Transfers

I had a great Christmas! I got to go to the Buenos Aires Temple, meet with the whole mission, see all of my friends there, and Skype my family! (The name for the software is derived from "Sky peer-to-peer", which was then abbreviated to "Skyper". However, some of the domain names associated with "Skyper" were already taken. Dropping the final "r" left the current title "Skype", for which domain names were available. Who knew?) 

It was a great week, and the Christmas asado was very good. Also surprise, I'm getting transferred! I have been here in Francisco Alvarez for 3 months and tomorrow I will be going to a new zone called Merlo. I will be more in the city. I have not met my new companion yet but his name is Elder Jameson and I think he is from Utah. 

I do not have much time to email today because we need to go have lunch (Argentine fast food aka empañadas) and pack really fast because I leave tomorrow. I am very excited to go to a new area and meet new people!

Feliz Año Nuevo!! 
Elder Gygi

Feliz Navidad!

Merry Christmas Everyone! 
Christmas is... a little different in Argentina. It's not a very calm and peaceful holiday like back in the States. The tradition here is on Christmas Eve, everyone has a huge party all night long with fireworks and food and friends. We will eat dinner and one of the ward members house. The traditional food to eat on Christmas is asado, which is the best food ever. Basically a huge barbecue with steak, ribs, chicken, choripan and also some more fun foods like lenguas (cow tongue) and corazón (cow/chicken heart). I'm very excited!

I found something amazing at church the other day, a copy of the May 2014 General Conference Liahona... in English!!!! Finally I get some talks to read in my own language! I read a great talk by Thomas S. Monson that was all about love that we need to have. A quote by Dale Carnegie that really stuck out to me was this: "Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them for a lifetime." I have seen that in my mission. Just by kindly smiling and saying 'Hola' to someone on the street is guaranteed to make their day a tiny bit better. 

I hope everyone has a very Feliz Navidad! 
Sincerely, Elder Gygi

Everything We Have is Because of Him!

The colder it gets back home, the hotter and more humid it gets here. By now I am used to being sweaty all the time. I feel like we are really working hard. 

Thank you mom and dad for the packages. (Thank you Missionary Packages Argentina for facilitating!) I did not expect Cocoa puffs and Frosted Flakes when I opened it. They are soooo good. The weird thing is that here they don't really eat cereal with milk, we use yogurt. And Frosted Flakes with strawberry yogurt is amazing. (Anyone going to try it?)

Our little branch all went to the temple yesterday. We did not get the chance to go, but some of our investigators went. The L. family had a great experience. They are ready for baptism and everything but need to take care of some personal things first. Anyways, he told me that they loved the temple, even though they were not able to go inside, but just being in the gardens he said he felt the spirit. He went to the visitor's center and purchased a picture of the temple to hang on his wall. He proudly showed us a new book he had bought. "Steps to Addiction Recovery." He told us that has been trying very hard to quit smoking, and he plans to use this book to help him. I am very proud of him.

I love seeing families come closer to Christ. Especially in this Christmas season. I remember that everything we have is because of Him.

Sincerely,

Elders Vance, Furtado and Gygi 

Elder Gygi

Post Script from Jared:
In Argentina, Christmas is not a nice, quiet, family holiday. It is a huge party with fireworks and games. The traditional food to eat is asado, (Argentine bbq) which I am very excited about. My new companion, Elder Vance is very fun. He is from Gilbert, Arizona and went to Perry High School. I went to a few football games there. We talk about stuff we remember from Arizona, like ASU sports, Tia Rosa's, Mexican food, and other stuff. He reminds me very much of Taylor, in the way that he can remember any sport statistic and player ever. On the 23rd we have a mission meeting for Christmas where we will get to go the temple as a mission.

Surprise! New Companion!

Adiós Elder Huefner

It was a crazy week! I randomly received a new companion this week because Elder Huefner went home early! (He was due to be released on December 30) He and I were doing weekly planning and we got a call from President Robertson saying he was in front of our apartment and wanted to come talk to us. He came in and said that Elder Huefner was going to go home 3 weeks early so that he could be with his family for Christmas! He had about an hour to pack and we left for the mission offices. There I received my new comp and said goodbye to Elder Huefner. I'm grateful that he was my trainer. Everyone says he was one of the best in the mission!

Nuevo compañero Elder Vance

My new companion is Elder Vance, from Gilbert, Arizona! He lives like 25 minutes from me! He is way cool. He has about 9 months in the mission. He got flashed to my area. It all happened crazy fast! He was going to have a baptism last Saturday in his last area, so we got special permission from President to go to it! It was about 3 hours away. The man being baptized, J. is from Nigeria. He doesn't speak any Spanish. He came to Argentina looking for work. He got here and found one of the missionaries, Elder Peterson (a buddy of mine from the MTC), and asked if he knew of a church around here. He wanted to find the true church. This Elder took him to the church building and showed him around. Six weeks later he was baptized. The whole baptismal service was done in Spanish and then translated to English for him. I got to sit next to him and translate what was going on. It was an awesome experience. At the end, he bore his testimony. He said "I am new in this country and I have no friends or family here. I do not even speak the language. I have nothing here. But I know that this church is true. You all are my new family." The spirit was so strong. I have a testimony of sacrifice. If we sacrifice, and endure our trials with faith, I know that the Lord will bless us.

Sincerely, Elder Gygi

A note from Elder Gygi to a very dear friend of his that loves him and supports him ;) 
You wanna know what I’m getting for Christmas this year? 45 minutes to Skype with my family. And that is probably the best present I could ever get. A lot people think it is really hard to leave everything for 2 years and come to a different country. But I see it differently. I have had a very blessed life up until this point. And when I get home, I will continue to live a very blessed life. But for 2 years, I get the opportunity to share a message with people, I have personally seen how happy these people are when I teach them about God and Jesus Christ. And that is what will make this my favorite Christmas ever.