Navidad, navidad siempre digo aaaa

Well it was great to see yall Christmas. Yall are funny, it's always nice to share the same bad humor with people and not have to explain your inside jokes to people. But incredibly difficult to communicate in english not gunna lie. Super hard. But worth it.

Ok so as a zone we did a white elephant gift exchange. So i brought a toy gun and bow sticky dart thing. I won toilet paper and a toothbrush. So pretty much won the contest. WINNER

So to explain what we did Christmas,

So after we hung up I waited for everyone else to finish their calls then we went home cause we had to be at home by 6. So we were able to just sit around the house and relax. Incredibly needed. Played rugby in the street, made low class hamburgers and watched movies (from the church obviously) until bedtime. Super relaxing. If it weren't for the spanish it felt like I was back in the house. Super weird.

So the next day we went to Gorbea which is the sector of the Sisters in our zone (we are the smallest zone in my mission so we have 4 sister missionaries. One sector.) Did an attack of the district of Nueva Tolten. It was super good i worked with a Columbian who is blacker than the night. It is super funny cause he speaks little

english and here in Chile there is like no such thing as racism doesn't exist. So he asked me in heavily accented english "Am i your favorite nigger?" It was the funniest thing ever i died laughing. But i taught him the word redneck so now he tells me that i am his favorite redneck. Score one for Elder Galbreath.

Then we came back to the sector to work and finished the day normal.

Sunday i had a talk. Talked about new years and how we need to be ready for what is coming this year. Went over like a watermelon in a

waterfall. (Which if you havent seen, its quite awesome) Then sunday was spent just working and doing all the fun stuff that is the mission. In other words awesome, but lots of heat now. Really unexpected. But it was good.

Oh my gosh Zoe is getting baptized the 9th. When did that happen.

New years eve we will have to go in early but New Years we are working normal actually. That is gunna suck because New years no one even recognizes outside. It’s gunna be good though.

Love yall thanks for everything have a GREAT new year.

Elder Galbreath

Christmas!

Hey so the most important notice is I am going to try and skype at about 3. So if yall can try and be on about that time. We are having trouble finding computers but we are gunna get it figured out don't worry. Still get 40 minutes. Super lame. But we will do it. And enjoy it. This year is going to be very different than last year because the ward isn’t fighting over our time so we will see. Looks like we have dinner christmas eve though. That will be dope hopefully. So this week we had our activity of the branch for christmas. This was super fun. I was totally the dj/director so that was fun. Had like 4 investigators that went so that was amazing. 

J and C are like the most prepared people i have met in my mission its amazing.

Gifts from God.

Elder England is a good guy and we are getting along well. Hey is from Utah and is funny. Reminds me of a cat. Don’t know why but super not innocent but like off sense of humor. Its fun stuff. But I also have Elder Yson from New York in my house and between the two of us we represent the most American missionaries in the mission. Both rock the flag socks and the camo hats. With the flag in the background. Super dope. His dad has a gun store in New York and is also a sniper anti-terrorist. So we get along well.

So this week we also had a wedding! 

It was super dope this guy got married to be baptized and is super converted. Awesome.

So the rest I’ll be talking to yall friday. 

Love yall

Elder Galbreath

I am confused..

Well that subject line just about sums up the week. Good week this week just lots of confusion and stuff moving. But that is kind of the life here in the mission or no? But here goes the tale of Elder Galbreaths week. So tuesday was like a half day because we had district meeting in Pitrifquen so when we got back we had to go and see at what time a bus leaves for temuco because we had to leave that night. So we got back to Loncoche at 2 to find the only bus that leaves is.....at 3. So we are kind of freaking but luckily we find another bus company that leaves at 730 so that is what we wanted. So we went to lunch to find...half the branch in the house! It was a branch activity i didn't know about so we had asado! Super good called a disco where they put the put in this big bowl that they put over the coals so the juices all stay and makes the meat taste amazing. Usually its like 2 or 3 types of meats at a time so it is delicious. So that was super awesome and random. But after that we passed by Polet to get her ready for her baptism Saturday (!!!!!!) and we start talking to her about it and she tells us how she isn’t sure about it now because she doesn’t like the sacrament or prophets. Also she basically denied the testimony she received about the Book of Mormon. So we are going to see what happens with her but it wasn’t her baptism. Kind of left me frustrated. So we went back packed our bags to go to temuco to go to the activity of the mission!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOHOOOO (puts lights and fireworks here.)

So we went to a place in temuco that you say cat-ree-wall-a. So saw a friend there slept on the floor and got up way to early in the morning to get to the church at 7 so we could get to the activity in Angol at10. So that was exciting but definitely worth it it was so fun to see everyone from the mission. Got to see my dad (Elder Sanders) right before he ended his mission. That was weird. Also got the generational pic because Elder Duffin was there as well. 

Saw everyone from the district in the CCM and just the whole mission. Really cool. Had some great talks by the Bluths i really liked Hermana Bluth´s talk she started off with the story of the 3 small trees (if you haven’t heard it go and read it its awesome.) Then she shared how God has a plan for each of us and how we need to be humble enough to accept it, reverent enough to hear it, and teachable to be able to learn from it. I really loved it especially cause it humbled me because what happened with Polet really got me fired up. But God has his plan for each of us and we need to accept it. Super good talk. Then we passed the time to the sketches and to some ours up... We had a life size passalong card that sang a cathchy song and i was a drunk who ended up getting baptized with the family.  So basically a day in the life. Super great stuff.

But I got yalls package and the a pack of the girl scout cookies did not make it the bus ride. I shared with my zone thats why. But they

are delicious. I never know if i want to just have one incredibly happy blissful day and just go ham or if i should enjoy them little by little. I am going little by little. For now. So Saturday it started like misting strongly and Sunday it turned into a straight up downpour i was like what the heck its supposed to be December and hot. This is not ok. But so that was interesting, luckily it wasn’t raining enough to stop these super awesome couple we found from going to church though!!! We found them saturday and they commited to go to church and they did!! we stopped by and went with them it was super awesome. So i am super excited for them.

