Heading Back to the USA

Elder Gibbs is HOME!  Here are some fotos of his last day in Argentina.

Presidente and Hermana Giuliani

Hermana Giuliani cutting Elder Gibbs' tie

Dad was able to fly to Argentina and pick Elder Gibbs up!

Elder Birky, Chris' MTC companion, getting his tie cut

Elder Gibbs holding the Mission Flag

All the meds the missionaries had to take!

Flying home with Captain Gibbs

Outside the airplane

Inside the cockpit

April 1, 2013

Hello Family,

I just wanted to tell you all how much I love you and thank you for all the support and encouragement that you guys give me. I have missed you all a ton but it wasnt a challenge being on the mission because I knew that everything at home was alright. I cant believe all the crazy things that happened this week. I cant wait to see you all. and I cant believe that I am now in my last week on the mission.

my goal is to work as hard as I can until the end and keep going when I get home. I want all the changes that I made to myself on this mission to stay the same. I love the feeling I have on this mission and I am going to miss it a lot. The people here are super great! course they all have their own special challenges but they are all just sooo great. I hope to be able to work hard this week but people keep inviting me to Asados (barbaques) to say goodbye to me. lol they are so awesome here. 

Also, another experience that strengthened my testimony was when we taught another investigator. We were talking about getting baptized and stuff and something that worried the man we taught was being able to keep all of the commandments after baptism. We read a scripture in 2 nephi 31:18-21 about how Christ gives us the power to repent even when we mess up. I shared my testimony of Christ and I felt the spirit and soo sure of what I was saying. it was awesome! 

life in our apartment is going crazy because the two latino missionaries in our apartment like to play pranks. lol they always lock people in the bathroom. lol My companion tried to lock me in the bathroom but I thought ahead and made a way so I could get out by putting a card in the lock. lol the look on my companion was priceless when i emerged from the bathroom.  

I love you all lots! I will see you all in a week! 

Elder Gibbs

March 25, 2013

Hello Family,

I was glad to hear from everyone and see all of the baby fotos! dang my nephews are cute! I cant wait to see all of you. lately I have been kind of sick but I am now recuperating. I am learning a ton everyday and I really have grown to love the scriptures. I am now reading about Alma the younger and how his father and family and the members prayed for Alma the younger. God then answered the prayer of these people and Alma received a vision. its so cool how God really cares about his children. we are teaching a man named Ariel Albornoz that has a lot of doubts. We are trying to help him recieve an answer to his prayers because we know that if he recieves an answer from God that He will be able to solve a bunch of doubts. it was cool to be able to teach him and feel the spirit so strong. he is a real good man and you could see the love he has for his children. He is planning to go on a trip with his wife to the temple next week. José also is doing real well. yesterday we had stake conference and José came up to us after the conference and thanked us again for coming into his life and sharing the Gospel. He is really loving the stuff that he learnes in Church. haha He promised to give me his Soccer Jersey of a team called Union before I leave. I have really grown to love these people here. and I am kind of sad to leave. I want to work as hard as I can this week and not waste any time. Time goes by way too fast. yesterday in the conference, we listened to some general authorities. it was great to listen to them. one thing that a seventy taught is that people who live the commandments will always find solutions to their problems. the gospel is so great and I love the blessings that we recieve from it! I love you all! and I hope to talk to you soon!

