The Family Tree

The Family Tree (from left) My little brother (Elder Muller), my dad,(Elder Jones) the oldest brother (Elder 'Me'), my son (Elder Wright)

Just a couple Miners looking for Gold (Elder Wright from Bingham High=Miners)

Sister Warner from our home ward in Utah (in white) going to Vigo!

Saw my 'Papa' 

Goooooood morning everybody!


So guess who I am training?! CODY WRIGHT (friends from Bingham High) . Like am I joking? Absolutely
not! It's happening! It was insane when it all happened! We freaked
out and like tackled each other and wow...it was epic. President
talked to me after and was like "we had no idea you guys were friends
until five minutes before. I gave it a thought and I'm not changing
it. It was the revelation I received so that's how it's supposed to
be." Boo ya!! It was such a cool thing. We are happy and loving
serving together(: it's been a blast!

So Jaquelyn Warner went to Bingham as well and was in my ward back
home and just came out of the MTC here as well. Guess where she's going??
VIGO!!!! 3rd Ward is representing Vigo strong! I freaked out just as
much when that happened. Best place on earth.

Also I found out I was having a brother as well! Elder Jones is
training at the same time as me! Only in a Mormon family do you have a
dad and a son having children at the same time(;

Holy cow it's been a craaaaaaazy week. But like I said, we've been
loving it. We picked up a few investigators this last week and invited
a couple to be baptized so stay tuned for more of this next week. Ones
name is Fabricio and he took the lessons about six years back but
decided he wanted nothing to do with the church even though his wife
is a member. They just had a baby two months ago and started coming to
church after. He talked to me and asked if we could visit him so of
course we said yes. So we taught him for the first time this past
Thursday and it was UNREAL PEOPLE. This guy had.completely.changed. He
wants everything to do with the church now and when we returned to see
him on Friday he was telling all out the BoM and everything he had
read and wanted to know more. Buckle up! It was unreal. This guys love
for his child and wife is spectacular. He wants everything this church
has to offer for his little baby and elder wright bore a testimony in
his broken Spanish and we all started crying. It didn't make much
sense, but it brought the spirit and it was awesome. Loving this guy.
🏼

Yesterday we had a cool experience. We were heading to this lesson
with another family. *pause, rewind two week* we ran into this
Dominican, Willie in the streets and this guy was legit. Wanted to
talk to us and we hit it off real good. Got his number, called him one
time, then lost his number. I was heartbroken because like I said,
this guy is legit! For two weeks I've been constantly praying to find
him again. We walked up and down the same place where we saw him first
over, and over, and over. Nothing. *fast forward to yesterday* so
yeah, going to this lesson. Turn the corner and BAM! Willie! I was
stoked, he was stoked, Elder Wright was confused, it was a special
moment. Embraced each other and got talking about God right away. Got
a lesson with him this week and I'm stoked! He's teaching me how to
make Dominican food as well. It's a win win situation. If we would
have been 30 seconds off on our timing we wouldn't have ran into him.
Prayer=answered. The lesson failed us so there was no point to go
there, but God put us there to find Willie, not teach that lesson. It
was surreal.

Well that's what I got for this week. I actually have a lot lot more
but not much more time. Quote of the week comes from President Monson,
"may we ever choose the harder right, instead of the easier wrong."
As well as...️
"God is more pleased with repentant sinners who are trying to draw
closer to Him than with self-righteous, faultfinding individuals who,
like the Pharisees and scribes of old, do not realize how badly they
need to repent."
God really cares about who we are trying to become! It's never too late
to make the turn and head back to the right path. There is no "point
of no return" with the Atonement. We are all sinners and all need to
repent. Make like Nike and Just Do It.


Telling Wright from wrong,
Elder Gearig

First of all thank you for the birthday wishes! It was definitely a
birthweek and birthday to remember. 

The Hermanas made him a birthday cheesecake!!!

Had some crazy experiences but
I'll explain those in a sec. People getting engaged, people getting
mission calls, life is crazy!

