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
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