December 26, 2015

So this week was also pretty cool because on Tuesday we had a special zone activity in which we made sugar cookies and also played some party games. Then President came with his family to tour the whole mission. On that day they went to every zone for 30 minutes and shared a short message to us about Christmas and then sang for us and then gave us presents.








Christmas party and gifts!

Dec. 12th, 2015

Hi,

So this week has been pretty fun because transfers are on Monday! We have been working pretty hard getting everything done for transfers and stuff for president too. One thing we did do differently is that I did exchanges with the zone leaders on Thursday. It was super cool being able to be out working all day and talking with everyone. It was also super hot so I got a nice tan (burn). But it was super fun. We walked around for about 3 hours contacting people trying to find plans and then some appointments fell through, then at the end of the day around 6:30 we started to have some lessons and it was a super amazing feeling testifying that what we share is true. The rest of the week was kinda boring, so there is not much to say. The Transfers are super cool because president is basically changing the whole mission around and we are getting 24 new missionaries to the mission. Then in January when I leave the mission will receive 30 new missionaries. The mission is growing and is super young and I kinda wish I could stay to train some of the new missionaries but I guess my time is almost up.


I also got Elder Penaia Teo´s last letter today and it was a little sad because he already ends and I still have a transfer left, but he sounded like the mission was really great for him and he learned and changed a lot. So Daniel is coming back to give his homecoming talk? That´s pretty cool! I bet it will be a special day. So I will also put up the Christmas decorations from last Christmas and send you a picture of it. Thank you for all your love a support and.....


Have a great week!


Elder Giles

December 7th, 2015

Hey Mom,

Why are you so trunky? hahaha! I hope that in the homecoming party there will only be empanadas and milanesas! hahaha! just kidding. I really hope I don´t have to write an essay because it would be terrible. I think I would just have to write about gospel topics and the Argentine culture. So actually it could go well! hahaha. So when does Daniel get back? It thought he was getting back like at the beginning of December and then going straight to school? Did something change? or did he extend his mission? I guess that would be cool to speak together but I think we´ll have to do like a 2 hour long sacrament meeting because we´ll have so much to talk about. Also, When does the new Star Wars movie come out? It sounds super awesome!

So this week was pretty different. On Monday we had a district activity where we watched frozen ( because I had not seen it) then we played soccer and ate pizza. We were playing and I passed the ball to my comp but he is a little bit of a klutz in soccer so he stepped onto the ball wrong and fell on his hands but it was funny because in the act of falling he did like a half worm move, but he still scrapped up his hands pretty bad.

Then on Tuesday we had a normal day and had a great lesson with the Sanchez Family. Also their 14 year old daughter loves church so we took her to church on Sunday. Then on Wednesday I did companion exchanges with the elders in the area El Triangulo and I was with Elder Márquez who is from Mexico. Then on Thursday I went on splits with the other office elders and we went to capital in Buenos Aires to go get my package and so I tagged along because they had some appointments and things to do there. I can see now why president doesn´t want us to receive packages because it was a big hassle to get them. I was at the place for almost 3 hours just to get my package. But it was cool because the Elders from the Buenos Aires East mission showed up and they had come to pick up 22 packages for their missionaries. So I had some company and I helped them out a little so it was cool. Then we also went to the area offices and then we came back here.

On Friday my companion had to do paperwork for his visa so I went on splits again and it was pretty crazy and then halfway through the day we switched again and then the weather changed on us. In the morning it was hot and the sun was out then in the afternoon it rained super hard for about 20 mins and then the sun came out again. all in all it was a fun week.

Have a great week!

Elder Giles


Heather received this letter last week from the mission office secretary, Sis. Mitchell:

Sister Giles,

I am the mission Secretary and I have the privilege of working with your son in the offices. He is an outstanding missionary who loves what he is doing. I could tell the first time I met him, he was a good, hard worker. He had proved to be an excellent office Elder and has been able to help me on so many ways. He is very smart with our computers and can answer any question about them. He is very pleasant to be around and it has been a pleasure to get to know him. I hope he has enjoyed working with Elder Mitchell and myself. We sure were blessed to get 40 wonderful missionaries from the West mission, and they have really been a blessing for us. Thanks for sharing your son with us and we will take good care of him for 1 more transfer.


