pics!

oh my goodness, i don't think i can top the cattle drive pictures, but here are the pics of my normal week! haha. the first pic is me modeling my new haircut! my a-line had grown out so i got it cut again, not too different, still short. i don't like it as much as my first cut for some reason, but it's nice to have all the ends even again :) the 2nd picture is sis yura and i prepping to go get something from the car in the pouring rain. rainy season is definitely starting up! one day in particular it poured. it was pitch dark and we were tracting. we sang singing in the rain with our umbrellas on the way back to the car though so we had fun! my boots and raincoat are awesome! BRING ON THE RAIN!

i'm trying to think if there's anything else to tell you.... oh i hit my 6 month mark this week! CRAZY! i can't believe how fast time flies. sis yura and i got our favorite pizza (veggie delite from papa murphy's) to celebrate and we ate the whole thing! awesome. yeah i can't think of much other than that. just the same old usual awesomeness. sister allan was so cute, before we knew about transfers she told us "i've been praying every day that you 2 get to stay here!" so it must be that we stayed because sis allan had so much faith :) other people in the ward were really cute too...it always makes you feel good when the ward doesn't want you to leave. there are TONS of fall colors here now...it is GORGEOUS. ah with so many trees it's just breathtaking. love it. yeah i really can't think of much else to tell you except everyone hates us during tracting lately it seems haha. i think i've had more doors slammed in the past week than in my whole mission combined. sis yura and i still have fun tracting though. our new project is perfecting her english. she speaks well and can understand everything and everyone can usually understand her, but her sentences are always out of order. so my new job is to fix every sentence she says (not during lessons though obviously). she's improving a lot! i'm also helping her fix her pronunciation when we read together in the mornings. i didn't realize how hard a language english is to learn until i had to explain it to someone. there are so many exceptions to rules and random phrases that we use. did i tell you we're teaching a korean lady english too? i can't remember what i tell you. yeah she's super cute and we're introducing her to a korean family in the ward this week. should be way fun.

well that's about it for me! sounds like you've had a fun week watching james! he sounds like such a character and it sounds like he's grown up a LOT since i left. tell him i love him :) love you all!!! talk to you in a week :)

lizzie

CRAZY, BUSY WEEK!

hey family!! so i finally decided how to use the address book on here so i didn't have to type in all your addresses! sweet huh? also a little sad that it took me this long. on thursday, i will have been a missionary for SIX MONTHS! isn't that crazy? it's just flown by. i've loved every minute of it. (well probably not EVERY minute, but pretty darn close!)

so this week as been SOOO busy! tuesday we had temple day! (i attached a pic, but now i'm thinking i might have sent it last week, oh well). i love the temple! we got a fun picture of our whole zone in front of the temple too but i just have a hard copy. my zone is the best! we have such awesome elders and it'll be fun to have these friendships forever. wednesday we had interviews with the president. i love interviews! pres moffat is AWESOME. and sis moffat is great too. it's fun that they're from salt lake so i can stay in touch with them. then thursday we had some exciting happenings: sis yura and i were guest speakers at a womens studies class at the Bush School...a private high school near UW (which apparently costs $26,000 a year! isn't that insanity?). it's definitely a very liberal school so the kids asked a lot of questions about womens roles in the church, our views of homosexuality, etc...you know, the easy questions ;) it was so cool though! a really great experience. sis yura and i basically taught the whole restoration because they asked what sets our church apart from other christian faiths, and then we got to teach all about the law of chastity and word of wisdom in answer to some questions. really smart kids, really respectful and friendly. so yeah, definitely a highlight i'll remember from the mission. the picture at the gas station was taken on that same day...on our way to seattle, we were precariously close to running out of gas....so we exited the freeway in bellevue and could NOT find a gas station. finally we found one and they didn't take credit cards! there was a chevron down the street though and we were very relieved :)

