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