Domestic Emergencies

Good Morning dearest family,

Well, Thanksgiving went by for me without even thinking about it. Let´s just say thanksgiving is a very, very American tradition. 

Yesterday was the 5th Sunday of the month, as such we had our usual combined lesson with Relief Society and Priesthood. And the topic was something I would highly reccomend for our ward: Domestic emergencies. The lesson starts out like this. "Today we are going to talk about household emergencies. But lets break it down here. What does the word emergency mean for you?" Someone answers, "When something unplanned happens that also, unfortunately, affects our health." Later in the lesson, "What happens if I get a big cut on my arm? What should I do?" Someone answers, "Wrap a towel on it" and the teacher responds "Ah, yes, that is something that we usually do, but what do towels do...they absorb and that´s not good if you loose blood. So really the most important thing is to apply pressure and really you can just use your hand, even if it is dirty, we can use antibiotics to cure that later. And if it is really bad you will use a tourniquet." Then the smart alec replies, "what if I get a cut on my head, should I put a tourniquet on my neck?¨ That is usually how Sunday school lessons go here.

Anyway this week we are seeing some progress. One of our investigators is reading is in 1 Nephi 14 and went to church yesterday. Also we found a really big family of like 7 and in total I think we found 11 new investigators in 2 days. 

Anyway I am a little tight on time.

May you all be blessed and happy,

Elder Gilbert

"Out of the Frying Pan and into Fire"

I can´t believe my half birthday is just around the corner (we all know how Thanksgiving is a great build-up for my half-birthday.) It is a pretty cool turkey that Justin shot. All you need now is to dress up as pilgrims and Indians and you can all have an old fashioned traditional thanksgiving. 

In my district there are the Zone Leaders, the Assistants to the President, and the Elders from San Pedro. This week we had a wild district meeting. First of all the assistants actually came (they usually visit other zones). After finishing the the opening song President Willard walks in to join us for the district meeting too (which is super rare because he has never come to one of my district meetings.) And so that left me teaching all these people. And usually in the district meeting we talk about the challenges of our investigators and analyze them. Then I do a practice with another elder acting as the investigator to show the district how to apply the principles that we just discussed and then we pause and talk about what went well and to improve on. So that was a "out of the frying pan and into fire" moment when the assistants and president showed up. As district leader I also do exchanges with the elders, call to do verification, call for the numbers, and basically the progress of the district.

Anyway, that was the biggest thing that happened this week.  Here are some photos of the garden.The big dirt mound is an ant hill. A lot bigger from back home.

Love, 

Elder Gilbert

  An ant hill

 Santa Cruz from the top of a tower

 A botanical garden we went to last week. 

We climbed to the top of the tower and you can see just how flat Santa Cruz is.

Hot Water and Air Conditioning

Well to answer dad's question I really do like my house. It has hot water and air conditioning. The reason is because the owner (member) has got a lot of money. He owns a truck shipping business. He has like 10-12 big semi-trucks. He is going to be going to Utah pretty soon to drop his son off at BYU. Pretty neat, ehh.

Anyway, I don't have much time to write. This week I have been getting use to being District Leader calling the people for their numbers on Sunday and doing the district meeting every Thursday. 

I really like the new area that I am in and the ward is really nice. It is weird to hear of all the changes at home. Who is going to move into grandparent's house? Very strange. Anyway next time I promise to write more with lots and lots of pictures.

Love, 

Elder Gilbert

District Leader

Good Morning,

Thanks for sending the pictures. I sure appreciated seeing some of my favorite past times and just how fat I was. It looks like Justin got some cool stuff. If I see it right, looks like he got a quad copter, a fishing pole, some clothes, shoes, and some remote control to a video game system. 

Well, the first thing is that I got transfered. I am now in an area called Antofagasta in Santa Cruz (again). I am now the district leader (my district consists of the assistants, the zone leaders, and two other elders.) My companion is Elder Van Horne from Auborn California (that place in between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe). The new area was a shock because there are really no investigators to teach. We just have to find new people to teach.

It was also sad to to leave Camiri. The family that I told you about last week was really sad and took us out to dinner. It is hard to believe that the time is passing so fast.

Anyway, take care and have a good week.

Love Elder Gilbert

Dream

Good Morning Family,

I am glad to see the Halloween festivities went well. Here Halloween is kind of a fad interest (as if some people saw it on pinterest and wanted to try it.) And here in Camiri, it is the oil capital of Bolivia and so it is kind of a rich city (Park City) and these kind of people try to copy American things.

