June 27, 2011: LA BODA

¡HELLO MI FAMILY!

Wow, this week was so extremely fast, but we did so stinking much. We worked so hard, but in the end saw the fruits of our labors. It took a lot though and we got super soaked throughout the week.

So we started out trying to get stuff ready for the wedding we were going to have this past week. We had to get the Birth Certificates and we had to get the witnesses and a whole bunch of stuff and also we promised them we would make a cake. The problem with the birth certificate is that the dad lived and was born in La Paz on the other side of the country. So we called some members and finally found a lady who said she would take 4 hours of buses to get to this place and get the certificate for us. SUPER NICE of her. We ended up getting the birth certificates actually pretty easy and after just had to get some copies of documents and the lawyer. The night before the wedding it rained super hard ALL day. That night we went to get some papers from the witnesses and they weren't there. We searched for them in this rain for 2 hours and finally found the girl who was going to be the witness and she told us that her husband (the other witness) was in San Salvador and wasn't going to come back. She told us this at 8 at night and so we had like an hour to find new witnesses. We finally found a nice couple who are Recent Converts to do it for us and we got the papers to the lawyer in time. It was crazy though with all the rain and stuff.

The next day we went to go get the keys to open the chapel so we could get everything ready for the wedding. We went to the Bishops house to get the keys and he told us he gave them to the secretary. We then went to the secretaries house and he wasn't there. After an hour of searching for him(Because only the bishop has keys to the chapel) finally we found out that he was also in San Salvador and not going to be back that day. So We didn't know what to do to get into the chapel. Finally we remembered that their are two wards that meet in our chapel and we called up the other bishop and got the keys from him.

We ended up making cookies and a cake for them (I am sending a picture of them with the cake).

Everyone started to come at like 4:30 (Which is really surprising cause in Latin America Everyone is late for stuff and the wedding didn't start til 6). Rosa and Victor, who were going to get married, came at like 5 and Josùe, the other kid who was going to get baptized after, didn't show. We left to go and get him and we found him walking. We stopped and talked to him and he told us a whole bunch of lies. Sucked and he ended up not getting baptized.

The good thing is that a TON of people showed up for the baptism. Victor and Rosa invited there family and friends and a lot of members showed up also. It was awesome. The wedding took about an hour and the lawyer was super crazy. He talked about the weirdest stuff and was trying to give advice about how to take care of your money and how to take care of your kids and how it is a good thing to kiss. He was a super weirdo. In the end usually the lawyers will say that it is time to kiss the bride kind of thing. This lawyer (when I thought he was going to say to kiss the bride) he instead asked for a hug from both of them and wanted to take a picture too. Weird guy haha.

After we had the baptism of Rosa and it went super well. Victor will soon get baptized too. We stopped by there house Saturday, the day after the wedding, and he said he took the first step (Marriage) and that soon he wants to take the next step, Baptism. They are super sweet and they have a lot of friends to who are interested.

Yesterday in the morning it rained a TON. Our church is at 8 in the morning so a lot of people didn't show up because most have to walk and they don´t want to walk in the rain. We did have 3 investigators come to church and they are all super positive. Right after church we talked to one (Giovanni, who I have talked about before) by the baptismal font. It was a super good lesson and we put a baptismal date with him for the fifth of July after we go to the temple. So that day will be an awesome day.

At 6 we went to the house of the bishop and taught his friend (Alicia) and she has gone to church twice now and with the help of the bishop and the spirit we put a date with her too for the ninth. She is secure and is really excited.

We have been having such crazy things happen to us lately. Wednesday after our district meeting we went back to our house and unloaded our stuff and sat for a second before we left to work. All of the sudden we got a knock on our door and we were kind of confused, because at that hour all the members or the people who know us know that we aren't in the house at that time. But we asked who it was and it was this Less Active member. We opened the door and she was with her boyfriend and the first thing the boyfriend said was "I want to get baptized". We were like super stunned and kind of like "What did you just say?" We talked a little more and the guy is from Mexico and really likes the church. So we will try and work with him so more in the upcoming weeks.

So mom, you have got to learn in your letters that you always have great like headlines and then NEVER explain them. One week it said "MAVS WIN". I didn't know if she meant Mavs won the whole thing or just the game you had been watching. You never explained it. This week it said "Jimmer Goes to Sacramento", I take it Jimmer Fredette went to the Sacramento kings, but please mom explain a little more. Like what pick. All you give is teasers.

Kylie I love the pictures of Story. She is so cute. I love that she is smiling now.

Sounds like fathers day went well as usual. There is a guy here that lived in the US and knows how to make hamburgers and sloppy joes. I want a real American hamburger so bad. We are going to do them for the 4th of July.

Other than this there is not much more which happened. The wedding took up the whole week and was really frustrating at the time cause everyone came to me complaining about something or asking for something. In the end It turned out well. But I have no more time, I love you all and will talk to you next week.

Elder Gillette

June 13, 2011: Blood Drive

Hola Familia!

Hello everyone, How is everyone doing up in Utah. I hope it isn't as hot up there as it is here. It is terrible. Everyday we are sweating so stinking much. It is terrible, but the good part is in the night is rains and makes it nice and cool. So that is the bonus. This week though in all actually was a little bit longer. Only because I feel like I did so much. Every day we did something different.

