Cambios! (Changes)

Caio Jose!!!

As you can tell by the title this week. Changes or Transfers!! I am Here in my new area called Pablo Nogues. It's out side of the city and pretty big! My new comp is Elder Flores, he is from Peru and doesn´t speak any English... I´m so stoked to be with him. I´m going to learn a lot of Spanish real quick haha! 

Not only have I moved and need to get used to a new area but Elder Sweeny (One of the Assistants) called and I have been called to be a District Leader!!!  Wow I´m a bit nervous for this next step in my mission but I know the Lord will help me in this!  Now all I need to know is who will be in my district!!!!

 

It was pretty hard to say good by to my little ole Cuidad Oculta! It was super hard to say good bye to José. Now he knows that missionaries come and go and he is happy for me that I off to another area. Man he is rock solid. The other day we were talking with him and his friend and he just took the lesson and made it better. He testified and told them that they need to go to the church. Haha my last memory of him is him inviting his friends.

 

We have been having a bunch of success in our area and now I´m glad that I´m leaving because I´m leaving it better than I found it and that is my mission goal to leave every place I´m in better than i found it!!! 

Super cool thing also was that the other day a member took us into Elefante Blanco the old abandoned hospital. The people are super nice inside. All is well here in Buenos Aires, I´m off to Play so Fútball hope to hear from you soon, I will write more when I have more to talk about next time.

Les Amo 

Elder Chriss

Elephant Blanco

Goodbye Elder Stout!

Week of Miracles!

I have to say, that this was a great week! Come to think about it I´m pretty sure I have said that at the beginning of most of my emails... but that's okay because its still true. A GREAT WEEK!

To start off the week we of coarse got some more Argentino Ice Cream. Just to let you all know, the Ice Cream here is the best stuff in the whole world. You can buy a whole Kilo of ice cream for about 15 dollars U.S, But me and my comp, buy ourselves a kilo each. So yeah a great start to the week.

So here are the highlights to said Great week. First off Marcela was Baptized!!! We had a wonderful service and everything went well. She is feeling a lot better and we are Super spiritually pumped!! 

Now I´m not sure if i have told you about Tommy her son. Tommy is a capo! He is 10 years old and has a learning disability that has pushed his progression back to about 6 years old. He is really great and Is our friend. Tommy was baptized last year, and his mom wasn´t. Tommy was at a members house when we went to visit. The family told us to go and teach his mom so we ran over there and taught her the Gospel. Through this experience I have seen the blessings of members and missionaries working together. Now Marcela and her Son Tommy are members and are going strong.
  
Another thing this week is that we had president Ayre go out with us in our Area for the day, This was super cool. We took him through our villa and just taught many people with him there. The best part was that we would teach the people and after he would bear his testimony and the spirit hit them so strong. He really enjoyed his time with us in our area. Jose got a kick out of it that Pres. Ayre visited him. It was so much fun to go out with him.

Jose is doing great, he got confirmed yesterday, and he has been going out with us to several lessons. He has such a strong testimony of the BoM and of the Restored gospel. He said the coolest thing the other day to a lady who said that the church is just another branch of the Catholic Church. He said "It's not a branch of the church because it has the BoM and Prophets. What part of the Church has those?" Then he bore his testimony of the BoM. I´m so happy for him, he has truly found true joy in the Gospel.

  
Now it's Monday again so that means its time for more ice cream!

Love you all so much!  Hope to hear from you. You can yell if you want but I´m not sure if  I´ll hear it, so safer to send an email!
 
Love you tons!
Elder Taylor Chriss

His new shirt.  He is becoming quite the futbol fan!

Another lovely picture of his area!

Lunch with the Elders from the Parque Avellaneda Oeste Ward

How Great Shall be Your Joy (D&C 18)

Elder Stout, Jose and proud Elder Chriss!

Wow This has been a great week! And I´m saying one of the best weeks of my mission! Let's just say I am so happy right now and so grateful for this opportunity to serve a mission!!! 

Now as the familiar song goes "I do believe in Miracles". This was a week of miracles and I´m super spiritually pumped. Now the good news is that José got Baptized!!! We are so excited for him and he is so happy with his decision. We had a longer road to the water than normal but in the end it was all worth it.
  
So we got José baptized.  But unfortunately, Marcela got really sick and was in the Hospital this Sunday and wasn´t able to make it to her baptism. We have rescheduled for the next week. 

But to get us to yesterday, me and my companion worked especially hard, to contact José every day. This last Wednesday we passed by him and he was feeling really sick and a bad pain in his legs. We shared a scripture with him and he didn´t really pay attention because of how he felt. So we decided to pray, he asked if i would offer it. So I prayed that he could feel relief from his pain that he would be able to make it to his baptism. After I had finished my prayer, he just sat there. After a good 2 minutes of silence, he got up and said that the pain in his legs were gone! It was so cool and exactly what he needed and he just got more and more excited for his baptism.
  
