July 17, 2012

Hey family,

this week was pretty sweet! Jorge and Vanesa our two investigators came to church sunday and we were quite happy about that!  They are progressing pretty well! I love talking to them! Jorge is from Colombia and has a super awesome accent in spanish!  we are having a lot of fun here. 


lol last night Elder Emett, Elder Denning and I played a game in our pench called Shark! which we would juggle a ball and once you got a certain number of kicks in you could throw the ball and someone! lol and so that turned into a super big wrestling match in our apartment. lol we are all really big guys and so things got pretty crazy. I was actually the thinnest. Elder Denning one time tried to steal the ball from me and picked me straight off the ground. lol it was fun. we are also doing some good work but I am now out of time! I love all you! we are working real hard!


have a great week and love you all!


Elder Gibbs

July 9, 2012

hey whats up my family,

 

Well what more can I say than we are still working. We have had quite a bit of success this week. we were able to meet some really cool persons. we were knocking people´s doors on tuesday and we met this guy named Alan. lol we were like hey can we come in your house and he was like, ´´ya sure come on in´´ so we sat down with his family and we taught them the restoration. the family loved it and we headed back saturday but we were not able to teach because the mom was sick. but it was super awesome! I like teaching people a lot. Vanessa and her family are doing real good also. we invited Vanesa to church again because she went to church last week for the first time. we waited for a long time infront of the church and we were about to go in and give up but then she came around the corner of the street. she also brought her son Ulises and they came to church! whooohoo. I was so happy! we had drawn pictures for Ulises the day before so he wouldnt be bored. he was a little bit bored anyhow. but it was a great day. 

Flor the elderly lady we have been teaching is recovering from her fall. I cant remember if I told you all or not but she fell and broke her leg. and this last week she has been walking all over the place! which has been soo awesome! A cool scripture that we found is in Matthew 6:19-23 where it talks about laying up treasures in heaven because that is where  Robbers and theives cannot steal treasures. so I was thinking of ways to try to bring a ferrari to heaven but I couldnt find any.but then I remembered that my family is a treasure that I have stored in heaven and that no matter where we are, we will live all together in heaven for ever. What a great blessing! I love you all! have a great week!

 

Elder Gibbs

July 2, 2012

Howdy Yall,

I hope that everyone is doing alright like me. lol I am doing quite great in San Nicolas. In our apartment we have four full grown boys. lol and so things get quite crazy. lol this last week we played tag. that was awesome! oh and so we were finally able to teach Jorge and Vanesa about the plan of salvation. and they loved it! we taught them about eternal marriage and Jorge totallly understood it. and they both agreed to come to church yesterday. and to help them we planned to do an american breakfast to wake them all up. lol so we got up early on Sunday to make them breakfast. it was fast Sunday but we did our fast earlier. so you guys dont have to worry. we arent apostate missionaries. lol but we made them pancakes with whipped cream and bananas and syrup and hash browns all by scratch!!! it was pretty awesome! an vanesa totally came to church! we were so happy! all the members greeted her and she felt real comfortable with everyone there. she also said that she loved hearing all the testimonies! it was super awesome! well I am going to keep working. I hope that you all are doing well!

love ya

Elder Gibbs

June 25, 2012

Hey family,

This week has been quite adventurous. lol Elder Emett and I had a bad time with the Dogs. Friday all the dogs were after us trying to kill us. it was quite frightening. so we were working and knocking doors on one street. we started towards one door but to get to the door I had to go in between two dogs that seemed at the time really calm. lol when I stepped right next to them they jumped up and started to attack us. lol luckily they never bit us. but it surprised me sooo much. they were two little dogs two cursed dogs. Perritos Malditos! 

so we left and moved to another little neighborhood. we talked to this guy who wasn't interested in anything we said and right when we were about to leave his dogs came charging out of his house. lol it scared Elder Emett and so he started backing up and stepped right in a deep puddle just the right size of his foot. lol his foot got soaked. it was so funny and random. we were busting up. we had a pretty awesome week besides that. we found a bunch of new people to help and teach. Our friend Flor fell this week and broke her leg. that was sad. we visited her in the hospital. lol she is still going strong. she told us I am going to go home on Monday and paint in my house! she is so cute. everything is going really well. 

lol we almost got robbed again. lol some kids just stopped us on the street and said give us your camera. and I was just like fine look for it cause you aren't going to find a camera. lol they left a little depressed. they didn't even look in my wallet for money. lol I only had like 20 pesos to give anyhow. I told them better luck next time. I had a cool run in with the gift of tongues. this week it was just so easy to speak Spanish. I hardly even had to think before I spoke. I loved it. Susana is really wanting to get baptized now. she can be baptized this week or next week. Elder Emett and I are having a grand old time. no problems. love you all! 

have a great week!

Elder Gibbs

June 18, 2012 (with Pictures!)

Hey family,

we have had anther great week with some pretty cool experiences. lol something that was pretty cool that happened to us came from a mistake. lol we were traveling on a bus to a part of the city far from our apartment. and we accidentally took the wrong bus and so it started taking us away from where we were supposed to go. I was like oooooh nnooooo. so we got off quickly and started walking to where we were wanting to go in the first place. we were a little far from our destination so we decided to tract and work around where we were. we knocked doors but nothing. we knocked another door and nothing. there happened to be a guy in front of the next house. we talked to him and made him laugh a bit. He then was like hey do you want to come in and talk and drink máte with me. we were like sure but we dont want to drink mate. Mate is a tea that the argentines are crazy about! I tried it once and it didnt taste super good. but its just part of the culture here. 

but so the man named Alberto let us in to his small house which was behind another house. we talked about his family and his beliefs. we told him we had a special message to share with him and we told him that God loves him and answers prayers. he told us next time he would like some answers to his questions. so we are going back on Saturday. lol its pretty cool how God sets people in our path so we can find them. lol even if I made a mistake by taking a different bus. This man seems ready to have the Gospel. and we are excited to share it with him! Our other investigators are doing real well. we should have some baptisms of people in like a week or so. we are working hard and teaching some awesome lessons. also we have begun to teach english lessons. I didnt even know that I knew how to teach english. spanish is getting real easy now for me. I am loving it! the people here are soo awesome I love it. sorry parents it looks like I wont be coming home in March. I am staying forever!

