October 13 Email!

Kinfolk,

Here's an update on my week:

Spanish Speaking Branch:

I went on an Exchange this week with Elder Vazquez in the Spanish Branch here. The Branch building is in Boerne, Texas. Elder Vazquez is a short Mexican who is from the center of Mexico. He is around 5'2'' and is so hilarious! hahaha he doesn't know English extremely well, so he always uses weird words and phrases. It's hilarious.

We spent the day on bicycles. Which I was excited about! I haven't ridden a bike for like 8 months.

Most of the day was in spanish, which was interesting because I do not know spanish. haha all I know is how to say simple things, but I can't have a conversation.

We met a man wearing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles boxers, so we knew he was nice. We taught him more about The Book Of Mormon and explained it's relationship to the Bible. It went very well.

Bikes, Spanish, Elder Vazquez, and TMNT... good day.

NFL Superstar:

Spending the day with a Priest in the ward, we decided to knock on a few doors. We knocked on a door and a man that looked like he just rolled out of bed answered. He told us that he wasn't interested in listening to us. As we were walking away he said, "Wait a minute. I have something for you."

What was it.. A bottle of water? Some money? Maybe a book?

Nay. What the man brought out was three large pictures of himself (one for each of us). Turns out, that he used to play for the Minnesota Vikings a while back, and was their starting quarterback. His name is Tommy Kramer.

He signed these pictures of himself and gave them to us.. haha after talking about football for a few minutes, he invited us inside. His entire house was a shrine to himself. His front room was only pictures of himself, and trophies he has. He had magazines laying out, turned to the page that it mentions him. I got the hint that he was very proud of his accomplishments.
He was a nice guy though, and I still have the autographed picture!

Miss Jonas:

On Friday night, we had a lesson planned with a family we were teaching. We were very excited for the lesson and even had another member family coming with us. An hour before the lesson, the mother called us and said that he is "joining" another Church, and not to come over. That was upsetting.

We had to call the member family and tell them that the lesson canceled. Elder Shorts and I were both pretty bummed out. So, instead of having that lesson, we went out to try and find other people to teach. Right before it got too dark, we decided to go visit one more street before we stopped for the night.

At the last house we visited, a very nice lady opened the door. She was really happy to see us, almost like she had been expecting us. She told us how her husband 'used' to be a member of the Church, and she has always been interested.
We went back the next day, and taught her about the Restoration of the gospel. The lesson went incredible, and it made perfect sense to her! We even stopped by later that night and met her inactive husband, who was super nice and told us that he "still knows the Book Of Mormon is true".

The husband had to work, but the next day Miss Jonas and her little son came to Church, and they loved it! The ward members were really friendly towards them and they felt comfortable. She will be baptized soon.

Looking back at it, I realized that if the first family wouldn't have canceled, than we would not have found Miss Jonas. They would not have came to Church, and who knows if the missionaries would have ever found them.

It was a true miracle.

ALSO, she is related to the Jonas Brothers. So yeah, she's awesome.

Please keep Stacy Jonas, and Albert Garcia in your daily prayers!

I love you all very much!
Love, Elder Giles

October 6 Email!

Kinfolks,

"Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper." (2 Chr. 20:20)

That was my 3rd General Conference here in Texas. It was so incredible. I have really grown an unquenchable desire to listen to the Lord's oracles and follow the counsel the give. That same desire came come to any of us, by simply acting on their counsel to begin with (John 7:17)

I hope that we can all show our sustaining of Thomas S. Monson by following the counsel we have received, and sharing it with others.

Also, thank you for all the letters I have been getting. I love reading them over and over again. I am sorry that I can not write back as much as I would like. I do love receiving letters and am so grateful for everyone writing me :) thank you

*This picture is the missionary I was with in Kerrville and Fredericksburg this week*

Kerrville & Fredericksburg: This last Tuesday I traveled up to Kerrville and Fredericksburg. They are both really old, beautiful towns.  Fredericksburg is an old town that was originally settled by Germans, there is still a high German population there and the architecture looks like an old German town. It's incredible.

In Kerrville, we saw many miracles. We decided to stop at a random street and go meet people. As we were walking up to one of the first houses, a man inside stood up and ran to the door. His name is Steve. He is from Las Vegas, Nevada, but has recently moved to Kerrville. In the next few minutes of talking with him he talked about the many trials and addictions he is now battling with. We told him about the power of Christ and the sanctification that comes through The Holy Ghost. He was in tears for most of the conversation. We prayed at the end and he was crying the whole time. We gave him a Book Of Mormon, gave him the time for the Addiction Recovery Program and invited him to Church. As we were leaving I heard him say,  "I love you guys".

