Withdrawals and Toledo:for dummies

Well I never thought this week would end but yet here we are!
Well this week has some big things happening. Mainly the 29th birthday
of my beautiful mother and 23rd of my wonderful sister. Wednesday & Friday I'll remember to sing happy birthday in my head or something.

It was fun to be back in Madrid. The early morning was worth it.
(Disregard the coca cola truck lol)

First District Meeting. Who's that little boy in the bottom right? Oh that's my comp lol.

Okay this week has been interesting. I don't really know where to
start so I'll go with Tuesday night. Lol I'm sitting in piso making
calls and getting to know the missionaries in my district. At like
10:50, 10 minutes before bed I got a call from the ZLs who were doing
the same thing, getting to know the DLs. They were like "we're out of
time but we will talk in the temple tomorrow." Uhhh wait what? Hahah
nobody knew we had the session in the morning so my whole district had
to wake up at 4:30 to catch a bus to be in Madrid by 7 to find a
subway to the temple by 7:30 to make the 8 sesh. The Hermanas here
live literally 3 minutes from the bus station and of course were late.
We had to sprint for twenty minutes to step on as it left. But it was
weird being back in the city and actually understanding what was going
on. I remembered all the subway stops so nbd. After 5 1/2 without the
temple, I finally got to go! It was stressful but the moment I stepped
inside it just went away and I was able to have an amazing experience.
It filled a little hole in my heart that had been gone for almost six
months. Temples are amazing️
Half my district had to catch the later session so we waited around
and just had district meeting there in Madrid. First district meeting
was a success🏼 I'm super happy with how it went and we talked a lot
about repentance in the conversion process.

Also Tuesday as I was laying in bed I was looking through pictures of
Vigo and had a breakdown again. My little 9 year old won't give my
heart back and idk what to do. But it was the only time I cried this
week
We've been focusing a ton on thinking outside of the box here because
contacting just doesn't work in this country. We were walking and I
saw this kid playing basketball by himself so what did we do? Went and
dunked on him white shirt and tie style. Asian kid in college here,
never knew what American basketball was like. Neither did I because I
haven't played in six months. But we got his referral and played again
the next day with his four friends and taught a lesson after. Super
weird teaching people who don't know who Jesus Christ is.
Later that night we were going up to the old part of town. This small,
super young family walked on the bus and instantly I had this
impression to talk to them. It was apparent that they were going
through difficulties because they were like 19 with two children and I
just wanted to help them. But guess what I did? Nothing. But as we
left the bus I looked back and they got off too so I figured it was a
sign that I should say something. Guess what I did? Nothing. Just
joking I talked to them hahah. Cut to the chase, didn't beat around
the bush and straight up told them their family was going to change
with what we had and they got super excited. So we wrote down their
number and we'll see where this goes.
Later we decided to hand out English class cards to teenagers. In the
main square is where there's hundreds of teenagers so that's where we
went. We were standing when a group of like 7 girls start talking to
us. Started asking some...interesting...questions so we left because
they were Satan. But more people came and started talking. Soon we had
a group of like 20 kids and we were talking about why we are here and
stuff and they were super interested. They need the law of chastity
and word of wisdom though so we are currently thinning the crop to see
who is actually interested hahah. Snakes...

Well Toledo isn't Vigo. My comp is truly awesome and is a big help
even though he just finished training hahah. Stud. I was talking to
the missionaries in Vigo Saturday night and they started getting
emotional lol. Then telling me how the branch won't stop talking about
me. Right in front of the new missionaries they've been straight up
telling them to send me back. I feel bad because they need to love the
new missionaries but I feel good at the same time because I know I
made a difference in the people's lives in Vigo hahah. After talking
on the phone I called Elder Reese and it felt like I was breaking up
with him, like it was our last time ever talking lol. After that I hit
my knees and had to repent. I know I'm in Toledo for a reason and I
need to accept that! The sooner I do the better off I'll be. After a
truly sincere prayer I felt I had been forgiven and hit the hay to
start this off right with the members. It'll take some getting used to
but I'm grateful to be here!

Temples, repentance, and trust my friends. We need temples, we need to
repent, and we need to trust.

