Hello Hello!

HELLO all the wonderful people of my life!

I miss you all terribly! I have quite the big smile on my face as I type this because I am incredibly HAPPY!

DO YOU ALL KNOW THAT THIS CHURCH IS TRUE!!!! GOOD BECAUSE IT TRULY IS haha Im so happy to tell you that we have had the most powerful miracles ever this week. No baptisms were possible yet but all of our numbers were high with success. We were able to do so much service for these amazing people of Argentina that we love. These families are so beautiful and they have such a deep place in my heart.

 Our district meetings are now on Thurs. and our Elders are the best! They really help us to be so excited for the work even when its tough. To be completely honest.. Hermana Romo and I worked our tooshes off. Walking miles and miles and helping every person in our path that would let us. When we were at Lorena´s house WOW the spirit was strong! It was a time ill never ever forget. Her husband is a wonderful guy. He is struggling with a few things like believeing in God, and his work is all he cares about he says but I see much more. I see the way he comes home to his three gorgeous daughters and kisses his pregnant wife with their fourth child. I see him hold his children and his desire to be a great father. Then Lorenas wonderful mother is living with all of them now due to problems with alcohol with Lorenas father. I believe the sister also lives there. Its a FULL little house. We stared at them all surrounding the table and felt strongly to watch the clips of Together Forever. When they watched, they cried. They felt the similar problems and concerns. Talk about inspiration! Everything we said seemed to flow out of our mouths so perfectly. The spirit was the teacher and we were just the instruments, here to bear our testimony of what we know is true. Tears streaked my face as I bore testimony. I expressed how much different my life once was, and how this gospel has changed me forever. I told them that I have so many loving people back home whom I call family and I have seen the gospel bless them abundently. I expressed so much love for my Savior and why this is a big deal. We cannot procrastinate, we have to act now and choose to follow him. We have to give Him our whole heart. I reminded them that without faith, we have nothing, only with faith do miracles happen and only through our obedience to Heavenly Father does the mercy of the Savior apply to us. Obedience teaches us so many things. There arent any leaders that I know who have become leaders without first having to be obedient a good majority of their lives. We are promised blessings when we obey and God cannot lie, He only promises us things that He wants and will give us according to our faith and obedience. That is how we show our greatest love to Him. We cannot just say we love God and have that be enough. That is like a parent that says they love their child but never shows love in their actions. I stood before them begging for them to test out the experience. To put it all to the test. Go to church as a family all together, this sunday and watch the blessings your will recieve, not only will you know that God exists but you will also see how very close He actual is and how He can change everything for your good. My companion also started speaking by the spirit entirely when she started promising him specific blessings in his work and family. It was incredible.They all commited and were overwhelmed by the spirit. When we walked out of there my comp and I had this powerful peace and calmness. We both were so amazed at what had just happened. Normally we are a little nervous to walk home at night because many dangerous things have been happening here but this night, we felt a group of angles walking with us. we were not scared in the slightest bit. Its something that I cant explain in words. We had several miracles. We visited many incomplete families and rekindled the fire of their testimonies that have faded out as they have stopped going to church. The most important thing we have focused on is that taking the sacrament is the most important thing. The Saviors atonement for us was not just some small miracle. It is the ONLY way we are saved and can return to live with our families after this life. If we look at church as not a big deal, then we lose several promises and blessings. We also set aside the atonement of our Savior and say, well its okay I dont really care now, but I will next week. The sacrament that we partake of, is the mini-baptism that we ALL need to be prepared and be filled with His love and mercy. It is the most sacred time of the week. I have learned all of this on mission and a mountain of other countless things that I continue to learn and I leave my testimony that the scriptures are truly the words of our loving Father in Heaven who has given us so many things to support us and light the way if only we will do our part at searching the deep mysteries he has for us. Life is a big deal. Every second of every day must at some point or another be accounted for. Our works, whether good or evil will all add up to our reward that we choose. This life is to CHOOSE LASTING ENDURING HAPPINESS OVER MERE AMUSEMENT! We are so blessed to have the things we do. If we are focusing on what we lack, than He will teach us humility. If we are focusing on what we envy and wish we had, He will test us with the things we already have that we should be more grateful for. ALL in all, if we are not focusing on the positive things and aligning our will with His will, we CANNOT be fully happy. We just cant. That is why so many people are looking for remedies to keep them happy and they just cant seem to fill a little hole that they still have. Im so grateful for serving a mission. wow, ive truly taken on the hardest and yet most rewarding challenge of my whole life.

 

 Today we traveled out to Zarate to play sports with the Elders and we all got to work in the kitchen cooking up a storm of empanadas and salads. It was SO much fun. We have a really great bond in our district and its obviously really helped the work because we are all doing better and better. We took some good pics but ill have to send them next week because we got to get going.

