October 10, 2011 (Galvez)

Hey family,

How are you all doing? lol I am doing fine. well mostly fine.  We had a family home evening with an investigator and I was murdered by a flock of mosquitoes. I was glad to be their dinner. 

So everything is going real great in Gálvez. my companion and I are getting along well. and the branch here is nice but really small. they have like only 20 members. so we had fast and testimony meeting yesterday and the branch president asked me to bear my testimony and introduce myself. so I did. I told them that I was elder Gibbs, I am nineteen years old and so I am young. lol I meant the young part to be a joke. and it for sure was. apparently I kind of mumbled the word joven which means young and they thought I had said feo, which means ugly. so the whole branch thinks that I think I am ugly. lol so that was pretty funny. I didn't find out till after the meeting. 

But so this week we had some real awesome experiences. we did a lot of contacting this week. lol like a ton. but we found like 3 awesome new families and people. one guy is named Ariel. and we chatted with him for a bit and then taught him about the Restoration of the Gospel. then we gave him a book of mormon. when we returned, we found out two things. one is that he has a pet pitbull and the other is that he had read all the way to 2 nephi! so we were pretty stoked! and his pitbull is quite friendly too. We talked to him a bit about what he had read and he remembered it all. but the only problem is that he works a lot and so he wasn't able to attend church yesterday. 

another person we found was a lady named Gabriela, we taught her the Restoration too. she told us that while we were teaching her, she felt a peace that she has never felt before. and we knew that she had felt the spirit of the Lord. I know that our message is true and it has the ability to bring more peace into the lives of people. and the third family is awesome. we found them while we were contacting. we felt a little impression to go to this house that was not in the direction that we were contacting but we did what we felt was right. we knocked or well clapped ( cause they do that down here we clap at doors a lot) and they let us in. it was awesome! we taught them a bit and left them with a book of mormon. we were coming back to visit them and we found one of our other investigator friends who lived by them. apparently they had talked, but the family said that while they were listening to us teach them, they felt really peaceful. lol they also told them that they thought we were angels lol. so we will see what will happen with them. we are going to teach all of the about the plan of Salvation to them all next. 

but things are going really great. I am loving it here in Galvéz. its a really pretty city. oh and so I was talking to this guy named Santiago and he was telling me about how they eat frogs here. lol yeah, I kind of want to try it. I am getting over the grossness of everything and getting more adventurous about the way I eat. my companion was getting a little nervous when I told Santiago we should eat some frog. apparently it tastes like chicken. the only difference is that frog has a stronger flavor and that its a frog lol. so maybe we might eat it. soooooo well I am running out of time! but I want to tell you all that I love you! and that I know this is God´s true church and that we do have a prophet of God. and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. I know that this Church can bring a greater peace into people´s lives than anything else on this planet. I am so thankful that I could grow up with this peace and in an awesome family! love you all!

Chow Chow

Elder Gibbsy

October 3, 2011

All I can say is  wow. What a great general conference!!! I learned a lot this general conference. this time I tried to have a purpose for why i  wanted to listen. I wrote down somethings that I needed and then listened. I probably learned more from this General Conference than from the others. especially cause I didn't sleep through this one lol. well okay so I only slept through 2 talks. Talk about improvement. it was pretty cool. we got together with the other missionaries in Santa Fe and watched General Conference in the Stake Center. all the Americans and English speaking missionaries got together to watch it in English. but super awesome conference. Its amazing that we have a prophet who talks with God about how to help us HIs children. 

sooooo how is it going family? I am doing well! I hope all is well with you guys. so I got moved to another state in Argentina. I was in Entre Rios and they moved me to the state of Santa Fe in a city called Galves! Galves is really small!!! really really small. so in a way I am kind of happy! cause Gualeguaychu was really really big. and so we wont be having to walk as far. which is really good. my comnpanion´s name is Elder Glad. He is a great missionary and really obedient to the rules. also he is fairly new to the mission. He has almost a year in the mission. ooohh and also he cooks really well! lol he made a German pancake the other day! lol I was in heaven. so I am happy and I do like Galves, its really chill and calm. they have a train that runs right through the middle of the city. lol I know it was a bit random just to say that there is a train that runs through the middle of the city but I have a reason to say that cause...well no I didn't have a reason to say that. but this city reminds me a lot of Grandpa's city. cause I always hear the train going whoooowhooo. 

so the apartment I am in now isn't as nice as the other one. lol it is actually a house and so it is pretty big compared to the other apartments. the things that are bad are that we have to wash our own laundry......., and it has a bucket shower, and that the refrigerator freezes everything!!!!! lol it was a pretty interesting experience to learn how to use a bucket shower. lol there is like a faucet that pours into this bucket that has a spout. so the bucket fills up and then you plug in a cord that is hooked to this heating devise in the shower. once it is hot, you unplug the cord and open the spout and whalla you have a warm shower. lol you have to be careful and to unplug the shower or you can get shocked while showering which I have heard that it is not too fun to be shocked. and the bucket runs out of hot water so you have to be wise with how much water you use. lol such a hassle. oh and I got shocked two days ago. for some reason the fan´s electricity runs through everything metal and so if you touch any part of the fan you will get shocked. lol I got shocked twice already. lol it was fun....not. but no other wise the new apartment is really great I love it. 

