Tuesday, December 29, 2009

ET phone home

So what's new since last week...

well the phone call was really good and for those who were not apart of it and everyone is doing fine. umm... Christmas was awesome and thanks for all of the packages and the updates and for all of the support.

As for the area we had a good Christmas with the members and they made us feel right at home. and they gave us all a lot of food, oh my gosh, so much food.

so not much missionary work has been going on out here, mostly because of the holidays and we really don't want to bother people to much about the gospel. so our focus is mostly with the members and trying to get them to invite their non-member friends to do activites with them and once they are comfortable with that then ask them if they would like to hear from us missionaries and teach them more in the members house. so they feel more comfortable and so it doesn't seem like it's to much of an aggressive step.

another thing that I've learned is that the gospel is simple, God wants us to come back to him and all we really need to do is to follow Christ's example, and that is simply choosing to look towards god and get rid of all the things that the natural man wants. so while it sounds a bit hard Christ has made it easier. to way i see it is that we are in a suit of rusty armor, one of those old suit that knights used to wear, well anyways the suit is attached to chains. now that we have that established, now picture yourself in a room/ hallway where one end is dark and black and the other end has a door with light coming in from the other room. so now your in the middle and when your coming to god your fighting your hardest to work your way from the darkness to the light, but the chains are pulling you back. so to get rid of the chains you need to take the armor away, or in my opinion things that are taking you away from God. once those things are away then you are able to easily move and then able to move, but if you don't take the armor off, you are then going to have a hard time moving forward, since the chains are connected to wentch which is slowly taking you back to the darkness. well anyways this is one of those visualizations that i have, and it makes sense, it's really hard to get to god if you are still attached to the world. so yeah that's what i've been thinking about lately

also we had a transfer inside a transfer today, some missionaries are going home to go to school, so being in a threesome one of us was shipped out, so the lucky contestant was Elder Louden. he is now in Enterprise LA (lower Alabama) which is an entire zone away so i don't think I'll see him for a while. so right now it's Elder Jensen and me and then the other people in our district is Elder Solomon and Hibbert and we're going to get along for the next three weeks till transfers.

With Love Elder Gillespie

Monday, December 21, 2009

No Snow but a Good Freeze

Hello Everybody
Sorry this is going to be short but My last letter that i wrote timed out on me, stupid computer. well things here got a bit chilly last night and we got our first freeze of the season, so if you think florida is sunny and nice and warm all the time, tough luck it ain't.

well things here are slow and people don't really want to listen to us, which is kind of not new.

well a couple of things i've learned is that missionary work isn't hard, it only becomes hard if you focus on other things in life, and spend more time on that then missionary work. what a weird concept...

anyways, christmas time is here and things are going to be good.

thanks for all those who keep me in their prayers i try to keep you in mine. also prayer is a very powerful tool if you think about it, you are talking to the most powerful thing in the universe and he wants you to talk to him, he wants to hear from you and he want to help you out in as many ways as he can. the tricky thing is finding out what he has in store for you and how to follow what he wants to you to do. so while you can't get everything you want you do get everything you need.

as for family i love you all and can't wait to talk to you on friday

as for friends

Uncle Boyd and Aunt Carol thanks for the package and I can't wait to open it on Christmas morning

Roxanna thanks for the package and i got transfer so your packages to my old companions will take a little while to get there. so thank you for your giving it made my day.

Camille you are an amazing person with amazing advice and i treasure up those words of wisdom you have given to many. thanks again for all you have done.

to all thanks for all that you have done if it wasn't for you i wouldn't be here right now. and i couldn't become the person i need to be. so to ya'll thanks.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Redo

I got the packages and i won't open them until christmas unless otherwise told to. as for my companions Elder Jensen most closely reminds me of Richard Wilson, with the same kind of wit and humor. and Elder Louden is most like Adam Swindlehurst, with the same kind of ups and downs with in a day, ex. Elder Louden has been waiting for a runners watch which he order about 8 days ago and everyday since that day once the mailman comes around he's waiting at the door waiting for the package, and if it didn't come then he would just get a little bit mad, then he would remind himself that he needs to calm down, and so he does, but you bring it up again then he gets mad again. so sometimes i have fun just getting him riled up and then watch himself calm back down. well anyways he's a great guy and really is looking forward to working which is good.

as for the investigator front, we really haven't had much success, it seems that all the missionaries can tract the entire town in about 6 months or less, so most of the people have already heard what we've said. other than that we have three other villages in our area, first is wausau (wa-saw) and that's about 11 miles down the road and people down there like to hand out anti stuff to us, so i really don't know what to do about all of it. but who cares the gospel is simple, love god, love your neighbor. when we can do that to all people then the world will be in a much better place.

now for lessons learned i guess...

umm... obedience, if you do what is right and do it at the right time you will feel better than, if you do what you think is right for you and on your time. sure you might think you feel like everything is right but there is a different kind of peace that you get when you it the right way. as the primary song says there is a wrong way and a right way to be happy. so i choose the right way to be happy. that is what i feel like right now is the biggest thing for me, if i'm obedient then i feel right and everything does end up right and we also have the right attitude and right perspective. so yeah that's what i've learned.

Jethroyblincophia..?
i'm so glad to hear that all is going well and that heavenly father is looking out for you. it's those small things in life that make life worth living, and for me personally it helps me focus on what the important things in life are.

