Christmas!!

First of all, Christmas was amazing! Second of all, we didn't even have a white Christmas and I'm in stinkin' Canada! But I'm not bitter.. Just kidding, yes I am. 

But it is all okay because we had an amazing Christmas anyways! :) 

So the branch here has done a live nativity for 36 years! Crazy eh?! It is so sweet! They have a live donkey and sheep! :) So we got to help out with that! Most nights we just handed out hot chocolate and talked to the people who come, but on Christmas Eve we were a part of the show! We were cute shepherds! Actually, my hood was stuck under the robe... so I look like a hunch back! But it was still fun to help the members out :) 

Later that Christmas Eve we went to the Prices home. They are from Utah!! (Yay Utah!) So we had Cafe Rio style burritos! Boy have I missed those! They have 2 sons on a mission and 2 at home the same age as my Kyle and Isaac. So it felt like I was right back at home. It was great to be with a family on Christmas Eve. 

Christmas morning!! :D Sister Bottcher and I woke up early to open our presents!! :) My oh my am I spoiled by all of you!! I am almost rotten I tell ya! 

So here is my thank you list!! (Sorry if I miss anyone) 

Thank you Kim for the yummy fudge and cute shirt!! 

My favorite Auntie M and Steve for all the yummy food and the best chap stick in the world! I am obsessed! (It has a mini 2015 calendar on it!) 

Grandma and Grandpa Ruesch for the warm clothing that is very much needed and the sweets! 

Grandma and Grandpa Glover for the fun ball, hi-chews, and special Missionary experience journal. And Testimony letter.... Treasures to keep. 
And Canadian friends who sent “Canadian” warm gear done right! Go Canada! And go Beef Jerky!

And my family who fit everything in the world in a box!! My favorite was probably the Captain America doll and my squirrely slippers! :) 

I got some awesome pictures of Christ and candy from a Veteran Toronto Sister Missionary!  

And of course Money from many of you….Missionaries love extra money for the end of transfer when all that is left in the cupboards is ramen noodles and cereal.. It was so appreciated. I love all of you!!!  I will use that Money wisely and YUMMILY and to serve some others also!

Thank you for all those who sent me letters! I LOVE snail mail! So those meant the world to me!! 

On Christmas night we went over to the Haynes for a turkey dinner! :) They have the cutest family! So many kids! It was like our Christmas's back at home! And I was able to talk to my family! :) I love them. They remind me that I am not the only crazy one in the worldJ  I was born into a crazy family ;) They are getting so big and growing up to be wonderful people! I was so happy to hear about all of them preparing for missions and about Kyle getting ready to do his papers soon! :) Missionary work is amazing and I am so excited to start to see my family see the blessings that come from it as well!! 

So with transfer news! I am staying in the wonderful place of Kingston and I will be training a new missionary!! :) I am so excited to train again! I can’t wait to meet her! :) Sister Bottcher is going to Kitchener-Waterloo where I once served! She is going to love it! 

I am excited to stay here though! There are so many people to talk to! They need to hear the gospel! I am so excited for the new missionary too, this is a great place to be trained! :) Everyone here is fun to talk to! Most of them are pretty nice…even when they deny learning about the most important thing in the world! So we will have so much fun together! :) 

I love you all and will have more to report next week!!      
  -Sister Gillins

O' CANADA

CHRISTMAS PJ'S

PRESENT OPENING

SKYPE SELFIE WITH THE FAM

MESSY WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS SETUP

THE DISTRICT

The Work of Salvation

What an amazing week!! :) We had the most wonderful Christmas Zone Conference! There was lots of singing and it was so spiritual! We were able to learn so much! and I hate to say it.. but it got me excited for tracting!! So that tells you how good it was!! But it was so far away!! On Monday I drove more than 4 hours!! Then Tuesday I had to drive 2 1/2... I am a pro driver by now!! I want you all to know! :) 

So we have been focusing on the entire Work of Salvation in our mission. And it has been really cool to see here! :) We are working with members and teaching them the Restoration and asking them who they think would need this. A lot of the time they give us less-actives to work with, which is great! Then those less-actives let us in and then we get even more referrals from them! The most important part to all of this though.. is RETURN AND REPORT! That is one way we can gain the trust of the members and those we visit with. Go visit the referrals right away and then as soon as you can,.. report back! We are seeing the trust grow here. :) 

I have felt the Spirit a ton this week. I have been focusing on acting upon each prompting I get and I have seen miracles come from that. I keep receiving additional promptings and they lead me to cool things. 

