Of Exchanges and Phone Calls

P-day's aren't very exciting. I was under the false impression before I came out on my mission that p-days were full of fun stuff. They generally aren't. They're supposed to be a break from the usual rigor of the week and let you relax a little bit. They're kind of stressful. You don't have very much time but you're supposed to wash your clothes, wash the car, clean the apartment, do all your grocery shopping, and email home while still doing your two hours of study in the morning and being done with everything by 6 pm so that you can go out and proselyte. So you get all that done and at most you have 2 hours leftover to do something else. Some missionaries nap during those two hours. We mostly sit around playing card games, and every once in awhile we have time to play Dungeons and Dragons with Barbara Octaviani. I guess it's all worth it for those few Mondays where we have time to play D&D.

Last week after p-day was "over" we went out to see one of our investigators. We got there just in time to help a guy get his car out of a ditch. Some crazies had run him off the road and the carriage of the car was stuck on top of a log and the wheels were turning in a mud ditch so he couldn't get anywhere. We were able to jack his car up so we could pull the log out and stick a piece of wood under the tire so he finally got out. The whole process took about 45 minutes. It was probably the most excitement we had had all day.

This week we picked up again an investigator that we had dropped back in my first week on the mission. He had had all of the lessons but he never kept any of his commitments. And he especially wasn't praying which is definitely the most important step in conversion because it allows you to receive answers and direction from our Heavenly Father. We had come to teach his wife since she is a less-active and she had some questions she wanted answered. He sat in and asked some questions which allowed Sister McCleery to ask the question/call him out on what the root cause of him not progressing was. He was afraid of receiving answers because then he was worried about being accountable for his knowledge through his obedience to that knowledge. Sister McCleery flat out told him that he already knew it was true but asked if he had simply not prayed to have a true confirmation through the Holy Ghost because he was afraid of messing up. He said yes. And we assured him that was why Heavenly Father gave us Christ and his Atonement. So we could repent. That no matter how many times we messed up, as long as we were truly repentant, he would always forgive us.

We find with a lot of people that they feel like they've run out of chances with our Heavenly Father. As if after our 10th 50th or 1000th mistake, he throws up his hands and goes "that's it! I'm not dealing with your issues anymore!" But that's not how Heavenly Father works. We're children. And just like children, we're learning to walk. That's what life on this earth is about. It's about learning to stand on our own. When a child is learning to walk, they fall. They fall over and over again. But we don't give up on them after they've fallen for the 10th, 50th, or 1000th time and tell them "that's it. You've run out of chances. You don't get to learn to walk." You help them get back up and take another step.

This Wednesday I went on another exchange to Baybrook which is the area right next to ours. Literally. The sisters live in the same apartment complex as us so we just packed up and walked our stuff fifty feet to the other apartment. Baybrook is a biking area. It was super fun but all of our plans fell through and we had an hour and a half where we just biked around looking for people to talk to. We were able to place only 5 pass-along cards in that whole hour and a half. Then we went to supper and home because my temporary companion was sick.

I must be destined to be companion to sick sisters because during last week's exchange I was with another sick sister.

I basically went on another exchange the very next day because sister McCleery had another Missionary Leader Conference and they told us to drive to Missouri City the night before and stay with those sisters. We took our bed bundles and rolled them out on the floor. I was actually quite comfortable and they said I looked as much as they were all getting up the next morning. So Hermana Whitmer and Sister McCleery went to MLC and Hermana Yungfleish and I worked in Missouri City. She had language study and that's when I decided that I'd start doing language study in my free time because I decided to join her for it and enjoyed it.

The Skype Call home yesterday was AWESOME! I wish I could've seen more of the family but it was great just seeing Mom, Dad, Colin, and Clio as they all spoke to me. Everyone talks about how homesick they get after calls home but I think I'm fine. I'm probably mostly just used to it since I've been at college for so long. Maybe it would've been different if I had seen Thomas and or Shannon since while at college I got used to seeing them almost everyday.

I love you all. And love hearing from you and hope to continue to read all of your awesome emails each week.

