My Comp is a Hipster

Elder Wright in our "Armor of God"

It's only been 4 days and nothing's happened so this'll be short and
sweet. But good luck to Kara leaving this week for Mexico! And happy
birthday to my oldest brother Brandon! Keep it real.
Today we're going hiking to some caves by Elder Smiths area in
Talavera and Elder Wright is wearing sweat-shorts, a button up to the
top weird shirt, white vans and white nikes. Looks like this kid
rolled strait out of 11th grade #ReadyToHike

Anyways I just have one story. This actually happened before last PDay
I just forgot to tell it. We were contacting in the street like we
always do and I stopped this guy and start talking to him. Basically
if there's a Latino in the street you make a b-line for them because
here's a better chance they accept the message. This guy was here for
a month from Mexico and left a couple days later. He knew a couple
Mormons back home (there's like a billion in Mexico) but knew nothing.
So I just started testifying to this guy that if he wanted salvation,
we knew how he could get it and he had to learn for himself. I'm
usually not that upfront but I just felt like doing it. I testified
about the Restored Gospel and the Book of Mormon and how he could have
more happiness and leave everything in the past.
He looked at me with tears in his eyes and asked "how can I be like
you? How can I leave my worries behind and move forward?" I told him
he needed to follow Christ and be like him, not me. I told him
everything he ever needs to leave his past behind was found in this
church and the BoM. He asked where he could get a book so I smoothly
slipped it in his hands and said it was a gift from Christ. He said
he'd read it and find the missionaries in Mexico which shouldn't be
hard to do. But this guys willingness just left me in awe. I know The
Spirit told me everything that guy needed to hear and made an impact
on him, you could tell he was feeling it. We all need to be more like
Jorge, like the dad of King Lamoni, willing to do whatever it takes to
inherit the kingdom of God. I know a seeds been planted and I'll never
see him again but I know he'll accept the gospel at some point!


I love president Uchtdorfs talk called "He will place you on His
shoulders and carry you home." He talks about the 1 lost sheep and
what's necessary to be worthy of having Christ rescue that one sheep.
He says "“Turn … to me.” “Come unto me.” “Draw near unto me and I will
draw near unto you.” This is how we show Him that we want to be
rescued. It requires a little faith. But do not despair. If you cannot
muster faith right now, begin with hope." All we need is to lift up
our heads and have some hope! He knows exactly where we are, and we're
never lost. Although we don't know where we are, He does. Turn to Him!

That's all I got. You're all the best and don't ever forget how much
God loves you all!

The 1 searchin',
Elder Gearig

We made the armor of God for this 10 year old here. Who did it better,
Elder Wright or Christian?

We made the armor of God for this 10 year old here. Who did it better,
Elder Wright or Christian?

Welcome to Heartbreak and mountains‏

Temple this morning

Finish it off with the temple so it was all good! It's awesome as always(: the temple here is absolutely beautiful. We go as a zone so we were all together!

Good day! Well it's hot here. I hope you're all cool.
Okay well good luck to Ethan Erickson and anyone else heading out to
the mission!
Okay so this week was like the polar opposite of the past two weeks
haha. Last Monday night I was feeling pretty bold and good, so I asked
God to give me a mountain to climb I don't really know what I was
expecting and kind of threw a Elder Wright under the bus but hey, I
got my mountain! Because the next two days, we lost 2 baptismal dates
and 6 investigators just phone call after phone call, investigators
dropping left and right...it was interesting hahah.