Teach me how to Toledo,
Elder Gearig

Haven't had time to take pics but here's the steeple of the cathedral.

Steeple of the Cathedral

Stay tuned.

Chau Chau Vigo! Hola Toledo!

Chau Chau Vigo

Well good morning everybody!
First of all congrats to the boys for taking the ship! (TRANSLATION: BINGHAM MINERS BOYS BASKETBALL ARE 2016 5A STATE CHAMPIONS!!!) And my man Schy
Shoey for that MVP!! 

This week has been a pretty different week to say the least. Had my
comp take over everything this week and it was a big humbling
experience for me and my patience was taken to the brinks. Needless to
say we finished the week with one lesson taught. Like I said, humbling
experience🏼lol and my new area is supposedly harder than this but
we'll see. Stereotypes are bogus. so with that I was pretty stressed
helping him prepare to area train this next transfer. Not to mention a
call from the APs saying I'm district leader in my new area.
Stresssss. But and like my subject line implies, I'm out of here! I'm
actually currently on a train going through the breathtaking Spanish
Countryside/mountainside. Hermana Jensen is my companion right now
actually we've been together for 4 1/2 months now in Vigo and we're
split now. She's going to Villalba which is where I thought I would
go. Sike I'm going to TOLEDO! That probably means nothing to any of
you but my dad will be stoked. It's basically the Spanish Jerusalem,
old city surrounded by castle walls with a newer-older city. It's
absolutely beautiful and I can't even put it into words to help you
understand so stay tuned for pictures over the next few months(:
It's been a stressful week having to say goodbye to my family here in
Vigo. We had district conference so I didn't get to give my farewell
talk and say bye to the branch which broke my heart. Had to go one by
one to some houses. Go for a few minutes, take pictures, cry, run to
the next house and cry while running, over and over again. A lot of
tears and a broken heart later and here I am!

The worst was saying bye to my little girlfriend (saying bye to Elder
Reese finally was bad as well but I'll see him soon). During District
Conference, she was sitting on the other side of the room facing me
and occasionally we would make eye contact and make faces at each
other then laugh. Then it hit me I was saying bye in a few hours and I
looked down at my lap and cried. I've seriously never experienced a
pain like that in my life. My heart just sunk and stayed there and is
currently there still. She drew me a picture and gave me her last
name she wore a penguin shirt which brought my tears again.
Yesterday was the final goodbye and I gave her my stuffed penguin and
she named him "Gearig." More tears. Gave her a big hug then had to run
to the bus. I almost died from not seeing where I was running but hey
#noshame.

Not a ton of things happened this week so sorry his was a big sob
story from me. I got to Vigo and opened the area with my trainer. We
went from literally nothing to, well... A little bit more than nothing
in six months hahah. But it's been an extremely humbling experience
and it killed me to leave. The members became my instant family and I
just can't put into words my feelings towards them. The love I have
for them is one of the greatest things I've ever felt. I can't imagine
how much Heavenly Father loves them. It was the hardest thing I've had
to do to say goodbye to them. It was tough to say bye to my real
family of course but I knew I'd see them again, idk if I'll ever see
some of these people ever again though. Goodbyes suck. I feel
confident that I'm leaving it in better shape than when I arrived so
I'm happy(:

Never forget how much love God has for you all! We are never alone in
anything we do! We have so many privileges as members and the promise
of the Holy Ghost with us as our constant companion as long as we
strive to remain worthy of it. 

Love you all and have a gr8 week
<-(thanks THans) 

 Toledo Bound,
Elder Gearig

weight losing/sheep finding=fun

Welcome back. It's been a good week so I'll try to squeeze it all into
140 characters. Also good luck to Alyssa and Cody and all others who
are leaving in the next week for the MTC!

