Monday, December 27, 2010

December 27th, 2010

Hey Family and Merry Christmas 2 days later!

Wow crazy crazy week this past week. 3 dinners Christmas eve, Monday we had a zone Christmas dinner which was awesome, talked to all of you for what felt super super short and........ Had a white Christmas!!! By that I mean is that I was in all white when I baptized this girl Raquel. Ya it actually happened. It took a lot to get there. We planned to start at 3 so we told her we would meet her at 2 at her house. We got there at 2 and she wasn't there. We ended up waiting 2 and a half hours for her. We called and contacted around her house and we thought she ditched out.

Finally we called her and she came and we got to the stake center at 5:30, Started at 6. She was freaking out with bad cold feet. I was scared she didn't like have a testimony, although I have heard her testimony so we kept going.

She calmed down and I baptized her and after we talked and she said she felt better. Yesterday I taught the Gospel Principles class and she was there and I asked her how her baptism was for her. She is like a different person. It is crazy. She was ready in the morning to go to church, participated in the class, and said that she loved the calm feeling of the spirit she felt after the baptism.

So that was one of the very very crazy days this week. We didn't have a very good week of like contacting and finding new investigators. It was difficult to work at times cause my comp is "sick" also.

Our zone Christmas party was awesome though. We all went to this members house and they made us this awesome steak. We took a whole bunch of pictures. Right now my computer is way trashy so It is not letting me upload pictures. I will try to send a separate email with pictures though. We also watched some of the Mormon tabernacle choir Christmas videos. It was a lot of fun.

We also had our mission Christmas party. we just watched videos that each zone had made. Actually really boring, but it was way fun to talk to Elder Koller, my comp from the MTC, just about the first change. Things are crazy for him too.

Looks like New Years is just about as crazy as Christmas. More fireworks and we have been invited to more dinners, but these one actually sound good. Carne asada at one and another they are going to make us tres leches which is freaking my favorite food right now. SO tasty!

Sorry the call on Christmas was so crazy. I didn't know how the time difference was. I thought it was opposite than what it really is. Is was SO SO good to talk to you all. sounds like all of you are doing so good! I felt bad I talked so much. I wanted to hear all of you, but there was so many and it was hard to hear all the time. Nonetheless it was awesome.

So onto other things. I just finished ¨our search for happiness¨ by Russel M. Ballard. Every night I read a little before going to be and that book was awesome. I would recommend that book to everyone. It is a simple understanding of our church. I started Jesus the Christ this week also and that book is giant. I hope I finish it haha.

I saw a sign on the way here that said "Respete al señal" which in English means ¨Respect the sign¨. I thought that was hilarious cause the sign is telling me what to do. I don´t even know how to explain it.

Well love ya all a ton and it was fun to hear from you all. I am glad you are all doing so well and I pray for you all every night. Those blankets Debbie made sounded nice. And the story of basil about to kill the fish is funny. Derek good work with the knife. Love ya all and Happy New Year 2011!

Elder Gillette

Monday, December 20, 2010

December 20th, 2010

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Wow Christmas already?! I can't even believe it. Time has already flown by like crazy. We got news of our changes today and the result is.......................................... I am staying here in Trebol for another change which I am stoked about and I am with Elder Bonilla again which should be... fun? I am super glad I will be here for Christmas That will be way fun.

The thing I am way excited about is that we have 2 baptisms set up for Christmas day. One of them is this old guy named Francisco who is like my favorite person ever. He is a professor in San Salvador and whenever we talk to him he always goes off on random topics. Like asking what the churches stance is on music and if we have a choir he could join. But he was the first person I door contacted, so he is special and I am so glad I will be here to watch him be baptized.

The other is this 20 year old girl named Raquel. We are working with her mom and she just started to come to church with us and accepted baptism. It should be a cool week, that is if they both follow through.

Sounds like things though up in SLC are pretty crazy. Sorry Dad and Debbie about your house that sounds way crazy. I hope they find your stuff. Hilary and kelsy, I bet the Christmas concert was way awesome. Joff and Kylie I am super stoked to find out about the gender of your kid. I don´t even know what it will be. I pray for a girl though.

I have been hearing a lot about Christmas hear. A bit different then in the states. I guess everyone celebrates Christmas mainly on Christmas eve with like huge parties and fireworks all night. Not like Utah fireworks where we just use a couple flowers and whistling petes. I mean like huge stuff. Kids have like sticks of dynamite in their hands. It will be a Christmas to remember.

And about "the call". I will call Christmas morning some time. The good thing is that E. Bonilla will call on Christmas eve his family so I will have more an option of when. I was thinking of trying around noon. I think they said the rule is only an hour to talk, but everyone here talks to there families for like 2 or more hours. So we will just see, cause one hour is nothing. And I was wondering if we could just use one giant call, cause at the airport I did a call for mom and the kids, then dad. But just to save time I was wondering if we could just join everyone!

So I decided this week to buy myself a memory stick. Cause what I am going to do is put the pictures you send on it and go and print them out at a nearby picture place.

