letter #7

HOLA FAMILIA Y AMIGOS!

The work is picking up so quickly and Im getting the hang of things so the emails will be shortened and the work will be increased until my mission comes closer to the end. This week has been incredible!!!! So many things have happened in such a short amount of time. Christmas started off with my comp hermana allen giving me all her stuff shes leaving here ahahah shes so cute! I also got a package from a very nice family from Buenos Aires living in provo utah! and a giant package from Elder Barajona with tons of stuff! THANK YOUUUUUU!!! and it started off with getting attacked by a big dog on the way to the church... that was lots of fun haha we were on our way to set up our next baptism so I just though to myself... Satan... when are you ever going to give up haha the rest of the day was great. Christmas was amazing with the baptism of Alexis Medina!!! He is a great kid! The baptism was very special to me because his older brother Davíd who baptized him was my very first baptism here! He recieved the priesthood then baptized his younger brother on Christmas! what an incredible thing. It was also very amazing to hear the voice of my Mom and my sister on the phone. I didnt realize how much a missionary can miss the sound of their loved ones voices and laughter! I even miss the smell of my moms hair when she hugs me. Those are simple things of bliss that too often we overlook until we are a whole world apart for this long. Anyhow... the next day Estefania was baptized and it was perfect! We love her and her family so much. Also this week was really full of goodbyes for my trainer hermana Allen!!!! WHICH EVERYONE ESECIALLY ME LOVEDDDD!! and we had some of our investigators give us gifts they were so sweet! Hermana Allen gave the medina family her plaque and we all cried and said our goodbyes! we love that family because we got them all baptized and they are like family! WE packed up hermana allen and we ignore the fact that she is headed back to the states so we wouldnt cry. Today we headed to the church in San Fernando for transfers and I L O V E M Y C O M P A N I O N she is incredible en serio! her name is Hermana Romo and shes mexican from california she is so pretty and sweet and fun!!!! I love her already. We will be kickin butt out here on this transfer and we plan to work very hard. wish me luck because I NEED IT!!!!! I LOVE YOU ALLLL BUT IM SO caught up in the work that I gotta go we are short on time and things need to get done. MOMMY I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART!!! JOCE YOU TOO! ROBIN you are increible thank you for your email and support and encouragement! WOOGIE I LOVE YOU WOMAN, TAL YOU TOO YOU ARE ALL SO SUPPORTIVE!!!! and to my friends that faithfully write me... thank you.... it means everything to me!!! I love you all your in my prayers... with love, chao!

 

XOXOX HERMANA GILLUM

#6 from Argentina

QUE PASA FAMILIA Y AMIGOS!!!

les extraño muchisimo!!! Me encanta la gente de Argentina. Somos muy bendicidos estar aqui. Hemos visto milagros cada día con nuestro investigadores! I have my journal here with me so I can update you with things in the order that they happened.