After contacting for about 45 min - to an hour and nothing happening we walked past these two teenage boys,…well,.. that looked like druggies.. but, I felt prompted to give them a card. Well, that night one texted us and wants to learn more!! SO COOL :) 

We visited one less active this week. She let us in. At first she was pretty negative about everything.. but then we got her talking about happy things, and one thing led to another and I invited her back to church and she said yes!! :) She hasn’t been in 20 years, but she is willing to come back now!! We are so excited! :) 

In Kingston they put on a live nativity! :) With real animals and stuff!! It is so cute and fun!! :) We got to help and give out hot chocolate. A ton of people come to it! They put it on every night until Christmas! We may even have the opportunity to be in it!! If we do, we will take lots of pictures and send them!! :) 

So, now for a funny moment…we were talking to someone on the street and he said that he believed in Joseph Smith, so I’m like, “oh, are you Mormon?!” and his wife was like, “no.. not Mormon..” and then he got really close to my face and said, “I’m Jimmy Jay, have you heard me on the radio?” and then he winked and they walked away.. I was so confused!! Sister Bottcher just kept laughing. It was pretty interesting. Do ya’ll know who Jimmy Jay is? If you do, let me know (:

One of the members we have been visiting with has rabbits! and one had babies!!! They are so ity bity! I love them!!! :) Once they get a little bigger I will take a picture! :) 

I will get each of your packages for those who sent them!! I am going back to Belleville on Wednesday to pick all of them up!! Thank you for all you do for me!! I love you!! Your support means everything. I GET TO SKYPE MY FAMILY IN A FEW DAYS...YEAH!

Merry Christmas,

Sister Gillins 

I also got my first Kinder Surprise

 from a member!!

 It is chocolate with a prize in it!!

I love it!!

    

  And man oh man,
 I am getting lot’s of jerky from ya’ll!!
Thank you! :)

                                  

E.T. phone home!

This week has been... CRAZY! 

WE got E.T.ed (emergency transferred) we got a call on Friday afternoon and left early Saturday morning! Good thing as missionaries we don’t have too many things to pack. It was just head home, pack, say good bye to a few people, and you’re gone!! But we didn’t go too far! We just went an hour east to Kingston! This place is so cool and so richly packed with church history! I would invite all of you to Google it and see how wonderful this place is! :)  Sister Bottcher and I got to stay together for the new transfer. I am so happy about that. We truly love each other and enjoy each others company. We work hard and laugh hard.

            (Haha, so we were driving and there was a little fly making me crazy in the car. We stopped at a red light and it landed on the window. So, I hit the window and smashed the stinker.(sorry fly) Then, I rolled down the window to get it out. Sister Bottcher was laughing really hard and I was like …what? She was like…..” the guy next to us at the red light thought you were trying to talk to him, and rolled down his window, but you drove off”… (:  oh, my life!)

            The first thing we did was go and drop by a few members since we know no one!! NO ONE! We got to meet one of the wonderful YSA in the ward, Winnie. :) She is so funny and great! We connected really well the second we met! I have missed my YSA! :) But now she is going home for the Christmas break :( Then we dropped by our wonderful R.S. president and talked to her about the branch and all the single ladies they would like us to visit. (The branch hasn’t had sisters since the summer so they are SUPER excited to have sisters again) Then we dropped by this wonderful young family, the Nobles. Oh my goodness they are wonderful! They invited us in and had us sit down. We talked for a little bit. By the end we had a dinner appointment scheduled for the 23rd, a Christmas tree in hand, and Sister noble was running to get us groceries since our apartment was looking dry of any food... :) They made us feel so welcomed. Something we both needed. It is hard being transferred right before Christmas.

            We were able to meet some great branch members at church yesterday!

            This week Sister Bottcher and I tried to make the Ritz crackers with mint on them for members.. but that was a complete fail!! So we just made cookies instead which worked out nicely. People love food!! :) They will let you in if they see you have food. So to all you missionaries! Bring food with you at drop bys! :) 

            Not too much happened other than that.. It was just pretty crazy and now we are starting over!! So hopefully I can tell you more about investigators next week!! 

