Hiya From St. Helen's

Hiya from St Helen's everyone! Week 1 in this blessed area has been amazing. The work here is BOOMING. I didn't know missionary work like this even existed in England!

Here's a couple of things I'm loving about my area:
-People are SO FRIENDLY (well in British standards). Never in my mission have I been somewhere where people are so nice. Like normally I'm used to saying "hiya" or "good morning" and getting a response like "sorry love not interested" or nothing at all but HERE, people talk to ME!!
-ONE WARD, as much as I loved Chorley wards 3 and 4, it's so much easier to just be in one. It was weird not having 6 hours of church!
-"Tara' Love" is a common phrase in my first area (Birkenhead) and I totally forgot about it and they say it all the time here and I just Iove it. It just means Goodbye.
-SO BUSY ALL THE TIME, its like I'm back in Manchester! The field is white and ready to harvest!
-It's a proper city and has quite a few people, also the scouse accent has become a favourite of mine.

My Companion
I absolutely love Sister Escalon. She's the first companion I've had that's younger than me. She's 19, what a baby! She's also teaching me Spanish and it's coming along very well. We are both so similar and I just love her to death. There's a chance she might be crazy tho because day one of our companionship, she comes up to me and says, "Will you cut my hair?" WHAT. So I went at her with our kitchen scissors and cut off a proper 6 inches. If that isn't trust, I don't know what is.

We are working with loads of people including a man who's been investigating since my dad was a missionary here so I'm convinced they crossed paths lol. I am still learning names and figuring everything out so a better update on our people will come later.

On Sunday, I was able to meet the ward. Bishop so graciously volunteered me to start off testimony meeting introducing myself. After church we got to go to the fireside with our friend Stephen! It was in Liverpool just down the road! It was so good and Stephen really loved the atmosphere of the place!

Just to close, I was reading in a talk called "Born of God" - Ezra Taft Benson Oct 1985. This is such a good one and I encourage you all to give it a read. But this quote really stuck out to me: "The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature."

I just love that because I've seen time and time again, Christ's hand in "taking the slums out of people". Including myself. As long as we are willing to humble ourselves and let him change us, we can become true diciples of Him. I'm eternally grateful to experience what Alma called, "a mighty change of heart".

Tara' Loves

Sister Gilland
England Manchester Mission 🇬🇧

Limited pics this week cuz we were so busy!
Here's me and my comp and the chapel!