"God Bless!"
--

Sister Gillespie

Flooding in Houston

I woke up to rain and thunder today. I guess it's now officially flood and hurricane season down here. It's pretty insane though. Apparently Houston gets as much rain as back home in Washington it just happens all at once instead of over the course of the year. Rather than alternately between drizzles and rain like it does back home it alternates between sheets and buckets for a few hours and then it'll rain for a few hours and then go back to sheets and buckets. This morning it was raining when we took our laundry out but it was pouring buckets when we went to switch the loads. We ended up not being able to switch the loads because the apartment laundromat was across a street that was totally flooded.

Apparently last May it rained for two weeks straight and my trainer's trainer was stranded on the second floor because flooding was so bad in the area. Also, the last mission president (President Ashcraft) apparently had to ask all the missionaries to stop praying for a hurricane. The missionaries thought it would be a good service opportunity. While I admit to wanting to see/experience a hurricane because I'm just a little bit insane, I haven't been praying for one. But so this morning we did our studies to the sound of thunder then sat around for a couple of hours while it was just regular raining. The roads cleared enough so we made it to the church to email this afternoon. We came with the knowledge that we may or may not be stranding ourselves at the church if it starts pouring sheets and buckets again. It had slowed down enough that we thought we might be able to get out to start proselyting at 6 this evening like we're supposed to on P-days but there's really no guarantees at this point.

As my parents know because of an email, we actually were grounded of a sort this morning. Because the roads were flooding a bit we were told not to leave our apartment complexes and especially not take our cars anywhere until we were notified otherwise. The storm is predicted to last until Thursday, so if it gets as bad/stays as bad as it was this morning for the next few days we might be stuck in our apartment for most of the week.

If that happens I might go just a little bit more insane because I was already stuck in my apartment for most of this last week. Sister McCleery had been sick so we didn't get out much. I about did everything I possibly could in our apartment this week. I won't have anything to do this week if I'm stuck inside again. I even wrote letters to Mom, Dad, Colin, Shannon, and Kasee Bailey which I'll be sending in the mail today so be on the lookout for them in the mail.

Last p-day Barbara in our ward helped a few of us make Dungeons and Dragons characters and we've agreed to do d&d with her about everyother p-day for a couple of hours. I was super excited to make a character but I had to coax the others to do it because you want at least 4 characters in a party. They were iffy about it but agreed. Now they're super excited next week to start our story. Haha! Nerdom conquers again!

We found two new investigators Tuesday night before Sister McCleery got sick. They're brothers who served in the marines together (they call eachother brothers and one of them [Joshua] is living with the other[David] and his family but they're actually brother-in-arms). We were walking through this neighborhood towards a potential we had come across last Saturday but they weren't home. On the way back to our car Joshua had practically flagged us down. We ended up just talking with them and listening to their story but Joshua said he could tell we were servants of Christ and asked us when and where our church service was and for our number before we had even asked him to commit to anything. It was AWESOME! We saw him again on Friday and we were so worried because he's Pentecostal and the very first thing he asked us was about our belief in the gift of tongues. But at the end of the lesson which was all over the place (because he had a lot of questions) we had left him with a book of Mormon and he had agreed to read the first chapter and to come to church! Sadly, he wasn't at church yesterday. We don't know what happened but we intend to see him tomorrow (if we're not rained in that is).

You know who did come to church though... CHEYENNE. The nine year old member with the non-member family. And you know what she said to me later that day when I was talking with her and learning about her siblings and her and her family... "can I come again next week?" !!!!!?!?!! She really is the most amazing girl and I'm so proud of the CTR 9&10 class that was so good at welcoming her and becoming her friend.

Aside from Cheyenne coming to church, the most amazing thing this week was how well everything was able to work out even with Sister McCleery sick though. We had so many members that were willing to take her in and go on splits with us (where we each go with a member). Splits are usually so you can get more work done but for us this week it was mostly so we could get any work done. One member would host her at their house while I would go out with a different member. It was great having so much support from the ward. And don't worry, Sister McCleery is doing a lot better as of Saturday night.

Sister McCleery's and my companionship motto is "God will forward his work, so let's be a part of it." We've seen a lot in these past couple of months that Heavenly Father makes things possible when you set out to work hard and achieve what he wants of you. We definitely saw that a lot this week as we tried to get as much work in as we could and he made that work productive.

