The Phantom Gillespie

New Car!

2011-12-05T17:37:00.000-08:00

So it's been a while since i've last updated my life. but here it is...

We have a new car in the family it's a 2001 ford focus and is a nice bright red, but there is a problem... it doesn't have a name so here is the time for suggestions of a new car. my thoughts have been ray bradbury. but i would like to here your suggestions. ( a very similar looking car)

the other big news as far as i know is that now i'm in logan living at the BKE and i'm having such a blast up here and just getting along with everyone!

Tay-Hass

2011-11-10T17:58:00.000-08:00

so it's been a little bit since my last post and here's just a couple of things that have happened since.

So a few weeks ago i was able to visit my dear Francisco Fambly in San Antonio, and I arrived in the middle of the dark on a Friday night, where Jan picked me and took me to her house which i had never seen before and which a give the highest regards, and so that night ended. which lead to the next morning where i heard the scampering feet running down the hall to go down and see what was for breakfast, then scurrying back up the stairs to play with toys while breakfast was being finished. so as I stumble out of bed still a little disoriented. I came out of the bed room and see the kids which screamed with delight to see Uncle Matt. So we got ready for the day by taking cocoa the Boxer Rottweiler mix out for a walk with all the kids after a delicious breakfast. As the day's went by i found out that this was the usual routine that the Francisco's had. so i was really impressed with them and what they do on a daily schedule.

After all the excitement of Uncle Matt and being new to the area, life went pretty normally and that Saturday we went on two big adventures, the first was the trip down to Guadalajara state park which was a lot of fun and full of rock throwing, picnics. and other grand adventures. than a short drive back to the house where we got ready for the trunk or treat party at the ward house, which was rather enjoyable and a lot of fun to meet a lot of new people, one of the best highlights in my opinion was the chance to talk to the elders of the ward and in a weird way get back int

o the grove of being a missionary again, which was really satisfying in a weird kind of way... anyways Saturday was a big success.

Which than leads us to Sunday which was a great day and just again relaxing nothing special other than a great time at church and being able to be apart of it was good. which leads to this picture. now like most people you wouldn't think that texas wouldn't be cold at the end of october and well your right, it wasn't cold. Jan and Ben both needed a fire in there house and so it was done.

Outside Temperature: 78 degrees.

so Sunday was really good and with three helpers the jobs around the house get done a lot quicker and that means there is more time to have fun... so that's just what we did, we went on a walk to the "exploring place" and carved pumpkins and so many other cool things. when all was said and done, Jan and I played the game Blokus in which we both had a good time and just catching up on old times.

Monday was quite a day indeed... it started off with getting the kids to their respective schools and then doing all the little odd jobs that needed to be done, but just couldn't be done due to time restraints, after that we got the kids together after the morning school and then went off to the zoo at San Antonio and saw all the animals but we needed to get back in a hurry before it got to dark, because it was HALOOWEEN!

Myra as a turtle Clark as a Bat Eva as a Princess

so as we hurried back to the house and started getting ready for the evenings adventure to arrive, the kids had such a great time out trick or treating and stayed out "really late"

Tuesday was another adventure which was quite fun and we were able to watch a kids movie and soak in the hot tub and do all sorts of random things that just needed to be done, so as the day started coming to a close as was shipped out to the airport where i needed to be to catch a flight back home and remember the good times that were had in Texas and start finding ways to visit again...

A Week Back

2011-10-21T13:27:00.000-07:00

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...

2011-10-10T14:26:00.000-07:00

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

Baptism!

2011-09-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

Hellooooo Nurse!

So with that introduction I'll let this week start to unfold to ya'll so this Monday was a great one where we deep cleaned the apartment again and just made it all spic and span. after that well that night faded into the next day Tuesday

Which happened to be Zone conference and which would be my last one as a missionary here, so it was a very interesting and weird feeling that would be the last one that i was going to have in a long while. so that was a really good and uplifting experience to end on as far as zone conferences are concerned, and started bring up the fact that my mission was going to end soon. The lesson though that i learned this time was the fact that it really doesn't matter who's the missionary, it's the fact that I'm being open enough to let the spirit work through me to help bless those around me. That is the biggest thing that i got out of this last zone conference. That night we had another great lesson with the large group of members and we had the lesson of the plan of salvation which ended up having a lot of different questions which we needed to study to try and get the answer to their questions. But it was an awesome time to finish the day.

Wednesday was just another day just working hard and long trying to find, teach and baptize people and that day we were working all over and ended up working with a member and seeing a less active and trying to restart a fire in her life to come back to church where you can be happier. After that we went to another member's who fed us some pizza which we hadn't really gotten a lot of lately so we had a really good time there and taught that family about prayer and getting them to again to come to church, which is another part member family and we again had a really good discussion about the plan of salvation. So it's been interesting about what we've been studying and what we are trying to answer.

Thursday, that was a really slow day, we tried everything we could to find people contact investigators do anything and it just seemed like nothing was working. So we just kept working with what we had and kept moving forward and it'll pay off when it's the right time. That night we had dinner with a member family whose son is going on a mission in about 8 weeks so it's going to be really cool. They might even call to see what's going on and see the sights in Utah.

Friday we finished getting everything ready for the baptism program that afternoon, and worked as well as we could we everything going on, some of the highlights were, starting to teach a family the gospel, which went really well, and we think that it's going to go somewhere. Then we went to the font and cleaned it out before the baptism that we were having the next day.

Saturday worked on inviting people to the baptism and then started the font and getting everything set for that which was really good. It was really spiritual as well, and it was a good boost to keep me going and see and feel the happiness that the gospel really does bring to families.

Sunday we were just enjoying life, having a really good time and just having a good time when the bishop comes up to us and starts talking to us and brings a family over, so we talk a little bit and find out that a little girl who's 8 wants to get baptized, well that's a great time for us to be there and come to find out that they want her to get baptized in two Sundays which i was stoked to find out and that would just make a great ending to my mission which God has been so gracious to let me be a part of. So just another little miracle of the day and mission which I'm looking forward to.

That the week in a snap shot. I'm excited to see what happens in the coming weeks.

Love Elder Gillespie

Poop!

2011-09-19T14:11:00.001-07:00

Life is going really well and Elder Bluth and I are getting along really well and happy to be out here.

this week has been pretty weak, we've done a lot of tracting, a lot of trying to see people, and a lot of walking around to find new people to teach. the best story i have would of been last weeks when we were able to find a lady who knows the church and getting open to the idea of coming, which she literally lives down the street from the church. we were able to have a really spiritual lesson with her, and found out that she's been told about the book of mormon from a sister and brother in-law. it was really a great lesson and i think we'll get her pretty close before i leave to coming to church and understanding more and more about the church.

So! story of the week, we have our investigator getting ready for baptism and everything is going well we are making the program and getting all the final preparations finished for this great event that we are going to have on saturday, and as we get everything figured out we find out that the facilities of the church aren't working the way they are suppose to and with that the baptism needed to be postponed until the plumbing could be figured out and changed. which we would find out that it wouldn't be until saturday evening when everything was figured out that all pipes were fixed. so with all that we got everything moved to where it was suppose to and then kept working with what we have.

besides that we had an amazing lesson with a investigator who actually wanted us to come over and teach her and one of the member families who are befriending her. in the process of teaching we had her in the lesson but also the grandfather of the family who also isn't a member and participated in the lesson. it was a really good lesson and everything went really well, although it's really intimidating to teach like 6 members who are older than you and have been in pretty distinguished callings, and teaching the lesson in such a way where all can benifit. i don't know about you but it was a little scary in my opinion. and we also feel like she'll be able to come really quickly into the church.

besides that life here in the little town of pearson isn't to bad, i've got everything i want and everything i need.

Love to all

Elder Gillespie

Beetle, sounds like a lot of fun, and i've got the request of going to the temple on friday morning... i think that would be a lot of fun.

Toni, i loved the notes from anna and your probably right with her understanding and it's going to be a lot of fun when i do come over, as far a missionaries. you'll have to be the one to decided what kind you want in your house. to make it eaiser just wait a little while and get settled in, but if they show up to your door, get to know them by asking questions, they like that.

Jan WHAT! when did this little suprise come up, and am i the last to know? anyways i'm excited to see ya'll soon enough. tell ben he's doing awesome.

Robyn those pictures looked awesome and I am impressed. it's so weird to think that cousin brian is already married. keep up the good work, it's paying off.

Dad you sound like a very busy man, you should relax a bit so when i do come home i'll have a project or two to do while i'm just around.

Mom your letter was awesome and i hope that you'll see the things that you already knew were inside, but just needed sometime to be refined.

Love Ya'll and i think i'm turning southern.

Matthew Gillespie

Sulfur Water!

2011-09-12T21:17:00.001-07:00

This week has been awesome and it's been a lot of fun as well,

So let's start this off right and let you know what's been going on this past week,

Monday was a day of cleaning, we spent the entire day cleaning top to bottom of our little home in Pearson, getting rid of all the bugs that we could get rid of and dusted every nook and cranny, both high and low, listening to some great spiritual music, well, because that just makes the day go smoother. So that was the Monday,

Tuesday we were able to have a good old time and we had a good district meeting and then we were able to set a date with an investigator that we've been teaching for the last couple of weeks, he's going to be baptized this Saturday, which is going to be the same night that we are doing a movie night at the ward, which will be really cool and awesome. Later that night we went on splits with a member and we were able to see a few people that we really wouldn't have been able to see without his help. so it was a really cool night

Wednesday was my 23 month marked, it's weird to think that it's been that long but at the same time it doesn't, I really do love it out here even in the extreme heat that we get. So to celebrate we went tracting and worked all day and did what you would of done any other day, and that was a good time and a good day where we were able to meet our goals that we set for the day, which was a great feeling. to accomplish something that we wanted to do.

Thursday, we had a funeral in the ward and it was good to hear that there are still good people in the world and who do the right thing for the right reason just like the man that they were honoring. Then we tried to do as much as we could to work afterwards and do our weekly planning, which didn't quite work out according to plan but it was still a good time.

Friday, finished weekly planing and went out and saw an investigator who know quite a few people in the ward, so we are hoping with her we will be able to start teaching her quickly and that night went and saw quite a few people with another member who was very gracious to take us again to people that we don't really get to see. it was a great time... in fact i saw a tractor that looked a lot like our old one so i grabbed a picture.

Saturday was a day where you work and work and work and nothing seems to work out for what you want to do... but in the end it was a day where you learn that i doesn't always have to work out for you, you just have to do your part and in the end you will be blessed for what you have done, it may not happen the way that you were thinking but it will happen for the best, also it helps you understand that you are more capable of doing a hard task rather than just quitting before the day is up.

Sunday... and it was good. it's been a good time serving here and it's starting to come up to the ward trusting us and letting us into their homes with their friends and family and so that's been the coolest thing that's been going on lately. so this work keeps going forward and it doesn't matter really that i didn't baptize as many people as others, but that i was able to become a missionary and a better son of God. so that has been a good help to me to understand the bigger picture.

Love
Elder Matthew Gillespie

P.S. the water here Sucks, and tastes like the title....

Smells like Football. . .

2011-09-06T13:41:00.001-07:00

Hello Everybody!

So last week i was short changed with time, so i'll try to fit in both weeks as much as I can.

Last week we found out we had transfers. and Elder Kennington was getting moved from Pearson to Destin, FL which i hear is a really good area, so with him moving i got a new Companion Elder Bluth, I had never served around him or heard really anything about him so working with a clean slate no prejudgement made. So that day we spend most of it packing up Elder Kennington with all his stuff. which leads to Tuesday where we worked in Douglas because the transfer people needed to leave from Douglas at 6 AM so we would spend the night up there and then wait till the transfer people would come back, which happened to be at 1030 PM so that day we worked in Douglas again. which was a pretty good time. The next day being Thursday we got everyone situated and i got Elder Bluth and all his stuff and headed back down to Pearson and from there we started working getting used to the area and getting everything working how it should be done. So that was really good,

A little bit about Elder Bluth, He's from Mapleton Utah and has a twin brother who worked at the same grocery store i did, Buy Low market, It was really cool to find that out. He also graduated from Springville High 2009 and has a great family, he's really really funny and in my opinion is kind of like a lost brother. and he's got one transfer after me, so it's really cool to see how this is going to be a great ending to what has been a really great mission experience.

Since we've been together, we've cleaned our little house from top to bottom on P-day and got rid of all the nasty bug problems, for the most part, and we've stocked the apartment with all the major necessities. We've worked with a lot of Less actives and started finding more people to talk to and we've had some pretty stellar studies together, which really make a day go so much better. If you actually study the scriptures at the beginning of your day and feel the spirit, than everything else just falls into place. I would definitely recommend that to anyone and everyone. Other things we've accomplished is to see a lot of the investigators we were able to find this last transfer and talk with them and see what we can do to get them closer to Christ, and what we can do to get them baptized.

Let's see, what else has happened this last little bit as far as mission work is going on. umm... this is my last transfer and so far I've had 15 companions so i think that's pretty impressive. (including the MTC). We are working with a family right now which will have their child baptized pretty soon and then get some of their extended family studying so we can get some more who could be baptized.

so that's about it for now.

Love you all

Elder Gillespie

Not enough time

2011-08-15T08:00:00.001-07:00

Hello Everybody!!!

So guess what? it's another day where we can come closer together and listen to the stories we all have.

So i'll start off.

This week has been pretty good and recently we have been going over the roster that we have and we have started finding people who are part members and have started to work with them and get them interested again in the gospel. We've found a few people who seem like they would be pretty interested. Along with that we have also been going down through the roster and trying to meet everyone we can, and lo and behold a lot of people have been moving and just don't live there anymore, but it's still on the roster, which means that this area just needs some help with their home teaching, as soon as they home teach the people they will start coming.

Well anyways. Tuesday was a great day we had zone conference and I realized that i finally am coming close to the end of my mission which was a weird thought and something i'm trying to get out of my head, because i don't want to focus on the fact that I only have "this much time left" i just want to put my head down and keep working and get everything i can out of this experience. So that's a little inside bit of my head. Anyway, that day we had trade offs with the district leader and had a really good time with him and got to meet quite a few people. One man who we ran into was just sitting on his porch and we came up to him and just started talking to him and getting to know him a little bit and then we were able to give him a Book of Mormon and directions to church, and he said he was going to be there so we were really excited. That same night we were able to find a couple of less active people who just need a little help coming to church, and that blended into Wednesday which was another good day, where we were able to walk pretty much all day and get to know the town a lot better and again try to find people who either don't exist or we just don't know where they lived.

Thursday agin jus a good old day where we just tried to do as much as we could along with all the other days.

Times getting short and i've got to get going, but i'm loving it here and i'm excited to be alive and working for the Lord, i'm doing my best with what i've got and trying to get a better understanding of how we can help.

Love
Elder Gillespie

False Doctrine!

2011-08-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody!

So what's new on this side of the world, well it's still probably one of the hottest years that has been on record in Georgia and I'm sure feeling it. not like it wasn't bad last year, it's just as hot.

So this week, finally starting to get a grasp of what's going on here in Pearson. and where everyone lives and who is who. Most of this week has been following up with people that we saw the last week and now see, where they really want to go, and that's what we've been doing here in Pearson.

Monday we were invited to have FHE at a members home which was really fun and answered a couple of questions that just dealt with the Book of Mormon and it was really interesting and fun.

Tuesday was a day we decided to go out and walk around town to go visit people and also knock on a couple of doors which was another really hot day so not so much fun in the sun. then again seeing members and it was just really fun to go and meet a couple of the members, it was interesting to see how timing worked out that day, and who we were able to see and get more information, so we can help them come to Christ.

Wednesday, it was a projects day and what do you know, everyone was gone... well most of the people were gone, we were able to get a few people to talk to and then set up some appointments for later in the week, after all that we went with a member on splits and he took us to an area where we have no map for and we are trying to get to know the area but we couldn't just go out there for the fun of it and try to figure it out for ourselves because we then wouldn't have any miles for the rest of the month. because Georgia is really really spread out. so we got in a few members homes and got to talkin about life and general and all that goodness. and then had dinner out there. which was pretty good southern style cookin.

Thursday another great day where we had an appointment and got teach a good first lesson. and then had a good little time just sitting on the porch, and of course i was sweating like i was in a steam room, because it's the middle of the afternoon. in 100+ degree weather. Then did some other things around town where we could until our dinner appointment/splits and then had a really good time again trying to get to know members who are just a little too far for us to go visit on a random day.

Friday we had a good district meeting, and we almost got lost on our way up to Alma Georgia which i didn't think would be hard to find but who would of guessed that. so after that we came back down and then had a fun time in Axson which we've been told is one of the first LDS church that was built in the south and they called it little Utah. There's a little memorial built to it. so that was pretty neat to just be a little part of history, well anyways we did a lot of member visits down in that part of our area. than came home after we had tried to visit all the people in that area. and then came home for dinner and then we went back out and we able to clean up some errors on the roster that we have which will really help out the ward and next set of missionaries.

Saturday we decided again to go walking and didn't get back till it was about 2 pm in again 100+ degree weather. so that was interesting again sweating so much that i could actually taste a difference in my salt level from the beginning of the day to then. Also our toilet handle broke so that was a little project that was fixed that day. and then back into a car where we could get to some of the places that we needed to go, and we had a little discussion with a investigator family and got to know them better, and then started answering some of their questions. which is always a good way to enter, in my opinion. and then more driving around gettin lost trying to find people that their addresses have changed.

Sunday just a relaxing day where we were able to just enjoy fast Sunday and it was really cool to see all the people just come to church who we invited actually show up. and it was cool also on a personal note to have a great fast Sunday where i wasn't doubled over in pain for the lack of food. and then had a great dinner with a member and the entire extended family showed up and a great little discussion about things that people try to add to the bible, which aren't even in there. so clearing that up. After that going on another goose chase finding people on the roster and discovering that a lot of people are part members, so some people to work with.

that's a week in a wrap.

it didn't seem like it was all of that but as time goes on life gets smushed together.

As for things I've learned it's that sometimes when we try to force things to be a certain way we may miss out on opportunities that could only happen by waiting. and when we over look those opportunities that do come our way we miss out on the miracle that happened for that to happen. or in simpler words being in the right spot at the right time.

I love you all no matter what else is going on in this life.

Love
Elder Matt Gillespie

Thad my advice is to do something random everyday, ex. eat something new, do something new, go somewhere new, or try out life in a different way.

Beetle broken foot sucks. but soon enough you'll be back on your feet and that's cool you got a RM room mate. that makes life so much easier. and you'll have to take me on a tour next summer.

Jethrobyn congrats on a successful birthday, and getting ready for the school year and you had some pretty cool pics of your trips, i love the one with Lincoln on Jethro's shoulders.

Toniben. sounds like quite an adventure. and Toni your going to be the best drive the north east has ever seen. and i hope you can feed the missionaries when all this is settled down. and I'm looking forward to a trip out there.

Janben you are two really hard workers and i hope that they let you sleep enough. both the kids and the hospital. and i can't believe that Myra is almost walking. that's so cool.

mom you are awesome and i love your letters they always make me happy. keep up the good work

Dad we have some good time coming up soon that much i do know.

Sophie Lee. your letter was a good help to me and yes I'm enjoying my mission but i never thought that it would be like it was and is, but i wouldn't trade it for the world. and it's good that your keeping up with your school work, because that's important, and quit graduating. but really do graduate. (maybe by the time i graduate learn how to spell...)

A destroyed trailer

The bunch that came out with me.

Elder Kennington

Logging trailer

Our house

MUNNS!

2011-08-01T09:29:00.001-07:00

Hello Everybody!

What is it like in Pearson? well to tell you the truth... it's pretty sweet. the members are really nice to us and are excited for us to be here in the area. and the other cool thing is that the roads are mostly just dirt roads. so it makes life interesting as we get the average rain fall for the day and we are heading down those places. well anyways the highlights of the week:

So this past week we have been able to make a map of where all the members live, which helped us out to understand what we could do to use our time wisely. which is interesting. The other thing that's interesting is that the more and more we get to know the members we start to see that the members are all related some how to each other. and we are starting to get to know the jist of most of the members. so that's another cool thing that we are doing.

This last Friday we actually had an area 70 come and teach us what we could do to make the mission grow and how we can help others receive the gospel. It's really funny because all the teachings were right out of Preach my Gospel which is what this mission's big goal right now is to become. and it's getting there and things are starting to work in all the areas and the people we are working with in the mission are getting more and more excited about the work. I'd say that we are going to easily make the goals that we are setting as far as this mission. So the area 70 was Elder Munns of the 6th quorum of 70's and we were told by him that the areas we are working in need the gospel and that people are ready for the gospel, and as we work hard and smart that we will find them and help them receive the gospel and get baptized. and it's really by doing the small things and being obedient not only to the rules but also to do the inspired things that we have received or what the leaders of the church have received. and as we do that we'll start to have more and more revelation of what can and should happen and also the teachings of the church and it's doctrines. so that something i learned this week.

Then the very next day we had a pioneer day where we had a celebration on the church grounds and a whole lot of people showed up and we had food of course and then decided to get a big old water slide as well for this thing. and it was just so fun to see so many people who just wanted to have fun and get together. big fun.

than it's Sunday and we had the opportunity to speak this Sunday about forgiveness. which was fun... I at least learned a lot about what is forgiveness. and elder Kennington did a really good job and just to tell a little bit about him, he's from San Diego, California. and was serving in the Macon Georgia mission until they dissolved the mission. and he's been out about a year. so a little bit about him. that was a lot of fun and we got to get to help out where we could in the third hour about doing missionary work and what are the new rules and such... and all that goodness.

that's pretty much the highlights of the week. it's been kind of a blur and I'm excited to keep working and love the people.

Love
Elder Gillespie

Mom your awesome and it does sound like it's been a mad house over the last couple of weeks send dad my best at Schofield.

Robyn you're one busy lady and it's sad to see people go but we'll all have fun during reunions.

Jethro I'm willing to debate and I'll throw in some southern reasoning into our discussion.

Thad instead of sending google invites could you at least send something personal...?

Happy birthday to all the in laws too!

Love you all

PEARSON!

2011-07-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents. life is going good. my address is 1042 old Douglas Hwy, but if you want to keep it simple just send it to the mission office and it'll get to me.

so this week has been interesting for sure and after finding out that I'm getting transferred, i spent most of the day just getting everything ready for the next person to come in, which in this case was a new missionary. We spent most of the day just deep cleaning the apartment and then getting everything spic and span, not saying I'm dirty but that there was a lot of extra stuff that needed to go. so continuing that day we went and said good bye to a lot of the families that i really liked in Chipley. So it was a sad time but also good, kind of weird going back to an area and then leaving it again.

so transfers.... we had a very different transfer this last time, the Tifton guys cam down pretty early with the AP's and what was weird was that the members who live in the tifton area made arrangements for the missionaries to stay with them while transfers were happening. so kind of weird, transfers happened and then we went up to tifton and what was weird was we got to Tallahassee at about 7pm and then when we got to tifton it was 9pm which i thought was really interesting. Georgia is a lot more open than i would of thought it's kind of like the feel of Alabama but nicer like Florida, anyways completely different than any other area I've been in. So long story short, we spent the night in tifton at a members home, to get ready for the next day and that was quite a trip. So as we are driving me and elder Kennington started talking and it was really quite interesting to get to know who he was and everything like that. we get to Pearson and then find out that the town has only two stop lights and a small grocery store and there is a ward in this area which i was amazed at so that's Pearson in a nut shell, small but really happy to see us because there hasn't been missionaries here in over a year so they are starting to really help us out.

I love you all and things are starting to pick up

Love
Elder Gillespie

Raining Raining Raining

2011-07-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

Tifton Here I COME!

Well that's the biggest news for me, that I'm now going to Tifton and serving at Pearson Georgia. with a missionary from the Macon Georgia Mission, So a little bit of a background on that... so this last year this mission found out that they are dissolving the Macon Georgia Mission and with that breaking it up into different missions and for us in Tallahassee mission we are getting the Tifton stake which appears to be quite a large area and the area I'm going to be serving in seems to be pretty large, with just a few people kind a like Chipley. so I'm excited to get to another area and find out what it's like there and how the other mission works and how i can improve. I just hope i can get that through my thick head.

So back to Chipley. This week has been like a small tropical storm and it started about Thursday. and it kept raining and raining, so anyways this week has been flying by. Monday was just regular Monday with getting ready for the week and all that other fun stuff.

Tuesday we needed to get to Crestview for Elder Cluffs' medication which a doctor in Crestview is a member and gives a huge discount for missionaries. So we took a little trip to Crestview which is where Cluff was serving before here and we went and saw a couple of people that he was working with while he was there and it was really neat to see the progress that everyone was making. Then came back and tried to help some people out around in Chipley, like our investigator Joel and his girlfriend, and we were able to help them understand what a prophet's role is and how it works with the rest of the world. It was cool to see him get the concept about a prophet.

Wednesday. we had a good old time trying to see people who of course didn't want to see us, which isn't bad but man it gets annoying pretty quick. The other thing I've noticed is that a lot of the people around town are out on vacation which means that they really can't answer the door if they aren't home. So we deal with what we've got. but that day we were able to see Joel again and see if he was able to get the whole prophet thing and had him explain it to us and he did a really good job with it. then had dinner with one of my favorite members just because she reminds me of grandma Spencer, so humble and so happy about life. It just made my night. than we went and did some church hopping and we got to see just how close our church is with their church and how they are run, but they just don't quite understand how exactly it is connected which is interesting.

Thursday again another good day had a lot of things fall through, but we did have a good time and this was when the rain started, and we actually were able to help out with a member who needed some good help, and able to involve some members who could actually do something. which was really good.

Friday, so this was a cool day, so we have been talking to a Muslim and able to just kind of go over basic beliefs from each other and he actually invited us to go to their service which is on Friday

sorry got to go

Love Elder Gillespie

Movies

2011-07-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody!

so this week has been quite interesting and that's for sure... it started out with the whole 4th of July and then going to district meeting... where we had a great discussion about listening to others as well as our companions and then also speaking of stating our purpose for why we are doing what we are doing, which went pretty well. that day i then went on trade off's with the zone leaders well one of them and from that we had a great time, i went back down to PCB and then saw a couple of people that i hadn't seen in well over a year, which was really kind of weird, and it was interesting to see how our lives don't really change all that much over the course of a year. so i had a great time there and it brought back a lot of memories, and guess what the entire time i was down there we walked every where which was totally different than the last time i was there. so that was really weird but cool at the same time. so leads us to Wednesday... we traded back and i came back to chipley and realized that we were going to have a movie night in two days and we needed to spread the word even more. so me and cluff went and tried to visit as many people as we could that we don't usually see in chipley so off we went. spreading the good word of the movie to all that we could. which then ended that day, except the final things we did that night was we went to another church and had a lot of fun there and then we went and gave a blessing to a child who wasn't feeling so good, then left back for home. so over all a pretty good night.

THORsday. we did our weekly planning and started getting more and more ready for the movie night, so we finalized some of the plans and everything that we needed to do and finished with visiting again people who don't really come to church all that much, and trying to get them to come to this movie thing.... I'll tell the title when we get there. so before all that we had a lesson with a guy and he had some questions about life and what his purpose in life was so we spent a lot of time again on the plan of salvation, and then tying that in with the the gospel of Jesus Christ and then we were able to set a BCD with him and help him get on his way towards his baptism now it's in a couple of months, but it's a goal to shoot for. then we went to see our cancer patient to see how she is doing and we get to the door and we find out that she isn't feeling well and doesn't want to be bothered. so we start writing a note for her and as we finish it she comes to the door and looks at us and then tells us that she isn't going to be in chipley anymore and is going to move with her son, just because she can't take care of herself. so with a shattered heart we head back home to help some other person, with some brownies. so we finished the brownies and started again to give out more and more fliers to the movie night, and give the brownies to a member who's been going through a really hard time. which ends this Thursday.

Friday... the big premier. so that day we did our usual things on Friday like the service we had at the habitat for humanity and the chance to talk to one of the volunteers about the church some more and she is actually really interested in the family history side of the church and is getting more and more in depth with that and hopefully will be at our church on Tuesday during the hours that the family history center is open. so after all that we went off again to see people and invite them to the big movie thing. and the night approached we went to the church to set up everything and it turned out to go perfectly we had both bonifay and chipley people come to this event. We had pop corn, drinks and cookies and all sorts of treats it turned out really well. and we watched Joseph Smith. Prophet of the Restoration. and we got quite a few people to cry.

Saturday was a day that just was like all the rest, trying to see those people that we once contacted and then also trying to find new people, and trying to teach those who we have who want to learn more. so it's been a good time for all.

and then Sunday where i learned that if I'm feeling the spirit and being lead and guided by him then i therefore must be at least worthy to have that companionship and if i continue to push forward and keep becoming better than everything is going to work out for the best. Then we had a great little program and learned a lot and then had a lunch appointment with a member and we were able to have a great discussion with a member who is really inquisitive. We went over the first two lessons with her and in greater detail so that she could better understand a lot of her questions. and it turned out really well. and then the final place for the night we had a great hour and a half discussion with a guy who is really trying to better understand his purpose, so hopefully we'll get somewhere with him.

Love you all

And keep up the good work

Elder Gillespie

FIREWORKS!!!!!

2011-07-06T19:38:00.001-07:00

Hello everybody!

This has been a interesting week, so for the Monday of last week i went on a trade off, with elder Jenkins in Bonifay, him and I got along really well. which was cool. well then after that we had Tuesday where we had dinner down in the Vernon area and we went biking down in a town of less than 1000 people and it was just really fun to go out and be in a different part of town. which we don't really visit just because we don't have miles to go down everyday which is the hardest thing in this area to do, budgeting our miles. We had a lot of fun just biking around town knocking on doors and we were able to see a really cool part of the country with a crystal clear stream and then a great dinner with a member and he showed us around his big old property, which was really cool. then off to splits, and it decided that night to have the bottom of the bucket fall out and there was so much water that i was getting nervous about falling off the road. then off to home and we needed to just park the car at the house and bike for the rest of the days that we had in the month.

Wednesday, it was quite a day and we were really able to enjoy the journey that we had with going about the town of Chipley. We had a lesson with Willie who we've been talking with for a while, then just asked him a question if he had any questions about life, and low and behold it was all about the 2nd half of the 2nd lesson about the plan of salvation so we were really able to help him understand the question that he had which was really cool. Then had the chance to knock on a door get invited in and then teach a lesson and gave the baptism invitation which was really cool to see on the first visit. and i think that we'll be able to help her come closer to God when she gets back from Chicago. That night we had splits again and this time a guy named Peter came and then Travis so we both went in two different directions. I went and tried to see people that Travis needed to go visit, and the other guys went and had a great time visiting other churches which i heard went really well. and i had a great time with Travis and i relearned the importance of staying focused on the other people rather than myself. which was cool to hear from a less active and who wanted to just be honest with his life.

Thursday, was the first day in my entire mission where I've had to help pour cement (you know what i don't think I've lost any of that information that you've taught me dad.). That was a great time just enjoying life. Then after that realized that we had a dinner appointment in an hour and we needed to bike there and it would take that hour to get there. So on we hopped and away we went, and I'll be honest I've never felt so tired and energized in my life afterwards than i did at that point. It was weird but really cool. We were about to bike back but the members wouldn't let us. but oh well.

Friday we had one of those days where everything that we planned just fell through which isn't cool but in the same instance we were able to see the miracles that happen because we were in an area at the right time but then just was moved a little bit so we could actually get some of the work done. and that was a night that we had a great lesson with a investigator. and it just was so good to see some light in someone's eye that was starting to grasp the gospel. It was just really cool to see that and then was able to get it and then we were blessed to give this investigator a blessing for her migraine which was bugging her for the last 24 hours, which was really cool.

Saturday in the park i think it was the 2nd of July... so that was a day of following up with everyone that we made contact with over the past couple of weeks to see if they would be interested more in the gospel. and there was some interest but not a lot and that's what we are trying to work with. but it was really good to follow up with everything. and it was just a really busy day. nothing really exciting that sticks out.

Sunday was a good day we had a great sacrament meeting and splits with another member and we were able to see a lot of people that we couldn't have seen just because of the miles problem again but it was really good to see the people that we did and to help others the best we could and i learned that if you really want to care and help others you need to understand what's going on in their life so you can help them

Monday a day of cleaning and getting ready for parties that we were invited to. and we had a great time with some members who brought an investigator over and we just showed that we were having a good time, and we are all just people trying to do our best for our Heavenly Father and trying to make the most of our lives.

I love you all

Elder Gillespie

Watermelon Festival

2011-06-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody

Life here is going pretty good and again I'll just say i haven't been drinking more water in my life than i am right now. so I'll have to make this kind of short but this week has been pretty cool we had days where the lord blessed us to make our goals and helped us find new investigators one of the people we are teaching now is an old lady who has terminal cancer and we helped clean up her yard and we were also able to give her a blessing and we both have a good feeling about this and now we are starting to get her to understand what we believe and then help her make a commitment to God. some of the other highlights that have happened this week, is zone conference which i'll be honest doesn't feel like it's been this week but last week, but we were able to talk about marriage and what we need to prepare for when we get off our mission, which i'll be honest is kind of a interesting thought, but it's the next progression in life. and the biggest thing i got out of it, is that first it's about friendship and then after that everything else will fall into place, we just have to be willing to make it part of our life.

Oh the biggest thing that this little town is all about is the watermelon festival it's probably bigger than Christmas, it's like the 4th of July in Provo, but just think of it as the a mini version of that where maybe a stake gets together for a celebration, that's about the size of this little town. and we have seen so many people that were actually friendly to us. i couldn't believe it. but it's been a good week, and i've got to get going unfortunately

Love

Elder Gillespie

Beetle that was a good update, you'll do fine just make a plan and stick to it.

Mom I love you and i'm doing my best to keep motivated. i've got a good companion for that.

Jan, it's ok, just let me know what is new that's going on. it may not seem like a lot is, but look for the small things, they make the biggest difference.

Oppressive Heat

2011-06-20T22:25:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody this week has been pretty interesting. so I'll try to make it into words. so first of all it's been HOT. and i don't mean like normal western hot i mean even the Floridians are saying it's too hot. and for them to say that makes me nervous, well because I've got 4 months of heat. yeah i doesn't really ever cool off... so for your details which you probably don't want to hear about but i want to say anyways is it's been over 100 degrees everyday until the sun goes down then it may go down in to the mid 80's so all the plans we had to do a bon-fire-side was postponed until it really cools off so we won't melt next to the fire. which make me thankful for AC.

Alright so this week Monday we ate with the family, who's father was searching for 20 years and we had a wonderful meal with them and tonight we are suppose to have hotdogs which is making me excited about life. and at this time Elder Cluff's thumb who was starting to get infected and we didn't think it was going to be a big deal, so we went to bed...

Tuesday we get up and Cluff's thumb is getting bigger and bigger and we continue through our day we visit some members and investigators and then set up a service for the next day and go off on splits with a member and it went really well we were able to get a lot of thing accomplished. even talked to a member who native speech is Spanish and the guy who came out with us spoke Spanish, which was wonderful. so it ended up being a really awesome experience. and remember that Cluff's thumb is getting bigger and bigger. so we head to bed and wait for the morning sun to peek through the window which it always does way too early in the morning.

Wednesday. woke up and started getting to move some metal before it get's too hot. so I'm all ready and i look around and Cluff is just laying on his bed holding his thumb up trying to get the pressure off. but it isn't happening. So I gave him a blessing, and the coolest little miracle happened, as soon as it was over all the pain was taken away and we headed off to service. to move probably a couple tons of metal for this member who didn't really need it any more. Finished that, taught a lesson and then got ready to go and was able to give a blessing for the member who was really down on their luck. so we then left to get some epsom salt and started to soak the thumb. and it was soaking and soaking. So we eventually headed off to get some stuff for a member who's family's house was burned down and needed supplies for them. and then after that for a little fun and also to see if anyone was interested we went to an ol' fashion tent revival with a preacher who's been doing his preaching for over 40 years. and it was pretty interesting. Then made brownies and took them as a midnight type gift for some members.

Thursday, was the day of fixing the thumb. and this time Cluff's thumb was at least twice the size it should have been and as he was soaking it the infection finally surfaced and popped through and low and behold a whole lot of something was oozing out of him, which he said is normal. i disagreed. so after it's all drained the swelling doesn't start going down the way it's supposed to. so we headed to the doc. and got the doc to look at it, so I'm kind of a chicken so i decide to just stay out and wait. well I'm sitting for about an hour and a half until he finally comes back out and the first words out of his mouth were these. "That was the most Painful thing I've ever had done". so a little bit baffled I asked what happened. and he explained that underneath the infection there was blood just sitting under the infection and the doctor needed to drain it so he gave him a shot that was right up under the fingernail and after that sticks a knife in and realizes that it's not numb sticks the needle back in his thumb, until it's kind of numb and then sticks the knife back into the thumb and cuts it open so the blood is now coming out. so after that for the next 30 minutes he squeezes on his thumb and pushes all the extra crap out of his finger and then wraps it. and then we are off and trying to save the world.

Friday was a pretty good day nothing really exciting. we did our habitat for humanity service where we just move some stuff, vacuum, and any other odds and ends that they have for us. then just go out and knock on doors and trying to find some reply for "i'm happy with my religion" so it's been really interesting. and then we decided to go out and tract, and low and behold the bottom of the bucket fell out and it was pouring rain! it was so cool we got into so many doors just for the fact that it was raining so bad and we were able to help people out a lot during that rainstorm. and I've never been so soaked in my life. i was wet to the bones.

Saturday we saw a lot of less actives and all sorts of other things. but we were really lucky to stay out of the sun pretty much the entire day, which kind of makes it feel like we didn't really do anything but at the same time it was really cool to have the chance to visit and have everything work out.

Sunday just another day of visits, and getting to know more about what happened to people and why they don't want to come back to the church, and just as an FYI if you're called to do something and it doesn't work out the way you would like it to happen just keep trying, don't be mean about it.

Well that the week of Elder Gillespie in Chipley Florida

Love
Elder Gillespie

Toniben I'm impressed with your whole decision and you'll have a lot of fun out there, now as far as the ward you're probably right with the tightness, unless you've got wards like down here where everyone is related to each other, so it's a family reunion no matter what ward function you go to. but I've had wards where it isn't all in the family and those wards are really tight, the main thing I've seen is you make what you want out of your ward, if you want it to be close you have to make it a close knit group. but you'll do fine.

Jethrobyn, it sounds like it's pretty dang cool right now and your having a blast with your life. so keep up the good work and Robyn feel better.

Thunder and Rain

2011-06-13T19:50:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody!
Well here's the update of the week from the people in the south...
Monday night was an awesome thunderstorm that just went off for like 3 hours, not a drop of rain but tons of lightning.
So Monday and Tuesday we said goodbyes to everyone in the ward, at least all the people that made a big difference in Elder Banks life, and it was really neat to see the love that the ward members had for him. After all of that we got ready and sent Elder Banks off to see his trainer again, so he's been out for 2 transfers and is now on his 3rd so one with Bentley, one with me, and one back with Bentley. something that doesn't happen all that often... oh wait that happened to me.
Elder Cluff is from Layton Utah and yes there is a "T" in Layton. and he's been out for about 5 months now. the youngest of 4. so anyways, Picked him up and then got him settled in Chipley and then started showing him around town and some of the members. and he's just getting in there and doing his thing, which is really cool to see him not have any fear with whats going on.This week has been hot, and dry it's really felt a lot like Utah where it's just miserable, except the sweat doesn't help. but finally on Sunday after church where one of the newest converts gave a talk on how he came to know what the true church is after 20+ years of searching. It was really cool. so some more information about this guy, he's gone to the bible college here in Florida for 3 years trying to find the right church and getting to know what the bible is really all about, and causing mischief the entire time he's been there. and then he decided to open up a homeless shelter for men in chipley and then after a year or so was shut down because it wasn't making any money for the churches around town. and his story goes on and on... a really cool guy and extremely humble and just wanting to do what is right. So after his wonderful talk we had dinner where they were there along with one of the bishopric, the Krisers. and brother Kriser sounds a lot like a baptist preacher and knows his scriptures and those two just went back and forth pretty much the entire night. and what was cool was when brother Kriser started talking about rain and the need for it, Bro. Lucky keep telling stories about how thing would just fall into place, and low and behold it started raining not 15 min after that little exchange of words. Lucky for a last name, must be something more to that.

So other than that our week was full of appointments that fell through and then biking about every other day around the little town of Chipley.

So it's been another interesting week, and while we are tracting we are also trying to get the ward members excited about a family mission plan, much like a ward mission plan. just letting them set their own goals of something that they would like to accomplish. and then some other things we are trying is doing fun activities, like a volleyball night and we are thinking of a game night at a members house. just different ways to help people to come unto Christ or invitations to come unto Christ. that's the other thing we are starting up. and we might even try a movie night at the church. we are trying to be creative because this way we are working now is repetitive and boring and everyone else has heard what we have said. but we keep moving forward.

Love you guys and feel free to send pictures, post cards, letters, anything to let me know your alive, but i know you all are, so keep up the good work. thanks for the post cards that were sent.

Love Elder Gillespie

Toniben WHAT Moving? is this a joke? when, where, what, why, how? Toni you know there are a lot of things that are happening in your life that aren't boring, you just need to find the things that make life worth living.

Thad, your right 10:30 is awesome I'm getting really good at just having my head hit the pillow and then waking up 6 hours later, and I'm working on sleeping while standing, let me know of any tips.

Jethrobyn. I'm excited to see the photos of the big get together for grandma, and the painting you did Jethro.

Beetle what's it like in the grand staircase? what's going on? where did you go?

Janben. what's it like to finally have a vacation? Ben when do you start your work? how are the kids?

Love you all

Elder Gillespie

Panama City

2011-05-23T20:29:00.001-07:00

Hello Everybody and welcome to the east side of the Mississippi where there is nothing higher than the trees around you... well anyways it's not that bad. but this last week has been interesting and it's been quite fun as well. First on Monday we went out and had dinner with some great old country folks down near Vernon, which apparently has a movie made about that town I'll have to look it up next time. and it was quite a fun time down there. and something that we taught down there was the importance to look for the small things in life that make life worth living which i really have been trying to pick out in my own life but it seems like everyday there is something that just makes my day just a little bit better, so that's my next challenge to all y'all. so Monday was a good day and i must admit the south KNOWS how to make some good nana pudd'n.

Which now leads us to a Great old Tuesday, after sleeping off the wonderful amount of nana pudd'n. Tuesday usually is a meeting day where we have district meeting, Well this week was a special case where we had zone conference on Thursday which is way good. So Tuesday was a day where it seemed like everything that we tried just didn't work and everything was falling through. which leads us to Wednesday where it was pretty much the same thing just trying to get things moving forward and nothing seems to be moving it that way. But we had a nice meeting with our assistant Ward Mission leader, and we put our heads together and we started coming up with a plan where we can implement it into our ward, and then work it down into a family level. so we through around the idea of coming up with a family mission plan, and then having a ward mission plan, where they can be moving the church forward. which is always a good thing, so we are working with that. all of these ideas and we just need to move them forward. so we are excited about starting this and now it becomes

Thursday... ZONE CONFERENCE which is always good. and you know when it a good conference when you feel like you could be living up to so much more and your potential is so much greater, so in other words you feel like a bush that got cut way back. It was super good and the funny thing about this zone in particular is that there are 9 of us that are over the 15 month mark and there are only 15 in the zone. So we have a way old zone. most of the people who came out with me are actually in this zone so it's a reunion of sorts. It's weird to see all of them again. but really cool in the same instance. so after getting this spiritual high we go out and work our little buns off trying to find new people, which are out there it's just really hard to find, small towns are your best friend or worst obstacle.

So now we are into Friday which is usually a good day; this week was no different. We did a lot of work with getting organized and getting thing ready for the coming week. That was Friday

Saturday was another really hot day where i just can't stop sweating and really don't want to go out and tract all day, but we were able to meet a few new people that i didn't know, so that was neat and we had a member who wanted to come out with us for all our little adventures. so it was really a good day to just try and help other people.

Sunday was a really good day and it's really good to just recommit to God. It's just really refreshing and then just again trying to help people realize what they are all here for.

So that's the week in a nutshell. Time is up but i love you all and have a wonderful week.

I love you all because you are supporting me, by reading this somewhat funny entry.

Love Elder Gillespie

Sand trips and chainsaws

2011-05-19T18:38:00.001-07:00

Well this has been an eventful week that is for sure. The start of the week was actually pretty normal. P-day was fun, district meeting on Tuesday was great and still talking about the fireside that we want to hold with the youth, and we want it to be a bonfire and just have all the kids just relax and chill for a night and then we at the end will just do a story time on how we got on missions and how we are regular people who just live the gospel of Jesus Christ everyday and that's what is the real difference in our lives compared with everyone else, it's doing the little things over and over again trying to become the best we can and being better than we were yesterday. so that's our next big push with the youth of Chipley and Bonifay so that's what we are trying to accomplish.

So now the rest of the week, so it's now Wednesday and we, me and banks, are feeling kind of drained but we still wanted to work. so we headed out to go and see a referral that we got earlier in the week the only reason for not visiting is the fact that they live 15 miles from Chipley so we headed down there with a GPS and everything is going great and when we are like half a mile a way the GPS tells us to turn left, as I was looking at what we were supposed to turn down which was a road that you would find in southern Utah going to visit the goblin valley with red sand, i didn't quite trust the GPS at this point, after a little debate with whether or not to go down the road, we decided that we could make it. so we started down the path and the further and further we got off the road the more and more we realized that this was a bad idea. As the car slowed down the more and more my heart and stomach started sinking, until we were in a dead stop. we looked out and saw that much like it is, we were stuck like we were in a bad snow storm, and that no matter what we did we couldn't get ourselves out. We started digging trying to get out and get something under the tires, but nothing was working. After a few silent prayers we finally saw two guys in two tractors that would grade down the road came putting up and looked at us, laughed a little bit and then got out some rope for us to get us out. Now it wasn't as bad as it could of been because we were only out there for about 20 min before they came and pulled us out, and we really weren't that far from the road, maybe 75 feet. but still that's a long way to try and push ourselves out. After all of this we decided that we would be just let the postal service take the bible to him. We came back home and washed up and got ready for dinner which we had at the state park, falling waters. which was really cool. I've really missed just sitting out in the wilderness and just talking to people with out the busy schedule, just a nice break from the hustle and bustle. After that wonderful dinner we were voluntold to come to a service project for a neighbor of a member where a tree had fallen in their front yard, and much like the one in Tallahassee just imagine a tree that was four times that size, and we were helping move tree limbs that we couldn't even wrap our arms around, so you get the picture a BIG tree, we worked and worked and worked till the sun went down and we had about half of it moved by the time we were finished, and there was still a lot left to move. Thankfully the guy's house didn't get hit so we were just cleaning up the yard.

Some of the coolest members are here and they are all just such a cool example to me and everything that they are doing, life is going really good. One of the members volunteers at the state park where we ate and they are just such an example of eating everything up in the gospel. Another lady is working so hard to keep her young family together and just so open to become something so much better and willing to work at it even though she is exhausted after work. It's just that everyone here is building their faith and making the most out of their situations. It's really cool to see this happening here.

So that was our major day of the week, moving and getting stuck and putting up some fence.

Some other highlights. while me and Banks realized that we really just got the sickness that's been going around this place and now we are on the mend and back to full health which is really cool. but yeah that's the major things going on in chipley. still trying to find people and the people we visit are moving... slowly but still moving.

Love

Elder Gillespie

Beetle you've got the good old mission spirit back in you and it's going to be learning about ROCK! you just need to see it ROLL and I'm excited to hear about the adventures.

Jethrobyn you've got some really cool stories and your just so hip and with it, I'll need to take some lessons. and the pictures are so adorable. and I'll need to take lessons on that too.

love you all

Oh what a night. . .

2011-05-09T12:12:00.001-07:00

Hello everybody

So it's been a pretty good week full of service and just knocking on doors. but a really fun week. most of the mornings now we are doing yard work for little old women who just can't do it by themselves. and it's just been really fun we are working hard and right now there isn't a lot going on, but me and Elder Banks are doing really well, and we are working really well with the ward and trying to get them back on board with missionary work which is really awesome, and i think that it's what needed to happen. so things are going really well, we are just getting the wheels startin' to turn. so we are excited about that and everything else.

so for those who didn't talk to me yesterday just talk to my parents they let you know that everything is going well and that i sound just about the same and all that other good stuff.

but this has just been really weird to think that i'm really on the down ward slope, my only concern is getting tripped up so that won't happen though.

Love

Elder Gillespie

Chipley 2.0

2011-05-02T16:52:00.001-07:00

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

TRANSFERS!!!

2011-04-25T18:49:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Here is a big update of what's been going on here in the City of Tallahassee. first this week we picked up Elder Hammond's parents on Thursday and had a wonderful time while we were with them and it was really neat to just spend some time with them and it really just felt like it was just another ward family that wanted to be apart of our life so it was really cool. and they were really nice to us and brought stuff that was really Utah-ish for example Fry Sauce and Cinnabears which were both made in Utah. So that was cool, but I'm jumping ahead of the story, Tuesday we had Zone Conference which was the last zone conference for 5 missionaries in our zone. which was weird to see, because I've seen them my entire mission and now they are going home, so it's just been a little weird to see them go. and that day Drew Sussman was Interviewed for his baptism which was really cool to see and he passed with flying colors. So for that night we had dinner at this Japanese fusion place called Kiku. and i got a couple of rolls which were pretty good and than other people couldn't finish theirs so i had to help them out. in fact two members came to eat with us, one was a less active member and we have just been really trying to help him come back to church but he's really doing it all by himself which is a huge blessing in his own life and really neat experience to have. The other member is a really strong member who will help us out as much as he can, which is a lot. and we try to help him out in the same way. That night we went on splits and i went with the active member while the other guys did their studies which was really good for both of us.

Wednesday. which was a normal day for us, Hammond just started to pack that day and make sure everything was going to fit. and then just saying goodbyes for Hammond. so that was really cool to have with elder Hammond saying his goodbyes.

Thursday was basically doing service at the capitol and then leaving to pick up the parents at the airport. which Elder Hammond was really nervous about and it was really cool to see just kind of what it'll be like at the airport just the opposite way. It made me a bit trunky I'll be honest. but that night we just took the Parents around Tallahassee and saw a little bit of both major campuses FSU and FAMU. then had dinner with the bishop of the ward, with everyone, the english set me, Hibbert, Hammond and his parents, and then Spanish, which is 4 guys. so that would be intimidating to anyone who is supposed to feed 7 missionaries and 2 adults and then your own family. but everyone got enough and the bishop and his family really enjoyed talking to Hammond's parentals. and then we had to take the parents to the mission home where they would be staying but not with elder hammond...? but it was interesting because apparently I'm the only one in our companionship who paid attention on how to get to everywhere. so the Hammond's had no idea because they don't live here, so it was just interesting, we got lost and then we met back up and everything was good. then had a wonderful night.

Friday we had a great day with just me and Elder Hibbert and went to do our work, and had a great time doing it. i really got to know elder Hibbert a lot more and found out that he is definitely a one on one type of guy so this being the first time with just being with him since we first got together i found out what's been going on in his life so that was really cool and then that morning we finished getting everything we needed for Drew's baptism. and got everything ready for that so it was a really fun time we had and had a great time with a member for dinner and just had some Grilled Cheese sandwiches which was really nice to have a little break with eating really fancy meals. and that night again we had a Yoga night which i found out i really do enjoy and love to just do that. and then that night we found out what was going on with transfers this time. It was surprising, pretty much all of Tallahassee is being flipped and the old guys that have been here are leaving, including myself. yup after 6 wonderful months here I'm going to the lovely town of Chipley, now if that sounds familiar well that's because it is, i was there about 14-15 months ago. and that was quite the experience for me last time. so this time is going to be just as fun. and Elder Hibbert is also leaving after 7 and half months he's heading to Bristol/Hosford. and they are white washing this area with two of the finest missionaries. but again it's white washing so that's not so fun. so now we have to say goodbye as well to everyone in this area, an area which I've really grown to love and it's going to be hard to leave.

Saturday we had the baptism for Drew which was really cool and really nice to have and see before we left, then sent Elder Hammond off on his way to the rest of the mission and it was really sad but good to see that he's not afraid to be moving forward. So I'm more ready for the next area I'm going to. Then to finish off that day we helped a member clear his back yard of nasty little bushes and shrubs, then had dinner with him so it was really fun to get back into the whole chopping out crap. so i had a wonderful time.

Then Sunday where we had a great time at Easter Sunday with so many people coming to church, well it seems like it because they are redoing the floor in the Gym and putting in a wood floor but right now we can't walk on it because they are trying to let it get use to the weather. so for the last two weeks we been packed in there like sardines, which feels really tight but really nice, kind of like family so it's getting people out of their comfort zones and letting them talk to each other. we actually had a lot of people come this week which was really cool but also sad because again we are leaving and can't help them keep coming. but it's their choice anyways.

So now I'm going back to the Chipley area and I'm going to miss Tally town but i know that this is where I'm suppose to be, and it's really cool that I'll get to see so many wonderful people. and the address hasn't changed

774 Hoyt Street apt 8
Chipley Florida 32428

See you soon and love to hear the updates of what's going on.

Love

Elder Gillespie

the three amigos going home

food that we've eaten here.

Drew's baptism

a family i'll miss

"Mormons would make great Baptists"

2011-04-18T19:54:00.000-07:00

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

Baptism of the three Spanish children

Cookin' on Sunday

Tree Limbs and Softball

2011-04-11T20:54:00.000-07:00

Life here is going really well and thank you again for the letters, it really makes life a lot easier and to answer your questions mom, we didn't fix the drains till Wednesday this last week, i did get burned but not too bad, and we also used grocery bags to make ourselves gloves to wear, unfortunately I'm still healing up from that experience, but don't worry I'm doing fine.

So what makes today different than any other day? well today is a day where we can change the world one little bit at a time, for the better. but lets review this last week and find out how we all worked together to change the world. and here's a few of my stories.

so Monday night was such a cool night, we had such a cool storm come through with lightning and thundering and rain and all these wonderful things come and happen that night especially right around 2-3 in the morning, and i slept through all of it... bummer i know. but what my comps said is that it was just such a wonderful experience to see lightning going off, like every three seconds, for that entire period. so anyways we wake up the next morning with a frantic call from a member telling us that we need to come over and help them out because a tree had fallen on their roof. so we get ready and head out to help them, and as we pull up we don't really see any problems or anything like that, so they invite us in and we are told that we need to move one entire room out, because the roof was going to collapses, we hurried like little rabbits going in and out of the master bed room getting everything out as fast as we could, the ceiling didn't look to bad at the beginning, so we got everything we could out of that place. which we felt very successful for doing, than they took us out to see what had really happened, so we turned the corner and we see this oak tree that is no doubt one of the bigger trees in the area which had been pulled up out of the ground and then fell on the house, which looked pretty dang cool.

so that was Tuesday in a nutshell we also saw this nice widow of the ward and she also had a tree fall on her roof, but just a little hole that was only about 2 feet by 4feet, which she should be getting it fixed soon. so that was the really cool thing about this whole storm that happened, Monday night,

Wednesday, was a day of fixing things, so last week i told you of the adventure of the sulfuric acid, and what can happen to drains if you use, said sulfuric acid. so by this time i was just getting so sick of not being able to use the drain that i decided to just fix it myself, which i was a bit surprised that i could do, but i got everything that i needed to fix the problem. we waited so long because the land lords were supposed to send some people to fix it, which they never did. so we got the parts and fixed the problem. i now feel more and more like a plumber. that day we also had a wonderful time with Bonnie and helped her get back on to reading and praying, which is the best things for our spiritual selves. and then a fantastic time eating more ribs than a man could handle, which is becoming more and more of a favorite in my book, with some of the funnest members they have three kids who are just themselves around us and happy that we come over, kind of like big brothers to them. so that was really cool to eat with them.

