hey fam! sorry i'm late today...ah i am just pooped haha. we drove all the way to kent with [M] so she could go to the bishop's storehouse and it was a hilarious trip. we got pulled over by the cops and then the storehouse was closed when we got there!! sis yura was carsick and i was just trying my best to help [M] see the humor in it...she's had it rough recently and the storehouse being closed was the last straw for her i think. ah what a day. we just got back from playing basketball with the elders...i think i'm getting better at sports! who would've thought. all the things you learn on a mission :) THEN i got the laptop that took TWENTY MINUTES to load. haha needless to say i'm glad to finally be on ldsmail.net :)
well it was a fantastic week!! we're continuing to see miracles here. the biggest miracle is the [D] family! we knocked on their door on thursday, took [T] (the wife) on church tour on friday morning, met the husband and FOUR KIDS on friday night, then [T] and [L] (husband) came to church yesterday and LOVED IT, and we have a lesson with them in an hour and half where we will hopefully commit them to be baptized! the kids are between 12 and 20...the older teenage boys may be hard to convince to listen to us, so pray for them :) we're seeing miracles all over the mission and it's getting exciting!! i'm trying to learn more and more how to rely on the spirit because as i do, THOSE are the lessons that go well because it's the spirit that changes hearts! it's something i'm working on. when you really feel that the spirit is using you (instead of you trying to "use" the spirit), that's when you feel happy...you feel like a successful missionary :)
so yeah, transfers are next week! turns out sis yura decided to stay another transfer, so we really have no idea what will happen!! it always drives me crazy waiting to see what will happen.
I hope you all have a happy thanksgiving!!! no worries about me, like 5 families have invited us for dinner so i will be STUFFED! pray for me that i will be able to eat at every house hahaha. i'm going to send this off because i'm not sure when sis yura will be done and then we have to rush back home to eat some dinner. if she needs more time i'll try to write more. sorry this email is kind of short and random. I LOVE YOU ALL!!!
sister gibbons
Monday, November 23, 2009
five minutes :)
okay i have 5 minutes! i might as well tell you a funny story...
so have i told you about the new mongolian family we're teaching in federal way? well we had a lesson with them at 4 one day, right after our lunch/dinner break. we werent' sure how bad traffic was going to be so we planned to leave at 3. i was SO hungry, so i grabbed this leftover chicken and ate it quick. turns out we got to fed way 30 minutes early, so we decided to treat ourselves to chipotle! we got the amazing HUGE burritos and i just inhaled it...ate the whole thing. ah i was feeling so stuffed and very content. we headed over, walked in their apartment, sis yura spoke to them in mongolian, turns to me with a worried look on her face "they made us food"....oh they gave us these HEAPING plates of food. i was already SO SO FULL. hahaha i was just forcing down forkful after forkful but i'd only made it through about half of it. meanwhile they're speaking in mongolian, i'm not understanding a word. [G] turns to me and says in english "sorry it's not delicious!" oh i felt awful because he thought i didn't like it. so i force down more. oh my gosh i didn't think it was physically possible for me to fit any more food in there. THEN they bring out this platter full of fruit. oh i did not want to eat those bananas, but i did :) haha then i sat there for over an hour while sister yura taught in mongolian, feeling SOO sick haha. i was trying so hard not to fall asleep too because i had NO idea what they were saying!! haha it sounds worse than it was the way i describe it :) they're a really sweet family and they have a date to be baptized!
well i gotta run! no worries, i'm not fat yet :) love ya!!!
lizzie
so have i told you about the new mongolian family we're teaching in federal way? well we had a lesson with them at 4 one day, right after our lunch/dinner break. we werent' sure how bad traffic was going to be so we planned to leave at 3. i was SO hungry, so i grabbed this leftover chicken and ate it quick. turns out we got to fed way 30 minutes early, so we decided to treat ourselves to chipotle! we got the amazing HUGE burritos and i just inhaled it...ate the whole thing. ah i was feeling so stuffed and very content. we headed over, walked in their apartment, sis yura spoke to them in mongolian, turns to me with a worried look on her face "they made us food"....oh they gave us these HEAPING plates of food. i was already SO SO FULL. hahaha i was just forcing down forkful after forkful but i'd only made it through about half of it. meanwhile they're speaking in mongolian, i'm not understanding a word. [G] turns to me and says in english "sorry it's not delicious!" oh i felt awful because he thought i didn't like it. so i force down more. oh my gosh i didn't think it was physically possible for me to fit any more food in there. THEN they bring out this platter full of fruit. oh i did not want to eat those bananas, but i did :) haha then i sat there for over an hour while sister yura taught in mongolian, feeling SOO sick haha. i was trying so hard not to fall asleep too because i had NO idea what they were saying!! haha it sounds worse than it was the way i describe it :) they're a really sweet family and they have a date to be baptized!
