I'm outty

Hope everyone had a great Christmas yesterday! Ours was pretty
awesome, definitely one to remember.
Happy 2nd birthday to my little niece tomorrow! Dec 27th

Got transfer calls on Saturday and after a very short 6 months, I will
be going to the heart of Madrid to he Madrid fifth Ward, or B5 as we
call it! It's elder Reese's old area so I'm stoked! My new companion
is elder Romney from sugahouse, he went to highland high school. He's
super cool and we're stoked to serve together. I ship out tomorrow!

We had a good last week to end the transfer. We've started teaching
Kalifa's friend and he came to church Sunday so that was super cool!
Tuesday we did exchanges and I was with elder polutu from Hawaii! We
had a sweet day! We taught less active Miguel in the morning and
talked about decision making and it was exactly what he needed. He
came to English class and told us how he's ready to turn his life
around and come back to the church starting NOW. It was awesome!

We passed by an old investigator named Roberto. He's a heavy drug
addict and I had no idea what to talk about with him. So we just
starting testifying of the atonement and the trials that God puts in
our lives. He didn't say much but the Spirit was definitely there and
Elder Polutu did a good job on the fly. Hopefully this guy and come
around.


Christmas was awesome! Hardly nobody came to church which was sad..
but we had Kalifa and his friend and Miguel came! Us 4 missionaries
sang a musical number too😬 after church I took some pictures with
some members and it was super sad for me. I've grown to love these
people so much and it sucks saying bye.
After that we went and visited a member in the hospital and sang A TON
of songs for her and her friend there too. Her friend started crying
because she's super lonely and has been there for a year. So we went
to another room and sang for another person and it was just an
incredible experience to be able to spread some Christmas cheer.

Skyped the fam which was awesome as always 😎 they're the best.

The Riveras

Then I had my last dinner with the Riveras. I don't know how to
explain that hour and a half... it was hard for me. It was just a
giant spiritual tender experience. The dad isn't a very emotional
person, but he's a little spiritual knowledge giant. He got all
emotional talking about how we sang to people in the hospital and how
big of an impact it had on him and started crying. Luci, the 16 year
old, was crying the whole time. She's gonna miss me a little too much.
Good thing elder Reese is staying though. I just had tears in my eyes
and a lump in my throats the whole time. I said the closing prayer and
couldn't hold it in any longer and started crying and asked God to
bless them because they need it. They've become such a huge part of my
life in these six months and it was one of the saddest points of the
mission saying bye to them. I'm such a baby 😅
We also wrapped up some BoMs and handed out Christmas presents
yesterday. That was fun(:
Well those are a few of the thing that happened. I'm super super sad
to leave but excited for the new challenge B5 has to offer(: love you
all and please be safe this weekend!

Singing loud for all to hear,
Elder Gearig

Deuces León

Chocolate con leche

Good day to all.
Don't have a bunch of time but I hope everyone has a meeey Christmas
and that all can remember the reason for this holiday!
Also happy birthday to my older brother William on Saturday!
Also transfers see this week so stay tuned next week to see where I go!

Well Kalifa was confirmed a member yesterday and I had the opportunity
to do it. Always a special spirit seeing and being apart of something
as sacred as that. This last week he went out and bought himself a
brand new suit, shirt, shoes, and tie for church😂 this guy is legit.
We were taking pictures after sacrament and instead of saying cheese
le whatever he was like "chocolate con leche" and we lost it😂 because
we literally look like milk and he looks like dark chocolate. It was
legendary.

Also he told us a cool story yesterday. He used to drink, and party
with his friends before we met him. One night, his mom visited him in
a dream and reprimanded him for what he was doing with his life
because that's not what she had taught him. Two days later, we found
him on the street. He made every change necessary as soon as he could
to get back on the right path and he's gonna be such a great
instrument in Gods kingdom. Sweet story (:

Also we passed by Elisa randomly while we had a member with us and she
happened to be home so we went up and had a little lesson with her!
She was sick and we were able to explain priesthood blessings and gave
her one. She was like speechless after, she loved it! She's super
excited to come to church this Sunday and for her baptism in February.
She just works so much that it's literally not healthy for her.

