Roller Coaster Week

Hi friends and fam. My week was a bunch of ups and downs. I received the news that my Granddad passed away peacefully early Saturday morning. My Granddad was an amazing man and I was so lucky to have such a close relationship with him my whole life.  He is one of the biggest reasons I am serving a mission. He himself was converted by missionaries and has one of the strongest testimonies.  I will always be grateful for the role he has played in my life. For the love that he showed me and my family. I know that he is having an amazing reunion in heaven and I take such comfort in the fact that I will see him again.  One of my favorite scriptures is found in Alma 22:14 and has helped me through the past few days.

“And since man had fallen he could not merit anything of himself; but the sufferings and death of Christ atone for their sins, through faith and repentance, and so forth; and that he breaketh the bands of death, that the grave shall have no victory, and that the sting of death should be swallowed up in the hopes of glory;”

I'm so grateful for the atoning sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us. How comforting it is that we will all be able to see each other again. The grave will have no victory and death will have no sting. I just love that.

Investigators!

Our friend, Callam has reached back to us and has agreed to meet with us Wednesday. I think it'll be a good time to get a feel for where he's at and what he wants to get from meeting with us. 

Also our friend Jeff (from Texas) came to church! Such a tender mercy. He stayed for sacrament and agreed to meet with us again Sunday. He received the warmest welcome from our ward. He's been reading the Book of Mormon and wants to further discuss it. I'm so excited for him.

Since my week was a little slow, I just want to share a story about a man named Mckay that I met on a bus.  

We were travelling across our area on a train when there was an accident somewhere ahead of us so they booted us off the train and had us wait for a rail replacement bus in the freezing cold and pouring hail (yes hail). I luckily brought my umbrella and walked over to an old man getting soaked and offered to share my umbrella. He was so nice and talked with me and being the sneaky missionary I am, we got on the topic of religion and he talked all about how his son had  committed suicide and through that, he himself became close to God. What incredible faith! Mckay and I got on the bus and sat together. He talked my ear off about religion but he was so nice and asked about the Book of Mormon in my hand. I shared my testimony and told him that the book has an amazing promise. I shared with him Moroni 10:3-5. Before we went our separate ways, I offered him the book and he gladly accepted it. He lives in the Liverpool zone so I gave him the number of some missionaries in his area. I don’t know what will come of it (if anything). It's totally a long shot. But I just loved sharing my testimony with someone so kind! It's so amazing to be literally set apart and given the authority to share the gospel with anyone. I'm definitely not the best with words so I'm grateful for the handful of times when people listen to me stumble out my amateur testimony on the bus.

Lastly, I wanna to encourage you all to participate in the church’s #LightTheWorld campaign. No season of the year shines as bright as Christmas—and the brightest light is Jesus Christ, the Light of the World. Once again we celebrate His birth by making Christmastime a season of service. Join us this year as we learn His teachings and follow His example to #LightTheWorld. 25 ways in 25 days, we will do various forms of service leading up to this sacred, special time of the year. It starts Friday the 1st so get ready!! For more info, go to lds.org

I love you all so much! I can't believe it's nearly December. I'd love to hear from you all. Have a good week!

Sister Gilland 💕

1-My Comp & I 

2-Birkenhead missionaries aka- The nursery

3-proud of the banana bread I made 

I Came All the Way to England to Meet a Texan!

Hi y'all! What a crazy week! New companion! New Elder in my area! New investigator!

Birkenhead aka the Nursery
So Birkenhead now has the nickname for of 'the nursery' of the mission because Elder Risk and my companion Sister Gaugau are the oldest missionaries here and are 3 months in on their mission, I'm 2 months, and we just got Elder Bellasai who's only a week... so we are babies! Hence, the Nursery;)

New Companion
So my companion is 19 from Sydney, Australia. She's Samoan and she's so fun! We are both getting along great! The first few days are weird with a new companion but now that I can understand her super strong Aussie accent,  we are having a blast! Sometimes its hard because since Ive been here, I know the area pretty well and she doesn't at all haha but we are makin it work! The new Elder in the area Elder Bellasai is also great, he's from Italy. Its just so nice not being the newbie anymore lol.
The first week of the transfer is always a little boring because you're just trying to figure it all out.  Still just finding/tracting a lot and building the teaching pool. We are struggling with our investigator Callam because he's starting to lose interest so we are doing our best to keep him coming to church and lessons. Still dated for mid December!

¡¡¡The Kenny's!!!
Something super special happened at church. Two people not from our ward walked in and I got my hopes up a little because I thought it was maybe some self referrals (if only). Turns out it was the Kenny Family that my dad converted back in '81!  They came down from Liverpool! When I realized who they were, I totally forgot I was a missionary and gave Brother Kenny the biggest hug (oops). According to them, my dad still has the record for most baptisms in a month for the mission. They made my dad sound like the best missionary in the world. Jeeze dad, now everyone has all these expectations of me!  But it definitely boosted my enthusiasm about the work. I better go to Liverpool at some point on my mission!

New Friend, Jeff!

