hey fam!! hello from beautiful maple valley, washington. yes mom, it is a gorgeous day with blue skies and sunshine!! ah i love it when the sun shines here. it's not as rare as we like to joke (it really is sunny quite a bit) but it still makes it a very happy day when it's not overcast! we just got back from issaquah to get our car's airbags fixed and it was a GORGEOUS drive. i feel so blessed to serve in such a beautiful area!
well i'm trying to think of what's happened this week. it's been a crazy week healthwise (no worries i'm fine). sis burch has had stomach problems (including throwing up right before a dinner appointment), shoulder pain, foot pain, jaw pain, etc. and sister eria has had a horrible toothache! she has a dentist appointment in a couple hours so that will be good. anyway i'm trying to be a better "taker-care-of"! i'm always wanting everyone to be healthy so we can work really hard but i'm trying to be more understanding haha. one of my personal goals this week was to be "VERY pleasant" (stealing annie's phrase) haha. hard to explain in email, but i'm learning how to be a better companion. we have lots of fun together though! quoting "the testaments" is a favorite pasttime. sis eria's kohor voice is probably one of my favorite things. "jacob, jacob, don't deny me your...GIFTS" haha i feel like we're really dorky. good times. so you probably don't remember the lines with as much clarity as we do, but remember how kohor is telling jacob to carve the stone to represent his achievements? "and the gift of your hand shall grant me immortality!" and near the end the same stone falls on him and kills him...ah the irony. ANYWAY. this one man was really rude to us at the door and sister eria said "i want to grant him immortality!" hahaha she KILLS me. so fun. ok that was super random. sorry. lame story. that's how exciting our lives are though :)
so turns out [H] and [C]'s mom may not let them get baptized (story of my life) so pray for them!!
the highlight of the week was our exchange yesterday, i got to go back to renton!! (sister bush and sister sawyer are there now) it was so so fun to see everyone. i got to teach [D] (they hadn't taught her forever, so i called her and she said to come over that afternoon! she's having a really rough time, but we had an amazing lesson. the spirit was so strong and she will be ok. so sweet though, so she said "sister gibbons, i was thinking about you this morning...i thought, maybe i could find out which ward she's in in maple valley and go to church with her tomorrow...and then you called me like an hour later! little miracles!), [L], and the [B]’s! when the [B]’s heard i was coming, they went and got my favorite pizza for me. isn't that sweet? sisters bush and sawyer were so cute... for my birthday, they gave lots of people in the ward little paper hearts to write me a note on, and then gave me all of them with a card that said "you've stayed in our hearts, renton loves you!" isn't that so sweet? it was really special to me. it was so fun to see the allans too! they were so cute "we don't have to fill up the M&M jar nearly as much since you left." ah they are sweet.
so yeah everything else is the same. we love our new apartment! we're working really hard. we teach more than 20 lessons a week, and elder perry promised us that if we did that our baptisms would double :) we've been going on a lot of splits now that we have 3 of us. we'll just get a 4th sister from one of the wards and go out 2x2 to teach twice as much! ooh i'm also cooking a lot more than i used to. i got SO sick of cereal so i make waffles almost every day hehe. also i made stew one day and porkchops and rice another! it's nice to have real food :) mom, any other recipes that would be super easy to stick in the crockpot while we're out and about?
[D] is doing awesome! we're going over there for FHE tonight and HE's giving the lesson! haha i talked him into it :) he's doing his reading assignments now! i had to put sticky notes in every room reminding him (including one on the tv and one on his toy helicopter). good times. [J] is doing great too! he will be baptized as soon as he gets off probation. he has a year left, but there's a court date feb 22 and the judge COULD let him off early. that would be a miracle though. but we've seen lots of miracles so you never know. we had a new investigator this week that seemed REALLY interested. we had high hopes but she cancelled her church tour and we ahven't been able to get hold of her. those are the disappointments ont he mission though...happens ALL the time haha. i do love this area so much...the Lord always provides us with people to teach even though they're the most tracted out areas in the mission.
so turns out the korean sisters aren't coming until may. we're getting 4 american sisters, but we're not sure if they're speaking english or spanish so we will see. with only 4 of us left, it's possible i could train, but we'll have to see what the Lord has in mind. i'm sure gonna miss sister bush and sister eria!
well, that's about it folks :) i love you all!!! keep me updated on your fun lives! thanks for all you do for me!
lizzie
Monday, January 25, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
birthday pics!
first, the allens!! they made me this huge breakfast on my birthday. so sweet! they're moving to layton at the end of this month. i'll miss them too!
next, lunch with [J] (she manages our apartments and is a less-active member that we've been teaching. she's hilarious) and her visiting teacher, sis [L] at a mexican restaurant. they wouldn't let us have lunch prices because lunch ended at 3 and we were ordering at 3:01...no exaggeration. oh well haha. then me with the free dessert they brought out. fried tortillas with cinnamon sugar and honey. YUM.
