Tomorrow to California!

Hey I have time to email tonight because we leave tomorrow. Heres the letter I wrote to my branch president:

 

This week I focused on the Christlike attribue of knowledge. I'm striving to achieve more knowledge about the gospel of Jesus Christ by reading the New Testament and Jesus the Christ. This has helped me add to the knowledge I already have from the Book of Mormon. As I learn more, I see the lessons I have with investigators becoming more focused.

This week in class we had to facilitate a quick lesson. Doing this helped me learn more about hungering for the scriptures. In Enos 1:4 it says that,"my soul hungered". The connection of a bodily need to a spiritual need is very interesting and clairifying. It shows that we need to hunger for the word of God just as we do for food. In 2 Nephi 9:51 it talks about feasting on the word and delighting in our spiritual fatness.
Elder Hileman and I have worked on teaching with more unity. This has led to both of our progressing investigators commiting to a baptism date. In the next week, we are making sure that before we go to bed we say one thing we like about the other person.

Like last week, I have prayed to invite the spirit. I have also tried to be diligent with my scripture study.

 

Things have been really great at the MTC! I can't say that i'm not nervous for tomorrow morning. I miss everyone a lot but my teachers were really great at they seem to believe that I'll be great. Dad I definitely want to hear more about the Egypt thing. Tell Eden I loved her card! and I got Chloes thing too! Also, I got Moms letter and Grandpas funeral program which was nice. My teachers have been really amazing. I think it's great and somewhat strange that they call 19 guys to go preach the gospel when we dont really know anything. Not only that, our teachers (Sister Hoopes and Brother Austin) are only like 24 and 22. Somehow it works out I guess. Today they told stories about their missions which made me really want to experience what they did.

 

Sister Hoopes went to Texas and she told us about her first 3 weeks. They were pretty crazy. First of all she gave away 9 Books of Mormon while in the airports she was in and like 3 of those people ended up getting baptized. They got off the plane in Dallas and her president ran by them telling her and her compainion to run! He threw their stuff in the car and started driving like 150mph on the highway. He knew that they had to go to a acertian area and they had to make it on a bus that was really far away and leaving soon. They made it and everyone on the bus was a missionary. They told her that the area she as going to was a terrible area. there hadnt been a baptism in 8 and a half years. From her apartment she could see 32 different church steeples. Long story short it was a really hard area. THe first door she knocked on, a big latino answered the door drunk and kissed her. Then they went to a baptist priest's house and the wife said to leave or her husband would kill them. They ended up getting baptized after like several crazy events. It was just inspiring I guess. I hope that I can be that in tune with the spirit to say all of the right things and be in the right places. She did bring up a good point though. That God loves his children enough to not bet their salvation on one time. does that make sense? Just because I miss a prompting doesnt mean that the person who wouldve heard the word and maybe changed their life doesnt have a chance.

 

I guess we'll just have to wait and see how my mission goes. My mission has Compton in it which will be interesting! I just got an email with this month's key indicators(baptisms and lessons taught) so I might forward that to you too.

 

I'll write again soon! talk to you tomorrow! I'll call for a minute before I get on the plane!

 

Noah, how are your Youtube ventures going? ive been thinking about assisted living and your batman thing. Hope youre doing great.

 

Love you  all,

 

Silas

Two Weeks Down

Hey everyone,

Everyone meaning everyone I just forget everyone's emails...Anyways I have had a great week this week. The firesides and devotionals on Tuesday and Sunday were good. One of the 70, Elder Evans spoke. He talked about that painting. I think it's called the rescue? It was really great though. Let's see. Oh! I have my travel info. I leave the 21st at like 840 on a Delta flight. I am the all powerful travel leader, ha ha. So I have to make sure we don't lose anyone and we get there. I've been joking around with Elder Wetsker, my District Leader, that I have more power than him. Don't worry, I know that it doesn't matter!

So I get a lot of mail and I'm really grateful for that. Let's just take some time and realize how awesome Mom is. She made me a Seven layer cake and delivered it to me! My district was also really happy haha of course I had to share. Oh and Noah and Ella I got your letter/Drawing and thanks I like to hear from you.

Is there anything new going on? I've only been gone for a week but it feels like much longer. Everything is going well with my companion, Elder Hileman. He's a really smart guy when it comes to the scripture so we work pretty well. My district has 5 sisters and 4 elders which is pretty strange but they're all pretty nice. I'm excited to actually go to Long Beach now. I cant imagine being here for 12 weeks. Luckily God knows I can't do that, ha ha.

I hope the girls are doing well. I really missed Chloe the other day when someone was singing the "when the bee stings, when the dog bites, when I'm feeling sad" song. I love when she sings that song. Eden, what book are you reading? How is getting ready for school? Make sure to tell Ella I miss her too.

