October 15th, 2012

Okay!

So this week was pretty normal. Just a lot of running around and trying to meet goals. We are still in the finding stage and we are finding but it is a slow process. But When we look for them we still see miracles and blessings every day. It is truly a tender mercy of the Lord. 

Okay, are you ready? Normal week, but AMAZING weekend! VICTOR WAS BAPTIZED!!! He continues to amaze me. The ward was so supportive! there were probably 50 people there at the baptism. And most importantly his mom, brothers, aunt, and grandma came. His mom said that she see can see the changes in him and how he is just happier. She will hopefully be talking to the spanish missionaries soon! Everything leading up to his baptism was just awesome! So many people in the ward reached out in so many ways with rides, clothes, refreshements for the baptism, and just being a friend. He is just a part of the ward now and was even before he was baptized. It has been a blessing to watch him grow and to play a small role in his conversion. His testimony and faith is bigger than life and he cant wait to recieve the priesthood and go on a mission soon! 

When Elder Pieper came a several weeks ago, he promised us that there were people out there who had been prepared to hear the Gospel. And that if we would work hard and focus on our purpose as missionaries and strive to find those people that we would. Victor was prepared. He was so ready. 

This is a hard work, but it is a great work, and I am so grateful to be a part of it. I will send pictures of the baptism and a few extras hope probably next week.

That was the sweet news, now for the bitter. Our sisters are leaving us! The sisters that we shared an apartment with are getting transfered out! And not only that, we arent getting new sisters! We are now the only sisters in our zone and our appartment is going to be big and quiet, but I know that it will be great! That being said you can guess that I have made it through my first transfer and this week starts transfer number two. Same companion, same area. Nothing much changes when your getting trained. But I know it is going to go by fast so I am just trying to soak up all I can. The ASL elders got moved out of our district but we got to keep the chinese elders and I think we are getting spanish elders- so we are still tri-lingual :)

Today we got to wash our car! woot woot! Its nice to put your toes in the grass and get a little wet. It was also sister Grahams birthday! So we washed her van too :) She lets us wash our car, do laundry, really whatever we need. Lets be honest here- we have a key. I think I have told you that before but its pretty crazy. The ward is so good to us. We have another couple in the ward, the Bonillas; they coordinate our dinner calendar- which is always full. Anyway they have a candy droor in their fridge and get offened if we dont walk in, make ourselves at home, and grab a zip lock bag and fill it with chocolate before we leave. ey ey ey! Good people. 

Im trying to think of anything else exciting thats happened but the baptism is pretty much all that has been on my brain. Sorry, I didnt write things down through the week. I will tell you though. We are teaching three little  boys and they are the cutest! There are acctaully four but The youngest is seven so we cant technically count him as an investigator. they are awesome though! They came to Victors baptism and are even more excited to be baptized now!!!! they are so fun to teach. Their great uncle is a member and he is awesome. He is an older man from Louisiana :) And picks on me ALL the time. Its fun. 

Wish me luck on a new transfer! I LOVE YOU BIGGER THAN LIFE. 

My letters during the week have dwindled. I guess that is normal but still sad. lol. So I would love to hear from you.  I love love love you. Ya'll have an amazing week!! 

 

PEACE& BLESSINGS,

Sister Gilmer :)

October 9th, 2012

18 and 19 year old missionaries! WHAAAAT! There are going to be so many more missionaries!!! This is such a great work and these are the last days! How exciting is that!!

Okay so lots to tell you in a short amount of time. First of all thank you so much for your e mails and thoughts about conference. I loved hearing them!! and thanks for the pictures of the puppies, haha. I miss those little stinkers. 

Some one gave us a buttercup squash the other day. About six minutes in the microwave and they are apparently pretty tasty. Sorry I didn't e mail yesterday. I guess it was Columbus day. Not that any one celebrates Columbus day, but the library was still closed.

