hasta verr.....OR NOT

Hola famìlia y amigos en la misìon y de casa! Primera... gracìas por todo lo que hacen y por sus oracìones!

ME ENCANTA LA MISÎON en serìo! There is not greater feeling then being a Missionary. With time my love and my gratitude for serving in this work only grows to greater extents. This is the best chapter of my life by FAR!

  Even though im used to getting like 25 emails every pday, and today I only recieved one email and nothing from my family... I know you guys still love me and you must just be super busy. I just hope everythings going okay... I love you guys and you know that I just dont like to worry about how you are doing so im going with faith that the Lord is taking good care of you and I will keep you in every personal prayer.

  Transfers were given last night at 10:00 pm and our leaders played a mean joke and said im going to el Sur (south) with the freezing snow and penguins... I mean that would be a cool experience and everything but at this time that would just be a huge shock and I didnt bring any winter clothes to Argentina thinking I wouldnt need any anyway. But nope.. no changes still... Im still in my first area, in Campana Buenos Aires with my best friend and loyal companion the infamous and always so charitable Hermana Romo from Los Angeles California! Shes my girl and I love her SO much! So let me tell you the funniest part about NOT transfering to any where new... Hna. Romo and I have had SO many struggles in this area here the last two transfers and we literally worked our butts off but things were falling apart left and right and we were slightly worried about this next transfer and what was going to happen. So we both had this wayyy strong feeling I was leaving and all these other people in our area and other missionaries were like yeah, you have been in your first area pretty long so i bet you will get switched out this time... Long story short, I basically had a farewell in our ward and the bishop asked us to bare our testimonies spurr of the moment and I got up there and cried about how much i love everyone and how much I will miss them. Everyone wrote in my journal saying goodbye and wrote me letters and gave me gifts and Mercedes Flores (such a sweet heart) was crying because I wouldnt be able to be at her quinceñera (big 15th bday) and just a bunch of stuff....... hahaha boy do I feel dumb now... haha Im going to show up on Sunday and evere is going to be like heyyy... what are you still doing here haha! Lesson learned im not ever saying goodbye again, if it happens it happens. But what this does mean, is i can finish what I started with hermana romo and we are going to kick it into full speed. Im so excited to be able to get all these divorces and marriages finalized that we are trying to and see our long time investigators finally baptized!

  We did have a hard time during our struggles in the last two transfers and we started wondering what it was that we were supposed to learn when everything feel through... but then the last two weeks have been bliss! We have in all honesty, learned more in these struggles than any other time in our missions. Those struggles and humility and hard work brought us to cherish even more the little things. We had countless miracles and cried so many tears of joy. Those tears and prayers of ours and all of yours, have been answered. During the last week Susanna changed her feelings about wanting to be baptized and everyy started to fall away from all we taught them, we felt so worn out spiritually but GUESS WHAT, Friday I had a dream that we needed to go back to Susana and have her be baptized this Sunday and help strengthen her family through revelation that we recieved. Well thats what we did... on Saturday we went to her house, spoke with every single member of her family, interviewed them and helped work out there problems personally then asked them all to listen to our lesson and encourage Susana to be baptized. A miracle took place. Everyones attitude changed for the better. Later that day we picked her and her sister up to attend a baptism of the bishops daughter, there, she felt peace. After that we taught her lesson 4 and we had her read and pray about the Book of Mormon.... this was so beautiful. She felt so strongly that she NEEDS TO BE BAPTIZED SUNDAY AND THAT THIS IS THE TRUE CHRUCH. She said she now has no doubts whatsoever. So ironically our church runs out of water that night!!!

   but we just call the other Elders in Campana 2 and this Sunday at 4:30pm beautiful 15 year old, Valerìa Susana Callejas was surrounded and supported by many who love her, as she entered the waters of baptism and became a brand new person. She was baptized by my very first baptism, my brother and friend, DAVID MEDINA!!! She and her family were in tears and all smiles along with me and my companion. we put our arms around eachother and cried and said this is why we are here. This is why its hard... this is why its so worth it. Susana said that she feels so much more complete and so happy to be able to be with her family forever. That girl means EVERYTHING to me. EVERYTHING! We hung out with her all day so that she could come to the Farewell of all the other missionaries who end their mission this transfer. The Medina family (our family) haha took us to San Fernando with Susana and her sister so that we could introduce her to our wonderful President and his Wife and hear the testimonies of others that share her similar experience. They had so much fun. We sang Hasta Ver to all of our fellow friends that are heading home now and they were so sad to leave and not be missionaries anymore but they will never be forgotten. They are leaving a legacy in the hearts of many just as we are doing right now. We took many pictures with our sweet miracle Susana, she was attached to my hip and I couldnt stop kissing her cheek and hugging her hahaha I was so happy! She reminds me of my cousin Hailey when she was 15 and since I miss my sister and cousins so much, I have found comfort in the fact that these people are like my family also and I want the very best for them. I was anxious to shake the hand of my President and tell him how thankful I am for him and for this opportunity and of the miracle we had. He was overjoyed for us!

