Querido Familia,

So, I'm here in Park City and it's awesome!! I think that it was kind of funny that the send me to one of the few places in the mission that I've never been to. Ha ha! Seven other elders came out with me and they're all visa waiters too. Apparently this mission gets a bunch of visa waiters. I'm actually in another trio. Elder Bennett is my dad (from Alberta, Canada), and Elder Wagner (from Chico, California; grew up in Mexico, in a Mormon Colony) is my older/younger brother (he has more field experience but I've been out about four times as long as he has; he only spent three weeks in the MTC because he speaks Spanish). He's two weeks older than me in the field. They're both so awesome! We're getting another brother tomorrow too (another visa waiter).  So we'll be a quad... weird.  But we're going to be splitting everyday so we can get more done.

I'm actually going to the Consulate tomorrow to get my visa stuff done and I may be leaving for Mexico this Friday. I almost want to stay here for a little while though... which is kind of funny, because I never thought I'd want to be serving in Utah. It really doesn't matter where you are though, there are people everywhere that don't have the gospel.

Elder Fordham (the elder in my zone in the MTC from Georgia) is in Aunt Lorilee's area. I saw him at Zone Conference and told him that, but he said that he only eats/teaches/talks with Hispanics.

I've seen some of the richest and some of the poorest... well actually not really. The rich just make the average seem poor. They're all amazing though!! You should have gotten a picture of my companions and I eating at a member’s house, he's pretty well off.

Our investigators are amazing!!  Jill (we teach her in English) is what you might call "golden". She's amazing though. She accepts what we teach her and her only questions are clarifying questions so that she can understand completely. I think the Lord has been working with her for a while.  Another girl is Natalia. She's nine years old and is so excited about the gospel. They started out teaching all the kids and I think their mom too, but she's the most excited to go to church. And she knows so much too!! We went to their house last night to teach her (in English and Espanol (the kids speak both)) and she was explaining things back to us perfectly! She is so ready! We're going to talk to her mom at seven today, about a baptismal date, because we don't think her mom understands completely. Hopefully it goes well!!

That's all for this week. I may be emailing from Mexico next week!

Con amor,

Elder Gibson

Jeff called us yesterday to let us know that he's being temporarily assigned to the Utah Salt Lake City South Mission.
His MTC Branch had Elders assigned to this mission; so he may see a familiar face or two while he's serving there.

He boarded a bus this morning and was taken to the mission home in Sandy. His mission president is G. Steven Laney (Dale says he's probably a distant relative). A new president will come on board July 1st. 

I think he's been assigned so close so it will be easy to get him to the airport when his visa does finally come through.

For now, we have been given the mission address for Jeff's mail. I'll let you know if it changes.

Mailing Address:

Elder Jeffrey Gibson

Utah Salt Lake City South Mission

8060 South 615 East

Sandy, Utah 84070

Hey there familia!

So it turns out that they´re not going to be splitting us up into different districts either, however they did give us more things to do to keep us busy. We can go to the temple two extra times during the week, and then they gave us some ideas of things to do to help us be more prepared in the field. Although we may(and only may) all be joining another district together, but we don´t know yet.

I´ve heard 5 out of 12 apostles now! Robert D Hales came last Tuesday. Their talks are always amazing! We had a fireside on Sunday where Crawford Gates(who wrote ´Our Savior´s Love´), Robert Cundrick, and Vanya Watkins. (they wrote things too, but I don´t remember what) It was awesome! Then we went to the Sunday night movies. We went and watched the Restoration (the one with Dustin, ja ja!)

That´s funny that Élder Ray had a dream about going to Guadalajara... I didn´t even know where in México it was! Ja ja!

So there´s an Élder Greco here who aparently knows Brian. He said I looked familiar then asked if Brian was my brother. So I guess we look alike, Bro. ;)

I heard another rumor about the consulate. They were getting a new computer system and all the old applicants (me) haven´t all been transferred over yet. So if we´re going to be here for a long time, we´re supposedly being sent to a Utah mission for a little while. But these were all out of state élderes, so I don´t know about me yet. What ever happens, you´ll know pretty soon... probably... if it happens soon... which it probably will. :)

Con amor,

Élder Gibson

Querido Familia, 

 Thanks for the package, mom. My compañeros and I are feeling better, and this week has been awesome. 