Love you all!

Elder Gibbs

Pictures!!!

June 11, 2012

Hey family,

 

So this week, we got back from Rosario. Elder Farley left and I got my new companion. His name is Elder Benjamin Emett.     He´s from St. George, Utah. what a coincidence right? I know that there is a ton of missionaries from Utah but it was a pleasant surprise when he told me that. We know some of the same people which was really awesome, like Logan my cousin, Steven Bleazard, Collin Emery. we get along real well. we talk about places we used to go in Utah, for example Alvaro's and Adrian´s to buy missionary clothes. needless to say we bought all the same missionary clothes lol. thats way funny. 

we finally taught this guy named Gorge. we had taught the whole family and everyone said that they wanted to get baptized. we just are waiting on him now. but it was cool to be able to teach him with Elder Emett. Elder Emett is a really good missionary and speaks really good spanish for being here for less than a week. Its so funny. he asks a ton of questions about Argentina. we laugh about some of the funny costumes here. I have gotten so used to this culture here that I really kind of forgot how diferent this country can be. for example there is this guy that flies an airplane with megaphones under the plane and he yells out advertisements to the whole city lol. we got a kick out of that one. I love Argentina. I might actually not come home next March. I will just live here forever! 

we are continuing to teach Flor. the only reason she didnt get baptized this week is that she forgot some important things about the restoration. but she still as cute as ever and really wants to be baptized. We are working really hard and having fun. I dont really know what more to tell you all except that I love you all and see you all next week!

bye!

Elder Gibbs

June 5, 2012

Hi family,

we had just a superb week! it was quite awesome! Elder Farley and I are getting transfered. well he is. I am staying in San Nicolás. the reason is because the new missionaries are arriving today. so finaly I will be training. I have been super blessed on my mission to have all really good comps. I have learned from each and everyone. Elder Farley is a real bold missionary. He is not afraid of anything. also he really loves people. That is what I have learned and loved about this companion. Elder Farley is going with his new missionary to Rosario. lol he kind of got some bad luck on transfers cause he hates Rosario. but he is going anyway. lol and I am staying here in San Nicolas. Which is way cool cause we are supposed to be having a batpism on Saturday for a lady named florentina. She is 84 years old! Her main problem about getting baptized was her fear about water. but she over came that fear and she saw how the gospel is blessing her life and now she wants to get baptized. she is so happy now and is recieving a ton of blessings. 

we are seeing a ton of miracles here in San Nicolas. All of Florentina´s neighbors say that Florentina is a lot happier. also by the power of God she is finding solutions for her day to day problems. I am so happy that I have always had the gospel in my life and that I have always been blessed soo much. so if she passes the interview on Sautrday morning she will be baptized in the afternoon. one thing that she asked is that the water be super warm! she hates cold water! so we laughed and said course Flor we will heat the water for you. dont worry about a thing. She is such a cute older lady. we were over talking to her and she started singing to us an spanish song. we clapped after the song and she was just delighted. it was so funny. she got really excited and started talking real fast. also something way cool that happened this week happened while we were at church. so Elder Farley and I were waiting out front of the church and a lady came up to us. I thought that she was a member. so I opened the door for her and welcomed her in. she kind of paused while at the door and asked, ¨who are the Elders. I was told to talk to them.¨ and I was like´´ we are the elders what do you need.´´ she wanted to talk. aparently she had passed through many hardships and recently her son had died in a terrible car crash. She wanted to know if it was her fault that her son had died. we told her no, that it was just in the will of God that her son returned. we taught her the plan of salvation and told her were her son was and that everything was alright. She then stayed for church. it was awesome. we taught her yesterday and she told us that she already recieved an answer that the church was true!!! so awesome! some aweosme things are happening. I love you all. we got to go!

see ya all later.

Elder Chris Gibbs

May 21, 2012 [with Pictures!]

[Email Subject Line: There is a drunk man on my doorstep!!!]


Hey family,

We had another great week! we didnt have too many weird things happen to us. lol on thing that did happen to us was yesterday on the way to church we found a drunk man past out right in front of our doorstep. we quietly stepped over him, shut the door, nudged him with our foot to see if we would wake up, and left on our way to church. it was pretty random just to find this sleeping dude right in front of the doorway. 

This week we found an awesome family. called the distilio family. We have been answering their questions and they have been growing in their faith. its awesome! they even want to go to church but they might have to quit their jobs to go to church. but oh well. we invited this member girl to come visit them with us and she came. it was so funny. she got so nervous. she didnt want to go at first but once she got inside she loved teaching them and helped us soo much. we sang them Nearer my God to thee while she sang and played the guitar. She is just like my little sister lol. always singing and playing the guitar. but when we finished the mom nearly was crying and the dad was just silent. they told us later that they felt really good when we came over which was the Holy Ghost. 

Alexis was also baptized this week which was super awesome! he was way nervous to get baptized but was really happy when he was confirmed a member. Another person on his way to the celestial kingdom. I am so glad that we are able to help people soo much! I have a strong testimony of this work and I am going to keep doing my best to serve God. today is pday and so my comp and some other missionaries went to pass the football around at the park. I went to go catch the ball and something really weird happened. the ball was flying straight to my arms and then some how it drilled me in the face and gave my a fat lip. lol just my luck!!!! well I love you all and I got to go! talk to you all later!

Bye!

