One More Week

Dear Family and Friends -

 

What an incredible past couple of weeks this has been! Elder Cecilio and I decided that we needed to find new investigators to teach since there hadn't been a new investigator for at least 4 months. It was time to change that, so a few weeks ago we studied chapter nine of Preach my Gospel. We took the scriptures one by one and up on our white board we listed every requirement or promise that we need to fulfill here on our mission that connects to finding.  Then on the other side of the board we put the promised blessings, and we put Heavenly Father and ourselves to the test. Each day we reviewed what we needed to do and at night talked about what we did or didn't do and looked for the blessing. Not to our surprise we now have another 10 investigators in our pool! We saw how each of our acts were guided and each blessing was fulfilled individually! It was pretty powerful

 

At one home where we were contacting a potential investigator we invited him to church early in the lesson. He turned us down, but unwilling to give up we continued to share the message of the restoration. As we continued we asked some question about prophets, and what that would mean to him and he responded "yea, what time is your church at..." He then explained why he hadn't been going to his church and that he wants to get back into church.

Needless to say the lesson we shared went in one ear and out the other, but I realized our lessons aren't for the doctrine. It's important, but it invites the spirit, and the spirit will do the work for us if we are willing to allow it in the lesson. It was proof to me that what I say has little to do with our success, its more about what and who they are listening to.

 

Today is going to be super exciting we are going up to the Blue Mountains! BUSH WALKING (a.k.a. Hiking)!!! I've wanted to do this since I've been in this zone, so I'm pretty excited!

 

Also transfers are this week!

 

I love you all!

-Elder Gibb

 

P.S. Conference was smash! I would talk about it, but you should just watch it for yourself. My favorites were probably.... yea all of them! (but Elder Bednar's was about missionary work, so he wins!)

Hospitals

Dear family and friends -

 

Well I've been in and out of the hospital this week, because a couple of our ward members/ investigators have been admitted recently, and it was a really cool experience. Our investigators are there because their newborn has been struggling and they aren't really sure what is going on. We offered to give the baby a blessing, they gladly accepted, we explained what it all entailed and that it was all based on faith in Jesus Christ.

I have never felt the spirit more fully, or seen two people with as much faith as this young couple.  It was astounding. 

 

It made me think. So often as members of the church, or non-members, we are scared to ask for miracles. We don't want to do it because what if it goes wrong and our faith is shattered. What I realized though, is that when Christ was on the Earth that was all he did, He performed miracles.  Things people thought they knew would be impossible! Now of course we can't change God's will, nor should we expect to. But why not show a bit more faith, and pray for miracles? Heavenly Father and Christ want to bless us in all those ways, and if it doesn't work out, if it doesn't go the way you planned it, don't assume it's because you didn't have enough faith. Feel content that you trusted in the Lord's judgment, and have peace that what happens is what is or was supposed to happen.

 

Then of course the Sunday school lesson we were supposed to teach was on faith, so it's been on my mind.

We had a miracle filled week, and we are finally starting to find people to teach! 

Love you all HEAPS!

Elder Gibb  

Be Bold!

Dear family and Friends,

What a fantastic week this has been! We are really starting to get into the groove of things here in the Penrith area and we have seen heaps of miracle from it!

 

I think to coolest part of this week was that I learned. When the Lord knows he can trust you, he will bless you. We have really been struggling to find new investigators in this area, and I could never put my foot on the reason why.

 

As we went through the week, nothing much was going different. Then we had a lesson with a part member family, the husband isn't a member. We have been teaching them since I got here, and they had been taught for a few months before that. The biggest reason why he wasn't progressing was because he didn't realize all the lesson we were teaching were focused on him. So we decided to make it clear this week and we asked him to be baptized. He hasn't decided on his answer yet, but here is the miracle.

 

Over the next two days we found two new investigators! Moral of the story, when the Lord knows you are going to help His children and you are serious about your calling, He will provide what you need to continue to move forward!

 

Each day I am blessed to see another miracle whether in my life or in the life of others. I think too often we neglect to recognize these miracles and just pass it off! I look back through my journal and see so many miracles that I wouldn't have noticed before. I think we should do our best to recognize the Lord's hand in our life every day. Find a miracle you are grateful for each day, and write it down, create a miracle book for yourself! Some of them might be small, others huge.

 

Love you all heaps!

Elder Gibb

100 Cookies

Dear Family and Friends,

You know I have yet to find a problem that 100 cookies couldn't solve! This week Elder Cecilio  and I delivered heaps of cookies to try and get to know the ward better, and, as is usual within the church, bribe them with some sweets to help us out! My favorite part though is when one of the sisters in the ward said after asking for the recipe, "Since when did Elders learn to cook and to cook so well? We used to through their food in the trash!"

