A Stranger's Couch (10/7/2019)

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Dear friends and family,

Wasn't Conference great? Perhaps it was just me but the tone felt slightly different than most previous ones. Several apostles gave talks with tones they don't usually give. And I'm excited for whatever will happen next year during the bicentennial. I really liked a lot of talks, but off the top of my head I really liked Hans T. Boom's and L. Todd Budge's talks. Definitely excited to re-listen to/read them all over again.

So there's a fellow who is the son of some recent converts, named Jon-Mike. He isn't baptized, though he was the one who first let the missionaries in the door. Though he heard the first lesson, his parents ended up taking to the gospel while he ended up getting busy with work and dealing with addiction issues. We've always seen him around but scarcely talked to him and never taught him though we had come close to actually setting something up once. Well... we finally taught him two days ago. It was the best lesson I've had in a long time. He talked very earnestly and with a level head about his struggles and his belief in God but lack of understanding about Jesus Christ. I prayed for the Spirit to help us say what we needed to say. We talked mostly about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I think we helped him understand. Though he has major drug addiction problems I could tell that he is a really good person at heart. It was great offering that hope to somebody without hope. We had a scare yesterday with him and worried he might cut things off with us already or at least not be able to meet for a while, but it turned out okay and we were able to help him feel better  even though he had a big setback. Definitely pray for Jon-Mike.

This past week I had a really great exchange with our district leader, who is a really sweet dude and a fantastic missionary. Since then, I've basically been imagining myself as him every time I need to do something I'm not very good at lately. One thing we did was approach some strangers who were moving stuff out of their house offering help. The mom said, "Sure, you can help us move a couch!" She wasn't being serious. But we said "Let's do it!" So we ended up helping them. It was a really positive experience, even though they didn't end up really being interested in learning more. It was just fun having an experience like that. That's like, once in a lifetime stuff. Only as a missionary does this stuff happen!

We started teaching Bobby, the friend of our guy on date, Bruce, which was good. He's definitely prime for the gospel. But we sadly weren't able to get him or almost anybody we are teaching to watch Conference in spite of much effort, which was disappointing. Other folks are having some troubles progressing. Keep praying, and we'll keep trying.

The weather dropped to cold like a brick this week. It was staying hot for a while and then suddenly we're freezing cold in long-sleeves. It's still fluctuating but it certainly caught us off guard a bit. I like it though, I want to get back to wearing my black sweater that I bought in Las Vegas (probably) exactly 21 months ago to the day.

Keep the faith. Re-read Conference talks (once they post them).

Love,
Elder Gallagher

PIC: I realized I didn't send our district photo for this transfer even though we took that a while ago. It was actually shot as a video so I guess I'll send a low-rez screenshot. We had the elders jump...I should have kept my mouth closed.

P.S. Though the rest of us elders are jumping in this photo, Elder Johnson, second elder from the right, did not jump. (Yes, he is tall. Yes, he plays basketball.)
 
 

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