WEEK 26: I've been so happy here and really love everything about this area.

Hello everyone, another week has gone by.  We are about to get transfer calls in a week.  Sister Knight and I already know she is leaving and will be serving closer to president for a transfer.  That means, I'm getting a new companion.  I wonder who???  

Nevada is an amazing place.  I've been so happy here and really love everything about this area. My mission has been tough but I've grown so much it really has made me a strong person and missionary. 

Funny moment this week... :):)

Sister Knight and I went to go visit and find a referral we were given by the Pittsburg elders.   This lady has cancer and has only a 2 months to live so we met up with her, started teaching and while we were doing so an old man in a wheelchair comes over to see us.  Sister Knight has never looked so scared before.  He grabs her hand and starts kissing and laughing at her... kissing her hand more and more and in Sister Knight's words... she says "well I've never been in this awkward situation before". I'm laughing cause she doesn't know what to do. I should have recorded it because it was so funny.  I also got growled at by an old lady I was trying to talk to... I don't think she liked us very much. Too funny

We went to dinner the other night with a member, she and her brother take in kids who don't have the best of living situations.  Nevada and Fort Scott are known for some pretty heavy drug usage and some kids live in some really awful homes.  They take them in and keep them out of trouble by having them work on their farm.  We taught 8 people and 2 have been coming to church.  This was on Sunday evening and it was so fun, we had dinner and then played with pigs and baby rabbits and goats...the sunset was beautiful. We played football and Frisbee and just had a good time with some good southern cooking. 

Sorry for the late email we went to Joplin today and had a flowerball fight in an abandoned water park with sister Tillotson (from Highland-love her) and Sister Blazer and 4 of the great elders. 

Super fun and I would love to do it again. 

I know this church is true love you all.

Have a great week

Love Sister Gilmour 

WEEK 25: A week full of spiders and getting DIRTY!!!!!!!

Wow what a week!!  I cant even remember half of it.  I'm working my companion hard and I might have almost killed her this week.. OOPS

This week we spent 3 days in Joplin, Mo (remember they had that devastating tornado there a few years ago?) for zone conference and then we did exchanges afterwards.  I took Sister Tillitson to my area to show her how we do things here in the Boonies.  

I'm loving this area and the weather has been beautiful, allowing us to ride our bikes. 

We found lots of new people in those 3 days and we also got to have another sleepover at their place.  We woke up there to celebrate my BIRTHDAY!!!! My companion laughs because I cant say it's my birthday every day for a week.  Now its over and I have to wait until next year. I have 1 year left and I'm ready to make it a good year. 

We set another Baptism date this week for Linda for May 26th.  Teaching her is so much fun because she just loves what we are teaching her.  I just love seeing her smile when she tells us she loves God and she knows the Book of Mormon is true.

Saturday was quite the day.  5 service projects and i might have gone a little hard that day to where I am now having a sore back... but it was totally worth it because we got 2 new investigators out of it and we are going back to help serve them again this week. 

The Sisters in the mission that have been my companion have gotten the word out about how Sister Gilmour works her companions hard, all the time, and how tired they always feel.  I tell everyone I get my work ethic, example, from my amazing parents.  Here's what we did for service:

1. We ripped a shed down off of a house for an old lady.  I have never seen so many spiders and cockroaches in my entire life, one crawled up my leg and i became the entertainment for everyone that morning. 
2. We went to help a family in our ward who is leaving in a week to go serve in the Redlands, CA mission.  We helped them move.  I'VE GOT SOME GUNS and everyone in the ward knows that too ha. I again just love this ward here in Nevada, MO.
3. Planted a big garden for one of out investigators.  Her name is Wanda.  I am loving all of the knowledge I'm learning about gardening.  I'll be coming home making everything grow because I'm going to be a champ at growing and planting gardens.  I also go to wear my first COWBOY HAT and feel like a real cowgirl ha.. no but really I want a hat now.  The country is growing on me and I'm sure I'm just going to miss it one day.  
4. Helped another family move but we needed to go through their shed in the back and figure out what was in the boxes first.. OH MANN.   I  have never had so many spiders crawl on me and i have never SCREAMED so dang loud in my life.  I had a brown spider on me that felt like it was the size on my fist.. i love helping people but not with spiders.. no thanks. We got lots done and helped many people that day.

