A year out and I need more time!

Que tal Familia?
    Hola Hola a todos!! Como Estan? Well its been a pretty big past week I officially hit the Year mark on the mission which to me is unbelievable!! It's going way to fast I need more time!!😯 Another Huge announcement for our mission is that this Saturday President Oaks from the First Presidency is coming to speak to us. I'm super pumped for that and know that it will be an amazing learning experience. So the big news for me and Elder Cook this week is that we have Bernadino who is ready and is going to get Baptized this Sunday so whatever prayers are offered in his behalf we appreciate it because he has been preparing for this day for a long time. Nothing can really explain how excited I am for his decision to be baptized.
  The other news is me and Elder Cook both ate something that absolutely destroyed us. On monday we both ate undercooked freezer chicken tacos, and you can probably imagine what happened next... to give you an example during our dinner hour the next day we were switching using the bathrooms he would use it then I would go and use it then he would use it and so on. We used this members bathroom like 3 times each. We've had the squirts since then and are just barely starting to recover from it. Luckily though we evaded the Double Dragon. (might want to edit that part out when you send it to everyone else😂😁.) But other than that we have been hitting the pavement hard and finding and doing activities like crazy.
   One cool example of creative finding that we did this week is we went to a super busy park up by a college and started drawing the Plan of Salvation with sidewalk chalk. We got a couple people to come up and ask us what we were doing but the thing that stood out to me was how willing the little kids were to come up and learn about God. I thought that if everyone could have this amount of submissiveness all of California would be baptized. The thing I love about the little kids is that they really do listen and believe everything you tell them their faith is almost perfect. For example if you tell them that God loves them they will believe it. Then I started thinking about what Christ said about little children we need to be meek and faithful just as a little child if we don't we can't enter into the mansiones that he has prepared for us. I would invite everyone to look at the gospel with the view of a little child and put your faith in him when you have no other thing to put your faith in. Remember God loves each and everyone you and he wants you to succeed in this life no matter who you are. Put your faith in him and you will see the miracles come I promise.
  Love you all, hope that you don't get to sad about the PSB's. Hope everyone has a good week!!! Les Amo mucho. Si Pongen su confianza en dios les va a ayudar y suportar. Cuidanse!!!

Giving Everyone A Fair Chance

Hola Familia
 This week has been good for me and elder Losee. We did an exchange with the other elders in our district, elders Hammond and Stratford. We set a bunch of new baptismal dates this week!!! One of the coolest investigators we have is named Angel. Hes a 17 year old kid and loved the message of the restoration. He said it just feels right. He came to church and loved it.

Something that I've come to know is that it's really easy to tell people who are interested and have intent and people who aren't. When you share the message of the restoration you can tell who is touched by the spirit and who isn't. But our job is to give everyone a fair chance.

Sorry I didn't have a lot of time we did a lot of things today. Hope everyone is doing well les quiero mucho.

Elder Gibbons

You are important because you're you...

Hola familia!!
  this week has been really good for me and elder losee. We found a lot of new investigators. However it was our last mission conference with President Henrie. ..I'm really going to miss him and sister Henrie. They have both taught me so much while I've been on the mission. It was really sad to think that along with him the senior couples (at least most of them are going home). It's been a good run with them and they will leave a life changing impact on me.
  So the most important thing I've learned from president henrie is that I am the lords best shot. He doesn't call for super extraordinary amazing people to be his servants he calls the most humble and simple people to his work. What ive figured out is that you don't have to be the smartest best looking or lead the most interesting life. The way that you are and the experiences you've had are there to help someone else grow closer to the gospel no matter who it is. So the next time you don't feel like your good enough know that you are.
  Other than that we have been doing really well. Elder Losee is a super chill guy and me and him get a long pretty well. We love our district especially cause we got the zone leaders in it. This week I actually had the opportunity to give a baptismal interview to Belle who is one of the Hermanas investigators. She is 10 years old and was super excited to be baptized. I love working with los niños because they are super funny and they are non judgmental. So it turns out that she wanted me to baptize her so this Saturday I'll have the amazing opportunity to baptize Belle.
 Our investigators are doing really well. We have switched our focus from Teresa to Ivan her son and he now has a baptismal date. Unfortunately they weren't able to come to church but we will try and get them to come this week. Our other Goldmine investigator left for el Salvador so we will only be able to teach him through Facebook chat now. I really am grateful for technology in our proselyting efforts it has helped a lot and will continue to do so.
 Well that's all for this week I ran out of time sorry. Love you all and hope you have a good week. Les quiero!!
Elder Gibbons

