I don't have a bunch to say...

Haha who I am I kidding. I always have something to say.

Anyhow this past week was great as usual. The funny thing is there are always the things that drive me crazy and make us stressed out of our minds but at the end of the week everything is fine and all we can remember to tell our loved ones is how much we love our missions, because it is true. I cannot imagine being anywhere else right now.

Anyhow so I have this gigantic fear of lizards right? I hate them and there are literally lizards everywhere. My district leader thinks it’s really funny. So one day we have a family home evening with them and some investigators and references and what not and when we got there he’s like ¨Hermana I have something for you and I’m just like if it is a lizard of any kind I am going to kill you. haha and he’s like I don’t have a lizard... well they left to go to the corner store thingy to buy something real quick for the refreshments and he comes back and opens his backpack with this huge grin on his face and hands me a sour gecko. It was funny.

Embarrassing momento of the week... we were walking in the Street with the elders on they way to contact a reference... well actually they were give us an investigator because she is a single lady and they cant go in her house... anyhow we were walking and it was raining and a member drove by and honked at us and of course I jumped sky high. Then I tripped and landed in a puddle in the middle of the Street and I was soaking wet so I had to go to this new investigators house absolutely drenched... yeah... oops.

We have a wedding and 3 baptisms this Saturday and it is my Birthday! Speaking of... thank you all so much for the birthday wishes! I appreciate and loved each one!!!

Alright... I wanted to talk about general conference because en serio era super chiva. Entonces my favorite quote from conference this year is by Henry B Eyring

Human judgment and logical thinking will never be enough to get answers to the questions that matter most in life.

I absolutely loved this conference. I watched 2 sessions in Spanish and 2 in English. I learned so much and I am so grateful for the fact the we have the opportunity to have a living prophet of God at the head of our church and I have such a strong testimony that Thomas S Monson is exactly that, a prophet of God.

Well, I don’t really have much else to say.

Oh also, I have made it a goal to remember to take photos this week. haha

Love y'all!

Hermana Gibson

I'm not going anywhere!!!

This week has been crazy. We went to the temple and while we were in San Jose the road back to provinica limon was closed and the other route that takes 5 hours was closed too. So we went to Hna Corrales' old area and while we were on our way there they opened the 5 hour route and the rest of our zone got on a bus but we had permission to stay in San Jose and take the bus in the morning. So we did divisions with the Hermanas that are there. Then we slept in a different house and we literally did not have anything because we didn’t know we weren’t going home. No clothes. No toothbrush. Nada. So we didn’t get to shower or brush our teeth for 2 days. Then on our way back home we had to stop off in Guaplies because we had slept there the night before we went to San Jose to get our stuff and get some baptismal clothing from our zone leaders and one of our zone leaders asks me ¨Hermana Gibson, are those the same clothes you were wearing yesterday?¨ and I am like actually yes, and the first time I brushed my teeth since yesterday morning was 5 minutes ago and it is 2 in the afternoon, and he goes, hermana why, that is so so gross. haha and I am just like uhhh thank you?

I guess you are all wondering. We survived cambios. I am still here in Guácimo with Hna Corrales for this next change. But she is now the Hna Especilista. I think that is so cool but she is freaking out a little bit. They closed one of the areas in our area so now we are only 4 missionaries in our.... wait for it.. wait for it... WARD!!!! Yesterday we had branch conference and they told us that we are no longer the Guácimo branch and that we are now the Guácimo ward! So exciting. So our branch president was sustained as the Bishop and all of the other necessary changes took place. SO so so awesome! Also, our church attendance has been through the roof these past 2 Sundays. It is usually down around 90ish and we have had 156 for the past 2 Sundays. So so awesome.

We had 2 baptisims yesterday. I know I spelled that wrong but I don’t know how to spell in English anymore. Who am I kidding, I never knew how to spell in English. haha but anyhow Duarner and Brittany were baptized and Kevin, Duarner, and Brittany were all confirmed yesterday and ahh it was so great.

I know that you are all seeing photos of my everytime I am around my bishop’s wife. She is absolutely great and I love her. I think the last one she sent was either of me washing the dishes in her house yesterday or making a cake in the church with Karen and her family. haha but I honestly love my mission and my area so so much.

Ohh funny story, when we were finally back in our house after not being home for 2 days we were both so tiered because we had slept for only 3 hours for 2 nights in a row and so hna corrales was sleeping and I was trying to write in my journal and there was what I thought was a moth in the house so I turned around to look at it and it was a BAT! So naturally I screamed bloody murder and Hna Corrales who had been asleep for like 15 minutes at this point gets ticked and it like WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?? so I tell her and she says I am going to turn of the light and we are going to go to sleep. okay? okay. She turns off the light and I slept in the fetal position under my comforter even though it was like 8 million degrees in our house.

