"Comfort" even on Hot Days!

IT’S BEEN A HOT WEEK... 

But that does not stop missionary work!! Sister Rugg and I had to be fair-skinned... But NO MATTER!! THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!!! That is all that matters. This past Tuesday we had an AMAZING Zone Conference and Elder Evans from the seventy was there to speak to us. WHAT AN INSPIRED MAN... I have been so edified by the spirit that it has changed my whole outlook on missionary work. He was able to talk to us about repentance (wanting to change for the best) and for finding people. Repentance is something viewed as a negative principle. BUT IT ISN'T!! It's the most amazing and beautiful thing we have today, all thanks to our wonder Savior Jesus Christ. When you want to change, REPENT. It's that easy. Okay... It's a little bit hard... You need to really look at yourself (on the inside) and ask yourself: “What can I do better to be closer to my Savior?" If you have any questions about this, I would recommend going to the closest missionaries you have in your area! Whether you be a member or not, GO TALK TO THEM! They were sent for you to learn and grow. :)

Sorry for that random tangent. I am just all energetic when it comes to this! OH!! Here's a really cool experience:  Sister Rugg and I on a 100 degree day, we got into NO HOMES. We were hot and sweaty and had not much water. (Note: DRINK WATER.) Anyway, we were very discouraged and we decided to pray and ask for some help. We were getting really depressed and as girls do...get over dramatic. haha. Well, we had a dinner appointment that night with Sister Rugg's recent converts, the Swann family! By the way, that was the first house we had gotten into all day. They are the best. So we had dinner and gave a message about Temples and challenged them to pick a day to go to the temple and GO! They loved the message (THANK YOU SPIRIT) SO MUCH! Sister Swan then asked: "Hey, my daughter has a lot of clothes and bed comforters upstairs she doesn't want... would you like to look at them?" Sister Rugg and I got so excited! We both brought comforters home. So, to make this experience spiritual, there is a scripture in Alma 26:27 when the sons of Mosiah were having a hard mission, their experience says: "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold the Lord comforted them..." WE WERE DEPRESSED AND WERE "COMFORTED" WITH COMFORTERS!!! GOD IS REAL. Amen. 

Elder Evans challenged us to get referrals with everyone we talk to. So Sister Rugg and I really took that to heart. So at the end of the day, we were doing our goals/key indicators for tomorrow. There is a spot for referrals received and contacted. Sister Rugg got a huge grin and shouted: "We will get 7 referrals tomorrow!!" I laughed and thought she was joking... She wasn't. I then said: “Sister that is impossible... LET'S DO 8!!!”  ;) But we decided to put 7. We had planned to see many people that day, but our recent convert Valerie was having a hard day. Like what is says in Mosiah 18: "Comfort those that stand in need of comfort"... So we helped her clean her house, helped her with lunch, read scriptures and sang hymns. That really lifted her spirits. She was telling us about her family and all of the sudden I got an impression to ask her: "Sister Reed, would you want us to send the missionaries to your family's houses?" And she got a huge smile and said: "Yeah, I think that would really help!" She got her address book out... She said her sister, then her other sister, then her friend, then her friend’s daughter... Until me and Sister Rugg were beaming to get the last referral... 8. We got 8 from just her. GOD IS REALLY THERE!!! If you have faith and believe He can help you, HE WILL HELP YOU. You just got to ask. 

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week! I am praying for all of you always. God loves you. He knows your name, He even knows you by your nickname. Remember that He wants to hear you and help you, so get on your knees and pray. He will help you. 

Love, Sister Guilott

Happy Father's Day!

What a great, tough, and rewarding week it has been!! Thank you all for the wonderful emails, packages, and letters telling me happy birthday! It truly made my day to be able to see that there are people who remember! ;) I know that all of you care and I care for you too! I am beyond excited to be able to serve for the whole year I am 20, and then some! I can give this whole year to the Lord and I am so grateful to be able to do that! Not a lot of people get to do that.

Well, let me tell ya, this week has been a growing week. It has stretched me mentally, emotionally, and of course spiritually. I can see the Savior more in my life and it is incredible to be able to see all the things He has done for all of us. If you ever want to be able to see the Lord more clearly, I would recommend getting on your knees and praying. Ask for forgiveness of all your weaknesses. If we think about it, weakness is a gift to us! We may not want to see it (for me, I don't like seeing it as a gift), but it is a gift to help humble us (reference Ether 12:27). When we are willing to be want to change, God will see that. And He will do everything He can to help us grow. There is a wonderful story given by one amazing apostle we have, Elder Christofferson. When you don't want to change, God will help you to change. This is how the story goes: 

He told of purchasing a rundown farm in Canada many years ago.  As he went about cleaning up and repairing his property, he came across a currant bush that had grown over six feet (1.8m) high and it was yielding no berries, so he pruned it back drastically, leaving only small stumps. Then he saw a drop like a tear on top of each of these little stumps, as if the currant bush were crying, and thought he heard it say: "How could you do this to me?  I was making such wonderful growth...And now you have cut me down.  Every plant in the garden will look down on me...How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here."

President Brown replied, "Look little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be.  I didn't intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree.  I want you to be a currant bush, and someday, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, 'Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down."

Later in the story, President Brown is denied a huge position for the Army because of being a Mormon. He questioned God and asked him why would he do this? Then he thought of the currant bush. I love this story, I feel like this is relating to everyone on earth today, especially those who are going through so much trial. I know that God will make us into the beautiful currant bush He wants us to be. 

Kourtney, baptized by her husband....IT WAS AMAZING!!

