May 23, 2011

It actually has been a little cooler here. It's a nice change. Saturday at 5 we had a huge storm with a ton of lightening and thunder. It was nuts. Reminded me of home a little bit actually.

And that's fun with the firehouse. I don't really remember the place...sooo...I might have to go back when I come back. Just to check it out.

So...we baptized a family...that's my big story. The mom is already member, but was less active for a long time. When we found her, she was like...I'm a member but I want my family to be members too. So we started teaching them, and man...this family was awesome to teach. There was a big change with this family. The dad was drinking 4 cups of coffee everyday, but not now. And the boy...is named Elder. That's right...He's Elder. And he wants to serve a mission. Since he got baptized, he has spent basically the whole time at the church with activities. And he has already brought 2 friends to church.

And...our cook got a puppy!!!...Haha. It's a tiny little dog. It fits in my two hands. It might be the fact that it's not even a month old. It's kind of like when we got Kota. Haha. Its mom basically abandoned it so the cook took it in. Its kind of whiny...but it's also a baby...soooo yeah.

And they have an iguana. Apparently they are gonna kill it and we are gonna eat it. So i'll get back to you on that. I'll keep you updated on what happens.

And I have now been to Ozatlan. We went on Tuesday. We could actually see the ocean from there. Still miles away...but I saw it.

hmmm....I got nothing else. It was a pretty chill week. We had the baptisms...and 5 gators in church...so...the work progresses.

I love you guys, and miss you a ton!

Love,

Elder Gilreath

May 16, 2011

I had a pretty interesting week this week. I got to visit every area of the zone because we did invasions to help everyone out.

So Tuesday we went to Jucuapa to help out the sisters. Technically we were going to do a family home evening but unfortunately they didn't have a bunch of investigators show up. So 8 of us elders went and knocked doors looking for families that the sisters could teach for about an hour. The elder I was with and I didn't find any families but we received some decent references for the sisters to track down. (Basically from people who not all their family was there)

Wednesday we went to Berlin. It took forever. But oh my gosh, it's so cool there. Cool like it has some great views, and cool as in the temperature. It was so sweet. Like I actually got kind of cold there. We showed up late so we didn't have time to do anything. But when we were coming back in the District President's truck, there was a ton of fog. We couldn't see more that like 5 feet in front of us. And we are sitting in the bed of the truck, so we are like talking about how this is what its always like in scary movies when stuff happens. (Windy mountain road with fog) So we were waiting for the Chupacabra to come out and attack us. Or at least the guy from I know What You Did Last Summer. or Jason at least. But luckily nothing happened. (We passed through Santiago de María on the way. super cool too)

Anyways...so Saturday morning we went to the ZLs area and knocked doors to help them out too for like 2 hours. There were Japanese people here. Like showing off their culture and stuff and doing Karate. So we saw a bunch of Asian tourists all day long on Saturday.

But this week it actually rained a couple time. Friday night we got soaked. But those boots I got...hard core man. Hard core. My feet were the only thing dry I think. So yeah...the boots work.

That was basically my week. Fun stuff huh.

Love you guys

Elder Gilreath

May 2, 2011

I was actually thinking about calling at like between 1 and 2...that's the hottest part of the day and the suckiest part of the day to walk. Haha.so like 3ish for you guys. How's that?

I'm still in Usulután with Elder Amaya from Honduras. This is his last change so he's about to die. And I get to kill him =) (You're probably like what?)

Nothing really happened. My area is now huge because they pulled out the other pair of missionaries so I get to cover their area as well. Fun Stuff. And lets see...it stormed a couple times this week. That was fun. ish.

Nothing really else happened this week other than change and some big ones really in the mission. Its pretty much guaranteed I'll be here til I basically have 1 year in the mission.

Oh yeah...I got your packages too. So I think I have gotten everything you guys sent. Thanks for all of it. Sorry if this is short. There wasn't a whole lot going down this week. Haha.

Love you guys

Elder Gilreath

May 9, 2011

I think it's just a name. Like...we got a zone called Cuscatlan and I don't think it really means anything. But I don't really know. (I had asked him about the El Salvadorean restaurant we went to and whether the name meant anything.)