Janben
You are right Eva does look like a little scamp. and she is so adorable. i could almost eat her right up. Congrats on the finishing of the Scrubs shifts, i hope you enjoyed it ben, you'll have to tell me more about it later. also i can't wait to hear all of the cute voices.

THAD!!! the Master of Science!!!
Congrats that is an accomplishment you can only do once. i guess you could say the same thing about everyday, you can only do it once. as for the advice you want, you are doing more than most people, just listen to what your coworker has to say you'll find something that connects to the gospel your very smart and you can find one.

ToniBenAnna
I was getting nervous that you guys weren't going to send anything this week, and that would've made me really sad, but i luckily got it before i was kicked off the computer. it sounds like the Holiday Season is in full swing. now just don't get sick that make the holidays worse so don't take unnessisary risks.

Beetle!
sounds like your having so much success right now. i'm impressed. and i can't wait to hear your voice again, it's been like 7 months. Holy Cow! or in the south Dad-Gum! except fast. kind of a silent d at the end of dad. oh i'm excited.

well boy-howdy this Christmas is fixin to be the best Dad-gum event for ya'll, i recon.

see ya soon
Elder Gillespie

Monday, December 7, 2009

A Day That Will Live in Infamy

So What is New in the life of Elder Gillespie?

I'll tell you what is new. first of all i got transfered, to the "roaring" metropolis of Chipley Florida, which is about the size of Spring Creek, or Elko, or Oak City or Heber. and one interesting fact about this place is that in the phone book there are a total of 364 different churches in the area. So things here are going to be interesting.

Another interesting fact about this mission, we have the Guinness Book record for the most churches in one town, not Chipley, but in the area. also we have the largest night club in the United States in Panama City Beach. so i find that to be an interesting correlation.

So my new companions are Elder Jensen, he is from Orem and went to Timpanogos High and is about 6'3 and 220 Lbs, and then Elder Louden, he is from Mesa AZ, 5'10 and 185 Lbs is the District leader and loves to run. so much so that he wakes up at 6 am to get ready to run 4 miles. so this is going to be an interesting companionship, because i like to sleep, but i'm willing to sacrifice.

The funny thing about Chipley is that it's almost like Romeo and Juilet. there is two family's that are Mormon that basicly started this community it's the Sapp's and the Kriser's. Luckily they are both working together to strengthen the ward.

As for the Cereal Box count it's up to 5 boxes now out on the field. and the address for my new appartment is

774 Hoyt St.
Apt 8
Chipley FL
32428

H.O.Y.T. Happy Otter Yoddling Togther. that's for you Section Leader.

Jan, I love/loved your letter it's brought me lots of strenght and Direction on what i'm supposed to do so thanks for sending that today.

Thad, You are the Master, the master of Engineering!!! go out and party like it's 1999 plus 10 years.

Jethroybn. i'm excited to see your house and the fort pic's I enjoy. yes i can see the blogs. so continue to post.

Toniben. i'm so jelous to hear about how anna is now speaking "coherently" and that you can understand. and by the time I get home she'll be speaking full sentences. as for the Christmas talk with my parents, they have my Christmas list.

Beetle I think i'm feeling like a missionary now, it's hard but it's going to be worth it.

As for the rest of you, Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!!!

Elder Gillespie

Monday, November 30, 2009

Yellow Jackets and Holy Socks

So what's new?
for the first time since i've been out here it's been "cold" it got down into the 50's but there still isn't any snow. which is really weird, mostly because I see the Christmas decorations going up, which in my head says that there is supposed to be snow. it's like watching a movie about the arctic and then you need to get a blanket because you think it's cold. (one of those mind thingies). so since it's been a bit nippy in the mornings i was "forced" to get a jacket or two from one of the many beach stores that sell an arrangement of clothing items. the great thing about it is that so far the jackets have only cost me $13 bucks for two. so it's an amazing deal.

the other thing is that while we do have a car, this month we are almost out of miles so we are now forced to walk to appointments or seeing less actives. and with this and not cutting my toe nails, my socks have now gotten a bit "holy".

now on to things that really do matter. or at least somethings that i've learned while being out here.
First. you have to be willing to work all day and if that's done then miracles happen, for instance last night we could have gone home early to get ready for today, but instead we decided to see one more referral and as soon as we got to the door the father came out and talked to us and wanted us to come back to meet with him and his family.
Second. a testimony is built not received, so you have to put in your effort to find out if what you want to know is right, or exercising faith, and then go to the Lord and ask him if what you studied is right or what it says it is.
Third. the mission is kind of like a crucible with the refiners fire, let me describe it some more. so we are like a lump of gold or silver, and before we come out on to the mission we need to try to do our best to get rid of some of the impurities, or sins, but again that's through the Lord or refiner. then once we're on a mission we are placed in a crucible and the heat is then amplified until we become a liquid. then the Lord will take our impurities off, by taking off the "Dross" or imperfections. (i think that's correct lingo) And then he continues until he can see his own reflection in us. but this is only possible if we become moldable in the lord, if not then we crack and then we're of little worth to ourselves because we are trying to put ourselves back together. So while the mission is a great opportunity, we must ready ourselves the best we can before we can head out, and most be able to be humble enough to be molded.
Fourth thing, while i've got a whole lot of ideas it's not until i write them down, whether that's in a letter to someone, or writing it down in a journal, then it becomes personal and then i can understand what i've been trying to learn or when the lord wants me to learn a lesson from him.
Fifth. I gave my first talk yesterday in the mission field and while I think i should have been more nervous i wasn't mostly because i'm trying to be moldable to the lord. and i give all my credit to Him because he was the one who wrote it for me, now will this happen all of the time i think not, but it's nice to have it happen.
Sixth. the members here are simply amazing no matter what time of day it is they are willing to take us in and feed us and make us feel like were part of their family. so i would encourage you all to do the same, when you see a pair or a group of missionaries, show them that you do care about them, and in so doing you will be blessed by the lord.
Seventh. Today is the only day we have so lets make the best of it.
Eighth. There are miracles all around us, we just have to be willing to see them and if not that be the miracle workers.
So those are a couple of the things i've learned so far.

