Sad Day...not really, but yeah!

Not actually that sad. Its just that there will be no blog today because I spent my entire hour and a half trying to enter my mission portal to be able to write President Wilkinson. I am happy. I saw lots of miracles this week. I can see the hand of the Lord in so many ways in this area and I am so happy that I have the blessing and privilege to be here, I love my companion and my whole mission! It's not always easy but its worth it. The trials are building blocks the Lord gives us because He believes in us and Loves each and everyone of us! I love you all! Hermana Gibson

A baptism and two Weddings. One wedding I get to go to and one I don't.

So I decided to send some photos and a few thoughts that I have.

My first thought is that thank you all so much for your prayers. I am so glad that I have some many people on my side. As I am sure you have all been informed I was a little under the weather but I feel all better now, really I am. I love blessings and the power of Prayer! 

I was also wanting to comment on a rumor that I heard through the grapevine but then I thought id better not.=) See I am a good missionary

 

So I wanted to say something different. 

Two of my best friends are getting married this week and I am so happy for them! Congrats Rachelle and Josh! I wish you nothing but happiness and I am so glad to be able to call you both my friends!

I don't have much time left so I thought that I would just send some nice photos of the wedding that we had on Saturday. Everything turned out super pretty. I realized that you don't need a lot of money to have something nice. Everything we did turned out to be under 30 dollars. I mean the lawyer had to be payed for of course but the decorations and food were wonderful.

I love you all. You are wonderful! 

Remember that missionary work doesn't just depend on missionaries.We need your help too.

Remember that Heavenly Father loves you.

Remember that you are important!
 

I recently finished reading the Book of Mormon and have gained a testimony ever stronger than it was before. I am now starting again and I am so excited for what I can learn.

The church is true, the book is blue.

<3 Hermana Gibson

P.S. please don't judge me because my eyes are closed. The sun was really bright

The Worlds Best Mission!

So I am writing a tad bit late. We had to take care of some stuff so we didn't quite get to use all of our internet time but its all good. 

I had quite a bit that I wanted to share but now I don't really remember what it all was. This week was full of miracles and I am literally on cloud nine. I am so happy and I love missionary work. 

My mom sent me this quote from conference today and I super liked it so I wanted to share it with you all. 

I wanted to share an embarrassing experience that I had this week. Its probably one of the best ones yet. So we are sitting on a bus, and its about an hour long bus ride, and we were about 25 minutes in and Hermana Garcia was talking to me about some wedding plans for this Saturday so obviously I am paying a whole lot of attention. Well, our window is open but the curtain was pulled shut so you cant see outside or so the sun cant get inside and this gigantic tráiler comes by and honks right as it passes our window, and I screamed really loudly. At first I thought that nobody heard me because of how loud the truck horn was but then THE ENTIRE BUS started laughing... The whole bus. Not even one person was not laughing at me. I am positive that I turned red and I just kind of sunk down in my seat and died a little bit on the inside. 

I don't have any pictures this week because we aren't in Santa Cruz and I didn't bring my camera cord with me to upload them. So actually I guess there are pictures, I just cant send them today. 

This week has definitely been a testimony builder. I have been able to see The Lords hand in his work more times than I can count this week. I am incredibly and privileged to be a part of this great work. 

Welp, that's really all I've got! 

Have a great week y'all!

Hermana Gibson

I LOVE General Conference, Happy Easter

I LOVE General Conference! Its the best thing! I was going to make a big list of things that stood out to me during conference but then I decided against it because really you should all just go read all of the talks and learn for yourself what the Lord wants of us today. 

I am honestly really really greaetful for the oportunity that we have to listen to conference and understand what our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ want to say to us hoy en día.

