He has sent me here AND The Pancake Man

Pix from last pday. Catch the wave!

Almost forgot to send a group email today haha whoops. But with that
said I don't have much time left, but happy birthday to my mom and
sister this week! You guys are the best!

So this past week was pretty good! Had some cool experiences and I'll
narrow it down to some I remember the most of.

Saul, our Lithuanian investigator, is progressing and going great! Had
a stellar lesson with him on Friday. He read the restoration pamphlet
and had a ton of questions. He thinks super deeply about religion and
things like this which is awesome! He's still "atheist" but I asked
him what he'd lose by trying to pray and he said "absolutely nothing.
I'll give it a shot." He said it'll take some time but he's gonna do
everything we ask him. He's such a boss! Love this guy.

Gabriel is also progressing and read and prayed and everything! Still
hasn't accepted a baptismal date but hopefully we can get him one this
week! Super cool kid and he's got a a bright future. Right after the
lesson he met the bishop and some other members so that was perfect
timing haha.

I just want to invite you all to go read the first chapter of the book
of Moses in the pearl of great price. Put your name in place of Moses
and feel the power behind this chapter! What do we do when Satan
tempts us? We need to respond like Moses did by saying "who art this?
For I am a son of God!" Satan can't TOUCH us if we don't let him.
Don't give him an inch because he'll take a whole yard. Show him who's
in charge and don't let him get to you. You are a child of God!

Sweating,
Elder Gearig


LAST WEEK ---  6 March 2017  THE PANCAKE MAN

Hello everybody! Hope everyone is doing well and that life is treating
them fabulous. This past week was pretty insane but we'll cover that
in due time. Shoutout to Bingham for winning state basketball again!
Football and basketball in the same year, pretty legit.
Also early birthday shootouts to the best sister four years older than
me and best mother in the world next week!

So in Latino countries they celebrate a thing called Carnival. This
past week was the biggest week of it. Santa Cruz has the 2nd biggest
carnival party in the world behind Rio de Janeiro. Basically this past
week has been shut down for missionary work. I don't even know how to
explain to you guys the wickedness I witnessed. Felt like I was
serving in Sodom and Gomorrah. Just don't look back! Or forward...or
up...or sideways...because people without clothes are everywhere. It
was rough 😐

But we managed to pick up a new investigator. His names Bruno and he's
19 and from Spain! Met with him in a park and it was INCREDIBLE. After
the first vision he was like "it's so true." And I was like why? So
two years ago he was preached to by a Catholic priest and he was
trying really hard to learn something. After, he went back to class
which was philosophy. He said what the priest taught didn't correspond
to the professors teachings. He started feeling nauseous and went to
the bathroom. He started pondering and explained what happened next
saying "a pillar of light penitrated my heart and it felt as if angels
were hugging me." And I was like "umm okay that's the best thing I've
ever heard.." Needless to say it was a solid lesson and this guy is
legit!

Down side is tight after we saw him walking with his philosophy
professor and said hi to him and his professor did not look happy...
But I've got the faith! This kids got a good future in the church. It
was solid.

I also made pancakes a ton this week. Made like 40 for missionary
correlation and they turned out perfect. Thanks Elder Reese for the
recipe 😎 call me the pancake man

That's the only lesson we taught and didn't really have any other
crazy experiences. Just a whole lot of iniquity. My poor companion. I
hope to have more stories next week! Have a good one!

Flap jack Flippin,
Elder Gearig

Lithuania to Venezuela

Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Hello loved ones. It's been a solid five days since I've last wrote,
but we've had quite a bit happen! Can't believe February is already
over! Got 5 months to get add much done as possible now!

