Beautiful

whats up guys!? Hope all is well. Its surprisingly hot today! I hope you are all enjoying the snow this Christmas Season. Right now my comps and I are here in GORGEOUS USHUAIA! We have a conference with our Mission President tomorrow so we are here for a day and a half. Let me tell you how amazing it is here..... AMAZING! So beautiful! The huge mountains with a little snow on top, the huge forest trees, all the different colored houses and San Fransisco up and down hills that go all the way down to the green ocean! All the ships docked and all the different tourists sure do liven this place up a lot. There is a ton of diversity. There are plenty of hippies and artists that paint all over the walls. Im pretty sure that EVERYONE here has sunshine in their heart. These are the nicest people ive ever met. We were able to go site see a bit, and get some stuff to take home! There are bright flowers everywhere! and everyone is smiling.... very different then our area in rio grande. This place is happy. im seriously considering buying a little house here one day... when im rich. haha. I want to come back here so bad to visit. The people here are very prepared to recieve the gospel. President said he didnt want me to travel north during christmas. Im greatful he thought of that. So we will be working here with the sisters here tonight. Tomorrow, is our meeting with President Gulbrandsen. We will get back home at night. This week we will be calling our mothers on skype for Christmas!!! Then Im ready to head north when the Lord makes the change with me.

Im very happy to have recieved great news today! mom!!!!! YOURE AWESOME!!!! IM SO PROUD OF YOU!!! We can go to the temple together when I get home!!!!

Hailey Wailey HAPPY BIG 5YRS dollface! You are so beautiful just like your mama! Tal thanks for everything! I LOVE YOU! Robin wish you were here to share this with me right now! I miss you! Ill be home in 13 weeks or something. I cant believe how fast time goes. I was talking with my companions on the way over here today and said, looking back over my life, out of ALL of the fun adventures ive had, the mission tops it all. It is the hardest, most frustrating, fun, crazy, difficult, amazing time of my life. Loosing myself in the work, and finding myself in the eyes of these Argentines that the Lord loves so much! Its so incredible. I will be making the most of these last two transfers FOR SURE giving this my all. The work is rolling forward and we have been doing divisions with members to get more of our area covered in shorter time. We are learning and progressing each day and greatful for the atonement that gives us the strength we need to do it. I love you guys so much! Thanks for all you do, hope you like the pics, but even the pictures dont do it justice. The mission is the best. Everyone thats preparing to go... soak it up, its the best decision in the world!

LOVE YOUUUU GUYSSSSS CHAO

besos

hna. Ashley Ann Gillum

 

PICTURES!!!

All Good Here

Hey Family,

I dont have any time to write and fill you guys in on everything but this last week we have seen some amazing miracles. This family that we are trying so hard to complete is an amazing family and we have to have them baptized all together in white for this christmas. I have plenty of faith that they can be with the Lords help. Missionaries have been teaching them for like over 15 years and they said they have never felt the spirit as strong as they did with us sisters. So we are going to try and help them see that their committments are not to the missionaries but to the Lord and we are just simple and imperfect guides trying to do his will and complete their family. We are going to be doing much fasting and praying every week. This family means a whole lot to us. We want the best for them. And then The other incomplete family is famous with our mission, they desire that their other brother gets baptized so we will talk to him and see how he feels and help him recieved his answer. Im just doing what I know how to do and constantly looking to improve. Out with the old in with the new. The work is going absolutely amazing. Elder Gillette had his bday today so we all went and made tacos and played futbol and now we are going to meet up with natalia so she can buy a skirt for this sunday for church. Most days im like, wow I never want this to end, and there a few days... im just like... wow... a mission.... is loooooooooong! haha I love it though! Theres always alot to tell you, but I cant think of much right now. I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the christmas season, its getting hot here! Jocelyn, GREAT JOB on your dance recital my dear! Awesome job!!! Thanks for sending me that little clip of it mom. Pray for Family Marcos and Family Segundo please! THANKS! Well everyone, I love you bunches and Im confident that the Lord is watching over each of you while im away. Have some fun for me but be patient and save some fun for when I get back too! PORFAVOR ;)

chao loves! Send me some pics they always liven up the week.

Take care,

Love Hermana Gillum

p.s. its nice not writing long letters... haha love youuuuu guys

Baptism!!!

This week has been a little stressful. Im still in the south waiting for a flight out to the north. So we are doing the trio thing right now and training hna. Gutierrez from California. Shes wonderful in every way and we love her. This week has been very successful and we are very grateful for the new comp.who has brought great things to our companionship. We feel blessed to work with her. The Lords hand in the work this week brought us to have the faith neccessary to bring a 9 yr old to the waters of baptism. The majority of his family being active in the church made us think that he was surely baptized by now but when we were teaching the mother in the middle of a service project that we were doing for her (we intended to recieve references) We ended up finding out that her very own son was still not yet baptized and they didnt want to baptize him until their grandmother could come down from the north of Argentina someday and at least until his brother (whos serving now in chile) could finish his mission and attend his baptism. Well we didnt feel the need to push them on getting him baptized right away up until we recieved revelation. When Hna. Milmont and I were talking about why we think im still here in this area and that there must still be a reason for it. Hna. Milmont said "hermana, im terrified to train, I have learned so much from you and I still feel like I need you here because I still have yet to learn so much and I dont think I can train without you." I knew she was sweetly trying to help me feel some closure or reason in my waiting here and then she said... "Hermana, I dont think you are ready to leave right now, I feel like theres something more you need to do here before. I dont know why, but Familia Tello is coming to my mind and I feel that you will play a big part in him being baptized." Just in that moment, the spirit spoke ever so clearly... saying Lucas Tello needs to be baptized without hesitation, he is priority! So we focused on him. We spoke with his parents. Did service for the family. Obtained many references. Taught lucas very throughily and careful and tested him on what we taught. Im proud of his great efforts of studying what we left for him and practicing THE OLA!!!!

Which was our Mission presidents revelation on the step and process of faith. That we need to ORAR, LEER, Y ASISTIR to act in faith! This has brought us wonderful success teaching such simple and important doctrine to these people. Lucas knows and is overly excited to recite the OLA and all of the steps of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He now understands where he came from and where they are going as a family. It was a miracle week. The lessons were very spiritual and I believe they touched the hearts of his family deeply. For him to recieve an answer of the Book Of Mormon, I asked an inspired question... "Lucas, how do you feel about your father?" he glanced down at the book of mormon, and his lip quivered... and he barely mustered "I love my dad." tears filled his eyes and his fathers. He ran to his fathers arms and hugged him. I saw a vision of him and his family running to Heavenly Fathers arms. It touched me. The spirit spoke through me again and I said.. "Lucas, the love you feel and the love your dad feels for you, is only a small part of the love your heavenly father has for you both. Do you want to run to the arms of your Heavenly Father?" "yes I do. and my papa too. and all my family!" "ok" I said,"He wants that for all of you also... so when do you need to be baptized?" "este sabado! Puedo?" haha so it was a special experience to be a part of. His brother on his mission ended up sending them a dvd clip of congrats to his little brother with all of his companions in the video. It was really special because it reminded me of when I heard the news of my little sisters baptism while I was also serving. It was very very special. I feel that they are all very pleased. It was beautiful to see all of their family, less active and active come together and feel the Saviors love in this one boys great faith to follow the Savior. We are starting anew this week, contacting all of our references and we are going to cover the whole area for Hna. Gutierrez to get a feel of things. Its funny watching new greenies come into the field.... they are so fresh outta the world and every little thing catches their attention. Its fun to see the change the mission brings. We have met the bishop the first night that she was with us and his whole family had us eat the famous Argentine ASADO and it was good. They call it a sin to be here and not try it haha. it was a fun experience but Im just going to have to be vegetarian again when I get home because this stuff is SO unhealthy! We plan on visiting him again tonight and kneeling in prayer for continuing to strengthen this area. We are happy. We are grateful. We are obedient. And we are working hard. WE ARE LOVIN IT! thanks for all your prayers and love! i send you all my hugs and kisses via email until I see you in a little while. CHAO!!!!!