Also my towel was drying outside when it started raining so it was absolutely soaked when i went to shower. So i am glad for the 2 hand towels mom sent with me. Saved my life. Also its a good thing my waterheater has batteries because our lights went out sunday morning.

Did i mention it was an interesting day? So i got absolutely soaked and really hoping my shoes are dry when we get back to the house. But to end all this its cambio time and Cederstrom is getting out and Elder England is coming here. Another new guy who got here with my son. So that will be fun. Heard he doesn’t speak much spanish so that will be interesting. So here goes nothing!

Mom this pday we played soccer on this big turf field in Pitrufquen. I am really bad but my slide tackles are on point. Only thing i got going for me. We cook every now and then if we want something for dinner but Elder Quezada is super good at cooking so he usually does it. But he gets back at us because latins don't actually clean. Seriously house is a mess until Elder Galbreath gets frustrated monday and cleans everything. usually elder Cederstrom doesn’t like to clean up after others so he does his stuff.

Star wars......no comment.

Love yall tons keep on going.

Elder Galbreath

Loncoche

So if my mission had the boonies, well that would be Cunco but if it had another one it would Loncoche. Its so dope I love it. Really pretty down here as well as there are lots of hills and stuff around here. Hiked up one this morning actually. Super dope. So my comp is Elder Cederstrom, he is from AZ. Nice guy kind of reminds me of how I started the mission. Not quiet but not bursting with energy and happiness. Reminds me of how much I have changed. not saying he isn’t a cool guy honestly we get along well. He actually is a gun guy as well so that’s pretty dope. So had some fun times with that. But he got here with Elder Duffin so thats cool. Working with the new guys is fun cause it makes me realize how unprepared I was when I got

here. Seriously they (Duffin and Cederstrom) are both already better missionaries than I am so I'm excited to see where they go when they get a little time under their belt. Elder Parkin from my district is in my Zone and Elder Dayton is my ZL. Dayton got here with us as well. super weird to see them being important and speaking spanish and stuff. Honestly this cambio made me feel old. I’m not the oldest in my house but tuesday the other guys had exchanges so I was. They all have less than 5 months. That didn’t affect me until one of them mentioned that all of their time added up is less than my time. Dang wippersnappers. Seriously though not cool. I hate being old. But Loncoche is super cool bigger than Cunco but still small. Hard contacting here so we are working with old investigators and trying

to break this bubble here in Loncoche. I dunno how to explain it its just like this weird mist feeling here. So trying my best to get to know the sector so i can really start working it here. But this too shall pass and soon Loncoche will be the new.....I dunno what it will be but it will be good! Haha.

So this week we found this ex missionary who served in Chicago actually and he speaks perfect english and german. Don’t know how good it was but he really went on in weird sounds so I trust him. But he is very inactive not that he lives a bad life he just is atheist. Don't know which is worst. But he is really smart and knows a lot about the gospel so we actually talked a lot about stuff and well he did come to church sunday but after to talk to president as he is in the process of trying to get his name taken off. So we will see how that goes as he is super nice and we are actually teaching his sister in law.

Woohoo!!!.......

Other than that taught a couple people here and had some good times.

Pday we hiked up this hill that overlooks all of Loncoche and had lunch on this big pile of sticks and stuff. It was dope. Great view.

Umm i love yall!

Mom

The new house is dope pretty nice counter downstairs makes us feel classy and stuff. We live with 2 other elders a new guy from Brazil and another guy from Peru. Both good guys we laugh a lot and mess around a lot. 

No lost items in transit!

Pancakes....I miss those suckers. Buttermilk does not exist here. I cry a lot.

Hasta ver.

I am thankful for the opportunity to be able to be here and share the gospel with people who would never know. Thankful for my family and how great of an example everyone is. I grow in appreciation for my

Savior everyday for everything that he has done for me and all that my Heavenly Father puts up with me. Some day he will give me the biggest sigh as he hugs me when i return. But i am so grateful for everything in my life that has lead me to the greatest thing i have, a testimony of the gospel.

Have a great week of thanksgiving give everyone a hug for me.

Elder Galbreath

And that's when I realized I was Batman

Can’t hold me here anymore. And it’s official I am leaving Cunco. Going to another pueblito south of Temuco called Loncoche. It is the sector furthest south of the mission. So that is gunna be interesting. I am sad however to be leaving Cunco I really love the people here and have had so many great experiences here it will be hard to leave. But I am excited to go and see more things and have more experiences. My next comp will be Elder Cederstrom from AZ who got here with my son actually so he is pretty new. So that will be fun but also sad cause I have to leave Elder Duffin. Gunna miss this goober. But anywho so this week was actually super dope because they had a festival in Melipeuco called the Festival of the Baqueanos. A baqueano is like the mountain man type thing the people who live in the mountains here. Super dope festival the outfit of the baqueano is awesome. Totally would SASS that. Hair on wooly chaps, actually lots wear like berets basically and plaid. But it looks super dope. 

And the real cool thing is the knives they have. SUPER nice like big knives but the set is a fork and the knife all set in the leather sheath looks super dope. Almost bought one but didn’t have the money on me. But if I find one. But the festival was awesome because there was a ton of stuff like in booths and SO MUCH FOOD. Like probably every other booth was selling shishkabobs of meat and breads and so much meat. And a ton of places had like hardcore asados going on. Super dope. 

And these members had a fruit juice booth going on so we had a ton of free fruit juice. Super dope. And we contacted so many people in that place. Just everywhere you go just people and people. Awesome Also tragedy this week. (always comes after the good stuff) The aunt of our branch presidents wife died and they had been taking care of her for a long time so that was really hard. So we had her funeral and stuff this week. I also became a pallbearer. A privilege I had hoped would not come for a while but it happened. Here in Cunco the missionaries kind of do everything so we had to organize a bunch of stuff and go open everything and clean the chapel saturday morning. But it was an experience. So sunday we went to the cemetery and buried her and it was weird so the aunt that died wasn’t a member so supposedly her family had asked that Adventists and Catholics did stuff as well so we got to listen to the catholics sing and read

scriptures and the adventists as well. I will give this to the adventists though wow that lady could sing like a boss. Very impressive. But that was kind of our week really lots of walking and touching doors. 