Have a great day.


Hermana Mitchell


Secretario, Mision Argentina Buenos Aires Sur

November 23, 2015

Hello Family,

So this week was pretty fun. We were pretty busy at the beginning of the week getting all the orders done for the zone conferences. Our zone conferences are usually like a meeting and lunch in one of the chapels but this transfer we are doing a session in the temple as part of the conference so it is super cool. Our zone conference is on Tuesday so the whole morning we will be in the temple. I am super excited. Last Sunday was pretty good because we went over to a less active, part member´s house and gave a blessing because the member was going to have an operation on a tumor in her kidney. So that was a good experience because the trains were not working that day so we walked about 40 mins to get to the house and then give the blessing. Then today the 1st counselor of the bishopric told us that when this sister went into the hospital last Monday and the doctors couldn´t find anything so she was super relieved and so was her family. The husband and a few of the kids are not members so hopefully we will start teaching them soon. They seem very promising. Then there were a few thunderstorms this week and we got soaked again but it was fun. I finally got to use my boots again! hahaha. then we also got a new member of the offices this week: Elder Mcfarland who is from northern California. So the offices are filled with Californians which is pretty sweet.


Also last Sunday we had our stake conference and Elder Urra, who is an area seventy, came down and gave a really good talk. I don´t remember all of it but he talked about being better members and loving and things like that but there was one story that was super cool that he shared: In his mission, he and his zone put together a sort of special dinner and musical number for their stake leaders. So there were just bishops and other stake leaders there and so half way through the program in the middle of singing "a poor wayfaring man of Grief" a hobo walked into the church. The stake leaders thought that it was part of the program that he had walked into but from the look they got from the missionaries, it wasn´t. So to of the members got up and took the hobo outside of the church and closed the doors on him. Then later on when they had the dinner, there was an empty seat with a plate of food ready for someone to eat and all the other chair were filled up with the invited people. It was a pretty surprising story and the whole room just went quiet after that. It was pretty powerful.


So next week will be kind of awesome and I will tell you about it next week! Also I couldn´t write yesterday because we had like an office worker activity were we went and played football and also my comp has an ingrown toe nail so we also went to the hospital. sorry.


Have a great week.


Elder Giles

November 14th, 2015

Hi!

So this week was pretty cool. We had a lot of things to do in the offices to prepare for the next coming weeks for the zone conferences which are going to be pretty awesome. The weather was pretty crazy this week too. At the beginning of the week it was super hot and humid and then out of nowhere it rained for two days and on the second day we got super drenched because we weren´t prepared and so now my companion is a little sick and so am I combined with my allergies. But it´s alright. We are having a good time sneezing and sniffling. The weather doesn´t help at all either..... so it´s not that great of a situation. But we are working hard and visiting a few people. We went with a member to visit his less active cousin on Monday. The cousin just got out of jail like seven months ago and is really wanting to change his life. He has already changed a lot and is willing to come back to church again. They also invited us to eat dinner with them on Sunday so we hope it will taste good! hahahaha.

We also did splits with the other elders in the offices which was pretty fun. They don´t get to proselyte a lot so they were super happy to do it. They work so much and are super busy with the apartments in the mission and everything. I went with Elder Valis from Mexico and we taught the Sanchez Family. They are doing pretty well even though they didn´t go to church on Sunday but we invited them again for the stake conference tomorrow. It feels so great to teach and testify.

So my companion had a fun experience this week: The first one was on Tuesday when I had a district leader meeting and so he did splits with the companion of the other district leader in the zone and they went together. The other Elder´s name is Elder Nixon and he is new in the mission but is famous in the zone for making deep-fried alfajores (an Argentine snack). So he dips them in pan cake batter and then fries them in a pot in the apartment and so my comp and him had finished that and were cleaning up when they had an accident. Elder Nixon, some how, knocked the lighter into the pot of hot oil that they had just finished using so they had about 8 seconds to get out of the apartment when the lighter melted and exploded hot oil over all the kitchen... hahahahha. such klutzes! They weren´t hurt because they got out in time but they were a little shaken up ahahaha. After that happened they spent the next two hours cleaning up until our meeting ended. I thought it was funny!

