HELLO!!!
I hope you had the most wonderful week! Hopefully the pictures I sent went through... our chapel is getting deep cleaned so we aren't allowed in it today - so i am here at an internet cafe but we ran over to get some pictures for you before! It was a GREAT week and I wanted you to see the pictures of it all!
But first off, this week has been incredible! So many fun things! BIGGEST MIRACLES is Zasha and her family - I think i told you about them last week. It was the mom we stopped on the street for like 5 seconds and got her address and then we have now started teaching her and her 12 year old boy. well THEY CAME TO CHURCH on sunday and LOVED it. Oh I could have cried how well it went. They just fit in so well - they LOOK like they should be apart of the ward. All of the kids had friends and zasha was fellowshipped so well. We asked if they all liked it in the teach after and she said they LOVED it! It was so wonderful! we taught the gospel principles on the restoration - and after she came up to us and said how she didn't know what it was but she just feels so good when she hears the story of jospeh smith and when she is at church. OH my. i literally hugged her after she said it. Its just the best. we have been able to taech them everyday since too! we teach zasha while her kids are at school and then every other night we come and teach the kids. her kids are the cutest ( we will get a picture and send it over ) but they are CRAZY! So much energy. One reminds me SO much of thatcher - just that amount of energy. So its hectic when we teach them so we have started doing everyother where we can just focus on her and then have crazy games and attempt to teach ricardo when we are with the kids. BUT want to hear what is an even bigger miracle - the kids came to games night at the chapel with us last night and on the way over sister Steed asked Isha (the 7 year old little girl) when she turns 8. and guess when? OCTOBER 11th! What a good day, right mom?:) BUT miracle is that they were preparing to be baptised on the 8th of october BUT now that isha can be baptised with them we are planning on getting it moved to the 15th tonight and then the FAMILY will be baptised!! Isnt that AMAZING? A FAMILY! I am making sure to stay humble though and remember how much we needs gods help still to get this family there... but oh my goodness it is SO exciting! Sister steed and I were almost dancing last night when we found out! Its just so fun to really feel like we are building the ward. Everyone we bring in is wonderful ofcousrse, but a family that can support each other and support and add so much to the ward is just so cool. Oh its just the best.
Another miracle is freddie came to church! we have been working with him for about a month and he has struggled acting - finally came to church! And then after we went over to a members for lunch and he came with us! It was PERFECT! The ward here is so great in inviting us over with our friends! I was thinking mom and dad - with our neighbourhood activities you should get the missionaries involved. Like the pie party coming up - tell the missionaries and tell them if they have any friends they should come and bring them. It would be HUGE for friends to get fellowship! But yes. it was awesome! so he is doing So well too. We have a couple other SUPER great friends that are doing great - kwame is still awesome, we are teaching a friend alex who we took a member on a teach with us and they bonded like nothing else - it was great, and we are working with a LA who wants her son to be baptised. Really just miracles coming out. It is such a great time to be a missionary here. I LOVE IT!
But also amazing things of this last week was GOING TO PRESIDENTS HOME! Oh my goodness. I almost cried it was so wonderful. it reminded me SO MUCH of grandma and grampa gwilliams. SO MUCH! Almost too much that it made me a little homesick. The weather was rainy that day (like Layfayette at christmas time) and england is so green - a lot like their neighbourhood. and then the cute homes here are a lot like grandma and grandpas as well. PLUS sister gubler made the greatest homemade food! HOMEMADE ROLLS so the house even smelt like delicious food - again grandma and grandpas. It was so fun to get to be with them theough. we got a tour of it all and saw presidents office with all of our faces. It was jsut so fun. DREAM COME TRUE! Plus we got SO MUCH direction and help with all of the work. I was sitting there just thinking how blessed I was to be there at Presidents home recieving direction strait from him all day long. It was so great. It just opened my eyes to being a better missionary and how we can help our friends and our areas and we have seen miracles from it as well. sister steed and I are applying it and it has made a huge difference! so it all is just super exciting. Im so grateful for the opporutunity! and then getting to be on the panel was so fun! I just love president and sister gubler so much. I can not wait until you get to meet them. On sunday night presdient was saying how almost 80% of missionaries are assigned to that mission becuase of who the mission president is - not actually the land they are going to. And I can say an AMEN to that. They have helped me so much - still not near as wonderful as you both - but i am so so grateful to have them and it was the best ever to get to be with them so much this week!
So that was the most exciting of the week! i went on exchange yesterday... oh exchanges sometimes just drain me. I know I am supposed to be the missionary who has everything together but honestly i feel like since I have been in peckham whenever we are on exchange just everything falls through. Like all of our plans change and people come up and it just gets me frazzled so that whole time we are just running around and then I dont feel like they actually learn ANYTHING so its just great. Haha. This last sunday becuase of the fireside we were at we didn't get home on time so we missed planning and then the next morning tried to get the 2 days planed (one for me and one for sister steed) but it was just all over the place becuase we were having to rush and so the plans weren't really set super well and so everything went through and OH my. ha I just got to the end of the day and just realised how i just felt like I had FAILED completely. BUT something that I have LOVED is that the longer I have been on my mission i have changed from letting that get me down - letting satan get me down for crazy things - and realising all god wants is my best and sometimes my best is failing miserably! so the best is just to laugh about it and accept it and then move on. SO thats what I did! Did a good laugh about how crazy the day had been, prayed the sweet sister gained something from running around peckham with me, and then just decided to make sure I am more prepared next time. so grateful to understand the gospel and life in general is just about failing miserably and then just picking ourselves back up!