Crappy stuff has happened this week though. I have been getting sick from the climate hear. It will be freezing in the middle of the night and in the morning, then mid day it is way hot. Then cold again at night. So that has sucked. But I am on the mend and never let it take away from my teaching or take time.

They say the first 2 changes are the longest and that is really hard to believe. Cause this change was crazy fast. I am glad cause the 2 people I really get along with are Elder Stone and Elder Finlinson and they will both be here again next change.

Not much else though to say. Going to work like crazy this week like also. But I love you all so much and thank you for all the letters. I pray for you all and think about you. Gennie a special thanks goes to you, cause this week I started using that little picture book you gave me a lot more and everyone LOVES it. There is two things everyone does when they see it. The pictures of the nephews everyone is like, ¨AWW!! so cute!¨ then the picture with me and my long hair, no one believes that it is me. It is crazy to see that picture now though.

But love you all and thinking about you especially this time of season. I am sending some photos so you can see that I am still having a Christmas. The guy who is santa is HNO Kolindrez, super awesome guy. The other pic is my zone and the last is me and E. Stone making pupusas.
Once again love you all and have a good Christmas. Talk to you Saturday!

Elder Gillette

PS that was awesome hearing from pepe, chance and brian. Not gonna lie thought they forgot about me. haha
PPS Hilz I got your package, but still am not opening them!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

December 13th, 2010

Hello family in all parts of the world,

I feel our family is really spreading out. It's is cool we actually all have stories and are doing such cool things. Jof and Kylee, holy smoke Europe looks awesome and Basil is so so stinking cute in those pictures. Joff... ¿porque tiene un bigote? What's up with the beard man? You look like a hobo, but for all I know that is what you are going for haha. Krik, Randy, and Gennie. Those pictures of asher are adorable. Disneyworld is like my favorite place. I was like asher their. I hope to go back. Last, but not least, family in Utah. Sounds like everything is good. Kelsy! That story of you falling on your face is like the funniest thing I have heard. I was actually laughing outloud. I hope you are ok.

But over here in El Salvador has been crazy this week. We only have this next week and then its changes the 23rd of december(Which sucks cause I may be in a new area for christmas and not really know anyone). But everyone thinks I won´t get changed and I hope so. We found 17 new investigators this week and they are awesome. There is this family that I contacted my first week and joked with them and we set an appointment for the next tuesday. We never showed up cause that was when me and my comp had some problems. We were on divisions and we werent finding much. I started telling the elder I was with about this family and how i wish we would have gone back. Right at that moment I looked over and saw a door open and was like, "That is their house!¨. So I walked directly over and the whole family was there. The dad came over and was like"Elder Gillette, nosotros esperamos para usted martes y usted nunca ha visto." He said he waited and we never showed. I apologized and he let us in and we taught him and his family. It was an awesome lesson. We have had some good ones this week.

We had stake conference this week and our mission president decided to show up for it. We had 3 investigators come to it and all went really well. I still don´t understand much when people give talks.

Last night we were invited over to have pizza with this family. They are so nice and we made homemade pizza. It was so stinking good, but the mom just kept giving it to us. I thought my comp was going to burst. We started leaving and we asked if they needed any help with anything and they said only to pray for them cause they don´t have any jobs. It seriously made me so sad when they said that. Cause they just fed us all that food and stuff when they don´t even have jobs. Shows how nice the people are.

So I have realized something here about El salvadoreans. From talking and the things they say that they really like micheal jackson and love vanilla ice. I swear I hear Ice ice baby like 4 or 5 times a week. I just laugh though. I just think that is a random thought.

But next time i write I should know about transfers. Everyone is positive my comp will go to be a zone leader, so hopefully this means I will stay here. We also have our mission christmas party the 22nd and that should be fun. We just played soccer this morning and I was going to take a picture of the "cancha" or the soccer field, but i totally forgot. I am going to just upload some other pics I thought you would like. one is of the branch that is in our stake. Not ours but the one my friend Elder Stone goes to. It is crazy. Not sure what else I will load up haha.

I have started to figure out what i like to eat, so I am starting to eat more and more. Which is really good for my weight, but really bad for my budget. My goal is to not have to take out or use any money that is in my account. So if you give me money for christmas. Thank you! I will just have more to come back to. I am trying to teach myself like discipline with money and budgeting, cause you all know I need to learn that haha.

Everything is good though and the weeks are going by crazy fast. I swear I wrote to you all yesterday and for that fact came here yesterday. Love you all though and thanks for the support. OH and the package I received was from......... JOFF! Not gonna lie i was a bit surprised. Happily surprised. I directly put it in my suitcase and am not opening any of the packages til christmas to make christmas that much better. But I love you all again. I could say it a billion times and it wouldn't be enough. Hope you all the best and especially with all the plane flights I pray for you to be safe. Talk to you next week!

From EL SAL,
Elder Gillette

Monday, December 6, 2010

December 6th, 2010

¡Buenas!