lol on the way back home from the conference I was talking to this one lady in the ward. she has this daughter that is really fun. the daughter is 5 years old and I like to make ugly funny faces at her. cause when she finally sees me she freaks out and says ¨te como!¨ which means i´ll eat you! so funny, she used to say I´ll hit you. but that didn't scare me so she had to change what she said lol. but the ward is pretty good here. it is really small. they have 15 members or so and they meet in a warehouse that has been changed to be a church. but also yesterday I got to see my first companion again, elder Towner. He is doing great. he will finish his mission in like 5 weeks.crazy!! but it was fun to talk to him and to goof off. Before I left Gualeguaychu I had to say goodbye to all of my friends there. pretty sad. the family ortiz kids kept giving me little gifts, like notes and little broken toys. I am going to miss them but its cool I know I am supposed to be in Gálvez now. so is there anything new going on out there. not too much going on here. we have a couple of people getting closer to baptism. I know that God will help us help these people. its crazy how He helps us in our lives. I know that he answers our prayers. He has answered many of mine in the mission. its crazy! and like the prophet said, nothing is too small for God to help us in our lives. but ya things are going great in the mission! Love you all! peace!

Elder Gibbs

September 27, 2011

What is up fam!

This week has been pretty crazy! And especially today. Lol so many things to do on this preparation day. Tomorrow we have transfers and I am being moved to a smaller city in Santa Fe. Lol I forgot the name of the city. I am really stoked to be able to go there and teach the Gospel!!!! 

Oh and so today, I was preparing everything so I will be able to leave tomorrow. I first woke up early and got ready and then Elder Stull and I went to pick up my clothes and run some errands. We have like 5 missionaries visiting in our apartment last night. Lol I slept on the floor. Lol that was fun. So my companion stayed to guard the pench. We came back, and I had to go talk to the owner of the apartment because she was having people to come put in some fans in the apartment. There are now fans. I was so proud with myself cause I talked to her totally in Spanish! And was able to understand it. But ya and so now I am going to be going to visit the families that I will be leaving to say goodbye one last time. Lol I hope I don't cry. 

This week has been pretty good. We have been visiting a lot of the members that have not been coming to church which has been alright. We found this really odd guy. Or well some really odd people in this one neighborhood. Lol Elder Romero and I were like.....what just happened. Oh and by the way, some people here think we are spies from the CIA. But that is what we have been working on. I also made tacos for the ward. They turned out pretty good! Lol I forgot the garlic but they were good anyhow. The branch president loved it! And then I taught them all how to make their own tacos. 

So yesterday Elder Stull and I went on a division. The other elders went to another area. But we are both really new missionaries and so it was a bit scary speaking to other people and teaching them cause we both had doubts about if the other people would have a question and we wouldn't be able to answer them. But so we went out, did some contacting and we found this super cool lady and son. Lol we taught them and we were able to understand everything. We felt so pumped after teaching them. We really felt like we had helped these people and that we could feel the spirit testify to them. We won't be able to teach them any more but it was still great. I am going to give the reference to Elder Romero cause he is staying here. 

Oh and so I made a stir fry this week. Lol I am turning into quite the chef lol. Unfortunately my companion didn't like it. He didn't tell me that straight up. Lol cause he is such a good guy and didn't want to hurt my feelings. But I believe that he didn't like it cause it was a whole different type of cooking that he was not used to. I actually really liked it. I am doing pretty good! Just working. Hope everything is well in your lives. I know that God loves us and he gave us this life for us to gain experience and to learn. I know that His plan is perfect! Have a great week! See you all later!

Chow chow!

 

Elder Christopher Gibbs

September 19, 2011

This week has been pretty good. And really tiring. We were trying to find some of the members that don't come to church anymore and we ended walking for like 30 miles!!!! Sooo far. Lol oh and also, I was in the store buying our food, and guess what I found..... sauerkraut. Lol so I cooked up a hot dog and ate basically bratwurst and sauerkraut and bread. Sooooo good! Also I am turning into quite the chef. For some reason my companion doesn't want to do any cooking. So I do the cooking which is alright with me, but it makes me miss my mom a ton. I love your food mom. Oooohh and also it makes me miss living with Ryan and Stephanie. 

