December 27, 2010

Still mad about the snow.

Todo suave con todo las cosas. We had some gators at church, some are progressing, we tracked a few references, etc. You know, the normal stuff. I'm cautiously optimistic for January and what we can do.

And yeah, I figured out that I'll have 6 months at the end of this change. It's crazy. And I think we get to visit the temple in January too. So that should be fun if it happens.

I have not met an Elder Brooks yet. Doesn't mean he isn't in the East. But who knows.

And yeah, I'm fine with whatever. Delainey can have a bed, I obviously don't need it. And I think right now the plan is at least the first semester at home. But obviously that's 19 months away before I need to use it, so things might change.

And that's cool they got to go to an NBA game. Haha, I can see Clark being a huge Boston fan because that's where he served. And yes, Dean likes the Magic because of Dwight Howard. I bet hes happy that Turkoglu is back. Now I want to go to an NBA game. I bet it was really fun.

Lets see...its the end of the month...I should do a month in review...but I don't have anything to remind me what happened. And I just talked with you. So I'll give a brief bulleted overview.

• Baptisms.
• The Christmas Devotional of the First presidency
• Macheteing grass
• The terrible paint job that the hermana was so proud of.
• The Stake Christmas Devotional
• Changes (no effect on me or my comp)
• Familia Alfaro- officially dry members. I think they´ll go in the water in Jan.
• Isabel-Shes awesome, her husband not so much
• Esthela - Shes nice, in medical school, so not a lot of time
• Yanira - Nice lady, but struggling with gaining a testimony
• Jasmine - Been away visiting family, but she is positive.
• The Mission Christmas Activity- The water balloon fight was the best part
• The other week we did a thing with the 5 parts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Holy Ghost, and Enduring). I got to participate blindfolded. Waiting in line to begin, Elder Hunter and I played blindman rock, paper, scissors. Then the activity was a trust fall (faith), obstacles after spinning me around (path of repentance), water getting dumped on me (baptism) they kind of skipped H.G. and then endure to the end we ¨went¨ to the temple. It was actually really fun.
• TALKING WITH YOU GUYS ON CHRISTMAS!!!! (Fastest 2 hrs ever)

That's about it on this end. Hope you all are doing well. I miss you a ton. And love you guys a lot too. Thanks for all your support. Happy New Years. Its almost 2011. Crazy.

Love you guys,

Elder Gilreath

Darin as Santa

Ho ho ho...check out the leg. I jacked that suit up sitting down. I guess that's why tissue paper isn't good for Santa suits.

December 20, 2010

I can't believe its snowing so much there. WHHHHYYYYYY???????? I love the snow. And the one year I'm not there, it's snowing a ton, and in December too. All I have is hot weather that drains you real fast and you have to drink a ton of water.

Sounds like Delainey was a crack up. As always.

And don't worry about me getting married fast after I get home. I'm not planning on it for a couple years after. But who knows, you never know what's going to happen.

Anyways...a quiet fast week here in San Miguel. We had a Christmas thing with 4 other zones on Thursday. That was real fun because I got to see some Elders from Soya and other Elders from the MTC. We put on skits (ours was army of Helaman) and had a lunch with mashed potatoes, turkey, rolls, some veggies and some store bought brownies with juice. And Pres gave us some bags of stuff. And some medal. It's actually pretty slick. Has the temple on one side and basically the mission logo of Jesus being baptized on the other. Best part. I got 3 of the packages that you sent. And while I didn't meet Elder Harvey, I did see a package addressed to him. Oh yeah, we played a bunch of games too. Zone against zone. And I think Soya started a water balloon fight. I can't remember which Zone.

Anyways, so that night was a ward missionary activity. And I got to be Santa because as they put it ¨Santa is a gringo¨. But they didn't have a suit. They bought tissue paper to make the suit. And they put some stocking on my feet. And stuffed balloons up my shirt. Needless to say, I was a ridiculous looking Santa. The young women in the ward who made it had a real fun time with it. And the guys chilling in there (my comp and other young men) had a good laugh too. I remember thinking that last year, I would have never done something like this. Anyways, they took me to the rocking chair and I kind of tore the suit sitting down. By the end of the night, it had a ton of holes in it in different spots. But the kids were playing games, and would randomly come by and say Hi Santa and shake my hand. Then run off..and come back and do it again. It was pretty cute actually.

And then we had a baptism on Saturday. I'm not going to lie, it's got an interesting story. For goofs of missionaries or ward members, this person was a member without a record. It was lost. Nothing in the church system. Nothing at our house. Only a picture. But she couldn't remember who baptized her or the date or any of that. So we asked her to be baptized again. And she had no problem with it. So she was baptized by the Patriarch, and confirmed by the bishop and has records now. And I was thinking how easily she could have taken offense to something like that, and been angry with us, and the church and just left. But there was none that I saw. Just a girl who wanted to get baptized again because she knew it was right. It was actually a pretty cool experience, and a great lesson to learn.

And we are looking good for a baptism or two this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed.

Love you guys and miss you a ton.

Elder Gilreath

P.S. I have met Elder Otten....already, and we have talked.

P.S.S Haha, I'll still write the Hemmings. Quite possibly my favorite family in the ward. Don't worry about it mom, they don't do a whole lot in basketball even with talent like Kevin Durant...only the 2nd round of the NCAA...so just let them enjoy a good victory. They don't do it a lot.

December 13, 2010

First off...I'm glad Dean actually came to Clark´s talk. I think I thought about that every day this week. And with pouch...who knows when I will get it. Tell that to Dean so when he doesn't get a response real fast, he isn't like ok I see how it is. Pinche not writing me. (pinche...a fun word...jerk more or less)

And I love the Delainey stories. She sounds so big. And holy smokes, Jamie is almost married. And oh yeah, what are the plans for Christmas...like when is everyone getting together?

Anyways...this week...

Tuesday we did some service cutting grass. And i´m not really sure why we were cutting grass...but we were. And you know with?....Machetes. Yup machetes. I will never ever complain about mowing the lawn ever again. And i´m buying a machete (I was actually already planning on that) and I swear i will just have a patch of grass that i don't mow, and when my kids misbehave, they have to machete the grass. Or i´ll just take them to some field and randomly machete grass...i´m not sure yet. And this punishment wont work for like forever anyways.

Then the next day we painted a members house. And man, they have some really crappy paint here. And they didn't buy enough for two coats of paint. So some spots looked like we didn't paint at all. But they seemed to like it...so...yeah...I kind of want paint my room when I get back now...but that will probably pass...

And Saturday we had a Stake Christmas devotional. That was fun. First there was a primary one where kids did skits. And it was hilarious because like our primary did the good Samaritan, and the adults would clap for whatever little thing. So when the kid just walked by looking at the guy, they started clapping. They are really good at building self-esteem I guess. Then after was the more formal one. But after that, they had like Christmas songs which was kind of fun. I got some videos from that.

And we had divisions and I stayed in my area. That's not a big deal. The big deal is that I didn't get us lost!!! I´m learning!! Haha, that was honestly the only big thing with divisions.

That's about it for this week. We have a baptism this week so hopefully it doesn't fall through...keep the faith...haha.

Love you guys and miss you

Elder Gilreath

December 6, 2010

Crazy about the snow. I want snow. And I haven't gotten a package yet, but probably because I´m so far from the office. We have an activity with a few zones in like two weeks, so I'll probably get them all then.

Anyways..this week. Honestly, a boring week.

Last Monday we went to an area called Pacifica to play soccer. There were cows on the field we were playing on. Missionaries were herding them off. It was pretty funny. And we played the kids from the ward. And killed them 11-2. I think we are going back today, but we will play the elders quorum.