Love you all,

Hope you're safe and healthy

--

Sister Gillespie

Someone Died

Don't take it seriously. All I mean is that 3 people in my Zone went home this transfer; one of them being my zone leader. I only had 7 weeks to really get to know him but he was a pretty awesome zone leader. Our other zone leader got moved out of our district this transfer(our zone leaders were both in our district). It was rather disappointing. None of the sisters in our district got moved though so that's nice. It was 9:30 last night and Sister McCleery said "okay you're in the clear." Apparently she didn't want to tell me but the Sunday before transfers are announced, you'll get a phone call from president if you're training or getting made an STL. She said that it has happened before that a sister had only been out on her mission for 6 weeks when she was made an STL because her companion was the STL and the other STL had gone home which was my exact situation. Glad she didn't tell me because I might have panicked.

We did a lot of service this week. We did 17 hours! Which sounds like more than it actually is. Individually we each did 8.5 hours of service but we report how many hours were done together. On Tuesday we went over to the Dawson's house. Brother Dawson was our ward mission leader and he was an AWESOME ward mission leader but he got a job in Kansas City, Kansas so they're moving. He left this past Saturday and his family will follow him at the end of the school year. We helped S.Dawson Tuesday to clean up around the house and reorganize some stuff (based on what an interior designer in the ward told them to do) so it will be ready for pictures and showing this week. The Dawson family reminded me a LOT of the Foster Family if you need to picture what they're like in your head.

Last Sunday (I'm not sure if I wrote about her last week) we also finally got hold of our 9 year old less active. She was staying with her member uncle's family in Utah this past summer and they had her take the missionary lessons and she decided to be baptized. Apparently the ward got her records and have been trying to get a hold of her but hadn't been able to up to this point. She's adorable. When we met her we could see the light in her eyes and she was so happy to see us. We asked if she still had her book of Mormon and she said it got left in Utah so we gave her a new one. She was so excited and she wanted to read with us. We met her parents as well that evening and we got his approval to come back again sometime this past week to visit with Cheyenne some more. We went back on Tuesday with John Teate and his daughter Savannah. They both got baptized last August and Savannah is Cheyenne's age. John really hit it off with her parents and Savannah and Cheyenne absolutely loved eachother.

We had to leave for another lesson but they said John was welcome to stay and we had an appointment to see her father this past Saturday for a "bible study." Whenever someone invites us to do a bible study with them we mostly expect them to just want to bible bash with us. But apparently John was able to say something to him that opened him up a little. So when we went back on Saturday he just sat down with us and said "what do you got for me?" He kept getting interrupted during our lesson so we didn't get to teach him very well but his wife and father sat down with us and the lesson went really well with them and they asked if we could come back the next day without our prompting. We said of course. Sadly, when we went yesterday Cheyenne's parents weren't feeling well but they had told her to tell us that we could definitely sit down and share a message with Cheyenne. So we're really excited for her. We're hoping to introduce her to her primary teacher this week and get her to both activity days and church. We're also hoping to get her parents to commit to church as well. It's looking possible.

Wednesday, I had the new missionary lesson sign-off at the mission office in Sugar Land. Sister McCleery had been telling me horror stories of her lesson sign-off when she did training. They had to solo teach all of the lessons to P.Hall. Instead, this one was more a training on all the things you need to do to make sure your lesson is the best lesson it can be. There were A LOT of things. He assured us that we obviously didn't have to have them all down but that we should be working to improve a couple of the things each week. And we also need to be making sure to actually write down the lesson plan for every lesson that we teach. That night we visited with a less active family that we're trying to get to the Temple. We got them started on their family history. It was really awesome to see how quickly they took to it. It was especially exciting to me because I've recently taken up Family History and seen what a wonderful thing it is. We talk all the time about how the gospel blesses families and I think we forget that families bless us. To understand that identity we have because of our families and to feel this love for distant relatives that you don't even know is to come to a better understanding of your identity being part of Heavenly Father's family and to understand how much more Heavenly Father loves us as his very own children.

To have those family names to take to the temple also reminds members that their ultimate goal should be the temple and frequent temple visits.

The churches family history site is also just super awesome. The fact that it's the largest database of people and that it's free to ANYONE makes family history super easy and fun.

