First Week of the New Cycle

This week was the first week of the new cycle, E. Rod and push on together! 

  

Well let me tell you how my Thanksgiving was... I completely forgot.... It was on Wednesday I am pretty sure and on Saturday i realized I missed Thanksgiving.... so that’s how it went for me, ha-ha pretty lame right??  I am glad that you had a good thanksgiving!

Anyways in this week, we worked hard again, we found new people, taught lessons, walked a lot, and worked hard to change lives. 

Elder Bramble (one of the Elders in our apartment) got sick this week, like super sick.  He had a seizure or something like that one day and we ran around town looking for medicine and we took care of him for a bit. He is better now!!

We played soccer today in the church, and I finally scored some goals again! This is progress! I am still by no means good at soccer but I am improving! But the thing that I am dying for is lacrosse!! I miss it soooooooooo much! I wanna play so hard sometimes! But I will have to wait! 

Pics before changes with Elder Riedhead and Elder Vazquez

This week I have been super focused on the rules, I know that one could easily say that it’s okay not to obey all of the rules and one could easily do that, but then there is always the question of ¨what if¨?  I hate this question, it always leaves people with doubt, and it always leaves regrets.  Now we come back to this speech, Live Without Regrets, and I could preach about living without regrets all day long, but all I am going to say is this, Elder Dieter F Uchtdorf has a talk in the Liahona of October and it’s called Finish With Your Torch Still Lit. It talks about finishing a race with you torch still lit, talking about Greek runners that ran a marathon with a torch and it’s not a sprint, they won by finishing with their torches lit.  We need to understand this profound lesson.  Dieter says, we need to acquire the faith to work hard, give our all, leave behind fear and do what the Lord wants us to, to finish strong, and if we do so, WE WILL NOT HAVE REGRETS: 

I am positive that if we apply this in our lives we can be servants of Heavenly Father with faith so strong that it won’t matter what trials we have, we will have our torch lit, and burning brightly! 

I love you all

Elder Galbraith 

Hoorah for Israel!!!

It is good to hear from you all! Well...HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL... we will work Thanksgiving day, they don’t celebrate it here... they’re all ready for Christmas here! Santa in the mall, Christmas trees, ornaments and all that jazz (GO JAZZ) 

Anyways the changes came again, every 6 weeks! Fastest 6 weeks of my life! Elder Rodriguez and I stay. There are no changes here. Ha-ha I get to train my son for the full 12 weeks!! Boom! 

We painted the house, it was white inside and super dirty, so we painted, now it’s nice and pretty.  We rearranged our rooms and the kitchen and all that, not that amazing but still cool! 

All the missionaries of the Huitzilzingo Ward

This week was good. December is the month of miracles here in Chalco and this week started that month, we found new people, dropped old ones, taught people, helped people, made a difference and worked hard! 

And finally we had 3 investigators in the church! 2 for the first time!  One of them, a guy named Mauricio said that he felt something different, is was a change for sure, he doesn’t really know how he feels still about it but he said it was different, so that sounds good to me.  The other Elizabeth came and didn’t really say much but she definitely wants to keep having the lessons!! 

SUCCESS! 

Another investigator that we were going to drop said he wants to get baptized... so the challenge will be to give him a date! 

We worked our little bums off this week, and we saw results!! 

I have seen a great change in me. I don’t want to brag of myself, but Pres. Crickmore told me once that God is always willing to mold us and change us IF WE LET HIM. I have decided to let him. 

I have been praying for humility and patience and the attributes of Christ and I have seen such a change in my life because of that, I always pray for more help, I will never be able to do it on my own, so i have to pray and always humble myself and accept his advice and the advice of others that want to help me. 

I have a temper but I am not going to return to the states with my temper. It stays here in Mexico, so I will be a changed man, and that’s what God wants for me! 

All of this is possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

Just a little part of my testimony that has grown recently. 

I read in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 this week and it really helped me to understand more about charity, about how to be more charitable. Maybe it can help ya'll too. 

I also read in Alma 5:38 and I also learned a lot, I love that Scripture! 

I am listening to Jeffrey R Holland talk right now while writing and he says when we have trials or personal problems, come unto Him, all ye that are heavy laden and I will give ye rest. 

Those words touched my heart. I love this gospel! It’s true.

You are all in my prayers and will always be! 

Hoorah for Israel!!! 

Elder Galbraith 

My brother of the mission!

Good ol Ted keeps on trucking

Well I am just super happy to hear from ya!!

Good ol Ted keeps on trucking ha-ha and I cannot believe how fast the time flies! I saw Santa Claus in the mall today... Crud, I think he’s going to bring me coal.... ha-ha nah just playing!! 