Thursday. was the day that i turned 18 months. which i must admit feels really weird like i would never get to this point, i just thought i would always be one of the youngin's and that i wouldn't ever leave the mission. kind of weird to say but i realize that life comes quick. that day we did trade offs for the night with tally 2nd ward, and i went with them and had such a great time with them and getting to know them better and also visiting a member who lives in our area but the rest of the family lives in 2nd wards. also 2nd ward knows them better because that's where they go to church, but i went to see what they are like and see if we could get teaching over there. we saw this really cool perspective on how big the universe is and then how small quarks and other objects are and the space in between. so over all really cool to see, and really said to me that there shouldn't be any doubt of the reality of god.
that night the other guys were talking to this guy who came up to us and asked to be baptized and try this "conversion thing again" so we set a date for him to get baptized on Friday the 22 and then confirmed on 24th of April, a little bit of a cool simile.

Friday we went and did our weekly planning at the top of the state capitol building which is the tallest building in Tallahassee and where we can actually see. so that was really cool to see and they didn't have any cool storms so that was a bummer. but neat to see everything else. and we then had a great lesson with the parks, and it was just really cool to see them watch a little bit of conference and i think that really helped them out, and Sophia says that she'll get baptized but she doesn't feel ready yet. but we'll keep working with them, they are just so cool to visit.

Saturday we had a stake softball tournament which was really cool and Bonnie showed up which we were really excited about, and I'll say I'm not good at softball, it's been to long since i picked up a glove and ball, I'm very glad that they didn't hit the ball to me at all, but with that I'll say it was really hot when we were playing. something that i didn't enjoy at all. and after that we got a call to move somebody, so we went and helped another person move, this week. and that was even more miserable. but in reality it wasn't that bad it just was getting really hot and that's something I'm not use to, at least not yet.

then Sunday it was just a really nice day to relax a little bit and get life going again. just another good Sunday.

that's my contribution to society this week, and wait till next week with more of updates from TALLY TOWN!!!

Ben G. that is definitely an awesome quilt that you got and kudos to you Toni that looks like quite the undertaking, and Ben the blue and white game looked more like white was winning than blue or green...

Jethro. I'm glad that you enjoy my writing and i hope i haven't lost who i am in my writing but I'm glad you can still see me for me. that makes me happy. and you are crazy with all your projects and getting things moving, it incredible.

Robyn i loved the picture of the kids. that's really cool that you let them do that, and I'm glad to hear that Lincoln still has his morals up but really, it's kind of weird to think that he's scared of chairs... how bad was his fall? well anyways keep up the good work and spring will be here in no time.

some where out there, there is a city....

the missionary crew. tally 4th and Spanish

the big old oak tree.

H2SO4 and conference

2011-04-04T13:50:00.001-07:00

And Away We GO!!!

so this week has been kind of crazy and i'll let this be a quite a bit of a update.

Monday we spent most of the day helping out other missionaries move apartments which was just across the complex. I had the other opportunity to actually help out another missionary Elder Muldiar who is going to India for his mission but he's waiting for a visa to let him get there. so we went to the doctor to get his foot fixed, which told him to go get some X-rays when they told him that they couldn't find anything wrong with him, and they just told him to get a lace brace for his ankle. I find it funny how little the American people know what they need to do to get better again. (thank you mom) and that was they overall update that day of Monday.

Tuesday! now what makes Tuesday great.... well to make it more clear, what isn't great about Tuesday?
so enough of the riddles Tuesday we had Z.L.C. or Zone Leader Conference, a Little bit about that is put this way:

In a mission they are broken up in to large areas called Zones. and here in this mission we have 6 zones, so 12+ missionaries and assistants to the president and the mission president. Also we had a few more members join us this time, like sisters, greenies and a couple of middle of the road missionaries, so an entire spectrum of the mission all giving council on what the mission should be like in the up coming weeks. and what was talked about the most in that conference, was planning and setting realistic goals. so that's what's going to be taught this up coming Zone Conference.

Wednesday, i never feel inclined.... so Wednesday was a rainy day so we tried to find things to do which didn't require us to go outside. We did a lot of things that needed to get done and we were really productive that day as well, cool thing about this day in particular is that the members out here are really nice to us, so much so that they will take us out for dinner, and this night we went to a Japanese hibachi grill, somewhere i hadn't been to and that was quite a little show that they put on for us a high recommendation if you can spend a bit of cash.

Thursday, It's a holiday.... so we had quite a bit going on that day, first with the historic capitol which was pretty neat and it was kind of a slow day, except for the fact that there were like 100+ people going in and out at a time... all right maybe that was a little bit too much of a claim, but there was a lot of things going on that day. After that we went to visit miss Shirley Ann Simmons and Ruby and Pat... well that didn't quite work out as planned because we have no idea where Pat ran off to, seeing as how she now has a baptismal date... or B.C.D. We had a great little lesson and it went like a normal lesson would go with a prayer, seeing where they have read and then going off of what they read to what we were going to talk about, and usually reading a chapter in the Book of Mormon and applying what is being said. Then finishing with a commitment to read, pray and come to church, which will help anyone come closer to Christ especially through the Book of Mormon and through sincere prayer and taking of the sacrament. So that's our lesson with Miss Simmons and company.

That night we also had a great time set up with splits and we were going to go with a ward member Bro Rew. Well before that we had a little bit of a backed up sink, so being smart I thought of getting some drain cleaner to get rid of all the crap that's in the sinks. which both bathroom sinks are connected to. So I got what seemed to be the most potent type of drain opener that I could find. So i got Liquid Lightning Drain Opener, and it's got a nice little ring to it. so it says to open a drain i need to pour 16 oz. of this stuff down into the drain and then wait 15 minutes while it works. so I pour it in one of the sinks and then head over to the other and pour the other half into the drain. By the time the bottle is empty the sink is starting to smoke or steam or something that was hot and had a little kind of white vapor to it coming back up. So we really start reading the bottle and we find out that we are supposed to put water in the drain before putting the liquid lightning in.... ummm..... we also read that it's made with "Virgin Sulfuric Acid".... so i think that we should just flush the stuff out by now it's been a little while... so we fill up some containers of cold water to flush this stuff down the drain. so by the time we get this ready and start pouring we see that the liquid lightning is running out on to the floor of the bathroom. so i pour a little bit of water down the drain and of course the pipes are now leaking.... so we head over to the other bathroom and find similar results... by this time we get a call from Bro Rew saying that he's going to be there in about 20 to 30 minutes... ummm..... so right now we have sulfuric acid on the floor of the bathroom eating away at anything it comes in contact with, and we've got about 20 minutes to get not just one bathroom in "order" but two... so we had an extra towel which was thrown on the pile of the purpley colored water that was draining out of the P-trap of the bathroom sink, and still flowing out. so we had to find some more things to pick up this stuff. so we started using paper towels, and that was working really well... when i got called into the other one to see that the towel that we had been using was literally being eaten away because of this stuff. so what did my chemistry class teach me about this type of stuff.... add more water, my reasoning is that it would make the concentration a lot less. if we had a lot more water, and making it not eating up everything it touches. so we did that and got most of everything working back in order when Bro. Rew showed up, but we were still just getting everything cleaned up, and we got everything to a position where we could leave, so we went out and had a wonderful time with him finding people on the roster and seeing other people. all in all a really good time. so at the end of that night we went back into the apartment that smelt a lot like Yellowstone. and i couldn't let that drain beat me so i spent the next hour trying everything i could to get it back into shape and get that nasty smell of sulfur out of the house. so that was Thursday

Friday so the day of Thursday we get a phone call saying that transfers is happening this week.... ok.... because we were moving 9 Brazilians out of Florida to Brazil. and we also were told that the companionship that we helped move on Monday, were leaving to fill in the spots that had been where the Brazilians were staying at. So that day started at the crack of dawn getting everything from the FSU elders, the ones we moved, into our car and then on to the transfer van to get them off to where they needed to be. So most of the day was doing errands for sister Jensen who was stressing out about this whole situation for which i feel for her. think about trying to feed 9 missionaries for the next 3 days so it's more like feeding 18 people for a week. so that was hopefully helpful for her to get the mission home in order. then we actually had to leave early to get to a dinner appointment and a lesson that night with a part member family, which outline is very similar to Sis. Simmons and Company. and that was such an amazing experience just seeing the growth that the Park family has made, it just makes me smile.

Saturday probably a missionaries favorite day at least this Saturday, because your entire day is planned. and the talks were amazing and defintely a theme of understanding and being worthy to keep the priesthood, and listening to the spirit, and improving oneself through the gospel and what it teaches. Saturday was spent all day at the church.

While Sunday we went and had conference with a senior missionary couple, the Cox's they have been described as far as our companionship as the grandparents of the mission, oh so loving and cute and funny. They just make any day better. So we had dinner with them and they even made scones.... I know weird, but then again i don't know if I told them about our little tradition. So overall really cool and then said goodbye to the Brazilians, one of which was another Timpview-ite. Harrison Richards in fact next door neighbor to Elder Hammond, Small World. well that's about it for the whole week thing.

This morning we had a great time at the roller hockey rink, where I actually felt somewhat comfortable on. So that's about it for the day.

Love

Elder Gillespie

One Way to the Top. . .

2011-03-28T19:59:00.001-07:00

Hello everybody.

so the south is a different kind of place to be... and the major reason i'd say that is
first it feels like it's almost may or june. and it's still only march,
second. the bugs down here are again coming out, well because it feels like it may or june.
third. time doesn't seem to change. again it feels like may or june, and it'll continue from now until october, but in the middle is when it get's so hot that no matter what you try to do to keep cool your still always sweating. Ex. every morning now it feels exactly the same as when we go into bed, so it's still really really warm and humid. kinda weird.

well enough about the weather. on to the main event

So this week has been fun and exciting, first and foremost. we have been doing a lot of work with the high priests. mainly finding people who haven't been seen in a long time and we wonder if they are still there... so we have been going out to track down and see if these individuals are still interested in the church and what is going on. now about half of the people we have visited don't live there anymore, and then split that up again and the first half is not interested anymore and the other half are people who are but just don't have the support system to come to church. something this ward has had problems with.

so one lady we were able to visit we got to her door and there were three dogs barking at us through a fence and two of them were little drop kick dogs. and the other was like a pit bull. something i wasn't going to mess with neither were my comps. so she came to let us in and at first it was really kinda awkward, but it turned out to be just fine, she just hadn't had any contact in over a year. not that she isn't interested in hearing more it just that she can't make it out to church, so we asked her to come to church and she said she would consider it, and would try to make an effort, and we found out that her husband may be interested to learning more, so we might have a good little conversation with her husband soon.

another lady, similar to the last, we visited and again it felt awkward at first but as we were outgoing and wanted to learn more about her life and what she wanted to do, we learned that she loves NASCAR and learning more about it and how it works and the different types of races, and she loves to do family history work, but she just doesn't quite see the need for organized religion. she let us teach a little bit and say a prayer with her. and then we left. and we were just kind of saying that when she wants to come back we are always ready for her, because she doesn't want to go back to southern baptist. so it was just interesting.

so those have been most of the meeting we have had this week, but the best one would probably be after visiting trying to find where a member lived and finding out that he wasn't there, we then headed out and turned right, and as we were going down we saw a car coming toward us and honking it's horn at us. and we thought that was really odd. then we saw two more cars coming towards us and low and behold we went down a one way street going the wrong way, so we soon got out of that mess with ourselves still intact just a little bit shaken from the experience. we are all on the lookout now not to get even close to doing that again.

between not dieing and finding old members, we had a great lesson with a less active who always wants us to come over to have bible study with her. so during this little lesson she brings her friends over and we had quite a little experience where we were able to set a BCD with her and starting her down the path we all want to be a part of. it was really exciting and quite cool to see that happen.

The highlight of the week, if we had to choose just one would have been when Bonnie and the Parks came to church, and it was the first time for both of them. in a long time. Bonnie is a member who just hasn't been in a long time. and the parks are Korean and a part member family, so it's was just really cool to have a great time with both of them and explaining more about the gospel, at least that's what I tried to do with the parks, and i think they started to understand more about how this place there is the most joy and happyness than any other place or thing in the world. to try and sum it up, it was full of the spirit and joy, that's what the meeting was about.

that's about all the highlights I can think of for the moment.

I love you all and i hope you keep doing well.

Love Elder Gillespie

Thad, as far as your question, find an activity that you enjoy and find time to do it, the other thing would be covered in President Uctdorf's talk about going back to the basics, and strenghten/rebuild your relationships, but personally i feel the best after a long prayer where i really get to talk about what's going on in my life and the goals that i set afterwards on becoming a better person.

Mom, thank you so much for the support. and i feel the same way as far as the whole ground hogs day feeling. just keep doing it over and over and over again. but like you said try to find the small miracles and the little things that make life worth living.

Dad don't hurt yourself/ over extend yourself. i know you love doing the most you can with your day, so i can't blame you for that, i guess if you can try to just take a nap when you can.

Jethro, What? Seattle that must of been kind of crazy you had just a random art confrence... and finishing your thesis in just a couple of months, and writing a paper that's a small novel? you are ambitious and going to Italy who set all of these things up? who ever it is don't forget the basics. the CPR for your soul Church Pray and Read the book of mormon.

Robyn. that's really cool a nice little break from the kids and visiting probably the only place in utah that's actually nice this time of year excluding St. George. you'll have to put up some of the pics again.

Ben G. Don't worry to much about the whole not writing, i'd love to hear from you and know what's going on in your life and what's the big thing for the week, and i think you had a smart move with Adobe. keep being a great dad.

Janben... what's going on i hear rumors about moving somewhere but I still don't know where. what's the EXCITING NEWS!!!

Beetle. Chico state Eh.? sounds a bit crazy and exciting. do you think you'll be staying out there for work and stuff? what's going on in that very smart brain of yours.

Not quite a Piggly Wiggly

MTC Companion Egbert

I'm a dolphin!

The Parks

Wakulla Springs adventure

Left Foot Right Foot

2011-03-21T21:04:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody!

so this week has been quite a different week than most. so it was transfer week, and we started out a Tuesday with it being the district meeting and just getting a regular tuesday, something we haven't had in almost a month. march was kind of weird, with ZLC to Packer to Mormon.org conferences and then finally back to "normal" so it's been crazy as of late. so tuesday was good then Wednesday, what a day, so we had a big group come in this transfer with 11 missionaries, so it was kind of nuts. and with all those kids we then had to get them on their ways. but with all those kids Sis. Jensen really needed some help because 8 were coming back to go home. and as any good host or hostess knows that you can't have people sleep in the same sheets as somebody else. and you always have to have a good clean bathroom, So... we help her clean up the house and help her with everything just so she wouldn't be super stressed and worried that everything wouldn't be done. which was really cool to get a house back in order, so we had a really good time with her getting to know her more and more. and she is a really neat lady. so again Wednesday was not a normal day

which leads to Thursday, and that was a really stress relieving day, because it was again back in order we did the same thing we normally do, and got a lot of things done that day. so a little overview just like every Thursday we did service at the capitol, met with some less actives and ate dinner with a member. but a little bit of a difference was that we needed to plan for the up coming week, which we would usually do on a Friday but I'll explain later. so that was Thursday

Friday... What a Beautiful day! except that we were stuck in a car all day. So we decided with the car czar who wants to know more and more about the areas that our in our zone, so he said that he would like to take some days with us and visit all the areas and meet the companionship and get to know each one individually, so about 3 weeks ago we visited about half of the mission and this Friday we finished it off. so we visited 1st ward, Madison, and perry, and as far as perry no one is down there right now so it was interesting to see what it would be like and see if it would be reasonable to send a set down there. and we were quite surprised to see a town that seems bigger than a lot of other places that we have missionaries in. i don't know why they don't have a set but I'm just a missionary who's been out just over a year. so it's been kind of neat to see everything in the zone and not to brag or anything but we have awesome missionaries here in the Tallahassee zone. so we spent most of the day in the car, on Friday, but the coolest thing was the Madison elders had two people ready for baptism and we got to do the interviews. I was happy and excited about that.

So Saturday it sounds like this should be a regular type of a day right, well your right and your wrong. and it's because of the same thing, we had all of our plans fall through so your right because that's what happens on a regular day, and wrong because all of our plans fell through. so we were doing a lot of things on saturday, trying really to get done with the list that the high priests have given us, but i think we only got about a 5th to a 6th of it done. so we still have people to visit. but we did accomplish quite a bit and got to know the area a lot better. so over all not the best but not the worst

SUNDAY!!! i'm just going to say Sundays are the best, not only does it feel different than all the other days, but it's just got so much more relaxation, from everyone else. so i was really happy about that, and being able to just recharge, you might say. so that's just the overall feeling of Sunday for myself. church, working after was good. dinner was good. and studies was fantastic. it was just really good to get to relax a little bit. even though we went tracting and a woman yelled through her door. "GET OFF MY PROPERTY NOW!" it was cute.

overall a good week and a lot of fun. some funny stories

Love you all

Elder Gillespie

A Birthday Celebration!

2011-03-14T21:16:00.001-07:00

This week has been pretty darn good and nothing really exciting has happened, so what has happened is this Tuesday we had our big old half mission conference and it was pretty neat we learned how mormon.org started and how it came about and how through getting our name out there we are starting to come more and more out of the woodwork, which is pretty exciting. So with that Mormon.org is really trying to get people to make a profile for it, and what we learned from it, is to be yourself while your writing your profile, and make it your story, which is what is original and neat for every individual. although you might not think you have and original story, well to be blunt you're wrong. Your story is unique and different than anyone else so go out and make your story your own. and if you aren't sure that it's quite right it'll be reviewed to make sure that you aren't going to get tracked down and someone steal you identity. so be original with how you came to be a "Mormon". it's a nice time to reflect on your life and to see what and who you really are.

so that leads us to the next day where we did service again at the McD's house sorting bottle tabs from cans of soda. i know a lot of fun. we get to use a magnet and see which ones are magnetic or metal and leave all the aluminum behind. it's really sad to see how much people drink those beverages. that day was also a really good day we were able to talk to a lady who really needed some help and had already talked to missionaries before just this time she's going to start going somewhere, when later in the week we found out that she's moving somewhere we don't know, and we can't help her. or she won't let us. so that day we also got a referral for a guy who wanted a bible, so we gave him one and also a book of mormon, which he was very thankful for. and we trying to meet up again with him. than we had a great dinner with one of my favorite families and they were really nice that they even bought me a birthday cake, i felt very honored. so it was a wonderful day with some wonderful messages.

Thursday, a Crazy day at the historic state capitol, this last week the house and senate started their sessions. So, we had a lot of people show up to "talk" to their representatives, and there were quite a few rallies going on. It's kind a weird to see all these people with their ideas of how the government should be run and how they should continue to cut taxes and still pay for their social security, I don't know how that's going to work or how Florida is going to keep up with everything but i think that it'll all be resolved soon. Oh. and we had a great lunch with a member from Dothan who elder Hammond got to know really well and it was really neat to see them interact with each other. and i saw something that's truly southern Shrimp and Grits. Ummmm Tasty!!! also we are going to have a shrimp boil when I get back, you'll all enjoy it!

So Friday, Friday, Friday, that was a day where we continued to plan for the up coming week and what we needed to do. so overall a really good day, in fact we were able to see a member and then a door or two down a fire truck pulls up, and then a few minutes later cop cars and then an ambulance, so we were just talking and watching while a cops episode unfolded before us. so that was really really weird and quite interesting. and that day everything fell through, so not always the best. we had dinner with a great couple and their friends, we had grilled ribs, now I'll be honest i had never really had ribs before the mission but since being here I've fell in love with them. so this grilled version of ribs was good, but it could of been better, the rule I've found with ribs is, the slower longer cooking the better they turn out. so anyways a delicious meal of ribs and such.

Saturday, we went and helped out at a family history fair which was held at the church so that was pretty cool, then we did some service for a member it was a lot of fun, I helped clean off the roof of his house. it was really cool, then had a great dinner where we found out one of the young women has a crush on one of us missionaries, which is really really awkward and funny at the same time, especially when it's not you.

Sunday was really cool we're able to teach gospel doctrine class and it was about prophets, and we found out that one of the people in there wasn't a member so we emphasized the importance of the different prophets and what each of their roles are, and help everyone understand Joseph Smith more. so that was really cool and just really relaxed and people felt really comfortable there which is the best and a delicious dinner at the same members who we did service for on Saturday. so far a really good week.

Jethrobyn you are so lucky to do your thesis, and just think your writing a small book, and your going to have to know every page front and back, that really sounds like so much fun.... maybe? but keep up the good work, and keep loving and doing fun things, that's what makes life a lot more fun and memorable.

Mom i do know the Hills at Fort Rucker they are just such a fun family it's so cool that they were able to tell you those funny stories. i had a lot of great memories and fun times there. I'm glad that they enjoyed it too.

Beetle WHAT!?! your going to cali for your last semester at school, that's so cool. learn how to surf and stuff i think that would be epic. one of the missionaries out here told us about underwater rock running, sounds like a lot of fun, try it out. just remember boys are stupid. and i feel the same way when I'm talking to people that after their comment if i were to say anything it would be like pulling out a trump card, so i just stay on the quiet side of life.

Dad. i really like your insight as far as the miracles i think that's a very true statement, which makes me continue to think what i could do. or need to do, to follow and become whole.

thanks to all for reading and please continue to think of interesting experience to share with others.

Love

Elder Matthew Gillespie

Color of Your Energy

2011-03-07T15:13:00.000-08:00

Well anyways it is a great week to be alive and that's not a lie, so what was it about this week that made it so memorable. well Tuesday was about the same except it was p-day rather than a normal working day.... umm... i don't know if we told you but we were told about a part member family who wanted to hear the lessons again, and the cool thing is that they are both from Korea and are here to go school and all that other fun stuff, and she, the wife isn't a member so we are teaching her and she understands some of what we are saying but not everything so it's different to work with but we are excited. she knows what it's like to feel the spirit and that's what she wants, so we are working with that little language barrier.

we also had a great lesson at sis Simmon's house, she's a "woman of god" and is always trying to get more and more of her friends over to her house to listen to us/ have bible study, which has turned out really well so I'm excited to see what else happens. one of her friends ruby has been there a few times and it's really been spiritual so we'll find out what happens with that, I'll keep you posted.

we also with Elder Packer coming have refocused on what we really should be doing so we now have more of a plan to what to do with what we have, so to put it in a nut shell, we visit less active members who have been given to us by the ward to visit and when we are out there we knock on a few doors around to find more people. so there you go, I'll let you know when we finally find the end of the lists we have been given.

so just an adventure that we have been having, was this last couple of days our new gas card came so we decide to cut it up and throw it away so no one else could use it, well we now have a problem the new gas card doesn't take affect till April and the old one would of expired at the end of march, but we didn't know that at the time so we now have a month were we have to go to the mission office to get a gas card to fill up, so it's been a bit different than most months i guess.

Also we went golfing today, which is the first time I've ever played golf so I'm proud to say that i am not that good, and that there were a few lost balls today. but it was a lot of fun.

other than that it's been kind of a average week, we celebrated Hammond's birthday he's now officially 21 so he can buy alcohol. and I'll join him in a few hours and such, so that's really neat.

oh this week we are having a conference about mormon.org so that is going to be really fun, and learn a lot from the head guys in SLC. so I'll give some pointer that i will received this week in next weeks email.

I love you guys and keep up the good work, it's spring break here so enjoy out there. the nice 75-80 degree weather, and when summer comes around you'll be enjoying that more than myself.

Love

Elder Gillespie

Jan I'm glad you are still playing that game it really makes a difference i know and I'm glad you can feel it too. that was the best gift to me.

Ben F. it's OK, I'm excited to hear where you are going so feel free to write about that, and all the fun things you want to accomplish there so keep me updated when and where you'll be going, if you can.

Ben G. That party sounds amazing, but i thought that omniture was bought out? so how are they still holding omniture parties? anyways if you can try and get some more of those cool shirts from Omniture i think they really cool.

Beet. you are just a little animal out there! way to get out of your bubble and get going. and i would agree if Thad doesn't agree, don't do it. and I'm a little bit jealous of the temple trip thing. keep up the good work and follow the spirit.

Sophie. thank you for the birthday reminder and i still can't believe your married that's so bizarre to me. we are definitely going to do some catching up later.

Love you all. and new game for next week,

when you write back think of your significant other and try to put a color with their personality and describe why they would be that color. If you don't have a significant other find someone in your family Ex. brother finds a color for a sister and vice versa, just as an example. and write me next week and tell me.

Love

Elder Gillespie

Packer, Packer, Packer

2011-03-01T14:06:00.001-08:00

So what did this week contain?

well to find out you'll have to read this message....

so Monday was good like most are, we just got things ready for the rest of the week.

Tuesday we had ZLC so we drove all the way over to Crestview from Tallahassee which is about a 150 miles away. and then drove back like 6 hours later, so we spent a lot of time in the car that day, but what happened at ZLC was we discussed that as a mission we can really get things moving forward in the mission. Instead of thinking that a baptism is a far off thing that only happens to really special people we broke it down into a lot easier goals and ways to see thing moving forward, so what we kind of discussed was that we all need to read the Book of Mormon and find something that would help an investigator.   We also thought of setting a goal that is personal that everyone needs to work on, and to go through the lessons that we teach investigators prior to baptism every transfer or 6 week period. So those are the kind of goals that we set for ourselves so we could get this mission moving. So that was really cool about Tuesday

Wednesday we kind of took it a little slow and decided to think before we really started moving and we were able to give a Baptismal interview for the Spanish elders and then had a great time with a member as they took us out for dinner at an actual authentic Mexican restaurant, surprisingly there aren't a lot of good Mexican places down here.

Thursday, a usual Thursday with service at the capitol and then meeting a sealer for the Orlando temple, who is an amazing man in my opinion, in fact we're having dinner with him this afternoon which I'm excited for. We were also able to just meet a lot of interesting people that day, one less active member we just tracted into so that was neat.

Friday, what a day we did service for a member and again I got to play with a forklift/pallet jack. So i was happy about that except that it wasn't from an actual semi, so it would of been very crazy if the fork lift got inside that moving truck. So after that we had a wonderful lesson with a less active member who was going through some really hard times and it was like we were just there at the right time, it was awesome. then after that we had to fly down to Crawfordville to do another Baptismal interview, and it was awesome. It was for a kid who was 9 and really loves his family, kind of a funny, goofy kid but he's going to do awesome. and then after all that we ate at probably one of the best non chain Italian restaurants in town, so i was happy with that.

Saturday,
we had a child baptism in our ward who we taught and it was really cool, and they filled the font right when the meeting was happening so when it was their time to get in it was only about 2 feet deep maybe. definitely different. but it made it interesting. Overall really cool, then we had a stake conference meeting with the priesthood leadership, where Elder Packer, son to President Packer, taught us and it was really cool and he just knows so much about the gospel it was amazing so i really enjoyed that, and then went to dinner with a less active member who just loves us to death, and it was just really nice to meet and get to know more about her and everything else.

Which leads to SUNDAY!

It was an interesting day compared to most, again it was stake conference and we got to hear from a lot of different people all pretty much talking about the same thing to get our members to not be afraid to talk to others about our religion. Then focusing on the importance of having the spirit with us always. So that was the main part of stake conference.   After all that we had about 15 missionaries coming in for zone conference or a half mission conference with Elder Packer on Monday, so we were arranging where people should go and where they needed to go and who was going to take them there. We also found out that we we're having a meeting with Elder Packer for 2 hours, the zone leaders for Panama city, Dothan, and Tallahassee. and we discussed what we wanted to change in the mission, and we went over the same thing that we talked about in ZLC which is what he really liked and then gave him some ideas on what to teach us the next day.   So after all that we got everyone situated to where they need to go and head off to home, to get ready for the next day....

