Busy in the work and LA Traffic

Hola familia,

  Como están? Aquí estamos trabajando mucho. So this week has been pretty crazy for us because we're preparing for the baptism of Justin and Miguel. However the coolest thing happened with dulce one of the people that lives with Justin and Miguel. We were teaching her the gospel of Jesus Christ and focusing especially on repentance as well as baptism. We invited her to be baptized on the 20th of April and she accepted!! She was so excited. Her parents had just recently been baptized in Mexico and she was super ready to be baptized. So right after Justin and Miguel are baptized we are going to focus all of our attention on her.

The work is moving quickly here in Los Angeles but the traffic is not. It takes us 15-20 minutes to go 2-3 miles and during the L.A. marathon it took the Hermanas in my district more than an hour to go 1 mile. I love this work so much and I can't wait for what this week will bring. Les amo mucho que se cuidan!!

Elder Gibbons

Joy in the work

Hola familia
  Well today I saw the ocean for the first time on my mission! Also don't have a lot of time, so the coolest experience this week happened with our baptismal dates. We went over to visit Justin y miguel and their dad was at the table. We had never seen the dad before (at least I hadn't) and we started talking with him. We told him about the joy that Justin and Miguel feel from the gospel and we told him he could have the same joy if was baptized but forever. Well his answer was maybe not right now but un the future yes. So he will be put on Date here pretty soon and hes coming to church this week. I love everything about the gospel there's nothing else id rather do. I invite each of you to find the things that build your faith and run with them, do everything you can to increase your faith. Les quiero!!

-Elder Gibbons

Work in the city

Hola familia y amigos!

Wow what a change! This past week has been honestly a big change from what we were doing in San Fernando Zone. Here we are in the middle of South Central, there are so many Spanish speakers here which is super good for us. The whole atmosphere here in the city is completely different than in the valley I'm not sure how to explain it but people always just seem to be more focused on where they have to be next rather than what they are doing in the moment. Parking is absolutely the worst and traffic as well. We live about 13 km from the temple and it took us well over an hour to get there. Without traffic it takes us anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes.for me I've been trying to get adjusted to all the new street names and remembering the names of all the people we're teaching. As well as meeting the ward members and developing a relationship with them.
 My new companion is Elder Longoria and he is a stud. This guy is a convert of 2 years baptized his family right before coming out and is trying to walk on for BYU as a QB. Me and him both love to work and we are both working super hard. This week I've been especially grateful for the GPS on our phones and for ABP that can guide us to any member or potential or person we're teaching. It really does help the work quicken because without it we would be wandering not knowing where to go.

  Something cool that we're doing that I've never done before is teach an English class. So all the Hispanic people that want to learn English so they can get a job come and take the English classes (gratis) and it's a great way to find people to teach.

Also another thing that is new to me is since the visitors center is in My zone we have half the VC hermanas in our zone. So my entire district is hermanas. It's just weird because ive never been in a zone where there are just as many hermanas as elders. So we will see how that goes.

Ok another cool experience is we got a call from the AP's on Friday night and they asked us elders are you doing anything Saturday morning from 9-2 so we told them, "just some studies." they asked us would you like to represent the mission at an event in the LAPD headquarters building? We said sure and then they were all like, "there will be media and news people there so wear your suits and look your best." So we got to go to this event and it was super cool. It was a huge service activity where we put together boxes to help people get established in their apartments who didn't have much money. (We may or may not have been on the news). Anyways the reason I thought it was cool was because the church has a mission for public relations and in whatever instance they can they develop good public relations with agencies, consulates, and countries. For example the queen of Ugandan was in the visitors center for national women's day and all the VC and public relations missionaries were there to establish that relationship with Ugandan. So some very important things are happening down in the city zone and I had no idea that things like this even happened because I was up in the valley for so long. So although I love the valley Im grateful for this new chance to serve the people here in South Central.