We has so many other amazing experiences in that city, but I will have to save the others to tell you face to face.

Emerson Family: A few days ago, Elder Shorts and I were about to leave a neighborhood. As we were hopping in the car, we saw a woman and her two young kids walk around corner. We promptly decided to talk to them before we left. Luckily.

She told us how she is "looking for a church" and was concerned about her family.... that's a perfect thing to say to missionaries. haha
A few days later we taught the family. A humble family. We taught the lesson in the garage as they were on a bench and Elder Shorts and I were on lawn chairs. The lesson was powerful and they all were excited to read The Book Of Mormon, and continue to learn more. Each of them committed to be baptized, and become a member of The Church.

Please keep the Emerson's in your prayers

General Conference: Sunday Morning Session was extra special for Elder Shorts and I. President Slaughter invited us over to his house. We went over there at 10 am, and they had a huge breakfast prepared. Large portions of eggs, bacon, and pancakes. It was so good! We then watched the first session with him and his family. It was a great experience. We really love and respect our Mission President and it was a great privilege to be able to watch General Conference with him.

I wish I could tell you all everything that happened this week, but it would take 7 days and I don't have that much time.

I love you all, and I am so proud of each of you!

Everything is going amazing here in Texas!

Love, Elder Giles

September 29 Email!

Ya'll,

Here's a re-cap of my week:

DeLeon Family: We found the DeLeon family when we were stopping by someone else who lives at their house, but ended up talking to Vanessa instead. Vanessa has two kids Joseph(12) and Roxanne (11). I was in another area the first time that we taught them the Restoration, but they loved it and accepted to be baptized.
I went over there a few days later with a Priest in the ward, Ross, and we taught them more about the Book Of Mormon and the importance of Church Attendance. It went very well. Joseph (12) has been taking The Book Of Mormon with him to school and reads it whenever he has free time! (What Deacons in the Church do that?!)

At the end of the lesson, I asked Vanessa to say the prayer. She has to ask a few questions on how to start and  end the prayer. She started by saying "Dear Heavenly Father.." and then there was silence for probably 10 seconds. I thought she forgot what to say next, but then I heard her crying. As soon as she started to pray, the Spirit hit her very strong! She went on to say a very powerful prayer. Pleading for forgiveness, thanking God for us and for her family, and asking God if the Book Of Mormon is true. The Spirit was very strong that night.

Derek Nixon: Derek Nixon is the definition of "bro" haha he is one of the coolest people I have ever met. He is now a movie producer, but when he was younger we has in a lot of movies. A pretty popular one was called "The Jerk Theory", he is the 2nd main character. ALSO, he was in a movie with Mary Kate & Ashley, and he kissed them.... needless to say, he's a pretty cool guy.

We went over a few days ago,and he was bragging about him movies, we started talking about the Book Of Mormon. He had a few questions, but we seemed to answer them all pretty well. Before we ever even asked him to read it, he just blurted out, "You know, I have seen this book so many times; all the hotels I go to. I have never wanted to read it before. Something is telling me to read it today, I will read this book in it's entirety". That something he felt was The Spirit. It is so amazing to watch how the Spirit works with people from all walks of life.

Meet The Mormons: We had a huge meeting with missionaries this week ( A 'Zone Conference' for those of you who know what's good). It was really awesome, I love being able to see all of the missionaries in the mission and talk with them. I think I know the majority of the missionaries in the mission, and they are all so sweet! Anyways, at this meeting we all got to watch a special screening of "Meet The Mormons". I'm sure you have all heard of that movie, if not shame on you. It is about 90 minutes long and it shows 6 different Mormon families from all across the globe. It's a great way for people to find out what we are actually about. It will be coming to theaters across the world, and 100% of all the proceeds will be going to the American Red Cross.

Go find the page on Facebook and like it, post it, twitter it, snapchat it, or whatever else people are using to waste time nowadays. Get the word out. This is the first full-length movie produced by the Church going to theaters.

We are preparing the world for the second coming of the Savior, more now than ever before.

Life-Long Dream: The top of our ward boundaries are up in the country of Texas. A few days ago Elder Shorts and I were cruising along passing by a bunch of deer (there are legions and legions of deer here), when I had a great idea.

We pulled off the road, and tried to lure the deer to come to us, with no avail. Luckily I remembered that I bought a huge bag of caramel corn from a Boy Scout just weeks earlier. I grabbed the new opened bag of caramel corn, and started tossing them on the ground by the car. (This is all happening as I'm sitting in the passenger seat with the door open). Slowly, and timidly, the deer started to feast on the abundance of caramel corn. One deer was more courageous than the others and was closest to me. I grabbed a big handful of corn and held it out. He gave it a good sniff, thought about it, and then started to eat the caramelized corn from my hand.

