Called to SERVE

Hello Hello all!

Missouri is great! It was pretty hot and humid the first couple of days but it has cooled down quite a bit recently. I've already been wrecked by bugs so this will be a nice transition into Fiji weather.

My trainer is Elder Richins from Morgan, UT. He is an awesome guy and I am excited to work with him for the next few weeks. On our first day here we visited the temple, liberty jail, and the Independence visitors center so it was a pretty jam-packed day! But Elder Richins and I got right to work on our first day. We do a lot of service here which is awesome. The members here are all super supportive and are really nice.

Sister Love (The Mission Presidents wife) told us that the average weight gain here is around 25 pounds and I believe that! Kansas City BBQ is amazing and we get fed by the members pretty much every dinner. VIGSKC is a pretty good BBQ joint in our town which is cool.

I showed up and my trainer had been teaching a few people for a little bit and we already have a baptism scheduled! How cool is that! I don't know why I got assigned to Missouri but I am super excited to find out in the next few weeks.

Working here has opened my eyes to how little I helped back home. Missionary work here revolves around members and referrals so I would invite you guys to get more involved. I know the Elders and Sisters would greatly appreciate it.

That is pretty much it from me! I am doing good and love hearing from everyone! Have an awesome week.

Love, Elder Gwilliam or William because pretty much every one here can't pronounce my last name haha

Sam with his companion, Elder Richins

Elder Gwilliam is Going Places!

A nice person sent me this pic of Sam from the airplane on his way to Missouri for his new mission assignment. Glad to see him smiling and ready to go! 

New Jerusalem Here I Come!!!!

Bula Bula!!! Na cava cake koli?? (The super incorrect Americanized way of saying "What's up Dog?")

'Twas a superb week. In fact, today is my last P-Day here at the MTC! Well I guess first off, I got temporarily reassigned to the Independence, Missouri mission!! I will be there for a transfer most likely unless my Visa comes within the next coupla days!! I'm excited to learn more about the Church's history and I know that I am supposed to be in MO for a reason! I'm excited for the next few weeks and I get two extra days here at the ole' MTC! Also, Pretty much half our zone is leaving on Monday so I will barely miss a new shipment of Fijians, Tongans, and Samoans!

The air has gone back to super smoky with all the new fires. At night we can see some of the flames and the smoke cloud is totally growing. Hope that get's all taken care of because I want to visit Fairview when I get back home!

We also got the opportunity to host this week as well! It was awesome for us to return the favor and be someone's first experience with the MTC. I even got to host Elder Skarda who went to Bingham! It was an awesome experience and made me realize how fast my time here is going. It felt like just yesterday I was being dropped off but it was actually over a month ago!

I have been trying to finish the BoM from the beginning during my time here and I am just about done! I have seen some crazy blessings in my life because of it and I challenge you guys to evaluate your study habits and see what you are doing well and what needs work! I know if you do, Heavenly Father will strengthen your weaknesses and allow you to have meaningful study time!

Sorry for the short email but it was just another week at the MTC haha. Love you all, thanks for the support!!

Elder Qilliame

The smoke on a *Good* day

One of my awesome Fijian teachers Brother Banks

Elder Cannon and a Fish-Eye lens

My second mission call!

Bula Vinaka Tacinqu!!

Hey all! It was a super amazing week here at the MTC!! Just kidding it's pretty much the same thing every day so it's not anything too interesting. We wake up, eat breakfast, go to class, maybe attend the occasional workshop, play some volleyball, go to bed, and repeat. We should be getting our flight plans today though so that is super awesome!! Tomorrow is the one month mark!! That is so crazy. I'm already 1/24 of the way through with my mission.

We had the opportunity to teach a Skype TRC yesterday!! We taught a man from Arizona who got back from Fiji a little while ago! So Kevin if you're reading this, thanks for being chill and bearing with us. It was funny listening to the little jingle that the speakers make while the call is going out. It reminded me of those times when we got to Skype Andrew in Russia and it's crazy to think now I'll be calling home pretty soon! Speaking of Andrew it was awesome to run into him on his way to TRC! Glad to know the outside world is still actually a thing and the second coming didn't happen or anything. We honestly probably wouldn't know because of how locked down it is here haha.

