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
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
October 3, 2011: General Conference 3
Hola Familia!
Wow, what a great weekend. It was great, but also sort of weird.
Just because whenever now that I have a constant schedule, but the
schedule gets changed for like a day or two, I feel super weird. This
week was super good mainly because of General Conference, but I will
touch on that later.
This week we were off and running trying to get everything ready
for our recents converts Mama Iris and Little Iris to go to the temple.
My ward went this past week for the first time to the temple and we had
been hoping we could get our converts to go with them. The ward was
going to go on Thursday and so we decided we would get everything ready
on Wednesday. Tuesday in the night though we recieved a call saying we
were going to go to Santa Ana the next morning til like 6. So we left
super early and didn't get back til about 6 and then we ran the whole
day to try and get everything ready. I really am super blessed to have
such a great bishop (Obispo Zambrano) and get along so well with him. I
went to his house and told him about Iris and he said it was almost all
ready. That he had done most of the stuff. I felt so relieved. It is so
much easier when you have the help of the leaders.
We went and saw Iris and her husband was there. They were in a
bit of a shock. What happened was that they went to San Salvador on Wednesday and there bus crashed and like 3 people in the front of the
bus died. Luckily she said she had felt inspired to sit in the back with
her 1 year old kid. She said nothing happened to them. I then asked why
they had gone to San Salvador and she said that on Tuesday she had won a
brand new phone. I was so surprised. Her husband then told us that he
believes it is for the path that she is taking right now. That she had
gotten baptized. He isn't even a member and hearing that from him was
amazing. I could see in her the gratitude she had in that moment for the
Gospel.
The next night we passed by. I entered in the house of theirs
and felt super good. I then asked her what they did that was so
different in the house. She told me nothing. We sat down and starting
talking. She then told us about how her day was great and then it
occured to me that they had gone to the temple. They had done baptisms
for the dead and they had loved it! I was so excited. They said the
feeling that they got was amazing and the best part was the members were
so good to them. They all had bought hymn books and triples. I am so
excited for them. The dad wants to get baptized, but just has to find a
new job.
We have been working like crazy and we have seen some great
results from our work and much better lessons. I have been able to
understand a lot better and just ask better questions. I can tell we are
working a lot harder, because we have been starting to do weird things
in the night. I, almost every night, fall asleep in my hammock and then
at one o'clock in the morning wake up and go to bed. I got up at 1
thirty one night in my hammock and got up and right as I got up Elder
Trump yelled at me in an english spanish jibberish and it super scared
me. I was scared to look at him cause I was half asleep and I was scared
he would be there waiting to like kill me, but when I looked he was out
on his bed. I got him back a couple days later cause He told me he woke
up to me speaking in the middle of the night saying, "¿Que dice la
hermana de ir a la iglesia? ¡SÍ! " Which means "What says the sister
about going to church? YES!" I was cracking up when he told me. I have
been working so hard that I am trying to help people in my sleep go to
church also. haha
The multizone that we had on Wednesday was super good. It is
fun to go back to old areas in Santa Ana and pass the places I have been
to. I like actually being able to know most of the people here. I saw
two of my old comps (Elder Romero and Elder Bonilla). I don't talk too
much to elder Bonilla (my trainer), but Elder Romero is like one of my
best friends now.
This weekend was just amazing though. I think its funny how I
never watched conference before at all, but now I die to see it. All 5
sessions just fly by so fast. I love what they all talk about and see
how usually there is like a topic a lot touch. I decided before that I
would write down 5 questions. The conference started and my first 2
questions got answered in the first 2 talks it was amazing. I had other
questions that I had not even written down answered too.
I especially love the Priesthood Session. I still always miss
training table before, but I decided after to get the Training Table of
El Salvador... Pupusas haha. Really the stuff they talked about in
Preisthood was amazing. I wish I would have heard the talk of Elder
Holland before my mission. I believe that every 14- 19 year old kid
should hear it. I also loved President Packer. Not gonna lie I feel like
he knows he is going to pass away soon, but before he does he is going
to tell everything the way it should be.
I thought that Neil L. Andersons talk was interesting about why we shouldn't wait to have kids.
I really love, like always, the talks of the prophet Thomas S.
Monson. The talk from Priesthood was awesome and I invite all of you to
read it rather on the internet or when the Ensign comes out. It really
helped me.
I liked that most of the talks were based on service it seems
like. Service rather it be missionary work or service we can do for our
neighbor. One of the General Authorities opened saying the 2 Great
commandments are Love God and Love your neighbor and that everything
else is a break off of that. I heard a lot of wise words today and I
hope I can apply them. Thats one thing I have become a lot better at in
the mission. That we can read or hear something, but if we don't put it
into practice we will never really learn it.
I am excited, like always for this next week. It is good to hear
that Sweet Tooth Fairy is doing good and opened a new store. I know
that they couldn't do it without Hilary. I am sorry about what happened
with the house. I was like cringing the whole time that I was reading
the message from mom. Jeez mom! When I read about how you slipped I almost
died. Be careful, but it will be a hilarious story after this is all
over haha. I do hope you all keep enjoying the wheather for me also,
because the weather here is just getting hotter and hotter. We will
start the dry season at the end of this month.
Can't believe I only have one more General Conference in the mission. That is crazy.
Well I love you all a lot and I hope you have a great day and week.
Elder Gillette
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