July 17, 2017 The last melon

HEY HEY HEY.
Is this really happening?
Yes. This is real. Although it doesn't feel like it and probably won't
until I'm in Walmart alone and turn around to find my companion only
to realize I no longer have one...
But yeah! This week has been extremely insane!

We had zone conference in gran canaria so we flew over Thursday night
and had conference Saturday! Gave my "dying testimony" and heard 9
other fellow missionaries give theirs. It was quite emotional and
didn't feel real. Life is weird.

There's a quote from President Pack that I loved, he said "we are all
baby gods." Haha it was hilarious, but so true. We all have the
potential to literally become God's someday and what are we doing know
to prepare for that? We should act according to the potential we have.

Also had the last exchange of my mission. WITH WHOM? YALLREADY KNOW IT
WAS WITH ELDER REESE. It was epic. We didn't teach any planned lessons
but we had some epic contacts in the street. We found this lady named
Anabel and taught her for about 30 minutes there in the street and
left her with a BoM. It was epic and the chemistry was flowing strong.
We've got flow and that'll be useful in 3 weeks 🏈
But we had a good chat reflecting on our missions. Since day 1 we've
been in every zone together so we've basically had the same mission
and it was really special to reflect on the sweet moments we've had
serving these Spaniards, even though they're a tough bunch.
Had my last interview with President Pack and that was a bittersweet
moment. We talked about my last 2 years and how I felt and he extended
some invitations and we had a good chat.

My thoughts are super scattered right now and I don't know how to
properly write an email like this, and I'd be surprised if anyone
other than my parents and squad is reading this. I just want you all
to know that I know without a doubt that Joseph Smith is the Prophet
of this restoration which continues taking place. Thomas Monson is
God's man on this earth. The book of Mormon is true. IT'S SO TRUE. And
there's no other church upon the face of this earth that completes the
requirements the Bible has set for the true church. But I know these
things are true. I believed all of this before, but know they are
facts. I've grown so much and I'm ready for this next chapter in my
life and to apply these things I've learned! Have a great week and
we'll see you the next one!

Signing out for the last time,
Elder Gearig


Said bye to elder Brock. Lifelong friend and it was tough.

July 10, 2017 -- Week stuntin'

Not sure if I'll have time later so I'm throwing together something
quick right now!
Hope you've had a great week because ours has been stellar!

Last Monday we had a lesson set up with a less active and he showed up
with a friend so we were pretty stoked. It was an alright lesson but
we had another lesson later in the week with them again and the guy
brought his wife! So by the end of Monday we had two new investigators
for the week, with this 13 year old kid again as well. Another play
lesson, it's hard teaching in the middle of a round about basically to
a kid with the attention span of a fruit fly but hey, slow and steady
wins the race...or something like that.

We finally got another lesson with David! He's come 5 times to church
and does everything with the young men and young women and prays
better than them as well haha, basically a beast member already. But
we taught him and he was leading us right into baptism so we took it
by the reigns and went for it! He's been thinking about being baptized
even though we've only taught him twice and it was awesome! He'll be
baptized in August or September because he's leaving for a month, so I
won't be here but it'll be cool to see those pictures! He's such a
beast. Never met a 16 year old like him ever. He'll be a beast
missionary and hopefully he gets called to Utah 😶
Also his mom took the book of Mormon with her on vacation so we'll
need to do some follow up soon with her, another huge miracle.

Also something cool happened when we met with that 13 year old kid
Monday. In the middle of the lesson this other dude walks over and
interrupts us and says "you remember me?!" And I was like lol NOPE. I
contacted him 5 months ago and he gave us a number but never had time.
He said school ended and work did too so he had time! I called him the
next day and we met Thursday and it was a cool lesson! He's atheist
but we talked about everything from astronomy to the resurrection and
it was super solid, he really liked it! So 5 months later the guy was
ready to meet haha it was awesome!

I have a ton of pictures so hopefully I have time later to send them.
That's all I have time for, hopefully I can get around to some
personal emails before the end of the day but if not we can talk in
two weeks anyways. Love you all! Read the book of Mormon!


Do work,
Elder Gearig

---

July 3, 2017 -- Merica. Baseball. Hotdogs

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY AKA BEST HOLIDAY EVER AND SUCKS TO NOT BE IN THE US.
Went up to the mountains with the Hermanas and the senior couple, ate
hotdogs and the senior couple brought baseball gloves and an Hermana
here plays college softball so her and I tossed the ball around for
awhile and it WAS THE BEST DAY EVER. We flew Old Glory on top of the
Spanish mountains. Viva América.