the other exciting thing on saturday was [L]'S BAPTISM!! (i attached a pic) it was so good! such a wonderful night. i got to speak about baptism (my first time giving a talk at one of my baptisms actually) which i just loved. it was pretty cute, i was talking about enduring to the end and doing the little things like prayer and scripture study and i was wrapping it up saying something like "[L], i promise if you keep doing the little things...etc" and he interrupted be and said "okay okay i will" hahaha SO larry. it was pretty cute though because he wasn't saying it out of annoyance (okay okay is just [L]'s classic response to every question), he was just committing that he would do it hehe. i don't know if that made sense but it was fun. i also got to accompany sister argyle on the flute for the musical number. we played it in church yesterday too...cool arrangement of a poor wayfaring man of grief! . . . but yeah the baptism turned out great! we had a bunch of support from our ward and also the singles ward because [L] will be going there. just a very happy day! the only sad thing was the building was out of hot water so the font was COLD. then [L]'s leg came up so they had to baptize him twice! poor guy.

then i went on an exchange with sister bush in maple valley from break friday to break saturday. SO FUN! i just adore her. i got to see . . . a bunch of members that i adore. it was so good to be with sister bush again. OH GUESS WHAT! at her zone conference, she said the closing prayer, and when she was shaking president's hand after, he said "we'll have to get you and sister gibbons together again before you go home...we can't keep you together for very long, but we'll have to do it" isn't that fun?? he just brought it up out of the blue. sister bush has 3 transfers left, so we'll see if we get to be companions again :) hopefully for christmas or my birthday! speaking of, transfer calls come on saturday (oh before i forget...next week p-day is tuesday just to warn you) and i have NO idea what will happen. i'm the only sister that has moved areas since i came to the mission in may (except for sister sawyer who came to maple valley with us for one transfer, but then she went back to her original area in puyallup) so we're expecting a LOT of changes. i'm 99% sure i'll stay in renton which is fine with me because i LOVE it here! sister yura is 99% sure she's leaving, but we'll see!! it's kind of exciting! i'll let you know next week!

well i've gotta get going....pray that we will find more investigators!! we need more people like [L]...he was a little miracle. i love you all! you're always in my prayers :) keep up the wonderful things you are doing! but remember "if you're too busy to pray and read your scriptures every day, then you're much busier than God ever intended you to be" haha....sister morriss had that on her wall. LOVE YOU ALL AND SUCH AHHHHH

wibby (haha i typed wubby at first...good times)

hola!

hey guys!! sorry i didn't warn about the change...p-day is today because we got to go to the TEMPLE!! love it. attached a pic. i also attached a pic of us with the maple valley sisters after an exchange because turned out they won the gold plates for their zone! so the sisters rocked it this transfer :) we asked this awesome guy on a motorcycle at the gas station to take the pic. he had a sweet leather jacket and turns out he just moved to renton! he left with a smile on his face and a restoration pamphlet :)

which reminds me of the funny story of the week!! i was in maple valley with sister burch (there's a pic of her attached) and we were tracting. this police car pulled up behind us and an officer got out and said "what's going on here ladies" "we're missionaries! we're proselyting" "oh, we got a call from someone in the neighborhood...we're been having problems with people going door to door recently. they've passed an ordinance which makes soliciting illegal in maple valley." "oh well, we're not selling anything, just sharing the gospel of jesus christ, so as far as we know, it's legal" meanwhile ANOTHER police car pulls up and two MORE officers get out (i guess we looked intimidating so the first had called for backup haha) and asked the SAME questions. then, "oh yeah, you're right, religious proselyting is the exception to the rule. well get it in the car...we'll have to take you down to the jailhouse"... sister gibbons just laughs... "you think i'm joking??" ....pause..."you're joking right?" "yeah i'm joking" haha. so we went on our merry little way. and then i realized THEY came to US and we didn't even talk to them about the gospel. they were still standing around so i said "sister bush let's go back and talk to them about the gospel!!" so we went up to them and talked to them, but they weren't interested haha. they wouldn't even take our website card haha but oh well. i said "well we thought we might as well ask since YOU came to US" and they laughed and got in their cars. THE END. pretty funny huh?

