November 28, 2011

Sounds like good weather.

And you can count on me to help with the community Christmas thing next year...I might regret writing these words next year...but oh well...haha.

The investigators are good. They are willing...just with their own special problems. It kind of sucks to meet great people like this and then sometimes we have to leave them...it's the worst.

As for the phone call...apparently church will only be one hour because Sunday is Christmas...that is what I have heard anyways..so we should be able to call really whenever on that day. I'll talk with my comp a little bit and see what he thinks...but also tell me when everyone can get there so that I can talk with them.

Mrs. Schick is excited to see me?....cool.

Let's see...so my comp kicked his first dog in the mish...

And also a funny story...maybe it won't be funny in writing...but oh well...

So my comp was chilling in a hammock....and I'm talking with another missionary (we had gone over to their area for P-day to chill...they have the beach to take pics and stuff...) so anyways...we are just talking and we kind of hear a thud...we are like...what was that...and we look over and somehow the hammock has fallen...it was still tied up and everything it was like the ropes extended or something. And so now the hammock is touching the ground but still swinging a little bit and my comp is still in it...and he just says...sucks....and just keeps laying there...I realize this is one of those had to be there things...but it still makes me laugh just thinking about it.

Lets see...we went to Puerto again as mentioned above...so I got some new beach pics...

idk what else...we have had some really good weather here.

and the one pic with the guy in a shirt is one of my best friends from the mish..or was....he went home this week. He finished...he's done....symbolic picture right there...i'm still like a missionary and he's in normal clothes...(it was P-day so he can be like that).
That's about it for this week...miss you all...

November 21, 2011

Changes are this week. But we already know and I'm staying with Elder Martin one more change...basically the month of December is the change. So I'm locked in for Christmas in Zaragoza unless something changes in the next little bit.

So Brian (Barker) is going to SLC? nice for him. He'll love it...and he'll get taken care of. And baptize a lot...SLC is legit.

Anyways...so in the 3 days since I last wrote...not much has happened. We did find some Americans from ATL here. It was an interesting conversation...they are here doing service as a mission thing...they come down for 2 or 3 weeks 4 or 5 times in the year. They definitely had differing views on things and tried to make us question what we know...but that's not happening. I have never been so sure of the truthfulness of the Gospel in my life. And I told them that...I said, ¨I don't really care what you tell me, I know these things are true and I'm not going to change¨. There was one thing I did like from the conversation, (all in English by the way); the guy said that we should all do a self examine of our heart and find out who is leading our life. He was trying to use it in a different way...but it's good advice...every now and then we need to step back and look at ourselves and ask who is running my life right now?

That's about it for this week. I don't have much to say. Love you guys

November 17, 2011

That would be ¿toda vía guapisimo?....and the answer. claro.

Spanish...it was interesting with that starting sentence...that's for sure.

The temple was great. We had an interesting time getting there. The coaster we were on broke down after like 10-15 minutes and we all had to get out...so there was a bunch of people chilling waiting for buses. And we are on the highway still. So we start walking a little so that we can ask for a ride. And we get one super fast...but it's a guy in a super beat-up van. So we get in...and sure enough...that stops working...but he got it going and took us to Santa Tecla. Then we just found a taxi that got us there super fast and cheap...which was good because by that time we were running out of time. Crazy morning.

The sessions in Spanish are good. I understood everything and it was all good. I forgot a few things but not too much.

Things are good here. The investigators are kind of driving me crazy...so everything is normal :P

Changes are next week. In 6 days. I'm pretty sure that I won't be going...but who knows. It's possible. Just not likely.

Anyways...that's all I got...love you all...peace


He had a little more time so he sent this later...

Bueno pues. Tengo un poquito tiempo más para escribir....y ya he contestado todas las cartas...entonces...escribiré una carta en español. Hoy es jueves el 17 de noviembre en el año de 2011. Casi estamos en el mes de diciembre. Llevo como 16 meses más o menos. Me faltan 6 cambios más en mi misión. No sé porque estou escribiendo como una historia ahorita pero....está bien.Hoy fuimos a Little Ceasars para almorzar. Casi comí una pizza entera. Me gustó mucho. En como un mes voy a hablar con ustedes. Por Navidad. va a ser tan divertido. que más....el temple fue divertido. Me pregunto cuando regresaremos. ¿Cómo está el barrio? Todo bien. Espero que sí. Ya me voy a ir. Salud pues


Loosely translated it says:

Well. I have a little more time to write .... and I have answered all the letters ...so I'm writing a letter in Spanish. Today is Thursday 17 November in the year 2011. We are almost in December. I have like 16 months or so. I need 6 more changes in my mission. I do not know why I'm writing this as a story now but .... we went to Little Caesars for lunch. Almost ate a whole pizza. I loved it. In a month I'll talk to you. For Christmas. It will be so fun. The temple was fun. I wonder when we'll return. How is the neighborhood? All right. I hope so. I'm going to go. For health.

November 7, 2011

I won't have P-day on Monday next week. It will be on Thursday...so when I don't write back on Monday...it doesn't mean anything. It's because we are going to the Temple on next Thursday and so President switched that to our P-Day. Fun, huh?

Its still weird to me that Sister O won't be Sister O...where are they gonna live? In NC or somewhere else?

El Sal...it's doing good. We had some hot days last week. It was kind of weird...but so normal too...

