letters from November 17 and 24

Letter from November 24th:

So some crazy stuff has happened this week. On Wednesday we had a zone conference with President where he told us about the awesome new program the the church is doing for Christmas to help people remember the real reason we celebrate Christmas. It launches 28th of November and it will be a huge part of missionary work for December! Then on Thursday we had a flash transfer! I got moved to Marcos Paz 2 and I am working with Elder Steck who is from Ephraim, Utah. I was super sad when that happened because this week was going to be super awesome in Rivadavia, but now I will miss it. At least I can go back to our baptism on Saturday so that`s good. Marcos Paz is basically out in the middle of nowhere because it is surrounded by fields and fields and we have to take the bus everyday to our area from the apartment. The area is basically the opposite of my last area in many ways but it will be good to work here. Last week the elders baptized a family of four after not having a baptism in the ward for 8 months. We also have two more people that will be baptized in December so we are super pumped and ready to work to find more.

I know that the Church is true and that Jesus Christ lives and continues to lead and guide his church through his leaders and the prophet. I love the work, even though it is hard. I hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Giles


Letter from November 17th:

I don´t have much time so I will talk quickly about what I learned from our meeting with Elder Christofferson on Saturday. He shared a scripture in D&C 6:9 where it says that the Lord commanded us to only preach repentance. It was a little confusing at first but then he explained that repentance is only possible because Jesus Christ Atoned for us. So really when we preach repentance, we preach about our Savior and how we can find happiness in our lives through him. Another thing that he talked about that I liked was in 2 Nephi 25:23 about that if we do all of our part, the Lord will will make up the rest through his grace and mercy and we will be able to be saved and reach the Celestial kingdom.

I know the Church is true and that only through the grace and mercy of God that we can be saved, but we also have to do all we can to keep his commandments and help other do the same.
Have a great week!
Elder Giles

Elder Ritchie and I. Our last day together as comps

These are pictures of a few weeks ago when it rained a LOT! We called our area "Lake Rivadavia"

November 10th, 2014

Hi,

This week was pretty good but the heat started again so that´s a bummer. It also means more allergies... Whoo! Ha ha.

This week was pretty normal. We did a lot of visiting less active members and trying to find new people to teach. Our investigator, Miriam, is progressing very well for her baptism at the end of November and this week we had a super good lesson with a member that came with us. Miriam was super happy to meet more members. She has also come to church for the past 2 weeks and she loves it a lot! There were also transfers this week and Elder Ritchie and I will be working together until December. Also some exciting news: On Saturday Elder Christofferson will be coming to speak here in Argentina so all the Buenos Aries Missions will be going to the BA North mission to listen to him. Also on Monday the 24th we are planning to do a Thanksgiving dinner with the ward. Elder Ritchie and I are going to do a presentation before the dinner and then we will eat a bunch of food. They don´t have turkey here and if they can find it, it is really expensive so we are going to do chicken instead. So could you send me some information about the roots of Thanksgiving, like where/when it started and stuff like that and that would be great! Argentina doesn´t celebrate Thanksgiving so we want to show them a little bit of what we do in the USA.


Have a great Week!


Elder Giles


P.S.
So Elder Ritchie and I are asking/looking for members to help us out on Christmas day but on the 17th of December is another transfer meeting and we are hoping that none of us will get transferred that day so we can enjoy Christmas here with the members that we already know, but we´ll see. Hopefully none of us gets transferred.

That is super cool that you all got to do the Ragnar! It sounds like so much fun! We will definitely have to do it when I get back! Did everyone have to run a leg by themselves and how long was each part they had to run?

Thanks for putting the package together! I´m pretty sure that when a package gets dropped off at the mission home that they take it to the mission offices so there I can pick it up. I think I am good on stuff right now, Thanks!

November 3, 2014

Hola!

The week was pretty cool and filled with rain but it was really good. We are teaching a Mother who has a baptismal date for the end of November. We are working with the daughter, who is a member, to activate her and at the same time teaching her mom and helping her progress towards her baptism. They also came to church on Sunday and they liked it a lot and we are super excited for them! Also we played Soccer on Saturday in which we had some new boys come and play and the cool thing about it is that we invited all of them to come to church the next day and one of them came! He also lives a few houses down from the church so its easy for him to go and we plan on teaching him and his family on Thursday. We also had a bunch of less actives come to church again so our work is starting to pay off a little bit.

There is another cool thing that I forgot to mention earlier that in this area there are more fields and open spaces and at night there are fireflies everywhere and it is the coolest thing to see them.

Also thanks for sharing the song with me! It is a really good one!

Thanks for all your help and we will see each other again next week!

I know the Savior lives and that he loves each and everyone of us and that we are all special to him.


Chao!
Elder Giles