So we found this cool couple this week and we taught them about Joseph Smith and it made me think of what Joseph Smith was searching for. He was searching for a church to baptize himself in, because he knew that he couldn't return to live with God without being baptized and therefore he was looking for the true church. He asked everyone what was the church of God and everyone said that it was their church. I am grateful for the things Joseph Smith has done for me and for the world in Restoring the true Church of Christ. 

Yesterday we found a family that doesn't come to church anymore and we talked with them. They are super nice! The man has become an atheist or well sort of atheist. We are really not sure what he believes in. He has some atheist ideas but somewhat believes there is a God. We had a pretty interesting discussion with him yesterday. Lol he LOVES to ask questions. Lol it was driving his wife crazy! But, we were alright with his questions and happy to answer them. I think that they will be starting to come to church again which is awesome! 

Also this week I was reading in the Book of Mormon about the dream of Lehi.  It really has some profound things you can find in it. I especially love how it says that if you hold to the rod of iron, the devil will have no power over you. The rod of iron is the word of God. And so if we listen to the Prophet and read the scriptures the devil has no power over us. It makes me want to listen more attentively to General Conference this week. Or next week. Lol when ever it is. I am so confused about the time. It passes by soooooo quickly. I can't believe that I have been in the mission for 6 MONTHS. This transfer has flown by really quickly. Lol I hardly even know my companion. 

Oh and Gualeguaychu is so pretty right now. Oh man I wish you could all see it right now. Today we walked by the river and oh man its so awesome! So everything is going well here. We were pretty close to having some baptisms next week but they weren't able to come to church yesterday and so we will have to work with them some more. But I am doing great! My legs are pretty dead from all of the walking. And so is my body. We helped one of our converts destroy a wall again and then shovel all of the pieces out! That was a work out! I was so tired after but it was quite enjoyable. I love you all! Hope you all have a great week!

See yall later!

Elder Gibbs

September 12, 2011

Hey family,

Just so you know I sent some of the photos I have. [See Below.  Click on the photo to make it bigger] Hope you like them. But this week was a pretty good week. I was pretty beat! 

This week we were able to eat with one of our investigator families. We ate pizza! lol It was really good and they are progressing pretty well. Their names are Ruben and Evelin and they are super awesome! We have fun chatting with them. We were with them the other day and chatted with them. They are so funny and their little daughter is addicted to coca cola. She says coooooca which means that she wants to drink coca cola. They said they were going to attend church this week but they weren't able to make it which was a bit sad. But there is next week! 

Elder Romero and I are getting along pretty well. I am getting better at speaking everyday. lol We went to a restaurant today in Gualeguaychu. and they make sub sandwiches! Like Subway! And so we went to eat and I was ordering. It was a man and a lady working there. They asked me where i was from and I was like USA!!!!!! And they were like oh so you speak English we do too. Apparently they lived in New Zealand for 6 months or so studying English. While they were there, they loved to eat at Subway and so when they returned they had the idea of creating their own Subway in Gualeguaychu! It was soooo good! I felt really american eating a Subway sandwich and drinking Gatorade! 

Also this week we were able to help a new member of the church. She needed this wall torn down. So, we were happy to do it! I told the lady we helped that it was really fun to do this service project. I like to destroy things like walls and not get in trouble for it! Haha. Anyhow, that was fun. 

Oh and I tried to play the trumpet of one of the members we were visiting. It's so difficult to play the trumpet. I couldn't make it sound at all and when it finally did, it sounded like a dying cow. So I decided I would stick with the piano. We have some really cool investigators and hopefully they will want to be baptized soon. The ward is doing pretty good here. Every Thursday we have a family home evening that we have to do. This week we played a jeopardy game. The ward had a real fun time. We are still studying about the Atonement. It is so impressive what Jesus did for me! Well I have got to go! Love you all! I can't believe that it is almost six months into my mission. I am going to burn a tie! See ya later!

Chow!

Elder Gibbs

September 5, 2011

[Editor's note...Okay I am caught up now!  I didn't have time to edit for punctuation so, again, you get to enjoy Chris' emails in their natural state.  Enjoy!]

Hey Family what is up!!!!

This week has been good and tiring! lol I hope I dont fall asleep while typing this letter. I am going to start this email by telling you what I did today. 

so two weeks ago we had a little competition and the winner got to have a special preparation day with their whole zone. and we won and yesterday we traveled from gualeguaychu to concordia. lol we arrived pretty late and so me, Elders Romero, cortez, and castillo didnt want to wake up today. but everyone was just so stoked and excited for preparation day! yay prep day! lol and so we woke up and left to go play some soccer. we played soccer for 7 hours and then went to see an old abandoned argentine castle which was pretty cool. we returned and ate pizza and ice cream! lol soooooo goooood! and then we played some more soccer! so many missionaries are sunburnt! including me! I have been getting pretty good at soccer! lol I have been playing soccer a ton with some latinos so I should be getting better at soccer! I was one of the better yankee players ( pronounced shankee because y and ll make a sh sound). and ya they call us all yankees cause we are from america. but ya i scored some goals and showed people how we be playing soccer in the states! lol ya right! but it definatly was really fun and so worth to get sunburnt! we are going to leave soon from concordia. also the mission president came to concordia to enjoy preparation day with us. it was quite fun! 