 Well had exchanges with my man Elder Smith on Wednesday! We've been
talking for this moment for like two months and it finally happened!
Taught a couple less active lessons and a lesson with our Chinese
investigator. Won't explain too much more for lack of time and space.
But he's a stud and I love him(: 

 Saturday is where the fun starts. Got a call Saturday about 5 from the
AP's and I'll be training this transfer! Finally I'll have a son! Also
my father, Elder Jones, is training so I'll also have a brother! Elder
Reese was transferred to the heart of Madrid and will be a DL there so
we can spend Pdays together now(: our dreams are coming true lol. I'm
super excited for the challenge. I'm also sad because my companion and
I were doing so so well together. 7 weeks was a short transfer but
it's okay(: so we taught a lesson to an investigator late Saturday
night, right when we got transfer calls. So we didn't know what was
going on until about 11. They're taking the Hermanas from Toledo):
they had to clean their piso all day to prep it. They're also taking
the car away from us. Idk why but we'll have to drop some people we
are teaching now. We're pretty mad but hey, the work will go on. As of
right now I'm here in Madrid with the ZLs until tomorrow when I pick
up my greenie! Maybe it'll be Cody Wright.. How cool would that be? 

 We found this Romanian Family the other night. Four of them and only
two speak Spanish. We taught them and the language barrier caused some
problems but the Spirit was undeniable. They are super super poor and
are in a good position to accept the gospel, but we shall see. We were
able to give the grandfather a blessing because his health is causing
them heavy financial debts. He speaks zero Spanish but we did it
anyways. It was hard for me to stay standing during the blessing
because the Spirit was so strong. He may not of understood anything,
but they were so so grateful for it. He mumbled out a "muchas gracias"
and then we left after. Good family.

 I'm sorry if I don't have time to reply to personally emails from
anybody but we're super busy with things here right now so until the
next week! Thanks again for the birthday wishes(: 

 Teach me how to Father, 

Elder Gearig 

The last Toledo selfie

"In the hood." Lol. Literally.

Deuces  to my Spanish brother

The Spain-guin still going strong

The District Pt. 3

Hi
Hope today has been good so far


Well this week was super great! I'll just cut straight to the chase
starting with Wednesday! Had exchanges with another elder here in the
good ole district of Toledo. We found two great people! The firsts
name is Luis. The second is a 17 year old Colombian who's bringing me
chocolate back from Germany and we'll meet with her in a couple weeks.
'Twas a good day

Thursday we got a message from our only investigators here. He said
this, "hey elder. I've decided to not continue my studies with you
guys, my Catholic roots are deep and I don't want to change. Good luck
with your mission!" My companion and I sat there for like five minutes
in silence. Felt like a solid punch to the gut. We've been working so
so hard to find people and we finally had potential with somebody!
Then bam, he's gone. But we talked him into letting us Coke (come) by that
night to talk things over. We went in and his whole family was there.
We had one of the most spiritually guided lessons I've been apart of.
The spirit was intense and they felt it so strongly! In the end they
still decided to not continue the discussions but we left on a super
good note with them and they're more prepared for future lessons to
fully accept the gospel! That night and all day Friday were super
tough, but we kept working as hard as we could and being as obedient
as we could trying to find more people. It sucked but such is the
life.

So back to Luis! At first he didn't want anything to do with us but I
sweet talked him into giving us his number. Called him Friday and he
was super excited that we called! He was like this "hey hey when can
we meet?! Can I come to the church and we can talk more?! Can I bring
my friend?!?!" It was so weird hahah that's never happened to me
before. So we met with him Saturday! It was so legit! He was really
interested and speaks perfect English but my companion doesn't, so we
spoke in English and they spoke in Valenciano lol. We taught him in
Spanish though so we each knew what was going on. He is really
interested and asked if we could meet again so of course we said yes!
Afterwards I was super happy because God definitely let us be broken
down Thursday to rebuild us on Saturday if we showed him our faith,
which we definitely did. That's not all!!️️

Later that night we went to visit my good friend Elder Howard's (from
Vigo) convert from a year ago. She's..interesting.. Lol. She makes us
tip-toe two floors up in complete darkness and we have to talk in
whiskers (whispers I'm guessing, I'm leaving because it's kind of cute to this mom)to not wake anybody up. Lol it's like 9 o'clock at night,
nobody's asleep. But anyways. We walk in her kitchen and there's
another girl in there. Her niece! She's been here for a week and her
best friend is a Mormon back in Niceragua! She doesn't know anything
though so we took that as a "go ahead and teach me and then in two
weeks baptize me" answer. The restoration, bam! It was unreal. The
no-lights and low-voices really added some spice to the lesson. By
spice I definitely mean spirit. It was incredible. We got back home
and hit our knees and thanked God for His miracles He gave us.
We lost two investigators, but after the trials of our faith, we
persevered and out our trust in Him, and he gave us two more right
back; better and more prepared. It was a good week(: keep the faith!!

