Tranquilo

Last week we had two hours from 11 to 1 to do everything we needed to do and we were in the campo doing fencing stuff until like 1258 so I was technically not even supposed to email last week but I didn’t want presidente to have to deal with and angry mom. Sorry but it happened. 

So I am writing both of you because I have to fit two weeks worth of stories in 1 email. And the videos won’t upload they are to big sorry when this card gets filled I will send it home and you can watch it then. Sorry. 

Ok so christmas was legit like we went out to the campo with a couple families from the ward and had a huge asado (bbq) we had lamb. Slow roasted for like 3 hours over a fire. It was so tender it was amazing.

 Matching Christmas Jammies!

 They got socks from some members

And tomatoes and potatoes and sopapillas (basically a scone). Super good meal. Then we played soccer missionaries against members and with 3 gringos and a chileno against all chilenos I’ll let y’all figure out how that went. But I did score once so that was my proud moment. It was all luck but still. We had to be in the casa at like 8 that night so I went to bed at like 8:30. It was heavenly. Then yeah. 

So the day after christmas sucked cause no one was home. Then the rest of the week was boring.

So new years eve we would have dinner with a member but they cancelled on us so Sanders and I bought some pan and cheese and just did a little thing that was super good but Baez and Haynes were like heck no we need meat so they bought stuff to do their own asado. So they had churripan which is like a brautwurst thing and some pork. They shared and it was pretty good. Stayed up till midnight then out like a light. Not to exciting but Haynes and I chilled outside for a while just kinda talking so that was cool. Then morning rolled around. I am pretty sure almost none of the meat was cooked all the way cause we couldn’t really see the meat with the flashlight so I was super sick. Not fun but I got over it by like 9. and then we had an awesome Zone activity! Everyone from Los Angeles (minus Haynes and Baez because they didn’t want to pay) so two zones got together and we played real football (well two hand touch) and frisbee and did some volleyball stuff and some fun like relay races stuff. WACHITOROS! We definitely probably almost won I dunno. But if we didn’t we should have. We had the only candadian on our team. He is a really cool guy name of Duroscher. Built like a hockey player. Nice guy. We dominated the wheelbarrow race together. But anywho. Yeah so super fun activity. It was basically like just hanging out with a bunch of friends again back home. But you know, different languages. But still super fun. I wore my america socks!! Everyone was impressed.

So this week we had one day where we got like in every house we contacted and challenged people to baptism and it was awesome killer day. Then we had the next day where it was blazing hot and we couldn’t drink water cause we were fasting, and had 41 contacts (read as a lot) and almost no lessons. We figure we where in the sun for about 5 hours. Horrible. But on the way back home we were just dieing tired feet hurt thirsty when a member who drives a collectivo (basically a taxi but on a fixed route) picked us up and took us home. It was a tendermercy from the lord straight up. He takes care of the missionaries. 

But yeah sorry again about the email last week but stuff happens. Got super busy and yeah. But we got the fence put in out there. Looks good. Thank you for teaching me how to work.

Love

Elder Galbreath XI

this neighborhood is protected by guns.

Alarmas are alarms and Armas are guns. Thought this was hilarious

Oh esta semana. Fue genial!

Ok skype first. We get to skype anytime from 11-well later I guess on christmas. Before that it is basically a normal day. So I will talk to garrett about when and then talk to yall. I miss saying yall. Anywho so yeah we will do that I’ll talk to Sanders about when we will come but I’m thinking about as soon as we can so thats in your morning. But sanders and I are saying like 1130-12 our time so like 5 or whatever Garrett time. But here is the catch,. We get 40 minutes to talk. That is all. Not even the proper hour. Sorry but thats what presidente is saying and thats what we have to do. Just letting you know now. But next week I will try my connection with dad to seal it all up. But we will be using a members house so I don’t know what all is gunna go down with that stuff. But next week I will know. 

Questions

Literally everything i have learned in my mission has changed me and my testimony. I am no where near the same person I was and its only 4 months in. But one HUGE thing I have learned is about how important families are. Everything about the evangelio is about families. Everything we do from baptism to temple work is basically so we can live with our Heavenly Father together again, and be with our families while we do that. Like obviously there is other stuff but thats kinda of it in a nutshell. Families are so important and I was blessed to be raised in the best of them. (You have permission to sniffle but not cry here).

Blessings. Once again like everything. But I remember dads job thing was a big thing I remember and yours to. Also I feel just like the Lord is trying me and growing me and all the time I am just receiving the blessings of the Lord. The fact that I haven’t got hurt, just everything. There is no way I should even have half an idea of spanish yet but I’m doing pretty well. Umm but yeah little tender mercies of the Lord are what I see the most. We found a house when we needed it. We get  into a house when we feel like we are gunna die and need a drink. So on and so forth. My God is awesome. 