 So I´m probably not going to end up in the advanced Spanish class, because I haven´t heard anything about it. However, our Branch President, President Nelson, asked us if we wanted to be split up and go into different districts in our zone. We´re probably going to end up doing that, so we´ll have teachers again and a set schedule. We´d also be able to help the other élderes in the other districts more. 

That´s so crazy that we´re getting a new stake presidency! I don´t remember any other stake presidency than the one there is now!  

 So actually I got to host today. They put papers in our mailbox asking if we would because we´ve been here for a long time and there were a lot of new missionaries coming in today and they needed help. I helped two sisters(which is easy, you and another elder drop them off at their residence hall and the sisters take it from there) and then two international elders who spoke spanish very fast, but I got to practice a little.  

 Did Jared Radmall come in today? I heard his farewell was 2 Sundays ago... That´s crazy that Eric Gubler is leaving already... well in September, but still! And only six months til Kevin can start his! ¡Es loco! 

 Yeah, I´m pretty sure that most of my German has left me... but yep I can still sign letters... Deine bruder!

Oh, so this crossed my mind. Are my plants outside? because they can be if they´re not. And if my bonsai is still living, tell Eric that he can keep it for me. 

 So I´ve decided if you want to learn about yourself and who you are, go on a mission! I think that I´ve learned more about myself here then at any other time in my life and it´s pretty cool! The devotional yesterday was all about that too! It´s just great here! 

 Oh, and Josh, I´m doing great! ¿Como estas? President Nelson thinks that we´re going to get our visas soon. Oh, and I met an Elder Rindlisbaucher (or however you spell it) but he´s from Washington state, so I don´t think that he´s related... (Mom's Note: Mrs. Rindlisbacher was Josh's Kindergarten teacher this past year.) 

Well, until next week, 

 Élder Gibson

26 de Mayo 2010 

 Querido Familia, 

 Ok, so I was able to read the email, but I ran out of time before I could send one back. So I’m writing my letter this week, and I don’t know how sending this out to the family is going to work . . .I guess you could scan it or type it up if you want to, or something like that. 

 So, in my companionship/district (yes, we are a trio), there are only us three, and there is another district upstairs in the same situation, and I think there are others as well. Our “coordinating teacher” (or our teachers’ boss . . . I don’t know what he’s called) came to us and offered us the opportunity to join a new district of elders, who came in today. They’re going into the advanced Spanish though, so they’re only here for three weeks. We said we’d like to, and we’ll find out tomorrow if we can. “If” only because of all the other elders in our situation. If we do though, we’ll have structured classes again, but we’ll have to change zones and branches too. Which is too bad, because I really like our zone . . . Oh well, esta bien. 

 I haven’t been able to be a host for new missionaries because our P-Day is on Wednesday, and we go to the temple when the new elders are getting here. We could host if we wanted, but we’d have to give up our temple day. 

 Ok, so I’ve decided that Provo has the strangest weather ever! It SNOWED! In May! That’s crazy! It was really wet, heavy snow, and it made all the trees bend a whole lot. Several branches broke, and one tree fell completely over! Then yesterday and today it was bright and sunny and warm. Go figure . . . 

 I’ve been a little sick for the past few days, so today my companions made me go to the nurse (actually, E. Ripley is sick too, so we both went). She told us to stay in our room and rest, which we hadn’t been doing . . . and to not go to the temple, because older people that are there don’t need to get sick. And she gave us some salt to gargle . . . etc. I’m not that sick, but I just haven’t been getting any better. So today has helped. 

 It’s great to hear about what’s going on back home. It looks like ya’ll’re bein’ blessed! In the envelope, there are B-day letters for Esteban y Kevin, and a letter for Marissa. (It’s cheaper to send them all in the same envelope; just two stamps instead of four+.) 

