Transferred to Con Con

I did get transferred. I am in Con Con. It is one of the richest parts of the mission. I think my apartment is way nice. Probably going to be the nicest one I have. We should have a couple of baptisms in a few weeks. I am with a comp who just finished his training. I couldn't believe he just finished his training because he is so much further ahead than my last companion. It's like he and Elder Fotheringham switched places. It's like he is in his last change, not his first. I like my new area.

For my birthday, I didn't do anything. It was the first day in my new area. I didn't know anyone and I didn't tell my companion. So it was a normal day of contacts. This week was way good. A lot of miracles happened that was way cool. My comp is from Peru. He speaks good Spanish, so hopefully I can get the language down better with him. I don't know how long he will be here. We will have two changes at the max, but I wouldn't be surprised if he leaves next change. I am excited. It's the first time in the mission where I came into an area and we had some investigators. So that was nice.

I don't know why the bank said my debit card is bad because Dad and I changed it before I left. So the one I have is good through 2017.  My old card wasn't, so that is why we switched it, but that's fine to get a new one If the bank wants to do that.

That is nuts that Jessica Kunzler is getting married. I knew it was going to happen, but I didn't think that fast. Hey, tell her to send me an announcement. I want to see it.  Tell her and Wade congratulations for me. They are going to have a kid before I get off my mission. Oh my goodness!  What does Nicole and Mike think? That is really weird that she is getting married. I don't feel like I am at the age for people in my grade to be getting married. 

I am glad you had a good week. It's warm here. It should start cooling down this next month and getting in to Fall in March. I don't know. Con Con might be cold. There are parts of Con Con where we have to have the dates to go from the President, because we have to walk on the beach to get there. If we don't have an investigator, we can't go there. We are super close to the beach. 

I got my package and all that. Thanks a ton. Other then that, not much happened. Have a good week.

Love,

Elder Gillies

City of Con Con

Birthday Week

O.K., so you can put your mind at rest, Mom.  I should get my package tomorrow because we will have the thing for the zone tomorrow and not Friday because of the changes this week. Transfers are Wednesday. My companion thinks I will stay here, but I am not sure. I think I will go because if I don't, I am going to be here for a really long time. I don't mind it here, but I don't know. This week with Serigo, he attended church again. He has the lessons for baptisms, but will just have to change a little more. Then we can get him baptized. He is talking with more people in the ward, so that is good. I went on exchanges this week. We did a day of contacts. I was with a different elder and it made the world of difference. We had fun and all that. I think my comp thinks that if he has fun while we work that the people will think he is like getting trunky or something. So he is super serious.

This week we found some new people to teach. They are an older couple. They have a lot of doubts, but they let us teach them. So if they will just read and pray, I know they will receive an answer.

That is funny that Peyton and Eric are in the same class. She said something about it, but she didn't know for sure if was Eric or not.  She is like, Do you have a brother in Laramie because there is a guy in my class that looks a lot like you. I told her yes.  So that is funny.   

This week the sisters needed a thing for the baptisms that we had and they were waiting for like five minutes. We come walking there and they are eating ice cream. I am like, "Where did you get that ice cream? And they are like, "Right there." I have been here four months and never knew this place existed! Took then like five minutes to find ice cream. Go figure! 

Then there was a kid in the ward who came home from the mission for health reasons.  He can go back in like four months if he wants, but I don't think he is coming back. Hopefully he surprises me and comes back. He had the same time that I have in the mission, so I don't know.

How were your meetings in Cheyenne? How are things going in Lyman? Do you think the boys can compete at state basketball?  I know Coach Lueck will have them ready. It's just if they come out to play. I bet it has been nice for them to go down to 2A. That probably made a huge difference. Other then that, not much else has happened.  It's weird that I will be 20 years old this week and out of the teen years, but it's all good. Have a good week.

Love,

Elder Gillies 

Just another Week

O.K. this week was like a kick in the head to tell you the truth. We had the a baptismal date with a lady and all she needed to do was come to church one more time and for us to teach her a few more lessons. But then she told us she didn't want us to come back. She had depression because her husband died, and now she has a new thing for life. But now she said she has love feelings for my comp. So we had to call the president and ask what to do. He said we could still go to teach her, but to always have a member with us which we did. But then she said she didn't want us to come back. We can't really tell our district leader why we aren't going back and he has been on our back the whole week, like what happened? He just won't give it up. So I don't know. We are probably going to have to drop our contacts because no one is really progressing. 

Transfers are next week a day before my birthday. I don't know but I think I will get changed, but every time I think I will, I don't and every time I don't think I will get transferred, I do. If I don't get transferred this time, I will probably be here three more months because the next transfer is my comps last one, so I would have to stay another transfer so I can teach the other missionary and that would mean I would be here for almost seven months. Like I like the members and all, but it's just a long time to be in an area so I think I will be changed. 

This week we were contacting at a door and the lady answered. We were talking to her and a guy walks across the hall and he was butt naked. It was so hard not to laugh during the contact, but oh the things you see in this place! I wanted to yell out, "It's not that cold buddy!  Just kidding. 

Today we have a activity of the district thanks to the other missionaries. We are basically having a testimony meeting with food. I don't know. I would rather just stay in the apartment. I can't say much cause I didn't help with the baptisms, so I just have to go with it, 

The package you sent for my birthday should come at the conference of the zone which will be in a few weeks. It's probably here, but I won't get it until then. Other then that, not much has happened that is interesting. Hope you have a good week.

Love,

Elder Gillies

Elder Gillies & Elder Montano with Investigator on 12/30/14

Chile Sunset

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