Week 64. La Pastora, Mexico.

Week 64: Busy week!

Well this week has gone by so fast, in fact I cant beileve that I am already writing you guys again! Now with 3 transfers here in La Pastora I have gotten to know this área very well. It is kinda cool to have gained the confidence of alot of the people that live in this área! Everyone on our street is always asking us to give them a hand with moving heavy things or do small service projects for them. Even if this área isnt the easiest, I have leanered alot of important lessons and how to love everyone... Its done me well!

Anyways, we have had alot of work this past week. We were busy all week with teaching some good folk. We had a lesson with a new family we found this past week. We taught The Restoration and The Plan of Salvation to them. They are very intertested and told us that they have been looking for a church to join for a while now. They are a family of 4 and have alot of potential to progress in the góspel!

Also remember Arturo and Jazmín? Arturo wasnt responding to any of our texts or calls last week. We were really worried that he had lost interest and didnt want to hear more because of the problems he has had in his house. However, yesterday at church Arturo came walking in and Elder Hernández and I were so happy! He told us that he was just really busy studying and preparing for his finals that he had in school. He also commented that he still desires to be baptized. What a relief. Now with Jazmín, well we left her last week to do some thinking because she wasnt progressing very well. We told her Monday that it was time that she starts putting in her part. We told her she has to read, pray, and attend church. We said we are going to give you this whole week to do these 3 things by your own power and if you really have a desire, we will see you at church Sunday. We were a little bit direct with her but it was necassary for her to start progressing. After the lesson, Elder Hernández and I thought that maybe we had made a big mistake and that she was just going to fall away and return to her old life. When we were at church we were nervous to see if she was going to show up. To our surprise she showed up to the church, she even showed up in church appropiate clothes (In the past she just wore jeans and a sweatshirt). After the sesión she told us that she really liked the meeting and she started talking about the Book of Mormon and the story of Nephi! Elder Hernández and I were so excited to see that she completed with the three things we invited her to do. Again, what a relief!

We also were able to bring 3 other people to church. Fernando, Erik, and Agustin. Fernando is the husband of a sister in the Ward. He has excepted a baptism date for 26 de Mayo. Erik is a teenager that showed up at church telling us that when he was a kid he would go to church with the Elders but than later they stopped passing by. He told us that he had seen us pass by a few times by his house and it gave him a desire to start learning more, so awesome!! Agustin is a 70 year old man who was a war veteran and a helicopter pilot. He has told us he has made a lot mistakes in his life but he wants to make things right with God. We accepted a baptism date for the 12th of May. God has blessed Elder Hernández and I with alot of great people to teach!

To end, I would love to share a phrase from President Monson. It says, "What is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should let them know." I hope that everyone is going great! Have a great week. Also, sorry if this was a long letter!!!

Week 63. La Pastora, Mexico.

Week 63: Pura Chamba.

This past week was one of the most stressful weeks of my whole mission. It was crazy busy. We barely had time to think haha.

A little bit about our investigators this week, so Arturo has been having huge family problems and Satan has been working super hard on him. He is so so close. He got in a arguement with his mom about baptism and he didnt feel comfortable and ready for the date we put with him. Its been super sad. We have been calling and texting him everyday and yet we get no responses. Its been kind of weird, this week we will see whats up. Jazmin has been falling into temptation a whole lot this past week. Shes smoked a couple times. Eduardo is still struggling with the law of chastity. This week, we want to focus on looking at the blessings if they keep the commandments, instead of what they are going to lose. Its been a little discouraging, however we have some great positives things to look forward to this coming week.

We found a couple new people who we see with a lot of potential. We found these 3 cousins who live together. Their names are Nayely, Monse, and Berenise. They are super awesome and have a strong desire to change. We will be focusing on them this coming week a whole lot. A couple other new investigators as well who we are going to be following up on this week. Including Marcelino, Agustin, Edgar, and the Familia Garcia. We are hoping for a great week!

