May 26th, 2014

Hola!
This week we had our transfer meeting on Wednesday! All the missionaries met in the mission offices and we watched some vidoes about the missionaries that left the mission in the last transfer and listened to the testimonies of the missionaries that left on Wednesday. After that there was a slide show of all the assignments and everything. That part is pretty fun because all the missionaries get super excited and cheer and everything. It´s fun!

The Weather has been on the decline this past week and month. It is really cold during the nights but I use 3-4 blankets/comforters so I am nice and warm. It also rained pretty hard Tuesday and Wednesday. Right now there are clear skies and lots of sun, but it still is pretty cold.

My new companion is Elder Flores. He is from Arica, Chile and has a little more than a year in the mission. He spent the last couple of transfers in the campo in Chacabuco where the areas are huge and it´s basically farmland. He is still getting used to the city life and walking A LOT. He is so awesome and super excited to be working with me in our area and baptizing many people. We have high hopes for 2 or 3 people to be baptized in the month of June!

We had an answer to our prayers this week. As a companionship and a zone, we have been praying for a family to teach that does not have problems with the Word of Wisdom or the Law of Chastity and on Tuesday we found a very good family! Their only "problem" is that they go to a different church, so we taught the restoration and bore strong testimonies about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. They want to attend our church possibly this week and they also want us to attend their church in a sort of exchange. We might go, but I wonder how it will go...

I hope everything is going well with you all!

Les Amo!    Elder Giles

May 19th, 2014

We had the baptism of Cinita on Saturday and everything went smoothly! Elder Rivera and I are so excited for her and we hope to baptize the rest of her family in the coming month or so!

It has been a little chilly this week during the day and pretty cold at night. I had to find more blankets in our pensión so I wouldn´t be as cold. It also rained a few times this week and we had a cool experience on Thursday night. We got to our pensión at 8:55 that night and the rule for the mission is that we need to be in our pensiónes at 9 and exactly at 9 it started to rain super hard. We are blessed if we keep the rules/commandments!

This next week there are transfers and I am pretty sure that Elder Rivera will be transfered and I will get a new Senior Companion! The situation is a little weird because usually the senior companion leads the area and introduces the new missionary to the members and investigators, but I, as the greenie, will have to do everything like this. I have faith in the Lord that everything will go well and that my next companion will be awesome!

I will try to have some awesome experiences to share with you all next week

Hope everything is going well!

Les Amo!
Elder Giles

Baptism of Cinita, Elder Giles' first baptism, second since entering Argentina

May 12, 2014

I was able to talk to Lucas yesterday for Mother's day. He was surprised that the call from Argentina would actually go through to us! He sounds the same, and he is happy and loving the people of Argentina. The missionary work is up and down, but that is to be expected. He is in the town of Billinghurst, and their ward is Loma Hermosa. There are about 120 members of that ward with only 5 or 6 youth. Their area is large enough that they take the bus everywhere they need to go. He says the streets are organized and easy to navigate, and that the city is clean and the people live above their businesses. No high rise buildings, everything is at the same level. There are some factories in the town, mostly for clothing, metal working or cars as far as he can tell. He does all of his laundry by hand, they have a tub to wash in, and then they hang everything up to dry. He says he is ironing his shirts too! He is loving being a missionary and bore a strong testimony to me before we said goodbye. We look forward to be able to Skype with him on Christmas day.

Hola!

This week went by super fast! I can´t believe this is my 12th week in the mission!

Wednesday was pretty cool because I was with Elder Arambarù, one of our zone leaders, in Villa Tesei on divisions and he taught/reminded me to do something super important: smile. It´s amazing how his big smile was when he was doing lessons and contacts and how personable he is with the people. I had forgotten that the work of a missionary is a happy and joyful one and that more people are more likely to trust you if you are happy. I need to work a lot in this area of missionary work :D

On Wednesday Elder Rivera and our other zone leader found an amazing investigator. She is super excited about meeting with us and learning more about God and his plan for us. She loves to read the bible and loves the stories in there so we gave her a Book of Mormon that the stories about the prophets in the Ancient Americas are just as good, so she is excited to read the Book of Mormon too! The only hard part is getting her to got to church. Elder Rivera asked yesterday: "Why is it so hard to get up at 7 in the morning to got to church?" Honestly, the Argentines love to sleep.

We have a baptism this next week and I am going to be doing the baptising! Her name is Cintia and she is super excited about getting baptized and has been our only investigator in church for the past few weeks. She will be the first in her family and we are hoping that the rest of her family will follow her example in the following month or so.

The weather has definately gotten colder because I had to use my sweaters all this week. It rained yesterday and when it rains on Sunday it means that the ward attendance is halved and none of our investigators go to church. This kinda stinks, but we just need to work harder this next week.

I finished reading the Book of Mormon this past week and started reading it in Spanish. The Book of Mormon is such an amazing book! I have a strong testimony that it is the word of God and that we can recieve personal revelation through praying and studying it. Everyday before I read I pray to recieve revelation about how to progress our investigators and be a better missionary and everyday I find an answer to both of these. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints is His true church and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet.

