Hey,
I
had a pretty good week this week. Transfers are tomorrow but I am
staying here in Huntington Beach with Elder George. There are some new
missionaries that are coming to the zone so I am excited to get to know
them and help them with anything I can. Elder Komarek (who I trained
earlier this year) got called to be a zone leader! He is going to do
great.
I went to the orthodontists office today and he
fixed my retainer. He was pretty mad at me for going so long without
wearing it. But everything is fixed so I can wear it. I can never
remember what happened in my week. It was Elder George's birthday on
Saturday so the Monson's took us to Claim Jumper which was really good.
He turned twenty. The Monson's have been so great to live with. Brother
Monson is such a character and I've learned a lot from him. I'm really
lucky to be with them here in Huntington Beach during Thanksgiving and
Christmas. You never need to worry about me! I forget if I've said this
already but Chad Larsen, the bass player for The Aquabats, is in my
ward. He's a really nice guy and I did tell him that my siblings like
his show hah.
Lately I have been trying to find ways that I can
improve. I don't like the points we hit in life where we don't really
know what to do next. There are a multitude of ways I can improve but it
is hard focusing on one. As a zone leader, I go to the mission office
before transfers and have a meeting with President Tew, his assistants
and the other zl's. We find out where everyone is going so we can tell
everyone the next day. The ZL's who are going home or are released get
up and bear their testimonies. Elder Edward goes home tomorrow and Elder
Welch was released so they both got up and it was really good. President
got up and told a story about when he ran XC his senior year in high
school. One race that he ran was on a golf course that was laid out with
flags. At the last 500 meters of the race was a turn around a phone
line. He went around the pole and "kicked" or ran as fast as he possibly
could to get the best time he had ever done. He passed the finish line
and his coach came up to him and told him that he was going to be
disqualified. He asked why! His coach explained that when he had turned
around the phone line pole he ran inside of one of the flags which was
not allowed. He ran back to the pole and ran around the flag he was
supposed to and as he was about to turn around to run back to the finish
line he saw some runners that had never beat him. He told us that they
didn't beat him that day either. The significance of the story is in the
fact that the first time he ran the race he thought he was kicking as
hard as he could. He didn't think he could have ran any more after that
but he did. He was able to run that sprint a whole other time. Sometimes
we think we are trying our hardest but really we have a lot more
potential. I do not want to finish my mission in 9 months and realize
that I was really only trying half as hard as I could have. I think that
applies to everything. School, work, families. etc.
So when you do something make sure you really do it! I miss you all and think about you often!
Love
Elder Gallagher
Here is a video from the Bible:
