1 month - 23 to go!

    This first month has gone by so fast I can''t even believe it!

So my first week here in Jamaica was super amazing.

I have learned so much, but have so much to learn.

I love our investigators, they are super nice and well committed.

My companion Elder Smith is doing a great job at being the worlds best trainer.

The spirit is so strong in him that it is beginning to rub off on me.

Ever since I lost my wallet we haven't had really any money.

So this week we lived off of rice, vegetables, and oatmeal. Not very exciting.

It will be better this week because I am thankful for everything that I have.

I had to borrow a bike for last week and this this week so that is good.

But the first week I was rubbed raw cause of the bicycle seat. 

It is getting better though.

    Our lessons have been getting better and better.

I was a little rusty at first but I am starting to get the hang of things.

The weather here is beautiful, but I am always hot.

I am always sweating and basically sopping wet. I love the heat though.

    I pray for you guys every night.

I had my first real Jamaican food though on Saturday! 

They love fried chicken so that's what I got and it was delicious.

Things can get hard here at times, but that's how it is going to be. 

The stronger man finishes to the end.

But with our living conditions we need to clean the house haha.

It is not just our house but everywhere you have bugs no matter what.

So today we will clean until they are all gone.

I have seen a couple of cockroaches, and they are so freaking fast.

One of them even had wings.  I think we lost one of them too so thats not to good.  But as we were daily planning last night I was smacking all the ants on my work desk and there just so happened to be a pin up right, and I smacked right down on top of it.   I'm pretty sure it went halfway through my hand.

    I'm trying to get pics to you guys but it is hard because of how busy we are.

I am excited to continue to share the gospel with those in Jamaica.

I absolutely love it here.

Thank you everyone for your love and support, I miss you all so much!

I love you!

Elder Gibbons

IN KINGSTON TOWN! SERVING IN SPANISH TOWN!

So after a long 2 flights I finally made it here to Jamaica!! 

And let me tell you it is one of the most beautiful places ever!

So the first day we arrived around 7pm on Saturday. Here we stayed with the assistants. 

Their house was so nice!

We woke up Sunday morning and that's when I got my new companion and new trainer Elder Smith!

He is awesome and super spiritual. 

He makes everything look so easy and I want that.

Again we have so much in common that it is really weird haha!

But We went to church for 6 hours holy cow!!!

We helped a lot of the members understand what was being taught though so it was a cool experience.

After we went to church he and I got taken to the house that we will be staying in.

It is really nice for Jamaica.

But there are ants, spiders, cockroaches, and ginormous centipedes everywhere in our house.

It is super gross but I have to get used to it and not think about it.

So guess what I have only been here officially 1 day and my companion and I already have 2 baptisms.

It is insane how much the people down here love talking about religion.

The Jamaicans can be hard to understand at times but I have boiled it down a little bit.

You hear music everywhere down here it is so cool.

I have had rice for every meal. haha 

Since I don't have a bike we literally have to walk everywhere. 

Just to get here to the internet cafe we had to walk 4 miles.

I can't wait to have a bike.

But we went grocery shopping and everything is over priced so we have to budget our money extremely well.

Im excited to see what this week has in store for us.

I will take more pics and upload more later.

It is hard to find a computer down here that will let us do that.

I am soaking wet all the time. 

Hopefully I get used to the weather soon.

Well Thats all I have for this week.

I can't wait till next week to share what experiences I have had.

I love you guys!!

Love, Elder Gibbons

PS I am currently serving in Spanish Town which is about 30 minutes from Kingston -

Just Flipping Excited for Kingston Jamaica

Last Night at the MTC!

FLIGHT PLANS!

I just got off the phone with my Gibby and he leaves at 4:00 am on Saturday Morning 7-16-16.  It was amazing to hear his voice, he loves the MTC and can't wait to get out to Kingston, However he is really sad that only 2 of the 4 in his district are able to leave at this time.  2 of the Elders Visa's are still in limbo.  Oh My Gosh, it was so great to hear from him, and he said he would call me again tomorrow - Really looking forward to answering my phone, I know shocking to almost everyone cause I hate to answer my phone.  Next email will be from Jamaica, YEAH! 

MTC you later!

The reason that I gave this email this name is because, this weekend I will be departing for Jamaica.

It has been a long 4 weeks, but it has been so worth it and so helpful!

I can't wait to go and share the gospel with those in Kingston.

So there is some exciting news that happen to me this week.

You remember my companion Elder Shafer? Well he had another doctors appointment this week and got some great news.

When he first broke his foot he was told he was going to work in the referral center for about 6 weeks. 

We went in for the check up appointment yesterday and guess what?

He is medically cleared for service. 

This means he is able to fly with us to Jamaica this weekend. The lord blesses the lives of those who have faith in him. 

I remember giving him a blessing and the next day the swelling and bruising in the foot was completely gone!

I can say that this was a miracle...

When I heard the news that he was able to travel with us I began to cry...

I love how much he wants to be with us and come with us. He is an amazing kid and is bound to do great things on his mission!

The funny thing about this week though is we were suppose to leave on tuesday. Our names disappeared off the MTC servers. So basically we were ghosts.

We got to make our own schedule which was so awesome.

And don't worry we made sure that we stayed productive:)

But In my district we have 3 region baseball players staying with each other it is so cool. 

What a small world.

You have me, Elder fisher from Westlake, and Elder Hardman from American Fork.

They are such cool guys.

I miss being able to listen to music, but I am beginning to love MOTAB.

I have a new favorite song... Glorious by David Archuleta.

It has such a great message and I listen to it all the time is ridiculous.

