to the whole fam damily!

i finally have some fun pics to send!
the first is a fun reunion pic with sister bush! since she's the training sister i'll get to be with her at least one day each transfer. ah it was so fun to be back in maple valley!! and sister bush is seriously a best friend. we are kindred spirits :) such a fun day.

the next two are super fun. k so you remember the golden hubcap competition yeah? well now you actually get golden license plate holders that say "#1 car in zone" and we WANTED THEM SO BAD. so we got the burch family to help cuz the boys are way into fixing up cars so they have ALL the good stuff. while we were cleaning our car, bobby (the one in the pic) had the genius idea to put a chrome tail pipe (haha i THINK that's what it's called...) on our car! now we're cool and the elders are jealous :) but we STILL didn't win the golden plates. the office crew left a note that said "your engine was celestial and the interior was spotless. get some armor all tire shine next time and the plates are yours" WHAT A RIP. our car was spotless. oh well i'm not that bitter any more.

these are some fun ones from the past couple days. sister yura and i with ice cream that we found in the allans' freezer (they said we could check for ice cream hehe), sister yura and i with the allans last night (aren't they cute??), sister yura and i with jacob, a recent convert in the ward that we continue to teach the new member lessons, and sister yura and i with the M&Ms that sister allan keeps full so we can get our chocolate fix every day :) good times in renton!

hmmmmm . . . other news

well i'm trying to think of other news . . . we had zone conference this week! elder arnold of the seventy was here for a mission tour! it was AMAZING! seriously a wonderful experience. it was a good wake up call to remember how important this work is and how dedicated we should be. it's kind of hard to explain in an email, but just an amazing experience to be taught by such a powerful servant of the Lord. i have rededicated myself to serving with all my heart might mind and strength! that's the only way to do this work . . . the Lord's way. it's also the hard way because it requires us to BECOME not merely to DO. i've come to recognize how much i need the Lord, how much i need the spirit. because I don't know how to help my investigators! i don't know their hearts. but the Lord does, and he guides us. it's a truly remarkable work.

yesterday sister yura and i attended a sacrament meeting in bellevue as well as our own so that she could introduce some mongolians to each other. there ended up being about 15 minutes left in the meeting after all the speakers had gone, so the bishop got up and said "i see we have a couple sister missionaries visiting us today. we'd like to invite them to come up and speak to us for the remaining time, and then our closing hymn will be . . ." sister yura looked at me with pure fear in her eyes haha (sorry inside joke to myself, jane's favorite phrase is "pure fear in her eyes"). it's so cool though cuz i wasn't nervous! i'm sure it just comes with being a missionary, but the spirit guided us and it was great! i think this is what i'll miss when i come home . . . the spirit, power, and authority that we carry . . . not because of anything WE do, but because we are actually set apart to declare the gospel! pretty cool. i love these experiences that remind me of this setting apart because it's easy to forget about it since we do the same thing every day ya know? i remember knowing missionaries before and there was something different about them, but to me, i'm just me ya know? i forget that i'm a missionary! not that i really forget i'm a missionary but oh nevermind haha. anyway i don't know if i ever make sense in these emails, but i just know that this work is true and that the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints truly has the priesthood authority restored to the earth! what a blessing. oh one other thing about being a missionary. the other day i realized that when i think of myself i always think of me as "sister gibbons" and not "liz." haha i don't know if that makes sense either but my first name seems weird to me a little bit now haha. oh gosh i hope i'm not a total weirdo when i come home. you'll tell me if i am right? i don't think i will be. here's hopin'

well that's most the good stuff. nothing super exciting to report except [J]'s still solid for september 5th! she's so ready. she could've been baptized weeks ago. it'll be a happy day though. pray that her mom will come! everyone else is chuggin' away, no one else has a date for baptism. it seems more and more like [K] will never make that leap of faith. i'm kind of at a loss of how to help her which is frustrating. but i need to follow the spirit and really be prayerful about her. the hard thing is that of course people can just choose not to act! even when they KNOW it's good and true. that's the hardest part of being a missionary i think.