-loves from the great white north! 

 Sister Gillins 

From:MAMA GILLINS – (Sister Gillins wrote a great “Hand Written Letter” home to her Brothers. I feel like some of it should be recorded on her blog…)

            You all are my very best friends. I like it when you all send me short emails and tell me what’s going on in your life. I am in a family Branch and get to talk to the young men and they make me miss you three so much.

            This morning Sister Bottcher and I were laying in our beds talking about our missions and I started to cry because I never want to leave. Missions are really miracles and they change you so much for the better. You get the chance to help people have a better life. You completely feel God’s love. Boys….DO ALL THAT YOU CAN TO BE ON A MISSION! I can’t even describe to you how much I love it here. It’s hard and people slam doors in your face, push you out of the way and yell at you, but yet you are so happy. It’s crazy…and this must all be true! Because there is no way I would go through all of that. I would be home in a heart beat. But, the Gospel is True! So, it is worth it and God makes it easier for us.

            REMEMBER…God loves us and will help us. Don’t forget about the power of the Priesthood! It is literally the Power of God. And, you hold it. How amazing.

            Thank you for the Prayers. They help me. I pray for you all too.

I love you,

Your Sister Gillins

It's a bag of bagels!!
 (now say it with a Canadian accent:)
It's fun! 

Our attempt at making yummy things...
 it always turns into icky.. 

SNIFFLE, COUGH, SNEEZE!

Who would have thought Sister Bottcher and I would get sick?! Not me!! :( On Monday night after having a wonderful deer stew at the Harringtons, Sister Bottcher and I started to get a sore throat. Then Tuesday a runny nose! and it all went downhill from there! But never the less, we did awesome this week! We have had more appointments this week than we have had throughout this whole transfer! :) We were able to find a new investigator through tracting and were able to meet with a lot of less-actives. Good things are starting to happen, and Satan isn’t happy. But NOTHING can get Sister Bottcher and I down! :) 

So I have been dieing to go contact people on the streets! Tracting has been hard for me.. So Sister Bottcher and I went downtown and started to talk to people. As we were walking, we passed a few people with a display. Right away I recognized it as the Jehovah Witnesses. So I just decided to continue on. Sister Bottcher didn’t see the displays though, and as a good missionary, decided to talk to everyone and started to talk to one of them. I decided to stand back and watch. And Sister Bottcher was so confident in everything she did! She just smiled and the spirit was just beaming from her! I am so grateful for her example!! As I stood and watched, a young English man walked up to me and asked me where a good place to eat was... I was like.. "I’ve only lived here for 2 weeks.." But then we had a good conversation about how I am a missionary and not a nun and what I teach about. He didn’t seem too interested after that, but I sure hope he checked out the "He is the Gift" video. 

This weekend we also had our branch Christmas party! It was so fun! We had a Hawaiian Christmas party and had a roasted pig! Yummy! We sang the 12 days of Christmas as tables. There was a table with only three people so I ran over to help them, but then my table stank at singing! So I was running between the two tables to help both of them out. It was a good work out :) 

We almost died this week too!! A semi made too tight of a turn and almost smooshed us!!! We were just screaming and I put the car in reverse hoping that I wouldn’t hit the car behind me and backed up! It was like the scariest thing ever!! Then I thought about the Christmas Vacation and I wish our car would have been small enough to fit underneath it.. but it wasn’t. 

But all is well!! We are alive and unsmooshed!! 

I love you all!! 

Have a Merry Christmas season!! Eat lots of Chocolate! 

-Sister Gillins 

American Thanksgiving!

This week was sleepover week!! :) We had lots of sleepovers! But that is only because of the special zone conference! 

Our first sleep over was at the Sister Training leaders apartment. I had 3 of my 5 companions there! Sister Wanlass, Sister Christenson, and Sister Bottcher. Oh it was a blast!! Sister Bottcher and I made our bed out of foam puzzle pieces kids play with, a rug and sleeping bags. It was not bad actually if I do say so myself :) Then because of traffic Sister Christenson and Sister Hadley had to stay the night at our place. Sleep over’s are not the same when your a missionary though... cause your just so tired, you go straight to bed, there is no time for silly stories or giggles. It is wonderful actually. 

