Monday, May 28, 2012

May 28, 2012: El Road Show

Hola Familia,

Wow, I don't really even know where to begin. I would like to say I am just happy to hear that Kristin is alright. I started reading moms poem and I was completely confused as to what was going on. I finally got it by the end and the second letter helped to understand. That is crazy what happened. I hope that Kristin can keep on doing better and will just rest. It is totally like Kristin to just try and go to the doctors by herself. I always saw her as a very independent person. It is also very cool to be over here talking and preaching so much about the priesthood and see and hear and live experiences of the power that there actually is. I have always thought Jonathan was very in-tuned with the spirit. I remember the blessing we gave to Malia right before I left and she went to rehab. There's power in the priesthood.

Well on this side of the americas it was a very crazy and stressful week. My comp right now (Elder Tuck) has the chicken pox and he got it from another missionary in the zone. So they are both in house and have been there just about the whole week and I imagine they will be there about another week. So I have been with another missionary Elder Duzett. It has been fun, but we have been having to take care of both of our areas. So we have been running around trying to do that.
   This wednesday the whole zone was invited to go and eat in the house of president Cordon and with his family for baptizing the most in april. It was awesome and we ate some pretty good food. They just barely changed houses so there new house is very very cool.
   To add onto the stress we also had THE ROAD SHOW  this week. We had to do so much stuff and I felt like I had to do it alone. I was calling up all the bishops and the stake presidency up like 3 times a day. It was crazy. The day of we had planned on starting at 6:30, but at 6 we were going to show the mormon messages. We had all this great stuff planned and it was all going really well. We had a lot of people that were showing up and the theatre we were at was super cool, but everyone was running to me complaining about stuff going wrong; the sound, the laptop, THE PROJECTOR!!! the projector was the biggest pain. My mission president got to the theater with his family and it was super cool and his wife was going to be one of the judges, but President followed me the whole time telling me all that I didn't have ready. I realized how little I knew about technology and about holding events. IT was terrible. I spent a good straight 2 hours on the phone calling people up. The projector got there at 7!!!! IT was so late and we couldn't start without it. We started directly after and it was going TERRIBLY. I wanted to pull out my hair.

Finally the first play went on. It... was. absolutely terrible. They just all went out and read the bible pretty much. I was so sad that after a month of work and all that the plays ended up so bad. It was frustrating and it was just bad. the second drama was also pretty bad. IT was the stripling warriors, but they pretty much spent the whole time killing each other. It was super violent.

The next drama went and wow.... IT WAS AWESOME!!! They made costumes and were super super creative. They did the creation and it was great. More than 50 people participated in that drama too. The other two plays were really good too and ours was the last one and it turned out SO GOOD. It was so funny and a lot of fun to do.

We ended the activity and i thought everyone was going to be super disappointed and mad that we ended so late and how bad it was. I was so surprised though by how happy everyone was after. I had so many members come up to me after and ask when we are going to do it again. My mission president told me it was a complete success and the stake president was super happy. After bugging so many people for a good month we totally saw the blessings. I feel as though it wasn't a very good activity, but somewhere the holy ghost just decided to touch the hearts of the people in the plays and the people watching. We had about 500 people go to the activity. IT was great.

Well this was a long letter. I love you all and feel better Kristin. I love you and I will pray for you. Mom and Kent, It touches me what you sent about Kent's dad. Tell him thanks for all he did to try and help the family and for his example. He is really a great man.

I love you all and take care. Talk to you next week.

Elder Gillette









Monday, May 21, 2012

May 21, 2012: Rc Bautiza hija

Hola Familia,

So this was a great week, It just went by really quick and it has been very crazy. With this week being the week of the plays it has been really super crazy this last week and I cannot even imagine how it will be in this next week. It was an eventful week and I can't believe that it has already been a week since we talked. Time will fly.

We were able to see some really awesome stuff happen this weekend. A 14 year old kid named Wilber was baptized and his friend that is 18 baptized him which was super cool. Also Armando (My resent convert of about 3 weeks) baptized his daughter named Katarin. It was super awesome and he was super nervous, but I know in the end It was a super great experience. Both of the baptisms were really spiritual and they were sweet.

Another really amazing experience is that about 2 weeks ago I went on interchanges to an area in center sonsonate and we were contacting and we contacted a guy and he didn't want very much, so I asked who would want to hear us and he said maybe his next door neighbor. We went to the neighbor and it was a really cool family. We started talking and apparently the guy used to be a Lutheran pastor, but stopped going cause he knew his church was corrupt. He liked what we said and decided he would go to church. Yesterday him and his wife were baptized and they invited me to go to it. It was so awesome! he is so powerful and will be a great member.

