Buenos Dias!
Bien! Esta todo bien aqui in Albuquerque. No creo que he estado aqui por tres semanas! Es fantastico! I have not heard anything about my visa yet, but I keep getting emails from some Historiador person from Mendoza who is sending emails to all the Elders in the Mendoza mission. So I don't know if it pertains to me yet or not. Of course it's all in Spanish so I'm still not even entirely sure what the emails are for. I guess I'll forward them to you and you can let me know! Anyway, I just heard from Elder Waite that an Elder came to Morristown recently (not sure if during the time he has been there or before) but he says he is now in Mendoza! So who knows how soon or how long it's going to take before I get it? The church has its ways, that's for sure. I kinda hope that I'm here for at least 12 weeks though. 6 just isn't long enough! It's like pulling me out right when I get to know people and get comfortable and have success! :) But it's okay, I'll leave when I am supposed to.
So yesterday at church the Terrys came up and talked to me and told me they had met you. That's really cool! And just to let you know mom, she didn't give me a handshake, she gave me a one arm hug. There are so many older ladies here that just walk up and say "this is from your mom" and hug us. It's happened to Elder Calles about three times now. We always feel like we're such rule breakers! But she did give me your "gift" so thank you :)
I'm glad you finally got the Argentina flag pins! They didn't have anything like that in the MTC bookstore so I was disappointed that I hadn't gotten any for you or Papa. But I'm glad they're finally coming. And that Papa can finally wear all three! Haha that will look good I'm sure. Totally different colors for each flag. He'll get plenty of questions I'm sure! I'm still looking for souveniers from here, but honestly we haven't done much shopping for anything except for food and personal items. So that's been a bust so far. But that's okay because we're busy with the work! At least we were before the last couple days. But we're going to pick it up and make this week even better! Hopefully people keep their appointments this week.
Well right now we're not really teaching any new people, but there were potential investigators from recent companionships that we go see and we've noticed each of them have slow but sure progression. So we're really trying to work with that this week. There is this man named Tom, I'm not sure if I've mentioned him before, but he is so ready! He is a philospher though so he gets very turned off when we try to have a solid religious discussion, but we found a loophole: he loves music! And we are bringing a hymn book to sing with him this week because we've told him that people do musical numbers in church all the time. I'm not too excited to sing, I don't have a good voice anymore, but if it's what it takes to get him to come to church, then I'll do it for sure! He says things that just make me and Elder Calles look at each other and think Wow, he's so ready. If only he would listen! He says he wants to be accepted into a Christian group, but he hasn't been because he thinks everyone looks at him like he's different, even though he basically grew up in America, and he says he wants to sing at a church and sing hymns and things like that, so we had two obvious slap in the face moments from the Spirit saying "well, he just gave you two clear chances, take advantage!" So we try. Haha it's hard to bring the discussion to a religious topic though because he starts getting into his philosophies. But we're working with him! He's one of our main focuses. Also this man named Mark, who has been part of the church for almost two years, except he's not a member. He comes every week, has read the Book of Mormon countless times, knows all the stories and principles, but he's waiting for a huge spiritual revelation saying he needs to get baptized. So we're trying to get him to realize that, just as it says in Alma 32 I believe, if you will exercise just a particle or faith, God will bless you even more and prepare you for the spiritual blessings that will come after the act of faith. Just like Ether 12:6 too. So we're trying to get him a baptism date. That's our other main focus.
So we had a meeting as a zone last friday and we set goals to get 18 baptisms in the zone for this month of August. And just in the last three days there have been CRAZY success stories. Areas that are "dead" have set 4 or 5 baptism dates, and we already have about 8 or 9 baptisms set. Of course things don't always work out perfectly but it's amazing to see how much the Lord helps if we just forget our will and decide to do his. One of the two sisters in our zone suggested that we pray and ask right then and there if our goals we had just set were good, and it was a really good experience. And now we're all pumped up and ready to meet and surpass those goals even. Of course I won't be here for the rest of the year probably, but I'm going to help out in any way I can before I'm gone! I want to have success like that so I'm working harder than I was the last three weeks even to make it happen. So that was a miracle story for this last week. Three days after our goal setting, success has sky rocketed. It's amazing.
Bien! Esta todo bien aqui in Albuquerque. No creo que he estado aqui por tres semanas! Es fantastico! I have not heard anything about my visa yet, but I keep getting emails from some Historiador person from Mendoza who is sending emails to all the Elders in the Mendoza mission. So I don't know if it pertains to me yet or not. Of course it's all in Spanish so I'm still not even entirely sure what the emails are for. I guess I'll forward them to you and you can let me know! Anyway, I just heard from Elder Waite that an Elder came to Morristown recently (not sure if during the time he has been there or before) but he says he is now in Mendoza! So who knows how soon or how long it's going to take before I get it? The church has its ways, that's for sure. I kinda hope that I'm here for at least 12 weeks though. 6 just isn't long enough! It's like pulling me out right when I get to know people and get comfortable and have success! :) But it's okay, I'll leave when I am supposed to.