well i gotta run! no worries, i'm not fat yet :) love ya!!!
lizzie
Monday, November 16, 2009
miracle week in renton!
hey fam!! thanks for your emails :) sounds like life is very happy in holladay. if i weren't so sure i was where i'm meant to be, i'd very much wish to be with you all!
well i only got a one hour computer this week so i'm going to try and type fast! it really has been a miracle week in renton. the Lord has blessed us SO much. so here we go!
miracle #1: [D] set a baptismal date! her goal is december 12. there is still a ways to go because she is still very confused and torn (about baptism as well as other craziness in her life...satan is definitely working on her) but i know she needed to exercise her faith by setting a date. i have felt very strongly that she will be prepared and know without a doubt that she has found the truth if she does her part! i'm praying my little guts out for her. i think the hardest part about the mission is how much you come to love these people, yet you cannot MAKE them do anything...even if you KNOW it is what is right, what will bring them joy in the long run. they have to figure it out for themselves. i know my heart will break if she turns away...so pray that she will have the faith and diligence to get her answer!
miracle #2: elder perry and president moffat have promised us that if we have 20 lessons a week (that includes lessons to investigators with members present, lessons to recent convert or less active members, and lessons to members seeking referrals) we will baptize monthly. sounds good to me :) our PEC has been SO supportive and determined to help us reach our goal. our average has been 15 a week, but this week we got TWENTY-THREE! it was awesome. SHWEET
miracle #3: we got a referral from headquarters that said he wanted a bible (sometimes we're not AS excited about those because lots of times they just want a bible...not any message about the restoration ya know?) but we showed up to give him his bible and he said "no, i want the book of mormon!" he also asked us if he could come to church with us next week...uh YEAH! we have a church tour with him tomorrow!
miracle #4: we were tracting on saturday and we were COLD. we meet this guy from ukraine on a walk. we talk to him about the gospel and offer to take him on a church tour. he said, "how about right now?" SURE! so he followed us to the church, we were able to find last minute fellowship, and we gave him a church tour! yesterday we got him a russian book of mormon and he said he'll come to church with us this week. miracles!
miracle #5: we had taught this mongolian girl named [L] back in august up at UW. she moved and we lost track of her. BUT on wednesday we got a call saying she was getting baptized on friday and president said we could go!! it was a beautiful occasion :) i'll attach pics!
well i'm loving life. lovin the mish. lovin renton. lovin all y'all!! gotta run!
sister gibbons
Monday, November 9, 2009
hola familia!
