Hello!

I can't believe that I don't have many blog posts to post. I want to congratulate those who have been going through this adventure with me and reading these blog posts. But I can't believe how fast time is going. I can look back at LAST year and think about all the things I was going through and all the things I was doing! I am excited to finish strong.  I know that the work I am doing is VERY important; it is the most important work you can do on the earth: The Lord's work. I know it can get difficult (all missionaries and return missionaries can agree) but I know as you keep trying and have faith... things will work out. I found this quote and I thought it was perfect: 

You do have more faith than you think!! You keep on trying! AND DON"T GIVE UP! Here are some experiences I have had this week! :D 

Once upon a time, me and my companion where having a rough morning trying to contact people. We have been asked by the mission to go out from 10 am to 12 pm every day and got knock on doors and talk to people! SO WE DO THAT.   And one day this week,  no one was opening their doors. Or wanting to talk to us. ugh. Anyway. We decided to say a prayer and asking the Lord to direct us on what He wants us to go. NO JOKE. Right then we got a phone call from our old bishop, from the old ward we are serving in that got dissolved, and he said he needed help. His wife just was at the store and saw a sweet woman in the area that she knew happened to be a member but who hasn't gone to church in a long time! The Bishop told us he was trying to find the records of this woman for years, and that he had just found the address. He asked us if we could please go stop by when we could.... HOLY COW. WE ENDED THE CALL, AND WENT STRAIGHT TO THE ADDRESS. We got there and we knocked on the door. An adorable woman opened the door, she was in a rush, but she told us to come in! We started talking to her: she has had a rough life and is wanting to find peace in her life. We were able to bring up eternal families and the spirit was so strong. By the end of the discussion, she was in tears (including us) and telling us that "God sent you to me today, I needed this." We gave her a Book of Mormon to read, and we will follow up the next time we see her. We left the appointment with the confirmation that THE LORD DID DIRECT US TO HER. I am so grateful for the work, and how the Lord directs His missionaries. I love my mission. I know that this mission will just be the beginning of me being a missionary for the rest of my life. I love you all! 

Hope you have a wonderful day! 

Love, 

Sister Guilott ;) 

September 11, 2017

We went to a ward "Super Saturday"

Today is a day to remember. I would like to first have a few thoughts on this historical day of 9/11. Even though many scary things happen in this work, I am so grateful to know that God's love surrounds us everywhere. And even though life seems unfair, things are made right through Jesus Christ's Atonement. He feels everything that is being felt, and all we need to do is trust Him and allow Him to come into our lives.

We got our transfer calls yesterday, and for my final transfer I will be staying in the wonderful city of Oakdale with my companion Sister Rose. :) I am very excited for this transfer and what it has in store. This ward is amazing and I would love to live here!! It is cool to see how everywhere around the world, especially in Oakdale, members from the church are creating their own "zion" and helping the people around them hear of the gospel, inviting them to church and serving constantly. It just shows the church is a church of love and service. 

OKAY!! I have a CRAZY STORY... (don't worry mom, I am okay.) ;) haha! I bet she doesn't like it when I start like that... Anyway! My companion and I got a list of people to go visit in what we call "the country." To give you a visual, think dirt roads that lead you to houses that are acres apart with many horses and cows and creatures that Sister Guilott isn't too fond of... But we got to this one house. It was a old house with vines all over it and looked like a haunted house. But a sign said the last name of the person we were trying to find lived there. So we started to walk forward and we saw how there were no steps leading to the front door. My companion was just saying how are we going to get to the front door when all of the sudden we heard a dog bark. The gate right next to the house was open, and there was a lock in the gate where it looked like it was suppose to be locked... BUT IT WASN'T. In the opening of the gate, we saw this BIG dog come running toward us. My heart dropped. We then heard two or three more dogs behind it. We turn around and I am about to make a run for it, when I heard my companion shout: "WALK." Thankfully, I listened to her. We walked calmly back to the car, which was not very close. We didn't look back, we just kept going. We kept hearing the barking getting closer and closer. We finally got into the car, and as we were driving away we saw the three big dogs chasing us who started to run after the car.  As Sister Rose and I were driving from the house, we looked at each other, dumbfounded that we didn't get attacked by those dogs. IT was SO SCARY. The Lord really does protect His missionaries.  We had a couple days ago discussed the topic of "what happens if you get chased by a dog"  and we had talked about it together and I KNOW the Lord was preparing us now looking back.

BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here is something good that came out of that:  After Sister Rose and I recovered from the shock of our almost dog attack for a couple of minutes, we remembered that there was a couple that lived by the area and we decided we should try them. So we put in the GPS of where they were, the GPS said that we had "arrived at destination." We looked over to the right of where we were and we had already arrived!! We got out, knocked on the door, and this adorable older man in his 90's came to the door and let us in. We had a wonderful discussion with him and his wife. I do believe that the Lord had directed us to them. It was amazing. 

I am so grateful for this gospel. I know that it is true. I am so grateful to have a living prophet on this earth, who we get to hear from soon! :) I am so excited! I know that God lives and loves us. I love my mission sooooo much. I love you all, and hope you have a great day! STAY AWAY FROM DOGs. ;)

LOVE, 

Sister Guilott

9/4/17 Labor Day

Did you know that Oakdale is right now the center point of surrounding fires? Thankfully, there are NO fires here... But we get stuck with all the smoke and it is very humid here lately... It doesn't help that we are having a 100 degree every day heat streak...I guess you could say I now understand what it means to be in the "refiner's fire."

I love this area so much. We had a lot of crazy things happen here! So this week, the two wards me and my companion are serving in got dissolved and became another ward. We now understand why we were serving in both wards.  It was stressful, as it caused a bit of chaos, but it was good.

We got to see our Stake President, I love him. He is such kind man and has the spirit with him AT ALL TIMES! It was fun to see him again, I consider him a friend!  Well, the ward we were in during the morning was the one that got dissolved, and SO MANY people were crying and hugging and making it a huge deal.  It didn't help our investigators who were at church.  They were confused. But I felt the spirit confirm to me something to tell them and was able to explain to them: "We get really connected with others in our ward, and we literally are all brothers and sisters of God and it is hard to separate from others that we were close with; Like being on a mission, you don't get to see your family. I miss my family very much, but I know that I will always be with them! It is the same here!" :) They liked that answer. 

All of the investigators we are teaching (and I am so grateful that God has allowed us to teach such precious souls) are progressing! It is so fun to teach, because I can just feel the spirit teach through me! I LOVE IT!! :D I would love to share a really neat experience though from this past week... It actually just happened yesterday! 

One recent convert in our ward said that he has a little brother that wanted to go to church with him because this brother has seen his brother change drastically the past months and he wanted to know how he was able to to change.  The recent convert told his little brother it was because of the church he has been going, so for the little brother has been going to church the past two weeks and LOVES IT. We were finally able to ask him if he would like to take lessons from the missionaries to learn more about the church. He accepted. So yesterday, we finally were able to teach him! We asked him about his beliefs, his family, and then we got to his age.  He said he was 14.  We were thinking, JOSEPH SMITH. WE ARE TEACHING A BOY WHO IS JUST LIKE HIM. This boy has studied to Bible everyday of his life. He loves God and wants to become closer to Him. He knows that there are many churches on the earth and wants to know if there is ONE CHURCH FOR EVERYONE.  He is so prepared. We were able to teach him the Restoration, and we got to the part about Joseph Smith. His eyes were fixed on us, and you could tell he was feeling the spirit. My companion was able to share the first vision. And after the first vision, his words were: " That makes sense!" He accepted to meet with us the next week and is now reading The Book of Mormon with his recent convert brother! IT IS AMAZING!!! :D :D I am sooooo grateful for that amazing opportunity to teach him, it was like he was teaching us and the SPIRIT was teaching him. I love my mission SO MUCH!! :D I know that this gospel is true and this is God's true church on the earth. I know that Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. And I know that God loves all of you! 

I hope you all have a great Labor day!

LOVE YOU!!

Sister Guilott

Some fun pictures of a fun day out exploring with our district.