Monday September 19, 2016 - The One with the Bike Crash

This has been a great week in Pineville. 

Monday we had a zone activity. We played a some games at a park nearby. It was a lot of fun we got rained on at the end which made it better. 

Wednesday morning we skyped into a District Meeting. It was really interesting to be carried around as a Screen to present trainings and do role plays. It was a pretty unique experience. 

Thursday we went on exchange. I have decided that after this exchange I am never again going to Fort Mill on exchange because I hurt myself every time I do. If you'll recall last time I was there I split my chin open on a car door. Well this time I one upped it. Literally two minutes into biking I was going too fast, got off the sidewalk and, when trying to get back on, crashed my bike. I bruised myself up pretty good, got scraped up, and worst of all, ripped my favourite pants. I only had the one pair with me and my suit pants so I had to work the rest of the day with a hole in my pant leg. I also got my shoes super scuffed and like scraped the leather off of them and almost tore though the laces. 

It was a productive day otherwise. They have been struggling lately with finding but we were able to find their first new investigator in two weeks! It was great! Oh, and to add to the reasons I am never going back... I woke up the next morning with the beginnings of a cold sore. Which is now massive by the way. Don't expect many pictures. I look terrible. 

We had interviews with Pres the next morning which went well. My temple recommend expires at the end of the month so I got a new one. We moved some district meetings to Friday morning to cut back on their travel time. I went to Elder Simpkin's meeting. It was a hoot. After the meeting I went on exchange with Elder Clarke. He is one of the assistants and we were in the MTC together. It was nice to catch up with everything that's happened. We hit our 21 month mark together on Saturday which was freaky. 

There was a crazy experience we had while on exchange. We were driving down a street and I saw this man standing in his lawn holding a squirrel. I told Elder Clarke and we turned the van around to see it again. We were looking for a certain house so we decided to go ask the guy. We pulled over and chatted to the guy holding a small furry animal for a while. Elder Clarke videoed him. It was funny. 

Sunday was really great. I spoke in sacrament meeting and one of the talks was given in Spanish! Our Bishop translated alongside. It was so neat to see. Then we had dinner with the H family. We had a fireside with them. Literally. We taught a lesson outside in their backyard next to a fire. 

Oh. And I forgot to say that I've hopped on the gain train. I've started to voluntarily lift heavy objects. I also purchased protein power and mass gainers. I've been doing it for a couple of weeks now (thanks to my wonderfully motivational companion) and surprisingly haven't quit yet. Pray I keep up the motivation lol. 

Overall this was a good week. We were able to find a lot of great people. 

Send me pictures, read your scriptures, 

Love you!

Elder Galvin

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Monday September 12, 2016 - The One Where we see President lots!

I think I am being honest when I say that this has been the most
insane week of my mission to date. Not as far as being busy with
missionary things, but with all the circumstances that occurred. Wow.
Where do I begin?

Tuesday was arguably the most normal of the days. We grabbed a couple
district leaders and drove up to the Hilliard Building for MLC. The
meeting was absolutely incredible. Wednesday was when everything began
to go down hill and the mourning began.

So on Wednesday we spent most of the day at the church.  We were planning
Zone Meeting with the Sisters. While we were there we found out that
one of the sisters was going to be going home on Saturday morning. And the
bad stuff didn't stop there.

9:30 that night we made a phone call to President.  Due to health issues, 
our companion has been having a rough go lately.
We got a call back at 11:30 saying that he was going to be at
our apartment at 6:00am to pick our companion up and take him to the
airport. Needless to say we didn't get much sleep that night. We slept
for four hours then got up and helped him pack. President came to pick
him up and it was so sad.

To say Elder Peterson and I were bummed would be an understatement. We
went back to bed and didn't get out until like 8:30. We went for a
walk around our apartment complex to get some fresh air. We futzed
around the apartment for a while feeling sorry for ourselves and I
didn't shower until like 10:30. It was pretty rough. We spent the vast
majority of the rest of the day finalizing power points and
accountability for zone meeting on Friday. Thursday night we met up
with the Sisters again to film some funny roleplay videos for Zone
Meeting. We did one video of what not to do and another of what to do.
Unfortunately we filmed the not to do video first so when we were
trying to teach the sisters seriously they kept on laughing randomly
so we had to do the take again.

Friday was Zone Meeting. It went so well! President and Sister
Alexander came to our meeting. Elder Peterson and I got up early so we
could make a huge pot of Caramel Popcorn. It was so good! We gave it
to everyone during the break in the meeting.