So Thursday we had Elder Soares of the presidency of the seventy here!
He's spoken a couple times in general conference and is an absolute
spiritual GIANT. I learned so much from that man and his wife. It was
incredible.
We flew home Thursday night and got in at about 8:45. We were
absolutely wiped out. But I told my companion we were going to hit the
streets and get something done in 45 minutes. So we left and got
nothing. UNTIL. Two guys from a bar called us over to talk to us. They
wanted to know what we were doing so we started talking and 30 minutes
later, they drove  us home and we had their references. It was super
cool! The one wants his children to have good morals and loved what we
were doing, he thought I was 27 as well lol. The other guy grew up in
Argentina and the Mormons let his friends use their basketball court
so he already loved us too. Cool little miracle of what happens when
we give it one last shot when we're tired.

Friday was the best.! We met with two new investigators! Clever is
from Venezuela and is 23, he is super cool! We had such an awesome
lesson with him! The Spirit was really strong and he was asking solid
questions and was loving it! I was so stoked, I love teaching people
my own age. We invited him to be baptized and he said yes! 25th of
March! I asked him and he said " but I've already been baptized" so I
said  " remember what we said about the apostasy?" And he was like "
oh right! My baptism wasnt done with the right authority " and I was
just amped out of my mind. Solid guy.

After lunch we met with Saul. He's from Lithuania! (S/O to Elder
kendell) he's atheist but super open to talking about God. We taught
him in English so my companion was excited Hahah. We had a lesson and
just talked about who God is, what he's like, his characteristics and
nature and all that good stuff. I seriously LOVE lessons like that.
Something so simple yet so profound and the spirit is ALWAYS strong.
It was incredible.

Something I loved from Elder Soares visit with us was the faith to
work miracles and getting out of God's way. Ever since I got here, I
feel like I've been exercising a lot of faith in trying to find people
to teach. And I didn't see any results for two weeks. I've been
wondering if I really didn't have as much faith to find as I thought I
had or what was going on. But this past week I've been blessed to see
the fruits of the first two weeks. We have a couple new people to
teach and things are slowly picking up! We have to get out of God's
way in this work by being obedient and diligent and working with faith
and patience. There's no slowing down!!


Foot sleeping on the gas,
Elder Gearig

Lots of stretching

Met this cool Filipino with a Michigan hat #motherland. He didn't
wanna be baptized though..

Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Hey everyone's! Hope you guys have had a fabulous week.
We're out here in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for our mission tour
tomorrow. Played a ton of soccer today and I got sunburnt. I flew here
yesterday morning for intercambios so I'll be here until tomorrow
night.

So the past 10 days have been quite uneventful. Things are just super
slow here. I feel like I know this place like the back of my hand
already because we've walked every street😂 but we will find somebody,
I'm determined to change it. My first night we met this young guy from
Venezuela and got his number and we met with him Monday! 2 weeks and
we finally taught an investigator! His names Gabriel and he's 22 and
super smart, he's already graduated from college with an engineering
degree and loves learning. So we met with him and got to know him and
he's a super cool guy.
Anyways, taught him the restoration and it went really well! He
offered the final prayer and it was super good! We invited him to be
baptized and he said he'll think about it but it went really well! It
was great! After we met him my first night, I turned to elder Tribett
and said "we just met the next baptism of Santa Cruz." So we'll see if
my prophecy comes to pass!

Elder Douglas says hi.

Met with a couple less actives and my first night we met with this guy
and the lesson went incredibly well. Well, I made a pretty bold
promise to him if he read a couple chapters we assigned. We returned a
few nights ago and sure enough, something crazy happened! He had a
pretty cool dream of his mom who passed away years ago and was super
stoked to keep reading and such. He came to church for the first time
in awhile and even came to our service project Saturday and Sunday!

It's been a tough 10 days but that's how I like 'em! To progress, we
gotta stretch and struggle! And I'd say stretching has been a good
word to describe it so far. But things are slowly getting there and
the best part is it's easy to see progress! We've had some good comp
studies together and are on the same page finally so things should be
good from here! Super excited for the rest of this transfer!

Trailblazin',
Elder Gearig