First Week In Union City

Wow, what a week. It's been great!

Union City is way way cool. There's just as much diversity as there was back when I lived in the City. There's tons of Indians, Afghanis, Filipinos, African Americans, Chineses, Vietnameses, and so on. Way way cool. The people are a little less receptive here than in Pittsburg, but they're cool. Elder Parker is a stud. We've had some fun. We've had...tons of meetings! Wahoo. 

We don't have tons of investigators, so gotta fill up our pool super quick. There's lots of part member families to work with, and the members are stoked. 

Sorry there's not much to report on, the week was great though! We just worked and worked and now we're exhausted.

Spiritchal thought- Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. We draw close to the Lord when we sacrifice our sins for His sake. Like King Lamoni's father, we can say, "I will give away all my sins to know thee."  When we sacrifice our disobedience, the Spirit brings peace to our hearts.

Feliz Navidad!

Elder Gillie

PS. Here's my old companion when we said goodbye. We actually ran into each other last night at the temple.

Transfer!

After the best 2 transfers and my favorite area of my mission, I am getting shipped to the other end of the East Bay...Union City! Here's some cool things.

1. A couple weeks ago we met this way awesome woman, who we'll call Christina, because that's her name. We've been having a hard time getting a teaching appointment to go through, because this is missionary work, and that happens all the time. Yesterday an appointment with a guy fell through so we went to see Christina. She said, "I almost brought me and my kids to church today" and that was a dagger to the hart.  But we said a prayer with her and her kids, and she said among other things, "Thank you for bringing these two men into my life to bring hope to me and my sons." and holy mackerel, that was one of the best prayers i've ever heard.

2. Saying goodbye to the members wasn't very fun. Sister Nelson cried and so did one other, and I was very sad.

3. The area has been doing great! We dropped a couple investigators who were not progressing and added three more. We had 4 people at church, and one of them, Holly, has accepted to be baptized. Woohoo!

4. Elder Macdonald is awesome. Period.

My new companion is Elder Parker. He is awesome! I worked with him a little in Richmond. We both speak Chinese so we should get along gr8.

Here's a picture with the bishop and his kids, and a picture with neil, one of our investigators.

Be righteous this week.

Elder Gillie

Pittsburg Is Exploding

This week was insane. Here's the highlights...

1irst new member lesson for brother nelson. It went really well and we assigned him to write a one-page essay on the Great Apostasy. He accepted the challenge gladly.

2nd time that Daryl came to church...he's doing well. He told us that he read about the Book of Mormon and prayed about it and that he started crying. Then he told us that he cries when he sees those commercials about animal abuse. That was pretty awesome, because he's a pretty tough-looking construction worker-type guy.

3hree weeks until new investigator Neil gets baptized. Last night we went to the temple with him and James, and they both felt the Spirit super strong. Neil's reading the book of mormon every day. He asked if he could have a second copy so that he could have to read at home and one to read at work.

4our weeks until investigator Kevin gets baptized. He gladly accepted the word of wisdom and law of chastity. He's awesome.

5ive o clock last night was the Christmas devotional. Soooooo good.

6ix people were at gonzales family home Saturday. They're a part member family. We're going over to teach them to help Elder Macdonald pactice teaching, and they are way awesome!

What an awesome week. The Gospel seems even truer today than last week. The Book of Mormon helps us strengthen our testimony of Jesus Christ, so fetchin' read it. Christ is the Savior!

Elder Gillie

Most Recent Letters

Sorry about the delay in Alex's letters. Here is what you've missed this Fall.

October 20, 2014

How good you may ask?

Soooooooooooo good. So many good things to report on.

What had happened was...

Tuesday...sweet wicked awesome exchange with Elder Hong, who was my district leader in the MTC. He was companions with my trainer for 3 transfers, so we spent the whole day pointing things from his personality that we both picked up from him. We met with Romeo and Leo, and they're doing so good. They brought a friend with them and we set a date with him too.

Wednesday- I can't remember.

Thursday- We had a zone conference with a Seventy, Elder Hamula. He talked about inspired questions. He basically said, "You stink at finding...the Spirit just told me." He didn't say those words, but he could have. It was so great.

