Week 69. La Pastora, Mexico.

Week 69: Great Week!

This week has easily been one of the greatest weeks I have had here in the mission. We started out having our zone conference on Tuesday. Elder Hernandez and I gave our training and everything turned out great! The conference lastest from about 9 to about 4. Right after we had to bust over to our church building to fill up the baptismal font. We had Jazmins baptism at 6:30! It was super stressful getting everything ready, but everything ended up being awesome just in time! I still cant beileve how much Jazmin has changed since the first time we taught her. Also her whole family showed up to her baptism and they had a great experience. In fact, her mom is very "catholic" and never wanted to listen to us before however after the baptism she started to ask us questions about the church. Than Sunday you will never guess who came to church... Jazmins mom! We know that she is very intertested and wants to take the same path as her daughter but its only a matter of time until she gives up her old traditions to come to the truth. Also after Jazmins confirmation she had a interview with the bishop to get her recommend to do baptisms in the temple. She has plans on going this next week to do baptisms in the temple!

Alright shifting gears to Saturday. We had Ericks baptism and it turned out great as well. Erick also got his temple recomend to go do baptisms in the temple. The sisters from the ward helped us provide with a refreshment after the 2 baptisms! The ward is really excited to see progress and success with new member activity. Really starting to enjoy my time here in La Pastora!

To end, Arturo is going to have his baptism this Saturday. Guadalupe, Juvencio, and Joselyn are going to have thier baptism the 9th on June. They are doing awesome, they all showed up to church and now have made friends with members of the ward. They even have a picture of the Monterrey temple and the proclamation to the world about the family framed in their living room! Guadalupe even bought earplugs already for her baptism!😂👍 They just understand everything super well and are very well prepared. We have been extremly blessed here in our area! Elder Hernandez and I are really getting along well as well. All is good! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Gibson

Week 68. La Pastora, Mexico.

Week 68: Progression.

Well this past week has been a hot and busy one! Sadly we couldnt have Eriks baptismal interview last week because he got a 72 hour shift at the hospital last week! However alot of great things have happened this past week. First off Jazmin and Erik had thier baptism interviews and they did great! Jazmins baptism will be held tomorrow at 7 and Eriks Saturday at 11! Elder Hernandez and I are super excited for Jazmin and Erik. Jazmin has invited all of her Cathloic family and friends to come so this should be interesting! We have been busy programing the baptisms and inviting the members as well our other investigators!

Speaking about our other investigators... Guadalupe, Juvencio, and their daughter Marlene have been progressing great! We had an amazing lesson with them about the temples and family history. It was awesome to watch eternal truths touch their hearts. I am pretty sure that they are the most dedicated investigators I have had in my entire mission. The best part is that after our lessons with them, they always give us food to eat! They have their baptism date for the beginning of June! They are going to be a great family in the church for their entire life. Also Fernando has plans to get married this week so we can complete his baptism date for the 2nd of June! We are also planning a ward activity after his baptism to celebrate his baptism and wedding! Tomorrow we also have to give a training in the zone conference, and we will probably be planning it tonight! 😂 Anyways life is good! We have alot of great investigators who have great desires to progress. Alot of plans and such little time!

I have came to know that the verse of the Old Testament to be true. It states in Malachi 4.5-6 ,"Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord : And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers." I know that God sent Elijah to Joseph Smith in the Kirkland Temple to restore the keys to seal families together forver. God wants that we can return into his presence with our entire family. I know that families can be together forever through the priestood power in the holy temples. I am loving the mission life here in Mexico, oh and Elder Hernandez and I found Dairy Queen... Have a great week!

Love, Elder Gibson

Week 67. La Pastora, Mexico.

Week 67: Mother's day week

Well its been heating up here in Monterrey! I am going to have to be real good at putting on sunscreen this summer 😂. Anyways to start off, what a great mothers day week! The 10th was Mother Day here in Mexico. In our ward here in La Pastora I would say that 40% of the ward are widows. With this, Elder Hernandez and I baught 24 roses and went by all their houses to give a rose. It was a great experience to see their faces light up when they opened up their door. Along with the rose we would read to them Alma 56:42-48. In which talks about the 2000 stripling warriors and how thier mothers taught them to never doubt and trust in the Lord. What a great experience. To top everything off I had the chance to talk to my family especially my mother yesterday. What a wonderful time! Also probably the last call home before I actually get home 😬. The time just keeps rolling on.

Our investigators are doing great! We have our fingers crossed the Erik is going to be baptized this Saturday! He is super prepared and ready! We are excited for him. Guadalupe is so determined to get baptized and shes hauling her family with her. They just got to come to church haha. Yazmin is doing awesome to! We are hoping to baptize her the 22nd of May! Our contact with Arturo has gotten better but still shaky. Working super hard and having a great time finding new investigators and teaching a whole lot of lessons. It feels awesome because we have a whole lot of people to teach or contact. Its awesome here.

I know that God loves us and has brought us this gospel as a way to return to his presence. What a great blessing to have the gospel in our lives! Love you all! Take care.

Love, Elder Gibson

Week 65. Week 66: La Pastora, Mexico.

Week 65: On to month number 16.