I was happy.

 * * * * * * * * * * * *

I love ya'll very much!

Thank you all for writing me

Love, Elder Giles

September 22 Email!

Hello Kinfolk,

Some updates from my week:

Donna: Donna, is the name of the woman I interview this past week for baptism. It was the first time that I met her, and she was so sweet! She lives in Kerrville, Texas and is married to a man from Ethiopia. She is around 40 or 50 years old, and is missing a few front teeth (nothing out of the ordinary). As we started to talk, she really opened up to me. She has had a hard life, and many trials and because of that she has tremendous faith. Her story was powerful, and her faith was pure. As we talked, I kept thinking about how humble she was. If a prideful person went through the same trials that she had, they would have been miserable and depressed. She, however, always trusted in The Lord. In some cases, she said, that was her only option. I have met many people on my mission who have taught me, and encouraged me by their examples and stories. She has shown me the importance of Humility. Humility is the soil for all the attributes of Christ. You can not become like Him, until you are humble enough to completely follow Him.

Sister Barbara: Elder Shorts and I were driving down a long road when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. What was it.. a bird?... a plane?.. It was a nun. A novice nun, actually, which means a nun in training. She is Coptic Orthodox (Egyptian Orthodox). As we pulled off the side of the road and I hopped out to talk to her, she looked a little nervous haha but once I introduced myself she was fine. Her name is Sister Barbara and she is so nice! She is a very caring person who loves God. She is giving her entire life to God, and doing what she believes He wants her to do. She deserves a lot of respect for the love and devotion she is giving to God. The world needs more people like Sister Barbara.

I did talk to her about the Book Of Mormon though, and she was very interested. We gave her a copy and she agreed to read it and pray to know if it is true. Awesome.

Old Friends: This past week was Transfer week. Even though Elder Shorts and I didn't get transferred, all Zone Leaders go to the meeting. I always love going to Transfer Meeting because you get to see your mission friends that you haven't seen for a while. I finally saw Elder Condie (my 2nd companion) again. We hadn't seen each other in over 7 months. It was so good to see him again haha. It's always good talking to old friends, because you tend to forget about stories until you're both together again. We just reminisced on Heritage Ward and all the hilarious experiences that we had. I also saw a lot of missionaries I have served around, and it was so good seeing everyone.

PRIESTS: The Priests in this ward are really good kids. They are maturing a lot, and they want more and more to come out with us. At first, they seemed like they didn't want to come out with us, but now they are fighting over who gets to come out first haha. One of the Priests, the one from last week's E-mail, bought Elder Shorts and I shirts that say "I'm on a mission from God." hahaha so cool! I'll send a picture of the shirts!!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

As usual, I could go on and on. I'm going to be like those old men that just tell story after story. I am glad that I write in my journal everyday. Now, I know that I will never miss telling ya'll the stories when I'm back :)

Each week, I get so inspired from the E-mails I get from all my family and friends, and especially the Preach My Gospel responses. I'm so proud of each of you, and I love you so much.

I love ya'll!

Texas Rules!

Love, Elder Giles

September 15 Email!

Kinfolk,

The weather has been pretty good in Utah this last week? It has been raining these last few days, but besides that it has stayed pretty hot. August is typically the hottest part of the summer, so I think it is finally starting to "cool down" again.

TRANSFERS: Elder Shorts and I are both staying in Bulverde. I am so glad that we are both staying, this really is a great area and we are just getting it warmed up! Plus, Elder Shorts and I get along great haha for some reason, it seems like some totally crazy thing happens to us every day. We get a long really well, I am so excited for this next transfer!

STORY TIME:

There are a lot of Priests in the ward here.. around 20. They are all at different steps of preparing for missions, or even wanting to go on a mission. So, we have been trying to get them to come out with us and show them how much fun a mission really is.

This last Thursday night I went out with a priest named Nakona. Right after I picked him up, we started driving down the road and I asked him, "Do you want to have a good night, or do you want to see miracles?", he said that he wanted to see miracles . We pulled off to the side of the road and prayed to The Lord for a chance to see miracles. As we went about of the night, we stopped by a family that we have been trying to meet with. We were finally able to set up an appointment with them and I was so stoked! I told him that it was a miracle for us, he said, "that ain't no miracle, I want to see a miracle" haha "okay" I said,"let's go get a miracle".

A few minutes later as we were driving down the road, we saw someone that he recognized, so I pulled off the road and we talked to him. It was one of Nakona's best friends named Trever. Trever was really interested in what Nakona believed and he said he wanted to learn more. We set up a time to teach him just a few days later.

