Monday, September 29, 2014

September 29th, 2014

Hi!

This week was really interesting! We had transfers on Wednesday and I got transferred out again! My comp and I both thought that I was going to stay and finally be senior comp but I got put into a trio instead. I am now in Parque San Martin in Merlo with Elder Lee and Elder Bartold who are both from Utah. Elder Lee has about 19 months in his mission and Elder Bartold only has about 2 months. We live in a really small apartment with 2 other elders: Elder Washburn and Elder Pribyl. So this is my first time with another companionship in the apartment, companions that are North Americans, and we basically only speak English now in the apartment which kinda stinks. I miss Latinos...

So this week we didn`t have time to do very much because after the transfer meeting we had to go to the Dotcor`s office to get Elder Bartold`s x-rays. His knee has been hurting him ever since he got to Argentina and we found out that his meniscus is gone in his right knee and that he has to go home to get surgery. So as of tonight, we will be back to the normal 2 which is sad because the trio was super fun. But we did a good amount of walking and meeting members and our progressing investigators. We also had some good lessons with them and they have plans to be baptized in October so we are super excited! I also had to give a talk in church on Sunday. For the first time I didn´t feel super duper nervous giving a talk and they told me that it went really well. I talked about missionary work and how important members are in fellow shipping and sharing the gospel to friends. The members liked it and one or two came up to us and gave us references, so that was cool. It is finally starting to warm up! But it also rained a ton on Sunday and we are looking forward to working a lot this next week.

Have a great Week!

Elder Giles





Elders Lee, Washburn, Pribyl ,Giles and Bartold


Monday, September 22, 2014

September 22, 2014

Hi!

It´s so good to hear that more from our ward are going on missions! I´m also happy that Cassidy got her first medal! That´s so cool that they changed the course and that she got to run under the lights. The Woodbridge Invitational is one of the funnest races! I'm glad that everyone is busy.

This week is a lot warmer and I am finally starting to get back my farmer´s tan! The days are really sunny and perfect for proselyting. This week we had a cool experience. On Tuesday we decided to contact some referrals we got from playing soccer on Friday and we ended up finding two new families to teach! It was a different experience clapping these houses because we already had their trust so it was a little easier to enter in their house and teach. We a good lesson about the Restoration of the Church and gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he will read it! We also did some service for a member family Saturday night shoveling dirt and at one point during the night a car stopped in the street in front of the house, a man got out of his car and said to us: "Tengo que sacar un foto. Esto es la primera vez que he visto alguien cargando tierra en camisa y corbata!" Then he left. It was pretty funny. (translation: "I have to take a picture, this is the first time I've seen someone shoveling dirt in a shirt and tie!")

Any ways we have transfers in 2 days so we will see if my companion will go or we will work together for another 6 weeks

Have a great week!

Elder Giles

Monday, September 15, 2014

Sept. 15th, 2014

Hi!

Ha ha, it´s so good to hear that the missionaries are finally baptizing in our ward! That´s so cool! I´m glad you went to the baptism because Marcia needs a lot of friendly hands to keep her active.

This week was pretty cool and Elder Navarrete and I are pretty active in the ward. On Friday I had to teach seminary. It was a little hard because I am not the most enthusiastic person and I´m learning Spanish so, yeah. There are only about 6 students and the class was a little boring, but I did it and it was a good learning experience. Also, every Friday about 40 young men come and play soccer at the church so Elder Navarrete and I go and play a little bit and then ask for the address from the players. Last Friday we had a few lessons with some and we got about 20 references so that was cool. This week we are going to contact them and their families! Then Saturday was the Mormon helping hands project in which our ward painted the play sets and walls of a pre-school and also the doors of another elementary school. It was fun and I got paint all over my hands and most of the ward participated. I don´t have many pictures because my camera died :( My comp and I are in charge of mutual too so we played soccer with the young men after the service activity. The leader for the youth in the ward is not very pro-active in having activities for the youth and my comp didn´t like that so we do mutual with the missionaries every Saturday!

This week we also focused more on finding new people to teach, so on Tuesday we dedicated the whole day to finding new people and following the guidance of the Holy Ghost. We found one lady who´s name is Gladys. She met the missionaries about 21 years ago in Formosa, a province in the north part of Argentina, and has listened to them for all this time but was never baptized. So when we knocked on her door she came out looking like she already knew us. We thought it was a little odd because we didn´t know her so we asked if she was a member of the church. She said no, but said that she had taken the lessons for quite some time. She is our miracle for this month because she really wants to be baptized and is excited to go to church and keep all of the commandments!

I know that the Lord answers our prayers and that if we learn to follow the promptings of the spirit, we will find miracles where ever we go!

Have a great week!

Elder Giles

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

September 8th, 2014



It´s good to hear that you all are super busy! We are busy too! We have so many people to visit that the time doesn´t allow us to visit all of them, especially this week because Elder Walter F. Gonzalez, The Area Seventy and President of the area South America South, came and spoke to us on Wednesday when he took a tour of our mission. It was really cool to have him speak to us and share his insights in how we can be better missionaries. One part that he stressed a lot in his talk was about the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is what makes our church different form all other churches and it is the only way we can know if the Church of Jesus Christ is the true church. Another thing is that in the Intro to the Book of Mormon it has the testimony of Joseph Smith that the Book of Mormon is the most correct book on the earth and is the key to our religion, and Elder Gonzalez mentioned that it is the most correct book because Jesus Christ himself proofread it when he visited the Americas! Ha ha, I thought that was pretty interesting.


I learned a lot from the talk from Elder Gonzalez about teaching a testifying about the Book of Mormon. Elder Navarrete and I have set a goal to teach from and talk more about the Book Of Mormon and I have definitely felt a difference in the week. I have felt more of the presence of the Holy Ghost in our lessons. Also, we started giving Books of Mormon to all of our investigators so that they can read it and discover for themselves and not us just talking the whole time. I have not seen any results from our efforts so far but I have faith that next week we will see more miracles as we continue to share the Book of Mormon!


The weather this week was pretty wet, it rained for basically the whole week so we have to trudge through mud to get to all of our lessons. But it´s fun! we are teaching a lot of people, especially a part-member family and all that are not members have baptismal dates for the 27th of September and went to church yesterday, so we are super excited for them! We also found about 5 new investigators yesterday so we have high hopes for more baptisms in October. we are teaching about 3 families continually throughout the weeks and they are progressing well! I will have to take and send pictures of them sometime.


My companion and I are doing great! My companion is really fun and is teaching me how to talk like people in Chile. It´s pretty funny. I am learning so much from him about Spanish and also how to be a better missionary.


Have a great week!


Elder Giles

There is a giant mate cup in our area!

My companion found a skateboard when we were running one morning and he decided to do something creative with it.

Monday, September 1, 2014

September 1st, 2014

Last week I got a cold with a runny nose for 3 days straight (it was terrible) so one of our investigators told me that the best remedy was to put a cup of water on my head.... So I did it, and I felt so much better!







Elder Navarrete and I in the apartment after playing soccer!




 My new soccer ball!





These are pictures of a little bit of our area outside of the apartment. It´s really only houses and small stores and whatnot. I will take more fotos of our area this week.








 This is basically what the rest of my area looks like: a bunch of fields and dirt roads with little groups of houses. Our area is pretty big so we do A LOT of walking.