Passport Peace

Hola everyone!
We had a great week! It is still pretty cold here. I wanted to share an experience that I had a while ago but never shared. Yesterday my companion and I were teaching the Gospel Essentials class in church (The branch is small and there are no teachers). We taught about prayer and I remembered something that happened a while ago. This happened on the day I left the MTC in Utah. Our whole group of missionaries made it safely to the Atlanta airport. I had about 45 minutes until our flight for Buenos Aires left. I called my family and talked for about 15 minutes and then got some dinner. It came time to get in line to board the plane. So I was standing in line and was going through my papers to make sure everything was in order. I had my boarding pass and my baggage claims but I could not find my passport. I searched every pocket in my suit. I looked under every chair I had sat in and every hallway I had walked in at that airport. I could not find it. There was not much time left to board the plane. I knew that if I did not have my passport I would not be able to leave. I felt that I needed to pray. I sat down in the middle of this busy terminal and prayed that I would be able to make it on the plane. Immediately after, I felt calm and I knew that everything would be alright. I received a prompting to just get back in line. Nervous, but with faith, I followed the prompting. I was almost to the front of line when a sister missionary in front of me opened her purse and pulled out my passport. She said that she had no idea how she got it. My testimony of prayer grew so much stronger that day. I know that the Lord answers our prayers in His own ways. It would´ve been to easy if I had ended my prayer and my passport was sitting right in front of me. I needed to have my faith tested to follow a prompting. I am grateful for this miracle I had.
We have found some new investigators this week! We also have a baptism this Saturday! Her name is R. and she is about 65. We taught her a few times in the past weeks but she couldn´t quit smoking so we didn´t visit her for a week. We were riding our bikes and saw her on the road and stopped to talk to her. She told us that she hasn´t had a cigarette at all the last week and she wants to be baptized! We are very excited for her.
Mom, in case you don't believe about the food here, I wrote down some of the meals members made for us this week. 

-Tarta (baked veggie pie) with pork chops
-Milanesa sandwiches (milanesas are like really thin breaded and fried chicken breast)
-Chicken, beef, and ham & cheese empañadas with Dulce de Leche cake
-Argentine pizza
-Real chicken soup (they cook a whole chicken in the pot and fill it with veggies and broth)

I´m very happy to be serving the people here.

Yo soy Elder Gygi

¡Felis Día de la Madre!

Holá!

Elder Gygi is the "son" of Elder Huefner

We've been teaching some great families. One family we found, the R. family, is progressing very fast. On our first lesson with them, we left a Book of Mormon and asked them to read and pray about. We came back a few days later and asked how it went. The mom said she read it and doesn't even need to pray about it, she just knows it is true. They accepted a baptismal date for the 21 of November on the first day. I'm excited to keep teaching them. Plus they always give us matté cocido and these Argentine snacks that are kind of like big, sugary donut holes. Every family we gives visit us food. 
Yesterday was Argentinian Mother's Day, so mom ¡Felis Día de la Madre!
No one here can say my name correctly, so I do not even bother trying to correct anyone. They all call me Elder She-She, pronounced with a slurred g.
My companion Elder Huefner got really sick this week, we think it is because he drank some tap water. He is doing much better now though.
My bike keeps breaking haha so I keep having to go get it fixed. But that gives me an opportunity to work on my Spanish and learn how to use pesos! They have really good candy here. There are ones called Alfajores, They are like 2 crumbly cookies with Dulce de Leche in between them then covered in chocolate. I don´t know if you can find them in the states, maybe on amazon or something.
Like I said last week, we are in the area of Francisco Alvarez, which is about 30 minutes from Luján. There is branch here at about 60-70 members. They are very nice. We do have a small church building here. It is surrounded by a tall gate and has bars on all the windows. Every house has barred windows here.

I had a much better week this week. I am not as homesick as I was. I´m sacrificing my time to help bring others to Christ. I have felt the joy of the gospel in my life and now i ave the responsibility to share it with others.
Yo soy Elder Gygi

Luján Zone

I'm Finally Here

I´m finally here! Argentina is great! It´s a huge culture shock for me. It´s so different from home. Stray dogs are literally everywhere. Cactus are to Arizona as dogs are to Argentina. They're usually not mean though so that´s good. But I've seen some huge Rottweiler's. 
We have had lunch a few times at member's homes. They always feed us great pasta, I love it. My first meal was some noodles with some kind of meat in it. I asked the Dad what it was and he said that a cat killed some chicken and dragged it into the backyard so they cut off the bad parts and cooked it up. Hahaha! luckily I had already finished my plate. 
My companion/trainer is Elder Huefner. He´s from Utah but he´s half Argentine. He´s been on his mission for 22 months. I´m learning a ton from him. 