Jethroybn. I'm so happy to hear that your in your new house that lincoln is already trying to destroy it like a good reckless two year old boy. and that sophia is starting to build up her own immune system. I wish you the best Christmas.

Janben, I hear you trip was a success but that's about it, so i would love to hear more about it from you point of view. even if that's a couple of lines i would love to hear about it anyways.

Thad. You are so old your going to graduate and be a real working person, i'm impressed and in awe of your tenacity to stay true to your word. very few people do that all the time, but i would number among them.

ToniBen. I'm so glad that your doing well and that all turned out well for thanksgiving and that all the small children enjoyed being together. unfortunately they got sick, to that i'm sorry.

BEETLE!!! I miss you and i can't wait to talk to you in only a matter of weeks i still have a hard time figuring out that i'm a missionary, and for the next 22 months i'm going to do this, so i don't try to think about the time, but i'm doing my best to figure out how to be the best missionary possible, also i feel the same way about my brain being less cluttered except i just bought some Christmas CD's but i have in increased desire to study, which i find weird, i thought i would never get like that.

Camille, I'm sorry to hear about the loss and for the poor sportsmanship of the Cougar Fans. but i hope you were able to take the loss in stride, and accept that while they didn't win this year in the up coming years they will have their glory again.

Roxanna, Your letter was great and i really did enjoy it, I hope that my last letter helped you, because it helped me figure out what i needed to do. so thanks for your support.

Sophie Lee... your amazing plain and simple, so again i say Keep Truckin'

To all who read this I love you and i wish you a Happy and Merry Christmas season, because he is the only way back to happiness and love, which is god. because God is love. while we might not know everything it's line upon line that we obtain this knowledge. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Gobble Gobble Gobble!

Hello Everybody!

Well this week went by so fast, i can't hardly believe it... but i wouldn't have it any other way, i just hope it stays that way. so news...

i've decided to put the things missionaries like to do in a hierarchy of most fun to least.

1. Teach
2. Sleep
3. Eat
3.5 Get Mail/Write Letters
4. Service
5. Visit Members
6. Visit Less Actives
7. Tracting

so while we haven't really had much of one or two i'll tell you about three. so yesterday was the first real southern food i've had since i've got here, it was Oysters. now for those who don't want to get sick skip the next part

So an Oyster kind of smells like the great salt lake from a distance, then once you look at it, it looks like and feels like a giant spitwad. The way that your supposed to eat it is with a saltine cracker and hot sauce. So you put the Saltine Cracker on bottom, then get a tooth pick, pick up the oyster from the shell, after it's been shucked, and place it on the cracker. once at this step then apply hot sauce according to desired hotness. so once to this step then put in mouth and chew a bit then swallow. So that was the first experience i've had with Southern food. while i didn't really like it i was able to hold down my cookies while i had a half dozen or so. but i won't go and order any at a restaurant.

on to number four
so I havn't really spent to much time describing this in my other letters so i'll tell you a little bit of what type of service we have been doing here. so one of our members here had a fire in her house about two years ago and then started building a home right after, well she's still working on it and we as elders go over every weekend and work for about four hours on her house, and since i've been here all we have been doing is sheet rock, hanging, mudding, finishing, etc. etc. so thanks to dad i've been a good help to them, but it seems like no matter where i go i'm still doing same things as i would at home. but were making pretty good progress, the first week we had to fix most of the problems that the last time they tried to work on this house. the biggest problem was the sheet rock was hung vertically, not horizontally, which then left the end of the boards off of a stud. also sidenote. they are now making sheet rock boards 12 foot by 54 inches now, most of the stuff were using is 10x4 foot boards. so now were on the process of mudding and flipping the ceiling boards over, because they were put in upside down. so that's been a constant in missionary work.

another was helping out at the iron man with lost and found. while we really didn't do much it was really cool to see all the swimmers go out and then swim 2.1 miles. and get ready for the bike.

we also helped another member move her business out of an office and into her home, but that was on a fast sunday so i wasn't really able to help much, with my lack of fat.


so I think that'll do it for me today it's been a fast week but not much has happened. but I did recieve letters this week, and i thank all those who sent them, and i would encourage all to write more. it dosen't have to be much just tell me how things are going.

and just to everyone who reads
Guess what... I love all of you. (the mission will do funny things to a person)

Toniben. thanks for the update, while i would love to listen to his talk i can't really use headphones, and i'm checking my email in a library, so kind of awkward. also good idea with the rolls, and you should probably stop trying to subsitute ingrediants. and Ben florida is kind of wierd i actually live in the same time zone as Jan so beetle is 3 hours ahead.

Jan Congrats on the Garden it looks like the same ecosystem as i have out here. so i guess the summers are going really hot and humid. well were just going to have to wait and see.

Mom I love you so much and your letter means a lot to me, thanks for all that you do.

Jethroybn. Congrats on the HOUSE!!! i really can't wait to come and see it in 23 more months. Enjoy the holidays and i can't wait to see how cute everyone is!!!

