Hola familia!
What a week! We did not stop for a breath this week as we ran from one service project to the next while at the same time teaching our investigators and preparing the Morales family for their baptism. It's been quite the stress load, but we have enjoyed it! :) We stopped for a second yesterday once it was all over, looked back over the week, and talked about how grateful we were to be so busy. Time flies by so fast as we continue to have fun working our tails off. I have enjoyed this time with Elder Thorne, and I sure hope it doesn't end this week! :|
This week marks the final week of the transfer, already! It's insane to even think about. No transfer in my mission so far has felt like this one, and I know it is because we have been working harder than we ever have and have been enjoying the work more than ever. We love this area, this ward, these people, this work! We are overwhelmed with how much there is to do just in this week alone, but we are SO ready for it! Bring it-we say. :) I look forward to finishing off this week strong and helping those around us come unto Christ.
Although I can't completely remember all that happened this week, I did take some notes to try to better keep a hold of my lacking memory! We started off the week by taking an adventure to Downtown Disney as a district, and we very much enjoyed it. This district is so fun, and I sure hope that we don't get split up! I think I am going to beg President to keep us all together. We all want it! ;) Of course it's what the Lord wants, but I am confident that the Lord is pleased by the work seen and the unity felt in this district right now. It's been such a great transfer! Anaheim 11 is going up! :) Such a great area. But anyways, we strolled around, took fun pictures and had a great break/prep for the week to come (this past week), and it was a great opportunity to enjoy ourselves. :)
That wasn't the only time we saw each other as a district, though, that's for sure! We went from service project to service project together, along with our final district meeting and lunch together this transfer, as well. Plus, the members like to feed us all together. :) We have focused on trying to have at least one service project together each week, and it just so happened that we were privileged to do even more this week! :) We helped a couple elderly members clean their yard a couple times, helped people move, and my ultimate favorite of the week (although they were all great, of course) was translating for Parent-Teacher Conferences at a school in our district. It was a blast! The opportunity came to us through one of the teachers, who is a member. We basically came to help teachers communicate with the parents that only spoke Spanish! We went a couple days for a few hours each day, but it was worth it to help people get past that language barrier we sometimes confront. :) I had so much fun translating! It was kind of funny for me because I always tell people that I can speak Spanish and speak English, but I can NOT translate! That's because, usually, I am a terrible translator, but I can understand what is going on both way, I just can't speak and listen at the same time. Up until this week. We did lots of practices to prepare ourselves, and now I can do it. It was a lot of fun, and we even had a few opportunities to share the gospel in between as well. It was a great experience, I hope it comes around again, soon! :)
I had a pretty funny moment happen to me this Friday as we were on our way to visit a few people. For those of you that don't know, the weekends seem to be the party time, so it can be a little crazy sometimes with all the drinking and high-bass and accordion music you hear going on around the streets. Well this night in particular was more funny that it was scary. We went to go visit the Sanchez family (an investigator of ours) and her husband (not interested) was sitting on his couch drinking a big can of beer. As we went to shake hands, he took a big swig, and they shook my hand with his hand still drenched in beer. Don't know how, but somehow Elder Thorne avoided it! So, it was awkward as I was thinking to myself, "great, now I am going to smell like beer. This will be an interesting explanation." So I asked to wash my hands, returned from that, we had great lesson with his wife, Blanca, and we left. On our way to our next appt, there was a drunk guy in the street that looked WAY too happy to see us...we had never seen him before, so he MUST have been hallucinating that we were something else ha. He stopped us, said hello, and awkwardly shook our hands. As he left and we continued on, I noticed that once again, my hand was wet...took a sniff...yum, more beer. Again thinking back to my original thought, I did the best I could to wipe it off on a nearby plant before we entered the following inv house-in fear of them thinking the contrary of us. As we walked in, the man we had just met not too long ago that expressed to us that he wanted help to stop drinking set down his beer can, shook our hands, and yes, for the THIRD time, my hands were moistened with the delightful beer lotion that so many seemed to be using that night. It was a pretty hilarious moment for Elder Thorne and I. He didn't get one drop on him! Just me! For the rest of the night, he shook hands first haha. It was a great lesson nonetheless, and we look forward to teaching the Word of Wisdom a little bit more. ;)
To top of a great week full of fun and spiritual moments, we enjoyed watching the Morales family take those important steps into the waters of baptism yersteady. We were so happy for them! Yesterday had to have been the busies Sunday ever on my mission. We got a text Satuday night/Sunday morning at 1 o'clock telling us that they were not going to be able to make it to church. Afraid this meant they were calling their baptism off for the 3rd time, we quickly did all we could to respond to them once we got up in the morning. Turns out, their landlord told them they had to move that morning, and for that reason, they were not going to be able to go to church. They had to move! Unfortunately they were not able to go to church because of their moving situation, but they packed up and right after church, our amazing Ward Mission Leader went with us to help move their stuff. Although many other things happened that day, and I don't have enough time to mention it all, the important part is that they didn't let anything get in the way of their baptism, and that evening Nohemi, Sandra, and Francisco finally took that step they have been preparing for for so long now, and they were baptized. We were SO happy to be there! And so honored to be the ones baptizing them. :) Nohemi asked that I baptize her, Sandra asked that Elder Parkinson return to baptize her, and Francisco asked Elder Thorne to baptize him. We were all connected! :) It was such a great experience, and I loved watching as this family that needed it so badly took this step together and will now be receiving the blessings they need in their lives. Such a great family, I sure love them!!!!
In all, this week was amazing. I love this work so much, and I am so sorry for turning this into a novel, but I had a little extra time this emailing period, so I thought I'd expound a little bit more since I am doing such a terrible job at responding to all of you right now. ;) Love you all so much regardless, and I hope you are all doing well! Love you so much and thank you again for the package! You're the best! :) Love you all and can't wait to hear back soon! Cuidense!
-Elder Gallego
“We are not here to play, to dream, to drift. We have hard work to do and heavy loads to lift. Shun not the struggle - face it. This is God’s gift.”
President David O. McKay
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