i don't know why i put the subject in spanish. maybe because my district leader is a spanish missionary so i say hola on the phone every night hehe. ANYWAY! HELLO FAM! i always love reading your newsy emails :) this week everyone was accounted for except JOSH!!! come on dude, i'm already missing your senior year, you've gotta keep me updated :) give me the dirt hehe. so popsy is it official you're going in march now? i'm sad for you that it was cancelled...that darn swine flu. we all got the seasonal flu and swine flue vaccines this week so we were lucky. i guess there's a shortage of the swine flu shot, but safeway came right to the stake center for us. isn't that nice? the Lord takes care of us. i'm so glad sister ray emailed you that pic! could you email it to me now? hehe she can't email it straight to me, but i want to see it. i just adore the ward here. the rays are a favorite. her husband is in iraq until january and her daughter cosette is quite a character. i want to bring you all up here after the mish! it's only like a 16 hr drive i think :) this week i told the allans i'd bring you to their place if we ever come up here. it is GORGEOUS right now. so many trees and beautiful colors! i love it. it's not too cold yet, but getting rainy. it's also getting dark at like 5:00 now! since we tract from 5 to 7 it's like pitch dark (no worries mama there are streetlights and the Lord protects us hehe) and people give us funny looks. but we just remind them that it is only like 6:00. everyone seems to hibernate in their houses during the winter months here. you definitely have to get used to not seeing the sun since it's overcast all the time. one morning, we were studying and the sun started to come through the blinds and sister yura said, "sister gibbons! god loves me! last night i prayed that we would see the sun today!" hehe God certainly does love us :)
well we've had a crazy busy week!! we had zone conference on thursday which is always a favorite. sadly we did not win the gold plates (we waxed it even though it was rainy! the allans pulled their car out of the car port so we could do it under there. apparently this time they put more emphasis on the interior, and our supplies box was "cluttered" and "unorganized" haha. the spanish elders won, but elder wilson forgot to switch the gold plates, so our car still has them! haha funny). zone conference was AWESOME. we received training on how to plan better, and now that we've implemented it i can already tell a difference in our work. when we actually plan like preach my gospel tells us to (go figure) then we're better able to prioritize our time. President Moffat (love him) talked to us about putting away our "strange gods" and consecrating ourselves more fully to the Lord. he reminds me of dad in a way because he knows all the old testament stories and finds great applications to our own lives. he read the story of joshua with us when the people took one step into the river and then were able to walk through on dry ground. the book of joshua is sweet! josh, you should read about your namesake, he's the man. i actually felt very humbled during the conference and had specific ways that i can more fully separate myself from the world, put away "strange gods," and serve with all my heart might mind and strength. i've made specific goals and so far have been able to carry through. i already feel a difference, i have the spirit more and it's guiding us! it's hard work giving yourself to the Lord, definitely a lesson i need to learn. pray for me that i'll be able to keep it up :) i think all of us missionaries felt humbled and it bonded us together. i absolutely love the missionaries i serve with. it's so cool to see this training ground for the priesthood holders (and a few sisters of course) of the church. i now understand how the amazing men in my life got to be where they are. josh, be excited for the mission. it will change your life. there is an amazing talk by president holland that he gave in the MTC...you know elder holland, passionate! i can hear him saying so passionately "my mission means EVERYTHING to me." and i'm starting to feel the same way. obviously it's not the right path for many sisters, but I KNOW i was meant to be here. it's hard. i have a long way to go, but i am so happy and i feel the Lord refining me. i have felt chastened on a few occasions because i can be better than i am. but i always feel such an outpouring of love at the same time. what a perfect heavenly Father. he doesn't let us stay mediocre. he chastens us and tries us, but it's all done out of such perfect love. a great example of parenthood. anyway now i'm just babbling. but zone conference was awesome.
another treat, we got to hear from Elder L. Tom Perry the very next day!! all the missionaries from both the Tacoma and Seattle missions were there. Probably over 300 of us. Elder Walker of the Seventy first stood and said, "Now missionaries, the missionary department has issued a policy that we are not to shake hands with the swine flu going around. but today we're under the direction of Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and he says we are!" we went row by row and he shook all of our hands!! so cool! there was hand sanitizer at the end of the line hehe. Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy was also there and shook our hands. Sister Yura was the first in our line of sisters (all 8 of us sat together, so fun) and Elder Perry asked where she was from, and then said "are you going home to Mongolia after your mission?" "yeah" "good, THEY NEED YOU THERE, WE DON'T NEED YOU HERE" haha he was very emphatic. so true though, these countries where the gospel is young need strong members. then as the rest of us went through, he said "ah a great spirit here among the sisters" and then Elder Clayton asked if I was related to Larry Gibbons. so cool to then hear them speak! They're a lot funnier when it's a small group and not general conference. they told us that within our two missions (only an hour and a half drive to get from the top of ours to the bottom of theirs) there were 4 stakes in 1966. now there are 32! and this is just the beginning they said! apparently growth of the church in the US has been flat for years, but this year it's started to increase. every month has been up about 15%, and then september was up 20%! definitely an exciting time to be a missionary :) what struck me most was elder perry's enthusiasm and optimism for the work. it made me excited as well. he spoke to us mainly of being good companions. we truly must be more concerned about THEIR success as a missionary than our own. of course as we learn to be selfless in that way, we ARE successful missionaries. i think this goes for other relationships as well, such as marriage. we must be more concerned about the other's happiness than our own, and this in turn will make us happy. anyway, we were deeply fed :)