love you

Elder Gibbs

March 11, 2013

Hi Family,

Sorry this week I am not going to be able to write everyone individually because I have like no time again. lol today was a little bit crazy. we tried to use an internet cafe by our apartment but it was not working. and so we didnt write and then at like 2 we watched the movie ´´Brave`´ and then we looked for another internet place. We got permission from the mission president to watch the movie brave. It was good.  I am doing well and I am greatfull for all of the prayers that you guys are doing. They really help. in this last week we had some really great experiences. we focused alot on finding new investigatores. We talked to some really cool people one is named Vanina. we taught her about how the gospel blesses families and she accepted another visit from us. We also taught another lady named Rocio. José is doing real well. He is loving church. He stopped us the other day and told us how greatfull he was for learning about the gospel. He loves all the classes in church and he is learning a ton. He and his girlfriend who is a member are planning on going on the ward trip to the temple. we are super happy about that! they are sooo cool. also, Ariel, an investigator from a part member family made it to church yesterday. lol and he also gave a talk in church. kind of funny because the bishop called on him randomly to come up and speak. which he did and he did a great job. This week I learned a lot more about the power of prayer and I feel closer and closer to my Heavenly Father. We are doing our best to work as hard as we can in these last weeks. love you all a ton! have a great week! 

Elder Gibbs

February 4, 2013

Hello My family,

Here are some fotos. This week has been a little bit dificult and pretty hot. We are hoping that the temperature starts going back down. Sunday went well for us because we had like 3 less active families that we are working with and they came to church. The ward is super awesome here. They help us out a ton and there is a lot of excitement in the ward. The Bishop Gomez and our ward stake high council member have set a goal to have the whole ward go on a trip to Buenos Aires on the 30 of March. so they are going around doing their home teaching and visiting teaching and helping us out a ton. and for that reason the less active families came to church. these families always talk to us and love learning the Gospel but the ward helped so much in activating these families. they also want to go to the temple. lol I am going to see if the mission president will give us permision to go to the temple. we will see if we can or not. it is quite a hassle to send someone to buenos aires because it is just so far away and the president needs to know where we are at. oh and also another thing that happened this week was that we were able to have a family prayer with the Lanche Family. We are teaching the parents and we were teaching them the things that bless our families. I remember mom and dad telling me that Family Prayer, Family Scripture study, Church attendance, and wholesome recreative family actives help keep a family united. so we taught a little about that and then we asked the father, named Raul, if he could call in his whole family to have a family prayer. so he went and got everyone. once everyone was together, Mabel his wife said that prayer. it was super awesome and kind of funny too. cause Mabel prayed that her Kids would behave themselves which caused the kids to laugh.  plus one of their sons was poking his older sister during the prayer. lol sounds familiar. once the prayer was finished all the kids and the parents were laughing and there was a spirit of unity. it was pretty sweet. their family reminds me of my family. Just like it says in 3 Nephi 18:19-21 we need to pray in our families so we can be blessed and anything that is righteous and we ask for with faith we will recieve. I was able to testify of family pray because my parents would always emphasize having family prayer for which I am super greatfull. I love you all and hope that you all have a great week!

Elder Gibbs

Fotos!

January 14, 2013

Hi family,

It has been a while since I have written a family email. but I had something I wanted to say. yesterday in church we talked about the blessings of the temple. so I thought of everything that has ever happened to me in the temple, like baptisms for the dead, endowment, going to the visitors center, and even just singing about the temple in primary. and I remembered all of the times that Mom and Dad would go one day out of the whole month to go to the temple and we would usually be baby sat by stephanie or allison. I was just thinking about how we always felt so good, while our parents were in the temple. even we were blessed just sitting at home watching a movie or playing video games or in my case teasing family members. haha there is a pretty cool scripture in 2 nephi 5:16 and 27. the first scripture talks about how Nephi wanted to build a nice temple that they had put a lot of work into to build and then in 27 it says that they lived in a happy way. lol I am kind of translating the scriptures from spanish to english so if you want to really know what it says you gotta read it. but this scripture is soo true. and as our ward was talking about the temple trip that they wanted to do, I felt really greatfull for my parents who had taught me by there awesome example. I elder Gibbs being born of goodly parents 1 Nephi 1:1. I also like the scripture in 1 Nephi 2:15. and my father dwelt in a tent. just some super awesome scriptures. In this past week. we taught the Lanche family about the plan of salvation. I could feel the spirit as we taught about the premortal life. we taught them that God loves each and everyone in their family so very much and he desires that we are happy. it was great and I could feel the spirit. my new companion is from Peru and is a spiritual giant. its pretty cool. also I am still keeping up on my excersizes! I am feeling skinny tony! lol well I love you! hope that you are all doing well I am doing fine! I hope that this week to come is even better than the last!

chau chau

Elder Gibbs

Pictures!

