General Conference in Modesto

We bought matching $4 sunglasses!  California Missionaries!

GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!! AHHHH! It was incredible! Holy Cow. I loved it. If any of you were not able to watch it or don't know what it is... YOU NEED TO WATCH IT. I felt the spirit SO STRONG and it made me realize how much God loves us. While watching, I felt the Spirit be able to testify to me that we do have a prophet on the earth today. His name is Thomas S. Monson, I sustain him and love him so much. And apostles are here today as well as prophets, seers, and

revelators. It's so true! I can feel it, and I have been able to pray about it. And I know that it is true. 

This week was an eventful week. I will do bullet points because there is so much (and I don't have a lot of time for computer time):

• We met a man named Josiah who was so kind to us. We were able to ask him about God and he said he would love to grow more to get closer to God. Then we met with him two days later, he was able to feel the Spirit so strong. We are meeting with him this next week, me and Sister Bell are very excited to see him again! It is said that people you meet are "prepared by the Lord" and HE DEFINITELY IS. 

We made muffins and didn't know how to get them to church since we had no bags or paper plates.  So we improvised!

• We were talking to one of our neighbors and they told us their neighbors downstairs would be interested in hearing our message. We went down, and a WONDERFUL woman named Irene opened the door and hugged us saying COME IN! She was raised Catholic, but has been taught before from missionaries. We were able to talk about God and His love for us. And she told us to come back next week! We then got a text from the member a couple hours later, saying how she talked to Irene and Irene wants a Book of Mormon and was so happy! THE GOSPEL BRINGS JOY! I know that is true. And I am SO GRATEFUL for our member for being so missionary minded. I invite all of you out there who are members, INVITE INVITE INVITE!!! Help us missionaries out here! :) We know that you have such a power, and we need that!

• We met with one of investigators... And after seriously 6 months of meeting with her and having two baptism dates, she told us she wasn't interested anymore. Instead of wanting to be angry, mad, or so disappointed... I felt really at peace. I knew that God has a plan for her and that this wasn't the time she is suppose to accept. I love this investigator so much and know that God loves her so much. But I am grateful for the opportunity to have been able to be apart of her life and been able to see the gospel bless her in ways she would not have been able to see. 

• We found our old investigator William! He hasn't been home for a while, but we found him! He told us he wanted to change and be righteous! We were really excited for him, and we are hoping he still has this desire in a couple of days. He has had a tough life, but has always been able to find God in his life. And I just love applying that to my life, of trying to see God's hand in mine. 

• Me and Sister Bell have just had a blast this week. We have grown so much. And we just hope we get to spend one more transfer together. :)

  

  We made a gross smoothie!

I love you all so much! I love my mission with all my heart and never want to leave. 

I love this gospel and know that God is real. I can truly feel the Savior's love for his

GOd's children and can feel it in my own life. I hope you all can feel that as well. 

Have a wonderful week! Know that I am praying for all of you! 

Love, Sister Guilott :)

Our muffins and original way to get them to church!

Trying to be safe from the crazy in our neighborhood . . . BARRICADE!

It rained today!  First time since APRIL!  We got to wear our rain jackets our mom's got for us. . . Thank you MOM :) 

Spiders and Love

We took a "car selfie" since it was raining, even though we don't have a car....BIKES RULE!

WOW!!! Conference Weekend is coming upon us... AHHHHHHH! Conference as a missionary is INCREDIBLE!! I know I have only seen Women's Conference so far this year, but I loved every word!

This week has been a week of adventures! We never have a slow day. Seriously... I would love to share with you my story about two spiders... 

1. Sister Bell and I were biking down a busy road. It was sunny outside and life was great!  I looked down at my gear shifts on my handle bar... As I looked I saw a HUUUUUUUGE brown and red spotted spider on my handle bar. I SCREAMED. Thankfully I was by a stoplight so I could jump off on the sidewalk. Sister Bell thinks I am going crazy... Then she looks at the spider and she screams! The spider then crawls BACK INTO MY GEAR SHIFTS. It's home I guess has been there for a while.  Sister Bell and I are screaming as we click the buttons to get it out. Finally it jumped out!! It was crawling on the sidewalk and BOOM!!! Sister Bell stepped on it. We looked at each other, while at the cars all around us looking at us funny as we jumped and screamed. We waved at them all,and  they were all laughing at us. Then me and SIster Bell laughed.

