Saludos de Chile

Well what a special day it is today. It's Monday July 22nd. 

     Quick adventures of the week, My companion yesterday became a fruit ninja and cut an orange in half with a knife as it flew threw the air. Quite impressive as the knife was not very sharp at all, but it worked out. 

     On Saturday Night we were visiting a family and some friends came over of the oldest daughter, Sofia, who lives at home so they all came and said, Hi and then disappeared into the bedroom of Sofia when we finished the visit and prepared to leave I invited all of the friends to church the next morning, and then one came out of the four! Yes! best surprise ever! Her name is Maria Jose and so we have an appointment with her tonight. 

     Thursday Elder Cabera came and worked with me and it was quite fun to work with him and have his very happy spirit so excited for the work all the time, and plus we found a family, an actual family, the parents are married which is a very uncommon thing here in Chile but it sure makes our work a lot easier. So hopefully they will progress, it will be a little hard to find them all again because he works in the military so he has rough hours. 

     This upcoming Friday we are going to have a ward activity and play scripture Jeopardy so we are excited in the planning for that. 

      And last but not least, our church here in Copiapo is freezing so we brought an electric heater from the apartment so that our Gospel Principles class would actually be warm, and then afterwords the Relief Society kept in the room and later Jocelyn informed us that all of the Sisters huddled near by the heater so they wouldn't be so cold. 

     So time keeps going by so fast. This up coming weekend is transfers so we'll see what goes down. 

 Have a Wonderful day - because you can choose to

     Elder James O. Gillespie

Another Week in Chile

Crazy that another week has past. 

     The biggest story really is that President and Sister Dalton came down to Copiapo and presented themselves, and we each had a 3 minute interview with him. It wasn't really what I thought it would be but we continue onwards. 

      On Saturday we were doing contacts trying to find new people, and a man named Diego leaves his home and we convince him to let us in. As we continue talking and we enter his home we discover that his appearance is deceiving, I believed he was about 22 and come to find out that he is 17. So we continue talking and he has a friend there in the living room so we invite him as well and discover that he is a member from another ward here in Copiapo. So we have an improv lesson with member present, well we share a very quick lesson and Diego's mother arrives and when she sees us she has a face of shock, fear, confusion, and many other emotions all together, basicly saying with her face, "What are you doing in my home?" So we talk with her and then win her confience and they accepted a return date but not until August because it is Winter Break here so they are going south but we are excited for this family in the future. 

 Thanks for reading - and going to church

 Have a Wonderful day- becuase you can choose to

     Elder James O. Gillespie

July 8th 2013

Lots of little stories here and there. 

It was Canada day this past week and my companion is Canadian, and on the 2nd we completed 20 months on the mission, and on the 4th of July we celebrate independence day for the USA and I'm from there so we decided to celebrate the 3rd of July and we made hamburgers. (Pictures included) It was a fine celebration. 

 On Wednesday we were walking home and around the corner came a man on a bike and ran right into me. No injures just a lot of shocked faces. 

 So because the ward changed borders I did a companion exchange and worked up in the other part of the ward to meet a few the members and it was fun to talk with Elder Perez who just came from Pozo Almonte and so he updated me on quite a few families from there and how the ward has changed and such. 

 Friday we did service and in the back YARD, (it was a real yard, with grass and trees) of a family and we cut up the branches that came from the trees in the back YARD! because they pruned their trees. It was a fantastic project. 

 So here in Chile people don't know how to type very well, it's just not something they teach and so you got a lot of one finger typers and what I have observed is that they don't use the shift key they push the CapLock button and then time the letter then hit it again to turn it off, and I mentioned that to my companion and he didn't believe me so we were visiting one family and the daughter was typing an email to someone and I told him to just watch and then he saw it and he still couldn't believe it, I told him that he is a man of little faith. 

 On Sunday we had a lot more people in church with the border change and it was a good fast and testimony meeting. Guiliana Gaete, the sister of Sebastian who I baptized here, who is a recent convert herself got up and shared her testimony and was super super nervous but we were proud of her.