I was particuraly touched by the talk by Elder Russell M. Nelson sobre The Sabbath Day. This is something that people really just dont seem to understand. Or if they understand it they dont think that it is important. I am really glad for the sabbath day. Right now it is easy to keep it holy because I am a missionary, but when I get home I will definitly be changing a lot of things that I used to do on Sundays before I came on the mission. I didnt realize that they were not acceptable but now I understand fully the sabbath day I will be chaning quite a bit. 

Various people asked me today how I feel about the fact that I am going to hit my halfway mark in the mission this week. I would like to share the following response. I have taken it as an excerpt from and email that I wrote to another one of my friends who so kindly did not remind me of how old I am getting in the mission. 

I will hit my half way mark this week, and as I look back on it I dont understand where the time has gone. I feel like just yesterday I was balling my eyes out leaving your apartment for the last time. I love this place and these people so much. I could try and describe it with words but it isnt really possible. The undying love I have for these people is unreal. I have cried a lot, learned a lot more, and lost a lot of sleep that I will never be able to get back. I come home tired every single day, my feet hurt, my back is out of place, and I have had cold water thrown at me, lemons thrown at me, and the cat calls that come just because I am white and think I dont understand are unreal. With that being said, I wouldnt change a second of it. I am not the person I was when I left. But more importantly I have seen the gospel change the lives of so many people in ways that are undescribable. I doubted if I really should have come from the seccond I got my mission call... untill about 3 weeks after I got here. I am more happy with this decision that I have been with any other decision I have ever made. This was the best decision I have ever made. 

So that is my answer. I am sad to hit my halfway mark. I dont want it to come yet. I feel like I just got here, and I am not ready to leave. I still have a long way to go. So don´t ask me if I am "excited to come home beacuse I will almost be done" because my answer is no. I am not excited. I honestly dont even think about home that much. I dont think about what I will do when I get there. I am focused on my work, THE LORD'S WORK and I am happy doing it. 

I learned how to make tortillas this week so I thought I would send a picture of my first ever tortilla. Because seeing as I am an expert not (haha) there probably wont be anymore ugly ones. 

​

So just one more thing before I go. Today in my personal study I was reading a talk in a Liahona by Elder Holland and he quoted something by someone that I dont remember who it was, but I really liked the quote. 

"A mathematical sum incorrectly worked can be put right; but only by going back until you find the problem and then working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on. Evil can be undone, but it can never 'develop' into good. Time does not heal it. The spell must be undone."

Marinate on that for a while. It gets ya thinking.

Have a great week and I love all yall!

Hermana Gibson

Just some random pictures

No Time

So I wrote a really long list of things that I was going to write about but I kind of used all of my internet time talking to individual people. oops. So I wanted to inform everyone that there is a cashew tree outside of my house! And mangos grow everywhere. People give us mangos like they grow on trees... and that's because they do. All different kinds of mangos. Big ones, small ones, yellow ones, red and green ones. I really like mangos. 

I also had a really great idea that I was going to talk about how important marriage is and how important the family is but I don't have any time left. 

Just know that I love all of you and that the best thing you can do right now is remember that The Lord loves you. Reach out to new converts. They need you. 

Have a great week! 

Pura Vida

Hermana Brooke Gibson

Best Week Ever and yes I said EVER!

Hello All!

Today I don't have any emails other than my Lala's because she emails me every Sunday. Everyone writes me on Tuesdays and today we start writing on Mondays again so I have time to write a really long big email! I bet you are all so excited! I know I am! 

Plus I have lots of cool things to say!

This week we had a mission conference with ALL of the missionaries in Costa Rica. So cool. There were 2 visiting general authorities, Elder Richard J. Maynes of The Presidency of the Seventy and Elder Kevin R. Duncan of the Seventy. It was so so so cool. I honestly do not know how to describe the incredible spirit that you could feel in the room. We (the sisters who had to sleep in the mission house on Thursday night because our areas are too far away to travel on Friday) decided to get to the church early so that we could get a good seat so we sat on the second bench and it was incredible. I don't think I have ever felt the spirit so strongly before. 

