Christmas is over

Hey folks!

 

Christmas has always been one of my favorite holidays, and this year was no different. What a wonderful opportunity we have to remember the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ. Here's a couple of cool things about our Christmas holiday:

 

1. Of course, we got to talk to our families!

 

 

2. We played some awesome holiday basketball.

3. My awesome family sent me summer sausage, one of our family's Christmas traditions.

It was a good holiday season.

On Christmas we got to spend our evening with a nice couple in our ward, the Bawdens. While we talked to our families we ate some rad apple pie, built Lego Bionicles, played some marvelous Monopoly, and then we hurried home. The day after Christmas was a little rough. It's hard to go back to work after Christmas, but by Friday we were ready to go!

Being a missionary is so great. Working is so great! The Gospel is so great. We are so blessed.

Have a terrific new year!

Love,

Elder Gillie

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

This is what Christmas is all about....

The good, the bad and the ugly

Hello all you folks!

What a week it was! Good grief, it was something else. I'll break it down.

THE GOOD

Zone conference was on Thursday, and it was fantastic! Talk about a way uplifting meeting. Every training that was given was revelation. We had the Spirit like a river. After President Meredith gave his talk (which was excellent) we heard from our Area Seventy, Elder Packer. He talked about getting the members in the bay area excited about doing missionary work. The Spirit bore witness that what he said was true, and I felt super refreshed. 

We also had a rad white elephant gift exchange at zone conference. Here's a picture of me wearing my gift.

What an attractive man...

Another cool thing about this week is that Elder Vance and I have been opening our mouths a lot more and talking to more people on the street. How neat is that? We've definitely felt the Lord giving us enthusiasm and energy as we put our faith in Him and talk to more people.

THE BAD

Now that we've baptized a lot of people, we have no one left to teach. Seriously...we have investigators, but they're impossible to meet with. So Elder Vance are fortunate in that we have a lot of time to find new investigators! Tons and tons of the appointments we set up this week fell through, but that gave us even more time to find! Wahoo!

THE UGLY

This was a few weeks ago. But I was struggling to come up with something for this category.

I know that Gospel is true. I know that the Atonement is real. When we have faith in the Savior and repent of our sins, are baptized, and receive the Holy Ghost, the Savior brings so much joy into our lives. I know that this is true! I love the Gospel, and I love the message that we missionaries share. It will bless the live of each man and woman who heeds it, times infinity.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Gillie

This is different...

Hello my friends!

It was one heaven of a week! Since Elder Watkins got shipped off to Antioch on Tuesday, I was vagabond for a couple of days. I spent all of Tuesday and most of Wednesday downtown with the zone leaders, and it was hardcore! Biking downtown always makes my thighs sore. You might say it makes me a little upthight. Har har har. 

Wednesday night I picked up my new companion from the mission home! His name is Elder Vance from Murray, UT. He is super energetic and willing to work! He's got a good sense of humor too, so we have a lot of fun. Here's us being cool:

This week we had tons of appointments fall through. I was stressed out of my mustache! Elder Vance was like, "Uh, what is even going on here?" It was a crazy weekend. But then it ended up really well! On Saturday Nguyen was baptized. It was awesome!

The Christmas devotional last night was pretty great too. Who knew that Christmas could be so much better when we focus it on the Savior Jesus Christ? You think someone would have told us by now.

The restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. It's the only sure-fire to find happiness in this world and eternal life in the world to come.

Have a good life this week!

Elder Gillie

The worst week ever.

On Saturday night, I found out from my ward mission leader that Alabama lost. I literally almost cried. Well, not literally, but it totally crushed my effectiveness for the rest of the night. On Sunday, it got even worse. Everyone in the Elders Quorum knows I'm a hardcore Alabama fan, so they really let me have it. Good thing I'm really humble and I don't let things like that get me down.

Well, it wasn't really the worst week of my life. It was actually a great week! Our transfer call came three days early, because Elder Watkins has been called to be a zone leader in Antioch! Crazy, right? He's been an awesome trainer/district leader here in San Francisco, and he'll be an awesome zone leader across the bay. As for myself, I am...STAYING here in the South San Francisco East area! I'm not sure yet who my new companion will be, but we're going to have a rockin' good time.

I realized that whenever I do leave, it'll be really sad. When Elder Watkins was taking pictures with and saying goodbye to Nguyen and Lona after church on Sunday, I felt super sad for him. I'm so grateful that the Lord has put such great people in my life. One of the greatest blessings I've had in these past couple months has been the relationships I've been able to make. There are some really special people here in San Francisco, and I'm grateful that I get to work with them.

We have a baptism coming up in just 5 days! We're really excited for Nguyen. She has tons and tons of faith. Here's a funny story- we forgot to explain baptism to her. She knew she was making a covenant with God, but we somehow kind of forgot to mention the water part to her. Whoops!

Thanks for all of the support! Y'all are great.

Love,

Elder Gillie