¿Como esta mi familia? yo espero que to este bien. ¡Todas cosas aquí son excelente! I actually really don´t want to speak in spanish. It is fun, but I like to utilize the time when I can actually say all I want to haha. Nah, but seriously things have been really good this week. We talked to a lot of people, found 3 new families to teach that I am excited about, and we had dinner with a family and they made us like 8 big papusas each and they were SO good. I love the people here.

We had a multizone conference this week and I was able to meet a lot of the missionaries who have served in my area previously. They were so excited to here about their converts and only had good things to say about the area. They all said it was their favorite area they have served in. I thoroughly enjoy it right now. It is like the perfect area. I know I will also like my other areas, but for now I want to stay here. Which I actually thing is a really big possibility. We are all almost positive my comp will become a zone leader this next change and I will probably stay here which is what I am praying for.

Things with the Elder Bonilla have gone good this week. He has an old set of scriptures and I had an extra set that I had recieved in the MTC so I decided to give them to him and he was super excited about them. He has spent all week just marking it up. It felt nice to help my comp. Our lessons have started to go a lot smoother also and especially when we go on splits I have gotten a lot better. Everyone has said my spanish has improved a ton. I can understand almost everything now. Which is a blessing.

What has been nice that I realized I never told you was that a companionship in our zone has an area were their is no houses good enough to actually live in so they have both been living with us lately. Whats nice is they are both americans and one was in my district at the MTC, Elder Stone is his name. It is really nice to have somebody to come back to and talk to in english. It has been fun. We all decided for christmas we are going to make a stocking for someone else in the house if we are still here after transfers. We thought that would make christmas here a little better.

It was cool last night we got to watch the christmas devotional. It was great to hear the MoTab and see the lights of temple square. Although we listened in spanish and they were translating super fast so I didnt understand a whole lot it was still cool. I pointed out that I new Tamera Oswald and he just thought that was so cool.

But it was a good week, but also a bit disappointing week. We found a girl who took the lessons 5 years ago and she remembers like everything and reads all we give her. She is like a golden investigator and she accepted to be baptized. But she ended up not coming this week to church which was a major bummer. Really hard to get people to go. But I am still excited to go teach her.

We also had a stake open house for all the recent converts and investigators. We didn´t find out about it till like days before and we didn´t have a whole bunch of time to really tell anyone about it. The place looked really nice and the members put a lot of work into it and no investigators or converts from our ward showed. I felt terrible. Our ward mission leader wasn´t to happy, but I wouldnt of been either. I am not gonna let that happen again.

But other than those two this week has been great. I am getting to know my ward and zone a lot better which is really fun. The ward mission leader for our branch is 19 and he is leaving on his mission to argentina the 30 of december. His name is Elmer and is like one of my favorite people. We go on splits a lot on He wants to come to america after his mission and I said he could stay with us and like visit the temple. He was super excited.

But sorry this is like a way long letter. We are going to play some soccer after this with another zone so I am excited and I will talk to you all next week! ps I got a notice I recieved a package this week. I won´t get it til wednesday, but it arrived quick. I will try not to open it til christmas

Love you all and think about you and pray everything is going great. Everything here is good and I am safe, so don´t worry.

Your bro, son, friend, missionary in El Salvador,
Elder Gillette

Ps sorry I don´t have any pictures this week. I forgot my camera at my house which is alright cause I didn´t really take any pictures of anything exciting.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

November 30th, 2010





Hey Family,

Wow another crazy week in Santa Ana. Lots of walk/running everywhere, I have been eating more papusas which are so STINKING good. They are 25 cents each so we will get like 4 every night. There are also these things called pan dulce which i eat a ton. They are like cookies. So good though.

Crazy that it is snowing so much there. It is definitely a sunny christmas here. I am sweating everyday. But the nights and morning are like hawaii. Perfect temperature. I love it!

So if any of you are wondering why I am writing on tuesday instead of monday this is why. We went to a Volcano yesterday. Freaking craziest day of my life! so we left at about 8 in the morning and took this 15 passenger van up this like 4 wheeler road. It was scraping and bumping like crazy. I dont even know how it made it so high. We got out and hiked for an hour and a half. Realized we had gone a half an hour in the wrong direction. Back tracked and started going up this hill. This hill was like going up chases driveway for 2 hours. We were crawling on our stomachs and got scratched up pretty good from the needles. After the 3 and a half hour hike we finally got to the top. It was pretty crazy when we got to the top. We were in the clouds as one of the pics shows. I was sweating so bad. From the humidity and all. I took a ton of pictures but they are taking a while to load so i am only sending a couple and I took 2 videos, but they are to big for the email to send, but when i send the chip back you can see them.

It was chivo (cool in El Salvadoreño). But we were all so tired from the hike it was hard to enjoy. I am sending some pics also so you can see. We had to hike 2 hours back down and we all wanted to die by the end. There was a little tienda at the bottom and I drank like 2 liters of fanta haha. It was crazy, but an awesome experience.

This week has been crazy just because we have been running around helping other missionaries. Our area is doing the best in the zone right now so we are helping others. I taught with another person in his area and got 2 baptismal dates for him. ITs nice that I worked at wendys and things are coming back really nicely.