Hmm...what else. Idk. It was a fast week. Barca versus Real. Biggest game in Latin America...

And the Christmas Devo. It was really good, and we got some investigators to go. They really liked it. They are so close to baptism. So close. Nice family of 5 with 4 that can be baptized. They are on the edge.

Hmm...

Sorry James and Dad, we showed up late today, so no time to write you guys. You're first next week.

Love you all.

Elder Gilreath

November 29, 2010

A Month in Review (2 months in El Sal, 4 Months total)

Obviously the biggest thing that happened this month was my transfer to San Miguel to an area called Occidental (Western). Our city is actually called Milagro de la Paz. It was a long day, with like 5 hours on a bus, and spent half the trip lounging on luggage. It was kind of comfortable until the luggage started to shift and I started to fall through a little bit. It's a lot flatter here than in Paleca, a lot flatter. But that doesn't make walking any more fun. Still sucks. Where's a bike? And there is a huge volcano near our area, and there are almost always clouds hanging around it. It's pretty cool. And I kind of want it to erupt just to see what its like. Good way to go huh?

Anyways...my new comp. Elder Cordero. Hes on the back end of his mission. 6 months left. He's from Ecuador and has pretty decent English, and he wants to learn, so I get to teach him a little. He's way chill. Way laid back. Like me. It's a good match. I think he said he has like 40 something baptisms...not sure exactly.

The ward mission leader is Daniel Maravilla. Besides a sweet last name, hes got 3 awesome kids. Angie (6), Bitner (4) and Spencer (1ish). Bitner looks like Jaden Smith, so I call him that, and he responds to it now. Hey Jaden? Yeah?...and Angie and Jaden both are good at pronouncing my last name, because they spent days practicing it. Gilreath, Gilreath, Gilreath...they say it better than most of the adults now.

Then there is Alexis. He can speak pretty good English. Hes going to serve in Costa Rica and he leaves like Jan 11. Hes a little strange...but he's a good guy. He's fun to talk to because he can explain like everything to me.

Our main cook is Hna. Wendy. She has 3 kids that are ridiculously fun. And they love us. We spend a lot of FHE's at their house and play games. Like Cuantas Peca? It's like I guess big booty, like Jamie used to play all the time. Except when you mess up you get a peca put on your face. (peca is like freckle) I have only had one peca ever, and we have played a couple of times...its pretty easy, you just need to pay attention. And Pikachu rock, paper scissors...its hard to explain...but its a fun thing for the kids, and if you win, you slap the other person's cheeks.

One day, we found a turtle...that could climb. Like Spider-man...man, he was cool. We kept him for a couple days...but he's with a fam now..I miss him.

There was the two baptisms of Blad and Luis. Cool kids, pretty serious for their age. It helped that Luis´s bro was baptized a few weeks before them. They just love hanging out with all the Church kids. Members make an impact.

So we had something super crazy called Carnavale. Nothing to report because we had to be in our house early before it started. But it's a huge thing, with a ton of dancers, parades, singers, etc..

Fam Alfara. Some investigators. Almost have them in the water. They have felt the Holy Ghost, but we need to get them to church again. And they are scared of the commitment of baptism. They need to courage to say yes.

Joel. And his wife. He is really excited because he prayed for a job, and found one. So he really wants to listen to us. But he's just starting out honestly. Other than the we told him to pray part.

Fam. Bercian. Great family. Really poor. They don't even have lights. The dad is the most interested because he talked with missionaries before, but they never came back. But he works everyday selling papers...we just need to catch up with him.

Rosita and Estella. Both want to be baptized. The problem. They don't go to church. Their families live elsewhere, and so every weekend they take off to visit their families somewhere else. I don't know how much longer we´ll teach them at this rate.

Those are the investigators I know the most about. We just met some pretty positive people. SO we´ll see...

ON to food. I know Devin asked about this in a letter I got last week. I have eaten a lot of stuff I'm used to. The things i eat the most are puspusas (amazing), fried bananas, and frijoles (beans.) With tortillas. And I had shrimp the other day. They straight up fried the whole thing. I haven't liked everything. But most.

And they call me Tom Cruise. Great. I'm nuts.

Got to run

Love you all.

Love,

Elder Gilreath

November 22, 2010

Haha, I hope Will and Jamie don't drive you too crazy these last 4 weeks. What are their plans after they are married? Like where are they living and all that.

And tell Austin and Shanna congrats for me. That's exciting for them. And yeah, I think Aunt Ann might end up moving out to Utah and leave Uncle Terry behind if Austin and Shanna don't move closer. And then Uncle Terry will follow her. And what exactly qualifies as a "real" job?

Anyways, San Miguel. We have a lot of investigators. Like always some more positive than others. And most are families. We actually just baptized two cousins Luis and Bladimir Hernandez (12 and 10). They had been going to Church for like a year or so apparently and they both just wanted to be baptized. Something changed within the last two weeks. So (not that I´m counting) I have 3 baptisms. And I think more on the way. And hopefully some of my former investigators in Paleca will be baptized soon. And don't worry Mom, this isn't the most dangerous area in the mission. But it might be the best. Right now I think the mission has 80 baptisms this month. Our Zone (San Miguel) has 20 of those baptisms. We have 1/4 of the mission's baptisms. And we (as a Zone) have more this weekend.

And I can definitely see the courage to say "yes". We have a family where the mom needs that courage. She wants to keep investigating. And investigating. She doesn't want to have the courage to say "yes". She doesn't want to take that step of faith. Not yet.

And its absolutely nuts that Clark comes home that soon. It doesn't seem like that long. And I was thinking about Robs this week. I had lost track of the weeks and figured he had gone out last week. Or was leaving this week.

And Sallie has like brown eyes? When did this happen?

Anyways, I know Erik asked about P-days a few weeks ago. P-days here are the same as Paleca. We get up. Get together as a Zone. We go write emails. And then we go play soccer for a few hours. Then we go to lunch. And then we go back to our houses. And sleep. Or write letters. Whatever you want to do. And we'll go drop off laundry or go to the store to buy whatever we need. Its way chill.

That's about it. Not much else to report.

Love you.

Love,

Elder Gilreath

P.S. And you can tell Devin he doesn't have to report on this abysmal week in Sports. He doesn't have to relive the horror.

November 15, 2010

Lets see. Exchanges. I'm a pro at it now cause I was part of it. They called us the day before and were like you're being transferred. So I got to pack everything together and get it all ready. It's a lot easier when you aren't worrying about weight. Basically, only a couple of zones go to certain places, they don't get everyone together. Like we went to our stake center, or the place in the middle of our zone and another zone joined us there. Apparently the same bus comes by twice. If you get on it the first time you go to the Orient. The second time is San Salvador, areas around there. At least for our area, the bus works that way. Anyways, I got called the first time, and they threw me some green tape. I put the green tape on the handles and they put it on the luggage truck. The green tape meant I was going to a certain area, like the Orient. (Orient signifies San Vicente, San Miguel and La Union, I think). So I got on the bus and we went to San Vicente. I got to meet some Elders from the MTC there so we talked a little before I found out I had some more bus time ahead of me. I was going to either Usulatan or San Miguel or Rio Grande (the three zones farther along the road.) The only fun thing about that bus ride to Usulatan was that I got to lounge on the luggage in the back of the bus because there were a ton of Elders on the bus. I know I fell asleep while on the luggage. Anyways, we dropped of the Elders in Usulatan and then I got a real seat. And then we kept driving. But we stopped at Wendy's on the way. I was so excited, it was kind of sad. Then I got to our Stake Center and met my new comp. (I found out where I was going on the way. Its not like we didn't drive for hours or anything).

