Sister Clarissa 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