Hey everyone! This week was really awesome :) I hope y'alls was too.
1. This week we saw the miracles that can come from fasting. This is what happened:
We've been teaching this awesome lady named Brenda for a few weeks now, and pretty early on we challenged her to pray to know if the church was true with a date in mind to be baptized, Oct 29. She had been praying, and really liked what we were teaching her and what she was reading in the Book of Mormon, but she didn't feel like she had gotten a firm answer yet. We had been telling our district and zone leaders about Brenda, and because it was the end of the month, they really wanted her to go ahead and get baptized. We set monthly goals as districts and zones and they're a really big deal to the zone leaders. Anyways, so the zls really wanted to come with us to show us how its done and commit her to baptism for this past Saturday. They came with us on Tuesday, and we felt like they might have overdone it, but she committed to be baptized in 4 days so we were happy at first. But then the next 2 days we couldn't get ahold of her! We had set appointments but she had pretty much disappeared. We were really scared that she was hiding from us because she didn't want to get baptized. We had a hard time with a few other people this week so we decided to fast for some help with everything, to at least salvage the situation with Brenda. The first half of our fast, everything still seemed to be falling apart. Most of ourapts fell through and things were just crappy. But then the next day lots of awesome things happened, and one of the awesome things was that we found Brenda! We started off by apologizing for the crazy elders pressuring her and telling her that she can totally get baptized next week if she wants. But she was like "No the elders were fine. I want to be baptized tomorrow. But if you guys need more time then we can do it next week". Wow! Heck no we don't need more time! We don't really know how that all worked out but it did, and we had her baptism on Saturday! It was a beautiful baptism. You could just tell after wards that it was really special to her. She was crying a little bit and everything. It was very sweet. It just goes to show that this is the Lords work, not mine. Me and my comp had just very little to do with her conversion. We are so grateful to get to meet and work with such special and prepared people.
2. So basically this week was awesome. The mission is really focusing on finding whole families to be baptized, and we have 2 potentially really awesome families that we hope will progress. Also Amílcar will hopefully be baptized this week!
3. Interesting fact about Guatemala: So I'm 5'1" tall, in case y'all forgot. In the US that is really really short. In the US in a group of people, I'm pretty much always the shortest person around. In Guatemala its way different. I frequently find myself in groups where I'm the second tallest woman (my comp is always the tallest, shes a freakish 5'11" ha-ha). Women and men here are teeny tiny! And I don't just mean they're an inch or 2 shorter. Every day I see women who come up to my shoulder. Yesterday there was one who came a few inches below my shoulder! She is under 4 ft tall! Isn't that crazy! There are taller people here too, of course. I know lots of women who are a few inches taller than me. But probably about 75% of the women here are around 5'3" and shorter. Yea, Guate is crazy.
So that was this past week. My comp only has 3 more weeks left in Guate, so that's super weird. Shes pretty baggy (in this mission we say "baggy" not "trunky") but she is going to finish out strong. Thanks for your prayers! Being a missionary is really really awesome. It is so fulfilling and rewarding. I am learning so many great things. Everyone should go on a mission!! I'm grateful for the power of the Book of Mormon. I'm grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful that we have the Gospel on the earth today. It is so clear and comforting. I hope y'all have a great week! Feel free to email me!
Love, Hermana Gilland
1. This week we saw the miracles that can come from fasting. This is what happened:
We've been teaching this awesome lady named Brenda for a few weeks now, and pretty early on we challenged her to pray to know if the church was true with a date in mind to be baptized, Oct 29. She had been praying, and really liked what we were teaching her and what she was reading in the Book of Mormon, but she didn't feel like she had gotten a firm answer yet. We had been telling our district and zone leaders about Brenda, and because it was the end of the month, they really wanted her to go ahead and get baptized. We set monthly goals as districts and zones and they're a really big deal to the zone leaders. Anyways, so the zls really wanted to come with us to show us how its done and commit her to baptism for this past Saturday. They came with us on Tuesday, and we felt like they might have overdone it, but she committed to be baptized in 4 days so we were happy at first. But then the next 2 days we couldn't get ahold of her! We had set appointments but she had pretty much disappeared. We were really scared that she was hiding from us because she didn't want to get baptized. We had a hard time with a few other people this week so we decided to fast for some help with everything, to at least salvage the situation with Brenda. The first half of our fast, everything still seemed to be falling apart. Most of ourapts fell through and things were just crappy. But then the next day lots of awesome things happened, and one of the awesome things was that we found Brenda! We started off by apologizing for the crazy elders pressuring her and telling her that she can totally get baptized next week if she wants. But she was like "No the elders were fine. I want to be baptized tomorrow. But if you guys need more time then we can do it next week". Wow! Heck no we don't need more time! We don't really know how that all worked out but it did, and we had her baptism on Saturday! It was a beautiful baptism. You could just tell after wards that it was really special to her. She was crying a little bit and everything. It was very sweet. It just goes to show that this is the Lords work, not mine. Me and my comp had just very little to do with her conversion. We are so grateful to get to meet and work with such special and prepared people.
2. So basically this week was awesome. The mission is really focusing on finding whole families to be baptized, and we have 2 potentially really awesome families that we hope will progress. Also Amílcar will hopefully be baptized this week!
3. Interesting fact about Guatemala: So I'm 5'1" tall, in case y'all forgot. In the US that is really really short. In the US in a group of people, I'm pretty much always the shortest person around. In Guatemala its way different. I frequently find myself in groups where I'm the second tallest woman (my comp is always the tallest, shes a freakish 5'11" ha-ha). Women and men here are teeny tiny! And I don't just mean they're an inch or 2 shorter. Every day I see women who come up to my shoulder. Yesterday there was one who came a few inches below my shoulder! She is under 4 ft tall! Isn't that crazy! There are taller people here too, of course. I know lots of women who are a few inches taller than me. But probably about 75% of the women here are around 5'3" and shorter. Yea, Guate is crazy.
So that was this past week. My comp only has 3 more weeks left in Guate, so that's super weird. Shes pretty baggy (in this mission we say "baggy" not "trunky") but she is going to finish out strong. Thanks for your prayers! Being a missionary is really really awesome. It is so fulfilling and rewarding. I am learning so many great things. Everyone should go on a mission!! I'm grateful for the power of the Book of Mormon. I'm grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful that we have the Gospel on the earth today. It is so clear and comforting. I hope y'all have a great week! Feel free to email me!
Love, Hermana Gilland
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