Other than that I was able to go to some of the areas in the zone and it was a lot of fun. This week we were in this area and the people had some type of meat and the word they called it I didn't understand. They showed me the meat and it still had claws and arms and I had NO idea what it was. They were eating it and me and my comp tried it. It was pretty good. They then showed us the shell of the animal and I realized that it was an Armadillo that I had just eaten. It was crazy to see it. Fun stuff right.

Well I have a ton of pictures I wanted to send, but the computer is being really really stupid. So you will all have to wait one week and I also believe that there will be a lot more photos from the activity. Everyone is so excited for the plays. It will be awesome.

I got to go. Lots to do. Love you all.
Elder Gillette

Monday, May 14, 2012

May 14, 2012: La Última Llamada!

Hola Familia!!!

WOW, yesterday was a lot of fun. It was great to be able to talk to you all. It really didn't hit me that I was going to talk to you all I think until Krick answered the phone. I was thoroughly caught off guard. It was fun though, but it definitely felt fast. Its alright though, we will have a lot of time to talk after my mission. I am super excited to talk to Malia more also. I am so impressed with how much she actually does talk in Spanish. I thought that she was just saying a couple memorized lines at first that she has learned, but she actually spoke well.

It sounds like the whole family is doing well though. I hope so. Everything over here has been really great. We had changes and I got my new comp and his name is Elder Tuck. He is from Durango, Colorado. He has 18 months in the mission and we seem to get along pretty well. It will be fun, but not gonna lie I was kind of hoping to have a Latin comp so that I could work on my accent for after the mission haha.  But ya I will have one whole year straight of being with gringos! crazy.

We are having a lot of success though. The other day we were walking and some people waved us over and we contacted them. It was awesome. They said they loved church and went before, but the missionaries just stopped coming. IT is a family with a mom, dad and 8 kids. They went to church this Sunday and are preparing to get baptized and married. we just have a problem with her papers and her birth certificate. It will be crazy, but worth it.

The ward is awesome and we have been working really really close with them. This activity has given me the opportunity to work with the stake really well also. i am excited for the work and for our zone.

I love you all and take care.

Elder Gillette


Monday, May 7, 2012

May 7, 2012: Transfer Number 14

Hola Familia!!!

Yep, times has already come for transfers and it creeps me out how fast time is flying by. The last 3 months here in Sonsonate has gone by so fast, but has been so much fun. We just got news that my comp (Elder Norene) Will be leaving. I don't know who my comp will be yet, but I know it will be sweet. We have great plans for the this month and we feel it will bring a lot of success.

Hey but I CANNOT believe that story already is one. That is so crazy to me. I was always so scared before my mission that the kids would all grow up and I would miss a lot of it and I would come back and they wouldn't remember me. I feel that won't happen anymore, but it is still really crazy that they are all growing up so much. Story is adorable. I don't believe that there are anymore nephew or niece birthdays until I get home which is good.

So if you can all believe it or not this week will be my LAST CALL HOME IN THE MISSION! WOW! My comp told me yesterday that we would be calling this week and I hadn't even realized it yet. It was such a weird realization that I felt. Time has gone by so fast since Christmas. So I figure I will call at 5 to mom and like 5:30 to dad. I would like to figure out stuff about school and what will happen when I get home because it will be the last time I talk to you all before I get home. And I will just do what I have done in past times and call Kristin and she can put us on conference and I will call dads phone after.

This past week was really fun though. We went around to every ward and we explained the road show we are going to do and all the rules and stuff. The all had a blast. We then filmed videos of the whole ward together and we had the bishop of the ward choose out of a hat there story from The Book of Mormon or bible. It was so much fun. We also had a great idea about a big cultural center that used to be a movie theater that is huge that is here in center Sonsonate to use for the day of the dramas. I talked to the mayor of here and he said we could use it for that day so we are super super excited for it and everyone else.

That took up most of the time of this week. I did go and visit a lot of areas and while I was in one of them I was working with one of the elders in the zone and we starting talking to this guy and found out that he used to be a Lutheran pastor and that he stopped going to church 4 years ago when he found out that his church was corrupt. Him and his family went to church and will be getting baptized this month. It was sweet.

Well I know I will have a lot to tell you all on Sunday. I love you all and get any questions you got ready so that we can use the time wisely. Love you all and take care!

Elder Gillette