So this week has been pretty good! I will start off with this statement.... I LOVE NEW YORK!!!!! Alright now that I said it, you all know now that I love New York. Ok now this past week I attended my first Zone Conference.... 3 times.... Yup I got the same things but still they were great every time. Our mission is growing really fast! Like to the point where I will be for sure training someone when I'm done with my 12 week program.... AHHHHHHHH! Scary! Also, our mission will be rereading the Book of Mormon together! Heck yeah! Also, everyone kept looking at my chin!!!! Because I had stitches on my chin, I could shave there, so I had stitches that looked like long facial hair and real facial hair that I couldn't shave... I had a goatee! A really ugly one haha. Everyone just kept staring at me..... I would always have to say, "Eyes up here. They are stitches." Yep, embarrassing. Ok now to missionary work!
Ok so no I did not run into anymore people thank goodness but I will say this... I will have plenty of time to "correctly" learn to ride a bike. Why? Because when the new missionaries come in (this period of time is called "transfers") my comp and I will be giving up our car and it will be given to the newest sisters... Somewhere idk haha. Pero, we will be sharing a car with the Norwalk missionaries for they will be moving in with us! Heck yeah, except for the fact that we (Stamford elders) will never drive that car for a while because the Norwalk missionaries need the car everyday to get from Stamford to Norwalk.... Yeah so yay for bikes.... *cough I HATE YOU BIKE *cough *cough. But I did get a new bike! Her name is Tapanga and is from Walmart haha. Dem Walmart bikes doe!
Ok great news! Johana will be baptized September 6th :)! So excited for her! We recently talked to her (Elder Hunt and I... We were on a split, I'll explain later.) about profetas. She said that she always imagined the prophet to have "long robes and a staff"..... Uh... Ties are long and some prophets had canes... Soooo she was close! Hahaha. Also when it comes to Li Veliz, he has been hard to reach since he has been working so much, but we will get a hold of him this week as we religiously keep visiting his apartment haha. Also, Viviana Alvarez is doing well! We taught her the Plan of Salvation over Facebook call... I didn't know that we could call people through Facebook! What the heck! But anyways, those of you who understand the time it takes to teach the Plan of Salvation and the difficulty of not drawing it out, can feel that the struggle was real during that call. Pero, nosotros enviamos un dibujo del Plan de Salvación a través de Facebook y ella (Viviana) entendió mejor cuando le enviamos. Entonces, ella está bien!!!!
Una otra cosa, nosotros tenemos un intercambio (split) con los elderes Hunt y Shurtleff. Los elderes Bailey y Shurtleff estuvieron juntos y Elder Hunt y yo estuvimos juntos. Ok elder hunt and I are really scary.... We act the same way! It's crazy! So him and I had a crazy time together. Elder Hunt is out district leader and he is from Georgia. He used to be a Portuguese speaking missionary but he was changed to Spanish speaking. Ok back to the split.... Elder Hunt and I were doing really well in teaching the lessons! I taught a lot more in Spanish then I had ever done before. The reason being... When Elder Bailey leaves.... I'm in charge of Stamford 0_o! So that's why Elder Hunt was with me. So that he can show and teach me how to be more confident in my Spanish. Yeah that was a fun day... Well actually, that was yesterday haha.
Oh! Another awesome thing! We went tracking as a district but we were split into Spanish and English missionaries. I was with Elder Sorensen and we placed un Libro de Mormón! It was great! We were in a frenzy and we got three referrals for the Norwalk missionaries. I found that when I got out of my comfort zone and just started speaking, my mouth was filled with the words that I needed to saw in Spanish. That's the power of the Holy Ghost and the gift of tongues, thanks to Heavenly Father.
Now there are a lot of things that I am thankful for that Heavenly Father has provided for me, and this leads right into my quick scripture study. My scripture study was in 1 Nephi chapter 2. In the beginning of this chapter, Lehi and his family leave Jerusalem and travel for 3 days and then they made camp. What did Lehi do when they finished setting up camp? Well, verse 7 says:
7. And it came to pass that he built an altar of stones, and made an offering unto the Lord, and gave thanks unto the Lord our God.
The only word that I can say about this situation... Is "Wow". If I had traveled for three days... I would be soooooo tired. I don't care how many miles I've ran for cross country... Walking for three days, carrying supplies, and, if I may include, that they weren't covering half as much of a distance as all of us would be able to in our cars. And even then, I still would be tired!!!!
Now this isn't even the most interesting part... The part I want to talk about is when Lehi and his family hit the "three day mark", he didn't set up camp and then rest.... Naw, he set up camp, built an altar, and gave thanks to our Heavenly Father.
You may be thinking, "Well that's cool..." Or "Well that really isn't that hard..." May I also explain the work that goes into building an altar? Ok an altar is made up of mostly rock that is built in the shape of a square. The height of the altar is about to your thighs (or sometimes even to your head o_0!!!! ) and the width and length have to be big enough to support an animal. And that's another thing!!!! You have to hunt down an animal to sacrifice!!!!! Do you even know how long that would take?! Imagine: you have hiked three days... Do you want to start building an altar? To be honest, I would not. But Lehi did.
Lehi is someone that we can look to as an example or someone that we can compare two people that we all know really well.... Hmmm I wonder who they could be... Oh yeah, our parents.
Our parents do so much for us; for example, they work to support us, they deal with our drama, they worry about us, they love us, they forgive us, so on and so forth. They are like Lehi, working for a long time and then they come home to, no not to build an altar (because if that happened I would be reeeeeeaaally confused) but to make dinner, take care of children, etc. I love my parents, and I know they work over time for us kids (yes I just called us "children" because sometimes we still act like them) and they love us so much and I really could not ask for a better Mommy and Daddy. But this is not all that we can learn about Lehi.
What we also can learn from him is that even through our own trials or labors, we should continue to give thanks to Heavenly Father. I have learned this on my mission and The Lord really blesses us, missionaries, out here in the field. And not just missionaries but all of us should continue to be grateful or start to through prayer.
I'm thankful to be not just a missionary, but a representative of Jesus Christ. I am thankful for the Atonement and His love for us. I am so thankful to have a families that our Heavenly Father has provided for us. And I am thankful for this gospel because it has blessed our lives and it is a true gospel. I know that it has been restored on this earth and I know that through Joseph Smith, God has restored His church and I know these things to be true in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Well thank you all for supporting me and I love each and everyone of you. Para siempre Dios este con voz!
Elder Gallego
No comments:
Post a Comment