500 Stairs

So this week I have fun things to share. 

Last Monday we went to a place where there are 500 really steep stairs to climb down and you can see all of Costa Rica and it was the most beautiful thing ever! Here look and see!

then we made chocolate chip cookies

 and i held iguanas (this is an accomplishment because they scare me a whole lot)

​and there was a crazy cow on the loose eating all the the trash. which is funny because in America the trash goes on the ground but here there are some metal basket type things up high so that the dogs don't eat it and then a cow came and tore up all the trash. 

​and today we went to KFC to eat lunch because we were in San Jose so here is a foto

I love me companion a whole lot! She is great!! We survived changes so we will be together for at least 6 weeks more! WooHoo!

I was reading a talk this week and I liked this quote

"Many of the things you can count, do not count. Many of the things you cannot count, really do count" 

Think about it for a minute!

So this was my life for the week. I love my area. I love my mission!
Have a great week!

Always look for the little miracles that ARE THERE! Love you all!

Hermana Gibson

I can teach you to dance, but you have to hear the music!

This Saturday is Mother's Day here in Costa Rica So I wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to the best Momma in the world. Thank you for teaching me all you know and helping me become who I am today. Nest I want to say Happy Mother's Day to the best Lala ever. I love you so very much. Next to my Granny and Meme I love y'all!  I am so blessed to have so many wonderful women in my life. I love them all! Happy Mother's Day Y'all! 

So this week I realized exactly how out of tune we as missionaries are with everything that happens in the world.

I recently discovers that Donald Trumph is a presidential candidate and I about passed out !!! HAHA

I discovered that one direction are now men... I remember little boys. Its crazy how much can change in just one year. 

This week I learned lots of things. I learned what Pega is. It's basically food poising. But when you get it, the lymph nodes in your arm swell and if you get a weird arm massage that hurts really bad, it goes away in like an hour but if not you are stuck with it for about 2 weeks or until you go pay 1 dollar and get your arm massaged. I thought it wasn't going to work so I made the Elder who told me to go pay for it, and it hurt so badly. I got a bruise, but I felt so so so much better afterword. Weird right? I think I am going to learn how to do it so that when I have children and they are sick I can do it to them so they can never have a reason to skip school. haha

However, this week I had a few other things that I wanted to share. First, I was reading in 2 Nephi 10 this week and I really liked a few of the verses and things that I learned. Why on earth do people fight against God? We all know who is going to win at the end of it all and if we aren't on God´s team it will not be us. 

 16 Wherefore, he that fighteth against Zion, both Jew and Gentile, both bond and free, both male and female, shallperish; for they are they who are the whore of all the earth; for they who are not for me are against me, saith our God.

It is rather clear, I think. 

I also really liked verse 23 

23 Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life.

Isn't is great that we are free to choose for ourselves??

We get to choose our actions but never the consequences. However, we usually know what the consequences are before making a choice and then when we make the wrong choice we do out best to avoid them and then get upset when things don't work out in our favor. 

Just a thought.

I was also reading a conference talk that made a large impression on my heart/mind. 

It is called The Music of The Gospel. I have even been kind enough to insert a clickable link so that you can all read it. I promise that it will change your life. 

The part that called my attention the most was... well the whole thing. But I really like how he talks about that we can teach people how to live the gospel but if they never feel like they have gained a testimony or if they never do their part to receive that testimony then it is really for nothing because there will come a day when they keep doing the things just because everyone does them and it is all that they know or they will stop all together. 

Also, that we as people who have already felt this great burning fire that nobody knows how to explain, we have to remain worthy to keep feeling it. 

In Alma 5:26 it says: And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?

Just something to think about this week!

I don't have any pictures because I have lost the cord to charge my camera. I'm gonna go buy one right now!

Have an excellent week!

I love all y'all!
Hermana Gibson

Hello!!! Pictures two weeks in a row!

