Just a regular week here in Leon....Monday August 29, 2016

Fountain

Just a regular week out here in León! Don't remember a whole ton from
it but let's get it going.

Tuesday we stopped by this street contact we had who had searched the
Mormons on the Internet. He let us in and his apartment was thick of
smoke. He had an empty bottle of wine with coffee right next to it
haha. I literally could not speak. I'd open my mouth and I could feel
the smoke hitting my lungs haha. Then he says "I'm convinced your
church is right. Now prove me right." Lol okay man. So lesson 1, down.
Invitation to be baptized for the 24th, accepted. Said he'd read the
BoM in a week, yet to see. It was just super cool to see God prepare
this man and lead us to him. Yeah the WoW is gonna be a problem, but
this guy is looking really good right now. We went back Saturday. No
smoke. No alcohol. No coffee. So up until now he's looking good and
we're excited for him!

We were going through the area book last week and I called up this old
investigator Roberto. I took a different approach to the call and
after five minutes talking to him we were like best friends. Had a
lesson with him on Tuesday and he had the best questions in the world.
It's been over a year since he talked to the missionaries but he seems
a little different than what his sheet said about him. We was super
interested and willing to read and he said an amazing prayer to finish
it off. We'll follow up this week with him and hopefully he kept his
commitments! The work rolls on.

We met with Jeffy and he's reading and praying again! He still won't
come to church but he's super sincere in our lessons and is loving
everything, just got to get him reactivated! Super good kid, like 20
years old. Suuuuuuuper awkward though, but good(:

Had another lesson with Ivette, our atheist investigator. It's been
super awesome to explain who God is and His roll in our lives. She's
super super open and read the chapter we gave her and read even more
because she liked it so much! She loves the BoM and is so awesome and
prepared. 25 years of doing family history work until we found her,
Spirit of Elijah is strong with this one for sure. She's seriously
just the greatest, we're stoked for her as well(:

Thought: "Elder David B. Haight told a story about the sculptor
Michelangelo to illustrate the importance of seeing everything in
proper perspective: “As the sculptor was chiseling a block of marble,
a boy came every day and watched shyly. When the figure of David
emerged and appeared from that stone, complete for all the world to
admire, the boy asked Michelangelo, ‘How did you know he was in
there?’”
I love this. Just like sculptors and artists need to see the final
result in their minds as they work, we as well need to have the end
result in our minds as we live. The things we do in this life will
affect what we receive in the one to come. We need to see the bigger
picture!


Others:
-This Dominican was sewing my pants and started telling us that blacks
run the world. He's like "who are the best athletes? The biggest
celebrities? Your president? Blacks." Kudos dude, I agree.👍🏼
-Miguel is trying to get me to help type his version of the bible
because I type fast. Not sure how I feel about that. Maybe I'll just
re-re-modify it back to the original form.

Have a fab week.

Spain Lovin,
Elder Gearig

throwback to singing and teaching in the park,  MTC/CCM 2015 

throwback pictures to the MTC/CCM 2015

Monday August 22, 2016....yes it's been 12 months!!!

If you didn't guess by my subject, I had my hump day this week aka
BUMP day. Andrew Gray told me hump implies there's a down hill. And
there's no time for downhill on the mission. It's all work until the
end. So s/o to him. Also congrats to Elders Hallz and BSiv for their
bump days this week(:

Well good luck to Hannah this week! She'll be coming to Spain's mtc
soon so she'll be experiencing life here for a couple weeks.

Also elder wright is coming to my zone now(:
And elder smith is training(:


Well this week was definitely a crazy one. We had transfers and I will
officially be killing Elder Priest! And I don't just mean that because
he eats super loud, but I'll be killing him mission-wise. Aka I'm
sending him home. So Saturday morning was spent arranging travel for
the missionaries in our zone, it's like a giant jigsaw puzzle that's
already figured out but you just have to prove you know what you're
doing. It was super fun!

Elder Reese and I talked Wednesday night and reminisced about the past
year together. No tears were shed but crazy that we've only known each
other for a year. Less than a year left and that's scary😳

Wednesday we had a lesson with a recent convert (he investigated for 3
years so he already knows everything) and he's having tough times
because his friends hate him now. But he's seriously so smart and so
willing to admit he having problems which I thought was super cool. We
had an awesome lesson about how to be a Mormon in Europe and he loved
it. Basically told him God saved him for these last days because he's
stronger than the people who came before him and he loved that. He's a
stud.