First week Grenada Hills

Hola familia!!
  Well whitewashing has grown on me not gonna lie. A lot of missionaries say that whitewashing is the worst but this is my second time doing it and I really actually kinda like it. So my new companion is elder Losee and we are both whitewashing co district leaders. Our new area is arleta 2 and it's amazing for Spanish work. This is even better than Van Nuys so it's like a mini Mexico up in here.
  Our most solid baptismal date that we have is Teresa. Who just recently had a death in the family. We had a pretty tender moment when I shared with her my story about uncle Trevor and Mosiah 16. I felt like I really connected with her and I could relate to her situation a lot. I know that at the time it seemed like something really crazy but I can testify to you that i know that it happened for a reason. We were able to bring her to church and the second hour as well we got a dinner appointment with her.
  We have a cool goldmine family named the Mejia family. So I connected really well with them as well the only problem is that he is an illegal. So what he has to do before he gets baptized is go back to El Salvador for a month get his papers and then come back To be baptized. That's something that's really difficult here is that people need to be legal before they can be married so we will work with him on that.
   I love you all good luck with everything that's going on.  Love you. Les quiero.

De La Gran San Fernando a La Gran Los Angeles

Hey familia
  So we had the deciding transfers today. I have been moved to the Arleta 2 area in Granada Hills Zone. Which means that I will officially be reassigned to the Los Angeles CA mission. I am super excited to be able to represent the Great California San Fernando mission as well as the Great Los Angeles mission. I know that the Lord will have me go where he wants me to go.
  My new companion is elder losee. I have met him once before and he seems like a really cool elder. I am moving to the same zone and ward as elder Nelson so I will get to see him again 😀😀. Unfortunately Elder Terron is getting moved to the valencia area so he will be going to the bakersfield mission.
  This week has flown by for us. Elder Stoltz is about to finish his mission so we are pretty sad to see him go 😣. We had a good last lesson with the familia Castillo we bore our testimonies and shared how important is was to be baptized. They are really sad to see us go. I'm super sad to leave them I'm really gonna miss them. Something that's always really hard when being transferred is the the people you leave behind. You really do develop a love for them. But sometimes that's not how the Lord works sometimes it's someone else's turn to finish their teaching or to help them understand a principle of the gospel.
  I am so grateful for the opportunity to be able to serve the Savior and the people of not only the San Fernando valley but also the LA valley. I hope that everyone is doing well back home thank you so much for the package mom my district all says thanks as well😀😀. Les quiero mucho!! Con Amor
Elder Gibbons

Facebook Post - Baptism

Andrew Gibbons
June 3 ·

Tenía la oportunidad para ver mi amiga llegar a ser bautizada. Pensaba durante este tiempo que el bautismo es un convenio y ordenanza bien hermoso que Dios nos ha dado. Nosotros podemos tener el don del espíritu Santo para siempre si somos dignos. El don del espíritu Santo es un don que puede guiarnos, cuidarnos, y apoyarnos siempre. Es una cosa que no podamos ver pero una cosa que podamos sentir y saber que siempre está allí. Yo se que si somos bautizados y recibimos este don podemos ver las bendiciones que viene por medio del Espíritu Santo. Como dice en las escrituras, "el bautismo es la puerta a los cielos." ¡Felicidades hermana estoy tan animado para ti, que Dios te bendiga!

Lima and Miracles

Hola familia!!! Como están?
  To start it all off Piedad Lima got baptized on Saturday May 26th. She is one of the nicest abuealitas you will ever meet. She has been investigating for 10 years and I'm super grateful that I was able to see her take the step into the waters of baptism. Elder Nelson and I were so pumped because we had both started her teaching. However something even more amazing was that her son Franklin who is about 30ish years old was waiting outside for us so that he could personally thank us. We'll we started talking to him and he told us that he was ready to come back to church. Apparently he has gotten into gang activity and fallen away from the church but he said that he felt something that he hasn't felt in a long time in the church. So we invited him to her confirmation and told him that we'd love to start meeting with him. Long story short he didn't end up coming to the confirmation but what's more important is that he felt something. We will try and contact him throughout the week to see if we can get him to church again ( he was baptized when he was 8).
  We also were able to do the book of Mormon experiment yesterday. It was pretty good for us because people were everywhere especially down in Burbank.
  Well things are going a lot better within the district I feel like I've figured out the best way to teach and lead them and so far it's working. It just goes to show that leading with love works a lot better than leading with anger😀. I'm super excited for Hayden and cookie!!! They both will love it. Congratulations. Also can you make sure that I get put on their email list? So guapo is the newest thing in the house? He looks like a lot of fun im sure that buddy will dig that😂😂. Also tell the belnaps  that they would love it if they moved out there and they would be pretty close to us so we could help them out whenever. Thank you so much for the package this week😀I did get it along with the shoes. I love you all so much I hope that you all have a good week. Les quiero mucho. Con amor.
Elder Gibbons