Avy, ry taranak'i Jakoba, ary aoka isika handeha amin'ny fazavany Jehovah.

There is one week left in my second to last transfer as a missionary. This is weird, and I don't like it one bit. 

Well it may help your tears to know that transfers don't work like that at all here. We get a phone call Sunday night and take a bus to our new area on tuesday usually, where we meet up with our new comp and get to work. Training assignments work like that though, so maybe that's what you saw. 

Furniture shopping sounds fun. 

This week was mediocre, but it was excessively mediocre so that is something. Tuesday I was very sick. Just one of those "can't even find the strength to get out of bed except when you have to go to the bathroom every half hour or so" type things. So not too exciting. Wednesday we taught a couple interesting people. 

Thursday was district meeting, good meeting. 

Friday, it existed. 

Saturday. We had 14 lessons planned starting at nine in the morning. So off we went after playing some football for exercise in the morning, showered and dressed to our first lesson at nine in the morning. They weren't there. Nor were the next six lessons. So that was fun, got a lot of good tracting done. Spent some quality time together walking around the area. Had a way good lesson with an investigator who is struggling to find work and told us that he might not be coming to church the next day because he found a temporary job that starts on Sunday. We told him he can only get blessings if he is obedient, and basically that if he has faith and comes to church he will be better off than if he goes to work. His name is S. 

Sunday. S came to church. I cannot express in any way how happy I am that he came to church. Absolutely incredible. He will be blessed for that. The rest of Sunday was way solid, went and taught this one family that we have only taught once before and they had a bunch of questions about the restoration and the book of mormon and they really understood the message and were really interested so hopefully they stay that way. 

That's all I have got for this week, not too much interesting. A very average week. I should have a group of pics next week for you guys, this computer is being handicapped so I couldn't send any this week. 

I love you guys a ton.

Elder Galbreath

For your eyes only!

This is your personal email. I hope you enjoy it. 

That's right, coming live to you and only you is the one and only Elder Galbreath in Madagascar. For half a second I forgot I wasn't the one and only Elder Galbreath. That kid is cramping my style. 

Well the Seahawks game sounds intense, but they won and that is all that matters. Here we go back to back champs! 

Well it sounds like work is keeping you busy. I may want to go there for work, do you know what I would make as far as hourly wages go? Unfortunately that does make a huge difference at this point in my life. 

As far as the house goes it sounds pleasant enough. I have to point out that thinking I won't be married in two years isn't expressing much faith in me but that's a whole 'nother topic. 

Your souvenir advice stinks.

I have been feeling a lot healthier the last few days, and you will be proud to know that I made a meal that wasn't instant noodles for myself last night for dinner. I had what was probably a pound of spaghetti. I know, still noodles but I made the sauce from tomato paste and various seasonings. It was pretty good if I do say so myself (and I do). 

Don't worry Mom, I am not getting trunky. With how our area and branch is progressing you will be lucky if I don't "accidentally" miss my bus out of here. Yes it hits me every now and then but that just drives me to work harder. I love it here mom. 

The temple trip sounds way nice, we are working in our branch to try and get a bunch of families to the temple this year, it's a little weird to think about the hour and a half drive to the temple near us. By us I mean you guys. 

Alright story time. So me and Elder Fox were walking out to a farther part of our area the other day. We hear this little girl yelling at us from like a hundred yards away "vazah! vazah!" and we are just like whatever she was a cute little girl so we didn't pay too much attention. Then we hear footsteps. We turn around and she is sprinting full steam ahead to catch up with us. So we stop and wait for a second so she can catch up, and she gets there and goes for a dona, like knuckles or a fist bump or whatever the kids are calling it these days. Then she left. A full hundred yard sprint just to dona the white guys. Most adorable thing I saw all week. 

We went on a lot of splits this week. Tuesday we went with Mahazoarivo, I went with Elder Kelsch, way cool guy. A wrestler from Utah somewhere. So we went around and visited the people they had planned and I showed them a few less active people I had been teaching. So they were happy to see me at least and the missionaries are going to start visiting them again. 