other than that we've had other exciting things!! still no one on date for baptism but we're working on it. we did indeed have a church tour with a guy named [J]. he was very sincere and we're meeting with him again tomorrow. he was going to come to church, but a family emergency came up. hopefully we'll get him there on sunday and help him set a goal for baptism as well! another fun thing...i've been trying to be better at talking to EVERYONE. even though i always thought it was easy for missionaries to talk to everyone, we're timid sometimes. mostly just in the situations that aren't the usual. it's harder to chase someone down the street and invite them to learn about the gospel than to knock on their door hehe. anyway i've been praying for boldness and we had a little miracle. this older asian woman was walking down the other side of the street, but we ran over and chatted with her. her english was not good, but we found out she was vietnamese and were able to somehow communicate that we would come to her home with a vietnamese member of our ward on friday at 11. we went over and our member was chatting with her and it basically sounded like she was very buddhist and not interesting in our message (she was still really nice though!) but then her husband [K] came home...sweetest man! his english is a little better than hers and we were able to talk with him. oh i just love him...he was first teaching us some vietnamese (hard language!) and when i repeated back all that we had learned he said "ah you very intelligent" hehe what a compliment. anyway then we talked with him about God...that he is our loving Heavenly Father and that we are his children. that he has a plan for us. that we teach people this plan. he said he didn't understand everything, but that when we said the word "gospel" it made him feel very happy :) the spirit crosses language barriers! we're going back on tuesday with a vietnamese book of mormon and the member again. i hope we will be able to continue to teach him!! i love being a missionary!
well this email is super long. i can't really think of anything else to report at the moment. thanks again for the emails, i really feel like i know more now than when i was at BYU haha which is AWESOME!! can you believe i hit my 7th month mark this week???? WEIRD. when you only get 18 months it flies by. LOVE YOU ALL!! have a happy happy week!
lizzie
ps - the pics are from zone conference. a brand new missionary is 6 foot 5 so the elders wanted a picture of him standing and then kneeling next to me haha. good times
pps - no joke, i felt prompted to save my email to a word document before i sent it, and then it got erased before it sent! BUT i had it saved. God is good eh? hehe i HATE rewriting emails
well we've had a crazy busy week!! we had zone conference on thursday which is always a favorite. sadly we did not win the gold plates (we waxed it even though it was rainy! the allans pulled their car out of the car port so we could do it under there. apparently this time they put more emphasis on the interior, and our supplies box was "cluttered" and "unorganized" haha. the spanish elders won, but elder wilson forgot to switch the gold plates, so our car still has them! haha funny). zone conference was AWESOME. we received training on how to plan better, and now that we've implemented it i can already tell a difference in our work. when we actually plan like preach my gospel tells us to (go figure) then we're better able to prioritize our time. President Moffat (love him) talked to us about putting away our "strange gods" and consecrating ourselves more fully to the Lord. he reminds me of dad in a way because he knows all the old testament stories and finds great applications to our own lives. he read the story of joshua with us when the people took one step into the river and then were able to walk through on dry ground. the book of joshua is sweet! josh, you should read about your namesake, he's the man. i actually felt very humbled during the conference and had specific ways that i can more fully separate myself from the world, put away "strange gods," and serve with all my heart might mind and strength. i've made specific goals and so far have been able to carry through. i already feel a difference, i have the spirit more and it's guiding us! it's hard work giving yourself to the Lord, definitely a lesson i need to learn. pray for me that i'll be able to keep it up :) i think all of us missionaries felt humbled and it bonded us together. i absolutely love the missionaries i serve with. it's so cool to see this training ground for the priesthood holders (and a few sisters of course) of the church. i now understand how the amazing men in my life got to be where they are. josh, be excited for the mission. it will change your life. there is an amazing talk by president holland that he gave in the MTC...you know elder holland, passionate! i can hear him saying so passionately "my mission means EVERYTHING to me." and i'm starting to feel the same way. obviously it's not the right path for many sisters, but I KNOW i was meant to be here. it's hard. i have a long way to go, but i am so happy and i feel the Lord refining me. i have felt chastened on a few occasions because i can be better than i am. but i always feel such an outpouring of love at the same time. what a perfect heavenly Father. he doesn't let us stay mediocre. he chastens us and tries us, but it's all done out of such perfect love. a great example of parenthood. anyway now i'm just babbling. but zone conference was awesome.
