April 11, 2011

First off....sorry...I was gonna send pics...but I'm at a bad comp and the USB port doesn't work...so yeah...maybe next week.

Ok...that's cool with the contacts. I got a few left. Maybe a box...or a little less. I can't remember. But thanks mom.

Not gonna lie...I'm glad I wasn't there to do yard work :) haha.

Good luck with seminary.

And wow...that's really cool about Anne Petty. You never told me she was going on a mission. But Brazil...that's real cool. Portugese. Like Spanish in some ways. It's a pretty similar language. If I remember correctly, when I was in the MTC, the missionaries going to Brazil had a real hard time getting visas. To Brazil and Mexico. The hardest places to secure a visa when I was in the MTC.

And as for Mothers Day...idk. I'll think about it more...we could just do it in the afternoon. Or maybe in the morning. I'll have to talk with my comp...but we'll have changes before. The comp I have right now is super chill and will be fine with w/e. Maybe I'll get a comp who tell me when to do it. Haha. Who knows.

Thanks for the $$...

And as for Usulatan...

Last P-Day we went to some place called Shulton Park. That place probably used to be really cool. Not so much now. We went there to play soccer. It was so hot. It's supposed to be like a family park...so it has soccer courts, and play places for the kids...and some place that looks like a dance floor. Like I said...it probably used to be really cool. Not so much now.

And mom, you'll be proud of me. I ate fish. Even though it was staring at me. Like the cook just kind of fried that sucker up and gave it to me...I was like...what. What do I do? But it wasn't bad. I didn't touch near the head...haha. And it didn't have the guts or organs either. The scales made it kind of crunchy...I didn't eat too many of those haha. and man...those bones are kind of sticky. I have no idea what type it was. But it was pretty good.

And a funny story. Saturday night we were walking around and my comp sees two girls. He kind of looks at them, and is like...I think they're daughters of some member (I can't remember the member's name)...let's go talk to them. SO we go to talk to them and he asks them if they are the daughters of said member and they say no. I start laughing cause my comp was so sure about it. So my comp is kind of embarrassed and asks...do you know this member. and once again...no...they had no idea who it was. So I start cracking up and my comp is real embarrassed and is like...oops. I was wrong. And the girls start cracking up because I'm cracking up and even my comp was just like laughing at himself. It's probably one of those you have to be there moments...but it was funny. trust me.

That's about it really. The investigators are doing their thing. Frustrating us to no end. Haha...kidding. Only some are doing that.

Anyways, love you and miss you a ton.

Elder Gilreath

Letter received April 4, 2011

3-7-11

Hola padres miso!

Como le va? Ojala que todo este bien. Domo esta la casa win ningun nixo? Problamente super raro. Y hay esta su leccion de espanol para hoy.

So today I found out that UNC destroyed dook. The crazy thing is that by the time you get this the ACC tournament will be over and the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament. I hope I only get good news the next 5-6 weeks. I feel like God is testing me. I might have to break my foot so I can watch next year's team in action (kidding.......slightly)

Sorry I have been really lazy writing letters. But at least there is email. Honestly P-day is my favorite day because I get to read your emails. And mess around. I'm slightly improving in soccer. I normally score every week now. I might actually be decent when I get home. I scored today and flashed the "Black Falcon". No one really understood it but that's ok. It's my new celebration when I score.

What's really weird is I'll have 8 months when you get this. The time has gone by fast. It's just weird. I have had to put down my worldly desires (watch UNC) and focus on spiritual things. It's been hard. And I don't know if I'll ever fully put it away. But I have grown up a lot. But I think I'm still the same really. Just with a little better knowledge of the scriptures. I still hate making my bed. I still hate organizing. Same old me.

I saw Dr. Pepper the other day. It was taunting me so much. Mom, Dad, I'll need a month's supply of Dr. Pepper when I get back. (I feel like Dad got excited reading that.) Maybe you should start saving money now to pay for all the stuff I'm gonna want to eat or drink when I get back. And then pay for the first month of a gym membership to work it off. haha

Well, p-day is almost over. So I'm gonna end this letter. I love you guys and miss you so much. Go Heels!

Love,

Elder Gilreath

April 4, 2011

Darin with tamales--which he usually doesn't like--but he liked these!

Conference was good. I watched mostly in English. But some in Spanish...all good man....all good. And we get the Liahona...but some are in English...not that it really matters. I read it in Spanish too...so that's not really important.

We had some gators at conference, but not as many as we had hoped. And this time our cook just brought us food and we ate in the church. Cause we were at the Church in our area.

Yes...that's our house. Two rooms. Four pictures. each room twice from different angles. And yes, those were coconuts. Weird looking ones I know. And honestly...we don't do much. Like there are a ton of mountains and volcanoes that you can see. But I haven't visited any. And most of the rivers have a bunch of garbage in them. I like going to different areas because I see more of the country. Which is super chill.