So yesterday at church the Terrys came up and talked to me and told me they had met you. That's really cool! And just to let you know mom, she didn't give me a handshake, she gave me a one arm hug. There are so many older ladies here that just walk up and say "this is from your mom" and hug us. It's happened to Elder Calles about three times now. We always feel like we're such rule breakers! But she did give me your "gift" so thank you :)
I'm glad you finally got the Argentina flag pins! They didn't have anything like that in the MTC bookstore so I was disappointed that I hadn't gotten any for you or Papa. But I'm glad they're finally coming. And that Papa can finally wear all three! Haha that will look good I'm sure. Totally different colors for each flag. He'll get plenty of questions I'm sure! I'm still looking for souveniers from here, but honestly we haven't done much shopping for anything except for food and personal items. So that's been a bust so far. But that's okay because we're busy with the work! At least we were before the last couple days. But we're going to pick it up and make this week even better! Hopefully people keep their appointments this week.
Well right now we're not really teaching any new people, but there were potential investigators from recent companionships that we go see and we've noticed each of them have slow but sure progression. So we're really trying to work with that this week. There is this man named Tom, I'm not sure if I've mentioned him before, but he is so ready! He is a philospher though so he gets very turned off when we try to have a solid religious discussion, but we found a loophole: he loves music! And we are bringing a hymn book to sing with him this week because we've told him that people do musical numbers in church all the time. I'm not too excited to sing, I don't have a good voice anymore, but if it's what it takes to get him to come to church, then I'll do it for sure! He says things that just make me and Elder Calles look at each other and think Wow, he's so ready. If only he would listen! He says he wants to be accepted into a Christian group, but he hasn't been because he thinks everyone looks at him like he's different, even though he basically grew up in America, and he says he wants to sing at a church and sing hymns and things like that, so we had two obvious slap in the face moments from the Spirit saying "well, he just gave you two clear chances, take advantage!" So we try. Haha it's hard to bring the discussion to a religious topic though because he starts getting into his philosophies. But we're working with him! He's one of our main focuses. Also this man named Mark, who has been part of the church for almost two years, except he's not a member. He comes every week, has read the Book of Mormon countless times, knows all the stories and principles, but he's waiting for a huge spiritual revelation saying he needs to get baptized. So we're trying to get him to realize that, just as it says in Alma 32 I believe, if you will exercise just a particle or faith, God will bless you even more and prepare you for the spiritual blessings that will come after the act of faith. Just like Ether 12:6 too. So we're trying to get him a baptism date. That's our other main focus.
So we had a meeting as a zone last friday and we set goals to get 18 baptisms in the zone for this month of August. And just in the last three days there have been CRAZY success stories. Areas that are "dead" have set 4 or 5 baptism dates, and we already have about 8 or 9 baptisms set. Of course things don't always work out perfectly but it's amazing to see how much the Lord helps if we just forget our will and decide to do his. One of the two sisters in our zone suggested that we pray and ask right then and there if our goals we had just set were good, and it was a really good experience. And now we're all pumped up and ready to meet and surpass those goals even. Of course I won't be here for the rest of the year probably, but I'm going to help out in any way I can before I'm gone! I want to have success like that so I'm working harder than I was the last three weeks even to make it happen. So that was a miracle story for this last week. Three days after our goal setting, success has sky rocketed. It's amazing.
It sounds like the family reunion was a blast! I'm sorry I missed it, but it sounds like you had enough fun without me and Jalen anyway :) Just kidding. But I'm glad it was such a success! It's always nice to get the family together, that's for sure. Hopefully you had good food and fun service times and play times, and I'm glad Dad and Jackson weren't hurt with the four wheeler rolling over! That's really good to know. I was scared of that last time when I would ride, that's for sure!
Wow it sounds like a lot of changes were made in 4th ward this last week! That's crazy. I wish all of them the best of luck with their new callings! They'll all do really well, I didn't have any doubts in my mind when I read their new callings. Hopefully they feel the same way obviously! But I will say that their calling isn't as cool as full-time missionary :) Just kidding, well kinda. All callings are important, I'm just glad I have this one right now. And I'm going to enjoy it while I can! Anyway, I'm sorry to anyone who I haven't written back yet. Most of the P-day we are out and about doing things out of the house so I really don't have much time to write. But I'll try to get those sent off tomorrow after I write them tonight! Because I gotta put some effort in if I expect to get letters :)
Whoa, Chris is going tomorrow? That's crazy. He seemed like he had such a long time left in there when i left! But I guess it's been three weeks... wow that's crazy. He'll enjoy it. I'm sure the weather is just perfect and hot :) It's hot here but it gets cloudy because of monsoon season, so I think it's alright :)
Well other than all that, I don't have much more to say! We've got the same people we're working on, hopefully finding more this week, and then I'll have more stories and miracles to tell about next week and the weeks after! But we are still plenty busy with everything. Three wards is tough! But like you said Dad i'm enjoying the challenge. I've definitely learned some things about work that I wish I had before my mission! And even before college haha, like how to study... anyone still in school, learn that now! There's my advive for the day :) But don't forget to study the really important things too, like the scriptures ;) Well I love you all! And miss you all! Enjoy the last week(s) of summer and enjoy school even more! I miss it, that's for sure. But I love being here and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Keep looking for missionary opportunities!
con mucho amor,
Elder Tyson Gibbons
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