Week 12- Electric in the Air Sept 9 2014

Hello Everyone! I hope everyone is doing well! And to answer your question, yes that was a "Kicking and Screaming" reference. This is why; Tuesday we had some CRAZY weather here. We were in the house after lunch because lunch made us sick and then BOOM! A massive lightning storm hit Xela. Seriously the thunder was the loudest I have ever heard it in my whole life!!! And lightning was striking everywhere. It even struck one of the houses right next to us and our whole door light up! It was crazy scary. Hermana Sanchez and I were standing in the kitchen when that happened and we were away from the door (good thing!) but we were shaking and so scared. haha But it was kind of a cool experience.  This week we did a lot of service. We helped one of our investigators move her stuff from the first floor of her house to the second floor, which was rather difficult.But we had some DELICIOUS apple juice afterward! Then we also were street contacting and this lady answered the door and said she was busy and doing laundry so we offfered to help and she gladly invited us in! But she wasnt in her house, it was like a church kind of building, not really sure how to describe it. But after we finished, she gave us a tour and its like this place that this group of 20 meet and hangout and it is also their church. Well the lady invited us to tour their church and HOLY PRIESTCRAFT! Seriously this building was soooooo sketchy. There were a ton of swords and who knows how to describe it. But honestly, there are some secret combinations going on in there! And they meet Wednesday and Thursday from 8pm to 5am..... We had really bad feelings about being in there so, we wont be going back anytime soon! Thursday we had a Training Meeting and I got to see all of the people in my group from the MTC! It was SOO cool to see everyone and I miss them all a TON!!  Oh and something exciting, we are having a baptism next weekend with Brenda! I´m so excited about that!  I am loving the mission! It is hard, definitely hard, but it is amazing! I hope all is well back at home and everyone is enjoying the new school year! Love, Hermana Gibson

Mom asks questions everyone wants to know...

Why do you have to take Spanish Tests? Does it count towards something?

The test is a program for missionaries to see how their Spanish is improving throughout their mission. Not all mission have it but we do. And BYU created it.  

Does anyone speak English there for you to communicate with or is it strictly Spanish? 

The Elders in my area speak English and almost our entire zone speaks English but the main form of communication is Spanish. But in the Mission office, everyone is from North America and so i can talk to them easily, but rarely ever need to

Hows your new companion? 

Shes so awesome! Super nice and super funny. I am learning a lot from her

 What is your apartment like?

we live next to and below members. Its two rooms, one for our beds and one for our desks and kitchen-which mainly consists of a sink, fridge, portable stove top and food- and then we have a tiny room in the back of our house that has the bathroom and a sink to wash our clothes.

Where do you do your shopping?

There are a ton of little stores around here where we can buy clothes. which are like the DI of Di haha and today i bought a corduroy grey skirt with pockets!! It's perfect. There is also a little grocery store we go to once a week and there are all kinds of stores on every street that sells stuff.

How much do they give you to live on monthly?

I get 1800 quetz which is plenty

Is it enough to cover your food and living expenses or do we need to add money into your bank account?

That's enough to cover everything. The senior companion gets extra money to pay rent and the lights. Anything extra we buy comes from our own personal money. Which works out because its not like home where we get fed by members all the time so we purchase alot of food. Also, can you send easy healthy recipes that I can cook in microwave for meals? I can print them off from my emails. 

Are you doing well budgeting your money?

good. we get our money the first of every month and i divide it out for the weeks 

What is the best thing you have been fed?

This awesome lasagna, a soup called caldron i think which is like a bunch of veggies and roast!

What is the grossest thing you have been fed?

cow intestines....

What do you love about where you are living?

I love being in Xela because we are so blessed to have everything so close to us and have clean water and a shower

Tell me about your companion.

shes from Peru, super short, and really loud and funny! she has a super caring heart and really loves our investigators

Do you have things in common?

ummmm yeah mostly mish stuff but shes also a convert so that's cool

Do you drive a car? or have a cell phone to communicate with members?

no car, but a cell phone yes. in fact my first day our cell phone got stolen out of hermana woods bag by an investigator. how she did it we have no idea but she took like 20 quetz too

What is the biggest thing that has impacted your life so far on your mission?

just realizing that these are real people with real problems and the best thing i can go for them in pray and help them come to know Christ

Have you received any cards in the mail?

one the ones i already told you about. No one gets cards here. Its super rare. The best thing to do is send them in a big envelope package and then they come but individually, no.

