Week #37 - General Conference & Half Way Mark

 Monday, October 5, 2020

WOWZA what a week! It sure was fun! Let me just start off by saying that the church is T R U E!! I loved being able to watch General Conference and hear from the Prophet and his Apostles. I also love my companion Sister McEwen! She is AWESOME! Here are some cool things that happened this week:

We has the awesome opportunity to have a lesson with a part member family. It went SOOO GOOD! It was Sister McEwen's first time teaching someone who is non member. And it went so good. We taught the Restoration and the spirit was with us so strongly! Church is true.

We have a cute old couple named Betty and Cookie (adorable I know) and they are in our Zone Leaders ward, but it is a tradition that the sisters sing to them each week. So we were able to go and sing to them in person this week! It was so much fun! I miss singing and need to do it more. 

This area is still pretty hard. We have our times of almost feeling hopeless, but God knows us and is always there for us. So we turn to Him in prayer and He helps us to find that strength. We are now helping out with our mission Facebook page and we help find people to teach on that. We are excited for that.

One quote I loved from I this weekend was from Elder Holland: "Your prayers are heard and are always answered, just not how we choose it to be." God will always answer and hear our prayers, as long as we put our trust in Him!!

Something else fun that happened this week.... I HIT MY HALF WAY MARK ON MY MISSION!! WOOT WOOT! This past Wednesday I hit 9 months on my mission and WOWZA it's been a fun adventure haha. I am so grateful for the amazing experiences I have had.

Thank you all so much for the love and support! I love being a missionary and I am so excited to see what these next 9 months have in store. ♡♡ 

♡Sister Guilott♡

Week #36 - I'm A Mother!

 Monday, September 28, 2020

BOAAAA SEMANAAAA!! 

Holy cow it's been a good week! Here are some fun things that happened this week....

IM A MOTHER! Yes, you read that correctly. I am officially training someone! Her name is Sister McEwen and she is adorable. Her dad is in the navy, so she tells everyone she's from America lol cuz she's never lived anywhere longer than 3 years. She actually was in Italy before. CRAZY! But I love her. She is a reassigned as well, supposed to be going to Canada Montreal, french speaking. So now I can relearn french! 

Saying goodby to Sister Griffiths

Welcome Sister McEwen!

We are seeing a lot of progress right now... we actually have 2 potential people that we could start teaching. YAY! One of them is named Parker, we were supposed to have a lesson with him last week, and yesterday... but he had to cancel both times. But we are hopeful for this week! The other is someone that used to be taught that we actually stopped teaching right when I got here. BUT we called him and he answered and is interested in hearing a message from us! We are so excited! 

Last transfer here was hard, I mean all missions are hard, but it felt extra hard. I guess the thing that changed was that I have been able to find that hope and that faith in Christ. We have been teaching non-stop, mostly members but it's been so fun to help them strengthen their testimonies and to build that trust with them!! 

We have decided to try and do more Facebook finding and we actually found someone named Eric from Uganda and he is super cool. We then found someone in Uganda serving as a missionary and we sent him as a referral! Yay! 

FUNNY STORY: 

So we went to the church this week for language study and while we were there we found a SCORPION!! So we caught it in a cup and then like teenage boys, since we didn't know what to do with it, we put it in the microwave.... it was fun hahaha! 

But it has been a great week and I am loving life right now. I love receiving emails so write meeeee!!

♡Sister Guilott♡

Shots are not my favorite thing...but I got my flu shot!

Week #35 - A Baptism, Scorpion Bite, and Graduation!

 Monday, September 21

Working the Area!

WHAT A GREAT WEEK!! These past few weeks have been really hard, because we didn't really have too many lessons in spite of trying so many different ways to reach people. And this week got hard again, but we didn't let that get us down. Instead, we used it as a way to motivate us to HAVE FUN!! Soooooo here are some fun things that happened this week:

We had decided that we are going to work more with the youth in the ward, so we reached out to all the leaders and ended up playing volleyball with a whole bunch of the Young Women. IT WAS SO FUN!! One thing I learned about Sister Guilott: I am HORRIBLE at volleyball lol. But it was super fun to go and we share a message with them and be with the youth.

Volleyball with the YW of the Ward

Something scary that happened was that a scorpion got in our house in our roommates bathroom, so we all got psyched out. Well.... My dear sweet companion, Sister Griffiths ended got stung by a scorpion and her left side of her body went numb lol. We got so nervous because we didn't know what we needed to do, but she's all good now lol.

Something fun our mission does is when you finish your training after 12 weeks, you go to a graduation thing and pass off all the lessons and get a certificate. I didn't do this because I came in the middle of a transfer and it was all confusing with being one of the first reassigned missionaries lol, but Sister Griffiths got to go and graduate (even though she has 16 weeks lol). BUT it was so fun. Sister Dangerfield, my last companion was there with her companion that was finishing up her training and it was so fun to see her!! 