I think the time in the offices is going pretty slowly right now but once I get used to things and everything becomes more routine, I think time will go by even faster. Also thanks for signing me up to do the next Ragnar because I am super out of shape, I think. I´ll try to be excited for it! hahaha. Also give my congratulations to the family for doing a good job!


So yeah, good week. I hope you have a good one too.

So here are a few pictures of the Casa Rosada (the pink house) which is the Argentine  equivalent of the White House in the U.S. Then the others are of a few statues in the same area and then a few blocks down is the Obelisk which apparently was a gift from France to Argentina and is super famous too. Pretty cool huh?

November 7th, 2015

Hey!

Things were a little stressful this week because Elder Maldonado left and so I am here with Elder Lowe to train him and be district leader. I basically had to plan and think of everything by myself so I was a little worried about how it would turn out. Usually new elders in the offices get a period of 2 transfers to get trained but I only got one so....... yeah. It´s been going good even though I forgot to do a few things but in the end everything works out! We are in the Lord´s service so one way or another if we are trying to do the right thing, everything works out. That´s cool that Hannah and Cassidy are running the Ragnar again. I guess that is helping out a lot for Cassidy in Cross Country because what Dad has said is that she is dropping her times down by minutes! That´s so great! Speaking of exercise, in the missionary Handbook it says that we have to do 30 minutes of exercise in the morning when we get up. So my comp and I have put an unofficial schedule together in that almost every other day we go out and run (Elder Lowe is also a Cross Country runner) and the other days I do upper body work outs with push ups, pull ups and weights. So I try to get in a little bit of exercise. Then the on p-days we play soccer or basketball.


This week we also had the Mission Tour with Elder Spitale who is an area seventy. The meeting was actually kind of laid back. It was Elder Spitale´s first time doing a Mission Tour so he wasn´t too sure of what to do but he gave a good message along with his wife and Pres. and Sis. Thurgood. They talked a lot about goals and baptising and getting our focus back on that and bringing people unto Christ. They also focused on finding new investigators and how that feeds into everything else we do. They also stressed again on the urgency of the work and that we should feel the spirit of urgency because our time is short as missionaries and the second coming is very close. So we just gotta go out there and Find, Teach, Baptise, Retain, and Reactivate. Speaking of that, our investigator family, the Sanchez family, went to church on Sunday! The main reason was to say goodbye to Elder Maldonado for the last time but they really liked it. The dad, mom and their 14 year old daughter showed up to Sacrament Meeting a little late and then left after the 1st class because Sister Sanchez had to go to work and then their 22 year old son showed up halfway through the last class with his girlfriend. It was great and I wasn´t expecting that. They also really enjoyed their time in church. It´s great to have sister missionaries in the ward because they took care of the girlfriend in Relief Society and we worried about the son in Elders quorum. ha ha ha ha!


One thing interesting that I noticed when I studied a little bit about the Exodus of the Israelites was that Pharaoh was given the chance to let the Israelites leave many times but every time God Hardened Pharaoh´s heart so that he wouldn´t let them go. And so the people suffered a lot but everything happened for one reason: to show the Israelites that God was their liberator. If the Pharaoh had let them go the first time, the Israelites would have said that the Pharaoh let them go. But God wanted his chosen people to recognize him as the one that always watched over them and cared for them because they were a little slow to remember those things. Just thought I´d share that with you.


We also did splits with the other office elders and we went to the capital of Buenos Aires to drop off some stuff at the area offices (office privileges) and I took pictures and everything but I forgot my camera again... :( I´ll send them next week


Have a great week!


Elder Giles

Oct 31, 2015

This week was pretty different because we did transfers! It is actually pretty cool how everything goes down and it´s funny because we know the transfers like a week before the actual day, so the whole week everyone is asking us what´s going to happen. Sometimes it´s really hard not to say what happens so yeah... Also Elder Maldonado has been a little weird this whole week because he already knows where he´s going and everything. It´s a little crazy because he is leaving to a dangerous area as a district leader, opening up the area and training all at the same time.... I think he´s pretty excited... ha ha ha! We also did some reports and finalization's for Monday and so we are ready. I just hope that I know enough to do everything because now I have to train Elder Lowe in the ways of the offices. It is pretty exciting and I feel ready for the challenge. Also I am going to be district leader! This will be the first time in the mission so I hope it will go well.