   As we were driving home from San Fernando I starred into the moonlight that touched all the green fields and I thought... I love my family so much, but I know they are under the same moon and I know there is a place being prepared for them for my service here in this beautiful land. I thought for the first time, as much as I love them... my thoughts are so occupied by the concerns I have for the families here and im finally the fully focused, fully trusting missionary the Lord wants of me right now. I know that the Lord calls us in our weaknesses to show forth His power... I know that His plan for me is far greater than anything I could possibly plan for myself so as the song goes... I will go where you want me to go dear Lord I will be what you want me to be! Im so excited for what lies in store for us here in this time with these BEAUTIFUL people!

  With amazing Elder Bond, and Elder Davis as our zone leaders still and Hermana Romo at my side... im going to prove myself to the Savior. I have so much faith that we can baptize all of these families we have in mind. I have this desire to stretch myself and push myself. To think that God in Heaven would reach out to us and touch our hearts telling us it was US that needed to be here for these miracles... US specifically! Thats too good to be true it seems. But I firmly believe all my life Ive been prepared for Susana... and to finally know that at last Ive found her and brought her to know the true path of peace back to her Father in Heaven, its a miracle. You only get your mission once... so here we go...

thank you for your love and support it means so much...

gird up your loins, fresh courage take, keep pressing on you guys!

in the end ALL IS WELL ALL IS WELL!!!!!

if its not well... its not the end!

 

I LOVE YOU

con amor y besìtos,

xoxox hermana Ashley Ann Gillum

 

pictures galore!

Trip to Capital...

WHATS NEW EVERYBODY?!?! Hope all is well!

This week Hna. Romo and I were able to travel to the offices in San Fernando and meet up with all the missionaries that needed to travel to Capital for all of our paperwork for becoming an official Argentine. Its quite the process. It was so nice to finally talk to everyone since I can speak Castellano (arg. spanish) much more fluently now haha. We got to talk with the new couple that replaced the Kroff´s and they are pretty overwhelmed with everything so far but they are doing a pretty great job at staying calm. Everyone in the offices has to remain calm to stay sain and they all seem to do it so well. Its impressive haha. I hope to be able to learn the attributes of Elder Peterson when I return home. That Elder could be hanging off of a cliff and he would still be as calm and collected as ever haha.

 I had the great privledge of getting to know the other Sister Missionaries much better and it was SO NICE to be able to do that since we are always surrounded by Elders the majority of the time, it was nice to get the girls together and talk of all the miracles we have been seeing in our areas. I met Hermana Lyons who is AWESOME! Shes from Colorado Springs and shes darling I told we have to hang out after the mission. Traveling to Capital is always a good adventure. On our back we let our newer Elders from our area talk us into taking a "short cut" back home and that turned into us getting so lost in Capital looking for one collectivo bus amongst 100,000 others racing around the worlds largest bus stop filled with billions of people. We saw some pretty crazy stuff. Long story short we ended up walking to the train stop instead and getting on a train. Luckily we didnt finish one of our sandwiches we got because in the train station we found a very poor family with starving children. I saw the little baby in a diaper eating styrofome and I bent down to look at her and ask her where her mother was. I told her not to eat that stuff and then her sister came and told me that they only have that to eat... it was true because all the other family had been eating it also. My sweet companion pulled out our sandwich and gave it to the young kids and it disappeared in a matter of seconds. I felt so helpless. I wanted to give them clothes and everything and I wanted to take those children and give them a bath but they were only one family of millions that crossed our path who needed food so badly. It broke my heart and humbled me, as the mission often does. I hope to always remember how I have felt in these moments so I might always want to give to everyone. On the train as we left Capital I saw all the incredibly bad villas filled with garbage and homeless families and then in the midst of all the mess in the far distance, I saw two glowing white shirts!!!! I saw Elders walking and I smiled so big. Among all the despair we have angels who are sacraficing so much to live in all of this and take these people out of darkness to make them saints and bring them everlasting hope! What a beautiful thing it is to be a part of such a large service all around the world and to think that we are all in this together in the church. MISSIONARY WORK ROCKS!

