Van Nuys Week 5 - Fire!

Hola Mama Y Papa,

  Todo bien aqui, hay muchas veces cuando yo puedo entender mis investigadores, pero yo no puedo contestar mucho. La razon is porque ahora, yo no tengo un gran vocabulario, por eso yo estoy estudiando diariamente y leiendo el Libro de Mormon cada dia por 20 minutos. Tambien estoy orando por el don de lenguas cada oracion porque yo se que solomente por medio fe yo puedo hablar fluido. Mis investigadores estan bien, ahora estamos ensenando un Jovenito se llama Andrew. El tiene una fecha de bautismal por 2 de Deciembre. Tambien estamos ensenando un hombre de Salvador se llama Christian. El le gusta los lecciones especialmente El Plan De Salvacion porque su madre murio y esta muy triste. La comida de aqui esta muy rica especialmente los Pupusas con frijoles y queso. Hay muchas chilis aqui porque les gustan la comida de picante pero mi companero no le gusta picante. 

  Might be a little rough but still learning right? alright I'm glad that everyone is doing O.K. I hope that Anson starts to go to church without complaining. And tell him that I'm gonna send his letter today I accidently forgot this week. Yep I did get the packages Elder Leishman likes to use it too because the blender that we have is not very good. Yeah actually the acne Cream would help a lot I'm washing my face everynight with that Norwex towel but I'm still breaking out like crazy maybe im just sweating like crazy. 

   This is what a day for us usually looks like, We wake up at 6:30 and go down to the gym and workout for 30 minutes come back up and do daily planning. Then from there we eat breakfast and shower until about 9 which is usually when we have personal study. Next we usually go and visit some investigators that can only be visited in the morning until about 11 and then comeback and do Companionship study until 12. Then we eat lunch for 30 minutes and then go and do some 12 week training until about 1 or 1:30 then we have language study from 1:30 to 2:30 from there we try to visit a couple investigators and then start K.O. at 4 and knock and OYM until 6. After that we usually have investigators lined up all the way till 9 so we usually get back to the apartment at like 9:15ish and then make dinner, update the area book, write in my journal and then go to bed. A lot of the time though me and Elder Costello get exchanged for a couple hours while our companions (Their both Zone Leaders) go to ZLC or MLC so we really have to try and use our spanish then.

   I should be good on stamps and envelopes Elder Lytle said he had some that he could give me, he's a champ. I would appreciate actually if you could send 4 garment bottoms because I tried to replenish my garment supply after they were stolen in the CCM but I didn't calculate right and so I have just 4 garment tops and no bottoms to go with it. I think you should be good I can worry about emails after my mission I don't want you to have to stress about that. Oh one thing that was super good last time you sent stuff was the chocolate covered cinnamon bears so definitely that for Christmas but other than that I should be O.K. for now if I think of anything else I will let you know. Thanks for all the packages you have sent so far. I will try to get some more pictures of just like everyday Proselyting clothes and stuff like that. 

  So some interesting stories that happened this week our apartment building caught on fire there was like 6 or 7 firetrucks out front, and it happened during weekly planning too. So we hear the alarm go off and then everyone looks out of their apartment buildings and then asks, "Is this for real?" I guess because there's just so many drills in school you just never think that its real but then this guys like, "yep its definitely real." and then points at just smoke billowing out of the elevator from across the complex. So at this point I was about to be really mad if I lost all of my clothes and stuff in a fire. Luckily Nothing was to damaged just a balcony was super burnt because someone's grill caught on fire. 

   So other than that we met this one white guy who was the definition of a not nice man. We said hi and asked him and his black friend how their day was going, cause we were walking to an appointment and the black guy was super chill he was like, " Its been good thanks." But then the white guy was all like, " Ah SHUTUP!" And were all like ok calm down bro. So then we just like keep walking because we don't wan't to get this guy salty and so he starts walking behind us and straight talks trash to us. He said stuff like, " These freaking retards in front of us just try to make everyone's life worse why the freak do I have to change my life for these freaks, screw these guys." Except for he didn't say freak, Lets just say he needed to take a Xanax (Pharmacy joke). So we finally get to our appointment and this guy had been straight trash talking us the whole time. So they walk past us again and I say, "Have a good night." And this guy flipped he told me to Rot in Hell and started swearing at us. The black guy was like c'mon man, and then turns to us and is like,"You guys have a good night too God bless you." 

