Transfer!

Holy smokes! It's been a great 6 months in South City, but the call came, and I'm getting transferred to BRENTWOOD! BRENTWOOD is at the very northeast end of the mission, all the way out past Antioch. Apparently BRENTWOOD is very hot, kind of humid, somewhat suburban, and not great for allergies. Oh, and even better, I'm going to be on bike!

Here's something cool about BRENTWOOD: BRENTWOOD is in the Antioch zone, so Elder Watkins, my trainer, will be one of my zone leaders. Other than that though, I have no idea what to expect, except for that I will be a lot hotter than I have been this side of the bay. Oh, and it takes hours to get from Oakland to Brentwood in the evening.

Here's some not so cool things about getting transferred. First of all, I had to say goodbye to our dear recent converts, Lona, Tiffany, and Jesus. That really stunk. Good thing there's Facebook for 2/3 of those people. Goodbyes really stink though. 

This week we had a killer week as far as numbers. We reached the standards of excellence for new investigators (3), total lessons (20), and Open Your Mouths(140). Great way to end a great time in South City!

Missions are great. It's fun to work hard and do your very best. The Spirit is so strong when you're working hard, and the people here are incredible. God loves the people here, so I do too. We'll see how true the Gospel is in BRENTWOOD.

Stay awesome.

Love,

Elder Gillie

Latest Letter

And we have another great week in the books! 

Life is good, folks. This week was pretty rad, so I'll go over some of the highlights.

On Tuesday we had our personal interviews with President Meredith. I sure love that man. And that was Tuesday.

On Wednesday we had an exchange with the Half Moon Bay elders. I went to HMB with the district leader, Elder Macias, and that was way cool. We taught lots of cool people. We visited a less active couple whose house smells like pee. That was really cool. Half Moon Bay doesn't smell like pee, but that's okay.

On Thursday we did missionary work.

On Friday we went to a Burmese restaurant for dinner. Khin, of the sisters' investigators (who's getting baptized!) took us to a Burmese restaurant and gave us each a flower for Valentine's Day. It was great!

On Saturday we had a ward chili cook-off and primary talent show. It was super boss.

On Sunday we had another exchange. I was in Half Moon Bay again, this time with Elder Ishigaki. It was boss too. We saw the same less active with the pee-smelling house. The relief society room at the church also smelled like pee. 

It was weird going to a different ward for church. We don't usually do exchanges on a Sunday, but it was pretty cool. The members in Half Moon Bay are super sick. One of them is pretty famous- Jeff Clark, a professional surfer. I think he has a cool mormon.org video.

Overall, this week was great! We've seen lots of blessings. It's cool that as we've worked together, we've become closer as companions. Elder Vance is way cool. He's been a great new missionary, and he's a boss. 

San Francisco is pretty great. The Lord really does love the people here. I like them a lot too. When we focus on loving other people, we are given the ability to endure. Moroni taught this in Moroni 7:46 ..."Charity NEVER faileth" (capital letters added for umph.)  It's so true though, when we love, we are happy. Love everybody, folks. Just do it!

I know this Gospel is true and that it's the Lord's work we're doing. The Gospel has been restored through a prophet, just like he did many times in the Bible. The Lord is constant...he still speaks to us today through a living prophet. The restored Gospel brings so much happiness to our lives! Let's all live it.

Love,

Elder Gillie

P.S. Here's a couple pictures of Elder Vance and I for your enjoyment.

Latest news

Hey guys!

We lots of cool things happen this week! Let me go through the list:

1. This week we got to help Sister Adams paint her house. Being a missionary is too much fun-

2. We thought we would be teaching a cool Muslim guy. Turns out he's not Muslim and he doesn't really speak much English. Bummer.

3. A lot of people here are really unique. San Francisco has got lots of interesting guys, girls, and its. I love it here though...wish I could stay in San Francisco forever! The people here are loved by the Lord, and I love them too. 

4. This past friday I shook

    the hand of Elder Cook.

    It was super neet

    when me he did greet.

    he's truly an apostle of the Lord

    In that meeting I was not bord.

    At all.

    It was a ball.

    

 Really though, it was awesome that we got to see an apostle! We had a mission conference for about 3 hours and he briefly spoke about way important stuff. Seeing general authorities in real life is weird because they're real people. On TV they're super professional, but they actually have personalities. Elder Cook is super funny. This isn't funny, but at one point he promised us that we are where we are supposed to be. When he said that, the Spirit told me that it was true, that I am supposed to be in San Francisco. It was awesome. At the end of his talk, he promised us some way rad blessings. I wrote some of them down, but I don't have my notebook with me right now. But one cool thing he blessed us with is love for the people, and the faith to open our mouths and talk to more people. It was so great. 

I really do love the people here. San Francisco is a great place. South San Francisco is great too. Colma is also great. Daly City is great. San Bruno is great. The Lord has got some great people here. He just loves us! Roll tide.

Love,
Elder Gillie

Sorry This Is Late!

Our Pday was today instead of Monday, because we got to go to the temple! It was awesome. The temple is a great place. Here's the details on the week we had!

We found another investigator this week. We've slowly been adding more to our teaching pool. Being a missionary is definitely more fun when you have people to teach. Another investigator came to church for the first time...we were SO happy about that! She felt the Spirit and liked young women's/sunday school, so we were really excited for her.

Other cool facts from this week

- we might be teaching a muslim pretty soon

- everybody offers us weed

- elder vance is a stud

- we saw a lady get hit by a car. she was alright, which made it funny.

- we almost taught cool homeless dudes

Missions are cool because cool things like that happen. They're even cooler because of the miracles that we see. God is good- he blesses us so much. But the greatest blessing we could ever have is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love how we can come unto Him, give Him our weaknesses, and He gives us strength instead. It's true! He loves us!

I'm off to go sing cheesy church music really loud and off-key. Take care folks!

Love,

Elder Gillie