October 22, 2012

I just wanted to write you all to tell you how the mission is going.
this week started out pretty bad. lol my companion got sick from
something that we cooked! lol so watchout if I want to cook you guys
something when I get back! but I learned a lot this week. I had my
second to last interview with the president. he gave me some pointers
to help with the work. I am trying to trust more in the Lord. and it
has made miracles. we recieved 3 references yesterday of people that
want to hear about the gospel. also we met this guy named Luis that
agreed to read in the book of mormon before our next visit. also I am
trying to better know my father in heaven. I learned that we learn
about the personality of God by living like him and following the
example of His son. it was a great week except for one thing! I
accidentally stepped in a hole of nasty water with other nasty
material in it. lol we went to a birthday party of a member after I
stepped in the whole and everyone was like.....what is that smell????
and I was like.....alright, its me! I stepped in a hole of nasty
water. lol I couldnt bear the smell of my leg! I am doing real well! I
love you all! hope that you are all doing well!
Elder Gibbs

October 15, 2012

Hey family,
so I have been in Santa Fe for a week now. all of the missionaries in
our aparment love me cause I cook good food! lol my companions name is
Elder Winger. he is from las vegas. its so funny when he tells people
that he is from las vegas cause everyone asks what is it like and if
there is a ton of casinos. Elder Winger is an awesome companion and a
real good missionary. this week we have been doing quite a bit of
tracting. not a ton. but a little bit. we found this lady named Nora.
we taught the first time we met her and gave her a book of mormon. two
days ago we returned to talk to her and to our suprise she had read
the book of mormon and had seen a miracle. Nora has problems with her
eyes and so its more dificult for her to read. but when she started
reading she noticed that she didnt have any problem reading! lol and
she read all the way to 1 Nephi 8. lol we were so happy! she told us
she liked what she had read and thought it was real interesting! she
said she was going to keep reading! it is so cool to see the hand of
the Lord in everything. This new area is a lot different than San
Nicolas. I miss san Nicolas a lot. but I am quite happy to be in Santa
Fe too. this area is really poor. there are a lot of small tin houses
everywhere. we have found some people who are willing to listen to us.
life is going pretty good. Our ward mission leader is this big guy
named Ivan! he is sooo cool! He has tatoos like all over the place. he
is a convert to the church, went inactive for a while and now is
active and preparing to go on a mission. lol apartently he has taken
on like 4 guys at once in a fight and won! so we feel quite safe on
the street. even though he looks rough on the outside he and his
family are such nice people! we are preaching and working hard here! I
hope all you are doing well! have a great week! love hearing from all
of you!
see ya later!
Elder Gibbs

October 1, 2012

Hey family,
what is up? we are doing good! lately we have been trying to find some
new investigatores. we have been trying to get the ward excited and
sharing the gospel with thier friends and family. The other day we
were with a family named vicentinand we shared the experience of Alma
and the sons of Mosiah. we showed them how these guys wanted to share
the gospel with everyone. even to their enemies. they couldnt stand
that people some people would suffer and would have to pay for their
sins because they did not know of Jesus Christ. it was cool and the
family asked for some pamphlets of the restoration, plan of salvation
and Gospel of Jesus Christ. Vanesa and ulises are doing really good.
we had Ulises help us do missionary work. lol he wanted to go and
knock on doors and teach people in their houses. lol it was so great.
our goal now is to help him take out the earring that he has. lol that
is a bit of a challenge. but we are making progress. I also was able
to show my biking skills to somelittle kids. they asked if I was the
guy who rides mountain bikes I said yes and they wanted me to show
them some tricks. and I did. lol we put our two packbacks on the
ground and I jumped them on the little bike. all the kids were amazed.
lol some day they are going to be missionaries. lol I hope! it was a
lot of fun. and thanks to that a family across the street wanted to
talk to us. the work is going really good and time is flying. next
week I am going to write back on tuesday because we have transfers.
yep again we have transfers. I dont know where the time goes! I am
starting to get a little anxious. I dont know how well I will adapt to
life outside the mission. but all is well. I love you all! I am going
to give it my all this week! hope that you all are well!
see you all later!
Elder Gibbs

