Love Life :) Monday, October 6, 2014

Hola!! 

So this week has been quite an interesting week! But it has been so great. For you Mom and Dad, yes I am safe. I´m not sure if you heard, but i´m guessing that you heard about how my Mission President was kidnapped last week. But I want you to know that he is home, and he and his family are doing great. I had the chance to go to the mission office this week because my companion is the sister training leader and there were some training meetings there. So I got to talk to President, and I got to spend a lot of time with Hermana Robertson (his wife). And I can assure you that God is a God of miracles! Heavenly Father watches out for his missionaries, and I know that we are protected. And Dad, haha yes I have a bed and a fully working bathroom and a stove and fridge in my apartment. We are truely blessed. 

Conference was so amazing!!! I absolutely loved being able to hear the words of the prophets. They gave me so many insights and really strengthened me. And it was a huge blessing because me and a couple other misisonaries had the ability to watch the conference in English! I watched the first part of the Womens conference in Spanish... and I didn´t really get anything.. haha. So I am so happy that I had the ability to understand the words of the Prophets in my own language. 

My biggest miracle this week is that we have this investigator named Daniel. He has a great desire to learn about God and Jesus Christ. And everything we teach him, we ask him, ¨do you believe this is true?", He always says, " yes, of course it is true. I know that." Haha so he just makes my day every time we see him. And we invited him to come to Conference this weekend, but we were not sure if he would come. But he did come! And ohhhh man it made me so happy! He said that he really enjoyed it. This was literally a miracle because it rained like crazy the last couple days, so no one left their houses, and there were so few numbers there at the conference. But when we called Daniel to see if he was coming, he told us " I don´t care if it is raining like crazy, i´m commin!" Haha. I can see how Heavenly Father has softened his heart, and we continue to hope and pray and work with him more. And hopefully he will be baptized this month. 

A funny moment from this week obviously has to do with the language... haha. So we were riding our bikes, and my companion darts across this road, and a man on a bike stopped for us to pass, and as we passed he shouted something at us. I was grateful that he stopped for us so I smiled and waved as I said, "Gracias!" The man started laughing... Then my companion asked me, " do you know what he just said to us?" No... She said, " He just said, you crazy girls you are going to break your heads!" Haha I just laughed, little innocent me. I love funny moments like that. And the other night it took me 5 minutes to figure out what a young man from our branch was asking me "how do you get by without knowing the language?" Haha when i finally figured out what he was saying, we all laughed, and I said, "clearly it is very difficult for me, but my companion helps me a lot." And it is so true! I am so grateful for her. 

I know that the Lord is watching out for me, and He is helping me. I continue to have faith and press on! I am so happy to be a missionary. I hope all is going well at home! I love you all, I pray for you every day. 

Sorry my pictures didn´t work last time... I don´t know why. I may try again. By the way, we are not allowed to receive any packages at all. But if you want to try, you can send a padded envelope in the mail. And if you want to attempt to send me a letter, this is the address. 

Hermana Leah Gull

Argentina Buenos Aires West Mission

La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos

de los Ultimos Dias; C.C. No. 92

1702 Ciudadela, Buenos Aires

ARGENTINA

Confía en el Señor!

Hermana Gull

First week in Argentina!!

Hola mis familia y amigas!!!