Thad... yes. your comments with ben were great. but you should send some email/snailmail. and your almost done with college, congrats you really only have like 10 days left of class now weird, then you have to be a real person with a job. so i guess i'll give you slack until your done with school. then you have to write me.

Sophie I got your mail and it sounds like your doing fine, so just keep trucking.

Beetle I love you!!!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Fast-Ball was right

Good Morning Sunshine The Earth Says Hello!!!
so first of all it's still summer here it's been in the 70's since i've gotten here and when i wake up it's in the mid 50's so in my opinion it's still summer.

News. our investigator Matt kind of just stopped trying to contact us because he's mom is quite against the idea, but i think he'll come back if not this month then in a couple of years to come. but it's really sad to see him not accept it.

other than that nothing much has happend, we have been doing a lot of walking around because we are about to go over our miles for the month so that leaves us with walking. now you might be saying why don't you ride bikes, i don't know but my comps don't want to so we don't.

1. let's see what have I learned this week. mostly the personal relvelation is great.
2. that personal scripture study really gets the spirit into the room.
3. that there are really hard days when people really don't want to be taught but want to teach us.
4. Drunk people should be avoided.
5. when i send a letter it usually shows up about the same day as this letter and so I repeat myself.

this week and the last couple that i've been out here have been pretty slow. so to top it all off as a zone we went paintballing and it was really fun, and i'm pretty good at it.

Jethrobyn congrats on the house and i hope your move works out fine with it being during everything. hey you could even try to use thanksgiving for some helpers!

Toniben I Really enjoyed your letter and like beetle must concur that you continue to write that way, mostly because it reminds me of how you both work together and it's awesome. so I say YES!!!

Jan i hope your travels turn out to be just fine and hope that you can relax during your trip back.

Thad you should write even if it's only a couple of lines.
the same goes for all those in BKE that i know, or don't.

Mom and Dad i think my favorite scripture will be the Matthew 18 3-5 but you could take out 5 if you think that would work better.

Monday, November 9, 2009

6 degrees of Bus Gillespie

hey Parents
this week has been much better than last week and we had a lot of success.

So first of all it seems that no matter where any of us children go we all seem to run into people that know's Bus Gillespie. and this week was no exception... so this week in Panama City Beach there was an offical Iron Man race, which happened on saturday. then on sunday all those who were competeing and mormon then came to our sacrament meeting, on the way to sacrament meeting somone came in and then started a conversation with the elders. (which I'm finding to be a common practice, even when i don't know anyone) well the conversation went on and it came up that i was from provo and this gentleman was also from provo, and then from the edgemont area, and then lifted weights with a person named Bus Gillespie, and low and behold that's my dad. well the person who was talking to me was Craig Donaldson. so i say small tender mercy of the lord.

ok so now that story time is over i guess I forgot to inform you on what's going down here. and if i'm rehearsing somethings well you can skip... so first of all i've got two trainers one who reminds me of craig swindlehurst and also looks like a mini linebacker and has goldenish eyes, he's been out for about 20 months and is called Elder Norman. as for my other companion he is call Elder Wood he reminds me of Kris Gillespie and is built like me except add a few more pounds. so these are my companions. now we live in a nice area with hurricane proof houses. and we live above a garage, a two car garage, also called a mother in-law suit. and live with a member family called the combs family. as for their address it's

308 coconut grove court
Panama City Beach Florida 32407

which will be my address until probably dec 13th, or the next transfer.

so now to the other stories of the mission. so the last week nothing really amazing happened, but just a lot of little miricles of people knowing where i live and knowing people of the family. etc. etc...

but one really amazing thing is we had a contact with a member invited he's friend to be taught by us. well to explain it better this member friend lived here than moved to delaware, but the Investiagor called him to talk to us. and the delaware guy called us gave us his info and then we talked to the investigatior. so i think that makes sense. anyways his name is Matt Easterwood and he is really wanting to know about what is the true church and wants to change from what is. so the first meeting with him we then challenged him to be baptized and his date is the 5 of december. so that was something really big for us. and i'm excited for him.

as for a normal day here.
we wake up at 630 then exercise and eat breakfast till 730
at 730 personal study
830 companionship study
and then we actually leave at about 10 am
then we try to contact less actives or try to have an appointment. then it's usually lunch so we either come back or eat out for an hour.
after that we continue trying to find people and contacting less actives till dinner, which we usually have with a member family for an hour and what they serve isn't that much different than what is sereved at home.
then we aren't supposed to come in till 9pm. once were home we then plan for the next day and then get ready for bed. so nothing really exciting.

for those who are wondering no the hurricane has not hit yet and what it looks like is that it's going to be rainy and windy for the next couple of days but winds only 35 mph. so not to bad.

so just a few questions i have about home.
do you have my Drivers licence yet? could i get that in a package? could you send something for my companions who are really looking for a letter or something? could you also write letters that are tangable and send them to me?

Dad. your amazing and your letter really did help me put things in perspective and i'll try to write back soon.

Mom I love you so much!!! Your updates are always a happyness in my heart.

Thad Congrats on the Art Show i should have submited something before i left.

Jan that's exciting news your going to have to send pictures and letters of what happend.

Jethroybn I really wish i could have helped you with your move and i hope that the weather proves to be no problem. don't slip on the ice

Tonibengains I'm so excited that you can now have so many adventures together. at least till the end of the year.

