I Am A Child Of God!

Hello everyone! Thanksgiving was fantastic! I've been blessed to have 2 amazing Thanksgivings on my mission. We went to the James family's and they made practically everything my mom normally makes and we all went around and said what we were thankful for. It was super good.

We had Stake Conference on Sunday and it was one of the best I've been to. I got to see the Kenny's and a couple other people my dad knew back in his day. President and Sister McReynolds gave some amazing talks. Libby came along and she said it was her favorite thing she's been to. Lately, she loves coming to church. It's so crazy to see the changes she's made in 2 months time. The power of the gospel is indescribable honestly. The whole theme of our lessons with her this week and stake conference was "I Am A Child of God" which was something she really liked. She finishes the Book of Mormon 21 Day Challenge today! We also read the baptismal interview questions. #subtle
In other news, we are teaching 4 people named Steven at the moment. Not even kidding. It's the most common name in England I'm convinced but yeah good stuff!

We are in Liverpool for pday again as per. We are shopping and playing spoons and it gets pretty rowdy. We have zone conference this week and a Christmas Fireside that we're bring Libby to so it should be a good week!

Just on the subject of  "I Am A Child of God" I just wanted to share a quote from a talk given in April 2018 by Elder Brian K. Taylor
"Coming to know our Father changes everything, especially our hearts, as His gentle Spirit confirms our true identity and great worth in His sight. God walks with us along the covenant path as we seek Him through prayerful pleadings, scriptural searchings, and obedient strivings."
I just know with all my heart that Heavenly Father walks with us. He loves us more than we can comprehend. His love will never waver. I've seen so many people completely foreign to the phrase " I Am A Child of God" experience so much more joy and peace as they come to know their true identity and Father in Heaven.

I love this work and I love you all!

Sister Gilland
England Manchester Mission 🇬🇧

Christmas decor, car selfie, pumpkin pie, and running into the one and only Becki Kenny

Bagpipes @ A Baptism

Another Tuesday pday means.... Another transfer come and gone! I can't believe transfer #10 is over! Hats off to the remainder of you that still read my emails! Ok so,Transfers!! Sister McKinnon and I ARE STAYING! We're pretty pumped, we literally get all the holidays together! Plus who wouldn't wanna spend the Christmas season in the UK's #1 Most Suicidal City???

Well this week was amazing. I can't even express to you all my love for being a missionary. I'm not gonna lie, for a long time, it was really hard for me to find joy in the work but lately, life has just been so good. We went to Liverpool for exchanges. I went with Sister Smith from North Salt Lake City. She actually lived in Springville for a few years! She was trained by my MTC companion, Sister Mills. We had such a good exchange and taught two wonderful lessons together. We also got Gelato cuz why not.🍦🇮🇹

Thursday and Friday were pretty good. We met a girl named Tayla last week and shes Jewish but she had us over and we had a good chat whilst making muffins that ended up exploding (I'll include pics). We also were able to take libby to a baptism in Crosby! There's no doubt that Libby is elect. It was probably the most chaotic baptism I've ever been to. We missed the first 15 minutes, they had to dunk 'em 4 times and someone did a musical number on the bagpipes. So yeah, 10/10.

We still see libby every day. Us three are like best friends and she thinks God answered her prayer by not transferring us so YAY. She's is bit by bit slowly but surely progressing. But I've been so happy to see her change and become happier in the 2 months I've known her.

Well happy Thanksgiving this week. They don't celebrate it here (obvs) but I got us an appointment with one of my fav families and they are making pumpkin pie so it's like I never left home! I'm so grateful for, my family and friends! Especially grateful for this time I get to be serving my mission. I love being a missionary! I'm grateful for this gospel that I get to shout from the rooftops!

Love you all!

