FW:

>
> I love this family and the Aldershot ward!

Hello wonderful Family!

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Megan Gwilliam <megan.gwilliam@myldsmail.net>
Date: November 30, 2015 at 4:52:33 AM MST
To: Denise Gwilliam <denisegwilliam@outlook.com>, Bruce Gwilliam <brucegwilliam@yahoo.com>, Kyle Gwilliam <kylegwilliam@gmail.com>, Lindsey Gwilliam <lindseygwilliam@outlook.com>
Subject: Hello wonderful Family!

Hey Family!!!

I love hearing from you SO MUCH! It sounds like you had the greatest week! And I am so glad! THanksgiving sounds like it was SO FUN! Oh, how fun to have family over! I bet it was the best. And hopefully delicious! We have one american family who lives in the ward and we guilted them into making us thanksgiving dinner thursday night. It was so great and all night they just kept joking with me saying how they were only doing this for me and hoping this would help me feel at home. It was the nicest of them and I am so grateful for incredible ward memebers. Build strong relationships with the ELders of our ward if you can. I didn't realize until now how much it means to just have members you can turn to! :) So hopefully it was fun to have them over this last week! Probably not as great or as fun as Sister Stephenson and I but im sure they are great! ;)

And mom and dad! You guys are the GREATEST! I got a call early thanksgiving morning here from TESCO telling me that the card hadn't gone through. I tried to get them to call you just to let you know that there were problems but the whole Idea of your number not starting with a 0 (all english numbers do) just really confused them and I eventually just had to cancell it. BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH! Even though the food didn't show up I just can't even say how much it just helped me have the greatest day still! It really is the thought and it was the most lovely thought and I just LOVE YOU! So thank you so much for thinking of me and cute sister stephenson and grannie annie too. You guys are the best parents and I love that you had that fun idea!! so It was a bummer the card didn;t go through but im glad you got the call and there weren't other problems with the card. Just silly enlgand making things complicated. BUT I LOVE YOU!!!! Thank you again! Just knowing what you had planned made it the HAPPIEST thanksgiving! :)

THis week was also really different becuase cute sister stephenson got dealthy ill. Fun english fact for ya: In England if you have the flu or a cold you are ILL - not sick. You are only Sick if you are throwing up! Kinda funny! So sister stephenson was Ill becuase she had the worst cold - we think it actually might have been the flu. But with that we were inside/ not working from pretty much Wednesday until Sunday. She slept a lot of that time and I HAD TO STAY INSIDE TOO. OH my goodness. THe first couple of days it wasn't bad. I finished the book of mormon for the 2nd time on my mission which was really exciting! I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON! I hope you all are still reading it as a family and on your own. Are you doing that highlighting thing I told you about from PMG? If you are not START NOW! i PROMISE it will change everything and help you understnad how incredible and powerful the book of mormon can be! So yeah I finished that, went through potentials in the area book, started reading the book of mormon again, organized the area book... yeah. it got a little boring. BUT it was great! I also started the New Testament. I have decided this next transfer I really want to get to know my Saviour more. TO really KNOW him. And so I decided that a good way to do that would be to keep reading the Book of Mormon but also read about his actual life and teachings from the bible. So that was exciting too. I also made her your yummy chilli mom! she LOVES it!! Thank you so much for the cute recipe book you sent over. I use it all the time and love it! THanks so much mom! But yeah. It was an interesting week because of having to be a missionary inside but it taught me so much.

Something that I have loved realizing and remembering being on a mission is realizing how much our Heavenly Father knows us and our needs. He really does understnad and care and his plan is just to help us and love us. The past couple of weeks I really struggled with just being incredible stressed. Which is SO WEIRD for me. I feel like i have always been a laid back, easy going person, but looking back I realized i was just a little bit of a mess. Just the idea of being a leader and so with that I was supposed to have a model area, I wanted to have amazing miracles to be able to share, I wanted these people to progress, I wanted baptisms, I wanted to be EXACTLY obedient, and talk to EVERY SINGLE PERSON, and more times than not I wouldn't measure up to what I wanted and then it would stress me out. It really hit last weekend and I just was praying so hard for help and peace and to help me refocus on what I needed to do and not let things stress me out. And then BOOM. I had a whole week where all I could do was literally build my relationship with my Saviour and have the time I needed to refocus. OH heavenly Father is just so merciful. This week was honestly exactly what I needed. I just had time to be in the scriptures and then REMEMBERING how loving and merciful he was and how he was always there to give me the peace I needed. I was able to realize that I was so stressed out and worried because I was all focused on me! I was trying to do this work so OFCOUSE i was stressed. there is NO POSSIBLE WAY sister gwilliam can do this work. I would fail EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. And so having the time to be inside i realized that I needed to rely on Him. THis is HIS work and HIS people and I am just here to do my best. TO be obedient and talk to people and do my best to talk to as many but when i fall short just try better the next day. I just really am so grateful for a merciful heavenly father who knew what I needed. So i feel super sorry if sister stephenson needed to get super ill so that I could refocus and learn my lesson but either way SO GLAD that i did! I feel like my head is back on strait and I am refocused and leaning on the Lord so life is great! im back to my usual self and just excited to go out and do my best! :)