Thursday was another day full of service. We watered one person's plants, then we helped someone else wash their horses, then we helped two women start their family history and then we helped Sister Dawson with her house again. I got to participate in a good old-fashioned Texas round-up. Which sounds more awesome than it is but I was told you only need 5% of the truth when you tell a tale in Texas. What happened is when the 3 horses were put back in the pasture after they were washed the other gate wasn't closed. So we had to chase them all around the neighborhood and lead them off one by one. It was ridiculous, especially since Sister McCleery and I had already changed out of our service clothes back into our dresses.

Sister McCleery and I listened to this speech this week https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/hugh-b-brown_profile-prophet/ I highly recommend it. But one of our favorite parts was one of the very last things that Hugh B Brown said 

"Although these evidences and many others that could be cited may have the effect of giving one an intellectual conviction, only by the whisperings of the Holy Spirit can one come to know the things of God. By those whisperings I say I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God."

Many times the people we teach want miracles and proof. But even if we did miracles before their eyes and showed them the very plates that the Book of Mormon was translated from, it would not leave them with the same spiritual certainty as the quiet whispering assurance of the Holy Ghost that they receive in answer their sincere questions that they asked in prayer.--

Sister Gillespie

Mighty Miracles!

Heavenly Father grants a lot of your ridiculous prayers when you're a new missionary. I think he tries to make you as comfortable and happy as possible so that you stay confident and happy and remain on the mission. Last month I had a slightly smaller budget than I should of had for food because I had to buy a comforter and pillow. I prayed one morning over my oatmeal saying that I wouldn't complain and that I'd stay in budget but Heavenly Father would have to help me not feel hungry (most of you may know how important food is to me so this was a big deal). That same day a member unexpectedly took us out to eat at Olive Garden and another member brought us a bag full of groceries that night. I say he answers the ridiculous ones because I prayed knowing it was ridiculous.  This Friday, we were driving home and we had had a long week with not too much success. I just really wanted something yummy to make me a bit happier so I jokingly asked Heavenly Father to send me some donuts. Guess who had donuts to eat during conference on Saturday... THIS SISTER!! Joking aside, it's amazing what we can accomplish through prayer especially with the faith of a full time missionary.

Mom asked me what I do while my companion goes to the leader training meetings. There's another sister on the way to the meeting building, who also needs to go, so we have a short (about 5 hour) exchange with that sister's companionship. It's pretty interesting because they're in Sunnyside, which is the ghetto of Houston, and they're Spanish-speaking. But you meet some really interesting people there and it's really fun to try and see how much of the Spanish I'm actually picking up and understanding. We found a new investigator in that area when I was there too. It was an adorable Mexican lady who was about 60 years old and Catholic. She invited us into her home and talked about how the Lord had helped her and her children overcome many challenges, and set up a time where the sisters could come back to teach her a full lesson, since she had some where to be right then. I understood very little of that conversation. But during studies that afternoon since they would read what we were studying aloud in Spanish, I learned the word "Orar" which is to pray. Maybe I'll be able to commit some one to praying in this coming week.

While I was on a real exchange to Bay City this week I had an awesome personal study on Faith. I read the Christ-like attribute section on Faith in Preach My Gospel and then I read the section in the Bible Dictionary and then in True to the Faith. Here's what I learned from it. Faith in Christ is developed in four stages. First: you have to believe that he exists that Christ lived 2000 years ago and that he was the savior. Second: you have to believe that He was YOUR savior. That what Christ did was meant for you. Third: you have to trust him. Believe that no matter what you do, no matter what you're going through, he is there for you and he can and will help you through it. NO MATTER WHAT. And all of those steps lead up to the final understand that Fourth: You KNOW that he loves you and that's why he has done all of this.

But what I loved most about that study is that it ended with an amazing thought. I'm working mighty miracles!!! When you read think or hear about mighty miracles you imagine Moses splitting the Red Sea or moving mountains or healing the sick. But those aren't the mighty miracles. If someone says that they'll believe you once you do something miraculous like deliver yourself from bondage (Alma 14), what is the actual miracle? To cause an earthquake and break the ropes that bind you and walk from a collapsing building without a scratch on you or to change that person's heart? I'm changing peoples hearts on this mission through my quiet faith and obedience. I'm working the mightiest of miracles through that faith and reliance on the Savior.

