Week 9 - Van Nuys - 11/27/2017

Korean Church in our Area

Hola Todos!
 Anyways this week has been pretty good Elder Horrocks and I. We had a good Thanksgiving. So, if you remember correctly from last week we had no one sign up for us on the dinner calendar. We were planning to use the gift card and the money that his mom sent him and head to the Cheesecake Factory that night. But that day we got a call from the Senior couple (The Haws) and they invited us to a Thanksgiving lunch with them and a couple of other missionaries. The food was delicious and we got to see some of the people who were in our zone from last transfer there too. However it was really hot outside that day  (the car read 97 degrees) so after we ate all that Turkey and then went out proselyting it was hard to stay awake. Eventually though we burned through the turkey really quickly because of how much we were sweating. So around 8 O' clock we decided to head to the Cheesecake Factory. We get to the mall parking lot, park, and then head up. But everything was closed in that mall. We were pretty bummed out so we went back down to the car. We thought that it was free parking but as soon as we put the ticket in the machine it told us we had to pay 3 bucks. So we just went to this mall place to just pay 3 bucks. So now we were really kinda frustrated. Anyways we decide to drive back to the apartment and look for restaurants on the way. All of them were closed except for one. So on Thanksgiving night I had a delicious quarter pounder jalapeno cheese burger with fries and a milkshake from Carls Junior. It was delicious and we had a good time.
   The coolest thing happened on Sunday night. First, a little back story: One night when me and Elder Costello were on exchanges we were about to head back to the car and call it a night, but I saw this tall black guy sitting outside with his dog and decided that we better talk to him. So we start a conversation with this man and he turns out to be an awesome person. He is from Congo and speaks 3 different dialects from there. Then he moved to France when he was a little bit older so he learned French and then he moved to California in order to finish his schooling. As of right now he is trying to learn Spanish. Just an all around ambitious man. So as were talking to him he says that he has to go but he would love to hear our message another time. Now, to Sunday evening: Elder Horrocks and I were wondering if we should either had back to the apartment and eat dinner or try and visit someone. I for some reason thought we should try and visit this man (his name is Denis). So I called him up and he didn't answer so I thought well maybe we should just go back to the apartment and eat. But then we get a call back from his number and he said we could go and visit him. We show up to his apartment and he invites us in. Turns out he had read and studied the entire pamphlet and then gave it to his girlfriend to read and study. So when we told him about the Book of Mormon he was extremely excited to be able to read it. He told us that he would take notes and mark it so that we could discuss it a lot next time. We're going to put him on date the next time we meet with him and probably hand him off to the English elders.
   So other than that we also got a member to come to church with us. His name is Jose Chavez. We put him on date and gave him a baptismal calendar. He is a super solid dude and loved his experience at church. We are going to just make sure that this guy can stay on date because we really are trying hard to get a baptism. But for some reason it's been a difficult past few weeks as far as putting people on date.
   As of right now I'm studying Mosiah 11,12,13 where it talks about King Noah and the wicked priests but also about Abinadi. Something that I've noticed about the way Abinadi teaches is that he is very bold and does not fear what man will think of him. One of my goals I set this week for weekly planning was to be more bold when I extend an Invitation and who better to learn from than from the prophets who wrote the Book of Mormon. So as of this week I am going to try and be more like Abinadi when I invite people to do something. And just like it says in PMG unless you invite people to change they most likely wont.
    Spanish is coming a long nicely. I can understand a lot of what people are saying, and I have almost all of the conjugations down. As of right now I am studying sentence structure and vocabulary so I can explain and elaborate on different aspects of each lesson.
   I hope you have a good week. Les amo,
Elder Gibbons

Orange trees grown in California - 90+ degrees in November

Week 8 - Van Nuys - 11/20/2017

Happy Thanksgiving from Cali!

  Hello, Family, I hope everyone is doing alright. Everything is going well here. Elder Horrocks and I are having a blast together. He's super funny. Anyways I'm glad to hear that Carson is alright. That is very scary and I'm grateful that he can still run. I know he'll do awesome in Cali because well I'm here so why wouldn't he do awesome. So this Zone Conference has been my favorite out of all of them. Of course, I've only been here for two but still. We talked a lot about the Light the World campaign that the church does. This campaign is awesome mainly because referrals fly in like crazy for missionaries all over the world. There are 25 videos every day leading up to Christmas that invite people to do nice things for others. So I invite all of you to watch them and then to do what the video says. Also (this is for mom) share the videos on Facebook or however you can. There will be little cards that I can send each of you that I want you guys to give out to someone who is not a member of the church. 

