Week 33- Mission Accomplished: Los Altos

Holaaaaaaaaaa!

Wow what a great week it has been. Tuesday we had our first Noche de Hermanamiento which is a ward Family Home Evening. We shared a small message called "Who am I?" and then played some games. We had a great turn out of investigators, recent converts, less actives and active members! The whole niught was a huge success and so much fun!

Wednesday I completed 8 months in the mission! WOW time has gone by so fast. But wednesday I also got a call that I will be training again. So that made me super nervous becasue that meant that possible i would be having changes..... (We will get to that in a second.)

Saturday (Valentines Day) was the best day ever becasue....... CRISTHIAN GARCIA GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was the most beautiful thing that I have possible ever seen in my entire life! At his baptism, he bore his testimony about how he used to be super hard hearted when it came to all things religious. But He shared that as he read the Book of Mormon, he felt his heart change, And he concluded his testimony saying that being baptized was the best decision of his life! I almost cried! Seriously, to see him change his life to follow the Lord has been one of the biggest blessings that I have seen in my life. He not only got baptized, but he is truly converted to the gospel! Wow, the best Valentines EVER!

Well for other news, last night we got "the call" and both Hermana Rodriguez and I have changes. So tomorrow we will have to go to the terminal to find the new comp of hna Rodriguez and then Im gong to have to find someone to be my comp for a ocuple of hours while I wait for my hija to come! I´m super nervous becasue I will be going to open a new area again, but maybe this time it will be a little easier. But I am super sad to leave Los Altos becasuse I LOVE the people here with all of my heart. There have been people here that have taught me so much and I will never forget them. The mission is bittersweet in that sense, you grow to love the people and then they take you out haha but thats okay, the Lord needs me somewhere else. 

But one thing that this area has helped me recognize is who I really am. Before my baptism, I knew that I had a purpose but I never really understood exaclty what it was. But thanks to the blessings of the Restored Gospel, I know my purpose. I am a daughter of God. I am here to grow and learn so that one day I can return to his presence. I know why we have trials and I know that Christ gave an infinite Atonement and becasue of that we can always have hope. I know who I am and why I am here, and this knowledge brings me a lot of joy and peace. 

I am sad to leave Los Altos because some of the most precious moments and people to me are here. But I have finished the mission that the Lord needed me to complete here. 

Well, I love you all and thank you for all of the love and support.

Signing out from Los Altos for the last time,

Hermana Gibson

1.  Silver and Christian Andres Garcia... 2 kidz dat r way 2 kool 4 skool

2. Me attempting to pack......

Week 32- Temple Square Mission

Hello Hello Hello!!

This week passed by crazy fast! This week we was super exciting. We were called to work at the temple! The temple is SUPER close to our area, so once a week we are going to to up to the temple and work there. Next to the temple is an annex building where visitors can come and stay the night. Its like a mini hotel and visitors center. So we walk around the temple grounds and inside the annex and talk to everyone hoping that investigators will come. Apparently huge groups from other churches come and visit so that is why we are there. It was a really neat experience. Only ended up talking to two non members, but it was cool to be so close to the temple all day. 

Then on Saturday we had a baptism! Her name is Dulce Jasmin Xicara and she is 8 years old. Her mom is a recent convert but soon became less active. We had been visiting her for almost 2 months now and the has started to become completely reactivated. It has been great to see her growth. But on Saturday we baptized her daughter and it was a wonderful experience and we even have some investigators come!! ( a miracle) 

Then another miracle is that yesterday we had a few non members just randomly show up to church, so we are super excited to start teaching them! 

Today for Pday we got permission to do something togehter as a Zone, so we went to Parque Central where they vend a ton of souviners and then we all went to eat at a resturant that over looks the entire city. It was pretty cool and a fun day! 

sorry for the short email. I was super sick all week so nothing too exciting happened. butLove you all and thanks for all of the support back home! Have a wonderful week

Hermana Gibson 

Week 31- Hola, Me Llamo Moroni

Buenas Tardes Mis Amigos,

Wow, what a great and fast week it has been here in Los Altos. Let me think of all the crazy things that have happened here! 

Monday was the birthday of Jasmin Xicara.(She-Car-Ah) So we bought her a little cake and threw her a surprise birthday party. The mom was so happy because they barely even had money to buy food, let alone a delicious cake. And we are preparing her for her baptism this Sunday! We are super excited about that! The mom is also less active, but she is making some serious progress and there is a member of the ward that is sick and she volunteered to help, which is seriously unlike her. So it is really cool to see her becoming reactivated!

Thursday, we went and helped paint a room in a members house and that was a fun experience, then they gave us a delicous lunch after! After that we went to visit some recent converts but they have geese and they attacked me!! Good thing I have learned quickly to defend myself with my backpack whenever animals are near so they ended us biting my backpack, but we were screaming like crazy and the nerighbors left their house to see what was going on hahaha it was quite the sight! Then later that night i almost got bit by a dog!!! Thursday, was not my day with the animals!

However about a month ago we found these brand new puppies in a ditch and when we walked by they were so irresistable so we played with them for a little biit but then never saw them again..... until wednesday! we were walking in the same area and they all came running over to us and wanted to play and it was sooooo adorable! and they almost followed us all the way to our next cita. Dont worry, ill send pics :)

Well another funny thing that happened is that we were in a lesson with other recent converts and they are 2 brothers that are 50 years old, unmarried and live together. Well awhile ago we asked them why they go to church and they said its becasue the elders promised them that they would find girlfriends haha well we were explaining the sabbath day and the other sister were explaining that they can watch movies, but that are of the church, go to activities, of the church, read books, of the church.....etc. and said "and look at girls....... of the church!" LAWLS! I hope it was as funny for you as it was for me, because he said it in all seriousness hahaha 

Also this week we had to drop some of our investigators becasue they werent progressing. One of them, we went to their house becasue we had a cita with them. Well, we knocked the door and they forgot but they told us to hold on and that they would come to the door in a second. Well 15 minutes passed and we knocked again. This time a differend chica came to the door and we asked if our inv was coming and she said yeah, hold on........ well 20 minutes later, we decided that they actually werent coming and then we left. So yeah, that happened! 

Also, like always we found a drunk in the streets, but this one was a less active that we had visited. Well i asked if he remembered who we were and he said "Yeah, you are Moroni!"............ yeah, something like that.

Well, today we went to Walmart, Subway, and I got my haircut. Felt a little bit like i was in the States.

Anyway, hope you all are loving life and things are well back at home. Thank you for all of your love, support, and prayers!

Love,

Hermana Moroni