Suprise!

Hey everyone!

Man we didn't go to the temple this week because the member that is taking us couldn't get off of work. So I guess I'll have a lot to read next WEDNESDAY. Ha well I hope everyone is doing okay. I miss everyone a lot but I am doing pretty well. This week we didn't have the baptism that was supposed to happen so that kind of stunk. A lot of the people that were investigators have been dodging us this week. I think my favorite part about this week has been giving blessings. We gave a blessing to a really cool guy who is a somewhat recent convert. He actually had a family member get shot which is a totally different story but anyways... giving him a blessing was a really uplifting moment and the spirit was there. 

We actually gave a blessing to a guy a couple weeks ago and he didn't have to get surgery! He was going to have to get 1 to 3 ribs taken out to see if he had cancer but after the blessing they went away which is actually really great. I'm still reading the Book of Mormon and New Testament which has really strengthened my testimony. I'm in chapter 10 of The Acts and like 32 of Alma. It helps when you have an hour to read everyday! As I read I understand the gospel better and better. It's interesting because God loves us so much that he made what we have to do simple even though it would be difficult. Jesus taught that we have to have Faith, repent, be baptized by the proper authority and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost/or renew your covenants by taking the sacrament and endure to the end. It's really hard for everyone to change sometimes even if it is for the better. But it really is for the better. I've already seen people change for the better and they're obviously happier. They haven't even been baptized yet so they'll be even happier after that. Thank you Mom and Dad for being really great examples to me. I'm starting to better understand why you tried to make us read the scriptures so much ahah. I'm not sure why or what has changed but I really love reading and learning more. 

There are so many people that tell us that we're deceived and wrong or they have really strong opinions about something. All of these people haven't even read the Bible or the Book of Mormon which I think is really silly. It's pointless to say that something isn't for you if you haven't tried it. And I believe that everyone feels the spirit in their lives no matter what. To feel the spirit we have to follow God's commandments and do what Christ did. It's hard sometimes when we teach people that really don't get it even after we teach it okay. There was this crazy big black lady that we taught haha and she started speaking in "the gift of tongues" and it was just creepy... Lots of fun stuff going on in North Long Beach. Life is good though. Members here are really nice. There are a lot of islanders. They feed us so much! somehow I'm not fat yet... It's probably because of the biking everyday and the 100+ weather that we've had lately

People here in the ward really love Hugh Nibley and my companion does too. I've been having fun getting into pretty deep conversations about God and Adam and Eve and the temple and pretty much everything. 

Well I have to go so I'll talk to you all next week on Wednesday!

Love,

Elder Gallagher

Week 3 in Cali? 40 Days total I think

Hey Everyone!

I'm really happy and grateful to be here emailing you guys because I actually wasn't going to be able to send any mail or check my email until Wednesday and I was worried that you would be worried. That's because we were going to the temple but luckily we're going next week so I can warn you all about this. I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO EMAIL UNTIL WEDNESDAY NEXT WEEK. Or at least not Monday. We go to the Temple every other transfer or 6 weeks. Okay this week was pretty hard at first. I actually crashed my bike haha because I'm stupid and anyways it hurt... I just have a gross thing on my knee but I'm fine. I was just kind of discouraged because I've gotten hurt once a week now and I'd rather be not hurt. The end of the week was a lot better though. I got mail from Abbey who's in New Paltz and is having a good time and RACH! I really love letters and it just really helped me out when I was discouraged this week.

So I guess Dad is old now. How is it being a high priest? Boring? haha. Whoa I can't believe Chloe is going to school now that's really awesome. It sounds like everyone is doing really great and that makes me really happy! I had to buy pants today because when I crashed I ripped my only non-suit pants. 

Elder Sudbury and I are still getting along well which is good and we actually had one of the best lessons of his mission apparently which means that it's good because he goes home soon. We met with a girl that we contacted on the street literally the first day I got here. Our lesson went really well! We had good trade offs with teaching and using the scriptures and she almost cried because she felt the spirit. She committed to be baptized on the 30th of this month which was really cool. The only sad part is that she's 22 or something so we have to hand her off to the singles ward missionaries. She'd probably like that ward better so that's okay. 

I'm getting more and more used to the schedule of being a missionary which is good because the first week I had no idea what was going on when it came to what we should be doing at what time. We almost get fed by members everyday which is really nice. I'm enjoying the really good Mexican food and I think that I haven't even had the best stuff yet so I'm looking forward to that. Despite crashing, I'm having a really good time riding bikes. It's a good time to just think. It's been really hot here so that's been kind of annoying. If you want to send me anything I could use some more socks! One really awesome thing that happened this week is this less active lady Sis. Adams gave us a bunch of really nice ties. I have 7 "new" ties that I really like and it was just really great being given something like that. 