So the special zone training was amazing!! We learned so much! We got to watch "He is the Gift" video. I challenge each of you to go onto christmas.mormon.org and watch it! Then share it!! It is so spiritual and uplifting! :) Then I got to go get a flu shot so I won’t get sick!! yay me!! I miss being in a doctor’s office... :(  But I love being a missionary! Then we got to watch "Meet the Mormons" How neat is that? I have been hearing you all rave about it for forever and then I actually got to see it! :) It is such an uplifting movie! Each of those people’s stories are so wonderful and inspiring. I want to be like every single one of them when I grow older! I’m still not sure when "Meet the Mormons" comes to Canada, but I’m excited for people here to watch it too! :)

So I had American Thanksgiving in Canada! But a day late.. we had a dinner appointment on Thursday. It was so fun! I took the money grandma and grandpa gave me and took my companion and Sister White out. I took two Canadians out for an American Thanksgiving... weird eh? But it was fun! We went to Denny’s and got their turkey dinner which was so yummy! We had such a good time. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! 

On Saturday we had a district RS activity! It was so amazing! The ladies put a lot of work into it. They made the gym look like Bethlehem! And everyone dress up in Biblical clothing (but us.. we have none) But it was so fun to see everyone dressed up and having a good time. We got to help put everything away! In our skirts and all!! Don’t ask me where the Elders were... I don’t know. But hopefully teaching people instead of helping ;) 

I got to show off my muscles and carry lots of stuff.. but I ran into walls a lot and Sister Bottcher would just laugh at me! I also got to learn self-defense from a member! So don’t worry mommy, I now know how to break someone’s wrist and flip them! 

The branch is great. I love the members. And, I am getting to know the youth a lot, which is awesome...because they can be our biggest help.  I am serving in the country lands…way different than the city…everything is spread out.

All in all it was a great week! I love being with Sister Bottcher. She and I  have awkward moments.. so put us together and it’s a ball! :)  We are good for each other. I can tell we will be friends for a very long time.

Love ya!

-Sister Gillins 

Me, Sister White, Sister Bottcher
Thanksgiving Feast Day

Sister White
Bethlehem Night

My American Thanksgiving Feast
at Denny's

BELLEVILLE

So I am now here in the great city of Belleville! :) Which means Beautiful City. And it truly is. It is a lot smaller than my last area, that is for sure. But it has such a great Spirit. Right now we only have one investigator, Art, who is great! We have lots to do here. We have been out looking for less-actives, tracting, and service! Man, I forgot how to tract. And it’s so horrid! Everyone hides behind their doors! They should just come out and talk with us! We aren't that scary... ;) We have found more success by just walking on the streets and talking with people. 
I love Sister Bottcher! She is kind and loving. I do drive, and I’m so good at driving in the snow :)

So I am actually in a Branch now.. It is really hard to say branch instead of ward, but I'll get the hang of it soon! This is a pretty big branch though with really strong members! So I am excited to be able to work here :)

Transfers were pretty crazy! There were so many missionaries! They were everywhere! I just sat at the door like a sad puppy waiting to see Sister Lindquist. Man you should have seen it when we saw each other! We ran into each others arms! I think I hit a few people on my way over to her... oops. But it was so fun to see an old friend! I am so excited to have her here.

I am excited for Sister Halcom to be out as well! I know she is going to kill it in Boston. It’s going to be hard not to see her for forever! But the Lord needs her there :) She is so prepared.

There's not too much to tell this week. But I want to thank you all for the letters and packages you have sent to me since I have been on my mission. I am so grateful for the prayers that go my way. They really do help me keep going. I know it’s not Thanksgiving here in Canada.. but y’all make me so grateful! I am most grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and how it has influenced me in my life. I would be lost with out it. It has strengthened me and those around me. I am so grateful for this short opportunity I have to serve the Lord 100%.

My new mailing address:

Sister Clarissa Gillins

154 Maitland Dr

Belleville, ON K8N 4Z5

Canada

Love,

Sister Gillins

TRANSFER DAY PICTURES

I always have red eyes in pictures..

 and I was so deadly tired on transfer day...

Sister Lindquist! So glad you are here! It feels so good(:
Sorry to all the missionaries
 I injured trying to get over to get a hug from
this girl....

Them Elders!
Elder DeWaal, (behind me..my bro from Herriman)
Elder Wilscher, (on my right..he is funny)
Elder Ellis, (My Amazing District Leader)

This is Ekam. She is a member and one of my favorites!
 I love her.

