December 15, 2014

Kinfolk,

Thank you all so much for all of the Birthday cards and packages! This was a great week, and I loved everything that I got. 

Tuesday: Was Elder Scroggs last day (he was one of the Elders who I lived with). So we had to shower and get all ready to leave the apartment before 7 and take him to Austin. We got to Austin a few minutes early, so we all decided to go to Super Burrito... one last time. It was so good! As always. We dropped Elder Scroggs off with the rest of the missionaries going home that day, and then drove straight back to Round Rock to have our Zone Meeting. There were two zones of missionaries there, and we gave trainings for a few hours on how to best use this Christmas time in spreading the gospel. It's always good to have big mission meetings and seeing missionaries that you are good friends with.

We spent the rest of the day with Elder Warren in a "trio", since his companion went home. We had dinner with a YSA named John who made us bratwursts. haha dinner with YSA's are always an interesting time, you can never tell what they will make.

Elder Warren is Spanish called, so we spent some time in the Spanish area finding and teaching people. A lot of fun. Crazy day.

Birthday: The day before my Birthday, Elder Nichols and Elder Warren took me out for lunch. There is a really good Mexican restaurant here called, "Chuy's". We went there and ate A LOT of Mexican food, and then had some delicious Tres Leches for dessert.

My actual Birthday was on the day of Transfer Meeting. When we first drove up there were a lot of missionaries in the parking lot, just talking and hanging out, and when I got out of the van they all started to sing "Happy Birthday" to me! haha it was so awesome! Even during Transfer Meeting they made an announcement that it was my Birthday hahaha.

I also got another companion on my Birthday!! His name is Elder Loveridge. It has been so much because I have been training a new Zone Leader, and Elder Nichols and Elder Loveridge had already been companions like 6 months ago haha so they have a lot of stories together, it's a lot of fun!

The apartment that we live in is so crazy right now!! It went from 4 Elders, to 6!! There is now two trio's of Zone Leaders in the apartment hahaha it is crazy!

I have already known all the missionaries previously in the mission, so we are all good friends. Such a good Birthday!!

I also opened up all my presents and we ate that cake on my birthday. The cake was so big! haha and luckily they spelled everything right on it that time. A group of YSA's fed me dinner and made me a cake on my birthday, i'll send a picture of me blowing out the candles on that cake

We also had two great lessons on my birthday! Happy Birthday.

I love you all so much!!

Thank you for everything that came this week

-Love, Elder Giles

December 8, 2014 Email!

Y'all,

Thank you so much for all the Happy Birthday wishes! I got a great letter in the mail from Grandpa and Grandma, with notes from everyone in the family! Thank you all very much, I loved it I'm very excited for my birthday cake this year! haha i'm not sure if you remember, but the cake that I got last year was spelled wrong. It said, "Happy Birtday Matt" haha so hopefully this store knows how to spell 'Birthday'.

A Hidden Talent:

This is so funny. So, in the Chisholm Trail ward (Young-Single Adults), we had a big ward Christmas Party/Family Home Evening on Monday Night. A lot of the ward came, and some people brought their non-member friends as well. They had a bunch of food: smoked brisket and beef and turkey! Oh, it was so good.

After all the eating was done, they had a "Variety Show", where people signed up to perform in front of the ward. Well, Elder Nichols and I singed up like a week previous, but could never figure out what we were going to do (mostly because we never talked about it). We did the only thing we know how...... freestyle rap.

Elder Nichols is really good at beatboxing, so he grabbed the mic and starting with a beat. The crowd would shout out a topic and I would rap about it for a few minutes. The first topic was "Jello Salad" and the next one was "A Bow-tie". The crowd got so into it!! It was so fun. I was pretty nervous at first, I was scared that I wasn't going to be able to rap that well... but once I got "in the zone", it all worked out pretty well.

haha I have some funny pictures from it I will send to y'all. You can't see the crowd in the pictures, there were probably like 60-75 people there. Loved it.

ill:

Unfortunately, the next day after our "performance", I felt pretty sick. I didn't feel well the majority of this week :(, but I am feeling a lot better now and I think I am just about all the way healed. It's really boring being a sick missionary. There is like nothing to do when you're sick. You can read your scriptures, or sleep, or walk around the apartment looking for stuff to do.... that's just about it. haha oh well. We went out on one of the nights and bought ourselves some 'Jack In The box'.... that helped quite a bit.