Friday- We taught a new investigator, Vanessa, and set a date with her. Elder Macdonald recited the First Vision and Spirit slapped her and she was like, "Oof!" She's the single mother of a 1-yr old girl, and the Gospel is going to change her family's life!

Saturday- We painted a trailer. Sweet! Later that night we taught Brother Nelson. The Spirit slapped us all so hard. I actually cried. Son of a gun! We were teaching him that through Christ he can have eternal life and the Spirit just filled the room. We set a date with him for the end of November. It's a miracle!

Sunday- Church was good.

What a week! It might have been the hardest working week of my mission and I am just so pleasantly exhausted.

The Gospel is true! Make a plan to follow the Savior and just do it!

Elder Gillie

October 26, 2014

Hello. 

This week was great! The week slowed down from last week, but everything's all good.

Old investigator Donny is doing better. We finally got to teach him. Sweet!

Romeo and Leo are doing way good.

Elder Macdonald is doing way way good. He's turning into the bossest missionary. I just love him.

Elder Rowley and I went on exchange. And I just love him. He and I are going to make lots of electronic music in a year. And he and I just tore it up in the Antioch area. 

Here's a funny story - we were at dinner with a young couple. As we left, I said "Thanks brother and sister zalic! See you Sunday!" And then I opened the coat closet door and walked out. And then I realized it was the coat closet. Talk about awkward.

Sorry there's not much to say today. The work's going well. We're loving our missions. Christ is the Savior so repent all ye wicked ones.

Love,

Elder Gillie

November 10, 2014

Sometimes we teach weird people who stalk us. The very same thing has happened recently. We have an investigator, who, for the sake of anonymity, we'll just call Romeo, who looked up my Facebook. So it was weird when we saw him at church and he called me by my first name. What a weirdo.

Some great things happened this week! Brother Nelson has officially put down tobacco for good. He's quit super fast, and he is going strong! The Spirit is just getting stronger and stronger in their home every time we come. Yesterday we visited with them, and Brother Nelson told me he would like me to be the one to baptize him in a couple weeks, and I just felt so happy for him. Missionary work is so great.

On Wednesday we went on splits with the high priests...it was a cool opportunity to build our relationships with ward members. Our high priest group leader is awesome and willing to help with our investigators and we were able to show that we're happy to help him in his calling. 

Oh here's something else cool...we have a new young couple in the ward, the zalics. Brother zalic was baptized about a year ago and wants to have the discussions again, so we recently started teaching him. A couple days ago, all of our even appointments cancelled, so we decided to head to east pittsburg to do some finding...well as we're getting off the freeway, the car next to us is honking at us, and i'm like, "What is this guy doing?!?!" It turned out to be Brother Zalic...so we just followed him home and taught him and his wife. Maybe that story wasn't as cool as I thought it was at first...haha...

This weekend we get to see Elder Bednar, combined with the San Jose mission. That'll be neat.

Elder Macdonald and I have been doing great together. We've been focusing on increasing the quality of our planning, and as a result, our key indicators have been steadily increasing. One of the coolest things my mission has taught me is that if you can accomplish just about anything if you set a goal and then make specific plans to reach it. So we're applying that...and we're gonna accomplish just about anything with the Lord's help.

Applied to the Gospel...the Lord expects us to be diligent in keeping the commandments. To stay on the path to eternal life, we need to set spiritual goals, make plans to accomplish them, and diligently follow through. Otherwise we get stuck doing the same things over and over. So we can recognize that the Savior is our ultimate goal, set a goal to become a little more like him, and then just do it!

Adios.

Elder Gillie

December 1, 2014

Highlight of the week! Brother Nelson was baptized this past Saturday. It was a powerful experience. I've never felt the Spirit so strongly at a baptism. I received a spiritual confirmation that this man has truly repented of his sins and is willing to honor his covenant that he just made with the Lord. It was a tender moment! I'm attaching a picture so that you will believe me.

What else happened this week? Last Sunday we found a cool guy named Kevin. He didn't make it to church yesterday, but we went over and taught him yesterday. We read 3 Nephi 11 with him and talked about how we can find peace in our family lives. At the beginning of the chapter, I noticed he started tearing up a bit. Towards the end of the lesson, he said, "I feel His presence here...and that's why I was tearing up a few minutes ago." Soo awesome. Before we left, he gathered his family, and offered a prayer. What a powerful experience. Heck yeah!

