November 29, 2011: Templo con Zona

Hola Familia,

Wow, it feels super weird to be writing on a tuesday. I have been writing so long on monday that yesterday when we would usually write, but didn´t, it felt super super weird. There is reason to why I didn´t write. It isn´t that I forgot or anything. Today we were allowed to go to the temple as a zone. So our p-day got changed so that it was today and so we went to the temple in the morning and came back to Santa ana and we are writing now.


We this past week went really well. We worked super hard and we got a lot done. I really felt at the end we did all that we possibly could. We were teaching really great too. We had made plans one day to go with the President of the Relief Society and the Young womens to some families. Then they both brougth there husbands which was awesome. Then the Leader of the High Priests called me and asked if he could go too. It was awesome cause there was 9 of us going around visiting all these families the whole afternoon. We got in some great lessons and the best part is that 4 of the investigators that we visited came to church and a whole family of inactives. It was super sweet.

OH YEAH! HAPPY THANKSGIVING! that went by super quick. Here of course they do not celebrate thanksgiving, but they all know about it. We actually had a whole mission thing for thanksgiving though. President got 3 zones together and we had a little training thing thursday afternoon and then had a turkey dinner at night. It was the first time I have eaten mashpotatoes in so long and they were so so good. I forgot how great thanksgiving really is.

It is crazy that already one transfer has gone by. It has been really fun and really rewarding, but it has definitely been challenging. I really get along with my comp, but he doesn´t have very much time in the mission and doesn´t really enforce the rules at all. So it is a little hard to keep everyone in line by yourself. The zone is a ton of fun. I really love the guys and it is such a diverse zone. We have missionaries from Utah, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Honduras, Argentina and Idaho haha. It is a lot of fun. There are 16 Elders and 2 sisters.

Just to answer dads question. I am definitely used to the food. Everyone here eats eggs, beans and rice mix, cream and bread for just about every meal, but I have grown to absolutely love it. We eat it for breakfast every morning haha and I thought that beans for breakfast in the begining of my mission was nasty. NOW I LOVE IT haha.

Well I love you all. I am excited for another great week in the mission, but I am not sure if I am ready to start december. I little to quick I say. IT really blows my mind. I do love you all and have a great christmas time. I hope that Black friday was sweet. I actually think I missed black friday more than thanksgiving haha.

Have a great week!!!

Elder Gillette

November 21, 2011: Super Rapido

Hola Familia,


Wow, I can't believe how fast time really is flying by. We are already ending another transfer. I will be staying here with Elder Hobbs again. We will both be here for christmas which is like the biggest blessing ever. We were praying that we could stay together. Although we have our upsets every once in a while. I feel like I am serving with one of my best friends. So it will be another fun change. What is crazy to me is that I will be starting my tenth transfer. Sounds like so many especially because there are only 16 in the mission. Time really does fly by.

This week was a lot of fun. We have started really finding some great and ready people. Just families keep on popping up for us to teach and it has been such a blessing. This week we have been teaching this lady named Angela and she took the lessons like a year and a half ago and something happened and she never wanted to go to church again. We started teaching her and we taught a great lesson about the Book of Mormon and really how it blesses our lives and she said she would start reading it every night. She did that for 2 weeks and finally said that she would come to church and it totally surprised us. Yesterday she went to church with us and it was really awesome. All the members were so awesome and they all said hi to her. She really liked it and said she will go next week.

I really can't remember what else we did this week. We started going to another part of our area that is super far away. We talked to a family and the dad was super positive. Then we asked how many kids he had and he had 13. I was super surprised. The best part is that one of his kids is named "Botella" which means "Bottle". There's a new baby name for Joff haha.

So really not much happened this week I feel. We just worked and had a lot of fun, but nothing super out of the ordinary. I can´t believe this week is thanksgiving. We are going to do something as a mission, but here in El Salvador they know of this holiday, but they do not celebrate it.

Oh and mom, there is this lady who wants to cook american food. So she asked me what I really miss from home and I told her French dip. She said if you send me the recipe she will make it for me. That would be so amazing if you could send me that recipe. I am dying for some great french dip. It is funny though to think about all the random food I don´t get to eat anymore. Here there are no tacos, burritos, or nachos. There is like pizza hut and burger huts, but it is not nearly as good as the states though. They do have pupusas though. haha.

Well that is just about all I got to write this week. I love you all and I didn´t get to hear this recording you sent me, but I will after I write this. I love you all and have a grea week and enjoy the snow for me!


Elder Gillette

November 14, 2011: Ya quieremos pastel!

Hola Familia,

Wow this was a filled week. We really passed just hanging out with the members it felt like, but looking back at the week we did a ton. Lets start out with the mission stuff that happened this week.

One of my recent converts, Ricardo, gave us a reference this week of his friend Gerardo and he is super positive. He had some awesome questions for us and he came to church this week. He originally wasn't going to go, but we caught him as we were going to go to church and he was like why not. So he joined us the first hour.