another treat, we got to hear from Elder L. Tom Perry the very next day!! all the missionaries from both the Tacoma and Seattle missions were there. Probably over 300 of us. Elder Walker of the Seventy first stood and said, "Now missionaries, the missionary department has issued a policy that we are not to shake hands with the swine flu going around. but today we're under the direction of Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and he says we are!" we went row by row and he shook all of our hands!! so cool! there was hand sanitizer at the end of the line hehe. Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy was also there and shook our hands. Sister Yura was the first in our line of sisters (all 8 of us sat together, so fun) and Elder Perry asked where she was from, and then said "are you going home to Mongolia after your mission?" "yeah" "good, THEY NEED YOU THERE, WE DON'T NEED YOU HERE" haha he was very emphatic. so true though, these countries where the gospel is young need strong members. then as the rest of us went through, he said "ah a great spirit here among the sisters" and then Elder Clayton asked if I was related to Larry Gibbons. so cool to then hear them speak! They're a lot funnier when it's a small group and not general conference. they told us that within our two missions (only an hour and a half drive to get from the top of ours to the bottom of theirs) there were 4 stakes in 1966. now there are 32! and this is just the beginning they said! apparently growth of the church in the US has been flat for years, but this year it's started to increase. every month has been up about 15%, and then september was up 20%! definitely an exciting time to be a missionary :) what struck me most was elder perry's enthusiasm and optimism for the work. it made me excited as well. he spoke to us mainly of being good companions. we truly must be more concerned about THEIR success as a missionary than our own. of course as we learn to be selfless in that way, we ARE successful missionaries. i think this goes for other relationships as well, such as marriage. we must be more concerned about the other's happiness than our own, and this in turn will make us happy. anyway, we were deeply fed :)
other than that we've had other exciting things!! still no one on date for baptism but we're working on it. we did indeed have a church tour with a guy named [J]. he was very sincere and we're meeting with him again tomorrow. he was going to come to church, but a family emergency came up. hopefully we'll get him there on sunday and help him set a goal for baptism as well! another fun thing...i've been trying to be better at talking to EVERYONE. even though i always thought it was easy for missionaries to talk to everyone, we're timid sometimes. mostly just in the situations that aren't the usual. it's harder to chase someone down the street and invite them to learn about the gospel than to knock on their door hehe. anyway i've been praying for boldness and we had a little miracle. this older asian woman was walking down the other side of the street, but we ran over and chatted with her. her english was not good, but we found out she was vietnamese and were able to somehow communicate that we would come to her home with a vietnamese member of our ward on friday at 11. we went over and our member was chatting with her and it basically sounded like she was very buddhist and not interesting in our message (she was still really nice though!) but then her husband [K] came home...sweetest man! his english is a little better than hers and we were able to talk with him. oh i just love him...he was first teaching us some vietnamese (hard language!) and when i repeated back all that we had learned he said "ah you very intelligent" hehe what a compliment. anyway then we talked with him about God...that he is our loving Heavenly Father and that we are his children. that he has a plan for us. that we teach people this plan. he said he didn't understand everything, but that when we said the word "gospel" it made him feel very happy :) the spirit crosses language barriers! we're going back on tuesday with a vietnamese book of mormon and the member again. i hope we will be able to continue to teach him!! i love being a missionary!
well this email is super long. i can't really think of anything else to report at the moment. thanks again for the emails, i really feel like i know more now than when i was at BYU haha which is AWESOME!! can you believe i hit my 7th month mark this week???? WEIRD. when you only get 18 months it flies by. LOVE YOU ALL!! have a happy happy week!