FRIDAY - Dec. 16th 2010- Today was AWESOME! in the morning we decided to go see Loraina Tieste´s house. She is a sweetheart. Shes the daughter in law of the huge family we found out on their pourch. She has three gorgeous little girls. Its always ridiculously hot when we head to her place and she lets us right in and gives us something to drink. I love their family so much. The kids scream with excitment when we come over and the girls crowd around me climbing on my back and play with my hair haha. I dont know what it is about children out here but they like flock to us haha. Its my favorite thing! Kids are the best. We taught her and her younger sister Lesson 2 (the plan of salvation) and they were all very receptive and agreed with everything we said. The spirit was very strong. I carried my parts of the lesson with perfect spanish and COULDNT BELIEVE IT! The spirit truly brought words to my knowledge that ive never before been able to say. My companion was quick to notice it too it was incredible. Then we headed to Lunch at Hermana Arrieta´s. We have had Melenesa (wierd breaded meat stuff) mashed potatoes (with mayo so wierd) fruit and french bread like every other time we eat somewhere. Im really missing some of my favorite foods from home. Even the simplest things that they dont have here. I love Jalapeños but they dont exist here people look at you crazy when you ask. Anyways, lunch with members are either really entertaining or real awkward and this was awkward haha. It was really silent and she barely has any light in her house so it was slightly creepy haha but I just started a conversation on any topic I could think of and I told her that I have a vision of the ward growing much stronger and bringing back all the less actives again. She has a lot of doubts because she says its their own chioce whether they come or not so I read some scriptures to her. I explained that its also OUR duty as members to do EVERYTHING we can to strengthen our ward and the people in our area. We are responsible for uplifting everyone and lifting burdens. I told her the if we can all figure out their reason for leaving the church we can help change it and show them how much they mean to us. I find myself in situations like this ALL THE TIME here. Im so grateful for all the things ive experienced before my mission because the members and I have a connection almost in EVERY situation. I told this Hermana this story about my family. When my family (not members of church) were sad because my Grandmother suffered from cancer, it was a difficult time around Christmas and the ONLY ones that helped us (even though we were not active in the church) decorated the house and sent gifts and money and meals so my grandmother could have one last Christmas of giving and love. In a time that was so incredibly hard for us... the church was there. And I told here... ¨hermana, look what impression was left with me, now... im a missionary.¨ Her husband later in church thanked me and said it really made a difference to her. I was grateful that the spirit brought to my rememberance experiences that relate. When we left her house I passed by the Bum ¨Luis¨ that we met asleep in the rain. He was walking around a corner when we were headed to the bus stop and I stopped him. He had a ciggarette in his hand and since he was drunk when we met him he didnt remember us. I said Luis, dont you remember us? We are the missionaries that gave you a couple pesos to get out of the cold. You called us angels and we told you to get rid of your beer, do you remember that? haha he mumbled oh si si si chickas muy amable! gracias! wheres your church I wanna go! haha so we gave him directions and told him to be good. I looked at his ciggarette and said, oh no Luis, whats that in your hand! Thats no bueno you dont need that! and im not kidding you this was the best reaction we´ve seen yet : he looks at it in disgust as if it jumped into his hand and says YOUR RIGHT! and chucks it into the gutter so fast hahahaha he is the funniest thing. We took the bus to the villas to visit Daniel (less active with kids) we brought him a chirstmas package with church stuff and his face lit up with gratitude he is coming to church again and his daughter has a baptism date for the 26th! shes 17 and pregnant so the plan of salvation was good to share with them so she can be comforted. It breaks my heart to see their home. its red brick and cement splashed all over parts of it with dirt floors and a torn up broken couch with a little table. bugs everywhere. no windows. its so sad. Ppl dont ever finish their houses and things are so dangerous like stairs with nothing supporting them, nails wires and glass sticking out of things, dirt everywhere. It really humbles you. these people sit by there tiny broken christmas tree and light up with joy listening to our message, when thats all they have. It brings tears to my eyes every time. We went to Mariannas (member) we taught her son about his baptism that was this last Sunday! We then taught these punk kids. everytime we go over there, theres 15 kids and no parents. They are always smoking and up to know good so we taught them about keeping the commandments and why its important mixed in with a little bit of them needing to find a purpose in their life so they dont waste their lives away being caught up in bad stuff. I saw this girl across from me (who looked 12) and had a super low cut shirt on, pop a ciggarette into her mouth while she was talking to us. She looked so pretty behind all that makeup and tought exterior. I took the ciggarette and I said, are these an addiction for you? how much do these cost you every day? she said yes and alot. So at this point my BIG SISTER motives came out and I guess you could say I chastized them all a bit by telling them they are way too young and beautiful to be living like that. the lesson ended with hugs all around and they changed their perspective. Every street we walk down theres babies holding babies. as in little girls as young as 14 that have kids already! its CRAZY! and having the mother instincts that I do, it is so hard for me when I see young mothers mistreating their newborns. Its everywhere and its considered normal. Davíd S. is an investigator that has been taught for like four months now and he gave us his testimonies before his baptism! it was so cool to read the progress of our work.

