Watermelon Festival

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

 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

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