This week has been one for the record books, haha ya it has been pretty crazy. So yes, i did make it safely to Argentina! It was a very long 2 days of traveling, but it was great.  When i first got into the airport... i seriously thought, "what in the world did they teach me in the MTC because it is not this language!" Haha... but that is okay. The first night we went to the temple and took pictures, and then to our presidents house to do training and have iterviews with the president. The president and hermana Robertson are so great!!!!!!!!! And i love their family! The interview with president was so great, he told me that he is so excited to have me as the mission nurse and that they desperately need my help. But first i need to learn the language, so I am going to be a missionary for the first 3-6 months then he said "we´ll put you to work!"... haha so whatever that means. So my new companion is Hermana Godoy! She is from honduras and when i first met her i was scared that she didn´t speak any english, but she actually speaks english really well! Which is such a tender mercy for me. She is so wonderful and a great missionary. I also love how sassy she is haha. So we are in an area called Luján. It is out in the campo! So we are about an hour or so out of the capital, and we are in the poorest area of the zone. We have bikes! haha my legs are going to get so buff. When I first saw my apartment, i thought it was really poor and like old... but since going around this week, i have learned that our apartment is SO nice! We have elecricty and running water, and tile floor and we have a table and chairs. We are so blessed. There are many people that live in tin shacks or little houses made from wood or these large hallow red bricks. And some people dont even have any furniture in their houses.There are some paved roads in the "richer areas" but the places we go are mostly all dirt roads. Haha and when it rains, it pours. So we often wear big rain boots... which is not exactly what i imagined a sister missionary wearing, but it is much better that way haha. The people here are all so friendly! You can literally walk past or up to anyone and say hi how are you, and everyoe says "ciao" in passing. And everyone greets each other with a kiss on the cheek even when you don´t know them at all, it shocked me at first but now i am used to it. But of course we can only receive and give kisses to other women, not any guys. 

This week has been a little bit of a challenge because i literally could not understand a single thing these people were saying haha... they all speak so fast and they barely open thier mouths when they speak. They also dont speak "spanish", they speak castellano, so they say "sh" every time there is a y or a ll, and a LOT of the words are different than in spanish. So I am learning... haha every day i can pick up a little more. My companion has to translate a lot, and every lesson i always add my testimony or say a prayer, or i at least contribute somehow. I am getting a little better every day. And even though I really dont understand anything, i can feel the spirit so much, because i know the Lord speaks every language.  I know the Lord will help me. I love being a missionary and going out and just talking and teaching people all day! It is like one big adventure, and you all know how much I love going on adventures . 

Yesterday in church they called me up and asked me to bare my testimony, haha nerve wracking... but i did it. Haha it was very short, and to the point, and I am just glad that they could understand me. It was a great experience. 

It is good to hear that everything is going well at home! Thanks for all your prayers and for your support. I have the best family in the world. This week i have been studying about Ammon and the other sons of Mosiah. They were such stellar missionaries! I know it is because they worked hard and they trusted in the Lord. 

I love you all!

Love Hermana Gull

p.s. please send this to aunt nadine, i don´t have her address. 

pss. the mailing system is pretty bad here, but you can still try to send me letters if you want. I dont have the address this week, but i will have it next week. 

Last week in the CCM!! Ready or not, here i come!

Hola!

This week has been a really fantastic week! It went by way super fast though. So on Tuesday, Elder Richard G. Scott came to speak, it was so amazing! I am really happy we got to see an Apostle before we left. He talked about prayer, and the Spirit was so amazing. I am going to try to pray more sincerely and with more personality. At the beginning of his talk he said, "Now I have a word or two concerning you missionaries... Don't just have a good mission, have a Blast!" Haha to tell ya the truth, it made me nervous for a minute, I thought he was going to chastise us at first, then he just surprised me. But I love that advice! He also said, "I wish I could personally interview every single one of you. I want to talk with you, laugh and cry with you. Because I love you. But I am just not able to do that, but Heavenly Father wants to. How long has it been since you talked to Him like he was really your loving Father? He misses you." That really struck me. Wow. 

Wednesday was really fun because we got to host new missionaries. So we got to take them to their classes and stuff, so fun! 

Thursday was a really cool experience for me because it was our last class with my teacher Hermano Wallace. He has been our teacher from the very beginning and we love him so much! We all shared our testimonies, and I cried because, 1. I was feeling the spirit so strong. 2. I am really going to miss my district family. They are all so amazing! We have all grown so much together. Then we watched a video called "Missions and the Atonement" Amazing. Then Hermano Wallace stood up to bare his testimony and I felt as if the Savior Himself was standing next to him. And suddenly I could feel the room fill with angels. They were all around us. I know that Heavenly Father watches out for His missionaries, and we will never be alone. We will always have angels around us to help us and to bare us up. 