Onto the busy stuff now, so we had Leadership Counsel on Wednesday. Leadership Counsel is when all of the Zone Leaders meet together with President and discuss what we can do better as mission and all of that fun stuff. It was really kind of cool.

Thursday, we had our Zone Conference. My companion and I really put some long nights into preparing for our Training. For our Zone Conference, my companion and I had to give a training on how we can use our testimony about the Book of Mormon with our investigators more effectively. As we were thinking about our topic and researching, we found out that ONLY 21% of of recent converts have read a full chapter of the Book of Mormon before their baptism. Thats super low. So we challenged our Zone to really use the Book of Mormon as the first tool of conversion. I have came to know that there is a difference between missionaries who focus on baptism and missionaries who focus on conversión. The Book of Mormon is the best tool for conversion. Once they understand and gain a testimony of the divinity of that book, they will be more receptive to what we are teaching. For the conference we put out a dynamic situation. We had a Hammer, a Nail, and a piece of Wood. We asked a missionary to help us. We told him to push the nail into the wood with his hand, well he couldnt haha. Then we gave him a hammer and told him to push it in now. After about 10 hits the nail was firmly into the wood. The dynamic broken down was, the Elder pushing it in, is the natural man thinking he can do things without Gods help. The hammer is the Book of Mormon(Gods help) and every hit from the hammer was a Chapter in the Book of Mormon. The Nail is their testimony, and the wood is the person. If we use the Book of Mormon and read chapters with our investigators, their testimony will start to get firmer and firmer in our investigators till it gets to the point where we cant take it out of them! Pretty sweet, Huh? We exhorted our zone to use the Book of Mormon everyday and hammer it into their investigators hahaha. I thought it turned out great!

We then finished off the week having Intercambios. As Zone Leaders we get to have the Intercambios with all the District Leaders and their companions. So I got to be with Elder Flores. He is one of my bestfriends here in the misión and has been here with me since Jaurez! Hes from Guadalajara and has 20 months here on the mission. I loved my time with him. Saturday, Elder Hernandez and I had our first full work day and were able to get a some great work done here in La Pastora!

During all of this time this week we have been planning our Zone Activity on PDay. We decided to play some Minute'to'Winit games. It turned out great! For our food, we had 200 tamales prepared for us and got 30 liters of this delicious mexican juice made for us. It was a success!

Although this week was very busy disouraging, and very tiring, Elder Hernández and I felt accomplished. We know the Lord is with us every step of the way and is giving us the energy we need to push through these things. I am very happy with this wonderful work. I love my companion. I love Monterrey. I love you all. I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. You all are awesome! I will talk to you guy soon.

Love, Elder Gibson

Week 62. La Pastora, Mexico.

Week 62: Great week!

What an awesome week! Elder Hernandez and I were able to find alot of great people this past week. We really were praying a lot to find more people and God provided the means to find them. We normally find 3 to 4 new investigators each week but we were blessed to find 11 this past week. We were guided by the Holy Ghost to find these people who need the gospel in their lives. The faith and spirit we received from General conference and attending the temple last week really helped us find these prepared people.

One thing that I have came to learn in the mission is to follow the Holy Ghost and teach in the moment. Last week I had a great experience with these two principles with Elder Fernandez! Well firstly, one of my old companions Elder Fernandez is now in my zone so we were able to have exchanges... it was just like old times haha. Anyways back to the experience... We were knocking on doors trying to find some people to teach until a woman passed by looking at us for a very long time, it was quite strange. About 15 seconds after she walked by I felt inspired that we should have talked with her. I than told Elder Fernandez that we had to go talk and present ourselves with her. We started to follow her and I said to Elder Fernandez that if she turns around I was going to wave her down. 5 seconds later she turned around and of course I waved her down haha. We walked a very awkward 15 seconds until a came within reach to talk with her. We presented ourselves with her and she really wasnt too interested in our message...LAME! However right after we knocked on the nearest house and a man with 6 children came outside. He expressed to us that his new wife and 2 of her kids are members of the church. He also told us that he was interested in our message and that we could pass by the next day to share a message with all of his family. We passed by with the family the next day and had a lesson with all 8 of them! What a great expereince to teach a whole family about the gospel. It was interesting to see how the Lord guided us through a failed street contact to find these wonderful people. Its just like Nephi when he said, "I was lead by the spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do."