 

love

Hermana ashley ann gillum

I"m Leaving On A Jet Plane...."

Hello everyone! whats new what up!? Just another week in the south... but not for much longer....

 

HARDSHIP... its part of life :D

So heres the low down on all the new stuff. This past week everything seemed to be working against us and we could feel the pressure. We knew that there was something big coming up and the adversary didnt want us to get to it. Long story short our baptism fell through after teaching him for three months. It was the hardest thing for us. We truly went the extra mile to pray for him and help him to recieve an answer that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. And once we knelt and he prayed to ask if the Book Of Mormon was true it came! There was a long pause of silence and then he spoke. Tengo mi respuesta... he said, as to say.. I have the answer. He said how peaceful he felt and how he knew God put the answer in his heart that its true. We were like... finally! he knows and cannot deny that he recieved an answer from his Heavenly Father... He knows that his Father loves him and wants to reach out and communicate with him and now he will desire to be baptized to make the covenant to follow Christ.... well it didnt go quite that way... He said he would like to prepare to be baptized but that he wanted to do some more reading that week. We ended up coming back and we felt very strange teaching him. We felt that he had walls up for the first time with us. Walls that werent breaking down. He was running us in circles of confusing responses that really didnt even make any sense at all and we felt a very bad feeling. We tried explaining the basic principles of the gospel that Faith leads to Repentance and that leads to Baptism and Recieving the Gift of the Holy Ghost so we can follow Jesus Christs exmaple and persevere until the end. We informed him that he was going way off track of what he had come to learn and he didnt even know himself what he was trying to say. He had zero direction or back up of source for the doubts that were coming out. We asked him what had changed after he had recieved an answer from God that this is true. His answer was this... "I cant deny what I felt in my heart when I prayed... I know that The Book of Mormon is true, I know that I feel really good around you missionaries and in your church on Sunday, but I have no desire anymore to be baptized at all. I know that God probably wants me to follow this but im telling you that this just isnt my time to do that." We asked what changed in his heart... he replied, "no, nothing changed in my heart, i know what I felt was good and that it was an answer but...." and then the truth came out... "Ive been reading this book on this hippie guy thats all into science and stuff and I just kinda feel like my life in my life and I should be able to do anything I want and if im a good person, thats sufficient."  Trust me, we went the extra mile with this investigator and nothing else was entering his head. We had a very heavy feeling follow us out of his house and it worried me a little. I was so sad for him that I couldnt stop thinking about all our time and effort preparing him. Our zone has really struggled down here in the south. We have really tried all we know how to do and have gone to God to ask what he needs of us because we are just imperfect missionaries that are striving to do his will but cannot complete it without learning through trial and error. WE HAVENT FAILED.. we have just found a thousand ways that dont work! and there are miracles waiting to happen soon. We just know it. We have prayed fervantly for him though and we know that one day he will be baptized.

 

Miracles

 President Gomez is seriously one of the greatest people in all of my mission. I respect him so much and have a great love for him as a leader of the church. He has truly touched my life with inspiration and I know that God sent me to serve here in his branch to learn from him and express my gratitude for him because he was also struggling a little with feeling a little burdened at times. He was very happy to have us sisters working here with this branch. He was able to meet with us and give me a blessing and I will never forget the words that man spoke.

Lets just say... that Satan has never tried so hard to attack us as he did these last two weeks and pressing forward on through the trial has brought us to recognisze the pure saving love of the Savior. What a contrast it is. Misery vs. Bliss. I will just tell you guys that after I recieved my blessing, some very special things happened that are too sacred to mention through my blog email. I will just tell you that I have such a firm testimony that Christ lives and he manifests his power to us in miraculous ways according to our faith in Him. I was blessed to feel my testimony enlarge a great measure. I testify that I know the Savior knows us by name, individually and knows our thoughts and actions. He is more near to us than we could ever imagine and the Heavens are open to us to speak with our Heavenly Father one on one about our hearts deepest desires and concerns. He comes to us when we are calling on him.

The sacredness of feeling his everlasting love is an unforgettable sceptor of truth and light. I have felt this so profound in my mission.

 

GOODBYE Hna. Milmont...

Sooo this is something a little funny. My companion Hna. Milmont thought she was being transfered to the North. Actually to be honest EVERYONE thought that she was going to be the one to go north... so she ended up telling our whole area goodbye because she wont see them again and she had them all write in her journal and they gave her gifts and hugged her and the tears just kept coming from her eyes with every persons house we went to. We went to say goodbye to Natalia, and she ended up showing us a DVD slideshow that she made of us and our photos together here in the south. Then we all were crying like little sissy la la's because we really felt the difference we made here together. We watched as all the photos faded to the other and the faces of all the people we love so much and we couldnt hold back the emotion. The greatness of the mission captured in picture with these families who have impacted us perhaps more than we have impacted them. Nati said she ended up putting the video on Youtube through her account when we left for our families to see. Im not sure how to find it or if it would have our names or not but you guys can try to find it somehow.

 

Finally... the call we've been waiting for... dun dun dun

... "okay, who am I talking to? Hermana Gillum? Alright so this is the change you guys will be having.."

After clearing all the confusion... the results of our transfer is my lovely companion Hna. Milmont will be recieving a new companion here in Rio Grande in the south tonight or tomorrow. (we do not yet know her name) we will be a trio for this week up until Thursday. Hna. Milmont will be TRAINING HER!!! I will just be here helping them along until Im ready to catch my flight to go back to the North where I will be getting.... MY DAUGHTER! Ill be training this transfer also but in the North! (and we do not know what area ive been called to yet nor do we know my daughters name yet) All we do know so far, is what ive told you. So im very happy for my companion and I because we really worked hard here despite all the hard things that happened and we feel that the Lord has watched us closely and knows what is best for the work. He has called us both to train with all we've got and teach all that we have learned. Im excited. Im going to love my companion and do my best to be all that the Lord expects of me.

 

SIDE NOTES TO THE FAMILY ABOUT SOME THINGS...

 - Michaela THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH FOR YOUR LETTER! thats awesome that you were able to do humanitarian work in India!!!! amazing! miss you!!!

  - "17 miracles" ... Robin, about this movie... yes thank you so much for sending me this movie. We were able to watch it as a zone together on our preparation day and we all loved it! But actually we just found out this morning that we are not able to watch ANY other movies besides the teaching videos. None of us down here in the south seemed to know that. Infact all of our leaders here in the branches were saying how its important for us to watch that movie to remember to keep going in the mission and give it our all but President Gulbrandsen has asked us that we dont watch any other movies in the mission without calling for special permission. So good thing I was able to see it beforehand and the next time will have to be at home. It really made a difference for us though. Thank you so much!

- NEW BABY NEWS!!! ... WOOG im soooooo happy for youuuuuuu! I knew it was a boy because you were feeling all kinds of different feelings that you didnt feel with Hailey and I am so excited for you guys! I told you that he just needed more time to prepare in heaven to finally come down here! Im so happy and cant wait to see the ultrasound pics! Ill think of some names or something but what ever name you guys come up with i know Ill love so congrats woman! Love you tons!

 - Hailey, WOW ANOTHER NEW ADDITION TO THE ANIMAL FARM! I am just loving that miniture horse you guys got hailey! It looks just like the one on "Rob & Big" haha I laughed when I saw the pics because its too funny and too cute with Hailey and her precious little model photos! Shes one lucky little girl! Halloween looked like lots of fun for all of you guys! I loved all of your costumes! Jace looked pretty realistic haha! Loved all of the costumes! you guys are the best. im glad you all dressed up! Way to keep it fun! I was a missionary for Halloween... it wasnt too hard to find the right costume... it wasnt too scary or anything... at least for those that have seen us before... the Jovahs witnesses get a little scared of us though. We just smile really big and wave at them and say hi... and they just walk faster and cross to the other side of the road haha They are funny. For those that know us and what we do, they gave us candy because they knew it was Halloween in our country. They dont celebrate it here much, Thanksgiving (same)

-THANKSGIVING however for us was very wonderful! We are soooo blessed to have Hna. Downs and her amazing cooking here in the South! She made a Thanksgiving dinner for all of our zone and it was BOMB diggity! SO yumm! And we all recorded what we are grateful for and what not. It was fun.

