Monday, June 29, 2015

It's been a Whirlwind!!

So "this week has been just weird!" That is what Sister Robison has been saying all week. And she’s right. It has been a stinking good week! We worked our butts off and it was fun, but weird ;) 
We worked a lot with members this week! Working with lots of returning members and recent converts. We were able to really teach with the spirit this week and the spirit was the one who taught all of them, not us. It was amazing! From that they were able to open up and talk about the main and real concerns of everything. This has been a huge help because now we know where to go with these people. We just aren't spinning our tires in mud anymore but we have traction and we are gonna start taking off! I am really excited for all of this!! :D 

I got to see Sis Lindquist this week at zone conference! Still as beautiful as ever!! It is fun to be able to see good friends! :D 
But there was a huge centipede in the gym while we were eating lunch and no one would kill it for me... so I ended up at the other side of the gym.. I hate centipedes.. Ontario seems to be covered with them!! 

We also got kicked out of our apartment... JK! They were just doing some repairs and we couldn't be there with men in the apartment.. that would just be awkward! So we decided to do weekly planning out on the grass behind the building. It was a very beautiful day for it as well. Not to hot and not to cold. And there was no wind so nothing blew away! The only concern we had was bugs crawling up our skirts!! But we stayed pretty safe from that ;) 

We had dinner with a sweet Phillapino family! I brought up baloot and the next thing I know I am agreeing to eating it next week on Friday! So wish me luck! Pray I won’t barf!!! :D 
I can’t really explain what it is... you just need to Google it okay?

But we had this great food called Omu Tuo. It is from Ghana! It is rice balls with chicken in peanut butter soup! It is delicious!! You eat it with your hands! It was very very interesting.. but I will get the recipe and make it for all of you when I get home! I love serving here because the world comes to us!! We get to meet so many people and learn about there culture! I love it! I love hearing them speak! Cause lots of times they are speaking English but I have no clue on what they are saying. But they all say I have a way better accent than Sister Robison. They make me always repeat what she said cause they didn't understand her ;) 

Oh ya!! Crazy thing that happened yesterday! We got a call from President telling us that there has been a need for an emergency transfer. DUN DUN DUN!! But it’s all okay! We are fine! So Sister Robison will be leaving me and going to the wonderful land of Wellend!! yay yippe!! And I get the beautiful chance to serve with Sister Womack for the rest of my mission! She’s a red head so we will have lots of fun together! I’m kinda freaking out cause I still feel like I have no clue where I am going on the bus.. I just get off when Sister Robison does.. But it will be an adventure for sure!! Missions are beautiful things that always keep you on your toes!!! 

 (check out the front page of mormonnewsroom.ca)                                                                     our ward is on it!! :D  I am wearing green! 

I love you all so much!!       
XOXOXOXOXO 

-Sister Gillins 


I am in Heaven...we found a chocolate orange!
 they must sell them all year!

Omu Tuo

It is soooo yummy!


Monday, June 22, 2015

Pray about it!!

This week has been one of the best weeks we have had here with less-active and returning members! We have had so much fun and spiritual times with them!! We were able to drop by a less-active man and his family! We were able to get to know them and connect with his daughter that is our age. He loves having the missionaries over and his family is so kind to us! Their son brought us out popsicles!! Sooooo yummy! I pray that we will be able to go over and visit again and hopefully start teaching his children about the gospel!! Then we had lunch with another part member family! They are this really cute old couple. They have the best sense of humor ever!! They had us take out the garbage for them before we ate and when we came back the old woman told us that they had moved and that they were the new residence.. we were so confused for awhile.. then her husband yelled "just let them in!" :D 

This week there was almost a fight on the bus... it was pretty crazy! I was afraid it was going to get pretty nasty so I made Sister Robison sit by me.. it was sketchy! But all is well.. one of the guys girl friends made sure nothing happened. 

We met with the pastor again.. it was kinda difficult.. He had a hard time listening to us. He brought up Revelations 22:18-19.. So I brought out Deuteronomy 4:2. After that they didn’t argue with us on that subject but kept trying to tell us we were wrong about something.. I’m not sure what we were wrong about.. but something. So he told us to go home and pray about all of it. I committed him to do the same. So that night I went home and prayed and asked God if all of this is true and I had the feeling that it was!! yipee! I just know from the bottom of my heart that this is all true! I have had simple but marvelous conformations of that each day this week! It has been such a beautiful thing! I hope the pastor has done the same. I pray that he has read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it so that he can get an answer himself! 

A member brought her friend to church this week! He is awesome! He is from Haiti! Guess where our bishop served his mission... HAITI! They hit it off, talking in Creole and cracking jokes! It was awesome! He loved church and we were able to make him a new investigator! He is awesome!! He had some really good questions too! I can’t wait to actually sit down with him and teach him about the Restoration. 

Things are amazing here!! Maybe even if things aren’t going our way we are still so happy and working hard. We are both just glad this is The Lords work and not ours.. if it was ours.. we would be toast by now! 

Love you all!! 

Sister Gillins

Our shirt for our district an Elder made for us..
 we are all elves.. :) 

Random Picture on the bus I always stare at..

This plaque talks about the early saints here in Toronto!!
 cool beans!! 

This unicorn is at one of the recent converts homes..
 it stares us down during lessons! haha
I love it!

