Elder Gallagher

My email doesn't like to work anymore so I haven't gotten any responses but there is a chance I'll be on later. Or is it just that you forgot about me? I hope not! I had a pretty good week despite the week being a little slow.

On Tuesday I took Elder Welch to get some Indian food in little India. It was pretty good but not as good as the place that we went to in NYC. He had never had Indian food before. It's a strange but tasty Gallagher tradition. Not many people I know love Indian food as much as us. I remember the time that I took Rach to Bombay house in Provo UT with Grammie and Aunt Heather and she liked it I think? She's good at trying new food now!

This is the last week of the transfer so I will know next week whether I am leaving or staying and what's going on. It's kind of weird to have a chance of being uprooted and put in another spot. I'm pretty used to it by now though. My official new release date is JULY 29th 2014! So already there are 10 months left. So that will be the day I get on a plane! I really can't picture that but It'll happen. Last night I had a dream and it only had people I know from my mission haha. It's weird that a year ago I was in Long Beach helping Nicole Reed quit smoking. As far as I know she is still doing really well and goes to church now! 

Last night Elder Welch was on the phone while we were walking and I started talking to a woman named Ruth who was walking home from somewhere. She was a very nice and we talked about the church and walked for about 15 minutes. I explained that I was from NY and what I was doing and that Elder Welch didn't have the same first name as me (Elder). Most people ask if we're brothers since we have the same first name. I'm not exactly sure how that clicks in people's heads... Anyways! She was really genuine. It felt like we were friends before even though she was probably in her 40's and I'd never seen her in my life. She expressed concerns about how all the churches say they are right and how there is a lot of hypocrisy which turns her away from religion. I really do understand all of the confusion when it comes to religion in the world. There are literally thousands of churches that all preach essentially the same thing: Love your neighbor etc. I think there are more Christian churches here in Southern California than maybe any other place. It looks a little ridiculous to put faith in just one or in any at all. That is kind of where she was coming from. I think most people expect me or anyone from a specific church to just literally hate people from a different faith and sadly, that is sometimes the case. I know that all churches speak some truth. They make better, happier people. The difference, I explained to her, between the thousands of other churches and the one I represent is priesthood authority or basically the power of God. She was right when she answered and said that most churches claim that power and authority. We usually always think we are right. It is pretty awesome despite that fact to have evidence of the claim that we make and I was able to talk to her more about the Book of Mormon (http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=1256696369001) and a modern day Prophet. No one can know of spiritual truths without prayer so I invited her to pray about what we talked about it and see what God wants for her.

Most of the things that are going on with me are about church though haha I bet you wouldn't have ever guessed. I heard that the church may be shortening the church block from 3 to 2 hours from a member that was sent a random survey. This might be the only time in my life that I get really excited about church news. This morning as we were doing laundry at "fiesta laundry" the English news was on which surprised me. It looked not so good so I'm a little curious to what is going on. It is pretty nice to not have to worry about anything but the people I help.

I'll probably be on later so email me back! Love you!

Silas

I'm pretty bad at thinking of subject lines...

Hey everybody,

My week was really great! Each week we set goals for the things we want to do and how many people we want to teach or talk to and this week we achieved a lot of our goals. I don't think I've ever learned so much about setting goals in my life. I've always been really bad at thinking of what I want to do with my future but what I'm learning here is going to help me a lot. I'm learning how to improve day by day. This past week my personal goal was to not speak negatively about anyone. I don't have a big problem with that but I want to always think good things about the people around me. Actually figuring out how I can improve and then doing it is really empowering. It is a great feeling to achieve a goal.

On Wednesday I got to drive down to Huntington Beach with some Elders in my zone who were getting a car from some other missionaries down there. I got to see the beach and I can't wait to come back here and swim! Sadly I didn't bring my camera so you'll just have to look up pictures of Huntington beach.

On Friday and Saturday I went on "exchanges" with a new missionary name Elder Brooks. Exchanges in where you switch companions for 24hrs to learn from a different person. He is only here in this mission until he gets his visa then he's headed to Vanuatu which is near the Solomon islands. He's going to live on tiny islands for two years with people who don't really wear any clothes and who stopped eating people in the 80's. I think his mission will be a tad different than mine hah. I had a good time with him and I'm glad I could get to know him a little bit before he heads there.