Back to SA-Town:

Went back to San Antonio again this week for 'Mission Leaders Council'. Again, we are the furthest Elders away from that meeting, so we have to wake up at 5 am to make it there on time. The meeting was great. President Slaughter talked a lot about the birth of Christ and the true need for a Savior. "You can't understand the Atonement, until you understand the Fall". It was such a great thing to learn about. I think we could all come to a better understanding of our need for a Savior, and as we do that it will make everything else we do for meaningful. 

On the way back from SA-Town, we stopped in Downtown Austin at our favorite taco shop. "Super Burrito". That place is some seriously greasy, Mexican food. It's some of the greatest food I've ever tasted haha it's everything I've ever dreamed off. We're actually going to be in Austin tomorrow morning, and i'll be getting myself some Super Burrito breakfast :)

A New Taste:

We had a family this week prepare us a dinner for my birthday. They kept telling us that it was going to be something new that we haven't has before. They were really mysterious about it, and refused to tell us what it was.

We arrive at the home. We walk into the kitchen and I see a bowl of mashed potatoes..... a bowl of corn.... a bowl of beans.... and a plate with some kind of meat on it. The mystery must have been the meat, but I couldn't tell what it was. It looked similar to roast beef.

The family served us up our plates, and gave us each a big ol' piece of meat.

I began the adventure, and took a big bite out of the meat. It tasted like beef, but only a little more squishy. After eating the majority of what was on out plate, they brought out this little plate with somethign on it. 

What was on it was the top of a tongue.

We had just eaten a 4 1/2 pound cow tongue. hahaha it was actually pretty good though! 

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Birthday Plans:

Transfer meeting is on my Birthday this year, so that is going to take up the most of the first of the day. Elder Nichols and I are staying together, and are getting another companion. TRIO! TRIO! TRIO! TRIO! Because Elder Nichols is going home half-way through this transfer, so we will be in a trio until he leaves, and then just the other companion and I.

We are having dinner that night with some Singles in the YSA ward who are coming together to make a Birthday feast for me! haha 

It's going to be a great week!!

I love you all so much!

Pray for Elder Nichols and I

Love, Elder Giles

December 1, 2014 Email

Family,

 

I'm glad that ya'll had a great Thanksgiving, mine was very good as well and i'll talk more about it later in the E-mail.

So exciting that the girls are performing the Nutcracker this week. They are doing to do awesome, i'm excited to hear all about it.

Going to get a tree every year as a family is something i'm so glad we did. It was so fun buying a tree and then decorating it with all the "decorations" we have made or acquire over time haha we always have the best looking tree. Hands down. 

 

Exchanges:

I went on an exchange with a missionary named Elder Sant this week. Him and I know each other pretty well, we living close by each other a few months ago. We're good friends. The area he is in right now has been struggling lately with finding people to teach and staying busy. So, him and I decided to do everything we could and work as hard as we knew how that day to find a family to teach.

We hopped on our bikes and peddled away (my first time on a bike again since about 2 or 3 months ago). 

As we were riding our bikes down his street, we saw a couple who started jumping up and down waving at us. We both looked at each other, not knowing who these people are haha. Turns out that they are members from out of town visiting some family for Thanksgiving. The family they are visiting are inactive and have an unbaptized daughter. The couple told us how they had been praying to know hoe to help get these family active again, and then we rode our bikes right past them. Haaha awesome!! We went over and send up a lesson with that family.

At another point, we talked to a man who was busy packing up his car and seemed disinterested. I felt impressed to say, "Have you read the Book of Mormon?". He stopped, and looked at me and said "no, but I want to". So we taught him about the Book of Mormon, said a prayer with him and his family and set up another lesson with him. Awesome!

In the evening, we stopped by a man's house and he was telling us how he had a really busy, hard day. We offered to share a message that will help him fell better. He let us in. We then taught him and his family about the Restoration of the Gospel, and gave them a Book of Mormon. We also set up a return appointment with them.

The exchange was filled with miracles, and it was so fun to be working with Elder Sant.

Thanksgiving:

All the missionaries in our zone did service at a Catholic Church for a few hours. They were serving food to people who didn't have anywhere else to go. So, we scheduled it with the Catholic Church, and they really wanted us to come. We all showed up and helped serve food to these amazing people We had so much fun, and it was a humbling experience for all of us. At one point, I decided to just walk around and talk to certain people. I would set down next to these people who have had hard lives, you could just tell by looking into their eyes, and I would ask them what they are grateful for. I probably asked that question to 50 people, all different ages and walks of life, and almost every single one of them said, "my family".