Seriously that's all I can think of right now.

Last Monday we were hosting back to the Chapel to send emails and a
lady said "are you jehovas witnesses?" And we said "no. Can we talk
tomorrow?" And she said "tomorrow. 4 o'clock. Here." So we showed up
and she was there! Quickest lesson I've ever set up. She's kind of
crazy, and it wasn't a good lesson, but it was still cool haha.

The next day we decided to sit on a bench and make some calls. After a
few minutes this lady passes by and says "are you jehovas witnesses?"
Lol here we again. We said "no we're Mormons" and she sat down and we
taught her right there and gave her a BoM. It was a super cool
miracle! She's had a tough life full of drugs and abuse and it was so
sad listening but the atonement is so real! God definitely put us in
her path. 3 more weeks to go hard.

Our ward mission leaders friend has been feeding him antimormon stuff
and has sent him on the borderline of going inactive. Saturday we sat
him down and talked with him and it was such a powerful experience. We
cleared up his doubts and taught the plan of salvation and then
testified of Joseph Smith. He said "everything you just said is what
Pineda (member) told me as well..." And we just sat in silence as the
spirit hit him. He continued to bear a strong testimony about
missionary work and had me in tears. 3 more weeks to go hard.

Yesterday Juan bore his testimony for the first time in sacrament
meeting and did such a good job! He said some things I didn't know
about, like how hard his life was searching for the truth and right
when he wanted to give up, we found him in the street. I knew he was
looking at me and didn't dare look at him because I knew I'd lose it.
So I stared at my shoes and cried instead. 3 more weeks to go hard.

Those are some things that happened! Super grateful for this gospel in
my life and all the little details that have helped shape me.
Seriously there are so many things that have happened that have turned
into huge blessings. Look for the details! Love you all!

Next week we have another excursion so I shouldn't have any time again, sorry!


Detail searchin,
Elder Gearig


Pictures from our hike last week

June 26, 2017 Talent show and getting kicked out

We'll I'm currently in a barbershop watching some Uruguayan chop my
companions hair off and don't have much time. We also did a 10 Km hike
that took 4 hours, And I didn't write down the highlights so I forgot
everything that's happened except for a couple things so let's get it!

We've had a heat wave here do we've been dying lately.
Temperature-wise hasn't been terrible according to the thermometer.
But we're affected by the Sahara so when the sand comes, it traps
everything. It's been miserable, idk how to explain it. Wow.

Monday night Juan cut my hair, did a good job so I'm a happy camper.
Nothing better than a free haircut! That's a lie, because Elder priest
cut my hair once and that was a different story...

Tuesday we ate dinner with Juan and we were wrapping up when the owner
of his apartment came in and starting yelling at us and told us we
weren't welcome there and not to come back. Juan was super embarrassed
and apologized after he left, then the guy came up and tried speaking
to me in English and yelled at us again. It was real uncomfortable and
I just felt bad for the guy. Like we have something that could change
your life but he kicked us out... But Juan got a new place and it's
way better!

Monday night I felt we should walk instead of take the tranvía (trax)
so we did, and within 5 minutes I had this lady from Guatemala stopped
and a solid conversation going. My comp is from Salvador so their
neighbors and we were having a good time! Got her number and met with
her on Friday! It was SO solid! God's been preparing her for a long
long time and I just had this unexplainable feeling while teaching
her. I know she's getting baptized. I won't be here for it but she's
getting in that water! She had golden questions and just ate it up!
Some members were cleaning the Chapel during the lesson and one just
randomly sat in with us and turned out to share a strong testimony
that really got through to Yareni. It was amazing!

Saturday was the talent show we threw together and it was hilarious!
We had things from the saxophone to a Michael Jackson impersonator, to
a seaworld show (us missionaries) and the members loved it! Elder
Campbell (senior missionary) and I did something that brought the
house down haha. I was behind a screen and put my arms through his
shirt and we did his morning routine, it was hilarious I need to find
pictures.

As a mission we started the BoM again this past week and are going to
finish it before the end of the transfer (4 weeks) so we've been
reading pike crazy and I'm LOVING IT. I actually finished it again
personally this past week so the timing was perfect. I wish I had time
to wrote about my feelings for that book, but it's true!