2. Two hours later.... I was putting on my helmet to get going to our next appointment when Sister Bell with huge eyes says:"... Sister Guilott.... don't move...." I then see a HUUUUUUGE Black and white FUZZY spider crawling on my visor of my helmet. I SCREAM!!! I try to take my helmet off BUT I HAD CLICKED IT ON!!! I am jumping around while we are both screaming to find the spider! I again finally take off the helmet... and I saw the spider staring at me in the grass... I ran up to our apartment, got the bug spray... AND SPRAYED ALL THE SPRAY ON THE SPIDER. It ran away.... 

I realized that Satan can be compared to a spider. He is hiding in places we wouldn't know he was there. We need to ALWAYS BE AWARE. And follow our perfect example, Jesus Christ. He will help us and keep us safe from the serpent/spider Satan. 

Okay. NOW!!! I went on an exchange to SPANISH WORK!! 

Hermana Dayton and I after the exchanges.  It rained on us!

Family... you would be so proud of me. I was able to give a prayer at dinner in Spanish and I was also able to give a door approach in espanol. IT WAS AMAZING!! I love the culture, and how everyone is SO FAMILY ORIENTED. It makes me think of how families CAN BE and ARE forever. For one moment, I wished I had been called to speak Spanish. But then I realized that this love I have for the people is just like Christ's love for all of us! I then told myself I would use this love and bring it to the ward I am serving in. Because of love, this week I have been able to see so many miracles and blessings I wouldn't thought was possible. Especially with one experience I would like to share. For private reasons, I will call our less active Sister D. 

Sister D is an elderly woman who has been trying to get to the temple. But is struggling with tithing. She has been upset and hasn't gone to church for months, and she has now fallen into bad habits. We were biking when we saw her and a friend out in front of her home. She saw us and tried to run away. We caught up to her and she was frazzled! We ask her about life and we see in her hand a cigarette lighter. At that moment, my heart broke. I was so sad she was doing that to her body as I knew she didn't want to smoke (and she is very sick as she is). She left and went inside, telling us we could come up in a minute.  Sister Bell had the impression to pray. So we prayed and the Spirit seriously told me: Love. So. I took that to heart.  We went inside and the whole time we were there we tried to love Sister D as Christ would. At the end of our visit, after sharing a message about Christ's love, Sister D gets emotional. She tells us everything. She then says she wants to change. AND OH BOY WAS THE SPIRIT SO STRONG!!! We were able to help her the best we could, sent a message to the bishop and now she is getting help and feeling loved by many.

I have learned that the THING YOU NEED IS LOVE. My little sister Caroline loves The Beatles and there is a song that goes perfectly with this week. "All you need is Love!" It's seriously all you need. I am so grateful for this week. OH BOY!! Just missions are the best thing ever! I am so grateful for all the wonderful examples in my life that got me to go on a mission. I love you all so much! GO WATCH GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!!! :) 

Love Sister G 

We volunteer at a clothing drive and found this AWESOME shirt...we died laughing!

Fixing our bikes.  My basket broke and my lights.  So I had to buy a new rack and light set.

Sister Bell's birthday ... Our investigators made us a cake!  

Modesto: Flea Markets, Bug Bites and Miracles

Hello beautiful world! It's me, Sister Guilott!

Boy, can I just tell you HOW MUCH I LOVE MY MISSION? I seriously love it. I don't know where else I would be. This week has just flown by so fast! Ahhhhhh! We just don't know where it went! Sister Bell and I had a crazy week this past week. First, here is a MIRACLE from this past week.