So now it's Monday and the sun isn't even out yet and all the missionaries are awake and starting to get to the church in Tallahassee.   We arrive on time even through rush hour. and we just have an amazing meeting with him and we were able to really learn a lot. For myself i need to keep the spirit more with me.   So i found some things that i needed to change so I'm excited to learn and to grow from this opportunity which Elder Packer helped bring.
So with all of that it's been a great week. and i hope you have the same chance to have so much fun.

Love Elder Gillespie

Dad HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! and congrats on the purchase.

Mom your awesome and I'm glad you had that experience.

Thad you sound like a very important person i think you should make a little hanging thing off your rear view mirror that says VIP. keep up the good work and it's awesome to hear that Clint got to bless. Tell him I'm proud of him.

Jethrobyn. the adventures you have sound epic. keep up the good work. and try to keep them youngin's healthy.

He's heating up. . .

2011-02-21T20:40:00.001-08:00

Hello Everybody

So the biggest news that i can think of right now is the fact that it's starting to warm up a lot down. here. like no kidding it feels like it's mid may to June with the heat and then the cooling off at the night. and I'm already starting to sweat because it's just getting a little warm for me and the fact that i need to readjust to the heat. so i know you would all love to be here and enjoy the sun and the warmth, and get out of the snow, so I'll try to spare those details down here.

so this week in a nutshell has been fun and crazy so we'll start from the beginning

Monday was a good day and we had our p-day mostly with the TCC elders one of which is Elder Egbert, my old MTC companion and his kid Elder Stutz. both really cool. then just had some dinner and all that other fun stuff.

Tuesday which was different. but the same we had district meeting and then i went on a trade off with Elder Wooley who is down in Madison Florida which i would compare it to be a mix between Panguitch and maybe Beaver. small enough that everyone knows everyone and then also small enough that the entire city shuts down after dark. strange but still cool. and i got to meet some really cool members and started trying to help them come closer together and also closer to God.

Which leads to Wednesday. so we had to trade back to Tallahassee, but that was also the day that the mission got some new Brazilians who are waiting on visas so they all were distributed and from what we've heard is that the Provo MTC is housing 130 of those missionaries because they can't get visa's so they are wanting mission presidents to find a spot for them to house them so they get some feel for what's going on and also to get more missionaries in and out. So it was neat just to get a little bit out of Tallahassee to get thing rolling again. a little break but at the same time it was an opportunity to reuse some of the skills that i haven't been able to use in a big city.

Thursday. we had a pretty normal Thursday with service at the capitol and also teaching some newer members. and planning out the week. so Cool thing that happened on Thursday was that fact that i was able to be apart of a baptism interview, and i found out a lot about what it really means to have a contrite spirit and a broken heart, it was definitely an amazing experience, to realize again what this is all for, and for the chance it is to get someone closer to Christ, and they can also change. oh. it's just beautiful.

Friday was a day of days. so we have senior couples who work in the mission office and they all have different responsibilities. One of the senior elders is in charge of miles and he has been planning with us a day where we can go out and visit different areas in the zone and let him look at it and also have the missionaries who are serving there explain what they are trying to do and how they use the miles that they have. So it was a really cool experience for us to just meet with about half of the missionaries with cars and explain what they are trying to do with what they have. we are working on another day to finish the work that we have been given. so Friday was a day of driving and all sorts of fun.

Saturday we were again doing service for all sorts of people. again with Richard Dunn. who is redoing his bathroom and re tiling mostly, so he's laid a bit of it which left the grouting which I've found out that I'm pretty fast at it. so that's cool. and then i also got heat exhaustion and fatigue that day as well so my cookies weren't settling well with me at all. so not cool but i feel a lot better now.

Sunday just kind of a relaxing day we taught a few lessons one with a Less active member who wants to be preached at not really understanding the need for others to teach each other, then also we had a lesson with a 7 almost 8 year old who is going to be baptized this weekend so we are excited about all that. so that's about it for our week it's been fun and exciting and also very nice to slow down a little bit and refocus again on what's the most important thing that's going on.

Next week we have a member of the 1st quorum of 70 coming President Packer's son, so that'll be fun and we also have zone conference the next day so no big deal...

Those are the highlights of the week i hope you tune in next week to see another exciting set of highlights.

Love Elder Gillespie

Thad sounds like your moving up in the world congrats with a newer car I'm impressed. and remember spaghetti tacos are a bad idea.

Beetle congrats on stein-y he's a good car just keep him looking good.

Toniben I'm glad that Anna was able to get that letter i can't believe that she's already talking in full sentences and all that crazy fun stuff. also babies are really funny but i don't quite get Eliza's laugh maybe you could video tape it or something, it sounds really interesting.

Jethrobyn it's really cool that you can see the grass in a couple of places, it's also really cool that Sophia is just excited about bubbles as Lincoln that make me excited, i guess you raise very excitable children. and Mario game nights sounds like a lot of fun. and i won't get a girlfriend real quick, that's just dumb.

Mom your amazing and don't forget that because you really are.

Dad I'm glad for your concern and for the fact that you're going to take a break soon so that is super cool, and being able to refocus that's really cool.

Love you guys all so much and also everyone else.

Elder Gillespie

Valentines!!!

2011-02-14T19:53:00.001-08:00

So Everybody I hope that everyone is having a great valentines day, and the great opportunity to show each other their love for others.

so with that in mind I'll go over a little bit of the week. so Monday we had a great day just getting ready for the up coming week, which nothing really sticks out to my mind.

so lets go to Tuesday. Tuesday was a great day in fact i got to go on a trade off. which is where i went with another companionship and also my comp's got a different companion as well. so i was with two guys who had been together for 6 months so far and are going to be together for another 3 months after it, it's kind of weird but cool at the same instance. they work really well together, and keep focused on the work very well, so that was really neat.

So after that day i went back to home with Hammond and Hibbert. we did the usual thing with working and all this other stuff, the big thing though was helping a member, he really needed some help with what he was doing so we just went to town and we started organizing and all sorts of stuff that is what i love to do. so that was great.

Thursday, started out just like normal with doing service at the state capitol and then going to sis. Simmons who is well known through out the 4th ward of Tallahassee so we had a lesson with her after trying to reschedule for the next week, but she would not hear of that at all. In fact she was very angry at us for trying to meet with her on another day, so lesson of the story don't mess with sister Simmons "bible study" as she says. We were going nuts again with a very tight schedule to help the same member except this time we helped him move probably a 5 ton crushing machine, a baler, kind of like the one at Day's or Buy Low, just really small and kind of weird too. but still really heavy and we got to use a fork lift to bring it back up to how it was suppose to be, so I'll explain, the baler was lay down horizontally and it needed to get vertical, now that doesn't sound like much of a problem except for the fact that it's 9 feet tall and probably again 5 tons, so we started figuring out what to do, it was on a pallet of wood, so it could be moved, but now that it's moved we just needed it up, so with the resources that we had we got the fork lift which the member owns at his work, and tried to figure out how to attach the baler to the fork lift, my thought was to use a chain to get it up, what i didn't realize is that when chains snap they fly around and can hurt people, so the member Bro Martin got a couple of tie downs that were heavy duty and started wrapping around the baler and then attaching it to the fork lift. and we started with one and then found out that wasn't going to work well, so we got some more and more, eventually we got about 4 to 5 straps and one big old chain attached to the baler and the fork lift, and we started moving it and it was going up and up and up and it was right at that stage where it could go up or it would snap and fall back down to the ground and put a big old crater into the ground, at that moment we rushed away so it wouldn't crush us and then ran back to make sure that when it did move forward it wouldn't keep rolling and fall on top of the fork lift, but looking back 3 guys that weigh maybe a 500 lbs. put together trying to stop something that is much heavier than anything we could of stopped, well the baler went vertical and now we felt amazed at the fact that now we completed the biggest task that he had in a long time, so we felt accomplished that we were able to help him with that and continued to clean his work a bit. it was fun and really enjoyable.

which leads to Friday! and what a wonderful day that always is. and that was a day where we just tried to regroup what we were doing because of the craziness of the schedule that we had over this last week so no really cool stories that i can think of.

Saturday! that was kind of crazy we were doing service for this member who isn't active and it was more for her dad who started redoing his bathrooms a couple of weeks ago, so this time we helped him clear out a vanity and also grout part of his bathroom, thanks dad, because of all the little project we've had i now know how to help people out. so just to let you know that i was paying attention even though it didn't seem like it always. so we helped him out and got him ready for the putting in tile in his other bathroom which is pretty cool and fun. that was another week highlight, actually being able to help, and i realized that us Gillespie's know how to work very well even though it might not be the most professional, we know how to work quickly with each other rather than letting others just sit down. So Gillespie's are not city construction workers. Then more service and more and more, and a lesson in between with a guy who is getting ready for a mission and wants to know what it's like to be a missionary, so that was really cool, and then for dinner we went to Momo's with a member and again got a XL pizza which is 30" across or 706.5 inches squared. so that's a number visualization of how much pizza we ate, and it was again just the three of us going at it, the first time we got just over half of it eaten, this time we got about two thirds to three quarters of it eaten, so we are definitely becoming better at eating, also cool fact of the day on Saturday is the fact that we had some avocado smoothies at the martins while doing service. so that was really cool. that's about all of it for Saturday.

Sunday it was really relaxing just church, studies and visits. so it was just a really nice time to slow down a bit and get things back in order.

So those were some highlights, and this week has kind of felt like two weeks in one like it was long but at the same time it wasn't; like i can't believe that I'm emailing again, it seems like i just did, but I didn't.

I love you guys keep up the good work, remember to be outstanding in whatever you do.

Love
Elder Gillespie

Groundhog Day

2011-02-07T20:32:00.000-08:00

Hello Everybody

So this week was a pretty fun week where we were able to have transfers and the cool thing is that most of the group that came out with me is now here in Tallahassee and they all seem to be doing fine. which is the cool thing. one is training, one is in the office, one's an AP and one is my companion and that leaves me, the other elder I think is still in Perdido or Fort Walton. This has been a different experience because so far i have only really been with people older or younger than me and now it's a lot of people who are about the same age mission wise as where I'm at, so it's pretty cool. Other than that this week has been pretty boring. It seems like every week is the same and that we have p-day and then Tuesday district meeting and meet with sis Simmons and teach a lesson there then go and meet with president Campbell, a member of the stake presidency. have dinner then go to bed. Wednesday, get up and than go to service. then just meet with less actives and find people, Thursday service LA's and Finding, Friday Weekly planning Find people, Saturday service, Sunday church, and then repeat. so it's not that exciting in my eyes what we do, because it's the same every week. but to make this week different. it's been raining nearly all week long and it's really wet. and driving in the rain really isn't as bad as i would of thought and it's way easier than driving in the snow. which is less fun.

So a small miracle of the week, sis Lanigan who we have been working with lately has started coming to church, well this week on her way out to do some errands she ran into an investigator who we thought we lost forever and they started talking about the church and neither knew about the other when they found out that they both were coming to our church. So now we are starting to set something up with them to get things going so that they can both come at the same time and also continue to teach. We just found out that we were just pushing a little too fast for her.

let me think... other cool things this week... oh yeah HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLARK!!! 4 years old your getting so big and i bet your only getting bigger and happier and a good brother. keep up the good work with your sister and help out your mom.

Oh on transfers we got to hang out with a missionary who was going home and we got to have a great conversation with him and it was just really cool to see how each individual is different and how we all learn different, and then when we come together we get to put our individual talents together and grow together. so that was definitely a high light for myself.

Also we got to do the "I love you because game" and it was just really neat to see how people respond to what people really see in you rather than what you see yourself. By the way how is that going for everyone?

For the first time in over 16 months i was able to go to Costco, and i was so happy and it brought back a lot of memories. but still something in wal mart is still cheaper...DARN YOU WALLY WORLD!!!

have a good week everyone.

Love Elder Gillespie

Jethrobyn sounds like life is very busy and i can't believe that your still in school Jethro, how much longer do you have till your thesis? and Robyn sounds like your quite the photographer, did you discover that while in New Zealand?

JanBen keep up the good work and i bet Myra is just so much different in what her 7 months of her life. is she just as qute as her pictures? how big is she? how big is clark? is he a good helper? does he finally understand what a Birthday actually is? how about Eva is she still a scamp? any news yet about the schools?

Toniben, your trip sounds very exotic. and the picture is definitely a hard one in my opinion to get down. and i hope you do get to stay home for a while. i know that you really miss your girls. so i hope that you get to enjoy your time with them.

Beetle i like your goal setting and it's so cool that you get to hang out with Clint's G-friend. tell me a bit about her I've heard so much but i would like to know.

Insomnia is a beautiful thing

2011-01-31T13:30:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody, here's the low down of what's going on and how fast the week is going and the transfers are flying by. so monday was just a crazy day and we got everything done that we needed to get done, and it seems like there is never enough time to do everything, i wonder if that ever changes....

Tuesday was a day where we just had so much to do and hardly any time again to do anything. with district mtg. a lesson with sis Simmons, and meeting a less active member and setting up a time with her for friday where we could read the scriptures with her. Then a neat experience with the campus elders getting someone a bike who really needs it. so it was really cool. dinner with a really cool member and the Spanish elders. so that was tuesday and a little bit about the meeting with sis simmons is that she had to move it to the next day and we were then going to help her teach her friend. so we were super excited about that. which then leads us to Wednesday.

We do our usual routine with doing service at the McD's house and sorting a lot of bottle tabs. so that was neat. then after lunch going and visiting with Sis Simmons and her friend, who is a lady who is in her 60's African American a little bit larger and can speak in tongues, so that was an interesting experience when she started all of a sudden because gospel music was playing and then she started speaking and I was fine with it but Hibbert and Hammond were having a really hard time keeping a straight face, which was funny, Hibbert had to excuse himself out of the room to get his composure back. so that was probably the highlight of the day,

Thursday, service at the capitol and having a visit with some recent converts and less active visits that day. The Harris' was a lot of fun and we discussed a little about the priesthood and what it means and read a chapter with them and it really reminded me of the whole waking up at the crack of dawn to read scriptures with everyone in the morning and how i miss that now. So that's kind of what happened there, we then had a visit with Roslyn and had a fun time just chatting and getting the info of her son playing soccer and how the coach doesn't know how it's played. but learned from the internet. so we kind of were voluntold to help out with soccer. We then had a great time with a member taking us out to southern BBQ which we are definitely doing when i get back, because nothing tastes better than some smoked ribs that have been a simmerin' for the last 8+ hours, then adding some sweet BBQ sause. ummm... definitely a treat. then some night visits

Friday the day of weekly planning but we were invited to play some disc golf with a less active which was really cool and i realize that i'm not good at Disc Golf. but we had a lot of fun. so we then after lunch had a great lesson with a less active who was just having a hard time and we were able to help her just put God first in her life and she'll be able to move through her other problems, and we all started doing a scripture application so this week was charity which was found in Moroni 7 and a very good good lesson. Then we headed down to Woodville, a little town where a few member live and were teaching a 7 year old right before he's baptized and also his older siblings, which is a really neat experience. and the fact that it's really not that difficult to understand that we are here to become better than who we once were. so that's the cool thing about friday.

Saturday we just did service pretty much all day putting up a really easy clothes line and also just doing odd jobs. In fact we were in our shirts and ties when we knocked on a less active, part member home where he needed help pulling up a floor and moving a toilet and getting him ready to put some tile in the bathroom, So we got him to the point where he just needed to put down the glue and from there set them down. This was all spontaneous and random and in our ties and everything. I felt very accomplished because i knew how to do pretty much all of it, thanks dad. We also had a huge meal that night where i actually almost wanted to throw up because i ate so much, much like thanksgiving, but eating too much is a bad idea.

Sunday was kind of just a slow day were we just did our routine and saw a lot of people or tried too, it was hard because most of them weren't home. at least the ones who weren't at church.

well that takes us to today, and so far nothing really exciting has happened other than the fact that we got to play roller hockey this morning. so that's my life in a week, and i'm not getting transferred probably for a while. so i'm excited about that.

other than that my life is pretty boring.

Love

Elder Gillespie

Jan you are growing up so fast and i can't even believe it, it's really weird to think that you are taking care of three young kids and a husband. and getting your own place and everything. pretty dang cool. and i'll try to come down when i can.

Jethrobyn. that story is so funny, and it sounds like lincoln's pooping problem hasn't changed much since he was a kid. man it sounds like a blast there. and sophie's scream was so cute and funny. i loved it, and who knows soon you'll be able to just take the kids to the park without any problems.

Thad. your life sounds miserable but i think you're taking out all of the other fun parts that you've done and the fact that BKE is still the coolest part in Logan.

Beetle, you worry too much just keep doing what your suppose to and you'll find out that everything is going to work out and that you really don't need to worry too much about anything. don't get stuck in the drama your to cool for that.

a delicious meal provided by Hammond

a foggy day in Tallahassee

the man van

the state capitol both old and new

an old christmas pic

Noseicles

2011-01-24T23:36:00.000-08:00

Jeeeell-ooooo

how is everyone doing? from the reports that I've gotten it sounds like everything is going well with skiing, moving, working, traveling, teaching, temple-ing, studying, photographing, etc. and it sounds like everyone is enjoying the rather brisk and frigid month of January. I've also heard that it's been the most snow since who knows how long, so that must really be a relief with the drought thing.

well that's probably too much from the whole outsider's perspective. so I'll tell a little bit about what's going on here in Tally town. We had our first zone conference with much appreciation from president and also the entire zone, they all participated and really helped everyone come closer together and want to do so much better. In fact we (Hammond Hibbert and myself) were the lead of zone conference and we did our presentation with the need to be more proactive with our own individual area's and also our companions and ourselves. So that was a really neat thing that we were able to do with the entire zone. We also had a neat little introduction where instead of saying where you were from and how long you had been out and all that fun stuff, we introduced the other person. so it got them thinking more about the other people instead of themselves which we kind of got from "remember the titans". So we had a really fun time with zone conference and that day. so that was really cool. With that finished we went back to the routine of service at the Ronald McDonald house and cleaned up that place a little bit and also we tried to get everything else moving forward. So the next day we were doing service at the state capitol, where we are getting more and more trained on what the state capitol is, that is the historic state capitol, so we are helping them get ready for their big up coming school frenzy where all the little kids come in as part of their schooling. Well anyway, it was a fun day with that. We got invited actually to come over to teach a little kid who's getting ready for baptism that day too, and that was a fun day so i felt happy that we were able to help out that family and get more of the spirit into their home. It keeps reminding me how much we need to do that with everyone, not just us but for me my nieces and nephews. So that's what I'm excited for. Thursday also we went and taught a less active member and also brought a friend, which was so cool and then she just started testifying about the Book of Mormon and all that goodness and she committed to come to church this coming week so that's really cool.

so Friday comes and we weekly plan and get everything ready for the upcoming week. Now we know what we are doing for the up coming week and it's amazing that we only have like a week before transfers comes up so that's really weird for me to think about because life is coming closer and closer and it's just really weird to think about...... anyways. Saturday came and we got to play some basketball, which is on a wood court, the only one I've seen since I left the MTC. which is such a difference than any other church, it's all carpet. And from what I was told I did really well, I was just having fun and it was really relaxing, Which leads to yesterday, Sunday which was a great day we had some great lessons and learned quite a bit with everything going on, it was nice to just sit back and listen and learn from what others were teaching and to get a different perspective. so i was pretty happy about all of that.

But the highlight of the week was being able to talk with and teach Megan. She was really into the lesson and she just started asking questions like "what are the 10 commandments, could we look over those" and "where did we come from" just the questions that you always hear but never like a golden investigator. which has been such a change from the who eternal investigators. one which we are working with. her lesson was just so good it's just to hard to describe. so just let it be said that i was very happy after the whole thing.

This week has just been so good. i can't quite describe it all.

That's about it here on the gulf side of the world.

Love
Elder Gillespie

Thad sorry I haven't really written you back and thank you for your emails it sounds like your doing really well, keep up the good work.

Robyn, sweet sweet pics definitely going to have to get some framed, could you send a couple out here? with the mountains and snow? and of course you guys too.

Jan i appreciate the invite and i hope you accomplish your goals. My little bit of advice stay away from fried foods. they are tasty but terrible for you.

Mom i know exactly how you feel about the whole thing about the weeks never changing just the outside temperature does. but I'm so glad and grateful for your love and concern about me and all that. I'll be home soon just don't count down too quick.

Dad sounds like an adventure don't get hurt and keep those kids in line and i can't believe that they are already getting their eagles already, and Shumway is going on a mission?!? where to? who's next? and when do they go?

Cars and the map

2011-01-17T20:53:00.000-08:00

So what's new on my side of the world well that is a hard one for me to think of because it seems all the same. So I'll do my best to give y'all the best update, first and for most we finished our map!!! which is quite an undertaking and I'll show a picture of before and after. that has been one of the biggest things that we have done this week, so about 400 stickers later we have the map placed and everyone that we know in the ward. so I felt accomplished especially with the help of my bro's we had a system where we just had one number one cut and one place. we all did a little of both. so that was pretty neat. umm.... other things this week let me think.... oh yeah so we also have a van which had a antifreeze leak. which had been going on for a while, so anyways we had to spend most of the day in another town just to get the part and to get someone who wouldn't take advantage of our church and also be reasonable so enough about that we had to drive about 20 to the next town which was Quincy Florida and so that was really neat but also unproductive but productive in the same instance. so now we have a "new" car and a map to look at so we can drive around. life is good.

the other really neat thing is that we were really able to connect with each other and get things rolling and we found out that we all have the same desire for this zone to change from what it once was into what it really can become so that was the best part is that we now have a plan of all the things that we want to accomplish and we have started to really change around the whole ward to get more involved with us and hopefully with that we will be able to change everyone else in the zone so that they can become better individuals and also to become the people that is needed right now. so that's what we are working with, and our big push right now for the zone is to go back to the basics which is really found in the first chapter in Preach My Gospel, and the need to follow the spirit in what we are doing, and not looking beyond what our mark is, doing what we are suppose to do without being asked. so that's kind of what we are trying to convey with our zone right now. and that's the hard thing with us, and tomorrow we'll find out if it works.

After looking through my planner I found that we had splitz with the the High Priests and that was really cool we were really able to help them find out who lives where and what they want, the people we visited, and surprisingly a lot of those we visited didn't really want to do much with the church. which is really sad but we are trying to help them out so they will come back eventually. ummm....

so really cool thing on Sunday. we were in gospel principals and we were teaching and then we had someone new come in and was just wondering what is going on and why we aren't using bible, and instead of using the gospel principals book. so elder Hammond came to the rescue and took her and started explaining everything and that was very distracting for me, and they eventually took her out while i was left to teach gospel principals with 4 other people. and it turned out to be a really good lesson. So after Sunday school it was sacrament meeting and i took a seat that i normally do and it was cool i was waiting for the other guys to show up and i waited and waited and waited so the sacrament is being passed still I don't know where they were and what's going on so i was confused. After the sacrament they showed up with Megan the person that was in our class and they sat by her the rest of the time, so this entire time i was a bit confused about what was going on, sacrament ends and i get to actually talk to those guys and i found out that she was just a girl who woke up that morning and decided to come to church and ours was the closest one to her so that's what happened. When she came into our class she was still very confused and that's when Hammond came in and then Hibbert to seal the deal, along with our ward mission leader. So i was very impressed not only did our class have a sweet message about our heavenly family but also my bro's got to teach an investigator who felt the spirit tell her to come to church. very cool.

the other story of the week along with Megan was Wesley he's been talking to the missionaries for a while and keeps asking to be baptized and to get the holy ghost but he never really comes to church, i think he's just a little scared with getting out and driving to church, so on Saturday we went over and told him that If he wants to get baptized he needs to come to church for the next three weeks and yesterday he didn't show up or at least he didn't sit by us. so we are working with him but he doesn't really seem committed. I just don't know we'll find out more later.

Other neat thing this week was being invited to hear a member talk to an AA meeting where he told a little about his conversion and about his life and getting rid of his drinking problem. So i was really impressed.

Well that about covers the highlights with this week, next week is going to be pretty sweet.

I love you guys enjoy your holiday.

dad it sounds like your a busy bee. and i hear that the whole fireplace has been working hard, since i haven't been there to build a lot of the fires at night.

mom Keep up the good work and make sure your happy and keep working with the youth you are making a huge difference in their lives, i hope you know that.

Jethroybn the kids are just growing up way to quickly and i can't believe that Lincoln is talking so well.

and Congrats to Zach, keep up the good work.

Love

Elder Matthew Gillespie

Momo's Pizza

the MAP

the finding on the roster

plotting on the map

the finished map

Wearing Thin?

2011-01-10T08:38:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody and it's story time with Crazy Uncle Matt!!!

so this last week has been very interesting, and pretty long at least that what it feels like. so lets start from the beginning, a very good place to start.

So after email on Monday, we finished and had dinner with a member and had a family home evening with them so that was really cool. we got to dress up as scripture characters. which was so cool and i really feel bad for you guys trying to keep your kids under control with company over. well anyways the next morning was an early one. we had Zone Leader Councils which was in Crestview Florida, and it's about the middle of the mission so it's about a 2.5 hour drive over there, but of course those that know me and road trips don't usually get along so we had to stop a few times just to let nature's call, be answered. so it ended up being 3 hours mostly because we drove past the exit and had to add an extra 20 miles to the trip, 10 up and 10 back to find the next exit. so after all of that we had a really good time there and learned a lot from not only president but from everybody, which was so cool because i had either served with or around most of them that were there. so really nice to get to know everyone there again. That took most of the day which was a lot of fun to be apart of so I was really happy with all of that and we got home pretty late, and visited a family that we've decided to call our grandma family. Just a little lady that's 93 and only looks like she's in her 70's so it such an interesting experience to be with her.

Which leads us to Wednesday. that was a pretty average day for us and we tried to do a lot of good but we found out that the people that we want to teach always live on the opposite sides of our areas, and the traffic has gotten a lot worse because now people are here for school so a lot more people. so we had a lot of fun with that.

Thursday, Thursday, Thursday that was the day that everything fell through and we were just trying to come up with something to do, which happens more often than not. but we had a lot of fun that night, and we found a little hole in the wall of a restaurant which has an XL pizza which is about.... Huge. it's called Momo's pizza and it's really neat to see a pizza that it's slices could feed a small nation just from one. so we thought for a while and we decided to get ourselves a XL and that night the three of us were able to barely get half of it down. and it's amazing so definitely a place that is worth getting while anyone is here in Tallahassee. (Hint hint) and as a companionship we are trying to find all of the good places to eat so there is going to be a list by the time I'm done that I'll know is good.

With that day done and over it leads us to Friday where we got a little bit inspired with what we need to do to get this place back up to tip top shape. which consisted of getting a wall map that we were able to get some copies from the library and that night we hung it up it's hard to explain but I'll do my best. So we got a book that is a map book that separates the city and the county into numbers of the map and from there each page is a number and we took all the maps that are in our area and made copies of that so we could then use it to find where people live and also group them together so we and others after us can find them very easily and so we can then just work in one area the entire time and not drive back and forth and be stuck in a car, or we could be contacting a lot more. so that whole little experience of putting a map together was quite a little feat for us.