This week we also had our investigator BAPTIZED!!! Kourtney was baptized Saturday and BOY OH BOY!!! Isn't she just glowing?!?!? I am so excited for her and she is going to bring such happiness to the lives of everyone around her. She was confirmed the Holy Ghost that next day, and I just felt the Spirit so strong! I am so grateful for her and for the Spirit! It can truly touch the lives of so many around us if we have the heart and the mind to be open to the things we can learn. I love you all so much! Have a great week!

Love from your favorite missionary,

Sister Guilott

Love my family!

Thank you Allen Family & LindaMarie!!

Bought me a little fan! Pray for rain!  No more heat waves . . . 

The Field is White . . .

My new district with the MOST WONDERFUL missionaries ever!!!
And with President White behind me (the best stake president!)

(Sorry, I lost my camera charger this week so there won’t be any other pictures.)

I am now in my 8th week here! Wow... I still have a LONG WAYS TO GO. BUT!!! That is just getting me more excited because I have SO MUCH MORE TIME TO SERVE. This week was a rough but fun week. With our recent transfers, we lost one of our wards, which is so sad! I loved serving in that ward! But I know the Elders in it now are FANTASTIC and will have great success. But the ward we are serving in is the best. I am so grateful to have this ward to love 24/7 and with a whole heart! Before, we would go to one ward in the morning, then go to the other that afternoon. This week we made a HUGE list of part-member families and those we haven’t seen for awhile and we have been on the search for those who are ready to come unto Christ and BE BAPTIZED! 

A really cool experience that happened this week: My companion Sister Rugg and I have been praying for serving opportunities. And the night before, I had prayed very hard and asked God to help us be aware of our surroundings to help those who are in need and need the gospel in their life. SOOOOOOO, we were biking down a street that very next day and we turned into a new street we hadn't been on before. My companion and I were hesitant at first to go down it. But we both knew that we had to go down this street for a reason. So we started to bike down, we said hi to people and they give us weird looks because you don’t see girls on bikes with skirts every day. But we kept biking. THEN! All of the sudden, we see a little house on the right. There was a chalk board out front that said: "The Field is White Already to Harvest." IT WAS A LITERAL SIGN FROM GOD!!!! :D :D :D So we bike over there, got off our bikes, and knocked on the door. Inside was a cute older lady that saw us and said: "Oh hello Sisters!" And let us inside. It turns out she was a member many years ago. She and her husband were baptized, and got sealed in the temple. Then they said they had the biggest argument in their life driving back home from being sealed. Then that is when they decided they didn't want to go back to church... I was almost in tears. To see such a faithful couple dwindle from one argument is so sad. It just proves how Satan can take over us if we let him. Be aware of the things around you, the natural man is an enemy to God. The lady is Christian now, and writes a new message everyday on her chalkboard. I don't think God did random that day when she felt prompted to write that. My companion and I are now her friends, and we are going to go garden with her tomorrow as service (good thing that I love gardening!!). 

I just thought that was a HUGE testimony to me that God will answer our prayers, but we have to put in the action. Faith is an action word, and to show we have faith we have to be willing to serve God. I know that God wants us to be closer to Him, and sitting on the couch watching TV won’t help us get closer to Him. So for everyone this summer season, GO DO SOMETHING!!! Get off from Facebook, get off your Instagram AND GO DO SOMETHING GOOD! Go do some service, go out to lunch with a friend you haven't seen, go do some gardening for a cute older woman near you. Once you do service for your fellow beings, you are in the service of your God and you will become closer to Him. It’s a wonderful feeling!

I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week! Be safe in this hot weather, drink lots of water! Remember that God loves you, and He loves you so much that He sent His son Jesus Christ for you. I know that we have the restored gospel on earth today, and that we have a living prophet to lead and guide us. He is a man of God, He has the power to bring us revelation from God today. I know that we have the restored priesthood to help us make sacred ordinances and covenants with Our Savior and Heavenly Father. He loves you. Don't forget that.

LOVE YOU!!

Sister Guilott    

Hello WOOOOORLD!!!

Wow!  It has been a GREAT week! :)  First, of all, one of our investigators got baptized!  It is the first baptism I got to be a part of.  We taught her for the first time my first week I arrived in Modesto.  And to be with her the whole time and to see this day finally come has been so incredible amazing!  I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!!  I am so proud of her.  I know that Heavenly Father is so proud of her.  She has loved the lessons and the Spirit has taught her so much.  I can't even believed it.  It has been such an incredible experience for me to witness.  SO, all of you should be missionaries!  Because all of you out there, listen up: You can do this TODAY!  A friend of this wonderful girl is a year older than her and just over a year ago she was baptized.  One day at school they started talking.  They ended up becoming great friends and the friend invited her to church, then gave her a Book of Mormon and SHE READ IT!  Then we got to help give the lessons to her.  THEN BOOM, she was baptized Saturday and confirmed on Sunday.  So it doesn't matter how old you are or what ward or school you are in.  INVITE!  The worst thing that can happen is someone will say NO.  But it's all in God's timing, and it is okay!  God sees that you are trying and that is all that matters.  You invite and one day someone will be thanking you for you helped them get on the path to eternal happiness.  I am so grateful for this opportunity!

So, if you want to come to the hottest place on earth, you don't have to go to far....GO TO MODESTO! :) We ride our bikes every day in the 106 degrees! :) Yes, it is terribly hot, BUT, that doesn't stop the work.  We just keep going and trying because Christ has gone through so much more for us.

Oh, we got transfers....and....I am staying with Sister Rugg! :) Yippy!  But we are giving up one of our wards which is really sad.  I loved all the people in that ward but I know change is part of the plan and we will grow and learn.

I love you all!

Sister Guilott

p.s. We found a surprise in our bathtub....we have a new friend.. haha.  I love bugs.. cockroaches are the best . . . .NOT!