When Sister Rugg and I were companions, she would tell me about this woman who she was never able to meet... Her name (we will call her) Sister B. Sister B had not gone to church for over a year. She was a recent convert.  She went to the temple every weekend, had finished over 100 names for geneology work in the temple, and was a power house! Then... she vanished. No one knew where she went. So, me and Sister Rugg would knock on her door every weekend to she if she would EVER answer. When Sister Rugg left, I knew that I must keep knocking on the door. I told Sister Bell the story, and we decided to keep on going. This past Thursday, at 5 pm exactly (no joke), I started chatting to Sister Bell about Sister B and what I would say to her if I did ever see her. Then we were biking home and I got the impression to go to Sister B's home. I tried to ignore it, seeing it was almost time for us to go home... I told Sister Bell and we decided to go. So we biked there... AND AT 8:40 PM SISTER B ANSWERED HER DOOR. HOLY COW!!! GOD IS SO REAL!!!!! I was shocked. It was seriously like I had met a celebrity since we had been trying for so long to see her (family back at home, imagine when I had met Chris Evans...That is how I felt!) She told us that it meant a lot to her that we had searched for her... But she told us to never come back. BUT OH MY!!! God answers our prayers and knows our true desires! We are still praying for Sister B. It took 10 months for Sister B to answer her door. I know that God has a plan for us and knows when others will answer the door. In Doctrine and Covenants 4;7 it says:"ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you." In this scripture it never says when. But I know that it will come. You just got to be in line with our Heavenly Father's will. 

Yeah. Also this this past week... I had gotten a bug bite that I thought was a mosquito bite... Then it started to swell... Bigger and bigger. I started to get a little nervous. It it now the fourth day I have had this bug bite, and the swelling has just started to go down! I prayed for a blessing. AND IT WORKED!! God is so real. I just love Him. He is so cool! 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Here are a lot of pictures!

Love,

Sister Guilott :) 

These are apples!  They are HUGE!!!

Turtles!  They were only $5.00!  I wish we could have pets!!

Then we got a picture with the cute band!

Having hot chocolate with sweet Sister Hoff!  It was our first "colder" night....
Finally, I am used to this extreme heat and the weather is going to change??????

Getting ice cream from the Fijian Ice Cream man!

My foot on the right was twice the size of my left foot.  STUPID BUGS1
But I guess God created bugs for a reason....for my dad to fly fish?!  NOT bite me!

The first week on my mission until NOW!!  This kitten is not a kitten anymore!

Working Hard in Modesto

Me and Sister Bell

A wonderful baptism and I got to speak at it!

WOW!! Time is FLYING!!! Ahhhhh! I just want it to stop!! But sadly, God is in charge of time. So I will just do everything I can to do what He wants me to do!! This week we a week of Up's and Down's. I will tell you the Up's.

-To start off, we got to teach our new investigator Ada this past Friday! She is adorable.  She has two girls. Ada has been taught by the missionaries before, but decided it wasn't the time. Then she met us,  and now she is really into it. But the difficult situation is her primary language is Spanish. We tried teaching her, which was like teaching a five year old. But she was able to slowly understand everything! We did tell her: "We have sister missionaries in the area that are assigned to speak Spanish, Would it be helpful if you met with them?" She said no, she is wanting to learn English (and she is pretty good at speaking and understanding) and wants us to teach her.  She said we were cute and she liked us. So that was a plus! We invited her to come to church, but her girls were out of town for the weekend. And she said she would love her whole family to come with her. So we are praying she will come next week! It is incredible to see the Lord at work. And how we (missionaries) are just the tools!

-We also had a really neat experience last Monday night! We were biking home, and opposite from us was a woman biking at the same speed. We started talking to her from across the way, and then we all pulled over. Come to find out, she has all the same standards as we do. She believes in Jesus Christ and that there is a God. She also believes that there should just be ONE baptism and with the proper power. She has been looking for a church. And she was able to recognize the spirit as we were able to teach her! We are still trying to arrange a time to get back in touch with her, but it was just a cool experience of using the "find when you teach, and teach when you find" from Preach My Gospel! It is just soooo neat that when you just open your mouth to people, they will talk to you! And that the gospel CAN RELATE TO EVERYTHING!!

-Well, we wanted to check up on one of our investigators to give him some materials to read to prepare the lesson we will be having with him this next week. We had a cute couple from the ward come with us to be friendly and to fellowship. We knocked on the door, and it was not our investigator. But the man behind the screen was so excited and said:" OH MISSIONARIES!! COME ON IN!" Me and Sister Bell were VERY surprised. We found out our investigator's step dad (he lives with his parents) are LESS ACTIVES in our ward. So we were able to get to know the step dad and it was just great! The Lord is preparing ALL his children. I am just so grateful to have been able to have such a huge miracle like that occur.