Yes this week is transfers and it is possible, but not likely that I get changed. And so I think I will be here until December 15th or something.

The coolest thing this week was to see a family receive a spiritual confirmation of the gospel. The mom told us that in a dream she was in her house when all the lights went out and so she lighted a candle,but outside her yard there were people telling her to put out the light. These people where loud, rough, worldy people. And to her surprise the light, when she tried to put out the light, it just wouldn't go out. She tried everything, blowing, dumping water on it, everything. But then a man (who she says is Christ) appeared to her and told her ¨Fear not, the light will protect your family.¨ And then from that point on the light just kept getting brighter and brighter and till it illuminated her whole house and neighborhood.They now desire to  get married and be baptized. I have seen such a change in them and their family (the daughter of 8 reads the pamphlets at night and when we came she recited from memory Juan 3:5).  The only downfall is that they want to get married in January to celebrate the
anniversary of the day the got together and the birth of their daughter.Oh how sentimental us humans are, but we will see what happens.

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY Justin!  Have a wonderful birthday week.

Love,

Elder Gilbert

Lost Bag and Rainstorm

Good Morning,

Well, I hope Niels enjoyed that family history presentation. If I was only there we could have done some replay/rehearsal/reenactment on how we use to wrestle together or something.

This week we had to go to Villamontes for the zone conference with President Willard and that turned out to be quite the adventure. First of all, they told us that we had to buy the tickets and go the day before so that we could get there in time. So we left at 10 in the night in a minivan thing and come to find out  that the elders house in Villamontes didn't have any room for us. So when we arrived there at 12:30 am we went to a hotel and stayed there. But as we were getting out (I was the last one out and I was in my state of tired, booting up mode) I thought that the driver took everything out of the back and that the other elders had my bag, but when we walked into the hotel no one had my bag and it was still in the car that was now heading back to Camiri. We had no phone number, no name nothing. So that night I slept in my church clothes on a what felt like a straw bed. And the next day in the conference I had nothing, no scriptures, no Preach My Gospel. Only the stuff I had in my pockets (my camera and wallet thank goodness). So when we got back to Camiri that night we went to the offices and asked them if perhaps they had my bag. They told "no" and that it was probably in Villamontes. So that begins the big investigation. We call Villiamontes and it is not there. We try finding out who the guy was who took us there and no one knew his name (turned out he'd been recently hired). After awhile we were able to get a number and called it and it was him (apparently he lives in Villamontes). Thank goodness he was honest and sent it to Camiri. After a couple days of crisis, I was reunited with my scriptures and everything else in the bag.

Thursday, as you saw, it rained pretty hard. We were in the church when it started and when we walked out after about 40 minutes it looked like what you see in the picture. The streets turn into rivers. Even the sidewalks are like that. We had to walk two blocks and when we got to the house we were soaking wet and another elder was sad to find out that he left the window open and his bed was soaking wet.

Sunday, a less active family attended for the first time in years (Inactivate because other members offended them). After years of visits with elders and church leaders, they finally came. That was pretty neat.

Anyway, till the next week comes around,

Elder Gilbert

 A recent convert family that lived in the country as Guranai (native culture). 
Behind us is their house made of mud and sticks. Pretty neat.

 It rained pretty hard Thursday night. 

This is the street perpendicular to where we live

  In the car heading back to Camiri with the sunset.

 Selfie with the storm in the background

Fluffy Dog

Good Morning,

Looking good Karen there on the side-by-side. I remember we went to the motor cross thing last year and I remembered that race with side by sides and thought of you guys. I don´t remember what happened but I
think they tipped over or something funny, right?

Anyway, last week we made cuñape with a sister in the ward. It is like a cheese bread thing. The first batch turned out like pancakes and the later batches turned our good. The dog is the sisters dog it was soo fluffy. And the other one is my current companion.

This week we did some service hualing around wood. We loaded up burlap sacks full of wood and then carried them about 6-7 blocks. My shoulders were a little sore afterwards.

I can´t remember what else we did this week. It seemed like I just wrote yesterday.

By the way, with the Christmas Package one thing that comes to my mind is perhaps some of those doodads that you buy in Deseret Book. I don´t know specifically but something that is kind of cool. And also the new Mormon Messages and videos that came out.

Anyway, until next week, My time is about up.

Elder Gilbert