My new zone is San Miguel and my area is Occidental. I think we are in the city Miracle de la Paz. My new comp is Elder Cordero from Ecuador. He's an oldie. He has only 6 months left on his mission. And he's 26 too. He converted when he was 20, but didn't come out til a lot later. Its hard enough to leave at 19, I don't know how he did it at 24, 25. And he's the only member in his family too. The rest of his family is Catholic. He actually has decent English. And he's way chill. Like super chill. I like him a lot. I like my new area a lot. Apparently it's the hottest area in the mission, but it's not too bad now but it gets bad in like April and May. So I hope I´m out by then. And don't get transferred to Rio Grande. Which includes like La Union and is even farther west. Overall, I never want to travel like 5 hours in a bus again. It was terrible. I hope they slowly transfer me back to the capital. Not San Salvador next, then Rio Grande, then Cuscalatan then Usulatan etc...

Anyways, so apparently these transfers were really nuts. They closed two zones and combined them with other zones. So there are 9 now, instead of 11. I know that one zone has 28 missionaries in it. They transferred out more than half of the zone leaders too. I know in my old zone more than half the missionaries got transferred and both ZLs too. They closed the ZLs area and another in my old zone. Speaking of my old zone, it's one of the two most dangerous zones in the mission. I can tell you now cause I'm not there anymore. But don't worry mom, I never felt in danger or threatened. I was protected. I'm sure of it.

Oh yeah, my area has this huge volcano kind of close to it. It's pretty sweet to look at. And my new area is so much flatter than Paleca was. Its so nice. It does mean less sweet views like in Paleca, but it's so much easier on the body. I love it. And our house is freakin' sweet. Might be the coolest house in the mission. The bathroom is big and the water isn't freezing cold, so I can actually stand the shower. It's got this wide open area in the middle of it which is cool. Overall I think we have 6 rooms besides the bathroom and a garage. We use 4 of them, and the other two are just empty. It's a sweet house for sure.

Anyways, Christmas...yeah that looks good mom. Maybe send me some envelopes to send the letters back in. That would be useful I think. I have so many things I want actually, mostly food wise, but we´ll just take care of that when I get back. I already know my first meal back will be Chick-fil-a. With some ice cream and brownies waiting at home. How sad is that. Oh well. Haha...lets see. Money would be ridiculously nice just cause I can buy some stuff...but I guess if it goes on my card that's fine. I can pull it out later if I want to buy like a souvenir. Anyways, that's all there is this week. Not much going down aquí en El Sal. Apparently I´m getting good at Spanish because none of the members really believe me when I tell them I only have one change in El Salvador. They say I speak better than only one change.

Anyways...love you guys and miss you a ton.

Love,

Elder Gilreath

November 8, 2010

I got your pouch letter. Like a week and half ago. Sorry I didn't tell you. And sorry but uploading pictures takes forever. I´m gonna send home a card at Christmas. It's gonna be a Christmas present. Sorry to ruin the surprise. Haha. And I got the Halloween card. My comp was like what in the world is that. We have changes on Wednesday this week. I'm not exactly sure how it works so I´ll get back to you next week on it. And isn't Toy Story 3 a great movie. I love that movie. I think it was the last one I saw actually. And I've been missing the fam a lot this week. I don't know why.

Anyways, this week was boring. Not a lot going on. But there are some things to report.

The weather. Its been cold for a few days now actually. Its kind of weird. I think its mostly because its been really windy for some reason. They drink hot chocolate here (different from ours) and its actually been useful. Sometimes they serve it and your dying from the heat. Not so much this week. It hasn't been terrible. Like I´m not freezing or anything. But its definitely been colder. All the natives are dying though.

So the other day knocking doors, we found this guy. Not anything special. Not really interested in the church. So why am I telling you about him. His name. Pedro Pablo. My first thought. Petey Pablo. Next thought. "NORTH CAROLINA come on and raise up, take your shirt off and wave it round your head like a helicopter!" Man, that was fun. Kind of made me miss home though.

And the other day there was like a marathon through the city. It was kind of fun to watch, and they were yelling at us to join in. Well, some runners were. Others were dying. Haha. I have no idea what it was for. But I was impressed because I saw a few people running the race with crutches. Because of different reasons. But they were going for it on crutches. And this long hill too. I was really impressed.

"¿Qué vamos hacer esta noche Cerebro? La misma cosa que hacemos cada noche Pinky. Intentamos a dominar el mundo!" <--- Yeah, that's Pinky and the Brain in Spanish. I've been asked about it a few times. And Ren and Stimpy. Memories right there.

And by far my two favorite questions here so far. "Are your eyes really that color?" and "Are you married or single?". They think I wear colored contacts. And that the gringos are married.

Okay, so real news. We have a family of 3 up for baptism this weekend. Except only 2 have gone to church twice like they need to so that they can be baptized. So I won't be disappointed if they wait another week and all 3 are baptized together. So we might have a baptism this week. Might not. We´ll see.

I love you and miss everyone. A ton. I'm glad time flies.

Love,
Elder Gilreath

Letter received November 5, 2010

Hola familia!

Time flies in El Salvador. I can't believe it's been basically a month (probably a month when you receive this.) Oh yea, Mom and Jamie, don't you love your personalized notes? Anyways...so, Mom, that $7 watch we bought back in Utah is basically toast. I chipped the glass and it's spider webbing or whatever the heck you call it when cracks form all over the place. Probably need a new one.

So we might have a baptism this weekend. She's getting interviewed tonight. I'm honestly not sure if she'll pass, but I'm hoping and praying. And I think things are setting themselves up for a few more in the coming weeks. I can only hope. Most of the people have kind of "stalled out" so to speak. Which I guess is why you're always looking for new ones. And that's hard too, because basically everyone has a church, and if they aren't practicing they say it anyways. But hey, that's half the battle, right?

Mi espanol es major pero yo necesito practicar mas obviamente. Mi habilidad a entender as mas mejor pero a veces yo entiendo nada. Pero estoy mejorando y creo que en par meses sero fino con espanol. Actualmente muchas veces otro misioneros o personas han me dicho que mi espanol es bueno para un mes en El Salvador. Pero se que es muy importante que yo progresse cada dia yo aprenda casa nuevas cada dia tambien.

Hmm...what's new....The buses have names here. I forgot to tell you that. Some are like "Blessing of God" or religious. Others are funny like "Red Falcon". And some don't make sense like "Kevin Orlando". Every bus I'm pretty sure has a picture of Jesus or some scripture reference. I remember one wasn't very religious cause it had a sign like "If you say you love God and hate my friend, I'll call you a liar. How can you love someone you've never seen/met." Something like that. Oh yeah, coolest thing ever. They have a train that runs through our area and it only cost 10 cents. It's cheaper than the buses! I'll try to take a picture. And it's like the buses because it stops every now and then to pick up/drop off. It literally dropped us off at the doorstop of some of our investigators. Tan chivo. (Apparently chivo/chiva/chivos/chivas is like "cool" here) (Yup. Goat is cool here.)

Well, I've got to, but I miss you guys and love you. It's freakin' hot here. But we had a sweet storm the other night. And we lost power for a bit too. Os amo.

Love,

Elder Gilreath

PS Our investigator passed (shame on me for doubting) so we got a baptism. You'll probably read the email before this letter...)

PSS I need more shoe polish stuff. I lost mine. :-)

November 1, 2010

First off. Noche de Brujas is lame here. They don't do anything. They know its Halloween. But is way boring here. Nothing fun to report about it.

I learned something interesting this week. The word Celeste in Spanish is light blue. It sounds a lot like Celestial. I love the fact that is Celeste in Spanish. Just an interesting tid bit. (And i saw some dude with a UNC hat. Made me happy.)