I live missionary work! I'm not sure if I've written that in an email but this is the best thing that I have ever done and I've fallen in love with the gospel of Jesus Christ and the ability it has to change hearts and bring true happiness in joy. There's no other place I'd rather be. Love you all so much have a great week!!

-Elder Gibbons

Change: it's a lesson I am learning

Hola familia,
  Well change seems to be a reoccurring thing on my mission and with change comes adapting. So I think one of the lessons I'm supposed to learn is how to adapt to change. The new announcement that was just released has been quite the change. We've only been allowed to call our families twice a year but now with the new announcement we can call every P-day. I'm not gonna lie at first I felt kinda guilty calling home not on mother's day or Christmas, but afterwards it felt right to be able to tell family about those things that were happening in the area and with the people we are teaching.
  Well to give you a short update of what happened this past week we had zone conference on Thursday. It was super good we learned about the simplicity of the gospel and how much it really means to know that God is our loving heavenly father. Because we have this knowledge we know that we don't have to be scared of some all powerful being who is ready to destroy us. But we know that he loves us and wants the best for us, he cares individually about what we like and what things we want to do. Because of that he wants to hear from us.
   As far as updates for people we are teaching, Katelan missed her baptismal interview😭 so we are trying to get back in contact with them to see what happened. Angel we haven't been able to get back In contact with because he has so much stuff to do before he finishes graduating. He is doing a tutoring program for school and trying out for a national travel soccer club also. So we will see what happens this week that comes.
  One of the hardest things in the world for us is getting people to church. We have been making plans and setting goals as much as we can to get people to church but we haven't found any luck yet. So we are gonna try something new this week and hopefully get some of the people we are teaching to church. Other than that nothing else happened it was a pretty short week because last week we had a Wednesday P-day. So keep praying for Angel and Katelan please.
  Well I love you all so much tell Hayden congrats and that I hope he gets to be companions with elder Benavides. Les quiero mucho. Sorry if the emails get a little shorter it's just a lot easier to be able to say it than to write it. Love you!!
-Elder Gibbons

Latter-day Saint Missionaries Can Now Call, Text Home Weekly, First Presidency Announces

The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Friday an update to guidelines regarding communication between full-time missionaries and their families.

Effective immediately, the Church’s 65,000 missionaries are authorized to communicate with their families each week on preparation day by text messages, online messaging, phone calls, and video chats, in addition to letters and emails.

“Regular communication with their families is an important part of a missionary’s service,” said the First Presidency in a statement. “One of the major purposes of this adjustment is to encourage families to be more involved in their missionary’s efforts and experiences.”

The significant adaptations to missionary communication are the result of the “options, possibilities, and technologies now offered in some parts of the world,” said Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and chairman of the Church’s Missionary Executive Council.

Communication should occur on the missionary’s preparation day and be initiated by the missionary. Missionaries are asked to use good judgment in determining the length of phone calls and video chats and to be considerate of their companions.

With the new advances in technology, this communication should take place at little or no cost to the Church, the missionaries, or their families.

In those few locations where families or missionaries do not have access to computers or phones, missionaries are encouraged to continue using their current means of communication.

In addition to weekly communication, missionaries are also encouraged to contact family on other special occasions such as Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, parents’ birthdays, and other culturally significant holidays.
“We encourage missionaries to communicate with their families each week using whatever approved method missionaries decide,” said Elder Uchtdorf. “This may vary based on their circumstances, locations, and schedules for that week. It is not expected that all missionaries will call or video chat with their parents every week. The precise manner of communication is left up to the missionary as he or she decides what will best meet their needs.”

Elder Uchtdorf said the new guidelines offer several additional benefits, including accommodating varied family circumstances, as well as better supporting those missionaries who would benefit from increased personal contact with family at home.

“As families, we love our missionaries,” he said. “Missionaries love their families. They want to communicate with them.”

Elder Uchtdorf called this communication—made possible by technology—a wonderful thing. “We communicate with our Heavenly Father every day, and we would like to have our families communicate with the missionaries every week—maybe by letter or maybe by email, or now maybe by video chats or phone calls. This is an addition which brings more confidence, more peace.”