Congrats Sister Griffiths

Sister Dangerfield - Fun to see her!

This week we went back to church and that is always fun to see people hahaha. Buuttttt the best thing that happened this week was....

JIM GOT BAPTIZED!! My friend Jim from good 'ol Casa Grande got baptized after being taught by missionaries for 6 years and I was able to go!! He was just glowing after the baptism happened. He has come so far with so many trials. If you sign remember Jim from my emails in Casa Grande, he isn't able to read. So right before I left we gave him a CD player and he listened to the Book of Mormon, and 6 weeks later.... got baptized. That right there shows you the power of the Book of Mormon in conversion for EVERYONE!!! The Book of Mormon truly is the word of God and I love reading it.

Jim got baptized! So glad I got to go back to Casa Grande and be there for this special day!

This next week is transfer weeks, and a call from my mission president last night saying that I'm going to be training... EEEK!! I'm super excited and just a little nervous, but mostly excited. I don't know who it is yet, but I'm sure she'll be great. I'm gonna miss Sister Griffiths, but she is gonna to Spanish work and is so excited. 

I looooove getting emails from y'all, so keep em coming!! Love you all so much!! The CHURCH IS TRUE!!

♡Sister Guilott♡

Fun Times!

Week #34 - Sister Goaslind Came!

 Monday, September 14

Sister Goaslind and a Polar Pop run after teaching!

HEYOOOOoooo this week has been AWESOME, mostly because we had better attitudes about everything hahaha. But honestly, I've had a great week. Even though this area is hard, you can STILL see those miracles if you search and pray for them. SO here are some of the miracles from this week:

Our mission president is honestly the best. He's our buddy now haha. Anywho, his wife Sister Goaslind actually spent the day with us on Wednesday just to see how the work is going and to help us out. And it sure DID!! We went and delivered cookies with her, had a lesson with her in it and it was super spiritual and we all shared our testimonies of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We even went and took a pit stop and got some polar pops!! It was honestly amazing.

So we have this one guy in our ward named Brother L. and he is AWESOME and always just wants to reach out to others and share the gospel with them. So he always goes on a 6 mile walk very morning and he has run into this one guy named parker a couple times. Anywho Bro L. started talking to him about the gospel and now he is interested in learning more about the gospel!! Only thing is that Bro L. is wanting to be at the lesson, but it's a mission rule that we cant meet with people over 65 (and he is 69) and we also cant meet with people with high health problems (and he is recovering from cancer). BUT we talked to our mission president, and we can still meet with Brother L.!! YAY!! That is a huge miracle. So now we are just waiting to see when we can have a lesson this week.

Here is a funny story from this week....

We were at dinner with this one family and they were talking about their dog and how they got it from a breeder. Well... the mama dog accidentally killed one of the puppies, so this family decided to freeze this puppy because they didn't have enough time to bury it.... and its so hot here, so skip forward a month when this family was about to get their dog at this neighbors house, and the DOG IS STILL IN THE FREEZER. It was honestly hilarious and I'm kinda disturbed... but yeah that's a story just for a good laugh. 

Fun to see a cuddly cat

This week we focused to make sure we were more positive and that our attitudes were better. And it showed with these miracles that we had!! It was a fantastic week. I love being a missionary and sharing the gospel with EVERYONE! I love you all so much!! 

♡Sister Guilott♡

Week #33 - "Wounded Spirits Don't last Forever" said by a smart 8 year old

 Monday, September 7, 2020

HELLOOOO EVERYONEEE!!!

This email is gonna be a little short since not too much happened this week. Missionary work is definitely slower here in this area... it's been a struggle, but that is part of being a missionary. We are working hard and trying to get things to happen. I do love Sister Griffiths, and we get along super well. We have a whole bunch of inside jokes! 

Here is a cool experience from this past week:

We had a lesson with a member family this week and we showed them this video called "the wounded shall be healed." And after the video, we asked the family what they liked and one of the little guys, I think he's 8, and he said, "I liked how no matter how wounded our spirits are, it won't last forever." AMEN TO THAT! But it is honestly so true, everyone is going though something and we all just need to show that Christ like love towards others. 

Since this week was harder, I decided the thing that would help me the most is... THE BOOK OF MORMON!!! And it did help me a lot. There was this one scripture that I read and it helped me a lot. It is 2 Nephi 27:23 and it says,

"For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith."