anyhow this week has been pretty successful for the mission.  we have been teaching this awesome family. its a man and his girlfriend who have a daughter. they are pretty young. about 25ish. really funny. lol we are pretty good friends with them and we are going to eat with them tomorrow! yeayahhhhh!!! and she is making pizza!!!!!!!!!!! lol I feel like a ninja turtle the way that i love pizza! but they are doing well and are accepting a lot of the gospel. and super awesome! and the most awesome thing is that they showed up for church yesterday!!! we didnt think any of our investigators would show up. and they showed up. and further more they said they liked it! so we are going to continue teaching them. we found some more new people to teach. we taught this single mom and her family. she let us in and listened to our message and was really excepting. and the branch here is doing pretty well too. I am loving the work. 

Spanish is going really well. often I feel like I stink at speaking but then other times people tell me I speak really well. lol and so spanish has been like a roller coaster! but I am enjoying my time here. I love you all. sorry I cant write much more cause we are going to be leaving for the bus pretty soon! 

this week I studied a bit about the atonement. it is so impressive what God and Jesus have done for us. I learned that in another language atonement means to reseat yourself in the presence of God. and that is what it is. it is the Grace of Jesus that helps us reseat ourselves in the presence of God! without it we would be lost and could not return to God. I am so thankful for Jesus and what he has done for me! all we need to do is use this atonement in our lives by repenting of our sins and continually trying to live the commandments of God more closely and we will live with God again! once again i love you all! I am thankful for all you guys have done for me! see ya later!

Elder Gibbs who is red as a lobster right now!!!!!!!!

August 29, 2011

So this week has been good! lol we are working pretty hard! and playing lots of soccer. lol that is what you get when you have a latin companion. my companion, Elder Romero is way cool and way chill and is helping me a lot with my spanish and teaching too. We have been teaching quite a bit of families and they are progressing quite well. so we started out the week by going to concepcion de Uruguay. we went there for pday and spent the night there because we were leaving in the morning for Paraná. so we woke up and went to paraná and had a mission conference. everything went well. we finished with that and left to go to the bus station. lol and one of my friends was going to walmart and so I told him, if you see peanut butter, buy it for me! lol so he did and he bought it for me. Peanut butter is really hard to come by in argentina. but so now I have peanut butter! I am excited about that! 

so our investigatores are progressing real well but they didnt show up for church yesterday!!! lol they all said that they would. but they didnt. lol but we are not going to give up! cause giving up is for quiters and we are not quiters! so it was way cool my companion said okay so i am going to let you learn how to be senior comp and let you handle  everything. and I was like.........Okay! so I chose where we went and who we were going to teach. also he let me take the lead in teaching the lessons which was a little difficult but fun. I am getting more and more used to teaching which is fun and at the same time not fun. haha so I kind of have mixed feelings towards teaching. so my companion is the district leader and so we had to go to concepcion de uruguay again to do a baptismal interview which didnt happen for some reason. we had some time to kill there and so we played soccer. 

I was the only north american there. lol all latinos and they all killed me in soccer. as in they were a ton better than me and they pretty much almost killed me. I was going to kick the ball after the goalie had just blocked it and right when I was about to kick it, I got kicked in the back of the leg by the bishop of the ward. lol it wasnt on purpose and it didnt hurt to bad. it was just funny. we were on the same team. he didnt see me and went to jump kick the ball into the goal. and just happened to jump kick me in the leg. later I decided to take a little break and went to be goalie and that also turned out to be a mistake cause argentines love to kick the ball really hard into the goal. but all in all I came out alright. a couple of scrapes no more than that. but we came back to gualeguaychú and worked some more. 

we had a good church meeting yesterday but the bishop of the branch forgot to tell me the hymns to practice and so I had about 15 minutes to learn all of them. I said a quick and silent prayer and learned them. it is so cool how much the Lord helps me and answers all of our prayers. I was able to play fairly well too! I have a testimony that God really does answer our prayers and that he loves us! as a mission we have been doing a study on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. and it is so impressive to see what God and Jesus have done for us. By paying all of our sins, Christ made it possible for us to return back to the presence of God. Also, He took upon him all of our pains and sins. He knows exactly what each of us is going through. He knows what will help us in each of our lives. so when I have a tough time, I am going to look towards the Savior for His example and for His advice. God loves us so much to send His Son to die for us. I know that God again has shown His love for us by restoring the Gospel once again on the earth! Love you all! and I am glad to hear from all of you! Chow chow!

Gibbs Elder Austin Elder Gibbs Chris