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 :)

August 25 Email!

Kinfolk,

This week has gone by so fast! Holy Moly. We are teaching some hilarious people here. Let me give you a little taste:

Jose Gomez: Mexican, married to a member who doesn't speak English. He speaks English very well and says that he learned it all from watching 'The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly' haha. He smokes cigarettes and is trying to quit, so we are starting a program with him that helps people quit smoking really fast. It's the Church's 15-step program.

Lisa Segel: She's 6'7''. She has recently married an inactive member who is 6'8''. Tall people. They are both wanting to go back to Church, and so he is getting active, and she is getting ready to be baptized. She really wants her husband to baptize her, which would be awesome. The only thing is, it might be a little while until he is ready.

Chris Hughes: He is 18. He works with a member of the ward here and asked to come to Church with him. He has come a few times and really loves it! His whole life he has been agnostic, but now he feels like he has finally found the truth. He told us yesterday how he believes that God is his Heavenly Father and that Jesus is his Savior.

That is just a taste of some of the great people we are teaching here.

I love you all!

Talk to you soon

-Elder Giles

August 18 Email!

Kinfolk,
How are ya?!
My first full week in Bulverde was great! Bulverde is actually just a really small town, that we never go to. The majority of our area is the Northern top of San Antonio City. It's really nice and wealthy. There are a lot of great people here though, and we have been finding a lot of new people who we are now teaching!

Elder Shorts and I are getting along really well, we have a lot in common and have basically the same sense of humor. So, there is rarely a dull moment around here haha. It's insane that I have already had 7 companions, and they have all been like my best friend. I'm really not just saying that, or trying to be a nice guy. They are totally people I would hang out with after the mission, I've been really blessed.

This week has been good, hot and busy. I usually tell ya'll a little about what happened this past week, but this E-mail is going to be a little bit different. I have something else I want to talk about today.

In 2 days, I hit my year mark.

It has been a year since I was in Utah

It has been a year since I have seen many of my friends
It has been a year since I was dropped off at the doors of the MTC, and gave hugs to each of you

In this last 363 days:
I have worked harder than I have ever worked.
I have sweated more than ever before
I have laughed harder than ever before

I have met many of my best friends

I have been more tired than I have ever been

I have learned so much about myself
I have cared for people more than ever before

I have felt closer to God than ever before

I have been thanked more than ever before

I have been mocked more than ever before
I have had times when it wasn't so glamorous
I have had the most spiritual experiences of my life

This has honestly been the best year of my life.

This year has gone by so fast, it's hard to believe. I try to look back on everything that has happened, and am overwhelmed with all the amazing experiences and people I have met

I can't explain, or convey the importance of my mission in an E-mail. But I can say that I am a better man today than I was a year ago, and I will be an even better man in a year than I am today.

I am so grateful for my mission, and everyone who has affected my life to help me get out here

I love you all!

-Elder Giles

August 11 Email!

NEW ADDRESS:

**22202 Estate Hill Drive #15211, San Antonio, Texas, 78258**

I will be expecting oodles of letters this coming week...

The Zone I am in is called the Hill Country Zone. It covers basically the top north of San Antonio and the country area right above it. The actual area I am in is the Bulverde ward.

So, my area is about 1/2 super rich and wealthy city and 1/2 country. It is pretty different from what I am used to, but I really like it so far. We got "doubled-in" which means that me and my companion both got to the area on the same day and neither of us know any of the members, investigators, and anyone around haha. We ALSO, got moved into a BRAND-NEW apartment. I mean, this is unreal! It is in the nice part of the city. It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, two closets, a huge kitchen/living room area and a fireplace.... and it is just my companion and I.

haha next transfer they are moving two more Elders in there, but for now, it is just us.

My companion's name is Elder Shorts. He is 6'5''. haha I feel bad for him, everyone we meet makes some lame joke about how he's tall but his name is Shorts... haha it's so funny. Elder Shorts is from Gilbert, Arizona. He's a funny guy and likes to have fun. We already get along really good. I have been pretty lucky, I guess. I have gotten along really well with all of my companions.

 

This week I have been thinking a lot about prayer, and how grateful we should be for it!

Think about it.. we get to speak to the Creator of all, Almighty God, our Loving Heavenly Father whenever we want. We can speak to him for however long as we want, and we don't have to pay any money.

Think about prayer, how much it has helped you and how amazing it actually is. Now think about if we couldn't pray.

We would do everything and anything to have that opportunity to speak with God, tell him what is on our mind, and receive revelation from heaven.

It's an amazing gift we have to pray to Him. The more we pray sincerely, and listen for our answers, the more we appreciate prayer.

I love you all

Write me (holla at me)

-Elder Giles

Elder Kunz and I being weird on our last day together

here's a last-minute picture of Elder Shorts and yo' boy

August 4 Email!

Dearest Kinfolk,

TRANSFER NEWS:

Bad News: I am no longer a District Leader :( I was only a District Leader for one transfer, and I loved it!

Good News: I am now a Zone Leader.

I am actually really scared to be a Zone Leader. I went to a meeting in San Antonio this week, they call it M.L.C. (Mission Leaders Conference). The meeting is for all Zone Leaders. It was really awesome, but I felt pretty weird the whole time because I was the youngest person there (mission age). I was the only person there who wasn't to their year-mark yet.

I'm really nervous to be a Zone Leader already, but I am also excited! It's going to be really fun, and I already know I am going to learn A TON.

President told me I was getting transferred a few days earlier than usual, so I was able to tell people at Church. The First Counselor announced it over the pulpit and then called me up to bear my testimony haha it was awesome. I am really going to miss Marble Falls. I have learned and grown so much here! I have made some really good friends, and met great examples to me. The First Counselor made me promise to the ward that after I get married, I will come back and visit haha.

So make sure that no one sends me anything this week, because I am moving! I will give ya'll my new address next P-day! **DO NOT SEND ANYTHING THIS WEEK**. Also, I tend to collect a lot of random stuff that I don't need on my mission, so i'll be sending home another box (or two) this week.

I had my final District Meeting this week, haha also only my third District Meeting. I'm going to miss it. I love this District so much, we are all so close. We had a lot of fun at District Meetings. My current companion, Elder Kunz is taking over as District Leader here, he is going to do great!

The work here is going excellent, it's hard to leave. We just met this week a man named Milo (me-low). He is such a stud! He's like 27 or something and he just moved back from Idaho. While he was there, he had met with missionaries and even wanted to be baptized, but he couldn't because he was on parole. But, now he is off of parole! So, we are teaching him and starting to teach the family he is living with and we'll get them all baptized in no time!

I'm going to miss Elder Kunz, it's not fair that we were only together for 3 weeks. We got along great haha he is such a goofy guy, we are always laughing about something stupid.

Baptism is like giving a starving person a big feast. It will keep them alive and is the only way they can survive (be saved). But if they don't eat the feast, it doesn't mean much. We must eat, bite after bite after bite. Too many people think they are "good to go" because they have gotten 'the feast'.

We need to keep our baptismal covenant active, by enduring to the end.

I love ya'll very much!

Pray for me, as I pray for you!

-Elder Giles

picture of me last P-day golfing: