Lalàna ny Fiainana avy amin'ny Elder Galbreath Another life rule, with corollary.

Lalàna ny Fiainana avy amin'ny Elder Galbreath
Another life rule, with corollary.

Thou shalt share with thy neighbor that which thou hast in abundance.
.5 Thou shalt not assume to take unto thyself that which is not already in thine possesion, but shall rely upon the goodness of thy neighbor to give freely.
I think I figured out how to make life rules and why they don't come a lot as a missionary. I don't realize how strongly I feel about certain principles of life until someone breaks them. Then I am just like what the crap. Life rule.

So this week was alright. It rained every. single. day. Hard rain too. Our church attendance dropped from 110 to 115 when I got here to 78 last week and 73 this week. It rains all morning and I am pretty sure a lot of people just decide at that point that they are not coming to church so even if it doesn't rain for like two hours before our church starts nobody shows up. It's the pits. I think that before I let anyone get baptized here I am going to make sure that they have a clear and firm understanding of the importance of going to church even if it is raining and that the church is perfect and the people aren't. We have a lot of people go inactive because they get offended by something the branch president says, or a teacher. Not a problem specific to here by any stretch, I know people in Moses Lake like that. The church is perfect, look in my eyes and understand. The church. is. perfect. The people are not perfect, nor are most of us close. Yes, we shouldn't say offensive things. No we should not judge people harshly or say things out of anger or in the heat of a moment. However, we are just people. Even Moses made mistakes, and who doesn't like Moses? Even Muslims like Moses.

Thank you so much for your email. I got it on Tuesday when we went to take a survey about Preach My Gospel. I really appreciated it a lot. I mean I still appreciate it but I did then too. I feel a lot better this week, I just wish it would stop raining.

We played volleyball this morning against a bunch of Malagasy kids in a gym. Cement floor but a pretty nice gym overall. They pretty much just wiped the floor with us for about 20 minutes or so and then we were remembering how to play volleyball. I don't want to say I sparked the team into a winning streak, but I might have. They were scoring just every time. Then they were set up to spike it, right in front of me. So I jumped up, our hands hit the ball at the same time and I just demolished this kid. Not a little kid, like he was almost my height and kind of skinny but way good at volleyball. Destroyed him. Then we scored like 7 times in a row, and did really good the rest of the time we were there. Again, not saying it was me, but I am also not denying it.
The companionship is going pretty good. Elder Yeagley is making a ton of progress every day. Make me excited for Wyatt really. I am so pumped for him to make progress and see him grow from normal person to return missionary. He is going to do so good.
The rest of the week was pretty average, lots of people not home. Church yesterday was interesting. Since the teacher for Elder's Quorum didn't show up we just had a gospel discussion about 1 Nephi 3. Really interesting. Basically what I got out of it was this. Nephi decided that the scriptures and geneology were worth more than their lives and their money. Following the Lord is not easy. It's not cheap. It's stressful. Sometimes it makes you hide in caves and hit your brother with a rod. However, it works out in the end and it is so worth it.
We are still teaching the guy on the beach. Did I mention he is totally blind? I wasn't sure about that before, but he can't see anything. Not even shapes. He used to work at the port, and he would have to grind off I-beams over his head all the time and one day a bunch of sparks and dust got in his eyes and they toook him to the hospital and they couldn't do anything to help him. Bummer. But he is way good at listening and pretty smart.

The bikes are ridiculous right now. They just break all the time. So I had to buy a new axle a few days ago but now it is going good. It just sucks that they buy these really crappy bikes and then tell us to repair them. Then missionaries don't repair them because they are dumb and we get these low quality bikes that haven't been taken care of and that's how we have to get around. Not the best. Hoping I walk in my next area.

This week Elder Yeagley and I were doing a fair amount of contacting. Trying to find new people and not having a lot of luck. Then we get to this house and we are like do you want to learn and they are like no way Jose. So we start to leave and this kid comes out of a house we didn't even notice was there and says hey we want to learn. So we go to the door and see that the husband is there and they all want to learn. Mom Dad and son. So that was way cool.

On Friday I was on a split with Elder Gaul. He came to our area to do a bap interview for a girl who decided to wait now so kind of pointless. But anyway I forgot my raincoat and he doesn't have one and of course it starts raining which wasn't a huge deal. Then it really starts raining. Like romance movie final scene rain. I'm talking Sweet Home Alabama on the beach. I'm talking the very end seen of Holes when it rains at Green Lake. So then Elder Gaul (who used to work my area, about a year ago) says "We were teaching these way sick people before, I should show you where they live." So off we go. Well we end up walking up and down this main road for literally half an hour trying to find their house. We were so soaked. Just ridiculous amounts of rain. So we finally find the right gate. We go in and he explains that it is behind this house right here, we walk around the corner and we see... nothing. No house. It was literally just gone. So we just walked home. It was almost nine anyway. We got home and literally rung out my socks and clothes. It was just silly.