Also Arturo has plans to get baptized this week and Jazmin is progressing! The life is great with Elder Hernandez, we got the zone conference this week. Life is great, I hope everything is going great for you all. Take care!

Love, Elder Gibson

Week 60, Week 61. La Pastora, Mexico.

Week 60: Transfers!

Well as you can tell by the subject of this letter that we had transfers yesterday! Elder Bautista is leaving this area and is going to go to my old area is Juarez. He is going to train someone new as well, super happy for him. I am also pleased that he can go to this area to help some of my converts over there keep progressing in the church. These past 2 transfers have been great with Elder Bautista, he will be missed. My new companion will be Elder Hernandez. Dont let the name fool you, he is actually from Utah haha. However yes he does look Mexican because his dad is from Mexico. This will be my first american companion in all of my mission! I am super excited for this next transfer!
This past week we had divisiones with the assistants of the mission. It was a good time becuase my trainer, Elder Rincon, is one of the assistants. I really did enjoy working with him again now that I know a little bit more spanish. We had a lesson with a recently married couple and we taught them about The Restoration. It was interesting to hear this comments after we taught the lesson. Comments such as "These new things you have taught me has resolved so many of my doubts and questions Ive had for the longest time" or "This is the truth!" It really is a wonder to see that at times people can recieve an answer if the church is true or not within the first lesson. I have came to find out that alot of people are prepared by God to listen to this message. At times, we just need to open our mouth! In fact, when Elder Anderson came to visit our mission he taught this same principle. He taught us that if we have the courage to open our mouth, God will give us the words we need to say and we will have more baptisms in the mission. I know that we will also be blessed beyond our needs when we put in out part to share the gospel. I hope that you all have a great week. Take care!

P.S. We made breakfast burritos for dinner, American style!!!

Love, Elder Gibson

He also wrote a letter to the family this week, details about his day to day life!.

