Hump Day!

Hey everyone! It’s been a great week! Our mission president surprised us and let all of us go to the temple on Thursday! It was a great experience. I haven't been since last Christmas. And it was only my second time going into the temple here in Buenos Aires. It has such a unique design and style! I know why the prophets and apostles have put so much attention on temple attendance. When you are there, you can feel the spirit so strongly. You are also in the service of our ancestors. 

So this Friday is the 26th of August and that means I have been living in a foreign country (without my mom and dad to take care of me) for 1 year. I think I have learned more in one year than I have in all of my 18 other years put together. I have been reflecting on my past year here and the next year to come and I have realized how short my time is here. With just so little time left, it is esencial that I work hard and give it my all every day. Once I get home, I won't be wearing a name tag and knocking doors to bring a life-changing message. The time for me to act is now! I am very grateful for all the support everyone has given me. I just pray that I can accomplish the task that Heavenly Father has given me to the best of my ability.

Sincerely,
Élder Gygí


PS Mom thank you so much for the Hump Day package! I have never been so happy to see a jar of peanut butter, Doritos, Starburst, a KitKat, Snickers, and barbecue sauce! They do not sell any of that in this entire country! 

One night we had a family home evening with members and they made pizza for us and I brought the barbecue sauce. I put it on the pizza like at Venetia’s. The member wanted to try it and so she did, but she thought it was gross!!!

As far as investigators, we are trying to get two individuals married so they can be baptized, A. and L. They read the Book of Mormon together every night and believe that it is true! Then Elder Cobb and I also found a family by knocking on doors. The family has 12 people! We taught them all the first lesson and it went great! Hopefully we can baptize them all!!

Open Your Mouth and Speak

Jared found a Jeep! 

First off I am very sorry that I couldn’t write home last week! Elder Cobb and I both got very sick and were stuck in bed in the apartment for 3 days. But don't worry because we are better now! It was awful not being able to leave and work. But we had orders from President’s wife to stay home. 

Other than that, the past two weeks has been straight work. We have just started talking with everyone and knocking on so many doors and we ad some miracles and found so many people to teach. We saw one lady just standing in front of her house and we walked over and asked if there was anything we could help her with. She asked if we could say a prayer for her family and called her family outside to listen to us. We taught them about the restoration of the gospel, set baptismal dates for 3 of them, and they even came to church! Then a few days later we knocked on a random door and a grumpy old man walked out with a cane. We explained who we are and why we are here and he told us to come back the next day. We left him with a Joseph Smith pamphlet and left. When we arrived the next day, he smiled and let us in! We sat down and he asked us "How did José Smith receive the authority of God to be a profet?" We gladly explained and testified and he committed to be baptized the next month. 

Suddenly all those verses in D&C about opening your mouth and declaring the gospel make sense to me. If we share the gospel in every situation possible, we will see miracles and the spirit will guide us. (And you don’t need a missionary badge and calling to fulfill that promise!)

Sincerely,
Élder Gygí

Gloves for Some Ties

This is last week's email, and no email from Jared on Monday, dang :(

August 1, 2016

Hey everyone! I hope all is well! This week is transfers and we got the news last night. I am staying here in Loma Grande and my companion Elder Hammond is leaving! I will receive Elder Cobb as my new comp. He is from the good ol’ Salt Lake City and has 6 months here in the mission. I already know him and he is a great elder! I am very excited for this next transfer.

This week we committed 2 of our investigators to baptism on august 20. M. y G. are two siblings of 16 and 10 y/o that we found a while back but we stopped teaching them because they weren’t reading the Book of Mormon. Elder Hammond felt we should come back one more time so we did and we had a great lesson about José Smith and they want to be baptized! They only need permission from their dad. We are praying that the dad will say yes! 

Neckitecture and the history of the Cravat

Also this week I lost my gloves... but it was for a good reason. I was on divisions with Elder Cortés and we were teaching a family when their 14 y/o son asked if he could have my gloves. I said I would trade them for something. He says "How about 3 ties?" And I thought about it for a minute and answered "...four." Then he went and brought out this huge bag of ties and said I could pick 4!! So now my hands are cold but I got 4 more ties! 

Sincerely Elder Gygi,

PS: if anyone wants to read an awesome scripture, 1 Nephi 17:50-51