the news!

well it's been a FANTASTIC week here! we are SO busy which is SO great. [J] is doing AWESOME! she actually switched her baptism to september 5 so her future roommates can drive up from provo :) she's still way solid and it's just fun to keep meeting with her and keep her stoked for her baptism. we've basically taught all the lessons so we're just reviewing stuff and helping her strengthen her testimony!

another couple people i haven't told you about yet . . . we're teaching this guy named [J] (i sent a picture so you can see him . . . he's the one with the hat on . . . this is sis yura, josh stucki (the little boy on the right . . . son of the ward mission leader . . . quite a character), david hinckley in the ward (who is off to BYU in a couple weeks), and then our investigator, [J], all posing with my chalk artwork at the ward potluck). . . . he's being deployed to iraq on october 1 (3rd time!) and so we're hoping he'll be baptized before then. we taught him the plan of salvation this week and asked him to be baptized. he said yes, november 7, 2010!! WHAT? that's forever away! he said he knew it was a big commitment and needed time to change his life. we testified that he can change his life now and he wants the blessings of baptism and the holy ghost before he goes to iraq. he's praying about being baptized september 12, so pray for him! he's a funny guy . . . rough around the edges but has a good heart.


[D] is this lady who dated an lds guy for EIGHT years. they're still really good friends and i'd bet if she were baptized they'd get married. she basically knows the church is true in her mind but is having a hard time getting the spiritual confirmation in regard to some principles like the priesthood. she made an interesting comment that she knew it was a problem with her and not the doctrine. her heart isn't open to the answer for some reason, so we're hoping to help her get over this hurdle so she can be baptized! pray for her! she's AWESOME.

we had a media referral last week: [K and W]. they just wanted a finding faith in christ video, but we have them the first lesson as well :) they are the nicest people . . . strong faith in christ already. they were open though and said they'd read and pray about it! [K] said he doesn't believe in coincidences so maybe God is trying to tell him something :) pray for them too! funny story, in PEC last week, the YM president jokingly told us we needed to find more YM for the ward. [K and W] have a teenage boy named [K], complete with a huge baseball hat and gold chains. he shook our hands and was way nice! yesterday in PEC we reported that we found him one :) haha it would be awesome if their whole family joins together! LOVE IT

pics!

here are a couple pics sis yura and i took last week after our zone activity (playing ultimate frisby and frugby. i learned how to throw a spiral with a football!) we stopped at this beautiful lake near our house. we have bonded quite a bit this week and life is good with sis yura here in renton :) hope you enjoy the random one of me enjoying a 'titanic' moment.

hey howdy hey

well it’s been a great week here! we’re keeping busy which is good :) [J] is doing wonderful! this week we taught her the gospel of jesus christ and talked more about modern prophets and conference etc. she is so strong. she’s moving to a house in provo in october so we’re already planning on being provo friends in 2011 haha. her baptism is scheduled for aug 22 at 7 pm. i’m way excited. it should be a really special day :) . . .

so sad story of the week . . . we had to wait at the DMV for FIVE hours the other day. isn’t that crazy?? sis yura has been trying to get her american drivers license and she took the driving test on Friday (and passed!). but then we waited FOREVER to actually get the license and then it ended up that she needed another paper to prove her residency here. ugh by the end our brains were fried. i got to talk to people while we waited though so that was good! i had a couple hour discussion with this cute woman who was reading her bible and heard me talking to someone about eternal marriage. she asked me about it and turned to that scripture where christ says “after the resurrection they are neither married nor given in marriage’ or whatever it says, so we had a talk about that, and priesthood authority, and faith vs works (or rather how they go TOGETHER), etc. she goes to a non denominational christian church and has the sweetest testimony of jesus christ. her uncle is mormon and she told me she’d read the book of mormon! so that was cool. i also talked to this cute laotian lady who is buddhist. she left with a plan of salvation pamphlet. it was frustrating to sit there so long and feel like there was so much work to be done (the DMV isn’t open on Mondays so we had to do it another day) but at least we still got to teach a bit.

