Welcome 2014!

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Wow, I cannot believe it's 2014. It's sad, because I won't be the entire year on the mission! :( I don't like that thought!! But at least the week passed by REALLY SLOWLY! It was pretty dead, as far as missionary work. I´m sure all the other people were living the fast lane life, with their parties and everything! Haha too bad we don't participate!

 

So for New Years I was with Elder Higdon, from Idaho Falls, in his area. He´s relatively new on the mission, he´s actually being trained still right now. But it was nice to spend the New Years Eve with a fellow Idahoan! :) We didn't exactly party it up, in fact, we weren't allowed to leave the pench for those two days unless we had an appointment, and with almost no one home, we didn't leave much. Like you said Dad, it's the WORST sitting in the pench. We were super bored. I just ate a few extra treats I had bought for the night, and played with a Rubik's Cube. SUPER FUN, right? Ha kinda. We watched some church videos as well, but still not as good. So we slept a lot. While in my area, Elder Villegas and Elder Allen (Elder Higdon´s companion) were eating asado, and ice cream, and fruit salad (bascially, the best of the best down here). So yeah, that turned out well haha! 

And then on Friday we had to go to Mendoza, so that was an adventure, as always. The consejo was really good! But President was using a cane and had a big boot on his foot! I guess he was playing soccer with the elders two Saturdays ago and stepped in a hole or a sprinkler or something, and almost broke his ankle. There was a lot of crazy stuff that happened during these fiestas! But he was still as excited as ever!

I got to see Elder Johnson, always a nice little reunion, and a few other elders, but it's way weird to say goodbye to Elder Thurgood and Elder Bills and a few other elders I know, like Elder Wahl. they are all going home next week! :/ So crazy... But they all shared their testimonies and it was a really good meeting.

So in this point of the transfer, we´re looking for more people still. We have a few people, the grandpa that came to church with us a few weeks ago, another couple that's in the later years, and another woman that's even older than the others! Haha so we´re doing our best to get them to church! No one came yesterday, but that's because last minute party things were happening. Thank goodness the parties are over! This week should be a solid week!

Anyway, no news on the packages, except that everyone's package from the entire mission is waiting in Buenos Aires, because the mail is still on strike over there. So just a little heads up, Elder Egbert says that it's best if you don't send anything for awhile, until we let you know. They´re doing everything possible to get them over here, but we´ll see! It's alright if it becomes a birthday present I guess haha :) as long as I do get them before May!

Anyway, so today we bought a fan, and I´m carrying it around for now, not too heavy thankfully. We still have to buy groceries and then I think we´re going to relax in the pench. It's been a long week, and really hot.

But to end on a good note, yesterday was a really good day at church! Maybe no one came to church, speaking of investigators I mean, but the testimony meeting was really powerful, and the classes were really good as well. We didn't want to leave the chapel, even to have a really good lunch! I´m glad that things were the same back home too. It's a comfort to know that the church really is the same all over the world! Because the spirit is the same, of course!

I love you all, and I hope you can keep you New Year's resolutions for one more week at least! :P  But even better, I hope you can all keep progressing and start off this new year in the best way!!! Welcome 2014, I feel like it has a lot of changes in store for me, so I´m ready!!!

 

Elder Tyson Gibbons