5 Lessons in 2 Days before being Deployed

Hello from the Colorado, Colorado Springs Mission

Hey everyone! It's so good to be able to write to you again! I swear the weather here is bipolar! It got up to 70 degrees this week and then it snowed this morning. It's ridiculous!

Hiking at Garden of the Gods

So this week we had a really cool teaching experience. On Wednesday morning we were getting ready for the day with only a few things planned and wondering how we were going to fill up the rest of our time. We got a phone call from a member in the ward. She told us that she had a friend and her boyfriend visiting in town for the holiday and they were interested in hearing the lessons from us! She wanted to know if we could come over in an hour. We excitedly agreed! Her friend is a member of the church, but her boyfriend is not. They both were being deployed the following week and the country they were going to does not have missionaries, and only has a small branch of a few members. They had been reading the Book of Mormon together and he wanted to know more! We taught him about the Restoration, and he just started bawling. He knew the Book of Mormon was true and how much it had been affecting his life since he had started reading it. After we finished the lesson we invited him to be baptized which he enthusiastically agreed to. After that, he asked, "I have another hour or so, can we start another lesson?" Because he was leaving, he wanted to have all the lessons completed before he left, so we then proceeded to teach all 5 lessons to him over the course of 2 days! Talk about a marathon! One appointment took 5.5 hours! But we got it done and he's so excited! It was a great way to spend our Thanksgiving week!

Elder Mogle fits in a dryer

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a fantastic dinner and everyone in the ward felt the need to give us pies! We have so many untouched pies in our fridge its crazy! At least most of them are pumpkin! (my favorite!) They asked me to speak on Sunday for a few minutes to help fill up time and I got to share my testimony of how the Spirit has really been a strength to me so far on my mission. It's powerful to see it work in the lives of others. I am so grateful for it!

So this week is the start of the Christmas transfer and with that comes a few changes. I'm staying in the Academy Ward again! So by the end of this transfer I will have been there for 6 months (my entire mission) hahaha. I'm guessing I'll probably leave after that, hopefully to an area that has a car. Sister Mangisi is headed home now that she's finished her 18 months, and Elder Walton is going home for shoulder surgery. I'm going to miss both of them! Elder Twitchell is getting his brand new, just out of the MTC, companion tomorrow! I hope he's really cool! I love and miss all of you so much! I'm grateful for another the fantastic week and hope I have many more to come. I'll check in with you next week!

God is Great!

Elder Gillingwater 

I Got My Whole District Sick

Winter in Colorado Springs

Hello from the Colorado, Colorado Springs Mission 


As if things couldn't get any stranger! This week was really rough! I got sick on Tuesday and am still trying to recover. It's a head cold that just won't leave! On top of that everyone in our district got sick with the same thing! What are the odds? So in our ward, we have a sister that we've been helping prepare for her husbands return from deployment this week for Thanksgiving. She wanted to surprise him by finishing painting their garages before he gets home. The walls were basically drywall and tape so there was a lot of mudding, sanding, and painting to do. This weekend we spent 18 hours doing just that. After all that work we still have much to go! We've completed 1 garage and are halfway done with the other two and he comes home Wednesday! We're hoping to finish it in time for them so we'll probably put in another long day on Tuesday to hopefully get it done. Luckily, she's an amazing cook and makes fantastic lunches for us while we are there. It definitely makes the experience worth it!  

So I have a crazy story for you! On Friday night we had Elder Twitchell and Walton staying at our apartment for the night because Elder Twitchell was going to the temple on Saturday. We were going to be in a tri-panionship while he was gone. So we're sitting in our living room with the blinds closed but the sliding door open since it was pretty warm inside and we heard some angry voices outside. An Elder jokingly said "Someones going to get shot", immediately after which, we heard a really loud "BANG!" which sounded just like a gunshot. We all froze, and Twitchell looked out through the blinds and yelled, "Oh my gosh! A car just exploded!" We looked outside and saw a car in our parking lot (50 feet away) with flames bursting out of it, at least 5 feet high. We were in shock and didn't know what to do! It was parked right under a huge tree and I was worried the tree was going to catch on fire. I went straight for the phone and dialed 911. The Operator seemed confused when I told her about the incident, but the fire truck showed up within 2 minutes. Most of the fire was gone before they got there and there were lots of people watching. Luckily, no one was in the car. I have no idea what really happened but the cops were there until 1 in the morning. While I was on the phone with 911, our mission president called the other Elders phone, and asked how we were doing? Twitchell responded with, "Elder Gillingwaters calling 911, a car just burst into flames outside". Our Mission President then said, "Sounds like you guys are having a really exciting night!" He was calling because Elder Twitchell is going to be training a new missionary next transfer, it just happened to be at the perfect moment. I thought it was really funny how he responded.  

I am at 4 1/2 months already. It's going by really fast, and I hope the next 18 1/2 are just as awesome!  I love you all so much! Have a great week and I'll talk to you soon!  

5 things that made me smile:  

1. I made Brazilian Lemonade for district meeting and it was super good! But we all drank too much and felt sick afterwards!  

2. Our phone call with the Mission President on Friday.  

3. I got to drive a car for the first time in 4 1/2 months, I was so excited to not have to walk for a few hours! (Sadly, I had to give the car back in the end)  

4. I got acupuncture this week! I sprained my right wrist last week (not the same wrist I sprained 2 months ago) and a member in our ward was trying to see if he could help relieve some of the pain. It still hurts...  

5. Our dinner cancelled Sunday so a really cool member from the YSA ward made us White Chili. It's so good! I'm getting his recipe! It was a really fun evening!  

  God is Great!  

Elder Gillingwater