Hola todos!

Hola todos! Sorry about the delayed email, things got out of control on Monday. No, not really, we just never made it to cyber, we were in Rodeo del Medio all day, which was interesting. But here we are just writing something quick before our lunch at 1! So yeah, sorry if this is a tad bit short this week. Thanks for telling me the rest of the trip Mom, I didn't know how long you were there, but I'm glad you got to do so much other stuff!! That sounds way exciting, even if you all look frozen in the pictures haha. Sounds like about the same weather we´re having now. Sadly we completely jumped past autumn and are going directly to winter, it's terrible. But oh well, what can you do??

 

So this past week has been awesome. Elder Alberro is a cool guy and a great missionary, and we get along really well. He actually reminds me a lot of Logan, our cousin. So that's pretty interesting! (Shout out to Logan, hope you´re rocking it up with your time left! Don't burn cousin! Just keep working hard :D ) We've had so many unexpected visits this last week, and lots of miracles, kinda feels like God was saying, well here are some incentives to do a little better than last transfer, so I have all the intention to do it! We've met people I never met the last 3 months here and had some great visits with people that I have met but never taught for whatever reason, so it's going to be a great month. And on top of it all, it's APRIL!!! Happy belated April Fools day, and then my birthday, the corresponding asado, along with the birthday of Juan Pablo and a few other members, is going to make this month just AWESOME :) So to fix what I said about his family (Elder Alberro I mean), his dad's parents moved from Argentina to the states, so his dad is American, but was raised with Latino culture too, and then his mom is from Costa Rica, so basically he is more Latin than American, and was raised with English and Spanish! Crazy huh? I thought that was way cool. And his brother is tri-lingual since he served in South Korea (and he also recently got married to a Korean he met at college, in the Costa Rica temple. Just loco!) So that's basically his family haha, and he likes to play soccer! Finally haha!

 

So the weather is actually nice and frigid today, and it's been raining about the last 5 days, so that's been an adventure. I don't know when you were going to send those winter clothes?? But sooner would be great haha! I love my coat but it doesn't do as much as it would with a sweater and a scarf. But I'm surviving until now. Last Monday I bought a new watch, which you'll see in the pictures I'll send home. It's just blue haha, so I don't worry about getting robbed for it. I bought a non-flashy one on purpose, but I like blue so it works out well. And now we have time when we´re wandering around. It's amazing how easily you get lost in the work, and how much time you can waste when you aren't keeping track of it!!

 

So who else is excited for General Conferencce????????? I can't wait, only three more days! And it's going to be awesome with all the Elders and Hermanas and then the members. If Stake Conference was good, this will be even better! Although I think we´re going to ask for an English room for us three gringos in the stake (me, Elder Alberro, and Elder Biggs our new ZL who also served in Justo Daract!), so hopefully that works out. But I'm really just thinking that all the challenges we´ve had this week are just a test to get me to earn the General Conference or something. It's amazing how much of a motivation it is now, because before, well ask my parents, I was half awake during the Sunday sessions and sleeping during the Saturday ones... not always!!! But a lot haha. I'm just super excited. Hopefully we can keep preparing ourselves and have some questions because for sure the questions we have will be answered in one of the talks! But you have to watch all the sessions and then read the Priesthood or Relief Society session the next month to find it! That's something they mentioned in Stake Conference too. I don't remember who it was, but he said "Hermanos, you will go home and read the Relief Society sessions and receive some more answers. Do it! And Hermanas, you will go home and read the Priesthood session and find more answers and revelation. Do it!" It was way cool. I've never thought about that really, but it's so true. We have to take advantage oif all the seessions that there are!! So let's start getting prepared eh?

 

So I have a question... did South Korea declare war or something? Are all my friends going there not going to go there anymore?? Everyone here is telling us about it since we´re from the states, so I was worrying about that for this whole weekend... what's the deal with all that??

As for Malcolm's call (to Tonga), that's AWESOME! He´s lucky, he will probably get to wear one of those... I don't remember what they're called, the Tongan skirts basically hahaha. But I think it fits him perfectly. That's way awesome!! He´s going to be a great missionary.

 

Yes Mom, I lost all those pictures, which sucks because the card had pictures from when I first got here to Buenos Aires and we went to the temple and everything! Oh well, life goes on right? But I think I'll put them on a pendrive or something to be sure. But yeah, don't worry about it.

 

I hope the weather is getting warmer up there! I'm excited and glad that winter or the cold is here, but this past week we´ve had some crazy weather and we both feel under it (under the weather, I mean) and we´ve been exhausted and cold. But we will get over it! Just takes diligence and patience! And I have increased in both of those I believe. But yeah, I just want my body to fix itself so I can focus on teaching and everything, it's really annoying when you are distracted by sicknesses and headaches and pains and everything. Any advice as to how I can get over that??

 

Well this week is almost halfway over already, but we have great plans and are going to keep working with the members, which we finally started doing this week instead of just putting it as a goal every week. Change is hard, and I'll miss Elder Galicia, but change has brought a new cycle of miracles, hard times, humbling experiences, and growing circumstances, and what else could we ask for? That's the whole purpose of this life, isn't it? So I am perfectly content with that. I'm super excited for the next 5 weeks, and obviously I'll be keeping you all updated on the happenings! Sorry it's short but we gotta get going to lunch! I love you all, and hope the warm weather starts brightening your days, weeks, and soon to come-summer! Don't let any opportunity pass you by, rather take ahold of it and make the best of it! We´re here on earth to be happy and have joy, and the best things in life are the spiritually and temporally uplifting ones! Time with family, friends, loved ones, and making new friends and enjoying all that life throws at you, making the best of everything! It's hard sometimes, and we all make mistakes, but we can always improve and change. Until next week!

Elder Tyson Gibbons :)