About

Hello world! My name is Andrew Gifford. I hail from the southwestern Utah town of Hurricane, from mid 1800’s pioneer ancestry. When I was a boy in 6th grade I had a Spanish class and absolutely HATED it. I vowed to myself that I would never take Spanish again. So, in high school I took German as my required foreign language and absolutely LOVED it. This seemed to add to the irony when I received a call to serve a full-time voluntary mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for two years in Mendoza, Argentina where I would learn Argentinian Spanish.

This mission call came from a modern-day prophet of God, Ezra Taft Benson, the president of the Church of Jesus Christ at that time, for “surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). God is an unchanging god – He is the same yesterday, today and forever. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). Just as He called prophets in ancient times he has called prophets in our day to reveal the Lord’s will to the world.

Knowing that God wanted me to learn Spanish completely changed how I viewed the language. From the time I received the call from God to serve in Argentina, I wanted very badly to learn the language. I’ve been studying it ever since. After my two-year mission I got my first bachelor degree in Spanish, followed by a master degree in it too, with much help from my beautiful wife. Since then I’ve taught Spanish in elementary schools, high schools and college. In my classes I went by “Señor Gifford,” Spanish for Mr. Gifford. Spanish is one of the most awesome languages out there!

While in Argentina I quickly grew to love the Argentinian people. Because my last name, Gifford, is a hard name for native Spanish speakers to pronounce. Almost universally most Argentinians pronounced it as “grifo,” which is actually a word in Spanish that in Argentina most commonly means  “tap” or “faucet,” as in water faucet (not the negative Mexican or Central American meaning of a person under the influence of marijuana or alcohol). It can also mean “griffin,” as in the mythological beast, the latter being my preference with this nickname. From there came my Argentinian nickname “Grifo,” the Argentinian Griffin (that’s me).  😁

Now with my seven children growing older I am now a grandfather. My oldest grandchild has taken to calling me Buki (pronounced booki). Only time will tell what other nicknames I will take on with my posterity.