First of all thank you for the birthday wishes! It was definitely a
birthweek and birthday to remember. 

The Hermanas made him a birthday cheesecake!!!

Had some crazy experiences but
I'll explain those in a sec. People getting engaged, people getting
mission calls, life is crazy!

 Well had exchanges with my man Elder Smith on Wednesday! We've been
talking for this moment for like two months and it finally happened!
Taught a couple less active lessons and a lesson with our Chinese
investigator. Won't explain too much more for lack of time and space.
But he's a stud and I love him(: 

 Saturday is where the fun starts. Got a call Saturday about 5 from the
AP's and I'll be training this transfer! Finally I'll have a son! Also
my father, Elder Jones, is training so I'll also have a brother! Elder
Reese was transferred to the heart of Madrid and will be a DL there so
we can spend Pdays together now(: our dreams are coming true lol. I'm
super excited for the challenge. I'm also sad because my companion and
I were doing so so well together. 7 weeks was a short transfer but
it's okay(: so we taught a lesson to an investigator late Saturday
night, right when we got transfer calls. So we didn't know what was
going on until about 11. They're taking the Hermanas from Toledo):
they had to clean their piso all day to prep it. They're also taking
the car away from us. Idk why but we'll have to drop some people we
are teaching now. We're pretty mad but hey, the work will go on. As of
right now I'm here in Madrid with the ZLs until tomorrow when I pick
up my greenie! Maybe it'll be Cody Wright.. How cool would that be? 

 We found this Romanian Family the other night. Four of them and only
two speak Spanish. We taught them and the language barrier caused some
problems but the Spirit was undeniable. They are super super poor and
are in a good position to accept the gospel, but we shall see. We were
able to give the grandfather a blessing because his health is causing
them heavy financial debts. He speaks zero Spanish but we did it
anyways. It was hard for me to stay standing during the blessing
because the Spirit was so strong. He may not of understood anything,
but they were so so grateful for it. He mumbled out a "muchas gracias"
and then we left after. Good family.

 I'm sorry if I don't have time to reply to personally emails from
anybody but we're super busy with things here right now so until the
next week! Thanks again for the birthday wishes(: 

 Teach me how to Father, 

Elder Gearig 

The last Toledo selfie

"In the hood." Lol. Literally.

Deuces  to my Spanish brother

The Spain-guin still going strong

The District Pt. 3

Hi
Hope today has been good so far


Well this week was super great! I'll just cut straight to the chase
starting with Wednesday! Had exchanges with another elder here in the
good ole district of Toledo. We found two great people! The firsts
name is Luis. The second is a 17 year old Colombian who's bringing me
chocolate back from Germany and we'll meet with her in a couple weeks.
'Twas a good day

Thursday we got a message from our only investigators here. He said
this, "hey elder. I've decided to not continue my studies with you
guys, my Catholic roots are deep and I don't want to change. Good luck
with your mission!" My companion and I sat there for like five minutes
in silence. Felt like a solid punch to the gut. We've been working so
so hard to find people and we finally had potential with somebody!
Then bam, he's gone. But we talked him into letting us Coke (come) by that
night to talk things over. We went in and his whole family was there.
We had one of the most spiritually guided lessons I've been apart of.
The spirit was intense and they felt it so strongly! In the end they
still decided to not continue the discussions but we left on a super
good note with them and they're more prepared for future lessons to
fully accept the gospel! That night and all day Friday were super
tough, but we kept working as hard as we could and being as obedient
as we could trying to find more people. It sucked but such is the
life.

So back to Luis! At first he didn't want anything to do with us but I
sweet talked him into giving us his number. Called him Friday and he
was super excited that we called! He was like this "hey hey when can
we meet?! Can I come to the church and we can talk more?! Can I bring
my friend?!?!" It was so weird hahah that's never happened to me
before. So we met with him Saturday! It was so legit! He was really
interested and speaks perfect English but my companion doesn't, so we
spoke in English and they spoke in Valenciano lol. We taught him in
Spanish though so we each knew what was going on. He is really
interested and asked if we could meet again so of course we said yes!
Afterwards I was super happy because God definitely let us be broken
down Thursday to rebuild us on Saturday if we showed him our faith,
which we definitely did. That's not all!!️️

Later that night we went to visit my good friend Elder Howard's (from
Vigo) convert from a year ago. She's..interesting.. Lol. She makes us
tip-toe two floors up in complete darkness and we have to talk in
whiskers (whispers I'm guessing, I'm leaving because it's kind of cute to this mom)to not wake anybody up. Lol it's like 9 o'clock at night,
nobody's asleep. But anyways. We walk in her kitchen and there's
another girl in there. Her niece! She's been here for a week and her
best friend is a Mormon back in Niceragua! She doesn't know anything
though so we took that as a "go ahead and teach me and then in two
weeks baptize me" answer. The restoration, bam! It was unreal. The
no-lights and low-voices really added some spice to the lesson. By
spice I definitely mean spirit. It was incredible. We got back home
and hit our knees and thanked God for His miracles He gave us.
We lost two investigators, but after the trials of our faith, we
persevered and out our trust in Him, and he gave us two more right
back; better and more prepared. It was a good week(: keep the faith!!