Friday we had in-field orientation on the Main campus. We learned a lot of really cool things like what we can expect this upcoming week. Guess who I saw at dinner???!!! MY ROOMMATE CLARYSA SKOUSON!!!! I ran up to her and gave her a big hug and surprised her haha, oh it made me so happy!!  I also saw Tori Hamilton from my student ward! Ahhhhh I'm going to Argentina on Monday! I am so excited! I still can't really speak Spanish very well, but that's okay :D So today we are just going to clean and pack like crazy! 

I know this is exactly where Heavenly Father wants me to be. I love this Gospel so much! I know our Heavenly Father loves us so much.

Love Hermana Gull

Week 5 MTC (CCM) Saturday, September 13, 2014

Hola!!

I am so happy to hear that Dawnica and Kody had their new baby!! And Linkoln Jex Jensen is a PERFECTO NOMBRE!! The pictures are so so cute!! I am so happy for you. And I wish I could hold him! I am glad he is doing better now. I have been praying for Dawnica and Linkoln all week. Que animado!! Dad, I am so sorry to hear that you are sick again this week :( I will pray for you as well. That is no fun, no bueno y no divertido. Se siente mejor pronto!! That is fun that you are canning peaches though! Maybe there will still be some left when I get home haha. 

So this week has been a great learning week. It has been kind of difficult because there is this nasty cold bug that has decided to invade my district. So a few of the Elders and Hermana Story and I have been pretty sick this week. So it has been interesting because I have been trying to help the other missionaries feel  better, while trying to coordinate companion splits for missionaries going to the doctor and splits for missionaries staying home sick. I haven't stayed home cuz I don't have the time haha. And I luckily only have a nasty cough, I can't breathe very well, but I can still think and study, so I am blessed! It has been a pretty busy week as well because we had a new batch of missionaries come in! It is so crazy, we just barely sent off our "old ones" and now we are the "old ones" in the zone.... weird. It is so fun being the Sister training leader because I get to know a lot of the sister missionaries on a more personal basis. It amazes me how prepared these missionaries are! They are so young, yet they are so pumped and ready to learn and preach the gospel. The work is really rolling forth! 

One of my biggest trials this week is trying to help my companion. She has been getting really stressed about everything, so I have been trying to help her be not so stressed and to be more confident in herself. She is an amazing missionary! Her testimony is so strong, and she really loves her Heavenly Father. She is a great example to me. We are learning how to be more patient with each other and we are learning how to work and teach with each other. 

One of my favorite things this week is having trials. When I have trials, Heavenly Father can help me over come them and they can become my strengths. They are not super strong yet.. but they will get there. One morning I was in my classroom just praying for Heavenly Father to help me and my companion learn how to prepare and teach better together. Then right after I said the prayer, a teacher walked in the room, her name is Hermana Martinez. She called for me and my companion to come with her. She took us to an empty classroom and said, "your teacher has told me that you two need help teaching your lessons, is that correct? Well I want to help you." I almost wanted to cry. She worked with us for 2 hours and told us that we can come find her to help us out any time we need to. It was such a blessing. And our lessons went so much better that day! Heavenly Father really does answer prayers. 

Another cool thing this week, my investigator Ivette is getting baptized! Haha for real. She is getting baptized on October 6th. She has already been meeting with the missionaries, but she decided to come be an "investigator" at the MTC because her friend told her that this would be a good way to know more. So she came and she is so amazing !! I am so thankful for the experience I have had to get to know her. Man I just love her. 

Another exciting thing... I got my travel papers!! My visa came through, and I will be flying out to Argentina next Monday! I leave the MTC at 6:00 am, so not early I'm thankful. And I will get to Argentina on September 23 at like 8:30 am :) I will get to call home from the Airport. Which I am looking forward to :) 