so yesterday we got a call from [L] (who always answers the phone "hey gibbons" no matter how many times i tell him it's SISTER gibbons haha) saying "hey, you know my baptism this saturday?" "yeah" "well something came up" (missionary's worst nightmare. you die when they say those words) "i'm flying to hong kong on friday and i'll be gone for three weeks" so of course i think ERG he's changed his mind and everything will die off while he's gone. but then he said, "can we do it on thursday night?" yay!! so his baptism is moved up and we have it all set to go! he has his interview tonight! we helped him find the address of the church in hong kong so he can go while he's there. i think it'll be way cool for him to go there because one of his original concerns was that it seemed like an american church to him. we had a great lesson with him yesterday and it's cool so see how far he's come. i don't think any of his family or friends will come to his baptism :( they're "not really into it" in [L]'s words. hopefully that will change sooner or later. so yeah that's the exciting thing going on!

other than that we're trying to find new investigators and help others progress...the usual :) life is good! sis yura and i have gotten super close. we're working really hard and having TONS of fun. she's awesome!!! transfers are on the 20th and i hope we just stay but we'll see. sis yura only has 2 transfers left so i don't know if president will just leave her here or send her somewhere else for her last 2. we'll see!

wasn't conference awesome?? i'm glad you all got to watch! my favorite session was saturday morning i think and some of my favorite talks were elder holland, pres uchtdorf, pres eyring, pres monson, that one guy who talked about missionary work, elder christofferson, and the very first talk of the whole thing (was it scott or hales??) anyway i'm listing almost every talk but it was just so good! we watched all the sessions at the stake center...it was great! easy to stay focused :) i thought of you all eating tacos! did you have scones? well anyway, i'm SO grateful we have living prophets on the earth. i know if we strive to follow their counsel, we will be happy, we will be safe, and we will have peace in a chaotic world.

well that's about it folks, i'll send another email with pics of me making buuz with the mongolians!! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!! thanks for the emails and the prayers and everything!

sister gibbons

making buuz with the mongolians!

making buuz with sis yura, sarah, tuya, and moko!

the big news of the week . . .

we won the golden plates!!! #1 car in zone . . . we spent a good 2 hours washing and waxing it during our break on wednesday so we deserved it :) happiest day of my life (haha just kidding). it was still pretty sweet to beat the elders though :)

more news of the week . . .

[L] is still good to go for october 10th! but keep praying for him :) the other big news of the week was zone conference...SO good. those spiritual boosts are just what you need every few weeks. i was asked to speak AGAIN which really surprised me because i spoke a few transfers ago. the topic was scripture stories that changed your life, so i spoke about the story of Abish and how it helped me decide to go on a mission. it's always so fun to gather with all the missionaries. the elders are awesome . . . there are so many just SOLID elders that i look up to so much. there's a lot i can learn from them on how to be a better missionary.

hmmm other things to share. i should just tell you some little random things i always forget to mention that give you an idea of what my life is like. the members LOVE to feed us dessert and i'm really worried i'm going to get fat hahaha. last sunday we had pie THREE times and ice cream twice! sometimes people even just see us walking by and run out with something. they're so excited that we can't turn them down. yesterday the members we ate dinner with fed us homemade apple pie and ice cream, she sent each of us home with a little personal mini apple pie, then a member flagged us down while we were knocking doors and gave us homemade ice cream, and then we had a member lesson last night and afterwards they gave us apple crisp and ice cream! oh gosh i thought i was going to POP. anyway we are well fed for sure.

sienuu! hello in mongolian :)

it's been a really great week! [L] is really solid for baptism on October 10! i was getting kind of worried because he had lots of concerns. you always get worried when they tell you they've been looking up 'book of mormon' and 'joseph smith' on wikipedia. who knows what's on there? he also saw part of the 'special witnesses' DVD at a baptism that we took him to, and he said it seemed like propaganda. not a good sign :) anyway i prayed a LOT about how we could help him and resolve his concerns, and we were able to have a powerful lesson yesterday answering all of his questions. at the end of the lesson he said he believed the book of mormon was true and joseph smith was a prophet!! his testimony is small, but it will grow. we had a great discussion about faith and nourishing his testimony and he's reading Alma 32 today. anyway, keep him in your prayers! he's an awesome guy and the gospel will bring him so much direction and happiness.

