Week 59. La Pastora, Mexico.

Week 59: Contacts in Country

This week was great. Elder Bautista and I had the opportunity to give a training in our zone conference this past week. We talked about how we can teach with more clarity and power here in the mission. We talked a lot about how we can use the Book of Mormon in the lessons with our investigators. I have came to learn that the Book of Mormon really does teach many deep doctrines in a very simple way. One of our investigators Jazmin has started to read the Book of Mormon and it has been interesting to see how she has been relating her life to the stories of Nephi and his family. The Book of Mormon really does have the power to answer the questions of the soul. What an amazing book!
This past Saturday we had exchanges, I stayed here in our area with Elder Lawerence. Elder Lawerence is newer in the mission so I used all of his energy to our advantage. We went up into Country (the rich part of our area) and just started to contact. I am pretty sure that we contacted for about 8 hours. Usually that is a whole lot of time to contact but the people in Country were receiving us very well. I was like "We totally have to take advantage of this". We felt hyped up and excited to see that the people weren't shutting the door in our face haha. We actually felt really good leaving that area until we were leaving Country. I felt an impression that we didn't finish our work over in that area. It was weird because I was thinking like "Seriously_ this is the most success I have had in this area my whole time here." However once again I felt the impression to go back and do some more contacts. The first 3 doors we knocked, we got rejected. I started to think if it was just a misunderstanding of my personal thoughts. However we continued contacting and came up to knock the last house of the street. A woman of 25 years came out and she couldn't speak very well. She explained to us that her throat had recently been operated on. However, she invited us in and later her other sister and mother came out to listen to us. They explained to us that one of their sisters is a member of the church , what a great start! We shared a quick message about the family and how God desires for us to be together as a family forever. I really did learn a message from this experience. Firstly, at times we have doubts about our impressions of the Holy Ghost. Like "Oh maybe its just my personal thoughts..." Nevertheless, I learned that if the action is leading to something good, JUST DO IT! I also learned that at times we follow the impression but sometimes we have to be patient and diligent to complete the impression that we have received from the Holy Ghost. Next Sunday we have transfers, I really am going to miss Elder Bautista if we have changes. I have finally came to love this area, even at times if the people here are very difficult! I hope the sun is out and blazing for you all in Boise like it is for me in Monterrey! Take care.

Love, Elder Gibson

Week 58. La Pastora, Mexico.

Week 58: Another week

This week has been great. We had leadership council this past week. In leadership council we get together with President and we discuss how we can improve as a mission. It was great to express our feelings and thoughts about the mission. Anyways, this past week we also found a new investigator who is awesome! Her name is Jazmin, we found her in the beginning of the week and had 3 lessons with her. The ward here in our area is very old, I am talking about almost everyone here has at least 50 years or more. For this reason we were a little bit nervous to invite her (who is 18) to come to church. haha.  However we extended the invitation and she showed up! She had a great time and we hope that she will be able to continue to progress. I really have been enjoying the mission life. Yes at times it is very tiring and frustrating. However, these past 14 months has been a time packed full of great memories and experiences that I will never forget! Keep strong and valiant everyone! Take care.

Love, Elder Gibson

Week 57. La Pastora, Mexico.

Week 57: Work with President

This week has gone by fairly quick so I don't have a lot to say! However Elder Bautista and I had the opportunity to work with President Maucotel, our Mission President. He called us up last Friday morning and told us that he wanted to come teach with us. Elder Bautista and I made some plans with our investigators and put a little bit of time to go tracking in the rich part of our area. We decided that maybe President had a special way or idea on how to find success in this type of area. We drove up to this rich part of our area thats called Country (and yes I did say we drove, its the first time we have driven to get to our lessons here in the mission!). We got out and started to knock doors. I will be honest we got rejected more times than I can count, however one of our last contacts was a success. We found a man named Fedricko, who has a family of 4 and was expressing to us how much his family means to him. We shared about how the gospel blesses the family. How through the gospel we can find true peace in the home and in the family in general. I could see in his eyes that he could feel that what we were saying was true. We planned out a lesson with him this upcoming week, we are crossing our fingers that he will end up with a desire to progress. It was a great experience with work with President Maucotel! I have came to love the people here in Mexico.
Alot of people seem to be able to feel that these things are true but still reject the message, however to hear about the things that matter most to the people always brings joy to my heart. Yes there is alot of corruption and evil in the world but a day doesn't go by without finding someone with a genuine heart. There are still good people and there still is hope here on this Earth. After all the words Nephi could of wrote to describe why we are here on Earth he said, ¨Men are that they might have JOY.¨
I have came to know that every single one us has 24 hours in a day. It depends on each one of us on how we want to approach the day. We have the genes of the Creator of us all even God our Eternal Father. With this knowledge we have the capacity to work wonders here on Earth. However to keep this capacity to its fullest we must be like the old scout slogan that says, ¨Keep yourself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.¨ Take care everyone! I took so pictures so everyone could see what my area is like.

Love, Elder Gibson