Thanksgiving was awesome! I only gained 5 pounds and i was able to dispose of it quickly. Elder Macdonald almost doubled his weight, jajaja. We had tons of turkey and stuffing. The families here were so great and wonderful. We were so happy that we started flying. Attached is evidence.

We added a new investigator found through tracting. His name is Manuel. He's pretty cuel. 

That's all for 2day. Hope everybody has a great week!

PS If you haven't already...check out the video "He is the Gift." You can find it at christmas.mormon.org  

It will make you cry. Unless you are a man.

The Lord is great. Feast on His love, fetchin' keep the commandments, come unto Him and feel great joy!

Elder Gillie

Sept. 8, 2014

Good news. 

This week we was one of my best weeks in missiondom. Elder Sera and I went to Contra Costa College a couple of days and found zillions of potentials. Not zillions but maybe around 20, which is about as many as we've found in the last 9 weeks. YSA's are very hard to find here, but now we're racking 'em up at the school. Here are some cool miracles that happened this week:

Miracle number 1: We talked to a guy named Juan at CCC, and he gave us his number and said we could come by. But that day we talked to a lot of Juans. So when we were going through our potentials and saw the number for Juan, we couldn't remember which Juan he was. (haha, get it? It's funny because it sounds like "one." ) We ended up calling a couple times, no answer, and that was all. Well two days later, we got a text from the Lao elders. They had met Juan about 5 miles away from where we met him, and they got his address. Last night Elder Sera and I went by, taught him, and added him.

Miracle number 2: There was a guy Elder Sera talked to at CCC named Justin. I don't remember him...I was talking to somebody else at the time. Elder Sera didn't get his information, but the next day, the Hilltop 1st sisters got a referral from headquarters...Justin had gone tomormon.org and referred himself, mentioning Elder Sera by name! How neat is that?

Miracle number 3: On Saturday, we got stood up twice, which led us to find a new potential, Eric. He was way prepared! He accepted a return appointment for the next day...but he stood us up too...bummer. Well we were driving home, and as we are doing so, Elder Sera is going through a list of formers and calling em. Right before we get home, he called a former named Albert, who hadn't been taught in 3 years. Albert answered, didn't really remember missionaries, but told us we could come over...right then! So we drove right on over, taught him, and set a date with him. Holy cow. That was neat.

Miracle number 4: On Monday evening...everything fell through...story of my life, but I'm starting to like when that happens because it means something good's in store. Our back up fell through, so we walked around this neighborhood, talked to a few people, and ended up talking to his hispanic guy. Definitely not YSA, but was pretty friendly, and we were prompted to ask him if we could teach him right then. So he let us in, and we taught him, and he accepted everything! At the end, he prayed out loud for the first time in years, and he asked God to show him if "this is the direction i've been looking for." It was so neat. We passed him off to the Spanish sisters, and that's neat too.

Not really miracle, but really cool moment...number 5: At testimony meeting yesterday, a member who we've helped activate bore her testimony for the first time in years. She said that the 3 years that she didn't go to church were the hardest years of her life, and now she's finding so many great things in life that she'd forgotten about. She cried, and I honestly almost cried. That was one of the best moments of my mission. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father has let me have a hand in blessing that daughter. Holy cow.

Well...that's about it. I love the Gospel, I know God lives and blesses us...just fetchin' forget yourself and keep the commandments and you'll be happy.

Stay righteous,

Elder Gillie

August 26, 2014

Hey friends

Since Pday was only 5 days ago there's not a whole lot to say. We took our investigator, Daniell to the oakland temple yesterday, I think he liked it. We met with another investigator, Marlin and had a neat experience...after our lesson, he prayed for the first time in 8 years. After he prayed, he said he felt a strong energy come all over his body...I wish we described the Spirit like that more often, haha. It was so cool, and I'm excited fer him.

Things are good! Elder Sera is a sick missionary. He is so good at talking to people and understanding them. I'm lucky to have such an awesome companion.

