November 25 Email!

Hey all!

So Transfers are this Thursday, Elder Miner is leaving and i'm staying here. I'm pretty excited that i'm staying here, I really didn't want to leave yet!

We had a Zone Conference this Tuesday and a 70 came and spake to us. His name is Elder Golden (side story: like 5 months before I got here, Elder Holland came to this misison and talked to us..) Anyways, Elder Golden had a way cool English accent. haha He literally talked for 4 hours, no exaggeration, just standing up there going from one tangent to the next, don't get me wrong, it was really good.. but long.

We taught a lesson to this preacher on Thursday. He started his own church, an he has quite a few people come to his church. We gave him a Book Of Mormon a few weeks ago and then we finally met with him on Thursday. When I explained to him what the Book of Mormon is and how it doesn't replace the Bible, and read him my favorite verses from the BoM. He really liked it and the Spirit was strong. At the end of the lesson he said, "it's true, it's gotta be" hahah SWEET. Hopefully we'll get him and his whole church to Sacrament Meeting on Sunday.

We taught this guy last night name Glen, He is the JACKED black guy who has been in the Army his whole life. We taught him in his "man cave" haha he told us some nuts stories about wars. Right now, he doesn't really believe in anything, he says that he hasn't said a prayer since "probably sometime in college". He's like 50 now. We had a really powerful lesson, he said that he was going to start praying and reading the Book Of Mormon!

We had this really weird cold front here. It's been like loew 40's the past few days... I have literally been frozen. The cold is so much worse when it's humid because it goes straight through all the clothes you are wearing and straight to the bones.

Well, San Antonio is where I am supposed to be. It is no coincidence that I am here. God lives and he is more involved in our lives than most people will ever realize.

I love you all so much! hopefully you haven't forgotten about me yet.

Love, Elder Giles

These some french toast i made out of eggo waffles..

Realest line I have ever heard

This is me at Glen's house

November 18 Email!

HEY!
There are so many great families here. I'll probably be here for at least one more month, but i'm already sad. I love everyone here so much.

So, this week has been a pretty good. Not too many huge things happened, but there were still some sweet experiences. We were teaching a lesson to this lady we met. It was the first time we met with her and so we were teaching her about the Book Of Mormon and Joseph Smith and all that good stuff. (She's catholic, like everyone else here).. After I recited the First Vision to her, she just sat there was a minute and started flipping through the Book Of Mormon, then with tears coming down her face she said, "It's true. It's all true".. hahah it totally caught me off guard, I sure wasn't really expecting that. But it was sweet!!

Manuel gave me a Lego man with $100. Oh, i'm not sure if I told ya'll. He loves Lego's. He has thousands of dollars worth of Lego's in his home, hahah i'll send you a picture of his front room table:

Fred's uncle, Jermiah, came to church yesterday. So there is a bunch of people living at Fred's house, like their whole extended family in house about the size of our basement...

I definitely haven't changed. This Gospel isn't meant to change people, it's meant to improve them, make them the best that they can be. It helps you overcome your weaknesses and helps you build up your strengths to make you the person you are meant to be. I haven't changes, but through many of prayers and diligence in doing everything I know I am supposed to.. I have seen some of my weaknesses become weak, and my strengths become strong. I am proud of you all, and I am trying my best to have you all be proud of me.

Well, I love ya'll and I pray for each of you every day.

Love, Elder Giles

November 11 Email!

Family, 

 

Yeah, Gladys Knight was awesome, that was really fun. We got a CD of her and her choir, and now that's all we listen to in the car. 

I was at our Bishop's house for dinner on Saturday night, all the Bishopric was there, and I was looking around and realized that I am really going to miss everyone here when I get transferred. I heard that a lot of missionaries get homesick for their first area. There is a family here named the Theusen's (haha yeah, like the name Jeremy used to call me) They are awesome. They are genuinely cool people and they always invite us over. I was telling Sister Theusen about how my birthday is in a month and she is making me my favorite dinner, I tried to explain to them what Beef Tidbits were.. but I just looked like an idiot.

We were having dinner at Air Force Village (that Air Force retirement home) a few nights ago. I was talking to Sister Potter, the sweetest, funniest old lady there ever was. She was asking me if I have a big enough blanket hahah I told her how I just had one that I found in the closet because I didn't bring one. She said that,"that's not gonna do" and how it's getting colder at night. So at church yesterday she brought me two big blankets haha.

Thanksgiving is coming up, missionaries try to see how many dinners they can have that day.. the record last year was 8. Wish me luck.

 

The work is hard, but more fulfilling than anything else I have ever done. I am so glad that I am here. This mission has already taught me so much about who I am, and the father and husband I am going to be. The thing that keeps me going is knowing that I will be with you all forever, and these people here don't know that. I'll be honest, sometimes it's hard. For example, last night at like 7:30 we were driving our bikes past The Base to get to our last appointment for the night. There was a group of about 6 kids my age just leaving a restaurant, they were laughing and having such a good time. It was late, it was dark, I was exhausted, I had a headache... for a second, I missed that. I missed hanging out with my friends and having a good time, until we got to our appointment. It was 3 guys that are my age. They all 'party' and don't want to change, one of the guys asked me, "why do you do this? what happened in your life that made you want to do this?" I answered that question for myself as I answered it for him. I bore testimony about trials and forgiveness, love and heartbreak, and the loss of a close friend. Every single person in the room was crying, it was one of the most powerful experiences I have ever had.

I love ya'll

 

Love, Elder Giles

 

November 4 Email!

HEY!

Halloween sounded like a lot of fun, the girls' costumes are the best! I can't believe they make that stuff themselves. Did we get a lot of Trick-or-treaters? It's sad here, no one really goes trick or treating because it's just to dangerous to have little kids walking around. We didn't have anyone knock on our door all night and every one I have talked to says that they don't let their kids go trick or treating. It's really sad. We had to come home at 6 pm on Halloween, so we just hungout at our apartment all night pretty much.

 I can't believe I kept forgetting to tell you guys about this.. so Gladys Knight is in charge of a choir (Saints Unified Voices) and they travel around the world to sing and bear testimony of The Church and they came to San Antonio last week. We've been handing out tickets for it to basically everyone we know for the past few weeks. We went to it on Friday with Fred Travis, his mom and her boyfriend. They really enjoyed it! It was in a huge Stake Center we have here. She sung a few songs and bore her testimony, it was awesome! The songs weren't like our traditional hymns... haha they were like Gospel Songs and all the people there were yelling, "Amen!" and 'Hallelujah!" haha I even shouted those a few times too...

It's been a great week. I had got to teach Manuel and his family The Plan of Salvation this week.. it was so amazing. Manuel was basically crying the whole time and when I taught him about the resurrection, he just got so excited. He said, "so all these tattoos, all these scars, everything wrong with my body will be fixed?" When I told him that that was true he said, "that's what's up!" hahaha

 

I am so grateful for all of the experiences I have had in my life up to this point, they are all there to help me help other people. I love how hard this mission is. I know that God is our Father in Heaven, and He loves us all more than we can comprehend. If we follow his simple commandments... 2 Nephi 5:27.

 

Here are some pictures he sent over!: 

 

My pumpkin.

Me, Manuel and Fred outside Manuel's trailer

This is Menuodo. It's cow stomach, and smells like death