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)