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