So these weeks Conference talks consisted of numbers 2&3. I really
loved them both! I like the story of the father swimming in the lake
and almost drowning, but he kicked off his shoes with a last effort of
desperation and was able to make it through. We must use all our
strength to drop the things if the world holding us down so we can
make it through to Safety! Trials and tribulations are only there to
help us through!
The second talk was about who we are: Children of God. This should be
our first source of identity. This doesn't meant if somebody asks us
who we are we respond "a child of God" but we can not forget that. It
should give us power and motivation through trials and life. "We live
in a world that can cause us to forget who we really are. The more
distractions that surround us, the easier it is to treat casually,
then ignore, and then forget our connection with God." We cant forget
it!

Quote of the week, "If you're on the right path, it will always be
uphill. God is eager to get you to the safety of higher ground."
President Eyring

Faith keepin',
Elder Gearig

The (no flex) Zone

Good morning all. Good morning indeed.
Well not a lot happened this week so this should be rather short.
You're welcome.️

Monday night we finished conference and I, as well as everybody else, loved Elder Hollands talk. I love that we can try, fall
short, and still get brownie points in heaven! If we constantly strive
to be like Christ and do all we can then he lays the rest. I wish
school was like that hahah.

So I've decided to study one conference talk every week in the six
months leading up to October Conference. So obviously I started from
the top with President Eyrings! I love that man so much. Wish I could
just give him a hug and a fist bump. I love the Parable of the Sower
and his relation with it that he mentioned. If we truly want the seed
(word of God) to grow and be strong we have to plant it in good soil
(our hearts). We constantly nourish it (study, temple, prayer, etc.)
that way when our brother Satan tempts us, our roots are deep enough
that we stay strong and don't give in. Love it! Also when two or three
are gathered in the name of Christ, He is there with us as well! It's
His conference, His church, His gospel, and we're in charge of
choosing whether or not to accept it. It's a decision! So "Choose
wisely..." -Indiana Jones quote for you dad.
Have a gr9 week and don't miss a chance to share this happiness with others!

Wisely choosing,
Elder Gearig


The (no flex) Zone

April 4 -- Conference Time!

Well good day fellow humans. Hope all is just dandy wherever you read
this from.
First of all, RAIN! It's raining! I haven't seen rain in like four
weeks, stoked.


Well this week was the beeeeest. Mostly because of conference but it
would have been good nonetheless.


Wednesday we had a pretty good District Meeting if I do say so
myself. Had a fun activity but it was actually quite spiritual so I
was happy with it. Went on exchanges with an elder here to his area
and that was an experience for sure.
We got there and he had planned like nothing. Not only that, but what
he did plan he didn't have backup plans. That's a no-no in the
mission. So what I'm trying to say is we contacted for 5 hours. Hahah
he was scared of contacting bigger crowds, and I love doing that, so
it was fun to teach him the ropes of how-to-get-references 101. Really
though, we saw miracles doing this. I talked to him last night and
turns out almost every reference we received has a lesson set up this
week! Hahah that doesn't happen hardly ever so I'm glad I could help
them out over there. I talked to this family from Bulgaria of about 15
and they LOVED us! Hahah it was awesome because we took a wrong turn
and were walking when we realized we were going the wrong way, so we
turned around and I saw this family and started talking to them. If we
wouldn't have taken the wrong turn we never would have found them so
it was definitely a miracle. They invited them over Sunday night to
"talk to God" hahah.
We also had an experience in an apartment building. We passed by an
old investigator of theirs and he had moved. So I had this impression
to stop and pray. God led us there to find someone, whether it was that
person or someone else in the building. So I offered a prayer and
asked God to guide us to someone in that building who needed this
message. We did, I took off the down the stairs to the next floor and
knocked a door. Sweet lady opens up and we talked for awhile and she
invited us back this week. So if we're willing to be guided, God will
guide us. Simple as that.
Had to lay down the law a little bit that night though because some
missionaries just don't understand what it means to be "exactly
obedient." But this kid really is a stud so it ended up turning into
me telling him how awesome he is, because it's true. Just needed some
tweaking! So I went in and I went out and I feel good about that area
now. #InNOut

A Hermana here in Toledo leaves for her mission today. She's been
here serving and waiting for her visa and she's going to Temple
Square! Look for Sister Calderón walking round the temple in a square
and say hello to her. She's awesome.