So thankful for all of the many opportunities to serve that i get as a missionary for the Church. It's worth every hard day.  

I am learning to love what happens and to laugh in the hard moments.  I'm growing and becoming someone I know that the Savior is proud of.   

See my pics on my fb page that my dad posted.  If there's no pic, it didn't happen:).

I love you all, have an amazing week Y'ALL

Love Sister Gilmour

WEEK 24: Come What May and Love It - Serving Others, Makes every hard day worth it!!

This week has been NUTS ... days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days!!

Well another week here in Nevada MO has come to an end or started depending on how you look at it. 

I'm going to have the hardest time speaking when I come home:).  Everyone here has all sorts of lingo and slang and I'm not going to know how to speak English anymore. 

I have 11 months left.  It's crazy to think that in June I'll be hitting my 9 month mark.  WOW can I say it's been crazy, and there's never a dull moment. 

This week I let a dog go.   Yep we are trying to get to know someone we havent seen at church for a while nor her three boys. As I opened the door I let her big dog escape.. so Sister Knight and I took it upon ourselves to go find that dog and give him blueberry cookies to get him into the car and take him home.   Who doesn't like those?  I think everyone should because they are so good!! People out here know how to cook some pretty dang, good, food. I feel like I'm serving in my own foreign country. 

We found a guy named Mike this week.  He just got out of prison.  He feels like God has abandoned him.  For the first time as we gave him a Book of Mormon and shared a strong testimony about the Atonement he started to tear up.  We have gone back to go see him and I think he has so much potential.  I just want to teach him the gospel.   I know, and I've seen this before, the gospel changes lives. 

We did service for a family that just lost there home due to a house fire.  How sad to see people lose everything and to see them not be able to do anything about it.  What an amazing opportunity we get to serve one another.   I love getting to help people here in this poor area. 

Makes every hard day worth it.

Not a super long email today but we have lots happening.  The work is moving forward here in Nevada MO. 

Have and Amazing week.

Everyone,  I'd like to invite everyone to read the Conference talk "Come what may and Love it".

• https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/10/come-what-may-and-love-it?lang=eng 

I love it and I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sister Gilmour

WEEK 23: Prayers for the Miller Family. A good missionary is one that is teachable and good at teaching people, not lessons.

First off I want to let the Miller Family know that I am praying for them.   President Miller was an amazing Stake President and Example of Christ and he was truly converted to the Gospel and helping others and he is very Christlike.  I am so sorry to hear of his passing.  He had a huge influence on my going on a mission and was always so supportive and encouraging.   Another angel added to the Heavens. I will be praying for his family and close friends.

I think sometimes it's hard to look at the positive when something negative happens.. this week was a change for me in my mission. I have seen the Lords hand and Little miracles just pour over me and my awesome companion Sister Knight. We found 9 new investigators this weekend,, now if anyone has every shot gunned an area it can be a little stressful and you want the work to be right before you when you get into an area that is unfamiliar. This week we were in Joplin Missouri for 2 days and then went on exchanges with Sister Tilliotson and Sister Blazer. Amazing missionaries and I love being with other missionaries because I always learn so much from them.  A good missionary is one that is teachable and good at teaching people, not lessons. 

Funny experience ... has anyone every tried fried Ocra? Well it's a southern food and I had it this week with Sister Blaser.  After being on exchanges we went and got ice cream and got Ocra.. it was her first time trying it and it was nice and hot and fresh.. YUMMY SO GOOD. the Lord speaks to me with food.. don't worry I work out every day here and I watch what I eat.. everyone loves BUTTER HERE TOO ha. anyways.. we were eating this and it was so hot it burned a piece of skin off of the top of my mouth.. I asked her to look and she just busted up laughing because she thought it was hilarious.. (I'll send the video and have my dad post it) we just laughed so hard until she had tears streaming down her face.. I wasn't sure if she was crying or laughing. She has never laughed that hard she said. I'm here for entertainment to others ha. JK I know my purpose but laughing and doing funny things comes with knowing my purpose. I know I'm a dork, but you gotta be who you are.. that's why the Lord called me to be an instrument in his hands. 

