The island life is the life for me

Elders Romney & Gearig saying goodbye

Final goodbyes before the plane

Well hello everybody! Hope you're enjoying the cold weather back in
Utah. I've had a week in the mid 70's with a view of the beach
everyday. Life's good.

So this last week has been interesting for sure. Our flight landed
late Monday night and we got to work Tuesday. Haha the work here is
really slow right now. I think this past week was the first week of my
mission not teaching an investigator. Just a few less actives. So
we've been trying to find like crazy and received quite a few numbers.
So hopefully we can get these people into new investigators and get
them progressing in the next little bit. It's also weird being back in
short sleeves.

New Companions!

My comp is a cool cat from Payson Utah. Stands a little taller than me
and is super chill haha. He just got done being trained so is still
kind of scared of doing some things but we had a solid week getting
him out of his comfort zone, and we saw quite a few miracles as well!
It'll be a solid transfer!

We had a cool lesson with a less active on my first night. We had
planned to teach him how to teach the restoration so he could share it
with his friends. As my companion was writing stuff down, I was
getting to know him better and find out why he was less active. His
parents and brother died awhile back and he opened up to me about his
feelings and everything. So it was pretty clear that what we had
planned was NOT what he needed. My companion is still working on his
Spanish and kept trying to teach him the restoration 😂 so I had to
take control and we ended up having a super awesome lesson about
repentance and the hope that God gives us as we're faithful. He sure
liked it and committed to reading a few chapters we assigned him. Just
another example of inspired questions and following promoting of the
Spirit! Being a missionary is the best!

Well I wish I had more experiences to share with you guys but
hopefully I will I'm the next week or so. Speaking of which, next
week, PDay will be switched to Wednesday again because we have zone
PDay right before a zone conference. So 10 more days it will be once
more! Love you all and read the scriptures!

Gospel Preaching,
Elder Gearig

Blindsides and PARADISE

Well hello everyone! I don't have hardly anytime today because
Saturday morning I got blindsided by a call from president. After 6
extremely short weeks here in B5, I'm leaving! I'm going to the Canary
Islands, to Santa Cruz de Tenerife which supposedly has the best
climate in the world. Like 70's and sun year round. So pictures will
be coming for sure😎
I'm super sad to leave, I was just starting to get close with the
members and the work was finally picking up, but I'm also super
excited for my new assignment. My new companion will be elder Tribett
from Salem, Utah. He just got done being trained and he's a cross
country runner so I told him last night that he's running me to death
for the next couple months haha. So my plane leaves at about 6 and
I'll get there around 8, and it's in a different time zone so that'll
take some adjusting haha.

On Saturday we were able to take a couple recent converts to the
temple for their first time. It was my first time in the baptistery
since August 2015. Elder Romney and I were able to be the witnesses
for the baptisms and it was such a special experience to be able to
see these new members be baptized for the dead. The temple is just the
greatest and that was the last time I'll be there for the next six
months. So all you who live in Utah need to go a lot for me!

Also yesterday we were able to give two blessings to a couple members.
I've grown to be so amazed and fascinated by the priesthood. It's
amazing how God trusts us to hold part of His power and administer it
to bless the lives of others. It's such a great privilege to be a
priesthood holder of God and bless others!

Sorry this is pretty short but I've got to finish packing and buy some
short sleeve shirts! Love you all and have a great week!

Island life,
Elder Gearig

---

Lucky number 6

Hooooolllllllllaaaaaaaa. Got to go to the temple this morning so you
already know it's been a good day! It's been about 8 months since I
last got to go, perks of being in Madrid😎

Holy cow we've eaten so much food this last week I could probably pull
off a week long fast right now. Let's not talk about the weight I've
put on lol. But we hit the six month mark last week so I better start
taking exercises a little more seriously haha.

Well since I've last written, we've had three exchanges in our area so
we've got quite the amount of stories to tell so I'm picking and
choosing on this one.

So we finally were able to visit Elisa again after almost three weeks.
She read a little little bit, but at least she read! She doesn't have
the best memory in the world so didn't remember hardly anything
though. So we asked her how she liked church a few weeks ago and she
said "not gonna lie, I didn't like it..." well there's a first! Haha
we were pretty shocked. But I was glad we asked because we were able
to change the lesson to her needs! We ended up having a super good
lesson with her and she was stoked to come again! But she didn't...
haha so that sucked but it was still a good lesson! She's still great,
just gotta get her to keep her commitments darn it.

