MISSIONARY:
Someone who leaves their family for a short time, so that others may be with their families for ETERNITY.

Monday, November 12, 2012

12 weeks in country, time flies.

Well, as of today I am officially done with the training program. 12 weeks in country. Nuts. Still can't speak this language. Oh well. Life goes on, that's what they tell me anyway. I haven't really noticed anything to the contrary either.
Sounds like the trap shoot was a lot of fun, and the steel challenge match went pretty well. Nice number of shooters! Hopefully with Obama we can still enjoy that hobby. Doctrine and Covenants 134 I believe. My opinion almost perfectly aligns with the churches official declaration on the government. Protect the general welfare and god given rights and then butt out.
I love you dad, thanks for helping me out. I have been pretty kivy the last little while (depressed) so that helped. I'm gonna do a little Christmas shopping today for the guys, so I will pull out about 20 bucks. Should be enough to get everyone something. Wish I could buy gifts for $20. Also President Adams is "sick of people being sick" so our allotment might go up from 365000 to 450000 which would be great because I am always fighting at the end of the month to have money. Tht would give us 100000 per week for shopping and then 50000 for incidentals, shampoo, soap, haircuts and the like. Although I found some clippers in analakely for pretty cheap so I got those and me and elder McLaughlin gave eachother haircuts this morning. Pretty dope. They aren't great, but they are about as good as the ones from the barber. And they are free. In about 10 haircuts they will have paid for themselves. So yeah, pretty sick. OK now why didn’t he send a picture of that?
So, we were waiting at a bus stop the other day for our member help to show up, so we could go teach this lady. While we were waiting, this old lady walks up. Picture in your mind a lady, about four and a half feet tall, wearing about three coats, hair in a bun on the front of her head (that is a malagasy old lady standard actually), carrying a woven bag with something in it. She is missing more than a few teeth. She walks by, stops, turns back towards us, and starts talking super loud. She was saying "he is super handsome! I like him! Hey, handsome!" and making kissy sounds. Tongue halfway out of the mouth kissy sounds. Yuck. Then I realized she was looking directly at me. Yuck again. Then she goes "I like that nose, I want to eat it!" and laughing hysterically. Oh man it was so gross, but so funny. Oh man, I am laughing just thinking about it.
We visited this new guy a few days ago, big guy, huge house,  Apparently while we were there a famous malagasy singer was sitting on the couch but I didn't know who he was so he must not be that famous haha but anyway they were eating some leaves on a branch. They told us what it was called, and gave us some. You are just supposed to chew it until the flavor is gone and then stop and spit it out. So I had a leaf and it just tasted like a leaf so when we left I spit it out. Elder McLaughlin was a champ though, and ate like 12 or 15 leaves of the stuff. Then we went to teach him again the next week and we had a member with us. They offered us some more leaves but we politely declined because they were leaves haha but after we left our member goes, do you know what that stuff is? And we were like, well no, they said it makes your back and stomach strong. He says yeah maybe, but it's a drug. A drug. Elder McLaughlin goes, well it's a crappy drug then because I chewed like a whole branch and didn't feel anything. Apparently it's a smoking drug but still. Hmmm got to be careful when at investigators houses.

One more thing; make sure Senora Leavitt reads this one. OK Angie I hope your reading. I was sitting in a time the other day, music playing super loud in the next house. I didn't really understand what it was because it was some distance away. I thought to myself, wow this old school malagasy music sounds a lot like old school mexican music. Then it got to the chorus. It was a song we learned in spanish class, called "Eres tu" pretty hilarious if you ask me haha but yeah that was pretty much everything interesting.
Last Saturday we played basketball with one of our investigators, well sort of. I went to the basketball court with Michael and Elder Walker and we did some messing around stuff, the hoop was a little shorter too so I was dunking on all the malagasy guys too. Then they cleared the court and told us they already had 5 games set up to play so we couldn't play. But whatever, it was good to hold a basketball again.

We talked about the conference talk about the T-shirt so I asked, What would your T-shirt say?
My t-shirt would say "mandeha foana, reraka foana, roa toana" it means going always, tired always, two years, but it rhymes in Malagasy haha. Yeah, either that or just the title of liberty. Not very inventive, but whatever.

Grant said "my real t-shirt would say, "My sons are the reason that I live"
Nice, your first one sounded like a missionary shirt. We have a saying here, "mandeha foana, reraka foana" it means going always, tired always. I get so exhausted here. I have gone to sleep right after nightly planning the last few nights, about an hour early. Still tired. But I'm surviving. He gets really tired when he is growing. Could be interesting.