Conference was amazing and I love the ministering to those in our wards and neighbors.  I cant even begin to tell everyone how strong I felt the spirit when we sustained our new Prophet who has been called by god and I know that he is just perfect to lead and guide this church right now. It's cool to help people see that God just like in old times has prophets on this earth today. I've seen the Gospel and the Book of Mormon change so many peoples lives since I've been out for 6 months.. time flies. But the words that were spoken and the advice that was given was awesome. 

May we take it upon ourselves and really help all of gods children find their way back to their Savior through the one and only true church and may we LOVE ONE another and be kind and loving like the Savior. 

I've been studying the Christlike Attributes over the passed few months and its been amazing to see how much I'm doing, but I know the growth also comes with time. No one is perfect, maybe I've been too hard on myself on my mission and in my life at times.   I'm learning to give it all to the Savior and have the atonement make up the rest of my short comings. 

I want to invite everyone to study the Christlike attributes and become more like him, HE has risen and he will be coming sooner then we think. 

What an honor it is to be a missionary at this time, to be away from the world as much as I miss normal life.   We need to Give up our will and align it with Gods will and give him our old self so he can help us become who HE NEEDS US TO BE. 

I love this Gospel and I would share more miracles but that will be next week. 

Be you, Keep being different and strive to be an example and minister to everyone.

LOVE Sister Gilmour xoxoxxo​

WEEK 22: Conference was awesome, deep breaths.

To start things out. Russel M. Nelson is amazing and I know that he is a true prophet of God. Sustaining a new prophet and being able to have the spirit confirm to me that he is called by God to lead and guide his church on this earth is awesome. I'm so beyond grateful I was able to stand as a missionary, a member of the Church on Jesus Christ of latter-day saints and sustain him. What an Honor it is to be a missionary at this time. As we are making changes in the church, i know this is for the better. This will further the work to move forward. It will give everyone the opportunity to love, and minister unto every one of those who may be lost, and to everyone of all ages. The spirit may guide and direct us through promptings, may we listen and act on the feeling and thoughts we receive to help and love those who may not be feeling the love that the Savior has for them. You can be that person's way of feeling that love. 

So... crazy stuff happened this week. I closed my area in Fort Scott to missionaries and started an area called Nevada Missouri and it's been an experience. I'm still close to Fort Scott so I'll be going in once a week to teach the 30 investigators we were teaching and set some baptism dates. We have a baptism set here in Nevada and her name is Molly. She is 16, and has been looking into the Church for 4 years, she's as sweet as they come and I'm really excited to help this young girl find her happiness in this amazing journey.

Sometimes we don't recognize the impact we have on others and there lives. I've moved every 6 weeks on my mission for 6 months and it's been hard but I'm seeing me and my talents planting many seeds. Preparing people for the future. I have been a little.. okay a lot, stressed lately and have spent a lot of time praying for help and support, I know I'm never alone. I found out I was starting from scratch this area 10 hours before TRANSFERS and packed up so fast I just threw it all into my Suit case. 

I'm going to share an amazing experience I had this week with my mission presdients wife... sister Loveland. Thursday I was driving to transferrs and I had hit my breaking point, to where I was about to call my mom and throw in the towel and get on the next plane home.  We weren't treated very well in Fort Scott and it was the hardest area I have served in. Anyways so I dialed my mom's number and as I hit the call button, Sister Lovelands name pops up on my screen. So I answered and she said "is Sister Gilmour there? I had a feeling I needed to call her, so here i am seeing how your doing" i started talking and just balled, I cried so hard I almost threw up(yummy) and i told her i wasn't doing very well. I began to talk to her about some things that had happened in the last 2 weeks and how we've been treated so badly. I talked to her about a situation that happened a few days ago, where I was defending the priesthood and how sacred the gift that men get to have that. I got treated really badly but I stood my ground on the topic. She said "Sister Gilmour, you remind me of the savior" people didn't agree with him and he was treated so badly, you too know what was right but you stood close to the truth and testified of the gift of the priesthood. I know what is righte from wrong and I will always stand for the truth, I am not ashamed to be a member of this church, to be different and to not be in what the world may think right, but I do know right from wrong. Stand and be an example, be different and be who you are. 