I thought I would start out saying that I am changing missions. Well our mission changed and so did the mission address. We no longer have San Salvador and a couple other cities which kind of sucks. But here is the new address* just in case you all want to send mail or anything. SO if you want to send something send it to this and NOT the old one

*(Note: If you would like Dano's new address, leave a comment with your email address and I will email you his new address)

So we started out this week going to Tazumal. It was so stinking cool. Dad, if we ever come back to El Salvador after the mission you would absolutely love it so much. It is pretty big, but everyone tells me that in Guatemala there are bigger ones. We weren't able to climb up the tallest part, but we got to go to some pretty cool places. We spent all day there and it was a lot of fun. I am sending a lot of pictures and it pretty much explains the whole day. From what I remember Tazumal was created in like 300 ac. I sent a picture of this picture that they had from when they first found Tazumal. It just looks like a mount of dirt. It is sweet to see how it changed. We had a great time and after we went to the little shops outside and I bought a couple cool things there. It is sweet to really see the culture here. the only thing that does suck is that everyone sees that I am a gringo and tries to sell stuff for some way expensive price. Like I wanted to buy the money that they used here in El Salvador (Colòn) and she wanted to sell me a 10 cent piece for 3 dollars. I was like whatever. You can sometimes find those around.

We did get to climb on some of the parts of the ruins and they were sweet. All of us gringos decided to take a Splash Mountain photo on the ruins.

We also had our changes this week. Our zone didn't change barely at all. The best part was that Elder Stone came here to Ahuachapan. So it was good to see him again.

This Saturday we got a call at 6 in the morning that our stake here was going to do a blood drive. So we went there all day to contact the people who came. They ended up asking me and another Elder to dress up in these blood drop outfits and it was so stinking hilarious. I wish I would have brought my camera, but I forgot it. We got to go out on the street and invite all the people to donate blood.

Lets see other than that we have just been working a lot. This family we have been teaching (Victor and Rosa) are now thinking they are going to split up which is super sad, but Victor has started drinking again and now doesn't want Rosa to go to church. They aren't married, but she told us yesterday that she is leaving him so she can get baptized. She really wants to follow Christ and it is super hard for her right now. Her dad died like 4 years ago and now her mom is just about to die. She is 20 years old and has a 6 year old kid. This girl needs prayers,but she is super powerful and loves church.

We are teaching another guy Kevin. he came to church yesterday also and he is doing really good. He is in love with this member and he will probably get baptized this next weekend.

Other than these people that is about it. We have a couple other great people, but we will see how they progress.

OH and so this week I was talking to this member that lives here and he was telling me how he makes things of leather. So I was asking what he can make. He told me like wallets and scripture covers. So I bought a wallet and it is the COOLEST thing I have ever ever seen in my life. I sent a picture so you could all see it wonderfulness. If any of you want one just let me know.

So other than this I think that just about does my week in a short summary. I kind of have to hurry cause everyone wants to go play soccer and I still have to write president. But I love you all and I can´t even believe how old Asher looks. I saw the picture of him at the pool and the baseball game and I can't even believe it. Basil too.

Oh and congrats to Boyd and passing that test. I remember him talking about all that stuff like years ago. That is a sweet accomplishment.

One of my good friends in my zone is from Columbia and I told him Jake is going to Cali and he said it is the best part of Columbia. His mission has like the sweetest parts, but tells him to watch out cause the girls there are really pretty haha.

Well I got to go, but I will talk to you all next week and I always pray for you all and love you. The temple open house is in less than a month CRAZY! Love you all!

Elder Gillette

June 6, 2011: ¡lo Logramos!

hola familia,

Well another week down in the mission field. How crazy right? This week was a lot of fun, but now... I can't even remember what I did. I know that I did stuff, but I don`t remember exactly what I did. Well first off I should start off by saying that last week when I wrote we had 21 baptisms in my zone and we ended up at the end of march with 24. So this was a pretty good month. We beat the record of Ahuachapan and the best part is that a lot of the baptisms were families. Which baptizing a family is like the best feeling ever, cause it is a lot harder for a family to go inactive as someone alone. So tomorrow we are going to go to a historic site here in Ahuachapan called Tazumal. I am excited to finally see my first like stuff from the Mayas. So next week I will be sure to send some sweet pictures from over there.

Let's see. We also got news today of Transfers. Ya if you all can believe it it is already transfers again. They all go so fast. Looks like I will be staying here another 6 weeks with Elder Romero. So that is really sweet. We have a lot to do in this area and I am excited to have more time here, because last transfer when I left after only 6 weeks it was a total bummer. So this should be fun.

Everyone here though is starting to get ready for the temple. It will be doing its Open House starting July first til July 23. That is less than a month away til it starts. So we have to invite EVERYONE to this. So that is super exciting. We got news this week that our ward will have like 4 hours to itself for the temple and that we are going to have to fill some buses. But the crazy thing is is that they told our ward that we have to fill 5 buses! which the buses here are pretty big and that means if you do the math that our ward has to bring 550 people! K, our ward has usually around 100 people. We have to start inviting EVERYONE in order to fill these buses. this will probably be a crazy month trying to fill all these buses. It will be fun though in the end and a great experience for those who go to the temple. What we figure is that every member needs to bring 5 friends. IF every member does that then we will fill all the buses. So let's all pray.

This week though we started trying to visit more of the members to get them excited for the temple and try and get some references from them. We usually only just left with a handful of mangoes, but a couple people gave us references and so that was good. We went one day this week with this lady who knows everybody in our area. She showed us the houses of like 20 Inactive members. So we will have to go check that out and see how they are doing.

This week we decided to have a little bit of fun in our house again this week and we decided to have a fire and cook marshmallows and hot dogs. It was a lot of fun. We have like an entrance to our house which is like a drive way, but it is gated in and big. So we did it out there. It was a lot of fun and it felt good to eat hot dogs again.

We have right now a couple people that are progressing. One is a 19 year old guy who thinks he is in love with a member and is going to ask the girls parents to marry her this week. So that will be interesting. Our other family is having a lot of troubles right now so that kind of scares me.

But sorry I don´t have more time cause we are going to Santa Ana today to eat with President. SWEET! So I will talk to you all next week. Love you all.

Elder Gillette