I am half way through our first change which is crazy. My comp is so fixed on wanting to be zone leader it kind of sucks, but we have been getting along a lot better.

Sorry I dont have a ton of time today to write. I want to write more, but we have got to get to work also. earlier today we had like a secondary meeting for the new missionaries. The presidents wife came up to me and was like. You have been working hard, how much weight have you lost? ya it is starting to show. I put my jacket on today and it was already a bit bigger and looser on me.

But Trebol is starting to feel more like home and to answer that question, my house is one of the nicest in the mission haha. I stayed at the zone leaders house one night and it was so dirty.

Well thats about it, one more thing if you send a package remember jesus stickers haha. We were talking about that the other day.

Love you all though and pray for you all! talk to you next week!

Elder Gillette

ps Sorry some of the grammar and stuff is bad. I am writing on a spanish keyboard and it is actually quite dificult haha.

November 30th, 2010, Part II

In response to some letters from the family...

LOVE LOVE LOVE the pictures! crazy! the snow. well i thought i would send a quick thing cause i just listened to your recording again and i forgot to tell about any tracting stories. Miracles have happened and wierd stuff also. tracting is very different here. What you do is yell ¡buenas! at the front door and they will usually ask who and then look out there window and do the contact through the windows. We will get invited into a lot of peoples houses just because they are so nice.

Everyone here no matter our religion just loves what we do. They all tell us. I love that you spread the word of God. We will usually say like, well can we share it with you then. They cant reject the word of God right? Everyone has there shirts off, well the guys. The woman just breast feed whenever. We will be teaching a lesson and the kid will run up and they will just whip it out. It is just normal here. Crazy stuff. Fun though.

I thought you would all enjoy that we have this guy in my area. we taught him once and he is like old! When we were leaving I said seeya mister (just joking around). Now everytime he sees us no matter where we are he yells ¡See You MIster! in his spanish accent. IT is hilarious. I feel like a tv show cause we call him the see-you-mister-guy haha cause we dont know his name haha.

Thought i would share that though haha. Love you all

Elder Gillette

Monday, November 22, 2010

November 22nd, 2010 "Say hello to diarea!"

¡Hola mi Familia!

Wow another crazy week in tropical wasteland. Jk. This week was a WHOLE lot better than last week. I don´t even know where to start. Well I will get this out of the way. Here is my address so you can send letters and stuff.

Misión El Salvador San Salvador Oeste/Belice
Boulevard del Hipódromo #537
Colonia San Benito
Apartado Postal #367
San Salvador, El Salvador, C.A.

K and when you send something make sure you have all of that. The Apartado part is like P.O. BOX and if you don´t put that in there they charge like 50 bucks I have to pay. So please don´t haha :)

Well onto the real stuff I will start with the bad news. That girl that we had the date with, well we have taught her everyday I have been here. She has a testimony and is the perfect investigator. But she is from North Carolina and is going back on sunday and she feels that she would feel more comfortable knowing members over their and get baptized over there. Which when she told us that my companion tried to kind of talk her out of that. He is the DL and wants numbers, so at times that is hard for me. We ended up not baptizing her but she will in the states so I am excited.

I was telling my companion about D&C 18 how it says if you just save one soul how great your reward will be. I was saying that we didn´t baptize her, but it doesn´t say, if you just baptize one soul. We helped her on her way and I think that counts. I am excited for her.

The language barrier has been hard at times. My comp has a short fuse and when I don´t know the words it kind of ticks him off. But I am trying to help him. But my spanish seriously is awesome. I do most of our contacts and my companion yesterday was kind of angry and didn´t want to really teach so he asked if I would. I ended up teaching the whole lesson and it went awesome. We are going back tuesday.

I did a split with one of the zone leaders 2 days ago and we contacted and talked and he told me at the end of the night that my spanish is good enough to be a trainer. I told him I am not even close, nor do I want to, but it was kind of uplifting.

Yesterday I got to go to our branch (cause we have a ward and a branch cause our area is 2 areas in one). It was an experience. Only 40 people came, it was all outside. It was pretty sweet, I liked it a lot. The people here are so nice and especially our Mission Leaders. This past week we have almost done a split every day. It was kind of hard the first time cause I didn´t know the area all that well, but it has gotten easier.

OH YA! so why I have that subject headline. Sorta self explanatory, but hear this. I left the MTC at 183 pounds. I checked the scale yesterday and after only 2 weeks here I am at 176 and that was in all my clothes with my shoes on. I have got to be 170 now. That is 13 lbs in one week. If you want to lose wait come here haha. But i was told by one of the missionaries here that most skinny guys lose weight then about half way through start gaining weight.

I was thoroughly happy the other day. We had to go to San Salvador for something and we went there and needed to get lunch while we were there and what did we end up getting? ¡Wendys! I was so excited it tasted so good! Everything here is so cheap. At the little tiendas everything is under a dollar. A bottle of soda is 30 cents, a bag of chips is 10 cents. Its sweet.