Funny moment. Me and Sister Rudolph thought it would be a funny idea and ride our bikes Tuesday night.. um that was I bad idea. So we went on our way, I kid you not.. 5 minutes later it down pours. So we are drenched in rain and just drippin with water. We get back home after a long night of teaching and riding our bikes in the rain. We get home and we look in the mirror and our mascara had ran down our faces. No wonder everyone was looking at us weird. We looked like a hot mess. Good times ha oh the joys of biking in a skirt and getting you car taken for a week, for other sisters who needed it. Is was quite thrilling actually. 

I miss Sister Rudolph, I love her, but Sister Knight is great too. She is from Utah.. figures ha, she is the 2nd oldest, from Ogden and has been serving for 10 months.  She loves burgers and comic books, she worked at lagoon, and is quiet but don't worry that will change after 6 weeks of being  comps with me ha. 

 

I love you all, keep emailing me. 

Love Sister Gilmour💜

WEEK 21: This week has been nuts

This week has been NUTS!! 

The mission president decided to close this area and I'm going to Nevada, Missouri.  I heard my dad read this and thought it said the Nevada Mission - Ha Ha.  I was supposed to get assigned my MTC companion which I was really excited about, to spend time in the mission field with her but about 10 mins ago, before i wrote this,  I found out she had a medical condition that caused her to go home :(:(.  For now, I don't know what will happen nor do I know who my companion is.  I'll tell you next week how it works out.  It'll be fine.  

We've been packing up our entire apartment, 18 years of having missionaries in it..  You can only imagine the kinds of things we've found left behind.  We have so much stuff, junk for the most part.   Because we are so far out we're on our own to pack it all up, no help from other missionaries.  This week has by far been the hardest for me.   Sister Rudolph is keeping me sane , ha.   I'm sad she is leaving me but she goes home in 6 weeks so I'll hear from her soon. I have loved her, a great companion for sure.  Our teaching and comp unity is the best. 

We don't have a car this week so we are doing a lot on the bike - OMG.   

I'll send you more pictures of my week and videos soon.   

I miss you all.  Thank you for supporting me and picking me up on the rough days and weeks.

I know I can overcome everything.   

Love you

Sister Sister Gilmour 

WEEK 20: Chickens are ferocious :)

Hey everyone.. yes another weekly email because sometimes my weeks feel like forever. But this week was great and had lots of lessons and miracles happen. 

We have been teaching the Plan of Salvation to a lot of families and we are so happy we have families, because we are trying to get our little branch to grow out here. We have seen many miracles and are finding new people to teach daily. The plan of Salvation is my favorite lesson to teach because we get to talk about forever families and to help people understand you get to be with your family forever, beyond this life on earth through the proper priesthood authority and temple marriage.  It's an amazing gift and message we as missionaries get to teach. I LOVE IT!!!

I've been doing hair and teaching people. Mike and Jeannine and there 2 boys.  As I cut all of there hair the other day we taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ" invited them to church and we will be watching general conference with them here in a few days.  I'm so excited to hear from our new prophet. 

This week we went to Bronson, Kansas where some of our less actives live, along with some investigators. We went and saw Paula who we are teaching every Friday. Paula is the most loving person I've ever met, she gives to those all around her and makes soap.. she gave me like 6 bars for free.. I never have gotten so many free things in my life from people. On your mission you just get given things and that's a blessing because I'm sure they think we need things. But Paula has a farm and we got to hold the baby chicks, and baby ducks.. also go to love the baby goats. I'm loving all these farm animals.  We also got to teach more about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, another Testament of Jesus Christ-with the Bible, the gospel is so much clearer.  I love talking about that too.

I was standing by the chicken coop and got chased down by the male chickens and went running across the farm. Sister Rudolph probably thinks I'm crazy.. But I was afraid for my life. I was screaming and I'm sure looking stupid while running and flapping my arms everywhere. This mission is worth it though. 

I love you all. Another eventful week with crazy experiences and memories I'll never forget. 

Have a good week everyone and remember to serve others. 

Love Sister Gilmour