New Goals

We had a good week, actually, every week is a good week! Our investigator, J, quit smoking! He went from smoking 4 packs a day to nothing in 3 weeks. He is awesome. He reads the Book of Mormon everyday. He is an older man, about 60. (What!!???!!! That's older!!??! Ouch, son :/) He just loves the gospel. God definitely rewarded him for all the faith he is showing. He has his baptismal interview tomorrow!

I am now in an area that has a Ward.  Our chapel here is much nicer than my last Branch building.  Our building is the Stake Center for Merlo.  It has two stories!  Because this is the Stake Center, it also has a Family History Center.  Church buildings here have concrete soccer courts instead of basketball courts.  We also have a Ward Mission Leader who is very helpful and two Ward missionaries who go on lessons with us.

We had interviews with our mission president last week. During my interview he says, "Elder Gygi, so you've been here 8 months now?" I was like, "President, I've been here 4 months!" He looked confused and then laughed. It was funny. We all made goals to share with him during our interviews. One of my goals is to be positive, no matter what happens. Like my high school science teacher used to always say: "Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it." (Mr. Demassa, I hope you are proud that I remembered that). We may not be able to choose our situation, but we can always change our attitude. As we choose to be positive, the Lord will bless us. We will also be happier.

Elder Gygi

Post Script:
Mark was able to have a bit of same-time emailing with Jared on Monday. They discussed the football playoff games, how great our Las Sendas Ward is with leadership and the support from members that continue to write to him and his weight fluctuations. He started at 120 lb. in the MTC. (I know, he's a lightweight, but with muscles). He gained about 20 pounds in his first area with all of the delicious food and bike riding. But now that he is walking everywhere, he's lost about 8 pounds. But he has also now learned about foot blisters and the magic of Moleskin! So many learning experiences in a missionary's life :)