We had another good week on lessons and finding new people. I´m just so happy right now! 

Yesterday afternoon we visited Jose and he was so grateful and shared a scripture he found in the Bom that he liked in 3 Nephi, then he told us how he is the lost sheep in the 100. Man I´m so proud of him. After we got him all wet he told me that next was his son, then his wife and then his other son, next to be baptized. Ahhhh he is so great!   

Other than that it was a very Tranquilo semana. I am so excited to be a missionary, so excited to be in Argentina, and so grateful to have a loving Heavenly Father who is guiding us in this work. My scripture of the week is D&C 18 10, 13-16 I just love it so much.
 
I hope you are all doing well!  Let me know whats up in the neighborhood.

With lots of love
Elder Taylor Chriss

Elefante Blanco!

The Villas!  Taylor loves it here!

First week of the New Year!



Christmas morning in Buenos Aires!

Woooh 2014, Happy New Year everyone!!!! Man it feels so weird to think that another year has passed. In my opinion The best part of New Years is the opportunity we have to look back at what happened in the year and contrast of how we were and how we are now. Now I know that I have changed quite a bit, but I know that we all change. So fun activity for you all is think one year ago what you were like and the changes that you have made!!! And only think of the positive changes no need to be thinking triste (Sad). For me I know with out a doubt that I wouldn´t have been able to do the things I do now, one year ago. Spanish first of all is a pretty big example.... I didn´t even speak it a year ago. But also I really didn´t fully contemplate the gravity and specialty of the Restored Gospel. I truly love this gospel and am so grateful for a Heavenly Father who helps us through its message!!!

   
Now to start off this year I think that we had some pretty good miracles this week!!!  First off, Me and my companion have broken our record for lessons with a member present with a weekly number of 26 lessons. Then you add on our 12 other lessons and we are up to 38 lessons taught this week! We are so grateful for this chance that we had to teach so many people!

Also with our extra push this week on getting out and teaching we have been blessed a lot. One blessing in particular is an investigator named Marcela. We have been teaching her for several weeks now and she is just wonderful. Her son is a Recent convert and has a downs syndrome. Now she has a super desire to be baptized and there is nothing in her way of getting there. When we brought up the Law of Chastity she told the man she was living with that he needed to live in a different house, and when she was taught the Word of Wisdom she decided instantly that she needed to stop smoking. We are planning her baptism for this upcoming Sunday.

Now as we were in Church this Sunday, José came to us and told us that he wanted to talk to the Bishop. S o after the Meetings we had him have and interview with Bishop Cano. After the Interview Bishop came out and said that Jose will be getting baptized this next Sunday!!!! I AM SO EXCITED FOR HIM. We gave him a blessing also for his health, and I know that every thing is possible with the Lord.

I am getting better from my random Argentino sickness, still skinny as a corn stock. But one thing that will never change about me is that I love my mission!!! I´m so glad to be here in this area I know that the Lord is preparing people for this message and it's our job to find them! I know my Savior lives that he guides the church and through his teachings we can find true and everlasting Joy.

I hope you all are doing great, Let me know how y'all are doing!!

See you all next week!
Con un Corazon Lleno de Amor
Elder Taylor Chriss

Elder Chriss at the mission Christmas Party!  Hooray for new socks!

The best Juice in the world in many different Varieties

Elder Stout at the Internet café!

Navidad back at ya!

 

Cool picture of all the Elders at the Christmas Eve Lunch, Elder Chriss is right in the middle!

Wow missions are great, aren't they!! 

This was a great week if I do say so myself! First off I got to Skype with my parents and family, so that is a bonus. I don´t really know what to say, it was just such a good week. 

Christmas is such a cool time in the mission. Even if I am sweating like a wet sponge! But in reality it has been so amazing to really focus on the true meaning of Christmas. It was so great to ask people how their Christmas is and start sharing the gospel with them.
   
My comp and I are tearing it up here in Cuidad Oculta. We are finding so many people to teach and we are trying to be consecrated in all that we do. We definitely have been seeing the fruits of our labors. I have found that my mission has really changed me. I have been on my mission for around ten months now and I guarantee that I wouldn´t have been able to do the things I am doing before.
    
 I love this work and I know that my Heavenly Father is guiding each missionary personally.  Now there is Jose and I love him so much. He's not baptized yet, but we are working with him and we know through feeling that we just need to be patient with him. 

