Phew...I am finally back in
Kenora! I only spent 3 working days
in Kenora the past week and it’s just good to be "home". I was in Winnipeg for Tuesday and Wednesday
and Dryden on Saturday---why? In
Winnipeg for Zone Conference and in Dryden for...MY FIRST EVER BAPTISMAL
INTERVIEW! That's what I am talking about! How crazy is that? I interviewed someone for baptism! It came all sudden too. The Dryden elders have been working with this
family and trying to prepare them for baptism on the 7th of January, but one of
the family members had a HUGE spiritual experience in the past week and said,
"I can't wait any more for this" and wanted to be baptized that day. So...everything got arranged as fast as
possible and on Saturday, Elder Perkins and I drove out to Dryden and I did the
interview. It was weird for a number of
reasons. First, I interviewed someone
for baptism. Me, little ol' me, interviewed someone for an ordinance of eternal
significance. (Oh, and he passed by the way! kind of important...) The other reason it was weird was because it
was just me and this guy in the room--no companion. Talk about separation
anxiety, just kidding. It wasn't super
weird because it was still me with another person, but not to be around my
companion all the time is kind of...different. Ya.
Zone Conference was good. After being in outlying areas for about a
year now and not seeing other missionaries very often, Zone Conferences are
really exciting because I get to see all my missionary friends and there is just
a special excitement in the air. That
sounds really cheesy, but it’s true.
Guess who called me this
week? The former Elder Zach Morris! (former missionaries can talk to companions
still in the field) Remember that he was
my companion for 4 1/2 months in I-Falls? I cannot believe how much I miss that man. He was such an inspiration to me and gave me a
wonderful example of a great missionary and we just clicked. He is going to BYU-I and told me of some funny
stories back home. Oh, wow. I didn't expect to develop such great
relationships with my companions! Elder
Morris and Elder Bodily are the type of people I am going to keep in contact
with for a long, long time, and they are now some of my closest friends
too. Sheesh, I now have RMs calling
me in the missionary field. Do you know
what that means? I am getting to be an
"older" missionary. That is
ridiculous, but no worries, it just gives me more drive to work harder.
Just got Dad's email from his
phone...2 blowouts? Rough luck Dad. My prayers are with you and the family, as
always.
I read the Tryon's letter
from Nov. 6th (finally got it and those amazing pumpkins
pictures...ridiculously good...) and in it you said I will report to K1? That's neat.
I had a neat experience with
a 1st Nation family last night where I witnessed one of their sacred rituals
duing a lesson. I don't have time to go
into it now, but it’s one of those "I seriously just did that on my
mission" stories.
This morning I was studying
during my Personal Studies (go figure) and I had some great insights. I was reading in PMG for a bit, then skipping
around in the standard works and eventually landed in the Bible Dictionary and
was looking at all the names there and that all the names of people had
meanings. I thought that was interesting.
Many names had really special meanings
and even blessings, and I wondered if those blessings and talents were given
because of the name or if the person possessed the talents and was therefore
given the name. I read that the Hebrews held special significance to
names, and some even had complete-sentence-meanings. I began
thinking about names even more and read more about the people in the Bible
whose names were changed (Abram-->Abraham, Jacob-->Israel). Interesting. I then thought about my own names: Norweigen,
English and Scottish. From there I thought about how those cultures seemed to
come together in a special way in one name, in one person. Sure God sees more in a name than just
something to label someone as. That is
an important truth I learned this morning. Thank you Mom, Dad and God for my names. I was really moved this morning upon
considering that. Oh, by the way, the
Bible Dictionary says something interesting about what "Michael"
means. When you look it up, I think my
brother reflects the meaning. :)
That's about it here. Kenora
is still coming along, and we are experiencing the highs and lows of missionary
work. Like Kim said to me in an email, sometimes you are so high, and sometimes
you just have to endure. But ultimately we are responsible for our own actions
and how we react to things. Always good to remember, so thank you Kim.
I love you all, Elder Galbraith
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