-JOCELYN..... hey baby girl... thats not fun im sorry to hear your "new news" painful yes, but part of life my dear! I have to tell you though... I as your big sister was not wanting to hear that on my mission... haha you need to stay little and not keep growing up so fast! I cant believe you will be 14 after I get home! Your huge now! Im glad you told me though joce, I like that you keep me updated in all of your life still! Love you bug!

-THE PICTURES, thanks mom for all the new pictures of the family at Thanksgiving, looked fun! I cant believe how big Rosannas baby Brooke is!!! She looks like a mini-Rosanna and Branson looks like a mini- Ryan!!!!!! THE KIDS ARE GETTING SO BIG!!! AHHH! cute as ever though! Im going to smother them with kisses when I get home!

- OFFICIAL UPDATE OF COMING HOME, okay so you all have been confused about when Im coming home and some of you have asked if ill be able to make it to some things that are happening in March... heres the sitch...... My time of serving 18 Months is actually up on March 15th... so people have the option to go home a transfer before or transfer after their time depending on when there time is up and different circumstances at home.... I had thought of going home the Transfer of Feb. But at this point in my mission I would rather stay an extra 2 weeks and finish april 1st! (april fools I know but its the truth) So ill be flying into the new airport in St. George or Las Vegas... depending on my mom and the flight booking. Sorry DYLAN I LOVE YOU BUD YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND IM SO PROUD OF YOU THAT YOUR BIG DAY IS COMING UP AND YOU WILL BE GETTING BAPTIZED!!! I WOULD LOVE SO MUCH TO BE THERE BUD BUT YOU WILL HAVE A GREAT EXPERIENCE! I WANT TO SEE ALL OF YOUR PHOTOS WHEN I GET HOME OKAY!!!! 

I love all of you guys (friends) but Ill see you later on, I really dont want anyone else to be at the airport besides mom, joce, Robin, Brooke, Tal, the kids, laura & mike, Cam & hailey, Nikki, Ry, Geral & Rick, the main family, just more personal but we will figure all of that out in another 12 weeks or so... right now im Argentina... and Im lovin it! 

- Mom thanks for the info on school but I need to know that info on the spring semester!!!!! and the dance team stuff!!! its important!!! Thank you!

 

 

WELL... im going to really miss the south... its been an amazing experience all together and im so grateful for the time ive had here, with my amazing comp, with the wonderful Downs, and with all of our converts! I loved the time here and i have not doubt ill love the area im going to and the comp that Im going to be training. Im excited for what ahead! CHRISTMAS is around the corner!!! crazy! Ill be seeing you on skype!

 

keep being kapas I LOVE YOUUUUUU! besitos for you all!!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Hna. Ashley Ann Gillum

100% focused and happier

Dear EVERYONE that I love, 

SICK AND GRATEFUL

This week I was extremely sick. There was a bad cough going around. Three in our zone had it and lucky me... I caught it too. I was in bed with a 101 fever Monday night until Friday. I could not breath at all. It was miserable. I had like 6 blankets and still felt freezing. It wasnt too fun but my companion is extremely caring & was the best nurse I could ever ask for. Im so grateful for her. You know what, Im actually so grateful for weak moments like that because we can reflect more on the things we are grateful for. I think its awesome when we are struggling or sick, to see the tender mercies of the Lord and all the amazing people that want to help out in all the simple ways they can. The members of our branch knew how bad I was feeling and they brought me food. Let me tell you how grateful we all are to have the best senior couple here in our zone! Hermana and Elder Downs! They are from California and have been here like 9 months or something now. They are so sweet and always take care of us. Hermana Downs brought me some medicine. love her.

SORRY FOR NOT WRITING LAST MONDAY/   OUR INTERVIEWS WITH PRESIDENT GULBRANDSEN

 Sorry for not having enough time to write you all last week again, I actually had a really long email to write President Gulbrandsen and it took up too much time. It was very good that I did though because he came to see us Saturday and we had our interviews with him at 11a.m. in Centro with our Zone. I cannot explain to you guys how lucky we feel to have him as our mission President. Hes seriously the best! I started our interview with hardly any excitement, kind of just feeling like... darn it, I wish I could say ive been doing everything perfectly but I havent been and I need some advice, what else can I do? Ofcourse after our prayer the spirit was present and He told me the best advice that I can possibly apply in my life right now. He also told me to be proud of my progress all this time. I couldnt have understood his council that he gave me if it were 9 months ago. I really feel how much ive changed and im so grateful for my mission. I was so stubborn before and now I see all the wisdom in being teachable and meek and humble. You cant fill a glass thats already full, but you sure can be filled if you choose to be. Anyone in the world can teach you something if you let them. He said hes really proud of my courage to always admit my faults and desire to keep being better than before. I also used to be satisfied with where I was before but now I have this desire to progress in everything. Ive learned that you cant progress without admitting your flaws and things you need to work on. He says Im growing a lot in the mission. It was nice to hear that from him. 

Heres what he said to me: "Hermana Gillum, Im so proud of you and your courage and your progress. Look at you. Look how far you´ve come now. Look at how you listen to the spirit. Now that you are at this point, heres my advice to you from this day forward and forever more, the only thing I think is difficult for you, is to completely leave the past behind. I ask that you do all you can to leave everything thats behind you completely behind you for good and dont ever look back. Because you are now a brand new person and you´re finding yourself. You keep going. You´re doing great. Dont let the past effect you, and let the future unfold when its time. You wont be home until what, Feb? March? so until then, just know that everything at home is in the Lords hands. Right now just keep doing the simple, day to day things neccessary and the things of tomorrow will take care of themselves. The Lord will bless you for it. Keep up the good work. You are a baptizer Hna! And you still have a lot of work to do here okay!" 

This time, coming from him it hit me differently this time and it was good for me. I told him that is all I want to do and im going to do exactly that. President is truly inspired. Having him in the south with us all weekend was comforting. We felt like it was the Buenos Aires mission again haha. Sometimes in the south we feel like our own mission. 

IS THAT MY VOICE? IS THAT MY VOICE?

Saturday I lost my voice completely! My voice is way raspy and I squeak when I talk now and its so funny. But despite the fact that my voice had left, We were still able to really get a lot of work accomplished Saturday and Sunday because we had (stake conference) District Conference with President Gulbrandsen involved in everything. He really dropped the cane on everyone to get to work and do more to increase the converts here. He was only running off of 7 hrs of sleep in the last 3 days and he still did everything he could to enforce the progress. He dropped the cane firmly, but with a lot of love and organized everyone into groups to vote on how everyone should reslove problems in the branches. The bishops finally came to a conclusion and it was a great idea. I think something actually clicked finally for our branch because everyone was alot more excited. I could listen to President speak for hours because his stories are the best. He spoke about the importance of following the promptings of the spirit as quickly as possible before we lose the power to recieve promptings. He said "its this simple, if you are living right, and the spirit puts a feeling or an idea in your heart, you need to follow it. We recieve PROMPtings to PROMPTLY act on them. When the Lord sees that we are trustworthy of his promptings, we recieve even more." He told us a lot of stories to give examples of different situations and different promptings. Things as small as writing or phoning someone that you felt prompted to and havent spoke to in a while. It could answer their prayers. He said that once he had this feeling to call an old professor of his to just tell him how much the Lord loves him and how great he is. Coming to find out that this man was in bad condition and needed to hear this as if it were an answer to his prayers at that time. I really think its the most important thing Ive learned from President and I have done all I can to increase this ability. Im grateful for all I have learned in the mission. We can make a difference in this world. And we can, and we HAVE TO! One step at a time.

THANK YOU FOR THE BDAY/CHRISTMAS PACKAGES EVERYONE!!!