Elder Gibbs

May 14, 2012

Hey family,

 

I was so grateful for the awesome mothers day and that I was able to call my mom and dad! I am so grateful for my family. My family is a gift from God and I am so glad that our family is eternal and that I am stuck to all you guys forever! This week was pretty interesting. we were able to find some great people. this week I read a little about Charity. in the bible it talks about charity and how that if we dont have Love for other people, we are nothing. it doesnt matter if we have a nice car or if we are super obedient to God´s commandments. we need love and peace and to all be a bunch of hippies! just kidding about the hippie part. cause we are not supposed to do drugs. but the love part, yes we need love. Love is God´s greatest commandment. so that is what I am trying to do. to actually love everyone I come in contact with. I love everyone that I have taught here and helped. 

This week we found a lady named Ruth. we talked to her about prayer and we became real good friends with her. We also found a lady through a member of the church here. we taught her about the book of mormon and she is reading it and everything. and she went to church yesterday. Also we are teaching a boy named Alexis and he is going to be baptized this week if all goes well. we are super excited. I love teaching and getting to know everyone. but most of all I love serving God. I am going to try to serve God even more this week! this is my goal! well I got to go! love you all! have a great week!

nos vemos!

Elder Gibbs

May 7, 2012

What is up peeps!

so this week has been really tiring. we are still getting used to the new area. we are getting used to using the buses and everything. this week we had some really cool experiences. this week we talked to a lady named susana. She is protestant Christian. we were talking to her about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. it was a great experience and we could feel the spirit real strong. she too felt the spirit. I was able to teach her about the book of mormon and its importance for us and that it was more of God´s word to help us. and what impressed me even more is that i did it in very good spanish. I didnt doubt what I was saying and she could understand me very well. it was awesome! it was way fun teaching. I am really enjoying it. not too much happened this week! I  am quite tired. lol on weekends there is a house across the street from us that throws parties. lol and on weekends they turn the music up super loud and it wakes us up. but I am not whining. i love waking up to music. well i got to go. I love you all! have a great week everyone.

les quiero

Elder Gibbs de San Nicolás 

April 30, 2012

[Email Subject: We got robbed!!!]

Hey family,

So this week has been a little crazy! I had to say good bye to all my friends in Galvez: Mariel, Oscar, Monica, Marcia, and everyone. it was sad! I am really missing them and I really miss Galvez. in Galvez I could walk in the most dangerous part of the city and nothing would ever happen. San Nicolas is a lot different. we have to be out of some areas at 7 o´clock because it gets dangerous. I miss the small cities.

The second day we got here we got robbed. lol talk about a nice welcome to San Nicolás. We were walking down this street at night and we noticed that nobody was around. these two guys then ran up behind us saying they had a gun and that we had to give them our cellphone, camera, money and expensive stuff. So I gave them what I had which was 7 pesos. talk about a lot of money. that is about two dollars. they were pretty depressed when they found out that that was all we had to give them. lol all that work for 7 pesos! we had left our cameras and phone in our apartment. so they let us go and told us to take another street. so we left and apparently they did not have a gun at all. but it still kind of shook me up a bit. but it was a good experience. lol I am not going to walk down that street again.

Also we were able to teach a 10 year old of a recently activated member and we will be able to baptize him in a week or two. He likes to draw cars and motorcycles and he drew us some pictures! we also are going around meeting the members and doing a lot of contacting. the ward here has 100 people. lol my comp and I were so surprised to see so many people come to church. we were shocked because we came from places were there were like 15 to 20 people that came to church. but I still miss Galvez a ton. I miss Mariel a lot and her family and everyone! they are soo great! I will send photos we took when I left Galvez.

Also my new companion was not able to come. he is stuck in America because of his visa. so I was put with an Elder Farley from utah. and he is way cool!  we are having an alright time in San nicolás. they have this pizza store next to us that sells pizza cones. a pizza cone is like a icecream cone but made out of bread and then filled with cheese and pizza ingredients! its soooo good! well I love you all! we are having a lot of fun being missionaries and helping people! love you all! have a great week and dont get robbed!

Chau,

Elder Chris Gibbs

April 24, 2012

Hello America,

Lol, so Transfers came and I am getting transfered to the city San Nicolas in a neighborhood called Alberdí. Also I will be training a new missionary and so I am going to have to play some jokes on him. after all, that is what we have to do. lol just kidding, but I am going to be with a new missionary so that will be cool. but I am going to miss being in Galvez alot! The people here have changed my life and I have grown to love all of the people here! especially Mariel and her family! 

This week we had some crazy experiences. one experience that we had was we were teaching a family and the mom had a lot of questions. one of her questions was ´´why should I read the book of mormon? I already have the bible.´´ I then was able to tell her about the book of mormon! but this time the words came soo easily and I was able to teach with ease! it was amazing. I taught her about the blessings that you can receive by reading the book of mormon and how the bible is a wonderful book full of the word of God and stuff like that. I felt the spirit so strong and the God helped put the words in my mouth to speak. I didnt feel like it was me actually speaking because when it is me speaking the words dont come so easily. but I know that I could teach these people like that because I read the book of mormon that morning. I felt the spirit very strongly while reading. That was just one of the awesome experiences I had this week. 

lol so today I am going around saying goodbye to everyone. lol also I had to buy food from my favorite restaurant here for one last time! lol I love food. oh but I did not love food on thursday. on thursday, we went to Oscar´s house and ate an asado! lol I ate so much meat! I was filled to the brim! later that night we had a little Family Home evening and the family made us pizza! lol and again I ate and filled myself to the brim. actually I passed the brim!!!! cause that night I was throwing up like crazy! it was quite nice. lol not. I threw up like 5 times that night until I had nothing left in me to throw up. the next day, I woke up and felt fine and got back to work! I love you all! and hope all is well! see ya later!

