10 months until Christmas!

Well I thank everyone for all the emails, the only bad thing about receiving many emails is that you don't have much time to reply, nevertheless it is wonderful to hear of home. Oh what a week

 So on Tuesday we had a family night which Elder Smith made us Burritos Mexican style and it was a wonderful change from the normal food here. With a lot more flavor.  (photo included)

 Well learned that many times the Lord allows things to happen to remind us that He is in control, that things seems so dark and one hinds under a pavilion from him because he or she becomes so focused on one item and after drowning in a glass of water for a little bit he or she picks up his or her head and looks around and realizes that the glass of water is not very big. 

     This week some branch drama happened and some members did not want to come to church anymore, and resigned from their callings and I began to drown in this. I didn't know what we would do however; Sunday came and I realized that we have many more blessings here in Mejillones that I need to count more often. We broke the record of people in church with 36 people. (12 of which were primary + 2 babies) I taught primary with the help of Bro. Wellington (photo included) who has been inactive almost sense he had been baptized and we have been helping him a long to come back and he has come to a few sacrament meetings here and there. Which here in Mejillones like in Diego Portales in Arica in church we start with Priesthood and Relief Society then Sunday school, and then Sacrament meeting. Then we found his love for playing with kids and teaching youth, so we will continue to take advantage of that so that he reactivates two that the youth have a leader, and three that he learns more about the Gospel. 

     The point is I was super grateful for him in that point because he had so many ideas. We had a puppet show with la jirafa Elias. Who told the story about Christ's birth and King Herod, and how God Protects me and all of his children. It was hard but enjoyable and very helpful to have another pair of hands present to help. 

      Transfers happened this weekend: I will stay here and be TRAINING! YES! It's a dream come to true.  Elder Smith will leave me this evening to go to Tierra Amarilla and as well be opening his sector with his hijo because we are both TRAINING! He was so excited well we were both so excited. I'll miss Elder Smith a lot he has definitely helped learn a lot and I'm happy for him. 

      Last news, in our mission this transfer coming up with only be 4 weeks long to realign itself with the MTC because of the age change shorter time in the MTC and such which means that all the missionaries from our mission will come home 2 weeks earlier. I don't know if that is true for all missions but ours yes. 

 Have a Wonderful day- because you can choose to

     Elder James O. Gillespie

 Goodbye Wildflower 

Letter From Elder Gillespie

    So this week Elder Smith and I have been much better about our exercise in the mornings, and he has lost 3 kilos, sinse the last time he weighed, I don't remember how much I weighed the last time but I'm at 90 kilos what ever that means. I haven't been growning upward more, I feel I have reached my limit as 194 cm. So Phil it's all you to pass Dad up now. 

      I don't know if I've said this before but we work in the young men's presidency for the moment, (hopefully shortly that will change) and we have mutual every Wednesday night which this week we had just a very simple watch the movie of José Smith: El Profeta de la Restauración. It was nice to relax a little more and watch a movie with popcorn which we made as well. 

      In Church I played the Piano and then I moved to the back of the room to help out with all the little kids that we had in church this day. 29 people in church and 8 of which are the age of 7 or under so I helped out with Angel, (the same as before) age four, Randy, age four and Jason age three. I was it was a bit of a battle but they stayed in their seats in general. 

 Have a Wonderful day- because you can choose to

     Elder James O. Gillespie

February 11th

We had zone conference last week and I saw Elder Tuttle and we had a nice talk about Oasis. I enjoy here stories about past areas but also it is sad to here about people that we worked hard with and they were coming to church not coming anymore. Then also when other missionaries destroy work that one was so diligent to do it's all gone. It was wonderful to be together as 3 zones in Antofagasta with many missionaries that I've met throughout my time here, and to learn where different Elders are serving now. Plus with all of that as well we had Pizza for lunch which is always a nice bonus. 

 A member from Bolivia came to Mejillones, ex-missionary who served in Pocatella Idaho 10 years ago. Haven't talked with him much but he taught me a very important lesson that everyone is watch us, as Representatives of Christ, and that doesn't just means the missionaries, (especially the missionaries) but members as well.  

 In Mejillones a singer from Mexico came to sing and Saturday evening the streets were filled with people heading to the auditorium in front of the church to watch him. People came from all over to watch and listen. 

 Today in the morning we went to the museum of Mejillones and they have a place to put your face. So we took pictures. And the other photo is of the ocean, it's a nice place here. 

 Have a Wonderful day - because you can choose to

          Elder James O. Gillespie

Ground Hog day, Half Birthday, and 15 months

It sure seems like much longer of a time has past by then only six months sinse my birthday, but only six months have past. 

 We had a new family come to Mejillones from Antofagasta, whose name evades me in this moment but they are fantastic. They will help change the branch of Mejillones. She was called as Refeil Society President that same day and she started working right away, and went and did visits. =) Gran cara feliz. He hasn't received a calling yet but he helped us out a ton with an investigator that came to church, he talked with him told him what was going on. Invited him to his home in the evening. 

 We've been doing service for a family here and we are building a house and I found out that my hands have lost a lot of the ability they had of hard work. Or in other words, I have very soft hands now. I used a pick axe to break out a rock and very quickly formed 2 blisters, and it was a bit disappointing. But we got the rock out, and dug a whole that was probably about 5 feet deep for the bathroom. I felt like I was in the book Holes. 

 Ivan Anacoña who was baptized last week blew our minds. We had a lesson with his parents and his mom asked him why he got baptized, and he informed them that it was not because of the activities we do and that he falls well with us but that it is for the teachings on the inside of the church. I was very pleased with it. 

 The church is young here in Chile, just a little before I left for my mission Chile celebrated 50 years of missionary work, and I never realized what that meant until a little while ago. That the church is very young here. I used to be frustrated at times why people couldn't understand the importance of this work, and complete with what needs to be done, and more than anything know what needs to be down. Now I recognize that they are doing very well. The church is a huge program that has many parts to it and I being a member all my life not knowing everything shouldn't expect more from the people here. (I don´t know if that all makes sense and I don't have time to back and edit) The Lord is hastening his work. I keep hearing that phrase, and think that big things are coming here in Chile

 Have a Wonderful day

     Elder James O. Gillespie