K I know what you need to send me... Candy. There is NO american candy here. One of the elders here got laffy taffys and ever since I have wanted some. I want laffy taffys, licorice, beef jerky, skittles, starbursts. IT is almost sad that they don´t have this stuff, but they do have other sweets that are good too.

Lets see what else. Just a lot of teaching. We have this investigator we will probably get a baptismal date with this week. He is this 60 year old man named francisco, really smart guy and really nice. He loves the book of mormon. It is cool.
OH so i got to listen to your message. It was AWESOME to hear all of you, it was a little bit long, but I really liked it. The freaking nephews are so stinking cute! i love them. OH and it is probably around Thanksgiving so happy thanksgiving! They don´t celebrate it here so It doesn´t really effect me.

Although everyone here has been putting up there christmas trees also. It has been wierd.

I also attached some pictures I thought you all would like. The pics are of me and my comp. My bathroom and how tiny it is, I actually have to duck for quite a few houses. Us in front of our ward house, our district, our house.

Well not much else. The culture shock is just about gone and that is nice. I am much more used to everything and my apartment is starting to feel more and more like home. Well I love you all and thank you all so much for the support. I love hearing about everything that is going on in your lives. Jof and kylie I can imagine your trip will be awesome, Hilz that is freaking awesome about your tv show, Kels i knew you would love the play and tell Alex and brad I say hi. Also you can give my email address to alex. I got permission from my Mission president to write other missionaries.

But I love you all so much and thank you. Love you mom and dad so much. I pray for everyone each night. I really do feel safe hear. Never thought I would think that, but I do and I want you all to know that. Talk to you next week.

Elder ¨Dano¨ Gillette



Monday, November 15, 2010

November 15th, 2010

Hey Family,

Holy smoke, I don´t know where to begin. This week has been utterly the craziest week of my life. Physically, Mentally, Emotionally. It feels like forever since I talked to you. This is a whole different world out here. Lets see I will just start from where we last talked. After we talked I boarded the plane, had a nice 5 hour flight down here (which was so cool!) you could see Belize and all its islands. We were all stolked. We got off the plane had to go through customs, talked to the lady in spanish for a bit. I was way cool.

My mission president was waiting for us there with his assistants. We boarded this ghetto bus and we were off. It isnt as humid as I thought it would be actually. We landed at around 7 at night. The drive to the mission home was about an hour and this place is NOT the US. the presidents house was really nice though. We had dinner there ate papusas and they were pretty good. Stayed the night at the assistants house. Woke up in the morning and had meetings till about 2. I got my comp, his name is Elder Bonilla and he is a native from El Salvador. We had meetings on what we can eat, stuff about money, and safety of course. We then went to buy groceries and after we got on the bus and the assistance were like seeya. I was like, "I guess we are going to our areas?" thinking it would only be about an hour or less. We ended up driving 5 hours! it was crazy. My eyes were wide open the whole time. I got to see pretty much the whole mission. I didn´t think the culture shock would get to me... but it is really different here. Tin houses everywhere. Dirt floors, there is no carpet anywhere, we have to wear shoes or atleast flip flops at all times. It is definitely a really poor country.

But now I have my area. It is two areas in one. Its called Trebol/Las Aradalas. I am like in the outer part of Santa Ana. It is a really good place though. The Members are so so increbly nice, well everyone is. We teach in tin houses all the time. I wish you could see our house. It is one of the nicest in the area, but you would never see something like in the US. Cold showers(which I really don´t mind, wakes me up haha), but we have a pretty cool view of the city.

The first day out proselyting went so great. A miracle happened. We went to a recent converts house and were talking to them. A white lady walked in and I was actually suprised to see a white person. We started talking to her and she was answering really slowly. Said she was married to one of the members and was baptist. She said she was from North Carolina and so I asked if it would be easier if we talked in english. She said ya so i talked to her. We talked about our beliefs and she was talking about how angry she has been lately. I read her some of my favorite scriptures and she started to ball. Said she didn´t have any order in her life. I taught her how to pray and asked that she would. She accepted. I gave her a book of mormon and she said she would read it. Asked if she prayed, read and knew it was true if she would get baptized and she said yes. I will be baptizing her on saturday!

We have taught her everyday I have been here and she is ready. She is like the Golden Investigator. We have taught a bunch of good people though. We have 5 progressing investigators. But yesterday we had church and only 3 showed up.

OH man church is so different here. Seriously everyone just gets up, walks out. Talks, the microphone sucks. It is crazy. But we have the coolest member ever. His name is Juan Carlos and he is the mission leader. He is like a 5 foot 6 stalky guy but is my favorite person. He is also our cook, he makes the best stuff ever. We pay him 20 dollars a week to make the best lunches ever. I am like eating better here, for lunch, better than at home.

It is really hard at times having a native comp. There definitely is a language barrier and we both come from two different worlds. We are really trying to work on patience.
I do really stick out here, I have already had a family ask to take a picture with me because I am so tall. It was pretty funny. But standing out really helps. Everyone here thinks the english language is so so interesting. It is a nice way to start conversations.