Beetle I Miss you and your such a great and amazing person. and you'll have to tell me more about you experiences when we're back.

and for the rest of you. you should write me
mattgillespie@myldsmail.net

With Much love

Elder Matt Gillespie

Monday, November 2, 2009

Holy Crap One Month Gone!!!

Hey Everybody!!!

so it's been like two weeks since i've last contacted you all and for this I'm sorry, but if i did contact you it would have been against the rules. so anyways the flight out here was pretty bumpy we left the state during a snow storm at 7am but we had to be awake at 3am to catch the bus at 4am to get through security before 5am. so to put it simply i didn't have breakfast which was a bad idea, nausea is not a pleasant thing. so after taking off in a storm we then landed in Atlanta in a rain storm and after taking off in a rain storm we then landed in a lightning storm. so i had fun with that but others in my group did not. soon after getting off the plane the sisters in our group. (Alston, Brunson, and Hernadaze) found a lady crying in the bathroom who just found out her mother was dying so our group then gave her a blessing of comfort. weird, but awesome.

after that we meet with the mission prez. he is an amazing man, nigh unto Richard Wilkons' dad... hey they were both mission presidents. well anyways. i stand in awe of him and his calling, to bad he gets released in June. well we stayed one night in the mission home and then we were off to our area's i'm currently serving in the Panama City Beach area with two zone leaders as my trainers, one reminds me of Kris Gillespie, and the other Craig Swindlehurst. they are amazing and uber-spiritual.

we live above a garage of some members, the combs, and the wife reminds me of jan but she is a clean freak, well they have three kids the oldest is 14 and male, the rest are girls from ages 10 and 6 i think it's hard to tell the girls look the same from 6 to 9 and from 10 to 15 and then from 16 to 23 but they are the nicest people i've seen in a long time and all of this reminds me of home so that's a good sign.

the area is like Saint George, plus the hotels of Vegas, and the air of Hawaii. the houses are like Saint George big and very nice and all sorts of those things. Vegas, because there are hotels 20+ stories right on the beach that as soon as spring break come out are going to be full until the end of summer. and the climate is like Hawaii. so basically it's paradise and i think that for a family vacation we should come here over the winter months,

the beaches are amazing so they are white sand beaches with the texture of the sand like the consistency of freshly fallen powder and the beaches are about 50 deep and forever long. oh it's beautiful.

the members are super strong and we only have a branch here but the members are working really hard to get it to a ward. so that's what our goals are. it's really funny to watch the Florida people when it gets into the 60's they start layering up, while i've only been here a few days i've started to become more and more weak sauce when it comes to the cold, luckily i've got here at the beginning of the "cold season" so it's not so bad. and from what the other missionaries have said about this place is that it's the nicest place to be in the entire mission.

By the way i love you all, and i can't believe i've been gone for a month it's been the longest/shortest month of my life. thank you again for your support i would never be here with out it.

Thad. my advice is to take it to the lord, he knows a lot and he will help you if your willing to listen to him.

Mom your amazing

Ben it's good to know what's going on in the world of sports while i might not know what's really going on at least i have got some idea of who's on top and there i could make conversation with those who were contacting so don't stop.

Toni Just to let you know it was in the 80's when i got here and 80% humidity i think you might love it here.

Jan HAAAA!!! you got a dog!?! is it a puppy? is it nice? does it bite? well you are amazing

Beetle: you were right while we might not be in the same place, we're still doing the same work and crazy experience are all around us. know that i miss you and love you.

John and Dorothy Family your letter was unexpected but still much appreciation for it i'm so glad to hear that your family is doing great.

until next week good to hear from you all please feel free to write even if it's a couple of sentences i still would like to hear from all of you.

1535 killeurn Ctr blvd
STE C-4
Tallahassee FL 32309

This is the mission home address if sending letters it will be forwarded to me the next day no matter where i'm at.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Two weeks older and five pounds heavier

Hello Everybody.

life here is good the food is almost to kill for but then again, maybe not so much. well anyways i've been learning a lot of stuff here, and while most of you would think two weeks would have gone by at somewhat of a regular pace, it seems at least to me that the MTC is the only thing that i've known.

while nothing really sticks out to me about what i'm doing here that is great or noteworthy, i have had a couple of cool experience in the Referral Center, now for a brief description, it's like a telemarketing center except that it's not one large office floor but a lot of class rooms with 10-12 computers per room, well people from all over call in and order stuff that the church has for free (except members) and don't call in if you want free stuff, or else!!!:( so in this center we're supposed to bear testimony and then try to get the people ordering a copy of the Book of Mormon and the missionaries over to drop it off for them, while I've only had about 2 or 3 times where I was able to get the missionaries over, but all the other times I bore my testimony which a couple of people were moved but most of the times they weren't, also in this center missionaries wait for chats, like IM'ing or we call people back just to make sure that they got their stuff.

so Crazy thing, I'm leaving one week from today, and I don't know what I'm doing... well now you're all thinking Matt of course you'll know what to do, but in my reality i haven't got a clue. I just do what I'm told and I feel sorry for the people who have to deal with me, I think my companion is already getting sick of the same old jokes that i say and some other things that i do, but who care.

Oh! now i know so this last week i got a little bit of the nausea bug that has been going around the MTC. so they keep stressing the whole no touchy thing but our district really doesn't care. but don't worry it only lasted one day, and I'm feeling fine right now, which is why the title isn't ten pounds heavier.... well I'm joking about that I've really only gained 2-3 pounds but still for me that's quite an accomplishment.