Wow first of all thank you so much! I just barely was able to enjoy my wonderful birthday/christmas package from my vaughn fam and the wonderful Seely´s!!! Robin, Tal, Brooke I love you, you guys are seriously the best and so are all the little ones that putting paintings and pics in there! I have never seen so much stuff in my life! I only was able to take out like three or four things from the box before I started to cry because I cant believe you guys would do all that! Well I CAN believe it because since ive known you, you have always been that way, helping everyone and giving more then neccessary because you guys have the biggest hearts in the world and always want to be involved in the work of the Lord and supporting missionaries! I promise you that I have been sharing all of what I recieved with the less fortunate and they have all been very grateful. Plus the other Elders were pretty happy that they were able to be a part of opening it haha. Ill attach some pics for you to see. The families here never see that kind of stuff so their eyes got all big when I showed them the things you sent for me to share. You guys are so wonderful! THANK YOU!!! and Gavin is SO BIG now what happened!? Hes so handsome! And Hailey and Trey and Dyl and Ki!!! I cant believe it! Robin you are such an amazing support and I love you with all my heart. and thank you for sending me my favorite Red Velvet cake to celebrate. Love the roxy sweater and its very warm. You guys know me so well its scary haha. Sorry I got sent to the south right before recieving it in the mail, but it didnt matter to me, it was still very appreciated! More than I can tell you! I love you all so much!

Also I recieved a package from my friend in Brazil who sent me a new Argentine fútbol jersey with brazilian clothes, braclet, board shorts, and flip flops! I loved it so much thank you! Everything fits great and I loved it but you seriously didnt have to do that. You are so great though for all that you do and thank you so much for such a great birthday gift!

Also my dear friend serving in Chile at the moment sent me a wooden keychain carved with my name in it and I LOVE it! Thank you so much Elder Leaño you´re awesome! 

And my companion Hna. Milmonts amazing mother secretly ending up sending her and I two seperate packages with PEANUT BUTTER and really awesome scrapbooking sharpies that we use to mark our scriptures and write in our journals with! SO SWEET! Thank you so much Gloria you are an amazing woman and I cannot wait to meet you after the mission! 

The thing is, I never ever expected even a card for my birthday you guys!! But I ended up celebrating my birthday with our zone and got a really great birthday card thats like one in a million haha and then I was able to celebrate my birthday with my zone here in the south all over again and you know what... im really glad. This zone here is so much like family its a blast and we are really growing as a team and helping eachother to have success. I never expected to get anything for any birthdays or holidays on the mish so really you guys... thank you so much! It was humbling. 

MY NEW GOALS 

 Alright so I just want all of you to know that this Thanksgiving I have set quite a few goals and one was to finish the Book Of Mormon Challenge and I only have 20 pages left!! woot woot! The Book Of Mormon is so amazing to me every time. This will be my third time reading it all the way through from front to back so Im learning a lot this time around. 

-Another goal that I have is to completely stop writing everybody except my mothers (Vicki and Robin) because its a rule to keep writing our parents but to limit all other emails. I will still have my blog email that you all can read on my blog about our progress I just want you all to understand that I cant be responding to your emails specifically. If you want to send me hand written letters that would be great and I could write you back, but not through emails. Not because I dont love you, because I couldnt do this without your support all this time. its just so that I can really only focus on my mission 100 percent and focus on our investigators because they are the most important at this time. I love all of my other family and friends so much but you guys know that I will see you all soon and be hugging you all at the airport before you know it. Right now I can sacrifice anything and everything that doesnt have to do with my purpose here at this time. So until I get home and I can talk to you in person, Ill only be responding to written letters. 

THIS THANKSGIVING

We have transfers this next coming Monday so we are blessed to be able to spend Thanksgiving at the Downs home where Hna. Downs is cooking us all dinner and we will be signing journals and taking photos because we dont know what changes will be coming until Sunday night. 

I would just like to say, that I am so grateful this Thanksgiving. Thank you for the wonderful people that you are. Thank you for your positivity and your support and love that never fails to comfort me out here in my mission and at home. Im so grateful for my mission. 

A mission IS a sacrafice & in my eyes a great privilege. Forgetting myself for this time as I strictly serve others, has been the best decision of my life. The greatest learning experience and the most full of love. On the days I feel weak and insignificant these angel children flock to my arms and bring tears to my eyes. Its a dream come true to be here doing this. I love obedience, and the blessings that follow it. I love how happy I feel to be confident that the Lord is proud of what Im doing. I love my family and my friends that support me, and those people that have greatly touched my life. And because I love them I will give my whole heart to serving my heavenly father so he might bless those I love according to his will. The other day I was laying on my bed telling my companion who still has a year left in the mission that she needs to make sure she never looks back, but that she takes in every moment of this. I started to cry when I explained the change my mission has brought my life. I cried so much. I told her, "Hermana Milmont, I love you, I thank you for what good you have brought my life. I pray that ive left you with good also that has taught you whats important in the mission. The little things that are so special. I want you to do all you can to never think of home or anyone there. They are all watched over and in the Lords good hands. Your friends will still be there and wont change too much, but you will change more than you can imagine. I want you to think of your wonderful mom and dad, and how much they LOVE you.... then I want you to think of your siblings.... how much THEY love you... now keep that love in your heart and let that push you hard to work and never give up. Now as good as all of them are, not even all their love put together compares to the love of the Savior Jesus Christ. Their love will push you, but His everlasting love will keep you. His pure love will change you for the better. His love will carry you when nothing else seems to be aware of your circumstances. The mission is a time to be wrapped in the arms of His love at all times. That is the greatest feeling in the world. And we are here to bring that greatest love of all to all of Argentina. So trust the Lord, do your part, and the Lord will open the future for you when its time to go home, but to all that you can to feel this love and let it change all your thoughts, your words, your actions, and let it change everything that you are."

I hope that each of you strive to feel this everlasting love and I hope that you truly let it change you for the better. I hope you let it push you to complete your goals, Lift you to higher living, teach you to be humble, and empower you to leave your mark in the world and make a difference for those around you. 

PRAYERS

- We have baptisms coming up! and one this weekend! PLEASE PRAY FOR Cesar Olmedo. He is very special. We know that the Lord sent us to him for a great purpose. we are going to fast for him this Friday and his date is Saturday. Each and every one of your prayers make a huge difference! THANK YOU!

 IM THANKFUL FOR YOU, FOR MY MISSION, & FOR LOVE :D

Is November Here Allready??

Hi loves! Sorry for not being able to write last week. The internet is very limited here in our area and we got ripped off even though the computers were frozen and not working properly so we had to get going. Sorry again. Well as always in the mission, there is always too much to tell you but not enough time. I will sum it all up and tell you that I have learned some amazing life lessons in these last two weeks and ive really grown in my testimony of the Savior. I have been such a clutz lately and been through some physical pain thats not too fun haha. For example, I have a second degree burn down my leg. That was fun! I have been through a lot lately but its all good. Elder Christansen and Hales are great zone leaders and we have learned a lot from them and laughed alot too because they always keep the zone cheery. Once when I was struggling E. Christansen told me to remember Smalls in the movie The Sandlot and how I just need to be patient, put my hand up, and Heavenly Fathers love will hit. It was so funny. He said you just need to imagine yoruself out there, with your dorky little trout hat in left field, and who cares that people are all laughin at you, you just do your part, run your route as you have been and IT WILL HIT!" So Hna. Downs later this past week helped that love of Heavenly Father come. She helped me talk my walls down that I havent fully realized I still had up. I must have have the words: (Id like a pep-talk) stamped on my forehead because just about everyone that we talked to seemed to start in giving me a pep talk and I was like.... am I on some reality t.v. show? haha but it was way good. I recieved a lot of revelation. Its wierd being in the end of the mission. Like one foot at home and one foot in the mission, you miss your fam, but you love these people and dont want to leave them. Its a weird feeling. I love my mission and even though its stressful, I am so emotional thinking about all my experiences and how grateful I am. Theres a great family here, Flia. Herredia and the dad always calls me his daughter. They are super great. I learned a lot about Patience from them this past week, they are a less active family that we are reactivating and they told me a little analogy on patience.

