lizzie and her new companion

Just got some pictures of Liz and her new companion, Sister Hughes, and thought I would share!!

hey family!

i don’t have much time today since it's been busy busy! i just picked up sister hughes from the mission home and she is awesome! she's 4'10" :) how fun is that? she's from st george, the oldest in her family of 3 kids, and super excited to be here. she seems really laid back and easy going. i think we're going to get along wonderfully :) it was hard to drop off sister eria at the airport...i love her dearly. sister burch is whitewashing in a new area with one of the spanish sisters (they'll teach in both languages) which will be a huge growing experience for her!

[T] is doing great, still on track for the 13th! [V] is off date...long story but i think we can get him back later. [D] is softening! i know you've heard it before but i think i will get to see him baptized. pray for him :) [J] and his family cancelled 4 lessons in a row (so frustrating) but came to church!! so we'll see what happens.

i'm doing wonderful! very happy to be a missionary. love you all dearly. take care of each other while popsy's gone. josh i want to hear all about the prom invite! and i'm way excited to hear about concerto night, wedding plans, annie's jury duty and promotion, and jenny's flourishing career as a photographer :) mom, that's so fun about katherine knowing carol bush! ah i love sister bush. i gave her our home phone number so she can come see you when she's in utah. you'll adore her. thanks for all the sweet emails and updates!! i'll give you more details and pics next week. love you all!

sister gibbons

happy valentine's day!

hello everyone! happy valentine's day!! thank you so much for the fun package! oh my goodness mom, the sugar cookies were incredible. they were the best i've ever had. still so soft. mmmm we loved them. and cute pj's! you guys are the best :) s. burch and s. eria love their cd's, so thank you so much!

this is sister eria's last week with us :( i'm so sad! i've come to love her so much. the three of us sang "god be with you til we meet again" in her language in sacrament meeting on sunday! so special! so fun. it's crazy with transfers coming up. i don't know what will happen, but sister burch has been here since i left last july so i wonder if she will leave. we will see!

well the exciting stuff here is we have 2 on date to be baptized! [T] (the one who's josh's age) is on date for March 13! he’s SO awesome. so solid. what a CHAMP. so fun to teach. and the other was a big surprise out of nowhere! [V] is 24. we knocked on his door on friday, taught him on saturday and invited him to be baptized and he said yes! he didn't come to church on sunday so i was worried that he wasn't really serious, but we just had a lesson with him this morning and he's awesome! he smokes, but we told him we will help him quit and he's excited. what a fun time to be in maple valley. also we found a family of 5! we took them on a church tour last week (except the wife)...[J] is AMAZING. such a kind, sincere man... a wonderful father that wants the best for his kids. when we invited him to be baptized, he said "i want to say yes, but i want my wife to talk with you first" we have a lesson on wednesday with a member family coming with us, and then a lesson on saturday at a different family's house. i have a good feeling about them. and it's a FAMILY!! ah i'm just so happy and loving the work.

one more cool experience... we were just teaching [T], the [D]'s neighbor (he's AWESOME too...his wife is pretty anti, so he can't really progress and it's hard) and he points at me and says "Do you remember what you said in your prayer last week??" (he's really bold and upfront about everything so i had no idea what he was going for) "uhh, not exactly" "you prayed i would find a job" (he's been unemployed since october). "so that was on tuesday. on wednesday, i got a call for an interview! my FIRST interview since i was laid off. i've applied for 62 jobs, and that was my first call for an interview. on sunday, i told my preacher that i got a call for an interview. he said he'd been praying for me...and i said, 'not as hard as the mormons!!' hahaha isn't that hilarious? i hope he gets the job! he really is the coolest guy. i hope his wife's heart is softened. he's really looking for truth.

well i gotta log off. love you all!!

sister gibbons

hey family!

i think i've had like the 24 hr stomach flu...i haven't been able to eat anything since saturday night! but yeah, i feel totally fine now, i just can't keep food down. so when i don't eat i'm fine. hopefully i'll be able to eat later today...it's gotten better. awesome i'm sure you all wanted to hear about that. btw, don't worry mom i really am fine! i was supposed to teach gospel principles sunday school yesterday but bro gustin sent me home because i looked green. then he brought me saltine crackers last night...so nice. s. eria and s. burch were good taker-care-ofs and i think they bonded while i slept. they haven't always been best friends so maybe it was all the Lord's plan to get them to bond. who knows!!

but yeah, it's been an awesome week! lots of little cool experiences! first the funny one:

**ok i think this may be a "you had to be there" thing, but seriously so funny! we were doing a member lesson with the [A]’s (cutest family!) on monday. they have 6 kids and their 6 year old was drawing us pictures. s. burch and s. eria got theirs first: hearts, etc with their names on them. finally it was my turn! anne marie was drawing furiously...then she kept coming over and staring at my name tag, then going back to her paper. she did this like 3 or 4 times. finally she presents me with my paper: "thank you for being new....greomones" hahaha i think it was supposed to be "gibbons" oh man we all laughed really hard and decided it was my hispanic alter ego. so now i have a 2nd personality: hermana greomones! ah good times. i pull out hermana greomones between doors while tracting to keep us all entertained.

so now the serious experiences. so i made a goal this week to talk to EVERYONE about the gospel. i usually talk to everyone, but if it was an awkward situation i'd chicken out after just like "hi, how are you?" etc. so i decided to change that! we've had some cool experiences come from these moments.