Dad very impressive turnout for the match. And that’s funny to hear about Chandler, sorry that he has to deal with that though. I do enjoy hearing about everyone back home though so thanks.

Mom. Calm down I am looking for a nativity set. Doing my best but so far the only one I can find is a very catholic one where Mary was the center and I think there was a baby jesus in the background. So working on it.

Garrett. Oh wait awkward. Just kidding still love you be good.

Elder Galbreath

Temptation at it's finest.

Preaching to the Lamanites

Walked and walked and walked

Ok so good news monkeys are all much calmer now so we do have time I apologize for any complications that may have arisen because of the primate riots. So the last two weeks were good. So last saturday we had a zone attack or when all the missionaries go to a sector and work for a little bit. They all came to Cunco. Literally they contacted all of it. Super dope. But it was really good they did find a lot of people and so we are slowly finding out which ones are actually good and which ones really didn’t want anything and there are actually quite a bit of people who don’t exist. So working on that one. But it was super cool. Then that night we went to Meli to work. Had lots of people to visit including one guy who lives like 15-20 minutes walking outside of Meli. So we go and he is a super dope guy lots of questions but is super skeptical about all religion. He doesn’t really believe in the bible and is always asking like super deep hard question, but we always answer as simply as we can to help him and testify a lot. but so we did that then went back to an old lady we are teaching. Basically the opposite. Lots of repetition and everything about as clearly and simply as one can make it. But she is super nice. So we were trying to explain prayer to her and try and let her realize that it isn’t something written down. So trying lots of that. But we missed the bus from Meli to Cunco at 8. So acting under the assumption that there is a bus at 10 we start walking try hitchhiking and thinking if it don’t work whatever because the bus. There isn’t a bus at 10. So after like 3 and a half hours of walking our branch president calls cause he figures out what we did and starts chewing us out royally, and calls almost everyone of our ward to try and find someone with a car to come get us. so we walk...and walk....and walk....and about 1 someone gets us and we get to the house. So that was a fun day. And then in church the next day president chews us out hardcore in front of everyone twice and the hermanas in the ward. Well i was lucky to leave with my life. My comp of course doesn’t say a word and everyone just chews me

out then someone looks at him and asks why didn’t he say something and he says in exaggerated bad spanish well he is older than me i dunno. So they all return to me and treat him like he was innocent. Darn new kids. I still love him but dang it. But then wednesday we had interviews and that was cool. Got my temple recommend again. So I'm good now. And hermana bluth was teaching people to direct music and she asked if i knew how and i kind of chuckled and said yes i did so she had me show her a little. I explained moms story of callings in the church and she understood. Props to mom.

So other than that the week was long. Nothing real exciting until sunday when we had Maria (the old lady from Meli) come to church. So that was super dope that she could come and we were able to help her feel more at home and at ease with the church. It was great.

Last week heard a dope quote from Elder Hallstrom that goes what we are now doesn’t define what we can become. Really liked that. Made me think of the quote "The Lord doesn’t care who we were. Only where we are and, with his help, who we can become." The point of all the gospel is to change for the better (ex:Mos 3:19) so if you are the same person you were 3 years ago you need to change what you are putting into the church. So everyday be looking to change. Not necessarily become a cookie cutter mormon or a normal Christian but always be looking to change to be a better person, husband,wife,son, etc.. My thoughts that i share in the name of Jesus Christ.

Mom, sometimes in life the grass is just a little bit to high to see the hanging down things. Its times like that we have to move on and trust the spirit.

Questions

So dia de los muertos they don’t have and halloween yes but its not as big. Kids go around but more than anything its little kids and the teenagers go around throwing eggs at houses. Like its very common actually. Like everyone does it. I just don’t know sometimes. They do however have dia de los Santos. Its the day they all go to the cemetery and wash the graves of the family and stuff. Really big, like everyone goes to the cemetery. But that also means that there are a ton of people selling stuff so it almost turns to a quickly take care of the fam and lets go shopping. Sorry thats the only question i remember.

Love yall

Elder Galbreath

Groundbreaking

So this week on saturday was the groundbreaking of the Concepcion temple. Was super dope I loved the ceremony. Actually my old Stake president got to give the first prayer, saw a couple people I know in the choir and of course my Mission President. President Bluth actually got to translate for the Sister Teixera. Actually if you have ever translated for anyone you know its really not to fun and slightly stressing because the person always talks way to long before giving you time. But he did a good job. But very spiritual the dedicatory prayer was super beautiful. Inviting us all to realize what a blessing the temple is. Elder Gonzalez is our area President and he is a boss. So other than that amazing spiritual high the week was all pretty good. We worked like crazy in all types of weather. Seriously like it rained like crazy one day and then it would get super hot. Today it was hot in the morning but it definitely looks like it is going to rain here in like half and hour. Yay. Gotta love chilean weather. 

Huge props to the name of Smoke. Dope name. I like it. He looks pretty good too. Skinny but hey I'm sure Ma will take care of that pretty quickly.

So other than that we did service a couple times this week, chopped a lot of wood. And still have both legs so thats always good.

Ok so did an experiment this week. So for one hour I counted all of my sins of comission. So all of my conscious sins, thoughts and actions I counted how many I did. Then I took that and did the math to find that on a 16 hours and hard core watching myself I sin approximately 6,508 a day. I did all the math and I sin a lot. And thats only the things I do. I cant even imagine all the things I don’t do and how many that would add up to. But a lot. So then I started thinking about how Jesus payed for all of those. Also how he was perfect so he literally committed none of them. Talk about feeling unworthy. Really gave me a good look on how far along the scale of perfection I am. I’m thinking

like negative 1 million. But it was still a pretty cool experiment.

Well other than that we made french toast for a family home evening. That was dope tasted so good. Love american food.

Well i love yall have a great week!

Elder Galbreath

Woo Hoo

Well this was definitely 7 days.

So this week was just so chalk full of fun and interesting stuff so I’m just not gunna mention any of it.