Conference was THE BEST! I know everyone else and their companions
 will be writing about it so I'll try to share something
different. I LOVED Elder Stevensons talk. It was fire. I loved his
analogy about how we never have to ask "where are the keys?" ever
again. Because the priesthood of God is here and won't ever be taken
away again! How neat is that? I'd say that's pretty neat. The fact
that we have 15 very aware and experienced men leading our church
brings me peace. I remember when I received the Melchizedek
Priesthood. My dad, brother, grandpa, and four of my best friends
(Taylor, Aussie, Hallz, BSiv if you wanna know who) were able to share
this experience with me and three of them stood there and placed their
hands on my head to give me it. It was an experience I'll never
forget.
I had the opportunity to confirm and give a young girl the Holy Ghost
a few weeks ago after her baptism and the priesthood is real my
friends. I was nervous because this is a big deal! Hahah something
that only happens once! As I opened my mouth the fear left and I let
the Holy Ghost talk through me and I know I said what I was supposed
to say although I don't remember anything I said. The Priesthood is
here and it's only in the true Church of Christ. How amazing it is to
know and to be made known to every person in the world!

Hope all is good and know your pal Elder Gearig is here doing well and
would love to help in anyway he can.️

Every day I'm out just tryna make the most,
Elder Gearig

Bridge to the castle

View of the old city

Okay this week has been a good one! It's been stressful because there
were some problems with some people in the district and I've been
stressing to solve them but as of now I think they're all good. Hahah
my companion also loves to say "la Vida" as we walk through the
streets and don't see anybody. I swear this place is a ghost town
Tuesday we picked up a couple Colombian investigators. We told one to
come an hour before English class to talk and we showed up and she
brought her friend! Except they totally thought we were there to teach
English hahaha yeah right. Lesson one, boom! It went super well
though! They were asking awesome questions and were really interested
then they both accepted the invitation to read and pray! We've got a
lot of hope for them and are excited. Then again, we tend to hope and
trust people to too much, then get our hearts broken every time. You
think we would learn by now but nope. Such is the life.

Wednesday we played some soccer with some Latinos. I played keeper and
got some legit turf burns. Throw back to Friday nights. Not gonna lie,
I miss getting in the shower and finding random turf burns that hurt
like nobody's business.

Thursday night was the beginning of the Easter celebrations here so
the whole city shut down. We had a lesson in the main part of town but
everybody and their dog decided to go there for the parade or
something. Lesson failed us so we were literally trapped in the castle
and couldn't leave. Visited a member and waited til it passed. We left
and saw the Great and Spacious Building from the dream of Lehi. I've
never felt the Spirit leave so quickly. Literally this shrine to the
Virgin Mary being carried above the heads of ten men in black clothes
and a band playing dark music behind. The Spirit left, but my
testimony got stronger, and we left with it.

Friday went on splits with the ZLs in Madrid. It was really fun! We
got 5 references in 30 minutes....Madrid is legit. Too bad I'm in an
area where it would take 8 hours and 39 minutes to get 5 references
(we did the math). Ran a lot, taught a lesson, ran some more. Good times
in the city there.

Yesterday was Easter here. It was super cool! All week we've focused
on Christ of course so Sacrament meeting was something else. I'm not
gonna say that I've never felt the Spirit while taking the
sacrament... But yesterday was unreal. I had the water in my hand and
just stared at it. I drank it and the Spirit just swarmed (is that a
word?) my body and the rest of the meeting I just wanted to hug
everyone and cry and love everyone. But it was a special experience
for me(:

Well that about raps it up for our week here in Toledo! I just want to
bear testimony that Jesus is the Christ. I'm so grateful to serve this
mission and for the experiences that I've had with these beautiful
people. At times I feel super down because we could contact and knock
doors for 5 hours straight and get home with 0 references and still
nobody to teach..but the Lord lets us be broken down just to build us
back up. I know that to be true. Day after day when we put our Faith
and Trust in the only person who knows everything and has experienced
it all, we can know that what we're doing is the right thing to do,
and He always comes through. Much love my friends, much love indeed!