SATURDAY-Dec. 17th 2010 I woke up at 5 a.m. today and it was already so bright outside. My testimony grows more each day. I feel that im coming much closer to my Savior. Davíd was baptized with Mariana´s son Fransisco! TWO BAPTISMS WHOOO! once again... words cant sum up the love felt during the baptisms! Incredible! Then we had our big Ward Christmas party dinner and that was fun. our ward is maybe 30 ppl. sad. but I love them. then we watched fireworks on the roof of our apartment. Argentina is always looking for any reason to party so its an every other day thing. It reminded me of home and the 4th of july. It reminded me how blessed I am to have what I do, and the people that love me.

SUNDAY-Dec. 18th 2010 - WOW we worked our tails off today! We accomplished a ton! So we got to church and witnessed Davíd s. y Davíd Medina recieve the holy ghost and the preisthood! It was so amazing. they felt very peaceful and enlightened afterwards. We Gave David m. a thing with baptism photos and cards of kind words which he later texted our phone about saying: Hermanas, I wanted to thank you for the beautiful gift. I love it. Thank you for changing my life and my family and setting me on this path. It was SO sweet to hear that. Pretty sure we walked like a hundred miles by the way. We covered our entire area and met family after family after family! We taught so many lessons and taught a few guys that were real stubborn (catholics and evangelicals that dont read the bible much) They are the best to talk to because the answers to their questions are in the bible AND the book of mormon and they never have questions we dont have answers for. Its the spirit that softens their heart to get them to actually listen. We have many new investigators and we have 3 baptisms coming up! WHOO! its been so great. This is my comps last pday and im so torn because im sad to see her go but im happy for her to return home where her boyfriend will be getting home from his mission too and they will be getting hitched asap! Im so happy for her and I love her so much. Im not ready to switch companions but Ill make the most of it. I see so much around me that makes me grateful. For example when we were walking over here we passed the bank, I saw this mother who obviously has cancer, standing in the island in the middle of the street holding her little girl in her arms. The mother was bald and her face lit up with a huge smile as she stared into her daughters eyes and she twirled her little hands through the curls her mom had left. It was precious. People here are not afraid to be who they are. Its beautiful to see how people dont see the need to hide or cover anything. She was just proud to stare into the face of her daughter and paid no attention to the reactions of anyone. People also are very nice here. extremly loving and compassionate. Its incredible to see. at first I felt so out of place and now... it feels like family. I love that the gospel does that. It helps you see through the eyes of christ. I have totally let go of all judgement and just felt love for everyone I pass. Like last night... I was prompted to stop at this tatoo shop by our house that is owned by this guy we see a lot. He has real long black hair and beard and would scare the majority of people he passes but the spirit told me to speak with him so we did. He noticed my little tattoo on the back of my neck(before I was in the church) the week before and so he instantly brought that up when we started speaking... but I let him know that God loves all his children and its not about our past but its about where we are going and how we choose to live the rest of our lives. I bore my testimony and asked if we could share our message. we left a pamphlet for him to read and we set an appt. Its my new goal in this area to get that man baptized! Beneath the piercings and tattoos I saw one of the most sincere guys that we have crossed. He spoke so nicely. I remember Eyrings talk... I didnt see the problems... I saw the solution... I saw in my mind, Christs atonement... for him specifically and I saw a lost sheep that Heavenly Father led me to have the courage to find. I saw one of his sons. I will do all that I can to bring him some light in his life, hes a good guy. This christmas will be great. For those of you who dont know, my mission has truly blessed my family, my little sister Jocelyn was baptized on DECEMBER 11th 2010 and I cried because I was so happy. My companion did too haha. Im so proud of her. Im proud of my mom for pressing forward in faith since ive been out here. Im grateful for the effort they put forth to stay strong and do whats right. Im grateful to the Vaughn´s and the Seely´s for their unconditional always supportive love and help. Im grateful for my friends and mothers friends who have been supportive and have encouraged me and helped me be here. Im grateful to my amigos in the mission field right now also, your countless emails are so encouraging for me and you are all my eternal friends! This Christmas I wont have snow... ill have sunshine... I wont have a live tree... ill have a paper cut out one... I wont have physical gifts... ill have pricless ones. I have on the Lords errand. The greatest gift of all is what He has given me. His ministry of a perfect example of love and long suffering. An infinite atonement that has made me new and made it possible for me to keep going. My eyes are flooded with tears typing this right now... haha.... im just seriously... so forever changed and humbled by the love ive been so blessed to feel. Thank you all. Your kindness is enscripted in my heart more than you know. Family, I miss you. I miss the sounds of your voices and the laughter and holiday traditions but I will be with you again when I return. So know that I love you. Each and every one of you. Know that Im thinking of you and you keep me going. Know that Im working hard and I pray that you count your many many blessings this year because people here have so close to nothing and yet thats still everything to them. I love you with all my heart... MERRY CHRISTMAS 2010