Well, I got this new keyboard thing that saves everything that I write so this is kinda cool. I can write here during the week and send it out Monday. Well today is Wednesday at 10:52 PM. I am up a little late tonight. When we got home at 9:30, we had some calls to do and after I cleaned and shinned up Elder Bautistas shoes and mine. Right now I am going to go to take a shower and hit the hay but firstly Id like to express how my day went. I know that you are all asking what a normal day is like so I will tell you. Today we woke up at 6:30. From 6:30 to 7:00 I mostly just think about life and what I am going to do in the day. A little bit of time to reflect... Anyways after I shower I get ready and Elder Bautista and I will eat breakfast around 8:15. When 8:30 comes around we start our personal studies. We will study from 8:30 to 9:30 and from 9:30 to 10:00 we plan for the day in our agendas. We look at who we eat with, what lessons we have planned out, and what lidership responsibilities we have in the day. We went working in the morning looking for some of the contacts that we made out in Country. Sadly, none of them were home. We were left with alot of free time so we went and looked for some lessactive members. We had a quick lesson with a lessactive family and had to head out to an area called 21 de Enero. They asked us if we could go over there to do a baptism interview with one of thier investigators. I had the opportunity to do the baptism interview with a little girl of 12 years of age. She was very smart and is surely ready for her baptism. After the interview we shared a message with the family of the little girl, and had a quick snack with them. Later, we had to take a quick taxi back to our area to make it on time to eat. We eat everyday at 2 oclock here in our area. We showed up with the sister Medina at 2 in the afternoon. She made up carne asada, fried potatoes, beans, and rice. I will be honest, she is the best cook in the ward. Whenever we eat at her house we always leave walking like penguins haha. Anyways after all of this we went back to the house, we got home at like 3:30. We went to the bathroom and did our studies from 3:30 to 4:30. After we did our companionship and language studies, we went back out to work. We had 3 lessons with our investigators that are progressing. The first lesson was with a sister named Guadalupe and her husband. We found them last week and were very receptive. We passed by and knocked on thier door and they invited us in to talk. We started out by singing a hymn and offering a prayer. After all of this we just got to know them a little bit more. The brother is a bus driver and the sister is a stay at home mom. They are great and have great questions like "Why are there so many churches but only 1 bible?" or "Should we worship saints?" (here in Mexico, all the catholics worship thier angels and virgin Mary statues). They told us they were going to come to church this Sunday and we put another lesson with them for Monday in the afternoon. AWESOME!!!!! After we had a lesson with Eduardo Cantu. Man that guy7 is awesome! He is super funny. He has a baptism date for the 7th of April however he has told us he still doesnt feel prepared enough to be baptized. He has gone to church 3 times and has told us he likes it alot and wants to keep learning more. He also has a mental son. This has been hard for him because when his kid was born his wife left him with the kid. Despite all of this he is willing to progress and reach the point of baptism. We need to work real hard this next transfer with him so that he can feel ready. Our last investigator we passed by with is Jazmin. Well she has an interesting life to say the least. Long story short is that her dad left their family and her mom is not a good influence in her life. She used to smoke around 8 cigarettes a day, however we have made alot of goals with her to quit smoking and get on the right path. She is down to 2 cigarettes a day which is awesome! We are super happy for her progress and hope that she can quit permanently. It is going to be hard but I have faith that she has it in her to do it! Anyways these are 4 investigators that we have that are progressing! We also have another person named Arturto that is progressing and has a baptism date for the 8th of Abril. He is about 23 years old and has quit alot of addictions and really has changed his life around. He is a good friend with our mission leader. I think that this is all thats happened today. However love you all and take care!!


Week 61: Temple

Well what a great General Conference weekend! It was good to hear such inspiring words from the Prophet. What a great blessing it is to have a living Prophet to watch over and receive revelation for us. I have came to relize that one of the most important principles of the restuared gospel is having a prophet to lead and guide us back into the presence of our God.
Elder Hernandez and I have been working super hard in our area. It has been super cool having a american companion for once. We can talk and relate about things from back home. We have the same ideas on how to work here in the mission which has been a huge blessing. I am going to enjoy this transfer alot.
Man, our investigators and the commandments of God dont seem to get along very well!! Eduardo has problems with the law of chasity so we had to move his baptismal date a little bit further in the future. Sometimes I feel weird as a 20 year old helping this 50 year old man with his love life haha. However it is difficult because he really wants to be baptized. We put a baptismal date with him in May so he can progress and make the necasarry changes. Jazmin on the other hand is doing awesome! She came to conference with us on Sunday and we had her write a tally mark each time she hear the word Jesus Christ, she got to like 210 in just one session! We were able to put a baptism date with here for the 28 of Abril! She hasnt smoked for 4 days now and is going strong. I have really felt the power of the Lord work through Jazmin to help her with her addictions. It is very difficult for her because she doesnt have any good influences in her life. In fact, we were teaching her last night and one of her friends passed by and made some negative comments to her about making these big changes in her life. I am very grateful for the many things I have learned from her. Lastly with Arturo, he is ready for his baptism. We are just waiting for special permission Presdient Maucotel to baptize him because he doesnt live in our area. We hope that we can get permission this week to complete his date for the 8th of Abril. I am so thankful for all of these 3 investigators!

We also got to go to the temple today which was awesome! We havent been in a pretty long time so it was a great day to recharge the spiritual batteries. After the temple, we were able to go to the zoo thats here in our area. I will say that it was pretty impressive! It has been a great week and I hope for all of you as well. Take care! Pictures at the temple, at church with
Jazmin, and at the zoo!

Love, Elder Gibson