Tell me how things are going with your investigators.  Have you had any more success with your families?
Sort of. One of the way cool families we teach moved and we haven't found their house yet but we ran into them on the road and set up a place to meet them on Wednesday so hopefully that works out. I just wish people would come to church. It's frustrating.
mountain cabin or beach hut?
This is hard. Mountain cabin appeals to my lumberjack, gun loving, beard growing, kilt wearing scottish american roots. The beach hut appeals to my comfort factor and my love of the tropical climate. Flannel vs board shorts. A fight wouldn't even be close but a choice between the two is difficult. I might have to go with the mountain cabin. It's gun range in the back yard or learning to surf. I am gonna go with flannel shirts and kilts with a gun range in the back.
The gift of prophesy or tongues?
Prophecy. No contest. You can learn them both but prophecy is way harder. It would make decisions so much easier. Do I go to Georgia or Alaska? The Lord says this. Done.
The ability to sing any song on key or play any instrument handed to you?
I might have to go with the instrument one. Granted singing is more of a lady killer, but if I can play any instrument I can learn to be alright at singing and just play the bagpipes and ukelele like a champ.

Love you a ton Dad. I hope you have a great week at work. Congrats again on the steel challenge, two first place plaques is a big deal.

Love,
Elder Galbreath

Training

Elder Yeagley is the lucky missionary. He is pretty cool. He is from Roy, Utah. Born in America, so there goes that streak. He is a convert actually, got baptized December 2011. He found out his parents are inactive members right after his baptism, pretty crazy right? So now he is here serving a mission in Madagascar. He said it really helped his parents get excited for him when he got called to a cool place because they were less than excited about his choice to serve a mission. So it kind of opened my eyes to how fortunate I am to have a family that supports me in what I am doing, I think if I hadn't had support in all this I wouldn't have done it at all. So thank you, I guess is what I am saying. I feel like I hit a major turning point in my life this winter and I could have gone either way, but with your help and the support from the rest of the family and Sister Jones and everyone else basically I did the right stuff and made it back. Not that I think the hard parts of life are over but I made it through a very sketchy portion of life. Anyway, more story on Elder Yeagley to come.
I am getting better rapidly, I can walk again now. Making improvement, got a new kind of cream that is making a big difference and got some powder to keep everything dry. I talked to the mission nurse and we keep in contact. I am anxiously awaiting the package though. Please send me some more pictures, I am trying to be good and send some to you so if you could give me like one a week I would be happy. It's summertime so I know things are happening.
The cybers here are pretty nice, this one is really nice. Sometimes we have to go somewhere else because it is closed and those are mediocre but this one is way nice.
Investigators are pretty solid, we made contact with a couple of investigators who had moved houses but are still in our area. Pretty cool. Our attendance at church was terrible though, we only had 3 people there. Most weeks we have 10+ so it is pretty bad.
So Sunday night transfers came in, Monday was P-day and Tuesday morning eight of the ten missionaries here in Tamatave left to go to Tana. We got on the bus at 7:30 in the morning. We rode all day to Tana and got there about 4:30. Made for a long day. Plus it was freezing in Tana. Significantly colder than here in Tamatave. Made me grateful I was only staying for a couple days. So we went on splits with various areas around the office. The worst part of it all was that I would see a missionary I didn't know and I would introduce myself and they would go "So you're Elder Galbreath". What is that supposed to mean? So apparently I am famous. Hopefully in a good way. The best is when I meet people that worked in Andranomanelatra. One guy just got transfered out of there when I met him and he goes "They talk about you all the time"So anyway then Thursday morning we had breakfast that Sister Adams had made. Holy cow, sometimes I forget how nice it is to not have to make your own breakfast. Then a training meeting for the trainers where they told us about how important our job is and that our main focus is helping our companions. Even the investigators take a back seat to that. Pretty intense stuff. So then the meeting comes and we get to find out who our trainees are. Of course it's long and dramatic and of course I am the sixth of seven to get my companion. Elder Yeagley. Pretty studly guy, looks like a bit of a dork but he played football all through high school. Cool guy. Did computer programming in college and wants to be a mechanical engineer. Well rounded right? He isn't much for pop culture updates but he went into the MTC two weeks after I left so there isn't much he knows that I don't. Then the ride home. We went by night on a huge tour type bus. So we stopped for dinner and had some mediocre rice and loaka for his first Malagasy meal. Not terrible. We pulled into Tamatave at 4:30 in the morning and it was pouring rain. Just buckets. Welcome to Madagascar kids. So we get a taxi and call it good. Off to sleep. We slept in that morning. Elder Yeagley is exactly the definition of bright eyed and bushy tailed. He always says how happy he is to be here serving and how cool he thinks everything is. It's nice to get that fresh perspective on a mission.

                                                            Mada jungle

Smiting story. Probably my favorite is when Elijah was up on the mountain, and the fifty army dudes went to get him and Elijah was just like "What did you say? I couldn't hear you over the sound of fire falling from heaven and killing you." then another fifty army dudes came and he was all "Wow this must be an epidemic." and they were all like "oh no, fire came down from heaven and destroyed us". Then another fifty dudes come and the captain is like "Please don't destroy us" and Elijah was all "That's cool" and goes with them. Pretty intense. Or there is the one in Acts where Peter is collecting the tithing and offerings and this couple decided to hold back some of what they should have payed and the husband brought the money they thought was enough and Peter was just like "You know this isn't right, why are you stealing from God?" and he died. Then the wife came later with her part of the money (still not all they should have paid, she didn't know her husband had died) and Peter was like "Seriously? Do you really think God doesn't know what you are doing?" and then she died. Pay your tithing is what I am getting at here.
Side note: The new AP is Elder Fox from Seattle. He is from one of the little towns that are basically Seattle but aren't, like Renton, but I can't remember which one. Pretty cool. He liked my Sounders jersey.

Well Mom, I love you. I can't wait to hear from you again next week! Don't go crazy grinding poop in the heat. Love you a ton.

Elder Galbreath