  This whole week we have been feeling really sick over some food we ate and over the changes in the weather. The mission sure does take a toll on you. With the Tsunami in Japan and Chile on watch for one also everyone is still talking about the end of the world and we are trying to explain that for this very reason, we cannot procrastinate our decision of action. We must act NOW, we must help others and help ourselves NOW, we must all cling tight to the iron rod. In a world with so many calamities and so much sorrow, we need light. We need people who spend less time worrying about having the latest fashions and are more concerned with taking care of others and paying it forward. I never eat food without being grateful for every bite now, because I have seen so many children who starve and cry because of the pain of such hunger. "true success is not in what we TAKE UP but what WE GIVE UP"

   Olga, who we considered to be the "perfect investigator" really sucked all the energy out of me this week but it taught me a lesson. She called us her angels and said that she knew God sent us to her to bring her the truth shes always been searching for. She reads the Book of Mormon and says I KNOW THIS BOOK IS TRUE and I know Christ came here to the americas. She watched the first vision and almost cried. She exclaimed HERMOSO. meaning beautiful. she said she knows everything is true. So the next step was to set up a baptism date with her so that she may take Christs name upon her and come into the fold of gathered sheep and recieve a remission of all her past pain and sins. She starred at us and said no. she said shes been Catholic too long to change her religion and shes scared to commit to something else. She ended up dropping us because she said baptism scared her. We were really disappointed and kept blaming ourselves for what we might have done wrong but we are not going to give up hope we know that shes just confused right now and needs to continue reading on her own. we know she will see the true actions she should take and we are at peace that the Lord will guide her to do so.

  Lorena showed up for church again with all of her daughters WHOOO im so happy for her... Her husband is coming around and softening up to us, he says that he has seen a greater change of peace in his home with us and with her coming to church. He is going to talk to his work about not working during sacrament so he can come with his family but it will be a miracle if his work will work something out with him because he is a supervisor. They desire to be married as soon as possible so that Lorena may be baptized and they want to work towards a temple marriage. The only thing thats tought is the fact that marriage certificates are much longer of a process out here considering all the problems and time and travel that goes into it. We will do all we can to help. Also Flia Florez needs their papers to go through and we are in that process so they can also be baptized and go to the temple.

 ´Bringing food to our Bishop was a plus. He seems to trust and appreciate us even more and its great to see. Ive really reflected alot this week and its been great to do. Staying focused on this work is the most important thing for us to do. I do not want to return home and lose the characteristics I have learned on my mission. I want to make sure that they become who I am naturally so that I might be all the Lord wants me to be. As a wife, mother, sister, daughter, and as a friend. I want to always be a missionary at heart. Letting virtue garnish my thoughts unceasingly in all cases. This is my greatest wish on my mission for myself. Refining my life with patience, love and wisdom, step by step.

  Susanna will be getting baptized this upcoming Sunday and im so pumped about it. Her mother still needs to find a place to live in order to be baptized and she ís ever so anxious about it. Just as Holland has said, these people are not just baptismal statistics, they are real people, with real feelings and needs and they are all children of God. They need the peace that this gospel has to offer them for all of their needs and therefore baptism, is a process. Its hard hard hard mission work, taking a lot of time to bring forth a few miracles, but those few are golden. They are so rich and so worth it. We are just mining away to find the golden moments that do exsist and just need to be uncovered. The Lord makes it possible and we are just His instruments for His power to work through us. I cannot imagine not being a missionary. Not having a tag and not having a special setting apart that protects us. Its great to be a missionary.

  So heres some random things I wanted to tell you for your entertainment, my wonderful always so bright and watchful companion haha FELL INTO A SEWER when we were asking for directions hahaha she has a huge bruise on her leg it was scary until she popped out of it again and then we laughed harder than ever. Shes a great sport when it comes to laughing about stupid stuff that happens to us. We were walking down this street and had a strong feeling to move to the other side of the road, and right then, with no wind at all, a huge tree branch fell to the ground. If angels were not protecting us we would have definately had some damage haha. I had a crazy cramp in my leg in my sleep and in my dream I was like being attacked by an alligator in the zoo here, so I was literally dead asleep and I was in serious pain screaming in spanish haha my comp rushed over and was asking what was wrong... haha that was pretty funny to laugh about the next morning. So march madness is here eh, crazy, dont worry Im not thinking about how im missing out on it, im just telling you all that you better enjoy it for me. Love all of you guys so much, stay safe, pray always. xoxo 

til next week, chao for now I love you all

CON AMOR,

     Hermana Ashley Gillum

Tender Mercies of our Heavenly Father

Wow I really learned a lot this week. I learn a lot every week as a missionary but wow this week was beautiful. BEAUTIFUL.

