Lessons from President Oaks and the joy of baptism

Hola Hola Hola Hola
  This week has been by far one of the most eventful weeks for Elder Cook and I. To start it all off we had exchanges from Thursday to Friday and then District council on Friday. Elder Montgomery and Elder Stratford are the other Elders in our district beside the ZL's but they do some weird exchange thing so that they have at least one of them in the other District council at the same time as ours. I went with Elder Montgomery he's a good elder and we both had a good time together. But the next day we had our mission conference with President Oaks and this has been one of the things I've been like dreaming about for a long time, meeting one of the apostles or members of the first presidency. So our day on Saturday went as follows, We woke up at about 4:30 in the morning to get ready to leave, then we drove down to the Sawtelle building and arrived at around 6:15 we got set up to take a picture at around 6:30 with president Oaks and then we all got to shake his hand as we filed into the Chapel. Let me say the spirit was so strong in that room that I remember as he was saying that he had to go to a temple appointment that I didn't want him to leave. He is so in tune with the spirit and he is really good about following the promptings of the spirit. When he got up he first said that he doesn't prepare any written talks when he speaks with missionaries and he listens to what the holy ghost tells him.
  One of the things that stood out to me that I think a lot of missionaries might struggle with is going home early. He said that for those of you who go on missions do not go home early. Obviously there are lots of reasons for going home early but the fact that you don't think you can finish your mission is not a reason to go home early. He said the short term pain that you will feel while on your mission is not worth the long term pain that you will feel from not finishing your mission. He related with his own experience of not serving a mission and said that something just hasn't quite clicked with him and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He said that he lacks that knowledge that can only be learned while on a mission. So if your thinking about serving a mission do it and when you do start serving stick it our till the end.
  The other huge event that happened was Bernadino our friend of the church was baptized on sunday. It was probably one of the most spiritual baptisms of all time. It has been a 2 year process with him and the amount of Joy that he felt when he was baptized was amazing you could feel the spirit so strongly. I was so excited for him and his family who are not members but hopefully he can show them that example and they can become married in the temple thats our goal with Bernadino right now. But he is so excited thanks for all the prayers that have been sent his way. I hope that everyone has a good week, Les quiero mucho!!
Elder Gibbons

Los Angeles Mission Conference with Elder Oaks

A year out, and still learning...

Que tal Familia?
    Hola Hola a todos!! Como Estan? Well its been a pretty big past week I officially hit the Year mark on the mission which to me is unbelievable!! It's going way to fast I need more time!!😯 Another Huge announcement for our mission is that this Saturday President Oaks from the First Presidency is coming to speak to us. I'm super pumped for that and know that it will be an amazing learning experience. So the big news for me and Elder Cook this week is that we have Bernadino who is ready and is going to get Baptized this Sunday so whatever prayers are offered in his behalf we appreciate it because he has been preparing for this day for a long time. Nothing can really explain how excited I am for his decision to be baptized.
  The other news is me and Elder Cook both ate something that absolutely destroyed us. On monday we both ate undercooked freezer chicken tacos, and you can probably imagine what happened next... to give you an example during our dinner hour the next day we were switching using the bathrooms he would use it then I would go and use it then he would use it and so on. We used this members bathroom like 3 times each. We've had the squirts since then and are just barely starting to recover from it. Luckily though we evaded the Double Dragon. (might want to edit that part out when you send it to everyone else😂😁.) But other than that we have been hitting the pavement hard and finding and doing activities like crazy.
   One cool example of creative finding that we did this week is we went to a super busy park up by a college and started drawing the Plan of Salvation with sidewalk chalk. We got a couple people to come up and ask us what we were doing but the thing that stood out to me was how willing the little kids were to come up and learn about God. I thought that if everyone could have this amount of submissiveness all of California would be baptized. The thing I love about the little kids is that they really do listen and believe everything you tell them their faith is almost perfect. For example if you tell them that God loves them they will believe it. Then I started thinking about what Christ said about little children we need to be meek and faithful just as a little child if we don't we can't enter into the mansiones that he has prepared for us. I would invite everyone to look at the gospel with the view of a little child and put your faith in him when you have no other thing to put your faith in. Remember God loves each and everyone you and he wants you to succeed in this life no matter who you are. Put your faith in him and you will see the miracles come I promise.
  Love you all, hope that you don't get to sad about the PSB's. Hope everyone has a good week!!! Les Amo mucho. Si Pongen su confianza en dios les va a ayudar y suportar. Cuidanse!!!

