Week 52!!! (One year down!) 20! January 30, 2017

Well, this Wednesday is my birthday. Ill be 20. But I cant send pictures now so all the things im gunna tell you and the pictures of the birthday will be there next week.

On Wednesday the 25 we had a worldwide misionary conference, and they rearranged the schedule a little bit, our mission hasnt changed yet because we have a couple options, but our Mission President will let us know when he decides, I`ll get into more detail when I know what my missions gunna go with.

Then on Friday, which was a year from when I entered into the MTC (but imma celebrate from the day i landed in argentina), I had intercambios with Elder Shill (he was my ZL in Banfield, so I know him pretty well) and did my first baptismal interview! It was a little kid of 15 years named Thomas who knew everything and was super prepped and was baptized Saturday! That was an amazing experience. That night we had family home evening with the ward mission leader there and his family, and we had a super good time, theyre all hilarious! And his mission president lives near the Provo MTC so he`s gunna see if he knows my Granps!

We`ve been teaching a young family recently that are Christians and theyre called Cristian and Gloria, they`re super awesome, they just need to come to church and get baptized! But theyre married which is pretty much a miracle here! Haha we`re very excited for them.

This next Monday is transfers, so I might write at a weird time, and we dont know whats gunna happen with the Trio, but its pretty safe that I`ll stay here. Let you know though!

Love you all! Enjoy life, its pretty freakin dope! Next week I`ll probably get some good pics goin

—

Love you!

Elder Gibson

Week 50: Fistfight, January 16, 2017

Well, cant upload pics today, so, sorry about that. This week was pretty good! We found an old investigator who came to church with us! Hes pretty weird, we couldnt tell if he was drunk or not, but he kinda acted like it, but he didnt smell too bad. Hes called Ramon. Hes pretty old.

Things are going super well in my last area, Banfield 1, my old companion keeps telling me about alot of the people me and him found or taught who are progressing so thats cool! We have some investigators here that are progressing too, and we´re excited for that.

Being District Leader is interesting. People depend on me for things. I dont know things. But its good, I like it. Im scared im gunna have to do a baptismal interview and not understand the person at all though haha.

On Saturday we left with the Elders Quorum in the morning and then did divisions in the afternoon and evening, so that was pretty awesome. We helped a lot to the members and we got a good amount of work done.

Its pretty hot down here in Argentina and I left my sunscreen in my old area on accident but its all good, im pretty used to it.

We had exchanges with the Zone Leaders on Tuesday, and the Chileano who came here boxed my companion (whose a boxer) so that was pretty funny haha. Dont you wish i could send pictures?

The mission here is changing a lot. When i got to the mission there was very few baptisms every month. Now we´ve broken the mission´s record twice, above 50 is our average recently, and we´re all pretty excited for it. I´d love to hear from all you at home, but more importantly I just hope you have a good week and read the Book of Mormon! Sometimes thats what makes a good week! Love you all!

—

Love you!

Elder Gibson

Week 32: Isidoro. September 12, 2016

I named this emial after our investigator whos come to church twice with his little granddaughter. I havent technically had a lesson with him though, and my companion and his old one only had one though, but his familys from the middle east and hes hilarious and always just wears whatever he wants. He says that he always wore a suit for like his whole life so now he just does what he wants haha hes dope.

But I also couldnt think of what else to call this week. It got cold again and rainy but we were still able to get some less actives to come to church so that was awesome.

Dont have much time today cuz were going to Zone Activity pretty soon here, even though the plan was water games, I think, but its raining pretty hard haha.

Everyone here wants to try tacos so my companions made an impressive amount of appointments based around tacos recently. To say the least, im excited.

Well, were in a giant cyber with a bunch of other missionaries from the zone, and my companion told me that all the computers have a garden of viruses, so i didnt risk it, and dont have fotos today.

I love you all and am happy and healthy, like my mom always asks, so.

—

Love you!

Elder Gibson

Week 21: Time Flies! June 27, 2016

We´re already nearing the end of the transfer, which is crazy! Neither of us know whats gunna happen next, cuz a couple spots for Zone Leaders are opening up, and my companion has been a DL for awhile now haha. But none of that is as crazy as the fact that our new Mission President arrives tomorrow! As soon as he steps foot in the mission hes the president, so who knows what hes gunna change! probably not much, especially out here in the boonies. Is that phrase used correctly? Who knows, chau English! (chau means goodbye here).