  I guess the really funny part was that I almost started laughing so hard at this salty white guy. For some reason when he started swearing and told me to rot in hell I thought it was the funniest thing so I had this super wide grin and almost burst out laughing. He really didn't like that, but it was just so funny I couldn't help it. I was thinking about how funny it was that he had nothing better to do than go swear at a couple white guys trying to learn Spanish and help serve people. 

  So some things that I've thought about this week is that if people would do the small and simple things than they could know for themselves that this gospel is true. I relate it to a story in the bible when moses and the people were bit by the fiery flying serpents and all they had to do was look to be healed but it was so simple that a lot of them really didn't wan't to do it. I think thats the same today the things we invite people to do are so simple Church Prayer and Read and yet they still won't do it. If we do the small and simple things than great things are brought to pass. Love you all I didn't have time to write a weekly email sorry so if you could copy and paste some things from this into a seperate email that should be good. Con amor.

Elder Gibbons 

Van Nuys - Week 4 - 10/23/2017

Hola Mom Y Dad,
  That black guy sounds just like the Hawaiian that was in my CCM district. But that really is a good question to ask investigators I'm gonna give it a try this week and see how it goes. Something that we like to do here is ask inspired questions and then follow up with short simple statements of truth. For example: "Do you think it would be important to have a prophet on the earth today?" Why?" "I know that there was a prophet chosen so that God could communicate again with his children on the earth once more." That was just a little a sample but pretend like it was in Spanish.
   I'm glad to hear that you guys are having a good time in D.C.. I hope that everyone had a good experience at Arlington because it really is a spiritual experience. Ford theater sounds really interesting you guys should send some more pics if you can. Something I've learned this week is that faith really is like a seed if you nourish it and seek for it, it will bring forth good fruit. But a lot of people say that they can't believe in Joseph Smith because his name isn't in the Bible. Or they can't believe in the Book of Mormon because it says in the Bible that you shouldn't add any other books onto the bible. Really if people would just read it to find out for themselves they could find the truth that the Book of Mormon has in it.
   Espanol is coming along little by little. The nice thing is that the native people really like to help you out here. They appreciate that you are trying to learn their language and so you can ask them any word and they will tell it to you and help you understand why sentences are phrased the way they are. Most of the people here are from Salvador and Guatemala so you get some thick spanish accents sometimes. But I'm studying every day and Practicing at least 80% of the day in spanish. Something really funny is when people answer the door and they look white so we start in English but then they say " I can't Speak Ingles" and then they start to close the door but then we're just like, " Nosotros Podemos hablar espanol tambien." and then boom we start off the lesson.
   My favorite part of the week is Sunday when we get the opportunity to wait out front of the church to see if any investigators come. Not only because they get to learn more about the gospel but because I get to try and learn a lot of spanish. Sometimes its hard to stay 100% focused in sacrament meeting because man they talk so fast. But im actually starting to understand a lot of what they are saying its just sometimes the different accents get me. But other than that its coming along nicely.
   Lessons are awesome especially when we can sit down with the investigator and just explain so much about the restoration and bear our testimonies about it. That's really when we have the most success. Most of the time I'll share a part and then bear my testimony and then Elder Lytle will share a part and bear his testimony but we really try to teach to the needs of the investigator because that's really whats going to touch their heart.
  I haven't born my testimony or talked yet but every time we have a 5th Sunday is when the missionaries do speak or do a musical number. So the next 5th Sunday I'll probably speak.
  Alright so some funny stories that happened this week. Well for starters I sat on a cactus that was unfortunately concealed very well underneath some weeds. It was so itchy the rest of the day and then I finally used a lint roller to get it out, it worked significantly well. Another one is when me and Elder Lytle got a text Wednesday that the church gate was open. So every time this happens we have to go and clear the building to make sure there's no homeless people in it. So we start driving around the church and then we see a power box. We were thinking Dang it because we thought someone had messed with the power box but everything seemed ok.
   So we go around in the back of the church and we see the caged of stairs that lead down to the basement and the gate of course is open. So we go to the edge of the stairs and look down the dark stairway and of course the door at the bottom is wide open. So me and Elder Lytle go down there and try to look into the room but its pitch black we tried using our phone screen for a light but that didn't help at all. We came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be very safe to go in there without any flash lights so we drove back to the apartment and grabbed some flash lights and the other Elders in our apartment to come with us (Elder Leishman and Elder Cardwell). So we head back this time with some flash lights and Elder Lytle brought a whistle in case we got jumped or anything I don't think it would have helped but it made him feel comfortable.
  So we get down there and start doing like a S.W.A.T.  team perimeter check like, "Fall in, Go Go Go!" "Clear over here!" "Watch your back and head!" "Houston we have a problem!" And so on. Lets just say it got pretty intense, and that basement was a lot bigger than I though it was. Well it turns out there was no Homeless people in there and we thought it was pretty funny at that point so we took some pictures and left. I'll send them to you. I haven't gotten the packages yet but we do  a mail run on Thursday so I should get it then. Thanks for sending that for me I appreciate all the Packages. Some Piano Guys would be good and some spanish hymns or songs that are done by mormon artists.
   I hope that everyones week goes well and that you guys have fun in D.C.. Send some more pictures if you can. I'll try and take some more pictures this week and send them to you guys. Love you all. Les Amo.
Elder Gibbons

