Sweat like a Shower

So everybody says it's hot... well i just don't believe that i think that it's not so bad with it being hundred degrees out with 30% humidity. but i do believe that you can get dehydrated quickly, also when you guys sweat you can actually feel cooler, not so much in the south. ex. most of the time when we go tracting it starts out not too bad but after about 5 minutes the sweat just starts to ball up and the sweat just starts to fall off much like it would during a shower where the water just starts pouring out, then about 15 to 20 minutes you can look at your arm and it's actually shimmering water. it actually looks like you came out of a pool, and then about an hour later you realize that your entire shirt is soaked and damp, but you're still hot and the wind only feels slightly better. At that point i realize that yeah it's definitely hot here and it's only going to get worse. also AC is a necessity for the south, the great thing about AC is that after long walks where people don't really like to talk to you anyways you get inside it feel like you just walked into a grocery cooler and everything feels cold and refreshing. so with that in mind one member during our little pioneer day celebration after 2 hours in the cool of the evening which is about 80 degrees and still about 60 to 70 % humidity i'm now drenched much like i've described. the member says "hey did you just get out of the shower" to which i couldn't reply with any wit so i said yes i like to sport the shower look.

well other than that experience we have had quite a good week with lessons and contacting and visiting less active members. the lessons went well except that people don't want to change their attitude with what they were taught as a child. so while we try our best people I guess don't want to change unless they want to. well with all that said and done, one investigator that we found this week was originally an investigator but she didn't really quite get it, the gospel, so we talked to her for a while and we found out that she fell in love with a missionary and was very heart broken when he was talking to another investigator. well this seems to be a common thread among people who talk to missionaries. i know that missionaries don't mean to come off that way i just think that people take our message the wrong way.

so all in all this has been a very fun and exciting week here in the thriving town of Ozark Alabama and Fort Rucker.

and did you know that the world just keeps getting smaller and smaller. in our ward is my former priest adviser Earl Simmons who used to live in Lehi and so did his brother Jordan, Earl has two kids and his brother doesn't have any yet. did you know these guys Robyn? they say they remember you.

Love Elder Gillespie

Toni, yes i would like to live slowly like an elephant and anna is so adorable and is becoming quite an artist. Ben your top ten= awesome and i didn't know that anna liked that type of stuff. i would be impressed as a father. and i agree that we do become scared as we grow older. and the water fight sounded awesome

Thad you did just miss me last time but i got it this time. that so cool that you can go on hikes and stuff, and that Kori is having a baby Three A+

Jethrobyn Approved for the slip n' slide you could also do a pool for home plate when you come home, that was fun to do as a youth activity. could you tell me why everyone is getting so big, i saw mick in the photo and he looks almost the same size as zach. and so do the chelaks. the package also arrived safely thank you so much.

Janben Tell me about your adventures in Texas and everything else, like when you are going to get back to San Antonio where you'll live so i can write you a letter or two.

also Happy birthday to all the in-laws this week. may you have a happy time

New Years Resolutions

So Story Time. . .

this week has been a bit nuts I'm not going to lie or stuff like that, it's again been a week where i can't keep track of the days and to be honest it kinda feels like a Wednesday

So let's think back to Tuesday, that was the first day that we had district meeting just with the people in our apartment, last transfer it was with a whole bunch but it got changed so i'm now the District Leader for just us people in Ozark. so this being my first time actually being in charge of something i was Freaking Out which normally doesn't happen. so we had our meeting and it was really good even though i didn't know what was going on. and i give all the credit to God for that because he is the one that made it come together. so that was really cool about Tuesday.

Also on tuesday we mowed a members lawn who asked for some help from us, she works full time and has some younger kids who aren't quite old enough to mow the lawn without supervision, so we did that from 1 pm to about 4 pm with little cloud cover and a 90% humidity and 98 degree weather so that was a very intresting time, so now it dosen't feel quite so hot as it once was but it's still HOT. i think i drank about 3 quarts of water during that time. so we were going and the mower just gave out on us about half way so my thought is that's over heated and can't quite keep up with us so we left it and decided to come back the next day to finish which we did with again it being Blazing hot but we did it with a smile and a sweaty back and dripping heat.

so that is what happened on Wednesday. to which i took 3 showers one in the morning one after mowing and then one after playing volleyball with the youth outside. i felt really gross that day.

Thursday was just another day in the life of a missionary like getting invited to church by an investigator which was quite an experience and it wasn't as bad as thought but i think they could of just stopped with the microphones and the volume up to the roof after this experience we discovered that we really needed to clean up the apartment and it couldn't wait till today, so Friday came and we DEEP cleaned the entire apartment which took the entire day, but funny news the toyota recall is still going on, so we, being toyota drivers, then spent some of the day at the dealership getting it fixed which they did for free! score!