oh also we met a man the other day who spoke cantonese so i tried my cantonese out on him and he didn’t understand anything! hahaha cantonese was like his 3rd language though so i’ll pretend that could have played a role hehe. i’ve met some way cool people! people from israel, russia, ukraine, phillipines (erg i can’t spell it), laos, china, vietnam, etc. makes me excited for you to go to ukraine popsy! the girl we’re teaching at u dub is mongolian but has also lived in russia and ukraine for a number of years. liza is way cute. she has a baptism date for aug 22 but she’s having some doubts. pray for her :)

well that’s about it!! life is very good :) yesterday i was looking through a bunch of the conference ensigns to find an article and i kept reading talk after talk and feeling so strongly again that these are prophets of God. I know this is Christ’s church on the earth and it brings me so much joy :)

pics of the week!

couple pics from the week . . .
the first couple are boring because they're just me haha oh well i didn't take many pics this week so that's what you get.

the 3rd is me with the car i'm going to buy after the mission!! haha it was just funny because we see it parked on the road EVERYWHERE. like we'll go tracting in a whole new neighborhood and it will be there. good times.

the 4th pic is at our ward potluck! i think i look really bad in it but i wanted you to see [J]! she's the one next to me. the girl on the far right is [C] . . . she's been less active but has started coming back in the last couple months and she and [J] have gotten really close. ah they are so cute i just love them. [C] is a flight attendant so she's gone all this week and we're going to miss her at [J]'s lessons.

greetings from RENTON!!

hey family! well i've been transferred to the maplewood heights ward in renton, and my new companion is sister yura from mongolia! first some pics and then i'll tell you the happenings:

the first pic is me and 5 of the elders i came out with. the 2nd is sis bush and i with our zone leaders from maple valley. the 3rd and 4th are from mine and sis yura's first full day together (notice the coordinating outfits)

so yeah, here i am in renton! i'll be honest, it was a hard few days when i first got here. my first experience having to leave an area! i'd grown to love it so much. plus sister bush and i were like best friends . . . we just got along SO well. everything we did was a BLAST but we worked SO hard and were always looking for ways to improve. . . .

sis yura is 22 and from mongolia. she's taught me a bit of mongolian which is way fun. her family converted about 10 years ago, but she was pretty inactive until a couple years ago when a couple missionaries kept chasing her down to come to church. now she has a wonderful testimony and her english is getting better and better. she is way fun and is just gorgeous. her favorite phrase is "yeah boy!" haha she kills me.

so the big news here is [J]! she's AMAZING! came to church on her own last week and sis yura and sis lauchner put her on date for baptism Aug 22. she's 25 and lived with an LDS fam for the past 2 months, saw the joseph smith movie on temple square and went to the oquirrh mountain temple open house. she felt the spirit SO strong and knew she needed to learn more. her dad died 3 months ago and she's looking for answers. when she moved back up here where her family is, she was praying to know what to do with her life when she kept running into missionaries! she decided God was trying to tell her something and so she came to church. now we're teaching her and she's GREAT! already has a strong testimony and is just accepting everything. she has lots of questions but everything makes sense to her. it was so fun to teach her the plan of salvation last night. she got pretty teary when we talked about life after death with her dad's recent passing and everything. we teach her at the jenkins' home and they're great. anyway this has been such a blessing to be a part of . . . i feel like the Lord did all the work and i get to do the fun part: teach :)

ok other fun happenings:

the elders up at UW found a mongolian girl and so sis yura and i get to drive up their a few times a week to teach her! i don't really do much but it's fun to see it :) our first time up there we got a little lost . . . in rush hour traffic . . . near down town seattle. good times haha.