 

We had a couple huge miracles this week with the part member families we've been striving to visit. There was one family in particular where the ward said that they would "for sure" cancel their dinner appointment with us.

 

And they did....

 

BUT we were able to convince them to have us over for just a short lesson, no dinner would be needed! So that was heaps good. We'll have to see if we can get back in there again soon!

We also found a less active man (who has like 6 kids) who wasn't on our records and after inviting him to a family fun night he said, "Well I don't know. I'm really struggling with my testimony right now."  That led in pretty well to our whole missionary purpose so we are going to see him again this week!

 

I splashed gravy sauce all over myself at the stake president's home... that was good...

 

All in all a pretty good week! I hope yours was just as good!

 

Love you heaps

Elder Gibb

Fun, Fair, and Anniversaries

Dear family and friends!

What a busy week we've had! Introducing my new companion to the area, and having only been here once transfer myself, we may have gotten lost a couple times...

 

We had the big 50th anniversary of our chapel this week, and when this stake throws a party, it throws a party! There was a ball Friday night, a carnival Saturday morning and then an entertainment night that night. It ended with a combined sacrament meeting and musical fireside on Sunday. We didn't get to go to all of them but we did go to the fair on Saturday and it was a blast! There were all sorts of carnival games, a bounce house (in the form of Noah's ark) and food! We helped run the stalls, and helped eat the food, and helped play the games.

 

It was really fun to learn the history behind the chapel and it made me grateful to be serving in an area where the church has been so well established!

 

Our mission president shared a thought with us this week and I thought I would relate it 

PRO

 

P=Pray

R=Read 

O=Obey

 

Too often I think we complete the first to steps and we read our scriptures and pray, but if we truly want to become PRO's we need to obey the guidance we receive from these activities!

 

Love you all heaps

Elder Gibb 

 

 

Plot Twist

Dear Family and Friends,

Last week was the end of transfers and Elder Wolfley and I were pretty certain nothing was going to change. Then Saturday came and that went down the drain! So I got a new companion this week! His name is Elder Cecilio, he is from the Philippines! Should be a good transfer!

 

We had a crushing week last week. The family we have been working with has moved. Their home was broken into and their phones stolen so we have no way to get a hold of them and they left without telling anyone. Hopefully they'll find the church where they go next! Then another two of our investigators have moved. Basically we went from 6 investigators to 1 investigator in one week!

So what does that mean? It just means we are going to have a fresh start! This transfer will be really good, the ward is awesome, my new companion is awesome, and miracles are coming our way!

Love you all heaps!

-Elder Gibb

A Thinking Week

Dear Family and Friends!

This week has been a thinking week.  The area we have been working with has just felt like it is at a stale-mate, so Elder Wolfley and I were determined to change that.  We wanted to come up with a game plan each week, and I quite enjoyed what we came up with, so I thought I might share it with you!

Something we talk about a lot out here is being a consecrated missionary, and in most of our minds we make that out to mean that we need to be the perfect missionary.  We can't make mistakes, and we have to be exactly obedient. Unfortunately when we have that mindset we tend to become overly stressed, and then just give up. So Elder Wolfley and I came up on a solution.

If you remember in Matthew 19:16-22 a young man has kept all the commandments, and he wants to know what more he needs to do, perhaps expecting Christ to tell him his work is done. The response in verse 21 is where we focused though, because Christ told him if he wants to be perfect he must give up everything and come follow Him. Unfortunately the young man decides he would rather have his wealth. The part that stood out to me though is that if you look at the footnotes you see that for perfect, it sends you to the Topical Guide for commitment....

Long studies short, Elder Wolfley and I agreed that in this world we will all make mistakes, it's inevitable. We can't be "perfect" in the world’s eyes. However, Christ has provided the Atonement so that we don't need to stress about not being perfect to the world. Rather our perfection, for lack of a better word, would be based on our commitment. If we are willing to try each day to do something better, and we rely on the Atonement, we are made perfect each day.

Am I crazy? Probably.  But we've measured our success now by looking at each day and seeing if we've done better, and it worked. Not only were we happier in general, but everything else actually increased as well!

I loved my studies this week, I could share so much more, but I know most of you would get pretty bored!

Nothing too exciting happened this week. I love my mission though.  I love the ward and I am in love with the scriptures!

All in all it was a great week. Transfers come up here this week, but I doubt much is going to change up here, but you never know!

Love you all heaps!

Love Elder Gibb