Embarrassing moment... hmmm which one to choose. haha because there are always a ton of them... lets see. oh I know! So we were walking in San Jose with a group of missionaries and I had like 2 bags and they were both really heavy and one was rubbing on my skirt but I didn’t feel anything strange about it and then all of this sudden one of the elders walks up behind me and in Spanish because he doesn’t speak English tells me that my bag has pulled my skirt up and you can see like my total backside and my garments and what not. So I die. I stop dead in the middle of the street and take off my bags and fix my skirt while my face is I am sure as red as a tomato and then the Elder asked if he could carry one of my bags so that didn’t happen again. Of course I said yes... but yeah... typical Brooke for ya.

Hoy tenemos que tomar un bus para San Jose because Hna Corrales fell when we were getting off a bus the other night and she cant walk, literally can’t walk so we made divisions yesterday and I went with a girl named Yasmin to teach and Hna Corrales stayed with Hna Anna and read her scriptures. So we are going to the doctor.

I had more to say but I don’t have any time and I only have a few photos this week because y'all know that I always forget to take photos.

I love all y'all so so much!

Hermana Gibson

I have so much to say and NO time to say it in. Sorry

Ahh so many things to say and I only have 30 minutes.

Most embarrassing moment of the week- I was talking to my district leader giving him our numbers for the day and always the phone is on speaker phone on both ends and the zone leaders were at the elders house for the day and they started talking and they weren’t listening to me and I needed to tell my district leader about the wedding that Hna Corrales and I have for October 11th so I said ¡Elder Chub Escúcheme necesitamos planear nuestra boda! and then it just got real quiet and I didn’t understand why and then Elder Chub was like ummm Hermana... Otra Vez.... and then Hna Corrales started to die laughing and the zone leader and Elder Chub and oh it was awful. So what I said to him was Listen to me! We need to plan our wedding! Meaning as if it were his and my wedding... oops. haha So that happened. 

I left my hairdryer on the floor by accident yesterday and when I came home from church there was a huge long line of ants going from the door of our house to my hair dryer... so I turned it on and I think a million on one ants flew out of my hair dryer and eggs and the whole nine yards. Turns out they had built their house inside my hair dryer... again.. oops. haha

I had my first 2 baptisms on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was literally the longest day of my entire life... seriously. The devil does not want us to do things that are good so obviously there are going to be challenges when we have a wedding and then right after a baptism. So the road that most people use to get from San Jose to here because it is the fastest was closed for 2 days because there was a rock slide and there were 26 boulders in the road so our lawyer said that he was not going to come the other way even if we paid the gas money because he didn’t want to drive for 4 hours. So we spent all morning trying to find a lawyer here in Limon and everyone was so expensive and then we finally found one and sent him everything he needed and the other lawyer called and said that he was on his way and he was going to drive the 4 hours and we didn’t have to pay the gas money so we were like uhh okay. 

Miseal and Nelly got married and then Miseal was baptized and confirmed yesterday. Then Kevin was baptized after church yesterday. I love them both so so much! The rest of Kevin’s family is going to be baptized this coming Sunday and I am so excited for them! 

One of our investigators died. Her name was Sonia and she was a super sweet lady. It is sad but I know that families can be together forever and I am so glad for that knowledge. 

We found a new family to teach! It was so so so cool. We were teaching one of our investigators and she had a friend over and we taught the entire plan of salvation and at the end I was asking which step they are on in their lives and her friend was like I think I was baptized in your church. Like in a river or something a long time ago. You guys are Mormons right? and we are like umm yes. and he said that he was 12 and he is 33 now but he has a family and he loved to read the book of Mormon with them but then the moved out really fast and they lost it. So he asked us if we had one he could have and if we could come teach his family and we were like uhh of course we can! Ahh the miracles that I am seeing are unreal. 

I have no more time but I want to upload photos and that will take a while so I am not going to say much more. I am so so so sorry that I didn’t send very many personal emails today but I just want all of you to know that I love ya’ll so so so much and that I know with out a doubt that this is the work of God and that this is the Lords church. 

Pura Vida!

I can't believe that I will have to leave this place one day!

So I have about 30 minutes to email today because we are in San Jose again. We had our one month meeting with President and ate lunch at his house. 