Conference was amazing!! We attended all the sessions at the church. With everything being online and on BYUtv nowadays, nobody goes to the church to watch it anymore. EXCEPT, the old bishop of this ward, his wife, and the now first counselor and his wife and daughter and, of course, the missionaries. There was never more than ten people in the building for the Saturday nor Sunday sessions. I don't think I could choose a favorite talk so I'll just right down some of the lines that really stuck out to me.

Elder Renlund: well he didn't actually say this but it's a thought I had while he was talking so here's what I wrote "Dig yourself in. Make your foundation deeper. Make your foundation stronger. The more you build your testimony in Christ the less power the storms of life have to shake you."

Elder Rasband: "Questions are an indication of a further desire to learn."

President Monson: "We know where we want to go so it matters what path we take."

Sister Oscarson: "The LDS church is more than just a good place to go on Sunday."

                            "Seek to have your heart and very nature changed."

President Uchtdorf: Alright, I lied. This was my favorite talk. I titled it "Worthy of Rescue" and my favorite line was "The sheep is worthy of divine rescue simply because he is loved by the good shepherd."

Elder Kearon: I have to admit - my favorite part about Elder Kearon's talk was actually how touched President Uchtdorf was by it being a refugee himself. And my favorite line was "This moment does not define them but our response will help define us."

Elder Holland: "God will never desert us! He CANNOT do it! It is not in his NATURE to do so."

Love you all,

Sister Gillespie

Life is Fair Because Christ's Atonement is Infinite

You can never get enough sleep. Seriously. After daily planning each night, I change into my pjs, brush my teeth, write like two sentences in my journal, say a prayer, then go to sleep. I do all of that in like 5 minutes because every minute counts. I've been pretty good about making sure to write in my journal each day but some nights I literally only have the energy for my two sentence before I'm out. Then in the morning the alarm goes off once before it goes off at 6:30 to say that I definitely really do have to get up now. Rolling over and getting those extra 5 minutes seems vitally important in the morning before I literally roll out of bed to say my morning prayer. But in the last few days I decided that was a very bad attitude to start my day and so have been trying to get up as the alarm first goes off in the morning. And S.McCleery and I recently decided that we would get up at 6 so that we can have a full 45 minutes to exercise because 20 minutes just isn't enough. That exercise time has been great. I feel so healthy. Why had I not been getting consistent daily exercise before the mission?!

This week we made improvements on our daily planning. S.McCleery and I talked over our daily planning and our goal setting. I explained how we learned in the MTC that the first thing you should do when it comes to planning is to set goals. And those goals she be based on your weekly goals. As in what do I have to do today in order to achieve our goals for the week. Then we plan to attain those goals. It made a big difference this week. It also made us a lot more enthusiastic about everything we did this week because we know that as we set goals and make plans, the Lord will help us do what we need to. The first day we didn't achieve our goals but we know we were in all the right places at the right times.

This week we also set up a weekly service appointment for a less active man and his non-member wife. HE HAS HORSES!!! So every week on either Wednesday or Thursday morning at 11, we'll go over to clean hooves and give them a bath. Oh man! Do I wish it wasn't against the white handbook to ride horses on our p-day because I can assure you. I now know quite a few persons in our ward who have horses and I would totally be willing to spend every p-day grooming horses if it also meant I got to ride them. Actually I wouldn't mind just spending everyday grooming horses. I wonder if Sister McGuinness in our ward would be willing to hire a hand for a few months after I'm done with my mission? It's actually rather amazing that we were able to set this service appointment because we had been talking about doing it since I arrived but had never been able to get a hold of them. I was the one who was really into setting that up so S.McCleery had said "alright, you're in charge of setting that up." She said that about two weeks ago and for a few days I didn't give it a second thought. But Tuesday, we were about to walk out of the apartment when I picked up our cell phone and called this family, just out of the blue. They picked up on the first ring and we set the service for the very next day. It was such a simple thing but I know it was inspired. It made me think; S.McCleery is often saying that in a companionship we're each receiving 50% of the revelation and sometimes we designate eachother in charge of things and it struck me that by assigning me in charge of that we were also assigning me any revelation we might have pertaining to them.