Just kidding nothing outside of the normal preaching the gospel and trying to not be discouraged in my quest to become more like Christ. Its quite difficult. But here goes nothing right!

So this week couple fun stuff we walked out into the middle of nowhere. Well we kind of live in the middle of nowhere but we went even deeper. We always see lots of little houses and stuff on the way to temuco and stuff so we decided that hey why not go over there and knock those houses. So we did. Walked for like an hour and half only but knocked some of the country houses. But don’t get to excited the people in the country don’t want anything to do with us either. But we are indeed trying. We did have this one guy come up to us and invite us to go to his house like 5 kms outside of cunco and we could do like

a reunion and stuff. So hopefully this week that is coming we can go out and meet with him and his neighbors. I really want to do like the old style get up and present our message to a large group of people

like you see in the old videos of missionary work. That would be super dope kind of excited to try it. Hoping it works out. Then we also got to go see this hermana that just left the hospital last week and it was the first time we got to see her in a while. She is recovering super fast though and is already walking around. So

thats super cool very impressed. She actually made the long trip to the church as well and shared her testimony about how merciful the lord has been with her though. It was super powerful. Then our mamita

shared how she feels horrible cause she has like a bad cold and almost stayed in bed this morning. But the Hermana Vilches is like the coolest lady here. She is super strong in the faith. And her son Mauri just sent his mission papers in. So hopefully he will be getting his

call here in about a month. He is our ward mission leader actually. Super dope guy and really wants to go to the states. He is super cool. Our attendance in church was the lowest it has been with a whopping 15

people this week. CUNCO!! But so testimony meeting was short because well 15 people cant take a ton of time. And not everyone shared. But of course the white people did. Also had a less active member show up

so that was super cool. So this month has been super eye opening for me. Basically in our branch we have seen, 1 major cancer operation, 2 deaths in families, 1

old aunt almost die then get better, 1 family of investigators separate and she took the kids, and the normal problems of the mission. So I have been stressed to the max lately and had a very direct and honest prayer this week about how i needed more help from the Lord. I had been feeling like i was just trying to do it by myself. Then i prayed and after i didn’t feel anything. All i wanted was to feel a little bit of peace, little bit of comfort. But i got nothing. So i wiped my tears out of my eyes and went to bed thinking

well tomorrow. That night i had a dream. Nothing amazing but for me it was big because i usually never dream. Like i cant remember the last time i had ever dreamed. But that night i had one. Just my comp and i

walking down the street talking about weird stuff when we turned into the seminary building back home. Walked in like it was normal and i just said hi to a couple of people i remember from back home. Then we went into sister Payne´s classroom and were just there for a minute. I woke up and it was morning. I realized that was my answer. Nothing big nothing overly dramatic just going back to a place that back in high school was such a place of comfort and peace when i needed it back when everything was just hectic. I just wanted to share that with y'all to let you know 2 things. 1 the lord answers prayers in any way possible but it probably wont be the answer you are looking for but it will come. and the 2nd is i just testify of seminary and church buildings. I miss seminary for the peace it brought to me. Always went to the seminary building for lunch and it was kind of a part of my day to be there. I love the gospel and everything about it. This is the only true church on the face of this earth that can do all this.

So answers,

Yes i checked back on my bag but they didn’t have anything. Gunna check once more tuesday. I don’t know if y’all want me to buy a camera or anything or just have yall send me one. I don’t know the price down here I will check. I would appreciate another scarf, they are super warm. Also I know this is weird but maybe if yall find another camel? I actually use it a lot to teach so it was very nice. Or if not a camel some other stuffed animal of approximately that size.  No my photos were not in it. I have this card still, didn’t lose my home credit card, and I already got new scriptures.

Thanks for being patient with me.

I love yall have a great week!

Elder Galbreath

Ummmmm.......

Well this week was definitely full of interesting activities. Going to Concepcion, going to our local police department, general conference, all of it was awesome.

Yeah so starting out with the big news as far as yall don’t know, I got robbed this week. They took my sidebag from the bus terminal when i went with another elder to go see if the bus that pulled in was ours or not. So that is slightly really sucky. So list of stuff i no longer have, a bag, my carefully marked and loved scriptures, my camel, my carnet(id here in chile) my money for the month, my camera, temple recommend, my little study books i had been filling with scriptures, my scarf and those marking crayons i had. 

Worst time to get robbed is right before a huge trip where you plan on studying a lot. 

So the mission is letting me "borrow" a little bit of money to live for the month but they will take it out of future allotments. So this month may be interesting. Also the mission can’t technically help me with anything as far as getting anything again. So if its cool with yall i will have to be getting some stuff this week that is coming. Sorry I’m not happy about it.

But other than that black mark on my week it was super dope i loved it. 

So friday i went to Concepcion to do a return and report during my kids training. So that was cool got told how we all need to work harder cause if not our kids would suck.

But the cool part was definitely the general conference. Watched it in english except for like a couple talks I walked over to the sacrament room to check on everything. But it was super good i don’t have the time to express all my love for everything that happened but just know i was super super happy. Loved all of them. One talk I would like to stress is that of Elder Durrant of the 70. He talked about ponderize. Please if you don’t remember that talk go back and look at it its from the sunday afternoon session. I love the idea and am starting it today. Take a scripture, put it somewhere where you will see it often such as your wallpaper on your phone, the fridge or in your car and be thinking about that scripture during your free moments. You will memorize many scriptures but more than that you will have your thoughts constantly on good things and will be filling the commandment of "treasuring up constantly the words of life" I love the idea and am putting them on the cover of my agenda every week. Very excited to see all that will happen with this. And next week i will get to study another. But think deeply about these scriptures every moment you can. Super excited. 

Loved Elder Eyrings talk sunday i believe about the spirit. The spirit will make good things look better and bad things look better, that alone is reason enough to strive to have it. So really enjoyed that. 

Pres. Monson´s talk was very powerful and i was very worried but i took strength in the promise that angels will bear us up. There is a story in the old testament in i think 2 kings like 16 or something about Elisha being surrounded by an army but saying there are more with us than against us. Then the young man who was with him had his eyes open to see the scores of angels around them. I know that we cant see them but at every moment we have scores of angels around us and the prophet has legions to help him. 

