us into better people. I have always known that in the back of my head but being able to witness it first hand is really incredible. being a missionary is the greatest thing ever. I really do love it! SO YES! Rob is doing great! I can't wait for his baptism! Keep praying for him please! We are also still meeting with Jake and Luke who are still the best! We had a funny situation this last week with them... their mom (who is a LA coming back to church) got remarried recently to a man who is not a member. We taught the boys 2 weeks ago about the plan of salvation and how if we are baptized and follow Jesus Christ we can go to the celestial kingdom. Well apparently after the lesson they went up to their step dad and told him how he wasn't going to be able to go to the celestial kingdom or live with them forever because he wasn't baptized. YIKES!! As you can imagine he wasn't too happy about that and the fact that there were 2 girls coming into his home telling his boys all of these things! Luckily we were able to go around again this week and have dinner with him and clear everything up with the boys. Haha have to be careful when teaching kids! :) But they are still doing great and on date for valentines day! Its just so fun and I feel so blessed to be apart of this all!

This last week we spent a lot of time serving which was really neat. I have come to see lately that I am the type of missionary that is so focused on finding people and teaching them so they can be baptized. I want to be the good example to the sisters in the zone and to be a good missionary and all of that and honestly, kinda embarrassing to admit, but when we had so much service to do for members and such I wasn't too thrilled about it at first. I just wanted to be out working - as in finding. But there were some amazing experiences while serving this week that it reminded me that this is what I am here to do. I am here to represent my Saviour and that means doing what he would be doing if he were here. And I KNOW that that would including serving everyone he could. So I stopped being silly and remembered that I am here to find but most importantly be where I need to be - and this week I needed to be serving! Radika - that nepalese woman had an emergency and was rushed into the hospital so we went and saw her a couple times. Something that I LOVE about her is that she LOVES and I mean LOVES the book of mormon. Here is this little nepalese woman who no one can understand but she just sits there with her book of mormon adn just reads and reads all the time. Her book of mormon is so worn and marked all over. As we were sitting there in the hospital with her as she read out some of her favorite scriptures I was so grateful for her example of loving the book of mormon. They are so important to her and only until my mission did I feel the same way about them as she did! YOU ALL BETTER BE READING EVERYDAY! Really understanding the book of mormon has changed everything for me!

This week we also did a lot being STLs which was great! We went and visited some sisters who were struggling. I love having this calling and being able to serve! I honestly feel like i am really inadequate and have no idea what I am doing a lot of the time but I love being able to try and help and just be there to be their friends! I love it! :)

But that was pretty much my week! A lot of serving, and visiting sisters and then meeting with our friends as well as contacting. We are really trying to find more people to teach! This next week will be crazy with it being MLC and DLC again so time will be short but we are DETERMINED TO FIND 5 new investigators! Watch out aldershot! We are coming for ya!

Life here is so good though. England is still so rainy and wet - we have heard this next week it is supposed to start being really cold. Which always makes me nervous because I already think that it is really cold... so we will see! Wish me luck. I already look like a marshmallow! I have taken some pictures of some of the places we go a lot. I realize I only send home pictures of me and Sister Steve and missionaries... which is great but I want to remember the places as well! So i'll send those over! Then when I am home I can tell you all about them! :)

And can you believe i made it 6 months?? Only a year to go! Crazy. Its been so great for me to think back to how much I have changed in the last 6 months. Just thinking back to Peckham feeling like there was no way I could do this to now where I still think a lot of the time there is no way that I can do this but I now know that its okay because my Heavenly Father and Saviour are there the whole time. I think that has been the biggest change for me over this 6 months - the fact that i KNOW now without any doubt of the reality of our heavenly father and Saviour. They are SO so real to me. and I Love them. I was talking to one of the sister about our missions and she asked if I loved my mission. As I thought about it there are a lot of things that I don't love about it - things that can be hard and days that can seem rough BUT with all of that I DO LOVE the relationship that I have with my Heavenly Father and Saviour now. And that wouldn't have happened had it not been for the crazy days. SO the answer to her question was a BIG YES! I don't like everything but I do LOVE that my testimony is stronger than it has ever been. I may not be converting a lot of people here in England but one thing for sure is that I am becoming converted myself. more and more everyday. 

sorry this email isn't super exciting! I wish I had some crazy fun story to tell you but things here are just really great and people are progressing - including myself! I hope you all have the MOST WONDERFUL WEEK! Continue keeping me up on everything and never forget how much I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

Love you so so much!!

Sister Gwilliam