Another thing S.Mc and I learned this week (actually we relearned it) is that sometimes you're hitting brick walls because you're going about something the wrong way. I say we relearned it because about three weeks ago there was a less active family that we kept trying to see. In fact, we tried to see them three times without being able to get to them. But then we prepared a lesson for someone else and that appointment fell through so we felt like we should try to see this less-active family and share the lesson if we got a hold of them. It was exactly the lesson they needed to hear and they've been making/seeing some real improvements in their life since then. We relearned it this week because there's an appointment that we kept trying to set up  that kept falling through and it had to happen a third time before we realized that oh, this isn't how we should be trying to do this. Now whenever S.Mc and I can't get through to someone we retrace our steps and see what we needed to do instead of what we did do.

I received the Easter package from Mom on Friday and S.Mc also received her family Easter package. It was really funny/sweet because both mothers sent double so that our companions could share with us. Something really awesome about S.Mc's mom is that she always gets this clear plastic Easter egg that she sticks a picture of Jesus in with an Easter scripture stuck to the outside. One year, she apparently didn't have time to make the Jesus egg and the whole family boycotted their baskets until she made everyone their Jesus eggs. And apparently, when she sent an Easter package to S.Mc's brother Trevor on his mission she only had room for one candy egg or the Jesus egg. She put in the Jesus egg at the insistence of the rest of the family and he wrote in his email when he received it that he realized that she didn't have much room and was glad that she had made the right choice in sending him the Jesus egg instead of candy. I just found the whole story very cute and entertaining.

We've been trying REALLY hard to work a lot more with our members and so it was absolutely amazing yesterday that we got THREE MEMBER PRESENT LESSONS! EASTER MIRACLES! No but it was really awesome because two of them resulted in a new investigator and the third one is a potential investigator for missionaries in a different area. What had happened is our Easter dinner had ended up running really long because it was with this great member family who had invited a few other members and it's hard to escape those conversations and one of them was the photographer for the Trek they just had so we were going through the Trek pictures and trek videos. So when we finally left we only had time for one more visit. Brother Schott in our ward had asked us to bring him a Book of Mormon in Spanish for a coworker of his who was expressing interest in the Gospel so we knew we had to drop that off at his house and decided that's where we needed to go. When we got there, his non-member nephew was there and we got into a discussion about his beliefs. He said he was very open and he talked about all these things that he could believe but when we asked a few more questions he told us what he believed was that there was probably a God but that he had simply created the world and stepped back leaving it to his own devices. After all, what good, just God would let so much bad happen in the world. We ended up teaching him just a little bit about the Plan of Salvation and committing him to pray with Alma 32:27-28.

But it was amazing because I had actually just in the last few days been working on this idea/essay sort of thing which I had titled "If there is a God." It's basically an argument for if there is a god and he's a loving god and you believe that then the Church of Jesus Christ is the only religion that makes sense. But I was totally prepared to address all of his questions. I think a lot of people get caught on if there is a god then he must be a cruel or uncaring God. But, the Plan of Salvation addresses that. It all comes down to his purpose for us and agency. If God, as many people agree, is our Heavenly Father then we as his children are meant to grow and become perfect "even as our father which is in heaven is perfect." So we come to this life to grow. But we can't do that without agency. Without agency we would be like children learning to walk who's parents never allow us to stand on our own or fall over and learn to pick ourselves up. We need trials and mistakes to grow. And to allow that he has to grant everyone agency. But to be just in granting agency he has to let everyone make their decisions whether good or evil. He can't stop people from making bad decisions (like a person driving drunk who will maybe hit and kill someone that night) because that means he isn't allowing them the same agency as he has granted to the woman who donates her time and money to the local food kitchen each week. And yes, it's painful for our Heavenly Father to watch the suffering that occurs because he loves us but he also knows that he must allow it.

But the ultimate message, is that life is fair because Christ's Atonement is infinite. And because his Atonement is infinite - all that seems unjust in this life is made right through Christ's Atonement.

So make good choices, have faith, and believe

And remember that I love you and God loves you

Love - Sister Kalene Gillespie

One Month Anniversary

As of Wednesday I'll have been in the mission field for exactly a month. It's pretty crazy to think I've already reached that mark. This week also went by incredibly fast but that's probably due to the the TWO exchanges that I went on.

