Monday 19 December 2016

Monday December 19, 2017 - The One with the Cheap Shoes

This has been a good week here in Pineville. If I'm being honest this
will probably be the last group email report I'll send. I'm thinking next
week I'd rather spend time getting my stuff packed and saying goodbye
than spending time on writing a group message. If you write me
individually I'll try and get back though.

The week has been different. We lost Elder Merrill last week so it's
been lonely with just the two of us. His companion injured himself on
PDay last week while skating so he had to spend half of the week sitting in the
apartment with his new companion. 

We went on an exchange this week with the Elders in Fort Mill. I went
down there and it was good. We were able to find a new person for them
to teach which they've been struggling with. We did some service at a pretty 
nice thrift store. I actually bought myself a pair of shoes that were
basically brand new. The great thing was they were Johnson & Murphy
loafers that probably would retail around $250-$300 but I got them for
$7. They were too good of a deal to pass up. I really wanted to go my
whole mission wearing the same shoes and not buying anymore. 
I've accomplished the first part but I guess not the second.
My new shoes




















Our Zone in our Nativity Costumes...Yes Baby Jesus was played by a basketball!

We had a great Zone Meeting this week. President Alexander came and
said he enjoyed it. All of the training given was based on characters from 
the story of the Nativity and we wore costumes. Our bishop provided a
stable and the costumes. We took a big Zone photo afterwords with
everyone dressed up. After the meeting we all ate lunch that a member
prepared for us.
After the meeting we went on exchange with the Catawba Elders. Elder
Bishop came to Pineville with me. We had a good time together. We had
dinner with Linda and Lisa, our African friends who were baptized in
September. They did another African dinner for us. It was so good.
Elder Bishop really liked it too. We a tofu with an oxtail and cow
feet soup and ate with our hands.

The next day after exchanging back we drove up to Matthews for a
baptism. Elder Peterson and his companion had a baptism of a really
great Family. We were the ones to find them we and taught them a few
times but they lived in the Assistants areas so we referred them over.
Well one of the daughters of the family asked me to baptize her so we
got to go over for me to do that. It was really nice. The mom told the
story of how the first time we met she was in the other room while I
taught the kids. She was like "Elder Galvin probably didn't realize I
was listening the whole time, but I was soaking it in" we eventually
invited her to meet with the missionaries in her area and she was like,
nah, I'll meet with the ones in Pineville. We had to push it a bit but
she just fell in love with Elder Peterson and Blanco so it was great.
It's great to see the fruits of you're labours, although it stinks because
that's the second family I've found that lived outside my area that
ended up getting baptized. The other was the Beam's last month. Ugh. But
it's all okay.

This Saturday afternoon we stopped by one of our new investigators. He
is an Indian guy in his twenties who has a lot of friends who are
members that he met at university. He's been to church a few times and
even attended a baptism. Sounds pretty great right?  Well we go in and
get to teach him for the first time. We met him a month ago and never
got back in contact until now. We thought we'd give it one more chance. 
Well we go in and have the most textbook lesson. 30 minutes long. About
a third spent on How to Begin Teaching, a third actually teaching and a third
spent helping him make and keep commitments. It's going so well and
he's accepting everything wonderfully. He understands how to get an
answer he's excited to read the Book of Mormon. He's planning on
attending church with us etc. Well then we invite him to be baptized
and he responded emphatically with an 'absolutely not I will never be
baptized'. We were kind of taken aback and he continues by saying he
is Hindu and has always been a Hindu and that's his god given identity
that he will never change. Not wanting to fight we had him say a
prayer (which was incredible, he said all the things we asked him to)
and then we left. Hopefully the spirit gets him through reading the Book of Mormon!

Church was wonderful this week. It was our wards Christmas program. I
played the piano for two songs and sang in the choir as well . Overall, it 
was a really good week. We have been beat dead tired because of all the 
things we've had to plan for for as far as meetings, all while trying to build 
and maintain a teaching pool. It's been busy and I might just die before I 
get home but that's okay.

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


Elders Peterson, Blanco and I at the Baptism




Merry Christmas!

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