Great Week!

Hope you all had a great week!

I'm pretty much all settled and used to living in this area now. The Monson's (the people I live with) are really great people! They have a nice home and I'm learning lot about what I want my house to be like from them. We also live next to the Carr family. They have a daughter on a mission in FL and they have been so nice to us too! They make cookies every sunday night which are very good. It is really different in a great way to live with members. I've missed the feeling of really being in a "home" and now I feel a little more like I'm home. Sister Monson buys me milk and it's like home where I didn't have to worry about buying milk or timing out how much I use. It is great!

Chelsea came to church and really enjoyed it. She met a lot of the other girls from church and the talks were really good too. One girl talked about developing charity. Elder George and I saw a miracle at church yesterday too! There was a girl who was there for the first time. Her name is Patricia. She moved here from San Diego and her friend told her about the church and invited her but she just wanted to go for herself. She's already reading and praying and marking her scriptures. We're meeting with her tomorrow! I've been really distracted today and I'm somehow already out of time! I promise pictures next week. I forgot my camera. 

Life is good here and I love and miss you all! 

Elder Gallagher

Huntington/Fountain Valley

Hey everyone!

 

I moved to Fountain Valley on tuesday and it has been really great! I live with an ex mission president who is very witty and great. We live in his old movie room and I feel pretty blessed to live in a nice house. The ward here is fantastic. Everyone I've met in the family ward is really motivated to do missionary work and share what brings peace into their lives. Even the Young Single Adult ward seems very missionary oriented. My new companion is Elder George (from Ogden, UT) and we're doing great. This sunday we ran around trying to attend the most of two wards in two different places. It was fast and testimony so I got up and bore my testimony.

 

Since it is columbus day I don't have too much time because other people need to email but I do want to tell you about my week! I've been meeting so many people and getting used to handling two different wards. We taught a girl that other missionaries contacted on the street. Her name is Chelsea. She's from Salt Lake and she surprisingly isn't very familar with what we believe. She's been to church before for her extended family. We were able to sit down and talk with her and teach a great lesson. I felt the Spirit really strong and it felt so good to teach someone again! I feel like I haven't taught very many people in awhile. She's getting prepared to be baptized on the 2nd of November. I'm greatful for all of the love that I feel from God. I have to get off now but I love you all and Ill have pictures and more great things to talk about next week. Look up Kevin Monson that's who I live with. Im safe and doing great!

 

Love

Silas

HB Bound [I'm guessing HB is Huntington Beach]

Hey!

I hope everyone's week was great. We had to move apartments on Friday just basically down the road so that took up a lot of my time. We moved into a pretty nice apartment with a lot more room than our old one. It is also right in the middle of little India so our neighboors are all Indian. I won't be living there anymore though because this was my last week in Cerritos. I found out Friday morning that I am being transferred to the Fountain Valley 1st ward and the HB singles ward. I've never served down in Orange County so I'm pretty excited! I know my companion too! His name is Elder George. He came out with Elder Komarek (who I trained) and he was just here in my zone a month and a half ago. We get along well and I'm really excited to work hard over there. I've also never served in two wards or a singles ward so I'm excited. I move tomorrow morning.

I'm still a zone leader and I know a few of the Elders in my zone. Elder Edward, one of my previous companions will be there so that will be fun. He goes home in just 6 weeks now. I was his companion when he was out for 13 months and now he's already going home!
 

We also got to watch the General Conference sessions this weekend which I thought was really inspiring. Here's a link:

(http://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2013/10?cid=HPFR100413105&lang=eng)

Some short quotes of what I liked from conference:

"Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith" - President Uchtdorf

"Our destiny is not determined by how many times we fall down but by how many times we get up" - President Uchtdorf

"It is impossible to fail when we do our best and when we are on the Lords errand" - Elder Ballard

I also really liked President Eyring's talk about the parable of the good Samaritan. Being able to care for others and feel the love the God has for others is really uplifting. It has made me a much happier person. http://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/whosoever-will-lose-his-life-for-my-sake-shall-find-it?lang=eng As we lose our lives in the pursuit of helping others we also lose our problems and loneliness.

I will be living with a member which will be great! He used to be a mission president and I've only heard amazing things about them. His name is Brother Monson haha. Last night I went to the departing fireside for missionaries who are going home. They get up and talk about their experiences and there are also musical numbers. I got to see a few people I haven't seen for a long time! I saw William, the guy I baptized in Whittier, and he is doing fantastic. He looks so happy and is now a ward missionary. He said his mom is taking the lessons in Spanish. Sometimes I get discouraged and forget about the people I've touched and will never forget. It was a good reminder for me to work hard no matter what. The pictures are of me outside our apartment, Me and Gilbert Mendoza ( a member of the ward) and the Lakewood zone.

Hope you all have a great week! I love you!

Silas

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