HUMP DAY WEEK!

Dearest Family!

OH i just love you! It sounds like it was the best week! I hope you LOVED conference! It was so good! Kinda crazy over here (i'll tell you about it! :) ) But still so good! I have gotten to the point where the 2 hours just FLY by! Almost like emailing! :) I just Love sitting there and getting so much guidance and feeling the spirit so strong! And then that mo tab music! Mom! Im still set on us being in it together eventually! so excited about it!

AND SCOTTY IS GETTING MARRIED!!!??? AHHHH!!! Oh my heck! SEND ME A PICTURE OF THEM! please! :) OH i am SO SO SO SO SO HAPPY! I could just cry! He is the best and im sure togethery THEY are the best and he just deserves it! So sad that I will miss it! But oh. Im just so happy!! And so excited for them!! How are grandma and grandpa? Freaking out?:) and how fun to all get to be in cali for the wedding! Oh that will be a BLAST! ah! Im just so excited! Ill be sending all my love from england!

But this last week has been SO GREAT! We have worked so hard! The week before when we had accounting on sunday night I was a little discouraged at the numbers. We said a prayer and accounted to the Lord and I did feel like I had tried hard, but the numbers just weren't showing what I wanted to accomplish - it is definitely NOT about the numbers- but I just wanted to do better for my Heavenly Father and felt like I could push myself harder this next week! And so I was determined to do better and Heavenly Father was SO kind and merciful in helping us have the BEST week people and numbers wise that I have had in a LONG time! THere are so many different stories but for sake of time... and boring you:) I'll just tell you the COOLEST one!

So with feeling like I needed to push myself this week something I decided was that I needed to talk to EVERYONE! Ive always been pretty good with this but I decided to step it up and just talk with everyone I could - including all the cute nepalese people who can't say anything but hello and namaste! :) But i still talked to them and did my part of giving them the chance - even if they couldn't understand me! :) So after visiting a former we were walking and this big figian ( is that how you would spell it? Anyways.. he is from figi! :) ) man was walking up headed towards the military housing. he was a big guy and my immediate thoughts were a little bit of fear and thinking a guy like him wouldn't be interested BUT we were talking to everyone so we stopped him and started talking about the restoration. We introduced the book of mormon - he mentioned two men had told him about it before - so we had a really good converstaion but he said after going to Afganistan and seeing all that he saw he had lost his faith and wasn't sure if god was really there. We talked a little longer but in the end he said that he wasn't sure he was really interested in learning more about it. So we left him with a pass along card with our number on the back telling him to get in contact with us when he was ready becuase it would bless him and then as we left we felt prompted to ask if we could say a prayer. When we first said it he looked at us like we were crazy and said, "just right here?" ( we were just out on the street) but we said YES! and he finally decided it wouldn't do any harm so he let us! ANYWAYS fast forward to that night at Joys we got a text from him saying that he wanted to meet with us again and asked if we could the next day (saturday)! we were FREAKING out! We ended up meeting with him to him saying that the prayer had really touched him ( i guess there is a reason for praying with people on the streets :) ) and that he wanted to get back into church. We did the restoration and he loved it! Said that the idea of a living prophet really made sense to him and how he wanted to come to a service! We told him about how this week we actually had general conference so the normal service wasn't until next week but he was welcome to come to see the living prophet today. And guess what!? HE DID! He came with us satruday night and then again on sunday!! MIRACLE! And he LOVES it! We had left him with a book of mormon on saturday and on sunday he went on about nephi and his brothers and how they had to go back to get the plates and then get wives... i was SHOCKED! Oh its just so cool! He is away for militry training all this week which is sad but he comes back on the weekend and has committed to church next week and then wants to meet up again! Isn't that SO COOL?? Ah im so excited! And then we got a text from him last night saying how much he loved it and how he really liked what he was seeing and excited to continue learning and someday maybe become a mormon himself. WHAT? Things like this dont happen. Not in england that is! ;) So its just super cool! Definitely learned the power of talking with everyone and that praying with people is what we are supposed to do! Becuase then the spirit can touch them and the spirit works MIRACLES!

