Sunshine on Rainy Days

Good Morning! I just think of the song:"There is Sunshine in my Soul Today" because I AM SO HAPPY! I am now serving now in Turlock and I LOVE IT HERE!

Sister Anderson

In our car being silly

The first thing I noticed about the area was the people. Everyone is SO NICE! It reminds me of the "Happy Valley Utah" feel. Also, Turlock is COUNTRY LAND... I have never been in the country. I LOVE IT. Definitely has a small town feel. It also has many farms and orchards. It is beautiful. But the problem is bees and allergies. haha. But I love Turlock. We cover 5 towns. One town, Stevinson, has like one member active down there. You can seriously bike around the whole town in 5 minutes. haha! SUPER SMALL TOWN!  And I have seriously the CUTEST COMPANION! Her name is Sister Anderson, she is from Florida. I seriously love her so much. We hit it off right at the start and it is so much fun serving right beside her! It is her first time being a Sister Training Leader, so we are both beginners. :)

So here is a fun experience that we had this week! We were going around, knocking on doors. And everyone is so nice, and they would kindly reject us. (Which was better than getting doors slammed like I have experienced.) :D But anyway, there was a huge man with tattoos that opened the door with a huge pit bull beside him. He glared at us, and gruffly asked what we were doing. Sister Anderson and I were like deer in headlights. He was a scary looking man. So we spoke out: "we're missionaries..." and he promptly said loudly:"NOT INTERESTED." But the spirit seriously told me to tell him about family history. I was shocked.So when he was about to close the door, I got out "Would you be interested in finding your family?" He stopped. Looked at us and said:"I actually have been wondering how I could do that..." We then had a great discussion with him at his doorstep. We now have a return appointment with him and his daughter to meet with him and share our unique message about God's love for us and families. YES. THAT WAS SERIOUSLY SUPER COOL! :D

I am just so grateful to be here. I hope you all have a great day! Know that I pray for you always. 

Love, Sister Guilott

More beautiful orchards beginning to bloom

Our study area

The kitchen

Turlock, California - TRANSFERRED!

 We are surrounded here by thousands of acres of almonds, walnuts, pistachios, peaches, apricot trees!
They will soon all be blooming.  I can't wait.  So beautiful! 

OKAY! OH BOY!  DO I HAVE A WEEK TO TELL YOU ABOUT!!! 

It all started with a call from our President on Tuesday telling us that one of the sister's had gotten their visa to Jamaica and that we will be housing the other sister for a week. It happened to be my last companion Sister Bell. WHAT!? I was super excited. But, here was the catch. We were now over TWO AREAS: The whole stake we are currently serving in, AND the last area I was serving in. IT WAS THE CRAZIEST WEEK OF MY LIFE. BUT IT WAS SUPER NEAT! 

As we served in my old area, Sister Bell took us to a man who she has been teaching, and he is getting SO close to being baptized. AND GUESS WHAT!?!?!? FLASH BACK to two months ago when I was serving with Sister Bell and we were biking around and all of our appointments fell through. I had the prompting to knock on a very specific door. It was sooooo out of the blue to just stop for one door in our daily routine. I told Sister Bell: "Hey. we are going to knock on that door!" She was very confused, but she said okay and went with me. We went up to the door and knocked and a man answered, and then I very awkward;y for some reason forgot what to say for a moment.  Finally I said, "Hi! We are the missionaries!" We then started talking about God, and he was interested! We gave him a Book of Mormon and after we tried many times after to see him. He was busy with family life. OKAY! BACK TO NOW. The man that Sister Bell is helping teach and is going to be baptized IS THE MAN THAT WE HAD THE PROMPTING TO KNOCK ON THE DOOR. OH MY GOODNESS. GOD IS REAL. GOD is so nice! He allowed me to be able to see his progress and growth and be able to have a closer relationship with Him and His son, Jesus Christ. God is a gracious God, I totally believe that. Yes, this week has been a crazy week going back and forth. But God was able to show me that the work is still hastening, wherever you are. And we have to opportunity as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints to be able to help others feel joy from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ AND by helping families be together for all time and all eternity. 

To finish off this transfer, I got my transfer call. I will be going to Turlock with the lovely Sister Anderson. We will be serving as Sister Training Leaders together. I have only heard the best things about her. Sister Webb will be staying in YSA ward and be with one of my old companions, Sister Judd. They are going to HAVE A BLAST. I have learned that God is going to make me uncomfortable by helping me go through so many experiences and so much change. BUT THAT MEANS GOD LOVES ME! :) And for those who know me... I DON'T LIKE CHANGE. But I am getting better at accepting it. And learning to accept change and to grow.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and I will be praying for all of you. I LOVE YOU!

