My trainer is now stateside . . .

Dearly Family,

Well, it sounds like you´re all keeping busy! That´s great! I am too! ;) So today, my father in the mission went home... Elder Ashton got transferred last Tuesday for his last week in the mission. That was a little unusual. I saw him throughout the week, and we had to go pick him and his companion up yesterday so that his companion would have a companion. But yeah, he´s gone now... come to think of it he´s probably already landed in San Diego... weird.

Apparently we´re getting six new elders from the MTC in Provo. On time! Ha ha! The missionaries in the office said this is the first group in five months to get here on schedule. So hopefully all is up and running with the visas to México.

Eric Gubler´s leaving and Brett Schiller´s getting his call soon? That was fast, I´ve only been gone for six months... ;) And Mark Gubler´s coming home?! Isn´t cousin Andrew coming home soon too!? Time flies...

Well, Elder Cruz and I are doing great! We´re still not finding a ton of people, but we´re working hard and finding a few. We went to go contact a reference, but they weren´t there, and the neighbor said, "No hay nadie. Fuieron a misa." (or for all those who speak English) "Nobody´s home. They went to mass." So we decided to talk to him instead. He was smoking and told us that he has (or had...) problems with alcohol too, and he wants to leave all of it behind. So we talked to him for a little while and then gave him a Word of Wisdom pamphlet, and invited him to an open house in the church that we were having. Out of all the invitations that we gave away, he was the only one who came from our area. It´s really hard to get anyone (including members) to come to anything, let alone a contact. He seems to really want to change, and is willing to do his part. That´s the biggest problem that we have, people who are willing to change. ... and I can´t remember his name right now, I feel a little bad... it´s not a common name... I guess I´ll tell you more about him next week. 

Our zone has interviews with President tomorrow. That should awesome! I love talking to President, he always has something constructive to say. Well that´s all I can think of for now... except that I´m going bald. But I don´t want to talk about that... I´ll just send a picture ;) The other is Elder Vasquez and Elder Ashton.

Con amor,

Élder Gibson

¡Seis meses! ... ¡and not counting!

Querido Familia,

Well I´m one quarter through with my mission tomorrow... weird... It`s going so fast! I got a little cake and ice cream! ;) For my six months and my companion´s two years. (I don´t believe in burning clothing... ;) ) He goes home a week from today... he´s not very excited... but then at the same time, he is. Ha ha!

About my ankle. We play futbol with the youth in our ward every Friday, and invite them to invite friends that aren´t members (well, anyone, but we can teach non-members... ;) ) because this ward doesn´t have any activities ever really so we´re trying to get them excited and do the activities on their own. But back to my ankle, I just fell and hit my ankle on the concrete, and scraped it up a little. Then about 6 days later, we walked a ton and I think that it didn´t like that very much so it started to swell up. But it´s back to normal now, and doesn´t hurt at all. 

We had ward conference on the 15th, and we were in the choir. My companion described how our singing sounded as: a bunch of drowning squirrels. But when we sang in the meeting, it really wasn´t all that bad. We had the most attendance that I´ve seen in this ward there: 89. Then this week was the lowest: 39. We even had a bunch of inactives that hadn´t been there in forever! I don´t get it...

I don´t know if I already said this or not... Apparently we´re in the Bible-belt of México, so we´re still looking for lot´s of investigators! Keep praying for us!! We know they´re out there!!

Well, that´s all for this week I think.

Con muchismo amor,

Élder Gibson

"Hey, I want to talk about church . . ."

Querido Familia,

Well, my family, sounds like ya´ll´re having a good time! I am too! So after all of our investigators fell, we´ve found some more, not as many as we´d like, but things are looking better. We found a guy named Edson, who doesn´t really believe in anything, but he wants to know, and he´s really sincere while he talks to us. Then there´s the Family of Gaby that we found, they didn´t make it to church, so we´re going to pass by tomorrow to see what happened. Then last night we were walking home, and this guy stopped us and said, "Hey, I want to talk about church with you two." And we said, "No! Absolutely not! What makes you think that we talk about church?" and continued walking... ¡Just Kidding! It turns out his mom had died and his church wasn´t helping him with their answers. He asked for our number and wants to call us (and I´m pretty sure that he will because he contacted us...) So that was awesome! I wish everyone did that... 

¡Oh! I am officially legal in México now. I went to the Immigration Office this morning, wait for about 1 1/2 hours, signed and waited for another 1/2 hour, and now I´m legal. I met President´s youngest son, Cole, today. He´s back from the states for school now. Then we got a third companion today as well. El Élder Cruz de (from) Vera Cruz. So there´s going to be a lot more Español now... which will be good for me.