    So along with a good time to be a missionary, it's an awesome time to be a member too because this is the easiest time of the year to do missionary work.  We also received the announcement that we will be turning into a smartphone mission so hopefully, we get the smartphones before Christmas so we can show the videos to investigators and members alike. Along with that President Henrie talked about becoming the message. So last transfer it was about how to be swift messengers and then this week we talked about how to become the swift message. Really relates back a lot to we can't teach what we don't practice. This is why the atonement of Christ is so necessary, not only in the lives of those you teach but especially in the lives of missionaries. Without it missionary work would not be possible. It was very inspiring stuff and the focus was really on how to get investigators to church because we have really been struggling with that as a mission fortunately though our finding efforts have increased dramatically. As of last zone conference, we had found 900 new investigators as a zone, this zone conference we had found 1500. So swift messengers motivated the mission a lot. 

  Anyways so we are trying to just get investigators to church now. Unfortunately Elvia the abuelita dropped her date due to her being scared to make the decision. She is scared that her husband will be mad at her. But we are still just trying to work with her and love her. We got one new person on date his name is Jose Chavez he is a really cool kid that loves learning about the gospel and wants to become a better person. He is on date for the 23rd so hopefully it will be a Christmas miracle. 

So Elder Horrocks and I, unfortunately, didn't get a member signed up for us on Thanksgiving so we are planning on going to the Cheesecake factory. We are working hard and are having a good time together.

     Alright, so funny story of the week. We were going up the elevator to our apartment and for some reason, it stopped on the 3rd floor instead of the 4th floor at the end of the day. So we come strolling out of this elevator like were beasts because you know we had just taught the gospel and were spitting some serious fire... in Spanish. Well we didn't realize that we were on the third floor so Elder Horrocks just strolls into this apartment that would have been ours if we were on the 4th floor. But, we weren't so he walks in looks up and is like, "wow! that's a different looking table." Then he turns his head and sees three black guys sitting on the couch just staring at him smoking weed. He just says, "Umm sorry." And then slams the door behind him runs up the stairs and tells me to follow him. Let's just say I didn't stop laughing until we were making dinner. Oh and not sure if you knew this but Weed is a huge thing here the entire complex reeks of it almost every night on the weekends and its legal so there's nothing you can do about it. 

  Love you all and hope that you have a good Thanksgiving tell Grandma and Grandpa and the rest of the family Hi for me and that I love them. Con Amor.

Elder Gibbons

Zone Conference 11/16/2017

President Henrie teaching

That is finger licking good...

San Fernando Zone

Week 7 - Van Nuys - 11/13/2017

Hola Familia
   Wow Elder Horrocks was impressed that mom had already contacted his mom. The lunch sounded fun thats awesome that you got to meet their moms. I don't get to see either of them very much because I think they are both in the other Valley. Well Elder Horrocks is a cool guy but it still takes some adjusting to when you get a new companion. He is from centerville and lives like 5 minutes away from lagoon likes football and basketball and had a mohawk/ mullet before the mission. We definitely do a good job of teaching together and love to try and find new ways to teach together.
    I'm super pumped that you got to facetime Elder Lytle he's a good guy and was a really good trainer, and yes his spanish was amazing. So me and Elder Horrocks are really learning together because he's only got 8 months in the field I have 3 and the other companionship has 4 months and like 6 days. Elder Garcia is the new greenie in the apartment he's from Houston Texas and is fluent so he's really not a greenie but at the same time he is. So our whole apartment is learning together.
   So some cool things that happened this week we handed off one of our baptismal dates to the English Elders and they got him to come to church so hopefully he will get baptized and start attending church full time his name is Andrew and he's about 12 years old. Elvia is still on date but still struggles to read the Book of Mormon, but when we had dinner with her family thats all members we read with her and showed her how it only took like a couple of minutes to read. So therefore we can make a couple of minutes for God a day. It's really just the simplest things that people struggle with that stops them from entering the straight and narrow path. Eric is also still on date but his obstacle right now is reading and coming to church so we're going to try pretty hard this week to get him to do those things. Also we got to meet with Samuel again who is a young kid who reads and prays but can't come to church because of his family and he is basically on his own. So in order to meet with him we have to meet him on the corner of a block because he said that his family would not like it if we came to his house. So this faithful 15 year old who doesn't have very much and his parents don't want him to read or take lessons is still doing the simple things that all of these other investigators aren't. I love that kid so much and wan't him to get baptized so hopefully there is a way we can get him to church or meet with his family. But thats about all for Baptismal dates.
    Alright so I'm not to cold down here but it is getting a little chilly. I wore my jacket for the first time yesterday because it got pretty chilly at night. Even though its like 80 degrees during the day, once the sun goes down it drops to like 70 or below and then the wind kinda starts to blow. But other than that its alright. Well we got about 10 new investigators this week most of which we haven't been able to get back in contact with. But the work is good there is always somewhere new to knock everyday because of how many apartment complexes there are, and the people are more loving than anyone. I'm not sure if this is racist but I really have not come to like white people here they are very rude and usually don't mind saying what they think and then closing the door in your face.
    Somethings i've learned is that if there is a pair of shoes hanging from the telephone wires in an apartment complex it means that there is a drug dealer there and that you can find drugs there. That was pretty surprising to me because I just thought people would throw shoes up there for fun, but it kinda makes sense now. California sunsets are awesome I took a few pictures of it to show you guys. There is a certain way you DO NOT knock on a Hispanics house because it means something really bad. Alright I love you all so much hope you have a good week. I tried Elote for the first time its pretty good not sure if they had it in your missions or not but let me know if you've tried it.
Con amor
Elder Gibbons 