Pictures of what I see, where I shop, etc...

Van Nuys - Week 3 - 10/16/2017

 Que Tal?
    Hola everyone, everything here in Cali is going great we are teaching a lot and finding a lot of new investigators to teach, what a blessing right? This week I got a little bit sick at the beginning of the week and really started feeling crappy so I just said a quick prayer that he would strengthen me to fulfill the work and I can testify to you that he did. I think its the same with life sometimes I think we need to just kneel down and ask for strength in a world today that's full of such evil things.
   We were supposed to baptize one of our investigators October 14 but his date fell through because he just started working and we haven't seen him for about a week now. This really made me sad because he was so close to taking that first step towards eternal happines, but in the enjust fell through. Other than that this week has been incredible. Something really amazing is 2 new baptismal dates. So hopefully these investigators will follow up with us. I'm pretty sure they will.
    This week there was definitely some interesting things that happened like there is every week. For starters,We met a guy named Zefron-Unca-Munda. He seemed pretty chill at first but then we asked him if he had ever read the Book of Mormon and he said he wrote the book and that his name in the book is Adam. He told us how he traveled through the cosmos and how he saw God at a temple in Shilon, and that he had a metal bracelet made of Uranium. When you first get it you have to let it sit outside otherwise it will turn you into a metal person. He looked like Bob Marley.
    Also something cool down here is they do a lot of filming for T.V. shows and movies and they will close off entire streets and Apartment complex's to do filming on. Its super cool to kinda see what happens behind the scenes. Anyways, we walked by once and they said rolling and as soon as they said that I biffed it hard. Like I tripped and hit the ground. So if you see any T.V. shows with a missionary just flat out hitting the ground that was probably me. My companion couldn't stop laughing about that.
     So yesterday it was almost 100 degrees here which really made it difficult to knock doors because you just sweat like crazy. But you still find joy in the work no matter what happens. I hope everyone is doing alright and has a good week. Con Amor
Elder Gibbons

Letter to Mom:
Hola Mama,
  This week was honestly a fly by I did however get a little sick and had a cough, headache, runny nose and super achy for the Majority of last week. It was fine though because I knew the Lord would strengthen me and he did. We are not on Bike in this area because it is just to big and because My companion is a Zone leader so he has to leave the area a lot to go do exchanges and go to ZLC. So as of right now we aren't on bike at all unless we are on an exchange.
   Leyser Dropped his Baptismal date because we weren't able to meet with him like at all last week we've been trying at every opportunity to try to meet with him but we can't catch him. I feel just so sad because he was so close to making that first step to eternal happiness. But unfortunately man has their agency so there's nothing we can do about it. My Spanish is coming along really nicely just really trying to mimic what I hear and learn as many words as I can. My understanding has super increased I can understand the majority of what people are saying now and I'm not very lost or confused. Sometimes it's hard to make that transition from teaching in Spanish to teaching in English my mind gets mixed up sometimes. But I think that it helps me learn not only Spanish better but English also.
   We are eating with members. Unfortunately it's not that often right now its been about once a week. So we really are trying to get more dinners because it saves time money and food. But I think we can definitely get some more this week, the natives really love La comida Picante and I love Picante so member dinners are an extra plus for me. Last night we had dinner with the Hernandez's they are a good family super nice and funny especially Obispo Hernandez (He's not the Obispo anymore but we still call him that) that man is amazing. We had Porta's last night which is like a sandwich with meat, lettuce, mayo, tomato, and avocado. Fue muy Rico!!!
   I am definitely still super happy because what greater joy right? I love the work the people and the food, there's not much more I could ask for. Yes I did Get My Patriarchal blessing so everything is all good. The work is good down here we find on average about 1 New investigator everyday so really we are having quite a bit of success.
  Anyways I hope you guys have a good time in D.C. send some pictures and videos if you can, I wan't to hear all about it. Love you all. Have a good week. Thanks for cleaning the fish tank hope they're doing alright. Love you, Con Amor
Elder Gibbons   