These people who don't have many clothes, or much money, or even a place to spend the holidays, understand what is most important. I hope that it would never make me get to that point to always remember what is truly important.

This Thanksgiving, I was extremely grateful for my family. My family which I haven't physically been with in over 15 months, but feel like they are always near. I, like the hundreds of underprivileged people who had no where to go on Thanksgiving, am thankful for my family.

Recent Convert:

Malik Abdul is doing phenomenal! Just yesterday he get the Aaronic Priesthood and was ordained to be a Priest. Only a week after getting confirmed, he got the Priesthood! He is doing do good! He is about to get a calling as well. He's just a powerhouse. I'm so proud of him.

I love ya'll!

Have a great week, and always be grateful

-Elder Giles

11/24/2014

Kinfolk,

 

Here's a little about my week:

Zone Meeting:

We had a combined Zone Meeting this week, with the Round Rock and Round Rock East zones. President Slaughter was there and gave an excellent training on 'Apostasy', and how it occurred. He also talked about this new initiative the Church is doing this Christmas season. It's unlike anything I have ever seen before. It is called, "He is The Gift". Helping people draw come closer to Christ and focus on him this Christmas season. They will be sending out millions of cards. Each missionary will be giving away at least 10 a day for over a month. On December 7th, The Church will be THE ONLY advertiser on YouTube's homepage..... all day long.... the only advertisements..

ALSO, The Church bought many of the billboards and mega screens in Times Square, those will be going off all day, every day until January.

This is crazy!!! The work is hastening so fast! The Gospel is flooding the earth!

Elder Nichols and I also gave some training's at the meeting. I prepared mine that morning haha, I've gotten pretty good at shooting from the hip.

Exchanges:

One of my best friends from the MTC, Elder Butterfield, is in this zone now! We haven't really seen each other since the MTC. This week we went on an exchange together, so he came to my area and we worked together for 24 hours. It was so much fun! haha we just instantly picked up where we left off in the MTC. 

We taught a lesson together to a college student in Georgetown, Texas. He is an agnostic, and doesn't really trust any religion. We started teaching him about the Restoration and we just blew his mind! hahaha he was loving everything we said, and he agreed with all of it! We gave him a copy of the Book Of Mormon, and he is going to start reading it. The Spirit was strong in the lesson, and he definitely felt it. We are teaching him again this week.

One of the lessons we taught was to Malik, where Elder Butterfield gave him his Baptismal Interview. I'll send a picture of the 3 of us together. It was such a fun day!

I also went on an exchange with Elder Hobbs. Elder Hobbs is getting towards the end of his mission. I went to his area with him. Half-way through our day it started to ran really bad, so the rest of our day we were just completely soaked! We had a lot of good times though. We just happened to find a lady in her garage cleaning some furniture. As we talked with her, we found out that her husband is an inactive member of the Church, and she is a non-member. However, just recently they were both talking about going back to Church.

That was the first day they moved into the house. It was a miracle! They are going to come back to Church, and i'm sure that she will get baptized.

Brother Abdul:

Ladies and Gentleman, we have a new member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His name is Malik Jamal Abdul-Khaliq.

From the first time we taught him until the day he got baptized was only 11 days! haha crazy, right?

Malik was just so prepared. He always shares his testimony on how the Lord has been preparing him his whole life for this moment.

He was baptized on November 22, at 3pm.

His good friend, who he is living with right now, baptized him. Also, a friend he met at work, who is a recently returned-missionary, confirmed him on Sunday and gave him the Gift of The Holy Ghost.

Malik's mother, who is an inactive Muslim, came to the baptism. She could feel The Spirit and seemed to really enjoy the baptism. Afterwords, she grabbed a copy of the Book of Mormon and some pamphlets that we had set out. Awesome!

As soon as the baptismal service ended, and everyone was standing up. Malik walked over to me and gave me a big hug. While we were hugging, it sounded like he was holding back tears when he said, "thank you". Just a simple "thank you", and everything up to that point was worth it. No trial on the mission is too hard, when you're standing next to the font with your new recent convert, and he is hugging you saying "thank you".

Malik and I have become really good friends. Every time we see each other he just comes up to me and gives me a hug.

 

I love y'all so much, and I am grateful for each one of you!

Love, Elder Giles

November 17 Email!

Kinfolk,

Winter has arrived in Utah, I'm sure glad I'm not there. It has been pretty cold in Round Rock this week though, like 30's or 40's. It did not snow though, so that is good! I finally had to dig through my suitcases and pull out my jackets and sweaters from last winter. That was a weird experience. I couldn't believe it had been a year since I was in Heritage ward teaching Dion, and Manuel (PT) and all the other great people there. This year flew by!

I'm glad that y'all are getting some snow though, you'll have to send me a picture of it. I can't quite remember what snow looks like anymore haha

A Pair Of Thermals:

A week ago, Monday, we had a return appointment with a man we talked to a few days previous. We met him when we was walking outside of his house about yo get in his car. We were on the other side of the road, but started talking to to him and went over to introduce ourselves. He mentioned how he grew up Jehovah's Witness, but never actually believed it. He is 38 years old and has been looking for truth in religions for most of his life. When we told him what we do, he invited us back for Monday evening,

We knocked on the door, and he answered the door in nothing but a pair of thermals and working boots. He seemed quite comfortable, even though we were in a shirt and tie. This man is African American, probably about 6'3'' and looks like he works out quite a bit. He has one extremely lazy eye and a nice set of dreadlocks.

The lesson went very well. He understood everything we taught and was eager to read from the Book Of Mormon. He wanted to come to Church on Sunday but didn't make it because his flight got in later than he though. We have another lesson with him later this evening.

I'm curious to see if he is in his typical thermal and boots combination.

My Boy, Malik:

Malik is getting baptized this Saturday. It will be the fastest baptism I have ever been a part of, or even heard in this mission. From the first time we taught him until his baptism is 11 days.

We taught him for the first time this past Tuesday. The Spirit was so strong in the lesson, and we was loving everything we were saying! A few days after the lesson he told us that when we told him the "First Vision", he felt The Spirit stronger than he has ever felt it in his life. He knew that what he felt was The Spirit, and that Joseph Smith a true prophet of God.

I could tell that he was ready for baptism, by all the answers he was giving throughout the lesson. So at the end I said, "Malik, when do you want to be baptized?" ,"As soon as possible" ,"Okay, November 22", "Okay".

hahahaha it was so awesome!

This week we taught Malik: The Restoration, The Plan Of Salvation, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, The Law of Chastity, Word Of Wisdom, Law of Tithing, and the 10 commandments.

I have never met someone so prepared to receive the gospel before. He is so full of faith, and is an inspiration to the entire ward.

After we taught him the Plan Of Salvation (which was so powerful!!), Elder Nichols and I were back at our apartment planning for the next day when he sent us a text... I'll send you the picture I took of the text.

 

Malik At Church:

Yesterday was Malik's third time at Church. The first two times he pretty much just wore whatever, he didn't really have any "church clothes". However, he walked into Church yesterday in this nice black suit and purple tie. He was looking like a modern day Johnny Cash (except that Malik is black). It was so awesome to see him at Church, in a nice suit and how excited and comfortable he looked!

In the Sunday School class, the teacher called on him and asked him essentially, "how do you feel now that you are getting baptized?"

"In my life, I have been excited for a lot of things. When you are a child, you get excited so easily and there have been many things in my life that have made me feel excited. but.... I have never been more excited for anything, than how excited I am to get baptized"

Malik is just such a boss. I love how much faith he has! He is a miracle.

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I love y'all!!

 

-Elder Giles

p.s. the other picture of of a Texas-sized doughnut we ate

 

 

 

Here is a lunch I made this week:

 

November 10 Email!

Family,

Mission Leaders Council: Is a meeting that happens every month for all Zone Leaders in the mission, at a chapel in San Antonio. I've been going to it for a few months now, and before it was just a few minutes from our apartment. However, Round Rock is the very top of the mission. The drive is much, much further now. This past Thursday, we had to wake up at 5 am, to shower and get ready and drive to San Antonio. It was a long drive haha. M.L.C. is always so awesome though, we just learn from our Mission President all day, as he just fills us with knowledge and doctrine of the gospel. The previous MLC a member of the Seventy was with us.

