Monday, December 30, 2013

Hello!  

It was so great to see all of you on Christmas!  I was so happy to see the whole family.  Time went by too fast.  Don't worry, I'll be home in April.

I had a good Christmas.  I opened up that box you sent me.  Wow, lots of candy.  We also had a Christmas dinner.  We were full.  

Zack Herr is doing well.  He's in Chicago right now.  We think we might have to move his baptismal date to January 11 because he gets home on Jan 3rd.   We still need to set up an baptismal interview for him and make sure everything is going well.  The baptism was also not announced in sacrament meeting.   Not many people know about this.  It will be better for him if we move it.  He's doing great, he's excited to be baptized!

This past week for me was ok.  I've been sick the past few days.  I guess it was the flu?  I've been really really cold and achy muscles.  I'm feeling a bit better now.

I will be sending you the memory card and the letters today.  

I hope everything is going great with the family.  Luke is a big boy now.

I'll talk to you next week.

Elder Giles

Elder Giles and his companion, Elder Harper at Member family's house

for a Christmas dinner.

                                                        

Monday, December 23, 2013

Hello!

I received your brown box!  It's under our Christmas tree.  I"m excited.

So there is a little problem.  I don't know if we'll be able to call on the VP on Christmas.  I might be able to use Skype.  Do you have Skype set up?  If not, can Zach set it up?  I would rather use the VP, but Fremont is really far away.  If you want to use Skype, let me know your username.  We will be emailing tomorrow too.  Just let me know.  Also, I could use an iPad to call you.  You have an iPad right?  Let me know your iPad username too.  I think it's called Face Time?   Let me know tomorrow.

A funny story.

Yesterday, my companion and I were invited to interpret for a Christmas musical at the church building.  We went and everything was going great.  Then, the Tongan Choir started singing.  They were singing in Tongan. We knew a few of the hymns they were singing, but 1 song, we had no idea. I was already standing up so I decided to make it up. As they sang in Tongan, I just made up what I thought they were singing about.  It worked out great. After the program was done, people met with me and  said "Wow!  You did a beautiful job of interpreting!"  and "Wow!  I didn't know you knew Tongan!"  I don't know Tongan.  It was great.

Ok, I"m excited to see the family.

Love you all!  Merry Christmas!

Elder Giles

(SO FUNNY...... 1 song which is Tongan that he did not know. Yup, Skype on iPad already)

December 16, 2013

Hello family!

Everything is going great! Marcus and Leah's baptism was wonderful!  I did get to baptize Leah. That was my very first time for me to baptize someone. It was a great experience. Right before our baptismal service, there were some children that got baptized. The water in the font was lower than we wanted. So when we baptized Marcus and Leah, we had to push them all the way down to the floor. It worked out great.

I will be using the VP to call you. We have a member who wants to give us a ride up to Fremont.  I'm not sure what time we'll be calling you. It takes a good while to drive up there and we don't know when the member wants to drive up there. I'm so excited to see everyone on Christmas!  I'll get to see baby Joel.

The next baptism we're expecting is January 4th. Zack Herr is getting ready.  Recently, he had surgery on his ankle, so he's stuck in his home for a bit. He's on a lot of painkillers too.

I guess I don't have too much to share. It's been really cold here in the Monterey area. I guess the whole United States has been really cold.  It sounds like all of you are colder than me. 1 degree?  Too cold!

Merry Christmas!

Love, Elder Giles

(no, It was rare 4,  Not - 4)

Monday, December 9, 2013

Hello family!

We're doing so great here! 2 days ago, Saturday, we baptized Marcus and Leah Haynes.  Yesterday, we gave them the Holy Ghost during the sacrament meeting. It was a wonderful. Marcus and Leah are going to be moving soon. They're in the military and they are going to their next school. Logan is doing great. We recently taught him about the priesthood and he's going to be getting ready for the priesthood soon.

Christmas is coming up soon!  I'm so excited to talk with all of you on the VP. I don't have a VP here in Monterey, but I can figure something out. I think I could travel to Fremont and use the ASL Apartment's VP. I'm so excited to see baby Joel! Wow, he's such a cute little guy.

The work here is doing great. My companion is doing great. But it is very cold!  I'm surprised! It gets around 30 degrees here. We ride our bikes around and I feel like a popsicle. Wow, the ocean breeze is very cold. But I enjoy it here.

I'll talk to you next week.

Elder Giles

Monday, December 2, 2013

Hello!

Everything went great with the baptism!  Logan Gadbury is now a member of the Church!  His wife was there and now we're hoping that she will be next to be baptized.  On Sunday, Logan was supposed to come to church and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, but he didn't come!  He texted us and told us that he went to the emergency room for his son.  We were worried that he wouldn't get the Holy Ghost, but he texted us halfway through the meeting and told us he was on his way.  We gave him the Holy Ghost at the end of the sacrament meeting.  Wow, that was exciting.

Marcus and Leah Haynes are still doing great!  They will be baptized this Saturday at 6:00 pm.  They're so excited to be baptized.  Marcus asked Elder Harper to baptize him and Leah asked me to baptize her.  Wow, that will be the first baptism where I did the baptizing!  I'm a bit nervous.

Everything is going great.  We're working on finding new people to teach.

Last week, the service project was fun.  We're on the internet! on LDS.org newsroom or something like that.  I'm not in it, but my companion is and members of the zone are too.

Thanksgiving was a big day.  We had too much food.  But it was delicious.  Lucky for us, we were riding our bikes so we could burn it off a bit.

I love you all.

Elder Giles

Logan's wife, Logan, a baby son, Elder Harper and Elder Giles

                       

His companion, Elder Harper and Elder Giles