Happy Fall Break

I am just in awe and "I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me..." For this past week, it truly has been a week of miracles. This week, I did have a bad cold but patience is a virtue and when you are being obedient and have a positive attitude, the world just seems like a better place!! The first day, Monday, we had two member present lessons and that just started off our week fantastically. The week just went beautifully after that... There are no words really that can describe the amazing things that have happened this week. I know they are from God, and patience does pay off!! Here is some information about some of our investigators right now:

• Keith: We were not able to meet with him this week, but we are trying and being persistent!
• Robert: He had to reschedule our lesson with him, but he is super interested to learn more! We are on Gospel of Jesus Christ and we are praying that he will be able to commit to a baptism date. He is super understanding and humble while giving these lessons.
• Kathleen, Jackie, Sarah: No contact this week; they had busy schedules :( But we will keep trying!! 
• Irene: OH MY GOODNESS!! She is doing fantastically!! She is reading the Book of Mormon and is coming to know more and is growing and has so much faith! We brought our member (who was a convert of five years) to the lesson, and that helped bring the spirit so much!! The member was able to describe his conversion story and bore testimony of how the Book of Mormon is true and Irene loved it. AHHHH!!! It was so cool!
• Sister Jannie Harris: Okay... we let her simmer in the "pot" for a while. We recently went back, and the spirit prompted us to teach her about tithing (with a return missionary as a member present came!) and then she told us she wanted to come to church 2 TIMES IN A ROW. THAT IS HUGE. Because she would always go one week to our church, then the next week to her church. On Friday, our ward mission leader came over to share a lesson about the restoration. Sister Harris felt the spirit so strong and our leader was SO INSPIRED. MEMBERS ARE THE SECRET TOOL TO MISSIONARY WORK!!! Then!! She went to church on Sunday and felt the spirit so strong. She called us twice yesterday to say that she can't stop thinking about church and has been "thinking." "Thinking"= wanting to join. She said it will take her a month. AHHHHHHH! PRAYING SO HARD FOR HER!!! She is getting there!!
• Rita: SHE IS A MIRACLE!! We had received a referral telling us to go to her house and give her a Book of Mormon. She let us in with such love and joy! She then told us how she had her cable guy fix her tv,  and while he was there, she asked what religion he was from.... This cable man (who ever he is) is my hero. He told her all about The Book of Mormon, Nephi, Plan of Salvation, Eternal families, and etc. She was so excited to be able to receive the Book of Mormon. She was really neat, she would pause some moments, then would say: "Sorry, I was asking God if this is right, and I am waiting for an answer" AND GOD IS SO REAL. He was able to tell her to continue to meet with us. We asked her if she wanted to come to church, she said she was busy. Then on Sunday.... We got a call at 8:10 a.m, and she said God told her to come to church! We quickly found her a ride! The sacrament meeting was fantastic, with our ward mission leader speaking and a missionary leaving speaking as well.  She loved it and wants to come back next week. She is golden. She is so in tune and we feel really good about her!
• Doug and Maggie: He is a really neat guy! We found him fixing a wrecked car and asked him where he got that car.  He said that he survived from crashing in that car. AND BOY, from seeing that car, it was a miracle he survived. Well, we were inspired to ask him about God and he seemed really interested. He has a daughter Maggie who is a bright 6 year old, and we got to teach them. He felt the spirit and he would get emotional at some points of the lesson. We asked him what would it mean to him if he knew this was all true. He said, if I knew it was true, I would be the first person to come to church every Sunday! He is awesome!! He wasn't able to come to church due to other commitments, but we are praying for him to know it is true. But we are meeting with him again and invited him to our ward activity "trunk or treat" and Maggie seemed really excited. He has great potential!!

This just has been a week of miracles and I am so grateful to see the Lord at work! I hope you all have a fantastic week!! 

I LOVE YOU!

Sister Guilott

This is what happens when there is a HUGE spider on the ceiling, your companion has a nerf gun, and you have do not have a dinner for that night... You practice "targeting and shooting down the adversary" ;)

Fall in Modesto

Hello World!! 

