Week #21 - Singing, Cooking, Testifying and Exchanges "quarantine style"

Monday, June 15, 2020

Look up our video on my FB page! Since I learned to play 

the ukulele during quarantine, it was time to share! 

What a week!! Some pretty awesome stuff happened this week, so I'll get right to it!!

So last week we had a lesson with a couple we're teaching named Geneva and Lupe. Lupe talks a lot more than Geneva, but they both like being taught but just don't want to be tied down to one religion. But last week we taught about the Restoration and about Josep Smith and how he was a prophet of God. In the middle of it, Lupe had to leave, so it was just Geneva being taught. We finished the lesson with her and told her to pray about its truthfulness and of what we taught. We texted her Tuesday and asked her if she prayed, and she said she had and she knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true. Then she told us randomly that SHE WANTS TO BE BAPTIZED. That was pretty awesome. We were excited and told her we'd call her the next day. That next day she texted us saying that Lupe had prayed as well and he wants to be baptized as well. Let me just say how happy we were about that. Miracles happen when we trust in God!! 

We also had exchanges this last week which is when we as companionships trade companions for a day.and I was with my roommate Sister Corn in her "area" meaning I was in the other room in our apartment for the whole day hahaha. But it was fun to see how different, yet similar the work is. It was awesome to be with Sister Corn! We taught a lot of awesome people and even dropped off a Book of Mormon to someone.

Sister Corn and I on "exchanges"

This week as well, we called Jesse again and he actually answered and we had such a good lesson with him. He still wants to be baptized and he is getting closer to that goal!! We also have Jim who is on date and he is SOOO fun. We always have a fun time talking to him because he asks the best questions. 

This week we had a lesson with someone and she is super cool and and also seemed a bit intimidating over the phone hahaha. But we decided to teach her the Restoration, and we got to the point of telling her about Joseph Smith and I recited the First Vision to her of when God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph, and she got super defensive about it and couldn't quite understand it. All we could really do to help her understand it was testify to her. And the spirit spoke to me so strongly during that call telling me that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God, and that Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father did appear to him. I know that to be true and this lady that we taught told us to pray about it again and we will be told the truth, and I did. And I still know that God and Christ appeared to Joseph.

I love being a missionary here and having the opportunity to serve in 2 awesome missions!! I miss Brazil and keep practicing my Portuguese, but it's been awesome to learn how to share my full testimony in English.

I love you all so much! Have such a great week.

♡ Sister Guilott

Making "brigadeiro's" a brazilian chocolate treat

Funny story: 

We decided to make brownies one day and my roommate, Sister Corn, had a good homemade recipe... and accidentally added 1/2 cup of baking powder... we were so excited to eat them and they were not all that good hahaha!! 

Brownies.....maybe??

Waiting for the brownies to cook!

Week #20 - One Month in Tempe, AZ!!!

Monday, June 9, 2020

ONE MONTH HERE IN TEMPE! I have loved it here so much. So many miracles here everyday.

Hiking in the early hours before the HEAT!

This morning we decided to go on a hike. It even had a sign posted that warned if you were not an experienced hiker, you shouldn’t hike it. But I did anyway (since my roommates and companion bribed me with ice cream) and I ended up spraining my thumb because I was running and I fell. In spite of hating my life while I was hiking, it was a pretty view! 

Not for beginners!!

Beautiful Arizona Sunrise--it's nice to go outside before its 110! 

So...remember that one guy Jesse I told you about that was on date and stopped returning our calls? Well, we decided to go put a note on his door to see why he was ignoring us hahaha. Me and Sister Dangerfield got to his house and saw his dad outside. His dad saw us and came running towards us and said, “let me go get Jesse. He is inside!” Next thing you know Jesse is outside and with the quarantine we are to follow, we are not supposed to have face-to-face contacts outside of the church building or a member’s home. So we got pretty nervous. We hand him the note that said,  “We are so excited you are getting baptized this Saturday.” Even though we hadn't heard from him in three weeks. To our surprise, he said he still wants to be baptized. He asked lots of questions, like what do you have to wear to a baptism, and where the church was. We told him we’d call him at 6:00 PM the next day and he said he would answer our call...Yeah, we haven’t heard anything from him since then. BUT we are not giving up hope!

