October 10, 2011: Transfers!!!

Hola Familia!

  Well this past week was a little bit longer. I am not gonna lie it was probably one of the longest and I have no clue why. I blame it on the fact that we were going to find out about transfers and after so much time I was pretty much secure that I was going to be leaving this area and so I was just waiting to see where I would be going. It was a depressing thought thinking that I might be leaving. I really really like this area and I have a lot of fun with my comp and I get along super super well with all the members. We are having a lot of success too.

  On Thursday of last week we went and had interviews with president. He said he was really impressed with how I trained and that Elder Trump recommended me to train again. I would love to train again. I thought it was a blast!

   Last night though I was laying in my hammock and I fell asleep (which that happens every night. My comp always makes fun of me that I always write in my journal and then pass out in my hammock from being so tired and at about 11 I will wonder my way onto my bed. Melt down has come back.) and at 11 I got a call. I picked it up and it was my district leader. He told me that he had the changes. I was super out of it at the time and he then told me that we would both be staying in the area for another 6 weeks. I was like so confused, but it turns out I will be here in el arco for another month and a half. I will have been here for over 7 months at the end of this next change.

   I am super excited cause we have had a ton of blessings in this week. There is this inactive guy we have been working with named Manuel and he really has a super strong testimony, but drives buses so he can't go to church. We visited him this week and it came about that he got a new job where he won't be working Sundays so he told us he can help us Sundays in the morning to bring people to church in the back of his pickup. Here it is totally legal to ride in the back of pickups. So everyone just piles in to the back and go around. I always am walking and see this pickups just filled with people. They have bars around so everyone is standing, but it is crazy. I have to ride them to get to Los horcones and back every week. So this Sunday we went around with him just piling people in the back of his truck. IT was awesome. We felt like we should have been playing music and stuff cause it looked like a party just passing by and picking up people. Some random guy almost hopped in and just went to church with us. It was fun and we are going to start doing that every Sunday.

   Me and my comp this week were asked by the stake president to give 20 minute talks each in our sacrament meeting. I had never given a sacrament talk so long. I felt like we were going to give sermons. I studied and got it all ready and thought it was an excellent talk. I started out telling the story about when mom came into my room and gave me the envelope full of money and told me it was because "I had been such a good kid", but how after she took it away. Everyone loved it and thought it was such a funny story (cause it really is) and I compared that joy I had when I had that money in my hand with the salvation we could one day have. I really really like the quote from President Uchtdorf from conference that he said.
  "You could pile up all the money in the world and you could still not buy a loaf of bread in the economy of God". Everything was going good in the talk until I looked down to my notes and realized that I had left them in my back pack. At least I had looked over my talk a couple times and I know the scriptures really well by now so it all went really well.

   Other than all that I am super excited to be here longer. I love my bishop here so much. He is such a great guy and he made me call him last night after we found out about changes cause he wanted to know if one of us was going to leave. He is a good guy and his family is awesome. All of the members are great. I was telling my comp that I am super glad I will at least be in an area this long that I really like.

     It sounds like it is starting to get cold there again. It is opposite here. It is definitely getting hotter it feels. I am not excited for the rain to stop. I actually really like it.

      Well I think that is everything. I hope you all have a great week! Love you all and dad say hi to Grandma and Grandpa. I am glad to hear that they are doing better.

  Elder Gillette