Thursday 9 April 2015

The One Where I Discover My Soulmate...Taco Bell!

Howdy Pardners,

This has been the best week ever! I wish everybody could feel the way I do! I don't know why the harder you work the more fun you have (also the more tired you are) but for some reason that's how it works!
General conference was the best thing ever. I try to make everyday my best day, it's more fun that way. Missionary work is like a spirit driven party all the time. The spirit overwhelms me in a euphoric contentment constantly! It's so hard to put into words, or even to explain it to anybody so I'm just not going to try. To all my friends who are not sure about serving missions, GET YOUR HEAD ON STRAIGHT! It's the best thing ever, and in the words of this generation's greatest philosopher, Nike, "Just Do It".

Well not that's all out of the way, I'm sure y'all (yeah you heard it) want to know how transfers went down. So as you know we lost Elder Dortch, Elder Bishop, and Sister Leishman. My new companion is Elder Gardner and he is the best! Elder Dortch is now in Rock Hill, South Carolina and Elder Bishop went to Lake Norman with my favorite Elder Seely! Sister Smith is training Sister Ince (yes the same Ince's from Kitchener, Ontario! She was actually told to look out for me when she got into the field. They probably heard I was crazy and wanted her to avoid me, TOO BAD!) Elder Marsh's new companion is Elder Kottcamp. This is going to be a great transfer!
Us on our way home in 'Big Red'

Canadian Missionaries...Sister Leishman, Sister Ince and I
So on out way down to transfers, rockin' in Sister D's van, Big Red, we stopped off to eat at a place I've never been before. Taco Bell. Lets just say fifteen minutes later, after consummating the relationship over a mango barbecue Chikstar, I knew that Taco Bell now held a special place in my heart, never to be replaced. We have already eaten there one time since then and the effect was similar.
Me with my Soulmate, Taco Bell ;)

We returned after transfers to our stinky apartment. I'm not sure if I mentioned last week, but the people who renovated our apartment, smoked in it while doing the renovations! We found cigarette butts in our sink. We have tried candles and air fresheners and all they seem to do is mix with the smell. All that's missing is the scent of stale coffee and our apartment would smell like a cheap motel!

We have had an insanely successful week. We have been finding like crazy and it's actually been working! Elder Gardner is like some fleshy good luck charm of new investigators. I should probably talk about Elder Gardner a bit more since I just realized that my first description of him so far has been "fleshy good luck charm". He is exactly a year and a day older than me, he is from an obscure town in Utah called Clinton, has two younger brothers, and has been serving for about a year longer than me. He is quiet, funny, an artist, and wants to do concept art for Pixar when he grows up.

Miracle Story! One of our investigators, when he came to pick us up for dinner one night, had two friends in the car. While talking over dinner they started asking us about our missions. We continued the discussion and I asked if they had ever heard about our church at all. Long story short, they are super interested, were reading the Book of Mormon after we left, our investigator bore his testimony to them, and it was just amazing.

Speaking of this great investigator, we had a powerful lesson with him last night where we had a mini Book of Mormon throw down. Elder Gardner is the master analogy maker and we had a great discussion. I cannot express my love for the Book of Mormon adequately. My patriarchal blessing essentially says, throw copies of the Book of Mormon at people and they will get baptized, so that's what I try and do. I know without a doubt that if anybody reads that book they will know it's true, if I know one thing at all its that fact. If anybody has a question. Whatever question. It will be answered in those pages. Every time I read my testimony gets a little stronger and a little deeper. Everything about it and it's coming about just makes so much sense!

General conference was so much fun and I was just pumped out of my mind during it. There were so many great talks, and I'm sure it's probably just because I am a missionary that I felt that way but it's true. I think my favourite talk was probably Kevin W. Pearson's talk. I was so psyched after hearing it! Other gems were Holland and both of Uchdorf's (duh), Gerald Causse, Wilford W. Anderson, Dale G. Renlund (that was an answer to a question), Michael T. Ringwood, and Dallin H.
Oaks. We watched all five sessions at the church, and had a taco dinner with the priesthood before the priesthood session that was a ton of fun. We had a hysterical conversation with Bishop and a couple other men, about ties. The quote that started it all was when a member of our bishopric, told the stake young men's president, "That is the most flamboyant tie
I have ever seen, and by flamboyant I mean gay." The Lenoir ward is the best! I've decided that any inspiration that President Craven receives that transfer me away is false, because I'm not leaving!

We had an Easter dinner with some ward members that was so much fun. There was a feast prepared and the food tasted so good! We helped with an Easter egg hunt for their one year old and it was a fun time. Our members here are the absolute best.

Have I told you lately how much I love all of you? Because I do.

Love ya!
Elder Galvin


The One Where Elder Dortch Uses a Hedge trimmer and Our Smoke Detector Commits Suicide!

Wow! This has been such a crazy week. I don't even know where to begin. I guess I should probably start with the juicy transfer news that you want to hear. Unfortunately, Elder Dortch will be leaving me. I will be staying in Lenoir and will be getting a new companion on Tuesday. We normally get transfer call on a Saturday night but for some reason, we didn't get them until the next morning. I am grateful for all that Elder Dortch has done and will not forget him. We are both sad but also excited at what is coming up for us! We are also losing Sister Leishman and Elder Bishop. Elder Turnbow is going to be our new District Leader. 

We moved this week! On Tuesday morning the apartment people told us that they were renovating the apartment on the end of the complex and basically said "here are the keys, get out!" We spent all day Thursday moving everything from one apartment to the one two doors down. It is the identical layout but the walls are freshly painted and the carpet isn't as nasty. We got to redecorate and it looks so good in here! Well it will look even better when we have the time to fully unpack but what else is p day for!

It was about time that our old apartment got renovated because boy did it need it. I came downstairs one morning to find our smoke alarm just lying on the ground. Well I actually noticed the gaping hole in the ceiling with the wires exposed first, and wondered if I had gone three months without noticing it. It turns out that the smoke detector had committed suicide during the middle of the night. So I put it next to the battery-less corpse of the carbon monoxide detector on the counter for the apartment people to figure out. 

We did get to teach one of the people who work for the apartment. He was trimming the bushes back with a hedge trimmer and, to break the ice, we went up and asked if we could try. Long story short, he offered us a job and we offered him salvation. We taught him the restoration and seemed really interested; however, like most people we find who are interested, they don't live in our area. There you go Morganton! 

This week has been rough for finding people. Since so much of our time has been spent moving. We have filled a lot of our finding time with other things. We were still able to get a lot of our appointments in. 

We got to go to see District 12 (Location they filmed The Hunger Games) last week and it was great! We took pictures in front of the bakery and got pictures of Katniss' house. We also went to a waterfall and took pictures. We went as just the four Lenoir missionaries because the Morganton missionaries were busy. We played football as a district after and my team won!
The gang at the Bakery

Katniss's House





















I gave myself a haircut one night! It took me like half an hour because I didn't want to mess it up but it turned out really good. I'm basically a professional now that I've cut hair twice in my life. Though I'll probably keep it going throughout the mission and maybe after because I really don't want to spend any of my already meager allowance on something I can do myself!

I spent some of today wrestling with our washing machine because when we hooked it up again I screwed the hoses to the wrong side so the hot was cold and the cold was hot. But when I re hooked it up I didn't screw it tight enough so water was spewing everywhere and it was pooling on the ground and it was just a hot mess. 

Thank you for all the love and support. It means a lot. Don't forget to be kind to your missionaries. Invite them over for dinner (but please don't call it feeding the missionaries we are not animals), go out and teach with them, let them teach you! 

Love ya!
Elder Galvin