The chapel
Their bedroom
Hola again from Villa Mercedes!
Yeah we came to villa today to play soccer and basketball with the other elders in our district. It was way fun! And we ate some lunch, I did some shopping at Carrefour, pretty much the biggest store anywhere, except in Mendoza where they have a Walmart. But yeah, I am looking pretty set for this next week or so! So yeah that's pretty much what we do p-days haha. We went shopping last week got some food and I started my collection of alfajors! Well the wrappers I mean. Man those things are so good. And the best ones are either oreo or terrabusi brownie con dulce de leche. Oh my goodness, I love those things haha, and they're only a dollar! I´m still geting used to the money change because I see alfajors for 4.50 and I think NO WAY, I am not buying that. Then I remember that's less than a dollar haha, so then I end up buying like 10 :) Everything's going good here. We eat good! The main things we´ve eaten so far is milanesa. Just like squished chicken or beef breaded and cooked. It's always good.
But we got stuck in the (bus) terminal here on Sunday after the temple dedication, and we were there for four hours because Elder Day read the sign wrong, and the next bus didn´t leave till 5 haha, so yeah that was fun. We had to eat there and we got hardly anything done last night. Except we visited this guy Mateo, who loves to drink wine (sorry, can´t remember if I mentioned him already) and we had a GREAT visit. We have a date set for him at the end of this month, along with another lady, Gloria. She was in charge of some ELIAN thing for special ed kids, and they had a big celebration/dance recital/carnival for those kids, including her son Ariel. So we showed up to support her, and it's amazing to see the way people changed from when we first showed up. Everyone glared at us and gave us weird looks, and we felt awkward at first, but then we started helping with chairs, with refreshments, and we handed out these goodie bags to all the niños, and EVERYONE was smiling and laughing and saying gracias and actually looking at us like humans. Haha service really changes people´s minds, that's for sure. The only guy who wasn´t very nice we´re pretty sure was a Jehovah´s Witness. And mom, no matter how nice you are to the ones at home, the ones here aren´t the same. They really don´t like us for whatever reason. We always say hello, well no--hola haha, but they just ignore us. Oh well. We´re doing our part! I´m impressed with all the door knocking and everything they do, it's just not the same as us though! It's always older people, not 19-year-olds in a different country. But we feel that that activity was a really good way to show pretty much half the town that we are human! So hopefully down the road we meet one of those people and they don´t ignore us or slam the door in our face. We´ll see eventually! But the bus system really messed us up this weekend. We didn´t get very high numbers for the last 4 days, because we kept having to take buses back and forth from Villa to Justo Daract, and we missed them a couple times, had to wait a few hours, or they were late themselves. Man. We didn´t want to come today because it was SO much time spent on a bus. but oh well. We´re still doing alright. We´re going to stop at Mateo´s place every night now before we go home, to keep daily contact. Because we don´t want him to drink, and he knows that if we come over we´re going to ask him about it. Hopefully he gets to the point where he realizes it's a commandment and we can´t drink, and doesn´t just stop because of us. We´ll keep working with him!
So to answer your question, no we are still working with mostly just kids. and holy cow it can be frustrating. Because they aren´t ever sure about their schedule or anything! The three baptisms that were planned for this Sunday were cancelled because they think that we just randomly choose dates and it doesn´t matter if they keep them or not. They just don´t get that we´re being serious. So that whole family "supuestemente" is going to a tournament for the next 8 days. Not going to school or anything? So we just found that out yesterday and were like, what the heck. Satan definitely took advantage of us putting off the baptisms for a week! But he´s not going to win, so we really aren´t worrying too much haha. That's the great thing about all this, he is never going to win! :) He never stops trying, but it's safe to say that we've got the better end of the deal. There's nothing better than knowing and feeling that you are serving the Lord every day, 24 horas a day for 2 years. And when we went to the rededication of the Buenos Aires temple, that was just reaffirmed to me. It was a really good meeting. I had no idea Elder Christofferson had served in Argentina! He just stood up and started leading the meeting in Castillano and I just smiled and laughed almost haha, it was awesome. And President Eyring was there along with Elder Ballard, grandson of Melvin J. Ballard who dedicated the land of Argentina and South America for the missionary work to start. It was really amazing to see the connections they both had with Argentina, and let me tell you, it was pretty emotional. First of all they are apostles of Christ, and they had such powerful feelings for this country and when they spoke of the saints and the missionary work, I´m pretty sure everyone was tearing up. Missionaries included. It's so crazy to think that back at BYU I had like 6 temples within a couple hours reach. Here they only have Buenos Aires, and I can´t imagine how tough it must have been to have the temple be closed for however long it was. They were SOOO happy when we walked out of that meeting. I don´t feel fit to be here among these people! The members here are so strong and faithful, and go through a lot to keep the commandments. And back home, it's not easy, but it's so much easier than here. I don´t feel hardened enough to match up to their caliber. Hopefully I can better myself and get to that point soon. Anyway, I loved every minute of it. I can´t wait til I get to go through that temple before I leave! Well I can, because I still have a year plus :) plenty of time to work and wait.