What another wonderful week we had here in La Pastora. Filled with a lot of fun and crazy adventures. The work here is constantly growing and I couldnt be happier to be a part of it.

Time goes fast here on the misión but even faster when you are working hard. Elder Hernandez and I keep finding a lot of success here in La Pastora. We have been able to bring a new energy that has been missing here. We have 6 investigators that we have progressing towards baptism right now. Erik has been one of our newer investigators that we found this week. He had a really cool experience though. He said that a man he had never met before showed up at his house and told him that he needed to go to church and be baptized. It was an insane story. A super amazing experience and now he has a baptismal date for the 19th of May and is loving church. It was a chosen one. Another one we found while knocking doors. Her name is Guadalupe. At first she wasnt super into it but as we got talking, she started to feel it. Then we got her husband and their daughter in on it. This past week we were able to have an amazing and spiritual lesson with them about the Gospel of Jesús Christ. It felt amazing and we were able to extend the baptismal invitation. They accepted the date for the 26th of May! Elder Hernandez and I are super happy. We are hoping for several baptisms in May! Fingers crossed we can do it all.

Just a great week for us. We also had the sweet opportunity to have Intercambios with Presidents Asistants. Elder Hernandez and I have been working a lot as well with other missionaries in our Zone in their áreas doing divisions to help them find new people. We have been working closely with all the Elders to help them find new ways to find people to teach. As well as giving them an example and help in their áreas. Its been sweet to see how those little moments can change áreas. We had several struggling áreas who have been doing a lot better now and have great people progressing. Its been a blessing to be able to work as a Zone Leader. Im learning so much about this Gospel. I have learned to really put my trust in the Lord. We havent had a whole lot of time in our área, but the Lord always seems to pull through and put people in our path. I love this work!

We were in the a very rich part of Monterrey and were invited into a very nice house, felt like I was back home, but there was a mom, her friend, and her son. Hahah It was a weird lesson because the rich people of Monterrey dont know much about God and so they were asking all of these wild questions about cremation, hell, the end of the world. Haha we would answer a question, then the two moms would talk super loud, fast, and sassy for like 10 minutes, then they would ask us another question. It was funny to see the looks and expressions on their faces as we answered their questions. It honestly felt like I was in a Dramatic Mexican Telenovela. Hahah it gave us a good laugh but we left there feeling a little weirded out. Haha just a fun weird week. Oh and today we went on a hike to see the waterfalls! We got high enough to get into the fresh spring water! It was a great hike after alot of rain this past week.

I couldnt be happier to be serving the Lord. I love it here in Monterrey. Im doing great. Have a wonderful week. I will talk to you all so soon.

Love, Elder Gibson

A picture of the zone a few weeks ago at the temple, and our hike.

Week 66: Transfers!!

This past week has been awesome! We had transfer calls but we got some good news. I get to stay with Elder Hernandez for another transfer here in La Pastora. Why not another one? We have had a lot of success this past transfer and we hope to see our fruits of baptism flourish this next transfer.

First things first, Jazmin has been progressing super well. She has now been to church 5 times and has stopped smoking. She had alot of doubts about the life after baptism. We had a lesson with a recent convert and this really helped her to resolve alot of her doubts. She told us she has decided to be baptized the 15th of this month. After nearly 5 months of battling with addictions and problems in home, we hope to complete this date. I can still remember the first night we met her outside of her house while she was smoking a cigarette and knew absolutely nothing haha. What a change we have seen in her!

Secondly, Arturo showed up to church and he told us this week he has finals in the university but after this week he will have time to progress to baptism.

Also, we were able to have a very special lesson this past Saturday with Guadalupe and her husband Juvencio. The bishop and his wife acompanied us as we spoke about the sabbath day and it was just what they needed. Guadalupe usually works in a market Sunday morning but she told us she was going to experiment with the blessings with keeping the sabbath day holy. Guadalupe told us she was going to come to church for the first time however her husband Juvencio had to work Sunday (Juvencio will have the oppurtunity to come next week). Okay so we were there waiting in the chapel for them to come. And we waited some more... and some more haha. We were very discouraged until right before the sacrament, Guadalupe came walking in. I stood up and directed her to the front and I sat by her during the meeting. I noticed that she started crying during some of the testimonies. At the end of the meeting she told us, "I have recieved my answer and I just want to know when I can be baptized!" We gave her advice that she should pray with her husband so they can make this decision in their life together. Guadalupe has also mentioned that before we showed up knocking at her door, her and her husband were talking about how they needed to change thier lives to be more focused on the Lord. Oh how the Lord provides the means to find these wonderful people! What a great way to start the transfer! Erik as well is smooth sailing and has his baptism date for the 19th of May.

To end I would like to give testimony that the Gospel of Jesus Christ helps us in the hard times of our life (Check the link). We must look at the temporal things as less importance than the eternal things. Time after time I have seen the Gospel repair the broken heart, mend broken relationships, and reconstruct a family. Alot of time we get so caught up in the world we forget out main purpose of this life! The goal is to return in the presence of our Great Creater. Do the necesarry to complete this goal. Love you all! Have a great week.

Love, Elder Gibson