lizzie
ps - the pics are from zone conference. a brand new missionary is 6 foot 5 so the elders wanted a picture of him standing and then kneeling next to me haha. good times
pps - no joke, i felt prompted to save my email to a word document before i sent it, and then it got erased before it sent! BUT i had it saved. God is good eh? hehe i HATE rewriting emails
Monday, November 2, 2009
my Halloween weekend
hey fam!! sounds like you all had a rockin' halloween :) i want to see pics of all the costumes! james' costume sounds adorable. and mom and dad, the "big pimpin' award" huh? that's impressive haha. we couldn't dress up obviously but here are some pics of our orange and black outfits for the day :)
the other pics are:
*me with tia johnson the day she got her mission call! she's the bishop's daughter (abby's age) and she goes teaching with us all the time. i just adore her and now she's going to the japan fukuoka mission in march! her mom is japanese and she's already fluent so she'll jump right in. it was fun to watch her open her call...brought back lots of memories from mine! her little brother is going to brazil and they report the same day. fun huh?
the other pics are:
*me with tia johnson the day she got her mission call! she's the bishop's daughter (abby's age) and she goes teaching with us all the time. i just adore her and now she's going to the japan fukuoka mission in march! her mom is japanese and she's already fluent so she'll jump right in. it was fun to watch her open her call...brought back lots of memories from mine! her little brother is going to brazil and they report the same day. fun huh?
*now this weird fuzzy picture is to capture the worst day ever hahahaha. we had 5 appointments cancel in a row, including 3 church tours with new investigators. so we went to visit a less active woman who breeds westies...she has 9 dogs. they were ALL over us and i was COVERED in dog hair. that's what the picture is of...me covered with dog hair (even though you can't really tell) holding up 5 fingers for our 5 cancelled appointments. no worries though, we had a really great lesson with [D] that night...the spirit was strong and we got to the root of a lot of her concerns...it was AWESOME! that's totally how the mission...one little success overshadows 100 disappointments :)
i'm going to send another email with pictures of our zone pumpkin carving last preparation day...
pumpkins!
so here's the pics of my first time carving my own pumpkin (weird huh? i really think it was my first time...dad always did it when we were little right?) and it was a success!! turns out they have patterns to use! who knew?? i was quite proud of my spider hehe. so fun. so yeah, there's a pic of the zone in there too...even though half of it is the table the camera was sitting on haha. good times
so yeah, halloween was great! pretty much a normal day for us. the week was good except a little disappointing with so many new investigators cancelling. we had one awesome new investigator from korea but turns out her boys have swine flu so she's on hold now. so yeah kind of a rough time, but some great progress made with [D] and [M], our eternal investigators, this week! pray for us to find people to teach! we had a great "sister study" with our district leader and zone leaders this morning that got us pumped with new ideas and new faith so i'm excited for the miracles :)
i'm still really happy and lovin' the work! lately i've been making an extra effort to have really productive study time in the mornings and plan ahead what to study. my testimony grows so much every day! no matter what happens in the day, if i have spiritual study time in the morning, i'm happy and excited because i know it's all true and i'm so grateful for what i know.
well that's about it! thank you for your emails! popsy, i cant' believe ukraine is cancelled! i'm so sorry, i know you were excited. could you still go to visit max or do you want to save the airline miles for ukraine next year? i'm glad you all had a good early thanksgibbons!! we've already been invited to 2 homes for thanksgiving so i'll be well taken care of :) time is flyin'!! i can't believe it's november. the mission is going too fast. mommy, i got your package on saturday and LOVED it! it was like christmas! so so fun. thank you so much. i haven't been able to watch the videos yet because they don't work on my camera, but i'm going to try watching them on the computer after i send this. hope you all have a great week!!
lizzie
I LOVE YOU ALL!!
so yeah, halloween was great! pretty much a normal day for us. the week was good except a little disappointing with so many new investigators cancelling. we had one awesome new investigator from korea but turns out her boys have swine flu so she's on hold now. so yeah kind of a rough time, but some great progress made with [D] and [M], our eternal investigators, this week! pray for us to find people to teach! we had a great "sister study" with our district leader and zone leaders this morning that got us pumped with new ideas and new faith so i'm excited for the miracles :)
i'm still really happy and lovin' the work! lately i've been making an extra effort to have really productive study time in the mornings and plan ahead what to study. my testimony grows so much every day! no matter what happens in the day, if i have spiritual study time in the morning, i'm happy and excited because i know it's all true and i'm so grateful for what i know.
