alrighty, so i seriously have no idea where to start!! I havent stopped smiling since yesterday and i just love it out here!! THere is so much happening out here it is crazy! So ill start off with last monday, i forgot to let you know that the picture of all the alcohol and the cigarettes and coffe and all that stuff is from an investigator that we had taught the word of wisdom to and we took all of her stuff from her, so yeah just so that you dont think that it is form me! and last tuesday, we ate the foot of a pig!! It wasnt all that bad! A little gamey but not as bad as menudo!!
So this week we also had zone training and it was a great experience! We focused on really becoming more unified as a companinonship and elder kerouac says hi, and anyways i was saying, that zone training also taught us a lot about being willing to accept critisism and how it will help us be better missionaries! I realized that i need to be more humble and willing to accept the fact that i dont know everything and that there is always ways to learn more! Elder Kerouac and i are both working on this very hard and humbling principle of being a missionary :) After zone training, we had exchanges and i was with Elder Perry! He looks just like Brock Perry so scary!! I keep asking him if he is related to him and he keeps saying no, but i swear they have to be!! We had a blast together! We played futbol that night (thursday) and we did pretty well! We had about 30 non members in the capilla playing futbol! It was incredible! I got kicked in the face it was so awesome! I like didnt even know where i was haha i was laughing about it too so it made all the blood rush to my face and hurt worse! But it was so worth it!! All my teeth are still here, and my nose is only a little more crooked :)
On friday, we went out and taught a bit in the morning, keep in mind that Elder Perry was an english speaking missionary so he has no idea what was going on but i was able to teach him a little bit and that was really fun! He met edgar and his family, and we had a blast with them the night before, but back to friday, we went out to try to teach carlos, but his phone got shut off and he wouldnt answer his door, so then we had an appointment with Jacob and Nicole! We taught them the plan of salvation and they committed to a baptismal date!! the 27 de Marzo is their date, it might be pushed back a little though because they both have to stop smoking and drinking so we are praying hard for them and hope that all will work will with them! We also did a lot of contacting and talked to some guys on the street and one of them started to roll a joint of weed infront of us it was kinda awkward, but ii just kept teaching him and acted like it wasnt even there! It was pretty funny, because around here, thats not even a big deal to see it, even with little kids. We also got rained on like crazy!! We were just out contacting and all the sudden the skies opened up and man it poured like no other! I was bookin it full speed in my suit back to the car haha it was so much fun though!! It rained for quite a while and it rained a lot! Its starting to get warmer already :( today its like 60 and raining so i guess winter is throwin in the towel here!
Saturday was hectic trying to get all the things in line for the baptism on sunday, but all of our appointments fell through that morning, so we ended up taking the time to study some of the new church movies that our mission has and man they really are awesome! They have all these study activities and charts and different methods of teaching in them it is really an awesome teaching tool! Now we just need them in spanish!! But the spirit was so strong, and it strengthened my testimony so much of the profeta jose smith and all that he went through. DyC 135. That night we had the baptismal interviews with Florencio, Isaac and Fanni and they all went great. Isaac and i had an experience that i will never forget! He is like another little brother to me! It really is amazing to see the change the gospel can make in someones life when you help them realize that they have recieved an answer. It is so cool how the spirit works and how incredible life can be if you exercise your faith in Christ.
Now yesterday, simply put, the best day of my mission so far. The spirit was incredible!! To start out with, we had 146 members in the chapel!! That is the most members that the branch has ever had in the 7 years!! It was so insane elder kerouac and i were like is this really happening right now?!! Totally a blessing from the lord!! We also had 21 investigators in church! Holy cow the crazy blessings of the lord when you do what is right. Oh and to add to that, haha there were members handing out juice boxes and kit kats to kids and members before sacrament, but thats just how hispanic people are! They dont find anything wrong with going and gettiing things from the store on sunday, haha oh man i love em :) They are some of the most humble and sweetest people i have ever met! Ok so then the baptism, President Shaefermeyer and his Wife came and i totally forgot that i had asked them to be there, but it was awesome! Everything went as planned, the baptisms were filled with the spirit of the lord and it was just all smiles with all that were participating. I was so nervous at first because, with hispanic people they all have really long names, so Isacc was first and his name is Alfredo Isaac Rojas Cisneros, yeah i know its insanely long! It took me three times to get his name right haha but i got it :) and then Fanni-her full name is Erika Estefania Retana Rojas, and yeah that was difficult as well, but i got it in one :) It was so crazy, just how much the spirit hit, oh man i cant even explain it in palabras!! They are totally going to be a family i come back and visit. I got pictures of everything, so next week i will post them up bc i left my cord in the car and i am too lazy to get up and get it! SO you gotta wait for those :) Oh, and dad just so you know, Florencio and you look like almost exactly alike :) Except he is a little chaparito (short guy) and yeah, he is awesome!