I love the lord and the spirit that abounds from his servants. 

Love yall keep safe,

Elder Galbreath

Another week.

Hey yall! So this week was pretty fun didn’t do a lot but did some fun stuffs.

So last monday we went to the Colico Lake that is nearby. We hitchhiked out there it was super fun. Met a really nice guy named Jose that carried us out there. Then we just walked around chilled, ate sandwiches and had some fun. Very relaxing day. 

Wednesday we had our zone conference with President and Sister Bluth. It was cool, Hermana Bluth loves horses so she actually brought her bridle and talked about bridling our passions and our tongues specifically. As missionaries it is our most powerful tool. Reminded me of a story I think Sis. Payne shared with us in seminary. A young couple lived out in the forest and they had a cow who constantly got out. One day the husband was going to go to town to get supplies and he said sarcastically to the wife "Do you think you can keep the cow in while I'm gone?" She said she would try. While he was gone a huge storm rose up and when the husband got back all he found was a note that said the cow got out but...I think I can find her. He searched for them both. Neither had survived. Words are something that once said even God can’t kill them. So basically major palos to your incredibly sarcastic Elder here in Chile. But I'm working on it. So that was cool. Then I don’t know if yall have seen it a video called Missionary work and the Atonement it is with Pres Eyring and Elder Holland. Super great video that the Assistants showed. Pretty good stuff. The Atonement!!

Then we visited a sister in our ward who is in the hospital in Temuco cause she just had her cancer taken out. Ovarian cancer. So we stopped by and gave her a blessing and she is doing really well actually looks great and everything. So we are praying everything keeps going so well for her. 

Then the rest of the week was just the missionary grind until Saturday. 

Saturday we went to Melipueco and we were just touching doors cause all of our appointments fell again. And so we were going to this part when we heard this guy yell Elderes. We get lots of people kind of making fun of us yelling random english words at us so we didn’t really pay attention to him but then he said it again so we turned and said hi and he shook our hands and started telling us how he had completely changed who he was cause he saw the love of God and Jesus in his life and he wanted to accept our message. He had shared with missionaries before but he didn’t like it back then but know he loves it and loves that we have a prophet. So we were like uhhh....but then we recovered and shared a book of mormon with him and a day to pass by later cause he was leaving. But it was super dope so I'm excited to see where that goes. 

Also a member brought their best friend to church and I had talked to him before and we get along really well so I'm hoping he will really take interest in our message and accept it. Nice kid by the name of Sebastian. He is like 16 if I remember right. But nice guy we actually talked to him at the 19 celebration. We had a pull up competition. He beat me. But nice guy still. 

So yeah that was kind of this week. We got a lot of rain and cold this last week. The weather is just so crazy here. Never makes up its mind. But yeah. So loved the hot hands.

Well I love yall so much have a great week!

Elder Galbreath

Independence of Chile

SO before anything else know i took a ton of photos and that i forgot my cord in the house. So next week.

But this week was super fun. We stayed here in Cunco and went to their big parade thing they have here. All the kids in the public school have to march. Or put on the uniform and walk 4x4 in a big line. Then all the clubs and old people and firefighters and cops and such. Kind of cool lots of participation here. LOTS. And the coolest part is here in Chile they like adore the cowboys so there were a ton of guys on horseback dressed in traditional huasso gear. Flat brimmed hats and the cool poncho thing. (Which i found out is about 26 thousand pesos so about 50 bucks. For the freaking poncho. Despite the desire might not be getting one here. But the hats are cheap.) But so they filed by and gave the "authorities" or the people on the stage some really nice wine that they all drink from the horn of a bull. The generals in charge, head firefighter, the Priest in charge of Catholic stuff here. Because only in Chile does a cowboy give a firefighter wine and its called tradition. YAY!

But then we walked around and we ate sopapillas and a ton of empanadas. So fetching delicous. Its crazy how good fried bread with meat is. Super good stuff. But yeah. Then the 19 is the other big holiday here with even more drunk people in the street so we went to Melipueco to the Vilches house and had a blast down there. My comp and i totally dominated the three legged race and i won musical chairs. You indeed may say i am a boss. Ok so i had to pull the chair almost out from under the other guy to win but hey i got the big candy bar. Thats the part we need to focus on. But it was super fun then after we went exploring in their fields and it was great. LOTS of food and super great fun. Had a couple investigators there so lots of member-shipping. 

So cool stuff on the side of missionary work. We were knocking houses and this kid invited us in and his family was all there and his friend. The first sign that this could not end well was that he had about 8 empty beer cans in front of him. All his family were not all there. Not like drunk but definitely getting close. But the mom and kid were nice so we shared with them quickly and got out. Then teaching another lady who invited us in this kid is literally crawling all over my comp, like this kid of 4 years basically sitting on my comps head. So Elder Duffin starts to play and does that thing where the little kid like climbs up your lap to do a flip while the adult is holding his hands. But then my comp lets go of his hands a second to early and the kid falls straight on his face. Funniest thing when we realized he was ok. He just stood up rubbed his nose and said it didn’t hurt. Super funny.

Elder Duffin is doing good he is progressing a lot, doing good work here. He almost gave a talk with no preparation because our President was like hey i forgot to assign talks Elders you have them. So we prepared them both and then a guy from Temuco came so my comp was off the hook. But i got to give a good 20 minute talk from my notes i could scribble down during the sacrament. But its a lot harder to do when you are also blessing the sacrament so i couldn’t get to focused on it. But it was good i felt really good about the talk. Talked about the name of the church and all the meaning of every part. I even quoted a catholic guy we taught once for the definition of a saint. Super dope. But i based it all on a talk i had read a bit ago by Boyd K Packer in a General Conference. I want to say 2011. Great talk yall should read it. "Whats in a name." 

But yeah that was the week. Taught gospel doctrines and I'm here in the cyber. 

Love yall have a great week!

Elder Galbreath

P.S.

I don’t think i am losing really but i am getting stronger slowly and keeping everything off yes. 