Serving is helping me grow so much. I love the Lord more than i ever realized possible but i know how little i understand about everything. The moment we start to think we have stuff figured out i realize i know nothing. 

Tell everyone their to help the missionaries out. lessons with members are something to kill for out here so help them out. Love them all.

Ok padres. So Skype thing im gunna try and get on at like 1130 my time. Please tell Gare-bear what time that is for him I think its like 530 but if not please tell him. This is the earliest I can get on. 

Ok so this week was crazy and honestly not gunna be able to tell you everything because it was crazy and my time limit is short. So ok here I go. 

Cambios were this week. We got a call from the assistant which usually means someone is training or being made a zl. So Sander is now a DL! And we are both staying here. Which is weird they usually separate the dad and son after the training. But so he and I are still going strong. And he gets the pjs now for sure!! so thats cool. My entire house is the same still Haynes and Baez. 

Umm Christmas program thing. It was...interesting.I The missionaries sang. WE sounded legit as heck. Booom. 

So one of our investigators se llame N was giving us a ride back to a members house when she asked Sanders if because we thought he was leaving if he would be able to go to her baptism. And we were like umm que? because she didn’t have a fecha. And then she was like yeah if possible like this year does that work for you guys??? So We are pumped to see what goes down with that because I have no idea what happened there.

WE offered a lot of service this week a bunch of members bought wood to be stacked so the first people they call are the jovene missionaries. So thats been fun. Cool story the shirt I am wearing over my button up in the picture is a large. Boom. Ok so it was still tight but still. No preguntas. But so yeah. Stacked a lot of wood. Then ate pan de pasqua to make up for it. Its like fruitcake or whatever that stuff is called that has like the gumdrops in it. That cake noone likes. Its not bad. Not many gringos like it but i do ok, i do. 

I love you both muchismo and will email the 22 and talk to you soon. 

Love you

Elder Galbreath

what a week.

Ok sorry but a couple things: 1 who is allie engaged to?????? Did not see that one coming but hey it happens she is cute. One down. And Bailie is engaged as well? Crazy with who?

2:Presidente Blueth is awesome it was good to hear it from him. He was very reassuring. 

So this week was good. We had a Grand inter-cambio on tuesday. This means all the companionships in the zone got mixed. I worked with a native named Elder Dominguez. I did pretty good I could understand everything except when he got excited and started like laughing in his sentences. Then I was lost. But other than that I was good so that made me feel awesome. But geez he is a good teacher. Like I have been focusing on my spanish and my knowledge just thinking that teaching would come but man that guy can go. Like seriously I was blown away. We taught the gospel a couple times and one time I was like yeah I want to be baptized where can I sign up for that? Dude is crazy. But yeah so that was a wake up call. So Sanders and I stepped it up this week and got like 171 contacts this week. Which is a lot. So that was cool. 

So I forgot to write about this last week but last week was the primary program! It was awesome they don’t have all the kids say something so that was different but they still sang songs and it was cute. A little girl was going to say the prayer but she got scared so she ran crying over to her dad who is the stake president. So like the entire barrio went awwww.... and then another girl said it but she was older and loves being in the spotlight so it worked.

Sorry your week was boring. But about great grandma, that was hard. Pres called me and he was super reassuring. He is a great man. But after we hung up I said a prayer and just forced myself back to work. That night I started to remember stories about her. I remember when John moved in to the downstairs part of her house and I was super mad because that meant Zoe and Taylor would get to see Great Grandma all the time. Just little things like that. But I’m sorry I’m not there. But now she can go through the temple so thats good. Families really can be together forever I know that here on the mission more than ever. That is basically all we are trying to teach and do in the church. Be together with our eternal father forever and as a family together. Its really all it is. But its good that she is in a better way now. We will love and miss her though. I love you dad.

Thats awesome about Eliza. That girl is gunna be good. Just tell her to be careful about her feet. Didn’t John mess up his like ankle or something? Or was the world just not ready for Big John. What are the other munchkins up to? Here school is getting out but its still going strong up there isn’t it? Christmas vacation right? I don’t remember. Geez its hot down here by the way. Like wow. 

So ask the other uncles who is gunna have a baby in the next two years because we have a record of babies being born while someone is out on the mission. Garrett while Dan, Me while John, and Cade(?) while garrett right? Ok whats Johns youngest named? Geez I’m bad I cant remember. Oops. 