well that's about it! thank you for your emails! popsy, i cant' believe ukraine is cancelled! i'm so sorry, i know you were excited. could you still go to visit max or do you want to save the airline miles for ukraine next year? i'm glad you all had a good early thanksgibbons!! we've already been invited to 2 homes for thanksgiving so i'll be well taken care of :) time is flyin'!! i can't believe it's november. the mission is going too fast. mommy, i got your package on saturday and LOVED it! it was like christmas! so so fun. thank you so much. i haven't been able to watch the videos yet because they don't work on my camera, but i'm going to try watching them on the computer after i send this. hope you all have a great week!!
lizzie
I LOVE YOU ALL!!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
all caught up . . . again!
My apologies for getting behind once again. I'm all caught up, so be sure and scroll down past the videos to see Liz's emails from the last four weeks! I'll do better, I promise!
Liz's mom
Liz's mom
Friday, October 30, 2009
videos!
Liz sent us a few random videos a while back, and said I could share them with all of you! The "When You Believe" video actually was in several shorter segments, and Jenny spliced them together and added the real song to give it some continuity. It goes black a couple of times . . . don't worry, it will just be for a few seconds!
"When You Believe" takes place in Renton with Sister Yura. "Father's Day" is from Maple Valley with Sister Bush and Sister Sawyer. "Dancing in the Kitchen" is from Maple Valley with Sister Bush. Enjoy!
Monday, October 26, 2009
hola familia!
hello everyone!! it is a rainy rainy day here in renton :) still beautiful though. it's fun to get your emails and hear how everyone is doing!! i'm sorry everyone is getting sick! sis yura and i were also sick this week. i slept in a few extra hours on friday and that seemed to take care of it! better to miss exercise and language study and get better faster than to miss proselyting time! sis yura is still kind of congested but i'm all better! miracle :) it is pretty miserable to be sick on the mission. wednesday night we were at our last appointment at 8 o clock with a less active family that we just love and we were curled up with blankets as we shared our message. they were sweet :) sister allan took care of us too and gave us medicine. hope you all get feeling better!
other than that it's been kind of a slow week without a lot of investigators. BUT we worked really hard and got five new investigators! we have 4 church tours set up today and tomorrow so pray they will go through :) one morning we were especially blessed with miracles. we had zone service in the morning (i learned how to lay sod! i'm pretty manly now) and decided not to shower even though we were all muddy (haha sounds pretty gross but we sprayed smell good stuff on so no worries) so we could get tracting in before some lessons...because we knew we needed investigators badly!!! we found 2 new investigators in 30 minutes! that was the day we were super sick too. tender mercies! so yeah, hopefully this week we'll see some fruits of our labors.
the 2 pics are from our ward halloween party. we weren't allowed to dress up but we switched name tags with the elders as our costumes haha. so this year i was elder price for halloween! fun costume eh? the little girl is one of my favorites: cosette ray dressed as a knight! she reminds me a lot of annie when she was little. ah she's a riot. i love visiting them.
well that's about all the news! oh except this morning i found out elder perry is coming to speak to our mission next friday!! cool huh? i'm so excited :) also some members gave us a george foreman grill and a BREADMAKER! we will have fresh homemade bread when we get home from the library. AWESOME HUH?? ah the simple pleasures.
one cool thought from my personal study this morning: the whole mission is reading the book of mormon together by new years. this morning we were on mosiah 3 and 4...AWESOME chapters. we highlight all verses about Christ in blue, and all of christ's words in red. it's so cool to see visually that the BofM truly is another testament of Christ! mosiah 3 is practically all blue!! anyway my favorite part was verses 11 and 12 (i actually can't remember if it was in chapter 3 or 4). it talks about the blessings that come from enduring to the end. it says that after we have been converted (and after we've made covenants like baptism) we can't stop. we must remember how merciful the Lord is, remember our own nothingness and how we must depend on him. if we humble ourselves and call upon him daily (essential as we KEEP our covenants) the blessings are BEAUTIFUL: we'll always rejoice (so true! we are truly happy when we keep our covenants), we'll always retain a remission of our sins (even though we are imperfect...we are made perfect as we apply christ's atonement daily), and we grow in the knowledge and glory of God! there are no greater blessings! anyway i just loved those verses.