I forget when President Tew was talking about maturity but I think what he said was really interesting and true. I don't see him that often so it must have been a few weeks ago. As a baby all we care about is ourselves. We only think about when we're going to be fed and who's going to do what for us. But over time we grow up and start having to help other people. Watching siblings, doing chores. Then a person has baby and gives everything instead of takes. Maturity is based on how much we care about others and not ourselves. President Tew calls it being others' oriented. As we become more like Christ, who is completely selfless, we mature into who God wants us to be. It is not human logic to think that the less we think about ourselves the happier we will be but I know it's true. I've never been happier and I'm still probably thinking too much about myself.

I really like these videos. They are straight out of the scriptures which is why I think they are so good. And a plug for Noah...I think Jesus looks a little like Batman. Hopefully lightning doesnt strike me ha.:

http://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/the-greatest-commandment?lang=eng

http://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/sermon-on-the-mount-treasures-in-heaven?lang=eng

And I read this talk this week about having an abundant life. I really like the speaker Elder Wirthlin:

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2006/04/the-abundant-life?lang=eng&query=the+abundant+life

I'll attach some pictures this week! Elder Welch and I went to Jamba Juice and they gave us free shirts so that's why we match haha. These are random pictures we took at night instead of write in our journals...

Love and miss you

Silas

Bits from emails to Mom...

The work is pretty good. The first door I knocked on Friday was a girl who took a Book of Mormon and set up a return appt. But yesterday we knocked the rest of the street and stopped by and her Mom told us not to come back. She didn't speak any English...some sort of Asian language but that stunk. There's good work here though. No baptismal dates right now.

Crazy Week (no letter last week)

Sorry about not writing last week! I'll try and make up for it now. This week was pretty good and the end of it was pretty crazy. On Thursday, Elder Welch and I gave a "training" to the other missionaries in our zone. It's called zone meeting. It was only my second time being the missionary at the front training other missionaries but I thought we did really well. I like that I'm getting over my fear of talking in front of large crowds. Our zone is doing really well compared to other parts of the mission and I'm proud of the hard work that everyone does everyday. It has been really really hot and it would be miserable outside in the sun if I didn't know that what I'm doing can really help people.

Yesterday I had a good day at church. There was a man and his fiance who came for the first time. They moved here from LA and have been going to a Chinese branch (congregation) for the past month or so. They plan to get married in China at the end of he year and then be baptized so it was nice to have new people! The rest of my Sunday was a little crazy. I went to a baptism for a man and his wife who I interviewed for baptism. As a zone leader I have the opportunity to interview some of the people who want to be baptized in my zone. This was actually my third interview and I really love them. It is amazing to see the happiness and excitement people have to change their life and choose to follow Christ. The missionaries who taught them were pretty new and had never baptized anyone before. So they were very happy and it was a good service.

Later that day we got a call from other missionaries in the zone and they told us they got into a car accident and needed a ride. I didn't think it was going to be that bad but we got there and one of the missionaries (out of the three) was taken to the hospital. The driver was totally fine and the missionary in the passenger seat thought he was fine but on the drive over to the hospital he started having back pain. The missionary behind the driver was the one who went in the ambulance. They were doing a U turn and a car hit them right where he was sitting. So we went to the hospital from 7 to about 11:45. Normally I am in my apartment by 9-9:30 so it was strange being out so late. Our mission president and his wife came and worked some things out as we waited. The Elder behind the driver fractured his cheek bone or something and the Elder with back pain has a lot of muscle strain I guess. They're at the library and planning on going to UCLA for the doctor today. It was scary to realize how quick something bad can happen. I finally got in bed around 12am and I woke up at 6 so studying this morning was pretty hard!

I've been pretty happy this week. As I focus on other people the things I tend to worry about disappear. As we realize that being happy is really about doing things for others we'll be happier than we've ever been. I've never thought more about others any other time in my life and I've never been deep down happier. I know the only way I could be happier is to be with the people I love too. So I'm going to try and be a better and happier person everyday because I have a feeling that before I know it I'll be on my way home.

I hope everyone is doing well. I think about each one of you every week. Please excuse how bad I am at writing letters and emails too. If last week wasn't that great decide that this week will be different!

Love

Silas