I'm still reading through the Book of Mormon in 90 days but I'm actually way ahead of schedule. I'm in Alma 7 which is pretty good. I really like Alma 5 so go and read that. I'm also reading the New Testament still and I just finished Luke this morning. I'm excited for John and all the other books because I've never read them before. 

How's Eden doing? I miss her! And everyone else of course! 

Love you guys!

Elder Gallagher

Week 2 in Cali (I didn't tell him we never called it Cali in Northern CA where I grew up)

Hey!

I have less time today because everyone in my zone has to come to the family history center so I'll try and hurry. This week went a lot quicker and it was good. BUT I actually rolled my ankle last week while playing basketball which really hurt. It popped but like three days after it was better. Would it be okay if I bought basketball shoes? They have a lot of ankle support. I think that I might go and buy some after this. My companion is saying that it'll be worth it. so thanks Mom and Dad haha I hope its okay.

Elder Sudbury and I are still getting along well. This week we kept teaching our main investigator Diana. She's really awesome and she's been coming to church. She's actually supposed to get baptized on the 15th! At first her boyfriend didnt want to have anything to do with us and he didn't like us but now he's taking the lessons too which is so great. He didn't make it to church but I think he will next week. I love teaching them and bearing my testimony that the gospel will change their lives. It's kind of silly but I didn't really get that much out of reading the scriptures before I came here but now its actually not enough to study for an hour. Right now I'm trying to read the Book of Mormon in 90 days from the 21st of August. I just started Jacob and at the end of 2 Nephi it's so awesome because Nephi saw a vision of everything and he knew about Christ and he knew that the only way we can be saved is through faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. 

I'm also reading Jesus the Christ and the New Testament. I'm in Mark right now and around page 200 on Jesus the Christ. I just read when Jesus is talking about considering the ravens and the lilies. It's a really interesting thing that he' talking about. God will provide the necessities if we trust in him. Another thing that I liked is before you seek for riches, seek for the word of God which is what I'm doing haha so it made me feel good.

North Long Beach is good. The weather has been really nice...kind of hot but I really can't complain. Diana isn't the only person that we're teaching. We've found three other families that we're trying to meet with more. A lot of them were busy or gone because of labor day. Happy Labor Day! 

Surprisingly, I don't miss my phone at all or nearly as much as I thought I would which is really great. I miss everyone of course a lot though. Thanks for the emails, Mom and Dad. I hope everyone is doing alright and it's crazy how fast the summer went by! Hope everyone will have a great year at school.

Ummm, I think that's it? I'm still on bike 24/7 which is fun and my ward is super small and the people are pretty crazy but really great haha. 

Love you all,

Elder Silas Gallagher

Week 1 in Cali

Sorry for the delay in posting, something was wrong with my blogger account and I couldn't post the last three letters (Sage)

 

Hey Family!

 

This week I flew to Long Beach and got settled in. I'm in North Long Beach which is pretty ghetto haha  but yeah I'm pretty close to Compton. It's not in my area though. And don't be worried either way because people here don't really hassle missionaries because most of them believe in God and everything. The first couple days were pretty hard but my companion is a really nice guy. The plane ride was good and then we got picked up and took a driving test thing and went to dinner and then went out and got to work. I was awake for 19 hours so by 10:30 I passed out.

 

This week has honestly been a blur and I'm guessing that it's not going to slow down. We had an investigator come to church yesterday which was really great. Ha my first lesson that I taught with her was the Law of Chastity which was fun. She's really nice though. She has a little girl who wont go to nursery because she loves her mom so much. Elder Sudbury and I found five new investigators the other day which is really good so woo. Oh and we are in an only bike area which I actually really like because my bike is awesome and I've always really liked riding bikes. I've met some pretty nice people and some pretty crazy people. This one member was baptized in his bathtub into a born again church hahaha then he found our church. We had dinner at his house yesterday. He had Cutco knifes! We eat at someones house almost every night which is really awesome. I've already had some really good mexican food! There's some Tongan food i've had too. I like my apartment. There are 4 other elders who live in another apartment really close to ours and theirs is not the best ha. But i like ours

 

The ward that I'm in is soo small ha and its such a mixture of different people. The Elders president is a Giants Fan! Rach would like that ha. After I got off the phone with you guys I was kind of bummed that I wasnt going to talk to you for a long time. All your voices were so nice to hear! 

 

Hey make sure to tell everyone that they can email me. I like emailss.

 

I miss you all a lot but I'm glad that I have you all to lean on.

 

I'll email you all next week!

 

Elder Silas Gallagher

 

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