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!