Alright, so...In Ciudad Delgado there's a Church called Tabernacle of Faith. Sometimes we walk by, and it always sounds like a rock concert is going on. One of those types. Anyways. So the other night we are walking to an appointment and we come across a crowd of people walking through the streets. Its the Tabernacle people. Basically doing a peace protest march. Through the streets. And all their banners said Jesus Is The Lord of Ciudad Delgado. That's it. It was like a religious march through the streets with their pastor dude shouting into his mike some religious stuff. It was pretty funny. I wish I had my camera. Some did come up and shook our hands and said god bless you. They're nuts. But they recognize missionaries.

Oh yeah. So I had to give a talk this week. I took like 2 hours or so to write it. Sunday morning, I´m feeling pretty good. I timed it at about 8 and half minutes. But the ward started late. And E Almendarez spoke a long time. SO I had like 5 minutes to talk. So on the fly I had to pull stuff out of my talk and obviously this all is in Spanish. It worked out all right. If you're wondering why we had talks, the subject was missionary work and I talked about how important the members are in the work.

And last but not least. The 1 and a half hour bus ride. We took a bus to rest our legs (E Almendarez idea) but it went like every where else in the world, then Ciudad Delgado. So we spent an hour and a half on the bus. It sucked. Not much else to say. Boring week other than that. Some progress with investigators.

Got to go. Love you all. Miss you all. Hope everyone has a good week.

Love Elder Gilreath

October 25, 2010

One month in review (Basically)(Like 4 days)

Lets see, I have been in El Salvador for almost a month. And its been fast. Overall. Some days are really slow, but others are really fast.

First thing on my list, my comp. I know I told mom I wanted a big Tongan, and I know she said I'd get a big Guatemalan. Both wrong. I got a tiny Hondurian (Sp?). Elder Almendarez, from the capital of Honduras. Hes the type of person I don't normally get along with as he was a skater before his mission, and I just don't get along with them. But its working. We get along fine. Some days are frustrating (more cause I don't understand him than anything) but we do get a lot done.

2nd. Vigilantes. Sweet name. And any neighborhood with money has them. Usually. They are kind of like guards for the neighborhoods. Machetes or guns. Take your pick. They are kind of like the armed guards for every store here. Except those guys have shot guns. Kinda fun.

3rd. Real small note here. Like my 2nd day here, we had an earthquake. It was like at 9:20 or so at night, and really small. I didn't notice it until Elder Almendarez started yelling at me and I realized the floor was moving. That was kind of cool.

4th. The buses. Some are tricked out. Some aren't. Some remind me of Jenna´s car the other day as they leave a huge smoke trail behind them. Some have neon. Some even have nice rims and spoilers. Basically all of them have a religious thing on them. They remind me of the game crazy taxi ( I know Devin has the Simpson's version of it). They like weave in and out of traffic. Sometimes we have to jump off them as they are moving. You have to lean opposite of the direction of where the bus is going cause it pulls you back the other way. And a lot have speakers. With American music. Which I hear a lot here. They are just as obsessed with Justin Bieber as America is. And it makes me think of Lainey. I've heard a lot of American music (like Journey) (DON'T STOP BELIEVIN!)

5th. Attacked by dogs. That sucked. 3 big dogs. Dad says I´m officially a missionary. I don't know how they didn't rip my pants. Freakin scary when it happened. Thought I was going to die.

Our investigators:

Familia Rivas. Oh familias Rivas. They aren't married. And the dad has some problems I won't go into. But they love having us over. They have 3 kids. Two girls and a boy. The kids are awesome. and the oldest girl (only the dads girl) is actually inactive. I don't know how it works. But she's a member. Unfortunately, they are kind of not progressing. We´ll keep working with them (mostly for the inactive girl) but they might have hit the wall so to speak.

Familia Varela: 1 mom. 4 kids. Two girls and two boys. 17,14,10,4. Oldest two are the girls. I love the kids in this family. They are really fun to talk to. The mom doesn't see why she needs the church. But there has been some good out of this family. Most are kind of stalled.

Familia Martir. This family isn't really progressing. Except for one daughter. And its a weird family set up. They are married. Half the kids live with the dad somewhere else. Basically all of them don't keep commitments like we ask. The only positive is Jasmine. We are working with her real hard.

Familia Seas: Great family. Only the mom and two kids. Salvador and Melissa. Salvador is like 18 almost 19 and jacked. Hes a big kid. Melissa is actually the cousin of the 2nd counselor in the Bishopric. The kids have different dads. But they are pretty positive. I think they might be coming up for baptism soon.

Jorge Duran: Not much to say here. The dude has been going to church on and off for 11 months, isn't married but his companion hates the Church and us. Weird one all the way around.

Biden: I think that's his name. 12 years old. Wants to be baptized real bad. Starting coming to church with his Aunt, and loves it. We are going to talk to his mom tomorrow. Hope all goes well with it.

Prisilla: Cant hear or speak. I think shes deaf. Not sure. But she can't hear and talk. We write everything out. She is hard to get up with. And she doesn't understand everything we write. I remember we asked her some question and she wrote back I don't have a boyfriend, I´m single. How she got that, I will never know. We asked about like prophets or something.

The ward mission leader. Fernando. Only 18 years old. And I thought I had bad callings growing up. Not much to say other than hes a cool dude.

The Bishop. Hes like 29. Been married for a year. has 2 kids. I don't know how everything works. Really nice.

Francisco. Only been baptized for like 8 weeks. Cant speak or hear well. Like Priscilla. But I love miming to him. He is so cool. And he can actually read lips so he understands a lot better than like Priscilla would.

Familia Campos. Our cooks family. We have pupusas like everyday cause she makes and sells them. She has 3 kids, two girls and one boy. The boy is super chill and fun to talk to. I love that family. All are really nice. No dad. Hermana Sandra is really nice and always wants to know how we are doing. She's like our mom.

Haha, on to fun stuff. Running across the highway and sitting on the median wall thing then running more. Cars and buses like a foot away. Fun times. Don't worry mom, it was to get to a colonia. It had a purpose.

The train. So our area has a train that runs through it. And it only costs 10 cents to ride. Its cheaper than the buses, and a whole heck of a lot more fun. We used it to go to Multi-zones the other day. And it actually dropped us off at an investigator's door step because like the buses, it stops to pick up people. Super cool.

And we actually have at least 6 new investigators that we found yesterday. At least because they were parts of families or only one person of the family. Feeling good about a few. Hopefully something comes from it cause most of our investigators have stalled.

And the best news of the week. We had a baptism last Saturday the 23rd. Alejandra Beatriz Varela Vazquez. That's the one good thing from the Varela family. Shes the 17 year old, almost 18. And her boy friend is Fernando the Ward Mission Leader. He totally owes us. Or me. Because I got to baptize her. My first ever baptism, and in Spanish. I was so nervous. But was really confident with the prayer and dunking her under the water. Maybe that was the Holy Ghost cause I was so nervous until I started the ordinance. So nervous. But all is well.

So that's basically my month in El Salvador. Fun stuff. Our house is small and in like a gated thing with no vigilante. Probably like from the beginning of the hallway down to Devins old room. Not too big. Kitchen. Bathroom. Bedroom. Main room. and the clothes room. Idk. Its where we keep everything basically.

It's pretty here, but I don't have a lot of pictures because I don't make it a habit of carrying my camera with me. But i got some.

Got to run. Love you all and miss you.

Love Elder Gilreath

BTW mom, i got a good idea for presents. I´ll probably just write you later.

Happy Birthday MOM and Jamie. One time I´ll just send pics the whole time.