So with Friday closing and a map finished we went to bed. Saturday was the day of the Man! so in the morning we had breakfast with the Spanish missionaries and we all made food. We had pancakes, and lumberjack breakfast full of eggs, sausage, cheese, peppers, seasoning, and the list goes on from there, we then all pack together in the car and head over for some service for an awesome member, where we did 5 oil jobs to trucks, and I mean trucks, so we got all our hands covered in oil and dirt and all sorts of goodness, then finished with that and headed over to another service where we got to play with real shovels and moved some dirt and plants, planted a tulip garden and other sorts of stuff. So by the time that was finished my fingernails were black and gritty and manly, i even got some of the callouses back on my hand. So it's the day of the man. we had dinner with President Jensen and it was really neat we told him of our master plan to get things rolling forward and he seems really excited about the whole thing so i was also really happy about that. in fact all of us were. so some good things were definitely going to happen here which I'm excited to see happen, and i think that we are going to be a companionship for a while. so that night we started rearranging furniture to make it feel more like a home rather than just a place to stay, so we are happy.

so Sunday wake up and we are determined to get in with the ward because we can place dots all day on a board but that's not going to help us do anything if we don't know who to visit. so we are committed to get in with the whole leadership and help them out where ever we can so we made the effort to get to ward council which i think really helped them see that we are here to help and see through there problems that they think that we can fix. so we have been pretty successful with that with a list from most of the auxiliaries, so that was neat. That night we were able to go through our roster and find out where they live so we can now start plotting where they live and all sorts of things. so that was really time consuming and boring but we got it done in about 2 hours which is really quite amazing. seeing as we have 31 pages on our roster. so we did it quick.

which leads us to today. this morning was a mini transfer, we have a lot a Brazilians who don't know what they are going to do until they get a visa so president wants them now in companionships with each other so they can continue to learn and also get to be missionaries instead of the third wheel, so this morning we were told that we needed to be there at 7:30 but of course they didn't leave till almost 9 so all of us weren't too happy about the whole thing. The worst part is that they just tell us like 5 minutes before hand what's going to happen or they just show up late so that's the downer to that. Well anyway, this week in a nutshell has been pretty good.

Love Elder Gillespie

Fambly keep up the good work i know that everything is going to be alright, also tell Zach congrats from me and to keep on truckin'

New Years. . . New Life

2011-01-03T12:50:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone now it's time for the update from the kid out east.

well since our last little comments of last week we have been working our legs off. which i have really enjoyed, and the coolest thing about being in this three some is that we all want to work, one's got the plan, one's got the knowledge to get there, and the other just wants to make everyone happy. so to put it in a better light we are getting a long so well that it's not even funny, it's like we can complete each others sentences and keep the work going forward, so I'm really happy right now.

so some stories of the week,

this last Wednesday we were able to go to the Ronald McDonald house where we did a list that the ladies had for us to do, one of which was to use a leaf blower to get rid of all the leaves and junk that had accumulated in the front walk ways and the parking lots. so i decided that i was going to take the job, which might of been a poor choice, not only did i start to lose my hearing but it took me about 2 hours to complete the whole job, but on the other hand i was able to exercise not only my hands and legs but my forearms as well which is always fun to do. Later that day we were also trying to get our car fixed because it's got a leaky tube. so it'll get fixed this week and our man van is going to be awesome.

other service this week we helped in the old historic state capitol where we helped take down all the Christmas decorations that were put up, mostly garland and big old bows that were attached to the garland. and the people that actually work there said that it takes them like 3 days to put it up and we were able to take it all down in a matter of three hours. so we felt pretty accomplished about what we did.

an amazing thing that happens when missionaries don't fear is that things get done the way that they are suppose to and a lot quicker than those that are nervous, and I'll be honest that i once was a very nervous and scared missionary but i think now that I'm a lot more confident than i once was, but that leads us to what i studied today, it doesn't matter how much you have confidence in yourself you should put your confidence in the Lord and let him work through us to find his children that we are supposed to help him get back to him, which means that missionaries are nothing, but in the same vein we are something, the only thing that we have is that we have a choice and that's either, God or not, that's what it can be broken down into, something that everyone has to learn at some point. but we don't always remember it all the time so we need to be reminded more than once. I'm glad i have that chance now to learn what i would of had a much harder time back home.

so another story is that we were able to meet with an inactive who wants to come back, and he's got quite a story, apparently he was a sniper for the marines, and their training is nuts. like they have to shoot a target the size of a quarter at a distance of a half mile in 4 stances, standing, kneeling, laying, and upside down hanging by a tree limb. so he's a bit intense so we're going to try not to get him mad. but a very intense man who is back on track with what needs to happen. which I'm glad to be a part of. so things are going well with us.

so other stories than that, well we had a great time in sacrament meeting where an investigator that other missionaries had been working with came and sat by us and seems really interested in getting into the church so we are going to get thing rolling the right way with him. he was even asking about what the temple feels like so i think that it's going to be awesome. he's just a nice man to be around.

well I'm kind of out of stories except for the fact that i don't know if I've told you but now I'm covering the entire 4th ward of Tallahassee instead of it being split north and south. so it's been an interesting change to have from sticking to the south side of town to covering a lot more. so it's been really neat to have more freedom to work.

I haven't got a lot more to say

I miss you guys, thank you for your prayers and concern for me. I hope you had a wonderful time with your holidays and i hope that a couple of the new year resolutions are still going on and what a wonderful time it is for all of us to make a little bit of a change in all of our lives.

Love

Elder Gillespie

jethroybn, thad, emily. that was an awesome letter I'm glad that you were able to combine and write that it made it so much more interesting to see how you all had different opinions and how they we all combined doing something together.

Mom your awesome keep it up also don't walk to church unless you actually have boots. because it sounds like your having a lot of snow. so definitely invest in some boots.

Dad i don't quite get the whole tunnel in the attic thing is it on the west wall and does it go down into the part above the garage where you can see, above the quityourbellakin sign? It's sad to see all those ward members starting to get ready to go back home. i hope everything else is going well though.

Ben G. your great I'm glad you keep me updated on how great the mountain west really is so it's cool to see that even your family is growing up so fast too. i can't believe that it's been 3 months since Eliza was born, time is just moving too fast. so it'll be fun when we all get back together.

Also Congrats to Sunny for being cousin of the year. kudo's to you!

Eggnog Tonic

2010-12-27T17:27:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone

so what is the biggest difference from being a missionary with Christmas, well let me just tell you, first a lot of people want you to feel at home so they like to invite you to their home where you can just enjoy a great conversation with them. the other thing is that they love for you to come over and have dinner with them. much like the thanksgiving season, where we had 6lbs. of food. this time i think i only had about half of that and people want to give us presents. which i have a hard time accepting. but I'll get over that.

so some stories that have happened since Christmas they are...

well today we help a lady in our complex move out, and the fun thing was that it was on the third floor, so i got used to climbing stairs. she's a nice lady, Victoria is her name, and she and another member are friends so she told her that we would help her with her move, so we were volentold. but we did it with a smile on our faces. another reason to put on jeans. it took us about 4 hours which was really nice to have done, not a whole day thing.

umm.. the other really cool thing is that we me and elder Hibbert got our other companion Elder Hammond the same as John Hammond who went to high school with me and sat next to me during a capella he's a really cool guys who has gone through a lot but has learned a lot, he's so impressed with Tallahassee especially coming from Dothan, which is described as "a circle".

So other stories or news.... umm... i don't know if i already told you guys but we had a Christmas party with half of the mission and i was able to see a lot of old friends and i got to talk to a lot of them, they are all doing really well and happy to be where they are at which is really cool. and there were a lot of cool talents that were performed.

umm.... I'm kind of running out of ideas because of the fact that this last week i was so involved with wanting to get to talk to my family that everything else seems like a dream. oh i remember we as zone leaders were able to help those who were getting transferred ready for the day, which was a pretty cool experience. and i think that we have some of the coolest missionaries there are.

I love you guys and miss you a lot.
please feel free to write. by the way the address is
410 Victory Garden Drive apt 188 Tallahassee FL 32301
Elder Gillespie

Mom your letter is one that is going to be saved for the ages. you're just so kind and i'm so glad that you're my mom.

Thad, i was able to get your Christmas present I'm still having troubles opening it so i can actually use it, and it's going to be a real great help. thanks brother.

Robyn. that is a lot of snow. i can't believe that, so does that mean that Jethro is going to have to do extra days after school should be out, or did he have enough snow days. how did Lincoln like all that snow and the giant snow hill?

Santa doesn't use Elves. . .

2010-12-20T10:57:00.001-08:00

Thank you so much for sending so much stuff to me, I was able to receive Toni's package and as for your letters I haven't gotten them yet but our address right now is: 410 Victory Garden Drive apt 188 Tallahassee FL 32301

So now you know, sorry for such a long wait It was hard because the post office didn't give us a key to the mailbox until about a week ago.

I hope that fills in the silliness of the day for you all. Now a little bit of an update here in the world of Tallahassee. Rosenlund went home this week on Wednesday I believe and so for the last few days me Hibbert and O'niones were companions and then we got news that they were going to close down the Tallahassee 4th north side. So that means that instead of having two sets of english missionaries in that ward we are only going to have 1 set which will be a complete change for the ward, but in reality they don't really see us all that much either so it's a nice change, hopefully we'll be able to get better acquainted with everyone and not just be stuck in our area. So that's what we've heard today we got the whole story of what's going on, so me and Hibbert are going to be Zone Leaders for the Tallahassee zone and Jon Hammond is going to come up with us and is going to be a district leader, so i'm going to be in a apartment with two sweet guys.

Now for some bad news: a member who lives in Geneva County Alabama was kidnapped on Friday and we are just finding some more information on what's going on and it doesn't look good. Elder O'Niones knew this member so he hasn't been the same since, and to make this week even more interesting another member who we visit very often, their daughter got into a car accident and totaled her car, luckily she and her friend only had minor injuries, an injured wrist and minor bruising. So this has been quite an interesting week not only for us but for a lot of people that we know. We as missionaries have been safe and I thank you for all your prayers.

thank you all so much, i'm sorry to report but this week has been kind of a slow one and it's going to be a great time now with the three on the way and that I get to talk on Saturday to you for Christmas!

Love
Elder Gillespie

Four Wheels and an Engine

2010-12-13T21:22:00.000-08:00

Hello Everybody!

So we have some very exciting news this week. First to clear up any misunderstanding about Florida being cold; tomorrow they say it's going to get down in the teens, and then by the end of the week the highs are going to be in the mid 60's to 70's. So yes it does get cold here and it's a different type of cold just like it's a different type of heat, so no matter really what you wear here if it's just a bit cold say the 40's and the wind is blowing it feels like it's in the 20's just because the humidity is here and it just cuts through the clothing which you are wearing, straight to the bone as they say here.

other great news is that we got our car back!!!!!!!!!!! (yes i know i broke the Exclamation point rule but it's that important) Molly the Malibu is back in commission which frees me and elder hibbert up a lot instead of walking or biking everywhere which we have been doing for the last 4 weeks. We now can go to and fro with ease and please. You'd be surprised how much a car actually makes missionary work so much better and effective. We can actually get to more people's houses than just walking down a highway.

So stories this week...umm... so zone conference was this week and it was just a really good time. We have one of the older zones in the mission, the youngest missionary is about a transfer out but everyone else has at least 8 months under their belt. Even the older mission couples and sister missionaries. So this zone conference was really just an opportunity to relax a bit and just get used to teaching and how to teach better rather than trying to explain it to the younger elders and watching them do it, so we broke off into little groups where we did some role plays. There were 5 to a group and we were told to have an investigator and then a critic and missionaries. So it was me Elder O'niones, Elder Gates, Elder Thomas and Sister Fink, so when I finished being an investigator for O and Gates we all decided that the next one it was going to be a three person companionship with Fink, me and Thomas teaching Gates and the really neat thing that I picked up on was, that each of us had a different way of explaining things and helping the investigator understand what's going on. It was just insightful to me to see that no matter where I would be with teaching someone that another person could teach the exact same thing but in a completely different way and that I teach and another person would teach would have the same effect because the spirit would be there and that the spirit would be testifying to them in their own way. So that was in zone conference. At the end of that we called the body shop where our car was and low and behold the car was going to be there in an hour and a half. So that was a pretty sweet day, Then we got a call to come to a dinner with a member who is from Russia and one who served in Russia so we actually had a Russian dinner, and it was good. borche! So all in all Tuesday was a great day!

Wednesday was not so cool we had an appointment, but of course that fell through mostly because people don't want us to come back so they schedule a time where they know they won't be home. I'm not stupid, but i'm going to be as punctual as I can but if they don't want to show up that's on their heads not mine. We were able to get a lot of lessons in with members seeing as how we now can actually go and visit them.

Which leads us to the rest of the week; it has kind of been a hum drum week, mostly as I see it. Every campus now is done, finals are over and i think graduation is too. A lot of people are going out of town for the next little while and those who are home are working crazy hours just to make ends meet at home or abroad. Life is crazy for the holidays and that's never going to change. I love all you guys and miss you especially during the holidays.

Love

Elder Gillespie

Jethrobyn, you guys are so cool the Egg Nog party sounds just like something jethro would do and something that should continue for years to come.

Ben, you are a busy man with many of those questions on what to do you can do it i believe in you. and i find it surprising that the car was totaled just a back smashed in. so very interesting.

Mom you're the best and i love you guys.

Beetle your talk was simply the best. Very well put and I love the stories and the pure and simpleness of the gospel and testimony. Because it is true.

Sophie Lee! Holy cow. and Congrats I only wish i could be there to see it go down. Your going to do great don't worry to much remember to breathe, and don't lock your knees.

Roxanne you are in for a treat that is for sure, don't be too worried about what's going to happen just enjoy the moment and don't let the stupid elders stink up the class room too much, just a warning. and get as much chocolate milk as you can!

What the. . . December?

2010-12-06T18:33:00.000-08:00

Hello Everybody!!!

So what has it been like for you guys in the wintry grips of snow? well here in the southern part of the country its been kind of cold and just not that exciting still no car, but I'm getting use to walking and walking and walking all over the place. and it does get a bit chilly around here surprisingly like i actually have to wear a sweater most days.

alright i guess it's time to get to the fun of this week. well we have had the great opportunity to start teaching a little bit, but still a lot of tracting, it's getting to the point where we've tracted all the places that are close to us so it takes us like 30 minutes to get to a new place. but we got a lesson in with a lady named (I-saw-too), she has had a lot of different experiences all over the world talking to different people and all sorts of different religions but she really hasn't met with us so she's trying to find all of the things that are right with all of them and then go from there. and she is also very very smart and wants to understand everything, and in my mind they make no sense because she jumps from topic to topic, but i guess that makes better sense than how i think, so we have had good talks about this whole thing and it should be going somewhere soon, i think.

other than that we had a Christmas party where it was back in the old days. like what it would of been like in the olden days. so we had everyone dress up in robes and capes and all sorts of things you would normal see at Halloween, but everyone who came had a good time, and we as missionaries helped set up the whole thing. so we helped with the food, and we cut up about 4 wheels of Gouda cheese that would of been about 18 inches across. cleaned about 5 bushels of grapes and a bucket full of humus we put into little cups, it was interesting none the less. and one thing that I've noticed about myself is that I'm not really concerned about what's going on as long as i can actually help people i don't care, while others just like to leave as soon as the party's over me I'd like to stay and clean up, that's just me.

so other than that it's been kind of a slow week for myself and the work it's just the same old routine. so we'll see what happens at Zone Conference this week, we've heard that things are going to change, but i don't know for sure.

I love you guys so much.

Elder Matt Gillespie

Beetle it sounds like your taking everything in stride and having a easy time readjusting to life. and Sis Palmer was in my same zone for 6 months. she's a pretty neat missionary and person, I hope you guys are good buds now.

Thad your description of what happened with Clint's baptism sounded so cool i wish i could of been there. and I'm sure that the spirit was so strong there. You are doing great Thad, keep up the good work.

Toniben you guys are amazing and I did like Anna's email and it sounds like she's a little girl with a big old heart. and Eliza sounds like the chillest baby ever. and I'm super excited about the phone call, Christmas sounds like it's going to be pretty relaxed so whatever time works best with naps or something like that should work for me.

Janben i really do hope you guys get the place that you like the most and i think that you'll go where ever you need to go to get the best schooling and be great examples to everyone else.

Jethrobyn thank you for the pictures they really made my day and it doesn't seem like beetle is actually home right now to me. but that's mostly because I'm not there so everything at home doesn't exist.

Turkey Day

2010-11-29T13:24:00.000-08:00

So this week has been a bit of a crazy holiday type of a thing. First of all Monday was a pretty crazy day and on that wonderful P-day we literally played Basketball at the church for like 4 hours, which felt so good. I haven't done that in a long time, so about half way through I was completely exhausted, so we worked for a bit that night, came home and zonked out faster than a candle in a room filled with carbon dioxide. which leads us to the next day, so the Zone Leader Elder O'niones and Rosenlund, both of which are pretty active especially when they are put together. they just feed off of each other and get to the extreme but both are playing around which ends up being pretty funny, Well they had to go to Zone Leader Conference. which then led us to not have a ride all day, so what did we do we walked and walked and walked, but really it wasn't that far. Our area really isn't that big it's just super nice to have a car when you have an appointment on one side of the world then on the other and you only got 5 minutes to get there. So a car is super cool, In fact that night we went to dinner at sister Walkers house who is really one of the coolest members in the ward, She was baptized like 2 years ago and is now super strong with what she believe in and every thing else. She is super smart too. So an awesome dinner with her and then hung around with the Spanish elders and one of them was a temporary missionary who is actually in Peru and we found out that it was his last day before leaving to Peru. But way before that me and Hibbert were just doing some tracting in a neighborhood where we could walk to because we are in one of those finding stages, and the cool thing was that we were able to find like 4 people who said sure come on back and teach us a bit, but not in a couple of days because it's thanksgiving. So we now have a full week of revisiting people. The really neat thing about this is it's a completely different attitude from those in Ozark who have been in their ways for the last umpteen years and are happy with what they have got. People here I think are more open to what's going on, but it's harder to pin them down because there's a lot of other things to do instead of just go to Wal-mart. So Tuesday was a success along with Wednesday which was similar. So that leads us to the infamous Turkey day

So what does a Missionary do an such a joyous occasion? You're right, stuff himself to where he can't eat a single bite more. Now how does this happen? Well it first starts with waking up and getting everything ready for the day and finding something to do before your first dinner, which this day started at 2 pm, so being smart we head to waffle house to plan for the upcoming week and what we need to do so we can get all the people that want us to come back in a day that works for them and us. and what do we do in such a thing as waffle house? Eat of course and we get their most famous items, which are their waffles, duh, and their hash browns with everything. and we eat that at noon thirty. so we finish that, us and the Spanish elders who are Elder Judd and Elder Wood, Judd has been out about 20 months and Wood has been out 3 weeks so it's his first area and he is a really cool guy well both of them are, It's a really nice thing to have another companionship in our area to talk to, when i get sick of listening to Rosenlund saying he's got two weeks left and then he'll be sleeping in his own bed. and all that other fun things that happen when arriving at home. so we finish up and head over to the members house where we eat and eat again. then we save a little room where we can eat again because we have another dinner appointment at 5 pm. so by the time we are done with that it's 4pm and then we headed to the mission home where Sister and President Jensen invited us to have a "little" thanks giving dinner with them so we had a great time and ate just enough to be filled then headed to another appointment at least the Spanish guys did and they ate again at 630pm and after a great meal they headed to another investigators house where all of us went in and they fed us again at like 730pm and of course it was a Spanish house were if we didn't eat their food they would be offended. So I took a bullet and started eating off of others plates so that they wouldn't get into trouble and every thing else. we then headed off to one more place for the night, where the zone leaders were at where they offered us some more food, but we politely turned it down. Now the kicker of the whole night when i weighed myself, from the first time to this time right after all of the food. I put on 6 pounds of food through out the day. which made the night very very uncomfortable. and I now know that eating too much is very much a bad idea.

So I think I'm still working off all of the food that I somehow packed away. which leads us to the rest of the weekend, seeing how most people in the south love football and seeing how it was rivalry weekend it made work a whole lot harder because people would be getting mad at us for interrupting their "games." But we did hear about all the games and everything that was going on in the world of football. For example we found out that byu and utah played and that utah won by a point about 5 minutes after it was done. We also found out that one of the missionaries who served here and plays on the utah team made some big plays, Elder Rogers. he's the tight end and his number is 89 and is very much a big kid.

So that leads us to Sunday where we had a great sacrament meeting It has probably become one of the most favorite things on my mission to do. It was a really neat experience to see everyone who talked talked about things out of preach my gospel and I love seeing how everything connects to each other. because that is what the gospel is all about. It's all connected and it all get us closer to god and to become one big happy family.

I love all you guys
Elder Gillespie

Clint and Melissa CONGRATS! I'm impressed and in awe of your willingness to find out for yourself. and to make those necessary steps to start your journey back to Heavenly Father.

Mom and dad I'm doing great and me and hibbert are doing really good together and we are getting things done.

Jethrobyn you guys are so cool and i'm impressed for your steadiness of writing, as for titles try the funniest quote of the week from either your kids or your students, maybe that could help? as for you Miss Robyn your kids are just so darn cute and doing so well i can't believe that it's been so long since i last saw all of them. please take a lot of photos when beetle gets home.

Ben gains HOLY COW that was a crazy story much more intense than mine we just started pulling out from a stop sign thinking that it was a 4 way stop. I know that angels are looking out for you and that sounds like quite the snow storm that you all had. I'm so glad that you guys don't have a huge damage to yourselves, what I tell myself is that it's the outlook on life that's going to get us through our problems.

Beetle you're awesome and don't let anyone else tell you differently and don't let others pull you down. I tried to get a letter to you as soon as you arrived but i don't know for sure when it'll get there though.

love you all

Taking Tally by Feet

2010-11-22T13:57:00.001-08:00

Well this week has been kind of a blur I'm not going to lie, Biking or Walking everywhere isn't the most satisfying thing to do but i think I'm understanding more and more what it feels like to be a missionary in the rest of the world. and i think I'm going to have some huge legs when i get done with this area if or when I get in a car again. so i think that the this week we've probably gone about 20 miles walking or biking. and the cool things is that we've found a couple of people that we probably wouldn't of found otherwise. and the neat thing is that when you actually go and try your hardest to find someone and also testify of what you do know people will respect that and will respond in a positive way to what you believe in. so for one example seeing right now how we don't really have anyone solid to teach we've been doing a lot of tracting and one of those times we were going out we ran into a lady who said "you know you won't convert me but I'll listen" so that is the perfect opportunity to just say what makes our church a little bit / a lot bit different. but they don't realize this but then they are interested and then they just get a book of Mormon and as you mark a few chapters to read then they get a bit more interested. and everything starts to work out better. so we have had a few of those opportunities to talk to people that way.

other than that let's see we had a little turkey bowl last Saturday or two days ago where we as missionaries and the elders quorum played and the sad fact is that we are out of shape even though we won't want to admit it, i still think i'm fast and that i can do anything but the day after had been quite a sad relaxation when everything starts to hurt to move, i think i know what you mean dad and Jethro.

other than the fact that Tallahassee is Huge compared to Ozark it's still not quite as big as the whole Provo Orem Utah valley area it's just built higher and a lot more cars smashed together I think i haven't really been able to tell from the last area i've been in felt like home to me and i was there for so long as well. so I'm a bit nervous around rush hour time. but i'll get use to it.

so now I'm in FAMU campus writing you guys, which is kind of like UVU in comparison, the difference is that it's pretty much an african american college there are so many here i think the percentage is close to 99% african american 1% everyone else. and they are pretty nice as long as you don't get into trouble, which we don't other than that i don't know what else to say about Tallahassee and how everything else is going besides one of the elders in the apartment is going home like 6 days before Christmas and is already counting down. but who can blame him. then i look at where he's at and then where everyone else is at and it seems like my next year is just going to fly by with hardly a bump in the road.

well that's all i've got

wait one question, i love to work but i am wondering if i don't play a bit will i just be a dull boy? as the saying goes i know there is a balance in all things so how do you find the balance between working and playing or playing and working?

Love Elder Gillespie

Mom you are so awesome and i bet your birthday party was awesome

Dad I'm glad your feeling better, keep up the good work and don't fall down on the new blanket of snow/ice

Jan your kids are just so darn cute and i can't wait to see what's going to happen when beetle get's back make sure to take lots of pictures please.

Robyn you're a whiz with that camera of yours and your kids are just so darn cute as for your little adventure to the ER, don't worry about it i did the same thing when i was just a young wart hog. as soon as we started heading over i felt so much better, i don't know why though,

Jethro you master of art and it's awesome that your students call you dad. that is a title that is earned not given. you are definitely doing the right thing.

Thad your doing great i can already tell. and your going to have so much fun with the rest of the fam

Toni the Anna saying are defiantly top ten material.... cows with guns. (way to go dad)

Ben Gains your are awesome have fun this week don't stress to much about stuff you can't control which is funny because i have the same problem. any suggestions?

beetle have fun and don't hold back.

Life in a Day

2010-11-15T23:26:00.000-08:00

Dear Parents

life here in Tallahassee has been a bit crazy and here's how it happens

1st upon realizing that I was coming to Tallahassee I needed to pack from Ozark and also say good bye to all the families that I was really close with and all of the other cool people that I've met in that lovely tiny town. so I was running back and forth all day Monday Tuesday and in the morning of Wednesday, saying good bye to all the seminary students. I'm going to miss those guys. so Wednesday is transfers and what happens is that we have 4 transfer spots in so the 15 passenger van that leaves Tallahassee goes from one end back to the other end dropping off and then picking back up others so i was going to Tallahassee so i had to wait till it got there from mobile, so it was a nice little time that i had in Cottondale with everyone who was also either going east or picking up someone from the west. fun times, so i get to Tallahassee and I'm now with Hibbert who I was in the same district when i was in Chipley almost a year ago, so upon arrival I find out that we are moving apartments the next day, so rather than just up pack to repack i just fell asleep with some one's old comforter and pillow and just waited out the night, morning came on Thursday and started to pack up the apartment and everything that was in it and started to clean it out and all the other fun things that happen with moving, so that lasted all day, which leads us to Friday where me and Hibbert started to deep clean the apartment, the old one, and got it in a better condition than it had probably been in for many a year. so we clean out our areas and got things where they were supposed to be and life has been good. which leads us to Saturday well all was going good for us doing some service and all that fun stuff that goes along with that and we started heading for home when we got into an accident, now it's not as bad as it sounds, the driver's front tire was hit by the other persons passenger front/hood, so there was little humanly damage but the cars don't look to be in a good condition. so not a good thing to happen here on the fourth day here in Tallahassee. so for the last few days we are now stuck either walking, biking or hitchhiking with other elders. and they have been so nice to us for this little blimp in the road work, but I'm glad this isn't a life threatening experience still haven't broken a bone or gotten stitches. i just don't have a car now.

so Tallahassee is definitely a difference from any other place I've been in. so I'm excited and nervous at the same time.

Love you guys

Mom Happy Birthday first and foremost. and i miss you guys

Dad Keep up the good work.

Jethro don't get sick and keep up the art, and i think you should of just hung up all the old art work you had just on the studs in the basement. that would of been pretty cool

Robyn don't hibernate then you'll miss all of the cool snow storms and all the other neat things that happen in winter. and it's not that bad.

Jan your kids sound like so much fun i bet they are having a blast back in the Utah area.

Ben Learn learn learn, so you can be the best doctor that the world has ever known.

Thad what's going on in the world of BKE and Clint-o-beans? along with your new job? do you still have no idea what's happening?

Toni your kids are so smart and nice to each other. Ben told me about the trip to Grandma's house Anna is nice.

Ben i do want to go to the North west we'll have to plan a trip up there when you don't have to work up there, because that would not be as fun.

Beetle Keep up the good work keep strong and run like there's no tomorrow I'm so excited for you, also don't get trunky it's ok to talk about home just don't stay on the subject.

my address i think is 410 Victory Gardens, Tallahassee Florida something something something

if that's not good enough just send all fan mail to
1535 Killearn Center Boulevard, Tallahassee, FL 32309

Elder Gillespie

Tally Ho! To Tally Town

2010-11-08T20:21:00.001-08:00

Dear Parents:

Things just got crazy. yes I've been in Ozark 30 weeks and now I'm going to Tally town or Tallahassee. So this is going to be a great opportunity for me to get a reboot and ready to go so what does that mean? it means that I'm now going to pack up for the next few days and get ready for the next couple of days. The Amazing thing also is that I'm companions with someone who came out with me, Elder Hibbert. who was also with me when i was in Chipley and he was in Bonifay which is in the same district. now I'm sad that I'm leaving the place that I could call a second home but i think this is going to work out for the best.

