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.

October 27 Email!

My People,

Thank you for all of the pictures this week. 

Elder Hamula:

A member from the Seventy came to visit our mission for a few days this week. It is so awesome!

His name is Elder Hamula. In preparation for his visit, he did a mission-wide fast the Sunday before to better prepared to learn from him and the Spirit when he spoke to us. We met with him in a very large meeting on Thursday. There, he spoke a lot about Revelation and the steps, and procedures to better recognize and follow revelation. To me, it all boiled down to 2 things: Learn to call & learn to listen.

We must learn how to properly call on the Lord and, just as important, we must learn how to listen to him when he speak back.

A few days later, he met with only the Zone Leaders in the mission, so a much smaller group. That was also incredible! He talked a lot about being an example to everyone. Referring to how people who watch you will act to what you do, he said, "As you are, so are they"

That applies to all of us. Grandparents, siblings, coworkers, friends, neighbors and so on.

It was so awesome to spend time with Elder Hamula and to learn from him. Also, just so you can picture him, he spoke in this last General Conference at the Sunday morning session, he spoke on the sacrament/atonement.

Conversion:

We have an investigator and her less-active husband who we have been meeting with for a while. They are both coming to Church most Sundays, and reading and doing most everything they should be doing. We decided to have a lesson with them this week about 'conversion'. We went through the story of Alma 23-24 and discussed what "weapons of war" they might have.

They were both sharing personal experiences and it was a spiritual lesson. At the end of the lesson, Lisa Segel looked at us right when the lesson was over and had tears in her eyes. She said, "When I woke up this morning, I just knew that I needed to hear something today, something that could really help me. This has helped me so much. Thank you"

That was an awesome lesson. I love teaching lessons when the Spirit is so strong and people always want to become better afterwards. That's what it is all about.

Bitter-Sweet:

Transfer calls came last night. Elder Shorts has been a Zone Leader in this Zone for a transfer longer than me, so we were both confident that he was going to be the one to leave. Strangely, however, he is staying and I am getting transferred. I am pretty sure I know where I am going haha it's not that hard to find out, but I will let you all know my new address next Monday

***DO NOT SEND ANYTHING TO THIS ADDRESS***

**WAIT UNTIL NEXT WEEK**

I'm excited for my next area, and to have my new companion. It will be so fun! I am also pretty sad to be leaving Bulverde after only 2 transfers. I really did love it here. The people are fantastic, and the ward is amazing. We didn't have any baptisms in the last 2 transfers, but we now have a handful of people who will be baptized in the next few weeks! Which is so exciting! But also sad that I won't be able to be a part of them :(

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I could go on and on, but I must close this E-mail so I can go play basketball.

I love ya'll!!

-Elder Giles

October 20 Email!

La Familia,

Thank you for always sending me pictures of ya'll. It always looks you are staying busy and keeping happy!

Awesome that you went to Temple Square this week. I miss Temple Square a lot. I really wish that I would have went there more often. 

Frog Legs:

On Tuesday, we had a large meeting with missionaries from all around the area. It is always a good time to see everyone together. I gave a 'training' for over an hour haha it was so long! It was really fun though. We just talked about the history of 'Israel', starting with Abraham all the way to when Moses restored certain priesthood keys to Joseph Smith (D&C 110).

AFTERWARDS, a family in our ward took us to dinner at a restaurant called "Antler Cafe" in Bulverde. The menu looked delicious. Steaks, burgers, ribs and more! However, my eyes were drawn to something elder on the menu.

They were selling frog legs. I have never had frog legs before... so I ordered me some frog legs. They were pretty decent, i'll probably never do it again though ahah. I'll send ya'll a picture of them

James Richard:

On Saturday night, we drove up to Canyon Lake to have a baptismal interview with a man. His name is James Richard. He is around 50 years old. A classic Texan, he has always worked manual labor and now climbs telephone poles all day. Being raised baptist, he had a strong love for the Lord, and had always believed. He had struggles and problem in life, which soon dissipated when he found The Church.

He had smoked for 30 years, it was simply just past of his life. He wanted to stop, but never had a strong enough desire to. Once he was meeting with the missionaries, he felt that desire. One day he promised God that he would stop, and he hadn't smoked since that moment.

During our conversation, I asked him when he first believed that this was all true. I was half expecting him to say 'while I was praying' or 'It just made sense!'. Rather, his response was 'Here, at this building'. It was once he finally came to the Church that he found his testimony.

Sunday services are infinitely more than just sitting in pews, or watching the kids in front of us draw in their coloring books. Men like James Richard can receive revelation from God there. We should never go to Church expecting anything less than receiving personal revelation.

This Morning:

We are the closest missionaries to the Temple. Our apartment is only about a mile away. For working out this morning we all just decided to run to the Temple.

Big Mistake.

haha It is on the top of a huge hill! It was so hard running up! It took a lot longer than we expected, and it destroyed us. 

After we came home and showered, we met back up at the Temple. A lady in our ward works at the Temple to clean every Monday. She invited us to help clean this morning!

It was so awesome! We got a tour of every room in the Temple, and we were able to clean a lot of it. The Temple is always spotless, haah but it was fun cleaning it anyways.

Because of everything that we did this morning, we don't have too much time to E-mail!

I love ya'll!

Love, Elder Giles

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.

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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