Anyways, after the baptism, we taught Elia and she is still going strong for the 24th de Abril for her baptism and she is really fun to teach! She was already asking questions about the temple and getting sealed and all that it was awesome! We then went and ate at Isaac fanni and florencios house, and had gorditas and they were super good! We taught the brother of erika (isacc and fannis mom) and it was a great experience we talked about the apostasy and a bunch of the things that are different that the catholic church believes in and got in pretty deep i love those kinds of lessons!! After that, we went to Edgars, his wife, Karen, had her surprise pachanga (party) and of course they made us eat and i was about full to the rim. My stomach has grown so much out here haha but im staying in good shape! We are starting to go running every morning as of today and im sure that will really help out :)
Well, mi familia this is all! I am learning and growing so much out here, but one thing to do, increase your testimony of the gospel of jesucristo and the profeta jose smith! I testifty that when we really search the scriptures diligently and always are looking for ways to improve, then the lord will pave a way for us to accomplish our goals! ALso, make sure to get your patriarchial blessings! We taught 2 lessons on those this week, and the spirit was so strong, it really made me think of how important and helpful mine has been in my life! Read it often too and learn all that you can from it! I know that this gospel is true, and i kow that i have been called by god to carry out this work! I love you all and hope all stays well with you! Se cidan!
Elder Gallego
Monday, February 28, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
2/22/11
I have been out in the field now for 4 months!! No manches time flies by super fast!! I sure have learned a lot in these 4 months and i know i will continually be learning more and more every day!! THis week was really crazy, and really stressful finally haha ive been waiting and praying and asking for some oposicion and boy did i ever get it this week! It is amazing how heavenly father will really show us how many things we have to work on or just how bad life can get when we ask him to! I sure do love being out here!!
SO elder Kerouac started therapia on his foot this week, and oh, the missionaries showed up to his parents house in Utah! Crazy huh?! Well his parents are devout catholics, like im talking big time, his dad is in the Knights of Columbus, dont ask me what that means, and his mom is the equivalent of the Relief Society President in their church! And they let the missionaries in!! We are still waiting to hear back from them about how that went, but we are both pretty stoked because Elder Kerouac is the only member in his family, and we have just been praying so hard for something to happen with them!
I think it was tuesday night, we went out to go teaching, we had a cita con una hermana se llama Aldelphyl, and she is from the Dominican Republic but MAN she talks so dang fast!! I can only just watch her mouth and try to listen really carefully as hard as i can but haha it is hilarious! So we were walking up the stairs to get to her apartamento and i had my hands in my jacket because it was blowing so hard, i think something like 40 mph wind or something like that at least! And i tripped on a stair and totally fell on my face because i couldnt get my hards out of my pockets in time hahaa it was so hilarious! Juan was laughing so hard hah man i only had a little mark, nothing too big, but yeah i didnt lose any teeth so thats a plus! :)
Our investigators, Florencio, isaac y fanni are all progressing very well, and they will be getting baptized this sunday! Isaac and Fanni have asked me to baptize them so im kinda nervous, and you know how the weeks before baptism are...HORRIBLE!! But im hangin in there! And so are they, just keep us in your prayers! And elder Kerouac will be baptizing Florencio so yeah its been a tough week so far already. I have been getting kind of frustrated with myself and trying to learn too much and just running my body dead so hopefully i can get some added strength this next couple of days! We picked up a new investigator on sunday as well, Alea Enriquez and she already accepted a baptismal date for the 24th of abril!! Crazy i know, but man she is going to be solid! Her boyfriend is the brother of a member in our branch and he was the one who brought her to church, and he hadnt been for 21 years!! What a miracle. Its crazy how the lord works sometimes :) Our branch is absolutely on fire, there were at least 130 in church this week, and with the confirmaciones and all, it was just a great spirit! Victor is progressing well, and we got back in contact with Carlos Escobar again and will be seeing him tomorrow night! We will be extending dates to him, victor, another couple Jacob y Nicole, and i think to a new one Trinidad. SO we got a big week ahead of us, and elder Kerouac and i are really working hard to get big work done before he gets transferred.
This week we also had exchanges and Elder Osorio came with me to our area and we did great! We taught a lot, and got some good contacts with a lot of Dominicans and Puerto Ricans! He is a great missionary! THe next day we had language training (saturday) in philly so that morning we got up and left at 7 and we got there to philly early and so we went and i got to go and run up the rocky stairs!! It was so much fun i got a video of it and everything you will love it!! Got some really good pictures as well, i hope i serve in philly it is so cool!! I was able to see Elder Reese, my mtc comp, and he is doing well, also i was able to see Elder Gunter, who was in my zone in the MTC but he left 6 weeks before me. They are both doing great and i sure do miss those guys! Language training was great ill send home the videos of it all!! There also was an elder that went home, he got diagnosed with Leukemia :( Elder Brewer. Keep him in your prayers please, he is doing well and they have him at the utah cancer place that is suppose to be really good, and they also said the the cancer is very treatable. So just thought you might want to know that.
Well, something i learned this week that i want to leave with you all is what i like to call Negro o Blanco. No hay gris. (Black or white. THere is no grey) If we really think about this analogy, well the way i look at it and i hope i can teach this so it makes sense, but its either its good or its bad. THere is no middle area. Now im going to use an example that i know we all hate, but speeding. How willing are we all to go over the speed limit? And how much? If youre going over the speed limit even by 1 mph, youre disobeying the law. Now i know, this really makes me so angry because we tell ourselves, well if the guy in front of me is peeding then its ok for me to speed. NO! THis is so hard for me so i wont be hypocritical, but how willing are we to sin?! DO we stay 5 mph under or at the limit or 5 over? Think about how you can apply this principle to your own life, and in what ways you can change. I testify that if we stay away from the limits of things, and keep ourselves in order with the lords will, doing the things that we know are right and wrong, not questioning what is right or wrong, then you will understand this concept more fully. If any of that made any sense, then thats awesome! I hope you understand the importance of obedience and how important it is that we are obedient to ALL things!
SOmething that i will be working on this week, and what was a big focus at language training is becoming submersed in the culture. Spanish Spanish Spanish!!! I am going to talk, think, maybe dream, write, everything in spanish! I was called as a spanish speaking missionary for a reason, so why not submerse myself into it and learn all that i can when i got 2 years to do it?! Great idea isnt it?! I hope so :) ALso, to become the missionary that God needs me to be, not the one that i want to be. THis is a hard principle for missionaries, and i am so guilty of it. I want to learn a lot, but if i dont need to learn as much as another missionary, so be it. Its not in the will of the lord. I am praying so hard that i can let go of my pride for loving to learn and study, and study the things that the lord needs me to study! Humility is a wonderful, but very hard thing!!
Well, i sure do love it out here, it snowed a couple inches last night, but it looks like its going to all melt off if it stays this hot! The work is progressing out here, and i am ready for the summer!! I played Futbol on thursday in my church shoes, pants and shirt and all the guys thought i was crazy ahaha i am just ready to start sweating or something i miss getting dirty!! But i sure do love it and i sure do miss playing sports! But i am out here serving and i am really being blessed for it. I love them people out here. I know that without the spirit of the lord, that i wouldnt be able to do the things that i have out here. Everything that i have, every talent, trait, just everything i have, i know is a gift from the lord. Find your strengths and make them stronger. Work on your weaknesses, but dont focus on them. Focus on what your good at and focus on doing whatever it takes to align your will with the lords. I promise you all that if you can manage to align your will with the lords, and perseverar hasta al fin, el senor va a bendecirle y va a mostrarle las cosas que son importantes en sus vida. Les amo amigos y familia, y yo quiero que sepan que este iglesia es la unica verdadera iglesia en este mundo y que cuando leemos las escrituras, vamos a saber bastante de nuestro salvador y redentor. Sigan Fuerte!