August 28, 2012

Hey family,


I dont have much more time to write but I wanted to say that Jorge was
confirmed and I had the privelge of confirming him! it was awesome! we
also had a noche de hogar with his family and I made pizzza! lol it
was pretty good. the only problem was that I forgot to put oil on the
pan and so it stuck!!! lol but we had a lot of fun! the work is going
great and my testimony is growing everyday and my love for argentina is
growing a lot! love you all! and talk to you all later! chau!


Elder Gibbs

August 20, 2012

hey familia,

¿como andan? I am doing great! we got Ulises Confirmed a member
yesterday and we will be confirming Jorge and Vanesa the sunday to
come! lol something really funny happened this week that always makes
me smile! lol so I was sleeping and I woke up at like 3 or 4 in the
morning. and I was a little uncomfortable and so I turned onto my
side. lol I did look to see how close to the edge I was and because of
that I fell right off the bed. lol talk about waking up on the wrong
side of the bed. my testimony is getting stronger everyday and I am
loving the mission. I am getting a little nervous because transfers
are coming up and I am loving this area that I am in. course we always
have trails but I have made so many friends here that I am loving it.
the time has never flown so fast. so next week I will be writing you
guys on tuesday next week! love you all! you all are really great!
have a great week! lol and dont fall out of bed!


Elder Gibbs

August 13, 2012

Hey family,


so I have no more time to write cause all the other missionaries
finished writing! but this week we had an awesome week! yesterday, we
had the baptism of Jorge, Vanesa, and Ulises! it was soo awesome! it
was great to see them all get baptized. then Jorge brought us to his
home and made us some really good columbian food! I love them soo
much! that was the major thing that happened this week! I am loving
Jorge and Vanesa and Ulises and Dario. they are all so great! They
really want to go to the temple!  I included photos of the baptism in
this email. I am not sick anymore. got rid of the bronquitis. We think
that the tempature is going to start heating up again! whoohoo! I love
you all a ton! have a great week!


elder Gibbs

Pictures!

August 6, 2012

[Editor's Note:  Yes, this letter was from August.  Yes, Elder Gibbs gets home NEXT week.  Yes, the editor is a bit behind on life in general.  I blame this cutie.  Stay tuned this week for all his group letters since August!]

Hey everyone,

This week has been pretty good as always. lol nothing super new. Jorge

and Vanesa and Ulises and Dario are doing really good! it wa really

cute. Ulises is an 11 year old dude and We taught the family the word

of wisdom. we taught them how it was a commandment to bless and treat

our bodies with respect. he had a lot of trouble taking out his ear

ring. lol so we left him a scripture to read and he was like 创dont

worry boys I will sit down tonight and read what you marked. we then

came back the next day to take them to church and ulises told us what

he read and he told us that he wanted to take out his ear ring to go

to church!  it was way cool that he read the book of mormon and that

he acted with the spirit after! Jorge and Vanesa are getting real

close to getting baptized! They want to go to the temple and Jorge

wants to bless their baby and give her a name! so we are quite happy

and having lots of fun. well kind of. lol this week I got bronkitis

and have to use this weird machine called a nebulizator. lol I put on

this gas mask and have to breath in some wierd air. lol its what the

doctor ordered! lol but I am doing alright! Thanks alot everyone and

love you all!

Elder Gibbs

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