next, lunch with [J] (she manages our apartments and is a less-active member that we've been teaching. she's hilarious) and her visiting teacher, sis [L] at a mexican restaurant. they wouldn't let us have lunch prices because lunch ended at 3 and we were ordering at 3:01...no exaggeration. oh well haha. then me with the free dessert they brought out. fried tortillas with cinnamon sugar and honey. YUM.
birthday pics 2
first sis morriss and my cake!! she is so sweet. it really did taste like home! so fun
then, the gustins (he's our ward mission leader) gave us all washington hoodies as a late christmas present. so cute huh??
birthday pics 3
opening your gifts!!!
and then the [S]'s got me cupcakes and gifts the day after my birthday!
and then the [S]'s got me cupcakes and gifts the day after my birthday!
the dirt
okay enough pictures, here's the dirt :) THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE BIRTHDAY PACKAGES EVERYONE!! i loved everything. the scarf was like exactly what i had envisioned :) cute cardigan! yay for a 2nd towel! :) i'm using the jump drive as we speak. ANNIE...so weird....the day before my birthday i had said, "sister burch, i need sticky notes and tape and scissors!" and then you sent me ALL OF THEM. so cool. you are in tune my friend :) you know what we missionaries need always! i'm using everything like crazy! and abby's headbands were super cute... i'm stylish now. awesome. couldn't have had a better birthday! mom, your cookies were gone in like 10 minutes. so good. and thanks for the birthday signs!! dad, sinless in seattle...priceless. you KILL me. i wish i was as witty as you. thank you thank you guys! can you believe i'm 23??? i'm so old. i tried to convince the elders was turning 29, but no one believed me. i don't know why. maybe because i look like i'm 17 haha.
other big news:
**our threesome is awesome!! sister eria is HILARIOUS, hard working, so sweet, and a great teacher. i love her. i've already learned out to speak enough kiribati to do a door approach haha. cool language. look up her country...kiribati...near fiji kinda.
**we moved back into the apartments! SO much nicer than the last one. two reasons...it's just a nicer apartment AND elders have never lived there so there's not mounds of junk AND the furniture isn't randomly placed! haha. it really is nice! it's sooo clean. yay! it feels like home. super cute. i'll have to take pics.
**we have 2 girls on date to be baptized!! [H] and her sister [C]...ages 11 and 13 :) [H] has gone to church with her next door neighbors (members) quite a few times and agreed to let us teach. we invited them to be baptized and they said yes! their mom is ok with it, but wants to attend the church first to see what it's all about. fine by us!! :) miracles happen all the time!
**one cool experience, s. eria and i (we were on splits) were teaching an investigator named [S] who had LOTS of questions. didn't believe there was apostasy and therefore no need for a restoration. it's hard to explain but it was just one of those lessons where i felt like a REAL missionary (haha you know as opposed to the fake one i am all the time). i mean that they were HARD questions, but the spirit totally guided us and helped us find scriptures in the bible. it was AWESOME because we got to use the scriptures a ton to back up the doctrine, but the spirit was there so it wasn't bible bashing. i loved it. being a missionary is awesome.
**i hit my 9 month mark this week! SO CRAZY. it has gone by so fast. i feel like it's quickly slipping through my fingers...
well that's the main juice! love you all so much!!!
sister gibbons
other big news:
**our threesome is awesome!! sister eria is HILARIOUS, hard working, so sweet, and a great teacher. i love her. i've already learned out to speak enough kiribati to do a door approach haha. cool language. look up her country...kiribati...near fiji kinda.
**we moved back into the apartments! SO much nicer than the last one. two reasons...it's just a nicer apartment AND elders have never lived there so there's not mounds of junk AND the furniture isn't randomly placed! haha. it really is nice! it's sooo clean. yay! it feels like home. super cute. i'll have to take pics.
**we have 2 girls on date to be baptized!! [H] and her sister [C]...ages 11 and 13 :) [H] has gone to church with her next door neighbors (members) quite a few times and agreed to let us teach. we invited them to be baptized and they said yes! their mom is ok with it, but wants to attend the church first to see what it's all about. fine by us!! :) miracles happen all the time!
**one cool experience, s. eria and i (we were on splits) were teaching an investigator named [S] who had LOTS of questions. didn't believe there was apostasy and therefore no need for a restoration. it's hard to explain but it was just one of those lessons where i felt like a REAL missionary (haha you know as opposed to the fake one i am all the time). i mean that they were HARD questions, but the spirit totally guided us and helped us find scriptures in the bible. it was AWESOME because we got to use the scriptures a ton to back up the doctrine, but the spirit was there so it wasn't bible bashing. i loved it. being a missionary is awesome.