 

 I recently recieved an email from Stephanie Myers saying she wants to serve also... I promise you Stephanie, it will be the best thing you EVER did! Im so happy for you! My companion is by far my BEST FRIEND. I never knew truly loyalty until I met her. She is someone I will always have by my side for the rest of my life. I wouldnt trade in these experiences for anything! In other news that has also caught my interest: My comps brother updated her in her email a bit about the following, GREENBAY TOOK SUPERBOWL whoooo! thats our team!!!! He said that ARCADE FIRE came out with a new album... man, im going to have to buy that in a year haha. So theres riots in Egypt eh? In his very words, END OF THE WORLD HERE WE COME!!!! whoooo! Mom thanks for the updates with everything and Joce, btw sis, grow out your hair k and we will see whos hair is longer when i get home! Tal I hope you guys got my letter in the mail. Woog im so glad to hear about Hailey tearin it up on her mini. Thanks Robin for all the Supercross status sounds like its been an awesome year! BYU won! whooo thats awesome thank you Marlin! and RO thanks a million for the real american peanut butter that stuff has fed me for the last two months thankfully when we dont have anyone to give us lunch. We are living like a bunch of college kids again but without the life saving ever so famous ramen noodles and mac n cheese so PB & J´s became quite the blessing!!!! thank you! So it was good to hear a little about all that stuff you guys! Its always interesting to hear a little bit about the real world, but still... what a BLESSING to live the life of a missionary. Saving souls, feeding these people physically and spiritually! amazing! Im living one of my dreams right now and I plan to live them all!

 

 Miracles are happening left and right thank you for all the support and your prayers while we are out here playing a part in bettering this world as best as we can, one area at a time. You guys are amazing keep pressing forward

every single one of you better be super happy, because its a choice to be happy everyday!

and keep smiling.. life is so GOOD!!!! xoxoxox

 

SEE YOU ALL IN ONE YEAR!!!! .... or maybe ill just stay here... haha

 

con MUCHíSMO AMOR,

 Hermana Gillum

Pictures :))

Refiners Fire

I remember a story one of my comps gave me in the mtc and it was about the refiners fire. A lady in a bible study class was asked to find out what a silversmith had in common with our Heavenly father. She went to watch the silversmith while he worked and she found that he held the silver in the very hottest part of the flames as he twirled it around, holding it up and watched it very closely as it changed and formed. She considered that to be Heavenly Father when we face dark and lonely hardships. We feel like we at times are in the hottest part in the moment, and He is watching us very closely the whole time. She then asked after a while, "when do you know that its done and its ready?" The silversmith said.. "Oh thats easy, their done when I see myself in them." 

As my mission President has stated.. we are not perfect. The mission and all spiritual experiences act as casts. Healing our fractures and scraps that need to be fixed His way. Im also reminded of my teacher in the mtc that said we are going to be on the front lines of battle between good and evil. Its true. I have felt the affects raging about me. This week I realized things I never thought I would before. I was tested so much. I was brought to my knees again and again and again. Wondering how I would press forward I was blessed to have been present in our last district meeting while the elders bore their testimonies with tears and sincerity. I felt their charity for the Lord, this work, these people, and specifically I felt their charity for me. I also came to understand who im really here on this mission for. Its not for my fellow missionaries or my loved ones back home, or president, or my friends. Im here because the Lord called me to this work. He believes in me and has what it takes to build my faith. He is the one that calms the storm or calms His child. I remember in the simple things how easy it is to just be completely happy. Every day its a choice. My comp and I had a long fast for help and success. Still we struggled. still we were tried. I was anxious for a break or a miracle and with much patience.. one came. Sunday we expected Loraina and her three beautiful daughters to show up for church. Right as we were entering the doors... she came. It was our first investigator at church in like 2 or 3 weeks! I was so shocked! I wanted to cry. Her precious daughters ran up with big smiles and said okay, we came! were ready! I couldnt believe it. We exhausted ourselves trying to keep those little kids perfectly content and we loved every minute of it. We bought them coloring books to keep them busy and we played on the lawn in the back afterwards. I LOVE kids! LOVE LOVE LOVE kids! Watching them all play duck duck goose outside as I would run and chase them and they would scream and laugh their little hearts out, and the smile on my face was so big. I had to just look up at the clouds and thank Heavenly Father for this. My comp and I moved and rearranged and spring cleaned our entire appartment! it looks like new... well... sort of.. but its a great way to start fresh. We are making sure to show our love to our Savior by strict and perfect obedience to all He expects of us. The medina family  (our family pretty much) had us over and they bought us these adorable little hippie purses! I love them so much. They are so giving and so special to us. We are going to do all we can to help them with whatever they need. Our leaders have been super nice to us now and they always make sure to let us know they care. They all wanted to play futbol but we wanted to workout longer so we will play next time.Hna Romo and I promised to make it a goal to make eachother laugh all day and keep our energy up and that too has made our burdens so much lighter. She will just break out into a Disney song or something and make me start singing along or laughing. Or we tell eachother our good old childhood memories and swap ridiculous ideas we have had that failed miserably haha I love laughing. Its SO good for you. Today we found a gym place with weights and futbol and boxing stuff. It was such a good time. my advice for this week... umm.... make sure to LAUGH and do all you can to laugh alot and smile... just smile even when you dont have a reason to. Theres always something funny to think about or something to cheer you or someone else up. Life is good.