He rejected the philosophy that calling home more than twice a year will weaken or distract missionaries.

“Our missionaries are pretty tough,” said Elder Uchtdorf. “They receive rejection every day. They have tough weather conditions. They have to learn a lot. They have to work with new cultures, with new circumstances. But above all, they know in their hearts and minds that they are servants and representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Further, Elder Uchtdorf said new options of communication with home will be a motivating force, not a distraction. After their communication with families—in whatever form the missionaries select—they can “go out there and serve the Lord with even a brighter heart, a more joyful countenance.” They can smile at the people they meet and teach and say, “I just talked to my parents. They send their greetings and they send their love.”

Church leaders trust the missionaries, he said. “They do this very well on Christmas or whatever the occasion is. We are confident that this will be very nicely done among the missionary companionships.”

Increased communication can help to unify missionaries and their families in this “great and marvelous work,” said Elder Uchtdorf. Missionaries can share with their families “the wonderful experiences they have in the field.”

Increased communication may also help missionaries who are homesick and could benefit from the “comforting voice of their parents,” said Elder Uchtdorf.

To avoid disruption to missionary schedules, family members are asked not to initiate calls or chats but instead wait for the missionary to contact them on his or her weekly preparation day. If a missionary’s parents live in different locations, he or she may contact each parent separately.

Parents should remember that the missionaries have an important work to do. “They are called to bring the gospel message to all the world. They are called to find, teach, baptize, and help people to become disciples of Jesus Christ. They are the ones in charge of communication.”

Missionaries “initiate the call to their parents because they have a schedule they want to fulfill. Missionaries and parents can plan ahead to find a time convenient to both. On preparation day, missionaries want to prepare physically, mentally, and spiritually for the rest of the week. They know best which time would be best for them to call home.”

Elder Uchtdorf added, “The Lord loves the missionaries and their families. We are confident that the expanded ways of weekly communication between missionaries and their families by letters, emails, online messaging, video chats, or phone calls will have a positive effect on the efforts to gather Israel, both in the mission field and at home.”

Inspiration

Que tal Familia??
  Wow this week has been amazing! Before I talk about the temple I want tell you about a cool miracle that we saw just barely this morning. So as we were pulling out of the parking garage we saw a lady who turned out to be a member and her car had died. So we pulled up along side her popped both the hoods and started trying to jump this car. We tried so many different things to where we were tapping on the starter and readjusting the cables to trying to give it gas as we started it but for 30 minutes of trying and failing we were feeling pretty unlucky. So Elder Benavides said, "We haven't said a prayer yet." We invited this member who said she hadn't prayed in forever to say a prayer, so we said a prayer asking for some help to be able to start the car and then waited for like 5 minutes as we had done previously. We decided to give it one more try and then she was just gonna take an uber. So we started it and it was turning over and the dying and then turning over and then dying and then finally after about 5 seconds of trying to start it, the motor caught and it started running. We were so excited because it help build the faith of not only us but this member who hadn't prayed in a while. The power of prayer exists I know that for a fact and I hope that this miracle helped build your faith as well.
  Well we had interviews and temple day on Wednesday of this past week. And wow the temple was incredible!! I almost suffer withdrawls from the temple when we don't get to go. The adjustments made were defintely inspired of God and I would invite anyone who hasn't gone to the temple since the adjustments have been to go no matter what it takes. I testify that these adjustments have come from god and that our prophet Russel M. Nelson knows exactly what God wants us to do.
     The last thing is that we finally got Katelan to come to church. what ended up happening is that instead of us just stopping by and then leaving we stopped by and started singing karokee until they had all woken up (we both think that we killed it on the karokee in case you were wondering). So If you ever need a fun Idea to get people to church I highly recommend it. Thats about most of what our week consisted of, thanks for the emails and the talks because I've found that I absolutely love reading what the apostles and prophets have said, so I will for sure be checking out those talks. Love you all so much. Se Cuidan!!
Love you!!