Are the people of Guatemala as welcoming as you thought they would be?

they are more welcoming than i thought. Something they are even too nice to say that they don't want to hear our message haha

Week 11- Heartburn... The Holy Ghost... or Cow Intestines? 25/8/14

Hola Everyone!

Hope all is well at home and everyone is enjoying the heat. This week was a little harder than most but it was still super great. Monday night we had a meeting with one of our investigators and let me give you the DL on their lives: We have been teaching Familia Martinez and Three months ago two of their sons were travelling to the coast and they got kidnapped. The family hadn't heard anything from their sons for three months and they did a police search and everything. We have been teaching them for 3 weeks now and they are so awesome. They are so nice and have so much faith for the terrible situation they are in. Well, Monday night we had an appointment with them and they finally got news about theirs sons and were told they had one week to get their ransom money: Which is good news because that means their sons are still alive. So we have been praying for them a ton and visiting with them. And one of the Daughters (who is 17) told us that we have been such a great blessing in their lives and she knows its because they have been coming to church and visiting with us that they have received the great blessing of knowing their sons/brothers are still alive. So it was an amazing experience to hear that and to be there for them. So please put Familia Martinez in your prayers.

Tuesday we were told by the Zone Leaders not to put any appointments for all day Tuesday, because we were going to have a surprise activity. Well this activity was a full day of street contacting. We had about 6 hours to knock on doors and teach lessons or schedule other citas (appointments) with them. There was also a point system and we had to keep track of our points all day long. Honestly I didn't really like this activity, because it made me feel like the people we were contacting were just for numbers and not to actually preach the gospel, but we participated anyway and tried to get to know the people personally. We contacted 38 people and got 3rd place in our Zone for the activity. And that night, to end the activity, we had a campfire as a Zone and roasted marshmallows and hot dogs and had a testimony meeting and played some games. It was a super long but fun day.

Wednesday we went to visit some of our investigators and their lights in their house have been out for 3 days, so we went and bought them candles and shared a message with them. It was pretty funny because it looked like a sketchy ritual that was going on haha but never fear, we were just preaching the good word. 

So Morgan Lane told me that I will see 10 years of growth in the next 18 months.... Well I think I've seen 10 years already! This week I've been having some serious heartburn! or maybe the Holy Ghost is just so strong that it´s literally a warm/burning feeling in my chest haha yeah we will go with that! And on top of that, i ate cow intestines for lunch yesterday! I repeat COW INTESTINES!!!!!!! I literally almost died and felt like vomiting all day! Elder Muse (The other Zone leader in our area) was also suffering just as much as me. And finally once I was able to gulp down the last little bit, Elder Dalton loudly asked me if I would like more. And sadly I had to accept because its offensive to say no here.... That was just cruel and unusual punishment.

Here´s a list of other random things that are going on in the life of Hermana Gibson:

Last Monday i saw SIMBA in Xela!!! This little girl was walking down the street with a brand spanking new Simba. the Same one!! It was insane. I almost wanted to ask her to take a picture, but I probs would have scared her.

I have come to the conclusion that I am too tall for Guatemala. I have to duck under Everything and bugs are always flying in my face because they aren't used to people being this tall. But I like being tall because it gives me added protection when sketchy men are whistling at me and I'm like a foot taller than them. Speaking of being hit on, my comp and I play a game where we subtly punch each other every time someone whistles or saying something flirtatious to us. Its quite fun! 

We had a contest on who can eat a chiltepe and can go the longest without drinking water. I was fine but Elder Dalton was crying and sweating so badly hahaha I was rather proud of my gringa self!

Also there are three wild dogs that live outside of our house and I have named them Quet, Zalten, and Ango. Clever right? I´ll take a picture one of these days!

Well yeah that's all I've got for this week! Thank you all for all of the love and support you constantly give! Have an AWESOME week!

Hermana Gibson

Week 10- Everything Has Changed!

Hello Everyone!