As you know we werent in Las Flores much this week, but we still were able to work during the weekend! Except on Sunday argentina played chile, a huge rivalry, so there wasnt alot of reception from the people, but i think they lost cuz there wasnt any partying last night. We have a couple new investigators though! One of them is the family is this teenager who used to be taught by the sister missionaries! They dont read much but theyre pretty solid and receptive and were excited! Also one of our investigators said he read a part of the BoM but we havent been able to talk about it much yet haha. Also our entire branch presidency came to church this sunday so that was good. We also are teaching this young guy who told us he likes to smoke weed once in a whileand drinks a lot but he has a lot of questions about religion and life and lost his mom young and were excited about him too.

Ethans birthday was on the 24th.

Ive been a little under the weather and have had to delve (word?) into personal money for traveling and to keep us fed at minimum lately, but were still goin! Were still laughing and still working, and we still cant count our blessings with all our dedos! (dedo is finger and dedo de pie is toe)

We found this dope animal by the lake where were planning a district activity. Apparently the meat is really good, but we have to pay to hunt them, so that sucks.

Obviously im gunna write more about my best pal Ethan! I know he usually smells decently crude, and his hair and ´beard´ are somewhat of a disgrace, but he´s an Eagle Scout! Im not. Hes awesome though, he has a successful company at 15 years of age, and he can sometimes make me laugh, and hes a good brother to winston, and a great cousin, and his heads on strait when he wants it to be, I love him, and I hope he´s gone before I get back, partly because the mission is the best and no one oughtta put it off! That just gives Satan a bigger window to slowly ruin your life! I love you Ethan, dont be stupid! Happy Birthday.

One last thought. I read Jacob 5 today, one of my favorite chapters cuz I like to analyze things and also ive had to work to keep alot of trees looking good and alive, anyway, it talks a lot about the servant (us) and the master (God). It can be intrepreted many ways, but I like to think that all of us as his servant may have to work just us and him, against seemingly unlikely chances, but in the end theres always a way to bring forth and enjoy good fruit. I invite you to read the end of that chapter and apply one thing to how you can become a better servant and reap the pages of blessings that are promised.

—

Love you!

Elder Gibson

Week 7: ARGENTINA! March 14, 2016

Wooh! How yall doin? I made it! The flight was long, but it actually felt really short. I didnt sleep at all. I mostly just played Sodoku. It went by quick, but I was super exhausted when I got to BA. First things I noticed were the humidity and how everything is green. Love em both.

So we met the Mission President and his Assistants and wife, and her sister and brother in law who are part of the mission Presidency? Not a hundred percent sure. Anyway, I got assigned Elder Derbez from Mexico! He´s super awesome and speaks a lot of English, which is good and bad. We get a long super well. He just finished his training which makes me scared to be a trainer haha.

But if I get to be in Las Flores, all will be well. I love Las Flores. Me and Elder Derbez have half this little town, and Hermana Shepard form SoCal and Hermana Molinero from Tuceman, Argentina, have the other half! We´re the farthest area out in the mission, so we´ve hardly had much time to do much in our area! We had to go into town (about 7.5-8 hrs roundtrip) 3 times this week, but usually we only do once, so itll be aight.

There´s one ward here, few members, in the stake Monte Grande (i think). A lot of less actives and a lot of people to visit that are either progressing or future investigators. The language is hard, I have a hard time understanding it, but I can clearly see process as I continue to learn, Im not too worried, I just need to practice patience, because I wish I could talk and understand more in lessons and when we visit people.

So Las Flores is great, mission work is great, there´s dogs everywhere. And I mean everywhere. I havent gotten bit yet, but theres only been like one or two close calls. The drivers are nuts, especially when we got into town. But everyones pretty friendly. I´ll send pictures of our actually pretty nice Pensión.

Also the food is great, no problems at all with it, and Elder Derbez is a great chef. Idk how to cook at all. Spices are unheard of here haha, so the flavor of the food is what you get, which isnt bad. Shout out to everyone who emailed me! Ill try to email back, no mucho tiempo. Pictures to come! Love you all! Keep striving to show the Lord that you understand that everything is his, and that everything you give to those around will be returned tenfold, albeit later!

And of course, Happy Birthday Mom!! I love you! Everyone who reads this agrees that youre the best Mom in the world! No doubt about that. Here´s how we celebrated:

 

Our Pension and my companion! So theres always frogs in our backyard at night, which is super dope. Elder Derbez hates frogs. Also we saw a dog walking around with one of his legs freshly removed a little less than halfway down, that was nuts. Most of the dogs are nice. We have one that I named Jefe today that lives around our Pension. Also we have Bikes! Big surprise. Theyve actually probably wasted more time, because we had to walk to the shop like 4 times before it was opened, and then he got a flat tire twice, anyway…