Grandpa Showell's Passing

I am sorry to hear that Grandpa Showell died. I am glad that the service was good and that almost everyone could come. How are you doing? How is Grandma doing? This week was good. We found some new people to teach. I learned a little more of what I can do as the counselor. It's weird, because I'm not sure what my responsibilities are as the counselor in the branch. However, it should be a good learning experience for me. This week the earthquakes have slowed down. There are still some every now and then, but not as strong as we had. It was funny. This week there was like a 6.7 in the middle of the night and I slept through it. I was really tired!

Thanks for the updates on Utah. That was cool they beat Oregon. Then this week we had an activity for the ward. It was really fun. There was a lot of food and games. We played tug-a-war. My companion and I were on one team against like 20 kids and four adults. We won the first few times and then they got serious and brought more people and then we didn't stand a chance, 

Yesterday we had a reunion and there was a guy that talked about cleaning the churches for an hour and it was so hot in the church. I was trying just to stay awake. It was interesting. Are they doing tithing settlement early up there too, because we can start doing tithing settlement starting after conference this week.

Rifle season starts so if anyone gets anything you are going to have to send me a picture. I am excited for general conference this week. I am excited to see who the apostles will be since there will be three new ones. Other then that, not much has happened. Have a good week.

Love,

Elder Gillies

9/18/2015

How's this for a Chilean spur?
9/18/15

Earthquake Aftershocks

I will try to answer your questions, but i don't know if i will remember all of them. The earthquake was in my mission, but it was fine. We were teaching a lesson and it started. We just sat there and then it got bigger, so we had to leave the house. There wasn't a lot of houses that fell, just the older ones. Chile is prepared for stuff like this. Illapel is like twenty miles away. It was worse there. So we just had to sit out outside for a while. My companion who is from Chicago and I were pretty calm. It was an interesting feeling. There after a few minutes the earthquake finally stopped. After that we had to go look for members and stuff like that to see if everyone was ok, and to see if we could do anything to help them.  It was dark by then, so we went to do service on Thursday. It really wasn't too bad. We were just really lucky.  Our apartment is on the fourth floor. The after shocks kept going all night. The big ones happen at night, but honestly I am so tired in the middle of the night I don't even care. I am doing good if I open my eyes and just wait for it to pass, and then try to go back to sleep. We had plenty of food.  The water got cut for a little bit, but never for the three days like they it would be.   We had no electricity for like a day, but other then that it was fine. We are doing good, just working like normal. The little kids are scared, but that is about it.

I gave a talk yesterday in church, and I presided over the meeting so I got to take the sacrament first. That was cool. Then my companion is the secretary of the ward. My job is easy compared to his. We have interviews tomorrow with President Diaz, so that will be good.  We have to clean the house a little, and I need to cut my hair. We have a few people that could get baptized any day. They just have to come to church this week. This week, I ate sheep, rabbit, and all kinds of meat for Chile's Independence Day. It was fun. Other then that, I am safe so don't worry. Have a good week. 

Love,

Elder Gillies

Safe from 8.3 Chile Earthquake

Hey whats up? Just wanted to tell you that everything is ok so that mom can stop worrying! It was pretty interesting! I heard it was the biggest earthquake in the world for 2015. It was absolutely crazy! It started about 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday the 16th and it was like an 8.3 or something like that. There were a few houses that fell and were destroyed, but like the really old ones. Our house is fine. We have water, food and all that stuff. There were more then 100 after shocks that night. I think we all got a little humbled. We went to look for service for a couple of days and now we are back to work. Thanks for your prayers. Tell you more on Monday.

Love,

Elder Gillies

Transferred to Salamanca with Elder Hansen as my Companion

Ok so I got transferred. I finally got out of Con Con and I am headed up north again to Salamanca. It's in the same zone of Illapel where I started my mission. I had to go to Los Vilos to get here and that was weird. I never thought I would be going back to Los Vilos, so that was a surprise. I am with Elder Hansen and I knew him before he was in my zone. So it should be really good here. Then the ward has like 40 people. I am now the first counselor in the ward so I am going to have to conduct sometimes and take tithing and all that, but I am excited. It should be fun to learn all the stuff like that. We should have a few baptisms here. There are a few people that should be ready. My comp has two transfers left in the mission ,so we will see if he ends with me or if he gets transferred the next time. This sector is going to be really hot. I am not by the ocean, so I am going to die of heat here, but that will be ok i guess. It was a big change to go from a big ward back to a little one, but it should be good. The little wards are harder, but they are fun because you get to know everyone really well.

I am glad that Dalton did a good job on his homecoming talk. Who is Justin getting married to? That is weird he is getting married already.  I wasn't expecting that. Thanks for the updates with football. Are the Red Sox going to make it to the play offs? 

I am excited over the changes.  Other then that, it was a really short week. Not much really happened. Have a good 

week.

Love,

Elder Gillies

Transfers on Wednesday.

So this week was good with Elder Vina's. I am pretty sure he has the scriptures memorized. I am not sure how, but he would just say like in this part it says this and he didn't have his scriptures open. I had heard a lot of things about how hard of guy he was, but he seemed really nice and all that. He talked a lot about the atonement which was really cool. The spirit was super strong there.   

This week is transfers, so Wednesday you are going to have to watch the web page of the mission because i won't know until Wednesday morning so we will see if I stay here for nine months or go some where else.

That is funny about the wing that Boston had to take home. Remember when Eric shot the bird at G. and G. Showell's and we had to put it in the ziploc bag so he could take it home to show Dad if I can remember right.

This week no one showed up for church on Sunday. We had like a two hour meeting with the bishop with things on how to improve or help the ward members. It was good. Then yesterday we had a lesson with Maria Jose and we found one of her needs was with Camilo, her son. He says he is gay and all that and she told us like a month ago, but she really didn't seem that worried about it. But yesterday you could see it on her face, so I don't know. We are going to have another lesson with her on Tuesday the night before changes, so we will see how it goes. This week the weather changed back to normal for this time of the year. It's rained a little bit, but nothing like a few weeks ago. It messes with you, because you never know what to bring, like a sweater or a coat. We had an interesting moment this week when we went to go teach and all the sudden these people start taking out the cables so that they could watch tv. It's like if the tv isn't working, then their whole world ends. It was nuts. Like you have got to be kidding me. Other then that, not much has really happened. I hope you have a good week.

Love,

Elder Gillies 

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