what a busy week for our fam!

hello everyone! sounds like a busy week for everyone....we are all scattering across the country! thank goodness for technology to keep us connected :) i pray for you all wherever you are! I can't wait to see more pictures of the Bosters' new surroundings :) what a fun adventure. and josh is heading off to college! i cant' believe it! Anyway, i love hearing the updates each week!

As for us, the work was kind of slow this week. it seems we always get bursts of new people to teach but then our hearts break when they decide not to continue after a couple lessons. but that's just how missionary work goes! we are still falling more and more in love with C and her family. we still haven't been able to sit down and teach them a real lesson...it's been a crazy week for their family. they came with their neighbor friends (the S’s) to the ward BBQ and sat with us. we had a good chat about a lot of things and we got onto the topic of the restoration. the BBQ was winding up so we decided to continue that night at 8 pm. we went off to another lesson (actually a really cool one with a boy josh's age whose best friend just passed away...he's not sure if he believes in a god or an after-life...we didn't convince him yet but it was a sweet conversation) and then headed over there. when we drove up to C's her kids were waiting outside for us, very excited. we unrolled the windows and they said their mom had gone to pick up their big sister (she had run away from home, but called her mom to come home when she ran into some trouble...it's a LONG story....remember when i said that Bro S said C had been having spiritual experiences? well one of them was...she was trying to decide what to do about this wayward daughter. she asked bro S for advice and he told her to pray. at first she thought it was stupid, but she tried it and had an amazing experience where she felt god told her what to do) We said, "oh ok, well just tell your mom we came by and we'll call her to set up another time" but the 12-yr-old boy said "no we need your help to get ready and we want you to meet her!" So we ran inside where sister S was washing dishes and sister M and i folded laundry like crazy. hmmm i feel like i can't really explain why this was special, but it was just sweet...like they had taken us in as part of their family at a very pivotal moment for their family...when her 17-yr-old daughter came in, the little girls introduced us "these are the missionaries from our new church! HUG THEM!" haha we ended up shaking her hands and introducing ourselves. anyway, as sister M and i folded clothes, i said "are you ready to love her?" meaning this wayward daughter and sister M said "yes, i already do!" and i said "me too!" and i really did feel this overwhelming feeling of love for them. that's the best part of missionary work, when you feel about people the way God does. so yeah, hopefully more good news to come about the A family!

The only other good stories are really embarrassing ones. i was like a crazy person this week and did all kinds of stupid things. #1: i locked our keys in the trunk of our car as we were getting ready to go tracting. elder G had to drive all the way from bellevue with the spare key which wouldn’t unlock the trunk, but it would start the car. SO we had to take it to the dealership to get the keys out of the trunk haha. THEN we did an exchange with the Issaquah sisters (the very opposite end of the mission) and i left my wallet in their car!! the assistants had to bring it to me. i hate doing stupid stuff like that!!

anyway, i gotta run...there is only one computer that's free so sister M is waiting for her turn. but i love you all so much!!

sister gibbons

the news

well i loved reading your emails this week! it's a big week for the gibbons family! i got kind of emotional reading about it. big changes...josh ordained an elder and a move to san antonio. i can't wait to hear about the start of all these new adventures. i love you all so much!

i picked up sister M at the mission home and she is just a delight! she is from lehi, utah. her dad is pakistani (although he has passed away) and her mom grew up in the church in california. she is an amazing person...being the only active one in her family. she is very fun and outgoing and is picking up the work very well. i haven't been with an american for a while so it's kind of fun. we don't have to deal with the challenges of learning english so it's kind of different! I'm really excited because I get to go on exchanges with all the sisters this transfer for training. So i'll get to check up on sister H, G, and L and make sure they are doing well :) it will be fun.