It was also really really cool because we all got to shake their hands. I cried. I won't lie. haha but it was incredible. 

Elder Maynes spoke really well. I wanted to share what he spoke about but I honestly don't think I can do it justice. Actually I know that I can't. Just remember that the habits that we have and the customs we have determine which kingdom of glory we will end up in. If we have celestial habits we will end up in the celestial kingdom... if we have telestial habits.... well I am sure you can imagine. 

Also... the part that I can't not share "No somos perfectos, pero somos dignos"

We are not perfect, but we are worthy. We are worthy of the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. While we are not perfect, and in this life will never be perfect, we can be worthy so that the atonement of Christ can make up the difference. 

We were also able to see a lot of really cool miracles this week in our area. I can definitely see the hand of God in the work in this area. 

I got to speak in church yesterday and it was so so cool. I have now realized that it does not matter what language I speak in, I get nervous. I get really hot, nauseous, and start to shake and talk really really fast. But yesterday I think I held it together okay. I was asked to speak on how to find people to teach, so I tried to relate it to the members and not just missionaries, I think I did an okay job. One of members who is part of the district presidency told me that I speak with the spirit and it was really strong. That definitely made me happy. I try to speak in a way that the people can understand (not just because of my broken Spanish) and that I can really get my point across. 

Yesterday we had a lesson with some investigators of the elders and that made us rice and beans. It was super tasty. It made me a little bit home sick.. like my home in limón. Its not just regular rice and beans, its cooked with coconut milk and Panamanian chillies and other wonderful things and it is oh so tasty. We were also making some pastries so here are some pictures of that. 

I definitely know how to cook with fire now. So that's cool. 

The bus always stops at this one place on the way to our area. Its the break at the halfway point of our 5 and a half hour bus ride. The times after I had to go to the bathroom so there wasn't any time to take pictures. This time I deliberately didn't drink any water in the bus for the first half so that I could have time to take pictures. Its sooo pretty!!!!!

There are more photos but I don't have time to put them in there. I also saw monkeys in the trees and baby monkies and what not. They are everywhere in my area. I just don't have a picture. But today I will take a photo. 

I Love you all and hope you have the most wonderful day

Pura Vida

Hermana Gibson

P.S. I now write on Mondays again!!!! YAY

I'm teaching a bird to talk

So today the main thing that I wanted to share is a really cool quote that I absolutely love by Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"We need to accept that the commandments of God aren't just a long list of good ideas. They aren't "life hacks" from an Internet blog or motivational quotes from a pinterest board. They are divine counsel, based on eternal truths, given to bring "peace in this world and eternal life in the world to come."

I read that quote in a talk this week. I love it so so so much! Mainly because it is so true. Muchas veces, I think that we all forget to that the commandments are not just things that can make us happy if we decide to listen to them, its not just " oh yeah... that could be a good idea" or "maybe I should do that" NO. That is not actually how it works. The commandments are given to us to ensure that we can obtain salvation. If we don't follow them, simply put we are throwing our salvation down the drain. It is not to say that we are going to be perfect here in this life, because no, but being human and being imperfect is not an excuse that you can use now to do things for which you will need to repent later. Talk is from the General Women's conference in October and it is called "Living the Gospel Joyful" and you should all probably read it. I even made it clickable so you don't even have to use that much effort. I'm telling you that you will change your life.  

Here are some photos of this past week. I didn't take that many because my camera died and I kept forgetting to charge it. 

This is a road in my area and I just thought it was super super beautiful!

​This was our lunch the other day. One of the sisters that we share our area with is Colombian and she made us Colombian food and it was super tasty. Except the avocado.. this is actually my companions plate... I don't put that weird food anywhere near things that I eat. 

​Just because I held a talking bird and I am in the process of teaching it to say "Hermana Gibson es pura vida" its a work in progress.. but I think its coming along. 

I love all a whole bunch!!!!!

Have a beautiful week!

Hermana Gibson