Okay family! I don't have much time but I have lots of things that I wanted to say! First of all Limon is now officially a Stake as of yesterday and Guanacaste as of 2 weeks ago!!! To see the fulfilment of all of the efforts in those 2 places makes me so so so happy! I love Limon and Guanacaste with all of my heart and I cried last week and yesterday when I realized that they are now stakes. 

Also, yesterday in church a sister gave a talk and it impacted me a whole bunch. She said, YOU CANT LOVE WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW. It makes a whole lot of sense. If we don't know our Heavenly Father and our Savior, we cant love them. So we have to do the thing that are necessary to get to know them so that we can love them in the way that they love us. 

Here are some photos! Have a great Week!

​President & Hermana Laboriel came to work with us for a day, so that was fun. We took a picture. This is inside our church building.

I love these precious girls with all of my heart! They are like sisters that I never had. 

​And here we are eating some Mexican 

food last Monday

We went to the Temple on Wednesday to pick up President and Hermana Laboriel so the gates were open and I took a picture! I love the temple! 

 Love, 

 Brooke

My new companion and a few pictures.

Here is my adorable Mexican churro! 

Her name is Hermana Gutierrez and I love her a whole bunch! 

She is 19 and she would like to say a big ole HOLA to everyone!

Ah bueno, yesterday we had the coolest thing ever happen. The elders gave us a reference of a single lady and her kids about a week ago and we could never find her, but yesterday we went to go look for her and she was finally home. So when we got there we just kind of started talking to her and she was telling us about how she is a widow and all of these sad things and then she goes "I want to get baptized, I need to get baptized" now, for those of you who don't know, we invite everyone to baptism during the first visit, but this was BEFORE we even started teaching. Then when we invited her to baptism, she just started crying and said "yes, please" and it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Her sister is actually a member and she has been to church with her sister a few times but in a different ward. It just goes to show that The Lord is preparing people to receive his gospel all over the world. We never know when someone is ready or willing, and as members of the church it is our responsibility to share with everyone.

​Here is a picture of the temple! Just because it is pretty and I love getting to see it 2 times a week. We don't get to go inside (It's closed both days) but that's okay. It just makes me happy to see it. 

Here is a picture of Carlitos on the day of his second baptism. His records were lost so he had to get baptized again! He was really excited too!

Well, until next week!

I love you all. Remember that life is short and we never know when it is going to be our time. I have learned that more this week than I think I have yet in the mission. Have a great week!

Just a silly picture. 

Love,Brooke 

For all of you who asked, Yes I knew Elder Cuevas. I knew him well. He was an outstanding Missionary! I will forever be touched by his kindness and love for everyone. We will one day see each other again, this I'm sure. 

It's been a while!

Howdy friends, 

Its been a while since I have last written to everyone. I have been super busy and I hope that you can all forgive me. I love you all so much.

New things:

I had changes, I'm in Ojo de Agua. Its actually a little bit confusing. My area is part of a provincia Alajuela, but in everything that has to do with the church it is part of Heredia. So my area is actually in San Rafeal de Alajuela, but its called Ojo de Agua, heredia. Interesting. It is still taking me some time to get used to. 

I was really, really, REALLY sad to leave Santa Cruz. I love that place so so so much and all of the people there. I know that Presidente Zeledon is going to read this so I just wanted to say that I love you and thank you so much for everything. You guys are the greatest. :)

I cried a whole bunch leaving. I honestly thought that it was a joke when my zone leader called to tell me that I had changes. I honestly did not believe him. But then he told me that it was real and I got really, really sad. 

However, I love my new area. It is cold. Well, colder than any other place that I have been this past year of my life. haha The people are super loving and welcoming. I don't have hot water. its super cold and the water is super cold. but i have heard it is good for your skin and hair so I guess it works out well. hahaThe son of Bishop Crawford (from Guacimo) is in my ward so it makes me feel right at home. Also, I share an area with Elder Dale again, so its pretty much like we are living in Guacimo but in a rather large city now. I am also in the same district as Hermana Walfield so I get to see her every monday and every tuesday. So Exciting! Also, fun fact, after not seeing the temple for more than 6 months, I get to see it every monday and tuesday and it makes me the happiest person on planet earth.