Elder Gibbs

April 16, 2012

What is up family?

so this week has gone by really fast! lol we are already at the end of another transfer. lol I cant handle how fast time flies. This week we went to Santa Fe to have interviews with our mission president. my mission presidente is so cool! He taught me a bunch of importante and cool stuff. We talked about things to do to get more faith and he gave me the suggestion of looking up examples in the book of mormon. 

this week I have been reading about Abinadi in the Book of Mormon. I love the awesome example that abinadi gives. Abinadi was a bold and good man. He went in before the king to tell him what the king was doing wrong. lol I would be afraid just to go in to talk to a king. but Abinadi did it because he had faith in the Lord. To the death, Abinadi showed his faith in God. Abinadi was such a great man! I want to meet him someday lol. I loved having the interviews with the president. I felt his love for me and he wanted me to achieve the blessings that God has in store for me. I have been blessed with a great mission president. also he is an engineer! lol we have a lot in common i think. 

So we have an investigator that can be baptized this week. Elder Montes, Mariel and I went to teach her about the importance of reading the book of mormon, praying, and going to church. it was a great lesson and we felt the spirit a lot. the investigator had a sister over who told me that I speak really good Spanish. lol I told her I don't think so. but I felt really good inside that I can communicate myself well in Spanish. Also we taught this family of three. we were teaching them the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. and we used the DVD of the restoration to explain how God restored His gospel. The spirit was so strong during the movie! the investigators felt the spirit and so did I! I have had so many great experiences in the mission field! well I love you all! have a great week!

Elder Gibbs

April 9, 2012 [with Pictures!]

Hey family,

How is it going? Things are going great here in Argentina. I am just loving the food! my companion has been cooking some really good argentine food. and so this week I had quite a fright! we were walking down this street that we usually take. but this time there was this mean old dog this time. We didnt think that the dog would cause problems. We walked a little bit closer and the Dog started charging us! lol and then it stopped like 4 feet in front of me and started barking a ton. I was so scared! I bent down and pretended to pick up a rock to throw at it but it didnt get scared. luckily the owners were close by and called the dog off and told us ¨dont worry he´s really a nice dog.¨ and I as thinking ya right. why dont you come over here and stare this dog in the face while its growling at you and thinking of a million ways to eat missionaries. but we are okay. lol I just got scared. 


also this week, we did a service project with Mariel for a widowed woman. It was a lot of fun. I was trimming trees like crazy! While contacting we also found this cool family of a Father and a daughter. They have had lots of struggles in life and at times have doubted the existence of God. we taught them the plan of salvation and told them that God knows why bad things happen to good people and it doesnt mean that God doesnt care for his Children. We taught them that in this life we come upon trials to learn and grow. This life is a time of testing and learning and preparing to return to live with God. that was one of the cool experiences of this week! I am doing fine and working hard! love you all! have a great week!

Elder Gibbs

April 2, 2012

Hey family,

How did you all like general conference? I loved it. I could really feel the holy ghost testify to me that they are messengers of God. I really liked the talk by Elder Uchtdorf where he talked about judging others and how we should just stop it and not judge others. cause we dont know what others have been through. I also like the talk about how the mission is a mini life of learning. and its so true. I have learned so much while being here on the mission. and I am still learning more and more everyday. it was real fun watching general conference and hearing the choir sing come thou fount of every blessing. what a powerful hymn!!!! I loved it. it was a super great conference to go to. we traveled to the stake center in Santa Fe to go watch it. then we stayed over night with some other missionaries and returned the next day to watch the rest!! it was awesome but past by so quickly. just like Elder Eyering said our trials make time seem to make time go by slower. and I believe the opposite is true too. when we are enjoying something it goes by so quickly. and so it was for general conference. 


This week we taught Oscar and Monica about the book of mormon. we read a chapter in the book of mormon. they understood very well the scriptures. we talked about how Lehi was obedient to the Lord and he was blessed and how Laman and Lemuel murmured and were not blessed. it was a great day. we also taught Marcelina about the Word of Wisdom and how God gave us these rules about what we can consume and not for our own good. later Mariel came and we cut her lawn and trimmed her trees as a service project. it was a lot of fun. Mariel told me I was like one of those wind up toys that never dies. I kept trimming and cutting cause it was soo fun. lol I love doing service it helps me relax and forget all my problems. Those were the main things that happened this week. nothing super funny happened this week. these were the highlights of the week! well love you all! have a great week!


Elder Gibbs

March 26, 2012 [with Pictures!]

Dear Family,


How are you all? I am doing great! Had a great week with some awesome experiences! this week we were able to do service for our friend Veronica. She lives in a tin shack and her house was getting overgrown with big grass, which made it hard for her to do the laundry for her 3 kids. so we went and we brought Mariel and Marcia to do some service. It was super fun! everyone had a great time. Marcia, Mariel, and Veronica became good friends. Mariel, Elder Montes, and I had a great time hacking at giant weeds! lol Veronica had a Giant Machete! lol I felt like a knight from the middle ages with the machete. we also had some branch cutters and a little knife to cut the grass. everything was going great. we put the grass in this blue barrel that had been cut in half. so I filled up this barrel with grass and then I put one of our dogs in it and transported our dog around. the dog loved it and I have some really funny videos of it. but when I returned, Mariel noticed that I had a giant spider on my shirt!!!!!!!!! I started to freak out. It was a a huge old nasty old spider! Mariel had the machete and flicked the spider off with the machete. I have some photos of the spider and stuff! afterwards everyone said that they felt so good for doing service. 