I have already gotten like a bigillion misquito bites all over my arms and stuff. and there are stray dogs everywhere.

As far as E-mail and mail. I would stick to email. I get to do it every monday. Mail is confusing and takes a while, But i only get to email family. so my friends I have to do mail. I do get a lot more time here though which is good.

Well sorry this letter was so long lots to tell. Ugh it has been difficult though not gonna lie. LIving in this different country is a struggle. The language hasn´t been a problem with me at all, I contact a lot of people and that is fun. This has probably been the hardest week of my life.

I love you all so much and thank you for all the support. Kels I hope the play is a blast. I think that your last show should be tonight. Break a leg! I can´t wait to hear from you all.

Sending love from El Salvador,
Elder Gillette

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Elder Dano Is In El Salvador

Daniel left yesterday morning for El Salvador. He called the family during his layover at the Dallas Airport. He is traveling with 3 other missionaries who are all going to his same mission. He said the first thing they did when they got to Dallas was run to McDonald's for a Big Mac. He said they got up that morning and left SLC around 5am. He was hoping to see snow before he left because it will be awhile. Sadly it didn't snow for him, but was snowing when we were talking to him.

They received a letter from their mission president a little while back telling them he would be waiting for them at the airport. He sounds just like he should sound excited, nervous, anxious, mature, positive...He's glad to be moving on to his final destination.

Here is the letter he sent last Friday:

Hey everybody,
So I got some news for you all. Today I went in to the travel office and one of the guys looked at me and said, "Elder Gillette, you have been really patient and have been great to work with about all your visa stuff. I know you really want to go, but sometimes things just don't work out. But your going to El Salvador on monday". I freaked out. I just went up and gave him a hug. I am so excited. I decided to E-mail til I knew for sure what was going on. I am so stinking excited though! I am going to a whole different country in 3 days!!! I will be able to call around 11 I think it was so make sure you keep your phones on you on monday. I will probably just call like mom or the home phone and then dad. So if you want to talk to me let them know or be there!

Well that is my really big news. Lets see this week though has been crazy. We just teach and have no classes. Me and my comp went and talked to some native speakers from Mexico all in spanish for 2 hours then taught them. it was awesome and they said they were impressed with our spanish. We will see how I do in El Salvador.

It was awesome this week. We had M. Russel Ballard come and speak to us on tuesday. that is 3 apostles in a row. It was so amazing. All about communication. I absolutely loved it.

We are making a fort tonight in our room to celebrate our 8 and a half weeks done. We are gonna eat all of our food and junk. Probably won't feel to good in the morning, but the Orange Juice will do that to you anyways. I will send my memory card home this week so you can see all my MTC adventures. It has been a blast.

I have started doing a thing this week which has been a lot of fun. When Russel M. Nelson came and talked to us he talked about how we need to get to know Christ. So he told us to go to the Topical Guide and read all the things under Christ. I bought a Journal this week and started doing that and it has been amazing. I just go through and I am just in the summary right now but it is a blast. I just write down a summary of what the passage is about and my thoughts. It is actually really fun.

But I love everyone letters and I am trying to write, but this week i have been so busy. So I don't think I will get any letters for a while outside of email cause now they will have to be sent to El Salvador.

I did start packing up though which is lucky so I don't have to pack up as much, but that is where I am headed after this. But I love you all and thank you for all the support over the past couple months. Keep praying for me cause I know these next couple weeks are the times when I will need them the most. I will talk to you over the phone though in a couple days which is exciting! And mom I hope you sent my drivers license cause I think I may need that haha. Well talk to you soon and sorry this letter is so out of order and random. That is how my mind is right now haha.

Love ya all!

Friday, October 29, 2010

October 29th, 2010

Hey fam,

So this week was a pretty sweet week. I liked it a lot better than last week although you could say last week was a good "humbling" experience. Everyone in my district has started to realize we have not left like a mile radius a lot lately. Like our sense of humor I think is getting a lot worse haha. But it has been fun. This past week has been our last week of classes, cause next week we just teach a lot.

I recieved my travel plans yesterday which was super exciting! but before anybody gets excited about me going anywhere they said it probably will mean nothing and I will stay here. But whether or not they get my visa in the next week will decide. There is a small chance I will leave monday the 8th of november at 8:35. It is just the 4 elders in my district who are going to El Salvador which is crazy because most have like 20 in there groups. I will get into dallas at 12 their time, so like 11 ours. And if this all happens I will be there till about 2 and will be able to call you within that time. We are being really hopeful right now that everything will work out and I really hope it does. I just know it is out of my hands. It is really wierd cause we are the next ones to go in our district.

But everything is going good. It is cool cause our last 2 devotionals have been apostles. The first was Russel M. Nelson and his was super short, but really good. He talked about listening to the spirit. Next was Richard G. Scott and his was a power house. He made this sheet of all the things he has learned as an apostle and gave them out to everyone. He talked about a whole bunch of stuff. I made copies of the paper and am gonna send some home so you can see. That night it snowed and we took pictures and it was like the best night. We were all in such great moods and I ended up going around and passing out my Utah truffles to everyone. I had only eaten like 3 while being here and thought everyone would like one. They all came back and asked who they need to write to get more haha. It was cool.