I have a true testimony that miracles of the Lord follow after you fast and pray unceasingly. Hermana Romo and I have just been

getting even stronger with the teachings of the spirit. We studied a lot about knowing God and hearing his voice daily.

 

   In John 17 verse 3 we read that this is life eternal, that we might know thee the opnly true God and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Mosiah 26 GOD IS LOVE. Ive learned to know Him we must love as He loves. To know Him we must ACT not just speak. We must

keep His commandments to recieve the blessings. To know Him is to have order that we might become more like Him and understand

His bounds and promises. Then we will come to understand more fully, His deep love for each of us individually.

Mosiah 5 vs. 12-16 the most important part of a family being sealed in the Temple forever, is the sealing we each have specifically to our

Heavenly Father. "therefore I would that ye should be steadfast and immovable always abounding in good works THAT the Lord God

Omnipotent might seal you HIS!" Thats beautiful. He loves us so much that He wants to bind us to Him for all Eternity and if we are

perfectly bound to Him we will forever be bound to eachother. We must know His voice to be able to follow Him. We must study His

words out in our mind in order to be prepared for His coming again to the earth. His voice is what helps us to endure til the end.

So that we might have a perfect brightness of hope and be found at His right hand at the last day.

   The scriptures tell of our flesh being weak. I have come to understand this more fully. The mortal frame is a great test of obedience

to purity and holiness.We cannot have spiritual strength without first learning self control and respect and love for our physical bodies.

Satan´s plan is to trick everyone to find love and appreciation in the things of the world and the only way to true and lasting appreciation

is that of our Heavenly Fathers plan. Our Fathers plan is to make us all perfect through His Son. If we understood the depth of His plan

for us, we would begin to taste only a part of the pure love he contains for us!

   As far as our investigators go... wow... THANK YOU HEAVENLY FATHER AND THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PRAYERS!

Ernesto has over 3 assistencia meaning that he can and needs to be baptized BUT... the night we found him that he accepted and

desired baptism, he told us he was only worried about what the Evangelical people would tell him and think of him. There is an evangelical

church on every corner in random buildings with random pastors that scream at the top of their lungs and im not kidding, it freaks me out

everytimem but they are super quick to tell our investgators NOT to listen to us. Its sad. They practically force or threaten people sometimes

and the people fear of what the out come will be if they do listen to our message. But we still had faith in him and we planned to baptize him

on Sunday. We got a remise to drive out to the villa and get him and the evangelicals took him to their church. So we went to get Lilianna and

her kids, but they were super sick... so then we went to Alejandras still hopeful and happy... we didnt give up hope. We got there to find the dad

and he said they already left to come to church! We pull up to the church and guess what we saw!!!! ALEJANDRA and her pregnant daughter

that walked ALL THE WAY FROM THE FARTHEST END OF OUR AREA TO GET TO SACRAMENT MEETING IN CHURCH ON TIME!!!! I just

cried. I was so happy. To top that off she says with a smile, "Hermanas, heres some money, its not much, but I want to pay my tithing, I want to

change my life and im ready to do it, it means everything to me and my family and even though im not baptized yet I want to be, can I please pay!"

we could NOT believe this!!!!! All thanks to the inspiration of Rory, sharing with me a mission story when he was in africa how a guy walked all the way to

church just to be there! THANK YOU RORY your story motivated our investigators!!!!! Sacrament was beautiful with all of the wonderful testimonies! I dont

even remember what I even said this time I just got up and remember saying, as missionaries we work SO hard and see few miracles but ALEJANDRA you walked here! Thats a huge miracle! and Lorena! You came with your daughters again! thats a miracle! thank you all for the miracles you are in our lives! Their faces lit up! I couldnt

stop smiling while i was up there.

 READY FOR OUR EVEN MORE WONDERFUL MIRACLE... So we had Lorena watch the Restoration video with Alejandra and Estefania and geuss what!