My ankle got a little swollen this last week... ok, it was a little bit more than a little, but not much. Élder Ashton wouldn´t let me walk on it, and that was fine because it hurt, well first he didn´t believe me, but then he saw it and said, "Wow, you can´t be walking on that!" So I didn´t, and it´s fine now. :)

Well, I think that that is all for this week. Oh, and Mom, you would be so proud, I dilute my Honey Bunches of Oats with Corn Flakes and it tastes great!! The cheapest cereal here is Frosted Flakes. I got it once, and it was just a bunch of sugary nastiness! Don´t eat it!!!

Con amor, 

Élder Gibson

Necesitamos más personas para enseñar

Querido Familia,

That´s good to know that the TCT´s were on a menu, maybe Élder Ashton won´t think I´m as crazy. (He´s from San Diego by the way... I don´t know how I missed that one). 

I live on the street, Rio Tapajo. The street next to it is Rio Ebro. Rio Tapajo dead ends into the Tequila factory and I´m the third house from the factory on the side of the road that is closest to Rio Ebro. If I´m standing in my doorway looking into the street, the Tequilera is on the right. All the houses are connected though, so I don´t know if you´ll be able to tell. I´m in Barrio Revolución (Revolution Ward). It´s a pretty big area... I´m not sure, but I would guess about 15 mi. square... around there.

Estaban, you kids are just growing up so fast! The summer went by fast for me too. (except I was sweating in the sun everyday... ;) ) That´s awesome that you´re cooking awesome things now too! School starts this week for the kids in my ward too. Their vacations are over! Bah ha ha!! oh, just kidding... 

Apparently this is a dry year or something because I think that you all are getting more rain than we are... It´s just really humid here.

Teaching is so so, for me anyway... My companion just tells the people that we teach that I have a great testimony of what ever principle we´re teaching, and then looks at me. But sometimes I teach the principle and then he teaches whatever I forgot. ;) We do have language study everyday, and we tract a ton! Which brings me to this week...

Last Wednesday, we lost all of the investigators that we had. One went back into rehab, one we think got scared of the baptism date (or he´s having opposition from his dad), two turned out to be witches (that was weird to find out when the other elder told us) so we decided that it´s probably best to stay away, and the other just isn´t interested. 

So we´re trying to find good investigators that want to progress, and hopefully we found a family. Gabi is "catholic" but she says she doesn´t practice it. (no mass, confession... etc.) She says that what we teach her is interesting, but she hasn´t prayed about it yet. Her son likes us and there is a youth that was a classmate of his that we´re going to take him with us. 

Apparently I´m in the "Bible Belt" of México and everyone is very Catholic. So pray for us to find the people who are ready to accept the gospel!

Well I think that that´s all for this week, so... yeah. Pray for us!

Con amor,

Élder Gibson

I live by the Tequilera

Hey there Family!

¡¿Is it really time for school to start already?! That was crazy fast.

That sounds like a crazy storm you had! At least they never seem to last for very long in St. George. The rainy season is actually going on right now, or maybe it just got over because it hasn´t really rained at all this past week... Ha ha, no, I don´t have a rain coat, but we´re hardly ever out in the rain while it´s raining... except once... Ha ha! Ok, we were at an investigator´s house (last apt. of the day) and it started to rain. So we thought we´d just wait a little while until it let up. Well it was almost the time that we needed to be home so we just said, "we don´t live that far away" (and we don´t) "we´ll just run fast" So we did, and we were drenched in about ten seconds. We ran down the sidewalks and swam through the streets and got home in about two minutes completely soaked. The End! ¡El Fin! 

Kevin, I am so jealous!! Not really... because I´d rather be here. But still! I want to go there [New York City] someday... you lucky ducky... 

So Marissa´s a chef now, and Michele´s going to be a concert pianist? Sounds good to me!! 

I think the weirdest thing that I´ve eaten was this soup with corn and other stuff with cow stomach in it, but it wasn´t bad at all, just different. The members here feed us everyday for lunch, and we cook for ourselves the other meal(s)... I eat cereal, pancakes, quesadillas (TCT´s for the little ones)... (my companion thinks that´s a weird name). I bought some bread and cheese today... just little stuff like that because the main meal of the day here is lunch instead of dinner. 

Oh, thank´s for Elder Ray´s address! I think I´ll write him today!

I´m not exactly sure what my address is, but if you "google maps" the "Parian" (famous tourist place) in Tlaquepaque I live close to there. Or maybe if you google the tequila factory that I live right next to...

We have two more baptismal dates for the 15th of this month, and they both look pretty solid right now. We have a goal of five this month.

Well, I think that´s all for this week! Les hablaré en la próxima semana!! 

Con amor, 

Élder Gibson