This is a shout out to all of my nieces and nephews, I miss you SOOOO Much and i wish that i could just give you all one more BIG crazy uncle Matt Hugs. thank you guys so much you keep me going and bring so much joy into my life.

Sophie: Thanks for the Letter and for using Dear Elder (which everyone should use until next Tuesday) I'm doing pretty well life in here is pretty well scheduled for the rest of my life in here, but it's finally good to have some rigidity to keep me going. Hey i think one of my teachers maybe in your class. his name is brother Neary he's about 6'2 and about 170 with brown/blackish hair, and he's in Arabic. Just to let you know.

Jan!!! I'm so glad that you were able email me, when I read about Clark all the girls in my district saw that I lighted up when I read about them and they all thought that it was about a girl, but no I just love you and you family, I wish I would see you guys but I'll get some pictures to the parents so you can at least see me, I love you guys so much

Ben: I would love to have the sports updates they keep me sane in this place yes I know I shouldn't be thinking about that it keeps me connected and I hope TCU Beats BYU and The U so they can at least show that the Mountain west conference is awesome.

Time is short here. Love you all so much don't forget to write on Dear Elder before I leave

Elder Gillespie

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

first week 103 more to go

HELLO everybody!!!

ok so the first couple of days here have been really SSSLLOOOWWW. but now things are finally starting to pick up to a regular pace, umm... where to start, first of all there are 10 people in my disctrict and they are super awesome, it's one of those things where everybody just clicked together really well, so to start off, my companion is named Elder chaz Egbert, or Elder Egbert for short.

than we have Elder Downs who is an amazing snowborder, who is companions with Elder Brown who is a Computer type of a guy who did software testing or something, these two are a funny match one is super chill and the other is wanting to be the straight obidiant missionary, both are the first one's to leave.and both are going to fort worth texas. ok then the next companionship is sister brunson who loves bacon, and sister alston who is kind of like michelle crosland, and they are just funny people, sister Brunson is kind of like me but more behaved and a woman.
the next Companionship is Sister Hernandez? anyways she is like the mom of the group, and all three of these sisters are coming with me and elder egbert to tallahassee, then we have sister De La Mare who is going to the NY NY south mission. wierd, i know, she is kind of quiet but is a good complement to sister hernadez, all of the sisters room together, and are having a really good time. then finally we have Elder Moses who is almost twenty but looks like a deacon, a very respectable deacon. and finally our district leader who is elder Strause, and we like to make rhymes like elder strues is riding a moose and is chasing a goose with a noose. anyways really good guy from idaho. and thad he dosen't suck and is really nice and way cool. and we spend about 14+ hours together on any given day.

so now that you know a little about my district i'll tell you guys about somethings i've learned so far, when it comes to finding out if a gospel principal is right all that needs to be done is study the subject, and pray about the subject, one thing that i've had a big influnce is the fact there is a god and that he does love me and wants me to do the best that i can. and while i don't know everything about the gospel right now, I feel like it's the right thing.

thanks again for all of your support, if you would like to send mail I would recommend the Dear Elder, so my mail number is 204 and the date that I'm supposed to leave is the 28ish of october, and i'm going to tallahassee. and that way it's sent to me in letter form and i get it the same day you sent it and also that way i can spend all of my time writing this lovely email. again thanks for your support,

i would never be here with out you.

Elder Gillespie

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Talk done and over

so today i gave my farewell talk, even though I still have about 3 weeks before I enter the Empty Sea. (MTC) thanks beetle

so my talk was on hope and faith and here are some highlights

1st hope is an attitude of optimism
2nd faith is the work after we have optimism for a better world. or our hope is the driving force to do good to all.
3rd hope is build on faith and faith is built on hope.
4th to get back to god we must first have hope that christ will help us, and that his atonement will perfect us.
5th it's good to write your talk before the day you give it.
6th the scariest thing about giving a farewell is, that most of the people you love the most are there and you don't want to screw up by teaching false doctrine.

so those are just a couple of things I've realized since my talk about 13 hours ago.


also to inform everyone my emails will or should be posted on this blog.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Ten Thousand Lightning Bugs

so i really like this song, and this one too, as of recent

Monday, August 24, 2009

Giving up the Beard and Hair

so a couple of people have told me that I kind of look like Wolverine, well maybe as a younger looking one, maybe in a couple of years I'll look more like that.





Wednesday, August 12, 2009

TALLAHASSEE

so from the title i'm now going to serve a total of 24 months in the state of Florida, Alabama and a tiny bit of Mississippi. I will report on the 7th of October, in the Provo Missionary Training Center.


Thank you all for your support and for all of the fun times together.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Where in the World is....

so as of 10 am today the 2 of august in the year of our lord, 2009, my papers our now officially out of my hands and they are now being sent to Salt Lake City to be reviewed and to be assigned.


as of right now the guess are

Toni-- Sweden

Ben-- Chile

Suzy-- Costa Rica

Aunt Robyn-- Panama

Jan-- Harlingen Texas

Aunt Dorthy-- Wisconsin

Myself-- India

Robyn-- Zimbabwe

Mom-- Taiwan

Harrison-- Norway

Bret-- Nicaragua

Thad-- Tennessee

Jethro-- Seattle

Dad-- Louisiana

Emily-- England

Camille-- Taiwan

Uncle Dave-- Houston Texas

Lincoln-- Albuquerque

Sophia-- New Zealand

Cousin Diana-- Spain

LauraLee-- Vernal

Swindle-- Cambodia

Ryan LEE-- Illinois

Mama Adair-- Alabama

Papa Swin-- Uzbekistan / Boise

Ameri-- New Zealand

Katie Glade-- Australia

Grandma-- Denver

Cambria-- Mississippi

Micheal-- Oklahoma




so feel free to write in where you think I'll go and I'll continue to update the list.
this is a list of all possible missions guess.



all of this waiting has made me a bit crazy.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Dairy Manager

So I've officially been doing the same work as a dairy manager for about 2 weeks now, and in that time I've learned a few things,

1ST it's usually about 45-35 degrees no matter what time of day or month of the year. so it's nice to bring a jacket, also it's a lot better then pushing carts in from the outside where it's usually about 100 degrees by 10 am.

