June 27, 2011

Buenos Dias,

How are you all doing?  I loved your emails Mom and Dad.  They made me so happy!  I am so stoked to hear about all the people on their missions!  Jake in the MTC and Jed being District Leader!!!  So awesome! Oh and ya I would love to get the mail address for Jake.  Could you also send one for Jed too!  Oh and Jared.  Lol sorry!  I really want to talk to them, and the only way is through regular mail.  We can only email our immediate family.  So I will send a letter to them.  It sounds like the ward in St. George is doing good!  I hope the business is going well.  What are Allison and Stephanie up to?  So things are going pretty good here in Gualeguaychú.  The members are really nice!  Lol Elder Towner and I love to go eat over at the members houses!  They always cook such good food!  I love it!  Lol usually!  Weird foods this week: there actually weren't any.  So it was a great week!  Lol Elder Towner told me that he has never eaten so many weird things in his whole mission than this last month.  Lol I think it is cause I made such a big deal about eating all of these weird things.  Oh and we did go to that barbecue last week.  I did actually eat cow intestine.  In fact, I ate the kidney and the lower intestine.  I think I am starting to get over the grossness of things.  So maybe that is why we didn't eat anything weird. 

I am getting along really well with Elder Towner.  Lol he is so funny.  We like to goof around quite a bit but we do get a lot of work done.  He is a really hard working missionary.  He is sick right now but still refuses not to work.  Lol crazy guy!  And way cool guy!  We like to walk down the street with our eyes closed and guiding each other down the street.  There was a big puddle and he was walking and so I said take a big step.   So he did, but stepped right into the puddle and slipped.  He didn't get very muddy, just his hand but it was still way funny.  

Spanish is coming along great! I am getting better and better at communicating and understanding each day.   It's so fun to talk to all of the families and stuff.  It is still really hard but I am understaniding most of it.  I hear Rachel and Paul are going to AFY!  I am so jealous!  The youth down here are going to EFY over in Buenos Aires, so they were selling cakes to raise money.  The cakes were so good!  We are teaching some families, but not much is happening right now.  We are helping a Roa Family.  The father is a member and wants to get active again in the church!  The mom is not a member but we taught her about the plan of salvation.  It was really awesome!  God´s plan for us is so perfect!  He is so smart!  Lol obviously!  He has a perfect plan for us in our lives to make us happy!  He really wants us to be happy!  And the way that we are happy is by following the commandments.  Following the commandments brings so many blessings to people.  I know my life has been blessed because of it.  My life is soooo good!  I love it!  I hope I can make other´s lives more happy and blessed down here!  So the work is going real well down here!  Loving it!  And the time is really flying by!  I really can't beleive that I have been in my mission for like 3 or 4 months!  We start out the day and we hardly have time to do anything really!  The ward is so great here!  We have some really strong members.  After church we usually help out the presidency of the ward here with tithing.  Lol yesterday my companion helped them while I goofed and played with his two sons.  Lol so funny!  I taught them the stick pull game that Joseph smith used to play and then we played with brooms and stuff!  Just a ton of fun!  I am having a blast serving the Lord and helping people!  Thanks again Mom and Dad for the letter!  I love to hear your testimonies.  I am glad that I was raised in this family with such high values!  I am so thankful for the people in my life!  Well, hope you all had a great week!  And I hope you have another great week!  Oh and Elder Towner and I made some ñiokis or how ever you spell it.  Those Italian potato noodles!  [I think he means gnocchi, but I'm not sure.]  They were soo good!  I love food!  Just thought I might say that.  But I am positive you all knew I love food!  So with that I will say good bye!

Good bye!

Love you all!

Yöu are all awesome!

See ya later

alligator

ummm out of things to say

Elder Gibbs! yeah!

June 20, 2011

Hey family and friends!