Van Nuys - Week 2 The Mission - 10/9/2017

Letter to All:
  Hola Todo
   Well the mission life is awesome and once my sleep schedule was a little more adjusted I was able to focus so much more on the work. I realized that what we are doing is incredible and we only get to do it for 2 years. So now everyday during daily planning I get super excited to be able to go out and proselyte. For now I am in a car because my Trainer is a Zone leader so we have to leave our area a lot for transfers. I've realized what a blessing is to be able to have a car and to be able to use it for the Lords work.
   Anyways something new this week was that I attended my first Sacrament meeting with the Van Nuys 5to ward. It was very spiritual and a sacrament meeting to remember.  Something that I've noticed is that during sacrament meeting the Latino people sing and I've never met a more tone deaf people than the Latinos. But they still sing cause they love to praise their god. I can really feel the spirit when they do because its not how good you sing but how much you love your Savior.
   Something else really interesting about the area down here around Van Nuys is that there is a lot of gang activity. And what's really cool is the gangs down here love missionaries. They will tell you where you shouldn't be at night and if you get hurt they ask you who did it. (The police also will ask you who did it) so they can go take care of the guy. I'm sure that's not a great thing for that guy but its super cool cause like no one will touch you down here. In fact a couple of our investigators right now have been in a gang or gone to prison before. They all are really cool and love it when we can go and teach them.
   Anyways I've really come to love the Latino people here  because there is no other people easier to love than the Latinos. They are very respectful and nice to you even when they don't want to hear your message. The white people on the other hand tend to not be so friendly, and they are not afraid to tell you what they think about you and your religion, but all you do is smile at them and walk away, its hilarious.
  I have learned so much just from 2 weeks here already I hope everyone is doing alright I wish you all the best. Con Amor
Elder Gibbons

Letter to Mom:
Hola mama,
  Everything is awesome now that my sleep schedule is adjusted I just get super pumped to teach everyday. I'm not sad unless some people don't want to hear about our message because I know that God wants all of his children to return back to him. I really am trying to do that but sometimes people don't listen and there's nothing you can do. Something we like to do down here is throw pass along cards. So if there's like an open balcony door of one of our investigators we will throw a card in through the door. It's really fun but sometimes gets a little competitive especially if someone starts a card fight.
   As far as for the Zone Conference I thought it was awesome. I pretty sure I'm just deeply reflecting on what I've learned because they showed a talk with Elder Bednar. Man that guy can call it how it is and tell us what we need to fix. I learned so much that day, and yes I did see Elder Lorenson there we snagged a picture. As far as our P-day schedule it goes a little something like this: Wake up breakfast, shower and get ready, personal study, then we go shopping at Food4Less which is an amazingly cheap place to buy food I love it. Then we get the car washed, and then we come back and put our food away and email from 10-12. Then we eat lunch and either take a nap or go to the stake center before zone activity. And then after is zone activity from 2:30-5 and then we come back, shower, eat dinner, and start going to work. I love it.
   My favorite thing by far has been being able to teach people about one of the greatest events in history, the restoration. I also love being able to practice my Spanish with the natives who help you learn quite a bit. The hardest thing by far is understanding because sometimes I just want to help these people so much but if I can't understand what they said then I can't really respond. I'm really working hard on my language study though because I want to be able to help these people. It's definitely helped to have an awesome trainer who is really good at Spanish. However overall I feel like I've learned quite a bit quicker than when I was in the CCM so being able to speak all day really helps also.
 Here's a sample:Yo estoy orando para ustedes cada noche tambien. Yo trato a compartir algo muy especial de El Libro De Mormon cada vez hablamos con Investigadores. Mi espanol es mas mejor que cuando yo llegado aqui. Estoy leiendo las escrituras voz alto cada dia por 15-20 minutos. Para mi es difficil a recordar las conjugaciones porque hay mucha. Pero yo estoy progressando cada vez yo hablo con un latino y tambien cuando yo enseno la restauracion del evangelio de Jesucristo.
  I love the Chancla Picture It made me laugh. I love all of you guys and hope that you have a great week. Tell the sissies to keep practicing hard and they will be able to take state in High School. Tell buddy to keep practicing soccer or basketball whichever one he is doing and that he will be a little baller. I love you and pray for you all every night. Con Amor.
Elder Gibbons