 

con amor,

hermana ashley ann gillum

Argentina #5

 QuE PaSa FaMiliA Y AmiGos!

The weather here is so crazy! it goes from hot and humid to pouring rain and then back to hot and humid in a matter of minutes haha. Its real warm though and I love it.

WOW what a huge change this week has been! A miracle actually! I get it now... thats why they say.. its only AFTER the trial of your faith that you are blessed hahaha here I was thinking who knows what, but obviously I had forgotten that its AFTER! hahaha Im SOOO HAPPY! Here it goes... so last week... MUCH tribulation!

Diciembre, 2010 (Tuesday- Monday) - We caught a remise to Capital to speak with Sister Ottonelli and she & I had a great conversation. I swear she is superwoman! She has been through so much and still she stands so strong... like a few woman in my life that I know back home  she is full of great advice of how to conquer the world. Its beneficial to everyone that knows her. Then My comp and I were able to go to the Presidents house to speak with them. Let me just say this because I can´t say it enough. WE are SO BLESSED. We seriously have the best mission President in the world! He & I had a great conversation and he shared many scriptures and analogies with me that brought the spirit to my attention. She looked me right in the eyes and with all the sincerity in the world he said, "I have had an apostle lay his hands on my head to give me authority as YOUR mission President, to know what our Father in Heaven has in mind for you. The greatest assurity we have is that our Father in Heaven knows what surrounds us, what we need and what we desire, and the best part is that all of it is centered around whats BEST for US. He always has in mind whats best for us. What will truly make us most happy. He sees the whole picture." Then he looked into my eyes with sincere Christlike love and said, "Never ever forget, that you are a Daughter of the most high, you are worthy and endowed with great power to be here as one of His representatives. These people need Hermana Gillum. They have been prepared for you. I KNOW with my Authority as your Mission President, that you need to be here at this time. I know it and our Father in Heaven knows it. Don´t ever forget who you are and how sacred that knowledge is!"  I also spoke with his wife Hermana Gulbrandsen and that woman is incredible! They lost their son a few years back and what a heart ache it was for them. They used the Gospel as an example to me that the clock is ticking, and this life is hard but with the Gospel of Jesus Christ we can all see with clarity and come to know who we really are in the eyes of Heaven. Here I was thinking that I am to inadequate to be here and my testimony is too fresh (being how ive only been in the church now for 17 months) and im already out here as a missionary! I knelt and prayed if the Lord really wants me out here as a missionary or if im wasting His time. I felt this confusing mixed feeling that didnt feel good and it told me to go home. It was a bad feeling. Go home ran through my mind as a question and I got up and we went to our next appt. As we were about to share a scripture... Mine fell open to:

D&C 10 and I read these highlighted words..."Satan stirreth them up, that he may lead their souls to destruction, and thus he has laid a cunning plan, thinking to destroy the work of God.... ye he stirreth up hearts... Thus Satan thinketh to overpower your testimony in this generation, that the work may not come forth in this generation." It was clear as day the answer from my Heavenly Father that told me I need to be here and Satan wants me to doubt so these people will not be taught. Here I was thinking im not good enough and my companion caught me comparing myself to Joseph Smith and she laughed. She said, we are not perfect, and we are no where near the courage and strength of Joseph Smith hermana! haha I have learned a big lesson. The greatest part about learning lessons on the mission, are that you dont just learn them, they go from being a thought, to words, to actions, to character, and eventually to destiny. They become who and how you are. You become a master of yourself in the alignment of HIS will. Ive come to see that tithing is much like trials, everyone has to pay their 10 percent in this life, but they shouldnt forget the 90 percent blessings. I have learned the simplicity of filtering God vs. Satan. or Good vs. Bad in thoughts. Its this easy for us all... IF its good and from God, it will invite us to: 1) DO good 2) BE good 3) SERVE OTHERS because those are the actions we need and what will truly make us happy rarely has anything to do with ourselves so serving others is neccessary. and IF its bad, it persuades us to: 1) DO bad 2) FEEL bad 3) Be Bad 4) and DO NOTHING. Satans greatest desire is to persuade us to be captive to him, and stop our progression in life, and those are the ways that he does it. Its not of God for us to doubt ourselves. God is stretching each one of us til we reach the TOP that he knows we can. But ones "top" might be different than another, or he may trust some with trials that he wont trust to give to others. Its a blessing to be tried. It means he TRUSTS us. Sometimes I dont know why he trusts me but when he does, now I can see the reason. When I felt that my comp and I were rejected I found a scripture in the Bible:

     JOHN 15:18-27 "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have CHOSEN you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. ... if they have perscuted me, they will persecute you... They hated me without cause... but when the comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: And ye also shall bear witness, BECAUSE YE HAVE BEEN WITH ME FROM THE BEGINNING."

That really really changed my thoughts. I remembered my Savior and felt him here with me. I became even more humbled and I thanked him for the lesson. Just as He has said "my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth... let not your heart be troubled nor let it be afraid." And truly I was no longer troubled. I have shed layers that I didn´t know I had until he had shown me again my weaknesses. I have had a life changing lesson this week.

