February 14, 2011

¡Hola Familia!

Sí, es un otra Día de amor y amistad ya. Valentines day in spanish is Día de amor y amistad (which translates to day of love and friendship). But I have been joking around with everyone this past week saying it will be Día de amor y deprimidas (which translates to day of love and depressed people) haha. I joke around cause my comp is all hung up over his girlfriend in argentina. Really today is a normal day. I didn't remember today was valentine´s day til I got your letters though.

But this week was another crazy week, definitely better than last week though which is good. We found a lot of really nice and ready people and I am excited to teach all of them. We have been really working on listening to the investigators to really help them with there needs. I want to talk about one lesson in specific. It is the mom of the 3 girls we baptized in the last month. We are working so hard with her so the whole family can be together in the church.

We went over to there tin house one day and were joking around and making tortillas (which I don't know if i have already told you but I have become pretty pro at making tortillas and pupusas. Everyone thinks it is the biggest crack up cause I will always ask to help tortilla and they don't believe I can do it 1) cause I am a guy 2) cause I am a gringo. But I always do it and they are looking better and better and they are always surprised. It is a great way to get to know people quick and get comfortable). So we did all of that and started to share a lesson and we started to talk about the spirit and how you can know if it is really talking to you. We asked her how she feel when she prays and she said like happy and peaceful. We shared a scripture in Galatás ( i believe it is called Galatians in English) 5:22-23 and how the fruits of the spirit or how you know is through these feelings.

I told her how I knew when I was like 14 years old this was true, because one time (when we were living in the pool house on Royal Lane) I read the Book of Mormon and after I decided to pray, like for reals. Really ask God what was going on and if Joseph Smith really was a prophet. Cause I remember thinking how I was his age and if he could know so could I. I remember praying and feeling an intense chill through my body (un escalofrío en español, which i really like that word). She immediately after I said that was like, "that is exactly what i felt, a chill", We talked about how that really is an answer that all of this is true. We asked her to be baptized the 26 of February and she accepted. All of her daughters were like so excited. They are my favorite people.

That is one thing that happened. Yesterday we had some investigators come to church. one is named Benjamin. He had a date to get baptized. Everything was going good til we passed by later that day and like 10 people were gathered around his little tin house. We were like, "what is going on?" next thing we see is Benjamin way drunk. We went over to help and I ended up having to restrain him from hitting his wife or anyone else. He had fallen a lot and was bleeding too. It was a sad thing to see this man who had gotten so far and who had just fallen. He realized who we were after a little and started to talk to us. He was saying how he wants nothing more than to live with his family in heaven after this life. We talked to him a bit and helped settle him down. It was a crazy hour and a half. We are going to go back tuesday to help him out and I hope he is better.

Not too much more crazy stories. This week was crazy fast. I feel like i just wrote you all yesterday. PS I have a new addiction here. I have never really like to many cookies or sweets all that much, but in the past like 3 weeks i have developed an intense love for OREOs. I never liked them before the mission, but they are like my favorite thing. I eat them all the time. So good.

Crazy, I am in shock and amazed and thank you mother for telling me the news that Jerry Sloan isn't the coach anymore. That is like life changing. I can't even picture the Jazz without him. I am kind of mad at my friends that none of them told me about it. That is crazy though.

Let's see other than that I don't think I have any more news. I hope the trip went smoothly for Kristin and Randy. Sounds like all the kids were a blast this weekend and I loved the recording. They all can talk really well and sound out words. When I left they couldn't really say the words perfectly yet, but they all sound really good. Love you all and have a really great week and I will talk to you all really soon!

Elder (Daniel) Gillette