 

con amor, ashley

Pictures for this week...

Happy Valentines Day

Hola to all of you incredible friends and family of mine!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY OF LOVE!!!! Its my favorite! This week was a drastic contrast against the back drop of the tough times last week. Today we totally forgot it was Valentines! You forget a lot on the mission its wierd. I cant even remember my favorite songs and that drives me nuts but I know its good to leave everything behind til I get home. I cant even remember peoples names when Im telling stories haha. Its sad but its true, the mission feels like we got sucked back into the pre-exsistance and then when its over we are going to have to get thrown out into the world again haha. So crazy! We woke up and it was our pday but the Elders in our zone wanted us to come play soccer (futbol) in Zarate 2 so we had to travel out there and that alone was an adventure. We needed to go play for once. Ive never played games on a pday before and we needed something to charge us up for the week that we plan on tearing up! Futbol was a blast, Elder Leon from Chile is such an awesome futbol player he was on my team and he showed me some stuff. They are SERIOUS about futbol let me tell you! im going to miss playing futbol with all the Latinos when I get home for sure. Then we came home exhausted and had to head out to walk to town and get groceries. We are budgeting like crazy and thats fine because im used to not eating much anymore. Then we realized, wow we have alot of things to still get done, we have to do laundry and dishes, copy store, emails, and stuff we are doing for our investigators and have this guy come to our house and drill a new lock into the door because we got locked inside our own house when the lock broke the other day! We are so busy because we barely have any time at all to do things. That guy took a while at our house so we had to wait til he was done and now here I am finally writing my email. Theres a fight of some kind of huge going on outside the store but we are just minding our business in here trying to stay out of the way. I just want to say the mission never ceases to amaze me at all it teaches you. The Lord is far more close now than before my mission and I can´t believe the stretch ive taken spiritually. We are still working our butts off and Ive never cried so many tears. Tears of saddness and disappointment but also tears of joy in its purest. Out here you have a lot of time to reflect and wow, looking back over all the events, all the advice of loved ones, all of the wonderful awful beautiful experiences have added up to an amount of gratitude beyond expression. Im so grateful. Even to those times that I was so hurt, it was in those times I grew up the most and reached a better part of my life. Even in those times that I didnt understand, it was in those times I look back and realize I didnt need to, afterall Im not the master potter creating it all, He is. My life is full with how blessed I am by just knowing some of the greatest people on earth. I owe all my acheivments to the Lord and those special people that have encouraged and supported me. Every kind word has gone so far, I want you to know. I hope and pray that all of you have had the ability to see outside, and see all the love even in the most tender of mercies we are showered with. Im humbled out here in Argentina. I used to look for things that I that were so important, and yet, never found a lasting joy. In all honesty Ive found how to keep that joy with me by living off the bare neccessities of life and teaching in the humble homes of people stricken with diseases and poverty here in this wild and beautiful country. My whole life has been filled with struggles but all in all, an adventure, and now im just filling more pages with the beauty of forgetting myself more and the Savior is the one who teaches me how. With reflecting, I have found that I often think, "I should have said this, or done it that way, should have, could have, would have.... but the fact is, you cant change anything thats past and gone, and theres no reason to. The Lord has a much greater plan. He is all perfect, all knowing and with trust in that knowledge, we can feel so grateful that even when we mess up, he has a plan to let us start from nothing or from zero. Not because we are nothing to Him, but because He wants to give everyone a chance to have a pure, clean slate. He wants the VERY BEST for all of us according to our specific needs and desires. I see everyday how so very far from perfect that I am, and how often I talk about things of myself. Never with the intention of doing anything but hoping to bring enlightenment or help to another and yet the greatest help cant and wont come from me at all, that too comes from Him. Ive seen how very subtle and sly Satan is with pride. Whether it be in anything from costly apparell to misjudging someone in thoughts, or even the pride in a photograph. Ive had so much pride before my mission that I never seemed capable of recognizing. Pride gets the best of us all and I want to fight it off every day. I want it so far from me and who I am that I recognize it instantly and correct it. I have really been studying charity lately and how we should constantly be striving to lift one another and do more for people. Thats what the Prophet really emphasized this last conference and I could have been doing a better job at excercising it. Charity never faileth. Its so true. The Lord is charity. Let Him change your point of view and your heart and you will feel the miracles that you are a part of. Thats true happiness.