Elder Gallego
SO elder Kerouac started therapia on his foot this week, and oh, the missionaries showed up to his parents house in Utah! Crazy huh?! Well his parents are devout catholics, like im talking big time, his dad is in the Knights of Columbus, dont ask me what that means, and his mom is the equivalent of the Relief Society President in their church! And they let the missionaries in!! We are still waiting to hear back from them about how that went, but we are both pretty stoked because Elder Kerouac is the only member in his family, and we have just been praying so hard for something to happen with them!
I think it was tuesday night, we went out to go teaching, we had a cita con una hermana se llama Aldelphyl, and she is from the Dominican Republic but MAN she talks so dang fast!! I can only just watch her mouth and try to listen really carefully as hard as i can but haha it is hilarious! So we were walking up the stairs to get to her apartamento and i had my hands in my jacket because it was blowing so hard, i think something like 40 mph wind or something like that at least! And i tripped on a stair and totally fell on my face because i couldnt get my hards out of my pockets in time hahaa it was so hilarious! Juan was laughing so hard hah man i only had a little mark, nothing too big, but yeah i didnt lose any teeth so thats a plus! :)
Our investigators, Florencio, isaac y fanni are all progressing very well, and they will be getting baptized this sunday! Isaac and Fanni have asked me to baptize them so im kinda nervous, and you know how the weeks before baptism are...HORRIBLE!! But im hangin in there! And so are they, just keep us in your prayers! And elder Kerouac will be baptizing Florencio so yeah its been a tough week so far already. I have been getting kind of frustrated with myself and trying to learn too much and just running my body dead so hopefully i can get some added strength this next couple of days! We picked up a new investigator on sunday as well, Alea Enriquez and she already accepted a baptismal date for the 24th of abril!! Crazy i know, but man she is going to be solid! Her boyfriend is the brother of a member in our branch and he was the one who brought her to church, and he hadnt been for 21 years!! What a miracle. Its crazy how the lord works sometimes :) Our branch is absolutely on fire, there were at least 130 in church this week, and with the confirmaciones and all, it was just a great spirit! Victor is progressing well, and we got back in contact with Carlos Escobar again and will be seeing him tomorrow night! We will be extending dates to him, victor, another couple Jacob y Nicole, and i think to a new one Trinidad. SO we got a big week ahead of us, and elder Kerouac and i are really working hard to get big work done before he gets transferred.
This week we also had exchanges and Elder Osorio came with me to our area and we did great! We taught a lot, and got some good contacts with a lot of Dominicans and Puerto Ricans! He is a great missionary! THe next day we had language training (saturday) in philly so that morning we got up and left at 7 and we got there to philly early and so we went and i got to go and run up the rocky stairs!! It was so much fun i got a video of it and everything you will love it!! Got some really good pictures as well, i hope i serve in philly it is so cool!! I was able to see Elder Reese, my mtc comp, and he is doing well, also i was able to see Elder Gunter, who was in my zone in the MTC but he left 6 weeks before me. They are both doing great and i sure do miss those guys! Language training was great ill send home the videos of it all!! There also was an elder that went home, he got diagnosed with Leukemia :( Elder Brewer. Keep him in your prayers please, he is doing well and they have him at the utah cancer place that is suppose to be really good, and they also said the the cancer is very treatable. So just thought you might want to know that.
Well, something i learned this week that i want to leave with you all is what i like to call Negro o Blanco. No hay gris. (Black or white. THere is no grey) If we really think about this analogy, well the way i look at it and i hope i can teach this so it makes sense, but its either its good or its bad. THere is no middle area. Now im going to use an example that i know we all hate, but speeding. How willing are we all to go over the speed limit? And how much? If youre going over the speed limit even by 1 mph, youre disobeying the law. Now i know, this really makes me so angry because we tell ourselves, well if the guy in front of me is peeding then its ok for me to speed. NO! THis is so hard for me so i wont be hypocritical, but how willing are we to sin?! DO we stay 5 mph under or at the limit or 5 over? Think about how you can apply this principle to your own life, and in what ways you can change. I testify that if we stay away from the limits of things, and keep ourselves in order with the lords will, doing the things that we know are right and wrong, not questioning what is right or wrong, then you will understand this concept more fully. If any of that made any sense, then thats awesome! I hope you understand the importance of obedience and how important it is that we are obedient to ALL things!