Thursday we had lunch with the most spiritually intelligent man I've
ever met. He knows everything, no joke. Not literally, but more than
anyone I've ever met. He was President Hinckleys personal body guard
when he came to dedicate the temple and he had a few nights in a row
when it was literally just those two, one on one, having
conversations. He said he's the funniest man he's ever met. Also he
was the night watchman of the temple and was alone in the temple a lot
at night and has craaaaaazy stories😳😳I can't write them though.

The priesthood lesson yesterday was so legit. This member we spend the
most time with is the second most intelligent man I know, maybe first
actually because the previous number one was present and he admitted
he learned new things as well. Anyways... What I learned was that the
Israelites were marching around for 40 years and lived off of water
and bread. Basically nothing else. With water or bread they would die.
It was their nutrients. So when Christ says "I am the bread of life"
and "the living water" he's literally implying that we can not live
without him. Just like the Israelites needed bread and water to live,
we all need Christ to live. I thought that was cool.

There's this LA we've passed by for the past two months and we finally
had a lesson with him and his mom. We talked about Small and Simple
things. He's 18 and is inactive and his mom knows everything is true
but can't be baptized because won't give up the WoW. So we had a super
spiritual lesson about how the small things bring bigger things in our
lives. Basically reading and praying will grow our testimony so we can
complete the bigger tasks to get us to exaltation. It was awesome.

Fun facts of the week (stealing this from Hallz and THans)
-Gave a blessing to a LA because he got stabbed and was scared to go
to the street. Walked into his house and every open space on the wall
had pictures of marijuana haha. With his baptismal certificate and a
picture of Christ in the middle. Nice man.

-Miguel did get super offended after all. Apparently telling someone
you can't rewrite the bible and publish it doesn't sit well. We're on
good terms now.

-I made German pancakes and cinnamon syrup by myself #WifeMeUp. #Happy1YearToMe

Quotes: (both from Pres Hinckleys Teachings of the Prophets)
“Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of
time running around shouting that he has been robbed.
“Most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to
be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of
mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. …
“Life is like an old-time rail journey--delays, sidetracks, smoke,
dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful
vistas and thrilling bursts of speed.
The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.”

"Behind us is a glorious history. It is bespangled with heroism,
tenacity to principle, and unflagging fidelity. It is the product of
faith. Before us is a great future. It begins today. We cannot pause.
We cannot slow down. We cannot slacken our pace or shorten our
stride."

If you made it this far then I love you and I wish you a swell week.


Don't stop believin',
Elder Gearig

The big picture

Alright so Thursday was zone training and I trained on how to amplify
our vision and see the big picture in everything we do. I drew this
application to football with the offensive coordinator up in the press
box and he can see everything going on on the field and that's God for
us and we need to trust in what he sees and do what he says. If I had
more time I'd explain better exactly how it was lol.
Ate pizza and played Mafia as a zone after so that was a good bonding
time and was really fun actually.


Friday morning we taught the less active that wants to come back and
get the priesthood. It was good, but before we left he showed us this
book he was writing and he's basically rewriting the bible to make it
more interesting and is going to publish it. We told him it wasn't a
good idea and doctrine shouldn't be changed and he got pretty offended
and won't answer his phone so we might have lost him as well...

Saturday was...interesting. This member calls us asking for help for
home teaching so we said yes. We go to this pueblo and he basically
kidnapped us to show us this renessaince fair thing. We were super
mad. He wasted our whole morning. At least he likes us enough to do
that though. And we saw bad acting and a fake battle.

Sunday we started church with like ten members there. Right before we
sang before the sacrament, our 89 year old investigator walks in and
yells  "buenos Días" twice haha. It was hilarious.

Here's a couple of thoughts to end.
The Master Highway builder.
The way to exaltation is not a freeway featuring unlimited vision,
unrestricted speeds, and untested skills. Rather, it is known by many
firms and turnings, sharp curves, and controlled speeds. Your driving
skill will be out to the test. Are you ready? You're driving. You
haven't passed this way before. Fortunately, the Master Highway
Builder, even our Heavenly Father, has provided a road map showing the
route to follow. He has placed markers along the way to guide you to
your destination.

James 1:22. Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only.


Elder Gearig
Enviado por mi Liahona

Asunto: Castles, Miracles, Christ, and everything in between

Asunto: Castles, Miracles, Christ, and everything in between

 

Happy Monday to you all wherever you find yourself. A TON happened
this past week so apologies for the size of this email. And shout out
if you make it to the end #squad #fam. I'm currently on a train to
Madrid for Concilio so by the time you read this I'll be breaking
Elder Reese's ankles because we're playing basketball today so pray
for his ankles!😎
Also I have a TON of pictures so I apologize as well.😁

So last PDay we went and checked out this sweet Templar Castle. It was
actually closed when we got there but the pictures from the outside
were still sweet.