After M.L.C. was over we began our long journey back home. We stopped in downtown Austin at a little Mexican restaurant called "Super Burrito". It reminded me of Rancherito's only a lot dirtier and greaser. So, obviously, I loved it! (even though I was feeling pretty sick the next day)

We didn't get home until around 8 pm, it was such a long day! I feel asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow that night

Sabbath Day: Because we cover two wards, we are in Church every Sunday from 8 am- 5 pm. The first Sunday was really rough haha I was not used to that long of Church, but I think I am already getting used to it, and love it! There are a lot of really great people in the wards here.

The Chisholm Trail ward (Young Single Ward) is considerably smaller than the adult ward. For example, this Sunday there were not enough speakers to take up the full hour. So, they just called me up to take up the last 15 minutes of Sacrament Meeting hahaha. It was really fun though, I actually love speaking now. I just talked about receiving answers and then following through with our answer. It was good.

We have an investigator in the Young Single Adult ward named 'Malik', who has come to Church twice now. He is just an absolute perfect investigator, he loves everything and want more! In Priesthood class he stood up to introduce himself and said "My name in Malik, and I will be converting here very shorty", and then sat down hahaha! SO COOL!!

The reason it is so amazing, is that it's an answer to prayers. Elder Nichols is getting towards the end of his mission, he has less than 2 months left. The area that we are in now, has been very slow for a while now. They haven't had a convert baptism in a very long time. I promised Elder Nichols that we would get him at least one more baptism before her goes home. WE have been praying really hard, and working just as hard for that miracle. The next thing we know, Malik is brought to Church by one of his friends. It seems as is he will be baptized before November is over!!

~miracle~

 

 * * * * * * * * * * *

Thank ya'll for all the love and support. You really do have an incredible on me. Please keep Elder Nichols and I in your prayers, also Malik.

Until next week

-Elder Giles

November 3 Email!

Family.

This week was really crazy. I spent the first few days packing and saying goodbye to all of the amazing people that I had to go know in the Bulverde ward. It's a shame that I was only there for 2 transfers. I really did love it there, and there are so many amazing people. I took many pictures, i'll send you the one of me and Jose Gomez. He is one of the investigators that we were teaching. He is such an incredibly humble, kind man! He is a Mexican cowboy, and so I borrowed one of his 13 cowboy hats to take the picture haha.

Brother Bermea:

This will be just one example of the amazing people I have met on my mission, and the affect they are having and will have on me.

Brother Bermea only got baptized a little less than a year ago, and he is already about to get the Melchizedek Priesthood. He is a humble man, who doesn't have a steady job. He works here and there whenever he can find work. He always offers to feed us, and they had us over for dinner at the time. They live in a very humble double-wide trailer.

We went over there on my very last night in Bulverde to say goodbye and have one last lesson with him. While we were there talking, the topic came up on what makes a good father and he went on the explain...

"When a woman has a child, that is when she becomes a mother. But that's not when the man becomes a father. The man becomes a father when we wakes up in the middle of the night and sees his wife stumbling through the dark on her way to their crying child and he gets up, tells her to go lie down, and takes care of the baby. That's when he becomes a father"

A father is much more than just someone who has children, it's a man who would, and does, do everything for them.

I'm grateful to have such a father in my life.

New Area:

I got transferred on the day before Halloween, up to Round Rock, Texas (to the best of my knowledge there isn't a town here titled "leaf" BUT there are a bunch of leaves on the ground...)

***2410 Great Oaks Drive #702, Round Rock, Texas, 78681*****

That is my new address. I would love to get some letters this week :)

My new companion is Elder Nichols. Man, he is a BEAST. He is such an incredible missionary! He only has about 2 months left on his mission, and you can tell he is very experienced. He is a bigger guy, with a large build, but he is such a soft-hearted person. He loves everyone, and sincerely wants to help them all.

Elder Nichols is a phenomenal missionary, and I am so excited to serve along side him and learn from him!

In this new area, we cover two separate wards. One is the family ward, "Walsh Ranch" and we also cover the YSA ward "Chisholm Trail". For the YSA ward, our boundaries are two full stakes, so when we visit some of them we have to drive pretty far.

So far, I love working with the younger people who are closer to my age. I feel it is easier to be real and genuine with them, and it's easier to connect with them.

Unfortunately, this week we have a lot we have to do and I can't write much more in the E-mail. 

I love you all though, so much!

Please continue to pray for me as I start this new area with my new companion, your prayers mean more than you think.