We had an earthquake not too far away from where I live. It happened at around 3:30 yesterday morning. I don't really remember it, but Elder Sera said there was some pretty heavy shaking. Apparently after all the shaking, I sat up in bed, looked around a little bit, then fell back asleep. I don't remember any of that, haha. There's not really any damage around here, so everything's okay.

Spiritual thought of the week...you have to have faith.

All my spiritual thoughts are the same, haha. This week I've been thinking about faith and repentance. All principles of the Gospel tie back to Jesus Christ as our Savior, and we access His mercy through faith and repentance. We need to believe in him, have hope, and repent of our sins, and His mercy claims those who come unto Him with a humble, penitent heart. As missionaries, we help people feel peace in their lives through repentance. We also get to feel that same peace as we exercise our faith and repent. We can decide today to repent by keeping the commandments and looking for more ways to obey the Lord. Do it!

Have a great life this week

Love,

Elder Gillie

A Bunch of Letters From Elder Gillie

Hi! I apologize at the break in posting Alex's letters! For your enjoyment, I am posting a bunch. I know that he would love hearing from you all. You can email him at alexander.gillie@myldsmail.net

Here you go:

Aug 4, 2014

Holy Transfer That's Almost Over! We get transfer calls this week. A wise home teacher once told me, "Life is like a roll of toilet paper...that closer to the end you get, the fast it goes." How true that is, especially on a mission. This transfer has just flown by.

Andrew's doing great! He's cut his smoking in half since we started teaching him. We're pretty close with him. Hopefully he can light his last one this week.

Henry's awesome. He came to church again, and he's happy.

Nick, (baptized three months ago) is doing great too. He's super active and is trying to find one of his friends to meet with us.

We haven't really found any new YSAs lately...we find old people and pass them off. :(

...But the Gospel is still just as true! I love the Gospel, and I love missionary work! I love the Spirit, I love the Atonement, I love God's children!

One thing I've learned this week is that God doesn't worry about our talent, He just worries about our heart. If we do our best to keep His commandments, He'll make up the difference. We don't have to be talented to be servants in His kingdom, we just have to be obedient and willing, and He'll make us powerful. 

Have a great week my friends!

Elder Gillie

Aug 11, 2014
The sitch is...I am staying in Richmond for a 4th transfer! The other sitch is...Elder Cherrington is being transferred to Concord, and my new companion is Elder Sera from Japan.

This week was incredible. We had a whopping SEVENTEEN YSA's at sacrament meeting yesterday. It's almost too crazy to believe. Henry passed the Sacrament for the first time, and we had a less active come for the first time. It was ridiculous. I love this place.

Andrew also came yesterday, and he has almost quit smoking. That's mah boy.

We had another miracle happen this week. We've been teaching an investigator for a while, and she's not been progressing. Elder C and I decided to drop her. The Spirit was pretty strong towards the end of the visit, and I was wondering to myself, "Why is the spirit so strong when we're dropping her?" It was weird. As we wrapped up, I felt impressed to ask her friends what thoughts they had about what was being taught. They said they wanted to learn more, and while they were expressing themselves, the Spirit slapped us all. It was pretty neat.

Exchange with Elder Parker was cool, he taught me a lot about having high standards. 

And Kevin Love got traded to the Cavs, what the heck?

I'm grateful to be staying in Richmond fer another 6 weeks, and I love the work! The Lord is good. This week I got plus 5 xp to testimony of prayer. Every morning and every night we ought to kneel in prayer and plead with the Lord to guide us. And we ought to expect that guidance to come! Every time I do so with a willingness to follow whatever prompting I'm given, I've felt my love for the Lord increase, and I know you will too.

Have a great life friends!

Elder Gilie

Aug 20, 2014

Hey family and friends. Sorry I'm not writing til today, but our Pday is today because it's our temple day. The temple is still the house of the Lord and it's awesome!

