Christmas - Call with Elder Gibbons

Today we got to talk as a family. Elder Gibbons didn't get to email or check his email but he did get to call the family. We all loved it. He spoke in Spanish for quite a while. He talked about his work in a new area, with a new companion, both of them just out of training. Elder Nelson is from South Jordan and he and Andrew both finished training and are serving as Co Senior Companions in north Hollywood. This was where Grandma Gibbons grew up so he might make his way back to his grandma's old neighborhood. He's doing fantastic. He loves his mission and the people he is serving. He is learning a lot and the people he's teaching have a lot of patience, with him and his companion. We loved hearing his stories. We ended with Andrew leaving us a prayer in Spanish. It was beautiful and we all cried after. Anson of course cried the most, and wanted to call his brother right back. We stay busy and so does Andrew. We are happy to sacrifice our remarkable son for this time in his life.
We love him and look forward to our next call on Mother's Day.

Van Nuys Week 12 - Temple, Ward Christmas Party, and Christmas in the apt.

Hola Hola Familia!
   Como estan? Well this week flew by. We did so many things like interviews, Temple trip, and transfers especially. I was super nervous for transfers, I had a pretty good feeling that I was going to leave because they needed to put the Zone leaders back together. And come to find out I was right. So I have been transfered to the North Hollywood Zone and I'll be in Buena Vista area with Elder Nelson as my new companion. Not to sure who he is but I already got a feeling I'm gonna like him.
  Alright so this week was a blast, Tuesday we had interviews with president Henrie, I went in with a question that I really needed an answer to. Our area had been struggling in trying to get the members involved. So I asked him," How can we do better to get the ward more involved with missionary work?" And he responded, "Elder Gibbons one thing you can do is pray for more member activity especially for member presents." This experience really testified to me that the power of prayer is real, and if you have enough faith and you are doing the things you should be he will answer your prayer. That was a real eye-opener for me because I hadn't even thought about praying for something like that. I know now that I can turn to my Father in Heaven for anything I need help with not just a select few.
   Also we went to the temple this week!😃😃 This was an amazing experience, reason one I hadn't been to the temple in a long time and It felt awesome to be back inside of the Lords house. Reason 2 we got to see a lot of missionaries that we hadn't seen in a long time. I will send some pictures but the LA temple is beautiful and big, and it really stands out even in a city like LA  I went in with the hope that I would be able to know how I could better teach the investigators I now have, and how I could better help them on their way to baptism. I learned quite a few things from that experience and am now trying to do those things that would help me be a better representative of the Lord. I was able to meet and talk a little bit with Elder Quiroz he's super nice and an awesome missionary (took some pictures with him).
   Ok so crazy teaching experience. So we go to church and we meet this man named George or Jorge (not sure how to spell it). Anyways we start talking to him and turns out he participated in the Book of Mormon experiment and actually came to church so he could see what it was like in the Mormon church. He's from Argentina so he has a Sha, which for me is super hard to understand sometimes but he really liked church and he's already come 2 times. I think he will accept a baptismal date muy rapido because he has a sincere desire to find out the truth.  Anyways we have plans to teach him on Wednesday, unfortunately, I will be in NoHo by then. Spanish has improved a lot since I first got here. I now understand what we are talking about in Gospel Principles and Priesthood. I can also understand the majority of the talks that people give. So this past Sunday we talked about having faith and one thing that stood out to me that Hermano Poroj said was, " Tenemos fe en las cosas que estamos haciendo, especialamente como un misionero."  In order to teach someone and help them keep commitments we have to have faith that they are going to do so, if we don't have faith in an investigator they will not progress.
   Alright so this P-day we went to Buffalo Wild Wings as a zone and its a tradition in the zone to do the Blazin Challenge which is you have to eat 12 wings with the blazin hot sauce on them in under 6 minutes. So of course you know I had to do it. Let me tell you I have had a lot of hot things in my life but this was HOT!!!! Well to say the least I completed the Challenge in 4 minutes and 23 seconds and then I ran to the bathroom to get this hot sauce off of my face and hands. I was crying like the whole time because my eyes would not stop watering my nose was just drained and my mouth and face and hands were on fire for the next 20 minutes. I'll send some pictures becasue they're pretty funny. (see blog at Lagransanfernando.blogspot.com)
 So the biggest thing I learned from my training is that In order to be an effective missinary you have to be obedient both of my trainers were super good at being exactly obedient and fulfilling their calling as both a missionary and a zone leader and thats hard to do because like Elder Lytle said, "Something will always happen." and he was right something always did happen,(Usually it was with the hermanas being scared about something that really wasn't a big deal) Shhh don't tell them I said that!
  Wednesday was Elder Garcias birthday so we suprised him by waking up and going to Denny's. We told him that we were going to help the hermanas move some bunk beds  so when we showed up at denny's he was super excited.
  As of right now I'm super excited but super nervous I'll be in a new area with a new companion with new people but I will have fun. I hope everyone has a good week I love this work and wouldn't trade anything in the world for this opportunity to be here.  I love you all so much, Play hard sissies. (Sorry theres no recording I was busy packing all night yesterday but I've got pictures with a lot of the people I loved from the ward). Con Amor.
Elder Gibbons