Baptism and the blessings of technology

Que Tal Familia?
  El nino Christopher se bautizo en el Sabado!!! We had such a good ending to our week, we were able to have the baptism of Christopher and all of his family came including his Mom (who is divorved from Hernan) and his step dad and brother. The best part was that Miriam got baptized too, she is a person that has been taught for a long time in the other elders area (Pidcock and Cornelio). So afterwords we had to celebrate so we went to Wingstop. It was such an amazing experience to be able to see Hernan baptise his son. He was so excited but told us, "Hermanos, estoy bien nervioso, tienen que estar aqui para ayudarme si hago un error." I love hernan so much as well as his kids Christopher and Julietta, who will also be baptised this year.
  Something cool is that we got to skype in Elder Terry for the baptism as well as the Hermanas in el centro de visitantes en Mexico who sent us the referral for Hernan. Technology is such a huge blessing and something I've noticed is that before the mission I did not use technology at all like I should've I thought about it a lot and I realized that all the time back home I would post something about me or a picture about me, but what I've learned is that technology and social media is not here for you, its here to help hasten the work. So I think I can say that I have been retrained how to use technology and trust me it helps so much.
   Another exciting thing is that this week we got a Visitor Center trip with miguel and lidia. Miguel and Lidia were found through Hernan sharing the gospel with them and then bringing them to a ward party. Since then we have been over to teach them several lessons and Hernan has been an amazing help to us as a member present and member missionary. I really do hope one day you can come back and meet him because you can tell that this mans entire appearance and attitude has changed. So things are going well within the area the only thing is that we had to drop Angie due to lack of contact. Apparently being pregnant really has kinda wrecked her and she hasn't been doing very good at all. So unfortunately we haven't been able to meet with her.
  The other big thing that happened this week is that the Familia Sanchez moved to victorville, which is like 2 hours away. They are such an awesome family and I will miss them a lot. Anyways Elder Benavides and I are both doing good, unfortunately there is no word on his Visa so he will for sure be here another transfer from what we know. It sounds like its been a real lucha getting visas to Ecuador lately, so we are still waiting on that.
  But we are still working hard and will continue to do so. I love you all so much thank you for the emails I really do appreciate it. Maybe dad can teach me a move or two when I get back😂. I love you!!! Les Amo!!
-Elder Gibbons

Making weaknesses into strengths

Hola Familia Como están?
Aquí estamos trabajando bien duro y enfocándonos en Christopher el hijo de Hernan. Well elder Benavides and I have had a pretty good week. This sunday we got Christopher back to church and we did his baptismal interview. So everything is set up for his baptism on Saturday at 7 o clock. Hernan was so excited to be able to baptize his son and he has been an incredible influence on him.
When we started teaching Christopher he already knew so much about the church and the gospel all because of Hernan (our recent convert and Christopher's dad) who taught him all the stuff that we taught Hernan.
We are also working with Katelan Perez and her family. The problem is, is that we can't get them to come to church no matter how hard we try. We had several lessons with her mom where we focused on just her and told her the importance of coming to church. We even called them in the morning and asked if they were still coming to church, they said yes and then never showed😔😔. So that's what our biggest trial is in our area right now. I've found that whatever your biggest trials are one transfer usually you learn and improve to where it becomes your strongest area next transfer. You learn from trials and challenges and the best part is, is that those weaknesses can become strengths just like it says in Ether 12:27. However only in and through relying on the lord and his atonement is this possible.
Well having elder pidcock in the pad is super fun we all work hard but at the end of the day we have fun together. Other than a couple of leadership trainings not to much happened this week. Most of this week we have just been focusing on our baptismal dates and less active and inactive members in the ward its still a little strange to do missionary work this way to me but I guess it's just the fact that San Fernando turned me into a pounder😄. Speaking of San Fernando its cool to have hermana Johnson back in my district, and yeah she started and ended it in the same district as me. 
The basement looks super good and sounds like it'll be lots of fun. I hope that the sissies do good at state and that Anson still keeps balling. I love you all so much I will try and share some videos with you all, I haven't done a very good job of doing that. Pero les quiero mucho espero que tengan una semana buena!

