The Girls in the Helmets.

What up loved ones?!

Yet another week of missionary has flown by. I can't believe I've only been in Rhode Island for a week and a half! It feels like I've been here for ages. In a good way. But so much has happened! We have so much work to do we can't even cram it all into our schedules. We have to schedule things like 2 weeks in advance. #sopopular. I feel super blessed to be a missionary here in Scituate. 

... And also I feel super exhausted. Sister Bailey and I have had multiple delusional laughing fits this week - it's the best way to deal with stress and exhaustion. I think it might have something to do with the fact that we started riding BIKES. Hahaha, it's a hoot. Two teenage girls in skirts riding all over the New England hills. In helmets. With a basket full of scriptures. We look so adorable that some people have felt the need to yell encouraging phrases out their windows to us, such as, "Nice helmets!" and "Lose the skirts!" They're just jealous that we pull it off so well. I did have to invest in a seat cushion, because I soon discovered that bike seats are like the opposite of comfortable. 

This week I had the realization that a lot of people think missionary work is really easy. They're just like, "Call this person. Go over there. Knock on the door. Baptize them. It's not that difficult." And we're like, "Uh, what do you think we've been doing?!" Basically all the answers with missionary work are simple, but rarely are they easy. Does that make sense?

But oh man, when things work out, it's amazing. This week we had so many people tell us that right before we appeared in their lives, they had prayed to God for a change or a light or a new path. And then when we show up, they're all nervous to tell us this like we are going to think they are insane. If only they knew that it's kind of our norm. Isn't that crazy? Miracles and signs are my norm these days. I love being a missionary.

This next week will be a week of land mark dates - 20 years old and my 5 month mark! Yuck. Time. Ick. These may be the last words I type as a teenager. #soancient. All I would ask for my birthday is for everyone to find an opportunity to share the gospel this Thursday. That's right, challenge thrown down. I expect reports of you all being a sign from God in someone's life next week. 

I LOVE YOU ALL!

Sister Gledhill

New Address

138 Thompson Pike
Dayville, CT 06241

The Promised Land

Oh my goodness. I am here. In RHODE ISLAND. I don't have much time, so let me conveniently break down my new life into categories:

Companion: Sister Makell Bailey from Murray, Utah. Let me tell ya, this transfer is going to be a treat. We get along like New England and clam chowdah. (so ... you know, really well.)

Apartment: We live in an adorable little woodsy cottage. It's a little apartment over a member's garage and it's so. cute. And also freezing. And also it has like 1/16 of the storage space my last apartment had, but it's totally worth it. And also the members that we rent from make us recycle and compost and stuff, so the granola in me is loving it.

The Work: The Providence Stake is basically like the Holy Land of missionary work in our mission. There is SO much happening! It really is an incredible place to be a missionary right now.

Oh man, I love it here. The only downside is we are totally going to have to start riding bikes, and I have like 3 skirts that allow for biking. Hooray for repeat outfits and helmet hair! But, I will probably develop thighs of steel, so prepare yourselves for that.

And I finally got to go to the temple yesterday! WOOOOOOOOO! No offense to any of my beloved family, but I have been far more homesick for the temple than for anything else. It was so nice to go back! And also I had a beautiful reunion with my MTC companion Sister White in the Celestial Room, so that was appreciated.

Man, I'm getting worse at remembering things. But I am so happy here! I love you guys and am so grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord.

Love,
Sister Gledhill




Sister Bailey and I. #companionbesties

SCITUATE! ... Where's Scituate?

OH MAN.

I am going to Scituate, Rhode Island. Tomorrow. I am leaving Waltham. TOMORROW.

You may be wondering, where is Scituate? What is it like there? How is the work going there? How do you even pronounce Scituate?
Well, my friends, let me tell you. I have no idea.

Saturday night, we were in the car driving to our dinner appointment after the second session of conference when all of the sudden Sister Roy started screaming. As the good companion I am, I was obviously a little troubled by this. The last Saturday of every transfer, T-texts go out alerting the mission of any changes that will take place the next transfer. Usually these texts come at about 9:30 or 9:45, but the Elders wouldn't be out of Priesthood session until 10:00 with the time difference, so we were told that T-texts wouldn't be until 10:30. But, in order to cause much distress and chaos (they claimed so we wouldn't be up late), surprise T-texts were sent at 6:00 - hence Sister Roy's screaming.

Surprise T-texts are bad for a number of reasons.
1 - I need to take time to mentally and emotionally prepare myself for such life-altering announcements.

2 - It is usually safer for all parties involved for me to NOT get life-altering announcements whilst driving a vehicle.

3 - After receiving life-altering announcements, it is very hard to recompose yourself and act like a normal person at dinner appointments.

And it is in this unprepared state that we found out I am being transferred to Scituate. AHHHHHHHH! All I could think was, "Being a missionary is a crazy thing to be." Like, for the past 4 months Weston 1 has been my life. I literally spend 24 hours a day thinking, planning, serving, teaching, and interacting with the people who live here. And now, I am leaving. And I am going to have a new life in this mystical Scituate.

