December 9 Email!

Mi familia,

 

Hahaha it's in the single digits there? We haven't hit freezing yet, but we got pretty close a few times. I think the coldest it has been here is like 40, but with the humidity, it goes straight to the bone and feels like -17. No snow. It's actually finally starting to look like fall hahah I took a picture, i'll send it to you.

Well, this has been another stellar week. This week has gone by faster than any other week so far, it's crazy how fast it all goes by. Elder Condie and I are like best friends. We are always laughing because we have the same exact type of humor (imagine that: finally someone who laughs at what I laugh at), but we get work done. We have had a lot of success this last week too. We had a whole bunch of lessons, even though we were both sick. Fred Travis, the guy that got baptized a few months ago, has been working hard to get his family baptized before he leaves to the army in January. We have been over there a lot teaching them. He had a TWO hour lesson with them teaching the Plan Of Salvation, they all had a million questions, but I think we did a good job with answering them all. They loved it. They all came to church yesterday. Fred's mom, Shabazz, and his 6 siblings.

 

We were over at Manuel's house a few days ago, and after the lesson. He started telling us about how he got started in the rap game and more about his rap career. sidenote: he did a song with chamilloinaire a pretty famous rapper. Anyways, he has some nuts stories. After he showed us a music video of his, he freestyled for us. It was so sick! He went off for like 5 minutes, it was easily the best freestyle I have ever heard.. haha I know you guys don't care, but I thought it was sweet.

 

Apparently my birthday is coming up, haha we have like 6 dinners on that day, so that'll be nice.

 

I want to ask for one last thing for my birthday (from everyone in the family): On December 11, at some point during the day, find someone who is having a hard time and do something nice for them.

 

On my mission, I have continued to teach many people what prayer is and how to pray. I have always had prayer in my life, and I did take it more granted many years. These people are so thankful for prayers, and it makes me sick to think how I used to take it for granted. Whether it's in the trailer park praying in a circle with a family, or just on someone's porch, they always say something like, "thank you" or "I needed that" and you can see it just saying the prayer helps them. Jeremy once told me something that is very true and powerful, "if it matters to you, it matters to God." Don't ever hesitate to ask, or talk to God about anything. The power of prayer is very real, and I have seen in in my own life. God listens to each prayer, and answers each prayer.

 

-Elder Giles