Then Wednesday we went on splits with Manandona due to some really odd circumstances ending in only Elder Fox can drive the car until further notice (that notice came two days later) so I was cruising with Elder Christianson, way cool and great at teaching/malagasy, from Vegas. Good split, great day. We visited this member and he was like "Yeah I have two brothers that want to learn from you guys, one just got out of jail six months early right after he finished the book of mormon that I gave him." So that's cool, a guy who saw a miracle after he read and gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and I will take a rap sheet in this country if it means a man to teach. So we set up times with both of those families and are going to them tomorrow. 

Saturday we went on splits with Ambohimena South, Elder Rice and I were companions. Pretty decent day, filled with the stereotypical malagasy drama and lack of interest in listening to anything that doesn't come from their pastor. 

Yay for exercise! Keep it up, when I get home I am going to start lifting and running and playing basketball. That way when Wyatt gets home and he is all sickly and skinny from his mission I can beat him at arm-wrestling. It won't last but I can give myself an edge. Gotta look good for the wife hunt. I am going to need some Supersonics short shorts though. Haha but seriously, I need to put on some muscle I am way too skinny. 

Did nobody see that google has malagasy in google translate now? Maybe it doesn't automatically give you the option in whatever browser you use. I promise I wasn't just being annoying with that all malagasy email. 

I love you guys a ton and am praying for you guys almost as much as I am for the Seahawks to keep winning and grab that second superbowl. 

I am just having a great time and not wanting to leave at all. For real.

Elder Galbreath in the best mission in the world. 

Ambany vohitra. My favorite place in the world.

Fantastic times with Fox

I guess that makes me the hound. 

First things first, nativity obtained and it is awesome. The little drummer boy is on order from the same guy and it should be here this week. That's that. Probably won't send a picture to keep the surprise for when you get it though. Sorry. 

Also the picture thing is hard. I have been in Madagascar for a very long time and so I feel like I have seen everything worth taking a picture of. I will try to do better to make this whole new camera thing worth it. Then I will probably just sell it back to someone before I come home because I will never use it again. I will try and be better though. Promise. 

So this week was, hard. It was just a hard week. We are still both trying to recover from the sickness that has plagued us since we were first together. Also it has rained every day. I started carrying my rain coat though so it hasn't been too annoying except my shoes have deteriorated to the point of no water protection at all. So wet feet every night but that's a small price to pay for the wonderful work of a missionary in Madagascar. We are trying to work with the members more and build a relationship with them, not only to help the missionary efforts in the branch but also to help the members. There is an uncomfortably small number of truly converted members here in Madagascar. Lots of people have testimonies but as many many apostles and prophets have taught, that is not enough to get us through. We have had a lot of people falling through from the contacts we made, and a lot of people not wanting to talk to us this week. Tracting did not go so well, but we got almost 30 hours of proselyting time this week which is incredible. Proselyting time is time spent doing active missionary work. That is teaching lessons or contacting people. Travel time doesn't count, and meals and talking to people before lessons doesn't count. So the mission goal is 28 hours a week, and without going on splits pretty much nobody catches that. Except for good old Fox and the Hound. It's just nice to have a companion who actually enjoys doing missionary work and knows how to do it. An experience I have had not nearly enough times in my mission. So Elder Fox is a great companion, even if he is from the west side. We spend a fair amount of time deciding how long the dynasty of the Seahawks is going to last. We haven't pinned it yet, but they are going to win at least the next two Super Bowls. Also the Sonics are coming back. 

We started playing basketball every morning, we go out and get nice and tired and refreshed in the morning and eat a good breakfast of yogurt and bread and go out to work. I feel pretty good lately except this stupid cold. It just won't go away. Trying to stay dry and warm and blowing my nose a lot. Not too much interesting going on lately out here other than that. 

