Monday, May 2, 2011

Chipley 2.0

Hello Everybody
 
And this Email might be a little bit short because I'm now under a time limit, so I'll try to get all the good parts. First the beginning of this week has been preparing tally for the new guys and getting all the info that they needed to move forward instead of backwards. so a lot of time was doing damage control and writing to make sure that everything was going to work out for the best. For example Sis Simmons was very disappointed to hear that we were leaving and then the fact that two new guys were coming in, as well as the bishop, and president Campbell and many others who we became very close with and then to just up and leave, and that was probably the hardest part for me, along with saying goodbye to so many wonderful missionaries in Tallahassee. Well that was most of the days until Wednesday where i packed up on the transfer bus and then headed over to the "new" area of Chipley.  My companion is really cool, he's only been out for a transfer which is 6 weeks but is from Texas and reminds me a lot of Thad just kind of goofy but still super excited and loves to work and to get to know people. Elder Banks is his name and is from the Dallas-Ft Worth area and loves the Mavericks and Cowboys. but besides that he's awesome. It's just been kind of really fun to be apart of this companionship, so the weird thing about going back to an area is the fact that I'm older and for some reason a lot of the people didn't quite remember me and i just thought that was surprising,
 
What I thought would be the biggest hurdle to get over while I'm here would of been when people did remember me that they would think back to the time that i was here and have the bad memory of the missionaries i was with and then associate that with me and not think about what I've become since that time, of course my concerns/fears never really surfaced and people just remember me as being one of those missionaries that served here. Now as for serving out the rest of my mission here i don't know, i think I'll be here for another transfer for sure but after that they might want to move me.  My thinking is that they'll send me up to Georgia when we get the Tifton stake in our mission, because they are closing down the Macon Georgia mission and splitting the zones between missions. That would be a really cool goal that I'm thinking could happen for my last 3 months. Oh. and the other cool thing that happened around here is there where quite a few white washings, and our district that I'm in now is with Bonifay which has always had some great elders are brand new to the area so from the last transfer to this new one there is only one person who was part of the last district. 
 
So now for some new stories that you haven't heard before, 1st! we went tracting by downtown Chipley pretty exciting, and we knocked on a door and we found this awesome lady who told us to come back in a couple of days which we did. so when we came back Elder Banks and myself had a great first lesson which is the restoration and it really was powerful and we were really thinking that this was awesome so we set up to come back in a couple of days and then talk about the plan of salvation. So we went back and then talked to someone there and come to find out it's her little brother.  He told us that she wasn't home and to try back later, and so we went back on Sunday to see her and we knock on the door and we hear this guy's voice telling us to leave so we decide to leave a note, ( now this is a house which are two different houses like a duplex)  and as we stick the note and head out to leave we are told not to come back or else our heads were going to be shot off.  The person who was saying all of this seems to be in his early 20's and is always holding a bible in his hands kind of like a small child would hold a teddy bear to his chest. and every time we try to talk to him face to face he runs back inside and has the window open and starts talking loudly to us to leave. so my guess is he isn't all there. 
 
So now another story about one of our investigators. Fletcher. he's 16 and is super excited about everything and is super active, and reminds me a lot of Craig Swindlehurst when he was younger. and anyways Fletcher is really intense about everything he does especially sports and what's cool is he invites us to come with him to do activities, and we're smart and teach before we play so we do our job and he still has a lot of fun, now to list some of the games we've played it's be waffle ball, basketball, football, and probably another sport that he can come up with, I'll try to get him into Frisbee but i don't know how well that will happen. so I'm going to be well rounded when I'm done here
 
Well that's about the best highlight that i could think of I've got to get going but i Love all of you and am really glad to be back in Chipley strangely enough.  
 
Love Elder Gillespie

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