SOmething that i will be working on this week, and what was a big focus at language training is becoming submersed in the culture. Spanish Spanish Spanish!!! I am going to talk, think, maybe dream, write, everything in spanish! I was called as a spanish speaking missionary for a reason, so why not submerse myself into it and learn all that i can when i got 2 years to do it?! Great idea isnt it?! I hope so :) ALso, to become the missionary that God needs me to be, not the one that i want to be. THis is a hard principle for missionaries, and i am so guilty of it. I want to learn a lot, but if i dont need to learn as much as another missionary, so be it. Its not in the will of the lord. I am praying so hard that i can let go of my pride for loving to learn and study, and study the things that the lord needs me to study! Humility is a wonderful, but very hard thing!!
Well, i sure do love it out here, it snowed a couple inches last night, but it looks like its going to all melt off if it stays this hot! The work is progressing out here, and i am ready for the summer!! I played Futbol on thursday in my church shoes, pants and shirt and all the guys thought i was crazy ahaha i am just ready to start sweating or something i miss getting dirty!! But i sure do love it and i sure do miss playing sports! But i am out here serving and i am really being blessed for it. I love them people out here. I know that without the spirit of the lord, that i wouldnt be able to do the things that i have out here. Everything that i have, every talent, trait, just everything i have, i know is a gift from the lord. Find your strengths and make them stronger. Work on your weaknesses, but dont focus on them. Focus on what your good at and focus on doing whatever it takes to align your will with the lords. I promise you all that if you can manage to align your will with the lords, and perseverar hasta al fin, el senor va a bendecirle y va a mostrarle las cosas que son importantes en sus vida. Les amo amigos y familia, y yo quiero que sepan que este iglesia es la unica verdadera iglesia en este mundo y que cuando leemos las escrituras, vamos a saber bastante de nuestro salvador y redentor. Sigan Fuerte!
Elder Gallego
Monday, February 14, 2011
2/14/11
Que pasa mi familia y amigos?! Como estan?! Espero que todo esta bien en Arizona!
Ok so to start off...this was a really busy week!! Man i have so much to say! Ill start with yesterday and work backwards..So yesterday i gave a talk in church!! Yeah i know right it was wayy sweet!!! It was all in spanish and i messed up a couple of times but its all good! I got called on Sat. about 2 en la tarde that they needed me to give a talk on gratitud!! It went really well, and like they say, sometimes the person giving a talk or teaching gets more out of the people he is talking to...well that definately happened! It was such a great spiritual experience for me to bear my testimony on all of the things i am grateful for. First off, the savior. He gave his life for me, and i will be eternally indebted to him, but i am so grateful for the atonement and the opportunity that we have to use it every day and repent of our sins cada dia!! What a blessing that is, and now all we need to do is use it! The savior will always forgive us if we just come to him humbly in prayer and ask for forgiveness, and then do the things necessary for complete reopentance. I testify that the power of repentance is real and that if we truly do repent of our sins, then the adversary will no longer have any power over us. It is so worth it, and i am so grateful for this eternal principle! Also my family, without them i wouldnt be here. Mom, Dad y todo el resto de mi familia, thank you all so much for your hard work and sacrifice for me, for all the things i have put you through, and for everything you have done for me. I really have a special family that i cant wait to share all these experiences with! It truly will be so much fun when i can sit down and talk to you all about all the stuff i am learning!
I wish i could just explain all of the feelings that i have!! Its so hard as a missionary to write all these things that happen in a week in an email, because i just cant focus! I have so many things that i want to say that are changing my life, but then again i dont want to run out of stories to tell you when i get home!! But also yesterday, we had a baptismal service! It was great and a great blessing! There were a mom and her two ninas that were baptized by the other elders in our branch. Florencio, isaac and fanni were all there though as well as Victor! It was such an amazing experience! Victor is getting close to getting a date for his baptism, and florencio isaac and fanni are all still good to go for the 27th of this month! I am so excited!! Crazy thing that happend, remember how florencios grandmother was on her death bead...yeeah she is totally fine now! :) and now his brother who lives in virginia wants to drive up here and be taught the lessons and become a member!! It is insane!! THe bendiciones that are coming right now to our area are just unreal!!
