Sister Gwilliam's letter April 5, 2021
I'm not gonna lie this week was pretty long. And when I say long, I mean longgg😂
A weekend of Easter devotionals in "General Conference" could not have come at a better time. I really just needed to sit and do nothing else besides think about Jesus Christ. I love General Conference!
One really cool experience did happen this past week. We spend each Wednesday night with the youth in the congregation. We headed up to the church for the activity, and one of the leaders asked us to share our experience about a camp we went to.
We stood up at the front and Sister Maycock started talking all about the camp. As she talked, I started getting very hot. I was trying to focus on her words, but my vision was blurring, and I couldn't stop myself from swaying back and forth. It got to the point where I knew that if I didn't sit down, I was going to pass out. In the middle of her presentation, I ran to get a chair and just sat down right next to her.
Sister Maycock had no clue what was going on so she finished talking and pulled up a chair next to me. We just sat there awkwardly while the girls moved on with their activity. Everyone was confused but I was just grateful I wasn't blacking out😅 After a few minutes of sitting there I finally felt good enough to walk outside to the hall. I told Sister Maycock what was going on and we decided it'd be best to leave the activity early and do something where I could be sitting.
We went to the car and started contacting people in our congregation. One of the members (who we LOVE) replied and said "It's my birthday. Tell me Happy Birthday🥳"
We thought that was funny, but we wished her a happy birthday and then made some more contacts. Eventually we decided that because our plan to go to the youth activity that night was cancelled, we should drop by a birthday gift for this sister.
We planned to just knock and run, but right as we pulled up, the door opened and she saw us, so we went in to give her our gift.
When we handed it to her, she thanked us over and over and over again. It was just a small chocolate bunny, but she was so grateful. She was talking a mile a minute to us. She was just so happy to see us.
I didn't think much of the whole thing until I went to give her a hug. This sweet sister started sobbing and didn't let go. She was shaking as she told us that she and her husband were having some troubles, and we were the only people to wish her happy birthday all day. That little chocolate bunny is the only gift she recieved. I have never felt so grateful to leave a meeting early. If I hadn't felt dizzy, then we would have stayed the whole time, and wouldn't have had time to reach out to this lady.
This past week in a missionary meetings, we talked a lot about how the Savior was unique in the way that He made time for "compassionate detours." He was efficient and dependable, but He was never ruled by a schedule. He walked days out of the way to minister to the woman at the well or to comfort the widow of Nain. He never let a task to be done take priority over a person to be loved.
Me and Sister Maycock have been trying to add more leeway for compassionate detours in our schedule. All too often we find ourselves caught up in things we need to do instead of people to be helped.
I still have no clue what was wrong on Wednesday night, but I'm so grateful it happened, because it cleared up room in our schedule for a compassionate detour that wouldn't have happened otherwise.
And on this harder week, several people made room for compassionate detours to help us! Busy people cleared up their schedules to give us Easter baskets, drop off banana bread, and just tell us they're grateful for our service. Those people have no clue how much I needed those little moments to get through the week.
My invitation to you this week is to be on the lookout for someone who could use some of your light! Leave some time in your schedule to serve someone unexpectedly. I think you will find that it blesses both you and that person more than you expect.
Love you all!
-Sister Gwilliam
Pictures-
-Easter basket from Sister Woodard
-Watch Him Work board pic with Pres. Nygaard
-Harley-Davidson shirts🙌🏻
-Easter shirts
-Easter sunrise at the temple (with scones😋)
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