Elder Costello - Splits

Christmas in Van Nuys Apt. - Hand Tree created with hands of friends, leaders, and family

Hno Recinos - Ward Mission Leader - Van Nuys 5to

Ward Christmas party

Gutierrez Family

Ugly Christmas sweaters with our apartment missionaries

Hno Hernandez and his wife

Los Angeles Temple Trip - Thursday December 14

Elder Horrocks

Companion - Elder Horrocks

Elder Quiroz 

Elder Leischman, and Elder Cardwell

Buffalo Wild Wings Challenge - HOT!!

I had to sign a waver. It wasn't pretty but I did it in 4 minutes and 23 seconds. I had a solid minute and half left, but had to run to the bathroom to wash off the HOT sauce!

Week 11 Van Nuys - 12/11/2017

Hola Familia!
  Todo esta bien aqui. estoy aprendiendo espanol rapidamente. Ayer yo estaba hablando con una hermana que fue a guatemala primeramente para servir alla. Pero ella regreso a su casa porque tenia un enfermidad. Despues casi un mes ella era llamado a servir aqui en este mision. Lo que paso es que ella solo puede hablar en espanol porque es de Mexico entonces yo trate a platicarle y yo entendi casi todo. A veces hay palabras que no me entender pero ahora yo puedo comprender mucho y tambien contestar con confianza en mi espanol. Yo espero que todo este bien y ustedes pueden termino limpiando el piso abajo. estoy muy emocionado a hablarles esta navidad. Que les vayan bien.
 How was that? Its a work in progress but I really can understand a lot of what people are saying I talked and had a full conversation in spanish with this Hermana I was talking about above she was really nice and helped me out if I didn't know a word but must latinos are like that. Well I love the work down here Its super fun and I wouldn't want to be in any other mission. Thats exciting with how much ball is taking place they might be able to beat me by the time I get back. Remember to practice left hand an right hand dribbling so you can cross over if you need to get around a defender. And you can drive both directions not just one.
  Alright so questions, Operation gratitude was amazing we got to see a lot of missionaries that were about to go home but also that was my first time doing organized service the whole time I've been in the mission it was nice to be able to participate. So what we did is we filled care packages for troops, we got in a big line and just went down the line putting stuff in a bag and then once we were finished we got back in line again. With all the participants that were there we filled 2 million care packages for troops pretty cool right? I think that it looks like me and Elder Garcia were companions because Elder Horrocks was going around talking to all the people he knew from valencia zone. So me Elder Cardwell and Elder Garcia were just kinda in line talking to all the other Elders and Hermanas from our old zone that we knew. We all had a good time and it was fun to finally be able to do service.
  The Book Of Mormon experiment was awesome! To me it was like undercover missionary work. So in order to participate in the BOM experiment we had to get dressed in normal street clothes, we didn't wear a name tag so people didn't know we were missionaries. We had a clipboard, a highlighter and a page from the BOM that had information on the back that people could fill out if they wanted to learn more about the experiment. So what we did is we asked people if they wanted to read a religious piece of text (I mean after you had said "Hi nice to meet you" and stuff like that) and if they said yes then we asked them to highlight any references to God and Jesus Christ. Then we asked them what they liked about it and if they would like to find out more. And if they said yes and they gave us their address and phone number we sent them in as a referral. Overall we got about 500 referrals out of 1369 participants. Me and Elder Garcia talk about this on the recording too, but we met with 2 of the Main people from the mission department and they said by far we had done the best out of any mission they had done it with. And we were one of 3 that did it. I loved it not only because it proved that the BOM is another testament of Jesus Christ but also because people were more receptive to undercover missionaries because they saw you as an equal. We had latinos ask if this page was from the bible because of how powerful it was and then we also had people say that they were really interested in what the rest of the book said. However sometimes when we told them we were Mormons and that they were reading the BOM they instantly said Oh no I'm good. Just goes to show you that if you read it with an open mind the Holy Ghost will testify that the fruit thereof is good and then they will want to partake more of it. I loved the BOM experiment.