Mom i thought i told you i got the one year package like a month ago. I am really sorry if i didn’t say anything yes i got it all. Thank you for the camel! For 2 reasons the first is he is adorable and the 2nd is i have been using it to teach the atonement and it works super well. 

Thanks ma i love you tons!

Exciting weeks

Ok y’all win the exciting weeks award. Sounds awesome. Love the pictures of the cousins at the fair. The picture of Saige with some little girl talking to her with her finger in the air looks very classic Saige. Nothing is getting through to her all she is thinking is sassy comments. I laughed a lot. But thanks i love the pictures.

So this week was not nearly as exciting as going to Utah and everything but we did go to Melipeuco so like yeah. Its cool to be jealous. Dope sunsets over the Volcano. 

Pics in the bucket. But we just kind of did our thing this week and to break up the monotony(?) we decided to have some fun.

So the pic of my comp and the ballon has a story. The balloon says "Gracias por todo su ayuda en nuestro rama" Pretty clear right? Thanks for all your help in our branch. And we had filled it with some frugele which is a little candy they have here. Nothing big but something little and fun. So we were going to give it to our mamita who lives back of us. So we start thinking of how we can give it without her knowing it was us. So we tape it to her window and yell and run like the dickens and hide behind a car. But no one comes out. SO we do it again and finally someone comes out and gets the balloon. We were super pumped and then kind of slowly came out of hiding to go home. So that was our thursday adventure for us. 

My new comp and I are getting along great he is super funny, and very, very hipster. Not quite as much as Elder Thompson was but pretty close. It makes for entertaining times. 

So this week is the week of 18. Thats right diezyocho. The independence of Chile. They start celebrating the 17th and don’t stop partying until the 19th. And the drunks finally leave the streets the 20th. But they party with a ton of asado (bbq) and empanadas (food of the Gods) So we are dang excited. But today we don’t have full pday because we get the 18th off. Which makes sense because you can not really work those days. But we are excited to party and be chilean. I will be buying a chilean poncho and cowboy hat before i leave Chile and will be sporting that to all nice cowboy events para que sepa. Super pumped. I’ll hopefully be sending lots of pictures to y’all this next week.

So my comp gave his first talk this sunday and i gave my first sunday school lesson that i actually could prepare for. Its amazing how much more you can learn when you actually can prepare. I loved the lesson. I always love how David A Bednar gives his talks in such a structured formal "I will talk about the following things..." way so i tried that with my class. But i was not planning on only having a little bit of time to do it so i had to rush on Charity and Degrees of Glory (thats what they are in english right?) But it was super cool i learned a lot. The last couple months i have really been diving into the bible and specifically acts so i have been learning a lot. Something that really impressed me this morning was in Acts 19-21 its Paul teaching obviously and he is able to use that he is a Jew and a Roman to like get people to listen to him and not be like beaten. So i think its 21 he talks in hebrew to get the attention. Then later he is like hey I'm Roman what are you doing to me. It helped me realize that the Lord is just preparing us so much every moment of our lives to be able to use it to preach the Gospel. And how we should look at everything as a tool. So that really impressed me. Once again i guess just how smart and good at planning God is. 

I love yall and I’ll talk to yall next week keep it going and I’ll send yall pictures of me very full and content this next week.

Elder Galbreath

It's a lovely day today

Well this week was super nice actually the sun came out for the first time for Elder Duffin. Literally all week it was nice sunny, warm, even almost touching hot. But not to bad. It was super nice. Of course now its raining a ton again but hey I’ll take what I can get.

Sorry no pictures this week they guy that supposedly sells the adaptor doesn’t feel like its important to open up before 11 nor does he want to post a sign of his schedule. So hopefully I will be able to send y’all that this week that is coming.

But I’m doing super good it was a fun week Elder Duffin is doing really good its super fun to see him grow as a missionary. Always enjoy that. Also a couple people in our ward have taken it upon themselves to make sure he enjoys all aspects of chile so they have made us completos, empenadas and a ton of stuff. I love it. I’m fat but happy, don’t judge me. 

This week we had a couple of cool experiences. So one I had an intercambio with a kid from Santiago who is also a new missionary he got here with my companion named Elder Montoya. Super nice guy really funny, slightly odd. But he was fun to work with I always thought how nice it would be to have served in the states in my natural language because i always figured it would just take out the difficulty of teaching like all your doing is talking about stuff you have known about your entire life like thats easy. But my other latin comps have both been converts, and pretty recent ones. But Elder Montoya is a member his entire life and it was interesting to see how even he struggled with teaching at first. Granted it wasn’t because of the language part but still it was very interesting to see that. I am grateful I have been able to learn the language so well to now i don’t struggle to share any story or anything in lessons. Its very satisfying to see the "fruits" of my continuos labor studying. Gifts of the spirit. And with that I can connect with people better now and can share scriptures now. 

So yesterday (sunday) we were contacting just touching doors trying to share the plenitude of the gospel with everyone (all in a days work right?) and a lady let us in. Turns out she was an old investigator and she doesn’t know why the other guys stopped passing by. So we started to share with her, help her remember all the stuff, and we could both feel like she was really worried about her kids who are both slightly rebellious according to her. So something we always try to do is share a scripture that affects them personally before we read Moroni´s promise to be able to help them see what things they have received and give them a reason to read the BoM. And so i was like alright what can we share with her...a story of a mom worried about her kids. Oh yeah Sariah and her kids. But i wanted to share a scripture that would give her comfort not help her identify problems no mas. So i prayed real quick and opened 1 Nephi chapter 5 and looked really quick to where i could share. And i read verse 8 and i was like perfect who doesn’t want to know with a surety that her kids are safe and God protects them? So I shared that and it worked super well i was so happy it worked. I love little moments of the spirit guiding like that. So that was my fun story this week. 

Umm other than that i am pretty good just kind of working and doing it all. And being beaten with the humble stick at every turn its great. Needed at least. But i feel better after so I’ll count it. 

