Elder Kyle Gillingwater Week #25

Hello from the Colorado, Colorado Springs Mission

 

So now that I've settled into my new area, still living in my old area, we've gotten into a pretty good routine here.  The Young Single Adult (YSA) wards are a lot different to serve in than the family wards.  

Cheyenne Mountain

I can give you a couple examples why.  One of the biggest ones being Church is SO QUIET during Sacrament Meeting.  I think I mentioned this last week but Church starts with Quorum meetings, moves to Sunday School, and finishes off with Sacrament Meeting.  It's a really foreign idea to me but I like it because I'm not falling asleep in class by the end!  We also have church at 11 o'clock which is perfect! No one leaves church for at least an hour afterwards because there are 3 YSA wards meeting at the same time in the same building and so there are lots of people to catch up with.  We have a lot of Cadets from the Air Force Academy in our ward since they're all single.  They're all really nice and love having us over for dinner (well actually out to dinner since we don't really get to go to the Academy all that much).  But they're a lot of dedicated hard working people that I really have come to appreciate and admire.  They have a lot of activities during the week for the ward so we spend a lot of time at the church.

Having Fun!

They had a religious freedom fireside in our stake last Friday and I heard it was really cool.  They invited religions from all over to come and support the right to have religious freedom in our country and I heard they had to use 3 different church buildings and broadcast it because there were so many people, over 500 Catholics, equally the same amount of LDS members, and much more from other faiths.  Missionaries weren't invited to attend so it didn't seem like we were trying to proselyte to everyone about our church when they came.  They do this event yearly and it's cool to hear how different faiths can ban together for the same causes!

Our New District

We had a change in our district this week and one of the elders in my MTC District is now in my District here!  It's pretty cool!  We had a good week preparing for the Baptism this weekend!  We should have everything finalized by Tuesday and Saturday is going to be an awesome day if everything goes well!

We had a great Stake Priesthood meeting last night and overall a really great week!  This email is a little short but I will have a lot more to talk about this week trust me!  I love you all so much!  I love hearing from you!  Let me know if I can do anything for you!

God is Great!

Elder Gillingwater