We have had an AMAZING week here in Dash Point. We had a lot of success on the finding end! We had one miracle after another while tracting. We met a girl who was baptized in her teens but has hardly been active since. she's had a hard life. As we sat down to teach her a lesson, I felt prompted to ask her what she was searching for in life. (I'm not always so blunt as that). She simply said "purpose." We shared some scriptures and bore testimony that the Lord loved her and that she could find purpose and happiness. She kept saying "really?" so sincere. She told us she wants to come to church with her boyfriend and 3 kids, and that her sister, boyfriend, and kids would come too. They couldn't come yesterday but they are planning on coming this sunday! Then about 5 doors later, we taught a girl who is A's friend. She has been reading all kinds of religious books but not feeling like she was finding what she needed. Turns out her mom is LDS! We gave her a BofM, set up a return appointment, and she committed to come to church with A! Anyway, there are all kinds of stories like that this week. We've been talking to everyone we see and we meet the most amazing people. Also, we were supposed to teach C the Restoration yesterday (the one we had dinner with last week) but then she got really sick. I was a little discouraged, but then I spoke with her next door neighbor (the member who referred her) and he told me of some amazing spiritual experiences she's had over the past 2 weeks. She told him that at first she was coming to church because her kids were interested, but now she's coming for her. I felt the spirit so strong as I talked with him, I know C is prepared. I felt such love for her and I can't wait to teach her when she gets feeling better.

well that's about it! oh hold up, one funny story for the week. we always try to pray with people and teach a lesson when we meet people tracting. we were talking to this girl named L (In high school) about prayer so we asked if we could pray with her. she had told us her name was L and her dog's name was G, but i mixed it up and thought HER name was G. so i said the opening prayer and kept praying for G! sister M was laughing and i had no idea why until i closed. sister M put her hand on my shoulder and said, "G's the dog" haha we laughed pretty hard. other highlights were tracting in 90 degree weather and making up limericks. good times.

also random, i don't know if ryan told everyone, but he knows a family in the ward here! he served in their ward in chile! small world huh??

well that just about wraps up another edition. i love you all so much and i can't wait to hear about texas!! i'm so grateful for the gospel...the constant in life. when you're built on the rock of Christ, no matter where you move, your foundation is the same. and it's the little things that keep us built on that rock. LOVE YOU ALL!

sister gibbons

pics and news!

hey guys!! i only have a couple minutes today because we have to head to transfer meeting. sister L is leaving me :( and i'm getting a new sister! all i know is she's from lehi, utah, but i'll meet her in a couple hours. it will be another new adventure! i'm glad i get to stay in federal way. i think sister L is heading down to puyallup to be in a threesome with sister H and the japanese sister. she'll be great :) well the best way to tell you the news in a short time is to send some pics!

us and O! he's the coolest guy i've ever met. the yellow clothing is the usual :)

me and some henry weinhardt soda from a member. kinda sketchy i know

us with the M's, a less active family we found together. now they are active and preparing for the temple :) we love them

us and some of the M/B family. they are from chile and one of our favorite member families!

us and the H's! the members we live with

district meeting, exchange, and zone conference

this is my district (a really awesome district this transfer), me and sister G (our last exchange! she goes home next week), and all the sisters that were at zone conference (the other 4 are spanish sisters and the little girl is A.L. ...the mission president's daughter...so cute). also! the new phone we got at zone conference...isn't it shnazzy?? SHWEET

the news!

hello hello! thanks for all the emails :) do i say that every week? probably, but i mean it every week. so you've had a sneak peak of our week through pictures! also from the lack of pictures, you probably noticed O didn't get baptized. kind of a crazy long story. he's still awesome and i still think he'll be baptized soon...he just needs to get sundays off still. he was actually interviewed and it went really well. we were going to baptize him even without sundays off (since he was so ready and has been waiting so long) but then we found out he goes to his old pentacostal church every sunday night (because he's off work by then). now we don't have anything against the pentacostals, but it seemed kind of weird to baptize him and then have him be completely active in another church. we thought it would be difficult to help him progress. SO we will see. we're hoping he gets a job driving school busses before the new school year starts! this week, R didn't come to church, but sister Ndid! (the one from germany) i hope she had a good experience...the testimony meeting seemed to focus on the pioneers a lot since the youth had just gone on trek...that's kind of different for a new person so we'll see.