Anyway, we had a lesson with him and in the middle of the lesson I had a feeling to ask how he was doing. After I asked the question he said, that he isn´t doing well, that he is very sick, and he just wants to be healthy. He later told us that he was in a very dark place before we found him and didn´t feel his life meant anything, and then we missionaries, brought him the BoM and the gospel and he says that we helped him get out of the dark place and that he needs to be baptized. I am so humbled to know that I was the tool in the Lords hands to help out such a great guy. 

This week has been a week of miracles. I know that I´m here for a reason and that I am not important right now, that others need the focus. So as long as I focus on others everything will do fine!!!
   
I am doing great if you have questions just Fax me... or you can email that works to. And if all else fails pigeon mail is more secure than regular mail.  HAHA love you all so much!!!
 
LOVE LOTS
Elder Taylor Chriss

Merry Navidad!

MERRY CHRISTMAS ELDER CHRISS!!!

Yes, today was one of the two days a year that every missionary family yearns for.  Everything takes a back seat until you either hear the phone ring or that familiar Skype tone!  

There is no better way to celebrate Christmas than to have a wonderful chat with your Elder!  

A little fuzzy at times!

Taylor was able to Skype with us!!!  He called about noon and we had a wonderful one hour conversation with him.  Unfortunately there were five other people in the room trying to Skype at the same time so the conversation was a little muddled at times.  But we will take anything we can get!  We just loved seeing those dimples!  It has been a long ten months!!!

It was fun hearing him speak to us in English and then turn around and speak to others in the room in Spanish!

They had a wonderful Christmas devotional last night with the entire mission and they all got presents. Sister Costas, my sweet Buenos Aires friend, dropped him off a present at the Mission home. 

He wanted to make sure and let everyone know how much he appreciates all of your cards and letters.  He said that a missionary loves nothing more than hearing from home!  Luckily he did get all of the packages we sent.  I know in other Argentina missions none of the missionary packages arrived before Christmas.

His favorite part is to just walk through the Villa (the area where he is currently serving)and just talk to people.  No one stays in their homes because it is so hot.  It is around 100 degrees there right now with about 80% humidity.  Just a little different than our temperature here.  He really misses the snow!
It was wonderful to have Michael and Lindsay here to visit with him.  Also, Grandma Chriss was staying with us and thought he looked so old!  He particularly loved being able to say hi to our dog, Cassi!  She wasn't quite sure what was going on.


He seems very, very happy!  That is all that a missionary family wants!  He said is definitely not the same person he was before he has left and has really changed. 

It was fun to laugh with him and hear his stories.  Mike asked if they could leave the windows open at night to get a little breeze but he said no because the neighborhood cats will come in and make themselves at home.  Like most South American countries he said there are dogs everywhere, nasty, scary dogs.  If you want to scare them away you just quickly act like you are picking up a rock and they will run.

We passed around the laptop, said our goodbyes, and he was gone!   We are so lucky to live at a time with such wonderful technology!  I think I might just be able to make it to Mother's Day!

A cute missionary mom, Kristy Witt gave this to me for Christmas!

I want to thank everyone for their support of Elder Chriss!  We couldn't make it without all of your loving prayers for him and for us!  I am especially grateful for the support of all of the other missionary moms.  No one really understands how hard it is to have a son or daughter on a mission like another missionary parent.  It is great to have a shoulder to cry on when you need one!

I know that the work Elder Chriss and the other 80,000 missionaries are doing around the world is the Lord's work.  There is nothing more important than bringing people to Christ!  I know that Jesus is the son of God and he died so I might live again!  We literally feels the blessings of having a missionary in the field every day!  We are so proud of our son and the sacrifices he is making. 

Love!
Lisa

Feliz Navidad!!!

Well as the title says, Feliz Navidad everybody! 

I just want to send out this email and tell you that I love you all so very much, and that I am so grateful for you during this Christmas season. 

Let's just say that it doesn´t feel like the Christmas I used to know when it is 100
degrees outside, but that's okay. I´ll just have to focus on what Christmas is all about... PRESENTS.... darn that's not it...CANDY....man what is it... oh that's right the the day that our SAVIOR was born. haha I just kidding! In all reality it has been the greatest time to be serving as a missionary during this season. I´m so grateful for this opportunity to be serving my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, especially during Christmas. 

I miss you all so much but i know that Iam in the exact spot where I´m supposed to be. This week me and my comp have been working hard talking to every one and sharing the wonderful message of our Lord. And I hope that you can do that also. There is no better time than now to share!!! My comp is fantastic and I am so grateful to him. He is a capo!! 

I can't describe my feelings of joy in this work with a just couple of words, but I can with one simple testimony. That I know that my Savior lives and that he was born to be our Savior that he is the center of all things. God so loved the world that he gave "US" his only begotten son.
 
I love you all some much and hope you have a great Christmas season!

From here down south!
Elder Taylor Michael Chriss