Mission President Interviews

O.K.  So who won the college championship in football? No one ever told me and who won the super bowl? This week with the Mission President interviews, oh the interviews! I didn't really feel very good after them, but then the next day we had our meeting with the district and one of the missionaries there said after his interview that he had cried. He said that was the first time he had cried in 3 years. So then I felt a little better about mine. I felt bad for that missionary, so i did the district interviews.

In the Mission President interview, I was first shared a scripture.  Then President K asked how everything was going. I don't know, I don't think President K trusts me very much. I have no idea why, but when I am talking to him, I feel like there is a cold wall in front of him. The last thing he said to my comp was go get a lot of baptisms. He told me to "supporta buen" which is like behave yourself or something like that. So I don't know. I asked for a blessing and word wise it was a good blessing, but it's like different. I didn't feel the same. Like whenever dad gave me a blessing, there was a different feeling. I know it's not the same. He is my Mission President, but it just feels cold. I am trying to do my best to have him get a little confidence in him. Then the whole interview was in English. A sister in the ward said he did that with one missionary and that missionary said, "President, this is a Spanish speaking mission and you are supposed to talk to me in Spanish. I am not going to lie. The thought came thought my head ,but i figured he already doesn't like me so I didn't want to add on to it.

I miss talking in the street. I look forward to the intercambios for the week, so i can talk in the street. When you don't street contact, the days drag on and it's not so much fun. We are still trying this week. I don't know what to do with Serigo to get him to be baptized. I am running out of ideas.  We did have a miracle yesterday. We had a lady call that said, "I can't come to church today. I am sick." She has a date for baptism, so we are like dang. So we went to church and we look around and she is there, she is like "Surprise!" So that was cool. She only needs one more time to come to church. However, the husband needs to quit smoking, so we are in on that now. This week we had another investigator ask me the deepest questions I have ever been asked so far in my mission. The first question is, "How could Joseph Smith see God in the first vision if in the Bible it says, if we see the face of God, we die? #2. How can we become Gods when in the Bible it says the Prophet who says that is false and that and then #3 Was stuff about the Priesthood. So that was an interesting lesson. Then we had a guy who we knocked on his door and said, "No, not interested. We are Christians." I am like,"Cool, so are we!" He walked out of his house and said, "No, no you believe in a false prophet and are not Christians." We are like o.k. "Have a good day. See you on the day of judgement." The last part, I just put in there about the judgement, but its just interesting how far people are off the deep end. Not much else happened. Have a good week.

Love,

Elder Gillies

December 30, 2014
Me with Elder Montano and Elder Fotheringham

Cooler Weather

So the language, oh the language, I don't know this week. I let the thoughts slip into my head to think, "Would I be a better teacher and all that stuff if I were speaking my own language? That was not a good to think that. I found a scripture this morning that helped out a ton and I know I am here for a reason and I am supposed to learn Spanish for a reason. It's a great opportunity and a huge blessing. It's just hard sometimes, but it's good. This week we had the bishop show up to church again and other less active which was so good. We also had two investigators show up to church too. One was Serigo. He snuck in and I thought he wasn't in the meeting, but after it was over I turned around and there he was. I just started to smile and started laughing.

Tomorrow I have interviews with the mission president. That should be interesting. They are in the apartment so I have a lot of cleaning to do today, but it should be good. We have a lady that we have had super strong lessons with.  Then she doesn't come to church, so this week we will see what happens.  I got an elder I know who is a huge Green Bay fan and every time we had interviews, we would talk about foot ball. So that will be fun to say my team is still in and yours is gone.

This week the weather has been cooler and that has been super nice. It has made it a lot better. Everyone thinks I am crazy for having short sleeves all the time. They think they are freezing. 

Yesterday in church we were talking about how families can be forever and somehow the class brought up how men can be sealed to more then one women and the women can't. Some of the investigators didn't like that very much. So they asked me why it is like that.  I shared with them the scripture in Isaiah of my thoughts are not your thoughts. They didn't think that was good enough. 

I had interchanges this week. It was nice to talk in the street again and it made the day go by a lot faster. Honestly, by Monday, I can't remember what went on in the week. So have a good week.  Oh, and tell Grandma Showell Happy Birthday.