Megan is going to Germany! Lucky duck, she got my dream mission! She was in my ninth grade class of German I'm pretty sure so that's cool #claimtofame 

Hermana Staker and I are having a weight loss competition for her last
two months. So I'm on a diet for the first time in my life and it's
coming along pretty well it doesn't make sense because she's a twig,
basically Hannah Spencer, but I have a lot to work on#missionlife
Transfers are Saturday and I'm 98% sure I'm goneso. I'm scared to
leave because turns out that my companion has more of a native
mentality than I originally thought (some of you spanishgang fellas
know what I mean) and I don't know what's gonna happen to these people
we're teaching if I leave. But everything happens for a reason and we
have goals set to help him prepare this week

I stole Elder Howard's leather jacket and we were in a members car and
the song Sulten of Swing (or whatever it's called) came on and I felt
like my Dad for a second so that was a cool experience. Idk why I
shared that but yeah, there's that.

So I'll say a little bit more about this investigator of ours.
Saturday I kind of ripped in to him a little bit because he wasn't
keeping his commitments when he knew he should have been. But by the
end of the lesson he was like "yeah you're right, I really need to
read this book." And I was like YES YOU DO -- GOOD JOB... I should have told
you that before! Sike I said it a hundred times before he understood
it. But he does now so thank you to he Spirit for helping him
understand that.

We have five progressing less actives which is a key indicator we use,
I heard it's something we do in our area only but I'm pretty sure
every mission does it as well, idk, but yeah, 5! We visited our friend
from last week who I feel like is my brother already. I know I'm here
in Vigo still just to help him out. In our lesson (which his less
active mom joined as well) he said he was feeling really sad last week
and he didn't know why, when all of a sudden we randomly showed up at
his house. He said when we left he was in such a better mood! I looked
at him and said that The Spirit told us to visit him (which is 100%
true, we just didn't know that in the moment that we visited him for
the first time but found out in this second visit) because God knew he
needed some help. He started bawling and his mom did as well and it
was a neat experience for all of us. His mom and sister came to church
for the first time in a looooong time as well and the members were
shocked to see them but excited so it made me super happy(:

No investigators came to church but we helped a lot of less actives
come this time which is just as good. I have come to have a strong
testimony about what we can do to keep ourselves active and how to
help those who have fallen as well.
As well as this I have a strong testimony of following even the
smallest spiritual prompting, even if we don't know it's a spiritual
prompting in the moment. When we visited our friend for the first time
I didn't think it was a spiritual prompting. But after hearing that he
was really sad that day then we randomly showed up, I KNOW it was The
Holy Ghost.
Much love and have a gr8 week!

Looking for the lost sheep,
Elder Gearig

6 Months!!!

Okay so last Monday I made a deal with Hermana Staker here. I let her
cut my hair if I could cut her hair lol. Lol I was super nervous and
she didn't do the best job but Elder Holt fixed it up pretty good. I
took off 4" of her hair but it didn't look bad I won't be a
cosmetologist or whatever they're called, too much patience.


Thursday morning the Herms went running with us. We ran to this castle
and burned a tie up there for my six month mark! It was sad but I have
a lot of time left to work!

We taught quite a few lessons this week which was rare but it was a
good week! We went to have a lesson with this guy I mentioned last
week and he wasn't home..but his roommate invited us in and we talked
for a little then I just started teaching him so we went from there!
Hahah turns out he's way more interested than our first guy! So now
we're teaching these roommates and they're both super interested in
changing their lives so that was a tender mercy(:

I had the chance to give a couple blessings this week so that's always
nice. Last Monday night we had all these plans fail us so we were just
kind of going with the flow. I had this feeling to stop by a couple
less actives. One let us right in and we sat down and started talking
and then he said he actually needed a blessing so it was a good thing
we came by. He asked me to give the blessing part so I start going
with it and I thought it went decently well. He gave me a hug after
and looked at me and said "those were the exact words said in my
patriarchal blessing." I don't remember what I said at all, so it was
definitely The Holy Ghost talking and an experience I'll remember for
a long time!
Right after, we stopped by another less active. We shared a video
about the Book of Mormon and talked about it for awhile. The Spirit
was super strong and we were really bold while talking to this guy and
we all had these tears in our eyes by the end so hopefully he's
keeping his commitment!
Wednesday we were doing more pass byes trying to meet new people and
since we were in a trio we went to visit an old woman whose always
home alone! We walked in and her grandson walks out. He's 20 and has
been inactive for quite a few years. It was a complete surprise to see
him there so we sit down and get to know him a little bit. After about
10 minutes he starts saying how he's had big desires to come back to
the church but has a lot of personal problems. He was super open and
he started crying telling us all these stories and how his friends
judge him when he helps old women in the street and stuff. And we all
have problems in our lives, it's a fact! But I was able to connect
with him in a super personal way and I feel like I've known this guy
from somewhere before. I don't know where but I know if I leave Vigo
in two weeks, I may not have baptized anybody into the church, but I
know I helped this one guy and made a difference in his life. He came
to church yesterday for the first time in years and I was soooooo
happy!️ gave him this huge hug and told him how proud I was of him
and how happy I was to see him back and he had a really good
experience. We had 5 less actives we've been working with come
yesterday to church and one random guy we invited in the street hahah.
The work is picking up(:

Have a great week my friends and don't just have a great night, have
an American night. 

Loving life,
Elder Gearig

Well another week bites the dust. Good week though, good week indeed.
I knew I forgot a birthday last week and I'm quite embarrassed so
happy birthday to Elder Brock Sivulich this past week! You're the
best️ also Alyssa Mecham's is this week, actually on my 6 month mark
too so that's an exciting day! Hah...six months....And Happy 14th to my cousin
 Ian and Happy 13th to my other cousin Stetson!

So Elder Howard got sick last Sunday, then Elder Holt and Elder Ferro
woke up sick on Monday so we didn't do anything last week for PDay. We
sent Elder Holt and Ferro home to rest while Howard and I worked at
night. He should have rested as well but insisted on working. Bad idea
because he couldn't get out of bed Tuesday. Nobody did! Except me. So
I studied all day and cleaned the whole piso and was sick of being
inside not working so I called a member, we dropped off my companion
at the others apartment and quarantined them all together while I
worked for the rest of the day. I felt bad for leaving my comp but I
worked and we taught an awesome lesson to a less active family so it
was okay! They felt better Wednesday, and Thursday I woke up sick lol.
But it wasn't bad so I didn't say anything. Slow couple of days though
hahah. Hermana Staker told me that elders think they're better
missionaries when they try working through sicknesses, but it just
makes them worse because they don't get better faster and end up
losing more opportunities to work. It's true! Elders are stubborn 

Well we found a bar of gold this week. I'm not gonna say more about
him because I don't wanna jinx it. If he's still around next week I'll
tell y'all the story of him because it's unreal! So stay tuned.

️️It hasn't stopped raining in a week straight and doesn't look
like it'll let up anytime soon. Again. Looooove Vigo. Lol we call our
umbrellas our "shoes" because if you leave in the morning without it,
it's the equivalent of walking around without shoes on. On the reals I
really love Vigo and I love the rain, but it makes contacting that
much more difficult so you feel like a terrible missionary all week
because there's not much going on. But hard work is paying off! I've
got a testimony of that for sure.

My ponderizing scripture of the week was Alma 26:12. "Yea, I know that
I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast
of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do
all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this
land, for which we will praise his name forever."
This is applicable to every single person out there. Especially to
missionaries because we can't do this work alone. We rely on The
Spirit in every moment of the day to give us strength we need. And
when something good happens, we can't boast of ourselves or think that
it was us. Because it's 100% about Christ, and it's 100% the Spirit
working through us. We simply listen to the Holy Ghost and let the
Spirit do the rest. We may experience miracles every day, all of us,
and they're because we have a loving Heavenly Father looking out for
us. We're just His instruments.

Iiiiiii wanna knowwwwwww...have you everrrr seeeen the raiiiinn....?,
Elder Gearig

New comp and the Spec Ops

Elder Ferro from Argentina

I'm not a fan of how fast these weeks are going but here I am again. Yay.


So Monday we went and played football on the beach. It was leggiiiitttt. Elder Howard Elder Reese and tossing dimes. Fun stuff!