Pictures

Here are some pictures that Darin sent--I'm not sure who the people are or where the pictures were taken or what's happening in the pictures, but maybe someday we'll find out....(His companion, maybe???)

(I think this is the soccer ball that he said they blew out...)

October 18, 2010

I'm working on sending pictures.

The weeks go by really fast here. And I love it.

I heard Late Nite was fun. And they took all the Priests and Teachers...weird. Haha. But thats cool that all the Hemmings went. How´d they like it?

And I miss UNO. I want to play it.

The San Salvador temple is coming along I think and I really hope I have the opportunity to visit it.

The weather is really hot. You can send the singles things if you want as a test run. I sent a letter the other day I think Wednesday that has more stuff in it. And we haven't found plastic pages.

The food overall is really good. I have enjoyed just about everything I eat and definitely the pupusas. I dont like platanos fritoes ( like fried bananas) but we get them a lot. Oh well. And they serve some really weird drinks down here.

We have some new investigators. Overall I think we have 18 that can be baptized with most just parts of families. Some are progressing, some aren't. I guess that's how it goes. The other day we ran across the freeway, sat on the barrier and then ran the rest of the way. It was fun. Kind of stupid as the cars were like a foot and half from hitting us. But fun. We ran across the highway laughing. Its only 4 lanes total, two both ways.

The Spanish is coming. Things are slowing down. My comp has like 8 months in the field. Hopefully it continues to come at the rate it is. We haven't gotten an Ensign yet, but I think we get one. I'm not sure.

Well, I got to work on these pictures. It's being dumb. Hopefully you get some. Love you all and miss you.

Love,
Elder Gilreath

October 11, 2010

It's been a fast week. Things are going good. Things are slowing down a little, but they can definitely still slow down more. When I focus I pick up most things. But I have to focus and there in lies the problem.

Church was good yesterday. We didn't really have to do anything except bless the sacrament. I did alright with the prayer, definitely wasn't terrible. We went to Gospel Principles with some investigators we had there, and then Elders Quorum. There was only like 8 of us in there I think. Oh yeah the Bishop is 29 I think. Fun stuff for him. And the Ward Mission Leader is 18. Fun stuff for him.

Hmm... Paleca is either in Delgado or near it. Maybe Soyapongo. Our Zone is Soyapongo. Im not really sure. I hope that helps. Its the Paleca Ward...so who knows...

I actually got your letter last Thursday when we had a Zone meeting. Just keep using that address you have. The ZLs pick up letters like every Monday, and distribute them when we get together on Thursdays. I know the letter had a stamp that said El Salvador received it Sept 30...so like 6 days after you sent it. I guess 5 cause Sunday is in there. So it doesn't take too long to get here. Its just that they don't pick up til Monday and I don't receive until Thursday. At least you don't have to worry about transfers or anything like that.

Its been pretty hot lately. There haven't been very many clouds so its been hot. Maybe because I think we might have gone into dry season. It kind of sucks. I have to watch myself and drink a lot of water or gatorade. Which reminds me of Christmas. Because for Christmas I want more drink flavoring things. And Skittles. Tropical Skittles. And maybe cookies. and contacts. That's a sad christmas list. Oh well. Food is good. Always.

Right now, we are teaching a couple families. One has like 7 that can be baptized. One has 4. and the other has 2. They all have some younger kids that can't be baptized. And we ran into this one girl who can't talk but understands the things we write. She only likes our church (her mom told us that): When she saw that we were from the Church her face lit up and she got really excited. And there are a few random others. So we got a few that we teach. They are all kind of progressing slowly. And to find new investigators we can knock doors. That's basically the only way we find them.

Talking is interesting. I think I can express myself pretty well but I still don't understand everything obviously. I´ll get lost in conversations and not know what to say. I can basically understand my comp 100% of the time. Only sometimes I can't.

Sounds like it was a fun birthday for Erik, and that overall everything is good.

You can always tell when there is a drunk person because they try to talk to us in English.
"Guys! GUYS! Hey guys! Where are you going?" Its pretty funny.

We go to an internet cafe to write too. We played some basketball today because we killed the soccer ball :) So far, its been a good P-day. I got to go. Later

Love, Elder Gilreath

First week in El Salvador

The flight down to El Salvador seemed to take forever. President Perez is really nice but talks with a lisp. He can be hard to understand. My first comp is Elder Almendarez from Honduras, and he's a funny guy. Goofs around a lot. Not a lot of English which is good and bad, but I can basically understand everything he says now. Our area is Paleca near San Salvador. Our apartment is really small. I think our living room where the fireplace is i about as big as the entire apartment. We don´t cook for ourselves; we go to a members house near us usually or other member's houses. I was able to watch conference, and in English. The church buildings are definitely probably the nicest places in all of El Salvador. We have done a lot of knocking doors, and I apparently have pretty good Spanish. I just can´t understand a whole lot. haha. The buses are nuts. I think they race each other. and the yellow middle line means nothing. and one day we crammed into a little bus with like 50 people probably. People were like hanging out the doors. It was crazy. No room to yourself.

I thought conference was good and like I said, I got it in English. The 2nd counselor of the Paleca Ward actually speaks really good english. He works for at&t. So its nice to talk to him a lot. But yeah, I enjoyed conference. Our Zone got together for the saturday sessions and went to Pizza Hut in between sessions. (Pizza Hut and KFC are huge down here.) It was a fun trip.

I don´t really know what to ask for for Christmas besides ties. I´ll let you know if I think of something.

Got to run. Hopefully Kota shapes up. This keyboard is weird.

Love,
Elder Gilreath

Phone Call

Darin called today as he traveled to El Salvador. We talked for a few minutes while he was in the Salt Lake airport waiting for his flight to Dallas, Texas. He didn't have much time then. He called again after he arrived in Dallas. He had over 3 hours there so we had a great conversation.

He's excited to go to El Salvador. He's ready to teach the gospel and ready to learn more as he serves. I asked him if he was nervous and he said he wasn't. I can't wait to hear from him once he's actually arrived.

One funny thing happened while he was talking to us. He was on a pay phone and he had several other elders with him from his district. Suddenly a guy came up and asked "Are you guys all talking to your moms?" They all answered "yes". The guy said, "Smile Big!!" and took a picture of the elders on the phones. He said something about his son serving a mission too. I'm sure it was a cute picture of a row of elders all making phone calls home.

Next week there should be an email from El Salvador!! :-)

Letter dated September 23, 2010

Hola familia!

Como le va? Tengo solo cuatro dias mas en el CCM. Cuando reciban esta carta, pienso que stare en El Salvador. Estoy muy animado. Sera Imponente. Voy a socar muchas fotos. Si puedo. No se. Tambien no se si mi espanol es bueno bastante para El Salvador pero no cuido.

Looking back at my MTC experience, it actually went by fairly quickly. And since the field will be 1000X better than here, that will probably fly by. I feel like I know enough Spanish to get by the first few weeks before I get a real feel for it. I'm trying to finish strong in the MTC but it's hard because I'm so excited to leave. Our teachers have been drilling into our heads to finish strong.

The devotional on Tuesday was by Elder Paul V. Johnson of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy. He gave us a ton of scriptures which could be useful. He talked about obedience and how it's required for spiritual learning. He talked about how we need to lead by example with our obedience. The investigators also need obedience to keep their commitments. If we can't get them to keep commitments, they won't keep covenants if they somehow get baptized.