This week will be a busy one too as it is the first week of the month so that means MLC and DLC again! So a week full of sitting in meetings BUT it will be wonderful! 2 weeks from now too we get to go to the TEMPLE! I CAN NOT WAIT! and then only 26 days until I get to talk to you!! OH I CAN'T WAiT!!!!!!! I love you so much and just can't wait to talk to you all! :)

And craziest ever. Grannie annie is going to america for Christmas - her grandson is getting married in the Las Vegas temple on december 29th so she is taking us out for our christmas present tonight - I guess we are going to this super fancy place to eat and having a traditional christmas dinner! Im super excited! But the craziest ever is we get to choose the main meat we have - like turkey or ham and all that sorts and guess what I chose? SALMON!!! I literally chose that and I SO EXCITED for it. Having it a couple times at members have made me love it and so I chose it. WHO AM I? I don't even know anymore. Haha! SO yeah. THe whole Salmon Sunday will be fine with me when i get home! :)

I love you ALL SO MUCH! and hope you have the GREATEST WEEK!!!!!!

Love you and talk to you soon! :)

Sister Gwilliam

Sent from my iPad

IM SO SORRY!!

FAMILY!

Oh my... I am SO SORRY for the craziness I caused all of you yesterday! haha FORGIVE ME! I mentioned to Sister Stephenson last week how I had forgot to tell you all it was transfers and because of that I wouldn't be emailing until Tuesday... and then I didn't have wifi at all yesterday so I didn't get to see any of your emails... whoops. :) BUT OH I LOVE YOU!! Seeing all of the emails and that you were worried about it just makes me feel so loved. OH I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! Thank you for loving me. I'm sorry for the craziness though! i promise that I will be better! I think next transfers are Jan. 5. So just incase.... it should be around then! :) Oh i just love you all and miss you a lot.

BUT with that! YES it was transfers week! Sister Stephenson and I are both staying here in Aldershot as STLs. Sister Stephenson was sure she was moving. After this transfer she will have been in this area - her first area - for 7.5 months! CRAZY! But she ended up staying so next transfer will be all the crazy emotions again... transfers are so fun! :) But yep! I'm staying here which is great! I am so glad to be staying here for Christmas! AND I STILL CAN'T WAIT TO TALK TO YOU! I don't think I have ever been more excited for Christmas than I am this year... and you know how much I love Christmas :)... but just because I GET TO TALK TO YOU! I literally can;t even wait. Only 4 more Sundays!!!!! 

But this week was a good one! First off though, it is FREEZING! It is so so cold. I have never tried to bundle up so much in my life. It even snowed earlier which I guess usually never happens but it was great. And it was a week full of walking outside in it! YAY! But its okay! :) It just makes things more fun! I also got to go on exchange with Sister Hiatt! How fun is that? I took the pictures and everything to show her and we just all got caught up with our families and the stories that we have always heard about each other and oh... it was SO FUN! I would be SOOO HAPPPYYY if we could serve together. I feel like our personalities just work really well together and she is so willing to work so hard and talk to everyone which I LOVE! So fingers crossed one of these transfers she can just come and serve here in Aldershot with me! :)

Something that I learned about this week was EXACT OBEDIENCE truly does bring so many blessings. I have really been focused on being that consecrated missionary that the Lord needs me to be. After Zone Conference I saw a lot of things that I lacked - not that I was being bad but I just saw how I could improve SO MUCH more and wanted to! So this week I have gone and started applying them. There was one day in particular that Sister Stephenson and I just did everything in our power to be EXACT with our obedience - we set the timer for our lunch, we left right after studies in the morning, and something that I decided to do was being better about reading my emails throughout the week so that I stayed better focused so I decided I would only check them at night, not throughout the day! So we applied all of these things and that day we saw SO MANY MIRACLES! Oh my. It was amazing. We had multiple lessons with people and got 3 new investigators. We met a former who welcomed us in and we have a return with! We contacted a great referral which is a FAMILY who now we are having dinner and teaching this next Wednesday! It was incredible. And it was all becuase we were just exact about it all. So KY - you will hear it A MILLION AND TEN TIMES that obedience brings blessings but it really does! When you get out just do everything you can to be exactly obedient and then blessings come - wether that be meeting amazing people or just feeling that you have done your part that day and feel successful! :)

