When September ends...

Hey everyone! Not much has happened this week so we'll touch some
 highlights shall we?

 So we taught our first lesson of the week Thursday. It was in an
 intercambio, I was with elder pitman from Pocatello Idaho.
 That night we had 10 elders come down to sleep in our piso because of
 zone conference the next morning. It was insane. I made breakfast
 burritos for everyone and they were delish. I never want ten elders in
 a piso ever again....

 Zone conference was awesome. We talked all about the BoM and how to
 better use it in the work. It was definitely inspired and we received
 a lot of revelation. Well I did at least, I hope the others did as
 well haha.
 Exchanges with the APs after was legit, I was with Elder Boyd from
 Murray! He loves basketball and music so we had a blast together haha.
 We had 6 lessons planned between the four of us and 5 fell through...
 the one that actually happened was with some Indian guy who came back
 20 minutes later to return the BoM and drop us. So that was sad.
 I had this feeling to knock every door in this building after a lesson
 failed and Elder Boyd has the same feeling. So we did! 12 floors of
 doors to knock. We met some cool people and found this Venezuelan guy
 who we'll visit later this week so that was definite inspiration to
 knock😊 that's all that happened though Hahah. We took out some
 people's garbage though! #servics


 Elder Trantham and I talked for like an hour that night about his
 life. He's a legit MMA fighter! He's from Green Mountain, up by Ogden.
 Inspired me to want to become a fighter too... but that won't happen.
 So naturally him and Elder Priest had a wrestling match😶 it was
 hilarious, elder Boyd and I just died laughing the whole time😂

 So we finished the week with 3 lessons taught so I don't have any
 super spiritual experiences to write about. So I apologize for that.
 But we have seen small miracles in our street contacting! We've been
 working hard to find new creative ways to find people and they've been
 paying off. Hopefully we actually get to meet with some of these
 people!

 I read a talk from April 2014 called "Your 4 minutes". Talks about
 this Olympian who trained her whole life for a four minute event and
 had the rest of her life to dwell on what happened in that event.
 Elder Stevenson related to our own lives. We prepared in the pre earth
 life for our own 4 minutes on this earth and we will have all eternity
 to think about our four minutes here. We need to do all we can to
 follow Christ so we have no regrets as we look back on our lives here!

 Hope you all have a great week!

 On Pushin,
 Elder Gearig

 I tried getting in all of elder priests goodbye photos haha

Sucker punches and Jinxing the Drought

Good day to all. Hope everything is splendid wherever this letter finds you. 

Let's get started.

So after PDay last week, we were walking around doing some lass byes and contacting and we come out of this building to this group of like 6 little kids. One yells "elder!" No clue who these kids are haha. He saw my name tag so that's how he knew my name. So I'm talking to this group of like 8 year olds and this little girl runs up to me, winds up her arm, and throws a mean right hook at me. She was 7 and I'm not freakishly tall, so just imagine where a 7 year olds fist would end up.😳 below the belt is correct. I dropped like a rock. It was pretty funny though. 

So I mentioned a drought last week..I meant that in two different ways, both of which were ended this week. Tuesday-Thursday consisted of freezing weather and nonstop rain. I was in heaven😍 it was awesome. The other drought was a little different. We've lost all our investigators and for the past three weeks we've been working super hard to find new people. So in three weeks of nonstop knocking and contacting, we received 1 phone number. 1!! The majority of every day is spent talking and we only got one number... so we switched a lot of things up, thanks to divine inspiration. It worked, we got more phone numbers this past week. Droughts=ended. 

Friday morning we had to head to Benavente, an area that was closed. We had to clean the Piso and take all the mission stuff out because they're shutting the area for good. So all morning was spent cleaning and salvaging things that were still good. The owner came by and she is a devil. But we softened her up and left on good terms. This member there helped us out and fed us with her and her family after. They made us Paella😍😍 then we ran to the bus and barely got it. Luckily she had to come up to León the next day for an activity and was able to bring her car full of stuff we got from the piso there so that was a huge help. Also Elder Thomas (from Bingham) happened to be here as well and helped us get it to our piso. 

