There is Springtime in my Soul!

It’s warming up here in Canada! To about 6 degrees Celsius! Woohoo! and that means there are more people out on the streets to talk to! Talking on the street is hard because half the people run away from you, like literally run. J But it is so fun because you meet so many different types of people and get to hear a little about their life. My favorite question to ask is, "how do you get through hard times?" and "do you believe in God?" It’s interesting to hear what people say. And how many people don’t know if they believe in God. It’s fun to watch their face when we ask them.

I stay really warm. I love my coat. And my boots. My coat is the best! Like.. I love it. Tell the Larsen’s Thank you for finding it..

I love my District and Zone. We are the best of all the best.  I love Sister Bodine. We laughed so much last night, we couldn’t stop.

There is a family in our ward from Italy. The cutest of cute! They have 8 children! I love them and want to be them! They are my role models.

I miss Frankie, (my stuffed frog). I wish I had him to sleep with. I sleep pretty well though,.. I don’t even use my fan!

I’ll probably just send home the camera SD card. We don’t take many pictures. But I will start to. It’s starting to get warm and we are knocking doors a lot, so there will probably be some fun things we can take pictures of :)

Sister Bodine and I have been working on recognizing the spirit more in our lives. It has been an amazing experience. It truly has helped us in our lessons. We were teaching a woman from Jamaica who was not interested at all, but still invited us over. We talked to her about the spirit. She couldn’t pick out points where she has felt the spirit, but by asking inspired questions we were able to help her see that the spirit has been in her life more than she recognized.  Then we got onto the topic of baptism and she said, "do I have to get baptized?" Sister Bodine and I both said "YES!" The spirit truly led that lesson and touched all of our hearts. The spirit is the most important thing in missionary work. The spirit is the true teacher, we are just there to present the information and share our testimonies.

We had to drop a lot of our investigators because none of them were keeping commitments. So we have a ton of time to find new investigators. Which is fun, but so scary. I just don’t like to bother people.. But this week I have seen how much it doesn’t matter. People need to know about this great message! And if you ask the right questions anyone could be interested. This message is truly for everyone. It’s for the old, the young, the dog lover, the cat lover, the smoker, the bank robber. This message can truly help everyone. I love the message that we share. I know that it is true.

Missions are truly the best. No matter if people yell at you, shut the door in your face, or just ignore you, you must try to share it.

Love,

Sister Gillins

Many are Called, Few are Frozen!

My second week in Canada? Well, it doesn’t feel like it. This feels like my home. I love Canada and the people here! But, ITS COLD!

It’s a mission miracle! I ate BEANS twice this week and it didn’t even faze me! Everything I eat tastes so good. There’s no way I could have done this before my mission.

Mission work keeps you busy and I love it. We have been meeting with some amazing people. We are meeting with a family who has three young boys. Mom, I feel so bad for you. Boys are crazy! So... boys. It is hard to teach while they are running around, but somehow the spirit is always there.

So, a few days ago Sister Bodine and I were teaching the Word of Wisdom to two investigators. As soon as we finished and asked if they would keep the Word of Wisdom, one got up, grabbed pepper and snorted about a teaspoon of it. He didn’t even sneeze! He calls it a miracle J

We also visited a less active. She has 4 dogs in her tiny apartment. She is old and can’t walk them outside anymore. So, she got a treadmill and She showed us how the dogs can walk and run while inside! It was funny.

Everyone has cats, everyone! And, I always smell like smoke. I am a second hand smoker.

We asked someone what they thought a prophet is, and he said, "to weep" and was dead serious.

We have had such amazing experiences though. Gxxx was having a hard time reading the Book of Mormon and staying up with his commitments. So, Sister Bodine and I told it to him straight. We told him with out reading, praying, and coming to church he would never know for himself if our message was true and he would not be able to be baptized. Ever since then, he has read and prayed everyday and hasn’t smoked and drank coffee. He is planning on being baptized this Saturday :)

I have also gotten better at speaking with people. I don’t dread walking up to doors anymore. I am able to start conversations and can commit people to church, pray and read and also baptism!  The Lord really can make weak things become strong.

We had a mission conference this weekend. It was amazing!!

We truly heard the word of God!!

Elder Bednar is the best. It was such a wonderful privilege to hear from him. He didn’t just speak TO us but communicated with us. He asked us questions and had us answer. The Spirit was truly so strong. At one point there was no sister in the room with dry eyes. The elders.. well, they are  Elders :)

There is so many amazing things you can learn from him. We learned so much about faith. Faith is not wishing for things. Faith is an action word and requires work. Also, that we need to get out of the way of missionary work and let the Spirit do its job.

It was also so wonderful to see everyone from the MTC again. We had an amazing district and they are all still doing so well.

Missions are worth it. I get to show people how to become truly happy. The Lord does prepare people and it is our job to go and find them. We must get out of the way, push our fears aside and help those people come unto Christ. I know this gospel is true. I love it so much. I am so glad I have this opportunity to share it with the world. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love,

Sister Gillins

Sister Gillins with part of her MTC District
at the Mission Conference

  (insert from Mom...we are still waiting for pictures...she can't figure out how to download them..uhhh..this      picture came from another missionary...we are thankful for other missionaries :)

Canada Eh?

First things first. They really do say eh here. Not everyone, but they do.

So I woke up at 1:30 Monday morning and got to the airport. Got to call my mommy and talked to my family :) So perfect! Then the rest of the day was flying. All went well! Most of us slept. I got the best picture of Elder Ellis sleeping! Then we got to the mission home and ate a great dinner and slept.

Tuesday I met my trainer. Sister Bodine. She is amazing! She is about 5 months out on her mission. She is from Orem, Utah. She is the best example for me. I couldnt have asked for a better trainer!

That night we ate dinner with a member and had a lesson with a less active.

Wednesday I got to meet with George he is amazing and preparing for baptism. A lot of our appointments fell through.. but that’s missionary work.

Thursday was weekly planning. We had appointments, but again they fell through.

Friday was awesome! Ugh, missionary work is the bomb! We had appointments but we also met so many new people!

Saturday was even better! We had our first lesson with Karl. He loves the Bible and was so excited to read the Book of Mormon.

Sunday was my first Sunday, and of course bore my testimony. We also met with Karl again and he accepted baptism! Boo-ya!

My favorite thing is when we come out of a lesson smelling like smoke. So many people here smoke. But it lets me know that we can truly help people.

London is interesting. There is really nice big houses, but really small apartments. Many people we teach live in small apartments. Its fun trying to get into them when we don’t know the buzzer matching the apartment. Many people also don’t have cars. Luckily we do. But, most people take the bus which is crazy!! There is a ton of immigrants too. Ugh. It is just amazing!

The Ward members are great! they feed us a ton!! and help so much and go with us to so many appointments!

 We are at the library. We may get ipads in June. I can't figure out pictures. I will next time!

I am really surprised and happy with how I am doing. I love the Lords work.

Love,

Sister Gillins

HERE I AM TORONTO

Sister Gillins made it safe to Toronto, Canada On Monday, 10, 2014. Her Mission President sent us a letter telling us she was received with open arms and she had enthusiasm and a great Testimony.
She had been up since 1:30 am, so she was quite drained when she took pictures with her new Mission President and Wife....and her new Companion!

We love you Sister Gillins and can't wait to hear from you on Monday! Mom is excitingly crazy about it.

Clarissa's new address:
Sister Clarissa Gillins
340 Colborne St. #1105
London, ON N6B 2N1
Canada

clarissa.gillins@myldsmail.net

Sister Gillins

Sister Bodine and Sister Gillins

President and Sister Scott & Sister Clarissa Gillins

MAKE IT TO SUNDAY!

                                                                                             fRIDAY,  March 7, 2014  4:00pm

When they say make it to Sunday they truly mean it. Saturday was probably the longest and hardest day of my life. I didn’t think it was ever going to end. But, don’t worry y’all.. it did! After I took the Sacrament on Sunday, I felt so much better! And the devotional was good. What was even better was watching Elder Ballards talk, “Character of Christ.” IT was amazing! It totally helped and opened up my mind!

I love my companion! I am so lucky I got her! The Lord knows what He is doing. We are both learning to NOT doubt. We are both learning to be brave and bold together. So glad to have a companion with me!

            My companion got sick… so, we went to the doctors on Monday. She just has a "virus". But, she’s been  coughing like crazy. He gave her some cough syrup. So, that is when we made our escape from the MTC! We had to go to the student health center to get her medicine. We left the MTC unattened! Haha, it was so easy. No one even questioned us. We could have totally ran away and no one would have known.

Tuesday we had an amazing devo! It kept me captivated and taught me that if we do what we are asked we will receive blessing, but if we don’t, then those promises will be taken away.

Wednesday was just a day in the classrooms.

Thursday we had in field training. It helped us to prepare to enter the field on Monday!! IT was soooo long though! Like 6 hours, but helpful! I can’t wait to get to Toronto!

I love you all! Thank you for all your letters and prayers, they truly help!!

Love,

Sister Gillins

MTC Thoughts

Mar 7 at 4:51 PM

The MTC is pushing me to do hard things! ….. and things I am not totally comfortable with. But, I am so grateful for that. I know all of this will make me a better missionary. I am also so grateful to have Brother Richardson as a teacher. He has helped Sister Bottcher and I. He pushes us, …  but he know it is for the best and talks to us to make sure we are okay. We have worked on being brave and bold. It has been hard for us, but we have both been doing so good. I know that my Heavenly Father can make my weakness become strong and I have definitely seen that while I have been in the MTC. I know the Lord would not give me anything I could not handle.