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!