So now for the weekly update. this week again has been interesting to say the least. so most of the week has been getting ready for BreiAnna's baptism which was a lot of the days we focused on getting things ready. So we first needed to get a time which we could get an interview for her with the Zone Leaders, so we set that up on a Thursday night, so after that, the ZL's decided to stay so that they could get things ready for Dothan the next day. so we had a little bit of fun with them. Friday comes around and we helped finish the baptism program and got things ready for the next day, and in the process had a great discussion with Cori about how we need to be an optimistic person because things all work out in the end and then also we were able to give him a blessing of comfort so that was a really neat experience. Saturday comes and we start getting things ready for the baptism at 5pm and so we are almost ready to go when we get a call to push it back for two hours. so we make a few calls and all that fun stuff, 7pm comes around and still no sign that she's coming and 730 we get a message that they probably won't make it for the baptism tonight. So we have ourselves a little meeting just to make everyone feel more happy about what happened which was a really cool experience. So that night we come back in and we get ready for bed hoping that maybe tomorrow that she'll be able to make it. we show up for church, but not hearing anything, because we have to go through another person to find out what BreiAnna's plans are, I'm not too thrilled about being left in the dark, when we get some more information that her baptism is going to be postponed for a time. which is sad to see that no matter how hard we try to help people come closer to Christ and that this is a way for people to help themselves become a better person, not only spiritually but in every other aspect of our lives. and that the way to do that is through our commitment to follow Christ through baptism and followed by the confirmation of the holy ghost.

So other than that today it's the fact that it got chilly this week, so much so that i actually had to pull out my jackets from last year and yes I'm wearing one right now. I'm now leaving probably one of the best area's in the mission right now and going to another great one.

Love Elder Gillespie

P.S. I love you all.

Halloween, but still no ghosts

2010-11-01T22:31:00.001-07:00

Life is good i still have one full week here for sure and then after that i don't know. so next week you'll find out for sure what's going on for the next 6 weeks. and who knows what's going to happen.

so what else is new? well not much considering that we just had Halloween and we had a great time, so before Saturday the unofficial Halloween day to trick or treat, on Friday we had a ward trunk or treat, or trick or trunk how ever you would like to say it anyways, Elder Lake and myself decided to trick out our trunk/car by making into a helicopter, seeing as how Ft. Rucker is the home of Rotorwing aviation for the army. so to make our car into a helicopter all you need is some cardboard and duct tape and spray paint. which we assembled fairly quickly but once we saw that the rotors weren't going to stay up by themselves we needed to reinforce what we had done, so we got some fishing line to pick up the wings, but alas they drooped again. but we did impress the entire ward, and a few of the non-members that were there. and i did dress up for Halloween believe it or not. i wore a bow tie that Ben Gaines got for me in Boston, which again made everyone impressed that yes somebody under the age of 40 knows how to tie a real bow tie.

well i guess that's enough of the hallo weenie stuff, on to other things. so what happened this week?....we were able to meet with Cori and have a great little discussion with him, and the really cool thing was that we brought a member who was once a police officer, who was really able to talk to Cori and get his head on straighter than what we missionaries could of ever done and that was really cool, kind of like it was set up that way, without me realizing it. a miracle you might say.

we have also had a lot of fun with the ward members and have really gotten to know them a lot better, in fact one of the members is hooking us up for dinner with a non-member neighbor so that should be really good.

now to the juicy stuff. so yesterday we had a lesson with BreiAnna and we went over the 3rd and 4th lesson. and she is so ready for baptism she told us that she just want to jump in the water right now. so we are working on that so we can just let her in there. but anyways back to the lesson, it was just so good and the spirit was so strong there too. amazing, simply amazing. but there is always going to be snags when it comes to this stuff, so she is ready but her family isn't supportive and also really isn't against it too. she is going to have to be strong when this stuff comes around. so right now we are trying to figure a time to get this all worked out so she can get baptized without too much of a conflict, so this week she should be getting ready for it, and that's what we are planning for but I'll keep you updated on all of this when i get more information.

So all in all a good week.

Thought of the day, which comes from one of the gate guards on Fort Rucker, one of the nicest people you'll ever meet he says.
"when you wake up in the morning you have two choices, either you can be happy and share what you've got or you can be sad and discouraged and share that with the world." simply a genius so that's what I've been working on this week, the reason why it's important is because it's something we can all work on.

Love
Elder Gillespie

Mom you have done it again with one of the best Halloween costumes I've seen. Keep on keepin' on.

Dad keep up the good work just don't work yourself to hard.

Jethro. your future sounds like a lot of fun, but your present needs some work, but so does mine.

Robyn Halloween sounded crazy! and i bet your excited to see winter again, just kidding, can you believe that it's almost been a year in that house of yours? neat.

Jan you are such a little planner and are just planning up a storm with all the little things, the whole toy story thing genius.

Ben F. keep up the good work.

Thad, to short to short. what were you for Halloween? what about Clint? what about BKE? what about Logan? but i will agree life is great as long as we keep a good attitude.

Ben G. your right spending more time with kids is better than not actually working, your going to be a great dad. also since being in the south, TV is just an addiction. sure it's nice to see things but you've got a computer and can watch anything you want, just don't fill your life with the things that aren't important.

Toni, Write please. i miss you guys and all your funny way putting things in just a Toni type of way.

Beetle CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? almost there, don't think about it but at the same time do. and when you get home 10 months left for me. it'll be awesome. keep an eye on those little scamps.

everyone else. feel free to write anytime to this email Address,
mgillespie@myldsmail.net

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2010-10-25T22:25:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody!

What is new on this side of the Mississippi? well some crazy stuff and some not so crazy stuff. so to break the suspense the not so crazy stuff was that we had the primary program and it was just so cool and the spirit was just so strong, My guess is that they can deliver such a strong message because they are still under Christ and so when they talk about truth it's the spirit without dirt coming to all those who want it. and those who don't want it just think that it's cute. What else is not so crazy? Well I guess the fact that we have been fed enchiladas for the last week straight, so it's not bad, but variety is definitely good.

So on to the nuts stuff. So!... Cori has gotten the devil after him. how so? well this week his house got broken into and all of his stuff was stolen therefore he is not happy and his goal of being a photographer is shattered because they stole all his equipment. and of course that's because we have committed him to baptism and to live according to the gospel principals. So not so good. we are working with him to get back into the groove of things. so that's life.

Other crazy thing is that we had zone conference and we learned a little bit about the refiner's fire/the sculptor's hand/the potter's clay. All the same principal of living in a way where God can mold us more into his Son so we will be more like him when we live with him. The really cool thing was that we had to find a rock that could be found in the area that we are working in. Well i don't know if you know but there are no rocks naturally found in Alabama or Florida. If there are then i just don't know where to find them, well anyways we found some rocks along a river bank and took them to Zone conference, and then we got a chisel and a picture of the Christus in SLC Vistor center. so my goal is to chisel a place for my picture and then have the rock hold the chisel, by the way it's a 3/8 of an inch cold chisel for stone/cement. thanks dad for teaching me that.

After ZC we had the zone leaders do a trade-off with us I stayed in Ozark while Lake went up to Troy so that day Thursday we had a full day we were visiting families and all sorts of stuff and everything else. We even made an appointment for 5 pm in Newton about 20 min drive down, and then had to meet up halfway between Troy and Ozark about a 35 min drive at 6, well with all of this commotion i forgot about the appointment at 5 and then headed up to Troy at 530 from Ozark. we get a call later wondering where we are, which made me feel about this tall ---> [ ] Sadly to say that was my bad. That night we also visited one of our investigators who has yet to pick up the Book of Mormon and start to read. and we been seeing her since about June or July. and we had splits with one of the bishopric members who then gave her a better explanation. because she thought that it was just another bible, which we told her a couple of times before hand that it wasn't, which then made me feel ---> [ ] that big. so it was definitely a crazy day.

which is about all that i have. Life is getting better as i just continue to move forward and to keep my head up while at the same time keeping it down...? or i guess move forward in humility.

Progress is what is important. and sometimes can't be measured by a number. so another food for thought

Love you guys keep up the good work.
Elder Gillespie

Ben Gaines, sometimes the best way to help a friend is to just listen, PMG chapter 10 listening that's a good section that i like.

Toni Keep up the good work.

Jan Your awesome and such a good mom

Ben F. welcome back! that's weird seeing as how I'm not there but none the less.

Jethro Lincoln is going to do great and i like your idea and you'll have to tell me more about your projects.

Robyn Lincoln is so cute. and i feel so sorry for little Sophia i hope that the medicine is working. keep me posted, next week.

Thad good idea to call those guys so you don't die but i wouldn't like to take cold showers,

Beetle you'll love being in a 4 pad, you can have so much fun and not only that you get to talk to other people not just your companion, it's going to be so cool. just don't get lazy, it's way too easy.

Elder Christensen after a gold bond foot powder Fight with Elder Cox

Elder Wardle

Ashley and Me

Courtney Family

Elder Lake

Food is Good

2010-10-18T11:21:00.001-07:00

This week has been amazing on a scale of one to banana it was probably pineapple or gorilla. so lets start with the beginning. a very good place to start. Me and elder Lake have been getting along like two peas in a pod which makes everything else a whole lot easier, not saying we have had any problems but this week has just been great. so monday it was columbus day which was last weeks email. and then we'll skip to tuesday it was a very relaxing day which i was very grateful for and nothing really exciting going on at that point, which leads us to Wednesday, at thispoint we are putting together a baptism for a child of record baptism for a less active member, so we are pulling things together for that and we also needed to make sure that she had a interview with the bishop that night so we could then get her ready for baptism on Saturday, so a bit of stress, any-hoo that goes through without a hitch. so we have a total go on the baptism. full speed ahead! so the next day, Thursday, we finish the program and start getting things ready for the baptism, Friday we have some fun and get our minds off the whole baptism and go tracting and then we get a call from one of our investigators Cori and we visit for a bit and the time felt right and so we asked if he wanted to be baptized and he's like sure, which i was totally taken back from, so during our visit we talked more about the whole comitment of baptism and such and he's got a few things we need to help him with, and i think that he's going to go far. at the end of the visit we are walking back to the car and both of us Me and elder Lake were just taken back by what we just did, but it felt right so we went and did. this leads us to Friday night where we talked to the Jones family where they talked about different types of activites and one that sounds really cool is flight 459 and then everyone gets to see the different kingdoms and stuff, and it sounds really cool. so after all of that it was time for bed and the next day. Saturday the big day so we go tracting again to get my mind off of what's going on later that day. so the day flys by like a dream and then we are at the church getting it ready for the baptism and filling the font and all the other fun stuff that goes along with baptizing someone, so before this Ashley asked me to baptise her and then elder lake to confirm her. so i get really excited that i get to wear all white for the first time in about a year, it just felt so nice and calm to be in all white, and then every thing went off without any big problems and i was so happy and so was everyone else i think the spirit was very strong during that whole thing. so basically awesome. ok ok next day. sunday an amazing sacrament meeting and the rest of the blocks where i learned a lot. and then we had a great meeting with BrieAnna who is friends with one of the ward members and we had a great lesson on the plan of salvation and then we ask her to get baptized and she was totally into the idea as well just like Cori and the great thing was that she was at the saturday baptism. and she was very moved by the whole thing. so in the course of a week we had a baptism where we were very involved and then also having two people commit to get ready for baptism. so this week equals success.

As for the title i learned the hard way that food is a very important part of life especially Breakfast, usually i wouldn't eat breakfast because i really wasn't hungry or so i thought, then afterwards i started eating breakfast and low and behold i was happier and less tired and also i eat a lot more food when i eat breakfast then if i don't or i eat 3x the food when i have breakfast then when i just say that i'm not hungry. i guess my body really was hungry. As for sleeping, I'm happier and it's much easier to sleep when you aren't hungry and also when the window is open and it gets down into the 50's at night. so i feel much better now than when i was a in the middle of july and august.

that's what's happening in my neck of the woods, back over to you.

Love Elder Gillespie

Jethro it sounds like Paris was an amazing little trip, your so brave to do all of that.

Robyn keep up the good work and i bet this camera is going to pay for itself.

Mom your amazing and i love you so much.

Ben Gains you just know what to say don't you, keep up the good work and keep listening to those talks.

Toni your doing great keep up the good work.

Jan your still a Gillespie in my eyes with that last adventure to the lot. your amazing

Dad keep up the good work.

Thad you need to work on your details much like i do but tell me more when i get back.

Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue

2010-10-12T16:52:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody!

This week has been a weird week probably for us all but last week marked the half way point for me and this mission which is sad to say that I only have a year left to help people and to clear up some misconceptions that people in the south may have about us. Well anyway, on to the good news! This week we are going to have a baptism of a 8 year old less active member which is SO cool, we as missionaries have really been trying to help the family and her out, they are a really nice family which is so cool to see. but of course everyone on their mission thinks most of the members are cool.

other than that we have the members helping us find people to teach while we continue to work with those that we found for ourselves, the top three are

BreiAnna,
Cori,
Crimmins.

We are really trying to get things worked out in their minds to help them understand the truth that we share very poorly unless we have the spirit with us. Then it makes all the difference and they will get the "ah-ha" moments which we all get in our lives when we "figure" something out or something just clicks to make it so much easier.

Probably one of the coolest moments this week was when we were talking with our member who is friends with BreiAnna and she told him that she got an answer to her questions about the church and that it was all truth, so that was amazing and a real testimony builder for me, that God wants to and does answer our prayers.

A not so good moment was when we were tracting and a guy came to the door and just said to us "can you guys just go somewhere else, you knocked on my door like every two months, just go somewhere else, I'm tired of seeing you guys." Well sorry guy but we just can't not knock on your door, because there are only so many doors that we can knock on.

One more thing is that sleep is very a important part of life. and this letter will probably go through a lot of revisions before it comes out, why? because when you don't sleep well and drink enough water you brain doesn't think very well by itself and it also makes a lot of stupid and often mistakes which are funny.

Well that's about all the neat things that i can think of right now so until next week, keep up the good work and keep on truckin'

Jethro what is going on? you should take lots of photos.

Jan your amazing and i bet mom and the kids are just loving it there

Beetle your amazing and you really are doing great things in Chile, hey they were right, you are changing the world for the better.

Thad Really a Career that is neat and are you working on the same thing as you were before? or something completely different.

Hey Clint keep up the good work and remember to keep praying and reading.

Robyn your two little munchkins are so cute. and it's so cool to see sophia just doing her thing it must be driving you up the wall though

Ben Gaines two weeks is awesome and one more left your going to do great

Ben Francisco keep up the good work because i know that you'll do great.

Toni your awesome and don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.

Dad holy cow you sound busy and working like a mad man.

Mom your awesome and i love you

Love you all

Elder Matt Gillespie

Love is the Answer to Most of the Questions in my Heart

2010-10-04T15:57:00.000-07:00

Family Friends Countrymen Saints!

Hasn't this week been so good, it's starting to cool down everywhere in the northern hemisphere, sorry Beetle. i can wake up and feel the cool crisp air as i run. yes it's actually getting nice in Alabama, speaking of football way to go USU just wanted to throw that out there. but what everybody is still in awe over is General Conference. Wasn't that AMAZING, the theme that i got out of it was a return to the basics and what our basic knowledge is that sets us apart from other religions.

Well enough about that no need to rehash over what happened especially seeing how we'll all get it the next month with the ensign. So this week for me has been kind of crazy this week we said farewell to Elder Cox. thus leaving me the oldest in the apartment, which is kind of weird. but anyways the new kid is Elder Wardle. He's from Las Vegas and is with Elder Christensen who cover the Ozark branch or everything above 231 or most of the populated area of Ozark, but we have Fort Rucker, home to Army Aviation the helicopter side of aircraft. Elder Wardle reminds me a lot of Richard Wilkins just a happy go lucky guy, happy to be alive and in the process makes everyone else happy. so the dynamic of the apartment has changed, but for the better, or it's just a nice change to have.

So this week has been amazing if i haven't already said it, so yesterday we got called by the bishop to fill the font for a baptism in the morning and to also play the piano for said baptism, and it was just an amazing spirit that was felt in that service, then we had conference which again was amazing and very enlightening and then we felt prompted to go and give some bread to a ward member who needed that bread. When we arrived she told us that she just ran out of bread. and we came with some without even knowing that she needed it. Truly a miracle and then was able to give her a blessing which she told us was what she actually really needed and felt like a feather. so yesterday=awesome.

So now some insights off of conference a trend that i saw and felt was the need for everyone to receive a testimony of the cornerstones of our religion, what was inspired to me was that we now live in an age where we can't really hear the spirit, which is why many young people rely on their parents testimony, what we need to do to receive that gift is to quiet our surrounding, unplug the earphones and radio other distractions, Read study and ponder the scriptures. and to live what we believe. Pray to our father in heaven for a testimony. if we do the simple things that we were taught then we would receive the blessing of a testimony that would begin to grow and continue as we nourish it until we know without a doubt that it is real. remember to start off small and then the greatness will be able to grow out of us by the power of the Holy Ghost.

So all in all a really great week full of insights mostly from conference but all from the Holy Ghost.

To finish it all off congrats on the new child Eliza and hopefully she won't start beating Anna in weight gaining to quickly and it dose sound like quite a little party going on in the valley of Utah. and it should be getting more crazy in just a couple of weeks.

Ben Francisco that little town doesn't sound very slowly going but i bet your going to learn a lot from being there keep up the good work.

Jan your such an amazing mom and i bet clarky and eva are going to be best of pals their entire life.

Ben Gains how does it feel to be a dad two times over? i bet it feels awesome!

Jethrobyn you guys are just so cool Robyn i want a lot of photos when beetle gets back just to let you know and Jethro i really couldn't remember even if you did use the same lines over again, and yes we need to watch that when we get back but after i get readjusted, if that happens.

Toni = great mom who was taught by a great mom who was taught by a great mom... and there we see council in action.

Thad Where did you go? by what i gathered you were a miracle for the drive back to Utah, why am i not surprised at that? what were some of the games that you played with the kids?

Beetle how awesome is it that you and i just had Conference together. i say totally awesome.

I love you guys all so much keep up the good work and remember we can choose to love or to hate.

Love

Elder Matthew Gillespie

Ringworm!

2010-09-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody guess what i figured out!!! that ringworm really doesn't have a worm but is actually a fungus, and that it's on my arm, thank goodness for anti fungal cream.

to describe how i feel right now is just way to hard to do... I'm just so happy and excited and glad to see how everything is starting to "fall" in to place. so the biggest news from me about myself is that I'm staying here in Ozark. so the total time will be about 7.5 months. AWESOME! what makes it so good is that everybody in the ward basically knows me and now feel more comfortable around me and hopefully won't be afraid of letting us talk to their friends about the gospel. so cool story last night we had dinner at the Jones', and one of the sons brought over one of his friends which he had given a Book of Mormon to and who has been reading it. so before dinner we, me, Elder Lake, Bro. Jones, Sis. Jones, Daniel, and friend had an hour discussion on the gospel and what it is and all sorts of topics under the sun and we all got something out of it, and it was a great ending to a fast Sunday.

well anyways this last Sunday we were able to talk to the young women about missionary work, which I think they really did enjoy and were very happy to have us there to explain how to be a better missionary and also a better example of Jesus Christ to their friends and associates. and they wanted us to come back and teach them more about every month or so, that is neat.

This week we had the AP's come through after the Person conference, and told us that we are doing the right thing and that we are where we are supposed to be, which is a great relief from being spiritually punched in the gut, and not feeling so good about it. This has just been a really great time to serve. and the great thing is that it's finally cooling off from the 100's to the 90's to the 80's hopefully this week. That would be awesome!!! I almost forgot what it's like not to sweat when you walk outside.

So anyways this week has again been a blur and a drag, funny how that works, well we have a great opportunity to be trained on what we need to do to become a better missionary and to become a better citizen and son, father, etc. what it means to me is to bridge the gap between what i know (mind) to how i know (heart) to put it in a simpler terms is to get a testimony of truth that the Holy Ghost will testify of. so what do I know, I know that God loves me very much, that he wants me to come back to him a better person then when i left him, i know that families are supposed to be together for eternity, and that was revealed to Joseph Smith and also he was a prophet of God who translated the Book of Mormon which was written for our day. I'm excited to hear from the prophet of the lamb this week and that the Holy Ghost will testify of the truth and answer the prayers and questions that i have. I know that Christ paid the price for me to come back to heavenly father as long as I'm willing to keep the commandment and follow example in all that I do. I love my family and the church this I say in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

I love all you guys and can't wait to hear from the prophet.

Toni just have your baby already and I would like to know the name.

Ben keep up the good work as a dad

Mom I bet you are super excited about having Jan back home and to play with all the grand kids, give them a big hug from me.

Jan Just keep on keepin' on. you can do it!

Dad what's new in your life?

Thad Way to get a career started. your going to do amazing.

Beetle Run for the Roses! that will probably be repeated many times before your home.

Jethro you looked stylin' so did you Robyn more pictures please.

Hot Dog Breath

2010-09-20T20:27:00.000-07:00

Elder Lake is a Great companion who is really up to date with working and knows a lot about everything, it seems like he's been out almost as long as i've been out or at least that's the way I treat him. and that is how he responds

Remember the taste you have when you wake up in the morning i call it hot dog breath i don't know how i got it, because we don't have any hot dogs in the fridge and i don't think i eat during my sleep but you never know for sure. well anyways today has been a bad day for that and it's been with me this entire week. probably a little to much info.

So this week sound like it's been crazy for everyone and this next week sounds like another one too. and i'm so excited.

Just a little bit from this week is umm... we continue to push forward with missionary work and it seems that it is starting to show up. We have some really solid investigators and some that could become more and more availible to us as we continue to work. This last week we had a great time with a member in the ward getting ready for a southern luau which was pretty good fun and just a nice time to be with all the members of the neighborhood and it's definitely something like what i want to do when i'm back. Just a nice big block party. Some other great parts of this week starting backwards. we had a great lesson/spiritual thought with a member after dinner. Don't worry mom i'm being fed plenty, so much so that i'll need to work some off. Me and you Ben. Sunday afternoon we took two of the priests out tracting and they did a really good job. They don't seem to be too nervous about sharing a message or knocking on doors, something that just doesn't happen in Utah. Well anyway, Daniel Jones was able to give out a book of mormon with elder lake while i and Jordan Hughes continued down the street, and hopefully my goal will be complete of knocking on every single house in ozark before i'm gone. In church we had a great lesson with a W.O.C. student. and he seems to understand a lot of what we are saying and has a lot of good friends to help him in this little quest that he has undertaken. We are so glad to be a part of it. so small miracle right here, all the class rooms in the building are full during the second hour so we, me and Elder Lake, are trying to find a place where we could teach Bro Crimmins, also the ward wants to start a temple prep class and that is being held in the library, well this week we found out that they are post-poning it till Oct 10 so that left one room open for us to use. and we have one more week until Crimmins graduates along with a lot of other people that are in his class. so it's all going to fall into place.

We have also had some great lessons with a kid named Cori Kelley who kind of reminds me of myself and wants to learn a lot more, we are just trying to meet up with him as often as we can because he could be a great in the church.

umm... so what else happened this week. to be honest it's felt like a month since Elder Person came through and everyday just seems the same except for sunday. but we have had some good split opportunities and chances to meet with the ward members. so all in all life is going good and crazy and i could fall asleep at the drop of a hat, still. and i'm guessing it doesn't get any better when i get back or married or have kids etc. etc.

well do great and stay strong and serve selflessly.

Toniben I can't wait to hear the name and the photos. She's going to be beautiful I already know it.

Janben what a grand adventure awaits both of you and i can't wait to hear about it.

Thad you're such a great brother. and i know that's a great calling for you. you should talk to Ben about presentations he has done a few.

Jethrobyn. i loved the photos and the great things your doing, robyn you know that your a great mom and by doing what you feel like you should will only make you better. jethro, i like the title but i'm not an artist so i can't give you really any ideas, and i haven't seen what your doing so i don't know either.

Dad that is such GREAT news and i'm glad your leaving the mattcave alone for now. your going to have such a fun time when jan comes back. also how are the chelaks doing, do they like timpview? what grades are they in?

Mom you sound like your going to be chest deep in work and such. and did you know that i love you and your an amazing mom, thank you for all that you've done.

to everyone else, feel free to write me either an email or letter i would appreciate it

mgillespie@myldsmail.net

or

79B Woodview Drive
Ozark Alabama 36360

until next week, when transfers comes out then i'll know for sure for another 6 weeks.

Love Elder Gillespie

Ben gains did you know a Elder Chamberlain?
Thad did you ever hear about Elder Barrington?
just a few people i've met.

old tractor looks familiar

another practical joke

a trailor addition. only in the south.

Elder Lake

a practical joke of about 355 Lbs

Pants after a service project Deshingling

Canker sore that i'm still getting over. 5+ weeks

Spirit PUNCH!

2010-09-14T15:10:00.000-07:00

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

It feels like football

2010-09-07T20:21:00.001-07:00

Hello Everybody! How is everything back at home? Good. Well a little bit from this side of the Mississippi river. . .Well it's a weird feeling when you start out tracting and it just feels like a crisp october day when your ready to play football, and it's still in the 90's and 50% humitiy. So i think i might be wiggin' out a bit but only about a year left before my brain is completely fried. Well this week has been really good. It climaxed with Zone Conference where we can tell that President Jensen is really starting to get things going. He's seen where we as missionaries can improve and has shown us a lot of love and concern and what we try to accomplish. We try our best to do our part and the Lord will make up for the rest. During his time, President Jensen is building upon the foundation that President Summerhays laid, from the words of Elder Westcott, a member in the district. he's really smart and a great example to me of being a father. He and sister Westcott are the senior couple serving in Eufaula. So anyways things going on in the ward....

We are trying to get with a less active family to teach the youngest daughter who is eight and wants to get baptized but the mother wants her to go through the lessons before she makes that commitment. So it's our goal to get her ready before october. The funny thing is that when you try to do something good the people you want to teach just seem to disappear. But we'll find her soon and get her ready. umm... the sad part of serving in such a small area is that every one has heard what we have to say a couple of times already so tracting isn't as fun as i thought it would be and those you try to help lose interest pretty fast, especially when they don't do anything for commitments. so again the purpose to this missionary is finding, finding, finding.

We are also trying to get some of the members involved in missionary work, mostly the young men in respect to tracting and getting some time underneath their belt so they aren't completely confused when they get out to the field. Every time that we have them with us we get into at least one house, but they end up not being interested, which is a bummer. Well anyways the people in the south are very nice and usually courteous to us which is a plus. so we keep plugging away and keep on keepin' on.

I'm so glad to be here right now i'm learning so much from being in the service of the Lord and so grateful for what he has done for me and i know that as i try to do my best that he's going to make up for my short comings and is going to inspire me with what i need to do to further his work. I love you all so much

Elder Gillespie

Roxanna keep me updated, and tell ryan that he's doing a great job and is going to do an amazing job. thanks for everything.

Janben your kids are growing up so fast I can't believe it. and way to get everything situated for your trip; do amazing things ok.

Jethrobyn try to get sophia to speak and say tallahassee that would be just an amazing flash back. Lincoln is starting to shy away from toy story?!? what is the world coming to! keep up the good work.

Toniben i didn't realize that baby sister is coming so quickly you'll have to decide pretty quick on a name so far the best i've heard is ABCDE (ah-bee-cee-dee) sounds like obesity. just a name maybe you are thinking about.

Thad HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! how often do i get to wish you a happy birthday on your birthday on a mission? well to answer that not very often.

Beetle agreed a good birthday present. and i think i've still got you beat. keep up the good work and i Know that you'll do amazing.

Dad A sauna? maybe a steam room? i don't know but that's amazing that you've got that in the garage you are just such a busy bee. and i think that by the time i do get back i really won't have any project to help you with at home just at the Logan house.

Mom your the best and Elder Christensen is doing very well and it's not a serious problem thank goodness.