My thoughts on the house situation are that if Mom is planning on moving down to Boardman in the relatively near future get something you can both live in. If that's not the plan, just get a little man cave house. No need to break the bank on a half a week house for one person. 

Dad-my thought on the sport coat thing is that I will probably just get like one or maybe two if they are significantly cheaper than a suit, or else I am just going to get the maroon suit and call it good. I already have the material so I am still not sure. If you could put a little money in my account I would sleep better at night, but I don't think I will need it. Just a suit left for me. That should only be like 40 or 45 bucks too. Then I am pretty sure I am done unless I can track down a rugby jersey for bubba. Oh and could you send me the names of the temples that John and Dan got married in? I know you are Seattle and Grandma and Grandpa are Cardston. Then I have all the souvenirs for everybody. 

And I think that rounds out my take on the week. I love you guys a ton.

Elder Galbreath

La de da

I did get the ensign and am thoroughly enjoying it. Thank you again from the bottom of my spirit. 

The bubonic plague is in Mada, but the meds we take for malaria prevent plague so no worries there. Doxy is a great invention. 

Concerning your talks. 

What is one or two things that you have learned that has changed you or your testimony.

I have learned a lot about the law of consecration, and really understanding what it means when it says in Luke that anyone who doesn't sacrifice all is not worthy to be called a disciple of christ. I feel like also the incredible poverty of the people here has changed me. I have been a fairly materialistic person most of my life, and I feel like since I have been here I have realized more fully that you really can lead a happy full life in a one bedroom mud hut eating rice and leaves every day, and pounding rocks together to tell stories for fun. I have also gained a huge appreciation for the scriptures, ancient and modern. I feel like I have studied more scripture in the time I have spent in Madagascar than my entire life before, and I truly can say that I love the scriptures. Even the Old Testament haha

One blessing that you feel you received either before you left or while you have been out.  

I feel that I have received the blessing of patience, and definitely have gotten more in touch with my ability to receive personal revelation for people in need. 

How is serving a blessing or how is it helping you?

I feel like serving is a blessing, but not for me. I am sacrificing so that I can receive blessings down the line. Yes it helps me grow as a person, and I feel closer to God than I ever have, but that is not why I am here. I am here to serve. I am here only because I want to serve. I don't really know a good way to express my reasons for serving a mission, the first time I didn't go for the right reasons, obviously. I came back on my mission because I love the people of Madagascar and I want every single one of them to go to the celestial kingdom. That's it. That didn't answer the question, but I feel like it is helping me in the long run because that isn't why I am here. Yep.

The christmas cookies look great. John is reverting I think to himself in college. Everyone is freaking out about how much he looks like me. I have to agree about his cookie though.

Alright so first things first Elder Arrieus is shipping out tomorrow morning. My new comp will be Elder Fox. He is from Bothell area, western Washington. Pretty cool guy. He is a way sick guy though so I am excited to finish my mission with him. Another fun transfer news is that Elder Yeagley, my only begotten son, is going to Fort Dauphin! Fort D is the sickest place in the mission, and legend for going really super well, getting ballin' missionaries, and they learn the Atandroy dialect, which is basically another language. So I am way excited for him. 

That's cool about the house thing, so you guys are 15 years out on having it payed off? That is a pretty cool deal. 

I miss guns mucho. Pat I think is a good guy to have around for that kind of stuff. 

So this week we didn't do a whole ton of stuff. Lots of goodbyes, lots of tracting (surprise surprise) and really not much interesting until Zone Conference on friday. That was incredible, I really learned a lot. We had a little slideshow on the history of the church in Madagascar. I will see if I can forward it to you. Then we talked about stats, boring stuff like that. Sister Adams gave a great lesson about gossip and judgement, had a bunch of really good insights and scriptures. Talked about judging before we know the whole story. I really liked it. President Adams talked about repentance and covenants. That man is too wise. It shouldn't be allowed. But he also talked about being converted unto the Lord. He talked about the difference between conversion and testimony, pulling heavily from Elder Bednar's talk on the same subject from fall 2012 conference. Pretty weird I saw that one here on my mission. But it was super good, I don't think I can even start to do it justice here but I took a lot of notes and I have to assume I will be giving a lot of talks when I get home so I will just use what President Adams teaches for those. I also was asked to sing at the zone conference, so me and Elder Rice and Elder Morse sang a men's choir song from the hymn book. It was cool. 