Friday night was the Branch Christmas party and it was pretty good! We
were in charge of the Living Bethlehem and it wasn't too bad haha.
Some of the members who helped us went all out for their parts, we had
Samuel the Lamanite prophesying of Christs birth snd he memorized all
of Helaman 14 for it it was hilarious. And he's South American so he
is literally a lamanite. It was hilarious 😂 I had the honors of
stoning him with paper balls with elder Reese haha.

Well that's about it. I hope everyone can remember Jesus more during
his week and make good New Years Resolutions that will help you grow
closer to him. It's crazy how this year has flown, just like that the
tunnel year is gone. But I'm grateful for every second I have to be
the Lords representatives. Much love to you all and have a great and
safe week!

Más-Christ,
Elder Gearig


It was super misty and the cathedral looked cool

Baptizing Kalifa

First things first, shout out to squad for putting out another
missionary. Skye Hall going to Argentina, super lucky girl!
Also I have a lot of pictures to sorry in advance.

Well a lot has happened so I'll cut to the chase.

I forgot to tell a story from last Sunday. Elder Reese and I were
contacting right before our weekly dinner appointment. I wanted to
contact this area I'd never been to before so we started walking and
quickly second guessed it. We had no idea why we were there. So we
start talking to people and got nothing. Elder Reese was like "you
wanna start heading back?" And I was like "yeah right after we baptize
this family walking towards us." So we start talking and they stopped!
What's more, is that the mom was American! So we start talking to them
and they were great! THEN THE CRAZIEST THING HAPPENED. ELDER REESE
PULLED AN ENGLISH BOM OUT OF HIS BACKPACK. I literally said out loud
"what the heck are you doing with an English Book of Mormon?" And he
says "I had a feeling to get it. Here, it's for you." And she was SO
GRATEFUL FOR IT. IT WAS UNREAL. Then seconds later we gave another one
to another family. So that's why we went down that street. Shout out
to my como for listening to the Spirit.

We taught Eric last Monday and it was great. Had a lesson planned, but
quickly realized that it didn't fit his needs, so we adapted the
lesson and had a great one about prayer. At the end, elder Reese and I
both got the feeling to invite the rest of his family to come watch
the Christmas video. So we had his whole family watching the video,
then Eric offered an awesome KNEELING prayer with his family. It was
unreal. The first of many 😎

Went to A Coruña and spent days traveling and beating the hermanas in
UNO on the train. Had a good Christmas conference with two zones
combined and saw the Galician beach for the first time in almost a
year. It was solid. Stayed the nights in Lugo. Beautiful city (sorry
elder priest for always make fun of it).

LESSON WITH ELISA WAS UNREAL. We walk in and she was so excited to
tell us she can come to church on Christmas! Also she now has a
baptismal date for February 18th! (Happy birthday Alyssa). Guys, I
promise you she will be the relief society president some day. Never
been this sure in my life. This lady is as gold as they come. She's so
prepared. The branch here NEEDS her. She's actually planning a service
project for us to go feed the poor, and she's cooking ALL the food.
She's unreal. I'm so excited for her.


KALIFA GOT BAPTIZED! It was so cool. It was my first baptism on the
mission and I'll never forget it. His face coming out of the font was
priceless! Biggest smile I've ever seen! We had our gospel principals
teacher baptize him and it was just an all around solid program.
Kalifa was so happy. He was supposed to give the closing prayer, but
got up and bore his testimony instead. It was unreal. He's come soooo
far and it was just the best. His prayers are SO sincere and
heartfelt. This guy is awesome. I remember the night we found him. We
were running home because we were late but we had a feeling to talk to
ONE more person. So elder Reese stopped Kalifa, he gave us his
address, and we taught him the next morning. He also got home from
work at 3 am the night before his baptism. He's so dedicated already
and is stoked to keep learning. We baptized Kalifa 😎

Love you all!

