I love my Family!!

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> Hello my most amazing family!
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> It was SUCH a great week! So many good things going on and I am just so happy! Being a missionary is the BEST! Really the biggest blessing! KY I JUST AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU!!!
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> This week was so great though. First off I realize that I was the worst last week. I was so nervous with Sister England coming in and some comments she made about contacting and I just JUMPED THE GUN on just deciding it was going to be hard like it was with Sister Stephenson and the whole pitty party of why me and honestly was just prideful. So im sorry for being the worst. Sister England is WONDERFUL! I LOVE being with her. We have had such a great week and there are things that are hard for her - like contacting - but what I LOVE and admire about her so much is that she doesn't let it stop her one bit. She just does it! Its difficult and awkward for her but she just does it! How good of an example is she? And she asks the BEST questions! Anytime we are knocking or contacting on the street she always asks this inspired questions that just keep the conversation going and oh its just great. So im really sorry for being the worst last week. It really is so good. She also is super organized which is good. Her strength can balance out my weakness! :) So im learning a lot and things are great! It has been so fun too to get to reflect on how much she has grown as a missionary but with that how much I have grown as well since we were together in the MTC. Its so neat. We laugh all the time when we think back to the MTC days when we were SO SCARED to go in and teach lessons and had no idea what we were supposed to do and then that day they took us into manchester to talk to actual people and we both walked around for like 15 minutes before we got the guts to actually talk to someone and now we just do it! We plan lessons and know the scriptures/PMG and talking to people is just a normal everyday thing! So its fun to be together and get to see how much we both have come. Still a LONG way to go and lots to improve in but we are better than we were 8 months ago. And thats all this gospel is really about right? Just being better today than we were yesterday! Oh i just love it.
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> This week we found a couple flats that we sent into the office! We were in charge of looking them up and viewing them and then we send a couple of them into the office so they can negotiate it all and get presidents approval. So we havent heard anything back if we actually got any of them but hopefully we will know soon. We have to give grannie annie at least 4 weeks notice so I will still be with her for a while but we may be moving before the next transfer! We havent told grannie annie yet either... whoops! :) Ha the office suggested it was best becuase Im not sure it will go over well. I feel bad. She loves having us there and the company and I think it helps her keep her house having the income come in but it just doesn't work for exchanges. So its something we have to do. Im scared to tell her though. Ha we will see how it all goes. Hopefully she takes it well.... especially since we still have to live with her for 4 weeks after! :)
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> But with that we also had a SPIRIT filled week with having Elder Johnson from the 70 come to our mission! It was SO GREAT. Oh my goodness. It was just like getting slapped back and forth with revelation and ways to improve myself so I can be better for my Heavenly Father and Saviour! Zone conference was so great! Something President GUbler talked a lot about was enjoying the Journey. I loved it. He talked about not focusing so much on the destination of things but enjoying the view as we go - taking it all in and enjoying the ride versus just getting to where we need to go. I applied that SO much to my mission. Im on this little journey, and even though there are incredibly hard times and really long days and everything, the fact is that it is going to end. That once 18 months is over my time to be a full time missionary is done. There is an end to it all. And so with that I want to do EVERYTHING I can to make the most of the time I have here. To really soak it all up and learn as much as I can as possible to that I can really grow while getting to the end point BUT along with that - and I would say equally as important - I want to ENJOY this journey. Missionary work is something that brings greater happiness than ANYTHING else. I honestly thought people were crazy when they would say that before - I didn't understnad how leaving my family and going to a weird place with different people to go aorund all day long talking to people would actually make anyone happy. But OH i know it for myself now. I love it. And I know thats what Our heavenly father wants of us too. It is like what you shared the other week dad. he just wants us to be happy! And so thats what I am going to do. This transfer is my 6th transfer on the mission and guess how many transfers sisters have? 12! WHAT THE HECK? I have no idea where the time has gone that I am almost half way. So yeah. Sorry for this whole rant but I jsut loved presdient gublers comments on it all and am going to apply it! :)
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> Something else he said that stood out to me so much as well was a quote from Francis Webster. He was a man who traveled with the first handcart company across the plains to Utah. THe group that had so many unbelivable hard things happen to them and so many trials. After all of it he said that someone told him that it was wrong of them to go so late in the season. THat they shouldn't have done it. And that if he could go back would he not go? And he said ( i loved this :) ) That he still would have gone. Gone through all the hard times all over becuase "The price to pay to become aquained with God was a privledge to pay" And OH how I feel like that relates to a mission as well. It truly is so hard at times. It takes everything out of you and there are moments of the highest highs but also the lowest of the lows and its difficult. But i just say amen to my friend Francis Webster. It is a privledge to go through all these things and I would do it again because becuase of it I KNOW my Heavenly Father and Saviour. They are so real to me and I love them. So i just loved that quote.
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> We also had MLC with Elder Johnson yesterday and It was the best MLC i have ever been to! Oh i loved it!! He talked a lot about Faith and how a lot of times we think that we can "bind" the lord. THat as we are obedient and following the commandments and doing everything right that think we can make deals with the lord and tell him that becuase we are doing this he has to do something we want - make us healthy, take away a problem, help us with school or work, help us find a new investigator:) whatever it is! But how that is not how it is! He said how with faith is trusting in his will, not praying for our own. That as we are obedient and follow the commandments and have faith that that changes our hearts and makes it so that his will is always better. I think that is a trap I fall into too often and a lot of people do as well - we can not bind the lord. His ways are ALWAYS better and that we need to have FAITH not in him so we get what we want but FAITH that his way isbetter and whatever his plan is for us is for the best. Oh i just loved it!
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> We also had Jake and Lukes baptism this week! YAY!! IT went so well. Tarryn (their LA mom who has started coming back) spoke and just testified of how much the gospel has blessed her and her family as they have come back. I really do know that the gospel blessed families because i have seen it with my family! Thank you mom and dad for being so incredible and raising us in the gospel. I just love you and am so grateful!! And so grateful to be able to see how it blesses families again with Jake and Lukes sweet family! It was a great day! :) We are workig with a lot of other people as well right now that we are really excited about! So i'll keep you updated on them as well! :)
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> OH something else that was really cool! After Zone Conference president came up to me and said that Elder JOhnson wanted to talk to me so he asked if I could stick around. how neat is that? I got to have an interview with Elder Johnson. It was so great. He just asked me about all of you and I just told him how amazing you were and how much I loved you (and I didn't even cry! haha it usually happends... :) I just LOVE you all so much! ) and then asked about the work and the mission and my take on all of it and then gave me some advice and counsel as well. Oh it was so neat! Loved it!
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> So it has been an incredible week! THings here in England are wonderful and its getting warmer too!! WHOO!! So thats a blessing im really grateful for!
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> OH and i got Kris and ERics CUTEST PACKAGE!! I LOVED IT! I dont have their emails but please tell them thank you SO SO SO MUCH!! It brightened mine and sisters englands day so much and was just the cutest. So tell them thank you! I have a picture I will send over too! :) But i love them and am truly so grateful!
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> I hope you have the MOST wonderful week!! Thank you for being my biggest blessings! I am so grateful for you love and support and the emails and pictures and just being an anchor for me out here. I love you all so much! SO MUCH! Never ever forget it! Talk to you soon!
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> Sister Gwilliam