Monday, November 28, 2016

I ATE PUMPKIN PIE




Turkey legs




Happy anniversary you two👍🏾

Keep being the best parents out there, and go to the temple for me!

Hope everyone had a fantastic thanksgiving! Especially those in the
states, I hope you ate enough to make up for those of us who are
outside of the USA. However, a member did prepare turkey legs for us
and we had a little thanksgiving dinner Thursday night. Still not the
same but better than last year when I ate octopuses 🐙

Well Monday and Tuesday we were in Madrid for MLC and played some
basketball and had a mini turkey bowl so I was content with life. Then
we had a thanksgiving lunch and PUMPKIN PIE. There's a Costco in
Madrid so Hermana Pack bought pumpkin die, I almost died. That's my
favorite thing about life and I almost went two years without it. Big
tender mercy.




Monday night we did exchanges with the APs and elder Boyd and I took
their car out to a pueblo and taught a cool lesson. I felt like I was
in Mexico, walking down a dark dirt road to an isolated house with
chickens and dogs. It was awesome(:

Thursday we had zone training so that's always fun to see all the
other missionaries for a few hours. We talked a lot about baptizing
and what we need to do to increase the quality of the teaching to
baptize more converts. It went well I feel like. Just need everyone to
put it into practice haha. Also introduced the missionaries to the new
Christmas initiative. Everyone, go to Mormon.org and participate in
the "25 ways.25 days" initiative! Miracles will happen.
Since it was thanksgiving and we are all American except like
four...we had a thanksgiving lunch! We had our Pakistan friends make
us a boat load of chicken so that's what we ate. After, we played the
name game (shouts @ squad) and.....like always....the boys blew it at
the end and the girls won...some things don't change. Me head hurt
from bad deja vu. 😶

But after, we had a lesson with Eric. And we met his family! His wife
was SO nice to us and he has two adorable little girls. We talked to
him and he continues to read and pray but still Has his doubts. Slow
and steady. We're hoping to start teaching his whole family and that
would be my first Spanish family on the mission. So we did a fast for
him this past weekend because they are exactly what this branch needs.

Kalifa is still doing awesome. Looking good for his interview this
Saturday and baptism next Sunday!

We also found a Honduran family. It's a BIG family and they're all
members except for the mom. They've all been inactive for a LONG time
but still know how to pray so that's good, they also loved their
missionaries from 2002. It was a huge miracle to find them in the
street a few weeks ago because nobody knows who they are. We're going
back on Friday but man, I'm without words. God is good. God is
realllllly good. We're super excited for this family (:

Well that wraps up the week! Pretty good week! Life's good, the
missions the best, and I'm happy. And very thankful for all of you,
especially my wonderful parents who had their anniversary last week!
You're all the best and share the light of Christ with everyone!


#ILUMINAelMUNDO,
Elder Gearig





Inspired Pastries

Hey all 👋
Happy turkey day this Thursday. I'll be participating in my first ever
turkey bowl today so wish me luck  🦃 🏈
Also I think my parents anniversary is this week so congrats for
keeping it strong. 👏

Well we had a stellar week out here in León. Things are rolling and I'm happy!

Monday during PDay we taught Kalifa a lesson on the word of wisdom and
law of chastity. He's in the clear 👍🏾 such a good guy. He's looking
good for the 10th still.
Tuesday we had Eric and he read what we asked him and prayed! One of
my favorite things about being a missionary is teaching people how to
pray and the power behind it. It's super cool and humbling seeing
people who have never prayed give it a shot and feel the power behind
it. He's doing well(:

Wednesday I did an intercambio with elder baerwaldt. We did one back
in Toledo so it was fun to get back together. We had a stellar day
planned originally but we got a few phone calls which ended up with us
in the streets for five hours. Perfect time to see miracles(: and we
had a cool one! There was a woman and her daughter looking in a store
window and I was like Oh cool, let's see if they want anything. Then I
realized what store it was. It was an Italian lingerie store. Red
light. I was like No way, I'm sorry I won't do it. But I did anyways
and it was awesome. They're from Puerto Rico and we're really
interested! We taught them for about fifteen minutes then the daughter
wanted to play hide and seek inside so that's when we called it quits.
I gave her a BoM with a chapter to read and went to get her number.
They're super new to Spain so didn't have a number and my heart like
shattered when she told me that. I was super excited for them and
still am, but I know we planted a seed to be harvested in the future
when they're truly prepared.

Friday was awesome! We had Elisa again. She's the one we found a month
ago and gave a BoM too, then finally met with her last week and she
blew us away by her awesomeness. Well this lesson was nothing short of
our expectations. She's sharing the gospel with her friends at work!
She said she has three friends who are interested! She read and prayed
and she said so,etching about "your church" then paused and said "I
mean OUR church" and Reese and I were like flabbergasted. She's so
prepared. She's so awesome. We talked about the plan of salvation she
she loved it! She was asking golden questions and lives such a
charitable life. What was cool, is that when she was talking about how
she helps people so much regularly and has such a perfect heart, Reese
and I both looked at her with tears in our eyes and saw the future
relief society president of León. It was such a powerful lesson. We
were speechless after. We walked back in silence just trying to grasp
of what just happened. It was amazing.