 Kevin, make sure you’re taking Institute classes. You’re probably signed up because you mentioned Brother King last week, but Institute helps to prep for the mission. I would recommend: Book of Mormon, Missionary Prep., and then maybe Doctrine and Covenants or something like that. Also, make sure to read Preach My Gospel, and know what’s in there. Especially Chapter 3 with all the lessons. Make sure you know those.  

 Yeah, that’s all I can really think of. Just make the Gospel part of your daily life, and that can go for everyone, but especially those who are preparing for missions. Oh, and you can take Mission Prep more than once. There was one guy the first time I took it, who was on his fourth time; and you always learn something new. Brother Hyatt is an awesome teacher too! (if you’re going to DSC).  

 Well, that’s all for this week, so I’ll talk to you next week. 

Con Amor, 

Elder Gibson

Mi Querido Familia,

The district that got here after us is now in the field and the same half of our district is still in the MTC. All the ´younger´ élderes seem to think that being in the MTC would be just the worst thing in the world, but it´s really not that bad at all here. They don´t see that here they can learn how to speak more clearly... I´m not exactly sure how to say it... so in the field, the people will actually be able to understand them.

I have a native elder who writes to me in Spanish and that helps me a bunch.

That´s good that the family´s gettin´ together! That´s always fun!

Not much different happened this week, I don´t remember if I said this last week or not, but we have new teachers. One is from Paraguay and the other is American, but they´re pretty much just our tutors/progressing investigators. So that´s fun.

We decided that we´re like the grandpas in the MTC now... because the other district is gone now and we´re still the oldest ones here, but it´s fun. They all say how much they look up to us and stuff, I can remember how we looked up to the oldest districts when I was younger...

Well that´s all for this week. If I get my visa, you´ll get a call!

Con amor,
Élder Gibson

Hola familia!

So 16 days and still no word about the visas. We've become the wise old missionaries who the 'younger' missionaries look to for wisdom. We figured out that if we´re here next Wednesday, we´ll have spent 1/8 of our mission in the MTC. That´s a lot! We could have just learned Chinese instead! Ha ha! We only have one teacher now and her name is Hermana Da Silva. She's an international student going to UVU. She's from Paraguay, and I like her accent when she speaks Español.

Thats great to hear about all the good things happening at home! Especially with work, the yard and garden, and family life! Our zone fasted for our visas to come too. Hermana Miller got our whole zone together (even the newest elders who don´t really even know us (they´d been here for about three days)) and we knelt and began our fast right in the middle of the hall. It was pretty cool. Since we only have one teacher, we´ve let the other elders to ´sign up´ for tutoring or an appointment or whatever they need help with. It´s helped to keep us busy.

So for devotional a really awesome guy came. His name is Jeffrey R. Holland! When that man speaks, it´s powerful. Especially when he talks about missionaries. It was kind of like the talk he gave about the Book of Mormon last October, only it was about missionaries. It was incredible!

Everyone thinks that we´ll be getting our visas soon. So hopefully it will happen.

Not much more time...

con amor, 

Élder Gibson

¡Hola mi familia! 

 Yep, two weeks later, I´m still here at the good ol´ MTC. Three of the six in my district have gone on, but alas, I have been chosen to remain... Ok, anyway, one of each compañerismo is in México now, and so the three left are in a trio. (É´Beecher, É´Ripley, and myself) ¡Any day now! 

Hna. Weiss´ last day is today and then we´ll continue to have Hno. Murphy and we´ll get a nuevo maestro, Hno. ??? (I can´t remember his name right now...) I don´t remember if I said this or not but there are people here that remind me so much of people I know and Hna. Weiss is Aleisha. Her voice sounds just like her´s and if I´m not looking at her sometimes I get these crazy déjà vu... things, but it´s like Aleisha´s in the room and then there´s the other Élder Gibson who is Brian. I got a picture with him and I´ll send it soon. They look sooooo much alike! ¡Es Loco!  

The last two musical numbers, en los devocciónales, have been with harps. They´re pretty amazing instruments!  

That´s great that the weekend went well. Trips are always fun! Especially ¨when the family gets together after evening work is done...¨ ... or just anytime.

Oh, y Papá´s carta es en el camino. 

Con amor, 

Élder Gibsón 

(ok Gibson probably doesn´t have an ´ on the o...)