No, I cannot believe it's october already. This transfer has been absolutely crazy and good all at the same time, and it has flown by. It's the one thing I haven´t adjusted to yet, and don´t know if I ever will! Since I already feel like the time is going by too fast, it's only going to get worse as I get even more time. I can´t believe it will be five months this month on the 16th. Wow. That's all I can say.
Yeah it's definitely weird going into summer right now. I´m DEFNITELY going to enjoy Christmas when I get back, an actual white Christmas, since that doesn´t exist down here. It´ll be weird seeing all of you wearing warm clothes and I´ll be dying of heat, since the summers here are just terrible. Yay, i get two of them! Whoa, that's right, my eagle project (I reminded Tyson about his outdoor Eagle project on October 1, 2009, when it was below freezing.) That was completely freezing. Wish it was right now! It's probably like 30 C right now, not super hot, but still enough to cause some uncomfort.
Well, I feel so lame that I have nothing to report really, but this last week was just as hard as the last. We haven´t had a visit with Gloria or Mateo for a couple weeks now. It really stinks, since they are pretty much the ones with the most possibility right now.The Zuchini girls have just been getting harder and harder to find, and it stinks because we KNOW it's because of the mom, who we found out hit two of them when they asked to do a family night with Loana and us. I hate all the hitting down here!! I´m never going to hit my kids. That's not how to discipline for sure, they just get used to it and hit everyone else, including us haha. Oh man... I feel like one of the Three Nephites right now! Only feel the sorrow of the sins of the world. I´m not ANWYAY near as spiritual as they are, and I¨m DEFINITELY not as high in status, but just being a missionary, down here, where things are different, I feel just awful seeeing all the things that go on down here that wouldn´t even happen in the US, and it really makes me want to teach everyone and bring them the gospel!! Becuase I know with all my heart that I´m the person I am today because of the gospel. There´s nothing else to explain it. I wouldn´t be like this if I wasn´t a member of this church. I may not have acknowledged that years ago, but there´s plenty of time to think about it here, that's for sure, and I really have realized that the gospel and the fact that I´ve lived the gospel, within a family, has made it possible for me to be here, along with the Atonement, because just like everyone, I was FAR from perfect. And I just want the people down here to realize that! That's why I´m here I guess, that's where we come in. So I want to work even harder. Because it's hard knowing what they need to be happier, to stop smoking, to stop drinking, to have a more solid family, but they won´t listen or haven´t had the chance yet. That's why we talk to everyone we can! Anyway, sorry for my little metaphor. Or was that a simile? Which one uses like or as? Sorry Mom, you probably are looking at me like a failure at language right now :/ haha.
But there are good things to report too! The people who usually let us in have continued to do so, some people that haven´t before have let us in, and best of all, my Spanish is really doing a lot better! I still can´t just talk like I wish I could, but I understand basically everything and I can actually take part in our lessons and conversations. And Elder Day is giving me more chances to, so there we have it. Things are still going very well! He thinks he is leaving this transfer, which means I would be the only one who knows what's up here in the grand city of Justo Daract, so I´ve been praying more fervently and constantly in my heart for help, because it will be rough being the one in charge, but not being able to communicate as well as I should. It's definitely a daunting thing. But I take comfort in the quote "whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies," so I know I at least have Him to trust in! As always. Don´t forget that, or don´t take it for granted, both of which are things I did too many times before now, when I could´ve overcome whatever struggle much quicker and easier. Don´t make the same mistake!! Or if you are doing it right now, then as President Uchtdorf said,¨"STOP IT" :) Love that quote. And of course, I take the biggest comfort in the talk by Elder Holland from last conference I believe. Elder Day has all of last conference on his mp3 player, and I love listening to Elder Holland´s talk on forgiveness and the parable of the workers. But the most important part is the last few sentences. Dad, you sent this to me one of my first weeks in the MTC at the end of one of your letters, and every time I read it or, even better, hear it, it just fills me with the best feeling, a feeling I´ve had more in the last 4 months than any other time in my life, almost to the point of tears because it means that much, and what Elder Holland says is basically this (I´m doing it from memory), " To any of you out there in the audience today who may be in need of this message of forgiveness, I testify to you that no matter how late you think you are, no matter how far down the path you think you´ve gone, no matter how many times you have fallen, I testify that you have NOT travelled further than the light of Jesus Christ's loving infinite Atonement shines." I love that quote. Since my version is not close to perfect, it's better to just look it up! But that has meant more to me than anything so far on my mission, because I´m here only through that same light that he mentions. It's the best feeling in the world, to feel that forgiveness, and that's why I am here in Argentina, to teach people that it IS psosible to overcome anything that has happened, and it's possible to be forgiven, but only through Christ, not by any physical or temporal means.
Anyway, things are still going good, and we are going to have a good last week in this transfer! Especially since it's going to end with general conference!! I don´t think I´ve ever been this excited for conference before, sadly. Even when we did conference jeopardy in Seminary, I still didn´t pay attention as much as I should have. Yes, I admit it. But now, it's SOOO exciting! I just hope I can listen in English. ;) Anyway, this week will be good, and you´ll have any updates by next Monday! Although next Monday will be a new transfer, and there will be plenty to fill you in on anyway! I´m super excited, as always!
I´m glad to hear that Mountain Home soccer hasn´t completely fallen off the radar. That is crazy, Nathan´s team has won more than we did freshman year. That is a really good sign for the future! And I´m glad Kate is having time to play, and hopefully it increases as she shows she has the skill! She´s already basically 6 foot 1 like me so..... she´s a really big asset to the team! I was thinking about it a couple days ago, and I´m really glad I get to get home before either Nathan or Kate graduate, so I can go to any games and try and make up for how lame and boring I was in high school. Plus it's different sports, not just soccer! That's really good to hear.