Why did Annie go to Ecuador? Just helping out there or what? That's cool though. Apparently Ecuador is amazing. Course I heard that from an Ecuadorian...so of course he'll talk good about his own country. Haha. But no we don't have mosquito nets. We just have fans. If you don't use the fan out here in the oriente, you wake up sweating a ton, and it sucks a lot. So always have your fan on at night. But I have gotten attacked quite a bit by bugs. In my first area, it wasn't bad. In San Miguel yeah. I got a lot of little bites on my legs...but they don't itch...so everything is all good. I think I'm pretty lucky I didn't get some super crazy disease actually now that I think about it.

Anyways....so not a lot happened this week.

On Tuesday, we fixed a roof for some members. It's not as hard as it sounds. Their roofs are metal sheets, then you add tile. And we only did part of it. But we pulled off all the old metal sheets and put on new ones. Then some roof tiles. It was honestly pretty fun. The roofs are super easy to fix here. Haha. Especially with 8 missionaries.

Then one day some crazy drunk guy was talking to me in English. He insulted me and said I couldn't speak English because I wasn't from England, but he can because he lived in L.A. for 33 years. When you figure out how that works, let me know. I'm still trying to figure out how that works. But it was sad...when I was talking to him English...I kept mixing my Spanish and English together...haha. It was bad. Super Spanglish going on.

And then Saturday night...so we are sitting, waiting for the priesthood session to start, and the District President comes in at like 6 and is like...uhh...I got an announcement. We can't watch the priesthood session here. Apparently he forgot to do something, so we couldn't get the signal. So we were like...ok, what are gonna do...and then the District Pres was like...Who wants to go to Jucuapa? Us missionaries were like...uh...yeah...we do. How many are you? 10. Alright, Lets go. So 8 of us piled into the back of his truck, and 2 smart ones actually in the truck. And off we went. In the back of his truck, going down the highways of Usulatan to Jucuapa. Like a good 30-40 minutes away. Going like 50-60 kph. I have no idea what that is in miles...but those were the speed limit signs I saw. Funnest thing ever. Mom might want to kill me. But man, it was fun. Yes, I was in the bed of the truck. In my defense, I was one of the last ones to hop in...so the inside was already taken. So we got there at like 6 45 or something like that. Watched conference. And came back. Haha...super fun.

(Elder Hardman--he was in the MTC with Darin)

Anyways...that was my week. Hope you all have a good week. Love you guys, and miss you.

Elder Gilreath

March 28, 2011

I had like 13 emails today...it was kind of fun...not gonna lie. Haha..

Oh yeah...question...and my contacts?

Anyways...the weather was nice...its hot here...but not as hot as San Miguel...so its actually an upgrade. haha...I can see a difference. My first couple days I was dying for some reason, but now...no. Like my comp has been like...man the sun is real strong right now...I'm just like...no..not really. It feels pretty nice. SO I have been blessed from my stay in San Miguel.

Speaking of San Miguel...I went back on Wednesday. We had a special training thing with Pres. Perez. It was really fun to see everyone that I had just left a week earlier...haha... But yeah...apparently one family we were working with in San Miguel is getting married and baptized...so that was fun to hear too...mostly cause it would complete a huge turn around for them...honestly...its a miracle. But i haven't been able to confirm if it happened last Saturday...or will happen this Saturday.

So with the training...it wasn't anything big...we just practiced some basic stuff...like how to plan lessons...so yeah...real basic. But President told us something interesting. This next change that starts like the 27th...we will add the departamento de La Libertad (where my comp is from) and either right before the new mission pres comes or right after the rest of San Salvador. So the temple will belong solely to us. After all this happens we will just be El Salvador San Salvador and the other mission will be Santa Ana/Belize mission. And with the addition of La Libertad President will send some missionaries from our mission there a week early to learn from the missionaries in the other mission about the investigators...the routes...etc. so that it's a smoother transition. Apparently La Libertad is a cool place...so now its where I want to go. Haha...

And after the training we rode in President's car to our area and worked with the assistants for a little bit. We went and taught people and they were with us on divisions. I was kind of freaking out a little bit...but both are super chill...so it was all good. Haha.

Anyways...I attached some pics of some mission buds...

Hope you have a good week. Love you all and miss you...

Love,

Elder Gilreath

small house huh...but cool garden

March 21, 2011

Lets see. So what happened this week.

Well, on Monday I got hit on by a gay, possible drunk, guy. That was definitely the most interesting thing that has ever happened. Luckily I was in a building and he wasn't or it could have been worse. We were with other missionaries to get a hair cut, and I don't even know how it started. But someone told this dude my name so he started to say Gilreath! Gilreath! in a high pitched voice. Well I think it was his normal voice. He hit on other missionaries as well, but I was the first, so mine was the funniest. Probably the scariest thing is the fact that he actually was saying my name right.