LOVE, Sister Guilott

February 6th

On an exchange with Sister Penman: She is a doll! 

IT'S FEBRUARY!! Already?!? This week was actually.... okay. It has been a really slow week. In all honesty, it was a  difficult week. Our only investigator, who was going to get baptized this week, dropped us. He decided to go to a different church. Let me tell ya, life on the mission gets pretty hard when the people you love decided to use their free agency poorly. We have been praying for him and hope all goes well with him. 

This week I went on exchanges with a sweet visa waiter! Sister P was a doll!! We actually were back in my old area.... WEIRD!! So much has changed, and I only left there a month ago. We had fun experiences. For example, we were knocking doors when we saw some sweet ladies talking at the door we were going to. It was the Jehovah Witnesses, and I admire them for sharing their message but they  often turn to bible bashing. So I tried to hurry away when the Sweet Sister P shouted HELLO to them. They came over, and we had a good conversation from them. :) They shared their beliefs and we shared ours. All I can say is that I am grateful for the gospel. I am grateful for the plan of salvation and how everyone can be saved at the end, only by our choice to follow Christ and being baptized by proper authority. It is true. I know it is. Another experience which was really neat was when we were looking through the area book and we found a woman who had not been seen for years. We decided to try  and visit her. We went over and her first words were:"Oh my gosh. I have been praying for you and you are an answer to my prayers! COME IN NOW!" and she let us in. She was so sweet, she told us how she has felt so guilty from the past and wants to change. We taught her the process of repentance and the Atonement of Christ. She was in tears and now Sister P has a new investigator who wants to be baptized! It was a great exchange. I was thinking that even though my area is not going so good, I know that the areas around me are having success. But all we can do is continue to press forward  and we are working REALLY hard and I know that missionary work is amazing. It's tough, but amazing. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week!!! If  you are having a hard time, go read D&C 18:10. I LOVE YOU ALL. And thank you for reading this blog. I hope you can get something out of it, because I pray for someone to get something out of it every time I write. I love you all!

Sister Guilott

A gift from a member in my old ward!  How sweet!

California sky this morning!

Changes in Missionary Schedule Announced

After the broadcast! It was my 9 month mark, my companions year mark, and a day of CHANGE :)

HELLO WORLD! HAPPY HUMP DAY TO ME!!! And we celebrated it the best way possible! On January 25th, on a Wednesday. We had a Worldwide Broadcast from the Brethren in the church. They talked to us missionaries about missionary work and how to better improve the work so we can help more people learn about the truth on earth today and bless their lives. And the craziest thing happened: we got a new schedule change! So I can now say that for 1/2 of my mission I lived one schedule and now will I live another. Here are the two schedules:

This is the first one, the one we use to live by:

 Now! Here is the new one! IT IS A BIG CHANGE!!(well... that is what I think)

But I know that God has a huge trust in missionaries now. The schedule is more relaxed (my opinion) and it reminds me of when I was at college. It gives us the opportunity to really choose for ourselves when to do things. AND we get extra sleep if it is needed. AND IT IS NEEDED. :) But a lot of missionaries either love or hate this new adjustment. I think of this adjustment as keeping the commandments. We have commandments that we may not like, but we have to trust the prophets that got revelation that these things are here to help us to learn and to grow. And to be able to show to God that we can be obedient. SO I SUPPORT THIS CHANGE, even though is it tough. I know that it is for our benefit as missionaries. 

Well, that was the biggest news we had this week. There was a lot of sunshine this past week here, which is a good thing and a bad thing. I love the sun, so it was good to finally see that. But a bad thing because California is in a HUGE drought, so we need the rain to come back! I am praying for rain. :) Even though it is a pain to bike in, we need to help this beautiful area. 

Honestly, it has been a tough week. But I am trying as hard as I can to find and help people. It is great! And with the truth that we have, everyone needs to hear it! I was actually in church yesterday and they shared this video, I invite all of you to watch it! It is really neat and it puts in perspective of what happens when we align our will to God's, even when we are in the hard times in our lives. 

Here is the link: 

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-01-003-mountains-to-climb?lang=eng#d

Watch it, it could help you like it helped me. 

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

Love, 

Sister Guilott