Patience is how we see things clearly... its necessary to achieve our goals. Our goals and dreams are like golden coins. If we image walking with the golden coin and suddenly it falls into a deep pond and we watch it go with anxiousness because we know we need that coin (goal) then its tough to wait... but if we jump in and swim down to it and wrestle in the water the dirt at the bottom will cloud the water and our view. But if we swim back up and WAIT... we will see our goal as it really is again... we will remember just how important it is when we see it shine... and then we will go down to get it with patience and caution... to pick it up and it will surely be ours again. I need to be patient with all the mission work, with my dreams, my goals. I cant have everything right now and without time and hard work. That was a good lesson for me.
We also had a great meeting with our Branch President. He is super inspired. He read my mind. He could feel that I was hiding something behind my smile. He asked me inspired questions and told me that he was so grateful for all my love here that is changing this branch. He asked me if I had even noticed all the good that I do. Long story short... he called me out on all my weaknesses telling me that I was a sponge for everything. I soak up a little of everything around me. Thats why when others hurt, I hurt, and when things dont work out I take the blame. He told me that Heavenly Father wants me to learn from this and learn how to change this mindset that I cannot change anyone or make them accept this gospel. But that I need to accept that others have their agency and the results are not because of me, but just that their hearts are not ready. He knows that my difficult past and dramatic things ive been through have led up to this problem I have. He told me to truly soak up the Atonement each day. To let go of all my pain and continue to leave it behind forever. To teach only by the spirit by having the understanding of justice and mercy. I told him that Im kind of scared to go home to the world again where Im no longer a missionary. He told me, "well hermana, I wont lie to you... its the most difficult time. Its a big change. When I got home, I was happy to see my family, my house, some friends, but after a little I sat there stunned that I was no longer a missionary. I wondered what I was to do and everything I tried to do seemed meaningless. I felt so alone without my companion and the spirit constantly with me. I felt that my other friends expected me to be the same as before the mission and I wasnt. I was a better me. I didnt feel angels walking with me anymore. It is a very lonely realization, but that is why you need to keep studying and working hard and get married so you can always live worthy and stay focused in the world that wants so much to distract you." I was crying thinking of all this. I really love my mission so much.

At the peak of the conversation he asked me a question that seemed to hit me in the chest. He asked me... "Hermana, You are so full of love for everyone... a love that has even changed my life and I am grateful to see. Its inspiring to me. Now if you can think of all the love and absorbtion you have taken up for others and for all the pain and for all the unsolved mysteries and loneliness... you can imagine that you have soaked up so much in your lifetime and in your mission. Hermana... I want you to ponder this... if you are this kind of sponge... can you imagine the sponge that your Savior Jesus Christ is?"

I am pretty sure I used a whole role of toilet paper. Poor president seeing me crying like a baby. The love of the Atonement always comes at different times in the mission but this was a peak of it hitting me hard. I was so filled with love and gratitude!

We dont have many investigators that are sticking with their commitments well... but we have a small few who are doing amazing! we have plans to baptize them this month for thanksgiving! Im excited for our interviews with President, because ive been stretching alot in my testimony and his wisdom really puts things in check for me. We have to go pray for us to find new investigators thats our focus this week! I love you guys you da best!

Happy Birthday comin up mama! Joce looked so cute for halloween! Thanks for the pics. Mom, dance tryouts are in april so can you look up the requirements and any info on the across the floor stuff for me. Thank you! I cant remember what else I needed to tell you but love youuuuuuu chao

love ash

Bus To Church

WELL I have just been bouncing all over like a little bouncy ball this week haha inviting every person we saw to come to church. That was our focus. We dont have much time since its almost 6:20 and we need to get home and get working by 6:30. Good thing we live super close. We (E. Hales, E. Christensen, E. Payllef, E. Jaime, E. Lemo, E. Vargas) went and placed futbol (soccer) with all of our zone. Great zone! I LOVE futbol! Its so fun and now that I have a competative companion the game was even better. I played hard today. We have a few battle wounds and bruises that im pretty proud of. Reminded me of playing softball growing up and doing sports. I miss it. My comp worked over the elders though, she made tons of goals and Im best at defense haha. Its good to get all pumped and let go of all the stress and then start the week with new energy. Just one of those things in life we can use for drive to work harder.

Just want to tell you all that we worked our butts off and prayed so much to have great success this week. With our faith to follow the spirit in every single thing and follow the counsel of President to pray specifically (that all of our investigators World relieve and accept the spirit of invitation to come to church.) WE WERE AMAZED!!!!! We broke a record for our numbers of success in the south. We had forty one lessons this week! That for me at least is unheard of but I have always wanted to do it. Now that we have we are going to set even higher goals for the transfer and keep up the pace. I dont think Ive ever in my whole mission worked so hard non stop as we did this week without a pause. We did all we could to commit each of them to come to church and read and pray. We prayed to find men that are prepared to hear the gospel and relieve the priesthood and they were put in our path as we diligently worked and contacted all of our referentes within 24 hours. We prayed to find many familias that are ready for the gospel and we ended up finding four! We put like 10 fechas throughout the week (baptism dates) and we were pumped! It was beautiful to see the Lord blessing them this week. However the mother didnt come to church because she had to go vote this weekend. We verified that they were all preparing to come to church each day this past week. Each day we called to see if there was something we could do to help them prepare and we taught them about the doctrine of Christ and why partaking of the Sacrament is so important. Thanks to the famous Family Tello, and their big bus van they offered to help us this Sunday and load it full of our investigators and it was amazing loading all these people into the van and seeing how happy they were to all be together going to church. THEY WOKE UP!!!! THEY ALL CAME!!!! We knocked on every one of their doors waking them up and making sure that they had everything ready to be on time. We have also been working with all the less actives here because they are really amazing people… just kinda lost their drive… so we have done all we can literally ALL we can to teach them about Christ and how much he loves them and that their families deserve the gospel. It was amazing to see them all commit to come with us this Sunday! The President of our Branch, was so impressed with our efforts. He saw us all week hustling around to make everyone happy and get everything done. Then The Branch saw all of us with huge smiles to have filled four rows of people! New families, our recent converts, and three less active families that havent come in years! We made sure that the members sat with them and we made sure that they were very welcomed and loved as they should be. Singing the hymns in church I wanted to cry. I truly am comino to understand what a repentant heart means. Last Sunday we had 0 investigators in church and it literally killed me and we repented and said… well now we just have to get to work double time and note ver let this happen again. It takes a lot more effort here in the south to get these people to church. Its definately one of the toughest areas but with the Lord nothing is impossible. We had so much faith and confidence and sure enough Heavenly Father worked his miracles according to our faith. My comp is such an amazing missionary and person. I absolutely love her and love working here with her. Our zone is really united now and we are all working hard and motivating eachother to accomplish what weve been sent here to do.

Man it was a great week….So great…. Now about emails... its obvious that I only have a little time left because the emails are withering down to nothing (cough MOM) even YOU forget to write me! haha Its ok I know how it is with busy life and all. And you are not all thinking about me so far away in the bottom of the world :( just kidding! I appreciate those of you who have been a support even still, Sorry to you who have sent emails, and I have had trouble writing back, thats because im so short on time and ive just been really focused on the work. It doesnt mean I dont love you, I DO!!!! YOU KNOW THAT I DO!!!! But theres no excuse, I can still write you back here a little there a little though so Ill just have to write back when I have more time. THANK YOU FOR YOUR EMAILS AND SUPPORT you guys are the best!!!! I just love the mish so much! I cant wait to tell you all about it when I get home! BE GOOD! have a great week loves!

Lots of love hugs and kisses,

Hermana Ashley Ann Gillum

Transfers have come!!