 And we found a humming bird one day, it was exciting. 

Have a Wonderful day- because you can choose to

     Elder James O. Gillespie

Happy Canada day! and tomorrow 20 months in the mission Thursday the 4th of July, what a great week.

What an exciting week. President Bruce has left and President Dalton has arrived...which until the moment nothing has happened that I have seen or felt, Elder McCaskill and I were talking about it this morning and we believe that we really won't feel much of any difference for a while. 

 On Sunday we had a surprise we arrived to church and there were several people that I did not recognize from before and so I went and talked with one man that was by himself and asked him where he is from, thinking he would say, Santiago, Antofagasta, or some city just passing through and then he told me that he was from the Branch Copiapo, (the branch next to us) so my thoughts became, ok he is on the sumo consejo or stake something that he is here on assignment for the day. Then I went to the next family and asked them and they informed me that they as well are from the Branch. and next and next...and I was a little confuzed but alright whatever, and all the Stake Presidency was also present so the meeting begins and the Stake President, President Diaz reads a card from the First Presidency that the Branch Copiapo and the Ward Copayapu shall be one that the branch is being closed. It was a bit of a shock but it happened so now we are a much bigger ward and we have 4 missionaries. 

 Also on Sunday we only had Sacrament meeting because Chile had there primary elections and so as we we began to sing the closing song a member came up to us and told us there was an investagor waiting outside that wanted to speak with us. So we go ouside and meet Carlos who Sister Burk had taught the year before and he wanted to retake the lessons so we taught him right there and then in the Church. Cool guy and it will be some work but he will become a member. 

 On Friday we helped a family move homes it was fun. I enjoy that kind of work a lot. 

 This is a picture of Elder McCaskill as the little daughter of the family we ate lunch with on Sunday put her clothes on him. 

 Have a Wonderful day - because you can choose to

     Elder James O. Gillespie

Misión Chile Antofagasta

Nov 2011- Nov 2013

One week with Elder McCaskill

     Elder Suarez's bus took off at 7...but it really left at 8:15ish we are so on time here in Chile. Then we waited in the bus terminal until about 10:00 when Elder Castillo took off to Antofagasta, because we couldn't leave him there alone. 

     During that wait time there were several missionaries coming and going along with different members and investigators to say good-bye and there was one member who was there that stopped me suddenly and said, "You were in Pozo Almonte!" and I look at her and said, "Why do you know that?" and she informes me that I taught her once there with Elder Hewstone and then a flood of memories came rushing back to me. I remembered who she was. So that was a fun connection to the past we made and it was also nice because she told me that my Spanish had improved much since my time in Pozo, (Thank goodness, over a year of being here in Chile) (There is a picture of me and her. 

      Elder McCaskill arrived the following morning at 6:40 and it was the first time I've seen him since the Noobies conference that we had at the first of our mission. After being in the MTC together it has been a long time without seeing eachother, and now we are companions. 

     On Wednesday morning we did service and painted a room and they are a part member family and part of the members are inactive so we painted "GO" in comand form and then painted a church on the wall. It's a beautiful work of art I shall include the picture. And of Elder McCaskill painting.

 The last picture is of Elder McCaskill, Elder Rattaletslkj.... (not sure how to spell it) and I who we are all 6' 3"ish so we tower over most everyone here in Chile. 

 Elder McCaskill speaks wonderful Spanish and corrects me often and also as we speak in English in the apartment I realize at times how bad my English has become, and makes me wonder if my emails are understandable. 

 Sunday night that Zone conference of the World is amazing we all watched here as a mission, in our respect stakes, and the Lord is hasting the work. 

 So I hope all is well. 

Have a Wonderful day- because you can choose to

     Elder James O. Gillespie

Wishing will not make it so. The Lord expects our thinking. He expects our action. He expects our labors. He expects our testimonies. He expects our devotion.

President Thomas S. Monson