BUT thank you again mom for sending over the BYU stuff. It helped SO much! It looks like my eccelsiastical endorsement went through so I am good to go once it is the right date. I went on and changed the emails so instead of being sent to my email - megangwilliam@gmail - I changed them to be sent to yours. have you noticed them coming through? I took a good chunk of time to look up classes... here are some of my thoughts....
Psych 111 - Ross ( I have to take this for dietetics) 3 credits
Religion - 2 credits ( i would take more if they would let me.... )
Physical Science - 3 credits (it is a GE i have to do eventually... have heard it isn't too bad)
then there are MMBIO 221 - this class is 4 credits... it kind of scares me but I have to take it to be able to apply for the program. the other required classes aren't avaible during winter semester. So I could push myself and try to do it... but i kind of dont want to? how do you feel about that. i might just take some electives or try and get some other GE classes out ofthe way. I just want to be able to enjoy and ease my way back into things. I just stress al ittle bit in the fact I dont feel like you ease your way back into things with byu. All of the classes are a little tricky. i am also trying to get classes onthe same days so Its a work in progress but any thoughts on those? there is also sociology 113 which I have heard is hard but it is something I have to take eventually too... so still putting it all together. I will try and get it solidified next week ( since we cant be in the chapel I dont have a computer to work on without paying and we want tot go out andparty today vs. stay inside:) ) But do you rememebr when I have to register? Or what day it opens? CRAZY it is coming up. How does time go so quickly?
I have loved ky's emails as well. he seems to be doing SO well and it just makes me so happy! Its so fun to hear how possitive he is and how much he is loving it. It has been the biggest help to me too! I always hoped that I would be a big help for him as he went out and I could share experiences but didn't realise at all how much of a strength it woudl be for me. ON hard days and long days I have been able to think of him with all of the dogs or not understanding the memebrs or living in the crazy little shack thing he lives in, just all of it and just thinking about how much he loves it and the good attitude he has and it has helped SO MUCH! So im just so graetful. It is so special to be out at the same time. Crazy how fast it has gone though. Can you believe that tomorrow is 3 months for him. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? I feel like we were just at the point where he had 3 months until he was leaving. crazy crazy.
BUT another fun thing! I talked to sister england today and her family is wanting to come over to america for aprils general conference AND so I told her that she and her parents BETTER be staying with us! She laughed and said that they actually are planning on it if it is still okay - her mom has been looking at flights and apparently they need an address of where to stay when they are here to book them and they have just been using ours! I told her you both would LOVE it and oh can you imagine how fun that would be? They are SO ENGLISH and it would be so fun to just catch up on mission stories and have you meet her parents - her younger brother is out on his mission right now too! So its just great! so look forward to that! Plan on the Englands here for conference! AH i can't wait!
And so glad that you friended Joy and Rob! Has it been fun talking to them? Thank you so much for doing that - especially rob. He is the BEST! sends pages of his life and I have felt so bad I can't be better at messaging back! so thank you! Keep talking with him! I am hoping he will come over and stay with us someday too! Or you both will get to meet him when we come back! :)
At MLC last week we talked a lot about the history of england and I realised just how honored I am to be here! To be here in LONDON! Oh its so great. we have all of the BYU study abroads in our ward and I realised too that the time I have left is only a study abroad time - They are here just a over 3 months. and that is where I am at. Only a study abroad away. I have really realised this week just how blessed I am to be here and just want to make the most of everything. it is going by quickly and I just want to work hard and just LOVE IT! But isn't that crazy?
Okay. sorry this is super long. I just love updating you on everything! BUT last thing! At MLC we were talking on all of the things we have sacrificed to be on our missions - initially I thought about all of those things I felt like i was giving up - mostly my family, friends, school, work, time, sports, relaxing :), just lots of things were going through my mind. But as we were talking about it an Elder made the comment on how he actually doesn't view any of these thigns as sacrifices becuase it is only becuase of the gospel that he has all of things these. It hit me really hard as I realised how true it was. as missionaries we constantly think about what we are giving up to be here but in reality everything I have is becuase of why i am here - it is becuase of my saviour and my heavenly father that I have all of you - my most incredible eternal family who i love sO MUCH - it is only becuase of him I have been blessed with such incredible friends, with a great school to get an education, with work opportunities, with each day! JUST EVERYTHING! It helped me really change my focus to realising the privledge this is - not in anyway a sacrifice. i am so grateful to be a missionary here in england. I love it so much. I am happy and feel fulfilled and the joy that I get from getting to share the gospel is more than I can explain. It is the hardest being away from you but I am grateful for the privledge of taking this time to help others come to the blessings I have found.
Doing my best to give it my all these last few months.
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! TO celebrate I think you all shoudl go get fish and chips on friday! ;) haha just kidding! I will bring you some goodies and make the BEST english food in january and we can celebrate!
I LOVE YOU!!!
Sister Gwilliam
Oh and with my neck... its feeling fine now. i dont know what happend! haah but youre right dad. i will keep watching it and if it is a problem ill go get it checked out! :) Im hoping it was just aggitated from getting them flushed. But yes! LOVE YOU!!!!!
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