As for the fish...I think you eat the scales actually...I ate part of it one time...it was just weird to me...like crunchy...so I wasn't a big fan. And I have no idea about the eyes...who knows man.

Talking with Delainey was fun. I understood her more then at Christmas. She's definitely bigger I can tell that.

Yeah anyways...the only exciting thing that happened this week was mothers day honestly.

That's about it. I caught you guys up on everything.

Well I guess we went to that port...that was fun(ish). I'm gonna put up some pictures.

That's about it on my end. We went to Jiquelisco today to play soccer. I was goalie and got destroyed but it didn't help that i had no defense. But everyone thought I did really good. Maybe it's because my team won and most of the goals were like 2 on 1 or 1 on 1...just bad situations...but w.e. haha.

Love you guys and miss you.

Elder Gilreath

Darin told us about eating raw seafood. Here's the evidence....

When Darin first got to Usulutan, he said that the chapel there was new and SO beautiful. They only have a branch that meets in this building, but they are obviously hoping for growth. Isn't the foyer beautiful?

April 25, 2011

My birthday didn't feel like a birthday at all honestly...real boring. But to make it a good day we had a baptism. I was in the area of the ZLs because one was doing interviews in our area Saturday and we couldn't change back Saturday night...it's like 15 minutes walking to their area...so it's not bad...just uphill. Haha...so Sunday we changed back at 6 am. It was a long day. But we baptized.

I have gotten a package from Jamie and Devin and that's it.

Ouch about the toe...hope it gets better quickly...that sucks...haha.

And yup, this week is changes. I think they might be crazy...apparently we are opening two new zones because the departamento de La Libertad is huge...And I don't think we brought in that many missionaries this change, so they might be closing some areas...but maybe the zones are small. who knows. Haha...lets see...we got a new mission president. David Glazier. So that's cool.

Oh yeah, so Hermana Perez called me last night to wish me happy birthday, so I was talking with her for like 10 minutes. We just talked about you guys, how things are going, life basically, then at the end she told me to pray for the new mission pres and obviously Pres. Perez so I guess it shouldn't surprise me that we found out today we got a new one. Haha.

And it's starting to rain...It rained like Wednesday and Saturday...Wednesday was hilarious because we were teaching the person we baptized, and her family just gets up and starts like gathering things. (We had just finished the lesson) We were like...what's up? They tell us it's gonna rain...so we are like what? They are like...yeah, listen. Sure enough you could hear the rain coming, so we said good bye and ran to the cook's house and made it just in time before it started pouring.

And this week I was on divisions 3 times. Once with E. Hardman and the other two with Elder Beckett one of the ZLs...Elder Beckett is from NC as well so it's been real fun to get to know him. He's from just outside of Asheville. Funny as heck this guy. But he'll probably leave because this is his 3rd area in this zone. He has had 9 months here...not consecutive but collective. He'll go home in November.

With Hardman, I actually had cold cereal and milk...so simple...so good.

We also painted a house this week. Like the outside. It actually looked pretty good. It was painted with water paint I think. We cleaned the outside first with water, and the old paint was coming off...I was like...uh...why are we doing this right before rainy season? Haha. But yeah, it looked good. They painted it like some pink color. I hope the rain doesn't destroy too much of our work.

And last but not least...we baptized.

Carolina de la Paz Sura Quintanilla.

SO much stuff happened this week to make it happened. It was nuts. So many things happened to make it happen. I'd call it a miracle. I'll just say that basically two weeks ago my comp and I dropped basically everyone we had including her because she was together with someone who didn't want to get married. Like a week ago we passed by to visit with her sister and she told us that Carolina had left her boyfriend...so we started visiting with her again and we got it done. We were so close to baptizing 4 this week. One time the mom didn't give permission and with the other the boyfriend she had that hadn't been around for weeks showed up again and was living with her, so we couldn't baptize her and her daughter...just bad luck man.

But yeah that was my week

Love you guys and miss you

Elder Gilreath