While tracting in a town called Hoylake, my companion and I met Jeff! As soon as Jeff opened his mouth, I immediately knew where he was from. Jeff and his wife moved here from Austin, Texas on October 3 (same day as me!!)to be closer to his wife's family. He is a Born Again Christian which scared me because in the past, they tend to bash us...lol. He shared an experience of when he felt the holy spirit one time at a Glenn Beck Rally (lol). But he was nice as can be and accepted a Book of Mormon and told us to come back the next Sunday. We taught the Restoration and read the introduction to the Book of Mormon with him and he seemed very interested. He was so sweet and even invited us to Thanksgiving with his family. (We have plans with members but we are gonna try to go to both lol).  Normally i struggle so much when it comes to teaching.  But something was different.  It was such an amazing feeling to feel the holy ghost literally working through me.  I just have so much faith in him already.  I have the strongest gut feeling that he is prepared! And he has friends he wants us to meet!!

Thanksgiving
Well I'm a little sad because for the first time ever, I won't be home for Thanksgiving! But I'm totes blessed because the Beisly Family in my ward are Americans and invited us to their Thanksgiving! Me and the other American Missionary are pumped. Hopefully our foreign companions love it as much as we do!

Challenge!
This time of the year, we often think about what we are thankful for. I challenge you all this week to take it 1 step further and to be the reason someone is thankful.  Whether that's simply helping someone out, making someone else's burdens lighter, or just doing good.  If we do as Elder Holland suggested last conference and "give our help to anyone trying to walk the road back to God", I know that we will lose ourselves in the service of others.

I hope you all have a smashing Thanksgiving and eat tons of food and gain a stone (14 lbs) or two! I love and miss you all! The church is true!

Xx

Sister Gilland 💕

Pictures!
1-New Comp
2-The Kennys!

Trips to Manchester, Liverpool, & Rochdale + New Companion

Hello all! This week flew by because I literally bounced from city to city! It was the last week of my first  transfer! I'm two months old today! I have officially killed my trainer, Sister Menlove.  We got our transfer calls and I will be remaining in my area and getting a new companion, Sister Gaugau (pronounced Gow Gow) from Australia!  I met her at the Missionary Fireside. She's 1 transfer older than me so she just got done training.

Here's some of the fun things that happened this week!

Priesthood Miracles
On Tuesday, something a little crazy happened! My companion and I were at district meeting and all of a sudden my companion got super sick to the point that she couldn't even stand. She received a blessing from one of the elders and then we went back to our flat for a couple hours. She slept and then later that day, felt good enough to get back to work! Miracles happen!

Manchester
Wednesday was AMAZING. I went to First 5 Weeks which is a meeting with all the people who came into the mission the same week as me and our trainers. We were at the mission home in Altrincham (close to Manchester) and we learned so much and got to share the miracles we've already seen. It was good to see my MTC friends. I cant express how much I love my Mission President.  He always shows so much love to us and pretty much every time He bears his testimony, he cries and then everyone in the room cries. He came up to me and showed me a page in the EMM scrapbook with my dad's picture! (I'll include a pic) It was so neat to see that! It's amazing being in my dad's mission! I've got quite a legacy to live up to!
After First 5 Weeks, Sister Menlove and I got to explore Manchester a bit. Such a crazy city! Way different from my area. We actually walked through the arena that hosted Ariana Grande's concert that got bombed last May so that was fun!

Liverpool
Friday, Sister Menlove and all the missionaries going home this week had their departing temple trip with the President and his wife. I got to go on splits with Sister Wamsley (from St George, Utah)  in the blessed land of Liverpool! It was so much fun to be in an area so near and dear to my dad's heart. We got to teach a couple lessons and have dinner with some members. Super fun!

Rochdale
Sunday we had the missionary fireside. This is a monthly fireside that's for missionaries but you can only go if you bring an investigator. We had plans to take Callam and then he cancelled on us right before. Luckily the Elders had two investigators so we still got to go haha!  Anyways, at the Fireside, recent converts share their conversion story and oh my gosh it was so amazing. A lot of times I feel so discouraged that those 'prepared children' are nonexistent but after hearing the stories of so many, it gave me so much confidence and excitement to FIND those elect!

I read a quote from our prophet the other day,
"You will one day stand aside and look at your difficult times and you will realize that HE was always there beside you."
I can't put into word how much I love being a missionary. In just one transfer, I've fallen in love with the work! There's no place I'd rather be.  There's definitely hard times but as I look for the tender mercies, I realize that God is so aware of me. I know he's aware of all of us.

I hope you're all doing well! I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for the prayers and continuous support! I love this gospel and I'm so grateful to be here sharing it with others! Have a good week!

Tara' loves!

Sister Gilland 💕

Pics:
1-The fam- Runcorn District! Half of us got transferred but we got a cute pic together
2- First 5 Weeks at the mission home-President came and sat by me so we are pretty much bffs
3- Elder Gilland setting the EMM standards high since 1980.(My President showed me this)
4- My cute trainer, Sister Menlove that goes home Wednesday!