¡Hola! De: Élder Gibson

Querido Familia,
  

Every trial can make us better if we let it. It´s like rocks in a river. They get tossed and turned, always chipping off the rough and jagged parts. Until finally they´re smooth and beautiful. (people down here understand parables, so we use them when we teach.) Heavenly Father is aware of all of our trials and He never allows it to be more than we can handle.
  

That´s awesome that Marissa´s learning to cook and stuff already! 
 
That´s awesome for Warren[Anderson]! The field is so much different than the MTC. It´ll be good for him to get out and teach people. ...although he was only there for 3 weeks, wasn´t he... ok, maybe it was just really nice for me... ;)
  

So lately, I´ve been having a hard time being able to tell whether people are speaking English o Español... It just all kind of sounds the same now... So hopefully that´s a good thing. I can at least understand a little more than just the general idea of what people are saying. It´s just when they look right at me and say something, then I can´t understand them... ;)
  

We were going to baptise Esther´s mom yesterday, but it turns out that she might already be a member. A bunch of her family got baptized about 12 years ago and her nephew is pretty sure that Conchita got baptized then, but Conchita is almost 90 and she doesn´t remember... So we´re going to look it up today.
  

We´re having a hard time finding new investigators. There´s a ward mission plan for all of México right now. It´s where the ward gives 5 references from every organization. In our ward it´s only 3 from each, but we´re still having a little bit of a hard time getting the references. Hopefully that will be looking better soon... My companion was baptizing every week in his last area thanks to the plan, now we just have to get it up and running here! :D
  

Well that´s all for this week... I think... Yep. I´ll talk to you next week!!
  

Con amor, 

Élder Gibson

Uh... ¿Hola?

Querido Familia de mio,
  

I was kind of sore this week too. After English classes, we play futbol... and apparently I need to run more often... ;) It was a lot of fun and I´m not as bad as I thought I´d be while playing with Mexicans... ;) 
  

Well Esther got baptized Saturday, and It was awesome! Apparently she was being reserved when she talked to us. She called us "usted" and such. Now she calls us "tu" and she´s really excited about the gospel. She wants her siblings to get baptized, her kids, her nephew, her mom has a date for this Friday, and she wants to help. She´s actually giving us dinner tonight. New converts are awesome. This is especially awesome because we´ve been having a hard time finding new investigators, so this will be very helpful!
  

We walk a lot, and whenever we pass a group of teenagers, they always like to yell after us whatever English they know, which usually consists of something like, "Hello my friend!" (with thick Mexican accent) Ha ha!! I think it´s funny. 
  

So I´m told that I have a good Mexican accent... so when I talk to people they just talk back like I know exactly what they´re saying. Then we tell them that I´m still learning and I had no idea what they said, then they say, "¿Verdad? ¡Habla bien!" I guess they´re used to gringo accents when ever they see a güerdo... Ha ha!
  

Well, I think that´s all for this week. Kevin´s got a letter coming ( I sent it on the... 15th? tell me how long it takes!) 
  

con amor,
  

Élder Gibson

To be baptised, or not to be baptised...?

Hey there my familia!

Well this week we... walked, and walked... a lot. Ha ha! Apparently our area is one of the bigger ones, and we live in the bottom corner of it! Ha ha!! That´s ok, it gives us time to contact people. We don´t have a car or bikes either. Oh, and yes, we´re in Tlaquepaque. (Isn´t it just so fun to say?!) 


 

Our English classes start this Friday at 5:30. Invite your friends!! Ha ha! Just kidding!! Everyone that we tell though seems excited though. We offered the same thing in Park City, but not as many people were as interested... go figure. We put a flyer up in the church and told all the members about it and told them to bring friends too.
   



My Spanish is coming along. The Relief Society President told my that if I don´t speak Spanish she won´t feed me (we´re eating at her house next week) Ha ha!!
  




Well, we planned to have a baptism yesterday after church... but it didn´t happen. We got to the chapel early to get ready and found about 5 inches of water in the font full of mosquito larvae... yum... and the pump to drain it wasn´t working. So when Ester (our investigator, ex Jehova´s Witness. She felt like she was being decieved... or that´s what I understood...) showed up we told her that there was a problem with the font, and that it would be better to do it tomorrow. So this morning we went over there at around 7:30 and emptied the font with buckets into the toilet. We mopped it all up then scrubbed it and turned on the faucet. We went home to get ready (we ran out of gas, so no hot water...) and we go back to the church and what do we find in the font? Larvae! So we called the other missionaries and told them to bring a strainer so we could get them all out. So we did, and about twenty minutes after it was supposed to start, she still wasn´t there. So we decided to go to her house to see why she wasn´t there, and we found out that she had to work... So she´s getting baptised later this week. The end! 
   



So that was this week, or mostly this morning. We´re just mostly trying to revive this area.
   

Con amor,  

--    
Élder Gibson 

Mi primer semana en Guadalajara...

Elder Ashton & Elder Gibson

¡Well hey there familia! 

 Yeah we sat in the plane for a while... a scanner for the luggage wasn´t working or something like that, but all was well. They gave me the customs paper and didn´t tell me what to do with it... that was fun. Just kidding, I just filled it out right before I got in line, and there was a senior couple waiting for me after customs. 

 I was the only missionary on Tuesday, but four more came on Wednesday. I actually got a trainer all to myself. His name is Elder Ashton. He´s so awesome! He´s an American, so I probably won´t improve my Spanish as fast, but it´ll come. His sense of humor is a lot like mine. He was a zone leader for a year, then he got a call on... Monday? saying that he was going to a new area with a new missionary. So we both don´t know the area, and we weren´t left many investigators to work with. We´re in Guadalajara (right outside of it actually), and it reminds me a lot of Newport Beach... just dirtier... ;)  

 Well in our ward there´s a first counselor in the Bishopric. (that´s all...) and apparently this area has a pretty long history of lazy elders which is too bad. They seem to really like us though. We´re asking them to come out and teach with us and they´re pretty willing to. We´re beginning free English classes at the church, for anyone who wants to come and everyone seems way excited for that. For an hour after the English, we´re going to play futbol for some of the youngerlings. That should be interesting... (¡yo voy a morir!) 

 I love it here!! It rains about everyday, and that´s good because it washes the smell of tequila away (we live in an apartment with two other missionaries, right next to a tequila factory... it´s awesome...). There´s a lot of sunshine too. Apparently this is one of the nicest areas, and everyone is really nice too. Members feed us everyday for lunch, and we cook for ourselves for the other meals. 

 Tell the Myers thank you for me! That´s very nice of them to keep me in their prayers. It´s very much appreciated! Yeah, I could see Michah studying in England... ;)

Here are some pictures of my house/comp/money. Enjoy!
(ok there´s only going to be three... it´s taking a long time to load)(I´m in a little computer shop off the side of the street...) 

 Con Amor! 

--  

Élder Gibson