Sister Kristy Gilmer

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 :)