we live in a mother-in-law apt connected to a members' home: the allans! they are the best. i just feel like they're my grandparents! bro allan used to be the bishop here and is just a champ. he got it all set up for us to wash our car today. when the ward mission leader didn’t find us a dinner appointment for fast sunday, sis allan made us a big meal. just know i'm well taken care of here :)

it has been SO HOT here! the other day we set a record for the seattle area. everyone is lethargic because hardly anyone has air conditioning. our apt doesn't have air conditioning but the allans have a window one in their front room so we slept there for a couple of nights.

well that's most of the news. i've gotta get going. we have mission wide olympics in about an hour! it'll be way fun. i feel so good about my new area and i'm excited to see the work that will get done :) i love you all very much!!!!!!!!!!

lizzie

saying my goodbyes to maple valley

i'm being transferred today! i was heartbroken, but now that i've had a few days to have my big cry and a classic sister gibbons breakdown (only my 2nd on the mish which isn't bad! my first was when i had to leave my friends at the MTC) i feel at peace and excited for the next adventure!

so i find out where i'm being transferred in a couple hours! i'll probably be going to renton with sis yura (from mongolia) unless something totally unexpected happens! with only 8 sisters, predictions are easier than with elders :)

i thought you'd enjoy seeing my friends from maple valley!

#1: justin - he got baptized right before i arrived. he likes to call him self "rowdy" and he definitely spices up the ward :) when he leaves us messages he always says "LDS 4 life!" at the end. hilarious to say the least

#2: the Gustin family! cutest ever. i can finally tell the twins apart :) bro gustin's going to take us boating when we road trip back. he's a ward missionary

#3: the Passeys! one of my favorite families. Lauren is 15 and just the cutest. sis passey is the primary president and bro passey baptized rosemary and john!

#4: the wellborn family! (minus bro wellborn, the ward mission leader, who was at work) they were always good for an otter pop on a hot day :) (speaking of, it's been SO hot here! supposed to be 90's, and 100's this week. the humidity is what gets us while we're tracting . . .) WAY cute family

#5: me and sis bush with abby! she has a huge fear of water but will be baptized on saturday! i wish i could be there

#6: sister morriss! she's been so sweet to me. like a pseudo mom. i hope i can find a sister morriss in my new area :)

#7: last time in the streight home :( they had cupcakes for a going away party. they are so great! they're one of the hardest to leave . . .

#8: sis bush and i this morning as i was packing!! my suitcases are stuffed and all my hanging clothes aren't even in them! haha it will be rough getting it all home. yay for being able to just stick stuff in the car for transfers

#9: us with sister voges after she went through the temple for the first time! she had a new light in her eyes after the temple!! ah it was so happy.

#10: me and sis bush anxiously awaiting the call about transfers. there's an "after" picture where we're crying but i'll spare you hehe.

#11, #12, #13: haha i just love pics. hope you don't care. i just have to explain the last one. it's been SO hot that we've gotten SO gross while tracting. so one day i decided i needed to dry my bangs with the AC. that's what i'm doing in that pic. haha i think it's funny. good times. love you all!

well folks, that’s about it. i'm not sure if i'll have time to email after transfers or not, so you may need to wait until next week to find out where i am. i'm sure it'll be amazing :) LOVE YOU ALL!! have a happy happy week. praying for you always,

liz

surprise of the week!

HI FAMILY!!!!!! good to hear from EVERYONE this week :) those are the best weeks. the big news from maple valley is that sis sawyer was emergency transferred back to puyallup! a sister went home on saturday for medical reasons and sis graf needed a companion! it was a shock and we miss sis sawyer like crazy (she was so great) but i have to admit i was SO relieved that sis bush and i stayed in glacier park!! now we have REAL transfers a week from tomorrow. it's gone by so fast! i'm nervous for saturday night because i don't think we'll both stay here. we're getting a brand new english sister so i think sis bush will probably train her :( well before the news here are some pics!! these 3 are actually from just this morning after our FOUR MILE RUN! we were so proud! we ran with two women in the ward: sis allen and sis moulton (we wish we'd had our camera when we were with them). they're so cute! they just ran a half marathon and they've been motivating us :)

