The Elect, and my first ticket...

Hola Familia!
  Como Estan? I know that right now It is going to be a little rough. This is something that honestly is one of my greatest fears, is to have a call come like this on my mission. I was really sad last night I prayed and cried for an hour before going to bed I just prayed that everything would be alright. And that you all would have the peace and comfort that comes from having the knowledge of the gospel that you do have. I know that everything will be alright. I want to share one miracle that we had this week. So we had so many things happen this week from the BOM experiment again to taking training's online for mobile devices to Elder Nelson going to the Temple for his birthday it was just crazy. Up until Saturday this week we had only found 2 investigators all week. So what we did is we set a daily goal to find 10 new investigators. We prayed hard that whole day to meet our goal to help us be able to find those elect people. We also planned to make it possible to meet this goal. So what we did is we planned all day to mostly to do a couple stop by's and then knock the whole day. We worked super hard and didn't get done finding until 9 pm at night. The final total at the end of the night was 10 NEW investigators!!!!! We had met our goal and I know that it was only through Gods help that we were able to do it. I know that God is always there for us and he supports us and help us when we try and do the things that he would have us do in this life. No matter what happens he is always there No matter what. I love you all so much I hope that you have a good week I hope things can improve and If you ever need anything email me and I would love to talk with you. Les Amo Mucho
P.S. I got my first ticket, I got it from a man driving a parking enforcement prius 😢 (not even a real cop)
Sorry its so short this week
Elder Gibbons

La Buena Vida

Hola Familia! Como Estan?
  So this week was an awesome week for finding in our area. Elder Nelson and I have been working really hard to find the Elect in our area. We put a huge emphasis on spending more time tracting and Knocking doors, and so all in all we found a total of 14 New Investigators. We also went on exchanges again with the North Hollywood Elders (Elder Geanga and Reber). They are both doing really good we are just trying to help them find as well. So Elder Nelson and I had been having a rough time as a companionship the past week and so something that I have learned is to never be afraid to talk about things. If you don't address the problem it will never get fixed and thats exactly why we have comp inventory to be able to talk about it. The best way to have a companionship that works in unity is to address problems that you may be having and talk about them together and then ways you can overcome or solve them. If you don't do this than nothing will change and you will have a harder and harder time trying to work together as a companionship. And when you are in a leadership position you need to be examples to those who are in your district. So after Elder Nelson and I discussed the problem we figured out ways we could solve it and now its solved. This helps us work together better as a companionship and as District Leaders. District meetings have been going really good the Elders and Hermanas that are in our district tell us that we are doing a good job, and we take a lot of time in preparing for the meeting.
  Spanish has increased a lot I have a language goal set for this month that I wan't to try and get rid of my English accent entirely, I'm already thinking a lot more in Spanish than English. Elder Nelson and I both make a lot of mistakes now when we are trying to teach in English but we just laugh about it and give each other a hard time. 😁 So I'm trying to listen really carefully to the way that the native people speak and just mimic what they say so far I still kinda have a white accent but I'm working on it poco al poco. This week we didn't have anyone that assisted church with us we were really hoping that Nati would come but she forgot (I explain a little bit about her in the recording) and we were also hoping that Danya, Yadira, Viviana, and Araceli would come but they flaked out on us too. So for this week our focus is really going to be put on getting investigators to church we are going to try everything we can to be able to get them to come. The ward is doing great we are going to have a noche de hogar as a ward so everyone can get closer and we can bring investigators to introduce them to the ward members. So hopefully we can get Araceli (the mom) and her family to come. Unfortunately we received some news from her daughters that she doesn't want them to get baptized because its really different from the Catholic church. So please pray for them that the moms heart can be softened. We are currently working with the mom and hoping that she will allow her daughters to be baptized. I appreciate all of the prayers and all of the packages Love you so much. I'll try and send home a package with some cool stuff in it. I hope that everyone has a good week ( There is a recording this week). Love you, Les Amo Muchisimo
Elder Gibbons 