Wednesday I did exchanges with our DL. From 4-10 we did not leave the streets. All lessons failed (weren't that many in the first place) so we contacted all afternoon. Around 8 I decided we would find a bench and offer another prayer. So we did just that, and decided to pass by a potential investigator. She wasn't home, so we knocked every door in her building, from the 10th floor down. We got nothing. I was hoping to have a cool finding story for you guys but I don't, haha sorry. What is cool is that at the exact same time we prayed, our companions (on the other side of town) prayed as well and they actually did find someone right away. The power of prayer! I think our prayer helped them as well. But that person they found failed the lessons we had set up. Such is the life. 

Here's a quote from President Monsons talk "Guided Safely Home"

Like the vital rudder of a ship, brethren, we have been provided a way to determine the direction we travel. The lighthouse of the Lord beckons to all as we sail the seas of life. Our purpose is to steer an undeviating course toward our desired goal--even the celestial kingdom of God. A man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder, never likely to reach home port. To us comes the signal: chart your course, set your sail, position your rudder, and proceed.

Christ is here to guide us safely home! All we need to do is follow him. It's that simple. Follow him in all things and when we have doubts, focus in the things we KNOW are true, and then doubt those doubts before we doubt everything we know based off of not being sure on kne little thing (I hope that makes sense) 

Have a great week!

Dos Cadenas,

Elder Gearig 

Elder OBoyle and I during the exchange

 

For English class we made our dream islands. That's a house that goes under water FYI. And a '63 Corvette.

 

Looking to dunk on some people this fine P-Day😎

TO MADRID AND BACK

Goooood morning all. Hope you all enjoyed some stellar moments of silence for those of us outside of the USA yesterday. We took a 15 second one while we were contacting, then proceeded to contact again.
I love America. 

Basketball on Monday was super fun. Idk if any of you know Eric Brock,
he went to WJ for a little bit, but he's a beast and a long lost
homie, and we balled out for sure. With Elder Reese naturally, but I
talk about him in the majority of my emails so I'll give this one to
Elder Brock.

After that we went and visited one of Elder Priests converts there in
Madrid while we were there. He has always talked about this family and
how they're the best and he proved to be right...for once.?? no but
really, this family was awesome. We had such a cool talk with them for
like an hour about life. They were giving us marriage advice and such
and I left more motivated than ever to find families like them to
baptize. Meeting them once changed my way of thinking in a lot of
things. I will definitely be visiting them again.

Tuesday was MLC at the mission home and that's always a super
spiritually uplifting experience. Plus I sat next to Reese and
Campbell so it was an MTC reunion. We had a semi-decent Labor Day bbq
after with less-than-decent home made root beer (root beer doesn't
exist here(basically anything other than coke doesn't exist here)) and
elder Campbell got me to eat way too much of this dessert that will
melt your face off its so good. But I had a three hour train ride to
enjoy after so no worries. Also got my hair cut that night by a member
and it turned out decent.

Saturday we helped my favorite family here in León paint a room.
Thanks Dad for teaching me how to paint, should have taught my comp
how too as well ???? plus TwentyOne Pilots and other great groups came
on the radio while doing so #tendermercies

So we have been teaching his Colombian, Roberto, and this guy is
straight fire???? well...I should say WAS...because he was progressing
super quickly....then my luck came into play. Because he got a job in
Dubai and left for a few months. Fabricio, Adela, Marí-Sol, and now
Roberto. All these super super golden prepared people being swept away
by jobs before they're able to be baptized. Some even had their
baptismal interviews already. Super sad stuff but I have the faith
that he'll be baptized someday(: he was asking us questions about Gods
other worlds and other children and why it was necessary that Christ
came to save us on this world and it was a super deep lesson. Good
guy, good guy,..

Everything I've studied this week has been coming back to eternal
marriages and marriage advice. Like every member we visit, Sunday
school and priesthood lessons, conference talks I've randomly
read...idk what Gods trying to say here...??
Read an awesome, non-marriage related talk called "Yes, Lord, I will
follow thee." Super simple talk talking about how all our choices
should be based around Christ, and whether it will help us grow closer
to him or not. Here's a quote "As you strive to come to Him, you will
gain the power to relieve life’s burdens, whether physical or
spiritual, and experience a positive inner change that will help you
be happier."

