Lima and Miracles

Hola familia!!! Como están?
  To start it all off Piedad Lima got baptized on Saturday May 26th. She is one of the nicest abuealitas you will ever meet. She has been investigating for 10 years and I'm super grateful that I was able to see her take the step into the waters of baptism. Elder Nelson and I were so pumped because we had both started her teaching. However something even more amazing was that her son Franklin who is about 30ish years old was waiting outside for us so that he could personally thank us. We'll we started talking to him and he told us that he was ready to come back to church. Apparently he has gotten into gang activity and fallen away from the church but he said that he felt something that he hasn't felt in a long time in the church. So we invited him to her confirmation and told him that we'd love to start meeting with him. Long story short he didn't end up coming to the confirmation but what's more important is that he felt something. We will try and contact him throughout the week to see if we can get him to church again ( he was baptized when he was 8).
  We also were able to do the book of Mormon experiment yesterday. It was pretty good for us because people were everywhere especially down in Burbank.
  Well things are going a lot better within the district I feel like I've figured out the best way to teach and lead them and so far it's working. It just goes to show that leading with love works a lot better than leading with anger😀. I'm super excited for Hayden and cookie!!! They both will love it. Congratulations. Also can you make sure that I get put on their email list? So guapo is the newest thing in the house? He looks like a lot of fun im sure that buddy will dig that😂😂. Also tell the belnaps  that they would love it if they moved out there and they would be pretty close to us so we could help them out whenever. Thank you so much for the package this week😀I did get it along with the shoes. I love you all so much I hope that you all have a good week. Les quiero mucho. Con amor.
Elder Gibbons 

Lima's Baptism!

Slow to anger

Hey family
  This week has been amazing for me and elder Terron. So I guess to start off Lima is getting baptized this week on the 26th of May!!!!!😀😀😀😆she is definitely ready we are both really excited. I have seen the gospel help her so much in her life. So to give a little bit of a back story she had been coming to church for about 10 years and had never been baptized she is from el Salvador and loves the message of the restoration.
  She was so excited to recieve the lessons from us and changed her life immediately. It was amazing to get to see her progress from the beginning to baptism. I am super grateful for the spirit and the ability it has to help us teach effectively. Without the spirit we would not be able to teach anything.
  Other than that the familia Castillo are doing really well and progressing a lot. We are hoping that they will accept a date soon😀. This P-day we went to the LA zoo!!! We got to see all the animals and even a few of the shows that they do there. ( I've got a couple pics).
  Something I've learned this week is not to get frustrated with people because it never helps. I had a time this week where I was really frustrated with some other missionaries and It really didn't help me or them. I ended up apologizing for getting mad at them but it really hurt the trust that they had in me as well as what I had them. Its better to be what President Hinckley says, "slow to anger." So I'm trying to do a lot better and I've seen them gaining that trust back in me as well as the trust that I had in them.
  I really am super pumped for this weekend and the baptism that we will have with Lima. Please keep her In your prayers as well as the familia Castillo that we can get them baptized. I love you all it sounds like it's been a pretty eventful week. If you could send some pictures of what the basement looks like that would be sick. Something I would invite everyone to do is to read the talk return and recieve by elder m Russel Ballard it's a super good one.
  Les amo muchísimo. Espero que puedan hacer todos las cosas que tienen que hacer. Por favor diga Ansón que,"te doy una felicidad por terminar la escuela primera. Estoy muy agradecido por las paketas y los Zapatos. Juego muy bien en ellos😀😀😀. Les quiero mucho. Con amor
Elder Gibbons

Happy Mother's Day and Blessings of Tecnologia!

Hola familia
  ¡Sí nuestros investigadores están progresando muy bien! La obra de aqui tambien con el Facebook y también la aplicación de agenda diaria por misioneros y la carpeta de la arena. Esta herramienta va a ayudar nosotros en todo lo que estamos haciendo.
 This week we finally got Facebook and the area book planner app this will help us hasten the work a lot. We now have the opportunity to FaceTime our investigators through messenger and chat with them daily😀. I think I might have said this already before but something that I really liked about this is that we get to relearn how to use technology in a way that is uplifting and important. At first I was skeptical about getting technology, I thought it might take away from the true missionary experience. But now I've come to learn that this is one of the coolest tools that missionaries can use.I'm very grateful for the opportunity I have to use this tool 😀
  So elder Terron and I have been working really hard with our progressing investigators. Our focus has turned from finding a million new investigators to focusing more on those who have the most potential and helping them progress more rapidly to baptism.(That's not to say however that we still don't try and find new people😊).
 For zone activity today we went on a hike that lead us straight above the infamous Hollywood sign!!!! It was one of the coolest things ever to see it in real life. (I wish I had some pictures but I forget my phone but I'll have them send the pics to me).
  Other than that everything is going good down here in North Hollywood. Elder Terron and I are doing good and I'm learning a whole bunch of new stuff from him in Spanish. I love you all that's all for this week hope that every one is doing good. Les quiero mucho!!!! Con Amor
-Elder Gibbons

Lizards are everywhere - it's been 72 degrees, I'm freezing!

Your companion is your friend

Hola hola familia
  This week has been pretty crazy for us and we will have another one coming. Elder Terron and I have been working super hard to get more investigators. The bummer thing is that we have been having a hard time finding new areas to knock. We've been slowly finding but we are doing our best and trying to find still. So something super cool is that this week we will be receiving Facebook and the area book planner app!!! In not sure how everything is going to work out with that but it should be interesting. So me and elder Terron are getting a long fairly well😀 he's a stud and always helps me out in District Meeting or during the week when I have to do call ins or something else like that. Some words of advice that elder lytle gave me is always treat your companion like your best friend. That's helped me out a lot and helps you work through any struggles you may have with a companion.
   This week one of the best things that happened to me is that we got Lima to church (even though she's been coming for awhile). And I was able to go on exchanges with some of the elders in my district. So something kinda weird about my district is I've only got 2 companionships and 1 is in a trio. So the elders aree the ones in a trio which can make for some weird exchanges some times. But being the solo District leader has been probably one of my greatest learning experiences on the mission. One reason is no one tells you how you should run your district and two you're responsible for every person inside your district. This for me has been a little bit stressful but I love it. I love trying to help everyone in my district and learning from my mistakes because there is definitely a lot of them.
  So our investigators are doing really well. Lima is on track to be baptized soon and we are getting super close with the familia Castillo. The thing we are trying to overcome with them is finding times that we can meet with araceli (we call her mama celi) and having them keep reading the BOM. Right now we are thinking about trying to do Skype lessons with them because they all have different busy schedules. But we will see what happens.
  Something I learned this week is that it's a lot easier to accomplish things when you're organized. That's always something I've kinda struggled with but I'm setting goals to overcome it poco al poco. But other than that it's been a pretty good week. I hope that everyone is doing well back home les quiero muchisimo we lea vayan bien.
 -Elder Gibbons