Monday, November 28, 2016

Thanksgiving Pancakes

This past week was great! First of all it was Thanksgiving. We celebrated by having an FHE with one of our investigators. Elder Ehlert and I went to the house of M, our 11 year old investigator, and we made pancakes for them and even made maple syrup! (thanks mom and dad for the syrup flavoring!) That was delicious.

We had an incredible experience on Saturday. We got caught in a big rain storm with out any jackets. We were on our way to lunch and we saw two other missionaries in our area. They were stopped under a little roof looking at a map. We thought they were from the Buenos Aires South mission (our area is on the border of the mission) and were just really lost. So we asked them where they were from. They said they were from the Buenos Aires MTC! One was from Mendoza, Argentina, and the other was from Ecuador. They told us that the MTC was doing an activity where they sent the new missionaries into an area with a map for a few hours to practise knocking doors. Unfortunately for these two, the day they were scheduled to do this was a bad storm. So we took them with us and knocked some doors to see if anyone would let us in. After 5 doors of rejection, we knocked one more time. A nice man came out and let us in, gave us some towels, made us some mate cocido (Argentine tea thing) and listened to our message. These 2 young elders had started the mission just 1 week ago. We let them teach from the Book of Mormon and share their testimonies. The man, E, accepted the book and an invitation to read it. 
I know that we were put in the path of these two elders on purpose. If I had been in their position- wet, cold, nervous, scared and not sure what to do- i would have been praying for someone to help us. It is great to be a tool in the Lord´s hands.


Everyone needs to go share the Church's new video #LightTheWorld It is all about Christ and Christmas! 25 ways to change in 25 days.

Sincerely,
Elder Gygi

Sunday, November 27, 2016

The Best Weather

Hi! I'm really tired today but that's not any different from other days! The good news is that it is bright and sunny here, the best weather

This week we had divisions with the other elders. I went to a part of the city called Ramos Mejìa with Elder Canales, he's from El Salvador. It was a great day with him! He is one of the elders in the offices, so to go from our area to theirs, they picked us up in their car! I know that sounds super normal but this isn't the Mesa AZ mission where every companionship gets a car. Our mission has 3 cars, and one of those is President's! So it isn't very often that we get to ride in it. I was very excited. 

We played soccer the other morning and I rolled my ankle pretty bad. After ice, elevation, and some prayer I was ready to go and now I'm walking fine with a brace.

Our investigator, E, has come to church 3 weeks in a row now! He just is waiting to finish college which ends this next week and then he said he can spend time reading the Book of Mormon and will be baptized. He is a great kid!

The church is starting a new Christmas program that is going to be coming out this week so make sure you are all looking out for it!

Also Elder Dominguez (my son!) just got put into the mission offices! 

D&C 50:24

Sincerely,
Elder Gygi

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Ye Are My Friends

September 2015
Hey family!

I hope all is great back home! We have been doing really well here in San Justo. Last week we had a great meeting with President Robertson and our zone. We had a great spiritual meeting about how our calling here is to teach repentance and to baptize. That is what we need to focus on. Any extra activities that will not lead to finding a baptism should be reconsidered if they are worth our time. He told us how there are so many people ready to be baptized and we just need to find them. 

Immediately after that meeting we got back to our area excited to work. As we were walking to an appointment, we saw a kid walking by and stopped him to talk. His name is E. and he is a 20 y/o college student. He accepted a Book of Mormon and was very interested to learn more. We went back and taught him and he committed to be baptized on the 26th of this month. He came to church for the past 2 Sundays, even though it was a rain storm this past Sunday! Just shows that people are prepared to hear us. 

Yesterday we had a meeting with the Stake presidency and our bishopric. One of the counselors shared a great spiritual thought. He told us this example- if your mean boss told you to stay in and work overtime unpaid, would you do it? But what if a good friend asked you for a favor with nothing in return, then would you? How well would you want to complete the job for you friend? 
September 2016

This is what Christ taught us in John:
14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
The Savior calls us His friends. If we want to show Him the we love Him too, we should be willing to go beyond what He asks us to do.

Elder Gygi

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Formerly Picky-Eater Jared Becomes a Foodie

Our area San Justo is doing well. As for our investigator G, she actually lives a few blocks outside of our limits so we gave the referral to the other missionaries, I haven't heard anything new of her. About meeting with the University Director, we haven't been back yet. We have to write a letter to the him to ask to meet him. I am using the skills I learned in senior English class of "how to write a business letter" but now in Spanish! We'll see how that goes. 

(I asked Jared if it was hard for the locals to tell Jared and his companion apart...) Yes it is hard for people to tell us apart. They call us Elder Uno and Elder Dos. 
Nispero fruit


Can you see Jared's hand under this burger?
I found out the name of the fruit! It is called Nispero in Spanish. It is very tasty. I am a fan of the street vendor food here. It is mostly good. I have bought hamburgers, hot dogs, chorripan (an Argentine classic, kind of like a spicy bratwurst), and also sweet roasted peanuts. 
Chorripan

(Mark attended church in Berkeley last week and sent a few photos of the church to Jared. Jared's comments...) That’s an interesting chapel. I have seen a few different traditions. In the ward in Loma Grande and after the sacrament meeting was over, the congregation would stay seated while the pianist played a soft hymn and the deacons retired the sacrament, folded up the cloth and took it to another room, and then the bishop would dismiss everyone. I liked that a lot. (Any of you have any different traditions from areas you lived?)

Berkeley Chapel

Mode of Berkeley transportation

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Guess The Fruit

Definitely not mission approved transportation
This was a great week and it is now warm and humid, just how South America should be! All the plants are blooming. I discovered a new fruit that is really good. I have no idea what is called but it is like an apricot/lemon/grape thing. It is orange and about the size of a golf ball and has the feeling of a grape. They`re kind of sweet and sour. They grow all over. So we can just pick them off the trees and eat as we are walking! (Help me out friends of Jared, any guesses?)

We went to Walmart last week for the first time in my mission. It was incredible. I bought actual donuts

In our area is the National University of Argentina. We heard that the University director is a member of the church, so we went in to see if we could have a meeting with him. We have an idea to try and get an event or a speech scheduled where we could talk about religion. So we went in but we couldn't talk to the director. But we talked to his secretary. And she is really interested in the church! Her name is G. and she asked us to meet her in the university library another time. We went back and taught her the first lesson in the library! It was a neat experience!

Also it was elder Ehlert's birthday last week. We are both 20 now! We had a fun little party with a cake he bought, in Walmart of course.

I hope all is well back home!

Elder Gygì