I love you mama. Keep setting up for christmas!! Here they have the same types of trees we have so I saw a branch with a white strip and I was like hey thats the 2nd row!!

Elder Galbreath the 6th

Thanksgiving, done

Thats right Thanksgiving happened this week. Just kidding we celebrated like crazy! So for almuerzo the lady we had it with, another elder had taught her how to make cheesy chicken rice bake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So she made it for us and I almost cried. Like seriously it was great. Not as great as yours but seriously it was good. But for thanksgiving we went to a negocio and bought pan and some cheese (which is weirdly expensive) and had pan and melted cheese. Ok so definitely super boring but honestly it was legit. And I didn’t do insanity that day so I got to feel super fat too. Awesome right? But those pictures look amazing thank you. And Taylor and Eliza may or may not have had me tearing up I’m not admitting to anything though. But thats awesome. Thanksgiving with the Galbreaths sounds awesome though. Is there a story with the chickens though?

Ok so this week was INSANE. So started off we moved. Just kidding that was at the end of the week. Ummmm oh yeah I got my package! Super pumped the candy canes are disappearing mysteriously fast though I have no idea why.......Anyway the tree is very proudly displayed in our front window now in the new house. Before it was on my desk. But I don’t have a desk now. That comes later though. But super pumped about the package though. Gunna be great. On the 11th the mission is getting together to celebrate. Well like half the mission. The south half. But thats the awesome half. So look at the blog of Presidente for pictures of yours truly. 

                                        Package received! 

But then we had a bunch of stuff go down with a baptism date. MJ was supposed to be baptized saturday but like she didn’t ever talk with her parents and even though she is 19 we still want her parents to be ok with it. And they are not. Like at all. Her dad was like yelling at us at one point. Like he would say I will respect her decision then Maria would say well I want to be baptized then he would start saying how the family is catholic and such and it was hard. Ehhh people. But she said she is talking to them and we are hoping for the 13th of this month. Super pumped for that because she is basically a mormon she just needs to get wet. And there is a chance I will get to baptize her. In our mission we only get to baptize in our first and last sector so I gotta get going soon. Working on that though :-) and yeah. So then on friday Sanders and I were wrestling but I was in my flip flops so I had no traction so he pushed me and I went back and then I went through a window basically. That’s what those pictures are of. Oops. So we called Elder Pendley (the adult missionary) in charge of stuff for the houses and he was like “oh its happened before just go  get it fixed and we will reimburse you.” So I learned how to put a window in. We measured the window, went down to  the window guy, he cut out a piece of glass and handed it to us. So we went back to the house, took out the old piece, put the new one in, then siliconed it in place. But we didn’t have the little gun to squeeze the tub of silicone and so we made do. My thumb was very sore for a couple days. Yeah I did that. But I felt very accomplished. 

                                            OOPS!

So saturday we moved. That was a hassle and a half I will tell you what. Like it was good because there were 4 boys that can fit everything we own in 3 suit cases but still it sucked. The new house is cool though. It is in the gricco (rich) part of town so thats cool but its like a half hour walk away from our sector. But still cool and more importantly still a house. But the rooms are smaller so we don’t have room for our desks. So we are figuring that out now. But its cool cause now I study in my bed or on the couch. Which is way comfier! So thats legit. Also the Ensign you sent me with the conference addresses? Yeah its called HEAVEN. Seriously we usually get the ensigns pretty close to the beginning of the month but this issue we still haven’t gotten them so I got to read them early though. It was awesome. They translated the spanish guy..interestingly though. A couple points its not how I would have translated it though. Its kinda cool to see how everyone else in the world sees general conference. I love english. It’s great. But yeah. Thats my busy week shoved into a quick letter. I don’t know much about the skype call other than we can do skype. Its awesome. But I will find out more soon. I love you. I want to see pictures of the house though. I will send pictures of people next week. Its Christmas!!!!

Elder Galbreath the 6th

Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving....the three americans in my house are thinking we will do a nice one after work but other than that nada. We actually just found out what day thanksgiving is so yeah we might work on that. But probably not. Those pictures made me salivate. Looks amazing. But yeah. 

That project Just Serve sounds awesome and a great way to spread the church. We don’t do a lot of service and when we do it’s mostly for members. We always offer service but the people just want us to get the heck out of there. So we are working on it. 

Thanksgiving we are working on like I said. 

The heat is hot. But I of course buy and wear sunscreen everyday mom geez.............

Investigators are good. We almost had a baptism but she wasn’t ready for it so we didn’t push her. But we have two dates for this weekend and I think one of them is solid so I might get to baptize this weekend! We only get to actually baptize the first and the last sector we are in so this may be my only chance to actually get in the water and baptize. But yeah so here is hoping. 