Sister Gilland
England Manchester Mission 🇬🇧

Making muffins with an investigator, St Helen's Christmas Lights, got to hold one of 5 2 week old puppies, Gelato with Sister Smith, Liverpool Roman Catholic Cathedral

Lest We Forget

This week was so good. Like INCREDIBLE. Our STLs gave us the challenge this week to talk to at least 1 person on every bus we get on and to have at least 10 good conversations with people per day. Normally yall, I hate numbers! But this was actually such a good experience. On day one of this challenge, the first person I talked to became a new friend and idk just so many miracles came from this. I forgot how much fun it is to talk to people.

On Friday we had interviews with President and his wife which is always so helpful. He gives the best advice. As a mission we're all getting super excited for the upcoming #LightTheWorld campaign. BTW the website is up and running. ALSO, as of this week, my mission no longer uses Facebook, I'm not too bothered to be honest. As great of a tool, we didn't really use it all that much.

On Sunday, we celebrated "Rememberence Sunday". Basically veterans day. We had one hour of church. Libby came and unexpectedly brought her brother Sean! We taught him the restoration and he came to the fireside last week. They loved church. Sean even wanted to have a lesson that same day. We taught him and Libby the plan of Salvation. Sean had some deep and more difficult questions but he was so open to learning more and agreed to finish the Book of Mormon in 2 weeks??! He also said the closing prayer of the lesson and Libby told us later that evening he prayed on his own for the first time in years.

After church, we all went to town hall to honor the veterans. There was a flag ceremony and dozens of different churches represented. It was a neat experience to kind of come together. There's a nice tradition they do here in England. At the end of world war 1, England was pretty destroyed and the only bit of hope was hundreds of bright red poppies in bloom. So this time of year everyone wears a red poppy pin to honor those who served. The phrase "Lest We Forget" is written everywhere as well as another reminder to remember.

While reading the other day, this scripture jumped out at me,
Mosiah 2:41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.
There have been so many times in my life when I've felt that "blessed and happy state" by doing my best to keep the commandments. I also know the other side of the spectrum all too well. There is a clear and distinct contrast between the two and I just know how much blessed and happier we have the ability to feel if we do our best to stay on the covenant path.

Love you all!

Sister Gilland
England Manchester Mission 🇬🇧

Sisters Before Misters

Hello November! Well this week was good. As you all know it was Halloween which as I said last week, doesn't get celebrated too much in this country. But the 30th of October is known as Mischief Night. Basically all of the teenage thugs (British call them "Chavs") come out and cause problems (egging, robbing, damaging property, etc) . Luckily we weren't affected!

Libby is doing well! We get made fun of by her coworkers every time we set foot in McDonald's. But it's fine. She's kinda dating a kid she works with and he's actually a former investigator lol! And he's been kinda bugged that she's spending more time with us than him so she told him "Sisters Before Misters"  and I couldn't have said it better myself. We went to a fireside with her and her brother Sean and they loved it! It was amazing because Josh from Chorley spoke and he did so well and it was so good to see him! It took me back to when we were at a fireside with him months ago in Manchester and he said "I can't wait to share my testimony up there in front of everyone!". He killed it.

So on Saturday we went to a Roman Catholic Mass with our friend Steven. We told him we'd go to his church if he came to ours. He's coming next week. Let me tell yall, it was an experience. I've been to a Muslim and  Church of England church and this one was quite different. Lots of sitting, standing, and  kneeling. It was a good experience for sure but very different from what I'm used to.

Today is Bonfire Night/Guy Fawks Day/ made up holiday celebrating anarchy. Basically someone called Guy Fawks attempted to kill a member of parliament and he failed and the whole country celebrates his failure with fireworks and getting wasted! So missionaries have to be home at 6. Haha not complaining ;)

Well this week I studied the talk by Joy D Jones. She shared this quote that y'all might remember, "If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough. Give the world the best you’ve got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God … anyway.”

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Sister Gilland
England Manchester Mission 🇬🇧

Pictures are from pday last week. We went to a petting zoo with libby and it was the best £4 I ever spent and I paid an additional £2 to have meerkats crawl on my head.