Elder Gillespie

Hello family!

I have been blessed with a wonderful companion. His name is Elder Gillespie; he is American, but his father is in the Military and he most recently was living in Germany. He is a great guy, has a strong testimony, already has a pretty good idea of how to do missionary work and best of all is a... RUNNER!!! He did XC and Track in HS and was only a little slower then me (I think he is a lot faster then me right now though). So the Lord has blessed me so much. We have run every morning since he got here, and man, it is helping me so much. The morning runs so much smoother. I am really fetching out of shape. I was realizing that its been almost a year since I have really trained with any consistency. Last week we just ran kinda a hilly kilometer loop 3 times and it was killing me, but its getting easier, this morning we did 4. I am very excited for these next two transfers. Not just for the running, but I am already learning so much training, every morning in study its kinda like a “oh yeah, that’s the way you are supposed to do it moment.” He is also just a really nice kid and has a funny sense of humor, we would have definitely been friends back home I think.

My trip to Cape Town was really nice as well. Monday was just kinda a lame P-Day actually, there is a lot to do in CT and we just played soccer. I guess there are a bunch of exotic car dealerships on the beach front, but we didn’t get to do any of those things. Tuesday I just kinda chilled with my new best friend on mission, Elder Simpson, who is hilarious. He is also training and came in from Port Elizabeth so we just shot the breeze all day, it was fun. We also climbed this like 20 foot tooth sculpture in front of the Mitchells Plane boarding using a garden house as a rope. I am not much of climber so I almost got stuck, crisis averted. Anyway, then Wednesday I met my greenie. We did the training in the Mowbray Chapel (I wonder if that one was here when Granddad was here) and there was a cool little plague talking about how it was built where the old “Cumorah” mission home was which was purchased when Samuel paid tithing on his bakery after he sold it. I got Elder Gillespie to take a picture of it cause me camera is out of batteries.

I think the area is doing a little better since he got here as well. We have had some good first lessons that the spirit was definitely present in. A lot of the students we have been teaching have gone home for a break so that might be a challenge this week. We met twice with this guy named Daniel, once we just kinda ended up attending the church service he was holding out of his house, the second to actually teach. He is a really nice guy, and knows the bible much better then me. We shared the Book of Mormon with him but we struggled a little to help him understand the preexistence and our purpose here on earth (according to true doctrine). We will see him next week, so  I pray that he had a spiritual experience with the Book of Mormon, or else things might not go much further. 

Ok, lastly, we experienced a miracle on Friday. So we were pulling up to a student rez that has a gate you can only get past unless someone is coming in our out. So as we pull up someone is coming out, and so in my excitement get in and knowing my companion doesn't know that he needs to jump out really quick, I jump out, without putting the car in park or put the parking break on. So it rolls down the hill a few meters and hits a Mazda Three in front of us. I am freaking out cause we have a brand new car. So I finally get all the way in the car and reverse back a little. Get out, look at the damage. The Aveo doesn’t have a scratch. The Mazda has a little paint off our plate and a little bit of like stress cracking, as well as some big dents from past accidents. So we are kinda freaking out. The guy who was coming out got the guy who’s car it was. I was pretty worried cause I was thinking  great, this guy is going to see two white guys in a new car and just milk this for all its worth. But he just came out, we told him what happened, he was like, no its chill, god bless and walked back into the Rez. We were pretty surprised and relieved. Anyway, well that was kinda the week, Love, you all!

Elder Martin 

Here is Elder Gillespie. I am looking a little gooberish in this pic cause I think that I am looking at a different camera. I will buy some more batteries today so I can better document my mission.