My spanish is kind of better. I can understand and I can teach pretty well. I still have to ask Sanders about words every now and then but getting better. My conversational is mas o menos. But always getting better. Baez and I work out together a lot now and we do insanity every night, I don’t think I told you that before so if I did sorry, so we talk after almuerzos still and its kinda cool. Not quite ready for a chileno comp but with cambios a couple weeks away who knows. Gunna be fun. 

So this week was super boring. Cool thing well fun thing, was on sunday we were getting ready for a lot of investigators in church with 2 families with little kids. And last time the kids kinda ruin the spirit for the kids like running around and little kid stuff. So Sanders and I bought cookies the night before and took liahonas with coloring stuff in it for them and stuff. We were basically awesome. Really made me think oh my gosh i am totally getting ready for being a dad. Where are those applejacks!!! But yeah that was cool. 

Today we went to the volcano here a couple hours away and the bus broke on the way there so we didn’t get as close as we wanted but we hiked for like 3 hours and saw some cool stuff. I am loving being able to hike and go crazy out there. When I get back I definitely want to do a ton of that stuff. Put that on the list of stuff right? But it was really nice. It was beautiful. Like super beautiful. I love chile. Outside the city is so beautiful. Its awesome.

So i just saw a trailer for arrow on the tv here in the cyber and I miss it. Its bad. Also Big band theory. In a row. Satan sucks. The tv is the devil. 2 years. Im almost done with my training its super weird. Like I almost don’t like it but super excited all at the same time. Tell me a story from your mission. 

Also tell mom to get on the family history thing. 

Also I found this a while ago but I don’t remember if i shared it 

Proverbs 28:25

I love you guys, 

Elder Galbreath the 6th

Day with the dinosaurs

No idea why Dad wouldn’t want that plate in the rv. I mean really come on dad. Someone get him an interior decorator. 

Also the phones, like how big are we talking? We saw someones phone the other day that was legitimately to big. Like her entire hand big. 

Anywho yeah pretty exciting week. 

So imagine running to an appointment, teaching in a language you don’t understand, running from that appointment to a members house, pretending not to be in a rush while actually being 10 minutes late, going to that cita, saying goodbye to them and running to the other side of the town to a fhe while it is hot as heck out all day and you forgot your water bottle in the house that day. YAYYY thursdays!! 

Just kidding it wasn’t that bad. Like we did all of those things but it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. But yeah this week started off like it would never end all we did was contact because our citas just kept falling but ended with not enough time in the day to do everything. I definitely prefer days with not enough time to days when you wonder when it will end. Much better. 

So Elder Mcguina left tuesday morning. We have Elder Bàez now. He is from Santiago. He seems cool. His english sucks so we talk mostly spanish in the house. But he has 21 months in the mission. So he is gunna die here. But at night sometimes he will read my english BOM and translate it into spanish and I’ll listen and read from my spanish BOM and it actually helps. Its kinda cool to see it going down. 

But yeah so we were super busy this week and it was awesome. So we have 3 people with fechas (dates for baptism) And they are doing pretty well. One is a really new investigator named C and she wants to study english and teach english so she speaks pretty good english. Last cita we had she asked us if next time we can talk in english to help her understand. I was like you know what I can do that. So that was cool. Its weird to teach in english though Sanders and I both reverted back to spanish a bunch. Kinda cool but weird. 

M J is a slightly older investigator having been taught for like 3 months now but she is progressing pretty well. 

Then N has been taught for 6 months now and is finally accepting a fecha. Her Husband Jose is a super awesome dude and we love teaching them but he just wants to be so sure about everything. So working on him and them attending for all 3 hours of church instead of leaving after sacrament. 

But sunday was super busy because we had 5 investigators in church and 3 of those had a bunch of kids to. (Read as: WE HAD 5 INVESTIGATORS IN CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) So super hectic, and an inactive family we are reactivating came to. They weren’t coming because her boys didn’t have ties to wear to church. So Sanders and I gave them 2 ties and they came. 

So funny story we have a part member family that we teach a lot, anyway the girl just turned 8 and she is like the typical girl but she is like in love with us so for her birthday she wouldn’t let anyone eat cake until we came over. So we came over taught quickly and then ate cake and left. Pretty cool but it was funny just because like nothing was happening until we got there. 

So final story Haynes and Bàez were planning and Haynes was telling him about an investigator they have who wont get bapitzed because her dad wont let her. So without even blinking Bàez says "then we pray for him”.

Hi Bill and Julie.