That night we had a strong craving for some pastries from a bakery.
Usually you should probably work instead of buy muffins, but we gave
in. We bought our pastries, ate them quick, then left. Within 15
seconds we saw an old investigator who we lost contact with for two
months! She stopped us actually! It was super cool and we visited her
yesterday and are going back next Sunday. God inspires appetites
sometimes 😎

So elder Reese and I cover 2 areas now because one got shut down. We
went to the other, Benavente, on Saturday and met with the 4 members
that attend church there. We also met with an old investigator Ronnie.
He's an MMA fighter from the DR and is super legit! He's way cool. We
invited him to be baptized for the 23rd of December and he said yes!
So we'll be going back once a week. He's super cool.

Yesterday was insane. We were at the church getting read for Ward
council when Luci came running in bawling her eyes out. Nobody knew
what was going on but apparently she was in a bad car accident. We
took off sprinting down the street in our suits (in the opposite
direction) to go help the other three sisters still in the car. By the
time we got there (after turning around and sprinting the other way)
they were pulling one of the woman out, the others were in ambulances
and she was screaming. It was traumatic. We didn't know what to do. I
had my oil in my hand and we were looking for a chance to give some
blessings but weren't able to. The car was rolled around a tree and
the airbags didn't go off, and nobody was wearing a seatbelt. Then it
started raining. I felt like we were in a movie. It was so sad. We
still had church and everybody offered a prayer one by one at the
pulpit, it was kind of cool and a really spiritual sacrament meeting.
Luci's back hurt but she's fine. A 70 year old was fine. But the other
two are in rough condition. One broke her hip and split her head open
against the windshield and we visited her in the hospital last nit.
WEAR YOUR SEATBELTS DARNIT.

We always visit Luci's family Sunday nights and it was our turn for
the lesson. We talked about gratitud and being grateful ALWAYS. It
shouldn't take a traumatic car accident for us to appreciate the
breath God gives us every day, or for our safety, or health. But
sometimes God has to give us a wake up call. It could have been so
much worse but luckily it wasn't. Be grateful. Always!
Love you all and be safe this week!

Pastry eating,
Elder Gearig

Monday, November 14, 2016

Ping pong paddles, pineapples, and prayers






Church from the eighth century, Sahagún, Spain.


Aloooooooooooha!
Transfers came, and transfers went. Elder Reese and I got one more
transfer! That'll make it 4 straight for me here. But they shipped
Elder Wright out way too soon ):
Happy birthday to my elbow #2Years. I think that's it for shoutouts.

Well we had an action packed week out here in España! We'll see how
many details I remember to make this email somewhat short.

Tuesday and Thursday we met with Eric. He's such a beast. He's a
police officer here and a kick boxer on the side. Just a tough guy.
But he is super open to our message and currently progressing super
well! He offered his first prayer last week! He's such a sweet father
to his two little girls and said he walks in while they're asleep and
watches them for a few seconds before he goes to work. We watched a
video about fatherhood with him and he loved it. He prayed with us and
he even prayed by himself that night! He's such a stud! We're super
excited for him and hope to keep him going!

About a month ago, we gave a BoM to this lady in the street. We
finally were able to meet with her Saturday. Her names Elisa! She is
the sweetest, openers lady ever! She's Mexican but has lived her for
35 years so she's basically Spanish. She had already read in the BoM
without meeting us for a month! She is super open and totally willing
to read and meet with us. She's just the best. She told us that when
we contacted her in the street, she had gotten off work early or
something and was thinking about different churches and had been
visiting others a couple days and weeks earlier. She said she's been
thinking about us a lot lately and wants to learn! It was such a huge
miracle to have met her. We're visiting her again tonight(: Miracles!

Kalifa continues to be gold. This past week, he read over 100 pages by
himself! It was amazing! This guy is legit. He came to church
yesterday and loves saying hi to everyone, he's basically a better
member than most others haha. He's such a stud. We met with him this
morning and taught the law of chastity and word of wisdom and he's
down to keep them! He's hilarious and one of the happiest guys I've
ever met. Saturday we had two of his roommates with us as well and we
gave them BoMs and taught them about prophets and the Ten Commandments
and kalifa like took over and started teaching about the BoM, it was
awesome. He's looking good for the 10th!

Yesterday we had a sweet experience! This less active called us in the
morning asking for a blessing. So we visited her in the hospital that
afternoon and brought our Branch mission leader, Pedro, with us. This
man is such a huge example of member mission work. We walked in to her
room and there was another lady with her granddaughter in their. We
got talking with Adriana, the less active, and the others were
listening. Pedro invited them over and reads and preaches from the BoM
and I almost started crying, he was NOT gonna miss an opportunity to
share the gospel. We gave her the blessing and I felt a little
uncomfortable giving it right there in front of two random people, but
the Spirit calmed me down and we were able to give her a blessing.
Right after I said amen, the other lady was like "wait you guys are
Mormon missionaries?" And we were like yeah haha. Her friends daughter
married an RM and they live in Idaho and she actually knew a lot about
us! So we were able to give her a BoM and invite her granddaughter to
English class. It was a sweet experience. Super grateful for member
missionaries like Pedro and for God helping us out in many different
ways.

Friday we had a Noche de Rama (family home evening for the branch) and
talked about prayers and receiving answers. Got put to the test! Right
after, we all left but the gate wouldn't shut, it's electric and
wouldn't come down. We figured the power was out so we tried getting
into the breaker box, it was locked. So I offered a few silent prayers
and elder Reese did as well. He got a ping pong paddle and started
prying at the door while I banged on it making a beat and having fun
then POP, it opened! We got the power back on and the gate closed
haha. Ping pong paddles and prayers!
Also we cut a pineapple yesterday.

Love you all! Have a fab week.


Our piso smells like pineapple,
Elder Gearig