So this week was not the most productive week we have had.  We visited a family that all had Bronchitis.  Lol and I caught bronchitis from them.  Lol it was horrible!  First we had to find out if it really was bronchitis.  So we went to the hospital.  DON'T GO TO HOSPITALS in ARGENTINA.  I asked my companion how much it was going to be to talk to the doctor, and he was like ´´oh it is free´´.  So I thought this is great!  I love having free medical care.  Thanks socialized medicare or whatever.  Yeah right.  I soon saw all the problems.  The hospital was nasty and really scary!  I am so thankful for America and for their hospitals.  Lol I miss them.  But ya so I found out that I did in fact have bronchitis, and that I wasn't going to die.  Then I had to go buy some medicine and then for the next like 3 days I did nothing but sleep and try to heal up and study the scriptures.  It got really lame, but I got over it.  My allergies are now calming down.  I followed the tips to use to get rid of allergies.  Well, most of them and they have been helping.  I am now eating better.  Lol well sort of.  One of the members from the church came to our apartment and brought some raw natural honey.   Now my allergies are like pretty much gone!  It's a miracle.  So if any of you ever get allergies eat honey it really helps. 

This week, we ate with the family of the girl that got baptized last week.  The family is getting really strong in the church.  The father is wanting to get more active in the church and to get the priesthood.  He even is going to change jobs so he doesn't work on Sunday!  So awesome!  The mom and dad are going to get married so the mom can be baptized also.  So awesome!  They were so happy that they invited us over to eat.  They told us that they were going to eat a soup called locro.  They told me a bit about what was in it, like garbanzo beans, lentils, some more beans, carrots, potatoes.  I didn't catch that there were pig skin chunks in the soup.   Lol like the stuff they make footballs out of.  I ate a football.  So Elder Towner told me what was in the soup, and I was terrified.  I was like how do I get out of this?  I didn't get out of eating the soup.  We arrived and helped set up.  Ironically, someone was killing a pig like a block over.  So I was hearing a bunch of pigs squealing as they got prepared to be eaten.  I was sickened so bad.  There is no other worse sound than hearing a pig getting killed.  My life is never going to be the same.  So I started eating the soup.  Being all nice and polite I just dug into that soup and ate it pretty quick.  I felt awesome!  I overcame all the soup.  So then the father took my bowl and dished me another.....I was about to cry!  So I quickly ate this one.  While I was eating, I saw some like hairy type of meat.  I thought it was pig skin.  Elder Towner later told me that it was mundongo.  Cow stomach lining.  A lot of people say it is like eating a towel.  It looks all fuzzy and stuff.  So I was really disgusted, but I ate the second bowl.  The family thought I loved it.  Which it was good! I did actually like the vegetables and the flavoring. It was just the meat I couldn't get over.  But, I ate it.  The family is sooo nice.  I couldn't make them feel bad!  So I ate it.  And later today we are going to eat some barbecued cow intestine.  But the people hear are really nice!  So it is all right! 

Last Sunday, the branch president asked me to give a talk.  So I gave a talk and then I played the piano for sacrament.  The branch is loving having a person to play the piano!  They are soo awesome!  So we were visiting a non-member family and the boyfriend of the daughter came to visit her.  He is an atheist.  We talked to him and found out what he believes.  Then we shared what we believe.  He does not believe in God.  How sad is that?  What is the point of living?  Why are we here on earth if we are just going to die and not exist?    Where do we go after death?  I am so glad I have the gospel in my life and we have the answers of all the questions of life.  There is a God and He loves us and cares for us.  He created our spirits and our bodies and everything on earth.  I know that this life is a test to see if we follow God or Satan.  We follow God by repenting, following the commandments, and by being baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  There is life after death.  We can live with God again.  I am soo thankful for the things God has done for me.  He has blessed my life so much.  He has given me an awesome family!  He blessed me with some of the best friends ever!  From St. George, Logan, and from all around the world.  All of the people I know have blessed my life!  Love you all!  He has let me know the truth of life through the church.  I love my Heavenly Father.  And I love my earthly father and family!  You are all the best I love all of my friends!  My life is so great and so blessed that I am happy to give back to the Lord by giving 2 years of my life!  It's so hard right now being in Argentina and to be a missionary!  But I am loving it too!  I love you all and I hope that you are all doing well!  Spanish is going great!  It's just really hard to understand people and to speak.  Okay so the Spanish isn't going sooooo well.  But, I am working on it.  Have a great next week!  And don't get Bronchitis!  Lol it's not fun!  Trust me on this one!  I would love to hear from you all!

Love you family!

