2 Letters: thanks and giving & discipleship

1 December 2014

How do i even describe this week?  meh.  no clue. 

The Wasilla Zone and Mission Leaders--I think...

The members take very good care of the missionaries here.  its a missionaries dream.  And thus, we were stuffed like a thanksgiving turkey all this week.  its been a roller coaster of emotions.  but hey it makes life fun.  So much love poured out.  so much care.  also so much depression as the winter comes in. haha.  isn't life just like that? 

I think a bulleted random list will do best for this week cause it was just that kind of sporadic feel. 

• Its getting really dark. I miss the sun SO badly.  the sky is really cool here. because of the lighting weirdness, it does really crazy things, like glow in weird ways, but i only really saw SUN once this week.  its dark by 5 (like see the stars pitch black) and it doesn't come UP until somewhere around 11.  sunset at 4?  its wacko. it makes me sad.  but i also love the night sky here.  so many stars.  ITs just different.
•  i love our little cottage with its little loft and view of the mountains. 
•  I love bundling up. 
•  i am learning to love the cold. 
• i feel like i am dough being kneaded.  its good and hard and feels nice to struggle so hard.  but i hope i get to the rising time soon. 
•  I think i miss people here. People hide in alaska.  i can not tell you HOW many times i have heard people say that they would never leave because there are too many people. 
•   one detail that i think you'd enjoy is we bundled up (i looked like the abominable snowman) and went snow shovel tracting!  we shoveled peoples driveways and when they tried to pay us we gave them he is the gift cards and told them to repay christ!  haha :) it was one of my favorite parts of this week.  pretty much since there is little to no street contacting here we do a lot of service and active member lessons. thats pretty much what we got.  We work at the old folks home ice cream socials and shovel and carol, and make bread with lutherans.  slow work here.
• oh p.s.  everyone go to christmas.lds.org, watch the video, and share it to your friends and family who could appreciate it.  everyone loves christmas!

its a great time of year to share the love of christ.  people fail on their diets anyway this time of year so take some time to bring someone a treat, share with them your love, and include the love of the savior. 

I love you all!

Sister G

discipleship
24 November 2014

Yesterday was the perfect example of the blessing and cost of discipleship.  We are FINALLY up and running mostly sick free, and its been a trip!  

a brief summary

cost:  a nonmember family that we couldn't wait to meet said they were going to come to church and didn't.

blessing:  we had a wonderful meeting and i really found the ward's love 

cost:  we had a conflict with a lesson we were REALLY excited about and we had to cancel it. 

blessing: some investigators that we about dropped had an inactive member move in with them. she is going through a rough time and has decided its time to come back to church.  she didn't know her friends were investigating, so when she came in she felt god's love immediately upon seeing the book of mormon in her house.  She cried when she met us.  She wanted to meet the bishop asap.  when we sang "as i have loved you" she cried again because that was the favorite song of her grandmother who raised her and has alzheimers now and doesn't recognize her.  we feel she is the catalyst that could kick off some progression in our investigator. 

cost:  one of our favorite members here who are a GREAT source of hope and strength to the missionaries had a daughter pass away. When we heard we sat in the car numb and not speaking, and it seemed that the darkness was swallowing us. 

HUGE blessing: we took a turkey basket to a referal we had from a wonderful member.  She is a single mom and is very religious.  she has five incredible humble children who show so much progress.  Instead of expecting us to just drop off the food and go, like we were worried about, she let us in and we talked small talk for an hour and a half getting to know her.  she was a little concerned about being pressured into anything so we started with seeing if we could come back to visit her. She said yes! 

cost:  we apparently miscommunicated when we cancelled our lesson and they sat waiting for a couple hours.  when they called later they were not happy, and it seemed we had breached some trust.  we felt like failures for some time so we ate some ice cream which helped emotionally but not so much physically. 

And that was just one day.  By the end i was so emotionally and physically exhausted that i pretty much collapsed. But the great thing about the lord, is that he makes the costs into blessings as well. He teaches us and widens our souls with everything we learn. i just love the way he works. But i really feel like this area is preparing for some big changes, for some amazing work.  We have been preparing it and preparing it.  i just love the Lord. Remember, when we tell the lord we will follow him, that doesn't make life easy. he will throw in the costs.  but thats just because he wants to allow us to actually FEEL the affects of our fallen state, so that the salvation of mankind is that much sweeter. I love you all. I could tell you 100 more things about this week but i havent the time. Stay strong.  John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (from sin!!! and disease!!!! and suffering!! and everything not joy!! :)...) 

Sister Galli