With that though I am working on being okay with not being perfect. As I have seen all of the different ways that I can improve.. I also then realize all the things I am lacking and it stresses me out. Haha i just love my Saviour and want to do EVERYTHING I can to serve him fully these 18 months and see how I constantly fall short. Ha kinda funny but multiple nights this week I have woken up at like 3 or 4 a.m. in pure panic because I am just laying there and I don't have an investigator with me. Obviously my head isn't fully there since it is so early but I just panic and don't understand why I am just laying down when I could be out working and being with the friends we are teaching. Once I wake up a little more I realize that it is night time and I am allowed to sleep so I go back to bed... but yeah. That pretty much sums up the fact I also need to relax a little bit and just trust in the Lord. I know that I am SO IMPERFECT and honestly will never do enough but that is okay because it is HIS WORK! This is all in HIS TIMING and all I am asked to do is try my best. Just work hard to BECOME better each day and that if I do that it will all be great! So that is something I am working on... I am grateful to become the missionary and woman my Heavenly Father needs me to be but I am also grateful to realize that he understands and plans for me to fall short while doing it! And that's why we have the Saviour! OH Our Heavenly Fathers plan is just SO PERFECT!

Another fun thing is I got an email from Sister Barnes who had talked to our Ward Mission leader in Peckham and Anne and Treece - these 2 amazing twin sisters who we had found and taught in Peckham - are getting baptized on SATURDAY!! How neat is that!? Oh it is just so amazing. It is so great to be a missionary.

But HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! I can't believe it is thanksgiving this week! And it sounds SO FUN with having Karol and family and Keith come over. Oh it will be so great. They don't celebrate thanksgiving over here. HOW SILLY!? I guess it makes sense.... but still. But sister Stephenson and I talked the only american family into making us one on Thursday so we are going over for a DA that night and then Joy and Martyn are making one for us on Saturday! so it will be good! But i hope you know how THANKFUL I AM FOR YOU! OH. I just love you. This week honestly has been a hard one with missing you all. As much as I LOVE this time of year and have so much to look forward to it is SO hard being away from all of you. I JUST LOVE YOU! And miss all of the little things. SO my plan is just to stay really busy and just not let myself think about it! :) There is SO MUCH going on too so that will be easy but I hope you know how much I love you all and how much I wish I was with you but SO GRATEFUL for the chance to be here! I know there will be SO MANY thanksgivings and Christmas' coming up where we will get to be together so I am grateful for this chance to be here for these. Eat extra stuffing and sweet potatoes for me though! those are my favorite! :) And just remember how thankful I am for you! I will FOREVER thank my Heavenly Father for giving me the perfect, most incredible family who I love with all of my heart! Each night I plead with my Heavenly Father to just keep you safe and healthy and happy and that all of the blessings of my work here can go home to all of you! I just love you and miss you but am so grateful for you!

But i hope you all have the greatest week!! Im working hard and we have A LOT Of people progressing towards baptism which is SO exciting! This truly is the Lords work and I am so humbled to get to have this time to be apart of it FULL TIME!

I love you! Sorry again about yesterday! :)

TALK TO YOU SOON! (next Monday! :) )

I LOVE YOU!

Sister Gwilliam

Since when is it November?