Here is all my limited knowledge about Scituate: The Scituate ward is in the Providence Stake. You pronounce Scituate SIT-CHEW-IT. My companion is going to be Sister Bailey, who came out the same time as Sister Roy and was trained by one of my MTC district sisters, Sister Neilson. The Scituate missionaries are known for going on tons of splits with their members. And they already have a Christmas tree in their apartment.

THAT'S IT PEOPLE. This is all I know about my new life!

Oh and also that I will live here: 138 Thompson Pike, Dayville, Connecticut. CONNECTICUT! I am going to live in Connecticut. I guess Scituate is by Connecticut. ... Actually probably all of Rhode Island is by Connecticut. That's what happens when you're in the smallest state in the country. WHICH I AM GOING TO BE IN! Oh my life. I've been saying goodbye to all our investigators and members the past few days, which was kind of sad. But also I know I will stay in contact with the ones that I got really close to, so I'm not too worried about it. Plus, it's reassuring to know Sister Roy will be here to watch over my old life. It's in good hands.

In other news, Conference was AMAZING. I woke up in the middle of Friday night and couldn't go back to sleep, I was so excited. Just like ... woh. Conference is so amazing. This church is so amazing. Revelation. It's cool stuff. I would go into more exciting details, but mostly I just can't even focus. So much to do in preparation for SCITUATE!

Pray for me!

Love,
Sister Gledhill

Building the playground!

 Mulchin for dayzzzzzz

 
 Playground Prep day







Posing with Pat and Slyder


 Hahahahaha she's so tiny

Pam's Baptism

The Harvest of Much Fruit.

This week was craziness because a ton of stuff that has been in the works since I got here all came to fruition at the same time!

At the beginning of this week/end of last week we helped at a service project organized by KABOOM. They go all around the country and build playgrounds in low-income communities. I mean, how can that not tug at your heartstrings? Playgrounds for high-risk kids?! Sign us up. Last Saturday we were there prepping the sight for Tuesday, which was the big build day. It was kind of insane to see how the chaos of dozens of clueless volunteers turned a dusty lot into an awesome playground in just a few hours. Totally an Extreme Home Make-over Moment. We got there Saturday morning and were assigned to the Mulch Team, which was probably the most labor intensive job of the entire day. I guess they looked at the walking twig (me) and the adorable hobbit (Sister Roy) and figured we would be the most suited to haul an entire mountain of mulch to cover the playground sight. Like this pile was honestly as tall as the apartment building it was next to.
But luckily, we're missionaries endowed with the power of God, so I simply looked at it and said "Remove hence to yonder place." Unfortunately, things went the "faith with out works is dead" route rather than the "faith can move mountains" route. You win some, you lose some.

At the end of the day, some of the Patriots and Revolution players showed up. New England sports is like a religion out here so people were going NUTS. I felt like it was kind of lame though, because they just did some glamor shots of them putting up the finishing touches, looking like they had built the entire thing. I was like, Hello? Where was the football team when we were moving a giant pile of mulch?!! I tried talking to one whilst we were tightening screws next to each other. I asked him what position he played and he just stared at me like the peasant I am. That pretty much exhausted my sports related conversation starters, so I just went back to tightening. The playground ended up looking so good though!

The second thing that happened this week that we have been planning for.ev.er. was we started an English class! I guess 1 in 3 people in Waltham don't speak English or speak English as a second language, and the main free English class provider lost funding this year - so there is a huge need! We've been working a lot with some of the community big-shots and it's been really good to get the church's name out. Our Stake is actually starting this huge missionary service project where the relief society is in charge of coordinating all of our service. It's kind of ground-breaking or something because a few of the Brethren are really excited about it. #hipstermission 

Anyways, the English class was tons of fun. I was scared we would get a really small turnout, but as it turns out people are pretty enthusiastic about learning English. We had about 50 people show up on registration night and had to turn some people away! Which was a bummer, but some people really were too advanced for the program anyways. We're trying to find a couple stable teachers from the ward that don't have the possibility of leaving every 6 weeks, but so far we're having a little trouble with that. So Sister Roy and I taught this week! It was so fun! The first lesson was on introducing yourself, so I repeated "Hi, my name is Sister Gledhill. I'm from the United States. I live in Waltham." like 76 times. But it was really great to see some of the people who had no idea what was going on at first be able to introduce themselves. Also, I think all of them learned my name.

The last super exciting thing that happened was our investigator Pam got baptized! She is a 13 year old Haitian adorable girl with such a strong testimony. Her parents are baptized but stopped going to church just before she turned 8. She knows from her experience with other churches that this is the true church and she found a member family and started coming with them. She really is going to be such an anchor for the rest of her life. She was beaming the entire baptismal service. It was so cute because after she got baptized she just stood there with her eyes shut and her nose plugged for like 30 seconds while she processed what happened. So adorable. She's also stoked to go to the temple to do baptisms and she asked if she could get her temple recommend the same day she got confirmed. What a babe.

So that was our week! Hopefully we keep having so much good stuff happen and we will harvest a whole cornucopia of blessings.

I love you guys!

Sister Gledhill