Hockey game!
Best second-hand store finds ever!
Well hello everyone! How was your week? I hope Chris and Easton and Papa all have great birthdays this coming week! And today, in Papa´s case. My week was pretty spannend, exciting, crazy! I suppose the biggest news would be transfers, eh?...
So, I am being transferred to Landshut, Deutschland! North of München (Munich), and I don't know anything about it haha. But, I will be serving there with Elder Stokes, in his last transfer on the mission! (I am "killing" him, as we say.) He is from Australia! It should be a lot of fun, I LOVE Klagenfurt and the people here, but I am excited to go and love other people as well. So ist Leben, ge? Just keep going, and keep smiling. In the words of the song that Elder Orchard is working on: "Life goes on for a little while--might as well do it with a smile." :) In Landshut I will be serving as the district leader, and the other missionaries I have the opportunity to serve are Elders Niedens (I think from Germany) and his trainee, Elder Nicoll. Plus two Sisters, Sister Lin, and.... Sister Pingree, again! From Graz, who is now in Passau. I will know at least one person already when I get there! I am excited, Sister Pingree is a great missionary, and Sis. Lin was actually one group ahead of me in the MTC, so I have met her too. I am excited to serve them and learn from them. There is also a senior couple there. Yahoo, senior couples rock! :) I will miss the Halls.
Now, Elder Orchard is staying here in Klagenfurt, and he is training!! His golden will be growing up in the BEST place of all! He is very excited! And I am excited for both of them. I said goodbye to so many people at church yesterday, and it was very nice. But the hardest for me was when Federica came up to me and, in her broken German, told me that I was very special to her for playing a large role in her repentance and baptism, and thanking me. It´s a good thing she was able to restrain herself from crying, because I would have lost it haha. I am going to miss them all! But I have a lot of addresses and emails and such, so even though I am leaving, I am not sad. I love them, and I know that God loves them, and He will watch over them even if I am not there to do it! We shall see each other again. I also got a hug from Bruder Mauch, and that was a special treat, only to Elders leaving the ward. And guess what?! Bruder Mauch´s knee isn't hurting him anymore, and I totally could have played soccer with him sometime! But oh well, I will learn from him later haha.
Okay, before I continue, I have some business. I got a letter from Chris Hall and he asked me for Logan Dicus´ address and also Kenzie´s address. If you could send me those, then I could have them as well! haha. But with packing and doing so much stuff, I am still a week behind on my journal and I have almost no time to write letters. I am doing what I can haha. I did get the Spauldings' package, thank them for me! It was a nice surprise :) I still don't have all the Hawaiian stuff yet, I am praying for today or tomorrow, otherwise I will be waiting even longer.
Next item, do you know how much I have in my debit account? Becasue I want to just send a package, and I could just send it to Justin in England since you'll see him at the end of next month, but I need cash for the package. I would also need Justin´s address too, of course. I could just withdraw as much cash as needed to send the package.
Um, next, something cool I found. We did Bible predictions with the Leoben Elders over the phone, where you open to a random scripture and then you have the others interpret it to what it means for your neyxt transfer, and my scripture was Jeremiah 5:13-15. See what you think, interpret it as you will. haha it is just a fun game. But they did predict I was leaving, especially when Elder Orchard´s scripture said that the wind was blowing the grass away or something. But Elder Orchard's scripture (Isaiah 40:8-10 I think) totally said he was getting a golden and training! It is funny to see how things work out. Well, back to the cool thing I mentioned above, I kinda got off track, but I got a ton of presents from Elder Orchard´s parents in his Christmas package which he finally got. When his parents sent it, they thought it was going to Elder Orchard´s old companion, but then it got lost. And so I got everything. They sent us each a stocking with wrapped gifts, all with scriptures on them. We had to read the scripture and guess what it was, it was really creative and entertaining. We got deodorant and the scripture was the one in Alma, "to me he doth not stink." Haha we got that one right. But the coolest scripture was D&C 112:7, which is just the perfect Alpine German-speaking mission scripture, with many lands, in the mountains haha. I thought that was cool.
Thanks for the pictures of Tyson and Chris, holy cow I laughed for 5 minutes when I saw how exhausted Tyson looked! Haha that reminds me that Landshut is a bike area supposedly! I have never been that beat though. By the way, I will send you a picture of what we bought on pday last week, I think you will love it! I am so excited for it :)
Shall I report on our investigators? Well, with MB___ the biggest problem is him actually understanding what we are talking about, just like I think I talked about last week. He just nods and says ja all the time, but he doesn't get it. So, Elder Orchard will have to work on that. And I haven't seen MA___ since Wednesday, because there was a misunderstanding on the time of our Friday appointment. But he is also doing well! We finished the plan of salvation, and he thinks it is really cool. And he prayed for us, by name too (haha he said Gibbons and then asked if he said it right) and it was just the perfect prayer! Seriously. I am sad that I probably won't be able to come to his baptism, but we don't know the logistics of that, so I can't say anything about that. He is doing well. We had a very important meeting with C___, in which we figured out a problem that we have not considered yet. SO, we can work on that! I was able to give him a blessing, and I am always grateful for the guidance of the Spirit. Otherwise, Elder Orchard is taking over the work and he will be a great help for these people. It goes on.
So, Nathan is starting tennis soon, eh? My advice.... I will skip the obvious and just say that he needs to work on the right form :) and work really hard. And have fun! What is Kate going to do? Anything sportwise? I hope they have fun with the musical. Sorry that I can't magically appear at it for Kate, like last time haha. My goodness, that was almost a year ago!! BWAH!! Mind, blown!
Well, the other computer isn't working, so I need to let Elder Orchard talk to his parentss, and by that I mean write his email, on this computer. So ich muß mich abschieden. But I know that Jesus Christ lives, and that we can all feel His love for us, and that we can also become better people through His Atonement, and feel that same love for others as well. It is true, es ist wahr. I know that from the bottom of my heart, because I love these people so much. And then I looked at the picture of my family and just thought, "Man, I have been loving them like that my whole life! I should do a better job taking advantage of that." Loving others brings joy. And joy is what we want in this life. This gospel is a gospel of joy, of love, of peace, and we can experience all of that through living it. Just do it. Try it out. Put your trust in Him, and you will not be left alone.
Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers, and know that you´ll be in my heart. I love you all!
Keep on smiling :)
Elder Jalen L. Gibbons
PS-So the pictures are with Derek after his game, and then the other is the legitimate Austrian Trachten suits that we bought at a second-hand store. Mine was €30!!!!! New ones cost like thousands! It is totally my homecoming talk suit :) all I need now is a hat like Elder Orchard's, and like Nathan's! Cool, ge?
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