Baptism!

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!

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!

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. . .

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

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!

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!

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