*so the other day we were tracting and something was hilarious (everything is funny recently) and s. eria thought she was going to "pee her skirt" (in her words) so we rushed to a different part of the neighborhood to use a member's restroom. after we left their house we were walking back to our tracting spot and sister eria was walking backwards reenacting a funny experience and we were all laughing really hard when we saw a man on his porch. 1st thought: "oh how awkward, we were just being really weird and he probably thinks we're crazy so maybe we shouldn't tell him we're missionaries" but then i remembered my goal! so i said hi and told him who we were and asked if he'd heard of our church. so anyway, long story short, it turned into this like 30 minute discussion...really cool discussion!! we got to bear our testimonies and you could tell he was really open and sincere. we're probably going to take him on a church tour this week!

*the next day, we got out of the car and i saw this kid in his late teens with earphones in, walking by. people with ear phones are the worst because it's really awkward to try and get their attention without scaring them because they can't hear you. so sometimes i just let them keep walking. but not now! so i flagged him down and started talking with him. turns out he's read the book of mormon and knows it's true! he doesn't totally understand the importance of it, but he really is prepared! we had a great discussion with him too. he wouldn't set up a return appointment, but one of his best friends is in the ward so we're going to talk to that boy about him!

anyway there were a few others, but it was just cool to see how the Lord will truly place people in our path if we're willing to open our mouths, even when it's awkward :) maybe even especially if it's awkward!

one other exciting news, we're starting to teach a member's boyfriend: [T]. he's josh's age and just an awesome kid!! he's already been reading the BofM a lot and even found the BYU channel on TV. he started watching devotionals and calling his girlfriend to say "you have a prophet??" he just eats it all up at church. we're planning on putting him on date for baptism tomorrow!

[D]’s still chugging! it seems like his lessons get better and better and the spirit stronger and stronger. he's bound to crack soon, right?

well that's about it from maple valley!! thanks so much for everything you do for me. i love hearing from you all! hope it's a wonderful week!!!

sister gibbons

sister eria teaching us to hula!

what happy news!

hey guys!! so i can't believe abby's engaged! CRAZY! i'm so so happy though. what a wonderful thing. as soon as sister morriss called me to tell me she had an email for me BEFORE monday, i was like, "oh is my sister engaged??" haha "well do you want me to tell you before you see it?" "it's ok sister morriss, i know that's what it is" "yeah she's engaged!" haha good times. cute cute pics. i need to hear a more detailed account though! sounds like ryan is a champ so i welcome him with open arms! you better keep me well updated on the planning and everything since i'm missing out :) so CONGRATULATIONS!! i was just taking some pics in the library to send abby to somehow convey my excitement. the guy next to me gave me a weird look when i took the creepy one captioned "my little sister's getting married!" haha i'm such a creepo.

i feel like my news is insignificant after that big announcement, but i'll try my best. it's been a good week. my other 2/3rds are feeling much better. i was PRETTY pleasant but not perfectly so. ;) by sunday night i was just worn out!! now i understand a little more what motherhood is all about :) sis eria had a root canal on thursday...her first experience with laughing gas...HILARIOUS. she was giggling up a storm and quoting the testaments. "you are a spector from the gods!" hygienist: "what did she say???" "jacob, don't deny me your gifts!!" hahaha i was dying. "don't mourn me for my friend, death is not the end of life" oh man. what a crack-up.

sad news of the week: [H] and [C]'s mom put a stop on the whole thing. we can't even teach them now. breaks my heart, but there's nothing we can do.

good news of the week: [D] is still chugging along! he committed to PRAY! wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles. he could be baptized at any time so pray for him!! i'm sure it's boring to hear about him because every week it's the same thing "he's coming along!" and that's it. but i really feel like he will be baptized soon.

that's about all i can think of. we had zone conference which is always amazing! i got to go to the front (along with the other jan and feb birthdays) as everyone sang the seattle birthday song for us! hilarious. i'll have to sing it for you when i get home, complete with clapping and hand motions. after almost 10 months i've finally got it down. ah the best times are on the mission. i just love everything about what i'm doing. i'm very very happy. near the beginning of my mission i was almost worried because i thought "oh when it's time to go home, i don't think it'll be that hard, i think it'll be exciting!" and now that i'm watching s. eria and s. bush on their last transfer, i realized i'm going to have a TOUGH time saying goodbye. not that i need to think about that right now of course. well i have 4 minutes before it shuts me down but i'll log back in to send a picture...LOVE YOU ALL!!

sister gibbons