Halloween!! Are you so excited for Halloween!!! ??? I am :P I got some Halloween stickers and some pumpkin spice granola cereal to get me in the mood. Hahah. I wish we could decorate! Seems like everyone decorates here so that is fun.

We talked to one lady Sunday who was burying some bones in her yard and she was the sweetest thing. We actually talked to her for about 20-30 min and were late for our dinner appointment but it all worked out. We are hoping she will call us.

So we have been teaching a family and they are wonderful but not progressing and its been a little heart breaking. We got to a point where we were just stuck. We have taught them for two months, they know most of the lessons, we have brought so many ward families over and done FHE's and all kinds of stuff and nothing. They wont keep their commitments! We didn't know what to do and kept praying and the other day the mom called and said they were going to stick with their church and just going to try to be more faithful in their own religion. At first I was pretty sad but thinking about it. Maybe we just needed to nurture the seed that had been planted in them. Their faith in Christ was strengthened and I am grateful to have been a part of it and to be able to know them and see their family grow.

Its amazing to read the scriptures as a missionary. With such a concentrated focus on the Gospel things stick out at me that I have never taken notice of before.

You know how I said I was learning it all over again in the mtc? Well I'm learning it all over again, AGAIN. But its the best. One of my favorite talks in Conference was Elder Bednar. He rocked it! It is not simply good enough to have a testimony but we must be continually converted to Jesus Christ by His Gospel. AHH! Amen to that. It is by doing the little things every day that helps us really build our foundation in Christ (Hel 5:12) that helps us be continually converted. What a blessing!

Other favorites from conference- Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Holland! OHHH so good! I can't wait for the Ensign to come out! Well I have almost made it to the end of my first transfer! CRAZY! Almost two months. It goes fast. And yet I still find time to miss you. But the blessings and miracles are unreal. With the business of normal every day life cut out... although we are still busy, I find myself noticing and appreciating so much more than I did before. Like washing the car is actually fun! Its the closest we can get to playing in water. :) But for real, its fun. I guess there is just a lot I have taken for granted in life.

The sisters are great. My district is great. I got to see my mtc district today! It was awesome! Seeing Elder Albright was the highlight of my week. HAha. He is the best. Its amazing to watch people grow and also to come to understand how much I need to grow. But no matter what our strengths or weaknesses, Heavenly Father makes up for what we lack when we align our will with His and give it all to Him. I'm so grateful for that. I love you so much and look forward to hearing from you soon. Go to the temple a little extra for me. I just went and am already beginning to miss it. We are still looking forward to a Baptism on the 14th! There is nothing more exciting than watching someone take that step.

 

Sincerely,

Sister Gilmer

love ya!

Hello :)

This week has been a good one. If Im being honest, it was hard and stressful at times. But when you get to see the miracles, It makes it all worth it.

You wouldnt believe I have already warn out two pair of shoes... crazy. I guess that is a good thing. So there is a lady in the ward from Louisiana! She is an older black lady and her name is Sister Betty Harris. She had us over for lunch and made homemade fried chicken, fresh greens, and cornbread. Everything about her is Louisiana and let me just tell you, I felt at home.

Its interesting where the little tender mercies of the Lord come in through the simple things like that. While we were their she also had a friend over who had lunch with us. we just chatted and then at the end shared a spiritual thought. I dont even remember what sister Harris said but her friend replied "well how do you know that? I want to know where I came from." We had a lesson on the plan of salvation.. coolest thing.

The other day was a doozie. I think it might have actually been last week and I just forgot to tell you but I have to mention the Haygoods and how wonderful they are to us. They are a senior couple serving here in Riverside and they are in our ward. I was having a hard day and we went up to the office and brother haygood gave me a blessing we talked for about an hour. Again, dont worry. This is truly the best expierience of my life, it just gets hard sometimes. But there are so many wonderful people here taking care of me. But he also gave me some scriptures that he used when he first came out. They are full of lessons, quotes, and cheats haha. It was really sweet and definitely made me feel loved.

