College Kid (10/16/2019)

-
Hello everyone,

This week we had an epic exchange on the campus of Youngstown State University with our district leader and his companion. That was fun. Kinda weird being on a campus. It's a whole different world being swarmed by students and trying to talk to them. Thankfully the elder I was with, Elder Johnson, is amazing and talking to everybody. The campus isn't very big either, but there were plenty of people to talk to. That was fun.

Now you may recall that Elder Johnson is the super tall dude from the pictures I've sent. And he plays basketball. Well, he actually found a finding opportunity through basketball--a guy on campus invited him to play with them. I didn't have basketball clothes and I certainly am not very good at basketball so I decided to just sit out and finish a poem I had been writing. But I watched the game too--he's REALLY good. Like, he already has a scholarship to attend college in Oregon and play for the Ducks. So keep an eye on Isaac Johnson. He basically creamed everybody, which was awesome to see. Interesting experience was getting a prayer answered almost instantly. I could see just a tinge of frustration in the eyes of one or two on the opposing team, and I prayed that God would help Elder Johnson find a way to be friendly towards them and make sure there was still a good spirit about everything. Not ten seconds later, Elder Johnson high-fives the dude who's been guarding him after a play. It was so beautiful I almost cried, haha. I think it was a great opportunity, and it seemed to lead to some teaching appointments. Sadly he is getting transferred out so we'll see if that keeps up. I'll miss that man. And the other missionaries!

Speaking of that, I'm getting transferred too--to Mansfield! It's right next to Ashland, so it's pretty close to where I've been before. (Technically I stayed at their apartment once when the Ashland apartment flooded back in January.) So I'm excited! And my new companion will be Elder Cox, who apparently graduated from Desert Hills High just like I did! Weird.

Other than that the week was decently good. Had a couple of really Spirit-led lessons, one with a lady who previously just did not get what we were trying to tell her and liked to talk about unrelated subjects. Finally we went to 1 Nephi 13 with her and in a very Spirit-guided discussion we helped her understand the Great Apostasy and the value of the Book of Mormon. Few people made it to church sadly, but she along with others plan to come soon. All I pray is that the elders here (one of whom will be Elder Hacking and the other the elder he's training) will be able to teach and take care of everything!

I was the first missionary to be interviewed by President Stratford for a temple recommend with the new recommend questions, which was cool. President Stratford made it sound like this new area, which I now know is Mansfield, will be my last. I have 1 1/3 transfers left, about 8 weeks. Pretty crazy stuff. I'm gonna do my part to make it the best it can be.

Love,
Elder Gallagher

PICS:
- Us with the Nicholases, two really cool recent converts who we got a final pic with. Technically he's bringing us to transfers tomorrow so I'll see him again.
- The elders of the district after our exchange



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Incredible News (11/4/2019)

-
Image
Dear friends and family, We've been trying our best to make things happen in Mansfield. Progress has been a little bit slow. Adapting to new areas isn't my favorite thing. Hard to know if you're doing your best. But we're doing okay overall. So we got some incredible news... an apostle is visiting our mission. I've been waiting my entire mission for something like this.  Dieter F. Uchtdorf  is coming to visit the Ohio Columbus Mission on November 23rd. The entire mission will be together which in and of itself is unprecedented at least in my time. I am very much looking forward to that. In other news, I started My Plan this week, which is a 6-week program for missionaries when they are in their last transfer in order to prepare them for their return home and ensure they transition well. It's kinda weird because I've already partly gone through it with the three missionaries I killed off (Elder Penny, Elder Henrie, and Elder Miller ...
Read more

Some Weird Diversion (11/26/2018)

-
Dear friends and family, This week was the first time we've had someone at church for about two months (or more). He's a man we've been working with named Jon Figley. Our first teaching visit with him was very much not promising, but we have met every week since then and he's changed and grown in understanding. He was able to come to church for the first time yesterday, and he really enjoyed it which was a little surprising to me considering one of the talks a member gave in sacrament meeting had pretty much nothing to do with the gospel whatsoever 😒. He's also probably reading the Book of Mormon the most out of anybody I've taught, which is awesome. He's already on 2 Nephi! He told us over text yesterday evening that he could definitely see himself becoming a member of the church, that he learned more there than at any other church, and he plans to return next week. Definitely pray for him, and pray that this ward will be able to receive ...
Read more

Everything's "Going South"...and Looking Up (2/6/2019)

-
Image
Dear friends and family, So transfers are tomorrow. We've been making some progress with people, and I'm excited for their progress. Heather texted us with doctrinal concerns and says she feels like we're diverging from the Bible which says you are saved by grace. But thankfully though we haven't met with her in a while she is being fellowshipped by a couple ward members and hopefully things will continue from there. I think she'll be baptized, but it will take some learning on her part. There are a few other people we are working with and several we are excited to start working with. I can't remember if I've mentioned Michelle before, but she's a very kind woman who's open to learning about the Church who we've been meeting with semi-actively for about a month. We had a great lesson with her in a member home on Saturday where we helped her to better understand the Restoration. She said something awesome in the lesson...
Read more