Hello everybody!
It's so good to hear from all those who wrote, and I'm glad you're all doing well. This week has seemed like a blur, but I'll try to hit all the major things that happened this week.
so Monday we had dinner with a member who's son has befriended a great guy who goes to school with him, and is really interested about church and what it is all about. Clark is his name and he's originally from Taiwan, and Loves how the school system is set up here and really isn't worrying about getting through the next set of hoops. He's even come several times without being asked to come, which is really cool the hard thing though is that he's only a freshman which means his parents might not be willing to let him get baptized. but we'll still teach him and it'll work out. so that was really a cool thing/miracle that happened on that lovely Monday.
Tuesday was a pretty normal day with district meeting and a lesson with miss. Surly Ann Simmons. and we were able to have president Campbell come with us, he's a member of the stake presidency who lives in our ward, and i think might be assigned to her for home teaching. well either way it was really cool to have him there and interesting to see his power through his humility and service to others. this is the president who we report to every Tuesday about how the zone is doing and how they are working together, and who they have seen as far as less-active's. so it's really cool and important to report to him about this stuff. so yeah that's really cool, and then to top everything off. we had dinner with Drew Sussman who came up to us after General Conference and was like yeah I'm ready for this whole conversion thing again and I'm ready to be baptized. so dinner with him was fantastic, and i really got to know him better, and he's just such a cool guy who wants to just do the right thing, and it's cool to see how he was prepared even before he came to us, like he was telling his dad that he was converting and his dad already thought that he had converted, and he told us a couple of other people in church were the same way, they just assumed that he was already a member. so that was really cool, and that finished the night
Wednesday...., Wednesday was good, we had a great time with Bonnie and trying to help her with her situation, and it seems like she's getting a hold of it and has come up with a plan and is continuing to do the small things which are going to make up the biggest difference. For instance she's starting to realize that just being around certain people are making her act in ways that she doesn't want to act, and by just staying away she's not going to have those problems. then that night we thought about going to the Parks for dinner, but as you would have guessed there was a mis-communication and we ended up not having dinner there that night but the next night so we had a little fiasco but low and behold it worked out for the best.
Thor's Day the day of days where everything just falls through. and all the back up plans do too. We ended up talking to a Korean veteran who is a deacon at his church, and a very nice man who really is a true christian just trying to be the best he can and helping others where he can. it was refreshing that is for sure. not to bash on anyone but to just talk about how life once was and how important a belief in god is. and told us that Mormons would make great baptists, and then that night we had a great dinner and little lesson with the Parks with the "puzzle" of the plan of salvation and i think that they are starting to get it more.
Friday, we had an interesting morning with a Less active member, Kyle Sweat. who recently had a girlfriend who dumped him and has been trying to become better, and get back into the basics, isn't it amazing how much power comes from doing the little things over and over again. and how it seems that all the problems that happen are just realigned to show each of us what the most important things are. so we helped him quit worrying about the things that he couldn't control and just focus on the things that he could control and get him closer to God. we had dinner with some wonderful members who are just so nice to us that i almost feel out of place because i shouldn't be with them because they are so nice. and they've got the best accents too. and then we played a game with a less active coming back to church, and it's this wonderful game called Quelf. it's definitely fun and a lot like curses except different and really fun.
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y. we went to a baptism of the Spanish guys and it was really neat to see, three little kids get baptized, funny story so Elder Hibbert did the interview's for them and the little girl told him that she wanted him to do her baptism, which kind of threw everyone for a loop because they thought one of the Spanish guys would have done it. but it's her special day. so we went and had a great time then had a little tail gate party because the garnet and gold game was going on and some members asked us to come along and it was really cool to have that opportunity, and it was much different than what looked like the Blue and White game. we finished with a great little dinner with Sis Lanigan, someone who we have been working with and is trying to get her family more involved in church, and we had Elder Hammond's favorite meal, Lasagna which was really good. then we just headed home after a fun filled day.
Sunday. the big event of the day was cooking Indian food with a member and it was really neat, i was the grill master and i apparently did a good job with it. but this brought me back to the old days of Panama City Beach where we would eat Indian food every Thursday for lunch. and low and behold this tasted so much better and it also had the same type of seasonings, and I never knew how long it takes to really put on a feast but i can say it was a lot of fun. so that's the week in sound bytes.
Love you all
Elder Gillespie
Dad your spring break sounds like nothing like it does down here. but i like yours much better, bobcats, cement breaking, wiring, all really fun to do. and also sounds a lot like Utah,
Mom i knew something was different about Florida compared with Utah, and now i know that it's the flowers, we've seen all the daffodils bloom and then are done, and now it's getting a lot more like summer, with not a lot of flowers but more heat. but the snow pack seems amazing and something that i know Hammond is going to be really happy about, he was concerned about not being able to ski for 3 years. but looks like that's not going to happen. make sure to take a picture of timp with all that snow if it's a new record might as well be in photographic form. it's so cool that Greg and Jolyn are in Utah now, defiantly a bonus and so cool to hear all the cousins coming together to work.
Jethrobyn... being sick sucks but it's really good that you were able to have it land on a vacation break with Jethro. keep up the good work and i know that the kids are going to be so much fun, especially little Sophia talking to herself, priceless. and having so much fun with the rest of the family.
Beetle. your right boys are poops, but you can still be different and be cool at the same time and it's ok to break the mold, and don't be stressin' you'll be happy with a cali boy soon enough... haha...
Love ya all.
