Spirit PUNCH!

Hello everybody. well first off to tell you why i didn't write on Monday this week is because a Elder Person of the 70 visited the mission, which was amazing. but i'll get into that later. this week seeing as it started on Tuesday everything has been going really good and the crazy thing is that when people in the church come on splits with us missionaries it always ends up being a great time I just freak out about finding out what i need to do to get things rolling in the right direction. which doesn't help that i'm a bit of a hard head. so Wednesday night i think we had splits and the zone leaders came down for a trade off with us so, me stressing out about every little thing and how it's all going to work out. we split up and i go with brother Cook and see the Bess family and i had hoped for a short 40 min visit well that got a little longer, but at the same time Elder Lake and Elder Gates were waiting around at the church for the other person to come and split with them, when low and behold someone comes in that they don't know and he wants to learn more about the church.... coincidence? I think not! so i came back and they had told me all about what went down which was sweet, and the next night again freaking out about what to do with the high priests for splits when we called up brother Magonigal we went and saw sister Dailey and those two just started talking up a storm, something i didn't realize and from that point on i know that the ward members who have been here a while really do know about the other people in the ward a lot better than what i think i know. so all of that was definitely a greater insight than what i would have ever known.

so that leads us to Elder Person which we went to yesterday. We woke up yesterday at 3 am to get ready to leave Ozark at 4 am to get to Tallahassee by 7:30 am which it did so why so early? well Tallahassee is an hour ahead of where we are, and the dividing line is the Chattahoochee river. so in reality we left at 5 am Tallahassee time so the two and a half hour drive i fell asleep pretty quickly, and i know that i sleep with my mouth wide open. we got to tally town and went to get something to eat before we had our conference. so what is only not in Utah Waffle House. which was really good food. and very fast as well. so  we are at the conference and Elder Person wants all the leadership in the mission to talk to him about what we as a mission could work on. He took some notes and then we had a picture and then got ready for his presentation. It started out really good and then BAM the whole mission got chastised on how we could do better and to figure out what we need to do and find out who we are.  Then broke for lunch and then another BAM. he told us again all about what we need to do and how it's by finding out who we are that we can then change our destiny he said "when i got called into being a general authority president packer told us 'You are not You' which the if that's the first thing that an apostle says us it confused us if we are not us then who are we, and that was what he was trying to get across to us, we are no longer doctors, lawyers, teachers, CEO's. we are now disciples to Jesus Christ. so I'm no longer a CEO that has 4000 employees that has been called to be a 70 but I'm now a disciple that owns a company."  so what he told me is that while i might have been a goof in high school that is only something that i did but I'm now on His path of discipleship to become more like Him. so when i do get off the mission I'll be more like myself than i have ever been. so that happened for about 6 hours of just being blown out of the water, and when you thought that you were doing something alright BAM another sucker punch, afterward it felt like i had been spiritually beaten to a ball of mush and then shoved back into my body. but happy at the same instance Weird. Speaking of a small world we went to Miss "P" church where they talked about becoming a better disciple which was an interesting contrast to what we experienced the next day. miss P's was talking about putting away childish things and becoming a disciple while the Elder Person told us what you have to do to be a Better Disciple of Christ and what is required of us to do that. and if i only had a tape recorder to re listen to all that he said that would of been amazing but i did get some good notes. hopefully i remember it all.  so on the way home all of Ozark missionaries car pooled and we just talked all about what just happened and how it was a very interesting and humbling experience. which made me think I've got a long way to go before i want to go home and i really need to make a better effort on my part to get to where i need to be.  there is work to be done and not enough time to do it.

so some interesting pranks before the conference... umm... well my bed got saran wrapped and when ever Cox takes a shower we get a cup of cold water and dump it on him or a cup of flour. most of the pranks we do are impromptu so there really isn't much thinking about what we need to do we just do things that aren't going to really hurt anyone. also Cox's bed gets flipped over pretty frequently. etc. etc.

what else.... umm... life is good here things should start changing and life will go on no matter where I'm at. I love you guys all so much keep up the good work.

Roxanna Way to go on the mission call  your going to have such a good time in Guatemala i know your going to love it there

Jan keep up the good work and i can't believe that everything is going so fast your going home for so long it's going to be so cool for all the kids to be together to play with each other. make sure Thad stays out of trouble with Clark those two are going to be trouble makers for sure on your trip.

Beetle i had one of those parties to except mine was probably worse but still a good show.

Thad i like the beard and the new phone sounds awesome I've seen it off of a couple of members but haven't gotten to mess around with it at all but good phone and good idea

Toni i can't believe that there is going to be a new face when i get back I'm sure Anna and baby are going to be great friends.

Robyn sad news but keep up the good work i know you'll be fine and so will your family tell Jethro i missed a quote from Raising Arizona.

Dad take a sick day if you need it it'll be alright. make sure to drink plenty of orange juice and other fluids. remember Drowned a cold and feed a fever. i don't know though ask mom

Mom your amazing and yes i did get a bit lost with your email. but I'm glad your having a productive week. and i bet your excited about general conference. so am I

Love you all

Elder Gillespie