 

For all of you great friends of mine who have sent me letters, thank you! I read them before bed and highlight the most special parts and they lift me up to want to keep going and do better. Your words mean so much! Family. brooke, thank you so much for your love and the efforts in sending me pics of sweet little Hailey she is such a doll and photos really do make a missionaries day! I want you all to know that Im really sorry for not being good at quickly responding to your emails and letters, I do save them and keep the pile of them by my bed to read them when I need inspiration but also to you great friends who have waited so patiently, I must tell you that Its not that I have forgotten you in the slightest, its just that I have a notebook full of half written letters, ive sent many, and I have some to send tomorrow. BUT at the same time, let me explain in my defense, why mail is difficult. It already takes at the least 3 weeks to get here, then we have to go clear to the office in the city to sign and pick it up. Sending mail takes just as long plus it costs me 10 pesos per one page letter, which is a lot when we are limited to only 180 pesos per week to cover food and transportation and we have a lot of letters to send. So I remembered Elder Lowry, the Presidents assistants advice the day I arrived here and Ill never forget it. He said with sincerety " I love my friends and my family so much, but this work is the most important focus and half way through my mission I stopped writing back because I just couldnt anymore. That sacrifice turned into a great blessing." I love you all so much but I can only send letters once a month now so we can budget our money and you will have to forgive me for not being able to respond more often than that. Its not that Im forgetting you, im just trying to forget myself, in every way that I can so that we can focus entirely on the mission work. PRAY FOR THESE PEOPLE!!! We need to see these miracles that I know can and will happen! You are all in my prayers!

Mark, Im glad that you corrected me and im so glad that you read my blog, you are truly an inspiration for writing so many missionaries and never expecting a thing in return, truly you are an incredible disciple of Christ helping the work more than you know you are! 

Jesse, Chloe, Kendra, Arica, Rory, Marlin, Elders, Barahona, Leaño, Alex, Ben, Skyler, Tereasa!!!! I have NOT forgotten you!

I LOVE YOU GUYS for all the sweet encouraging letters!

 

Robin, Tal, Mom, Brooke, Jocelyn, Nick & Judy, the Sleazaks, Geralann & rick, seelys, and all of my amazing family that I love and appreciate, thank you, I love you and HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! Please tell Hailey thank you for the valentine she made me, what a cutie! and Trey is stinkin cute! I can only imagine how wonderful his prayers are at the dinner table! Joce, hang in there my sweet little sister, its tough at your age sometimes, and things seem like the end of the world, but I promise that if you are strong and you are doing whats right, you WILL be okay, always! You have a big sister and mother and father and great people that love you dearly. You are my angel! keep your head up sweetie and ill pray for you. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo 

 

love, your argentine missionary,

   Hermana Ashley Ann Gillum

Pictures in Feb

Hold onto the yearning....

" I cannot always still the wind, but I will give you the strength to overcome" - Lord

 

Ive learned that I LOVE GOALS! I love setting a goal to keep progressing! In dance and in working out, in school and everything really, goals are great things to have! In the mission we celebrate our 1 month in the field, our 6 months, our year point, and then the end. I just realized this month is one of my favorite months! FEBRUARY!!! My FAVORITE holiday is Valentines and at the end of this month I hit my 6 MONTH MARK IN THE MISSION! that is crazy! I only have 1 year left which is somewhere around 48 weeks right? WOW! Time flies. I have many new goals for this month that I plan to hit.

 

Despite my incredibly inspired week last week and my wonderful experiences and joy for being in Argentina... trials and tests of faith are a consistant basis. This week was SO very hard! At times it seems as though the adversary throws the biggest stumbling blocks in front of missionaries because we are who those on the front lines of this battle.  The rollercoaster of mission life is so back and forth that you wonder whether or not you´re actually going to be able to keep pressing on. Every missionary ive ever known has felt this. In life the majority of the time you have a bit more time to prepare yourself to grasp the iron rod tight enough before the next storm hits with hardship.

 

 The beauty of mission work is that there is no pause, there is no wait, there is only the obligation to keep going full speed whether you like it or not. The mission is one of the greatest tools to learn how to "endure til the end" I suppose. A mission: "for the rest of your life". Just when you think you have learned all you could possibly learn for a while, you are suddenly being stretched and pulled in a whole other direction of lessons needing to be learned. All those who have ever served know this to be true. You cannot fully understand until you are an actual set apart missionary, representing the Lord each and every day witnessing for yourself the efforts of the adversary that seek for nothing more than to destroy happiness and drag the work down. A MISSION IS SO HARD! Thats the truth! But I suppose that is why its so incredible. Just as Joseph said, no unhallowed hand will ever stop this true work from rolling forth.

