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!