I don’t know if i told you the mud on the shoe picture. Thats kind of my fun story but it is from last week. But my comp and i were talking and walking to a part of our sector and there was this road that wasn’t paved with a puddle at the beginning part. So i just jumped over it like it was nothing and i landed on the other edge and proceeded to sink in just a little bit over my ankle in mud. I just kind of sighed and pulled my foot out and gritted my teeth as i heard the suction release on my foot. So had another hour and a half walking around with my foot just covered in mud but luckily it was raining like crazy so it kind of washed some of it off. But there is a lot of mud and big puddles here in Cunco. Its interesting but almost every day we always see at least one drain backed up and just almost flooding the street. Pretty great stuff. 

But yeah. I love yall have a great week. 

Elder Galbreath

Birthing pains

Just kidding there was very little blood. My kids name is Elder Duffin. He is indeed a Utahn but i can forgive him for that. He is not a native, he speaks pretty well but its hard to understand chileno so he struggles with that. So we are working on those. My spanish is coming. I can understand everything, speak my mind and communicate and everything but i am trying to work on my grammar so i can really speak fluently and be good about it all. So lots to work on but i never have to worry about not being able to communicate with someone. Gift of tongues!!  He makes me feel at home though because if yall have check the bucket he is HUGE.  Almost disappointed though cause I know now that my actual kids are gunna be taller than me. The Lord is just preparing me for that fact now. It’s great we are pretty sure he is the tallest guy in the mission at this point. So thats dope.  But he is working hard he got broken in pretty well. It has not stopped raining since he got here. Like usually it rains about 5 days of the week or less. It rained all 7. And not like just a little bit of rain but rained well. But he has good boots. He has the same overboots i have but new. It was super funny he pulled them out and said that he never thought he would use them. I testified that he would. It was great. 

But this week was pretty good we worked a lot and had lots of cool success actually. Found like a total of 10 people that are new to us. So that was more than i think i have ever found in a week. Super awesome. So now its gunna be getting them to listen again. But i have hope. 

Other than the rain and rain and more rain it been pretty great. Its really fun to be with Elder Duffin to remember what it was like being new, and getting to see him introduced to new chilean things. He is gunna die when we have completos. And fun things like that. Its pretty great. 

This week we contacted a lot and kind of wearing ourselves out but that is really the mission. Its great. 

So story behind the sandwich is members give us stuff a lot. (Mom please be giving the missionaries like cookies and stuffs when you can) So a member gave us bread one day, and almost all the bread they have here is homemade, another lady gave us real like made from a cow cheese, which is also super common down here, and i had tomatoes. So my comp bought like 2 things of ham and we had a mega man sandwich. It was truly delicious. 

The miracle of the week is really just elder Duffin. This guy was here for an hour and a half, and we found two people that are super nice, really receptive that invited us in and accepted a baptismal date for september. So that was super awesome to see. And all week was just like that. I’m so excited. He gets kind of down at times with the homesickness and the spanish but he is working on it and is gunna be a great missionary. #glorifythefatherthroughtheson. Pumped. 

So this week a lunch fell through so we had churascos at a local joint and we finished eating and all of the sudden the cook started asking questions about us and our religion and we were able to share with him all about the book of mormon. Gunna visit him tomorrow, teach english and spread the gospel. All in a days work. 

But yeah thats pretty much the story. 

Piano is going. I can play anything there is in the simplified pretty easily top hand but i don’t have a lot of time to practice the bottom hand. So working on that. 

But I'm doing great I love you!

Love yall,

Elder Galbreath

Cambios

well its official my connection is leaving me. Elder Ordoñez is getting out of here to go to Los Angeles and I'm going to be training so I have no idea who is my new comp but I will be telling y’all about him next monday. 

But this week was good, but one part was crazy.

Ok so Friday we had a "Zone Attack" where we all went to Temuco and helped a couple sectors that are big find new investigators. Which was awesome I worked with an elder Barco and we worked in the rich part of this sector which was cool change but usually the people don’t let us in much because they don’t feel like they need something. But so we were contacting and not having much success when we yelled at one door. This guy came out and was pretty much telling us to go away when all of a sudden he was like yeah come on in. So we go in and have this super awesome lesson with him where he tells us all about this stuff that happened in his life and his family. Completely opened up to us. And after the lesson he was like I don’t understand, I usually don’t let anyone come in, when he pays someone to clean the chimney they have to show id first and they do it outside, they don’t come in. And he is a very closed person that’s why he has a couple problems that he does because he doesn’t like to share with anyone. But he just opened up to us completely and he doesn’t understand why he feels like he can trust us. I wanted to just scream “Its the spirit!!!!!!!” And it was. 

But then in the night we were in the micro going back home and then we realized my comp left the phone with someone in temuco. But the last bus that leaves for Cunco leaves at 830 and it was 8. Its usually half an hour to get to the station from where we were. So we practically jump off the bus and are running round trying to figure out how we can get there a bus passes by that takes us perfectly where we need to go, but my comp says thats weird cause it almost never passes. So we get on, get the phone, get to another micro that takes us to the terminal, and get there all before 830. Every step of the way I was just praying my heart off asking God to help us with the next step. It was cool because the thought entered my head what happens if with all this praying, we don’t make it. So i thought for like 5 seconds and responded to that little doubting voice then at least I will know I tried my hardest to do it. And it worked. That would be my miracle for the week. God answers prayers. 

So this Sunday was our branch conference, where guess who was asked to teach Gospel Doctrine 30 seconds before it started. thats right the elder from Washington. So I was trying to read the manual to see what the heck I had to teach when the stake president was like when can we start.  I asked for like 5 minutes to read something more than just the title but he was just like nahh its cool its already planned. So i did it. Started out having people read a bible story before i could recover and figure out the topic. Then proceeded to teach an hour lesson in front of our stake leadership. Nervous? Of course not that left a long time ago.......but it was cool. Again I give thanks for the Galbreath BS skill and the spirit. 

That would kind of be my stories for the week. I love yall. Yall look great in the photos. I love the carnival food. 

Love yall.

Elder Galbreath

I didn't start the fire.

I did not burn my shirt no sorry for the bad news. I like my shirts. 