 

Let me explain a little bit... Our baptisms fell through when we did all we could to secure them, two of them skipped town and were no where to be found. We were so sad for them! I became so frustrated that all of our efforts being lost it seemed. We knew transfers were coming up and we knew that one of us would be packing and getting switched to another area and we felt horrible about all the stumbling blocks we were facing. I felt a bit like Gordon B. Hinckley on his mission, that the time was all wasted because our investigators used their agency to leave town. Ive never prayed so hard. We became physically sick. I ran a fever around 103 with body aches and pains and the whole mess. Medicine out here is difficult to get and the pharmacy people are on vacation! How ironic! haha It was a rough week. I actually wanted nothing more than to speak with my Mom and just hear her voice and have her talk to me about what to do but I couldnt. Total feeling of clostrophobia. we needed soup and sick food but we had hardly any money for the week. It was just a yucky feeling to not be at home with medicine and gaterade. We had to rest in our house full of bugs with no air conditioning running high fevers! Not fun! Not to mention theres a lady that does voodoo where we live and theres always wierd stuff that goes on so we need our building blessed. To top that all off there were neighbors telling us that we should prepare for the end of the world because there have been more and more riots here and disasters. People are going nuts over it. Good thing thats the least of my worries, infact if thats the case, good, Im hoping people will start listening more and start flocking to the baptismal font haha But many things have happened. Unfortunately a bunch of cars were lit on fire (including a mothers that we teach)  All the banks here ran out of money for four days! I couldnt believe it. My comp and I realized that we should have known these trials would come after such an incredible week last week, and so they did. When it rains, it POURS!

 

As of today, im much better and we have recharged our batteries. It could not have been done without the Lords help and the help of the scriptures. We studied them all week and treasured up the answers we recieved. Hermana Romo and i were talking about how all 5 apostles in the MTC warned that we were going into an even more difficult dispensation and they envoked special protection over us and Hermana Romo joked and said, "They said that to you in there!? Oh man I would of stood up with a big smile and said, well thank you, I think ill be going now, that was cute for you all to spiff me up with a cool nametag and all but i think im going to head to my cozy humble abode now!" haha "you didnt say 18 months, you said 18 days right! okay good!" She cracks me up. But its true we know that the world is getting worse and we also know that with the Lord all things are pòssible and we have nothing to fear.

 

My Comp told me a really good story when we were in bed all sick and bummed out. She gets really into it when she tells me stories so im always very entertained. She acted it all out and she said, " okay so here is a great story that the music director told us in the MTC and I want you to apply it right now. He Said that he wanted to bring up the movie Rocky (the boxer) He is training to fight and hes getting beat up and hes making all these mistakes and his trainer is yelling at him. but then the song THE EYE OF THE TIGER comes on.... dun... dun dun dun... dun dun dun ... dun dun duuuuun! and all of a sudden... Rocky is punching the bag 100 miles an hr. and defeating everyone and reaching the top of the stairs with victory! In the Beginning of our mission, we think our mission is going to be like that. All in a matter of five minutes, we think we are going to walk outside with ou theme song, CALLED TO SERVE and we think people are going to want to be baptized left and right. But its not like that, its really hard work. Its at the end of your mission, that you get to make your 5 min. Rocky video of all the highlights and miracles you have experienced in the last 18 months. That is why you hear all these return missionaries at the podium express all their love for the mission is because they no longer focus on the hard times that got them to those miracles. You focus on the few families that did listen and not the 100 that didn´t listen. In the end, the miracles were all worth it." What a great story that was for me to hear & Its so true. Thats why everyone off the mission says, oh I miss it, it was the best, because its at the end that you realize all you wish you knew in the beginning.

 

Job said, "When he hath tried me, I shall come forth.. as Gold!"

 

Hermana Romo found me a quote in her stuff that I absolutely loved and thought I should share with all of you reading this...

its by good old Gordon B. Hinckley - "Many young women are serving missions. Many are preparing to serve. Not because they aren´t married yet or have nothing to do, but because they have a great desire to serve, and are therefore CALLED to the work. The reason so many are going now, is because in this next generation, Heavenly Father will be sending His new priesthood army to earth and wants to send them to the mothers who have been properly trained and taught in the Gospel. What better training can a young woman have, than a mission?" Its apparent that all my life events were leading me up to serving a mission and I feel that I was foreordained for this work clear back in the pre-existance. Not because Im in any sort of way more capable or better than another, but simply because ive been prepared for so long and didnt even know it until that day I put my nametag on.