Have a great week!
Les Amo!   Elder Giles

Monday, May 5th

I have like 10 mins or so, so I will make this quick: On Thursday we had a big dinner that the Stake of Caseros put on for all the missionaries because we achieved our goal of 20 or more baptisms for the month of April! We had some awesome asado, pollo, sausage, and helado! We also had a fun district activity today in which we ate milanesa sandwiches and played soccer as a district plus our zone leaders.

Some of our investigators are progressing and we have the possibility of 2 baptisms this month!

Les Amo!
Elder Giles

April 28th, 2014

Wow, April flew by so fast!‏

This week was pretty interesting. On Wednesday we had a special training for our zone in that we practiced teaching 3 principles to our zone leaders, AP´s, and other helpers which lasted for 3 hours. We practiced teaching the Word of Wisdom, Baptism, and how to invite some one to baptism. It was really helpful for us and we learned a lot about how to teach better and how to apply our teachings to our investigators better.

On Saturday we did splits with 2 members in our ward. I was with one Hermano visiting some of our investigators and Elder Rivera went with another Hermano in another part of our area. This was a really good experience because for a few hours I had to lead the area, greet people and start lessons. The Hermano and I gave 2 lessons and also a blessing to one of our investigators who is sick. I was really nervous, but I did it and it really helped me boost my confidence (which was why Elder Rivera wanted to do it).

We are not having much success but we are continuing to work hard and pray for Heavenly Father to help us.

I hope you all are doing well!

Les Amo,   Elder Giles

April 21st

What a Beautiful Week!

The weather this week was amazing! There were about 3 or 4 days in a row where there were clear skies and lots of sun. It is nice to have a break from the dreary, rainy days.

This week was also very good for us as missionaries as well. We found some awesome new investigators and had some very good lessons with members. One of our new investigators is an older man who is not a member and his wife who is a member. On Thursday we went to visit them with another member in the ward. The lesson was awesome because the member that went with us basically talked the whole time and bore a strong testimony of how the gospel and the church blesses his life tremendously and how it can bless the life of the investigator. The investigator did not accept the invitation to be baptized, but he will think on it. Elder River and I are continuing to work with him.

On Monday evening last week we taught a powerful lesson on the Atonement of Jesus Christ to two of our investigators: a mother and her daughter. What makes the Atonement so amazing is because it is key to our salvation. Through Christ´s selfless sacrifice, we can be forgiven of our sins, be clean spiritually and mentally, and have joy in knowing that we will return to live with Heavenly Father again. The Atonement is so amazing to teach and I know that our investigators felt something special, especially the mother. She has a desire to change, but at the same time she doesn´t want to change, which makes Elder Rivera and I sad because the Gospel can really help her in her life.

On Friday we had divisions with Elder Eraso and Elder Bell, who is from Bakersfield, California! I was with Elder Eraso in Loma Hermosa and Elder Bell was with Elder Rivera in our area. It is nice to have a break from the "usual" day to day stuff and experience how other missionaries do things. Nothing much really happened except that Elder Eraso helped me speak more in lessons and do more contacts which helps me a lot.

My Español is doing very well! I can understand people about 85% of the time and I am helping a lot in lessons and talking with the members and generally just trying to speak as much as I can.

Easter Sunday was really good! We had an investigator attend church, we ate Asado with a family of investigators for lunch after church, and gave 2 blessings. The Asado was Amazing!

Hope you all had a wonderful week and Happy Easter!

Les Amo,  Elder Giles

Our baptism on the 12 of April! Belen was baptized by her father and then confirmed by Elder Rivera on Sunday!

There were 3 baptisms on the 12th. Melody is the baptism of Elder Eraso and Elder Bell (Elder Paskett was transfered the Wednesday before) and the other is from the ward!

April 14th

Saturday we had our baptism! It was such a wonderful experience for us and our investigator. She is pretty awesome! Elder Rivera and his last companion started teaching her in February I think and she was basically a golden investigator. She accepted everything that we taught her and it also helped that her father is a recent convert so she has an anchor in the church and he was very helpful in teaching her especially outside of lessons. Another special thing about her baptism is that her father did the baptizing! Elder Rivera and I are so happy for them! I am not able to send pictures because the USB on this computer is broken :(

Not much else happened this week. I am improving a lot in my ablilty to speak and understand Español and I am helping Elder Rivera in lessons, doing contacts, and other stuff like that. Yesturday (Sunday) we did mini divisions with Elder Araburú and Elder Hawkey. They came over to our area for a couple of hours to help us find new people to teach. Elder Araburú is one of our Zone leaders and he went with Elder Rivera and Elder Hawkey, who actually extended his mission a little bit to help train in other zones, came with me. Elder Hawkey was pretty awesome and set a really good example of how to do missionary work.

It is starting to get cold here, especially at night and in the early mornings. Now I get to use my sweaters!

I hope everything is going well for you all!

Les Amo,  Elder Giles