2ND my store manager/boss likes to order massive amounts of eggs, on the order of about 4 or 5 pallets of eggs. which ends about being 12960 eggs or about 1080 dozen eggs per pallet.

3RD people like to drink milk, a lot of milk, about every other day I move roughly 3-4 tons of milk, and the way that I figure that is that a gallon of milk weights 8-9 pounds per gallon, then there are 4 gallons per crate and there are 54 crates per pallet. which ends up being about 1728-1944 lbs. per pallet and then that comes to about 3-4 pallets per day so on average I move 2 tons of milk everyday.


4TH As you can tell I've had a lot of time to think mostly because it's just so lonely back there, so these are just a few of the calculations that I've done while trying to find something to do.

5TH the last thing, while people enjoy there job I realized this would not be one i would love, and for those people who do, do this for a living I realize that it doesn't take a lot of education, and it also doesn't require thinking power, so I've decided to get out of there as quickly as possible.

so now is the time that you should start placing bets on where I will be going on my mission.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Injuries

so recently I've been having strange things happen one of which is what I think is my muscles ripping which sounds normal when your working out but I don't think it should look like this
so if anyone knows for sure what's happening to me that would be great. also I sometimes hurts to use the arm that's injured...

what my arm normally looks like

what my arm looks like now. notice the depression in my bicep


so those who have a medical back ground your comments would be appreciated.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

A Recap

so since jan just left today i thought i would put up some pictures that i took while they were here.
here are a few.


first day we went to jethro's art show


the first week, getting Lincoln's desire for basketball much greater


Baby sitting

hiking the Y


Clark is looking to the future, or is not really happy being on the mountain


Clark found the joy of playing with the hose

again

mom stepping in

a very snotty baby wanting to walk


kids playing on the bed while beetle get's ready for the MTC.

Friday, May 22, 2009

My 7000th day and a new job

so on that new website that thad has shown us i officially turned 7000 day old on may 8th while that was pretty cool i really didn't celebrate it and nothing really happened on that day too.


As for my new job i now officially work for Buy Low Market, which is located in the old spot of reams, which used to be the old food 4 less store, which was probably something else before that. from what i have gathered from working there for about a week now, the store gets merchandise from the other stores which are located in the LA area, but we also get shipment in from associated food stores which pretty much as a monopoly on the grocery market in this state. to give you a reference every time that you see a western family logo in a store that means that the entire store has it's shipping from Associated Foods the same thing works with Smiths, Albersons, and Walmart. they all receive there shipments from a different group. but anyways enough about how these stores work,

my job. first i was hired as a checker, which i then spent four days learning how to be a checker and then they took me out of there and then sent me back into the dairy where I originally worked at Days Market for 20 some odd months, which i don't really mind but it was these last few days that i have seen how poor of management they have in the back and how lazy these guys are, the dairy manager there is 19, just as old as I am, and by his words he claims that he has an unchartable reading skill, but he is a high school drop out with a GED and again his own words that high school was to easy. now he's is learning how to play about 4 different instruments, and knows a rock group which sound just like Tool, and they are going to some college to learn more about music, and everyone in this group knows 8 other instruments and also is "fluent" in writing in each of the instruments and is very good at all of them.

so back to the Dairy which is about twice as big as the one at days, but when i first went in there there were 5 pallets of stuff that could be unloaded but the manager didn't do it so i did that by myself which i was starting to get mad. then the freight which is supposed to come in during the morning didn't show up until 6pm so he was already gone and i threw the freight myself which i haven't done in a long time which i should have gotten some help with, so i was pissed by that time and then i realized that the milk was empty so i would then have to fill the milk. and then in the process of filling the milk some costumers wanted some eggs, so i had to drop filling the milk and then fill the Eggs, which i put out about 15 boxes, of 15 cartons per box out, again without any help. by this time it was time to leave which I was glad to do and they are probably going to do the same thing to me tonight, so right now I'm not a happy camper and I DO NOT WANT TO GO BACK.

now for the other personal in this store they mostly seem to be either single mothers, or ex-construction workers who all seem to be anti-Mormon or who just don't care if they are Mormon. so that's my venting for this month.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Moving Back

seeing as how most of the people who read this blog have seen me in the last 24 hours i might as well tell everyone else that i have officially moved back home, and out of Butterknife Estates. so right now i'm just looking for a job and also getting ready for a mission, so that's where i'm at in life. just to let everyone know.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Sickness

so far in my college career I have had the great privilege not to get sick during school or anytime. well that came to a stop this day, or it could just be my psychology class seeing how were learning about disorders. so it could either be a psychological disorder known as somatizaism which means from my text book, A somatization disorder is marked by a history of diverse physical complaints that appear to be psychological in origin. or it could be all of the stress that I'm feeling near the end of the school manifesting itself through the sick role where I get attention by pretending to be sick.
so while I don't know for sure I'm going to blame it on a cold instead of any of the other possibilities.

but luckily it's not as bad as my last sickness blog.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Mother Natures April Fools Joke

so I think Mother Nature was pretty cleaver this year and this was her joke





so what did we do with all of this?

well it was harrison who did this

Monday, March 30, 2009

March comes in like a lion and... out like a lion?