Saturday we had exchanges, and i was with elder hall! We were doing some serious work!! We contacted 30 people, taught 7 other lessons, 10 total lessons, and got some new investigators!! I was just going at it man it was a blast! I love when i get the oportunidad to go out and contact new people! It was great!!!! We have a couple new families that we taught and have return appointments with as well, so this next week we are going to be really busy!
Zone Conference was on Wednesday, and man it was so good!! THe main focus of it was on prayer, and how we can make our prayers more sincere. It taught me a good lesson, because sometimes i am really tired and i really just want to get done with them, but that is the time where we need to pray the hardest. When christ was in the garden of Gethsemane and he was taking upon himself the sins of all the world, he prayed more fervently. Now if christ himself, the only perfect being that will ever walk the face of this earth prayed more fervently, i know i sure can! I am so grateful for prayer, and the oportunidad that we have to communicate to our father in heaven with whatever we need!! I challenge you all to really be more sincere with prayers. Especially when it comes to the book of mormon. In the second to last parafo in the intro of el libro de mormon, there is a promise made to everyoone who reads that book, and prays with faith tha not only will you receive an answer, but you will recieve an answer that the book is true. What a blessing that is! THat is a promise! REad it and pray about it and you will recieve an answer that it is true.
Until you have a testimony of this gospel, lean on mine. I know without a doubt in my mind that this is the true gospel of jesucristo. THat the blessings that come from living this gospel are eternal. If this church wasnt true, then the missionaries would have ruined it a long time ago!! How can it not be true?! The bible testifies of it in countless ways, and if you really do pray for an answer that it is true, you will recieve one!! Pray more fervently. Be a better example, and always remember who is watching out for you. Your heavenly father always will be with you no matter what. WHat a great blessing this is!!
Well thats about all im gonna say for this one, i had a great week, im learning so much spanish, and im kind of picking up a chilango/dominican accent hahaah even when i say english words it is really freaking me out!! But i love it! THis gospel is so true! Keep praying for me and for my investigators! We got back in touch with Hitamar!! His phone got shutt off and he has been busy he says, but he has a lot of doubts and we are going to start teaching him and his novia otra vez! SO please keep them in your prayers, as well as Carlos Escobar, who we havent gotten in contact with for almost 3 weeks now :( As well as Florencio, Isaac and Fanni. They are doing great, and it is really starting to get crazy out here! We had a full capilla yesterday! Thats chapel by the way sorry haha, and the spirit of the lord is working within my companion and i like never before! I love you all, and Happy Valentines Day Mom and London!! I love you all my family and friends!! Se cuidan!!
Elder Gallego/Venancilo-levanta la pata te que machucas el callo-hahaah this is what they all say to me when they see my last name. It is a really funny joke that i will explain when i am home :)
Ok so to start off...this was a really busy week!! Man i have so much to say! Ill start with yesterday and work backwards..So yesterday i gave a talk in church!! Yeah i know right it was wayy sweet!!! It was all in spanish and i messed up a couple of times but its all good! I got called on Sat. about 2 en la tarde that they needed me to give a talk on gratitud!! It went really well, and like they say, sometimes the person giving a talk or teaching gets more out of the people he is talking to...well that definately happened! It was such a great spiritual experience for me to bear my testimony on all of the things i am grateful for. First off, the savior. He gave his life for me, and i will be eternally indebted to him, but i am so grateful for the atonement and the opportunity that we have to use it every day and repent of our sins cada dia!! What a blessing that is, and now all we need to do is use it! The savior will always forgive us if we just come to him humbly in prayer and ask for forgiveness, and then do the things necessary for complete reopentance. I testify that the power of repentance is real and that if we truly do repent of our sins, then the adversary will no longer have any power over us. It is so worth it, and i am so grateful for this eternal principle! Also my family, without them i wouldnt be here. Mom, Dad y todo el resto de mi familia, thank you all so much for your hard work and sacrifice for me, for all the things i have put you through, and for everything you have done for me. I really have a special family that i cant wait to share all these experiences with! It truly will be so much fun when i can sit down and talk to you all about all the stuff i am learning!