Just live your life,
Elder Gearig

Much ado about nothing

Good day everyone. Good day.

Just a little nighttime cathedral action

Hope all is well wherever you might be reading this. Shoot birthday
to McKayKayKayla on Wednesday! The big 19. One more month til I join
that club.

Well my friends, it has been a good week! Not a ton of things happened
but it was just a solid week and I have no complaints. If you're
wondering, no tears were shed over missing Vigo this week hitting my
stride and moving forward because it does no good to look backwards.
That's something I've learned for sure, we need to constantly look
upwards and forwards! Looking in the past does us no good and we have
so much good to do in the future! Look not behind thee. Don't be like
Lots wife. I think she was diabetic because she needed more salt 
yikes that wasn't a good joke. Anyways, move forwards.

Like I said, nothing too important or big happened this week but any
week on the mission is a good week to be alive. Any week in general is
a good week to be alive! We met with a less active 19 year old,
Richard, like three times this past week because he likes spending
time with us and we always have way deep conversations about life with
him. Again, I'm glad for the challenges we have in life because after
we overcome them, we can use them to help other people and that's what
I've been doing with this kid. He hasn't been to church in white some
time and he came yesterday! 30 minutes late, right in the middle of my
talk in sacramenet meeting but he came! Hahah Sunday school was
awesome. A RM from Germany taught it and it was all YM and YW and it
was such a good discussion, it wasn't a lesson because we literally
discussed Lehis Dream the whole time and had a really good discussion
about the teenage life. It's awesome to give some somewhat adult like
advice lol. It was super spiritual and I think it helped Richard a
lot(: he called us Friday and was like "hey can we have a FHE with you
guys tomorrow?" Uhh what's happening with this kid? He wouldn't talk
about the gospel two weeks ago but now he's asking for
FHE...repentance works my friends!

My talk yesterday was on missionary work. Weird right? What was weird
is that I dint know the members here yet and I don't necessarily have
their trust quite yet. So I should have picked a nice, calm subject
right? Sike. I felt inspired to chastise them. So I did it! Right
before the meeting, a member of the Stake Presidency starts talking to
me and said he'll be speaking right after me. This is when I
considered changing my talk because I wasn't about to chastise the
congregation in front of this guy. But I went through anyways. And
wow, it was incredible. I hard,y said a thing I wrote down and just
followed the Spirit. I did in a loving way I feel like and afterwards
it was just dead silent as I sat down... Honestly I don't remember
what I said. But the Stake Presidency guy gets up and basically
testified of my words for 10 minutes then sat down. "How inspiring it
is to have a bold, excited, dedicated missionary like this among you."
And when it was all said and done, the members didn't say a word to me
after so maybe they got offended. Idk. But the missionaries were
stoked for what I said so I guess it was good

I just want to testify of the Book of Mormon. How lucky are we to have
the Fullness of the Gospel in our lives? In one book we hold all the
keys necessary to have and live a successful life. I had the
opportunity of finishing the BoM again this past Thursday. I got down
in my knees and asked our Heavenly Father if this truly was his word.
I sat there in silence for a few minutes as this warmth and peace came
over me. I got the chills and it was just this comfortable warmth I
felt. I knew before, I knew during the process, and I know without a
shadow of a doubt that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Joseph
And Hyrum Smith died for this book, among many others who died for it
and this religion as well. They wouldn't lie in front of God in their
last moments of life on a book if it wasn't true. I invite you all to
watch the Mormon Message "Testimony of the Book of Mormon" by Elder
Holland because it's something else. So powerful. I'm grateful for
this book and the opportunity to preach it's word here in Toledo. It's
so simple that a sunbeam can understand it, and we can change our
lives through it.

Much love amigos.

I've got soul but I'm not a Soldier,

Elder Gearig

Enjoy this portrait of a man from the bishopric. Notice the BoM