We taught this past week the plan of salvation and word of wisdom in spanish. It was super fun. Spanish is getting a lot easier. We now speak only spanish all day. We have learned all the grammar principles and are just trying to get it down. Memorizing vocab and all of that has been getting easier and now I can read most everything in El Libro de Mormon which is so cool.

Sounds like everything is going great at home though. Thank you mom for that package, everyone wanted some dill pickle chips. Thank you also mom for getting in my visa. I was really really excited to hear that. Now it is in the lords hands.
Dad I have read tom sawyer before and loved it. Krick isn't that one of your favorite books also. it was a good book. Yes I am not DL anymore and I am loving not being it. It was fun but I like it not being it also. I have been just reading. I am just starting mosiah which I love.

PS it is really funny to be reading then turn the page and someone has written on the side or there are some letter circled with a number. I haven't gotten the time to figure out what the encoded message is yet, but I want to.

But everything is going pretty smoothly. Not any cool stories cause it is pretty much always the same here at the MTC. not to much change. I hopefully will write a couple letters today. It is good to hear from you all and I wish I could write everyone back seperately but it is definitely hard. Just know I read them and think about what I want to write you. Then get on email and see that I don't have much time and forget everything haha.

Well once again love you all and talk to you next week. Hopefully with good news.

Elder Gillette

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

October 22, 2010

Hey Family,

Sorry but I have had a hard time getting letters out to everyone with
the little time I have had. So I am writing one big one and you can
send it to others.

Dad- Sounds like everything went smooth with the camping trip which is
awesome. Basil sounds like he had a great time and that is good. Sorry
about the Cougs though. I don't think my jags are doing to hot right
now either. It is a good time for me to be out here haha.

Family- Well this week was a little more difficult. As the time goes
on the more I get excited to get out to the field and really have an
effect on peoples lives. I get my flight plans next week which is
gonna be like christmas. But on monday I got called to the travel
office and they told me my police clearance letter was rejected,
because I had P. in my middle name instead of the whole name. It was a
real set back. I was pretty down all day. They told me their are two
options. 1 is that I will get reassigned somewhere if they think the
visa will take over a month. 2 they will keep me here till my visa
comes if it is under 3 weeks. Which I think I would prefer getting out
of here. 9 weeks is definitely enough.

But my teacher told me something that really helped. That God only
gives us trials when He knows we can take it. It really helped me get
a better prospective on everything. Later that night we were reading
stuff on how the Holy Ghost helps us. For some reason that whole day I
kept thinking about the time about 2 weeks before i left and we were
camping with debbies family and I went out for a sec and decided out
their that I was going to put everything I can into this mission.
Then, in my class we read D&C 6: its somewhere like 20-24. somewhere
in there and it talks about how god talks to you. It was pretty
awesome.

Other than that not much. The usual routine of the MTC. Having fun
with my District, well some of them. My comp is the best and more so
is my family. Thank you for all the support and I can't wait till I am
in the field and get to share great stories for everyone. Love you all
and talk to you next week. Hopefully with better news. Don't get me
wrong here though I am still having a blast and learning a ton.

Well love you all and talk to you later.

Elder Gillette

Monday, September 27, 2010

September 24th, 2010

Mom,
Your Buster Brown is doing good. Definitely some up and downs this week, like every, but none the less at the end I feel good. Sounds like everything is going great over there.

I heard that steves farewell was great. I am glad to hear that.

I am glad everyone is liking my letters, cause I love getting everyones.

Hope you enjoy that picture i love my district they really are a good group of guys.

i have the coolest story I am gonna send you in a letter that you will love I don't have enough time to write it in email

We started teaching the second lesson yesterday and it is on the plan of salvation. It has made a lot of really interesting and deep conversations come up that really excited me and make my testimony grow.

Spanish is going I guess. Not much new just trying to get the vocab down and more so the grammar. It is different than english, but you can see the gift of tongues really happening here.

I could careless about the Lions right now, just like before my mission. oh but one of the people in my district, the small guy on the very right of that picture, has a Jaguars shirt. He is like my favorite.

Well love you a lot and talk to you soon.
Elder Gillette

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

September 17th, 2010

Sorry, I am a little behind. I am posting Daniel's letters from September 11 and 17th. The September17th letter starts off with Dano referencing an email from my mom in which she asks if he minds hearing about what's going on in the NFL (since our family are all big fans!)

=====================
Haha I don't care if you talk about it. I was talking to some elders yesterday and they informed me the jaguars won the other day. I was so excited. My companion was laughing cause on my wall i have a picture of kelsy, ozzy and a jaguars helmet. He was like, you can really see your priorities haha. I was thinking its true. Well i hope you got my last letter cause the email time ran out right after I sent it so I never knew if you got it. I don't have much time left today also.

