Feliz navidad, Prospero Año de felicidad!

Christmas Soccer with President Ayre and his family!

 Wow it's extremely hot!  It is so hot that I sweat more sitting down than when I go out and run.... so yes, its hot! But that doesn't stop it from being a great week! Wow it's pretty crazy to see how many blessing one receives as he serves the Lord (especially in the heat) 

Well to start things off today was transfers.... And I'm staying!!! I will be finishing my mission in Virreyes! I'm very excited and looking forward to this upcoming transfer here. Elder Molina is staying as well as my companion. So yeah that's what going on at the moment.

The week was full of great things and wonderful experiences. This week was our Christmas Activity as a mission where we all got together and had a lunch with an awesome devotional! It was held in a giant international school where President's kids go. It was great and we enjoyed our time, all of the missionaries together singing hymns of Christmas and just having a good time.

One of the greatest parts of the week was the chance to chat with my family through skype! It feels like yesterday that I talked with them last mothers day. But it was just great to be able to talk with them, to see them, and enjoy the opportunity. It blessing to have a Senior couple of missionaries in our ward so that we could use their computer. Haha, expensive wifi.

Here in Argentina it can pretty dangerous in the streets during this time of year with the parties and such. So we now have to be in our apartments before 8:30 each night. But until now nothing bad has happened. But better safe than sorry.

Christmas morning I opened up the package that I got, which was full of American goodies! Thanks mom! And then we get a call from the assistants to see if we want to play soccer with them and the secretaries. We said yes and went to the field behind our ward building. When the assistants got there they told us that President Ayre and his family are coming to play with us! It was awesome to play soccer with our mission president and his sons and daughter for Christmas. He made 2 goals on us..... but to tell you the truth I don't think that anybody wanted to play tough with him haha. Still, he plays pretty good for an American.

Today was a crazy day. We got a call from the office elders last night asking if we could do divisions with them for the day (p-day) because it was transfers and one of the office elders had to stay in the offices to coordinate the transfers, and the other had to look at some new pensions for some other elders in Capital (downtown). So me and My comp went with Elder Gonzales all over the place looking for new apartments in the mission car. We didn't really have a pday today but that's what you get when you are the Zone leaders of the office Elders, haha, the whole day running all over the mission! 

As a mission we are pretty excited because this year we were able to help 1878 people be baptized and make covenants with our Heavenly Father. It was a major growth because last year we helped around 1450 people the last year. So we are seeing some great blessings as a mission!

And well it all comes down to the sad fact that this is my last transfer in the mission. I will be finishing my mission here in Virreyes in about 6 weeks. I'm not really sure how I feel about this fact, but all I know is that all I need to worry about is the work. I don't have much time, which only means I need to work even harder while I can.  I love the people of Argentina and I'm stoked to keep on working here. I know that time flies when you are having fun.  I testify that this is true. THE MISSION IS A BLAST! love it while you can!

I'm a witness of Christ, that he is our Savior, that when we let him enter into our lives, everything can change. If we follow him nothing is impossible. Not always easier, But easier. I am his missionary and I love It!

With a ton of Love this new year

Elder Taylor Chriss

Christmas Eve with the mission

All of his planners

Looking for Pensions with Elder Gonzalez

Yum, Burger King!

Merry Christmas Elder Chriss!

What a great day!  Not only did we finally get a white Christmas here in Utah and celebrate the birth of our Savior, we got to talk to Elder Chriss!  I love modern technology!  After a few glitches we finally got a clear, beautiful picture of our handsome Elder!  He was Skyping from the home of some senior missionaries from Farmington Utah.

He looked and sounded fabulous.  It is wonderful to hear how truly happy he is serving our Heavenly Father. He could have talked forever about the people he loves and his experiences as a missionary.  And we could have listened forever.

The best part was, because he has not had an English speaking companion in a very long time, he had a very hard time remembering certain words in English.  He said he is finally fluent in the language and there are very few words he doesn't know.  It was pretty funny watching him figure out how to say things to us.

We learned some new Argentine slang and finally found out what the hand sign was that all of the missionaries in the area use. 

It was so wonderful to have my little family together in one room.  We talked about what he would do when he got home and he dropped a little bombshell on us.  He said that he has been tossing around the idea of going to BYU when he gets home, yes BYU!!!  The sun in Argentina must be baking his brain. LOL!

It's very hard to believe that in 49 short days this wonderful, strong, confident, young man will be home!  He had to admit that he is not looking forward to leaving.  He has fallen in love with the work and the people.  He finally feels that his life makes sense and has a purpose.  What more could a mom ask for!

I personally can't wait for February 12.

Thank you for all of your support of Elder Chriss!  Your thoughts, letters, and prayers are very much appreciated!

Merry Christmas!

Love Lisa

Christmas is the Best!!!

Elders Hicks and Chriss

How great is life as a missionary? Its just plain fantastic! I love Argentina!  It's full of great people and  a lot of cool stories. 

This week proved to be a roller coaster. First off we found a lot of people to teach and our converts are doing great working with our recent converts, they are helping a lot in the work here. And on the down side, both me and my companion have been super sick this past week. But we got to work and we saw great blessing come through sacrifice.

This next week is transfers! So I will be talking with you the next Tuesday! But other than that all is good, I hope that you all have a great Christmas, that we can all remember the reason that we celebrate. Keep the Savior in your hearts and Remember Him. I'll be talking with my Family the 25th so that is Awesome.