This week was a wild ride. Andrew was able to quit smoking! Way to go for him. But then he called us on Wednesday and told us he didn't want to meet anymore, and we couldn't figure out what had happened. That was pretty disappointing. We also set a date with another guy named Alexis...but he didn't show up to our return appointment, and when we saw him he told us he didn't want to meet anymore either. So we just set a date with our other investigator, Danny. We've been having lots of finding miracles...people that the Lord's been putting in our path. On Monday we went to the train station to talk to people. The first guy we talked to was really interested, so we taught him the first lesson right there sitting on a bench, set a date with him, and passed him off to the other elders. And we were led to another guy, Arthur, who accepted baptism, and now we're working on a date for him. It's amazing how we can find people to teach if we have faith!

I know the Jesus Christ lives and that He is our Redeemer. I'm so grateful to know that through repentance, we can be forgiven of our sins. Roll tide.

Elder Gillie

That's all, folks!

Actually, here's a picture for you. Because we all miss Alex's silliness.

Things are picking up

Wow, what a week we had! We found two new investigators this week and set baptismal dates with both of them! One of them, Tina, was recently married and has a few kids. We met her about a week after she got married, and felt like we were sent to bless her family. It's cool, because we were sent to bless her family. We're going to pass her off to the Hilltop 2nd ward though.

Additionally, this week we got to do tons of rad service! On Thursday we helped somebody move, and that was fun. And on Saturday we got a last minute call to help out de-shingle a recent convert's roof. That was pretty fun too. We were there for about 6 hours on Saturday, and we got pretty filthy. Here's a couple pictures to prove that it did happen.

So that was pretty fun.

Yesterday we got to visit Henry. He's not been feeling well, so we had to move the baptism to this upcoming Sunday. But he's doing muy bien, como they say.

So overall, things are going great. We've been led to tons of great potential investigators, and our time has been more productive.

Spiritchal thought of the week:

Are Mormons Christians? The answer is yes. That's my spiritual thought of today.

Keep on believing in Jesus Christ, y'all. Have faith in him and repent and all y'all will receive a remission of yer sins.

Stay non-non-non heinous.

Elder Gillie

A crazy week

This week was crazy! Here's the Kwik 5 Facts:

1. Infinity appointments fell through this week but they won't next week.

2. On Thursday we got a call at 7:30to help a man move (he was getting evicted later that day) and we ended up being there til 4.

3. We had a mini-missionary come with us from Friday to Sunday. He's actually a local member who comes with us all the time. Woohoo!

4. We tracted into two less actives accidentally.

5. This is number 5.

Spirititchal thought:

Just keep the dang commandments. 

Alright, y'all take care now y'hear?

Elder Gillie

Transfer calls again.....

Hello everyone. I know my last week letter was pretty lousy, and this one is going to be lousy too, because it's5:45. But here's the fat and skinny.

THE FAT

Our investigator Nick was baptized on Saturday and confirmed Sunday. Wohoo! What does this have to do with being fat? 2 Nephi 9:51. The Spirit was really strong. It slapped me like a fish.

THE SKINNY

Transfer calls came again and........I'm staying in Richmond! So is Elder Bo, and the other 4 elders in our district too.

6 more weeks here in Richmond. Life is good.

Sorry again, y'all. Mom, Dad, I love you tons. Brothers and sisters, I love you a little bit less. BYU friends and Alabama friends, I love you equally, but still less than my family. Alright have a good life.

Stay excellent to each other.

31d3r 517713

Quick letter

I'll cut to the quick...this past week was probably the longest week of my mission. On Monday we got a long-term rental car because our car got recalled. On Tuesday I misplaced my license, so I had to call my dad and get my license replaced. That was a weird phone call. I forgot how to talk to my dad, it has been so long. And the rest of the week, we had to get members and other missionaries to drive us places, and we also walked a lot. Yikes.

Good news is i got my new license. And other good news is that we went to the temple today, and it was awesome! I love to see the temple, I went there this morning. 

So my next pday is in like 4 days so I'll write more then. Y'all have a great life. Enjoy this picture of my district leader and I being manly.

Elder Gillie

Rich-what??

Speaking of basketball movies, this week was the worldwide Mormon Helping Hands day of service! So we got to help lots of people get rid of trash from their houses and take it to dumpsters. And I got a sombrero. Attached are some bathroom mirror selfies with my sombrero.