That's about it. We're in a pretty big drought here in León right now
so I'm gonna have to play ball here and get it wet a little bit.?? but
we're pushing through and are gonna find some people, I'm sure of it.
Just trying to help Elder Priest finish these last 3 weeks strong!
Until the next one, my friends.


Fighting the fight,

Elder Gearig

Hello my beloved beloveds. Hope the week has been splendid because
mine has been just dandy! Happy birthday to Andrew Gray, shoot him a
happy birthday-> Andrew.gray@myldsmail.net
Also good luck to Bailie leaving on the mish tomorrw!

Well a lot happened this week so let's get to the fun stuff.

So Tuesday we met with an old investigator from a while ago, he's a
Romanian gypsie. All this guy wants to do is fight. He has a super
cool story about finding God in his life, he was in jail and found a
bible and has a super cool and powerful story. But because of that,
he's completely closed to any other beliefs and is 120% convinced that
he knows everything. He hates Joseph Smith and basically us in
general. But he said he would read and pray with an open mind and
heart so we gave him a shot. The first lesson wasn't bad with him, I
just had to keep Elder Priest under control. Then we bid him farewell
until Saturday.

Wednesday-Friday was spent in Oviedo and Gijón doing exchanges. I saw
elder wright again so I was stoked. Good father son bonding time😎
elder doxey and I taught this Nigerian family and it was a crazy
experience. Four little kids running around naked and their mom
yelling at them in like three languages. It was....fun....I suppose.
The 10 year old was actually participating though and when we invited
them to read and pray, he said "not a problem" and started praying on
the spot. I thought that was neat☺️ no wonder Christ says to be as
little children.

Elder Priest got super sick Saturday. During comp study he ran
downstairs and starting making noises I've never heard before.
Apparently he threw up. So an hour later I made him get dressed so we
could go play soccer. My baaaaad. He didn't play, and we ran to the
church so he could continue making weird sounds and throwing the rest
of the day was spent in the chapel and we had a couple lessons there.
One of which was with the gyps again. And this guy is a gyyyyyps
people. Straight up gyps (not in a good way). The moment he saw us he
started saying it was stupid they call us "Elders" instead of our real
names and he wouldn't drop that. So we start the lesson and he really
liked what he read in the BoM so we talked about that. Then he started
fighting about the sabbath day and why it's on Sunday and not Saturday
so we showed some scriptures in the bible and he just laughed and
called us liars. Elder Priest was dead at this point and was having
none of it. I kept my cool but he lost it. He started calling us liars
and antichrists and Joseph Smith worshippers and a lot of other things
I won't repeat. We called the lesson after that and sent him in his
way. As he walked out, him and my comp were fighting back and forth
and I told my comp to go inside while I cooled the guy down. I told
him to keep going with his faith and keep reading and stuff then he
turned around and started walking at me and yelling and saying he
knows I'm wrong and am going to hell and all that stuff. So I just
walked in and locked the door.

Roberto came to church yesterday and really liked it. Had a good
testimony meeting even though three 70 year olds tried one-upping each
other's testimonies and took like 15 minutes each...
I bore my testimony based on the poem "footprints in the sand". For
those that don't know, it's a poem and there's two sets of footprints
on the sand. The beach is the persons life and one footprint is his
and the others is Christs. During the difficult times there was only
one footprint and the man asks Jesus "why did you leave me?" And
Christ responds "this were the moments when I carried you." That's the
jist of it. But it's true, we are never alone in our trials. Christ
literally cannot leave us, it's against His nature. We just need to
turn to him more than before and continue in faith with hope and trust
and He'll carry us through.

Yesterday was spent all day in the piso taking care of my dead comp.
he's still super sick. But we're in Madrid now and I'm gonna play some
ball while he watches and rests. Love you all!


Wake me up when September ends,
Elder Gearig

I thought it'd be a good photo.

Elder Priest