-Elder Gibbons

Let's make it 9 months in Panorama City

Hola Hola Familia!!
  Well I'm sure you all want to hear the big news about where I'm going seeings as how I have been in this area for a while now. Well we waited Sunday night as usual for the big news. We got the call at about 9:30 at night and then we got the chisme. So Elder Benavides is staying in this area and I am also staying to finish his training. So this is actually super weird because I have been in this area since the beginning of June and this will be 6 and a half transfers in the same area. So here's the rest of the information that I know. Elder Nelson is going ZL in Los Angeles zone Elder Losee is staying and double training, Elder Quiroz is going down to TPV as Zone Leader. Thats what I know of so far and also Hermana Johnson is in my district and Elder Pidcock he's replacing Elder Aslami in our apartment. So I'm very excited this next transfer to be able to work again with the same people.
  Well thats the biggest news really this week for us we didn't have anyone come to church unfortunately which was kinda a bad way to end off the transfer but me and Elder Benavides have set a goal to focus on church attendance this week. So here's kinda a cool miracle, Elder Benavides and I were deciding where to park to go by a referral that we had. So we chose a spot that we thought was somewhat close to the street that we needed to be on. Long story short we parked no where near it and we ended up walking for about 10-15 minutes to get to the apartment building. Anyways turns out the address didn't exist so we decided to walk clear to the other side of area again another 15-20 minutes of walking to go by Angie we found Angie there and talked for a minute with her then we set a return and started heading back to the car. Anyways right before we were about to turn onto the street where we parked our car we ran into crystal y Jovani. We talked with them for a few minutes and then right before we were about to go to the car we heard someone scream Elders!!!! so we turned to look who it was and what was some people in a car that asked if we wanted to go to lunch with them. So turns out it was 3 YSA members Andrea, Andrea, and Matt. We went and sat down and talked with them while we ate some delicious tortas and then we got onto the subject of going through the temple. One of the Andrea's was a recent convert who actually was found through the BOM experiment, she told us that she was scared to go through the temple and had a hard time understanding why some members of the church don't keep all the commandments. So we explained to her the power of the temple and the blessings that we get from it. We related it to a talk by Deiter F. Uchtdorf, where a man buys a cruise ticket and is content with only staying in his hotel room when he realized at the end of the cruise he could've been enjoying all of these crazy dinners and parties and getting off on the islands but he just stayed in his hotel room. So we shouldn't just be content with our hotel room when we can experience so many other great and marvelous blessings that come from the temple. She said that it really touched her and she started crying. So I can tell you that God works in mysterious ways and that for some reason we were supposed to run into that YSA member that day.
  Dad the fireplace doesn't look to shabby. I also love your emails and your testimonies that you send me I truly am grateful to be your son. Mom I also love your emails and updating me on all of the stuff thats happening with people back home. Tell everyone that I love them but also I love the work that I'm doing here. Thanks for all you do for me I love you all so much. Les Amo mucho y hay muchas cosas buenas que van a venir.  Que les pasan buen dia.
-Elder Gibbons

The Importance of Planning

Que Pasa Calabasa?
  So this week we actually did not get a lot of time to work in our area because we had interviews and New missionary orientation on the same day. Then 2 days later we had zone conference which was super good and then District Council the next day. So our time wasn't quite as long in the area as last week. Anyways Interviews are always a special experience and yes mom and dad I did shine my shoes beforehand (I also put a pocket square in)😂😂. We talked mostly about the ways that I can better help the people in my district as well as the ways I can become a better trainer. There was one question I asked him that kinda stood out I asked him what the most important thing was that I could teach mi hijo and the district, He said," The most important thing you can teach them is how to plan." I thought that was interesting because I thought he would've said that you have to give an honest sincere daily best effort, or that their