The beach and TRANSFERS

(sigh of relief) YES! we can breathe now!!! Bow chica wow wow! I AM SO HAPPY TODAY! I feel like today is such a good day! The sun is shining out side, not too much wind which is very rare (heavy winds every day) I want to play futbol today at the church but nobody else wants to play :( they all want to sleep and rest all day! BORING! Not us, we are going to do something outside. I have so much energy today I feel like our appointments tonight are going to go so well! We found some amazing people! They are so prepared! Last Pday after we emailed we were walking to contact someone and we discovered the BEACH! I could smell the ocean like a mile away! okay thats an exaggeration because the beach is like 7 blocks from our house so its close but the thing is every time we have ever left our house we turn left and the first time we decided to turn right we ran into the beach. Pleasant accident! Tender mercy for sure! We have been meaning to go but have never gone until now. It was very different from the beaches at home in California but it was so beautiful! Instead of all sand its all pebbles and we found a beaver on the beach. He was obviously way far from home. He was so dang cute though, I wanted to go to the store and buy him some fish. Poor little guy looked so hungry and lost! I felt like my family was close because the memories of the beach are all good family memories. The ocean puts me at ease and brings me peace. It was good for us to see. Later on It was a full moon and shining on all the waves. So pretty!

Ok sorry, im all over the place in this email, first things first, TRANSFERS CAME! woot woot... Elder Christensens drum roll right here... WE ARE staying together and staying here! E. Finlay has gone home, E. Christensen is now our new Zone leader with E. Hales again and we have two new elders coming in today and tomorrow. We are glad that we have more time to work here. Everyone thinks ill finish my mission here since I only have until feb. Which is fine because we have a lot of people that need the gospel and I have fallen so in love with these families and Natalia and Karen. We are keeping them strong! We like our zone, we are all getting the hang of things.

 

STATUS OF AREAS

I consider myself blessed to have been able to see a little bit of everything in our mission! The last time I stayed in my area longer than one transfer was in the beginning of my mission I was in el campo in Campana for 6 months! Then to down town capital in Almagro -1 1/2 Urquiza - 1 1/2 and Caballito for 1. Then down to the bottom of the world to Ushuaia for a week. Now Chacra for 2 transfers so far! it wouldnt suprise me if it was for the LAST months I have left.

The rama (branch) really wants me to finish here. I always try to keep them laughing and happy. I love bringing more energy here to this place, it needs it.

 

WERE STOKED

I am planning on rocking this transfer! We both are. Hna. Romo and I had such a crazy, wonderful difficult amazing fun time together and I see Hna. Milmont and I having similar I love my comp so much and we are learning so much from eachother and she is such a doll! Now that we are super comfortable with eachother we have really grown together and its been good for us this last week. I feel so proud of her as I see how she applies the stuff she learns from me and she gets really excited for all her progress. Makes me so happy to know that I can help her and that she is learning so much. Her spanish just gets better every single day and so does her confidence! Im proud of her! I believe in her. I believe in everyone, but struggle with believing in myself, even elder christensen told me that the other day and they are all right. I know that its something I struggle with but Im gaining more confidence through all my trust in the Lord and im just going to do all he expects for Him to make me who he wants me to be. I love that I can strengthen my relationship with my Savior each day as a full time missionary! Its such a good feeling.

 

GOOD MEMORIES DESPEDIDA

Speaking of the great feeling being full time missionaries... so many of our good friends had their despedida yesterday! E. Brown, Finlay, Peterson, Bond, Davis, Vera, TONS! CRAZY! I will miss all of them! They were so great! ARG-BAN mision no es lo mismo sin ellos pero bueno.. life goes on! :D They need to get back to their families. We are going to live this time up that we have left in Argentina. Im going to cherish it like nothing else. I love these people here so much they are always going to be in my heart and I hate saying goodbye to them. Its going to pass way too fast. I have a lot to do! I cant imagine having to take off my plaque and dont want to. That will be a hard realization.

 

NEW PEOPLE!

We have seen so many miracles its amazing! We are starting fresh and with a lot of faith in the new people we have found. We ended up finding a ton of prepared families ready for the gospel just by simple talking with every single kid in the street that we saw and then we asked them to walk with us to their house and introduce their families to us. They are all happy to see "chicas" as missionaries here now they say because they have only seen "varones" and so we are still getting a lot of good comments about us being here in Chacra and it feels good to be appreciated and know that the Lords children really need us here at this time. We found Fernando, a 23 yr old thats living here with his aunt and cousin to work en la Fabricas. He recently has been really active in spiritual things and on and off with the Evangelical church for a year and a half or so. He is such a good person but seems like when we teach him, that he doesnt understand the concept of baptism. He has a date to be baptized but doesnt understand why he cant keep changing it and waiting. He thinks that he has to be perfect before hes baptized and its really difficult to get him to understand how Baptism is the first fruit of repentance and only through baptism now can he recieve a greater light and knowledge with the Holy Spirit. We have teaching him all the doctrine on it in the Bible and the Book of Mormon and he still thinks he needs to keep waiting and changing his date. Hes such a good kid but just seems like hes confused with the doctrine. He repeats the same things over and over quite a few times and its great and all but it doesnt have order or purpose. He just says over and over.. god is love and is loving always, and he has chosen to guide me because he loves me and Im finding my path and accepting jesus in my life and he is all loving and all powerful. then he starts over, and says... yeah god is loving and all powerful and jesus is my path. and I cant seem to help him get passed that repetition and help him so see that God IS loving and thats why we have an order and a plan prepared for us to return to him and we do it first by being baptized to recieve the holy ghost and then have our understanding open to bigger and more profound things. But Hes preparing to be baptized November. Ezekiel will be baptized soon! Hes doing well! Natalia is amazing and seeing more blessings each day for joining the church and seeing the difference! Im so proud of her I love her more than I can tell you guys! Shes amazing. Karen is super strong. Shes only 13 but so mature for her age and already preparing to serve a mission even now haha. Shes strong and independent. Her testimony is solid! We had an appointment with Fernando but he wasnt home and normally we dont enter the house of his aunt because he says that their family are all evangelical and catholic and dont want us to come in but this time I felt prompted to ask if we could come in and have a lesson with them. We ended up having one of the most spiritual lessons ive ever had here yet. We taught the Aunt, her friend, the cousin, and fernando once he got there. We spoke about how the things of the world are not ever sufficient for our happiness without God. We need God in our lives or we can not feel the peace we all need in this world. We spoke about various addictions that are problems for them and with teaching them directly the DOCTRINE of Christ and in the scriptures we taught that we need to learn self-mastery in this life to reach our full potential and bring us closer to God. That this life is time to prepare to meet him and bring as many with us as we can. This life is meant to be enjoyed, but we should evaluate mere amusement apart from eternal happiness. For instance the FAMILY, is way more important than some fancy car or big house. We left that house full of the spirit and expressed to them how much God really loves them and wants them to come to him for answers. Also we have been getting to know the members more still and we decided after lunch to knock on all the doors we felt prompted in all the appartment buildings near by. I wanted to cry from how much success we had. We found pregnant mothers wanting to know how they could live with their baby forever, we found little children that have been abused and need to feel the peace of the atonement, we found a gothic kid that wants to believe in god but doesnt know how to because hes never been taught and hes had a hard life. We found SO many people that want to hear our message and need to know they are true children of a loving Heavenly Father. We have been working with a few families that are progressing but slowly. We need to do all we can this week to help them see the importance of baptism now and not later on in life.