Basilica of Our Lady of Luján

We are out in what´s called El Campo, which means the field. It´s not the city like other parts of the mission. We're in a town called Luján in an area called Francisco Alvarez. We have bikes too! I was very happy to find that out. But then I saw them. Haha! They are so rusty and dirty but it´s OK because no one will be likely to steal them. This is a relatively safe, but poor area. The people here are very humble. 
We currently have 7 investigators with a baptismal date. We taught the L. family last week. They live in a house that they pretty much built themselves from mud and bricks. They are from Paraguay so they only speak Spanish at about my level, haha! Which is good for me but frustrating for my companion. The Dad can´t read so we taught them the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation with pictures I drew! It was way cool.
I´ve already seen tons of miracles. I may be a bit homesick but I know this is where the Lord wants me to be.

Yo soy Elder Gygi

Jared Has Arrived in Argentina

Dear Family and Friends of Elder Jared Gygi,

We are writing to inform you that your missionary, Elder Gygi, has arrived safely in the Argentina Buenos Aires West Mission. We have enjoyed becoming acquainted with him and are excited to be serving together.

Thank you for the sacrifices you are making at home to have a missionary in the field. We know the Lord blesses and cares for the families of the missionaries.

Warmest regards,         
                            
President David P. Robertson and Hermana Julie Robertson

President & Sister Robertson with Jared at the Buenos Aires LDS Temple

Final MTC Letter

Hey I'm writing my letter today because I don't have a P-day this week. It would be tomorrow but it's General Conferencia so no P-day tomorrow. I finally leave the MTC on Monday! I'm so excited to get to Argentina. I have a 3.5 hour flight to Atlanta and then an 10 hour flight to Buenos Aires. I will have a layover for about 2 hours in Atlanta so I'll call Dad and Mom and talk for a while. I think I'm most excited for the restaurants in the airport that I can eat at. (Sounds like Smashburger and Krispy Kreme requests!)
On average, it takes about 5 years for a person to become fluent in a language. Our district just did it in 6 weeks. OK, yeah maybe we are not fluent but we're to the point where we won't be hopelessly lost trying to hold a conversation. I'm just amazed at how much the Lord has blessed us. 

MTC District

Oh yeah it's my birthday on Sunday!! Thank you Mom and Dad for the packages! The coat you sent is way warmer than my other one. I said goodbye to our two teachers today, Hermano Savio and Hermana Imbler. They are both so awesome and we're like family now. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I had for them to teach me. Elder Claudio R.M. Costa came to speak to us. He has such a crazy conversion story. The misioneros came to him and asked him to read and pray about the story of Joseph Smith. He decided to read each paragraph and pray about each one. After 14 hours of studying, he knew the church was true. The next day he found the misioneros and told them that he needed to be baptized and that he had no time to waste. They told him that he needed to be taught all the lessons first and then go have an interview with the Mission president. He said "OK, teach me right now and then I'll go talk to him and then you can baptize me." He is a very funny guy. 

I'm looking forward to calling home. My next letter will be from Argentina!

Yo soy Elder Gygi

Week 5

I should stop putting week numbers on these emails because it feels like I've been out way longer than 5 weeks. I'm doing a lot better from my concussion. I've been cleared by the doctor so I should be all good now. I realized this week that singing in Spanish is way more fun than English. The words just sound so cool. Elder Brockbank's ankle is much better. He is emailing his right next to me and he just turns to me and goes "What, my sister is getting married. She makes me sick to my stomach." Hahaha it was really funny. You'd think that by 5 weeks I'd be sick of the food here, but I'm not. It's still super good. (He said he's gained 5 pounds!!)

Nothing crazy exciting happened this week. We've still been teaching people. A few new people. They want us to talk to people from outside the United States so we taught this one sister from Mexico City over Skype. It was way cool. She was also an English professor at the college there so she understood us pretty well. We also taught a girl from El Salvador. She is here at BYU learning English. It was a very good lesson.