So I started to actually write down what scriptures stand out to me and there are a lot. I'm in 2 Nephi 10 right now. I found 61 verses or groups of verses that stick out right now. So through 32 chapters, I have 61 verses or groups of verses. I bet if I started over again, even more would stick out. That's why the Book of Mormon is so great. There is always something new. I really like 1 Nephi 10:19, 1 Nephi 15:11, 2 Nephi 1:23, 2 Nephi 4:26-35, 2 Nephi 7:5-8, 2 Nephi 9:18 and 2 Nephi 9:52. Just some good ones, but there are a lot of great things in the scriptures.

In other news, I'm getting some shots in a few hours and I pulled some money out to cover it. You might want to go check my bank accounts. Also, I need a Hakeem Nicks jersey waiting for me in 22 months. :-) No, but seriously, I do. I already talked to George about getting me a Spain jersey. I'll probably have an El Salvador jersey soon too. And maybe a Ty Lawson one too. haha. I'm getting way ahead of myself. But can you frame my Brandon Wright jersey? And some of my UNC Championship posters. I always meant to but never did. I love you and miss you.

Love,

Elder Gilreath

Week 8

hola familia

4 MORE DAYS!!!!

Man, i'm so pumped. Oh yeah...flight plans...

I fly from Salt Lake to Dallas, and thats supposed to leave at 8:25 and I'm supposed to arrive in Dallas at 12:05 P.M. Yay time changes. I think we'll probably get to the airport at like 6:30 a.m., so I think I'll have time to call there. Then we wait in Dallas fro like 3 hours and then fly from Dallas to El Salvador leaving at 3:40 p.m. and arriving at 6:05 p.m. So yeah, I should be able call at some point. Our whole district is actually on the same plane from Salt Lake to Dallas which is is really cool. But then the 2 going to Costa Rica leave at like 4:00 or so. But the rest of us who are going to El Salvador are all on the same flight to El Salvador. So it should be really fun.

As I'm pretty sure everyone knows already, I was able to host Robbie yesterday. Honestly, I was praying pretty hard for the opportunity to see him, so let that be a lesson. The Lord answers prayers. Anyways...heres how it went down. I was helping some missionary up front get out, send him off with a host, and I just kinda randomly look up and see this red van. And i'm kinda staring at it, I can see through the passenger window, and I'm like that looks like Robs. then Robbie rolls down the passenger side and is like dude! Haha, so I'm like no way, and their driving, and I'm jogging next to the car like all the way down. More exercise there than at gym time. But yeah followed him all the way down, and so I help him out, Bro Hernandez throws a tiny spanish my way, I answer, hes taking pictures, kinda talking with them. and then off we go. It was pretty fun. So we talked all around the campus as I showed him around. He met some people from BYU I think, so he'll definitely get settled in quickly. It was pretty fun.

I don't have much to say other than I'm leaving. We had a good devotional about obedience and a lot of things we have heard a lot. They are really drilling a lot of the same stuff into us. This week was like culture, safety, what not. Pretty straight forward stuff.

I can't wait to call on Monday and I can't wait to get to El Salvador. I'm so ready. I might forget some Spanish and it might be a rough transition. But i'm so ready. Hopefully my P-days in El Salvador aren't mondays so I can update you next week. Gotta go. Love you all and miss you. Paz.

-Elder Gilreath

Week 7

Hey family,

Hows it going?

This week was pretty uneventful. It was a fast week and I have about 11 days left here. We are supposed to get our flight plans tomorrow, so I can tell you that I'll be taking a thousand different planes to El Salvador next week. Well maybe 4 planes. Anyways, not much happened this week. I stopped playing soccer because I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and don't want to get hurt, and stay longer. I took up four square. Who knew it was so fun. The two times I played, I was King when we stopped, so apparently I'm kinda good at it. The conjugations are coming. I have been working at the most commonly used irregulars and its coming. We also started playing a game called El Nativo, where we draw cards with a person on it. If you are the native, you need to talk Spanish all day, but even if you aren't you want to talk as much spanish as possible so people think you are the native. We vote at the end of the day, and get points if people pick you, double points if you really are the native. Winner gets an all expenses paid trip to El Salvador or Costa Rica. Ok not really. We get some sort of surprise though.

Hmm...what else. We had a pretty good devotional. I honestly forgot the speaker. I'm a bad person. But he had a good message about instead of holding the proverbial line, we need to charge, and move the line forward. And to make sure that we make the next two years our finest hour to date. And he showed a video of Elder Holland talking about why missionary work is so hard. Its because salvation isn't supposed to be easy. And that sometimes we want to ask isn't there an easier way? When we do, we should remember that someone much greater and grander than us asked that very question in a garden more or less 2000 years ago. It was never easy for him. Why should it be easy for us? I think that applies to everyday life as well.

Yesterday I got to host some new missionaries, and I think I get to next week as well, so I will keep an eye out for Robs, and try to get him as someone to host. If not, just keep an eye out for him to see how things are going. Hosting is pretty fun. Get out of class, and just walk around helping someone. Pretty fun.

Mi español es progresando pero necesito trabajar mas todavía. Grámatica es mal en cualquier idioma. Especialmente en español. Muchas reglas a seguir y es un poco confundiendo a veces. Pero sé mi español es mas mejor ahora cuando comprado con mi primer semaña en el CCM. No sé si todas las cosas en estos oraciones es correcto pero es el mejor que puedo hacer.

Entonces...I can not get to El Salvador fast enough. I think I need more contacts, and the page protectors sound nice. I got a notebook but its only like an inch and half or so. I might need a bigger one. quizas. problamente. Anyways, one more week. I love you all and miss you all. I got a ton of food from your package yesterday so thanks for that. I think i'm good with foor. Definitely need more polyester ties. Idk. I miss kota. Give him a hug for me. The trick is to not get scratched. Lets see if you can.

Love,

Elder Gilreath

Letter home dated September 9, 2010

Como le va? Es un otro dia de preparacion y estoy muy feliz porque tengo dos dias de preparacion mas en el CCM. Estoy diecinueve dias de El Salvador y esas dias nesecitan ir a rapido. No se si estas palabras y oraciones ser correcto pero estoy intentando.

So anyways...the MTC is still here. We had no idea it was Labor Day on Monday until we didn't get any mail and the bookstore closed early. The whole world could go into a nuclear war and we wouldn't know. Okay, we probably would figure that out, but you get my point.

Guess what? I inherited some old shoe with signatures on it. Before I leave, I get to sign it and pass it on. I will be the 25th person to sign it and pass it on. We also got some weird figurine that grows grass for hair. We call him "little cesped". That grammar book "1001 Pitfalls in Spanish" is pretty useful. I have been reading it and will start over once I finish. I figure it will sink in eventually, right?

Being a ZL isn't too bad. I had a ton of meetings on Sunday, but two were training that I won't do again, or least here. We pick who prays, plays and leads music, does sacrament every Sunday. All we do is stare at their pictures and choose. We agree a good portion of the time who it should be the first time around without discussing it. It's kind of fun.

Like I said in my email, the devotional was by Elder Snow of the 2nd Quorum of the Seventh and he talked about choices. He told us to learn to make the right choices now so we can be examples to our investigators. He said there are tons of people just like us, members who aren't where we are. Made me think a little. Then he talked about how sometimes we don't want to follow the Lord's rules, and ask for permission from our parents to do something contrary to the laws. He said how can they give permission to break a rule that isn't their rule? Afterwards, at our District review, we talked about choices and ones we made in our life. Thanks Mom, thanks Dad, thanks to the whole family for directing me where I am. You all were great examples, who I wanted to follow and make choices to be like you guys. I've been blessed greatly with you guys. Los amo muchos. I miss you guys.

Love,

Elder Gilreath

Week 6

Hola Familia.

¿Cómo esta?