-We were visiting a member from our ward who hasn't come to church for a while. She is from the Tongan Islands. And this was the first time we had ever been comfortable with her! We had a amazing discussion about obedience to the commandments and then talked about faith and testimony! She is just the best and has the cutest kids. We then looked across the street and saw that her kids were playing in her neighbor's yard and the neighbor was outside! We all went across and started talking to her. She is agnostic(she does and doesn't believe in God) and was thinking about finding a church. We were able to befriend her! She really liked Sister Bell and I and she said when we see our member, to invite her as well to join in for a bible study! IT WAS AMAZING!!!

God is real!

Oh! Let me tell you about my lovely companion Sister Bell! She is from Utah as well! She is such a sweet heart and has been out for 4 months(just a transfer behind me). We both had left our trainers this past transfer so we have been working together to be unified. AND IT IS WORKING! She is the best.

Okay. Here are the downs:

-A baby fly yesterday flew into my eye, it took me like 10 minutes to finally get it out. My eye is fine, but that poor baby fly has past on to the other side. Make sure when you bike, to BLINK a lot. haha.

-A BIRD POOPED ON MY LEG WHILE I WAS RIDING MY BIKE! Silly birds... ha ha...

Grrrrrrr........

I HATE BIRD POOP ON MY LEG!!

Well, I love you all and I am so grateful to be on my mission! I hope you have a great week!

LOVE,

Sister Guilott 

Protecting our apartment from scary hobos!  

What?

After a hard day . . . 

After a long hard day, you crash on the ground and eat pizza!

New Companion, New Investigators and New Miracles

Sister Bell and I emailing today! :)

Hello Beautiful People!

How are you all doing?  I hope you are doing okay!  This week has been a WEEK OF MIRACLES! The first day Sister Bell and I were together was truly a miracle.  We were biking and had so many opportunities to talk to people.  Instead of having only two conversations, we literally were able to talk to everyone we saw that day.  We were biking our first hour being together and a man called from his car, "Hey, are you guys Mormon?"  We biked over, and we have an appointment to teach his family about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  GOD IS SO REAL!  We have had many such tender mercies from the Lord.  YOU HAVE NO IDEA!

Our investigator William went missing . . . again.  They said he went back to jail.  So I don't know where he is.  But we are still praying for him, and I know that God will take care of him.

Our investigator Jannie is slowly getting there.  She wants to be baptized in October.  She is pushing it later, but we are helping her and inviting members to visit her and help her also.  She is so ready. She just needs to take that leap of faith and not worry what other people think.  Sister Bell and I also got a prompting to go see Sherry (she is the one visiting also with the Jehovah Witnesses).  She has been very confused about some of the things she has been learning from them.  We were able to teach her about modern day prophets and the spirit was so strong.  We have a return appointment with her.  I can see that God is preparing people who need the gospel.

This week we also got a referral to see someone so we went to the house, but it was the wrong house.  BUT, the man who answered the door was INCREDIBLE!  He told us about his life and he was depressed about a lot of things.  We were able to give him a Book of Mormon and invited him to pray and read.  He said he would and we are scheduled to visit him next week.  He is a really cool guy whose family is from Armenia.

We have other investigators and here are their stories:

Michael: He is the son of a woman in our ward (he is in his 20's so we might need to send him to the Young Single Adult Ward) but in the meantime he is very interested and wants to be baptized.  We are teaching him hopefully this Thursday.  So that will be great.

Ada: So, we were visiting a less active woman on Saturday and shared the talk that Pres. Uchtdorf gave about carrying his sheep home, and we asked her if there was anyone she knew that needed the gospel or help.  She then got a call from her neighbor, named Ada.  So this cute less active woman went over to her apartment, knocked on the door, and invited her over right then, telling Ada she should take the missionary lessons.  We found out she had been to the 6th Ward before and she said she would love to meet with us along with her darling daughters, Leslie (age 9) and Lela (age 10). We are hopefully teaching them this Friday.

All I can say is that I know God is real and He is mindful of His children.  I know He is!  I think that God made me go through some hard things these past few months so I could become what HE wanted me to be as I serve my mission in Modesto.  I am more aware of the things around me, more confident and I just want everyone to know about the gospel.  God loves us so much.  He seriously is just using me and Sister Bell as tools to help other people.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!  I am praying for you all.  God has a plan for each of us.  We just have to endure.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Guilott

Sister Bell and me - We are called the "baby faces" in the mission!

Before transfers . . . 

After transfers . . . we were just all switched around!  

Transfers!

Okay, Transfer calls came and . . . I will be staying in my ward.  And I will be getting a new companion named Sister Bell.  I already know her as she is in the 3rd Ward here in this Stake.  When we saw each other today, we were excited!  She is coming out of her 12 weeks of training and she is leaving her trainer as well.  So we will both be without our trainers for the first time and I have been here just one more transfer than she on our missions.  It is cool to see the Lord is in tune with what we all need.  I am excited, scared and happy to continue to serve in this area.  I will miss my companion Sister Rugg, who is going to Hughson and is becoming a Sister Training Leader.  I am so excited for her and the new adventures that await her in that assignment.

I am going to have to cut this short as we have to clean, shop and go see a lot of people today as Sister Rugg gets ready to leave.  I love you all very much and hope you all have a wonderful week.

Love,

Sister Guilott

Best Ice Cream ever!!

Companions!

A darling member in our ward

Our Wonderful District

Selfie time with the district!

Love Sister Rugg!  Best companion and trainer!!  Last time together!

Back to School

Hello wonderful world out there! It is me, SISTER G!!! ;) I am just thinking.... IS SCHOOL STARTING ALREADY!?!?! Crazy!! I hope all of you starting school (goes for students AND teachers) all have a fun time AND SURVIVE!! 

This week has been a great week! We started off going to Big Trees National Park! Hope you enjoy the pictures! I just loved being there and thinking how God created ever single tree. How He created this beautiful earth for us, for us to grow and to have joy! I am just so grateful for God and how He created all things: whether little to huge on earth for us! 

To be honest, the work is kind of hard right now. Not many people want to hear the message of the gospel at the moment ... And that doesn't get us down though!! We are still searching because we KNOW that there is someone out here in Modesto that needs to hear this message and we will keep searching!! 

Oh cool story! Our past potential investigator, Sister Harris, she came to church and loved it! Praying for her to come to accept the truth. Also, many MANY MAAAANY less active people came to church yesterday!! It was because we told them we were singing at church... And they all came!! That was a miracle itself!  Sister Rugg and I sang "Ye Elders of Israel" and we added harmonies.(Thank you PGHS choir!!) And people got a kick out of that. They all came up to us and just praised us. Then we just told them it was God's gift he gave to us! But church was just great, and it was the highlight of the week.

So this week I have realized something: Agency. We have been giving the biggest gift of God, the freedom to choose. I have realized that we can choose so many things in our lives. But we can't choose a lot of things: others, government, weather, agency of other, consequences... I can go on. But the things we CAN choose are the things we say, think, and do. Yes, my companion and I don't have a huge investigator group at this moment. But I can choose to be happy or sad about that. I choose to be happy and believe God has a plan for us and our growth. I would invite you all to go read the May 2016 ensign and go read President Monson's talk: Choices. He is a prophet of God and has given us the revelation that we need to help us improve. We can choose to be happy and choose the Gospel before anything else! What do you choose? 

I love you all so much! Thank you all for the wonderful letters these past weeks, they have truly been such a huge blessing and brought me great comfort! I pray for you all ALWAYS and hope you all keep finding faith in Christ EVERYDAY of your lives.  I know that this gospel is true. I know that The Book of Mormon is true. And I know that Christ lives.

LOVE YOU ALL! 

SISTER GUILOTT

Hugging a soft big tree

 At Big Trees

 Allison who took us there is the BEST!  I love her!

 In a huge tree

 Selfie

And our neighborhood friend, FAT CAT.  He loves us.