July 4, 2011: La Jungla

¡FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS PAPA Y AMERICA!

Wow, it feels weird to celebrate a birthday of a country you don't live in haha. I actually live with the most patriotic missionary in our mission. He has like a giant flag and he plays the star spangled banner every night. I think he will probably cry tonight as he looks at his flag while listening to the anthem, but it is all fun haha. I thought I would get a little patriotic and I found a shop that makes soccer jerseys. So I had them make me a USA one. It is super sweet.

This week went by super fast like always. I can't believe this week I will be completing 10 months in this mission. 8 months here in el salvador. Time really flies by.

So the good stories of this week are all shown in the pictures pretty much. We have been going to this new area that we really haven't visited to much because we have gotten some references for over there. We realized this week how much of the jungle it really is. It rained one night when we were out there and it started to flood. It was pretty fun and lucky that I have my water proof boots that we bought (ps that was the best buy we made before my mission). In this area though we have some really positive investigators and we are hoping to see them come to church and the temple.

Speaking of the temple. Tomorrow I get to go to the El Salvador San Salvador Temple!!!!! wahoo! I am super excited. We have been working so hard to invite EVERYONE to the temple. We will be bringing like 3 large buses of people. I probably won´t even have much time to enjoy the temple. I will probably just be contacting people the whole time. It should be a blast and I am super excited to see these investigators see the temple.

As I said it has kept raining (luckily). about 2 weeks ago we had someone break our water pipes and steal water. So we came home one night and water was running down the hill from the pipes. We got it turned off and we called the water department, but of course... we are in El Salvador and they told us they would come... they never came. We called again about 1 week later (luckily in our house we have a big like tub or font of water, I really don´t know how you would call it in English but it is a pila, and it is pretty big and our roof is a little broken and so the rain water runs right into the pool of water. Lucky for us in this week span it rained a lot and kept giving us water to shower with). and the said that "it is in process". so we called the owner of the house and he came and fixed it and we finally had water again.

That night we came home and we saw a giant fountain bursting from the pipe. Someone broke it AGAIN! so that was super sweet. The owner came over again but couldn't fix it then. So we have gone another week without water. Saturday we ran out of water, cause it hadn't rained, and we started trying to get the water out of the pipe in front. It actually worked. I sent a picture of my getting the water out. So that has been fun. Especially bathing with a bucket full of freezing cold rain water.

But in the work aspect everything is going super well. We have one baptism lined up for tomorrow. His name is Giovanni and I have explained him before. He passed his interview yesterday and all looks good for tomorrow.

We are teaching this less active guy named Mario and his girlfriend that he lives with named Glenda. She is like 4 months pregnant, but looks like she should have the baby at any moment. Her stomach is big. She came to church with us yesterday and she wants to get married and baptized. We just have to talk with Mario and help him.

Really I am just super excited to get to the temple and see what I have been waiting for after all this time. I have already heard stories in the little time it has been open and how magnificent it is.

Yesterday we got invited to a little family get together with our President of the Elders Quorum. We got there at 5:30 and we just ate and hung out with there family for a little. It hit me that the fam was probably all together at that moment also. It felt really good to be in that spirit of family even though it is like thousands of miles away, but it is the same love.

Other than that not much. I loved the pictures you all sent me. Kelsy keeps changing and growing up. It scares me. Hilz and Gen are really rocking the whole bangs thing. You both look like the Zoey Deschanel(or however you spell her name from yes man).

The fam looks good and Happy Birthday Dad. I hope this week goes great.

Oh and this Friday I got to meet my new mission President and his family. President Polonski Cordon. He was one of the 70 and just got released. Cosas Serias este hombre. He will be a great president. The story of the conversion of his wife was amazing. I love the spirit.

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

Elder Gillette

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