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

Wow

Mom in an offroad vehicle not driving like an old lady in front of you when your late. Hard to believe. But looks super fun. Not gunna lie. That’ll be great for next years state shoot to be able to transport station to station. Also I’ll be looking up hunting spots in Oregon and be checking that out.

So this week was definitely 7 days. Did not feel like 7 days but it was. Its amazing how fast days and time passes here in the mission. This week I just kinda worked and got really wet. So August here in the mountains is fetchin crazy. It will be super nice and sunny and almost touching hot when it will turn on  a dime and drench you wetter than a fat guy after a marathon. It’s so crazy. And of course if you wondering yes it does always happen when we are in the middle of nowhere not even slightly close to our house. So I think it was saturday we were walking out to a like newer part of Cunco that’s not a new city just a part thats like separated from everything else. Almost like May Valley kind of thing. It’s there and kind of part of Moses. But its about a 15-25 minute walk to that part when it changed super fast to ugly hard rain and we were caught without umbrellas, or really rain gear but luckily I pretty much always wear my big coat that is rain proof so I was good and my comp had his rain coat, well my other rain coat, so our bodies didn’t get soaked but we did. Like my socks got wet so that soaked into my shoes so it was like walking in a pool. It was great. To end the day avoiding the puddles literally didn’t make a difference so we just stopped trying. But it was kind of cool my comp and I both realized that yes it sucked and neither of us want to try it again, but that neither of us were really upset or wanted to just stop. Because we both knew that we just needed to keep going and keep trying because that’s why we are here and we are preaching the key to happiness so how can you not be happy. That is I think the greatest thing I have seen. Even when everything hasn’t been going great, my comp and I don’t get along or we just contact all day, I can’t really remember a time when I have been just miserable and don’t want to go on. Because that’s the gospel. 

This sunday I blessed the sacrament in spanish. Makes the 2nd time I have done that in my life. But I had been reading the prayers a lot so that was good. The Spirit! God’s pretty smart. But Mom I know what you mean sacrament meeting in a FOREIGN branch (bu duhm bum) is hard at first. Haha oh missionary jokes.

So this week was pretty much that. Oh and I am teaching a member how to play the piano. I have never realized how hard it is to teach music especially when they have no background in music. So this week it was how to read music and what notes are. But hopefully with the spirit when I leave Cunco will have a pianist. Super excited for that. 

Love yall,

Elder Galbreath

MOM, 

My sleeping bag is an invaluable object and I use it and love it. It is always warm enough. And it is way less space than the blankets they give us to use. And way smaller to pack. In other words yes it’s worth it. The liners are great to because they help with the heat and we are told always to sleep with sheets so they work great. I use the wax on my shoes every now and then. The problem is the water soaks my pants which soaks my socks which goes into the shoe. But the shoes are still great.

To increase attendance there are only two things we can do. Bring new people in and bring old people back. So we are doing those both. Its hard though because our Branch President doesn’t like us working with inactives which is kind of my thing but we are working on it. Also we are trying to find new places to contact like little groups of houses that are in the path to another city. But on foot its hard. 

Love ya mama.

Dad,

The country I’m in. The people here are different but its really hard to describe Chile. But I have met some of the best nicest hardest working people in the church. So its a big difference. But I have noticed a lot that the people who work hard are the people with the best testimonies. I’ve never met a lazy missionary who is also very spiritual. But Chile is cool its very diverse because of how long it is. We have like every type of land, desert, forest, mountain, always cold, or always hot. 

The calling that has the most effect on me.....Stake missionary :-P well other than my deacons quorum president calling that I had I never really had a lot of callings but I was always active. I am really grateful for my president of deacons, teachers, and priests Brother Thomas he has been a really big influence on me. And my Bishops. I didn’t realize how hard it was to be a bishop until you have a couple that don’t do it well. But our bishops were awesome so I’m glad for that. 

Love you paps.

Fun Facts

Fun fact: My shoes are waterproof up to about 3 and a half hours. 

Fun fact: Hail really starts to hurt after a couple hours especially when it is hailing so literally you can’t see 50 yards in front of you. 

Fun Fact: It was also really hot two days this week.

Ok so the last one wasn’t a real fun fact. But as you can tell there has been a bit of rain and coldness this week. But its been fun and interesting. It is very loud in my cyber because the hail hits these tin roofs and just makes one heck of a noise. 

So this week. Well I went on an intercambio tuesday to another pueblo called Carahue. It was super cool especially because the other elder is a gringo who is still in his training so it was really cool to see where he is, remember that time, and think holy cow when did I get old in the mission. Ok so not old but still. But it was kind of fun. Met some cool people

On wednesday we have almuerzo with our branch pres. He is a very nice guy. But he owns and works a little farm and his wife is a cook! But for some like indian thing so she only knows how to cook like kind of flavorless wheat stuff. But its still good. But our branch pres started ranting about how big farmers in the states don’t know how to farm and how we don’t believe in changing crops from field to field. And how GMO and anything other than straight classic farming is evil and of the devil. I put that to a quick end. Those 4 years of studying in Ag class came to use during a half hour lunch in Chile. Thank you Mr kern and Utter. It was super funny his wife was laughing because she doesn’t have anything against big farming methods. The only thing he has against it is that he only knows the stuff he has seen in the TV so only the evil stuff that democrats put up. Good times. 

So on the more spiritual side. This week I gave a talk on the sabbath day. It was super cool because I learn a lot when I give talks. But I really mostly talked on Elder Nelson´s talk this conference The sabbath day is a delight. I really loved how he put it when talking about what we should and shouldn’t do on sunday. In D&C 59:9-10 it talks about how we should go to the church and offer our sacraments. Then in Exodus 31 it says how let that be a sign to God. So what we do is a sign to God about our love and devotion to him. So instead of looking at a list of things we can and can’t do we should simply think Do I want this to be my message to God this week? And act accordingly. Super good talk. Love General conference! 

But other than that this week was pretty basic. And guess who is the new piano player for our branch? That’s right the kid whose parents never got him piano lessons as a kid! I have been teaching myself and while I can only play with one hand it is better than nothing. So I think its the definition of here goes nothing.

Mom: Yes after a week I am still getting along with my comp he is super funny. He is the like definition of sassy. I think I told y’all that though.

Our attendance was only 30 this week. But our counselor to the pres and our elders quorum pres didn’t show. Lots of drama there. One kid took the other kids toy and wont say sorry. 

Dad: Farming in chile is different. Here it’s mostly little stuff so an old guy with a hoe or a horse and `plow. Not joking. But some people have like little 2 series Deere stuff with a couple attachments. But nothing major. One guy has a combine. A big International deal. Pretty cool stuff. If it wasn’t behind a fence I would take a picture with it. 

I know Christ exists because through the spirit and scriptures he has revealed himself to me. I have not seen him face to face like Moses or Joseph but I know without a doubt he lives. To know Jesus we don’t have to see him. I BELIEVE in him because he is the center of all hope and love in the universe. Because he loves me to suffer and die for me and to resurrect himself so that someday I can do the same. Because he helps me understand why I am here and how I can do better. He is my hope.

Love y’all have a fantastic week!

Elder Galbreath