Service makes your trials light 08/19/2013

 If there is anything I have learned this week is that the when you are in the service of your fellow men you take over yourself the yoke of our Lord which is light. Forget yourself and go to work makes things worries fall away. As one serves they can see that the trials become quite manageable. One visits families and sees the trials that they may have as divorce seperates a family, with a future unsecure. Or a child who has walked down paths and don't want to come back. You become grateful for the great blessings that the Lord has given to you, and what knowledge could be better than knowing that the family is forever through the Priesthood which was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

I thank you all for your support- know that I'm fine- that I feel at ease.

Lorenza Guerra shall be baptized this weekend that is coming up. 

Have a Wonderful day- because the Lord lives, and through Him we shall all live. 

     Elder James O. Gillespie

It's beginning to warm up

Kind of- we had a couple of nice days that I didn't take my jacket with me at all. 

 Well Tuesday we had a zone meeting where the zone leaders repassed all the rules with us from the missionary Handbook, and that there will be a couple of changes with the district meetings and the numbers that we report every week etc. But pretty normal. 

 On Sunday we gave talks and I spoke first and afterwords I sat back down in the congregation and Sis. Campos behind me said, "You got a 7" which is like an A on your report card here in Chile. So I just opened my bible to Exodo 20:16 where it tells her not to lie, then afterwords I went to talk with Susana Tello the mother of Sebastian who was baptized a while back. She is a very honest and straight forward person and she told me that she didn't understand I thing I said. I was grateful for her sincerity. 

 So for the first time this week we thought we would try to teach about family history work. (our mission has never been the best about teach lesson 5 in Preach My Gospel) It went quite badly the lesson and we decided to go back to the drawing boards on how to teach it. 

 This week seemed to really go by slowly but at the same time just nothing really seemed to happen. So we continue onwards. 

 Elder James O. Gillespie

August 5th

   Transfer weeks missionaries arriving early in the morning oh fun stuff. Our apartment is the closest to centro and to the bus station and I knew that on Monday night/Tuesday morning that a big group of Elders and Sisters were coming into Copiapo at about 3 in the morning. The plan was at the moment that there would be no Elders coming to spend the rest of the night with us. So we went to bed feeling a little bad for the Zone Leaders because they must be there to receive the missionaries. I woke up at about 3:30 not really sure why and just laid there inbed until about 3:50 and Elder Cabera calls me to ask if Elder Hertler and Elder Flores can come and stay at our pension I give them the address and they arrive about 10 minutes later. 

      We went to go visit a inactive family and they had bought a new fridge so we helped them install it then had a destroyer lesson with them. The spirit rebuked them, and then they came to church. Best part. 

     So Elder McCaskill and I every week make some kind of food one day that is a little more gringa so this week we made salad, and we bought cesar and french dressings. Good stuff. 

    Sunday we had 123 people in church the most people I have ever seen in the chapel here in Copayapu. Fantastic. It was fast and testimony meeting and it just was a really good meeting. I enjoyed it. 

     The mission is beginning to have it's changes with Pres. Dalton, and Elder McCaskill and I are pretty pumped for these upcoming weeks. 

 Have a Wonderful day- because you can choose to

     Elder James o. Gillespie