I now have a testimonio of service. I know that God wants us to serve others. just like it says in Mosiah 4:17 or 2:17 (one of those lol) that when we are in the service of others we are only in the service of God. I feel so good doing service. next week we are going to cut the lawn of one of our investigators named Marcelina. oh also we taught a lesson to Marcelina with Mariel. Mariel shared her testimony of how she felt after her baptism. The spirit was sooo strong!!! I loved it! and I know that baptism in God´s church is the only way to return to God. Marcelina after this was really excited to go to church the next day and to get baptized. She is going to be baptized the 13 of April! we are working hard and having fun! I love you all! and I know that I am preaching God´s true gospel! love you all! love you all! oh and it has been now a year that I have been out on the mission! lol its crazy! I dont feel like I have been out that long! well got to go! lol I will say it one more time....I love you all!


With love to all of you
Elder Gibbs

March 19, 2012

Whats up family,

So I had another fantastic week. We are still getting chased around by a killer little black dog. lol but whatever. I had to say good bye to my old companion Elder Yorgason and my new companion is Elder Montes. we had a bit of a mix up when I was going to pick him up lol. remember in the best two years how the missionaries where all freaked out when Elder Calhoun got lost. lol that is what I felt. I was searching franticly for him. lol it turns out that the bus driver on his bus told him how to get to a part of Rosario called Galvez and he went there. lol and then he couldn't find me so he found one of our churches buildings and he found two members who brought him back to the bus station in Rosario. lol so that was my adventure. it was a little frightening but it turned out all right. 


so my spanish is been getting much better and I am teaching my companion English. He is a really cool missionary just like Elder Yorgason except he only speaks spanish.and he has been cooking a lot of Argentine food for me. which is really good.  I am hoping that he will help me lose my american accent when I speak spanish. lol but ya we had some really good experiences this week. We taught an evangelist family and we had to answer some really tough questions but in the end we were able to answer the questions and also bear our testimonies. not too much else has happened. but that is about it for this week. I will try to do something really crazy this week so I can have something awesome to write about. well I love you all! have a great awesome week!

Elder Gibbs 

March 13, 2012

Hey fam,

So another week has flown by again and it is now transfer week. my companion Elder Yorgason is being transferred to a new area. and I am staying in Galvez. it was awesome working with Elder Yorgason. He is a great missionary and a funny person to work with. my new companion is going to be an Argentine dude named Elder Montes. lol I thought for sure that I was going to be leaving Galvez and so yesterday I was saying all of my goodbyes. lol and now it looks like I am staying at least another 6 weeks. lol this is going to be a super awkward week. lol that should teach me to not say good bye to anyone until I am sure that I am leaving. lol I did the same thing last transfer. lol so I dont think anyone will believe me next transfer if I tell them I am leaving Galvez. oh whoa is me. lol so that is something I learned this week. 


Also, another thing that I learned was to be more grateful for my blessings. we did service for an investigator lady. she lives in a small, one room, tin house. we cut her grass with branch cutters cause we didn't have a lawn mower. we also took care of her yard. it was so hard to see how this lady and her 3 kids live. I am so grateful that I never had to suffer really anything and I was always well taken care of. but it was a lot of fun helping her out. we didn't quite finish, so we are going to finish the rest this week. oh and also we taught the restoration of the gospel to a family. we were teaching them and having a great lesson the spirit was really strong. then another daughter came in the house and had a ton of doubts. we would say something and she would try to counter it and make it not seem true. for instance about prophets and the book of mormon. then towards the end we just bore our testimonies and she could not say anything. just silence came after. it was quite an awesome experience. we are teaching some other really awesome people!  this week we found a lady named Nora. She is doing really well and is reading the book of mormon like crazy! 


I can see how the Gospel helps people in their lives now. I know that when we put God first in our priorities, He blesses us. He loves us and wants to help us. I love all of you! We hope to have another awesome week! I will talk to you all next Monday! 

Bye bye,
Elder Gibbster

March 5, 2012

[Pictures at the bottom of the post!]


Hello family,


We had another great week! things actually got pretty cold over here. it was quite refreshing. we had some major rainstorms that brought in some cooler air. but then it got hot again. Elder Yorgason and I are doing good! i am doing great! lol my foot has got a nasty fungus on it right now but otherwise I am doing good health wise. we had a great week visiting our friends. we were able to visit Mariel and her family. Also, Mariel was confirmed yesterday! I was super honored to be able to do it! She is such a great friend. I will really miss her and her family when I have to leave Galvez. 


oh and so next week will be transfers so I will not be able to write to you guys till Tuesday morning. our dog got ran over this week by a car. actually we are not sure how he died. we just saw his body on the side of the street. it was quite disgusting to see him all dead and stuff. so he wont be following us around anymore but the other black dog still follows us and another investigators black dog has started following us too! lol sooo funny! now we have 2 pure black dogs following us around. lol the weeks are going by soo fast I am getting really confused what happened this week and what happened last week. soo, I think I helped a little kid with his bike this week. lol I love bikes. it was a fairly easy fix. his chain fell off and his tires were flat. so I fixed them up and he went off riding. lol but then he broke his chain and so he isn't riding anymore. lol bummer! 


Our investigators are doing good. everything is great. I am loving it here in Galvez. I love this city and the people here. yesterday, I was able to teach the sunday school class. we spoke about the life of Jesus Christ and how God loved us so much that He gave his only begotten son to die for us. I was thinking about how much God has blessed my life. and I found out that I have sooo many blessings in my life that show me that God loves me. My family is one huge blessing, the Church is a blessing, this mission, my friends. I love my heavenly father and I am so glad that I have this time to serve him! well I better be going I love all of you! each and every one of you! talk to you all later

Elder Gibbs 

Oscar, Monica, yorg and me 

Oscar, Yörgason, and me 

are the Dogs that ALWAYS follow us around. the brown and black Dog was hit by a car this last week. may he rest in peace 