I am happy everything is going great in California, except for not having rain. This week was super weird because it started to get warmer then one day it got super hot and super humid and then the next day it rained and cooled everything off and now it is sunny and warm again. The weather just doesn´t make up it´s mind anymore and it makes it super hard to judge what to wear everyday. At least we have air conditioning in the offices. I´m actually kind of excited for Summer. ha ha ha!


That´s so cool that Cassidy is dropping her cross country race times down by MINUTES! Tell her congratulations for me because that´s awesome. For Halloween we are doing p-day, playing soccer and then cleaning the apartment and then sleeping. Best. Halloween. Ever. ha ha ha! One good thing though is that Sister Mitchel (the senior missionary) always gives us candy from the states, so yesterday we got to eat some Halloween themed kit-Kat bars. They were so good and I miss them so much. sometimes she also gives us Reese's Peanut Butter Cups sooo that is awesome. ha ha ha! I never realized how much I miss American candy.

Elder Giles


My District, last transfer

October 19th, 2015

Hello everyone,

This week was pretty relaxed because president went to Uruguay all week for a mission president seminar so we didn´t have any reports or interviews to do this week. It was great because we got to go out to visit more investigators and less actives. It was great and we hope that many or at least one will go to church this week. On Sunday we had a lesson on the plan of salvation, then they invited us to dinner on Thursday and it was really good! They have a lot more confidence in us and feel a little more comfortable with us and our message. We hope that they go to church on Sunday. We also did service with some members in the ward at a less actives house. We cleaned their house because it was super dirty! It was crazy how dirty it was and my companion felt a little bad about it so he is excited to clean our apartment this evening! hahahhaha. Other than that, nothing else really happened.

Hey, I am happy that dad found a job now! That´s great! I hope everything goes well in the new company! Good thing you had the idea to teach piano a few years ago. hahaha. That´s great you are ponderizing a scripture each week! Sadly I´m not doing that, but I am trying to memorize a scripture everyday or every other day, in spanish of course. Today I memorized John 3:19-21 it´s a pretty awesome scripture and explains a lot about how many people in the world think and act. It´s great. Tell everyone that I say hi!

Have a great week!

Elder Giles

October 5, 2015

Hey,

So we are taking this time between the sessions of general conference to write you right now. It is a little weird to have p-day on Saturday. But it is good that we can change the hours a little bit. Because on Friday, we took three hours for p-day and then on Monday we are going to have the district activity, so that takes up a little more time as well. But everything is going well here in the offices and we are super busy as always. So some cool things happened this week; like a bird was trapped in the church so we had to get that out. Also our apartment is also like the mission hotel because all the missionaries that have to do things in the offices and go to the hospital and things like that stay over night. So the other night, we had like 8 extra missionaries and it was crazy. Then on Thursday we did interchanges with other missionaries in the offices and so I got to go to a city in the country that is called Cañuelas. It was a pretty day to go out. Then we got everything ready for the interviews for all the zones in the mission and now this week we have to finish some reports for president! How fun ha ha ha.

Also this week was great because we have a family of investigators called the Sanchez Family and they are great. Brother Sanchez likes to talk with us and said that we are the first "ministers" of a religion that he has let inside his house. He and his family have been to many religions and they say that they are looking for the truth and are not sure where to find it, so we are helping them out a lot. So on Thursday we had a great lesson in which we went over the Restoration and then we invited them to be baptized, and they said yes! Well the wife and daughter said yes but soon the father will decide too. They said they will come to the general conference tomorrow so we are super excited. Their baptismal date is set for the 31st of October, Halloween! hahaha!

I am happy for the time I have in the mission and I know the Lord loves us and wants what´s best for us. And yes, my mission president is Pres. Thurgood.

Have a great week!

Elder Giles

September 28th, 2015

Hello Family,

So this week was pretty fun. It is really weird to be in an office basically all day but it reminds me of my days working in DP technology.. kind of... ha ha ha. So yeah it rained basically all week but we didn´t feel a thing. We had a lot of stuff to do because it was the first week of the transfer and so we didn´t get to go outside and work too much. Normally we try to get out for 3 hours a day but this week we only got out to visit people like an hour a day so that was kind of sad, but hopefully this week we´ll be able to get out more. The offices are really quiet. It is mainly my comp and I and the Mitchell's here. The other two that are in charge of housing and visas are usually out and about so we don´t see them that much.

So this week my comp has been showing me all the stuff that we have to do as part of records and it is pretty cool to see the administrative side of the mission. Another cool thing is that we will be a little closer to president and get to know him better. So this week we prepared some things for the district leader meeting and training meeting for the newbies. My companion, Elder Maldonado, is district leader along with secretary so he went to the meeting on Thursday and I did splits with another elder, Elder Portugal, in San Jose which is close by. It was fun and we got lost because he only had 4 days in the area, so yeah...


Tomorrow we have church and our church is huge compared to the one in Laferrere 2 so it´s pretty cool. I have met a few members like the bishop´s counselors and the ward mission leader and they are going to have me present myself in church  tomorrow, so it will be fun!


Have a great week! I´ll send more pictures later!


Elder giles

September 21st, 2015

So today we had transfers and there is some exciting news: I am in the offices of the mission! My companion is Elder Maldonado from Chile and we are the secretaries in charge of records, so we are going to be pretty busy. Today I have time to write you, but my p-day will be Saturdays from now on. Also, I think I am going to end my mission here in the offices because I only have 3 transfers left in the mission and it will be good because there won´t be time to be trunky, ha ha ha. So I will be in contact with many things and also on Uncle Matt the Kid´s progress.( this is the family nick name for Elder Giles' cousin, Matt) The secretary to the president told me that Matt won´t come for like 2 weeks for the ingrown toe nail and it is quite possible that I will see him, and if not, I could call him! ha ha ha. Today was pretty relaxed because there wasn´t that much stuff to do and my companion is showing me the basic stuff that we do for right now but things will pick up pretty soon. They say that our job is the busiest.


This week was also pretty good. We continued to work with the less actives that we were teaching and with Maria who is super excited to be baptised. It was funny because on Sunday she saw the calender for lunches and asked when she could give us lunch, and she´s not even a member yet! ha ha  it´s good to see that she doesn´t know the difference.


Sounds like you guys had a great week and I am glad that everyone is doing great. Sometimes Heavenly Father puts trials in our lives to test our faithfulness and our dedication to the gospel and I am super happy that you are true to the gospel and the church in this trying time. I know that we are blessed for being faithful and the Lord will open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings that there will not be enough room to receive them. That is also an awesome story about the fast for rain! There is a lot of power when the ward comes together. Tell Clay I say hi and congratulate him for being awesome in football!


Have a great week!


Elder Giles

Maria, who will be baptized in October and the church

The Vasquez family who gave us lunch every Sunday and Martin who is an investigator

September 14, 2015

Hi

This week was pretty different. Cold and super windy but we had a good time. The overcoat I have works wonders! My companion and I are doing well and are working hard. Even though we don`t have many investigators we are contacting and talking with a bunch of people and it is really fun! ha ha ha! We can see that many people are willing to listen to us and others not so much. Yes, I am getting over my cold and living conditions have been the same for the last 6 months... But we did deep clean the apartment today so that was fun. I am also doing a lot of "cooking." This morning I made pancakes, last night I made popcorn and a few times I have made rice and noodles. It`s pretty fun! We also learned from a member how to make a white sauce for noodles so we tried it out today and it was good! ha ha ha!

I am happy that everything is going well and that everyone is improving. You guys also seem pretty busy! That`s hilarious that you went on a night ride with Clay and his friends. Sounds like they crashed a bunch, ha ha ha. I am super happy that everything is going great with everyone and that everyone is happy. Looks like Clay is getting stronger and bigger height and width wise, ha ha, but that`s great and I am glad that he`s doing well in football. 