Today we had to drive to Concord to have our car inspected because of a Chevy recall. And as a result, our pday is a lot shorter than it usually is, so I'm not going to write everyone I usually do...but I will next week, or sometime before the year ends.

This week we picked up a couple new investigators through our current investigators. The nice thing about being in a YSA unit is that everyone's willing to bring their friends to lessons. It's super awesome.

We have an awesome investigator, Henry, who is still on track for his baptism on the 18th. And another investig8r, Nick, came to church for the first time in months! He's getting baptized on the 17th. Yahoo!

The branch is terrific. It's pretty small, but there are some really terrific people here. And I also like my sombrero.

Faith is some really good stuff. The writer of Hebrews teaches that faith is "the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen." We teach that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the way that we can find true happiness in our lives and eternal life in the world to come. Have we seen Jesus Christ? I haven't. But many prophets have, and they have testified of His reality. I wasn't there when God and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith, but in His mercy, God has granted me faith, or "evidence", that this really happened. Faith is knowing that there is a Savior, and He has restored His Gospel again. This knowledge is a gift from God to all who diligently seek Him. I have learned for myself that Jesus Christ is the Savior. I have learned for myself that by obedience to the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel brings lasting joy- the kind of joy only God can give. It is real. Heaven is for real. May God bless you "that ye may begin to exercise your faith unto repentance." - Alma 34:17.

Stay faith-exercising.

Elder Gillie

Elder Willis and Alex in Brentwood

This week was great!

Here's some of the highlights of this week:

1. We 4 new investigators, set a date with one of them, and worked our derrieres off.

2. In Sacrament meeting, one of the speakers said, "Christ was the perfect example of humidity...humility." And I just about died.

3. Everything else this week was good too.

Spiritchal thought of the week: Be humble, our else your tummy will rumble.

If your keep your desires centered on the Lord, you will most certainly not be bored.

Remember that you need his help every day, and with great blessings He will pay.

Be willing to do His will, and your spiritchal wallet He will fill.

Love other people even though they're weak, and you'll great the blessings that you seek.

Just do it, like S Truett.

Have a great week everyone! 

Stay sharp.

Elder Gillie

April 14, 2014

Hey people.

Richmond is AWESOME! Coming from Brentwood, Richmond is like another world. Here are some really cool highlights from this week.

1. I haven't been shot yet.

2. We work with young single adults instead of old people. The branch is super cool! There are about 5 active ysa's, and about 5 couples who attend. Yesterday we had a fast and testimony meeting, and the Spirit was super strong. The active members of this branch have really strong testimonies.

3. My companion, Elder Boakye-Yiadom is super cool. He's from Ghana, and he's A-frican awesome missionary. 

4. Our investigators are super cool! We set two baptismal dates this week, with Nick and Henry. They're super cool guys.

I absolutely love this area. People here are pretty friendly and humble. The hills are super pretty. The Gospel is true here too. 

Spiritchal thought of the week:

The Savior is able to make us whole if we have faith in Him. Sometimes it takes a long time for us to see the results of our faith. But we have His promise that we can be healed of all of our sorrows. To put faith in Him means to consistently make choices that bring us to Him. Although we all sin, we can make choices of repentance. We have been given our agency-our ability to choose Christ and eternal life or to choose Satan and misery. We can choose to keep the commandments and to continue in sin. When it seems impossible to keep the commandments, we can choose to focus our thoughts on Christ instead of fear. In all situations, we may choose to follow the Savior.

This week I have felt the love of Christ in my life. I know the Savior loves the people here in Richmond, but I only feel a tiny bit of the love He feels.

Have a great week, and choose eternal life!

Stay eternal-life-choosing.

Elder Gillie

Transferred!

What a surprise, I'm getting transferred out of Brentwood! Even though I've only been in Brentwood for 6 weeks, I'm sure going to miss it. The members here have been terrific. Attached are pictures with two of my favorite families in the ward, the Needhams (first one) and the Bergs (second one.)

My new area is going to be...Richmond YSA branch! I'm going to be with a friend of mine from the MTC, Elder Boakye-Yiadom. He's super cool.

In our last week, we had the opportunity to teach a part-member family and commit two of them to be baptized! Yahoo! Our friend Khiari is on track for baptism this coming Saturday as well, so I'm leaving a healthy Brentwood 3B area.