This week was pretty chill at the MTC. My plans to take over haven´t really moved forward yet, but its getting there. Its still in the planning stages. I only have 2 more P days here. That is pretty freakin exciting. Last night, we welcomed in a new district, and they seem like they will be okay, still a little shocked I think. We get to do some more stuff with them tonight. They were more talkative then we were our first day, so I guess thats good. Course we went nuts the second day, so who knows...Did I ever tell you about our first real MDT? It was nuts. Anyways...

The Devotional was by Elder Snow of the 2nd Quorum of the 70, and he talked about choices. It was a really good talk about how we have made certain choices to get where we are, and that there are people just like us that aren´t where we are. Talking about it after, I realized that a lot of my District came from a lot of different places and and have made a lot of different choices. But we are still here, so obviously we have all made some pretty good ones.

Entonces, mi español es mejor pero necisito practicar más. Mi gramática is el peor pero tngo memorizar muchas verbos hacer oraciones. El parte duro es poder conjugar en mi mente y hablar lo que penso. He leido muchas libros en español y entender todas los cosas. (jajajaja es un chiste). Pero entiendo muchas cosas cuando leer. Las escrituras son muy difícil entender porque usarlo extraño palabras. En verdad.

Anyways, yeah, my Spanish is a little better. I still cant conjugate or make a gramatically correct sentence. But people can understand me if they know English and Spanish. Yay! That will be useful in El Salvador. Not really. But apparently knowing English is pretty big down there, so I´ll get to teach my comps some íngles. I´ve noticed my spelling is going downhill fast.

Oh yeah, Devin guess what? I got two shut outs in MTC soccer. Or my team did. Scores of like 6 to 0 and like 4 to 0 with good attackers on the other team. Highlight of my week. Seriously. And the beach sounded fun.

Oh yeah, I get to host a new missionary next week. It will be fun.

Congrats Jenna, no more sitting around drinking sonic.

Congrats Jamie, wish I could be there.

Anyways, I got to go. I love you all and miss you.

-Elder Gilreath

Week 5

Hola mi familia.

This week was a pretty chill week except for the fact that I'm slowly working my way up to control the MTC before I leave. If you have no idea what that means...it means I'm a Zone Leader effective Sunday. I'm still District Leader right now since they havent called anyone else, but receiving training from the Zone Leaders who are leaving. At the right I'm doing this, I'm should be in control in about 2 weeks. Mas o menos. The other interesting thing is that my companion Elder Mandler isn't the other Zone Leader, its Elder Hardman, one of my room mates. So we have switched companions. I already had a "transfer" and I haveen't even left the MTC yet. Elder Hardman is the one from Highland Ranch, Colorado which is really close to Denver. I really like him a lot and I feel like we will work well together. What else besides slowly taking over....hmm...

We had the TRC this week in all Spanish. That was interesting. Luckily the lady we had talked really slow, so I could understand it all, and unfortunately, my comp Elder Mandler (This was Tuesday afternoon, I found out I was a ZL and we were switching companionships Tuesday night) kinda blanked on me for good parts of the lesson, so I did a lot of talking. My Spanish is getting better. I still can't conjugate to save my life, and I'm not always sure about the sentence structure, but I can spit out words that make sense to the people who can speak Spanish and English. So I'm half way there. I think. I'm working on mastering irregular congujations, and getting down when to conjugate, so we'll see how that goes. But for 5 weeks I guess I'm in a pretty good spot. Elder Hardman and I have decided we need to be examples to the District and Zone and try our hardest to only speak Spanish most of the time. We'll see how it goes.

On Tuesday night, our Devotional was by Elder Richard G. Hinckley of the Quorum of the Seventy. Last name is familiar right? Hes a lot like his dad actually. Its was kinda crazy to watch the things he did, because its exactly what his dad did. He has the same sense of humor too. Funny man. I'll probably go more into what he said in my letter, but I think it was in Doctrine and Covenants 50:25 he quoted the last part that says something about chasing darkness away. Thats kind of what we are doing. Chasing darkness away and bringing light into the lifes of the people that we come in contact with.

Other than those few things, its been a really normal week at the MTC. Lots of studying, lots of class, and not enough sleep. We have a ton of free time (ok not free time, we still have to study, but we pick what we study) now because out schedule changed because we got a new teacher, Hermano Frandsen. Hes a real cool guy from Washington. I want to say Seattle, but I'm not sure. He served his mission to Ecuador. When we met him for the first time, Elder Maylett said "Nuevo carne", and Hno. Frandsen said bring it. It was pretty interesting. And it was Elder Hardman's birthday on Monday and he got a card that would sing "Celebrate". Quite possibly the greatest thing ever. We play it now and again for real music and dance for the solid 20-30 seconds it plays. Life saver.

Which brings me to requests. Some weird. Some not. First off, and I'm fairly serious about this. Anyone want to send me a card that sings? Or multiple cards that sing? They do wonders for us. Its weird. And maybe not now, but when I get to El Salvador send sheet protectors for letters I get. I started doing that, but I can buy them here. Not sure about there. Opens from the side preferably. Can I get a birthday list? I can remember most everyone. I dont want to forget anyone. Por favor. And silly putty. Never mind, I dont need silly putty. But can you look into small Preach My Gospels. They look so cool and handy. And easy to carry. Muchas gracías.

Anyways, I´m running out of time. But cool with the hurricane. Sounds weird, but I like them. Bad Marvin. Oh well, life goes on. Stupid tutor. Oh well, life goes on. I´m not there haha

Anyways, I love you guys and miss you. I love the letters and things that I get. Paz.

Love,

Elder Gilreath

Letter dated 8-26-10

Hola familia!

I pretty much said everything I wanted to say in the email. Good luck with everything coming up, Mom. And Jamie, we go to the temple every week and its always pretty fun. Anyways, I wanted to go into more detail about Elder Holland's talk.

First thing he said was that he loved us and what we are doing is important. Then he said it doesn't matter what we are going through, the work needs to be done. He said that we need to give it our all now because we don't get redos or a makeup chance. We had better work the hardest we ever had. Don't waste a minute, make everything count. We are here to serve 24 month missions (18 for sisters) not 17, or 8, or 22 month missions. 24 months of all out hard work. We study out of Preach MY Gospel--it's the Lord's work and we are a part of it. We can't do things our way because it's not ours. He reminded us that the people we will be serving once agreed to God's plan. We just need to remind them that they did. In a musical metaphor, he told us to always tune ourselves, to always try to make ourselves perfect. When we do, we have the Spirit which lets us teach with the power and authority we've been given and need. We need to teach the people, not lessons, act like we have authority and be bold. Every time we teach, it needs to be the performance of a lifetime. Every time. He shared with us Helaman 6:36-37. This is a time when the Lamanites are righteous and the Nephites aren't, The Lamanites would hunt for the Gadianton robbers and preach to the most wicked among them. To apply it to us, he said they wanted the hardest area of the mission. They looked forward to the hardest area of the mission. Then he said, "It was never easy for the Savior, why should it be for us?" He talked about how we will walk part of the road He's walked, shed some of the tears He shed, and at some point go through Gethsemane. If we want to be His disciples, we need to go where he went and say what he said.

Yeah, so it was pretty awesome. I love his talks. They are so good. I love you and miss you.

Love,

Elder Gilreath

Week 4

First off, thanks for the pictures.

Second, send little gatorade things I can pour in water.

Lets see...I sent an e-mail to the blogger last week, so I don't know. And I have no idea how to accept the blog invitation.

This week we had an awesome devotional. There were a lot of signs leading up to it, like some guy who is always at devotionals reminded us that we don't stand to sing, but we do for Apostles and the Prophet as a sign of respect. When we got in there, the screen normally show who is talking, but they didn't this time. So by now you probably have figured out that it was either an Apostle or the Prophet. Quick, any guesses??? Its one of my favorite people...