Also on last Monday, we had a super chill P-day. We played soccer but also played a water game that was basically charades. Someone was acting out something in front and we took turns guessing. With a giant water balloon filling up over your head. If you didn't guess it fast enough, you got soaked. Probably the funniest one I saw was an elder did a turtle walking then got flipped over, and couldn't flip back over. The missionary guessing didn't get it and got soaked...and it was just funny. Later we watched the Work and the Glory and ate pizza. Super chill.

We also got a zone shirt. We did Manchester United. I have already sent some pics of the shirt. It's pretty sweet. It's not a perfect replica, but it also wasn't super expensive.

So Wednesday I got changed out of Occidental and got put into Usulatán. I moved just a little to the West. I'm slowly working my way back to the capital. But my area is Usulatan 1 and is around the city. We have a huge chapel that's really sweet. It was built like 2-3 years ago and looks really nice. It's the biggest chapel I have seen in my mission. Which is funny because it only has a branch that goes to it. Another cool thing is our area and another area go to the same ward. The other area has Elder Hardman, one of my comps in the MTC. We have already done divisions together once, so it's super chill. It's fun to see him.

Anyways, my comp is Elder Merino from El Salvador. He's from the departamento de La Libertad. He's a chill dude. He has like 15 months in the mission. Or something like that. More or less that. But he's a real nice guy, so this should be a good change.

Also, we had a baptism this last weekend in my new area. Gloria Susana Quintanilla Machada. She's 19 years old and apparently was only investigating for like 2-3 weeks. So she got baptized really fast. Obviously I didn't work with her a lot. I only went to her house one time, but that one time we firmed her up for baptism, so I guess that's something, right?

Anyways, that was my week. I'm sad I left my old area, but I like my new one. It should be fun. I still haven't escaped the heat, but I guess I'm used to it from San Miguel

Hope you all have a good week. Love you and miss you.

Elder Gilreath

Elder Gilreath in San Miguel

Elder Gilreath, Gloria Susana Quintanilla Machada, Elder Merino

March 14, 2011

Glad everything is going good. Ask Bro. Hernandez if he remembers a Mauricio Guevara. Gracias.

Anyways, this week we had the baptisms of Luis (dad) and Ashlin (daughter) Benavidas. There isn't a mom (separated) so we baptized everyone we could. =)

Anyways...this baptism could be my favorite honestly. I remember the first time we found them they were watching Saw 5...and I remember thinking they won't do anything. But we went back the next day, still thinking they wouldn't do anything. Then we left after the first visit thinking...that was better then we thought it would be. Then they just continued to progress. We actually thought that Ashlin was a member because she told us she was baptized once. But she didn't have a record, so we were able to baptize her. It was really fun to watch them progress. They went from not knowing how to pray and not wanting to, and then they were excited to pray every time we called on them. They really have experienced a huge change. It was so fun to watch. and still is.

And we went to Gotera (near San Francisco) on Thursday. It's like an hour in bus to go there. it's not anything real special...I'm just glad I'm not there. But I like riding on the bus and seeing more of El Salvador... it's always fun honestly.

And last week I scored a goal...and did the "Black Falcon" as I understand how to do it. It was honestly fun.

Those were the most exciting moments of my week. Fun week huh?

Anyways...love you all and miss you.

Elder Gilreath

P.S. Idk for presents. Drink packets, cookies, caramel corn...uhh...a tie...idk. This is so hard. Honestly I'll be happy with what ever.

P.S.S. In the pics it's my comp, Hno. Moroni who did the baptisms, Luis, Ashlin, and then me obviously.

March 7, 2011

On to my week...I already know that yours was really good.

This is kind of old news...(more than a week ago)...but we had another earthquake here. It was really small...the only reason I noticed was that my chair started moving by itself...its always a weird experience...but kind of fun at the same time. As long as it doesn"t get too big

And I got my hair cut. The guy did not use scissors at all. He just used the buzz cut thing with a comb...I was a little worried about how it would turn out...but it was good honestly. I'd go back to him but I'll probably leave here before I get the chance to go back.

AND IT RAINED HERE:..it was wild. And it rained for like 15 to 20 minutes. pretty hard. It felt pretty good. And it was at night too...

And I have started to teach an English class here at the Casa de la Cultura. That place is really small...as well as my class. But I have started to teach them basics of English. I'm not sure if they really understand everything. I know one person does. But the rest like refuse to participate...so I can't tell. They are doing what I did when I was in class.

And I gave a blessing to a member. I'm not gonna say more than it was a neat experience that I'll have with me for the rest of my life. Maybe when I get home I can tell about it.

That's about it. We worked hard this week...I think we are about to have the payoff...I hope I see some of it before I leave...I do.

That's about it.

Love you guys...

Elder Gilreath