One day when Hna. Allen and I were walking we saw a bum cold and wet in the pouring rain under this little roof of a store and I gave him a couple pesos. He called us angels from God and blew us a kiss haha. when my comp and I were headed to an appointment I heard a family fighting... unfortunately I watched the father figure abusing his daughter and wife in the yard. They ran inside crying and the spirit prompted me to go to the gate so the spirit could be there. So I walked over there and the little girl ran out crying and I hugged her in my arms. I held her and calmed her down. She saw our name tags. The father came out and we left. I felt so helpless. I knelt right their in the dirt. Just hit my knees and prayed with all my heart that they would be at peace and be protected. I got up and we continued on. My comp thinks that little girl will somehow remember that forever. I hope one day she remembers the sister missionaries at her gate who held her when no one else would. Those are examples of the little seeds we plant when we can as we journey through the mission. We have been blessed with SO many investigators. We have full families that are progressing and guess what.. I HAD MY FIRST BAPTISM YESTERDAY!!!! David Medina! I love the medina familia! His little brother is getting baptized next sunday with another investigator of ours and we have some planned the next sunday also!!! I cant tell you how powerful it is to see someone you have been teaching all this time has progressed and studied and prayed and now has made the choice to step into the waters of baptism to be cleansed of all their sins and start aligning their life with the Lords will. He also has been talking this whole time about wanting to also serve a mission! MY FIRST BAPTISM WANTS TO BE A MISSIONARY! I cried tears of joy. It changed my life and I thought to myself... this is why we are here doing this. Its all worth it. We are working our butts off and its been an incredible time! Everyone here is evangelica or catholic but not one of them really knows what exactly they believe they just say they follow their pastor. One family says they are forced to never talk to other faiths about God or even read other books. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT! To not be able to find out for yourself! To be considered brainwashed or condemned if you are not happy, to find the truth elsewhere. To have to ask permission from your pastor of how to live your life. What happened to one of the greatest gifts God has given us, to CHOOSE for ourselves. We explained to this family that God has given them agency and we love them no matter what they choose but that this Gospel will bring them more truth and happiness then anything else in the world. So ofcourse they agreed thats what they want and we are teaching them this week. Some of the Milla Familia came to church sunday and We have two investigators that will be recieving the Priesthood this month!!! I have seen SO many miracles. I have seen these people in despair and pain with hardly anything at all turn into bright happy families with great love and humility for the Lord and this work. I have been told to say and do things by the spirit that is so strong in my teaching that I know I need to follow. I have seen the impossible happen right before my eyes. Hard hearts turn soft and the wicked become righteous loving people. I Love ARGENTINA! Its beautiful, so are the people and I cant express my happiness enough. Im SO happy now. Gotta go for now... wow that was alot! haha I love you all so much thank you for your love and support.

Chao! xoxoxox

 

Con Amor siempre,

Hermana Gillum

more pictures :))

Letter #4 plus pictures!

Bueno.. Entonce..

Gracias por todo apoyo! I love each of you for the comfort and encouragement you send me.  I will type as fast as I can to fill you in on all the details. Ill tell you what has happened by the days,

Last Martes (tues.) We caught a remise (private ride) to head to capital to visit Sister Ottoneli. Me and my overly anxious desire to share the gospel with everyone starts bearing my testimony to the driver about Prophets and answering his responses as my trainer helps fill in the blanks and it was so funny what he said. After like an hour of explaining with all the Esañol I can muster up he finally tells us that hes worked for the Church driving missionaries for ten years and he appreciated the effort but he could probably go knock on a door and give the lessons himself because hes heard it all before haha. I ask him, well then... whats stopping you... why dont you test it out and find out for yourself that it is true? haha his response was in a joking manner but her said, well chica, all of my generations have been catholic and even if your church is the true restored church on the earth it wouldnt matter to me because my family would kill me if they found out I changed. haha. He said if God told me your church was true Id have to work something out with him and tell him that we will have to talk about that when I get up there haha. So we tried, but hes happy and has a family and isnt interested in hearing anything or doing anything else about his life. He was a great guy. Muy amable pero no tenia interasado. After speaking with sister Ottoneli we started to head back to our area and it just got to be a very overwhelming day. A lot of things went so wrong and I felt pretty alone out here in this big city with no one speaking my native language, no family, no friends, just me and nothing I could do about it. I tried praying and I didnt recieve peace of mind or anything. It was just all together a rough day. So my loving comps, (also frustrated) put their arms around me and we all brought up examples of the scriptures to help with the situation. My trainer is awesome, she made sure to explain a few of her profound experiences here in the mission where so too felt uncomforted and lost. She reminded me that blessing always come, sometimes soon, a veces late, but they always come and our prayers are always answered, but not always in the way we expect. It seems that the blessings and principles of the gospel are taught to you in life over and over and over again in order to remember that its neccesary to endure til the end. My comps helped me a lot and the only cure for hard times is WORK. So we hoped for some excitement to distract us from our cancelled appointments and suddenly we watched the white clouds turn pitch black and start pouring heavy rain. I asked for excitement and literally within ten minutes thats exactly what we got. We went from being ridiculously hot to absolutely soaked and cold. The lightning made it even more interesting. as we were running house to house to be let in somewhere I burst out in laughter and looked up at the sky and said... THANK YOUUU!!! hahaha he answered my prayer and I was grateful for his way of answering it. Being soaked led us to a sweet hearted little old lady classic behive hair and all in her little tiny old fashioned home. She felt so bad for us and told us to come in. I felt the spirit prompting me to talk about the afterlife and the grand plan that Dios has for us all and I didnt know why. I just followed the spirit. It wasnt until we were about to leave that I found out she lives alone and is terrified of death. She is so paranoid to die because she thought there was nothing left and she had to take medicine and see a doctor for it! She loves us and we love her and we will be visiting here again this week.

