August 15, 2011

This is the big week. I'm excited. It should be a fun week. From Usulutan to San Salvador...depends....if you get a fast bus...like an hour and half...two hours...and a slower one can take like 3 hours. It just depends on what you get. Apparently we have to pay our own way to San Salvador but they will get us our own bus for the return trip. So we'll come back the same night. We'll just be breaking mission rules. haha. There is no way we'll be back to Usulutan by 9.

Not so much peace in the temple as a worker, huh? Haha. It's all peaceful until you have to talk and help others...like the mission. If you don't stop to talk with anyone...just do appointments...the day is so easy and peaceful. But you have to stop and talk with people so its harder.

The temple was in the papers here and on the news. If you ask people if they have heard about it, some say yeah, others say no. Depends. The media did some coverage but I'm not sure how much. And like always...you always had the pinches (so I've heard that pinche is a bad word in Mexico...good thing I'm not in Mexico) that pass out the anti-Mormon stuff...*cough* JWs *cough* And of course not with the missionaries around.

Food experiences...nothing interesting. Just eating some chicken that I saw alive the day or 2 days before.

This week we actually had hail down here during a storm. Weird, huh? It rained quite a bit this week so things cooled down a lot. I'm grateful for that.

Nothing else really to report here. Adiós pues.

Love you guys

Elder Gilreath

August 8, 2011

This week was super hot. I think it was one of the hottest weeks ever that I have had here. Super chafa...as they say here. Nothing new here or in the mission. Just a lot of temple talk. ...and I'm pumped for next weekend. It's gonna be awesome.

Alright...2018...it's a big year...It just happened in 2010 when I was still home and I had a lot of fun watching it. In 2014 it's gonna be huge because it's in a pretty cool country. But 2018 will be even better because it will be in an even cooler place. More things to do because it has a lot of cool stuff and places around it. It's a big event. Where the whole world practically tunes in. And it's during the summer for us....now try to figure it out..haha..

So this week...we had a baptism of a kid whose mom is less active but has a strong desire to come back to church. And even though she was less active she taught her son everything he would need to know to get baptized. So we were blessed with this baptism. The water was draining so we had to fill it up again. Or I would have had to try and baptize the kid in like a foot of water. ...that would have been bad...

Well....nothing else..got to go...Love you guys

Elder Gilreath

working hard as DL as you can see

August 1, 2011

The year mark....it felt fast. And the first couple days after have been fast as well. I didn't burn anything as I still need them. Haha..

I got one package the one with ties and the card and all that. But just that one. I'm good on drink packets actually...and...if you want to send the bunnies you can...I don't care really.

We lost power in the Church last Friday when we were doing a FHE there. It was interesting cause we had a bunch of little kids that time so they were ridiculous when the lights went out. Haha. It was bad.

I have so much I want to do when I get home...I need to get a job fast. I want to come back to El Sal to visit. I want to check out Guatemala...I want to go to Cali again. I want to save up for something huge in 2018...haha...I don't know what I'm gonna do.

The multizone is next week I think. We still don't have all the dates down yet.

Also Elder Christofferson is coming with Pres. Eyring. So it's gonna be sweet. We are also wondering how we will get back to Usulutan because the thing with Pres Eyring will be at 5 pm in San Salvador. Haha..how we will get back...nobody knows. But we'll get something figured out I'm sure.

This week I ate more shrimp, crab, some fish, and something that looked like horseshoe crab. They called it Cuca del Mar or Sea Cockroach really. It was all good actually. Though it was a little dangerous in the soup with random little spines and stuff from the fish.

And I crossed two mini rivers but the boots are bomb and my socks got a little wet. It could have been worse. The mini rivers were roads that flooded and we had to cross them to get to the cooks house in Jiquilisco. Haha...that day was nuts.

Anyways...I'm more out of the mission then in the mission now. I'm on the downhill. ...it's a weird feeling. It's been fast. I have changed a lot. My teaching is better, and the understanding of the people is a lot better as well. Its weird....1 year. 1 year til good old NC humidity and heat. WOOO!!!!!! If I come from some place in Oriente, I'll feel right at home

Just wanna say a wise man once said ¨Wherever you go, there you are.¨ Hahahaha

(Name that movie)

Well...off to play soccer with young men

Miss you all. Love you

Elder Gilreath

July 25, 2011

I'm still in Usulutan but with Elder Flores from Santa Ana here in El Sal. As for the dedication (of the El Salvador temple)...I think we'll just watch it from a church. But I'm not sure yet. But we will get the chance to meet Pres. Eyring before the dedication. SO it will be fun. Once it's open...I think we can go. I have heard that we can...but obviously I don't think I'll be going if I'm here in oriente still. Haha. And no interviews...but we will have a multizone in August.

As for this week. It was chill. Lots of sun. And heat and we didn't have rain. So it was a little sucky. I did have some cool experiences this week that I wrote down. The Spanish was flowing this week and I was just filled with confidence. It was a good week really. We didn't find a lot of people but we found good ones.

This week was cool because it didn't feel like we were really working...but we fulfilled basically every goal we put. It was just a good calm week working. I love El Sal and I love Usulutan. Hah...The mission is fun

Love you and miss you all.

Elder Gilreath


check out the sweet soccer jersey that a family in the branch gave me.

And the other is with Elder Hudson. He goes home this change and was in the zone.

Pictures of the temple in El Salvador--taken by another missionary....

July 18, 2011

¿Cómo estás? Ojalá que todo esté bien con vos y con la familia. Haha...vos..I still got to learn that.

Laughing in the temple....bad...bad...haha...

Haha...Snakes isn't talking about all investigators...just the girl ones. Basically a snake is a girl investigator that progresses because she likes the missionary and not because of what she is learning. Haha. Well for the Elders that how is goes.

So yeah...I baptized a mom and her daughter. We baptized her two sons back in June so it was good to finally finish off that family. She's pretty good. It was weird because it seemed like she wasn't interested sometimes and didn't want to listen...but hey she got baptized. Cool huh?

This week is changes...so I'll tell you next week if I got changes or not. Got to go. Love you

Elder Gilreath

July 11, 2011

So the Pres is a cool guy. and his wife is nice too. He's a big buy and friendly. Also he's a UNC fan because one of their daughter's close friends actually lived with them for 2 years. She's from NC and lives in NC right now. Her husband is the pharmacy school at UNC right now.

And the temple was cool. I got some pics. It was cloudy and rainy when we went. But we are trying to go again. So we'll see if we can get it done.

And the gators are progressing...well some. Hah...I need to get some new ones. I got a little drought of finding new ones that are good. But...forward we go.

So...we had weird changes. My comp got switched...so my new comp is Elder Bol from Guatemala...the changes are really confusing. Because he only has a week and a half left in his mission. Why pres did it...idk...but we'll see whats up.

And the district is good. They are working.

And life is good. We have had an interesting mix between heat and rain this week. But everything is good. I hope I get my card soon.

Oh yeah...so that guy in the suit (with the other elder)(the pic) is Elder Rivas from the 70. Like the 4th quorum I think. We gave us a tour of the temple and explained a bunch of things about the temple. It was a neat experience walking around with him. I'll explain the temple stuff in a letter home.

And just send the box...i don't care haha.

Oh....4th of July....we got good food in the states....good food. We got it good. Haha...

Well...I got nothing else...we went trekking through mud and rain last night with 7 youth...haha...interesting experience when 3 are girls. Haha...but it was fun.

Love you all.

Elder Gilreath

July 4, 2011

They got an Independence day. I think they call it Grita de Independencia...or Yell of Freedom...so there you go. But I can't remember when it is. And I'm down to like 3 weeks for a year. so that's cool.

Yeah...I tried calling your cell phone but you didn't pick up. That was me. And a Hispanic voice....? What?....Has my voice really changed that much?

And cool that Mrs. Johnson got everything straightened out. Tell her thanks for me. And good thing that there were no purchases...I'm pretty sure I lost it outside...so that's good. It's not like in the US where they need a pin number to do a purchase. They can just swipe it and go. So I still got the money in my account? It should be like $70. something like that. I hope that I get the card fast. But I think I can hold off til whenever.

I'm good with money...I think I got about $40 in personal cash and we just got mission money. If I'm wise and and a little cheap it should be good. And if something crazy happens like I need to buy medicine or go to the doctor, the mission will reimburse me for it. So I think I'll be good.

And Bro. Conger is a good choice. Tell him to sign me up for the August campout of 2012. Or Sept. I want to go camping. Haha.

And Bro. Hemming...haha...I bet the pulpit is kind of hard to do.

The gators are good...progressing. I will meet Pres. Glazier this week so I'll get back to you on how he is. We are going to the temple today...so I'll get back to you on that as well. And...changes are the 20th.

The only real big thing that happened this week was we had a baptism of a young man...he's got a bunch of friends in the church and everyone already loves him in the church so he fits right in. It's fun to see him. It's real fun actually. He's a smart kid and he's funny.

Other than that....I went to Jucuapa. That was kind of fun. It's a nice little town. We had some decent rain this week.

I'll have more exciting stuff next week. Got to go. Love you guys and miss you

Elder Gilreath