This week I was studying in 3 Nephi chapter 11 when Christ comes to the Americas. When Christ came He said, "Arise and come forth unto me that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet that ye may know that I am the Gd of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world." Then, every single person who was there went up, one by one and did learn for themselves, and id feel His hands. Can you imagine what that would be like??  There were hundreds, maybe thousands of people, and Christ invited every single one of them to come unto Him and see. Oh how merciful and loving is our God! Oh how wonderful is our Savior! He loves all His children so much, and He wants every single one of them to come unto Him. That is my purpose, to "invite others come unto Christ". Then I was thinking about Elder Holland's talk, "The First and Greatest Commandment" when Jesus ask's Peter, do you love me? I put my self in Peter's shoes. "The Savior asked me, "Hermana Gull, do you love me?" I answered, Yea Lord, I do love thee." Then He asked again, "Hermana Gull, do you love me?" I answered again with my heart burning, "Yea Lord, I do love thee." Then the Savior asked me a third time, "Leah, Hermana Gull, do. you. love me?" I answer with a firm conviction of heart, "Yea Lord, thou knowest I love thee." the Savior responded, "Then feed my sheep."

I know that there is no way I could ever repay my Savior. But I know that going on a mission is a step into the right direction. I have to live and try to become my very best, and with the Grace of my Savior, it will be enough. 

I love you all so much! Thanks for the prayers and for  your examples to me. 

Love Hermana Gull

Semana 4 en la CCM!

Hola mi familia! 

Este semana fue muy excellente. Thanks for the emails, and the letters, they really lift my spirits :) It is exciting that Dawnica is getting so close to having her baby! I am so excited for her, I hope everything goes well. I can't wait to see pictures of that little baby! I am glad the boys are doing well in school. Holy Cow, Ben is going to get his license!!! Well, it's about time :p haha. 

So this week has gone by in the blink of an eye, ay ay ay! Pero está bien! I leave in about 2 weeks to head out to Argentina. So next week by this time I will have my flight plans... ay ay aye... I'm trying not to think about it too much! Haha I am trying very hard to do my best every day. It is a lot of work being a missionary, and it takes a lot of prayer, study, optimism and patience.. and I'm still in the MTC! It is such good practice though, I am so grateful for the MTC so that I can have all these wonderful opportunities to teach several different people, and learn how to study and learn how to work with others. One of my favorite quotes from this week is from President Hinckley he said, " There are three important things a missionary should always do, Smile, Smile, Smile." And I love that!! Haha I would much rather smile than be upset. I am kinda starting to freak out about the language though, maybe I just need to spend more time studying it on my own... probably. But nonetheless, I am trying to become the best missionary I can. 

My favorite part this week was teaching our investigators. They are all in such different places in their lives! It is really neat to be able to teach and help people with the gospel :D Our one investigator I feel especially connected to. She is from NYC and has been an Atheist for many years. But a little while ago she was going through a really tough time and her LDS friend asked if she could say a prayer for her. She said yes, and she told us that she had the most amazing feeling that someone actually cared about her, like someone maybe God knew her. And she could feel so much love. Ever since that experience, she has started to pray on her own, because she has wanted to feel that way again. So she came to visit her friend that goes to school here, and has started to meet with the missionaries. When we met with her, the spirit was incredible! I could really feel that Heavenly Father loves her so much! And He wants her to come to Him, and know of Him. So it will be fun teaching her because she knows very little about God and nothing about Jesus Christ, I am excited! 

My favorite scripture this week is in Alma 32, especially in verses 21 and 27. This talks about how we all need to have faith. But we do not have to have a perfect knowledge, we just have to start with even a desire to believe, then we can help that faith grow! Our faith will not grow if we do not feed and take care of it. We must nourish our seed by watering it and giving it plenty of sunlight. We need to grow our faith by ACTING on our faith; reading our scriptures and praying sincerely. It is a perfect recipe, if you do this, I promise your faith will grow. :) 

I love you all, I hope you all have a wonderful week! Please stay safe, and Dawnica, good luck having your sweet little baby this week! 

Love Hermana Gull

Hey, hello, hola! Saturday August 30, 2014

Hola!!!

Well I got your package on Thursday and I can tell you it came just in time! It made me so happy. Thank you so much for it :D Now I have lots of candy to share with everyone haha. I am trying to not get fat... haha but being at the MTC it is hard because all you do is eat then sit for 10 hours a day, with one hour of gym. But I have been trying really hard to not eat a lot of food, and I have been trying to eat the more healthy stuff. And I only let myself have ice cream 2x a week. And believe me, it is hard! They have BYU creamery ice cream here and my favorite is the Gram Canyon... man oh man, it could make a grown man cry it is so good!