last THURSDAY- I woke up and made my comps frenchtoast with vanilla icecream and Dulce De Leche for breakfast. We eat some pretty plain stuff so that was a specialty for once haha. FRIDAY diciembre 3rd- It was yet another tough time for me. I was struggling. I thought to myself okay NOW I see why missions are hard haha. I had to talk with the President and see what he thought I should know and he gave me many words of wisdom. I will paraphrase the things he told me... ¨I want you to understand what you are feeling is normal, you are a missionary far from home. You have been through so many tough things and out here in the mission field you now have to face them. There are some things that only the Savior and time can heal. I need one of your companions to come help me so for now I have to put a cast on a broken leg and ill have you come to my office Tuesday(tomorrow) and we will read some scriptures and you can talk with my wife. She loves you and she will help you with whatever you need. We will get through these rough patches so just put a ray of hope out there until Tuesday okay. What you are going through is painful and frustrating at times but you are growing into who your Father in Heaven wants you to be and you are growing at a rapid rate as a missionary. Its not what you are used to but its neccesary. I have a sacred calling to know the needs of my missionaries and I know that you need to be here and you are called of God. He has given you the power to be here and he will help you continue to carry out this work with your talents. We will see you tuesday.¨ Spoken like a wise father that I have always wanted. What a blessing our Mission President is to us! The Gulbrandsens really have so much love for everyone and its a huge blessing to be a part of this work with their protection and council. We said our goodbyes to Hna. Keele whom we shall be missing but she is headed to capital and will have many great experiences there. Me and Hna. Allen are doing good. Weve become much closer now and ive learned a lot from her. So her and I headed over to the Milla (mee-sha) Familia. I have to tell you how we came to teach them. So when we were sick with fevers in the heat walking around we sat down on this corner with some shade and started checking out the map for what we should do next. I had this prompting to say, ¨I feel like Heavenly Father is saying to us: HELLOOO open your eyes, get up and go talk with the opportunities Im putting in your path, like that 20 year old over there washing his car!¨ so my comps laughed and said ok if thats what you feel, then lets go... Entonce, His name is Lucas and his family is incredible! They all agreed to be baptized on Chirstmas DAY!!!!! The parents, Jorge, Rosa, and the children Vanessa, Lucas, Matias, and the youngest but she is four so she will have to wait a few years haha. We can see the dad being like a bishop one day they are so smart and so loving and prepared for this gospel. When we first met them we asked them to read 3 nefi when Christ visited the americas after he was ressurrected. They all agreed that they would. We werent sure if they really would or not but we had high hopes. So after we said our goodbyes to Hna. Keele, we headed over there and sure enough they read together and Matias recited the whole story back to us with excitement. Our faces lit up! We knew that we needed to now watch the last chapter of the testaments to give them a better visual of what they read. They all were in tears and very emotional over the segment. They expressed their love for the Savior and thanks for what we have taught them. They were yet also ANOTHER answer to my prayers. On SABADO (sat) Hna. Allen and I woke up and excercised and stretched. We headed to our appointments then back home for lunch since nobody was able to make us lunch all week. We are running so low on food i think we have eggs and bread! haha We went to a baptism at the other church for Elder Chanca and E. Leon. They were so excited! We watched a really old lady become brand spankin NEW! haha LUCKY! She was so cute! I led the music and we watched the 1st vision in Español. I love Español! Its still difficult to not know as much as my trainer but that will take a lot of time. she is very patient and helpful. We taught some really stubborn Catholics that said they will never change their beliefs but they admitted to not reading the bible haha they said that they rather watch tv than read and they dont really care about the afterlife! we were like what? haha Its difficult