I wish i could just explain all of the feelings that i have!! Its so hard as a missionary to write all these things that happen in a week in an email, because i just cant focus! I have so many things that i want to say that are changing my life, but then again i dont want to run out of stories to tell you when i get home!! But also yesterday, we had a baptismal service! It was great and a great blessing! There were a mom and her two ninas that were baptized by the other elders in our branch. Florencio, isaac and fanni were all there though as well as Victor! It was such an amazing experience! Victor is getting close to getting a date for his baptism, and florencio isaac and fanni are all still good to go for the 27th of this month! I am so excited!! Crazy thing that happend, remember how florencios grandmother was on her death bead...yeeah she is totally fine now! :) and now his brother who lives in virginia wants to drive up here and be taught the lessons and become a member!! It is insane!! THe bendiciones that are coming right now to our area are just unreal!!
Saturday we had exchanges, and i was with elder hall! We were doing some serious work!! We contacted 30 people, taught 7 other lessons, 10 total lessons, and got some new investigators!! I was just going at it man it was a blast! I love when i get the oportunidad to go out and contact new people! It was great!!!! We have a couple new families that we taught and have return appointments with as well, so this next week we are going to be really busy!
Zone Conference was on Wednesday, and man it was so good!! THe main focus of it was on prayer, and how we can make our prayers more sincere. It taught me a good lesson, because sometimes i am really tired and i really just want to get done with them, but that is the time where we need to pray the hardest. When christ was in the garden of Gethsemane and he was taking upon himself the sins of all the world, he prayed more fervently. Now if christ himself, the only perfect being that will ever walk the face of this earth prayed more fervently, i know i sure can! I am so grateful for prayer, and the oportunidad that we have to communicate to our father in heaven with whatever we need!! I challenge you all to really be more sincere with prayers. Especially when it comes to the book of mormon. In the second to last parafo in the intro of el libro de mormon, there is a promise made to everyoone who reads that book, and prays with faith tha not only will you receive an answer, but you will recieve an answer that the book is true. What a blessing that is! THat is a promise! REad it and pray about it and you will recieve an answer that it is true.
Until you have a testimony of this gospel, lean on mine. I know without a doubt in my mind that this is the true gospel of jesucristo. THat the blessings that come from living this gospel are eternal. If this church wasnt true, then the missionaries would have ruined it a long time ago!! How can it not be true?! The bible testifies of it in countless ways, and if you really do pray for an answer that it is true, you will recieve one!! Pray more fervently. Be a better example, and always remember who is watching out for you. Your heavenly father always will be with you no matter what. WHat a great blessing this is!!
Well thats about all im gonna say for this one, i had a great week, im learning so much spanish, and im kind of picking up a chilango/dominican accent hahaah even when i say english words it is really freaking me out!! But i love it! THis gospel is so true! Keep praying for me and for my investigators! We got back in touch with Hitamar!! His phone got shutt off and he has been busy he says, but he has a lot of doubts and we are going to start teaching him and his novia otra vez! SO please keep them in your prayers, as well as Carlos Escobar, who we havent gotten in contact with for almost 3 weeks now :( As well as Florencio, Isaac and Fanni. They are doing great, and it is really starting to get crazy out here! We had a full capilla yesterday! Thats chapel by the way sorry haha, and the spirit of the lord is working within my companion and i like never before! I love you all, and Happy Valentines Day Mom and London!! I love you all my family and friends!! Se cuidan!!
Elder Gallego/Venancilo-levanta la pata te que machucas el callo-hahaah this is what they all say to me when they see my last name. It is a really funny joke that i will explain when i am home :)
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
2/8/11
Hola mi familia como como
Ok so that you can all understand me now, I hope everything is all good back at home and wherever you all are! I am doing great here, and we had a really sucessful week again! I read the email de Nyal y it sounds like he is going to be in for a new one! Send him my best wishes and im sure he will do great! He needs to have more Faith in mimself!