Letter to Dad:
Hola papa,
    Yo estoy orando para ustedes cada noche tambien. Yo trato a compartir algo muy especial de El Libro De Mormon cada vez hablamos con Investigadores. Mi espanol es mas mejor que cuando yo llege aqui. Estoy leiendo las escrituras voz alto cada dia por 15-20 minutos. Para mi es difficil a recordar las conjugaciones porque hay mucha. Pero yo estoy progressando cada vez yo hablo con un latino y tambien cuando yo enseno la restauracion del evangelio de Jesucristo.
    That was just a little taste of what I've learned so far (If any of its incorrect your welcome to tell me because it would help). I'm happy to hear that the sissies are taking up tennis its a great sport. Tell them I hope they practice hard and do well and that its awesome they're in tennis. I am taking good care of myself my favorite is when we get to go shopping on P-days because I can buy my own stuff and not worry about anyone else taking it and eating it.
   I am being obedient and yep I do exercise everyday for 30 minutes. We have a gym in our apartment complex so there's a lot of stuff you can do. It's really a blessing. I have come to love the people because there is no other people easier to love than the Latinos. They are very respectful and nice to you even when they don't want to hear your message. The white people on the other hand tend to not be so friendly. They are not afraid to tell you what they think about you and your religion. But all you do is smile at them and walk away, its hilarious. Something really cool is the gangs down here love missionaries. They will tell where you shouldn't be at night and if you get hurt they ask you who did it (The police also will ask you who did it) so they can go take care of the guy I'm sure that's not a great thing for that guy but its super cool cause like no one will touch you down here. In fact a couple of our investigators right now have been in a gang or gone to prison before. They're all are really cool.
    Some really interesting things that have happened is we saw a guy doing cocaine in his car. (I wanted to throw a word of wisdom pamphlet at him). Me and Elder Costello during exchanges walked past a dude who was hallucinating like crazy probably heroin or crystal meth because this guy was going crazy. He was mumbling and making fart noises running up and down the street and had a blanket over his head with some weird looking shorts.
    Something that I've noticed is that during sacrament the Latino people sing and I've never met a more tone deaf people than the Latinos. But they still sing because they love to praise their God. Something that I remember that you said is that people in our stake don't really like to sing but these people can't sing period and they still sing because they love their Savior. I can really feel the spirit when they do because its not how good you sing but how much you love your Savior.
Con Amor Su Hijo.
Elder Gibbons

Role playing at zone conference 

Elder Lorenson - Lighthouse Strong in San Fernando

Sunrise view from balcony of apartment

Apartment Van Nuys

Apartment Van Nuys

First Week Letters to Mom and Dad

Hola Papa
  That’s super cool that Anson is just a scoring machine he's going to be really good at whatever he does (because he wrestled with me so I'll take a little bit of the credit too). I know that I am here for a reason and just like you said this is a different country here. We will go to some members houses and it is literally a shed about the size of half our living room. I just love the Latino people here. They are awesome and really respectful and polite. An interesting story that happened to me is when me and Elder Lytle were doing “Knockout” which is when we knock doors from 4 until 6. We knocked on this one ladies house she answered and this husky came up to me and started smelling me (and for some reason it was in the groin area). Anyways I thought it was going to be nice so I went to go pet it and then it just launched at me like a cobra striking its prey and I almost got bit right where it counts. Luckily my reflexes are pretty good so I dodged but I saw my life flash before my eyes. So don't pet dogs around here even if they look nice.
Con Amor,
Elder Gibbons