Noah I'm sending you a response to your letter shortly. Hows the book? Send me some and I'll read it. That's okay right?

Mom and Dad I'm also sending you letters. DAD. Happy Belated Birthday I hope it was great.

Make sure you tell Grammie and Grandma that im doing alright and I miss them.  Hmm I guess I find it interesting that I enjoy the MTC because I thought it would be terrible. It's not bad and mostly enjoyable. I just work 16 hours a day... ha which is really tiring.

I'll say goodbye by copy and pasting the letter to my branch president: 

President Oswald:
This week I worked towards becoming a more loving missionary. I wanted to do this because Jesus would not have been able to atone for our sins without the love that he had for each of us personally. To me, love is closely connected with charity and when I help others I feel love for them. Over the past week I worked on developing a deeper love for my companion and the rest of the Elders and Sisters in my district. I strive to shine my companion's shoes and hold the door open whenever I can. Doing these acts of service have helped me feel and show my love for the people around me.

As I have read through Preach my Gospel, the Doctrine of Christ has stuck out to me. This is probably because everything that we teach as missionaries has to do with faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. The scriptures show incredible examples of faith and enduring to the end. This week, Abinadi's ultimate sacrifice to teach the word of God to king Noah stood out to me. He had faith that no matter what happened, God's message was even more important than his own life. In Preach my Gospel, we learn to connect whatever we teach about to the Doctrine of Christ. It also shows how important it is to have people learning about the church develop their own faith.

I have tried to strengthen my companionship with Elder Hileman by serving him lovingly and trusting him more during our lessons. I am the type of person who sometimes thinks that I would be the best person for the job but I'm realizing that every companion that I will have has skills and abilities that I lack. I enjoy the time that I have with Elder Hileman. He knows more about the Scriptures than I do and has a good skill of connecting with investigators.

As a companionship and person goal, Elder Hileman and I have invited the spirit through prayer as often as we can. Before we go into a lesson, before we eat, before we get ready for the day, before we go to bed, after a lesson, during a lesson. I have never prayed this much in my life but I have also never felt the spirit this constantly before.

Thank you,

Elder Gallagher

Hope I get to hear from you all again next week!
Love you!

One Week Down

Okay, so the first day was really great which I think I really needed since the MTC is a pretty overwhelming experience. It was pretty hard to leave dad standing there and walk into the MTC but I did! My companion Elder Hileman is a really kind hearted guy from Idaho. We've been getting better at teaching together and making progress with teaching is one of the only ways you can be happy here so I'm really thankful for that!

 

I really miss you guys but I can honestly say that I definitely made the right choice by coming here. Everyday I read a ton of mail from Rach which makes it so doable, thank you. Family and whoever! Write me on dearelder.com It's so great to hear from people. I feel the spirit really strong after I pray and read the scriptures here. I finished the Book of Mormon this week which was really nice and faith building. I'm working on the New Testament and the Jesus the Christ book that mom gave me.

 

It has been really hard being stuck in here while Mom and whoever else is down the road at Grandpa's wake. It really stinks. They called me into a counseler's room and I pretty much figured it out before I got there. I am sad but I know that when I told Grandpa that I was going on a mission I made him really proud. He wants me to be here. I'm sorry that Noah and Eden couldn't see him before he died and I hope everyone is doing okay. You can always email me about anything.

 

I am having a good time with great teachers! Dad, my teacher Brother Austin is an animation student at BYU and he's really nice and good at teaching. Would it be alright if I first got your email and gave it to him? And I thought it was funny that I got a call and the lady was like, "hey I have your dad on the line" and I thought I was going to talk to you, but of course she just got the computer password from me. That was a bummer.

 

I'm running out of time. Ah I wish I had a ton more. Let's see...I went to the temple this morning which was really great. Everyone was right when they said the more you go the more you'll understand things. So I'm really glad I felt the spirit there. What do you want to know? We're teaching three "investigators" right now which is hard and a great learning experience. Its the easiest to teach someone when you get to really know them first.

 

Mom, I hope you're doing okay and just know that I'm doing fine and thank you for being friendly with Rach.

 

Noah, I miss you bud and I'm excited to talk to you soon. I think you wrote me a letter. So I'm excited to get that.

 

Eden! I hope you're getting ready for school and having a good summer

 

Chloe, I miss you and I love you and I cant wait to hear about gymnastics and see the pictures you drew me.

 

Ella, you can't read but I miss you too!

 

I'm out of time. The moral of the story is that I'm adjusting much better than I bet we all thought I would and that I really want to write you all letters and more emails. Also, I hope everyone is doing okay because it's really hard losing our last grandpa. I miss him a lot. See you guys next week!

 

Love you all,

 

Silas