Remeber how I told you about Sister Jenkins. Well there are always stories about sister Jenkins. She was telling us the other day about going trick or treating on her scooter dressed up as a cowgirl singing Christmas carols. She said she comes home with lots of candy though so l guess whatever works. We dont get to go out on halloween. We actually have to stay inside; but, the haygoods are trying to get permission for all the sisters to come over and watch a movie(mission appropriate of course). So that will be fun. Of course I will be thinking of you and missing Hocus pocus. Yall should do something fun for your anniversary! Im only going to be gone so long :) might as well enjoy it! haha.

Oh! We knocked on doors for the first time this week! It wasnt as bad as I thought and people are really nice for the most part. Usually we do street contacting and go to parks and we are able to talk to a lot of people that way but we tried the whole door to door thing. We do things I thought I would never do.... dad plug your ears. Like talk to homeless people. DONT WORRY! we do it during the day, we listen to the spirit and the lord is protecting us :) love you.

GENERAL CONFERENCE IS COMING UP!!! Im a little excited. I hope you guys are planning on watching it. I know you are :) 

And oh my goodness thank you for the cute little cards here and there! They help more than you will ever know! You guys are the best! 

We went to the temple the other day and and it was an ASL session!! It was pretty sweet but I had to ignore the ASL screen after a while because I was paying more attention to that than the session. It was pretty cool though. Its amazing what a strength attending the temple is. Im so grateful we get to go.

Okay more miracles! We had some pretty sweet ones this week and I have about twenty minutes left so I will share a few. We have an area book that just keeps records of our investigators so no one gets forgotten. So we go through it as often as we can and try to contact people that we have met with in the past. So we came to this one kid named Junior. It said he had a gang background, etc. We hesitated on calling for just a moment because as sisters there are some situations we dont get into but decided to call him anyway.

Ready for a miracle? No one answered the phone and we were ready to close our planning when someone calls back from the same number. It wasnt junior, it was a woman who didnt even live in our area; but, she said that her children live here with their father who is not a memeber and they havent been to church in a long time. She prayed that they would find a way back to church just that morning. We havent been able to meet with them yet but we have stopped by and talked to the dad and called the daughter and will hopefully be meeting with them soon.

Prayers are answered? Of course they are! We went to visit another man who had met with the missionaries quite some time ago and unfortunately he has just had a beer. BUT. He was still impressed and interested and we are going back to meet with him when he is more coherant. But we talked with him about the restoration of the church and it was a really good discussion. Now for my pride and joy. I told you about our investigator who is on date for baptism. He is amazing! We took him to a baptism last night and he said he cant wait for his baptism. Its in two weeks!!! He goes to any church thing he can during the week and always comes to church. He is excited about genereal conference and keeps all his commitments. This kid rocks! He even fasted yesterday and he is so smart! Every lesson with him is the best. He just gets it, and even when he asks questions ... he's like, yeah that makes sense. We talked to him about the word of wisdom and he was totoally cool with it. Then he asked if their were other restrictions asking specifially about tattoos and we talked to him about it. He replied " ok, good".

When we talked to him about the priesthood, he said " thats a big responsibility but I think I can live up to it". We had a lesson with him yesterday and he prayed for more challenges so he could prove himself. He is amazing. He is so prepared. I may have alerady said this but I feel like I walked into a miracle. Its awesome! He is awesome! The work is awesome! I love love love it!

Well those are the biggies this week. I wish I could share all of the wonderful things that happen. Its incredible.

Well thats all for today. I love you all so much. Im so grateful for you and all that you do. I feel so blessed to have your support and love. It means the world to me. Im so grateful for the Gospel. It is the biggest blessing. Love you big BIG. More. Better. and Best. Have an amazing week!! 

Okay, LOVE YOU!

 

Love,

Sister Gilmer :)