Well I guess it sounds like you all are doing pretty good, I hope so! 

So this week has been really great, but wowza has it gone by fast! I have been here for about 2 1/2 weeks now, so I have about 3 weeks left... AHHHHH!!! Haha. But my Spanish is actually coming along okay. It is really hard, and I am not super good at it, but the more I practice, the better I get. The part I am not good at is the conjegating. And my English is already starting to get worse! It is actually pretty funny. So yesterday my companion and I had a pretty cool experience. My teacher Hermano Mace challenged us to go out and talk to 6 people who were not missionaries, and ask for referrals. It was so awesome!!! I felt like a real missionary! Some people talked to us for over 20-30 minutes. And we came back about an hour after all the rest of our class did... oops. Ha but we were happy to have met the amazing people that we did! My companion is not as confident with people as I am, so I try not to talk too much and let her say some things too haha. 

My companion said something the other night in our Zone testimony meeting that we have every night, she talked about with one of our investigators, he said he didn't want to get baptized right now because he felt like he didn't know enough. But our teacher (our investigator) taught us that this is the most common response with investigators and members as well. We always feel like we don't know enough. But we ask, "Do you believe that God is our Heavenly Father and we are His children? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He atoned for all the sins of the world, and that he loves you personally? Have you repented of your previous sins?" If you answer yes to these questions, you do know enough. None of us have a perfect knowledge. That is the point of this life, to always be learning! I can promise you that I did not have a perfect knowledge of things before I came on my mission, and I definitely do not know everything now, but we know enough. That is one of Satan's greatest tools, is to try to get us to think that we don't know enough, or that our testimony isn't strong enough. He will try to take you down with all he's got. But we just have to tell him to buzz off, because we are on the Lords side. And the Lord will take whatever we can give him, and turn it into something 100 times fold! 

So on kind of a funnier note... Story. So I was standing in the dinner line with my companion a couple days ago. And there was this Elder behind us that is really flirty, and he really makes me uncomfortable. And I see him EVERYWHERE. So he was talking to me, but I was being very standoffish. Then he says to me "okay this may seem weird, but it's not" Then he reaches behind me and moves my ponytail from off my name tag and says, "oh, Gull. Okay." I flipped out! I said in a very bold way, "Do not touch me! That was in no way okay. Don't touch me" He said :"uhh I just wanted to know your name" I was so mad that I just turned around and didn't talk to him the rest of the time in the line. Haha I know this might seem crazy to you all back at home, but I felt violated! So I was telling some Elders in my district about this little incident, while at the table. They all got so worked up about it and it spread like wildfire down the table. Haha all of the sudden there were about 20 elders asking me what this guy looked like, what color his tie was, what color his hair was, how much he weighed, haha they were being really funny. They said "no way is anyone gonna mess with one of our sisters!" It made me feel good I guess to have to many protective brothers. Well the next day, and Elder in my District said, "You know that Elder that touched your hair yesterday? Well I broke his nose today." He had a huge smile on his face. I asked, "really??" He said, "yep!" We were playing basketball today, and I didn't really mean to, but my elbow and his nose just kind of collided. But ya, I did it for you. Haha" And it ended up that he really did break his nose. Haha sad.. but also kinda really funny. All the Elders in my district said that they got my back. I love my district family. :D

Well some cool news, I have been assigned to be the new Sister Training Leader for my zone. So I will have this assignment for the next 3 weeks. I am super excited :D

Love you all! Please be safe! 

I know that this church is true! And I know that we all have a purpose here. I love my Savior and my Heavenly Father. En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen!

Love Hermana Gull

Hello! Week 2 Baby! Saturday, August 23, 2014

Hola everyone!!!