This week we got a nice lesson at choir about the restoration and the life of Joseph Smith! We were singing Praise to the Man and the leader is an institute teacher so it was bound to happen haha. But it's awesome to hear about how Joseph, Hyrum, John Taylor, and Dr. Richards were able to seal their testimonies with their actions!! I definitely want to go back to Nauvoo sometime. We heard of so many miracles that happened in conjunction with that story and it really reaffirmed my testimony that God is in the details of our lives and he won't let anything happen to us that isn't supposed to happen. (So long as we listen to his promptings.)

Going along with my thoughts above it's comforting to know that Heavenly Father is still a part of our lives! Fiji missionaries right now have a pretty hard time with Visas. Something with the switching of visa coordinators and running on island time means that some missionaries don't get their visas on time. As I have been thinking about it though, I was thinking that if Heavenly Father could help Moses part the Red Sea and if he could help the Pioneers cross the plains, then I'm 100% sure that he could encourage some travel coordinator to get us our Visas. So that means if we don't get them then that's not a bad thing!! We are needed wherever we get reassigned!

I guess since I'm gonna be dipping out of the MTC pretty soon I should share my testimony ena vosa vakaviti.

Au via wasea na noqu ivakadinadina
Au kila na parofita dina Josefa Simici
Au kila e Bula Nikua na Parofita nayacaqu O President Nelson
Ni lomani keda na Kalou
Na iVola Dina na iVola I Momani kei iVola Tabu
E Bula O Jisu Karisito
Ena Yaca I Jisu Karisito, Emeni

Love you all, hope for the best.

Elder Gwilly

Note from Sarah: These are the only pics this week.  BROTHERS! I'm so grateful Andrew got to lay eyes on Sam for me and give hugs from us.  They are both huge blessings to our family! 

Halfway Done

Bula Bula

It was a good week here at the ole MTC. Not really eventful though. We have had a lot of fun in Fijian class and we learn a ton. We had our first TRC a week ago and it was definitely an interesting experience. We taught one of the old Fijian teachers and his soon-to-be wife but she didn't speak Fijian and was just along for the ride. We have another one today and hopefully it gets better.

Our Tuesday night devotional was a member of the 70 who is the head of the missionary department. He gave an awesome talk about missionary work in general and it was pretty inspiring!!

The old missionaries going to the marshall islands left the other day, and the new ones to replace them pulled up on Wednesday. There's an Elder from Fiji named Elder Lal. He is a really cool dude and said that his family would hook us up if we ever went to visit! There's a guy from New Zealand and he is way funny.

I also got pranked this week. Elder D'Arc somehow managed to take and swap name tags with me so I was walking around with his badge on for like an hour and a half and didn't even realize haha. We make fun here.

Well that's about it. Not much going on. I'll send some pics to make up for the short email.

Loloma Yani!!!

Elder Gwilliam

"Study Time"

Me with Elder Nielsen (One of the Old Marshall Island Elders who went to Riverton.) Sad to see him go!!

MTC--Week 3!

Yadra Na Matuvuvale!!

It was a great week! A lot of awesome stuff happened! to start off I guess one of the coolest things was that we had an apostle for this week's devotional. When I showed up for choir and saw all of the teleprompters I knew that someone important was coming and then they announced it would be D. Todd Christofferson. He gave an awesome talk regarding the name of the Lord's church. It was really insightful and while I know some elders didn't care too much for it because it wasn't what they were expecting it definitely needed to be said.

Fijian is coming... We have the wonderful amazing opportunity to give our first TRC today which is super awesome. Pretty much all it entails is we have to give a 15-20 minute lesson all in Fijian. I've heard from everyone that the first one is a train-wreck and I'm sure Andrew can attest to that. It will be good though.