Elder Christopher Gibbs Conquerer of all of Bronchitis

June 13, 2011

[Editor's Note:  There are lots of pictures at the end of the post!  Don't miss them!]


How is it going family!  We have had another awesome week in Gualeguaychú.  Things were pretty much all the same in the first part of the week.  It wasn't till later that things got a little more interesting.  So Thursday the zone leaders came to our area so they could interview Sol Gomez.  Sol is a little 8 year old girl of this family we are working with. So we started working by doing some divisions.  I worked with one of the zone leaders while Elder Towner went with the other one.  I worked with an Elder Anderson from British Columbia, Canada.  He was way cool!  We worked really well together, except for the fact that I kept getting us a litle bit lost lol.  Not badly lost.  I still knew we were somewhere in Argentina, just not much more than that.  We did some tracting and meeting new people.  I actually felt like I helped him a lot.   I was doing most of the speaking in Spanish (or better said Castellano).  But ya so we were knocking on this door and no one came out.  We then saw a lady that came out the door of the house next to us.  I said loudly ´Hola!´ and I told her that we were meeting people and we had a message that we would like to share with her.  We taught her the first lesson.  I helped a little in teaching and it was a great spiritual experience for her.  

After we finished knocking doors, we headed to another part of the town to teach some families.  All of the families we planned on teaching ended up not having time.  But, we did meet a new man named Fabian.  Lol no paul......his name is Fabian not Fabio.  We taught him a great first lesson.  We then headed to another family who didn't have time to meet with us so we left to go to another house.  We were passing a house of a man Elder Towner and I had met but had not taught.  I had the greatest urge to talk to this man.  So I was like Hola! again which is like my favorite word in Spanish.  Lol and he actually was able to listen to a lesson.  It turns out that he has been searching different churches but couldn't find the one that he felt was true.  So, we taught him and told him that if he prays to God, God will tell him which church is true.  We told him about our church and asked him to pray about Joseph Smith and about our church and to read in the Book of Mormon.  He has also been having a hard time with having enough money and so we gave him a couple verses to read in Mosiah 2 in the Book of Mormon.  Verse 41 was one that we asked him to read that says that if we keep the commandments of God, he will bless us spiritually and temporally. 

I love this church because I know it is true and it has definitely blessed my life!  I am so happy with the fact that I can live with my family after this life and that God loves me and knows me.  He knows the things that make me happy.  God is so wonderful!  I have so many blessings from Him!  Sometimes I can't believe how blessed I am.  Seeing some of the people down here and thinking of how I used to live!  Crazy!  I have an awesome life!  So we taught this man.  His name is Julio Castro and is a great guy.  We are going to teach him some more this next week. 

So on Saturday we had our first Baptism!!!!!  Sol was baptized!  And she wanted me to baptize her!  It was such a great experience.  I love that family.  The dad is a member of the church but the mom isn't.  I baptized her and when she was walking out of the font she was so happy.  She was giggling and clapping!  I felt so good!  I know that this is the true church and that she was feeling good because she was doing what God wanted of her.  We feel good when we follow the commandments of God.  This family is going to be so blessed!  The mom is thinking about being baptized.  Oh and I sent some photos with this email of me and my new companion and stuff [see below!].  So that was really cool!  

On Sunday, the mission president came to the branch for a conference.  They had me play the piano for the branch for the first time.  The people got really excited to sing!  Usually it sounds terrible.  Everyone is off key and singing different parts and everyone sounds really depressed.  Lol but when I played the piano......everyone was way excited!  Lol they sang REALLY loud!  Lol it was so awesome to hear everyone so excited.  I am going to be playing for sacrament next week.  After that we went and taught the family Bulo.  Elder Towner and I found this family while walking in the street.  We heard some loud music playing and followed the music lol.  We taught them last Sunday (Domingo).  It was such a great lesson!  The mom was crying when she heard we have a prophet once again on the earth and that the same Church that was on the earth in Christ´s time has been restored once again to the earth!  She even told us that she felt that we were sent specifically to this family!  Such a nice family!  We had a fantastic meeting with them.  I hope we can go back soon.  Lol they were actually asking us to come back later that day.  We had to say no because we were going to meet with someone else in a bit.  And so that is that. 