Always wearing our masks when we go out!

Do you also remember our friend Jim who I have talked about a couple times? HE’S ON DATE FOR BAPTISM!!! We are so excited that he has been able to form a strong relationship with his Savior, and make this first promise with Him to be baptized. We couldn’t be more proud of him. He still has a few things he’s working on to be ready, and we are praying for him to get there.

One of our lessons this week was with a lady named Moriah. Her daughter was being taught by the missionaries before, but Moriah answered. We started to teach her about how families can be together forever. She didn’t understand this, and said, “No, its ‘til death do you part!” We then explained to her how families can be together forever and God’s plan of happiness for all of us. Having the knowledge that me and family can be together is so comforting to know, that I know what happens after this life, and I am grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Hurray for singing hymns! In Portuguese and English!

Bracelet making and embroidering lids help with quarantine!

We are still only allowed to go out for one hour of service, although the members don’t want us to come do service in the extreme heat.  We wish they would have things for us to do, since it gets hard to stay inside 24/7. But we are doing well. We are still doing all our teaching online. We see miracles every day in spite of all these things, because we put our faith in Christ. 

I am so grateful for everyone. Remember God is there and if you put your faith in Him, you can get through anything. Let the missionaries serve you! We are here to help in any way we can. It’s nice to get out and serve, being stuck inside all day!! So let the missionaries help--even if its 108! 

♡ Sister Guilott

The promised ice cream!!

Week #19 - A Baby, A Bird, and 115 Contacts!

Monday, June 1, 2020

Sister Dangerfield and I getting reading for our Online Contacting!

HELLO!! 

Wow this week was amazing. So many wonderful things! We started the week and taught a good amount of lessons during the week, but this weekend is what made my week amazing. On Thursday our mission came up with a new challenge for the next couple weeks to focus more on the key indicators, which are: new people interested in learning more, people who attend a sacrament meeting, people who are on date for baptism, and baptisms. So to start it off we focused on contacts. A contact is when you share a principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ with someone and that person responds to it. This can be done either on the phone, texting, or video calls. And we did this on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Sister Dangerfield and I were thinking of a goal we could accomplish for contacting over these three days and we decided on 45. Then we realized  that we could definitely do more than that so we changed our goal to 115 contacts over three days and... WE DID IT!! It was definitely hard, but we had faith. One scripture we actually shared with a lot of people this weekend was Moroni 7:33 which talks about faith. It says, "And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." I LOVE THIS SCRIPTURE!! I love how much it helped me and my companion reach our goal and I love how important faith is for all of us. 

So Friday was definitely an eventful day... Nicole had her baby!! And this was the day we were gonna start our mission challenge. So I was able to video chat Nicole and my family that morning and meet my nephew Dawson, and he is definitely the cutest baby ever. 

My mom was wearing a shirt like mine on Monday, and so the "side-by-side"
picture lookslike I am holding him...sort of! HE'S SO CUTE!!!

Another crazy story: After that we were going to get started on our contacts and then my roommate went outside to our little patio to work out and then a BIRD FLEW INTO OUR HOUSE and got stuck in our cupboard in a tiny whole none of could get into and we could only see the bird by sticking our phones up the weird cupboard thing. So obviously Satan didn't like our goals of contacting over 100 people, but we got the bird out (and got some pretty fun videos and pictures) AND we accomplished our contacting goal!

The bird--we tried to catch it in a box...then it went down into
the crevice between the cupboards!

This is when we stuck a phone camera under the
cupboard to see the bird--it was stuck!!

We were able to have amazing conversations with so many people. We talked to so many new people who are interested in learning more and that is super exciting. Our friend Jim was able to come with us to an amazing family in our ward's house and partake of the sacrament and learn the importance of sacrament. It was awesome.

One funny story besides the bird story haha: So all of a sudden we were getting a random call from somebody and we answered telling the caller that it was the sister missionaries and she responded saying "Who?" and then we repeated saying we are missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She then said she had the wrong number, so I quickly asked, "Do you want to hear more about how we can find peace through Jesus Christ?" AND SHE SAID YES!! I'm telling ya, this never happens. So we start to share a scripture with her while we also look up her number... and it is someone the sisters been teaching for 2 weeks and we totally had no idea who it was when she called. hahaha! We had been all excited to have someone new be interesting in actually learning more about Christ, but we ended up having such an amazing conversation with this woman and we could all feel of the Spirit. 

This week was amazing. My dad asked me in an email how my testimony is, and my testimony has grown SO MUCH from being here for the past 4 weeks. I have been able to learn more about the gospel in my own language, which wouldn't of had happened in Brazil. I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to be here in Tempe to learn how to grow my testimony, so one day hopefully I can go back and I will be able to testify in Portuguese "JESUS CRISTO É MEU SALVADOR" (Jesus Christ is my Savior). I am thankful for the opportunities the church has provided us to continue studying our language of our original mission assignment. Portuguese or English--it is true!

I am so grateful for this gospel and the opportunity to share it!! I know that when we have faith in Christ, we can do all things. I challenge all of you to continue to grow your Faith in Him!! Love you all! 

♡ Sister Guilott 

Sharing a message!

Week #18 - Sometimes the Miracle is the 21st Call of the Day!

Monday, May 25, 2020

Hello!!! 

Happy Memorial Day from Arizona!

5:15 AM Sunrise Hike in Casa Grande, AZ

So lucky to serve with these amazing girls!

Wowza--this week was SO FUN!!!! Everything here is starting to feel more familiar and not as "foreign" hahaha! We had some amazing experiences this week. 

This week I thought I would tell you about my companion and the two other sister missionaries who live with us. My companion is Sister Dangerfield and she has been out for 9 months and is from Minnesota. She is AWESOME!! I love her. And then there's Sister Corn and she's soooooo funny. I love her. She is a full-on cowgirl and she's from Idaho. And then there's Sister Wilcox and she is hilarious, fun, and she's from Colorado. We all have a blast together and I love them all so much!

Day 66 in quarantine!

Sister Dangerfield-she is awesome!

We had amazing lessons with so many people this week. There's this couple we have been teaching and they are so awesome. Their names are Geneva and Lupe. Lupe has always wanted to be baptized, but wants to make sure she understands everything. But this Wednesday we were able to have such a good lesson with them and they both understood everything really well, and we learned more about them. We also have a friend named Jim who also wants to be baptized. He told us, "I do wanna be baptized into the Mormon Church," and we are helping him progress towards baptism. He's awesome. 

Our goal has been to attempt to contact 20 people each day (which is hard); to teach, to give messages to members, and to set up future lessons for other days. One day we were calling a bunch of people and not a lot were answering, but we kept calling. Finally, after a long day of many rejections we reached our goal even though the majority of that day was rescheduling for other days, etc. It was amazing we had been able to even accomplish our goal that day. And then, we got a call back from someone we've been trying to contact and she wanted to learn more and we were able to teach her about Gods plan for us, and we have a lesson with her tomorrow as well. It was a wonderful miracle and a good reminder of going after our goals and not giving up. 

Also, to help with the quarantine restrictions (and occasional boredom from always being inside), me and Sister Dangerfield borrowed a ukulele from a local member who was so kind to lend hers to us and I'm learning “I am a Child of God” on it in Portuguese!! Music always makes me feel happier and that's what we all need in this time right now: happiness :) 

I keep seeing so many miracles while being here and it makes my testimony so much stronger. My biggest worry when I was starting out here was that I wouldn't be confident enough to teach, but I put all my trust in my Savior and I can tell a difference. I love talking about this gospel that I LOVE!!! It's crazy to see how much my testimony has grown from learning more about the gospel in my native language, but I'm still studying Portuguese every day!!

