Got Milk???

A couple things, one I didn’t know we knew people by the name of Sells, can anyone shed light on that one? Second I have not gotten a letter yet so something to look forward to.  I also just happen to have sent a package this morning that included 3 bags of sour gummy worms (yeah Mom!).  Sorry about the fart humor, my family gets that part.(he is also not the only elder to mention it so the food much reek havoc on those boys)  I guess they can‘t be serious all the time.  I also hope his PS means he is taking photos and videos. Thank you all for your continued prayers.

Well no one asked me any questions this week so I am just going to freestyle through this one.

Well, this week was a crazy one. I played mostly soccer due to the lack of people wanting to play volleyball. 1 on 0 isn't much fun after a few minutes of service aces. We have been pounding on this language and I am starting to get it a little better, I can read in it mostly but I don't understand what I am reading. I can just pronounce the words.

We taught Tojo (our investigator) a couple more times and I think it went pretty well because on Wednesday he showed up to our class and he was our teacher. His real name is Brother Sell and he is way cool. He just got off his mission three months ago and he is a really cool guy. Not related to the Sells in Washington though. Last Tuesday night we had a devotional and ten of the twelve apostles were there, and I got to sit by Richard G. Scott's daughter and great-grandson. He was really little, and very cute. He was a baby. L. Tom Perry spoke and he did an awesome job. I told mom about it in her letter so you guys can get the info from her. This Sunday was probably the best fireside I have ever attended in my life. A guy named Ted Gibbons gave a monologue from the point of view of Willard Richards, who was there with Joseph Smith through the last month or so of his life. He talked about the martyr in Carthage jail, and he was so good. So emotional, and so deep. I felt my testimony growing stronger with every word he spoke. Then after he was done speaking we sang praise to the man. If you have never heard 2,000 emotional missionaries sing all the verses of that song you are missing out. That was one of if not the most powerful thing I have ever heard. We all stood up and everything. It was literally epic. After that we watched a movie in the gym on the projector screens, and we saw Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration. That was awesome. If you have ever seen the movie then you know kind of what I mean. There is a part where he stands up in jail and rebukes the guards who were talking about murdering all the people at Hahns mill, and it was pin drop silent in that gym. I got chills.

We had a workshop the other day where we talked about the tips on teaching section of Preach my Gospel and we had the opportunity to teach an "investigator" who was actually another missionary in the room who was Buddhist and thus didn't believe in God or Jesus Christ about the Restoration. The guy I taught was going to Mongolia so he knew quite a bit about the Buddhist belief system. That was rough. I had no idea where to start with that lesson, but once we got into it and I worked in the scriptures it went fairly well. It was definitely weird though, because I am used to everyone at least knowing about God.

Tell Wyatt and everyone that I am writing letters, but snail mail is crazy slow so it takes a while. If anyone reading this on the blog wants to send me letters or packages of cookies or sour gummy worms I would let you. It's nice to hear from the outside world, even if nothing great and wonderful is happening. Dear Elder is great because it gets here so much faster.

I heard from just about everyone that John was called as Branch President. Gee, didn't see that one coming (ha ha) make sure he knows that I will keep him in my prayers and I think he will do a great job.

Wyatt tells me I'm still the favorite cousin, which I am ok with (ha ha) although I don't see it lasting much longer. I don't know if the Ritzville family reads this but I want everyone to know that I think about you guys all the time while I'm out here and I hope you guys are doing great!

I am loving life so far, although it's all really hectic and consistently harder to get out of bed each morning that goes by. 10:30 to 6:30 isn't bad if you sleep well the whole time but it is so not comfortable on those things. I finally started sleeping all the way through the night just because I am so mentally worn out.

Tell Conner and Thomas and anyone else learning a language to bring lots of blank flashcards and a spiral notebook for grammar, I had to buy some here. You take so many notes in this place, it's crazy. Also I found Conner's classroom, it's almost directly above the Malagasy one! So all of our farts will go right into their room, maybe. let's hope not. The food here is still giving everyone the farts all the time, and I had stir fry today so tonight should be interesting. The egg rolls were delicious though.

One last thing before I go. On Sunday at dinner Elder Smithson told me he could drink and keep down more milk than I could. As you know I don't take well to challenges, especially when I know I can win (which is always). So Nine glasses later and he still didn't give up, so after ten I was willing to call it a tie because we were both about to die. He drank an eleventh. He spewed almost instantly all over the table and tray, and I am pretty sure at least six glasses of milk and one bowl of ice cream (bottomless ice cream on Wednesdays and Sundays, should make Conner pretty happy) came back up. I held all ten of mine down, just puked a little bit of mashed potato up about an hour later.

That's my exciting week at the MTC, love you all!

Elder Galbreath

P.S. What video did you put up? I didn't send you anything.