I've been watching lots of old conference talks in preparation for General Conference next week. I'm very excited for that! Plus my birthday is next Sunday! (In Argentina, the birthday child receives a pull on the earlobe for each year they have been alive.) And then we leave for Argentina the next day. I only have one full week left here. Our flight is so long. It's 3.5 hours from Salt Lake to Atlanta and then 10 hours from Atlanta to Buenos Aires. I'm not looking forward to that. I guess I'll have a lot of time to study Spanish before I'm thrown into it. I'm not prepared to go to a place where there is no English. Oh well though, I just have to keep studying.

I'm glad to hear that some of you took my challenge to read Ether 12! That is one of my favorite chapters and it has definitely helped me here.
I'm looking forward to finally leaving Utah. I've had a ton of fun here. I saw one my good friends from school here! Elder Skabeland aka Gibby! It was great to see him! Love and miss everyone!

Yo soy el Elder Gygi

Elders Gygi and Gibby

The Problems with PE at the MTC

Buenos Días! I had a good week this week, aside from a bunch of doctor’s appointments. Last Saturday I was playing soccer in our zone tournament and I had the ball on a fast break but someone stole it and I tried to get it back but he kicked it away. As he kicked it, I jumped to block it and took the ball straight to my face haha. I had a pretty bad headache after that. But at least I blocked his kick. On Monday I was still having headaches so we went to doctor and he told me that I definitely have a concussion. He gave me some medicine for the headaches and a muscle relaxant to help with some neck and jaw pain. It's been hard because with a concussion I'm not allowed to study Spanish, read scriptures, or participate in gym time. On the bright side, I have a lot of time to watch talks on LDS.org so that's good. My short-term memory is so bad right now. Everyone in the district keeps joking with me saying stuff like "What? You don't remember that?"  I'm slowly recovering and doing much better.

This is Elder Morgan. His mom's side of the family are all Gygi's. We found out that we have the same great-great-great grandpa, Rudolf Gygi. So we are 4th cousins or something.

 Elder Brockbank was playing basketball on Monday in another zone tournament and he fell and rolled his ankle. We went to the doctor and got it x rayed and he tore a ligament. So Elder Wilson is the only healthy one in our companionship haha.

Our Tuesday night devotional was given by Sister Rosemary Wixom, the general primary president. She gave a good talk about missionary work and listening to spirit, which I had an experience with the other day. We were teaching a new investigator, J. We had a whole lesson prepared but Elder Brockbank felt prompted to ask her the question,” Have you experienced any difficult trials?" J. then told us about a time in her life when she was very depressed and on medication. She took too much and ended up in the hospital for 2 weeks. She asked us why God would allow this to happen to her. I then felt an impression to open my Book of Mormon to Ether chapter 12. I did and I was looking for what I was supposed to say. Verse 6 caught my eye, it's all about faith and trials. I asked her to read it for me. She did and just started crying. I bore my testimony to her that we need to have faith in order to endure our trials and we will receive blessings. I want to challenge you all to read Ether 12, and keep in mind while reading it, a trial that you are going through. I know that if you do, you will receive an answer to what you are supposed to do. I know that God is real and loves us because there is no way that I would have been able to give that entire lesson in fluent Spanish without His help.

Sister Ellis and my mom are on Argentina Missionary Moms Facebook page. She noticed my name tag and introduced herself. She returned from Argentina BAW mission 2 months ago. 

I just got back from the Provo temple this morning. We were eating breakfast in the cafeteria and I saw a few elders sitting at another table. One of them looked to have some sort of medical condition that gave him a pretty bad limp and his hands were constantly shaking. I've seen him here on campus before. He and his companion were just eating. A few minutes later, an older man walks in on crutches and he was struggling to hold his tray of food. He set his tray down and started eating by himself. The younger elder with the limp stood up, walked over to this man, and asked if he would like to join him and his companion at their table. The older man said yes and went to pick up his tray of food to move it. Before he could pick it up, the young elder grabbed it and took it his table, very slowly, so his hands would not shake, and the older man could use his crutches. For some reason I was just amazed at this tiny act of service. This elder didn't let his condition stop him from serving a mission and helping people. That, to me, is the exact definition of charity. Just pure Christlike, selfless service.

Thank you mom and dad for the packages! IBC Root Beer is my favorite (way to call that one, Dad!!). I love all the letters you have sent me!

Yo soy el Elder Gygi

Weekly Tie Trade!