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
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