We also had a multizone that was pretty good...I liked it a lot, and learned a lot.

For P-day today we actually went to a volcano...but it just had a big old crater that had a bunch of trees...obviously it's not active.

And we also went to a point where we quite literally saw all of San Salvador.

And we could see the temple from way up there.

It was weird because we could actually see like almost all the zones of the mission. Except for like 4...I had honestly forgotten how small El Sal is....but that reminded me. El Sal is a tiny country.

And send me goldfish...por fa.

As for BYU...that interest kind of died now...my interest in transferring to UNC is still alive though. I will not lie about that. But I think I want to stay in NC...I love it too much. I think everything I need is there...so don't worry mom...

hope you all have a good week.

Love Elder Gilreath

October 31, 2011

Halloween does not translate at all. Haha. I miss it. A lot.

Heather is going on a mission huh?...When does she leave?...If she and Mike will be there together for about 6 months...that means I'll be down to about 4 and a half months...so it would be like midway through march that she leaves...am I close? Haha.

Transfers aren't for like 3 more weeks...haha. Just a little off, mom. Just a little.

This week was good. No rain at all. We taught like 17 lessons this week. It was a decent week. We also helped some Elders move. They had to switch their house. So we spent Saturday afternoon helping them out.

And Saturday morning we had a soccer tournament...kind of successful. Not everyone showed up that had told me they would...but we still got 4 good teams and 16 people who aren't members were there. It was a good experience as they got to enter the church and check it out. They were all great people. And I got to play a little with them. I think my team won every game. Despite some mistakes I made...but hey...it was the first time in months that I had played...

Also, there is a store here that sells American clothing...it has a bunch of college teams...so yes...that includes UNC...I walked in and found quite a few UNC shirts among the bunch...it was pretty fun actually.

And the most exciting news of the day...Nov 17...we are going to the Temple...it's gonna be great. Right at the end of the change.

My comp is doing good. I think he was like me...a little shy to talk in lessons. But he does good with talking to people and seeing if they are interested...so it's all good. He's a good guy. He's funny.

That's about it on this end.

Love you guys

October 24, 2011

The rain has stopped. It didn't get too bad in my area. The highway
leading to Zaragoza had mudslides and they had to close down parts for
awhile. But everything is good now. Some areas got super flooded. But
nothing here.

I think it's an idea President has to help the new guys learn Spanish
faster. We can explain everything they don't get in a faster way. And
we can watch training videos in English so that they understand them.
I think that's the idea. But idk. And the training plan is only with
new people.

We had Stake Conference as well. Elder Falabella was there. He was so
funny. My comp was like...I wish I could understand it all...everyone
is laughing. Haha. But Elder Falabella gave a good talk about keeping
ourselves clean. Or making sure we have our priorities in line. He
talked about making strawberry smoothies with his family and how at
the end he threw in just a little of mud and mixed it in. He then
offered the smoothies to the family but no one wanted them because of the
mud. The smoothie still looked good...but you just knew that it was a
little dirty; that a bad choice had happened.

I want PopTarts. Send me poptarts in the box

Hmm....Nothing else.

Love you guys

October 17, 2011

It's the end of the world as we know it! It's the end of the world as we know it! Its the end of the world as we know it! And I feel fine... (I'll explain that in a bit)

ANnyways...I'm still in Zaragoza...but Elder Martinez peaced out. My new comp is Elder Martin from Sandy, Utah...fresh from the MTC. Yup, I'm training. But he's lucky...he got to go to the MTC in Guatemala...it's a new thing apparently.

LATE NITE....I'm so there next year....at like 2 in the afternoon...with Chik-fil-a...(Devin...tell Burt to come along...we can have a chik-fil-a party!!!)

Anyways....

Sis O....not as Sis O?...hmm...that's weird. She will always be Sister O to me.

Well...on to the week.

Monday...immigration

And Monday night at 11:20pm I get a call from one of the assistants. He's like...are you ready to train? Haha...I was just like...huh? yeah...w/e. Cool he says...be in layco at 7:45 tomorrow...what? That was bad man. Anyways...so on the way to Layco...we get on a sick coaster. Why is it sick? Because it puts the cars in "Need for Speed" and "Fast and Furious" to shame. This guy was nuts. I was scared at first...but then I was just laughing. This guy would roll into oncoming traffic just to get ahead of our line of non-moving traffic. And cut in randomly and everything...thanks to him...I totally got to the next stop early. It was sweet.

So the other thing has to do with the song I put at first.

Maybe El Sal is too small to make it to the US...but El Sal is in a National Emergency...don't worry. Nothing crazy. It's just that its been raining everyday for the last week at like all hours. So...flooding...lots of flooding. Here isn't too bad....just when it starts pouring...rivers start forming...And I think there have been some land slides and stuff....I can't work right now. On orders from Pres. I didn't work yesterday (we only went to Sacrament meeting...no one was there). Today we can write and buy stuff we need then back to the house...and tomorrow...we leave only with an important appointment. SO...it's been weird. But everything is cool. I'm just tired of rain.

I thought of stuff to send me..CDs!!!! of music obviously. I got a way to listen to them. we have ways to watch training videos in the house and I can use it to listen to music...so music por favor. EFY...w/e. Though A More Excellent Way is good. and some girl sings Healing Waters...that's a bomb song.

I will also send off letters today...a miracle I know. Haha...

Thats' about it...and some photos!!!

Love you guys