NOHO, Miracles, Investigators and church and moving apartments

Hola Familia! Como Estan?
    Here in Cali things have been pretty crazy for Elder Nelson and I. It all started on Tuesday when we got a text saying that we were going to move apartments and we had 2 days to pack everything up and get ready to move. So that was hard because we wanted to go out and teach people too. We had to plan in a little time to pack and then we did the rest when we got home at around 9 or 9:30 at night. Since we were moving into a new apartment that the mission had just opened up we had to take food and everything with us so we had to load at least 2 cars worth of stuff in order to fit it all. Then we had to move it to our new apartment, we also had to load tables, chairs, beds, mattresses, cooking stuff, fridge, cleaning supplies, bikes the whole package into this new apartment. Unfortunately this all took place on a Thursday so we had to leave early to get to the church and do car inspections. As we were doing car inspections and giving district meeting the ZL's were loading everything into our previous apartment.😃 After District meeting we went back had time to change and grab a quick snack and then left to go out and start working. We didn't get home until 9:30 so we updated the Area book put a mattress on the floor and crashed. The rest of the week we spent our nights setting up the new apartment from scratch but we got it done.
  Also this week we got 1 new bap date. This bap date really is a miracle! We were driving to our  8:30 appointment but it fell through on Monday night. We got a text with a new referral and so we decided to go and visit this referral. We knock on the door and this 50 year old Latina comes out she was super nice and really open to the message that we shared. She didn't have a strong religious life before (which is kinda rare with Hispanic people) but she likes learning about God. We asked her if she would be baptized and she said yes!!!! Elder Nelson and I were super pumped because she was so ready to receive the gospel. Right now the only obstacle is that she is a little embarrassed to meet with us because of how small her house is and how many kids she has living in it. But we told her that God doesn't care how big your house is or how many kids you have he loves you and wants you to follow Him. I would say the spirit was definitely strongest during that lesson because of how humble she was and how ready she was to a accept the message and a baptismal date. Well to recognize impressions from the Holy Ghost takes faith and a lot of it and sometimes we don't recognize that it was the Holy Ghost until after something had already happened. Something I liked that president Henrie shared with me is that sometimes what seems like the most logical thing to do is the Holy Ghost. So we shouldn't always expect these incredible things just happening or coming to mind. Sometimes, as simple as it seems its whatever makes sense. This week l read a really great scripture that focuses on the importance of going to church. If you turn to 3 Nephi 18:12 and then explain to them that this is talking about the sacrament and that we take the sacrament at church and if we do this it says we are built upon the rock of our redeemer. Then you cross reference that to Helaman 5:12 and explain to them these are the blessings that come from being built upon my rock.
  Also this week we had 2 investigators come to church. One of them was a baptismal date whose name is Danya. She is 17 years old and really wants to be baptized. We stopped by on Saturday night to make sure they could come to church tomorrow and Danya said she would have to talk to her mom to get a ride. So we wait for her for the first five minutes of Sacrament meeting but they didn't show up. We were a little disappointed so we went and sat down and then right before the sacrament we looked back and saw them in the back row!!!! We were so excited to see them. They said they really enjoyed church and that they would come next week too!!! 😃 So that was really good for us that is the 2nd and 3rd investigator for me, that has actually come to church so that really got us pumped up. Other than that we are still finding and working hard during KO and trying to just set a good example for our district. (As district leaders we are supposed to have a model area for our district so that means getting people to church, setting dates, and implementing the things we learn in District Meeting. I hope everyone has a good week I love you all so much.
Les Amo muchisimo.
Elder Gibbons

NOHO - Mission Changes

Hola Familia Que Tal?
  This week has been crazy so many things are happening right now. So for starters Elder Nelson and I are DL's so we do call ins every Wednesday and Sunday to make sure everyone in the district is doing O.K. Also to help them set goals and then to get there Key Indicators for the week. Our district has 3 new trainees and all of them are really good missionaries! Something cool about new missionaries is they always bring an amazing spirit with them from the CCM, and it gives the other Elders and Sisters a lot of motivation. We also track baptismal dates and make a record of them. But little by little you learn ways to help your district and the individuals who have baptismal dates. Elder Nelson and I  love being DL's. We gave our first District meeting on Thursday I think it went really well. It got Hermana Mcglinchy approved so that's always a good sign (She's like a super strict kinda salty hermana in our district but she's an awesome missionary).
Recently I've been studying in 3rd Nephi 11-13 when Christ comes to the Americas and establishes his church and doctrine. He establishes it the same way he did in Jerusalem in that area. Something that I really like is that he also establishes the correct form of baptism and tells the people that there should be no disputations among you. Then he goes onto say that the spirit of contention is the spirit of the devil. So when we meet people that try to bash us we know already that contention is of the devil and so we try to avoid it.
  As for me I've been trying to discern what each person we talk to needs. So my goal for this week is to change the way I teach at every door. Therefore I have to try discern what this person could use right now instead of reciting the same thing at every door. This is one of the most effective ways of teaching but also the hardest you have to focus 100% every time you talk to someone and that's sometimes really hard when you're tired and hungry but if you just try to focus on the person you're talking to rather than yourself it comes.
  O.k. the big news for the week is that our mission is being dissolved. As of July of this year the great California San Fernando mission will not exist anymore!!!!! I'm actually really sad that our mission is getting split because all the people I've been around for a year will just be split up into different missions. I know that the work is the same wherever you go but a lot of things are going to change including the mission president. As of right now I'm a little nervous but know that it will be a good thing. During this change we will be split into 2 different missions, the Bakersfield or the LA mission and depending on where we are for transfers determines where we will go. As for me I would really like to go to the LA mission (because all of my time so far has been spent in that area) but either one would be good. But other than all that the work is moving along quickly out here. Since we took over the new area we have found a lot of good pockets of Hispanic people and our finding rate has increased a lot. We are having a hard time finding solid investigators (other than our Bap dates) But we will continue to work and find and teach new people.
 Con Amor.

Post from Evenlyn Miranda

I just remember the last day they were at home I cry i miss them los bichitos that’s how I used to tell them hope to see you guys another time God bless you both. Ellos venían a mi casa y ese último día llore los aprecio mucho los adopte como mis hijos tanto a ellos como otros muchachos q han venido a casa. Fue un placer serviles q Dios me le brinde muchas bendiciones a ud y su familia.