I love you all so much

Elder Gillespie

Cake is not a good breakfast

2010-08-30T12:55:00.000-07:00

Hello this week has been one of heat and of rain. This week has been a bit crazy and again full of service and other opportunities. One that comes to mind is trimming someones rose bush in her yard which we were able to get a hold of because of our other service at hospice. She is on it and one of the nurses said that she needed some help and that she told her, the lady who is sick, about us so we called and what do you know more service, Other than that we moved somebody out of the ward and that was a neat little thing. Other than that a lot of tracting, so far i've tracted more with Elder Lake in Ozark than I have with any other companion. My goal is to get the entire area of Ozark south of 231 tracted, and so far i've got about an 8th done. Other than that we had an amazing miracle happen on Sunday where about 12 to 15 new military people showed up for church, most of them are WOC students Warrant Officer Candidate or AIT Advanced Individualized Training. so it's all the people who are learning how to fly helicopters or the people that are going to make the helicopters run or something. As missionaries we really can't talk to them because they are restricted on who they can see and what they can do. The military tells them what to do at all times. So from all these people that showed up that I and Elder Lake had no idea who they were we were able to get about 6 Book of Mormons out to them. About half were not members so it was definitely an awesome experience. Another little miracle is that a guy just came into church and was wondering if this was the right church he was supposed to go to. We had great members just take him under their wing and get things going for us. We have a lesson with him on Tuesday and that is planning to be a good little lesson. Other than that things here are about the same the work is starting to move forward as we, me and Elder Lake, along with a lot of prayers are starting to get a lot done. At least that's what i think

Love Elder Gillespie

Thad you were pretty close and i guess i left out a few details but the senior couple are working in Eufalla which is it's own area. and they come down for district meeting every Tuesday.

Robyn, yes the world is going to the pot but we don't have to and that's the great thing, like most of the people down here they are mostly god fearing people but of course you have those stupid party people who are up into the wee hours of the morning and who usually get into more trouble and get themselves out of the gene pool. but all in all nice people if your nice to them. Also way to use your resources.

Jethro, Keep up the good work, and yes it is starting to cool off for the first time. thanks to rain and clouds.

Ben you are just a travelin' man. do you ever play that song on your way home, or to the plane i think that should be your new theme song.

Love you guys my time is about up.

I'm a proud father!

2010-08-23T12:55:00.001-07:00

Well doc. tell me....

He's a bouncing baby boy! and his name is Elder Lake! He's such a great guy I know that this is quite a different experience from what he's use to and what I'm going through, but a great experience none the less. Elder Lake is from Portland Oregon and did a year at BYU before he came out and he's missing his family a bit right now. Well I can't blame him he just left them so, but a great guy. and he doesn't talk a lot about it but he's just like every other missionary, scared nervous and doesn't know what to do. Which has gotten me out of my little shell of comfort which I know is going to be a good thing.

As for the week it's been a busy one. Monday we celebrated Butikofers B-day and had quite a good time doing it. We had a lot of fun with the other missionaries in the apartment. Tuesday started packing up everything and said our goodbyes to people in the ward. which was a sad day for Buti (Boo-Tee) and then wednesday morning bright and early we headed out for cottondale to meet the new missionaries. so we got there and waited and waited until about 30 minutes behind schedule the van showed up. It was quite a festive day for all of us with about 30 missionaries there. Which made some of the customers in the chevron which we meet at a bit nervous. In fact one of them was a bit angry that we were spreading the gospel and said that should be reserved for people that are older and he thought about coming out to "teach" us what the truth really is, and that the bible is the real and only word of god. So i laughed on the inside about that. I found my new comp. Elder Lake bright eyed and probably a bit nervous about the whole thing, which was very much the same on my end. I was worried that I was going to have somebody that either was completely anti-social or someone who didn't want to follow the rules which made me nervous. So we both felt really calm after our drive home.

Which leads us to Thursday, a day full of service and of getting things rolling and breaking him into the mission. I've heard that is one of the hardest things to do. He just took everything in stride and has been doing really good ever since he set foot on the ground. That day we had some drama in the ward which we were hooked into which again really broke Lake into the mission, but we had a good night after that. Now it's Friday, we get up, get ready and head out and it's going well and we get prompted to head to a service project that was going to happen the next day, and we showed up just in time to help out a lot with getting things ready for the next day. After that we had some good time just going with the spirit. Really this has been a good week. I just can't remember it all. I must say though is that finding stuff for us to do on splits is really getting hard when you don't have anyone to teach. So we're working on that.

Saturday we woke up early and headed to the service project where we helped out for 4 to 5 hours and by the time we finished with that I had only half of my shins dry on my pants. I'll send a photo out but to say it another way there was about 8 inches of me that wasn't wet from sweat. Again it's hot down here and it doesn't help that it keeps on raining every afternoon to bring the humidity up. and then went out after I crashed from service. I couldn't go any longer until I had a nap. So I got up and we started again which ended up being a great day again. On to Sunday where i finally had one of those ah-ha moments where things that were being taught all started coming together, and I felt really small but enlightened at the same moment, i can definitely tell a difference from the blessings of training and being with just a normal companion. It's been again an awesome day.

So what's the story? or what's the point? I don't know for sure but i'll tell you this that when you communicate with God you then have the most powerful being in the universe trying to help you understand and help you out whatever your problem or concerns maybe. So that's what I think is really helping me out because I don't know what I'm doing exactly but I know that God really wants to help me out. I just have to listen to what he's saying to me, which again I'm having some trouble doing, but I think it's getting better.

Mina Your awesome keep up the good work.

Sophie Lee: I got your missionary mail, funny story it got sent to a kid in france, Cutler something so that was neat, also what's your email/when are you coming back. and keep having fun in Cairo or as they say in georgia K-row

Robyn thank you for the question and i'll write you an actual letter shortly.

Jethro keep up the good work and I would agree with the doctor less sugar more exercise. and when I come back we'll have to do some more of that together, with ben so we can all get huge or lean

Thad I like the advice thank you for it i'm trying to be nice but at the same time working hard which is what i want to do. i don't want to kill myself or Lake before we leave.

Jan i don't know of any games that you could play with them, other than having a singing time with them, like we use to do on road trips. e.g., family toothbrush, bring back my neighbors, or I spy, guess what i'm thinking? etc.

Dad you're really ambitious, keep up the good work and I can't believe that you put in a new window, I'm not even going to come back to the same house that i left from. weird.

Mom Yes i agree dad does love you which is something that a lot of people I feel are missing in their lives. your such a great mom I can't believe I get you to be my mom.

Beetle 'Nuff said.

Love Elder Gillespie

A mouth full of cankers

2010-08-16T12:17:00.000-07:00

Hello-everybody!

So this week has been kind of boring except for the fact that i've got 4 different canker sores in my mouth at this time. One on my tongue, one on my lip, one on the roof of my mouth, and the last one on the back of my throat. so for the last week the pain has changed places first from my tongue to my lip then the back of my throat which is where it has stayed most of the time. and has caused me the most pain, ex. trying to swallow is definitely a difficult process. so to say the least i've been building up my pain tolerance. you have to look on the sunny side otherwise you're just going to be miserable. Well enough about me, this week has been a week of service. Wednesday we mowed a less active's yard, and moved in someone on post. Thursday we destroyed a shed for someone at hospice. Then Saturday we were in a members attic fixing a leak/AC problem. and in all cases I decide to wear the same work-out uniform, which was jeans, and the Stevens-Henager college shirt that i have. which ended up being a terrible idea. By the time it was time to go to the attic i could smell myself which wasn't a good thing so enough about the nastiness of the life of a missionary, so far this has been a great week, most of the time not doing service for others we have been trying to find more people to teach/invite to church. which there has been limited "success" but we are still trying to do what we can and to help out other people where ever we can.

so other news I'm now staying here in Ozark for another 6 weeks where i am going to be a father. yes I'm going to train this next transfer which is going to be a definite learning curve for me and for my son, but it should be alright. after all it's not going to be that bad.

oh!!! cool experience SO!... the district that I'm in charge of we got a new addition to the group a lovely couple by the name of the Westscotts. they have a lot of experiences that they are willing to share which is always awesome. well their car broke down in the parking lot of the church when we were about to leave and we started to find out what was going on. so we looked at everything and then all of us looked at each other and then all knew that we had no idea what was going on. so we called one of the members in the ward who is an amazing car mechanic and he came out to the rescue found out the problem of a new starter in seconds flat and with a few magic moves was able to get the car going so they could drive over to his house where he could fix it in a jiffy... now this couple is so cool they just know that everything that the lord has done for them is a blessing and they were again able to find the good side of life. Had they gone to the other district where they had been going, no one there, that i know of, knows how to fix cars but since they came here they were able to get their car fixed and going on the way without a problem and for a lot less then if they had to take it to an auto place.

so there is a miracle of the day/week that God knows what needs to happen and is going to provide whenever we need the help that we ask for.

also Way to Be by Gordon B. Hinckley is definitely a favorite and a easy read, no more than 2.5 hours. and full of good stuff.

Jethro I hope that this is suffice for your expectations and it's just been a normal week

Jan, agreed the baby Myra is definitely a cutie and so are the rest of the kids.

Robyn I can't believe that you've got such a great sight on the milky way i thought being so close to the city would of destroyed that possibility.

Camille thanks for being a solid friend and you shouldn't stress to much that only leads to more problem ex. canker sores. etc..

Thad where did you go?

Ben agreed a good cleansing full of fiber and such, it's the best i know. but i also know what you mean, i've put on about 20-25lbs. so far. we'll have to get lean together.

Toni Keep up the good work, it's so cool you got to hang out with Rex he sounds just like a Clark/Thad mix. and have fun. but not too much

Beetle do you have any suggestions on training? it's definitely different.

Dad keep up the good work but don't be a mean hermit, people don't like that too much.

Mom your awesome. and i love you.

I love you all.

Elder Gillespie

Why was 9 afraid of 7...

2010-08-09T19:28:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody!

Well another week has flown by and it doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. This week was full of tracting and of sweating and of a lot of different types of people who for some reason are just the same as everyone else but are completely different. So this week has been a week of finding and of more finding, so this will probably be what is going to be the line of this week and next weeks letters. umm... other than that we are now trying as missionaries to do some practice teaching with members so they can then give us some pointers and so we as missionaries can stay relatively sharp on teaching. which should always be done with the spirit. which is some thing I'm trying to work on this week, I've found out that i've got a little bit out of practice with that and it's something that I really need to try to focus on. But yeah this week has just been another week. Kind of slow and hum drum. but it's something that just goes on. No new stories other than people in general are nice as long as you are respectful to them.

Love

Elder Gillespie

Congrats to Myra you'll have to send photos when you can. also Jan take it easy this week, it'll be alright.

Congrats to Bret and Michelle and you'll have to send photos too.

Toni Way to go your doing such a good job with the PT and you'll have to put that up as a blog post.

Lincoln you are awesome for your enthusiasm, keep it up and be nice to your parents they love you and want the best for you, for example, bed time.

Beetle I'm always a week late but keep it up. You're awesome and time is just flying by.

Mom you're awesome and i couldn't be happier with a different mom.

Dad Keep up the good work, just stay out of trouble.

Time flies like an Arrow...

2010-08-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

Fruit-flies Like A Banana.

Hello to all readers and writers. This week has been a good week, it's hard to tell when one week starts and the next one ends. So if i repeat myself, my bad. So we have had quite a few influxes of people coming to Post, and also quite a few leaving. It's always sad to see families leave that you have really grown close to, but it's great to introduce and make new friends with people who are looking forward to working with you, not only as a missionary but also as a individual. One family that is leaving is the Dyer family. They were actually the first people i had a dinner appointment with and it was so great because it really did feel like home when i was there. So much so that i almost told brother Dyer "thank you so much thad" not only because he acted like thad but that he also looks like thad. But on the other side of things we moved in a new family on to Post and they are the Henrettys. They are pretty new to the gospel and are really happy to see us missionaries and really want to do the right things, so we want to help them get as close as they can towards temple which they are going to soon which is so exciting to hear. They are going to be here for the next two years which is so exciting because they have the opportunity to grow so much being here. I'm excited to serve them.

so other exciting news. I went to another church this sunday and it was a very interesting experience, we went because someone at hospice, one of the nurses invited us. It was a non denominational church so it was a different experience. They really had a great organization with all the small children going to nursery and they would even change diapers and feed them and anything else that needed to be done to keep them happy. Then they had a group of kids a bit older who had their own area where they could play games, have a lesson and interact with each other. They then had the adult room or sanctuary where they would give their sermons. So as we sat down we saw three projection screens up the wall with a count down till the service started along with that they had four or five cameras so those that couldn't see the stage could see it up on the screen. They also had on the back of the stage cyce lights with at least 5 different gels or colors which would flash according to the music. It brought back a lot of memories from tech crew. I really wanted to see the sound board and light board that they had. Well anyway I had a really great time watching the performances and to see the nurse perform her dance number with her group. All in all a fun experience.We then went to church where it just felt different and it was just a great time in a different sense.

As for what i've been learning this week it's been focused on "Who Am I" which started out with Mosiah 2-6 and then a couple of general conference talks and today was on Alma 5 and what i've learned is that I am only with christ if i am completely with him and I need to get rid of all the pride that i do have so that i may come closer to him and receive his image in me. This can only happen if i have a might change of heart. I have the key to my heart and i have to open it up to God so that he can then change me not only spiritually, but also physically and emotionally too. This is what i love about the gospel is that not only do we have more scripture to understand more but we have living prophets who have been given revelation about each subject that I have, and if it doesn't make sense i can then go to the source where we can then learn all things. which is the unique message that we share and which one of our investigators is starting to understand.

Well that's about it for me. Thank you so much for all that you have done for me. I couldn't have gotten this far without all of your help.

Love Elder Gillespie

Robyn Happy birthday and I'm glad that you had an enjoyable time at Longhorns and yes the Steaks there are SOOOOoooo good. and lincoln is such a funny little camper. and sophie definitely is going to be a clown.

Ben Gains I can totally understand what you mean when you don't want to go out when it's a festive occasion. but you don't want to be crazy and not celebrate that would just be unfair to all of us and that cake is also one of the tops.

Ben Francisco or should i say Dr. Francisco haha just wanted to throw that one in. Sad news about the car but great news about one year left in school. and a new father soon. hurray. along with a great birthday.

Camille you sound like a missionary here in ozark it seems that either someone moving out or in is asking for help, which i love to do because i actually get to move. and i really hope you are feeling better.

Jethro I don't give good advice i just speak my mind which i usually don't realize till after it's been said which ends up with foot in mouth disease which people don't have a cure for yet.

Jan Poor car I'm so glad that you guys are doing alright though that makes life a lot easier.

Beetle way to go on transfers back to your old stomping grounds while i've really got a clue where that is compared to where you are now i bet your going to do great and it seems like time on both our sides is going so quick, like you've only got a few months left.

Dad i agree with what you said about D&C 121 it's a bit selfish but in the end it all works out, in fact that's one of the thoughts that came to my mind when i read it when i got here.

Mom you are awesome and i love you I hope your ready for your flight and make sure clark and eva get a big old hug from me ok.

Sweat like a Shower

2010-07-26T20:27:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-19T19:35:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-05T18:46:00.000-07:00

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.

Booby traps from Buti

2010-06-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

And Away We GOOOOO!!!

Well to be honest i can't believe how fast this week has gone by, and to tell you the truth i can't really say what happened this week it just seems to be a blur to me right now. so let me think for a bit.

So the cool thing that really has happened this week is that Anthony and Victoria are going to get married, and the colors are baby blue and white. they are getting engaged in december and married in august. which is HUGE progress, and like Dr Marvin says baby steps, baby steps. so we are continueing to work with them and hopefully i'll get a wedding invite from them which will be neat.

Some other news it is offical people still are calling us a cult and it's still alive and true in the south. yep Meka was told by a family member not to talk to us because yes we are a cult and we don't believe that Christ is our Savior but is only a prophet. so after a long conversation on the phone she calmed down quite a bit, those phone calls are always fun, not only because it's an easy way to bear testimony but it also helps the other person out more than i can think of.

this week we also had a great time with a Game Night where we had a members invite their friends to play games with each other, we had all types of games from settlers to uno to phase ten to apples to apples. all types of games under the sun, not only was it a good activity to have members get to know each other better but it also helped investigators to realize that we aren't a cult. we had a pretty good turn out which really helped the newer people get to know some of the other people.

I think that most of our time went to a less active family were the youngest got the Aaronic Priesthood this week and also we were able to really get to know them better, and to mend bridges that were once damaged. so that was a really good turning point in our life in ozark south area.

for me i think that this week is best defined as actually sumbitting myslef to gods will instead of trying to bend god to my will, and because of that it not only makes me a LOT happier, but it also helps me become the type of missionary/person that i was called to become. it just makes life easier to know that all the little things that are going on and that even if i did slip up on one little rule here is my chance to change what I should change, and to put it in simplier terms to love god with all my might heart mind and soul. Because then i know that if i'm loving God then the rest of will just fall into place. I'll wake up on time so i can then spend more time with my God then resting from the last days activities. that was a very much a turning point in this week for me, to realize that yes God loves me but expects me to do my best and not do all the work for me.

so yeah it's been a good week but also a fast week as well.

beware of the traps that are always being laid especially from your companion, like the plastic you put infront of you computer so it dosen't mess up the carpet, that's been fliped upside down. with the pokie things sticking up. yes beware.

Jan where have you gone? i miss you and your letters/ blog posts /photos of the kids.

Jethro well first of all yes i agree we need to watch raising arizona and many other great movies, as for the assignement, First Elder Butikofer likes Arnold Swarzinager and wants to be a bodybuilder. Second he LOVES Halo and everything that goes along with that. Third over the last couple of nights he has been setting up booby traps around the house. Forth he is just a goof ball and a funny guy to be around, and reminds me a lot of Zach Spencer especially when zach gets excited. Fifth he knows that the Zombie apocolipse is going to happen any day and to kill a zombie you need to decapitate it. so far the funnest missionary i've been with, even though i've been a little stinker for a bit, but i'm out of that grove.

Thad Way to go on reading the scriptures and also trying to stay productive. and i would say that you should try to do the next shifts job so they don't have to do it. but if it's the same then i'm out of ideas. have fun with the road trip.

Toni i think it just might be being pregnant that make life seem a bit harder. but then again i've never been there, so you'll just need to relaxe and quit worring about stuff you can't control.

Camille happy 21 birthday you are now an offical adult.

Jon even though you were the odd man out you'll soon realize that your going to be wearing that type of clothing every single day FYI

Roxanne You NEED to keep me updated on this whole mission thing, because it's always a blast to know where a new missionary is going, my guess is Quebec Canada

One final farewell. . .

2010-06-21T09:46:00.000-07:00

What's up Buddy!

well everything is going really good down here on Fort Rucker. the members are feeding us very well and we keep helping people move in or preach the gospel.

so first of all the biggest thing is that we got Meka to come to church this week, she's a great lady from Wal-mart who just loves being friendly to us, well we had a great time in a lesson with her on Friday it was really good and we had member come with us which makes lessons so much easier, well anyways after the lesson we helped her get some stuff out of her old apartment and it was just a neat experience to help her out not only spiritually but also physically.

the other neat thing this week was we went tracting in a neighborhood and we were able to teach somebody and even have a return appointment, something that doesn't really happen it's really cool her name is Betty Mathew she's again a sweet lady and had talked to the missionaries before and i think she really liked what we presented so hopefully this will turn out to be a really good thing and we'll be able to help her along the way along with us.

other than that life has been marching on faster and faster than i can imagine, it feel like i just got out of this library to email you guys and now i'm back in here doing it again.

alright other than that the neat experience that i had was we went to a surprise party for President Summerhays to wish him one final goodbye and to see him one more time, can i just tell you that he is just such a great man and has changed my life for the better and i'll be indebted to him forever, but i guess that's what all the missionaries say about their Mission President. well anyways I'm going to miss them quite a bit, but it really doesn't matter who it is. all that matters is if i'm doing what's right day by day and if the person above me is doing what's right day by day, and then finally if i'm serving the lord with all my strength and might and mind and soul. because at the end of the day that's the person i report to.

well this has been a short letter but i must admit it's just like every other week. sleep, eat, preach, repeat.

I love you guys and i'll send you an update as soon as i get to know the new mission president, President Jensen.

Ben, that movie sounds powerful so your going to have to buy it so i can watch it as soon as i get back. and to answer your question, when i don't respond it's because you either don't ask me questions or i just don't get an email. you might of last week but i might of sent it before i got it, FYI.

Jethrothad Sounds like it's always a party with you guys and thad you've been up and down so many times from Logan I just can't believe it. but your doing quite a good job sub-ing for me and beetle, thanks and jethro way to be the man of the house and i can tell that not taking a job has really been a blessing not only for robyn but also the kids and yourself. you are doing what your supposed to be doing. and the lord will provide for what you need.

Robyn I can't believe that Sophiemargot is starting to walk, it doesn't seem possible when i left she was still just a little ball you just held and occasionally had to pull back from the table. so she wouldn't grab stuff. also the kids should not be talking so much by the time i get back I'll actually be able to understand them, which is freaking me out just a bit. as for the stuff, just send some extra love maybe a good old cd that would be nice.

Beetle can you believe that you only have like 4 transfers left you'll have to tell me as soon as you know about where your going during your next transfer which is coming up!!! and you'll have to take care of all the youngens when you get back, for me please....

Mom it's alright to talk about home and what you've done in the week, it makes it more personal than just uplifting words, not to shoot you down but i'm reading those things all day everyday, it's just nice to have a little break to know how you are doing.

to everyone else Please Email so i can write you back. No matter what you say it's important and I do miss you.

Elder Gillespie

Cell-o you've got a bass

2010-06-14T20:32:00.000-07:00

So how is everything going on west of the Mississippi?... well that's sounds great everything here is going pretty good. this week has been kind of slow but it's definitely not been a slow week, so lets start of at the beginning, a very good place to start.

so the stage is set, Me and Elder Butikofer come back to the apartment after having a great dinner on Post (Base) and visiting a couple of people as well. so as we stumble back into the apartment we get ready for bed, when Elder B. start to itch everywhere, and he starts having hives break out all over him. well he just thought that it's just a random thing and he'll get over it during the night.

the next morning he wakes up and is miserable and doesn't feel quite like himself, so he goes to the store early in the morning and gets some Benadryl and that should take care of the problem. right? ummm..... not so much so he continues to take the pills and now his body is well covered in swelling and full of red marks that are on his arms and elbows and hands and waist and knees and so on. note Elder Butikofer has been betrothed to a girl back home named bridgette and i've heard nothing but good about her, and he also has a ring from her like a wedding band. so monday he continues to deal with swelling and the itching and calls the mission nurse and she gives him some more ideas. and all this time we are trying to figure out what is going on and why does he continue to break out and itch so bad, and we think that it's a food allergy or maybe something else, we are shooting a moving target in the dark.... so monday night comes and B. starts breaking out again and it just keeps getting more and more swelling so again we think that in the morning it'll get better. we go to sleep or at least i do, then about 3 am i wake up and pee, nothing new there, and Butikofer walks to me and says hey this isn't getting better, at this point we agree at the same time it's time to go to the doctor. so we jump in the car and start heading to the hospital, right now B's hands look like they have been inflated and or look like sausages with a ring that doesn't want to come off. the hand looked like it was eating the ring. we get to the ER and look and... nobody was there, so we get in and he is getting treated immediately which was such a great relief, he went in and it only took about a half an hour for them to get him a Benadryl shot, and cut of the ring, which he hasn't ever taken off for about a year. so we came back home to Elder Cox just chill'n on the couch reading and Elder O'niones comes out for a drink of water while we are just on the couch and he is taken back that this is happening and just heads back to bed, i'm still wired so i read a little bit before i realize that i'm falling asleep, which is happening quite a bit. well anyways we wake up the next morning and go to work and we take it easy just so we don't make it worse still not knowing what's going on. this continues for the next couple of days that Butikofer breaks out for some reason. we were able to get a prescription so that he wouldn't break out but i don't think it work. so anyways the days go by and we finally just tough it out till we get to Zone Conference, which was a very special meeting and everybody who needed something to get answered got the answer through the holy ghost. that was a very very good meeting and the best news that i got was that I'm on the right track and i'll be alright i just need to set and keep the pattern here on the mission so i become a new person when i get home.

with all that we also got some more enlightenment from Sister Summerhays who has become our nurse and she told us what to do to get rid of the breaking out, the interesting part of this is it wasn't until we got back to the apartment the Elder B. broke out so we think as of right now that it's something in the apartment which is making him break out well we got everything working the way it's supposed to and all that other stuff, and even called the mission doctor and he gave us the best information about it that it's probably just a virus that made him break out with hives. so that was the really neat thing about this whole trial that it was going to be alright be that we needed to rely on the lord, even though he wasn't going to take away the illness he was going to comfort us and help us through the trials so that we may know how to help other people and how to get through the hard times and also to make us not whine so much.

well that's the exciting things going on in the Ozark area, we have been having a great time and this week looks a lot better with no illness in the forecast, just a lot of thunderstorms which are my favorite. by the way thanks for the photos Robyn

Mom, you're the best how else can i say it.

Toni, could you do me a favor again... i ran out of stationary but only if you want to.

Jan, you'll have to tell me where you guys are so i can send some letters or stuff.

Jethro, Great letter and on sugguestion, if you come with a question to church it'll will get answered, but you have to pay attention, also i'm jealous of the playing with the kids and drawing.

John way to go! now the hard thing is not having you parents try to stop by while your there but you know you'll stay focused, and being in a states mission is so much better than you'll realize. one word Wal-Mart and is joe really almost home? and kick richard for me i don't know why just do it.

Dad it's good to hear about the new meds i'm glad your feeling alright just take it easy for a while ok, don't go to hard you might hurt yourself more than is necessary.

well all is well here because of the peace i feel through the Atonement of Christ. he makes everything feel right.

Love
Elder Matthew Gillespie

Relearning

2010-06-07T10:11:00.000-07:00

Ello Everybody,

well I guess a little from the front of the south, yes i'm becoming a true dixie, well probably not but it's fun to say anyways, so cool things in the week. well umm... nothing much has changed we still do the same thing everyday, visit less active members, tracting and eat food with poeple. One interesting thing that is going on is that some of the people we visited came to church this last week which was a really good success, it's always amazing to see the fire rebuilding in someones life. i guess that's what i'm here to do, to help people feel the spirit and come closer to Christ.

so now to something else, this week i've been studying in Jesus the Christ, and like everyone says the first part didn't really make sense but later on it makes so much more, and that's what i've found out, that the cool thing that i didn't realize before is that Jesus was just like each and everyone of us, he learned how to tie his shoes the same way and he learned that fires are hot and you shouldn't put your hand in it because it'll burn you, which is why i think he often talked about children as being the people that will enter into heaven, because they are so easy to influence that they can be changed into the people that god needs in his kingdom. the other cool thing is that no matter whay you read in the book of mormon you can always find something new and exciting that means so much to you on an individual level. and it's something that I need to improve on, instead of just reading be a pupil to god and learn what he wants me to learn. to be more observant. other than that i feel like i'm becoming more and more the person that i need to be.

well away from the spiritual side and to the fun side. we had a year mark party this last week, it was O'niones year mark and to celebrate we made a giant card, had a lot of streamer paper, lots of balloons and a cake. all in all a great success. so what we did is we started making a cake and then went to decorating the balloons and the room well to our surprise o'niones comes home early so we then shuffled him to his room blind folded and told him to wait till we were done. we then hurried to complete filling the 200 balloons and decorating the cake. which we did in no time at all. we then put all the balloons in the hallway and set a fan to blow into it to keep the balloons moving and to keep them from flying out we made a streamer tape mesh guard in the opening of the hallway. so at that point of having everything done we then let O' out of the room to celebrate which he did, all in all a great success. and to be one of the best year mark parties that anyone has ever had.

so now to something completely different, this week has also been a really great one to teach lessons over the last couple of days we have had the opportunity to really get to know and to teach powerfully, the first is Mekhah she's a really great lady who had a lot of trouble the last couple of weeks so she was really open to get to know us and has the potential to go really far. the other lesson that me and Elder Butikofer, was with Anthony we've been teaching him for a while but yesterday he really asked some good questions, that he was honestly asking, and i know that he got the answers he was in need of. which was a really cool experience. umm...

The work is going on and everything seems to be going really good, i'm happy and exhausted. just like every missionary should be.

Love Elder Matthew Gillespie

Toni you should keep writing because it's not boring and it also offers a different insight on how your doing, it also allows you to figure out what your problems are and what you should do to solve the situation. but i guess that doesn't always works with a two year old.

Thad. way to go on the roof, I bet that it went up faster than you even realized, especially with both Jethro and Dad both excellent at learning/figuring out how to roof.

Robyn those pictures are adorable and something that i can hardly wait to see. all those little guys we're going to have so many adventures when beetle and me get back you just won't know what to do.

Jethro. your advice couldn't have been any better, and goes along with what my mission president said today, that unless we commit ourselves to doing the best that we can then the lord will commit to bless us with all that he has.

Mom I love you SOOO MUCH and it sounds like you've had quite an experience this week so much so that grandma was so excited. i hope you guys kept good notes so i could relive it with you later, oh wait I don't have to do that because it'll keep on happening to every time there is a grandchild. by the way how are all the cousins. toby and zach and such.

Dad I don't quite believe you about you heath but you'll have to give me an update next week about the Dr. visit. but if you aren't lying then i'm so glad that you are feeling better.

Beetle you're awesome and i miss you but like you said we're in this together.

Memorial Day

2010-06-01T09:48:00.001-07:00

Hello Everybody

This week has been crazy, first of all we had transfers this week and so that meant that Elder Kanis needed to start packing up for the big move, and he went to De Funiak Spring Florida. and instead of being with Elder Crawford, i'm now with Elder Butikofer, he's from Idaho and he's really cool and a fun guy to be around. (sorry coach, but it's the truth) he's funny and reminds me of myself actually he's a hard worker and loves to have fun no matter what's going on. We have had some amazing experiences so far, he doesn't mind going tracting and so we try to do it as much as we can, which has actually ended up being very eventful.

First we started talking to a lot of people and a lot of people have taken quite a bit of material which has been a miracle.

Second since we started knocking we have been able to run into 3 Less Actives and are now trying to find their records so they can be a part of the ward. all of them seem pretty dang cool.

Third Elder Butikofer just fits in with every house hold, and have been able to get into peoples houses which before i wasn't able to get into.

Fourth we have gotten some pretty good referrals so far. one came yesterday, her name is Jennie she got referred by a friend so we went to her house and talked to her for a while and she just wants to read for herself but she seems so ready for the gospel.

Fifth he actually seems interested in what i say and wants to do stuff, and also is really big in to exercise so i think i'll be able to get pretty big this transfer.

Sixth as a "family" me Butikofer, O'niones, and Cox have come together to set some house rules or family rules, along with family Goals and Family themes nights. which so far have been really fun to do. and i'll tell more when i get home It'll be really fun to do.

Seventh it's like we just work together so well, so we should have some fun stories and hopefully we'll be able to be together for a while.

Eight We as a family got a new exercise piece of equipment, it's a full on weight machine be we still haven't quite put it all together, it's the dang cables and pullies that we don't understand how they go.

So all in all i could continue this list but it's just so easy to say that everything is just going the right way and i don't feel like i really deserve that. but maybe i'll help out the next place i'm at. this is going to be a great.

Janben, Way to go on the spanish language and i can't believe that your almost ready to go back to San Antonio, i can remember when mom and dad helped you guys move down their that was so quick i can't believe it.... does time just continue to go faster the older you get?

Jethroybn, your kids are adorable and you guys are doing great and i can't believe that it's summertime for school again. jethro your awesome, keep up the good work.

Toniben, Ben your job sounds like your the middle man between the engineers and the sales people, so you have to speak like 2 different languages and you have to understand all of what the customer wants, it sounds like your going to be in for a ride but the other thing is that you've always been able to go from the small fish to the big fish, so i think you'll own the company soon or at least be able to do something that will change the world.

Thad how's the work going? how do you keep yourself from not dying with that crazy work schedule? do you have too much free time or are you actually doing work? or to put it better do you know what's going on?

Beetle I got your letter and it was awesome i don't know if you sent another one but i got the one with some stickers and it was right after the phone call. I liked it a lot thank you again I miss you too and it's fun to hear about all the crazy things going on. but i can totally understand how to look on the bright side.

Love

Elder Gillespie

A Witty Title

2010-05-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody (Hi, Dr. Nick!)

alright now that we are all on the same page. lets talk some business. what's the down low in ozark alabama? well from last week not a whole lot, we continue to try to see every investigator that we have and also continue to try to find new investigators. which isn't going too well with everything, but you can't always have what you want. but what i do have i'm very grateful for especially a family, friends and a companions that work, and work together, which has happened.

So....

Miracles since last time. this last week I went on a trade-off with Elder Fox to Andalusia, another tiny town about 60 miles west and a bit south of ozark, but it is a beautiful town with a good-hearted people, which i was able to meet. well anyways during this trade-off i was able to just relax a bit and look at what problems were facing me and what kind of things i could do to change. which i was able to identify and just go full force at it. and since coming back i don't feel nearly as stressed or nearly as worried as i was before. so i'm just going forward with no problem or worries. well there are some but i'm working so this will be good.

as for another miracle.... remember how beetle talked about being a confessional box for people well she couldn't have described it better, but what the amazing thing was that me and my companion Elder Kanis were able to not only give advice but we were both thinking of the same thing to tell her what to do. which again is the small things in life which are really big, for me it represents that not only are we working together but that we both had the spirit which means that we are doing the right thing.

another little miracle and another fact about the gospel is that it is simple and true no matter where you go in the church, so in sacrament meeting we had amazing talks, and they all came across the same thing, or that's what i got out of it. and it's something that President Summerhays taught us. and it's simply "going with the PROS"

P for prayer, sincere prayer, a prayer where you are willing to act.

R is for Reading/ studying the scriptures, to feast upon the words of Christ

O is for Obedience, when obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment god will endow us with power. (President Benson)

S is for Service, going and doing the good things.

and that's what the gospel is when we do these things for ourselves and for others and God, we then access the Atonement of Christ which will not only make everything right in our life, but it will fix the problems we have and heal our broken hearts and hands so we can then help others. so we can all come back to God and live as one family in his presence for the rest of eternity.

well that's one thing that i got this week, again something not new, but still profound. This mission has really been a great boost to my testimony and to actually know what the gospel is and how it works. which i guess the next thing is to share that with the world. and i'll continue to do so all of my life. at least that's what i think i should do.

So all in all life is good. and i'm getting a new companion Elder Crawford and he'll come up to ozark with me for the next 6 weeks of my and his life so far he sounds awesome/legit.

Jan the house sitting job sounds awesome and i bet you can't wait for your kids to be self-sufficient.

Thad I can't believe that curtis got married i didn't even get an announcement so you're going to have to give him a stern look from me.

Beetle thanks for your email. i think i usually fall in the earlier numbers and i'm doing my best to be a solid 4 you're already a 4 i can just tell.

Ben your trip sounded awesome and amazing which i'm very impressed about. and want to do something crazy like that later, not for a while.

Mom for p-day for the last couple of weeks we've gone fishing at someones house, we catch bass and brim, but we throw them back so we don't have to eat them.

Dad you're very ambitious to do the plumbing for the upstairs and i probably would have told you to just wait till you got everything in order. And you are almost ready for the roof in logan that'll be awesome to complete and i bet thad will help you now that he isn't working in the dead of night.

Sara Larson Congrats on graduating i got both letters and i can't believe that your growing up so fast. well anyways you'll do great.

All in All have a good Week.

Love

Elder Gillespie

one of the fishes i caught over the last couple of P-days

many of the church signs in the south

the panama city beach from a members house

Peace Through Hard Times

2010-05-18T15:26:00.000-07:00

Hello

Well I guess it's time to talk about the adventures that i've had this past week. so let me think.....

1) I met one of the coolest guys while tracting he has fallen in love with genealogy and has many and many guns. his name is william libby and loves to do all types of things. but mostly guns and genealogy. I thought that most of the world just didn't really care about their ancestors but now i've found that to be wrong, he loves the stories that have happened to his family and how a small town doesn't really ask where you came from because you'll find out you came from the same grandpa or grandma.

2) it's starting to get hot.... while beetle is getting rain, i'm getting sun... and i hear that it only gets hotter. right now it's in the upper 80's to low 90's with 50 -70 percent humidity which really isn't all that bad. but it's supposed to get to the 100's with just about 100% humidity so i think it'll be like the south carolina family reunion trip, where you just step out side and you start dripping.

3) I got a new Boxspring mattress, the one that i was sleeping on before had a lovely depression in the middle, so it felt more like a hammock than a bed. well that might be a bit of a tall tale.

4) People apparently like us missionaries, well the ones that don't just shut the door on our faces, but a few occasions people just let us into their homes and we just have a good old conversation. which has been really nice to have in the AC houses.

5) apparently the oil slick is starting to wash up on some of the beaches, which isn't good. good thing i'm not on the beach right now.

6) honest communications is the answer to most of the problems in most companionships, or relationships in general.

other than that this has been kind of a slow week, as for the things i've learned.

The happiest i'll ever be is when i follow the rules. Not only do i not get into trouble but also i also feel better about what i'm doing, something that i've had to find out the hard way. The other thing is that at times, when nobody else will do anything you have to do it yourself. Again something that has taken a bit of time for me to understand and to put into practice. And finally God is merciful and his mercy applies to those who are meek and lowly, or a heart that is broken and contrite. and He has great power to save and to lift, but we have to go to Him and believe that He will help us. That is what i've truly been enlightened on this week.

Belief and Hope. two things that I Need to work on more. The other thing that i've learned is to always have a goal or an action to work towards. Now I have those so this week will be fun and interesting. One more Doubt not, again something i need to work on doing, Because Doubt is of the Satan he wants us miserable just like him...

so those are just a few thoughts i've had the last little bit of my life.

Love Elder Gillespie

Sis Cranney I'm so glad to hear from you I love you and all that you've done. Thank you so much, and soon enough Spencer and I will be back.

Ben F. thank you for your letter and for the talk that was really what i needed to hear, but I've all ready heard it before. i think i've got a really thick skull. you'll have to check that out when i get back.

Jan I don't know what to do with Dogs, if you were here you could just let him loose in the woods until someone found him, but i don't think you want to do that.

Ben Russia sounds awesome, i was surprised to hear that it's not dirty. but then again you've lived in that area so i think you know what dirty is. i just go into the ghettos around here, but there really aren't any.

Toni way to go on not stressing about the laundry thing. that must of been a shock, but now it's a fun memory. come what may and love it...

Jethro. good luck with set up and take down. it's awesome that you are doing so well with classes, as for the house plan, i like it and it sounds like it's going to work. I love your creativity.

Robyn programs are easy you've got it in the bag. and it wouldn't surprise me if lincoln is 4 and half feet tall when i get back and sophia sounds like a wiggle baby like none other. i can't wait, oh boy oh boy.....

Thad you're a trooper for helping baby sit. I bet that really helped robyn and mom out a lot.

Mom i loved your letter and keep sending them if you want to i love reading those talks, in fact see what each of the kid's favorite talks are and then i'll read them on p-day or you could send them.

Dad I agree with Jethro put in the Tire swing the kids will love it. and it sounds like you and mom are taking over the youth program again. i guess you guys are never going to be released as parents to the youth in the ward.

Mothers Day Declaration

2010-05-10T11:36:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody.

This week has been a good week, We had Zone conference this week where I learned that i can't be satisfied with staying in the apartment most of the day, that I need to go out and serve the people, even though it's starting to get hot and muggy.

we also had a great lesson with our investigators this week too. and they are doing much better.

other than that the other highlight was the phone call home, where i received much instruction and guidance. now the sad fact of life is that it's going to be 8 months before we talk again....(sad face) but it should fly by pretty quickly which is going to be really nice and then i'll be over half way, which will be awesome!!! but of course like every missionary I won't want to leave because of how great it'll be, because I'll make it the best that it can be.

so no real news is going on the next transfer is in two weeks and i've got a feeling that i'll be here for a while, which will be very nice. umm...... what else.....

Toni HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! tomorrow. but maybe by the time you read this it'll be your birthday. have fun in the russia. try something new, and i'll do the same here.

Jan You have yourself a deal. and I know that you'll do fine with the other kid while those two take care of each other. Clarky will be a great older Brother who will protect his sister. I can already tell

Jethro. I loved your story, i often find myself looking at sunsets.

Robyn. you can do anything you put your mind to with God on your side.

Mom I hope you had a wonderful mothers day. i know that each one of us kids love you a LOT.

Dad feel better and if needed ask for a blessing.

Ben Gaines, Jet lag sounds awful but just think when you come back it shouldn't be that bad, unless you can't fall asleep on planes.

Ben Francisco. I know that you are quite a man for doing what you're doing so keep up the good work, and i'm sure that you'll do fine in whatever position you choose.

Beetle, Can you believe that it's been a year since you left. i can't believe it it's gone by so fast but at the same time it hasn't well that doesn't matter because all that does is that i love you and your doing so good i could just tell in your voice when we talked. Keep up the good work, i'll do the same

Love Elder Gillespie

May Day! May Day!

2010-05-03T15:18:00.000-07:00

Hello Ya'll

this week has been a very fast in my perspective it just feels like I just got here. and I Just finished writing to you guys. well this week what has happened, well first of all we had a Baptism!!! it was super good and definitely had the spirit there, which is something I'm glad to recognize here if it wasn't for the baptisms that happen maybe once a month i think that i would just get used to the Spirit or just have the immunity of it. which i'm glad to have taken away otherwise I would not be the same person i am right now, but then again if i had a different experience i would also then become someone else.

This week I've found out that I am a person who gets addicted to things easily, for example i went on a spell where i would only play warcraft 3 for about 3 months, then i would get bored and then pick up something else to do. I'm really not that good at any of them but something that i like to do. and this week i found out that i got addicted to Sudoku. and once i realized that then i got a new prospective on what it means to leave things behind and focus on the work. now i'm not saying that i'm perfect at it or even close to do that but i'm understanding that God does really ask a little from us at a time and as we can do that then we have to give something else up and then slowly and slowly get rid of all the things that we don't need. or as jethro painted pruning man, we prune ourselves to find the real us.

the other cool news is that zone conference is coming up and that's going to be on friday and then i get to call you guys on Sunday which is really awesome, in fact i get to call at 8pm because i'm in the same area as Janben. so that's going to be awesome. then after that two weeks till transfers Crazy!!! I know, time is really flying which must mean there is a change on the wind. but that could just be gas....

Well what else is new?.... umm.... the army people are pretty darn cool, we had dinner yesterday at the Dyers, one of my faves, and you wouldn't guess what i ate there.... Korean food, bulgogi remember mom when you did that for us like 5 years ago, well just so you know it was good and i would of never guessed that i would have ever eaten Korean food, authentic Korean food in the south, since being close to Post all sorts of people eat all kinds of crazy things. which reminds me I think I'm going to have Raccoon pretty soon. not to mention the other foods i've tried. i'll try to put together a list of such. but things that i want to say i've eaten are squirl and maybe possum or armadillo, and turtle, i've had gator, and dove, and i think pheasant, and deer. and of course the fried stuff.

other crazy things going on is that we had a wedding for a less active and she invited us to it, she's like 60 and married another 60 yr. old person. and had the wedding in a back yard where the owner had squirrels for pets. weird but cool.

We also volunteer at hospice mostly doing office stuff, making copies putting together packets, moving stuff and cleaning, pretty much what they don't want to do or don't have time to do, the simple things that's what we do. but so far the workers there seem like they might be interested in hearing more about what we are trying to teach to everyone. so hopefully we'll get some head way in that aspect.

and finally i ordained somebody to be an elder, which is quite an experience, not a whole lot of pomp or glamor but definitely cool to see.

Well that's about it for the adventures of Elder Gillespie. I love you all so much and can't wait to talk to you in 6 days.

Toni thank you for confirming what i've been thinking for the last little bit, and you are going to have so much fun, explore the world without fear.

Ben your awesome and you NEED a vacation, all work and no play makes ben a dull boy.

Jan i miss you but your only like 20 hours away driving so that's not to bad.... Ben keep on keepin' on.

Jethro I'm excited to hear that brandon might be the next watson at your school, and i'll definitely have to come over when i'm back.

Roybn Kids should not be playing with drugs it's not good for them especially Beans.

Thad.... get some sleep and what's the news with Bret? i've heard some rumblings

Beetle I miss you and you now a year out these last three months have flown by. and i guess it'll keep doing that.

Dad I havn't really been able to see to much about that but i've heard that there going to try to burn it. i've also got some speculation that an earthquake is supposed to happen in italy/hungry in a couple of weeks, weather or not it's true time will only tell.

Mom I LOVE YOU!!! and i'm surprised that you know where Kolob is that must be big distance.

Love you all and keep writing because any news is good news.

Elder Matthew Gillespie

Persistence and Love

2010-04-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody!!!

well it's time for CrAzY UnClE Elder Gillespie's story time. this story takes place in a far off world in Ozark, a tiny little town where the people are nice the streets are clean and people take pride in what they do. well this was the first time that Mr. Elder Gillespie had ever been to this place, not only that he was with a great person. named Elder Kanis, now here is the sad part of the story, as what happens in the real world sometimes people just rub off the wrong way. but the great part of the story is that people always have the opportunity to change, and usually when these things happen both people change a lot, and for the better, which is what has happened, so now me and Elder Kanis are now working together towards being better people, now this doesn't happen over night. what it takes is patience, Persistence and love. which is the moral of the story for today. that while people might not like you and disagree with you, we have the chance to change who we are and from there become the person that the world needs or what God needs for it to be a better place. we have to push forward towards a righteous or healthy goal, and it works a lot easier and better when you let God in to help out where you just can't do it yourself.

Now here are a couple of people that we are working with, which is the most important part of missionary work, besides being in the right spirit. so we are working with a few couples Anthony and Victoria, a couple who just recently decided to get married, not that we told them but that they feel like it's the right thing to do. and all this comes about because of prayer and willing to act on a prayer. they prayed for peace in their life, and then we knock on their door, (well O'niones and Kanis did) and then they let them in. which is what prayer really is, it's a sincere desire for something and then going to go out and work for it, which applies in all things.

Another Couple is Junior and Lagina (sp?) another couple with the same problems, wanting to get baptized but need to get married. and they don't want to get married until Junior has a job which again we need to pray in faith, willing to go out and act, or trusting in God that he'll provide while we go out.

and finally Kimberly Vance who has made the final steps and is going to be baptized tomorrow, and then will be moving to Hawaii but what i've heard is that she taught herself the gospel and we missionaries have only been there to reassure her what is right. and in the process have reactivated the husband.

So the Moral of the story is to stay in the right spirit, to do the small things to let God into our life, by reading our scriptures, by praying and then going out to act, by being obedient to the commandments and covenants we have made and finally going out and helping others, weather big or small. it's the actions that will help us make a better world.

so I love you guys and next week I'll have some awesome stories to share with ya'll

Love

Elder Gillespie

Mom I love you SOOO Much, your words of wisdom are beyond me and my tiny little thick brain. which i'm very sure i have.

Jan How are you liking the heat now right now it feel like it's summer for me, and we really haven't even hit it yet... oh boy....

Thad, umm... i'll try that but i don't think i'm supposed to do that on a military base where i've been told not to do that, soo.... i'll answer questions if they ask them though. and we don't live on "post" that is the official term to use not army base it's a post

Ben, I wouldn't be to worried about it mostly because that happened to me quite a bit when i was younger, a lot of the time i would just be home without any supervision for 5-6 hours at a time and one time i just got scared when that happened so i called grandma and she came over and picked me up. so i think that anna will be fine nothing really has made me a crazy killer, maybe a little of my rocker, but who isn't plus she'll be in good hands.

Toni what are your thoughts about this whole thing going down,

Jethrobyn. Congrats on the master class being done but not so happy about the whole still teaching and having to put up with kids who are probably now not the easiest to take responsibility over.

Camille please keep me updated about anyother people and their missions.

Dad get better

The "Big" City of OZ

2010-04-19T11:43:00.000-07:00

Toto i don't think think we're in Florida anymore....

So seeing how it's the first time i've been able to write about Ozark Alabama i guess it would be a good thing to do.

first of all alabama is actually a pretty place to be, which makes me want to see forest gump and o brother when i get back. but in ozark it has rolling hills and big green trees, which might just be the fact that it's finally spring. the other thing about ozark is that it's employed by the near by military base called fort rucker. which is a helicopter school where the army trains soliders on chinooks, blackhawks, and apache helicopters. while the city is run by the military the area i'm in actually covers the base and also has a ward. to which i spoke in this last sunday, like yesterday, where i bombed the talk but thanks to two other speakers it really didn't matter what i said, also the ward is extremely young everybody has kids that are under the age of 9 and has about 3-4 of them so this is a really really young ward which is so cool, also Ozark is mission famous for people feeding missionaries. so yes i will come back twice the person as when i left. and since reporting on that i'm now offically 150 lbs. a total of 15 lbs gained so far. while i don't see where the weight went, i'm now... bigger, i suppose.

now for the Apartment, there are four of us in one apartment which has 2 bedrooms and 1 bath, kind of small but not to small. so my companion is Elder Kanis who is from Davis County, he's a big kid who likes to play rugbee. and has been out for 3 months so it's his 3rd transfer. then the other Companionship is Elder O'ninies or Elder O he's from Colorado Parker area and reminds me of the twins, he's very athletic and has blond hair and is super sarcastic and right now is Training Elder Cox who is from around Hill Air Force Base. he's a greenie but is getting his head on straight pretty quick and is starting to understand what missionary work is. he's getting it, something that i don't get until well about a month ago now. so he's doing good.

as for what i've learned, it's that obtaining knowledge takes time and effort, it takes asking good questions, so we can find good answers, something i've been struggling with. but i'm trying to improve on. which is what we are supposed to do.

well that's the thought for the day. i'm trying to do my best, and that's all that matters.

Address is

79B Woodview Drive

Ozark AL 36360

I love you all.

that is all

Elder Gillespie

Moving on a fast day

2010-04-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

Hi y'all

The Draft is up and Elder Gillespie is going to... Ozark South with Elder Kanis, i don't know what he's like or what the area is like but does it matter? anyway this means that all of today i get to pack up and get all my chickens in a line and everything to fit into two suit cases, by the way could anyone use two suits, i've got five and i think i'll only need three.

hey does anybody know when the best time to move is? yep you guessed it sunday afternoon during fast sunday, our posse of missionaries and priesthood leaders moved 3 people into their houses so yesterday was fun, it really was, it was the first time that i've gotten to do real service.

perfect timing too spring break is up and everything is going to start getting hot. and i'll be away from the gulf, about 2.5 to 3 hours north of where i currently am.

well this week we had another wonderful week with Zone Conference, where i learned that Satan does a very good job at what he does, and I've noticed that he'll often use truth mixed in with one lie, which completely destroys either confidence or trust with other people. Once he's done that he'll then start putting on a little weight at a time nothing that's yours but he'll put on those little weights and then once you have those he'll then put on more and more. that sounds like scripture, "and he'll carefully lead them down to hell." I know that once we repented that those things that we did aren't ours anymore nor should they be. when we then start putting those weights back on, it's just the devil doing it, so don't let him do it. drop the weight and move forward and upward. that is what i've learned this week.

the other thing which isn't really new, but then again no one has had an orginial thought, is that the spirit often teaches us and then requires us to do something to increase our knowledge, and then the choice is up to us to do it. to be defiant to the world and serve god or to just wait for something else to do. for example, if you get interested in a class and say you learn about the nervous system in class then next step to learn is to read out of a book and then once you've done that then you see how it works with all of the other parts of the human body, then you could go to a specialist and then study under them... and the process continues the more we put into learning the more we get out of it. wow i just taught "myself". the real teacher isn't here but is with us constantly if we are trying our best to follow the commandments.

so yeah another sad week has past with leaving the Beach one more time but who knows maybe in a couple of months i'll be back i still have 18 more months left. a long time but also a short time.

well I love all of you.
Elder Gillespie

Jethroybn. Lincon is so funny, I laughed so hard when i heard about jesus in the pool and when he started striping down. i'm suprised that you were able to swim in St. George i thought utah was still in snow.

Janben It sounded like a crazy adventure this past week which i'm glad that i wasn't a part of especially the car ride. and jan you are progressing you just can't see it yet, i feel the same way. everybody tells me that since i've been back but i don't see it, i guess you'll have to see it your self when i get back and i can tell you how much you've grown. deal? deal!

Toniben ben that was probably one of the best top tens i've ever seen infact i'm going to forward that to myself. toni keep up the good work.

Beetle it's nice to get out and to see the world that's what somebody told us this week while we helped them move, which was fast sunday, anyways enjoy it and i'll try to do the same.

love uplifts and i love you all.

Elder Matthew Gillespie

Yes Miracles Do Exist

2010-04-05T11:52:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody!!!

Well the highlight to anybody's week this week must of been conference, and one of the best ones i've ever seen. Now the sad fact maybe that until this time i really didn't care about General Conference. now some of my favortie talks this conference would have to be and in order with 1 being the most important.

1. President Packer's, about the priesthood and how the earth needs to understand that we do have power in the priesthood.
1. Young Men President Beck about how all of us have a duty and how to understand what that is through making a plan, following through with it and then sharing what you did with others.
1. Elder David A. Bednar showing us the warning signs and the precautions to stop and to be safe in such troubled times that are going to be coming soon.
1. Elder Jeffery R. Holland about Pornography and the root cause of it and how to get rid of it.
1. Elder Dallin H. Oaks about the priesthood and again the power it has and how to give a blessing.
1. President Eyering about being diligent
1. President Uchtdorf about being patient and being his hands.
1. Prophet Monson of course going through the "for the Strength of Youth"

Last of all

1. Elder Neil L. Anderson to simply talk about Jesus, what he did, how he did it, Tell me the Stories of Jesus. and the power that comes from knowing about the stories.

now these are just a couple that I truly did love hearing about and will spend more time studying about what they mean and what the spirit wants for me to know, and also to answer the questions that I've got and these are just a few of my favorites this conference.

I learned this week that you won't get an answer unless you first have a question. now should i've learned this earlier, yeah, probably. but thank goodness that i can still learn things as I grow older and hopefully wiser.

oh yeah Miracles still happen, i hope you know this, because i do. God loves us so much that he will put things together well before we get into a hole and as soon as we fall in there is a ladder there ready for us to climb out. usually it's nothing particularly big, ex. an angel appears in your room. but it's usually somebody's kind word or a smile, even a letter, one that you didn't expect and just talks to what you need. so thanks to all of you for your prayers, kind words and letters. because i know that God is in charge of all and is making all of us better, he just asks that we follow the commandments, and keep our covenants to the best we can. the gospel is simple, we as men make it more difficult and clutter the way.

Love Elder Gillespie

Jethrobyn Snow still in march? it's like last year out like lion as well as in as a lion. i'm glad you could enjoy conference

Mom I love you SO much I just can't quite show it to you right now but i'll try my best out here for you

Dad the Play by Play was awesome and it felt like i was back at home.

Ben, I'm excited about the phone call i just need to know what to call and i'll get back to you about when to call.

Mina Hello!!! it's so good to hear from you and to hear about your life, isn't crazy how much life can change in just a few moments or even weeks. like i'll probably be gone never to see Panama City Beach in a week. but the great thing is that if we just keep truckin' it's pretty much just endering to the end. I hope your doing well and feel free to write back anytime.

Ameri Mexico!?! that's so crazy but at least it's free, i've heard that there is some crazy stuff going on down there so i hope you aren't going to any of those crazy places along the border or the mexican mafia areas that would not be safe
Courtney it's so good to hear from you it sounds like you've got a plan i hope you stick to it and the gospel.

I miss all of you

Love
Elder Gillespie