 

We were stressed over transfers and yet our prayers were answered and Hermana Romo and I are staying together for this transfer! another 6 weeks whoo! We know that President trusts in us to stay together here and its time to prove to him that we can because we love these people and we wont ever give up. The Savior is why we keep going. We never leave Him. No matter who we are, where we are, no matter what our circumstances or difficulties, we NEVER leave Him. He has descended below all things and suffered all the afflictions and sins of the world and in His darkest and loneliest of hours, He NEVER left us. We imperfectly mess things up time after time, and still His arms are stretched forth to encircle us in His love. He is always there, we just dont always remember that. honestly i have a new fire now. A fire to be better for Him.

 

"Having patience when we are asked to wait determines everything. Our souls at times, need to be stretched farther and just like a violin, our souls can only make music when stretched."  When we are brought time and time again to our knees, the Lord will hear our cries and as the scriptures say, if we endure it well, we shall be lifted up. If we close out trial and affliction we may be shutting out vital benefactors made for our refining. The refining of humans, into saints. Through self-mastery and humility blessings are created, and it is by firm faith, that those blessings are recieved. The Lord wants us to be prepared to recieve such great blessings that await us and we are no great judge to say for ourselves when we are truly ready. We, like Nephi must call on the Lord often for guidance and knowledge. Line upon line. precept upon precept. That takes time and patience with ourselves. Ive really learned what it is to TREASURE up, SEARCH, FEAST UPON, & STUDY OUT the words of Christ. Ive learned why that is so important in all aspects of life. It provides us with the best gift we have been given. The Holy Ghost our comforter and teacher. Only when we are worthy of it can it be with us, and with that being known, why would we ever not want that?

ife is Beautiful awful wonderful! Come what may and love it!

 

"dont you give up, you hang on, you keep going, some blessings come now, some come late, some wont come until Heaven, but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come!" - Elder Holland

 

We are teaching many families as of now and we will be fasting often and praying unceasingly.

For all of you praying for the missionaries you are incredible support to us!

You are in all of my prayers and I LOVE you! xoxoxox

 

Con Amor,

   Hermana Gillum

pictures

The biggest change!

Hola familía y amigos! Extraño a ustedes muchisímo! Me encanta la mision en serío. I cannot even begin to express to all of you the changes in me that have taken place but this is my attempt to describe the drastic changes the Lord has now stretched my spirit to fit. I have a tough time even typing these words at this time because of my gratitude for my Savior and for my mission. I feel 10 years more wise and experienced. I have faced some incredibly difficult things out here that have made the great times even greater. Ive had experiences far to spiritual to tell over the internet and Ive felt my whole heart fill up with the light of christ and overflow with love for the people of Argentina. They mean everything to me. So this is my attempt to type as fast as possible and update you on a fraction of my experiences this last week.

 

      Mosiah 26:13 "and now the spirit of Alma (Ashley Gillum) was again troubled; and he(she) went and inquired of the Lord what he(she) should do concerning this matter, for he(she) feared that he(she) should do wrong in the sight of God.... and it came to pass that after he (she) had poured out his(her)  whole soul to God, the voice of the Lord came to him(her), saying...."

 

