Ohayo Gozaimasu! (8/15/2018)

That means "good morning" in Japanese, but it's also a pun because "Ohio" is in it. Get it??

So yesterday alone we had not one, not two, not three, but FOUR lessons fall through. Ahh, a day in the life.

Monday we had zone conference, which as always was very good. It's always just what I need to keep going. I'm also proud to say that I'm getting much better at not wanting to die during super long meetings.

Last Wednesday evening we talked to one of the weirdest guys I've ever met on my mission. (And I've met some super weird people, so that's a very high honor. Which is also a pun because you definitely need drugs to say things as completely weird and ridiculous as this guy was saying.) His name was Lucas. We had a scheduled lesson to meet him for the first time, and he let is in and had us stand in his dirty living room while he ate noodles. He never suggested we sit down. Even when I eventually said "Is it alright if we sit down and share a message?" he apparently didn't get the subtle hint. So we just stood there and tried to teach the Restoration for 20 minutes while he said super absurd, somewhat non-sequitur things like...well, here's the lesson report:

He is one interesting man. We taught half of the restoration with him, but his answers were so nonsensical that we cut it short. We weren't getting anywhere with him. For an example, we asked who was Jesus and he basically thought Jesus was a girl named Toby Harrison. We also asked about how important his family was and he said that he wakes up and gets present from him. I asked who "him" was and he said Santa Claus, and he was dead serious. Might want to share the word of wisdom with him. Gave him the book of Mormon and asked if he could read till our next visit.

So yeah. Here are a couple other things I remember him saying (it's hard to recall many of them because by weird-statements-per-minute he was basically moving at warp speed to prune town):

Me: "There are some substances God doesn't want us to put in our bodies."

Lucas: "Like these?" *moves to pick up a container of disinfecting wipes*

Me: "How does Jesus teach us his Gospel?"

Lucas: "Through the brightness of the lights that shine through his eyes." (Okay this one makes it sound like maybe he meant "Jesus teaches by example!" but I promise you there was no reason to any of his responses, the real quote was probably more nonsensical than this but this is just the best I can remember the quotes)

Me: *As we are about to leave* "So should we come back another time?"

Lucas: (confused) "You want me to go with you?"

I wish we somehow could have recorded the whole lesson, especially his opening prayer, which was basically the most hippie-ish thing I've ever heard.

Will we go back at some point? Undoubtedly.

Aside from that, we've started to find and talk to more people, which is good. I hope this trend continues. But I also hope this lessons-always-falling-through trend does NOT continue.

The transfer is almost up. Crazy, especially since I'm saying goodbye to some good friends I've known for two and three transfers respectively, namely Nepali elder Elder Pells and Spanish elder Elder Gorze. I love 'em both. Fun fact, neither of these elders learned their language in the MTC, but rather out in the field! Attached are their death pictures.

Going to the temple today for my sixth month mark which happened over a month ago. Looking forward to that!

Love,

Elder Gallagher