Saturday was Crazy so we get out the door and get ready to go tracting well as we get out of the car, that has recently been fixed so we don't go flying off the road, and start getting our materials, a jeep flys by us and pulls over quite suddenly and then three guys hop out and i thought oh maybe they think we are in some car trouble, so we are friendly we they come closer we notice that they are dressed kind of like us to which we soon realized that they think we are in trouble but not with our car. so we get preached to that we need to be saved and that we can only be saved on Jesus and that if you don't believe the Bible than you are going to be "Cast off" in the last day, all in all a funny and sobering experience because i realized that people think we are going to do the same thing to them. that we are going to tell them that they are going to hell, but they just don't know what we are teaching.

So with that under our belts we took off and went tracting anyways, I was then much more friendly and personable than before and much happier for the experience.

We then rushed back to our car while to go to a birthday party that our investigator invited us to. it was her little girls birthday, and we were the only mormon people there but everyone seemed to like us and wasn't really offended that we came and then they told our investigator that "hey they aren't so bad" we had a good time and then had to get rushed off to a dinner apointment where after a while a friend came over who had some good questions and we were able to help her out with some questions and a blessing that she needed. which leads us to yesterday.

Sunday = awesome a day of relaxation and spiritual highs. let that suffice

which leads us to today where i can't really move my arms because of the extreme workout i did with butikofer

also the apartment make up is this Me, Butikofer, Cox and Christensen. Christensen replaced O'niones and everyone now sleeps in the same room and study in the same room, as of before we slept in different rooms and studied in our rooms. so a intersting dynamic change as of friday.

Love Elder Gillespie

Janben clark eva and baby I can't believe that this school year is almost over and that your going to be heading back to san antonio and Clark my dreams have been crazy, the last one i can remember I was back home with all my friends but i was still set apart as a missionary and trying my hardest to help everyone that needed help back home, it was a good dream

Ben I think that no matter what we are going to have to workout together it's going to be so much fune and i think that we are both going to get huge! or at least definition.

Beetle You are so AWESOME I can just tell you've got your head on so much better than i do and your doing so good to. keep up the good work because i know you can.

Jethrobyn the porch looks awesome and it sounds like toby just shows up right when he's needed and can do the job the right way the first way. also clint is so big along with all the other chelaks. how did they get so big?

Mom I'm suprised that you didn't want any leftovers. yours are GOOD! i'm sad that i ate so much cold cearal now. also John LaFollette is going to Carlsbad Califorina Mission, Ryan Adair is going to Manchester New York mission and Mike Howard is going to Johannesburg South Africa. life is getting crazy

Dad keep up the good work.

Roxanna You still need to keep me updated about the Call and stuff this is exciting i'm always so happy to see what's going on with my friends.

Jon and Ryan you better email me while you get to the or at least send your address.

Divine Helping Hands

Hello Everybody!

So this week has been a good one. It's been a week of learning and of understanding.

Not a lot of cool stories but it just seems that every week flies by and that it all seems the same. trying to help other people out while trying to find more people to listen to us, which is similar to mormon ad that i saw today about mothers who at the darkest times still hope for the best of time or hope for things to get better so that they can get through the hard times of life, which we all have, and in every circumstance God is there to help us along the way. we just don't see that he's their and helping us along the way. that i know along with that god is trying to make us better men and women for the kingdom at hand and is going to stretch us there.

Thank you again for the love you have for me and all the other missionaries because we all need it.

Love
Elder Gillespie

Boom on the Fourth of July

Hello everybody things are going really good here in the alabama state, and good news I'm staying in Ozark for another 6 weeks with Elder Butikofer so this is so good and it should be a great time in the coming weeks, I'm excited too. So, what's new since this last week. well not much we had a great celebration on Fort Rucker, we were able to see all of the helicopters that they fly here on post which was really neat, the other cool thing about it was that we were invited by a less active family to join them for this celebration, that was really cool and was and has been the highlight for the week.

other than that oh! we met our mission president, President Jensen he sounds and looks and acts just like president summerhays which has made this transition much easier he seems like he the man with the plan and a humble man too. and this is going to be a great next 15 months with him. other than that this week again has flown by and unfortunatly have to go, the sad news about this week Elder O'niones is leaving which is sad he just makes the apartment, so it'll be neat to see how the next elder respondes to us, seeing how we are all crazy.

president has really stressed that we as missionaries need to serve the people that we are working with and also the community he gave us an acrinm and seeing how he's farmer he likes to use farming terms.

S pirit

O bedence

W ork

R epentence

E ternal life

A tonement

P eople

and that's what i think is going to be his focus this on service and i've got a gut feeling that we might have a hurricane this summer or the next just so we can do what he thinks which is the best.

Well that's about it and this couple of weeks coming will be very eventful and this should be a great time for me

to everyone else thank you so much for all that you've done.

Love Elder Gillespie

Robyn I do get your emails and i'm sorry i didn't reply i just forgot.

Jan Great update and thank you for the funny tales keep it up

Camille thanks for the update and you'll do great keep it up.

Roxanne you'll have to keep me updated and i got package thank you very much, but the General Conference CD didn't work. if you want to send them the other way that would be nice but i could get it, if you don't have enough time to do it.

Beetle I can't believe how quick life is going and i'm going to sweat off all the fat that i have this summer only to put it back on with fried foods.