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