Miracles happen!

Que Tal Familia???
  Man it sounds like its been a pretty cray ending to summer vacation with mom and dad getting back from Peru and the kids being at Grandmas. I hope everyone had a good time. This week has been pretty eventful for me and Elder Cook a lot of things are changing and we are trying to adapt to how each other works. It's been pretty good though really just some fine tuning. My new companions name is Elder Cook he's from Salem Oregon and loves music so we talk a lot about different types of music that we both liked, and he's also 6 foot 4 so this will be my 3rd of 6 companions who are taller than me. Anyways I'm almost out of time so I'll tell you the coolest miracle that happened this week.
 So we were out tracting and talking to everyone that we saw on the streets when all of a sudden I felt immediately that I should text Bernadino one of our investigators who we hadn't contacted in a while. I sent him a text and asked when we could come over that week and he responded with you guys could come over today at 7. So a couple hours later we went over to his house, and just a little background on him he has been taught for 2 years completely changed his life around from being a borracho to wanting to be sealed in the temple. His only obstacle was that he isn't married so Elders for 2 years have been trying to get this guy married but never had any luck (me and Elder Losee included). However when we sat down and started talking I immediately asked him about the wedding and then he held up his hand and said," Elders I did I got married on Sunday." We were so animated we immediately set a baptismal date with him for 2 weeks out. Since then we have contacted him every day and have begun to set up the baptismal service. It just goes to show that no matter where you go or where you are you are always there for a reason and sometimes that reason doesn't immediately show itself. I'm so grateful to all of the other Elders who had helped him come this far and I'm very grateful for the opportunity I have to see him make that decision to be baptized.
    I love you all so much I'll have a little more time next week But I hope that everyone has a good week. Les qiuero mucho cuidanse!!

Elder Gibbons

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Profile update - Embracing the new LA mission

Transfers and Staying in Grenada Hills

Hola Familia!!!!!
 Que Tal Peru?? Well this week we got the big news from transfer calls!!!!! Transfer calls here are a little different than transfer calls in San Fernando because the ZL's call everyone and tell you right then and there who your new companion is what your new area is and what your new zone is. However we had an activity that me and Elder Losee were singing at that started at 7 and wasn't finished until about 8:15. This activity was actually really cool and fun we weren't able to bring anyone with us but we got to see all of our old friend from Barrio Buena Vista. Elder Nelson and I went around to all those people that we were with for about 3 or 4 transfers and got to talk with them and get a couple of pictures. Anyways the final result from transfers is that I'm staying in this area and my new companion is Elder Cook. While Elder Losee is going down to inglewood Zone.
  I'm actually really excited to stay here in this ward, and to work with an L.A. missionary. I've seen the blessings that come from focusing on member missionary as this week alone we had 3 referrals, 2 of which were brought by members to the church. The last one was actually sent from the Visitors Center in Mexico City so super cool to think that at one point I was there 😁. This week we were also able to take our Recent Convert Jovani and his mom and dad who are investigators to the Temple Visitors Center. The spirit thats at the temple and the VC is so strong you can feel the difference as soon as you walk on the temple grounds. I can truly testify that as members and missionaries work together in harmony the work is so much easier and effective as well. We now have investigators that already have a fellowshipper and a ride to church every week. So always try to work a long side missionaries because we are both trying to reach the same goal.
  Another thing that the L.A. mission focuses on is creative finding ideas. This past week we were able to bring 2 other companionships and a couple of poster boards with this question on it, "If you could as God one question what would it be?" It was pretty succesful we had a couple people participate but we only got one referral. However as I was thinking about it we really do have one thing that answers the questions to the soul. Almost like a list of answers we just have to search for them. We have to search for these answers in the Book of Mormon, and if we search with real intent believing that we will get an answer we will find it. So I invite everyone who has those questions of the soul to search in the Book of Mormon for your answer I can promise you its there!!
  I hope the everyone has a good week. Thats all really for this week but I'll let you know about my new companion the following week. Les Amo mucho, Que les vayan bien.
Elder Gibbons

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Andrew Gibbons
August 4 ·

#esperanza
#oneWORDtheWORD