Nice food picture, looks like meatless campers.

It is pretty much hash and eggs. There was corned beef in there. Not bad, but the potatoes here are funky sometimes. You have to find a good one to make anything with.

How is the living arrangement thing going? All settled in with the 3rd set of Elders?
Yeah, we just don't really have a living room and laundry is a pain because the power in our house is not the best so we can only run the washer or the dryer, never both. One or the other is always going. But yeah, not too bad.

When I served, we had to write a weekly letter to the president that outlined how things were going in our companionships and with our teaching. Do you have something like that?
Yeah, we email him and tell him whatever we want to tell him.

Our ward only has a 40% sacrament attendance rating and they want to improve it to 55%. I guess we need to find some inactive people and try to get them active again.
Inactive work is where it's at! People that believed at one time, and already had the lessons. It's way different, but it's good! I like it, there are lots of inactives in Madagascar too. You just have to find out why they left and what damage has been done since they left. As soon as someone has weak moment Satan sneaks in.

We are gearing up for Thanksgiving. Any ideas what you will do? Any turkeys in Mada? I found a turkey Taylor drew for you so I will send it in the next package even though it will be a little late.
I'm not sure what we will do, probably buy a turkey and kill it and eat it. We might cook it but that is a lot of work so I don't know. They do have turkey here, I'm not sure how much they are. The picture will be great! I don't care when I get it haha.

Oh How would I send you music? Do you have a cd player or do you need a mp3 player and speakers?
I wasn't sure, I am going to buy a flash drive here though and just download it onto that from the internet or there are places here that will do it for you. So yeah and then I can play that on the portable dvd player we have. It's for training videos and like the Joseph Smith story and stuff but we listen to mo-tab and stuff on it. Lots of mo-tab.

Well, the new Obama administration sounds like it is going just peachy. I would say no judging but I am judging. Righteous judgment is the way of the lord, and it is a commandment, see the JST for the "judge not that ye be not judged" scripture. We are supposed to judge. Otherwise we are the natural man. I wonder what is next, I know Obama has had his eyes on that second amendment for a while. His tax plan sounds like a great idea too, 45 percent on rich people. Robin Hood, maybe. Socialist? Definitely. Holy cow, there are so many things wrong with this guy. Everyone here is happy because he is black. They just are happy because they don't have to live under him.

So, I got the packages for Christmas! That got there so fast, 4 weeks this time. They are so great, thank you so much! The big bag of jerky is a win for sure. I like the tree, I am gonna decorate that the day after thanksgiving for sure. Makes me happy he remembered that is tree day.I like the santa hats, and I'm glad you did a Christmas eve present too. My companion will be happy for it too haha I love the cheez-its and nerds and sweet tarts too. I don't know who you are trying to kid only sending two little boxes of nerds and two little bags of cheez-its though haha but they were way good so no complaints. I definitely got everything though, and I have not opened the presents yet. Getting them this early I hope he can hold out. In future packages could you throw in a little more kool aid and a little less gravy? I have more gravy than I know what to do with right now haha that gallon bag is full to the brim of seasoning now. Kool aid would be much appreciated though. Everything is awesome though! The chicken noodle and mac and cheese is great always, I am even rationing it so it will last a while. I found ideal noodles and am altering the recipe little by little to get the most noodle soakage out of it, I always have a little cheese sauce left over that I don't know what to do with. I am finding ways though.

Love you!

Elder Galbreath

 Hey I just thought of a better t-shirt. It would say, "I love mofo balls" they are freaking brilliant. Best things ever. No kidding. Eat those with some ronono soja and you have yourself a very content Elder Galbreath. An investigator gave us that on Sunday night. Best lesson ever. They should be coming to church too next sunday. Pumped! Love you mom.

Oh, also yesterday in church I was sitting reading my scriptures and adding up numbers from the week in sacrament meeting and this nice lady behind me, a black momma if there has ever been one, fixed my collar because my tie was poking out a little. Instantly made me miss you. OK not going to lie, that made me happy. Just thought I would let you know. Also someone played "I'll be home for Christmas" in the house a few days ago and I almost freaking cried. So bad. Christmas is gonna be rough, but I get to call you! So I will be good.

Love you mom!

Garrett

 

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