Like I talked about also the past week that we were going to have 2 baptisms this week and they went super well. One of the people called us Wednesday and told us that they couldn't do it on the original day of Saturday and that they wanted to do it the very next day. So we had to get everything ready super fast. Not very many people showed up, but the whole family came and brought friends which was awesome and it was really spiritual. The other baptism was done the original day and went really well also. We had a ton of members come which was sweet.

So this week was my comp (Elder Hobbs) b-day. So this ward is so amazing and they invited us over to eat cake and dinner like 5 times. I really feel like I am in a ward in Utah. Everyone is willing to give food, or service, or whatever and it is just amazing. I am thoroughly enjoying it.

The first house we went to we ate the best chocolate cake I have eaten in my whole time here in El Salvador. Nothing here comes in comparison with the Sweet Tooth Fairy, but it was still really good.

We went to eat right after and the family was so awesome. They feel like family and it was a lot of fun. We all got around to take a picture and right before they took the picture I decided to shove the face of my comp in the cake. As I shoved with one of my hands he was like resisting and I put my other hand on and gave him a huge shove into the cake and the cake was splattered. It was so Hilarious. we all busted up laughing and we took the picture and I sent that one to you all. It was so much fun. He had like fruit and everything on his face. He went to wash his face off and he came back and we were all eating. We all had our piece of cake and we went to take another pic just me and him and he slammed his cake in my face. He got me super good and then I got the dad of the fam a little. It was a lot of fun and this fam is really awesome. I sent the picture of the whole fam.

Then we went over for one last one with this awesome family that does a ton for us. The kid is 18 and his name is Jairo and he comes to teach with us everyday. So we are super tight with them. We went over and we went to take another picture with the fam and the cake and Elder Hobbs was like, hey don't push my head into the cake. I was like ok. Right before we took the picture Jairo slammed his face in the cake. It was awesome.

Really it was quite a fun week and I am excited for more. I really like this area.

Krick that is my address for the mission. and Dad there are 18 zone leaders so not all of them are there and there are about 190 missionaries. The mission office is in a stake center. There is like a side part for the offices.

Well got to go. Love you all.

Hasta pronto,

Elder Gillette

November 7, 2011: Templo!!!

HOLA FAMILIA!

Wow, this week was a wonderful week. Last week was one of the hardest of my life, but this week I saw how much hard work pays off.

This week we did an activity with the zone and we played soccer against another zone and it was a lot of fun. I sent a picture of the zone. It is a really fun zone. After we got done and we got all ready to work on Monday and we left and taught a lesson and in the middle of the lesson I received a call from president cordon and he told me to get everything ready cause we were going to go through the temple the next day. So we finished the lesson and started running around to find clean white pants and get white socks and all. We were super excited though cause I haven´t gone to the temple in about one year and it is a brand new temple so I was so super excited. We got everything all ready and the next morning we had to be up at 4:30 in the morning and be out soon after. It was so sweet. Only the zone leaders got to go and so I got super lucky on that. But it was a lot of fun to just go and relax and enjoy. It was awesome cause the session was in Spanish and the gospel to me has just a higher meaning to me now in Spanish. I really don´t know if I could preach in English or anything. I would be disabled haha.

Tuesday was a super awesome day. Then on Wednesday I received a different call about how I needed to go back to san Salvador the next day, because I have been here a year and so I had to get my immigration papers renewed. It was so crazy cause I saw the three other missionaries that I came with from the MTC and it is crazy how everything has changed so much. IT is a lot of fun though.

In our area we are having a ton of success. We figured out how to get new investigators through the members. We have been contacting a lot of old investigators and we have received a ton of references. We are teaching this 18 year old kid named Samuel and he is sweet. He is an awesome guy and he went to the young single adults activity last week and loved it. He will be getting baptized this month.

The guy who got baptized this past week (Ricardo) has been awesome lately. He brought some of his friends to the activities this week and they loved it and he invited us to his house to teach them and we had some awesome lessons. We have been super blessed by the members we have had lately.

We worked with all we could this week and we were set to have like 15 investigators come to church. Then Sunday morning came and all of the sudden nobody could go. We were super bummed and it was pretty hard. We got to church empty handed and that always feels pretty sucky, especially after working so hard all week. We were sitting and all of the sudden this family we have been teaching walked in and right after a part family where the dad isn't a member came in also. It was awesome.

We also had 2 little miracles where 2 kids who aren't baptized came up to us and told us they want to be baptized this next weekend. I was so surprised. Just people came TO us and wanted to talk to us. It was awesome.

Well the pictures of Halloween are just awesome. I love love LOVE the costumes. The costume of Kc definitely wins. It is so awesome. It looked like a lot of fun.

So I was trying to figure out this week what it is that I need for Christmas. I thought of socks, I need a one new belt cause the 2 that I came with are just torn. I could use a good pen maybe. Ties are always sweet. Pringles I miss actually and zingers too. The dill pickle sunflower seeds are great too. Other than that whatever you send me I know that I will be super happy with anything haha.

I love you all and take care. I hope you like the photos too. Talk to  you all next week.