Right now I am about one block from McDonald's and after we`re done here we`re going to go get some ice cream because it is starting to get hot here. It has been windy all week and pretty cold. We have one investigator that is progressing very well that has a baptismal date set for the 10th of October and we are super excited. She has gone to church twice already and loves the Book of Mormon. We had a bunch of other investigators but they weren`t progressing so we stopped visiting them and now we are looking for new ones. We are also working a lot with members and are trying to get a member in just about every lesson that we have but it is hard because my area is a branch and there aren`t that many members that can or that are willing to accompany us. But we are working hard and doing our best.

It`s a little hard at times in the mission but it is very comforting to know that the Lord loves us and helps us in every way that He can as long as we are obedient. This week I was reading about the 7 plagues and how the house of Israel left Egypt and one thing that I was thinking about this week was that the only reason that those things happened was so that the people could remember the Lord. If Pharaoh had let them leave the first time that Moses asked, the people would say that Pharaoh had set them free, but they passed through all those trials and through the red sea so that they could remember that the Lord loves us and helps us in every moment of our lives. The more we recongnize him in our lives, the happier we are and the more blessed we will be. I know that to be true.


Have a great week


Elder Giles

August 17th, 2015

Hello Family,

So here are some pictures of last week. On Monday when Elder Portaro left to Adrogué and with the group of papís (dads). There were 5 of us in the zone who where going to train so on Monday I spent the day in a trio with the Laferrere 1 elders and that night we visited some less actives and had dinner at a member`s house.

Then on Tuesday in the Morning we had to go to Banfield again to pick up our new missionaries and we also had lunch in President`s house (pizza and empanadas). My new companion is Elder Gonzalez from Uruguay. He is 25 years old and is awesome. He is also a convert to the church and was baptized 2 years ago. He served in his ward as young men`s president and the stake as 2nd counselor to the young men`s president, so he is awesome with the youngin´s. ha ha ha!

In the picture you can see all the Latin elders from the MTC here in Argentina. The American elders came at night because their flight was delayed so they are not in the picture.

So Wednesday and Thursday we worked "normally" in the rain and mud and visited less actives and investigators and just getting my companion used to missionary life.

Then on Friday we had to go back to Banfield again for a meeting with all the newbies and trainers in the mission. It takes about an hour to get from Laferrere to Banfield because we have to take 3 trains and one of the trains passes through a dangerous part of the mission, but it was fine and we got there and back safely. 

Then we had a family home evening in the church and one family of investigators came so that was awesome. Then on Sunday we visited many less actives and members. It was a good day because even though we didn´t have many lessons we talked to many members and were able to give them words of comfort and encouragement and do our best to attend to their needs.
--
Have a great week!

Elder Giles

August 10th, 2015

Hi

This week was pretty interesting. It rained Thursday- Sunday and continues to rain right now,  So there are many parts of the country that are flooded. Thankfully in Laferrere it isn´t flooded but just full of mud because most of the streets are dirt streets, so we are having a good time walking around in boots.

Then on Friday, luckily, it didn´t rain in the afternoon so we went to the temple with our investigators. The couple, Walter and Patricia, are going to get married on the 28th of August and Walter will get baptized on the 29th woot! And the other two are Elza and her daughter Marina and they are Catholics but interested in our message. They all loved it and they all enjoyed the peace that was there. We walked around the gardens and then we went inside the temple. There is a waiting room inside the temple that non-members can go in, which is awesome because then they can feel how it is inside and how strong the spirit is. It was a great experience.

Also today we had transfers! My companion, Elder Portaro, left to go to Adrogué with his new companion and I will train a new missionary!! I don´t know who he is yet because the greenies get here tomorrow so right now I am in a trio with the missionaries from Laferrere 1 who are in my district and they are training as well. I am super excited to be training again.

It´s good to hear things are going great and that the family is getting together. Hannah and Mackenzie are in College already or when are they starting? It´s weird to hear that only the three of you are in the bench, we used to fill the whole thing up by ourselves! 

I am glad that the letters got there. I will send others to my siblings then. Yes, I am fine with sitting with a tutor to study for the SAT or ACT. I think that will be better because I don´t remember much from school hahaha! I also talk with Zach every now and then but I haven´t asked him about his plans after the mission nor about when he gets home, so..... yeah. That would be cool to room with him, then we could talk Spanish the whole time! hahaha!