Wow, I feel like a grandma, I have been in the MTC so long! Haha okay... not really. But it does feel like I have been here forever. And and at the same time, it feels like I have only been here for a day! Time is really weird here at the MTC. I am with my districto for about 14 hours a day. So they are all more than just my best friends, they are like my family. We are each other's family. I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Everyone says that I have a contagious excitement and happiness, I like that :) 

Hmmm So I think the coolest thing that happened this week is with our first investigator, Adrian. I think I told you a little about him last week in my letter. But we started teaching him the 2nd day we were here, and we could barely speak any Spanish. Haha well, on our second lesson a day or two later, my companion Hermana U. and I were talking about the Holy Ghost, and we kind of ended up inviting him to be baptized! Haha he seemed a little shocked,  but he said something like, " Well not today, and not tomorrow, but in the future yes, I think I would like to get baptized." It was pretty cool. Even if he hadn't accepted right now, he was able to know that is an option for him. We have really grown to love Adrian! Our lessons got a little better each time as we learned more about the Gospel, and more how to speak Spanish. I am still really not very good at speaking... I try so hard! Haha but I think I am still the slowest in the class. BUT miracles really do happen! Usually in the lessons, I try to say as much as I can in Spanish, but I usually end up looking at Hermana U to save me because she knows more Spanish than I do. In our last lesson, I ended up talking to him for most of the time, with Hermana U saying a couple things here and there. I don't even know how that happened! But then after the lesson, I couldn't even repeat what I had said, and I couldn't talk very well in Spanish to my classmates. It was the Spirit! The gift of Tongues is real!! Haha I was so excited about that small yet very significant miracle. So, we had taught Adrian for 4 lessons and our teacher told us that he would no longer be coming. We were all sad, but then our teacher showed us a video that Adrian had made to "review" his experience with us. And he started talking in english! Haha it was soooo weird to hear him talk in English... He talked about how even though he couldn't understand us all the time, he could always feel the spirit. And his testimony has grown so much. It was awesome to feel the spirit testify to me of how much He loves his children, and how I can really actually make a difference in someone's life. Later that day, we were waiting in our classroom, our teacher didn't tell us what we were going to do, he just told us it was a secret. Then in walks Adrian in a suit and tie and a name tag that said Hermano Mace!!!!!! He is our teacher!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Haha wow it was SO CRAZY!!! I think that seriously made my whole life! We had grown to really love Adrian so much and then to have him... well not really Adrian (because he was acting as our investigator)... be our TEACHER! Man oh man I was so happy. And Hermano Mace has a lot of family in Wales! He knows all about Wales and the canyon and it was just so awesome. To be honest, I think Hermano Mace is one of the best teachers I have ever had in my life... and I have had a lot of teachers. Our other teacher Hermano Wallace, will still be our teacher too :) 

I don't know if I have said this before but, I LOVE THE MTC!  I love how every single day I can feel the Spirit. I love to see miracles happen all around me! And I'm not even in the field yet. Crazy...

Oh, on Sunday I got to see Tyler again!!! We sat by each other at dinner, then went to choir together, and then hung out after Devotional. So I got to spend a good 3 hours with him, and then he flew out to Mexico the next morning at 2:30 am. :) That made me so happy.

So how are you all doing?? It sounds like you all had a lot of fun at the lake. And Ben, OUCH!!! What did you do??? Haha that does not look fun! Sounds like you had kind of a hard time dropping off Tomoki today huh? I bet you all will really miss him, he was so great! 

Well I love you all so much!! Please write me on Dear Elder. I only have an hour to write emails. Annnnd I can only write letters on Saturdays, time is so short! But I really do LOVE  to hear from all of you :D 

I want to share my testimony with you in Spanish: 

Yo se que Jeuscristo es el Salvador y el Redentor. Yo se que Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial, y El nos ama mucho!!! Por medio de la expiacion, podemos vivir feliz y tener esperanza y suparar desifios! Yo se que el Libro de Mormon es verdadero y Jose Smith es una profeta. Yo se que familias pueden juntos por eternidad. En el numbro de Jesucristo, Amen. 

Love Hermana Gull

PS. Here are some pictures! These are my crazy silly elders, and then me and my Hermanas in my district, then we are SO EXCITED to get mail! And then my district with our first investigator Adrian, and then me and Hermana U at the temple this morning :D Enjoy!