So these weeks Conference talks consisted of numbers 2&3. I really
loved them both! I like the story of the father swimming in the lake
and almost drowning, but he kicked off his shoes with a last effort of
desperation and was able to make it through. We must use all our
strength to drop the things if the world holding us down so we can
make it through to Safety! Trials and tribulations are only there to
help us through!
The second talk was about who we are: Children of God. This should be
our first source of identity. This doesn't meant if somebody asks us
who we are we respond "a child of God" but we can not forget that. It
should give us power and motivation through trials and life. "We live
in a world that can cause us to forget who we really are. The more
distractions that surround us, the easier it is to treat casually,
then ignore, and then forget our connection with God." We cant forget
it!

Quote of the week, "If you're on the right path, it will always be
uphill. God is eager to get you to the safety of higher ground."
President Eyring

Faith keepin',
Elder Gearig

The (no flex) Zone

Good morning all. Good morning indeed.
Well not a lot happened this week so this should be rather short.
You're welcome.️

Monday night we finished conference and I, as well as everybody else, loved Elder Hollands talk. I love that we can try, fall
short, and still get brownie points in heaven! If we constantly strive
to be like Christ and do all we can then he lays the rest. I wish
school was like that hahah.

So I've decided to study one conference talk every week in the six
months leading up to October Conference. So obviously I started from
the top with President Eyrings! I love that man so much. Wish I could
just give him a hug and a fist bump. I love the Parable of the Sower
and his relation with it that he mentioned. If we truly want the seed
(word of God) to grow and be strong we have to plant it in good soil
(our hearts). We constantly nourish it (study, temple, prayer, etc.)
that way when our brother Satan tempts us, our roots are deep enough
that we stay strong and don't give in. Love it! Also when two or three
are gathered in the name of Christ, He is there with us as well! It's
His conference, His church, His gospel, and we're in charge of
choosing whether or not to accept it. It's a decision! So "Choose
wisely..." -Indiana Jones quote for you dad.
Have a gr9 week and don't miss a chance to share this happiness with others!

Wisely choosing,
Elder Gearig


The (no flex) Zone

April 4 -- Conference Time!

Well good day fellow humans. Hope all is just dandy wherever you read
this from.
First of all, RAIN! It's raining! I haven't seen rain in like four
weeks, stoked.


Well this week was the beeeeest. Mostly because of conference but it
would have been good nonetheless.


Wednesday we had a pretty good District Meeting if I do say so
myself. Had a fun activity but it was actually quite spiritual so I
was happy with it. Went on exchanges with an elder here to his area
and that was an experience for sure.
We got there and he had planned like nothing. Not only that, but what
he did plan he didn't have backup plans. That's a no-no in the
mission. So what I'm trying to say is we contacted for 5 hours. Hahah
he was scared of contacting bigger crowds, and I love doing that, so
it was fun to teach him the ropes of how-to-get-references 101. Really
though, we saw miracles doing this. I talked to him last night and
turns out almost every reference we received has a lesson set up this
week! Hahah that doesn't happen hardly ever so I'm glad I could help
them out over there. I talked to this family from Bulgaria of about 15
and they LOVED us! Hahah it was awesome because we took a wrong turn
and were walking when we realized we were going the wrong way, so we
turned around and I saw this family and started talking to them. If we
wouldn't have taken the wrong turn we never would have found them so
it was definitely a miracle. They invited them over Sunday night to
"talk to God" hahah.
We also had an experience in an apartment building. We passed by an
old investigator of theirs and he had moved. So I had this impression
to stop and pray. God led us there to find someone, whether it was that
person or someone else in the building. So I offered a prayer and
asked God to guide us to someone in that building who needed this
message. We did, I took off the down the stairs to the next floor and
knocked a door. Sweet lady opens up and we talked for awhile and she
invited us back this week. So if we're willing to be guided, God will
guide us. Simple as that.
Had to lay down the law a little bit that night though because some
missionaries just don't understand what it means to be "exactly
obedient." But this kid really is a stud so it ended up turning into
me telling him how awesome he is, because it's true. Just needed some
tweaking! So I went in and I went out and I feel good about that area
now. #InNOut

A Hermana here in Toledo leaves for her mission today. She's been
here serving and waiting for her visa and she's going to Temple
Square! Look for Sister Calderón walking round the temple in a square
and say hello to her. She's awesome.

Conference was THE BEST! I know everyone else and their companions
 will be writing about it so I'll try to share something
different. I LOVED Elder Stevensons talk. It was fire. I loved his
analogy about how we never have to ask "where are the keys?" ever
again. Because the priesthood of God is here and won't ever be taken
away again! How neat is that? I'd say that's pretty neat. The fact
that we have 15 very aware and experienced men leading our church
brings me peace. I remember when I received the Melchizedek
Priesthood. My dad, brother, grandpa, and four of my best friends
(Taylor, Aussie, Hallz, BSiv if you wanna know who) were able to share
this experience with me and three of them stood there and placed their
hands on my head to give me it. It was an experience I'll never
forget.
I had the opportunity to confirm and give a young girl the Holy Ghost
a few weeks ago after her baptism and the priesthood is real my
friends. I was nervous because this is a big deal! Hahah something
that only happens once! As I opened my mouth the fear left and I let
the Holy Ghost talk through me and I know I said what I was supposed
to say although I don't remember anything I said. The Priesthood is
here and it's only in the true Church of Christ. How amazing it is to
know and to be made known to every person in the world!

Hope all is good and know your pal Elder Gearig is here doing well and
would love to help in anyway he can.️

Every day I'm out just tryna make the most,
Elder Gearig