Elder Arrieus gave a way good talk on Sunday, took lots of pictures with members. We have a soiree for dinner tonight and then he is bouncing. Weird stuff. 

Alright now that the call is over, I will have stuff to talk about I promise haha but yeah I will talk to the guardian today and make positive I can get into the church, you just tell me what time I need to be on. 

Anywho. I think that is all I have got for today. I love you guys a ton. 

Elder Galbreath

The case of the missing thin mints

I need you to resolve a question for me. Did you send me one or two tubes of thin mints? I will give you the rest of the story when you answer that. Sorry, it's important.

As implied above, I got my christmas package. The tie is excellent. I am building up a decent collection of cool christmas ties. As for the rest of the package I don't know what any of it is. The candy bars are delicious, trying to make them last haha although peppermint bark would have been ideal (dad you thief). 

I do remember my skype login, and I have obtained usage of the church computer so I can actually skype whenever I want. You just tell me what the plan is and I will be there. The group thing would be sick if the time frame works out.

So this week we did a lot of tracting. One day we stopped for a coke break after three hours of tracting as is the norm, and a really cool techno song came on. Elder Arrieus says to me "This would be a great song for a raid." I thought about it and I was like????…….”I meant a rave" "Oh, yeah that too."

We were tracting and we got into this house of two old people that told us they were catholic but said we could share our message. So we get to the part about prophets. We said that since God doesn't change and he used to work through prophets that we need prophets in our day. They didn't accept that, so we showed them the scripture in Amos 3:7. They were like "I don't believe that." We asked why. This was the best part. "We don't believe that because it conflicts with what our church teaches." I think that maybe your church is the problem there. They were super sure that we were from the devil at that point. So that was that for the lesson. 

We did teach this one really cool family this week, and their house is way freaking nice. It kind of feels like an old ladies house in america. Like smaller, but way full of little porcelain figures and covered furniture.  

As for the christmas tree yes you did send it and I am trying to get it sent to me from Tana. Should be coming up this week. I also found the other one, it's in the old house I used to live in. All the decorations are gone though so I may or may not steal it back. 

The other city, Ambositra, is out of our area. It's about an hour drive from here. We used to be allowed to go there but I guess a few months ago a couple missionaries were stupid and just took a day off and went there for fun. So now we can't go there.

Anyway. I don't know what else is new. Zone conference this Friday so that should be sick. 

I love you guys a ton. 

Elder Captain America

Thanksgiving week

So first things first Thanksgiving day was excellent. Thursday mornings are usually our day for district meeting so we had a turkey bowl. Three games of six on six two hand touch football, play to 7. I was only on one winning team. But it was the last game, so I am calling it the championship. 

Then we went home and showered and got cleaned up for Thanksgiving lunch at the Tolman's house. They are the senior couple here in Antsirabe. They made pretty incredible stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, and chicken cordon bleu. No turkey, but the chicken thing was super good. So we filled up on that and then went out to work. Elder Arrieus and I tracted for six hours. I am thankful I don't have to do that ever again after my mission. Then it was time for Sam's. A little background here, Sam's is a little bar and grill type place really close to our house. Sam is a french guy that lives here and runs the place, he married a malagasy. He is a way cool guy, not very good at english but he knows a little. So he tells us he is having a big Thanksgiving dinner and inviting all the Americans he knows. He says we should come, but no proselyting clothes. Well alrighty then so we go. We get there and there is old school american jazz music on the stereo, and a couple conversations in english going on. I almost passed out. There was one other American there, his name is Bob. Way cool guy. Everyone else was non-american but all but one spoke english really well. A couple south Africans, a british girl, a finnish lady, a german guy, and one french chump that didn't speak any english at all. The food was incredible. Turkey, mashed potatoes, mashed pumpkin, little baby potatoes, corn bread, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert. It was incredible. 

So a couple fun stories from our tracting time this week. 

French people here are usually very rude. The first one answered the door and then slammed it without a word. The second one I met came out and said some stuff in french and then "Get out" in very angry english. The third one said we were bothering him and told us not to come back. So whenever a white guy answers the door we just brace ourselves. Friday we were tracting and a french guy answers the door. He asks what we want, Elder Arrieus tells him we are missionaries and apologizes for interrupting him. He asks what church we are from, and says he is Atheist when Elder Arrieus tells him. Then he says he is Catholic Atheist. We were just like, what? He just laughs and says goodbye, shakes our hands and we go. Weird stuff. 

Then we are tracting our way down the path and we knock on a door. No sign, no writing, not even a doorbell. A guy answers and we see a way nice garden. We ask if he lives here and he says no, so we ask if it is a house, and he says no, it's a church. Oh, alright sorry to interrupt. So we keep going and we round the corner to see that the church we just tracted into was a Jehovah's Witness church. So that was interesting. Not many people can say they tracted a JW church. 

So I would appreciate it if you would take a peek at my bank account balance if you could. I only have a couple more souvenirs I need, but I want to make sure I am not draining my life money for when I get home. I am working on getting mom's nativity made. I want to have them add a little drummer boy in there to make it ideal, but the best wood people are in another city and we got shut down as far as permission to go there. So I might get it made here. I just have to find someone mahay enough to do it. Also a maroon suit might be in my future. 

Um yeah. I think that is all I have got, anxiously waiting on the pics of our Christmas cottage haha found a camo stocking in the house so that's all the decorations we have up right now. 

I love you guys so much, can't wait to skype on Christmas! Just let me know what time you guys want to do it and I will get available. 

Elder Galbreath 5.0

Captain America strikes again

I didn't know what else to title this email. 

                                  A guy painted this for me.

Elder Arrieus keeps singing Christmas songs and it's driving me crazy. I might kill him before he makes it home. 

Thanksgiving sounds way fun, we have some plans in place but I think I already told you about them and I will give you the story next week depending on what falls through and what doesn't. 

About the Christmas calls I am going to have the option hopefully of using the church computer, so any reasonable time should be ok. Outside of that the cyber here opens at 8:30 our time in the morning and is open relatively late. So if the church falls through that is when I am free. 

So last Monday we went out and played football. It felt so good to be American for a while. Even though I was playing defense and Elder Morley tripped as he was catching the ball and I fell over him and landed face first in the dirt. Madagascar fields are less than ideal. Pics on the bucket. Everything healed up by yesterday  though so it was good. 

This week was another exercise in persistence. It seemed like every door we had answered either wanted to bible bash or was Catholic and couldn't let us in. So that was fun. We did find one family that seems pretty cool. They have five month old twins that are super fat and adorable. Yep. 

Fun fact, I was asked to sing at the zone conference coming up by the mission president's wife. So I recruited two other elders to do it with me. We will see how it goes. 

Last night we had a huge almost sleepover BBQ thing. We went over to one of the houses here in Antsirabe and had a huge BBQ and stayed up way too late talking about anything and everything. For a while it felt like amateur sportscenter. I could be on that. So I was cooking my mediocre steaks and went to flip one of them and holy crap fire is hot and whoops down goes the steak into the fire. Well good meat is expensive here and I was hungry so down goes Elder Galbreath into the fire and pulls out a mildly ashy steak. It was basically done though. So that one tasted a little funny but the other two were way good. 

Hmm. We are going to this crazy nice field today and playing football/rugby/soccer. It is going to be way fun, I am excited. 

I love you guys a ton, hope your second thanksgiving is as good as your first haha 

Elder Galbreath

Sarodroa