>
> >
> > Hello Family!!
> >
> > I hope you all have had the greatest week! I still have to read most of the emails you sent.... BUT I will after this is sent and respond to those! :)
> >
> > This week was so great! So many fun things going on and so many miracles! AH i just have so much to tell you all the time and so little time... This whole only 2 hours thing is just the greatest struggle.
> >
> > First off!! It looks like you had the greatest Halloween!!! THank you for the pictures. Cute linds and tyse looked great and I bet tyse just loved handing out the treats and I know linds loved eating them! :) Halloween is NOT the same here in England. I didn't realize it until I kept asking the members what theyre plans were for halloween and then they would all just give me a weird look... APARENTLY halloween is super dark and nasty here. LIke the weirdo devil worshipers celebrate it and then just cause problems for everyone else on Halloween night - LIke we had razor blades put on the playground by our house, bricks were thrown in members windows, and you have to be 18 or older to buy eggs at the grocery store becuase so many people go around egging houses. WHat the heck? Halloween is the greatest back in America but here people just close and lock their doors. I guess a couple people trick or treat but grannie annie only got 1 group. So yeah, its a lot different. SO sister stephenson and I stayed inside working on progress record and such and then took a late dinner so we weren't out walking around with the crazies! Plus we were fasting... so we didn't even eat candy. Haha definitely different than Halloween back home but it was great! We made cute treats and handed them out to Investigators and LA which was great! :)
> >
> > This last week I went on my first exchange too!! It was great. I was with a sister named Sister ROusetti - she is from australia. It was a little crazy since we stayed in Aldershot and I still feel like I don't know where anything... BUT it all went well. It was fun for me to see that Sister Stephenson and I chose who to go with based on how we thought we could help the Guildford Sisters but I quickly found out that Sister ROusetti was there to help me. It is so great how our Heavenly Father always has greater plans than we do. She was such a help to me. Her last area she was in the same situation as I was and could relate to everything I was feeling so well. So it was just great! I feel like she helped me a lot more than I helped her but hopefully I was able to say or do something that helped her!
> >
> > This week was also a fun suprise when I ran into district meeting - a little late... whoopsies :) - and I walked in and guess who was there? President and SIster Gubler!!! It was the greatest suprise!! THey just sat in on our district meeting. I just felt spoiled having them there. THey were just able to give so much council and we had them all to ourselves! It was so great.
> > And you know how I told you I was singing in Zone COnference on the 10th!? Well its a confusing story but the district leader really wanted to sing as well so we decided we would just sing it as a district. But we were going to practice after the district meeting that president was at and I brought all the sheet music that you sent mom! (THANK YOU!) And president and sister gubler heard... so guess what? WE are singing that "Saviour Redeemer/Called to serve" Missionary medly WITH president and Sister Gubler! Becuase they loved it so much! How fun is that? So thank you mom!! Definitely got some extra brownie points with president for having such an incredible arrangement! ;)
> >
> > This next week will be CRAZINESS though! TOmorrow I have my first MLC - where president and all of the ZL and STLs meet together and discuss the mission. Apparently that goes from 9-5. Then on Wednesday it is bonfire night - I guess it is something that they celebrate here in england? It sounds like our 4th of july! So we are having a party with the members and bringing our investigators to have food and roast marshmellows and then they set off fireworks! So it should be fun! And freezing! :) THen we will have DLC with the district leaders at some point and then... drum roll please... HOLLY JACK AND FERN ARE GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY! I know I said last week we were hoping for this week but after a crazy week and getting things set out it all set and ready to go. It was the craziest thing too - Up to yesterday Holly still was in the air on things and had told us that she was going to wait until we were sitting in Relief Society with her and they announced jack and fern were getting baptised and then she just raised her hand and said that she was too!! AHHH!! it was crazy. So yeah, THeir mom met with bishop yesterday, we announced it at church, and IM JUST SO EXCITED!! Please pray for them and for everything to go well! I can't wait though! And then sunday is Remembrance Sunday - Its when all of england celebrates their troops and the wars that have been fought. And aldershot is a military town SO it will be a party here! Everyone wears read poppies all of November too to honor the troops so we are going to go get ours this afternoon! It should be great! So yes! THis next week will be great! It will be busy but thats when they are the greatest! :)
> >
> > Last night we went to this DA with this family who have an 11 year old son and then a 3 year old little girl. I guess they really struggled getting pregnant, finally did, and then they just found out a little bit ago their little girl has autism. As I was sitting there and seeing her have little melt downs and the parents trying their best to calm her down and talk about her schedule and the struggles that happen at times and how much research she had done on the computer and just everything. I just wanted to hug them all. I just felt SO MUCH LOVE for them and was able to relate so well. I talked to them about tyse a little bit and just some things that we have done and mostly what you - mom and dad - had done and how there were crazy times but that tyse has been one of our families BIGGEST blessings and how much I loved him. After dinner Sister Stephenson mentioned how the wife had NEVER opened up to the missionaries like that before. I just feel SO GRATEFUL that Heavenly Father gives us blessings and experiences that help us relate to others so that we can help them!
> >
> > I hope you all have the greatest week though! I know that our Heavenly Fathers plan is PERFECT that our Saviour is always there and that they love us unconditionally. I am so grateful for the testimony I have and for the chance to grow closer to my Saviour EVERYDAY!
> >
> > He who was lifted up will never let me down! :)
> >
> > I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!! Have the very best week!! and I will talk to you soon! :)
> >
>

MLC

It was The greatest day at MLC!!
I love being with president and sister gubler and getting to be with
the other leaders! The spirit was so strong and ohh I just love this
gospel and my saviour!!
 
I LOVE YOU!!!! So so much!
Talk to you Monday!:)
 
Sister Gwilliam