August 15, 2011

Hola familia,

How is everything going over there? Seems like everything is pretty normal as of right now. Looks like the midnight run was super fun and that the Utah bike marathon was great. Everything here went a lot better. After last week, we are starting to get everything back on track. All of our investigators are doing a lot better. The only problem this week was that we had to go up to Santa Ana for 2 days. The first time we went cause we had a training meeting for the new missionaries and trainers. It went super well. Our new president (president Cordón) really is super smart. I learned a lot that I have been able to apply in my teaching. We left at like 6 in the morning and we didn't get back til 5. It kind of sucked. We also had really short interviews so that we all could receive our recommendations for the temple because the El Salvador Temple is getting Dedicated THIS WEEK!!!! I can't even believe time is passing by so quick. Saturday of this next week is the cultural event and we are hearing rumors that we will be going. So I am praying we get to go.

Well this week brought a lot of good. We started out the week really wanting to overcome all that happened last week. Like I said last week we had 2 investigators come to church and one is named Gabriel. We went and talked to him and his brother this week. We went and talked to them all about how Sunday went. We started talking and they had some great questions. Gabriel is 14 and his brother Alberto is 20. SO we talked to them for a while and it all got lead to baptism and they had some good questions about baptism. We invited them to be baptized this 28 of august and they both accepted. We have been visiting them all throughout the week and in the end Alberto came to church this week which was amazing. He said he probably couldn't come because he had to work. In the end he left work for an hour to come to church cause he thought it was so important. They both are doing really good and have been keeping the commitments of reading The Book of Mormon.

One of the investigators that was suppose to get baptized named William wasn't doing to good at the end of last week. This Wednesday we went over to his house and he looked super down. We talked to him and his brother Walter about what was going on and we found out that life just wasn't going to great. We talked about The Word of Wisdom and The Book of Mormon a lot and we made a promise to the both of them that if they would read every night and not drink coffee again for the next five days til Sunday, and then on Sunday go to church, that they would have a great joy on Sunday night and from then on. So we left them that night after they accepted and I went out and bought them a big thing of hot chocolate to help them and motivate them. We came back the next day and they both started talking about the headaches they had, bought how they went the whole day without drinking coffee. I told them as a reward for that one day and for all the days they would go without drinking coffee I would bring hot chocolate. I then gave it to them and they were so like stunned and happy. We then went on to talk about the priesthood. It was an amazing lesson and by the end they both asked for blessings. It was an amazing experience. Elder Trump (my comp) was super nervous to give a blessing in Spanish but it went amazingly.

Sunday came and in the morning the both said they would come to church. In the end only William came to church. We went and talked to him last night and he is in 1 Nephi 8. He explained to us all about The Tree of Life. How Lehi wanted to share this amazing fruit. He was so happy yesterday and really had changed in such a short amount of time. We talked about that and he said just after 5 days that he can see how much the coffee really was hurting him. He said he will pray to see if he should be baptized the 20th.

We also are teaching a family and they weren't looking very positive at all. Then yesterday they came to church and LOVED it. Now they are talking that they will get married and baptized the 27th of this month. Great miracles this week.

I really do love this work and am learning so much. I am sorry I don't have a whole ton of time today. I really don't have too much more to write actually this week I feel. I am super excited for this next week. We get to have a meeting with President Eyring and Elder Christofferson. I am super excited. This should be an excellent week. LOVE YOU ALLLLLLL!

Elder Gillette

August 8, 2011: Up!!! then down

HOLA FAMILIA!

Well looks like the family is all doing well. I loved all the pictures from the baby blessing. Sounds like the blessing went super good. Congrats to Joff for the new baby, the blessing, and the 7 dollar bike. Looks like basil is loving that thing. Really everyone is looking really good and healthy and stuff. I always pray for you all and I hope for the best.

So over here in El Salvador it has been going..... Good? I started off the week SUPER good and was so excited to get out for the work. We got out and all of the investigators were doing good. We were teaching great lessons and everything. The members were starting to get super excited cause We really starting trying to work with them and get them to help us. We were really having fun and all was good.

Then Thursday we were going to do interchanges. I went to another area for a day, the area is called Tacuba, and the district leader was going to go to my area and do the interviews of all my investigators for baptism. I left and really that day in Tacuba was a whole lot of fun. It is so amazingly beautiful. We took some pictures and I will try to send them to you. We got some pretty good lessons in and all, but nothing spectacular. We ate some super delicious pupusas there though which I always love. We got back to the house and the district leader called me that night. He told me that only 2 of the 4 passed their interviews. Oh, it sucked so bad. I asked him what happened and I guess with one of the girls he went in to interview here and right as they started she said "I don't want to be baptized". So I don't really know what happened after that, but she ended up not getting baptized. The other, his name is William and is 21 years old and really a great guy, told us that he has quit drinking coffee, but I guess he really hadn't. It was a real bummer.

So I came back on Friday and we got out to work again and we were teaching some really good lessons and we went to go to this couple and they are 2 of our most positive investigators. We went to their house and started talking to them and they just looked spiritually dead. They didn't even really want to look at our faces and just the room was empty. It was one of the worst and hardest lessons that I have ever seen just because they looked like... I don't even know, but they didn't really want to hear from us anymore. It was kind of a hard hit.

But luckily we still had two with baptismal dates for this past weekend. Rita and Katarin are their names. Really good people and the mom really wants to do good stuff for her children. The only trial is that they are extremely poor. They have a house that a charity built for them, but it is tiny and they all sleep on the floor. It really is sometimes hard to go over there, but they are really ready for this gospel. They passed there interviews and they really wanted to get baptized.

Well everything came down to yesterday. We had to have all these investigators come to church or they couldn't get baptized and to meet our goal we needed some miracles. We went in the morning and everyone said they were all good to go and that they were going to go to church. Rita and Katarin had to go just one more time to church and then after they could get baptized after church. We brought to church with us Iris (who got baptized last week) so that she could get confirmed and another new investigator Gabriel. We got in and started talking to everyone and actually a lot of in-actives we had talked to in the week had come, but all the investigators didn't show up. We had 2 investigators come in all, but aren't super positive, but we will work with them. Rita and Katarin... they didn't come to church... so they didn't get baptized yesterday. Everyone came up to us all day asking what happened, cause like I said we had been trying to get the members excited for this work and in doing so excited for the baptisms. So when they don't happen they get pretty bummed too.

Yesterday we went with a member and she gave us a bunch of references which were good. After we went to talk with the investigators that didn't go to church. Rita didn't go cause one of her family members said if she went to her house at 8, right when our church starts, that she would give her some money. So she went for the money instead of church, which I can't completely blame but it was still hard.

With a group of really good investigators, they now have a friend who is telling them all bad stuff about the church and really getting them down about going to church.

This week I saw a lot of trials. It was pretty hard. I read in Mosiah 4:27 after church though in my personal reading though and it really helped me. It talks how everything is done in order. How if we work diligently then we will receive our reward. I really like that cause last night we did our numbers and I saw that we completed almost all of our weekly goals we had set and that we at least helped our assistance go up a lot.

I pray and fast that this week will go a bit better and that we can get the testimony after the test of our faith like it says in Ether 12:6. I love the Gospel and especially the scriptures. If someone needs help the scriptures (and especially Christ) has the comforting words. I read a lot and studied the parables of Christ. Good stuff.

I love you all and will talk to you next week.

Elder Gillette