Family Reunion!

Three generations:  Elder Southwick and Elder Fullmer (my sons),

Elder Day (my dad), and me!

 

Meeting with Elder Nunez of the Seventy.

Can you find me?

 

 

Hey Dad and Mom!

Elder Southwick is doing very well, he has started speaking a lot more this last week, and I think the initial shock has passed, so now he´s starting to meet everyone and talk openly. It's quite nice, last weekend I was genuinely worried. His humor will definitely help him through, since these last two weeks it's already worked, and I'm not sure there´s any stopping it, he is just a naturally funny, story telling kind of person. We didn't get to teach a bunch this last week, since it was still cold and EVERYONE was inside, except us of course. 

 

The familia Muñóz is doing well too, María keeps sharing a bunch of crazy dreams that she keeps having, and she is very very converted. We are focusing on the other three family members. Valentin is very good friends with Facundo and is just a good kid, and Lucila really really likes Young Womens and the Personal Progress book, so we´re hoping she can avoid any type of problems. María keeps them on track very well, so I don't worry too much. With General Conference coming, I see it as just another confirmation that they are in the right place.

 

That's pretty interesting about the snow cone business... I guess I can enjoy some snow cones for the year long summer I´m going to have whenver the heat picks up here! It was quite a surprise though. So is Nathan still going to mow lawns? That's going to be a crazy few summers in a row!

Thanks for those quotes, I really liked all of those, and I really really like the talk The Laborers in the Vineyard, so that had a special place for me. This work is definitely not easy, but there are so many Christ-like attributes that we can work on and improve to help us along the way, especially since our companionship is vital to the success of the work, and if there is anything depriving us of the Spirit, things won't work out very well. 

 

The conference with Elder Nuñez was really really cool. It was very spiritual and he gave a lot of good counsel that I felt I could work on and improve. I guess that's what the Spirit does, right? Tells us what we need to hear. Elder Southwick was struggling, poor elder, he was half asleep the whole time, since we didn't have the best night's sleep the night before, having to sleep in the other elders' pench. But he still felt the Spirit and when he was fully alert and conscious he understood most of what Elder Nuñez said, so that was good. We´re going to talk about all that we learned tomorrow in district meeting, so that will be a very good meeting too. For example, one of the things I liked that Elder Nuñez talked about was how the Argentina Mendoza Mission is number 1 in all South America for finding new people to teach, but that the baptisms aren't as high as that finding number should indicate. So we talked about some of the vital steps of the conversion and teaching process, and I learned a lot of what I can do better here, since we do find a lot of people, but hardly any of them progress. And instead of things that they need to do or what we should teach better, he went straight to the primary source, the Spirit, or the lack of said Spirit. He shared Mark 10 with us, the story of the young rich man, and how the young rich man said he had kept all the commandments since his youth (which he then pointed out, how is that possible? We all make mistakes!) but instead of telling him that he was lying, Jesus simply tells him what  his weakness is and tells him to abandon it, sell all that you have, and come follow me. So he committed each of us, to write in our journals that night, what we think Jesus would tell ME personally to abandon, so I did that that night. It was super powerful. He said this phrase a lot, "pay attention to details," but the cool part was, that he actually said it in English! He spoke perfect English, and he told all the latin elders that they need to learn English, and he called it the language of the Restoration, and talked about how some words even in the scirptures aren't translated perfectly to mean the same thing. And he talked about General Conference translators and how they work so hard but sometimes just can't get the exact same message across. And he talked about how him learning English helped him with his job and calling, because guess what, He got to drive President Hinckley´s car all around Santiago when they came to re-dedicate the Santiago temple! It was a very powerful testimony.

 

That's so cool about Kody´s baptism!!! I´m sure glad he is seeing the fruit of his labors, that defintely is a completely different world and mission, but I'm glad everyone is where they should be!

 

Oh yeah, yes I gave the money to President Avila, sorry again for all the craziness. I haven't bought another pair of shoes though since he just bought them and I have my two pairs now. So everything is going good.

 

Wow, you already have plans for a mission then?? That's way cool! I was gonna say, I dunno if we two could support all four of you at the same time. So maybe it's better to wait. Where do you and Mom want to go???

 

Oh, just a quick note, Elder Pyne´s parents say thank you for updating the blog so quick and nicely. Haha.

 

Alright I'll send some pictures. One is a "three-generation" photo--with Elder Southwick, Elder Fullmer (my sons), and Elder Day (my dad) and me.  The other is all of us with Elder Nunez, can you find me?

 

We´re going to get going soon. I love you Mom and Dad! And Nathan and Kate! I hope this week is awesome! I´ll make sure to eat some empanadas and maybe an asado (it's been a long time....) for you all ;)

Elder Tyson Gibbons