January 2011 - This was the first day of our new work out and we woke up at 5 a.m. to do a Plyometric Workout on the roof of our apartment. It was awesome and personal study in the morning filled me with personal revelation. We were off to a great start feeling healthy spiritually and physically. We took a remise to Zarate for our district meeting where Elder Macavilca bore his testimony to us and it was incredible. It had me in tears to see this matured Missionary at the end of his mission, bearing the things of his heart that he has learned. He is so humble it amazes me! He said "like Nephi said, the Lord has prepared a way for us to all return home with honor and im not sure if Ive done everything that I was supposed to do or if I have become all that he wanted me to become but I know we all can, we just need to follow all of His teachings and do it His way, that is where pure joy can be found!" I teared up because I love Elder Macavlica with a deep respect for His spiritual perspective. Its been such an honor to have had him as a leader on the mission. I have always seen Elder Macavlica give out many letters and packages to all the missionaries in his group but never have I seen him recieve hardly anything. He is from Peru and very humble and hard working so I thought, it was best to spend a little bit of extra money I had left from when we went without eating one day, and get him a journal that I put pictures of christ in and Im having all his mission friends sign. I plan to give it to him this week because transfers are Feb. 8th and who knows where everyone will get split up to. Our area is all of North Buenos Aires and also Rio Gallegos which is the very tip of the bottom of the world right before Antartica. I would freeze my buns off down there because I dont have any winter clothes so im hoping to staying here where I can enjoy sweating to death everyday like I prefer haha. almost everyone gets sent south though so who knows! we will have to see. If I get sent to the south, I apologize to all of you waiting for letters, letters take even longer down there and everything is much more difficult and far away. Im hoping to stay here in Campana one more transfer because Im just now getting everything down great! But if Im to go to Tigre or Capital or any where else, I know that the Lord knows best and I will greatly miss these families here. Elder Erickson and Leon are always making sure that im stepping up my Español so Ive been improving day by day. We set our for Alejandra Tapias house in the farthest villa Las Acasias to apply the newly recieved revelation from the meeting. We were exhausted beyond belief from all the heat and then God sent beautiful rain that showered down all the jungle greenery and it was a gorgeous evening. Walking in the pouring rain with huge smiles on our faces for the love of Heavenly Father that we saw all around us, expecially in the beauty of the scenery. I remembered a disabled boy that I saw walking near a bus stop and watching what house he went to so i was strongly prompted to visit them. Turns out that was his grandmothers house so we went on a hunt to find his right address and one miracle after another led us to His family. Sometimes we feel like soldiers and the people look at us like we are. The rain and our heavy backpacks with nametags and how we keep pressing forward all feels like we are soldiers here to save these people. Because of this ive been even more grateful for my country because freedom isnt free, its hard work. Just when the day couldnt have been more beautiful with the rain we looked to see a boy in a wheel chair hooked up to machines enjoying the cool weather while he sat under a tin roof of his grandmothers home. As we started to pass by his eyes lit up real big and he started to smile and stare at us. I stopped dead in my tracks. I felt like he knew exactly who we were. I walked up to him and held his hand and said hello. He could hardly speak but he didnt want to let go of my hand. He just smiled so big. The grandmother seemed to be surprised by us taking time to talk with him and she was grateful for our kindness. We set up a later appointment with her and I walked away with tears in my eyes. I have so much love for those with special needs. It teaches me more charity, more patience. To me they are angels sent here to earth to teach us what we lack. Sure enough the exact timing we left him, we ran into the boy we had been searching for that lived near by. As we approached his tiny home barely holding together, I was filled with so much humility and love for these gorgeous children living here. One by one they poured out of the house with curious faces of our purpose for being there and their eyes were the most beautiful color Id ever seen. Then a woman approached us with eyes matching all of theirs and we made the connection that this was the mother of all 7! I was so excited for what we were about to share with them.

January 26, 2011- The best thing about this day was the love of my Heavenly Father that I had come to feel more than ever before. I had literally felt a much closer connection with Him and with my purpose for being here. In my Journal I wrote the words, " the greatest feeling in the whole world, is feeling the God who created me wrap His Fatherly arms around me for who Ive now become."

January 27, 2011- This morning was beautiful, my comp and I woke at 5 am to excercise one the roof and we studied and finished weekly planning. An extremely heavy feeling came over me. A feeling of saddness, lack of revelation, lack of progression, lack of ability and a feeling of despair. I couldnt recieve any answers for what we needed to do for our people. It was so frustrating. I knew that I needed to go into our room, shut the door and be alone for a while. So thats what I did. I knelt down and as it says in the scriptures, I offered up my soul in fervant prayer and conversation with my Heavenly Father. that prayer turned into an hour long conversation with Him for all the things im grateful for and for every single tiny and big thing ive needed to repent for such as any pride, any lack of faith etc. etc. That prayer seemed to be as if I were knelt before His very presence in complete humility and gratitude for the life He has given me. My blanket was covered in a puddle of tears and i trembled while speaking because my whole soul cried out for the benefit of these families and their progress. I felt so small and yet so important. I Encouraged my companion to do the same and so she did. I was so filled with light that I was beaming with energy for the work. That day was filled with miracles.

