Mandy Gibbons' Rosario Argentina Mission: Argentina

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Amanda Gibbons

Date: Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 11:41 AM
Subject: all
To: Bonnie Gibbons <bonnie.gibbons@cox.net>

Hey all you fine and wonderful people back home,

Can I just tell you how amazingly cold it is today!!! Woo hoo, the wind and rain just cuts right into those bones! Hehe! But hey, whets the misión without a little rain! I love the rain, in fact, those of you close to me know that if it rains, I find a way to be out in it! I just love how it feels, the smells and I don’t know, it just makes everything seem… Better! Clean again!

Well I can’t believe that I am once again writing you, this week went flying by!! I had a crazy week of emotions. Dayana and Dario are sooooooooo excited to get married and baptized. We had some really awesome lessons with them and then Friday we dropped by to invite them to a baptism at the church, but we ended up helping Dayana with something she was reading in the Book of Mormon. She’s so amazing, she has a little fólder that she takes a ton of notes in, it’s got definitions of words and then all her thoughts and feelings about what she read! Man, I don’t even think that half of the members keep as good of notes as these!!

Then Dario came home and he joined in the conversation, way awesome…THEN…they just blurted out, we are not going to get married on the 24th which means we won’t be getting baptized before you leave. Ok can I just tell you I cried my eyes out, not because I wouldn’t be here to See their baptism, but because they KNOW what they need to do and they are putting it off…well the whole thing was they couldn't pay for the place they wanted to rent and Dayana doesn’t want to be married until they have their own place. You can bet your bottom dollar that I immediately went out looking for another place for them and I found it! One of the members has a place, so we checked it out together and it looks like it just perfect for them. I understand why she wants out of that house. They drink, smoke and yell a lot. They others in the home also talk bad about us and are annoyed when we come over. Dayana and Dario are an amazing example of diligence. They want to follow God, but they want to do it right.

I am so grateful to God for all that he does and for all that he blesses me with. I read once again "the love of God" by Uchtdorf, such an amazing talk! I love what he says...

For what we love determines what we seek.
What we seek determines what we think and do.
What we think and do determines who we are—and who we will become.

...it’s so true, what we think and love is who we will become. I believe that we all have to sacrifice something at sometime in our life to follow God. But when we prove that God is the most important thing in our life, we see blessings and miracles we never thought possible. Who ever thought that I could learn Spanish and live in a different country without my mom, my friends, or the normal commodities of life...I didn't hehe! Or that the hard hearted could become soft and choose God? It’s possible, pray for those to soften their hearts! They need the blessings of the Gospel! I love you all! Keep the faith!

Con amor,

Hermana Gibbons