I hope everything is going well and that everyone is happy and content

Have a great week!

Elder Giles

August 3rd, 2015

Hi Family,


Sounds like you guys had a great and busy week! We did too! On Tuesday we had a great day because we were able teach to the majority of our investigators and we also found a super young couple. Then on Thursday we were going to go to the temple with two families of investigators but then it started raining like crazy! so we couldn`t go, we were super bummed so instead we went and visited some less active families. Then on Friday it rained all morning and then stopped and at night we had a family home evening with a few families in the Church. My comp and I gave the lesson and we talked about Christ-like attributes. Then on Saturday we did service in a member´s house reorganizing his shed which was filled with a bunch of junk. Then Sunday was great because a bunch of less actives came and also a bunch of investigators too! We were super happy that day and I felt so blessed! Also, One family that we are working with will get married at the end of this month! Then they can get baptized! Woooo! hahahaha. They are super happy and excited and so are we! Hopefully we are going to go to the temple this week with them.


So this is also the last week of the transfer and next Monday we will have new companions. We think that Elder Portaro will go because he has the most time here. We also think that the whole zone will have transfers because president wants to integrate us into the mission as quick as possible. I am super excited for these changes!

That is so cool that President Monson wrote you about the mission change! So far getting used to the mission is adjusting to the mission rules and policies but other than that it is pretty much the same.


Good stories to tell? Not really. We do have one investigator that we found last week that went to church yesterday. His name is Miguel and he is 63 years old. He is going through tough times right now but many people are helping him and he is going to many different Churches. He is also poor so we picked him up to go to church and then brought him home again. On the bus ride back to his house he said that he loved our church because of the peace that is inside and he feels so much better there than he does in the other churches because the Evangelist churches here normally yell into a microphone and they play loud music and stuff like that. its weird but that´s how it is. So Miguel came to the conclusion that our church is how a church should be. pretty awesome, right? We have high hopes for his baptism.

Have a great week!


Elder Giles

July 27th, 2015

So this week was pretty good. We taught a lot of our investigators and less active families. We are also visiting a lot with our Branch Mission leader. He is super pumped to work with us and does a good job. But the funny thing is that he is 62 years old but walks a lot, like he would be 30 years old.... It´s great. Sunday was super good because the branch is fellow shipping Felicia, my convert, very well and she feels super happy in the branch. We also set a baptismal date for one of our investigators. Her name is Teresa and is 70 years old but is super happy to meet with us. She has been Catholic all her life but feels the spirit when we teach her and also when she reads the Book of Mormon and prays. She really wants to go to church but she has problems walking and getting out of bed in the morning. Could you include her in your prayers so that she can keep progressing? That would be awesome. I know that the Book of Mormon Changes lives and that if we read it and pray about it it will bring new light into our lives and will soften our hearts. One example that I see in the mission is that we are also teaching an other Catholic couple but the thing is that they are not progressing in comparison to Teresa. Why is that? It´s because they are not reading the Book of Mormon. This week we invited them to baptism but they didn´t accept... :( We will keep trying!


Have a great week!


Elder Giles

July 20th, 2015

Hello,

So this week was pretty eventful. We had Felicia´s baptism which was awesome. It was super spiritual and special for her and and her daughter, Patricia. They both received answers to their prayers and they now have testimonies that the church is true! Sweet!


On Wednesday we also had interviews with president and he told me when I would be going home. There is a transfer date on the 14th of December and the 26th of January. So president has the authority to let a missionary go home at most a month earlier or later that his start date so for me to go home on the 14th of December, he would have to ask permission, and also have a reason to do it. otherwise I could go home on the 26th. I am fine with going home in January. What do you think? We could celebrate Christmas in January? 

Another thing. I talked to President about how to get into BYU Idaho because he used to work there as head of the Religion Department, I think. He wasn´t sure when the dead line is but he said that we should start doing the applications right now. So could you look up the requirements and stuff like that? Also president told me that if I need to, I can get permission to look up here during p-day. 

The other pictures are of the chapel and my comp wanted to sleep in my bed so I gave him one of my blankets 

Thanks!