I was going to send lots of pictures but I didnt bring my camera cable and there is just one problem... I can't stick my memory card directly into the computer in this place and I didn't know that. So I have no way of sending photos this week. But I have lots that I wanted to send. oops. 

This week I passed the 1 year mark in the missinon. How old am I? Wow. I can NOT believe that I have been here this long. Its crazy.We bought pizza to celebrate. :)

My companion is Hermana Gutierrez. She is Mexican and adorable. She only has about 2 and a half months in the mission so she is still a little shy but she is so ready to work and is super excited to learn new things. I love her a whole bunch and I am really excited to be able to work with her. 

Well, thats all for now. 

I will send some pictures next week, if I can find my camera cord. 

Have a great week. Remember that you are loved.

Hermana Gibson 

Growing in this beautiful country. We now have two missions in Costa Rica!

So I really just wanted to send a lot of photos today. But first I wanted to say a few things. 

On Tuesday we had our last mission conference as mission San Jose Costa Rica. Today our mission splits and we receive 2 new mission presidents. I will be in mission San Jose Costa Rica west. 

Here is a photo of mission San Jose Costa Rica with our president Wilkinson and his family. I feel so honored and privileged to have been able to work along side him and learn from him. It is definitely sad to see him go. 

​ and here is a picture of our zone. Zona San Roque with President and Sister Wilkinson 

I have learned so much from President and Sister Wilkinson and I am so thankful for them. Seriously I love them. 

Also, this week I was able to see a lot of miracles. I realized that in the very last hour of the day, when we feel down, are tired, hot, and nobody has wanted to talk to us all day long, that is when you can see the biggest miracles. We found a family and it was at first just the mom and her 2 daughters but then her husband came out and told us that he is a member. He has been inactive for 16 years because when he moved he didn't know where the church was then then started working on Sundays but was praying this past week to be able to go back. They have went to church the past 3 Sundays and they really really enjoy it. The mom and her 2 daughters are preparing for their baptism and the dad is preparing to be able to baptize them. It is so beautiful. 

Now I am going to send a lot of photos. Some are from the mission conference and some are from these past couple weeks and an activity that we had a few weeks ago. 

Love you all, 

Brooke

Meet my new Companion

This week was full of miracles and funny experiences too. We had a baptism on Saturday so we were inviting the girls brother, who is a member, and I told him that he should wear long pants (becuase I have only ever seen him in basketball shorts) and he said, "I dont know... long pants are for when I go out, you know, on special ocasions" hahahaha and I just started to die laughing because he was talking seriously. It was really really funny. He went to the baptism... and he went in long pants! It was such a supprise but so cool to see. He has been inactive for more than 10 years so we have been working with him while we are teaching his sister and they have both been progressing really really well. It is so cool to be able to see the progress in people. I love it so so much!

Here is a picture of the baptism. She is such an inspirational person and I can't even believe the story that she has lived at only 21 years old. But she is a trooper and has such a strong testimony. It is incredible!

​This picture is proof of why it is a bad idea to give your camera to a man and ask him to take pictures.

Sooo... Today we had changes. Well my beloved companion Hermana garica had changes. Its pretty sad. I love her so so much and I feel so privilaged to have been able to work along side her. I know that I am better because of it and that this area is better because she was here. 

My new companion is Hermana Diaz. She has actually been here in this area for about 6 weeks already. She is super great. They closed her half of the area and put elders there so our 2 companions left and we are now companions. Its pretty exciting. She is from Mexico and is super fun. I am excited to work with her and I know that we are going to be able to do lots and see lots of miracles. 

Welp, thats all for now folks. Have a wonderful week, and stay positive alway. 

Love y'all!

Love, Hermana Gibson

Note from momma... Sister Rosales sent me these pictures so I wanted to share them with you. It's always so special when you get unexpected pictures.