so yeah, that was the main stuff investigator-wise. but it was a busy week with meetings and such! zone conference was yesterday and it was wonderful! one surprising/kind of sad thing though. so every zone conference, all the missionaries who are leaving before the next one bear their testimonies. up until now, we've been having zone conferences every transfer, but now they're changing it to a quarterly thing. SO the next zone conference is in november and they called me up to give my little farewell testimony! i was shocked and very sad to realize it was my last one. but i was glad to have a chance to bear my testimony, and even more glad i'm staying an extra transfer :)

ok i need to send this off but i'll be on for another 5 or 10 minutes!

love you all!!!!!!

sister gibbons

Lizzie with her new mission president and his wife, The Larkins

an apology

I just want to apologize for not keeping up Liz's blog these last few months!! Now that Abby's wedding and our pioneer trek are over, I promise to do better! Here are Liz's emails for the month of July . . . keep checking back, and I will fill in the gap between July and March! Thank you for your patience!!

Liz's mom

hello! hello!

It was an incredible miracle week for us!! we taught way more lessons than usual, had 2 church tours, and had 5 people at church!! (we hadn't had one the whole time we've been here). the Lord has blessed us with many miracles! i can't remember if i told you what's going on with O. i think i mentioned him to you one of my first week...kind of an eternal investigator. our mission has been struggling a lot in the past couple months. a couple weeks ago, president larkin wrote an article in our weekly newsletter with a bold promise in it. he promised that if we had the faith, each companionship could still find someone to be baptized in july. this was a big promise since there were only a few weeks left. i read this article right before our lesson with O...i was very impressed by it and felt it was true, but no one specific came to mind. as we were watching "special witnesses" with O, i had the idea that O could be baptized on july 31! he's been to church enough times and is keeping all the commandments, he just can't come to sacrament meeting. we want him to be able to come to church and be active before he is baptized, but the thought kept coming to me to ask him to prepare to be baptized on july 31! i kept praying silently and felt that it wasn't just my idea, but coming from the spirit. we invited him to be baptized on july 31 and he said yes! we then began fasting and praying that his boss will change his schedule. this past week, we went over the baptismal interview questions with him and he is ready! BUT still no change in his work schedule. but at that lesson this week, again i felt strongly that if we have the faith and do all we can, that he could still be baptized that day! we are fasting today and i'm trying to think of anything else we could do. so anyway, we MIGHT have a baptism on saturday :) we will see what happens.

other miracles: we met this man named R tracting on Thursday, then took him on a church tour on saturday. it was a sweet experience, he was very emotional as he prayed. then he came to church yesterday! i think he had a good experience, and we're teaching him again on tuesday.

We had another church tour set up on tuesday with a guy in his twenties, and we had a girl with us from the singles ward who is thinking about serving a mission. then it was sad cuz he wasn't even home (oh yeah i told you about C huh? he was so solid but he bailed). so then i was just hoping we could still find something for H to do with us so she could have a good experience. then we saw this teenager wandering around the apartments we we asked if we could teach him and he said yes! we sat down in the grass, prayed, and taught R the whole restoration! he said he would read the Bof M and come on a church tour. he's 17 and a really sharp kid. THEN on thursday, we went to his door to get him for the church tour, and he was asleep! (teenagers) but his dad said we could come in and wait and he'd get ready. so then we started talking with his dad and he decided to come along!! his name is R too. it was a wonderful church tour and the spirit was strong! they committed to come to church too. they didn’t end up coming because of some crazy family situations right now. i hope we can get in touch with them this week!

anyway, THEN some members brought their neighbor and her 3 kids to church yesterday! she's super cute and sat by me in relief society. we're hoping to start teaching their family!

so yeah SO many miracles happening here!

i love you all!!!