Love,

Elder Gillies 

On Sun, Jan 18, 2015 at 10:20 PM, <tgillies@union-tel.com> wrote:

Working in my New Area

How do you know who my new mission president is?  We probably won't know anything about him until we have a conference or something like that. That is in a really long time until July so I am not that worried. So there are missionaries in my old area. It's me and my comp. We have two areas and they are now combined into one. The apartment is pretty much the same as the other one. I do finally have a bed that I can fit in now, and I have slept better at nights so that helps too. My comp is from Salt Lake. He is a different kid. He doesn't really talk much. I try to find out things from him, but he doesn't really say much. I guess when he was in school he got bullied a lot so that kinda messed up his social skills. You would never believe he goes home in two months. I do a lot of the talking. I figured out where I kinda am with my Spanish. I thought I was doing pretty good, but I was wrong. Everyone says they can understand Spanish. It's just rough. I ask everyone what can I do so that you can understand better, or what do I need to work on so I can get better. They are like, I don't really know. So they don't help me much, so its hard to progress. I can understand a lot more then I can talk because with all of my mission I had companions that talked and I could never really talk that much, but just listen. I could listen, but now with my companion that doesn't talk much, I have to talk a lot more. I really think that is why I am with him. He knows the Spanish grammer rules to help, but I can talk and practice. He is probably the comp that I will have that lives closest to the Lyman, but really its like if I see him again after my mission, it's good, but if I don't, it's fine too. However, I am trying to change that.

We had a baptismal date scheduled, but it fell through this Sunday. She didn't come to church. She has depression and has told us stories that are a little scary, but I think we can help her make it through it. I told Serigo I was being transferred.  So when I found him to tell him I was here for a little while longer, he was so excited and started jumping up and down. That made me feel good. I think we can get him to progress a little more now. Yesterday we didn't have any investigators show up to church, but we had two less active members that had never come before come and one was an ex-bishop that we have been working with. So hopefully he can keep coming.

Yesterday I was dead. I was so tired. We had walked a ton and done a lot of work.  Now our sector is so much bigger, but I like the big sector. I have just got to get my Spanish better so I can help the investigators more. Thats the hard thing. I want to learn the doctrine too, so its hard to do both. I will finish the New Testament this week and then the only book that I haven't read is the Old Testament. Maybe I can read that next year when I read the library again, and the Book of Mormon and the New Testament a bunch of more times.  I hope you have a good week. 

Love,

Elder Gillies

Transfers - New Companion, Elder Fotheringham

O.K. So this change was a really weird one. To tell you the truth we get the call in the morning and then the zone leaders say, Elder Gillies and Elder Montano you are going to a different sector. So I got all my bags packed and all that stuff and said good bye to everyone. Then we left for Vina to the mission home.  So Elder Montano got transferred to Quipay. Then they called my name and said I was am going back to Mira Flores, but they closed my sector. So I had taken all my stuff to Vina and got all packed up just to bring it all back to Mira Flores, like a block away from my old apartment. I don't know why that happened, but the Lord has a sense of humor, I guess. That night of transfers, it was December 31.So that was about the worst day for changes. On the way back to my area, we were on a bus with two huge suitcases with everyone going so they can see the fireworks.

My new companion is Elder Fotheringham. He is from Utah. He has the same time left as Elder Montano. He leaves in two transfers. It's different. He is a pretty quiet kid and it is an adjustment. With all my other companions but one, we have always talked.  I guess it's not too bad because I can talk more in the lessons now, so that is better. So I can kinda get that. 

Today I had to get all the stuff for the visa worked out, so basically I didn't have a p-day. i just barely got done with that. It was a nightmare, and I have to do it again another time in about a year. But next time, hopefully it will be better. 

This week was hard. We are working in both sectors, combining them as one. It's hard because I don't know Elder Fotheringham's sector and he doesn't know mine. Then I came in to this apartment. It was so dirty! I had to clean dishes with mold on them! We will have a thing with the president in the apartment this mouth. So now it's just trying to get everything cleaned up. Sorry this email is super short, but I don't have much time today with having to do all the visa stuff.

Oh yeah, I didn't know Wade Eyre came home from his mission this month. Tell Wade and Jessica to send me a wedding announcement! So that means Nathan Jaggi will be coming home soon too. Branson Bradshaw must have less then six months left of his mission. That came really fast it seems like to me, but that may just be me. Things will be better once the thing is done with the President and if we could get someone to commit to baptism, that would be nice. Other then that, I will try to do better next week and send you some pictures and all that stuff. Thanks for all that you do. I hope you have a good week. 

Love

Elder Gillies