well i hope you all have a happy halloween and thanksgiving dinner before dad leaves! can't wait to hear about ukraine and jerusalem. whenever i meet people from ukraine i always tell them my dad is going there soon! hehe. how long will you be gone pops? jenny and jonathan, how was your trip? jonathan you've still never written me an email, where is the love?? come now. i miss and love you all!!! thanks for your prayers, emails, love, support, etc etc etc
sister gibbons
other than that it's been kind of a slow week without a lot of investigators. BUT we worked really hard and got five new investigators! we have 4 church tours set up today and tomorrow so pray they will go through :) one morning we were especially blessed with miracles. we had zone service in the morning (i learned how to lay sod! i'm pretty manly now) and decided not to shower even though we were all muddy (haha sounds pretty gross but we sprayed smell good stuff on so no worries) so we could get tracting in before some lessons...because we knew we needed investigators badly!!! we found 2 new investigators in 30 minutes! that was the day we were super sick too. tender mercies! so yeah, hopefully this week we'll see some fruits of our labors.
the 2 pics are from our ward halloween party. we weren't allowed to dress up but we switched name tags with the elders as our costumes haha. so this year i was elder price for halloween! fun costume eh? the little girl is one of my favorites: cosette ray dressed as a knight! she reminds me a lot of annie when she was little. ah she's a riot. i love visiting them.
well that's about all the news! oh except this morning i found out elder perry is coming to speak to our mission next friday!! cool huh? i'm so excited :) also some members gave us a george foreman grill and a BREADMAKER! we will have fresh homemade bread when we get home from the library. AWESOME HUH?? ah the simple pleasures.
one cool thought from my personal study this morning: the whole mission is reading the book of mormon together by new years. this morning we were on mosiah 3 and 4...AWESOME chapters. we highlight all verses about Christ in blue, and all of christ's words in red. it's so cool to see visually that the BofM truly is another testament of Christ! mosiah 3 is practically all blue!! anyway my favorite part was verses 11 and 12 (i actually can't remember if it was in chapter 3 or 4). it talks about the blessings that come from enduring to the end. it says that after we have been converted (and after we've made covenants like baptism) we can't stop. we must remember how merciful the Lord is, remember our own nothingness and how we must depend on him. if we humble ourselves and call upon him daily (essential as we KEEP our covenants) the blessings are BEAUTIFUL: we'll always rejoice (so true! we are truly happy when we keep our covenants), we'll always retain a remission of our sins (even though we are imperfect...we are made perfect as we apply christ's atonement daily), and we grow in the knowledge and glory of God! there are no greater blessings! anyway i just loved those verses.
well i hope you all have a happy halloween and thanksgiving dinner before dad leaves! can't wait to hear about ukraine and jerusalem. whenever i meet people from ukraine i always tell them my dad is going there soon! hehe. how long will you be gone pops? jenny and jonathan, how was your trip? jonathan you've still never written me an email, where is the love?? come now. i miss and love you all!!! thanks for your prayers, emails, love, support, etc etc etc
sister gibbons
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
sister yura and I are still in renton!
hello family!! well we're staying in renton! this is acually sister yura's last transfer of her mission so i'll "kill her off" as they say! we're excited because we love our area and love being companions. we're kind of at a tough point where we don't really have any investigators that are progressing so we need to find them!! we have a goal of 2 baptisms in november, so we're going to need some miracles!! faith and hard work will do it though :) the Lord has many people prepared so we just have to find them! we're praying especially to find a whole family we can teach....so if you get a chance, remember us in your prayers :)
k i'm going to send this off so i can look at abby's cattle pics haha, but i'll send some pics in a minute...LOVE YOU ALL!
lizzie
k i'm going to send this off so i can look at abby's cattle pics haha, but i'll send some pics in a minute...LOVE YOU ALL!
lizzie
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