One scripture we've been sharing with lots of people that is so comforting is found in the Book of Mormon in Alma 38:5. It says,

“I would that ye should remember, that as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up at the last day.”

I love this scripture because it helps us know that through Jesus Christ, we can be comforted throughout our trials if we put out trust in Him!

I hope you all have a great week and that you are able to feel Gods love for you. Reach out to someone who might need to feel more of Gods love!!

♡ Sister Guilott

Our District!

A member in our area invited us to play tennis at their home!

Hard to play when it's 100 degrees outside!

Week #17 - "Wow! Sister, you should be a preacher!"

Monday, May 18, 2020

Still wearing my Portuguese missionary tag.
New ones in English are ordered.

My Wonderful Companions and Roommates in Casa Grande

 HELLOOOOOO!!

Wow I just love being a missionary. This week was a fun one! We've been waiting this week to hear from our president about quarantine since the stay-at-home order in AZ was lifted on Saturday... but we are still being quarantined for now. But we are still finding so many ways to teach over technology. That has been the biggest difference from being in Brazil (besides the different language): How much we use our cell phones here! It's CRAZY but so helpful. 

One of my companions, Sister Gilbert is leaving today to go home since she's been here for 18 months. I'm gonna miss her but I love Sister Dangerfield and am excited to stay with her in Casa Grande!!

My companions! Days 56 and 58 of Quarantine in Casa Grande

So some pretty exciting things happened this week. One funny thing is that while we were teaching our friend James, we were asking him if he would want to pray to end our message with him, but instead he asked one of us to, so I prayed. I prayed specifically for him and his arthritis and afterwards he said, "Wow. Just wow. I mean Sister, you should be a preacher!" That was so funny and made me feel happy. 

Our President has something he calls the "Tempe Trumpet" and every day he talks to all the missionaries and we all share miracles we had the day before. A couple days ago he challenged us to contact 20 people. And so me and my companions really wanted to try and do that. It seemed impossible, but we were able to do it!! And we were able to share some pretty awesome messages with people. 

One nice thing is that we are allowed to go out and do service for an hour each day. So one day we decided to weed for this lady. And her yard was CRAZY!! But we were able to make it look really good within that hour and she was surprised as well hahaha!!

Before

After

The best part of this week was being able to teach our friend Jesse. I talked about him last week and how he was praying for a baptism date. Well, we scheduled a time to call him and he had things come up and couldn't answer the time that we had scheduled a time to call over text. So we decided to call him randomly, and it was a time he could talk and he answered and we were able to set up a date for him on June 6 to be baptized!!! We are so excited for him. He already loves to read the Book of Mormon and reads it so well. He's awesome.

My first week here in Tempe was really hard. I felt homesick for Utah and Brazil, but this week I decided to forget that and focus on the work here and it really helped me and I can tell I'm loving it here more and more each day. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be a missionary. It is truly a blessing and I'm so happy I get to talk about my Savior everyday.

Also... my sister Emily got engaged and that's EXCITING!!!! 

Love you all so much!!

Love Sister Guilott ♡

My District

Week #16 - Hello Arizona!

Monday, May 11, 2020

President and Sister Goaslind, so kind and welcoming!

The first of many to be reassigned to the "ATM" (Arizona Tempe Mission)
We came from mission in Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Columbia, Ecuador, and Mexico

HELLO ARIZONA!!!! 

Wowza, it's been an exciting week. All I've gotta say is that GOD IS REAL!!!! Funny story... I'm in a trio again hahaha!! My companions are Sister Dangerfield, who has been here 8 months, and Sister Gilbert who is leaving in a week!! I love them so much they have been so kind to me.

Here is our "set up" for our online teaching! 

This week has been an adventure with being in a different place with different people and being stuck inside all day. I am in an area called Casa Grande, about halfway between the Phoenix area and Tucson. 