to grasp some peoples priorities especially when they dont make any sense and you care so much about them and their progress. and YESTERDAY Domingo (Sun.) Diciembre 5th, Buen dia! The morning was not as good because It felt like I had food poisioning. I have been so sick on and off from the culture shock and the different water. Im not sure if we remembered to put bleach drops in our last jug or not. Later on in the day we had a lot of progress! We went to church and heard wonderful testimonies. It meant so much to me when Mariana sat by me in all our meetings and she says in English, ¨I want to try English more so I can spek mor wit you¨ I dont know why but I felt so much love in her broken english that she cared so much to communicate with me in my own language. It was awesome. I got to see the other side of the spectrum and it meant a lot to me that she cares. we saw the sacrament meeting much more filled up but still... our two families with bapt. fechas (dates) were no where to be found. we called them and the Milla familia said they were going to a birthday instead. Which means... they can no longer be baptized on Christmas. They have to attend church 3 times first to make sure its what they want and if I knew that at that moment, I would have gone to their house and got them dressed and carried them on my own back to church! haha I was so sad to think dang, that would have been the best Christmas ever! But no matter what happens.. we are going to never give up hope we will keep praying unceasingly and do all that we can so see everyone progress here. The rest of our day consisted of knocking on many doors, ringing bells and clapping outside the gates to speak with all the people we could find. we found many funny people. Many with really hilarious excuses for why they couldnt hear our message and many that just made us laugh and many that set appointments with us. We went to Rocio´s and spoke with her and her mother Maria, (with the kids that we love) and they yelled at the children the whole time and complained about how mad at God they are. These are ppl that KNOW the Book of Mormon is true but no longer want to follow their commitments and get baptized. Its been a long process with them. My trainer explained to them ¨The answer and the peace of mind for all your problems is right in front of your face, you have felt it, you know its true, and yet you wont take the help you are given. Its like you want to be unhappy because you are not willing to do anything about it and you blame God for your brother being sick, but you dont recognize all your many other blessings!¨ we hugged and cried with them and hope that it has made a difference but we will see. On our way home I kicked an orange that rolled into the street and rolled all the way down this hill. I said, ¨watch, it will suddenly stop at our next investigators¨sure enough it stopped at this huge house and very cute soon to be married couple feeding their dogs! Its very rare to find a couple with NO children yet that plan to get married, and very rare to see such big houses in this area. They were very nice and she spoke some english. We are going to teach them this week! This work is amazing, I learn so many things out here in the mission field. I think about my old life back home and how my friends are all doing and whats new and very quickly it all leaves my mind and I am more focused on the welfare of all these people. I cant see how anyone can be so caught up in things of this world when so many people are suffering with hardly any food and clean water. Kids need shoes and socks and even a simple bath while people in the United States are so concerned about getting their children the latest brands of clothing and fancy cars. The superficial vainities that I too used to be caught up in and realize is such a waste of time. Im so grateful for this experience. Im humbled by it all. Im grateful to be out here doing something about it. Showing them the way to lasting peace. The way back home to their Father in Heaven to live with their families for time and all eternity. This is a sacrafice but a small price to pay considering what my Savior has paid for me. I love you all and I pray that this Christmas you take time to focus on the shimmering light of Christ. Count all the tender mercies he sprinkles in your path. You will come to recognize more closely, they are all around you. Until next time, as the Argentines say, Chao mi corazon, mi amor, chao mi vida, haha I love these people!

 

Con Amor, Hermana Gillum!