So with that I LOVED conference but I was also incredibly distracted becuase the whole time i was just PRAYING that Kevin (our friend:) ) would feel something and that it would make sense to him! So it was so great but I am defintiely excited for the talks to come out so I can properly study them out! :) And becuase of the time change I havent seen the sunday afternoon session yet - they dont show it at the chapels becuase its too late here! So im SUPER excited about it! Especially hollands! I LOVE elder holland!!!

BUT craziest thing ever is that on Saturday I will be half way through my mission! ISNT THAT NUTS? I don't know how on earth it happened. I was talking with sister england and we were laughing that the first month of the mission felt longer than these 9 months have felt! :) haha! Just warning ya ky! The first month is DEFINTIELY the longest of your life and you think there is NO WAY you will be able to do this for another 2 years... but dont worry! Promise it gets better and then speeds by! :) But yeah. its just weird. BUT ive been thinking a lot about these last 9 months and things that have happened and how I have changed and lessons Ive learned AND ive decided that I would love to share them all with you! :)

Top 10 things I have learned so far -

1. That the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. I believed in it before but I have experienced it for myself now and It is real. I don't understand how it works and am continually humbled that my saviour would do it for someone so sinful as me but he did, and it works. Guilt and regret truly can become peace and hope and the past can be done away with. I love MY Saviour. He has become SO real to me.

2. The gospel brings peace! Something that I have realized being out here that no matter what is going on, how hard things are, what we have done, or hurt we are feeling there is SO MUCH PEACE to know that it will all be okay as long as we are anchored to Jesus Christ. No matter the sin or mistake or trial or situation can ever be more than the fact that if we are truly doing our best, living righteous lives, and depending on our saviour that it will all be made right. There is so much peace in knowing that he is always there and the only thing we really need to worry about is being close to him!

3. That Pray is KEY! I have learned to LOVE praying! I do it all throughout the day and the best part of nights is getting to kneel down and counsel with my Heavenly Father. Ask him for his help and guidance and opinion and just talk to him. Its become a conversation with him and he listens and always gives the BEST solutions to anything i am needed help with! :)

4. When we put the gospel first, everything else falls into place. I am still blown away with how true this is! In regards to going on a mission and having my pharm tech license just go through, to just being obedient and trying my hardest and then having friends to teach, all sorts of things. I know that as we do our best and have our priorities strait we dont have to worry about anything else. Heavenly Father takes care of it.

5. The gospel CHANGES people. I have seen that in Rob and Holly. They are completely different and it is the neatest thing to get to see!

6. The book of Mormon is TRUE! It has taught me who I am, who my saviour is, reminded me of his love for me, taugh me how to be a better missionary, friend, and disciple of my saviour. I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON!

7. That my family is EVERYTHING to me. I love you all SO SO SO MUCH!

8. That i am not perfect and that is okay.

9. Dont stress over what is out of your control. This is one that i am still trying and working on learning but I know that it is true! There is so much that is hard and unfair about this life but so much that we just cant do anything about it. So it is better to just let Heavenly Father take care of it and be happy! :)

10. That Heavenly Father has a plan for me. That he loves me, and knows me and wants me to be happy! And because of that he allows me to have trials and have times of suffering so I can learn and grow and ultimately be happiest! he knows what is best! :)

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!

I am so grateful to be a missionary and learning so much! Its the hardest thing I have ever done but I wouldn't trade it for the relationsip I have with my Heavenly Father and Saviour now!

I hope you all have a big party on Saturday to celebrate for me! :) We are trying to figure out what we can do with our hour break for lunch or dinner! :) it will be a party though... i'll send pictures next week! :)

I LOVE YOU!!

Sister Gwilliam