It's been ... great.‏

So, life.

It's happening. And you know what? It's weird.

Yesterday I had my final interview with President Packard. Strange.

Usually our final interviews happen the day before we go home, but a record THIRTY FIVE missionaries go home with me (can you say "mass exodus"?), so President won't have time to interview us all in one day. Here's a snippet of the conversation we had yesterday:

President: How are you feeling Sister Gledhill?

S.Gledhill: Weird. Like I haven't really comprehended what's about to happen.

President: So, how do you feel about your mission?
S.Gledhill: ... *silence, thoughtful pondering

      ... *more silence, overwhelmed pondering

      ... It's been ... great.

Because really, what else can you say? How do you sum up the past 18 months in some kind of communicable sentence? Or for that matter, paragraph? Or novel? I don't think in 10 years from now I will be able to fully recognize the impact my mission has had on me, let alone when I'm right in the thick of it! (By the way, President didn't scold me for my sassy-ness. He completely understands and more eloquently quoted the words of Ammon from the Book of Mormon, "I cannot say the smallest part which I feel." Amen to that President, amen to that.)

And so, here I am. My general emotional status could be defined as "constantly on the brink of weeping." Not weeping with sadness, but with ... I don't know, joy and gratitude and longing and love and praise and desire and drive and happiness. It's strange to feel it all at once, but I think I understand the missionaries in the Book of Mormon when they say their hearts were full and they all just fall to the ground because they are so overwhelmed with emotion. I've been doing my fair share of overcome-with-emotion-ground-laying, and let me tell ya, it's a good way to process all of this "feelings" business. (Some of you may be scoffing, because I know I have a reputation to uphold of being stone-hearted. But, what can I say? Missions change people.)

Which leads me to my plan for the next week: basically just soak up everything. It's kind of poetic that Thanksgiving is in the last week of my mission. Did you know that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday? Why is Heavenly Father SO PERFECT?!! This next week should be especially incredible, even by missionary standards. The month of November has been a record breaker in the MBM when it comes to miracles. I'll fill you in next week when the whole month is over, but let's just say it will be a good note to end on.

xoxo,

One Grateful Missionary.

(... Sister Gledhill)

A Game of Battleship‏

Wow,

NO time to email today - we've been too busy prowling the streets of Boston. In the rain. ALL DAY. We went to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, so so awesome! We had so much fun we forgot to eat. ... I'm being serious.

So in lieu of my usual nonsensical ramblings, let me share with you a short but profound incite that was shared this Sunday during our Relief Society meeting. The lesson was on prayer, and we will call it "The Parable of the Hasbro Game."

In Doctrine and Covenants Ch. 10, we read that we must "pray always to conquer Satan." Conquer Satan in what, you may ask? A game of Battleship. Life is like we are playing a game of Battleship against Satan, except Satan can see both his board AND ours. He knows who we were before we came to this Earth. He knows our potential. He knows our righteous desires. But we can't remember all of those things right now in our puny mortal forms. BUT HEAVENLY FATHER CAN! And so that's why we need to pray - God can see both sides of the board and can help us through this game of Battleship we call life if we ask Him to.

Haha ... This seemed a lot more profound on Sunday morning. Sleep deprivation can do that to a girl. Oh well.

I LOVE YOU AND I LOVE THE GOSPEL!

xoxo,

Sister Gledhill

All Manner of Hooplah

Mi Familia!

Time continues to move forward, despite my persistent pleas to the laws of the universe. Pff. What ever.

But every moment of everyday is filled with so so SO many incredible miracles! Josh Katsy was baptized last weekend in Uganda, Radu in Moldova excepted a baptismal date for December 6th, Shazar went to church in Scotland for the first time yesterday, and we get to witness the work of the Lord moving forward in awe-inspiring ways all over the world right here from the Fishbowl!

(Me and Sister Zickella Skyping with Radu)

 (Radu with the Elders in Moldova at the Balti chapel)

But as we know, every time God hastens His work, challenges and opposition also pop up. I've been experiencing some rather interesting and downright comical trials the past couple weeks. Let me give you a glimpse:

• I haven't had a canker soar in years, but this week I've had two. The majority of the bottom left side of my mouth is alternately numb and stingy.
• I have managed to somehow break TWO of the computers in the Fishbowl. Elder Worthington, our resident computer hacker, suspects I got hacked, put my USB in the computer, the virus got onto my USB, we plugged my USB into his computer, and battaboom! You got two broken computers. 
• I woke up a few mornings ago with a Quasimodo eye. Thank you, weird, swollen, face-shape-altering acne.
• One night while we were getting off the T, my pocket sized hymn book fell out of my bag and into the pit of the train track. It's like a four or five foot drop and we were just going to jump down and get it, but we figured we had better ask someone with train-authority. Good thing because I guess it's a pretty big deal to go down there! Two MBTA workers had to call and halt the next train to go grab it and it was quite the ordeal. It took like 14 minutes! But don't worry, they felt very compelled to get it for me because of it's religious nature :)
• The very next night after the hymn book fiasco, while getting off at the very same stop, MY NAME TAG fell off of my coat into the pit. Ai, ai, ai. Unfortunately this time we couldn't find it to request the nice MBTA workers help. 