I am happy to be a soldier of the Lord in these times, we work our little bums off but it’s not really work, it’s just service, and I have been doing better in loving it, I talked to a good friend and he gave me some good advice, SMILE. If we want to gain respect of trust, we had better have a smile on our face first! And if we do it, we will see how much better our life will be, and how much happier we can be. I realized I was getting kind of grumpy with the people, but I know that I am better because I have been practicing smiling!! All of you need to smile more! 

Hermana Olivia, Elder G and E Rod

This week was good, Elder Rodriguez and I worked hard, we found 7 new people to visit and found several more potentials, it’s a little difficult to get people to come to church, and unfortunately we have found several people that we need to drop and stop visiting for a time... that’s part of the show but it’s still rough sometimes. 

We had stake conference this week, and our mission leader told us about how some bullying has been going down in the stake, and it was kind of bad so the theme for stake conference was all about that.  We watched some videos and had some of the people from the stake talk and I liked it.  I felt the spirit there, it was soooo peaceful. So don’t bully! 

This week we had another blessing experience. We gave a blessing to the Father of a member and he was in bed super old and super sick.  I just blessed him through the spirit that if it be his time, he would go, and if not then no. 

The next day he passed away. I didn’t feel sad, just a little shocked. He never was a member but I hope that he will make that choice soon. 

The priesthood is real folks; I witness this stuff every day. 

It’s like being on the front lines of the spiritual war, it’s rough but awesome! 

I know that death can be kind of scary but it doesn’t have to be, it’s something that we should prepare for, cause it’s just another step, granted, a giant one but just another glorious part of the magnificent plan that Heavenly Father provides, I sometimes wonder what it will be like but then common sense kicks in, slaps me, and says Geez Ted why the flip are thinking about that??? You’re only 19, and then I usually think, oh yeah, well I’ll think about other stuff then! Ha-ha hopefully I get some smiles form this letter. 

We need to remember how much Heavenly Father loves us, and trust that he will take care of us. And remember through all of this to wear a smile! 

 I will always testify that a 24/7 Mormon is much more successful than those who are only LDS on Sunday, its doesn’t work like that, Jeffrey R Holland said that we need to be ready constantly, we cannot play for the devil and when game time comes expect to suit up for the Savior, that we cannot do, God will not be mocked! Strong words from a strong apostle of God. 

I also have a lot of things to be grateful for, I feel so happy to be in this mission, to have this responsibility, and to carry this power.  Elder Camacho said once that the only other people apart from missionaries called Elder are the Apostles. So we have a huge responsibility here and I want to carry it out. 

I love you so so! 

Elder Galbraith 

PS

We had another day of exercise! 

It was awesome! (I’m tired)

 

Elder Camacho and I

Elder Yuit, Elder Antonio and I

Elizalde Family and them good ol missionaries 

A Day of Miracles!

This week was cool, I got a little sick with the cold, or the gripa...But not bad, took some medicine (and my Mom's oils) and I was good! 

We had some successes and some trials…but that’s how it should be right? 

I have heard a talk by Elder Holland almost every day in the mission.  Elder Parker loved it and Elder Camacho as well.  That talk is awesome.  To quote from it Elder Holland said, "I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience.  Salvation never was easy.  We are the Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our great eternal head.  How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never easy for Him?"

It also talks about why we don’t spend all day baptizing, because salvation isn’t easy, and we as missionaries should have to feel just a little of what Christ felt, but just a little, because we will never feel anything compared to what Christ felt. 

I completely agree, and for that reason I have tried to always remember Him when I struggle.  Like Henry B Eyring said ¨When I feel that I have completed some great task and deserve a rest I give myself this rallying cry, Remember Him¨ (I messed it up last week but I got it now, there you go.) Remember Him! When we are tired, sick, worn out, lazy or feel that we have completed a task, we ought to remember our savior, remember what He did for us, and if we do that, we keep our covenants like it says in the sacrament prayers, we will not only be blessed but we will be given the power to bless the lives of others. 

The Sons of Mosiah were in Lamanite territory for 14 years! And I don’t think they sat around feeling sorry for themselves wondering when they were going to able to go back home to their easy lives.  Their Dad died while they were away, and yet they kept going.  After time in prison, persecution, countless persons rejecting them and spitting in their faces they stood shoulder to shoulder with Jesus Christ, like Jeffrey R Holland says. And they baptized thousands of people.  We should expect anything less than that. 

I want to share a little bit about how important the spirit is. I have always thought it was hard to listen to the spirit, that I was broken and couldn’t.  I have learned, the hard way, that the spirit always speaks to me, I just need to understand how the spirit speaks to me. 