SUNDAY

My companion is a KAPA! shes so funny and so good all in one! Ill explain, she was suppose to teach Gospel Principles for us all and it was going really good. I was so proud of her and tried giving her a thumbs up with a huge smile from the back of the class and her spanish just kept getting better. It was impressive to see her confidence growing in the spirit. Then when the spirit was the strongest... im watching her and thinking... is she going to set a baptismal date with this lady in the front whos crying? I couldnt believe it... she totally did all by herself and with great faith! After the lady said she wants to be baptized I looked at the Elders and they said, it was their investigator in their area and not in ours and that this woman needs to get married still. So I tried using sign language and it must have looked so retarded to my companion because I tried saying, "ok, good job now stop there because shes not married we can talk after class!" but she couldnt understand... that went into a longer conversation about more personal things like why they arent married yet and our President was feeling uncomfortable and trying to tell us this should be discussed later. I asked my comp to let me whisper to her and tell her "good job but later" and then we ended the class. Afterwards President ended up having a big talk with us and saying its ok because she didnt know, but also to be careful in the future in her mission that we need to seperate classes and personal lessons. I agree hes totally right, but on the otherhand she totally followed the spirit and I was a super proud companion! The spirit was way strong so we know it was what the Lord wanted her to ask, now she knows for future. Its a funny story though we laughed about it later because she thought she was on a roll and was really excited and then realized they werent married. Shes awesome and is progressing greatly. Getting people to church this Sunday was a project and we failed it. We tried everything we could. We passed by all of our investigatores in the morning but everybody went out of town because yesterday was Mothers Day here. Its a horrible feeling to take the Sacrament when you see so many empty chairs that need to be filled. We repented before and after taking the Sacrament for not being able to help them all come. It was rough on me because thats all I desire more than anything, to get them to church and to make the covenants to keep the commandments and feel the peace of aligning their lives with Gods will. That way they might be blessed in all things. Our president of the branch met with us and almost started crying to us though because he says that we dont realize all the good that we are doing for him and for our members here as we work in this branch. He said, "You work hard here and I notice all of the things you do, we have not seen 3 confirmations and 2 baptisms in so short of time here in this branch before, and then you showed up and you bring a love that the elders just dont have, the branch loves you and we need you here." He was so sincere and so grateful to us that it really made us feel like we are doing whats expected of us. Theres so much more that happened and so many miracles, but Ive got them all jotted down in my journal and we have to go now. WE LOVE YOU!

 

I want you to know how much I love each of you. Your support is precious to me. This work is impossible without all of you back home praying for us. SO thank you, we can feel your love and prayers! FAM... miss you tons.... but ill be seeing you before you know it. time flies!

XOXOXOX BESOS!!!!!

 

Love Hermana

Ashley Ann Gillum

stretching...

And Lehi took his things and set out into the wilderness... sometimes I feel like flying south for me was similar haha. Its a very different place; foreign. The people here are amazing. Thats the beauty of this place because its quite desolate. All the kids make me smile. I should have known that I would get sent to the most cold and windy place since I went as far as to ask NOT to be sent somewhere cold and windy in my prayers before the mission... I brought it on myself haha. I must say that ive been really blessed to have been sent to Buenos Aires though because Ive seen a little bit of everything that argentina has to offer and its been amazing. I wouldnt trade these experiences for the world. However...Ive learned that serving a mission means undergoing heart surgery and serious stretching. You have to learn to adapt to dreastic changes and curve balls that you have never before had thrown at you. This spiritual stretching takes place over and over again. We mess up and we pay the consequences... which in turn help us to realize how we not only are expected to change but we NEED to change and align our lives with greater caution. We are all human. All babies in comparision to our Eternal Father. Lacking the full understanding of what how and why we need to apply the principles of the gospel at all times. God always teaches us about His son Jesus Christ. In every part of the scriptures and every life lesson. All of this leading up to a life lesson ive learned this week and will continue to learn that I will speak about in the latter part of my letter.

THE WORK AND PROGRESS

I feel like we made good progress as far as investigators. Julian understands why he needs to serve a mission and hes preparing for that journey now. Karen is progressing at a rapid rate. She is an example to all her family. I got to spend some time around her sisters baby. Im happiest around children. My greatest joy will to be a mother one day. Karen also will make a great mother and she plans to serve a mission also. Natalia had many obstacles thrown before her so she was almost unable to be confirmed with the gift of the Holy Ghost but she overcame and ive never prayed so hard and fasted so often as we did for that girl to be able to overcome all of it. She had an interview with president Gomez and she desires to also... serve a mission! I cannot believe all of these valiant youth that have been prepared by God that he trusts US to find. Sunday we opened her door, went upstairs into her room and found her dead asleep and not answering her phone... but with lots of prayer and taking the action to get her up and telling her how much we love her and want the best for her... she rose up and said.. "why do you guys care about me so much? I always let you down?" I started to cry and looked at her... I saw myself in her asking my Heavenly Father the same exact thing. I responded... " because we love you more than we know how to explain... because we know that God is your Heavenly Father and his love is the greatest of all and he doesnt wanna lose you. He misses you and we WONT give up!" I felt so much power in our testimony to her. Before we knew it she was in the chair before the whole congregation being confirmed with the holy ghost and when she returned to sit with us she had tears in her eyes. She said "wow, i feel so peaceful all over again.Thank you for not giving up on me" I wrapped my arm around her and felt lHeavenly Fathers gratitude. Towards the end of the sacrament meeting I encouraged her to get up and share her testimony. Ive never been so proud. Then when I saw her up there bearing her testimony that she KNOWS this church is true and that we saved her. I still cant fully understand it. I cant beleive ive been called to this work to rescue these souls. its so humbling. I love Natalia with all my heart! I love every one of my converts and I love to see the peace they feel. Our Mission leader Martin Isasi is the greatest mission leader. He is so excited for this work and its so positive for us. We are grateful. Juan entered the waters of baptism this saturday and was confirmed Sunday at our church! it was beautiful! We have some new investigators that we have super high hopes for and they really love Hermana Milmont and I teaching them. They are excited to see hermanas here. We have also found a family of 4 that are amazing! Ezekiel is still being taught and has a date to be baptized soon. Vicenta unfortunately has not desired to come to church even once still yet so that is a work in progress. We have just been strving to find new people to teach and contacting our refrences like crazy. We have had quite a few things fall through for us but thats how it goes sometimes. Just have to see the sunshine beyond the clouds. We are doing all we can to stay happy and not get discouraged. We need to look at our progress of how far we have come and not how far we have left to go... that way we keep on keeping on!

Pray for us to be led to those that are ready to hear the gospel I promise that if you keep the missionaries in your prayers it will make a world of difference.. LITERALLY! I promise you will feel the power of success in the church because of you and your prayers.

WHAT IVE LEARNED FOR MYSELF THIS WEEK

came to a sad reality that I lack so much still as far as who I want to become on my mission and in my life. I wonder if I will ever accomplish all that I dream to. I have realized that lately Im facing new challenges and I have to admit that Ive lacked the appropriate faith to carry me through these challenges sufficiently when we lack faith we lack hope, when we lack hope, we lack patience. What a stumbling block I have noticed Im struggling with. I have never had a stable life with a sure outcome of somthing to fall back on. Being new to the church Ive felt so blessed to recognize the contrast of a life with and then without the rock of the gospel. Its always constant and never changing and therefore becomes an anchor... but only if we not only BELIEVE it but believe it can work for US! I have desired stability all my life and yet nothing good has lasted for me too long... until I found myself in this work. This past week has been full of struggles. At least by this point its expected. My comp and I istened to this talk by S. Micheal Wilcox while we were studying and I found a lot of wisdom in his words that I needed at this time. He spoke about 1st, 2nd, and 3rd watch... meaning like the different time zones that the day was divided into by the people in Jerusalem during Christs ministry. Explaining further how we are all waiting in different times of our lives in different "watches" for answers to our prayers and for rescue to break through our trial. God comes to us at different watches for different reasons known to him. When we are in trial we think... 1) He doesnt exist or 2)he doesnt care.. or 3) im not worth saving or helping.... I think its safe to say that each of us at some point in our lives have wondered at least one of these doubts. Micheal Wilcox goes on to say for the people who feel they are in their 5th or 6th watch or even 7th.... and still waiting... hold on. Think of the Bardges on the sea that Jareds brother was instructed to build. The bardges were to be

-"TIGHT... LIKE UNTO A DISH" or I suppose that tight like unto a dish is an expression of something solid and sure or safe.

-He was also left to FIGURE OUT FOR HIMSELF... the light that they would need. Which we too need to learn and figure out ourselves.

-God explains that there will be wind and storms and thrashing of waves that will actually come from HIS mouth. (our trials sometimes)

- He explains that he will PREPARE US. And says... therefore, what will ye that I prepare for you... TO HAVE LIGHT?

- if he doesnt still the storm... we know that HE knows... our CAPACITY to handle the storm is TIGHT LIKE UNTO A DISH. whether we see it or not.

