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