Elder Gillespie
It's so good to hear from all those who wrote, and I'm glad you're all doing well. This week has seemed like a blur, but I'll try to hit all the major things that happened this week.
so Monday we had dinner with a member who's son has befriended a great guy who goes to school with him, and is really interested about church and what it is all about. Clark is his name and he's originally from Taiwan, and Loves how the school system is set up here and really isn't worrying about getting through the next set of hoops. He's even come several times without being asked to come, which is really cool the hard thing though is that he's only a freshman which means his parents might not be willing to let him get baptized. but we'll still teach him and it'll work out. so that was really a cool thing/miracle that happened on that lovely Monday.
Tuesday was a pretty normal day with district meeting and a lesson with miss. Surly Ann Simmons. and we were able to have president Campbell come with us, he's a member of the stake presidency who lives in our ward, and i think might be assigned to her for home teaching. well either way it was really cool to have him there and interesting to see his power through his humility and service to others. this is the president who we report to every Tuesday about how the zone is doing and how they are working together, and who they have seen as far as less-active's. so it's really cool and important to report to him about this stuff. so yeah that's really cool, and then to top everything off. we had dinner with Drew Sussman who came up to us after General Conference and was like yeah I'm ready for this whole conversion thing again and I'm ready to be baptized. so dinner with him was fantastic, and i really got to know him better, and he's just such a cool guy who wants to just do the right thing, and it's cool to see how he was prepared even before he came to us, like he was telling his dad that he was converting and his dad already thought that he had converted, and he told us a couple of other people in church were the same way, they just assumed that he was already a member. so that was really cool, and that finished the night
Wednesday...., Wednesday was good, we had a great time with Bonnie and trying to help her with her situation, and it seems like she's getting a hold of it and has come up with a plan and is continuing to do the small things which are going to make up the biggest difference. For instance she's starting to realize that just being around certain people are making her act in ways that she doesn't want to act, and by just staying away she's not going to have those problems. then that night we thought about going to the Parks for dinner, but as you would have guessed there was a mis-communication and we ended up not having dinner there that night but the next night so we had a little fiasco but low and behold it worked out for the best.
Thor's Day the day of days where everything just falls through. and all the back up plans do too. We ended up talking to a Korean veteran who is a deacon at his church, and a very nice man who really is a true christian just trying to be the best he can and helping others where he can. it was refreshing that is for sure. not to bash on anyone but to just talk about how life once was and how important a belief in god is. and told us that Mormons would make great baptists, and then that night we had a great dinner and little lesson with the Parks with the "puzzle" of the plan of salvation and i think that they are starting to get it more.
Friday, we had an interesting morning with a Less active member, Kyle Sweat. who recently had a girlfriend who dumped him and has been trying to become better, and get back into the basics, isn't it amazing how much power comes from doing the little things over and over again. and how it seems that all the problems that happen are just realigned to show each of us what the most important things are. so we helped him quit worrying about the things that he couldn't control and just focus on the things that he could control and get him closer to God. we had dinner with some wonderful members who are just so nice to us that i almost feel out of place because i shouldn't be with them because they are so nice. and they've got the best accents too. and then we played a game with a less active coming back to church, and it's this wonderful game called Quelf. it's definitely fun and a lot like curses except different and really fun.
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y. we went to a baptism of the Spanish guys and it was really neat to see, three little kids get baptized, funny story so Elder Hibbert did the interview's for them and the little girl told him that she wanted him to do her baptism, which kind of threw everyone for a loop because they thought one of the Spanish guys would have done it. but it's her special day. so we went and had a great time then had a little tail gate party because the garnet and gold game was going on and some members asked us to come along and it was really cool to have that opportunity, and it was much different than what looked like the Blue and White game. we finished with a great little dinner with Sis Lanigan, someone who we have been working with and is trying to get her family more involved in church, and we had Elder Hammond's favorite meal, Lasagna which was really good. then we just headed home after a fun filled day.
Sunday. the big event of the day was cooking Indian food with a member and it was really neat, i was the grill master and i apparently did a good job with it. but this brought me back to the old days of Panama City Beach where we would eat Indian food every Thursday for lunch. and low and behold this tasted so much better and it also had the same type of seasonings, and I never knew how long it takes to really put on a feast but i can say it was a lot of fun. so that's the week in sound bytes.
Love you all
Elder Gillespie
Dad your spring break sounds like nothing like it does down here. but i like yours much better, bobcats, cement breaking, wiring, all really fun to do. and also sounds a lot like Utah,
Mom i knew something was different about Florida compared with Utah, and now i know that it's the flowers, we've seen all the daffodils bloom and then are done, and now it's getting a lot more like summer, with not a lot of flowers but more heat. but the snow pack seems amazing and something that i know Hammond is going to be really happy about, he was concerned about not being able to ski for 3 years. but looks like that's not going to happen. make sure to take a picture of timp with all that snow if it's a new record might as well be in photographic form. it's so cool that Greg and Jolyn are in Utah now, defiantly a bonus and so cool to hear all the cousins coming together to work.
Jethrobyn... being sick sucks but it's really good that you were able to have it land on a vacation break with Jethro. keep up the good work and i know that the kids are going to be so much fun, especially little Sophia talking to herself, priceless. and having so much fun with the rest of the family.
Beetle. your right boys are poops, but you can still be different and be cool at the same time and it's ok to break the mold, and don't be stressin' you'll be happy with a cali boy soon enough... haha...
Love ya all.
Elder Gillespie
Baptism of the three Spanish children
Cookin' on Sunday
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