Love you all! Next week we have an excursion with an investigator
planned so I don't think I'll have much time to write, just a heads
up!



G Preaching,
Elder Gearig

June 19, 2017 "How to die for dummies" ft. Swaganana

Little activity with our recent converts. #bananabreadandpancakes

Hey hey hey! Hope the weeks been good because ours sure has! Every
week on the mish is a good week, regardless of the "success" we've
had. Always a pleasure to represent Jesus Christ!

We'll first I'll explain my subject line. This past Thursday we had a
3 hour long meeting with a matrimony couple in Madrid and all the
missionaries who are going home this transfer. I'm sure the meeting
was great for those missionaries in Madrid...but I'm 1000 kilometers
away and we did it over Skype basically with other missionaries from
different parts of the mission, and it didn't work for us. On the
bright side, I have a lot of screens shots of Elder Smith haha. But I
called it the "how to die for dummies" meeting where they taught us
how to adjust to home life and whatnot. I think that's what they
addressed at least, like I said, the connection didn't work haha.

Second part, where we went today: Taganana. Dubbed Swaganana. It's beautiful.

We got a couple new missionaries to our district here, so I was
calling them this past week to get to know them to figure out how I
can better serve them and whatnot. The new Hermana asked me how many
baptisms I've had on my mission. I told her that that didn't matter
and she already knew that but she was just curious, so we got talking
about my areas and it was super cool to look back on the past 22
months and see fruits. See people I found that got baptized after I
left, see people I taught that got baptized months later, see less
actives who are now active. It just recomfirmed to me that we never
really know the fruits of our labors. And those fruits aren't the only
thing that defines us as people either. As long as we ourselves are
turning into who God needs us to be, we're being successful in life.

Yesterday we shared a video in a FHE called "my Kingdom is not of this
world" which is about 5 minutes about Christ and His ministry. The
only word I had to explain my feelings after was "amazement." It's
amazing what He did for us. There's no words in any language to
properly define what he really did for us. It's truly amazing the
amount of love he has for us to do what he did, to suffer what he
suffered, to ensure all that he endured, just so we have the
opportunity to become clean and become better people. Its the greatest
thing in the world to be able to testify of Him: that He lives.

Love you all!


Nana-Taga, Taganana,
Elder Gearig

June 12, 2017 By the numbers.

Hey everyone! Hope yall have had a good week! Things are doing swell
out here in paradise and I can't complain! We've had a good week and
I'll see if I can't remember some highlights for Ya! Let's get it by
the numbers.

4. BoMs given away. Tuesday and Wednesday I was on a different island
with my boy Elder Brock for exchanges! We had a blast! He's become one
of my best friends out here so it was awesome to get to destroy his
area with the gospel. We gave away some BoMs and took some cool
selfies with them which I'll attach. Played basketball against like 20
Filipinos and I felt like yao ming. It was a lot of fun! We talked to
3 17 year old girls for like 30 minutes about how we can Come to know
God and how He has blessed us, and it was cool being in the middle of
Babylon but teaching the gospel to these girls who could probably use
it. It was a really cool experience! We had a blast!

24: final count of mosquito bites after waking up Wednesday morning.

6: amount of times Raúl threw up WHILE DRIVING us to his little farm.
It was quite scary but looking back on it, still being alive, it's
pretty funny. Poor guy. Bless his heart.

1: number of corvettes I've seen on my mission and it was this past
week. The guy saw me taking a picture and stopped in the middle of the
road just so I could take a picture of his car haha.

1: transfer left. I'm super grateful for this opportunity to represent
Jesus Christ and am excited to give these last 6 weeks everything I
have and leave it all out on the field. There's no calling more
important than this one I currently have and these people of Santa
Cruz deserve the best.

17: number of weeks I've been trying to get in contact with this
recent concert less active and we finally got a lesson set up! It was
awesome! Her names Paula and she was confirmed,ed last June and never
came back. But she said it's a sign from God that we were sitting in
front of her and that she needs to put her priorities straight. She
failed on coming to church but she invited us back so we'll take what
we can get for now! Her husband did come to church for the first time
in awhile though!

Juan blessed he sacrament yesterday for the first time and I had a
front row view! It was super cool. He's made a ton of progress and
it's the best being able to see people progress in the gospel and make
changes!

Sorry for all the pictures I have to send, a lot has happened!

Do work,
Elder Gearig