I wrote a list of things that I want to email about again so I am just going to rapid fire these things and I hope that nobody gets confused. 

The other day for the first time I had arroz con leche and that was so so so good. For my birthday I am asking for arroz con leche. 

Embarrassing moment of the week... so it was raining (as usual) and it always floods in front of our house when it rains and so we were walking home and it was dark and all of this sudden I was on my rear end in the middle of this puddle of water that was more mud than anything and Hermana Corrales pulls out her camera and starts taking pictures. Haha our neighbors were having a party and everyone was outside. Awesome yeah! The worst part was we weren’t even coming home for the night because it was only like 7ish but we just needed to grab something and then head to our next lesson so I had to change super quick and then put my hair up and throw on a headband and just go to our next 2 appointments covered in mud... but they sure did get a kick out of the story and the photos. 

Saturday night we had a huge miracle. We were kind of lacking in the numbers area for the week that ends on Saturday and then we were sitting there and we got a call from a man who we haven’t had a lesson with and have only taught his wife once and he said that they know they need to get baptized and married because they don’t know what else they can do but they know that the gospel is the only thing that can help them in their lives right now. So now they have a date to get married and baptized on wait for it.. wait... OCTOBER 11th!!! You could say that I am more than  a little bit excited. 

We also have a wedding and my first baptism on Saturday and you could say I am excited. I love Miseal and I am so happy for him so next week be expecting photos of that. 

Today is dia del independencia and it is so cool! This is not my home country but I feel a strange since of pride for Costa Rica and I love this country and the people here so so much. Something cool is that they have a torch that goes throughout all of Central America and yesterday we were walking and we got to see the people in our area running with the torch. Something cool is that Hermana Corrales' little brother got to run with the torch in corranado where she is from. How awesome is that?  

I promised more photos this week so I am sending quite a ton. I am sending a photo of my zone and lots more. 

Y'all are all so great and I love each and every one of you so very much!

Love, 

 Hermana Gibson

Super Short and No Photos! Have a great week!

So I don't actually have a lot to say this week and this week I have way more time than usual because I actually get to have my full hour and a half. 

I don’t actually have very many photos to share either because we stayed in the rough parts of our area most of the week so we don't take anything of value with us. 

I want to share an awesome experience that we had a few days ago. We went to visit Karen and her family and we asked Karen how she felt at church on Sunday and she said that she has never felt anything like that before. It was seriously so amazing. 

At church yesterday we had 126 people! The chapel was so full that the missionaries sat outside the chapel with the doors open so we could hear but it was raining so hard that we couldn’t actually hear anything. Ha-ha

Today we are in San Jóse for PDay because our zone (the best zone in my opinion) did super well last month so Hna Wilkinson made us breakfast this morning and we have permission to go to whatever part of San Jóse... except for my companion and I. We can’t go to corranado because she is from corranado so she can't go close to her house. 

So we went to this place called Price Mart. It is like sams club... it basically is sams club. There are so many things there that I want to buy but I cant because it would not be good by the time we get back to Guácimo. I mean food. I did however buy a HUGE box of goldfish! I am super excited! The food we have is super unhealthy for you. The only thing we ever eat is carbs and meat. Literally... Oh and banano.

We eat so much of it too. The people in our area don't know how to show their love in any other way than by feeding us. Yesterday we had 4 appointments with food and at each on of them I ate more than I would in any normal day in total. I love the people here but I have gained more weight than I care to know. 

The other day Kevin, one of our investigators asked me to pray in English so I did... it was so so so HARD! I kept stumbling over my words because I literally have not said a prayer in English in more than 8 weeks. Ha-ha I kept having to stop to process what I was going to say next. Even a few words still came out in Spanish. Oops

I wish I had a photo to send this week so I will just send one or 2 from the weeks past. If I have already sent it please forgive me. I don’t really know what I send. Ha-ha

Anyhow, I love Costa Rica. I love the people. I love my mission. I love my companion. I love everything about this work. I know for sure that this gospel is true and I know for sure that this is where I am supposed to be. I am incredibly blessed to be a part of this great work. I didn't understand what people meant when they talked about their missions and how special it is but I don't think that you can understand until you feel it for yourself. It is a special experience that I would not trade for anything. 

Never forget that I love y'all and the Heavenly Father loves each and every single one of you. 

Well I was going to send some old photos but I actually cant because the computer I am at does not work with external devices. How sad. I will be in a our normal place and I know for sure that the computers there work and I will have more photos to send. 

Love y'all!

Hermana Gibson