So yesterday we had exchanges with the elders from salamanca. I was
with elder dobbs from SoCal. He's a cool guy and I didn't really know
him before so I was glad I could go with him! He's still a new
missionary so he's got growing pains but he's awesome! And boy, did we
have some experiences. So to start it off, we contacted a Pentecostal
Pastor who was super nice at first and took a BoM and gave us his
number, then asked me to look up some biblical verses and had us
bouncing from Matthew to Revelations to Malachi to Luke and basically
he called us antichrists and false prophets and condemned us to Hell,
but all "using the word of God, I didn't say anything, He did." Haha
thanks Fran...

We organized a ward activity where the members did splits with us and
we went contacting. I went with Wilmer, our ward mission leader, and
we had an awesome morning! Have out five BoMs I think and got to know
him better. He ended up being a pretty good contacter and made really
good connections with people we met. We had a lot of success in a
short 90 minutes as a ward and missionaries! Hopefully we see some
fruits from it. The members were stoked after though and want to do it
once a week so hopefully we see some other members start getting
involved, it was pretty legit(:

We've been really focusing on following the Spirit while we're in the
street this past week. And we've seen a ton of miracles! We've gotten
a lot of references and given out a whole lot of BoMs. It's super hard
to feel the spirit in the street with all the pornography and weed and
stuff. And as we've focused more on feeling he Spirit, we've gotten a
lot of adversity. I don't think I've seen so many people fight with us
and spit at us and curse and all that good stuff before. But we
endured and we're blessed with it! Transfers are Saturday and I'll
probably stay but we shall see!
I'm stoked for these last six months! I'm stoked to give it all I got
and finish as strong as I can, uphill battle all the way to the end!
Os quiero.❤️



Exercise debating,
Elder Gearig

It's a small world after all

The Utah family

Good day to all. On a bus traveling to Toledo, one of my old areas
with the district for PDay. Should be pretty fun!

Well we had a pretty solid week here in B5. Found a couple new
investigators and had some cool experiences!

Yesterday we ran into a family from Salt Lake City! The dad was an
announcer for KSLs SportsBeat channel and is working here in Madrid.
We knew each other so it was fun to chat Hahah. He filled us in on the
playoffs and such. Falcons are taking the Super Bowl!

Saturday we taught a family who walked into the chapel earlier in the
week asking to meet with us. They took the lessons a few years ago in
the DR and mlvdd here and lost contact with the missionaries then
stumbled across the church. It was an awesome lesson! The little 2
year old was a tornado though. Super hard teaching when there's a
child throwing crap around the room haha. It was super great though!(:
straight golden situation too. Said they'd give up working on Sunday's
to come to church. Thennnnnn they didn't come. So that sucked. Still
excited for them!

Hahah we were knocking doors in this building full of future
investigators one day. We knocked this guy who always answers drunk
and told us to come by. So we did and he was cracking the door open
and looking at us then pretended like he didn't see us. It was funny.
He did it like five times. I kept trying to talk to him and let him
know I could see him! So he did it one more time, then I heard him go
to the kitchen and heard a drawer open. So I had this feeling to leave
and I did! We were walking away and he opened the door and had this
huge butcher knife! Before I knew it, elder Romney was sprinting down
the stairs hahahahaha. I don't know what would have happened if I was
standing there still but I'm glad we left!

Saturday to Sunday we did a fast with one of our investigators,
Beatriz. Her husband/boyfriend won't let them get married so she can't
be baptized. We, along with a few other missionaries around the
mission, joined in fast to have God touch the heart of her
husband/boyfriend. We'll see what happens this week!

Yesterday we picked up two new investigators! One is a Colombian kid
who is like half Jewish half something else. Interesting beliefs but
he's open to giving us a shot! We got on our knees st the end of the
lesson snd he offered the prayer. It was going great until in the
middle he stopped and said to us "I can't. I feel terrible. I can't
keep going." And I just stared at him with wide eyes. I thought a
demon was controlling him because he started heaving and it was
sketchy. Then I told him to finish, so he did and it was great. Then
he explained sometimes he randomly gets sick. It was just a sketchy
thing but the prayer was stellar!