Ok so sorry you shot bad dad. That sucks. But I was pretty good this week. So kinda cool one lady had a scale and I lost 15 lbs since the start of my mission. Booyah. Ok so...

1 where are you gunna put the freezer? 

2: haha dad said hang out. Ok im done. 

3: you have seen the movies, pistols are only good for the 6 shots riding on a horse then you chuck it at the good guy. 

This week was pretty good. Apparently when I blinked like half the week disappeared. 

So something cool I am realizing. The Lord knows when you are at your wits end and will help you if you ask. Every time I get home and just think I am done I don't know if I can keep going I’m gunna die, the next day just goes so well and this back half of the week was just awesome. Lots of citas and it was cool. But first couple days i was dragging the entire time just couldnt get excited. It sucked. But yeah. So thats cool. 

We are currently looking for a house. We got a call last week, the people we are renting from want it back so we have until December 1st to find a new house and move into a new house. So really like another week because paperwork stuff.  Super awesome.... Add that onto everything else we are doing now. Also keep the missionary objective, and learn a new language!!! Ha its great. Good stories for my kids right?

But yeah thats my week. 

Don’t worry about the package apparently the mail is really good and ill get it in like 5 weeks to 7 weeks, 7 is rare though. 

Love you momma 

Elder Galbreath the 6th

         Aren't I cute?

                   Ready to tackle the day!

                      Missionaries can have fun too.

                    Proselyting poster 

Dia de Santos

So I decided I hate halloween. I am the scrooge of halloween. Probably cause my parents never let me go trick or treating after I was like 9. (Ha Ha) I don’t know though. But down here it’s not as big as in the states but it is still pretty big. Especially here in the big cities. They say Dulces, deniro, or trabasura here. It means candy, money or trash. They will also say dulce or brasura. Like give us candy or we will trash your house. Its funny. But if you are in the service of going door to door to talk to people little kids ruining your business is not good. But most kids just do like a mask of some kind and go out. But some kids have full costumes. I saw a kid in a woody costume once he was so cute. But still not a fan of halloween at this point. We will see next year. We ended up coming in early because we just weren’t getting anything done that night. It sucked. So the day after halloween is a huge holiday here its called dia de Santos. Everyone goes to the cemetery and like cleans the family graves and such and visits. But the liders de zona (zone leaders) asked us to put like a poster together and we were going to go and set up a table out there and present the plan de salvacion. I was thinking this is super weird like people are visiting the graves this isn’t some carnival fair we should not be setting up a booth. But how wrong was I. It is legitimately like a fair walking in. Its a HUGE cemetery and the entrance in people were selling clothes, food, flowers and just about everything. It was super crazy. But the cemeteries are so big here. Like super long and wide and the sections were its like graves are so different than in america. They all have like a marble almost section with like the door handles and a big gravestone and stuff. And lots of people do the big family sepluchures here. Like a lot of people. So lots of very nice looking ones and some that look like very old and classic. Super weird. So we did a ton of contacting to everybody it was good. Didn’t really yield much but it was contacts. Behind every number is a soul. 

So its my first full cambio (ummm the 6 weeks you go between transfers). Elder Magùina is leaving. Don’t know who is coming though. But Magùina is going to Temuco which is the big city down at the south end of the mission. He has had 2 sectors and 5 cambios in both of those sectors. His first sector was in Temuco.  Sanders and I are still together. 

It is definitely the warmer season here. Still rains every now and then but getting hot. Going to be very warm Los Angeles is like the hottest part of the mission. And I’ll be here for the hottest part of the year. Booya. But yeah I think the days are getting longer. Our schedule doesn’t change so it could or couldn’t be really haven’t a clue. 

Ok so funny stories this week

Old dudes are super weird so two stories about them 

So me and Sanders were walking to a part of our sector called parque lauqen. On the way this dude stopped us and was like oh you represent Jesus. We were like well yeah. But then he started talking about how oh Jesus has faith in us and it needs to be that way. And we were like no we have faith in him he cant have faith he knows everything. Then he started getting super mad at us and like shouted no he has faith. So we just agreed and were like ciao then he shook our hands and turned it into like the like arm wrestling hand position and like reverently kissed our knuckles. Super weird. 

So other dude was walking by the church and saw us and started yelling how we were the Gustapo and this was our base and we were trying to bomb the world and stuff. We tried explaining but to no avail. It was super funny listening to it though. 

But yeah those are kind of the stories this week. Im doing really good having fun. I wrestled Sanders last night. He lost. It was funny. But loving the gospel. Read the sermon on the mount. It is so amazing I could read it like every day and get something new out of it. 

Elder Galbreath the 6th