So Tuesday after English class we had already lost two and we headed
over to Adela's house!
So Adela was doing so so great. She was super excited for her baptism
and progressing a ton. Just blowing threw the BoM. So we met and she
told us she was super sad because her boyfriend stopped paying for her
piso from Germany and so she has to move. I was just stunned.
Because Fabricio was a week from his baptismal service and he randomly
left... Now Adela was 11 days from hers and she had to leave and take
her friend who was about 2 weeks from her baptism with her as well.
We get so close to a baptism and they
leave right before. My heart just broke, she was so sad. But we had a
super great lesson about baptisms for the dead and she's excited to do
her family history work. She's actually had dreams and said her
ancestors have visited her and now it makes complete sense to her that
she can do their work for them! It was a really cool lesson actually.
So she left for Madrid the next morning 

Wednesday afternoon is when we lost the other two investigators. Hahah
I just couldn't believe what was going on. So we accepted the mountain
that God had given us, thanked God for it, and hit the streets with
smiles on our faces and not skipping a beat! We still haven't found
anyone else in the past week but I know they'll come if we keep
working like we have been! It's been super humbling and Elder Howard's
prophecy has officially come true. He told me before I came to Toledo
that it was a great place to see miracles, but you have to allow God
to take you lower than you've ever been before, and I'd say that
that's pretty true right now! So we're just moving forward! It's been
fun and I have a strong testimony that God answers prayers

Also I found out the bishop here is literally a Spanish pioneer. He
was the first convert from the Canary Islands, the third missionary
from Spain, he basically opened Galicia and served in Vigo, and he's
the reason that there are missionaries in the islands as well. This
guy went. To. Work. Back in the day. He has some of the funniest
missionary stories I've ever heard him and I are best friends now
because we had a little heart to heart after sacrament meeting, good
guy.

Well I hope you all are doing good and keeping your heads ups! Gods
only as far away as your knees are from the ground! Keep pushing
forward and know God leaves you and I love you all almost as much as
him! Have a fabulous week!

Elder Gearig
Enviado por mi Liahona

Another mountain

Another mountain

That good Mohawk swag

Best gift ever! A couple pictures from a sweet stranger!

Hello and greetings from Toledo, Spain!!! Ran into these fantastic young men today! Please know, these are incredible young men, and it was a joy to meet them and chat with them!! With love, and gratitude, Alison Bosen Peoria, Arizona

Good day friends. Well this week was another amazing week! Not as much
happened as last week but it was still a stellar week. Just loving
life and trying to beat the heat out here!

Okay so I'm gonna skip straight to Saturday. Saturday morning we got a
call from a less active we were supposed to visit and she told us she
was super sick and not to come. I told her that was why we needed to
come so we could give her a blessing. So after some sweet talk we got
out to her house and met her and her family for the first time. This
Dominican family of like 10 living there, all with the most
outrageous, straight up fresh hair I've ever seen. We spent a solid 20
minutes talking about their hair. Anyways, they were speaking
Dominican which is basically Spanish without the S's and mumbled 100
mph, but I have Dominican experience so I was fine, but Elder Wright
had no idea what was going on. Poor guy. Threw me back to my first
Dominican experience back in Vigo. I don't remember a thing. Did some
service around the house with them then the mom made us lunch. She
made the best drink you'll ever taste, it's called morir-sueñando
which literally means "to die dreaming" and it's so true. Good good
food as well. Tuesday we ate Spanish food, Friday we ate Ecuadorian,
Saturday was Dominican, and Sunday was Mexican. Idk where else you're
gonna get that diverse of food. Good time there though.

