Happy Easter!

The Zarate twins from Villa Mercedes

 

Elder Rainock and me

 

The beautiful Valle de Uco (Uco valley with the snowcapped mountains).

 Closest place to Utah and Idaho that I´ve seen in a while!

 You can look at that and just relax, all that natural beauty. :)

 

Elder Holmstead from Middleton (recognize him?) and me and Elder Sanz

Hola family!

Happy Easter to all of you too! Hopefully you can enjoy the real meaning of Easter, down here it's a little less commercial (unless you go downtown, of course) but mostly people just eat fish instead of meat on Thursday and Friday! Don't know if I´ll get to eat any, but it's very possible. Fantastic!...

The new calling is based in the offices, so every Sunday night we come back here where all our stuff is (except the packed suitcase we take around everywhere) and sleep, and then Monday is still p-day, but we can basically just do what we want for p-day! I think we're going to make tacos today. Anyway, as for traveling, we are going to be taking a LOT of buses, we usually have to pay but then we get reimbursed afterwards. But it will be super nice to choose which company to take and when! We are planning on getting the suites (180 degree reclining chairs, still only 85 pesos) when we go to San Juan our last week! :)

So it's a really cool "calling" to put it that way, getting to see a lot of areas and elders, and like you say Dad, it is pretty rough because you don't know the people you teach, and it's hard to get their confidence, but I consider it a challenge to help me improve my people skills and teaching skills! But like you said, it will be cool to know just about the entire mission, for when we come back!

It's also a pretty weird assignment, because we literally have a lot more freedom than anyone else. We both have a phone, if we have to travel alone we can (long bus ride on Saturday morning, alone... pretty weird, but weirdly pretty: lots of mountains and vineyards and the closest thing to a forest I´ve ever seen down here), and we just don't know what to do with ourselves most of the time when we are here in Mendoza. When we are traveling to other areas we are going to get to work normally, which is good. 

This week we are going to San Rafael. I´m going to be working with Elder Braithwaite and his companion in Cuadro Nacional till Thursday, and then with Barrio 3 till Sunday afternoon. I´ve been to both areas a few times before, so it will be cool to go back! Elder Hardy gets to work in one of his old areas, Parque Molino, and then in El Cerrito with his kid Elder Hartman! 

Don't know if I'll get to work with Elder Southwick or Elder Fullmer, but I did get to meet Elder Southwick's kid, my grandson, Elder Grandy. Just like Elder Southwick.

As for the packages, still nothing I think, but the letters come a little bit faster. But you can probably stop sending the letters because at this point they might get here after I leave! This is probably the last week you can send stuff and have me get it. I'll read the rest when I get home :)

Thanks for giving me such an awesome topic to speak on! Can I just ask, what is Jalen going to speak about, since I will not be there to hear him?? I will start thinking things out and preparing. (I guess Tyson doesn't know that he and Jalen will be speaking together on May 25!  We're making Jalen wait a few weeks so people don't have to travel twice.)

That's crazy that your teaching of repentance to the youth turned into a teaching experience with a Seventy and the stake president! That is kind of what I feel like when I get asked to teach in a conference with just President Avila there, pretty nerve-wracking.Thankfully the Spirit is also known as the Comfortor, keeps our knees from trembling and collapsing! :)

I really like that quote, thanks for sharing it. I´ve been thinking a lot about that recently, the Atonement and how it has applied in my life, and that quote puts things into a very important perspective. He NEVER sinned, and yet suffered ALL the consecuences. How in the world can we expect to SOMETIMES sin (intentionally), and yet receive ONLY the blessings? It's sad to see that so many people all over the world need to understand that principle better. I guess Easter is as good of a time as any to testify of that crucial difference!

So this last week I was in Valle de Uco, I had never been there before. It was cold, freezing actually, but I loved being there and working with the elders! First I worked in La Consulta with Elder Pearson and Elder Alcalde, and we taught some really good lessons and saw a few different miracles with finding prepared people to teach. And then I went to Urbana with the zone leaders, Elder Sanz and Elder Holmstead (from Middleton, in the picture I sent attached to this email. I recognized him the first time I saw him in San Juan, and he recognized me! We played soccer against each other for years, and against his older brother for few years. He remembered I had a twin and said that he always dreaded our games because me and Jalen were really tall and really fast haha). And I went to church in their branch. It was a really good fast and testimony meeting! I was really cold, but I really wanted to share my testimony so I got up there and the adrenaline kind of warmed me up! But I just gave my testimony about coming to know the Savior even closer during these two years. Couldn´t let my second to last chance slip by! But I met many awesome, faithful members and it helped me to recognize the growth in the church, since Valle de Uco isn't a stake yet, it's only a district, meaning President Avila is basically the stake president. But those were some of the most faithful, missionary-work-involved members I´ve seen in my time here. 

Anyway, I'll have lots more adventures in these next weeks, so I´ll take as many pictures as possible and write the miracles that we see! I love you all!

Elder Tyson Gibbons