Here is what our normal daily schedule is like:

• 6:30 we wake up, workout, eat breakfast, get ready for the day, do our daily planning, and have our personal study until around 10.
• After that we have what our mission calls the Tempe Trumpet, which is where all missionaries get on anzoom call together and missionaries take turns sharing miracles and we have someone give a thought. That usually lasts about half an hour.
• Around 10:30 we have companion study for an hour and then after that is when the fun begins.
• We call people ALL DAY LONG!!!! We either have a scheduled call or just call randomly and share messages with people, teach lessons, or just talk to them and get to know them and help them through this hard time in quarantine. 
• We get lunch and dinner around the times you normally do and members from the local ward bring us dinner every night which is so nice of them!! Then we have a group call with our district and talk about happened and during our day. Then we get ready for bed and chill. 

One funny experience we had this week:

Some Elders who are Spanish speaking Elders got an English speaking investigator and they transferred him to us. All we knew was his name and his number, so we called him. We asked for Dorian and the the guy on the other side said that wasn't who it was... instead, it was a guy named Demitri and we were pretty confused, but just went with it. We then asked if he knew anyone who needed a message of hope and peace, he surprising said yes!! He told us about his friend Shawn and gave us is number. So then we texted Shawn. Yeah, he said he didn't know a Demitri... LOL so we just shared a scripture and he never responded back lol.

The sign says "Day 47" of quarantine for these sisters! 

A really cool experience from this week:

We have an investigator named Jesse and we decided to call him last night. He answered super fast, but long story short we started talking about 2 Nephi 31 in The Book of Mormon which talks all about faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. We read some scriptures together and we all shared what we liked about these scriptures and then he was talking all about baptism. We asked him how he has seen God answer his prayers and he then told us that he was praying to God right before we called asking what his next step in life should be. AND NOW HE'S PRAYING FOR A BAPTISM DATE!!! He's awesome! We are calling him tomorrow to set up a date! Miracles are REAL!! 

Even though it is hard not being in Brazil, there have been many miracles for me there that helps me to not feel too homesick for Brazil. I know that God has a plan for everyone and sometimes we may not understand why some things happen to us, but with faith and prayer, we can do all things!! 

Love you all so much!!

Love Sister Guilott ♡ 

Simple things like Cheerios can bring joy!

We live with another companionship of sisters - so there are five of us!

We got up early today (4:00 AM since its cooler early)
to go on a hike with our district. 

It looks different here than Brazil....but a different type of beauty.

Happy to be with such kind companions! 

Thankful for an air-conditioned apartment - it's only May!!!!

Week #15 - Reassigned: Tempe Arizona, Here I Come!

Monday, March 4, 2020

"....reassigned to the Temple Arizona Mission! So excited!" 

Airport good-bye #2 

Only one person could come in the airport
with me if I "needed assistance." haha

God be with you 'til we meet again!

Hello Again! 

Last Tuesday at 7:52 PM my dad answered a FaceTime Video call from our Stake President. At first my dad thought he had forgotten about a meeting, but then the President asked for me….and had received my REASSIGNMENT!!!! I am being temporarily reassigned to the Tempe Arizona Mission, leaving tomorrow morning (5/5/20) and I am so excited! I quickly emailed all my friends who were missionaries who had come home because of Covid-19 asking if they had new assignments. No one else had one! It was just me hahaha! Since then, many others have received their reassignments, and over the next few months, hopefully all the missionaries can go back out to serve as a full-time missionary. 

"re" set-apart as a missionary on Sunday 5/3/20

My companions while I was home! :) 

I am so excited to continue to be a missionary in Arizona. It doesn’t matter where you are called, just as long as you are doing the Lord’s work by bringing others under Him. I am excited to preach in my native language and still continue studying Portuguese to hopefully return one day to Brazil. If the pandemic calms down in Brazil, there is a chance I could go back, but my focus now is in Tempe. The one bummer is that Nicole is having her baby in three weeks. I MISS MY NEPHEW BY THREE WEEKS! That just shows how true this gospel is, that I am willing to sacrifice meeting my first nephew to serve others and bring them the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Love,

Sister Guilott

I got to visit Nicole and Landon with my family while I was home!
Three weeks and I am an aunt!!

My time home was exactly as long as a normal transfer!