Okay Saturday night! Adela finally came back from her job! So we
headed over there to visit her and we walk in and she had a friend
from her country! She came over and joined us and we finished up the
tithing and fast lesson with Adela and her friend absolutely loved it
and was asking all sorts of questions! Her friend only recently
started believing in Christ so she was so interested and open! She was
asking some of the best questions anybody has ever asked me. Adela
actually asked her friend if she would be baptized with her! So God
gave us an inch with that and we took the whole yard. She said she
would love to be baptized! So we have two on track right now for the
26th! Her friend asked the difference between our baptism and that of
other churches. After a lot of scriptures here and there we finished
with the restoration and explained that we are the only church with
the Priesthood authority of God to do it. She ate it up!!
She asked for a BoM so naturally we gave her ours. The funny thing is
right in the middle of when I was inviting her to be baptized, I
straight up spilled my glass full of Aquarius (Gatorade) allllll over
my shirt and pants. But I
pretended like nothing happened and finished the invitation, she was
so so excited to be learning about Christ and how she can follow his
example. It truly has been so humbling, starting with Fabricio, to
Adela, now to Marí Sol, and seeing them do whatever is necessary to
change their lives to follow Christ and His way. It was one of the
most Spiritual and spiritually draining lessons I've been apart of. We
taught her how to pray and she offered the most sincere prayer I've
ever heard. It went something like this "...thanks for the health of
my family, Lord. In this moment I ask thee to show me if this is thy
way for me. I want to follow Christ and need to know if this is truly
your path for me. If this book, Joseph Smith, this church, the things
these men have shared with me are true or not. Guide me.....Guide
me... GUIDE ME!" She straight up called God to give her her answer. I
knew she was feeling the Spirit because you could just feel the
difference when she semi-yelled the last "guide me" it was absolutely
unreal. She closed her prayer and we stayed kneeling for a little more
than 10 minutes in silence. My pants were soaked, my shoes were
sticky, it smelled like Aquarius, we all had tears in our eyes, and
the Spirit was tangible I swear. So strong. We're so excited for these
woman!!







But yesterday we ran into a group of 20 Americans on a choir tour!
This lady comes running through the group "elders elders here's a hug
from your mothers!" And gave us these hugs hahah. We took pictures and
a couple of them were Mormons so it was fun. 

Good week, we had. If you're still reading this then you're probably a
family member or a true homie. Much love to you🏼️
I read Pres. Uchtdorfs talk from Oct 2014 called "is it I?" And it was
amazing. When we see or hear certain things, almost naturally we say
"this would be really good for (insert name here) to hear this. It
could really help him" when in fact, it's US who need to hear that.
But we're selfish humans at times and need to find out who we truly
are. Instead of thinking of who could use this certain talk or such,
we need to realize that it is for us. That we are nothing. That we're
less than the dust of the earth because the dust obeys God when we
don't sometimes. We are in fact nothing and we are a bunch of
nobodies. But through Christ, and when we are willing to humble
ourselves and ask ourselves "is it I?" Then we know our place and one
day will become even like Him.

Temple next week so day of preferring is Wednesday.️


Elder Gearig
Enviado por mi Liahona

Battle Creek, MI, FABRICIO, baby blessings, and family

PS>  An elder here is Elder Fletcher and he lived in Battle Creek! He said the Torrance's told him to look out for me! That was cool to talk back and forth about everything with him. He went to BC Central and lives behind KCC. Hahah small world eh? 

Once again here we are again. Soooooo many things happened this week I
don't even know where to begin. I'll briefly cover the important
things then my voice recording will go into details and have other
things as well. Let's goooooo
 
We have this awesome investigator named Willie. Willie is Dominican.
For those who are familiar with the Dominicans, they kinda live in
their own world and don't care about many things. Aaaaand don't like
commitments. Anyways, Willie never has time for us to me. Willie
always says he'll come to English but Willie never comes. Willie also
loves helping friends. Willie cuts hair. So I called Willie. I told
Willie that my companion needed a haircut. Willie told me to come over
asap. So I told elder wright he was about to get a free haircut. So we
went to Willies and Willie cut my comps hair. Willie is funny. We
taught Willie the restoration. Willie liked it. Willie said he wants
to read and pray. We are excited for Willie.
 