Every day we get to exercise and we have the choice of going outside to play soccer or some other sports if we want. The other day I went out with some of the other kids from my zone and we all played soccer which was fun! On the way back we were crossing the crosswalk and when we got across we had to wait for some kids that got stuck on the other side. Two dudes in this big red truck started to gun it when the light turned green and the passenger gave us all the bird and started yelling at us. It was awesome to see all of us missionaries give him a smile and I gave him a loving thumbs up. That just reminds me about D&C 6:34. All of Earth and Hell are going to combine against the church in the last days but we have the lord on our side so we don't need to worry.

I also heard that school is starting back up at home so I said a silent prayer of gratitude when I remembered I didn't have to go back to Bingham anytime soon *Dab* But good luck to everyone and make sure that Mr. Boberg gets the proper treatment he deserves.

We have a lot of fun as Fijian districts. The other day Elder Andreason caught a cicada and put it in our bathroom; even though it says in the white handbook no pets of any kind lol. You can understand a little bit of our boredom level as the most interesting thing at the time was watching it defecate on our mirror. We left for 5 minutes and came back and some dunce ripped all his legs off and left him alive so we had to put him out of his misery. Looking at it now I'm not entirely sure why I put that story in here but I'm just going to keep it for kicks.

Thanks for the support everyone!!

Au lomani keitou!

Elder Gwilliam

Elder D'Arc looking studious

Elder Dial stretching bc he struggles with sitting cross-legged haha

Elder Edwards overcome by the spirit in class

"Hark All Ye Nations"

A super flattering picture taken of me without my consent

Week 2 in the MTC!

Bula Vinaka Na Matuvuvale!!

Greetings from the MTC. It's been a good week! We got to teach 4 lessons to our investigator Tevita (Just another one of the Fijian teachers Brother Banks) They went pretty well for the most part!! Both Fijian districts had a couple of funny incidents the first lesson. One Elder told Tevita, "We are the idiots." instead of missionaries. Somebody told him to pay attention for the good feeling of the spirit of the devil and i'm not even sure how that one happened. I managed to forget my Fijian triple combination to our first lesson and I was in charge of the scripture so I had to do some improvising. By the end of the week Elder Burge and I were giving lessons without any notes!! (Not to flex or anything but we are the first and only ones in both Fijian districts to do so haha) I understand his questions that he asks back but my vocab isn't strong enough yet to effectively respond so I have to do the best I can. 

We had our first Devotionals this past week and they were awesome. President Kearon from the 70 was our General Authority speaker and he gave an awesome talk with his wife! Sunday devotionals are also awesome! I'm in the MTC choir and we get to sing a number during the devotionals! I've never been an awesome singer but the spirit that you can get from hymns and music numbers has really been reaffirmed over these past few days. Whether it be a hymn sung by our district of 8 or a ton of kids from our floor belting out Nogu Masu it's always good! Nogu Masu isn't a hymn but it's a relatively popular Fijian song about a prayer! Well popular here in America at least. 

We had the opportunity to watch an Elder Bednar talk called Character of Christ on Sunday. I recommend that you all check it out because it teaches a lot of good lessons!! It was really humbling and was a great message to have early on in the mission. One thing that Brother Brower was talking to us about last night is how awesome it is that we get to serve missions. Regardless of where you go you get to sacrifice and spend 2 years serving the lord which is really cool. 

Fijian is also coming along very well so far. We have a lot of opportunities to speak and it's a fun language. It's been fun to have lessons from Bro Brower and Bro Banks. They are amazing teachers and really nice dudes. We also had help from the Elders who were waiting for their reassignments. Elders Hae Hae, Iafeta, and Tanuvasu were all great Elders and really helpful! Our districts have a lot of fun together and sometimes like to throw down on the volleyball court. There are a lot of Polynesian kids in our zone so it gets pretty intense at some points haha. 

It's been good so far and thanks for all the support!! We have lots of fun here but also get a lot of work done.

Elder Gwillie

(Sam couldn't get any pics to me this week, so thank goodness Elder Dial's mom came through!) 

Elder Burge and Sam 

Elder Burge, Elder Dial, Sam 

(I am told that the white board says "We love you" in Fijian behind them 💙)

The Fijian Districts!