Hola Mama,
  I know I already talked to you on google chats but I'm gonna go into a little bit more detail in this one. So my companion is Elder Lytle. He's about 6'3'' (Dang it) and loves basketball. He's from New Hampshire and loves maple syrup because they make it straight from the tree where he lives. He's super funny and is fluent in Spanish which makes me feel a little bit more comfortable. Our area is the Van Nuys 1st area and we are over the Van Nuys 5th ward. I haven't been able to meet anyone from there yet except for the Hernandez Familia because they fed us dinner last night.
  Our Investigators are really nice and are patient with me and my Spanish because they know that I'm trying my best luckily. So far I've only been able to talk to 4 of the 10 because all of the other appointments have fallen through unfortunately. First one I met was Sonia and Hector, Hector is Sona's son and he's already been baptized but Sonia needs to get married to her husband before she can be baptized. However she kicked her husband out because he was drinking too much. She is the definition of a Latina mom she slaps and hits when she tries to teach a lesson but she is really nice (here we call it a chancla) which is like when a mom hits the kids with a flip flop.
  Next is Leyser. He's a 17 year old who does boxing. We have him on a baptism date of the 14th of October. He was the only investigator that made it to General Conference he's really cool. Carmen is another one of our investigators who also is somewhat of a single mom but she has a boyfriend. All she needs to do is get married and follow up with her commitments and she could be baptized. She is also really nice and loves to feed us spicy food so I love being able to go and visit her. The other lady is Lisbeth she is an abuelita and is really nice. She also just needs to follow up with her commitments and she could be baptized.
  I was able to watch General Conference in English but in the chapel down the hall it was being broadcast in Spanish. My favorite talk by far was Elder Callister. He threw down the hammer on everyone who just doesn't believe the Restoration took place. It was also an answer to my prayer reconfirming to me that what I was teaching was true, and that I needed to be where I am today. I hope that you can feel peace and joy knowing that I am in the Lord's service. I love you all keep reading the Book of Mormon.
Con Amor
Elder Gibbons

First Week in Mission Field - 10/2/2017

Hola Everyone,

I hope everyone's doing ok. This week has been crazy. It all started when we got our flight plans to leave to our missions. Everyone who was going to San Fernando looked at theirs and our jaws dropped. We had to be at the reception desk at 1 in the morning so we could get to our flight that departed at 6:45. So after a refreshing 3 hour nap we woke up and left to reception so we could head to the airport. We all didn't sleep at all on the ride over there and we couldn't sleep in the airport because we thought our stuff would get stolen. So when we finally boarded our plane we were out cold. I don't even remember taking off or landing because we just went straight to sleep. We landed in San Francisco and had a 4 hour layover until our next flight. We finally got into Burbank around 3:30 and met with our Mission President. He's a cool guy and is really nice. From the airport we got driven to the mission office where we picked up all our supplies bikes and companions.

My companions name is Elder Lytle and he's an awesome trainer. He's about 6'3'' (Dang it) and loves basketball. He's from New Hampshire and loves Maple Syrup because they make it straight from the tree where he lives. He's super funny and is fluent in Spanish. Our area is the Van Nuys 1st area and we are over the Van Nuys 5th ward. I haven't been able to meet anyone from there yet except for the Hernandez Familia because they fed us dinner last night. Elder Lytle goes home in about 6 weeks.

So when I arrived we drove to our apartment at about 7PM and I was just about ready to sleep on the floor but then we got a text from the Encino Hermana's and they needed help putting together a bed. So, we drove over there and it turns out they didn't have the whole bottom part of the bed so we drove back and I was out cold. The next day was difficult because I was so tired but I learned so much. One of the things that we do here in the mission is a “Knock Out” which is where we stop and knock doors from 4 to 6. Knock outs are my favorite part because we just get to talk to everyone.

I also got to go on my first shopping trip the day after we flew in. We were only allowed 22 dollars so I got a loaf of bread eggs cereal and yogurt. Something that I've really learned how to do from my companion is how to love the people even if they aren't nice to us, or they don't listen to us. Whatever it is all you can do is love them. My invitation to everyone is to have a little more charity in your life and I promise you that you will receive blessings.

Con Amor,
Elder Gibbons