ok so these are out of order, but the one where i'm in a pink cardigan is after we got back from the temple! (we we were dumb and didn't take any pics AT the temple . . . ) but it was such a great day! the seattle temple is beautiful. President gave the whole mission a packet to study about the temple leading up to it, so it was cool to feel prepared and realize the power that truly comes from our temple covenants. we need all the help we can get out here :) the pic when i'm in my blue dress was our last pic as a threesome in the church parking lot where we met sis graf to transfer. and the other one was to capture our excitement after we FINALLY found a 4XL baptismal suit for last saturday :)

random ones of me and sister bush being goofy and/or holding up fingers because we reached our goals for the day.

ok i have to run soon cuz we don't have lots of time today but here's a list of all the miracles for the week:

**sarah's dad came to sacrament meeting AGAIN and told his wife he thought he should get a suit!! AMAZING! and he stayed for sunday school. miraculous. he says we're very persuasive :) i love their family so much. dan is HILARIOUS. such a big tease. you all need to meet them some day

**we got a referral!! always a miracle for us :) she is a widow from Germany (near dusseldorf popsy!). her husband took the missionary lessons in a care center and considered himself mormon but died before he was baptized. she's super nice and we're scheduled to teach her tomorrow!

**so there's this less active in the ward who NO ONE has been able to get a hold of or get in her house for a LONG time. we knocked on her door a couple weeks ago and she was so nice! she's the coolest lady. she made a pound cake for john and rosemary's baptism (a miracle in itself). anyway this week she calls us out of the blue and asks for bishop's phone number!! she said she thought it was time to have a good chat with him. she also said she thinks it's good for us to be coming over :) her new husband isn't a member so maybe we can TEACH him!!

**we've been teaching member lessons like crazy trying to get them to invite their friends to meet with us. Pres Moffat really feels that's the future of our mission, almost everything from member referrals. anyway we've been tons of member homes but no referrals had come of it yet, until sunday!! this awesome member family set up a meeting at their house to teach a mom and her two kids, a 9 year old and 17 year old!!!

we're being so blessed and i REALLY want to stay here, but of course I'll do whatever the Lord calls me to do :) I know wherever I go it will be happy.

"a glorious day"

well here are a few pics! my new haircut (you've already seen it, but thought you may want a digital copy). i'm loving it! so easy to do. then there's the baptism!! family it was a glorious day :) their confirmations in sacrament meeting were really powerful! we had a couple last minute almost-disasters. we couldn't find a suit large enough to fit rosemary. the day of we were traveling down to enumclaw because there was rumor of a 4x large down there. it took us a while to find it but we did!! after that everything went smoothly. pres and sister moffat came! sis bush and i sang i know that my redeemer lives and the spirit was very strong. i couldn't help but get a little teary when the bishop said "that simple ordinance sure means a lot to john and rosemary." they're not in the best of health (rosemary has parkinsons and john has diabetes) so we were praying everything would go well in the font. it means more when it's physically difficult ya know? they kept talking about how it was the first day of the rest of their lives :) ah i love them so much. it's been such a blessing to have been involved in the entire teaching process. and in a year when they go to the temple, i'll get to go!

the last 2 pics are just a couple from the car which we have a million of haha.

but yeah john and rosemary are by far the highlight of the week! now we are praying that the ward will take them in and take care of them after we're all gone. they already have great fellowship with a few couples that we've included in the teaching, but we want the whole ward to get to know them. we didn't have as many come to the baptism as we would have liked, but it is summer and people are super busy. being a missionary makes you appreciate home and visiting teaching on a whole new level! i don't think we always remember the importance of it. that's my little plug for y'all to do your home and visiting teaching :) EVERYONE needs it.

after reading it over i feel like i did a really bad job of expressing what a wonderful weekend it was! the best of my mission so far :) so much joy. one of those days where you realize you wouldn't be ANYWHERE other than here. i'm so blessed to be here. it's hard to convey things like that when you're emailing fast. but i know i will love john and rosemary forever. just thought i should express that better :)