successful no matter what, but the most important thing is planning because if you don't plan nothing gets done in missionary work. The best way to be an effective missionary is to plan effectively. So a couple days after that we had Zone Conference all of which was focused on the BOM we read elder tad R Callisters talk to prepare for it and it is such a powerful talk. We emphasized the fact that we are fulfilling the blessing of Abraham as we are part of the 12 tribes of Israel. We also learned who the new mission president is going to be!! So the new mission president for the CLAM will be Elder Cordon of the area seventy over Guatemala. We are getting a Spanish speaking mission president which will help the Spanish missionaries out a lot. So I will be able to meet Elder Cordon and serve with him for 1 transfer before heading home. In my district council I focused a lot on companionship unity which was a training we received in Zone Conference so I did a role play to help them better teach in unity and so we taught the restoration but we used our phones to time how long we spoke for.
  Other than that there's not to many updates from the area we reset Angel Hernandez's date for the 9th of February and then Angie, as well as Katelan weren't able to come to church 😢. However we are working with them and are trying our best to get them to church. Please pray for Angel Hernandez his mom and brothers got in a car crash recently and he is now having to do everything around the house by himself and take care of all 3 of his younger brothers. Two hour church has really been a blessing for us as missionaries it really helps us get people to stay for the whole 2 hours and then we can have the opportunity of inviting someone to a members house with us afterwards to help them see the importance of families in the church. Les Amo mucho se cuidan!!!
-Elder Gibbons

Greenie Fire and Miracles

¿Que tal familia?

  I'm glad you guys got the package and you liked it. Tell buddy I said happy birthday. So I've gotta tell you about the coolest week of my mission. They say that there's a greenie fire that the new missionaries bring with them and let me say it's true. Since I've been in this area for awhile sometimes I feel like I've done all that I can and that I've tried everything, but then elder Benavides gets pumped because he's fresh out and then I get pumped and then we just get to work.

 So let me tell you the coolest miracle ever. Elder Benavides and I had parked our car clear away from the person we're teaching's house. So we had to walk a good 10 or 15 minutes to get there. And then I know it doesn't sound that cold to everyone else but it was like 55 degrees and windy so I was freezing I had on 3 layers and still was pretty cold😂😂. Anyways it turns out our friend wasn't there and so we were about to turn back when I had the thought to go visit one of the people we were teaching but stopped going by because we couldn't contact him.

We dropped him 4 months ago but I had the distinct feeling that we needed to go by him. So we got to his apartment door and knocked about 3 times and he never answered. So we started walking away and then from down the hallway we heard someone say "hey!!" So we turned around and he was outside his door waving us down. So we ran back to the door and started talking. Anyways we got a return appointment and when we went back to the return appointment we set a baptismal date with him!! So from being an antiguo he went to a baptismal date.

  That was just the start though we then set Angie back on date that same day and turns out she's pregnant. So that could be a potential obstacle in the future because she has some serious side affects when she's pregnant. We went to her apartment for the día de la rosca. She gave us some possole and then we had the pan de rosca where they hide the baby in the pan and whoever cuts off a piece of pan with the baby inside has to bring breakfast to everyone. So long story short I'm gonna give everyone breakfast soon😂😂.

 Then the next couple of days we set a baptismal date with Katelan a 9 year old who was part of that inactive family I told you about. And then the following day we set a baptismal date with Hernan's son. Hernan is very excited to be able to baptize him and we had a great Visitor center trip with him and his son and daughter. His sons name is Christopher and the daughters name is Julieta.

  So we went from having no baptismal dates to having 4 and then finding 5 new people this week which is insanely good. So let me say that the spirit really does help you find the people and the things that you need to do in order to accomplish the fathers will. It's like in 1 Nephi when Nephi says that he was led by the spirit not knowing beforehand the things which he should do.

  I love you all so much. We have interviews with President and then zone conference right after this coming week. So next week I'll let you know how that goes. Les quiero mucho. Tell the girls awesome job for winning their basketball game.



-Elder Gibbons