Mariel, Elder Yorgason, and me 

one is of us and Mariel´s children 

a picture of the branch here in Galvez 

 is the missionaries with some of the guys from our branch 

February 27, 2012

Hey family,

Elder Yorgason and I had another great week of running around Galvez. eating good argentine food! and ya. so this week we had a zone conference where we got all together which was way fun. Elder Birky was there and a bunch of my other friends. We listened to some really good talks from the mission presidente and other missionaries. one talk that was really impressive was a talk about the atonement of Christ. One missionary went around handing out candy but for every candy one guy had to do 6 pushups. and only he could do it. there were about 60 of us there. the guy doing the pushups was a big muscle dude missionary. at the beginning he was doing pushups like no problem. but after getting about like halfway around the room, he began to struggle to do the pushups. he finally did all the pushups and was weakened by it all. The guy doing the pushups represented the savior atoning for all of our sins and afflictions. the candy was the forgiveness we could recieve. each person was asked if they wanted the candy. they were given the candy whether they wanted it or not. the guy still had to do the pushups to pay for it. the choice was up to them if they wanted to eat it or not. there were some that said no to the candy and many that said yes. but it was impressive to see and to remember the savior and how he paid the price for all of our sins. we can receive forgiveness from God cause Jesus already paid the price. it is up to us to decide to use his atonement or not. but I am super grateful to have a loving Heavenly Father who sent his son to die for us and to save us. 

I know that Heavenly Father loves each and everyone of his Children. it was super awesome to see the love of God for one of His daughters as she got baptized this week. Mariel was baptized and it was such a great experience! I could tell that this was the will of the Father and that Mariel was choosing to follow God. I was so happy and I knew that God was so happy too! she was baptized yesterday. now we have a new sister in the branch and another person on her way to the celestial kingdom and to live with God forever. I was so happy to be part of this awesome ordinance and Mariel is our great friend. we also visited Oscar, Monica, Yanina and Roman. they are doing great. I am loving the time I have to meet these great people in Argentina. I hope that you are all having a great week! I love you all! and hope that you are all well.

Have a great week!

Elder Gibbs

February 20, 2012

Hey families,

How are yall? we are doing good! Things are still really hot. Argentina is just like one giant missionary oven. and I have gotten a really nice missionary tan. lol my tan stops were my collar touches my neck of my white shirt and then my arms are super browned which makes a super sick tan line right were my sleeves are. and my legs are soooooo white. lol its so funny. such a terrible tan. oh well I will get rid of it later. today it rained a ton. It was so awesome and refreshing. lately it has been around 100 degrees and super humid. I have just been soaking through all my shirts with sweat. lol soo nasty. 


but besides the weather this week has been a great week. we ate some Mexican food for the family of Mariel. they are sooo great. we made Fajitas with Guacamole and it was grrrrreeeat! just like frosted flakes. Mariel and Veronica our two investigators will be baptized next week. it will be soo awesome! they will be baptized sunday. Also Oscar and Monica our other investigatores are doing really great. we talked to them about getting married and they want to do it. everytime we go over there we just have such a great time. The spirit was so strong the last time we went to their house. it was fantastic. we have felt the spirit in everyone's house and its just getting more strong every moment we pass with these investigators. we have such a great time with all of our investigators. lol sometimes we have too much fun and we spend like 2 to 3 hours in their house. 


oh and so Elder Yorgason and i bought a big container of ice cream, two litters of chocolate milk two aflajores! sooo good! it lasted about a day. I am now thinking that I need to go on a diet! I am getting a little more puggy around the middle. that is about it that happened this week. it was a good week! and we are looking to have a super good week to come! Love you all! don't freeze to death up there in the north and we will try not to get cooked to death down here. 


Chau,

Elder Gibbs

February 13, 2012

This week has been great in Galvez or as Elder Yorgason says in G-town. we saw some awesome miracles and stuff. we really see the hand of the Lord in everything. lol we really do a little part in this awesome work. but anyhow, some awesome things that happened is that this lady gave us some pizza that they had made the night before and it was sooooo good! Also we made and ate burritos that we made from scratch. ya my cooking skills have like multiplied by like at least three. Also we are getting eaten to death by mosquitoes which is nice. lol it has been happening for the last 3 months. we have reached the peak of summer I think. so hopefully it starts cooling down and all the mosquitoes die out. die mosquitoes!!!!!!!!!!! Also our dog is as annoying as always! we still are not able to get rid of it.... no matter what we do. I think the dog only exists to cause us misery and to annoy us. 

ummmm also we went to Santa Fe again and we did some missionary work with the Zone leaders. it was great fun. oh and also I cut two investigators hair with my buzzers or hair cutters. it was cool. the teenage Argentine guys have this certain hairdo that they like. its like a wide mohawk. so I learned how to cut one of those. it turned out pretty good. then I cut his nephews hair. so that was real fun. 

so some awesome things that happened is that we visited the Gaite family. the father had gotten his back real injured and so he was in pain. we went over and gave him a blessing. The blessing opened him up a lot to the message of the Gospel and he told us about his beliefs in God and that he wanted to attend church with his wife next week. we were super excited. Also we talked to this other man named Dario and Gabriel, we talked to them about this and that. we talked about the Gospel a bit but nothing much. then Gabriel asked us if we believed what happened to Adam and Eve really happened. we said it did and that it was part of God's plan. we told them that God has a plan for us and this plan helps us find more happiness in this life and in the life to come. and this opened them up a ton! They wanted to hear the whole plan of salvation and they were asking questions and it was just awesome! we could really see how God gave us the words to speak to them and to teach them His doctrine. It was so great and we are going to go back this week. Our friend Mariel is doing really good. she is super nice and is still preparing herself for baptism. We are going to cook them some mexican food this week! We saw some miracles that happened to her which was so awesome! we can really see how the Gospel is blessing her and her family. 

I am so happy that I have great parents that taught me the Gospel and that I have so many blessings from God. we have had an awesome week! I am loving it here in G-town! my comp is doing awesome! we are having some awesome experiences here in G-town. well love you all! ttfn tata for now!