Wow. What a crazy week!! Being here for so long, it is really fun to see change all around me. Especially in the weather and the nature. Trees are finally changing, people are still planting flowers here and there is NO SNOW. haha. I love it. This week we had some pretty awesome times.  Me and Sister Bell and I were able to teach Robert about the Plan of Salvation  We were lucky to have a wonderful woman from the ward come and teach with us and it was great! He understood everything and kept saying: "it makes sense!" and we were just thrilled. And having a wonderful member with us WAS INCREDIBLE. Members really make a HUGE difference when you are teaching. Honestly, I feel like members are better teachers than us missionaries. TO have that second witness is SOOO NEEDED. So anyone out there who is reading this... I am giving you an invitation to.... GO HELP THE MISSIONARIES!! Find them people to teach!! YOU ARE THE 2ND BEST TOOL IN MISSIONARY WORK!! The first one is the Spirit. 

This week we also FOUND OUR INVESTIGATOR FINALLY!! we have been looking for him. His name is Lawrence and we were SUPER excited to finally meet him. He is awesome and he is so ready to learn more! Now all we need to do is to teach him and help him more come unto Christ, and the Spirit will do the rest! 

I love you all so much!! I hope you have a wonderful day!! 

-Sister Guilott 

No one wanted to get the scary bug...So I did!  I am my father's daughter!

At a thrift store helping out.  Halloween costumes? 

A drawing someone did of us!

Six Months Out!

Right outside our apartment; Finally, some cooler weather!  

Hello World!

One transfer is gone... Another arrives. And how glorious it is to have change and to be able to accept what God has placed before all of us!  I AM truly grateful for Our Savior Jesus Christ.  With transfers approaching, I was so nervous (isn't every missionary?) about transfer calls. But I knew it would be God's will.  I got out my ukulele, and started to play some church hymns. I loved "Be still my soul." I found so much peace from that song, and I knew that everything was going to be okay. And... I am SO happy to say that ME AND SISTER BELL WILL BE STAYING together in our area!!! 

This week was a great week! We were able to teach three new investigators! Here are the details:

-Robert is a man in his later years, and he is very interested in a woman in our ward. She told him that she wanted to have religion be centered in her life. And how she wanted to marry someone in the temple. That really struck his heart. So we were able to teach him and he was very understanding and open! It was a great lesson, and the spirit was so strong. The only thing he is struggling with is coming to church. We are praying for that. But he is very kind and wants to be able to make these changes in his life. I hope he has the desire for himself to change and see the blessings that will come.

-Keith is also man in his later years, He was a referral from a man in Ceres. A couple of weeks ago we gave him a Book of Mormon and he told us he would read it all. When we came back, he was so interested and had many questions! We came back again and started teaching him when his friend came over and wanted to Bible bash. We said nothing... THEN another friend came over, who used to be a Priest/Minister to a church that wanted to Bible bash as well... It was very hard, but one of my favorite quote about this is by Bruce McConkie which says: "Never bash, never bash, never bash." So Keith noticed we were saying nothing, and he told us we could come over another time. He would set a timer for 30 minutes and promised they would all say nothing and listen... So we are meeting with him one more time to see if he truly has a desire... But we will see. 

-Kathleen, Jackie (Kathleen's mother), and Sarah are all living together. BEST PEOPLE EVER!!!! Oh my goodness. Kathleen is so prepared by the Lord. We taught them the Restoration and THE SPIRIT WAS SO STRONG!!!! Everyone was discussing and very engaged to the lesson. Me and Sister Bell were seriously in Heaven. They all were so cute, they wanted to know who our prophet was and they want to meet him. ;) And Kathleen got on right away to lds.org and watched Pres. Monson's talk "I believe." She is very interested. 

Kathleen and Robert have accepted the invitation to be baptized, but we felt prompted to wait for a date. We will ask them this next week, and invite them to pray about it. THIS IS THE WORK AND CHRIST IS ALWAYS IN THE LEAD AND HELPING HIS SERVANTS!! :) 

The work is hastening and the Lord is always at the lead!! I am so grateful to be here one more transfer and HOPE TO BE HERE FOREVER!!!! :) I love you all and hope you have a great day! Here are some fun pictures!! BYE

Sister Guilott

Our old district before transfers!  Awesome people here!

Look!  A "fork" in the road!  

From my sweet companion.  She loves to make us muffins!

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!