- 1st watch ... the lord comes at 1st watch ONLY when we are repenting and accepting this atonement that was paid for us. He loves our desire to do good and be better. He comes to us quickly when we choose to repent and make ourselves new. Thats part of giving our heart to him.

- We need to remember the Prodigal Son when thinking about our repentance and first watch connection. His father quickly kissed him and joyed that he wanted to change and be better.

- "maybe they didnt get it!" -HEAVENLY FATHER

.. maybe they (we) didnt get it with Zeezrom,

.. maybe they (we) didnt get it with Alma..

... maybe I need to teach them with lamoni, or his servants, or his wife, or ..... and so forth

He has said... "PEACE BE UNTO YOU..." and not like a person saying this to us... but a Father of Eternal power love and compassion.. The word PEACE from him means so much more and yet we overlook it. we dont let it set in and take full effect.

- Also Ive learned that God creates a HOLDING PLACE for our hearts to be ready for the answers He has for us.

- Remember the story of Moses asking God "for what purposes has He created all things?" and God responds.. for mine own purpose and it is wisdom in me. My question then is are we really ready to recieve the answers that he has for us?

Then He goes on to tell a personal story of his that sets the background of pain he has felt for His father choosing to never be in their lives which caused a great deal of sorrow for their family... He describes the anticipation he had to pray deeply to God and ask to be given peace and be able to let it all go. He goes through years and years of pain with no answer... wondering how he had still not recieved one. until one day he was expected to prepare a talk about parents and he planned to speak about his loving mother. The spirit impressed upon him to actually speak about his father instead. Just then when his two sons came running by they stopped and starred at him and he described a flood of all his memories with these sons of his that came with great emotion. he then heard the spirit speak... saying... NOW YOU ARE READY FOR YOUR ANSWER... the spirit impressed this question on him... Is it worse to be a son that lost a Father? or a Father that lost a son? He having much greater experience and love as a father himself was able to then realize the true tragedy of missing out on all the joys of being a being a father to a son. He then let the resentment go, feeling peace and sorrow for the loss His father surely had experienced for not being there. I immediately thought of our Father in Heaven... How truly heavy and sad and sorrowful he must feel as he watches more of his children lose their way. He deeply craves for them to return to Him. I reflected on much of my lifes pain and how deeply he desires to heal me in every way. He wants me to understand His Son.

- Why dont answers come when we expect them to come? the answer is this... because the HOLDING PLACE is not yet ready.

- Why I specifically dont have that peace or the answers to all my pain even still... I dont know... but I know that it MUST be wisdom in Him, my father, and my life must be "tight like a dish" or sure enough and strong enough to keep suffering it. And long suffering is the only way to become like Jesus Christ. Its the only way our Holding Places in our hearts will sufficiently hold the riches of all the good our Father has in store to give us. And When we shall meet him after all of our long suffering ours and His joy will be full. For our SUBMISSION to all He has seen necessary to inflict... will inturn be our greatest VICTORY.

Let us ask ourselves... are we sufficiently humble? if we were to meet our maker tomorrow would we have regrets left in our hearts? Could we truly say that we are doing the best we can and know how to be better?

He sees our progress so long as we are moving forward and not back. No matter the rate... he sees it and all things are numbered unto Him. All things will be restored unto us. His love is infinite.

I love you all so much I hope you have a wonderful week!

STILL on the journey of bettering myself... (sigh) (half smile)

... hermana Ashley Ann Gillum

My Heart is Full

Dear loved ones of mine,

First of all... General Conference... WOW! Wasnt it so amazing! While watching conference I often think of the people in my life whom have taught me about the special topics spoken of, and therefore each of you can be confident that you have touched my life in some great way and I did think of you during conference. I filled the whole last half of my journal full of inspiration and goals for this year. We are so blessed to have a living Prophet and apostles of the Lord guide us in these Latter-Days to prepare to be better and more like the Savior Jesus Christ. To not have fear of the end of the world, but to look forward in joy and faith that we are so blessed to know His glorious plan for us and our families. We are not a people of fear, but of faith and endurance and our religion is love, service and hard work. We believe in a life of much sacrafice to do the will of our Father in Heaven at all times no matter what circumstances! I will have to write you next week of all the notes I found to be helpful but this week we dont have much time to write so I think Im going to let you know what I included in my weekly letter to President because Im in so much gratitude to him especially this week. SO here it is:

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!! Hope you know that all of your missionaries down here in the south had you in mind and in our prayers for all of your hard work dedication and sacrafice! We look up to you and Hna Gulbrandsen and are grateful beyond words for what you are doing for the Lord everyday.
You were very inspired to have the mission study Mercy and Justice this week. My companion and I learned more this week than ever. We applied our revelation from that study to our lives personally, to our companionship, and to our investigators which brought about many miracles. One being a tremendous change for the better in our companionship and in our faith, another being the Greater preparation to really ponder the "Christ attribute activity" from Preach My Gospel and apply it while listening to General Conference! ALL OF THIS YOU HELPED US WITH BROUGHT THE BAPTISM OF Natalia Soledad Diaz Jofre (21 years old and wants to serve a mission) which means so very much to us. This girl means everything to me. EVERYTHING! We have never seen such struggles of Satan throwing literally everything at us that he could to hurt us and slow us down and stop her from being baptized. But with all of your counsel, with your inspiration to listen to the Lords promptings and heed them while inviting us to do the same, we worked very hard to bring about the will of the Lord and help his daughter enter the waters of baptism this sunday after conference at 8:00 pm. We sang a musical number and we surrounded her with love. Im emotional while typing this because im so grateful for how full my heart is.

President, you once again need to be thanked sincerely for all you have taught me as a servant of the lord. My life is forever changed for what you continue to teach me through your love for our redeemer Jesus Christ. My heart is broken and spirit contrite. I realize that I as to my own strength am NOTHING. I owe the Savior everything! and this weekend was one of great reflection and emotion for us. Im learning a lot from my companion she is original, a genuine person of much love and strong testimony. Her faith is helping me to build mine and we are feeling more confident that we are truly working hard and finding his children who are prepared. We do not have much time at all so we must go... but President, thank you. Thank you for the salvation you are bringing to these priceless souls. The spirit felt at this baptism is not able to be explained in words, we are confident that although none of her family wanted to attend her baptism, she valiantly stood without them there and we felt angels fill the room. We felt as if we had baptized someone with a great work to do in this church. She is special we just feel it. All of our zone was so happy and she couldnt stop crying saying repeatedly... "THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for saving me. I feel so far from all my pain and mistakes! thank you for this light! The atonement is real, I know what you have taught me now, I know why this is so important!" President this baptism was the most spiritual ive ever seen in my mission yet. Thank you for strengthening our mission with your ears that hear, eyes that see, and your faith to follow. I desire so greatly to follow all the promptings I recieve of the spirit no matter how subtle because you have shown me that it brings miracles! We love you all so much and so does the Lord! While watching the apostles of the Lord speak, I was touched by the spirit of power and I recognize so much of each of their spirit in you. As Diane S. Dalton spoke about women of virtue and love, We thought of Hna. Gulbrandsen and all that she is. How blessed we are to have the courage of the greatest husband and wife that Ive ever known leading us in this battle and great work! and Wahoo Im still going!"
Love, Hermana Gillum

So yes, this week was emotional, and miraculous. I have never felt so much love as I did at the baptism of sweet Natalia. She is family to us and in my heart forever. I love her more than I imagined possible. this mission and these people... are changing who I am... my heart is so full. Im so happy. We are not here in this life FOR US! We are here for others! we are here to better the world!

Nothing... literally.. NOTHING feels better than this. Of that I testify to you whole heartedly. The confidence of God being proud of you, is the greatest happiness in the world. I will honor my covenants with my Father in Heaven for all eternity and honor who I am as His daughter. I will remain steady in a world of swaying values. I will keep going til I drop so I might be worthy and sanctified through trial to one day see His loving face and know Ive done well. I love my Savior so much and I love all of you. Have a great week!

keep looking for ways to serve people all around you each week...

I love hearing about your missionary stories! Besos!

con cariño,