Blessings in Hospitals

Ahhh!!! It's getting so windy and cold in Alamosa right now. I mean, I'm sure it's colder in Edmonton, but we have been used to like 50 above, so then when it goes to 11 above with wind chill and the wind is blowing at about 30 km/h and you are biking into it and it just gets really cold and your muscles don't want to work it can get pretty tough.

Also, I got the package from Sister Gray this week which was pretty awesome! Everyone was really curious about the Canadian candy, and everyone had different favorites. Wunderbar was one of the top, followed by Caramilk.

Ok so this week in terms of missionary work, we managed to start teaching a guy named Arnold. Now, Arnold is just this one of a kind guy, he's got this big beard, and is really short, and sings to himself, and looks like papa smurf. Some other Elders tracted into him beginning of last transfer, and we haven't been able to teach him until this week so that was pretty awesome. One thing i've learned on my mission is persistence. There are so many potential investigators, or people that told us to come back later, that you will literally try and visit 15 times before you get to teach them. But it makes it all worth it. What bugs me is when people say to come back later, and just keep telling us to come back when they really aren't interested. Because then we just waste our time, and their time, and the Lord's time trying to bike all around town visiting everyone. I sometimes wish people would be more blunt with us. But anywho back to Arnold: He's really smart, which is good but it took us a while to explain the apostasy because he thought the authority stayed in the Catholic church. And when discussing the apostasy, it's really easy to go into historical fact and explain it factually, but the spirit is not present when you do that, and so it doesn't stick. But we asked a few good questions, and helped him to figure it out for himself. We weren't able to give him a baptismal date, but we are still working with him which is good.

This week I gave a blessing to a lady that had pneumonia. We had to wear masks and everything. It was funny though, she is a non member, and when we were explaining what a blessing was, she interrupted us with "i've already been baptized", and we were like "uh...ok" it kind of threw us off. I think she thought we were going to baptize her during the blessing or something, so we had a good laugh.

Ok so kind of a bummer from this week. We are trying to work with a couple named Lori and Dennis. This is one of those "visit 15 times before you get to teach" situations. So we finally got a solid appointment on Thursday, and when we showed up, they weren't there...So we dejectedly slowly started walking away and then a car pulled up. It was Dennis. There had been a family emergency and they weren't able to make it, but he remembered that we would be at his house at 7:00 so he got a ride from his mom just to come tell us in person he wouldn't be able to make it! It was a bummer because we weren't able to teach him, but on a positive note, it just showed how committed he really was! So we are waiting until after Thanksgiving to teach them again...

The way things are laid out in Alamosa right now are kind of tough to deal with. We have 4 elders in this tiny apartment, and then there are the sister missionaries, and then we also have Spanish elder's in this same area. So this city gets completely tracted out once a week. But the rough thing about that, is we are all praying for revelation on where to tract and so we all end up tracting the same streets at the same time. Without even consulting each other. It's an odd coincidence. But what makes that not so much fun, is when we start tracting 10th street, and then the other elders show up and start tracting the other side of 10th street, and find a super solid investigator, with 3 baptizable children. I guess I should have started tracting the other side first. But oh well, at least they get baptized.

This week we also had the opportunity to go on exchanges with the Salida elders. Well that was pretty cool as they are both good guys so we had fun. But we were trying to visit this one potential and I knocked on the wrong house. And boy was it the wrong house. The guy answered the door nicely enough. I asked if the potential was there and he responded that he didn't live there. So I realized I had the wrong house. I then invited the guy to learn about the gospel, and he was all "Have you read this [anti] book?" And I was all like "Oh well I prefer to go back to primary source material, and [anti author] is notorious for going through secondary source (ie anti-newspapers and anti-people). Now, fortunately before my mission I studied just about all the anti there is, and so his concerns were dumb. But I realized that I had to get going because of another appointment, and it wasn't going to go anywhere, and so I just looked him in the eye and bore strong testimony, to which he responded "I can tell you are very smart and articulate" and me and my comp turned and left. Anti is so dumb, like seriously it is all so dumb. The amount of investigators you lose because they get anti'd is really frustrating. Especially because it's all so dumb. Like, if we sat down with that guy, I could have resolved every one of his concerns (not to be prideful), but they are so hard hearted that they wont even listen. So stay away from anti.

Also, this week we were trying to get this one less active and her non member boyfriend to church. So we found this old raggedy torn and chewed up teddy bear in a ditch, and went and bought this cheap nice white teddy bear which we sprayed with Old Spice: Aqua Reef so it would smell good. We wrapped them both up and delivered them to the door, the gist being that the old bear didn't go to church, and the new one did (a couple of notes that we left with the bears explained the whole thing). It took like 10 minutes to prepare. And we named the old bear "Crusty" and the nice bear "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Moonbeams". Unfortunately they didn't come to church, but felt REALLY bad about it and are super excited to come to church on the 5th of December, which is cool except for....

Transfers. They are on Monday and my companion is pretty sure he's leaving which is not good because I am afraid that I am going to get a socially awkward companion that will ruin all our relationships with our investigators. I know I'm being paranoid, and it will all work out, but still, I'm scared.

With that I bid you adieu.
Elder Gibb


Also, some old mexican guy said "May the force be with you". It was kind of cool.