a highlight of the week was a visit to auburn on saturday to visit a recent mongolian convert! we've visited twice before and i've gotten quite close with them. [S] was the only one in her family to join the church. her husband was fine with it until he went back to mongolia for a few months and a fortune teller told him that his wife's new religion would be bad for his family. she has two daughters: [T] is josh's age and [M] is a freshmen in high school. they are so cute! we wish we could teach them the gospel but it's hard with their dad. did i tell you about last time we went over there and made buuz? they eat it on the mongolian new year. you basically make this dough, roll it into thin circles, put ground beef and onions in it, seal it up to make a little pouch, and steam it. they all teased me last time because mine all looked really ugly haha. so we made it again and i did much better! i have fun pictures but my camera is out of batteries so i'll have to send them next week. i've learned some more mongolian phrases and i THINK my accent is getting better. [M] still laughs at me when i speak mongolian though :)

one last cool experience. last night we taught [B] for the first time. a man he used to work with referred him to us, and we visited a few days ago and left a restoration pamphlet. last night we came back and he'd read it, underlining lots of stuff and had a lot of questions. a LOT of questions. hard questions! he wasn't trying to bash or anything, he was very sincere and respectful and interested. anyway it's hard to explain, but it was just a really cool lesson where i felt the spirit really guided us to be able to answer his questions. questions i'd never even thought of! he committed to read and pray about the book of mormon! we will see what happens :) anyway when i got home it just got me thinking about how i'm really a missionary!! i've come a long ways since april! i can teach :) not because i'm great or anything, but because i've learned to listen to the spirit (well i'm definitely still learning, there's still a long way to go). i'm so grateful for this opportunity to learn more about the Lord, his gospel, his spirit, and his children. i know that God truly has called a modern prophet to guide us. I know Jesus Christ stands at the head of this church, HIS church. I'm so grateful that the fulness of the gospel is taught in this church.

all caught up!!

My sincere apologies to all readers of this blog for getting so far behind these last few weeks!! Now I am all caught up, including Liz's emails from today! Be sure and scroll down far enough to read her emails for the last five weeks or so! Enjoy . . .

Liz's mom

love you all!

this week has been AMAZING!! mostly because sis yura and i have just been so united and excited about the work and our goals! we set some high goals for new investigators . . . and we wanted a church tour set up with each, and the Lord gave us miracles!! we even got one more than our goal!! the most exciting one is [L], he's a 24 yr old from Hong Kong ... oh yeah the one i told you about last week! anyway we took him on his church tour and it was awesome! the spirit was strong, and since then he's had 2 more lessons, a baptismal date of oct 10 (he's still praying about everything, but that's his goal so pray for him!), and he came to stake conference yesterday. it was one of the broadcasts and we got to hear from Elder Nelson and Pres Monson! AWESOME! anyway we've seen lots of miracles and it's just been a great week. the work is a joy when you put your whole heart and energy into it . . . when you do it the Lord's way. i'm so grateful to be a missionary! the Lord is blessing me way more than anything I could ever give Him. I've really come to know that we are always in the Lord's debt, just has King Benjamin taught. i hope all is well with you all :) i love you all so much! thanks for your prayers and your emails. hope you all have a happy week! (speaking of, we are so lucky we know how to be happy! we had a lesson just last night with [M], who said she just doesn't know how to be happy. i told her that that's why we're teaching her the gospel, because it's the way to be happy. then she asked, are you truly happy? and i could honestly say yes! we are so lucky. the gospel truly is the way to be happy no matter what comes our way...because the happiness is something that starts in our hearts, not something we find in the world). so be happy! i love you all, i pray for you in all your challenges, hard times, and adventures (oh speaking of...hilarious! a sister yura-ism . . . instead of 7th day adventist, she called it 7th day adventure church hahaha priceless. oh and one more, this morning i asked her what she was eating and she said "oil"... then paused and said, "no...i mean oatmeal" haha good times learning english with sis yura). LOVE YOU!

pics of the week!

#1 - sis yura and i outside red robin. we splurged on p-day last week :) the fries were AMAZING. good times

#2 - taken about an hour ago as we pulled up to the library in our shades. i found mine in the church parking lot a couple days ago haha. meet the sistahs.

#3 - sis yura's first experience in a drive through car wash!! it was a pretty ghetto one though... a man named sanka basically washed it while we awkwardly watched him from inside the car, then the "automatic" portion was like 45 seconds long haha. it was worth the $6 though, just so sis yura could experience it :)