I'm also started to learn Portuguese because we've been finding a lot
of Brazilians and people like that. So I'm hoping to pick it up
somewhat quick. There's a member helping me(:

Well I'll stop there but yesterday I have a talk in church. Probably
my favorite talk I've given on the mission. I talked based off of D&C
58:27, being anxiously engaged in a good cause. It went pretty well I
was happy with how it went. We all need to do things out of our own
free will and not do it because we're commanded to! If we're always
anxiously engaged in a good cause, others will follow and we'll all
make it together.


Cause engaging,
Elder Gearig

The Utah family

Zone Conference

Hey hey hey. Happy MLK Day. Just got done playing soccer and basketball so I'm pretty tired. So this is gonna be pretty short. 

Tuesday I did an exchange with elder Meeks. Haha he's got a solid 2 weeks on the mission. It was fun to be with a greenie again and see that greenie fire and attitude. Haha we had a lot of fun together👍🏾 I don't know why the calligraphy just changed but oh well. Anyways..we taught this guy named Aitor. It was unreal! The guy was 1. Spanish and 2. Super interested! He was just a huge testimony to me that there are Spanish people prepared in this country. But he's just super legit and I'll never forget get that lesson. More information to come!

So y'all remember that guy from last week with the university of Utah jacket? We met with him Saturday! And in the words of elder Romney "he's either the most prepared guy I've ever met, or ex communicated. Because that was insane." Haha. So he accepted to be baptized. Haha after we were like "if you hadn't have worn that jacket, we wouldn't have seen you." And he said "yeah that's true, Gods trying to tell me something." Haha so we were pretty stoked to say the least. More updates to come 👍🏾

We also met with this Spanish girl who speaks perfect English. She doesn't really believe in God but we had an awesome lesson about the nature of God. There are few things I love more than preaching about the nature of God. The Spirit is just super strong and it's the best! Hopefully she keeps progressing.

Things are slowly picking up here. Weather has been great and we're finding people to talk to! Life's good and I'm happy(: have a good one fam.

Just believe,

Elder Gearig 

Michigan, Utah, bodyguards, and selfies

First week of the new year is down in the books, and frankly I don't
remember much of it haha. But this week we had some cool experiences
so I'll hit the ones that come to my mind. Let's get it.

Monday we had elder Reese and elder kiser down here from León and had
a good time. We tag teamed an appointment with a family at night and
it was just super cool for me. Four elders from Utah who are like best
friends testifying to this family and the spirit was just super cool
and definitely flowed between us. It was a cool experience for me.

Tuesday was MLC and it was awesome as always. Always great to hear the
inspired instruction from President and Hermana Pack and from the APs
as well. Should be a good transfer!

Wednesday was insane. We had a service project with a local church and
they were in charge of it. It was extremely unorganized. We had 2500
people getting free presents for their children because they couldn't
afford presents this year. But like I said it was not organized at
all. For four hours elder Romney and I acted as bodyguards trying to
keep very inpatient people from braking into this church, it was so
stressful and not very Christlike the way everything ran, but we got
everyone brought through eventually.

Thursday we had a cool experience. We're tying to visit all the active
members and do a quick fifteen minute pass bye to get to know them and
leave a message, so we went to this Dominican ladies house. We were
talking to her when the other elders randomly show up. So us four are
their with Javi, a YSA member, and the lady got super tender with us
because the missionaries hadn't visited her in a few months and the
day before she was wondering why. Then randomly we were all there. It
was cool.
THEN. We were running back to get home on time and we ran past this
street and elder Romney and I saw out of the corner of our eye, a
familiar logo. We stopped on a dime and there was a large man wearing
a University of Utah jacket! He's from Guatemala (shoutout Alyssa and
Cam) and his uncle sent him the jacket. We were freaking out and super
stoked and he was getting stoked and we're gonna teach him this week(:

Saturday night we were going home again, when I saw another familiar
logo! University of Michigan baby! The guy played waterpolo from hem
and is from Flint, so we had a long conversation about our motherland
and he has a friend in Italy on a mission so we had a sweet talk
together(: God just making us feel at home left and right.

We got a solid 5 investigators to church which is a mission high for
me. A lot of stuff to be done here in B5 and I'm enjoying life(: hope
everyone is enjoying life and keeping on!

Life livin,
Elder Gearig

3 Kings dinner