April 13, 2015

"God loves each of us as if there were only one of us."

- Saint Augustine

Well, I have had a great week here in Chile with all kinds of things going on. With the announcement of a sister getting married and all, it gets crazy. We have had all kinds of people come out of the woodwork and lots and lots of crazy people in the streets. Now that a few weeks have passed, I can say this: March 29th was a crazy day with riots in the streets and all kinds of fighting and really weird stuff going on in my area. It was a blast!

This week, we were able to put a baptismal date on an investigator who has been married to a member for a long time. We were all really happy to place that date! We have had a lot of personal success with people in our area to where we have been able to find, teach, and change lives. It was a great week. We were able to find a less-active member who has been having a rough time these past few weeks with work and all, but it was great to see him change as we talked with him and gave him a blessing. He came to church this past Sunday and got up and shared a powerful testimony on the atonement and what it means to all of us as sons and daughters of God.

I have a cool announcement--our stake president here is going to be a member of the 70 in a few months, and it's awesome to have known him! Also, we were able to see the movie "Meet the Mormons" which was awesome, and I encourage all of you to watch it. It was great!

This week was amazing, and I sure hope that all of you were able to have a great week as well and were all able to listen/read/watch a bit of general conference. It changed my life, and I know it can change yours too. I sure hope that you all have a great week and love all that you do.

A quick testimony: I know that I am here to change the lives of many people here. I know that I may not be perfect, but that as a representative of Christ, I am changing lives out here. It is a great work here, and I love all that is going on out here. I wish that you all know that I love and miss you, but know that our Father in Heaven loves you all more.

Elder Gale

April 06, 2015

"Easter is meant to be a symbol of hope, renewal, and new life."

- Janine di Giovanni

With this wonderful Easter season, I wish to express how I have felt... but I can only say that I have felt the love of God more strongly than at most times in my life. I had the amazing opportunity to watch General Conference. This is a time where the living prophet on the Earth today speaks to us as the mouthpiece of God. For those of you who want to know how I have felt, go to lds.org and watch some of it. I hope you will be able to find the direction and peace that I was able to find in this wonderful conference. For those of you who were able to watch it, I encourage you to watch it again. Study what you learned. Apply it to your lives NOW, and you will find so many blessings in your life.

I can say that I am finding the mission to be even more full of blessings for my life and in the lives of others than I even possibly imagined. Just on our way to the internet cafe to write home, we were stopped by someone in the street who told us, "I am so glad that I found someone that I know... I’m in a hard spot in life, and I need you to take me to church now." How grateful was--and still am--I for the knowledge that I have of a loving Heavenly Father who has a plan for us, and a way to overcome our troubles in life. How grateful am I that I was able to help this poor lady in her moment of need.

Let us remember this Easter season and what it really means to us. Christ died for us. He rose the third day, and like him, we too will rise again. I hope that you all are able to learn more and thoroughly enjoy all that God and Christ have to offer us. May you find the blessings that you need in your life. Return to Christ, and He is there waiting for you for He has never left. I love you all!

http://www.mormon.org/easter
Watch this link. It will change your life as it has mine.

Elder Gale

March 30, 2015

"Cakes are special. Every birthday, every celebration ends with something sweet, a cake, and people remember. It's all about the memories."

- Buddy Valastro

Today I turned 19. It sure is strange. I can’t believe it. I feel old. I am having a great time out here today. We had a zone activity where they all remembered my birthday, and they bought me a little thing of cake. Then, after about an hour when we made lunch, they all did the real tradition of Chile... they make you into a cake. They throw flour and eggs (thankfully we are all poor missionaries and nobody had money for eggs). But it was great! 

This week we had a night where we had a talent show, and the elder who signed us up for it forgot until the night before. We had to prepare something really quick! So we took a music video from the glorious song from "Meet the Mormons." It’s from a group called Elenyi who sing it in Spanish, and it was awesome. We just decided to lip sync it, and it was really fun! We had a great time in front of the ward as we made it a fun night. It was even better as we were able to have investigators come, and we had members who were having a hard time coming who all came. We were also able to have all kinds of partial member families come. They had a great time with us!

It truly was a week of miracles. I loved all that happened this week. Thank you all for supporting me, and I love you all.

Elder Gale