Hola Hola Districto

Email from CCM teacher Alejandra Martinez

My first email to you. You've been out in the field for about two transfers now? How is it like? What have you learned about yourself that you didn't know before? I love you missionaries and I am grateful you are out there blessing people.
Remember to be obedient. When faith increases, righteousness increases. If we want to see miracles we need faith therefore we need be more obedient

Love you all! Add me to your email list so I get to hear how awesome you are.

Week 6 - Transfers

Hola Familia,

   Wow! That's crazy mimsy has a new owner and you guys got a bid for the basement (How Much?) and Nicole is working at Mountain Heights. Seems like a very eventful week Everyone looks super good, I love the Ray and Baby Storm Trooper, the BYU sporters are pretty cool too. I actually can't tell that Anson is wearing church pants but it still looks really good I guess the pants weren't included? So Halloween is not the same here as it is back home, first of all no one really goes trick or treating because its just way to sketchy here and people are scared to death of the dark. A lot of people refer to it as being shotgun dark, which means that its dark enough that you have to answer the door with a shotgun. So hopefully with it being daylight savings we can still get a lot of new investigators because right now its getting dark at around 5. So you will answer the door and people will ask you what you're doing out so late and you just have to tell them that its 5:30 in the afternoon. So hopefully there's no shotgun dark people here. Latinos are also very scared of halloween because its supposedly the birthday of El Diablo. 

   Bishop seems like he put up a solid training, and he so right about how important member missionary work is. So I was thinking you could use this for my opinion on your lesson, Member missionary work is extremely important here and everywhere, it makes it easier to find fellowshipers and people to help show them around church. They also know someone in the congregation so they feel more comfortable. Some of our key indicators here are member presents, and goldmines ( which are part member families).Trying to be a friend to investigators is also important I will challenge you all to help the missionaries with an investigator if the time should arise especially at church but also as member presents, if you can fellowship with an investigator they will almost always want to go to church. This will help them immensely on their path to baptism. So in other words members who are willing to fellowship with investigators are money and will definitely help hasten the work. Those are my thoughts on the subject. So I did get the package thank you so much for sending that it helped out a lot with not having to do laundry. 

   Alright to answer some questions. So Elder Lytle is most likely in the airport right now in Salt Lake City he left around 8 and left a lot of stuff that he didn't need in our apartment, lets just say a lot of denture cleaner was thrown away. I was pretty sad when he left we took some departure photos and then he was just gone. So I'm in a trio with Elder Cardwell and Elder Leishman until tomorrows transfer meeting. My new Companion is Elder Horrocks he is also the new ZL so I get to stay companions with the ZL. I am still in Van Nuys thankfully so I can still see the people that I finally know pretty well which is a huge blessing. We actually got one investigator at church her name is Elvia she's a cute little colombian abuelita her family that she lives with is all members and she knows that the church is true and she's been coming to church for about 10 years now but she isn't baptized missionaries have tried for a long time to get her baptized but without success. Her obstacles were fear of her other family because of course her other family is Catholic. So the cool thing is is that this Sunday we had a mission wide fast for more Baptismal dates and more church attendance so this sunday we had about 27 investigators attend church for our zone which is about 6 more than the very best that zone had done since it began. But the real miracle is that Elvia agreed to a baptismal date because of Alma 34:31 and 32 and then us saying,"There's no reason to wait any longer, will you follow the example of jesus christ and be baptized?" And then she agreed. The power of fasting is real and it has a huge impact especially on missionary work. 

   My teaching skills have increased significantly and now I can ask some inspired questions as well. The reason being is because I had an amazing trainer who taught me so much about missionary work. I'm very grateful for Elder Lytle and all that he has done for me. So there's a few pictures where you may be wondering what I'm wearing. Well to explain we had a zone activity where we all got assigned someone to dress up as and then whoever was the closest to their character won. So me and Elder Lytle got Phineas and Ferb I was of course Ferb so I had to find some purple pants to wear. We went to ROSS and they had some purple joggers so I was all like Ok they're pretty cheap so I bought them. I thought they were going to be like a one and done sort of deal but no these things were really comfortable so you may see me in a few more pictures than just the zone activity with those bad boys on. Alright I am almost out of time but I'll hurry and write a weekly so you don't have to. Love you mom and Dad. Les Amo

Elder Gibbons 

Letter To Anson - 11/6/2017

This letter was sent to buddy in response to Anson asking Andrew to send him a letter. We had pretended a Geico ad was a letter to Anson, so Andrew is doing a much better job of making it a personalized letter to Anson! What a great brother!