July 28th, 2014

Everything is going great! The weather is getting a little colder and we haven´t had that much rain. I think it only rained on Monday and a little on Tuesday but we are expecting more this next week. Sunday was really cold in the morning and then warmed up with the sun.

My companion and I are getting along great! We haven´t had any problems and we are working hard to find and teach a lot of good people!
On Saturday we had three baptisms: Maria ( in the middle), Abril (left), and Jesus (right)!!! Marcos is their little brother and he is only 6 years so we couldn´t baptize him even though he really wanted to! I baptized Abril, Elder Cañari baptized Jesus and... Julian baptised Maria! It was great! We had a lot of members attend and we are so happy for them!

I did my first confirmation yesterday! I was pretty nervous, but not as bad as my first blessing a few months ago. It is so good to use my priesthood a little more! My companion and I also do a good amount of blessings of health, and after church one Sunday a family asked us to give a blessing to their youngest child and the father asked me to do the sealing and blessing. I am getting a little better now that my Spanish has improved a lot but, still, it´s difficult.
Just wanted to share something quick and if you have any ideas how to improve, they would be welcome!

Les Amos, Elder Giles!

July 21, 2014

Last month we were looking for new people to teach by contacting people in the street and knocking doors. We contacted one woman who was coming our way, we talked for a few minutes, and then my companion suggested that we go to her house to teach her and her family. She accepted and we taught her and her kids. The next week we meet the father of the family and had a powerful lesson about how the gospel blesses families and we set a baptismal date for everyone in the family! We taught the family for four more weeks and she and her kids came to church every week and they are going to be baptized next week! This family moved here in my area about 3 months ago and me and my companion have been working here for about a month and a half. There have been missionaries here for many years and they could have moved here anytime and other missionaries could have taught them but I have realized that our Heavenly Father trusted us enough to guide us to this family, all we needed to do was be diligent in His work. I know that if we do all we can to keep His commandments and be diligent in the work of salvation, He will guide us to people who need our help. Heavenly Father has a specific plan for all of us and all we need to do is trust Him and follow Him.

Les Amos,

Elder Giles

July 14th, 2014

The World Cup finally ended this week so now we can go back to our regular lives! Ha ha, just kidding, but now we, as missionaries can focus entirely on the work of salvation and not have to worry about the scheduling of the games. Argentina lost so everyone is bummed but not too bad, at least they got 2nd place so its not too bad. Argentina was super bummed,  but people were still lighting off fireworks and honking their horns and everything after the game. I guess they were bored. We had to stay in the apartment for the game and afterwards. But Wednesday, when Argentina won the semi-final, everyone went crazy! The new mission president let us watch the Wednesday game in a member´s house so that they could drive us directly to our apartment after the game. 

This week was great, but also hard with respect to the missionary work because we didn´t have as much time as we usually do in a week. We finished everything we needed to but we had to work harder than normal.

Wednesday we also met the new mission president: President Robertson!
He is pretty awesome. He and his family have spent many years in Latin American and he came here straight from Perú so he, his wife, and son and daughter can speak Spanish pretty well. We had a meeting with him and another zone and we got to know a little bit about his family. Then we had lunch of empanadas and pizza then short interviews with him. There are going to be a lot of changes in the mission in the next few months and I am excited to see what will happen.

Yesterday we had a bunch of investigators go to church like last week. One of them was a partially deaf and mute guy. He came halfway through the second block and met the bishop first (who had a hard time communicating with him, I heard) and then he handed the investigator off to us in the middle of class. The last hour we had the sacrament meeting where we sat with the mute guy in the back row and "talked" with him. He had some questions about the Sacrament and other things and we had him read some chapters in the Book of Mormon especially 3 Nephi 11 (Which is Jesus teaching about baptism) and then inviting him to be baptized, which he accepted! Ha ha! The only thing is that he lives within the boundaries of another ward so we handed him off to the Sister Missionaries. It was the most interesting Sacrament Meeting yet.

This week was a little warmer than usual and it rained pretty good on Saturday and we didn´t have our umbrellas so we got soaked. My zone leader told me once that this is the only time to enjoy the rain as a missionary. I enjoyed, but I don´t think my companion did!
Have a great week!

Les Amo!
Elder Giles!

In front of the Cathedral Lourdes

Empanadas for dinner while watching the World Cup

dinner with a family to watch the world cup

World Cup Shirt

Hamburger lunch with Sis Missionaries in honor of the World Cup

inside the Cathedral Lourdes

statue inside Cathedral Lourdes

June 30th, 2014

Hola!

It is the end of June and we are in the middle of winter. This winter has been basically nothing but sun and humidity, an improvement from the last winter I am told. It has been pretty cold still but we are still working hard to find new people and progress more towards baptism. This week we found a very good family! We found them early on this week and have taught them multiple times already! They have yet to attend church, but I have high hopes for their baptism at the end of July and I have faith in the Lord to help us accomplish his work.

I have experienced many blessings throughout my time here in the mission and especially the blessing of knowledge about Heavenly Father and his plan for us. I have learned so much from my companion and from teaching our investigators and especially how we can apply it to our lives. I love this gospel and this church!

Have a great week!
Les Amo!
Elder Giles