A Week Back

well this week hasn't been much of a change from last week, except for the fact that i'm no longer a missionary, well anyways the highlight of this past week....

well i got back on Thursday and wasn't released until Friday morning so in between arriving and being released i played two games of basketball with Pops. then started getting back in to the swing of everything with a wonderfully planned pumpkin carving COoompation which was really cool to start seeing everyone again. (pictures can be found on facebook.) so as the night of friday came to a close it was time for me to get ready for a sacrament talk, and reporting to the high council, which i was nervous for but i think it went pretty well. The subject that i tried to focus on was doing the small things in life, because when we do those things than we are more on track with the rest of our lives.

which leads us to the after party where i met up with the old buddies that i have going from left to right Richard Wilkins, Me, Eric Swindlehurst, and Richard Wilson. with the unfortunate leaving of Sister Beetle and Brother Thad.

so that was sunday in a nutshell, and it didn't quite feel real that i either i left or i was supposed to be back, but i think that i'm adjusting pretty well.

Monday it was just a normal day i think, just kind of bumming around the house finding little odd jobs to do and cleaning up a bit and getting reorginized. than going to my first FHE at the YSA ward that i'm supposed to be a part of and that was weird and different, but cool to see one of my old companions and seeing new people in the ward and another chance to catch up with old friends. one for example was Spencer Hatfield and going over each other's mission stories and then also seeing Kayla Hunter and catching up on good time with both of them.... so all in all a good time.

Tuesday i woke up in the morning and got out and did a shift for Mom at the Cannery and i shoved over a ton of pork cubes. yes that was my job shoving pork... pretty cool i think... and other good news i got a phone, so send me an email and i'll let you know what the number is.

Wednesday was just a good day where i just relaxed and started the Lord of the Ring Trilogy, which i think is a great movie to start back into the swing of things. and not seeing anything for two years it really opens up the movie again and i think i'm getting more out of it.

Thursday, was the day of cleaning up the house again and starting on a couple of projects, and going fishing which was a lot of fun, just having time to enjoy nature and getting to know the jethrobyn clan again, which ended up with a nap on the floor of their house.

Friday just finishing a couple of projects that are around the house and getting ready to go camping tonight with the young scouts. so it's going to be fun and interesting to see what happens.

Matt Gillespie- out

Twas the P-Eve before Home-Eve...

Hello everybody!

Guess what it's my last time writing as a missionary in the mission field and i'll update you on what's happen this last week so, we had kind of a crazy week where we had to pull together a baptism in about 10 days which isn't bad. so we got the rest of the lessons taught and got everything ready for this great baptism of this girl who's dating a member. so we have everything done... now you just don't want any baptism, so we took it upon ourselves to make it the nicest that a missionary could do, so the interview for baptism is on Wednesday and she passed with flying colors. so now it was on to the next phase... cleaning the font, now a couple of weeks ago i told you that the font was out of order for a bit. so we had some professionals come in and clean it up for us, but for some strange reason there was still a funny odor that was floating around. so we went to investigate, and we think that the smell was coming from the grout and Elder Bluth being a former janitor and working with chemicals all his career found that we best just by scrubbing the grout and then cleaning every little nook and cranny that might potentially keep the smell in there. so off we went to work and we worked and worked just trying to get that smell out and by the end of the whole thing we found that the smell had been eradicated. which i thought was pretty cool. so the next day on Saturday we went up to the church and started filling the font and it was just such a great opportunity and not only that but it was really spiritual.  what i thought was the coolest was the fact that every  time that we taught her she just seemed to be a little bit happier and a glow about her that i had never really noticed before and just how much learning about the gospel and applying it would make you happier. it just made me realize how much happier we all can be with the truth of the gospel in our lives.

Well on to our next story of the week, so this past couple of weeks we had a great time and had a chance to teach a little girl who's 8 years old and in a less active home so we had the chance to teach her and her family more about the Gospel and taught all the lessons and just had a really good time and helped her with everything that had a question about.  even though she really didn't have any questions at the time, and yet she just soaked in everything that we taught her, incredible how the human mind can just accept knowledge without a problem and make it work with all the other things inside the head at the same time. so anyways we taught her everything that she needed to know and what the bishop wanted us to teach her so we had a good old time with that, and then we set the date for baptism of October the 9th right after church and so we came early to church right after we finished with the baptism of the night before and started the font, which ended up just right. so I was able to have 2 baptisms right at the end of my mission, which has been a great ending to my experience here, in fact i wouldn't want to be in any other place right now i just feel like I'm home.... which all it means to me is feeling the spirit and having people around who really do love you and want you to become the best that you can become.

So that's the final ending to my story here in the Florida Tallahassee Mission as a 19-21 year old who was scared out of his mind, but has grown into a better person than he thought he could become and loves the gospel with all his heart might mind and strength. I love all ya'll

Love
Elder G.

a fort we built

baptism of sammy

baptism of cassie