I hope you know how much I love you all. My gift this year is just knowing you are all out in the world doing acts of kindness for others!

Love Elder Taylor Chriss

Elder Molina's Birthday!

It's a Wonderful Life!

If I haven't said it, I'll say it again. I love my mission! It's the greatest place to be, especially during the Christmas season. Yes, it still is scalding hot outside, but the Christmas spirit is still here, haha. Although there aren't lights and decorations all over the place, I talk about Christmas each and every day! I love it!  As I have said before, it's so easy to talk people about Christmas here. It was a week of heat and miracles.

 

It was a great week and had many experiences to think upon. One great thing was divisions with the other Elders here in Virreyes, I went in an area with Elder Bohn from Texas, he is a really great Elder that is doing really well. He has about 5 months in the mission and loves the work. We spent the day running all over his area teaching and finding new people. And after a hard days work we finally found several people super prepared by the Lord. It was a great experience! We were talking and he said it will be weirrd to finish his mission and it be 2016.... I pause and thought " I said the same about 2015 two years ago haha" Time flies!

We had a great stake conference here in The Stake Litoral. There were several great talks and it was the perfect experience to have investigators in the church. We had several people in the church and they all loved it. One of the talks was about afflictions and how we can overcome them. He talked about "He is the Gift" and how Christ is our gift because he suffered for all the trials and pains that we suffer that because of him we don't need to suffer alone.

I testify of that. In Alma 7:10-12 it talks about Christmas (when he was born) and then what he did for us. This is the gift that he gave us and we can thank him for said gift through our actions and obedience.

Man who knew that it only took 2 years of missionary service to help me understand this haha. I´m so grateful for this time in my life. I know that I learn everyday something that can help me grow. I know that Christ can help all of us make the changes and get over what ever our situation in life.

 

Keep up the good work and keep on loving one another.

Love,

Elder Taylor Chriss

El es la Dadiva!

Baptism of Tomas!

I still don't think I'll get used to singing Christmas songs when its like 90 degrees out side. It's weird. But as we are working and sharing the message of Christ, you can still feel the spirit of Christmas. It was a week full of memorable experiences.

We started off the week with a meeting with President and other leaders of the mission to talk about the vision for our mission and the ways we are going to reach our goals. It was a great meeting where the spirit was really present. This is really a work directed by the Lord. We are focusing on the work we do with our members and the importance of using members to Find, Teach and Baptize. They really change the work here. Plus as a zone we got together to talk about the things that President shared with us and that we could counsel together about how we can achieve the vision. It was awesome and it just got us all very excited to get out side and teach every one we could.

A cool expience was the baptism of Tommy, the child of some investagators who are doing thier paperwork to get married. He is super small and really likes going to the church with his parents. My companion made the joke that if he baptised him he would keep him in the water for 15 minutes.... I want E. Chriss to baptise me! haha All went well I didn't keep him under to long haha.

As the title of my email says, El es la Dadiva,which means He is the Gift. The church is doing a big focus on the true meaning of Christmas and Missionary work. It's really cool to see all of the things the church is doing. But as missionaries we are given pass along cards that say "He is the Gift" and we are talking with all the people about the importance of Christ in our lives. It's working wonders here and it's so great to talk about Christmas to every one. 

Every one should go and see the video that the church has put up. It's really great. It makes me think a lot about this time of year how one day changed all of the eternities. How the night that Christ was born every thing was made better, He was our gift (John 3 16) and this gift can bring us unlimited joy and peace. 

I love my Savior and this month we can all celebrate the time when he was born.  

It was a good week and we still have good weeks to come. I love you all so much and get out there and give the missionaries a referral!


Love Elder Taylor Chriss

Divisions with the Assistants, Elder Wade, Elder Chriss Elder Engebretsen, Elder Molina

The Gran Tigre Zone

SERVICE!!!

What Kind of December is Hot???

Elder Chriss, Elder Molina and Jazmin

Wow it's already December! Can you believe it? I sure can't. But that only means one thing, Christmas!!! Christmas is the best thing in the whole world in the mission. The spirit is so strong this time of year as we testify of Christ and as we invite them to come to his church. 

Up until now we have about 1720 baptisms for the year. Our goal is 2000 so we are up to the last few weeks. We are working real hard to put in our part in the goal.  But if we are going to reach such a goal we need to do things like we never have before. We are talking to more people than we ever have and giving our best efforts. Me and my comp are doing great together. Roman was confirmed this weekend and everything is great with him. He is already doing visits with the other elders in the ward. We are hoping to have  2 baptisms this weekend and our zone is grow substantially and it's great to see the excitement. 

  

The rain came down this week and washed the missionaries out haha. We had some more flooding this week which was really fun. Today is really cold and the forecast is for scorching hot weather! I still don't believe it is December. 

Several of our converts went to the temple this weekend and had a great time. The ward is really excited for this Christmas season.

I did Divisions with Elder Engebretsen this week. He is now an assistant to the President. He came with me and my comp went with Elder Wade. I had such a great day with Elder Engebretsen. We went all over our area talking with all sorts of people. He taught me a lot and we had a great time. It was super funny to be his comp for the day. The last time we were comps was on the plane leaving for Los Angeles from the MTC. He sure is a great guy and very loving to those he serves.

All in all I love you tons! I hope that you are all well and that you have a good week. I'm safe, I'm happy, I'm doing great.

  

With Lots of Love

 Elder Taylor Chriss