   Our investigators are good Jose Chavez wasn't able to come to church because he got a new phone number and he wasn't able to contact us beforehand. But we will get him there this week and he will be ready to be baptized on the 23rd of December. Please pray that he can make it there next week cause if not then we will have to drop him. However we are gonna have to fly teaching him lessons so that he can be taught everything he needs to know before he gets baptized as of right now we have only taught him the first three lessons so we are gonna teach him the 10 commandments next time we see him. The Uturunco familia is doing good only Maria and Brando (the son) made it to church today but we were happy to see them there, Brando has already been to church 3 times so as soon as we teach him the rest of the lessons he will be ready to be baptized. Maria has been 2 times and the Dad, Rafael has been only once. But because of such poor conditions they live in they have to work like all the time and the dad will most likely not be able to come to church for a while because of how much he works for his family. We will have to bodly promise blessings and hope that he can find a job that will allow him to come to church. I have such a great love for them and want them to come unto Christ because I know how much more this would help them rather than a job.
   As of right now I will not know until Saturday if I'm getting transferred I have a strong feeling that I will be unfortunately. I think that they will put the Zone leaders back together because right now they are split and its real difficult to have a split zone leader companionship. So I will probably not be in that apartment for Christmas 😢. But something else that happened this week was the fires! Holy Cow it was nuts how much smoke was in the air you could hardly breath. There was ash just floating around like crazy it reminded me of snow so we actually got a semi white Christmas down here or at least we got as close to a white Christmas as we could. We had to go and purchase masks it was so bad, everyone on the streets was wearing masks too because you weren't breathing Oxygen at all it was just straight smoke. Elder Horrocks and I had to come back early because his lungs were just destroying him because of how much stuff he had breathed in. Elder Cardwell and Elder Garcia didn't go out the second day because they were both just dying from the smoke they were both hacking up a lung. It was worse for them because they're on bike but me and Elder Horrocks have a car so It wasn't nearly as bad for us. I think I hear in total there was about 4 or 5 big fires several smaller ones and by the second day the big ones were still 0% contained because of how strong the wind was. The Valley got some of the worst of it because all the smoke just fills down in the valley. But everyone is O.K. only 3 companionship's got evacuated and eventually they were allowed to go back into their house.
  Right now I'm studying In the BOM Alma 12 where it talks about the unity that Alma and Amulek had while they were teaching Zeezrom and verse 1 of chapter 12 is really what I'm really trying to become like. He notices the spirit and the testifies of what Amulek had said and then he testifies and teaches what he knew and with that dynamic duo they silenced Zeezrom and just as a general authority promised (can't remember which one) but you will not be confounded by men. They literally converted Zeezrom because of the unity in their companionship. I'm really striving to perfect that unity in mine and Elder Horrocks companionship. As of right now because of how crazy this week has been we haven't really been teaching anyone new but we did just barely get about 5 or 6 referrals sent to us throught the BOM experiment so hopefully we will have some new Baptismal dates really soon.
  I know that what i'm doing is what I'm supposed to be doing right now, I love this work and there is nothing that has brought me this much joy than to be able to bring souls unto Christ full time. I love this gospel and know that it is true. Feliz Navidad I hope that everyone has a good week, play hard in your games girls don't let anyone take the ball away protect it like its your baby (coach linda quote). Love you all, con amor.
Elder Gibbons