Elder Gibbs

February 6, 2012

[Part 1]

hey we had a great week! well talk to you all next week!

Bye!

Elder Gibbs

[Part 2]

Hello family!

 

So the first letter was a bit of a joke. I just wanted you all to see it and say what the heck! that is no letter. it was just to tease a little bit. haha even though I am like a 1000 miles away I can still tease! but anyhow, thanks everyone for the letters. this week has been spectacular. oh and so I finally found out that I would be staying in Galvez for another transfer! I was so nervous but I am quite content to be staying! 

we had some really sweet and awesome experiences this week and it was such a blessing to be a part of it. We taught the Montes family again. we are super good friends with them now. they were the people we ate the barbecue with two weeks ago! we taught them about the plan of salvation and about eternal families! it was sooo great! we were talking and Oscar, the dad, told us that while we were talking to him he felt a like flame inside of him. Monica, his wife, later said the closing prayer and she said she felt goosebumbs. their daughter said that she felt the Holy Ghost testify to her also. and the daughters husband had tears after the prayer! it was just sooo awesome to be able to see that and feel how God was using us as tools to teach His Children! Oscar gave us his simple testimony of how his life had changed after knowing us! he told us that before he knew us he really did not believe in God. he was basically atheist! he went to another church with Monica but said he felt uncomfortable and wouldn't go to another church. Before knowing us he also did not like to talk about his beliefs. but now he and his family have found more peace after knowing us and hearing the Gospel. know they believe that Joseph Smith was Christ´s prophet and that God´s church is now on the earth. lol before they also told us that they used to avoid the Mormon missionaries! They also said that all of the family would be going to church yesterday with us!  lol so awesome! my love increased sooo much for them! they are so awesome! they really want to be baptized. 

We also talked to our other investigator Mariel. she is doing really well. she told us that she believes that this is a true church and that Joseph Smith was a prophet! we talked with her about the blessings that come from being baptized and how she would be able to feel the holy ghost more in her life! it was sooooooooo awesome! We asked her if she would get baptized on the 26 of February and she said yes! so we had a super awesome week! I am stoked to keep working this week. 

sooo some crazy things that happened this week was that our dog that followed us around for like ever............. got hit by a truck! luckily he got hit right in the middle of the car and so was not ran over by the tires. so he servived but went home yelping. we felt bad but it was a little refreshing to have the dog not follow us for a while. I am so bad..... I should feel more sorry for the dog. Also we had a pretty big rain storm yesterday. in so much that nobody was able to go to church except for us and the bishop. we went over to an investigators house so that we could escort her to church but she was not able to come because of all the mud and rain. so we were like okay and we left to go to the chapel. on the way I took a bad step in some mud and slipped. and landed splat in some mud!!!! IN MY SUIT! my whole side of my leg was muddy. it was pretty comical! I could not believe it. it was a crazy storm the streets were full of water and so our shoes were full of water. it was awesome! we got to the church drenched. These were just a couple of the awesome things we did this week. but I am doing alright. I have gotten dry since the storm. and now just barely it has started to rain! I heard that the rainy season has just started! this will be fun! I am really happy to be out serving the Lord! I have seen quite a lot of miracles out here and we are hoping to see some more! the Church is true! love y'all!! keep staying awesome family and friends!

 

Goods byes!

Elder Gibbstopher!

January 31, 2012

Hey Howdy Hey,

 

So how are you all. This week has been good and exhausting! we have made it to the end of the transfer. but we still have no idea if we are getting transferred! its trunking me out of my mind!!!!!!!! gaaaaaaahhhh! lol so this week we started out by going to Santo Tomé which is another city close to us. we did some divisions there and ate ice cream and then we came back to Galvez. I really like the ice cream here. its so creamy and just an icy awesome delicious ice cream! I love it. 

We are doing great though. I am not sick or nothin.  or well maybe a little sick of all the heat, mosquitoes and dogs that have been following us around. we have two dogs that don't leave us alone. one time one dog was following us and it ran way up ahead of us. Elder Yorgason and i saw our opportunity and took it. we were at an intersection and took off running down another street and we lost the dog. lol unfortunately the dog knew that he lost us and so he decided to go wait for us at our home. on our way home, we stopped and visited a less active member. we were seated outside his house when the Dog found us. we were about to kill the dog or something. we guessed that the Dog was at our house but then got bored waiting and started walking back to his home when he found us. he then followed us the rest of the night. I really do like dogs. Like I love Lilly our little doggy. but these dogs are obviously from the devil. they scratch at investigators doors wanting in and they attack chickens and crazy stuff like that. just to make us look bad. lol these dogs are obviously up to no good.

 

lol but for as far as the work goes we are doing great. we are teaching a lot of people. and we should have 2 or so baptisms in the future. we have a lady named Mariel and a woman named Veronica who are awesome and are getting ready to be baptized. we are still visiting our friends Oscar and Monica and their family. they are sooo funny. its been great getting to know them and share my testimony with them. The Church is true and we have a prophet from God to help us in our lives. I love you all! I got to go! I will let you all know next week if I get transferred. I got to go! love y'all!

Chau!

Elder Gibbs

January 23, 2012

Wat is up fam!