Oh and Allison I just recieved that Dear Elder you sent to me.  Lol it was a little late but it was great to get it!  Oh and if any of you want to send me a letter, just send it to the mission home.  Or use Dear Elder.  It will get to me eventually.  Oh and so today.....I had to wash some of my clothes by hand!!!!  So lame! Usually we have someone that washes clothes for us but it takes forever to get back to us.  So I had to wash them by hand.  So much work.  And the water was soo cold.  I kind of played a trick on my companion by turning on the hot water of the sink which makes the shower go cold.  But unfortunately it shut off the water heater and so my companion finished his shower and then I had to take a shower.  Lol and it was the coldest shower of my LIFE.  Lol I was like ahhhhhhhhh I am freezing!  Lol it was funny.    My plan backfired!  But whatever.  

Oh and so we went over to this family's house to eat with on Friday, which we usually do.  We had this stuff that I thought was chicken fried steak.  Lol well at least I thought it was steak.  My companion later told me that ´that was not cow meat......´ sometimes they use this cheap meat and sell it.  It comes from a large rodent.  Like a large guinea pig!!!!  Nasty!  Ugh.  I didn't even know till way later.  So at least while eating it I didn't have to know.  Another time I didn't get off so easy.  Lol we were eating an asado at a part-member family´s house.  Asado is like an Argentine barbeque.  He made some awesome really good ribs.  I mean not as good as the ribs Ryan makes or the ones at Texas Roadhouse.  But they were fairly good!  Lol and then he brought out the blood sausage.  Nasty.  It's like pork meat and blood and stuff.  I could only eat one bite then I had my companion eat the rest.  Lol I am going to die!  But besides that we are having a good time!  There is so much walking here in Gualeguaychú but I am loving it.  I am happy to be serving the Lord because he has blessed me soooo much in my own life.  I know that He died for us and paid for our sins so that we could live with God again!  I love you all and miss you all!  I love you Dad, Mom, Steph, Ryan, Sam, Austin, Allison, Jon, Rachel and Paul!  You are such a great family!  I am thankful for all my friends and everyone in my life!  I am so truly blessed!  Have a great day everyone!  And a great week!  Oh and I attached some photos to this email I hope you get them!

This is Elder Christopher Gibbs. Over and Out!

Elder Birky and Chris

Elder Towner, Chris, the Mission President (I think) and his wife

Elder Birky, Chris, and an Hermana from the MTC

Missionaries!

Chris and Elder Towner (his companion)

Sol and her family 

The Gomez family

Sol getting baptized!

June 6, 2011

Hey everyone!

Thanks so much for the pictures! They are perfect! Now I can be awesome like my companion! 

Castellano is going along really well. Ya, it is actually quite a bit different than the Mexican kind of Spanish,  like the double L they pronounce with a SH sound. I am still getting used to that. They also use a different form of speaking which is called Vos. It is were you take the verb, take off the r at the end, and put on an s. Lol so to ask "You have a family?" is likë ´¿Vos tenes un familia?´ Lol the first couple times people talked to me like that I was like.......what? We visited this family that has been progressing slowly in the gospel and they were talking to me in Vos and I understood quite a bit of it! It was pretty cool!  

So things that have happened so far here. Lol for one my English is steadily getting worse! But ya. Ooooh they have these things called Alfajores, which are like two chocolate covered cookies with dulce de leche in the middle and then covered in chocolate! SO GOOD! Lol I eat them so much. I am kind of getting addicted to them. I have also been having a really hard time with allergies here. It is such a pain. Mom if you have any advice please let me know. Right now I am taking 24 hour Benadryl, which helps at night. I dont know where to get any raw honey, but I will search. 

We are teaching a lot of families here in Gualeguaychu. We have a little 9 year old girl really close to baptism. Should be soon that she will be baptized. We are also teaching a family with the last name Müller. They are really cool! We gave them a Book of Mormon to read. The dad actually seems like he is just taking all of our teachings in. So hopefully he reads! His name is Orlando and he is an awesome guy! He is so nice! They run a little business in their house selling food at a little window on the side of their house. So each time we go over they load us up with candy. Lol I swear by the time I get back my teeth are going to rot! But such a nice family. One of their sons committed suicide like a year ago, so when we taught them the plan of salvation, it seemed like it touched their hearts! I could just feel the Spirit bear witness that the plan of salvation is true! 

