He's heating up. . .

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!!!

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

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.