It has been fun writing everyone. Joff was right, or kirstin, that you do feel really close to your family even though you might no see them. I still feel all your love and prayers. Me and my companion lately have started only talking in spanish for all of our meal and it has been fun but kind of hard. We are doing really well with the language.

It was cool having new people come in wednesday. Made me feel like an MTC veteran haha. I actually saw Tyler Yaggi today. He seems to be doing good. Well I got to go but you will hear from me soon. Love ya,

Elder Daniel Gillette

September 11th, 2010

Hey madre,

Its my P-day so I thought I would write. I don't have to much time, but thought you would want to know how the past like 2 or 3 days have gone since I last wrote. We just got done playing some intense 4 square actually haha. But everything around here has gotten easier. The spanish is coming to all of us quickly and we have already gotten down most of the first lesson and we do it to an "investigator" on monday. We actually did it today to some missionaries who have been here only a week longer than us and they are so far ahead of us. It made us realize how much you learn everyday. We have been making the most of our time and tried everything we can to become better spanish speakers. It has been fun.

Elder Koller has been fun to work with and we get along great. We both know how much we both wanna learn the language and bring people to the gospel. We worked really hard yesterday when we had a 4 hour break to try and get down contacting people in spanish and giving them a message then on our discussion.

I was also going to tell you that the other day I went to my branch presidency meeting and they talked to us for a bit and then our zone leaders did. Then our branch president, President Lloyd, interviewed us all. He asked me about my family and what I like to do. Then he asked me to bear my testimony. I thought it all went really well. He came out after he interviewed everyone and called me back in and asked me to be the district leader. I was quite suprised. I was nervous that I wouldn't be a good enough example for the others or be able to handle everything, but I just felt to accept it. I am really excited now though. I will go in for training on sunday and am excited cause I already love my district. They are such good guys and are very different. It definitely has already made me into a better person for sure.

Say thank you to the family and tell them to write me letters with their address cause I will write hand letters to them. But I love you all and I really feel the support.

Love your son and elder,
Elder Gillette

Monday, September 13, 2010

Friday, September 10, 2010

1st Letter

Hey mom it's your elder!

They were suppose to let me write last night, but the computers were slow and they had to get 500 missionaries through. It was a crazy day. You dropped me off and my friend derek egan was there when I turned around and it was good to see a friendly face. I went and got my name tag and all. We did an investigator simulation thing which was really cool and also had some speakers speak like the MTC president. I totally was dozing off the whole time and I think I got caught by the presidents wife haha. My companions name is Elder Koller and he is a really cool guy. He is from Payson and has just been fun. We are actually like the missionaries in your ward and have 3. Elder Steele is also one of our companions too. He will only be ours for about 3 weeks cause he will go to the Guatemala MTC. It was nice unpacking and meeting our zone leaders who seem really nice.

I thought for a second I couldn't do 9 weeks of being in here. But I woke up today and felt so good. I really believe I can do this. Today has been so much easier and they say get through sunday and you will be fine. Today we have been learning a lot of spanish. We learned to say prayers in spanish and bare our testimonies. Our teachers are really nice and I actually got to class like and hour early yesterday so i got to just get to know them. But everyone here is really nice and I am excited to get done with the next 9 weeks I have here. They expect me to leave on november 8th. The food here is surprisingly good and it's all you can eat. I am gonna gain so much weight.

I have talked to a couple people who know missionaries in El Salvador and Belize. They say you are lucky to go to belize cause only like 20 missionaries do at a time and it's about a 3 day drive. I also heard the west side of belize is much better. The east got hit more by the civil war, but I heard that from nathaniel oswald who I saw today and works here.

I got here and realized I forgot a couple things. Could you send me my jazz shirt or dr. pepper one and a pair of white socks. I bought everything else I need, but I can't really buy those.

Well I need to go to class, but Se' que la inglesia es verdadera. Se' gue Jesucriso es un salvador y Thomas S. Monson es un profeta y es un solamente profeta verdara. Se' este cosas porque ode' y la espiritu dice me es verdad. I said I know this church is true. I know that Jesus Christ is our savior and Thomas S. Monson is a prophet and is the only true prophet and I know these things because I read the scriptures and the spirit has told me it's truth. I love you mom and thanks for all the support. Tell the family I love them and I miss them and couldn't read there letters last night or i probably would've shed a tear.

Your son and missionary.
Elder Gillette

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

See you in 730 days, give or take.

Elder Gillette got off around 12:05 pm. Here he is taking his last drive, to the MTC, with the parentals. As the vehicles pulled away the siblings chased after the car with smudged makeup and tear stained shirts. We are all going to miss Dano!!!

Once at the MTC he was greeted by a long line of missionary hostesses, grinning ear to ear, welcoming him into the fold. In the haste of all the greeting he didn't even look back. Good for him!

Start sending him your letters. I'll keep his address current in the top right corner of this website. If you get pictures or letters for Elder G and want to share with the group, please send them to kristin(.)g(.)wells(at)gmail(.)com.

Peace and blessings.