More Miracles

Agustina with her family

 

Ailén and her family

 

Always thinking about home sweet home, Idaho :)

 

Hey Mom and Dad!

So this week was a week of miracles! And lots of trials that came before the miracles. pure fulfillment of Ether 12:6, the blessings or testimony or miracles never come until after the trail of your faith! And it was a pretty crazy week!

First things first, yes, we had the two baptisms of Agustina and Ailén!!! It turned out really really well, they were like two little angels, and the spirit was really strong. We talked with Agustina yesterday after church (oh yeah, they both got confirmed yesterday too) and she said she didn't want to get out of the baptismal font, and her older sister heard that and said that she had wanted to be inside the baptismal font! (Whether it was to be in the warm water or to be baptized, doesnt matter!) So we were super happy to hear that. We´re going to try and get Angela, the older sister, to accept a baptismal date for this weekend or the next, because she has all the lessons and is reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and the only thing that is hard for her is coming to church in the morning, but she has already come twice. So we´ll keep you updated on that!

Sorry about the confusion, the person who was hit by a car and passed away was the husband in the young family that we were teaching. He was the son of a less active member. But the less active member is part of the huge family that makes up the ward Pueblo Diamante, so everyone felt the loss. We are still going by to try and help them, and use the teachings of the gospel to help them. We stopped by last Thursday and the wife/girlfriend attended us really well, and told us that she didn't blame God for anything, because God would´ve taken him from her if he was sick or suffering, but she understands really well, and we promised her she would be blessed a lot for not blaming God for what happened, and that He would help her in the moments of need. So that gave us a little boost! As for the ward, the ward is really starting to stick together more and help out those people that are in need. We spent 10 minutes in Priesthood quorum yesterday naming the people that needed our help whether they needed visits or the Sacrament or things like that. It was a huge improvement, at least in my eyes. 

Yeah, that is the classic latino-ism, blaming all health problems on the liver. I´ve heard so many excuses about the liver that don't even make sense! Like they have irritated eyes (I think I can recognize a little bit, having worked with you Dad for a while) and they say it's because their liver is having problems. Or leg pains, or a sore back. Maybe some of those could have results like that, but seriously, every problem is always the liver haha!

Our ward doesn't really keep track of the reading, but every Sunday the ward mission leader prints off a little paper and hands it out to everyone that enters the chapel that has the week and the chapters to read each day. And every Sunday someone gets up to verify, to talk about what we learned this week, and yesterday Gonzalo Campos, who is 11, stood up and gave the best verification that I´ve ever heard! He´s a little stud! He´ll be a great missionary someday. But, we honestly don't know how many are doing it, since not everyone can get up and report. But we believe a lot are doing it because we have seen a lot of changes in the ward itself, and that defintely can happen through reading the Book of Mormon and sending their conversion roots deeper and deeper!

We are ending the invisible friend activity today, and honestly we hope that everyone rememberd! I know a lot of them did, but if someone doesn't get a gift, then at least we´ll know who doesn't want to be united! :D Haha just kidding, but that would be embarrassing. I bought Elder Van Orman (it's his second transfer here in Argentina, he´s a stud!) a yo-yo and a little random thing that jumps. I honestly can't think of a better explanation, sorry!

Alright, I guess if I can't get into summer semester, I'll just work at the clinic which is what I was going to ask to do if I was at home, and we´ll have to go down to Provo frequently for job applications and to visit friends and mission buds :)

As for the classes, I got online and looked at classes and decided on a few that I would like to take. I would like to have your feedback obviously since maybe I´m just hyped up and maybe the class combination is a little bit much, but I chose these classes: New Testament REL A 211, Spanish 321, Biology BIO 130 Chemistry 105 (I know how to study and try harder now!), and Calculus MATH 112. It's a total of....17 credits. I might change some of the serious classes and try and get some calmer ones to even it out, that's probably a good idea huh? I'll look at some of the recreative classes and stuff, and let you know next week, if I have until March!

Okay, I hope the surgery goes well! I'll be praying this week, hoping that the surgery can put back together my beat up Dad!! And Mom I´m glad the festival went much better this year, it's always fun to have someone critique you for something that doesn't have anything to do with you. Could be jazz piano playing, or being a missionary... some people just don't think before they speak! But we love them anyway :) Same thing happened to Christ!

I´m realy glad Nathan's game turned out really well this week!! It's always nice to find that little ray of sunshine amongst the shadows! I know how he feels. So Kate spent Valentines Day watching wrestling? I never enjoyed wrestling that much, (except for when I saw Kelly´s cousin Todd win, that was awesome).

That's cool that Lindy and Jackson are going to come this summer! We´ll make sure to talk about the mission and get them excited ;) It's been too long since we´ve seen them! 

Anyway, we´re going to get going. Just remember that in spite of all the trials that come, whether it's spiritual or physical, we just have to keep pushing forward, and God always does His part when we give it our all!! That's what I have learned this last week, with a straight week of rain, nonstop, trying to plan baptisms and plan how they were going to get there and how their family was going to get there, and lots of plans, and it all turned out perfectly. We had a great baptism, and they got confirmed and we found lots of miracles during the week, like going to the house of an new investigator that we found last week and happening to find a less active sister that served a mission and went to the temple and lives in our stake, who is really good friends with the investigator, and we taught the Restoration and had a really good lesson. God always puts people where He wants them!! :) He´ll do the same for you!

Elder Tyson Gibbons