They all were so overpowered by the spirit and felt so good. Hna Romo got up and asked what they liked and what they thought... and they said, "all of it, I know

its all true, I just know it" Hna Romo said,  " thats wonderful, and how can we KNOW its true?" They said "pray to god" and she said, "exactly! Alejandra, you prayed,

and what was your answer?" She said, " I know its true, ALL of it, He told me, I wanted to bare my testimony today but im still just to shy but I know this is His true

church." Lorena responded that she has still not yet prayed about it. So getting all kneeled down together, My wonderful companion asked her to pray to know as if

we were not in the room at all and pray from her heart.... this was the best part... So everyone with closed eyes Lorena starts out by saying "nuestro Padre Celestial,

con TODO mi corazon...." and just tears... pouring tears.... powerful peace in the room... she says " no puedo no puedo" meaning I cant, I cant... She was SO overwhelmed.

and before anyone else could say anything at all... Alejendra crawls to Lorena and takes ahold of her hands and with gentleness says, "yes you can, you can, we will do this

together ok!" She starts saying the prayer... "our heavenly father, we want to know if what ive learned is true, if this is your church that you want us to be baptized in in the name of

Jesus Christ, Amen!" Silence.... peace..... Hna Romo asks what is stopping her from baptism and what answer she has now recieved.... She eventually says shes afraid because

all her family and all her life shes been Roman Catholic... Alejandra once again works the miracle and says.. "ITS okay, dont be afraid, I was catholic before too, It doesnt matter what religion you have been, God loves all of His children and he has just made a way for us to all know the whole truth. He doesnt want to take away from the truth you have, he just wants to give you more!" We told her... its true, its like a puzzle, you have a picture in mind.. but some pieces still dont fit quite at perfectly... but Heavenly Father has restored truths in the earth for us that create an even bigger and better more glorious picture than we imagined. Lorena announced she wants to get officially married to her husband and desires to be baptized as soon as possible because she knows with all her heart that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. I fell to the floor in amazement. I couldnt hold back the tears. this is a very special time for me.

We will be baptizing Alejandras wonderful daught Susanna next week and are still working on helping Alejandra and Lorena with seperation and marriage to be baptized as soon as possible.

  On Sunday we visited our wonderful bishop and brought him food and David Medina and Claudia have been helping us so much with the mission work! We were prompted to walk up this dirt road and we saw an older lady walking up on the opposite side... I said... Me gusta su camisa, muy linda! (your shirts pretty) we continued to walk because most of the time old grandmas are set in there religions and ways already and dont like us much but she smiled and said real softly... thank you... whats beautiful is you sharing the word of God.... So you bet we stopped dead in our tracks to turn around and sure enough she cried to us asking for help and to share our message with her because she has suffered from much abuse in her life and her son suffers from cancer... numerous trials.. but nevertheless she KNOWS God is our Father and during our lesson she called us her angels to answer her prayers. She heard the plan of salvation and where we are going after this life and she said... WOW... this is what ive been missing... this is why I have never fully understood the Bible, and I read it all the time! hahaha WOWWWW MIRACLE! This stuff NEVER happens for us! We plan on baptizing her soon so see her joy become complete. Not to mention we are teaching a family that owns a bakery that said they want us to come by and pick up their extra left out stuff and take it to the families we teach who are suffering from lack of food. We have fed families already that have been so grateful. ITS THE BEST THING IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!! I want to feed everyone in the whole world! We love our people here. LOVE them. We love this Gospel. Its incredible!

Thank you for your help, and prayers, and love... you all are playing such a big role in saving and helping these people simply by your prayers... they ARE heard! So thank you!

 

Mom, loved your email thank you! Thanks for the sweet pics of the boys Tal! JOCELYN Im SO proud you bore your testimony and pictured me encouraging you to go up and do it! whooo hoo girly! Your missionary sister is overwhelmed with joy to picture such a precious site! I love you and you are so sweet my angel! Theres always more I wish I could say but... Ill just have to tell you all in person how wonderful the mission truly is... wow... theres truly no greater work. Im so happy. EVEN THOUGH im missing MUSIC more than I can even put into words... the mission is such a wonder, I needed to meet these ppl and these elders and sisters at this time to truly reach my potential and joy that Heavenly Father always had planned for me... this is a dream and im so blessed to be living it. No matter where you each are on your journey... keep going... dont get in the way of Christs light and He will bring you to shine so very bright!

 

   Today we went with the Elders and Presidents wife to the Zoo in Escobar we had a blast!

It was lots of fun but we are left with little time! So ill attach some pics for ya to see and talk to ya next week!!!

                                                                       I      LOVE      YOU     GUYS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

con amor,

Hermana Ashley Ann Gillum

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