sister gibbons

hey ps! not that this is that exciting for you, but this is the kind of news that gets us excited here. we just found out we're getting another sister next transfer!! we are very surprised because our cap is 8 and we are at 9 this transfer. we assumed with sister G leaving next transfer, they'd keep us at 8. anyway, her name is sister M and she's from Lehi! Anyway, it was just a surprise so it will have a big effect on what happens with transfers in two weeks. i'm pretty sure i'll stay here the rest of my mission, but you just never know! especially since pres larkin seems like one who would mix things up a lot! anyway, random tidbit of news!

pps - you should check out Pres Uchtdorf's article from a past conference: "we are doing a great work and cannot come down!" it's awesome.

hello family!

it sounds like a busy time getting the bosters off to texas! I still can’t believe you’re moving. the stories about james are so cute. what a cute little guy. he has changed SO much since I left. I hope grandma gibbons gets better! . . .

Well, we’re doing well here in dash point! it seems the work is picking up every week! we found 3 new investigators while tracting today. one girl, D, is our age and has been looking for a job for a long time. we just started talking to her in a parking lot, then ended up praying with her and teaching her a little about the plan of salvation. we prayed that she would be guided to a job. 2 days later we called her and she said, “I got a job! thanks for the prayer!” sadly, the job conflicted with the church tour we’d set up, and we haven’t been able to reschedule, but it was still a cool experience and hopefully she’ll remember it!

We also found a guy in his 20’s while tracting…his name is C. He agreed to hear more! we couldn’t go in since there weren’t any women there, but we prayed on his doorstep. usually I teach the restoration on the door and sister L bears her testimony, but I knew she was ready to teach, so I just turned to her after the opening prayer. the spirit was strong as she told the joseph smith story and recited the first vision. we have a church tour with him on Tuesday and he is really excited!

We had a lesson with a part member family on Friday. Bro N has recently become active again and he’s excited to have his wife learn more. She is a hard-core Catholic from Germany and she is HILARIOUS. she has a thick accent and the funniest laugh. we just love her. she didn’t take to the elders so our first lesson we were trying to build as many bridges as we could. I told her about Dad’s mission and she told us all about her uncle in Dusseldorf. I’m sure you would love her dad. her name is U and she’s having us back next Friday to learn more about our church and to “make us somesing special”….some german dessert or something. good times.

well that just about wraps up another edition! I love you all so much!!

Sister Gibbons

the news!

nothing too out of the ordinary this week except we're feeling more and more comfortable in our area! i don’t even need the GPS most of the time :) we even got 22 lessons this week!! elder perry promised us if we teach 20 lessons a week our baptisms would double. our first 2 weeks here we were only at like 13 or 14 since we didn't have a teaching pool. but the Lord is blessing us! we don't have any progressing investigators, but we had some amazing tracting experiences! we had 6 lessons on the doorstep (where they let us have an opening and closing prayer and we teach them and invite them to learn more.) only 1 of those agreed to a return appointment, but they were spiritual experiences and i know the people will remember them. we have a church tour this week with a family with 3 little kids! i hope it goes well. we are loving the ward more and more...wonderful members. we spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday! it as a farewell for a kid in the ward. so he spoke, then sister L bore her testimony (she did a great job with english), then we had a rest hymn, then i was the concluding speaker....there were 35 minutes left in the meeting!! haha. but i filled them! i wondered if i could but it seemed like the perfect amount of time. i spoke on the connections between missionary work, conversion, and sacrifice, and how they all relate to the Atonement. i hadn't had a chance to prepare until 10:10 pm on saturday night, but i really felt like the Lord just plopped ideas into my head. what a miracle. i hope the congregation didn't get bored since i had to talk so long. i thought of both andrew and the moffats giving their homecoming talks just a few minutes after i finished. i'm glad andrew did so well. i can't believe he's home. crazy. well i'm going to send this off...if i think of any amazing stories i'll add it in a minute :) love you all!!

sister gibbos (haha typo...but i thought i'd leave it...awesome)