#ILUMINAelMUNDO,
Elder Gearig

Mr. Matchmaker

Gooooooood day to you all! Hope your day has been as productive as
ours. Bought groceries, cleaned, got our hair cut, built a gingerbread
house, decorated our piso for Christmas, and made quesadillas. That's
a productive PDay.

We had a stellar week out here so let's see what I can remember.

Monday we went to yajaira and she made us arrepas. They were sooooooo
good. I also made my cookies again so we had a good shindig. She had
her friend Kati over so we taught her and gave her a BoM but she lives
in France and already left. She appeared fairly interested though.
We've been struggling to teach Yajaira because there are three little
kids and a dog that don't stop moving, it's been really hard to have
the spirit. But Thursday we had another lesson and applied some things
we learned in district meeting and had a stellar lesson with her! She
said she'll be baptized so we're super excited to return again
tonight!

Wednesday we went up north for district meetings. We got to Oviedo and
arrived at the chapel when I realized I didn't have my back back. I
freaked out and we ran to the bus station but it had left for Gijón.
Luckily Gijón was our next destination. I called the hermanas up there
and they ran to the bus station to see if they could get my backpack
before the bus left there. We talked to the security guy in Oviedo who
called gijon and they said they'd check for us. I knew they wouldn't
find it, that's why I called the Hermanas. I was praying the whole
time because it had my iPad in it and I didn't want to lose that haha.
Security called back and said they didn't have it. 30 seconds later
the Hermanas called me and said they had it! It was definitely an
answer to my prayers. Hermanas are to be trusted. They said went
there and security already told them they couldn't find it, but they
got on the bus and checked anyways and found it. God loves me.

Thursday was day 1 of the "Light the World" campaign so we did some
service for a member who's in the hospital. We basically entered the
tv show Hoarders for a couple hours. It was so disgusting and
unhealthy. So we started cleaning and throwing stuff away. We left two
hours later and looked like we didn't do anything. The hermanas went
in the afternoon and were going back tomorrow. Service with a smile 😬

Saturday was awesome! We did intercambios with the DL and his comp
because kalifa had his baptismal interview and the DL had to do it for
him. We contacted a couple hours and placed a couple BoMs and picked
up a few numbers. Good time contacting. We had a lesson with Elisa and
it was unreal. All lessons with her have been stellar up until this
moment. She for sure will be a relief society president, I promise. We
talked about faith, repentance, and baptism. Last visit we asked her
to ponder about baptism and when I asked if she had done that she said
"I haven't been able to stop thinking about it!" She said she really
wants to be baptized but can't until February because that's when her
work schedule changes. Then she said "we'll see if we can't do it
before, I don't know how, but we'll make it happen" and I was like
"YES you're dang straight it'll happen sooner so talk to your boss!"
Not really, but almost. It was a spiritually intense lesson and I just
felt so much love for her. She's gonna do great things in the church.

Kalifa passed his interview so this Sunday he will be entering the
waters of baptism! We're excited and he is too. We watched a video of
Christs baptism and after he half screamed "PERFECTO" haha it was
hilarious. He's such a miracle. His whole story of how we found him
and how far he's come is a straight miracle.

So much more happened but it's in my journal right now. I have a huge
testimony about fasting and prayer. I hope you all had the opportunity
to do that this last weekend. We've seen so many miracles as we've
fasted these last two weeks and God is more than willing if we fast
and pray according to His will and ours. Love you all!


#ILUMINAelMUNDO,
Elder Gearig

A little penguin

Shoot I forgot about the title. We have this less active named Miguel.
He's 27 and really wants to get married. Like REALLY bad. So we made
him a deal. If he reads and prays and does his part, we'll contact
ever girl between 18-30 and see if we can find someone to baptize so
he can marry them. But he only likes blondes from other countries
haha. So we'll see how this goes...

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