I am still eating a lot while I am here, and I haven't gotten to weigh myself again, so when I do I will make sure to let you guys know if I am continuing to gain weight.

Let Hunter know I say good luck on golf try-outs. He is a stud.

I'm going to miss all the people here at the MTC.

They have all impacted my life in one way or another. I had my opportunity to bear my testimony and I began to cry... But so did the rest of the missionaries..

The lord works in mysterious ways and touches the lives of others.

I'll make sure I let you guys know when I get to the airport so I can call you.

I want you all to continue to live each day to its fullest.  

This is such a beautiful world created by our Heavenly Father, what joy it brings to our lives.

Another thing is that I got my companion to sing Phantom of the Opera!!

He has such a great voice it is scary.

But we sound amazing together, not to brag or anything. 

All I have to do now is get him to sing Moulin Rouge.

HAHAHA!!!

I love you guys so much<3 It has been a busy 4 weeks. But it will be worth it in the end.

I will sprint to the end.

Love, Elder Gibbons

I got the Infamous Tag Photo! 

Elder Shaffer's Foot

Sleepy Time! 

 It looks to me that they have too much Fun!!!So proud of all these mssionaries !

4 More Days!

July 8, 2016

    So This week was a pretty good week!  It went by a lot faster then normal which is good.  Really I only have one thing to report on this week.  So you know my companion Elder Shafer?  We were playing basketball on Saturday and he came down on his foot and twisted it.  He thought he was fine until later that day he could not walk on it.   So we went to the doctor and it was super swollen and he couldn't diagnose what was going on so he sent us down to the insta-care by Utah Valley Hospital.  We were there for about 3 hours. We took X-rays.  His foot was super swollen so they couldn't tell what was wrong.

    So we made and appointment to meet with them yesterday! 

We went in again and it turns out that he broke his foot. 

Well fractured! it was a little crack.  So they dilemma is that he will not be able to leave with the rest of us to Jamaica on Tuesday. 

This made me super upset and my companion, but I keep telling him that god has a plan for us and this is all part of it. 

So wherever he ends up serving for the first transfer is where he is needed.

    But I had the opportunity to give 3 more blessings this week. I can say that I am getting a little better but they have helped strengthen not only me but those who I blessed.  I gave a blessing to my companion and he is now able to walk and exercise on his foot. And the swelling and bruising is gone.

    Thank you all for sending me the goods.  I can tell you that I have gained only 7 pounds since I have been here.  A lot of it is from the 42 donuts that I received.   But they feed us so well here and I love it. 

I leave in 4 days can you believe it!!!???

    We have our flight times and we have to be at the airport at 3 am. From Salt lake we will fly to Atlanta Georgia where we have a 4 hour lay over. So I hope that I will be able to call you guys when I land there. Then We head for Jamaica!   I Can not tell you how excited I am to be able to leave.  I am going to miss my district so much! They have been a huge influence on me and we have been able to become one voice. I love it!

    I love missionary work and all the experiences I will be able to have While serving the people of Jamaica!

I LOVE YOU ALL<3 Thank you for all your love and support

​PS Follow up to this email, Stone got called to the front desk during our exchange this morning and they have been delayed a week due to Visa's.  So he will be in the MTC possibly 1 to 1-1/2 weeks longer​.  but he feels this is an answer to prayers, they were hoping that Elder Shafer would be able to leave with them and they are now thinking with this Visa delay he will be able to go with them.  

Thanks for all of your love, support & packages on behalf of Gibby! 

Alice 

MTC Photos

WOW 10 Days In!

So this past week has been crazy busy!! So much has happened and I have wanted to tell you all about it. Friday couldn't come any faster. Anyways the days are going by a whole lot faster, then they were the first week. We have class for about 10 hours a day and that can get to be a little rough but I can get through it haha. We teach about 5 lessons a day. To me I feel that is a lot haha. I was able to watch The Character of Christ video given by Elder Bednar. It was amazing! There are two things that I want to talk about. The first being about my investigators in the TRC. Me and my awesome companion have 2 investigators that we teach everyday. The first being Nathan. He goes to BYU to get a business degree but he is more along the sides of being atheist. We got a good lesson in with him about my companions conversion story and he seemed so interested and had so many questions, we also made him cry. But then we came back and he could joke around the whole time and not take us serious. It was rough annoying but we still love him and are trying to figure out what we think he needs to hear. Our other investigator is Jose. He loves to box and workout. So I was able to relate with him so much and get to know him. He loves the lessons that we give him and he loves god. We invited him to be baptized. He didn't think he was worthy enough and had some doubts but he really wants to become a member and get baptized. So we told him that He needs to pray and ask for himself. We know that he wants to and we will do everything that we can to have him receive the gospel of Jesus Christ in his life. So yeah that is the first thing. The second has been one of the most spiritual moments of my life so far. This week I was able to give 2 blessings. That's right only been here a week and already have to blessings. The first blessing that I gave was to our investigator Jose. He suffers from anxiety and depression. He felt that there was this fog in his mind and it was super hard to get through a day. So I gave him a blessing of comfort and commanded that the fog be lifted from his mind. We came back the next day to find that he is able to focus more intently and felt as if it worked. And I know our heavenly father was looking out for him. The second blessing that I was able to give was to one of the sisters in our district. She had come up with the flu and asked for a blessing. No one felt as if they wanted to so I said I will do it. We gave her that blessing and that night the flu had dispersed. The power of god is real. He looks after his children and loves them with a sincere heart. Anyways that is my exciting news for this week. I love you all and want to hear from you! 

With love, 
Elder Gibbons