Exchange number one was to Bay City. It was a really interesting area, and I really liked the sister I was on exchange with, Sister Smith. We talked with a less active and shared a Book of Mormon message but got a little distracted because she referred to her iphone as her "oracle" and I asked if she had ever come across that verse in the BOM that says something about having knowledge in the palm of their hand and how that was probably talking about iphones. She hadn't but sister Smith had but neither of us could remember where it was and we spent the next 5 minutes looking for it with no success (Mom, I think that you're the one who first pointed it out to me and I was sure you could tell me where it was so please do). We also taught a nine year old investigator and her dad the restoration lesson because she was last taught it about 4 months ago. It went really well. We tried to make everything as simple as possible so it would be easier for her to remember and understand and I think it helped her dad understand to.

Exchange number two was with OUR sister training leader. They had decided I would stay and take over the area with Hermana LeBaron while S.McCleery would go to Manvel with Hermana Harken (the STL). But they had made plans to cook chile rellenos at a members home for them and they realized that Hermana LeBaron was the one who knew how to cook and therefore had to stay. So I've yet to take over my area but I now know how to cook chile rellenos and will do so for everyone when I come home. They were extremely good. However, the members spoke almost no English so I was trying to remember the little Spanish from my 3 years of high school classes. I did come up with two very good sentences while I was there though. Hermana Harken had texted asking us to save her a chile and I had jokingly responded "no ayude, no come." "She doesn't help, she doesn't eat." I'm sure I absolutely butchered it but Hermana Cruz (the member) thought I was absolutely hilarious. At some point, another member joined us for supper and she asked if I spoke Spanish and I responded "entiendo un pocito y hablo menos" "I understand a very little and speak less." As I listened while we cooked though I did remember things here and there that I had forgotten and was able to say a few more things. Hermana Cruz was impressed by how Hispanic I was in cooking and eating and was proud of my efforts to speak Spanish. She complemented my pronunciation and jokingly said at one point that I was more Hispanic than Hermana Harken who is assigned to the Spanish area and actually speaks Spanish. It really was quite fun and I was reminded that my very first night in Houston I just felt absolutely certain that I would end up in a Spanish area. I guess I should see about adding in some language study time in my morning schedule. Dad will be proud.

Hermana LeBaron also made me huevos rancheros for breakfast the next morning and we got ice cream for everyone from the Paleteria (Mexican ice cream parlor) on the drive back to Friendswood. I just got a coconut popsicle because I didn't think I could eat a whole bowl of ice cream but it was absolutely delicious and I look forward to the next chance I get to stop there.

Tyrone got baptized this Saturday, which meant that almost everything went wrong Saturday as we tried to put together our program but it all worked out in the end. And man! Sister McCleery kept saying how strongly you feel the spirit at a baptism while you're on a mission but I don't think I quite believed her until I experienced it myself. The spirit apparently is so strong that 80% of investigators who attend a baptism get baptized. It's just such an amazing and important ordinance. So it was awesome. But now we have 0 progressing investigators so we have a lot of work ahead of us.

By the way, if people are ever looking for ideas of things to send me. Let it be cd's that they've put together full of white handbook approved music - I can't listen to another MoTab rendition of the Spirit of God - I just can't do it. Our mission president has expressly said that we can't have disney songs though. It's rather disappointing because one of the elders from my MTC district just said in his email this week that their only rule is you can listen to it if you wouldn't feel guilty listening to it with the Savior present. We are allowed to have movie scores though because they're classical. If you're looking for specific suggestions - maybe a few songs by Vocal Point and Noteworthy, the score of the Chronicles of Narnia (one of the sisters has it and I really like it), there's a couple of songs that I absolutely love in Prince of Egypt and Joseph Prince of Dreams (which I think are dreamworks and therefore not disqualified by President Halls no Disney restriction), and that's all I can really think of right now but if you have good music I'll totally take it.

Which reminds me, last night we had a stake performance of The Lamb of God and it was absolutely AMAZING! Definitely professional quality and a great way to start off the week before Easter

I wish I had more access than I do to talks and books that I could read during personal study but all I really have access to is whatever Ensigns we have and my Jesus the Christ, and that's all we're really allowed. I never really realized how worldly I was until I was so separated from it. Mostly I miss music. You thought it'd be my laptop but it's music and books- 

Sister Gillespie

This pic was taken by Fern Burgett the woman in red in the next picture (she's a woman who was baptized about a year ago who we've been helping with her family history work and will be going to the temple with for baptisms on Mar 30)

An Easter Message

Oh man, I'm so jealous that I'm missing a crazy storm back home. Mom may be growing sick of the rain but I love it. We did get a storm down here too but it's not quite the same as back home. Storms back home mostly feel wet; a storm down here mostly just feels humid.