January 29, 2011- at 6 am Hermana Romo and I were working out on the roof. I felt so great watching the sun rise and starting the day off great. In personal study my comp studied about having more faith and I studied Agency. We both recieved amazing revelation for our investigators. We worked incredibly hard this day. We covered our entire area, speaking to everyone in our path and my shoes were thrashed by the end of the day so I had to super glue them together. What a great feeling it is to wear out yoru shoes in this work. We have great investigators at this time that we love but it has been alot of work. Nadia, is a sweet girl 15 years, but her boyfriend seems to be all that she thinks and talks about. She and her mother look extremely simliar like my mother and me so in a way I see a little bit of me at 15 in her. I try to hold onto a connection when I find one so the spirit can speak even more clearly to them. We have been teaching her that she does not NEED him, she needs to establish her stability and standards on the gospel of Jesus Christ, and for doing that, she will be blessed. She has a baptism date for this month. PLEASE PRAY FOR HER!!! We have a baptism date for Alejandra the mother of Estefania, and also her two daughters Milagros and Susana so PLEASE PRAY FOR THEM TO ALL STAY STRONG! This week was so hard for me because we did some reorganizing. It was time to say goodbye to some of our long investigators that have not progressed on their own, or have progressed but then stop after a certain point for too long. We had to tell the Milla family goodbye because there had been so many times that they have ignored us at their door or have hid from us, but then other times they let us in and they read the Book of Mormon with us, they come to church, they tell us that we are family to them and they love us and are so happy that we have come to them, but then they never return our calls and they ignore our knocks at the door. They progress and make committments then they dont progress. When we told them goodbye, I cried walking away. It was so sad for me because I love them so much but we cannot keep investing time into teaching them when they hid from us. Lucas, the son, is incredible also and he had a date to be baptized but then became missing and never returned our calls. His mother joked about him wanting to work more to save up money and come see me in the united states. So every time we looked for him they said he was working. I still believe that one day, they will be ready to keep their commitments and ready to all be baptized. They are all very amazing people. Hermana Romo re-visited the family of 7 kids and we didnt come empty handed, we brought loaves of bread and banannas to feed the children and that night we taught all of them with their parents the plan of salvation. Their eyes lit up with joy. They couldnt believe the knowledge we shared with them. They felt the spirit so strong and excepted to be baptized. We will set a date on our next meeting. PRAY FOR THEM TOO!! >That night after we finished planning and I bandaged up my blistered feet, I sat on the floor with my companion after our prayer and just cried. I was so happy. Something deep in my heart changed in this moment. I poured out all my thoughts to Hermana Romo and said, " I just had a huge change in my heart today, I know that ive said it before, but today was different, when we were walking through the villa and I saw all the trash in the sewer water in the ditch and all the dirty dogs in the streets, and heard all the blasted happy spanish music from the humble homes barely stable to stay up I looked at the sunshine in the clouds and said, I dont know if I ever want to go back to the united states. I want to be here forever until I help every person here! Argentina is now home to me, I cant leave here until ive done everything I can to help these families!" My comp looked at me and said, "its hitting you! the mission age is now hitting you! congradulations hermana gillum!" haha I loved this new feeling. I cried to her saying " im scared to go back to real life and scared of changing into the person I was before my mission. I was still a good person, but I was not at my full potential like Christ wanted me to be and now here I am feeling so much stronger, so much wiser, so much more grateful and I NEVER EVER EVER want that to go away!" In this moment everything hit me at once. Christ is the center of everything that matters most. As much as I love music and everything about it, I realized that ive even put music before Him before, Ive put many worldly things before Him until now... now He is the music, He is the most important thing to me and I made a promise to spend the rest of my life dedicating myself to bettering this world by doing my part.

January 30 2011- This day was bizzare. I had a sever head cold, but its like 110 degree weather plus humidity. So that doesnt make sense, but the heat really has been making us sick. We ate lunch at a less active members house that we love but the food was not my favorite. I was quite scared when I saw what they pulled off the grill to serve us and my stomach turned upside down. Intestines, heart, and cow brain with salad that had mold on it. I stuck to eating bread and washing the salad down with the pepsi that was poured into my dirty cup. My comp dared me to taste the brain with her and if you know me, you know how squimish I am about the tiniest thing in my food but sure enough I braved up and put a piece in my mouth, as I chewed I tried keeping composure and sure enough I spit it out of my mouth so fast and wiped my mouth with my napkin. I couldnt do it. She was much more tough than me. She ate it all. I felt so bad because they looked at me wierd since it was like their favorite food but there was no way I could eat that stuff. It tasted like salty slimey microwaved sea food and I couldnt handle it. So I remember what my mother used to say she did when she was little at her grandmothers when she didnt like the food and she would feed the dog under the table, so that seemed to save me in this moment also. I went home and threw up, and used a half a bottle of mouth wash. At least I can bee cool like all the other missionaries and say i TRIED!

Today was also a very awesome day, we have had so many big changes. I have such an incredible companion that Ive grown to be best friends with. She means everything to me. She never leaves my side when I need her shes there and not just because she HAS to be haha. She reads me inspiring things from the ensign and the scriptures, she tells me stories before we go to sleep and she makes me laugh all the day long with her great animation! She is a blast and I know that after the mission, we will be lifelong friends. We are planning to visit eachother often. She lives in Los Angeles so we are planning a disneyland trip for 2012 already and im so excited to meet her family and have her come to St. George. She means so much to me. To all you girls out there who want to go on the hardest greatest adventure of your life that will change you for the better.... I SUGGEST YOU SERVE A MISSION! Its by far the best decision ive ever made! Thanks to all of you who faithfully write me, I owe all my success to your encouragement!!!!! MIssionaries need support of loved ones and you are all helping the work move forth!
I   LOVE   YOU    ALL   SO    MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xoxoxo

til next time, chao for now, suerte y besitos!!!!

 

con amor,

 Hermana Ashley Ann Gillum