Week 30

Hola Amigos!

This week was another great week here in Los Altos. Tuesday we had interviews with President Smith and man, he is so inspired. He always helps us know how we can improve to become the missionaries that the Lord expects of us. After we had a zone meeting with him and he imformed us of the newly raised mission standards, which if they werent hard enough to reach before, now is going to have a lot of faith! But it`s cool to see all of the changes that we are having in the mission because by the end of this year, we will be able to really see the fruits of it all. I`m really excited about that and the mission goal for this year is help 2000 souls come unto Christ and enter into the gates of baptism so that they might recieve the blessings of eternal life!! We have got some work to do my friends!

In the mission we are really focusing on finding families! So this week before contacting, we said a prayer in the street. Then we felt the Spirit guide us to the street where we needed to knock doors.Well in the beginning, everyone was rejecting us. But we knew that was where we needed to be so we kept knocking. Then finally we knocked a door and did the normal " Hola, somos las misioneras" routine and the dad told us to enter!  ANd inside we found his wife and two kids! After all of the rejection, WE FOUND A FAMILY! They are super cool. The dad is catholic and mom is evangelic but the kids havent yet decided what religion they wanted to join. They are all super receptive to our message and want to real the Book of Mormon to learn more!! I`m stoked about teaching them.

So I learned a valuable lesson this week. Often times in life we are led to do things without understanding. And often, even when we feel like we are following the promptings of the Spirit, all we can see are the obstacles and challenges that lie before us. And even when we continue to do what we are supposed to, we dont see the blessings that God has for us. But when we continue, and continue in faith, we will be spiritually lead to the place where He needs us to be. It`s hard and sometimes we face challenge, after challenge, after challenge, but God has a plan and his plan is perfect. ANd in this plan, we has blessings promised for us. 

I love you all and keep pushing through the tough times, because amazing blessings are always instore. Thank you for all of your love and support. Have an amazing week! And sorry that i dont have pictures 

Love,

Hermana GIbson 

Week 29

Wow! Another great week in the mission field! On Tuesday we did divisions with the hermana leaders. I went with Hermana Rubio again to her area called Jardines. Its super funny because that was my third time going there and the members actually remember me now haha. But it was super fun! We made it a tradition that everytime we do divisions we order McDonalds and guess what, MCDONALDS DELIVERS!!!! Seriously, right to your  door and free of charge! Step up your game America! But it was super fun being with her and I always learn  a ton. Also during divisions I found the God First sticker from my old church! It was the best!

This week something pretty cool happened. We were contacting and we knocked this door and this older man answered and began saying that he was catholic and didnt want anything from a book that talks about Joseph Smith. LOL. So We quickly explained what the Book of Mormon was and where it came from. We shared the scripture in John 10:16 where Christ says he has other sheep that arent in Jerusalem and read 3 Nephi which says that the people in the Americas were his other sheep. After he had a HUGE change of heart and wanted us to give him a copy because he was interested. It was cool to see how the Spirit work within him in only 5 minutes. It was a cool experience.

We also have been working with some recent converts and it has been really cool to see them go from not having a testimony to sharing their testimony with us. Also one less active cant read but she wants us to teach her how because she cant  gain a testimony of the book of mormon if she cant read it. 

This week I finished reading the Book of Mormon until Jacob and I gotts tell ya, the Book of Mormon is the most powerful book that I have ever read in my entire life! Every word that I read it so powerful and everytime I read it I just want to share it with the world. But maybe ill  just start here in Los Altos. I found one scripture that I just loved! Its from 1 Nephi 21:13-16. I could write a lot about it but its better if you just read it. Christ loves us and will NEVER forget us. His Atonement is infinite and eternal.

I love you and and also, I LOVE GUATEMALA! 

P.S. I only have 9 new pulga bites this week :)

Love,

Hermana Gibson

Week 27- Feliz Año Nuevo!

Buenas Tardes!

Wow this week was crazy long! Seriously I thought it was never going to end haha but here we are at the beginning of another week. The beginning of our week was super slow because no one was home, but we were still able to find people to teach!

New Years was super fun! We had a few dinners and I couldnt even look at food after i was so stuffed!!! But it was super fun to hang out with the members for a little bit and eat some delicious guatemalan food! I honestly have adapted to being here becasue its super weird to eat a meal without tortillas now! Honestly i feel like something is missing. At midnight, because sleeping was nearly impossible we went up to the roof to watch the midnight skies of Xela illuminate with brightly colored fireworks. It was super cool. It was almost like Vegas firework status because all of Xela lit fireworks. It was pretty cool.

This week we found a less active and we shared a scripture with her and she started crying and told us how she wanted to leave the house but felt like she should have stayed and it was becasue we were coming to find her. And she thanked us for sharing the perfect scripture with her. So it was really cool to know that we had been led completely by the spirit to find and share with her the things she needed. She wants us to baptize her daughter who is turning 8 this month and we were super excited to meet our goal of 1 baptism this month but saldy she doesnt count for us haha so that was a bummer to find out. But either way, its one more sould that is coming unto Christ. After the lesson Dulce (the mom menas activa) had us try on corte which is traditional for here in Xela! It was super fun and i offically love corte too!

This week (i think or maybe last week) I started really studying the book of mormon. I am literally reading every scripture in the footnotes and all of the scriptures that the verse refers to in the topical guide. WOW i absolutely love it! Finally I am really studying the scriptures and so many of my questions have been answered and after studying all week I have successfully made it to 1 Nephi 1:4 haha I just goota tell ya that i really do love the Book of Mormon and I KNOW that it is the word of God!

Also I figure now would be an appropriate time to share with you all my new word of the Year. Last year my word was courage and honestly always having this word in the back of my mind really helped me alot. So I was thinking about what my word for this new year should be, and since I will be spending the whole year here in the mission, I thought Id choose a word to help me here. So I decided on the word.......... (drumroll please) Christ. He is the rock of everything so I figured thatd be a good place to start. But I also counted and only have 7 transfers left and for every change that i have left I plan on focusing on one of his attributes. So this month Im starting with obedience and am excited to really make sure that i am obedient to every detail of Gods commandments!

Well I love you all and thank you all for the support. Hope this new year brings you all a lot of happiness and success. Rememebr not to just make temporal goals but set goal in how you can improve spiritually and better your relationship with Christ through the convenants you have made!

Love, 

Hermana Gibson