Wow, it's already the start of my fourth week in the mission field. I've realized that one of the newest things for me has probably been my budget. Because I worked so much in high school and worked through college and chose to stay with family to save money, I've always had enough money to get whatever I wanted whenever I wanted and not really have to worry about how much money I had. Now I REALLY have to budget because I only have the money to get the things that I have to. I can't just get McDonalds just because I'm craving it. A meal there is $6 which could be spent on two packages of noodles and a jar of spaghetti sauce which lasts me more than one hamburger happy meal. It just goes to show that people don't realize they're privileged until they see it from the other side.

I've already been on an exchange. Since S.McCleery is an STL she has to do a companion swap with all the sisters that she's over. All four of them. Not just an exchange with each companionship but she has to be companions with each of the sisters for a day and President Hall asked her to do it before transfers. So we did an exchange this last week with the sisters in Angleton; S.Waite came to Friendswood to be with S.McCleery and I went out to Angleton to be with S.Hawkins. S.Hawkins and I got along really well because we had a lot in common but I'm sure because we have so much in common would rub each other a lot quicker than if we're paired with someone who has more differences (you know how it is, when you're with someone so much like you some of your own attributes shown in them make you doubly angry because you don't like to notice those things about yourself). We also have an exchange scheduled tomorrow with the Bay City sisters and the STL over us wants to do an exchange this Thursday. And then we'll do another exchange with the Angleton sisters next week and then it will be the Bay City sisters again. So, this month is going to be rather busy.

Tyrone is still on track to be baptized this Saturday. As S.McCleery and I were looking at everything we had to plan for a baptism, I realized how much goes into it: the program, music, prayers, talks, intermission etc. So we've got to get all of our ducks in a row for that this week.

We also just started the Easter initiative we were given 500 cards and asked to try and place all of them by general conference. S.McCleery and I have decided we can do this and save miles by driving out to the central point of group of members with our bikes. Park and then bike between member homes stopping and talking to anyone we encounter and knocking on the homes around a member if the member isn't home (which is the only time we're allowed to do door to door proselyting). That way we'll meet new people and be able to see some less actives and be able to get active members excited about sharing the message to.

The video associated with the Easter campaign can be found on followhim.mormon.org for those of you who haven't seen it. The video talks about how following the savior grants us new life but also promises us that someday we and everyone we love can be resurrected. It's amazing how much the Atonement does for us. I think we sometimes forget how INFINITE the Atonement is. I think a lot of people around the world also don't realize how much they're missing out on.

One of the things that we run into a lot down here is "no thanks, I'm already save." It's like, yes that's right, the Savior's Atonement has saved us all from death but are you taking full advantage of everything else it promises us? It's one thing to believe in Christ - to believe that he suffered for our sins and pains and afflictions and died on the cross and was resurrected so we can live again - but do you KNOW that he did that for YOU are you ready to accept his grace and his mercy for every second and every minute that you've ever existed?

I was talking about the Atonement with S.Hawkins and we decided that the need to endure to the end - to be constantly having faith, repenting, renewing baptismal covenants, and relying on the spirit - is actually one of the most important things for realizing the full power of the Atonement in your life. Because the Atonement is infinite, each time we go through the process in believing in the Lord, acting on that belief through repentance, and renewing those ordinances it helps us understand and believe just a little bit more of the Atonement. So that when we stand before Heavenly Father at the judgement day we can truly believe and accept that Christ can transform us into something celestial. If we don't come to that full understanding, when we stand before God and Christ offers to take everything there will be things that we can't give up because sure you believe in Christ but you don't believe/trust that Christ can take it all.

I probably didn't explain that very well but I suggest you all read "Believing Christ" by Stephen E. Robinson because he says it in ways that I can't.

Love you all and loving you more as I learn to love as the Lord loves.

--

Sister Gillespie