Friday our zone leaders called me to say that it was going to be a day of miracles!  I trusted them and knew we would have a miracle! Friday happened and it was tough... Every one of our appointments fell through, and our back up plans. 

We stuck it out and in the night a street with a couple members and a couple contacts came to my mind, and acting upon this thought we went.  I was determined we were going to teach an investigator or someone like that but when we got to the street a less active sister came to mind in a part of the street a little bit more dangerous…but we went and found the sister very sick and very desperate, ready to give up, crying.  We anointed her and gave her a blessing, and immediately she calmed down, felt better and after a little lesson fell asleep. 

The spirit was soooooooo strong, and I felt so amazed, I had been waiting and faithing this all day, all my life maybe, I felt sooooo good and I was like Boom, that’s what it’s all about. 

I was reunited with Elder Camacho as Armando (who we baptized before I was transferred)and Judith’s kids got baptized!! Elder Galbraith returned to Ayotla!!!

I was super happy!! I never thought I had such success with them, but Armando told me that his life has been changed and I saw in his eyes how happy he was. 

I testify that Heavenly Father loves us, that Jesus is the Christ, that the Church is true that Thomas S Monson is chosen by God to guide and direct this church and that as we listen to the spirit we will always be successful and be the most happy that we could possibly be! 

I love you all so much! 

Elder Galbraith 

Our new car!

Doing Service

Me and E Rod

Halloween Week

Well this week definitely has flown by! I literally blinked and it passed me like that! That insane, time flies, i don´t really want it to but it is. 

Contacting the natives

I think I have been a little stressed.  We are opening our area, I am training and our numbers aren’t really all that great, and it stresses me out because I really want to contribute to the 100 baptisms goal that we have as a mission every month.  I feel like I am working hard but our numbers don’t really show it all that well.  I have come to realize that numbers aren’t everything. You cannot put a number on a soul, like Jeffrey R  Holland says ¨These are not numbers, not objects, or goals, these are people, living sons and daughters of God and you should treat them as such!¨ So that always excites me.

I have some problems loving the people, the members and our investigators I definitely love, but people in the street and people of other faiths that are not very nice in the street really bug me, and it inhibits my progress to love them, but I am trying!  I am not perfect but by the power of the Atonement of Christ I can be better.  Every day is another opportunity to do better than the day before, and to recognize our faults and to make them strengths.  I pray tons for help, and I can really testify that Jesus Christ loves me, he took my sins and my faults, and I just have to do better.

I only have 7 and a half months and Elder Rodriguez just started and we live with 2 other elders with 22 months and 15 months and they are kind of trunky, and they are kind of lazy and it affects me.  I was a little lazy this week, but I kicked myself in the rear for it, and I talked to my district leader and I know what I have to do to avoid being lazy.  Henry B Eyring said ¨When I am tempted to think that I am done, or that I have completed some hard task and deserve a rest I give myself this rallying cry, He Lives, He suffered for me and if I use his atonement I can be perfected but I have to use it.¨

This week we did work hard, we talked to people in the street, had lessons, invited to baptism and to church, and we are working hard.

Hermana Olivia knitted ties for me and E Rod 

Elder Rodriguez and I get along good now.  I prayed that God could change my heart to help me love Elder Rodriguez and it worked, he is a super cool kid, and I actually do love him. Time is flying by and I really don’t want our time to end.  But its Gods plan, not mine. 

I love my area, I took some pictures, and this week I can send pictures! 

We had to buy gas, the gas ran out... But I paid for it, and we have the best shower in the mission I have heard! It always got hot water!!! YESSSSSSS! 

Spanish is coming along good; I don’t have as much time to study because I am helping E Rod with his English! 

Our champ investigator Marco Antonio came to church this week!! YESSSSSSSSS! That is one dude that I love! 

Oh and by the way, Halloween sucks here in Mexico....

Nothing happened. Nobody even asked me for candy....

They put up some decorations and all that but that’s about it. 

Everyone bakes bread here but nothing much happened, we didn’t even have to go home early! 

Anyways I am not perfect, I struggle here in the mission sometimes, but I pray a lot! I am getting better! God loves me and is patient with me, he loves you too, just remember that, God, in charge of billions of persons and he has time to worry about you, that is love! 

I love you!! 

Elder Galbraith

Our House

Well this week definitely was different...

Well this week definitely was different…

It was kind of cold all week, there is a hurricane touching in Mexico right now, and for some freaky reason it reaches all the way here! We're supposedly landlocked and the flipping hurricane reaches here. Nuts right? 

