August 27, 2012: EARTHQUAKE!

¡Oì!
 
I thought I would have the title of EARTHQUAKE to make a bit of drama. The real story is that I am super far away from where the earthquake hit and to be quite honest I didn't even know one hit til you all wrote me about it. I bet it was pretty crazy over there.
 
This week was a really great week, but also very up and down. Just so you all know here they don't use the word "trunkie", here they say "baggy". I don't know why but that is the word. Either way I am not baggy nor trunkie. Just working as hard as I can.
  
I wrote you all last week telling about the convert that we have (Jaqueline) and how her mom (Dalila) was super against the church, but through the members she totally changed. Well it is so true. She used to go to another church and believed that we worshiped Joseph Smith and that we sacrificed little babies in sacrament meeting and stuff like that. The whole family has now gotten baptized except for her. This past week she really super changed and she was baptized. I couldn't even believe it cause when I first got here she wouldn't even listen to us. It was awesome and the whole ward was super excited for the family.
 
We are also teaching another family (the family Bonilla) and they are a guy (Emerson, 25 years old) and his girlfriend/wife (Tania, 19). We found them about 2 and a half weeks ago and they were so excited right from the beginning to receive us. They have been living together for about a year and she is pregnant. They are awesome and she has always wanted to be baptized in the church.  They are great people and Emerson used to smoke, but when we taught him The Word of Wisdom he just stopped. He now has 2 weeks without smoking. He is awesome. They will be getting married today at 4 pm and they will both be getting baptized.
 
We have seen so many miracles lately and I love the mission so much. We have another family (the Family Peraza) which is a family of 6 that is deciding if they will be getting married and baptized this Friday. They told us they were going to do it last week, but the devil is strong and got in the way. They will be going to the wedding today and will decide there.
 
I am really happy that I stayed this last month. God is showing me why I had to stay and it makes me feel that I made the right choice. I am trying to work as hard as I can now so I have no regrets after. I know that God has a couple more surprises for these last two weeks. I love you all and I am excited to see you. It will be fun to catch up. All these families that I have been teaching me lately has really made me feel the importance of the family. The key is the family prayer. It is cool to see the changes that come from one simple prayer at night together. I invite you all to be praying in your families. I pray every night here for each of you and I love you all. Prayer really does change the night to day. Love you all and talk to you next week.

Elder Gillette

August 20, 2012

Querido Familia,

   

Well how are everyone. Sounds like the fires over there in Utah are a blast. Here everyone takes all of there junk into there front yard and burns it. It scared me at first in my mission to see a giant fire right next to someones house, but the grass and everything is so green that it doesn't catch fire. The house are made of cement so they don`t catch fire either. It is very opposite here haha. 

   

Everything here in good ol Atiqui is good. We are seeing a lot of miracles and I feel like God is really showing my why I needed to stay this last month of my mission. I thought about that a lot this week and how I am really glad that I stayed, cause I know that I should be here.

   

We were teaching this family I think I told you all about; Ana and her 2 kids, Fernando and Alejandra. They are awesome and with the help of some members that are really great they ended up getting baptized yesterday. It was awesome. We had a lot of support from the ward and the mom like ran into the baptismal font to be baptized. she was so excited. It was a great day.

  

We have a lot of great investigators. It really surprises me how many people we keep on finding that are so positive. I feel like I finally can see who to teach and who will be a waste of time. We had 6 new investigators in church and they are all really great people. This Sunday we will be baptizing the mom of the girl we baptized last week, Jaqueline. The whole family are members and she didn't want anything to do with us. Thanks to the members she has changed her mind and went to church and loved it.

  

I really am working the hardest I have worked in my life and I feel super confident in what I am doing. I really have a true belief that whoever reads The Book of Mormon and prays will get an answer. I have seen it to many times now.

  

Well I have a little over 3 weeks left here so I thought I would ask you all if there is anything you all might want here? something I should take a picture of before I leave so you all can see it or something like that? if you have ideas then send it to me. 

  

I love you all and I am excited for these next couple weeks. I know they will be great. I will be getting home at midnight on Sept 13  or I don't know if that would be considered the 14th of September. So lets all get prepared. I love you all and take care. 

 

Elder Gillette