Richmond is going to be pretty challenging I think. I don't know much about it, but they say it's a really nice area, sort of, except for the nice area part. So I'm looking forward to working in a different environment. It's going to be awesome.

Conference was awesome this week! My faith in Jesus Christ was strengthened a ton. I know that we are led by a living prophet of the Lord, Thomas S. Monson, and twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. One reason we have been given prophets and apostles is to keep our faith rooted in the Savior, especially during these turbulent times. Our leaders are not perfect, but they have been called of God. The Savior himself directs His church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know this by the Holy Ghost. When the prophet and apostles addressed this weekend, I felt the Holy Ghost touch my heart and confirm to me this truth.

I love the Lord. He is my Redeemer, my Savior and King.

Stay built upon the rock of your redeemer (Helaman 5:12)

Elder Gillie

New letter 3/31/2014

Hey all!

 

This week we saw some really cool stuff go on. I'll get right to the best part.

 

On Thursday we found this one kid named Brody who was standing by a creek by himself, so we started talking to him. He asked us what the difference between Mormons and Muslims were, so we told him, and then he told us that he was looking for some kind of purpose in life. So took him to the chapel which was right down the road, taught him the restoration, and committed him to be baptized in April. It was sick! We all felt that God had sent us to him. He said, "This just feels right. I guess this is where God wants me to go." Probably one of the coolest miracles I've ever seen on my mission.

 

Another cool experience we had this week was we talked to a long-time less active member on his doorstep. He hasn't been to church in 40 years, and he doesn't believe it's true anymore. He told us the Book of Mormon was wrong, that the Bible says there will be no more scripture given, and that the Holy Ghost was telling him to tell us that what we're teaching is wrong. It was pretty intense. So we told him that although the Book of Mormon isn't flawless, it was written by prophets of God, and it was brought to us by the power of God, and that we knew it was true by the power of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit slapped us all super hard like a roundhouse kick to the heart. The man we were talking to wasn't convinced, but we left on good terms. It was a powerful learning experience for me. I don't know all things, but I do know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I actually finished reading it today, and I prayerfully asked God if it was true. Once again, the Spirit confirmed to me that it is true. Its message is that God speaks to us, His children. He has done it for centuries, and beginning in 1820, He is speaking to us through his prophets again.

 

Hope you all have a great week!

 

Stay penitent.

 

Elder Gillie

Last week of March

This week we probably biked about 120 miles. I'm in better shape than I think I've ever been. Wahoo!

 

On Monday we had our zone activity (basketball, soccer, sand volleyball, smores, burgers) and it was sick.

On Tuesday, we biked a lot, talked to a lot of people, and ate some good food.

On Wednesday we taught a couple less actives and one of our investigators.

On Thursday we taught a couple less actives and our other investigators. We also added a new investigator in his driveway.

On Friday we planned, and that felt like all we did.

On Saturday we biked about 25 miles in Deer Ridge, a super hilly neighborhood. It was hot, and I was super tired, and it was by far the best day of my week. The Lord put tons of prepared people in our path, and we have some great potential investigators.

On Sunday we met with members ate more terrific food.

 

This week has been pretty awesome. I've been learning about increasing our faith to do the work. As we've prayed and asked God to place people in our path, our ability to talk to people increases.

 

God is good! I love Him, and I love Brentwood. Roll tide.

 

Stay thirsty, my friends (Matthew 5:6)

 

Elder Gillie

March 17, 2014

So here's a list of things that happened this week-

 

• My companion's bike kept getting goofed up, and we've been hitching rides for a couple days.
• On Tuesday we taught two lessons on the street and added them as investigators.
• A nice lady gave us See's chocolate on Thursday.
• On Wednesday we had zone conference, and we learned a ton about working with members.
• On Saturday we helped move an old couple to a retirement home...except the old couple didn't know they were moving until soon after we left. That was fun.

Sorry that this week's email is going to be boring. We were pretty busy, but not a lot of notable things happened.

 

Spiritchal quotation of the week: "The Gospel brings happiness to all who come unto Christ. We must have faith in Him and repent, and as soon as we repent, we are sanctified by the Holy Ghost. Do this, because it brings lasting happiness to your life." -Elder Gillie

 

Hope you all are doing great!