And that's crazy about the Elder Miller coming to Mendoza (I met a guy at Nathan's soccer game in Middleton last week who just got called to Tyson's mission)! All the missionaries who were in Albuquerque to wait for Argentina visas got an email today from Sister Miller, the Albuquerque mission president's wife, and she told us her grandson just opened his mission call and is also coming down here to Mendoza! How crazy is that? It's because of that grandson that she emailed us in the first place. It's awesome. So she hopes that one of us will meet him/train him/ serve with him/be a companion, which would be awesome! So there we go, I´ve got two people to look for. Let me know if there´s any more! It's the best msision anyway :) Just kidding, just for me. It does have the coolest symbol though. Don´t know how you´ll be able to look it up, but it's got the Andes Mountains, the Argentine sun, Angel Moroni, and just some scenery. It's awesome. I love this place!!
Anyway, today the activity I told you about for the sacerdocio (Priesthood) didn´t happen. Who knows why? They seem to cancel things a lot anyway, haha, sadly. Oh well, hopefully soon we get to go and do something like that. But today will be a lot more relaxing, and since I´ve had a cold for the last week and a half, I can catch up on some sleep and hopefully help it go away finally!!! I always get colds right before summer, which never made sense to me. Cold and summer don´t go together! And now I´m going into summer again, so I´m getting it again. Blah. I guess I have a really bad immunity to the common cold. Hopefully it goes away soon. I´m sick of having a runny nose every day. But it hasn´t impeded the work at all, just the communication. They have a hard time understanding me anyway since I´m so new, but it doesn´t help when I sound like my nose is plugged. Blah. The joys of the human body! All is well, all is well. Builds character! Haha this sounds really lame, but the soundtrack from "Holes" has been going through my head alot. And building character just reminded me of it again. Weird huh?
Oh man..... pizza. Don´t even bring that up haha. I miss real pizza SOOO much. We´ve made a couple pizzas ourselves, and they were way good, but we can´t do it all the time. The pizza down here just isn´t... pizza. I miss Pizza Hut, Dominos, Little Caesars, and brick oven haha. Man.. if you could send me a pizza somehow that would be awesome. But it's impossible so it's okay. Just the peanut butter and duct tape is good! :) Although I found a couple more things that I could use. Some pens! I don´t know what happened to all my pens, but they´ve all slowly disappeared. So some Pilot G-2 or Zebra pens would be great. And also .5 lead for my one pencil I have with me! I´m on my home stretch right now. Also just a pack of AA batteries for my camera. This camera blows through batteries so fast. It's ridiculous. And one thing I´d rather you send than ANYTHING else, is some 3D crest whitening toothpaste. I have always cared about my teeth. But down here, NO ONE does. And it's kinda sad, when people have rotting teeth or teeth missing. I´ve really come to appreciate my lovely teeth, so that would be great to get :) Funny the things you take for granted at home. How many times have I said that so far??
Okay this is a random thought, but I´ve never seen "Matilda," and Elder Day talks about it everytime we got to this less active lady´s house, B______. I guess she looks exactly like something called the trunchable?? I don´t know what that is. I feel pretty lame because multiple people have asked me if i´ve seen "Matilda" and when I say no, it's always the same reaction. " Are you SERIOUS??? You´ve NEVER seeen MATILDA???" :) Yep. So apparently yesterday was a scene right from that movie? We sat in her kitchen while she cut up some pastel flora she had made, and then she cooked up some membrilla fruit jam thing, in her old pan with teflon flaking everywhere. And when she kept feeding us this stuff, plate after plate, with the ash covered pastel and the teflon filled dulce on top, Elder Day just turned to me and started laughing and saying we were living "Matilda" right now. So that was pretty funny. Maybe some of you will fully appreciate what that was all about. I dunno. I actually liked the pastel haha, but I guess it looked awful compared to what it really looks like. She told us that the last elders who tried her food went home crying and stayed up all night in the fetal position holding their stomachs... so we were kinda worried, needless to say! But we´re both fine right now. Don't know why it was different, but I´m grateful! haha :)
WHOA--you and dad are going to be tour guides (for the Boise Temple open house)?? That is so cool. I don´t really have any advice haha, just be confident in what you know and believe, and always have a smile on your face. That's about all I could give you that I would know more than you. Just be confident, that's the biggest thing that people notice about us when we are talking about what we believe, if we aren´t confident, then they lose confidence. So it doesn´t work. Just be confident! :) Hopefully that helps. Anyway, that's really cool. I hope that all goes well! I am excited to go through that temple when I get back. Never got the chance before! I want to see how different it is. The Buenos Aires temple is three times bigger now, and it looked exactly like the Boise one before! Haha maybe they did some crazy stuff.
Anyway, I should get going, got plenty or laundry to do today! I hate having to hang things up. And only having a shaker, not even a washing machine. Haha yeah it kinda stinks. But it's hilarious to hear the members of the church speak whatever English they know. I guess the washing machine to President Ramon is Washy Moshy. ? Who knows where that came from, but it cracks me up. Anyway yeah, enjoy your laundry machines and everything! I hope all goes well and continues to go well for you all! I love you all and always think about you all! Thank you for your support, I couldn´t do it without all you either. Que dios les bendiga! (God bless you!)
Elder Tyson David Gibbons
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