Thanks for the awesome! emails! so if I am not able to send you all a reply email today I am sorry and I will get one to you next week.  lol I want to send one out to all of you but I am slow of typing. but anyhow we had a pretty awesome week! we planned to have an Asado with an investigator this week. so we bought some meat and some coals and we had an Argentine Asado (Barbecue)! it was sooo good! lol I kind of ate myself sick! or well I stuffed myself.  I had no room for anything else! I was sooo meated out. together with him and his family we ate about 5 kilos of meat! can you believe that? I really cant but it was just sooooo good! when I got home that night I just had to eat some fruit to balance myself out again! lol yes mom I am trying to live as healthy as I can! but I just couldn't help but eat all that meat! just sooooooooooo good! 

but anyhow we had some other super awesome experiences. one was with an investigator named Mariel. She is a mom of about 40 years old. she is super nice and reminds me a lot of my mom. her dream was to be a nun and to help out real poor people. but after getting married she couldn't be a nun and then she saw some things in her old church she did not like. but anyhow now here dream is to make a cake for little kids that have never had the opportunity to eat a cake. she was the one who made the cake for me on my birthday. 

so the experience this week was that her daughter was having a super hard time getting along with her husband. almost to the point of divorce. she asked us for advice. we told her that we really didn't have much advice because we were only missionaries and had never been married. we told her that the only person that could really help them was God. like how God helped Alma the Younger. we recited that story to her. About how Alma the Older saw his son fighting against the church and how God helped him with his son. and she really liked it! we prayed with her and the next day she said that God had answered her prayers and that her daughter was doing better! so that was super awesome! we had some other way cool experiences but I am actually out of time. so I will talk to you all next week!

Chao

Elder Gibbs

January 16, 2012

hows it going family,

This week has been pretty good. a pretty full week! Lol I feel like the weeks all really get to be monotonous. lol they seem like they are always repeating and that the time passses so quickly that i don't know what to write about. anyhow. things that we did is that we taught our investigator Mariel, Julia, Oscar, and Monica. 

Mariel is doing real good! she really wants to be baptized she said. She has told us that she had some doubts about Joseph Smith but she also told us that she believed the Book of Mormon to be true. and so this should take care of her doubt. cause if the Book of Mormon is true means that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. and that this is God´s Church again restored. we also were able to chat for a bit with Mariel and her family. lol they are sooo funny and so awesome. she has a son that is 15 years old named  Pablo. he´s soo funny. it was great to be able to talk to them and have fun. 

Julia is doing good also. We taught her about the commandment to follow the Prophet. and it seems that she really does want to follow him. She even came to church last week and this week. Oscar and Monica are soo awesome. they seem to like us a lot. Oscar even told us that he believes that Joseph Smith saw Jesus Christ and God the father. lol we gave them some Cinnamon gum from the States to try on Saturday. and just so you know Argentines do not like hot foods. lol we told them that this gum is super hot. and they tried it. one of the investigators spit it out like 10 seconds after she had put it in her mouth. Oscar was able to handle it. but it was real fun and funny. we are planning to have an asado or barbecue with them next week! it should be fun. but anyhow, Elder Yorgason and I are getting along real well! I have a strong testimony that the Book of Mormon and the Bible are the word of God and that they are true books. and that God loves each and everyone of His Children!

see y'all later!

Edler Gbbis

Elder Gibbs

[Pictures of ME!]

 [Editor's Note: Look closely and find something that is a bit out of place...]

December 31, 2011

Hey family,

 

What is up! we had a pretty sweet week! and I had a pretty awesome birthday! oh and an awesome Christmas! lol I bought floating lanterns for Elder Yorgason and me. and that was really fun. lol I got them on videos. lol too bad the lanterns got caught in trees. but at least Elder Yorganson´s lantern didn't burn up. lol mine flew for like 5 seconds and then turned into a giant floating fire hazard. it was sad and Elder yorgason just laughed. but all in all nothing was damaged. except for my lantern that now does not exist. I did get a sweet movie of it. I will have to send it to you guys. but that will be next week. 

Before we had lit off the lanterns, we went to visit a member at her house. we put on our Santa hats and sang Christmas Carols all the way over there. lol people were like hey its Santa Clause! and we were like YEAH! it was a nice Christmas. Thanks everyone for the packages and the sweets! they were amazing! oh and so I now turned 20 and one of our investigators made me a cake! yay! it was sooooo good! lol and it is still really good! cause we haven't been able to eat it all yet. there is ssooooo much. the lady who made it is a super nice lady. and she is a really good investigator of the church and she makes really good cakes. 

So yesterday we had an awesome experience with this investigator named Lali. He is a 76 year old man. super nice. we had a great lesson. we discussed the Restoration of the Church with him. earlier he had asked us to not pray with him. so we were kind of bummed about that. but anyhow we finished up and then my companion was like ´´ is it alright if we finish this discussion with a prayer´´ and he was like ´´ I told you last time that we shouldn't pray together because we have different religions.´´ I was thinking yeah Elder. don't you remember. then my companion was like ´´okay then is it alright if you just say the prayer?´´ and he was like alright. I thought he was a little angered at my companion. lol and apparently my companion thought the same. so he said the prayer and we started to leave through the door. He then approached us with tears in his eyes and said ´´Thank you so much for letting me pray. you have no idea how much it means to me´´ he said some more stuff but that was the gist of it all. it was just a super awesome experience. obviously my companion was acting under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. at the time, he didn't even know what he was doing. but everything turned out really well. my testimony of the gospel grew a lot at that lesson! 

we also were able to teach another investigator called Valeria about the Restoration. She should be getting a testimony very rapidly. things are going real well here in Galvez. lol I got kissed on the cheek by a 80 year old lady from the church here yesterday. lol we had an activity at the church and they all sang happy birthday to me and then this old lady named Teresa snuck up on me ninja style and kissed me on the the cheek saying ´´Feliz cumpliaño querido.´´ lol I was embarrassed a little. lol especially when my companion was like ´´Get some!!!!´´ to me after. lol sooo funny. we are doing good. we are now looking for a new place to live because the owner of our apartment is selling it. we have some really awesome investigators right now. we hope to be having some baptisms soon! I am doing alright. lol I have been having an upset stomach lately. and it hurts! but I will be fine. well anyhow. I cant believe that I am now 20 years old! time is flying too fast! well I got too go! see you all later! watch out for 80 year old ladies and have a great week! talk to you all later!

Elder Gibbs