Monday, June 15, 2015

Fishy Fishy!

So I went to the Aquarium.. You can all be jealous because it was pretty dang cool!! :D Lots of fishies and sharks!! DUN DUN DUN! My favorite part was the jelly fishes though! They are just so majestic and cute! :D There were lots of weird things too! I got to touch something... I don't remember the name of it though.  It was hard and weird. But we got in for free! There is a member in the Mid Singles ward who hooked us up with some free tickets! So we are so grateful for that! It was an adventure to go down town too! Lots and lots of people and fun things to look at! :) We got to see the CN Tower! Maybe this transfer Sister Robison and I will go inside and see it! But we really want to go to China Town and Little Italy. 

Oh!! By the way Sister Robison and I are both staying here in Etobicoke North!! :D So happy! We have lots of work we still need to do here! :) 

We had this amazing experience with a less-active this week. Our Relief Society President sent out letters to all of the less active sisters in our ward. Some were sent back, so now we know those sisters have moved and most of them we haven't heard a reply until last Monday. A sister who has been on a do not contact list called the Relief Society President and told her how grateful she felt for getting a letter and that the church still remembers her. The president called us up and told us that she had set up a time to visit with her and would like us to go along! It was a beautiful experience! As we talked she opened up about everything. Her husband is very against Mormons and that is why she has been on a do not contact list. She has had a very hard life with having Lupus and having her leg amputated.. but yet she still knows God is looking out for her. She reads the scriptures everyday and prays. She asked us if we could reteach her the lessons and help her come back. It is amazing the results that come from working with the auxiliary leaders! I will cherish this moment for the rest of my life!! 

We also were able to teach a family! A missionary talked to this family a few weeks back on the Subway. We called and set up a time to meet with them. They just moved here from Pakistan. They are very Christian. All of their kids are named after prophets! The father is a pastor.. so we were really nervous to see what he would say or if the whole appointment would be him trying to convert us. But he and his family listened to what we had to say. They weren’t sure about a prophet, but said they will read the Book of Mormon and pray about it!! Pray that their hearts will open!! 

It’s been a great week and it will only get better!! Love you all!! 

-Sister Gillins 

CN Tower in Toronto
Sister Robinson and Me
Ripley's Aquarium - Canada!
HELP!!!









Eating Pho with the Elders!
 Hmmmm...It was actually
pretty good..Yum!


Monday, June 8, 2015

Short one!

Monday, June 1, 2015

Clean up Clean up!!

Sometime last week or this week we got a call from a man asking for the Elders, we explained to him that they have left but we are here now. He told us that the Elders had offered his family help with moving, but never mind now that we are girls. We assured him that we could still help and he was very excited! We went over Friday and Saturday to help organize and pack. They are such a friendly couple. They are from India and feed us all the time!! We have had some yummy things there. I like Indian food.. but I still have a hard time with the spice.. It’s just a lot different than what I am used to. But it has been fun! We were packing up some books for them and we found The Book of Mormon!! Woohoo!! :) Told them that it’s a good read! They were so shocked when we told them we don't drink tea or coffee! They kept asking us questions like if we will drink it after our missions and stuff. It is fun being able to share the gospel in simple ways! 

This week I had a hard time wanting to tract.. but it ended up being kinda fun! There were some nice people we got to talk to! One old man wasn't interested but was grateful for what we did. He ended up patting me on the head. It was pretty cute. I just love old people!! They have been so much fun lately!! To them I must seem like a 5 year old, but I learn so much from them!! Especially the ones at church! They are just so full of wisdom and I just desire for it to rub off on me!! We are teaching this women who is about to turn 74. She is so cute and has been through a lot of health challenges, but won’t let me help her with anything! I go to start helping and she’s like stop touching that!! I can do it! We weren't to sure how solid she was going to be because she has met with a lot of different churches, but as we taught her the plan of salvation she really listened and asked really good questions! She said that she will read the pamphlet so that when we come over we will be able to have a better conversation. I am so excited to continue to teach her and to teach her about the restoration!! Keep her in your prayers!! 

It was really hot at the beginning of the week.. I got sun burnt!! So now I have this tan line that is pretty sweet ;) But by the end of this week it was raining!! It has been raining for two days! That does not make for good contacting! But it has been fun to wear our bright raincoats!! (thank you mommy!) and my rain boots! (thank you grandma and grandpa for the money to buy them!) We are able to start up more conversations that people want to talk about on the buses this way!! And we are all huddled under the bus shelters. It is fun!! :) My hair was so big and fluffy by the time we got to church everyone loved it! They were just laughing and playing with it. No one believed it was my real hair at first.. But I love it. I feel like a lion! 

This morning in studies I was reading one of my favorite talks. "Our Identity and Our Destiny" - Tad R. Callister and came across this quote by C.S. Lewis. 
"The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were "gods" and He is going to make good His words... The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said." 
God loves us. He isn't just preparing us for what we will become here on earth but preparing us for the eternities!! His plan is perfect!! 

Loves! 
-Sister Gillins 

(drown your worries in Mcflurries) 

My Lion Hair that everyone keeps touching! haha
and my cute companion in the back.
we are the only ones on the bus alot of times!

Drown your worries in McFlurries!

bright rainjackets and hiding in shelter!