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