Goodbye Toronto!

My time in Toronto has come to an end.. :( And I am so sad! :( I have met so many amazing people here! But I am excited to start my new adventure in Belleville with Sister Bottcher! If you don't remember.. She’s my MTC companion!! Who would have thought?! I have been dyeing to be her companion again to see how much both of us have changed!! :) So I am going to be going from 3 big cities to one small one! I hope I don't go into shock! Oh! And Sister Droge is going to train!! She is going to be a big sister now and help someone else become a great missionary just like herself! :)

Can I tell you how much I love YSA! I am going to miss them so very much! I have met so many amazing and strong people! I have enjoyed teaching each of them about the gospel and sharing my testimony with them. As I have shared and served with them, my testimony has grown so much stronger and I have truly understood my purpose as a missionary. Even though we may meet with them in hostile venues and they may not understand us, I have felt the Spirit so strongly with them. Being able to talk to 30-50 each day on the street has been a blessing to me. I have felt Gods love for each of them. I see things in a different way. God has blessed me by letting me be here.

Haha! So we have some new friends! They are from India, and guess what! They found my blog!! Oh the greatness of Google! So I’m pretty famous if you ask me ;) Jk, but thank you mommy for keeping this all updated for me! I truly love you for it!!

The snow is starting to stick to the ground now!! It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! But really though! The great thing about having Thanksgiving so early here is that they don't have to "wait until Thanksgiving is over!" to put up Christmas stuff!! So I see decorations everywhere already! :)

And what would it be like without an awkward family photo from our district.. ? :) We love to be awkward! I’m going to miss each of them so much!!

Loves,

Sister Gillins 

Our investigators threw me a going away party!
 I about cried!! :( 

more cake pics!! 

The most amazing District in the world!!
I will miss serving with them.

My cute Adopted Grandma (Sister Gillen)
Almost the same as my Last name..we like to have fun about it..
She serves at the Mission Home

Snowing! It's beginning to look like Christmas!

We love the Vicky & Reggie de Dios Family.
We get to eat dinner with them every week.
They are so sweet and treat us like their own kids.
We get to have fun and have a good time with them.

This is how we show up to our Appointments...
like Eskimos!

Chastity and Missionary Monday

You know the person I told y'all about last week? The one that we met on the street? He became a pretty solid investigator! He is super awesome! He has had some really cool experiences with God. He wasn’t too sure if it was God or not, but now after talking with us he knows :) We shared The Restoration with him earlier this week and the Spirit was so strong! Sister Droge and I were able to testify to him that the Spirit has been with us during our lesson and he was just quiet and kept saying "wow" I know he felt the spirit too ;) He has been texting us all week asking us questions of the soul. We keep telling him he has to wait till our next lesson to get answers. We are teaching him the plan of salvation and that is basically what all his questions are about.

This week we also taught the law of chastity to some of our younger investigators. It was so great! As we taught they didn’t say much, they kept very quiet and if they said anything it was in their native language so we couldn’t understand. I was thinking the lesson was a fail! But they both said they would try to live the law of chastity. But the most amazing thing happened when we texted them to confirm our appointment, they asked if we could go over the law of chastity again and teach it to their friend so it would make living it easier! They were able to testify to their friend that this is what God wants of them! How cool is that?! I think it’s pretty awesome! :)

So this week our Zone had a goal of getting 100 new investigators! That is really high; the record for our zone was something around 45.. So that’s more than double our high! So as YSA we knew we could get lots of new investigators. We went to Sheridan College this week and talked to everyone! Literally! The YSA Elders were there as well so no one passed us with out talking to a missionary! Sister Droge and I were there for about 2 hours and were able to find 20 new investigators! So, for someone to become a new investigator we must teach them a few principles, pray, set up a return appointment and get there name and number! It was so much fun! It stretched us a ton! But it was such a fun experience! :)

I don’t have any pictures to send home... so #missionarymonday and a quick selfie or sister droge and I. :)

Love y'all!!

- Sister Gillins

#missionarymonday

Selfie at the Library where we get to email home!