God is a God of miracles, and we can continue to see those miracles as we have that faith in Him, and his son Jesus Christ. I've seen my faith be worked this week, but I know that everything will be ok in the end! Thank you for all of your encouragement and kindness. I loooove receiving emails so keep em coming! :)

♡Sister Guilott♡

Week #32 - Hard Work means HARD WORK

 Monday, August 31, 2020 

OLAAA TUDO MUNDO

This week has been very interesting.... BUT STILL MIRACLE FILLED!! Here in the San Tan Valley Zone, and in our area it is really hard to find people to teach. Me and Sister Griffiths call it a "mini Utah" since so many of the people here are members lol. So we mostly have lessons with members, since we don't have many other people to teach consistently. BUT here are some of the miracles and cool experiences we had this last week.

We have been able to go to a lot of houses this week, which is SOOO nice. Me and Sister Griffiths went to this one house and had a good lesson with a member family, and we have been trying to gain that trust with the ward so we can hopefully one day get some names from them of who wants to be taught. So we have thought of a lot of different ways that we can try and do that, and one way we thought of was giving a family a normal pass along card with our phone number and names on it, and invite them to give it to someone! So we asked this family if they knew anyone that we could teach, and they said no. Then we gave them the pass along card and IMMEDIATELY they thought of a name of a person that they could give it to. HOORAY!!

There is a page on facebook called worldwide missionary referrals, where missionary type "anyone serving in this area, we have someone wanting to learn more." So me and sis Griffiths stalked this pages and came across a guy that asked if there is anyone living in Queen Creek, which is right by us. So we messaged this elder and he got back to us and said he has a friend that lives at these certain crossroads.... it's literally the crossroads we live on right now.... MILAGRES!!! He told us he'd get us his number!! YAY!! 

Another miracle is one day, me and sis Griffiths were pretty down... and all of a sudden we got a text from a random number saying, "Hey sisters, we have someone who wants to learn more about baptism and repentance. We scheduled a zoom call with him tomorrow at 10. Does that work for you guys?" HOLY COW, WHAT??? Anywho, turns out it was from an elder at the home MTC in our ward right now (he's actually supposed to he going to Brasil yeehaw) but super awesome miracle. And this guy's family wants to learn more as well!! YAYAY!! 

Another AMAZING miracle is that IT RAINED!!! Here in Arizona has been record heat in all the history of Arizona heat hahaha. So it was nice to have some rain finally and not feel like were dying. 

I feel like my faith has faltered a little bit last week, but the last couple days and all the miracles that we've seen, has made me realize that I need to have that faith in Christ!! One of my favorite scriptures says, "Peace peace be unto you, because of your faith in my well Beloved." (Helaman 5:47) I feel more peace now because I am able to remember to have that faith. I invite all of you to continue to have that FAITH!!! 

Funny story time: we always like to go scorpion hunting and...... WE FINALLY FOUND SOME!!! 

Love you all!! 

♡Sister Guilott♡

Week #31 - WE ARE NOW IN PHASE 1: It Means We Can Meet Person-to-Person, sort-of

MONDAY, August 24, 2020 

Another great week here in the Lindsay 3rd ward!!! Me and Sister Griffiths get along SO WELL!! We always have a blast and a half. One thing we did this week is we decided to make a Facebook page for our area!! And we post pictures of us serving or service opportunities, inspirational quotes, pictures of members, and so much more!! So that's been fun!! 

Me and Sister Griffiths are apart of the service committee here and we are always trying to think of ways to serve others, and to have our mission try more with serving others, since that's a way we are able to get out of our house more. Buuuut this week we found out that... WE ARE NOW IN PHASE 1!!! Now I'll explain a little more.... 

So with missionary work progressing back to normal, we have phases we are going through to get there and Arizona missions have been in Pre-Phase one for a realllllyyyyy long time, ever since I've been here actually. BUT now we are in phase one so we can meet with people in person!! We can meet by invitations so we cant go tracting or street contacting. This week we went to some members house for dinner and wow it was weird to actually meet in person, but it felt so nice. We even had a lesson with a family in person too!! On Sunday we were able to have sacrament with an adorable young family, and they had a couple little girls and they wanted to take a cute picture with us!! 

Don't worry--our masks were only off to quickly snap this picture!

We have been doing some facebook finding as well, and we actually started teaching someone from facebook! Were starting out simple with her, but she seems to really enjoy talking to us :) 

Here's a funny experience from this week:

We were calling some people to say prayer with them that we found on Facebook, and we called this one lady who actually lives in the UK and next thing you know we find out she's a member and she's telling us her faith is really being tested right now. Then she adds us to this group chat with a couple other missionaries and random people and she sends us little inspirational quotes and messages everyday. It's super random but really kind. 

I restarted the Book of Mormon and man, I love that Book so much. I love reading it and gaining that knowledge from it. That's been a goal of mine for this next transfer, to be able to really understand the Book of Mormon!! 

I love you all so much thank you for all of your support! 

♡Sister Guilott♡

This sweet sister made us these mask! The members are so kind to us!