So this week was pretty great, and very short. So thursday we had a district attack where all of my district went to the sector of the sisters in my district to help them find news and do contacts, kind of help them out. They are 2 sisters working in a sector that at one point had 6 missionaries. So they are having a hard time working in all of it. So that was fun my comp and I found a less active and his girlfriend that she isn’t a member so we taught them and she showed some interest in the message and he looks like he wants to reactivate so hopefully that will grow into something for them. Then thursday we stayed the night in Temuco because the following day we had zone interviews with President. But good news, the guys in Temuco got a couch so I didn’t have to sleep on the floor but on a couch! Well more like a loveseat but from my knees to my neck was on a type of padding! And it was next to the woodstove so I was warm. The past times we have slept over I have been on floor duty because they only have one extra mattress and my comp isn’t a real roughing it type guy, so thank you wilderness survival merit badge. Friday we had our interviews with President and Hermana Bluth which means......COOKIES! Hermana Bluth always makes like amazing homemade brownie cookie stuff that makes my tastebuds cry everytime. So I counted that as my 1 year present. Then we made the long trek back to Cunco to arrive in....yep rain! So that was a day. We worked about 3 hours that day then it was time to go back to bed. Then saturday we woke up and......traveled back to Temuco!!! Yayy.....😨 this weekend was our stake conference so the first session was at 130 so we came back. I hate buses its official. But the conference was super good we had a member of the 70 there Elder Giovanni or something like that from Argentina. He gave some really good talks about how most of us are sinners because of omission. Well thats like a really short resume of that talk. Then how we need our ward counsels, then the importance of the sabbath day, how everything we do on sunday is a sign to God of our love. So we always have to think of it that way. Super good stuff. Im excited for General Conference even though it will be in pure spanish for me. But it will be good.

So yeah hit my year mark. Kinda got sad because i haven’t seen myself progress as much as I thought. I always imagined I would be some super missionary at this point super mature and stuff but I look at it and I still laugh at the fart jokes my comp never stops telling, and I am not even close to the greatest missionary in Cunco let alone in the world. But something Elder Celestino told me was that no matter what I am always diligent. So that helped me realize that really God only gives some people certain abilities and our job is to use those the best we can. So all that we can do is keep going, keep trying and never tire of doing good works. So thats what i am doing. 

I have a camera i pulled out 30 thousand pesos which is like 60 bucks or something like that. I got the package from Gare. I love my mission no other way to describe it. But I do get down at times. I want to progress so much more than I am. Frustrating at times. 

Dad, Chile literally is just a giant quirk. Best way to describe it. 

Love ya

Thanks for all your support this past year, this next one is gunna be great!

Elder Galbreath

Una semana loca

So this week was pretty cray-cray.

This week we did divisions (look i learned a word in english!) with all of our zone. Previously referred to as a gran-intercambio. I worked with a gringo(!) from Utah called Elder Whiting. Nice enough guy he really likes to go motobiking so i told him about how y’all bought the RZR so he got interested and we talked about that and guns. Something cool I learned from a talk by Brad Wilcox if you show a little interest in something they have a lot of interest in you can pretty much make friends with anyone. Cool piece of advice. That’s something i struggled with a lot before the mission i feel like and am trying to make up for it now. All about how to win people to your side. Making connections with everyone. I’ve always been impressed all three of you are pretty good about that and i have always lacked that. But working on it now. 

Saturday there was a baptism of a kid in our ward called Ignacio but we call him Nachito. So our pila is super ancient and is literally a fiberglass tub that fills with faucet. Takes about 6 hours to fill. So we went at 6 in the morning to fill it returned to the house got dressed, studied and had his baptism. He is a weird kid so it was funny. After his baptism he said in affect "Wow I've never been this clean!" We all chuckled at that, because its pretty true. Gave a talk about baptism. I always get mad at the editors of the bible especially when I read the Joseph Smith translation and the Pearl of Great Price. Especially is Moses where it literally explains how the first sin was for adam and Jesus suffered for that. But yeah. Gracias a Dios for the Book of Mormon. I love Prophets.

So Sunday was super interesting actually. So our branch president always gets there at like almost 11 when we should start at 1030. So we talked to his 1st counselor and we started at 1030, without president but we started. We also didn’t have bread for the sacrament, it was raining and my comp can’t run because he has bad knee problems. So we did the only thing we could. A sister passed us a bag of cookies, we blessed and broke them. Boom sacrament with cookies. But it worked. Then he came up to me and asked me to teach the sunday school doctrine of the gospel class. 1 this was my 4th time ever going to this type of class i always went to mission prep or young mens, and 2 teach that class with about 3 minutes warning. But we talked about how God doesn’t make exceptions of people. Shoutout right now to Sister Payne for teaching me those scripture masteries, and to Gare Bear for bringing home that disk of songs so i could listen to them while cutting the grass. No shoutouts to mom and dad for making me cut said grass as i still hate that job. But i used 1 Samuel 16:7 and the manual for like 10 minutes then just went off on what the spirit told me. Worked super well filled the time without being super repetitive. I love the spirit. Really helps you out like all the time. Then for priesthood my comp had to teach without warning either and he totally pulled if off too. Totally gave him a fist bump after. It was cool. 

And today we went to Melipeuco to help a family varnish their stairs, ate lunch with them and just passed the time. Super fun day. I love pueblitos just so its still clear. Super content where i am. 

About the groundbreaking: HECK YES! oh we are all super pumped for it. It’s by invitation only and unfortunately they didn’t put all the missionaries here in Concepcion Sur on said list. But we will be watching by broadcast when it happens. TEMPLES! I love gods house. Its so beautiful. 

Well, love y'all

Elder Galbreath

P.S. 

About my camera, funny you should mention that.....so i have been trying to find it before i said anything. I cant say i was robbed but it was in my bag when i put the bag on the shelf above my chair but after it wasn’t. So i have been looking all over and either it ran away or yeah it got jacked. Along with all my photos of Boca Sur. I have mine of Las Americas but Boca is all gone. Except what i put up on photobucket. So i talked to a couple members and someone is selling a camera here that supposedly is pretty good or i can wait for one or learn to draw. 

Sorry