Pray with FAITH

The trees here are so gorgeous! There are so many trees, like real trees! Not just evergreens! And they are all changing colors. I never thought I would be a “leaf presser person”, but I can’t help it! I love these bright red leaves! MAPLE LEAVES!  I keep picking them off the ground and putting them in my baby Book of Mormon and take them home with me! One of our Recent Converts saw me do it and made fun of me! But I don’t care :)

It felt like this week was slow.. All of our appointments kept falling through and it felt like nothing was working out how it was planned (missionary work for ya) But then a miracle happened! We had two investigators at church! And we set them with baptismal dates! They were also progressing! :) By the end of church we were only 2 member present lessons away from hitting standards! So we asked one of our lovely members Emily to come out teaching with us. We only had one lesson planned and were depending on our faith to have a lesson on the street. We decided to go to a place called York Village by York University to go street contacting. We prayed before we got out of our car that we would find Gods prepared children and to be able to have a lesson. We walked around a couple blocks and there was no one out! Then we saw someone. He was totally not interested! But I asked him how he has seen God in his life and he just opened up! He told us all about the miracles he has seen recently and how he believes they came from God. We testified that they were from God and Sister Droge said that us meeting that night was also because of God. He freaked out about that comment and was like, “this is creepy”!! But he said that he would love to hear our experiences with and about Christ and accepted to read the Book of Mormon! It was such a miracle to find him, and for him to be the first person we talked to! Miracles happen when we pray with faith :)

Halloween was also super fun! :) Our District Leader, Elder Ellis… got us some costumes! YEP, the mustaches are back ;) We wore them all during weekly planning and had a blast! :) One of the recent converts also took us to lunch. We went to a place called Tandori Flame. It’s an Indian buffet.. :) All the curry a Sister could ask for! I ate so much! And I am being so brave! I eat what ever someone gives me. And it is all really yummy! The Trick or Treater kids were sooo cute.

Sister Droge and I had so much fun with Kashra. She is an Amazing Woman! She spent a day with us doing missionary work and took lots of pictures. Ha Ha.  She is a strong person and so full of fun and love. She is a favorite of mine (:

And to answer all of your questions, yes Canada is getting cold. It started to snow on Thursday. It didn’t stick though. It has been around 5 degrees Celsius the past couple days.. But that is what my winter coat is for eh?! :)

Love you all!!

-Sister Gillins 

    

pumkin pickin'

Mustaches are the Bomb!

Indian Food from the best! 

         
                                     

"NEATURE"
(neat nature)

I love leaves!

AMAZING GRACE!

Halloween in Apt 104

Our apartment looks super spooky for Halloween! But not too spooky, we still need the spirit to be with us ;) But I am getting excited for Halloween!! :) Institute is holding a YSA Halloween dance and all the YSA are getting excited about their costumes! :) And tonight for family home evening we are carving pumpkins! So Sister Droge and I are going out with a member today to pick them! :) That is my favorite part,.. picking pumpkins! There won’t be much we do on Halloween this year though. Missionaries need to be in their apartments by 6pm. Smart eh? But it will be fun. We will open our windows and watch the trick or treaters go by while we do our weekly planning!

So we have this awesome investigator! He is from India. He is so smart! Like, he knows 4 languages! He has been learning about the gospel and loves it! He wants to be baptized, but his family doesn’t want him to. They belong to a different religion and are against him joining another. It is hard :( But it has been so fun teaching him. It is so cool seeing him progress. When we first met him he wasn’t sure what he believed, but he told us he believes in Jesus Christ and I asked him how, and he said by reading the Book of Mormon. How amazing is that?!

Yesterday we taught the word of wisdom to one our investigators. He was hesitant about it. But then our member friends that was with us threw down on him! It was so cool, because it was what he needed. She gave him facts and told him that it’s dumb to take those things into our bodies. Members are the best because that is sometimes exactly what our investigators need! So today at lunch, we are going to go over and chuck everything he agreed was not good for him… in the garbage for God! It’s going to be awesome! :)

I love you all so very much!! Keep being missionaries. All of you!

- Sister Gillins 

There is a missionary couple from Utah
 that live in our apartment building.
 It's like I'm home everytime I see their car! 

Doan's Baptism! 

Baptism Selfie!! 

SPOOKY AND FUN HALLOWEEN

Doan was Baptized!