After the meeting we went on exchange with the Catawba Elders. It was
a really good exchange. I went down to the Reservation with Elder
Bishop. The reservation was as scary as I thought it would be.

So this weekend was crazy too. After exchanging back we went with them
to a fabric store so we could get the fabric for the Zone Ties. Then
Elder Peterson and I went to the Stake Priesthood Leadership meeting
with the Ward and Branch Mission Leaders. President Alexander was
there was well. After that a member took us out for dinner and we came
back for the Adult Session of Stake Conference. Normally missionaries
aren't allowed to go to that meeting but President had us come. The
reason he did it was because he had Elder Peterson and I go up in
front of the whole Stake and teach the Message of the Restoration of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ in four mi Utes. Luckily we roleplay this
so it wasn't too bad. It was still pretty nerve racking though. We had
a ton of people come up to us afterwords and text us saying how
wonderful it was.

Sunday was equally crazy. After the adult season of Stake Conference
we saw Elder Ulrich. Yes. As in our companion who went home two days
previous. He flew back out to attend the baptism of someone he taught
in his last area. He came to our Stake Conference and our dinner
appointment with the Hernandez family. It was so weird because he had
a cell phone!! and it was so hard to say good bye again!

We went with the Hernandez family to a lady's house in the Sharon ward
boundaries. She is getting baptized soon and is being taught by our
Sister Training Leaders. It was Sister Fragoso's birthday so they were
have a little party for her. We got there early and hid in the
bathroom. While they were singing happy birthday we popped out to
surprise her. It was great. Then we had to rush back to pick up our
car and drive to the Hilliard building for the Mission President
Fireside. He had us teach the Restoration in front of everyone again.

So that's my crazy week. We are having Zone Activity today. It should be fun.

While we were driving one day our trunk opened up and I had to crawl through the trunk to close it

Sister Fracas's birthday present 

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Monday September 5, 2016 - The One Where L and L are baptized!!!

This has been great week here in Pineville. We were able to see a lot
of success.

This week L and L were baptized! It was such a great service.
We sang "The Lord is My Shepherd" because it's L's favourite hymn.

The craziest thing happened the night before. So first of all it was
their baptismal interview. The elder who was supposed to do their
interview had their ride not show up. We ended up having to leave 
our dinner early so we could and pick them up for the interview. 

We also were supposed to have an appointment that night with the guy
we found last week. That was supposed to happen at 8:00 but we didn't
get all finished up with the interviews and stuff until like 8:30 so
he ended up meeting us at the church at 8:45. Oh boy was that a hot
mess of a lesson. He basically tried to save us and prove to us how
our church is false. I calmly tried to explain everything but when he
just came back to the same points we already resolved. After that I
just shut up. 

My problem I have with conversations like that is twofold. One, a lot
of explanations presuppose belief/knowledge about fundamental
doctrines that may be unique to us. For example. Knowing that Jesus
and Satan are brothers can be a bit confusing to those believe the
formal doctrine of the Trinity. However when we have the true
understanding of the Godhead, that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ
are separate and that God is the Father of all us spiritually,
including Christ and Satan, it makes a whole lot of sense. The second
issue I have is that they expect us to be theological geniuses. Not to
toot my own horn, but I'm pretty well versed in the scriptures. I've
read them enough of have a decent comprehension. But like come on. We
are 20 years old. Not Harvard professors! Anywho. Rant over.

Elder Ulrich has taught the two of us how to make ties so in the
evenings we have been tie making fiends. We bought some fabric at a
fabric store and have been putting them together throughout the week.
They look really good. We are going to be making matching ties for all
the Elders in our Zone and hairbands for the sisters using the same
fabric. We don't know how to make the hairbands but there's a member
who does. We are going to show up to zone conference in them. It's going
to be sweet!

Saturday night we had a member from one of Elder Ulrich's previous
areas come down and take us out for dinner. She was super sweet and we
went to that great hibachi place again. It was really good for him.

We also taught that Hispanic couple again. We had a translator for us
again. Wow are they ever solid. As soon as he can get work off on
Sunday's they are so getting baptized. It's incredible because even
though we don't speak the same language, the spirit is so strong and
the husband just looks at us an points at his head and says in broken
English, I understand.

Overall it was a pretty good week. The baptism was definitely the
highlight of the week but the whole thing was good.

Send me pictures, read your scriptures,
Love you!
Elder Galvin

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