Dear Family and friends,
Thank you so much for all the
support, love, prayer, and email. I have felt an increased outpouring of love.
But I think the most important thing was the love Heavenly Father sent me
this week as I expressed in my email to him:
Dear President,
Just when I thought that the office
was hard, I am starting to come to a greater reality here. This has been my
"hardest area" because of a subtle enemy Elder Martin helped me
discover something that has literally altered the course of my life.
I didn't even know I was afflicted
with it until just after three weeks, half the branch hated me and all three of
our daters were pushed back. Long story short, this Th or Fri, it came to the
point that Elder Martin and I just sat down and had a talk because we were not
unified - something Sister Senior stressed last transfer meeting. After talking for a
while, he just said,
"Dude, you've just got to stop
thinking about yourself! The most important people in your life shouldn't be
you - it should be your investigators."
I responded that how does that
relate to Jesus Christ? Shouldn't we be focusing on Him? His response,
President, changed my life:
"But, you see, that isn't the
right thing. If we want to follow the example of Jesus Christ, who did He think
of - Himself or His investigators?"
It was then that the Holy Ghost
descended upon me and confirmed the words he spoke.
"Yeah, did I just blow your
mind?"
"Yeah, you did," I
responded.
"Elder Gibbons - you are a
great missionary. Your desires and right, but your heart isn't. When I bless my
food, I pray for Sister Dtaan. You see? This isn't about you. This is about
your investigators."
Once I started to apply this,
everything got better literally overnight - to do everything with the question
in mind: "Does this help my investigators or the branch?" If Yes, do
it. If no, don't. If not sure, well it can wait until you decide that it
does. We have been happier and unified in
a way I can't express these past four days. President, THIS is what the mission
lacks. THIS is what I knew, but didn't understand and apply. THIS is what is to
be done if we are to have your 1000/1000 this year. THIS is what I have done
for just four days and the branch's love for me as doubled. We went from 55
people at church to 71. President, that's seventy-one. Our district taught 25
RC/LA lessons and will achieve balanced next week with our 6 investigators who
were at church. Also President: it has been raining for over 50 hours. Do you
know what that means? It means that 70 people came to church in the pouring
rain in Thailand because I thought of others before myself. I'm not stressed
about being a leader anymore. If I just think of my investigators and focus on
helping the sisters do the same, miracles happen because true charity is
at last made manifest. Miracles have literally SHOWERED down here and on myself
during one of the hardest weeks of my mission; the last week I will ever do
things for myself. The first week I started to ask myself what Elder Martin
does in his prayers: "Lord, have you accepted my work today?" For the
first time this transfer, we both agree that He indeed has.
Elder Martin has helped me and I do
everything he says because he is a jerk, but one of the most charitable people
I've ever met. Thank you for helping me learn these lessons with him now so that
my last quarter of my mission can end on a high no matter where we're going to
next. Charity never faileth, and I've seen it here and I will forever continue
to do so.
Love,
Elder Gibbons
PS: SOOOOO jealous for Banff... [our family vacation this year]
Schlappi reunion [next summer with all our missionaries back!]
will be great! Gibbons reunion will be missed, but please send Grandma and Ray
my love. [Grandma Gibbons got married on Saturday to a great man, Ray Poulter, from CA!] As for the gift...ask dad ;)
Alex Denning! Hahahahaha! that's
SOOOO great! I KNEW he would serve in their home ward [our friends from France, the Fiquet family]!!!!! And
"Ported" for 5 hours - that really made me laugh because my 3 years
of Latin taught me that "Porta" means gate or door - we as Thai
missionaries use similar Thai wards that we Americanize into
this pigeon-slang that missionaries understand... Funny. Great to hear from him. Tell him to get Douglas
back to activity.