So like Robyn has blogged about multiple times already it seems that once a week we have a nice good day and then the next day it seems to dump snow on everyone. Well last night was no exception, as Thad, Harrison, and I left for Logan last night at about 8:30 the sky didn't look to dark and dreadful.

So we headed out, and as we went our way up I noticed that there seemed to be some snow falling at about the capitol in salt lake. Once we were there we hit just a little bit of snow, and then continued on and then we got hit again about Kaysville or Ogden, which conditions turned into just about white out, and with these conditions we also saw a more then a few slide offs, which then sent me into an almost state of panic.

Then the snow started to clear up a bit more and then we decided to go up through sardine canyon... that might have been a big mistake. so we started up the canyon we saw a sign that said 4 wheel drive or chains required, now for us we were in a two wheel drive vehicle with no chains... so what do we do we head up anyways.

The first part wasn't to bad but as soon as we hit mantua again we were hit with white out conditions, and this continued for the entire length of the canyon. It was so bad we could only tell where we were supposed to be only because of the road markers on the side...(nowI know why there there) so this continued I would say for about a half hour until we came out of the canyon when low and behold no snow.... GRRRR.... well the moral of the story is: when it snows, stay indoors.

Friday, March 13, 2009

A Texas update

well for the last couple of days i have had the privalage to stay at jan and ben's house and they have allowed me to take a couple of pictures with these kids and the adventures we have had over the last couple of days. so here are some of the photos.


clark screaming for joy


Bath Time


A good spit up

a happy dwarf

Reading as a family

clark drunk after a long car ride and ben doing a great job with clark's drunken stories



Eva Sleeping during shopping


Clark wants to be a grown up too.


But he doesn't understand the concept of knocking first


One of the many tantrums he has thrown while i've been here

these have just been a few of the adventures that we have had here and there will be many more to come.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

first date of my college career

so while I wasn't able to come down to dad's birthday party instead I went on a date, and I think that dad would have approved. So i think I'll clarify what actually happened seeing how Thad may have messed up some details.

so first of all it was a blind date with a girl named Maddie, and it was set up by a friend Courtney who is in two of my classes, it was not set up by Richard Wilson. So to start we went to firehouse which is kind of like going to pier 49 but it's more of a restaurant. here we had a delicious meal were i was happy and full, after this we then went to skating rink, (Note there were three couples) so we skated for probably about a hour and half to about two hours. after that we then decided to go and watch a movie and eat ice cream. and the movie which we watched was big fish, and that was the date that i went on. nothing much but it was still fun to meet new people.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Snowboarding

so last week the stake took everyone who wanted to come and go snowboarding up at beaver mt. not only that but they also reduced the prices from somewhere around $60 down to about $30 so being as frugal as possible I took this opportunity to try snowboarding for the first time in my life.

so to stay warm in those frigid conditions i wore 5 layers on my legs i had underwear, compression shorts, athletic shorts, thermals, and then some water resistant pants. now on the upper body i had on thermals, T-shirt, long sleeved shirt, a hoodie, and my winter coat.
basically looking like this poor kid from a Christmas story. so when we finally got 0ur boards thad, harrison, me and bret. when then treaked up a hill to learn how to snowboard. The only ones with experince were bret and harrison and so when they were ready they took off and hit the slopes. good thing for us is the fact that a friend amanda who knows how to snowboard helped both me and thad till we got steady on the boards and then we decided to go up the mountian to figure it out without having to climb up the hill anymore.

at the top me, thad, and amanda then straped on our boards and went down without much fuss, well i did thad had a bit more difficulty then me so this continued for about another 3 hours in which i was able to stand up on the board for the entire run down the mountian, which only took about 30 seconds to get down. other than that i would call the trip a huge success. thad also got a lot better and was able to go down the entire mountian without fall to many times.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Another Strange Dream

So on Monday I woke up thinking that Dad came up to Logan because some one in our house had dialed 911 and was worried that something was wrong at BKE so as he came in he started yelling through out the house to see if everything was alright. To get this in perspective the time in the morning was roughly 6am meaning dad would have had to leave provo at 4 am to get up to Logan. So with that in place, I then "yelled" just to let him know that i was alright. so as i turned over to see him at the door i saw my coat which looks like Dad's. So disorented I then got up to make sure that dad hadn't gone crazy, and to see what the problem is, he sayed that someone had called 911 and that we needed to leave and also we were late for Anna's birthday. At that time i realized that he wasn't there and that nothing was the problem so i went back to sleep.

Monday, January 5, 2009

A Christmas Review

most of pre-christmas and post-christmas was sitting around the house and other very active activities, mostly while everyone else was at work or getting chemo treatments. well that all changed when dad was almost back to normal, when his perscription was cut down to two pills and no IV. So what did we do when dad was back to normal that's right we started remodeling.


me in my work suit not to get any insulation in me

My work space


one of the lights we installed

what the ceiling looks like now.


also while doing various fun activities i help jethro with the snow gecko for better pictures look at jethro's family blog