Elders Gearig & Reese

We taught a less active family that night and wow... There aren't words. Like literally. We invited them to repent in the most lovable way I've ever seen. I've never been apart of a more spiritually led lesson in these 5 1/2 months. Hahah like literally if one of us had a thought come to our head we just said it without hesitation. They sat in silence for a few moments and the spirit was just overwhelming. It was awesome.


Picked up my new compi Tuesday niight(: Elder Ferro from Argentina.
What a machine. We get along so so well and it's so much fun! Hahah the first night together we just talked and talked and realized he's the argentine version of Elder Reese so that's fine by me. He speaks decently good English too but we talk in Spanish and my Spanish has gotten so much better hahah I'm loving this kid!!


Saturday was the best day of my mission. Here's a cool story, long but worth the read.??????

So I'll try to put it into words here for y'all. So we were helping the Hermanas find another woman for their lesson that night. Literally through the whole branch list and nobody wanted to hahah. We had to leave so we left for lunch with a less active family and had a good lesson with them. After, we went to piso to get our umbrellas because Vigo decided we had had too much sun lately (like 2 days). This random guy called us and so I started talking to him and I taught him like
1/2 of every lesson we had over the phone lol. I've never felt he spirit through the phone before so that was a first. Turns out he didn't want anything but we're good friends now(: I ended the call and we had 4 missed calls from the Hermanas and one text that said "we need help!" They've had some creepy guys stalking them and told they needed us to let us know so in my head I was like "I've never killed a man before....there's a first for everything." Because the Hermanas are literally like my sisters. Turns out they just needed us to teach their lesson for them because they couldn't find a woman to help. So we hustle down to the church in the outing rain which is always fun but I'm used to it hahah. We had no game plan going in to this lesson and elder Ferro was kind of worried about that but for some reason I wasn't. We walked in and got a quick rundown from the Herms and started teaching this guy! Right before we walked into the classroom I jokingly asked the Herms "so what date do you want him to be baptized?" And we shared a quick laugh. So remember how I said that lesson with that other family was the most spiritually guided lesson I've had? Sike. This one topped it! Hahah we just started teaching this guy and the spirit was just indescribable. We talked a lot about him receiving answers to his prayers and shared a lot of personal experiences. Then out of nowhere I ask this guy to be baptized?? not even my investigator! He said he wants to be, yes! Hahah it was unreal! The thing is I don't remember a word I said to this guy so it was definitely the Holy Ghost. We bid them farewell and standing outside the chapel was a friend from English class. And so we invited him in and he says "alright let's read in your bible, the Book of Mormon right?" So I'm shocked. Like jaw dropped shocked. This lesson was in English so Elder Ferro didn't say anything. I taught him the restoration and again, I don't remember what I said. I started pulling these scriptures out of nowhere and asking him questions that he said he'd never thought about before then I asked him what he needed to do to be with God again. He read from 2 Nephi 31 and said... "Well... I suppose I need to be baptized." BINGO!! My man Kenneth. Elder Ferro chipped in with his only sentence of the night "to fulfill all righteousness." I invited him and he said he has nothing against it but that he didn't want to. Hmm.. But we'll meet again this week to follow up. It was an insane niight.
Herms called us later that night and they thought I was joking about this guy getting baptized and I was like No, like he's getting baptized by you guys March 5th. Here's what crazy. They told me if we were one minute late that night, we wouldn't have found Kenneth. ONE MINUTE! One minute more in the phone, one minute walking, one minute with their investigator, one minute anywhere! It was weird because we were like almost crying through the phone to the each other. Call us the Spec Ops, coming in to get baptismal commitments then disappering.
Spirit just working from all directions. The church is true, Christ lives, God loves us and is aware of our needs.


Feeding the Sheep,
Elder Gearig

Hey amigos. We meet again.(:
Happy 35th birthday to Mama Jen on Tuesday!
So these past two weeks have been in the blink of an eye so I'll share
some things from my week.

So this was the last week of the transfer so we were all making our
predictions on who was going where. I was 98% convinced I was leaving
so I started packing on Wednesday lol. God showed me he's in charge so
needless to say, I'll be staying in Vigo which makes it at least 6
months here. No complaints here, I'm stoked out of my mind but Elder
Jones is on his way back to Madrid as I write this so it was sad
saying bye to my dad for the past 4 1/2 months. He's a machine and I
am grateful for the time we had together. 