Other than that, the rest of the week went really well. Thursday it just poured and poured and poured. and poured some more. We got so wet. and then the next two days were beautiful, and Sunday after the dedication we had to walk a mile to the bus terminal, and it was pouring again. Haha so we´ve been well-soaked the last week. I love the rain, but here it's just freezing haha, and the streets just flood and turn to mud. It's fun that's for sure. But all is well. So this week we´re going to really work with Gloria and Mateo, and we´ll see if that family really goes to the tournament. They´ll probably be home but shut and lock the door when they see us coming. Happens every time. I don´t like that! We´re not monsters, but people always like dart inside and shut the door and ignore the door when they see us coming. I wish they would just talk to us like normal people. Oh well, we still go and talk to them anyway :) The work is going well here, and this week we have interviews with President, which I´m way excited for. I wish I could speak better than I did the first time. Maybe it will be a little better. And he´s inspecting our places, so I´m really glad that we´ve kept the church/house clean. We´ll finish up cleaning today when we get home, and it should be very clean and neat when he comes to inspect. Our place is SOOOO much nicer than the other elder´s penches. Their bathrooms are disgusting, and kitchens. and floors. It was sooo nice to get back to our humble abode in Justo Daract after spending the night at their place. It was so much better back home haha.
That's so cool about all the mission calls! I know they´ll all do well if they just apply themselves. I told Logan the MTC was an amazing place if you took advantage of all the time you had, so hopefully he remembers that. And that means Levan is learning korean then? Yikes, he´ll have fun with that! Haha not sure I could survive the MTC for 12 weeks. But I already know he´ll be an awesome missionary. They all will. That's so cool that Dylan is district leader too! I don´t even have to say anything about that, he´s going to get the job done. He always did haha. I hope everything is going well with him! His parents have every reason to be proud of him.
WHOOOO HOOOOOO You have no idea how happy I am to hear that we beat Middleton. I mean, I love them and all, but that's really good news still. :) Good job Nathan on blocking that goal! And kate you still have to keep me updated on your games! That's weird you and a bunch of other girls didn´t get to play that game, but don´t worry, you will get plenty of chances to show your stuff! Don´t get discouraged, just try even harder than you did before. You´ll be a really great assett to your team, that's for sure. Everyone always loves the Gibbons ;) just kidding. But I do miss having everyone on my team just yell Gibbons since they could never tell us apart. Oh good times. Anyway, keep up the hard work!
Well we need to catch the bus so I need to get going. Sorry, I was going to add some pictures but I didn´t bring the cord or anything, so next time i will! :) Just know that everything is going well, in fact great, in Justo Daract. I hope to make things better than the way they were when I found it. There´s a good ol´ boy scout saying for you. oh, speaking of boy scouts, there were two at that activity I told you about, but their uniforms were WAY WEIRD. They wore like balloon pants like clowns and they apparently learn dances as part of their program. It was interesting for sure.
Anyway, I love you all and hope everything continues to go well! Viva Messi! Viva Argentina! çiao!
Elder Tyson Gibbons :)
PS--Oh and the Spanish is coming along just fine. I don´t speak as much as I wish I could, but everyone in my district keeps telling me I know way more than they did when they came. So that's encouraging! I´ll just keep working! And no, I haven´t played soccer with any random kids since I got here yet. Elder Day likes to be focused on work so it wouldn´t happen anyway. But it's okay, I like having things to do to keep us busy. He's a great elder.
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