Wow this week has been CRAZY!!! Thursday morning hermana woods and i got a call saying that we had to be at the mission office at 3 because we were having emergency changes! We were SO shocked because we only had 3 weeks together and now we were being separated. So we packed H. Woods´s stuff and said bye to some families and then we had our interviews with President and his wife. Which was good because I got a new pillow, but really hard because we were having transfers. So H. Woods went to train a girl in my group and now I have a new companion. Her name is Hermana Sanchez. She is from Peru and only has 3 months left in the mission. Shes super awesome and a really good missionary, so I am really lucky to have her. And my Spanish is already improving a ton haha Probably because I don't have any other choice. But The first two days after transfers were seriously SO hard!! I basically had to be the senior companion and do daily planning, weekly planning, and  hold the correlation meeting with our ward mission leader all by myself. So it was hard but the Lord knew that I could handle it, and honestly I feel really blessed.

This week we met with one of our Investigators named Yomara. She is seriously so awesome. Her husband is a member but inactive, and won´t listen to our message unless we know what the Seven Capital/Deadly Sins are (which im pretty sure are just subjective to him) and unless we know what GWR is from the Bible, that might be in spanish, idk.... but I'm you know them, please send them my way! AnywayYomara was saying that all of the other missionaries before kind of annoyed her because she felt like she was being pushed into baptism. So I told her that that is not why we are here. I told her that we loved her personally and we are here to help her gain a testimony of Christ and help her in every spiritual matter that we can. We would love for her to be baptized, but most importantly, we want her to have a strong relationship with our Savior.I also shared my mom´s experience about feeling that same way and thatYomara wasn´t a number or a quota to us And her attitude totally changed about listening to the lessons. She´s awesome and I´m excited to go back and see her!

Also we have 7 of our investigators come to church Sunday, like WHAT THE HECK!?! I literally couldn't believe that happened, it was seriously a miracle. We also have two baptism dates set for Jennifer and her little sister Gladys. I´m so excited for them, they are so pilas. (pilas=stud.)

On Monday we had a few FHEs with The Elders because it was elder Browning´s last day and we were invited. In one on the Fhes he shared Enos 1:27 and it has been stuck in my head all week. The scripture says, "And I soon must go to the place of my rest, which is with my Redeemer; for I know that in him, I shall rest. And I rejoice in the day when my mortal shall put on immortality, and shall stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure and he shall say unto me: Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father, Amen." This is my goal: To work as hard and diligently as I can in this life so that when my time comes, I can stand before Christ and have him welcome me with open arms and allow me to enter into his kingdom. How beautiful is that thought! I invite all of you to make this your goal too, because a mansion in the kingdoms of god truly is happiness. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Hermana Gibson

Week 9- If you aren't being rejected, you aren't trying

Hello everyone!

I can´t believe it is already monday again! Time is seriously flying by! This week was pretty fun. We worked super hard with all of our investigators and had a lot of laughs! It rained here a lot this week, but nothing too crazy. I now understand why P-days are on Mondays.... That´s because Sundays are SO hard! Its a bummer because we work so hard with our investigators but they still have their agency to act for themselves. So when they don´t come to church, its so frusturating and really sad! But we just need patience right? I mean it took my parents 3 years but they eventually came around haha (love you guys!) So at least I know that no time is wasted here.

But the best part of Sunday was when we were teaching our investigator Thelma. She had taken the leccons years ago, but I really feel that the Lord has prepared her now. Her husband was in a motorcycle accident because he was drinking and now he has the mentality of a 12 year old but hes seriously so loving and happy! Its such a blessing. We retaught the lesson about the Plan of Salvation and the Spirit was so strong. And she agreed to be baptized.

So some random things that happened this week, we have rootbeer floats which here delicious!!! And then there was a Xela wide blackout the othernight for an hour, but it all worked out. We had this new investigator and we were trying to find his house for 30 minutes and finally when we did, i started laughing so hard because his name was written on the door... liike we should have known all along. His name is Noe and he may be a little crazy but He{s awesome. And he calls us the iglesia de MORMONES de los Santos De Los Ultimos Dias. He´s so funny. Also today we hiked this mountain thing andit was crazy!! There were all of these people having like spirit rituals at the top and like bowing down and burning stuff. It was CREEPY! But the view was beautiful!

I love being a missionary!

What a blessing,

Hermana Gibson