This week was a fun and great week! Our dear friend Doan was baptized :)

Sister Droge met him a few weeks ago while we were contacting out on the street. He was so prepared! He ate up everything. He truly does love this gospel and understand it so well. After meeting him the first time and inviting him to read, he went home and read all of 1 Nephi! Every lesson we had with him he came ready to learn. He wanted to understand this gospel and he is applying it into his life. During the teaching processes we had our recent convert Joe come with us to teach. It is amazing to see someone who is so new to the gospel being able to teach it. It was a blessing to have Joe along with us because he was able to explain the gospel to Doan in the way Doan needed it explained. Joe is also still making changes! He has now started wearing a white shirt and tie to church and took out his earrings! And no one even asked him to! :) The gospel changes our nature. It changes us for the better :)

We had a lot of appointments fall through this week. Like a lot! But that just made us really good at drop by lessons and lessons on the street. We are becoming pro at it. I love the short lessons we have. It helps me cut the fat and get straight to the meat! The gospel is very simple, but so powerful! Even if you do only see someone for 3 minutes you can help them feel the spirit. That is something President Clayton and I have talked about. That we need to help people feel the spirit. Go out and be happy and allow people to feel the spirit. It can be frustrating when people don’t care or want to understand, but if you are yourself and you have the spirit with you, the least you can do is allow that person to feel the spirit.

We also had a Turkey Bowl for Canadian Thanksgiving! It was zone against zone! Our zone is full of foreigners.. so none of them know how to play American football. It was probably the cutest thing I have ever seen. They just were running around and did as they were told. Good thing missionaries don’t keep score.. :) I bet we would have won anyways ;)

This week was also Sister Droges birthday! Happy birthday to her! We were everywhere on her birthday! We went to Mississauga for an appointment (which bombed) but it was fun! It is like the future there! It is so nice and rich.. not what I am used to. I like the ghetto. But that is what I think I like a lot about where I serve. I get to be in so many different places and be with so many different people. It’s so amazing being able to see how each person has been prepared to hear and learn about the gospel.

OH!! And this past week we had a zone challenge. It was to see which district could commit the most people to church. Our district blew it out of the water! Mainly on Elder Akre and Elder Ellis's part. They worked hard and allowed our district to dominate! This week we are focusing on getting member presents. I have a feeling we will win this one too ;)

Love you all. Keep up the great work!

-Sister Gillins 

Sweet and Wonderful DeDios family.
They have us over all the time for dinner.
Thanksgiving was amazing!

CANADIAN THANKSGIVING!

Thanksgiving before Halloween?! Ya, its weird I know! :) But it was still such a wonderful day!

But mostly because I got to talk to people all day!! We actually had exchanges yesterday so Sister Stoddard came to the Churchville YSA area and we had a ball!! We only had one appointment set up, so the rest of the day was free for us to go street contacting!! And we went on a road trip for that one… stopping at every place to share the good news! ;) We first went to the Humber North Campus and talked with people there. We actually met two solid girls who love the Lord! We taught them about the Restoration and they are excited to learn more! Then we went to York University and contacted around there and little and then decided to walk over to Finch and Sential and we met the best person ever! It was this man from China! He was so excited about everything and he even said his first prayer with us! :) The spirit that comes when someone says their first prayer, even if it is on a busy street corner,… is pretty amazing.

Now Thanksgiving dinner!! :) Yummy!! We have this wonderful couple in the branch presidency who had us over for dinner. They treat us too well!! It was like the Thanksgiving dinner we have at home. We had mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and lots and lots of turkey! I was so stuffed! Probably gained like 15 pounds, but that’s okay! We all do on missions ;) Well at least Sister Gillins does.

Oh! And we are finally getting our gross moldy ceiling fixed! yay!!! No more gross showers :) haha it was actually all cut open this week and stuff kept falling out. So Sister Droge and I decided to go to the chapel for work outs and just take a shower there! :) It was actually not as bad as I thought! It worked out swimmingly. :)

For PDAY…. We are getting ready to play a Turkey Bowl. Our Zone is getting together. I am playing center because I think I am big and can dominate(; haha…Jokester. Actually I want to play that position because the only thing I can catch is the common cold. I won’t be able to catch the football.

Love you all!!

Sister Gillins 

ZONE TURKEY BOWL

SISTER G- "HUTTING THE BALL"
SISTERS DOMINATE

The gross moldy bubble!! 

Awkward zone pictures are the best! :) 

We love the Hermanas!! :)
(spanish speaking Sisters)