Well, what a great week! This past week was full of excitement and honestly, I don't know if I can remember everything that happened this last week, it was so busy! Lots and lots of Spanish, and more meetings! But one of the many things I have learned here on my mission, more specifically in the MTC, is getting accustomed to meetings and firesides that last about two hours or longer. ha Before my mission, I dreaded going to firesides and such because I thought they were boring and I could not stay awake, but now, I LOVE THEM! I wish I had payed more attention during firesides and meetings like these because they are so informational ha. I can't wait for the conferences that we have. This past week we were visited by Elder Kopischke of the Seventy.
Elder Kopischke is from Germany and he actually spoke to me in the MTC, so I knew it would be great. :) He is on assignment from the Apostles to visit Stakes and talk about missionary work. So directly after our Zone Conference, he went and visited with all the leaders of the Orange County area pretty much. Something that was really neat that he had us do during the conference (and it seems like a lot of general authorities seem to do this) is that he did not plan anything. He told us to take a few minutes and come up with one or two questions that we wanted answered by the end. Then he explained to us something that he said every member of the church can learn from. If you want to really get something out of church, you should come to church with a question. What a great idea! Then our entire 4 hours was based off the questions and was led by the Spirit. It was so great! It wasn't just a lecture, but it was a conversation, so it was easy to stay awake for 4 hours. ;) He has a way with teaching. My answers were answered, and I learned so much that my companion and I can change to find more people to teach. My question was what I can do to be more of an influence in the lives of my investigators, because I was feeling like our investigators were not completely understanding our purpose and the importance of our call, although we tried to explain it. He explained to us that even though they may not realize our importance right away, they eventually will when they see the difference the Gospel has made in their lives because of us bringing it to their home. That totally answered my question because it made me realize that all the investigators we have had so far have either moved or stopped listening to our message (besides Melissa), so they haven't really gotten to the point when they can really given the Gospel a chance to change their lives. But we can totally tell it with Melissa.
Melissa is solid. We knew she was going to be ready quick judging by the fact that she had already had a close relationship with the church in Tijuana. Her baptism is this week, but she is wanting to maybe push it back a week or so because the person that first got her into the church can't make it up from Mexico until the following week, so we invited her to read and pray about it, and she had a bad week because her grandpa died, so we could not meet with her, but we are going to see her tonight to talk about it all. The only unfortunate thing is that her mom left to Mexico because it was her dad that passed away, so the baptism probably will be postponed a little bit depending on how Melissa feels after these recent occurences. She said she had a rough weekend, but is feeling better. She seems to still be strong in the decision to be baptized still though, so that is good. We need to get consent from her mom before we can baptize her thought because she is only 17, so we'll see on that as well. Her mom totally supports it and everything, she just isn't here right now.
Something fun that we have started to do here is teach English, yay! However, it's super difficult! ha Well, for me. I always thought it would be so easy, but I think in order to be a good teacher you really have to have patience. It really puts things into perspective though, to see how I was when I was first learning a language. It is really fun to teach Spanish, but I just hope they are actually learning ha.
I finished my first transfer! WOO! It was a great transfer and I look forward to another one with my companion! That's right, I'm staying in Santa Ana with Elder Andersen! This transfer is going to be a little different though because it is only going to be 5 weeks long. The regular transfer of 6 weeks ends Christmas Eve, so it wouldn't make sense to have that confusion during the already crazy holiday season, so transfers will happen the week before. I sure hope I get to stay here for Christmas! I absolutely love this area and the members here, this ward is so great! Something I was told by President Bowen, though, is that I will most likely be training next transfer because of all the changes, so hopefully I'll be training here, a place I somewhat know ha. I'm working on getting to know it at least. I have heard Christmas in this ward is great. I'm going to need something to keep my mind off of being away from family for the holidays! According to Elder Andersen, Christmas season is a free trunky pass for all Elders, unwritten rule. ha But I'm going to continue to stay focused. :)
As I say in every letter, I sure love this area! Tenemos una social del dia de accion de gracias este viernes, entonces, voy a engoradar mucho! :( Los miembros nunca dejan de dar camida a nostros, entonces, siempre estamos comiendo comida! Ugh. Cuando regrese, sere un gordito! No en realidad, porque no estoy ganando pesos ahora, pero es posible que engorde mucho durante de Navidad! Hare muchos ejercicios para pelear contra la comida!
Wow, I just realized how scattered this letter seems. Sorry! I hope you can understand it all! I guess that would explain my week...pretty scattered! But I loved it :)
La obra esta progresando cada dia, hora, minuto, segundo en el mundo. Estoy muy agradecido por la oporunidad de estar aqui al predicar el Evangelio de Jesucristo. Esperamos que todo este bien con ustedes! Les amo y les extrano mucho, pero yo se que aqui es donde necesito estar. Sin duda! Hasta el proximo correo, les vaya bien!
-Elder Gallego
"Always have a question if you want to receive revelation." Elder Kopischke
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