Operation Gratitude

Elder Gibbons helped with other missionaries serving in Operation Gratitude. Look at the joy in serving on every one of these missionaries face. The great California San Fernando mission. This is what President Nelson said: “Our Church, Mission and missionaries were recognized today as part of Operation Gratitude’s “Volunteer Army” and being part of the heart and soul of what they do. Our missionaries were recognized for their urgency, focus and hard work serving along side many other volunteers throughout the community. We were told, "this enabled the assembly and delivery of the 2 Millionth Care Package today." We were happy and honored to be recognized as, “…an integral part of this historic milestone event.” Just another day for us, especially in this Christmas season—striving to #LightTheWorld”

Week 10 - Van Nuys - 12/4/2017

Hello Family,
   Well before I get called to repentance let me explain myself. We got home from the Hike and went to the Computer lab to email, unfortunately all the computers were taken except two. So we decided that Elder Garcia and Elder Cardwell better email first because they had to watch an hour or so long training for the Book of Mormon Experiment they are going to participate in. So me and Elder Horrocks decided to go up to the apartment and shower and get ready so we could go get grocries and email. But again we got down to the computer lab and everything was still taken. So we wait for about 45 minutes and then one opens up so we both got to email president and chat for a little bit,  but about 5 minutes after that one opened up Elder Cardwell and Garcia finished and went up to the room to change so, we each got our own computer for about 10 to 15 minutes. That was the time I used to chat you and then, they came back down and were ready to go eat lunch and get grocries and by this time It was about 2:30 p.m. so we were all starving. So we went out to lunch and got grocries and barely made it home before 5. But Elder Horrocks has to type some stuff for ZLC and gave me permission to write a little bit.

So this week we got three new baptismal dates, a very awesome and solid family from Peru, they live in a very small room and work very hard to earn a living. This was kinda a blessing because our area had been struggling finding new baptismal dates. But I know that because of Fast Sunday and the power of the fast we were able to get three new dates. Jose Chavez has been going to church lately which is awesome he's been the last two times which is incredible. If he can come next week he will be on track for his Baptismal date. So Let me bear testimony to everyone that fasting isn't suffering for 2 meals but its a blessing to be able to have the opportunity to fast. Think about the people who don't how to fast and how to receive those blessings. So the Family thats on date their names are Brando, Rafeal, and Maria they love the gospel and we taught a super good lesson with them the night we got them on date (which was yesterday night). The spirit was so strong in there little tiny room that wasn't even a little bit nice. This just goes to show that the savior doesn't care about your social status, or how good you are at something, or what you look like, or where your from, He loves you. He will let you feel the presence of the Holy Ghost if your worthy to receive it.
   We've been trying hard to get Christian to come to church but every week he comes up with a new excuse so we will have to identify obstacles with him in a lesson and ask him what he thinks he can do to overcome those obstacles. And Elvia was able to make it to church but as of right now she is very close to a drop, one because she doesn't keep commitments and two because she isn't serious about trying to overcome her obstacle for baptism. Well all I had was 10 minutes so that was the best I could do I'm sending pictures and the recording. Love you all so much, Sorry for the short letter, hope you have a good week! Les amo.
Elder Gibbons