Everyone here is getting ready for Dia de los muertos, and Halloween. 

Dia de los muertos is like a big festival that they have every year, and really it’s just another excuse for people to get drunk... sadly. So I have been told that we will have to be in the house early that day... lame right, I don't even get to go trick or treating! I already have my costume! (Missionary haha =) )

Well this week was good because I am learning to love my companion, he stills drives me nuts but I always pray for help and it works, Heavenly Father loves me and so he helps me to be patient and trust me…It’s not easy! But I am improving! That’s what counts, doing better than the day before. 

We had kind of a rough week in and of that a lot of our appointments fell through.... we didn’t have very many appointments, well with investigators that is, we always have a ton with members. The members here are awesome, very nice and loving people, and they LOVE the missionaries, maybe a little too much... One sister La Hermana Tiscareno, calls us daily to invite us for food. She is an elderly lady and maybe her mind doesn’t function perfect.... but she’s funny, and loves us. I will be chubby when I leave this area, I can already tell. =)

We are in an area that’s kind of more like a small town, a little bit more isolated, not quite so much going on, a lot of people are farmers. I like it. It’s nice and flat too. 

Thank you to all who freely give me of their time, money, and love. 

I love you all so much and you are in my prayers! 

So we went to the temple this week. 

First off the Mexico City Temple is gorgeous. 

Secondly the spirit there is strong! 

We all went as a zone, and I loved it. 

The session was amazing and I really did receive the revelation that I needed that day. 

I felt so so happy and peaceful inside, almost didn’t want to leave, I felt so close to God. 

It was an amazing experience, I will leave it at that. 

I didn’t see brother Hopkin though.... Haha! (A brother from my Provo ward who is in one of the movies)  I can testify that the temples are the bridge in between Earth and Heaven. 

We need to be in those bad boys as much as possible! 

THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!!!! 

Thank you so much for all your help to help me build my faith, I really need it.  I have been trying hard to build my faith, so that we can find new people to teach and so that they can be baptized.  I know I am meant to baptize someone here in Huitzilzingo.  I just have to find them. 

God knows where we are, and what we are going through.  He puts us in places and with people so that we can better achieve the blessings that He puts in our path.  So the next time we find ourselves somewhere where we wouldn’t like to be, or with someone that drives us nuts, STOP, ponder and think…”What is it that God wants for me?” and then make it happen, while praying a lot. 

I love you all so much.  I had been having problems with thinking about home and all that again, but I made a promise with God, that if I give it everything I have that He will help me not have that problem again, and since the temple I have not had that problem.  So that means I had better give all this body of mine has. 

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Galbraith

Elder Camacho and I

Being Silly!

I Lied...I'm in Huitzilzingo!

Well the new area is actually awesome!! 

I lied.... I am not in Mixquic, that’s the Zone Leaders area.  I am actually in Huitzilzingo. Good luck saying that one! Haha! We live in a house with two other elders.  They’re cool guys too. Elder Bramble and Elder Salazar. 

My new comp is Elder Rodriguez, from Tijuana. He is fresh off the plane. 

Like a new born kid, he’s cool, innocent, and doesn’t know much.  He is a good kid, he wants to work and to teach everyone, which I like. 

We get along alright, this is my first time training and something tells me it won’t be my last. I will be perfectly honest, this tries my patience a little bit, but there isn’t anything wrong with that, because I can learn so so much from him, my patience will grow so much, I pray constantly for help. 

I can feel all you prayers helping me.  I learned the area super quick.  I know most of the streets and I know where most of the members live and we are busy in the process of finding investigators.  There are a few that the other elders left behind and so we aren’t totally starting from scratch but it’s just above that, not much better. 

The ward is one of the coolest wards ever (second to Edgemont 11^th ward home in Provo =) ) The ward mission leader is awesome! He constantly stops by to help, visit other people and work with us and all that.  He’s helped me a ton. The area is FLAT! I don’t have to climb hills for a while!! How cool is that! 

Well another month went by rapidly.... Time flies. 

I am happy to hear that things are good at home that more or less things are normal, because that’s how it should be, with a Ted Bit of chaos! Hahaha! 

I also want to bear my testimony that I know that God is real, the cross empty, the tomb is empty and death has no victory.  Everything we do in life is easier with Christ in our life.  He did what he did so that we can live again with him, and we had better make the most of that.  We always need to be increasing our faith and always need to be finding ways to magnify our calling, even if we don’t have one in the church. We should always teach and share the gospel to everyone else, and when it’s necessary we should open our mouths. 

I know Jesus Christ lives, and that God loves us. 

I love you all so much. 

Elder Galbraith

Hanging in the Flat!