**i hit my 9 month mark this week! SO CRAZY. it has gone by so fast. i feel like it's quickly slipping through my fingers...
well that's the main juice! love you all so much!!!
sister gibbons
Monday, January 11, 2010
a threesome in maple valley . . . again!
hey fam! well sister burch and i are staying in maple valley, but sister eria is joining us! we move to the apartment on saturday, so one of us will sleep on a cot until then. i'm really glad i'm staying!i'm actually emailing in renton right now because sister graf and sister eria were 2 HOURS late to transfers haha. we're still waiting for them. good times.
i'm very happy! [D] is coming SO FAR! he's totally softening and i feel that he may get baptized this transfer. a lot of great things are happening! we're working with this AWESOME guy named [J], age 24. he's totally turned his life around and wants to be baptized! we're just waiting to see if the judge will let him off parole on feb 15th, so keep him in your prayers. we've also been working with a few less active families that have started coming back to church which is awesome!!
this week will be crazy, getting used to the threesome and moving into the apartments! we're moving into a new phase of the mission! after this transfer, sisters bush, kim, and eria will go home! that will leave me, sister graf, sister sawyer and sister burch! (and sister sawyer goes home the transfer after that!) we're getting 2 new sisters from korea next transfer so that'll be fun. time is flying by SO FAST!!! i love it though. i was just talking with sister kim about what we've learned out here. i think more than anything i'm learning to forget myself. it's a work in progress...but i'm learning it's not all about me. i'm learning how much God loves His children. when we truly learn to focus outside ourselves, we find true happiness.
i love you all!!!
sister gibbons
i'm very happy! [D] is coming SO FAR! he's totally softening and i feel that he may get baptized this transfer. a lot of great things are happening! we're working with this AWESOME guy named [J], age 24. he's totally turned his life around and wants to be baptized! we're just waiting to see if the judge will let him off parole on feb 15th, so keep him in your prayers. we've also been working with a few less active families that have started coming back to church which is awesome!!
this week will be crazy, getting used to the threesome and moving into the apartments! we're moving into a new phase of the mission! after this transfer, sisters bush, kim, and eria will go home! that will leave me, sister graf, sister sawyer and sister burch! (and sister sawyer goes home the transfer after that!) we're getting 2 new sisters from korea next transfer so that'll be fun. time is flying by SO FAST!!! i love it though. i was just talking with sister kim about what we've learned out here. i think more than anything i'm learning to forget myself. it's a work in progress...but i'm learning it's not all about me. i'm learning how much God loves His children. when we truly learn to focus outside ourselves, we find true happiness.
i love you all!!!
sister gibbons
Monday, January 4, 2010
happy new year!!! yay for 2010!
happy new year!!! sounds like y'all had a fun night :) i thought of you all, singing auld lang syne (how do you spell that?) sadly i was sleeping at midnight. haha we went to bed at 10:30 and were going to wake up for a "bathroom break" at 11:45 to drink in the new year with sparkling cider. the alarm rang at 11:45 and i woke up (sister burch never hears the alarm) and my thought process was, WHY IS THE ALARM GOING OFF? haha i was SO exhausted. and then i went back to sleep. good times. we drank our sparkling cider the next day though.
new years eve and day were way fun, just visiting members and less actives, teaching lessons and seeking referrals. on new years eve, we had a lesson scheduled with our recent convert [B]. turns out they'd prepared an elaborate meal for us! (so sweet...ham, yams, stuffing, etc). pretty funny though since every house had been stuffing us with food .i was already SO full. after that dinner i was so uncomfortably full haha. the funniest part of the night: [O] had 12 grapes for each of us (peru tradition) and she was trying to explain what to do with them...her english isn't so good. she told [B] to go first and you could tell he had no idea what to do! so he just started praying. he had a long pause after he began, obviously trying to figure out WHY he was praying, and said, "thank you for these grapes!" sister burch, [O], and i all burst out laughing right then during the prayer. haha from that point on we all had the giggles. oh man, so hard to explain but SO funny. good times.
the only news of the week is [D]: we had some GREAT lessons, GREAT progress . . .
well i gotta run! sorry it's short! yes transfers are next week so pday is tuesday. we know we're at least moving houses because the allens are moving to utah! crazy. well i love you all so much!
lizzie
new years eve and day were way fun, just visiting members and less actives, teaching lessons and seeking referrals. on new years eve, we had a lesson scheduled with our recent convert [B]. turns out they'd prepared an elaborate meal for us! (so sweet...ham, yams, stuffing, etc). pretty funny though since every house had been stuffing us with food .i was already SO full. after that dinner i was so uncomfortably full haha. the funniest part of the night: [O] had 12 grapes for each of us (peru tradition) and she was trying to explain what to do with them...her english isn't so good. she told [B] to go first and you could tell he had no idea what to do! so he just started praying. he had a long pause after he began, obviously trying to figure out WHY he was praying, and said, "thank you for these grapes!" sister burch, [O], and i all burst out laughing right then during the prayer. haha from that point on we all had the giggles. oh man, so hard to explain but SO funny. good times.
the only news of the week is [D]: we had some GREAT lessons, GREAT progress . . .
well i gotta run! sorry it's short! yes transfers are next week so pday is tuesday. we know we're at least moving houses because the allens are moving to utah! crazy. well i love you all so much!
lizzie
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)