But you know, despite my walking disaster status, morale is pretty high! I feel like I'm in a "miracles-are-happening-and-you-can't-bring-me-down" kind of bubble. I'm like Simba from Lion King, "Challenges? I laugh in the face of challenges!" I'm in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, surrounded by people everyday who are either ridiculously intelligent, successful, or ... just cool. It's like living in a street style blog. (Did I mention the Longfellow Park chapel is right in the middle of Harvard campus?)

Plus the missionaries I'm serving with are fantastic. We have a blast, and their rather supportive of my un-techieness. Elder Worthington didn't even scold me for ruining his expensive hacker computer he had shipped out from home. All he asked was that I make him pudding! You have a deal, my friend. (Don't worry he's fixing it ... I think.) We've been having family dinners together every night, and oh boy. Here is what I've found out: feeding a family of six missionaries is EXPENSIVE. Probably doesn't help that 4 of the 6 are Elders, and as such have "bottomless pit" syndrome that apparently sets in when they are set apart. (hahaha, because that hasn't happened to me at all. #sarcasm.) But you know, it's great for Fishbowl unity.

We've also been doing a group scripture study each morning, because if their is one thing we all know, it's that the internet can suck the spirit right out of you if you don't fill yourself up with goodness everyday! When it was my turn to be in charge, we studied Mosiah 22 & 24 from the Book of Mormon. These two chapters tell very similar stories about two groups: the people of Alma and the people of King Limhi. Both groups are in bondage to the Lamanites and both groups are delivered by God. But it was so cool to compare the two stories side by side and look at the differences! While the people of King Limhi merely endured their trial and prayed to be delivered from their bondage, the people of Alma poured out their hearts to the Lord and were made stronger so that they could not even feel their burdens any more. When they were delivered to freedom, they had changed and become stronger because of their trial - not just merely endured. WHAT THE, WHY IS THE BOOK OF MORMON SO AMAZING?! I would highly recommend anyone who is going through some hard thing to study these two chapters.

Okay, enough rambling from me. I love you all and hope your week is fabulous.

xoxo,

Sister Gledhill

Being Reverse-Trunky

This was one of those weeks that so much happened I don't even know how to begin to explain.

Like, really. What to even say?

Elder Larry R. Lawrence from the Seventy came to tour the mission. Let me just summarize the thoughts and feeling I had at our Zone Conference by saying our mission is in a really, really good place right now. The Lord is definitely hastening His work here in New England, and we are ready to make things happen! Everyone is on fire and ready to give everything we have to the work. It's been a little bitter sweet because we have worked so hard the past 18 months to get to this point and now that everything is coming together, I'm almost done! But my heart is so full of joy for all of the people who are finding the Gospel and I really wouldn't want it any other way. (Well ... actually I want to stay longer, but alas, the Church is all like "Continue on with your life!", "You have work to do at home!", "MARRIAGE." #Gross.)

And President and Sister Packard made me even more reverse-trunky when they made a surprise visit to the Fishbowl yesterday and were all, "You six missionaries are shaping the way the Gospel is going to be shared in the next 20 years - you are changing the world!" And I'm all, "WHY AM I ONLY GOING TO BE HERE FOR SIX WEEKS?!!"

Okay. Mission-ending-rant over. 

On the bright side, it snowed yesterday and it was really pretty. Also, it's becoming really, really cold outside and I won't have to be here for the frigid winter! #lookingforthepositives

And Bill Greenfelder WENT TO THE TEMPLE FOR HIS ENDOWMENTS. Sister Bailey and I rode the bus to the beautiful Boston Temple on Saturday to go with him, and it was heavenly. Bill always thanks us for how much we've done for him, and all the missionaries always think, "We did nothing." Bill's is just one of those stories I'm so happy I was blessed to witness on my mission. He is stellar.

I will close with a little quote from Radu, our investigator from Russia. We were teaching him the Plan of Salvation and asked him what he knew about the story of Adam and Eve, which resulted in this little gem of a rendition (imagine in endearing Russian accent.):

"God created Adam. Adam was on the earth for a period of time, perhaps a long time? Then Adam told God it was too boring and maybe he needed a wife or something. Then He created Eva out of ... how do you say ... sand." Oi. We love him.

Well, gotta go spread the gospel to the whole world. (literally. We're about to have a Skype appointment with a Pakistani in Scotland. Go technology.)

xoxo,

Sister Gledhill

p.s. Every single one of my companions except for my trainer Sister Bringhurst (she finished at the beginning of Summer) was at zone conference this week!

Sister Roy, Bailey, Batschi, Badham, Jessop, and Zickella. Aren't they cute?
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