 We found some wild fruit and ate it because the
member told us it was better than the fruit from the tree of
life...and he was probably right. It was delicious. 😍 went to the
Roman Empires capital in Spain on the way home and saw some cool
things and had the best chocolate I've ever had. All in all a pretty
solid PDay 😎
So Tuesday was the greatest day ever. We spent all three hours in the
morning contacting and talked to like 60 or 70 people and didn't get a
single number. That's like everyday for us though. MmmBut Tuesday
afternoon was the greatest. We have been working with this LessActive
27 year old (Miguel(he one who proposed to his Californian friend (she
kind of said yes(for next summer(he's going there for Christmas)))))
so we went to visit him. We were watching "Patterns of Light" by Elder
Bednar and talking about recognizing the Spirit and he was like "it's
always been super easy to recognize it for me. It's always with me."
Then why have you been less active dude?! Bt it was cool still, then
he leaves after the second video and was like "I have an idea" and he
brings his mom (Marta) back with him. His mom has major problems with
the WoW. Like..major. He vents to us all the time about it and so we
were scared at first. We had 10 minutes with her and by the end she
was crying and telling us how she's never felt that peace or
tranquility in her life. We said a prayer and she left because she was
embarrassed of crying again. Then we went to the other room and said
bye and she was just super happy and it was just amazing to see The
Spirit working within her. Biggest miracle for me. And she's Spanish
so that's a miracle in itself.

Right after, we had a lesson with a street contact and the guy was
actually home! Taught the restoration and he loved it! He believes a
lot in science though which throws some alarms nut it's all good.
Going back this week so hopefully he read!

That night we had family home evening for the YSA there and we threw
it together last second and actually had a lot of people there! All
are less active except one and luckily he's like their leader so they
all came. We had a ton of fun and it was cool to get to know kids my
age and just have fun and be myself. Tuesday was. Good day😊

Wednesday through Friday we were up in Oviedo and Gijón for exchanges
with the DLs up there and I want to serve there so bad. It was so fun,
I'll make a voice recording for that though. And I saw the ocean for
the first time since Vigo😍

Friday we got home and immediately had a lesson so we didn't eat
lunch. It was a new investigator and she's actually atheist but not a
normal atheist. She's Cuban and so the communists there like forced
atheism on her so she said she's open to know if God really exists.
She actually has done her family history through the church for 25
years now but just never has met with missionaries until now. She said
she's completely open and willing so hopefully we can help her believe
in God! We gave her a couple chapters to read and she said "give me a
week, I'll need to read them a few times." Hahah she's awesome! Family
History softens hearts people!

Saturday we visited Miguel and Marta again(: we taught Miguel alone
because his mom was too tired to come): but we were leaving and he was
like "one second, don't leave!" He opens the door and looks back with
the goofiest smile on his face and was like "she's awake!" So Marta
came in and we taught the restoration. She already has an awesome
testimony if the spirit and it's super easy for her to recognize. Such
a powerful lesson and I've never felt a peace like that while I've
taught. I keep meeting these people who are so willing to change their
lives and improve everything and it is so impressive. Jhexel in Vigo,
Fabricio and Adela in Toledo, now Miguel and Marta here. They've made
such an impact on me and I just love them all so much. Now I hope
Marta will actually be baptized unlike the others (yet). It's
seriously been so humbling  to see this woman with heavy addictions be
willing to meet with us. She admitted she has a problem, and wants
counseling, for the first time in her life. Miguel is so excited
because he was about to move out because he couldn't handle living
with his mom. Now they can stay together!(: thanks for not being an
addict Mom👍🏼😊

Speaking of Fabricio: he called me the other night and he is working
in Valladolid which is close to León. I'll actually have to do
exchanges there soon so I'll get to see him(: he's still the same
enthusiastic dude and still calls me " hermano jee-arr-eej" hahah I
love that man.

Also I talked to elder smith on the phone and I still love and miss him.

I have such a strong testimony about obedience and enduring. When
everything is going bad, Gods just testing us to see if we'll still be
faithful and obedient. We've had nothing here but as we've been
obedient and kept on keeping on, the Lord came through and blessed us
with these three new investigators. The Lord truly is preparing his
sheep and is doing it through us, we just have to all do our part!

Well that's a little bit of what happened this week! I'll throw some
more on a recording. Love you all!

G Preachin,
Elder Gearig