Two Month Mark!

That's right, two months ago I entered the Missionary Training Center! Officially 1/12 of the way done. Only 22 more months, but who's counting?

This past week has been pretty darn great! The Lord has been blessing the South San Francisco area a lot. Here's the goods-

1. We have a new investigator named Tiffany. We taught her on Friday and invited her to be baptized. And of course she said YES, because what else would she say? The Gospel is true, so why would anyone say no? She came to church for the first time yesterday, and she loved it!

2. Lona is progressing well. We taught her at the home of a nice couple. She really liked hearing about what happens after we die. The Spirit was pretty strong, and she knew that what was being taught was true. When she prayed with us, she thanked God for helping her know the Gospel and said, "I can't wait to learn even more." When she said that, the best feeling came over me, and I knew that the Lord was happy with her!

3. It's been foggy like every day in San Francisco for the last week. The fog will come in and cover the city in a matter of minutes. It's sick. 

4. Wearing khaki is awesome.

5. During Sacrament meeting, I was sitting by a less-active that we teach each week. In one of the hymns, my voice cracked, and she laughed at me. It made that chapel feel like home.

Life is good. When I work my very hardest, I feel the Lord guiding me every day. I know that He has restored the Gospel to the Earth, and Christ's true church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Love y'all,

Elder Gillie

Transfer 1 = OVER

Hello my friends!

Transfer calls came Saturday night. Good news! I am...STAYING! For my second transfer I will remain in the South San Francisco East area, being trained by my awesome companion Elder Watkins. I'm super excited to be here! The work is going better in SSF for a lot of reasons. Most importantly, the members here are starting to feed us more. The missionary meal calendar was passed around and we're getting fed dinner 8 times in the next 10 days. We also have members scheduled to come teach with us every day for the next week. The bishop has been increasingly supportive of the missionary work, and the members respect us. It's probably because I got my suits at Men's Wearhouse. They like the way I look.

Our only progressing investigator, Lona, is coming along really well! We taught her the Plan of Salvation, Word of Wisdom, and Law of Chastity the other day, and she committed to live both those laws. It was my first time teaching the law of chastity, and I definitely will need some more practice. After telling her that it dealt with being sexually pure, I totally blanked for a few seconds, and the member with us saved my bacon and expounded on it. Fortunately she's a cool person, so it worked out and wasn't too awkward. Phew.

We took her to church yesterday, and she loved it! She felt the Spirit, and the members of the ward really stepped up in fellowshipping her. We'll be teaching her at a member's house later this week.

Here's a cool story: on Thursday we were going to teach Lona, but it didn't happen because she had a school assignment come up that she had to take care of. So we decided to go see a less active member, Brother Starks. Bro Starks is a total stud. He is bald and has a bunch of cool tattoos on his head and arms, and a bunch of earrings. Haha, he's a stud with studs. I just came up with that...so funny. He also has a bunch of grotesque plastic heads hanging from the ceiling in his living room because he's cool like that. Oh, and he hasn't been active in 30 years, since he was a teenager.

So he let us in and talked to us about his childhood for a while. We asked him a little bit about his testimony. I was inspired by the Holy Ghost to ask him, "Do you believe you can have a testimony again?" He sat there for a full minute and then said, "I don't think it was a coincidence that you're here right now." He started crying and eventually told us he wants to come back to church and that he wants the Gospel to be back in his life. He said that had he known it was us knocking on his door, he wouldn't have answered, and he knew God brought us there. And he told me that my tie was ugly and he gave me one of his. How neat is that?

Brother Starks came to church yesterday for the first hour, and we'll be meeting with him regularly to help him become active. Truly the Lord works miracles in the lives of His children. I know that he lead us there to Brother Starks' home. That's pretty neat!

Good luck to you all. May the Lord bless you in every aspect of your lives,

Elder Gillie

Oh, and here's some pictures.

We went to a cool park by the ocean/bay:

My rad companion:

Elder Isley and I were twinners on accident:

Confessions of a New Missionary as He Stands at a Laptop in an Apple Store

he good thing about San Francisco is that it's got normal things like malls. And technology and cars and stuff. And Apple stores where we can walk in and use their computers to email people. It's pretty loud here.

4 and a half weeks in, and being a missionary is still great! San Francisco is probably the coolest city ever. The other day some cool dude was walking down the street singing with a beautiful soprano falsetto. I thought, "Dang, that guy would be great in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir!" And then he saw us and told us bleeping Mormons to go bleep off because no one bleeping wants us here. He had a cool voice though, so we happily obliged. 

Last night was probably one of the best days of my mission yet! We took our progressing investigator, Lona, to a fireside in Oakland called "Why I Believe" where newly baptized converts bear their testimonies. Lona said she was touched, and that she felt emotional in the meeting. Woohoo! After that we took her to the Oakland Temple visitors' center and showed her a presentation about families, which she really loved. She's getting baptized in November, and she's accepting the Gospel like a sponge. The Lord is so great for leading her to us! 

Scripture of the week- 1 Nephi 17:13 "And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that is is by me that ye are led."

The Lord is always with us, He is guiding us towards our promised land if we keep His commandments, which are found in the Bible, Book of Mormon, and the words of the prophets. If we are obedient, not only will we be led, but we will know the God who leads us. And who wouldn't want that, right?

I don't have time to write back to all of you, but I'll try to get to you next week!

Love,

Elder Gillie

Post-Conference Good Things

What an awesome week it was!

Lots of things went really great this week! We taught more lessons this week than any other week- 13. Not nearly as many as we would have liked, but more people are listening to us.The weather this week was pretty much perfect. It's supposed to be pretty foggy here by the ocean, but almost every day is perfectly sunny, usually in the 60s or 70s. Love it!

General conference was the greatest thing ever! For the first time, I paid attention hardcore for all 10 hours! And when it was over, I was sad, because I feel like I could listen to the prophet and apostles teach us forever!

God truly leads this church through a living prophet. Jesus Christ has truly restored His church, and it is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The teachings of the prophets and apostles are truly inspired! If they weren't, the Holy Ghost wouldn't burn in our hearts like they do when we hear our leaders teach. I was able to find many answers to the questions I've had as a new missionary. My faith has increased, kicking out what fear I've had. It's awesome! But the best was yet to come.

Last night we taught a young woman named Lona. She's 20, goes to school here in SF, and way cool. She asked for missionaries on mormon.org. We taught her about the Restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith and about the Book of Mormon. The Spirit was super strong. She was receiving it really well! So I invited her to be baptized (my first baptismal invitation so far) and she said yes!!!!! WAHOOO!!! I was grinning like a total dweeb, but who cares? She's getting baptized onNovember 2. We have a lot of work to do to get her ready and to help her increase her faith, but we know the Lord will guide her to baptism if we have faith. Hardcore, right? I'm so excited. The Lord is so good to His children.

If your faith is waning like mine was a little bit ago, just look for ways to keep the Lord's commandments, and trust in His power. You will not be left alone.

May the Lord bless you all,

Elder Gillie