Well, watershed
festival sounds like fun. Nothing like spending a weekend in the midst of the
heathens to make you miss your winter home in Zion right?
Concert drama is
always fun. It's gotta be hard to have to turn people away from what you are
trying to give them. Not that I would know. Also tell Jay I am doing great,
getting tan all the time. Also let him know I am rocking a sounders jersey for
soccer games here. He should like that.
Gotta love running
into famous people at rock shows right? Like the time we saw Rob Zombie and I
was so star struck I couldn't talk to him? Cool stuff.
I have been very
blessed to serve in only two areas thus far, it really lets me get to know the
people and the people like and trust me in my branches so they help with the
missionary work. Also I get along with all my companions so that helps. Fun
stuff. Not like Conner, still in his birth area. Crazy stuff. That kid is a
trooper.
I have been writing
Conner and Sydnee. Conner sent me a picture and holy cow you weren't joking. He
is so skinny. I almost didn't recognize him. He looks like an adult now haha
and Sydnee I haven't seen but she always sounds super happy and loving her
mission. She is starting to really like her stateside mission which is good,
since she could conceivably be there the rest of her mission. That sucks, but a
mission isn't about where you serve, but how you serve. Everyone knows that. I
remember a guy I talked to one time back in mo-town who had a stereotype about
missionaries that serve stateside. he wasn't shy about it either. He got a
mission call and left and came back within two or three months. So stereotypes
are full of crap. So are people that judge others based on their mission. But
whatever, I love my mission and I don't want to leave. So, yeah.
Dad told me about the
gel fight for the senior pictures. Sounds fun! Gotta love having the mom tears
to win any fight. Like when I didn't want to help with the Christmas tree, or
about any other time we argued. Senior pictures sound way fun though. You
better send me all the ones you get. None of this "we like this one most
so that's the one you get" crap like with the family pictures. I haven't
seen a good picture of that kid since I left. So that's my begging. Just let me
see them when they are done.
I have learned lately
that sometimes what you have to do now sucks because of what you did before, or
what you are going to have to do in the future, but you still have to do it.
It's scary sometimes, and it's always hard but when you rely on the faith in
Christ then it is a lot easier.
So my week was
interesting. Not really it wasn't that interesting. Not much happened really.
My companion is having a hard time getting used to the cold here, so he was
sick enough to not be able to work on Wednesday. The rest of the week he was
able to power through. He slept all day on Wednesday, literally didn't get out
of bed in the morning and finally woke up at about 5. So I spent all day doing
paperwork, updating the area book, cleaning the house, and knitting. Yes,
knitting. My scarf is getting pretty long. I'll send you a picture when it is
finished. However, our house was super clean and the paperwork is starting to
get figured out. So that's good.
On Thursday we had district meeting, Elder
Baker brought the lesson. I really liked it, it was about expectations. He used
the talk by Tad R. Callister from the last conference, about how people will
rise and fall to your expectations. I related it to the talk by President
Monson in November about seeing people as they may become. He said if we have
low expectations, we will get low results. Elder Baker also pointed out that
the essence of expectations is faith. If we have faith in the people being able
to complete the (insert thing here) then we can truly expect them to get it
done. He also said that confidence is a very important part of expectations. In
Ether 12:14 it talks about how the faith of the missionaries changed the
people, which we can alter only slightly and say that the expectations of the
missionaries changed the people. Elder Mocellin had a really good insight on
that too and he said that in his mission he isn't hunting for baptisms or
anything like that, he just helps the people to understand and be truly
converted and they will go from there. I really like that thought because
before in this mission the emphasis was baptize baptize baptize and we have a
bajillion less actives. So now the stress is on getting people diligent and
truly converted. I get some flack from the leaders every now and then but it is
easy enough to explain to them that we need them converted before baptism, not
baptized and then hopefully in the future they will be converted. So now we have 150ish people out there that are
members of the church and this sunday there were 52 people at church. So it's
pretty clear that there is some work to do. But we are trucking along and
getting stuff done.
Alright question
time.
Any new food you have run
into lately. Being in the same area probably not but you never know.
Nothing really, My
french companion is a really picky eater though. His mom stopped cooking for
him that's how picky he is. And he eats almost nothing, like portion-wise. So
he cooks a lot at home, and he is going to teach me how to cook and I am going
to teach him how to add flavor to food. He made me spaghetti the other night, and
it was good but it was super bland. Then I made something, can't remember what.
It tasted way good though, and he said it was too strong he couldn't eat
it.
Any new investigators.
Not recently, we hit a
dry spell but we still have a lot of investigators that are progressing towards
baptism and so our schedule is staying full.
How are your recent
baptism people doing? Do they get support from the other members?
They are doing solid.
The members are all friends with them, one of them just got the aaronic
priesthood, one of them is the second counselor in the young womens presidency
now, and they are all doing way good. Strong testimonies and they come to
church and go to all the activities and everything.
There is a lot of talk
about shoes on the missionary Mom emails. How are yours holding up and
are you glad you got the ones you did or have you seen other elders with some
you would have preferred?
Shoes are quite the
subject. I am really happy with mine, I have seen others that look nicer or
would be great for a stateside mission but none that I think are better or
longer lasting than mine. I wish I had taken better care of my shoes though. I
didn't polish them for the first year of my mission, and the leather started to
dry and crack and the threads were breaking but I started polishing them now
and got the seams re-sewed so they are good. If I had taken better care of
these bad boys they would be perfect.
It was cloudy here the
past few days how is your weather going?
It's cold. It rained a
couple nights ago but nothing during the day. It is super cold though. I wear a
scarf every night, just a thick wool one for the ride home, and my toes are
freezing right now.
Did you get the CTR tie I
sent last time. I loved the colors of it. Speaking of ties, I would
like you to bring home the ones you liked to wear or wore or really liked so I
can make a project from them. I can send you other ties to leave there if
you want me too. It is your choice though.
I did! I keep trying
to send pictures of me wearing it home but it never works out. I really like it
though, looks great with the brown pants. I will bring back the ones I liked or
wore. I am gonna keep the fishy tie to wear though, so no projects on that
one.
After District meeting we were
headed to lunch across town, and I was stopped at an intersection waiting for
traffic to clear up a little and I had a window to cross the street. So I
stepped on my left pedal to go across, and the axle snapped in half. My whole
body weight came down on my wrists. It didn't feel good. Nothing broken or
swollen even but it hurt. So I had to go buy a new axle and have the bike guy
repair it before we could go to work. It wasn't a day we could walk, we went a
long long way. So that was fun.
So other than that no real news.
There was a transfer last night but nothing changed in our district. So not
interesting haha
Well I will throw you a scripture
here, Alma 32:15. It talks about how those who humble themselves are more
blessed than those who are compelled to be humble. I really like it. SO I am
trying to make the members and investigators here understand that they need to
humble themselves and then if they don't get I slam them. Yeah it's better to
humble yourself then to be humbled but it is also better to be humbled than to
go to hell. So it's a touchy ladder you know? Anywho, I liked it.
Well, that's all I got for today. One picture on photobucket
for you guys. My comp is super french so he rocks scarves when it is cold so
Wednesday night I rocked one to dinner. Also scored a sick hoodie at a friperie
place in town. You will have to see it.
Well I am glad to hear
you are doing well. Also happy to hear that you still love me haha I am so
happy to have you as my mom and I love you so much.
I love you,
Elder Galbreath
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