I am so happy that Heavenly Father has provided a plan for us that we can live in our family forever. Just like you said Dad in your last email. I too am really happy to be a part of this family! I am so lucky to have such awesome sisters and brothers. I am extremely happy with who my brothers-in-law are! I love all of you! I love you Mom and Dad and I am so happy with your decision to get married in the temple and to raise us in the church. I am so thankful for all you have done for me!!!!! Paul keep working on that Eagle! and School! It will be so helpful for you! Lol and please please please!!!! play the New Zelda game for me :) Lol and remember to save it so I can play it later. Rachel you are really cool! and fun! Aprenda mucho español! Porque es muy importante y usted puede usar mucho en su vida. Hay muchas personas aqui que hablan solemente en Español. Los maestros enseñan Ingles pero es muy malo. [Editor's translation: Learn lots of Spanish!  Because it is very important and you can use it a lot in your life.  There are many people here that only speak in Spanish.  The teachers learn English but it is very bad.] They can't speak much English here. But for real! It will be worth it! Oh and remember to enjoy your summer in St. George! Steph and Ryan and Sam and Austin I love you. And I am so going to dunk you Ryan next time we play water wrestling. Lol I am NOT going to lose 30-1. Lol that was ridiculous! Steph you are awesome and have fun with your children. Allison and Jon you are awesome and such great examples to me!  

Sooo back to the mission! Lol we walk so much!!!!! It is so tiring! I am sleeping so well every night because we walk so much. We were tracting in this one area and everyone was really not wanting to talk to us. So, we were like let's leave but there was this one row of houses that we hadn't contacted yet. So, I was like let's try that row. And so we did. I was doing the speaking and I was really nervous, but I actually spoke fairly well and they accepted our message very well. They are some great people. I can't wait till we come back and teach them. Then when we were walking to another appointment, we saw a lady on the side of the road trying to change her tire. She was having a really hard time, so we helped her. She was really grateful for our help! She was like, "Are you sure you want to do that in your nice clothes?" and we were like ya! It is so awesome that we are here getting to help people. It just makes me feel soo good! 

The people here in the ward are really nice! We go around visiting them! I love it! Lol even though I don't understand about what half of what they say. Oh and apparently they have this crazy scary dog here. They call it a Dogo. It's like a huge pitbull. They are pure white and hideous! And when they bit they don't let go! They are seriously dangerous! My companion has seen a couple. So we try to be really careful around them. The dogs here are crazy also. Lol I almost got bit a couple times. When a dog comes toward you, you shout at them Fuera!!!! And then they back off, but they don't actually go away! You have to keep your eye on them or they will come back! Lol crazy dogs! But otherwise it is way cool in Argentina. 

I actually don't know my address here, but I will find out and let you know next Monday! Oh and just so you know in this mission we can only send emails to family. It's just a mission rule. But ya, I am having a good time in Argentina. My companion Elder Towner is great and is a good working missionary! It was way great to hear from all of you in your emails! Thanks again for the photos! They are perfect! I love you all! and I am happy to be serving the Lord. I know that God loves all of His children. Being our loving Heavenly Father, He wants to talk to us, and He does! He talks to us through the Book of Mormon, the Bible, Prophets, and through prayer. Yo sé que Él nos habla. Yo sé que esta iglesia es verdadera y tenemos un profeta vivienta ahora. Se llama Thomas S. Monson.  Yo sé que si oramos, Dios contestará nuestros oraciones. Como leemos en Santiago 1:5 "si alguno de vosotros tiene falta de sabiduría, pidala a Dios quien da a todos abudantemente y sin reproche y les será dada." Si ustedes quieren saber la verdad, pregunta a Dios! [Editor's translation:  I know that He speaks to us.  I know that this church is true and we have a living prophet now.  His name is Thomas S. Monson.  I know that if we pray, God answers our prayers.  Like we read in James 1:5, (now go read James 1:5 :) ) If you want to know the truth, ask God!]  I love you all! I am having a great time here! I am so thankful for all of my blessings! I now see how really blessed we are living in the States and in our family and in the church! Have a great week!

Elder Christopher Gibbs!