Ok so to start, i love this place. I am learning so much every day, and every day i freak myself out with something cool that i learn it is so much fun!! :) I cant wait to come home and tell you all of the stories that i have!! The spirit this week in church was so amazing, and it really has finally hit me, that i am a full time missionary and that i will not be coming home until 23 de Octubre 2012!! I was really brought to a reflection moment this past week, reading all of the letters that were in mi paquete and it hit me harder that i have ever felt the spirit, how important my family is to me. I have really learned out here, that i took a lot for granted back at home. and that the things that i have learned now, i wish i learned them before, but i have learned my lesson. I am so grateful and so blessed to have the family that i have in my life, the parents to guide me in the right path, and that i have an amazing older sister and brother in law, both people who dont realize how much i look up to them as well as my own parents, and 2 brothers who i miss more than words can explain. I have been given so much, and this past week has really made me think, when the going gets rough and i think i have it bad, count the blessings.
I really love having this opportunidad en mi vida to leave my family for two years to help others be with theirs for eternity. What a great blessing that i have, to be one of the chosen ones of the Lord. I love these people, i have been able to really humble myself and realize how prideful i am, and how much i have to work on. A great scripture that explains this is Ether 12:27. It talks about Humility and how if we come to the lord, he will show unto us our weaknesses! So the way i interpret this scripture, is is i go to the lord he will show me how weak and how little i know...sounds like a good idea right?! It is a great idea! I truly have a tesimonio of this principle. we have to humble ourselves first if we expect to learn anything in this life. THat was a hard thing for me but i am now starting to really work and strive to take critisism and learn from it. I know it will help me become a better missionary!
So elder kerouac had his appt with the doctor on martes and the doctor told him that his foot still has a small fractura in it so he will have to wear this ugly flat shoe for like a week! But he is now back into his normal shoe today, for the first time in a month! ALso this week, we really focused on speaking more spanish between the two of us and we are doing pretty well as of right now! :) The language is coming to me and i dont know how i would ever be able to learn like this if i didnt have the spirit of the lord with me. Heck when we were on exchanges on thursday, we got called to the hospital to translate for spanish people, and of course it had to be a puerto rican! Man they talk so dang fast!! But i did really well and was able to get everything across just fine! It was wierd the woman had like 4 inch long fingernails and they were painted blue!! Very nice lady though!!
Florencio, Issac and Stefanie are doing really well! Florencio is having a couple of sturggles, but we expected that for sure. Especially with the kind of answer that he recieved. His grandmother is on her death bed all of the sudden now so it has been a really hard and trying week for him. He started crying in front of us on sunday, it was so sad. He asked me to give him a blessing and man the spirit really uplifted us all at that moment. It is so great to be able to use the priesthood power to bless the lives of other people i truly do have a testimony of the power of the priesthood. He also decided to tell us yesterday that he had a dream about a week ago, but was too scared to tell us. As he was going under the water in the baptismal font, he looked to his right and saw satan sitting there telling him that he was doing the wrong thing....pretty intense huh? He described him as a normal man, with big eyes and really long fingernails, and he was just sitting there with his hands on his knees shaking his head at him. Now of course satan is going to tell him no. He got such a strong answer, he is going to get oposicion in the same strength. But he is doing well. We are just really focusing on making sure that we make daily contact with him, because this is the most vulnerable time for investigators. Keep them all in your prayers please as well as us so that we may be inspired on what to teach!
So we have zone conference tomorrow! I am way excited because i learned so much de el primero reunion! Other than that, i dont really have much else that happened that was really big. I am just happy as ever and i am so glad to be out here serving. I know that i am being blessed continually for my efforts, and i am going to keep trying my hardest!!! I am learning so many food recipies too!! i cant wait to make some food when i get back for all of you!! We ate a lot of enchiladas, real enchiladas, and things called sope's and empanadas last night and a ton of other stuff!! Oh man i just love this area!
Anyways, i hope all is well with you at home, and all my friends, hope all is well, oh i need dereks address please so i can get him a letter before he jets out of the MTC!! He will be such a good missionary!! and i also hope all goes well with trevor and alyssa and with everyones health! Quit getting sick!! This church is so true, our heavenly father lives, he loves us and wants us to return and live with him again. Do what it takes to make sure that you are on the right path. DOnt let go of that iron ron, and always keep your eye on the prize. And when your are going through rough times, and you need someone to comfort you, Did you think to Pray? Always go to the one who knows you best, Your Father in Heaven. He will show you the way, and he will make your burdens light. I love you all and i am so grateful for all that you have done for me.
Les Queiro!
Elder Gallego
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