 

Stay fantastic.

 

Elder Gillie

 

First week in Brentwood photo

Brentwood is awesome!

It's been another incredible week!

 

Being in a bike area is just so great. We bike around 15-20 miles a day. Sometimes we're racing to get to our apartment by 9:00 and when that happens we can't walk straight once we get inside. Every night and every morning I'm super sore, and I love it!

 

Elder Willis and I are focusing on improving two key things this transfer: talking to more people and working with members to find. It's been so exciting to see how our efforts to work on these have brought miracles! Woot.

 

This week we've worked really hard on getting more OYMs (open yer mouths). This week we talked to 81 people on the street, a huge step up from 33 last week. This week we're shooting for 140. We also made a big effort to talk to everyone that we saw. There's not a lot of people out and about in Brentwood, so we drive around the neighborhoods and find people who are in their garages or working on their lawns. This week we've found a few awesome potentials just by offering service. We even helped this one guy clean out his garage, and he took us for a drive in his Bumblebee-themed Camaro. It was sick.

 

It's amazing that as we've demonstrated our faith by opening our mouths, Heavenly Father has placed people in our paths who are prepared to hear the Gospel. We haven't added any new investigators, but we've been blessed with the Spirit and with the opportunity to share the Gospel with others.

 

The members in the ward are fantastic! They really like missionary work, and tons of members already invite their friends to church. We've had the chance to meet with a couple families this week and set goals for them to pray specifically for the opportunity to invite people to meet with missionaries, and we're excited to follow up next week.

 

Here's my spiritchal thought of the week-

 

The first principle of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We must believe in Jesus Christ. We need to trust Him, trust His commandments, trust His power and His promises. I often get caught up in my spiritchal to-do list and forget to trust my Savior. If we believe in the Savior, then we can find hope in a challenging world. Even though many people here don't want to talk to us, I have a Savior who is happy with me when I open my mouth. I've really learned a ton this week about the importance of faith. If believe that the Savior will bless us with happiness, then keeping the commandments is a lot easier! Have faith y'all.

 

Brentwood is super great. The mission is great. The Gospel is soooo good. I'm going to try to send some pictures if I get a chance to use a different computer. Until then have a good life!

 

Stay terrific.

 

Elder Gillie

Brentwood Is Awesome

Hey guys!

 

Brentwood is awesome! It's absolutely nothing like my old area. Here are some cool thing about Brentwood:

 

1. It's flat. So even though I'm on bike, I'm not dying yet.

2. The church is really strong here! Even though it's a small community, there are 3 wards in Brentwood.

3. The area has been tracted out a few times, so everybody knows us.

4. The members are feeding us so well...

5. It has Elder Willis in it, who is my companion. He's way cool.

 

The work here in Brentwood is going to be a lot different than South City. We're shifting our focus towards working with members because the members are so awesome. There's also lots of youth, and we're thinking about working with them to find people to teach. Pretty cool, right? I thought so too.

 

My new companion, Elder Willis, is way awesome. He just finished his second transfer, but he's a boss. Our senior companion, the Spirit, is even more boss. We're really excited for this transfer.

 

I'll end with an awkward story. We knocked on the door of a less active and a 20s-ish guy answered the door. Elder Willis and him started talking at the same time, and then it was silent for a few seconds. So I thought I would say something, but then Elder Willis and I started talking at the same time. Talk about awkward. Then he told us the member we were looking for didn't live there, and then it was awkward again. Definitely not the best door contact ever.

 

Spiritual lecture for the week- faith is pretty important. Many times we members of the church get caught up in little details of our Gospel living and we lose sight of the big picture. We keep God's commandments because we know He expects us to, but we sometimes lose faith that through Christ we can become spiritually healed. So don't do that. Put your faith in Jesus Christ and believe that He will heal you as you come unto Him.

 

Well, things are going well. I'll attach a couple pictures of missionaries being cool at the transfer van.

 

Stay triumphant.

 

Elder Gillie

 

PS The pictures may not have worked. Or they may have been the wrong ones. Maybe next time.