Wednesday we had a lesson that a member set up with her friend, which
was an absolute miracle. Her friend is also Dominican lol. But she was
super excited to meet with us! We taught the restoration a lot and
Elder Wright started saying the first vision and choked. He restarted
and choked again. We don't know what happened but he completely forgot
the first vision. After five minutes of struggling he managed to get
the major points in. I say this, because this was a vital point in the
lesson. During those five minutes of struggling, the Spirit was so
incredibly strong. You could just tell God was raining down His Spirit
through the mouth of this poor guy. I felt so bad for him, but the
spirit was so strong. This girl said an amazing prayer as we all knelt
at the end of the lesson. She asked God if these things were true and
if this his path for her. We sat in silence for a few minutes after
and the member friend started crying and bearing her testimony. It was
one of the most incredible feelings I've ever been apart of. The roll
of members in this work is so so important. absolutely vital. When a
member bears testimony about their experience with the Church, the
Spirit is undeniable. Absolutely awesome experience. Needless to say,
we got some bread (elder wright loves Spanish bread) after the lesson
to cheer him up because he was down on himself. But bread always
works(:
 
Okay yesterday was awesome! We got to the church and we were saying hi
to the few members who actually showed up early. Then I look in the
chapel and guess who was there?! FABRICIO! He stood up and waved at me
and I literally sprinted across the chapel and gave him the biggest
hug in the world. With tears in my eyes I asked him what he was doing
here. He said he came to see his baby be blessed. He was only there
for a few hours and drove like six hours just to be there for it. He
said "elder Gearig, sit down." So I sat down next to him. His wife and
aunt came over and then he said, "elder Gearig, I want you to give my
baby the blessing." I was without words. I got tears again and managed
to say that I would be honored to give the blessing.
   I sat there in silence and just started crying. This guy
disappeared a week before his baptism, we've been in contact every
other day for almost a month, then he randomly comes and asks me to
bless his baby. It was a roller coaster and one of the most humbling
experiences of my life. I sat there thinking "how in the world can I
give a baby a blessing? I've never done this and probably won't for
like 5 more years." Then I got this feeling that it'd be fine and to
not worry about it. So I stopped worrying about. Elder wright and I
put our hands on the baby and he rest is history because I don't
remember what I said. All I remember was how strong the spirit was and
how much God helped me in that moment. Tears didn't really stop coming
out for a long time. Then Fabricio left like thirty minutes later. I'm
kicking myself for not getting a picture with him but I called him
later and he promised me that we'd see each other again. I know I
won't see him baptized but it feels good knowing I helped him a little
bit.
 
Okay last one!mim so sorry this is so long but I want to explain these
things as best I can because of how incredible they were. There's this
less active/partial member family we visit once a week. The dad is
anti-Mormon and doesn't let his wife go to church or do anything with
the church for that matter. He won't let the 9 year old son be
baptized and the 13 year old has followed his example and wants
nothing anymore. So we had a little lesson with the mom and Angel of a
nine year old. Did an activity about the Holy Ghost then I asked him
to pick his favorite song to sing. He said "I only like one song so
I'll pick it." Guess what it was? Families Can Be Together Forever.
Again with the tears. All this little 9 year old wants is for his
family to be happy and to be together but it isn't possible right now.
It was one of the most sweetest moments I've been apart of. As we sang
I got choked up because I just couldn't handle it. With time and a lot
of prayer, we know the dad will come around.
 
 
Well there's so much more but I'll put it on the recording. Such an
awesome week!
 
 My decently good friend Andrew Gray wrote home last week about
families and how lucky he was to have such a great family even though
he didn't give them much of his time. I'm in the same boat. Elder
Reese also talked about how lucky he was to be raised with such a good
family and friends. I too feel extremely lucky to have been raised in
a home where the gospel was a priority. My dad has always been an
amazing example of a worthy priesthood holder and my mother is the
sweetest woman in the world. I may not have given them all my time,
but the mission really opens people's eyes. Im grateful for this
church and the chance we have to be with our families for eternity. Be
grateful for what you have! But don't be content. There's always
something to improve on. Go read President Eyrings talk on Eternal
Families! Such a good talk.
 
Sorry again for the lengthy email. Love you all and have a good week!
 
Family Searchin,
Elder Gearig