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