Nakona said that it was a miracle that we found him, and we was so pumped up about sharing the gospel with is friend!

Well, about 10 minutes after that we were walking to our car when I saw someone on the sidewalk, so I went over to talk to him. His name is Sean. Sean also happened to be one of Nakona's friends. He, also, was very interested in The Church and wanted us to come over and teach his whole family.

Nakona was almost overwhelmed. Within moments, he saw two of his friends, who he always assumed wouldn't be interested, and they both wanted to learn more about The Church.

We taught Trever a few days later with Nakona there. He loved everything we said. He is now reading The Book Of Mormon and praying about it, he is also planning on coming to Church with Nakona.

We are teaching Sean, his mother, Nina, and his sister. They also are planning on coming to Church.

Nakona was so grateful for the miracles he saw. He says that he now wants to go out with us "all day, everyday" and the rest of the Priests are excited to come out as well!

It's an exciting time.
 * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

You are each loved by me :)

-Elder Giles

September 8 Email!

Kin & Folk,

Thank you for sending me a new journal!! It's amazing that I have already written about 400 days, sometimes it is very hard to write in my journal because I am so tired, but it's really cool looking back and seeing all that I have done every day so far!

This week I just wanted to quickly talk about Heroes in our lives. Heroes are the people that we look up to and admire, often times they are the ones who we love and they love us. The interesting thing about Heroes is that they rarely view themselves as such, rather, they see the good in others.

We all have heroes, and whether we want to be or not, we all have people looking up at us.

My parents are some of my biggest heroes: They are both absolutely self-sacrificing and would give all they have fro their children. They never think of themselves first, but all they do is for the benefit if their family. Since I was a kid, I saw that love my mom had for me by taking care of me and always listening to what I had to say. I knew of the love of my father by him going to work well before I woke up, and coming home well after I was back from school. Though he was tired, he would still play with me every night.

Every one on my family is a hero to me, each of them have something that I admire and want to become better at.

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we are heroes to all mankind. Whether we want to or not, we have accepted to share this love with others and help God's children return to him.

On my mission, some of the sweetest words I have ever heard are when people tell me that they look up to me, or that I am a hero to them.

The best hero we can be, is by showing our love to someone.

This week, for our homework, we will not be reading words on a page. We will be acting.

I challenge each of you, to go out of your way this week to help someone.

Find someone in need, and do something for them.

The purest joy you can feel, is by helping someone and walking away without receiving anything.

I am excited to hear about the hero's each of you were this week to someone else.

I love ya'll

-Elder Giles

September 1 Email!

Kin,

This week has been insanely busy, and so much fun!

I went on two separate exchanges this week, and they were both so awesome!

Let me share one experience that happened this week. I went on an exchange with one of the Assistants named Elder Thorn, which was really cool because I first met him my first day in Texas. He is super cool, he even tried to rap with me.

ANYWAYS.. Towards the beginning of the day we were driving down the street, when we noticed that there was a moving truck in an apartment. We decided to go see if we could help them unpack. Well, by the time we got there that moving truck was gone. We tried to knock on the doors around there to see if we could find them, but we couldn't. After talking to a few people we were pulling out of the complex when we saw the moving truck turning back into the apartments.

We realized the whole reason we came here was to help them, so we pulled back around and followed them in.

It was a single mother with two young teenage sons. She recently lost her husband to cancer, and so she was moving to Texas to be closer to family. She hired a moving crew, but they canceled on her, so she had no help. We were able to carry in her furniture and dressers and stuff like that, things that were too big and heavy for them to carry. We told them about the Church, and the great ward family she now has. She was very excited and grateful, and the missionaries are now teaching her.
She kept thanking us, and a few times she referred to us as "literally angels". One of the most amazing parts was right before we left, she mentioned how she had no idea how she was going to unload this stuff. She said that she was praying for help as she was pulling in to the apartment.....

She was praying for help, as we were driving right behind her to help her.
It was one of those amazing experiences, that can happen to anyone any day, where we are able to feel that God used as to answer someone's prayer.

One more experience, shall we?!

Saturday night, around 7 pm. Elder Shorts and yo boy are driving to a person's house, but accidentally toke a wrong turn. We drove past an older lady outside watering her lawn, so we hopped out to try and help her. By the time we got over there she was already inside, so we knocked on the door. Her husband, and 70 year-old black man, opened the door. Upon introducing ourselves, he doesn't say a word but gestured for us to come inside. (I couldn't help but laugh).

We started talking with them, really humble great people! We taught them about the Restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith.

It went really well and we are actually teaching them again tonight at the Church. It will be awesome!!

I love you all!!

Love, Elder Giles

Happy September :)