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.

It was Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. It was such a great talk. And I was like 40 feet away at the most. I can't really talk about everything, so I'll write in the letter I send today but the basic run down was to give everything we have to our missions, and don't slack for a minute. He told us how to be better missionaries and then added at the end how as disciples of Christ, we'll feel some of what he did. And the collest part was he didn't have written text. It was totally lead by the Spirit. And he talked for like an hour.

As District Leader, I basically get mail and go to meetings, but I also have to make sure the District is on task, and make sure everyone is reaching their goals. Its not that hard actually. The meetings and training sessions are no fun though. Our District is speaking a lot more Spanish, and we have a lot of fun with it. Now we have to teach the lessons in Spanish, so things could get interesting at the TRC. Which I had a lot of fun with this week. The first part was acting like we we're helping them move, and it was all in Spanish. I got to "vacuum" and "move" furniture. The only bad thing is that my comp kinda blanked so I had to do a lot of the talking. And as a District we set a goal to speak Spanish basically anytime and anywhere we go. We'll see how it goes.

This week was pretty chill for the most part other then Elder Holland coming. Not a lot to report. Nothing exciting. The days are running together and it had been a slow month, but at the same time fast. I don't know how to explain it. Our district is beginning to lose our minds. We had a couple of guys go Steve Urkel yesterday for a bit. Pants real high, pocket protectors, big glasses, goofy smiles, carrying a ton of stuff. Most was as the day was winding down, but some happened in the building where we have class. We remember thinking when we got here how crazy everyone was. Now we are the crazy ones. And I have pictures to prove it.

Yo puedo hablar español mas mejor ahora, pero yo necesito practicar mas. Español es muy divertido a hablar pero is muy frustrado. Yo sé mucho frases y mucho verbos, pero es duro a recuerdo todos las cosas.

Yeah, so the Spanish is coming, but I suck as spelling and grammar still. I know words, verbs, and frases, but ask me to spell or how to make it gramatically correct. No bueño.

Devin- That does hurt for the future. Weird things all around with him. By the way, I'm a terrible goalie. I got scored on 7 times. IN my defense there were a lot of 4 on 1 and 3 on 0, but no excuses really. I let some cheap ones in. But my team did score like 6 or 7 as well. And I had some goals and assists this week.

Erik- Thats great Jenna got a job and can be your sugar momma now. Haha. She'll have to tell me more about the job. And glad you love the new lap top.

Jamie- As you can see the language is coming. When I get to El Salvador I'll try to write you in Spanish a lot.

Dad- Not a whole of English I think from now on. Lets see how it goes. Could get interesting.

I love all of you guys and miss you. I don't know how the blog works mom, You'll have to keep working on it. I dont have a g-mail so that might be why. Even though this is powered by g-mail. Who knows.

Hasta luego.

Love,

Elder Gilreath

Week 3

The last few days were kind of long. I'm so happy that its P-Day...I really need it today. We lost 4 members of our district to the Guatemala MTC on Tuesday, including the District Leader. Guess who the new District Leader is? Thats right...its me. I get the opportunity for about 3 weeks. I get the mail everyday now, and the mailbox is quite possibly the worst thing ever. Its like the state government facilities. It just doesnt work right and its frustrating. Except for the DMV place. That was nice. The mailbox is a combo thing, and you hear a click then you have to twist it to the left some more. Its so hard. Its ridiculous. We had a fireside on Sunday by 3 hymn makers. It was kind of interesting, but pretty boring. If I was like Clark Pixton or Zach Froelich, it would have been so money. But I'm not. So it wasn't.

At the TRC on Tuesday, we were supposed to check on how our "investigator" was doing with reading the Book of Mormon, and praying about Joseph Smith. We asked him did he pray about Joseph Smith. He did, and then said he read 3 Nephi 11, and had questions about baptism. (Note: This is ALL in Spanish) Then he asks us about why we do baptism the way we do, and why its right. So in my best Spanish, I'm trying to explain that we do it by immersion, and roughly quoted Romans 6:4 in Spanish, and thats how Christ did it, and thats how the scriptures tell us to do it. It was interesting. I have no idea if anything I said was right, but I think I got the point across. Out teacher was cracking up during this. I don't know why. (Sidenote: Our teacher just got engaged, it was actually a really cool idea) (Sidenote again: Our other teacher is leaving at the end of the month, only 3 weeks and we got rid of one). Then we got to teach in English, so that was good. He had some interesting questions that I somehow answered. I was just talking and got inspiration. It was pretty sweet. Oh yeah, next Wednesday, we go to Spanish 24/7. It will be interesting to say the least.

We had a Devotional on Tuesday night by someone in the Presidency of the Quorum of the Seventy. I forget his name at the moment but it was really good. He talked a lot about the Book of Mormon, and having the Spirit when we teach. Its not our work, but the Lords work. Oh yeah, so since I'm District Leader I get to go to training on Sundays and Tuesdays. Lots of meetings now. Its not fun at all. I got a letter from the President of the MTC about me becoming District Leader, that was a little weird. At first I though i was getting transferred to some Chinese speaking mission. Why else would the MTC send me something?

I have heard that 6 weeks at the MTC the sisters start looking good. At 6 months into your mission, all the women around start lookin good. At 1 year, your companion starts looking good. What happens after that, I don't know. I don't really want to find out. Its a scary thought. Thoughts on that from former missionaries?

Anyways, I miss you guys, and I love you. Spanish is evil. THe MTC is evil. But both are fun. Doesnt make sense. I'll be sending some pictures soon. Have a good day.

love,

Elder Gilreath

Week 2

I'm not sure about the phrases book. I guess we'll see what the one you send me does for me. If not, its all good. I just want to learn more Spanish, not pertaining to the Gospel. Haha, thats funny no one knew I was leaving. Kinda had a farewell thing and all. Idk about a blog name. Too much to think about. Let me know what you pick, and I can approve of it. That might be fun writing my own blog. We'll see if I can do it. We got our El Salvador shirts we ordered and I got a childrens song book in Spanish. Popcorn popping in Spanish. Bueno. Though it is different. Thursday is P-day so its laundry day. Gracias por la package. ( yay spanglish) 30 minutes isnt enough time to say what I want to. Just know that I'm putting in work, and good for you on the BOM. Me too. I love you, and miss you.

Week 1

Lets see, finally P-day so I can write e-mails. I haven't forgotten about you. Umm, we started to learn Spanish like the third day, and I probably sent a letter about this but oh well. We learned how to pray, testify and greet in Spanish. We are working on getting to know people better in Spanish. I memorized out purpose as missionaries and the First Vision in Spanish. Im working on words and phrases I think will be helpful. Which leads me to asking if you can buy me a Spanish phrases book. All the ones we ahve are Gospel related, which isnt bad, but I want to hold conversations about things besides the Gospel, at least when I get back. And my room mates say send them one too, so thats four total. JK. Well, I really want one. Also can you check on international flights to see how much more your luggage can weigh and if it cost extra money to check them in. I'm trying to figure out how much money I need to save. Also an El Salvador flag would be sweet, but thats not necessary at the moment. See its like im still home, just asking for a ton of things. Me and my room mates all ordered El Salvador shirts, so we should get those soon. Delainey looks cute
on her trike. We are learning a ton of Spanish. Elder Heil isnt in my District or Branch, but i have seen him. I have also seen Harrison Walker and Will Braddy, as well as Israel Nunez multiple times which is really fun. Sister Tolman put on my name tag and made me an official official missionary. Everything is going good, trying to learn a lot. But I miss you and love you.

-Elder Gilreath