I'm also receiving a nephew
out here as my good ole friend Elder Reese will be training this week.
Him and I will be together this transfer at least, Super excited...my new
companion is from Spain and doesn't speak a lick of English so I'm
stoked and motivated  he doesn't come until Tuesday night so Elder
Reese and I are in a trio with Elder Howard until then. Suuuuuuper
excited.

My 9 year old girlfriend broke up with me  she said "how about I'll
just be your daughter?" And just like that it was over. But it really
released some tension because things were getting heated because she
went inactive for a couple weeks. But I got her to pinky promise to
come every week now lol. Ever taught a less active 9 year old? It's
fun. I told her I was getting transferred on Sunday and she started
bawling. I felt terrible. So I gave her a hug and told her I'll be
here 6 more weeks so she has to come every week. She said she would
  #activated


K my miracle. Remember this woman we found three weeks ago who said
she would be baptized after our first lesson? Remember how she blocked
our number and we haven't seen her since? Well we've been praying
super hard to find her and well... We found her! Hahah it was awesome!
We taught her Thursday and it was crazy! The spirit was sooooo strong
and we taught the plan of salvation and she loved it! It was a
straight up miracle and I know God answers our prayers. We haven't put
a new date on her yet since she was supposed to be baptized last
Saturday but that's not really possible lol. But we'll visit her this
week and talk more. God is good.

Friday was the baptism of Jesús! (no, John didn't baptize him) The
friend of the Hermanas here. We've all gotten close to him and he was
so prepared. Super cool conversion story. Completely 180 twist. He's
the 3rd baptism in the area in the past 2 years so the branch really
rallied around him. It was cool. Hahah we bucketed water out of the
chapel after and that was a riot.

Saturday night we had a big branch activity we've been preaching about
for months. A talent show. It was a huge success! We've had so many
members come up to us and tell us it was the closest they've seen the
branch in years and the funnest activity they've ever had. We put so
much into this show so it was awesome to see the branch come together.
I don't think anyone stopped laughing/crying for the 70 minutes. Us
missionaries did a little skit and it was hilarious, they loved it.
I'm never leaving Vigo! Like seriously, if president transfers me I'm
just dropping off the face of the earth. This place is home.

Yesterday we spent the day saying goodbye to families with elder
jones. It was a little emotional because the members like him and I
the best out of the missionaries here so they were sad to see him
leave. But they're stuck with me which isn't the worst thing because
they'll be feeding us every day because they know I'll eat their food
lol. Yay. But my "daughter" and I played some marbles or something so
that was legit. And this morning our favorite Peruvian invited us over
for breakfast before elder jones train left. At 7. Which is early as
it is...and here in Spain nobody wakes up until like noon. Plus We
packed his bags until 2 am and woke up at 5:30 to eat with her. But
it was delish!

Quick thought/experience:
So Monday night I asked God a question. "Why am I here?" Like don't
get me wrong, I'm not thinking of going home, I know why I came out
here and all that stuff but I just like receiving confirmation
regularly about things yanno? So Tuesday morning during personal study
I came across the talk from April 1983 by (at the time) Elder Thomas
S. Monson called "anonymous." You should read it, it's amazing. A talk
from 33 years ago answered my prayer. I sat back in my chair and had
this overwhelming sensation that paralyzed me for a few moments. Tears
came to my eyes as I received my answer and I heard these words in my
mind, "you're here to love the people." It's been tough here in Vigo.
Three lessons taught this week, 2 last week lol. But that's what Elder
Jones and I did really well together. We both realized our calling
here wasn't to baptize. It was to strengthen the members and activate
less actives and that's what we've been doing and what I'll continue
to do with my new companion. I think that's why this place is so close
to my heart, the relationship with the members is unbelievable. I know
I'll leave to serve the people somewhere else really soon and that'll
be an emotional day for me. Goodbyes suck! Maybe I'll bust my ACL
Schy-Shoe style the last day so I can stay here. Veremos.

Much love.

The Vigo Reign,
Elder Gearig